Question:— “And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.” (John chap. 1, v. 16).
Marks were asked of those who found themselves empty, and more and more empty, and have no sufficiency of their own. All their sufficiency is in this Person. In another passage it states, “It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell”, and it was hoped that the minister would explain what is here referred to as “grace for grace”.
Minister opening the Question:—
This Person is referred to here as the Word because He reveals the thoughts of the Father to men just as a man’s words make known what he thinks, and you know that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. The thoughts of the Most High could not be known to us unless He Himself made them known, but it has pleased Him to make known His great thoughts which are from eternity through His Son. Therefore Christ is called the Word of God, and the chapter gives us an account of this function of Christ in language whose depths have never been fathomed. The inspired Apostle tells of God sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, the One through whom alone salvation can be obtained by any child of Adam.
“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.” Even in His estate of humiliation His glory was seen. But there were many of whom it could be said, “He came unto His own but His own received Him not.” Nevertheless the hearts of others were affected, and they beheld His Glory when He dwelt among them full of grace and truth. Well, John goes on to say regarding his own experience, and that of all the people of God, that it is out of the fullness that is in Christ that they have received that which will stand the scrutiny of the judgment day, and what will pass for genuine currency in heaven. Whatever is more lasting than the things of earth is received out of the fullness that is in Christ. All manner of gracious influences are stored up in Him who came into this world for the purpose of obtaining a plenteous redemption for sinners. It was not a partial deliverance from the guilt and condemnation of sin. It was not just a restoration to the position which men had before the fall, namely, that those who had sinned might be forgiven and made alive, but there is a fullness of the glorious privilege of the adoption of sons. “As many as received them to them gave He power to become the sons of God.”
Now the death of Christ was the crisis of His saving work. By that sin and Satan were conquered and a way opened up whereby as many of our race as would trust in Him would be forgiven all their iniquities and justified freely by His grace, and brought into God’s reconciled presence with a righteousness that shall have no end or diminution seeing that it is the righteousness of Christ imputed to them. The redemptive work of Christ made available a fullness of merit sufficient to purge away all their sins and reinstate them unchangeably so that they cannot fall away from God’s favour here or in eternity.
It was necessary to the application of these privileges to the people for whom they were purchased that the Holy Spirit should renew them and sanctify them. They were in some measure made aware of their own spiritual emptiness and led to see their need of Christ. They saw that they were guilty and helpless, spiritually and morally reduced to the position of beggars, miserable, blind and naked. That sense of poverty which is begotten in the soul that is brought to the foot of the cross is only the beginning of a lifelong course of further discoveries of the same. Whatever they will have for eternity they must obtain from the fullness that is in Christ, the fullness of His power which turns them away from the things of earth and enables them to value the things of salvation. Their life becomes a continual application to the fullness that is in Christ.
“Grace for Grace” could, I think, in the first place be taken as “grace upon grace”, i.e. as the sense of poverty deepens the Christian realises that yesterday’s grace will not do for today. He needs fresh supplies of grace from heaven by Christ’s Word and Spirit, grace for every hour and minute of the day until he closes his eyes at night. He lives, but it is not he who lives but Christ who lives in him. He is not self-sustaining but dependent on the fullness that is in Christ. The notable Rowland Hill was sometimes eccentric in his way but his eccentricity always had the stamp of godliness on it. A gracious minister was once in very poor circumstances, and a gentleman who knew this, and wished to help him, gave Rowland Hill a sum of £100 to administer to the needs of the good man as he saw fit, so Rowland Hill enclosed £5 in an envelope with an unsigned note saying simply “More to follow” and sent it off to the man. This he did at intervals, and it was always “More to follow” until the £100 was spent. This, I think, well illustrates the way in which the believer receives grace upon grace as long as he lives. Or it might be taken this way, “Grace for grace” in the sense of grace making way for more grace. This principle applies in education and training of all kinds. Each new gain increases the capacity for further gain. The student of mathematics must begin at the elements of arithmetic, and each increase in the knowledge of his subject lays the foundation for further increases. Similarly, one degree of grace leads to another. The acquisition of each grace prepares the way for another, and grace as it grows will ever be seeking for more grace and greater grace.
I think this is a very suitable question and hope the brethren will be enabled to speak to it from their personal experience and to our mutual edification.
Speaker No. 1.
Marks are asked of those who have received of the fullness that is in Christ Jesus, especially marks of “grace for grace.” All have got a faith’s view of Christ as the only begotten of the Father. The view that the believer gets is as of the only begotten of the Father in our nature, and now, marks are particularly wanted of grace for grace, or, as Mr Cameron said, “Grace for every grace — a grace for every grace in the man Christ Jesus.” The believer has to be conformed to Christ. He is the first born among many brethren, and in order to conform to Him, the poor creature who has been regenerated, sees now the glory of His person and that he must get grace for grace. It is only by grace that He must be conformed to Christ. We think there are two things in particular which makes the believer different from every other person in the world. He is circumspect, first in his worship and walk, and he is receiving of Christ’s fullness. He is made a new creature in Him, and in the moment he got that he was enabled to worship the true God as reconciled in Christ Jesus, for God in the person of the Father met him in Christ with a smiling countenance instead of as an angry God. In that moment his sins are pardoned and he is justified and reconciled to God. He now rejoices in God and he is enabled to worship Him in spirit and in truth. As a proof of that you find David saying when going up to the house of God—”That I the beauty of the Lord behold may and admire.” The natural man, no matter what his learning may be — as the prophet says that it is true of him that Christ is as “a root out of a dry ground to him.” Where then does this beauty come in in the experience of the believer? Many a day some believers heard about Christ in the preaching of the gospel, and when Christ was offered to them as an all-sufficient Saviour, they said — ‘He will not have me because I am a sinner’, but in the moment the eyes of the understanding are enlightened to behold Christ in the glory of His Person and the sufficiency of His work, this person sees Christ all-sufficient. He now wants something for his affections, and his affections are made spiritual. Now, he sees that Christ is all-sufficient for his case. He says, “Look how I have abused all the privileges I had, and how He is perfectly suited to my case”. The affections go out to Christ at that very moment. The will is renewed and the soul closes in with Christ. He is received by Christ and the soul is made in some measure conscious of it. The enmity of the heart was slain at the very moment he was regenerated, and the conscience was purged by the Holy Spirit through the Lord Jesus Christ, and now he worships in spirit and in truth. How often the believer may be sitting in the pew hearing the gospel preached, and, so far as his feelings are concerned, he fears he does not have anything at all. The old man appears to have the victory so far as his feelings are concerned. They long to see Christ as heretofore, and at the time appointed, and in accordance with that desire, the High Priest making intercession at the Father’s right hand, and in answer to the pleadings of the believer, he gets a sight of Christ, and begins to run in His precepts’ path. They learn that “Without me ye can do nothing”, but when He comes Himself they mount up with wings as eagles, they walk and they do not faint, and it is seen now that they are verily His people. The conscience is made tender. They are a tender people and as they are advancing in years they see more of the awfulness of sin and their need of continual repentance before God. The effect of this is to make them humble and grace after grace follows showing that they have received out of this fullness, and they are ashamed of themselves. They would feign hide out of sight, and, at the same time, are rejoicing in the Lord. That is not the natural man! How can a person be rejoicing in the Lord and mourning at the same moment? He looks to Jesus by faith in exercise first and evangelical repentance follows at its heel. “They shall mourn for Him.” It is not the measure of the experience — it is the nature of it, and although it may be feeble in the case of some, it is their desire to draw near to God. These are two clear marks. Whether the measure is great or small, fruit will follow, and “By their fruit ye shall know them”.
Speaker No. 2.
I would not like to say anything beyond what I went through. I would not like to speak of anything that I have merely gathered from books, good as they are, unless I had experience of it. If you were going to put any precious liquid into a vessel, the first thing you would make sure of would be that the vessel was empty. Well, we think that God will not put His grace into any person until he is emptied of himself, and the Lord’s people can say that they feel they owe to the Lord ten thousand talents and have not a penny wherewith to pay. We heard the brother who spoke before me say that these people feel ashamed of themselves. Amen, very true! They cannot describe their condition in more suitable words that what the Psalmist has in Psalm 113 where he speaks of himself as the man who is on the dunghill oppressed with poverty. Really, they would not like any of their fellow men to be tried with poverty as they are. They see their fellow men with some preparation but they feel themselves that they have nothing, but that they are rude and ignorant and as a beast in God’s sight. They cannot understand the Scriptures yet there is nothing in the world they would love so much as to understand the Scriptures. I was speaking to a very discerning, godly man, and when I complained to him of this poverty of not understanding the Scriptures, he replied, “If you understand the way of salvation through Jesus Christ and Him crucified you have more than although you understood all the types and symbols in the Bible. If you know the way of salvation and that has been shown to you by the Holy Spirit, that is the core and sum and substance of the whole Bible.” This people are quite sure — they have no doubt that the way of salvation is through Jesus Christ and Him crucified, as we were hearing from the brother who spoke before. He said, at the beginning, that they have all been brought to see that Christ is the Son of God — “God manifest in the flesh”. This people believe that it is for the sake of Jesus Christ that they are not inhaling the fumes of brimstone instead of the balmy, healthy air of heaven. They believe that it is for the sake of Christ that the sun makes its daily round of the heavens, that we have the seasons of the year, and that the laws of nature do function. It has been known that the passengers aboard a vessel at sea waken when the propellers stop. Well, there are many in this world who do not believe in the Son of God, and that it is for His sake the laws of nature do function. Well, these men will surely waken when the laws of nature will stop and cease to function, to find out on the Day of Judgment what they owed to Jesus Christ, for we believe that when Jesus Christ is finished with the world the laws of nature will stop — no more need for them. Well, I should give as a mark of those who have received out of His fullness, that they are a praying people— constantly in the exercise of prayer. Some people believe that prayer will not alter things and that things will take their course. There are those they call fatalists who say, “What is prayer going to do?” Well, let fatalists say what they like, this people believe in prayer — offering up their desires unto God for things agreeable to His will, and they are frequently at a Throne of grace, and we think that a person who is never seen in the exercise of prayer is a dead soul and he will be shut out of heaven at last. Well, we think that those who receive out of the fullness of Christ must be going to Him in prayer — the prayer of faith. These people, we think, have no wisdom of themselves and they have to ask of God in Christ for wisdom to conduct even the ordinary affairs of life. Some would think it beneath them to go and trouble God for that. The Lord’s people make their requests known unto God, and their prayer is — “Lord guide me, bless me and keep me from all evil, and guide me in all circumstances what I should say and do.” They feel they cannot put one foot before another without the guidance of God. This people know that they are as void of all righteousness as Satan himself, and they see in Christ what will enable them to stand in the day of trial. There is a fullness of sanctification — a fullness that they need. They know that they cannot sanctify themselves. Christ is their sanctification and they know that there is enough in Him. This people, at times, cannot tell the way they feel. It is not lawful to utter what they cannot tell to anybody but God Himself. I may say myself today that I am thankful for two things. One of these is that my inside is hid from my fellow creatures, and that it is the glory of God to conceal a matter. I am thankful for these two things, and I am in agreement with what I heard from the man who spoke and the man who opened the “Question”, and I would add to that, that it would be grace to be earnestly asking for grace, the grace of God in Christ Jesus. If you take grace to be an undeserved favour which God bestows on you — well, this people feel that this is what they understand they are in need of. They have the publican’s prayer — “God be merciful to me a sinner”. Now it is good to learn things from books but it is more important to have them written on our heart.
Speaker No. 3.
I think that marks were asked of those who have the hope that they had received this grace for grace from Christ and through Christ and for His sake, and I take it that it is marks of those who have this grace in truth that is asked and that is desirable. Well, those who hope that they have received grace for grace feel indebted to the Lord Jesus Christ for what He has done for them. They will never forget what He has done for them when He took our nature and came into the world as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and He humbled Himself in such a way that He most willingly died the cursed death of the cross in the room and stead of those who were given to Him in the everlasting covenant. Well, those who have received grace from Christ will never forget it. Never can they forget what was done for them — that if He should mark their iniquities against them they could not stand in His presence, and they know that it is by grace they are saved, and that not of themselves — it is the gift of God. This gift is freely given. None deserve this gift, but most of the men of the world, as long as they are left to themselves, they think that they do deserve what comes from the hand of the Most High, but those who have received grace and were taught by Him, they know that they are undeserving, and that they owe everything to the Lord Jesus Christ, and, therefore, that they cannot help going out in their love to Him. They say, like others, — “We love Him because He first loved us”. They know this love would never be in them unless Christ, from all eternity, had loved them with an everlasting love. But those who have received grace, as we have it here, it will manifest itself to them. They are a humble people, as it is written, — they are clothed with humility, and they will take a low place, and the more grace they receive, the more they will be seeking holiness of life. That has been true of the most eminent saints in the Word of God. They feel ashamed of themselves, but that is not true of all, because man by nature is proud and self-sufficient, and we have heard reference made already to the fact that some are rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing, while those who have received this grace feel that they are poor indeed, and their need and poverty will be causing them to seek and pray for grace to help in every time of need. We heard of a worthy man in Portree — he was known to some here — Mr N. MacKinnon, an elder in the Portree congregation, and it was said that when he would be praying that he would feel his need of going back to seek forgiveness for the prayer he was offering. That was because he knew what was in his own heart. But I think it was also asked what was meant by “grace for grace”. Those who receive grace feel their need — their daily need of grace and more grace until the end of the day. They feel their own emptiness, barrenness and unprofitableness, and they are not what they would desire to be, but after it all they have a hope, and the hope of those who have received grace is a good hope, and a sure hope, and may we all seek to have a hope that will not perish, and the hope of the children will not be put to shame.
Speaker No. 4.
We believe that the people who receive this fullness were, as we heard already, brought to understand, in a measure, their own emptiness. They were brought to understand, in a measure, their own need in the sight of God as lost, ruined enemies who had lifted up the heel of rebellion against Him, and who had cast off the bands of His holy law, and we believe that those who are of this people spoken of here were brought in a day of mercy to know that this is where they were. God brought before them their state and condition. They were brought to see that they could do nothing to save themselves; that the wrath of the Eternal God would be their portion if they continued as they were, and we believe that they were brought to see that the sins of which they had been guilty were against a righteous God, and their question then was “How can I be just before God?” We believe that a sense of their trouble in some measure was given to them, that they were brought to this confession that they could do nothing to help themselves, and that although they were acquainted with the letter of the gospel, and acquainted with the facts that are stated in the Bible concerning Christ, that they could do nothing, notwithstanding that, to save themselves. This people were brought to see that there was a fullness in Jesus Christ to meet their need, yet they could not receive out of that fullness unless God, by His grace, would enable them to do so. This people were brought by the free and sovereign grace of God to say like another, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean” when he saw the fullness that was in Christ, and, again, to be like the poor woman who had the issue of blood. She was persuaded that there was a fullness in the Divine Redeemer when she pressed forward through the crowd in order to touch the hem of His garment. We believe that, in a day of mercy, this people were brought to see Him as the One who made a satisfaction for sin on the hill of Calvary, which is sufficient for all who come to Him in a day of mercy. They come to admire the fullness of the grace in Christ, and to see there was such fullness in Christ for the believer that even after he had been enabled to drink of it there was still a fullness in it, and when all the people of God had been drinking from it this well was as full as ever. We believe that this people are made conscious of their many needs. They see their need of Christ as a prophet, priest and king. He is all glorious to them. They desire to be delivered from pride, and the only way is by being enabled to behold in some measure the fullness that is in Christ. They are unclean in themselves, and the Lord Jesus is so pure, clean and holy. We believe that they are conscious that it is by grace they can receive grace and also that they are made conscious that it must be by grace always that they receive grace — that unless the Lord will by His Spirit make them dependent on Jesus, and make them feel that they are in continual danger, and have need of being kept by the grace of God, they will fall continually.
Speaker No. 5.
We have not far to go to see an evidence of grace. It is an evidence of grace that we are assembled here today. The words have been quoted here today — “By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God”, and the truth is worth quoting at any time, and every one within this building at present, who realises it, have evidences of grace that should recommend to them the grace of God. It is of grace that they are spared and allowed to endeavour to praise God for His goodness to them. We need grace to plead for mercy. He will be seeking grace to understand the Scriptures. “By grace are ye saved through faith”, and unless a man has faith he cannot have grace, for a man that has faith believes that the Word of God is true and that God is omnipotent — that He is the Ruler and the Judge and all sin is committed against Him. They realise their need of a Saviour — the Lord Jesus Christ. It is by grace this people are enabled to believe on Him, for it is written — “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”. There is no salvation in any other but in the Lord Jesus Christ. This people know that they cannot praise Him as they are in themselves and they know in some measure what a fearful pit they have been delivered from. One sin is sufficient to damn any person for eternity, and how many sins have we all committed! Christ is the propitiation for the sins of His people and “Whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Marks are specially asked of grace for grace, and if you get grace pray for more and more grace. You cannot get enough grace. The believer prays for grace and more grace when he is up against any difficulties. He does not trust in his own strength.
Speaker No. 6.
I would like to draw attention to verses 12 and 13 — “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”. We have here described the experience of the soul coming for the first time to believe in Christ. Their case is a confession of emptiness and then believing in the fullness that is in Christ, and then the emptiness and the fullness come together — the empty soul receives out of the fullness that is in Christ. On looking back on that experience, surely it is more and more important and more prominent in the mind of one who has come to know Jesus Christ savingly that it was the Holy Spirit that caused him to be born again—not by his mother, father or even his minister, but by the Holy Spirit. It was not another who introduced him to Christ. — It was the Holy Spirit, and I was thinking of this—the part which the Holy Spirit has performed in this growth in grace. “Hereby we know that we are in Him by the Spirit that He has given us”. How is it that we are to grow in grace and to learn a little so that we may be prepared to receive more grace? Is it not by the Holy Spirit teaching and leading us again as a father taking a child by the hand from experience to experience to receive a view of His fullness? Surely it is true that our appreciation of His fullness becomes greater. But how are we to grow in grace? How are we to receive more of the Holy Spirit? How are we to receive of the things of Christ which the Holy Spirit reveals to sinners? The Holy Spirit is surely jealous for the claims of Christ as prophet, priest and king (we heard already about these offices) and we are enabled by grace to give Christ the glory that is due to Him. We are led by the Holy Spirit to Christ, and the glory is His if this is what is filling our hearts and minds, and our emptiness is brought together in an eternal union with perfect fullness.
Speaker No. 7.
I think this text is a fundamental truth of the true religion, i.e. our part — man’s part is that he has destroyed himself — that he has nothing to offer God, and that the restored relationship between God and man comes from God’s side in giving us His Son. The religion of man, and the attempts of man to worship God are all based on a natural desire for man to reach God. We get this even among the heathen when they endeavour to propitiate the spirits of their ancestors by offering them sacrifices and worshipping them, and this is the principle of the natural man’s religion: to try and offer something that is acceptable to God. I remember when as a young boy I felt a kind of satisfaction when I thought I was rendering worship to God when not many people were doing it, and this is our own cursed spirit of pride, and we do not realise until we are taught of the Spirit that we have nothing that we can give to God. It is something that is taught by the Spirit that there is this fullness in God. I think that one test of this is that each man can tell whether the strength of his religion comes from his own will or from the fullness that is in another. My contribution to my religious life is negative. I fall and I sin, and if there is anything in my religious life it comes from another source. This fullness is something that comes from God. I see the evil that is in my heart, and the confusion of face that belongs to me, but He has loved a number that no man can number, and He has given His Son and His fullness is filling them and begins to fill them in time and throughout eternity. It is the work of Christ the Restorer. This is His work. It is all of grace. We have to receive and believe it, and ask for particular grace, and to seek for more grace and to seek that His grace would enable us to do what we are utterly unable to do in ourselves.
Speaker No. 8.
I remember, many years ago, I had a conversation with a godly man, and we discussed the subject in a small way, and this godly man said — “You will have to get grace to ask for grace.” At that time I could not understand these words in my own experience but now I can follow the meaning of them to some extent.
Minister closing The Question.
We may well regard ourselves as a privileged few here today having regard to what we have heard from the Word of God about the work of the Holy Spirit in the souls of men and women. The men spoke, I believe, with a measure of liberty and, I am persuaded, with no ordinary measure of edification, and for that we ought to “thank God and take courage” for we might well be in a temple with thousands and have to listen to what would not be for edification but rather to what would be to the dishonour of the Head of the church. Many marks have been given; also profitable explanations of the passage of Scripture given as a basis for the exercise in which we have been engaged. The brother who gave out the “Question” desired an explanation of the words of the text — “Of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace” and I believe he is very satisfied with what he heard. This fullness has reference to the divine fullness of the Redeemer. In other words, the fullness of the incarnation of the Son of God, and that fullness has been opened for sin and uncleanness. It was the existence of sin which necessitated the manifestation of the divine wisdom and power. Christ assumed our nature for this specific purpose that He might by the sacrifice of Himself put away the sins of the people given to Him in the everlasting covenant. The wisdom of God was manifested in the incarnation of a person of the adorable Trinity to take away sin. (Some men maintained that even though man had not sinned the Son of God would have assumed human nature but that view is not in the Word of God.) Christ came into the world to save sinners. Many illustrations have been given to point out the meaning of the fullness of Christ, and the last one was very good indeed. It refers to the fullness of satisfaction the lamb found in his mother’s milk, and again the fullness of warmth derived from the rays of the sun. These, warmth and nourishment, suffice to satisfy the lamb. Well, that is true of the believer in Christ; he has full satisfaction in Christ. It cannot be over-emphasised that the believer has in Christ what satisfies his soul for time and eternity. If you look up the references to this fullness in other passages of the Word you will notice in the Epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians that Paul recounts the fullness of satisfaction which Christ gave to law and justice for the sins of the people. He was made perfect through sufferings, and having been made perfect through sufferings He ascended on high and He received gifts for men, even for the rebellious, and He gave all this for the edification of the Church until we all come in the unity of the faith to the fullness of Christ. The fullness of Christ is for the edification and the sanctification of all who are bound up together in the bundle of life with Him. The latter part also has been explained — “grace for grace”. One of the brethren quoted that text “grace worketh by love”. The Apostle, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, classifies the graces of the Spirit, faith, hope, charity or love, and we are told that faith works by love. The word used there means energiser — gives power. The Lord gives grace and glory.