“There is no fellowship with the person of Christ without a sharing in His treasures and benefits.
The relationship between the Father and Christ is in this respect again the basis and the example of the relationship between Christ and His church.
The Father gave Himself to the Son, specifically also to the Son as the Mediator of God and men. The Father has retained nothing for Himself but has given all to Christ.
All things were delivered to Him by the Father (Matt 11:27 and John 3:35). All that the Father has is His (John 16:15 and 17:10). The Father and Christ are one; the Father is in Him, and He is in the Father (John 10:38 and 17:21–23).
And so, in His turn, Christ gives Himself and all His benefits to the church through the Holy Spirit (John 16:13–15). He keeps nothing for Himself.
Just as the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily (Col. 1:19 and 2:9), so He also perfects the church unto the measure of the stature of His fulness until it is filled to the fulness of God. He is all in all (Col. 3:11).
It is a fulness which we receive in Christ, a Divine fulness, a fulness of grace and truth, a fulness which is never exhausted, and which grants grace for grace (John 1:14 and 16). This fulness dwells in Christ Himself, in His person, in His Divine and in His human nature, during the state of His humiliation and that of His exaltation.
There is a fulness of grace in His incarnation: For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet, for your sakes, He became poor that ye through His poverty might be rich (2 Cor. 8:9).
There is a fulness of grace in His living and dying, for in the days of His flesh He learned obedience from the things which He suffered, and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him (Heb. 5:7–9).
There is a fulness of grace in His resurrection, for by it He was shown to be the Son of God in power and has begotten us again unto a lively hope (Rom. 1:4 and 1 Peter 1:3). There is a fulness of grace in His ascension for by it He took captivity captive and gave gifts unto men (Eph. 4:8).
There is a fulness of grace in His intercession for by it He can perfectly save all those that come to God by Him (Heb. 7:25).
There is a fulness of grace in Him unto forgiveness, regeneration, renewal, comfort, preservation, leading, sanctification, and glorification. It is a long, broad, deep stream of grace, and it bears the believers along from beginning to end into eternity.
It is a fulness which gives grace for grace, grace instead of grace, which immediately supplants the one grace by another, exchanging it for the former one, interchanging them. There is no desisting in this, no interim.
It is all grace and nothing but grace which comes to the church in Christ.”
–Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God (trans. Henry Zylstra; Glenside, PA: Westminster Seminary Press, 1909/2019), 381-382.
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