One of my favorite Christmas verses is John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth;  we have beheld his glory, glory as of the Son from the father.”

Why has this verse been described as “the central verse in the Scripture?”

First, it describes God’s decisive act to defeat sin and Satan and to redeem lost and hurting mankind. When God entered human flesh, He proclaimed His intention to reclaim human kind from the power of Satan (this is what redemption means).

Second, it describes the choice of the eternal God, the Creator, to become vulnerable human flesh and to dwell among sinful humanity. It shows the love of the creator for His creation. He became flesh and moved into our neighborhood that that we might know and accept Him.

Third, it describes God’s presence among us. John the apostle described how His early followers saw immediately who Jesus was. John said “we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten from the father.” To describe the glory of God was to depict “His very self,” the presence of God among His people.

John had a unique view of the Word which became flesh. He saw Jesus on the mountain (of Transfiguration) and in the garden (of Gethsemene). In his first epistle, John described what they experienced: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life” (1 John 1:1).