John's return to the Word in verse 14 from verse 1 introduces new revelation about Him. Though still part of the prologue, the present section focuses on the Incarnation of the Word.
1:14 The Word, who existed equal with God before anything else came into being, became a human.47This is the most concise statement of the Incarnation. He did not just appear to be a man; He became one (cf. Phil. 2:5-9). Yet He maintained His full deity. The word "became"(Gr. egeneto) usually implies a complete change, but that was not true in Jesus' case. He did not cease to be God. Flesh in Scripture has a literal meaning, namely material human flesh, and a metaphorical meaning, human nature.48Here John used it in the metaphorical sense. God the Son assumed a human, though not sinful, nature.
"John does not say, the Word became man,' nor the Word took a body.' He chooses that form of expression which puts what he wants to say most bluntly. It seems probable that he was confronted by opponents of a docetic type, people who were ready to think of Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ of God but who denied the reality of his humanity. They thought of him as only appearing to live a human life. Since God could not, on their premises, defile himself by real contact with humankind, the whole life of Jesus must be appearance only. John's strong term leaves no room for such fancies. He is clear on the deity of the Word. But he is just as clear on the genuineness of his humanity."49
Jesus literally lived among His disciples. The Greek word eskenosen, translated "dwelt"or "lived,"is related to skene, meaning tabernacle. As God's presence dwelt among the Israelites in the tabernacle, so it lived among them in the person of Jesus temporarily (cf. Exod. 25:8-9; 33:7, 11).50Solomon thought it incredible that God would dwell on the earth (1 Kings 8:27), but that is precisely what He did in Jesus.
For the first time, John equated the Word and Jesus, but this is the last reference to the Word in this Gospel. From now on, John referred to the Word by His historical name, Jesus, and to the personal terms "Father"and "Son."
"As the preexistent Son of God, he was the Creator of the world and the Executor of the will of the Father. As the incarnate Son of God, he exercised in his human existence these same powers and revealed effectively the person of the Father."51
The glory that John and the other disciples beheld as eyewitnesses refers to the god-like characteristics of Jesus (cf. Exod. 33:22; Deut. 5:22; Isa. 60:1; 1 John 1:1-2). God's character and qualities came through Jesus as a human son resembles his human father, except that the likeness in Jesus' case was exact (Phil. 2:6). The disciples saw Jesus' glory clearest at the Transfiguration (Matt. 17:2-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36). His relationship to the Father was unique, and so was His similarity to the Father. Jesus' relationship to God as His Son was unique (Gr. monogenous, cf. v. 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9) even though we can become children of God (vv. 12-13). He is eternal and of the same essence as the Father. "Only begotten"does not mean that there was a time when Jesus was not, and then the Father brought Him into being.52
Particularly grace and truth marked the glory of God that Jesus manifested. Grace in this context refers to graciousness (i.e., goodness, Heb. hesed), and truth means integrity (i.e., truthfulness, Heb. yemet, cf. v. 17). The Incarnation was the greatest possible expression of God's grace to humankind. It was also the best way to communicate truth accurately to human understanding. Nevertheless many people who encountered Jesus during His ministry failed to see these things (v. 10). Neither grace nor truth are knowable apart from God who has revealed them through Jesus Christ.53
1:15 John the Baptist was another witness beside John the Apostle and the other disciples of Jesus who testified to Jesus' person.
"John the Baptist is one of six persons named in the Gospel of John who gave witness that Jesus Is God. The others are Nathanael (John 1:49), Peter (John 6:69), the blind man who was healed (John 9:35-38), Martha (John 11:27), and Thomas (John 20:28). If you add our Lord Himself (John 5:25; 10:36), then you have seven clear witnesses."54
Even though John the Baptist was older and began his ministry before Jesus, He acknowledged Jesus' superiority to himself.
"In a society where age and precedence bestowed peculiar honour, that might have been taken by superficial observers to mean John the Baptist was greater than Jesus."55
Jesus' superiority rested in His preexistence with the Father and therefore His deity. John the Baptist's witness to Jesus' identity was important to the writer of this Gospel (cf. vv. 6-8, 19-36).
1:16 The glory of God that Jesus manifested was full of grace and truth (v. 14). From the fullness of that grace all people have received one expression of grace after another.
There are several possible interpretations of the phrase "grace upon grace"(NASB, Gr. charin anti charitos). The problem is the meaning of the preposition antihere. Some interpreters believe that John was saying grace follows grace as ocean wave follows wave washing believers with successive blessings.56The NIV "one blessing after another"effectively expresses this view, and the NASB "grace upon grace"implies it. Another translation that gives the same sense is "grace to meet every need that arises (see 2 Cor. xii. 9)."57It is true that God keeps pouring out His inexhaustible grace on the believer through Jesus Christ, but is this what John meant here?
A second view is that the Greek preposition antimeans "instead of"here as it often does elsewhere.58According to this interpretation John meant that God's grace though Jesus Christ replaces the grace that He bestowed through Moses when He gave the law. Verse 17 seems to continue this thought and so supports this interpretation.
I wonder if John may have intended both ideas. He could have been thinking of God's grace in Jesus Christ superseding His grace through Moses and continuing to supply the Christian day by day. This interpretation recognizes John's mention of the fullness of God's grace as well as the contrast in verse 17.
Another less acceptable view is that antimeans "corresponds to."59The grace we receive corresponds in some way to the grace Jesus receives from the Father. However, antirarely has this meaning by itself, though it does occasionally when it combines with other nouns. Furthermore this interpretation offers no connection with verse 17.
A fourth view, also inadequate from my viewpoint, is that antimeans "in return for."60Yet the idea of God giving us grace in return for grace that we give to him is foreign to the New Testament.
1:17 Whereas Moses was the individual through whom God gave His law to His people, Jesus Christ is the one through whom He has manifested abundant grace and truth.61This statement shows the superiority of the gracious dispensation that Jesus introduced over the legal dispensation that Moses inaugurated (cf. Rom. 5:20-21; Eph. 2:8). The legal age contained grace, and the gracious age contains laws.62John was contrasting their dominant characteristics. Law expresses God's standards, but grace provides help so we can do His will.63
"What God showed Himself to be through His revelation in the Torah, so now Jesus shows Himself to be through the Incarnation. And what was the Torah? It was not handcuffs, but Yahweh's pointed finger, graciously marking out to the redeemed the path of life and fellowship with Him [cf. Deut. 6:1-3]. The point of John 1:17 is not Then bad, now good'; the point is rather, Then, wonderful! And now, better than ever!'"64
This verse clearly contrasts the two dispensations in view. Even non-dispensationalists acknowledge this and admit that they recognize two different economies, the Old Testament legal economy and the New Testament gracious economy. They are more dispensational than they are willing to admit.
1:18 There are many passages of Scripture that record various individuals seeing God (e.g., Exod. 33:21-23; Isa. 6:1-5; Rev. 1:10-18). Those instances involved visions, theophanies, or anthropomorphic representations of God rather than encounters with His unveiled spiritual essence (cf. Exod. 33:20; Deut. 4:12; Ps. 97:2; 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16; 1 John 4:12). The way we know what God is like is not by viewing His essence. No one can do that and live. God has sent His unique and only Son (monogenous, cf. v. 14) from His own most intimate presence to reveal God to humankind.
"In the bosom ofis a Hebrew idiom expressing the intimate relationship of child and parent, and of friend and friend (cf. xiii. 23)."65
In the system that Moses inaugurated, no one could "see"God, but Jesus has revealed Him now to everyone. Note also that John called Jesus God here again.66
Jesus "explained"(NASB) God in the sense of revealing Him. The Greek word is exegesatofrom which we get "exegete."The Son has exegeted (i.e., explained, interpreted, or narrated) the Father to humankind. The reference to Jesus being in the bosom of the Father softens and brings affection to the idea of Jesus exegeting the Father. The nature of God is in view here, not His external appearance.
"God is invisible, not because he is unreal, but because physical eyes are incapable of detecting him. The infrared and ultraviolet rays of the light spectrum are invisible because the human eye is not sensitive enough to register them. However, photographic plates or a spectroscope can make them visible to us. Deity as a being is consequently known only through spiritual means that are able to receive its (his) communications."67
John ended his prologue as he began it, with a reference to Jesus' deity. He began by saying the Word was with God (v. 1), and he concluded by saying that He was at the Father's side. This indicates the intimate fellowship, love, and knowledge that the Father and the Son shared. It also gives us confidence that the revelation of the Father that Jesus revealed is accurate. John's main point in this prologue was that Jesus is the ultimate revealer of God.
". . . John in his use of Logosis cutting clean across one of the fundamental Greek ideas. The Greeks thought of the gods as detached from the world, as regarding its struggles and heartaches and joys and fears with serene divine lack of feeling. John's idea of the Logosconveys exactly the opposite idea. John's Logosdoes not show us a God who is serenely detached, but a God who is passionately involved."68
Later John described himself as reclining on Jesus' bosom (cf. 13:23). His Gospel is an accurate revelation of the Word because John enjoyed intimate fellowship with Him just as Jesus was an accurate revelation of God that came from intimate relationship with Him.
