Grace and truth were realized through Jesus. John 1:15-18.

 “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:4-5 NASB)

Some need to know information.

As I pointed out in a previous post, when you begin reading the gospel of John, you need to keep it straight in your mind who the passage is referring to. In verse four above, John is speaking about Jesus, but we only know that because of the definitions John gives us. In verse 15 below, John, the baptizer, tells people about Him. The Him, in this instance, is Jesus.

If you were to watch the series “The Chosen,” you would notice that it takes liberties with what we understand about Jesus; they have to as they merge several months of Jesus’ three-year ministry into a show that lasts a little over an hour each week.

When Mary came to Elizabeth, John the Baptizer was a four-month-old fetus, and he leaped in her womb. We were told that John received the Holy Spirit at this point, but there is nothing to substantiate that assertion.

"When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! "And how has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me? "For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy."
(Luke 1:41-44 NASB)

So John is only a few months older than his step-cousin Jesus, and yet John eventually makes this extraordinary declaration about Jesus.

“John told people about him. He said loudly, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘The one who is coming after me is greater than I am because he was living before I was even born.’”
(John 1:15 ERV)

The NASB used the word “testified” to indicate how John spoke to those who came to hear him. Testify is the Greek word marturéō, meaning to bear witness to the truth of what one has seen, heard, or knows. The series “The Chosen” portrayed John as being rather direct and outspoken. For someone of this character to be loud would not surprise me.

“But when he (John the Baptist) saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
(Matthew 3:7 NASB)

If these religious rulers were coming to John, submitting to the baptism that he was performing, then they apparently did not see him as a joke or some animated but entertaining radical.

Doesn't it make you wonder what this baptism represented to them?

It should be because Jesus submitted to John's baptism, and the oddity of Jesus indicating that he was fulfilling the law. In all my years of warming a seat in church, I never heard of or saw baptisms in the Old Testament.

“Then Jesus *arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" But Jesus answering said to him, "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he *permitted Him.”
(Matthew 3:13-15 NASB)

So, what was Jesus talking about?

It might be best to back up to an explanation of why John was baptizing.

“John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized--for John had not yet been thrown into prison. Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purification.” (John 3:23-25 NASB)

The passage tells us that John was baptizing. This is the Greek word baptizo and means to immerse, submerge, or saturate. The first two options tend to indicate that there was a complete submersion. The general idea was that submersion was a rite of purification, a cleansing of the heart from sin. A huge clue comes from John 3:25, where John's disciples were having a "discussion" with a Jew about purification. Why would Luke bring this up, adding this conversation into the context, unless it carries some weight in the discussion?

Purification is the Greek word katharismós, and "it actually refers to the process of purification, the sacrifice of purification." (WSD)

Interesting how our life in Christ is based upon faith in Jesus Christ alone. Everything beyond that could potentially fall into the category of works. If I were to try to understand the statement “the process of purification,” I might do well to perceive this as part of the sanctification process. I am always reminded of the thief on the cross. He was afforded no water immersion, nor did he go through some over-embellished sanctification class, and yet what did Jesus reply to the man? This day you will be with me in paradise. Jesus, in those moments, sanctified the man because of the depth of his conversation, which most of us miss.

With the knowledge that Jesus was sinless (He was NOT born of tainted human blood, this is why God had to make a fertilized egg and have a virgin girl carry that egg as a surrogate.) There should have been no reason for Jesus to cleanse himself; He had no sin. (Scripture tells us this;) But, we can see that few understood or believed that He was God, God's son, so He had to in order to quell the voices of tradition.

Baptism would have to have been pulled from the Torah and, therefore, might be a reference to Ezekiel 36:25. I include verses 24 and 26 as they create a time frame and a context, which I think applies to the Spirit of God.

“For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
(Ezekiel 36:24-26 NASB)

Leviticus gives us several references, but they all pertain to blood, and it is a broad-spectrum cleansing. One in particular, Leviticus 14:5-7, conveys that they were to sprinkle the blood on the “one who is to be cleansed from the leprosy and shall pronounce him clean.” I would not say that this represents why Jesus came to John.

The book of Numbers might provide the reasons Jesus got baptized.

“Take the Levites from among the sons of Israel and cleanse them. "Thus you shall do to them, for their cleansing: sprinkle purifying water on them, and let them use a razor over their whole body and wash their clothes, and they will be clean.”
(Numbers 8:6-7 NASB)

In church, we rarely hear that Jesus was of the lineage of Levi, but Luke's gospel traces Jesus backward and, therefore, shows Him to be a descendant of Levi, one of Aaron's relatives.

“When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph,”
(Luke 3:23-24 NASB)

The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is our high priest. A few examples of this priesthood.

Hebrews 2:17 "Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people."

Hebrews 3:1 "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession;."

Hebrews 4:14,15 "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15)For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin."

Hebrews 5:10 "...being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek."

Numbers 19:13 tells us that anyone who touches a corpse.

“... and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him.”

So far, I do not see a direct relationship between water baptism and a release from sin, but let's try one more.

“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
(Psalms 51:2-7 NASB)

Psalms 51:2-7, written by David, helps to make that connection, so it may have been an Old Testament understanding that immersion with water is part of the cleansing of sins. Again, Jesus had NO sin, but the humans He had to deal with did not know that.

A few more verses that pertain to cleansing by water. Leviticus 11:32; Leviticus 12:7-8; Leviticus 13:6.

Moving on with our study of John's gospel.

John 1:16 GNB)  “Out of the fullness of his grace he has blessed us all, giving us one blessing after another.”

The NASB reads: “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” This makes no sense to me.

Pastor John MacArthur says that John 1:16 “...emphasizes the superabundance of grace that has been displayed by God toward mankind...”

“For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.” John 1:17 NASB 

• Consider the phrase, “grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”

History tells us that John wrote this gospel between 80 and 90 A.D. That would mean that John’s memories were only 50 to 60 years old. Compare this with “the writings of Plato” (born 428, died 347 BCE) that were written over a thousand years after his death. 

• “The ‘Clarke Plato’, the oldest manuscript (discounting papyrus fragments) for about half the dialogues of Plato, was written by John the Calligrapher in 895 CE for Arethas the deacon, originally a native of Patras, who later became archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia.” https://www.worldhistory.org/image/10818/dialouges-of-plato/

Realized is the Greek word ginomai. The King James concordance indicates 456 occurrences of ginomai; 88 were translated as came, and 63 were translated as done.

Would applying the word came to John 1:17, where it says realized, make sense?

Let’s see. “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” It works, especially if you consider all that Jesus did for you. The cross stands out as monumental when you think about Jesus. The word done is not as effective.

If I look up the word ginomai in the Word Study Dictionary, there is an extensive listing. 

• To come into existence;

• to be created, to be born,

• produced, grow, to arise, come on,

• occur, as the phenomena of nature,

• to be appointed, constituted, established,

• to come to oneself, to recover from a trance or surprise.

The first entry in this list stands out to me, not because there was no grace in the Old Testament, but because it certainly wasn’t as notable. Paul’s writings on grace were the game changer, but you have to remember that Paul only had the Old Testament – and that was by what he retained in the synagogue and a direct revelation from Jesus that came to him on the road to Damascus or the years that he spent at the base of Mount Sinai.

“grace and truth came into existence through Jesus Christ.”

I could take this literally and say there was NO grace until the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Let's finish this dive into John's gospel with verse 18.

“No one has ever seen God; but the one and only God, in the Father’s embrace, has made Him known.” (John 1:18 TLV)

The God's Word translation says it this way.

“No one has ever seen God. God’s only Son, the one who is closest to the Father’s heart, has made him known.”

Known or explained, as the NASB conveys, is the Greek word exēgéomai. Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary tells us that it means to be a leader; to detail, to set forth in language; to tell, narrate, recount, Luk_24:35; Act_10:8; to make known, reveal, Joh_1:18; Act_15:12; Act_15:14; Act_21:19.

The substitutionary word or phrase that best fits in John 1:18 as it tells us that Jesus has revealed the Father to us is to make known.

“but the one and only God, in the Father’s embrace, has made Him known.”

Jesus said, when you have seen me, you have seen the Father. Having been raised to believe that God was an angry God, just waiting to punish me severely for my sins. Thank you, Jesus, for taking all our sins to the cross with Him, and I want to thank the producers of the Chosen as they have shown us a Jesus that can laugh, dance, and cry; because of this, I have been able to see the Father as one that can, at least, laugh and cry.

Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. John 1:15-17

This next section of Scripture strikes me odd; odd because the Apostle Paul was the man who taught us about grace, and yet here is a witness to John the Baptist saying, “grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”

Paul would have been the most unlikely character to teach us grace as he seemed to have no comprehension of what grace was, and, was willing to have those who showed an acceptance of this man Jesus put to death. So where did Paul learn of grace, a theme by-the-way that is integrated all throughout the Law and the Prophets? From Jesus himself, a process that began on the road to Damascus.

Now, here we are, in a sense, listening to the words of the Apostle John, as he defines John the Baptist. A man, for whom we are given no record of where he came to understand this grace he testified to. But we do have a piece of evidence that evades most people, and that is that John the Baptist, was filled with the baptism of the Holy Spirit while still in his mother's womb. For the skeptics, I give you scripture to back up my statement.

Luke 1:15 NASB "For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb.

Speaking religiously, how would John the Baptist know what to do with such a gift and how would he have the restraint to control the outlandish outbursts often associated with those who are filled with the Holy Spirit? Why do we have presumptions that the Holy Spirit must be constrained? Do you actually believe that God is incapable of controlling those who are His?

Between John the Baptist and Jesus, what then was the common factor? If you said the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you would have been right. John himself witnessed the event.

Luke 3:21-22 NASB Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, 22) and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased."

Continuing on our trek through the Gospel of John we have come to John 1:15-17.

John 1:15-17 NASB John *testified about Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'" 16) For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. 17) For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

As always, I find myself looking for clarity. The Easy to Read version meets that need.

John 1:15 ERV John told people about him. He said loudly, "This is the one I was talking about when I said, 'The one who is coming after me is greater than I am, because he was living before I was even born.'"

Every nationality and language have it's own peculiar catch phrases meant to give emphasis to a point being made. One I have heard lately sounds not so dissimilar to this: “This is the one I was talking about!” The phrase is usually associated with some vigorous hand waving and body language.

I feel like I have previously covered this ground when I ask, what did John the Baptist say about Jesus to the crowds that gathered around him? Since the word testify (the Greek word martureō) means to bear witness, testify, and attest to, you might think that John's accounts would be those drawn from personal experience. But here we have a problem because we have a passage of scripture that could imply one of two things:

• That John the Baptist did not know him. When you consider that this was a time with no cell phones, no Facebook, and no rapid transportation. You would have been deemed wealthy to have a ridable animal. Therefore maintaining communication between relatives meant you had to walk thirty miles to visit. Since most good Jews would make it to Jerusalem once, a year it most likely meant you got together with family.

John 1:31 NASB "I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water."

• Or, the Greek is merely conveying that John did not perceive all that Jesus would become. Recognize is the Greek word oida; to have seen or perceived, hence to know: - to appreciate, or be aware.

One of the arguments moving toward John's imperception would be the tremendous grief Jesus felt when John was beheaded.

Matthew 14:13 NASB Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities.

We do not see Jesus acting this way with anyone else but Lazarus.

'He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'

Consider that statement for a moment. It conveys someone yet to come, and I can understand that on several levels. But what of this aspect, "He existed before me."

John seemed to know that Jesus ministry was about to bloom, but he had no precise definition of what that would look like. Having pointed out John's statement "I did not perceive him," tells us that John was not aware of God's plan for Jesus. Since we know that Herod brought the Chief Priests before him, to explain the star in the east and why these Magi and their entourage were coming to Jerusalem, those same religious leaders defined, from the Torah and Tenach, that the Messiah would come out of the City of David, among other things.

Keep in mind the relative scarcity of written materials and how each "book" was an original scroll held at the synagogue as though they were museum pieces. Each would have been very precious and valuable. So, regular attendees at Synagogue would only have the spoken word, read to them, and then expounded upon by those particular teachers who profoundly argued interpretation. Teaching would have been entirely verbal, and surprisingly, every Jewish boy would have been expected to memorize those same scriptures.

"He existed before me."

Does this imply that John understood that Jesus took not only a role in creation but was personally invested in the lives of the Jewish father's throughout the history of the chosen people? A concept deeply embedded in John's thinking, as well as that of his Jewish audience.

How many different ways can you attempt to wrap your mind around this idea that someone had already been or been here, and yet, coming once again? This scenario is what many see as the basis for science fiction. The major difference, though, this is for real. Apologetics uses scripture, logic, and science to prove that what we believe is real. For me, I had to look at the things Jesus said, and then did, for my proof. In all honesty, I do this frequently. So then, He who was before me, will, not only come after me but again for all to see.

“For of His fullness we have all received,”

What does the NASB mean by fullness? Fullness comes from the Greek word plērōma and means repletion or completion, fullness, a filling up.

Alright, you lost me with the word repletion. Repletion is "The state of being completely filled; or superabundant fullness. In medicine, it conveys the fullness of blood, as in you having all you needed for the time being.

If I only look at my life, there are far too many times I would not or could not say that I was close to being completely filled. I would also have to ask, filled with what? If the answer is the Holy Spirit, then I am not sure I am filled enough because I do not act like “prophets” such as Kim Clement, or demonstrate the gift of healing like Benny Hinn.

Maybe that is not what he is talking about when he says, “For of His fullness we have all received,” perhaps this is referring to His life and the changes that happen within when we accept Jesus Christ as our own. The problem here is that we are looking for something associated with a feeling, and not finding that feeling we think we have not been “saved.”

Having grown up in church, I think I found my fullness, long before I learned the fine art of sinning. Isn't that a crazy way of looking at things. Since the idea behind “sin” is missing the mark (an old English term for missing the bulls-eye while target shooting), treating sin as a fine art would certainly imply that I practiced missing. If I spent my life without Christ and therefore no inner peace, then finding my fullness in Him would feel dramatically different than if I grew up under the umbrella of safety and was accustomed to many of the feelings associated with a life in the Spirit. Without all the dramatic feelings makes me wonder sometimes. This lack of feeling is precisely why I said, I remind myself of what Jesus Christ did for me, who I am, and what my hope is in – a future with the Father, in peace and safety.

What is the bottom line for me on this aspect?

Because Jesus Christ was obedient, all that was necessary for my peace and yes, I am going to say it, eternal security with Him, was accomplished. In my spiritual walk, there is nothing more for me to do, unless I have these moments when I feel that I have lost my way. I have not, but my head doesn't seem to know it at those moments; however, my spirit does and recognizes His voice as he gently calls me back to Him.

What was the Apostle Paul's example to us?

He cried out for the Lord to remove some tortuous aspect from his life. The Spirits response was, My grace is sufficient for you. I do not see this as a negative, but a reminder that Jesus life in Him, was the fullness and Paul had received it already. Wow, we really are well equipped if we would accept it. You will find this story in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

“and grace upon grace. 17) For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”

So God just keeps pouring out His love upon us; hence, grace upon grace and all of this is realized through Jesus Christ. Maybe this is why Jesus said, no one comes to the Father, but through me. This fullness and sufficient grace are only found in Him.

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