John 1:14 The Word became Flesh

John 1:14  “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth”. (NASB)

John starts his gospel speaking of the Word.  We’ve discussed this before – see (In the Beginning was the Word from December 2, 2010)  One of the keys to that was the identification of Christ as, “The Word”.  A few short verses later John reveals more about, “The Word” in our verse today.

John writes that, “The Word became flesh”.  This speaks of the incarnation of Christ.  In the previous discussion we saw that Jesus exists eternally, “In the beginning was”.  Now this eternal Word comes to earth as a man, “The Word became flesh”.  Now there was a purpose for this as the passage next says that He, “Dwelt among us”.

While the passage itself reveals more about the impact of this dwelling among us, there is more to it.  Because Jesus dwelt among us He experienced life on earth as a man.  Because He did this Scripture tells us, He was tempted in every way we are yet was without sin.  This perfect life made Him the perfect sacrifice acceptable to God to pay the price for our sin.  Now in heaven His experience continues to pay dividends for us.  “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin”. Hebrews 4:15  Jesus accepts our prayers as one who understands what we go through; the Creator understands His creation because He has walked in our shoes.

This passage though goes on to reveal another impact of His time among us.  ”And we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father”.  This means that we were able to witness God as the life of Jesus was observed.  Jesus, the Word, revealed the “Glory as of the only begotten”.  In addition is revealed the source of that Glory, “From the Father”.  So God’s glory is revealed to us through the Word which is Jesus Christ.  Hebrews puts it this way, “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature…” Hebrews 1:3

So our whole faith hinges on the truth of this passage.  If it were not true that the Word came to dwell among us the gospel wouldn’t exist.  Thankfully it is true and John does us the favor of revealing its significance.  Jesus did walk among us living a perfect sin free life which He gave up as the only acceptable sacrafice for our sins.  Thank you Jesus! AMEN!