“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
Jesus incarnated himself into a human! The divine became human! But, Jesus did NOT change his divinity. Jesus did not become less God. The essence of his being remained divine. When this verse says he “became flesh” it doesn’t mean he changed from being God. Jesus has always been and will always be God.
What it does mean is he was born into the flesh? Some debate the limitations of this word picture, but in a sense the idea here is that God put on human clothes. Jesus put on humanity. Philippians 2:7 says that he took the “form” of humanity.
The term “flesh” here simply means physical humanity. Thus, he did not become sinful. In fact the Bible is very clear that Jesus was perfect and never sinned. He also did not lose his divine attributes. Jesus continued to be able to do miraculous things like walk on water, calm storms, supernaturally produce food, heal people, eternally forgive people, and raise people from the dead.
So what is the point of all this “incarnation” talk? Incarnation means that Jesus left the pleasure-filled dance of Trinity to go to a people who hated him, betrayed him, wrongly accused him, tortured him, and then murdered him. Jesus left a comfortable culture to join a culture that hated him. Leaving comfort for the sake of mission is the example of the incarnation.
If Jesus is our example, then we are also called to incarnate ourselves. We are called not to abandon our Christian identity, but are called to go to cultures that are not our own. We also need to hear some of those cultures might even hate us!
John 1:14 should cause us to look in the mirror. If we are going to be like Jesus, then we are not allowed to remain in a Christian bubble. We are not allowed to have exclusively Christian friends. We are not allowed to spend all our time at our local church at the expense of participating in the life of our community and city. We are not allowed to hide from the culture.
Jesus is a God who is about going. There is “sent-ness” about what he does. Jesus is a God on a mission! John 1:14 is a call to be like Jesus, be a Missionary, Incarnate Ourselves! GO to unbelievers. Leave your safe comfortable culture and GO. Be like Jesus, Be a Missionary, Incarnate Yourself!