LIVING OFF GENEROUS ABUNDANCE

FEBRUARY  7, 2023

JOHN 1:16-18

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[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Verse 16 above reads: “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given”. I rather like the way The Message Bible puts verses 16 and 17:

We all live off his generous abundance,
gift after gift after gift.
We got the basics from Moses,
and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
This endless knowing and understanding,
all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.

I had a individual from our community drop in recently and in our conversation I found that he believed that Christians should only read the New Testament and in particular those parts attributed to the Apostle Paul. In his view, he treated the Old Testament period and stories as though they were the "bad old days" which Jesus came to earth to fix. Yet, God’s grace has been there from the start, well even before creation. My opinion is that without the knowledge of the Old Testament we cannot fully appreciate the message of the New Testament, especially Paul’s writings.

In afterthought of this conversation I wonder if what our neighbor was getting at is that in the New Testament and the Gospel’s presentation of Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection we witness all the grace, all the hope, all the light stacked up together, to which the Old Testament pointed. As our verse today says it, we experience God’s grace as “gift after gift after gift”, and we find that God has been and continues to be present in every moment of the Bible’s story.

As Jesus followers, God’s Spirit enables us to reflect Jesus Christ, God’s life, and light, in our unique ways. John, pointed not to himself, but to Jesus the Messiah, as the “light of all humankind”. I pray our lives and our words may always point to God’s ultimate gift of life and light, Jesus.

LET US PRAY

Jesus, our life, and light, we cannot thank you enough for all you have done for us. We do indeed “live off your generous abundance, gift after gift after gift. And yet today we ask for something more: for the grace to reflect your life and light in our daily lives. Thank you that you hear us and that you desire the very best for us. Amen.