JESUS: GOD IN FLESH
John 1:1-4,14
Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall
The Gospel of John is for many their favorite Bible book. It contains the Bible's most famous verse, my favorite, John 3:16. John's Gospel is said to be shallow enough for a child to wade in, yet deep enough for an elephant to swim in. The latter fact reminds us John wrote Revelation, another book with deep content.
The biographers who wrote of Jesus had to confront a challenging question. When talking of Jesus, where do we start? Matthew began with Abraham, Mark with the preaching of John the Baptist, Luke with the birth of John the Baptist. John the Beloved began in the bosom of the Father. John went before time and talked about the everlasting relationship between God the Father and God the Son.
John 1:1 (Holman) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
God the Son is God the Father speaking. When God speaks, things happen. His spoken will, once verbalized, always occurs. At creation God said, let there be light, let dry land appear, etc. At least 10 times God "said"; each time, it occurred.
In Jesus, God the Father spoke in a new, unique way, with ultimate authority. Instead of vibrating elements with His breath, as He did at Creation, His power combined elements to form Jesus. God has "Son-spoken" (Hebrews 1:2).
John 1:2 He was with God in the beginning.
Jesus was "in the beginning," not "from the beginning." Jesus always has existed. He never was created. He was "with God" and "was God." Jesus is God, but not all of God. He and the Father are One, yet separate. John placed Jesus the Son on the same level as God the Father. The Bible never tries to prove there is a God and never tries to prove Jesus is God. It assumed both were obvious.
John 1:3 All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created.
The disciples first saw Jesus as a man, but came to see Him as more than a man. John came to see Jesus as Creator. All life sprang from God through Jesus. All of nature throbs with prolific life because it passed through Jesus, who is life.
John 1:4 Life was in Him, and that life was the light of men.
Human life grants us the capacity to know God in a personal way, to receive God-life, and thereby understand spiritual light. The only hope for people to come out of spiritual darkness is God's light, a light received only by receiving His life.
Believers, since spiritual light is transmitted via spiritual life, the only way His light can reach others is for it to shine on them through the life He lives in us.
Light can be stopped only if it is shut out or shut in. Let's not be guilty of the latter. We spread God's light by overflowing with the fullness of His life.
If we've shown little light to the world, it's because our spiritual life is low. The more we enjoy His life, our union with Him, the more we spread His light to others. Though God's light is often rejected, let it always continue to shine through us. Never stop shining, no matter how discouraged we become.
How do we enter into this light? Spiritual life owes its beginning to a birth from above. We have to become a child of God. His power is necessary. Massive obstacles have to be removed, including the wrath of God and the guilt of sin.
Salvation is as much God's work as was creation. A person in a dark room does not put darkness out first and then let in light. Similarly, we cannot put sin out of our heart to prepare for Christ's entering. We take Him in and then sin flees.
John 1:14a The Word became flesh. . .
This text, John 1:14, is one of the richest and most strongly stated verses in the Bible. It teaches us six remarkable facts regarding Jesus, the Word of God.
One, God the Son became flesh. "Flesh" bespeaks weak creatures who are mortal and dying. John could not have emphasized his point more bluntly. Jesus did not merely "appear" to be a man. He was a real human being. Spirit became skin. God became human. The Ancient of Days became an infant.
Augustine, before his conversion, explored and studied the world's major religions. He said this phrase, "The Word became flesh", was the unique teaching of Christianity. Other religions said people could become gods; for instance, Pharaoh in Egypt, and Caesar in Rome. But it was scandalous to think the reverse. Greeks and Roman Stoics believed the body was too evil for deity to indwell. Hebrews saw God as the Totally Other. Even some believers have denied the Incarnation in one way or another, refusing to acknowledge Christ's full deity.
Problems often rise in our thinking when we try to explain how the Incarnation happened—for instance, how a zygote was formed, how the Holy Spirit intermingled with Mary's DNA—rather than leaving it in the realm of faith.
The Bible writers never attempted a detailed explanation, or tried to appeal to human intellect when dealing with the Incarnation. Their emphasis was angled to the heart. We will never fully understand the Incarnation, but we know by faith that God became like us to make us like Him. He who made all things became the one thing that failed Him, the only thing that needed help (Hebrews 2:14-15).
John 1:14b . . .and took up residence among us.
Two, Jesus "took up residence among us." He who transcends time entered time. He who was with God chose to be with us. Jesus could have become flesh and lived among angels. He drew nearest to what He was farthest separated from.
Though we were not the best or most enjoyable company, Jesus chose to stay a while with us. He did not appear to a few people on a few occasions and then leave. He stayed long enough for many of us to get a good look at Him. At least 500 saw Him after He rose from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:6).
John 1:14c We observed His glory. . .
Three, we observed Jesus' glory. "Glory" refers to God's manifest presence, to God using a physical means to make His presence obviously known. He used a pillar of cloud by day, fire by night, to let Israel know He was with them in the Wilderness. The Tabernacle and Temple, when dedicated, were filled with a cloud.
In our text, John was saying God was visible, obviously present, in Jesus. People didn't have to be super spiritual to see God's glory in Jesus; they only had to be willing to look and see. The more John and the other disciples watched Jesus, the more they knew He was God's glory in human form. The miracles showed a part of the glory of Christ, but something deeper than this caught John's eye. True glory was seen in the loving way Jesus suffered, died, and rose again for people. We too have observed His glory, and continue to revel in it more and more.
The longer and more closely John watched Jesus, the more the Apostle saw of God. This is not true of most of us. We all know the old phrase, familiarity breeds contempt. Usually the more we learn of others, the more "human" they become. But the more we know of Jesus, the more "like God" He becomes.
John 1:14d . . . the glory as of the One and Only Son from the Father,. . .
Four, Jesus is "the One and Only Son from the Father." All believers are adopted children of God. The Sonship of Jesus is unique. His relationship to God the Father is without parallel. He is begotten, of the same essence with the Father; not a lesser God, a secondary God, or demi-God. He is true God of true God.
When Christian work began in Japan, and the Bible was being translated, a Japanese translating the Gospel of John, blurted out, "Who is this Man about whom I am reading, this Jesus? You call Him a man, but He must be a God."
John 1:14e . . .full of grace. . .
Five, Jesus is "full of grace." "Grace" conveys two basic ideas. It refers to something completely undeserved and unmerited. It always designates God loving just because He is love. We did not deserve for the Christmas Baby to come.
"Grace" also contains the idea of beauty. In modern Greek the word means "charm." We sometimes use it this way ourselves, describing a person as having the beautiful trait of grace. In Jesus we see the sheer winsomeness of God. People tend to think of God primarily in terms of power, majesty, and judgment. These assessments are valid, but in Jesus we are also confronted with sheer loveliness.
Many who reject Christianity are not as much saying no to God as they are expressing their repulsion at our methods of representing God. When the world can see God as He really is, charming and winsome, many respond positively.
Jesus said, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" (John 12:32). The Lord's death and resurrection show Him as the One altogether kind and beautiful. Let's discover it ourselves, rejoice in it, and tell the world.
John 1:14f . . .and truth.
Six, Jesus is full of truth. Truth refers to what is genuine, the real thing. In Christ, nothing is counterfeit. As the Rock, the Dependable One, He never fails us.
Grace and truth are the two things we need most from God. We need grace, a lovely friend in heaven who wants to help the helpless though they do not deserve it. We need truth, a friend powerful enough to help the helpless.
Jesus is total love and total dependability. Anything or anyone else claiming the ability to bring true happiness, and give the best life possible, is counterfeit.
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