In the same chapter John declares that this One who is the Word and who is God and who became flesh and who is the tabernacle is also the Lamb of God (v. 29). He is both the tabernacle and the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God no doubt signifies the offering. The Lamb of God is the basic offering. Among all the five offerings the most basic one is the sin offering. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is the sin offering. Here it says sin in the singular number, not sins in the plural number. In the New Testament the singular sin indicates something deeper within our nature, not just our outward conduct. Matters of our outward conduct are sins which are trespasses. But this is the sin which is the very source, the very root, of all our sins. It is in our nature. So the Lamb of God here is a sin offering. In the opening chapter of the entire Gospel of John you have the tabernacle, and you have the offerings. Both of these items are just one Person by the name of Jesus Christ.
When this Person came, grace came. Grace was not given as the law was given. The law in the Old Testament was given through Moses. But grace came along with this Person. When this Person came, grace came because He is just grace. He tabernacled among us full of grace and from His fullness we all received grace upon grace!
In the past we have pointed out that grace is just Christ Himself, but if Christ had never been the offerings, He could never be the grace to us. For Christ to be grace to us, He has to be the offerings.
Many Christians love John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that every one who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” But few Christians have noticed that this verse begins with the little word “for.” In the New Testament “for” is a very important word. It indicates that something which has gone before needs further definition. This means you have to go back to verse 15. Verse 15 reads, “That every one who believes in Him may have eternal life.” A number of the different versions of the Bible use a paragraph sign between these two verses, indicating that verse 16 is a new beginning. But to separate verse 16 from verse 15 is a big mistake. Verse 15 begins with the word “that” which also indicates that you need to refer to something preceding. This means you have to go back to verse 14.
Verse 14 says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” To get the proper meaning you have to put all three of these verses together. The Lord Jesus came as the tabernacle among people, but if He had never been lifted up on the cross, He could never be grace to us. So grace is the incarnated Christ offered on the altar as our offerings. The incarnated Christ crucified on the cross became grace to us. If He had only been incarnated to be the tabernacle and was abiding among men, but had not been crucified, He could not be grace to us. If He were only incarnated and not crucified, how could we partake of Him? How could He be our portion?
In chapter one you have the word grace, and in 3:16 there is the word gave. Giving is a gift, and a gift is a grace. The Greek word, charis, can be translated into both gift and grace. It is a gift, and the gift is grace. Grace is God’s giving. God has given us His only begotten Son on the cross. Without being crucified Christ could never be given to us. Without His being crucified we cannot partake of Christ. Hallelujah! He was crucified! He was given. Actually, the giving was the crucifixion. It was on the cross that Christ became all the offerings. And all these offerings are grace to us. The sin offering is a grace. The trespass offering is a grace. The burnt offering is a grace. The meal offering is a grace. Eventually the peace offering also is a grace. And of this grace we all have received and grace upon grace.
In this same Gospel we see not only the sin offering but also the trespass offering. This is a wonderful Gospel! Actually this Gospel of John is just an abstract of the entire Bible. It portrays how God Himself became a man to tabernacle among men and how He in the flesh became all the offerings. And the first offering is the sin offering.