John 1 - The Word Became Flesh

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John 1

Matthew’s gospel tells us of Jesus from the seed of Abraham, through the royal line of King David. Mark tells us of Jesus from Nazareth; the humble carpenter’s son. Luke tells us of Jesus from Adam; the man sin entered through to be saved by the only man who can defeat it. But John…John tells of Jesus from Heaven; Jesus as God. And it is beautiful to me.

In the BEGINNING was the Word…

Here all along. The beginning of the beginning. Before creation or time.

…and the Word was WITH God…

Community. WIthness. God the Father WITH the Word.

…and the Word WAS God...

Not only with God, the Word WAS God.  

…and the Word became FLESH…

This. Oh man. The Word that always was. That was with God. That was God. Squeezed all that holiness into skin. Flesh constraining glory that eyes can’t take in; packing it in to be visible from our limited human vantage point.

…and DWELT among us…

Closer, personal, interacting in mundane daily life. The original word dwelt is translated “pitched a tent” or “tabernacled.” The Word – Jesus – stepped out of heaven and pitched a tent here on earth. It’s a temporary dwelling. He won’t be here long. Only about 33 years. He is coming with an assignment.

…and we have seen His GLORY…

The glory of God no longer dwelling behind the unapproachable temple curtain. Now a living, breathing, walking, human tabernacle with no separation.

…glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of GRACE and TRUTH.

“God is grace and truth. Not one without the other. Not the other apart from the one. In His government there can be no lowering of the simple and severe standard of truth, and there is no departure from the purpose and possession of grace.” (Morgan)

Grace without truth corrupts and leads to licentiousness. Truth without grace condemns and leads to legalism.

Jesus came to show us how both coexist. He shows us in how He lives, and He shows us in how He dies. Truth: sin carries a penalty of death. Grace: Jesus takes that penalty for us. A convergence on the cross.

Jesus comes fully God and fully human, and Jesus comes full of grace and full of truth.

That He would come to earth as one of us blows my mind. God is so big and mysterious and unfathomable to me. In Jesus we have a visible expression of the invisible. He comes in a form and language we can see and understand. We can see how God chooses to spend His time, how He lives in the ordinary and extraordinary, what He says, how He interacts with humanity…all in a way we can grasp. We can see what God looks like and how much He loves us.

The Word became flesh. Jesus needed to be fully human so that He could die, but He also needed to be fully God so that we may live.

​Amazing grace.

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