“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life.” 1John 1:1
John, of course, is speaking of Jesus, the “Word of Life.” He was writing to believers to refute the teaching of the Gnostics who were trying to mislead believers by denying, among other things, the true humanity of Christ. They believed that the spirit is entirely good and matter is entirely evil. They must have assumed then that Jesus couldn’t have been God and man.
John determines to show the believers that Jesus was Who He said He was, that He was God and man together. John spoke of His incarnation and the fact that the disciples both saw and touched Him. He really was a man when he lived here on earth and He experienced everything that we, as people, do. His incarnation fulfilled the dream of men to get close to God and provided our way to be reconciled to the Father.
Author Dorothy Sayers put it this way; “[God} can expect nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When He was a man, He played the Man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile.”
“The incarnation of Jesus Christ is the irrefutable proof that God will do anything to draw near to us.” (David Roper). How thankful we should be that our Father loved us so much that He would send His only Son to live life among us, as one of us, so we could be near Him and He could be near us. “The Life appeared, we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has appeared to us. We proclaim, to you, what we have seen and heard, so that you may also have fellowship with us. and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our (your) joy complete.” (1John 1:2-4).
How grateful we should be that God came down from heaven and touched mankind and gave us the opportunity to touch Him. and even though He ascended to the Father, we can still touch Him because He has given us His Spirit to dwell in us. God incarnate is LOVE come down to earth!