Read John 1
In the third place, our Scripture presents this blessed Person as One who is full of grace and truth. “The Law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” (vs. 17) This, too, is connected with His title, the “Word of God.” For as such He is the image of the invisible God, the express image of the Person of Him who is love, the God of all grace, whose purpose was to make Himself known as such. His purpose, moreover, was to display it to the full, for those who are saved in this day of grace have been predestinated to the praise of the glory of His grace. The question arises then—How is this to be accomplished? And where are they who are so bad that He can show forth all His grace, and reveal Himself in a practical manner, as love, according to His own fullness and perfection? The vilest of the vile, the poorest of the poor, the emptiest of the empty He seeks, in order to pour into them a full and unlimited measure of His love, which now through Christ knows no let.
The law displayed no grace. It could not do so, for law and grace are opposite. The law demanded strict obedience to all its requirements, it admitted of no compromise, it demanded from man what he could not give, and it gave not power whereby to fulfill its demands. Man is dead by nature, and the law required from such that which only a living man could do. The law gives no life, but, on the contrary, it kills. The law then failed to produce holiness in man; it brought out his evil nature in bolder relief: By Jesus Christ, however, grace and truth came in contrast to the law; He came to manifest God’s favor, and to make known God, who is love, the God of all grace. Grace looks for a higher walk than the law ever did; but then grace gives a nature and power, a life whereby the recipient can keep the law. By nature he is dead, under condemnation, but by grace he is alive in Christ to God, “for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set him free from the law of sin and death,” in order that the righteousness of the law, in all its integrity, might be fulfilled in such, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. The law made the offense abound, and sin exceeding sinful; but grace has put all away, and makes those who are washed in the blood of Christ “as white as snow,” “clean every whit.”
Thus Jesus, full of grace and truth, came to save the poor, ruined, helpless sinner. His joy was to receive publicans and sinners, and to eat with them. Grace has nothing for the self-righteous. It does not suit such; they do not need it. It is only the poor sinner who can value grace, and it is that which will alone suit his need. And now by means of the cross, which met the claims of God’s righteousness, He is able to pour out with full and unlimited measure His love and His grace. And now that the victory is won over all enemies, His work well done, and righteousness completed, God delights to manifest Himself as love to the chief of sinners, and blesses such fully and freely. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.” (1 Tim. 1:15,16) God is, as has been so often already said, love, and nothing but a full revelation of Himself will satisfy Him. This was His purpose, and He will carry it out. Hence we find that, on the ascension and glorification of Christ to the right hand of the majesty on high, having received the promise of the Father, He sent forth the Holy Spirit to take up His abode no longer in temples made with hands, but in the bodies of those who have been saved by grace, and to be to, and with them an abiding Comforter; and the promise is, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” Where sin hath abounded grace did much more abound, and God is now revealed in Christ. Those who believe He could not make more perfect than He has done, He has made them as white as snow, though their sins were as scarlet. By His own power and workmanship He has made them “a new creation “in Christ, so that as Christ is so are they in this world. Not only so, but He has blessed them to the full, for He has given the Holy Spirit to dwell in them, and all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. Thus, I say, God has proved and showed Himself to be love, and that in the most practical way. A higher and better position He could not have given, or make us more perfect than He has He could not. To give us a richer portion than He has were impossible, for He could not make us more perfect than Christ. He could not give us more than “all things.” And, more than all, He could not have brought us into a better association; for oh! the wonders of His grace, He has brought us to have and enjoy fellowship with Himself. Would that we abode in such communion by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwelleth in us! From all eternity, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, we have been predestinated to the praise of the glory of God’s grace. Has He not been displaying it in all its fullness and glory? He could do no more than He has done. We are, alas! such fools, and so slow of heart to believe all that He has told us, and has done for and to us. The Holy Spirit, is, however, but the earnest of that which is to come, for by-and-bye this grace will be more fully manifested when the Lord Jesus comes and takes us all away. When He will conduct us to the Father’s house, where He has prepared a place for us in glory, and then He will, to the profound astonishment of the countless myriads of the heavenly host, show “the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” our Lord. Then shall we be with Him, and see Him face to face, and know Him even as we are known by Him. ‘Tis true, and He has fully proved in all His ways and acts towards us, that “God is love,” the “God of all grace.” ‘Tis true Jesus has come, the image of the invisible God, full of grace and truth; and it is also true that “of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.” We have received of His saving grace, His restoring grace; His restraining, His constraining, His sympathizing, His saving grace; yea, we have received of all the various aspects of His grace, for of His fullness have we received.
(To be continued, if the Lord will.)