Superseding Grace | John 1:16-17

INTRODUCTION

We live in a performance-driven world, where acceptance often hinges on what we achieve or merit, the idea of grace stands as a profound counter-narrative. Apostle John introduces us to a radical paradigm shift—a grace that not only forgives our failures but lavishly bestows blessings beyond our deserving. Unlike the human behavior of “I will accept you if you do this to me,” the superseding grace of Jesus Christ offers a refuge. It’s an embrace that says, “You’re cherished not because of what you do, but because of who you are in Him.” Today, let’s dive into the transformative depths of this grace that surpasses expectations, redefines acceptance, and invites us into a realm of unmerited favour.

John 1:14

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:16-17

6Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Karl Barth in his lectures in Princeton. After his lecture he was asked by one student, “Sir, don’t you think that God has revealed himself in other religious and not only in Christianity?”

Barth thundered:

“No. God has not revealed himself in any religion including Christianity. He has revealed himself only in his Son.” – Karl Barth

The source of God’s Blessings to us: Grace out of Jesus’ fullness. From the fulness of Jesus, all have received grace.

Everything Points To Christ in John:

• Jesus is the Word of God; v1
• Jesus is God; v1
• Jesus is the creator; v3
• Jesus is life; v4
• Jesus is the true light that gives light to every person; v9
• Jesus became flesh and made his dwelling among us, v14
• Jesus is sent from God; v14
• Jesus is God’s only and only Son, v14
• Jesus born after John pre-existed John in a mysterious way, v15
• Jesus is the Lord, v23
• Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, v29
• Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit; v33
• Jesus is God’s Chosen One, v34
• Jesus is the Messiah; v41
• Jesus is the one of whom all the prophets and Moses spoke, v45
• Jesus is the king of Israel; v49
• Jesus is the Son of God; 49

It is from the fullness of his being, the inexhaustible reservoir of his sufficiency that meets all of our needs.

Apostle Paul also talks in the same lines:

Colossians 2:9-10

9For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

So the fullness of God dwells in Christ. Everything we could possibly need is in Jesus.

John 1:16

Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.

Grace meaning: The word ‘grace’ is also called ‘blessing’ or ‘favour’ or ‘a gracious gift.’ This is the kind of blessing you get that you don’t deserve, that is in spite of your merit. That is what grace is. That blessing of grace comes from Jesus.

Ephesians 1:3

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

All that remains for us to see God is for the scales removed from our eyes to see Jesus and our heart inclined to believe in Jesus.

What is the character of the blessings we have received?

Grace

Frist Possibility of Grace: It can be waves of grace, iterative, repetitive grace. Just an endless infinite outpouring of grace. We receive that on a regular basis.

Second Possibility of Grace: It can also be seen as a succession of two graces. There is the first grace and then grace on top of grace. The second grace just overtopping the first. The background of our text talks about such a grace, succession of two graces, superseding grace.

Parallels from Exodus 33 & 34

Most commentators say that John is alluding to the grace on top of grace that Moses had. The parallel of this then comes from Exodus 33 and 34.

Israel had received the law on Mount Sinai. Moses had already been privileged to be the mediator of God’s people. He already has the grace of having already received the law along with his fellow Israelites. But because of Israel’s sin on the foot of Mount Sinai, worshipping the golden calf, Moses has now gone back up the mountain in order to make intercession for the people. This is what he says in Exodus 33:

Exodus 33:13

If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor (grace) with you.

It is grace on top of grace that he is praying for. He already has the grace and now he is asking for favour or grace with God. Now he wants something even better, something more, and that is the grace of knowing God, having to see the glory of God.

Exodus 33:18

18Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

19And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

Here the echo of our text from John that no one has ever seen God, but God the one and only who is at the Father’s side, who has made him known. The interest of grace on top of grace is not just knowing the will of God but entering into this relationship with God where God now reveals himself to us in our full unhindered self-disclosure.

In Exodus 34 God actually comes down.

Exodus 34:5-7

5Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. 6And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

John 1:14

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:17

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

So what we have here is grace upon grace, an escalating grace. As there was grace in the giving of the law, there was an escalation in the giving of God’s self-revelation on Sinai.

For Moses it was just partial as God explains no one can see me and live, so Moses had to hide in the cleft of a rock, God in terms of this metaphor covers him over with his hand, passes by and then removes his hand so that Moses can just see his back side. The revelation of (“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation”) is like a setting ray of the sunset, compared to the Sun in fully glory, he get to see it only partially and provisionally.

John talks about then how we receive from Christ the fullness of grace, we have received one grace on top of the other.

Relationship John 1:14-18 to Exodus 33-34

All this wording seem to be anticipated by the relationship of Moses to God in Exodus 33. Moses is meeting with God in the tent of meeting and as he comes to the camp after that his face is glowing because he has been in the glory of God. Moses feel inadequate to lead God’s people and asks God, “show me your glory.”

3 Examples Of Grace Upon Grace – Superseding Grace

1. Law of Moses to Jesus.
2. John to Jesus.
3. From Creation to New Creation

1. Grace from Law to Jesus.

John 1:16-17

16Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17For the law was given through Moses (that is one grace); grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (that is grace upon grace).

The OT law was considered the truth.

Psalm 119:160

All your words are true… (OT writings)

Jesus considered the OT revelation to be truth.

John 17:17

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

The OT is truth. For Jesus, the word is the OT. The OT is filled with the messages of grace and truth. John now says that law points to the Jesus. But it is as nothing compared to the reality, just as Moses prayed for grace on top of grace when God would reveal himself to him we get it all in fullness when God has revealed himself to us through Jesus Christ.

The law points to Christ.

Matthew 5:17-18

¹⁷“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

Jesus enables us to live by the Law.

We have received grace after grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. May our lives prove it. So law is God’s grace and greater grace comes through Jesus Christ.

2. Grace from John to Jesus.

John 1:27

He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

John 1:15-16

15(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.

John 1:30

This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’

John is a gracious gift from God. There had been 400 years of prophetic silence.

Amos said:

Amos 8:11

“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,

“when I will send a famine through the land—

not a famine of food or a thirst for water,

but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.

Israel had not heard of a prophet for 400 years. At last God in his mercy sent John as a precious gift to preach the good news as we read in Luke 3:18

Luke 3:18

And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

He preached the gospel. He spoke about the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Is that not grace, is that not truth? That is what God gave us in John. He is the capstone of the prophets. All the prophets prophesied until John.

But once you get a hold of how good that grace is, wait until you get the grace on top of grace. As wonderful as John is, far more surpassing is one to whom John points ‘the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’ John’s greatest comfort was with any of his disciples would leave him and go to Jesus, John would say:

John 3:30

“He must become greater; I must become less.”

3. Grace from Creation to New Creation

In John 1, God is the creator of the universe and he did it through the word of God who is Christ, the word of God incarnate. That creation is like ‘Act 1.’ How many of you like creation?

We saw that the creation was done through Jesus.

Both Genesis and John address the problem of darkness and God addresses the problem of darkness by shining the light into it.

Genesis 1:2-3

2Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

It is so good. But wait until you see recreation. The point is not to disparage or disregard creation but to help us understand that creation is a warmup for what is to come in the new creation.

Two ways to look at recreation or new creation: Spiritual & Physical: Salvation and New Heaven and New Earth. Jesus is the agent of creation and also the agent of New Creation.

Salvation:

John 1:4-5

⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Spiritual light is like physical light. Not that we disparage or disregard physical light, when the sun rises we know what a scene that is. But it is nothing compared to the spiritual life that nurtures us in our spiritual life.

John 8:12

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Climaxing with the agency of the Word of God that is prominent in Genesis and in the Gospel of John.

In Genesis God creates by his word. He speaks the universe into existence with his word. God created the universe with the agency of the Spirit that was hovering over the waters and the Word. When you speak breath comes out. So also when Jesus spoke to his disciples after his resurrection and said:

John 20:22

And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

There is this connection over and over with the Word and the Spirit. The Spirit is the animating power of God and his Word is what accomplishes it. He breathed into man and he became a living being.

John 6:63

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit^[ and life.

John 6:68

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Christ’s word is a life-giving word, new life, spiritual life.

2 Corinthians 4:6

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”  made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

So when on believe in Jesus, you are moving from law to grace in Jesus Christ. The new creation happens only through Jesus.

Jesus Christ, the Agent of New Creation at his second coming.

We are yet to see the greater grace through Jesus at the New Creation. That is what we are anticipating and waiting for.

Matthew 19:28

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Revelation 21;1-7

¹Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

⁵He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

⁶ He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. ⁷Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. ⁸But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

That is what grace upon grace looks like. We find the superseding grace in Jesus. We have greater grace from Law to Jesus, from John to Jesus, and from creation to new creation.

Indispensable Benefits Of Superseding Grace In Jesus

What does it matter that Jesus is the true incarnate God, the Son of God in flesh?

We have indispensable benefits that come to us. Let me mention just a few.

1. We Have The Assurance Of The Immeasurable Love Of God

John 14:8

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

John 14:10

Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? 

We now have the basis of assurance of the immeasurable love of God.

“Many of us wonder, “Does God love us?’ What does God think about illness, disasters, and suffering that overtake mankind? What does God think about my loved one’s cancer? What about the heartbreaks that we experience from the rejection of others. We don’t know about God’s perspective on human suffering until we look at Jesus. And when we look at Jesus he never saw a sickness that he liked.

He never saw a case of pain and suffering that he welcomed. Over and over in every human situation we see that he was moved to compassion to heal the sick, the cleanse the lepers, to open the eyes of the blind, to feed the hungry, to comfort and teach the ignorant. I do not know why God allows suffering, but I know a God who knows why. I see it in Jesus Christ. Every single time Jesus was moved with human suffering. I do not know why God allows all these, but I know that this was not God’s plan and he has come to deliver us from these sufferings. God hates human suffering because of the fallenness of the world.

Isaiah 63:9

In all their distress he too was distressed,

2. We Recognize The Enormity Of Our Sin

We never know of our sin until we come to Jesus. We all feel good about ourselves. But when we come to Christ, the scales of self-good get removed from our eyes and we see ourselves as a sinful person. We recognize that we are living in darkness.

John 1:10

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

Can you imagine not recognizing the creator of the universe? Not giving him your life immediately? The world is living in rebellion and wickedness that reject Christ.

Paul when he was confronted with Jesus was changed in his life. At the very peak of his religiosity he was offending God. When Jesus called him from heaven, “Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?”

Your response to Jesus is the acid test of your spiritual condition. “If God were your Father you would love me, because here I am.” It is only with the help of the Lord Jesus Christ that our scales will be removed.

It is only with the grace of God we can say, “I have sinned.”

They are many who say, “I have sinned.”

• Pharoah said, “I have sinned.”
• Balaam said, “I have sinned.”
• Judas said, “I have sinned.”

It is only David who said, “I have sinned against you and you only.” Referring to the God before whose eyes he lived and to whom he is accountable.

It is only when you realize the work of Jesus on the Cross we can recognize our sin and see the dept and penalty of our sin. When you look at the remedy you look at how grave the illness of sin might have been for Jesus to go to the cross.

If Jesus was only a man, then his death on the cross can only pay for the sin of one man. It is because he is God incarnate that his life of perfect obedience secure the righteousness that every one of us can be clothed in the righteousness of Christ so that when God looks at us he sees the record of obedience of Jesus that gives us eternal. When Jesus dies on the cross, he pays for all, all our sins in full.

1 Peter 1:18-21

18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

3. Because Jesus Is God, You Don’t Have To Live Your Christian Life Alone

He is God who can say, “I will be with you till the end of the age.” He ___ will give you power to live for him.

In the book, ‘Imprisoned for Christ’ by Kulichev shares how at one point God enabled him to courageously to resist his interrogators by saying this: “I prefer to be in prison with Jesus “(You say Jesus died 2000 years ago, no he is alive and well. Because he is God in his resurrection, he makes now his home in our hearts by his Spirit). “I prefer to be in prison with Jesus than to be free without him. Even if I were to be with my family and back in the pulpit there would be no satisfaction if I were outside of God’s will.”

Then Kulichev quotes a popular Bulgarian hymn, “The prison becomes a palace when I am there with Christ.”

May that be so for whatever prison we may find ourselves in.