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Third week, and still in John 1 - I promise this will start moving faster soon but there's so much here I can't just skip over it with a clear conscience! Let's have a look at John 1:14-18.

'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.'") And 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.'

'...the Word became flesh...'

This passage begins with possibly the most important phrase in the whole of John 1. Without this phrase the rest of the chapter could be an unsolved mystery, but John explains here that 'the Word' is, in fact, Jesus Christ (as referenced by the John the Baptist line) - and also that the Word is the Son of the Father (God). So much in such a short phrase, but I believe we have dealt with this in previous weeks, and will come back to it so now let's press on...

'...glory...'

Now this is important - while we must recognise that Jesus 'became flesh' (a man), he has sufficient glory that it is worthy of note. While I do not wish to dwell on this point here in writing, could there be anything better to dwell on in our lives? The fact that Jesus has this glory, and therefore is worthy of our praise, should change the way we live our lives! Let us not become religious folk who do things because we know that we should be 'nice', but let us live for the glory of the One who lived on this earth 2,000 years ago; Jesus, the One who was, and is, God.

'...grace upon grace...'

Alright - here's the real message of this week. Jesus is declared in verse 14 to be 'full of grace and truth'. The first explanation from this is in verse 16, 'from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.' What is grace upon grace? I'll tell you - it's when we receive saving grace (i.e. Jesus died on the cross as our substitute so that we do not have to die any more - it's not to do with our works, it's to do with his grace), yet have not lost our flesh nature so continue giving in to temptation. At these times God 'is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness' (1 John 1:9) - He blesses us with extra grace, in addition to the grace we have already received. This truth is probably the most amazing thing about Christianity. Jesus not only died to save us into a relationship with the Father, but to keep us in a relationship with the Father regardless of our shortcomings - and we all have them; Romans 3:23 teaches us that 'all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God'. And if that truth doesn't stir you to thank God then I'm not sure what will!

'...and truth...'

John talks about Jesus being full of truth in verse 18. The full depth of this is not immediately apparent, but it is incredible nonetheless. Jesus being full of truth does not just mean that he tells the truth; rather it means that he is full of truth - he characterises truth and, as he explains later in this book, he is the truth (John 14:6)! Here's the amazing truth explained here: 'No one has ever seen God'...but as we saw in verse 14 'we have seen his [Jesus'] glory' - and through seeing Jesus, 'he [Jesus] has made him [God] known' (verse 18). This is probably the most incredible result of the 'grace upon grace' truth, that through Jesus we actually get to enter into a literal relationship with the literal God, who created us and sustains all of creation by His mighty power. And if that truth doesn't stir you to be in awe of what Jesus has done for us then I'm not sure what will!

"God's Words For US" from Cecelia Lester

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