John 1:14-18
Did the Word become flesh? Then He is One who can be touched with the feeling of His people's infirmities, because He has suffered Himself, being tempted. He is almighty, because He is God, and yet He can feel with us, because He is man.
Did the Word become flesh? Then He can supply us with a perfect pattern and example for our daily life. Had He walked among us as an angel or a spirit, we would never have copied Him. But having dwelt among us as a man, we know that the true standard of holiness is to "walk as He walked" (1 John 2:6). He is a perfect pattern, because He is God. But He is also a pattern exactly suited to our wants, because He is man.
It is Christ alone who supplies all the spiritual wants of all believers. It is written that "Of His fullness have we all received, and grace for grace."
There is an infinite fullness in Jesus Christ. As Paul says, "It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell." In Him, are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 1:19; 2, 3). There is laid up in Him, as in a treasury, a boundless supply of all that any sinner can need, either in time or in eternity. The Spirit of life is His special gift to the church and conveys from Him, as from a great root, sap and vigor to all the believing branches. He is rich in mercy, grace, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Out of Christ's fullness, all believers in every age of the world have been supplied. They did not clearly understand the fountain from which their supplies flowed in Old Testament times. The Old Testament saints only saw Christ afar off and not face to face. But from Abel downwards, all saved souls have received all they have had from Jesus Christ alone. Every saint in glory will at last acknowledge that he is Christ's debtor for all he is. Jesus will prove to have been all in all.
For Meditation: Every blessing that God gives may be summarized by one word - Christ. With Him all things are freely given to us (Romans 8:32).
~J. C. Ryle~
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