John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
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John is preparing to transition into the more historical aspects of his Gospel, the events of Jesus life, and so it is appropriate that he come to this point where he hearkens back to his opening line about the logos. He is about to start writing about Jesus and all of the things he did and so he says here, “The Word [Logos] became flesh.” Thus, this is a key line that prevents us from marginalizing Jesus the man. He was certainly more than a man. By saying, the word became flesh, we are unable to call him a mere man and instead have to acknowledge at the least that he was greater than a man. And yet, as we recall from verse 1, “the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John is tying these together and clearly claiming that Jesus was God come in the flesh. He is effectively setting the backdrop for the rest of his Gospel and unlike the other three Gospels, John is making his theological claims right from the start. Whereas they may have done it in a more subtle manner, John is laying it out there and saying, God came to visit his people.
What is greater than the fact that God came, was that he came with a plan of redemption. The deeper I think about my Christian faith, the more I see myself in a mirror and realize how truly unworthy I am. And I think of Paul who said in regards to sinners in 1 Timothy 1:15, “I am the worst.” This is the same Paul that we rely on for so much of the New Testament.
To think that God was mindful of man enough to come and die for us – amazing! He not only came, but he had a plan!
We must be ever mindful of the nature of Jesus and so I appreciate that John wrote his Gospel in the manner that he did. As we read on about the events of Jesus life, it should always be within our thoughts that Jesus, while fully man, was also fully God. As he later submits humbly to be killed, we must also recall that he did so while restraining the power that he had at his disposal. It is one thing for a man to submit to a greater power humbly when he knows he has no alternatives. However, Jesus submitted humbly to be sacrificed even though he had the power to do otherwise. What can we say, but WOW?!
Passages discussed in John Chapter 1: John 1:1, John 1:2, John 1:3, John 1:4, John 1:5, John 1:6-9, John 1:10-13, John 1:14, John 1:15, John 1:16-17
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Walking through the Bible is a verse by verse study of the Bible. A small segment of verses will be looked at each time and a brief, but relevant study of the text will be conducted.
Filed under: Walking through the Bible
