...glory...grace...and truth of Christ...
“14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” John 1:14.
Some believe that this is the most important sentence in the Bible.
The Word which created the world and sustains every day of the world’s existence has become a person and with our own eyes we saw Him!
This is not a kind of spiritual vision of God but an actual physical vision or regular sighting of Jesus, the Word become flesh. This means that if we want to see God we need only look at Jesus from Nazareth born from the womb of Mary. Dear friends, this is a most remarkable admission and observation of John. God came as a physical human being and lived with John and many other people. They saw Him, ate with Him, spoke with Him, listened to Hm teach, watched Him heal, and travelled with Him.
John and others did everything with Jesus they did with others.
Now to the Greeks this statement reflected a truth that was impossible for them to conceive of. The Greeks could never have conceived of God taking a human form because of their understanding of the human body. The body is corrupt and evil, a kind of prison for the human soul. The body was viewed by the Greeks as a tomb for the human spirit. So when John wrote these words in the verse above this represented a totally new concept that blew up their view of the body and soul. God becoming a human being and becoming a part of our human life was a completely brand new idea! The Creator God becoming a human being and living with people who saw Him and lived with him — that was totally new and unexpected!
So when John says that the Word became flesh he is saying that the full manhood of Jesus, the controlling logos — or reason — of God is in full sight of all as One who took on complete manhood! In Jesus we see God living human life as if He was born a human being from the beginning.
John also says of Jesus, the Word made flesh, that Jesus came full of glory, full of grace, and full of truth. Three hugely important things John says about Jesus: He is full of Glory, Grace, and Truth. These are three (3) main themes John will repeat often about Jesus — that the Word made flesh is full of glory, grace, and truth.
By grace we understand that something is completely underserved, something we could never have earned or achieved by our own efforts and wits. The Word made flesh, Jesus’ coming to earth to die for our sins and to save us from an eternity without God, is a grace completely undeserved.
It is birthed completely from God’s love, a fact that displays humanity’s complete poverty and God’s total kindness and love. Grace is a most beautiful thing because it displays the power and majesty and judgement of God. You and I who rebelled in the most unforgivable ways are overtaken by the sheer beauty and love and mercy of God.
By truth John simply wishes to point out what Jesus said: “I am the truth” John 14:6. John saw the truth when he saw Jesus. The same is true for you and me: if we wish to see and know the truth, we must look to Jesus.
John wishes to say that Jesus did not come to talk about the truth of God, no He came to show us what truth is, what God is. John also wished to say of Jesus that He was the supreme communicator of truth. Jesus told His disciples: “If you continue in My Word, you are truly My disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” John 8:31-32. He told Pilate: “37 Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’ 38 Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth” John 18:37-38.
The great irony in what Pilate asks Jesus is that the truth is standing six (6) inches away from his face. Sadly Pilate does not realize that Jesus is the One who makes things clear, shows us the right way to live our lives, enables us to make good and right choices, and tells us what to believe.
When Jesus ascended to heaven He left us the truth in His Holy Spirit who is the spirit of Truth. Jesus said: “17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you” John 14:17.
Jesus also said of the Spirit of Truth: “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who comes from the Father, He will testify on my behalf” John 15:26. “13 When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but will speak whatever He hears, and He will declare to you the things that are to come” John 16:13. And perhaps the most classic statement about the Spirit of truth is that “the Truth will set you free” John 8:32.
The Truth who is Jesus frees us from our chosen separation from God, and frees us from sin and temptation, and fear and weakness and defeat.
But John who is always honest assures us that we are capable of resenting the truth. Jesus said “Now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God” John 8:40.
The other theme that John is so interested in is the glory of Jesus Christ.
The life of Jesus was a manifestation of His glory. When Jesus changed water into wine “11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed His glory; and His disciples believed in Him” John 2:11. Notice that it is in the revelation of Jesus’ glory we come to believe in Him. But the glory manifested in Jesus is the glory of God. The glory of Jesus does not come from any of us: “41 I do not accept glory from human beings” Jesus said in John 5:41. And repeatedly Jesus says that seeks not His own glory but the glory of His Father who sent Him: “18 Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him” John 7:18. In fact it is Jesus’ Father in heaven who glorifies Him. “50 Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the judge”…“For if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me” John 8:50, 54. And yet at the end Jesus prays that god will glorify Him with the glory that He had before the foundation of the world: “5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed” John 17:5.
And in stunning words Jesus says His glory He has given to the disciples:
22 Father, the glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one” John 17:22.
The glory of Jesus is the presence of God. When Jesus came to earth we all see in Him the amazing beauty and unimaginable kindness and love of God. When we see Jesus we see Love, the Love of God! This means, then, that glory of God, is the same thing as the love of God. The glory of God is never a self-inflating elevation of His power, rather a self-emptying love of unspeakable profoundness. The Apostle Paul spoke of the love and glory of God in this way when he wrote: “6 Though Jesus was in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but He emptied himself…” Philippians 2:6-7. Here we see the glory of God expressed in a self-emptying, humble love. The glory of God is the love of God!
So dear friends, I invite you to think deeply about this phrase: The Word made flesh is full of glory, grace, and truth. Take some time to consider the glory, grace, and truth that is Jesus Christ! It is more than accurate and fair to say that the grace of God, the glory of God, and the truth of God IS the love of God. God is not someone who possesses gifts as you and I possess gifts. Love is not an aspect of God. God IS love. The glory and grace and truth of God IS God — God made flesh in Jesus Christ, eternally present in His Holy Spirit!
Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
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