The Word Made Flesh Series

“By grace you have been saved, through faith.” It’s a gift from God to us.

Ok… let’s go back to our text in John 1:14 and look at it one last time (READ TEXT).

So we’ve talked about the Word that became flesh… but then John says, “And we have seen His glory…” What’s John talking about there? What does he mean that he has seen Jesus’ glory?

We started out this morning by talking about God’s glory… so what does John mean when he says, “We beheld, or seen His glory”?

Well, he goes on and says, “glory as the ONLY Son from the Father…”

The KJV and the NKJV say: “As the Only Begotten of the Father.” And the NIV says, “The one and Only Son who came from the Father.”

Of course the best translation is the original translation, which is the Greek, and it just uses the word “Monogenes”, which literally means, “the Unique One”. You see; when we receive the Word and trust Christ, we become children of God… but we are not children in the same way as the Word who became flesh is God’s Son. Remember, the Word who became flesh was in the beginning with God, and was God. We have become sons and daughters by receiving the Word. We have become children of God by believing in His Name. But the Word who became flesh has always been uniquely God’s Son.

Hebrews 1:3 says this about Jesus… it says, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the Word of His power…”

Basically what John is saying here, and he’s been saying it since verse 1 is that Jesus and the Father are equal. Jesus’ glory and the Father’s glory are equal. Jesus is the glory of the Father, and Jesus is the manifestation, or revelation of God’s glory to us in these last days. He is the radiance and glory of God… we don’t need a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. We don’t need this room to be filled with glitter, or shimmering lights and fog.

WE HAVE JESUS!

Turn with me to John 17:1 – 4 (READ).

So how does John see the glory of Christ? He sees it because Jesus perfectly displays the glory of the Father, and Jesus glorifies the Father, through His life of perfect obedience, through His death on the cross for our sin, and for His resurrection from the dead because of our justification. And if there’s no Jesus, there’s no grace and truth available to us. If there’s no Jesus, there’s no hope of salvation.

The question is… have you beheld the glory of Christ as your Lord and Savior? You can’t see this glory of God until you’ve received Christ. You can look for it in vain, but until you experience the majesty and awesome wonder of being saved by His grace, you’ll never see the glory of God.

CONCLUSION