JOHN 1:14 NKJV

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 NKJV

John 1:14 The Word (Gk. logos) who was (continuous existence) God (1:1) became (point action; Gk. ginomai) flesh (Gk. sarx) (1:14). Verse 1 speaks of Christ’s nature and works being outside of space and time, before creation. Verse 14 presents the irruption of Jesus Christ into time and space, even the history of humankind. The Son of God who was from all eternity, at a point in time, took humanity to deity (Phil. 2:5–9). God became human with limitations in time and space. Jesus Christ uniquely and thoroughly identified with us as both God and man. He was fully God and yet He became fully human (He did not have sin but then sin is not part of the nature of humanity, but is an intruder). Since nothing of the essential nature of deity was lost in this event, we might better understand “became” to mean “took to Himself” flesh. John uses the word flesh for the physical nature of persons, not for the sinful disposition (unlike the apostle Paul; Rom. 8:1–11). God the Son will forever exist as a man with a resurrected body (Acts 1:11; compare 1 John 4:2, 3). God dwelt among us, that is, among the apostles. Dwelt comes from the Greek word for tent. It was used in the Greek OT for the tabernacle where the presence of God dwelt. He was not an armchair dictator issuing orders from a parapet of heaven. Rather, He was a man among humanity. In the OT, glory refers to the divine presence (Ex. 33:18). As God manifested His glory in the tabernacle, so Jesus displayed His divine presence before the apostles (18:6; 20:26, 27). Only begotten (3:16, 18) means unique, one of a kind. The same term is used of Isaac (Heb 11:17), who was not the only physical son of Abraham, but was the unique son of promise. All who trust Christ are born of God. In the Gospel of John, these “born ones” are called children of God (vv. 12, 13), but Jesus Christ is the unique Son of God. He is the only Son who is fully God. He is also full of grace and truth. When God revealed Himself to Moses, He proclaimed Himself to be “abounding in goodness and truth” (Ex. 34:6). As applied to Jesus Christ, this phrase marks Him as the author of perfect redemption and perfect revelation.