From Law to Grace.

The wonder of the cross strikes me again. The Source of life – represented by Light – comes to the earth and dies on a Cross. His absence represented by instant darkness. How much more intimate can His identification with us be?

”Yes, my heart seeks to reach out to your heart so that you may just know something of my love. That love that took me to the cross, and in knowing that love, in experiencing that love which I have poured out and continue to pour out – you have the occasion to respond by giving me your Love – you’re all. Abandoning your earthly treasures, all the things of this world you love, taking up your cross and following me by giving your Love fully to me. This is a process which becomes more real as time passes and you grow nearer to Me, but I am helping you with my grace all along to be able to release your grip on this world and turn and give me all of you.”

Back to John 1. As John has identified this One about whom his gospel account is going to be about, as the Word, Creator, the Source of Life represented by light, he first shows the link to the Old Testament scriptures and experience of God’s chosen people.

This link was in the form of a man also called John, described here as a “witness” to the True Light. John, the writer does not expand on this one who acts as a witness, preparing the people for the coming of the Real Light of the World. Nevertheless, it is an important link which indicates the progression of God’s story and reminds the reader that the coming of the One who is now the focus of the story, doesn’t just happen on the scene as it were, but was planned for from the beginning.

Our focus then moves to vs 14. The esoteric description of the One, as The Word and The Light is now described as becoming real to the world by taking on flesh to be among us. The word described in vs 14 as “dwelling” is actually “tabernacling”, dwelling in a tent. This shows that His presence here in the flesh was always going to be temporary. This is huge. Matthew describes this concept in ch 1 as Jesus being called “Emmanuel” – “God with us”.

This is really the Almighty Creator described in vs 1 who has come to live among mankind and experience his life with him. It is actually easy to let this reality become everyday as we become used to it. We should never lose our awe at what He did.

He ends that paragraph with the statement that Jesus came from the Father bringing the fulness of grace and truth. John, (the Baptist) testifies and emphasizes that Jesus way surpasses him in greatness and then returns to the concept of the grace. Jesus represents the “fulness of grace and truth“, bringing a completely new era. Vs 16 is difficult to translate from the Greek. The RSV says, “From His fulness we have all received grace upon grace”. The picture is one of Jesus Himself bringing an overflowing fulness of grace, which He represents in Himself first. This concept of the fulness of grace is then contrasted with the Old Testament, describing it as the era of the law given by Moses. Jesus comes bringing a completely new era.

May you be conscious of this overflowing grace which is always with us in the person of Jesus in the coming week. We don’t have to ask for more of His grace, but maybe that we should become more conscious of how magnificent and complete what is already there for us. Paul said in 2 Cor 12:9 that Jesus told him that, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. The weaker you feel, the more conscious you will be of God’s grace.