John 1:14

John 1:14. And the Word became flesh. With this verse we enter upon the fuller and more concrete aspect of the Word appearing among men. As personally come in the flesh, however, the Word contrasts with what He was in His preexistent state; and hence, before we have the Baptist introduced to us, we have statements exactly parallel to those of John 1:1-5. That now before us corresponds to John 1:1, for the Incarnate Word in Himself is here spoken of. He who was in the beginning, who was with God, who was God, ‘became flesh;' did not merely take to Him a human body, did not merely become an individual man, but assumed human nature in its entireness (see chaps, John 12:27, ‘soul;' John 13:21, ‘spirit'), identified Himself with the race, entered into such a condition that He could have perfect communion and fellowship with us, and we with Him. The word ‘became' does not denote that His divine nature was laid aside, and that His mode of being was simply human until, in the accomplishment of His work, He gradually transformed His human mode of being and regained for it all the glory of the divine. Were such a view correct, it would follow that when the divine was regained the human was laid aside, and that the humanity of the exalted Redeemer is not now as real as it was during His earthly course. No such thought is suggested by ‘became,' for this word does not imply that the former state of being exists no longer. What is really indicated is the passing into a new state, a transition rather than a transformation. The Word remains, with all His essential properties; there is added a new mode of being, the assumption of a new nature, denoted by ‘flesh.' The most important parallels to this verse are 1 John 4:2 and 2 John 1:7; these passages differ from the present in that the historical name ‘Jesus Christ' is substituted for the Word, and that for the mysterious words ‘became flesh' we read ‘hath come' (or ‘cometh') ‘in flesh.'

And he set his tabernacle among us, and we beheld his glory (glory as of an only begotten from a father), full of grace and truth. As the first clause of this verse corresponded to John 1:1, so these clauses correspond to John 1:2-5; only that, whereas there we had those properties of the Word in virtue of which He gives life and light in their most general form to all, here we have those in virtue of which, as the now completed revelation of the Father, He carries this life and light onward to perfection in such as truly receive Him. Still, however, it is the glory of the Word in Himself that is before us; if men are introduced in the words which follow as beholders of His glory, it is that our thought may rest, not on the blessing man thus receives (that is expressed below, John 1:16-18), but on the witness borne to the glory of the Incarnate Word. The figure of this verse is taken from the Old Testament (Leviticus 26:11; Ezekiel 37:27, etc.); the Tabernacle was the meeting-place of God and Israel, the house in which Jehovah dwelt in the midst of his people. With the image of a tent or tabernacle is often associated the thought of transitoriness; but that the word used here does not necessarily carry with it this thought is sufficiently proved by the language of the final promise, ‘The tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall set His tabernacle with them: (Revelation 21:3). As the Shechinah dwelt in the Tabernacle, in the midst of the camp of Israel, so ‘the Word become flesh' dwelt ‘among us.' Some have taken the last words to mean ‘in us,' and to contain a new reference to the assumption of human nature; but this view seems plainly inconsistent with the words which follow, ‘we beheld His glory,' the meaning of which is fixed by the opening passage in the First Epistle (1 John 1:1-3). The glory was like that of an only son sent from a father; no image but this, it has been well said, ‘can express the twofold character of the glory, as at once derivative and on a level with its source.' In the only son are concentrated all the characteristics of the father; on him all the father's love is poured; to him belongs the whole inheritance; on him the father, when he sends him forth on an embassy, bestows all the plenitude of his power. The translation we have given is, we believe, that which the Greek words absolutely demand; it appears to us, moreover, to be the only rendering that gives meaning to the word of comparison ‘as,' or preserves the progress of the Evangelist's thought. As yet there has been no word bringing in the thought of Divine Sonship. The attributes and working of the Divine Word have been continually before us; here the glory of the Word become flesh is compared with that of an only son sent from a father; but it is not until John 1:18 that these elements are combined into one supreme utterance of truth. The last words of the verse must be connected with the subject of the sentence: ‘He (the Word) set His tabernacle among us, full of grace and truth.' They go far towards explaining the ‘glory' which the disciples ‘beheld.' That the Word has been from the beginning of the world's history the bestower of ‘grace and truth,' is implied in the imagery of the earlier verses (John 1:4; John 1:9); that which has been involved in the teaching respecting the Pre-incarnate Word is clearly stated here of the Word become flesh. But this fulness of grace and truth does not exhaust the meaning of the ‘glory.' In the glory of the Incarnate Word there are two elements, as His one Person unites two natures: in part the glory is unique (in kind and not only in degree), belonging to the God-man and not to the perfect Man; in part it is communicable to men, as Jesus Himself says, ‘The glory which Thou gavest me I have given them.'