Grace & Truth
Waiting for Light to Come | Erik Reed
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. JOHN 1:16-18 (ESV)
In Exodus 20, God gave the ten commandments to His people through Moses. Those commandments would outline His expectations for how to live as His people. The law reflected the heart and character of God. The law was good. But the people could not keep the law. The LORD was giving Moses the commandments to give to the people; meanwhile, the people fashioned a golden calf from their jewelry and bowed before it in worship.
Jesus’ entrance into the world was not to deliver a new set of laws, but to fulfill the law. Sinners are incapable of perfect obedience. Jesus didn’t come to give more laws that were impossible to keep, but to give grace to sinners incapable of keeping it at all.
The law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. How did grace come through Jesus? He came into the world, in the flesh, to save and redeem sinners. Just as Moses came down from the mountain to give the law of God to His people, Jesus came down from Heaven to give the grace of God to His people. His coming into the world in the flesh was to reconcile people of every nation, tribe, and tongue to God. Sinners receive pardon through Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. And His mission to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) began in the womb of Mary.
The one born in Bethlehem is God in the flesh. In our passage, John mentions specifically that no one has ever seen God. The LORD reveals Himself through His creation, but He is not His creation. He spoke through burning bushes, led His people with a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night, and often shows up in mysterious figures like Melchizedek (Genesis 14), the three men who visited Abraham (Genesis 18), and the man who wrestles Jacob in the night (Genesis 32). But in all these appearances and glimpses of Himself, no one has ever truly seen God. When Moses asks to see the LORD, he is told that he would die (Exodus 33). Nobody throughout human history had seen God face-to-face. But when Jesus, God in the flesh came into the world, He made Him known. To see Jesus, was to see God. God became a man.
Jesus’ birth is the coming of God to the world in the flesh. Physical eyes from mortal men could behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). We do not see Him with our eyes today, but we see and behold Him with the eyes of our heart. We behold Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18) as we await the day we too can see God face-to-face. This is only possible because He came and gave us grace.
Questions for Reflection
This advent devotion, Waiting for Light to Come, was written by Erik Reed and borrowed with permission from Knowing Jesus Ministries. You can find the original publication and more information at https://www.knowingjesusministries.co
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. JOHN 1:16-18 (ESV)
In Exodus 20, God gave the ten commandments to His people through Moses. Those commandments would outline His expectations for how to live as His people. The law reflected the heart and character of God. The law was good. But the people could not keep the law. The LORD was giving Moses the commandments to give to the people; meanwhile, the people fashioned a golden calf from their jewelry and bowed before it in worship.
Jesus’ entrance into the world was not to deliver a new set of laws, but to fulfill the law. Sinners are incapable of perfect obedience. Jesus didn’t come to give more laws that were impossible to keep, but to give grace to sinners incapable of keeping it at all.
The law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. How did grace come through Jesus? He came into the world, in the flesh, to save and redeem sinners. Just as Moses came down from the mountain to give the law of God to His people, Jesus came down from Heaven to give the grace of God to His people. His coming into the world in the flesh was to reconcile people of every nation, tribe, and tongue to God. Sinners receive pardon through Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. And His mission to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) began in the womb of Mary.
The one born in Bethlehem is God in the flesh. In our passage, John mentions specifically that no one has ever seen God. The LORD reveals Himself through His creation, but He is not His creation. He spoke through burning bushes, led His people with a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night, and often shows up in mysterious figures like Melchizedek (Genesis 14), the three men who visited Abraham (Genesis 18), and the man who wrestles Jacob in the night (Genesis 32). But in all these appearances and glimpses of Himself, no one has ever truly seen God. When Moses asks to see the LORD, he is told that he would die (Exodus 33). Nobody throughout human history had seen God face-to-face. But when Jesus, God in the flesh came into the world, He made Him known. To see Jesus, was to see God. God became a man.
Jesus’ birth is the coming of God to the world in the flesh. Physical eyes from mortal men could behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). We do not see Him with our eyes today, but we see and behold Him with the eyes of our heart. We behold Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18) as we await the day we too can see God face-to-face. This is only possible because He came and gave us grace.
Questions for Reflection
- Is the law of God good or bad? Why can’t man perfectly keep the law?
- Why has no man ever seen God before Jesus? What does this tell us about God and what does it tell us about man?
- Are you spending regular time beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus? What are some ways we do that?
This advent devotion, Waiting for Light to Come, was written by Erik Reed and borrowed with permission from Knowing Jesus Ministries. You can find the original publication and more information at https://www.knowingjesusministries.co
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