Jesus Christ In The Writings Of John
THE WORD MADE FLESH

Lesson Text:
John 1:1-18 (KJV)

Subject:
Plain Facts About Our Savior Jesus Christ

Golden Text:
“The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14)

The Son of God, knowing the Father’s heart, became man in the person of Jesus Christ, reveals to us the nature and love of our Father and His unending interest in man, and is our Savior from sin into the kingdom of heaven.

Lesson Plan:
1. INTRODUCTION
2. HE IS THE WORD OF GOD – AND THE WORD WAS GOD (VS. 1-3)
3. HE IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE (V. 4)
4. HE IS THE SOURCE OF LIGHT (VS. 4, 5, 7-9)
5. BY HIM WE BECOME CHILDREN OF GOD (VS. 10-13)
6. THE WORD, THE LIFE, THE LIGHT WAS JESUS CHRIST (V. 14)
7. JESUS CHRIST, THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER (VS. 15-18)
8. CONCLUSION

Light from Other Scriptures:
The Divine Christ – Hebrews 1:1-10; John 3:16, 18; Colossians 1:16, 17; Isaiah 9:6; Philemon 2:5-11; Revelation 1:8, 12-16.

The Word Made Flesh – Study the new light thrown upon this statement by the accounts of the virgin birth in Luke and Matthew; by John 3:16; Hebrews 1:1, 2; Romans 8:3; Philemon 2:7; Hebrews 2:9; 1 John 1:1, 2.

Learn by heart:
John 1:1-14 (Nothing in all literature or all history is more worthy to be written indelibly on the heart).

1. INTRODUCTION

Plain Facts About Our Savior Jesus Christ “A great personality exerts a wonderful and indescribable charm. It radiates warmth; it creates an atmosphere; it breathes out enthusiasm . . . The study of personality is more fascinating than the study of light, for while it sheds over us its transparent beauty, and apparently simple charm, when we begin to look at it through the prism of analysis, we find that it breaks up into more hues than those of the rainbow. While its greatest power is exercised when it is streaming in unanalyzed, it becomes more beautiful and more wonderful when seen in its elemental forces” (Hale).

The first chapter of Corinthians has been referred to as, “The Spectrum of Love.” We may call the prologue to John’s Gospel as well as his other writings, “The Spectrum of Jesus Christ,” describing the elements that together form the perfect Savior of the world.

2. HE IS THE WORD OF GOD – AND THE WORD WAS GOD

1:1 ... “In the beginning [as in Genesis 1. Back of all manifestations of God] was the Word” which proceeded from Him. The Word is “the revealer of the incomprehensible and invisible God” (Exp. Greek Test.). Words are the expression of what is in the soul – reason, conscience, will, purpose.

This Gospel account appropriately begins with the words, “In the beginning,” because a number of important beginnings can be seen in what John wrote. For instance:

The beginning of all things (v. 3)
The beginning of recognition of Jesus as Son of God (v. 34)
The beginning of Jesus’ disciples (v. 41)
The beginning of the apostleship (v. 41f)
The beginning of use of title Son of Man (v. 51)
The beginning of Jesus’ public ministry

The prologue (1:1-18) does not deal with the details of Jesus’ birth. There is no genealogy of Jesus as Matthew and Luke give (Matthew 1; Luke 3). Instead, there is an opening statement that almost boggles the mind. John 1:1 begins with a phrase that echoes across the expanse of time: “In the beginning.” We immediately think of Genesis 1:1.

Let us say the phrase “in the beginning” over and over. If we do, a question immediately arises: “Beginning of what?” If these two phrases in Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 were all we had about God in the Bible, we could easily conclude that the writers were speaking about the beginning of God. However, the eternal existence of God is one of the major themes of the Scriptures. Therefore, we apply one of the classic rules of biblical interpretation at this point: Never interpret an obscure passage so as to contradict plain biblical teaching in another passage on the same subject. Thus we conclude that “beginning” in Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 refers to God’s creative work, not His existence. Hence the article “the” has been inserted in English translations.

Regarding ‘Was the Word.’ “The Greek word Logos from which Word is translated was widely known in the world of John’s day, being found some 1,300 times in the writings of Philo, a Hellenistic Jew of Alexandria (30 B.C. to 40 A.D.). However, John owed nothing to Philo, who taught that ‘the absolute purity, perfection, and loftiness of God would be violated by direct contact with imperfect, impure, and finite things.’ He went even so far as to say that ‘God could not be conceived of as actively concerned with the multiplicity of individual things.’ Philo’s Logos had no hard identity of any kind, being called the ‘reason of God’ in one view, and in another, ‘a distinct individual, or hypostasis, standing between God and man.’ Philo’s Logos did not create anything, for matter was viewed by him as eternal; and it is impossible to form any intelligent harmony out of Philo’s writings on the Logos, described in the encyclopedia Britannica as ‘self-contradictory.’ It was the inspired genius of the apostle John which seized upon this word, applied it to Christ, and gave it a meaning as far above anything that Philo ever dreamed as the heavens are above the Nile Delta where Philo lived. The Word, as applied to Jesus Christ, is found only four times in the New Testament, twice in this prologue (vs. 1, 14), in 1 John 1:1, and in Revelation 19:13.”¹

1:1 ... “The Word was with God.” The Greek preposition expresses not merely being beside, but a living union and communion; implying the active notion of intercourse. “The divine Word not only abode with the Father from all eternity, but was in the living, active relation of communion with Him” (Vincent).

The apostle’s doctrine of the Logos is thus different from the Logos of Greek philosophy in these particulars: (a)The New Testament Logos is God, (b) is personal, (c) created all things, including matter, and (d) became flesh and dwelt among men.

To presume that John got anything like that out of Philo’s Logos is like supposing Thomas Jefferson got the Declaration of Independence out of McGuffy’s Third Reader.

1:1 ... “The Word was God.” There is only one God, and this statement guards against the error which the phrase, “with God” might suggest, that there is more than one. No one can more emphatically assert the absolute unity of God than both the Old and New Testaments. The apostle John left nothing to chance, categorically affirming in this third clause that the Word was indeed God, a truth reaffirmed at the end of the prologue (v. 18), and again by the apostle Thomas (20:28). John’s estimate of the deity of Christ does not exceed that of other New Testament writers.

“The statement 'the Word was God,' means that Christ was divine, and is therefore to be worshiped with the same worship as is due the Father” (Drumelow).

1:3 ... “All things were made by Him.” Whatever God does, the Word does. In Holy Scripture we are told that Jesus: “Is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature . . . For by Him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him (Col. 1:15) . . . Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the Word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:3).”²

This is the first requisite of the Savior we need: He must be divine, with all knowledge and all power to save.

Thus He can reveal the truth about God, and His nature and His love, and about the heaven He has prepared for us.

Thus He reveals to us that God is a real person, in whose image we are made, and because we are like Him we can know Him and love Him.

Such a Savior, by attracting us to Himself, always attracts us to God. If He were not identified with the divine, all the love, honor and devotion we give Him would lead us away from God, toward idolatry. Now, the more we love Jesus, the more we love God.

Thus Jesus is in His person, in His actions, in His Words, in His character, which we see and know, a continual revelation of God, and of the reality of God. We have never seen God. He is invisible. It is difficult to realize His presence. But Jesus makes God real to us, just as the body, words and actions of our precious Friend makes us realize His invisible spirit.

Holy Scripture gives us a marvelous statement of what Christ did in creation: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. The Word was God; the Word was with God. Through Him all things were made” (John 1:1-3). Here we have identification, relationship, and activity. In this compressed statement we have a paradox: complexity surrounds the simplicity of God.

We see that the relationship between God and the Word spoken of in John 1:1-3 is in fact a Father/Son relationship. It necessitates a conclusion that both the Father and the pre-incarnate Son are deity. Therefore, the eternal Father/Son relationship of God is implied in every biblical passage about the creation of the world. Truly, as John wrote, “the Word [logos] was God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”

The conviction that the power of God created all things runs throughout the New Testament. However, the full realization that this power was expressed through the logos – the preexistent Son, God the Son, who later became incarnate – comes to the forefront only in the writing of John, which completed the New Testament.

It is tempting to read into these passages the clearly stated logos concept as found in the Gospel of John. After all, we usually read the Gospels first when we begin reading the New Testament. However, we should remember that, chronologically speaking, John’s writings are the last of the New Testament.

This means that it was not until John’s awesome pronouncement near the end of the New Testament that the full brilliance of God’s creative work was unveiled. The logos/Word, the preexistent Son, God the Son, who later became incarnate, was shown to be the energizing power of God the Father. This logos/Word brought into being a universe that had not existed before; it was all a perfect display of the unspeakable wisdom and power of God.

3. HE IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE

1:4 ... “In Him was life.” The Power creating life, maintaining everything in existence, was in the Word. He was the fountain of existence to all things, including every form and degree and kind of life, natural and spiritual. “For as the Father raiseth the dead, and quickenth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will” (Exp. Greek Test.).³ In the first chapter of Genesis the word ‘create’ (whose meaning is interpreted by v 3 of this chapter, “to cause to come into being”) is used only three times: (a) of matter, (b) of life, (c) of the soul of man. The efforts of men to produce either of these by the forces of nature have proven to be a failure. Life must come from life. It includes intellectual life, based on physical life, and spiritual life based on the intellectual.

The great need of all living men is Spiritual Life, Eternal Life
Spiritual life means more than mere existence; Eternal Life means more than eternal existence. It is the kind of life for which the soul was created. The soul fulfills the functions for which it was made in the image of God. It is the life that has in it all the good, blessedness, and richness needed to make any life worth living. At the same time this glory of living does not need to fade away, changing into bitter fruit, the apples of Sodom, as do so many of the pleasures and golden dreams of this worldly life, but in Christ the glory brightens, the blessedness increases forever and ever. It is life that makes heaven, heaven. The descriptions of the New Jerusalem are full of it. It is the life of Angels. It is the life of God. It is the life of love.

4. HE IS THE SOURCE OF LIGHT

1:4 ... “And the life was the light of men.” For not only was the first effect of life on matter to produce light, but the first condition of seeing the light is life. All the light in the universe cannot make dead things see. Dead minds cannot know.

And mere life without light is of little avail. It is difficult for us to realize what Light does for us.

Light is everything to us. All things are practically non-existent without light. Light set in motion by life is the source of life, beauty, manifested reality, warmth, comfort, joy, health and power. What light does for the natural world, Jesus does for the world of man, for mind, soul and spirit. He reveals God, heaven, and truth; He shows the way; He cheers, comforts, vivifies, renews.

God’s revelation of Himself to sinful and fallen humanity appears in this. Beginning at the gates of Eden, God laid down the program of instruction and revelation designed for the enlightenment of all men, and the guidance of all men into the way of eternal life (Gen. 3:15). Although the Adamic fall is not mentioned here, it is implied through the identification of man’s source of light, being not within himself, but derived from the Savior. Only they are enlightened who now the life of Christ; all others are in darkness.

1:5 ... “The light shineth in darkness.” The darkness of the physical universe, changing it into all the glories and blessedness inconceivable, which all living brings enjoy. Still more, the light shines in the darkness of sin, ignorance and error, the spiritual darkness of the world, without hope, without God, without heaven.

Every religion has something of God’s light. But Jesus Himself was the great light of the world.

1:5 ... “And the darkness comprehended [‘apprehended’] it not.” Did not admit or receive the light so that the darkness would be removed; did not grasp or take possession of, as one would grasp a prize in the games. The world has never yet received all the light God has sent.

Another translation is interesting – “the darkness overcame it not.” The light, though sometimes apparently overcome, was really victorious; withstanding every assault, continuing triumphantly in a darkened world. “This is not a ‘wail’ (as some have said), but a note of exultation, a token of victory” (Schaff).

The unregenerated world hates God and the knowledge of His truth; but the hatred and opposition of evil men cannot prevent the light from shinning. It shines of its own inherent glory regardless of how inadequate human response to it might be. The history of the last millenniums is here summarized as the Light shining in darkness.

1:6 ... “A man sent from God.” The apostle now turns from the statement of the great truth, to the witness to that truth, so that men would receive Jesus as the Light. “Sent from God” identifies John the Baptist as a true prophet with a valid message from God. This verse, and the two following, forms a parenthesis in this prologue dealing with the mission of John the Baptist.

1:7-8 ... “The same came for witness, that he might bear witness of the light . . . He was not the light, but came that he bear witness of the Light.” This parenthesis, including v. 6, presents the following facts with reference to John the Baptist:

He came from God and was therefore a true prophet. He was not the light.
His mission was to bear witness to the light.
To bear witness to the light was to bear witness to Jesus Christ.

“It is true, of course, that Jesus Himself said of John, ‘He was the lamb that burneth and shineth; and ye were willing to rejoice for a season in His light’ (5:35); but the apostle John here made a distinction between the light of John the Baptist, which was a dim and borrowed light, and that true light which lighteth every man coming into the world. In no sense could John the Baptist be that light. As the true light, Christ was self-revealed, independent, pre-existent, and eternal. He was the perfect light, in that the source was in Himself as identified with the Father.”⁴

1:7 ... “That all might believe through him.” The purpose of God in sending John the Baptist was that all men might believe in Christ. His was the function of a herald who went before a king, announcing His coming, preparing the popular mind to receive Him. John the Baptist effectively discharged that responsibility. The fact that many would not believe was due to hardening and prejudice on their part, not due to any fault of the noble herald who went before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah.

1:9 ... “That was the true Light.” The real, genuine, as contrasted with counterfeit or symbolic light. John was the witness; here was the test. The test of true religion is that it is adapted to all needs, circumstances, ages, races, and all degrees of intelligence. It is the sun, not an electric lamp.

5. BY HIM WE BECOME CHILDREN OF GOD

1:10 ... “He was in the world.” By creation, in all nature, providence and revelation – last and most, in the person of Jesus Christ.⁵

These words bluntly state a near incredibility. That the very creator of the world should cast aside the glory of His eternal existence, choosing to enter earth life as a man subject to all the inconveniences and limitations of the flesh – that is a fact of awesome wonder; but added to that is the obstinate and rebellious refusal of the Lord’s creation to acknowledge Him when He came. As the prophet cried out so long ago, “Lord, who hath believed our report?” (Is. 53:1).

1:10 … “And the world knew Him not.” Did not recognize Him, did not acknowledge His claims, and took no notice of His advent and teachings. He seemed to be no part of the history of the times – yet; this being has changed all history and all nations. Coffman wrote, “God was taken by surprise by man’s refusal to know the Lord, for His prophets had faithfully foretold it. The repetition of ‘world’ in these lines dramatizes the marvel of humanity’s not knowing Jesus when He came.”

1:11 ... “He came unto His own.” The chosen race, the people specially prepared for His coming, the ones who were looking for their Messiah, to whom the promises had been given, His brethren according to the flesh.

1:11 ... “His own received Him not.” The nation, as a whole, did not receive Him as their promised Messiah, King, or Redeemer. They might today be walking as kings and princes, the central power and glory of the world, the transforming power of the nations, in whom all nations were to be blessed, had they only received Him. Compare the parable of the wicked husbandmen (Matt. 21:33-44). These words strongly remind one of Paul’s words (Rom. 9:1-5). John, having registered the fact of the unbelief of the chosen people (in major part, that is), next turned to a consideration of those who had received Him.

1:12 ... “Gave He power.” [R.V., “the right”] The original word combines the two ideas, both the “right” and the “power.”

1:12 ... “To become the sons [better, “children”] of God.”6 Every person in one way is a child of God, made in His image. But there is a far higher sense in which we may be His children, born in His spiritual likeness, into His purposes and character.

1:12 ... “Believe on His name.” By choosing God, accepting Him as Teacher, Savior and King. This is the human condition, the necessary act of the soul.

1:13 ... “Born [made new; come into new life], not of blood [of ancestral inheritance. They were not sons of God, because they were Jews, descended from Abraham], nor of the will of man [the individual father and mother. However good they may be, they cannot impart the new spiritual life], but of God.” God’s life imparts itself to the person who will receive it. It is the same kind of life as God’s.⁷

New birth
New birth is a condition of salvation. The apostle John assumed that believers who received the right to become God’s children would exercise it by obeying the Gospel, being born again.⁸ The burden of the thought in this verse is that the new birth is spiritual, from above, from God, and not from Abrahamic descent, that is, “of blood,” nor “by the flesh,” nor “of the will of man.” In other words, the new birth is not caused by, and does not follow, sexual activity, whether of men or of women. Two thoughts in this verse are developed later in John’s Gospel: the new birth in chapter 3; and the true children of Abraham in chapter 8.

6. THE WORD, THE LIFE, THE LIGHT WAS JESUS CHRIST

1:14 ... “And the Word was made flesh.” Became flesh, “human nature, as a whole, under the aspect of its present corporeal embodiment” (Exp. Greek Test.). Through the Virgin Mary and the miraculous conception, the worthy and fitting way in which the Son of God should become flesh.⁹ “The phrase ‘became flesh’ means more than that He assumed a human body. He assumed human nature entire, having a human body, a human soul, a human spirit” (Vincent).

The Spirit and the Word were together with God in creation.¹⁰ The New Testament makes the astounding announcement that “the Word was God.” Jesus was the living Word (John 1:14). He came out of the wilderness after the temptations full of the Spirit and in His power.

At some point after God created mankind, something went terribly wrong. The man and woman chose a self-serving path and disregarded God’s protective warnings. This sin cost them their fellowship with God and brought on the horror of death. The chasm between God and Adam and Eve was deep and wide. The consequences were far-reaching; they even affect us. As every link in a chain used in oil drilling is smeared with oil, each generation in human history has been linked and smeared with sin. Unless altered, the human race was doomed to death (Rom. 5:12). We were separated from God and without hope in the world (Eph. 2:12). All would have been lost if God had not acted on our behalf.

In an incredible demonstration of love, mercy, and grace, God came to earth in Person. He crossed the gulf. He built the bridge. He acted out of love that cannot be measured by its height, depth, breadth, or length. What He did was not only unexpected; it was undeserved. What glorious, joyful, invigorating good news. On the other hand, how easy it is to misunderstand.

Many of the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament pertained to the coming of God’s Messiah. The culmination of these is seen in the coming of Jesus. By the time the New Testament was completed with the writings of John, it had been revealed to the church and the world that not only was Jesus the Son of God, but He was also God the Son (John 1:1-14; 20:26-31).

Our specific goal in this series of lessons is to deepen our understanding and heighten our appreciation of what God has done for us.

1:14 ... “And dwelt among us.” Greek, “tabernacled” among us, dwelt as in a tent, as the Shekinah, the glory, the divine Presence dwelt in the tabernacle in the wilderness. The word, “tabernacled,” expresses two thoughts: (a) That Christ really dwelt among us, not merely appearing to some person, or coming in a vision, as in previous ages; and (b) That His abode among us was temporary, only a few years.

“The Greek word (translated ‘dwelt’) derived from the noun for ‘tent,’ is often used without any reference to its etymology; but so allusive a writer as John may well have been thinking of the tabernacle in the wilderness where the Lord dwelt with Israel (Ex. 25:8:9; 40:34), and more particularly of that pillar of cloud above the tent of meetings, typifying the visible dwelling of the Lord among His people.”¹¹

1:14 ... “And we [John and many others in Palestine] beheld His glory.” – The outshining of His character in all His teachings, healings, actions, sufferings and death for others. This expresses the loving kindness and tender mercies and everlasting love of God the Father.

1:14 ... “Only begotten.” This is peculiar to this apostle, and used in 1:18; 3:16-18, and 1 John 4:9. Such a title could never have been used except by one who understood and accepted the doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ. The unique authority and glory of Christ also appear in this, because such a title excludes the notion that any human being, or any angel, could be the Son of God in the sense that Jesus is.

1:14 ... “Full of grace.” Greek for “grace” = “charis.” From the same root as “chairo;” meaning “to rejoice.” Primarily: “that which gives joy or pleasure;” and hence “outward beauty, loveliness,” something that “delights” the beholder – a loveliness of form in the Greek graces and loveliness of character in the Christian graces. Therefore, “grace” means “the expression of this to others, kindness, favor, good will,” the loving kindness of God, His perfect delight in helping man, and in producing in them all the loveliness and graces of character, making heaven what it is.

“The combination recalls the description of Jehovah, Exodus 34:6, and is not infrequent in the Old Testament. As applied to the Lord, the phrase marks Him as the author of perfect Redemption and perfect Revelation. Grace corresponds with the idea of revelation of God as love (1 John 4:8, 16) by Him who is Life; and truth with that of the revelation of God as light (1 John 1:5) by Him who is Himself Light” (Westcott).

1:14 ... “And truth.” – Reality, sincerity; the revelation of things to us just as they are.

7. JESUS CHRIST, THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER

The witness
Again the apostle brings in his witnesses so that men may believe.

1:15 ... “John beareth witness of Him and crieth, saying, This was He of whom I said, He that cometh after me is become before me: for He was before me.” The principal purpose of this Gospel is stated in 20:30-31. As one of the herald’s original disciples, John was in a position to speak with authority pertaining to the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. This verse shows exactly what the relationship truly was. Between the two, there was the difference between God and man, time and eternity, finite and infinite, between sun and reflected moon-light, between the Lord and the servant unworthy to unloose His sandals. In fact, John the Baptist himself had faithfully borne witness to the difference.

The statement of the herald John that Christ was “before” him shows that the apostle’s understanding of the pre-existence of Christ and the eternity of the Word had begun with His own acceptance of the teaching of the herald John on those very subjects. The herald was six months older than Jesus, and, only in respect to Jesus’ eternal existence before the incarnation, could he have affirmed that Christ was “before” him. Dummelow paraphrased it this way, “He existed before my birth, and even before His own birth, as the eternal Son of God.”

When John the Baptist began his ministry, he quickly pointed out to the religious authorities that he was not the Messiah. Rather, he was preparing the way for Him. John never called Jesus the Messiah, but he insisted that the One coming after him – who was actually before him – was much greater than he. His statements implied the Messiahship and affirmed the Lordship of Jesus (Matt. 3:1-3; John 1:15, 19-23, 30).

Therefore, when Jesus entered into His ministry after His baptism, it is not surprising that He was often referred to in terms of kingship by many of His Jewish contemporaries. Some, believing Him to be a great prophet, wanted to make Him king (John 6:14-15). Others cried out, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Some Gentiles were also aware of the aura of kingship that surrounded Jesus’ life and ministry. At His birth, magi from the East, presumably Gentiles from Persia or Arabia came seeking the one born “King of the Jews” (Matt. 2:1-2). Near the end of Jesus’ life, Pilate, the Roman governor, was particularly concerned about Jesus’ reputation and His acknowledgment that He was the Messiah, the King, and the Son of God (Matt. 26:63-64; John 18:37). At Jesus’ crucifixion, Pilate ordered a sign to be placed on the cross; it read: “JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS” (John 19:19).

The testimony of experience
1:16 ... “Of His fulness,” His inexhaustible store of grace and truth, which belong to the Son of God; a fountain forever flowing; a sun forever shining.

1:16 ... “Have all we received.” We know what these are by experience; we have felt His love, His forgiving love; we have received His grace in our hearts; we have seen His loving deeds; we have heard His gracious words; we received His gift of Pentecost; His graces have begun to grow in our hearts; we have been transformed by Him.

In his Commentary on John, Coffman wrote, “All blessings come from God. The wealth men receive is invariably through the employment of God-given talents and opportunities; the vigor, strength, health, and intelligence of every person is given to him from above. The great artists have no cause for the vanity which often marks their conduct, since all skills and abilities are from the Lord.”

In his remarkable Essay on Experience, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “Nothing is of us or our works . . . all is of God. Nature will not spare us the smallest leaf of laurel. All writing comes by the grace of God, and all doing and having. I would greatly allow the most to the will of man, but I have set my heart on honesty in this chapter, and I can see nothing at last in success or failure, than more or less of vital force supplied from the Eternal.”

Illustrations: Jesus is the inexhaustible source of grace and truth
In the Norse legends, Thor was given a drinking-horn, which he vainly tried to drink dry. He afterward learned that it was connected with the ocean, and he would have had to drink all the water of the world before emptying the cup.

An Eastern king was showing his treasure-chest to the ambassador of the king of Spain, after their discovery of the mines in America. The ambassador put his hand to the bottom of the king’s chest, and said, “I can reach the bottom of your treasures; but there is no bottom, no end, to the treasures of my Master.”

1:16 ... “And grace for grace.” Margin “grace upon grace.” Either: (1) the same graces in us which are in the Master, the same spirit, the same loveliness, the same good will to men, the same fruits of the spirit, or (2) grace upon grace, cumulative grace “so that ever and anon fresh grace appears over and above that already received,” grace added to grace, or one grace the means of increasing other graces, as in 2 Peter 1:5-7.

1:18 ... “The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” It is difficult for us to realize the presence of a being we have never seen, Who is the invisible power intermingled with all the natural laws and movements of nature. It was so in Old Testament times; it is so today. But Jesus has revealed the Father. His character is the character of the Father; His deeds are the deeds of the Father; His miracles revealed the power, the presence, and the love of the Father; His words are the truths of the Father; His very coming was the revelation of the Father’s love.

Jesus is His teachings, and in His works, shows us just what God is doing for men; He lives the divine life amid human things. He walks before us in the grace and glory of the heavenly Father. So that Lecky says He “has not only been the highest pattern of virtue, but the highest incentive to its practice . . . The sample record of three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and to soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers, and than all the exhortations of moralist. This has, indeed, been the wellspring of whatever has been best and purest in the Christian life”¹² Thus Jesus could say, “He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father” (John 14:9).

In this magnificent verse, the apostle shows how men may know God, despite the fact that God may not be known through human sensory perception. God is revealed to mankind by Jesus Christ the Holy One. The nature and attributes of God are revealed through Christ whose identity with man is also perfect.

Points of contact with modern life:

Here we find exactly the Savior we need.
Our first duty and privilege is, therefore, to receive Him.
The Savior we need is the Savior for the whole world.
Therefore we should make Him known everywhere, far and near.

If we really believe in this Savior we cannot but exhaust every effort to have all men receive Him.

Footnotes:
¹ J. B. Coffman, Commentary on John.
² See John 3:16, 18; Philemon 2:5-11; Revelation 1:8, 12-16; Isaiah 9:6.
³ See John 5:21-26; 6:47-58.
⁴ Coffman, Commentary on John.
⁵ For more information on Jesus Christ, see God the Son and The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels in Contents section of StudyJesus.com.
⁶ See Romans 8:16, 17; “children and heirs of God,” heirs of His character, His home, His training, his blessedness.
⁷ Read in concert 1 John 3:1-3.
⁸ See John 3:5.
⁹ See Luke 1:26-38; Matthew 11:18-25.
¹⁰ For more information on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, see God the Spirit and God’s Word in Contents section of StudyJesus.com.
¹¹ W. F. Howard, Interpreter’s Bible.
¹² Lecky, History of European Morals.

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