If You Don't Possess Christ, You Possess Nothing

"And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace" John 1:16

This is one of the golden texts in John's gospel; it is on a par with the one which we have already discussed: The Son of God is "the true light, which lights every man that cometh into the world." Therefore whoever does not acknowledge Christ and believe in him, and does make Him his own, is and remains a child of wrath (Eph. 2:3) and of damnation, no matter what he is called or what he is.

But If man is to find mercy, Christ alone must be the means. He alone makes us paupers rich with His superabundance, expunges our sins with His righteousness, devours our death with His life, and transforms us from children of wrath, tainted with sin, hypocrisy, lies, and deceit, into children of grace and truth.

Whoever does not possess this Man possesses nothing.

Martin Luther, Luther's Works  22:131