Witnessing for jesus Christ the word incarnate

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Introduction ( arche )

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. There was a man sent from God whose name
was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through Him all might believe. He Himself was
not the light; He came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the
world. 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. Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in
His name, He gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision
or a husband’s will, but born of God. 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. – John 1:1-14

Incarnate means “having a bodily form.” The meaning of incarnate is precisely what its Latin roots suggest. The prefix
in- means “in” and caro means “flesh,” so incarnate means “in the flesh.” The word can be used in positive or negative
situations, but it always describes an unusual, possibly miraculous instance in which something that can’t normally be
seen or touched assumes a bodily form. For example, the Christian religion was founded on the belief that Jesus was
God incarnate.

Body

A the origin of the concept of the father and of the son ( Bardinas )

God the Father

- The Father of Our Spirits

One of life’s great questions is “Who am I?” A beloved Primary song helps even little children answer this question.
We sing, “I am a child of God, and he has sent me here.” The knowledge that we are children of God provides
strength, comfort, and hope.

Scholars have long acknowledged that the view of God held by the earliest Christians changed dramatically over the
course of centuries. Early Christian views of God were more personal, more anthropomorphic, and less abstract than
those that emerged later during Christianity’s creedal stage. The key ideological shift that began in the second
century, after the loss of apostolic authority, resulted from a conceptual merger of Christian doctrine with Greek
philosophy.

Latter-day Saints believe the melding of early Christian theology with Greek philosophy was a grave error. Chief
among the doctrines lost in this process was the nature of the Godhead. Latter-day Saints hold that God the Father is
an embodied being with the attributes ascribed by the earliest Christians. That belief is consistent with the early
Christian views of God, yet it differs from the later creeds.

We are all literally children of God, spiritually begotten in the premortal life. As His children, we can be assured that
we have divine, eternal potential and that He will help us in our sincere efforts to reach that potential.

The Supreme Creator

Heavenly Father is the Supreme Creator. Through Jesus Christ, He created heaven and earth and all things in them
(see Moses 2:1). Alma said, “All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face
of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a
Supreme Creator” (Alma 30:44).

The Author of the Plan of Salvation

Our Father in Heaven wants us to dwell with Him eternally. His work and glory is “to bring to pass the immortality and
eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). In order to make this possible, He prepared the plan of salvation. He sent His
Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to loose the bands of death and atone for the sins of the world: “For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life” (John 3:16). This sacrifice is the greatest expression of our Father’s love for us.

Coming to Know God the Father

As children of God, we have a special relationship with Him, setting us apart from all His other creations. We should
seek to know our Father in Heaven. He loves us, and He has given us the precious opportunity to draw near to Him as
we pray. Our prayers, offered in humility and sincerity, are heard and answered.

We can also come to know our Father by learning about His Beloved Son and applying the gospel in our lives. The
Savior taught His disciples: “If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. … He that hath seen me hath
seen the Father” (John 14:7, 9).

We draw near to God the Father as we study the scriptures and the words of latter-day prophets and as we give
service. When we follow God’s will and live as He would have us live, we become more like Him and His Son. We
prepare ourselves to return to live in Their presence.

God the Son

-I. THE SON'S ROLE IN THE TRINITY

“He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living
God.”

— Matthew 16:15-16, ESV

From eternity past, Jesus has always existed as the Son of God, or we could likewise refer to Him as God the Son. He
has always existed in perfect relationship with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. His role as the Son is not just a
title that He adopted during the course of His earthly ministry, but a key aspect of His identity that always was and
always will be.

When Jesus came to this earth, took on flesh, and walked among us, there were many people who debated who He
was. Some people considered Him to be the son of a carpenter. Others thought He was a troublemaker. Some thought
He was a prophet and a worker of miracles, but Jesus asked His disciples who they thought He was. Peter, who would
often be the first person to speak up in the group, answered Jesus and testified that He was "the Christ, the Son of the
living God." Jesus affirmed the accuracy of this statement and He also stressed that the reason Peter understood this
was because God the Father had revealed it to Him.

1 Corinthians 2:14 - "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and
he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."

Not long after Christ's earthly ministry and the New Testament Scriptures were complete, believers took the time to
clarify who they believed Jesus to be, based on what was revealed through His life and the Scriptures. The Nicene
Creed, written in 325 A.D., is one of the clearest statements that the early church formulated. It states, "We believe in
one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord,
Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true
God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our
salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and
was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day
he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the
Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end."

Scripture teaches that Jesus is divine in nature. His role within the Trinity is one of eternal Sonship, and He came to
this earth as the long-promised Christ, Messiah, and Savior.

Incarnation/God Becoming Incarnate (Abenoja)

- Central Christian doctrine that God became flesh, that God assumed a human nature and became a man in the
form of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the second person of the Trinity. Christ was truly God and truly man.

- The doctrine maintains that the divine and human natures of Jesus do not exist beside one another in an
unconnected way but rather are joined in him in a personal unity that has traditionally been referred to as the
hypostatic union.

- The union of the two natures has not resulted in their diminution or mixture; rather, the identity of each is
believed to have been preserved.

- The word Incarnation (from the Latin caro, “flesh”) may refer to the moment when this union of the divine
nature of the second person of the Trinity with the human nature became operative in the womb of the Virgin Mary
or to the permanent reality of that union in the person of Jesus.

- The term may be most closely related to the claim in the prologue of the Gospel According to John that the
Word became flesh—that is, assumed human nature. The essence of the doctrine of the Incarnation is that the pre-
existent Word has been embodied in the man Jesus of Nazareth, who is presented in the Gospel According to John as
being in close personal union with the Father, whose words Jesus is speaking when he preaches the gospel.

GRACE AND REALITY BROUGHT TO MAN

For what purpose did Christ become a man? It was in order that grace and reality might come to us (John 1:14). What
is reality? Everything in the universe is vanity. Nothing is real except God. Without Him, whatever we have is vanity.
God has come, by the incarnation, to be our reality.

What is grace? The Word incarnate was “full of grace.” Verse 17 goes on to tell us, “For the law was given through
Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” Many Christians consider material blessings as God’s grace. From
this verse, however, it is clear before the coming of the Lord Jesus grace was not available to man. There may have
been material blessings in the Old Testament, but there was not grace. When God became a man, grace came. Grace
is God as our enjoyment. When we receive Him, we have reality. This reality becomes our enjoyment, which is grace.
Grace is God Himself as our life, our light, our holiness, and our righteousness. To enjoy God in such an all-inclusive
way is to enjoy grace. Before Christ came, such an enjoyment of Him was not possible. Now that He has become
incarnate, He can be man’s reality and grace.

Verse 16 says, “For of His fullness we all received, and grace upon grace.” We have received of His fullness. This
includes countless items: joy, comfort, peace, rest, forgiveness, redemption, righteousness, patience, holiness, power,
light, sight, etc. In ourselves we lack all these. We do not have patience. We are not submissive. All we have is
negative— sins, weaknesses, and shortcomings. The Bible tells wives to submit to their husbands (Eph. 5:22) and
husbands to love their wives (v. 25). Who can fulfill this word? Women are not submissive, and men are not loving.
But both submission and love are included in the fullness we have received from Christ. We have received of His
fullness, grace upon grace!
But there is this fullness of Christ being the overflow if grace and reality. Based on John 1:16 we can say that the
fullness of Christ is the overflow of grace and reality. God became man and dwelt among us, full of grace and reality.
Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. Our receiving is not a once-for-all matter; rather, it is a
continual receiving, a receiving of grace upon grace. The phrase grace upon grace in Greek implies that grace is like
the rolling waves of the sea that come in wave after wave without ceasing. Beginning from the time we are saved, we
receive grace and reality from His fullness, and it is a receiving without end until we grow up to be a full-grown man
with the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

God has given Himself to us to be our grace and reality with a goal in view, that is, to produce the church. John 12:24
says, “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” This
“much fruit” is blended together to become one loaf—the church. God became flesh and brought grace and reality for
the purpose of producing the church. The church does not only have the riches of Christ, but it is also the fullness of
Christ. The church is the overflow of His riches, and this overflow is His expression. It is the result produced from the
riches of Christ, and it is the overflow and expression of Christ.

Conclusion (arche)

To the believer, incarnation speaks of God becoming man in the person of Jesus Christ. The word incarnate means
enfleshed, as John the apostle indicated when he wrote, “The Word was God....and the Word became flesh” (John 1:1,
14). Paul also proclaimed, “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). In the person of Jesus
Christ, God is united and perfectly mingled with man. At His birth He was at once both the Son of God (Mark 1:1) and
the Son of Man (Matt. 11:19), for His being is of two natures—divine and human. Thus, He is the God-man, truly God
and truly man. He is the complete God and the perfect man.

Although the fact that God became a man is a mystery that is beyond our ability to understand, it is not beyond our
ability to experience, for it is through incarnation that God has become knowable and can even be experienced by us.
This can be seen in the naming of the newborn God-man. Joseph and Mary were told that they were to name the child
Jesus (Matt. 1:21; Luke 1:31), meaning Jehovah Savior. We are also told He would be called Emmanuel, which means
God with us (Matt. 1:23).

God is no longer unapproachable or far away from us.

Before the birth of Christ, God was separated from mankind because of sin, and all mankind was destined to eternal
punishment. As a sinner, every human being needs a Savior to deliver him from God’s righteous judgment. The only
solution to mankind’s problem was a sacrifice that could take the sinner’s place in death. God had to become a man,
for He alone was capable of paying such a price. To die for man, He had to take on flesh and blood (Heb. 2:14). Jesus,
who is God incarnated to be a sinless man, is our Jehovah Savior. All humanity can now rejoice with the words penned
by Charles Wesley, “Amazing love! how can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?” The wonderful name of
Jesus reveals depths of unspeakable love and sacrifice. It reveals that the almighty God condescended to be a lowly
man (Isa. 9:6) to be our Savior.

Through incarnation, God is now Emmanuel, God with us. On the one hand, today Christ Jesus as the embodiment of
God sits upon the throne (Rom. 8:34; Rev. 22:1). On the other hand, He is now also with His believers (Matt. 28:20),
indwelling them as the Spirit (Rom. 8:9, 10) in their spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). God is now with us believers in such an
intimate and subjective way.

Since His incarnation, God is no longer unapproachable or far away from us. God has acquired humanity! Once God
became incarnated, He committed Himself to humanity so that He might become our Savior, and even more, so that
He could be joined with us. He is now, as Charles Wesley wrote in one of his many hymns, “Pleased as man with man
to dwell, Jesus, our Immanuel...