THE KING’S BUSINESS
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character, and w ork ). What he knew con cerning Him was not merely derived from his own study o f Old Testament prophecy, though that was thorough and profound, and he might have found the truth o f the eternal pre-existence o f the Messiah in the Old Testament Scriptures (Micah 5:2; Isa. 9 :6 ), but his knowledge o f Christ was given him by the direct and immediate inspiration and revelation T>f the Spirit. The word “ fulness” in verse 16 is a very expressive one; it sets forth the full meas ure o f the Divine nature\and power and grace which were incarnate in Jesus Christ as the incarnate Word. This is the only place where the Apostle John uses the word in all his writings, but it is found five times in the Epistles o f Paul to the Gala tians and Ephesians, which, it has been well said, “ form the connecting link between the writings o f St. Paul and St. John” (Col. 1:19; 2 :9 ; Eph. 1:23; 3.:19; 4:13). All fulness is in Him and all that there is in Him is available for each believer. The method o f our receiving is “grace for grace.” More literally translated, this would be “grace instead o f grace,” that is constantly new measures instead of, or superseding, the lesser measures o f grace already received. The. thought is that of continually new accessions o f grace. Each blessing we appropriate from His fulness becomes a stepping-stone to the appropri ation o f a larger blessing. The words “grace for grace” have been translated “grace over against grace,” the thought being that over and against each grace that there is in the Lord Jesus we appropriate a similar grace to ■ourselves. This is a true thought and it is suggested elsewhere (2 Cor. 3:18)r'b u t it does not seem to be the thought o f the word used here. We can receive o f His fulness,” because it is not law but “grace and truth” that came through Jesus Christ. There is no pos sible receiving o f anything but condemna tion under law. This truth which is clearly declared and fully expounded by Paul (e. g. Rom. 3), is here announced but not amplified by John. Verse 18 explains the
statement o f verse 17 that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The truth, the full and complete truth, could not come through Moses for he had not seen God. Neither could it come through any other than the Word become incarnate, for no one else any more than Moses had seen God. But the Word who became incar nate in Jesus had seen God, indeed He was ever in the*closest fellowship with God, He was “ in the bosom o f the Father.” It is true that Moses had seen a manifesta tion o f God (a theophany), and in that sense it could be said that he had seen God, but neither in the case o f Moses nor the others to .whom it was given to see a theophany in Old Testament times, (e. g. MoseS, Aaron, Isaiah) was it God in His invisible essence, God as God, whom they saw. The words translated “the Only Begotten Son” in verse 18, according'to almost all thq ancient MSS. should read “ God only begotten.” This reading is pre ferred by Westcott and Hort, Tregelles, Nestle, Weiss, in fact by all the standard authorities on Textual Criticism, except Tischendorf. If this is the true reading, it sets forth our Lord Jesus’ Deity, not only as He^was before His incarnation, but fur thermore, that He was God ( “God only begotten” ) during the days o f His flesh. It,, annihilates the Millennial Dawnist doc trine that He was not God during the days o f His fleshy and all similar errors. O f course, this truth is found elsewhere, even if it is not here, and it is found by implication here even if we take the other reading. “ God only begotten,” or “ The only begotten Son,” “ declared Him.” The word translated “ declare” is a very signifi cant word. It means to unfold, it is the word from which we derive ou r-w ord “ exegesis.” It was the word constantly used in classical Greek writings o f the interpretation o f divine mysteries. The thought is that He who Himself was God, God Only Begotten, and who was ever in the bosom o f the Father, He and He only has fully revealed, expounded, and inter preted God. In other words, we can only
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