11th January 2022 – John 1:14

Here is John's climactic word in the Prologue, and all he has said thus far leads up to it. On the one hand, we see the majesty of his conception when we take 1-4, with their teaching on the Godhead and Creatorhood of the Son, and read this into this tremendous statement. That Word, John means, has become incarnate in our flesh and nature. On the other hand, we must see the association of ideas with what immediately precedes this verse. John has been speaking of the contrast and conflict between light and darkness; between those who see, and those who refuse to see, the light (5, 10, 11). Those who see are those who receive Him (12), and in the use of the word 'us' in 14 he includes himself and his fellow-believers and gives a further description of what it means to believe: it is to 'behold His glory'. When our eyes are opened to see, it is His glory that we see. Next, when we think of the Word become flesh, we must be clear that this cannot mean that He ceased to be the Eternal Word. Christ is God manifest in the flesh, and at no time, not even as a helpless babe in the manger, did He cease to be God. Whatever else may be said, this must at all costs be safeguarded. The phrase 'dwelt among us' is also open to possible misunderstanding and misinterpretation. The word has sometimes been translated 'tabernacled among us'. A tabernacle is a temporary dwelling, but there is no suggestion here that Christ's becoming man was a temporary expedient to be dispensed with when no longer necessary. When He assumed manhood, He did so for ever. He never lays aside His humanity. The humanity of the glorified Son of God is a cardinal point in Christian theology. The risen manhood of the Son is the pledge and guarantee that one day we shall be in the glory also, as men, rather than as glorified spirits.