The Word Became Flesh!

John 1:14-And the Word became 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. NKJV

After spending so much time blogging about praising the Lord, I intensely desire to focus on Him.

If you have ever gone through a discipleship program, you may have been told to start reading the Bible in the book of John. Some suggest that it is because John is such an easy-to-read gospel, which is true. Others aren’t sure why they tell new believers to start with this gospel; they just make the suggestion out of tradition. But I submit that new and mature believers alike need to read the gospel of John because it is written with a focus on Jesus, the Son of God!

John begins his gospel with the words:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1 NKJV

In and of itself, this verse may not help us to see Jesus, the Son of God. But as you continue to read the verses that follow, they clearly lead us to Jesus. Verse 2 states,

He was in the beginning with God

John 1:2 NKJV

Immediately, John lets the readers know that the Word that was, in the beginning, is indeed a person and not a thing. John continues by stating that He, the Word, was in the beginning with God. And since we understand that God has always existed, we know that the Word has always been in existence!

All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

John 1:3 NKJV

John tells his readers that the Word made everything and that nothing was made without Him. Genesis 1:1 states:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1 NKJV

John is therefore making a connection between the God of creation and the Word as being the same. Remember that John has already shared that the Word was in the beginning, the Word was with God, and the Word was God! Therefore, everything was indeed made through the Word, and nothing in existence is here aside from the Word.

Matthew Henry wrote these words in his commentary about the first five verses of John, chapter 1:

Austin says (de Civitate Dei, lib. 10, cap. 29) that his friend Simplicius told him he had heard a Platonic philosopher say that these first verses of St. John’s gospel were worthy to be written in letters of gold. The learned Francis Junius, in the account he gives of his own life, tells how he was in his youth infected with loose notions in religion, and by the grace of God was wonderfully recovered by reading accidentally these verses in a bible which his father had designedly laid in his way. He says that he observed such a divinity in the argument, such an authority and majesty in the style, that his flesh trembled, and he was struck with such amazement that for a whole day he scarcely knew where he was or what he did; and thence he dates the beginning of his being religious.

Matthew Henry, commentary on John 1:1-5

John told us the purpose of his book as he was bringing it to a close:

But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

John 20:31 NKJV

Rex Humbard, in his introduction to the book of John, wrote that

John selected the signs he used for the specific purpose of creating intellectual (“that you may believe”) and spiritual (“that believing you may have life”) conviction about the Son of God.

Rex Humbard, The Prophetic Bible, Introduction to John

While many people believe that our faith in Jesus is blind faith, John and the other Bible writers argue that there is nothing blind about our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God! Therefore, John wrote his gospel to clearly state the evidence that points to Jesus as the Son of God and to ignite faith in its readers to receive Him!

It is in the 14th verse of chapter 1 that John connects the Word of God to the Son of God:

And the Word became 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.

John 1:14 NKJV

William Barclay wrote that this sentence is at the heart of all John was writing about in his gospel:

He has thought and talked about the word of God, that powerful, creative, dynamic word which was the agent of creation, that guiding, directing, controlling word which puts order into the universe and intelligence into human beings…Now he says the most startling and incredible thing that he could have said.

Willima Barclay, Commentary on John

John noted that because Jesus was in the flesh, God was visible to all. When Moses asked God to show him His glory, God told Moses that he could only see His back. But John states that the Glory of God the Father was beheld when Jesus was seen, and He was full of grace and truth! No vision, dream, or veil was needed to experience His glory because Jesus of Nazareth embodied it in His person.

This truth is crucial to our understanding of Jesus being the Son of God. John wrote in one of his epistles:

By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.

1 John 4:2-3 NKJV

It is said that 90% of the gospel of John is original to John. In other words, his gospel is different from the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke in that most of his accounts of Jesus are only written in his book. In the book of John, we find the “I Am” statements that Jesus made of Himself regarding His deity. I have already blogged on these statements in the past and will only mention them today:

• I am the bread of life-John 6:35
• I am the light of the world-John 8:12
• I am the door-John 10:7
• I am the good shepherd- John 10:11
• I am the resurrection and the life-John 11:25
• I am the way, the truth, and the life- John 14:6
• I am the true vine-John 15:1-5

John also writes about the witnesses that testify that Jesus is the Son of God and the signs that point to Jesus being the Son of God. In the blogs coming up, I will focus on the witnesses and the signs.

As we progress, I hope to bring out a couple of things. First, John writes in contrast throughout his book, comparing subjects like “light to darkness” and “faith to unbelief.” Secondly, in his gospel, the verb “believe” is frequently mentioned. John wants his readers to know that those who believe in Jesus as the Son of God shall be saved, and those who do not believe in the Son of God shall be condemned.

With this as our background for future posts, I’d like to encourage you to stay tuned as we delve into why we believe Jesus is the Son of God! Wonderful Jesus!