This is referred to as the “Prologue”, kind of a summary and introduction to John’s letter.  It sets the tone for what’s to come.

The first impression on this is that it is very ethereal, very spiritual, and not very concrete.  John is telling us what he is going to tell us, which is definitely different from the other gospel writings.  But not only that, John is, right up front, telling us just what he personally believes about Jesus, and he makes it clear that this is what he wants to convince the reader as well.

The verses that I really love in here are at the end of this section, verses, 14-18.  Two things stand out to me this morning.  First is this statement that Jesus is full of BOTH grace and truth.  Jesus isn’t the judge who beats you up for doing wrong, who drags you through the mud for mistakes, who looks to punish you and relishes in the fact that you didn’t quite make it this time, and that now He can come down on you.  No, Jesus is full of Grace.  At the same time though, we see through the gospels that He doesn’t shy away from the truth...He raises the bar in terms of standards to a place where no one can pull it off.  But it is this combination of the two that is so compelling...probably best illustrated in chapter 8 with the woman who comes to Jesus in the temple, and he makes this statement: “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”  It is the grace He gives that makes His truth so palatable.

The second thing that really jumped out at me is just the bigger idea that God came down to us, He sent Himself as His Son to be on this earth with us, to suffer with us, to experience life with us, to know us intimately, and to demonstrate who He is.  We live in a ‘show me’ world today, and most of us think that if we got to see God it would be easier to believe; that if we got to experience God first hand, that we’d be ‘all in’.  You know, I think we get that wrong.  First off, when we think that, I can almost picture God sitting up in heaven thinking, “Well, I have already done that, I have already come down and spent years on the earth with people, and they didn’t believe Me until I was gone.”  And then we might say, “Well, that wasn’t me.”  Or we might say, “No, well, I mean, show up as God and I will believe, not at Jesus, not as a man.”  And to that I am sure God is probably thinking, “Have you read about when Moses saw me, how his face was turned to ash and he couldn’t hardly be in my presence without being overwhelmed?”.  See, I think we fail to recognize the magnitude of God.  We can only use the context of our life to imagine things about God; I think we just lack the ability to imagine what God is really like.

So, this morning, it is thankfulness that is in my mind from these verses...thankful that God came down and proved Himself to us.  The fact that we sometimes don’t think that proof goes far enough is on us...if His physical presence wasn’t enough to ‘prove’ He is who He says He is, then we have an unquenchable desire for proof.  I am thankful that He came with the balance of both Grace and Truth, and not just Truth as was His MO in the /old Testament.  I am thankful to live in the post-resurrection world, that I can have Jesus upon which to reflect, and the Holy Spirit as a companion.  I am just very thankful this morning.