Grace for Grace

For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
— John 3:34

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
— John 15:1-5

Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.
— Zechariah 4:7

For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
— Matthew 13:12

Grace for Grace, by Martin Luther.

And of His fullness have all we received and grace for grace.
— John 1:16

Christ remains an overflowing fountain of living water. Such a preacher, says John the Baptist, you shall have, but do not despise him, thinking you are pious enough, that you keep the law of Moses, that you perform many good works, and so on. All your deeds avail you nothing, and even if they shine and glitter beautifully before men, yet all that you do is falsehood and deceit before God, and ultimately a pitiful illusion. For you do not walk in darkness, you are darkness itself. You are subject to sin and death. Your condition is no different from all other people on this earth who also do not draw and drink from the fullness of Christ. Do you truly wish to be devout, pure, righteous, and blessed? Then you must receive it from Him whom God the Father has sealed, which means confirmed, appointed (see John 6:27).

Christ is that rich, inexhaustible fountain and fulness from which the patriarchs and the prophets and all the saints, and I myself, John, have drawn, and from which we ever draw without ceasing. All of us, without a single exception, come with empty bottles and fill them from His fountain of fullness. No one should be afraid or fainthearted and think to themselves, how can this be? I am unworthy. I do not belong among the saints. I am a heathen, therefore I must despair. Then John says: hear what I say to you in God’s name. The heathen by pure mercy have just as much right to draw from his fullness as the Jews who were the seed of Abraham. All, all, both Jews and Gentiles, if they would come to grace, must drink from this fountain. Here they must fill their empty bottle where it always flows and overflows. They must drink deeply from this spring of living water, which springs up into everlasting life. His fullness has no end or measure, therefore, pour freely, and drink with joy and gladness, for here is abundance and sufficiency unto everlasting life, wherewith the praising and thanksgiving of God, your thirst shall be quenched forever.

And what do we receive then? As he says, grace for grace. John speaks of a double grace. Christ’s grace is the boundless source and spring of all grace, which the evangelist calls his fullness. Then, there is our grace, whereby we are accepted before God, the grace which we draw from Him and which He distributes among us and grants to us for the sake of His grace. Thus, John draws us away from trusting and boasting in our own works and merits. In this way, he leads us to the grace of Christ and the love of God. Indeed, John does this throughout his entire gospel and in all his letters. It is as if he were saying, what does God regard in you? What moves him to be so favorably disposed toward you and to deliver you from sin? Does he do this because of your sacrifices, your circumcision, your religious duties in the temple? No. Still less because of my, Luther, being in monasteries, by which I shamefully spent fifteen years of my life, and by which I so dreadfully crucified Christ, my dear Lord, through my blasphemous masses. In this way, I ruined the best years of my life to my own great loss and that of others. For since we lacked grace and truth, there was nothing good in us. All we did was but a show, and an abomination before God. Therefore, God regards something else. He desires to be gracious and merciful to us, only for the sake of this fullness and unspeakable grace of His only begotten son, Jesus Christ.

AMEN.

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