Dr. Christopher Graham

Christmas 1 2025
Dr. Christopher Graham
John 1:1-18

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

In the name of the living God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

This morning, I want us to consider just these words from our gospel reading, because rightly understood they put an end to our unsettled waiting. You may recall that the promise of the one who would be born of a virgin to Ahaz and Joseph properly understood is one of unsettled waiting, because at the center is a God Almighty, full of power and might, the Lord of, who in his faithful love refuses to let his people remain faithless. In John 1, this morning, we hear of how this promise actually works out, and it is truly good news.

For the law was given through Moses, race and truth came through Jesus Christ. Our tendency, I think, for most of us, is to read these words of John through a rather simplistic rubric, law, bad, grace, good. At the least, this lops off other elements in this verse, namely, Moses and Jesus.

And at the most, this reading leads to a radical dualism that sets the God of Moses and the law and the Old Testament as the just legalistic God as different than the God of Jesus, the loving Father. In fact, I dare say some of us have a tendency to put a “but” into this verse where there is where John hasn’t put one. for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, but the “but” is not there. It is enough, I hope, to read the word words of one verse from the Old Testament, Exodus 246, to set this notion aside of this somehow law, bad, grace good, even as he is preparing to give the law, the Lord says this.

He proclaims, the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate, and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving-kindness and truth. The law is an expression of God. Justice, yes, but also truth and grace and law love and loving kindness.

Even the psalm that we read responsively this morning ends with a praise of the law.

“He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and ordinances to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances. Praise the Lord!” (Psalm 147:19–20, RSV2CE)

Praise the Lord! The law is something that is good for Israel and God’s people.

““Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.” (Matthew 5:17, RSV2CE)

So, if John’s point here is not to set the law, Moses, justice, the God of the Old Testament, against Jesus, grace, and truth in the New Testament, what is the point of John’s words here that we read in 1:17?

“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17, RSV2CE)

To answer, I want us to apply a technique that is called averted vision. Averted vision. I learned about this notion in the physical world when I was a cadet aboard ship, and I would have to shoot stars at night.

By the way, they don’t do it much anymore on ships, but we had to at least learn it in case all the NA systems went out. So we’d take our sexton out and we’d find a star at night, and we look for that star in order to get our navigation, our bearing. But the problem is, you know where the star is supposed to be.

Maybe it’s supposed to be a particularly bright star, and you know exactly where it’s supposed to be, but you can’t see it. So what do you do? You look a little to the right, you look a little to the left, and all of a sudden, as you do that, you can see it even when you can’t look straight at it and see it.

By the way, you may have experienced this when you’ve watched a balloon go up into the sky and at a point. It feels like it disappears, but then as you let your eyes relax and go to either side, you see the balloon again. It’s called averted vision.

There’s actually a term for that phenomenon. And that’s what I want us to do this morning to better understand these words in John by concentrating on something to the right, so to speak, and to the left, so to speak. On one side, I want us to look at John chapter 8, and I’ve asked that the words be printed in the front of your bulletin in the event you don’t have a copy of the scriptures with you. Most of us know this scene well, by the way. We may not even need these words, but it’s helpful to have them in front of us.

“They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”” (John 7:53–8:11, ESV)

Law is very much at play here in discussion about law. It says in verse 2, and early in the morning, he came again into the Temple, and all the people were coming to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. You know the story.

Jesus is seated. and the people are coming in them. And three, the scribes of the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery. And having to set her in the midst, they said to him the “Teacher, this is woman has been caught in adultery in the very act.”

“Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.” (John 8:5–6, ESV)

If there’s ever a legal scene into this, they have waited until Jesus was in the position of a judge. By the way, in the previous chapter, they just had this question about who does he think he is. This is very much a legal scene.

And indeed, they bring someone they have said is guilty. The law that Moses says this, what do you say? They were testing him, but Jesus stooped down to the earth and wrote with his finger in the dirt. But when they persisted in asking him, he straightened up and said, “He who is without sin throw the first stone.”

“And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”” (John 8:8–11, ESV)

You know, you’ve heard this before. But you’ve gotten hung up on wrong passage. I don’t know the passage you go back to. But it may be when He stoops down on the ground, write in the ground of the finger. You’re all asking yourself this question.

What’s the question? What did Jesus write?

In a way it is inconsequential. It is good news, by the way.

It is a news that we have of Jesus here in John chapter 7, who acts with love and with grace and with truth. That is good news. I aspire to be that sort of person that could do just that.

But there’s better news that gets even closer to the heart of the gospel. It’s not merely that Jesus is loving or that he is good. But to see that, we need to go to another passage, right?

We need to go back to John 1:17: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17, ESV)

We need to go back into Exodus. Specifically, where Moses goes up and receives the law.

You may remember in Exodus 19, Moses goes up. He goes up. And he receives the law. He went up and the Lord came down. The Lord writes with His finger on stone tablets, and he hands them to Moses. He takes the tablets that have been written on with the law, and he is told by the Lord, you need to get back down there.

Those people, they’re not too patient, and they’ve done some despicable things. So Moses goes back down.

While he’s down there, he breaks the tablets. He chastises the people, he rebukes them. Then he intercedes for them before God.

And Moses pleads that do not do that. And then Moses is called back up again. And again, the Lord write on the tablets with His finger, and Moses takes them back down.

You know that story. It is good news this morning that Jesus is at least and more than Moses as a prophet. At first glance, we may ask actually say that Jesus is recapitulating, redoing what Moses did.

That’s what they wanted him to do when he was in the sand. You’re making some pretty big waves of Jesus. I mean you in comparison to Moses.

Tell us who you are. And on one sense, we could say that Jesus does show that he is greater than Moses. But I think there’s even greater news this morning.

In fact, it’s the news, and it helps us understand even more clearly what John wants us to understand in John 1:17, for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Because back here in Exodus, Moses isn’t the only actor. Again, ask that words be printed in the front of your bulletin, and that’s there under John 8.

Again, Exodus 19, The Lord. came down to Moses. It’s not just Moses coming up, going down, coming up, going down. The Lord.

The Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top, and Moses went up. And then after the law is given in Exodus 31, in verse 18, and he, the Lord, gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone written with the finger of God. Did he test that?

You may have forgotten that in John 8, when Jesus stoops down, John tells us that Jesus wrote with his finger on the ground. But the finger of Jesus, in the ground, and the Lord comes down, and is what he has written with his finger. By the way, this is an interesting study, and we have a little spare time. Look through scripture.

When the finger of the Lord shows up, you best be paying attention. That’s the thing of the Lord is a very serious thing. By the way, it doesn’t just happen once in Exodus.

Yes, Moses goes down and then comes up, but notice the Lord verse 30, chapter 34 verses 1 to 2. Then the Lord said to Moses cut out for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. Be ready by the morning and come up in the morning to present yourself there to me on the top of mountains.

So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first, and he rose early in the morning, and he went up to Mount Sinai as the Lord commanded him and took in his hand two tablets of stone, and the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there and proclaimed him the name of the Lord. Friends, it is good news that we have a Jesus, and we read of a Jesus who is loving and good and kind. It’s even better that he does more than Moses did and has more authority than Moses did.

But friends, what John tells us in John 1:17 is that this one was we celebrate during Christmas is God himself coming down to us and manifesting grace and truth to us. We will confess in just a few moments for us and for our salvation, he came down. And this is fantastic language for us to confess.

It’s a consistent theme in the New Testament. I would just point out that here in John chapter 1, verse 17, that language that is often translated that he came is a very strong word. It’s actually more than just someone coming somewhere.

It’s actually the same word that’s used back in chapter 3 or excuse me, verse 3 of chapter 1, all things came into being. That verb came into being is the same word verb that’s used here in 1:17. Jesus doesn’t just come as a gracious one, a truthful one.

He brings “in his being” grace and truth. By the way, if you don’t believe me, then this afternoon, keep reading in John. Over and over and over again, John, sometimes through Jesus’s words, and sometimes, as commentary, repeats this theme about how Jesus is the one who has come down from heaven.

Let me just read a couple of verses from John chapter 6. Jesus then said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but my who gives you the bread from heaven. God.

They said him, sir, give us this bread always. Jesus said to him, “I am the bread who comes down from heaven. I am the one who is that which gives you water and you will never thirst.”

This, friends, is the good news of John 1. Moses gives the words of the Lord, Jesus is the word. Moses gives the law. Jesus is the realization of divine grace and truth. Moses gives the Tabernacle, Jesus is God tabernacling among us. Jesus is the very expression, the embodiment of glory, grace, and truth.

So what? The So what this morning? Besides being a point of fact that we celebrate is that this morning we approach and encounter that God.

This morning we not only confess but we approach and encounter a God “the same Lord whose character is always to have mercy.”

It is, then, because Jesus does not merely deliver words of grace and truth but is grace and truth, that Paul can say the words we heard from Galatians:“ If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. . .. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17, ESV)