What is the meaning of "grace upon grace" in John 1:16?

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

It may be that at these meetings questions will be raised in your hearts: questions as to your past, questions as to your present mode of living, questions as to your future, of what you shall do with your lives, and how and where you shall serve the Lord to whom you belong. Some of you may have sleepless nights through exercise of heart about these questions, but don't be afraid of that, the deeper your exercises are the greater the blessing, if they turn you wholly to the Lord Jesus, for you will find in His fullness an answer to every perplexity, and every question. I will read to you my text in its connection, omitting the parenthesis in verse 14 and the testimony of John the Baptist in verse 15. "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. And of His fullness have all we received, and grace upon grace." What does it mean? It is the limitless sea of divine grace flowing in upon the shore of human need, wave upon wave, filling up every inlet and creek and cave; and all it looks for is room for its blessedness. It is the fullness of the Godhead brought down to us in Jesus, for in Him it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell, and the fullness dwelt in Him, and still dwells in Him for you, for "in Him (who is your Saviour) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." You have not a need that He cannot meet, there is not a crevice in your heart that He cannot fill. Will you be humble enough and sincere enough to receive from Him?

The last verse (15) appears to be a parenthesis, however full of instruction. But the direct line of truth runs, "full of grace and truth … and of His fulness all we received, and grace for grace" (verse 16). An astonishing truth! He is the gift and the giver — full of grace and truth; and of His fulness did we all receive. Such is the portion of the least believer. The strongest is only the stronger, because he better appreciates Him. For there is no blessing outside Him, and consequently no lack for the soul that possesses Jesus. If the Colossian saints, if any others, seek to add any other thing to the Lord, it is a real loss, not gain. It is but to add what detracts from Him. For Christ is all ( τὰ π.), and in all. Before our apostle died Gnosticism was sowing its baneful seeds, it would seem even before St. Paul's death. Early in the second century we know that Basileides had developed the system so far as to separate Jesus from Christ, the latter an emanation ["Æon"] from God united to Jesus at His baptism, and returning to the Fulness on high before His death on the cross.23 Thus the Incarnation was annulled no less than the Atonement. But even Christ in this impious reverie was not the true God, but only an emanation, sent to make known the good God, and expose the Demiurge [Jehovah], who made the world, with all its evils, inseparable from matter. One readily sees how the doctrine of the apostles cuts off by anticipation this irreverent and destructive falsehood by stating the simple truth of Christ's Person and work, though only the germs may have then appeared.

The expression "and grace for grace" has perplexed many, but without much reason; for an analogous phrase occurs, even in profane authors not infrequently, which ought to satisfy any inquirer that it simply means grace upon grace,24 one succeeding to another without stint or failure — superabundance of grace, and not a mere literal notion of grace in us answering to grace in Him. It will be noticed, further, that scripture speaks of grace upon grace, not truth upon truth, which last would be wholly unsuitable; for the truth is one, and cannot be so spoken of. The same apostle wrote even to the babes, not because they did not know the truth, but because they do know it, and that no lie is of the truth. The unction, which they, in fact, received from Him, teaches them as to all things, and is true, and is not a lie. But as grace brings the truth, so the truth exercises in grace. How blessed that of His fulness all we received, and grace for grace!

Then (ver. 16) John the Evangelist takes it up again: "and of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace;" it really means grace heaped upon grace, when one grace was given another came upon it. There was in its plenitude divine favour in the world and truth about everything. Truth in a certain sense answers to light, but truth could not have been in the world if grace had not been there too, for it would not have been the truth about God. As believers we have all received of Christ's fulness abundance of grace; here it is what is in Himself.

16, 17. For indeed it is out of His fulness we have all received (these the words of the second John commenting on the force of the statement of the former, connected with his own to which that bore testimony) and that not vaguely, or as grace commonly understood, but by being the fulness available in man, and exhibiting itself according to the purpose of God in all the circumstances in which the Son of God was to be placed, we adopted (and as Firstborn, and Only Begotten, having it in Himself, for "all fulness was pleased to dwell in him") into unity with Him. "Grace upon grace," grace corresponding to every grace in Him, for it is His grace in a man, and ours in Him by union into it; for the law was given as a transferable thing to those who received, or to whom it was made known by Moses. But grace and truth were by Jesus Christ, or the Anointed.

Verse 16. "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." It means an abundance of grace, grace piled up upon grace. In Romans 5 you get, "they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness." It is abundance of grace. How much better should we understand and realise these privileges, were it not for our worldliness and moral distance from God! May He deepen us in the true knowledge of these wondrous blessings, "abundance of grace and gift of righteousness"!

To begin with then in John 1, we read how "the Word became flesh … full of grace and truth"; and again that "of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace," or "grace upon grace." It does not say, truth upon truth, for truth has come in a complete and absolute way in the Son. But grace, Divine favour, flows on, ministered to us as needed.

We can trace it a little through this Gospel, chapter after chapter, as meeting varieties of human need. In John 2, we see grace manifested at the marriage feast. In John 3, as dealing with Nicodemus. In John 4, meeting the woman at the well. In John 5, with the man at the pool. In John 6, feeding the crowds. In John 8, with the woman in the temple. In John 9, opening the eyes of the blind man. In John 11, raising Lazarus and dealing with his sisters. Grouping them all together, we can indeed say, "Of His fulness have we all received, and grace upon grace."

Eliminating in our minds the two parentheses, we get, "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; and of His fulness have all we received." Again here is stated the result for the believing "we." Only "as many as received Him" can truly say, "we received" of His fulness; but such can say it, and all of them can, thanks be to God! Fulness of grace and fulness of truth are the portion of each, even of the feeblest though they will never have explored all the fulness thereof. Grace is specially emphasized. We needed it, piled mountains high — "grace upon grace." Through Moses the law was given, formulating God's demands but establishing nothing. Grace and truth came into being down here and were actually established by the advent of Jesus Christ.

Verse 16. "Of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." This is the second place where the blessings and privileges of the saints are named. In verse 13 the position of children of God was the blessing conferred on all believers. Here it is that of His fulness we all have received. This is the necessary and blessed effect of receiving Himself, and not, as many appear to do, contenting themselves with receiving some doctrinal statement about Him. It is a far different thing to receive Himself; with Himself we receive all that He is. "His wisdom, riches, honours, powers," all are ours; we see with His eyes, understand with His heart, feel with His affections. "Not I but Christ liveth in me," said the apostle. "Grace upon grace," is abundance of grace, grace piled on grace. Oh, what a God is ours, rich in grace indeed!

Then, resuming the strain of verse 14, we are told, in verse 16, that "of his fulness have all we received." So rich and transparently divine was the grace: not some souls, more meritorious than the rest, rewarded according to a graduated scale of honour, but "of his fulness have all we received." What can be conceived more notably standing out in contrast with the governmental system God had set up, and man had known in times past? Here there could not be more, and He would not give less: even "grace upon grace." Spite of the most express signs, and the manifest finger of God that wrote the ten words on tables of stone, the law sinks into comparative insignificance. "The law was given by Moses." God does not here condescend to call it His, though, of course, it was His — and holy, just, and good, both in itself and in its use, if used lawfully. But if the Spirit speaks of the Son of God, the law dwindles at once into the smallest possible proportions: everything yields to the honour the Father puts on the Son. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came (ἐγένετο) by Jesus Christ." (ver. 17) The law, thus given, was in itself no giver, but an exacter; Jesus, full of grace and truth, gave, instead of requiring or receiving; and He Himself has said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. Truth and grace were not sought nor found in man, but began to subsist here below by Jesus Christ.

We have read in Colossians "In Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and ye are complete in Him." In the first chapter of John's gospel there is not only that which is presented to us in the person of Christ as coming into the world, but there is that which He brings with Him. It says "of His fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace." The reference there is to the ocean, the fulness, the love, the power, the wisdom and grace that exists in Christ; and of that fulness, that ocean of God's resources in Christ, we have received grace upon grace; before the effect of one wave has passed away, another has taken its place — that is what God has in mind for us. I want to call your attention to the blessedness, the potentiality of receiving Christ in this very real and precious way, receiving Him to hold. So, I have ventured to refer to several Scriptures which speak of those who received Christ, and the effects upon them.