Grace and Truth
An addendum to John Chapter 8
And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. (John 8:23)
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The Foundation of Grace and Truth
Put aside all your cares, put aside all your preconceived thoughts, put aside the world, and let’s drift back to the fullness of time when God was manifested in the flesh, and the heartbeat of heaven descended to walk amongst men. The breath of heaven was breathed upon all men, and the words of grace and truth although spoken softly reverberated throughout the history of mankind as thunder and lightning. The foundation of grace is in the truth and the truth is in Jesus.
The Law that the Pharisees loved to proclaim was only an empty shell of the Law that was given by Moses at mount Sinai. Sin had robbed the world and the Jews of any obedience to God. The Law of the Pharisees was a result of the failure of the judges, the failure of the priesthood, the failure of the kingdoms and of its kings, and NOW in the day of Christ (under the perverted Law of the Pharisees) they were powerless in the presence of Grace and Truth. Only God could say to any man, go, and sin no more. (John 8:11)
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The Administrator of Grace and Truth in Sovereignty
The power of truth is in its Administrator of grace, He who is the Author and Finisher of faith gives that spark of life, faith, in the heart of the believer when they cry, Lord, I believe. (Mark 9:24; John 9:38, 11:27) There is a brightness in the countenance of the heart of the redeemed. God was IN Christ redeeming the world unto Himself, and this Redeemer has chosen His sheep to walk in His divine pastures with Him making His presence known in every heart of every believer of the Lord Jesus Christ. The administration and power of grace comes from the most trusted and worthy source, the source of all truth: God’s dear Son, the Son of His love. Hereby we receive the love of God for Christ who died for us.
There is no other who has divine life full of power and endless glory. He lives in the power of His endless life. And this endless life of righteousness (in both deed and thought) is the foundation on which He stands and ministers all power from His inward omnipotence and sovereignty. The word sovereignty has been minimized by the world. It has been minimized by the Church. It has been minimized by false servants: the ministers of Satan. In the case of God’s sovereignty nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken away from it. The very words and revelations that He has expressed to man are from His sovereign mind and from His sovereign heart. All things come from Him, and all things are made up from Him. God is the ONLY ONE who has complete sovereignty over His own Being. There has not been anyone born of Adam who has been able to be sovereign over his own being because of sin.
In the gospel of John, Chapter 1, when the Spirit of God tells us that the Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, the Spirit was actually dividing the Law from grace and truth. For the law was given by Moses, [but] grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. (John 1:17) Although the Lawgiver was the possessor of grace and truth, He had come as the Redeemer of man, not to condemn them, but to show them a path of life, eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. In the sovereignty of God there could be no corrupting force, and since Christ was manifested as the Godhead bodily, He and He alone stands in all holy and righteous perfection in ALL of the creation. And the light of His countenance both SEEN and indwelt magnifies that perfection in the heart of every believer that He is the perfect Savior, He is the perfect Sovereign, and He is the perfect Creator both in heaven and in the earth. The corrupt Law of the Pharisees and Sadducees could not stand in the presence of Grace and Truth.
I always find it interesting that at that point in time the Lord Jesus picked the treasury in the Temple to minister to the people, the truth of God. These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come. (John 8:20) For in His devotedness man would say He, as the Son of man, was impoverished for He told us that the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man had nowhere to lay His head.
This woman that was cast down by man was lifted up by grace and truth. He cleansed her within, something the Law could not do. The Law could only condemn her to death, but grace and truth gave her life.
Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. (John 8:1) And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. (John 8:2) And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, (John 8:3) They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. (John 8:4) Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? (John 8:5)
Now the Chapter begins with this scene, and then through the Chapter we see the twisted hearts of men. They are exposed with the same heart of their father the devil. They have been the ministers of the lies of the devil, and they are tools in the hands of the devil as murderers. Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.(John 8:59) Just read this last verse in Chapter 8 to understand the fury within their hearts. They were so infuriated with the Man from heaven that they stooped down and picked up rocks to stone Him. And what happens next is totally supernatural, yet man denies this because man cannot conceive of a Sovereign Supernatural God. The Lord Jesus simply took that power of sovereignty over His own Being and became INVISIBLE and passed through the midst of them . . . but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. Walking through the wall of their hatred and the impregnable sin that was in them nothing could stop the Son of God until He laid down His own life on the cross of Calvary. As they held the stones in their hands their target simply VANISHED and walked through the midst of them unseen. As He had power over the wind, and the waves of the sea, and could walk upon the very waves of the darkness of the deep, He showed ANOTHER proof of His Being the manifest image of God by walking through the midst of them. He had VANISHED and they and no other man could ever or would ever have power over Him.
Their Law again was powerless in the presence of divine Grace and Truth. As this Chapter began with the Pharisees and the scribes wanting to stone the woman for her sinful act, the Chapter ends with the people (including the Pharisees and scribes) eagerly wanting to stone the perfection of God in Jesus Christ. Grace and truth could not enter into their hearts for they had hardened their hearts with the works of their father the devil. It was a fact, and both the Pharisees and the scribes KNEW, that it was against their Law to stone anyone within the Temple grounds, and yet, we perceive their perverted hearts in the attempt to stone the woman, and then in trying to stone Grace and Truth. So also today, within the walls of buildings there are many trying to stone the Godhead bodily in Jesus Christ. It was NOT Adam in Christ redeeming the world unto himself. It was the holy Man from above who was NOT of this world (I am not of this world ) who came in divine majesty to appeal to the hearts of man through His grace and His truth.
Under the conditions of today, man is lawless. He is doing what is right in his own eyes, but ONE who has greater authority is watching man, and watching all men with His divine eyes. Those of you who cling to some measure of the Law will one day be judged by THAT Law, and Grace and Truth will condemn you at His great white throne. The Law (represented by the Pharisees and the scribes) had to remove themselves from the presence of the woman and from the presence of the Judge of all the earth. The Lord Jesus looked upon these wicked men and said to them, He who is without sin let that man, that person, cast the first stone. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.(John 8:7) They who had accused the woman stood in the presence of divine Authority for He, the Lord Jesus, who is above is above all.
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The Divine Sovereign
I am from above – I am not of this world
In the course of His life every act, every word, every miracle, every thought, every action portrayed His divine sovereignty over all things. One of His first acts of sovereignty was to put the devil in his place when the devil tempted Him showing His sovereignty over the devil and over sin. Later, after His death on the cross and His burial, He proved His sovereignty over sin by His sovereignty over death in His resurrection; thus, He has opened the door of liberty for us through His death on the cross. If the son shall set you free, ye shall be free indeed. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32) They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? (John 8:33) If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. (John 8:36)
It was neither a good man, nor a great man, nor any man who is of Adam who set us free IN HIMSELF. It was the divine Master and Sovereign, the GODMAN who set us free IN HIMSELF for we (who have put on Christ) are part of His divine righteousness, and the cloak, the garment of His divine righteousness, covers all our sin. We are completely clothed from the very first moment that we believed to the last breath that we take on this planet for we are clothed in the love of God’s dear Son, for God is love. Notice the importance of when Christ proclaimed with a loud voice from the cross that IT IS FINISHED that those who heard those words were not only the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the rulers of the people, but people from the four corners of the earth (who had come in obedience to God to keep the Passover) all heard His words, and we still hear His words today, IT IS FINISHED. Throughout all times, past, present and future, this was the most important obituary ever given for in those words were sealed all the elect of God for as Christ said to His disciples, Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. (John 15:16)
John Chapter 8 is an overlay of the battle ground of all the traits of both man and the devil. Man appeals to the Law but does not obey the Law, instead, he obeys the lies of his father, the devil. Man, then and today, will acknowledge the sins of others, but refuses to look inside his own sinful heart. He will pledge and condemn the life of others, according to the Law of his father, the devil, and he refuses to confess his own guilt before God but will not lay down his own life in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, man today carries his own sin under his own self-righteous Law as a weight that will not let him ascend to heaven. He relishes in the Law of his own heart in condemning others, but will not condemn himself under his own Law, his law, man’s Law is his weapon to excuse his own sin. Although he condemns others by that Law (as we have seen in our own government) that those who are most guilty condemn others but not themselves. And when it comes to the Law of God, and I will simplify it for you: write down the ten commandments and then apply them to your own heart. The majority will rationalize, or they will simply make an excuse for their trespasses against God. The ten commandments were given so that all men would keep them before their faces, keep them in their minds, and obey them with their hearts. He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. And yet today, just as the Pharisees and the Sadducees, man would rather walk away from Grace and Truth with his own sin then to repent and call on the name of the Lord. To make all things clean and clear the Holy Spirit declared that there is only ONE Justifier of man before God, and it is the name and Person of the Godhead bodily by whom we must be saved. And this name of JESUS, Savior, God’s Christ, is the name above all names, for our great High Priest has been made higher than the heavens. He made Himself INVISIBLE and passed through the midst of them, and He is passing by you right now, and I beseech you in Christ’s stead, Be ye reconciled to God.
To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:26)
And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:39)
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. (Romans 3:28)
Amen.
Copyright 2023, Michael Haigh
Article may be used, but not for gain. Freely ye have received, freely give.
All Scripture references are from the King James Bible. (KJB)