A Sermon on John (1:14-18)

(A sermon on John, preached December 18, 2011.)

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.[1]

Do you understand what you just heard? Do you understand what it means that “the Word became flesh?” That phrase commemorates the most amazing event in human history – what we celebrate at Christmas: for us and for our salvation “the Word became flesh.” We call it the incarnation, from the Latin “made flesh.” Listen to our catechism on the incarnation; it summarizes the scriptures well: “Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.”[2]

“Word” - one of the names of God’s Son, and the second person of the Trinity. After his incarnation, God’s Son will be called Jesus and Lord. But first, “in the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1).

John leaves no suspense about the Word’s identity; he settles that in the very first verse: “The Word was God” (John 1:1) The Word is fully God. Therefore, everything that makes God God we find in his Son. In the words of our catechism God’s Son is “infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.”[3] With the Father and the Holy Spirit, he is “the same in substance, equal in power and glory.”[4] From passages like this emerge our doctrines of the Trinity and the deity of Christ.

The Word was God. What a jolt, then to read, “the Word became flesh.” This is shocking language. Because we’ve read the verse many times it loses its punch; it shouldn’t. The language, if not crude, is at least blunt.[5] “The Word became flesh.”

No doubt, John could have put it more delicately: “The Word became man,” or, “the Word assumed a body.”[6] Both would do. But flesh – that’s tough. In the Bible, flesh is associated with weakness, the devastating consequences of the fall. Weakness and divine omnipotence don’t seem to belong together.

To live in the flesh is to be subject to the miseries of a world infected by sin.[7] The eternal Son of God becomes flesh. From cradle to tomb he experiences what men and women experience. To name a few – piercing hunger and thirst, weariness, tearful sorrow, bereavement, rejection, and the victim of physical violence and a judicial injustice that ends in death. God’s Son is no stranger to the suffering and hardships and temptations of life - he experiences them all, but without sinning.[8]

The Word becomes flesh. If the term “Word” indicates the Son’s full deity, then the term “flesh” indicates his full humanity. He becomes fully man in the incarnation. The Lord Jesus, our Savior, has a divine nature and a human nature, fully God and fully man, one person forever.

Today we meditate on the incarnation of God’s Son, and five words come to my mind – humility, sympathy, glory, power, and dignity.

Think with me now about the humility of the Lord’s incarnation.

Humility is an ugly word! Or, so most Romans thought. Weakness, the groveling of the defeated before his victor, a human doormat – that’s what it means to be humble. Ancient warriors took their cues from Homer’s Achilles, who as C.S. Lewis points out, “knows nothing of the demand that the brave should also be the modest and the merciful. He kills men as they cry for quarter or takes them prisoner to kill them at leisure.”[9] What of the humble man? Perhaps we should pity him – but admire him? Never!

But Christ’s incarnation turns Roman values upside down. In humility he rescues a hell-deserving people from eternal punishment. A word that Rome despises becomes a cornerstone virtue in the church of God. The word humility no longer conjures up images of defeated foes groveling in the dirt, or human doormats, but the selflessness, strength and courage of the incarnate Christ.

Paul describes the incarnation this way: Christ, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6-7). No clinging to his favored position as the Father’s beloved – no pleading to avoid Bethlehem and the cross – no protecting himself from humiliation and suffering – no pleasing himself.

Instead, with his mind firmly fixed on your salvation and mine, God the Son adds to himself a human nature, and being conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her, he placed himself in the most vulnerable position imaginable. As Dick Keyes observes,

He could not roll over in his borrowed manger without assistance, and he could not hold up his head without a supporting hand. He had to have his swaddling clothes changed for him . . .

Although Jesus was the only one who ever got to decide what family he would be born into, he did not choose the Roman royal family, nobility, or even the Jewish priesthood. He was born into a poor carpenter’s family amid rumors of illegitimacy that persisted all his life.[10]

The humility of Christ’s incarnation.

Today we meditate on the incarnation of God’s Son, and five words come to my mind – humility, sympathy, glory, power, and dignity.

Think with me now about the sympathy of Christ’s incarnation.

I don’t know about you, but the people I cherish most are those who’ve stood beside me in trials, who have endured hardship with me. Adversity only makes these friends all the more loyal. Sadly, we have fair weather friends – they’re beside us when things go well, but when trouble comes they melt away faster than snow in Alabama.

Our Savior is no fair weather friend. He sees better than we do the ugliness of our sin, yet his devotion to us remains firm. We fail him, but he remains true to us. Our behavior tarnishes the reputation of his name, but he won’t disown us. None of our enemies frightens him. He refuses to leave us broken and without hope.

Look at verse 14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The verse could read, “The Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us.” Or, “the word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” The Greek word for “dwelt” can be translated either way. God was present with his Old Covenant people in the Tabernacle, or as it’s also known, the Tent of Meeting.

What a journey that Tabernacle made! Along torturous roads and winding wilderness paths, the Lord is with Israel every step of the way. In barren and harsh places, there’s the Lord in the midst of his people.

In the incarnation of his Son, God comes among his people, journeying with them, subjecting himself to their knocks and bruises, sharing their hardships along the way. God with us – Immanuel – that’s what we celebrate in our Christmas confession, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

The incarnation assures us of Christ’s sympathy, and especially the sympathy he has for us as we face temptation. He has been touched with the feeling of our temptations. [11] Because our Lord is sinless, we wonder: how can the divine Son of God, the sinless one, understand temptation? Did he face real temptations? Most certainly he did.

A Scottish Presbyterian cautions:

It is completely misguided to imagine that the agony of temptation overcome is less than the agony of temptation yielded to. On the contrary, to yield to temptation is to escape its full ferocity. The devil never has to do his utmost to secure our fall. A little of his power and cunning will suffice. But Christ did not yield and this made it necessary for the tempter to increase the pressure. Far from being the one who escapes temptation because he is sinless, he is the one who precisely because he is sinless alone experiences temptation in its full intensity. He alone took all the devil could throw at him."[12]

From his incarnation to his death, Jesus was tempted to turn from the road to the cross, to save himself from suffering, and to forsake the Father’s will. But on he pressed, his heart fixed on the Father’s glory and our salvation. “He learned,” says the writer of Hebrews, “obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). Most mercifully, the writer concludes, “we do not have [in Christ] a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:16).

The sympathy of Christ’s incarnation.

Today we meditate on the incarnation of God’s Son, and five words come to my mind – humility, sympathy, glory, power, and dignity.

Think with me now about the glory of Christ’s incarnation.

Of the incarnate Christ John writes: “we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” In the Old Covenant, the glory cloud was a visible manifestation of God’s presence among his people – it led Israel through the wilderness. And that glory cloud “covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34). Now, in the incarnation, the Word tabernacled among us, and the glory of the Lord filled him. John and the other apostles behold his glory.

“We have seen his glory,” says John the Apostle. He and his fellow apostles witness Jesus’ foes – deprivation, hostile enemies, a family ashamed of him, undependable disciples, unjust judges – whatever happens, his step never falters – John says, “we have seen his glory!” Miracle after miracle – we have seen his glory! A tantalizingly brief moment on the Mountain, Christ’s body transfigured – we have seen his glory! The shame and suffering of the Cross for man’s salvation – we have seen his glory! And Easter morning – we have seen his glory! Every step of his life, divine glory rested on Christ.

The other John, John the Baptist, knew also of the glory of Christ. “John bore witness about him, and cried out, 'This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me”’”(John 1:15).

Think about Jesus and John. John was born first; his ministry came first. But there’s no comparison and John knew it! John – bold and courageous and esteemed – was only part of Jesus’ advance team. Besides, the Word, being eternal, existed before John, and is incomparably greater. All glory must go the Word. Later, as the crowds that once flocked to John leave him and go to Jesus, John says of his Lord: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

The glory of Christ’s incarnation.

Today we meditate on the incarnation of God’s Son, and five words come to my mind – humility, sympathy, glory, power, and dignity.

Think with me now about the power of the incarnation - God’s power to save.

Earlier we thought about sympathy. How encouraging is the sympathizing friend! But there’s one thing a minister learns quickly: having sympathy is one thing, having power is quite another. I can sympathize with the chronically ill, but I cannot heal them. I can have sympathy toward a man whose behavior is destroying himself and his family, but I cannot change him. I have sympathy, but no power.

The Lord Jesus has both sympathy and power. Look again at verse 14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Grace and truth are powerful; they are an omnipotent combination that saves sinners. Grace – God’s salvation given to those who’ve done nothing to deserve it. Truth – God’s absolute faithfulness to fulfill his promises to save. He is a promise-making and promise-keeping Savior.

The Word is full of grace and truth, and “from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16). Grace upon grace – an inexhaustible supply of grace, never diminishing, always increasing. This grace is sufficient to save everyone who believes – this grace is sufficient to sustain every believer in every trial. Boundless grace for you and me.

If the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, is incomparably greater than John the Baptist, so too is he incomparably greater than Moses and the law. Look at the contrast in verse 17: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

Mind you, there’s nothing wrong with the law given through Moses. The law is holy, righteous, and good (Romans 7:12). The law displays God’s perfect character and reveals our duty. But the law is powerless to save.

With its threats of punishment, it can restrain bad behavior, but it can’t change the human heart.

Some have said that the law is like a mirror – it can expose dirt, but you can’t wash bathe in it. Others have said the law is like a thermometer – it can measure your temperature, but it can’t generate heat. The law cannot make you fervent to do God’s will.

The law is powerless to save. The law is powerless to change the human heart. The law condemns; only the work of Christ justifies sinners.

Grace and truth – God’s merciful promise of salvation - come only through Jesus Christ. Therefore, we must see him and hear him as he reveals himself in the gospel. John writes, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18).

Not enough time remains to give this profoundly moving verse the care and attention it deserves. I’ll only say that it carries us into the mystery of the Trinity. The Word – God’s Son – here called “the only God, who is at the Father’s side,” it is he and he alone that makes the invisible God known. The incarnation demands that we listen to Christ’s words, study his deeds, submit to his commands, and trust the saving power of his life, death, resurrection and ascension.

Today we meditate on the incarnation of God’s Son, and five words come to my mind – humility, sympathy, glory, power, and dignity.

Think with me, finally, about the dignity of the Lord’s incarnation. As Bishop Ryle observes, “Vile and weak as our body may seem, it is a body which the Eternal Son of God was not ashamed to take upon Himself, and to take up to heaven.” And his promise to us is to raise our bodies from the grave to be like his, glorious and without sin.[13]

Now, it stands to reason that if the Lord’s incarnation testifies to the dignity of the human body, we must not defile it by sin.[14] Indeed, your body is the temple of Christ’s Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), and your life must be characterized by a fierce determination to guard the body that Christ has chosen to redeem and to make his dwelling place.

Humility, sympathy, glory, power, and dignity – these are words of the incarnation, of Christmas. Cherish each of them as you celebrate the mystery of godliness – God was manifested in the flesh.

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[1] All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] Westminster Shorter Catechism, answer 22.

[3] Westminster Shorter Catechism, answer 4.

[4] Westminster Shorter Catechism, answer 6.

[5] Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John (Eerdmans, 1971), 102.

[6] Morris,102.

[7] John Calvin, Commentary on the Gospel of John, vol. 1. Translated by William Pringle (Baker: reprinted 2009), 45.

[8] Hebrews 4:15

[9] C.S. Lewis, Present Concerns (Harcourt: 1986), 14.

[10] Dick Keyes, True Heroism In a World of Celebrity Counterfeits (NavPress, 1995), 151.

[11] Ryle, 27.

[12] Donald Macleod in Michael A.G. Haykin, “The Impeccability of Christ,” Evangelical Times (May 1995), 11.

[13] Ryle, 27-28.

[14] Ryle, 27.