HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div

Day 5 – When Grace Comes Down

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could see God for who He really is?

• What would He say about the state of humanity?
• About religion?
• About our own propensity toward sin?

There is no need to wonder about what God is like because to know Him, we have only to look at Jesus. In Jesus, we have received grace, but there is even something more that we have received. We have received the truth. The kind of truth John is talking about in this passage is not a list of laws and rules such as were given to Moses.  Make no mistake; the revelation of God through the word of the law was glorious. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai after receiving the commandments, his face shone so brightly with the glory of God that he had to wear a veil. But the word of the law cannot compare with the word of life that has been revealed through Jesus Christ!

In John 1:18, No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. Not even Moses …..

But Jesus has not only seen God; He is God. The truth that John is speaking about is a clear and unveiled vision of the true nature of God. When we try to look at God through the lens of legalism and religion, it is like looking at Him through a veil. Only when we see Him through Jesus Christ can we truly get a glimpse into His heart. It is from a state of grace, not legalism, that we will find real and lasting transformation.

(2 Corinthians 3:7-18 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: ⁸ How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? ⁹ For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. ¹⁰ For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. ¹¹ For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. ¹² Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: ¹³ And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: ¹⁴ But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. ¹⁵ But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. ¹⁶ Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ¹⁸ But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.)

John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Have you been looking at God through the veil of legalism and religion?  In Jesus, we see the full revelation of the nature of God – His love and holiness, mercy and justice, compassion and power all perfectly and beautifully expressed. Pray that the Holy Spirit will help you see God through the eyes of grace and truth given to us in Jesus Christ.