Jn.1:16 – And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.
Jn1:16 – TPT – And now out of his fullness we are fulfilled! And from him we receive grace heaped upon more grace!
2 Cor.3:18 – But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
John told us, “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”. In the previous verse John said, “And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.” John is making the point that what we receive through Christ far surpasses the law and the ministry of Moses. All Moses and the law could do is point us to Christ. Now that He has come we can behold the Lord as David sang about by looking upon Jesus. The primary way we do this is in God’s written word, we behold Christ in the Word of God and why not, He is the Word of God. As we behold Christ in His word the miracle of transformation takes place. The Word of God transforms us from one degree of glory to the next as we set our affections on Christ. Here is how the REC commentary describes this.
“What, then, are we beholding when we behold the glory of the Lord? Hebrews 1:3 says about Jesus, ‟He is the radiance of the glory of God.” Like Moses in the tent of meeting, with unveiled faces through the work of Jesus and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we get to behold Jesus in all his glory. The word ‟beholding” is related to the word for ‟mirror,” and the idea is that we are beholding the glory of the Lord as it is radiantly reflected in the gospel, in contrast to looking at the veiled old covenant with its fading glory. The glory of the Lord that we behold as communicated in the gospel far surpasses the glory of the old covenant.”
David famously sang, “One thing have I desired of the Lord and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord…” Today, we have a clearer picture of who David was talking about, Jesus is the declaration and image of God. Looking upon Christ in His word and in worship brings us into the place of miracles; this is the place lives are drastically and permanently changed.
