John 1:14b
14b (And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Notice that John did not say “I beheld”, but rather “we beheld”. He was incorporating all the apostles and other believing men who were with Christ during His earthly ministry as witnesses of Christ’s glory. By appealing to the testimonies of many, John strengthened his claim that Christ is indeed God who has come in the flesh.
The Greek word used for “beheld” (theáomai) does not refer only to “seeing with the physical eye”, but also to viewing continually and attentively with contemplation of what is being observed as something unusual in order to interpret it. It denotes gaining perception of the nature of what one sees with one’s physical eye. Though many who saw Christ did not perceive His divine nature, John and his fellow apostles did perceive that what they saw in Christ was the glory of God indeed.
John testified that the glory of Christ was the glory of “the only begotten of the Father”. The phrase “only begotten Son” denotes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God by an eternal generation. In other words, Christ was one in nature and essence with the Father. The nature of the glory of Christ was the same as the glory of the Father. Jesus was God walking in the streets of Israel’s villages as a man. Christ the Nazarene was Christ the Creator! Christ the man was Christ the true God!
When John said they saw His glory, he was certainly not referring to the brightness of His appearance. When He was incarnate, He did not appear in all the splendour of His glory. If He did appear so, nobody could have come face to face with Him without being consumed! So, John was saying that he understood Christ as the glorious God because of His teachings and works. John spiritually discerned the teachings and works of Jesus Christ as the true reflection of His glorious deity.
John also said that Christ was “full of grace and truth.” Only God can be “full” of grace and truth. Man can perform acts of grace and truth, but no man in his natural state is “full of grace” nor “full of truth” in the sense that God is. If Christ manifested only human grace and truth, then He would have been of little value to others’ spiritual needs. But Christ “was” (nay, “had always been”) full of grace and truth. What a wonderful divine Saviour and Shepherd is our Lord Jesus Christ!