The Word Became Human Being

THE WORD BECAME A HUMAN BEING AND LIVED HERE WITH US. WE SAW HIS TRUE GLORY, THE GLORY OF THE ONLY SON OF THE FATHER John 1.14. CEV

The twelve disciples knew Jesus physically and personally. They also ‘experienced’ Him ‘spiritually’, though only gradually. John explained, “the ‘Word’ (the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s only Son) became flesh and made his dwelling among them; ‘they saw His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth’”.

Listen to another touching description of the moving experience of the beloved disciple John, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete” (1 Jn 1.1-4).

The risen Lord appeared to ‘the doubting disciple, Thomas’, and told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20.29). There is no doubt that the Lord was thinking and talking about all of us, believers, who have never seen Him yet believe.

Dear believer, this Christmas season by faith, you also could have the same ‘personal and spiritual experience’ of the Lord Jesus Christ as the 12 disciples! Our problem is that we have reduced our religion to mere intellectual knowledge, through hearing and reading of the Word of God. Because of our worldly wisdom and education based on ‘ the reasoning of the mind’, we have developed a mental block, and even disbelief and antagonism about the possibility of ‘spiritual experiences’. Many intellectual Christians, good men they are, want to know God and the Lord Jesus Christ only by studying the Bible.

Often the Scripture tells us of the accounts of believers who were baptised and filled with the Holy Spirit receiving ‘power and great joy’. Listen to what the apostle Peter has to say about the experience that could be ours, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Pe 1.8). Has that been your experience?

In many of our old hymns that we used to sing regularly, there are abundant expressions of our desire for experiencing God and the hope for its fulfillment. We must be pitied of all people if our knowledge of the Lord is only intellectual and never ‘experiential’. “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor 3.6). Through Bible reading, prayer and the help of the Holy Spirit, this Christmas the experience of the disciples could be yours too!

Pray and practise with me: Dear Lord, You came to reveal the Father to me. Help me not only to believe in You but to experience You in my daily life.’ Amen.