10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only [Son], who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, "This is he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' ") 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only [Son], who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
Dig Deeper
The annals of war are filled with leaders and generals who have led their men from a distance. They issue orders from the back and stay in comfortable lodging while their men fight the battles and stay in tents or other uncomfortable temporary housing. Generals like these can definitely be effective but they are rarely loved. It is the generals who go beyond those expectations and norms that are loved by their men. In 2 Samuel 11, we are given a sketch of just such a leader, Uriah the Hittite. David was back in his palace seeking after his own lusts and tries to entice Uriah back into town so that David's sin of adultery might not be noticed. He couldn't get Uriah to agree to it, however. When offered, for instance, to come home and be with his beautiful wife, Uriah replied that he could not do such a thing while his men were out in the field. This was truly a leader that was present in spirit with his men at all times. The generals that are loved are those who wait to eat until every single soldier under him has eaten; the general who waits to go sleep until all of his men are asleep; the general who spurns the comforts that would normally be given to a man of his stature and opts to stay in the same type of tent that his men are in.
That is precisely what made YHWH, the God of the Israelites so different from all of the other supposed gods. He wasn't distant; He wasn't unknown. He tabernacled in the presence of His own people. He went where they went and was with them through every circumstance, providing and caring for them. They knew His presence and could count on it. As they continued to reject Him, however, that presence lessened until it became virtually gone by the time of the minor prophets.
It is into this reality that John drops an incredible revelation. God did not stay distant like so many human leaders. He came as close to His people as He possibly could by becoming flesh. God was not a remote God, He tabernacled among His people in the most humble and intimate way possible. He came among them and became one of them.
He was in the world, the very world that was made through him. It's difficult for us to understand the humility that it would take to enter into a world that you had created as a normal human being with no special privileges. The closest thing I can think of is if a parent could suddenly become young again and enter into their own household as a child the same age as their own children. How would they be treated, especially if their kids didn't know that this new child was really their parent? That's exactly what John says took place when the Word entered into the creation that had been made through him. The world did not recognize him. There is, of course, a bit of clear irony that the very world that was created though the Word did not recognize him when he came to them in the flesh. The fact that they did not recognize him, though, was a sad bit of evidence of their estrangement from him and the will of God. It's a simple fact of human existence, we don't recognize what we don't know.
If the fact that the very world that the Word brought about rejected him is ironic, then the fact that he came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him, is bitterly ironic. Israel's very purpose was to be the people through whom the Messiah would come. It was the way that God would use them to put the world to rights. And now he was here, but they were rejecting the very purpose for their existence because they had other ideas of how God should have been working. It would be like the 2008 U.S. Men's Olympic basketball team that was put together to win a gold medal, refusing to get their gold medals because they had something else in mind for the winners. This should serve as instructive for us, though, because it is dangerously easy for us to do similar things. We can pray for God to do something in our lives, for instance, and then reject or fail to recognize His answer to that very prayer because it's not quite what we had in mind.
Yet, John offers a bit of hope and demonstrates that the ultimate purpose of his gospel is missional. All is not lost. He makes clear in 20:31 that he has written this gospel so "that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." In verse 12, John offers perhaps the climax of this entire prologue, as well as the thesis statement for the entire gospel. There are some who will receive him. The concept of someone's name in the ancient world went far beyond just being a title or something to call someone by. When the Jews of John's day spoke of someone's "name," they spoke of their authority, their character, in short, their life. So, when John says to all who believed in his name, he is referring to those who recognized that this was the one, true human being through whom God would restore His creation. Those who trusted in the life of Christ rather than their own are given the right to become children of God. These children are not born through normal human procreation, or through human decision (literally, "will of the flesh," meaning sexual desire or activity), nor of the husband's choice (who represented the family as the traditional leader of the family). In other words, birth into this family does not come about by any normal human means at all. John is not removing human choice from the equation of salvation, but is saying that this is a completely spiritual endeavor, one that could not be accomplished by humans through normal means.
It could only have come about by the Word becoming flesh. The Word, who was no less than God, became flesh and made his dwelling among us. In using the term "flesh" rather than "man" or "body," John counteracts groups at the time like the Docetists who were willing to concede that Jesus may have been the Christ but denied that there was any reality to his being human; it only seemed that way. John gives no such wiggle room. He is just as clear on the humanity of the Word as he is his deity. God did become flesh and lived among us. John literally uses a term that means that the Word "tabernacled" among us. This brings to mind God's presence in the tabernacle in the wilderness. Just as God came close His people then, the Word has come even closer. He has become flesh for the sake of his people.
The Word is certainly divine, John makes no mistake about that, but he again confirms his distinction from the Father as he denotes the distinguishing difference between the Father and Son. The Word is the glory of the one and only Son, but he is not indistinguishable from the Father. The somewhat controversial nature of The Word being referred to as the one and only Son of God should not be missed. In the Old Testament, either Israel or David (as Israel's representative) were the firstborn of God (Exod. 4:22; Ps. 89:27). By calling the Word the only Son, John is making another claim that serves as one of themes of his gospel; Jesus Christ came to replace Israel as the true representative of God, His only son (nowhere will this be more obvious than in 15:1 when Jesus takes one . He came from the Father, full of grace and truth, two primary characteristics of the Father. Grace is the unmerited favor that causes joy, a favorite word of the early church, and truth was a concept so closely connected with God, that Jesus could actually say in 14:6 that "I am . . . the truth."
Having connected the Word to the activities of God in the Old Testament as He tabernacled among His people, John will accomplish two important things in the concluding four verses of his prologue. He will show that the revelation of the Word is superior to the revelation of the Old Covenant under Moses, and he will, for the first time, clearly state that the man Jesus Christ is the Word of whom he has been so eloquently speaking.
John, generally considered the last of the prophets in the line of Moses, testified concerning the Son. He was the one who all of history had been pointing. He came after John, which in their culture would have indicated subservience to the older man, but in this case he surpassed John because he was before John, existing eternally. Because of his fullness we have all received new grace that has come on top of the grace given through Moses and the law. The law merely pointed to the grace and truth that came through Jesus Christ.
In verse 18, John brings the prologue to a close, connecting it closely with his statements in verse 1. There the Word was God and was with God. Here the one and only Son is surely himself God and is with God in the closest relationship possible. The Son has made the Father known. In other words, if you want to know the Father and see the Father, then all you have to do is to stare at the Son.
Devotional Thought
God became flesh and tabernacled among the world that had rejected Him. He could not get any closer or get anymore involved in His creation in a more humble way than He did in Jesus Christ. Are you willing to get involved in difficult situations personally and help others out? Are you willing to spend the time, effort, and exercise the humility necessary to get truly involved in places that have rejected or failed to recognize God? God was willing to do that and He calls His sons and daughters in Christ to no less.
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