16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.

When we receive Christ, we are adopted into God’s kingdom. The salvation experience, or exchange, changes our eternal address and this is a great thing. But is that all it does?

Shall we spend all our time anticipating streets of Gold and huge mansions?

If the richest man in the world adopted you, you might get to use his name, but would you not expect more than that? If you lived in poverty and were adopted by the richest person on Earth, would you continue to live in poverty? If you did, the adoption would not mean much.

When we receive Christ, we receive the name of Christ and can call ourselves Christians. Our eternal address has been changed, from Hell to Heaven. But we should not forget that there is a life between here and there.

After having received Christ, and received all the spiritual blessings, our lives should be different. They should reflect the life of Christ. This is not legalistic obedience to rules, but rather, it is allowing the Holy Spirit to control and influence us to the point that Christ’s life is actually lived out in us. This is possible, not by human effort, but by the Grace of God, which is given to us in the form of spiritual blessings.

When we receive Christ, we receive the fullness of His Grace. John uses a different word for receive here than the word he used in verse 12. In verse 12, “those who received him” the word receive is a more active word. It means, those that reached out and took, therefore receive… In verse 16, the word is more passive. It is also past tense, meaning, since we have received Christ, we have also already received all the other things as well.

The Greek of verse 16 also could be translated “From his fullness we have received grace on top of grace” (my translation).

Now some people take this too far, and a false teaching called the prosperity doctrine has resulted. God may or may not want you to be rich materially, and God is not a heavenly sugar daddy who gives you everything you want and think you need. However, God does want to give us spiritual blessing on top of spiritual blessing. He does want us to be rich spiritually. Though we may not always like it, God is much more interested in your spiritual condition, than your physical or emotional condition.

Colossians 2:9 says that all the fullness of God lives in Christ, and verse 10 says that we have also been given that fullness.

Ephesians 1:3 says God has blessed us in heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing.

These blessings are things that allow one to express the life of Christ on Earth. They are called in scripture, fruits of the spirit, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and so forth. But don’t go out determined to display these spirits. (You cant say … “ I want patience and I want it NOW.”)

Instead, we must trust God to give us these blessings, these spiritual fruits.

Colossians 2:6 say, “just as you have received Jesus as Lord, so walk in Him.” We received Christ by faith, and therefore we must walk in Christ in faith.

This means to rely on Christ to do through you what you cannot do by yourself. Allow Christ to show the fruits of the Spirit when you cannot.

If you are prone to anger, for instance, confess that to God, and ask God to control your anger in Jesus’ name. This is a Biblical “name it and claim it” teaching.