"Fullness of Life"

Here is the point that I was making, and that I believe John was getting across in his summary verses: Jesus Christ was not only God manifested in the flesh, but was the fullness of God's plan to redeem man back to Himself. In other words, He could do no better than He did! In the verse John 1:16, John writes, "And of His fulness have we received", which means plenitude of the divine perfections; this was God's perfect expression of Love towards us, and there was no greater way that it could be expressed. That being said, the reason that there is available unto us the fullness of Life is the word "received", because it is His fullness which not only was given unto us, but also is that which has been made available for us to receive: to take upon us!!! It is one thing to be given the fullness of Life, but it is entirely different to take it upon yourself; which, actually means to seize, or lay hold of, with the idea of force or violence. This is the way that our acceptance of God's mercy and grace must be received; as though our very life was dependent upon it, because it is! As though someone has just thrown you a rope as you were falling over a cliff, and you grab unto it with all your might. When we take a look at what we have been given from this perspective, it makes counting the cost come alive in us; and it puts what we sometimes take for granted in the fullness of light. God has provided Life unto us in and of Himself; what more could He have done? And the very least that we can do, is to receive that Life with astonishment, and grip onto it like it's all that matters, because it does. As a matter of fact, the rest of verse sixteen goes on to say, "and grace for grace", in which the word 'for' actually means 'upon', or most abundant grace, which is given by way of substitution, in place of, or instead of; meaning Life instead of death, but with gratitude!