John 1:14
Bible Study
John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
What is the book of John about, and what is the purpose of the writing? It's to convince the Jewish people that Jesus is the Messiah, & the Son of God. This whole book is about Jesus Christ and proving His authority.
The Word:
So what does it mean when John writes "The Word?"
The Greek word for "The Word" is "Logos" (λόγος). This word is a divine word and phrase showing the deity of Christ. To call someone "Logos" is to uplift him to the same standard as God. This equates Jesus Christ with the creator. "The Word" also means "speech," and "reason." If Jesus is the Word, the very basis of reasoning and truth, then we can ultimately say that "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good." (Psalm 14:1)
Jesus is being declared as God himself, who has always existed and is eternal, and created all things.
John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 1:3 "All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made."
Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
When we understand the context of the book of John is about the deity of Jesus Christ, and understand what it means by "The Word is God," there is no way to take it into context that Jesus is NOT God.
What does the Bible say about Jesus being both divine and human?
How are Jesus's claims unique when compared to those of other religious figures?
became flesh and dwelt among us:
This part is one of the best parts of the New Testament and shows what kind of God we worship. This is where Bible prophecies that come up from the Old Testament. This is where the difference between the Jewish and Christians come in and unfortunately where the difference comes in with other sects of "Christianity" like Mormonism, Jehovahs Witnesses and Islam (even though it's not Christian).
In Isaiah 7:14 we can read "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel." and the fulfillment of this verse is read in Matthew 1:23 "All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23“Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means, “God with us”). 24When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and embraced Mary as his wife..."
These two verses alone show that God is a personal God. Not only are we able to see that God is personal in the Old Testament through the prophets when He would reason and speak to those He set in charge to the Hebrews, But when we look at God in the flesh through Jesus who is claimed to the image of the invisible God.
Colossians 1:14-16 "in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him."
How has Jesus been good to you and shown that He is a relational God?
The idea of God coming down and joining His people was not a new idea to the Jewish people at that time. If God revealed, as we saw in Isaiah 7:14, to the Jewish people that 'A virgin shall conceive and bear a son,' then it was not a new idea but prophesied. So why did the Jewish people deny Jesus as God? Why did the Jewish leaders say about Jesus? This is important to understand because it uncovers why they didn't believe He was God in the flesh.
Jesus was born of a Virgin (Isaiah 7:14), was born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), Jesus was worshiped as God many times (Isaiah 9:6), and Jesus events were taught in the Temples (Malachi 3:1). What else did they need to be convinced that Jesus was God?
For many Jews, Jesus was nothing more than what they would call a "Jewish moralist." This is a person who adheres to the ethical principles and values of Judaism, viewing morality as divinely commanded and rooted in religious tradition.
Another reason they didn't believe Jesus was God was the "Two-Fold picture of the Messiah." This is the Idea that the prophets spoke of two different messiahs. The Messiah who was to come, suffer, and die was termed Messiah, the Son of Joseph, and the second Messiah who was to come was termed Messiah, the Son of David. This Messiah would raise the first Messiah back to life, establish the Messianic kingdom on earth.
When we read the full chapter of Isaiah 53, this would be the Messiah, the Son of Joseph, because this was the suffering servant to them. Many Jewish leaders and scholars will also say this is speaking of the people of Israel, the Jewish people suffering, and not the messiah. But a simple read of Isaiah 53 would prove otherwise.
This concept of there being two messiahs is completely made up by the religious leaders at that time, because they couldn't imagine a Messiah who was supposed to come and establish the Kingdom of God would suffer. But the fact that God does come down, walks with His people, suffers for them, and dies for the sins of the world (John 3:16) shows that He is a personal God.
Other works that Jesus did to prove He was the Messiah
A King from David's line - 2 Samuel 7:12-16
A suffering servant who bears our sins - Isaiah 53
A divine redeemer - Isaiah 9:6, Jeremiah 23:5-6
Prophet like Moses - Deuteronomy 18:15
The presence of God among His people - Malachi 3:1
Jesus was also the true King, the Sacrificial lamb, spoke in authority of God, and took the sins of the world (Which only God can do).
Full of Grace and Truth:
What is Grace?
What is Truth?
Straight from the bat we read about this in Exodus 34:6-7 "And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
In the book of John, he is making this connection very clear when he claims that Jesus is full of Grace and Truth, that the same God that Moses saw is the same God that was revealed in the form of Jesus Christ. Jesus was not a different God but is the same God that Moses saw, but now in the flesh.
How can we do better to help those who reject the deity of Jesus Christ understand that Jesus is God and that He fulfilled all the requirements of being the messiah?
What causes someone not to want to know who Jesus is? And what can we do for that person, as Christians, when someone denies Christ?