blessed Son of God possessed in all eternity
fulness. The Holy Spirit in this chapter bears a testimony to this
fact by a great revelation. "In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the
beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was
not anything made 'that was made.' In Him was life; and the life was
the light of men" (John i:1-4). What a wonderful revelation this is!
The Word which was in the beginning, which ever _was_ God, by whom
all was made, without whom nothing came into existence, is the Son
of God. The fulness of the Godhead was His before the world was
made, for He is God. Then we read in this chapter, "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." He
came to this earth, He took on the form of man, the eternal Word was
made flesh, God manifested in the flesh. And as He walked on the
earth the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in Him (Col.
i:19). But before we could ever receive out of His fulness grace
upon grace, the Son of God had to die. If He had not died and
accomplished the great work for which He came into the world, His
fulness would have been forever inaccessible to sinners. But He went
to the cross and finished there the great work. Christ died for us;
He who knew no sin was made sin for us. And now it is written of
Him, the glorified One, the Man in Glory. "For in Him dwelleth all
the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which
is the head of all principality and power" (Col. ii:9-10). He, who
possessed eternally all fulness, who came to this earth and in whom
the fulness of the Godhead dwelt, who died on the cross the just for
the unjust, who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the
tree, is now as Man in glory and there dwelleth in Him bodily the
fulness of the Godhead. It is all for us; we can now receive grace
upon grace, because of Him who is the Second Man, the Head of the
new creation and with whom God has made us, who believe, one. This
is the deep and yet simple Gospel. God gave His blessed Son, who was
forever one with Him, that through Him we might receive of the
fulness of the Godhead, grace upon grace. Brought to God in such a
way, washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus,
and by the Spirit of our God, we are receiving all we need. We
receive it not o