15. John beareth witness of him, and crieth out, saying: This was he of whom I spoke: He that shall come after me, is preferred before me: because he was before me.
16. And of his fulness we all have received, and grace for grace.
17. For the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
18. No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
John the Baptist bears witness that the one who comes after him surpasses him because He existed before him. Though John was older in time, the Word is eternal, and this eternal pre-existence gives Christ His true precedence (Augustine, Hilary). John’s testimony makes clear that Christ is not merely a successor but the One whose glory and being are above all.
From this fullness all believers receive. The gift is not partial or limited, but an overflowing abundance in which grace succeeds grace—one blessing leading into another (Origen, Augustine). The law given through Moses instructed and prepared, but it could not give the transforming grace that comes through Jesus Christ. In Him grace and truth appear together: grace that renews, and truth that reveals the reality of God’s saving plan (Chrysostom).
No one has ever seen the essence of God, but the only-begotten Son, eternally in the bosom of the Father, makes Him known. The Son reveals the Father not as a messenger learning from another, but as one who shares the Father’s own being and knows Him from within (Cyril, Augustine). In Christ, the hidden God is made manifest, and the Father is declared through the Son’s very life and presence.
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