Grace is the pipeline—the inexhaustible well—through which we receive all that God wants to give us (i.e. the greatness of Christ, the greatness of his love, the greatness of the gospel). But this isn’t just a concept to be understood, it’s a reality to be lived into.

There is no parallel anywhere else in the world’s religions to the sympathetic presence of God in Christ sharing our human struggle with us. Our God was not immune to human suffering. Therefore, ‘Christmas can only be understood as a wonder’ — Karl Barth.

No one had ever seen God in a full/complete way until Jesus revealed him (1:18) — The world still cannot see God except through Jesus’ through his witnesses (i.e. his Church/disciples) modeling their lives after the character of Jesus (John 13:35, 17:21-23; 1 John 4:12).

Jesus is eternally one with the Father—the very Word of God (John 1:1–2), God’s agent in creating all things (vv. 3–4). And as he spoke light and brought life into the dark void of pre-creation chaos, so Jesus brings light and life into the dark world of sin and death.

What we see in Jesus, the creator of all things, is both the joy of creating itself and the love of sharing it with others. Our understanding of and belief in Jesus as the Creator is an indispensable attribute to our ability to mirror his creativity as image bearers.

In vv. 1-2, John is saying the gospel reveals that the meaning of life isn’t an abstract idea or to “find what makes you happy and do it” (like the Greeks believed), but to be in a relationship with the creator of the universe — an idea as mind-boggling as it is wonderful!

“The sermon, therefore, is not a list of requirements, but rather a description of the life of a people gathered by and around Jesus. [The] Church, then, forms the context for the ethic of Jesus.” — Stanley Hauerwas

God invites us to seek Him… He shows us the road to travel… And He provides the spiritual nourishment for the journey. But these will do us little good unless we make time in our hurried, distracted lives to use them.

Contrary to what Dan Brown or other 21st Century pseudo-scholars may argue, the Bible was not haphazardly or nefariously collected into a book of pet-doctrines by an elitist patriarchy! It was much more intellectually, theologically, historically, and spiritually informed.