Word of Salvation – Vol. 44 No.26 – July 1999

 

The Revelation of the Fullness of Grace

 

 Sermon by Rev P. Kossen on John 1:16-18

Scripture Readings: 1Peter 1:3-21; John 1

Suggested Hymns: BoW 509; 111:1-4; 305; 348:1,3,5; 186; 519:3

 

Brothers and Sisters, young people, boys and girls.

Some Christians look like they've been baptised in lemon juice!  Many have such long faces they could eat corn out of a Coke bottle!  Joy is one of the missing ingredients in much of the church.  I think people notice it, too.  A man was standing behind a woman at the checkout of a local shop.  He was well dressed but his facial expression was grim and stern.  The woman looked back at him a few times while she was loading her trolley.  At last, unable to contain herself any longer, she asked the serious looking man, "Excuse me, but are you related to Rev Kossen?”  “No I'm not”, said the man.  "Oh," said the woman, "do you happen to be another minister?"  "No", he said, "I've just been sick for a couple of weeks.”

Now we all have different personalities, different ways of expressing our joy.  And yet, I am deeply concerned that often real genuine joy can play so small a part in many people's Christianity.  There is, I think, more Bible study, more prayer, more church attendance, more activity, than there is joy.

For some you would think that the Lord came to make us prisoners, rather than set the prisoners free.  For some, the pearl of great price is like a used car that you don't really want but you know you have to have!  You know what I'm talking about.  A lack of spiritual energy and zeal because deep down there is lack of appreciation for what we have.

When John explains the Gospel in his first letter, he is deeply excited about the fact that Jesus has come down, and he finishes off saying, "I am writing these things to you, so that your joy may be complete."  Jesus also explains the Father's love and says, “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete."  Yes, there are so many different things involved in our Christianity.  But if the bottom line is not joy and eagerness, we have missed the whole point.  And from our text, today, I want to show why we ought to be filled with such joy.

These verses are the last part of the introduction of John's Gospel.  And this marvellous chapter of the Bible traces through, from the Word of verse 1, ‘Who is God’, to ‘the Word, becoming flesh’, in verse 14, pointed to specifically by John the Baptist in verse 15, when he cries out saying, “This was the one I was talking about when / said, that He who comes after me, surpasses me because He was before me" – the wonderful message of the Saviour of the world.

Our text today comes from verses 16-18, and in these verses especially we see why these things ought to fill us with so much joy.  John says in Verse 16 that "out of the fullness of the Word, we have all received grace after grace."  And what John is talking about, is not just the “one blessing after another", which the NIV seems to talk about, but rather, the supreme blessing.

The grace in which we live today far surpasses the grace that has ever been received before.  We have, if you like, received the fullness of God's grace, and the only thing left is the consummation in glory.  In other words, if this fullness doesn't make us utterly joyful, nothing will.

A friend of mine was in Korea recently, and was amazed at the excitement the people there had with the Gospel.  Early in the mornings, and on Sundays, you would find groups of young people huddled together on the streets, over their Bibles, in devotions, in prayer – in the middle of town.  There is a fullness and excitement and joy and power in the Gospel which seems at the moment to be passing the West by.

Weil, then, what is this supreme blessing that we have received?  It is the full understanding of grace and truth.  Or, as it has been put in verse 18, in Jesus Christ, God cannot tell us any more clearly Who He is.  We have such a fullness of understanding of God that if we just begin to see it, our hearts will leap for joy.  Well, then, what is the blessing we have received?

1.  Our Christian faith has everything to do with grace and truth - not law

John says, "the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

Now we know our Bibles well enough to know that the law of God is a tremendously beautiful and good thing.  We also know that the Old Testament covenant, under Moses, was not a covenant of salvation by works, but also, a covenant of salvation by faith.  But of course, in the Old Testament, the written code of the law played a very important part of their life.  The law before them was meant to lead them to the sacrifice.  The law was if you like a schoolmaster to lead them to Christ.

What we read here, though, is that through the coming of Jesus, one form of grace has replaced another.  The New Covenant in Christ has replaced the Old Covenant, under the law.  You see, the law always proved to be a stumbling block to the people of God.  No matter how hard they tried to keep the law, they couldn't do it.  The Lord says in Jeremiah 31, "the time is coming declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant.  It will not be like the covenant I made with them when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, even though I was a husband to them.”  They couldn't keep the law.  And so, in the New Covenant, the Lord says, "I will put my law in their minds, and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.  They will all know me.  For, i will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Now this is absolutely precious.  Because we are in the New Covenant, through Jesus Christ, we do know our God in His fullness.  We have experienced the complete forgiveness of all our sins.  And we are no longer under the law, but as believers, the law is written within us by the finger of the Holy Spirit.  It's no longer a matter of what we must do, but far more beautifully, it is a matter of what we now by grace, want to do.

So, that is the first aspect of the fullness that we have received.  The grace of God to His Old Testament people in the law has now been replaced by the far superior grace of the fullness of grace and truth.  We no longer live in the shadows.  We live in the full light of God Himself.  And this is the way it was meant to be.

2.  Our Christian faith has everything to do with freedom

For us, the book of Galatians is very precious, and especially as it comes down to chapter 5, where Paul says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set you free.”  That is a very precious text of the Bible.  This is what many human beings want.  They want to be free.  They don't want to be bound.  But they will never be truly free, and they will never feel truly free, until they find this freedom which the Gospel is talking about.  This is the freedom of Isaiah to soar with the eagles.

And this freedom flows out of the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ.  As I said before, we are not under law, but under grace and truth.  The only thing which is left over us is the graciousness and faithfulness of our God, like an umbrella.  As Christians, we live with our feet on the earth, but with our hearts lifted up into the beauty of the forgiving grace of God.  That is the thing over us.  God Himself, our Father, whom we know, and the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the full forgiveness of all our sins.  That is the only thing over us.  His Grace.

"But what about the law?" you say.  Isn't the law important?  Oh, yes.  But remember Jeremiah.  The law is not over us.  The law is in us.  The law is not something we have to do.  But if we have come to know the love of God, the law is something we want to do.

I want you here to imagine the situation of a forced marriage in days gone past.  A girl is forced to marry a man she hates.  And spending time with that man and holding hands is something she really does not want to do.  But then imagine two people deeply in love.  You don't have to command them to hold hands.  You will have trouble keeping them apart.  Well, in the same way, God demonstrated in the Old Testament, when they didn't know Him well enough yet and were commanded to hold hands with Him, to do His law, well, it was something which was so difficult.  They didn't know Him, and they didn't want to do it.  But now in the New Testament, God demonstrates the perfect way: The way of love.

God comes to us in the New Testament, and He, like a man with a maiden, takes the time to open Himself up completely to us, to show us His very heart.  And as He talks in His Word, we come to know Him, to understand Him.  And in the depth of the heart of our God, no matter how far we can look, all we can see is graciousness and faithfulness, love and truth, forgiveness and mercy, and a depth of compassion and understanding we cannot fathom.  There is no fault in Him.  He is the Perfect One.  The more we gaze into Him, the more we understand Him, the more we see how deeply perfect He is, in His love and faithfulness towards us.  They just know no end.

And all this has been demonstrated now in the fullness of time through Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh.  And what we see in Jesus amazes us, when we realise His identity, and then trace His path to the cross.  How can this be?  For me?  Yes.  God loves you.  He is not the hidden, invisible One.  He has shown you how deep is His love.  God can say nothing else.

Now I want you to imagine two people very deeply in love.  They sit for hours looking into each other's eyes, admiring each other, whispering sweet nothings, holding hands, walking on the beach at sunset.  To this couple, in the freshness of their love, the world stops.  They notice nothing, only each other.  And between them, in this perfect meeting of heart and soul, there is no law.  No law saying, you must please your partner, you must hold hands, you must talk, you must spend time.  No, there's no law.  You couldn't drag them away from each other.  They are absolutely free to love each other, and that's just what they want to do.

And it is for this freedom that Christ has set us free, so that, united to Him by a living faith, in the communion and joy of the Holy Spirit, our hearts might be so lifted up towards Him that we just want to love Him, to please Him.  Where there is love, there is no law.

And this, brothers and sisters, is the freedom of our faith.  The only thing over us is His love.  There is no obligation in Christianity.  God doesn't want unwilling partners, slaves.  He doesn't want to coerce us with this stick of the law.  The law in itself just produces bitterness.  The law, as Paul says, raises up our sinful desires against the law.  No one must serve Him reluctantly or under compulsion.  That misses the whole idea of what God is doing.  He is making a human race which is in love with Him.  They love Him not because they have to but because they want to.

If you don't want Him, He says: why bother.  Do what you want.  And bear the fruit of what you want.  Don't you realise what you are?  You are image bearers of God.  You are not mechanical robots or tape recorders.  You don't have to serve me.  Just as your father Adam, you can choose your own way, and see where it leads.  But the point is, that today you are allowed to serve Me again.  It is a privilege, not a jail sentence.  You may again by my grace come home and live again.  I made you free.  I want you to do what you want.  And the very reason I have opened up my heart to you is so that, seeing me, you may again want what I want, that our hearts may be one.  That my desires may be written in your hearts and that your love is for me, just as I have loved you.

Why, then, do so many Christians today feel like a bag of sour lemons?  Why do they live as though the Lord came to make them prisoners?  Why do they think they are almost forced to accept the precious pearl of life by coercion?  Why do they make their Christianity sound so difficult and so burdensome and so restricting?  If we really don't want Him, why are we here?  He is not forcing us.  We are made in His image, with a freedom of choice, and we can do what we like.

No, no, no!  He came to set us free, free from our sinful destructive desires.  He came to break the darkness of our sin in a world without Him.  He came to teach us how to love again, to live again, to live in the fullness of what we as human beings were made for – to live with Him.  And if we know who He is, and if the words of this ‘Heavenly Lover of our souls’ penetrates our souls, how can we not, as those trapped by our own sinful passions, turn our hearts towards Him too in the joy of calves being released from the stall..!!

Brothers and sisters, our Christianity has everything to do with freedom.  Real freedom, positive freedom, the freedom of soaring with the eagles, of scaling the heights of our human capacities, experiencing the wonder of being truly human, as we walk again in the power of God's love – as it was always meant to be.  Everyone wants freedom.  But there is no freedom until we return to the Father of our souls.  And in Him we shall discover what it is to really live, live now, and in eternity, with Him.

Brothers and sisters, this is the heart of everything.  It is for this freedom to love God that we have been set free.  As it says in Psalm 119, “I will run in the path of your commandments, for you have set my heart free!!”

Have we understood?  It's nothing to do with law.  It's all about grace.  And this song of freedom, when it penetrates our darkness, shall set our hearts ablaze with the glory of our God and the wonders that He has done.  That is why finally, we see...

3.  That our Christianity has everything to do with the fullness of joy

I want you to know that this marvellous reality, brought about through the Word becoming flesh, is the very purpose for which God has been working in all history.  I want you to know that even Adam, before the fall, did not know what you know today.  He could not yet have seen the full extent of God's love as we do.

I want you to know, that the Old Testament saints, as a whole, did not know what you know today.  Even the prophets, although they knew that God was doing something marvellously great, they still searched for it, as a man searching for treasure.  But today, the precious pearl stands before you clearly.  And I go so far to say that God's whole purpose in creating the world is now in the process of being fulfilled.

He made us in His image – not robots – but people who would in freedom, willingly make a choice to love and serve Him.  And by His grace we are set free to choose for Him.  And much more than that, His grace is the fuel which sets our hearts ablaze again.  Love gives birth to love; perfect love gives birth to perfect love.  We may again love because He has first loved us, with a love beyond comprehension.

And yes, our holy desires are yet so shallow.  But as believers even our ongoing sins do not destroy our joy.  For the old man in us will continue to strive against the new.  But, for us, the old has gone, the new has come, and no matter what struggles we may presently go through, His banner over us is love, and His Word to us is the Word of forgiveness and grace.  And, do you see it?  It is the power of His love alone which has the power to destroy that old man of sin.  For as we rise up in a renewal of desire for Him, the lesser desires of the sinful nature are progressively destroyed.

And, on that day, when John says we shall see Him face to face, clearly, in all His fullness, when all the darkness has been removed from our souls and we see clearly, then the body of sin will be entirely gone.  In the full light of love, we shall never, ever, want to sin again.  For that is the wedding feast of the Lamb.  The consummation of all things.  The world of perfect love.

But now I go back again, to ask why so many of us lack joy?  Why do we lack zeal?  Love?  Motivation?  Desire?  Why is the precious pearl not so precious to us?  If that is so for us, we just have not yet understood the heart of what we believe.

I am reminded of Jesus' words, when He looked towards the end of time and asked, “But will there still be faith upon the earth?  Will they still see Me?  Will they still recognise Me?"  Is it today, that the twentieth century church, too, is becoming so blinded by the light of this world, that we no longer see the utter glory of what God is accomplishing in the world?

Please, brothers and sisters, for the sake of God and His Kingdom and His glory and His work, let us give ourselves no rest until we have entered deeply into this utter freedom and joy of our Christian faith.  If we are having trouble seeing these things today, we must put all our focus on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for this is where the fullness of our God is all revealed.  Just to know Him, brothers and sisters, is life.  And if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.  Free to serve Him again in the super-abundant joy of the Holy Spirit of life.

Amen.