Food for Thought by David Jackson

Learning how to receive (John 1:16-18)

My, how time flies! Just a month ago we were in the season of giving and receiving gifts, and now we have passed through the time of returns and considering how to pay for the extravagance of last month. Time marches on, and an entire month has ticked away.

I enjoy the feelings that come with giving, but the receiving is a challenge to me. It is embarrassing to be on the receiving end. Thoughts like “I don’t deserve this,” and “You spent too much” flood my mind. It is just hard to accept something from one I love.

How does God feel about his gift to us, and how do we feel to receive it? John says, “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” John literally wrote, “we have received grace after grace.” Have you ever heard someone say, “You can’t outgive God?” How can we equal this gift?

Well, here’s why we can’t. It’s all about Jesus Christ, the “in the beginning” Word, becoming flesh to show us what God is like. While we can’t see God, Jesus shows us what he is like, and how he relates to us. God gives “grace after grace,” grace on top of grace, more and more grace, more grace than you can imagine, “from the fullness of his grace.”

In the beginning he made us in his image, a little lower than the angels, to rule over his creation. But because of our own willfulness, our efforts to do life on our own, we failed to be what he made us. So, we deserve death. Pure and simple. Case closed. 

Except for God. He is pure grace, and so we receive grace after grace by what Jesus shows us about God. “The law was given through Moses” and it taught us about sin; “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,” and he taught us about God’s love for sinners. The truth about us is we failed; the truth about God is revealed in “the One and Only,” who became flesh and is now “at the Father’s side.”

What is he doing there? He is interceding for us (Rom. 8:34), he is the eternal atonement for our sins, and he is supplying us with God’s grace so that our sins are forgiven. We, you and I, are forgiven of our sins. “Grace after grace.” Weep in gratitude for this unimaginable gift from the source of all grace. Express pure joy in worship for what God has done for us and anticipate thanking him in person when this life is over.

Paul’s summary of the gospel is this: “I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38, 39). Go into the new year with the confidence that God’s grace through faith in Jesus is more powerful than anything else in your experience.