Saturday, May 12, 2012
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory ...
IN HIM WAS LIFE: AND WE BEHELD HIS GLORY
This is the first time John uses the first person pronoun in his gospel. For John this was very personal and very concrete. It's easy for us to get caught up in the abstract, to think about the figurative way in which we see the grace of Christ through John's eyes. Certainly John is inviting us to partake of that glory through his writings. But for John there is nothing figurative or abstract about this statement. He saw the glory of the Logos (the Word, that is Jesus).
This glory wasn't primarily the blinding light of the transfiguration. John doesn't even record the transfiguration although he himself was there. In fact, he is the only gospel writer who was actually there -- and the only one who doesn't record it. The glory is: God dwelling among men, God giving in abundance, God weeping with and for His friends, God enduring weakness and want, God dying and then living again.
This is the glory of the Word: His life. The life which was His, which He gave up, received and which we now have through faith in Him who lives. In Him was life!
