Grace Upon Grace

GETTING STARTED

The first year of marriage can be a very difficult one. The toothpaste gets squeezed the wrong way, the toilet paper gets put on backwards, and the dishwasher gets loaded inefficiently. The cute idiosyncrasies that drew you to your spouse somehow morph into bothersome habits. Why does this phenomenon occur? Because living with someone close-up, day-in and day-out is very different from just seeing them a few hours at a time. It changes things. In today’s passage, John explains how a new living arrangement changes everything. And if we really appreciate this new living arrangement, it is we who will be changed.

  •  How does proximity change relationships?

READ THE WORD: JOHN 1:14-18 (ESV) 

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

DIGGING DEEPER

  1. The word “dwelt” in verse 14 is very important. In Greek, it is the word for set up a tent. What does it imply that Jesus, the only son of God, “set up his tent among us”?
  2. What does John the Baptist’s testimony in verse 15 show about his understanding of Jesus as both God and man?
  3. What do we receive as a result of Jesus being fully God and fully man?
  4. In verse 18, the pronoun “he” refers to Jesus and the pronoun “him” refers to God. Read the verse again replacing the pronouns for their proper names. In light of this, why is it so important to study the life and teachings of Jesus?

RESPOND TO GOD

These five verses are packed with truth, but the first verse of the passage should amaze and challenge and encourage us. Jesus “set up his tent among us” by becoming flesh and living on the earth. God had graciously given the Law of Moses to the Jews to point them to himself, and now in the person of Jesus, he wasn’t just pointing the world to himself, he was giving the world himself. Jesus was the Word made flesh; he has made God known. That’s how much God wants for you to know him. The creator became a creature so that we could experience his glory. No one has ever seen God, but because Jesus dwelt among us we can know God—a God who loved us so much he sent his son, heaping grace upon grace.

  • Thank God that he sent Jesus so that we could experience grace and truth.
  • Commit to studying the life of Jesus so that you can better know God.