“And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” (John 1:16)
The week between Christmas and New Year often leaves us in a peculiar state of fulness. The refrigerator still holds leftovers from holiday meals. Cookie tins sit half-empty on kitchen counters. We feel physically full from days of feasting, emotionally full from gatherings with family and friends, spiritually full from candlelight services and familiar carols. This seasonal fulness comes in waves—one celebration flowing into another, one meal extending into the next, grace upon grace around the table.
Yet we know this holiday fulness fades. The leftovers run out, guests return home, decorations come down, and regular rhythms resume. The Scriptures, however, point to a different kind of fulness—one that continues wave after wave, season after season. These readings trace how God’s covenant blessings move from particular promise to universal availability, from Israel’s unique inheritance to a fulness accessible to all who receive Christ. What began as the finest wheat filling Jerusalem’s borders becomes the Bread of Life satisfying every hunger.
The Foundation: God’s Unique Word to Israel
Psalm 147 celebrates Jerusalem’s privileged position: “He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation” (vv. 19-20). God strengthened Zion’s gates, blessed her children, filled her borders with the finest wheat. This was covenant relationship in concrete form—God’s word running swiftly among his chosen people, his revelation known in one place above all others. The psalmist calls Jerusalem to praise because she has received what others have yet to know. This particular blessing establishes the pattern: God fills his people with good things, speaks his word, and creates security within relationship.
The Promise: Covenant Restoration and Gathering
Jeremiah 31 takes Israel’s covenantal fulness and projects it forward through exile and return. “I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth,” God promises (v. 8). The scattered will become gathered, the weeping will turn to singing, and souls will be “as a watered garden” (v. 12). God identifies himself as “a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn” (v. 9)—the language of intimate family relationship. The priests will be “satiated with fatness,” the people “satisfied with goodness” (v. 14). Here we see fulness promised: complete restoration, abundant provision, joy replacing sorrow. The gathering theme emerges—God actively bringing his people back into the place of blessing.
The Fulfillment: The Word Made Flesh
John’s Gospel announces the arrival of everything the previous texts anticipated. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). The Word that ran swiftly through Israel’s streets has now taken flesh and dwelt among us. John testifies, “we beheld his glory…full of grace and truth” (v. 14). Here is the fulness embodied—everything God is, everything God has to give, present in one person. The movement from particular to universal happens in verses 11-12: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” The adoption once belonging to Israel as firstborn opens to “as many as received him.” The fulness exists completely in Christ; receiving him means receiving everything.
The Explanation: Trinitarian Mechanics of Salvation
Ephesians 1 pulls back the curtain on how this works. The Father “hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (v. 3)—note that “all,” echoing the totality of fulness. He chose us before creation, predestinated us to adoption (vv. 4-5). The Son accomplished “redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (v. 7). The Holy Spirit seals believers as “the earnest of our inheritance” (v. 14). Three times Paul repeats the purpose: “to the praise of his glory” (vv. 6, 12, 14). The fulness we receive comes through coordinated trinitarian action—the Father planning, the Son accomplishing, the Spirit applying. God gathers “together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth” (v. 10). Jeremiah’s gathering of Israel becomes the cosmic gathering of all things.
Living from Fulness
What does it mean to live as those who have received from Christ’s fulness? It means we come to worship already filled, already complete in him. We gather to offer praise from abundance rather than beg from emptiness. Like the early church meeting in homes across Jerusalem, Ephesus, and Rome, we become communities where grace flows “for grace”—one wave of blessing following another.
This changes how we approach the rest of the week. The soul “as a watered garden” that Jeremiah described becomes our daily reality. Work, relationships, decisions—all flow from the fulness already received rather than striving toward a blessing we hope to earn. When John writes that we become “sons of God,” he describes a status already secured, an inheritance already deposited, sealed by the Spirit as guarantee.
The practical call is simple: receive. As Mary received the Word in her womb, as the disciples received Jesus in their boat, as the Ephesian believers received the Spirit’s seal—so we position ourselves to receive from his fulness today.
Points to Ponder
- How does recognizing that you already have “all spiritual blessings in Christ” change your prayer life this week?
- Where are you striving for something God has already given in Christ?
- What would it look like to live Monday through Saturday from the fulness of Sunday’s worship rather than spending Sunday recovering from Saturday’s emptiness?
- How can your local church community become a place where others experience the gathering and restoration Jeremiah promised?
Prayer
Father, you have filled us with the finest wheat of your presence in Christ. Son, you have shared your fulness with us, grace upon grace. Spirit, you have sealed us as God’s possession. Teach us to live from this abundance rather than for it. Make our souls like watered gardens that refresh others. Gather us into deeper unity with all things being reconciled in Christ. We offer this prayer to the praise of your glory. Amen.
“Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.” (Jeremiah 31:12)
Josh Cehulik 