<p>1:16- see on Eph. 3:19.</p><p><em>Of his fullness we all received, with grace upon grace</em>- As noted on :14, the allusion has been to Moses nervously beholding God's glory and the declaration of His Name, Yahweh the God full of grace and truth. Moses was seen as the unapproproachable acme of spirituality; but now all who have perceived the Lord's glory have seen as Moses did. And so much more. That fullness of the name declared in Ex. 34:4-6 &quot;A God full of...&quot; grace and truth has now been received by us. And it is piled on- grace upon grace. We are not like Moses merely beholding a theoretical statement of these things, but actually participating in them and receiving them, through the power of the Spirit. The Spirit is clearly in view as &quot;grace&quot; is used, 'gift', so often referring to the gift of the Spirit.</p><p>&quot;His fullness&quot; is literally 'His filling'. The word and idea is often used in the context of being filled with the Spirit. We have been filled with what the Lord Jesus was full of- the Spirit, the characteristics of the Name. Again, the idea of filling suggests something done to us, so long as we are open to it, rather than a self-filling by our own intellectual effort. If we are in the body of Christ, in that body we receive &quot;the fullness of Him that fills all in all&quot; (Eph. 1:23). Eph. 3:19 is specific that it is through the indwelling of the Spirit, in the &quot;inner man&quot;, &quot;in our hearts by faith&quot;, that we are &quot;filled with all the fullness of God&quot;. Through the Comforter, the gift of the Holy Spirit which &quot;shall be within you&quot;, &quot;your joy may be filled up&quot; (Jn. 16:24 s.w.); hence the Lord's disappointment that at that time, &quot;sorrow has filled up your heart&quot; (Jn. 16:6). He wished for that to be displaced by the filling of the Spirit, which would be of joy and not sadness. The Lord's spirit of joy would be filled up in the hearts of His followers, &quot;within themselves&quot; (Jn. 17:13). The reference is continually to internal filling, &quot;within&quot;, rather than to the external miraculous gifts of the Spirit. Rom. 15:13 uses the same word: &quot;The God of hope fill you up with all joy and peace... through the power of the Holy Spirit&quot;. The Lord ascended to Heaven and received the Spirit so that He might fill up all things of the new creation (Eph. 4:10). And thus Eph. 5:18 simply exhorts: &quot;Be filled with the Spirit&quot;. We are to be open to it, and we shall be filled with it.&nbsp; The same word and appeal is to be found in Phil. 4:19; Col. 1:9; 2:10; 4:12. It is a major New Testament teaching that cannot be ignored. Hence John later appeals to his converts to allow themselves to be filled with joy (1 Jn. 1:4; 2 Jn. 12).</p><p>The Father&rsquo;s whole spirit / attitude is of wanting to lavish grace. Our spirit likewise must not be mean- totting up the cost of all the things the visitors have eaten, etc. But God&rsquo;s lavishing of grace is not only in material things, but supremely in His patient forgiveness and salvation towards us. Are we super abounding in forgiveness, or do we grudgingly offer it only upon evident repentance from others? Such legalism is associated with Moses, but grace and truth, &quot;grace upon grace&rdquo;, came by the Lord Jesus (Jn. 1:16). Grace is 'ever increasing' (&quot;grace upon grace&quot;) in that as we grow in Christ, we perceive that grace more and more. God not only forgives, but He <em>delights</em> in doing so (Is. 62:14; Mic. 7:18); the way He is spoken of as &lsquo;delighting&rsquo; in spiritually weak Israel is part and parcel of Him lavishing grace as He does (Num. 14:8). It must be so awful to have such a wonderful spirit of lavishing grace and love, consciously giving out life and patient forgiveness to so many; and yet not be appreciated for it, to have puny humans shaking their fist at God because they die a brief moment of time sooner than they think they should, to have tiny people arrogantly questioning His love.&nbsp;</p>