In the Life of Christ
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14
John does not begin the story of Jesus in Bethlehem. He carries us behind the manger, beyond the ancestry of Mary and Joseph, and before the creation of the world. The Child lying in the feeding trough is the eternal Word through whom all things were made. Yet John 1:14 announces something almost beyond comprehension: the eternal Word became flesh and entered our human condition. God did not merely send us instructions, warnings, or encouragement from a distance. He came near in the person of Jesus Christ.
John’s word translated “dwelt” comes from the Greek verb skēnoō, meaning to pitch a tent or live in a tabernacle. His first readers would have recognized the connection to Israel’s wilderness tabernacle, where God manifested His presence among His covenant people. The tabernacle declared, “God is here.” Jesus declares something greater: “God has come to us.”
The tabernacle contained the Most Holy Place, where God’s presence was specially revealed. However, access was restricted, sacrifices were continually required, and a veil separated the people from the sacred presence. When Jesus came, God’s presence was no longer associated primarily with a tent or temple. The holiness, compassion, authority, and saving purpose of God were embodied in a Person.
Matt Carter and Josh Wredberg describe the incarnation with a simple but important truth: “Just as God came to meet man in the tabernacle, he came to meet man in the person of Jesus.” Jesus is not merely one more place where we might encounter God. He is the One through whom we are reconciled to the Father.
This changes how I think about my daily walk with Christ. I do not have to find my way through layers of religious performance in hopes that God might receive me. Jesus has come looking for me. He entered a world marked by sorrow, temptation, injustice, sickness, and death. He knows the dust of our roads, the ache of rejection, the weariness of ministry, and the grief of losing someone He loves. The gospel begins not with humanity successfully climbing toward heaven, but with heaven graciously coming down to humanity.
THE GLORY WE CAN FINALLY SEE
John tells us, “We have seen his glory.” In the Old Testament, the glory of God appeared in a cloud over the tabernacle and later filled the temple. Wayne Grudem describes God’s glory as “the visible manifestation of the excellence of God’s character.” What Israel saw partially in the cloud, the disciples witnessed personally in Jesus.
They saw God’s glory when Jesus touched a leper whom others avoided. They saw it when He forgave sinners, welcomed children, confronted hypocrisy, calmed storms, and wept beside Lazarus’s grave. They saw it on the mountain of transfiguration, but they also saw it when He knelt to wash their feet. Most fully, they saw divine glory at the cross, where holiness and mercy met without either being diminished.
We often associate glory with visibility, applause, power, and success. Jesus reveals a different kind of glory. Divine glory can wear a servant’s towel. It can stand silently before false accusers. It can carry a cross for the very people who rejected it. Christ teaches me that the glory of God is not merely dazzling power; it is also self-giving love.
GRACE THAT NEVER RUNS EMPTY
John writes, “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given” (John 1:16). The Greek expression is charin anti charitos. It can communicate grace following grace, grace replacing grace, or one gracious gift arriving after another. The NET Bible notes that the phrase likely pictures favor continually being given to people who have already received favor.
Christ does not distribute grace from a limited supply. We receive from His “fullness.” When I exhaust my patience, His grace remains full. When I become conscious of repeated failure, His mercy has not been depleted. When yesterday’s strength is insufficient for today’s burden, fresh grace is available.
The law given through Moses was itself a gracious gift. It revealed God’s holiness, exposed sin, restrained evil, and pointed Israel toward the need for redemption. Yet the law could diagnose the wound without healing it. It could identify guilt without removing it. Jesus came not to contradict the law but to accomplish what the law anticipated. The shadows gave way when the Light arrived.
TRUTH WITH A FACE
Jesus came “full of grace and truth.” We sometimes separate these qualities. We offer truth without tenderness or grace without moral clarity. Jesus never sacrificed one to preserve the other. His grace did not pretend sin was harmless, and His truth did not treat sinners as hopeless.
With the woman caught in adultery, Jesus neither joined the condemning crowd nor excused her sin. He protected her from self-righteous accusers and called her into a changed life. With Peter, Jesus confronted his failure but did not cancel his calling. With Zacchaeus, grace entered the house before transformation became visible, but that grace produced repentance and restitution.
The closer I walk with Jesus, the less comfortable I should become with loveless truth or truthless love. Christ calls me to speak honestly without cruelty, show mercy without compromise, and remember that I am not the source of either grace or truth. Both flow from Him.
THE SON WHO EXPLAINS THE FATHER
John concludes, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son…has made him known” (John 1:18). The verb translated “made him known” is exēgeomai, from which we receive the word “exegesis.” It means to explain, unfold, or make something fully known. Jesus is the perfect explanation of the Father.
When I wonder how God responds to broken people, I look at Jesus. When I wonder whether God notices the forgotten, I watch Jesus stop for blind Bartimaeus. When I wonder how God feels about those trapped in sin, I see Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners while calling them into new life. When I wonder whether God understands suffering, I look at the crucified Christ.
John 1:18 does not suggest that Jesus gives us a partial religious impression of God. The Son, who lives in closest fellowship with the Father, has made the Father known. The NET translation emphasizes that the Son is in intimate fellowship with the Father and uniquely reveals Him.
The gospel explained in Jesus is therefore not merely a message to study. It is a Savior to trust, a Lord to follow, and a life to receive. The tabernacle pointed toward Him. The glory rested upon Him. The prophets testified about Him. The law prepared the way for Him. The Father is revealed through Him. Every stream of redemption flows toward Jesus, and every thirsty soul is invited to receive from His inexhaustible fullness.
Jesus Christ is the fullest revelation of God because the eternal Word became human, lived among us, displayed the Father’s glory, fulfilled the purpose of the law, and supplied grace that never runs dry. John 1:14–18 teaches that Christianity is not primarily humanity’s search for a distant God. It is the good news that God came near in Christ so that sinful people could know Him, receive grace, and become His children.
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