As the Light, Jesus Christ entered into humanity in order to extend favor and explain God to humanity...

During the weeks leading up to Christmas at the church where I serve we are spending our time together in a sermon series entitled light. During this series, we are looking at an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of John. This week, I would like for us to pick up where we left off last week. And as we jump back into the opening section of the gospel of John, we will see John continue unpack the reason why Jesus entered into humanity as the Light. Let’s look at it together beginning in John 1:14:

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

As we jump back into this section of the opening of this letter, there are several questions that we need to ask and answer in order to fully understand what John is communicating here. First, what does John mean when he states that the word became flesh? Simply put, what John is stating here is that Jesus took on flesh and entered into humanity to live among us and experience life on earth. Jesus did not stop being God. Jesus, in addition to being God, took on humanity. Now the big 50 cent theological word that is used to refer to this event is the word incarnation.

As we have already discovered in this series, as the Word, Jesus Christ is God’s ultimate disclosure of Himself. Jesus Christ, as the second member of the Trinity, is the eternal Divine Being who has always existed in a close, personal relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. As the Word, Jesus Christ is the hands of creation through whom all creation came into existence.

And as the Word, Jesus Christ is the source of life and a light for all of humanity. And as the Word, John is revealing for us the reality that Jesus Christ is 100% God and 100% man. Another way to describe what John is communicating here is to say that Jesus is “God in a bod”.

In addition, when John states that he saw, he is not talking simply about seeing. Instead, John is saying that he perceived something above and beyond what is merely seen with the eye. And what John perceived is Jesus glory. Now glory here refers to the splendor or radiance of something or someone. The splendor that John perceived was the radiance and glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

The word begotten literally means to be the only one of its kind or class, to be unique. John is explaining to us that Jesus Christ is the unique, one of a kind, Son of God. There is only one Son of God, and His name is Jesus. And as the unique, one and only son of God, Jesus was full of grace and truth. In other words, John is stating that Jesus, as the Light, is complete and lacks nothing. The word grace refers to possessing divine favor, while the word truth refers to Jesus as being the embodiment of truth.

John’s point here is that Jesus is the unique, one and only Son of God, who completely possesses the Divine favor that we needed. But not only does Jesus completely possess the Divine favor that we so desperately need; Jesus is also the embodiment of truth. John then reminds us of something that we looked at a few weeks ago in verse 15:

John testified about Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'"

Here we see John remind us the role that John the Baptizer had when it came to Jesus as the Word and as the Light. As we talked about two weeks ago, John the Baptizer’s mission was to act as a witness who confirms or attests to the truth of Jesus being the Light on the basis of his personal knowledge and belief. You see a witness does more than confirm and establish truth. A witness makes a commitment to the truth. And John the Baptizer confirmed and established the truth that Jesus is God in a bod who is the Light and the Messiah by pointing to an earlier encounter with Jesus when he baptized Jesus.

John the Baptizer’s testimony, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded like this: “One day, I baptized Jesus and saw the Holy Spirit descend upon Him and Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then I remembered that God had told me that the one who the Holy Spirit descended upon and filled would be the one who was the Light and the Messiah who was God in a bod. I was there. I saw it happen with my own eyes. And I confirm to you and am committed to telling the truth that Jesus is far greater than I am because He existed before me as God.”

After reminding the readers of his letter of John the Baptizer’s testimony concerning Jesus, we see John reveal another reason why Jesus was greater and how Jesus revealed His splendor and radiance in verse 16:

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

Now when John uses the word fullness here, this word literally means to bring to fullness or completion. John’s point here is that Jesus, as the Word and as the Light, is the One that brings to fullness and completion the reality that we all have received grace upon grace. But this morning, what does that mean? What does John mean when he states that we have received grace upon grace?

This phrase, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means we have all received grace in place of grace. In other words, humanity throughout history had the opportunity to be the recipients of God’s Divine favor. And now, humanity, in the place of the Divine favor that had been previously offered, had the opportunity to be the recipients of God’s Divine favor in the most full and complete way that was possible.

Now a natural question that arises here is “Well Dave, how did God offered humanity His Divine favor and then replace His Divine favor with Divine favor? That does not seem to make sense to me? I mean, are you saying that God’s Divine favor changes? Are you saying that how we experience God’s Divine favor changed over history?” If those questions are running through your mind, I just want to let you know that those are great questions to be asking. And we see John answer those questions in verse 17:

For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

Now when John refers to the Law here, he is referring to the first five books that are recorded for us in our Bibles today.  God gave the Jewish people the Law after they were delivered from slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt by God through Moses. These first five books contain a list of commands that reveal God’s nature and character and the nature and character that the Jewish people needed to possess and display in order to experience a right relationship with God.

The problem, however, is that the Jewish people, and humanity throughout history, did not follow the commands of the Law. Instead, the Jewish people, and humanity throughout history, rebelled and rejected the Law in order to do things against the Law out of their selfishness and rebellion that hurt God and others.

And as a result of their selfishness and rebellion, the Jewish people, and humanity throughout history, did not possess God’s Divine favor in their lives. Instead, humanity was separated from God as a result of their selfishness and rebellion.

You see, God has been extending His grace and Divine favor to humanity throughout history. God extended grace to Adam and Eve by removing them from the Garden of Eden so that they could have an opportunity to be rescued from the selfishness and rebellion that separated them from God. And God continued to extend grace to humanity throughout history.

However, unlike Abraham, who responded to God’s grace and favor in his life by placing his confident trust in God and the promises of God; unlike Joseph, who responded to God’s grace and favor in his life by placing his confident trust in God in spite of his circumstances, most of humanity rejected placing their confident trust in God. John explains that while the Law had been given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

In other words, in the place of the Divine favor that had been previously offered, through Jesus Christ coming to humanity as the Light, humanity had been given the opportunity to be the recipients of God’s Divine grace and favor in the fullest and most complete way possible. Jesus Christ is the fullness and completion of God’s Divine Favor to humanity and is the full and complete embodiment of truth that came to humanity.

But not only is Jesus Christ, as the Word and as the Light, the full and complete embodiment of God’s Divine Favor and Truth to humanity. John concludes the opening section of his letter by revealing for us another reason why Jesus entered into humanity as the Light in verse 18:

 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

When John states that no one has seen God at any time, he is not saying that no human being throughout history has ever seen God. After all, as we discovered in the promise series this summer, Abraham had an encounter with God. And in another letter that is recorded of us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Exodus, the leaders of the Jewish nation saw God and had dinner in the presence of God.

What John is communicating here is that no one has been able to perceive or fully wrap their minds around the nature and character of God throughout history. And because of this reality, God sent His unique, one and only Son Jesus Christ, who John states is in the bosom of the Father.

But what does it mean to be in the bosom of the Father? In the culture of the first century, this phrase was used to describe the closest association possible. A person who had such a close relationship with someone was referred to as “being in someone’s bosom”. This is where the phrase “bosom buddies” comes from. John’s point here is God sent His Son Jesus with whom He is in the most intimate fellowship possible to humanity.

John continues by revealing for us the reality that the reason that Jesus Christ, as the Light, came to earth was to explain God to us. Now the word explain here, in the language that this letter was originally written in literally means to set forth in greater detail. In other words Jesus Christ, as the Word and as the Light, reveals and explains who God is in His nature, His character, and His conduct.

By sending His unique, one of a kind Son, as the Word and as the Light, into humanity, we discover that God gave what was most like Him. God sent Jesus into humanity to explain Himself to humanity. So, when we wonder what God is like, all we have to do is to look at the life of Jesus. When we wonder how God feels about a certain issue, all we have to do is look at the life of Jesus and see how He responded or answered that issue.

And it is here that we see God reveal for us a timeless and powerful truth when it comes to Jesus as the light. And that timeless truth is this: As the Light, Jesus Christ entered into humanity in order to extend favor and explain God to humanity. As the Light Jesus Christ took on flesh and entered into humanity so that all humanity could have the opportunity to experience God’s favor in the fullest and most complete way possible. And as the Light Jesus Christ took on flesh and entered into humanity in order to explain God in the fullest and most complete way possible to all humanity.

You see, that is what Christmas is all about. Christmas is about an event that occurred in history. An event where God decided to reveal and explain Himself to humanity by sending His Son Jesus as God in a bod so that all humanity would have the opportunity to experience God’s grace and favor by responding to Jesus life, death, and resurrection by believing, trusting and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.

So here is a question to consider: How are you responding to the grace and favor that God desires to extend to you through Jesus as the Light? How are you responding to sending His Son into humanity in order to reveal and explain Himself to humanity?