<p>1:14 <em>For this, the word became flesh, and indwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth</em>- The climax of this verse is &quot;Full of grace gift and truth&quot;. The gift or grace of the Spirit was given as a result of the Lord's death and glorification. Here we have the explanation of &quot;For this...&quot;; the preceding verses have spoken of the gift of the Spirit, and this was made possible by the Lord's humanity, death and resurrection.</p><p>Because Jesus was the <em>only </em>Son of God, therefore He is <em>full</em> of the Father&rsquo;s grace and truth. Jn. 1:14 makes this connection between fullness and only Sonship. Because of the wonder of this, we should therefore hear Him, respecting and thereby obeying His word simply because of our appreciation of who He is and was- the Son of God (Lk. 9:35). And yet this description of Him as the begotten Son of God connects with how we have just read that we too are to be born of God and not of the flesh, if we accept the spirit of Jesus.</p><p>It seems that in the Lord Jesus alone we see the perfect fusion of &quot;grace and truth&quot; (Jn. 1:14); in Him alone mercy and truth met together, in His personality alone righteousness and peace kissed each other (in the words of the beautiful Messianic prophecy of Ps. 85:10).&nbsp; Somehow it seems that we both individually and collectively cannot achieve this. We are either too soft and compromise and lose the Faith, or we are too hard and lose the spirit of Christ our Lord, without which we are &quot;none of his&quot; (Rom. 8:9).</p><p>&quot;We beheld his glory&quot; makes John's Gospel his personal testimony. It would seem that the Gospels were so clearly etched in the minds of the first century believers because the message of the Gospel was preached in the form of reciting a 'Gospel', a record of the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. This is why 'gospel' as in the message and 'Gospel' as in the four Gospels are the same word, although this seems to be overlooked by many. The Gospel according to Matthew is the good news about Christ which Matthew preached and then wrote down. John of all the Gospel writers makes it openly apparent that his preaching of the Gospel is based around a recital of the things which he himself saw and heard in the Lord's life (1:14; 19:35; 21:24). His Gospel is full of what have been called &quot;the artless notes of the authentic eye-witness&quot; (e.g. his comment that &quot;the house was filled with the odour of the ointment&quot;).&nbsp;John begins his preaching of the Gospel by saying that he had beheld the glory of the Lord Jesus (Jn. 1:14)- and I suggest he was referring to how he beheld the cross and the Lord&rsquo;s manifestation of the Father&rsquo;s glory there (Jn. 17:24). The cross, the glory of the Lord shown there, was what motivated John&rsquo;s preaching, just as it should ours. The cross impels us to witness.</p><p>The continuity of personality between the human Jesus and the now-exalted Jesus is brought out by meditation upon His &ldquo;glory&rdquo;. The glory of God refers to His essential personality and characteristics. When He &lsquo;glorifies Himself&rsquo;, He articulates that personality- e.g. in the condemnation of the wicked or the salvation of His people. The Lord Jesus had that &ldquo;glory&rdquo; in what John calls &ldquo;the beginning&rdquo;, and he says that he and the other disciples witnessed that glory (Jn. 1:14). &ldquo;The beginning&rdquo; in John&rsquo;s Gospel often has reference to the beginning of the Lord&rsquo;s ministry. There is essentially only one glory- the glory of the Son is a reflection or manifestation of the glory of the Father. They may be seen as different glories only in the sense that the same glory is reflected from the Lord Jesus in His unique way; as a son reflects or articulates his father&rsquo;s personality, it&rsquo;s not a mirror personality, but it&rsquo;s the same essence. One star differs from another in glory, but they all reflect the same essential light of glory. The Lord Jesus sought only the glory of the Father (Jn. 7:18). He spoke of the glory of God as being the Son&rsquo;s glory (Jn. 11:4). Thus Isaiah&rsquo;s vision of God&rsquo;s glory is interpreted by John as a prophecy of the Son&rsquo;s glory (Jn. 12:41). The glory of God is His &ldquo;own self&rdquo;, His own personality and essence. This was with God of course from the ultimate beginning of all, and it was this glory which was manifested in both the death and glorification of the Lord Jesus (Jn. 17:5). The Old Testament title &ldquo;God of glory&rdquo; is applied to the Lord Jesus, &ldquo;the Lord of glory&rdquo; (1 Cor. 2:8; James 2:1). It is <em>God&rsquo;s</em> glory which radiates from the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). Jesus is the brightness of God&rsquo;s glory, because He is the express image of God&rsquo;s personality (Heb. 1:3). He received glory from God&rsquo;s glory (2 Pet. 1:17). God is the &ldquo;Father of glory&rdquo;, the prime source of the one true glory, that is reflected both in the Lord Jesus and in ourselves (Eph. 1:17). What all this exposition means in practice is this. There is only &ldquo;one glory&rdquo; of God. That glory refers to the essential &ldquo;self&rdquo;, the personality, characteristics, being etc. The Lord Jesus manifested that glory in His mortal life (Jn. 2:11). But He manifests it now that He has been &ldquo;glorified&rdquo;, and will manifest it in the future day of His glory. And the Lord was as in all things a pattern to us. We are bidden follow in His path to glory. We now in our personalities reflect and manifest the one glory of the Father, and our blessed Hope is glory in the future, to be glorified, to be persons (note that- <em>to be persons</em>) who reflect and &lsquo;are&rsquo; that glory in a more intimate and complete sense than we are now, marred as we are by our human dysfunction, sin, and weakness of will against temptation. We now reflect that glory as in a dirty bronze mirror. The outline of God&rsquo;s glory in the face of Jesus is only dimly reflected in us. But we are being changed, from glory to glory, the focus getting clearer all the time, until that great day when we meet Him and see Him face to face, with all that shall imply and result in. But my point in this context is that there is only one glory. The essence of who we are now in our spiritual man, how we reflect it, in our own unique way, is how we shall always be.</p><p>It&rsquo;s evident to even the most casual reader that there are many connections between John&rsquo;s Gospel and the Revelation. John&rsquo;s later writing, just like Paul&rsquo;s, was shot through with references to the Gospels. The same phrases and words are used. But the question is, What is the connection between them? One comment I have in answer to this is to observe that much of the language of the Gospel of John relating to the <em>present</em> status of the faithful is repeated in Revelation and applied to the faithful in their <em>future</em> glorification. This observation is best explained by examples:&nbsp;</p><table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0>    <tbody>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p><strong>John&rsquo;s Gospel</strong></p>            </td>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p><strong>The Revelation</strong></p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>God tabernacled amongst us in the person of Jesus (Jn. 1:14 RVmg.)</p>            </td>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>&ldquo;The tabernacle of God is with men&rdquo; at the second coming of Jesus (Rev.   21:3)</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>Rivers of water flow now in the experience of the believer (Jn. 7:38,39)</p>            </td>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>The river of water of life bursts forth once Jesus is enthroned upon earth   in the future (Rev. 22:1)</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>The manna / bread of life is given to the believer now (Jn. 6)</p>            </td>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>Those who overcome will be given &ldquo;the hidden manna&rdquo; to eat at the Lord&rsquo;s   return (Rev. 2:17)</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>At the crucifixion, the prophecy of Zech. 12:10 was fulfilled when the   Jews looked upon the Christ whom they had pierced (Jn. 19:37)</p>            </td>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>The same Zech. 12:10 passage is quoted in Rev. 1:7 and given a future   application, to the response of the Jews at the Lord&rsquo;s second coming.</p>            </td>        </tr>    </tbody></table><p>I would suggest a chronological progression in Jn. 1:14:<br />&ldquo;The word was made flesh&quot;- His birth <br />&ldquo;And dwelt among us&quot;- His life<br />&ldquo;And we beheld his glory, full of grace and truth&quot;- His death on the cross. Christ&rsquo;s glory is elsewhere used by John with reference to the glory He displayed on the cross (Jn. 12:38-41; 12:28; 13:32; 17:1,5,24). John thus begins his Gospel with the statement that he saw the Lord&rsquo;s death. However, it is also so that John &ldquo;saw his glory&quot; at the transfiguration; and yet even there, &ldquo;they saw his glory&quot; (Lk. 9:32) as &ldquo;they spake of his decease which he should accomplish&quot;. His glory and His death were ever linked. The fullness of grace and truth is one of John&rsquo;s many allusions to Moses&rsquo; experience when the Name was declared to him- of Yahweh, a God <em>full </em>of grace and truth (Ex. 34:6 RV). The Name was fully declared, as fully as could be, in the cross. The Law gave way, through the cross, to the grace and truth that was revealed by Christ after the Law ended (Jn. 1:17). In His dead, outspent body grace and truth finally replaced law. John goes on to say that the Son has <em>declared </em>the invisible God (Jn. 1:18)- another reference to the cross. The implication may be that as Moses cowered before the glory of the Lord, <em>even he </em>exceedingly feared and quaked, we likewise should make an appropriate response to the glory that was <em>and is </em>(note John&rsquo;s tenses) displayed to us in the cross. Mark how the naked man, covered in blood and spittle, was there declaring God&rsquo;s glory. Aaron the High Priest bore the judgment for Israel&rsquo;s sins, in another anticipation of the cross, whilst arrayed in garments of glory and beauty (Ex. 28:30). And so was the naked Lord arrayed, for those with spiritual sight. Thus the word was manifested in glory through the cross; and thus 1 Cor. 2:1,2 links the crucified Christ with &ldquo;the testimony of God&quot;. See on Jn. 19:19.</p><p>The essential <em>logos</em> of God in Christ was articulated not only in the birth of the Lord, not only at the start of His, but supremely in His death. John&rsquo;s Gospel is packed with allusion to Moses. Here the reference is to Moses cowering in the rock, beholding the glory of Yahweh and hearing the declaration of the Yahweh Name. Speaking of His forthcoming death, the Lord was to say: &ldquo;And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them&quot; (John 17:26). This second declaration of the Name was to be in His death. The same allusion back to the declaration of Yahweh in Ex. 34 is to be found in John 12:27-28: &ldquo;Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again&quot;. This second glorifying of the Name was surely in the Son&rsquo;s declaration of the Name in His death. And this connects will with the evidence elsewhere presented that the Yahweh Name was closely connected with the Lord&rsquo;s death, in that &lsquo;Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews&rsquo; in Hebrew would have used words, the first letters of which spelt &lsquo;Yahweh&rsquo;. John&rsquo;s claim that he beheld the glory of God&rsquo;s Son may therefore be a specific reference to the way he describes his own &lsquo;seeing&rsquo; of the crucifixion in John 19:35: &ldquo;And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe&quot;. He seems to be saying: &lsquo;I saw Him there. I really and truly did&rsquo;. He uses the same kind of language in 1 Jn. 4:14: &ldquo;we have seen and do testify cp. &ldquo;his record is true&quot; that the Father sent the son to be the saviour of the world&quot; in the cross.</p><p>&ldquo;The only begotten of the Father&quot; is a phrase nearly always used in the context of the Lord&rsquo;s death (e.g. Jn. 3:16). The love of God was defined in the way the Lord laid down His life in death (1 Jn. 3:16); but it is equally defined in that &ldquo;God sent his only begotten son into the world, that we might live&quot; (1 Jn. 4:9). God sending His son into the world was therefore in His death specifically see notes under 3:14-18. And it was through this that life was won for us. As He hung covered in blood and spittle, as He gasped out forgiveness for His enemies, God&rsquo;s Son as it were came into the hard world of men. The light shone in the darkness, and the darkness did not and does not overcome it. There, the word, the essential love and grace and judgment and mercy of Yahweh, was made flesh, and tabernacled amongst us.</p><p>The common translation &ldquo;dwelt&quot; can give the sense that John is merely saying &lsquo;Jesus lived in Israel&rsquo;; but there is far more to it than that. In clear allusion to his Gospel, John opens his first letter by speaking of the Lord Jesus, whom &ldquo;we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled a reference to the taking down of the body and embalming?, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness cp. 19:35 , and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us&quot; (1 Jn. 1:1-3). The manifestation of the Son was supremely in His death (1 Jn. 3:5,8; 4:9 cp. Jn. 3:16; Heb. 9:26 Gk.; 1 Tim. 3:16; Jn. 17:6 cp. 26). And John exalts that they saw this, and now they too declare / manifest it to the world. One cannot behold the cross of Christ and not witness it to others. John says that he beheld &ldquo;his glory&quot;. Christ&rsquo;s glory is elsewhere used by John with reference to the glory He displayed on the cross (Jn. 12:38-41; 12:28; 13:32; 17:1,5,24). However, it is also so that John &ldquo;saw his glory&quot; at the transfiguration; and yet even there, &ldquo;they saw his glory&quot; (Lk. 9:32) as &ldquo;they spake of his decease which he should accomplish&quot;. His glory and His death were ever linked. The fullness of grace and truth is one of John&rsquo;s many allusions to Moses&rsquo; experience when the Name was declared to him- of Yahweh, a God <em>full </em>of grace and truth (Ex. 34:6 RV). The Name was fully declared, as fully as could be, in the cross. The Law gave way, through the cross, to the grace and truth that was revealed by Christ after the Law ended (Jn. 1:17). In His dead, outspent body grace and truth finally replaced law. John goes on to say that the Son <em>has declared </em>the invisible God (Jn. 1:18)- another reference to the cross. The implication may be that as Moses cowered before the glory of the Lord, <em>even he </em>exceedingly feared and quaked; we likewise should make an appropriate response to the glory that was <em>and is </em>(note John&rsquo;s tenses) displayed to us in the cross. All of God&rsquo;s word was made flesh in the crucified body of the Lord Jesus. The very essence of Yahweh and all His self-revelation was epitomised there. Therefore when the Son of man was lifted up, men knew the truth of all God&rsquo;s words see notes on 8:21-28.</p><p>The Lord was &ldquo;full of grace and truth&quot;. Yet according to Phil. 2:7 RV, on the cross the Lord emptied Himself. Yet there He was filled with the essence of Yahweh&rsquo;s own character; for the RV of Ex. 34 stresses that Yahweh is a God whose name is <em>full</em> of grace and truth. On the cross He was emptied of self and yet totally filled. The fact that the word was made flesh in the crucifixion explains why the atonement is described time and again with metaphors, as if it is a struggle for language alone to convey what happened. In the person of the crucified Christ, the ideas, the language, the words&hellip; became real and concretely expressed in a person. There is far more revealed by meditation upon the cross than can ever be put in words. There, the word, all the words, were made flesh. It is possible to see the fulfilment of the idea of the word being made flesh in Pilate's mocking presentation of the bedraggled Saviour: &quot;Behold the man&rdquo;. Rudolph Bultmann commented: &quot;The declaration &quot;the Word became flesh&quot; has become visible in its extremest consequence&rdquo;. There in the spat upon Son of God we see humanity as it is meant to be; &quot;the flesh&quot;, &quot;the man&quot; as God intended, unequalled and unmatched in any other human being.</p><p>John uses the same word for 'dwelling' in writing in Revelation of how the Father and Son shall dwell with men, and shall be their sole light, the only light that shines forth in their experience and existence. These ideas are all used here in 1:14 and the context regarding what He is doing now in the hearts of His people. This gift of His life is therefore a pre-experience, a foretaste, of the life we shall eternally experience. In this sense we &quot;have eternal life&quot; now. We live the life we shall eternally live- His life. Paul puts in another way when he says that the Spirit is given to us as the foretaste or deposit guaranteeing our final salvation (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5).</p><p>How exactly was the word made flesh in the person of Jesus? It was not simply a question of the nature of His birth. &lsquo;The word&rsquo; was a title given to the Lord in recognition of His achievement in being and becoming the &lsquo;word made flesh&rsquo;. It wasn&rsquo;t something which automatically happened to the Lord, as an irresistible process in which He played no part. The Lord&rsquo;s Old Testament allusions, His familiarity with and use of His Father&rsquo;s words doubtless had a lot to do with His becoming &lsquo;the word made flesh&rsquo;. If Paul alluded to the words of the Lord Jesus once every four verses on average, it is to be expected that the Son of God quoted and alluded to His Father&rsquo;s word even moreso. And this is what we find, when we search the Lord&rsquo;s words for their allusions to the Old Testament.</p><p>An example of the Lord&rsquo;s perhaps unconscious usage of His Father&rsquo;s words is to be found in His exasperated comment: &ldquo;O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?&rdquo; (Mt. 17:17). Of course the Lord would have spoken those words and expressed those ideas in Aramaic- but the similarity is striking with His Father&rsquo;s Hebrew words of Num. 14:27: &ldquo;How long shall I bear with this evil congregation&hellip;?&rdquo;. As a son comes out with phrases and word usages which &lsquo;Could be his father speaking&rsquo;, so the Lord Jesus did the same thing. What I am saying is that the Lord was not merely quoting or alluding to the Father&rsquo;s Old Testament words, in the way that, say, Paul or Peter did. As the Father&rsquo;s Son, He was speaking in the same way as His Father, no doubt saturated with the written record of the Father&rsquo;s words, but all the same, there were those similarities of wording and underlying thinking which are only seen between fathers and sons. And His words of Mt. 17:17 = Num. 14:27 seem to me to be an example of this.</p><p>The level, depth and multiplicity of Old Testament allusions becomes the more amazing when we accept that these were spoken words, some of them clearly spoken unprepared and off-the-cuff. Literature can be crafted to pack multiple allusions. But when a speaker produces such a depth of allusion, one can only marvel at his intellectual depth. But with the Lord, it reflects His utter familiarity with the Father&rsquo;s word, grasping the real spirit of it all. He breathed it, thought it, spoke it, lived it. And in all He said, this was reflected. He truly was &ldquo;the word made flesh&rdquo;. The following are just a few examples from the first words of Jesus; but the list can be continued. The simple fact is that on average, the Lord is alluding to the Old Testament at least 3 times in every verse This means that every phrase of every sentence He is recorded as speaking- is alluding to His Father&rsquo;s word. It would&rsquo;ve been like an orphaned son &lsquo;finding&rsquo; his late father&rsquo;s words. He would read the words with such delight, and somehow eagerly pick up their sense in the way nobody else could.</p><div align=center><table border=0 cellspacing=8 cellpadding=0 width=80%>    <tbody>        <tr>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p><b><font size=3>The Words Of Jesus</font></b></p>            </td>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p><b><font size=3>Old Testament Allusions</font></b></p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Mt. 3:15 Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all   righteousness.</p>            </td>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Ez. 18:19,21 fulfil righteousness</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Mt. 4:4 It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every   word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God</p>            </td>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Dt. 8:3 direct quote</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Mt. 4:7 It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.</p>            </td>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Dt. 6:16 direct quote</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Mt. 4:10 Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the   Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.</p>            </td>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Dt. 6:13 direct quote</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Mt. 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of   heaven.</p>            </td>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Ps. 40:17; Is. 41:17; 61:1</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Mt. 5:4 Blessed are they that mourn:</p>            </td>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Is. 61:1-3; 66:2</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>for they shall be comforted.</p>            </td>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Is. 40:1</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Mt. 5:5 Blessed are the meek:</p>            </td>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Ps. 37:11,20; Is. 60:21; Prov. 22:24,25; 25:8,15</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>for they shall inherit the earth.</p>            </td>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Gen. 15:7,8; Ex. 32:13</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Mt. 5:6 Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for   they shall be filled.</p>            </td>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Gen. 49:18; Ps. 17:15; 119:20; Jer. 23:6; Is. 45:24; 51:1; 55:1; 65:13</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Mt. 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.</p>            </td>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>2 Sam. 22:26,27; Ps. 18:25,26</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Mat 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.</p>            </td>            <td width=295 valign=top>            <p>Ex. 33:20; Job 19:25-27; Ps. 17:15; Is. 6:5; 38:3,11</p>            </td>        </tr>    </tbody></table></div><p>If you follow through some of those allusions- and there are surely many more that I&rsquo;ve not picked up- it becomes apparent that the Lord had a mind capable of operating on several different levels of allusion at once. So it was not simply that He was hyper-familiar with His Father&rsquo;s word. He had the intellectual ability, with all the intelligence of God&rsquo;s very own Son, to think and speak on several levels at once. Hence His words were absolutely <em>full</em> of God&rsquo;s thoughts and words. He was so fully and deeply &ldquo;the word made flesh&rdquo;. And in analysing <em>from where</em> in the Old Testament the Lord quoted, we find that He had His favourite places- just as we&rsquo;d expect from a genuine man. He appears to have been especially fond of the references to the &ldquo;Servant&rdquo; in the latter half of Isaiah; and also of the Psalms. He quotes from them both literally and freely, with all the confidence and appropriacy of a person who is thoroughly familiar with the text. But the way and extent to which He applied it all to Himself makes Him in very reality &ldquo;the word made flesh&rdquo;.</p><p>It wasn't only in words but in actions too that the Lord was the word made flesh. The Lord Jesus lived life; He didn't just let events happen to Him. Much as I respected Harry Whittaker both as an individual and an expositor, I can never understand why throughout his monumental <em>Studies In The Gospels</em>, he repeatedly makes the point that the Lord Jesus didn't go around consciously trying to fulfil Bible prophecy. My reading of the Gospels tells me that the Lord did do exactly this. The writers stress that He did action X or spoke word Y in order to fulfil Bible prophecy A and B. He consciously made the word flesh in Himself. A case can be made that He carefully planned out His ministry; He didn't just let events happen to Him. I don't find it hard to believe that He consciously engineered the timing of His own death to be at Passover time, after a three and a half year public ministry. He purposefully seems to have pressed all the buttons in Jewish expectations to lead them to revolt against the dashed expectations they had of Him. His actions in the temple could be read as almost asking to be killed. He knew what makes people tick and act to an extent we can't begin to understand. He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem to die there (Lk. 9:60). He laid down His life- it wasn't taken from Him.</p>