The Reason to Smile at Christmas—Musings on Luther, Barth, Foyle, and Longfellow

By Patricia Anders, Editorial Director

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father,) full of grace and truth.

By “flesh” we understand the whole man, body and soul, according to the Scriptures, which call man “flesh,” as above, when it is said, “Not of the will of the flesh”; and in the creed we say, “I believe in the resurrection of the body” (German: flesh), that is, of all men. . . . The evangelist [John] uses a comprehensive word and says, “He became flesh,” that is, a man like every other man, who has flesh and blood, body and soul. . . . He came that he might become the Light of men, that is, that he might become known; he showed himself bodily and personally among men and was made man. …