His fullness and All the fullness.--The fullness of John 1: is that fullness of grace and

truth which was seen in Christ as the Only Begotten of the Father. John's usage of "true"

and "truth" gives to the words "grace and truth" the thought of "real grace". See his

usage in the expressions "the true light" (1: 9), "the true bread" (6: 32), and "the true

vine" (15: 1). Shadow and typical grace had come through Moses, for the law had a

shadow of good things to come, but not the very image or substance, so John says: "The

law was given by Moses, but grace and truth (i.e., real grace) came by Jesus Christ"

(John 1: 17). This is the meaning of the expression, "grace for grace", where the word

"for" is anti--"in the room of", "in the stead of".  So: "Of His fullness have all we

received"--real antitypical grace in the room of the shadowy grace of the law.

This is indeed wonderful, but the fullness of Colossians transcend it. There it is "all

the fullness", which is further enlarged in Col. 2: 9, 10 as: "For in Him dwelleth all the

fullness of Godhead bodily, and ye are filled to the full in Him, which is the Head of all

principality and power." Fullness of grace, as opposed to types and shadows, is one

thing--this is the message both of John and Paul (see Col. 2: 16, 17), but Paul's ministry

goes deeper: all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, the church filled full in Him, and He,

not only Head of the church, but also of principalities and powers--this is a revelation

necessitated by the high glory of the dispensation of the mystery.

Preferred before and He is before.--John the Baptist recognized something of the

pre-eminence of the Lord, and there are several statements to this effect in the opening

chapters of John's Gospel:--

Let us not miss the beauty of verse 23. Christ was The Word; John was but a voice.

Christ was The Light, John was but a bright and shining lamp (John 5: 35). John

glimpsed something of the glory when he said: "He that cometh from heaven is above

all", but, in the main, the position is that Christ is greater than John the Baptist. When we

come to Ephesians and Colossians, however, the greatness of the Lord is beyond the

flight of imagination. He is before all things; thrones, dominions, principalities, powers.

He has pre-eminence over all. It will be seen that while John ministers things that are

associated with Christ during His rejection by Israel, and reveals the Lord in a light quite

different from that of the other Gospels, he by no means deals with the mystery, neither

does he speak of Christ in terms that compare with the revelation of Ephesians and

Colossians. There is, however, sufficient likeness to enable us to see that the teaching

found in John's Gospel fits the condition of many children of God to-day.

We do not pretend to have given an exposition of John 1: 1-18; the matters contained

therein are too weighty for such slight treatment. There is perhaps need for one word on

John 1: 1 before closing, and that is a reference to the translation sometimes suggested,

"The Word was a god". The following are the occurrences in John 1: 1-18 of Theos =