Grace for Grace

“And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” (John 1:16)

A couple of verses before this John tells us that Jesus was full of grace and truth. “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.” (John 1:14) Jesus, full of grace, is completely the unmerited favor of God toward man in His coming, walking among man, taking on man’s sin and death in order to redeem man to the Father. And of this unmerited favor “all we” received.

“All we” refers to those who receive Jesus.  He is the one Who has this fullness of grace. There is none other.  There is no other way or many ways as some believe.  Jesus, Who is full of grace, full of God’s unmerited favor, has this grace for us. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” (John 14:6) There may be many ways man has devised to live a clean life, a quiet life, a joyful life, a life of solitude or any other way that man wants to live to be free of the stress of the troubles of this world, but they are not reliable nor acceptable. They are not reliable because they are man-made and of this world or earth and are by their nature temporary as is everything in this world. 

Without Jesus man is cursed.  “Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD." (Jeremiah 17:5) How can a cursed thing or anything of this earth that is cursed bring forth goodness.  It cannot for the long term.  It cannot to eternity. And any other way is not acceptable to God.  It’s the very reason man could not save himself. God cannot accept anything full of sin or condemned.  And man is condemned without Christ. “He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18) And the world is condemned and headed for destruction. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” (2Peter 3:10)

But “all we” who believe and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior receive of His grace that He gives to us, grace for grace, a continuous flow of grace for every need, for every situation and in every circumstance, beginning with salvation and proceeding to sanctification and understanding and knowledge to perfection in eternity. It is never ending and always abounding grace in us and for us. Paul wrote about God’s grace extending to eternity. “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:5-7) There is no end to His grace toward us.