Memory Text: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling

among us” (John 1:14, NIV).

In the New Testament, without any rationalistic explanations whatsoever,

Jesus Christ is presented as both human and Divine. After

beginning his Gospel with the Word who is God (John 1:1), John

makes the extraordinary declaration that this same Word, this same

God, “became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (vs. 14, NIV).

And perhaps anticipating future concerns about moral contamination,

the New Testament maintains the sinless life of Jesus with

unequivocal consistency (Heb. 7:26, 1 Pet. 2:22). Moreover, the writers

of the New Testament matter-of-factly regard Jesus as a proper

object of worship and veneration (Acts 7:59, Rom. 9:5, Heb. 1:6).

These earliest Christians were not detained by the philosophical

problems inherent in the concept of the God-man or by the difficulties

it would pose for later thinkers. “The humanity of the Son of God

is everything to us. . . . When we approach this subject, we would do

well to heed the words spoken by Christ to Moses at the burning

bush, ‘Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou

standest is holy ground’ (Exod. 3:5). We should come to this study

with the humility of a learner.”—Ellen G. White, Selected Messages,

book 1, p. 244.