When you come to know Christ, you encounter the greatness of God.
Text: John 1:14
What if God came to earth and lived as a human? How would He live? What amazing things would He do? What would He say? And, what type of person would He be? Thankfully we don’t have to wonder about that. One of the important aspects of the Bible is the coming of Jesus Christ, a member of the Godhead, to earth and living as a human amongst humans. Although Jesus became fully human, He also maintained His divinity.
God becoming human to save humans is an amazing concept. It not only illustrates what Jesus, as a member of the Godhead, was willing to sacrifice for humans by leaving His heavenly home, but it shows how serious He was about rescuing humans from their sinfulness and its consequences. For Jesus, to step out of heaven and immerse himself in this world demonstrates the highest form of love. It also made God relatable and approachable. Paul in Philippians 2:6-11 wonderfully states, “Who (Jesus), being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he became obedient to death- even death on a cross!”.
John similarly describes the incarnation by saying, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
But what does John mean when he describes Jesus as the Word. To understand that, you also have to consider John 1:1, where John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” John further describes Jesus as the agent through which all things were created. Since God spoke all things into existence according to Genesis 1, calling Jesus the Word links Him to the creative power that brought about everything. As the Father willed the universe to be created, Jesus expressed that will and made it happen.
The notion of Jesus being the one to express or reveal the will of the Father gives us a clue to understanding further what John meant when he said, “The Word became flesh”. That is, Jesus, in human form, reveals the Father and His will. As John 1:18 tells us, “No-one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is the Father’s side, has made him known“. Or, as some translations state, “He has revealed Him”. Jesus, therefore, in becoming human, became a living message from God. Everything about Jesus’ life, teaching, miracles, nature and character teaches us about God.
Another word used in John 1:14 that is worth defining is the word “Glory”. This word, and various forms of it, occur several times throughout the gospel of John. But what does it mean? It is the word that can describe that which is extraordinary, magnificent and powerful. The term that I prefer to use when defining glory is greatness. Biblically then, glory describes the greatness of God.
Although Jesus was completely human, John’s statement about Him in John 1:14 makes it clear that He was also divine and that this divinity was witnessed by the apostles, disciples and people of that time and place when He lived on earth. That’s why John writes, “we have seen His glory”. That is, he saw the greatness of God in Jesus.
Interestingly, John 1:14 links to Moses and the Old Testament. In fact, there are a lot of Moses themes throughout the gospel of John. The Greek word for dwelling or dwelt in John 1:14 actually means to live in a tabernacle.
During the early period of Moses’ leadership over Israel, God at Mount Sinai commanded Moses to construct a portable temple called the Tabernacle. This Tabernacle would travel wherever the Jews were wandering during their time in the wilderness. The Tabernacle would be set up when they made camp, and God’s glory would fill the Tabernacle. By day, the glory of God was evident by a cloud and by night, a fire within the cloud. Exodus 40:34-38.
When the Word became flesh, that flesh became a new tabernacle in which God made His home so that He could dwell among His people. Matthew records that one of names given to Jesus was “Immanuel” which meant, “God with us”. It is no surprise then read that the fleshly tabernacle of Jesus contained the glory of God. Jesus was truly God in the flesh.
But let’s get specific. In what ways did the disciples and people of that era see the glory of God in Jesus?
Firstly, they beheld the greatness of God through His grace. Grace is an important topic and warrants a more in-depth and lengthy discussion. Yet, for this article, it is enough to know that Jesus is full of grace. I like what John says in chapter 1:16-17, “From the fullness of His grace, we have all received one blessing after another. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”. Grace, in its most simplified form, means undeserved kindness. It is generosity towards those who are unworthy to receive it. Jesus could have come to earth and been unapproachable, condemning, apathetic towards people’s pain, demanding service, and cruelly punishing everyone for their rebellion against God. However, everywhere we turn in the pages of Scripture, we find the exact opposite. Jesus was approachable (John 1:35-51). He was forgiving (John 8:1-11). He empathised with those in pain (John 11:35). He aided those who were disabled (John 5:1-15 & Ch 9). He lowered Himself to serve others (John 13:1-17) and was willing to die in our place (John 19). Everything Jesus did was gracious, and the people saw it and beheld God’s glory.
Secondly, they beheld the greatness of God through Jesus’ miracles. Every miracle demonstrated the divine power of Jesus. After the first miracle was done in Cana, in which Jesus turned water to wine, John states that through this miracle, Jesus “revealed His glory, and his disciples put their faith in Him” (John 2:1-11). It seems that this was the first time the disciples got a glimpse of the power of God in Jesus and it showed that, like the Father, Jesus could turn ordinary things into something better than the best. However, not only did Jesus have the power over quality, He had the power over other things. He had the power over space (John 4:43-54), time (John 5:1-15), abundance (John 6:1-15), the elements (John 6:16-24), misfortune (John 9) and death (John 11). When it came to Jesus’ abilities, He had the power to do whatever God could. When people saw the miracles of Jesus, they beheld God’s glory.
Thirdly, they beheld the greatness of God in the truth He presented and the reality of His identity. Not only does John 1:16-17 tell us that Jesus was full of grace, but it tells us that He was full of truth. In fact, He was the living embodiment of truth, and it radiated out of Him in every way. So much so that Jesus became “a light in the darkness”, leading people to reality and a relationship with God. Later in John 14:6, the apostle John records Jesus saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. The temple guards who were sent to arrest Jesus (John 8:45-49), after hearing Jesus’ lengthy discourse with the Jews about his identity, returned to the chief priests and Pharisees and testified that “No one ever spoke the way this man does”. Because of this, these guards could not bring themselves to arrest Him. All those who encountered Jesus, beheld the glory of God through the Truth that He revealed.
Fourthly, they beheld the glory of God through His sinlessness. Nothing declares the greatness of God more than His righteousness and holiness. If Jesus had been just an ordinary human, then surely his sinfulness would have come to light somewhere along the way. Yet nowhere in the life of Jesus or His ministry was He ever rightly accused of sin. In His dialogue with the Jews in John 8, Jesus actually challenges the Jews to prove Him guilty of evil. He asks, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?”. Of course, they couldn’t. Later, even after He had been punished and examined by scourging, no sin or evil was revealed. In the presence of the Jews who wanted to kill Jesus, Pilate declared, “Look, I am bringing Him (Jesus) out to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against Him” (John 19:4 & 6). Because Jesus was sinless, He was worthy to be called “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29-34). In the life and ministry of Jesus, people beheld His sinlessness, and therefore beheld the glory of God.
Fifthly, they saw the greatness of God in Jesus through the way He suffered and died. Despite being innocent, he was tortured, beaten, mocked, humiliated and hung on a cross. In all of this, Jesus did not trade insults. He didn’t curse. He didn’t take revenge. Instead, He gave Himself over to suffering and death so that He could draw all people towards God (John 12:32), provide the opportunity for eternal life (John 3:15) and demonstrate the love of God (John 3:16). After enduring the cross for about six hours, Jesus chose to give up his spirit (John 19:30). After witnessing the death of Jesus and the other events surrounding it, even the centurion and those guarding Jesus on the cross had to conclude that, “Surely He was the Son of God!”. All those who witnessed the death of Jesus beheld the glory of God.
Finally, the disciples and many others saw the greatness of God in the resurrection of Jesus. Only God could ultimately defeat death. In Jesus, death was defeated, and the disciples and many others witnessed the resurrected body of Christ. When Jesus appeared to Thomas, who had not believed in Jesus’s resurrection, Thomas saw Jesus alive along with the wounds that marked his suffering and death. Thomas in the moment said, “My Lord and my God”. Thomas beheld the glory of God in the resurrected body of Jesus.
And so, this Word that had become flesh was experienced as God in the world. As an apostle, John would later write in 1 John 1:1-2, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us”.
Application:
But how does this relate to us today? Can we still behold the glory of God in Christ today? The answer is yes. We behold the glory of God when we believe the scriptures and read all it says about Jesus. We behold the glory of God when we witness someone become a Christian and when we see the effects of saving work of Jesus in this new Christian (Acts 2:38, Romans 6:1-7 & Ephesians 5:13-14). We behold the glory of God when Christians are Christlike and love each as Christ loved them (John 13:34-35). And, we behold the glory of Christ, and so does the world, when the church works together in unity and functions as the living presence of Christ in the world (Ephesians 3:20-21 & 4:11-16).
In Christ, we discover the fullness of God and therefore have the opportunity to know God. Let us, therefore, recognise who Jesus is, embrace Him completely and spend eternity beholding the greatness of God.
