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523-1 From Heaven With Love
December 23, 1979
Henry F. Kulp
John 1: 11-14 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.) full of grace and truth.
1/ There are three declarations in verse 14. Three distinct messages about Christ in human form. First of all, we have THE FACT OF THE INCARNATION. And the Word became flesh. Secondly, THE PURPOSE OF THE INCARNATION. And dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. Third, THE CHARACTER OF HIS PERSON. Full of grace and truth. We want to study these three declarations and see what they have to reveal to us.
2/ What blessings are ours as we study the great basic facts of Jesus Christ taking on human flesh. Far too many people reject Jesus Christ before they become acquainted with Him. It is not fair to Him, and it is a disaster to them.
An infidel who had just finished lecturing to a great audience invited any who had questions to come to the platform. After a short interval, a man who had been a well-known town drunkard, a hopeless drunkard, but who had been saved, stepped forward. He came to the platform and taking an orange from his pocket, cooly began to peel it. Then the lecturer asked him to put forth his question. But without saying a word, or replying to him, the man finished peeling his orange and then ate it. When he finished his orange, he turned to the atheist, the infidel and said, "Was that a sweet orange?" Very angrily the man said, "Why you idiot, how can I know whether it is sweet or sour? I have never tasted it. To which the saved drunkard replied, "How can you know anything about Christ if you have never tried Him?"
3/ Let us look at the first declaration. THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH. There have never been any greater, or more mysterious words written than this simple clause, which begins the 14th verse. Notice, this is not meant to connect verse 13 and 14, but rather verse 1 with verse 14, and so we could read it—in the beginning was the Word, and now skip down, and the Word became flesh. Between verse 2 and 13 we have a big parenthesis.
4/ The English word, word, is LOGOS in the Greek, and the word, LOGOS, means SPEECH, THAT WHICH IS UTTERED BY THE MOUTH. It is a form of communication between two people. So, we know that the Logos is speaking of Jesus Christ, and He is God’s speech, or discourse to man. Remember, He said, in Revelations 22: 13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and Omega is the last. So, Jesus Christ is the speech of God.
5/ And God reveals Himself to us in Jesus Christ.
6/ He is the final Word of God to man. Not merely another Word. There can be no other.
7/ To understand John 1: 1 In the beginning was the Word, we find that the verb, was, is in the perfect tense. As a matter of fact, it is a durative imperfect. What does it mean? It is unfortunate we do not have a true imperfect tense in the English, therefore, it is difficult to translate the Greek imperfect, and the Greek word that is translated, was, holds the key to the understanding of John’s statement. And literally it speaks of a time before the beginning of things. In other words, this Logos, this Word, was in existence before God created. It can literally be translated in a beginning which was not a beginning. In eternity past was the Word. That speaks of eternity of Jesus Christ that He is the eternal One.
8/ Now we must go down to verse 14 where we read, And the Word was made flesh. Flesh is finite, and here we have the infinite becoming finite, and this certainly will stun our minds. We can’t understand how this is possible, but we believe it because God says it. I wonder if you realize in this physical world of ours, in which we live, there are far more things we do not understand than those that we do.
9/ Let’s look at the word, made. We have a difficult time with this. It is again hard to translate into the English. The word, made, is not in the passive voice, but in the middle voice. If it were in the passive voice, it would mean that someone without exercised force upon the individual to make the action of the verb come true. It is a coercive force. But in the middle voice it means the Word was benefited by becoming flesh, and the Word became flesh of His own volition and power, without the exercise of any outside power, or coercive force. So it means, TO BECOME, OR TO BEGIN TO BE, and it means to become flesh. The immaterial Logos, takes on matter, takes on flesh. He Who was previously invisible to our physical eyes can now be seen.
10/ The verb that is translated, became, must not be taken to mean that the Logos took on Him human flesh just as we put on a suit of clothing, or a dress. There is creativity involved here. It is not simply a process of putting on something He did not have before, but it was created for Himself that which He was not before. This, of course, has the Virgin Birth implied. So, we see, He Who is the Creator that created everything created for Himself a body like ours without sin, and we, of course, cannot even create a living cell.
11/ Why does John use the term, flesh? Not some other term? For instance, the word, body? Of course, He came to die, and to die, He was to shed His blood, and the life of the flesh is blood.
Leviticus 17: 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. He came to die, but please remember, even though He became flesh, He made a body of flesh for Himself, He did not cease to be God. He was God and flesh.
I John 5: 20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. Here where John, speaking of the Son, the Logos, said, This is the true God and eternal life.
12/ Now, let us look at the second declaration. And dwelt among us. this is the purpose of the incarnation. The miracle of it all is the fact that He did this, even though His creatures hated Him. We want you to see, He came to dwell among His enemies, and certainly this shows His deity, for no human being seeks his enemies for his company, but Jesus did just that.
13/ Now, let us look at the word, dwelt. It is a very interesting word in the Greek. The verb comes from the Greek word, SKAY’ -NOS and it means, He pitched His tent. It means a temporary sojourn, not a permanent one. Let us look at this word elsewhere in the Bible.
II Corinthians 5: 1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And here the word, tabernacle, means a tent or a hut. A temporary residence, and you will know that our human body is just that. It certainly is unsatisfactory throughout life.
14/ This Greek word, tent, or hut, is used for a temporary dwelling for either nomads, or soldiers. It was not the purpose of Jesus Christ to come down here and live as long as He could, or to live forever. He could have lived much longer than the short span of His 33 years, but He didn’t. He was only here a very short time, and this word, dwelt, in the Greek shows us this was the intention of Christ all along.
15/ When Jesus Christ rose from the tomb, He took on Himself a new resurrection body, which was unique and it was immortal. That is important to see. The body He took upon Himself when He was born of the Virgin was not immortal. He could die in that body and die, He did. There are two verses that are very interesting.
II Timothy 1: 8, 10 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; 10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:
And here it says that Jesus Christ Who has abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to life through the Gospel. Jesus Christ is the only one Who has an immortal body. That body that came forth from the tomb can never die. It is an immortal, glorified body.
16/ When He was upon this earth, His body was not glorified. He did not walk around with a halo around His head as many of the religious artists portray Him.
17/ Never again will He come back in that body that He had then—In the body of His humiliation, but rather He is going to come back in the body of His resurrection, the body of His glorification.
18/ The verb, tented, or dwelt, here, is in the AORIST tense and it means this dwellings not to be repeated in the same manner of form or for the same purpose. He will not come back to this earth as the meek and lowly One, the One in great humility. He will come back as the King of kings and Lord of lords, the only Potentate.
19/ Now, look at the word, us. Whom did John mean by the personal pronoun, us? First of all, it must have included himself as a personal witness of the incarnate Christ. But John was not the only witness of the appearing of the incarnate God on this earth in flesh. Remember, the principle at the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established, II Corinthians 13: 1 This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witness shall every word be established. And so there were many witnesses who saw Jesus Christ come in the flesh. Notice, John does not say, I beheld—we beheld.
20/ Now, let us look at the word, behold, and it is quite intriguing. It means THE ACTUAL VIEWING OF THE PHYSICAL EYES OF SOMETHING TANGIBLE OUTSIDE THE VIEWER. I believe God used that word to show the reality of the body of Jesus Christ. In the early church there was a heresy that arose called, DOCETISM, which taught that Christ had no material body and human nature, and they taught that His eating, drinking, birth, death were so many illusions. This word immediately shows this heresy is wrong. The body of Jesus Christ was real and could be seen by men during His earthly life.
21/ Furthermore, the words, to behold, means, TO LOOK AT, TO GAZE AT, MOSTLY WITH A SENSE OF WONDERING AND AMAZEMENT. One cannot but be amazed when He looks at Jesus Christ.
22/ And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. We need to notice some words in His high-priestly prayer, John 17: 5 Now as He faces the cross He says, And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. What happened when He became man? He laid aside this glory, but this verse in John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John teaches us, still He had some glory. He was different than other men, He stood out from other men. He had an earthly glory, which was not His heavenly glory.
23/ Now, we come to the third declaration, grace and truth. This is the character of His person. First of all, He is grace, and He is truth. This is in His humanity upon earth. These two attributes stood out in His earthly life. Then notice the word, full. As flesh, He was full of grace and truth.
24/ Nowhere else in the New Testament are grace and truth spoken of together in this manner, or this order as it is here. Notice, verse 17, For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
25/ Grace is seen in the fact that He came to earth. He came to give Himself a ransom for our sins. Notice, in this very Book of John, John 3: 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
He came not into the world, to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. And as we have told you so often, grace means receiving something that you do not deserve—everything for nothing, and the very earthly life of Jesus Christ shows forth the grace of God. Time and time again grace was shown in His attitude toward sinful rebellious man.
26/ But He is also truth. Jesus Christ came to show us that God is full of grace and truth, and, of course, Jesus Christ is the Truth.
27/ Romans 5: 20 Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
Here we have—where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Grace abounds to us because of the person of Jesus Christ, and because He died to pay the price of our sin.
AMEN
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