GRACE UPON GRACE

Grace is the full expression of God's love for mankind. It is the supernatural enablement to live a Christian life. It is only by God's grace that we are able to experience the love of God that surpasses knowledge and it is a free gift in Christ.

Reference: John 1:16 English Standard Version (ESV) "For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace."

There are some Scriptures that can be described as "multum in parvo". This is one of them. Its so simple but loaded. As Christians, we are constantly being inundated with the grace of God, from the fullness of Christ. No matter how much grace we need, His fullness can take care of it. To understand this verse clearly, we can relate to it in two parts below:

1. From His fullness: We know from the Scripture that Christ is the fullness of God (see Colossians 2:9-10 NIV). When we become born again, we are transported and baptized into Christ. From that point, we are in Him and He is in us. Thus, we have the fullness of God in us in the person of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and we draw from this fullness. We must be aware of this reality, so we can have the experiential knowledge of the fullness of God which we have in Christ. This also means that without His fullness, our common experiences as Christians will become the feeling of emptiness. So the key point here is that Christ is the fullness we need, and we can receive nothing outside of His fullness. We can only receive from His fullness.

Without Christ's fullness, we will live our Christian life with a sense of emptiness or inadequacy, just like an empty bottle. Instead of common experience of emptiness, Christ comes to dwell in every Christian to offer us His fullness, satisfaction, and true contentment. So the book of John reminds us that its from His fullness that any good thing flows to fill us. The gift of any spiritual blessing from God comes from the fullness of Christ.

2. We have all received grace upon grace: The book of John is concerned about the practical, experiential knowledge, not just the theoretical idea of the comprehension of God's grace. This means that the fullness of Christ must be seen and experienced in the details of our Christian life. God cannot give us any gift or do anything for us outside of Christ. Christ is the full package. We can only receive anything from above, including the grace of God, through His channel and fullness. So the overflowing grace of God comes from Christ's fullness. The Greek phrasing translated it as "grace upon grace," or "grace in place of grace". In other words, the abundance of grace.

Beloved, we have all received grace upon grace from Christ. We are not about to receive it. This is where the challenge is. We have to know what is available in Christ, otherwise we can't make use of what we've received. Its like receiving a package delivered through the post and not opening the package to know how to use it. Though we have received abundant grace, we must know it, so we can experience it. And its not just to know it in a way that relates to theory but its practical application. Grace must be put to work. Though the "abundance of grace" supply is constant, the power and benefits of functioning with it increases with the use, and diminishes with the neglect. So we don't just talk about grace, we must be able to express and apply it in our lives. How? You may ask!

The Bible says, "For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17 ESV). The Scripture shows us how. We need the combination of two divine gifts to reign in life: The abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness. So you can tell that the abundance of grace is for reigning, prevailing and triumphing in life through Christ. By faith arising from your spirit, you can function in grace in order to reign in life, to walk in all the benefits of salvation and to live in triumph over sin and death through Christ.

Scripture Reading - John 1:14; Acts 20:24; Colossians 1:19; Ephesians 1:23; 2 Timothy 1:9.

Guided Prayer: Heavenly Father, I'm pleased and grateful to have all the fullness, the energy and the totality of Christ dwelling in me. Your grace enables and produces the reign of life and from Christ's fullness, I have received grace upon grace. I can never run out of your grace because I have the full complement and its sense of completeness. Every day I live is grace replaced by grace and every grace I have received is a capacity for higher life and divine upliftment. My faculty of reception in the use of grace and the power contained therein is maximised daily. Thus my life blossoms into joy that is unspeakable, full of glory, in Jesus' Name, Amen!