1:14. The Incarnation of the Word of God

 

What the evangelist has been saying in 1:11-13 is affirmed in this great witness to Jesus of Nazareth. The Word of God, from eternity with God, made his own a human nature with all its weakness but full of grace and truth. The word 'truth' is important in John's gospel and' occurs twenty five times. In the Old Testament, truth stands for God's absolute faithfulness to his promises. To John, truth means the saving revelation of God in Jesus Christ. The word 'grace', meaning God's love, and used so often by Paul, is used by John only in the prologue in his gospel (1:14 and 16): In the last sentence of 1:14, the use of the word 'glory' is connected with the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies that in the end, God's glory would be seen by all nations (Isaiah 40:5). God's glory was made visible to the people of the old Covenant as they journeyed to the Promised Land (Exodus 13:21-22, 24:16-17, 40:34). God's glory is now made visible to all mankind, in Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, the Father's only Son, but this glory is seen only by those who have faith. 'We' refers , to the Christian Church for whom the evangelist speaks.