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“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
Three days ago we mentioned that in the New Testament we learn that God is light and that God is love. We also said that while these things were known to some extent in the Old Testament, yet they were not known in the same way as they are made known in the New Testament. In our verse for today we see that the Old Testament was characterized by law, where God was testing man, to see if there was any good in him naturally. God knew, of course, that there was no good in sinful man, but His testing proved it to man.
Then God sent His Son into the world, and grace and truth came by Him. Grace is the undeserved goodness of God to us, and we all like that. It is always nice to get something good that we do not deserve. But truth also came by Jesus Christ, and man did not like the truth. Man did not want to hear that he was not only a sinner, but a helpless sinner. He did not want to hear that he could not save himself, but must come to God, and accept His offer of mercy. But grace and truth cannot be separated; they go together.
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