Grace and Truth, Jesus

John
{1:14} And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
{1:15} John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. {1:16} And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
{1:17} For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
{1:18} No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

The Word was made flesh.

So very, very miraculous.

John
{1:1} In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
{1:2} The same was in the beginning with God.
{1:3} All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
{1:4} In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
{1:5} And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

In the beginning...

Genesis
{1:1} In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
{1:2} And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

In the beginning of ALL things God created heaven and the earth.

We search for our roots as if by finding out our ancestry we might discover we're related to someone important. We search it an without finding a noble of any sort we realize how humble our family line has been. We go back as far as we can and are amazed at the paths taken the branches of the huge tree that have gone off on their merry way never to be thought of as family again. Born in 1400, this one married that one and had five children, your path lies in the last of those five children and yet you have relation to the other four by blood ties. On down to 2000, six hundred years later and you realize that you have so many relatives it's almost easier to think that maybe a few aren't related to you in some way, rather than there are a few who are. Why all this bother about ancestry? Well, in the beginning...

There is a beginning and an end of so many things in our lives that realizing how miniscule our life is in the grand scheme can be a bit troublesome. Here we are, God's grandest of creations and the heaven and the earth have outlasted so many of us. It wasn't supposed to be this way, we weren't suppose to have an end.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God, the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness and darkness comprehended it not. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

The Spirit moved upon the face of the waters.
The Spirit moved within Mary's womb.
The Spirit brought into being that which God desired to create.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were together in Creation.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were together in Salvation.

When the Spirit moved within Mary's womb and brought to life the human that would be Jesus, Son of God, given to that babe was grace and truth. Grace to save, truth to bear witness to all that is holy and good, bearing witness to God, to love. Truth along with Grace was brought to us. We weren't given just grace. Jesus wasn't full of just grace and that was the end of it. He didn't come to just dole out grace to people, that would leave them floundering.

Like taking a drug addict out of his drug environment and getting him all cleaned up then sticking him back into the same environment without once telling him about how he could defeat the drugs in the environment. Without empowering the drug addict with the knowledge necessary to keep from the drugs there is little point in cleaning him all up.

Jesus who is so much greater than we are knew that with grace had to come truth. With grace there has to be more if those who seek His grace and find it are left without truth to follow they have nothing to keep them from their past life lived without grace. There is nothing to stop them from living a life in sin. Jesus said on more than one occasion-- 'Go and sin no more.'

That's where the truth comes into play so fully. The forgiveness is given to us by grace, we cannot do a single thing to earn it we can only accept it into our hearts. To go and sin no more we need truth with that grace. The truth is brought by Jesus as well and that truth is His life, His total devotion to his Father, to loving His Father and loving His neighbor. This is the truth.

It sounds too easy, too simple, and yet Jesus told more than one person that they were close to heaven by believing the truth, by believing the commandments of God to be loving God and loving your fellow man, all the other laws rested upon those. Too simple and yet the truth. The Pharisees did a bang up job of complicating things so fully that people were left without hope and only put on shows of godliness. Satan complicates things in any way he can, back then and now. As long as confusion is in play then people aren't holding to the simple truth, they're mucking things up with complications. We need Jesus sent to us full of grace and truth. We can't forget that ever. Grace and truth, Jesus.

May the Lord help us as we seek His Grace always and hold fast to His truth forever.

Amen.