The Fullness of His Grace

The dictionary defines grace as the unmerited favor of God toward men. This does not do justice to the richness of the biblical use of the term, which appears scores of times. Grace is the favor God is able to show to men because Christ died for them; “by grace are ye saved,” Eph. 2:8. Because of His holy character, God could not save men simply because of His mercy and love. The claims of divine righteousness had to be satisfied before He could save sinful men, therefore Christ died in the place of the ungodly, Rom. 5:6.

Grace is distinguished from the law, John 1:17; from works, Rom. 11:6; and from debt, Rom. 4:4. Salvation cannot be earned by law keeping or by good deeds of any kind. Men are chosen by grace, Rom. 11:5; justified by grace, Rom. 3:24; continue in grace, Acts 13:43; approach God in prayer at the throne of grace, Heb. 4:16. They grow in grace as they grow in the knowledge of Christ, 1 Pet. 2:2; 2 Pet. 3:18. Men do not fall from grace by sinning, but by putting the law in the place of grace, Gal. 5:4.

A remarkable summary of the teaching of grace is found in Tit. 2:11–14. It includes the denial of wrong things, and the positive instruction that we must live soberly, righteously, and godly as we look for the blessed hope of the Lord’s return.

Grace Identified

The text before us this afternoon makes us aware of the fact that God's Word is gracious. Many times people complain that God's Word is too strict and even unreasonable. We learn from John's prologue that God's Word (logos) is in fact the person of His Son Jesus. He, despite the fact that humanity neither wanted nor deserved His divine intervention, He stepped out of eternity and into time to be gracious to humanity. John says that he and his contemporaries are witnesses of it .

The text says that "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He, God, literally became a human being and lived among mankind. John says, "We saw Him and His glory". He identified that the glory as the glory that God Himself possesses. Not simply an earthly glory, but a heavenly glory.

Grace, n. — goodwill freely disseminated (by God); especially to the benefit of the recipient regardless of the benefit accrued to the disseminator.

Truth (quality) n. — conformity to reality or actuality; often with the implication of dependability.

How important is it for an individual to see the glory of the Son of God?

turn to John 1:14

John 1:14 NASB95

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Grace Exemplified

Someone may be wondering what I mean by exemplified. The word can be explained this way: clarify by giving an example of

See John 1:16

John 1:16 NASB95

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

Its Measure

For of His fullness: completeness ⇔ fullness n. — the state of having every necessary or normal part or component or step.

Its Recipients

we have all received:

“because he was so gracious, he has blessed us all” or “because of his great love for us, he has been so good to us all.”

In this context the use of the pronoun “us” is probably best interpreted as inclusive. Undoubtedly John wrote his Gospel to Christians to whom he wished to explain more fully the significance of the incarnation and ministry of Christ.

Have you received the fullness of His grace?

Newman, B. M., & Nida, E. A. (1993). A handbook on the Gospel of John (p. 25). New York: United Bible Societies.

its Extent

A Handbook on the Gospel of John John 1:16

Giving us one blessing after another is literally “grace for grace.” The phrase is ambiguous, and some translations (for example, NEB “grace upon grace”) prefer to remain ambiguous. The majority of modern commentators take this phrase in the same sense that TEV takes it, that is, that the Christian life consists of one expression of God’s grace after another. Mft (“for we have all been receiving grace after grace from his fulness”) and dsp (“received blessing after blessing”) follow this interpretation, and NAB (“love following upon love”)

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