Saturday, December 3, 2011
John 1:14d ... full of grace and truth ...
THE GOSPEL
John and James were once named by Jesus "boanerges, that is, 'Sons of Thunder'" (Mark 3:17). Perhaps, at least partially, this name was earned by their eagerness to call down fire from heaven on an unbelieving city. But if John was once eager to call down wrath and judgment, by the time he wrote his gospel he was far more eager to call down grace and mercy.
John saw the grace and love which filled Jesus ministry and fills his gospel with it as well. Certainly we don't want to try and say that one of the four gospels is more filled with the Gospel message then the others. However John's gospel certainly has far more explicit and direct Gospel. After all, there is John 3:16. It is John who calls himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved." John writes about Him whose glory is "full of grace and truth," and therefore fills his writing with this same "grace and truth."
The glory of Christ is grace and truth. No one can look at God. No one can see His glory and live. Moses found this out when he asked to see God's glory. The Lord hid Moses in a rock and His goodness passed before and the name of the Lord was proclaimed. The same glory John speaks of here, goodness and truth.
This is the glory which John "beheld," this is the glory with which he fills his gospel -- the God who dwelt among men, the Word who died for men, the Man who loved him.
