“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” (John 1:14).

This is the definitive verse on the divine Incarnation, when “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself” (II Corinthians 5:19), and the wealth of truth implied therein is beyond human comprehension. We can never understand how the infinite God could become finite man, but where the intellect fails, faith prevails.

It was the Word who “was God” and by whom “All things were made” (John 1:1,3), yet He made His own human body, in the womb of Mary, and therein “dwelt among us” for thirty-three years. The Greek word here for “dwelt” is unusual, literally meaning “tabernacled.”

How could this be? “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (I Timothy 3:16). This is, indeed, a great mystery, “but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). God made a body for Adam; surely He could also make a perfect body in which He Himself could “tabernacle.” He was made “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3) and “was in all points tempted [i.e., ‘tested’] like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Since “God cannot be tempted with evil” (James 1:13), and since the Word, who was God, was merely tabernacling in the likeness of sinful flesh, this testing was to demonstrate to man (not to Himself) that He was without sin and therefore able to save sinners. Therefore, John could testify: “We beheld His glory!”

Jesus Christ is, indeed, true man—in fact, He is man as God intended man to be. Yet neither in the womb of Mary, nor on the cross, did He ever cease to be God. HMM