In John 1:17 we read, “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.”
Two words have been on my mind a lot lately, the word love and the word grace.
When it come to the word love, I’m convinced that the best substitute word that defines it is the word helpfulness. So that when we read that, “God is love.” (1 John 4:16) I understand that as, God is pure helpfulness.
The word grace, on the other hand, in the Bible seems to focus on something freely given. So when we read that salvation is by grace, I take that to mean salvation is freely given.
Now let’s put the two concepts of God is love and God's grace together. Here’s what I think we get: together they mean God’s helpfulness freely given. In fact, I think that serves as a good definition for the word grace. God, being in essence love, is represented by the word helpfulness and his help is freely given.
With that in mind, let’s consider John 1:17 — “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.”
It’s not that there was no law after Jesus or no grace or truth before him, but that Jesus is the perfect embodiment of grace, that is, God’s help freely given, and is the source of all that is true.
So all the help we could ever need at any time for anything is found and freely given to us in Christ. And everything we need to know, the truth about how to act, what to think, or how to get along with others is also found in Christ, in whom “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Colossians 2:3)
Hence, the supreme value and total sufficiency of learning to talk with him and walk with him as friend with friend.
