And this morning we’re looking at verses 14 through 18 of John chapter 1, so finishing up the prologue of John’s gospel. And so we’ll read those verses once again. Listen now to the reading of God’s holy word.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him, and cried out, saying, This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. and of His fullness we have all 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.
Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing on this, His Holy Word.
Prayer
Gracious God in heaven and we do once again praise you and thank you for your word. We thank you For the great gift that it is to us that you give this your word to us in our own language our own tongue that we can read it and understand it through the power of your spirit and And we just thank you for even this passage before us this morning. And as we come to these verses, we would ask, oh Lord, that your spirit would truly lead us and guide us according to your truth to help us to see, hear clearly with eyes of faith. the wonders and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, we pray, O Father, that we might be like those who approached the disciple Philip and asked him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Heavenly Father, we pray that this morning, through your Word and your Spirit, that we would see Jesus in all his glory, both for our good and for his glory. And so we pray now for your blessing upon your Holy Word. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray.
Amen.
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who was with God in the beginning and who was God, came in the flesh and dwelt among us. so that we might have a savior and a redeemer who can truly identify with us in our sin and misery and be for us at once for all perfect sacrifice for our sins.
This is the glory of the incarnation and how it applies to us as believers today. And we considered that glory last time. But there’s another glory that John expresses in his prologue that also relates to the incarnation. And it’s the glory of God revealed to all creation, especially through His attributes of grace and truth.
And so this morning, as we conclude John’s prologue, we’ll consider how grace and truth are revealed, how they’re poured out in great abundance, and how they are beheld and declared for the eternal blessing and benefit of all those who trust in Christ Jesus for salvation.
The Revelation of Grace and Truth
Now often in the scriptures when we see references to the glory of God, we see these descriptions, we find really the apostles and the prophets who are writing these things struggling to describe and to picture for us, to write down the glory of God. And so usually we might find descriptions of things like thunder, and flashes of lightning, and burning fire that doesn’t consume, and a bright, brilliant, shining light.
For example, we think of the glory cloud of the Lord, the Shekinah glory of God leading the Israelites through the wilderness by day and night. And it was that same glory cloud of thunder and lightning that descended upon the tabernacle and then later the temple when it was built in Jerusalem.
You have the reflection of this brilliant light on Moses’ face when he came down from the mountain. So bright was that reflection of God’s glory that Moses actually had to put a veil over his face because the people were afraid. And then there was the shaking thunder and cloud of smoke in Isaiah’s vision of the throne room of God.
Or the dazzling white light surrounding Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, and the bright light and the thundering voice from heaven that stopped Saul in his tracks on the road to Damascus. And of course, again, we have John’s attempts in the book of Revelation to describe the brilliant glory of his visions of the heavenly throne room.
But again, these were all visible representations of the glory of God. But these things were not seen by everyone. Because they more often appeared for a time, and then they disappeared.
God’s Glory Revealed in His Attributes
But there are other times when we see the revelation of God’s glory in the Scriptures, not in visible physical representations, but through the very nature and character of God, through what we call His attributes. The glory of God is revealed in his attributes.
We see this, for example, in Exodus chapter 33 and chapter 34. At the end of chapter 33, Moses asked the Lord, “Lord, please show me your glory.” And the Lord responds to him, “I will make all my goodness pass before you. And I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
Then the Lord confirms this in Exodus 34 as He passes by Moses:
The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.
It’s as though the Lord is saying to Moses, “You want to see my glory? I’m going to show you my glory in my perfect attributes of mercy, grace, long-suffering, goodness, truth, forgiveness, and justice.”
The glory of God is revealed in His attributes. And the wonderful thing about this is that these attributes can be seen at all times by everyone who has the eyes of faith to see them. They don’t appear and disappear like the physical representations. God’s attributes are who He actually is.
Grace and Truth in the Word Become Flesh
Look at verse 14:
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John is testifying that they saw the glory of God revealed in the Word become flesh. And what does John say of that glory they beheld? Because the Word became flesh, He was full of grace and truth.
Grace and truth are two of those attributes of God. It seems as though John has in view here the revelation of God’s glory to Moses in Exodus 34. But John only mentions grace and truth as a summation or a representation of the whole.
Grace being the summation of God’s abounding love and mercy upon undeserving sinners to save them from sin and the curse of death. And truth or righteousness being a summation of God’s fullest and most complete revelation to mankind.
This builds to the climactic point in the prologue. John finally states it clearly in verse 17:
For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the fullness of God’s revelation to mankind. Jesus is the only begotten eternal Son of God. Jesus is the Word become flesh. Jesus is full of grace and truth and embodies the full brightness of God’s glory and the expressed image of His person and being.
If you want to see the fullness of the glory of God, He has revealed it in and through His Son, Jesus Christ.
We look unto Jesus with eyes of faith. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 that God has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. Jude reminds us that there is a day coming when we shall see Him as He is.
Friends, this is why you should always remind yourselves throughout the struggles and the challenges of this life to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Because in Him is the fullness of the glory of God revealed to mankind — abounding grace and truth.
Grace Poured Out in Great Abundance
Verse 16 and 17:
And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Of God’s fullness we have all received an abundance of grace — grace for grace (or grace upon grace).
This pictures the fullness of God’s glory as a vast ocean, and the grace of God comes crashing down upon us like constant waves, one right after the other. Grace upon grace. Grace replaced by even more grace.
We see this throughout Scripture:
- Lamentations 3: “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness.”
- Psalm 36:5: “Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.”
- 2 Corinthians 12: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Even a single drop of God’s grace is more than sufficient, yet Jesus Christ pours out upon us wave after wave of His all-sufficient grace, continually, each and every day, without end.
We ought not to think that before Jesus God’s grace was lacking. God’s grace abounded in the Old Testament as well. The law itself was given as a gracious gift after God had already saved His people from Egypt. It was not a covenant of works but a gracious rule for those already redeemed — to instruct them how to live as His holy people.
The law revealed God’s holiness and our sin. It pointed forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ — the perfect righteous One who would fulfill the law and secure forgiveness once and for all with one perfect sacrifice.
The law was good, and it still has a purpose for believers today. But the fullness of God’s grace, holiness, truth, and righteousness is only revealed in Christ alone.
The Witness and Declaration of This Glory
Finally, John emphasizes the importance of witness and testimony.
This revelation was both beheld and declared.
First, it was beheld by John himself, by the other apostles, and by multitudes of people who were eyewitnesses to Jesus’ ministry. John says, “we beheld His glory.”
They beheld it in His authoritative teaching — He taught not as the scribes but as one who had authority. They beheld it in His many signs and miracles — healing the sick, cleansing lepers, giving sight to the blind, casting out demons, and forgiving sins. They beheld it most dramatically on the Mount of Transfiguration, where Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus, and the Father declared, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him.”
Second, John the Baptist bore witness: “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’” John testified to the pre-existence and superiority of the eternal Son of God.
Finally, Jesus Himself has declared the Father:
No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
Because He is the eternal Son, one with the Father, in the closest intimacy, He alone is qualified to declare God fully.
Conclusion
Beloved of God, the fullness of God’s glory has truly been revealed to all creation, even to you this day. His wonderful attributes of grace and truth are clearly on display in Jesus Christ. And not only that, but the glory of Christ — His grace and truth — have been poured out in great abundance upon you who believe in Him, even wave after wave.
And what’s more, it is the glory of Christ — the fullness of God’s grace and truth — which is declared to you even now through this gospel message.
Behold it. Believe it. Hear Him. And keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. To the glory of God alone.
Closing Prayer
O Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we do praise you and thank you for this wonderful picture that you’ve given to us, this vision of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Your glory revealed in Him through the wonders of your glorious attributes, especially of His grace and truth. of His abounding love and His mercy, that He pours out upon us the undeserving sinners that we are, that He sends wave after wave of His abounding grace each and every day, and that He declares to us the fullness of your revelation, the fullness of your truth. That we might truly live and have our being in Him. That we might be drawn by His Spirit to live for your glory. To obey Him as He has called us to obey Him. To show our great love and our gratitude to Him by keeping His commands.
This is the grace and truth that you have revealed in Jesus Christ. We praise you and thank you. And we especially pray that as your spirit goes forth, even now in our hearts, that we have ears to hear and eyes to see, would hear him and see Christ Jesus and all his glory, all to the praise of your holy name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray. Amen.