have insisted so much on the essential humanity of Christ, that they

obscure or even deny His equal Deity. Neither the Deity nor the

humanity of Jesus Christ can be understood separately. They must be

considered together. This essential unity is referred to in 1 John 5:8,

the last clause of which should be rendered, `and the three are unto the

one', viz., unto that unity which obtained between the humanity and

Deity of the Son of God. This is also made very clear in Paul's

epistles. In Romans 1:3 for example, we read that the Lord was `made

of the seed of David according to the flesh', while in Romans 8:3 the

apostle safeguards His sinlessness by saying that He came in `the

likeness of sinful flesh'. In the same epistle we find the strongest

terms used in connection with His Deity:

`... of Whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, Who is over all,

God blessed for ever (unto the ages)' (9:5).

Both in Ephesians and in Colossians we meet with references to

`His flesh', and the `body of His flesh', while we find that He Who is

`God' and `Creator' in Hebrews 1:8,10 becomes a partaker of `flesh

and blood' in Hebrews 2:14.

Returning to John's Gospel, we find that there are six references to

soma, `body', each referring to the Lord's physical body (2:21;

19:31,38 twice, 40; 20:12). In 1:1 where we read that `the Word was

God', the verb is eimi `to be', but in 1:14, `The Word was made flesh',

it is ginomai `to become'. The two verbs appear together in 8:58,

where the Lord says of Himself, `Before Abraham came into being

(ginomai), I, I am (eimi)'. In 1:1,14 we have two modes of existence,

but however much the mode may change the Person remains. He was

just as much the Word after His birth at Bethlehem as He was `in the

beginning'.

`And dwelt among us'. The word `dwelt' here is eskenosen, from

skene, a `tent' or `tabernacle'. The word is allied to the Hebrew

shaken, `to dwell as in a tabernacle', and gives us the expression -

often used without recognition of its true meaning - `the Shekinah

glory'. Not only does the apostle intend by the use of this word to

indicate the transient character of this life, in which the Lord for

thirty-three years shared (see 2 Cor. 5:1), but he is also referring to the

tabernacle in the wilderness as a type of Christ. When we come to the

second chapter we shall find the Lord speaking also of the Temple as a