Jesus humbly submitted Himself to begin in the earliest stages of human life, to be confined in a small space in amniotic fluid hidden from the world, and dependent upon nourishment and protection from a woman.  This is simply about the incredible state of humiliation of Jesus Christ, “the Word,” that John wrote was “made flesh” for our redemption.

Celebrating Advent Sunday, my pastor preached on John 1: 1-14 focusing on “The Word Made Flesh.”  The Gospel of John begins with this awesome truth: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.”  This is a mystery being revealed, as God said: “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness . . .”  when creating man (Genesis 1: 26). The plurals “Us,” “in Our image,” and “Our likeness” represent a mystery alluding to a plurality as to who God is.
John continues in the 14th verse: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us . . .”  Generally speaking, this causes us to think of the Word as the baby born in Bethlehem under unique circumstances.
Perhaps most are like me in thinking of that Word becoming flesh only after He was born.  However, as my pastor continued to preach, my mind and spirit went where it has never gone before with regard to what happened to Mary: “What is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit (Matt 1:20). The Word  that was conceived in Mary began as a zygote (an egg fertilized by the Holy Spirit—not a human sperm), developing into an embryo, and becoming a fetus.  He was in one of those phases of development when Mary visited her pregnant cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth was carrying John the Baptist who in the womb did something very unusual: “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. . . For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy” (Luke 1: 41, 44).
John the Baptist, still developing in Elizabeth’s womb, leaped for joy!  Why?  Because God, His Lord and Savior—who was also developing in the flesh, had just entered their home in the womb of Mary; John was aware of God in the flesh.  Is this not a mystery further startling our comprehension?
Thanks to sonograms and ultrasounds that show the phases of development of infants in the womb, we have an advantage today that previous generations didn’t have. Videos reveal the movements of infants, their knitted formation, their growth, and their beauty.  We know how early a heartbeat begins, when hearing develops, how they exercise their limbs, suck their thumbs, can be treated surgically, and so much more.
Is it possible the “Word made flesh” took place before Jesus was born and while in the womb of Mary? Jeremiah 1: 5 supports this possibility: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you . . .” 
Or, Psalm 139: 13-17: “For You created my innermost parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. . . wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, and skillfully formed in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my formless substance . . .”
Christ’s humility expressed in Philippians 2: 6-7 may have even begun before He was born: “. . .  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men…. Jesus humbly submitted Himself to begin in the earliest stages of human life, to be confined in a small space in amniotic fluid hidden from the world, and dependent upon nourishment and protection from a woman.  This is simply about the incredible state of humiliation of Jesus Christ, “the Word,” that John wrote was “made flesh” for our redemption.
As we meditate during this Advent season, may we marvel on the awesome wonder that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ humbled himself in order to reconcile us to God.
“The Word made flesh” took place in a womb, and was then manifested in a manger.  God’s ways are past finding out.  “Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” (Romans 11: 33). The incarnation is a mystery that keeps inspiring us to holy awe.
Helen Louise Herndon is a member of Central Presbyterian Church (EPC) in St. Louis, Missouri. She is freelance writer and served as a missionary to the Arab/Muslim world in France and North Africa.
Related Posts:

In the Left’s twisted theology, transgenderism is a sacrament that promises rebirth and renewal but delivers only despair, pain, disfigurement, and death. It sells the lie of salvation through the mutilation of mostly the bodies of young children. While Christ’s body was crushed for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5) for making atonement for sin, transgenderism leaves scarred bodies in its wake for a fruitless quest that will end with the just judgment of God.

It’s been clear for some time that Christianity’s relationship to American culture has changed dramatically in recent decades.
You may have rolled your eyes at “The War on Christmas” as the rants of out-of-touch, older generations. Maybe the culture warriors’ focus on stopping the removal of nativity scenes in town squares and Ten Commandment monuments in courthouses only briefly caught your attention. You might have thought their work was important but these changes were probably not the signs of a looming cultural disaster. Now, however, it is beyond doubt that these warnings were prophetic and have been nearly all vindicated.
What seemed like overweening nostalgia for better times was actually a perceptive sense of massive shifts away from America’s historic traditions, which were largely the product of an Anglo-Protestant culture. The past 70 years in America have shown that the slippery slope is very real indeed.
Over the past few years, this cultural downgrade has been captured on social media by a picture of three buildings along the Lower Manhattan skyline on Good Friday in 1956. Each features lighted-up office windows in the shape of a cross, depicting the crucifixions of Jesus and the two thieves. Measuring 150 feet tall, these crosses were “sent over the wire by United Press Telephoto and appeared in newspapers around the United States—often front page center,” as Fox News reported.
This a far cry from what you will likely observe in NYC today. Now, instead of seeing purely Christian symbols and themes, NYC skyscrapers light up in the colors of the LGBT flag and other emblems of our 21st-century public morality, which uses many of the outward trappings of Christianity as a skin suit.
This fundamental moral reorientation becomes very apparent when considering how Easter is treated by the spokesmen for the current moral consensus.
Our social media behemoths routinely ignore the day that celebrates Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Google has not put up an “Easter doodle” on its homepage since the year 2000. On Easter Sunday in 2013, Google instead featured a web designer’s rendering of Cesar Chavez, the activist labor titan.
When Easter isn’t being sidelined altogether, it’s being used as a prop to support the latest regime propaganda that strikes at the heart of orthodox Christianity.
The Biden administration issued a short statement on Easter Sunday that was overshadowed by an ebullient and lengthy proclamation that declared March 31 a “Transgender Day of Visibility.”  The now-highest holy day of modern liberalism was created by Michigan transgender activist Rachel Crandall-Crocker in 2009.
Biden’s proclamation affirms “the most fundamental freedom” of trans people “to be their true selves” against “extremists” who “are proposing hundreds of hateful laws that target and terrify transgender kids and their families.” Such supposedly horrific laws include “silencing teachers; banning books; and even threatening parents, doctors, and nurses with prison for helping parents get care for their children.” Contrary to Biden’s assertions, all these types of laws are ones that Christians should unequivocally support in principle. Students need to be protected from reading books filled with filth in public schools and from doctors and hospital systems that push them through the trans meat grinder. That Biden and his cronies think these things deserve to be praised and honored is a window into the soul of the modern Democratic Party.
Steve Sailer has aptly described the Democrats as a “coalition of the fringes,” one which has clearly molded the party into its own perverted image.
Read More
Related Posts:

Written by Samuel D. James |
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Online cancellation mobs are instruments of injustice. They don’t protect victims, they create them. They don’t create change. They stay in their digital plot. And they don’t just harm the targets. They harm the participants. They poison the imagination, they dehumanize, and they reinforce a self-righteous sense that such a fate must be deserved.

I want to make one more brief comment about the kerfuffle du jour in online evangelicalism this past week, although the point really goes beyond it. The following has been said repeatedly, by many people, in a wide variety of circumstances:
A) There is no such thing as “cancel culture.”
B) Even if there was, it’s an important part of keeping powerful people accountable.
My suspicion is that people who say A don’t actually believe it. I don’t know how anybody could spend time online and come away genuinely convinced there is no such thing as outrage mobs or cancellation campaigns. And in fact, I think just about everyone knows these things exist. The question is whether they are good or bad. So people who claim there is no such thing as cancel culture are often defining “cancel culture” to mean, “A way for innocent people to get harmed by social media,” and the way they deny its existence is to presume that anybody who gets canceled is not innocent.
So the really relevant point of contention is B. Allow me a brief space to explain why I think B is mistaken, both in its premise and its conclusion.
Cancel culture does not keep people “accountable.” It does punish them. It does trigger bad consequences for them. It can make them go away and not say or do anything online anymore. But this is not accountability; it’s just erasure. A mechanism for accountability, whether in government, church, business, or personal relationships rests on a foundation of mutual agreement. Government accountability to voters is part of what it means to participate in the U.S. political system; if you dislike this accountability, you can opt out of running for office, and you don’t have to ever experience it. Church accountability (I’m thinking especially for pastors and leaders) assumes a shared moral framework that is presented to the pastor before he is hired or ordained. If you don’t think you want to be accountable in that way, you can decline to be in pastoral ministry (and in fact, the Bible assumes that most Christians won’t be in that position).
The point is that in any meaningful accountability relationship, the parties being held accountable and the parties holding accountable have some shared sense of what’s expected, what’s being enforced. And the reason this is important is that it establishes a kind of mutual accountability between the parties. The pastor knows what he is accountable for, the congregation knows what they obligated to hold him accountable to, and both the pastor and the congregation know each other’s particular obligations.
Read More
Related Posts: