Grace and Truth Came by Jesus

1. Some hyperdispensationalists read this verse to mean that there was no real grace prior to Jesus since it "came by Jesus Christ" but that is like saying there is no truth before Him also.
2. Yet, the Old Testament says that God is both truth and grace. The Old Testament refers to gracious and graciously 33 times. A gracious God is the definition of a God with the virtue of grace.
3. The law that God sent down was truth…

Psalm 119:142 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.
….but instead of the law being grace or gracious, it was full of judgment. The law accused an individual and showed a person his guiltiness.

4. Yet, Christ contained within Himself all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
5. He revealed the fullness of the nature of God not just a segment of the nature of God. Those who saw the Son saw the Father.

John 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Therefore, those in Christ, can see both truth and grace together in their fullest sense.
6. The Old Testament has numerous references to truth and mercy so these cannot be something that began with the coming of Jesus.
7. The point to understand is that grace and truth are fully joined together on earth in the New Testament in Christ Jesus.
8. Colossians brings the two concepts together:

Our hope is based on "the word of the truth of the gospel" (Colossians 1:5) and by this gospel we come to know "the grace of God in truth" (Colossians 1:6).