What does it mean that the Word became flesh (John 1:14)?

It is clear then that Scripture, in saying that the Word became flesh, teaches us that this was a new beginning, a condition not existing before, but now become true of the One who was and is the Word. And all true Christians agree surely that the words "became flesh" refer to His becoming Man; to the Incarnation of the Word, in fact.

The second difference is in one sense a minor one. "We beheld," in that context, would probably convey to any spiritual mind that it was spiritual vision and not mere physical sight. So that it would not mean a mere incident in the lives of the beholders, but a continuous impression upon the mind, and hence is rendered in the New Translation as, "we have contemplated "His glory."

In verse 14 we have what Christ became, not what He was, essentially; I mean, of course, that this is another part of the truth. We have not His work yet, but His incarnation - "and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us." This is very simple in one sense. He became a Man; and not only that, but He "dwelt among us" - not like God visiting Abraham merely. In outward form He was like another man - He was "found in fashion as a man." (Phil. 2:8) That is an immense truth; the Word comes and dwells among men as a Man, (more than a man, of course), "and we beheld his glory," the glory He had down here, and those who had eyes to see through it could see the Father - "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." "The glory as of an only begotten with a father;" this is really only a comparison, yet "this is my beloved Son" the Father said more than once.

"And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us" (v. 14). Here is the greatness of His condescension made manifest in His incarnation, for His humanity was not in form merely, something put on, as one would put on a garment for a certain purpose and then cast it off again when that purpose was accomplished, but it was a reality. He became an actual man, and this He will never cease to be.

We turn now from considering the deity of our blessed Lord to see how Scripture speaks of His incarnation. This, of all the Evangelists, the apostle John, the historian of His divine glory, most forcibly expresses: "The Word became flesh," he says, "and tabernacled among us." "Flesh" characterizes humanity by that which is its lowest part; and the depth of this condescension is the glory of the revelation which this expression — the "Word was made flesh" — so perfectly conveys. In His human personality Christ was Himself the gospel that He preached, as "Son of man" was the title He so loved to give Himself.

Then it goes on, "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." In this latter clause we get riot merely what He was in His nature, but the fact that the Word was made flesh. It is put in contrast with "The law was given by Moses;" "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," not only were there. We get this wonderful truth, that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He was here as really a man as any of us, only sinless.

The law did not tell man what God was, or what man was; but it came and told man what he ought to be. That was all the law did. It was a perfect rule of life as it came. What was the God they were to love with all their heart? You might take Him as the Israelites did, the One who brought them out of the land of Egypt; but there was no other revelation of God except terror. If you are going to have righteousness, law detects your sin and says, you have done it - opens your eyes. When I come to what I get here, it is altogether opposite. It is God come as a man into the world of sinners. He comes veiled in humiliation. He so comes into the world of sinners in grace, that instead of saying, "You must behave yourself rightly," He comes Himself, not to judge, but to save. If I take the law, God never came out, and man could not get in. Now, what I get in the Person of Christ is that God did come out, and man is gone in. When I know Christ I know man has gone into the holiest of all in virtue of Christ's work. Grace comes abounding over all the sin, and truth comes too; not telling us what we ought to be, but what we are; and man does not like that. When I come and tell a man that truth came by Jesus Christ, he does not like it, for truth says, man is lost already. There was a Man down here after God's own heart - perfect holiness and perfect love, and when He came, every one was the opposite. No men are like Him. You never saw selfishness or self-seeking in Christ. I see perfect grace come out to poor sinners because they could not go in; and, on the other hand, perfect truth told about them and about Him too. It was no sending out a message to them, but He came to them. Here He was, walking up and down in this ruined world, seeking the confidence of man.

"The law was given by Moses." It came, and made claims upon us. It made claims for the right reason that the law is a revelation of what the creature ought to be. As I gaze on the ten commandments I see what I ought to be. My conscience tells me that I am not it. Consequently I am condemned by the law. It naturally condemns me whenever I learn its spirit and its power. But what does the gospel do? It brings the revelation of what God is, not what man ought to be. The chapter we are looking at tells beautifully how God has come into this scene in the Person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It says, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth." And who is that Word? The opening verse tells us, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." I want you to look at this, "In the beginning was the Word." Then the next thing is, that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth." By "the Word" what am I to understand? The Eternal Word of God! It is Jesus — the Son of God entering into this scene and becoming a man. Men have said, "God was made flesh." Scripture does not say so. It says the "Word was made flesh;" and the reason is very simple. If I think of God as given to me in the Bible, I have presented to me the Triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. If I say "God was made flesh," then I should not express the truth, because the Father was never incarnate, and the Spirit of God was never incarnate; but the Son of God, the Word, "became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth" (ver. 14). The Eternal Son has come into this scene, humbling Himself, and becoming a man, in order that, in the form of a man, He might reveal to us the heart and nature of God; and moreover, that God, in the condition in which He was found as a man, might find all He looked for in man. That is the charm of these beautiful words, "full of grace and truth." The law Moses might bring, but "grace and truth" came only by the Son of God.

“ And the Word became flesh .” What great statements there are in this chapter they break upon us with an abruptness that would surprise and startle us if we had not become so familiar with them. Let us put two of them together. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word became flesh.” The first sentence carries us back into Eternity, the second brings Him who was eternal into Time. First we learn Who and What the Word was, then what He became, and this opens up a new chapter in God's ways with men, that must issue in eternal blessing for them and glory to Him. It was the Word Himself, the Creator that became flesh. He did not take the nature of angels, it was the sons of men whom He loved and sought: frail, mortal, sinful men; and He was made in their likeness that He might dwell among them, not to condemn them or make them afraid, but that He might win them and save them. Here is the mystery of Godliness, which is very great, it transcends all human conception, and because of this we are only safe as we abide by the words of Scripture in considering it. Master Ridley, who was burned at the stake in the days of the infamous Mary said, “In these matters I am so fearful that I dare not speak further, yea, almost none otherwise than the text doth, as it were, lead me by the hand.” He was a wise man. Many a fierce battle has been fought over the truth of Christ's person in the history of the church, to the damage of the saints of God and the glee of their foes. Gibbon, the historian, says of the early fathers, “The principle of discord was alive in their bosom, and they were more solicitous to explore the nature, than to practise the laws, of their Founder.” We must shun such folly as that as we would shun the devil himself. Creeds have been formulated in the hope of defining the truth and fixing the faith of men as to it, and these have become in turn the subject of conflict, insomuch that the text which will lead us by the hand, according to Ridley's quaint words, if we are subject and willing, has been obscured or forgotten. We turn to it afresh, here are Holy Ghost-inspired words, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” This is wholly of God. No man could have conceived such a thing as this. If the distance that separated us from God was to be removed, the best that we could have thought of was that we should struggle through impenetrable darkness and against incalculable difficulties out of the depth of our fall up to His throne—an eternal impossibility of course, but the awakened soul would say, His justice, His majesty the glory of His Name demands it, and because we are “without strength” to accomplish the impossible task, we are hopeless. But here we have the revelation of God that confounds us, that fills us with wonder, and changes all our false yet natural thoughts of Him. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” It was the only way in which He could reach us, only by becoming one of us could He communicate the thoughts that filled the heart of God towards us, and make known to us that love which is greater than all our sin.

Then we have the momentous statement, "And the Word became flesh." It was not simply a manifestation of God in flesh, but the Eternal Word becoming Man, so that we have in one Person Him who is very God yet perfect Man. He took the very nature of Man, but apart from sin, being born of the Virgin. All that was proper to man was found in perfection in the Son, all the thoughts, desires, feelings and affections: and He entered into the conditions and circumstances of life that belonged to man, and in them shed abroad the light of divine grace, and the light of His moral glory.

The fact that the Word became flesh guarantees not only that He possessed a real human body (which was denied by some of the earliest heretics), but also that having passed by angels and "taken hold of the seed of Abraham," He had become in every proper sense a Man. It is significant that it is in this Gospel, which starts with such a full assertion of His Deity, that He speaks of Himself as "a Man" (8:40). At last all that God is was revealed to men in a Man. He dwelt among us "full of grace and truth." The basis of all truth lies in the knowledge of God. Had that knowledge reached us apart from grace it would have overthrown us; but here was One full of both grace and truth, and dwelling among us.

Now the Word is looked at as become flesh. In verse 14 a new part commences. Before, it was what He was; now, what He became (what He began to be). The Word became flesh and dwelt among us; it was a real thing, not like God visiting Abraham; but He dwelt among us, tabernacled there "and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." His own incarnate character and our connection with it. The part about John the Baptist comes in in the middle. But there is the statement, "the Word was made flesh": and then you get the aspect He had. We beheld His glory, not of the Son as such, but as of an only-begotten with a Father. He had all the title of that excellency and value in everything. All that that was to the Father was with Him. It is His personal glory made visible in flesh. When He was made flesh, we get a witness of John (v. 15), just as before, saying, "This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me."