I want us to end the service this morning seeing exactly what it is that we have been rejoicing about as we have worshipped in song. I want us to see clearly the grace that has been shown us in Jesus Christ. And I think that is the message of John 1:14-18.
In this prologue of John, I believe there are clear allusions that are supposed to send us back to Exodus 32-34. Without seeing this I am not sure that we catch the clearest picture of the grace presented here.
So, what is going on in Exodus 32-34? We will look at a portion of it, starting in Exodus 33:7. This verse picks up after a despairing depiction of the Israelites’ idolatrous worship of the golden calf as Moses was coming down from the mountain. And Aaron, Moses’ brother, was the one who was leading the Israelites in this idolatry.
Therefore, as a judicial sentence, God had stated that he would not live in the midst of his people. For, though the tabernacle had not yet been built, the plans for its building had been given, and God was supposed to live in the middle of the camp with the tribes of people surrounding him. He was now refusing to do that because if his presence dwelt in the midst of this rebellious people, then God would surely destroy them.
That is the setting for Exodus 33:7. Moses pitches a tent outside the camp because God will not dwell in the midst of the camp. The Israelites have just committed idolatry in a most disgusting manner. And Moses is in the pit of despair.
He cries out in verse 12, “You said to me, ‘Bring up this people!’ But you have not let me know whom you will send with me.” In other words, Moses is saying, “You told me to lead these people, but the deal was that I would do this as long as you would give me someone to go with me. And now Aaron cannot. For goodness sakes, he has been the one to lead in this idolatry! So, who are you going to give me?”
And Moses goes on in his pleading in the following verses, in essence saying, “And you said that I have found favor in your sight. Then what am I doing here outside the camp? If you are so pleased with me, then show me your ways that I may know you. And, oh yeah, remember that this nation is you people. This wasn’t my idea. I didn’t call Abraham. I didn’t want this. This was your deal” (verses 12-13).
It is at this point that God declares to Moses in verse 14, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Moses, however, responds, “If your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. For how then can it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not by your going with us, so that we, I and your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth” (verses 15-16)?
I think in context, Moses is saying to God, “I do not want your presence simply outside the camp. If you will not dwell within the camp, do not lead us up from here.”
And God responds in verse 17, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in my sight, and I have known you by name.” And from that point on, there is no mention of Moses meeting with the Lord outside of the camp, and when the tabernacle is built, it is built in the midst of the camp.
But this is still not enough for Moses. It seems that Moses knew that if he was going to find strength to lead these people in light of Aaron’s idolatry, he would need a deep vision of God himself. So he prays, “Show me your glory.”
God responds, “I myself will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion” (v. 19).
God agreed to let Moses catch a vision of his glory. However, he reminds Moses that he is still the sovereign Lord. And he also tells Moses that no man can see his face and live, so he places Moses in a rock, passes by, and then lets Moses see the backside of his goodness.
And as God passed by, he proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth” (Ex. 34:6). The word for lovingkindness (hesed) means kindness, goodness, lovingkindness, mercy, etc. The idea that is communicated here is grace. God is saying that he abounds in grace and truth. And Moses got to see a little bit of that goodness of God.
And now as we turn back to John 1, it is obvious that John is alluding to this event.
John begins verse 14, “And the Word became flesh, and ‘tented’ among us.” Any Old Testament reader knows that God’s presence was in the tent, the tabernacle. In some sense, the temple was simply a permanent version of the tent where God’s glory would dwell.
John says that in the ‘tent’ of the flesh of Jesus Christ it is no different. He is the radiance of the glory of God. And John exclaims, “We beheld his glory.” That is what Moses had wanted to see. However, John identifies this glory even more deeply by reminding us that it was the “glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Does that sound familiar? That is how God described himself in Exodus 34:6.
And lest you miss all the allusions to Exodus 32-34, John reminds us in verse 18 that “no man has seen God at any time.” That is exactly what God told Moses in answer to Moses’ request to see his glory. No one can see God in his unshielded glory. However, John does say that Jesus Christ has explained him. He has described him, narrated him; he is God’s self-expression.
John was able to look at Jesus and see the glory of which Moses had cried out to catch a glimpse. And yet, according to 2 Corinthians 3, we are able to behold that glory daily. When we read the Scripture and the Spirit enables us to see Christ, we are beholding the glory of God, a glory that we cannot behold and stay the same. We are being shown the greatest grace that we could have known.
In John 1:16, John writes, “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace in exchange of grace” (literal rendering). We have been given a grace instead of a grace. What does that mean? I believe he explains it in verse 17, “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”
The law was actually the first grace that he is talking about, because its intent was not to bring righteousness, but to point to Christ who could give righteousness. The law has a prophetic use. And Jesus remarks in Matthew 5 that he did not come to abolish the law but to “fulfill” the law. He came to be a fulfillment of what the law was pointing to. And because we do not simply have a system of law that points us to Jesus, but Jesus himself, John says that we have received a “grace instead of a grace.” We have known a greater grace in being able to see Jesus Christ clearly.
The law was showing us the way in which a dirty people might come before a pure and holy God by pointing us to Jesus. And Jesus, himself, announced that he was the way in John 14:6.
Two things I want you to leave with today:
1) Realize the grace that we know in being able to know how to be clean before a holy God. Be broken over the fact that the grace shown in the law has been replaced by an even greater grace, as we are able to know that faith in Christ is the manner in which we are made clean before our holy God.
Will you be broken by the beauty of this grace today and fall on your face in repentance, embracing all that God is for you in Jesus Christ? For the glory of God was most clearly seen in the cross.
If you want a clear picture of God’s glory, you will not see Jesus wearing a halo. You will see the cross. For only by pouring out his wrath on his only Son is God able to justify us in light of our sin. He offers us great grace is allowing us to come delight in his beauty as we will repent of our sin and place our faith, our life, in Jesus Christ.
2) Moses did not even want the promised land unless God’s presence would dwell in the midst of the camp. He said, “If your presence will not go with us, do not bring us up from here.” He delighted in God so much that he could not enjoy the gifts of God without God himself. He found his greatest delight in God. Do we? Can we this morning say, “God, I would not want heaven if it simply meant your gifts and not you. I have to have you,” and mean it? Do we delight in God that much?
Moses longed for John’s day, and even more deeply for ours. Therefore, let us bask daily in the glory of God, crying out for his presence, and crying out for a love that goes far deeper than wanting God’s gifts and longs for intimacy with God himself. And let us long for the greater glory that is yet to be seen.
Long for him this season. Amen.