John 1:14–18

 God’s word made flesh…imagine the power of His word and then imagine the power of the tongue. Our words can be used to build up or to tear down. 

The way of Holy Spirit is full of grace and love. He never condemns He convicts. He takes the Word of God, Jesus, and brings it to life in those who believe and trust in Him.

Believers should be living examples of the love of Christ in this world. We should be known by the fruit of the Spirit showing in our lives. Nothing lasts forever but Gods’ love for His creation and those who partake of it.

We love because He first loved us!!

John 1:14–18

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.

15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ”

16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

The Greek verb used here literally means “to dwell in a tent” and likely alludes to the old testament tabernacle  as God’s dwelling among His people. Through His Son, God is taking up a post among His people just as He had done for ancient Israel.

The glory of Jesus, the Word, is the same as the glory of God the Father. The Greek term monogenēs, meaning “one and only” carries the sense of uniqueness and special beloved status. John’s use of monogenēs foreshadows the emphasis on the intimate relationship between Jesus and God the Father. Jesus is the unique and beloved Son of God, sent from God to fully represent the Father on earth and reveal the Father and His plan for salvation in a previously unparalleled way. The Son reflects the Father perfectly and perfectly carries out His will. The close relationship of Father and Son means their works and will are in perfect unity.

Alluding to two central attributes of the divine character, used throughout the old testament, are steadfast love and faithfulness. Jesus embodies the ultimate expression of God’s covenant loyalty and unmerited favor toward the world that rejected Him. 

John contrasts Moses with Jesus, emphasizing the superiority of the gospel of Christ to the law of Moses. Throughout his Gospel, John presents Jesus as the fulfillment of old testament expectations. The world will fully see God only as revealed through Jesus. Faithlife Bible.

The Son of God who was from eternity became human, with limitations in time and space. This is the doctrine of the incarnation: God became human. Nothing of the essential nature of deity was lost in this event; we might rephrase became as “took to Himself.” John uses the word flesh to refer to the physical nature of humans, not to our sinful disposition. Dwelt comes from the Greek word for tent that was used in the Greek OT for the tabernacle, where the presence of God dwelt. In the OT, glory refers to the divine presence. As God manifested His glory in the tabernacle, so Jesus displayed His divine presence before the apostles. Only begotten means unique, one of a kind. All who trust Christ are born of God. In the Gospel of John, these “born ones” are called children of God, but Jesus Christ is the unique Son of God. He is the only Son who is fully God. He is also full of grace and truth. When God revealed Himself to Moses, He proclaimed Himself to be “abounding in goodness and truth”. As applied to Jesus Christ, this phrase marks Him as the author of perfect redemption and perfect revelation.

Jesus was born after John the Baptist and began His ministry later than John the Baptist. Yet John the Baptist said Jesus was before him, meaning that Jesus’ existence is from eternity past. Grace for grace means grace piled upon grace. Moses and the people had received grace, but they were in tremendous need of more grace.

Throughout the NT, grace is God’s favor expressed to sinful humankind apart from any human works or worth. Though there was abundant grace and truth expressed by God through the Law He gave Moses, it is in the person of Jesus Christ that grace and truth are realized to the fullest. NKJ Bible.

Christ was the true Light; that great Light which deserves to be called so. By his Spirit and grace he enlightens all that are enlightened to salvation; and those that are not enlightened by him, perish in darkness. Christ was in the world when he took our nature upon him, and dwelt among us. The Son of the Highest was here in this lower world. He was in the world, but not of it. He came to save a lost world, because it was a world of his own making. Yet the world knew him not. When he comes as a Judge, the world shall know him. Many say that they are Christ’s own, yet do not receive him, because they will not part with their sins, nor have him to reign over them. All the children of God are born again. This new birth is through the word of God as the means and by the Spirit of God as the Author. By his Divine presence Christ always was in the world. But now that the fulness of time was come, he was, after another manner, God manifested in the flesh. Matthew Henry Commentary.

Matthew 3:11 indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Matthew 11:27 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Colossians 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,

1 John 4:9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.