Out of His Fulness.

John i:16.

"AND of His fulness have all we received, and grace upon grace" (John i:16). This precious word was not spoken by John the Baptist. It must be looked upon as an outburst of praise, similar to the one which stands in the beginning of Revelation (Rev. i:5-6). It is the adoring utterance of all believers acknowledging the reception of that unfathomable and never failing grace, which flows from the eternal fountain, the Son of God. Out of the fulness of Himself believing sinners receive grace upon grace. His own fulness is the source, which supplies all the need of those, who by Him believe on God, that raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory (1 Pet. i:2). That exhaustless fulness is always ready to sustain, to help, to comfort, to strengthen and to fill those, who are in Christ, one with Him.

But what is this fulness of which we receive and receive so abundantly? The blessed Son of God possessed in all eternity fulness. The Holy Spirit in this chapter bears a testimony to this fact by a great revelation. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made 'that was made.' In Him was life; and the life was the light of men" (John i:1-4). What a wonderful revelation this is! The Word which was in the beginning, which ever was God, by whom all was made, without whom nothing came into existence, is the Son of God. The fulness of the Godhead was His before the world was made, for He is God. Then we read in this chapter, "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." He came to this earth, He took on the form of man, the eternal Word was made flesh, God manifested in the flesh. And as He walked on the earth the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in Him (Col. i:19). But before we could ever receive out of His fulness grace upon grace, the Son of God had to die. If He had not died and accomplished the great work for which He came into the world, His fulness would have been forever inaccessible to sinners. But He went to the cross and finished there the great work. Christ died for us; He who knew no sin was made sin for us. And now it is written of Him, the glorified One, the Man in Glory. "For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power" (Col. ii:9-10). He, who possessed eternally all fulness, who came to this earth and in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt, who died on the cross the just for the unjust, who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree, is now as Man in glory and there dwelleth in Him bodily the fulness of the Godhead. It is all for us; we can now receive grace upon grace, because of Him who is the Second Man, the Head of the new creation and with whom God has made us, who believe, one. This is the deep and yet simple Gospel. God gave His blessed Son, who was forever one with Him, that through Him we might receive of the fulness of the Godhead, grace upon grace. Brought to God in such a way, washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God, we are receiving all we need. We receive it not on our merit, because we labor or agonize for it, but we receive of His fulness. But who can begin to tell out what that is, grace upon grace? Pages upon pages might be written and filled with the good things, the spiritual blessings, the joy, the peace, the comfort, the power and the wisdom and many other things, which are included in "grace upon grace." And after we mentioned all these precious things, we would have to put the pen down and confess our insufficiency to tell out the riches, the fulness and vastness of "grace upon grace."

This expression brings a great cataract like Niagara to our mind. Here we stand and behold the mighty waters rushing down. Oh! the mighty rushing waters, who can measure them! What a vast, inexhaustible supply! Water upon water dashing down. For ages this has gone on. Hundreds of years, more than that, thousands of years have witnessed the same mighty waters. Every day, every hour, every minute, every second, every fraction of a second--incessantly mighty rushing waters upon waters!

In the same way there is pouring forth out of His fulness, the fulness of the Lord in Glory--grace upon grace. There is an unlimited, inexhaustible supply of the water of life from Him who is the life. For ages the saints of God, saved by grace, have received grace upon grace. A never ceasing stream of grace has been flowing forth and it has not impoverished the marvellous eternal supply. Still it flows undiminished--still there is grace upon grace. Yea it is grace upon grace by which God's people live. Every hour, every minute, every second, every moment it is His grace, grace upon grace which keeps us, surrounds us, flows upon us and overshadows us. And the more we take and enjoy the more we learn to sing.

More and more, more and more, Always more to follow! Oh, His matchless, boundless Grace, Still there's more to follow!

Will it ever stop? No, never! We shall keep on singing in all eternity "still there's more to follow!--still there's more to follow." Hallelujah! "That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His Grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Eph. ii:7). Always more to follow! Still there's MORE to follow. All Praise to Him who died to have it so for us poor lost sinners, whose lot should have been, as it is the lot of all who reject this marvellous grace--always more to follow--in eternal darkness and despair.

And how simple it is to receive "of His fulness grace upon grace." Look at this never ceasing spring of pure water, it never fails. You approach it a weary, thirsty, dustladen traveler. You need to be refreshed. You need the cooling drink. You need washing. What then is necessary? Oh! to fill your cup. Just to take for it is for you. And so this wonderful grace which flows out of His fulness. It is for you, just come and take. Fill your cup, fill it again! Drink oh drink! "Of His fulness have all we received, grace upon grace."