2 terms sum up all God declares Himself to be

(sorry for delay--new article tomorrow for certain) 

Israel just tortures poor Moses with their unbelief and rebellion and finally he goes to God and says, "This people that you conceived! Hey, giving birth to this nation was YOUR idea!"

The understanding among them was that God gave birth to the nation, but being physically born wasn't enough; they needed to be spiritually born.

To be born of God is to have the life of God implanted in your dead spirit. That's exactly what the new covenant was going to do for Israel.

You and I get the benefits of that regeneration in Christ Jesus. We don't get it because God made a covenant with us; we get it because His grace extends it to us at the Cross.

When Israel received their Messiah they were put into a position to be spiritually qualified to receive this spiritual capacity of the new covenant.

I Peter 1:18-25: [18] Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

[19] But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
[20] Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
[21] Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
[22] Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
[23] Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
[24] For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
[25] But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

It's that living, life-giving message of God's Word and when they believed it, it gave them life. We read in Jeremiah that God writes it in their heart. He literally engrafts it. James 1 talks about the "engrafted word" and that's what Jeremiah 31's talking about.

These verses in John 1, especially 11-13: [11] He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

[12] But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
[13] Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Verse 12 is really what the focus of the Book of John is going to be about. About power to become; not born of the flesh, not born of the will of the flesh, not what they were going to do for themselves, but how God was going to give them life.

Verse 14: [14] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

How does God do all this stuff in verses 12 and 13? The source of God's working that's going to accomplish their power to become the sons of God . . . 

It goes right back up to verses 1 and 2 and pulls them down to verse 14. That's why most of the time when you hear John 1 read, it's verses 1-3 and then skips right to verse 14. These verses in between aren't paid much attention to because we're talking about who Christ is.

In the beginning the Word was made flesh. The Word was with God; now He's dwelling among us. And the Word was God and we beheld Him full of grace and truth; full of all that God is.

Those two terms, grace and truth, really sum up all that God declares Himself to be. Two very essential facts about God that you have to see to appreciate who He is and how He works and how He accomplishes verse 12.