Hello friends, Mike Adams here with the Unsunday Show. Let's take five and talk about grace and truth. In John one hundred seventeen we're told this for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. This verse from John is a watershed verse because in a few simple words, it delineates the old covenant from the new. It delineates Jesus from Moses. In a very clear way it summarizes the flow of redemptive history by reminding us that there is a difference between Moses and Jesus, and the two were never intended to be mixed together. Unfortunately, mixing Moses and Jesus together is what many of us like to do. Grace scares us, so we read this verse as though it's a subtle warning and reminder that grace is meant to be balanced out somehow by truth, or that truth is somehow there to keep grace in check, to keep grace balanced out. We read it as though truth polices grace and keeps it manageable. And of course by truth we mean some sort of law or rule keeping that somehow tames grace down a bit, so it isn't quite so free and quite so threatening. We might pull something over from Moses or some rule or principle that we find in the New Testament or in our religious environment and call it truth, and say, well, this needs to temper grace. Either way, regardless of whether it's something we pull over from Moses or some contemporary rule or law that we find or make up, we read this verse as though grace needs balanced out by some sort of truth, as if grace and truth were two opposing forces doing battle with one another, because after all, grace needs tempered by truth, right? I find it interesting that we never view it the other way around, or grace balances out truth. Our default is always to balance out grace with truth, never truth with grace. But this verse is a both and it's not an either or. Jesus is grace and truth. Jesus is full of both, grace and truth. John wasn't issuing an ultimatum here, nor was he reminding us to temper grace with some version of truth as though grace is opposed to truth, and truth is opposed to grace. Grace isn't opposed to truth and truth isn't in conflict with grace. John wasn't offering us a set of balancing scales to make sure we're balancing grace with the appropriate amounts of truth. He's not telling us to keep grace in check with truth, and he's not saying that truth trumps grace. He's talking about the supremacy of the new covenant over the old. You see, the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus. Grace and truth never came through Moses. The supremacy of Jesus over Moses is what's in view here. Jesus is the embodiment of both truth, John fourteen six, and grace two verses eleven and twelve, and he is the embodiment of both in their fullness. In John one hundred seventeen, Jesus isn't grace tempered by truth, but he is the very fullness of both. He is what Moses wasn't, and could never have been. Moses was an expression of truth in his time. The old covenant and the law that came with it expressed truth for that age, but without grace. There is no grace in Moses, only works. It was works based law, and failure to obey that law perfectly resulted in condemnation and death. Moses supplied the people with six hundred and thirteen commands and statutes to obey, but little to no grace. That wasn't his purpose. Enter Jesus, Jesus who is full of grace and truth. Jesus brought the remedy to humanity's problem that Moses was only able to diagnose but never cure. Adding law to grace in order to tame it is really anti grace. The truth is we're in trouble, and we need rescued, and that rescue comes from outside of ourselves by grace, not law. The truth is all of us have sinned and fall short, but God justifies us by grace apart from law and apart from works. Scripture tells us that no one has seen God at any time, but it also tells us that Jesus has, because Jesus is God. Jesus proceeded from the Father, and we're told in the book of Hebrews that He is the exact representation of what the Father is like. Remember, Jesus said he that has seen me has seen the Father, and so Jesus is the ultimate expression of the full truth and reality of what God is like, and God is full of grace and truth. He's full of mercy and compassion. The comparison in our John verse between grace and truth isn't that grace and truth are fighting one another for supremacy or attention, or that they're competing with one another. It's that Jesus embodies both, something Moses wasn't. Jesus is the exact representation of who the Father is, and who the Father is is one who is full of grace and truth. It's not a verse telling us to somehow balance out grace with appropriate amounts of theology or appropriate amounts of doctrine, but it's a statement of redemptive history that the law came through Moses, but Jesus did what Moses and the law could never do. He brought grace and truth, grace that sets us free and truth that sets us free. Remember, Scripture tells us that whom the Son sets free is truly free, and if what you're hearing, Christian isn't setting you free, it isn't Jesus. Scripture tells us that there's no condemnation in Christ. But if what we're hearing makes us feel condemned, it isn't Jesus. Jesus said his burden is light, and his yoke is easy. But Christian, if your burden is heavy, it isn't Jesus. If you're being told that you need to do things that weigh you down, it isn't Jesus. Jesus came to set the captives free, not to give them an assignment. The law which came through Moses was full of assignments, six hundred and thirteen commands that had to be obeyed perfectly all the time twenty four seven, and failure to do so led to condemnation, led to death, led to being separated from the people of God at that time, to being put out of the camp, as it were. But not in Jesus. Jesus went outside the camp for us and was crucified there. In Jesus everything changed, because Jesus alone is full of grace and truth, and those aren't competing forces, but grace and truth in their fullness are finally and fully revealed in Jesus, who is our substitute and our redeemer. So Christian, you can throw away the balance scales and enjoy the free gift that you've been given. Because as John said, from his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. Until next time, have a nice day.