Title: Grace upon Grace
Contents
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1. Oh, all you who thirst, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy and eat; come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2. Why do you give silver for things that are not bread, and labor for things that are not satisfied? Hear and hear from me, and you will eat the good, and yourselves will find pleasure in the fat.
3. Incline your ear and come to me, and hear, and your souls will live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure grace of David.
4. Behold, I have made him a witness to all, and I have made him a leader and commander of all.
5. Behold, you will call a nation you do not know, and a nation that you do not know will run to you because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified you.
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12. To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
13. These are those who are not born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
15. John testified about him, and cried out, saying, I said before me, He who comes after me precedes me, because he precedes me.
16. And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
17. The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18. No one has ever seen God, but the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, has made him known.
Content
Title: Grace upon Grace
Text: Isaiah 55:1-5, John 1:12-18
The first of the blessings of the priests established in the Sinai covenant (Numbers 6:24-27) is blessing (24). The second is grace. “The Lord wants his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you” (Numbers 6:25). Grace is the kindness and love of God who knows our needs and gives us freely. Because it is freely given, it is a grace that is easy to forget at times. Saint David also confessed such a mistake (Psalm 30:1-7). It is also one of the ‘thirst for eternity’ (Ecclesiastes 3:11) that God has given to mankind. Of course, the solution to that thirst comes from God. This is today's Old Testament text (Isaiah 55:1-5). Just as in the New Testament there is ‘you who labor and are heavy laden!’ (Matthew 11:28a), in the Old Testament there is ‘you who thirst!’ (Isaiah 55:1a). The only way to solve problems is to obey the Word.
‘Incline your ear and come to me and listen. Then you will live I will make with you an everlasting covenant, the sure grace of David” (Isaiah 55:3). David was a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22). He was a man of grace. When he united the 12 tribes of Israel and calmed the enemy outside, he knew that all of them were the grace of God (2 Samuel 7:1,2). So we have the heart to build the house of God. The blessing that God gave, who looked into his heart, was the eternal covenant (2 Samuel 7:6-16). This was ‘grace over grace’ given to those who know grace. Today's Old Testament text given through Isaiah is called 'Invitation to the Messiah's Feast'. That is why the grace given to the thirsty is not water, but 'wine and milk'.
The New Testament text (John 1:12-18) can be said to be the testimony of the experience of the kingdom of God revealed by the coming of the Messiah. The Word in the beginning was God (John 1:1). Those words became the true light and came to this earth. But Israel, who represented this land, did not welcome him. This is the story of “When he came to his own land, his people did not receive him” (verse 11). Israel, who was supposed to fulfill the mission as the firstborn of all people, rejected it as a nation. It is a curved image of redemption history. But the restraint did not stop. He found each one and knocked on the door of his heart. The grace that came to those who received them was “the authority to become children of God” (verse 12). They became “those who were born of God alone” (verse 13) (John 3:3,5). Being a citizen of the kingdom of heaven begins with Jesus. The graces they received are from heaven (14-18).
“And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (verse 16). It is the grace we receive through faith in Jesus Christ (verse 17). 1) ‘Fullness’ (Pleroma) is the sum total of all things in God (Colossians 1:19;, 2:9). It means that there is all of God, wisdom, power, and love. It means that any human need will be filled abundantly when we come to Jesus. 2) It is a series of continuous wonders. It is a journey from this surprise to that surprise. The more you know Jesus Christ, the more wonderful you become. Because it is a sufficient answer to all the changes and problems of time and space. 3) The law was given through Moses, and grace and truth are given through Jesus Christ. That grace and love are heavenly and earthly, and there is no one who can break it, and it is impossible to separate it (Romans 8:31-39). Hallelujah! Amen.