All Fullness in the God-Man

IN Christ Jesus, there is all fullness, “for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.” In Him, there is everything that is essential to Deity, for “in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead.” There is also, in Him, the fullness of perfect manhood, for that Godhead was revealed in Him “bodily.” Partaker of flesh and blood, made in all things like unto His brethren, there was nothing lacking that was necessary to the perfection of humankind in Him. There is a fullness of atoning efficacy in His blood, for “the blood of Jesus Christ.… cleanseth us from all sin.” There is a fullness of justifying righteousness in His life, for “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” There is a fullness of Divine prevalence in His plea, for “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

There is a fullness of victory in His death, for “as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” There is a fullness of efficacy in His resurrection from the dead, for by it we are “begotten again unto a lively hope, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” There is a fullness of triumph in His ascension, for “when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”

There is, in Christ Jesus, a fullness of blessings unspeakable, unknown; a fullness of grace to pardon, of grace to regenerate, of grace to sanctify, of grace to preserve, and of grace to perfect. There is in Him a fullness at all times; a fullness by day and a fullness by night; a fullness of comfort in affliction, a fullness of guidance in prosperity, a fullness of every Divine attribute, of wisdom, of power, of love; a fullness which it is impossible to survey or to explore. There is in Him everything summed up in a grand total, as Paul says, in writing to the Ephesians, “that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in One all things in Christ, both which are in Heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him.”

“It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.” In vain we strive to recount the holy wonder; this is a theme which would exhaust an angel’s powers,—the fullness which resides in Jesus our Head, and ever abides to answer our need. We may realize a little what a fullness this must be, when we think of the multitude, which no man can number, all of whom have received of His fullness, grace upon grace. There is not one of them who has received only a little grace; they are all, as Rutherford has it, “drowned debtors to His mercy;” or, as we might put it, “over head and ears” in debt to Him. They are so indebted that they will never fully know how much they owe to their Lord, but they feel that an eternal song will not be too long for the expression of their grateful praise.

Christ’s fullness is an abiding fullness. John says, “Of His fullness have all we received;” yet he calls it a “fullness” still, for it never becomes any less, however many may partake of it. It was a fullness before a single sinner came to it to receive pardon; it was a fullness before a solitary saint had learned to drink of that river, the streams whereof make glad the Church of the living God; and now, after myriads, and even millions, of blood-redeemed souls have partaken of this life-giving stream, it is just as overflowing as ever. We are accustomed to say that, if a child takes a cupful of water from the sea, it is just as full as it was before; but that is not literally true, there must be just so much the less of water in the ocean. But it is literally true of Christ that, when we have not only taken out cups full,—for our needs are too great to be satisfied with such small quantities,—when we have taken out oceans full of grace,—and we need as much as that to carry us to Heaven,—there is actually as much grace left in Him as there was before we came to Him. Although we have drawn upon the exchequer of His love to an extent so boundless that we cannot comprehend it, yet there is as much mercy and grace left in Christ as there was before we began to draw from it. It is a “fullness” still, after all the saints have received of it.

There is also an abiding fullness of truth in Christ; after you have heard it for fifty years, you see more of its fullness than you did at first. Other themes weary the ear, sooner or later. I will defy any man to hold together a large congregation, year after year, with any other subject but Christ Jesus. He might attract hearers for a time; he might charm them with the discoveries of science, or with the beauties of poetry, and his oratory might be of so high an order that he might, for a while, draw the multitudes who have itching ears; but they would, in time, turn away, and say, “This is no longer to be endured; we know all he has to tell us.” All music but that of Heaven becomes wearisome before long; but, oh! if the minstrel doth play upon this celestial harp, though he keepeth his fingers always among its golden strings, and be but poor and unskilled to handle an instrument so divine, yet the melody of Jesus’ Name, and the sweet harmony of all His acts and attributes, will hold his listeners by the ears, and thrill their hearts as nought beside can do. The theme of Jesus’ love is inexhaustible; though preachers have dwelt upon it century after century, its freshness and fullness still remain.

Spurgeon, C. H. (2009). Christ’s Incarnation: The foundation of Christianity (pp. 71–74). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software. (Public Domain)

We often struggle with the substance of true faith. What is faith and of what does it consist? Here we have the concise answer! God is able to make good on all of His promises. The greatest of all the promises is to "know Him." There is no greater joy!

Romans 1:22

Professing themselves to be wise - This was the common boast of the philosophers of antiquity.  The very word by which they chose to be called, “philosophers,” means literally “lovers of wisdom.” (Barnes)  This is also our boast of today.  How many of us think that we know? A short walk through the halls of our institutions of national government reveal 565 opposing opinions. The reality is that as humankind we don't care much about right, we just want to win the argument.  This boasting about our wisdom is not a new thing!

G3471
μωραι?νω
mo?raino?

Thayer Definition:
1) to be foolish, to act foolishly
2a) to make foolish
2a1) to prove a person or a thing foolish
2b) to make flat and tasteless
2b1) of salt that has lost its strength and flavor
Part of Speech: verb

To be called foolish by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is to be made nothing!  It is from this nothingness that I have been purchased by the precious blood of the Savior.  He sought me when I was not seeking Him.  He bought me when I was deep in sin.  He cleansed me and calls me His friend.

Christ's Fullness Received by His People

NOT only does John say that our Lord Jesus Christ is “full of grace and truth,” but he adds, “and of His fullness have all we received.” It is not one saint alone who has derived grace from the Redeemer, but all have done so; and they have not merely derived a part of the blessings of grace from Jesus, but all that they ever had they received from Him.

It would be a wonderful vision if we could now behold passing before us the long procession of the chosen, the great and the small, the goodly fellowship of the apostles, the noble army of martyrs, the once weeping but now rejoicing band of penitents. There they go! Methinks I see them all in their white robes, bearing their palms of victory. But you shall not, if you stay the procession at any point, be able to discover one who will claim to have obtained grace from another source than Christ; nor shall one of them say, “I owed the first grace I gained to Christ, but I gained other grace elsewhere.” No, the unanimous testimony of the glorified is, “Of His fullness have all we received.” My inner eye beholds the countless throng as the wondrous procession passes, and I note how every one of the saints prostrates himself before the throne of the Lamb, and all together they cry, “ ‘Of His fullness have all we received.’ Whoever we may be, however faithfully we have served our Master, whatever of honor we have gained, all the glory is due unto our Lord, who has enabled us to finish our course, and to win the prize. ‘Non nobis, Domine!’ is our cry; ‘not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name be all the praise!’ ”

What a precious truth, then, we have before us, that all the saints in all ages have been just what we must be if we would be saved; that is, receivers! They did not any of them bring anything of merit to Christ, but they received everything from Him. If they, at this moment, cast their crowns at His feet, those crowns were first given to them by Him. Their white robes are wedding garments of His providing. The whole course of saintship is receptive. None of the saints above talk of what they gave to Jesus, none of them speak of what came of themselves; but, without a solitary exception, they all bear testimony that they were receivers from Jesus’ fullness.

This truth casts mire into the face of human self-sufficiency. What! is there not one saint who had a little grace of his own? Is there not one of all the favored throng who could supply himself with what he needed? No, not one. Did none of them look to the works of the law? No, they all went to Jesus and His grace, not to Moses and the law. Did none of them trust in priests of earthly anointing? Did none of them bow down before holy fathers and saintly confessors to obtain absolution? There is not a word said about any such gentry, nor even a syllable concerning appeals to saints and saintesses; but all the saved ones declare that they received grace and salvation direct from His fullness, who filleth all in all.

These receptive saints received very abundantly from Christ’s fullness. They drew from an abundance, and they drew largely from it, as the words seem to indicate. It is worth while to notice the marvelous simplicity of the one act by which salvation comes to all saints. It is merely by receiving. Now, receiving is a very easy thing. There are fifty things which you cannot do; but, my dear friend, you could undoubtedly receive a guinea, could you not, if it were offered to you? There is not a rational man, or woman, or child, so imperfect in power as to be unable to receive. Everybody seems capable of receiving to any amount; and, in salvation, you have to do nothing but merely receive what Christ gives.

There is a beggar’s hand, and if it be wanted to write a fair letter, it cannot do that, but it can receive alms. Try it, and the beggar will soon let you know that it can do so. Look at that next hand; see you not that it has the palsy? Behold how it quivers and shakes! Ah! but for all that, it can receive. Many a palsied hand has received a jewel. But the hand that I now see, in addition to being black, and palsied, is afflicted with a foul disease; the leprosy lies within it, and is not to be washed out by any mode of purification known to us; yet even that hand can receive; and the saints all came to be saints, and have remained saints, through doing exactly what that poor black, quivering, leprous hand can do. There was not in John any good thing but what he had received from his Master; there was not in the noble proto-martyr, Stephen, one grain of courage but what he had received from Christ; Paul, Apollos, Cephas,—all these had nothing but what they took from Him. If, then, they received everything from Christ, why should we hesitate to do the same?

All their grace came by receiving; so, dear reader, I put to you the question,—Have you received of the fullness of Christ? Have you come to Him all empty-handed, and taken Him to be your All-in-all? I know what you did at first; you were busy accumulating the shining heaps of your own merits, and esteeming them as if they were so much gold; but you found out that your labor profited not, so at last you came to Christ empty-handed, and said to Him, “My precious Savior, do but give me Thyself, and I will abandon all thought of my own merit. I renounce all my giving, and doing, and working, and I take Thee to be everything to me.” Then, friend, you are saved if that be true, for acceptance of Christ is the hall-mark of saints.

The fullness of God’s grace is placed where you can receive it, where you can receive it now, for it is placed in Him who is your Brother, bone of your bone, and flesh of your flesh; it dwells in Him who loves to give it, because, as our Head, He delights to communicate grace to all the members of His mystical body. The plenitude of grace dwells in Him who is Himself yours; and since He is yours, all that is in Him is yours. You need not pray as if you had no inheritance in the blessing which you seek. Christ is the Trustee of the fullness of God, and the ownership of it is vested in His people; you have only to ask of Him, and He will give you that which is your own already. Why do you hesitate? How can you linger? The Father has placed His grace in Christ because it gratifies His love to His Son. It pleases the heart of the great God to see Jesus adorned with the fullness of Deity, and every time Jesus gives out grace to believers, the heart of God is thereby gladdened. How can you hesitate about receiving it if it pleases God for you to partake of it? You may go with high expectation of comfort, since Jesus Himself is honored by your going to Him. He obtains glory by distributing of His fullness to empty sinners, who, when they receive grace, are sure to love Him; then, how can you think Him reluctant to bestow the gift which will increase His glory?

Thinking upon this subject brings to my mind right joyful memories of the hour when first these eyes looked to Christ, and were lightened; when I received pardon from His dying love, and knew myself forgiven. Have not many of my readers similar recollections? And since your conversion, is it not true that everything good you have ever had you have received from your Lord? What have you drunk out of your own cistern? What treasure have you found in your own fields? Nakedness, poverty, misery, death,—these are the only possessions of nature; but life, riches, fullness, joy,—these are gifts of grace through Jesus Christ. Are you accepted before God? Then, He has justified you. Have you been kept? Then, He has preserved you. Are you sanctified? Then, He has cleansed you by His blood. Do you know, by full assurance, your interest in the Father’s love? Then, He gave you that assurance. All you have, and all you ever will have, all that every saint who ever will be born shall have, that is worth the having,—all has been received, and will be received from Christ’s fullness.

Do you not know, too, that when you receive from Christ, you gain by that very act? I am so thankful that Christ has not put the fullness of grace in myself, for then I should not require to go to Him so often; or if I did go to Him, I should not have an errand to go upon of such importance as to justify me in seeking an audience; but now, every time I go to Christ’s door, I can plead necessity. We go to Him because we must go. When is there an hour when a believer does not need to receive from Jesus? Go, then, beloved, to Him often, since your going honours Christ, pleases God, and is the means of soul-enrichment for yourselves.

Spurgeon, C. H. (2009). Christ’s Incarnation: The foundation of Christianity (pp. 131–136). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software. (Public Domain)

Nothing is more maligned today than the meaning of these few words!  All manner of confusion, deception, error and even heresy have been born from wrongly dividing these words of truth.  Let us consider that the reason this is so is because there is a dynamic tension present in the very concept of Grace.  Jesus invites us to find rest by taking on His yoke.  Lewis Sperry Chafer, in Grace, over emphasized the concept of liberty to the point of entertaining unintentionally antinomian thought.  Liberty by definition is deliverance from oppression and not necessarily the freedom to do what we please.  Yet if you preach Grace hard enough that is the very thought that comes to mind (thus the warning from the Apostle Paul in Romans 6:1 — should we sin more so that Grace might abound?).  Grace, recorded in Titus, says that we should deny the realities of our fleshly nature and rather live according to our new nature:

The idea that salvation is a wonderful gift and yet cost us everything that we are remains a paradox but like God and country are not mutually exclusive concepts.

Today we suffer because iniquity abounds and the love of many grows cold (Matthew 24:12).  But we my also abound in hope because the comforter has been given and lives within those who call Christ Savior and Lord.  We are not free to follow the carnal desires of the flesh but rather are empowered to live abounding in the Spirit (2 Corinthians 8:7).  I read in the newspaper this morning of a new church where you can believe whatever you want.  People come there because the did not like the message elsewhere.  We do not want to hear the real truth but instead search for a truth we like!  One that will allow us to cling to the vile creatures we are and thus begin the slow downward spiral of self-deception that leads to eternal separation.

We are saved because we were surrounded by the fullness of Christ's love for the lost.  His love is providential and brings us to that place where we can say yes to His wondrous forgiveness and say no to the sin that so easily entangles us.  The liberty of the yoke!

It is a hard thing for me to understand even after all these years how Christ could look from eternity past to beyond the cross and make a way for lost sinners like me.  This is a good place to reflect upon our own lives and to take ownership for our inner emotions!  Is this the way we look at our neighbors and even the people we love?  Or do you find, like I do, that sometimes and even oftentimes that I fall way short of this attitude that was in Christ Jesus (Philippians Chapter 2).  This is not something that the human heart can conjure up via intestinal fortitude or sheer power of the will.  All we can do is confess our sin (the absence of His Grace) in this area of our life.  Why has Christ bestowed such favor upon fallen man?  For "no reason" (the same way Christ was persecuted).  Because of Christ we are justified! It is the same each day of our life!  In now way can we repay by our actions, "not as a result of works."  We cannot take credit for His Grace in any way!  (Ephesians 2:8-9)  This should give way to thankfulness that grows each day as we begin to see the length and breadth of this amazing pardon.