GIFT HEAPED UPON GIFT

Jn.1:16 – Amp – For out of His fullness [the superabundance of His grace and truth] we have all received grace upon grace [spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, favor upon favor, and gift heaped upon gift].

This one verse in John’s gospel can take your breath away all by itself. First John describes the fullness of God that we have received in Christ. Think about that statement, of His fullness we have all received. Obviously we cannot receive all that God is because He is infinite and even through eternity we will be drinking of His fullness and never drink all that He is. Vincent’s Wordbook describes this fullness.

“This declares that the whole aggregate of the divine powers and graces appeared in the incarnate Word, and corresponds with John’s statement that “the Word became flesh and tabernacled among men, full of grace and truth;” while “ye are fulfilled” answers to John’s “of His fullness we all received.” Hence John’s meaning here is that Christians receive from the divine completeness whatever each requires for the perfection of his character and for the accomplishment of his work.”

So that ‘grace upon grace’ that we receive is John further describing us as receiving of His fullness continuously as we continue to walk with Him. In other words the grace you received yesterday is not complete and will not be what you need for today. Robertson describes it like this.

“Here the picture is “grace” taking the place of “grace” like the manna fresh each morning, new grace for the new day and the new service.”

We always quote Lamentations saying, “His mercies are new every morning”. That is precisely what John is describing here. Christ is filling us day by day and moment by moment with His grace.

Matthew Henry takes this a little further, he describes grace as so abundant that it will overflow our lives.

“Grace for grace is an abundance of grace, grace on grace. It is a blessing poured out, such that there will not be room to receive it: one grace promises even more grace.”

So what about me and what about today? Don’t ever think you have all that there is of His fullness because of praying a prayer or because of past spiritual experiences. What He has made available to us is unlimited and past comprehension. Grace upon grace is falling on each of us, take in what He has for you, there will not be room to contain it.