" The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," is the brief and weighty way in which the Spirit of God sets before us the change in the dealings, or rather the contrast in the dealings, of God with man, consequent upon the coming of the Son of God in the world. He who was with God and was God, " the Word," " was made flesh and dwelt among us," John says, as announcing the divine and personal glory of Him who had taken His place among men, but, if thus among men, it was as " full of grace and truth " for men.
With Moses came the law. The claim of God on man as His intelligent creature. In this way God announced Himself as a moral governor, and proposed to man to enter into relationship with Him on that footing. A footing that made obedience to the known and detailed will of God the ground of blessing. The law told man what he ought to be, end if he filled up its requirements, according to the righteous government of God, blessing was secured to him, but if he failed in one point that same righteous government condemned him without mercy.
Wherever Moses went he carried with him, in the right hand and in the left, the claims of God as a light by which man might see what he ought to be, and the principles on which, according to the state in which the law found him, God alone could deal with him. In every case the light did but detect evil, more or less, and thus blessing, upon the principle of government, there could be none, and the apostle Paul, as a matter of doctrine, closes up the whole question by saying that, " As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." Hence to be under God as a moral governor leaves man with nothing before him but judgment, and the more the light of the law shines in upon his heart and ways the mare his conscience tells him that judgment is justly his, while way of escape from judgment the law shows none.
The reason of this is manifest upon reflection; for the law setting God before the mind purely in the character of a moral governor only shows what God must be to man founded upon the state mad is in. It tells nothing, absolutely nothing, of what God can be for man, as flowing from what God is in Himself. It was not given to Moses to reveal God outside the footing of human responsibility. The economy, or dealing of God with man, which he represented, went no farther. The light concerning God and man which he carried with him was partial and limited. He brought truth, but only a little truth to man's conscience, and this measure of truth without an atom of grace that could remedy the condition in which the truth he did bring, found the man it acted upon. His was in consequence a ministry of death and condemnation. Where he passed, misery and distress of soul told the path he had trodden over. It is so still; wherever the law makes its voice heard misery and distress are the inevitable consequences.
The dispensation of the law begins and ends with Moses. Whilst he holds the ground all is darkness and gloom, which the measure of light he carries with him, only makes more manifest. The dispensation of the gospel is not a development of that which proceeded it. It begins where the other ends, and is in entire contrast with it in all its features.
Moses and his dispensation pass off the scene, and Christ enters it, and with him the dealings of God with man completely change. But it is not merely a change of dispensation that is in question. Not simply that another person with plenitude of power and different principles has come, as upon God's part, to institute a new ground of relationship for man with God, but He who has come is God Himself manifest in flesh. It is no longer a claim preferred by God on man through a mediator; a claim which man could only own the justice of while he fell under its condemnation, but God Himself come down amongst men according to what He is in Himself, " full of grace and truth" for those to whom He came. Moses and His economy must needs retire before the pressure of One who in the fullness of His own per son comes to deal Himself with man, not upon the principle of what man ought to be for God, but of what God can be for man.
With Moses all is from man to God. With Jesus Christ all is from God to man. The one is law, the other is grace. Grace according to a fullness that has no measure, and which in the nature of things excludes everything but itself. The law claimed everything and gave nothing. Grace claims nothing and gives everything. The law works wrath. Grace works blessing, and only blessing.
It is impossible for man to be in relationship with God upon the mixed principle of law and grace. Can Moses and Jesus Christ -share the glory of a joint economy? Can one who only claims and condemns those who don't meet his demands be found in harmonious working with One who only gives, and has nothing but blessing to bestow? Can wrath and love join hands to deal with the same object?
" The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," is then, not merely the statement, that by one person the law was given, and that by An grace and truth were introduced, but the announcement that one mode of dealing with man had, in the perfection of God's ways, given place to another, and not only this, but as we have already observed, the relative dignity of the Person introducing the one is contrasted with that of him who had introduced the other. As the effect of the presence of this divine Person, come in flesh among men, " grace and truth" had more than come, it subsisted livingly in His person, and those who came to Him found nothing but "grace and truth," so that those who had come could only say, " and of His fullness have all we received, and grace upon grace "
But what is this grace that allows nothing to mingle with it? It is simply divine love amid sinners. Love that sought objects on which to spend itself, it could only be grace in a world like this where all are sinners. The condition of those to whom it came only called forth the exercise of this love in the character of grace. Receive anything, as an answer to itself from those to whom it came, it could not. There was nothing to give save sin, hatred and misery on the side of man, but love could pardon the one, rise above the other and remedy the last. Nay, more, it could give Itself to die and put away everything that stood in the way -of the blessing of Its objects. But as it was " grace " among men it was " truth" too. That which made manifest the true condition of every thins, before God. The true relation of all things with God, and their departure from it is shown at once in the presence of Christ. The light shines, and heaven and earth, time and eternity, God and men are at once disclosed, and the truth of everything, in every respect, is at once set before the soul. The light-the truth, has to be received, and that is all that can be done. The light receives nothing from the scene it comes into. It simply shines upon everything, and shows what it is. The law threw a ray or two of light. It told some truth, but it was not "the truth," as revealing everything that could be revealed. In coating to the law man saw truly some things. He saw himself a transgressor, and the judgment of God hanging over him; it was to his soul death and condemnation. In coming to Jesus man sees everything, because " the light" is that into which he comes, it tells him all the truth. He finds himself not only a transgressor but a sinner in his nature, and at enmity with God, it exposes all the consequences of such a condition before God, and in eternity, but it shows him all this in the presence, of a love that has come down to save him out of everything that the light shines upon. " The light is the life of men," and instead of death and condemnation filling the soul with terror and-distress, peace and joy is what the heart enters into. While truth deals with the conscience thoroughly, grace enters the heart fully and casts out all tear, because divine love is in activity to bless a sinner.
This is what happens when a soul comes simply to Jesus. " Grace and truth" take possession of it, and there is peace with God, and joy in God. " God is love," and “ God is light." He is this in His nature and has ever been such. Revealed in Christ, the Word made flesh, love and light became " grace and truth." They assume this character as adapted to man-not to man as innocent, but to man as a sinner.
The law deals with those who would be righteous and condemns them. Grace and truth deal with sinners and save them.
Dear reader, who are you listening to? To Moses or to Jesus Christ? Which?
If to Moses, he can only give you law and its terrible denunciations. It to Jesus Christ, He has nothing for you but grace and truth, with all the blessing divine love can bestow.