Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chapters I to XIVMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chapters I to XIV
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. John -- Commentaries
And, as I said, that word 'all' might have even a wider extension
without going beyond the limits of the truth. For on the one side there
stands Christ, the universal Giver; and grouped before Him, in all
attitudes of weakness and of want, is gathered the whole race of
mankind. And from Him there pours out a stream copious enough to supply
all the necessities of every human soul that lives to-day, of every
human soul that has lived in the past, of every one that shall live in
the future. There is no limit to the universality except only the limit
of the human will: 'Whosoever will, let him take the water of life
freely.'
Think of that solitary figure of the Christ reared up, as it were,
before the whole race of man, as able to replenish all their emptiness
with His fulness, and to satisfy all their thirst with His sufficiency.
Dear brother! you have a great gaping void in your heart—an aching
emptiness there, which you know better than I can tell you. Look to Him
who can fill it and it shall be filled. He can supply all your wants as
He can supply all the wants of every soul of man. And after generations
have drawn from Him, the water will not have sunk one hairsbreadth in
the great fountain, but there will be enough for all coming eternities
as there has been enough for all past times. He is like His own
miracle—the thousands are gathered on the grass, they do 'all eat and
are filled.' As their necessities required the bread was multiplied,
and at the last there was more left than there had seemed to be at the
beginning. So 'of His fulness have all we received'; and after a
universe has drawn from it, for an Eternity, the fulness is not turned
into scantiness or emptiness.
III. And so, lastly, notice the continuous flow from the inexhaustible
Source. 'Of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.'
The word 'for' is a little singular. Of course it means _instead of, in
exchange for_; and the Evangelist's idea seems to be that as one supply
of grace is given and used, it is, as it were, given back to the
Bestower, who substitutes for it a fresh and unused vessel, filled with
new grace. He might have said, grace _upon_ grace; one supply being
piled upon the other. But his notion is, rather, one supply given in
substitution for the other, 'new lamps for old ones.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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