Of His Fullness Have all We Received - Part 1

 “And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” (John 1: 16 - 17)

When I first read this (though not actually the first time) it struck me as immediately odd. How could they have already received of God’s fullness at the time John’s Gospel was written? Didn’t he still have much more to give them? But then I realized that subtle differences in how we interpret one or two words in a sentence can dramatically change its meaning.

The Greek word ex, translated here as of, can actually be translated as from or out from. In fact, it most often is. And so, what I believe John is actually saying here isn’t that they had received a fullness of all he has to offer, but rather that they had received from his fullness. That is, from his abundant supply. For as he had just told us, he is “full of grace and truth.”

The Greek word pleroma, translated here as fullness, carries the idea of filling something up or completing it. Not that we are yet complete, or that the saints of John’s day were complete, but that Christ is complete. He is lacking nothing. He is mighty to save. His arm, as Isaiah tells us, is not shortened at all that he cannot redeem. 

Also that he has held nothing back from us. That the cup of wrath was filled to overflowing, and he drained it to the dregs, satisfying all the demands of God’s eternal justice. Swallowing up all the badness of a fallen creation into his own being. 

Consider these words from Isaiah 51:

Awake, awake, clothe yourself in power,

Awake O arm of Yahweh,

As in former days,

In generations of ages,

Are not you he, the hewer of Rahab?

The piercer of the dragon?

Are you not the dryer-up of the sea?

The waters of the great deep?

The maker of the sea’s depths,

A way for the redeemed to pass through?

Rahab is thought to be a poetic name for Egypt. Other possible meanings are storm, sea-monster, or spacious place (as in the abyss). The passage carries the sense of one able to drain that which is unfathomably deep and extensive. To pierce the heart of an immeasurable monster and cut it to pieces. A divine hero to far surpass anything in the mythologies of men.

Another translation of pleroma that appears often in the New Testament is fulfillment. He is the fulfillment of the Law. The hope of the ages. The eternal Word and fullness of all God’s promises materialized in living flesh. He who has carried to completion all the Father’s will concerning him. And we are the recipients of the power that flows from that fulfillment.

Thus this fullness isn't so much something that we have already received or attained to, but what he possesses and is able to offer us. In this single word is expressed Christ's super-abundance, and the perfection of his grace.

John tells us that we receive from this abundant supply “grace for grace.” Note, however, that he doesn’t say grace to grace, or grace upon grace. But grace for grace. The Greek anti meaning over against, instead of, in exchange for, or on account of. Thus, not grace in exchange for merit, or grace in exchange for effort, but grace in exchange for grace.

And so every blessing that we receive from God, in the context of our salvation, is predicated upon us returning back to him that which he gives us freely.

He gives us the gift of faith, and for our faith we receive all things through his grace. He gives us the gift of righteousness, and for our righteousness the gifts of his grace are multiplied. Not that we are actually righteous, but we are made partakers of what C.S. Lewis calls the "Christ-life," as a foretaste of "good things to come." Thus as we render to him all wherewith his mercy endows us, we are thereby able to abound in him.

It is the parable of the talents. “Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.” Of ourselves we can merit nothing, and yet he grants to us freely that by which we are able to merit all things.

Or, put another way, he grants us free access to his own infinite supply of merit, and all that he requires is that we make earnest use of it. He promises that whatsoever we ask the Father in his name - truly in his name - will be given to us.

“Ask and ye shall receive,” he commands us, “That your joy may be full.”

There’s so much more that could be said on this, but unfortunately that’s all I have time for right now. In the next post, I plan to continue with some thoughts on the second part of John’s statement, found in John 1: 17.