The Word Became Flesh
John 1:14-18
Main Idea: Jesus has come as God in the flesh full of glory, grace, and truth.
I. Incarnation (1:14a)
John brings his doxological prologue to a crescendo, marveling that the preexistent, eternal, divine ‘Word’ (1:1) of God incarnated and “became flesh.” This Word that seemed impersonal to the Greeks is actually a person; the Word that was inaccessible to the Jewish people has come in flesh and blood.
The doctrine of the incarnation tells us that the Son of God became a man, without ceasing to be God. Jesus is uniquely fully God and fully man (cf. Col. 1:19; 2:9).
“If your intellect has never been staggered by the reality of the incarnation, you don’t know what incarnation means. It doesn’t mean that Jesus was a little baby. It means that the eternal, infinite, divine one - worshipped by cherubim and Seraphim, creator of all things, sustainer of all things, infinite in his being, wisdom, power, majesty, and glory - who at a word could dissolve the world that had sinned against him - was willing to come into this world, and assume our flesh, in order to become our Savior. It’s overwhelming.”
~ Sinclair Ferguson
Hebrews 2:14-15, 17: Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery… Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
II. Tabernacled (1:14b)
“Dwelt among us” is lit. ‘tabernacled among us.’ The ‘tabernacle’ and the tent of meeting represented two big realities for God’s people:
God’s Presence: The tabernacle was the way that a holy, righteous, and unapproachable God could “meet” and commune with his chosen yet sinful people (cf. Ex. 25:8; 33:7-11; Jn. 2:19; Heb. 10:20).
God’s Glory (cf Ex. 40:34; 1 Ki. 8:10-11)
III. Glory (1:14c, 18)
The idea of beholding God’s glory was an impossible reality before the incarnation of Christ; an encounter with God’s glory was always indirect, overwhelming, and terrifying (cf. Gen. 32:22-32; Isa. 6:1-5).
Exodus 33:18–20: Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”
But now, in Christ, the Word made flesh: “we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” God’s glory used to be contained to the “holy of holies” in the tabernacle and temple, but in the incarnation of Christ the veil has been removed, and the one who “is at the Father’s side” (lit. ‘in the bosom of the Father’) is the “image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15), and the “radiance of the glory of God’ (Heb. 1:3).
2 Corinthians 3:16, 18: “…when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed … And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”
IV. Grace (1:14d, 16-17)
‘Grace’ and ‘truth’ correspond to the frequent OT pairing of “steadfast love and faithfulness.
Exodus 34:5–7a: The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.”
“[Christ’s] grace is a truthful grace; not grace in fiction, or in fancy, not grace to be hoped for or dreamed of, but grace every atom of which is fact; redemption which does redeem, pardon which does blot out sin, renewal which actually regenerates, salvation which saves completely… [Christ’s truth] is not the kind of truth which censures, condemns and punishes; it is a gracious truth, truth steeped in love, truth saturated with mercy. The truth which Jesus brings to his people comes from the mercy seat.”
~ Charles Spurgeon, Good Tidings of Great Joy
This grace and truth do not come in small or partial doses; it is “from his fullness that we have all received grace upon grace” (1:16; lit. ‘grace in place of grace’). This emphasis is on the superiority of Jesus to Moses; while Moses gave the first grace of the Law, Christ came to bring the fullest grace of himself.
The fullness of this grace and truth is seen most clearly and supremely in the paradoxical “glorification” of Jesus Christ in his crucifixion (cf. 12:23).
“The Crucified One is the true king, the kingliest king of all; because it is He who is stretched on the cross, He turns an obscene instrument of torture into a throne of glory and reigns from the tree.”
~ F.F. Bruce
