One of the things Christmas exposes in our culture is that we are a superficial people. That is to say, we are content with what is on the surface. One example of this is the fact that as a whole, our culture loves to sing songs about Christmas. Thus, this time of year, songs flood the radio waves to everyone’s delight including lines such as, “Glory to the newborn king … born to give them second birth,” “This is Christ the King,” and “Holy infant, tender and mild.” However, few inquire into and care about what this means.

Our culture is one that loves the story. They could not care less, however, about the truth behind the story. They are content with what’s on the surface. We are a superficial culture, content to tell the story but never to search out the truths behind the story.

The gospel of John does not have a birth narrative like Matthew or Luke. John does not tell the story of Christ’s birth in that way, though he is probably the most qualified to give such an account. For John 19:27 says that after the cross, John “took [Mary] into his home.” So you know there had to be conversations between the two about what it was like to get the news that you’re going to give birth to the Messiah, what kind of conversations she and Joseph had about all the events, or what it was like to hear of her Son amazing the religious teachers of his day. However, when it came to recording the incarnation, John doesn’t write of those stories. For to John, those stories are amazing because of the theological reality that occurs therein. For, John the beauty of the story lies in the truth behind and within the story, without which it is nothing less than something many can repeat and by which few can be challenged. So as he sits back, he does not begin at the beginning of Jesus’ time on earth, but he writes of Jesus and the beginning of time.

And from there, John gives the simple truths of the incarnation, which are anything but simple. He communicates to us the mystery, the magnitude of what occurred when Jesus was born of Mary and came to the earth, the event we celebrate at Christmas, the incarnation.

John begins, telling us that Jesus is the eternal Son of God; he is God, the Son (1:1-5)

Mark begins his gospel writing, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” John begins his gospel harkening back to the beginning of the universe. He writes, “In the beginning was the Word.” That is to say, Jesus was present at the beginning of the universe, before its creation.

“The Word,” the phrase which John uses here, is used throughout the Old Testament as God’s self-expression. By his word he creates, reveals, delivers, and heals. The Word is nothing less than God’s revelation of who he is. Therefore, John uses it to speak of Jesus and says, he was in the beginning.

Therefore, for “the Word” to be in the beginning, before creation, we know that he either has to be with God (for he know God was present then) or he must be nothing less than God himself. John answers, “yes” to both of those. He writes, “The Word was with God, and the Word was God” and again in verse 2, just in case you missed it, “He was in the beginning with God.” So we see that Jesus does not make up the entire Godhead, but the divinity that belongs to the Father belongs to him. He is himself God; he is God, the Son.

And through him all things that have been made were made. John writes in verses 3-5, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

The picture here is that the light and life that is within Christ spills over into creation. It is as Edwards who has said that God’s glory has a way of bubbling over so that his glory may be witnessed and enjoyed by others, so the light of the Word spilled over while “darkness was upon the face of the deep” and the world was created. This is probably what is being explained in verse 5, though there may be a double meaning, which John likes to do, and which comes into play as we proceed through the text.

So, Jesus is nothing less that God himself, God’s self-expression who existed with the Father before creation and through whom everything that is created was created.

Then John tells us that this one who is from eternity past has stepped into time (1:6-9)

John writes, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John [the Baptist]. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (1:6-9).

Thus, the eternal word who existed before time and creation stepped into his creation and into time. When the Christ child was born to Mary, John wants us to know that something of great magnitude happened, the eternal God came to the earth as no less God but fully man.

And John references the witness of John the Baptist to ground the eternal Word in a concrete individual in history. Thus, as Jesus’ public ministry began with John the Baptist, Jesus identifies the eternal word as the one to whom John pointed. This eternal Word who came into time is nothing less that the one whom John pointed to as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World; he is Jesus.

He entered physical, human life. So the eternal word took on flesh, became man, and the light that had created the world shone upon all mankind, revealing either their love or hate for the light (1:9). So in a sense, man is judged before him, simply at his coming.

The eternal word took on flesh so that through him we might be brought to God to be his children (1:10-13)

But Jesus’ coming into the world was different than we might expect. John writes, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (1:10-11).

This phrase “to his own” is the same phrase used when John took Mary “into his home.” So, the idea is that Jesus came to the home folk and the home folk did not receive him. Those who might be expected above all to welcome him in, recognizing him as the Messiah did not; they rejected him.

A few weeks ago, Lili and I went to see my parents. It was the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, but the church where I grew up still had services. So, we wanted to get there in time for that. We got away from Jackson late, however, and arrived fifteen minutes after the service had started. Nonetheless, Lili and I went ahead and entered the sanctuary as conspicuously as you can carrying a baby in a car seat. So, I thought to myself, “Great, we’re only going to be a distraction in the midst of the service.” However, what happened when we entered the sanctuary is that the pastor saw us, and quickly said, “Well bring that baby up here on the stage” (it was a very informal service).

Now, why did he respond that way? Because we were home folk. I was coming home with my wife and my baby to people who knew me well.

This should have been the case with Christ, but his own people, the Jews, for the most part rejected him. He came to his creation but the creation was in rebellion to him and didn’t recognize him.

However, just because he was rejected by those in darkness, didn’t mean he didn’t accomplish the mission for which he was sent. For as John wrote in verse 5, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” And there were many who did receive him. And John tells us, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (1:12-13).

Of ourselves, we have no right to have a position in God’s family. Achieving such a right is beyond anything we can do as humans. If we are to be a part of God’s family, it will not be by human effort but is utterly a gift of God.

By John writing that it is not of blood, the will of the flesh, nor the will of God, he is probably not trying to specify each of these, but just “piling upon one expression on top of another to bring out his point that entrance into the heavenly family is not the result of anything human.”¹ Consider anything we can do for ourselves, but nothing can make us a member of God’s family. Divine action is needed, for ultimate new birth is nothing other than the very act of God on our behalf.

But John tells us that that divine action began with the sending of the Son of God to become man. It would climax as he would pay the penalty for our sins on the cross. But this new birth into God’s family, eternal life, receiving Christ, occur together. So, John tells us that those who are born of God are those who receive Christ.

So what does it mean to receive him? Carson notes that to receive him, one “yields allegiance to the Word, trusts him completely, acknowledges his claims and confesses with gratitude.”² So Jesus came into the world in order that he might bring us to God. We needed something outside of ourselves to know God. We needed something outside of our ability to become children of God. God has provided this in a miraculous divine work that began in when Christ was sent into the world.

So, Christ is the eternal God who stepped into time in order that we might be born into the family of God through faith in him.

Finally, John shows us that we have seen the unfolding of the greatest grace in history (1:14-18)

Now what does that phrase “the unfolding of the greatest grace” mean? Well, first of all, in verse 14, John lays out clearly again what has occurred, writing, “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.”

Then he grounds this one who is the eternal word in history again, writing in verse 15, “John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’” And then he writes in verse 16, “And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”

Now there are all kinds of translations concerning this phrase, ‘grace upon grace,’ but it is quite a necessary phrase. It does not, I think simply mean “one blessing after another” as the NIV dictates. Rather, it is most literally translated, “grace instead of grace.” But what would such a translation mean?

I think John answers that in the verse that follows as he writes in verse 17, “For [the link with verse 16] the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” That is, the law was gracious in that it pointed us to the coming Messiah, the coming of God, the Son, the coming ‘enfleshment’ of God’s very self, however, the grace that we have received has eclipsed the grace shown in the law, for we have seen the substance to which those shadows pointed. So until the point of John the Baptist, history was waiting for the revelation of God in his Messiah, but John was the final one who would wait. God was gracious is letting us know he would come, but those who have received the greatest grace are those who are able to see him most clearly. The grace of the incarnation supercedes the grace that came through the law.

For John was able to say, “There he is, no more waiting.” And we are even more blessed, for John was not able to see the ultimate unfolding of God’s redeeming plan as Jesus died, was buried, rose from the dead, and poured out his Spirit upon his church. Therefore, we, with all those believers on this side of the cross are at a point in redemptive history where we have seen the greatest expression of God’s grace – the sending of his Son that he might reveal himself to us and bring us to himself through Christ death for us. And John reiterates our great blessing in the final verse writing, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (1:18).

Brothers and sisters, the eternal word has taken on flesh that we might know God. For centuries men have waited to see how God would provide redemption, how he would bring his people to himself, and we have tasted and seen his grace clearly. Therefore, as we approach Christmas may we remember what has occurred. It is much more than just the birth of a baby, eternity has stepped into time in order that we might know God; Christ has come that we might know the unfolding of the greatest display of his grace throughout history. We are truly a graced people, so may we adore our God who is worthy of all our praise. Amen.

¹Leon Morris, Reflections on John, 14.

²D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John: The Pillar New Testament Commentary, 125-126.

THE COMING OF CHRIST AND THE UNFOLDING OF A GREATER GRACE