God Became Flesh - A Christmas Sermon

Many wonderful passages in the Bible came about as a result of controversy. The Epistle to the Galatians, for example (quite possibly the first New Testament book that was written) came about as a result of controversy. Think of a wonderful passage like this one:

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.--Galatians 4:4-5

Were it not for controversy that verse would not have been written. The same is true for our text this morning. The First Epistle of John came about through controversy. Written toward the end of the first century, the writer (who does not name himself in the book at all, but whom tradition names John the Apostle) is writing because of error which has crept into the Church.

The error he addresses was an early form of Gnosticism known by the name of Docetism. It was the idea that Jesus had not really come in the flesh, but that he had been some sort of spirit-being. The reason for this divergence was because of the influence of Greek thinking in Christian circles. It was believed by many Greek thinkers that everything physical or material was inherently bad and that only that which was spiritual was good--because the 'spiritual', to them, was a higher mode of being than the 'physical.'

When this thinking infiltrated the Church it manifested itself in this way: people began to deny the humanity of Christ. He wasn't really human, you see, because that would have made him physical and material and that was bad. He must have been just a spirit-being who only appeared in human form, but wasn't actually human.

John saw this as an insidious error that, in effect, destroyed the heart of the gospel. God indeed became human, he affirmed. God took on flesh. God was manifest in the flesh. We apostles are witnesses of these things. Theologians call this concept--that God became flesh--the Incarnation of Christ.

The Incarnation is what Christmas is all about. John wrote in his gospel:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.--John 1:14

Below you will find a link to the sermon I preached on Christmas morning about the Incarnation. The text was 1 John 1:1-4. I hope you will listen and rejoice in the good news that God became flesh one dark night two millennia ago that he might save us from our sin.



Click here:  1 John 1:1-4 -- God Became Flesh



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