The Promise of God in Jesus
The Christian doctrine of the incarnation – of Jesus Christ being God in human flesh – is an astounding and amazing truth. According to theologian J. I. Packer, “the incarnation is in itself an unfathomable mystery, but it makes sense of everything else that the New Testament contains.”[1] It is the truth that the apostle John opens his account of the life of Jesus with.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
John 1:1-4 NRSV
It is the implications of this truth that hymn writers Keith and Kristyn Getty, and Stuart Townsend, seek to unpack for us in their modern hymn, Fullness of Grace. [2]
Fullness of grace in man’s human frailty; this is the wonder of Jesus.
Laying aside His power and glory humbly He entered our world.
Chose the path of meanest worth; scandal of a virgin birth.
Born in a stable, cold and rejected: here lies the hope of the world.
Fullness of God in a human body; full divinity and full humanity in one person. This is what the Scriptures and the hymn we are considering teach us. How can we comprehend that God the Son, the second person of the Triune God, can lay aside his divine prerogatives and choose to come into the world he created as God made man? Unfathomable, and yet the early church father Basil makes the point that the incarnation of Christ is eternally important.
If the sojourn of the Lord in the flesh did not take place, the Redeemer did not pay to death the price for us. He did not by his own power destroy the dominion of death. If that which is subject to death were one thing and that which was assumed by the Lord another, then death would not have ceased performing its own works, nor would the sufferings of the God-bearing flesh have been our gain. He would not have destroyed sin in the flesh. We who had died in Adam would not have been made alive in Christ.[3]
The second stanza of the hymn brings this out; it is because of “the love of the Father shown in the face of Jesus” that we have hope of forgiveness and salvation.
Fullness of grace, the love of the Father shown in the face of Jesus.
Stooping to bear the weight of humanity walking the Calvary road.
Christ the holy innocent took our sin and punishment.
Fullness of God, despised and rejected: crushed for the sins of the world.
The fullness of God’s grace comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ, giving himself to take our penalty for sin and offering in exchange hope for eternal life.
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:10-13 NRSV
Fullness. The fullness of the grace of God shown to us in Jesus Christ.
From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
John 1:16 NRSV
We need only respond to Christ’s offer of divine grace with our faith in who he is, faith in what he has done, repentance for our sin, and yielding to his Lordship in our lives. Not that these acts of ours have any merit; these are simply our response to the acts of Christ that have made our salvation possible.
Fullness of hope in Christ we had longed for, promise of God in Jesus,
Through His obedience we are forgiven, opening the floodgates of heaven.
All our hopes and dreams we bring gladly as an offering.
Fullness of life and joy unspeakable: God’s gift in love to the world.
We give all of who we are and receive in return the blessing of the opened “floodgates of heaven” – fullness of grace, fullness of hope, fullness of life, fullness of joy unspeakable. This is the promise and gift of love from God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Listen as Kristyn Getty sings this hymn, Fullness of Grace.
https://youtu.be/V_Ng3Twg4UA
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If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Corinthians 4.15).
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[1] Knowing God, p. 47
[2] WORDS AND MUSIC: Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, and Stuart Townsend. © 2007 Thankyou Music.
[3] Basil the Great, “Letter 261, To the Citizens of Sozopolis.” ANCIENT CHRISTIAN DEVOTIONAL Year C. InterVarsity Press, 2009.
