In John 16 and 17 the Bible says: "Indeed, we have all received grace after grace from His fullness, for although the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
Grace is the thing that changed my life forever. I can't think of anything or anyone who is more important to me that Jesus and this grace that He brought. Grace is God's favor for no reason other than he wanted to favor me. I didn't do anything for it and I am not allowed to repay it for that would ruin it. He just likes me. In fact He loves the whole world this way and the only thing keeping anyone from God now is our unbelief of this fact. This is what Jesus brought and if you understand this, then God has given you this understanding. Only those who God calls can even understand this message. If you are understanding this it is time for you to believe in Jesus while you have a chance. Jesus did all that needed to be done to bring you to God. You can believe in that right now.
Moses was the one who wrote down the first five books of the Bible. This was God's law that He gave to the Jews. Laws don't provide any favor. They are a merit system. If you follow the laws you get rewarded. If you fail to keep the laws you are punished. Grace is not a legal system no matter what anyone says. The Bible is clear. Grace cannot exist around law (systems of merit) and law cannot exist with grace. Grace must be only "favor" not "pay". Laws require specfic acts of righteousness before you can recieve a blessing. They must be "merit" not "favor".
It is important as Christians that we understand this and not attempt to mix merit systems with what Christ did for us on the Cross.
It is true that there is real merit for Christian service that we will be rewarded for on a merit basis, but this is not "law". This service is individual and based on your personal calling from God. It's personal and is all about love and devotion to Him. The law was about a right standing before God and his blessing. As Christians, grace gives us that aready. But our rewards can be lost and we can be ashamed someday at our judgment if we don't follow His will for us today.
"(John testified concerning Him and exclaimed,
"This was the One of whom I said,
'The One coming after me has surpassed me,
because He existed before me. ' ")"
John 1:15 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
Almost as if John wanted to make sure he didn't forget, he adds a little statement about John the Baptist in the middle of his writing about grace. I am sure glad he did. Here we find out that John said that Jesus pre-existed. How do we know that? We know because John the Baptist was older than Jesus, therefore Jesus must have been in existence before John, therefore He (Jesus) existed before He(Jesus) was even born on earth... Very interesting...
That's what John the Baptist testifies.
God caused John to speak out about Jesus and indicate that He was not a mere man. Not only was he greater than John the Baptist, he was greater than anyone. It get's even more interesting. Listen to what Jesus was to say about him:
"I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John, but the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." - Jesus (in Luke 7:28 HCSB)
Interesting. If John was the greatest man and Jesus was greater than John, then Jesus must be greater than everyone in the world for sure. Listen to what John the Baptist says about his relationship to Jesus:
"I am not worthy to untie the strap of His sandals." - John the Baptist (in Luke 3:16)
Ok... That does it. Clearly if John was the greatest man born of women, and John won't even take a servant's position (as one who unties sandals), then Jesus is truely supreme and cannot be considered a mere man by the witness of John!
Of course, as believers, we know that Jesus is the greatest and that through Him all things were created so we know that He is far greater than John the Baptist, but it is important to see that a real prophet of Israel testified of Jesus to the Jews so that they had no excuse. They had what they needed to hear the Word of the Lord.
"The Word became flesh and took up residence among us.
We observed His glory,
the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth."
- John 1:14 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
Here we read that Jesus became a real person. He wasn't a ghost or some kind of spirit. He was a "flesh" and bone. He really lived on earth and he really displayed His glory. I think that the glory he is talking about here is the glory that John himself witnessed one day when he was with Jesus.
Peter, James and John, went with Jesus up a mountain and there He was changed right before their eyes. He started glowing so bright that it terrified them and they saw Him talking Moses and Elijah. Jesus definitely looked like God at that point and they didn't know what to do. Here is what the Bible says about that in Mathew:
"After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. He was transformed in front of them, and His face shone like the sun. Even His clothes became as white as the light. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.
Then Peter said to Jesus, 'Lord, it's good for us to be here! If You want, I will make three tabernacles here: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.'
While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said:
This is My beloved Son.
I take delight in Him.
Listen to Him!
When the disciples heard it, they fell facedown and were terrified."
- Mathew 17:1-6
After that that, Jesus told them not to be afraid and told them to not tell anyone until after he rose from the dead. Interesting isn't it. They were able to see his glory but the rest of the world wasn't allowed to. We are often expected to believe without seeing with our eyes sensing with our senses.
God does that quite a bit. He expects us to believe his word not just believe our eyes.
This verse is packed. It also says that Jesus is the only son of God. This is hard to understand because he just got done saying earlier that we are God's children too. We have to admit that we are not children like Jesus is. In reality, we are actually children because of Jesus. Perhaps it's easier to understand this by understanding marriage. When a woman is married to a man, she inherits her husband's parents. In the Bible we understand this because Eve was taken out of Adam's side. That makes her just as much a son of God as Adam because she is of Adam.
As Christians we are of Jesus, because of that relationship, we are the children of God. The Bible talks quite a bit about this, perhaps, someday we will do more study in these areas.
There is one more thing in this verse I want to cover: Jesus is "full of grace and truth." After being a Christian for over 30 years I am still only beginning to appreciate this amazing little phrase. The grace of Jesus is his favor for us. He likes us, just because he likes us. He doesn't like us because we are so good or beautiful or popular or anything else. He just likes us because he decided to. On top of this, he gives us truth. He didn't just give us commandments. He gave us truth. When you know the truth, you get to believe, not just follow orders. We know that when you believe something you do follow orders because you want to. Someone who does what they want all the time is free. Isn't it interesting how the truth can set you free?
12 But to all who did receive (A) Him, (B)
He gave them the right (C) to be [a] children (D) of God, (E)
to those who believe (F) in His name, (G)
13 who were born, (H)
not of blood, [b]
or of the will (I) of the flesh, (J)
or of the will of man, [c]
but of God. (K)
That's you, if you believe in Jesus. You have become a child of God. This is one of the most amazing things to think about. I really am a child of God because I "believe in His name. "
"Believing in His name" sounds kind of confusing. It is actually the same as the Hebrew word, "Joshua". Joshua led his people into the Promised Land in the Old Testament.
We need to believe that Jesus will lead us into Heaven. No man on earth can save us. If you think a man will save you other than Jesus, you are not a child of God. If you think anyone else will save you, you are not a child of God. Only Jesus has that ability.
When you are born of God, you are born in a special way. As I said in an earlier post, we are all born dead in our spirit. God has given birth to us in our spirits making us alive like Jesus on the inside. This was entirely God's doing. No man had a choice. God decided to have you and now you are his child and no one can change that either.11 He came to His own, [a]
and His own people [b] did not receive Him.
Jesus was a Jew. His parents were very careful to make sure that they practiced the things that God wanted them to in regard to their special Son. Jesus was sent to save his Jewish people, but they refused him as their national Savior. Obviously, many Jewish Christians believed individually and were saved, but as a nation, He was rejected.
Jesus was very upset about this; enough to cry for them (Luke 19:41-44).
It is important for us to see how much Jesus loves His people. We should love those who Jesus loves also.
One of the most difficult things to face in life is the rejection of your own people. This happens to many people who become Christians. The wonderful thing is that we have a new family in Christ that will last forever. As believers in Jesus we have the ability to love each other in a way that we couldn't in our own natural families.10 He was in the world,
and the world was created (A) through Him,
yet the world did not recognize Him.
When we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate what should have been celebrated when it actually happened. The One through whom the whole world was made came to earth. It says here that "He was in the world." This is an amazing thing that the one who created us was in the world with us in a very real way.
Although God told some shepherds and some wise men from far away were watching, most people didn't know that anything happened. Jesus was unrecognized. It is pretty obvious by the fact that he had to be born in a barn. This, to me, is a horrible example of disrespect and disregard. God had prophesied that he would be coming into the world. We know that this is true because the wise men from far away were expecting him. Some believe these wise men were those who learned from Daniel.
We have already heard that John the Baptist was there to tell people who He was. But there were two others who were expecting Jesus that we know about. When Jesus was taken to the temple for circumcision as Jews were required to, these two were waiting in expectation.
One of them was named Simeon. He was there in the temple and was "looking forward to Israel's consolation." You can read what he said here.
The other was Anna. You can read about here here.
One thing very notable about these two is where they were, they were in the temple. They expected big things from God. I am not saying that we should spend all our days at Church. The Bible says that God now lives in the temple of our hearts, but what is important is that these followers of God were doing exactly what God wanted them to do and they got to see Him when He came.
We can take a lesson from this. Jesus says that he is coming to take those of us who believe to Heaven to live with Him when He comes back to get us (John 14:1-4). We should be living in expectation. This is a great thing to look forward to! When He comes next, He comes to take us to be with Him in His house. It is hard to imagine how great that will be!6 There was a man named John (A)
who was sent from God.
7 He came as a witness
to testify about the light,
so that all might believe through him. [a]
8 He was not the light,
but he came to testify (B) about the light.
9 The true light, (C) who gives light to everyone,
was coming into the world. (D) [b]
The "John" in this part is not the John who wrote the book. This is talking about the one known as John the Baptist. He was the last of the Old Testament prophets that God sent. He was sent by God, like the other prophets were, but his special purpose was to point the way to Jesus.
John makes it clear that John the Baptist, was not "the light." In other words, John should not be confused with Jesus. John was not the light, he was just a man. It's very important for all of us to remember that we are not the light either. We are just people. If we want to "shine" we need Jesus.
Isn't it interesting that God likes to send people to "testify" or talk about Jesus. We can do that too; those of us who believe in Him. If you have experienced what Jesus has done for you, you are now capable of sharing that with others. Jesus sent all of us, just like God sent John. You can see that in Mathew 28:18-20.
We also read that the light of Jesus was meant for everyone. It really is a great thing to think about because, I think that originally, most Jews thought that the Messiah would only be for the Jews. God had a plan for the whole world to see the light.5 That light shines (A) in the darkness,
yet the darkness did not overcome [a] it. (B)
The light of Jesus is shining in the darkness. The Bible says that there is darkness and Jesus is shining in it. This tells me that the world around us is not full of light. This is something that challenges our thinking as Christians. Because of the way people act around us, it's easy to think that the world has everything together; that it has the light, but the Bible says that it is Jesus who has the light and the world has the darkness.
The world's darkness has not been able to overcome the light that comes from the life of Jesus. When we have Jesus life in us, our light cannot be overcome by the darkness either. It is very interesting to read that it use the present tense: "That light shines..." Jesus is still alive today. His spirit is inside of us and in Heaven he is preparing a place for us (more about this much later in John... feel free to read ahead). The light still shines.
I think that as history, this verse is specifically talking about the fact that even though Jesus came at a very dark time in history, people could not destroy Him or his purpose here. He won and this book of John is all about how Jesus overcame the world and why we should believe in Him.
and that life was the light (B) of men.
Jesus had life in him. Spiritually we are all born dead. Jesus was born alive. He was the only human to have ever been born alive. Adam and Eve were not really born, but they were alive at first also. Sin killed us on the inside (find out more on this in Genesis 2:17). Jesus was filled with life on the inside.
You, as a Christian, are filled with life now too because you have Jesus' life inside of you now.
The Bible says that this life of Jesus was the light of men. People need to see this light you have. You have Jesus' light in you, you should shine. Sometimes people don't want to see the light... (if you read ahead of me in John you will find out why in John 3:19)
All Christians have a part of them that is born when they believe in Jesus. It changes everything for us and then shines out to others. I am very grateful for all of those who have shown me the light of Jesus throughout my life.
(Note: if you want to study more of the Bible yourself, you can go to The Bible Gateway and search for the verses that I mention)
3 All things were created (A) through Him, (B)
and apart from Him not one thing was created
that has been created.
In the third verse, John continues to talk about Jesus as the "Word." It says that not only was Jesus there at the beginning of the world, but that everything was created through Him. Every single thing that was created was created through Him.
It should be very clear by now that God does not think much of evolution. Notice that the word "Created" is said again three times. Not only that, this "Word" was involved in creating everything. It is very interesting that it was by words that God created. He just spoke and everything happened. There is another very interesting thing about words.
We still have words in us. We now know that our physical bodies are created by a program recorded in our very own DNA. In a very obvious way, all of life was not only spoken but written! Isn't it amazing how important "The Word" is? There appears to be much more about this "Word" that I may never fully understand because it is so great, but that reminds me again of my great God and how much bigger than I He is. Don't you think a God this big can help us through anything?
We also have the words of the Bible that were written for us also. Jesus is the one who, through his Spirit, makes the Bible clear to us.
