And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth;
John's Gospel opens by describing One who was in the beginning, who was with God, and who was God. Now it says this Person became something He had not been before, and readers have asked ever since what "flesh" means here and whose glory the witnesses saw.
The verse marks a turning point in the chapter. Everything before it describes the Word's own nature; here something happens.
In verse 14 a new part begins. Before, it was what He was; now, what He became. The Word became flesh and lived among us. It was a real thing, not like God appearing to Abraham for a visit. He pitched His tent among us.
One writer looks closely at the word "became":
When Scripture says that the Word became flesh, it teaches us this was a new beginning. It was a condition that did not exist before. Now it is true of the One who was and is the Word.
The word chosen is the lowest word available for human nature.
"Flesh" describes humanity by its lowest part. The depth of this stooping down is the glory of what is revealed, and the words "the Word became flesh" convey that glory perfectly.
Because the word is so low, some have treated His humanity as a costume. Commentators reject that.
His humanity was not just an outward form. It was not something put on like a coat for a purpose, then thrown off once that purpose was done. It was real. He became an actual man, and this He will never cease to be.
And what He became took nothing away from what He already was:
His becoming man took nothing at all away from His eternal deity, or from His eternal place within God Himself. It only gave His humanity His own perfection without limit.
One writer compares this to the tabernacle, the tent where God's glory stayed among Israel.
In that tent, the glory of God had lived — in the darkness, not in the light, shut away where no one could reach it. Now here was another tent, the flesh of Christ, and in it lived the full glory of God, open to all. People could come near that divine glory and look at it, because it was shown in grace and truth.
This is why the coming is not classed with the appearances God made to people in earlier times:
He tabernacled among us, full of grace and truth. It was not a visit or an appearance of God, as in Old Testament experiences.
"We beheld" is not a claim about eyesight.
"We beheld," here, would tell any spiritual mind that this was spiritual sight, not just physical sight. So it does not mean one event in the lives of those who saw Him. It means a lasting impression on the mind. That is why one translation renders it as "we have contemplated His glory."
Commentators differ over the next phrase. One older version reads "the glory as of the only begotten of the Father," while another gives "a glory as of an only-begotten with a father." "Only-begotten" means the one and only Son. One writer reads it this way:
There was glory in this unique Person, "Only-begotten with Father." That glory existed before, and no one had ever seen it until He became flesh. When His devoted disciples did see it, it came to them as unlimited grace and truth, and it bound them to Him for ever.
The glory did not come as a demand.
It is God come as a man into the world of sinners. He comes veiled in humiliation. He comes into the world of sinners in grace. Instead of saying, "You must behave properly," He comes Himself — not to judge, but to save... Grace comes abounding over all the sin, and truth comes too — not telling us what we ought to be, but what we are.
- Became. The verse turns from what the Word always was to what He became. It was a real beginning, never true of Him before.
- Flesh. He took humanity at its lowest and frailest point. The depth of that stooping is itself the glory God reveals.
- Tabernacled. The old tent shut God's glory up in darkness. The flesh of Christ carried that same glory out where people could come near and look.
- Beheld. The witnesses did not catch a glimpse. They kept looking at glory that belongs to the One with the Father, and it came to them as grace and truth.
- Full. He came to save people, not to tell them what they ought to be. Grace overflowed the sin, and truth told them what they are.
(John bears witness of him, and he has cried, saying, This was he of whom I said, He that comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me;)
John's Gospel has been unfolding who the Word is — eternal, Creator, life, light, now flesh among us. Then a human voice breaks in. The man who came first in time insists that the One who came after him ranks ahead of him — and always did.
Verse 15 breaks into the flow of the chapter. One writer explains why the sentence sits here, and why the word "was" carries so much weight:
He came after John in date, so He must be preferred before him in dignity. For He was (ἦν) — not came into being (ἐγένετο) — before him. He was God. This statement (verse 15) is a parenthesis, though it confirms verse 14. It connects John's testimony with this new section, where Christ appears in flesh. In the same way we saw John introduced in the earlier verses, which dealt with Christ's nature as the Word in the abstract.
John the Baptist was born first. So his statement is either nonsense or a confession of something far larger than ordinary human origin:
There would have been neither sense nor reason in John's testimony if Jesus had not been more than man, for John entered the world before He did. But John began his existence at his birth. The One he spoke of came forth from eternity. And John, full of the Holy Spirit, knew that the lowly Nazarene was his Lord. He was before John, before Abraham, before the beginning, the great I AM.
One writer points out that the word for "before" holds two ideas at once — time and rank:
The word is the first part of the word used later in the letters for firstborn. It would show that the Lord was before John not only in time, but also in rank. No doubt the emphatic "was" has time in view. But here is One of whom John could testify, "He was before me", and that seems to show He comes first in both time and rank.
Being second in the order of events might look like a demotion. The reverse is true, and the comparison is with the highest human standard available:
The coming of Jesus after John was no lessening of His glory, but the very opposite. No greater prophet than John the Baptist had arisen among those born of women. But Jesus is God. If He chose to come after John in time, He had still become beyond compare before him in place and title. Indeed, He really was before him, and this only because He is divine.
The text does not say John mentioned this quietly. He cried — and the same verb is used elsewhere of Jesus Himself:
So far, then, the Baptist bore witness to the surpassing excellencies of the coming One. And clearly he wanted everyone he could reach with his voice to hear it. For he "cried out," we read (1:15). The Lord Jesus in John 7:37 and 12:44 sought to reach many by His voice. The Baptist cried out in the same way. No doubt he wanted to clear away any illusion that he was himself the Christ (Luke 3:15).
John repeats this line three times in the chapter (verses 15, 27, 30). One writer hears in it the confession of every prophet and institution that went ahead of Christ:
The Baptist speaks of Jesus as really before him, though He came after him, and he repeats it with a kind of jealousy (verses 15, 27, 30). But this is very blessed. In it the Holy Spirit, who spoke through John, honours Jesus as the great Subject of all the divine counsels, the great Ordinance of God, to whom all other ordinances pointed. And so, though He came after them, He was before them. John speaks as if voicing the mind of all ordinances and ministries: "He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me." For the Son alone had been set up from everlasting (Prov. 8:23), the great first Object of all the divine counsels. Every prophet and ordinance was only His servant, a testimony to Him.
The same testimony shaped how John saw himself. He was glad to be forgotten if Christ was honoured:
Love delights to see Christ exalted, even though the one who delights in Christ passes out of the thoughts and sight of men. If only every believer could catch this happy spirit of John! It shrinks from public notice and prominence before men, so that Christ may be exalted. It makes nothing of self, so that Christ may be all in all.
- Was, not became — the tense is deliberate: Christ did not come into being before John, He simply was. That one word carries His deity.
- Before — the term covers both time and rank. He existed earlier, and He stands higher; the second follows from the first.
- Preferred — coming later in history cost Him nothing. The greatest man born of women still ranked below Him, because Jesus is God.
- Cried — John did not whisper this. He cried it out, to clear away any idea that he himself was the Christ.
- Faded — every earlier prophet and ordinance was only a servant pointing forward. John lived that out, glad to fade from view so that Christ might be all.