THE WORD BECAME FLESH
by M. Samuel H. Lee (Dec. 20, 2015)
John 1:14
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Today's key verse is Apostle John's Christmas message. He declared that the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. He is Jesus Christ. John had seen Jesus' glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. According to this verse we call the baby Jesus as "Incarnate God." I’d like to think about three points from this verse: First, the reason for his incarnation; second, the purpose of his incarnation; third, the way to follow the Incarnate Jesus. I pray that the Holy Spirit may let our hearts be deeply touched and moved by "Incarnate God."
First, the reason for incarnation. Let’s read key verse again. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”Here who is "the Word"? As is recorded in John 1:1-3, "the Word" was in the beginning. The Word was with God. The Word was God. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. This holy God, "the Word" became flesh and came to be with us. How can we compare it to? This is like that the human being became earth-worms that wiggle through the ground in order to live together with earth-worms. No human words can possibly describe the sacrifice and humbling of the Incarnate God. To "dwell" means to live together under the same roof. For this purpose, the holy God became like us; not only the outward appearance, but also he emptied his thoughts, feelings, emotion, preference, and character, and came in the flesh to feel, share, and suffer together with us. In this Jesus is revealed the glory of the One and Only Son of God. He was full of grace and truth.
In August 2011, I completed my term as the general director of UBF Korea, and my wife and I were sent out to Zimbabwe, Africa, as new missionaries. It was not easy for us to leave for Africa at the age of 68. The most difficult thing was to leave my four grandchildren. Daniel, who was 4 years old said to me every day, “Grandpa, grandpa, please don’t go to Africa! If you ought to go, let grand-ma and my papa go.”But we decided to let go of our own plans, grandchildren, and comfortable life. Leaving behind our country where we had lived for over sixty years, we went to Zimbabwe. I had changed my hair-style to African style. However, while living among new people in a new environment, I had to let go of my own habitual way of thinking and reasoning. Sometimes, I had to let go of what seemed to be right according to my judgment. When I met some people who were slow in taking care of business, unreasonable, who didn’t keep their promises, I became impatient and angry words came up to my throat. When I was alone, I spoke critical words. But Jesus took no time to put aside his own feelings. He became like them right away. Instead of judging them, he understood and embraced them. From the beginning, he became their shepherd. How could he do that? It was because of his love. It was because he was full of love. Love was the reason he incarnated.
This love, however, is not something that happened all of a sudden. This is the love of God that appears in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, when he first came to Adam who was hiding behind a tree after sinning and asked, “Where are you, Adam?”This is the love of Jesus that appears in Revelation 3:20, the last book of the Bible, when he knocks on the door of a sinner’s heart earnestly: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”The entire Bible is God’s love letter to sinners and the world. Our love is conditional, calculating, and we easily draw a line. But God’s love is an endless love that goes beyond all of our common sense. Because of this love of God, you and I have come thus far, and we are here now. In light of Jesus’sacrifice and humility, I cannot say my life in Zimbabwe is a sacrifice at all. Thank and praise Jesus the Incarnate God for his grace and love!
Second, the purpose of the incarnation. For what purpose, did God, the Word, become flesh? It was not only to understand us, to comfort us, and to be our friends, but also he came to cleanse us by his blood and restore us as holy children of God. He came to solve our most shameful, fatalistic, and unavoidable problems of sin, death, and eternal condemnation, once for all completely. He came to give us true freedom, and to form Christ’s image in us. He came to destroy the devil’s power and restore the kingdom of God on earth. That’s why Apostle John introduced Jesus as the true light. Nailed to the cruel cross, Jesus offered up to God the prayer of forgiveness for us sinners. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing!”We cannot forget that day when our hearts were deeply moved when we heard about Jesus who “loved us to that extent.”That day we repented with tears, we experienced great freedom, and our hearts were moved and overwhelmed with his love. The freedom we had was like that of the birds that soar freely up in the sky as they wish. Jesus Christ, crucified in my place, his body torn, and his precious blood poured out, is the gospel of the cross. This is the heart-moving conviction of the gospel.
God didn’t give us this great grace to enjoy it just once when we were born again. Rather, he gave us the grace so that we might live with heart-moving conviction and enjoy the true freedom all our lives. The longer we live as Christians, the greater and more alive this grace and heart-moving conviction ought to be in our lives. Then what should we do? When our chronic, unchanged sinful nature is revealed, we must come to Jesus depending only on the power and grace of his precious blood with simple faith at present time.
Several days before I left for Africa, I could not sleep. I looked at my wife who was sleeping peacefully. She had served me for the last 40 years with love and much prayers. I rose up from the bed and knelt down to pray. In prayer I could make several decisions. One of them was that I would prepare for the breakfast for my wife Anna and serve her. For the past four and half years, I prepared breakfast for my wife, Anna, every morning. At about 4-5 a.m. I get up, eat daily bread and pray in my study, do morning stretching, and begin preparing breakfast. At about 7:30 a.m., I call my wife; I am too shy to say, “Princess, come, your breakfast is ready!”So I say, “Let’s eat breakfast!”Then M. Anna who eats daily bread and has time to pray in the bedroom, comes out to the living room saying, “Ok!”I plan to continue this. I’ve been not only cooking breakfast, but also washing the dishes every day. In addition, I have been teaching the Bible 1:1 to many students. In Zimbabwe, the electricity goes out over 10 hours every day. Often the water also cut off. Capital city Harare where we live is 1,800m high of sea level so there is a place lake of oxygen. During the night time, we should turn on Alarm warning system because of robbers. If we get a sick, there is no proper solution. But the fact that I’m living in Africa as a silver missionary cannot make me holy. God does not merely see our title as missionary. It is not how great a ministry we served, either. He sees our inner heart and with what kind of faith we live. When I looked at my inner heart, I became holier than when I was young, but it is still not clean although I live in Zimbabwe where there is clean air. Sometimes, I encounter some people whom I cannot bless. There are some I don’t love from my heart. Critical and judging mind, selfishness, inner pride, calculation, self-love, impure thoughts, unbelief and self-centered thoughts take turns to show their heads in my inner being. Just like the confession of a hymn writer, I find in my mind my nature darker than the clouds stained with sins. So I often sing hymn 213, “Sins of years are wash'd away, Blackest stains become as snow, Darkest night is chang'd to day, When I to the fountain go. I'm believing and receiving, While I to the fountain go; And my heart the waves are cleansing whiter than the driven snow.”
Paul, a great servant of God, was imprisoned in Rome in his old age while preaching the gospel. He confessed in prison, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst.”(1Tim 1:15). Why did St. Paul call himself the worst of sinners? When I was young, I couldn’t understand his confession. But now I can understand him. St. Paul cried out in despair, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”But he also declared out of heart-felt grace, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”(Ro 7:24-25) When we come to Jesus in his grace of forgiveness through his shed blood whenever we find our sinful nature is revealed, we too can shout out victory in Jesus from our heart like St. Paul. When we do so, we come to realize how deep and great is his grace in his blood. We will experience heart-moving grace and conviction, becoming more intimate with Jesus. We can experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We can have true KOINONIA with God and with our neighbors.
Third, the way to practice Jesus’incarnation. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”God became man and shed his precious blood not to save just us. Rather, he came so that all people may be saved. He saved us so that through us his salvation may flow to all people. In that way, his creation purpose may be restored and he may be honored and worshipped as God by all people and all of his creation. 1 Timothy 2:4-6 says, “… who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.”He said, “all people.”This includes all people of the five oceans and six continents. So our missionaries here also came to Canada obeying Jesus' world mission command. Over thirty years ago, women missionaries came to Canada as sewing operating workers to serve world mission. I know that you suffered a lot.
What are the ways to learn and imitate Jesus’incarnation? First, it is to relieve this burden through prayers. As children of God, we must live with holy burden toward the unbelievers and the world. We must think about and pray for them not only early in the morning but also on the way to work and on the way back home. And we must pray to God to give us his broken heart. Second, it is to teach one person the Bible faithfully and serve him/her to be true disciple of Jesus. There are many kinks of sufferings, pains, and difficulties for the pioneers. But there is no pioneers, no history making. Therefore, the pioneers are great. You are all great heroes and heroines of campus mission in the sight of God.
Conclusion: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”Let us restore our hearts deeply touched by "Incarnate Jesus!" Remembering God’s sorrow, pain, and tears, looking at many young college students, people around us, and all people of the world who are falling into hell, let us restore God’s heart in us. For this, let us pray earnestly and desperately. And let us teach one person the Bible faithfully and serve him/her to be a true disciple of Jesus. May God make Canada a kingdom of priests, a holy nation and a missionary sending nation again. May God make N. York and York center to be sources of blessing to world mission.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”Hallelujah!