Impersonal Word of God Becomes Personal Son of God

What does Luke 1:35 have in common with John 1:14?  Let’s find out.

Luke 1:35

35 The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.

As has been pointed out by several astute teachers of the Bible including author, linguist and lecturer, Sir Anthony Buzzard; the angel Gabriel declares to Mary that her child will be called the Son of God specifically because he is miraculously begotten by the power of the holy spirit of God on her womb.  We don’t have to speculate as to why (or when) Jesus would be called the Son of God…it is because he begins to exist (the meaning of “begotten”) in his mother Mary due to a miracle of the holy spirit.

This truth given to Luke is, not surprisingly, shared by John in his gospel.

John 1:14

14 And the word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Here we see the impersonal word of God in John 1:1, coming into sonly human existence (“begotten”) from God the Father.  The impersonal word of God becomes the Son of God at the moment the human Jesus comes into existence (begotten).  Translation bias has caused “word” to be given an upper case “W” in verse 1 and onward so as to suppose a literal personal being.  But it is significant that no literal person is put forward until there is a human Son “begotten” in verse 14.

Both Luke and John report something foundationally important for Bible readers and believers to understand.  Jesus is the model of a human being who is in full Father/child fellowship with God.  He is everything God intended humans to be in order for them to take their God-given place as successful rulers of this planet, faithfully and accurately representing the Creator in doing so (Gen. 1:26-28; Heb. 2:5-10).  The word of God conveys His spirit and so, in a practical sense, the spirit of God and the word of God are barely distinguishable from each other.  Over and over again Jesus tells us that he only speaks the words of his Father, and that these words are spirit and truth (John 6:63).  The sword of the spirit is the word of God (Eph. 6:17). 

The point here is; when the spirit of God moved on Mary to beget Jesus, it was the word of God which was the seed of that new human life.  Everything that God purposed to do when he spoke the creation (including mankind) into existence was embedded in the man, Jesus.  As the impersonal word of God made flesh, Jesus was everything it means to be a personal human son (or daughter) of God destined to lead mankind in the ruler-ship of His created order.  Being the embodiment of the word of God, it is no surprise at all that Jesus began his ministry by announcing the coming Kingdom of God (Mark 1:1-5)…which is significantly the good news about how God has made a pathway to accomplish His original purpose for humanity.  That, of course, is the rest of the story.  But here we see that Luke and John agree, Jesus the begotten (coming into existence) human IS himself the Messiah.   At this moment the impersonal became personal, and not before.