The Story Continues

John 1:14-18

Main Idea: The coming of Jesus Christ is not the beginning of the gospel story but its next chapter.

1. The Gospel Embodied in Jesus (1:14a)
   1. If Jesus did not become a man, he could not be tempted.
   2. If Jesus did not become a man, he could not be an example.
   3. If Jesus did not become a man, he could not die.
2. The Gospel Explained in Jesus (1:14b-18)
   1. Jesus and the tabernacle
   2. Jesus and the glory of God
   3. Jesus and the prophets
   4. Jesus and the law
   5. Jesus and the Father

Do you find the Old Testament confusing—just a bunch of people with strange names doing strange things in strange places? Written more than two thousand years ago in a dialect no one speaks anymore, it can feel irrelevant to our lives. Imagine living in John’s day as a devout Jew. As you hear John talk about Jesus, it raises a few questions in your mind: Did God start his entire plan of salvation over? How does the coming of Jesus fit into God’s plan? What am I supposed to do with everything I’ve learned and been taught from the Scriptures up to this point?

These are important questions for us to consider. Is the coming of Jesus Christ the start of God’s new plan to save people? How does it connect to what was written before? The coming of Jesus Christ is not the beginning of the gospel story but the next chapter. The Old Testament and the New Testament are not two different books about two different subjects. They are two parts of the same story. Mark Dever labeled the Old Testament “Promises Made” and the New Testament “Promises Kept” (Message of the Old Testament and Message of the New Testament). All of these promises—the ones made in the OT and kept in the NT—are part of what we call the good news of the gospel.

The good news that God would provide a way for sinners to be reconciled to himself was first proclaimed in the garden of Eden. When mankind sinned, God promised the seed of a woman would be born who would bring victory over sin and its awful effects. The rest of the Old Testament traces the promised seed of God, all the while reminding us of God’s grace and his plan to bring salvation. The gospel story did not begin with the birth of Jesus. The gospel story began long before. As John wraps up this prologue to his Gospel, we see a wonderful picture of the gospel in the person of Jesus—in him we see the gospel embodied and explained.

The Gospel Embodied in Jesus

John 1:14a

Few statements in Scripture are as profound as the first statement of verse 14: “The Word became flesh.” The Word is the preexistent, divine Creator of the universe. The Word is the uncreated Son of God. To say the Word became flesh is amazing! How could God become a man?

• Some have suggested the Word (Jesus Christ) came to dwell in a man. He did not himself become a man. But John says, “The Word became flesh.”
• Others have said Jesus Christ just appeared like a man. He didn’t actually take on human form and become a man. He must have been an apparition because it’s impossible for God who is Spirit to take on bodily form. While it’s difficult for us to understand how this could happen, we can understand what John writes—“The Word became flesh.”
• Still others have suggested God simply chose a man and made him his Son. But this ignores what John wrote earlier. The same one who became flesh (v. 14) is also the one who was in the beginning with God, who was with God, and who was God (v. 1).

In a small manger in Bethlehem the eternal Son of God became a man. We can hold to this truth—called the incarnation—even if we cannot comprehend all it means. We can affirm that Jesus has always existed (v. 1, he was in the beginning) and that there was a definite point in human history when he was born as a baby (v. 14, he became flesh). Jesus is both fully God and fully human. Anyone who denies either the full deity or full humanity of Jesus Christ is a false teacher (1 John 4:1-2). Affirming the full humanity of Jesus in no way diminishes his deity. The apostle Paul affirms this reality in the book of Colossians: “For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ” (2:9).

Why would the eternal, preexistent God become this baby cradled in the arms of a peasant woman?

If Jesus Did Not Become a Man, He Could Not Be Tempted

Apart from his human nature, Jesus could not have experienced temptation. The incarnation provides us with an advocate before the Father’s throne who knows exactly what we’re going through and exactly how it feels. God became man so he could sympathize with our weakness and so he could assure us that victory over sin and temptation is possible through his strength.

If Jesus Did Not Become a Man, He Could Not Be an Example

Do you remember when WWJD was popular? Bracelets, T-shirts, bumper stickers, pretty much every trinket you could think of was being sold with those four letters. Those letters, of course, stood for What Would Jesus Do? Maybe you got a little annoyed with the marketing, but we should ask what Jesus would do. Because Jesus became a man, we can know how he would respond.

If Jesus Did Not Become a Man, He Could Not Die

We should never look at Bethlehem without seeing Calvary. We should never contemplate the incarnation without our thoughts drifting to the crucifixion. J. I. Packer reminds us,

The crucial significance of the cradle at Bethlehem lies in its place in the sequence of steps down that led the Son of God to the cross of Calvary, and we do not understand it till we see it in this context . . . the taking of manhood by the Son is set before us in a way which shows us how we should ever view it—not simply as a marvel of nature, but rather as a wonder of grace. (Knowing God, 58–59)

The incarnation is amazing because of why God became man: so he could die for our sin. He renounced the glory due him, becoming poor, so that through his poverty we might become rich.

The Gospel Explained in Jesus

John 1:14b-18

The gospel is presented in the Old Testament. From the seed of the woman in Genesis 3 through the exodus from Egypt, from the story of Ruth and Boaz to the words of the prophet Isaiah, the good news of God’s salvation was repeatedly made clear. However, Jesus revealed the ultimate embodiment of the gospel. We see this fuller revelation of the gospel when we examine the relationship between Jesus and five Old Testament truths.

Jesus and the Tabernacle

In verse 14 John uses an interesting word—the word translated “dwelt.” He only uses it one other time (7:2), when he’s referring to the Festival of Shelters (or Booths or Tabernacles). This word dwelt could be translated “pitched his tent” and would instantly remind anyone familiar with the Old Testament of the tabernacle. The tabernacle was instituted by God as the place where he would dwell in the midst of the people of Israel. It was the forerunner of the temple; it was a tent that went before the children of Israel as they made their way to the promised land. Within the tabernacle was the most holy place, where God came to meet man. Just as God came to meet man in the tabernacle, he came to meet man in the person of Jesus. Worship for the Jews centered on the tabernacle and then the temple, but once Jesus came, he became the center of worship. Only through Jesus could man be brought to God.

Jesus and the Glory of God

One could not think of the tabernacle in the OT without being reminded of the glory of God. As Israel marched through the wilderness on the way to the promised land, the glory of the Lord appearing like a cloud went with them, regularly descending on the tabernacle. In the Old Testament the glory of the Lord was the “visible manifestation of the excellence of God’s character” (Grudem, Systematic Theology, 221). In other words, the glory of God was the greatness of God seen visibly. When Jews looked at the tabernacle, they would see a partial and incomplete picture of the glory of God (this visible display of his goodness, greatness, and holiness) emanating from it. John’s point in verse 14 is that when Jesus came to earth as a man to dwell with men, the glory of God was seen in its fullness.

The truthfulness of God to keep his promises and the grace of God to rescue his people found their ultimate expression when God sent Jesus. John could say in effect, “Our fathers experienced the grace and faithfulness of God, but if you want an even greater demonstration of it, look to Jesus.”

Jesus and the Prophets

Jesus is superior to John the Baptist because Jesus was before him, even though John the Baptist was born six months before Jesus (Luke 1). John the Baptist is saying Jesus is the eternally existing God. John was considered the last of the OT prophets. Like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others before him, John’s role was to prepare the people for the coming Messiah. The only difference was that he had the opportunity to point to Jesus physically and say in effect, “There he is. There is the one we’ve been telling you about.” Sending Jesus was not a new plan of God. John the Baptist continued in the long line of messengers, testifying to the promise of God and declaring the gospel.

Jesus and the Law

There is no other source of grace but in Christ, where we find an inexhaustible supply (vv. 16-17). The focus here is more than just that we receive grace from Christ; it’s that this grace is fuller or more complete than what God had provided before Christ. The giving of the law was a matter of grace. God has always desired his people to respond to him in faith and, as a result of that faith, to live in obedience to his word. However, because of the Israelites’ lack of faith and their disobedience, God gave them the law as a means of protection. The law was able to show them the sinfulness of their actions (Rom 7:13), but the law was never intended to save the Jews. The purpose of the law was not to draw people to itself, for it had no grace to offer. The law itself was not an instrument of grace. Rather, God would give grace through Jesus to those who violated his law (Gal 3:13).

The grace of the law was that it pointed people to Jesus, but how much more grace was given when Jesus came! The grace of God was seen in the law everywhere the shadow of Jesus Christ fell, whether in the Passover or in the temple sacrifices. But when Jesus came, the shadows no longer mattered; the light of Jesus Christ revealed completely what the shadows had revealed in part.

Jesus and the Father

In Jesus Christ the Father is revealed in a way and a depth previously unknown. In verse 18 the word translated “revealed” is rare—only used six times in Scripture—and carries the idea that the whole story has now been told. Jesus came to share the whole story of God and his perfect plan of redemption. This is not a new story, but in Jesus this wonderful story of grace is perfectly and fully explained.

Conclusion

The first eighteen verses of this Gospel remind us that the promises beginning in the book of Genesis and continuing through the entire Old Testament are finally realized in Jesus Christ. He is the promised Messiah. He’s the answer to man’s need for a Savior. This man is far more than a man; he is God become man. These eighteen verses introduce us to the Word, to Jesus Christ, but they also introduce us to God’s grace in human form. Only through Jesus could the great gulf between utterly undeserving man and a completely holy God be bridged.

• The gospel story is a rescue story, and Jesus is the rescuer.
• The gospel story is a promise, and Jesus is the fulfillment.
• The gospel story is all about Jesus Christ and the grace he has made available to all.

You may be familiar with John Newton’s song “Amazing Grace,” but are you familiar with why he wrote it? Newton wrote a lot of songs for his church, and a member of his church named William Cowper often helped him. Cowper was a fantastic poet who wrote such songs as “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood” and “God Moves in Mysterious Ways.” Yet Cowper battled his entire life with darkness, depression, and self-condemnation. The song “Amazing Grace” was written by Newton for a New Year’s Day service in 1773. Newton always wrote his hymns with the needs of his congregation in mind.

On January 1, 1773 there was one individual who was desperately in need of understanding the message that God’s grace can save the worst of wretches. This was William Cowper whose depression was spiraling downward in a vortex of madness that led to his attempted suicide a few hours later. Central to Cowper’s madness was a deep-rooted fear that God had rejected him despite his faith. Newton . . . had tried hard to persuade Cowper that God’s grace is universal and never withheld from a believer. . . . Could Newton have hoped that the words of Amazing Grace . . . might relieve Cowper’s fear and spiritual blindness, leading him out of the dangers and snares . . . toward the security of God’s grace? (Aitken, John Newton, 229)

It was Cowper’s struggle with doubt, anxiety, and guilt that motivated these particular words from Newton:

Through many dangers, toils and snares,

we have already come.

‘Twas Grace that brought us safe thus far,

and Grace will lead us home.

Never forget the grace that flows freely from Jesus Christ. If God was willing to send his Son to be born as a man and to die as a criminal for you, do you think he’ll ever withhold his grace from you? If your faith is in Jesus Christ, then from him abundant, overflowing, amazing grace is being poured out. God’s grace is sufficient. Never lose sight. Never lose hope. His grace will lead you home.

Reflect and Discuss

1. What are we to believe about Jesus from this passage?
2. How does Jesus show unity between the Old and New Testaments?
3. What are some incorrect understandings of “the Word became flesh”?
4. Why did God choose to lower himself and become a man born as the baby of a peasant woman?
5. How is the gospel presented in the Old Testament?
6. How was God’s giving the law in the Old Testament an act of grace? How is that grace made full in Jesus?
7. How does Jesus reveal God’s character, excellence, and glory?
8. What about God’s character revealed in Jesus is most striking to you?
9. In what way is the gospel a present hope in your life today?
10. When you think of Jesus, do you think of him as a revelation of God’s character? Explain your answer.