Grace and Truth

And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.  For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.  John 1:16-18

Colossians 2:9-10 says, For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. 

He was full of God, or completely God.  And of His fullness, His Godhead, we have all received, in the same sense that God breathed life into Adam.  And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22.)

Christ breathed life into man again by the very breath of God.

Colossians 2:10 goes on to say “And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”  Fullness is translated from the Greek word pleroma; we get our word “plural” from it.  It means “the whole package.”  Just as He is the total package, deity in human form, so are we, in Christ, made complete.  He is all we need.

“…and grace for grace”

The NIV translates this little phrase as “one blessing after another.”  That’s so like our God!  He gives us one blessing after another.  Every day I find new things that bless my soul.

“For the law was given through Moses,”

The law is elsewhere called a “tutor” that brought us to Christ.  Galatians 3:24, the New Living Testament, says

Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith.

The law taught us that God is holy, and holiness is required to meet Him.  We are completely unable to meet these requirements in our flesh, because if you’re guilty of even one rule, you’ve broken the law. 

Moses was the lawgiver, Also called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew: literally, "Moses our Teacher/Rabbi" is the most important prophet in Judaism (Wikipedia.)  In John chapter 5, Jesus told the religious Jews, “You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!”

Moses represents the law, and judgment.  The law was given to the Jews, but none were able to keep it, so provision was made to cleanse the people from their sins.  A sacrifice was to be made yearly (for without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins, according to Hebrews 9:22) but that sacrifice could never change the nature of humanity.  The sacrifice would have to be repeated again and again. 

“But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  

This statement nods to a contrast between the Old and New Covenants.  The first covenant between God and Abraham was an agreement that God would bless and Abraham would obey—by becoming set apart and worshipping God.  Later on, Moses would lay out the specifics.  But Jesus fulfilled the old covenant “once and for all.”  Hebrews 9:12, the NLT states:

Once for all time he took blood into that Most Holy Place, but not the blood of goats and calves. He took his own blood, and with it he secured our salvation forever.    

God was satisfied with the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, and now, when we receive Jesus as our Savior, God accepts Him on our behalf.  He lived a perfectly sinless life, which we are unable to do, and God sees us, then, as righteous.  Grace for grace!  Blessing upon blessing! 

Grace made available to us through Jesus.  We are no longer consigned to death, but offered God’s favor—“peace on earth, good will toward men.” 

Truth was made available.  “If you abide in My Word, you are my disciples indeed—and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  The Truth, Jesus said, is Himself.  While before the law seemed to be bound up in “don’t’s,” Jesus now reveals the ““do’s”.”  A pastor friend of mine once said, “If you do all the do’s, you won’t have time to do the don’ts.  You’ll be too busy doing the do’s.” 

No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father, he has revealed Him. 

Chuck Smith comments: “Of course, people immediately say, "Well, what about Moses?" When God said to Moses, "What would you like?" He said, "Lord, I'd just like to see you." And God said, "You can't see Me and live." But God said, "I'll tell you what, you get there in the rocks and I will pass by and then you can see the afterglow." It says "the hinder part," but it's actually the afterglow of God having passed by a spot and then Moses looking at the radiation of the afterglow. And he became irradiated in looking at that. His face began to shine so that when he came back to the children of Israel they couldn't look at his face.”

We should append the statement “no one has seen God at any time” with the words “and lived.”  Abraham “saw” the pre-incarnate Christ, a theophany of Him.  Jacob wrestled with His “Angel,” another theophany.  Isaiah “saw the Lord,” but died and was raised from the dead by God in His presence (6:1.)

Jesus became our Intercessor, the One who bridged the gap between God and man by offering His life for us. 

He has declared Him.

He has expressed God, He tells the nature of God.  Matthew records the stories Jesus told “on the mount,” about how we don’t have to worry.  Again and again, He showed that God cares about His creation—“Your Heavenly Father knows that you need these things.”  He showed that God cares and wants to have a loving, special relationship with each one of us.  Jesus personified God as shown in 1 Corinthians 13, commonly referred to as “the Love chapter.”

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails. 

 Jesus is expressed perfectly in love.  1 John states so explicitly: God is love.  Paul noted that when we have the Spirit of God, we have the fruit of love.  Jesus told His disciples “they will know you are my disciples by your love for one another.”

I’m so glad God has given His Son, Jesus, to introduce Himself to me.  Thank You, Lord!

Dear Abba,

I love who You are!  I love that I can know you—oh, there is no one like You.  Thank you for this gift.  You bring me such joy.  Nothing compares to knowing You and seeing You work in my life and the lives of those around me. 

Thank you for revealing Yourself to me, for showing me the depths of Your love.  I am amazed, and totally in awe of You.

Your Child,

Donna