The Pulpit Commentary on John 1:16-18

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

Christ the Fulness of grace and truth.

We next have the testimony of the entire Church.

I. THE FULNESS OF CHRIST REALIZED IN THE CHURCH. "And of his fulness have all we received, even grace for grace."

1. The fulness of Christ. It is the plenitude of Divine attributes and graces.

2. The wide extent of its reception. "We have all received." There may be an allusion to the Gnostic idea that only a certain spiritual class would be received into this fulness. The fulness of Christ is for all believers of both dispensations. Its blessed universality has nothing in common with the esoteric exclusiveness of Gnostic spiritualism.

3. The measure of the reception, "Even grace for grace."

II. THE ESSENTIAL GLORY OF CHRISTIANITY AS DISTINGUISHED FROM JUDAISM. "For the Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

1. Mark the superiority of the gospel to the Law.

(a) Moses was "a servant," Christ a Son (Hebrews 3:5);

(b) the Law could not justify,—it "worked wrath" (Romans 4:15);

(c) the inferiority of the Law is implied in its useful pedagogic function, for "it was the schoolmaster to lead us to Christ" (Galatians 3:24);

(d) it imposed a heavy yoke of service.

2. Mark the distinguishing glory of the gospel. "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." This is the first mention of this name in the Gospel, and it seems fitly to link together the two dispensations; for Jesus is the name of the humanity, and Christ is the name that marks his relation to the old dispensation.

(a) He gives the gospel of grace.

(b) His salvation is entirely by grace.

(a) He is the Truth itself, as he is the Light (verse 4).

(b) The gospel reveals the "truth as it is in Jesus."

III. CHRIST THE ONLY REVEALER OF THE FATHER. "No man hath ever yet seen God; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." The apostle intends here to develop the idea of the fulness of truth as it is in Christ.

1. God is invisible to man in this life. The eye of mortal man could not bear the sight of God. "There shall no man see me and live" (Exodus 33:20).

2. God is revealed to us by his Son.

(a) The Son reveals God, not simply as God, but as the Father.

(b) Because he is the only begotten Son of the Father, dwelling in his bosom,

( α) implying oneness of essence,

( β) oneness of counsel,

( γ) oneness of affection.

IV. CONCLUSION.

1. We ought to give due honour to the Son. We cannot think too highly of him.

2. We ought to listen to his words with holy awe, and obey him with all the sincerity of our hearts.

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