Tuesday, December 4, 2012
John 1:1-18 [14] And the Word became 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.
THE INCARNATION ACCORDING TO JOHN: GOD BECOME MAN
The simple fact of God having become man is arguably more central to the gospel of John than the subsequent crucifixion and resurrection.
In his introduction John does not use the name Jesus or Jehovah, but the Word, the God who as a man spoke to men.
The entirety of his introduction, the first 18 verses of John, focuses on the phrase of verse 14, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us," just as surely as if he had highlighted this phrase and drawn arrows all around it.
If you were to write down the major thoughts of each section of these first eighteen verses you would find that verse 14 acts like a mirror reflecting backwards the exact thoughts which stand in front of it.
When John proclaims "we beheld His glory," he does not speak of the glory which had shown forth on the mount of transfiguration, as one might at first naturally assume. But rather he describes the glory as that which is "full of grace and truth." Grace, the undeserved love of God, and truth are not seen in physical white light, but are seen in the daily acts and words of Jesus' life, acts which are filled with love and always give witness to the truth. Words that are never anything but eternal truth and are always, even when harsh, spoken in love.
To Moses was given the law, which proclaimed the glory of God as the perfect righteous God. But through Jesus is seen the glory of God in the acts of love and truth of a man, the man God Jesus Christ.
