Jesus Is Grace Series

Text: John 1:1-14

Theme: Jesus is grace

GREETINGS

Illustration: A Christian Horse Rider given the commandments. If he says: Praise the Lord – Horse should go. Then when he says: Amen – it should Stop. Riding on the hilltop, he reached the peak, and next was the deep valley, and he forgot the stop word. Suddenly he remembered and said Amen. He said: By God’s grace, and I am escaped. So, praise the Lord.

Introduction:

Today, I would like to share with you about grace, and always being available to all of us for our salvation experience. We often refer and remember in our day to day experiences. Apostle Peter in his epistle says that (1 Peter 5:10 ) God is the God of all grace. God relates to us through grace applying different modes according to apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 9:8).

Grace is defined as the unmerited gift from God based on His unconditional love. Grace is God’s gift to us that is continually transforming us into the fullness of His image(Hebrews 4:16). The word grace is found 124 times in the bible. 10 in Old Testament, and 114 in New Testament. Paul uses for Eighty times in his letters.

I would like to leave with you three types of grace:

Dwelling Grâce,

Developing grace

Departing grace

1. DWELLING GRACE

The Prevenient grace or dwelling grace. God works in and around our lives before we even have awareness of Him moving on our behalf. The term prevenient comes from a Latin word that meant ”to come before, to anticipate.” There is the necessity of God’s grace before a sinner’s conversion is prevented grace. Prevenient grace is the grace of God given to individuals that releases them from their bondage to sin and enables them to come to Christ in faith but does not guarantee that the sinner will do so. Thus, the efficacy of the enabling grace of God is determined not by God but by man.

Wesleyans believe that through the advent and atoning work of Christ, God has dispensed a universal prevenient grace that fully negates the depravity of man. Thus, man is now in a neutral state. Christ promises that “all men” are being drawn to him through the cross - John 12:32, and the “world” being convicted John 16:8 through His sacrifice. So, the prevenient grace we experience today was purchased by Christ on the cross. Wesley believed in unlimited atonement because Christ died for “all things” Romans 8:32.

Through Christ we have grace. The word became flesh is John’s most startling statement so far. It would have amazed both thinkers in both the Jewish and the Greek world to hear that the Word became flesh. And tabernacled among us: “the human nature which he took of the virgin, being as the shrine, house, or temple, in which his immaculate Deity condescended to dwell. The word is probably an allusion to the Divine Shechinah in the Jewish temple” (Clarke).

“Notice here that both these qualities in our Lord are at the full. He is ‘full of grace.’ Who could be more so? In the person of Jesus Christ the immeasurable grace of God is treasured up.” (Spurgeon). “These two ideas should hold our minds and direct our lives. God is grace and truth. Not one without the other. Not the other apart from the one. In His government, there can be no lowering of the simple and severe standard of Truth, and there is no departure from the purpose and passion of Grace.” (Morgan).

John wants to affirm that Jesus was truly fully physically human. John introduced Jesus to counter all fall spiritual beliefs and that idea that Jesus was an only mirage or an allusion. Jesus is True Christ, and he was a 100 per cent authentic human being this word explicitly used the word became flesh living among human beings is to mean Jesus was not a hologram or ghost disguised as a person.

He was a real living breathing person according to Hebrews 4:15 the Greek word used here is Skenoo, which suggest the tabernacle of the Old Testament the tabernacle was a temporary structure symbolic of gods dwelling with his people while at the same time a little physical place or space. But, today Jesus is among us in human form much as God was among his people in the tabernacle that for John 3:16, Hebrew 4:15, and John 1:18.

The apostle John described the stepping out, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14 NIV). This verse is the climax of John's prologue as John completes his introduction of Jesus by proclaiming his humanity amid his divinity. This verse contains the truth behind the story of the angels and shepherds and the Wise Men and the journey to Bethlehem that first Christmas morning. Without this verse, the rest of the story has no meaning.