Blessing Upon Blessing

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

BLESSING UPON BLESSING

John 1:15-18

15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.'" 16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

NIV

John the Baptist was indeed a man filled with the Holy Spirit, in fact, we are told that he was filled with the Spirit while he was still in his mother’s womb. Because of the Spirit, he knew he was in the presence of Jesus, or the Messiah, or the One and Only, when Mary, pregnant with Jesus, came into the presence of Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John. This had to be one of those supernatural moments in time. Although we are not exactly sure of the timeline as to whether John or Jesus were born first, they were very close in human age and they were cousins. However, the Apostle John does not give us, nor do any of the other gospel accounts the details of either of their childhoods, but John introduces the Baptist to us as an adult who testifies concerning Jesus. John the Baptist had already started his public ministry before Jesus had, and so in that sense, he came before Jesus, but he testifies that Jesus came before him, which indicates he knows, because of the Spirit, the divine nature of Jesus. The Apostle John declares that it is from Jesus, from the fullness of his grace we have received blessing one after another. The Greek interlinear voices it as grace upon grace. It would seem the simplest way to understand this is it is common in that culture to use this repeated word as a superlative. The one blessing after another wordage seems to convey that message rightly. Through Jesus, we are receiving one blessing and then God continues to bless us more and more. The blessing of bestowing upon us the unmerited favor of his grace through Jesus Christ. Then his continued grace of his divine influence upon our heart. This seems to correspond with the two Greek words used in the sentence, although Strong’s has assigned them both the same number, one word is charin the other charitos. Perhaps they are the same, just different tenses of genitive causations. It appears the main point is that God blesses us and then blesses us more and more, so it would still seem the type of grace has some differences because the grace of unmerited favor through Jesus would seem to be a one-time type grace, given in our salvation and then God moves into blessing us in other ways, such as divinely influencing our lives, bestowing gifts upon us, healing us, protecting us, providing for us, directing our paths, etc. Within the context of the law given by Moses, this grace is given through Jesus. The Law could not save them nor can it save us, but through Jesus, they and we can find salvation. What is slightly odd, is John makes this comparison between the Law and Jesus, saying Jesus brings grace and truth, while the law did not. Was he saying the Law of Moses was not the truth? The Law was the words of God given to Moses, surely it was also truth, or true. But Jesus is the truth, he is the reality of God, the One and Only. The whole of the Law was to point to the truth, Jesus. So what do we do with all this information? It would seem the point we need to come to is that we live with the blessings of God in our lives, blessings upon blessings. We just to look for them and we will see God’s blessings upon blessings in our lives.