One Wave and Then Another

Chapter One

The Fullness From Which Grace Flows

Two Greek words in this phrase deserve our attention. The word for grace is charis, and it carries favor, kindness, goodwill. That it is never earned and never deserved is not sitting inside the word. It is what the whole of Scripture shows me about the way God gives it. And the little word joining grace to grace is anti. It carries the sense of one thing set over against another, in the place of it, and honest men have read the whole phrase in more than one way. Some hear it as grace replacing grace, the shadow giving way to the substance in Christ. Others hear it as grace following grace, one supply after another without end.

I take it the second way, and I will say plainly that I am taking a side. So grace for grace is one wave of favor withdrawing only as the next wave rises to take its place, on and on, without end. The wave that goes back does not leave the shore empty, because the next one is already coming.

There are verses in Scripture that, at first reading, seem simple enough that we pass over them without realizing the depth they contain. John 1:16 is one of those verses. John writes, “And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.” The words are familiar, yet they invite an important question. What did John mean when he spoke of “grace for grace”? Was he speaking only about the grace that saves, or was he revealing something much greater about the way God has dealt with mankind throughout history?

Before answering that question, we must begin where John begins. It is often said that context is king, and nowhere is that more important than here. John does not begin with grace, He begins with Christ.

Notice his words carefully: “And of His fullness have all we received...” The emphasis is not first on what has been received, but on the One from whom it has been received. John directs our attention to the fullness of Christ before he ever mentions grace. John does not stop and tell me why he put it in that order, so what I take from it is mine. I read Christ as the source, and grace as the expression of all that is found in Him. Grace does not exist independently of Christ, it flows from His fullness.

This is an important distinction because it protects us from thinking of grace as though it were something separate from the Lord Himself. The Scriptures never present grace as an impersonal force. Grace is God’s favor expressed through His Son. The mercy, the forgiveness and the redemption I am tracing through this book are not disconnected from Him. John says we have received of His fullness, and that fullness is where I stop looking for a limit. I do not find John setting one, and the grace that flows from Him I read as never exhausted.

So God’s grace is not a single act that ends once it has accomplished its purpose. The believer does not live on yesterday’s grace. He keeps receiving from a fullness that never runs down.

This naturally raises another question, has grace always been flowing, or did it begin with the coming of Christ?

Many believers speak as though grace belongs only to the New Testament, while the Old Testament belongs only to law. Yet when we allow Scripture to interpret Scripture, we discover that this is not the picture the Bible presents. The coming of Christ did not introduce grace into the world as though it had never existed before. And here is where I am reading. What had been seen in promises, shadows, sacrifices, and acts of divine mercy throughout the Old Testament now stood before mankind in a Person, and I call that grace revealed in its fullness.

If grace did not begin at Bethlehem or at Calvary, then where do we first see it?

To answer that question, we must return to the opening pages of Scripture.

When Adam sinned, the holiness of God demanded judgment. The Lord had warned that disobedience would bring death, and His word could not fail. Yet even in the midst of judgment, something remarkable took place. Adam and Eve attempted to cover themselves with fig leaves, but their own efforts could not deal with their shame. God Himself made garments of skin and clothed them. The covering did not come from man; it came from God.

Genesis does not call those coats grace, and it does not tell us a sacrifice was being instituted there. I will not make the text say what it does not say. But I see the character of grace in what God did. While Adam was hiding, God called to him. Adam had made his own covering, and God made coats of skins and clothed them. Even while announcing the consequences of sin, the Lord also spoke of a coming Seed.

It shall bruise thy head. And as a Christian I read that Seed forward to Christ. Genesis gives me the Seed and the bruising, and the Redeemer is where I understand that promise to be going. Judgment was real, but judgment was not God’s final word. Hope was given in the very place where sin had entered.

This is the first glimpse of a truth that will unfold throughout the whole of Scripture. And this is the pattern I begin to see. Where sin appears, I keep finding God’s mercy moving toward fallen humanity. Grace does not ignore sin, nor does it deny God’s holiness. Rather, grace acts in a way that upholds God’s righteousness while providing hope for those who have no hope in themselves.

The account of Adam teaches us something that John will later declare in his Gospel. Long before grace was revealed in its fullness through Jesus Christ, it was already at work because the One through whom grace would one day be revealed had always been active in the purposes of God. John has already told us, “In the beginning was the Word.” The Christ who became flesh in Bethlehem is the same eternal Word through whom all things were made. So this is how I am tracing it through the book. I do not read God’s gracious dealings in Genesis as disconnected from the eternal Word. I read them as coming from the same God whose fullness John later sets before us in Christ.

The story does not end with Adam, as we continue through Genesis, the unfolding revelation of grace becomes even clearer.

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Chapter Two

Grace Moving Through the Generations

The very next generation reminds us how quickly sin spread through the human race. Cain and Abel both stood before God, yet only one approached Him in faith, and faith is the word Hebrews puts on it.

By faith. Genesis 4 does not say it. Hebrews does. And Cain’s anger eventually gave birth to murder, and with that act the corruption introduced by Adam became painfully evident.

Again, the question before us is not whether Cain deserved judgment. Scripture leaves no doubt that he did, the question is whether grace can still be seen in the midst of judgment. The answer is yes.

Before Cain ever lifted his hand against his brother, God warned him.

The Lord was not enticing Cain to sin; He was calling him away from it. Even before judgment fell, God confronted him and pointed him toward the right path. And this is where I see grace before the judgment, because Genesis does not call that warning grace or kindness. I do.

After Abel was murdered, the Lord pronounced judgment upon Cain. The ground would no longer yield its strength to him, and he would become a fugitive and a wanderer. Yet even then, judgment was not the whole story. When Cain feared that others would kill him, read what the Lord did.

Lest any finding him should kill him.

We should be careful not to misunderstand this passage, and let me keep two things apart that are easy to run together. The judgment stood. The ground would not yield to him and he would be a fugitive and a wanderer, and God did not lift one word of that. What God did was something else. He restrained what others might do to Cain. That is not the sentence being softened, it is a separate mercy laid alongside a sentence that was left standing. And I read that as justice and mercy standing together, because the same God who judged also restrained. Once again, we see grace moving in the presence of guilt.

As we continue through Genesis, another name comes before us, and this time the Scriptures use the very language of grace.

The Hebrew word translated grace is chen, and it carries the idea of favor. That the favor was freely shown is not sitting inside the word. It is what the account gives me. Noah did not stand before God because he had earned salvation by his own merit. Rather, in a world filled with violence and corruption, God set His favor upon Noah.

Some have asked whether Noah deserved this grace because the Scriptures describe him as a just man and perfect in his generations. We must remember that the Bible is not saying Noah was sinless. The same Scriptures that commend Noah also reveal his weakness after the flood. And here I am reading, so let me say so. Genesis does not stop and tell me which came first, the favor or the righteous life. What I take from it is that his righteous life was the evidence of a man who walked with God and not the purchase price of God’s favor, and I read it that way because of what grace is everywhere else in Scripture.

This pattern should sound familiar because it continues throughout the Bible. God’s grace does not reward perfection; it reaches those who trust Him. And through Noah the Lord preserved the human family from destruction.

Here we begin to see something important, grace is not standing still. It is moving through history, in Adam, grace provided a covering. In Cain, the judgment stood and grace restrained what others might do to him. In Noah, grace preserved a family and, through that family, preserved the promise of redemption. The story continues with Abraham.

When God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees, nothing in the text suggests that Abram had earned such a calling. Joshua later reminds Israel that Abraham’s family served other gods beyond the River. Yet the Lord entered into covenant with him, promising to make of him a great nation and declaring that through his Seed all the families of the earth would be blessed.

Here the grace of God begins to unfold in another way. Grace is no longer seen only in individual acts of mercy. It now moves through covenant promise, God binds Himself to accomplish what He has declared. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Once again, grace and faith walk together.

The covenant with Abraham points beyond Abraham himself, and Paul names who the Seed is.

Which is Christ. So the promises look forward to Him, in whom all the nations of the earth would truly be blessed. What began as a promise to one man ultimately becomes good news for the whole world.

The next great servant of God is Moses, and with him many assume that grace gives way to law. Yet the Scriptures present a richer picture.

After Israel sinned with the golden calf, Moses stood before the Lord and prayed.

Those words deserve careful attention, Moses was living under the Mosaic covenant, yet he still spoke of finding grace in the sight of God. He understood that Israel’s future did not rest merely upon possessing the Law. Their hope rested upon the continued favor and presence of God. Without His presence, the covenant people would be no different from any other nation.

As the Old Testament unfolds, another Hebrew word comes into prominence: chesed. It is often translated lovingkindness, steadfast love, or mercy. When it speaks of God toward His people, it carries His faithful covenant love. He remains true to His promises even when His people repeatedly fail Him. His chesed is not based upon the changing faithfulness of man but upon the unchanging character of God.

This is why the psalmists return to it again and again: “His mercy endureth for ever.” They are celebrating more than isolated acts of kindness. They are rejoicing in the steadfast covenant love of a God who refuses to abandon His purposes.

As we look back over these accounts, a pattern begins to emerge. Grace is not appearing here and there as though God occasionally chooses to be merciful. It is woven into the very fabric of His dealings with humanity, and in every case it is the same gracious God moving toward those who could never save themselves.

By the time we arrive at the opening chapter of John’s Gospel, we should already be expecting something greater. The grace that appeared in shadows, promises, sacrifices, and covenant mercies throughout the Old Testament was never intended to be the final revelation. It was preparing the way for the One in whom grace would be seen in all its fullness. John therefore declares,

The grace that had been promised was now standing among men. The favor of God was now revealed in the Person of Christ, whom John describes as full of grace and truth. And as I am reading grace for grace in this book, from His fullness those who belong to Him continue to receive grace upon grace.

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Chapter Three

Grace and Truth in Christ

Having traced the grace of God from Genesis to the incarnation, we now return to the words that began our study.

John has carefully prepared us for this statement, He has shown us that the eternal Word was with God, that all things were made by Him, that in Him was life, and that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. Only then does he declare, “And of His fullness have all we received.”

The word fullness deserves our careful attention, John is not speaking of one particular blessing, nor of one act of God’s kindness. He is directing us to the fullness that is found in Christ Himself, and inexhaustible is my word for it, not John’s. And when I read the rest of the New Testament beside John, everything necessary for life, salvation, forgiveness, reconciliation, strength, wisdom, and eternal hope is found in Him. Now let me say this carefully, because Luke writes that the grace of God was upon the child Jesus, and I am not going to walk past that verse. What I am saying is narrower than it might sound. When John speaks of the fullness we receive from, he does not send us anywhere behind Christ to find it. Grace belongs to the fullness of who He is as the Son of God, and that is where John points us.

This is why John says, of His fullness have all we received. Throughout history countless men and women have come to Christ, and He is no less full today than He was when John first wrote these words. And that is not my own conclusion out of the air.

The same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. John then adds the expression, “and grace for grace.”

I said in the first chapter that I read this as grace following grace, and that others read it as grace replacing grace. Both readings honor the verse. I am not going to pretend the Greek settles it for me.

I take it as a supply that never fails, because the source never fails.

And I am using the wave as an image for what I see. I am not claiming John wrote the word wave. He did not. But a wave helps me see it. One comes, and then another, and the sea is not emptied because one wave reached the shore.

And it does not mean God gives a different gospel each time our circumstances change. The same grace continues to minister according to the believer’s need. And here I am gathering from the whole New Testament and not from this one verse. The grace that called us is the grace that keeps us. The grace that forgives us is the grace that teaches us. The grace that strengthens us is the grace that will finally bring us safely into His presence. John immediately continues by writing,

These words have often been misunderstood, John is not saying there was no grace before Christ. We have already seen the grace of God in His dealings with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Israel. What I see John showing us is that what had been revealed in part has now been revealed in its fullness.

The Law was given through Moses, it revealed the holiness of God, exposed the sinfulness of man, and pointed forward to the coming Redeemer. Yet the Law itself could not remove sin, and Hebrews says so plainly.

Not possible. So the sacrifices offered under it pointed beyond themselves to the perfect sacrifice that God Himself would provide.

When Christ came, He did not abolish the purposes of God revealed through Moses. He fulfilled them, the promises found their fulfillment in Him. And Paul gives me the word for what the sacrifices and the ceremonies were.

A shadow, and the body is of Christ. So the sacrifices pointed beyond themselves to Him, and Paul calls the Old Testament shadows exactly that, shadows whose body is Christ. The grace that had been foreshadowed throughout the Old Testament now stood before the world in its fullest revelation.

John therefore is not contrasting a God of law with a God of grace, as though God had somehow changed. God has never changed, He has always been holy, and He has always been gracious. The difference is that in Jesus Christ the grace and truth of God are revealed with a clarity that had never before been seen.

This helps us understand why John speaks of receiving “grace for grace.” And the list I am about to give you comes from Paul and from the whole New Testament, not from John 1:16 by itself. Every blessing the believer enjoys comes through Christ. Forgiveness comes through Him, reconciliation comes through Him, adoption comes through Him. Peace with God comes through Him, the gift of the Holy Spirit comes through Him. Our future inheritance comes through Him, nothing reaches the believer apart from the fullness that is found in Christ.

The more we consider these words, the clearer it becomes that John is not simply describing how the Christian life begins. He is describing how it continues. Every stream depends on its source, and remove the source and the stream stops. But Christ is eternal, and because I read the grace as continually flowing from His fullness, I do not see the stream stopping.

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Chapter Four

The Grace In Which We Stand

Having established that grace flows from the fullness of Christ, we can now understand why the apostles spoke of grace with such confidence. When we begin reading the Epistles, one truth becomes immediately apparent. Paul opens almost every letter with the words, “Grace to you and peace.”

At first glance, these words may appear to be nothing more than a customary greeting. I read more in them than that. Paul is speaking grace and peace over people who are already saints and faithful brethren in Christ.

This raises an important question, is the grace Paul speaks of the same grace John describes, or is he introducing another aspect of grace? The answer is found by allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture.

John writes, “And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.” Before speaking of grace, John directs our attention to Christ. Grace flows from His fullness, Christ is the source, and grace is the continual expression of all that He is toward His people.

When Paul writes to the Colossians, “Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” he is not introducing a different grace. When I put Paul beside John, I read him as speaking of that same grace continuing in the lives of those who have already believed. John explains where grace comes from, and I read Paul as reminding the Church that the grace flowing from Christ continues to rest upon those who belong to Him.

The difference, therefore, is not one of kind but of emphasis. John takes us to the fountain, and Paul reminds us that the water continues to flow.

This explains why Paul begins letter after letter in the same way. Whether he writes to the believers in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, Thessalonica, or to Philemon, he begins with grace because every church, regardless of its circumstances, continues to depend upon the same inexhaustible fullness found in Christ.

Different churches faced different problems, some struggled with division, others with false doctrine, immorality, persecution, or spiritual immaturity. Yet before addressing any of those matters, Paul reminds them of the grace of God. That should not escape our attention.

In many of those letters, Paul does not begin with their failures. He begins by directing their eyes to the favor of God that rests upon them because they are in Christ, and then he addresses what needs correcting. And I have to say that it is not every letter. Galatians will not fit that pattern. Paul opens it with grace and peace and then goes almost straight into I marvel that ye are so soon removed, and there is no long foundation laid before the rebuke. So this is a pattern I see in most of them and not a rule I can put on all of them.

This teaches us an important lesson, the Christian life does not begin with grace and then continue by human effort. The same grace that brought us into Christ continues to sustain us as we walk with Him. Our obedience does not replace grace, rather, grace enables the obedience that God requires. Paul develops this truth throughout his letters.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul declares that we have been justified by faith and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He then adds this.

This grace wherein we stand. Notice the language carefully. Paul does not say we once stood in grace. He says we stand in grace, grace is not merely the doorway into the Christian life; it is the ground upon which the believer now lives.

This explains why the believer never outgrows grace, we never reach a point where we become independent of God’s favor. The more we mature, the more we recognize our continual dependence upon Him.

Paul continues this thought in his letter to the Ephesians. “For by grace are ye saved through faith.” Salvation is not earned. It is the gift of God, Yet Paul does not leave the subject there. Later he writes that grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ, and as I follow that thought through the rest of the passage, I see that grace working in the equipping of Christ’s body for service. The grace that saves also equips.

This is an important distinction, grace is not only God’s favor toward us; it is also God’s enabling power within us. And here is a conclusion I have come to, and I will name it as mine rather than hand it to you as a verse. I do not find the Lord calling His people to a task and then leaving them without what the task needs. Whatever He commands, He also provides. That is what I believe. And Paul’s thorn is one of the places that taught me not to measure God’s provision by whether the difficulty is removed.

Paul’s own life bears witness to this truth, three times he pleaded with the Lord concerning the thorn in his flesh. The answer was not immediate deliverance but these words:

Notice again that grace did not remove the difficulty. God did not say the thorn would go, He said the grace was enough. And Paul records three askings and then he records that answer, and after it he says he will glory in his infirmities. Scripture does not say in so many words that he stopped asking, so that part is my reading of a man who had been answered.

This helps us understand something we have considered throughout this study. Grace is never idle, it is continually at work in the life of the believer. Yet its work is not always the same because our need is not always the same.

The grace has not changed, the need has changed. The same gracious God continues to minister to His people according to every circumstance they face.

Perhaps this is why John could speak of grace for grace. The believer never reaches the end of God’s provision because he never reaches the end of Christ’s fullness.

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Chapter Five

Grace From Genesis to Glory

As we come toward the close of our study, we begin to see that John was not writing merely to explain one aspect of the Christian life. He was directing our eyes to the unchanging Christ, from whose fullness, as I have been reading John throughout this study, every expression of God’s grace continually flows.

This is why the believer can live with confidence. Our confidence does not rest upon our strength, our faithfulness, or even our ability to persevere. Our confidence rests upon the fullness of Christ, if our standing before God depended upon us, we would have reason to fear every day. But our standing rests upon the One whose fullness can never be diminished and whose grace can never fail. And Jude says who is able to keep us there.

Him that is able. Not us.

This does not give the believer permission to live carelessly. The same grace that forgives also teaches, Paul writes to Titus that

Notice that Paul does not separate grace from holiness. Grace is not God’s permission to remain as we are. I see in this teaching grace something that moves us toward the life God calls us to live. Grace does not lower God’s standard of holiness. Paul shows it teaching us to deny ungodliness and to live soberly, righteously, and godly.

This brings us back once more to John’s words, “And of His fullness have all we received.”

I read John’s all we as including every believer, and the youngest believer and the most mature believer drink from the same fountain. One may have walked with Christ for only a few days, while another may have walked with Him for many years, yet neither has exhausted the riches that are found in Him. The longer we walk with the Lord, the more we discover that His grace is greater than we first imagined.

This truth reaches beyond our present life into our future hope. Paul speaks of “the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.” Peter describes an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. Biblical hope is never wishful thinking, it is the confident expectation that God will complete everything He has promised because His faithfulness cannot fail.

The grace I have traced in God’s dealings with Adam in the garden, the grace that preserved Noah through the flood, called Abraham into covenant, remained with Moses, and reached its fullest revelation in Jesus Christ, comes from the same God whom Jude declares is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

The Bible itself bears witness to this wonderful truth. In the opening chapters of Genesis, we find God seeking fallen man. Adam and Eve hide among the trees of the garden, yet God comes looking for them. Even in judgment He provides a covering and gives the promise of the coming Redeemer. From that moment onward, the Scriptures reveal the unfolding account of God’s gracious dealings with mankind.

The prophets spoke of His mercy, the psalmists sang of His lovingkindness. The sacrifices pointed forward to the Lamb of God. Then, in the fullness of time, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. The story does not end there.

After Christ completed the work of redemption, the apostles proclaimed the gospel of His grace throughout the world. And believers were instructed to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Finally, when we come to the last chapter of the Bible, we discover that the closing words of Scripture are these:

How fitting that the Bible should close in this way. The God who sought sinners in Genesis leaves His people resting in His grace in Revelation. From beginning to end, the Scriptures testify to one unchanging God whose gracious purpose has never failed. We may now return to the words with which we began.

As I have read John’s words throughout this study, the Christian life is not sustained by occasional acts of divine kindness. I see an unending supply flowing from the fullness of Christ. Every act of mercy, every answered prayer, every restored heart, every lesson learned, every trial endured, every victory won, and every promise fulfilled comes from the same inexhaustible source.

As one expression of His grace accomplishes its purpose, another follows. From the day God sought Adam in the garden until the day His redeemed stand before Him in glory, the testimony of Scripture remains the same. We receive from Christ, and we go on receiving from Christ.

This is the wonderful truth I take from John’s words. Grace is not merely an event that began our journey with God. I read it as the continual expression of God’s favor flowing from His Son throughout the whole of redemptive history and throughout the whole of the believer’s life, until faith gives way to sight and we stand complete in His presence forever.

And that is where I want to leave you. Not looking at the wave, but at the fullness it came from. Because the wave is not the wonder. Christ is.

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