The Law was Given: Grace and Truth Came

“‘For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ’ (John 1:17). The law was given; grace and truth came. The law was impersonal, pealed out from Mount Sinai amid scenes of terrifying grandeur, engraved on cold tablets of stone, mediated by angels, given to Moses. Grace and truth were wrapped up in warm, vibrant human flesh and brought into this world by Jesus (the man) Christ (the messiah). ‘He went about doing good’ was Peter's summary--as grand a statement as any to emphasize our Lord's grace. ‘Never man spake like this man’ said those sent once to arrest him--as great a statement as any to emphasize our Lord's truth. Not grace at the expense of truth, not truth at the expense of grace, but grace and truth in perfect proportion--demonstrated in the character, conduct, and conversation of the most balanced person who ever lived on earth. Out of hundreds of possible illustrations John selects a few and weaves his gospel around them: the night with Nicodemus, for example; the conversation with the woman at the well; his dealings with the woman taken in adultery and with her accusers. Thus, the law of Moses contained truth--sharp, demanding, penetrating--embodied in the Decalogue, expanded into some 613 edicts of the law. The law of Moses embodied grace. Human failure to keep the moral law necessitated the giving of the ceremonial law so that guilt could be covered until it could be cancelled at Calvary. But it was not until Jesus came that the truth and grace inherent in the law could be fully implemented in a peerless human life and thus be translated into a language all can understand.”

(John Phillip’s commentary on the Gospel of John)

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