We have seen his glory
We have seen his glory
This introductory lesson, considers two statements in John chapter 1, about the Word which show him to possess fully the natures of both God and man:
In John 1:1 we are told, "The Word was with God and the Word was God." A little later, in John 1:14, we find, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Taken together these verses say that God became flesh —God became a human being.
In the second century, a heresy arose called Docetism (pronounced doe-set-ism) . The name comes from a Greek word meaning "to seem". Docetists held that Jesus was not really a human being of mortal flesh, blood, and bone --He only seemed to be. There were many variations on this theme. For example, in the sixth century Monophysites believed that Jesus had only one nature. If he were to be regarded as divine, then he could not be regarded as truly human.
The story of Jesus's birth emphasises that he was conceived and born of a virgin. This makes him unique. But there is nothing to suggest that he was less human than others born of woman (Lke 24:39) . On one occasion when his disciples thought they were seeing a ghost, Jesus said to them, "Touch me. A ghost does not have flesh and bones. But you see that I do" (Lke 24:39) . Jesus was "made like his brothers in every way" (Heb 2:17) . Although unique in being born of a virgin, he was still a human being in every way.
The lifetime of Jesus is called (literally translated) "the days of his flesh" which would be inappropriate if he were not flesh (Heb 5:7) . The docetist argues that Jesus was "in appearance as a man" and was "made in human likeness" (Php 2:7-8) . But far from proving that he was not truly human, and only seemed to be, this proves that he was indeed human. I am certain that my wife is a human being of flesh, only because I and others can touch her and see that she has every appearance of human flesh and human nature. If I disbelieved this evidence and claimed that my wife was really a ghost or an angel or a cabbage masquerading as a human being, you would call for the men in white coats.
Jesus had every appearance of human nature. You could touch and see his flesh, that it was indeed flesh. Many did, and have left us their testimony. We would be foolish in the face of such evidence to claim that Jesus nevertheless only seemed to be human and wasn't really human. John is not so kind. He doesn't call docetists merely foolish. He calls them antichrists. "Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus as having come in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist" (2Jn 1:7 NIV) .