John 1:14-18

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/Johns_Picture_of_the_Logos.htm

AW Tozer defined idolatry as “any wrong idea about God.”  By that definition I am certain that all of us are idolaters because I don’t think any of us have a completely accurate understanding of exactly who God is.  In other words, I think that when we enter into the presence of God for the first time we will be “blown away.”  We will spend all of eternity growing in our understanding of God and marveling at His glory.  If that will be our experience in heaven, it only makes sense that growing in our understanding of God should be one of our principle pursuits in life on earth.  As has been stated before, Jesus came into the world to reveal God to man and reconcile man to God.  Our understanding of God will be in direct proportion to our knowledge of Jesus as He has been revealed in Scripture.  John gives us three descriptions of who Jesus is and thereby helps us understand more completely exactly who God is.

THE GLORY OF JESUS: Jesus, the Word, took on flesh.  This means that Jesus, Son of God, second Person of the Trinity became a man.  Prior to the incarnation the Son of God existed eternally as a spirit like the Father and the Holy Spirit.  At the incarnation the Son of God became a man with a body and He continues now and forever as a man with a body.  At the right hand of the Father in heaven at this very moment sits a Man named Jesus.  Jesus came to dwell among man so that that man might have a greater understanding of the glory of God.  Jesus came to dwell with us for a period of time so that one day we might be able to dwell with Him for all of eternity.  The glory of God is something that we cannot now see and in some respects was even “laid aside” by Jesus during His time on earth.  When the apostles came into the presence of Jesus in heaven in all of His glory I believe that they too were “blown away.”  But all that we need to know about God in order for us to be able to enter His presence was revealed and accomplished by Jesus when He took on flesh and dwelt among us.  John describes Jesus’s glory as being full of grace and truth.  God’s grace is one of His most glorious attributes and one for which we should be eternally grateful.  Jesus is truth and the exact representation of God because He is God. 

THE GREATNESS OF JESUS: John records for us the testimony of John the Baptist who attested to the greatness of Jesus.  John the Baptist was a highly respected prophet with a great influence on the population at his time.  In fact Jesus said that he was the greatest of all the prophets up until the time of Jesus.  That is very high praise.  However, John made it very clear that Jesus was far greater than he was.  John the Baptist also points to the eternality of Jesus by affirming that Jesus was before him.  On earth John was born before his younger cousin Jesus.  But John was well aware that Jesus existed eternally long before he did.  The fact that Jesus became a man must never confuse us into thinking that He is somehow less great than He was before.  The Son of God was not demoted at the incarnation.  His greatness has never and will never be diminished.  He is not and forever the same. 

THE GRACE OF JESUS:  The glory and greatness of God has been revealed to us in the person of Jesus.  That fact that Jesus took on flesh and became a man is a clear demonstration of the grace of God.  God has always been gracious, but when Jesus came to earth, died for our sin, rose from the dead and was exalted to the throne of God to intercede for us, that was grace upon grace.  God does not need us.  He loves us and takes pleasure in His relationship with us; but He in no way needs us.  We, on the other hand, desperately need Him.  It is purely by His grace and because of His love that Jesus came to make a relationship with God possible.  Prior to the coming of Jesus man had a very limited revelation of God and ability to understand His plan of reconciliation.  The Old Testament points to Jesus and prepared mankind for the coming of Messiah.  When Jesus came He gave us a true view of who God is.  Once again we see grace and truth walking hand in hand in the person of Christ.  We cannot see Jesus as only grace because He is also truth.  He came to prepare us to be able to see God in all of His glory and greatness.  We have not yet seen the Father but all that we need to know of the Father has been revealed to us by Jesus.


APPLICATION: We need to bow in worship before the glory of God and make it our aim in life to grow in our understanding of God.  Just as John the Baptist testified to the greatness of God; we must be faithful to testify of God’s greatness as our life’s work.  We must be eternally grateful for the grace of God and thank Him for His love and desire to have a relationship with us.  The truth of who God is as revealed by Jesus must be a truth we strive to understand.

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