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Scripture Reading: John 1:14, 17-18; 14:20-23; 1 John 1:5-7; 4:16; 2:23-24
In this chapter we will fellowship concerning grace and reality in the Gospel of John. Verse 14 in chapter 1 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace and reality.” This verse shows that there is grace and reality because the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. When the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, He was full of grace and reality.
When the Word became flesh, God was mingled with man so that God could live in man and express Himself through man’s human life and nature. In the flesh of the Lord Jesus, God became man’s inward life and outward living. He became the inward content and outward expression of a man of flesh. He became flesh in order to raise up a tabernacle for Himself as His dwelling place among men. The Word became flesh so that God could be mingled with man and become everything to man. The Word tabernacled among men so that a dwelling place for God could be built. Both His mingling and His building depend upon grace and reality. If we want to receive grace and touch reality, we must be mingled with the explained God so that God becomes our inward life and outward living. Not only so, we must allow Him to do His work of tabernacling, His work of building, in us. If we take this way, we will experience Him as the One who is full of grace and reality. In order to receive grace and touch reality, we must allow God to do this work in us and on us.
Grace is a very common term among Christians today. Many people thank the Lord for grace and praise Him for grace. Similarly, the term reality is also rather common. Every Christian wants to receive grace and touch reality. However, these terms in the Bible are special; they are not ordinary concepts based on our natural understanding. When most Christians consider the matter of grace, they think of something freely given and freely received. For example, out of love someone may buy us a very expensive watch as a gift. Since we have not paid for it, we regard this as grace. We cannot say that this is a wrong concept; however, it is ordinary. Many speak of grace in regard to a wide range of material things. For example, a person who has a stomachache may pray for relief, and when his pain stops, he speaks of receiving grace. Similarly, a person who is unemployed may pray for a job, and when the Lord arranges a job with good pay for him, he speaks of receiving grace. Another person who does not have a place to live may pray for a house, and when he finds an affordable and good house, he speaks of receiving grace. Sometimes, we even thank God for His grace when we were able to catch a bus.
Other people speak of grace in regard to spiritual matters, speaking of grace in relation to the forgiveness of our sins, which is based on the death of Christ on the cross rather than the works of law (Gal. 2:16). I cannot say that this is wrong. However, according to the context of John 1:14, grace does not refer to healing, good jobs, or affordable housing. Strictly speaking, it does not even refer to the redemptive grace by which we are justified freely before God. We surely believe that the Lord Jesus shed His blood on our behalf and that we are justified freely because of His redemption, but this is not the grace that is spoken of in verse 14.
Verses 17 and 18 say, “The law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” These verses tell us that grace and reality are nothing less than God Himself. Verse 17 speaks of the law and of grace and reality in a way of contrast. The law was given through Moses, whereas grace and reality came through Jesus Christ. Thus, the law is in contrast to grace and reality. According to verse 17, “grace and reality came through Jesus Christ,” and according to verse 18, “no one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” The sequence in verses 17 and 18 shows that God in verse 18 is related to the grace and reality that came through Jesus Christ in verse 17. Grace and reality came through Jesus Christ, and only Jesus Christ declared God; hence, the declared God is the grace and reality that came through Jesus Christ.
Verse 14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace and reality.” To have grace is to have God, and to have reality is also to have God. However, verse 14 does not say “full of God” but “full of grace and reality,” because God is not simple. He is grace as well as reality.
First John does not mention grace or emphasize reality; it stresses that God is light and love (1:5; 4:16). In the Gospel of John God is grace and reality; in 1 John God is love and light. John wrote both books. In the Gospel, John says that God came forth, that God became flesh and brought grace and reality to us. In his first Epistle John says that we have received and obtained God as eternal life and that we touch God as love and light in our fellowship with God. When God comes to us, He is grace and reality; when we touch God, He is love and light.
Love and grace are two aspects of the same thing. Love is the source of grace, and grace is the flowing out of love. Love is hidden in God’s heart, and grace is the flowing out, the expression, of God’s love. God is love, and God in His coming forth is grace. God comes forth from unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16) and brings Himself to us so that we may receive Him as grace. After we receive Him and enjoy Him, we realize that He is love. God is grace to us because He is love. Since God is love, He gives Himself freely to us; this is grace.
Grace is God obtained by us. We obtain grace only when we obtain God Himself. We should regard the things that God has given to us on earth as provisions of His care, but not as the grace that is spoken of in John 1. In the Old Testament Solomon says, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity” (Eccl. 1:2), and in the New Testament Paul says that he counted all things as refuse (Phil. 3:8). Solomon was a wise man who said that all is vanity; Paul was a man with revelation who said that he counted all things as refuse. God would be cheating us if grace were something that Solomon in his wisdom considered to be vanity or something that Paul in his revelation considered to be refuse. God will never give things to us as grace.
It is pitiful that Christians pay attention to the vain things on earth. When we give thanks to God, it is often merely because we have obtained some temporary earthly benefits. If Solomon heard our words of thanksgiving, he would laugh because what we consider as grace, he considered to be vanity of vanities. Paul would be puzzled because what we consider as grace, he considered to be refuse. Solomon says that such things are vanity of vanities, but we say that they are grace, and Paul says that such things are refuse, but we say that they are grace. This is pitiful.
A couple who have been married for many years may not have any children, but if, after believing in the Lord, a son is born to them, they will feel that his birth is a matter of grace, surpassing what they could ask or think. Consequently, they will constantly testify, “Jesus, in whom we have believed, is the true God. When we worshipped idols, we had no children, but when we believed in the Lord, our son was born. Our Lord is truly effective and full of grace.” This may sound like a joke, but this is the concept of many Christians today.
I once met a couple who studied abroad. They heard the gospel but rejected it. One day their beloved child fell off a bridge and drowned. They were greatly grieved and saddened, and they could not stay in their home with all their memories. Consequently, they moved to northern China. Eventually, they were touched by the testimony of a brother in the church there and believed in the Lord. Though their child was lost, they obtained God; this truly is grace. God has given Himself to us, and when we obtain God, we obtain grace. Only God is the hope in the universe, and only God is the treasure of peerless worth. We obtain grace only when we obtain God.
When we fellowship with God and draw near to Him, the sweeter, more intimate, and deeper is our sense of grace. When we obtain God as grace, we also have an indescribable sense of God’s love. When God comes forth to be received by us, He is grace; and when we fellowship with God and enjoy Him, we sense that He is love. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God also abides in him (1 John 4:16). This love is God Himself. How sweet and how glorious this is!
The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace. This refers to God Himself being obtained by us. When we obtain grace and we fellowship and draw near to Him by this grace, we enjoy love. We are in God, and we are also in love, because God is love.
The Lord Jesus, God incarnate, is also full of reality. The word reality can also be translated as “truth” or “genuineness.” In the universe only God is genuine; everything else is fake. Furthermore, only God is real; everything else is vanity. A parent may love his child very much and may treat his child as a treasure. However, if his child dies, his treasure will be gone and no longer real. If a child grows up without any incident but devotes all his heart and time to his career and family, this will also be a situation of vanity. This is the case with matters involving living persons, and it is even more the case with lifeless, material things. Heaven and earth will pass away, not to mention the few possessions that we may have. In the universe only God is eternal, and hence, only God is real. When we obtain God, we obtain grace, and when we touch God, we touch reality, genuineness. In other words, when we obtain God, we obtain grace; when we touch God, we touch reality.
On one end, grace is the flowing out of love, and on the other end, love is the source of grace. When God comes forth to be obtained by us, He is grace, and when we touch God to enjoy Him, we experience Him as love. Reality and light are in the same principle. When God comes forth for us to touch, He is truth, reality. When we fellowship with God and touch God in reality, we experience Him as light. Light expressed is reality. When we touch reality, we touch something genuine and real. Then when we fellowship with God and touch God in reality, we feel that we are in the light. When we obtain grace and enjoy God, we experience love; when we contact God as reality, we touch light. When God comes to us, we obtain Him as grace and touch Him as reality. As grace and in reality, we enjoy God as love and touch Him as light. “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace and reality” (John 1:14). This verse shows that through the Word we can receive God as grace and touch God as reality.
There is a contrast in John 1:17, which says, “The law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” The letter, which is empty of life, was given through Moses; however, grace and reality, which are God Himself, came through Jesus Christ, through the Word who became flesh and tabernacled among us. Moses brought the law, whereas Jesus Christ brought God to us. We receive the letter of the law from Moses, but we receive God as grace and reality through Jesus Christ.
Grace comes before reality in the Gospel of John because John speaks of God coming to be obtained by us. Without grace we have no reality. Hence, first there is grace, and then there is reality. We must first receive Him before we can touch Him. In 1 John, however, light comes before love. When we return to God, we have light and then love. When He comes to us, He is grace and reality, but when we fellowship with Him, we have light and then love. As soon as we are in His presence, we touch light. In our fellowship there is no shadow or barrier; everything is completely transparent. In this condition we enjoy Him as love, and He becomes our sweet and full enjoyment.
The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us so that we may enjoy God fully, obtaining Him as grace and touching Him as reality. Then we touch God as light and enjoy Him as love. This is the Word becoming flesh and tabernacling among us practically. When we obtain God and enjoy God, we are filled with God Himself.
