John 1:17

ὅτι ὁ νόμος … ἐγένετο. What is the connection? His statement that the Incarnate Logos was the inexhaustible supply of grace might seem to disparage Moses and the previous manifestations of God. He therefore explains. And he seems to have in view the same distinction between the old and the new that is so frequently emerging in the Pauline writings. Through Moses, here taken as representing the pre-Christian dispensation, was given the law, which made great demands but gave nothing, which was a true revelation of God's will, and so far was good, but brought men no ability to become liker God. But through Jesus Christ (here for the first time named in the Gospel, because we are now fully on the ground of history) came grace and truth. In contrast to the inexorable demands of a law that brought no spiritual life. Jesus Christ brought “grace,” the unearned favour of God. The Law said: Do this and live; Christ says: God gives you life, accept it. “Truth” also was brought by Christ. ἀλήθεια here means “reality” as opposed to the symbolism of the Law (cf. John 4:23). In the Law was a shadow of good things to come: in Christ we have the good things themselves. Several good critics find a contrast between ἐδόθη and ἐγένετο; the law being “given” for a special purpose, “grace and truth” “coming” in the natural course and as the issue of all that had gone before.