“And the word was made 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.”
This post on Christmas surprisingly is not from Matthew or Luke, but from John. John does not record the pageantry of Christmas like Matthew and Luke, but he does give us the Christmas narrative in just one verse. What John does is give us the theological significance of the coming of Christ into the world. I will illustrate what I mean in the post. John points out that the “word was made flesh.” This, of course, is about the incarnation, or the infleshment, of the Son of God.” The Good News Bible, which had some success in the late sixties and early seventies, translated this as “the word was made a human being.” While I was not exactly carried away with that particular Bible, I thought that this translation made a vivid point about the word becoming flesh. He was made flesh through the virgin birth, as predicted in Isaiah 7:14. It also stands out that when the word was made flesh, His crib was a manger – a feed trough. The miracle was that God came down to man – period. John points out that He “dwelt among us.” This is a reference to the fact that Jesus lived a normal human existence in a family. The family that Jesus came to was a common family, a carpenter’s family. He lived a common life among common people. This is good news for all common people, for Jesus indentified with us in His coming. Jesus experienced life in every way, except for sin. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are , yet without sin.” It has to be comfort to us that our Savior understands our struggles. In a parenthetical statement, John informs us that “we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” Of course, we can refer to the great miracles that Jesus performed, such as, walking on water, turning water into wine, healing the infirm, stilling a storm, etc. John, however, along with Peter and James, beheld His glory at the transfiguration. This was not seen by anyone but those three disciples, but it had to be a life-changing experience for them. Thank God that it was recorded in the Gospels for us. What happened there was indescribable, but it did show forth the great glory of Jesus. It is my opinion that what they got a glimpse of was a heavenly vision of the Son of God. No one else has seen Jesus like this, but one day all believers will. John shared with us that Jesus was “full of grace and truth.” In John 14:6, Jesus referred to Himself as “the way, the truth, and the life.” He revealed the truth about God in His teachings that are recorded in the New Testament for us. He revealed the grace of God by His treatment of people, which is also recorded in the New Testament for us. The New Testament makes it plain that Jesus treated all people the same, the rich and the poor. Jesus healed poor people, like Bartimaeus; He healed rich people like Jairus’ daughter, which He actually raised from death. He walked among the poor and the rich. One of His most famous conversions was Zacchaeus, who was a wealthy tax collector. Indeed, Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, was “full of grace and truth.” I understand that we usually think of the Christmas story in terms of shepherds and Wise Men, which Matthew and Luke wrote about, but John, in his usual fashion, got right to the point of who and what the incarnate Son of God was and is. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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