John3 - glory, grace and truth

The second part of the Introduction to John’s first-century eye-witness biography of Jesus (John2) climaxed with an amazing message to all human beings: “But whoever received him, he gave to them authority to come to be children of God—the ones believing in his name. These - not from blood, nor from the will of the flesh, nor from the will of a husband - but from God were born.” 

Yes. Children of God, born again into the family of the Almighty. Then John penned the words in red in bold above in order to start to explain the how of this caterpillar to butterfly transformation. “The Word” (see John1) is the eternal pre-Big Bang creator of everything.  That Word “came to be flesh” in Jesus. That Word “dwelt in us”. 

It was that Jesus – that human being – who enabled the first-century AD people in Galilee and Jerusalem (as well as us today) to perceive the “glory” of the eternal “Word”. Jesus made known “the Word” just as a perfect only son displays his father. He was, and is, that Word which showed us "the father" to whom we address the "Our Father, who art in heaven..."

That "perceived" “glory” was not the glory of the White House, Buckingham Palace or Downing Street. It was “full” of something very different: full of  "grace” and “truth”.

 

What is “truth”? In what way was Jesus “full of truth”? Jesus spoke and lived the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth – about human beings and the holiness and justice of the eternal Almighty.

The “John” in the above sentence is not the writer of this biography but John the Baptist – the first-century prophet in Israel. He was on the scene before Jesus but Jesus was before him in every way.

John (the writer) continues his explanation of how he and others became convinced - they "laid hold" of Jesus' "fulness".  Everyone who followed Jesus received some of that “fulness”. That "fulness" from him changed them deep inside. It still does.

They received, back there in AD 30, "grace against grace." “Grace against grace”? What on earth? The word for “against” is anti in the original Greek. This seems strange. How can grace be anti-grace - oppose grace? It can't. It seems to me that John is correctly recording that, in addition to "fulness" they all "laid hold" of "grace". Then they themselves also were able to show "grace" to the "anti-grace". Because in the past they too had been "anti-grace". Grace is unmerited, undeserved steadfast love shown to others.   

Moses “was given” the Ten Commandments around 1350 BC – along with what is known as the Mosaic Law which was to guide God’s Old Testament people. 

That was well and good. The Ten Commandments became global as the basis of law in most nations. But what is "law" compared with “the grace” and “the truth” which Jesus brought down to earth from above? For instance, at the cross.

 

Have you “at any time” seen Almighty God the unique (one and only) creator of everything that is? I certainly haven't. But you can know him - truly know that one and only God because the one who “has made known” came from inside his father God. In Jesus, God the creator “was made flesh and dwelt among us”.