In the last chapter we covered the riches of Christ. Now we come to see the fullness of Christ. When we enjoy the riches of Christ, the result is that we become the fullness of Christ. We can say that the fullness of Christ is the most profound subject in the New Testament, and its profoundness lies in the fact that the riches of Christ become the fullness of Christ. Many people cannot understand how the riches of Christ can become the fullness of Christ. Many people cannot even clearly distinguish between the riches of Christ and the fullness of Christ.
Let me give an illustration. I may hold an empty glass in one hand and a pitcher full of water in the other hand. Since there is no water in the glass, it is empty. The pitcher, however, is full of water, so it is rich. I can pour the water from the pitcher into the glass until the glass is full of water and overflowing. We can say that this overflow is the fullness, the expression. The rich source of water has become the overflowing stream of water. From the riches to the overflow and expression-this is the fullness.
The “fullness” in the New Testament comes out of the riches of Christ and is for the expression of God. The source of the fullness is the riches. The continuous supply of the riches as the source produces the fullness as the expression. Thus, the riches are the source, and the fullness is the issue.
When we studied the history and the publications of Christianity, we found that nearly no one had spoken anything concerning the riches of Christ and the fullness of Christ. However, these two terms are in the Bible. In Ephesians 3:8 Paul says, “To me...was this grace given to announce to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel.” This is the only verse in the Bible that mentions the riches of Christ, whereas the term fullness is mentioned many times. The first time is in John 1:14 where it says, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace and reality.” Here full is the adjectival form of fullness. Verse 16 says, “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” Fullness here implies the riches. Why did John use fullness instead of riches? It is because John was speaking about God being incarnated and thereby having an expression, which is the expression of His riches. These were the riches He brought in with His incarnation to express Himself and for us to receive. When we receive Him as the expressed God, we receive His expressed riches. This is what is meant by “for of His fullness we have all received.” Therefore, the incarnated Christ was the expression of God’s riches and the fullness of God. When we receive Christ, we receive the fullness of God. All the fullness of God dwells in Christ bodily (Col. 2:9).
The Gospel of John is a book that speaks of the depths of scriptural truth. It not only tells us that Jesus the Nazarene is our Lord, but it also tells us that He is God, the incarnated One. The Word was God, and the Word became flesh; this means that God became a man, and this man was our Lord Jesus. God is the mystery of the universe and the center of all mysteries. One day, through His Spirit, this mysterious God entered into the womb of a virgin to be born of her, and He was called Jesus. In this way, God became a man. He was the unique, true God, yet He became flesh and took on humanity to become a real Man. As a man He was tempted in all things like us, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). When this God-man came, it was the Lord Jesus coming. His coming brought grace and reality.
Before the Lord Jesus came, everything in the universe- the heavens, the earth, and man-were all in existence, and there were many promises in the Old Testament. The first promise was that the seed of woman would come to bruise the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). There were also many prophecies in the Old Testament, such as Isaiah 7:14, which says that a virgin would conceive and bear a son. This seed of the woman was the Savior of the human race, and He was typified by the lamb in Exodus which was offered for the redemption of sins. Moreover, in the Old Testament there was the type of the tabernacle. The tabernacle was the means and the center for the meeting of God and man. However, all the things in the universe and all these types are still not the reality; they are only shadows. Without God, the heavens and earth are empty; without God, man is also empty; the lamb, the tabernacle, and the offerings are all shadows and are all empty. No wonder the Old Testament rarely uses the word grace, and even when it does, the meaning is unclear. Strictly speaking, before the birth of the Lord Jesus, there were not grace and reality in the universe because the One who is grace and reality had not yet come. This is why John 1:17 says that the law was given through Moses, but grace and reality came through Jesus Christ. Before the Lord Jesus came, grace and reality had not yet come. When the Lord Jesus came, grace and reality also came. This is because He is grace and He is reality.
Before the birth of the Lord Jesus, there was no reality on earth, neither was there any grace; everything on earth was merely a type or a shadow. It was not until the Lord Jesus came that grace and reality came. Actually, He was grace and He was reality. Grace is God in Christ as our enjoyment. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” God gave His Son freely to us as a gift, and this is grace. Grace is not what most people understand it to be; they think it is having a high position, making a lot of money, living in a beautiful house, being surrounded by many sons and daughters, and having many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Paul said that these things are not grace. He said that because of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, he considered all people, all matters, and all things to be dung, but he counted only Christ as the excellent One (Phil. 3:8). Grace is the excellent Christ Himself. When grace is gained by man, that is reality. Now we have gained God and Christ, so we have gained life and the reality of life. He is not only life but also the reality of life. If we do not have Him, life is merely a term; if we have Him, we have life and the reality of life. Thus, grace is Christ freely enjoyed by us, and reality is Christ actually gained by us.
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