Word Made Flesh – John 1:14,15

Wikibooks describes human genetic reproduction this way: 

“Children often look like some combination of their parents. This is because each parent gives the child some of themselves…genes.  Each parent gives half of their genetic material to their children. The combination makes a unique combination of their parents genes.”

But what if someone was an exact reproduction of their parent’s genes?  That person would be a clone.  Genetic reproduction is, of course, a process God created for our reproduction.  His having a son is the pattern for our having children.  God the Son is the exact representation of His glory.  But now Jesus has a new additional nature.

And the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us, and we saw his glory, glory as the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John bore witness about him and called out, “This is the one of whom I said that he is coming after me though he is before me, because he was first before me.”  (John 1:14,15)

The eternal Son of God, equal in every way to the Father, sharing the same essence, and yet a distinct personage, became flesh, became human, added another essence to himself, human nature.  He did not cease to be God.  That by definition is impossible and is also denied by Scripture (John 1:1).  What Scripture does tell us is that Jesus possesses two natures now and yet, while here on earth, did not access his deity without the express direction of God (see here for the defense of this).  And I would argue that the only time he actually displayed his deity was on the mount of transfiguration. 

It is possible that this is what John means when he says “we have seen his glory” but it is more likely he means we have seen his divine grace and truth, we have seen his character and know he is God.  The glory of God shone through Jesus’ life in the way he faithfully represented God.  No one expressed grace or truth like Jesus.

John calls Jesus the only begotten from the Father.  It is the term used to speak of an only child, or, as in the case of Isaac (who was not Abraham’s first or only child) the unique or special child.  But John has just talked about us becoming children of God through faith (verse 12).  We are, but Jesus is the only begotten, the son of the Father in the most unique way.  To say Jesus is the Son of God in this way is to say that he is God.  His “DNA” is the same as the Father’s.  He is not a creation but a Son.  He is the eternal Son.  There has never been a time when he did not exist in this way, even as there has never been a time when the Spirit did not proceed from both the Father and the Son.  They have existed in triune relationship for all eternity.

John the Baptist’s witness is that Jesus ranks higher than him (is greater than a human) because he existed before John.  Luke clearly tells us that John was conceived 6 months before Jesus (Luke 1:24-27).  So John is attesting to Jesus’ eternal existence as God.  Jesus was before him in the ultimate sense.

Have you seen Jesus’ glory?  Have you experienced his grace and truth?  Then like John the Baptist you must bear witness to that.  How could we not?

Discussion Questions

1. What characteristics of your parents do you see in yourself?  What characteristics of you do you see in your children?
2. What do you imagine life was like for Jesus before he took on human nature?
3. Why do you think John emphasizes both grace and truth?  How do these two characteristics form a whole understanding of who God is?
4. What if God was only grace or only truth?  How would that play out?
5. How do you think you should bear witness to Jesus’ grace and truth?