John 1: 14-18, God Made Known

We continue studying the Prologue of the Gospel of John, describing the actions of the Word.

John 1: 14, Incarnation
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

A miraculous event is described in verse 14, often called The Incarnation. Let's not let a name reduce the wonder in this event, for John says that the Creative Word of the universe took on human flesh and lived among his creation.  "We" (the gospel writer and others) have seen the "glory" of this Divine Word; the "Son".

John 1: 15-18, God made known
(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 
16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 
18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known

Jesus is portrayed here as the completion of the Mosaic covenant, representing "grace and truth" and is God-made-known, God in the flesh.

The person, John, mentioned here, is John the Baptist.  (The author of this letter never directly names himself. )  John the baptist prophetically points to the Messiah when he appears.

Grace already given -- to what does this refer?

The Old Testament points to the Law, given through Moses.  But the lesson of the Old Testament was that it required grace.

Jesus is the human representation of God. Although we cannot see God, we could observe Jesus.  The gospel writer will have a lot to say about his own observations.

NIV footnotes, regarding verse 18: "Some ancient manuscripts do not have the phrase 'who is himself God'."

After the prologue, John has a series of events (through chapter 4) in which Jesus is introduced to various communities.  In the first set of events, Jesus is introduced to the Jewish nation.