Law and Grace
John 1:16 "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace". The word "fulness" is still another term in this important passage which brings out the absolute Deity of the Savior. It is the same word which is found in Colossians 1:19 and 2:9—"For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; . . . For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." The Greek preposition "ek" signifies "out of." Out of the Divine fulness have all we (believers) "received." What is it we have "received" from Christ? Ah, what is it we have not "received!" It is out of His inexhaustible "fulness" we have "received." From Him we have "received" life (see John 10:28); peace (John 14:27); joy (John 15:11); God’s own Word (John 17:14); the Holy Spirit (John 20:22). There is laid up in Christ, as in a great storehouse, all that the believer needs both for time and for eternity.
"And grace for grace." the Greek preposition here may be translated two different ways, and suggests the following thoughts.
First, we have received "grace upon grace," that is, God’s favors heaped up, one upon another.
Second, "grace for grace," that is, new grace to supply old grace; grace sufficient to meet every recurring need.
"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).
A contrast is drawn between what was "given" by Moses, and what "came" by Jesus Christ; for "grace and truth" were not merely "given," they "came by Jesus Christ," came in all their fulness, came in their glorious perfections. The Law was "given" to Moses, for it was not his own; but "grace and truth" were not "given" to Christ, for these were His own essential perfections. On looking into this contrast we must bear in mind that the great point here is the manifestation of God: God as He was manifested through the Law, and God as He was made known by the Only Begotten Son.
Was not the Law "truth?" Yes, so far as it went. It announced what God righteously demanded of men, and therefore, what men ought to be according to God’s mind. It has often been said, the Law is a transcript of God’s mind. But how inadequate such a statement is! Did the Law reveal what God is? Did it display all His attributes? If it did, there would be nothing more to learn of God than what the Law made known.
Did the Law tell out the grace of God? No; indeed. The Law was holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good. It demanded obedience; it required the strictest doing and continuance of all things written in it. And the only alternative was death. Inflexible in its claims, it remitted no part of its penalty. He that despised it "died without mercy," and, "every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward" (Heb. 10:28; see Hebrews 2:2). Such a Law could never justify a sinner. For this it was never given.
The inevitable effect of the Law when received by the unsaved is just that which was produced at Sinai, to whom it first came: "And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die" (Ex. 20:19). "Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die" (Deut. 5:25). Why such terror? Because "they could not endure that which was commanded" (Heb. 12:20). This terror was the testimony which the Law extorts from every sinner, to whom it is brought home as God’s Law; it is "the ministration of condemnation, and of death" (2 Cor. 3:7, 9). It has a "glory," indeed, but it is the glory of thunder and lightning, of fire, of blackness, and of darkness, and the sound of the trumpet, and of the voice of words, which only bring terror to the guilty conscience. But, blessed be God, there is "a glory that excelleth" (2 Cor. 3:10).
"Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." The "glory that excelleth" is the glory of "the word that became flesh, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth." The Law revealed God’s justice, but it did not make known His mercy; it testified to His righteousness, but it did not exhibit His grace. It was God’s "truth," but not the full truth about God Himself. "By the law is the knowledge of sin;" we never read "by the law is the knowledge of God." No; the "law entered that the offense might abound," "sin by the commandment became exceeding sinful." It made known the heinousness of sin; it condemned the sinner, but it did not fully reveal God. It exhibited His righteous hatred of sin and His holy determination to punish it: it exposed the guilt and corruption of the sinner, but for ought it could tell him, it left him to his doom. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:3, 4).
"Grace and truth." These are fitly and inseparably joined together. We cannot have the one without having the other. There are many who do not like salvation by grace, and there are those who would tolerate grace if they could have it without the truth. The Nazarenes could "wonder" at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth, but as soon as Christ pressed the truth upon them, they "were filled with wrath," and sought to "cast him down headlong from the brow of the hill whereon their city was built" (Luke 4:29). Such, too, was the condition of those who sought Him for "the meat that perisheth." They were willing to profit from His grace, but when He told them the truth some "murmured" at Him, others were "offended," and "many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him" (John 6:66). And in our own day, there are many who admire the grace which came by Jesus Christ, and would consent to be saved by it, provided this could be without the intrusion of the truth. But this cannot be. Those who reject the truth, reject grace.
There is, in Romans 5:21, another sentence which is closely parallel, and really, an amplification of these words "grace and truth"—"Grace reigns through righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." The grace which saves sinners is no mere moral weakness such as is often to be found in human government. Nor is "the righteousness of God," through which grace reigns, some mere semblance of justice. No; on the Cross Christ was "set forth a proptiation (a perfect satisfaction to the broken Law) through faith in his blood, to declare his (God’s) righteousness for the remission of sins" (Rom. 3:25). Grace does not ignore the Law, or set aside its requirements; nay verily, "it establishes the law" (Rom. 3:31): establishes it because inseparably linked with "truth;" establishes it because it reigns "through righteousness," not at the expense of it; establishes it because grace tells of a Substitute who kept the Law for and endured the death penalty on behalf of all who receive Him as their Lord and Savior; and establishes it by bringing the redeemed to "delight" in the Law.
But was there no "grace and truth" before Jesus Christ came? Assuredly there was. God dealt according to "grace and truth" with our first parents immediately after their transgression—it was grace that sought them, and provided them with a covering; as it was truth that pronounced sentence upon them, and expelled them from the garden. God dealt according to "grace and truth" with Israel on the passover night in Egypt: it was grace that provided shelter for them beneath the blood; it was truth that righteously demanded the death of an innocent substitute in their stead. But "grace and truth" were never fully revealed till the Savior Himself appeared. By Him they "came:" in Him they were personified, magnified, glorified.
And now let us notice a few contrasts between Law and Grace:
1. Law addresses men as members of the old creation; Grace makes men members of a new creation.
2. Law manifested what was in Man-sin; Grace manifests what is in God-Love.
3. Law demanded righteousness from men; Grace brings righteousness to men.
4. Law sentences a living man to death; Grace brings a dead man to life.
5. Law speaks of what men must do for God; Grace tells of what Christ has done for men.
6. Law gives a knowledge of sin; Grace puts away sin.
7. Law brought God out to men; Grace brings men in to God.
