The Word Made Flesh

The Prologue of John’s Gospel presents key themes of the Book. This includes the declaration that Jesus of Nazareth is the Logos, the “Word become flesh.” Life and Light are revealed in him to penitent men and women. He is the true “Tabernacle” where God’s “Glory” resides, not the tent in the wilderness or the Temple building in Jerusalem. What was foreshadowed in the history of Israel became reality in the “only-born Son” of God.

Since his Death and Resurrection, Jesus has been the place where the presence of God is found. The “Word become flesh” is the only means for accessing God. He is the “place” where the true worship of the Father takes place - “In spirit and truth.”

[Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash]

His “glory” is not confined to the physical walls of the Tabernacle “made-with-hands.” No longer is access to His presence limited to the Levitical priests. Every member of His people beholds His glory in the “Word made flesh that tabernacles among us” - (John 1:14, 1:47-51, 2:13-22, 4:20-24).

The Living Word of God was embodied in this flesh-and-blood man from Nazareth so all men could see the Divine nature expressed in his life. Jesus is the expression of God as seen in his words, deeds, Death, and Resurrection. In the truest sense, the Logos has been “incarnated,” in-fleshed in the man, Jesus Christ.

The description of the “Word tabernacling among us” echoes the incident at Mount Sinai when God inscribed His ten “words” on stone tablets. The Word of God is now written in “flesh” in Jesus of Nazareth.

The Greek verb translated as “tabernacled” is skénoō, meaning “to tabernacle; to pitch a tent.” It is related to the noun skéné for “tent,” the same term used in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Book of Exodus for the “Tabernacle” carried by the Levites in the wilderness. Thus, God is “tabernacling” with His people through His Son.

God commanded Moses to “construct a Sanctuary for me that I may dwell among them,” a portable structure fashioned “according to all that I am going to show you, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings.”

In obedience, the Great Lawgiver “proceeded to take a tent and pitch it by itself outside the camp… and he called it, the Tent of Meeting… it came to pass, that when Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud came down and stood at the opening of the tent” - (Exodus 25:8-9, 33:7-11).

What the Tabernacle in the Wilderness foreshadowed finds its substance in Jesus Christ.

GRACE AND TRUTH

In the Septuagint version of Exodus, the “Tent of Meeting” is the skéné martyriou or the “Tent of Witness.” It was the place where the presence of Yahweh was seen in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Now He makes His habitation among His People in His Son - (Exodus 40:34-35, Numbers 9:15-23).

John declared: “We beheld his glory… full of grace and truth.” This clause in the Gospel of John employs further imagery from Exodus. It echoes God’s self-description. Moses asked to see His “glory,” but no man could “see my face and live.” Therefore, He placed Moses in the “cleft of a rock” as He passed by, permitting him only to see His “backside” while proclaiming:

• “Yahweh, Yahweh, a God of compassion and grace, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness and faithfulness” - (Exodus 33:17-23, 34:1-6).

Thus, the glory of God is revealed in Jesus, and this proposition is expanded in John’s gospel account. Unlike Moses, the followers of Nazarene see the true glory of God in His Son, not just His “backside,” a glory comparable to that of “an only born from a father.”

He who has seen the Son “has seen the Father,” and Jesus is the only way that leads any man or woman to the presence of God. Even the angels of Heaven are now seen “ascending and descending on the Son of Man” - (John 1:51, 14:6-7, 17:24).

This glory is “full of grace and truth.” This corresponds to the proclamation of Yahweh as He passed before Moses - “I am Yahweh, abundant in loving-kindness and faithfulness.” The glory only glimpsed momentarily by Moses is disclosed fully and manifested permanently in Jesus Christ.

His presence is no longer restricted to the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon. These structures “made with hands” became obsolete because of what God achieved in His Son - (2 Corinthians 3:18, 4:4-6).

The old Tabernacle was glorious and revealed much about the nature of God. Nevertheless, its glory and access to it were always limited. In contrast, the glory found in Jesus is full, visible, and available for anyone to behold, believe, and embrace. He is the “way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him.” Grace and truth are found only in Jesus of Nazareth.

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