John 1:14

The Word was made (RV 'became') flesh] a plain statement of the wondrous fact of the Incarnation, the central mystery of our religion. God became man to atone for sin, and to make us partakers of the divine nature. 'Flesh' in St. John means human nature (body, soul, and spirit) without the added idea of sinfulness, which attaches to it in St. Paul (see especially John 6:51.). Our text affirms, therefore, that the Redeemer is 'perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting; equal to the Father, as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father, as touching His manhood. Who although He be God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ.'

Dwelt among us] lit. 'dwelt in a tabernacle among us, 'the tabernacle being His body (see John 2:19, and cp. 2 Corinthians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 5:4; 2 Peter 1:13). The allusion is to the 'Shekinah,' which the rabbis identified with 'the Word of Jehovah.' As the 'Shekinah,' or visible glory of God, dwelt in the tabernacle of old, so, when Christ was born into the world, His divine nature dwelt in His body as in a temple. We beheld his glory] i.e. not merely the visible glory of the Transfiguration and the Ascension, but the moral and spiritual splendour of His unique life, which revealed the nature of the invisible Father. The evangelist here claims to have been an eyewitness, as in John 19:35. The only begotten of (RV 'from') the Father] The glory of Christ's life was not a reflected glory, as would have been the case had He been a mere human saint or prophet, but it was the glory of God's only begotten Son, and therefore God's own glory, for Christ and His Father are one. 'Only begotten' as a title of Christ is peculiar to St. John (John 1:18; John 3:16; 1 John 4:9). It indicates that no man or even angel is God's son in the sense in which Christ is. A 'son' in the full sense of the word is of the same nature as his father, and hence Christ, being God's Son, is divine. Full of grace and truth] 'grace' is the divine favour and loving-kindness; 'truth,' as often in St. John, is not simply veracity, but holiness in general (cp. John 1:17; John 3:21; John 4:23; John 8:44; 1 John 1:6). Christ was full of grace and holiness, not that He might keep them to Himself, but that He might bestow them upon men.