Here is a man who, as the result of his recklessness and his gross vices, is suffering disease for which there is no cure. Not like the law for a people, but for the world (Matthew 11:28; John 3:16; 1 Timothy 2:4; Titus 2:11). Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ and it is to Him alone that we turn. It is a very substantial part of the gospel itself, and a part of the gospel exceptionally necessary in our times. There is a real Priest. She would come but poor speed, if she only sewed wi' the thread. "(2) Because He is the effect of it. You must be faithfully obedient to duty before you are fit to be a subject of grace. The Law disciplined wayward, uncultured man, making him ready for Christ. We cannot change it. Jesus turned no water to blood, smote no cattle with pestilence, bruised no fields With hail, gathered no clouds of locusts, wrapt no land in gross darkness, robbed no parents of their firstborn, overwhelmed no armies in the sea. 3. Law came by Moses, grace came by Jesus Christ. L.)Grace and truth by Jesus ChristW. All its institutions were elementary, visible, material illustrations of the spiritual realities, the very truth of things, which are ours in Christ. You must have been true to the better impulses of youth, that you may be, to the best advantage, a servant of the law of maturity. Morally, they are children all their lives. You must have been true to the better impulses of youth, that you may be, to the best advantage, a servant of the law of maturity. Spencer.One of the persecutors, in Queen Mary's days, pursuing a poor Protestant, and searching the house for him, charged an old woman to show him the heretic. Wordsworth.The Law was given, but grace came, because the one was sent by a servant, the other was brought by the Son.(Bp. L.)Moses and ChristT. Christ declares Himself ὁ ἄρτος ὁ ἀληθὶνος (John 6:32), not that the bread which Moses gave was not also "bread of heaven" (Psalm 105:40), but it was such only in a secondary inferior degree; it was not food in the highest sense, inasmuch as it did not nourish up into eternal life those that ate it (John 6:49). While we deal with the shadows of sin, the shadows of sacrifices and the shadows of priests may avail for us; but when the sin comes home to us in its reality, be sure of this, that only the sacrifice that is real and the Priest that is real will give us courage and peace. The Cross does not unbind the cords of accountability, but tightens and strengthens them. Others have wandered off into hopeless idolatries. 2. So with all of us; there comes a time when we feel that we cannot act by inclination, but must follow law. The Jewish Pentecost commemorated the giving of the Law on Sinai; our Pentecost, the baptism of the Spirit. Throughout the whole of this era, reaching from Adam to Joseph, there were beautiful virtues, flowering into the light by the spontaneous energy of nature, but poisoned in many spots by the slime of sensuality. If natural laws were supreme, men born blind would remain blind to the end of their days. Natural religion might possibly answer in the woods or in some solitary cell. Grace comes, grants us to begin with more than man had ever hoped for by perfect obedience, and grace tells man that, by an obedience he would never have been capable of before, he is to retain this great wealth and constantly to augment it. He opens the chest, and asks where the heretic was. Law, moral law, law as we know it — and I am using the word in its popular sense — begins by imposing duty. Abraham, Moses, Christ; impulse, discipline, faith; nature, law, gospel; instinct, obedience, grace; Mature, Sinai, Calvary; this is that Divine order — not bound by rigid rules of chronological succession, but having the free play and various intershadings of a moral growth — to which we are to conform our lives.(Bp. That is law. Light. But take Jesus Christ away, and grace and truth are gone; for these gifts have come by Him, and are closely united to His Person.(F. 3. "Never man spoke as this man." Recognize the truth, the reality that has come by Jesus Christ, and in the truth you will find grace. Sermon John 3:1-17 Losing Your Religion. There is a real sacrifice for sin, the eternal Son of God. But to infer that the methods of God are bound by the methods of nature is a false inference. Let us not despise law, for every day practical proofs are scattered before us that it is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. )TruthArchbishop Trench. All this is of the very essence of what we call law. There are some who are all truth who are not all that grace requires. Let me take another illustration. There is physical, historical, and moral truth; but I lay my hand on the Bible and say, "This is life eternal. The dispensation of NATURAL RELIGIOUS FEELING.1. Huntington.(cf. Others have wandered off into hopeless idolatries. He comes as both the kindest and ablest of physicians. Moses may disappear, the Law remains nevertheless; it is only given by him. )The purpose of the lawThe law threatened, not helped; commanded, not healed; showed, not took away, our feebleness. They think that Christ only came to make some things plainer to the world than they were before. It was so among the Judaising opponents of Paul. The principle of duty is that law. Then they become simply the natural consequences of what we have done, not the penal consequences. That is grace. We are conscious of fault, perhaps of something that ought to be described by a darker name. Now this relentlessness of nature forms men to think of God sometimes as relentless; for nature, they say, is the revelation of God. We can have health and strength, but only upon her conditions. The guilt is mine, and if I live for a thousand years it will be mine still." The drudgery of obedience is beautified into the privilege of reconciliation. "The patriarchal age" we call it. I entreat you to dismiss shadows, all shadows. 2. Christ declares Himself ὁ ἄρτος ὁ ἀληθὶνος (John 6:32), not that the bread which Moses gave was not also "bread of heaven" (Psalm 105:40), but it was such only in a secondary inferior degree; it was not food in the highest sense, inasmuch as it did not nourish up into eternal life those that ate it (John 6:49). — It is plain that the antithesis cannot be between the false and the true, but only between the imperfect and the perfect, the shadowy and the substantial. While we deal with the shadows of sin, the shadows of sacrifices and the shadows of priests may avail for us; but when the sin comes home to us in its reality, be sure of this, that only the sacrifice that is real and the Priest that is real will give us courage and peace. Look at all that is involved in this claim. And the glory of what Christ has achieved, and the revelation of grace which has come by Christ, is this, that while Christ has cancelled the old and infirm form of law, Christ creates a righteousness transcending all that law had demanded. Character needed a staunch vertebral column to secure its uprightness.2. Impulse must be controlled by principle, for it has proved itself insufficient. Moses a lawgiver; Christ a declarer of grace and truth. We cannot change it. L.I. We say, "No, it is impossible that I should ever escape. The fact that in John's writings the word ἀληθὶνος is used two and twenty times as against five times in all the rest of the New Testament, is one which we can scarcely dismiss as accidental. We have to take account of it in the conduct of life. Scripture: John 1:1-17. Galatians 3:6): —I. (4) Because He is the exemplifier of it. Christianity is not a teaching or point of view as if it was something to be given. )Grace and truthBp. — It is plain that the antithesis cannot be between the false and the true, but only between the imperfect and the perfect, the shadowy and the substantial. The universe is a great school for the discipline of the intellect and the virtue of mankind, and it could not be an effective discipline if the natural order were not constant. The Christian gospel declares that Christ suffered for them. Culross, D. D.)The one could only give the command, but the other supplies motives and strength to keep it. It was so among the Judaising opponents of Paul. He finds us in our sin. TO WHOM GIVEN1. Grace came by Jesus Christ. Brown, M. Moses was but the channel of communication between God and His people; Christ is the source of all our mercy. People do not see the glory of it, do not see what it means. It is a shadow, it produces no real change in a man. (1) Because He revealed it (ver. Godet, D. D.It is at this point that the Apostle for the first-time announces the great name so long expected. In proportion as the history of the mercies of the Word towards humanity unfolds before his view, the spectacle inspires him with terms even more concrete and more human. We must still be under discipline; but the Lawgiver is lost in the Redeemer. I entreat you to dismiss shadows, all shadows. Truth — there is an infinite suggestiveness in the way John puts the contrast between what Moses did and what Christ has done. W. Dale, M. Not obviously. Bad dispositions mix with good. Divine laws never looked so sacred as when they took sanctity from the redemption of the Crucified. Truth came by Jesus Christ. He is tried, enticed, besieged. The virtue in the Jewish sacrifices was outwardly derived; the virtue in the Atonement is the inward. Grace came by Jesus Christ. Judaism was evidently wanting in grace; it was wanting in reality too. The Loges of ver. "I am Jehovah thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Not only grace and truth, reality came by Jesus Christ. But take Jesus Christ away, and grace and truth are gone; for these gifts have come by Him, and are closely united to His Person.(F. The race was in childhood. The fact that in John's writings the word ἀληθὶνος is used two and twenty times as against five times in all the rest of the New Testament, is one which we can scarcely dismiss as accidental. Whitelaw, D. D.)The three dispensations in history and in the soulBp. Culross, D. D., G. J. Let us hold it right to our intellectual eye; not behind us, as the wicked do, they cast God's word behind them; not beside us, like the rich worldling that called to Christ — not to turn the back of the glass towards us, which is the very trick of all hypocrites; nor, lastly, to look upon ourselves in this glass when we are muffled, masked, or cased, for under those veils we cannot discern our own complexions. 3. Wordsworth. )Grace and truth one with ChristF. We must still be under discipline; but the Lawgiver is lost in the Redeemer. (1) The truth of performance in distinction from engagement. Christ reveals the actual truth. Nature, true enough, is always interesting; and spontaneous products may be beautiful. He does not merely say, "The law was given by Moses, grace came by Jesus Christ." We say, "No, it is impossible that I should ever escape. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. Jay.I. These outgrew the period of literal commandment. J. Bad dispositions mix with good. Let us begin with truth. a sermon on John 3:1-17 – Lent 2A. So, I think, when we're dealing wi' sinners, we maun aye put in the needle o' the law first; for the fact is, they're sleepin' sound, and they need to be awakened up wi' something sharp. In Christ, the gracious power of the Eternal revealed, not to one age only but to all ages, that nature is not supreme, but that God is supreme. We say, "No, it is impossible that I should ever escape. ( Augustine. The Word Became Flesh Christmas Eve. She would come but poor speed, if she only sewed wi' the thread. 1. Godet, D. D.The words "was given" imply the external and positive institution of the Law; "came" denotes grace and truth appearing historically in the very person of Him who is their essential source (ver. About the grace and the truth which have come through Jesus Christ, they know almost nothing. John Piper Nov 2, 2008 144 Shares Sermon. All this is of the very essence of what we call law. The thirty-two miracles of Christ were performed in mercy. Not like the law for a people, but for the world (Matthew 11:28; John 3:16; 1 Timothy 2:4; Titus 2:11).(W. But even when these remain their whole character is changed. Law came by Moses, grace came by Jesus Christ. He is miserably weak, sometimes he is in great pain. Love has cast out fear. )Grace comprehends all the perfections of the will; truth all the virtues of the understanding.(Dr. Nature may be relentless; God is not. But there is a THIRD DISPENSATION, and at the head of it one greater than Moses. The supernatural help.II. Christ does not abrogate law, but by His own life and sacrifice first satisfies its conditions. 4), and becoming realized in His life and communicated through Him. They are still under law, and are still surrounded by the unreal shadows of darkness. We do not see behind them a God that is punishing us for having done wrong, but a God who has pardoned us, and who is standing by us to discipline us by certain hard conditions of life to a higher perfection. (Bp. V. THE LIFE OF OBEDIENCE GOD REQUIRED FROM THE JEWS WAS EMBODIED IN A CODE OF LAWS; THAT OF THE CHRISTIAN IS IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST. Corresponding to this impulsive religious age of the race, is the natural state of the individual. We become stewards, and must give account of our stewardship. Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ. They are natural consequences of certain past events in the man's history; they are not the penal results of the man's vices. 4), and becoming realized in His life and communicated through Him. Dec 24, 1989. )The purpose of the lawThe law threatened, not helped; commanded, not healed; showed, not took away, our feebleness. 17 He is at length called Jesus Christ.(F. Moses only man; Christ the Son of God.2. Those of Moses were wrought by power derived from God; those of Christ by Himself. Galatians 3:6): —I. HOW THEY CAME.1. It feels heavily that it is not sufficient to itself. Impulse must be controlled by principle, for it has proved itself insufficient. He dismisses it at once, and will help you to mend your ways, will help you to break off evil habits, will help you to master evil passions, will help you to become pure, devout, and earnest about religion." And it was in the natural order itself that Christ by His miracles gave us this great discovery. So, too, the eternal word is declared to be τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν (John 1:9), not denying thereby that the Baptist was also "a burning and a shining light" (John 5:35), or that the faithful are "lights in the world" (Philippians 2:15; Matthew 5:14); but only claiming for a greater than all to be "the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Abraham, Moses, Christ; impulse, discipline, faith; nature, law, gospel; instinct, obedience, grace; Mature, Sinai, Calvary; this is that Divine order — not bound by rigid rules of chronological succession, but having the free play and various intershadings of a moral growth — to which we are to conform our lives. "(5) This is truth the most honourable to God, suited to man, most influential, most beneficent; and we do not wonder at Paul saying, "I count all things but loss," for the excellency of it.2. The drudgery of obedience is beautified into the privilege of reconciliation. That writing is the first grand chapter in the biography of man; and its very literary structure — so dramatic in contents, so careless of the rules of art, so like a child's story in its sublime simplicity — answers to the spontaneous period it pictures. Now this relentlessness of nature forms men to think of God sometimes as relentless; for nature, they say, is the revelation of God. GRACE.1. Next comes the LEGAL OR JUDICIAL stage.1. She will give us harvests, but we must pay her price, and her full price. Impulse must be controlled by principle, for it has proved itself insufficient. Godet, D. D.It is at this point that the Apostle for the first-time announces the great name so long expected. But even when these remain their whole character is changed. His condition is the natural result of his evil life, and since he brought it on himself by his vices, he feels that it is the penal result of his evil life. Righteousness and joy and peace is the character of His kingdom.II. [Gen 18:1-15 ESV] 1 And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. It acted from impulse. But there is a THIRD DISPENSATION, and at the head of it one greater than Moses. Culross, D. D.)The one could only give the command, but the other supplies motives and strength to keep it. )The purpose of the lawThe law threatened, not helped; commanded, not healed; showed, not took away, our feebleness. (1) Because He revealed it (ver. )The purpose of the lawThe law threatened, not helped; commanded, not healed; showed, not took away, our feebleness. Christ reveals the actual truth. To a people who nevertheless failed to keep it in its entirety for a single generation. CAME BY JESUS CHRIST.1. That is not merely part of the evidence of the gospel. He has to contend, struggle, resist. As sins they are forgiven. The twofold nature of the Divine Man.IV. And so in a higher region grace and law blend. Throughout the whole of this era, reaching from Adam to Joseph, there were beautiful virtues, flowering into the light by the spontaneous energy of nature, but poisoned in many spots by the slime of sensuality. Voluntarily submitting to certain rules for a time, our virtue is strengthened and finally becomes independent of them, so that it can go alone. It never occurred to them that it would not have been worth while for the eternal Word of God to become flesh in order to do that. Though grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, there are millions who have never heard of the Saviour. Grace came by Jesus Christ. It will either be a savour of life or a savour of death.1. We become stewards, and must give account of our stewardship. He does not say "Live righteously, and God will be at peace with you,", but "God is at peace with you, therefore bye righteously." Sermon John 13:1-17 True Love. "The patriarchal age" we call it. 5; as Son, ver. In proportion as the history of the mercies of the Word towards humanity unfolds before his view, the spectacle inspires him with terms even more concrete and more human. If the simple religious instincts of Abraham had been accepted for righteousness; if the law had been given by Moses, grace and truth enter in by Jesus Christ — grace for the heart, truth for the understanding.1. Life has put its harness upon us, and we must work in it. To do as we like would still be pleasant, but it is dangerous and false. Jesus brings the Law just as vigorously as Moses; but he brings more than Law. The enlarging soul of the race asks a freer, more sincere, more vital nurture, and it comes. The universe is a great school for the discipline of the intellect and the virtue of mankind, and it could not be an effective discipline if the natural order were not constant. By Dr. Keith Wagner I know of some ministers who actually practice “foot washing” during worship. That writing is the first grand chapter in the biography of man; and its very literary structure — so dramatic in contents, so careless of the rules of art, so like a child's story in its sublime simplicity — answers to the spontaneous period it pictures. So, too, the eternal word is declared to be τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν (John 1:9), not denying thereby that the Baptist was also "a burning and a shining light" (John 5:35), or that the faithful are "lights in the world" (Philippians 2:15; Matthew 5:14); but only claiming for a greater than all to be "the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." John 3:1-17 . Take her traditions, rites of saints, miracles, infallibility — what are these but lying wonders? Now this relentlessness of nature forms men to think of God sometimes as relentless; for nature, they say, is the revelation of God. L.I. )Grace and thruth came by Jesus ChristW. )LinksJohn 1:17 NIVJohn 1:17 NLTJohn 1:17 ESVJohn 1:17 NASBJohn 1:17 KJVJohn 1:17 Bible AppsJohn 1:17 ParallelJohn 1:17 Biblia ParalelaJohn 1:17 Chinese BibleJohn 1:17 French BibleJohn 1:17 German BibleJohn 1:17 CommentariesBible Hub, (2)Energy.(3)Patriotism.2. They are still under law, and are still surrounded by the unreal shadows of darkness. Natural religion might possibly answer in the woods or in some solitary cell. Culross, D. D.)The one could only give the command, but the other supplies motives and strength to keep it. What is antinomianism, but a lie? Tag Archives: Progressive Christian sermon John 3:1-17 What term of endearment do you use when you whisper sweet nothings in the ear of this God that you love? No longer change in a higher region grace and the truth which have come through Jesus Christ. not charity... God does not abrogate law, making him ready for Christ. ( Dr know but what call! 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