December 7 Christmas Devotions
The wonder and glory of Christmas begins with the beginning of time, with the eternal existence of the Son of God. John begins his Gospel not with the birth of Jesus or with his mission, but with his eternal existence. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and was God” (John 1:1). In the beginning, the Son already was. When he was born a man, he has always been. He has always been with the Father. He has always been God. Everyone and everything has a beginning, but not the Son. When he was born as a man, he had always been God from eternity. And from before the beginning of time, Jesus had always been the Light. John records that he came and shone in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome the Light (John 1:1-14).
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1-5 NIV
John takes us to the beginning of time. What (or who) is the Word? The Word is God’s self-expression; the Word is who God is. Jesus, when he was made flesh, knew God intimately in a way no one has ever known God. He was able to “explain” or “give a full account of him”. The one-of-a-kind son, “God no one has ever seen; God in his own right, who lives in closest relationship with the Father—that one has given full account of him.”
Jesus stood in a close relationship with God and could explain him. God (the Father) is God, and Jesus (the Son) is God. The Father and Jesus stand in the closest possible relationship to one another. When Jesus was a baby in the manger, He was secure in God the Father’s love and protection, no matter how fragile and vulnerable he was in his humanity as a baby. God sent him in the fullness of time, and everything surrounding the circumstances of Jesus’ coming was under God’s perfect control.
It is striking that while the world was made through Jesus, it rejected Jesus when he came to earth. “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (1:10-11). As the Creator, he created light and separated it from the darkness, but he himself was the Light that came into the world. And as Creator, not only did he create life, but he himself was the Life that came into the world. As John says in vv. 4–5, “In him was life, and that life was the light of all people; and the Light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.”
John writes that the light shines in the darkness, but darkness has not overcome it (1:5). Who was that baby born on Christmas Day? According to John, he was God, the Creator, the Light, and the Life. He was the eternal Son of God who has life in himself and who, like God, dwelt in inapproachable light in eternity past. It is this Word that, in Jesus, has become flesh and dwelt among us.
Why did the Word come into the world? Why did the Word become flesh? A lot of people in our culture and around the world don’t understand why Jesus was born. Likewise, many people don’t understand why Jesus died on the cross. But, at the center of the prologue is John’s teaching about the incarnation and about its primary purpose. The reason is found in the 1:12-13, “to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, to those he gave the right to become children of God, born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God”. We become God’s children only by being born, “not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, failed to understand the necessity of this new, spiritual birth when Jesus told him: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” He thought Jesus was talking about a second physical birth. But Jesus explained that the birth he was talking about was a birth “of water and the Spirit,” that is, a birth characterized by spiritual renewal and transformation. That birth, Jesus explained, is like the wind. How do you know it’s there? By seeing it directly? No, by seeing its effects. When we look at leaves blowing in the wind, we think we see the wind, but what we are seeing is the effects of the wind.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
When we read about the baby lying in the manger, about Jesus’ life and ministry, and his death on the cross for our sins, we ought to see God’s glory. We ought to realize that what God did in and through Jesus ought to give us great occasion for wonder, praise, and worship. Is there any room in our busy Christmas schedule to marvel at the wonder and the glory of God in the Lord Jesus Christ?
“And the Word was made flesh and pitched his tent among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the one-of-a-kind Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14