Jesus Is the Word: Understanding Grace Upon Grace Today
From the sermon preached on July 5, 2026
Grace upon grace is not a slogan; it is what the Gospel of John says every believer actually receives from Jesus Christ. The phrase comes from John 1:16, where the apostle John writes that "from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace." This post unpacks what that phrase means, why it matters that Jesus is God, and what it looks like to move from simply believing facts about Jesus to actually believing in him.
Pastor Jan Vezikov opened Mosaic Boston's new series through the Gospel of John by comparing the book to a pool where a child can wade and an elephant can swim. It is simple enough for someone who has never opened a Bible, yet deep enough that a pastor can preach on it for decades and still find new depth. John wrote his account with a stated purpose in John 20:30-31: so that readers would believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in his name.
That distinction between believing facts and believing in a person is where this sermon begins, and it is where grace upon grace becomes personal.
Why Does It Matter That Jesus Is God?
John does not introduce Jesus by name until verse 17. Instead, he opens with a title: the Word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
Each of the three uses of "was" in that verse carries a different weight; the first speaks to his existence, the second to his relationship, the third to his essence.
This is the heart of why Jesus is God matters. If Jesus is God, then he is eternal; there was never a moment he came into being. If Jesus is God, then the incarnation was not a costume God put on for a while, but the eternal Son taking on flesh without ceasing to be who he had always been.
Scripture is careful here: John writes that the Word was God, not that God was the Word, because the Son is fully God while the Father and the Spirit are also fully God.
This single claim, that Jesus is God, separates historic Christianity from every other explanation of who Jesus was, whether a wise teacher, a prophet, or a created being ranked below the Father. Hebrews 1:1-4 reinforces this, calling the Son "the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature."
If this is unsettling, sit with it before rushing past it. A God who is genuinely eternal, genuinely relational, and genuinely one with the Father is not a small claim to accept casually. Take one small step today: read John 1:1-5 slowly, out loud, and notice which of the three claims about Jesus feels hardest for you to accept.
What Does It Mean That God Became Human?
The sermon's second major point is almost too large to summarize: God became human. John 1:14 says "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." In the original language, that phrase is closer to "pitched his tent among us," an echo of the tabernacle where God once dwelt with Israel.
Pastor Jan Vezikov offered a personal illustration to help this land. He described caring for his own honeybees, who sting him no matter how much he cares for them, and imagined what it would mean for him to actually become a bee to reach them. He admitted the analogy falls painfully short, because becoming an insect would cost a person almost nothing compared to what it cost the eternal Son to become human and then die for the very people who rejected him.
This is what theologians call the incarnation: the historical, physical reality that God became human at a specific point in history, roughly A.D. 30 to 33. There was a physical last supper, a physical garden of Gethsemane, a physical whipping, a physical crown of thorns, and a physical cross.
J.I. Packer once described it as a laying aside of glory and a voluntary acceptance of hardship for people who did nothing to deserve that love.
One honest step you can take today is simply to stop rushing past the strangeness of this claim. Sit with the fact that God became human on purpose, for you, before you had done anything to earn it.
What Does It Look Like to Become a Child of God?
John 1:12-13 says that to all who received Jesus and believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, people born "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." This is the climax of the sermon's three points: becoming children of God is not a metaphor for feeling welcome somewhere. It is a real change of status and identity.
The text is specific that becoming children of God has nothing to do with heritage, bloodline, or family history. It is not inherited the way a last name is inherited. John 6:44 says no one can come to Jesus unless the Father who sent him draws them, which means the invitation to become children of God begins with God reaching first, not with a person working hard enough to qualify.
Pastor Jan Vezikov pointed to the apostle John himself as an example of what this looks like lived out. John never names himself directly in his own gospel; instead he calls himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved," a description of identity rather than accomplishment. That is what it means to be one of the children of God: not a title earned, but a love received and then returned.
If you sense that pull today, the honest next step is not to solve every theological question first. It is to receive it, the way John describes receiving light: simply and without pretending you have already mastered it.
What Does John 1 Teach Us About Grace Upon Grace?
John 1 lays out three claims that hold the whole sermon together, and seeing them side by side helps explain why this passage has shaped Christian theology for two thousand years.
1. Who Is Jesus?
The Claim: Jesus is the eternal Word, fully God and fully distinct in person from the Father.
The Significance: This means Jesus was never created and never began to exist; he has always been.
2. What Did Jesus Do?
The Claim: The Word became flesh and lived among us, taking on real human weakness, real suffering, and a real death.
The Significance: God did not merely send a message about himself; he became the message, in a body, in history.
3. Why Should I Care?
The Claim:John 1:16 says, "from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace."
The Significance: Grace upon grace means the gift does not run out; it is not one act of forgiveness followed by silence, but ongoing, sustaining kindness toward people who did not earn it.
Finding This Kind of Community Near You
Wrestling with whether you truly believe in Jesus, or whether you have just been going through religious motions, is not comfortable work, and it rarely gets resolved by reading one article alone. It is the kind of question that tends to surface late at night, in the middle of a hard week, or during a season when faith feels more like a habit than a conviction. That kind of honest searching deserves people around you who will not flinch at hard questions or rush you toward easy answers.
If you are working through this from Brookline, the Longwood Medical Area, or anywhere else across greater Boston, Mosaic Boston meets on Sunday mornings at 20 Chapel Street, easily reached by the Green Line D Longwood stop. Whether you are a graduate student, a medical resident, or simply new to the city, there is a seat for you this week, no matter where you currently land on belief.
Grace That Keeps Giving
John's Gospel was written so that readers would believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in his name; not simply agree with facts, but receive an ongoing gift that never runs dry. Grace upon grace is the promise that God's kindness toward you does not expire after one good moment or one answered prayer. As Pastor Jan Vezikov put it, the light of Christ has never dimmed, no matter how dark a season looks from where you stand.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Being born again means receiving a new spiritual identity that comes from God, not from effort or heritage. John 1:13 describes it as being born "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." It is the starting point of becoming one of the children of God.
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Believing in Jesus is more than agreeing that certain facts about him are true. Scripture notes that even demons believe Jesus exists, yet that belief brings them no life. Believing in Jesus means trusting him with genuine love and affection, not just intellectual agreement.
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According to John 1:12, anyone who receives Jesus and believes in his name is given the right to become a child of God. This is not based on family background or personal achievement. It begins with God's initiative and is received through faith.
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Believing facts means accepting historical claims, such as that Jesus lived, died, and rose again. Believing in Jesus means responding to those facts with trust and love, the way a person trusts someone they genuinely love. The sermon points out that only this second kind of belief brings eternal life.
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John calls Jesus "the Word" because a word communicates; it is not vague like a feeling or ambiguous like a deed. Calling Jesus the Word emphasizes that he is God's clear, final, and complete communication to humanity, as also described in Hebrews 1:1-4.