And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
Explanation
And the Word
As we have learned, the Word described so far is pre-existent to creation, self-existant as uncreated, and co-existent with God. He was active in creation. He is life and light. He was proclaimed by a witness, John, who was not the light, but came to witness that light.
Now we learn something incredible about the Word.
…was made flesh
In His divinity, the Word is uncreated. He is unmade. Here He remains uncreated, but was made like His creation. Christianity is the incarnation. Here we see the God of the universe made human. He was not created at this moment. He is incarnated at this moment.
Jesus, in His humanity, dealt with life in all of its normalities. He was subject to hunger, thirst, pain, and being tired. He limited Himself to a human body, while never ceasing to be God.
…and dwelt among us
This is an incredible reality to be hearing from this author. The author experienced the Word in flesh. He lived with Him.
What was his commentary on this experience? Well it’s said in the rest of the verse.
“…and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father”
This is expressed here parantheitcally. John says that He dwelt with the Word who was made flesh, yet he almost seems to anticipate the question, “If he was in flesh, how would you know that he wasn’t just any normal man claiming to be God?” His parenthetical statement is that they saw this incarnate Word transfigured, displaying the kind of glory that could only be God. The glory of the Word was the same kind of glory of God. This proved to John, and John witnessed to the idea that this Word was the incarnate Son of God.”
“full of grace and truth”
It’s amazing to me that this continues after that description. He was the same glory, the same essence, and the same God as the Father, and what made Him distinct is the combination of two attributes that are paradoxical. By paradoxical I mean that they seem to contradict at first glance, but in the end are not contradictory.
The Word was truth. There is a veracity to who He was. He spoke Truth. He was Truth. He is truth. The Word was grace. Truth seems to contradict grace, yet in Christ the combination of Truth and grace is seen through His entire ministry, and especially on the cross. He is so Holy that He cannot violate His own holiness, truth, and perfection. He is so loving that He willingly gives the opportunity to be made righteous and accepted by God to those who believe on Him not because of any merit on the part of the believer, but upon His merit and sacrificial death as substitute for sinful man.
What was incredible about Jesus, at least one of the multitude of things that was incredible about Him, was this combination of grace and truth.
Application
The fact that God became flesh is the essence of the Christian message. If God doesn’t initiate His rescue plan, His mission in the world, by sending His only begotten Son, then we are doomed.
Jesus Christ was tempted with every kind of temptation we face. Jesus Christ lived as a man, having humbled Himself to become a man. Jesus Christ kept the law both in spirit and in the letter. Jesus Christ took the punishment that we owed.
On the cross we see both truth and grace, holiness and love.
This is how we should live. As we are grown by the Spirit of God after we are born again, we should grow in holiness. As we grow in holiness we see our own sinfulness more clearly. Our need for grace becomes more apparent. Our graciousness with others grows. We see people as souls who will live eternally with God or separated from God. We understand that we are to be on God’s mission, too. We are to incarnate His mission in the world.
Response
- Have you responded to the grace and truth of the Lord Jesus Christ?
- How can you live today as someone who is consumed by truth? by grace?
