John's Witness: The Incarnate Word Dwelt Among Us

Because we are made in the image of God, our original design was to display God's holiness. And because God made people like Himself, people have the ability to be in relationship with God. Being in loving fellowship with God is every person's greatest purpose, every person's greatest good, deepest fulfillment, pleasure, happiness and satisfaction.

So John went on to say that

...The Word became flesh and dwelt among us

Literally, that word “dwelt” means “tabernacled,” which would have made the Jews think immediately of God’s tabernacle in Exodus. During the desert years, the Hebrew people lived in tents, and God had a tent pitched for Himself as well, which would be His home, so He could live among the people.

God’s Shekinah, the pillar of fire and cloud which was the visible aspect of His presence, descended on the tabernacle and tented with the rest of the Hebrews in the desert.

The law was kept and put on display at the gate of God’s tabernacle. It was the place of revelation, where Moses would speak to God face to face, and God would speak to the people.

People came to God’s tent, the tabernacle, to worship Him and at the tabernacle, the sprinkled blood of sacrifices would symbolize God’s forgiveness for their sin. Now Jesus fulfilled all that by taking on a body to tabernacle in with His people

...And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The glory that Moses had asked God to show him, John saw in Jesus.

Jesus was fully man, but He never stopped being God. John the Baptist gave his testimony that even though Jesus had been born six months after the Baptist, and even though Jesus started His ministry after the Baptist had start prophesying in the desert, still

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.'"

Jesus is from eternity.

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