John went on to elaborate upon the fact that the Word was made flesh. That is, he paused in his narrative to offer his personal observation concerning what he had just claimed in John 1:14. In his first epistle he said: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life…” (1John 1:1). Here, he records what he deduced from his observation of the Word made flesh: “…we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14), but what does he mean by his glory and glory as the only begotten of the Father?
Jesus is that Prophet who was like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15; cp. Acts 3:22; 7:37), so we could compare seeing the glory of the Word in the context of Moses asking the Lord to show him his glory, vis-à-vis the Lord’s glory (Exodus 33:18). When the Lord answered Moses, he told him he would cause his goodness to pass before him, and at that time he would proclaim the name of the LORD, but Moses wouldn’t be able to see the LORD’s face and live (Exodus 33:19-20). Therefore, the LORD hid Moses in the cleft of a rock nearby, and he covered Moses’ face with his hand, while he passed by. When the LORD had passed, he would remove his hand and Moses would be able to see the LORD from behind, that is, after he had passed and as he moved away from Moses (Exodus 33:21-23).
In the morning the LORD descended in a cloud and stood with Moses, and the Lord’s Presence passed before him, and, removing his hand, the LORD proclaimed his name:
“The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7).
Thus, the glory of God is his name, or we could say the glory of the Lord is who he is. The Greek word for glory is doxa (G1391). According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, the word has to do with one’s opinion, judgment or estimate of someone or a thing (whether good or bad); the Greek word is often expressed in praise and honor. It has to do with splendor or brightness (viz. sun, moon, stars etc.), or the magnificence, excellence or majesty that belongs to God, Christ or authorities such as kings, angels etc. It is more than reputation, which could change through someone’s slander. Rather, it deals with character or what a person or thing actually is. Jesus, for example, is “the brightness of his (the Father’s) glory” (Hebrews 1:3), or “the express image (charakter – G5481; from which we get our English word, character) of his person. So, the author of the Gospel of John means for us to understand that: “…we beheld his character, the character of the only begotten from the Father” (John 1:14).
Moreover, his glory is further understood or manifest as full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Jesus once told his enemies that he could do nothing except what he saw his Father do (John 5:19). In other words, if he was to fully express the character of God (the Father), Jesus could do only what he saw in his Father, and in that way be his image, expressing his character (Hebrews 1:3). So, when Jesus prayed that the glory, which the Father had given him, which he (Jesus) also gave to his disciples (John 17:22), it has to do with imaging character (Genesis 1:27). In other words, just as the Father’s character was seen and copied by Jesus (John 5:19), so Jesus gave that same example to his disciples who followed or imitated what they were able to see in him (John 13:15; cp. 17:22). In doing so, Jesus (the Word) showed himself to be the Light of men (John 1:4), the true Light, which is the spiritual life/fellowship with the Lord that was lost in Adam (John 1:9; cp. Ephesians 2:1-6).
Therefore, Jesus gave his disciples the understanding that God was: “…merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” (cp. Exodus 34:6-7). Thus, the central focus of “We beheld his glory… full of mercy and truth,” vis-à-vis the Word who became flesh (John 1:14), is the revealing or the unveiling of the invisible God, as observed in the words and deeds of Jesus, where his flesh is represented in the cleft of the rock with the Lord’s hand covering our eyes (cp. Exodus 33:17-23), until we see him leaving through his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension into heaven.
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