The Coming of the Word (John 1:14)

How did reading those words from the first chapter of John affect us? A French Reformation scholar called Francis Junius, who lived from 1545 to 1602, was as a teenager tempted to become an atheist. His concerned father left a copy of the New Testament where he thought his son could find it. The son saw it, picked it up, and started to read from John 1. He later wrote about that experience: ‘I read part of the chapter, and was so greeted that I instantly became struck with the divinity of the argument, and the majesty and authority of the composition, as infinitely surpassing the highest flights of human eloquence. My body shuddered; my mind was in amazement, and I was so agitated the whole day that I scarcely knew who I was; nor did the agitation cease, but continued till it was at last soothed by a humble faith in him who was made flesh and dwelt among us.’ Maybe we did not have the crisis that he had, but we can have the same comfort.

The apostle John records different names or titles of Jesus. We are familiar with them. For example, Jesus is called the Lamb of God, the Good Shepherd, and the Light of the world. These titles help us understand who he is and what he did or does. Lamb of God tells us that he was chosen by God to be the sacrifice for sin, Shepherd tells us that he leads and cares for those who trust in him, and Light of the world tells us that he can show us how to walk safely. Each of these illustrative names also points to the uniqueness of Jesus.

What does the title ‘Word’ suggest about Jesus? Surely it tells us that he wants to speak, which also indicates that he has a message. Moreover, it suggests that he will speak on behalf of someone to those who need to hear the message. So while we may have thought initially that it was an unusual name for Jesus we can see that it describes important aspects of his existence, even before he was born. Jesus was a speaker before he came into the world.

Here we have John looking back to what happened several decades before. He had spent time with Jesus and he wants to explain to his readers who Jesus is. The apostle began his explanation by going back into the depths of eternity. Then he moved along through creation until he came to the incarnation, and he describes that incredible miracle in the brief sentence, ‘The Word became flesh.’

The Word before he appeared

At the start of his Gospel, John says that the Word was with God and was God. That statement says clearly that Jesus was fully divine, and one expression of his deity is mentioned when John says that the Word was involved in the work of creation. Yet this name of Word also indicates that there was communication taking place in heaven between God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

I wonder what they were speaking about. Often if I am going to make a journey, whether on a holiday or for other reasons, I will speak about it to various people who will help make it happen. The Word was going to make a journey far greater than any other journey, which was that he would become a human. And in heaven, the three persons of the Trinity communicated about it, what it would involve and how they would each be involved.

What is required for communication to take place? I would suggest that there needs to be a connection between the speakers, that there should be shared knowledge of the topic being spoken about, that there should be an awareness how each speaker is involved with the topic, and there should be an anticipation of the effects of the conversation (will it bring pleasure or benefits?). Regarding the communication that took place in heaven, there was a connection between the persons of the Trinity; each of the persons had perfect knowledge of what was the topic before them – the plan of salvation; each of the divine persons knew what roles would be performed by the others; and each of them was aware of the blessings that would come because of the work of the Son.

What the Word became

John says that the Word became flesh. The verb ‘became’ tells us that the change was voluntary on his part, and it also reminds us that the change is permanent. Up until then, he had been fully God; now, he was fully God and fully man. This is a great mystery, that we should focus on it in wonder. His deity did not lose anything by this change, although now he has two natures.

But what kind of man did he become? The word ‘flesh’ here points to human nature in its weakness. He was certainly weak when he was conceived and born. He became the kind of man who could die because that is why he became a man. John says that Jesus identified with us in that he chose to experience each stage of human development. But his identification with us would take him to the cross for us.

Yet we are not to imagine that this change replaced what he was before. The Word did not cease to be fully divine. What happened to him was not replacement of one nature with another, but was the addition of one nature to another. When he became flesh, he remained divine.

As we think of this new development in the experience of the Son of God, it is helpful to think of who Jesus is and what Jesus is. Who is Jesus? He is the eternal Son of God and one of the three divine Persons in the Trinity. That is always his identity. What is Jesus? Before the incarnation, he was God; since the incarnation he has two natures, one divine, one human. He is God and man.

Why did he become so?

John says that Jesus dwelt among us. The term translated ‘dwelt’ is literally ‘tabernacled’ or ‘pitched his tent’. Can we read into this word the possibility that John is saying that Jesus would be on the move, even as the Old Testament tabernacle was on the move? It is the case that Jesus did move about during his years of public ministry and when he did so people could see him.

Or is John indicating that the humanity of Jesus was a bit fragile like a tent. This is an unlikely meaning, although some have adopted it. We know that he was hungry and thirsty and tired. Perhaps he was often drained, such was the burden on his heart. He prayed often, and real prayer is tiring because it is wrestling with God. And how often Jesus prayed! So his humanity was weak, whether or not the weakness is intimated by the use of tabernacle imagery.

It can be easily deduced that one reason why John would use the idea of the tabernacle is because it was the place where God dwelt in a special way in the Holy of Holies. That dwelling was temporary, but it pointed to the possibility that God would yet dwell with man. And that is what happened when the Son of God became flesh. God was now present in a specific way wherever Jesus was.

Many reasons have been suggested as to why the Word became a man. He did so in order that God could be revealed fully, he did so that we could see what it was like for a person to live for God faithfully, he did so in order to be able to empathise with his people, he did so in order that he could die on the cross and pay the penalty for sin, and he did so that by his resurrection he would become head of the new humanity and lead his people into the world of glory.

John reminds his readers that Jesus dwelt among people. He interacted with them, spoke to them, lived next door to someone, ate at tables with others, went to the synagogue, travelled to the annual feasts and sang with the celebrating crowds. He was visible, even although his real identity remained invisible to many. Although he lived among sinners, he did not shun their company. He came to where people were.

What did people see?

John says that they saw glory. He does not mean the kind of glory that became visible for a short time on the Mount of Transfiguration. Instead, it is glory that is summarised as grace and truth. The disciples first saw his glory when he turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana. That was an occasion where he showed grace to a couple about to be embarrassed, but he also spoke truth when he reminded his mother that his hour had not yet come.

This was the manner by which he lived while he dwelt among us. When Jesus was living in the family home in Nazareth, there never was an occasion when he failed to be fully gracious and fully truthful. When he was working in the family business, every one of their clients could only say about the son of Joseph is that he was always gracious and truthful. Wherever he went, this was how he behaved, even when he was among those who opposed him. And this was how he endured the cross, graciously and truthfully.

This was also the motive behind all that he did. There was no inconsistency between his inner and outer life. In his heart, he was always gracious and truthful. The searching eye of the heavenly Father only saw perfection in the heart of his dear Son, and the contents of that perfection were grace and truth. His gracious words and actions and his truthful expressions flowed from an inner life in which grace and truth were consistent.

We can also say that this was down masterly by him, or as John says, the glory was always full of grace and truth. Leaving aside the development connected to age, no-one could say about Jesus that he showed less grace and truth on Wednesday than he did on Thursday. Every day it was the same degree of grace and truth – full. Further, he was never on occasion more truthful than gracious or more gracious than truthful. He always had them both in perfect balance. We cannot investigate any incident and discover an imbalance in his thoughts, words or actions.

Clearly, this was the message that he taught, whether he was instructing unconverted people or his disciples. He told people the truth about themselves and about the kingdom of God, but he always did so graciously. Think about the way John records the discussions Jesus had with the woman from Sychar and with Nicodemus. How gracious he was, and how truthful! Or we can recall how he spoke to the rich young ruler who decided not to follow him. There are numerous examples of such interactions with unconverted people. Yet he spoke in the same way towards those who were converted as Peter discovered when Jesus warned him that he would deny his Master. And that is how Jesus speaks to us – gracefully and truthfully.

The outcome was that he was like a magnet to sinners and saints alike. They did not find truth a barrier when it was spoken gracefully and they did not find grace to be shallow when it was accompanied by truth. Our problem often is the fact that we are unable to balance the two. So we should draw near to him and ask him to teach us to have this balance. After all, it is what Christlikeness is like.

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It is obvious from John’s words that he regarded the way that Jesus lived as matchless. We can see this from the description he gives when he writes that it was ‘glory as of the only Son from the Father’. Obviously, Jesus could live in this manner because of who he was, the unique Son of the Father. Although he became flesh, with all that that involved, he displayed the fact that he was fully divine.