WE BEHELD HIS DIGNITY.

The apostles and all believers who had intercourse with our Lord in the days of his flesh experienced, “beheld, his glory.” They beheld the grandeur, the nobility, the perfection of the “man Christ Jesus” – a perfection and glory seen in no other because all others were sinners, while he by virtue of special birth was holy, harmless, separate from sinners. The Word glory here represents the same thought as in Psa 8:5, where, speaking of Adam and his perfection and God likeness as the perfect man in the image of God, it is declared that God “crowned him with glory and honor.” Similarly, our Lord Jesus was crowned with glory and honor of human perfection in the days of his flesh, and his disciples beheld this dignity of human perfection, which marked him as separate and distinct from all others; and they recognized it as differentiating him from the world of sinners, marking him as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth – abounding in every proper and desirable quality and characteristic.

Another thought is somewhat covered by our translation in the word dwelt. In the Greek this signifies tabernacled or tented, as if it read, “The Word was made flesh and tabernacled amongst us.” A tabernacle was intended to be a temporary residence or dwelling, and thus the Scriptures point out that our Lord took the human nature, “was made flesh,” not that he might forever be a fleshly being, a human being, but merely temporarily. Other Scriptures fully corroborate this thought, and it seems strange indeed that Christian people should have so generally received the erroneous thought that our Lord is now a human being, a flesh-and-blood being in heaven. Quite to the contrary – flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of heaven. Our Lord was changed in his resurrection and is now, as the Apostle declares, “a quickening Spirit,” and again “Now the Lord is that, Spirit.” Again, he declares that all of the Lord’s people who shall be joint-heirs with him in his Kingdom must be “changed,” because “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom.”

It would be too bad indeed to think that our Lord had made the great stoop from heavenly conditions to earthly conditions, laying aside the glory which he had with the Father before the world was, being made flesh and suffering on our behalf, and that then, after thus being obedient to the Father and serving us so graciously, he should be obliged to remain forever upon the lower fleshly plane of being. It would indeed be a distressing thought. But not only do the Scriptures cited above prove the contrary of this, but in harmony with the statement of the text we are considering, namely, that he merely tabernacled with us for a little while, the Apostle distinctly explains the object of our Lord’s coming into the world and shows that it was all accomplished at his death: he says he was made flesh that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Heb 2:9.) That was the object, the only object, the only necessity for our Lord’s becoming a man, and when he had finished that work which the Father gave him to do, he was glorified, and, as we are distinctly told, he was highly exalted and given a name above every name – “far above principalities and powers and every name that is named.” Phil 2:9; Eph 1:21.

The Apostle John proceeds to show that John the Baptist fully proclaimed the Lord as the Messiah, and doubtless he notes this fact because many of the Jews evidently had great confidence in John the Baptist though rejecting Jesus. The Apostle proceeds to say that the fulness of Christ, the grace and merit which were in him, have been conferred upon all of his followers, his true disciples, “grace for grace,” or, more literally, favor upon favor. This last expression seems to be a statement of what all the Lord’s people recognize in their own experiences, namely – that the blessing coming to them first in their relationship to the Lord is by no means all of his favor; that they may grow in grace, grow in knowledge, grow in the fruits of the Spirit, and possess favor upon favor additionally, continuously to the end of the course; and then – in the resurrection morning – that which is perfect shall come as the climax of God’s favor, and we shall be like our Redeemer and see him as he is and share his glory.

Proceeding, the Apostle contrasts Moses, the typical mediator, the head of the typical house of Israel, with Christ, his antitype, the Head of Spiritual Israel. The Law Covenant communicated and mediated by Moses was a great blessing to that nation in many respects; but the grace and truth, God’s favor and the knowledge of his wonderful plan, came not through Moses but came through Christ, and not to the followers of Moses but to the followers of Christ.

Our lesson concludes by pointing out that our Lord Jesus was the only begotten Son of his Father’s bosom, and that his mission in the world was to declare the Father, to make him known, to reveal the Father first to the Church, and ultimately, in due time, to the world. The Father, standing as the embodiment of perfection and righteousness, could not properly and justly recognize sin and sinners, for they are wholly contrary to the best interests of the universe and contrary to the divine purposes: they cannot be recognized by God (cannot abide in His presence). Hence, if he would exercise mercy, it must be through another – a mediator. His love and mercy, therefore, are revealed to us in Christ, and are none the less his because exercised toward us in this circuitous manner, and with the reservation that no man cometh unto the Father but by him, and that there is no other name given under heaven and amongst men whereby we must be saved. Thus, the entire work of the Son in man’s redemption, in the instruction of his followers, and ultimately in the judgment and blessing of all the families of the earth – all of these will be but the revelation of the Father, the showing of his real character both for love and justice, wisdom and power.” (R3475)