In the Life of Christ
“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14
When I read John 1:14–18, I am reminded that the gospel did not begin as a hurried response to humanity’s failure. God’s saving purpose runs like a scarlet thread from the opening chapters of Genesis through the law, the prophets, the sacrifices, and the promises of the Old Testament. Yet all those earlier revelations were preparing us for something greater. The gospel that had been announced through symbols, covenants, and prophetic words finally stood before humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.
John says that “the Word became flesh.” The Greek word translated “flesh” is sarx, which emphasizes that the eternal Son truly entered human existence. Jesus did not merely appear to be human, nor did He visit our world while remaining untouched by its sorrow. He became one of us without ceasing to be God. He experienced hunger, weariness, rejection, grief, temptation, and physical pain. The One through whom the world was made entered the world as a vulnerable child. The gospel is therefore not simply a message God sent; it is God coming near to rescue us.
John then says that Jesus “dwelt among us.” The Greek verb is skēnoō, meaning “to pitch a tent” or “to tabernacle.” John deliberately reaches back to Israel’s wilderness journey, when the tabernacle stood in the middle of the camp as the visible sign of God’s presence. The NET Bible notes explain that this language recalls the place where God’s glory dwelt among His people. Now, however, God’s presence is not centered in a fabric tent. It is revealed in Jesus.
This changes how I understand my relationship with God. In the Old Testament, the tabernacle contained the Most Holy Place, where entrance was restricted and sacrifice was required. In Jesus, God has come out to meet us. Christ becomes the true meeting place between a holy God and sinful humanity. D. A. Carson describes Jesus as “the true meeting place between God and his people.” We do not reach God by climbing a ladder of religious achievement. We come through Christ, who has crossed the distance for us.
John also declares, “We beheld his glory.” In the Old Testament, God’s glory appeared as cloud and fire. It filled the tabernacle and later the temple. Those manifestations were real, but they were partial. In Jesus, the character of God became visible in human life. Christ’s compassion toward the suffering, patience with weak disciples, authority over evil, forgiveness of sinners, courage before opposition, and obedience unto death all displayed the glory of the Father.
The glory of Christ was not limited to the Mount of Transfiguration or His miracles. John’s Gospel leads us toward the cross as the supreme revelation of divine glory. The world saw humiliation, but faith sees the love of God displayed. The cross reveals that God’s glory includes holiness that judges sin and grace that bears sin’s penalty for us. The Gospel Coalition’s commentary on John observes that the cross not only accomplishes salvation but also reveals God’s love for sinful humanity.
Jesus also fulfills the ministry of the prophets. John the Baptist stood at the end of a long line of messengers who had announced that God’s Messiah was coming. Unlike Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the earlier prophets, John could point directly toward Jesus and declare, “Behold the Lamb of God.” Yet John was careful to insist that Jesus was greater because He existed before him. Although John was born first, Christ is eternal. Jesus did not begin at Bethlehem. The child in the manger was the everlasting Word who had always been with the Father.
John then contrasts Moses and Jesus: “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” John is not insulting the law. The law was itself a gracious gift because it revealed God’s holiness, exposed sin, protected His people, and pointed toward their need for redemption. But the law could diagnose the disease without supplying the final cure. It could identify guilt, yet it could not bear that guilt away.
The law was like a lamp that exposed the stain; Jesus came with the cleansing blood. The sacrifices, Passover lamb, priesthood, tabernacle, and temple were shadows cast by the approaching Christ. Once the Light arrived, the shadows had completed their purpose. Ligonier Ministries explains that the types and shadows of the Old Testament point toward Christ, through whom saving grace is extended to God’s people.
John describes Christ as possessing an inexhaustible fullness: “Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” We do not come to Jesus as though He has only a small reserve of mercy that might be depleted by our failures. Grace follows grace like waves reaching the shore. There is grace to forgive yesterday, grace to obey today, and grace to face tomorrow. Our need may be great, but His fullness is greater.
Finally, Jesus reveals the Father. John says that no one has seen God, but the Son has “declared him.” The Greek verb exēgeomai means to explain, narrate, or make fully known. It is the word from which we derive “exegesis.” Jesus is, in that sense, the perfect explanation of God. He does not merely tell us what the Father is like; He shows us.
When I wonder whether God receives repentant sinners, I look at Jesus welcoming the broken. When I question whether God notices suffering, I see Jesus weeping beside Lazarus’s tomb. When I ask whether God takes sin seriously, I look at the cross. When I wonder whether death will have the final word, I look at the empty tomb. Jesus tells the whole story of God’s holiness, grace, truth, mercy, and redeeming love.
John 1:14–18 teaches that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the tabernacle, the visible revelation of God’s glory, the One announced by the prophets, the goal toward which the law pointed, and the perfect revelation of the Father. The gospel explained in Jesus is the good news that God has come near, grace has been made available, truth has taken human form, and sinful people may now be reconciled to God through His Son.
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