Day 8, Read John 1:14-18

In Daniel 2:11 the wise men of Babylon complained to King Nebuchadnezzar that the gods do not dwell with flesh.  Such is the case with the gods of this world; but such is not the case with the only true God, God Most High.  He has made His dwelling with flesh for He became flesh (Jn. 1:14).  This sets apart Christianity from every religion in the world in that God’s love for Man was so great that He was moved to be born into this world, fully God and Man at the same time.  What does this mean to us humans?

For one thing it means we have seen God.  Jesus, being the visible image of the invisible God and being the brightness (glory) of His image (Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:1-3), displayed God’s glory.  John the Apostle, one of the eyewitnesses of the life and ministry of Christ, says “we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father” (v14).  Because God is spirit (Jn. 4:24) and thus the unseen God, no one has ever seen Him.  In the Old Testament when men saw God what they saw was His glory, something visible that represented God in some manner.  But in Christ we have seen God, as John the Baptist testified (v15).  Jesus was the eternal One, the one who was “before” John.  And He did not simply come and tell us about God; He was the One who came from the bosom of the Father (v18).  This is the best way to describe One who was God and was with God: in becoming flesh God imparted His very essence or nature, taking on our nature at the same time.  

Having seen God through the Man Jesus, what did we see?  John tells us we saw the fullness of grace and truth (v14,17).  In the Old Testament there were two attributes of God which repeatedly were linked together (e.g. Ps. 117:2; Pr. 16:6; 20:28).  Chesed, translated mercy or loving-kindness, spoke of God’s gracious blessing on His people.  Emet, translated truth or faithfulness, spoke of God’s faithfulness to His attributes and word.  These qualities met together (Ps. 85:10) in Christ Jesus.  Truth says that men are sinners, under the wrath of God.  Grace and mercy tell us that God desires to forgive men that He might dwell with them.  God has satisfied Himself by providing His Son, His only begotton Son, to make atonement or satisfaction for sin.  Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God, took our sin upon Himself and endured the wrath of God upon the cross, in our place.  Thus those who have believed in Him have received grace upon grace (abundant grace).  Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ!

Jesus was God incognito.  He looked in every way like one of us, a man, because He truly was a man.  Sometimes our Christmas celebrations dwell on the humanity of the helpless Infant.  But do not be mistaken.  As John says, “we beheld His glory.”  The gospels record time and again, through His words and works, the glory of God in Jesus Christ.  The law given through Moses has made it clear that we are all sinners.  But grace and truth, God’s solution for the guilty sinner, have come in Jesus Christ.