“Grace For Grace”
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, this was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” (John 1: 1 - 18).
As I was preparing the ‘Holy Ghost’ teaching I came to understand more clearly these scriptures; specifically, the meaning of ‘grace for grace.’ Admittedly, before this teaching, I did not thoroughly understand it. I knew that the expression ‘grace for grace’ was something good but having an understanding as given by God was what I needed. What has helped me with the understanding is the agreement, in spirit, of several teachings that I have written already.
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He came to give to the world the very thing (the Truth) for which they would hate Him and yet needed so desperately. The world was bound by their own works and yet wanted to be free. To be free is to be loosed from death and hatred. No other freedom is true. Jesus came to bring us that freedom through the Truth. The Truth exposes hatred for what it is. Hatred begins with lying and the flesh is a liar.
The world’s hope was that God would save the flesh. The salvation of the flesh is what they had prayed for. God did indeed send Jesus Christ to save the flesh which could be accomplished only through obedience to His commandments. On the other hand, the flesh wants to be saved on his terms and not God’s. He cannot save himself yet wants to tell God how to do so. The bottom line is that the flesh does not want God to rule over him.
The flesh can be saved only by humbling himself to God. When he saw that Jesus was not going to bow to his will then his opinion of Him turned quickly to bitter hatred. The carnal man continues his alliance with the devil and his false promises.
Therefore the flesh cannot be saved and is eternally damned because it will never obey God and, consequently, is bound to hell and the grave. God knew this and after giving the flesh his last chance (Jesus Christ) to return to Him they did what He had foretold. The reason that the world has little interest in God is because He will not save the flesh. Instead, they look for another savior.
The world hates Jesus because He will not submit to their will (then and now), which is to save their flesh. “And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.” Jesus’ passion was to serve God regardless of the cost. Upon doing so, He fulfilled and brought closure to the covenant that God had made with the flesh.
Afterwards, Jesus then delivered to the world a new promise that if they would believe and serve Him in the Spirit and Truth then He would give them everlasting life. He has given to the world this new promise. Those honoring and obeying Christ have everlasting life both now and forever. Here is grace and truth - We are freed from death when we give up the world and come to Jesus. The world are those that follow the flesh. The flesh blinds us when we believe his promises and lies and the end result is death.
“And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” (Mark 10: 17 - 27).
What I have learned about the Spirit of God is to take everything that He says very seriously. At times you may want to make light of the Word but that would be making a serious mistake. I have been taught at times in what seemed like a casual manner only to find out later that I had grossly under-valued what I had heard. Here, Jesus is telling the man that there is none good but one, which is God. Seeing what the Lord has done more deeply and clearly than before gives me greater awareness of what He is talking about.
There is none good but one. God is the only good in life. He alone is the source of good. When He gave us life then we were given goodness, love, compassion, tenderness, forgiveness, repentance, joy, happiness, peace, trust, and I could go on. These virtues are what God has given us of Himself. He gave us these gifts of Himself so that we would truly know the best things in life.
The world does not want to believe that they have to do anything because the Lord has been so good to us already, giving us everything that we need. These good things are in us because that is the way Christ made us. We need them to live and enjoy one another. We need them to be able to love. We would not be able to love without the Lord. If anybody thinks they are doing this by themselves then they are making the most serious error in judgment. If anyone thinks that they are living without God then they are foolish to the extreme.
How is it that we can even love our children and one another? Frankly, why do we even love? The answer is to be loved in return. Loving one another is always a great good. But, there is no one that does not want to be loved in return. Loving is good and being loved is good. We love our children because we want to and we want them to love us in return. We put our love in our children. We want them to give back that love. Love is as good to them as it is to us. Love is life’s greatest good.
God has given us everything that we need for life. There is nothing made without God. Before God made man He put everything here that he would need Then, He made him. All life as we know it comes from God and that is some giving, is it not?
All of this love and goodness is the grace of God. But, as wonderful and fulfilling as it is this grace is not complete until it is returned as given. The Lord has given, and given again, and given again but do you know that it is not enough by itself. Love has to be fulfilled. Love has to be glorified. As great as God is, His love alone is not enough. The love must be returned. Love is given from God and must be returned to Him in order to fulfill all things.
The Holy Ghost is a giving Spirit. When you have the Holy Ghost in you then you want to give. You may not have any money but you want to give. You may not have any food but you want to give. You may not have any clothes but you want to give. Here is the heart and soul of the Spirit of God - He gives out of love. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.’
When you have the Spirit of God in you then you want to love Him like He loves you. You know that you cannot but you want to anyway. Therefore He has to show us how to love Him. Jesus said ‘Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.’
Here is grace for grace - For love's sake God gave life to man three times, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In the name of the Father, God gave life to the first man through Jesus Christ. In the name of the Son, Christ gave life anew to the natural man through His own crucifixion. And, in the name of the Holy Ghost, life eternal is given to us through the express Spirit of God. Now, we can give life through Him. We can create life of His Spirit as He does. Through God's Spirit we can breathe the breath of life.
Now, man has been completed and has his true help meet. In the beginning, we had a help for the flesh but now we have it for the spirit. We love the Lord through loving one another, in His love. We did not love God with the flesh but can in the spirit. True love is fulfilled when we return to our God, loving Him as He loves us. We do not love as we want but as He wants to be loved. He knows already how we want to be loved which is the way He loves us now. We give to one another as He gives to us.
Now, we have the Lord with us always. His Spirit dwells in us, walking and talking with us (as promised). We know our Lord through the Holy Ghost. We see Him through the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost guides and comforts us, as promised.
Jesus Christ showed Himself to the world through the Word of God. Jesus Christ shows Himself to His elect now through the same Word. ‘I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.’ His kingdom and realm is the Word of God. His glory is Righteousness.
The Holy Ghost guides us to the Word of God. Through the Word you see and know Jesus. Through Jesus you see and know God. What a wonderful Savior! What a beautiful God we serve! Grace for grace!