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Witness of the Word, principally being John the Baptist in verses 6 through 8, and then last,
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Lord's Day, we considered the manifestation of the Word. And then today, this last portion of the prologue, verses 14 through 18, is the uniqueness of the
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Word. And so these four divisions of the prologue correspond to what may be discerned as four paragraphs, although the identification and division of paragraphs varies depending on what
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English translation you have in front of you. I would like us to read the prologue in its entirety once again for context.
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In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
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All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
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And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God whose name was
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John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe.
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He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which light gives light to every man coming into the world.
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He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.
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But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.
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And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the
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Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of him, and cried out, saying,
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This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me.
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And of his fullness we have all received grace, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
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No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the
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Father, he has declared him. Well, let's first consider verse 14.
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In fact, this is all we're going to consider today. Verse 14, in which the Word of God became incarnate.
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Again, we read verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
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The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Each phrase and clause of this sentence is rich in meaning, and we'll attempt to open this up for us as we take apart this sentence by examining its parts.
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And so first, let's consider the clause, the first clause, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
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The first clause of this sentence is perhaps one of the most profound statements of Scripture when you consider its weight, its importance.
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The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, the infinite, eternal God, who is spirit, assumed a human body and soul, so that we might know the one true
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God and relate to him through his Son. As one wrote, he, that is John, is clear on the deity of the
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Word, but he is just as clear on the genuineness of his humanity. Critically important.
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These words, and the Word became flesh, distinguish biblical Christianity as the only true religion through which the true
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God may be known by mankind. It is a declaration of the incarnation, in which eternal
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God became one of us, so that God could be with us, dwell among us, and only through the incarnation can people come to know
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God and relate to him as their God. This is a distinguishing
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Christian teaching, and there is no other religion in the world that advocates the incarnation as we proclaim it, and as it's revealed in this verse,
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John 1, 14. No other religion promotes a similar belief in the incarnation of God, God being born into this world as a human being, and you can go through the list, and many of these religions have very direct statements that they do not believe in the incarnation, distancing themselves from Christian teaching.
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Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism all reject the belief in the incarnation of God.
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Christian cults are generally identified as those heretical groups who falsely call themselves
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Christians, but they reject the biblical and historical Christian doctrine of the incarnation.
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By definition, that's what a Christian cult is, they're wrong on the person of Jesus Christ.
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And therefore Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Oneness Pentecostals, not all Pentecostals, Oneness Pentecostals, relatively small denomination, are cults, they're not
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Christian, for they reject the biblical teaching of the incarnation. The incarnation is a mystery, and we're not saying the incarnation cannot be understood in a measure, because it can.
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It does mean, however, that it cannot be understood fully. How could it? This doctrine being a mystery, moreover, also means that an explanation of it can be difficult, and misunderstanding is easily possible.
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In fact, error respecting the incarnation is one that greatly troubled Christians in the first several centuries, the first half -dozen centuries.
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We have often spoken about the era of the Gnostics, because it began to be seen at the end of the first century, it became a full -blown heresy in the second century, they claimed to be
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Christian. Gnostics denied the humanity of Jesus, they denied the incarnation.
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They taught that Jesus was God, but he was not fully man, he only appeared to look like a man.
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Gnostics, of course, lived decades and decades after many people had saw Jesus minister on earth.
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The Ebionites of the second century erred on the other side in that they denied the deity of the
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Lord Jesus. The Ebionites said he was only a man. Ebionites were basically
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Jews who survived the Roman onslaught in Palestine, and they became rather ingrown, they became cultish.
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The Arians came into prominence in the fourth century. They denied that Jesus' divine nature was equal with or the same as God the
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Father, and so they taught that Jesus was a created being, not eternal God.
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They declared he was the Son of God, but not God the Son, and so the
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Jehovah's Witnesses today have the same error as the ancient Arians. Apollinarians arose in the late fourth century.
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They denied that Jesus had a complete human nature. The Nestorians of the early fifth century confessed that Jesus had two natures, but they also said that he had two personalities, a sort of split personality, that he'd go back and forth between being
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God and being man. And then there were the Eutychians in the fifth century
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A .D. who taught that the two natures of Jesus were so fused with one another that he was no longer really
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God, he wasn't really a man either. And so this matter of the incarnation was a problem in the early centuries.
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All of these heresies and confusion that he generated result in a general council of churches being called and convened at Chalcedon, or Chalcedon depending on how you pronounce it, which is a region just east of the
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Bosporus Straits, just east of what is today Istanbul. And its findings were concluded and published in A .D.
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451. The council of Chalcedon articulated the classic and biblical teaching regarding the person of Jesus Christ.
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And so here's a summary of their declaration, and this is classic
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Orthodox Christian teaching regarding the person of Jesus Christ.
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We then following the Holy Fathers, be the early church fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same
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Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and perfect in manhood, to be acknowledged in two natures, and then these adverbs are very important, inconfusably, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably, the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved and concurring in one person and one subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same
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Son, and only begotten God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. As the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning him, and the
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Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the creed of the Holy Fathers is handed down to us.
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Now that is a rather complex statement of course, but basically it repudiates and refutes all these heresies that we have identified.
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J. C. Ryle, who was a great writer, Anglican, toward the end of the 19th century wrote how this council met and dismissed the four heresies, four of the heresies that we identified above by the four adverbs of this statement.
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They said that the divine and human natures, when the Word was made flesh, were united truly in order to oppose the
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Arians, perfectly to oppose the Apollinarians, undividedly to oppose the
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Nestorians, and unmixedly to oppose the Eutychians.
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So again the council of Chalcedon stated Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, acknowledged in two natures, inconfusably, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably, the property of nature being preserved and concurred in one person.
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Jesus Christ is one person, a divine person, with two natures, a divine nature that took upon himself a human nature in one person.
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Or it's stated this way in our Baptist Confession of Faith, which is very similar to the
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Presbyterian Westminster Confession or the Savoy Declaration, Reformed Declaration.
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The Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the
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Father's glory of one substance and equal with him who made the world, who upholds and governs all things he hath made, did when the fullness of time was come, take upon him man's nature with all the essential properties and the common infirmities thereof, yet without sin.
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Being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her, and the power of the
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Most High overshadowing her, and so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah of the seed of Abraham and David according to the
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Scriptures, so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion, which person is very
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God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man."
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That is a very straightforward, accurate, biblical statement on the
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Incarnation, the person of Jesus Christ. Again, it was J .C.
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Ryle who sought to reinforce certain aspects or implications of the
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Incarnation, lest confusion and error take place, and so he made these points, and again they're a little bit lengthy, but they're very important.
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Again, we showed already how easy it was for many to go off into error about this, and by the way, there's a lot of error creeping into evangelicalism today over the person of Jesus Christ, believe it or not.
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You'd think that, you know, once the church established the truth of the Bible that we would retain that, but that doesn't take place necessarily.
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And so, first, Ryle pointed out in the first place, let us carefully remember that when the
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Word became flesh, He became so by the union of two perfect and distinct natures in one person.
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The manner of this union we cannot explain, but the fact we must firmly believe. Christ, says the
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Athanasian Creed, is God and man, God of the substance of the
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Father, begotten before the world, and man of the substance of His mother, born in the world, perfect God and perfect man, who although He be
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God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ, one not by conversion of the
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Godhead into flesh. It's really not accurate to say God became man.
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God took upon Himself human nature and became the God -man. It's not like God transitioned into man.
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He took upon Himself human nature, the God -man. And so, although He be
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God and man, yet He's not two, but one Christ, one not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking the manhood unto
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God. These words are very important. The Word was not made flesh by changing one nature into another, or by laying aside one nature and taking up another.
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In all our thoughts about Christ, let us take care that we do not divide His person, and that we maintain steadily that He has two distinct and perfect natures.
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The old Latin line on the subject quoted by Gamaris, he was an early reformer, by the way, is worth remembering.
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It represents the Word made flesh as saying, I am what I was, that is
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God. I was not what I am, that is man. I am now called both, that is both
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God and man. Very succinct, very biblical, very accurate.
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Ryle went on to say, secondly, when the Word became flesh, he did not cease for a moment to be God. No doubt he was pleased to veil his divinity and to hide his power, and more especially so in some seasons.
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He emptied himself of external marks of glory and was called the carpenter.
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But he never laid his divinity aside. God cannot cease to be God. It was
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God -man that he lived, suffered, died, and rose again. It is written that God has purchased the church with his own blood.
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It was the blood of one who was not man only, but God. And then see, thirdly, when the
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Word became flesh, he was made a man in the truth of our nature, like unto us in all things.
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And from that hour has never ceased to be man. That's important. His humanity was not a humanity different from our own, and though now glorified, is our humanity still.
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It was a perfect man, no less than perfect God, who resisted temptation, fulfilled the law perfectly, endured the contradiction of sinners, spent nights in prayer, kept his will in subjection to the
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Father's will, suffered, died, and at length ascended up to heaven with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to man's nature.
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It's written that in all things it behooved him to be made like his brethren. Moreover, he did not lay aside his humanity when he left the world.
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He that ascended up on the mountain of olives, and is sitting at the right hand of God to intercede for believers, is one who is still man as well as God.
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Our high priest in heaven is not God only, but man. Christ's humanity as well as divinity are both in heaven.
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One in our nature, our forerunner to prepare a place for us.
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And then lastly, when the Word became flesh, he did not take on him peccable flesh.
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And peccable means capable of sinning. It is written that he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh.
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He wasn't made in sinful flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh. But we must not go beyond this.
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Christ was made sin for us, but he knew no sin, and was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and without taint or corruption.
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Satan found nothing in him. Christ's human nature was liable in weakness, but not to sin.
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The words of the 15th article. Here's J .C. Ryle's Anglicanism coming out. He's quoting the 15th out of the official 39 articles, which is the confession of the
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Church of England. The words of the 15th article must never be forgotten. Christ was void from sin, both in his flesh and in his spirit.
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When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he didn't become a sinner. Rather, the guilt of our sin, the condemnation of our sin, was reckoned to him, counted to him.
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He continued to be holy, harmless, and without sin, even when he died upon the cross.
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But he was our sin -bearer. And the reason we state that is because some go so far to say that Jesus on the cross became the greatest sinner that ever lived.
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That is not what the Bible teaches. He was a sin -bearer. Our sin was imputed to him.
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And in the same way, his righteousness is imputed to us when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And so we affirm that Jesus Christ is one divine person, but with two distinct natures. When we say that he has two natures, both a divine nature and human nature, we're saying that Jesus Christ has two minds.
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In other words, one human and one divine. Two sets of emotions or affections, one human, the other divine.
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Two wills, one human and one divine. That the Lord Jesus had a divine mind, affections, and will is clear, for he is
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God. That Jesus Christ possessed, or rather possesses, a human mind is clear, for we read of Jesus, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.
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God cannot increase in wisdom, but a man can increase in wisdom. That Jesus Christ possessed human affections is clear, for we read, for example, he sighed deeply in his spirit, and that he wept, and that he had a human will is clear when we read of his prayer to his father, not my will, but thine be done.
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He had a divine will and a human will, and here his, of course, human will is being expressed, but it was always in submission, of course, to the will of his father.
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Now let me underscore this, we've already stated it, but it's important that we understand and affirm that Jesus Christ did not return to heaven just as he had left heaven to become
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Jesus of Nazareth. He was not a man, that he was not a man only while he was here on earth, but when he died and rose he returned to heaven exactly as he was before the
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Incarnation. That's not true. He wasn't just a man for 33 years and then ceased to be man and went back to God full time.
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The same man that went into the tomb came out of the tomb on the day of his resurrection. This man was raised, this man ascended into heaven, and the father enthroned this man on his throne.
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The man Christ Jesus, as well as being the Incarnate God, the man Christ Jesus is enthroned in heaven over all mankind and over all of history.
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The Incarnation was not merely a historic event, it is a present reality. Jesus Christ continues to be fully
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God, fully man in one person, and he's enthroned as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
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And so with the Incarnation, the second person of the glorious Holy Trinity became a man and will continue in eternity, unto eternity as a man.
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He's one with us and one of us. At the Incarnation, the eternal
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Son of God became Jesus Christ, the God Man, and he will remain the God Man unto eternity.
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The Incarnation is an amazing, amazing teaching of Scripture. Now one might respond, all this discussion or argument over the fine details of Christ person and nature seem to be minor and unimportant.
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As long as someone believes in Jesus, what does it matter? I'll tell you what does it matter. Salvation of your soul is what is at stake.
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If you're not right on the person of Jesus in whom you have faith, you cannot have salvation. The Apostle Paul expressed his concern for the church at Corinth.
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Oh that you would bear with me in a little folly, and indeed you do bear with me, for I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy.
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For I betrothed you to one husband, that would be Christ, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest somehow as the serpent deceived
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Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is
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Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you've not received, or a different gospel which you've not accepted, you may well put up with it.
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You'll accept that, I'm concerned about you. There are many that are proclaiming in churches today another
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Jesus, one not like the one that we have set forward here this morning thus far in the incarnation.
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That is another Jesus who does not exist, and faith in that other Jesus who does not exist will not bring salvation.
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That person will be damned on the day of judgment. Now many times someone will come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, and that person knows the minimal understanding of these matters.
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Yes, Jesus Christ is divine and human, but the finer details of the incarnation are not yet understood.
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Maybe some of the things that we spoke about this morning. This should not unsettle or trouble the believer.
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But as the truth of the incarnation of the Word of God is presented and explained, the true believer embraces the truth, and the result is that the content of his faith is enhanced and enriched.
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And so although you might not be able to sit down and you know rehearse and recite everything that we've said today thus far, don't let that trouble you.
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If you believe Jesus Christ is both God and man, and your faith is in him as your Lord and Savior, you're okay with regard to that matter, with regard to that essential doctrine.
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The Lord Jesus himself said that to believe in his deity is essential to salvation. John 8 24 reads, therefore
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I said to you, you will die in your sins, for if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.
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And when Jesus made that statement, he was claiming that he was God, that he was the I am who revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush.
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If you don't believe that I'm God incarnate, Jesus said, you're going to die in your sins.
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You cannot be wrong on this doctrine, it is an essential. But not only is it essential to believe in Jesus's deity in order to be saved, it's equally necessary to believe in his humanity.
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John the Apostle described this heresy toward the end of the first century as the error of the
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Antichrist, the spirit of the Antichrist. They didn't deny the deity of Jesus, they denied the humanity of Jesus.
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John wrote, 1 John 4 1 -3, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world, and by this you know the spirit of God.
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Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that is God has become incarnate in the flesh, is of God.
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And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is not of God.
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See, these people denied the humanity of Jesus. This is the spirit of Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and now is already in the world.
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John stated in his second epistle, for many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess
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Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. And so, not only believing in the deity of Jesus Christ, but believing in the humanity of Jesus Christ is an essential
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Christian doctrine. Now let's turn back to John 1 14 and let's focus on another word within this first clause.
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And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. This is a rather unusual word that John used, which must be carefully defined by the context in which it is found.
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Actually there are at least 13 different nuances of the English word flesh, found in the
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New Testament. The term flesh, and the Greek word, I see the Greek didn't come out in our text here, got that weird question mark.
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The term flesh, or sarx, is the Greek word, has various meanings in the New Testament. In our passage it has reference to human nature, considered not as sinful.
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When John wrote, and the word became flesh, he wasn't saying the word became sinful flesh, but it became flesh, and he just simply was talking about becoming human.
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And so yet for a while with the curse due to sin resting upon it, so that until the ransom had been paid, it is subject to weariness, pain, misery, and death.
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Flesh. It was that kind of flesh which the word assumed in his incomprehensible condescending love.
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And so here by the term flesh, John was speaking of Christ simply as coming in a human body, and that he also assumed a human soul.
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Jesus Christ has a human body, and a human soul. This is what
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John was expressing by his use of the word flesh in this context. In other contexts the term flesh may speak of the principle of sin that resides in every fallen human being.
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Paul frequently used flesh to describe sinful principle within us.
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Obviously John does not use the term flesh in this sense. John Calvin stated this forthrightly, the word flesh is not taken here for corrupt nature, as it is often used by Paul, but for mortal man.
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Though it marks disdainfully his frail and perishing nature, as in these and similar passages, for he remembered that they were flesh.
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It is weak humans, as it were, frail humans. All flesh is grass.
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We must at the same time observe, however, that this is a figure of speech in which a part is taken for the whole, for the lower part includes the whole man.
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And that's what John was expressing. God became a man, or better,
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God assumed a human nature, thereby becoming the God -man. Now John could have simply wrote, and the word became a man.
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Why didn't he? If he had done so, it would have probably had the same meaning for us, and the word was made flesh.
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But the Holy Spirit moved John to use the word flesh. There was an important reason for doing so, for when
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John wrote this gospel, there was a form of Gnostic heresy mixed up in the churches, a form of Gnosticism that's referred to as Docetism.
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As one wrote, also there was the seemingly attractive heresy of Docetism, which held that the flesh or body of Jesus could not have been real.
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Many people believe that matter, that is flesh and bone, was inherently evil, and so if attracted by the claims of Jesus Christ, they could not understand how this body was real.
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Thus he only seemed to possess a body, is what these Docetics taught, and they claimed to be
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Christian. And so it was that the Apostles insisted on a genuine incarnation and a real resurrection.
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And so these Gnostics, these Docetics, believe that which was spirit was essentially good, that which was physical, say as a human body, was essentially evil, and therefore the two could never be in one person.
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And so they denied the incarnation. And so when John wrote, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us,
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John was refuting this Gnostic heresy that was adversely affecting the churches.
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And John did so clearly and directly, the word became flesh, it must have been like a slap in their face, but he was correcting heresy, and he was solidifying his people in the truth that Jesus Christ truly is
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God and truly man. Notice the third portion of this verse, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
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Each one of these words and expressions are full of meaning. The eternal
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Son of God became flesh and dwelt among us. What great condescension of God that He would be one of us and dwell among us.
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I love Matthew, Henry. He dwelt among us, here in this lower world, having taken upon Him the nature of man,
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He put Himself into the place and condition of other men. The word might have been made flesh and dwelt among the angels, but having taken a body of the same with ours, in it
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He came and resided in the same world with us. He dwelt among us as worms of the earth, us that He had no need of, us that He got nothing by, us that were corrupt and depraved and revolted from God.
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The Lord God came and dwelt even among the rebellious, Psalm 68. He that had dwelt among angels, those noble and excellent beings, came and dwelt among us that are a generation of vipers as sinners.
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Which was worse to Him than David's dwelling in Meshach or Keter, or Ezekiel's dwelling among scorpions, or the church of Pergamos dwelling where Satan's seat is.
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And when we look upon the upper world, the world of spirits or angels, how mean and contemptible does this flesh, this body appear, which we carry about with us, and this world in which our lot is cast, and how hard it is, is it to a contemplative mind to be reconciled to them.
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But that the eternal Word was made flesh, was clothed with the body as we are, and dwelt in this world as we do, this has put an honor upon them both, and should make us willing to abide in the flesh while God has any work for us to do.
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For Christ dwelt in this lower world, bad as it is, till he had finished what he had to do here.
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Amen. That's condescension. Eternal, infinite
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God becoming finite, physical man. The manner in which
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God expressed the earthly habitation of our Lord Jesus is quite telling. And so more literally, the
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Greek verb schino means that the word basically pitched his tabernacle or dwelt among us, as in a tent.
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That's what the Greek word means. The verb itself precisely means to pitch one's tent.
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The word became flesh and dwelt among us, just as you would pitch a tent and dwell within a tent.
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Leon Morris, a commentator of the 20th century wrote of this, as A .M.
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Ramsey says, we are reminded both of the tabernacle in the wilderness and of the prophetic imagery of Yahweh or Jehovah tabernacling in the midst of his people, and of the
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Shekinah which he caused to dwell among them. The place of his dwelling is in the flesh of Jesus.
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He goes on to bring out the force of the present passage by saying, all the ways of tabernacling of God and Israel had been transitory or incomplete.
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All are fulfilled and superseded by the word made flesh and dwelling among us. And that is a great point.
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Leon Morris is saying of Ramsey, what had been hinted at and even realized in a dim imperfect fashion earlier was perfectly fulfilled in the word made flesh.
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And that's what John was conveying. He's drawing a comparison and contrast between God dwelling among his people in the
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Old Testament and God dwelling among his people in the New Testament in the person of Jesus Christ, in the incarnation.
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That the eternal word was dwelling among us in his flesh suggests that his body, that physical aspect of his human nature, is a temple in which
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God dwells. And of course, we're not going to read the passage, but in John 2 the
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Lord Jesus himself refers to his body as a temple. Destroy this temple in three days,
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I'll raise it up. And this word, this idea in John 1, 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us is indicative of the fact that his human nature was as a dwelling place for God himself among his people.
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We see fourthly in the next clause of John 1, 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory.
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The glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. When John wrote we beheld his glory, he more clearly links the idea the word dwelling among us in Jesus Christ was like the glory of God dwelling among the children of Israel when they journeyed 40 years through the wilderness.
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We saw his glory. Israel saw his glory, the Shekinah glory. And John says we saw his glory, the glory of God in Jesus Christ.
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And so what John may have been suggesting was that in and do the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God will fulfill his promise of bringing salvation to his people in terms of a second
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Exodus. That's really the underlying idea that John is conveying here, because in the
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Old Testament in the prophets, we don't have time to go through it in any detail,
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God promised a future salvation when the Messiah would come would be like another Exodus.
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Just as God came and brought Israel out of Egypt and led them through the wilderness, so salvation would be like a second
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Exodus and here God is coming in Jesus Christ and they saw his glory and he's leading them out, leading them out of this world, leading them into salvation.
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It's the promise salvation as a second Exodus carried over from the prophets. And by the way if we had time we could go back into Isaiah chapter 14 where you have a prophecy of John the
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Baptist preparing the way of the coming of the Lord and then Isaiah speaks about the coming of the
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Lord, seeing the glory of the Lord and then you look in John 1 you have the witness of the word being
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John the Baptist and now we have the glory of the Lord following the witness of John the
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Baptist. There really is a parallel between Isaiah 40 and other portions of the prophets and what we have here in John chapter 1.
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Drop down to the bottom of page 8 there's a block quote by George Beasley Murray, again he was a
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Southern Baptist scholar in the 20th century, into that condition of human weakness the
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Logos, it's a Greek word for word, pitched his tent and revealed his glory.
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The language is evocative of the revelation of God's glory in the Exodus by the Red Sea on Mount Sinai and at the tent of meeting by Israel's camp.
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The Exodus associations are intentional and part of the theme of the revelation and redemption of the
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Logos Christ as fulfilling the hope of a second Exodus. I didn't have a clue about that till I read
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Beasley Murray talking about it and I saw some other commentators writing about it. The Gospel of John is incredibly rich and there's a great deal of subtlety here that it's easy to miss and pass over if it's not pointed out by some are pretty sharp in this stuff.
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Donald Carson was perhaps a little more to the point, whether the illusion in John 1 14 is to the tabernacle or to the tent of meeting, the result is the same.
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Now the evangelist, that would be John, now the evangelist implies God has chosen to dwell amongst his people in a yet more personal way in the word become flesh.
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John wrote we beheld his glory. Who is the we? See that?
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The word became flesh, dwelt among us, we beheld his glory. I read one commentator who identified five different possible explanations or identifications of the pronoun we and I think the answer that when
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John said we he was including himself and all the disciples who saw Jesus during his earthly ministry.
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We saw his glory and it may be that John was talking about the various signs, seven signs that are found in John's Gospel that revealed the glory of God but ultimately and most fully the glory of God in John's Gospel is seen in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as well as his resurrection.
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The fifth point right in the middle of page nine and we just have to touch on this this is this now we're getting complicated here and now we're getting complex and we don't have time to address it clearly but he he declares the word became flesh dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the
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Father and the fact is there's a great deal of discussion or debate among commentators what is meant by begotten of the
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Father. Was John declaring that the eternal sonship of the second person of the
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Godhead the Son eternally begotten of the Father or was rather John just speaking about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the begotten of the
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Father full of grace and truth and there's debate among scholars as to what is meant.
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Some would argue that more children of God were mentioned in verse 12 and now the
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Son is mentioned as the unique son and what they do is they draw back from Genesis 22 verse 2 where God told
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Abraham to take your son your only son Isaac and go up and sacrifice him.
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Well somebody who knows their Bibles and read God's command to Abraham take your son your only son
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Isaac go sacrifice him now wait a minute Isaac wasn't Abraham's only son
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Ishmael was born he was 12 years older and so what God was telling Abraham is you take
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Isaac your only true son or a special son the one you love your unique son and go sacrifice him and so they take this idea and import it into John 1 and say this expression of Jesus Christ being the only begotten of the
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Father what's really being indicated is that Jesus Christ is the unique son of God over against the other children of God and there's a problem with that I believe and it breaks down I think the answer is is that indeed
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John was talking about Jesus Christ as a unique son but not just unique in comparison to others as one a little bit better than the others but unique in the sense that he was far different than the other children we're children by adoption he's a he is the son of God by nature and if you look on page 10
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I think we'll just look at one block quote there in which a commentator he brought out a commentary on John just in 2016 it's quite good guy named
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Klink and he wrote this about this matter of whether this begotten son should be understood as unique or everlasting begotten of the
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Father the title in other words unique son needs to be viewed in relation to this section of the prologue verses 9 through 14 in which
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John has already introduced the concept of children of God and the nature the derivation verse 14 is not emphasizing that the unique son is similar to these children and sharp contrast is claiming for him an ultimate uniqueness thus while the concept of the word sonship is certainly implied by the use of unique son and that's the
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Greek for for that mana would be single or only begotten genos would be birth only begotten what is made emphatic is that it is unparalleled incomparable and holy other both the children and the son relate to the father and are derived in some sense from him but in manners and classes that are entirely dissimilar and he's absolutely right and then
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I came across this quote from her of Herman Beck Bavinck which I thought wonderfully set forth the glory of the
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Son of God but the name son of God when ascribed to Christ has a far deeper meaning than the theocratic he was not a mere king of Israel who in time became an adopted son of God neither was he called son of God because of his supernatural birth as the
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Socinians and Hoffman held neither is he the Son of God merely in an ethical sense he's refuting the liberals this is what
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Bavinck was so good at as others suppose neither did he receive the title son of God as a new name in connection with his toning of work and resurrection and interpretation in support of which
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John 10 Acts 13 Romans 1 are cited but he is the Son of God in a metaphysical sense by nature and from eternity he is exalted high above angels and prophets sustains a very special relation to God he's the beloved son in whom the father is well pleased the only begotten son
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God's own son the eternal son to whom the father gave to have life in himself equal to the father and knowledge and honor and creative and redemptive power in work and in Dominion and because of this sonship he was condemned to death and so I think that draws the contrast quite well let's close just by looking the last at the last statement of verse 14 the word became flesh dwelt among us we beheld his glory the glory is of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth
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I hate to pass over this but we need to it's pointed out that this little expression full of grace and truth is really a a setting forth of a passage from the
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Old Testament Ezekiel 34 verse 6 when
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God revealed himself to Moses we read the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the
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Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long -suffering and abounding in goodness and truth
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God revealed his glory to Moses and what is recognized that this full of full of grace and truth ascribed to Jesus Christ is a really a repeating of that same idea you think the glory of God was shown to Moses in that account the glory of God is more richly seen in Jesus Christ this is what's being conveyed full of grace and truth grace carries the idea of God's unmerited favor being shown to his people and that he bestows upon his people and then truth speaks about the reality in contrast to the shadows that that went before shadows and types that went before the incarnation he's full of grace and truth
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FF Bruce put it down bottom of page 11 something they that is grace and truth describe our
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Lord Jesus's character during the time he was upon the earth in general terms full of grace were his lips full of grace was his life is full of the grace of God the spirit dwelling in him without measure some think that the words describe especially the spiritual riches that Christ brought into the world when he became incarnate set up his kingdom he came full of the gospel of grace in contradistinction to the types figures shadows of the law of Moses in short the full grace of God and the full truth about the way of acceptance were never so clearly seen until the word became flesh and dwelt among us on earth opened the treasure house and revealed grace and truth in his own person
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Jesus Christ the incarnate God full of grace and truth conclusion we stated at the outset that the incarnation is a doctrine unique to Christianity all other religions deny the incarnation in very clear and unambiguous terms all
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Christian cults are in error respecting the incarnation the manner in which
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John set forth the incarnation in John chapter 1 to refute the heretics I think would serve as good instruction to us advocating proclaiming and teaching the incarnation is one of the entrance ways into witnessing to unbelievers in the world we tell them that we love and worship and have faith in God who became one of us and revealed himself to us and we advocate to them this is the only way you can know the one true
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God through Jesus Christ and no matter who you talk to no matter what religion they're from even if they're in a
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Christian cult a proclamation of the incarnation is going to confront them with truth that they're going to have to deal with they're gonna have to ponder because it has relevance for everyone everywhere and then lastly what does the incarnation tell us about human beings as well as our own physical bodies finally did the word become flesh then let us see in our mortal bodies a real true dignity think about this and let's not defile our bodies by sin vile and weak as our body may seem it's a body which the eternal
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Son of God was not ashamed to take upon himself and to take up to heaven that simple fact is a pledge that he will raise our bodies at the last day and glorify them together with his own the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and so may we glorify
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God in the incarnation may this be a doctrine a teaching that ever present with us again this is a prologue this is foundational to the entire fourth gospel this is an emphasis that John gives that the
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Holy Spirit gives to us that that ought to always be before us the incarnation is essential is critical is profound and it's also powerful when properly presented to others let's pray thank you father for your word thank you for the wonderful subtleties of it and the truths that are being conveyed by it and we prayed
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Lord that you would help us to see your glory displayed in your word even as it presents