Friday 29th December
Read John 1:15-18
“(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” (NIVUK)
It is tempting to see John drawing a contrast here between grace and truth in Jesus and the law given by Moses. Yet we have just read that we have ‘all received grace in place of grace already given’ (v16). So, in some way the grace revealed in the law is different to the grace revealed in Jesus. More substantial perhaps?
Paul seems to have captured the essence of this verse well when writing to believers in Colossae in Turkey. He writes concerning their temptation to return to the law of Moses or add it to the gospel in some way to make the gospel better. He describes the law as ‘a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.’ (Colossians 2:17) (NIVUK). They are not so much superseded by Jesus as filled out by Him. He is the fullness to which they point. But without Him they are inadequate and insubstantial.
We can therefore read the law profitably only when read through glasses placed on our eyes by Jesus. His shadow is found in the law and even there, in His shadow, there is shade and grace and balm.
