Context No. 2584 of 4322 · John
Context · Reflection
John 1:14-18: in context
14The Word became flesh and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the only born Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. 15John testified about him. He cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.’” 16From his fullness we all received grace upon grace. 17For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. 18No one has seen God at any time. The only born Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him.
John's prologue reaches its center: the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. He did not stay a distant idea or an unreachable God; he took on flesh and pitched his tent among us. And from his fullness, John says, we have all received grace upon grace. The law came through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Two things are held out here. First, nearness: the Word became flesh and lived among us. The God no one has ever seen came close enough to touch, and made the Father known. Second, abundance: from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace, one grace layered on another, an unending supply. This is not a God who came near reluctantly and doles out mercy by the teaspoon. He moved into the neighborhood, and out of his fullness the grace keeps coming, wave on wave. To hold God at a distance, or to imagine his grace as scarce, is to miss what the incarnation actually announces.
Do I live in the reality that God came near in the flesh and keeps pouring out grace upon grace, or do I hold him at a distance and ration his mercy in my imagination?