25 Jan Jesus Is Our Human God
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. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”) John 1:14–15
God does not need a home, but God’s people do. For this reason, in the Old Testament, God’s people had houses that they used to gather in God’s presence like a family gathers in a home. These homes included a tent called the Tabernacle and Temple.
Once Jesus came, such dwelling places were no longer needed. For this reason, unlike other religions that have a holy place as their center, Christianity has a Holy Person as our center.
Jesus is God in “flesh.” The spiritual God took upon Himself a human body in the person of Jesus Christ. Theologians call this the “incarnation.” Carne comes from the Latin word for meat. If you have eaten chili con carne, then you’ve had chili with meat. If you have eaten my favorite meal, carne asada, then you have enjoyed fire-grilled meat. Jesus is simply God in meat.
Speaking of Jesus’ incarnation, John has a lot to say about his best friend and Lord as Son, glorious, gracious, and true. Jesus Christ is truly one of a kind: “the only Son from the Father.” Calling Jesus God’s Son means that He has such a loving relationship with God the Father that it is like a dad and his boy who are best buddies. Jesus is also fully God and fully man, the God of glory in a human body. Considering Jesus a source of glory means that He should weigh most heavily in our hearts and minds as the most prominent and preeminent in our life. As a source of grace, Jesus represents the willingness of God to forgive, love, and serve us even though we are not just undeserving but truly ill-deserving sinners. In this world filled with lies, the truth of Jesus is the only way to live in reality with a true foundation.
We tend to think a lot about ourselves. What we feel, what we want, and what we think tend to dominate our days. By starting his Gospel with Jesus, John is saying that before we can live our new life, we need to spend some time understanding the life of Jesus, since He is our human God and the perfect human life. No one is like Jesus. No one is above Jesus. No one is alongside Jesus.
John says that Jesus is “full of grace and truth.” How about you? Are you more of a grace person or a truth person? Do you bend too much for people or just tell it like it is and blow up relationships? How can you become “full of grace and truth” like Jesus?
I will spend roughly an entire year preaching verse-by-verse through the entire Gospel of John and those sermons can be found for free each week after they are preached at MarkDriscoll.org.
