When Moses asked God to show him his glory in Exodus 33, the Lord said, “‘I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you….But He said, ‘You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live…I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen’” (Ex. 33:20-23). Although God spoke directly to Moses, the Lord told him that he could not see his face and live, so God shielded Moses from full exposure to his glory. In the next chapter we learn that even after this muted experience, Moses’ face shone so brightly the people were afraid to look at him until he put a veil over his face. God, in all of his glory and majesty, is completely inaccessible to man. The NT reiterates this same theme when Paul tells Timothy that God dwells “in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:16).
How can anyone cross this great divide between the creature and the Creator, the mortal and the immortal, the finite and the eternal, between man and God? The short answer is, it can’t be done. There is absolutely no way for us to make up the difference so that we can look on God’s face and live. If someone as pious and favored as Moses could not, we have no hope.
Crossing the Great Divide
Down through the ages this has been impossible, but John explains how the impossible became possible. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Once again John is talking about the Word. This takes us back to the opening verses of the chapter.1 Jesus is highly exalted. He is the Word of God, the eternal, One who is God and is also face to face with God. In this sense it is impossible for Jesus to be any further from us, any less like us, than he is as the Word of God. He is infinite, transcendent, all-powerful, and eternal; he is equal with God. But John says the Word became flesh!
We did not find a way to reach God, but the Word of God came down to us.
Here is the key: we did not find a way to reach God, but the Word of God came down to us. He did not cling to the majesty and glory of his heavenly position or the fundamental advantages of his divine nature, when he became a human person in time and space. We do not mean to say he gave up any of those things – he was and is and always will be God – but he took on himself genuine humanity. Jesus did not come partway down from heaven so that we could somehow claw our way up to him; he came all the way down. No one should say he is beyond Jesus’ reach, because he who is the eternal Word became flesh. The One who was in fellowship with God before the world began became human. That fact alone may be the most astounding thing which separates the one true God from the gods of all the nations. No other god would so humble himself as to become a man,2 and indeed, in many of the world’s religions it is impossible for their gods to do so. The wide gulf between us and God, which can not be crossed by any man, was bridged by God.
God with Us!
If this were not astonishing enough, John says the Word “dwelt among us.” He did not come from his exalted position in heaven to make a pit-stop on earth for a few hours, maybe drop in on a few people, and then go back home. No, John says he pitched his tent among us, meaning he took up residence on earth. He did not sip from the glass of humanity, Jesus drank the cup to the very last drop. He became like us in every way, except for sin, and this was essential so that he could understand our true condition. His ability to serve as our priest before God is directly linked to the fact that he became a man, and not just for a few moments. He experienced the very real struggles we all face as men, even the temptation to sin, and yet he was not overcome by it.
Seeing the Invisible
John the Apostle, the author of this Gospel, was an eyewitness of the incarnation of the Word. He says “we beheld His glory” and it was “the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” John is speaking of himself and of the other disciples, including the twelve, the women who helped support Jesus, and the other Jewish converts who had received the Light of life. These first followers of Jesus gave testimony of what they had seen, so that everyone who believes can also say we have seen his glory. Jesus didn’t come to earth to hide his glory; he didn’t come to show his glory only to a handful of the most important or the wealthiest people. Jesus became flesh so that all of us could see his glory, and this glory, John says, is the very glory of God the Father.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
from the Nicene Creed, 325AD
begotten from the Father, only-begotten,
that is, from the substance of the Father,
God from God, light from light, true God from true God,
begotten not made, of one substance with the Father,
through Whom all things came into being,
things in heaven and things on earth.
John says Jesus’ glory was “as of the only begotten of the Father.” Many have been troubled by that phrase, as if John was saying Jesus was made by the Father. But John already established in v.3 that Christ never came to be, so that can’t be what he means. Rather, John is emphasizing the uniqueness of Christ – he is the only One who fully and completely shares in the nature and character of the Father. Jesus Christ was never made, he never began to be; he is eternally begotten of the Father – made of the same stuff, so to speak – so that his glory is the Father’s glory. When we have seen the face of Jesus, whether with our own eyes like John and the other apostles, or by their testimony in the Scriptures, we have seen the Father. The very fact that the Word became flesh is a tremendous act of grace on God’s part. This was not done on the basis of our merit but of God’s incomparable love. At the same time, the entrance of Christ into humanity is the final and complete revelation of God to men. He is, quite literally, the embodiment of both grace and truth. Again we ask, “Who is Jesus really?” He is the God who became man.
1 https://ebcelkhorn.com/who-is-jesus-the-word-of-god/
2There may be stories in some religions of the gods appearing as men, but even in these cases the gods do not become men, they merely take on a human form. Often this is with the intent to deceive, which is nothing at all like the incarnation of the Word – John says he became flesh.
