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The reading of God’s word. This evening’s passage is from John, chapter 1, and we will be reading from verses 14 through 18. John, chapter 1, verses 14 through 18. You can find this on page 1053 in the Pew Bibles. John, chapter 1, verses 14 through 18. Hear now the word of the Lord.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'” For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father’s side.
He has made Him known. Let us pray. Lord, I thank You that we are given Your word and that we are able to read it freely and proclaim it freely. I pray, Lord, that as we read Your word this evening and as we hear it proclaimed, You would prepare our hearts, that we would receive it, and that we would receive only the truth. May we be encouraged through Your word to love You more and to love one another more. And I pray, O Lord, once again for this man, Ron, whom Hayden was speaking to. O Lord, we heard that he was taken to the hospital by ambulance. I pray, O Lord, that Your mercy would be upon him, that whatever he is experiencing and going through, You would sustain him. Through this difficult event and through the words of Hayden, I pray that he would come to know You, if he does not know You already, and that he would begin to attend church, and that he would profess You and come to love You. And I pray, Lord, for Your blessing upon Your word as it is expounded this evening. I pray, Lord, that You would keep my mouth to speak only that which is true, that which is encouraging, and that which builds up the saints. And I pray all this in Your Son’s name, amen. You may be seated.
Perhaps one of the most common objections to Christianity that we hear in our culture today is that, to some, it seems as though the character of God has changed between the Old and New Testaments. We often hear people say things like, “You’re only a Christian because you follow the New Testament. No one actually believes the Old Testament.” According to some in our culture, the God of the Old Testament is full of fire and brimstone and hatred, while Jesus in the New Testament is full of love, compassion, and forgiveness. This view of a break between the Old and New Testaments is so common that many who call themselves Christians may subconsciously see a strong disconnect between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament.
A common idea I have heard is that God the Father is strict and harsh, but Jesus is kind and loving. Even in the art produced by Western culture, the Father is often portrayed as an old man with a white beard who appears somewhat grumpy and unapproachable, while Jesus is portrayed as a young, handsome man with outstretched arms, ready to welcome anyone with love. As good Presbyterians, we reject both of these images of God. But I mention this only to highlight that our culture around us often sees a sharp distinction between the character of Jesus and that of God the Father.
Even in our own circles, there is sometimes a danger of viewing too sharp a distinction between the law of the Old Testament and the gospel that we see in the New Testament. In our own minds, we sometimes associate the strict law of Moses with God the Father, while associating the gospel of repentance and forgiveness with Jesus. However, if we read Jesus’s own words, especially in the Gospel of John, no such distinction can be found. Throughout the Gospel of John, one recurring theme is that Jesus proclaims he was sent by the Father, and it is by the Father’s authority that he proclaims the Gospel of forgiveness for sins. One of the things we will see throughout this gospel is that the Pharisees wanted to stone Jesus because he associated himself so closely with the Father. Perhaps the clearest of these passages is our passage this evening. In John chapter one, verses 16 through 18, John teaches us that the fullness of the revelation of God is found in Christ Jesus.
This means that Jesus Christ came to this earth to reveal the will of God the Father and to carry out his plan of redemption, to save the chosen people for the Father. We will consider this theme, this doctrine, by answering two questions. The first question is, what did Jesus reveal? The second question is, who did Jesus reveal?
In verses 16 through 17, we will see the what—that is, the fullness of Jesus’s revelation. From verse 18, we will consider the who—that is, we will see the revelation of the Father, which is the fullness of Jesus’s revelation and the revelation of the Father. Let us now turn to verses 16 and 17, the fullness of Christ’s revelation. John writes in verses 16 through 17: “For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.”
For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. At first glance, you may be thinking, when you read this, that I thought we just established that Jesus’s revelation is not opposed to the revelation of the law of Moses. Is John clearly setting the law of Moses against the grace and truth found in Jesus? We will find that this is not the case. But to understand this, we must first examine verse 16.
The first thing we notice when we look at verses 16 through 18 is that John is expressing one unified thought. This thought begins in verse 16 with the word “for,” indicating that John is giving an explanation, an exposition, of the testimony that John the Baptist gave. John the Baptist said, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”
But what does it mean that Jesus out-ranks John the Baptist? Does it mean merely that Jesus was born before John the Baptist? It cannot mean that, because Jesus was born after John the Baptist. Therefore, it is not merely a matter of biological precedence.
So John, the apostle and disciple, then goes on to explain in more detail what John the Baptist meant in verses 16 through 18. He explains that Jesus is greater because he reveals to us the fullness of God’s revelation and reveals to us the Father in fullness. John begins by declaring that from the Son’s fullness, we all receive grace upon grace. This is stated in verse 16. When we read verse 16, we remember what John said in verse 14: that Jesus showed forth the glory of the only begotten Son of God, and that he was full of grace and truth. This means that when Jesus came to this earth as a man, he was characterized by grace and truth. In verse 16, John adds, “And from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace.”
So not only was Christ full of grace and truth, He is the fullness, the standard, and the greatest culmination of grace and truth that has been revealed. The previous revelation was through types and shadows and prophecy, as the author of Hebrews puts it, but in Jesus Christ, according to John, the fullness of grace and truth, the fullness of the gospel, has been revealed to us. When Jesus came to this earth, the promises that were given to the Old Testament saints—Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, and many others—were no longer unclear, nor were they merely types and shadows. Now they are seen and heard with absolute clarity. From this fullness of revelation in Jesus Christ, you and I have received grace. We now receive from the fullness of Christ the grace by which we live, so that our life is sustained entirely by the grace of Christ.
And Paul uses similar language to John in Colossians 2. There he writes, “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea, for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and of the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is in Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” There is similar language that can be found throughout Paul’s letters and throughout the New Testament. This is that Jesus Christ is the culmination of the revelation of God. Paul says that in Christ all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
And you and I receive these things through union with him. Returning to verse 14 in John chapter one, John writes that we all received grace in place of grace. But what does this mean? Does this mean that through Jesus Christ, the believer is constantly receiving grace, which is renewed each day? Certainly, there is an aspect of this that is true. In our union with Christ, we receive grace renewed each day.
However, this interpretation seems to interrupt the flow of the passage. The main meaning of the word used here in Greek is not “upon.” It is not grace upon grace, although that could be a possible meaning. The primary meaning of the word is “instead of” or “in place of.” Therefore, it could be translated as, “For from his fullness, we have all received grace in place of grace.” At first glance, when translated this way, it seems awkward.
What does it mean that grace can be in place of grace? Once again, we must consider verse 17, which begins with the word “for.” We must ask ourselves: what is the connection between verse 17 and verse 16? The connection is that verse 17 explains the phrase “grace in place of grace.”
What does John mean when he says that, through the fullness of Jesus Christ, we have all received grace in place of grace? He means that the grace and truth revealed in the law of Moses was replaced by the grace and truth revealed in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ’s revelation clarified, confirmed, and made more personal the revelation that already existed in the law of Moses. The law was truly gracious, and the gospel was truly present in the law before the coming of Jesus. But Jesus clarifies. Jesus makes this gospel more real and more clear to us.
So if you understand this verse, then the law is not opposed to the grace and truth found in Jesus Christ, but rather John is highlighting the widening and deepening of the revelation of the gospel in the person of Jesus Christ in redemptive history. The fact that Jesus is not opposed to the law is also clear from other passages in John that we will see in the coming weeks and months. According to Jesus in the Gospel of John, Jesus sees the source of the law as being the same source as his own revelation. He points to the source as being the Father. Therefore, the law is gracious.
The law points us to the coming Redeemer, but it is not the fullness of the revelation of the Redeemer himself. The gospel has always existed, as we have seen before, and the light has always been shining in the darkness. But in Jesus, the fullness of grace and truth, the fullness of the gospel, finds its culmination and realization. Therefore, John is saying to us that Jesus ranks before John the Baptist, not merely because he existed prior to John, but because the revelation of the gospel of grace and truth is given in its fullness through the Son.
Now this is the content of what the Son has revealed to us. Who then is the one to whom the Son has revealed? This brings us to the revelation of the Father. The revelation of the Father in verse 18. In verse 18, John continues: “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
This is, of course, a difficult passage that many people struggle with, because the question naturally arises: how can John say that no one has ever seen God when there are passages in the Old Testament that indicate the saints at times saw God?
Well, one question that we should always ask when we come to a difficult passage like this, which appears to contradict other passages, is whether we really think that John the disciple, who wrote the Gospel, was unaware of the well-known Old Testament passages that record instances in which someone saw God. The answer, of course, is no. John the disciple was a Jewish man who would have been intimately familiar with the stories of the Old Testament. He would have known about Abraham’s meeting with the Lord. He would have known that Moses saw the glory of God. Furthermore, we see throughout the Gospel of John that John frequently refers to Old Testament passages, which further demonstrates that he knew the Old Testament well.
Therefore, the first thing we can confidently say is that John is not contradicting the Old Testament. But the question still remains: if he is not contradicting it, what does he mean when he says that no one has ever seen God? If you have been attending Dr. Gidley’s morning instruction series, you would have received a more complete explanation of what John does and does not mean. But the first point we can make is that no one has ever seen God in his essence. This is because we believe that God is a spirit, meaning that God does not have a physical body like human beings.
Thus, Moses did not see God’s divine nature directly. Since God, in his true being, is invisible, Moses did not behold God’s essence. Rather, God revealed himself in a way that was suitable for human understanding, meaning that God made himself accessible in a form that Moses could perceive. This was a true manifestation of God’s presence, so that Moses was face-to-face with God.
Not with his nature, but with true revelation that was intimate with God. Yet in his case, since God is spirit and cannot fully be comprehended by his creatures, no one can see God in his essence. Yet in his infinite power and mercy, God has at times revealed himself through visible manifestations, such as the glory that filled the temple or when the Lord revealed himself to Abraham. In these revelations, man does not behold the divine essence itself, but rather a created and accommodated manifestation through which God truly makes himself known to humans. And the ultimate revelation of God, the ultimate revelation of God, is found in the second person of the Trinity becoming a man and walking among his creatures. Thus, the saints of old did not see the essence of God, but they did see and experience a true revelation of God. God truly sought to reveal something and successfully revealed something to humanity.
And John continues: God, the only Son who is at the Father’s side, has made him known. Or more literally, we might translate it as: the only begotten God who is in the Father’s bosom, has made him known. At first, it may be tempting to understand John’s words here as referring to the Son in his glorified state. When John says, who is in the Father’s bosom, this is a present reality. So we might think, oh, this is John speaking of Jesus who is now seated at the right hand of God the Father, and who, in his incarnation, revealed the Father to humanity.
But I think it is more likely that John is not speaking of the glorified God, but rather of the eternal relationship that the Son has with the Father. I say this for two reasons. First, the whole prologue that we have seen up to now never mentions the glorified state of Jesus. Rather, the entire discussion revolves around the eternal Word, who was with the Father, becoming man and revealing God to humanity.
Secondly, we see in other parts of the New Testament, when it speaks of the glorified Christ going to the Father, it ordinarily refers to him as being seated at the right hand of the Father. This language conveys authority, it conveys kingship, and it conveys the exaltation of the Son. But here in John 1, verse 18, John does not say he is seated at the right hand of the Father. Instead, he says, the Son is in the bosom of the Father. This language conveys intimacy and communion.
I think this draws us back to verse one, back to the eternal relationship that the Son, Jesus Christ, had with the Father. The Son, when he became man, did not cease to be God. When the Son became man, his divine nature remained divine. Even in the incarnation, the eternal Son remained as he always was—the one who is in the bosom of the Father. This is because the incarnate Son uniquely lives, according to John, in eternal communion with the Father.
He alone can reveal the Father to us. The Son knows the Father completely, and in the plan of redemption, he is carrying out the will of the Father. Therefore, everything that the Son does, and everything that he has come to do, is to reveal the Father to humanity. As we travel throughout the Gospel of John, this will become clearer and clearer.
Jesus repeatedly appeals to the Father as the source of his actions and words. In John 5, verse 19, for example, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does also.” And again, in chapter 7, verse 16, Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.”
The point, of course, in these passages and the many other passages in John is that the Father and the Son are completely unified in the revelation of the gospel. Any notion that the Father and the Son are somehow different in how they approach sinful man is completely foreign to the New Testament. The Father is not a domineering, judgmental figure who, in his heart, desires to judge us all but accepts us only because of what Christ has done. Not at all. The Father, in his infinite love and mercy, chose us while we were still sinners and enemies of him. He chose us because he desired to save us from our sin.
In all eternity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit covenanted with one another to save a people, to save us from our sin. The Father then sent the Son, his only begotten Son, to live a perfect life and to die and to rise from the dead for our sins. So that in the fullness of Jesus Christ, we can all receive grace and truth.
Once again, as a reminder, brothers and sisters, we do not have a God who is far off. Our God is in the heavens and he does whatever he pleases. Yet what God has been pleased to do is to send his Son to this earth to fulfill the law of righteousness, to live a perfect life— a life that Adam and every other man after Adam failed to live. To go to the cross as the perfect Lamb of God and to take upon himself our sins so that we can have a right relationship with our Creator. As Isaiah 61:10 says, he has clothed us with garments of salvation. He has covered us with the robe of righteousness. So then, brothers and sisters, draw near to Christ, the Son of God who has made the Father known to us. Draw near to the one who is full of grace and truth.
But notice that Jesus Christ is not just full of arbitrary forgiveness. Jesus is full of grace and truth. This means that when you come to Christ, there is much in your life that you must give up. Jesus does not reveal the Father as an angry, distant God. Neither does He reveal the Father as a soft, passive figure in the sky who accepts anything we do. When we come to Christ, we must give up our sins. We must give up the desires of our flesh and turn to Christ. There is truth. There is a moral standard which God has revealed to humanity through Moses. And this moral standard, Jesus Christ, has kept perfectly. When we are united to Christ, we begin to hate these sins.
Paul writes the following in Colossians chapter two. Please turn there with me to Colossians chapter two. Colossians 2, verses six through seven. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
If we are found in Christ, we must then walk in the fullness of Jesus Christ. We are not to continue in our sins. Paul goes on in verses eight through ten. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
For in him, that is Christ, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. And you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. In Christ, the fullness of deity dwells. And in turn, you have been filled with Christ, who is the head of all things.
We must reflect our Savior, and we must reflect the love that He has for the lost and the service that He gives to the brethren. Jesus Christ was the ultimate revelation of the Father, and we must in turn reflect our Savior. We must reflect the fruits of the Spirit. It is through the Son that you and I can come to know the Father. And as you go into the world this week, it is through you that people can come into contact with the Son. So as we go out this week, be encouraged that we have a Father in heaven who is full of grace and truth and loves you so much that He sent His only Son to die for you, so that you can walk and worship Him. But also know that as we live our lives in this fallen world, we are to walk in the fullness of Jesus Christ and to reflect the love that Christ has shown to us. So go forth and show the sacrificial, uncompromising, glorious love of Christ that God has shown you. And I pray that through us this week, many would come to know the Son, that they would come to know the love of the Son, and that they would come to worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit with us.
Let us pray. Lord, we thank you that you are not a God who is far from us, but one who is near. You are not above us in distance, but present with us in grace. You are all that we are not: perfectly good, perfectly loving, perfectly gracious, perfectly merciful, and perfectly just. And yet, O Lord, you have not left us in our state of sin and misery. You have looked upon us with grace and love, and you have sent your Son, Jesus Christ, so that through him we might come to know you. O Lord, we thank you for the fullness of the revelation of Jesus Christ, that in him we can know you and love you, and that in him we can worship you through his work on the cross. I pray, O Lord, that as we go from here this week, our actions and our words may proclaim the love of Christ that you have shown us. I pray that many will come to know you through us, and that this church will continue to grow. I pray all this in the name of your Son, amen. Let us stand and sing hymn 294, the song of Zachariah. ♪