Why Foreign Missions? 15. John’s Christological Mission Theology: Mission
as the Revelation of Grace and Truth through Jesus Christ
A second way in which the prologue to John’s Gospel presents
the revelation of the Logos or Word
is as ‘grace and truth.’[1] These two terms occur together only in the
prologue (Jn. 1.14, 17), whereas the rest of John’s Gospel often uses the single
word ‘alētheia,’
‘truth’ (or the related ‘alēthinos,’
‘true’). Indeed, truth is a theme worth
exploring along with ‘witness’ and related, forensic notions in John’s Gospel,
as +Andrew Lincoln has done.[2] Here, however, the focus will be on Jesus’
revelation of ‘grace and truth’ in comparison with the revelation of Moses.
The Underlying, Old
Testament Phrase for ‘Grace and Truth’
The phrase ‘charis kai
alētheia,’ ‘grace and truth,’ is found in Jn. 1.14
and 17. It is John’s translation of the
Hebrew phrase ‘hesed we’emeth,’ found
13 times in the Old Testament (Gen. 24.49; 47.29; Ex. 34.6; Josh. 2.14; 2 Sam.
2.6; 15.20; Ps. 25.10; 61.8; 85.11; 86.15; 89.15; Prov. 3.3; 20.28). This phrase indicates the devotion and
commitment within a deep relationship. God’s
character in his covenant relationship with his people is described with these
terms: it is a character that is merciful and faithful.
Truth. The Greek translation of the Old
Testament uses three words to translate ‘emeth.’
First, and most often, ‘alētheia’ or ‘alēthinos’ (‘truth’ or ‘true’/’dependable’) is
used for ‘emeth’ in the Greek Old
Testament, as in John’s Gospel. Other
terms used include ‘dikaiosunē’ (‘righteousness,’ Gen.
24.49), ‘eirēnē,’
(‘peace,’ Ps. 85.11), and ‘pistis’ (‘faithfulness,’
Prov. 3.3). In this phrase, the word
seems to emphasise a virtue: it is a character term. This is confirmed when its related phrase is
considered.
Grace. Whereas John uses ‘charis’ (‘grace’) to translate the Hebrew word ‘’hesed,’ the Greek Old Testament most
often uses ‘eleos,’
‘mercy/compassion.’ The related Greek
word ‘eleēmosunē,’
‘kind deed,’ is also used (Gen. 47.29; Prov. 3.3; 20.28), with the emphasis
falling on the action a compassionate or merciful person might perform for
somebody. Ps. 86.15 uses another,
related term, ‘polueleos,’ ‘abundant
mercy.’ Only John renders the Hebrew term
‘’hesed’ with ‘charis’ (‘grace’), but it is an appropriate translation and clearly
related to ‘mercy.’ According to +Robin Routledge, the Hebrew
term ‘’hesed’ is relational and, in
its broadest sense, means doing whatever one needs to do in order to keep a
relationship. He says,
By entering into a covenant with
his people, God has bound himself to show hesed
to them. This includes, love,
loyalty and faithfulness to his covenant promises. It includes kindness, mercy and grace that
bears with, and remains committed to, his people despite their sin, and
provides the basis for forgiveness and restoration. [3]
Thus ‘hesed’ it is
a covenantal term, used of God’s covenant relationship with his people. As such, it also relates to what God does to
maintain the covenant relationship with his people. Hesed
is
the means by which [the covenant
relationship] continues, even though, because of the people’s unfaithfulness,
it might properly be terminated. It thus
provides the basis for restoration and the promise of a new covenant (e.g. Jer.
31:3; Hos. 2:18-20).[4]
The phrase, then, has God’s character in a committed,
covenant relationship in mind. It has to
do with God’s character as he relates to his people, Israel. God relates to Israel, even wayward, sinful
Israel, with grace, mercy, kindness and with faithfulness and dependability.
God’s Mercy and
Faithfulness at Sinai and in the Word
John contrasts Jesus’ revelation of grace and truth to
Moses’ revelation of the Law: ‘The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth
came through Jesus Christ’ (Jn. 1.17).
As +Richard Bauckham notes, this statement brings Ex. 34 into focus for
John’s prologue:[5]
‘God’s gracious love, central to
the identity of the God of Israel, now takes the radically new form of a human life in which the divine
self-giving happens.’
The incarnation of Jesus is a revelation of the identity of God in a
related way to the revelation that Moses received of God on Mt. Sinai. As God passes by, Moses hears a small voice
reveal who YHWH is:
The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed,
"The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and
abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
7 keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the
guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the
children's children, to the third and the fourth generation" (Ex. 34.6-7).
The phrase ‘steadfast love and faithfulness’ in this NRSV
translation is the phrase hesed we’emeth’ or,
as John might have translated it, ‘charis
kai alētheia,’ ‘grace and truth.’ What Moses understood of God’s identity from
a voice, the disciples see in the Word that has come into the world: ‘And the Word became
flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a
father's only son, full of grace and truth’ (Jn. 1.14).
The story of God’s self-revelation in Ex. 34 is the culmination of a profound
lesson in divine identity. Moses first
received the Ten Commandments from God even while Israel was breaking the first
two commandments at the foot of the mountain.
Moses consequently broke the stones on which the commandments were
written. God then permitted Moses to
receive the commandments again, and it is at this point in the narrative that
God gives a further revelation of himself to Moses. He is not only the God of the Ten
Commandments, the Law. He is also the
God who is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in grace and truth
in his relationships even as he holds people accountable for their sins.
The revelation of God’s identity in Ex. 34 goes beyond the covenant
relationship he has with Israel. From
John’s perspective, at least, the covenant is not so much the basis for hesed as ‘grace and truth’ are the basis
for what God does, and what he does is not merely for his covenant people but
also what he does for the world. God’s
‘grace and truth’ is the basis for mission that includes both Jews and Gentiles. Those who receive Jesus, whether Jews or
Gentiles, are given power to become God’s children:
He was in the world, and the world came into being
through him; yet the world did not know him.
11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not
accept him. 12 But to all who
received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of
God, 13 who were born, not of
blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and
lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only
son, full of grace and truth. Thus, whereas hesed
we’emeth might be the basis for God’s relationship to his covenant people
in the Old Testament, in John ‘grace and truth’ is the identity of God that
makes universal mission possible (foreign mission beyond Israel, the covenant
people) (Jn. 1.10-14).
Thus, whereas hesed we’emeth might
be the basis for God’s relationship to his covenant people in the Old
Testament, in John ‘grace and truth’ is the divine identity that makes
universal mission possible (foreign mission beyond Israel, the covenant
people). This grace and truth is both
revealed and worked in the incarnate Word of God.
Conclusions: Some
Missiological Reflections
Several points can be noted for missions from this study.
First, mission can be defined as ‘revealing divine
identity,’ making God known.
Second, God makes himself known through his covenant
relationship with his people. This
involves both God’s commandments (the Law) and his gracious commitments to his sinful,
covenant people (grace and truth).
Third, both dimensions of God’s identity--commandments and
grace and truth—were made known to Israel through Moses. We err when we see Judaism as a works
righteousness religion or all about law without seeing in it the grace of God,
his commitment to his covenant people.
Yet John sees a deeper revelation of grace and truth in Jesus Christ
than what was revealed to Moses. It is
now a revelation in Jesus, the incarnation of grace and truth. He is the lamb of God who takes away the sins
of the world (Jn. 1.29). He is the one
who reveals God’s glory in graciously raising Lazarus from the dead (Jn. 11.4,
40). He is the one whose hour of death
reveals divine glory (Jn. 12.23-28—here both Jesus’ and the Father’s glory are
revealed in Jesus’ death), the ‘depth’ of a God who is full of grace and truth.
Fourth, by moving from revelation in law for the people of
Israel to revelation of God’s ‘grace and truth,’ divine revelation expands from
being a revelation for Israel to being a revelation for all people. As Jesus says to the Samaritan woman,
Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will
worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not
know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is
now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as
these to worship him. 24 God
is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (Jn. 4.21-24, italics mine).
Jesus’ ‘hour’ in John’s Gospel is the hour of his death, and
this hour is the hour that worship on Mt. Gerizim for the Samaritans or on Mt.
Zion in Jerusalem for the Jews is superseded by worship of Jesus, the new
‘temple’ (Jn. 2.19-22). Worship of Jesus
is a worship in Spirit and truth.
Fifth, this redirecting of worship to Jesus is not a simple replacement
of revelation in the Old Testament but a development of it. There is continuity and development between
the ‘old covenant’ and the ‘new covenant.’
This development is more than just a clearer vision of God’s ‘grace and
truth.’[6] It is also a crucial working of God’s grace
and truth in the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross for the sins of the
world (Jn. 1.29).
Sixth, Jesus’ revelation of divine identity, his being ‘grace
and truth,’ is a basis for mission to ‘the Jews’ and to ‘the world’ in John’s
Gospel. Universal mission is based in God’s
identity as ‘grace and truth,’ revealed in the incarnate Word that has come to
Jews and to the world. Remarkably, this goes
beyond God doing whatever he needs to do to maintain
covenant relationship with his people, as in the Old Testament. God’s grace and truth actually redefines
God’s people as those who receive Jesus, God’s grace and truth. Those who receive him are now the children of
God.
[1]
The first way considered (in the previous study) was the Logos as light and life. The
third way, to be considered next, is the Logos
as a revelation of God the Father.
[2]
Andrew Lincoln, Truth on Trial: The
Lawsuit Motif in the Fourth Gospel (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic,
2000).
[3]
Robin Routledge, Old Testament Theology:
A Thematic Approach (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008), p.
109. Routledge gives as an example Ps.
106.45, which relates ‘covenant’ (Hebrew: berith)
to hesed. ‘Here covenant, which God has not forgotten,
provides the basis for hesed’ (n.
95).
[4] R.
Routledge, Old Testament Theology, p.
109.
[5] Richard
Bauckham, God Crucified: Monotheism and
Christology in the New Testament (Carlisle: Paternoster, 1998), p. 74.
[6] John’s prologue states, ‘From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace (Jn. 1.16). ‘Grace upon grace’ could be understood, as in
this translation, as an abundant outpouring of God’s grace. The phrase ‘grace upon grace’ is a
translation of the Greek, ‘charis anti
charis,’ which could also be translated as ‘grace instead of grace.’ If this translation were taken with the next
verse’s reference to the law being given through Moses but grace and truth
being given through Jesus Christ, the idea could be that Moses’ revelation in
the Law was a revelation of grace but Jesus’ revelation was even more so. Is the contrast one of law vs. grace or grace
in the law vs. grace in Jesus? Either
way, John sees continuity between Ex. 34 and Jesus’ revelation.
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