Who is Jesus? part 14

The introductory song that begins John’s Gospel beautifully encapsulates the essence of the message, reflecting on the richness of what has come before. As I focus on verse 16, I’ve also included verse 14 to highlight the clarity in the reasoning, allowing us to see the flow of thought without the John the Baptist interlude.

A new word is introduced here, which is not found in the first part of the song. Can you see what it is?

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth… ¹⁶ And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

John 1: 14, 16 ESVUK

Absolutely! Grace is the new buzzword! It’s like the divine three-course meal where you get glory as the starter, grace as the main dish, and truth as the dessert, all rolled into one spectacular person who just popped down to Earth! Bon appétit!

This far into the song, you can start to feel the beautiful poetic pattern unfolding: it is a chiasm. Chiasm, which means crossing over, is a structure found in nearly all Psalms, where similar ideas are echoed in reverse order. This song is meant to be a joyful expression of praise; rather than getting lost in the complex depths of its philosophical meaning—though it surely touches on profound thoughts—we are encouraged to simply sing, “God is among us,” and let our hearts shout Woohoo!

But is there one grace or two? “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.” That’s verse 16 in the New International Version. Grace in place of grace is different from grace upon grace in the ESV. The context next verse makes the context clear, yes we are being given more grace, but it is a different and better grace than the grace already given. This can be overlooked because the next verse contains the big reveal. But that’s for the next post…

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