Whenever we enjoy God, we not only have grace, but also reality. When God is enjoyed by us, we have enjoyment, that is, grace, and when we have this enjoyment, we realize the reality of God. The last item related to God’s incarnation is reality. Truth in the Gospel of John actually means reality. It means the realization of God and the reality of God. Paul in the New Testament said that all things are dung (Phil. 3:8), and Solomon declared that all things are vanity (Eccl. 1:2), without reality. Nothing is reality; everything is vanity. Everything in the eyes of the apostle was dung, and everything in the eyes of King Solomon was vanity. Only God is reality. If we have God, we have reality. The more we experience God, the more we shall enjoy grace and apprehend reality.
Grace is God enjoyed by us in the Son; reality is God realized by us in the Son. Grace is the enjoyment, and reality is the realization. To say, “God is light,” may be merely a doctrine without realization. However, when you participate in God, experiencing God as light to you, you have the realization of God as light. Likewise, to say, “God is life,” may be a mere term. But, whenever you enjoy Christ as your portion, you have the realization that God is life to you. Hence, grace is God enjoyed by you, and reality is God realized by you in that enjoyment.
Both grace and reality came with Jesus. Verse 17 says, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” The law makes demands upon man according to what God is, but grace supplies man with what God is to meet what God demands. The law, at the most, was only a testimony of what God is (Exo. 25:21), but reality is the realization of what God is. No man can partake of God through the law, but grace is the enjoyment of God for man, and reality is the realization of God for man. Eventually, grace is God enjoyed by man, and reality is God realized by man. Since both grace and reality came with Jesus, when Jesus is with us, we have grace and reality. Although we lack the adequate language to describe this, we may nevertheless know it, at least to some extent, from our experience. Many times we have enjoyed God in Christ as our grace, and many times we have realized that God in Christ is truly life, light, comfort, rest, patience, humility, and so many other things. This is the realization of God.
When we enjoy God in Christ as grace and apprehend Him in Christ as reality, we find how unsearchable are the riches of Christ. Of His fullness we have received grace upon grace. In the incarnated Christ there is abundant fullness, for the fullness of God dwells in Him (Col. 2:9). Through the incarnation of God in Christ, we can receive the riches of grace and reality out of His divine fullness.
Grace and reality have no limit. There is always fullness. Anything that we enjoy other than God in Christ has a limit; however, when we enjoy God in Christ as grace and reality, we find that there is no limit, only fullness. This fullness is unlimited. The more you enjoy this fullness, the more you realize how unlimited it is. Grace can never be exhausted by your enjoyment, and the reality can never be depleted by your experience. The more you experience, the more there is; it increases according to your capacity to experience it. Our capacity determines our measure of the fullness of the Godhead. How full is God to you? If your capacity is that of an eight ounce cup, God’s fullness to you will be eight ounces. If your capacity is enlarged to eight hundred gallons, the fullness of God will fill up that measure to the brim. If your capacity is that of the Pacific Ocean, you will know God’s fullness to that extent. However, even the capacity of the Pacific Ocean is not great enough. We need the capacity of an eternal ocean. Even if our capacity were increased to that degree, God would fill it to the brim. Thus, the enjoyment of God in Christ is unlimited. How much we enjoy His fullness depends upon our capacity.
This declaration of God is in the only begotten Son of God who was in the bosom of the Father from eternity past and who is still in the bosom of the Father after incarnation. Thus, verse 18 says, “No one has ever seen God: the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” The only begotten Son was with God the Father and was, is, and always will be in the bosom of the Father. The words of verse 18 are simple, but the meaning is profound. Can you say what is the bosom of the Father? I have not heard a definition that can satisfy me. This matter is too intimate, too deep, and too profound. I simply cannot tell you what it means because I lack the understanding and the utterance. Nevertheless, we know that this dear, only begotten of the Father is continually in the bosom of the Father to declare the Father. This is the way in which He declares the Father and brings us into the enjoyment of the Father.
God is expressed in Christ, and with Christ we have grace and reality. Thus, when we come to Christ, we enjoy grace and participate in reality. Verse 18 tells us that Christ, as the only begotten Son of God, is in the bosom of God the Father. Thus, when we enjoy Christ in such an intimate way, this intimate enjoyment of Him will bring us to God the Father. In other words, this enjoyment of Christ brings us into the bosom of the Father. With the Father we have love and light. Christ is the expression of God in the same way that grace is the expression of love and reality is the expression of light. When we enjoy Christ as grace and reality, this enjoyment brings us into the bosom of the Father where we enjoy love and light. Love is the hidden source of grace, and light is the hidden source of reality. This is the reason that in the Gospel of John we have grace and reality, but in the First Epistle of John we have love and light (1 John 1:5; 4:7-8). The Gospel of John brings God to us, and we enjoy Him as grace and reality. The First Epistle of John brings us to God, and we enjoy Him as love and light. If we merely enjoy grace, that enjoyment is not deep enough. When grace brings us into love, we reach the source out from which grace flows. When we trace grace back to its source, grace becomes love. Likewise, light is the source out from which reality flows. When you trace reality back to its source, you arrive at light, for light is a deeper experience of reality.
We have seen that the Word was incarnated to declare God, to express God (Heb. 1:3), to explain God, and to define God. The Father’s only begotten Son declared God by the Word, life, light, grace, and reality. We have seen that these five things are related to God’s incarnation. All of them are founded and fulfilled in God Himself. The Word is God expressed, life is God imparted, light is God shining, grace is God enjoyed, and reality is God realized, apprehended. God is fully declared in the Son through these five things. The essence of them all is God Himself. It is by these things that God is declared. Although no one has ever seen God, the Son of God has declared Him in the way of being the Word, life, light, grace, and reality. The more we receive the Word, have God as our life, and let the light of this life shine within us, and the more we enjoy God as grace and apprehend Him as reality, the more God will be declared to us. To declare God means to express, explain, and define God. Christ declared, expressed, explained, and defined God by being incarnated as the Word with life, light, grace, and reality.
The first eighteen verses of chapter one may be summarized with a few simple words: Word, God, life, light, grace, and reality. John 1:1-18 tells us how through the Word all things came into being and how the Word as God Himself became flesh to bring grace and reality to man. In Him was life, which was the light of man for man to receive. As many as received Him as such were born of Him, having Him as their life and light. Then they partook of Him as grace and reality. In this way God in the Son was declared to man. By being the Word, life, light, grace, and reality, Christ has expressed, explained, and defined God to us.