The Fullness of God in Christ
In the first chapter of John, the apostle begins, not as the other gospels, in earthly time, but rather, he goes farther back than creation and tells us how things were before time as we know it began. The first two verses tell us that in this eternity before the creation, there was the Word, and there was God, and while they are in complete communion with each other, they are also seen as distinct entities.
In the next verses, they create - both part of the process. Both again in complete union and harmony. The pre-existent Word and God bring all things into existence. John discusses how the Word becomes the light of man, and says that John the baptizer announced the light coming into the world. The world did not recognize its Creator; in fact, the world had never recognized its Creator. The prophets had warned, God had made Himself known, the law was meant to be a light, a lamp, a pathway, and yet, the majority of mankind had become so entrenched in the world that they were blinded. There were some who believed, and because of their trust in Him, they were given the status of the children of God, not through birth or ancestry, not through some will of the flesh, not even by some act of faith, but by the spirit of God creating in them, yet again, something new.
And so the Word became flesh. In verse 14, we are told how men were allowed to become sons of God - it is because the Son of God became man.
John 1:14 reads, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
In this verse, Jesus’s life on earth reveals the fullness of God through the attributes of the heart, grace, and the content of the law, truth.
As a New Testament Christian in the modern world, how can I reconcile the ideas of judgment and love? I’m sure you’ve had the same question asked of you. It’s a frequent question in Bible studies or just in discussions that involve spiritual matters. So many denominations take the stance that the love and grace and mercy of God is inconsistent with ideas of having laws and completely contrary to the idea of a judgment. And churches of Christ become targets for this line of thought. We’re called legalist - more concerned with the law than with matters of the heart. More concerned about the organization and order of worship than with love.
Admittedly, there is a danger of that. We can get so focused on outward behaviors that, like the Pharisees, we miss the “weightier matters of the law” (Matt 23:23). However, these two ideas of grace and truth are not ideas at war with each other; if anything, what we see in John 1:14 is that both are brought into harmony in the fullness of Christ. Our hearts matter, but so does the truth.
God’s law was always about the heart. We don’t have to read far into the Bible to see that the sacrificial system demanded that the heart of the believer was involved.
In Genesis 4, we see Cain and Abel both offer sacrifices. One was accepted; the other was not. We often presume that Cain’s sacrifice was rejected because it wasn’t a blood sacrifice, which would be prescribed later by the law, but we don’t know that. What we do know is what we are told in Hebrews 11:4 - Abel’s sacrifice was “more excellent” because his faith was at its root. Cain’s sacrifice, apparently, was not rightly offered, and therefore, God rejected it.
It has always been the expectation of God’s people that they would come to Him in humility and submission, with love for Him in their hearts, and accept His truth in faith believing that He knew how to reform them.
You know, that’s God’s goal for us. He didn’t save us to leave us where we are. What would be the point of redeeming us just to leave us in the world, doing as we please and looking like those around us?
His purpose is to transform us. That’s what Paul is talking about in Romans 12:2. We shouldn’t be conformed to this world, but rather, God is going to transform us into something new. Romans 8:29 tells us that it was God’s predetermined will that those who believe would be conformed to the image of the Son, who is full of grace and truth. Therefore, those who are conformed will be those who make every effort to combine the elements of grace and truth, the heart and the law, which exist within Christ Himself.
Our topic this year has been God’s wisdom, and in Christ we see His wisdom revealed.
The truth is always gracious, and graciousness is always manifested according to the truth. God’s will is to have a relationship with each individual believer first. It’s what He wanted with the nation of Israel. If we read Isaiah 1, we see that God longs for His children to love Him, and our trust in Him and our sacrifices should be outgrowths of our love and gratitude. The nation had been making sacrifices, but they were profane before God because they weren’t from the heart - they weren’t out of love but only from a compulsion to keep the law. God tells them that He’s weary of sacrifices that aren’t made out of love, which Paul tells the Romans in chapter 12 is the only reasonable source of sacrifice when we understand God’s gift of grace.
But, if we look at Nadab and Abihu, we quite clearly see that God is concerned with the way we worship as well. Nadab and Abihu offer “strange fire” in Leviticus 10. They have gone outside of the commandments that God has put in place for His worship, and the punishment is immediate and final when fire comes forth from the altar and consumes them. Even though they are the sons of Aaron and newly installed priests. It wasn’t what God wanted.
If we believe that God’s will is for us to transform and to bear fruit in our lives, then we will follow His laws which are put in place to bring about that fruitful transformation. His wisdom may not always make sense to me, but I believe He wants the best for me, I believe that He is watching my path, and ultimately, I believe that it is His job and not mine to determine what will be seen as acceptable; in fact, God has already determined and made His will clear. My job is to make sure that my sacrifice meets His requirements.
In Micah 6, when the Israelites complain that they just can’t seem to make God happy with their sacrifices, they question what more they can do. They use extreme examples, saying they could offer ten thousand rivers of oil or their first born children if that’s what it would take. What’s it going to take to get out of the fix we’re in? The idea that they can buy their way out of God’s judgment is shocking.
Except, we do the same thing. We seem to think that the excuses we create in our heads are going to hold water with God at judgment. I’m afraid we think that we’ll be able to bargain or explain or exploit God’s mercy when we stand before Him.
In Micah 6 verse 8, the prophet tells Israel that God has already told them what is good - they have the truth, and so do we! In a statement that beautifully paraphrases those commandments that Jesus cited as being the greatest, Micah says that anyone who would come to God with sacrifice must also “do justice, [love] mercy, and [walk] humbly with your God.”
“Love your neighbor as yourself” - deal with others with justice and mercy, and “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all of your soul and with all of your might” - walk with God in humility and submission (Mark 12:30-31).
If that’s our attitude…if we love God with all of our hearts, then we will love others, and we will care what God has told us to do. His truth will be the foundation for the way we serve and live our lives. And His wisdom will live within us, and we will transform, and bear fruit, and our sacrifices will be made humbly, from a heart of faith and trust - both co-existenting ideas fully manifested within Jesus our Savior. And then, and only then, will our sacrifices be acceptable to God.