The Word Became Flesh
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and life was the light of men. The light that shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. . . .
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’” For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
— John 1:1–5, 14–18
A few years back, my sons became very interested in soccer, both as players and as fans of the professional sport. Not having played or watched soccer as a child, I did my best to learn on the fly with them. One of the first things new initiates learn about is Lionel Messi, the great soccer player from Argentina, who has also played for professional clubs in Europe. Many consider him one of the greatest, if not the greatest, player of all time.
When Messi moved from his club in Europe to an MLS team in the United States called Inter Miami, my sons were excited because that meant he would play against our professional St. Louis team at some point. In the midst of that excitement, a series of pictures circulated on the internet of Messi in shorts and flip-flops shopping at a Publix grocery store in Florida. My sons’ response to the photos was, “Yeah! Let’s go see him!” We do have family in Florida and they have been to a Florida Publix before, so they could imagine it. But killjoy that I am, I explained to them that even if we made the twenty-plus hour drive to Miami, it was highly unlikely that Messi would be just hanging out in the grocery story waiting for us to show up and meet him. Their enthusiasm was undaunted, however, and it would have been worth it to them to make the trip just for the slim possibility of meeting Messi in the flesh.
In our passage from John, we read about someone much greater than the greatest soccer player of all time—One who did indeed appear and did so in the flesh. And he appeared not in a “one in a million chance that we might get to see him” way, but for the express purpose of being known by us deeply and intimately, and that we might be known by him as well.
The Beginning of the Story
I’ve always been fascinated by the way that each of the four Evangelists begins his Gospel in a completely different way. Mark throws us right into the action with John the Baptist at the outset of Jesus’s public ministry. Luke first gives us a description of his research methodology, which I as an academic appreciate. Matthew starts by grounding the story in the genealogy of Jesus. But John goes a step further. He starts with “In the beginning . . .” This has unmistakable echoes of the first words of the creation account in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” That passage speaks of God as the Creator and how he alone made all things from nothing. In our passage, John reaches for those familiar words to assert that Jesus the Word, the second Person of the Trinity, was there in the beginning and at creation, and even before that in eternity past, long before he was a baby born in Bethlehem. And in a dramatic flourish, John says that the Word was both with God and was God, giving us a glimpse of the Trinitarian mystery. This is an explosive way for John to start.
Later, in verses 14–18, he tells us about the most important thing that’s happened in our human history: “The Word became flesh.” That is to say, the eternal Son of God, who was there in the beginning, who was God and is God, in the person of Jesus, became flesh, took on humanity. Just as he did at the start of this chapter, in this little paragraph John uses familiar Old Testament language and imagery, and does so evocatively, not spelling it out, but trusting that the reader will catch the subtle connections he makes, especially to the book of Exodus. He does this to ground his remarkable point and its implications: that in Jesus the Word became flesh.
I want to highlight here three important facets of that idea as they are found in our passage.
The Presence of God in the Incarnation
John’s fourteenth verse says: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”—that is, among us human beings. We were made to live in communion with God. That’s where we find our deepest satisfaction and purpose. With the fall of our first parents, this was lost. The story of Scripture is about how God does not give up on humanity but acts redemptively on our behalf and is himself part of that redemptive story. We see God again and again moving toward his people so that he might once again be present with them in spite of their sin and unholiness.
One of the significant moments in this story comes in the book of Exodus. After redeeming his people from slavery, the Lord brings them to Mount Sinai and meets with them there. As part of those interactions, he gives them extended instructions on how to build a tabernacle—the royal tent—which was to function as the place of God’s presence in the midst of his people. Imagine being part of that Israelite community and having God’s presence in your midst. As they traveled through the desert, they would stop at each camp and set up their own tents, their own tabernacles. Then they would set up the Lord’s kingly royal tabernacle right in their midst. Of course, God is not confined to a single building, and they knew that. Yet this tabernacle was his royal abode on earth that represented the place of his presence with them.
The Greek word John uses that we translate here as “dwelt” is skēnoō. It means something like “set up a tent or an encampment.” It is related to the word “tabernacle” in the way that word is translated in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Thus, we could actually translate this phrase from John as “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Why is that important? Because someone reading this who was familiar with the Old Testament could hardly miss that point. It calls the reader back to Exodus and tells us that in the same way that God dwelt in the midst of his people in the wilderness, now in a new and greater way, God is present with his people in the person of Jesus. Later, in the book of Revelation, we read of John’s vision of a new heavens and a new earth, which uses similar language.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold the dwelling place [tabernacle] of God is with man. He will dwell [tabernacle] with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” (Rev. 21:1–3)
We live now in a sort of in-between time. We look back on Jesus’s earthly life and ministry through the Scriptures, and we look forward to his bodily return. Yet in the present, he’s not with us in the same way. But we have a great gift, so great a gift that Jesus would say to his disciples later in John’s Gospel that “it is better for you that I go away. I say this because when I go away, I will send the Helper to you. But if I did not go, the Helper would not come” (John 16:7). We don’t have Christ with us bodily in this moment, but we have his very Spirit dwelling in us.
This is the first major point of our passage: We see the presence of God in the Incarnation.
The Glory of God in the Incarnation
But from “The word became flesh and dwelt among us,” the passage goes on: “and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:14b). Then later, in verse 18, John speaks again about seeing: “No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” Having already picked up on the tabernacle language and being in Exodus mode, so to speak, we are now reminded of another story, this time from Exodus 33 and 34. Israel has been waiting for Moses to return from atop Sinai, where he was meeting with God, and he has been delayed. So the people decide to build a golden calf, which is a huge sin of idolatry. In response, the Lord first declares his intent to punish them, but ultimately relents and forgives them, and promises to go forward with them. After this, Moses goes to the Lord and makes the following request, seemingly as an assurance that God will indeed be with them as he promised:
Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he [God] said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place where you can stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” (Exod. 33:18)
I’ll make two observations about this passage as it relates to John 1: First, note that the Lord twice tells Moses that his face cannot be seen. John says, “No one has ever seen God.” Second, Moses’s request is to see God’s glory. John says of Jesus in 1:14, “We have seen his glory.” What is the point? In Exodus, Moses was not able to look on the fullness of the glory of God. But with Jesus we have seen the very glory of God by way of the incarnate Son of God. Glory is a significant theme in John’s telling of the life and ministry of Jesus. He says much about how Jesus displays this glory.
One way he does so very prominently is by organizing the first portion of his Gospel around seven miraculous signs that Jesus does. These signs are amazing in and of themselves, but the fact that they are signs means that they point to something else, something about who Jesus is. After the first one, when Jesus changes water into wine, John adds the explanation: “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory” (John 2:11). Then in the last one, when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, glory is mentioned several times (see John 11), so much so that we get the idea that these signs are meant to show through Jesus the glory of God.
Briefly, the seven signs are:
The changing of water into wine (John 2:1–12). Jesus shows his power over the created realm. But with the idea of wine viewed as a sign of blessing or celebration, we see Jesus as one who came to bring the abundance of joy to his people.
The healing of the official’s ill son (John 4:46–54). Jesus heals the gravely ill son of a local official, but he does so from a distance, without actually going to him. This shows that he is not limited by locality, that he has authority and power in every place.
The healing of the paralytic at Bethesda on the Sabbath (John 5:1–17). Jesus visits the pool of Bethesda and heals a paralyzed man on the Sabbath, which causes some consternation among the watchers. His doing so demonstrates a healing that foreshadows a greater healing that will come when the full Sabbath rest is in place.
The feeding of the five thousand (John 6:1–15, 22–59). To feed the hungry multitude, Jesus takes five small loaves of bread and two fish, has the disciples pass them out to the crowd, and then has them gather up multiple baskets of leftovers after everyone has eaten. He speaks of himself as the bread of life, pointing to the fact that he is the one who will nourish his people spiritually and satisfy the deepest longings of their souls.
Jesus walking upon the water (John 6:16–21). Jesus literally walks across the surface of the Sea of Galilee to reach his disciples who are far out upon the lake in a boat. In biblical imagery, the sea is often a place of chaos and danger, but here we see Jesus walking on it. When we read the Psalms, we see that only One has power over the sea, the Lord God himself, who is the Creator King. So, this incident implies that Jesus is God himself because he too has this power.
The healing of the man born blind (John 9:1–7). As he prepares to heal a man who was born blind, Jesus he says, “I am the light of the world.” In a world of spiritual darkness. he declares that the light comes from him because he is the light.
The raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:17–44). In the final sign, Jesus raises his friend Lazarus from the dead, showing his own power over death, and declares, “I am the resurrection and the life.”
In addition to these, in John’s Gospel the fullest expression of God’s glory comes by way of the cross. In John 12:23–24, as Jesus draws nearer to his death, we read: “Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.’” Through his death, Jesus will bear much fruit, the fruit of salvation for all of his people, including you and me. This too is glory, and this is the second major point of our passage: We see the Glory of God in the Incarnation.
The Love of God in the Incarnation
Coming back once more to John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” That phrase “grace and truth” comes up again in verse 17: “For the law
In John’s Gospel, the fullest expression of God’s glory comes by way of the cross.was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” We are in Exodus mode again. First, we had a description of Jesus tabernacling with his people. Then, we saw the glory of God through Jesus, reminding us of Moses’ request in Exodus 33. And now we are to recall the story in Exodus 34, when the Lord gives Moses what he requested, at least in some measure. He passes before Moses, then describes his own character for him: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exod. 34:6).
When the Lord says this, he is communicating his loyal, committed, faithful, trustworthy, devoted, covenant love for his people. In John’s Gospel, the phrase “full of grace and truth” is likely intended to recall the phrase “abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” That description, which in the Old Testament is so associated with the Lord God, is here associated with Jesus.
John 1:17 is not, as some might think, meant to say that Moses and the law are bad and Jesus is good. No, the law was a gift of God to his people, and now we have One in our midst who is himself abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. This is grace upon grace, as John will later say. This one is the incarnate Son of God, Jesus, the embodiment of God’s covenant love for his people. Thus, the third point of our passage: We see the love of God in the Incarnation.
How Should We Respond to the Incarnation?
We have seen that in Jesus, the Word became flesh and tabernacled, or became present, with us. We’ve seen in him the glory of God. And we've seen in Christ, who is full of grace and truth, the love of God manifested. In light of this unparalleled, remarkable news, how then should we respond?
When I asked my sons how they would respond if their soccer hero Messi were to suddenly show up at their soccer practice and play a game with them, they not surprisingly gave me answers like: “It would be the best day ever!” “I’d want to get my picture taken with him and have him sign my jersey!” “I’d want to watch how he shoots the ball and do it just like him!” “If he played with us, we’d definitely win by a lot!”
Those responses could be grouped into four main categories, which I’ll call joy, adoration, imitation, and confidence.
If my sons can respond in the ways I’ve just described to the coming of a merely earthly hero they revere, how should we as believers respond to the coming of Jesus, the Son of God, in the flesh? Hopefully, the connection I’m making here is obvious, but I want to make it anyway.
First, we respond with great joy. John says, “From his fullness we have received grace upon grace.” Our Savior has come to bring redemption from sin and make us holy. What good news that is and how joyous it should make us!
Second, we respond with adoration, with worship. That’s what we’re doing when we go to church on Sunday. We’re there to glorify the triune God, just as the apostle Thomas did later in John’s Gospel when he declared to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). And then Jesus said to Thomas in verse 29 words that are actually true of us who were not there in the Upper Room: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Third, we respond with imitation. Among the reasons Jesus came was so that we might learn from his ways and follow after him. Of course, we are not called to be the God-Man as he was then and is now, but we are called to follow after him, to love the way he loves, to view the world around us the way that he views it, and to respond to people and events the way he would. We are to value the things he values, even, at times, to get angry at the things that make him angry. We see these calls to imitation in several different ways throughout John’s Gospel. Jesus washes his disciples’ feet and then tells them to go wash the feet of others. He says, “Love one another even as I have loved you.” He tells them that they will endure persecution as he has because the world hated him and it will hate them too. So they, and we, are to follow and be like him.
Finally, we respond to Jesus’s coming with confidence. After the resurrection narrative, John describes the purpose for which he has written his Gospel: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30–31). And that life that John speaks of is eternal life, of course, but it includes abundant life even now. If you believe in Jesus, if you trust in him, you can have all the confidence in the world that that life is yours now.
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Let us rejoice in him, worship him, follow him, and live with confidence in him—now and forever. Amen!
