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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. John 1:14
John MacArthur wrote, “These five simple words (and the Word became flesh) are probably the most profound statement ever made in the history of the universe.”
On July 20, 1969, at 10:56 p.m. Neil Armstrong set the first human footprint on the moon. He declared, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” That was an amazing human accomplishment, going from earth to the moon. But infinitely more amazing is the Christmas story, when God came from heaven to earth as a man and put His footprints all over Galilee and Palestine.
John 1:14 captures the essence of this amazing and true story. Every word in this verse is spiritual gold. We’re going to look at it in five parts – each as weighty as the others.
“And the Word” – Christ’s undiminished DEITY.
John used “Word” to describe Christ because Word means revelation and explanation. When someone wants to tell you what they are thinking, they speak. Calvin translated “Word” by the word “Speech.” God revealed to this world His Son and called Him the Message, or Word of God. Look back at verses 1-4 of chapter one.
John 1:1-4, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
We are celebrating the birth of God’s revealed Word, His Son. He was there in the beginning, referring back to Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God.” He is equal with God. He is God, undiminished deity. There He was from all eternity co-existing with God the Father. He created everything in the entire universe, including the universe. If there is anything beyond the universe, He created that too! There isn’t anything that exists that Christ didn’t create. Just look at yourself. He designed and created your eyes, your ears, your joints, your kidneys, your lungs, your heart. Christ designed and created everything in your body. When Christ came into this world, God was revealing His Son as His Word, the revealer of God.
Hebrews 1:1-2, God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
So when Christ came to earth He came as God’s message, God’s “logos.” He came into this world as undiminished deity.
“Became flesh” – undeniable HUMANITY
This is called the incarnation or “infleshation.” The eternal-creator-Logos-Word, became flesh. John doesn’t say He became man, which is true, but he uses “flesh” to remind us that this Word, who is undiminished deity, became humble flesh just like us, subject to all the pains and limitations of our flesh. He wasn’t a mythical superman in his humanity. No, He became flesh: he slept, became hungry, thirsted, ate, drank, was weary, wept, rejoiced, and was moved to anger or compassion. He came in skin and bones, and really suffered, really shed His blood, really winced in agony as they beat Him. They really buried Him in His body of flesh.
But how did the eternal Logos become flesh? Here comes the greatest miracle on planet earth. The angel Gabriel appeared to a young girl in Nazareth and told her God had chosen her to bring the Messiah, the son of David, the King of Israel, into the world. She was going to have a baby! She said, “Impossible. I’m not married!” “Ah,” said the angel, “God is going to do a great miracle in you, Mary. The power of the Most High and the Spirit of God will come upon you and you will miraculously conceive and this baby will be the Holy One of God.” Then Mary humbly submitted and said, “I am God’s joyful and willing servant. Let it be done.”
And it was. The Logos who was undiminished deity in a hidden miraculous conception became undeniable humanity. Born nine months later in Bethlehem, Mary’s child was both God Almighty-Creator of all things, and humbled humanity. He was totally God and totally man in one person. This is the mystery and the miracle of the incarnation of the second person of the Godhead. It took the early church leaders at least four major councils to finally figure out how to describe this miraculous mystery. In 451 A.D. at the Council of Chalcedon in Asia Minor, they finally came up with this doctrine (paraphrased): Christ is both God and man in one Person; two natures in one person. We call this the hypostatic union, or the Theanthropic Person (God-Man)!
The Word became flesh. He came as light and life for the world’s sinful darkness and death. Just imagine if this had never happened. If Rousseau or Marx or Freud or Darwin or God-hating atheists were right, we would still be in darkness and death, with no reason to sing these beautiful Christmas hymns, no reason for glad tidings of great joy, no reason to put lights all over our houses to celebrate Christ’s birth. Instead of divine light would be godless darkness, Instead of spiritual life would be only eternal death and doom.
Charles Wesley wrote this memorable Christmas hymn: “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate deity, Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel.” The Word became flesh, undiminished deity and undeniable humanity.
“And dwelt among us” – His impeccable LIFE.
I like to think of “us” here as all humanity. Christ was born and literally lived among human beings. He created Adam and Eve, and then joined the human race through Mary and lived for 33 years among us. He never sinned. No one could accuse Him of sin. His life was impeccable.
But you could have seen Him. He wasn’t just a phantom or a spirit. He didn’t just seem to be there. You could have shaken His hand. Imagine that. If you were close enough to Him like John was in the Upper Room, you would have felt his body heat, 98.6 degrees. If we went back in time 2000 years, you could take a ship across the Atlantic to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and walk up to Galilee and see Him, even talk with Him.
But there’s more in that word “dwelt.” It’s the Greek verb skenao, which means to tent or tabernacle among us. Remember the tabernacle in the Old Testament? The tabernacle represented the presence of God, where God met with His people. Exodus 25:8, “And let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell with them.” When they finished building the tabernacle, Exodus 40:34 says, “The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”
Christ tabernacled among us. And everything about that Old Testament tent represented Christ, especially the many sacrifices, pointing forward to Christ’s final sacrifice for sin. That temporary tabernacle represented God dwelling with His people. Whenever the cloud over the tabernacle set out, they picked up the tabernacle and moved with it. Whenever it stopped, they set up the tabernacle again. Whenever Christ got up, the disciples got up and moved with Him. When He sat down, the disciples sat down. He tabernacled among us as Emmanuel, God with us. And God will tabernacle with us in eternity future.
Revelation 21:3, And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,
“And we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father” – His inimitable GLORY.
By inimitable we mean there is nothing like it, unmatched, unique. He became humble flesh, but there were times when His glory and the brilliance of His deity flashed out in His works and even in His body. He did what no other human being could do. He turned water to wine. He walked on water. He cast demons into pigs. He raised dead corpses to life. He gave sight to blind people and hearing to deaf people. These were all glimpses of His glory that John and the other disciples saw (John 2:11). He created bread and fish for thousands of people. He commanded the winds and the waves to stop. And one time He took Peter, James, and John up onto a mountain and there they saw His glory burst forth as brilliant light. He was transfigured before them. No religious leader or so-called god invented by man could possibly do this. His face shone bright like the sun and his garments became white and flashed like lightning (Luke 9:29). They heard God’s voice from heaven, “This is my Beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased.” He is undiminished deity full of inimitable glory, though yet an undeniable human.
“Full of grace and truth” – His incomparable CHARACTER
This is just beautiful. While great men in this world are often arrogant, hard-hearted, self-promoting, even murderous men drunk with their power over others, what was Jesus like? Was He nasty and cruel? Demanding and egotistical? I enjoy biographies and often the author will devote the last chapter to a summary of the subject’s character. John waits till the end of this verse to describe Jesus’ character. He’s certainly unlike all other great men or world rulers.
First, He’s full of grace and truth. Full means you couldn’t get any more in Him. He is not lacking in any amount of grace and truth. He is the fountain of pure grace and pure truth. Just as God revealed His character to Moses in the wilderness as “abounding in lovingkindness and truth” in Exodus 34:6, so Jesus abounded in grace and truth.
He was a man full of grace, which is exactly what we sinners need. He didn’t come to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved (John 3:17). We are guilty, vile sinners to the very core and desperately in need of a Savior. And He was full of grace. He came with His arms open, welcoming poor, lost sinners, “Come to Me.” Watch Him talk with Nicodemus, and the Samaritan woman at the well, and the man born blind, the woman caught in adultery, the man helpless on the cot. “Your sins are forgiven you,” Jesus said. Who can forgive sin but God? Ah, that’s the whole point. The Word was God, now a man, full of grace, bringing salvation to lost people! That doesn’t mean He ever overlooked sin. Remember this: The next time Christ comes He will come full of strict justice on those who refuse to bow their knee to Him as Lord and Savior.
He was a man full of truth. His gracious words were always wrapped in truth. He never fudged on truth in the name of grace. You can count on everything He said. His words are truth, what really is. How refreshing and beautiful that is in these days when lies constantly bombard us from all directions. He never uttered a lie. What a contrast to the false teachers of His day and ours. He never cut corners on truth or softened what the Bible says. He never just said what people wanted to hear. Every promise, every warning, every command was truth. He told us the truth about God, man, creation, salvation, judgment, heaven and hell. He came full of truth.
Men like Freud with his ego, id, and superego, Marx with his destructive and godless teaching of social revolution, Darwin with his damning lies about our origins, plus current lies about climate change, about systemic racism, all the gender issues, all religions are equally valid. Even when the ruling elites tell us “the science says,” their science may not be true science. True science and Christ’s truth never contradict. We are flooded with lies and it takes the truth of Christ to discern and filter out all the lies. We need to always ask, “Is that really true?” “Why should I believe that?” It’s not “My truth” or “Your truth.” You don’t determine truth. Christ is truth.
Even churches, where people go to hear truth, are spewing out lies. I read just this week about a church planning to have a study of the book Changing Our Minds by David Gushee, teaching that churches need to change their minds about all the LGBTQIA gender issues, as if Christ doesn’t have something to say about these moral issues including gender and marriage (see Matthew 19:4-5). Jesus was and is full of truth. Our young people need to hear Christ’s truth in the Bible.
The dominant culture today is lying to people in the name love and compassion and inclusion and these lies will lead people to hell. Satan is the great Liar who is working hard to destroy this generation with these cultural and moral lies. Love never lies, and Jesus, who loves us, never lies. He will not lead us to that wide gate that leads to destruction and hell! He is full of truth! He told us in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me!”
Jesus is full of grace and truth. And as one preacher said, grace and truth reach their culmination at the Cross. The truth of God’s holiness and justice and wrath against sin was satisfied by Jesus’ substitutionary death. And now Christ offers forgiving grace to those who confess and repent of their sins and put their trust in Him.
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.
Thank God the Word became flesh, was born in Bethlehem, died on Calvary, rose from the tomb, ascended to heaven, and now intercedes for us as the God-Man. He is our Lord and Savior, full of grace and truth. He brought light to our darkness and life to our deadness. He opens our blind eyes with His light and raises us from our spiritual death by His life. Like the angel said, “I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be for all the people.” Infinitely greater than those human footprints on the moon are the footprints of the God-man Jesus Christ on this earth. And He’ll come back some day as the Word of God.
Revelation 19:11-13, And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.