A Johannine Study (John 1:19-28)

19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” 24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Who was John the Baptist? John’s story begins before he was ever born. The gospel according to Luke reports that his parents were good people and faithful followers of God. His father, Zechariah, was a priest and his mother, Elizabeth, was of a priestly pedigree. They would have been well respected in their community. But despite the honour they received as an esteemed couple, they felt shame because they were not able to have a child. Elizabeth was barren. In time, as they aged, the hope of impregnation diminished.

Their story, however, does not end there. It came about that an angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah telling him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:13-17). Zechariah, disbelieving the angel’s message, was punished for his unbelief. Though Elizabeth became pregnant, Zechariah was a mute until the day the baby was born.

John the Baptist was born under extraordinary circumstances. It is no surprise that his life would be no less remarkable. The gospel according to Matthew reports that John regularly preached in the wilderness. His message was: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). In some contexts, messages on repentance are unappealing because they are too negative. Yet, he drew crowds (Matthew 3:5)! Plus, he did it wearing a “garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist” and eating “locusts and wild honey” (Matthew 3:4)!

Who was John the Baptist? When the delegation from Jerusalem asked him this question, his reply was a quotation from Isaiah 40:3, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’” If Isaiah was talking about John, then that has huge implications on who he was. The allusion is that John was sent from God, as prophesied by Isaiah. Essentially, John’s authority as a messenger comes from the top, the eternal head honcho. In other words, John was important because God gave him the task of “making straight the way of the Lord.”

Who was John the Baptist? When the second delegation (this time from the Pharisees) asked John about why he was baptizing people, his answer was revealing. At the time, baptisms were not administered by others5. They were self-administered. And even when these baptisms occurred, they happened only when a non-Jew was proselytized into Judaism. In light of this, it is no surprise that the Pharisaic delegation found John’s activities bizarre, if not heretical. John’s answer may not have satisfied the delegation, but it does tell us something about himself: “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” In other words, John was not the one. He may have had an extraordinary birth, an interesting vocation, and was the voice prophesied by Isaiah, but he wasn’t the Messiah.

The angel Gabriel once called John the Baptist “great before the Lord” (Luke 1:15). But his greatness was incomparable to Jesus. John was not even worthy enough to take off Jesus’ shoes. He displayed great humility in recognizing that. Indeed, true greatness is in great humility. In this, he sets an example for us all.

A Johannine Study (John 1:18)

18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

When the sun is out in full force, the naked human eye cannot stare at it directly for long. Even a short glance can cause discomfort or temporary blindness. Prolonged exposure can cause burns on the retina. The eye is simply incapable of handling the effects of sunlight. Similarly, we are incapable of witnessing the fullness of God’s glory without disastrous consequences. We learn in Exodus 33:29-23 that the weight of his glory can destroy us. God is infinitely holy and we are finite and sinful. In light of this juxtaposition, we are not even a speck compared to God. As less than specks, we can barely behold the brightness of the sun. It is no wonder, then, that as less than specks it is impossible for us to behold the brightness of God’s glory without perishing.

Firstly, God has graciously kept the physical manifestation of his glory from being seen in order that we might live. John writes, “No one has ever seen God; the only God.” Elsewhere in the Bible, it is recorded that God’s presence was with the Israelites (Leviticus 26:11-12). But his presence was not without some separation. He dwelt among them in a large tent called a tabernacle, which would later be replaced by a temple. The Israelites were not allowed into the inner chamber of the tabernacle and temple. Only the high priest could enter this area, which was called The Most Holy of Holies. And even he was only allowed to enter it once a year, on the Day of Atonement. God had censored his glory from his people, not as a curse, but as a blessing. Had he made his glory visible, none of the Israelites would have lived.

Secondly, God graciously reveals his glory through his Son so that we might live. John writes, “who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”A more literal translation of “who is at the Father’s side” is “who is in the bosom of the Father.” Using words, John is painting a picture of God the Son resting on the chest of God the Father. It is a metaphor for intimacy. The Father and the Son are close, familiar, and cognizant of one another. This means that Jesus knows everything about God the Father. He knows his glory, and he does not perish. But this relationship is not exclusive, and the glory of God is not withheld forever. Jesus makes the Father known to us. In other words, in Jesus Christ we witness the glory of God (John 1:14) without perishing.

What does all of this mean? To behold the glory of God, where we formerly could not without the gospel, means that we can enjoy God! God is no longer elusive and remote, though that was a blessing too. Now, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have access to God. He dwelt among us without separation. He saves us so that we could have intimacy with him. He opens our eyes so that we could see him. And we do not perish.

A Johannine Study (John 1:16-17)

16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Each sentence in the beginning of John reveals something about the person and work of Jesus. In this passage, John picks up where he left off in verse fourteen, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” We know from this that Jesus was not partially filled with grace and truth. He was completely filled with grace and truth.

In Jesus we have a full cup. He is not half empty, which would give the critic an opportunity to disparage him; nor is he simply half full, which would give postmoderns an avenue to relativize him. Jesus is full of loving-kindness and authenticity. His answer to the critic’s questions is love, and his response to postmodern subjectivism is objective truth. Jesus is so full of this grace and truth that nothing could enter his cup and taint its contents.

Now, John says that we receive Jesus’ fullness. More specifically, we are given “grace upon grace.” But what does that mean? The word “upon” is translated from the Greek word “ἀντί” (anti), which can also be translated as “in exchange for.” In other words, John is distinguishing between two kinds of grace. He explains what they are in the next verse: (1) law (through Moses); (2) grace and truth (through Jesus Christ). An archive of the first grace is recorded in the Old Testament. The law governed the way the Israelites ought to live. All of us, however, have the law written on our hearts (Romans 2:15). To put it another way, all of us are gifted with a conscience. This conscience tells us how we ought to live, exhorting us to be righteous. The unfortunate truth is that we sin (Romans 3:23), unable to meet the requirements of this gracious law. But John gives us hope with a second grace.

Jesus Christ replaces the law by fulfilling it (Luke 24:44). The law cannot fulfill itself insofar as a rock can make itself alive. Jesus, on the other hand, is full of righteousness (not taint) because he is God. As God, he does what man could not do; he met the requirements of his own law (Romans 8:3-4). Then, instead of just showing us how we ought to live by writing another testament, he takes away our sin and exchanges it with his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). We don’t just have the law written on our hearts, which was the first grace, but now, we have a satisfied law written on our hearts (2 Corinthians 3:3).

The law no longer holds us captive to worldly legalism. We are freed to live lawfully because of what Jesus did, no longer because of what Moses wrote. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection become our “how we ought to live.” Fellow Christian, live having “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16)! Follow faithfully, not because you must attain his reward, but because he has attained it for you.

A Johannine Study (John 1:14)

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

It is no small thing for God to become flesh. Philippians 2:6-7 sheds light on Jesus’ incarnation: “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” How does God become fully man while retaining his full divinity? How does corporeal flesh interact physiologically with godly attributes? How does God’s attributes interact spiritually with corporeal flesh?

These are questions that currently have no answers. God has not yet divulged the technical specifics on the incarnation of Christ. Paul’s letter to the Philippians explains what happened when Jesus incarnated. He was born in the likeness of men. This, however, may not satisfy our inquiry into the science behind the incarnation. We can only conclude that God was purposefully cryptic about these details. And if God was cryptic through Paul in Philippians 2:6-7, he was more so through John in John 1:14.

Perhaps part of the reason for this is because we do not have the mental capacity to understand such a phenomenon. Speculation aside, we definitively know that God does not want us to be centrally consumed with the “how” but rather the “why.” In our passage today, it is clear that one of the reasons for the incarnation was so that people like John could witness God’s glory. The word for “glory” (Greek: δόξα) also means “honour” or “splendor.” There is no shortage of Biblical passages that proclaim God as glorious. There is, however, one passage in scripture that can be singled out. It is likely that John had in mind Exodus 33-34 as he wrote verse fourteen.

After the Israelites had escaped slavery in Egypt by the mercy of God, Moses climbed Mount Sinai to meet with the Lord. There Moses prayed for his people. In doing so, God was pleased with him. Desiring more of God, Moses asked if he could see God’s glory. In response, God said to him:

“I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” (Exodus 33:19-23)

It is impossible to be apathetic about God’s glory when it is revealed. Glory can be experienced when one is victorious in a basketball game or in the battlefield. But the glories we experience in this world are crude in comparison to God’s. God’s glory is weighty. None can experience it and not be changed. Moses only saw God’s posterior and came away with shining skin (Exodus 34:29, 35). And because our depravity removes us so far from his holiness, the full extent of his glory would crush us.

God was merciful to Moses. But he is merciful to us, too. And he does not just allow his glory to pass us by like he did with Moses. His glory was manifested in Jesus. The Father sent his Son. Why? “Grace,” in our study verse, is understood Hebraically as “loving-kindness.” In other words, the Father sent his Son because he loves us. Jesus’ incarnation made way for his “death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). In other words, his incarnation was required so that he could die. In that death, he saves us to God (1 Peter 3:18).

Glory that could kill us was used to save us. Such a remarkable truth should not be ignored.