John 1: 14 - 17 March 11, 2014

Joe Errickson      

John 1: 14 - 17                  

March 11, 2014

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen the glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John testified concerning him.  He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”  Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 

I never met Moses, but my impression of what he must have been like would not lead me to believe he was all that full of grace.  Grace, according to my Religion 101 professor, is undeserved favor.  I don’t picture Moses as one oozing with that quality.  Nor do I imagine John the Baptist as being God’s standard-bearer for undeserved favor.  Both called people to repent out of fear, rather than out of response to the love of God.  Jesus, on the other hand, was different.  God’s grace as understood by Moses and John the Baptist had a much different face according to their understanding of the Old Covenant.  Obey the law!  Repent, or pay the price!  Jesus proclaimed the love and grace of God saying all who call upon Him in spirit and in truth;   He would in no wise cast out.  Even though the Old Covenant was ordained by the grace of God, it was “grace upon grace” by which God through Jesus Christ established this New Covenant upon the Old.

In writing If I Should Die Before I Live, Joe LoMusio asks: “If we were to describe Easter without using any words, and could only use punctuation marks, which punctuation mark would you choose to describe Easter for yourself?  Would it be a comma, because it makes you pause, think, and listen?  Maybe a period, the end of the story, as the disciples felt on the day of the crucifixion.  Perhaps for some, the Easter story would be a question mark because of doubt.  But when Jesus appeared to his disciples, and the truth of the resurrection was revealed, Easter becomes an exclamation mark!”

               God’s gift of undeserved favor, the fulfillment of the New Covenant through Jesus Christ, the Grace of God is given for all, forever!

Prayer:  From  Harry Emerson Fosdick’s hymn, God of Grace and God of Glory:  Set our feet on lofty places, gird our lives that they may be, armored with all Christ-like graces, in the fight to set men free.  Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, that we fail not man nor Thee.  Amen.