Lesson for February 16, 2025

The Book of John

Lesson 3

John 1:14-18

Verse 14

^“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us at the Virgin Birth of Christ. The Virgin Birth is the only supernatural birth in human history. Since Jesus had no biological father, He was born without a sin nature and without Adam’s sin.

The necessity of the Virgin Birth is based on the fact that the sin nature is passed down to each member of the human race through the human father. Jesus Christ had to be born without a sin nature and without the imputation of Adam’s sin. He also had to live for 33 years without committing personal sin, which He did. Therefore, without His own sin to pay for, Jesus was qualified to go to the Cross and pay for the sin of the entire human race.

Incarnation is a term used for the birth of Christ and means embodied in flesh. Two natures became inseparably united at the Virgin Birth. The first nature was God (deity); the second nature was man (humanity). Therefore, Jesus Christ is the “God-man.” Jesus Christ is the unique Person of the universe. In His deity, Jesus retains all of the essence of the Godhead. He is fully God and fully human. Jesus Christ is eternal God. He is coequal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit, and His deity was never diminished at any time.

This unique union of Christ’s divine essence and human essence is called the Hypostatic Union. Hypostatic is the Greek noun “hupostassis,” meaning substance or essence. In Hypostatic Union, the two natures of Christ were united without transfer of attributes from one to the other. The essence of His deity cannot be changed, Hebrews 13:8, ^“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever.” 

To remove a single attribute of Christ’s deity would destroy His deity and to remove a single attribute of Christ’s humanity would destroy His humanity. While fulfilling God the Father’s plan for mankind, certain attributes of deity were not manifest, though they were always there. This does not imply that they were surrendered or destroyed. This is made clear in the Doctrine of Kenosis where Christ restricted the use of His deity but never emptied Himself of His deity.

Kenosis is the doctrine pertaining to Christ voluntarily restricting the function of His deity. This doctrine takes its name from the Greek word “kenoo,” which means to deprive oneself of a rightful function. This doctrine explains how Christ, the Creator of the universe, could leave Heaven and become a man. Though Christ was “rich” (deity), for our sakes He became “poor” (humanity). II Corinthians 8:9 “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”

During His life on earth, Jesus could be simultaneously omnipotent (all-powerful) in His deity and weak in His humanity. He could be omniscient (all-knowing) in His deity and lack knowledge in His humanity. He could be omnipresent in His deity and be located in one place at a time in His humanity. Luke 2:52, “And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom (knowledge of Bible doctrine) and stature (physically and spiritually), and in favor with God and people.”

It was necessary for Jesus Christ to become a human being so that He could not only die spiritually as the payment for sin, but could also die physically. His physical death was necessary so that believers could also conquer physical death, as He did, and receive a resurrection body like His. It was also necessary for Jesus Christ to become a human being in order to be the Mediator between God and mankind (a mediator must have an affinity with both parties). And it was necessary for Jesus Christ to become a human being in order for Him to become our High Priest. 

Philippians 2:7-8, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped (held on to), but emptied Himself (of His rightful place as deity in Heaven) by taking the form of a bondservant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.”

John 1:14b, “And we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Jesus demonstrated Who He was by the life He lived, by the words He spoke, by the way He treated others, and by the miracles He performed. This is the glory that John saw in the Person of Christ while He was here on earth. Jesus retained His eternal glory in His deity, even after becoming a human being. At no time did He become less than deity. On the Cross, Jesus paid the penalty for our sin when He became sin for us. This, however, did not in any way dimmish His eternal glory. In this way, Jesus was someone unique. His birth was unique, His life was unique, His death was unique, and His resurrection was unique.

Full of grace and truth is a reference to the uniqueness of His humanity. Jesus is the only human being to live a life of perfection, even though He was tempted on numerous occasions to commit personal sin. Because He studied and learned grace and truth from the Word of God, as it was revealed at the time He lived, He was able to resist the temptation to commit personal sin. Jesus fully understood and lived His life on the basis of God’s grace and the application of the truth of God’s Word to His life as a human being. 

Verse 15

^“John testified about Him and called out, saying, ‘This was He of whom I said, He Who is coming after me has proved to be my superior, because He existed before me.’”

In Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3, John the Baptist was prophesied as the coming messenger, who would announce the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Jesus confirmed this prophesy in Matthew 11:7-10. John was a person of humble means with only one mission in life. The Bible says in Matthew 3:1-6 that he wore a garment of camel’s hair and leather and ate locusts and wild honey. He understood his calling from God and fulfilled it to the fullest. And he obviously understood the superiority of the Messiah, as he stated in Matthew 3:15-16.

Verse 16

^“For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.”

The Greek word for fullness is “pleroma,” meaning to be full of something. In the case of believers, we have been placed into union with Him. Therefore, we are “full” of Christ, positionally speaking. This position was received at salvation the moment we put our faith in Christ as our Savior.

Grace upon grace means that the grace that we received at salvation continues throughout our lives as believers. Jesus Christ paid for our sins on the Cross when He was judged for our sins, which was a function of God’s grace. Ephesians 2:8-9, ^“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

God continues to provide grace for believers after salvation (grace upon grace). Just as God provided everything for salvation, He also provides everything for our spiritual lives. Therefore, the Christian life is not what you do for God, but what God does for you in grace. Ephesians 4:11-13, “And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

 Verses 17-18

^“For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; God the only Son, Who is in the arms of the Father, He has explained Him.”

Jesus introduced a new dispensation that was about to begin, once He returned to Heaven, called the Age of Grace or the Church Age. In contrast to the Age of Israel, where believers in the coming Messiah followed the teachings of the Mosaic Law, which is the Word of God, those of us in the Age of Grace follow the teachings of Jesus. I Corinthians 2:16 tells us that we have the mind of Christ. Christ’s mind has been given to us in the completed canon of Scripture. Therefore, we follow God’s plan for our lives after salvation (which has always been through faith alone in Christ alone) on the basis of God’s grace and God’s truth found in the Bible.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the only revealed member of the Godhead. Jesus has explained to the human race Who God is and what His plan for them is. For those who accept the plan of God, which begins with accepting the payment for sin that Christ made for us, God has provided a written copy of that plan called the Bible. Jesus foretold the plan for the Church Age in John 16:5-15. He said that He would send the Holy Spirit to continue to teach believers the truth that Jesus taught.