John 1:16

“For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”

               John continues His explanation, after his example of a witness, of grace and truth that Jesus brings. As we have seen earlier in the passage, Jesus came in the flesh and He is the from the Father full of grace of truth. In this verse, that ahead of being “full” is continued but in this verse, instead of being “full of grace and truth,” Jesus is the “fullness”. The first terminology, being full of something, tells us what His nature is and a description of Him, Jesus come full of grace and truth. John is being careful to show in constant repetition how to guide someone to correct conclusion—Jesus has a nature of grace and truth—but there is such fullness in that grace truth, and it extends to everyone grace upon grace. The second terminology being the “fullness of” shows that which comes out of His nature.

               John answers next why it is so important that Jesus is full of Grace and truth, because it then extends grace to everyone. John says, “we have all received,” not just the people that have seen in the first century but those that have not physically seen Him. Because Jesus is so full of Grace and truth, it overflows unto everyone. This also relates back to the first verse of the paragraph. When we look at the verse, we can make some modifications to this verse to understand better. Because Jesus came in the flesh and because He is full of grace and truth, then from that fullness all receive grace—and not just a little but an abundance of grace.

               This is the last point John makes with this verse, that everyone receives abundant grace not just what they need but what everyone needs. John emphasizes this point of abundance by saying “grace on top of grace.” This means the grace that is received is multiplicative, not just added to us, but through the abundance of grace in Jesus, it can fill us up too. Think about a cup overflowing with liquid that then fills up a cup under it continuing on forever and this is what this verse is trying to help us understand.

               What this means for Christians is that we must live in this grace. This sounds wonderful, but what does that actually mean? We must drench ourselves in the things of Jesus—those things that have been touched by the God man who is full of grace and truth, also called the Bible. He has sent us His words that have the same truth and the same grace. It can be easy, sometimes, to get in a habit of feeling like the Bible is going to condemn us. Instead, it gifts us grace and helps to uplift us because we go from our own selves with the enemy who lies to us to the truth of God, and that truth is grace has come through Jesus.

               For those that are not saved or do not know Him, He is calling you to know Him. Jesus is not like any person whom you have ever known because, as God, He brings truth and honesty—not brutal honesty that is used to show you how wrong you are but truth that leads into His grace. The real truth about God is that He does have grace for everyone who will believe, and He will help you turn from those things that you and He do not want you involved in. His truth comes to you that your nature needs to be found in Jesus and the grace is that Jesus has already done everything for you to realize that.