14 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. 15 (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.’”) (John 1:14-15)
In v.14 we learn that God "made his dwelling among us." Notice it was His glory that caught John's attention. The Word, Jesus Christ, the God-man, made His dwelling among mankind as a man. He did this in order to reunite man with God.
In the beginning, God designed man to bear His (God's) image. Man has always had a hunger and a capacity for God, he just hasn't known it. We long throughout life for that something that will meet our deepest need. That capacity was designed of God. God intended man to be the dwelling place of God. So, the Lord Jesus came to this earth to make that a possibility.
The glory that John saw in the Lord Jesus was the "the glory of the one and only Son." And, He was full of grace and truth. Grace and truth, that is the glory of God. Someone has defined grace as "that which God does within you and without you." Grace is love giving itself. The word “grace” does not occur again in John's Gospel beyond v.16 of our text.
Truth, in addition, is the manifestation of reality, the unveiling of what is actually there, the stripping off of all the illusions, the veils, the facades, and getting down to what is actually there. Jesus was full of both grace and truth. He was the ultimate revelation of what is really real in life; and He is the fullest expression of love giving itself. This is the glory that John saw in Jesus Christ.
Aletheia is the Greek word used here for “truth” is found twenty-five times in John's Gospel. It is one of the key words in this Gospel. It is the combination of two Greek words "a" alpha and "letho, “to conceal.” It means the unconcealed, or the opened.
Although John uses the word “true” (alethinos) in 1:9, he first uses aletheia in 1:14 and repeats it in 1:17. The “Word” made flesh was “full of grace and truth.” He was the full revelation or unconcealing of God and the complete expression of his grace. Aletheia or the “truth” is the full unconcealing of the Father through the Son.
Grace and truth are really life and light. Life at any level is a revelation of the love of the Creator, the giving of the Creator to his creatures, the sharing of his life with us. We have come to understand that love is an absolute necessity for us. We cannot function without it. Those who are deprived of love, either by circumstances or by their own poor choices, lose the capacity to perform, to live, to do anything; they huddle in a corner, or they assume a fetal position, unable to do anything, because love is life. Grace, therefore, is the source of life.
Truth is used by biblical writers to illustrate light which is the comprehension of reality. We have all said, "I wish I had more light on this subject"? By that we mean, "I wish I understood it better; I wish I saw more clearly what was there." Truth is light. The glory of the Lord Jesus was grace and truth, life and light; and in Him it was/is full; he was/is "full of grace and truth."
The fullness of Christ is a theme carried through this Gospel account. It is juxtapositioned by the emptiness of man. It was Charles Spurgeon who once said, "We will never know the fullness of Christ until we know the emptiness of everything else."
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