Page 161 - Bible Writers Theology Original

ofgraceandtruth/'Theclueto theinspiredexpression,"andtheWordwas w ith God" can be derived without ambiguity from verse 14 of the prologue: "and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." There is no doubt that this Word who was made flesh and dwelt among us is Christ, and the apostle is "prefacing" the rest of his book, fully aware of all that Christ said about Himself.
"That ye may know and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in Him" (John 10:38); and again, "For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and go to
the Father" (John 16:27-28). Such are the claims that lead John to state that the Word of God, which was with God, was made flesh.
The Word who was made flesh and "dwelt among us" proceeded from
the Father without changing His essence so that the blood and the flesh of Jesus Christ would be of God's own nature. Is not this a direct allusion to Iiiunanuel, "God with us", in His own flesh? John, in his first epistle emphatically declares, "That which was from the beginning, which we have
heard/ which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and
our hands have handled, of the word of Life" (I John l:l)jgivingus a perfect description of Immanuel (the Father in His flesh).
John speaks in the same verse of "the only begotten of the Father", for he iDears record of what Christ declared: "Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world. Thou blasphemest: because 1said, I am
theSonofGod?"Qohn10:36). (SeealsoJohn5:18andJohn3:16.)
Not only was the "word was made flesh and dwelt among us", but John
adds that, "we beheld his glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." In the same verse the word "glory" was itientioned with this assertion, which seems to echo Christ's own words: "These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him" (John
12:41)- Indeed, from a careful examination of verses 38-45 of the twelfth chapter of John, we understand that this glory is attributed to "the arm of
God," who, when revealed to the apostles, w^s none other than God the Fathermanifestedintheflesh,aswehaveseenearlier. ThatiswhyChrist
rightly declared: "...I seek not my own glory, there is one that seeketh and judgeth" (John 8:50). For did not the Holy One of Israel proclaim in Old Testament days: "I am the LORD: that is my name, and my glory will I not
givetoanother,neithermypraisetogravenimages." (Isaiah42:8;Isaiah 48:11)- Surely, the servant of Yahweh, Christ, "whom I uphold, mine elect,
in whom my soul delighteth" (Isaiah 42:1), and on whom, as John tells us, rested the glory of the Father, was none other than God the Father manifest-
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