unique glory (two)

Apart from the (almost incidental) identification of the beings/persons who are the subject of his description, John uses this paragraph to move into another arena:  A comparison with other spiritual options.  In the second paragraph (life and light) he has already suggested 'the light' is opposed by the darkness (though not overcome by it).  Now he takes us further.


We've seen already that this paragraph is about explaining the uniqueness of Jesus; "full of grace-and-truth" is a description of what this uniqueness means, and it must be one of the most evocative phrases there is.  It is not in power (whether supernatural, or the ability to draw crowds, or the winning of debate) that John places Jesus' glory, his uniqueness.  It is in this combination of grace and truth.

The key phrase in this paragraph (John1:14-17) is "grace and truth".  It is rather fascinating that one of these two words, truth, is used repeatedly in the main text of John's story, while the other, grace, is never used again!  Just to make up for this, John uses it extra in this bit! 

John talks of Jesus as full of grace and truth, and it is out of this fullness that we receive.  It is a if Jesus has so much that he overflows, and what overflows to us is grace.  Grace is all about someone who gives to the undeserving, who is a companion to the unworthy, who is kind no matter what.  John tells us that he and Jesus' other followers had experienced something extraordinary: Jewish people had already received from God and the Bible is clear that this was undeserved, what they already had as God's people was grace.  But then Jesus came, and they found themselves receiving more grace, richer grace, more gracious grace, if such a thing is possible.

He explains.  The law was given through Moses.  The law was very precious; through it people could discover who God is and how he means them to live.  This was wonderful.  However, more was needed.  We needed to see the truth, we needed to touch grace.  Moses was involved in the giving of the law, but in Jesus truth and grace came.  This is an intensely personal happening, Jesus brought something to us in himself.  Jesus is different not only like light is different from darkness, but as the real thing (Jesus=grace&truth) is different from a description (the law).  He is different from Moses in the same way as meeting a person is different from hearing about them.