The Word Was Made Flesh.

Chapter 3 -- WHAT HAPPENED AT BETHLEHEM? 

Two of the Gospel writers give details concerning the birth of Jesus Christ while the third in a bold all-encompassing outline grasps the preexistence of Christ and focuses it on what took place at Bethlehem.

Matthew relates the thinking of Joseph when he discovered that Mary was "with child of the Holy Ghost." While he was musing as to what should be done, an angel from the Lord appeared to him in a dream, telling him - "Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost., And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins."   1 

Mat 1:18  Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 

Mat 1:19  Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. 

Mat 1:20  But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 

Mat 1:21  And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. 

Matthew comments on this experience and links it with the prophecy of Isaiah. This event at Bethlehem is nothing less than "God with us!'  2 

Mat 1:22  Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 

Mat 1:23  Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. 

The significance of the fact that God is to be with us in Jesus Christ has been well stated in these words:      Man through sin became without God, but God wanted to be again with us. Therefore Jesus became "us", that God with Him might be "God with us."  3

Luke describes in detail the conversation between the Angel Gabriel and Mary, when he came to announce to her the fact that she had been chosen as the instrument through which the promised Redeemer of Israel was to appear in the flesh. Luke's record is worthy of the most careful study. Observe closely the words of the angel. To Mary, Gabriel stated:      Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus... The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.  4

Luk 1:31  And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 

Luk 1:35  And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 

Luke, being a doctor by profession, was very careful how he recorded what was

p 18 -- to occur in relationship to Mary. To accomplish this incarnation, it was necessary that the "power of the Highest" become involved. The highest power of the Godhead would be required to bring about this unique revelation of God in human flesh. It would not be the inner play of the natural process by which a human being is conceived, yet His birth into the world would be as every other human child. Mary was to conceive in her womb; the child was to be born of her. What the angel did not say is as important as what he did say. The angel did not state that "the holy thing" would be created in Mary. Mary was to be the sole source of the humanity of the Son of God.

John in the introduction of his gospel grasped the whole of eternity and focused it on one point of time - the Incarnation. He wrote:      In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.  5  

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 

Joh 1:2  The same was in the beginning with God.

Joh 1:14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 

 In the Greek there are two tenses to express the past: - the imperfect which denoted continuous action in past time, and the aorist which simply described a point of action which occurred in the past. John in grasping the eternity of the past - "In the beginning was [hn] the Word" - used the imperfect, and then in focusing upon the Incarnation - "The Word was made [egeneto] flesh" - he stated it in the aorist. The Being who had existed from all eternity as one with the Father, now at a specific point in time, becomes one with man in the flesh.

In contemplating what happened at Bethlehem, certain questions arise. Was divinity degraded by its assumption of the flesh and nature of man? No, though Luke used the word - gennaw - in the phrase, "born of thee," which means "to bring forth", rather than the word - ktizw - which means "to create"

p 19 -- born of Mary, and conceived in her womb, it was still "that holy thing." On this point it has been written:     In Christ, divinity and humanity were combined. Divinity was not degraded to humanity; divinity held its place, but humanity by being united to divinity withstood the fiercest test of temptation in the wilderness. 6  We might ask the question another way. Was the humanity of Christ made immaculate, and changed from what every other child receives from its mother? To this question, we also have an answer. It reads:      Was the human nature of the Son of Mary changed into the divine nature of the Son of God? No; the two natures were mysteriously blended in one person - the man Christ Jesus. 7

There are various phrases and clauses by which we express this unique person - the man Christ Jesus. We declare that He was "the union of the human and the divine;" that "He clothed His divinity with humanity." What do these expressions mean? In the Youth's Instructor, a very interesting and definitive statement occurred in 1900. It read -       "He united humanity with divinity: a divine spirit dwelt in a temple of flesh."  8  By the use of the colon, the second clause became a definition of the first. The union of divinity with humanity means simply that a Divine Spirit united fully in a human body produced by Mary in her womb. Jesus Christ was the full manifestation of the character of God in human form. "In Him, though human, all perfection of character, all divine excellence dwelt."  9  Again we observe a thought-provoking sentence - "In His person, humanity inhabited by divinity was represented to the world." 10  But how was this accomplished? We are told: The work of redemption is called a mystery, and it is indeed the mystery by which everlasting righteousness is brought to all who believe. The race in consequence of sin was at enmity with God. Christ, at an infinite cost, by a painful process, mysterious to angels as well as to men, assumed humanity. Hiding His divinity, laying aside His glory, He was born a babe in Bethlehem.  11

p 20 -- This is the point where the curtain is drawn. The sufferings of Christ did not begin in Gethsemane, but at Bethlehem. The painful process by which the "Divine Spirit" united with the humanity conceived and produced in the womb of Mary to become one Person - "the man Christ Jesus" - is forever veiled in the mystery of God. The results can be known; the "how", unknown! Concerning this mystery, and the probing of the human mind into the procedure which produced the Incarnation, we are cautioned:  The incarnation of Christ has ever been, and will ever remain a mystery. That which is revealed, is for us and for our children, but let every human being be warned from the ground of making Christ altogether human, such an one as ourselves; for this cannot be. 12

The singular difference between Jesus and every other son and daughter of Adam, apart from the fact that He did not sin, is the fact that Jesus Christ had a pre-existence. We understand that - The Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Son of God, existed from all eternity, a distinct person, yet one with the Father…

There are light and glory in the truth that Christ was one with the Father before the foundation of the world was laid. This is the light shining in a dark place, making it resplendent with divine, original glory. This truth, infinitely mysterious in itself, explains other mysterious and otherwise unexplainable truths, while it is enshrined in light, unapproachable and incomprehensible. 13

Our self-identity - individuality, personality, ego, or whatever other term one wishes to use - by which we differ from every other person who has ever lived, was derived from our fathers and our mothers. Not so with Jesus;  His Self-identity was underived and pre-existent. From Mary, He received all the human faculties and inheritance common to our fallen humanity. By "the power of the Highest", through "a painful process", Christ identified His Self with that human body, and the result was the one Person, - "the man Christ

p 21 -- Jesus. The divine Self was the same Self-identity who had existed from all eternity with the Father.

1 Matthew 1:18-21

2  Matthew 1:22-23

3  A. T. Jones, The Consecrated Way, p. 26

4  Luke 1:31, 35

5  John 1:1-2, 14

6  Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, bk. i, p. 408

7  Ellen G. White, Letter 280, 1904 (5BC:1113)

8  Ellen G. White, Youth's Instructor, December 20, 1900 (4BC:1147)

9  Ibid., September 16, 1897

10  Ellen G. White, "The Kingdom of Christ," June 13, 1896

11  Ellen G. White, Ms. 29, 1899 (7BC:915) Emphasis supplied.

12 Ellen G. White, Letter 8, 1895 (5BC:1129)

13  Ellen G. White, Review & Herald, April 5, 1906 Emphasis supplied.

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In the Form of a Slave

Php 2:7  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant (KJV)

But Himself He made void a form of a slave taking Philippians 2:7 (Translated from Greek)

Php 2:7 But emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave… (LITV)

William H. Grotheer

January, 1974