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thing to be man, with man's destiny ; to be man, with the honour put on man by God.^
1. The Word " dwelt among us." There can be little doubt that the author had in mind the Shekinah of the temple of the old dispensation. Biblical history tells us that after the erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness, the glory of God descended with tlie pillar of cloud and took possession of the Holy of Holies, And abode there upon the cherubic throne. So in the temple, the God of Israel was enthroned in theophanic glory in the Holy of Holies, on the outstretched wings of the cherubim. The tabernacle and the temple, its historic successor, continued, until the destruction of Jerusalem at the Babylonian exile, to be the dwelling-place of God enthroned upon the cherubim. Just as the temple was the abiding presence of the theophanic God in the old dispensation, just so the Word of God tabernacled in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth.
All that was glorious in the conception of the Shekinah and the temple of the old dispensation became still more glorious in Jesus Christ ; only that glory was veiled and hidden in His flesh, as the Shekinah had been hidden in the innermost throne-room of the temple. But this veiling of the glory of the Word was only a temporary veiling, during His earthly life ; when the veil of the temple of Jerusalem was rent by an earthquake, the veil of the flesh of the Son of God was also rent, and when His body arose from the tomb, the body of the risen Lord no longer veiled the glory, but transmitted it in Christophanies to His disciples.
^ The process of the Incarnation St. John describes very simply. The Jews were familiar with the idea of God dwelling with His people. By the word St. John here uses he links the body of Christ to the ancient dwelling of God round which the tents of Israel had clustered. God now dwelt among men in the humanity of Jesus Christ. The tabernacle was human, the mdwelling Person was Divine. In Christ is realized the actual presence of God among His people, the actual entrance into and personal participation in human history which was hinted at in the tabernacle and the temple.^
2. " Full of grace and truth." St. John had a special form of
^ Dean Church, The Message of Peace, 170. ^ M. Dods, Footsteps in the Path of Life, 19.
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the manifestation of grace and truth before his mind when he wrote these words. He was thinking of the covenant God, who proclaimed Himself to Moses on the mount when He descended in the cloud as "Jehovah, Jehovah, a God full of compassion, and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and truth." He was thinking of David's prayer, " 0 prepare loving-kindness and truth"; and his heart burned within him as he saw them now prepared. It was the thought of Christ's redeeming work that filled his mind, and that led him to sum up the revelation of the Incarnation in the revelation of grace and truth. There- fore he says, not " love," but " grace " — undeserved love to sinners. And in " truth " he is thinking chiefly of Christ's " faithfulness." The Divine glory that rested as a nimbus on the Lord's head was compounded before all else of His ineffable love for the unlovely, of His changeless faithfulness to the unfaithful. For in Christ, God commended His love to us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Nevertheless, it would be a serious error to confine the words as here used to this single reference. This is rather the culmina- tion and climax of their meaning than the whole extent and meaning of it. Christ is not only love as manifested in grace, but as the God of love manifest in the flesh He is love itself in all its height and breadth. Not only the loftiest reaches of love, love for the undeserving, find their model in Him, but all the love that is in the world finds its source and must seek its support in Him. His was the love that wept at the grave of a friend and over the earthly sorrows of Jerusalem, that yearned with the bereaved mother at Nain, and took the little children into His arms to bless them; as well as the love that availed to offer Himself a sacrifice for sin. In like manner, that St. John has especially in mind here the highest manifestations of truth — our Lord's trustiness in the great work of salvation — in no way empties the word of its lower contents. He is still the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world ; and all the truth that is in the world comes from Him and must seek its strength in Him. " We beheld his glory," says the Apostle, "full " — complete, perfect — " of grace and truth." And perfection of love and truth avails for all their manifestations. This man, the man Christ Jesus, could not act in any relation otherwise than
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lovingly, could not speak on any subject otherwise than truly. He is the pure fountain of love and truth.