THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE THE GOOD NEWS ACCORDING TO JOHN

THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE
THE GOOD NEWS ACCORDING TO JOHN

LIFE is the issue in the Good News according to John. The Greek word for life is used
thirty-seven timed in John. And what is life? It is the Lord Jesus himself. He said, “I am the
… life.” Of all our four good news writers, John is the only one who plainly states his
purpose. That declaration is found in Jn. 20.30-31: “Many other signs therefore Jesus also did
before the disciples, which have not been written in this book, but these have been written
that you may have faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that having faith you
may have life in his name.”
That is a very clear, straightforward statement. John wants us to have faith in the Lord
Jesus and therefore to have life. The question is, With all your knowledge of the Bible, of
Christian doctrine, of Christian practice; with all your service to God, your ability to preach
or to witness or to serve in some other way – do you have LIFE? Is it alive, or is it just you
trying to serve God? And the real question in asking if you have life is, Do you have the Lord
Jesus in a living way? Do you know him personally? Is he coming through you and all that
you are and do? LIFE is the issue, and the Lord Jesus is life, so he is the issue. In the first
place he is ALL we are about as Christians.
How John attempts to bring us to faith is by describing certain signs done by the Lord
Jesus. These signs were what we call miracles. The word “sign” itself is important and is very
important in John. A sign signifies something. That is, it points beyond itself to something
else. The miracles of the Lord Jesus were not done just for show. They were not curiosities
designed to entertain people. They were not displays of power used by the Lord Jesus to
gain a following for himself, at least not in a selfish sense. They were signs. They were
intended to signify something, namely, that God was at work in the Lord Jesus. They were
intended to signify that this Jesus who did them was not just a man, though he was a man,
but the Messiah, the Son of God.
The word “messiah” is a Hebrew word that means “anointed one.” In the Old
Testament the Jewish kings were anointed with oil as a sign of their kingship. Thus the
anointed one, the Messiah, is the king. Through long centuries of domination and oppression
by foreign powers, the Jews developed a belief, under the revelation of God through the
prophets, in a coming Messiah who would be an ultimate deliverer, a King who would
restore their fortunes. By the time of the coming of the Lord Jesus, the Greek language was
dominant, and the word “Christ” came into use. “Christ” is the Greek translation of the

Hebrew “Messiah.” As “Messiah” is the Hebrew word for “Anointed One,” so “Christ” is the
Greek word for “Anointed One.”
It is John’s purpose to inspire faith that the Lord Jesus was indeed the long-awaited
Jewish Messiah, their anointed King. Further, he wanted to bring about faith that this one
was the Son of God. That is, this person, this man, the Lord Jesus, was, though truly man,
more than a man. He was a part of the Trinity. He was God in the flesh.
The reason John wrote his gospel was that people would have faith in these things
about the Lord Jesus, and so have life. We need to understand what faith is in the Bible.
What is written here is important. Please note it and keep it in mind as you read the
exposition of John. Let me say first of all that ultimately and finally, faith is trust in the
person of God, the character of God. He is pure truth and infinitely trustworthy. But there is
also the matter of faith in the truth, and that has become bogged down in semantics. By
“belief” we normally mean mental acceptance of a proposition. Someone may say that two
and two are five. We have a choice of accepting or rejecting that proposition. Someone may
say that there is such a place as the South Pole. Those of us who have never been to the South
Pole must make a choice to accept or reject that proposition. If we accept a proposition, that
is belief. But faith in the Bible is not mental acceptance, at least not first of all and not that
only.
The Bible teaches that man is body, soul, and spirit. The body is the physical; the soul,
psuche in Greek, is the psychological, the mind, emotions, and will; and the spirit is the
essence of the person that is able to relate to God. It is the design of God that the spirit of a
person rule his being, under the control of the Holy Spirit. The problem we face is that all of
us were dead in sins at one time, according to Eph. 2.1. Our bodies and souls were not dead,
so it must have been our spirits that were dead, and that is exactly the case. Our spirits were
dead toward God and we could not relate to him. Since the spirit was dead, it could not
exercise its proper function of ruling over the person, so the soul ruled in its place. For most
of us, not smart enough and logical enough to be ruled by our minds or strong-willed
enough to be ruled by our wills, that means that we lived by our emotions to a large extent.
And now, even as Christians whose spirits have been brought to life, we are so in the habit of
being dominated by our feelings that we still sometimes live by them. That is the source of
many of our problems. We are up and down with our feelings. That affects what we believe
with our minds. If we feel bad enough, we begin to wonder if God exists or if he is the kind
of person the Bible says he is.
The problem with this way of thinking is that we are being governed by our minds
and emotions, but in the Bible, faith is a function of the spirit, not of the soul. We do not have
to live by our feelings and intellectual doubts. If our spirits are in control, under the direction
of the Spirit of God, we can rise above feelings. Almost everyone has a “down” day now and
then, but that is no reason to turn away from God. When that happens to us, we can say with
the psalmist, “Bless I AM, my soul” (Ps. 103.1). David was saying that he did not feel in his

soul like praising God, but in his spirit he was commanding his soul to praise anyway
because of what God’s word says. That is faith.
In addition to being a function of the spirit, faith is also active. It causes a change in
the way one lives. If a person merely accepts mental propositions, they may have no effect on
him at all. I believe that the South Pole exists, but I intend to do absolutely nothing as a
result. I have no plans to go there and I am not altering anything in my behavior because I
believe in its existence. That is intellectual acceptance of a proposition, mental belief, but it is
not faith.
On the other hand, I always believed in the existence of England as much as I believed
in the South Pole, but that made a difference. I wanted to go to England. I wanted to see it, so
I got onto an airplane one day and flew there. For all I knew there was no such place, but I
believed it and it affected my behavior. That is faith. I would not want to go to the South
Pole! Too cold!
When John writes that he wants us to believe that the Lord Jesus is the Messiah, the
Son of God, he does not mean that he wants us to give mental assent to his existence or even
to his being such a person as these words describe. He wants us to commit our lives to him,
to live for him, to act on what we believe. If belief has no effect on behavior, it is not faith.
John wants us to have faith.
Historically Christianity began as an offshoot of Judaism. As Christians we would say
that it is the fulfillment of Judaism. Thus it was influenced by the way the Jews thought. That
way was primarily practical, not intellectual for its own sake. The Jews dealt with reality. By
the end of the New Testament days and the first century, Christianity, having been rejected
by the Jews, became a faith largely held by Gentiles. Since Greek thought ruled the Gentile
world of that day, Christrianity began to be influenced by Greek thought. That way of
thinking was analytical, speculative, intellectual for its own sake.
The Greeks loved to toss ideas around because they loved ideas. Practicality, reality,
were not major factors among these intellectuals, though there were, of course, by necessity,
practical Greeks. Over time the distinction between belief and faith was blurred. One Greek
word has both meanings. When someone is said to believe in or have faith in Christ, it could
be taken simply as belief, mental acceptance of the truth of an idea, or as what the Bible
means by faith, belief in the truth plus action based on that belief. Belief is involved, but
without action it is not faith. This is really what James was getting at when he wrote that
“faith without works is dead.” We should translate it as “belief without works is dead,”
understanding it as “belief without works is not faith.” Or as James also wrote in the same
passage, “The demons also believe and they tremble,” knowing that their eternal destiny is
hell.
In time the mental acceptance became the largely dominant concept, even if this was
not deliberate. People believed the truth about Christ. They believed the Bible. As theology
was developed, they believed correct doctrine. Eventually it came to be thought that
someone who believed these things to be true was a Christian, even if there were no action

based on the belief. Thus there came to be many who were called Christians who “believed,”
but who “had no faith.” It is faith that makes one a Christian, not mental belief.
All this has been written to say that in the present work, I have deliberately used the
words “believe” and “belief” as little as possible and have translated John’s Greek as “have
faith” and “faith.” I have used “believe” and “belief” where mental assent is what is meant,
or where it is necessary.
One other word needs to be noted here. It is the Greek preposition eis, into, to, for. In
the verses in John where faith “in” the Lord Jesus is spoken of, using the word eis, I have
translated it “into”: “faith into Jesus.” This may seem a bit awkward. However, the word
means “into,” not “in.” It may be that John used the word to mean “in,” but I have chosen to
translate it as “into” in these verses so that you can be aware that that is the word used and
use your own judgment as to what John meant. One of the great truths of Scripture is the fact
that born again people are in Christ. How did they come to be in Christ? They were not born
there physically. We were all born outside of Christ physically. They moved into Christ
when they had faith into him. The Greek word implies motion – into. We were outside
Christ, lost and without hope. When we had faith, we moved into Christ. Now we have that
wonderful blessing of being in Christ. I have tried to be consistent in translating this word,
using “into” even when the Scriptures seemed to indicate that the people involved did not
actually go into Christ, such as Jn. 7.48. You will recognize these passages when you see
them by the somewhat awkward “into.” The greatest example is the best-known verse in the
Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that everyone who
has faith into him should not perish but have eternal life.”
What is the result of such faith? Life. The issue in John is life, spiritual life,
resurrection life, abundant life, eternal life, God’s life! Without God’s life we are dead
spiritually forever. Without God’s life our good works are dead works (Heb. 6.1, 9.14). This
life is the Lord Jesus himself. As we have faith in, or into, him as God’s Son and as Messiah,
we have life; we have the Lord Jesus as life in us. And much is meant by this word “life.” In
the Greek, there are three words for life, bios, psuche, and zoe. Bios is physical life or the
necessities of life. We get “biology” from this word. Psuche, which we have already seen
means “soul,” is often used for physical life, but its distinctive reference is to psychological
life, the personality, the self. Our word “psychology” comes from psuche. Zoe is the basis of
our words “zoo” and “zoology,” but in the Bible it is not used for animal life but for spiritual
life, resurrection life, eternal life, the life of God. That is the word used in Jn. 20.31. It is used
thirty-seven times in John’s gospel. John’s aim is that we come into this kind of life through
faith in the Lord Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God. It is not that we live a little longer
physically or that we have a bit more psychological alertness, but that we live eternally, and
not just eternally. To live forever would be a judgment if we were miserable. This life that
John wants us to come into is God’s life. It is not just unending, but also full of fulfillment,
happiness, joy. It is not just everlasting life but a quality of life.

The backdrop of this emphasis on life in John is Judaism. The Lord Jesus came into a
religion that was started by God and that largely carried on what God had commanded, even
though much had been added to it. But by the time of the Lord Jesus, the life had gone out of
Judaism. It was a dead religion. The body was still there, but there was no life in it. The fig
tree was there, but it was withered and had no fruit. Into such a situation of deadness came
the Author of life for the purpose of bringing God’s life to all who would receive it by faith.
That is the first thing we can say about the Good News according to John by way of
introduction. The second thing is that John presents the Lord Jesus as divine. If we study the
gospel of Matthew, the teaching about Jesus that stands out is that he is King. More than any
other gospel, Matthew shows the fulfillment of prophecy by Jesus, making the point that he
is the one who fulfills the Old Testament prophecies of a coming messianic King. Over and
over we read of the kingdom of the heavens in Matthew, and the Lord Jesus, of course, is the
King.
In Mark, the Lord Jesus is the Servant. In one of the central verses of Mark, the Lord
Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his
life a ransom for many.” Matthew and Luke have genealogies of Jesus, but Mark does not.
That is because it does not matter where a servant comes from. In a sense a servant counts
for nothing. He is there only to work. The eye of faith sees far more in the Lord Jesus, of
course, but the emphasis in Mark is on the Servant,
Luke pictures Jesus as the Spirit-filled Man, man as God intended him to be. Only in
Luke is it reported that after his baptism was the Lord Jesus full of the Spirit. Several times
Luke mentions the role of the Spirit. The Man Jesus stands out in his gospel.
But in John, what we see is the divinity of the Lord Jesus. This comes at the very
beginning, in Jn. 1.1: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the
Word was God.” What could be a plainer statement? This man who lived for a few years in
the lands of Galilee and Judea, who taught and worked miracles, who laid down his life, was
indeed a man, but he was far more than a man. He existed before his coming to earth as a
man. Jn. 1.1 recalls Gen. 1.1: “In the beginning….” But this man existed before that point.
Before he became a man, he was God, and when he became a man, he was God in the flesh.
The first chapter of Ezekiel gives us the picture of the four living beings that had the
faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. These figures manifest the glory of God in
different aspects, and they appear again in Revelation, beginning at Rev. 4.6-8. The four
aspects of divine glory that these figures represent are royalty, service, humanity, and
divinity. The Man is Jesus in Luke. The King is Jesus in Matthew. The Ox is Jesus in Mark.
The Eagle is Jesus in John. Andrew Jukes (Four Views of Christ) sets forth beautifully this view
of the Lord Jesus as the Eagle, the divine Son of God:

“Very different is the eagle.” Its ways are above the earth: “the way of an eagle
in the air,” says the wise man, “is too wonderful for me” (Prov. 30:17-18). Much on the
wing, it often rises where no human eye can follow, and possesses the power of

gazing with undazzled eyes upon the mid-day sun. Here, “the Word who was with
God,” who came to reveal the Father, is seen as the One who is from heaven, and
whose home is there.
So does John show us the divine Son, come to earth to set forth the glory of God just as the
four living beings do (Jn. 1.14), soaring above the earth in continual fellowship with the
Father even as he walks the dusty, sin-cursed trails of earth.
A major way in which John shows the divinity of Christ is his use of the “I AM”
sayings of the Lord Jesus. Over and over the Lord uses this phrase. What is the meaning of
it?
In Ex. 3, Moses, after forty years in exile from Egypt in Midian, saw the burning bush
that was not consumed. When he turned aside to examine it, God spoke to him and told him
to take off his sandals because he was on holy ground. Then God issued his call to Moses to
return to Egypt and lead his people out. After a bit of argument, Moses asked his name,
saying that the people would ask who had sent him. God replied to Moses that his name was
“I AM.” That revelation of the name of God was also a revelation of his character. God is
eternal. He always is. His name is not I was or I will be, but I AM.
The Hebrew form of this name of God transliterates into English as YHWH (there are
no written vowels in Hebrew). The Jews eventually came to believe in the sacredness of the
name of God in such a way that they would not pronounce it. When they came to this name
YHWH, they would substitute the Hebrew word Adonai, Lord. That is why English
translations of the Old Testament use the name “LORD” in all capitals. When you see that in
the Old Testament, it is being used for the name YHWH. Since the Hebrew has no vowels,
and the name YHWH was not pronounced, no one knows with certainty how to pronounce
it, but apparently it is Yahweh, or something similar. Also, since the pronunciation, is not
certain, apparently in about the sixteenth century A.D., someone took the consonants,
YHWH (JHVH in German), and added the vowel sounds from the Hebrew Adonai, “Lord,”
and came up with the name Jehovah. Thus the name Jehovah is not a true Biblical word, but
an artificial construction from two Hebrew words.
The name “Jesus” is actually a Greek form of the name. The Hebrew name is Joshua
(actually Iehoshua), and the Aramaic, the language spoken in the Holy Land at the time of
Christ, Jeshua (actually Ieshua). The meaning of this name is YHWH Saves. That shows us
the significance of the “I AM” sayings of the Lord Jesus. His very name was “I AM Saves,”
and over and over he said of himself, “I AM.” That is, he took the personal Old Testament
name of God, I AM, for himself. This is only one of the ways that John emphasizes the
divinity of this man Jesus. Yes, he is a man, but he is so much more. He is God in the flesh.
Thus the good news picture of the Lord Jesus is filled out: he is King, Servant, Spirit-filled
Man, God. I will highlight the I AM sayings by using all capitals, as here, throughout our
study of John.

In addition to telling us his purpose and revealing the divinity of Christ, there is a
third major aspect of the Good News According to John. That is that he shows us the
spiritual or heavenly nature of Christianity more than any other gospel writer. In this respect
John is very similar to Hebrews. Both books begin the same way. What does Hebrews say at
the outset? That God speaks, and more, that he speaks through his Son: “In many portions
and in many ways of old having spoken to the fathers in the prophets, God at the last of
these days has spoken to us in Son….” And how does John begin? “In the beginning was the
Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Both books show that this Jesus
is the expression, the speaking, of God. God is saying something to us, and the Lord Jesus is
the embodiment of it. He is saying that he loves us and is willing to lay down his life for us.
Hebrews goes on in many passages to show the spiritual or heavenly nature of what
the Lord Jesus did and what we are about. Fourteen times the book uses the words “Heaven”
and “heavenly” in this connection. Let us cite just a few examples. In Heb. 3.1 we read that
we as Christians are “partakers of a heavenly calling.” That is, we do not belong to this earth.
We belong to Heaven. The only reasons we are here are that God has work for us to do and
that God is preparing us for the Millennium and eternity, and when that is done, we will
leave, either by death or by rapture. Our commonwealth is in Heaven, as Paul puts it in Phil.
3.20. Everything about the church is spiritual in nature.
Heb. 4.14 says that the Lord Jesus has passed through the skies. What is the meaning
of that? In the Bible, the universe is seen as consisting of the earth, with Hades, the realm of
the dead, below, and the air, or the skies, above, and Heaven, the dwelling-place of God,
above that. The Bible also teaches that Satan is the ruler of this world, the god of this age (Jn.
12.31, 2 Cor. 4.4). The air, or the atmosphere surrounding the earth, is the particular sphere of
his authority. That is, Satan blocks the way from earth to Heaven. We are trapped down here
and cannot get to God. That is the significance of Heb. 4.14. Our Lord Jesus has defeated
Satan by his cross and resurrection and has passed through the skies, the stronghold of
Satan, and into the presence of God in Heaven, and Satan could do nothing about it. The way
into Heaven has been made. Our enemy is spiritual and rules in the air, the spiritual realm,
but our Lord, full of the Holy Spirit, defeated him and is victorious in the spiritual realm.
That is the source of our victory. It is in Christ.
Heb. 6.4-5 says that we as Christians have tasted the heavenly gift and the powers of
the age to come. This world is passing away. There is a new age coming, the righteous reign
of Christ. That is the age in which we will have spiritual bodies and will dwell in the
presence of the Spirit, God the Father. For now we have only tasted that, but when Christ
returns, we will feast on it. But it is all spiritual. It is heavenly.
One final example from Hebrews really makes the point. In chapter 12, beginning at v.
18, we read of the clear contrast between Judaism and Christianity. We have not come to a
physical mountain, Sinai, as the Jews did when they received the Law, and to all the material
manifestations that accompanied that event, but to a spiritual mountain, Zion. In the Old
Testament, Zion was indeed a physical hill in Jerusalem, but the concept came to have

spiritual meaning, even in the Old Testament. By the time of the New Testament, the concept
was fully developed. Zion is the dwelling-place of God, and that dwelling-place is his
people. We see this in Eph. 2.22, where Paul says that we are being built together as a
dwelling-place of God in the Spirit, and in 1 Pt. 2.5, where we learn that we are living stones
being built into a house for God. That is Zion. It is a spiritual concept. It is the spiritual
dwelling of God in his people. That is what Heb. 12.22 says we have come to, and then he
names it the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. It is all spiritual.
Why is the spiritual so important? It is because the earthly, the material, is not eternal.
It will pass away. If all we have is of a material nature, we will lose it, but if we lay up
treasure in Heaven, it will be there waiting for us on our arrival, and it will see us through
eternity. That is why Hebrews places so much emphasis on the spiritual nature of
Christianity, and that is the basis of one of the main themes of Hebrews, the superiority of
Christ. Christ is superior precisely because what he did is effective in the heavenlies, in the
spiritual realm. He has not entered a copy of the true Holy of Holies, the Tabernacle, to
appear before a symbol of the presence of God, as the Jewish High Priest did. He has entered
into Heaven itself to appear before God himself (Heb. 8.1-5, 9.23-24). And he passed through
the skies to get there.
Like Hebrews, John brings out this spiritual nature of what the Lord Jesus did. We
will not go into detail now, for we will do that when we come to the passages in John, but let
us just point out a few instances. When Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus in Jn. 3, Jesus told
him he had to be born again, or born from above. The Greek word means both. Then Jesus
explained that this birth from above was a birth of the Spirit. When Nicodemus expressed
puzzlement at this, the Lord Jesus asked him, “If I told you earthly things and you don’t
have faith, how if I tell you heavenly things will you have faith?” It is all spiritual. Jesus came
to bring spiritual life.
What did the Lord Jesus tell the Samaritan woman in Jn. 4.23-24? He told her that a
time was coming when people would not have to go to a particular place on the earth to
worship, but they would worship him in spirit and in truth. Worship goes from earthly to
heavenly under the Lord Jesus.
In Jn. 7.37-39, Jesus said that if anyone had faith in him, rivers of living water would
flow out from him, and he was referring to the fullness of the Holy Spirit. It is the spiritual
that matters.
In Jn. 17.14, Jesus said that though his disciples were in this world, they were not of it.
That is what we saw above. We do not belong here. Our commonwealth is in Heaven.
Perhaps one of the most important verses in this regard is Jn. 18.36. When the Lord
Jesus appeared before Pilate, he said that his kingdom was not of this world. If it were, he
would fight. Yes, he was and is King of the Jews, but his kingdom is spiritual. He will indeed
rule on this earth, but it will be in a spiritual age when this present evil age has passed away.

Judaism is earthly. As we go along in John, we will see contrast after contrast between
the work of Jesus and Judaism that lifts what God is doing from the earthly to the heavenly
or spiritual. Everything changes with the coming of the Lord Jesus.
The Jews are the earthly people of God. God gave them the Law and made earthly,
material promises to them based on the Law. He said that if they kept the Law, they would
not have any disease, or barren women, or poverty, or enemies who prevailed over them. I
for one fully believe that if Israel had kept the Law, all of these promises would have been
kept in the most literal and exacting fashion, though I also believe that it was not possible for
anyone to keep the law perfectly and that its purpose was not to be kept but to show that it
could not be kept and that something else, Someone else, was needed. As the spiritual people
of God, we have all the promises made to Israel, but now they are spiritual, not material. If
we are truly the Lord’s, we may have bodily ailments, but we will not have any spiritual
sickness. We will be full of health in our spirits. We may have women who are unable to
have babies, but they will bear spiritual fruit for the Lord. We will not all be wealthy in
money, but we will be wealthy in spiritual things. We may live under a repressive
government, as many of the Lord’s people did then and many do today, but we will be free
in spirit and we will not be under the domination of Satan. We will be victorious over him.
Thus we see that one of the major points of the good news of John is the spiritual
nature of what the Lord Jesus did and of what we are about, and the importance of the
spiritual. In his book The On-High Calling, Volume II, The Great Transition as Inherent in the
Gospel by John, T. Austin-Sparks writes on page 1, “The thing that God is doing in this
dispensation is the formation of a spiritual and heavenly Israel…. He is following along the
lines of His ways with the old Israel, but now on a heavenly and not an earthly basis….”
Another major theme calls for a bit of discussion at this point. That theme is the glory
of God and of the Lord Jesus, and the glorifying of the Father and the Son. John tells us in
1.14 that “we beheld his glory.” We will deal with the nature of glory when we come to 1.14
in the exposition below. Let us just say at this point that the manifestation of the glory of God
in the Son, and thus of the Son also, is achieved by the Lord Jesus doing the work which the
Father gave him to do (2.11, 17.4). That glory has existed from eternity (17.5). It will continue
into the future on earth after the Lord Jesus has ascended back to the Father (14.13, 16.14). It
will last into eternity (17.24). But there is a special sense in which the Lord Jesus was glorified
when he was on earth, and in that glorification of him, he also glorified the Father (17.1).
That sense was his death. He was glorified in his death by the fact that he had lived a sinless
life, accomplished the work God gave him to do, and submitted to death as his last act of
obedience to the Father. That death brought a life of perfect obedience to its climax in glory,
the glory of obedience even in death. That glorification of the Son, by which he glorified the
Father, was the utter defeat of Satan (12.31), for when the Lord Jesus died sinless, Satan had
no more access to him. He was in total victory. With Satan, all was lost.
One more major theme is the relationship between the Lord Jesus and his Father. The
word “Father” is used 123 times in John, about 68 of them referring to the relationship

between the Lord Jesus and the Father. You will notice these references all through the good
news of John. Just to cite a few instances, let us look for a moment at the seventeenth chapter,
where the relationship of Father and Son is most completely set forth. Beginning with the
first verse of that chapter we read, “These things Jesus said, and lifting his eyes to Heaven he
said, ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you….’” Then v. 5
says, “And now glorify me, Father, with yourself with the glory that I had with you before
the world was.” The relationship goes back, as we would say to eternity past. The Father and
the Son have had their relationship from eternity, and it will go on eternally.
Vs. 21-23 add, “that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that
they themselves also may be in us, that the world might believe that you sent me. And the
glory that you have given to me I have given to them, that they may be one as we are one, I
in them and you in me, that they may be matured into one….” This passage shows the
oneness of the Father and the Son. Their intimate closeness is such that they, being two
persons of the Trinity, are one, and the Lord prays that his Father will bring the church into
the same unity among themselves and with the Father and the Son.
Finally, we see in vs. 24 and 26 the references of the Lord Jesus to the love with which
the Father had loved him before the foundation of the world. Be on the alert for the intimacy
of Father and Son as the good news of John unfolds.
There are several other themes that occur in John, and we will see these as we go
along. We have already noted the signs and the “I AM” sayings. Other themes are the
contrast of light and spiritual darkness, the Lord Jesus’ hour, love, the world. All of these
concepts play a major role in this gospel. As we turn now to a consideration of this book
itself, let us keep in mind these thoughts that govern it: John’s purpose of bringing us to faith
and thus to life, the divinity of Christ, and the spiritual nature of what he did. May the Lord
open our eyes to his truth even as he did those of the beloved apostle.
A few matters need to be mentioned before we proceed further. First, the English
translation of John is my own. I deliberately translate quite literally rather than in the best
English possible so as to convey as nearly as possible what was actually written. For
example, the Greek for “eternity” or “forever” is actually “into the age,” or a similar term.
When you see “into the age” in my translation, be aware that it means “forever” or “into
eternity.”
The word “gospel” is time-honored and universally understood. It is an Old English
word for “good news,” but that does not set forth its meaning clearly except to those who
know Old English, or who have looked it up, as I did. I do not know Old English! The Greek
word is literally “good news,” so I have chosen to use these common English words that
every English speaker knows. In a few places “gospel” needs to be employed, but you will
mostly see references to the “good news.”
Naturally, as any writer would be, I am indebted to many others who have instructed
me in John’s gospel. I confess that most of what I have written has come to me it bits and
pieces over many years and I do not know where I got some of the ideas expressed here,

though I pray that all came from God ultimately. I express a general thank you to all who
have helped me over the years. I do mention a few names in the course of the exposition.
One is Henry Alford, Alford’s Greek Testament, by one of the great conservative scholars of the
nineteenth century. Another is C. K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St John, not so
conservative, but helpful on matters of fact and of Greek grammar. Another is Robert Govett,
Govett on John. Another is Ada Habershon, The Study of the Types. Marcus Dods, The Gospel
According to John, quotes Trench and Holtzmann without identifying the source. Yet another
is Charles Ellicott, Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers. I am also idebted to Bro. Lance
Lambert for his thoughts on “origin determines destiny.” I owe a great debt to the inimitable
T. Austin-Sparks for his works We Beheld His Glory and The On-High Calling, Volume II, on
John and God Hath Spoken on Hebrews, and a hundred other books.
Let us now turn to the Good News itself with the prayer that God will use my poor
words to his glory and the blessing of his people.

THE PROLOGUE
John 1.1-18

The first eighteen verses of Jn. 1 constitute John’s introduction to his gospel. In v. 19,
the historical record begins, but these first verses deal with eternal issues and set the stage
for the story that is to follow.
1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was
God.
John begins, like Genesis, with the words, “In the beginning,” and indeed this start
naturally reminds us of Genesis. But John appears to go back beyond the beginning recorded
in Genesis. There it says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,”
indicating that Moses is dealing with how this creation and the things in it began. But John
says, “In the beginning was the Word.” He is not dealing with the beginning of this creation,
but with the beginning of all things. This Word he is dealing with was there before the
beginning of creation.
As a matter of fact, God had no beginning. That is something beyond the ability of our
minds to comprehend. We can conceive of something never ending, but how could
something have had no beginning? Things have to begin, do they not? Yet the Bible teaches
that God is without beginning as well as without end. And John says that the Word was
there all along. We speak in human terms and use the word “beginning,” but in truth God
has always been, and so has the Word. Why did John call his subject “the Word”? Lengthy
articles and volumes have been written trying to explain this concept from the standpoint of
the Hebrew Old Testament words for “word,” how they were translated in the Greek Old

Testament, the Greek philosophical background, and on and on. The answer seems simple.
The reason John chose this designation for his subject is that our God is a speaking God, and
the Lord Jesus is his highest expression. How blessed we are to be the people of a God who
speaks. Most religions throughout history have had gods the people did not understand and
were afraid of, and they did all sorts of horrible things to try to appease their gods and
assuage their anger. They sacrificed their children. They mutilated their own bodies. But
Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship with the triune God, and he has spoken to us
and told us what kind of person he is and what he expects of us. We do not have to guess.
What a marvelous blessing that is. That is the idea conveyed by calling the Lord Jesus the
Word. He is the speaking of God to us.
This speaking of God is the other side of the coin of faith. Paul tells us in Rom. 10.17,
“Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Faith is not just belief.
It is believing what God says, plus action based on that belief. If God does not speak, there
can be no faith, for faith is by definition believing what God says, plus action based on that
belief. This is why the speaking of God is so important. It is the beginning point of
everything for us. Without it, we cannot even start with God. How immensely vital a lesson
for us to learn that our God speaks.
The speaking of God dominates the Bible. Indeed that is what the Bible is, the written
record of what God has said. Almost the first thing in the Bible, in Gen. 1.3, is, “And God
said…..” That phrase occurs again and again in Gen. 1 and throughout the Old Testament.
We constantly read of God speaking to Abraham, to Moses, to Samuel, and so on. The
continual refrain of the prophets is, “Thus says the Lord.” And John says that all of this
comes down to the Lord Jesus. When God speaks, that is the Lord Jesus. He is the expression
of God. He is what God is saying to us.
In the Greek New Testament, there are two words for “word,” logos and rema. Though
there is some overlap in usage, logos refers primarily to the basic truth, whether anyone hears
it and responds to it or not. In terms of the Bible, it is the written word. Whether or not
anyone reads the Bible and lives by it, it is still the word of God and it is still true. Rema has
to do more with the spoken word. The concept conveyed by the Bible is that one may read
the written word, the logos, and get nothing out of it, but then God may suddenly bring that
passage to life. Then the logos becomes rema. It was nonetheless true when it meant nothing
to the reader, but now it has personal meaning. It has been spoken to the individual by God.
The word that John uses in v. 1 is logos. The point is that Jesus is the foundational
truth of God whether anyone hears and receives what he says or not. In the eternal past,
before time was, the Word was in existence and he was the fundamental truth. Of course
God desires to make that logos become rema to us, but whether that happens or not, he is still
truth. When the word rema occurs in John, I have translated it as “word,” but I have put rema
in brackets after “words” to indicate which Greek word is used by John.

John says four things about this Word in vs. 1-3, where he deals with the eternal past.
The first we have already seen, that he is eternal. “In the beginning was the Word.” This
means that long before “things” began, the Word was already there. He is eternal.
The second statement John makes about the Word is that he was with God. This
means that he is a distinct person. The third affirmation is that he was God. If we put the
second and third truths together, we have the Trinity, or two members of it. This is a basic
doctrine of the Christian faith. It is beyond our comprehension, for it affirms that there is
only one God, and yet he is three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Though we cannot
understand this, it is the teaching of the Bible, so, realizing that God is indeed greater than
our minds, a colossal understatement, we accept it and leave the explanation to God.
Whatever the explanation, this Word that John is writing about is one of the three persons
who make up the Trinity. As such, he is both a distinct person and he is God.
2This one was in the beginning with God.
Jn. 1.2 emphasizes the eternity of the Word by stating again that he was in the
beginning with God. The reason for this is probably an attempt to combat an error prevalent
in John’s day. In Ps. 2.7, a messianic psalm, we read that God said to the Lord Jesus, “You are
my Son; today I have begotten you.” This verse was originally written of the coming of the
king of Israel to the throne, but it was prophetic of the Messiah. This statement is verified by
the fact that the verse is quoted of the Lord Jesus three times in the New Testament, in Acts
13.33, Heb. 1.5, and Heb. 5.5. Since it says, “Today I have begotten you,” some in John’s day
took that to mean that the Lord Jesus was not eternal and was not always God’s Son. He was
a man like the rest of us who had his beginning at his human birth, like the rest of us, but at
some point in time, probably his baptism, at which time the first part of this verse in Psalms
was again quoted of the Lord Jesus, he was chosen by God to be his Son. Thus he was only a
man who was elevated to the position of Sonship by God. This, John says, is not true. It is
true that Jesus, as a man in the flesh, was chosen by God, but this one who was chosen by
God in the flesh during time was the eternal Word who had always been with God. Make no
mistake about it. The Word was a man in the flesh, but he had existed eternally before he
became flesh. It is the eternal God we are dealing with.
3All things became through him, and without him became not one thing that has become.
In Jn. 1.3 we have the fourth statement made about the Word. He is the agent of
creation. John has affirmed that he is the Word, the speaking of God, and we read in Gen. 1.3,
and following, that God created by his word: “And God said, ‘Let there be….’” And there
was! Paul affirms the same truth in Col. 1.16: “For in him were created all things in the skies
and on the earth, the things seen and the things unseen, whether thrones or dominions or
rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him.” Heb. 1.2 agrees:

Jesus is God’s Son, “through whom he made the ages.” It is the Word of God that brought
everything created into being.
Furthermore, God made everything out of nothing. There are many creative people
who are able to design and make beautiful or useful objects, but they all, no matter how
creative, require something to work with. God imagined everything before it even existed,
and then he made it all with nothing to work with. He simply called it into being with a
word. In Rom. 4.17 Paul calls our God the “God who makes alive the dead and calls the
things that are not as though they are,” and Heb. 11.3 says, “By faith we understand that the
ages were made by the word [rema] of God, so that what is seen was not made from what
appears.” The fact that God was able to create everything from nothing through the agency
of the Word shows his power and creative ability.
Thus John says in these first three verses of his gospel that the Word is eternal, he is a
distinct person, he is God, and he is the agent of creation. John next turns to a consideration
of this Word as Light in vs. 4-9.
4
In him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
Light, of course, is knowledge, direction, truth. Before he gets into those concepts,
though, John makes a very arresting statement. He says, “In him was life, and the life was
the light of men.” We usually think that light gives life, that is, that sufficient knowledge of
spiritual truth results in salvation. That was a very common belief in John’s day. There were
what were called mystery religions, religions that had certain secrets that were revealed only
to those accepted into the religion. The knowledge of these secrets was supposed to impart
salvation. John says that the opposite is true. Life does not come from knowledge, but
knowledge from life. This thought has great implications for evangelism, Christian teaching,
and the seeking of the will of God.
Let us point out that the knowledge we are considering here is not spitiual
knowledge, but the mental knowledge of facts. It is possible to know a great deal of spiritual
truth without knowing it spiritually. One can study the Bible and read Christian truth and
even be able to give lectures on Christian truth or to preach sermons that contain truth. But
until one has come to know the Lord, all of this knowledge is useless.
This was the case with the Jewish opponents of the Lord Jesus. They knew the Bible
thoroughly, but it was only head knowledge. They were examples of what Paul wrote in 2
Cor. 3.15: “But to this very day, when Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart….” But when
one comes to the Lord and receives eternal life, he moves from head knowledge to heart
knowledge. The life that he has just received opens his spiritual eyes (see Eph. 1.17-18) and
turns his reasonings into revelation. The 16th verse of 2 Corinthians “happens”: “… but when
he turns to the Lord the veil is removed.”
A lost person is not saved because he learns all the facts of the good news and decides
that they are true and he will accept them, thus gaining life through this light. He touches

life, and that life draws him to God. Once he has come into this life, or this life of God has
come into him, he will gain light. He will understand more and more of spiritual truth and of
how to live a life pleasing to God. Thus it is vital that evangelists, and by evangelists we do
not mean just preachers of the good news but anyone who shares Christ for the purpose of
winning the lost, not just try to communicate facts, but that they also see to it that the life of
God is flowing out from themselves. They will naturally communicate the facts of the good
news, but if the life of God is not touched in the process, the facts will be ineffective. It is the
life that convicts and converts the lost.
It is the same with our teaching of Christians. That is the case with what is being
written now. If this writing is only a transfer of facts from my brain to yours, it is a waste of
time, unless God should choose to call something to mind at a later time. It is true that we
need to learn the facts of Christian truth, but the object of that is not that we become
knowledgeable, but that we touch God and come to know him. Paul said that knowledge
makes us arrogant (1 Cor. 8.1). We can read the Bible through many times and read all the
authors who have written on spiritual truth and know and even be able to preach on all the
great Christian truths, but if we do not have the life of God within us, we really do not have
any light. Spiritual light is not located in our minds, a part of our souls, our psychological
makeups, but in our spirits. It is not the mental knowledge of spiritual facts that makes us
spiritual, but the grasp of truth in our spirits that comes from the life of God within us, and
the dealings of God with us. We must learn to distinguish between soul and spirit, just as
Heb. 4.12 says. Mere mental knowledge is in the soul and is of no benefit spiritually. We
need light in our spirits that flows from the life of God. That is what John means when he
says that the life is the light of men. Light comes from life, not vice versa.
What implications this has for our seeking of the will of God. The way to find God’s
will is not to seek for light from without, but to make certain that the life of God is
flourishing within. Sincere Christians are concerned to know the will of God, and many
spend much time agonizing over trying to find it. They wait for God to speak before acting.
Sometimes God does speak and tell us what to do, but more often, he calls on us to go ahead
and act, having committed our way to him and trusting him to guide us. Is. 30.20-21 shows
us this principle:

Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether
you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, “This
is the way; walk in it.”
That is the life of God within, correcting us as we go. As we walk in yieldedness to
God, if we take a wrong step, he will tell us. We will hear that voice telling us that we are
about to make a wrong step. If we truly belong to the Lord, we are free to do what we please

if what we are doing is not contrary to Scripture and the Lord does not tell us otherwise.
That is the life giving light.
The Apostle who wrote the gospel we are considering also wrote 1 John, and there in
chapter 2, verses 25-27, he said this:
And this is the promise which he himself promised us, eternal life. I wrote these
things to you concerning those who deceive you. And the anointing which you
received from him remains in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but
as his anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true and not a lie, and as it
taught you, remain in him.
That is another example of the life within. John starts by saying that God has
promised us eternal life. That is the life we are talking about. Then he says that what is being
written is designed to counteract deceivers. We are concerned to get light, knowledge, so as
not to be deceived, and John says that light comes from the life. That life is expressed in the
form of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and that anointing stays in us at all times, for the
Spirit dwells in us at all times. It is that anointing, that life of God within, that gives us light.
(1 John 2.270 Thus we do not need anyone to teach us. That does not mean that there is no
place for teachers in the church, for other passages make it abundantly clear that there is, but
that we have within us a Spirit who tells us whether or not what we hear from teachers is
from the Lord and is true. As we remain in him, this life within will give light, just as John
says in Jn. 1.4, “The life was the light of men.” Light comes from life, not life from light.
The Lord Jesus made the same point in Jn. 7.17 when he said to those who questioned
his teaching, “If anyone wills to do his will, he will know concerning the teaching, whether it
is from God or I speak from myself.” If a person’s will is to do the will of God, that is
evidence of the life of God within, and that life will give light concerning the teaching of the
Lord Jesus. Is it from God or not? Yes, it is from God, the person who wills to do God’s will
knows within. That is the life giving light.
What an important lesson this is for the Christian to learn. We do not come into life by
gaining much knowledge, many facts. We come into life by faith in Jesus, and that life will
give light.
The Greek word for “light” that John uses of the Lord Jesus in these verses is phos,
from which we get “photograph.” The idea behind this word is original light or self-existing
light. The sun gives light. The light of the moon is not really the moon’s light, but the sun’s
reflected light. Thus the sun would be phos. The moon would not. It is only a reflector of phos.
the Lord Jesus is phos. He is self-existent light. John the Baptist, who came to bear witness,
was not this kind of light. He was a lamp, a container of light, as John describes him in 5.35.
The Lord Jesus is the true light.
5And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

V. 5 of Jn. 1 contains the first mention of spiritual darkness. This is an important
theme in John, and will be considered more fully at the proper place in the gospel. The point
that John makes now is that the light shone into this darkness and the darkness could not
understand it. Because it seems not to make perfect sense that the darkness could not
understand the light, some translate the word for “comprehend” as “overcome.” But the
word means “comprehend” or “apprehend” (Phil. 3.12-13). Think about it: darkness cannot
understand light because it is blind, because it is in the dark. Darkenss has no life, and it is life
that gives light, as we have just seen in the previous verse. We are dealing with spiritual
matters. Spiritual darkness is blind to spiritual truth, so it cannot understand it. It has no way
of perceiving the light, no matter how great the light is. And in the end, darkness tried to
destroy the Lord Jesus, though it could not do so finally. Is it not true that we often try to
destroy what we do not understand? The truth is that most snakes are beneficial, but the few
poisonous ones have given them all a bad name, and our lack of understanding of them,
coupled with the emotional reaction of fear at seeing one, causes us to kill all snakes at once.
If we understood them, we would let the good ones live, but because we do not, we try to
kill what we fail to understand. The Light, Jesus, shone into spiritual darkness. That darkness
was not able to comprehend that Light, and it tried to destroy it, but it was not able to do so.
6There became a man having been sent from God whose name was John. 7This one
came as a witness that he might testify concerning the Light, that all might have faith
through him. 8That one was not the Light, but that he might testify concerning the Light.
In vs. 6-8, John says that John the Baptist came to bear witness to the Light. He begins
by writing, literally, “There became a man sent from God whose name was John.” A
comparison of the Greek words used to describe the Word and John is instructive. In v. 1,
John used the Greek word for “was” to describe the Word, but here in v. 6, he used the word
for “became.” The Word did not become. He always was. John the Baptist became. Like us,
he was not always. The contrast between these words comes up again in the first eighteen
verses of John and plays an important role in the thoughts developed by the author, so we
take note of it at this point.
John the Baptist was sent. The Greek word for one who is sent is “apostle.” The Latin
word is “missionary.” Whether we use the English sent one, the Greek apostle, or the Latin
missionary, they all mean the same thing. John was a man with a mission, and his Sender
was God. His mission? To bear witness to the Light, “that all might have faith through him.”
Thus the purpose of John the Baptist and that of John the author of this gospel were the
same. John wrote down the signs recorded in this bock that his readers might have faith in
the Lord Jesus, and thus have life. John the Baptist came to bear witness to the Light, Jesus,
that all might have faith, and thus have life.

9He was the true Light, who lightens every man, coming into the world.
John the Baptist was not the light, but v. 9 tells us that the Lord Jesus was the Light,
and that he came into the world. This true Light, having come into the world, gives light to
everyone. Not everyone receives light, but it is available to any and all.

10He was in the world and the world became through him and the world did not know
him. 11He came to his own and his own did not receive him.
This thought leads us to the next section of John’s prologue, vs. 10-13, where he deals
with the two responses to the Light. The first occurs in vs. 10-11: “He was in the world and
the world became through him and the world did not know him. He came to his own and his
own did not receive him.” This response is rejection. It is ironic that the Word was rejected
by his own. Those who rejected him are his own in two senses. He was rejected by all men in
general (not specifically, of course, for some received him, but mankind as a whole has
rejected the Word). They are his own, for he made them. We have already seen that he is the
agent of creation. Nothing was made without him. All people are his, yet they rejected him.
In a narrower sense, he was rejected by the nation of Israel. They are his in a sense in
which all men are not. Like all men, they were made by him, but unlike all men, they were
called into a special relationship with him, and again ironically, that relationship called for
them to be what he is, a light to the nations. Ex. 19.5-6 tells us that God called Israel to be his
special possession among all the nations, a kingdom of priests. Is. 42.6 and 49.6 tell us that
God’s purpose was for Israel to be a light to the nations, to point them to the truth. In
addition, the Old Testament is full of promises to Israel of a coming King who would rule
them in righteousness forever. That Light, that King, came in the person of the Word of
John’s gospel, and they rejected him. Yet even in his rejection, the Word fulfilled what Israel
was called to do but failed to do. He himself is a Light to the nations.
12But as many as did receive him, to them he gave authority to become children of God, to
those having faith into his name, 13who were not born from bloods or from the will of
flesh or from the will of man, but from God.
Vs. 12-13 show us the other response to the Light, acceptance. John says that to those
who did receive him, he gave the authority or right to become children of God. We noted
above in dealing with John the Baptist that the Greek word for “was” is used of the Word in
v. 1, but the word for “became” is used of John in v. 6. That same word “become” is used
here in v. 12 of those who receive the Word. People are not children of God by natural birth.
Again, there is no such thing in Scripture as the natural Fatherhood of God and brotherhood

of man. One becomes a child of God by being born from God. One is born from God by
having faith: “to those who have faith in his name.” We return once more to the purpose of
John’s gospel, “that you might have faith that the Lord Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that having faith you might have life in his name.” That is what it is to be a child of God.
It is to have his life.
John makes it quite clear in v. 13 that this life is not natural, but comes by a new birth:
“who were who were not born from bloods or from the will of flesh or from the will of man,
but from God.” It is only by a new birth from God that one becomes a child of God. This
topic should have its full discussion in chapter 3 of John, so we will hold it until that point.
For now, suffice it to say that this new birth, this receiving of the life of God, the purpose of
John’s gospel, results from receiving by faith the Light that has come into the world.
14And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory,
glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Vs. 14-18 constitute the final section of John’s prologue. In these verses John deals
with the Word becoming flesh. He has shown us the eternal Word and shown us that he is
Life and Light. Now he comes to one of the primary facts of history: that eternal Word
became flesh. He became a man. It is at this point that the contrast between the Greek words
for “was” and “became” becomes most instructive. Up to now, only the word “was” has
been applied to the Word, and only the word “became” has been applied to anyone else. But
now the word “became” is applied to the Word. The Word became flesh. Why is that word
now used of him? Because he was not always flesh. He always was in existence. He always
was with God. He always was God. But he was not always flesh. At a point in human history
he became a man.
This teaching of Scripture that the Word became a man is one of the most important
doctrines of the Christian faith. The humanity of Christ is the basis of our hope. We would
only expect God to live a perfect life and go to Heaven, but the fact that gives us hope is that
a man has lived a perfect life and gone to Heaven. We need to understand that Jesus retains
his humanity even now. There is a man in Heaven now. He is seated at the right hand of
God. If one man can make it, then there is hope that we can make it, not by our own works or
merits, certainly, but by his. Just as in the first Adam we all sinned and lost our possibility of
Heaven, so in the last Adam we can all be made righteous and regain that possibility, indeed,
that cerrtainty. How strongly we need to emphasize the humanity of the Lord Jesus.
In John’s day, there was no difficulty accepting the divinity of Christ. His was a world
of belief in the supernatural. It was mostly pagan, to be sure, but they nonetheless had no
trouble believing in anything supernatural. But there were those who taught that the Lord
Jesus was only divine and not really human. They said that he only appeared to be human.
He was a god who took on human form in some sort of manifestation. They believed this
because they believed that the spiritual was good and the material was evil. The material

was the basis of all evil. God could not have taken on an evil form, so the Lord Jesus only
appeared to be a man. But if that is true then we have no hope. There is no sinless man who
has taken his seat at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. Against this the New Testament
firmly upholds the humanity of Christ.
In our day, the opposite is true. We have those, even many who call themselves
Christians, who deny the divinity of Christ. They maintain that he was only a man, called by
God, great teacher, prophet, yes, but only a man. They deny anything supernatural. Thus it is
necessary for us to defend the divinity of Christ. The problem is that in rushing to the
defense of his divinity, as necessary as that is, we tend to overlook the equal importance of
his humanity. While we hold to the biblical teaching that the Lord Jesus is fully God, let us
not lose sight of the fact that the Word became flesh. He became fully man, and that is the
basis of our hope as human beings.
John writes that the Word became flesh “and tabernacled among us,” for that is the
meaning of the Greek. This eternal one who became a man was all that the Old Testament
Tabernacle symbolized. Everything in the Tabernacle pictured the Lord Jesus, the materials,
the colors, the items of furniture, and so on. That ancient tent pictured sin dealt with,
cleansing, worship, fellowship with God, the presence of God with his people, all of these
being in Christ, who is the Tabernacle. . But of course in that day, all these things were
imperfect because of the sin of man. That sin could not be dealt with, but only covered over,
for a perfect sacrifice could not be found. But now the Word has become flesh and brought
all that the Tabernacle symbolized to perfect fulfillment. In him our sin is dealt with, so now
we are fully cleansed, we worship God in spirit and in truth, we know fellowship with him,
we enter into his very presence in the Holy of Holies. Thank God that the eternal Word
became one of us and tabernacled among us.
Next John says that “we beheld his glory.” As we read this, we are reminded that John
was one of the three who witnessed the Transfiguration of Jesus. He did indeed see his glory!
Perhaps he had that experience in mind as he wrote these words. What is meant by the word
“glory”? Most of us have a rather vague notion of the meaning of this term as having
something to do with a bright light. That is involved, but there is much more. In the Old
Testament, glory referred to the essence of God and the presence of God, and when that
presence was manifested in a material way, it was indeed as a bright light. We could cite
many examples, but one will suffice, Ex., 24.15-17:
When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of I AM
settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the
seventh day I AM called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites the glory of
I AM looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain.
In this incident, the glory of God was manifested materially, and as such it shone
brightly. John’s parallel to this occurs in the verse we are considering, 1.14. We do not have

there the bright light, but we do have the presence of God tabernacling among us, and John
did see the bright light of this glory at the Transfiguration, though it is not recorded in his
gospel.
In The Cross and the Eternal Glory Austin-Sparks writes that glory is God’s nature,
“the Divine Nature in expression. If you have Divine Love in perfection: you have
Glory…. When there is a state of Diving Life in fullness, there is no death at all, but it
is all Life, the river is flowing in fullness, it is a state of Glory. And faith is free from all
questions and doubts and mistrusts, it is perfect faith, then it is a state of Glory. When
holiness, Divine Holiness, is present without any jarring contradictory element of sin,
then it is Glory.” (p. 8).
This is the essence of God.
The glory of God also refers to his works. In 1 Chron. 16.24 we read, “Declare his
glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples,” and Ps. 19.1 says, “The
heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” What God does
reveals his glory. This thought is seen in John in 2.11, after the story of the turning of water
into wine. There John writes, “This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and
revealed his glory….” In each of these verses we see the idea that the works of God reveal his
glory.
This aspect of glory is closely related to a third. The glory of God has to do with the
recognition of God. The basic idea is fame. Is that not what we mean by glory in our day? We
speak of soldiers winning glory on the battlefield or of athletes winning glory on the field of
play. We mean that they have made great achievements and thereby gained fame. We
recognize them for what they have done. So it is with God. A part of his glory is the
recognition he gains because of his deeds. John captures this idea in the story of the raising of
Lazarus from the dead. When told that Lazarus was sick, the Lord Jesus said, “This sickness
is not to death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified through it.”
God is about to perform a mighty miracle that will gain him recognition.
All of these elements, the presence of God, the works of God, and the recognition that
ensues, are a part of the concept of the glory of God, but they all come down to one point
that is based in the root meaning of both the Hebrew and Greek words for “glory”: heavy.
The idea of glory is that there is weight, substance, impressiveness. The glory of God is that
about God which impresses, which carries weight. We hear often about gravitas, the quality
of a man or woman who is not a lightweight, but whose being is weighty. God has gravitas!
This is seen so clearly in Ps. 62.7 and 9: “On God my salvation and my glory rest; the rock of
my strength, my refuge is in God…. Men of low degree are only vanity, and men of rank are
a lie; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than breath.” (NASV) With those
who depend on God, there is glory, weight. With those who do not, there is no glory,
nothing weighty.

God is impressive in his person and in his deeds. There is weight, there is substance,
with him. Are you impressed with God? What about God impresses you? That is his glory.
We might add that all those who mock the Lord Jesus now will be very impressed with him
when he returns.
John says that because the Word became flesh, we beheld his glory. We knew his
presence, his deeds, his fame. And that glory was not the glory of a man. It was the glory of
God, “glory as of the only begotten from the Father.” This term “only begotten” has given
rise to much theological dispute. Some have used it to deny the eternal existence of Jesus and
his equality with God. Since he was begotten, he could not have existed eternally. But the
weight of Scripture, and indeed the first verse of John, are on the side of the eternal existence
of the Lord Jesus. The problem is that we cannot understand God, and we must use human
language to describe him, and thus our descriptions fall short. If we insist on a strict
interpretation of every figure, then we must ask who the eternal mother of Jesus was, for
there can be no begetting, no fathering, without a mother. It all becomes impossible to figure
out. The point is that Jesus has eternally taken the position of Sonship, and thus of
submission to the Father. And he is the only one who has done this. In this sense he is
unique, though the Greek word means more than just unique. The real point that John is
making is that the glory beheld in the Lord Jesus is not human glory, but divine. The miracle
is that it is divine glory manifested in a human being, the Word made flesh.
In beholding this glory, what does one see? He sees one who is full of grace and truth,
and that is one of the impressive things about God. Grace is unmerited love, but it is also
provision for need. In Eph. 2.8-9, Paul shows us grace as undeserved love: “For by grace you
have been saved through faith, and this is not of you. It is God’s gift, not of works, that no
one may boast.” Grace is God’s gift, not something we have earned. Then Paul shows us
grace as provision for need in 2 Cor. 12.9. After telling us that he called on God three times to
remove his thorn in the flesh he writes that God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for
my power is perfected in weakness.” As Heb. 4.16 puts it, “Therefore let us come with
boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.”
That is grace, undeserved love and provision for need, and John says that the Lord Jesus is
full of grace. Actually, grace is much more, but we will not go into a fuller discussion of it at
present.
What is truth? Is it just facts? No. It certainly includes facts, but the Greek word for
truth means “reality.” The thought is that God provides us with the means to cope, and more
than cope, with reality. Karl Marx said that religion is the opiate of the people, meaning that
religion has no basis in fact but is only an escape from reality. He was right about religion,
but the Bible says that utterly to the contrary, true faith, not religion, is reality and is the only
way to deal with reality. What Jesus brings is not escapism, but a facing up to reality, to the
worst as well as the best that life has to offer, and the doing of it victoriously. The Lord Jesus
gives the knowledge and wisdom that enable one to face reality with victory. He is full of
that.

15John testified concerning him and has cried saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘The
one coming after me became higher than I, for he was before me.’”
Jn. 1.15 returns to John the Baptist and again says that he bore witness to the Word,
adding a quotation from the Baptist: “This was he of whom I said, ‘The one coming after me
became higher than I, for he was before me.’” This statement contains the climax of the
contrast we have noted between the Greek words for “was” and “became.” As the eternal,
the Word was. As a man, John became. As children of God, we became. As a man, the Word
became. Now, John the Baptist says, the Word came to have a higher position as a man
because he always was. John the Baptist was born as a man before the Lord Jesus was, and
for a time he had a higher position. The Lord Jesus was unheard of when John began his
ministry, and John was very popular with the crowds. But as time went on, Jesus surpassed
John because he was. John only became. The Lord Jesus became, too, but before he became as
a human being, he was as the eternal Word. Thus, even though John started out first and

initially had a higher position than Jesus as a man, it was only a matter of time until the pre-
existent one came to the higher position.

16For from his fullness we all received, and grace in place of grace.
V. 16 continues v. 14. John, the author of the gospel, says that not only have we beheld
the glory of this one who is full of grace and truth, but we have also received of this fullness.
Those who receive the Light, who have faith in Jesus, receive not just light, information
about the Lord Jesus. They receive Jesus himself. He comes to dwell within, and as one
receives him within, he receives his fullness, and the fullness just grows within. It is grace
upon grace. As one receives grace, the grace multiplies, and there is more grace. The Lord
Jesus is indeed full!
17For the Law was given through Moses. Grace and truth became through Jesus Christ.
Then John says that there is a contrast between what Moses brought the Jewish nation
and what Jesus brings. Moses brought the Law, but that did not enable the Jews to partake of
the fullness of God. The grace and truth that Jesus is full of could not be entered into by
God’s people so long as the relationship was based on the Law. We have not received
fullness by the Law, for the Law only shows our inability to please God and therefore
receive. No one is able to keep the Law fully, and thus no one can enter into all that God has
on the basis of the Law. But we have received on the basis of grace, and thus we can enter
into the fullness of God. It is no longer our trying to keep an external Law, but God himself
working within us to transform us. This is what came with the Lord Jesus. I have held to the
strict translation of the word “became” for consistency, not that grace and truth did not exist

until Jesus came to this earth, for the Old Testament is full of grace and truth and anyone
saved in the Old Testament was saved by grace, not by works. The meaning is that the
transition from Law to grace began with the coming of Jesus. The New Covenant was
beginning, the covenant of grace. Incidentally, this verse contains the first mention in John of
the names Jesus and Christ.
18No one has ever seen God. The only begotten [God, Son?], the one being in the bosom of
the Father, declared him
V. 18 contains a problem that is difficult from one standpoint. Some of the ancient
Greek manuscripts read “only begotten God” and others read “only begotten Son,” and it is
difficult to decide between the two, for there are old and good manuscripts supporting both
readings. The weight seems to be on the side of “God,” but it is impossible to be certain. The
problem is not so great as it appears, though, except for the translator. The meaning is not
affected either way, for John has already made it clear that the Son is God. The matter of
importance is what John says this one did. This one explained the God that no one has seen.
The word used for “declared” or “explained” was a term used in that day for the revealing of
divine secrets by priests or even by the gods themselves [Alford, Barrett]. This was not the
only reason the Lord Jesus came, but it is certainly an important one. God cannot be seen, for
he is Spirit and we are flesh, but in the Lord Jesus we can see what God is like. What is he
like? He is like the Lord Jesus, full of grace and truth. He loves us. He provides for us. He
enables us to deal with reality. That is the God we serve, and the eternal Word became flesh
to make that known to us.

THE FIRST APPEARANCES OF JOHN THE BAPTIST AND JESUS

John 1.19-51

Jn. 1.19 begins the record of the public ministries of John the Baptist and the Lord
Jesus, and this section of John continues through 12.50. This part of John is often called The
Book of Signs because it is organized around seven miracles, or signs, performed by the Lord
Jesus, and it is these, John says in 20.30-31, that are recorded to awaken faith in Jesus as the
Christ and Son of God. John the Baptist appears on the scene in 1.19-37, and the Lord in 38-
51.
The section on John the Baptist naturally falls into four sections that help us to
understand the passage. The first of these is vs. l9-24. John does not record the story, but we
are familiar from Matthew, Mark, and Luke with the details of the Baptist’s ministry. He
came into the wilderness dressed like Elijah, eating locusts and wild honey, and preaching a
fiery message that minced no words. He called for repentance, and even accused the

religious leaders of the Jews of being a brood of vipers and told them to bring forth fruit
suitable to repentance. The crowds loved him. In the situation of the Jews at that time, there
naturally arose speculation as to John’s identity. Israel had fallen under foreign domination
with the invasions of Assyria and Babylon in the eighth, seventh, and sixth centuries B.C.,
and except for a few years had stayed in that condition. At the time of the appearance of
John, they were ruled by Rome. Viewing themselves as the people of God and therefore by
right as free, and even as deserving to be the dominant nation of the world (Dt. 28.13), they
hated the Romans and wanted desperately to be free of them. Building on all the messianic
prophecies of the Old Testament, they had developed by this time an extensive belief in the
coming of a messianic deliverer who would restore them to freedom and glory. Could it be
that John was this deliverer?
19And this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites
from Jerusalem that they might ask him, “Who are you?” 20And he confessed and did not
deny, and he confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
With these questions in mind, the Jewish leaders, priests, Levites, Pharisees, sent to
John to ask him who he was. Because of his popularity, John could easily have made claims
for himself and developed a large following. But John had a deep grasp of God’s calling for
him, and a deep love for God. He knew that he was not the one they were looking for, and
his heart was to further God’s interests. Thus he denied being the Christ. He confessed, the
good news says, that he was not the Christ.
21And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the
Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”
Then they asked if he were Elijah. Malachi, the last prophet of Israel and the writer of
the last book of our Old Testament, predicted at the end of his book that Elijah would come
before the day of the Lord. Elijah had been the powerful prophet in Israel who stood so
strongly for the Lord in the midst of failure and idolatry, boldly declaring the Lord’s word
even to a wicked king and working miracles in support of his words. Because of his
resemblance to Elijah in both dress and message, and because of Malachi’s prophecy, the
Jews wondered if John were the fulfillment of this prediction. Again John said no, he was not
Elijah.
We know from the words of the Lord Jesus that John was the fulfillment. He was the
Elijah predicted by Malachi. But John did not know this, or if he did, he did not use it to his
advantage. He was committed to God’s advantage, and wanted no recognition or position
for himself.
If John was not Elijah, then was he the Prophet? In Dt. 18.15, Moses had predicted that
God would raise up for Israel a prophet like himself, whom they should listen to. Moses was

the founder of Israel as a nation and the great deliverer and leader of the nation. He was the
greatest man in their history. His prediction of a prophet like himself to come was a
prediction of the Messiah. We do not know whether Moses knew this or not, but that was
certainly what God had in mind when he inspired the prophecy. Acts 3.22 and 7.37 confirm
that Jesus is the Prophet predicted by Moses. These Jews who came to John asked him if he
were the Prophet. Again John said no.
22Therefore they said to him, “Who are you, that we might give answer to those having
sent us? What do you say about yourself?” 23He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the
wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” [Is. 40.3] 24And
those having been sent were from the Pharisees.
Then the Jews stopped asking if he were particular people and just asked him who he
was. Like them, John used the Old Testament to answer their question. The prophetic
writings are full of predictions of the fall of Israel into judgment, but at the same time that
the dire warnings are made, comforting words of eventual restoration are spoken as well.
This restoration is associated with the coming of the deliverer mentioned above. Is. 40 is such
a passage, and in the first five verses of that chapter we read these words,

“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been
paid for, that she has received from I AM’s hand double for all her sins. A voice of one
calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for I AM; make straight in the wilderness a
highway for our God. Every valley will be raised up, every mountain and hill made
low; the rough ground will become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of I
AM will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of I AM has
spoken.’”
Not only does the Old Testament predict the coming of a messianic deliverer, but it
also prophesies the coming of one to prepare his way. There is the voice of one crying in the
wilderness. That, says John the Baptist, is who he is. He is not the Messiah, but only the one
who prepares his way. Thus the point of Jn. 1.19-24 is that the Baptist is a fulfiller of
prophecy, and in particular the prophecy of the coming of the forerunner of the Messiah. The
Baptist makes a truly remarkable claim, for he is in fact saying that a new age is about to be
ushered in, not the false new age of the new age movement of our day, but the real new age
of the Bible. There is about to be a change in covenants, as prophesied by Jeremiah (31.31-34,
see Heb. 8.7-13). The Old Covenant had been in effect until the coming of John the Baptist
and the Lord Jesus. God’s people were under the tutelage of the Law, designed by God to
bring them to Christ (Gal. 3.23-29) by showing them that they could not keep the Law and
needed one who could be in them the power to please God. How much of this John the

Baptist actually knew we do not know, but he was saying that the old was about to end and
God was about to begin a new way of relating to man, not as Lawgiver, but as Indweller.
Prophecy was about to be fulfilled. Everything was changing. The Messiah was about to
appear.
25And they asked him and said to him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ
or Elijah or the Prophet?” 26John answered them saying, “I baptize in water. In the midst
of you stands one whom you do not know, 27the one coming after me, of whom I am not
worthy that I should loose the strap of his sandal.” 28These things took place in Bethany
across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
Vs. 25-28 of Jn. 1 deal with the baptism of John. The Jews wanted to know why he
baptized if he was not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet. His answer was that he baptized in
water. That does not sound like an answer to their question, does it? It does not seem to tell
why he baptized, but the medium in which he baptized. But therein the answer does lie.
What is water in the Bible? It is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, as Jn. 7.37-39 tells us. The Spirit
of God is living water. The other gospels tell us that John’s baptism was a baptism of
repentance, but John does not record that fact. He dwells on the symbolic nature of John’s
baptism. John was saying that he baptized in a symbol, and a few verses farther on he will
say that one is coming who will baptize not in a symbol, but in the reality.
The Jews were called by God to be his people in a special way, and much was given to
them by God, but in a sense, all they had was symbols. They had no reality, in one way of
looking at it. They had the Tabernacle, the dwelling place of God in their midst, but in a way
that was only a symbol. They could not go into the presence of God on penalty of death. He
dwelt within the Tabernacle in the Holy of Holies and the people were shut out by the veils
and by the curtain all around the tent where God was. That curtain was made of white linen
and thus symbolized righteous deeds. The people were sinful, not righteous, and the
demand of God that his people be righteous shut them out from God. All they had was a
symbol of God’s presence, not the reality.
They had the sacrificial system. Animals were slaughtered and blood shed for sin, but
the sin was never dealt with. It was only covered over for a time. More sacrifices had to be
made, continually, because the sacrifices never took away sin. Israel had a system for dealing
with sin, but it was only a symbol, not the reality, for it never really dealt with the problem.
Israel had the Sabbath, a picture of rest, but it was not real rest. They rested from
physical labor on that day, but they did not enter into the genuine rest of God of ceasing
from their efforts to he saved. Israel always had to keep trying to observe the Law in order to
gain righteousness before God, but they could not keep it. Thus they had a symbol of rest
from striving for salvation, but they did not have the reality.
We could go on. The point is that John the Baptist came to a people who were full of
symbols with no reality, and he gave them one more symbol, a symbol of baptism in the

Ho1y Spirit. It was not really baptism in the Holy Spirit. It was only baptism in water, a
symbol of the Holy Spirit. Thus John himself shows his inferiority to the Lord Jesus. He is
about to say that the Lord Jesus will baptize in the reality. Thus his baptism, symbol though
it is, is truly monumental. It is epochal.
This claim by John gets at the very heart of man’s problem. What is man’s problem?
Let us first ask what the purpose of John’s gospel is. We have already answered this question
and referred to it several times. John’s purpose is that we might have life through faith in the
Lord Jesus. Life is what John is all about, and that gets at man’s problem. Our problem is that
we have sinned and therefore are dead spiritually. Eph. 2.1 says that before we were saved,
we were dead in trespasses and sins. We were not dead physically. We were not dead
psychologically. No, we were dead spiritually. Our spirits were dead. We were not able to
know God and relate to him. How does one’s spirit come to life, to the ability to know God?
By the entrance of the Holy Spirit into it. But the Holy Spirit could not enter our spirits
because we were in sin, and whatever is in sin is burned up by the Holy Spirit as fire. If the
Spirit of God had come into our sinful spirits, we would have been destroyed by him. What a
dilemma! Our only hope is the entrance of the Holy Spirit, and that is certain death. What is
the answer? The next section of Jn. 1 tells us.
29The next day John saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, the
one taking away the sin of the world. 30This one is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a
man who has become higher than I, for he was before me.’ 31And I had not known him,
but that he might be manifested to Israel, because of this I came baptizing in water.”
32And John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove from Heaven,
and he remained on him.”
Vs. 29-36 deal with John’s witness to the Lord Jesus. V. 29 says that when John saw the
Lord Jesus, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” What
does he mean by calling the Lord Jesus a Lamb? The natural Old Testament passage that we
think of to understand this word of John is Ex. 12. That chapter is one of the most important
and climactic in the Bible. Israel had been in slavery in Egypt for four hundred years. Now
God had raised up Moses to lead them out, but Pharaoh had refused to let them go. God had
sent nine plagues on Egypt, but Pharaoh’s heart had only been hardened. Now God was
about to send the tenth, last, bitterest plague on Egypt. He was about to destroy every
firstborn in Egypt, both of man and of beast. But God made provision for his people Israel.
He told Moses to have the people slaughter lambs and put some of the blood on their
doorposts and over their doors. Then he said that when the death angel came, when he saw
the blood he would pass over. That is the origin of the name Passover. Those under the blood
were passed over when judgment came.
This is one of the fundamental lessons of the Bible. The nation of Israel was
established that night and it was founded on shed blood. That is the basis of relationship to

God. Without the shedding of blood, Heb. 9.22 says, there is no forgiveness. Only those who
were under the blood were passed over.
Alford, however, points out that there is no reference in Ex.12 to sin or the taking
away of sin. From our standpoint, having both the Old and New Testaments, we naturally
think of Passover. But Alford says that a Jew in the day of John the Baptist would not have
thought of that reference because of the absence of a mention of sin and its taking away. In
addition he points out that the lambs referred to in Num. 28 as morning and evening
offerings have no reference to sin. He thinks that John refers to Is. 53.4-7, where the lamb is
specifically stated to be a lamb who bore transgressions and iniquities. This is a messianic
passage, the greatest messianic passage of the Old Testament, the clearest view in the Old
Covenant of the Lord Jesus, and there he is likened to a lamb. I must say that I agree with
Alford that this passage is the background of John’s calling the Lord Jesus the Lamb of God.
In later Old Testamenet history and in the New Testament times the connection of blood and
forgiveness was developed.
We come down the centuries from Isaiah to John the Baptist, and one day John sees a
man and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” He was
talking about Jesus, and he was saying that Jesus is the Suffering Servant of Is. 53, the
Messiah, the Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world. Prophecy fulfilled!
And do not forget the first slayings of lambs in the Bible. In Gen. 3.21, after Adam and
Eve had fallen into sin and realized that they were naked, God make skins for them to cover
their nakedness. We are not told the details, but it is obvious that the skins required the
death of one or more animals. We are not told what animal, but this first death to cover sin,
and our nakedness before God as sinners (Heb. 4.13), is a picture of the Lord Jesus shedding
his blood to cover our sin. In the same way, in Gen. 4.4, Abel brought a lamb of his flock as
his offering to God, and his sacrifice was accepted whereas Cain’s was not. Cain brought of
his own labor, a picture of the attempt to be accepted by God by works. Abel brought a
blood sacrifice, surely a picture of the Lord Jesus presenting his own blood in the heavenly
Holy of Holies (Heb. 9.12-14) as the atonement for sin, and we present that blood of Christ to
God as our access to him.
I believe also, though, that from our post-New Testament viewpoint, we can see that
the Lord Jesus fulfilled the symbolism of all the sacrificial lambs of the Old Testament. His is
the blood of Gen. 3.21 and 4.4. He is the Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5.7). He is the “smell of
fragrance” to God of the morning and evening burnt offerings of lambs (Num. 28.2, 2 Cor.
2.14, Phil. 4.18, Eph. 5.2). What that Lamb only symbolized, the Lord Jesus was, and is, in
reality. And we must remember that even if Is. 53 is the background of this statement by
John, the death of the Lord Jesus occurred at Passover, as reported in John and the other
gospels, so that there can be no question that Passover also formed part of the background of
this statement. It is he whose shed blood causes the death angel to pass over us when
judgment comes. Just as the old Israel was founded on shed blood, so is the new. God is
relating to people in a new way now, but that relationship is still founded on shed blood.

Unlike the Old Testament times, though, it is reality. Our sins are not covered by the blood of
bulls and goats, but taken away by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, and now we have
boldness to enter the Holy of Holies and go into the very presence of God, something even
Moses could not do (Heb. 10.19).
Writing on Jn. 1.29 and 36, Austin-Sparks says that the Passover lamb was the
foundation of Judaism. Everything was built on that lamb, on the shedding of blood. In the
same way the Lamb of God is the foundation of Christian faith, “the very foundation of our
whole Christian life” (page 3). But now the Lamb is not an animal symbolizing something,
but the actual Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus and his precious blood. And what he is building
on that foundation is not earthly and material, but heavenly and spiritual. Referring to Heb.
12 again, we see that we have not come to Mt. Sinai to receive a law for us to obey, but to Mt.
Zion, the church of the firstborn ones, those enrolled in Heaven, a spiritual people, the Body
of Christ.
33“And I had not known him, but the one having sent me to baptize in water, that one said
to me, “The one on whom you may see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this
is the one baptizing in the Holy Spirit.” 34And I have seen and I have testified that this one
is the Son of God.
John goes on to say in v. 33 that the Lord Jesus will baptize in the Holy Spirit, and that
is the answer to the question we raised above. Our dire need is the Holy Spirit to make our
dead spirits alive toward God, but we are in sin, so the Spirit will burn us up. What is the
answer? The Lamb of God. He has taken away the sin of the world. Because of that, the Spirit
can be poured out. He does not consume people whose sins have been taken away. He
blesses them. He purifies them. He brings them into personal contact with the living God.
Praise the name of the Lord. That is what the Lamb of God has done. He has solved our
problem. He has made it possible for the Spirit of God to come into our dead spirits, make
them alive, and cause rivers of living water to gush forth from them. Praise him indeed.
That is the testimony of John to Jesus. He is the Lamb of God who takes away our sin,
enabling us to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and thus to have life, the very purpose of the
gospel of John.
35The next day again John had been standing, and two of his disciples, 36and having
looked at Jesus walking said, “Look, the Lamb of God.” 37And his two disciples heard as
he spoke, and they followed Jesus.
The final section of this consideration of John the Baptist consists of one verse, v. 37,
and if we were to give it a title, we would call it “The Desired Result.” This verse tells us that
when two of John’s disciples heard his testimony, they left him and followed the Lord Jesus.
That is what John was after. How unlike so many of us today who want to serve the Lord

and bring people to Jesus, but who want to do so in such a way that we create a following for
ourselves. But John wanted nothing for himself and everything for Jesus. What an example
he is to us. The desired result of the ministry of John was that his followers leave him and
follow another. Need we say more?
John, the author of the gospel, now turns his attention to this one that the Baptist
testified to, to the Lamb of God, to the Lord Jesus. He is the subject of vs. 38-51. It is a bit
more difficult to divide this passage into sections for the sake of understanding than it is
with the passage on John the Baptist, but there are also four main ideas in these verses. We
will need to skip around a bit to see these ideas. The first occurs in vs. 38-39 and 46.
38But Jesus, having turned and having seen these following, said to them, “What are
you seeking?” But they said to him, “Rabbi [which being interpreted means Teacher],
where are you staying?’ 39He said to them, “Come and you will see.” They went therefore
and saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day. It was about the tenth
hour [4:00 pm].
In these verses, the Lord Jesus sees the erstwhile disciples of John following him and
asks what they seek. That is a vital question, and as we see what the Scriptures have to say
about it, we get a clearer understanding of the kind of person the Lord Jesus was. Some are
interested in religion for curiosity’s sake, others for superstitious reasons, still others for
personal gain of one kind or another. Some want God to be available, on call, so to speak, to
get them out of trouble, and then leave them alone till the next trouble arises. It is quite
interesting that the Lord Jesus was not concerned to gain a following for himself. In the first
chapter of Mark, Jesus had done some healings, so that a whole town was gathered at his
door. After a bit of rest that night, he rose early and went out to pray. When the disciples
finally found him, they told him that everyone was seeking him. His reply? “Let’s go
elsewhere….” Amazing! What preacher would turn his back on a crowd? Yet that is exactly
what the Lord Jesus did. His mission was not to gather crowds around himself, and he was
not swayed by the admiration of the multitudes. He knew that most only wanted what he
was giving by way of healings and feedings and were not interested in real commitment to
him.
The story of the rich young ruler teaches us the same lesson. When he went away
sorrowing from Jesus, the Lord did not go after him. He let him go. How difficult it would be
for most of us to let a rich prospect slip away. Think how much he could contribute to the
work. But Jesus knew that God was well able to provide for his work. His concern was not
with attracting crowds or bringing in large offerings. That is why he asked the question,
“What do you seek?” He was interested in what was really in a person’s heart. He was
looking for those who were willing to follow him wherever he went, even to the cross. Thus
the question of Jesus to these two is full of meaning. Were they just curious? Were they
superstitious? Were they hoping for some gain or position for themselves? Or were they

genuinely concerned for the Lord’s will? That was the kind of person the Lord Jesus was
looking for, and he still is.
They asked the Lord Jesus where he was staying, and he replied, “Come and you will
see,” making another statement full of meaning. It is the same thing that Philip said to
Nathanael in v. 46: “Come and see.” What is the point of this statement? It is simply that the
only way to get to know the Lord Jesus is to come to him. One does not get to know him by
collecting information about him, though that may be helpful and interesting. It is the same
lesson we saw in Jn. 1.4: light does not lead to life; life leads to light. A person may ask all the
questions about the Lord Jesus he can think of. He may read the Bible and Christian books
thoroughly. He may know all the doctrines and spiritual truths. But until he takes that step
of coming to Jesus, he will never know him, and he will never know life. So we see a
question and a statement teaching us a vital lesson. What do you seek? Excitement, benefit?
To know the Lord? The only way you will know him is to come and see.
We might add to that that there is another answer entirely to the question as to where
the Lord Jesus was staying. The house he was living in did not matter. Where the Lord Jesus
was really staying was in the bosom of the Father (v.18). He maintained that intimate
relationship with his Father God that enabled him to bring others to him, to say the things he
said and do the things he did, and ultimately to die for our sins and our self-life and then to
be resurrected and caught up to Heaven, from which he had come.
40Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter, one of the two having heard from John and having
followed him. 41This one first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found
the Messiah” (which interpreted means Christ).

42He brought him to Jesus. Having seen him
Jesus said, “You are Simon, the son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which interpreted is
Peter).
The second theme of this section of John is found in vs. 40-45. In these verses we see
Andrew bringing his brother Simon, later named Peter by the Lord Jesus, to Jesus, and then
we see Philip bringing Nathanael to Jesus. What we learn about is basic evangelism. This is
what evangelism is, bringing someone to the Lord Jesus. Whatever we may do by way of
crusades and programs and all that, the fundamental fact of evangelism is bringing someone
to Jesus, and that is something anyone can do. Not everyone can preach the good news and
sway thousands. Not everyone can go door-to-door and talk with people about the Lord. But
everyone who knows the Lord can introduce someone else to him. An introduction is simply
the bringing together of two people by someone who knows both of them. If you know the
Lord Jesus, you can introduce someone to him. You may not do it eloquently. You may not
know all the right “techniques.” But you can say to your friend or family member that you
have found the Savior and you would like to share him. Your own testimony, however
simple, is the best evangelistic tool you have, for it is real to you. Do not let Satan lie to you
and tell you that your testimony is not exciting and dramatic, that no one would want to

hear it. You were as much a lost sinner as the drunk or the drug addict or the prison inmate
(see 1 Tim. 5.24), and it is just as much a miracle that the Lord saved you. You will be
surprised what power there is in the simple telling of how you found the Lord. You can be
like Andrew and Philip and say, “We have found the Messiah.” If you will be faithful to do
that, the Lord will honor your testimony and take up the work in you.

43The next day he wanted to go out into Galilee, and he found Philip and Jesus said
to him, “Follow me.” 44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
45Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found the one of whom Moses in the
Law and the prophets wrote, Jesus the son of Joseph, the one from Nazareth.” 46And
Nathaniel said to him, “Is it possible for anything good to be from Nazareth?” Philip said
to him, “Come and see.”
The third lesson we learn in these verses occurs in v. 43 in the simple words of the
Lord Jesus, “Follow me.” What great riches there are in those two words, for they give us the
essence of discipleship, We are not so familiar with the idea of discipleship in our society,
but in the Jewish life of New Testament times, disciples were common. A disciple is a
learner. That is what the Greek word means. The Jewish religion was built around the Law,
both what was written by Moses under the inspiration of God and what was added to it by
the Rabbis over the centuries. The Rabbis were teachers (see Jn. 1.38). The disciples were
their students: learners. It was a common sight to see a Rabbi and a group of his disciples in
first century Judaism. The Law and the tradition built around it were everything to Judaism,
and thus it was imperative that it be learned thoroughly and passed on from generation to
generation. That was the work of the Rabbis and their disciples.
Into this situation came the Lord Jesus, and he gathered a group of disciples around
himself, but the words he used to gather them reveal great differences between him and the
other Rabbis and between his disciples and theirs. A Jewish Rabbi never said, “Follow me.”
He said, “Learn the Law.” It was his job to pass on a body of knowledge. All the authority of
a Rabbi was in the Law. It was not really his authority at all, but that of the Law he knew and
taught. But Jesus did not say, as the Rabbis did, “Thus says the Law.” He said, “I say to you.”
We find this over and over in the Sermon on the Mount of Matt. 5-7. The Lord Jesus claimed
to have authority within himself. Thus he said, “Follow me.”
That word “follow” implies trust. One would not follow a person if he did not trust
him to take him the right way. One does not really know where a leader is taking him, but he
trusts him and follows him. The Lord Jesus called for a great deal of trust, for he led his
disciples to a cross.
The word “me” shows the personal relationship involved. The Lord Jesus did not call
his disciples to a body of knowledge, but to himself. They were not to get to know a
tradition, but to get to know him. That is what discipleship is, getting involved in a personal

relationship of trust with the Lord Jesus. How full of meaning those two little words are:
“Follow me.”

47Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him, “Look, an Israelite in truth in whom
is no deceit.” 48Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said
to him, “Before Philip called you, you being under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49Nathanael
answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.” 50Jesus
answered and said to him “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree do you
have faith? Greater things than these you will see.” 51And he said to him, “Amen, amen I
say to you [plural], you will see Heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and
descending on the Son of Man.”
The final section of John’s introduction of the public ministry of the Lord Jesus covers
vs. 47-51. In this passage, he calls Nathanael and makes some startling revelations to him.
When Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him at the bidding of Philip, he said of him, “Behold,
an Israelite in truth in whom there is no deceit.” Nathanael heard this and wanted to know
how the Lord knew him. He replied that before Philip called him, when he was under the fig
tree, he saw him. This implies that the Lord Jesus had supernatural knowledge. He was not
in the same place as Nathanael and had no natural means of seeing him or knowing what he
was doing, but he saw him nonetheless. This display of knowledge about him was such that
Nathanael confessed the Messiahship of the Lord Jesus. Then the Lord Jesus made the reply
that shows us what this passage is about: “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig
tree do you have faith? You will see greater things than these…. Amen, amen I say to you,
you will see Heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of
Man.” This statement is based on Gen. 28.10-19, the record of Jacob’s dream of the ladder.
The story of Jacob is well known. He had a twin brother, Esau, who was the firstborn, but
Jacob had come out of the womb right behind Esau with his hand clutching his heel. That
was a prophetic picture of the nature of Jacob, and he was given a name based on the
circumstances of his birth: Jacob, supplanter, that is, someone who takes his place from
another. Deceit was a part of such a person. That was the kind of person Jacob was, always
trying to cheat people out of what he wanted. He was a swindler. He proved his nature
when the boys grew up, first by cheating Esau out of his birthright, and then by stealing his
father’s blessing. The result of all this was that Jacob had to flee Esau’s threats to kill him. On
his first night away from home, he had a dream in which he saw a ladder standing on the
earth and reaching to Heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it. Then the Lord
appeared to him and made promises to him.
The Lord Jesus drew on this story when he made his statement to Nathanael. What is
the meaning of all this? First, when the Lord said, “Behold, an Israelite in truth in whom
there is no deceit,” he was pointing to the contrast between Jacob and Nathanael, and

symbolically, between the old Israel and the new: Behold, an Israelite in truth in whom is no
Jacob.” Jacob was full of deceit. That was his name, and he lived up to it! And that is the way
we all are, in truth. But God’s desire is to have a new Israel made up not of Jacobs, full of
deceit, but of Nathanaels, in whom there is no deceit. None of us are Nathanaels to begin
with, but God can transform us by his grace if we will follow him. And the name Nathanael
means “gift of God.” Our being the kind of people God wants us to be is his gift. It is all of
grace. The first thing we see in this passage, then, is that the Lord Jesus came to found a new
Israel unlike the old, not full of deceit, but full of truth.
Then we have the reply of the Lord Jesus to the amazement of Nathanael at his
supernatural knowledge. He almost dismissed the incident, saying that Nathanael would see
greater things and citing as an example the vision of Heaven opened and angels of God
ascending and descending on the Son of Man. We saw earlier that Israel was rich with
symbols, but had little of reality. This is another example. Jacob saw Heaven opened and a
ladder joining Heaven and earth, but it was only a dream. It was not reality in his day, for
Heaven was closed. No man could enter the Holy of Holies. No man could go into the
presence of God. Even the Tabernacle, the very symbol of the presence of God in the midst of
his people, had a curtain that kept the people out and a veil that kept even the priests out.
Israel had the dream of Heaven opened and a ladder to it, but not the reality.
But just as the Lord Jesus made the symbol of the lamb a reality by actually taking
away the sin of the world, so he made this picture a reality. Jesus is saying that as a result of
his work, Heaven would be opened to men in reality. We could actually go into the presence
of God. The Holy of Holies would be opened to us as the veil was torn from top to bottom
(Mk. 15.38, Heb. 6.19-20, 10.13-20).
We have a privilege that Abraham did not have. We have a privilege that Moses did
not have. We have a privilege that Samuel and David and Elijah and Elisha and Daniel did
not have. We can enter into the very presence of God. We can go into the Holy of Holies.
Why? Because the Lord Jesus has set up a ladder from earth to Heaven, and he is that ladder.
The angels of God ascend and descend on the Son of Man. He has opened Heaven by his
sacrificial death, resurrection, and ascension, and he is the way to the opened Heaven.
How can we emphasize strongly enough the marvelous blessing we enjoy as a people
in Christ? As great as the Old Testament men and women of God were, they lived under a
closed Heaven. We live under an opened Heaven. And Jesus is the ladder that connects earth
with Heaven. How can we praise him sufficiently?
Commenting here on Jn. 1.51, Austin-Sparks notes that this closed Heaven was a
feature of the Old Testament, of Judaism, whereas the Lord Jesus opened Heaven in reality,
spiritually, by his work on earth. “We can come ‘with boldness unto the throne of grace’
(Hebrews 4.16). That is what God is doing in this dispensation, and He has done it in His
Son, so that many, many who have been shut out are now finding their way in. God has
provided in His Son an opened way for all.” (The On-High Calling, Vol. II, p, 6)

So the first chapter of John ends with an interesting variation on how it began. In the
first verse we have the eternal Word in an inaccessible Heaven with God. In the last, we have
that same Word as a ladder enabling us to experience Heaven, and not just after we die, but
even now in spirit, as Eph. 1.3 and 2.6 make so abundantly clear. May the Lord himself bring
us into an ever-increasing experience of and appreciation of the Lamb of God who took away
our sin, made possible for us baptism in the Holy Spirit, and thus life, and opened Heaven to
us. And may we, like those disciples of old, follow him wherever he goes.

THE FIRST SIGN
John 2.1-11

As we have already seen, the first twelve chapters of John deal with the public
ministry of the Lord Jesus, and they are organized around seven miracles, which John does
not call miracles, but signs, indicating that they point to something beyond themselves. The
first of these signs occurs in Jn. 2.1-12. It is the story of the changing of water into wine at a
wedding. Before getting into an examination of what the sign points to, let us look first at the
basic facts of the passage.
We are told first that the scene took place on the third day. Jn. 1.29, 35, and 43 all say
“the next day,” indicating that the events of Jn. 1.43-51 occurred on the fourth day of John the
Baptist’s and Jesus’ public appearances, as recorded in John. When the Jews said “on the
third day,” they included the day on which the statement was made. Thus it appears that the
sign was done on the sixth day of John’s record. That is, Jn. 1.43 was the fourth day, and the
third day after that would have been counted “fourth, fifth, sixth,” including the fourth day
as one of the three. This may seem a bit involved, but an important meaning will come from
this fact presently.
1And on the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of
Jesus was there. 2Now both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding.
On this day there was a wedding in Cana, a Galilean town. This town was also the
home of Nathanael, as Jn. 21.2 tells us. It appears that after the call of Nathanael in Jn. 1.45-
51, Jesus went home with him for a few days. Whether Jesus stayed in his home or not we do
not know, but there he was in this town at the time of the wedding. And he and his disciples
were invited, as was his mother.
3And the wine having run out the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4And
Jesus said to her, “What do we have in common, woman? My hour has not yet come.” 5His
mother said to the servants, “Whatever he may say to you do.”

A wedding among most peoples of the ancient world, as it still is today among many,
was the occasion of a lifetime. Many poor families would save everything they could till the
time of a wedding and then spend everything they had on it. It was a time of great
celebration, and no expense was spared to make it the grandest occasion possible. That being
the case, a very terrible thing happened at this particular wedding. The wine ran out. Thus
the party was near to being ruined. In this situation, Mary said to the Lord Jesus, “They have
no wine.” His’ reply to her was, “What do we have in common, woman? My hour has not
yet come.” Then Mary said to the servants, “Whatever he says to you do.”
This passage is very difficult to understand. The first question that arises is, Why did
Mary tell the Lord Jesus they had no wine? There seem to be two possible answers. One is
that she was merely passing on information. The wine had run out and she was just telling
him. The other possible answer is that Mary expected Jesus to do something about it, but that
also raises difficulties. What did she expect him to do? This was his first miracle, so she
would not have been able to think of other miracles he had done so as to ask him to do one at
this point. He was not in his home town, so he would not have been able to go home and get
more wine. It would have taken at least five hours to walk to Nazareth and back. Possibly
she thought he could get Nathanael to go home for wine, but he would not likely have a
sufficient quantity for such a gathering. There do not seem to be any answers to all these
questions.
One thing we can remember, though, is that Mary knew more about Jesus than
anyone else there. It was she to whom the angel appeared and announced the miraculous
birth. It was she who had conceived and borne Jesus without knowing a man. It was she who
heard the words of the shepherds at his birth, who heard the praises of Simeon and Anna. It
was she who received the visit of the wise men. It was Mary who returned to Jerusalem
looking for Jesus when he was twelve years old to find him amazing the Jewish scholars with
his wisdom. It was she who watched him grow into youth and young manhood without sin.
We cannot know what was in Mary’s mind when she told the Lord Jesus that they had no
wine, but we do know that she knew he was not the average person. If anyone could do
anything about the situation, he could.
In the context of the story, it does appear that Mary was asking Jesus to work a
miracle in order to save the party. Jesus’ reply to her shows that he would not do such a
work for such a reason, much as in his temptation by the devil after his baptism, he would
not work the miracle of turning stones into bread to satisfy his hunger. He did his miracles
only at the command of the Father, and in John especially those miracles were signs pointing
to something beyond themselves. They were to reveal the glory and Messiahship of the Son
and to arouse faith, not to save parties.
The Lord Jesus’ reply to his mother seems harsh. Whatever did he mean when he
asked, “What do we have in common, woman? My hour has not yet come”? First, let us just
note that by calling Mary “woman,” the Lord Jesus was not being harsh or disrespectful.

That was a common way of addressing women in that society. It sounds harsh to our ears,
but was not in that setting. But why would Jesus say, “What do we have in common?” Again
it is very difficult to say. The Greek literally says, “What to me and to you, woman?” The
Hebrew equivalent occurs in Josh. 22.24 and Jud. 11.12, and Mk. 1.24 records the words of a
demon asking the Lord Jesus, “What to us and to you, Jesus the Nazarene?” Dods quotes
Trench, “Let me alone; what is there in common to thee and me; we stand in this matter on
altogether different grounds.” And Holtzmann: “Our point of view and interests are wholly
diverse; why do you mingle them?” Again, the Lord Jesus did not work miracles to save
parties.
The statement, “My hour has not yet come,” also helps with the answer. This is almost
a formula in John. It occurs here in 2.4 and in 7.30, 8.20, 12.23, 27, 13.1, and 17.1. It refers to
the time of his death, but to his death seen in a particular way. It was his death seen as his
glorification, as 17.1 shows. How could his death be a glorification?
We must understand that the death of the Lord Jesus was the will of God, and the
submission of the Lord Jesus to it was the highest point of his obedience to God’s will. How
easy it would have been for him to call legions of angels to his rescue at the cross, and how
tempted he must have been to do so. His flesh shrank from the cross, as Jn. 12.27 and the
Gethsemane stories reveal, and there was a way out. Satan must have had the pressure on to
take that way, for he had already tempted the Lord Jesus at the outset of his ministry to come
to glory by worshipping him instead of going God’s way. But the Lord resisted all
temptation to destroy his tormentors and escape the cross because he knew it was the will of
God, and thus his death was his greatest expression of obedience. It was his glorification.
It was also his glorification because it opened the way to resurrection, He died sinless,
innocent, so death could not hold him. Death is the penalty for sin and he had no sin, so he
was raised up into endless life. What appeared to be the end was really only the beginning.
Death turned out not to be a dead-end but a doorway. Through the door of death, the Lord
Jesus re-entered the glory he had had with his Father before the foundation of the world.
The glorification of the Lord is also a release of power. Jn. 7.37-39 tells us that the Holy
Spirit, the power of God, cannot be poured out on men until Jesus is glorified. Why is that?
Because the Holy Spirit is a fire, and he consumes anything sinful. As long as people are in
sin, they cannot come into contact with the Holy Spirit, or they will be destroyed. But once
sin is dealt with, they can receive the Spirit because before God they are sinless. (This is not
the doctrine of sinless perfection. We sin in actuality all too often, but in God’s sight we are
sinless in Jesus.) So once the Lord Jesus died for sin, the Holy Spirit could be poured out, and
that is exactly what happened at Pentecost.
This release of power is what was needed at the wedding to deal with the wine
problem, but the Lord Jesus said that his hour had not yet come. The power had not yet been
released, so, how could he do anything?
But Mary replied, “Whatever he says to you do.” Why would she make such a reply
when he has just said that he cannot do anything because the power has not been released

yet? Apparently Mary was aware that even though the power had not been released, there
were occasional inbreaks of the power of God into this age. We live in what Paul calls this
present evil age (Gal 1.4). Paul also says that Satan is the god of this age (2 Cor. 4.4), and the
Lord Jesus himself calls him the ruler of this world (Jn. 12.31). God is sovereign, but Satan is
allowed to rule this world during this age, under that sovereignty. Thus the norm for this age
is the rule of evil, not the expression of the power of God. Yet even so there are times when
God’s power breaks through and is manifested even in this evil age. Heb. 6.5 speaks of those
who have tasted the powers of the age to come. That is what Mary was getting at. She knew
this was an evil age, but she knew that God sometimes worked miracles anyway. Surely she
knew her Old Testament and knew the miracles of Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and others. Thus her
reply to the statement of the Lord Jesus was above all an expression of faith. She was saying,
I know this is an evil age, but I know that the power of God sometimes breaks through. I
have confidence in you, Jesus, to draw on that power. And she also said, “Whatever….” That
is, she was not telling Jesus what to do, but leaving that to him. Do whatever, whether it is
providing wine or not. Submission to his will, as he was submitted to the will of the Father.
So we see that what is really a very puzzling statement by Jesus is actually a challenge
to Mary to see spiritual reality and to exercise faith. And Mary, by the grace of God, was
equal to the occasion. Instead of taking the words of the Lord Jesus as a rebuke and a refusal,
she took them as a challenge to faith and she exercised faith. She turned to the servants and
said, “Whatever he says to you do.” That is faith.
That is good advice for all of us. We are safe in doing whatever the Lord Jesus tells us
to do. We can trust him. Our faith in him is well-placed.
6Now there were standing there six stone waterpots for the purification of the Jews,
containing two or three measures of about nine gallons each.
7
Jesus said to them, “Fill the
waterpots with water.” And they filled them to the top. 8And he said to them, “Now draw
some out and take it to the head steward.” And they took it.

9Now when the head steward
tasted the water having become wine, and did not know where it was from, but the
servants having drawn the water knew, the head steward called the bridegroom 10and said
to him, “Every man sets out the good wine first and when they may have become drunk,
the inferior, but you have kept the good wine until now.”
There is not a lot to say about this simple description of the miracle, which took place
in response to Jesus’ instructions after Mary’s expression of faith. The Jews had ceremonial
washings in connection with their religious observances, and that is why the waterpots were
there. These were large pots, holding eighteen to thirty gallons each. The miracle led to the
head steward’s statement that the bridegroom had held the best wine in reserve, that men
usually serve the best wine first and then serve poorer wine when their guests have drunk
enough not to notice, but he had saved the best till last.

11This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory, and his
disciples had faith into him.
So that is the story of the miracle. It is very simple, really. There is not much to say
about it. The Lord Jesus just had some water put into pots, and when it was drawn out, it
was wine. But it was indeed a miracle, and John says that those who knew it, his disciples,
had faith in him as a result. And that is the purpose of John, is it not? We have already noted
Jn. 20.30-31 several times. The reason John recorded these signs was that we might have
faith, and that having faith, we might have life. And the disciples did have faith.
But, as we have seen, this was not just a miracle. It was a sign. It signified something.
It pointed to something beyond itself. What does it point to? First of all, it points to the Lord
Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God. He it is who is able to do such a work. Thus we are
brought to faith in him, according to John’s purpose. But there are other meanings in this
sign, and we will turn to them now.
In the first place, this sign points to the contrast between the way Satan and the world
on one hand, and God on the other, relate to people. Satan always gives the best first and
saves the worst till last. He never comes to anyone and says, “I am Satan. I want to ruin your
life, destroy you, and take you to hell. If you will do what I say, that is what will happen.”
He would not have many takers that way, would he? No, he comes with alluring temptation.
He makes sin, not revealed as such, appear so attractive. It will make you popular. It will
make you rich. It will make you happy. Sin does look good. If it did not, we would not sin.
And sin is pleasurable. There is a lot of enjoyment in sin. If this were not so, none of us
would sin. We may try to blame the devil for our sins, but the plain truth is that we sin
because we want to. Satan may provide temptation, but our sin is our own fault.
The problem with the pleasure of sin, as Heb. 11.25 puts it, is that it does not last. The
truth is that the allure of sin is like fish bait. That bit of food looks so good to the fish. He
thinks it will satisfy his desires, so he goes for it. Then too late he finds that there is a hook in
it. He is destroyed by what promised to give him all he ever wanted. That is how Satan
operates. He gives the best first, and when we fall for it, we find that there is a hook in it. If
we do not find a way out, by the grace of God, it will destroy us. Yes, Satan saves the worst
till last.
But Jesus saves the best till last. We may think he is wonderful now, but we have not
seen half of it. He has so much in store for his people that it is beyond imagination. Paul says
in 1 Cor. 2.9 that eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, and it has not even entered the
heart of man what God has prepared for them that love him. The Lord Jesus saves the best
for last. Paul does add that God has revealed these things to us through the Spirit, but we
have not experienced them yet, so we do not know fully what they are.
It is interesting that Satan always makes sin look so attractive, but it is a lie. But the
Lord Jesus does not do that. He does not make following him look so attractive at first. C.S.
Lewis wrote that God does not tempt to good as Satan does to evil. Jesus says that foxes have

holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. That is not so
attractive, is it? He says that anyone who wishes to come after him must take up his cross
and follow him. A cross is an instrument of death. That is not so attractive, is it? The Lord
Jesus said that some of his followers would be arrested, and some even killed. That is not so
attractive, is it? And he would not try to downplay the cost of discipleship in order to get
followers. When the rich young ruler turned away, Jesus did not say, “Wait. Come back. We
can work this thing out.” He was not concerned to get a rich man contributing to his work.
He let him go. The fact was that following the Lord Jesus was going to cost that rich man his
money (unless he was just testing him), and the Lord did not try to cover it up. That is not so
attractive, is it? C.T. Studd said that the rich young ruler must still be kicking himself for
holding on to that money. Studd gave away his considerable fortune to the Lord’s work,
some helping to start Moody Bible Institute, and married his bride with a few cents in his
pocked.
Yet, the Lord Jesus says, it will be worth it. In the words of Paul, the sufferings of the
present are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed to us. The Lord Jesus
saves the best till last, and that is one of the lessons of this sign.
A second aspect of the symbolism of this sign concerns the number six which we
noted earlier. We saw that the miracle occurred on the sixth day. In addition, there were six
empty waterpots. In the Bible, six is the number of man, and in this context, it points to the
complete emptiness and failure of man. The Lord Jesus comes into a context of sixes, the
sixth day, six empty waterpots, into a context that is dominated by man, and what does he
find? Failure and emptiness. What is supposed to be the occasion of a lifetime is about to be
ruined because of the inadequacy of man. Is that not a true picture? Everything under the
control of man ends in failure. We ruin our 1ives. We ruin our relationships, personal and
national. We are ruining our world. The rule of man ends in emptiness and failure.
Into that situation of failure comes the Lord Jesus, and what does he do? He displays
the complete adequacy of God in the total failure of man. Man has ruined the celebration.
The Lord rescues it. Man has not just come up with poor wine. He has run out of wine. The
Lord Jesus miraculously makes the best wine anyone has ever drunk.
The truth is that we are all empty in ourselves. We are all failures, but God has the
answer. He is all that we need. He is adequate in our failure. Just as in this miracle, he can
make up for our lack. As we do as the servants did, doing whatever he says to us, we find
him replacing our emptiness with his fullness. That is a second lesson of this sign.
The third truth that this sign points to springs from the setting. It occurred during a
wedding. What was Jesus saying by working this miracle in such a situation? Jer. 31.31-32
provides the background:
“The time is coming,” declares I AM, “when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made

with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares I AM.
The Old Testament pictures the relationship between God and Israel as a marriage,
the most intimate of relationships. Yet that marriage is in failure. It is not in ultimate failure,
for God will restore it, as Is. 62.1-5 says. But for now, because of the spiritual adultery of
Israel, their running after other gods, the marriage is in failure. The book of Hosea is the
most graphic picture of this in the Old Testament. Hosea, the prophet of God, had a wife,
Gomer, who was unfaithful to him. Indeed, she was more than unfaithful. She became a
prostitute. That, says God, is a picture of the relationship between him and Israel. He is
married to Israel, but she is an adulterous wife. Thus the marriage is in failure.
Into this historical and spiritual situation comes the Lord Jesus, and he works his first
sign at a wedding. By doing so, he was saying that God was constituting a new Israel. He
was fulfilling the prophecy of Jer. 31.31-32, as Heb. 8.2-12 tells us. This event took place just
after the call of Nathanael, an Israelite in whom is no deceit. That is, he is the new Israel,
contrasted with Jacob, the old Israel, full of deceit. And it took place in the hometown of
Nathanael. In constituting a new Israel, God was establishing a new marriage. Just as the old
Israel had a husband, God, so would the new. The new Israel is the church, the spiritual
people of God, and they are to be the bride of Christ.
So we again see the change brought in by the Lord Jesus. Everything is about to
change in the way God relates to man. A spiritual age is being brought in, an age of grace, an
age of the church. A new betrothal is taking place, and it points to that day when the
heavenly Bridegroom will come and claim his bride. There is a new marriage, and that is a
third lesson of this sign.
Austin-Sparks points out in The On-High Calling, Vol. II, as noted just above, that just
as God was instituting a marriage when he brought Israel out of Egypt (Jer. 31.32), so the
Lord Jesus was saving the marriage. “The salvation of the marriage relationship between
God and His people is in Jesus only.” (p. 6)
The fourth lesson has to do with life. Life is what the gospel of John is all about. That
is his purpose in writing, that we might have life (20.30-31). The Lord Jesus himself said in
Jn. 10.10 that the reason he came was that we might have life, and not just life, but abundant
life. This sign is ultimately and primarily about life, and it is about life in two ways. Before
noting those two ways, let us first look once more at the day on which it occurred.
Jn. 2.1 says the miracle occurred on the third day. What is the third day? It is the day
of resurrection. Jesus was raised on the third day. It is the day of life, and not just physical or
psychological life, but spiritual, eternal, resurrection life, God’s life. On this third day, this
day of life, Jesus did a miracle that has to do more than anything else with life.
In the first place, both water and wine are symbols of the Holy Spirit. Water pictures
the Spirit as life, and wine, as joy. What is the lesson in this? If we were to ask people what
they want in life, most would say they want to be happy. They might state it in different

ways, and some might name some specific object, but happiness is what it all comes down to.
The person who wants to be rich wants it because he thinks it will make him happy. The
person who wants a family wants it because he thinks it will make him happy. Everyone
wants to be happy, and that is really the goal of most people’s lives. The problem is that one
does not get happiness by trying to get it or by trying to get the things he thinks will make
him happy. Happiness is a by-product of something else. If a person makes happiness his
goal and lives for it, he will fail.
How then does one get happiness, for we should indeed be happy? God does not
want us to be miserable. This miracle shows us the way. Happiness is a result of having the
life of God within. We are all empty waterpots, and we are running about in our emptiness
trying to find happiness in all sorts of things. But happiness is found in the life of God. If we
come to him, admitting our emptiness, and ask him to fill us with his life, his Spirit as the
water of life will come into us. There must be a fullness of the Spirit, and that comes from a
complete yieldedness to the Lord, a living for him and not for self. When we make that
commitment, we find the water beginning to rise to the brim. We are just full of the life of
God. And as we live for him, we will suddenly realize that the water has been turned into
wine. The life has produced joy. We were not pursuing happiness, we were pursuing living
for God, and now we find that we have more than just human happiness, we have the joy of
the Holy Spirit filling us.
We usually translate the Beatitudes in Matt. 5, “Blessed is the man….” That word
“blessed” actually means “happy.” The Beatitudes show us how to attain happiness. How?
By realizing our poverty of spirit. That is the six empty waterpots. By mourning, confessing
our sins, and repenting and crying out to God for the lost condition of the world. By
humility. By hungering and thirsting for righteousness. By mercy. By purity of heart,
desiring only God. By making peace. By rejoicing in persecution. Those things are not
seeking happiness, are they? They are giving up all for God. But what is the result? The
water is turned into wine. The life is turned into joy.
Do you want to be happy? Then do not concern yourself with happiness. Concern
yourself with being full of the life of God and living for him. If you do, you will wake up one
morning and realize that you are full of joy. The Lord will work a miracle in you. He will
turn the water into wine.
The second way in which this sign addresses the matter of life is elucidated by 2 Cor.
3.6-9:
[God] also enabled us to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of Spirit, for
the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. If the ministry of death in letters carved on
stones came in glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to look into the face of
Moses because of the glory of his face which was passing away, how will the ministry
of the Spirit not rather be in glory? For if the ministry of condemnation was glory,
how much rather will the ministry of righteousness abound in glory?

Moses was a minister under the old covenant. That covenant gave the Law, but the
Law was a ministry of death, for no one could keep it. The Law did not make anyone
righteous. It only revealed unrighteousness. Since it required righteousness but could not
produce it, man being unable to keep it, it was a ministry of death. Moses was a minister
under that ministry. As great as he was, Moses was a minister under death. And what did
Moses do? In Ex. 7, Moses confronted Pharaoh during the effort to get him to release the
Israelites and worked one of the ten plagues. In that plague, he turned water into blood, and
it brought death on every hand. The fish in the Nile died, and the people were unable to
drink the water. By turning water into blood, Moses gave a picture of the ministry of death
that he worked under.
But what did the Lord Jesus do? He turned water into wine, a symbol of the Holy
Spirit, and thus of the life of God. By doing so he was saying that he was bringing in a new
covenant, a covenant of life, a ministry of life. Again there is a change with the coming of the
Lord Jesus. Under the old order, death was the inevitable result, for it was a ministry of
death constituted on a Law that no one could keep. But now, God says, he will put his life
within men, within those who trust in the Lord Jesus, and will transform them himself from
within. He will no longer give them an outward Law that they cannot keep, but he will give
them inward life that will change them. The Lord Jesus is not, like Moses, a minister of death.
He is a minister of life. He changes water not into blood but into wine. He will answer the
fundamental problem of man. He will take away sin so that the Holy Spirit can come into the
dead spirit of man and make it alive toward God. That is the ministry of Jesus, a ministry of
life, and that is what the good news of John is all about, life, flowing life, abundant life.
Life is what we all need. In our lost condition, we are dead toward God and cannot
know him. As Christians we will fall into the deadness of stale religion if we do not have a
continual supply of life flowing within. How we need life. How do we get it? By following
the example of this story in John. The first step is to admit our emptiness, like those
waterpots. As long as we think we can take care of our own problem, we will remain empty.
When we admit our emptiness, God can do something for us.
Then we can, like Mary, exercise faith. She told the servants to do whatever the Lord
Jesus said, expressing her faith in him. That is what we must do. We must do whatever Jesus
says. We must trust in him. When we do, he will put water into us, and that water is life, the
Holy Spirit. If we will let him fill us by yielding ourselves wholly to him, we will find that
the water is turned to wine. The life results in joy.
Philip told Nathanael, when the latter asked about the Lord Jesus, “Come and see.”
Nathanael came and saw, and he liked what he saw so much that he took Jesus home with
him. And look at the result. The Lord Jesus worked a miracle, and by it pictured the
abundant life he came to give. We all need to come to Jesus and see. And we all need to take
him home with us, to live in us, to cause the rivers of living water to flow in us, to turn that

water into wine in us. May he give us all the grace to admit our emptiness, to trust in him, to
take him into our hearts, to live for him. That is the secret of life, and of life abundant.

THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE

John 2.12-25

One of the major themes throughout John is the failure of Israel to live up to God’s
calling for her and the fulfillment of it by the Lord Jesus. Thus the Jewish background is very
important in the gospel of John. That is the case in this passage. Two elements of Judaism
form the background of this passage on the cleansing of the Temple, the Passover and the
Temple itself.
The Passover was the foundational festival of Judaism. It was at the first Passover that
the nation was born. Israel had been slaves in Egypt, but God redeemed them from slavery.
He also redeemed them from judgment. That is the very meaning of the word “Passover.”
All the firstborn of Egypt died that night, but when God, or the angel, saw the blood of the
lamb on the doorposts and lintels of the Jewish houses, he passed over them. Thus the nation
was born from slavery and through judgment into the liberty of God. That is why the
Passover was so meaningful to the Jews: it was the memorial to their deliverance from
slavery and their founding as a nation by the grace and mercy of God. Passover was one of
the two holiest days of the Jewish year, the other being the Day of Atonement.
It was against the background of this festival that the Lord Jesus came to Jerusalem
and to the Temple. The Temple was the holiest place in Judaism. Under such circumstances
one would expect to find a worshipful people giving thanks to God and sharing his glories
with one another, but what did the Lord Jesus find when he went to the Temple on this
holiest but one of days? A babel of commercial confusion.
That is the background of this story. On one of the holiest days and at the holiest site
in Judaism, Jesus found worship impossible for the noise of buying and selling going on
within the house of God. It is the Temple that dominates in this passage. The Passover will
come into more prominence a bit later, but it is the Temple as the house of God that governs
these verses. Thus we will concentrate on it at present. Let us now go through the passage
verse by verse and note a few facts about the situation, and then we will consider the
meaning.
12After these things he himself and his mother and his brothers and his disciples went
down to Capernaum, and there they stayed not many days. 13Now the Passover of the Jews
was near and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

V. 13 says that Passover was near and the Lord Jesus went up to Jerusalem. The
reason for this was that Jerusalem was the only place where Passover could be observed. Dt.
16.1-8 lays down this requirement, and it will be instructive to us to quote the entire passage:
Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover of I AM your God, because in
the month of Abib he brought you out of Egypt by night. Sacrifice as the Passover to I
AM your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place I AM will choose as a
dwelling for his Name. Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days
eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste – so that
all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt.
Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let
any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning.
You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town I AM your God gives you except in
the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the
Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of your
departure from Egypt
Jerusalem was the place God chose as the place for his Name to dwell, and there the
Temple was built as the outward symbol of his dwelling among his people. There it was that
every Jewish man was commanded to appear before the Lord three times a year, at Passover,
at the festival of Weeks (what we call Pentecost), and at the festival of Tabernacles. Thus it
was in keeping with the Jewish Law that the Lord Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the
Passover.
14And he found in the Temple those selling oxen and sheep and doves and the money
changers sitting.
In v. 14 we find the sellers of’ sacrificial animals and the money changers in the
Temple. These people were there to service those who traveled to Jerusalem from afar. After
the Exile, many Jews remained in Babylon, and many Jews had moved to all parts of the
known world. There were Jews in Egypt, in Rome, in Greece, in Asia Minor, in every known
place. Many traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. They were required to offer a
sacrificial animal to the Lord, and they were required to pay a Temple tax in the local
currency. It would have been a great inconvenience, almost an impossibility, for all these
travelers to bring an animal from distant places, and they would have to change their foreign
money into the local currency to pay the tax. So the sellers of animals went into business, and
those who changed money for a commission did likewise. There is nothing wrong with these
practices in themselves. Indeed, they were needful, but the Lord Jesus found them going on
in the Temple itself so that the worshippers could not concentrate on God for all the
distracting noise.

The Temple consisted of the most inward part, the Holy of Holies, where God dwelt,
then of the Holy Place, where the priests went to minister before the Lord, then of the
courtyard around these, where the altar of sacrifice and the laver were located. Here the
Jewish men brought their animals to be offered to God. Women were not allowed into this
part of the Temple area but they could worship just outside in the court of women. Beyond
this was the court of Gentiles, where non-Jews could worship God from afar. It was in this
court of Gentiles, almost certainly, that the animal sellers and money changers set up their
stalls and tables.
Is. 42.6 and 49.6 tell us that God called Israel to be a light to the nations. It was not
their calling to he better than other nations but to point them to God. What an irony then,
that the Jews allowed the court of Gentiles, the only place where Gentiles could approach
God, even though it was far off, to become a place of business where the accompanying noise
kept anyone from keeping his mind and heart on the Lord. There is nothing wrong with
business as such, but it is not right to use the house of God as a place of business to the
detriment of its intended purpose, meeting and worshipping God. [Note: God’s house now
is not a building, but his people (Eph. 2.19-22. Indeed, it was never a building. That was
symbolic.). “God speaks in a small whisper” (1 Kings 19.12). “Be still, and know that I am
God,” the Lord said through the psalmist (Ps. 46.10). How could anyone hear the Lord with
all the clamor of buying and selling and changing money going on? That is the situation the
Lord Jesus found when he arrived at the Temple.
15And having made a whip from ropes he drove all out from the Temple, and the sheep
and the oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned the
tables, 16and to those selling the doves he said, “Take these things from here. Do not make
my Father’s house a house of business.” 17His disciples remembered that it was written,
“Zeal for your house will consume me.” [Ps. 69.9]
Vs. 15 and 16 describe his reaction. Making a whip of ropes, he drove out the livestock
and he turned over the tables of the money changers. He commanded those who were doing
business to stop doing so in the house of his Father. It was to be a place where the small
whisper of God could be heard, not where the din of business drowned out all else.
This act of the Lord Jesus was a fulfillment of prophecy, indeed, of more than one
prophecy. Mal. 3.1-3 comes into view first:
“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly
the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you
desire, will come,” says I AM of hosts. “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can
stand when he appears? For he will he like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as
a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.
Then I AM will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness….”

John the Baptist was the messenger who prepared the way, then the Lord suddenly
came to his Temple, but his coming was not to exalt his people to lordship over the nations,
as they expected. His coming was in judgment that began at the house of God (see 1 Pt. 4.17).
That was how the Lord Jesus came to his Temple. He came and saw it full, not of worship,
but of business, and he judged it. Who could endure it? He was a refiner. Thus the Lord Jesus
fulfilled Mal. 3.1-3.
He also fulfilled Ps. 69.9. Ps. 69 is a messianic psalm, one of those psalms that contain
specific prophecies of the Lord Jesus that find fulfillment in the New Testament. Such is the
case with Ps. 69. V. 9 reads prophetically as though the Lord Jesus were speaking and saying
that “zeal for your house consumes me,” and Jn. 2.17 says that when this zeal was displayed
by his cleansing of the Temple, his disciples remembered the Old Testament prophecy.
18Then the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign do you show us that you do these
things?”
In v. 18, the Jews demanded that the Lord Jesus give them a sign that would validate
his action. That is, they demanded outward proof, what we would call scientific proof, that
he had authority to do what he did. They wanted some miracle that would be an open
revelation of God. It is ironic that John is the gospel of signs, and that the signs were
recorded by John so that people would have faith in the Lord Jesus, yet when the Jews asked
for a sign, they were denied one. The reason is that the signs were done and recorded to
awaken faith, but the demand for proof is not faith. It is just the opposite. The demand for
proof says that seeing is believing, but faith says that believing is seeing. The Bible says that
we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5.7). The Jews were unwilling to walk by faith, instead
demanding proof, and thereby revealing their lack of faith. Therefore no sign was given to
them.
Since we see opposition to the Lord Jesus by some of the leaders of the Jews beginning
to firm up in this passage, this might be a good place at which to say just a word about the
term “the Jews.” Because of the long history of anti-Semitism, culminating with Hitler and
the holocaust, and continuing up to this day, and with the current state of affairs in the
Middle East with Israel and her neighbors, there is much sensitivity among Jews of our days
to any statement made about “the Jews.” This applies to the New Testament as well as to
history and current events. Let us just say here that when the gospels use the term “the
Jews,” it does not mean every Jew who lived, but those religious leaders of the Jewish people
who so opposed Jesus, even when he did good works, such as his healings. They were
outraged when he healed on the Sabbath, thinking that such a good work should have
waited for another day, putting legal requirements ahead of people, for whose good the Law
was given to begin with (“the Sabbath was made for man,” Mk. 2.27). No, not every Jew was
a bad person, but there were bad Jews then as there are now, and there were bad people of

every race then, as there are now. We condemn no such group of people as a whole, nor any
individual simply because he is in that group. Indeed, we condemn not at all. That is God’s
prerogative. But we can recognize evil deeds, and it cannot be denied, if the New Testament
is true, that there were Jewish leaders who condemned Jesus and brought about his death,
the unjust death of an innocent man. But we must remember a couple of facts. One is that the
first Christians were all Jews, and all the writers of the New Testament were Jews, with the
probable exception of Luke and perhaps of the writer of Hebrews, who is unknown. This
includes John, the writer of this gospel. The second is that ultimately it was not the Jews, but
our sins, that took the Lord Jesus to death. If I want to know why Jesus died, all I have to do
is look into the mirror. So when the Scriptures, and we, say “the Jews,” we are not
condemning the race or saying that all the Jews in the New Testament were evil. Let each
one’s fruit speak for itself. And remember a third fact: the best friends Israel has in the world
today are conservative, Bible-believing Christians who know what the prophetic Scriptures
say about the Jews: they are still the people of God who will yet turn back to him and see
their nation restored to eternal peace and security, and to being the head and not the tail.
19Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it
up.”
Returning to our passage, let us note that the Lord Jesus did not say that he would
give them a sign. He said “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The sign
of his authority would be the resurrection, but the resurrection was not to occur for some
time yet, and he did not appear after the resurrection except to those had faith in him. Thus
the resurrection was not a sign to the Jews at all, but only another call for faith, faith which
they were unwilling to have.
This whole scene of the cleansing of the Temple and the encounter after it is very
judgmental in character. Jesus is really pronouncing by his act a word of judgment on the
Temple. It stands for the dwelling place of God among his people, but their hearts are far
from him. Thus the Temple is not what is it supposed to be and it comes under judgment.
20Then the Jews said, “This Temple was built in forty-six years and in three days you will
raise it up?” 21But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22When therefore he was
raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they had faith in the
Scripture and in the word which Jesus spoke.
The Jews revealed their complete lack of understanding of what the Lord Jesus was
saying in v. 20. They referred to the fact that it had taken forty-six years to build the Temple,
and expressed amazement that the Lord Jesus said he would raise it up in three days. They
could not, of course, grasp that he was referring to his body and to the resurrection. Probably
no one there could, but v. 22 tells us that after the resurrection his disciples remembered that

he had said this, and they had faith as a result. Is that not John’s purpose? He wrote the
gospel that we might have faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that having faith
we might have life. Thus John reveals in 2.22 that the greatest sign of them all is the
resurrection. That sign validates all that Jesus does, and it awakens faith in those who come
to know it.
It is of interest that the Lord referred to his body as a temple, a reminder that he was
the Tabernacle of the Old Testament come into living reality. The Temple was its successor in
Israel. As it was supposed to be the place in Israel where God dwelt among his people, so
was the Lord Jesus indeed the “place” in Israel where God dwelt. His is Emmanuel, God
with us.
23Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, at the festival, many had faith
into his name, seeing his signs which he was doing,

24but Jesus himself was not entrusting
himself to them because he knew all men, 25and because he had no need that anyone
should testify concerning man, for he himself knew what was in man.
Vs. 23-25 form a second paragraph in this passage. It does not deal with the cleansing
of the Temple, but it relates to it. In it we are told that many believed in the Lord Jesus
because of the signs that he did, but that he did not commit himself to them because he knew
what was in them. What is the meaning of these statements? If the purpose of the signs was
to awaken faith, why did the Lord Jesus hold himself back from those who believed because
of his signs?
It is because of what faith really is. We saw in our introductory chapter on John that
faith in the Bible is not mental belief, a function of the soul, but belief plus action based on
the belief, commitment to the Lord Jesus, a function of the spirit. These people saw miracles
worked by the Lord Jesus and could not deny that he had supernatural power. Thus they
believed, but it was a mental, superficial belief. They accepted it with their heads, but they
did not give their hearts to the Lord Jesus. They wanted the benefits of his miracle-working
power, but they did not want to pay the price of commitment to him, of relationship to him.
Jesus was on his way to the cross, and when he got there, all these crowds that adored him
were nowhere to be found. He knew that they believed with their heads, as the demons do
(Ja. 2.19), but that they had no commitment to him. Thus he did not commit himself to them.
He was looking for those who had heart-commitment to him, who would go to the cross
with him.
These verses relate to vs. 13-22 in that the latter deal with outward religious
observance as opposed to inward relationship with God. The Temple was the great symbol
of Jewish religion, yet it was all outward. They were the most religious people on earth, but
they had no inward relationship with God. They could go through all the religious
ceremonies with the strictest adherence to the rules, then go and cheat widows out of their
houses and contrive laws to enable grown children to keep their wealth instead of helping

their aged parents. Their religion was separate from their ethics. That, said the Lord Jesus,
comes under judgment, just as its symbol, the Temple, came under judgment. Vs. 23-25 deal
with the same problem. These people followed Jesus with enthusiasm as long as he was
dispensing outward benefits. When he came to the cross, when he called for an inward
relationship of commitment to him, they deserted. Jesus was looking for people who not
only offered sacrifice at the Temple, but whose hearts were God’s and who lived daily for
God.
With these thoughts in mind, let us turn now to a consideration of the meaning for us
of this incident of the cleansing of the Temple. What is the point of the passage? We have
seen that one of the main characteristics of the gospel of John is the spiritual nature of what
the Lord Jesus came to do. The Jewish Temple was supposed to be the house of God, but it
failed to be because the hearts of the Jews were far from God. A very instructive truth comes
to mind as we consider a few passages from the Old Testament. The first is Ex. 40.34-35,
verses that record what happened when the Israelites under Moses finished building the
Tabernacle: “Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of I AM filled the
Tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it,
and the glory of I AM filled the Tabernacle.”
The Tabernacle was to be the dwelling place of God among his people and his glory
was his presence. When they built the Tabernacle exactly as God had instructed them, his
glory, his presence, filled it, and he dwelt among them. What a marvelous experience for
those wandering people, to have God himself dwelling in their midst.
The thought is continued in 1 Kings 8.10-11. When the people had settled in the land
of promise and David had come to the throne, he began to have a burden that he lived in a
fine house while God still dwelt in a tent. His desire was to build a house for God. God
approved the idea of the house, but said that Solomon, David’s son, would build it, and so it
was. After the Temple was completed, 1 Kings 8.10-11 tells us, “When the priests withdrew
from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of I AM. And the priests could not perform
their service because of the cloud, for the glory of I AM filled his temple.”
The Israelites who built the Temple had the same experience as those who built the
Tabernacle. The glory of the Lord filled it. His presence came among them, and they were a
blessed people. God was in their midst.
The final passage that we need to see records what happened after the remnant of the
Jews returned from Babylonian exile and rebuilt the Temple. It is Ezra 6.15-18:
The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the
reign of King Darius. Then the people of Israel, the priests, the Levites and the rest of
the exiles celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy. For the dedication of
this house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred
male lambs and, as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, one for each of the
tribes of Israel. And they installed the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their

groups for the service of God at Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of
Moses.
What is missing? The glory of the Lord. The people rebuilt the Temple, but the glory
of the Lord did not come into it. His presence did not take abode in it. Why? Even though a
few men like Zerubbabel, Haggai, and Zechariah were obedient and genuinely had hearts for
God, the hearts of the majority, even of the priests, were far from God, as the prophecy of
Malachi, written about this time, shows. This Temple was an empty one. The presence of
God was not in it. And this was the Temple that Jesus cleansed. Herod had added to it and
made it a much more glorious building, but it was man’s glory, not God’s.
We learn from these Scriptures that the Jewish Temple failed to be what God wanted
it to be because of the hearts of the people. But the Lord Jesus fulfilled what the Temple was
supposed to be by bringing in a new, spiritual, Temple. Things were changing in the way
God related to men. Instead of continuing to require them to maintain a building in a city for
his presence and worship, he was changing the relationship to a spiritual one.
The new Temple that Jesus brought was first of all himself. Rev. 21.22 says, “And I did
not see a Temple in it, for the Lord God, the almighty, and the Lamb are its Temple.” Then
that Temple was his people. The Apostle Peter presents this truth to us in 1 Pt. 2.4-5. We
begin in the middle of a sentence: “ … to whom coming, a living Stone, rejected by men, but
with God, chosen, precious, you yourselves also as living stones be built a spiritual house for
a holy priesthood, to offer sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews saw the same truth in 3.6: Moses was faithful
as a servant in the house of God, “but Jesus as a Son over his house, whose house we are….”
Paul develops the same thought in Eph. 2.19-22:
Therefore you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow-subjects of the
saints and you are the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the head of the corner, in whom the
whole building being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom
you also are built into a house of’ God in spirit.
All of these passages show that God’s people are his Temple.
What is the Temple of God? It is his dwelling place among his people. But he now
dwells in the people spiritually, and since his dwelling place is the people, there is no further
need of a building. What we normally call a “church” is not a church at all. We usually mean
a building when we use the word, but the church is not a building. It is the people in whom
God dwells. People often call a building the house of God. It is not the house of God. It may
be where the house of God meets (or it may not), but it is not the house of God. God’s house
is his people. The church is two or more believers gathered in the name of Christ. It does not
matter where they gather. The church is spiritual. This new Temple is one aspect of the

change that came in with the Lord Jesus. He took the failed Jewish Temple and fulfilled it
spiritually in himself and in his people.
What is the constituting factor of this new, spiritual, Temple? It is what John is all
about. It is the Lord Jesus himself, his life, the resurrection life of Jesus. He said, “Destroy this
temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The old physical Temple was under judgment
and was destroyed, and has remained that way for almost 2000 years now. But Jesus said
that even though the physical building was destroyed, it did not matter, for the temple of his
body, destroyed in death, would be raised up into resurrection life, and that is the basis of
the new, spiritual relationship of God with his people. It is life, never-ending life, God’s life.
In the last chapter we referred to 2 Cor. 3.6-9, where we saw that the ministry of the
Law was a ministry of death because no one could keep it. The old Temple was based on that
Law, that ministry of death, and of course it never brought life to the Jews, and it ended in
the destruction of the Temple itself. But the new Temple is based on life, and not just life but
indestructible life because it is life from the dead. It is a raised-up Temple. Life is what the
gospel of John is all about, and Jesus says that he is raising up a new, spiritual Temple based
on life. That is the place to find life, but it is not a place. It is a Person and a people.
Do you want life? Then come into the new Temple, to the Lord Jesus and his people.
Have you already come and found life? Then dwell there and find that life increasing. As
you come into the Lord Jesus, he will come into you, and you will find that you become the
dwelling place of God where our Lord Jesus is one among many brothers (Heb. 2.10-11),
though Lord of all.
So we see that the cleansing of the Temple by the Lord Jesus was not really a
cleansing, for they went right back to what they were doing when he left, but an acted-out
word of judgment. When he said, “Destroy this temple,” he referred to his body, but he
could have referred to the building also. The building was not raised up, because it was
under judgment. His body was, and it became the new, spiritual Temple, and it includes all
who have faith in him. With this act, the Lord Jesus prophesied the coming of the dwelling of
God among his people by dwelling in them spiritually. May the Lord give us grace to be
built into that house of God that we might be a fit dwelling place for him. Lord, hasten the
day when your glory fills this Temple.
Austin-Sparks says of this truth that the Temple was the Jewish background of this
passage in John, but the Lord Jesus is the Temple in this new age. People thought they would
meet God in the Temple. “Men will meet God in Christ in a way more real than that….
Christ is our Temple, and in Him we find all that a temple was ever intended to be…. People
gathered into Jesus Christ constitute the temple of God. It is not a special building, but a
people who are in Christ Jesus.” (The On-High Calling, II, pgs. 7-8)

54
THE NEW BIRTH
John 3.1-21

The purpose of the good news according to John is that we may have life, and the
passage before us now, 3.1-21, tells us how to get life. Of course, the life John refers to is
spiritual, eternal life. We are told how to get this life in the context of the well-known story of
Nicodemus, and the passage contains the best-known verse and perhaps the clearest
statement of the gospel in the Bible, Jn. 3.16.
1Now there was a man of the Pharisees whose name was Nicodemus, a ruler of the
Jews. 2This one came to him by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you have
come from God, a Teacher, for no one is able to do these signs that you do except God be
with him.
John tells us that Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews. The Pharisees
were one of the Jewish parties of that day. The Sadducees were primarily priestly and
consisted largely of the economically well off. The Herodians were Jews who collaborated
with the Roman rule of Israel. The Pharisees were the party of the Law, the five books of
Moses, and the tradition they had built up around it. They were the strict legalists. As such,
Nicodemus would have been very knowledgeable of the Scriptures.
As a ruler of the Jews, he was probably a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling and
Judicial council of the Jews. Though they were under the sovereignty of Rome, the Sanhedrin
had some power and constituted the highest body in Judaism. Nicodemus was a man of
importance.
We are told little else about Nicodemus. He is mentioned outside this passage only in
Jn. 7.50 and 19.39. In the first verse, we find him standing up for the Lord Jesus in a sense.
The chief priests and Pharisees were wanting to arrest Jesus, but Nicodemus asked if their
Law condemned a man without hearing his side of the story. That brought a measure of
wrath down onto his own head. Then in 19.39, Nicodemus helps Joseph of Arimathea with
the burial of the Lord. These two passages give us reason to think that Nicodemus
responded to the message of the Lord Jesus in Jn. 3 and became a man of faith in Jesus.
This man Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus by night. We do not know if he came by
night out of fear. It could have been risky for anyone to associate with Jesus. He had just
offended the Jewish religious establishment by cleansing the Temple. Perhaps this was the
reason, or perhaps Nicodemus came at night for the practical reason of having a busy
schedule during the day. Whatever the reason, it seems that John does not just intend to
inform us of the time of day, but also to use the term “night” symbolically to show that
Nicodemus was in spiritual darkness, as the passage reveals.
Even though he was in spiritual darkness, Nicodemus saw something in the Lord
Jesus that needed investigation. In his greeting of Jesus, he referred to his signs. The signs,

we have seen, signify: they point to something beyond themselves. Nicodemus was not able
to comprehend what it was they pointed to, but he knew they pointed to something and he
wanted to find out what it was. That is certainly an admirable trait for a person to have.
None of us will ever know all there is to know about the Lord Jesus, but we can go to him
nonetheless and begin a relationship of coming to know him that will never end.
Nicodemus called Jesus Rabbi. This Hebrew word literally means “great one.” In
Judaism it was primarily applied by a disciple to his teacher, and thus “teacher” is its
practical meaning. Since the Law and the tradition were so important in Judaism, it was the
common practice for there to be teachers who passed these along to the next generation.
These learned rabbis would gather a group of promising students and teach them the Law
and the tradition that had been developed to interpret and protect it. When Nicodemus
called Jesus Rabbi, he was in effect calling him teacher, and indeed he uses the word
“teacher” of Jesus to interpret the word “Rabbi” in the same breath.
3
Jesus answered and said to him, “Amen, amen I say to you, except one be born from
above he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be
born being an old man? Can he enter into the womb of his mother a second time and be
born? No.” 5

Jesus answered, “Amen, amen I say to you, except one be born of water and

the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Since Nicodemus called the Lord Jesus teacher, the Lord took advantage of the
opportunity to teach him spiritual things. He began by telling Nicodemus about the new
birth. He said that it was necessary to be born from above in order to see the kingdom of
God. The kingdom was of the greatest importance to the Jews. The Old Testament is full of
promises of a coming kingdom of God in Israel that will never end. The Jews were the
people of God and could not understand why they were allowed by God to be ruled by the
hated, godless Romans. Their fondest hope was the appearance of the Messiah who would
deliver them and re-establish the sovereignty of Israel under the kingdom of God. It was
against this background of the longing of Israel for a return to national glory that Jesus told
Nicodemus that the new birth was necessary for seeing the kingdom.
Nicodemus could not understand this. Not having a grasp of spiritual truth, he took
Jesus to mean a second physical birth. Along with this, his conception of the kingdom of God
was entirely earthly. He envisioned a return of Israel to the glory of an earthly kingdom. The
point of Jesus is that the kingdom of God is not earthly at all, but spiritual, though it will
eventually encompass the earth, and thus it is necessary to be born into a new realm entirely
in order to be a part of that kingdom. Alford puts it well: “It is not learning, but life, that is
wanted for the Messiah’s Kingdom; and life must begin by birth.”
This idea of the kingdom is of great importance in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Because
of its importance in the Old Testament and in Jewish thinking, those gospel writers deal with
it at length and mention it dozens of times. It is of great interest, then, that John uses the

word “kingdom” only three times, here in 3.3 and 5 and in 13.36. The last verse occurs in the
record of the appearance of the Lord Jesus before Pilate and confirms what we have written
about the spiritual nature of the kingdom of God, for there the Lord tells Pilate that his
kingdom is not of this world.
We do not know why John refers so little to the kingdom when it is of such great
importance in the Old Testament and the other gospels. It is thought that John wrote his
gospel at a much later date than the others. If that is the case, then the reason for John’s
omission of the idea of the kingdom probably has to do with the delay of the return of Christ.
After the ascension of the Lord Jesus, the first Christians possibly expected his return to
establish the kingdom at any minute. By the time John wrote, though the expectation of the
return of Christ had not faded away, nonetheless it had become needful to be prepared for
either eventuality, his return or his further delay. While not giving up belief in the second
coming, John emphasizes the latter, the means of living out the life God has given in the
absence of the return of the Lord Jesus. The chief issue in John is life. He is dealing with how
to get spiritual life and how to live it out in this world. That is one possible reason that the
kingdom as such has such a small place in John.
Another, and perhaps more likely reason, is that John was not written to set forth the
life and teaching of the Lord Jesus as much as to deal with his divinity and with the issue of
gaining eternal life by faith in him. There certainly are biographical material and much
teaching, but they are given for a purpose beyond themselves: life by faith. The Lord Jesus is
not just a man, but the divine Son of God become man and the only one in whom eternal life
is available.
Even though the kingdom is not a major concept in John, the Lord Jesus knew that it
was important to Nicodemus, and that is why he referred to it and why he taught
Nicodemus that if he were to see the kingdom, he must he born from above. This matter of
the new birth is of such vital importance that we do well to spend some time considering it.
The first thing we should say about it is that it is a birth from above. The Greek word
translated “again” means both “again” and “from above,” and there is no way to tell which
meaning the Lord Jesus or John had in mind. In all likelihood Jesus meant both. His real idea
was that a person must be born from above, that is, receive life from Heaven. Such a birth
from above would be a second birth, a being born again.
What does it mean to be born from above? We are born into this material world with
physical life and we function in it by means of physical senses and activity. We have sight,
hearing, smell, taste, and touch by which we perceive the physical world, and we have
bodies that act in it. This life that we have is received physically from our parents. But the
Bible teaches that there is also a spiritual realm where eternal life is lived out, and if we are to
enter into eternal life, we must enter into that realm. Just as the entrance into physical life is
by birth, so is the entrance into spiritual life. Instead of getting life from the earth, from our
parents, we get life from Heaven. We get life from God.

Hand in hand with this truth that the new birth is from above is the fact that the new
birth is a spiritual birth. We have mentioned this already in dealing with the matter of faith,
and now we must draw it out. To do so, we must point out a truth of Scripture that Satan has
managed to obscure, even from many Christians, but one that is absolutely vital to victorious
living and the full realization of the purposes of God. That truth is that we are body, soul,
and spirit. The common teaching and belief are that we are body, the physical part, and soul,
the immaterial, eternal part. That is not what the Bible says. It says that we are body, soul,
and spirit, and it is of great importance that we understand this.
The body is the physical part, but the word “soul” in the Bible does not mean what we
usually use it to mean. That is spirit. The spirit is the essence of the person, the part that is
able to know God and to function in the spiritual realm. What is the soul? The Greek word
for soul is psuche, from which we get psychology, and that is exactly what the soul is. It is the
psychological aspect of man, the mind, emotions, and will. It is the personality. It is of great
interest that Gen. 2.7 says that God made man from the dust of the ground and then
breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living soul. The physical body was
made from the earth. The breath of God imparts spirit. The result of the coming together of
these two is the soul, the personality. A dead body does not have personality. It
communicates nothing and does nothing. But a living body has personality. It may be a good
or a bad personality but it has it. It may be introverted or extroverted, morose, melancholy,
or jovial, but it has personality. It has a soul, a psychology.
God is spirit, and the realm he inhabits is spiritual. If we are to know him, we must
inhabit that realm as well. Because of sin, though, we have a problem. That problem is that
we are dead toward God. In Eph.2.1, Paul says that before the new birth, we are dead in
trespasses and sins. What does that mean? It does not mean that we are physically dead, for
our bodies are very much alive and indulging in sin. It does not mean that our souls are
dead, for our minds, emotions, and wills are active. It means that our spirits are dead toward
God. We cannot know him or relate to him or participate in spiritual things. That is our
problem.
What is the answer? The answer is for our spirits to be made alive, and that is what
the Lord Jesus is getting at in Jn. 3 when he says that we must be born from above. The new
birth is a spiritual birth, the coming of the Holy Spirit into our dead spirits to make them
alive toward God. That is a technical definition of what it means for a person to become a
Christian.
This need for the entrance of the Holy Spirit into our spirits raises another problem,
though. The Holy Spirit is a consuming fire, devouring all that is sinful, and we are sinful. If
the Holy Spirit were to enter our spirits, we would be destroyed because we are sinful. What
is the answer to that problem? There is not one, from our standpoint. We are helpless and
can do nothing about our own sin. We have offended God and deserve nothing but
judgment, and we have no means of atoning for our sins. But the Lord Jesus gives the answer
in Jn. 3.5 when he mentions being born of water and the Spirit. That statement has puzzled

interpreters of the Bible for centuries. Some have taken the birth by water to mean physical
birth. That is, one cannot be born of the Spirit until he has been born physically. Others have
taken it to refer to baptism. When we remember, though, that Scripture is the best interpreter
of Scripture, the answer is simple. Let us read Ezek. 36.24-27:
For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring
you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be
clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give
you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of
stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to
follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Now let us read Titus 3.4-7:
But when the kindness and love for man of our Savior, God, were revealed, not from
works that are in righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy he
saved us through washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he
poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his
grace we might be made heirs according to hope of eternal life.
Both of these passages refer to washing and the subsequent entrance of the Holy
Spirit, and that shows us what the Lord Jesus means by being born of water and the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit cannot enter our spirits without destroying us because we are in sin, but if
the sin can be dealt with, he can come in. That is exactly what the good newsl is. Jesus died
for our sins, making possible forgiveness for all who trust in him. Our sins have been dealt
with. They are washed away. They are cleansed away. Water is a cleansing agent. This being
born of water and the Spirit is not two separate births. It is all one process. When we trust in
Jesus Christ, all at once our sins are washed away and the Holy Spirit comes into our dead
spirits and makes them alive. It is all one new birth. It is a spiritual birth, the coming alive
toward God of the human spirit, the introduction of the person into the spiritual realm, just
as his physical birth introduced him into the material world.
6That having been born of the flesh is flesh and that having been born of the Spirit is
spirit. 7Don’t marvel that I said to you, you must be born from above.
We should next ask why this spiritual birth is necessary. We have already seen the
answer to this question indirectly in dealing with the spiritual nature of this birth, but we
need to add to what we have already seen. We need the new birth because of what Jesus said
in Jn. 3.6: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit.” We inhabit two worlds, the material one which we perceive with our five senses, and

the spiritual. We are born physically into the material world, and we are able to operate in it
by means of our bodies. We see, hear, smell, taste, and feel physical things, our minds make
decisions based on what we perceive, our emotions and wills influence those decisions, and
our bodies carry out the instructions of our minds. This is all well and good. The problem is
that the spiritual world controls the material and most of us are not even aware that the
spiritual world exists. People scoff at the idea of spirits and demons and all that. They may
believe in God, but they have no concept of an entire spiritual realm.
But the Bible teaches that there is a spiritual realm inhabited by God, Satan, the
angels, the demons, and the spirits of people who have died physically. Furthermore, this
material world that we live in has come under the control of Satan, the ruler of this world (Jn.
12.31), the god of this age (2 Cor. 4.4), and he has it organized against God. Dan 10.13 speaks
of the prince of the kingdom of Persia who resisted the angel sent to answer Daniel’s prayer.
That prince was not the human king of Persia, but the wicked spirit put in charge of Persia
by Satan. In Eph. 6.12, Paul says that our warfare is not against flesh and blood, “but against
the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-powers of this darkness, against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.” Satan has the spiritual realm organized against God,
and that spiritual realm controls what goes on in this material world, under God’s
sovereignty, of course. The problem we face is that we are physical beings who inhabit a
physical world, but our enemy is spiritual. How can we overcome an enemy that we cannot
see, and whom we could not harm physically if we could see? That which is born of the flesh
is flesh and cannot operate in the spiritual world. It cannot even see it, smell it, feel it, taste it,
or touch it! That is why the new birth is necessary. Unless we are born spiritually, unless we
are born into this spiritual realm, we cannot know God and we cannot combat our spiritual
enemy, at least not as fully.
Paul sheds more light on this matter in 1 Cor. 2.14, where he writes, “The natural man
does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he is not
able to know, for they are spiritually judged.” It is highly instructive to us that the Greek
word translated “natural” is psuchikos. Do you remember the word for “soul” mentioned
above? It is psuche. While the word “natural” is a correct meaning of the Greek word, it
misses a vital point. This word psuchikos really means “soulish.” It refers to the man, who has
not been born from above, whose spirit is still dead toward God, and who is thus limited to
body and soul. God made man with the intention that the spirit of the man, under the
sovereignty of the Holy Spirit, rule his person, but when man sinned his spirit died, leaving
his soul, his mind, emotions, and will, with the task of ruling the person. But the soul was
never made by God to rule, and that is the source of so much of the trouble in the world
today. People are trying to cope on the basis of their own intelligence or will power and
living by their feelings without being in touch, through their spirits, with the Spirit of God
who has the answers to life. The soulish man, the man whose spirit is dead, cannot know the
things of God. He cannot know anything about the spiritual realm or operate successfully in
it. [There are those who are able to operate spiritually under possession by demons, but that

is another matter entirely from what we are dealing with here.] Yet the spiritual realm is
where the real action is. That is where Satan is controlling what is going on even in this
material world. The person who cannot operate in that realm is easy prey for Satan. Indeed,
he has deceived virtually the whole world and has its people on a mad rush to hell without
their even knowing it. That is why the new birth is necessary. From the positive standpoint,
it is the only way to God, who is spirit, and to enjoy him, and from the negative, it is the only
way to learn to deal with our spiritual enemy. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
We need to understand further that this new birth is not the decision of the old man to
do better. It is not the reformation of the flesh. It is the introduction of a whole new life into a
person, the life of God, and it is the beginning of the end of the flesh. It is not the plan of God
to reform our flesh, but to put it to death. By flesh, we do not mean the physical flesh, but
what the Bible means by the term, the self-centered nature of man. Flesh is simply self. The
Bible teaches that we all have a self-problem. We all want to live for ourselves in opposition
to God, and this desire can be so subtle that it can even take the form of serving God. It can
try to use God to satisfy it own desires. Self can be very religious. But Jesus said that the flesh
profits nothing (Jn. 6.63). It is of no use to God, and indeed is opposed to him. Thus the plan
of God, once a person has been born from above, is to begin to apply the cross to the flesh.
The cross is an instrument of death. God works to put self-centeredness to death that his own
life may increase and flourish in a person. That is the meaning of the words of the Lord Jesus
in Mark 8.34: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me.” Thus when one is born from above, far from that being the reformation of
the flesh, it is the beginning of putting the flesh to death.
We noted earlier in passing that God made man with the intention that his spirit
would rule his person. His plan was that man’s spirit would be filled with the Spirit of God,
and that under the leading of the Holy Spirit, the human spirit would direct the person in the
right way. When man sinned, his spirit died, and so man has had to live under the rulership
of the soul, of his own intellect, will power, and emotions. But the soul is an incompetent
ruler, never designed by God for that position. Thus people’s lives are filled with problems,
and the world, under the direction of self-centered men who at worst rule for their own
benefit and at best do the best they can with a human intellect unenlightened by the Spirit of
God, and unknowingly doing the bidding of Satan, is beset with insoluble problems. The
new birth is intended by God to begin the process by which the spirit of a person gains
ascendancy over his soul. It is a battle, for though the soul, the self, is an incompetent ruler, it
nonetheless wants to hold onto the throne for its own advantage. That is the source of the
conflict within that all Christians feel between wanting to serve God and wanting to have
their own way. Soul, self, is trying to hold on to rulership. God is trying to displace it with a
spirit ruled by his Spirit. The new birth starts this process, and if we go on with the Lord, we
will find that more and more our own intelligence, emotions, and wills cease to have control,
and something within that we know intuitively is from God begins to have sway. We begin

to live by the word of God, and by that small whisper within, instead of by our own
reasonings and selfish desires. That is the process begun by the new birth. The flesh is being
put to death and the life of God is increasing within. And the beauty of this process is that in
the end, the one who gives up his soul to this process of death will find that he has gained it
eternally (Mark 8.35, 1 Peter 1.9). God’s method is life out of death. If we will submit to his
application of the cross to our self-life, we will ultimately find that our selves have been
purged of selfishness and filled with the eternal love and life of God. God is able to raise
even from the dead.
The final statement we should make about this passage on the new birth is that it is
not just an evangelistic passage. Christians have largely left these verses to the evangelists
who tell lost people that they cannot get to Heaven without being born again. That is
certainly true and should be preached, and this is without doubt a great evangelistic passage,
but it is so much more. It is not just for the evangelist. It is not the desire of God that we be
born again and then go about our business in this material world until time to go to Heaven.
The purpose of the new birth is not just to get us to Heaven, though it is that, but also to
enable us to operate in the spiritual realm now. We have already seen that our enemy is
spiritual. We must learn to deal with him spiritually if we are to prevail, but we cannot do
that unless we are born spiritually. The work that God is doing in our age is primarily
spiritual. The whole point of the Lord Jesus in Jn. 3.3 and 5 and 18.36 is that his kingdom is
not of this world. It is spiritual, and unless one has a spiritual birth, he cannot operate in the
kingdom of God now or see it ever. If we are to be victorious in this life, let alone eternity, we
must learn to deal with spiritual matters, but we cannot do that without being born into the
spiritual world. We must be born from above, not just to get to Heaven, but to live this life
successfully.
Nicodemus represents the old Israel after the flesh. He was born into it physically.
Jesus came to bring in a new, spiritual Israel, and one is born into it as well. That birth is
spiritual.
8The wind blows where it will and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it
comes from or where it goes. So is everyone having been born of the Spirit.”
In Jn. 3.8, Jesus says that the Spirit of God is like the wind. He blows when and where
he will. No one can control him. That is, it is the job of the Holy Spirit to convict of sin and
bring a person to Jesus. He does this when he is ready. A person does not decide when he
will deal with God and get saved. It is the other way. God decides when he will deal with a
person. If that person resists the Spirit of God, he may not get another chance. It is vital that
we respond positively to the Spirit while he is moving. We cannot control his coming and
going, and he may not come again. And this applies to Christians as well as lost people. The
Holy Spirit deals with Christians about matters in their lives that need to be cleared up
before God. If they resist, the Spirit may move on from that matter and never come back to it,

to the eternal loss of the Christian. Yes, it is possible for Christians to suffer spiritual loss.
They will make it to Heaven, but they will lose something for having resisted the dealings of
the Spirit. Paul makes this clear in 1 Cor. 3.12-15, a passage which the reader should study
prayerfully. The point of Jn. 3.8 is that we should not resist the Spirit when he comes. We
cannot control him and make him come again. He is like the wind, blowing where it will.
9Nicodemus answered and said to him, “How can these things be?” 10Jesus answered and
said to him, “You are the teacher of Israel and you don’t know these things? 11Amen, amen
I say to you, what we know we speak and what we have seen we testify of, and you don’t
receive our testimony. 12If I told you eathly things and you don’t have faith, how if I tell
you heavenly things will you have faith? 13And no one has ascended into Heaven except
the one having descended from Heaven, the Son of Man.
Vs. 9-12 of Jn. 3 show the spiritual darkness that Nicodemus and Judaism were in. The
Jews were the people of God, with all the history with God that the Old Testament records.
Nicodemus was a ruler of this people and a student of their Law, yet he had no concept of
spiritual things. He simply did not know what Jesus was talking about.
In replying to the question of Nicodemus, “How can these things be?” the Lord Jesus
used the term “heavenly things.” This shows the spiritual nature of what Jesus came to do, a
major aspect of the good news according to John. What Jesus came for is not of this world,
but of Heaven. He came to bring the rule of Heaven over earth. He came to show that what
had been revealed to Israel, the earthly people of God, was a picture, a copy, of spiritual
reality.
Having revealed to Nicodemus that there are spiritual things, beginning with the new
birth, the Lord Jesus then went on to speak of two such matters. The first occurs in v. 13:
“And no one has ascended into Heaven except the one who descended from Heaven, the Son
of Man.” What is the meaning of these mysterious words? They were spoken before the
death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus, so what did he mean by
indicating that he had already ascended into Heaven? In order to understand this verse, we
must read its Old Testament background, a long passage, Dt. 30.1-14:

When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and
you take them to heart wherever I AM, your God, disperses you among the nations,
and when you and your children return to I AM, your God, and obey him with all
your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then
I AM, your God, will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and
gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if you have been
banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there I AM, your God, will
gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your
fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and

numerous than your fathers. I AM, your God, will circumcise your hearts and the
hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all
your soul, and live. I AM, your God, will put all these curses on your enemies who
hate and persecute you. You will again obey I AM and follow all his commands I am
giving you today. Then I AM, your God, will make you most prosperous in all the
work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and
the crops of your land. I AM will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just
as he delighted in your fathers, if you obey I AM, your God, and keep his commands
and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to I AM, your God, with
all your heart and with all your soul.
Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond
your reach. It is not up in Heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into
Heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so
that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may
obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you
may obey it.
This passage is quoted by Paul in Rom. 10.6-10:
But the righteousness from faith speaks thus, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will
ascend into Heaven?’ that is, to bring Christ down, or ‘Who will descend into the
abyss?’ that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.” But what does it say? “The word is
near you, in your mouth and in your heart,” which is the word of faith that we preach.
For if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and have faith in your heart that
God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one has faith into
righteousness, but with the mouth he confesses into salvation.
The point is that what the Law promised, the blessing of God, but could not deliver
because it could not empower weak men, the Lord Jesus did spiritually. Moses knew exactly
what Israel should do and told them, but the Law he gave them imparted no power for its
keeping. In the end it only revealed their inability to keep it and their need of something else.
But now, because the Lord Jesus has made the way, if we trust him in our hearts and confess
him with our mouths, we experience the new birth and the Spirit of God begins to dwell
within us to enable us from within to please God. We could not keep the outward Law
because of our weakness. Now we have the power of God dwelling in us.
Acts 2.32-36 helps us further:
This Jesus God raised, of whom we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the
right hand of God and receiving the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he
poured out this which you see and hear. For David did not ascend into Heaven, but

he says, “The Lord said to my Lord. ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a
footstool for your feet.’” Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God
has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
What we needed all along was the new birth, the coming of the Holy Spirit, but he
could not come because of our sins. But now the Lord Jesus has dealt with our sins and,
having ascended into Heaven and received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he
has poured him out on us. What the Law could not do, the Lord Jesus has done. He has put
the power within.
But there is more. This ascending of Jesus into Heaven to pour out the Holy Spirit in
new birth came, in time, after his death, burial, and resurrection. But Jesus implied in Jn. 3.13
that he had already ascended into Heaven during his earthly life. How are we to explain that
statement? We find the answer in Eph. 1.3 and 20 and 26:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one blessing us with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ….
… Which worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right
hand in the heavenlies….
… And raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenlies in Christ
Jesus….
Paul tells us that not only is Jesus seated in the heavenlies with God, but we are also
seated there with him. That is, we are able to live what we might call the ascended life. The
point of Jn. 3.13 is that Jesus lived this ascended life during his earthly life. While he was still
in the flesh on the earth, he ascended into Heaven. What does this mean?
It means that instead of living on earth trying to get to Heaven, the Lord Jesus lived
by faith in Heaven while he lived physically on earth. He always lived in the presence of
God. He always heard what God was saying to him. He always drew on the power of God to
deal with the situations he found himself in. In short, he lived a victorious life because he
knew that the secret of it was not to live from the earth calling on Heaven but in the presence
of God, applying Heaven to earth. He lived the ascended life, seated by faith at the right
hand of God. Thus, as Jn. 3.13 puts it, while he was living physically on earth as a man, he
was spiritually constantly ascending into Heaven and taking from Heaven back to earth
what needed to be applied to an earthly situation.
How was he able to do this when he had not yet gone to the cross for sin and made
the way for man to Heaven? He was able to do so because he had indeed already gone to the
cross. The physical going to the cross by the Lord Jesus at a certain point in history was not
an isolated act. Rev. 13.8 tells us that the Lord Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. That means that in principle the Lord Jesus laid down his life, he went to the cross
in his heart, in eternity past. When he came to the earth as a man, the issue of the cross was

already a settled one, and had been from eternity. Because he had already died to himself
and lived only for God, he was able to live on this earth as a man in all the good of his death
on the cross, his resurrection, and his ascension. He already had resurrection life within,
even though he still had a fleshly body. He already lived the ascended life in his spirit even
though he had not yet ascended bodily to Heaven.
There are two points to all this. The first is that the Lord Jesus did what Moses
commanded in Dt. 30. Moses had said that what God required was not up in Heaven or
down in the abyss so that someone had to go and get it, but was simply a matter of heart
faith and mouth confession. That was true, but the Law was powerless to effect this because
it could do nothing about the sins of man. The Lord Jesus was able as a man to ascend by
faith into Heaven and bring to earth what man needed to enable him to do what Moses was
talking about, to bring the Holy Spirit. He was able to descend into the abyss and come up
again from the dead, doing what man needed but could not do for himself, conquering
death.
The second point is that we can live in the good of this. Jesus lived the ascended life as
a man, on earth, but he did it not for himself, but to make the way for us and to show us the
way. He is seated at the right hand of God in the heavenlies, but so are we, as we saw in the
quotations from Ephesians. From God’s standpoint, we already have all that Christ came and
died for, including residence in the presence of God. The vital need is that we learn to lay
hold of this truth by faith and live it out practically. We are still on the earth physically, but
spiritually we are in Christ in the heavenlies and can live the ascended life, just as the Lord
Jesus did, applying all the victory of Heaven to our lives on earth. That is the first “heavenly
thing” that the Lord Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about.
14And as Moses lifed up the snake in the wilderness, so it is necessary for the Son of Man
to be lifted up, 15that everyone having faith in him may have eternal life.
The second “heavenly thing” comes in vs. 14-15. There the Lord Jesus recalled the
incident of the bronze snake recorded in Num. 21.4-9. Israel, traveling through the desert,
became impatient with the journey and tired of the food God provided and complained
against God and Moses. As a judgment, God sent fiery snakes among them, and many were
bitten and died. Then they confessed their sin and cried out to Moses for help. God
instructed Moses to make a bronze image of a fiery snake and put it on a pole. All who were
bitten could look at the snake and live.
The Lord Jesus interpreted this story to Nicodemus, showing him the spiritual
meaning of it. The bronze snake in the Old Testament pointed to something else. It saved
only the physical life for a time. All those who were spared by looking at it eventually died
anyway. But the bronze snake pictures one who saves spiritually and eternally (Heb. 7.25).
Bronze is a symbol of judgment in the Bible, for it is a metal made in fire. The snake pictures
Satan, so the bronze snake symbolizes Satan and sin judged. Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 5.21 that

the Lord Jesus became sin for us and bore the judgment of our sin. Thus he fulfills the picture
of the bronze snake. He became sin judged. All who look to him will live. Of course, looking
to him is not some magic act. It is what the Bible means by faith, a heart committal to the
Lord Jesus (Heb. 12.2).
In Num. 21, the people spoke against God and Moses, saying, “And we detest this
miserable food.” They hated the bread God provided. Yet God himself provided a way of
escape from the judgment that resulted. Jn. 6.35 tells us that the Lord Jesus is the bread God
has provided. The Jews of his day despised him, saying, “We do not want this one to be king
over us” (Luke 19.14). “We have no king but Caesar” (Jn. 19.15). Yet God himself provided a
way of escape from judgment for those who despised and killed Jesus by lifting him up on a
cross as a bronze snake, as sin judged. What love God has, even for his enemies. That is the
second “heavenly thing” that Jesus taught Nicodemus.
Austin-Sparks, in The On-High Calling, Vol. II, points out that the Jewish background
of all of this is that Nicodemus is a representative of Israel, but it is the old Israel. It is passing
away and is being replaced by the new Israel that God in Christ is bringing into existence.
True Israel now is not that which is the physical seed of Abraham, but the spiritual seed of
God. “The new Israel of this dispensation is the Israel of the ‘born from above’ ones. These
are not the sons of Abraham, but sons of God.” (pgs. 8-9)
Also, Austin-Sparks deals with the bronze snake on pgs. 10-12. He refers to the
passage noted above, Num. 21.4-9, and points out the complaining against God, and says
that this passage is the Jewish background of the statement by the Lord Jesus about the
bronze snake. The manna given by God for the people to eat was a type of the Lord Jesus as
the bread of life. Austin-Sparks writes, “The people of Israel said, ‘We loathe this vile
bread’,,, and you can hear the Jews say in Christ’s day speaking like that: ‘We hate this man!’
That was their spirit.” Then he adds that “In using this bit of the Old Testament, the Lord
Jesus was only saying, ‘I am going to be made a curse for you. When I am lifted up, I shall
bear your judgment upon Myself. I shall carry your sins in My body on the tree.”
Then Austin-Sparks points out that this passage is followed by Jn. 3.16, and that the
“for” that begins that verse says that Jn. 3.16 gives the reason why the Lord Jesus bore our
sins and judgment: “For God so loved….” That is why he was lifed up.
16For God so loved [agapao] the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that everyone
having faith into him may not perish but may have eternal life.
Jn. 3.16 is the best-known verse in the Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten Son, that everyone who has faith into him should not perish but have
eternal life.” As just noted, this verse is the real explanation of Jn. 3.13-15. Why did the Lord
Jesus, enjoying all the glories of Heaven and oneness with his Father, descend to this sinful
world? Why did he become sin for us and suffer the judgment of sin, being lifted up on a

cross? “For God so loved….” That is why he did it. Simply because God loves us. Not much
explanation of Jn. 3.16 is needed. It is such a simple, wonderful statement of the good news.
Not only does this verse reveal to us the love of God, but it shows us how to come into
the good of it. “Everyone who has faith.” We know the life of God now and eternally by faith
in the Lord Jesus, and we have already seen that faith in the Bible is not the mental assent of
belief but a spiritual commitment to Jesus. He gave himself for us. If we give ourselves to
him, that is faith and the result is life, God’s life, eternal life.
17For God did not send the Son into the world that he might judge the world, but that the
world might be saved through him. 18The one having faith into him is not judged, but the
one not having faith has been judged already, because he has not had faith in the only
begotten Son of God.
Even though God loves the world so much that he himself made the way of escape
from judgment even though he was the offended party, not everyone enjoys the benefits of
his provision. It is still possible to perish, but that is not the will of God, as v. 17 shows. The
purpose of the coming of the Lord Jesus was not to judge the world. It was already under
judgment. He came to save it from that judgment. But v. 18 shows that a choice must be
made. The Lord Jesus provided life for everyone, but not everyone lays hold of that life. We
quoted Dt. 30.1-14 above in connection with Jn. 3.13. Now we need to finish that chapter, for
it provides background for this statement of Jesus that a choice must be made:

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I
command you today to love I AM, your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his
commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and I AM, your God,
will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and
you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and
worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will
not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I
call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and
death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live
and that you may love I AM, your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For
the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to
your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Choose life! That is the issue of the good news in John. That is why the Lord Jesus
came, that we might have life, and that is why the good news was written by John, that we
might have life. Life has been provided, but we must choose. Everyone must make his own
choice whether or not to have faith in Jesus Christ, and his eternal destiny depends on his
choice. Choose life!

19This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world and men loved [agapao] the
darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20For everyone doing the wrong
hates the Light and does not come to the Light, that his deeds may not be shown. 21But the
one doing the truth comes to the Light, that his deeds may be revealed, that they are done
in God.”
Vs. 19-21 deal with the theme of spiritual darkness and show that many reject Christ
because they do not want to give up their sins. It is not that they do not believe mentally. It is
that they are not willing to do what the Bible means by having faith, commit themselves to
the Lord Jesus. Thus they deliberately stay in the darkness, because their deeds are evil.
Much so-called atheism and agnosticism are not really mental unbelief, but are man’s way of
justifying his desire to keep his sins. If there is no God, then there is no sin and we can live
any way we please. If we admit the reality of God, sin and judgment become an issue. Many
do not want to do this. Spiritual darkness is a major theme in John and will be dealt with at a
later point in the book, so we will reserve further comment for now.
One final thought may be noted. In v. 21, the Lord Jesus uses the interesting phrase,
“do the truth.” It would seem that he would say, “believe the truth,” for truth is something
one believes. But the Lord Jesus shows that truth in the Bible, like faith, is not a matter of the
head. It is something one lives by. Facts are useless unless they are applied. Spiritual truth is
a way of life, not just a matter of belief. Perhaps the best examples of this fact come from the
natural world. We all say that we believe in gravity. The law of gravity is a truth. But we do
far more than believe in gravity. We live by it. We do not jump off of buildings or drive off of
cliffs. If we only said that we believe in gravity but did not live by it, we would not live long.
Another physical law is the law of impenetrability. This law simply says that two
physical objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. How true that is. We all
believe that, but we also live by it. We keep our cars on the right side of the road. If we only
believed in the law of impenetrability but did not live by it, head-on collisions would soon
claim all of us! Truth is something we do, not just something we believe. That is especially
true in spiritual matters, for eternal issues are at stake.
In closing our thoughts on this passage, we need to note that the Jewish Passover was
the background of it. Jn. 2.13 tells us that the encounter of the Lord Jesus with Nicodemus
took place at the Passover time. This fact has great significance. What was the Passover?
Among other things, it was the birth of the nation of Israel (Ex. 12.2). But it is also a type of
the Lord Jesus. He is our Passover (2 Cor. 5.7). At the time when the birth of the nation of
Israel was commemorated, the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus how to come into the good of all
we have been dealing with, the creating of the new Israel: be born into the realm where all
this is reality. Be born into the new, spiritual Israel. You must be born again, from above.
.

69
A NEW BAPTIZER
John 3.22-36

Jn. 2.1-12 dealt with new wine, 2.13-25, with a new temple, and 3.1-21, with a new
birth. Now we come to 3.22-36, a passage that deals with a new baptizer. Note the emphasis
on newness in John. We saw in our introduction to the book that one of the characteristics of
it is the spiritual nature of what the Lord Jesus came to do, and that is what makes up the
newness of the wine, the temple, the birth, and the baptizer. The wine is the Holy Spirit. In
the Old Testament, wine is a symbol of joy. Now the Lord Jesus comes with the real thing,
not the symbol, and gives him spiritually, for he is a Spirit. The new temple is Jesus himself
and his people built together as a dwelling place for God (Eph. 2.19-22). Again this is a
spiritual matter. The new birth is spiritual. It is the entrance of the Holy Spirit into dead
human spirits, giving them spiritual life. Now we come to a new baptizer.
22After these things Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea, and there he
was staying with them and was baptizing.
Before dealing with that topic, we need to take note of one matter that is not the
subject of this passage and is mentioned only in passing, but is of such importance that we
need to deal with it. Often the Bible mentions something that is not the main point, but such
a truth is stated that it stands out. Such is the case in Jn. 3.22. This verse tells us that after
Jesus and his disciples went into Judea, “he remained with them.” That little clause that
might easily be overlooked in this passage that deals with another matter captures the
essence of discipleship. We saw in dealing with 1.43 that it was a common sight in Judaism
for there to be a Rabbi with a circle of disciples. The Rabbi was the teacher, and the word
“disciple” means “learner.” These groups were taken up with the Law and the tradition
surrounding it. The Rabbi was an expert in the Law, and it was his job to teach it to his
disciples. Their job was to learn the Law so as to be able to pass it on in turn.
Jesus and his disciples formed such a group, but with an important difference. It was
not the job of his disciples to learn a body of knowledge, but to get to know him. They were
to learn, but they were to learn Christ. There is Christian doctrine, and the New Testament
makes it clear that it is important to maintain correct doctrine. But that is not the matter of
primary importance. A person may know and believe all the right doctrines and not know
the Lord Jesus. The vital element of discipleship is spending time with him and getting to
know him. John brings that truth out in passing in this verse.
23Now John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim, for many waters were there, and they
were coming and being baptized 24(for John had not yet been thrown into prison). 25There
was then a dispute from John’s disciples with a Jew about purification. 26And they came to

John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you
have borne witness, look, this one is baptizing and all are coming to him.”
The main issue of this passage is the relationship in ministry between the Lord Jesus
and John the Baptist, and baptism is the focal point. Baptism was the chief characteristic of
the ministry of John. He came onto the scene in a prophetic way, reminding people of the
prophet Elijah by the way he dressed, the food he ate, and his eccentric way of life. He
preached repentance, saying that the Lord was coming and the people had better get ready
by repenting of their sins. He baptized, a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
And the crowds flocked to him. His baptism was immensely popular. The gospels tell us that
people came from all over to be baptized by him.
John minced no words. To use a modern phrase, he told it “like it was.” When the
Jewish leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees, came to him for baptism, he called them a
brood of vipers and told them to bring forth the fruit of repentance, not just make an
outward show of it. The crowds, looked down on by the self-righteous leaders, loved this.
Yes, John built a great ministry and his popularity was tremendous.
But he preached another. That is fine so long as the one preached stays away and lets
the preacher go on with his ministry, but in the case of John, the one he preached showed up,
and when he did, the crowds that had been flocking to John began to leave and to go to
Jesus, the one he preached. Thus we see that Jn. 3.22-26 sets the stage for the lessons of this
passage, 3.22-36. The stage that it sets is one that has great potential for rivalry, jealousy,
falling out between the Lord Jesus and John. John and Jesus were blood relatives (Luke 1.36).
John was the older of the two and he came on the scene first. He was already famous when
the Lord Jesus made his first public appearance. Then Jesus came and began to take away
John’s crowds. John could easily have taken the position that he deserved the preeminent
position and that it was not fair for Jesus to come into the ascendancy. Let Jesus build his
own ministry and stop stealing John’s sheep. And so the stage is set for vs. 27-36. These
verses tell us about the superiority of the Lord Jesus and John’s reaction to it.
27John answered and said, “A man cannot receive one thing unless it has been given
him from Heaven. 28You yourselves testify for me that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I
am sent before that one.’ 29The one having the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of
the bridegroom, the one having stood and hearing him, rejoices with joy because of the
voice of the bridegroom. Therefore this my joy has been made full. 30It is necessary for
that one to increase, but for me to decrease.
31“The one coming from above is above all. The one being on the earth is from the
earth and speaks from the earth. The one coming from Heaven is above all. 32This one
testifies of what he has seen and what he heard and no one receives his testimony. 33The
one having received his testimony set his seal that God is true. 34For the one God sent
speaks the speakings [rema] of God, for he does not give the Spirit by measure. 35The

Father loves [agapao] the Son and has given all things into his hand. 36The one having
faith into the Son has eternal life. The one disobeying the Son will not see life, but the
anger of God remains on him.”
Let us look first at the superiority of the Lord Jesus. John gives us three reasons for his
superiority. The first is found in v. 31: Jesus was from above. It is instructive that the Greek
word ‘from above” in this verse is the same as the word in “born from above” in Jn. 3.3 and

“You must be born from above.” the Lord Jesus was from above. That is, he had a
heavenly origin. Heaven rules earth, and thus the Lord Jesus had a superior position. He had
a superior origin. Every other man, including John, was of the earth. The Lord Jesus was able
to speak the thoughts of God because he came from his presence. Thus he was superior.
The second reason we see in v. 34. The Lord Jesus was able to give the Holy Spirit
without measure. Always before, the Spirit had been given by measure. Not everyone
received the Holy Spirit, and those who did received him only so that they could perform
some task for God. Furthermore, they could not pass him on to others. Not so with the Lord
Jesus. He had the Holy Spirit without measure, and he was able to pass him on without
measure. He could baptize in the Spirit. He could fill with the Spirit.
We saw in the previous chapter on the new birth that this is exactly the desperate
need of men. Our spirits were dead toward God because of sin, and our great need was life.
But the only way we could get life was for the Holy Spirit to come into our spirits and make
them alive. But he could not do that because of our sins, for we would be destroyed. But the
Lord Jesus has the answer. He dealt with sin, and thus he is able to pour out the Holy Spirit
on us, not to our destruction but to our sanctification and glorification and blessing. The
Lord Jesus is superior to John because John was able to baptize only in water, a symbol, but
Jesus was able to baptize in the real thing. He was able to give us what we need. That is why
we call this chapter “A New Baptizer.” John was the old baptizer, baptizing in a symbol of
the Holy Spirit, water, a picture of life. But the Lord Jesus did not baptize in a symbol or a
picture. He baptized in the thing symbolized, the thing we are desperate for, in the Spirit of
life. May his name be ever praised!
The third ground of the superiority of the Lord Jesus is revealed in v. 35: he is the Son
of God’s choice. Jesus is a perfect Son. Rev. 13.8 says that he is the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. What does that mean? It means that the Lord Jesus died to himself
from eternity past. He chose to take the position of sonship, in deference to the Father, long
before time began. Thus when he came to earth as a man, he lived in perfect obedience. He
had already settled that question. He died to himself in eternity past. Thus God was
delighted with him. And thus God chose him to be his Heir and King. Col.1.16 says that all
things were made for him. Did you ever wonder what your reason for existence is? Col.1.16
tells you. You were made for Christ. God loves him and made you to glorify him and to be a
part of his bride. It is God’s eternal purpose for his beloved Son to have a bride to share the
throne with him. That is why he made people, to form the bride of Christ. What a tragedy

that so many reject him and never come into a relationship with him. What a shame that so
many Christians, even, do not give themselves wholly to the Lord. They will reach Heaven,
but they will miss being part of the bride (1 Cor. 3.12-15, Rev. 19.9). Yes, the Lord Jesus is the
one of God’s choice because of his perfect sonship, and thus he is superior.
As such, when the Lord Jesus came onto the scene, he began to win away the
followers of John. What was John’s reaction to this? Did he respond with the jealousy that we
saw was so possible? The first element of his response is seen in v. 27 “A man cannot receive
one thing unless it has been given him from Heaven.” John knew that the ministry he had
exercised was not something he had built himself. He knew that Heaven had given it to him.
He knew that the ministry that the Lord Jesus was entering on was not something of his own
doing. He, too, was receiving it from Heaven. He knew that the fact that his disciples were
leaving him and going after Jesus was the act of Heaven. Thus he did not react with jealousy,
but with surrender to the will of Heaven.
In making this statement, John revealed one of the great principles of life. Nothing
that anyone has is of his own doing. Everything we have is a gift. Even if we work hard for
what we have, it is still a gift. Where did the ability to gain things come from? Where did
intelligence and talent come from? The person who is blessed with drive and creativity and
talent had nothing to do with having those gifts. We call them gifts, and that is exactly what
they are. Why were we born in America, a land of freedom and opportunity? Why were we
not born in some place where we would likely have starved to death as babies or been in
bondage to a corrupt, oppressive political system? Why were we born with good health and
good minds and ability instead of being retarded or physically deformed to the point of
being unable to function? It is all a gift, and there is no room for human pride. There is only
room for giving thanks to God and for serving. The one who takes pride in himself and what
he has done is to be pitied, no matter how many things he has or how popular he is. He is
missing God, and God is what life is all about. There is no future in pride, only hell, or at
best, great loss for the Christian. There is a marvelous future in recognizing that everything
we have is the gift of God and giving thanks and service to him as a result. That is the first
thought stated by John in response to the ascendancy of the Lord Jesus over him.
V. 28 shows that John understood his call from God. He knew who he was, and he
knew who he was not. In effect he asks why he should be jealous. He said all along that he
was not the Christ. He was only the forerunner, so why should he be jealous now that what
he prophesied is coming to pass?
Then in v. 29 John adds to this statement that the “one who has the bride is the
bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy
because of the voice of the bridegroom. Therefore this my joy has been made full.” The friend
of the bride was usually the closest friend of the bridegroom whose duties were to arrange
“the marriage contract, act for the bridegroom during the betrothal, and [he] arranged for,
and presided at, the festivities of the wedding-day itself. It was a position of honor, in

proportion to the position of the bridegroom himself, and was given to his chief friend.”
(Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers)
John is rejoicing over the prospect of the Lord Jesus receiving his bride, as the friend
of the bridegroom would at the wedding. He hears the bridegroom’s voice speaking with joy
at his wedding and rejoices with him. So, says John, “this my joy has been made full.”
What a beautiful picture this is. John was speaking prophetically and probably did not
know all that he was saying, for he did not have the benefit that we have of the New
Testament. But we are told that the church is the bride of Christ and that one day he is
coming to claim his bride. Then there will be a great wedding. The wonder is that, sinful as
we are, the Lord is working to purify all of us, and on that wedding day we will be presented
to Christ “a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she might
be holy and blameless” (Eph. 5.27). That is a miracle! Jesus Christ will receive his bride and
he will announce, She is without “spot or wrinkle or any such thing.” The marriage will
stand for all eternity. How can we help but fall down and worship the Lord for this
marvelous promise? How can we help but admire John for such an attitude? He was happy
if the Lord Jesus was happy. That was all that mattered to him. Praise the Lord!
Then v. 30 states another great principle of life, and in doing so it reveals the heart of
John even more fully. John said, “That one must increase, but I must decrease.” What
devotion to God and his purpose John had. He knew the will of God, that Jesus came to have
preeminence, and he rejoiced in it. There is not a trace of jealousy. Our day measures
manhood by physical strength and material acquisition, and too often by the conquest of
women. It measures it by how much self-assertion one is able to exercise. But what a man
John was. He was a real man. He did not live for his own satisfaction. He understood the will
of God and gave himself wholly to it, even when it meant his own decrease. Of all men who
ever lived he is one to be admired.
This statement of his also raises the question of our own motives. Why are we serving
the Lord? Are we really serving the Lord or are we trying to build a ministry that centers
around ourselves so that we can be somebody? Yes, we want people to be saved and we
want Jesus to be lifted up and God to get glory, but do we want to protect our own position
in all that? If all our followers were to leave and go after someone else, would we be content
in knowing that it was the will of God? Would we say with John, “That one must increase,
but I must decrease”? Or would we become jealous and accuse the other person of sheep
stealing? They are not our sheep. They are the Lord’ sheep, and he can cause them to follow
anyone he wants them to. The important thing is that the Lord Jesus get all that is coming to
him, that he be exalted and glorified. What happens to us does not matter. We are in God’s
hands and we can trust him. He will take care of us, even if we lose our heads as John did.
We do not mind Jesus increasing. Indeed, we want that. We just do not want to have to
decrease. Let him increase, but let me increase, too, or at least let me hold my position. That
is not what the Bible says. “That one must increase, but I must decrease.”

The remaining verses of this passage reveal further truths about this one who is
coming to the fore in place of John. We have already seen that v. 31 shows his heavenly
origin, and this fact also shows the spiritual nature of what he came to do. His work is
heavenly, not earthly. We have already dealt with this fact at length in earlier chapters.
V. 32 reveals that the Lord Jesus is a witness. A witness is someone who has seen
something and tells about it. He does not tell what he has heard or what he thinks, but what
he has seen. The Lord Jesus is a witness. He is the only man who ever lived who has seen
Heaven and the spiritual realm and then come to earth. Thus of all men who were living at
that time, he was the only one who could bear true witness to the way things really are. He
had come from Heaven where he had seen ultimate truth and all the truth, so he was witness
to reality. He was and is the truth (Jn. 14.6)! Yet what he said was so foreign to earthly
thinking that no one but a few understood or accepted it. He and his message were rejected.
Yet a few did receive him and his message, as v. 33 says. There were not many, but
those who saw something in Jesus and responded to it turned out to be those who were the
true witnesses that God is true.
V. 34 gives us another great truth about the Lord Jesus. It says that Jesus spoke the
words of God. We saw above that there are two Greek words for “word,” logos and rema.
Logos refers primarily to the written word and indicates the truth whether anyone knows and
believes it or not. A person may reject the Bible, but it is still true. He may read the Bible and
get nothing out of it, but it is still true. It is logos. It is the word of God. But rema refers to the
spoken word of God. The idea is that God speaks a fresh, living word to a person in a given
moment. (This does not mean that we can add to the Scriptures what God says to us today.
He does speak to people today, but what he says often comes through the Bible, and it will in
any case agree with the Bible.) Usually what happens is that a person has read a verse or
passage many times without understanding it or hearing from the Lord in it, and then
suddenly God speaks to him through the passage. It comes alive to him. That is logos
becoming rema. That is what we need, to hear from God in a living way.
This word rema is the word used in Jn. 3.34. The point is that the Lord Jesus was
always hearing from God, and thus he could tell people what God was saying. He did not
just have the logos memorized so that he could quote Scripture. He was constantly hearing
from God. He knew what God was saying in every situation. That is why he always knew
what to do and could work miracles. God told him what to do, and he did it. We will see this
fact over and over as we go through John. The Lord Jesus said again and again that he said
and did nothing of himself. He said what God said and did what God told him. He was a
man in touch with God. He had constant rema. Thus he spoke the living, present, relevant
words of God to men.
This verse also deals with what he have already referred to, the fact that Jesus is able
to baptize in the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus is the new Baptist. There was John the Baptist
who baptized in water. There is Jesus the Baptist who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. John’s
hallmark was baptism, and he had crowds flocking to him for it. When the new Baptist came

along and began displacing him, John yielded to the will of God and rejoiced that the
Bridegroom was beginning to prepare his bride. This is the real heart of this passage. John
recognized the Lord Jesus as the baptizer in the Holy Spirit, and thus he was willing to give
way to him.
V. 35, we have seen, shows the standing of the Lord Jesus with God. He is the one of
God’s choice, his beloved Son in whom he takes delight. John saw this, and this enabled him
to make the great statement of v. 30: “That one must increase, but I must decrease.”
Finally, v. 36 deals with our response to all that we have been dealing with. It is one
thing to know all these facts, but we have seen that in the Bible, faith is not believing facts
but trusting a person and committing ourselves to that person and living on the basis of
those facts. That is what v. 36 sets before us: “The one who has faith in the Son has eternal life.
The one who disobeys the Son because of unbelief will not see life, but the anger of God
remains on him.” I have translated one word as “disobeys because of unbelief.” That is
because the fundamental meaning of the word is “to be convinced,” but it can also mean
“obey.” It seems to me that the overall idea of the word is to obey because one is convinced
or to disobey because one is not convinced. We have the same juxtaposition of these words,
“have faith” and “obey” (or “disobey”) in Heb. 3.18-19: “Now to whom did he swear that
they would not enter into his rest if not to those who disobeyed? And we see that they could
not enter in because of lack of faith.” These two verses equate disobedience and lack of faith.
Our response should be to have faith in the Lord Jesus, and again, we have seen what faith in
the Bible means. This v. 36 verifies our statement that faith in the Bible is living on the basis
of the facts in that it equates faith and obedience. In the first clause it says, “The one who has
faith in the Son.” In the second, it says, “The one who does not obey the Son,” and the two
words are used to mean the same thing. It is as James says: “Be doers of the word and not
hearers only,” and, “Belief without works is dead.” It does not matter how much we say we
believe. What are we doing about it?
It is also important to understand that we are commanded to have faith in God and in
his Son, so lack of faith is disobedience, and faith is obedience. We will see in Jn. 6.29 that
Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that you have faith in the one whom that one sent.” The
work of God is faith. That shows that faith is belief plus work based on that belief. We have
allowed the great and necessary doctrine of justification by faith alone to mean that one just
has to believe in his head. No, no, a thousand times no! Belief without works is dead. We are
not saved by works, but if there are no works there is no faith, only head belief.
That is the response called for, that we believe what is revealed in this passage about
the Lord Jesus and about life, and that we live by it. The result is life, baptism by the new
Baptizer who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. The alternative is spiritual death, the anger of God.
Which will it be? Will we take the position of John the Baptist? Will we rejoice in the Lord
Jesus’ coming into all that God has for him? Will we believe in and obey the Son, no matter
what becomes of us? That is the choice John made, and that is what God calls us to.

76
A NEW SOURCE OF LIFE
John 4.1-42

The fourth chapter of John contains the well-known story of the encounter of the Lord
Jesus with the Samaritan woman. The story itself is told simply by John, but some major
lessons come out during the course of the passage. Perhaps the best way to deal with it is to
go through it, noting the basic facts as we go along, and then conclude with a few remarks
about the main points.
1When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees heard that Jesus was making and
baptizing more disciples than John, 2although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his
disciples, 3he left Judea and went again into Galilee.
Vs. 1-3 tell us that when the Lord Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was
making and baptizing more disciples than John, he left for Galilee. Judea was the southern
portion of the land, and Galilee was in the north. Jerusalem was in Judea, and thus it was the
central area of Judaism. There were the Temple, the priesthood, and the sacrifices. But the
Lord Jesus left there for the outlying area of Galilee. His reason for doing so was probably
that his hour had not yet come, a theme in John, and so he wished to avoid a confrontation
with his opponents. He simply left.
4Now it was necessary for him to go through Samaria.
V. 4 says that he had to pass through Samaria. Samaria was in between Judea in the
south and Galilee in the north. The city of Samaria had been the capital of the nation of Israel
when the kingdom divided after the reign of Solomon, with Jerusalem continuing as the
capital of Judah. When Israel was judged for her sin by God through the Assyrians, most of
the people were carried off into captivity, and foreigners were brought in to settle the area
around Samaria. Over a period of time, there was intermarriage between these people and

the Jews who were left, so that the inhabitants of Samaria were what we would call a half-
breed race. Thus they were looked down on as religiously inferior by the pure Jews of Judea.

In addition, these people developed their own religion, a kind of adaptation of
Judaism. They kept the Old Testament Scriptures, but they altered them a bit to fit their
circumstances. For example, the Old Testament teaches that Jerusalem is the place God chose
for his name to dwell and where he should be worshipped. The Samaritans were excluded
from worship in Jerusalem, so they changed the Old Testament to read that Mount Gerizim,
near Samaria and Sychar, was the place God had chosen, a fact that becomes important later
in this story. Because of these deviations from Judaism, the Samaritans were further rejected
by the Jews.

For these reasons, there was hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans, and they
had little to do with each other. Indeed, Jews who were traveling between Judea and Galilee
would often cross the Jordan River and take the longer route around Samaria rather than
pass through that despised area. The Lord Jesus, though, went to Galilee by way of Samaria.
5Therefore he came to a city of the Samaritans called Sychar, near the piece of land that
Jacob gave to Joseph his son.
In Samaria he and his disciples came to a town called Sychar. Jn. 4.5 says that the town
was near a piece of ground that Jacob had given to Joseph. The Old Testament says nothing
directly about Jacob giving Joseph a plot of ground, but the story can apparently be pieced
together. Gen. 33.19 describes the purchase by Jacob of a piece of land near Shechem (the
area of Sychar in New Testament times). Then we read in Gen. 48.22 that when Jacob was
dying, he told Joseph that he was giving him one portion more than his brothers of the
inheritance. The final verse is Josh. 24.32, where we find that Joseph was buried on this plot
of ground and it became the inheritance of Joseph’s sons. Thus it appears that the burial plot
of Joseph that Jacob had bought at Shechem is the land referred to in Jn. 4.5.
6Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, having been wearied from the journey, was
sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
V. 6 adds that Jacob’s well was there. Again this is a reference that does not occur in
the Old Testament. We are told nothing there about a well of Jacob, so apparently this is
simply a bit of Jewish history that was not recorded in the Old Testament but was passed on
orally and was common knowledge in the time of the Lord Jesus. This verse also says that
the Lord Jesus was tired from the journey and so sat by the well to rest. This brief mention is
evidence of the humanity of the Lord. He did not live on this earth as God, though he was
God as well as man. He gave up the prerogatives of divinity and lived as a man, as we must
do. He is able to sympathize with us, and he is our example. The time was about noon.
7A woman came from Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me to drink,”
8
for his disciples had gone into the city that they might buy food. 9Therefore the Samaritan
woman said to him, “How is it that you being a Jew ask to drink of me, being a Samaritan
woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Vs. 7-9 start getting to the heart of the story, and they record a great surprise. They tell
us that while the Lord Jesus was resting by the well, a Samaritan woman came to draw water
and he asked her for a drink. John explains that the disciples had gone into town to buy food.
The woman was surprised that he spoke to her and asked him why he did. The reason for
her surprise was threefold. The first reason was racial. We saw above that Jews looked down

on Samaritans because of their racial impurity and had nothing to do with them. Thus it was
very unusual for a Jew even to speak with a Samaritan.
Religion was also a factor. The Jews were very exclusivist in their religion, and were
especially so toward the Samaritans, who had corrupted Judaism. It was bad enough to be
pagan, but to have the truth and corrupt it was worse.
The third aspect of the woman’s surprise was sex. Jewish men did not talk with
women in public, even their wives. Thus this woman was triply surprised that the Lord Jesus
spoke to her. John, of course, adds the explanation that Jews have nothing to do with
Samaritans.
10Jesus answered and said to her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is saying
to you, ‘Give me to drink,’ you would have asked of him and he would have given you
living water.” 11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket and the well is deep.
From where then do you have the living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob
who gave us the well and drank from it himself, and his sons and his cattle? No.”
Vs. 10-12 begin the answer of the Lord Jesus, and in them he uses a physical
experience, thirst, to teach a spiritual truth. This is what he had done with Nicodemus, using
the example of birth, and he met with the same response in the woman as he had with
Nicodemus, lack of understanding. Nicodemus could not see how a man could reenter his
mother’s womb and be born again. The Lord Jesus had told the woman that if she had
known who he was, she would have asked him for living water and he would have given it.
The woman did not see how he could draw water from Jacob’s well when he had nothing to
draw with. She did not realize that he was getting at spiritual truth, probably thinking that
by living water he meant flowing water, as from a spring. Then she asked him if he were
greater than the man who had dug the well, Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel
and thus one of the great men of Jewish history. Of course, the Lord Jesus was greater than
Jacob, but he did not say so. Instead he went on in vs. 13-14 to state the spiritual truth that he
was driving at:
13Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone drinking of this water will thirst again, 14but
whoever may drink of the water which I will give him will not thirst into the age, but the
water which I will give him will become in him a well of water welling up to life eternal.”
Austin-Sparks, in The On-High Calling, Vol. II, pgs. 12-13, points out that there should
not be a chapter break between Jn. 3 and 4 because in Num. 21.6-9 and 17, which is the
Jewish background, we have both the brazen snake and the water welling up. “When the
Cross has done its work, when Christ has borne the judgment and the curse resting upon us,
then the Holy Spirit is released and springs up as the well of eternal life.” He adds, “The
Holy Spirit makes a wonderful connection in the Bible, does he not? He brings things

together! We would, perhaps, have never thought of finding the third and fourth chapters of
John in the twenty-first chapter of Numbers, but there they are.”
This living water the Lord Jesus spoke of was the Holy Spirit, as we know from Jn.
7.37-39, where the Lord Jesus said, “’If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. The one
who has faith in me, as the Scripture said, rivers of living water will flow from his inner
being.’ This he said about the Spirit, whom those who had faith in him were to receive.”
The woman had to keep coming to the well to draw water, but if she had the Holy
Spirit within her, she would have a well within. She would not need to go anywhere to draw
that water, but would have it continually welling up within her.
Worship in Judaism, and in Samaritanism, was very physical. It was geographical.
The Jews had to go to Jerusalem to worship, and in Jerusalem they had to go to the Temple.
They had to go through certain ceremonies and make offerings of animals or produce to the
Lord. The Samaritans had similar requirements, substituting Mount Gerizim for Jerusalem.
The Old Testament required that every Jewish man go to Jerusalem three times a year to
appear before the Lord. That is where God was, and that is where they had to go to meet
him. But now, the Lord Jesus says, God is no longer going to be in a geographical location.
He is going to be within his people, and all they need do to meet him and worship him is to
look within.
This promise of the Lord Jesus was remarkable in his day in that the Jews believed
that the Holy Spirit had left Israel with the last prophet, Malachi, who had died over four
hundred years earlier. The Holy Spirit was no longer active in Israel, and would not appear
again until the Messianic age. The Lord Jesus says that this Spirit who had come on only a
few in the past and who had not visited Israel in centuries was about to become resident in
people.
15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thrist or come here to
draw.”
The Lord Jesus did not use the term “Holy Spirit,” and the woman did not really
grasp what he was talking about. We have the New Testament and Christian history, and so
have an advantage over her in understanding this passage. But the woman responded. Even
though she did not really know what she was asking for, she liked the sound of not having to
go to the well to draw and carry water any more, and she asked for the water the Lord Jesus
spoke of. Is this not true of the experience of most of us in coming to the Lord? Perhaps we
knew more than she did, having been raised in a more or less Christian environment, but
how many of us knew the full implications of coming to Christ? Most Christians came to him
because they became aware of a need and knew he promised an answer. Many realize they
are on the way to hell and want to insure Heaven. Many have made something of a hell of
their lives on earth and believe that the Lord Jesus will solve their problems. These things are
true, but they are only the beginning and the truth is that they are rather selfish reasons for

coming to Christ. But he is a gracious God and accepts us on those terms. Then he begins to
work in our hearts to transform us from those selfish creatures who came to him in our need
only for our benefit into people like himself, the one who gave all. He begins to reveal to us
that a price must be paid to go on with him, that “through many tribulations we must enter
into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14.22). How many of us would have become Christians if we
had known the cost involved? Yet God in his grace did not burden us with all that in our dire
need, but took us where we were and began to lead us along. We did not know all we were
asking for when we asked for Christ, but God accepted us anyway.
So it was with this woman. She did not really know what she was asking for, but she
asked, thus opening the door to Christ. He took her on those terms and began a work in her
that lasted the rest of her life, a work that increasingly unfolded to her what she had entered
into. And God gave her the grace to bear the implications of each new revelation, just as he
does with us.
16He said to her, “Go call your husband and come here.” 17The woman answered and said
to him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You spoke well, ‘I have no husband,’ 18for
you had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband. This you have said
truthfully.”
So in effect this woman was asking for the Holy Spirit. We saw in our study of Jn. 3.1-
21 that the new birth is actually the entrance of the Holy Spirit into our dead human spirits,
thus making them alive. But we also saw in Jn. 3.5 that the Holy Spirit cannot come in until
sin is dealt with, or we would be consumed. There must be the cleansing agent of the water.
As the water cleanses us because of the atoning death of Christ, the Spirit comes in and
makes us alive. That is the point of Jn. 4.16-18, where the Lord Jesus brought the woman’s sin
to light. He asked the woman to go for her husband and bring him there. She replied that she
had no husband. He said that she had spoken truthfully, that she had had five husbands and
that the man she now had was not her husband.
How did the Lord Jesus know these facts about the woman? We have maintained that
he did not live on the earth as God. He was indeed God in the flesh, but he had voluntarily
laid aside the prerogatives of divinity and lived with the same human limitations we have to
live with. He was not drawing on divine omniscience when he revealed this woman’s past to
her. Where, then, did he get his knowledge. The Apostle Paul explains it to us in 1 Cor. 12.8.
This was a word of knowledge, a gift of the Spirit. The Lord Jesus was in such close
communion with God that he was able to hear from him all the time, as we saw in Jn. 3.34. In
this case, the Spirit of God within him revealed this information to the man Jesus.
19The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on
this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary to
worship.” 21Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, that the hour is coming when neither

on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22You worship what you
do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour is
coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in
truth, for the Father is seeking such, those worshiping him. 24God is spirit and those
worshiping him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
It turns out, then, that this woman was very sinful, and Jesus knew that her sin must
be dealt with before she could receive the Holy Spirit she had asked for. She did not deny her
sin, but in effect made honest confession, admitting the prophetic nature of the words of the
Lord Jesus. At the same time, she did use a time-honored method of evading the issue. When
the heat on her got a little too hot, she brought up a theological issue. Theological issues are
impersonal, so they get one out from under the light, and they are insoluble, so they can go
on being discussed forever. That is the approach the woman used. When faced with her sin,
she could not deny that the Lord Jesus was a prophet, so she tried to squirm out by asking
him what he thought about where people should worship. The Jews, as we have seen,
believed that Jerusalem was the place of worship, and the Samaritans held out for Mount
Gerizim. The woman expected the Lord Jesus to take the side of Jerusalem, since he was a
Jew, and then perhaps she could argue for Gerizim and get the spotlight off her sin. And we
should not rule out as well an honest effort on her part to learn the truth. the Lord Jesus was
obviously a prophet, for he knew all about her, so maybe he could shed some light on this
divisive question. The facts that he was a Jew and a prophet called in question what she had
always believed, so she asked her question, possibly with dual motives, learning something
and avoiding the conviction of sin.
She had received a surprise in vs. 7-9 when the Lord Jesus had spoken to her. Now
she received another. Instead of arguing for the Jewish position, Jesus said that the time was
coming when people would not worship either in Jerusalem or on Mount Gerizim. Instead,
the living water he had spoken of, the Holy Spirit, would make alive the spirits of people,
and that is where they would worship, within their own hearts. No longer would they have
to go to a geographical location to worship. God would be within them and they could
worship him anytime, anywhere. Alford well notes that in Christ God became one flesh with
us that we might become one spirit with him (see 1 Cor. 6.17).
Again the Lord Jesus took an element of Judaism and made it spiritual. He was able to
do this because he was able to impart the Holy Spirit who made human spirits alive. That is
what makes things spiritual, and that is what the Lord Jesus came to do.
We will deal more fully with it a bit later, but when the Lord Jesus said that people
would worship in truth, he meant that they would worship with their lives, not just with
their lips or outward religious observances. True worship affects how one lives. In the light
of this fact, it is interesting that the woman held a theological position on worship. She
would have argued for the Samaritan view that worship must take place on Mount Gerizim,
but it had no effect on how she lived. She was very sinful, having had five husbands and

lived with a sixth man to whom she was not married. She had no concept of what worship
really is, even though she held the correct views on worship according to her religion. How
1ike her we so often are ourselves!
25The woman said to him “We know that Messiah is coming, the one being called Christ.
When that one comes he will tell us all things.” 26Jesus said to her, “I AM, the one
speaking with you.”
This reply of the Lord Jesus caused the woman to sense something further in him,
even though she still probably could not have put it into words. She said that when the
Messiah came, he would reveal all things, such as the answer to this question about worship.
Then the Lord Jesus made a revelation to her personally. He told her that he was the
Messiah, and he did so by using the words, “I AM.” We saw in our introduction to John that
these words are the translation of the Old Testament name of God. His name is YHWH in
Hebrew, I AM in English. When Jesus said, “I AM,” he was saying that he was the God of the
Old Testament in human flesh. Indeed, his name, Jesus, means “I AM Saves.” This statement,
“I AM,” is used repeatedly by the Lord Jesus in John, and is one of the foremost factors in
John’s emphasis on the divinity of Christ. He was the God of the Old Testament in flesh. He
was the Messiah. It is ironic that the Lord Jesus revealed his Messiahship to a woman and a
Samaritan, and a sinful woman at that. One would have thought that he would have
revealed himself to a Jewish man, perhaps the High Priest.
27And at this his disciples came and marvelled that he was speaking with a woman,
but no one said, “What are you seeking?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28Then the
woman left her waterpot and went into the city and said to the men, 29“Come see a man
who told me all things, whatever I have done. Is this the Christ?” They went out of the
city and were coming to him.
The woman believed him, at least partially, and she left her water pot and went into
Sychar to call the men of the city: “Come see a man who told me all things, whatever I have
done. Is this the Christ?” The men responded and followed her to the well. What an example
of a witness she is to us. A very sinful woman found the Lord Jesus, and the first thing she
did was to go tell her neighbors. (Compare Jn. 1.41 and 46 with these verses, 28-29.)
31In the meantime the disciples were asking him saying, “Rabbi, eat,” 32but he said
to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” 33Therefore the disciples were
saying to one another, “Did someone bring him to eat? No” 34Jesus said to them, “My food
is that I may do the will of the one having sent me and that I may finish his work.

Meanwhile the disciples had returned with their food. They were surprised to see the
Lord himself talking with a woman, but they said nothing about it. Then when she left, they
told Jesus to eat. They had no idea that a great spiritual event was taking place, and were
preoccupied with food. The reply of Jesus was that he had food to eat that they did not know
of. They still had their minds on physical food, supposing that someone else had brought
him something to eat. Then he explained that he was referring to spiritual food. His food was
to do the will of God. We will wait until chapter 6 to deal with this matter of spiritual food,
for that is the great chapter in the Bible on the topic. For now we simply note it.
35Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months and the harvest comes?’ Look, I say to you,
lift up your eyes and look at the fields that they are white for harvest already.

36The one
harvesting receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that the one sowing and the
one harvesting may rejoice together. 37For in this the word is true, ‘One is the one sowing
and another is the one harvesting.’ 38I sent you to harvest that for which you have not
worked. Others have worked and you have entered into their work.”
Then the Lord Jesus explained to the disciples that a harvest was going on, but it was
a spiritual harvest, a reaping of people for the Lord. In a physical harvest, there is a lapse of
time between planting and reaping, and there is nothing for it but to wait, but spiritually the
fields are always ready for harvesting. One may sow and reap at once, or one may reap what
someone else sowed at an earlier time. Another may sow and not reap, only to have someone
else harvest the fruit of his seed later on. The important thing is not who gets the credit for
reaping. The important thing is the harvest. Jesus planted the seeds among these Samaritans,
and now he is allowing the disciples to participate in a harvest they had nothing to do with
bringing about.
39Now from that city many of the Samaritans had faith into him because of the word
of the woman testifying, “He told me all things, whatever I did.” 40When therefore the
Samaritans came to him they were asking him to stay with them, and he stayed there two
days. 41And many more had faith because of his word, 42and to the woman they were
saying, “No longer do we have faith because of what you said, for we ourselves have
heard and we know that this one is truly the Savior of the world.”
This harvest was the Samaritans who were approaching with the woman. They heard
the Lord Jesus for themselves and believed no longer simply because of the woman’s
witness, but because they, too, had come to the Lord Jesus. That is an important spiritual
lesson. We may believe someone else’s witness about Jesus, but we must come to him for
ourselves. These men concluded that Jesus was the Savior of the world. Their belief became
faith. He began as simply a thirsty man by a well, a Jew at that. Then he was a prophet. Then

the Jewish Messiah. The story concludes with the revelation of him as the Savior of the
world.
As we think over this passage, we see first that it is about a new source of life, for that
is one of the things water is in the Bible, a symbol of life. When it symbolizes the Holy Spirit,
as it does here, it pictures him primarily as life. But in this portion of Scripture, it is not just
the Spirit as life, but the Lord Jesus as the source of life, for he is the “Jacob’s well” of this
passage, as Ada Habershon points out (The Study of the Types, p. 20). He is a well of living
water within a person, and that water is the Holy Spirit. We all must have a supply of life to
keep on living. We all must keep on drinking water to stay alive. Water is essential for life,
and one will live only a very short time without it. That is just as true spiritually. We must
have a continual supply of spiritual life, or we would die spiritually. In Judaism the men had
to go to Jerusalem three times a year to gain this supply. We do not have to go anywhere.
The supply is a well within us.
One of the things this supply of life welling up within us produces is the new
approach to worship we saw above. Worship is now spiritual. That is, it is within the now
living human spirit. God does not dwell in a Temple in Jerusalem or on Mount Gerizim or
anywhere else. He dwells in his people. Where does one go to worship? He goes within.
What is worship? The word means “worth-ship,” that is, recognizing the worth of
something. True worship is recognizing the worth of God, the worthiness of God to be
worshipped, no matter what. True worship is worship in spirit. That is, it is worship in the
spirit, not in the soul. The soul is the mind, the emotions, the will. We do not worship
because we understand all about God or because we feel it or because we want to all the
time. We worship God because he is worthy of it. If things are going well and we feel well, it
is easy to praise God, but when circumstances are hard or we are emotionally down, he has
not changed. He is still worthy of praise. True worship is the taking charge by the spirit over
the soul and saying, “Praise I AM, O my soul…” (Ps. 103.1). The soul may not feel up to
praising God, but worship is in spirit, and the spirit worships anyway, and commands the
soul to join in.
True worship is also “in truth.” The Greek word for “truth” actually means “reality.”
That is, true worship is not just a matter of words and religious observances, though these
may be parts of it, but it is primarily of one’s heart, first of all, and then of how one lives. The
Lord Jesus said of his Jewish opponents that they worshipped God with their lips but their
hearts were far from him (Mt. 15.8, Mk. 7.6). God’s first concern is with the heart. He knows
that if the heart is right, the life will be right. In the case of the Samaritan woman, she was
theologically correct about worship, according to her religion, but she was full of sin, having
had five husbands and a sixth man to whom he was not married. Even though she may have
spoken worshipful words and gone through religious ceremonies, she was not worshipping
God. She did not know what worship was. Worship is a way of life. Worship is Tuesday
afternoon and Friday night, not just Sunday morning. If one’s worship has no effect on how
he lives, it is not worship. True worship is “in reality.”

If one really comes to worship God in this way, in his heart and with his life as well as
with words, it will issue in the kind of witness we see in this passage. Not every Christian is
gifted in going from door to door and speaking with people about the Lord Jesus. Not every
Christian is gifted to preach the good news to the lost. But every Christian is a witness and
has some role to play in spreading the good news. It may not be a direct witness of speaking
to a person, but there is a way for every Christian to be involved in getting the good news
out, and the way one lives will tell those around him if his faith is hypocritical or genuine.
There are several aspects of the right kind of witness that come to light in this passage.
In the first place, the right kind of witness will be tailored to the individual being
witnessed to. The Lord Jesus never took the same approach twice. Nicodemus was supposed
to be a spiritual leader, but he did not even know what “spiritual” meant, and the Lord Jesus
told him he had to have a spiritual birth. But he told the Samaritan woman she needed
spiritual water. She was a sinful woman and knew the thirst of spiritual dryness. The Lord
Jesus knew she needed water. She and Nicodemus needed the same thing, but the Lord
approached it differently with each one. He used a different figure of speech to communicate
the same truth as each would understand. He did not have a standard approach that he used
with everyone.
These thoughts show us that the Lord Jesus used physical needs to point to spiritual
needs and spiritual truth. Thirst is a common human experience. We have all been dry and
craved water. And we have all been spiritually dry and craved God, whether we knew it or
not. The Lord Jesus was able to start with a person where he was in life and lead him from
there into the spiritual answer to his problem. Effective evangelism will start where people
are and show them the answers rather than trying to impose an abstract system of
theological belief or practice on them.
A third truth that emerges is seen in the fact that the Lord Jesus spoke of living water.
That is, his object was to bring people into a living relationship with God, not to acceptance
of a religion. God is what people need. They need to know him. They can be religious and
lost. The Samaritan woman was religious and lost (Let me add that I am not the one to say
whether she was lost or not, but it appears so in the story and that is what I am saying. Only
God can say someone is lost.). She did not need the right religion. She needed God. The Lord
Jesus brought her into a living relationship with him.
Then we see that God intends for his people to be a light to the nations. He told Israel
this in Is. 42.6 and 49.6, but instead of listening to him, they took pride in their election by
God and looked down on other peoples. Thus instead of going to people like the Samaritan
woman with water for her thirst, they had nothing to do with them. But the Lord Jesus was a
light to the nations. He was what God wanted Israel to be. In v. 22, the Lord Jesus told the
woman that salvation was of the Jews. That is true. It was the Jews that God chose to be the
recipients of his revelation, the authors of Scripture, the bearers of the Messiah. Salvation did
not come from the Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, or Romans. It did not come
from the Hindus or Buddhists. It came from the Jews. This tells us that salvation is exclusive

in its origin. But it is inclusive in its outreach. It came from the Jews and no one else, but it
was intended for everyone. The Jews did not fulfill this calling, but the Lord Jesus did. He

was a light to the nations. True evangelism will not exclude anyone. It will not take a self-
righteous position of superiority to anyone. It will cause the witness to realize that he is only

a saved sinner who is just as desperate for the blood of Christ and the living water as the
vilest sinner on the face of the earth. We are all God’s by grace and by nothing else.
Next we see that the important matter is the harvest, not who sows and who reaps. In
this story, the Lord Jesus did the sowing, and the woman did so among her townspeople, but
the disciples were allowed to enter into the harvest. If our purpose in evangelism is to make
a name for ourselves, to get credit for all we do for the Lord, we are on the wrong track. Our
interest should be that the harvest is reaped. The Samaritans were a field not sowed in by the
Jews because they looked down on them and would have nothing to do with them, but the
Lord Jesus sowed and reaped among them and the disciples shared in the harvest.
Finally, if evangelism is what it should be, it will result in the kind of worship that
brings about this kind of evangelism. It is a circle. True worship produces true witnesses.
True witnesses produce true worshippers. If people really love the Lord in their hearts, they
will spread the word. If people are truly brought to the Lord, they will love him, too. The
result will not be just a self-centered, “Save me,” with the emphasis on me, though that may
be the beginning, as it is with many of us, but, “Save me that I may worship and serve you in
spirit and in truth.”
These are some of the major lessons of the story of the Lord Jesus and the Samaritan
woman. The Lord Jesus is a new source of life, the giver of the Holy Spirit who is the water
of life, one who dwells within and is always there, not somewhere far off. If he comes in this
way, he will produce true worship and true witness. That we may have life in Christ is the
purpose of the good news of John. He is the source, and the Holy Spirit is living water. May
the Lord grant that we not only know the Holy Spirit as salvation from hell, but as water
springing up to eternal life.

THE SECOND SIGN
John 4.43-54

The present passage, 4.43-54, falls into two sections, vs. 43-45 and vs. 46-54. The first
deals with the Lord Jesus going on from Samaria to to Galilee, and the second, with what
happened on his arrival in Galilee, the second sign that John records.
43Now after the two days he went out from there into Galilee, 44for Jesus himself
testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.

45Therefore when he came into
Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all things, whatever he did, in
Jerusalem at the festival, for they themselves had also gone to the festival.

V. 43 tells us that after the two days that the Lord Jesus spent with the Samaritans in
Sychar, he went on to Galilee. Then v. 44 adds that the reason for this was that a prophet has
no honor in his own hometown. This statement is made by the Lord Jesus of his hometown,
Nazareth, a town in Galilee, in the other gospels, but in John it is applied to Judea. Judea was
indeed the country of the Lord Jesus, for he was born there, in Bethlehem, and he was King
of the Jews, so that Jerusalem in Judea was his capital city. But he had no honor there, so he
went to the land of Galilee, looked down on by the self-righteous Judeans. There he found
honor. V. 45 says that the Galileans received him, for they had seen what he had done in
Jerusalem at the Passover festival that forms the background of Jn. 3. The signs that the Lord
had done at that time had awakened some measure of faith in these Galileans who had been
there, as Jn. 2.23-25 tells us. Nonetheless, that same passage also says that he did not entrust
himself to them, for he knew what was in men. Many believed in him, not with what the
Bible means by faith, a personal commitment to him, but in a non-ethical way. They saw his
miracles and hoped to gain some benefit from them, but this had no impact on their way of
life. It did not find its way into their hearts and change them. The Lord Jesus was immensely
popular and drew great crowds, so much so that he had to work outdoors and had difficulty
finding time to eat a meal. Yet these crowds were there only while they were receiving the
benefits of the miracles. When the cross came into the picture, they disappeared. They were
interested in receiving from the Lord Jesus, but not in committing to him. Many of these
Galileans who honored him, according to Jn. 4.45, were of this sort, though doubtless there
were genuine believers among them.
As we think about the fact that Jerusalem was the capital of Judaism, the question
naturally arises as to why the Lord Jesus went to Galilee instead of staying in the place where
he would receive the greatest hearing. Paul’s lifelong dream was to see Rome, and in our
day, one who wants to achieve some high goal wants to be in New York or Los Angeles or
some similar media center where he can get the most attention. But the Lord Jesus went to
obscure Galilee. Why?
In the first place, his hour had not yet come. There was a time in God’s plan for him to
die, and that time had not yet come. He was not ready to force a confrontation with the Jews,
so he simply left.
Then, as with Paul going to the Gentiles, he went to a people who would receive him.
Paul’s pattern on his missionary journeys was to go first to the synagogues and preach the
good news to the Jews that their Messiah had come. When they rejected the message he went
to the Gentiles, who received it. So it was with the Lord Jesus, as we saw above in our
discussion of what Jesus meant by saying that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
There is irony in the Lord’s acceptance by the Galileans. The Jews were God’s people
and Jerusalem was the city of God, but when the Messiah came to his people and city, he was
rejected. When he went to those people looked down on as racially and religiously inferior,
he was accepted.

Another reason the Lord Jesus went to the Galileans is really an extension of what we
have just seen. It is what Hebrews refers to in chapter 13 about Jesus suffering outside the
camp. Judaism had become a religious system that had its roots in God, but it had gotten
away from God and become a human institution that opposed God, so much so that when
God himself came to them in the person of the Messiah, they did not even recognize him, but
rejected and killed him. The life had gone out of what had begun as a living work of God,
and Judaism had become a dead religion. It was a system, a camp that claimed to be the
camp of God, but one that cast God outside when he came. Those who wanted to go to God
had to go outside the camp. Religion will always come to that. God is an ever-creative God
who is always moving on to something new and who always does things in a different way.
Religion tries to build shrines around something God did in the past. It hangs on to
something that is truly of God, but he has long since moved on and the life has gone out of it.
Then when God comes with something new, he is opposed by the very system that intends
to be preserving what God did. God does not need man to preserve what he did. He is well
able to preserve things himself, and he is interested in what he is doing today, not what he

did in the past. Religion will always become an institution whose primary purpose is self-
preservation, and it will always oppose God in the end.

There is a deep lesson for Christians in these thoughts. It is not just Judaism that is
guilty of becoming a dead religion. Christianity can just as easily become a system that sends
God outside the camp. God will not settle down in any of man’s camps. He will not be
confined to our systems, even if they are based on something he did. If the Lord Jesus were
to come again today, incognito as he did the first time, how many of our churches would
receive him, and how many would throw him out because he would not fit their systems?
Thus we see that Jesus went to Galilee because his hour had not yet come, because his
message would be received there, and because he was unwilling to join a system that refused
to give God liberty to do something different. We turn now to vs. 46-54, where Jesus works a
second sign.
46Therefore he went again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine, and
there was a certain royal official whose son was sick in Capernaum. 47This one, having
heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, went to him and was asking that he
might come down and heal his son, for he was about to die. 48Therefore Jesus said to him,
“Unless you [pl.] see signs and wonders you would not have faith.” 49The royal official
said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50Jesus said to him, “Go. Your son
lives.” The man had faith in the word which Jesus spoke to him and he was going.
51Already, him going down, his slaves met him saying that his child lives.

52He inquired
therefore from them the hour at which he recovered. Then they said to him, “Yesterday at
the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53The father therefore knew that it was that hour at
which Jesus had said to him, “Your son lives,” and he himself had faith, and his whole
house. 54This was again the second sign Jesus did when he came from Judea into Galilee.

This sign was the healing of the son of a royal official. The man heard that the Lord
Jesus had returned from Jerusalem to Galilee and went to him to ask him to accompany him
to his son and heal him. Jesus replied that people, including the official, would not believe
unless they saw signs and wonders. The official urged the Lord to come on before it was too
late, and the Lord Jesus told him to go on home. His son would be alright. The man did so,
and found it was just as Jesus had said. Indeed, when his servants met him on the way to tell
him that his son had recovered, he asked the hour of his recovery and learned that it had
been at the very time Jesus spoke the word of healing. Thus he had faith, and his household
had faith with him.
This story is about two things, faith and life, and these are the two elements of the
purpose of John. He wrote in 20.30-31 that he had recorded the signs that his readers might
have faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that having faith, they might have life
in his name. That is exactly what happened in this passage. A sign was worked. The man
had faith. He came into life. Let us look first at what these verses tell us about faith, and then
we will consider their teaching about life.
V. 47 shows us that the man believed in the power of the Lord Jesus. This may have
been nothing more than superstition. We 1ive today in an age of skepticism. Many do not
believe there is a God, and many who do do not believe in supernatural manifestations. Even
among committed Christians, there is an element of unbelief inherited from the age we live
in. The world we live in is so saturated with unbelief that it is difficult to avoid being tainted
with it. But this royal official lived in an age of belief. It was ignorant belief, to be sure, but it
was belief nonetheless. The people of that day believed in many gods and demons and had
no trouble accepting supernatural manifestations. Indeed anything in life that did not have
an obvious explanation was attributed to the activity of some spirit. Thus it was not difficult
for this man to believe that what he had heard about the Lord Jesus was true. We would
probably doubt it if we heard that a man was going about performing miracles, but he did
not. And when he had need of a miracle himself, he went to that man.
We have seen, though, that faith in the Bible is not just believing something with our
brains without it having any effect on our lives. Faith is a function of the spirit, not of the
soul, and it changes the life. It makes one not a hearer only, but a doer, of the word (Ja. 1.22).
This royal official came with head belief. He had heard that this man Jesus could perform
miraculous cures and he believed it, but he had no commitment to the Lord Jesus. His belief
had not changed his heart.
The Lord challenged such belief by making what seems a harsh statement in v. 48:
“Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” The word “you” in this verse is
plural, meaning that the Lord Jesus was not referring just to this man but to people in
general. The gist of what the Lord Jesus was saying was that man’s way is to say that seeing
is believing. Man will not believe until he sees proof. Of course God’s way is that believing is
seeing. The one who demands a sign will see nothing. The one who has faith God in the

absence of signs will see signs as a result of his faith. The Lord Jesus was not really being
harsh to this man, but was challenging him to real faith, to accept God at his word and not
just believe superstitiously in the power of a miracle worker.
This official showed that he did really believe in the Lord Jesus by his reply. Instead of
arguing about whether he had to see a sign or protesting his genuine faith, he simply said,
“Sir, come down before my child dies.” In effect he was saying that he did not have time to
argue theology. His son was dying and the Lord Jesus could heal him. Come on! Time is
running out! He did believe the Lord Jesus could heal. He passed the test that the Lord set
before him.
The test was intensified in v. 50. The Lord Jesus told the man to go home, and that his
son would recover. Jesus intended for the man to leave without him. That was indeed a test
of faith. His son lay dying. Here was the only man who could heal him, and he had
instructed him to go on without him, saying that the boy would be well. How difficult it
must have been for that official to go off without the Lord Jesus! But John says that he
believed the word of the Lord Jesus. The man had come believing in the power of the Lord
Jesus because of what he had heard, but now he believed the word of the Lord Jesus. That is
what faith is, when it is acted on. And he acted on it. Paul says in Rom. 10.17, “Faith comes
from hearing, and hearing through the speaking [rema] of Christ.” Faith is taking God at his
word in the absence of visible evidence. That is what this man did. At the word of the Lord
Jesus he started off alone, with no evidence that what Jesus had said was true. That was a
genuine act of faith.
What was the result? The boy did recover, and it turned out that he had become well
at the exact hour that the Lord Jesus had said he would. The visible evidence came. Believing
was seeing. Faith led to a miracle, and then the miracle, the sign, led to further faith, and that
is the purpose of a sign, as John’s purpose tells us (20.30-31).
This lesson in faith speaks to us today. Do we, like this man, believe the word of God
in the absence of visible evidence? The question can become even more searching. Do we go
on believing God if the evidence never comes? Some people go to their graves without ever
seeing the answers to their questions. John the Baptist did (Mt. 11.1-6, 14.1-12). People in
Heb. 11 did. What an example for us this man is. He believed the Lord Jesus simply because
of what he said.
Thus John gives us a clear illustration of what faith is. But this passage is also about
life, life as the result of faith. The good news of John is about life, and many of the passages
we have already studied have taught us some aspect of the life of God. Jn. 2.1-12 shows us
that when we get life, it turns into joy: water becomes wine. We see the life of God producing
a new temple in 2.13-25, a dwelling of God in and with his people. Spiritual life in people is
the result of the new birth, the coming of the Holy Spirit into our dead spirits, as we saw in
3.1-21. Then this new life produces a new way of life within us, as 3.22-36 indicates in the
example of John the Baptist, who lived not for himself, but for God. The story of the
Samaritan woman in 4.1-42 shows us life as a continuous supply within, affecting our

worship and our witness. Now we come to the present passage. What does it tell us about
life?
Its lesson about life is revealed in the geography of the story. The official came to Jesus
in Cana, but his son lay dying in Capernaum, about twenty miles away. The Lord Jesus did
not go to the boy, but simply spoke the word, and he was instantly healed. This fact tells us
that the life of God is not limited by space and time. What does that mean? We are limited by
space. We cannot do something twenty miles away. We have to be there. We cannot be with
our loved ones who are in other places, but must endure the pain of separation. We cannot
cause something to happen instantly twenty miles away. It takes time for us to travel a
distance. And time runs out for us. All good things do indeed come to an end in this world.
If the Lord does not return, we will all die. Time is such a heavy factor hanging over the
heads of all of us. We know so well the limits of both space and time.
But God knows no such limits. He does not have to travel from Cana to Capernaum to
effect a cure. He can do it with a word, and it works instantly. This fact has tremendous
implications for our prayer life. What is the use in praying for a loved one hundreds of miles
away or a missionary thousands of miles away? It is just this fact of the unlimitedness of
God’s life. It is God’s life in us that moves us to pray, and that life can have an immediate
effect on a person anywhere in the world. All of us have heard those thrilling stories of
people who have suddenly felt burdened to pray for someone many miles away, only to
learn later that the person was in a crisis at just that moment and found victory in it. Some of
us have experienced such incidents. They are true! They are true because the life of God is
not limited by space and time. Pray for your loved ones. Pray for missionaries. Pray for
God’s church and his purposes right around the world. Those prayers are effective whether
we see the effect or not. As God stirs prayer in you, he is able to use those prayers to bless his
people and advance his cause in the most distant and remote places. Our God is not limited.
This truth also has a vital impact on the matter of the death of our loved ones. We
noted above that all good things do come to an end. Even the simplest things of this life, a
nice evening out or an enjoyable vacation, all come to an end. And of course, the dearest
relationships of life come to an end. Our loved ones die. So will we if the Lord does not
return first. That is the great tragedy of our age. God did not make man to die. He made him
to live forever. It is our sin that brought death into God’s creation. And death really is an
end. We will never again see those loved ones in this life. But that is just the point. We will
not see them in this life because this life is limited by time. But we have another life, the life of
God, and we believe that one day this new life will triumph over the old life that ends in
death. We will see our loved ones again, and that happy time will never end. How limited
we are now by time, but how unlimited the life of our God is, and that life is our future, our
hope, our eternity. What a wonderful truth for us, that the life of God is not limited by space
and time.
We noted above that this story took place in two cities, Cana and Capernaum. The
Lord Jesus and the official were in Cana, the boy, in Capernaum. Cana was the home of

Nathanael (Jn. 21.2). In John 1, Jesus had astounded Nathanael, this man of Cana, with his
supernatural knowledge of him, but in 1.50 he said to him, “You will see greater things than
these.” Then in v. 51 he told him that he would see the fulfillment of Jacob’s vision of the
ladder, Heaven opened to earth in Christ. That is what happened in this story of the healing
of the official’s son. On earth, the Lord Jesus could not have healed a boy twenty miles away
in an instant. He was limited by space and time. But he was in touch with Heaven, and
Heaven was in touch with Capernaum. He was full of the life of God, and that life knows no
limits.
The first sign of Jesus, the turning of the water into wine, also took place in Cana. It is
instructive that in Jn. 2.5 the mother of Jesus told the servants to do whatever he said, and
that is just what the royal official did in 4.46-54. He obeyed the word of the Lord Jesus. Then
Jn. 2.11-12 tells us that the sign was done in Cana, and then Jesus went down physically to
Capernaum. In the parallel in 4.46-54 the Lord Jesus did the sign in Cana, and went down
spiritually to Capernaum. He did not need to go physically. He used the parallel situation to
teach us this lesson that God’s life is not limited by space and time. He could go physically to
Capernaum any time he wanted to, and did so on the first occasion. But he had no need to in
order to do the work of God. He could do something in Capernaum from another location
simply by his word. The life in him was unlimited.
So we learn two lessons from this passage, that faith is taking God at his word without
visible evidence, and that the life of God that results from faith in not limited by space and
time. How we need to follow the example of this royal official! How we need to believe and
act on the word of the Lord Jesus! The result of such faith will be life, life that is not limited,
life that can work miracles and life that triumphs over death eternally. May God grant to us
such faith, and such life.
Austin-Sparks points out that the Law is the Jewish background of this story. “The
Old Testament speaking of the law brought death. ‘The letter killeth’ (that is, the letter of the
law). ‘The spirit giveth life’ (2 Cor. 3.6) and ‘the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and
are life.’ Jesus had only to speak and He reversed the effect of the law. The law could never
have done this…. Yes, Jesus is saying that the law of His mouth is life. The transition is so
clear – from death unto life in the Word.” (The On-High Calling, Vol. II, pgs. 13-14)

THE THIRD SIGN
John 5.1-47

Of the seven signs of Jesus recorded by John, the third takes place in the passage
before us now, 5.l-47. We have noted that John does not call these works of Jesus miracles,
though that is what they were, but signs, because his interest is not in the miracles for their
own sake, though they are important in themselves, but in what they signify. The primary
subject of the good news of John is life, God’s life, and the signs point to something of

significance about God’s life as manifested in the Lord Jesus. Such is the case with the verses
at hand. They show us the triumph of the life of God, on the surface over physical illness,
and more deeply, over religion or law.
1After these things there was a festival of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, having
five porticoes. 3

In these were lying a multitude of the sick, blind, lame, withered, [waiting

for the movement of the water,
4
for an angel of the Lord at a certain season was going
down into the pool and stirring the water. Then the first one getting in after the stirring of
the water became whole from whatever malady he was being held by.]
The first verse tells us that the incident took place in Jerusalem during a festival of the
Jews. We are not told which festival, but it does not matter in this case, for all the festivals
except Purim and Hanukkah were commanded by the Law, and thus we find the
background of the story in the keeping of a legal requirement. In addition, Jerusalem was the
capital city, the stronghold of the Law. The whole setting of this sign of Jesus speaks of the
Law.
Then we are told in v. 2 about a pool. This pool was located by the sheep gate and had
five porticoes or porches. The name of the pool is unclear, for the Greek manuscripts vary
greatly, with four or five possibilities, but Bethesda may be the best candidate. When the text
says the language was Hebrew, that actually means Aramaic in this context, the language of
the common people and of the Lord Jesus. In the five porticoes of this pool lay many sick,
blind, lame, and withered people, hoping to get into the pool first when the waters were
troubled and thus be healed. This picture further reinforces the impression of the Law. Water
in the Bible, as we have seen several times in John already, symbolizes the Holy Spirit as life,
and here we have a pool of water that promises life. If the sick can only get into it first, they
will be healed. The only problem is that the pool was only a symbol, not the real thing. It
could not deliver what it promised because it could not empower men to do what it
required. The Law promised life to the one who kept it, as we saw in an earlier chapter in
quoting Dt. 30. But no one was able to keep the Law, and the Law could impart no power,
and thus it could not deliver the life it promised. Such was this pool. It promised life, but it
could not deliver it, for the one who was to gain life by it had to get into it by his own efforts,
and that is a picture of the righteousness that comes by Law. It is non-existent. We can never
come into God’s life by our works, for we can never be good enough for God. We can never
keep the Law fully. That is what this pool pictures, the Law that promises life but cannot
deliver it. It is only a symbol of the Holy Spirit, not the real thing, and that is what Judaism
consisted of, symbols. In the Lord Jesus, though, the real thing had come, as we have seen
and as we will see further.
In addition, this pool was surrounded by five porticoes, full of disabled people. Those
five porticoes remind us of the five books of Moses, the Law, and what an apt picture they

are. Those porticoes, those five books of the Law, are full of spiritual cripples, people trying
to gain favor with God by their works and unable to do so because they cannot keep the Law
perfectly.
The last part of v. 3 and all of v. 4 do not appear in the most ancient Greek
manuscripts and in those generally regarded as the best manuscripts. Virtually all modern
scholars agree that this passage is not original and should not be included. Most modern
versions either leave it out or print it in brackets, as I have done here. The belief is that it was
added to explain the statement in v. 7 of the man who was healed about the water being
stirred. If the passage in question is not included, his words leave one puzzled as to what he
meant. It is not my purpose, or expertise, to argue such questions in the present work, so I
have included the passage, but marked it with brackets to show that it is generally believed
today that it should not be included. It does not affect our interpretation of the passage either
way.
5Now there was a certain man there having thirty-eight years in his sickness.
V. 5 continues the picture. The attention of the Lord Jesus was drawn to a man who
had been in his sickness thirty-eight years. What does that tell us? It reminds us of Dt. 2.14,
where we learn that the time of the wilderness wandering of the people of Israel, from the
time God refused to let them into the land until those who would enter crossed into it, was
thirty-eight years. Israel was in the wilderness forty years, but the first two were taken up
with arriving at Sinai, receiving the Law, and moving on to the border of Canaan. There the
twelve spies went in and brought back the report. Caleb and Joshua said that it was a good
land and that God would give it to them, but the other ten said that they were unable to take
it because of the walled cities and the giant peoples. Then the people rebelled against Moses
and wanted to return to Egypt, so God said that they would never enter the land, but would
die in the wilderness. So began the period of thirty-eight years of wandering in the
wilderness, trying to get into the Promised Land but never able to do so because they were
displeasing to God. Is that not a picture of man under the Law, man trying to come into
God’s life by his works but never able to do so? Thirty-eight years they wandered without
coming into life. They were spiritual cripples. Thirty-eight years this man tried to get into
that pool, and could never do it. He could not come into life by his own efforts. No man is
justified by works of the Law.
Austin-Sparks writes that the heart of the matter is in v. 5….” V. 5 says, “Now there
was a certain man there having ben thirty-eight years in his sickness.” Austin-Sparks asks,
What is the Jewish background? There is very little doubt that it was Israel’s
journey in the wilderness, the thirty-eight years of their wanderings. What cripples
they were! They could have made the journey from Egypt to Canaan in eleven days,
but it took them thirty-eight years and during that time they were really making no

progress at all. They were in bondage to their own self-life. They were impotent,
helpless cripples because the self-life was in the place of mastery. You have no need
for me to tell you how that self-life governed them in the wilderness. They never
looked at anything in the light of how it served God and how far it satisfied His
interests. They looked at everything in the light of how it affected them. All their
murmuring and rebellion was because they were not getting what they wanted. It was
never what God wanted. They were just a self-centered people, and the self-life was
their bed. They were never really able to get up and march straight forward into
God’s purpose.
Well, that is the Jewish background, and Jesus takes up an illustration of that
right in the presence of the Jews when He puts this man on his feet.
The members of the new heavenly Israel are people who have been delivered
from self-interest into God’s interest, who have been put on their spiritual feet by
Jesus Christ and are walking in strength in the day of the Lord. (The On-High Calling,
Vol. II, pgs 14-15)
Austin-Sparks takes as the key to this passage that the Jews who wandered in the
wilderness for thirty-eight years were in bondage to crippling self. I have taken a different
approach, that the key is the contrast between salvation by works and by faith. Far be it from
me to argue with Austin-Sparks, but I can see both emphases. They go together in fact. The
one who is trying to gain salvation by his own works is relying on self. Whether what one is
doing out of selfishness has a good goal or a bad one, it is still self.
6
Jesus having seen this one lying and having known that he has had much time already in
sickness, said to him, “Do you want to become well?” 7The one being sick answered him,
“Sir, I have no man that when the water may be stirred up he might put me into the pool,
but when I am coming another goes down before me.”
And the poor man had no friend. He had no one to help him into the water, into life.
Is that not the symbol of all of us? We were lost in sin and had no friend to help us into life.
We could not help ourselves and had no hope. Ah, but we do have a friend. Mt. 11.19 says
that the Lord Jesus is the friend of sinners. He is indeed that. He it is who helped us all into
the water of life. He put us into the pool. He put the pool into us! We have the Holy Spirit of
life because of his friendship.
8
Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your pallet and walk.”
The friendship of the Lord Jesus is shown by v. 8: he gave the man what he wanted

and desperately needed. He gave him the life, the healing, that the pool promised but could
not deliver. And he did it by a word, the essence of faith. Faith is believing the word of God

and acting on it. The Lord Jesus spoke a word and the man believed it and acted on it, and
the result was healing. He believed what the Lord Jesus said and tried to get up. And what
happened? He got up! That is a picture of our salvation. God has spoken the word of
salvation in Christ. If we believe his word and trust (acting on what we believe) in Christ, we
are saved. That is the good news. It is indeed good news that we do not have to try to gain
favor with God by our works. We already have favor with God in Christ. All we have to do
is accept it by faith. We come into the pool not by works but by faith.
9And immediately the man became well and took up his pallet and was walking.
This word of the Lord Jesus is powerful, as shown by v. 9. What he spoke happened.
He did not speak empty words. His very words conveyed power. The man was healed and
walked, and carried the pallet that had been his prison for thirty-eight years.
Now the Sabbath was on that day, 10so the Jews were saying to the one having been
healed, “It is the Sabbath and it is not permitted for you to take up your pallet.” But he
answered them, “The one having made me well, that one said to me, ‘Take up your pallet
and walk.’”
That is the point of the story of the sign that the Lord Jesus worked. In vs. 9b-10 the
scene changes. It happened to be a Sabbath day on which this work was done, so the healed
man was breaking the Law by carrying his pallet. The Jewish leaders noticed this and called
him to task about it. It is ironic that this was a violation of the Law, and yet it was the very
thing the Law had promised, life. But the Jews were so wrapped up in the Law that they
could not see this. The Law was given by God as a means to an end, not an end in itself. Paul
tells us in Gal. 3.21-29 that the Law was given to be our tutor unto Christ. That is, it was
given to show us that we could not keep it and needed something more. That something
more was Christ, who could empower us to do what the Law commanded. The Law could
require but could not empower. Christ could empower. Thus he was what the Law was all
about. But the Jews had made the Law an end in itself, and they could not recognize the one
who fulfilled it, who brought what it promised and pointed to. They missed the whole point
of what they were wrapped up in.
When the Jews had told the man that it was unlawful for him to carry his pallet on the
Sabbath, he had replied that the one who made him well had told him to carry it. That is, the
one who can deliver what the Law promised has authority over the Law. As Paul puts it in
Col. 2.16-17, Christ is the Sabbath. Sabbath means ceasing, that is, rest from work. The
Sabbath is rest. The truth conveyed by the Old Testament Sabbath is a ceasing from trying to
gain salvation by works and gaining it by resting in Christ by faith. The Sabbath is a spiritual
matter, not a matter of days of the week. Breaking the Sabbath is not working on Saturday or

Sunday. It is trying to gain salvation by works rather than by resting in Christ who is the
Sabbath.
We saw in an earlier chapter that 2 Cor. 3.6 shows us that the Law is a ministry of
death. It promises life but cannot deliver it because it cannot empower people to keep its
requirements. Thus it only condemns people. But Christ brought a ministry of life. He was
able to empower people to do what God required, and thus he was able to bring in the life
that the Law promised. One who could do such a thing had authority over the Law. He
embodied the Law. He could tell a man to carry his pallet on the Sabbath day because the
man had found his rest in the Sabbath and the day no longer meant anything. This was a
ministry of life. The Law could not get the man into the pool. The Lord Jesus did. He is Lord
of the Sabbath. He is the Sabbath.
Austin-Sparks reminds us that the Sabbath also refers to God’s rest: “God has reached
the end of His works in His Son, is satisfied and at rest. Christ is the sum total of all the
works of the Father. Out of that fullness of God in Christ we, who have labored under the
bondage of the law, may now walk in the rest of being set free by faith in Jesus Christ.” He is
the Sabbath. (We Beheld His Glory, Vol. I, p. 96, or
https://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/001509.html) (third from last paragraph).
12They asked him, “Who is the man the one having said to you, ‘Take up and walk”? 13But
the one having been healed did not know who he was, for Jesus left, a crowd being in the
place. 14After these things Jesus found him in the Temple and said to him, “Look, you
have become well. Don’t sin anymore, that nothing worse may happen to you.”
In v. 12 the Jews asked the man who had told him to carry his pallet, but he did not
know, for the Lord Jesus had not identified himself and had slipped away in the crowd. Then
in v. 14 Jesus found the man in the Temple and gave him a very important lesson. He told
him not to sin any more so that nothing worse would happen to him. It is a human tragedy
to be sick, blind, lame, or withered but it is far worse to be spiritually sick, blind, lame, or
withered. The body will pass away anyway, even if healed, but the spirit lasts forever. How
tragic it would be to be physically whole and spiritually lost for eternity.
15The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one having made him well, 16and
because of this the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he did these things on a Sabbath.
17But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until, now and I also am working.”
18Because of this therefore the Jews were seeking him the more to kill him, because not
only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he also said God was his own Father, making
himself equal with God.
V. 15 says that after the man had thus learned who it was who had healed him, he
went and told the Jews. John does not tell us why. Whether he did so by way of witness or as

telling on the Lord Jesus out of fear of the Jews, or for some other reason, we do not know.
Whatever his motivation, his report caused the hatred of the Jews to be transferred from him
to the Lord. They opposed him for working on the Sabbath by healing the man. The Lord
Jesus replied that his Father worked on the Sabbath, and he only did what his Father did.
True, God did rest from his work of creation on the Sabbath, but he works to sustain his
creation and he works to redeem it, for it has fallen. That is what the Lord Jesus does, exactly
as his Father does.
This statement by Jesus gave the Jews greater reason to oppose him. It was bad
enough to break the Sabbath by making a sick man well, but now he had blasphemed, as
they saw it. He had made himself equal with God. Two matters stand out. One is the
blindness of the Jews. The Lord Jesus brought the very thing the Law they were so devoted
to promised, and they wanted to kill him for it. The other is the divinity of Christ, one of the
prominent themes of John. This miracle was, after all, a sign. It pointed to something beyond
itself. It tells us that this man, and he was a man, who worked this sign was more than a
man. He was God in the flesh.
19Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Amen, amen I say to you, the
Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he may see the Father doing, for the
things that one may do, these things also the Son likewise does. 20For the Father loves
[phileo] the Son and shows him all things which he himself does, and he will show him
greater works than these, that you may marvel.
That, then, is the story. Vs. 19-47 consist of a long discourse of the Lord Jesus in
response to the opposition of the Jews. He begins by describing the source of his activity. He
did only what he saw his Father doing. In this case, he saw him working on the Sabbath to
sustain and redeem, so he did the same. This truth of the origin of the words and works of
the Lord Jesus in God is an important theme in John. Over and over he quotes the Lord Jesus
as saying that he did only his Father’s will, only what he saw him doing, only what he was
told to do. The Lord Jesus was fully man and lived as a man, but he did so in complete
obedience to his Father. This contrasts with the Jews. They obeyed their tradition even when
it meant that a sick man could not be healed. They had religion. Jesus had life. That is the
difference.
When the Lord Jesus said that the Father loves the Son, the Greek word used by John
is phileo. Most Christians are aware that there are several Greek words for love and that agape
(the noun; agapao is the verb) is the primary word used in the New Testament for God’s love.
Phileo (the verb; philos is the noun) refers more to friendship. While the Son is in submission
to the Father, and has been from eternity and will be to eternity, they are nonetheless equal
as Jn. 5.18 shows, and also Jn. 1.1 and Phil. 2.6. There is something interesting about
connecting this word philos/phileo with making known what one is doing. In Jn. 15.15, the
Lord Jesus says, “I no longer call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is

doing, but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from my Father I have
made known to you,” and in Gen. 18.17, God asked, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am
about to do?” For Abraham was called the friend of God (2 Chron. 20.7, Is. 41.8, Ja. 2.23).
There is an aspect of the relationship of genuine friends that causes the sharing of the deepest
plans, something that might not be done in other relationships, even father and son. God the
Father and Jesus the Son are also friends in the deepest sense of the word, and the Father
shares with the Son what he is doing. A great blessing to us in this regard is that we have the
opportunity to be what the disciples were in Jn.15.15: friends of our Lord, and has he not
made known to us in his word what he is doing?
21For as the Father raises the dead and makes alive, so also the Son makes alive whom he
will. 22For not even the Father judges anyone, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23that
all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. The one not honoring the Son is not
honoring the Father, the having sent him. 24Amen, amen I say to you that the one hearing
my word and having faith in the one who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into
judgment, but has passed from death to life. 25Amen, amen I say to you that the hour is
coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those having
heard will live. 26For as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to the Son to have
life in himself, 27and he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of
Man. 28Don’t marvel at this, for an hour is coming in which all those in the tombs will hear
his voice, 29and they will come out, those having done the good things, to a resurrection of
life, but those having done the bad things, to a resurrection of judgment.
We noted that the Jews had religion while Jesus had life. This matter of life comes to
the fore in the next verses, 21-29. The story of the healing of the sick man at the pool showed
us the power of the life of God over disease, and symbolically over the spiritual disease of
legalism. Now the Lord Jesus draws out this truth. He affirms that the life of God triumphs
over every manifestation of death, whether it be physical disease, physical death, or spiritual
disease or death. Just as the Lord Jesus was able to call the sick man off from his earthbound
pallet to walk, he is able to call the physically dead back to life in resurrection, and the
spiritually dead into eternal life. God had told Adam that if he ate of the tree he would die.
Adam ate, and death has worked in every way in man and in the world ever since. What are
natural disasters but a working of death in the creation? What is disease but a working of
death in the physical body? What is the insolubility of all the world’s problems of war,
pollution, drugs, economic crisis, crime, and on and on but a working of death in this sin sick
world? It is all death. Death has reigned over this world and its inhabitants since the fall. But
God has the remedy: his life in Christ. He can even call those dead in a religion of law into
his life.

100

30I cannot do anything from myself. As I hear I judge and my judgment is just, for I
am not seeking my will, but the will of the one having sent me.
V. 30 is a repeat of vs. 19-20, except that the Lord Jesus adds the note of judgment. He
is the one who brings 1ife, and those who reject this life to hold to the very Law that
promised life will come under judgment. But this is not the decision of the Lord Jesus. He is
hearing his Father in speaking a word of judgment on dead religion.
31If I testify concerning myself, my testimony is not true.
The Lord Jesus closes this discourse with a summoning of witnesses to the truth of
what he says and of who he is. In doing so he is only following the Law that his opponents
clung to so tenaciously. Dt. 19.15 says, “One witness is not enough to convict a man accused
of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the
testimony of two or three witnesses.” That is a wise fundamental of the Jewish Law, and it is
still a fundamental of our law today. If there is only one witness, it is one man’s word against
another’s and nothing can be decided. What a terrible society we would live in if one could
simply accuse someone of something and have him judged by the law. No one would be safe
from a vengeful person. But the law requires two or three witnesses. So it was in the day of
the Lord Jesus, and indeed that is the basis of our own law.
In obedience to the Law of his opponents, Jesus calls not two or three but four
witnesses to testify on his behalf. First he testifies to himself in v. 31. We would only expect a
person to testify to himself, and thus a person’s own testimony to himself carries no weight.
The Lord Jesus recognizes this when he says that if he bears testimony to himself, his witness
is not true. He does not mean that he is lying, but that his testimony is not admissible as
evidence in a court of law. Nonetheless he does bear witness to himself, and now he calls
other witnesses to corroborate his story.
32There is another testifying concerning me and I know that the testimony which he gives
concerning me is true.
The first is God, in v. 32, though the Lord Jesus only mentions him in this verse. He
will show how God testifies for him in later verses.
33You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth, 34but I am not receiving the
testimony from man, but these things I say that you may be saved. 35That one was the
lamp, the one burning and shining, and you were willing to rejoice for an hour in his
light.

101

Vs. 33-35 show the witness of John the Baptist. John was a lamp who bore the Light.
We saw in Jn. 1.8 that John was not the Light, but only one who bore witness to it. Now the
Lord Jesus says that he was a lamp. A lamp is not the light, of course, but only bears the
light. So it was with John. John bore witness to the Lord Jesus: “Behold, the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world.” Yet John was only a man, so his testimony does not
really matter up against God’s. Still, he was one who was visible to men and who was
anointed by God to bear witness to the Lord Jesus. Jesus does not really reed John’s
testimony. He is true whether John says so or not. It is what God says that matters. But John
did bear true witness to the Lord Jesus.
36But I have the testimony greater than John’s, for the works which the Father has given
me that I might complete them, the works themselves which I am doing testify concerning
me that the Father has sent me.

Tthe Lord returns to God as a witness in vs. 36-45. In v. 36, he points out that God
bears witness to him through his works. Jesus as a man did not have the power to do the
miracles he did. It was God who provided the power, and by providing it, God was
testifying to the truth of the Lord Jesus. God would not have backed him up with miraculous
power if he had been lying. Thus his works are a witness from God. This thought reminds us
of Jn. 3.2, where Nicodemus said to the Lord Jesus that he knew he had come from God
because he would not be able to do the signs he did unless God were with him. Nicodemus
saw something in the signs. He knew they were more than just miracles, that they pointed to
something. His understanding was limited, to be sure, but he knew that the works of the
Lord Jesus indicated that God was lending his witness to the truth of the Lord.
37And the Father having sent me, that one has testified concerning me. You have never
either heard his voice or seen his image, 38and his word you do not have abiding in you,
because whom that one sent, you do not have faith in this one. 39You search the Scriptures,
because you think to have eternal life in them, and these are they testifying concerning
me, 40and you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. 41I do not receive glory
from men, 42but I have known you, that you do not have the love [agape] of God in
yourselves. 43I have come in the name of my Father and you do not receive me. If another
come in his own name you will receive that one. 44How can you have faith receiving glory
from one another and you are not seeking the glory that is from the only God?
Then in vs. 37-45 the Lord Jesus says that God bears him witness through the
Scriptures. The whole of the Old Testament, the Jewish Bible, prepares the way for and
points to Jesus. Jesus is on the first page of Genesis: “And God said….” That is the Word of
God, which John shows us in his first chapter is Jesus. “Let us make man in our image….”

102

That is the Trinity. All the Old Testament institutions, the Law itself, the Tabernacle, the
priesthood, the sacrificial system, the festivals, speak of Christ and find their fulfillment in
him. The ark is Christ carrying us safely through the flood of judgment. The bronze snake is
Christ judged for our sins. We could go on and on. We are reminded of Luke 24.25-27, where
the Lord Jesus spoke to the two walking to Emmaus:
And he said to them, “O foolish and slow in heart to believe in all that the prophets
spoke. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?”
And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the
Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Yes, the Old Testament is about the Lord Jesus. Yet the Jews searched the Scriptures
trying to find eternal life, but they could not because they could not see the Lord Jesus in the
Old Testament and did not recognize him when he came. They had made the Law that God
had given them into a religion and the life had gone out of it. Now when the Life came, they
rejected him.
45Don’t think that I will accuse you to the Father. Moses is the one accusing you, in whom
you have hoped.

46For if you were believing Moses you would have been trusting in me,
for that one wrote concerning me. 47But if you do not believe the writings of that one, how
will you have faith in my speakings [rema]?”
The final witness that the Lord Jesus calls is Moses. He does so because Moses is the
one whom the Jews claimed to follow. Yet Moses himself testified to the Lord Jesus, as we
have already seen in noting some of the Old Testament pictures of Jesus. Moses wrote many
of these, and it was he who wrote that God would send a Prophet like himself to whom the
people should listen. That Prophet had arrived in the person of the Lord Jesus, but the Jews
who held to Moses rejected this one that Moses wrote about. Those five books of Moses that
the five porticoes of Bethesda symbolize are all about the Lord Jesus. They promised life but
produced only death because no one could keep them, but the one they prophesied could
and did bring life. Thus Moses testifies to the Lord Jesus and will be the standard of
judgment of the Jews. If they really believed Moses, they would have faith in Jesus, for
Moses wrote of Jesus.
Thus Jesus claims that he brings the life of God in the place of the dead religion of the
Jews. He symbolizes his claim by healing the sick man, a picture of man struggling under the
Law to get into the pool of life but never able to do so. Then he maintains the ability of the
life of God to triumph over every manifestation of death, including religion, and he calls
witnesses to verify his claims. The very life he claims to bring is one of those witnesses, for he
is able to do miraculous works, themselves manifestations of life. Another is the great
symbol of the Law himself, Moses. The man who gave the Law from God to the people saw

103

from afar and testified of one who would bring all that the Law promised but could not
deliver. He saw life, and he testified of it. May God grant us the grace to leave behind the
death of legalism and religion and to enter into the life of God. We do not need religion, like
the pool a symbol, for we have the real thing. We have the Lord Jesus. We have the water of
life, the Spirit of God, dwelling within us. Let us take up our pallets and walk!

THE BREAD OF LIFE
John 6.1-71

The sixth chapter of John contains two of the seven signs of the Lord Jesus recorded
by this evangelist, and out of these two miracles comes the Bible’s great chapter on spiritual
feeding, the discourse by the Lord on the Bread of life. Before dealing with the first sign of
this chapter, John sets the stage.
1After these things Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee, of Tiberias. 2Now a large
crowd was following him, for they were seeing the signs that he was doing on those who
were sick.
John tells us that the Lord Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, that is,
from the Capernaum area on the northwestern shore of the lake to a desert point farther
around the northern shore. We noted earlier that the Lord Jesus had been received in Galilee
(4.45), though rejected in Jerusalem (5.16-18). So it is in the present passage. The Lord Jesus
has just come from the conflict with the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, and now it is Galileans
who follow him around the lake. V. 2 reiterates what we saw in 4.45, that they followed him
because of the signs.
However, it appears that the crowds did not see the signs as signs, but only as mighty
works. These miracles did not signify anything to these people. They were not committed to
the person of the Lord Jesus, but only wanted the benefits of his work. Three responses to the
Lord Jesus stand out in the gospels. One is the opposition of the Jewish authorities. Another
is the genuine commitment, with however much lack of understanding, of the twelve. The
third is that of the crowds who flocked to the Lord Jesus. He was immensely popular at this
stage of his ministry, and we learn that he could not enter a city because of the crowds, but
had to go into open places to accommodate them, and that he had difficulty finding time to
eat a meal. Yet these crowds had not given their hearts to him. They wanted only the benefits
he was dispensing, and when it became clear what kind of Messiah he was to be and when
the cross began to loom on the horizon, these crowds disappeared. They wanted the healings
and the exorcisms and the feedings, but they wanted no part of the cross.
3Now Jesus went up into the mountain, and there he was sitting with his disciples.

104

V. 3 tells us that the Lord Jesus went up on to a mountain. This may seem at first only
an incidental statement, but a mountain in the Bible stands for something, and that fact is
important to our understanding of this passage. In Is. 2.2-3 we read,

In the last days, the mountain of I AM’s temple will be established as chief
among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.
Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of I AM, to the
house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his
paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of I AM from Jerusalem.
In telling us of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Dan. 2.35 says,

Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to
pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The
wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue
became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.
Finally, in the same passage, Dan. 2.44-45 continues,

In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will
never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those
kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the
meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands – a
rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.
From these passages we learn that in the Bible, a mountain stands for a kingdom.
When the Lord Jesus went up onto the mountain in Jn. 6.3, he was taking the place of a king.
He was symbolically declaring that he was the Messiah, the long awaited King of Israel. Yet
he intended to use this situation to teach what kind of king he would be. We will see the
lesson he wanted to teach as we go on with the passage.
4Now the Passover was near, the festival of the Jews.
V. 4 tells us that the Passover was at hand. The Passover was a one-day observance,
but it was followed immediately by a week-long festival called Unleavened Bread. The two
ran together, and both can be included in the name of either. One of the major features of this
festival season was the eating of unleavened bread, both at the meal and for the week
following. Leaven in the Bible symbolizes evil, so the eating of unleavened bread pictures
first the sinless life of the Lord Jesus, and then a turning away from evil and a walk in

105

holiness by his people. That is one of the lessons God taught Israel through these festivals.
Against this background, where the emphasis was very much on bread, the Lord Jesus
performed a miracle of physical feeding and then used it to teach about spiritual feeding.
This is the background of the teaching on the Bread of life.
5Therefore Jesus, having lifted up his eyes and having see that a large crowd was coming
to him, said to Philip, “Where may we buy loaves that these may eat?” 6He said this
testing him, for he himself knew what he was about to do. 7Philip answered him, “Loaves
worth two hundred denarii are not sufficient for these, that each one might receive a
little.” 8One of his disciples, Andrew the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, 9“There is a
little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these to so many?”
In v. 5, we come to the miracle story itself. It is of interest that this story is the only one
in the life of the Lord Jesus recorded by all four gospels. It is also of interest that John is the
only writer to name names. The others simply state that the disciples were involved. John
names Philip and Andrew as actors in the drama.
The Lord Jesus saw the great multitude, and knowing that they were in a desert place,
far from any food supply, asked Philip where they could buy bread to feed all these people.
This was one of those questions posed by the Lord Jesus, not to gain information, but to
draw the hearer into a deeper faith. He had a plan in mind. The King on the mountain was
going to rule over this situation of need, but, ever gracious, he did not rule for his own sake,
but for the benefit of others, both spiritually and materially, and in this instance, he wanted
Philip and the twelve to gain a spiritual understanding of his character.
Philip answered as we might expect, and as we surely would have, that two hundred
days’ wages would not be enough for all these to have even a little, much less be filled.
Andrew joined in the conversation with the information that there was a little boy there who
had five loaves and two fish, but he showed the same realism as Philip in asking what they
were to so many. Then the Lord Jesus showed that physical realism is sometimes
transcended by spiritual realism, by the power of God. Our situations may seem physically
hopeless, but they are never beyond the power of God.
The important point is not the amount of the resources available, but the power in the
hands of the Lord. This is the one who was the agent of creation, as John showed us in his
first chapter, that creation that came out of nothing. When nothing but God himself existed,
he thought of everything that now is and spoke it into existence, and that word that he spoke
was none other than the Son of God, the living Word. If he could make everything from
nothing, surely he was equal to a situation of need in which there were only meager
resources. He needs no resources! He was a step ahead in this story, for he had something to
work with. What a lesson this is for all of us. Who has not said that he has no talents and has
nothing to offer the Lord? We all feel small and useless to God at times, and the truth is that
we are small and useless. But that is not the point. The point is that the Lord Jesus can make

106

something out of nothing. He can feed five thousand with five small loaves of bread. The
important thing is that we put ourselves into the hands of the Lord Jesus. It is those hands,
not our resources, that matter. And how adequate those hands are!
10Jesus said, “Make the men recline.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men
reclined, the number about five thousand. 11Then Jesus took the loaves and having given
thanks distributed them to those reclining; likewise also of the fish, as much as they
wanted. 12Now when they were filled he said to his disciples, “Gather the fragments
having been left over that nothing be lost.” 13They gathered therefore, and they filled
twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those
who had eaten. 14Therefore the men, having seen the sign which he did, were saying,
“This is truly the prophet who is coming into the world.” 15Jesus therefore, knowing that
they were about to come and to take him by force that they might make him king, went
away again into the mountain himself alone.
Those five loaves and two fish were put into the hands of J the Lord esus, and what
blessing flowed from that surrender. He had the crowd to sit on the grass, then took the
loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to the five thousand men. And the supply did not
fail. Philip had worried that two hundred days’ wages would not be sufficient for so many to
have even a little, but John says that without any monetary expenditure, they were all filled.
God does not give sparingly. He gives fullness. So great was the abundance that there were
leftovers. The Lord Jesus told the disciples to take up the fragments so that nothing would be
lost, and there were twelve baskets of fragments, one for each disciple. Oh the fullness of
God!
There are so many incidental lessons in this story. We have already seen the point that
it is the hands of the Lord Jesus, not our smallness, that counts. Now we see, first, that
nothing is lost with the Lord. Sometimes things in our lives seem to be such a waste. It seems
as though we suffer things that have no point. We wonder why things happen the way they
do, and can find no answers. The problem is that we measure things from our limited
viewpoint in time and physical space. But the truth is that we are living in eternity and in a
spiritual realm. We just do not see these yet, except by faith. Something may appear to be a
loss in this life, but nothing is lost with God, and when we see eternity, we will see that thing
that appeared to be wasted gathered up by the Lord and used for his glory and our
upbuilding. We will see it laid up as treasure in Heaven. Have faith that nothing given to the
Lord is ever wasted, whatever the outward appearance may be.
Then we learn something from the twelve baskets. The number twelve is a number
signifying perfection in the Bible, and specifically, governmental perfection, and so the
perfection of the work of the Lord Jesus is emphasized, especially his reigning as King over
this situation from the mountain of v. 3. This is a complete work, and the authority of the

107

Lord Jesus is complete. Not only were the crowds filled, but there were twelve baskets of
fragments left over. God always has more than enough.
But there is more to these twelve baskets. This sign took place at the time of Passover,
so in a figurative sense this was a Passover meal. Of course, it is figurative, for the Passover
had to be kept in Jerusalem on a certain day of the year, and this was neither Jerusalem nor
the day. But we learn a valuable lesson from seeing this feeding as a Passover meal in a
symbolic sense. The Lord’s Supper was also a Passover meal, one that was eaten at the same
time that the Lord Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples just before his crucifixion. The
Supper was a fulfillment of the Passover, showing that the physical deliverance of Israel
from God’s Judgment of Egypt through the blood of the lamb was fulfilled spiritually in the
Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God. But the Lord’s Supper also pointed ahead to another meal, that
one that the Lord Jesus would eat with his own when he returns to claim his bride. Rev. 19.6-
9 tells us of the marriage supper of the Lamb when the Lord Jesus will again observe the
Passover with his people.
In Matt. 19.28 we read the response of the Lord Jesus to Peter’s statement that the
disciples had left all to follow him: “Amen I say to you that you who have followed me, in
the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, will also sit on twelve
thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” This feeding of the five thousand is a figurative
Passover meal that reminds us first of the Lord’s Supper, the fulfillment of the Passover, and
then of the marriage supper of the Lamb, when the twelve will take their thrones with their
Lord and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. There is a basket of leftovers for each disciple.
There is something left over for each of them, a throne in the millennial kingdom of God.
How much we see in this story of the feeding of the five thousand. And these are all
incidental meanings. The primary meaning of the story has to do with the life of God, which
we have seen to be the theme of this good news of John. What does this story have to do with
the life of God? It is about bread, the staff of life. The physical feeding of people is symbolic
of spiritual feeding, as the discourse of the Lord Jesus later in this chapter shows us, and
spiritual food is nothing other than the life of God ministered to the human spirit. What do
we learn about the life of God? We learn that it is all-sufficient. There is no situation in which
the life of God is inadequate. Are there five thousand men and only five loaves and two fish?
No matter, God can make everything out of nothing. His life is sufficient to maintain his
people in the spiritual barrenness of this world. This world is a desert spiritually, and we
would all fall away from the Lord and die spiritually if we were left to our own devices, but
we are not left alone. We have the supply of God here in this desert. He is able to nurture his
people in any situation.
The response of the crowds to this miraculous feeding was to believe that the Lord
Jesus was the Prophet who was to come, the Prophet 1ike Moses that Moses had predicted in
Dt. 18.15. Moses had fed the people manna in the wilderness and had predicted a Prophet
1ike himself to come. Now one has come who, like Moses, fed the people miraculously in the

108

desert. Who else could he be but the Prophet like Moses, for he had fed the people like
Moses?
They were right, of course, but their belief was not what the Bible means by faith.
They had no personal commitment to the Lord Jesus, as we have seen, but wanted only the
benefits of his ministry. The work of the Lord Jesus in feeding the five thousand was a sign,
recorded by John to inspire faith, but the crowds did not see the sign but only the mighty
work. They did not see that the Lord Jesus was the Son of God, but only that he was a
Prophet. He was a Prophet indeed, but he was so much more.
The result of this belief by the people was to decide to take the Lord Jesus by force and
make him king. The Jews looked for a Messiah, and they expected him to be a king who
would deliver them from Roman rule and establish an earthly kingdom of glory in Israel.
The Lord Jesus will indeed do that one day, but it was not yet his time. He was not willing to
accept kingship on this basis. He was the King, but it was not yet time to manifest it
outwardly.
We noted in considering v. 3 that the Lord Jesus’ going up onto the mountain was
symbolic of his kingship. He did indeed take the place of authority, but he had a lesson to
teach about his authority. That lesson was that he would be King only by giving his life. He
was not willing to claim the throne by miraculous works, but would do so by going to the
cross. After all, the sign he had just done concerned bread, and what good is bread if it is not
broken? A loaf may be beautifully shaped and browned, and we may admire it, but if it is
not broken and consumed, it will only grow moldy and stale. It will be of use to no one. The
Lord Jesus is the Bread of life, but he took the position that if he were not broken, he would
not fulfill his purpose. Thus he rejected the efforts of the crowds to make him king, and
withdrew to his mountain. He went back to the place of authority, showing that he is King,
but only on the basis of being broken bread.
Then John records the fifth sign of the Lord Jesus between the story we have just
considered and the discourse on it about spiritual feeding, and this fifth sign appears to have
little connection with the chapter it occurs in. It is not about bread or feeding, and seems to
be an interruption. But it does have a connection, as we will see later. For now, let us
consider the story itself. It is the miracle of walking on the water by the Lord Jesus.
16Now when it became evening his disciples went down to the sea, 17and having
gotten into a boat they were going over the sea to Capernaum. And darkness had already
come and Jesus had not yet come to them, 18and the sea was being stirred up by a great
wind blowing. 19Then having rowed about twenty-five or thirty stadia they saw Jesus
walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were afraid. 20Now he said to them,
“I AM; don’t be afraid.” 21Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and
immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

109

When the Lord Jesus withdrew to the mountain, the disciples set out in their boat for
Capernaum. As they rowed, a strong wind came up against them and they got into a
situation of danger on the sea. In this circumstance, they saw the Lord Jesus walking on the
water to them. Naturally they were afraid, but the Lord Jesus comforted them with the
words that it was he, and they took him into the boat. Then they were immediately at the
land to which they were going.
This miracle first of all shows us the power of God over nature and is important for
that reason. A Christian need not fear whatever may happen in the world of nature, for God
is Lord of nature. Of course, the spiritual application is obvious that he can also come to us
on the storms of life and take us safely to our destination. But remember that this was a sign,
not just a miracle worked for its own sake. It points to something beyond itself. To
understand what it points to, we need first to consider the sea in the Bible.
The sea has a twofold symbolic meaning in the Scriptures, and we will see both
meanings as we refer to a number of passages. First, think of the Flood in the Old Testament.
What was that but the sea made universal? Everything on the earth died. Only those in the
ark with their animals survived. Then recall the Red Sea. It was the Red Sea that blocked the
way of the Israelites from deliverance from the Egyptians. Ps. 69.1-2 says, “Save me, O God,
for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no
foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.” Then we read Ps. 107.23-
27:

Others went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters.
They saw the works of I AM, his wonderful deeds in the deep. For he spoke and
stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the skies and
went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away. They reeled and
staggered like drunken men; they were at their wits’ end.
From these passages we gather a picture of the sea as a place of danger, a place to be
feared, and so it was. We do not read of Israel being a seafaring people. They fished the
lakes, like Galilee, but we do not hear of them venturing out into the Mediterranean. Then
recall that in our consideration of Jn. 3.13, where the Lord Jesus spoke of ascending and
descending into and from Heaven, we quoted Dt. 30.13 and Rom. 10.7. Dt. 30.13 says, “Nor is
it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to
us so we may obey it?’” Paul quotes this verse in Rom. 10.7: “’Who will descend into the
abyss?’ that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.” But notice that he made a change. Instead
of “cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us,” it is, “’Who will descend into the abyss?’ that
is, to bring Christ up from the dead.” The sea came to be seen as a point of access to hades,
the abyss, the realm of the dead. Rev. 13.1, also written by John, tells us that John saw the
beast, Antichrist, coming up out of the sea. Recall that Antichrist will be killed and will come
back from the dead, from hades. He comes by way of the sea, an access point to hades.

110

This meaning continues in Dan. 7.3, but the second meaning also begins to emerge:
“Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.” This is Daniel’s

vision of the four beasts that symbolize four world empires, the Babylonian, the Medo-
Persian, the Greek, and the Roman. In the vision, the beasts came out of the sea. From this we

learn that the sea symbolizes the nations of the world. Rev. 13.1, just referred to, continues
this thought: “And I saw coming up from the sea a beast, having ten horns and seven heads,
and on his horns ten diadems, and on his heads, a name of blasphemy.” This is Antichrist,
and he comes out of the sea. That is, he arises from among the nations of the world, as well
as from the dead.
Perhaps the deciding verse in the whole series in Rev. 21.1: “I saw a new sky and a
new earth, for the first sky and the first earth had passed away, and the sea is no more.” Why
is the sea no more? Because this is God’s Heaven in which danger and death have been done
away with. The sea symbolizes danger and death and it will no longer exist in Heaven.
What does all this tell us about the walking of Jesus on the water? It tells us that this
one who had gone up into the place of authority on the mountain had authority over all that
the sea stands for. He rules over the nations of the world. He rules over spiritual evil. He
rules over death. He can walk on these waves, and they are powerless to swallow him up.
Remember that John is about life, and we learn from this story that the life of God is ruling
over whatever may assault his people, whether it be the direct assault of our spiritual enemy
Satan or the opposition of the Satan-inspired nations of this wicked world. It does not matter.
We have within us the life of God, the life that reigns over everything, including evil.
What is the connection of this sign with that of the feeding of the five thousand? The
connection is v. 15. There we are told that those who were fed miraculously, convinced
thereby that the Lord Jesus was the Prophet predicted by Moses, wanted to take him by force
and make him king. The Lord Jesus was indeed King, as the second miracle, the walking on
the water, shows us. He was able to walk on nature, on the world, on spiritual evil, on death
snd hades, and they were not able to swallow him up. But the first sign shows us the kind of
King he was to be. He would be King only as broken bread. That is, he would go to the
crown by way of the cross. He would be the King who laid down his life for his people. He
would not ascend the throne because he was able to perform miracles but because he had
died for his people in obedience to God. So the walking on the water shows us the King. The
feeding of the five thousand shows us the nature of the King and of his kingship.
22On the next day the crowd having stood on the other side of the sea saw that there
was not another small boat there except one, and that Jesus did not get into the boat with
his disciples, but his disciples went away alone. 23Other small boats came from Tiberias
near the place where they ate the bread, the Lord having given thanks. 24When therefore
the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the
small boats and went to Capernaum seeking Jesus. 25And having found him across the sea
they said to him, “Rabbi, when have you come here?” 26Jesus answered them and said,

111

“Amen, amen I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of
the loaves and were filled.
Vs. 22-25 indicate that the crowd, while they did not see the Lord Jesus walking on the
water, perceived that there was something remarkable about his being back in Capernaum
the next morning, for they knew that the disciples had left in the boat without him and that
there was only one boat, yet here he was in Capernaum. How did he get there? Again the
people were impressed by a remarkable feat, but had no heart commitment to the Lord Jesus,
so in v. 26 he did not answer their question directly by satisfying their curiosity as to how he
got to Capernaum, but went to the heart of their spiritual need. They saw the signs, but they
were not signs to them. They did not signify anything beyond the physical miracle. They
liked being fed and wanted more of it. The Lord Jesus knew that they were “voting their
pocketbooks,” as we would say. Their interest was not in the spiritual message that he
brought, but in the benefit he was dispensing. He used this situation to launch into his
discourse on spiritual feeding.
27Don’t work for the food that perishes, but the food remaining to eternal life, which the
Son of Man will give you, for the Father, God, set his seal on this one.” 28Therefore they
said to him, “What should we do that we may be working the works of God?” 29Jesus
answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you should have faith into the
one that one sent.”
He began in v. 27 by telling the crowd to work for the food of eternal life. They
responded in v. 28 by asking what they must do to work the works of God. The form of these
statements is revealing of the situation. Judaism was the religion of the Law, of works. The
whole thought of the people was that they could gain favor with God by being good enough,
by their works, so Jesus began by telling them to work, and they responded in the same
mode of thought. But his answer to their question showed them the nature of the good news
when he told them in v. 29 that the work of God is to have faith in the Lord Jesus. The work
that gains favor with God is not work at all, but faith. Paul wrote that we have been saved by
grace through faith, not by works (Eph. 2.8-9). Of course, faith in this statement of the Lord
Jesus is not, as we have seen, intellectual acceptance of a fact, but heart commitment. The
work that gains favor with God is not keeping an external Law, but giving oneself to the
Lord Jesus, the one God has sent. And further, such faith will issue in works (James 2), but
they will not be an effort to gain salvation, but the result of salvation.
30Therefore they said to him, “What sign then do you do that we may see and believe in
you? What work do you do? 31Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written,
‘He gave them bread from Heaven to eat.’” [Ps. 78.24]

112

In v. 30, the people reply that they are willing to believe in the Lord Jesus if he will do
some sign to prove himself. It is hard to know what to make of this question. The Lord Jesus
has just fed five thousand with five loaves and two fish and walked on the water, in addition
to the three other recorded signs and many signs not recorded in John. The people who now
demand a sign had concluded from the feeding that the Lord Jesus was the Prophet
predicted by Moses and wanted to make him king. It is just the old story of the worldly mind
of man. Man does not want to believe without proof. Man says that seeing is believing.
Moses gave them something to see: he fed them manna in the wilderness. Thus they believed
him. Perhaps the problem with the Lord Jesus was that he fed them only once and was not
willing to do so every day, as Moses had done, and was now trying to get them to see the
spiritual significance of what he had done. They were not interested in the spiritual
significance. They wanted their stomachs filled.
32Therefore Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen I say to you, Moses has not given you the
bread from Heaven, but my Father gives you the true Bread from Heaven. 33For the Bread
of God is the one coming down from Heaven and giving life to the world.” 34They said
therefore to him, Lord, always give us this bread.”
The Lord Jesus pointed out to them in v. 32 that it was not Moses who had given them
manna. He was only the human instrument. God had given the manna, and he also gives the
bread of the new era that the Lord Jesus is bringing in. That bread is spiritual, from Heaven,
as v. 33 shows. The manna appeared, from where the people knew not. It was there when
they arose in the morning. The spiritual bread that the Lord Jesus spoke of is from Heaven,
not the sky, but Heaven. It is from God. It gives life to the world.
The people, ever wanting the benefits without commitment to the Lord Jesus, liked
the idea of this bread from Heaven and asked for a continual supply of it. How great that
would be, to be able to quit work and just have bread appear from Heaven every day! They
still do not see the spiritual nature of what the Lord Jesus is getting at and think that he is
offering, like Moses, to feed them physically every day.
This verse 32 is the verse that Austin-Sparks says is the Jewish background of this
chapter. “Right in the presence of the Jews, Jesus is saying: ‘The bread of God is that which
cometh down out of heaven, and giveth life unto the world … I am the bread of life.’” (vs. 32, 33, 35)
He adds,

With John’s extensive context of the manna in the wilderness covering seventy-
one verses there is one issue which plainly arises. It is the issue of divine sustenance in

humanly impossible conditions. That this matter is taken out of the natural into the
super-natural realm is clear. (The On-High Calling, Vol. II, p.16)

113

Just as the manna from Heaven was “divine sustenance in humanly impossible
conditions,” so was the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, and so is
the spiritual feeding of his people by the Lord Jesus as they “eat my flesh and drink my
blood.” (v. 54) This seems to be an obvious reference to the taking of the Lord’s Supper, but it
is also a reference to the Lord’s people feeding on him spiritually as he is the spiritual Bread
of life, through reading and study of his word, fellowship with him and his people, and faith
in him for spiritual sustenance.
35Jesus said to them, “I AM the Bread of life. The one coming to me will not hunger, and
the one who having faith into me will never thirst.
In v. 35, the Lord Jesus made the point clear. He said that he is the Bread of life. One
cannot get the benefits of Jesus without getting Jesus. He does not give blessings. He gives
himself. He is, not has, what we need. The author of our gospel, John, did not write in his
first epistle, “God has love,” but, “God is love” (1 Jn. 4.16). Those who want the benefits of
the ministry of the Lord Jesus must first of all take him by having faith in him. Again, that
means heart commitment. This shows the spiritual nature of what the Lord Jesus was getting
at, for one cannot take a person physically.
Further, the Lord Jesus revealed his divinity by saying, “I AM the Bread of life.” We
saw earlier that I AM is the Old Testament name of God, and that Jesus used it repeatedly in
the gospel of John to declare that he was none other than God in the flesh. He came to reveal
what God is like, and he shows us that our God is the food of his people. Our God is the God
who is broken bread. Most gods use their people for their own benefit. Our God is our food.
He is broken bread for us, giving his life for us. We need spiritual food for our spirits as well
as physical food for our bodies and psychological food for our souls, and our God is that
spiritual food. What blessed people we are! Blessed be the name of the Lord!
The real point of this chapter is now coming out. It is first that we need spiritual food
and then that that food is the Lord Jesus himself. We feed on him. He does not give us bread.
He is our bread. How we feed on him will be seen as we continue.
36But I said to you that you have seen me and you do not have faith. 37All that the Father
gives me will come to me, and the one coming to me I will not cast out, 38for I have come
down from Heaven not that I may do my will, but the will of the one having sent me.
39This is the will of the one having sent me, that of all that he has given me I should lose
none of it, but I should raise it up at the last day. 40For this is the will of my Father, that
everyone seeing the Son and having faith into him may have eternal life, and I will raise
him up at the last day.”
In vs. 36-40 the Lord Jesus pointed out that not all would receive this message. It was
a spiritual message and they were earthbound. All they perceived was the manna and the

114

bread. But God has given the Lord Jesus those who will receive his message and have faith in
him. This does not mean that God has predestined some for salvation and others for
condemnation, for the Bible is clear that whosoever will may come (Acts 2.21, Rom. 10.13).
But God knows who will come to the Lord Jesus and he has given those to him and willed
that the Lord Jesus lose none of them. V. 37 is one of the great promises of the Bible: the Lord
Jesus will cast out no one who comes to him. The Savior is waiting with open arms for all
who will respond.
41Therefore the Jews were complaining about him, because he said, “I AM the
Bread come down from Heaven,” 42and they said, “Is this not Jesus the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from
Heaven?’”
The earthbound nature of the Jewish leaders is further revealed in vs. 41-42. They
could not see the spiritual nature of what the Lord Jesus was getting at. To them he was only
a man. They knew his name, Jesus, the name normally used in the Bible for Jesus when his
humanity is meant, as opposed to Christ or some combination using Lord or Christ when his
divinity or ascended position is referred to. They knew who his parents were. How could he
be from Heaven? All they could see was the physical.
43Jesus answered and said to them, “Don’t complain among yourselves. 44No one can come
to me unless the Father having sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
45It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ [Is. 54.13] Everyone
having heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46Not that anyone has seen the
Father except the one being from God. This one has seen the Father. Amen, amen I say to
you, the one having faith has eternal life.
The Lord Jesus made a very important revelation is vs. 43-46. He had already said that
those whom God had given him would come to him. Now he said that those who have a
heart for God are the ones who come to the Lord Jesus. One may be religious and still be far
from God. God is not looking for those who want to go through some religious requirements
and be pronounced acceptable to God, but for those who want to know him, whatever the
cost. These will hear from God. That is, God will direct them to the Lord Jesus. V. 45, quoting
Is. 54.13, says that these will be taught by God. The teaching of God is not formal theological
training, such as the Jews had. That is head knowledge (the soul). The teaching of God is the
speaking of God to the heart and the dealing of God with the flesh. One knows God in his
spirit, not in his soul. We come to know God through the experience of the dealings of God
in life, not through learning information from a book or a professor. Such learning has value,
but it will not result in knowing God. Such information can be gained by our own efforts, but
God is known only by revelation. To know God, one must be taught by God, and that comes

115

only as he deals with the flesh and makes himself known through the fellowship of his
sufferings (Phil. 3.10). The teaching of God is not seeing him with the physical eye, as the
Jews demanded in Jn. 6.30, but knowing him in the heart. It is, as v. 47 shows, faith, heart
commitment.
48I AM the Bread of life. 49Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and they died. 50This is
the Bread coming down from Heaven that one may eat of it and not die. 51I AM the living
Bread having come down from Heaven. If anyone eat of this Bread he will live into the
age, and the Bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
The Lord Jesus reiterated in v. 48 that he was the Bread of life, and then went or in vs.
49-51 to show that the manna of the Old Testament was only a picture. Those who ate it died
physically. The Lord Jesus is the reality, not a picture. Those who eat him spiritually will not
die spiritually. He is the fulfillment of what the manna symbolized. He is spiritual food.
52Then the Jews were arguing among themselves saying, “How can this one give us
his flesh to eat?” 53Therefore the Lord Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen I say to you, unless
you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you. 54The one
eating my flesh and drinking my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last
day,
55for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56The one eating my flesh and
drinking my blood abides in me and I in him. 57As the living Father sent me and I live
because of the Father, the one eating me, that one will also live through me. 58This is the
Bread having come down from Heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. The one eating this
Bread will live into the age.” 59These things he said in a synagogue, teaching in
Capernaum.
Vs. 52-59 are probably a prophetic reference by the Lord Jesus to the Lord’s Supper,
but not as a 1iteral eating of his flesh and blood or as a sort of magic, whereby we are
somehow safeguarded by the fact that we ate some bread and drank some wine. That means
nothing to God as a physical act. It is the attitude of our hearts that matters. The Lord’s
Supper is a physical symbol of spiritual feeding. We feed or the Lord Jesus spiritually. The
Lord’s Supper shows that that feeding is based on the fact that the Lord Jesus is broken bread
and poured out wine. He gave his life for us. He died that we might live.
60Many therefore of his disciples, having heard, said, “This word is hard. Who can
listen to it?” 61But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were complaining about
this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? 62Then what if you should see the Son
of Man ascending to where he was formerly?

116

This chapter is a turning point in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Up to this time he had
been immensely popular with the crowds because of his miracles, but now he is beginning to
reveal the spiritual significance of his works and the spiritual demands he is making. He is
showing that he will not claim an earthly throne and bring earthly glory, not until he has
endured the cross, and that his followers, like him, must also be broken bread. Because of
this, some began to turn away. The popularity of the Lord Jesus began to wane as he
revealed what was really in the hearts of those with whom he had been so popular. V. 60
shows the beginning of the turn in that direction by the crowds: “This word is hard. Who can
listen to it?” What was hard was The Lord’s claim to have come from Heaven with a spiritual
message. They could not grasp the spiritual but saw only the physical, and they wanted only
earthly benefits. But the Lord Jesus, knowing that he would ascend back to Heaven, and that
some of those standing there would witness the ascension, asked what they would do if they
did saw it. He prophesied that his descent from Heaven would be verified by his ascent back
there.
63The Spirit is the one giving life. The flesh profits nothing. The speakings [rema] that I
have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
V. 63 is one of the pivotal statements of the Bible. The Jews were totally wrapped up
in the physical and the earthly, but the Lord Jesus declared that it is not the physical manna
giving life to human bodies that matters. They will die anyway. It is the Spirit giving life to
our spirits by the Bread of life that matters. And it is the word of God that is the means of
receiving this life. This statement gets at the question raised earlier as to how we feed on the
Lord Jesus. He is our spiritual food, but how do we feed on him? His words are spirit and
life. What does that mean?
We have already seen that there are two Greek words for “word,” logos and rema, and
that logos refers primarily to the written word while rema has to do mainly with the spoken
word. The Bible is the written word of God. It is true whether it means anything to us or not.
But when God brings some passage of Scripture alive to us, that is logos becoming rema and
that is what we need. The word that the Lord Jesus used in Jn. 6.63 when he said that his
words are spirit and life was rema. We need to hear God speak to our hearts in a 1iving way.
It is important to understand that God will not speak anything to us that does not
agree with the written word, and thus it is necessary for us to study and know the Bible so
that we may test what we think we hear. Satan can speak to us, too, and if we do not know
the Bible, he can mislead us. In addition, it is his written word that God will bring to life to
us. The Lord Jesus himself said, in the fourteenth chapter of John, that the Holy Spirit would
call to our remembrance what he has said to us, but if we have not read the Bible and learned
what he has said, how can the Spirit call it to remembrance? We need to be faithful to the
written word, that God may take that logos and make it rema. That is how we feed on the

117

Lord Jesus, by hearing from God in a living way as he makes his word living to us. When
something leaps from the page into our hearts, that is spiritual food, and what a feast it is!
God may also speak something living to us that is not actually Scripture, such as
direction for our lives. It is very important when we hear these words in our hearts that we
think are from God that we take time to pray about them and even get the counsel of others
to make sure they are words from God. It is easy for us to deceive ourselves into hearing
something we want to hear, and Satan, of course, is the master deceiver.
There are other aspects of spiritual feeding, such as fellowship with God’s people and
doing the will of God (Jn. 4.34), but these are based on his word. It is the word of God that is
the basis of our feeding on the Lord Jesus. How vital it is that we spend time daily in the
Scriptures. “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word [rema] that comes from the
mouth of I AM” (Dt. 8.3). Notice that Matthew’s translation into Greek of Dt. 8.3 uses the
word rema for that which proceeds from the mouth of I AM.” It is both his written word, in
Deuteronomy, and his spoken word, spoken by the Lord Jesus at his temptation (Mt. 4.4).
The Greek Old Testament also uses rema.
64But there are some of you who do not have faith.” For Jesus knew from the beginning
who those were not having faith and the one betraying him. 65And he said, “For this
reason I have said to you that no one can come to me except it be given him from the
Father.” 66From this time many of his disciples went back and were no longer walking
with him.
In vs. 64-65 the Lord Jesus said that not all who followed him had faith in him. That is,
they may have believed that he was a miracle worker, but they did not have commitment of
heart to him. Some opposed him. Some only wanted the benefits of what he was doing. V. 66
shows the truth of what the Lord Jesus said in vs. 64-65: many of his disciples left him. There
were more than twelve disciples. Many looked to the Lord Jesus as their Rabbi, but they
could not accept the spiritual nature of his message or his claim to be the Messiah while
refusing to fulfill their expectations as to the Messiah. He would not be an earthly king with
earthly glory, not yet, and they would not follow him.
67Therefore Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away? No.” 68Simon Peter
answered him, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the speakings [rema] of eternal life,
69and we have had faith and have known that you are the Holy One of God.”
Vs. 67-69 show us those who did truly have faith. Peter, as usual, spoke for the rest,
and asked where else they could go. If the Lord Jesus did not have the answers to life, who
did? No one! That is true today, is it not? Hinduism does not have any answers. Look at the
condition of India. Islam has no answers. Their “god” is behind all the hatred and violence in
the Middle East and even orders their children to cross the mine fields to destroy the mines

118

so the soldiers will not be hurt by them or to wear suicide vests to kill soldiers or innocent
civilians. Communism has no answers. It is everywhere acknowledged now to be an
economic failure, and anywhere there is opportunity for people in communist nations to
leave, they do so in droves. Indeed, they risk their lives to leave when there is no legal
opportunity. Humanism has no answers. That Satanic philosophy is ruling the world now,
and there is nothing but crisis on every hand. Whether we look at economics, education,
crime, health care, parent-child relations, respect for law, or any other aspect of society, all
we see is crisis. Man cannot solve his problems. If the Lord Jesus does not have the answers,
who does? No one does. But, thank God, he does have them. He is the answer. He has the
words of eternal life. He has the words for this life! He is the holy one of God.
70Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?”
71Now he was speakimg of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, for this one was going to betray
him, one of the twelve.
Such was the confession of Peter and the others. Yet even among these was a devil.
The Lord Jesus knew that one of his own would betray him, one who, like the Jews, was
earthbound. Judas was motivated spiritually by Satan, but from a historical viewpoint, his
betrayal of the Lord Jesus was probably motivated by a desire to force the Lord Jesus to fight
for an earthly kingdom. Judas wanted the earthly glory that the Jews thought the Messiah
would bring and he probably thought that the Lord Jesus would be the one of his dreams.
When he refused to take an earthly kingdom, Judas sought to force his hand by betraying
him. If they came to arrest him, surely he would fight. When the Lord Jesus submitted to
arrest and the cross became inevitable, Judas’ heart was broken with regret, but not with
repentance, and he took his own life. Such is the end of all things earthly. They all come to
death, and in the end it is self-destruction. Only in the Lord Jesus do we find life.
How do we conclude this wonderful passage on spiritual feeding? First, let us just say
that Jn. 3 shows us how to get spiritual life. We get it by being born again, by the entrance of
the Holy Spirit into our spirits to make them alive toward God. Jn. 6 shows us how to sustain
spiritual life. We nourish it by feeding on the Lord Jesus through his word. It is not religious
observance, but fellowship with the Lord Jesus, that sustains the life of God in us.
Then we should note again the spiritual nature of the feeding this chapter deals with.
One of the major characteristics of John, as we saw in our introduction, was that the Lord
Jesus came to bring the spiritual fulfillment of the material things of the Old Testament. In
this chapter he is the spiritual fulfillment of the manna. In the Old Testament, God fed his
people in the wilderness with manna. Now God feeds his people spiritually in the
wilderness of this world with his Son, the living Word. This shows us that not only is the
spiritual the issue in this chapter, but the essence of that spiritual matter is the Lord Jesus
himself. He is our Bread. We feed on him. We do not need something that he gives us. The
Jews wanted only the bread that he was dispensing. But he is the Bread. It is he that we need.

119

Finally, this chapter shows us the nature of our God. He is broken bread. What we
need is eternal life, but that kind of life is resurrection life, life that has conquered death, but
resurrection is possible only from death. Our God took that step for us. He died that we
might have resurrection life. More than anything else, this great chapter shows us that God is
love, for it shows us that he is broken bread. He said that he who would be greatest of all
must be servant of all. In the end, God himself is servant of all, giving his life for us, and he is
greatest of all. May we recognize his greatness and his worthiness of praise, and may we
offer ourselves to be, like him, broken bread, that he might use us to feed multitudes.

RIVERS OF LIVING WATER
John 7.1-52

1And after these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he was not wanting to
walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him.
The first verse of Jn. 7 repeats a theme we have noted several times already, namely,
that the Lord Jesus was unwilling to force the issue with the Jews and bring about his death
before God’s time, and therefore stayed in Galilee. His hour had not yet come. Thus we find
him in Galilee at the beginning of this chapter.
2Now the festival of the Jews, Tabernacles, was near.
Then v. 2 tells us that the Festival of Tabernacles was at hand, and this festival forms
the background not only of this chapter, but of chapters 8-10 as well. Because of the
importance of it for this section of John, we will briefly outline the major aspects of
Tabernacles. The Jews had seven annual festivals. All the men of Israel were commanded to
appear before the Lord in Jerusalem at three of them, Passover, Weeks, and Tabernacles.
Tabernacles was the last of the seven and occurred in the seventh month, corresponding to
our late September or early October. It was originally commanded by God as a memorial of
his care for the Israelites during their wandering in the wilderness. It was to be a reminder of
what they had come from so that they would not forget God in prosperity, and a reminder
that God had provided for them when they were in that difficult place. The Old Testament
passages that describe the festival and its sacrifices are Lev. 23.33-43, Num. 9.12-38, and Dt.
16.13-15.
The outstanding feature of the festival was the requirement that the people build
booths of tree branches and live in them for the seven days of the festival. This was to remind
them that they had not had houses to dwell in in the wilderness, but had lived in tents and
booths. During this festival, every corner and every rooftop in Jerusalem would have a booth

120

constructed on it, and thus the people recalled from where they had come, and thanked God
for his care.
Because of the time of the year in which it occurred, Tabernacles also came to be a
harvest festival. After the Passover and Unleavened Bread in the spring, the first fruits of the
harvest were brought in and the Jews celebrated the Festival of First fruits. Then came
Weeks, what we call Pentecost, during which a later stage of the harvest was celebrated.
Finally, in the fall, the end of the harvest season was celebrated in Tabernacles. In connection
with this time of thanksgiving for the harvest, there arose prayers for the next year’s harvest,
and naturally in this connection, there was prayer for rain. Over a period of time, because
water in the Bible symbolizes the Holy Spirit and because Tabernacles is the last of the
festivals, Tabernacles became prophetic of the future golden age of God’s blessing, and the
prayer for rain a prayer for the Holy Spirit who would be poured out in that day.
Thus we find three primary aspects of this Festival of Tabernacles, the remembrance
of the wilderness wandering and God’s provision in it, the thanksgiving for the harvest and
prayer for rain for the coming growing season, and the hope of an age of glory to come. All
of these factors play a role in Jn. 7-10, as we will see. It is against this background that we
now turn to the seventh chapter of John.
3Therefore his brothers said to him, “Leave from here and go to Judea, that your disciples
also will see your works which you are doing,
4
for no one does something in secret and he
himself seeks to be in public. If you do these things show yourself to the world.” 5For his
brothers were not having faith into him. 6Then Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet
come, but your time is always present. 7The world cannot hate you, but it hates me,
because I testify concerning it that its works are evil. 8You go up to the festival. I am not
going up to this festival, because my time has not yet been fulfilled.” 9Now having said
these things to them he stayed in Galilee.
Vs. 3-9 concern a conversation between the Lord Jesus and his brothers about the
upcoming festival. His brothers told Jesus to leave Galilee and go into Judea so that his
works could be seen. Their reasoning was that since Jesus was making himself out to be
someone, he should go to the big city where he could get publicity. Galilee was an outlying
area of small towns and villages. Jerusalem was the capital city. Just as in our day, a person
who wants to make it big in some field will go to New York or Los Angeles or some other
large city that is a center of his area of endeavor, the brothers of the Lord Jesus said that he
should go to the big city where he could be noticed. They said this mocking him, however,
for they did not have faith in him any more than the crowds and the leaders of Judaism did,
and they revealed that they did not understand the nature of the ministry of the Lord Jesus.
He was not trying to make himself out to be someone. He was someone, but he was laying
down his life to do his Father’s will, and he would achieve the exalted position that he would

121

indeed come into not by doing miracles and thereby impressing people, not by using
worldly force, but by being broken bread.
To this mocking suggestion of theirs, the Lord Jesus replied that his time had not yet
come. This is one of the themes of John that we noted in v. 1 at the beginning of this chapter
and that we have seen earlier in the gospel, and that will occur several times yet. The reason
the Lord Jesus came was not to be someone, but to die, and the time of his death was in the
hands of God. He would not die until God’s time came, and he would do nothing of himself
to force the issue. He would go to Jerusalem only when his Father told him to.
The Lord Jesus also told his brothers that the world could not hate them because they
were of the world, and the world will not hate its own, but it did hate him because he
exposed it. The world is very religious. It wants to justify itself in its sin rather than
repenting, so it invents religions that allow it to observe certain practices and thus be
declared acceptable to God, or to the god or gods of the religion. But the Lord Jesus was not
such a false god. He was the holy God in the flesh who exposed the world’s sin for what it
was. Thus it hated him. The Jews were a part of this self-justifying world, and so were the
brothers of the Lord Jesus. He exposed the truth that they honored God with their lips, but
their hearts and their works were far from him, and of course, works come from the heart.
Thus they hated the Lord Jesus and wanted to kill him.
So, v. 9 tells us, the Lord Jesus remained in Galilee. His time had not yet come.
10But when his brothers went up to the festival, then he himself also went up, not
openly but as in secret.
But in v. 10 the Lord Jesus did go to Jerusalem to the festival, but he did so secretly,
not publicly. This raises the question as to whether or not he was being deceptive in saying
that he would not go and then in going up secretly. That may appear to be the case on the
surface, but he was no liar, but the very embodiment of truth. When we understand that he
was a man who lived as a man, not as God, and who did only what his Father told him to do,
we find the answer. Before v. 10 the Lord Jesus in all sincerity thought that it would be a
wrong move to go to Jerusalem, for it would force a confrontation with the Jews and the time
had not yet come for his death. But after his brothers had gone, God spoke to him and told
him to go up, and thus he changed his plans and went in obedience to God, not in deception
of his brothers.
11Then the Jews were seeking him at the festival and weresaying, “Where is that one?”
12And there was much murmuring about him among the crowds. Some indeed were saying
“He is good,” but others said, “No, but he is deceiving the crowd.” 13But no one was
speaking about him in public because of fear of the Jews.

122

Vs. 11-13 show us the impact of the Lord Jesus on the Jews. It is remarkable, really. He
was an obscure, uneducated person. He came from a working-class family. He had no
religious credentials. He had no position in the government. Yet he was the central issue in
Judaism. Everyone was talking about him. The Lord Jesus could not be ignored. Everyone
had to make a response to him. Some opposed him. Some wanted to use him. Some gave
their hearts to him, but no one ignored him. It is still the same.
14Now it being already the midst of the festival, Jesus went up to the Temple and
was teaching. 15Then the Jews were marveling saying, “How does this one know
Scriptures, not having learned?” 16Therefore Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching
is not mine, but his having sent me. 17If anyone may will to do his will he will know
concerning the teaching, whether it is from God or I am speaking from myself. 18The one
speaking from himself seeks his own glory, but the one seeking the glory of the one
having sent him, this one is true and unrighteousness is not in him.
In vs. 14-39, the Lord Jesus made his public appearance at the festival, beginning to
teach in the Temple. We are not told in vs. 14-18 what he taught, but we do learn something
about the nature of true knowledge in these verses. True learning comes from God in the
school of experience, not from formal theological training. The Jews were amazed at the
wisdom of the Lord Jesus, for they knew that he had not been to the Rabbinic schools and
studied the Law. They knew nothing about the dealings of God with the heart.
It is just here that a vital principle of the New Testament comes into play. We have
already seen that man is made up of body, soul, and spirit, and that the soul is the
psychological aspect of man. Indeed, the Greek word for “soul” is psuche, from which we get
“psychology.” Formal theological training is a matter of the intellect, of the soul. The true
knowledge of God is a matter of the spirit, and that requires, first, the new birth, for before
that our spirits are dead towards God, and then, the dealings of God with our flesh, centered
in the soul. The reason for this is that God designed man to be ruled by his spirit under the
sovereignty of the Holy Spirit. Because the spirit of man was dead in sin, it could not rule.
Thus the soul took the place of authority, and most of us are ruled by our emotions, an

aspect of the soul. Some few are intellectual enough to be ruled by their minds or strong-
willed enough to be ruled by their will-power, the other aspects of the soul. The problem is

that all these are unfit, incapable rulers. They were never made by God to rule. They rule
only by default. The reason they are incapable of ruling is that they are aspects of the flesh, of
the natural man (1 Cor. 2.14), but the world that matters is the spiritual world. Our enemy is
spiritual, and our eternal destiny, good or bad, is spiritual. The soul has no perception of the
spiritual, for it is fleshly. Thus it is unfit to rule a being, man, made by God to inhabit a
spiritual world.
When a person is born from above, his spirit becomes alive. That is what the new birth
is. Ideally, the spirit would immediately begin to rule in place of the soul, but the spirit has

123

had no experience ruling and does not know how. In addition, the soul, an aspect of the flesh
(not physical flesh, but the self principle) is shot through with self-centeredness and does not
want to give up the throne. Thus the battle that all Christians know begins to rage. God deals
with the flesh, applying the cross to it to put it to death so that the Spirit-filled human spirit
may come into the ascendancy, and the soul resists, trying to hold onto its position. Thus
Paul says in Gal. 5.17 that the spirit desires against the flesh, and the flesh, against the spirit.
What the Jews had was a matter of the soul. They had intellectual education, and they
were ruled by that education, though we will see that that rulership itself was primarily
emotional, not intellectual. The Jews had highly developed souls and dead spirits. God
desires men with highly developed spirits and souls in submission to the spirit. That was the
Lord Jesus. He had a spirit vibrating with life towards God, and that spirit ruled his being.
His soul was in subjection. He had a soul, but it did not rule. He was angry, but did not sin.
He wept. He willed to avoid the cross, but yielded to his Father’s will. We see intellect,
strong emotion, and iron will in the Lord Jesus, yet none of these rule. All are in subjection to
his spirit that ever obeys the will of his Father communicated to him by the Holy Spirit, with
whom he was filled. What a man he was!
The Jews were confounded by this. They could not understand him (see Jn.1.5: the
Jews were in darkness and the darkness could not comprehend the Light), and marveled that
a man who had not been to their schools could have such wisdom and could do such deeds.
They knew nothing about the dealings of God. All they wanted to do was kill him and get
rid of this embarrassment
To this attitude of confusion about him, the Lord Jesus replied with a principle that
shows us the basis of true knowledge: it is a willingness to do the will of God (v 17). If one
requires God to reveal his will before he makes up his mind about keeping it, God will not
reveal his will and will not show him the truth. He will live in confusion, just as these Jews
did. But if one is willing to yield to the will of God without knowing what it is, God will lead
him in his will and will put the witness of the Spirit within him so that he will know truth
from falsehood. When he hears teaching, he will know whether or not it is from God. Is Jesus
who the Bible says he is? One who is yielded to the will of God will know (see 1 Jn. 2.20, 27).
19Has not Moses not given you the Law? And none of you does the Law. Why are
you seeking to kill me?” 20The crowd answered, “You have a demon. Who is seeking to
kill you?” 21Jesus answered and said to them, “I did one work and you all marvel.
22Because of this Moses has given you circumcision, not that it is from Moses, but from the
fathers, and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. 23If a man receives circumcision on a
Sabbath that the Law of Moses might not be broken, are you angry at me because I made
an entire man well on a Sabbath? 24Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge the
righteous judgment.”

124

After this lesson on the nature of true learning and knowledge, the Lord Jesus went on
in vs. 19-24 to give a specific teaching. He dealt with the letter and the spirit of the Law. The
Jews were sticklers for the letter of the Law, and they had developed hundreds of legal
requirements to insure that the letter of the Law was kept in every particular. Yet in doing so,
they had overlooked the purpose of the Law. What was the Law given for anyway? It was
given for man’s good. It is not a list of unreasonable requirements that have no relationship
to reality that God dreamed up to force on man so that he could gain God’s favor or assuage
his anger. God knows what is good for man, and he has embodied that in the Law. The Law
is really grace, in a sense. Why is it wrong to be immoral? Is it because God wants to take all
the fun out of life? No, it is because immorality is bad for man. Where do divorce, venereal
disease, AIDS, and confused children of broken homes come from? Not from faithful
marriages, but from immorality. That is just one example of the nature of the Law as grace. It
was given by God for our good. Paul wrote that the Law is holy and righteous and good
(Rom. 7.12). Of course, its ultimate good is that it points us to Christ (Gal. 3.21-29), for the
truth is that no one can keep the Law, and thus we learn from it that we need something
more, a Savior and Spirit-filler.
The Jews had made the Law an end in itself and had so exalted the letter of the Law
that they had destroyed its spirit. What is the spirit of the Law? Paul tells us in Rom. 13. 8-10:
Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves the
other has fulfilled the Law. For, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not
steal,” “Do not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are summed up in this
word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does not work evil to a neighbor.
Therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.
That is the spirit of the Law, love. God gave the Law because it is what is right, and
the one who loves will do what is right. Thus the letter of the Law becomes unnecessary. It is
necessary only for those who do not keep it (1 Tim. 1.9).
The specific issue in question in this passage was the healing by the Lord Jesus of the
sick man at the pool of Bethesda in chapter 5. Because that was done on the Sabbath, the Jews
wanted to kill the Lord Jesus. Thus they who held so strictly to the letter of the Law were
breaking the Law that said not to kill. The Jews exalted the letter of the Law by enforcing the
Sabbath. Yet they themselves had exceptions, as the Lord Jesus pointed out in vs. 22-23. They
were required by the Law to circumcise all baby boys on the eighth day after birth. What if
the eighth day happened to be a Sabbath? Then they would have to violate either the
Sabbath law by doing the work of circumcision, or they would have to violate the
circumcision law by waiting till the ninth day. They made an exception to the Sabbath law in
this case and allowed the circumcision. The Lord Jesus pointed out that they were willing to
make an exception in the case of circumcision, but they were not willing to do so in the case
of a sick man who needed to be made well. Thus they destroyed the spirit of the Law to keep

125

its letter, for what was the purpose of the Law to start with but the wholeness of man? It is
Paul again who states the matter so well in a verse we have quoted earlier, 2 Cor. 3.6: “For
the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive.” The Jews held to the letter of the Law, and they
were killing men by doing so. The Lord Jesus was not concerned about the letter, but about
the spirit of the Law, and he gave life to men. And that is what the good news of John is all
about, life.
25Then some of those from Jerusalem were saying, “Is this not the one they are
seeking to kill? 26And look, he speaks in public and they say nothing to him. Did the
rulers actually know that this is the Christ? No. 27But we know this one, where he is from,
but the Christ, when he may come no one knows where he is from.”
It is a descent from the mountaintop of joy to the valley of misery to turn from this
teaching of the Lord Jesus to the response of the people in vs. 25-27. Instead of being drawn
up to the high level of what the Lord Jesus had just taught, they sank into confusion and
bickering. They argued among themselves about whether or not he was the Christ and about
what the rulers really thought about him. It is almost as though Jesus were casting his pearls
before swine. They had no appreciation of what he had just said. They even revealed their
lack of knowledge of the Bible by saying that when the Christ came, no one would know
where he was from. The Bible says plainly, in Mic. 5.2, quoted in Matt. 2.5-6, that the Christ
would be born in Bethlehem. Actually, though, it is true that they did not know where he
was from: he was from Heaven, sent by his Fataher. The chief priests and scribes who told
the wise men where to find the birthplace of the Messiah knew he was from Bethlehem.
What a sorry scene, following on the sublime words of the one taught by God.
28Then Jesus called out as in the Temple teaching and saying, “You both know me and
know where I am from. And I have not come of myself, but the one having sent me is true,
whom you do not know. 29I know him for I am from him and that one sent me.”
30Therefore they were seeking to seize him, and no one laid the hand on him, for his hour
had not yet come. 31But many from the crowd had faith into him and were saying, “The
Christ when he come, will he do more signs than this one does? No.”
In vs. 28-36 the controversy continues. The Lord Jesus said that he had nothing to
hide: “You know me and you know where I am from.” Yet the truth was hidden from these
observers because they did not know God. They knew where the Lord Jesus was from in an
earthly sense, but they did not know that he was from Heaven and could not grasp that truth
even though he told it to them plainly. And they did not comprehend that the Lord Jesus
was a sent person. He was not there on his own, and therefore was not seeking his own ends
or glory. That is a vital concept in John. Over and over we hear Jesus declaring that he says
and does nothing on his own, but does only what his Father tells him to do.

126

In response to these claims of the Lord Jesus we find continued division, some
believing him and others wanting to arrest him. Yet ruling over the whole scene is the will of
God: “His hour had not yet come.” The cross casts its shadow over the whole of the good
news, yet along with that shadow is the truth of God’s timing. The Lord Jesus will die, but
not until God’s time.
32The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and the chief
priests and the Pharisees sent officers that they might seize him. 33Then Jesus said, “Yet a
little while I am with you and I am going to the one having sent me. 34You will seek me
and you will not find me, and where I am you cannot come.”
Finally, in v. 32, the officials sent officers to arrest the Lord Jesus. While they were on
their way, he made a further statement in continuing his thought about being sent from God.
He had said in v. 28 that his hearers did not know God. In vs. 33-34 he said, “Yet a little
while I am with you and I go to the one who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find
me, and where I am you cannot come.” Perhaps the best commentary on this verse is a
statement made by God through the prophet Jeremiah: “You will seek me and find me when
you seek me with all your heart” (Jer. 29.13). The problem with these people was that they
sought the Lord Jesus in the flesh for his earthly benefits. They enjoyed being fed
miraculously and being healed of their diseases, and they liked the prospect of being
delivered from Rome and brought into a great kingdom, but they were not seeking the Lord
Jesus with their hearts. Thus, though they knew the outward Jesus as a man, they did not
know him at all. They did not know who he was. They did not know where he had come
from. And the time would come when he would no longer be present in the flesh and could
be known only spiritually, and only those who sought him with all their hearts at that time
would find him. That is the secret of knowing the Lord Jesus, sincerity of heart.
35Then the Jews said among themselves, “Where is this one about to go that we will not
find him? Is he about to go to the diaspora of the Greeks and teach the Greeks? No. 36What
is this word that he said, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me, and where I am you
cannot come’?”
In vs. 35-36, the Jews again revealed their literal-mindedness. They had no concept
that the Lord Jesus was talking about a spiritual departure and a spiritual seeking of him, but
thought that he meant he would physically leave the country. These people had been God’s
people for centuries, yet they had no concept of spirituality.
37On the last, the great day, of the festival, Jesus stood and called out saying, “If
anyone thirst let him come to me and drink. 38The one having faith into me, as the
Scripture said, out of his inner being will flow rivers of living water.” 39Now this he said

127

about the Spirit whom those having had faith in him were about to receive. For the Spirit
was not yet because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Vs. 37-39 bring us back to the Festival of Tabernacles. We have already noted that a
major aspect of the festival was the prayer for rain and the association of that rain with the
Holy Spirit, and the combining of that association with the fact that Tabernacles was seen as
prophetic of the coming age of glory. In connection with this hope for an age of glory in
which the Spirit would be poured out, the Jews developed a ceremony carried out during
Tabernacles that pictured this hope. The festival lasted seven days. Once each day for six
days, a procession would go from the Temple to the spring of Gihon in the southeastern part
of Jerusalem. The people would be carrying in their right hands branches of willow and
myrtle tied together with palm as a reminder of the booths they had lived in, and in their
right hands a small fruit similar to a lemon as a symbol of the harvest. When they reached
the spring, the priest filled a golden pitcher with water as the procession repeated Is. 12.3:
“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” Then the people would march
back to the Temple, waving their branches and singing Pss. 113-118, the psalms used at
Tabernacles. Upon reaching the Temple they would march around the altar. Then the priest
would pour the water through a silver funnel on the altar onto the ground, symbolic of the
hoped-for outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as the people chanted Ps. 118.25: “I AM, save us; I
AM, grant us success.” On the seventh day, they would repeat everything, but they would
march around the altar seven times before the water was poured out.
At this point on the seventh day, the great day of the festival, as the water was poured
out, the Lord Jesus cried out in the Temple, “If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and
drink.” In the midst of all the worldliness, literalness, and legalism, the Lord Jesus asked, “Is
anyone thirsty? Have worldliness, literalness, and legalism satisfied your thirst? Or do you
thirst not for religion, but for the living God? If these things have not satisfied and there is
still thirst, come to me and drink.” How does one drink? By having faith. Like the Samaritan
woman, the one who has faith into the Lord Jesus will have a supply of the water of life
within. The Lord Jesus said that he was there to give what the festival only promised. He
would fulfill the prophecy of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Law was being observed
by the keeping of the festival, for the Law commanded it, but that very Law kept people
away from God, first because they could not keep it, and second, because the Jews had
exalted the letter of the Law above its purpose, the good of man. While the Law kept people
away from God, the Lord Jesus would put God within men by the outpoured Holy Spirit.
Austin-Sparks takes these verses, 37-39, as the heart of this Festival of Tabernacles. He
refers to Num. 29.1, where God tells Moses that the first day of the seventh month will be a
day of blowing of trumpets, and equates this blowing of trumpets at Tabernacles with the
voice of the Lord Jesus crying out, “If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. If
anyone has faith into me, as the Scripture said, out of his inner being will flow rivers of living

128

water.” These rivers of living water are the Holy Spirit poured out by the Lord Jesus because
he has satisfied God by the giving of himself. (The On-High Calling, Vol. II, pgs 17-19)
40Then some from the crowd, having heard these words, said, “Truly this is the
Prophet.” 41Others were saying, “This is the Christ.” But they were saying, “No, for does
the Christ come from Galilee? 42Did the Scripture not say that from the seed of David and
from Bethlehem, the village where David was, the Christ comes?” 43Therefore there came
division in the crowd because of him. 44Some were wanting to seize him, but no one laid
the hands on him.
Again we have a descent from a sublime declaration of the Lord Jesus to a sorry scene
of confusion. In vs. 40-44, instead of responding to the invitation of the Lord Jesus to receive
the Holy Spirit that they were symbolically praying for, the people continued the debate
about the Lord Jesus. Some said he was the Prophet predicted by Moses. Others said he was
the Messiah. Others said he could not be the Messiah because he came from Galilee and the
Bible said the Messiah would come from Bethlehem. Unlike the people in v. 27, these knew
their Bible, but they did not know that the Lord Jesus had been born in Bethlehem. But
knowing their Bible did not help, for the letter kills while the Spirit gives life, and they were
not open to the Spirit, being wrapped up in the letter of the Law. So the division continued.
Instead of drinking the water, they argued about it.
45Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and these said to them,
“Why did you not bring him?” 46The officers answered, “No man ever spoke so.” 47Then
the Pharisees answered them, “Have you not also been deceived? 48Did any of the rulers
believed in him, or of the Pharisees? No. 49But this crowd not knowing the Law is
accursed.” 50Nicodemus, the one having come to him before, being one of them, said to
them, 51“Does our Law judge the man if it not first hear from him and know what he is
doing? No.” 52They answered and said to him, “And are not you from Galilee? Search and
see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
These arguers were the crowds. The chapter closes with the official reaction in vs. 45-

The first two verses show us the power of the word of God. When the officers returned to
the officials without having arrested the Lord Jesus and were questioned as to why, they
replied that no one had ever spoken as he did. A whole band of armed men were overcome
by the words of one man. But that should not be surprising. God made everything out of
nothing with only a word, “Let there be.” The word of God is powerful, and it accomplishes
his purposes. That is still true today
Vs. 47-49 reveal again the arrogant, self-righteous nature of the Pharisees and their
exaltation of official religious credentials over hearing from God. Of course, they knew
nothing about hearing from God. Yet we should not judge them harshly, for do we not do

129

the same thing with our Doctors and Reverends? How do we draw a crowd? By announcing
a famous speaker with a string of degrees, preferably including at least one doctorate. How
do we determine whether or not a man has something worth saying? By seeing if he has a
seminary degree. But a man can have ten doctorates in religion and have nothing living from
God. Education is a matter of the brain, the soul, and what we need is men who have heard
from God and have something alive in their spirits. Education is not bad, it is needed, but it
must be subject to the spirit. A full head will not make up for an empty heart. The best
possibility is an educated man who has subjected his soul to his spirit and has heard rom
God, but a full heart and empty head beats a full head and empty heart, if we must choose. It
is the life of God that matters.
Next we see Nicodemus stepping forward. This was the man that the Lord Jesus had
instructed about the new birth. He was high up in Judaism. Apparently he was a member of
the ruling body of the Jews. It seems that Nicodemus had responded to the Lord Jesus’
teaching and believed, but was not yet courageous enough to make it public. He wanted to
defend the Lord Jesus, but apparently he was afraid to do so directly, so he did so by
resorting to a legal requirement. He asked if the Law condemned a man without first hearing
from him and finding out all the facts. Of course it did not. But did his cohorts respond by
seeing the wisdom and justice in his question? No, they responded emotionally: “And are
you from Galilee?” That is, we are righteous for we are from Judea. The Galileans are not
righteous as we are, for their region is unclean. They put down Nicodemus with emotion.
We saw above that they were intellectual people who knew the Law thoroughly and exalted
it above all, yet here they responded not with reason, but with pure emotion. They hated the
Lord Jesus, and they lashed out at one who dared even to request that he be given due
process.
At the same time, these leaders of the people of God showed that they had all the
truth and all the right ways of doing things, so they thought. Even God himself was not free
to do a fresh work among his people. He might violate the Law.
So goes the seventh chapter of John. What are we to say about it in conclusion?
Primarily this, that the Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of the Festival of Tabernacles. Remember
that chapters 7-10 of John all take place at this festival, so we will see further fulfillment later.
In the seventh chapter, the fulfillment has to do with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. The
Lord Jesus has shown us that it is not the letter but the spirit of the Law that matters, and
Paul draws out his thought by saying that the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. It is the
Holy Spirit who will carry out the words of the Lord Jesus about the spirit of the Law. He it
is who will put into us the love that keeps the Law and thus fulfills its spirit.
And the Lord Jesus has said that the outpouring of the Spirit prophesied by the
festival has been fulfilled in him. He is the baptizer in the Spirit. If we want what Tabernacles
promises, let us come to the Lord Jesus and drink by having faith into him. But do not forget
that Tabernacles was also prophetic of a coming age of glory. The Christian interpretation of
this festival sees it as an Old Testament picture of the Millennium when the Lord Jesus will

130

reign over the earth in righteousness with his bride at his side and the Jews living in their
land in peace and prosperity. So we see that the Lord Jesus not only quenches our thirst with
the Spirit now, but he also promises to bring about all that the festival pictures. And is that
not what Paul meant in Eph. 1.13-14? Let us read it: “In whom you also, having heard the
word of truth, the good news of your salvation, in whom also having had faith, you were
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is the earnest of out inheritance….” What is an
earnest? It is a partial payment made to show that the payer is in earnest. We would not put
up money if we did not mean business. When someone buys a house, he puts up earnest
money when he signs the contract as a pledge that he will complete the transaction and pay
the balance. If he does not follow through with the deal, he forfeits the earnest money.
That is what the Holy Spirit is. He is God’s promise to us that we will come into our
full inheritance. We do not experience all God’s glory now. We still must go through the
sufferings of this age and contend with the pull of our own flesh. But there is coming an age
of glory when we will see our Savior face to face and all temptation and sorrow will be done
away with. We will reign with him as his bride. The Holy Spirit is God’s promise to us that
we will one day come into that, our full inheritance. That is what the Festival of Tabernacles
prophesies, and the Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of the festival. He gives what the festival can
only promise. If anyone is thirsty, let him come to the Lord Jesus and drink.

TIE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
John 8.12-9.41

Jn. 7.53-8.11 breaks the continuity of chapters 7-10, so will be dealt with in the
appendix at the end of the book.
8.12-59
The Festival of Tabernacles forms the background of Jn. 7-10. In chapter 7, the great
statement of Jesus that anyone who was thirsty could come to him and drink was made in
the midst of the ceremony of the pouring out of water symbolic of the hoped-for pouring out
of the Holy Spirit. Another such ceremony forms the backdrop of Jn. 8.12.
12Again therefore Jesus spoke to them saying, “I AM the Light of the world. The one
following me would not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
Either on the first night of Tabernacles, or on every night, it is not clear which, there
was a ceremony of lights on the Temple grounds. Four large lamp stands with four bowls
each were placed in the Temple. For some reason now unknown, the old undergarments of
the priests were placed in the bowls of oil as wicks. When these lamps were lit they could be

131

seen all over the city of Jerusalem, This great light was symbolic of the fact that Israel was
given as a light to the nations and prophetic of the day, as was Tabernacles generally, when
the nations would stream to Jerusalem for the light of God shining there.
With this great ceremony either going on or having recently taken place, the Lord
Jesus said, “I AM the Light of the world.” Again, as in chapter 7, he said that he was the
fulfillment of Tabernacles, that festival that proclaimed the restoration of all things by God, a
golden age, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, Israel as a light to the nations. This was a
great prophetic festival in Israel, and the Lord Jesus proclaimed that its fulfillment had come
in him.
Light and darkness are a major theme in John. We have already noted it a few times in
passing, and now we come to a major passage on it. Light has to do with truth, and darkness
with deceit. What a great issue those realities are in our world! After we have gone through
Jn. 8 section by section, we will look more deeply into this matter of light and darkness.
13Therefore the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony
is not true.” 14Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I am testifying about myself my
testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not
know where I come from or where I am going. 15You are judging according to the flesh,
but I judge no one. 16But even if I might judge my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but
I and the Father having sent me. 17But even in your Law it has been written that the
testimony of two men is true. 18I am the one testifying about myself and the Father having
sent me testifies about me.” 19Therefore they were saying to him, “Where is your Father?”
Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know
my Father also.” 20These speakings he spoke in the treasury, teaching in the Temple, and
no one seized him for his hour had not yet come.
After the Lord Jesus’ proclamation of himself as the Light of the world, in vs. 13-18 the
Jews began their usual bickering with him. The pettiness and lack of vision of the Jews is

made so obvious by the contrast with the Lord Jesus. He was the most loving, truth-
revealing person and made such wonderful revelations on such a sublime level, and every

time he did such a thing, he was met with the carping attitude of the Jews. In the face of the
majesty of the person and words of the Lord Jesus, they could respond only with petty,
legalistic arguments. In truth, it is irritating to read of their continual bickering.
Instead of grasping the great revelation that the Lord Jesus had just made in the light
of their ceremony of lights, they immediately replied that he was bearing witness to himself.
Of course, such witness holds no weight before the law. Anyone would defend himself or
speak well of himself. But the Lord Jesus replied that even though he was bearing witness of
himself, his witness was true because he knew where he came from and where he was going,
Heaven. He knew all truth, for he had been in the place where everything is fully known, the

132

spiritual as well as the material. Of course, the Jews did not know this because they did not
have the basis for knowing it. That basis is life.
We saw in considering Jn. 1.4 that light proceeds from life, not vice versa, and this is a
vital principle. No amount of knowledge will ever give life. One can know all the truth there
is to know and still be dead toward God. But life gives light. If one comes alive toward God,
he will begin to grasp truth. God within him will reveal things to him. Light will come to the
person who is alive. When the Lord Jesus said in v. 15 that the Jews judged according to the
flesh, this is what he was referring to. They had earthly life, physical and psychological life,
but the Lord Jesus had told Nicodemus that one must be born from above, and that spiritual
life is the basis of perceiving the truth. We live in an age of knowledge. Man has more facts
and knows more than ever before, and he has the most sophisticated means of studying
problems, but he cannot solve his problems. Why? Because like the Jews he does not have
spiritual life. He does not have the basis of grasping truth. With all the facts in the world at
his fingertips, man does not have truth. Life is the basis of light.
Furthermore, God corroborated the witness of his Son. He did so by providing the
power for his works. Though he was God in the flesh, the Lord Jesus lived as a man. He did
not work miracles as God. Instead, he spoke a word of faith as a man as God directed him
and God gave the power. God backed up the words of the Lord Jesus. Having made this
point, he called the attention of the Jews to their own Law, which provided in Dt. 17.6 and
19.15 that the testimony of two witnesses will establish a fact. There are two witnesses to the
truth of what Jesus said, Jesus himself and his Father.
21Therefore he spoke again to them, “I am going away and you will seek me, and
you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come.” 22Therefore the Jews were
saying, “Will he kill himself? No.” For he said, “Where I am going you cannot come.”
23And he was saying to them, “You are from below. I am from above. You are from this
world. I am not from this world. 24Therefore I said to you, ‘You will die in your sins,’ for if
you did not have faith that I AM, you will die in your sins.” 25Therefore they were saying
to him, “You, who are you?” Jesus said to them, “What I am saying to you from the
beginning? 26I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but the one having
sent me is true, and what things I heard from him, these things I speak into the world.”
27They did not know that he was speaking to them about the Father. 28Therefore Jesus said,
“When you will have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM, and I do
nothing from myself, but as the Father taught me I speak these things.

29And the one
having sent me is with me. He did not leave me alone, for I always do the things pleasing
to him.” 30When he had said these things, many had faith into him.
Vs. 21-30 make a bit more explicit what is implied in vs. 13-18. The real point of this
section is that origin determines character and destiny. If one plants an acorn, what does he
get? An oak tree. Why? Because origin determines character and destiny. Like produces like.

133

The acorn originates with an oak, and it produces another oak. In vs. 13-18, the Jews could
not understand because they did not have the proper basis, life. They had no spiritual origin
because they had not been born from above. They had only a natural origin, and their
character and their destiny were determined by it. Vs. 19-30 tell us the specific matter that
the Jews could not understand, namely, who the Lord Jesus was. They simply could not
figure him out. Of course, that was the whole problem: they were trying to figure him out,
but he is known by revelation, not by human reason. But it takes life to get revelation. Origin
determines character and destiny.
Vs. 21 and 23 reveal the character and destiny of the Jews. Their origin was this world;
they had no heavenly birth. Their character was sin. Their destiny was to die in their sins. Vs.
22 and 24 show an aspect of this earthboundedness of the Jews, their literal mind. They had
no concept of the spiritual and took everything the Lord Jesus said literally. When he said he
would go away to a place they could not go to, they speculated that he would kill himself. It
never dawned on them that he would go to a spiritual world, to Heaven.
The origin of Jesus is revealed in v. 23: he is from above, from Heaven. His character is
seen in vs. 24 and 28: he is I AM. We noted earlier that I AM is the Old Testament name of
God revealed to Moses in Ex. 3, and that the name “Jesus” means “I AM Saves.” That is the
character of the Lord Jesus. He is a man, but he is divine. He is God in the flesh. He is I AM
in human flesh. His destiny is seen in v. 21: he is going back to Heaven. How vital it is that
we see to our origin, for origin determines character and destiny. V. 30 shows that some of
the Jews began to have a glimmer at least of the spiritual nature of what Jesus was saying,
but he pointed out in the next section that it was going on with him that revealed how real
that understanding was.
Vs. 31-47 comprise this section. In it, Jesus enlarges on the point of vs. 21-30 by
explaining that the origin, character, and destiny he speaks of are spiritual, not fleshly.
31Therefore Jesus was saying to the Jews having believed in him, “If you should
abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32and you will know the truth and the truth
will set you free.”
In vs. 31-32 the Lord Jesus said that abiding in his word is a mark of true discipleship.
It is not just beginning with the Lord Jesus, but going on with him, that reveals the true
character of a person. As we have noticed several times already, the crowds flocked to the
Lord Jesus because of the blessings he was dispensing, but when he began to move toward
the cross, they began to move away. Abiding is a mark of a disciple. Recall that I wrote in our
Introduction that I would translate the Greek word for “believe” or “have faith” based on
whether or not the person was just believing the Lord mentally or was actually putting faith
in the Lord Jesus. Also, I wrote that I would translate as “into” when the Greek word for
“into” was used. In this v. 30, that word is not used, so I have translated as “in.” In fact, no
word for “in” or “into” is used here, but it is implied in the Greek language. I think it is

134

possible that the Lord was saying that it was unclear whether or not these people had just
believed mentally or had actually put their faith in the Lord Jesus. Abiding or not abiding in
his word would tell.
We also saw earlier that there are two Greek words for “word,” logos and rema. Logos
refers primarily to the written word, what is true whether anyone reads it or believes it or
not, or whether it means anything to anyone or not. Rema has to do mainly with the spoken
word, what God brings alive to a person by speaking it to him personally. Rema is what we
need and want, but how do we get it? By abiding in the logos, the word used in this verse.
Even if we read the logos and get nothing out of it and it is meaningless to us, it is the true
word of God nonetheless. Faithfulness to it is a mark of discipleship. And the one who is
faithful to the logos in dry times will find that it will one day become rema, a living word, a
fountain of life.
The Lord Jesus also said that the one who was faithful to the logos would know the
truth and the truth would make him free. How is this the case? In Mark 4, the Lord Jesus told
the parable of the sower, and in his interpretation of it, he said that the seed was the word
(logos, by the way). The word of God is a seed, and the important matter is what kind of soil
it falls into. The various kinds of soil are hearts of men. Some are by the wayside and do not
receive the seed at all. As soon as it falls the birds eat it. Others are hard, with a thin laver of
topsoil. The word takes root, but it cannot go down far enough to find water, and as soon as
it gets hot because of affliction or persecution, the word dries up in them. Others are like
thorny ground. The word takes root and grows, but it is choked out by the cares of the
world. Others are good soil, and the word, falling into them, takes root, grows up, and
produces a crop. My dear brother Ray Kangers remarked once that when he read that
parable, he thought, “I’m all of those!” Is that not true of all of us? We have gone on with the
Lord, yet we are sometimes the wayside, sometimes rocky, sometimes choked by cares.
Thanks be to God, we are sometimes by grace good soil.
The point is that the word is like a seed. If it is given time and the proper conditions to
do its work, it will produce a crop. Ja. 1.21 states the case very clearly: “Receive the
implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” It is the same point. If the word is
planted, as a seed is, it will produce a crop. James also uses the word logos. The crop that the
implanted logos will produce is first of all rema, the coming alive of the word of God, and
then life and freedom. One who abides in the word will come to have a grasp of truth, and
truth makes free. Is that not true even in the natural world? Ignorance is almost sure slavery
to poverty, but knowledge opens the door to prosperity. That is one reason why education is
so important. How true this is in the spiritual world. A knowledge of truth is freedom,
freedom from sin, from fear, from Satan, from self, freedom to know and enjoy God and to
be all that he made us to be. How important it is that we abide in the logos, even when it
seems meaningless. That is a mark of discipleship, and it will produce its crop.
One more word needs to be added. We are in chapter 8 of John. In chapter 14, Jesus
will say, “I am … the truth.” When he said that “you will know the truth and the truth will

135

set you free,” surely he ultimately meant, “You will know me and I will set you free.” He is
truth. Just knowing truth as bits of knowledge is not enough. We must know him if we are
truly to know truth and to know freedom.
33They answered him, “We are Abraham’s seed and have never been enslaved to anyone.
How do you say, ‘You will become free?’” 34Jesus answered them, “Amen, amen I say to
you that everyone committing sin is a slave of sin.
Did the Jews respond with any appreciation of this marvelous statement that the Lord
Jesus made? No, they showed their literal-mindedness and bickering spirit again. They
thought he meant physical slavery and protested that they were Abraham’s seed and had
never been enslaved to anyone. Never mind that they were in effect slaves of Rome at that
moment, the Lord Jesus replied by showing them that there is a slavery far worse than
physical slavery. It is slavery to sin. It is so true that sin enslaves. It may appear attractive at
first, but it is like bait. It has an unseen hook in it. Only when it is too late is the hook
revealed. The person who thinks he is free to live for self at the expense of others, to drink,
gamble, take drugs, engage in illicit sex will find that he is the slave of these sins, and he will
receive the wages of loneliness, alcoholism, poverty, addiction, disease, heartbreak, and
possibly hell if he does not call on the Lord. What a cruel master sin is. The way of a sinner is
hard indeed.
35But the slave does not remain in the house into the age. The son remains into the age. 36If
therefore the Son make you free, you will be free indeed.
In vs. 35-36 the Lord Jesus showed that the Jews had an outward appearance of
freedom as sons of Abraham, but that was only physical and would not last. In truth, they
were not free sons of Abraham but slaves of sin, and the slave does not stay in the house
forever. But the Lord Jesus makes free by making spiritual sons of Abraham. Sonship in the
New Testament, especially in Galatians, has to do with maturity. When an immature
Christian is referred to, the world “child” is used. “Son” is used for a mature, or we should
say maturing, Christian. Galatians gives the picture of the child who is no better off than a
slave, though he is the heir of all. Why is he no better off than a slave? Because he is
immature. He is not yet capable of making responsible decisions and managing the family’s
assets. Thus he is in fact a slave to his parents. He must do whatever they say. Ironically, in
that society, the son of a wealthy man might in effect be slave to a slave who was put over
him to teach him and train him until maturity. The point is that freedom requires maturity
and responsibility. One cannot be free until he matures and can exercise responsibility. As
that child who is in effect a slave matures, he begins to gain a measure of freedom. He can
make some of his own decisions. Eventually he will take over the headship of the family.
That is sonship, maturity. In the spiritual matters with which the Lord Jesus was dealing, the

136

new birth is the beginning. Feeding on the word, the logos, is part of the process that
produces sonship, maturity, freedom.
37I know that you are Abraham’s seed, but you are seeking to kill me, for my word does
not find room in you.
If the logos working in the heart produces maturity and freedom, v. 37 shows that this
had not happened in the case of the Jews. The origin, character, and destiny that matter are
spiritual. The Jews had physical origin in Abraham, but it did them no good because they
did not come into the spiritual life that Abraham had. They knew their Bibles, the logos, but it
made no change in them. The logos did not become rema. They were very religious, but they
had murder in their hearts.
38The things I have heard from the Father I speak, and you therefore do the things
you heard from the father.” 39They answered and said to him, “Our father is Abraham.”
Jesus said to them, “If you are children of Abraham, the works of Abraham you would be
doing.
40But now you are seeking to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth which
I heard from God. This Abraham did not do. 41You do the works of your father.” They said
to him, “We have not been born of immorality. We have one Father, God.” 42Jesus said to
them, “If God were your father, you would have been loving me, for I went out and have
come from God. I have not come of myself, but that one sent me. 43Why do you not
understand my spraking? Because you cannot hear my word.
Vs. 38-43 extend the thought of v. 37. In these verses, the actions of the Jews show that
they were not true disciples. The Lord Jesus had said in v. 31 that abiding in his word was a
mark of discipleship. These people knew the word, but they were not abiding in it. When
one abides in the word, it produces sonship and freedom, but they were slaves of the sin of
murder, among others, wanting to kill the Lord Jesus. The results were not there. They not
only wanted to kill the Lord Jesus (v. 40), but they could not understand him (v. 43, see notes
on 1.5). Of course, the lack of understanding contributed to the desire to kill him.
44You are from your father the devil and the lusts of your father you want to do. That one
was a murderer from the beginning, and he does not stand in the truth, for truth is not in
him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks from his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.
Jn. 8.44 is one of the key verses in the Bible. It reveals to us the nature of Satan and
how he operates, and in this context it also explains the actions of the Jews. In the first place,
Satan is a murderer, and not just in the physical sense. He did incite Cain to murder his
brother Abel, but his primary concern in this regard is to destroy people spiritually and
eternally. His method of doing this is deceit and darkness. He is a liar and the father of lies.

137

One of the great liberating truths a Christian can grasp is that Satan has no power. He was
defeated by Jesus at the cross and disarmed (Col. 2.15, see also Heb. 2.14, 1 Jn. 3.8). God is
sovereign, and Satan can do nothing without the permission of God. But Satan is the
cleverest liar who ever lived. He knows all about us and knows how to appeal to us with the
most enticing lies. He knows what we want to hear, and he knows how to twist the word of
God. He knows how to make evil look like good and darkness like light. He knows how to
whisper lies to us so subtly that we think they are our own thoughts. That is one reason why
it is important for us to abide in the word of God. We need to know it well, for it is our
means of discovering Satan’s lies and countering them with truth.
This Satan who is a murderer and a liar is also the father of these Jews who wish to
kill the Lord Jesus. That is why they want to kill him. They are expressing their family
nature. Spiritually, Satan is the origin of these Jews. Origin determines character and destiny.
45But because I speak the truth you do not believe me. 46Who of you convicts me
concerning sin? If I speak truth why do you not believe me? 47The one being from God
hears the speakings of God. Because of this you do not hear, because you are not from
God.”
This section of Jn. 8 closes with vs. 45-47, where we see that the truth is foolishness to
the Jews because they are not of God. They are judging spiritual truth with a fleshly mind
(see again 1 Cor. 2.14). Up to this point in vs. 31-47, Jesus used the word logos when he
referred to the word of God. In v. 47, he used rema when he said that the Jews did not hear
the words of God. They knew the logos thoroughly, but what is important is that the logos
become rema, and it will to the one who abides in it. The fact that the Jews could not hear
rema proved that they were not abiding in the logos even though they knew it thoroughly.
48The Jews answered and said to him, “Do we not say rightly that you are a
Samaritan and you have a demon?” 49Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor
my Father, and you dishonor me. 50But I don’t seek my glory. There is one who seeks and
judges.
The last section of Jn. 8 consists of vs. 48-59. It begins by showing that the Jews
regarded racial origin as the determinative factor. Being a Jew physically was what mattered.
They showed their racial arrogance by making a racial slur toward the Lord Jesus, calling
him a Samaritan. He did not even reply to that. He would not have been bothered by being
called a Samaritan or any other despised race, for in the first place he loved all men, and in
the second, he knew that spiritual origin, not physical, was what mattered. But he did reply
to the charge that he had a demon, because that was important. It had to do with spiritual
origin. If he had had a demon, he would have had a Satanic spiritual origin and he would
have dishonored God. As it was, he honored God, though the Jews could not see it.

138

51Amen, amen I say to you, if anyone keep my word he will not see death into the age.”
Then in v 51 John brings out the real issue underlying everything we have seen up to
this point. We have already noted many times that the central issue in John is life. The Lord
Jesus came that we might have life and John wrote his book that we might have life. In v. 51
the Lord Jesus said, “If anyone keep my word, he will not see death into the age.” Again the
Greek word is logos. We have seen all through John that the Lord Jesus came to bring life,
and the various parts of John have shown different ways in which that life is manifested. In
this chapter, we see life as light. It is life that reveals the truth to us. Those who are ignorant
of the truth are not in that condition because they have not yet gained enough knowledge,
but because they have no life. We repeat, life is the source of light. No matter how many facts
we amass, we will never have an understanding of truth until we have the life of God within
us.
The one who has life will keep the logos, and the logos will become rema to him, thus
feeding the life, and the result will be that he will never see death. Even though the body will
surely die except for those raptured or living at the time of the Lord’s return, the person will
live on forever in the presence of God because he has God’s life within. Physical death is not
really the death of the person. It is only the leaving by the person of one habitation for
another. The body is only a tent we live in while on earth, Paul says in 2 Cor. 5. It is much
better to leave this tent and be with the Lord.
The little word “keep” in this verse is also important. The problem with the Jews was
not that they did not have or know the logos, for they knew it very well. Some had probably
memorized all of it. The problem was that they did not keep it. That explains what the Lord
Jesus meant in v. 31 by abiding in the word. The one who is really faithful to the word keeps
it. He lives by it and lets it guide his decisions. The Jews claimed to do so, but they had
murder in their hearts while their Bible said not to murder.
52The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and the
prophets, and you say, ‘If anyone keep my word he will not taste death into the age.’ 53Are
you greater than our father Abraham, who died? No. And the prophets died. Whom do
you make yourself out to be?”
Vs. 52-53 are yet another revelation of the lack of understanding of spiritual things.
They did not know about spiritual life. Abraham and the prophets were dead to them
because they had died physically, but Jesus knew that they lived spiritually.
54Jesus answered, “If I should glorify myself, my glory is nothing. My Father is the one
glorifying me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ 55And you have not known him, but I
know him. And if I should say that I don’t know him, I will be a liar like you. But I know

139

him and I keep his word. 56Abraham your Father was glad that he might see my day, and
he saw and rejoiced.”
This matter of origin determining destiny is clearly related to the spiritual in vs. 54-56.
Being born of Abraham physically is of no benefit if one is not a spiritual descendant of
Abraham. Paul wrote so eloquently in Rom. 4 and Gal. 3 of the fact that Abraham was first a
man of faith and it is those who have faith who are true sons of Abraham. Physical birth has
nothing to do with destiny after his life. It is spiritual birth that determines one’s ultimate
destiny. Abraham was the father of the Jews physically, but not spiritually.
Abraham was a man of faith and he had spiritual vision. Even though he did not have
the factual knowledge of Christ that we have today by the New Testament, hindsight, and
experience, he knew that God had promised something wonderful to come and he rejoiced
in it because he had faith in God. He saw the day of Christ, that day in which all the families
of the earth would be blessed through Abraham’s greatest Son (Mt. 1.1), and he rejoiced.
57Therefore the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen
Abraham?” 58Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen I say to you, Before Abraham came into
being, I AM.”
Of course, the Jews could not see how the Lord Jesus could have known such a thing
about Abraham, so they asked him a sarcastic question, expecting a negative answer: “You
are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Of course not! But the Lord Jesus
said, in effect, Of course! I made him. “Before Abraham came into being, I AM.” Again the
Lord Jesus used that name of himself, the Old Testament name of God. This man Jesus is
God in the flesh, and before he was God in the flesh, he was God in Genesis. He is I AM in
the flesh. We said that life is the issue. I AM is an expression of life, for it shows that God is
eternally present. He is not I was or I will be, but I AM, always present, always alive. He is
eternal life. The Lord Jesus is he in the flesh. It is also important to see the difference between
“came into being:” and “am.” Abraham has not always existed. He “became,” as the verb is
literally. Jesus did not become. He is eternal. He is eternally both past and future to our way
of thinking, I AM.
59Therefore they took up stones that they might throw them at him, but Jesus was hidden
and went out of the Temple.
This claim of divinity was too much for the Jews, and they took up stones to cast at
the Lord Jesus, trying to execute him on the spot. But his hour had not yet come (v. 20), and
he somehow, we are not told just how, hid himself and slipped out.
How do we conclude our thoughts on this chapter? In the first place, we have seen
that life is the issue in John, and we have seen many ways in which life is manifested. It is the

140

joy of the fullness of the Spirit, the creation of a new people of God, the bringing to life of
human spirits formerly dead toward God, physical healing of a lame man symbolic of the
calling of the Jews from being cripples under the Law to being able to walk in grace, bread,
victory over Satan and the world. In this chapter, life is manifested as light, and specifically,
as the Light of the world, the Lord Jesus. He is the life of God in human flesh, and the life is
the light of men (Jn. 1.4). As such, he reveals the truth, not just individual facts, but an
understanding of the spiritual world and the conflict between God and Satan that is going on
in it, and the place of the man Jesus in that conflict. (There is actually no conflict between
God and Satan. God is almighty, which means that Satan has no power against God. But God
allows Satan to act in this age to provide opportunity for the perfecting of God’s people
through testing. The outcome of the “conflict” has already been determined. The Almightty
will prevail, or better, manifest the fact that he has always prevailed.) All through John we
see the life of God just flowing like a river in the Lord Jesus and coming out in different
ways. Here it reveals truth.
As such, this manifestation of life shows that the Lord Jesus is again the fulfillment of
the festival of Tabernacles. Just as he is the one who pours out the water of life, the Holy
Spirit, in fulfillment of the ceremony of pouring out the water at the altar, so he is the Light
of the world in fulfillment of the ceremony of lights. All that Tabernacles represents and
prophesies is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. All that the Jews were celebrating with that
wonderful festival had its fulfillment in their midst while it was going on.
That brings us to the third part of the conclusion, the sad part, and that is that the Jews
were spiritually blind. These people of God who had Moses and Abraham, who had the Old
Testament, who had centuries of the dealings and revelations of God (see Rom. 9.4-5), had no
understanding of spiritual truth after all that. It is tragic that these people could be so long
exposed to the things of God and grasp nothing. It is sad indeed. The fulfillment of their
ceremony of lights was in their midst, and they had no light.
Having concluded going through Jn. 8 section by section, let us now take a closer look
at some of the truths revealed in this chapter. In the first place, the point is that the Lord
Jesus is light, and as we read through these verses, we see him shedding light on everything
that comes up. He shed light on the Jews. In v. 15 he showed that they judged by the flesh.
That is, they had no awareness of spiritual reality and made judgments based on their
natural reason. Their inability to function in the spiritual realm came to light. V. 19 reveals
that the Jews did not know God. With all their rich spiritual heritage and experience of the
dealings of God, they had never come to know him.
We learn in v. 37 that the word of God, given to the Jews through great men of God
such as Moses and David, had no place in them. They knew the word thoroughly, but they
did not know the word. That is, they had virtually memorized the logos or much of it, but it
had never become rema to them. Finally, we get to the root of the problems with the Jews in
v. 44: their father was the devil, and their actions were in keeping with the nature inherited
from him. It was a family likeness. That is why they wanted to kill the Lord Jesus.

141

Onto all the pretense of righteousness on the part of the Jews, the Lord Jesus turned
the light and revealed it for what it was, hypocrisy. He is the light, and he revealed the truth
about these people.
The Lord Jesus shed light on true descent from Abraham. Vs. 33-44 show us that God
measures descent from Abraham not by physical birth as a Jew, but by spiritual birth as a
person of faith. First of all Abraham was a man of faith; he had faith in God and it was
counted to him as righteousness (Gen. 15.6). The Lord Jesus only hinted at the teaching that
Paul drew out in Rom 4.13-14 and Gal. 3.6-7: “So Abraham had faith in God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. Know then that those who are of faith are sons of
Abraham.” True descent from Abraham is spiritual and comes by faith. Physical birth as a
Jew is of no benefit if one does not have faith in the Lord Jesus.
True slavery and freedom also came under the light of Jesus. In vs. 31-36 he spoke of
slavery to sin and freedom from sin and self. One may be physically free but still be in
bondage to sin. On the other hand, he may be physically enslaved or in prison and still be
free. Like descent from Abraham, real slavery and freedom are spiritual. Sin does indeed
enslave. Those who get involved in excessive drinking, drugs, gambling, pornography, and
so forth, find that they cannot break the grip of these cruel masters. They appear so
appealing at first, but when they have gained control over their victims, their ugly side
comes out and the enslaved sinner begins to suffer under their bondage.
But there is freedom from this slavery in Christ. When one trusts in him and commits
his life to him, the Lord can break the bonds of sin. He said in v. 35 that the son abides in the
house forever. When the New Testament speaks of sonship, it refers to maturity. When a
new, immature Christian is the subject, the word “child” is used, but a mature Christian is
called a son. (Perhaps we should say maturing Christian. Are there really any who would
call themselves mature?) That is the goal of God for us. Paul develops this theme especially
in Gal. 4. The point that the Lord Jesus made in Jn. 8.35 is that freedom is the result of
maturity, and how true that is. Paul’s analogy in Gal. 4 is that the child of the father, though
he is the heir of all, is no better off than a slave as long as he is a child. A child is immature
and cannot exercise freedom responsibly, and thus he is in a very real sense a slave of his
parents. He must do what they say. But as he grows up and develops some maturity and
good judgment, he is given a measure of freedom. The more he matures the more freedom
he gets, and one day he will inherit the property and become the head of it. He has
progressed from being a child to being a son. That is what the Lord Jesus meant in Jn. 8.35:
when we abide in his word and grow in him, we find ourselves ever more free from sin and
self and able to be what God made us to be, and that is true freedom.
The Lord Jesus put the light on his relationship with God. What was that relationship?
Vs. 28-29 show us that he was I AM, that is, the God of the Old Testament in the flesh. Yet
this one who was God in human form took the place of an obedient son. God was his Father,
and he did only what God told him to do. He laid down his own will to do that of his Father.
As a result, God was always with this man. Vs. 54-55 show us that this obedient Son knew

142

his Father: there was a personal relationship between them. The Jews had the Law and went
by it, to the ultimate exclusion of God. The Lord Jesus knew the one who gave the Law, and
thus he fulfilled the spirit of the Law perfectly.
As much as anything, the Lord Jesus turned the searchlight of truth fully on Satan.
The devil likes nothing more than for people to believe that he does not exist, to make fun of
him as a mythological character wearing a red suit and carrying a pitchfork. Those who take
this view are right where he wants them, for his method is deceit, and they are deceived. Jn.
8.44 reveals to us that Satan is a murderer: his ultimate aim is to destroy people eternally in
hell. His means of doing this is deceit or darkness, the opposite of the light of this chapter.
The Lord Jesus is the Light of the world. Satan is the prince of darkness.
We noted above in discussing the slavery of sin that sin always appears attractive at
first. Satan never comes to anyone and announces that he is Satan and his aim is to ruin that
person’s life and get him to hell, and that if he will just succumb to the temptations that
Satan will place before him, that is what will happen. No, Satan is the cleverest liar in
history. He can make anything look good. He takes self-centeredness, money, alcohol,
pleasure, lust, anything, and dresses it up as the one thing that will make a person happy
and popular. The problem is that this wonderful-looking temptation is like a piece of bait
as we noted earlier: it has an unseen hook in it, but once the fish has bitten, it is too late. Then
the truth about all these sins comes out, heartbreak and misery follow, and if the person does
not turn to Christ for deliverance, hell is the ultimate outcome. All this comes about by
deceit. Satan is a liar and he dupes people into going his way. That is the light that the Lord
Jesus sheds on Satan.
The Lord Jesus also revealed what death and life really are. We think that a person’s
death is physical, but that is not true at all. In v. 51 Jesus said that the person who keeps his
word will never see death. He obviously was not referring to physical death, for everyone
dies in that way. But the truth is that the body is not the person. Paul makes that plain in 2
Cor. 5, where he writes that the body is only a tent that the person lives in while on this
earth. The real person is the spirit that lives in that body. When the body dies, the person has
not died. He has only moved into a new realm, the spiritual world. Real death is not physical
but spiritual. What we need to he concerned about is not living a few more years in the body,
but having spiritual life so that when the body does die, as it surely will if Christ does not
return first, we will be with the Lord. Everyone will die physically. The tragedy is what
Revelation calls the second death: spiritual death, eternal separation from God in hell.
Spiritual death is not nonexistence. It is a living death in a place where there is nothing good.
The Jews could not grasp this truth. To them, Abraham and the prophets were dead
because they had died physically, but the Lord Jesus knew that they were still alive
spiritually. That is what true death and life are, and that is another bit of light that the Lord
Jesus shed in Jn. 8.
Finally, the Lord Jesus shed light on who he was. We have already seen it. He was I
AM. He was God, but he was God who had become a man. That is beyond our

143

comprehension, but it is truth. Those who have received light do not understand it fully, but
they know it is true. This person called Jesus was God, but he was also fully a man.
So we see that the Light of the world just keeps on shedding light on every matter that
comes up. We have looked only at Jn. 8, the chapter of which light is the main theme, but we
have seen much light already in John and will see much more as we go on.
We have already seen that light and darkness comprise a major theme in the gospel of
John. Before moving on to chapter 9, let us spend a few moments thinking about this theme.
We will look primarily at darkness, but will keep in mind that the opposite of what we say
about darkness is true of light.
Darkness and light have to do with deception and truth. Darkness is ignorance of the
truth, but we need to see that truth is not just facts, but a grasp of the whole scheme of things
as God made them. One may have all the facts in the world and not know truth, just as one
may be ignorant of many facts and know truth. Indeed we live in an age of knowledge. We
know more than man has ever known before, so much so that we cannot keep up with all we
know and must use computers, another advance in knowledge, to store it. In addition, the
body of knowledge is growing at an alarming rate. Many are behind in their field of specialty
because new discoveries are made faster than they can read about them. Yet with all our
knowledge, we cannot solve our problems. We appoint blue ribbon commissions to study
our problems, but after all the facts are amassed and analyzed, the problems just grow
worse. What is the reason for this situation?
In the first place, it is imperative that we understand that darkness is spiritual, and by
that we mean something very particular. We have seen that man is body, soul, and spirit,
and that his soul, psuche in Greek, is his mind, emotions, and will, while the spirit is the
means of knowing God. The body and soul are the spirit’s means of expression in the world.
When God made man, it was his intention that the spirit of man, filled with the Holy Spirit,
rule man, controlling his mind, emotions, will, and body. The problem is that when man
sinned, he died spiritually. That is, his spirit lost contact with God. Thus man was left to his
own devices and the soul gained ascendancy over the spirit. The spiritual darkness of man,
the death of his spirit toward God, extends to his soul. Man now lives by his intelligence, his
feelings, and his will power, or even by his physical appetites. Since the spirit is dead toward
God, man has no means of receiving light, so he is governed by a soul that is in darkness,
easy prey for Satan, the master deceiver. And how dark the soul of man is. The Lord Jesus
said in Matt. 6.22-23, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye be healthy, your
whole body will be full of light. But if your eye be evil, your whole body will be full of
darkness. If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is the darkness.” When
Jesus spoke these words, he was not teaching about the physical body, but using it as an
illustration of a spiritual truth. Let us restate the verse, using the terms the Lord Jesus was
teaching about rather than the illustration he was using: “The lamp of the [soul] is the
[spirit]. If therefore your [spirit] be healthy, your whole [soul] will be full of light. But if your
[spirit] be evil, your whole [soul] will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you

144

be darkness, how great is the darkness.” That is exactly the condition of man. His spirit is
dead toward God, and his soul is full of darkness.
The soul of man, we repeat, is his mind, emotions, and will, his psychological
makeup. His darkness extends to all of these areas. Paul said much about the darkness of
fallen man’s mind. In Rom. 1.21 we read, “For while they knew God, they did not glorify him
as God or give thanks, but were given to futility in their reasonings and their foolish heart
was darkened.” What a vivid description of today’s man Paul wrote almost two thousand
years ago! Is it not true that man’s reasonings are futile? The best minds of our day study our
problems and propose solutions, but the problems only grow worse. All the efforts of the
soulish man are futile.
Paul wrote in Eph. 4.18, “. . . being darkened in the mind, strangers to the life of God,
because of the ignorance that is in them because of the stubbornness of their heart.” This
verse shows, like Rom 1.21, that the ignorance of man, the darkness of his mind, results from
his deliberate rejection of God. A spirit dead toward God means a dark soul, including the
mind.
One of the most instructive verses of all is 1 Cor. 2 14: “But a soulish man does not
receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to
know, for they are spiritually judged.” Most translations render the opening phrase “natural
man,” but the Greek word is psuchikos, soulish. “Natural” is a correct translation, but it leaves
out the fact that it leaves a man with only his reason, feelings, and will to make decisions,
when what he needs is spiritual contact with God. It refers to the man whose spirit is dead
toward God and who is therefore left to the devices of his soul. Because his spirit is not alive
toward God and his soul cannot relate directly to God, he is unable to receive the things of
the Spirit, and thus his soul is dark. He thinks he is wise, but the things of God are
foolishness to him and, like those in Rom. 1.21, his best efforts end in futility.
A very intriguing verse in this regard is Jude 19: “These are those who cause
divisions, soulish, not having spirit.” These people may as well not have a spirit. It is the
spirit that is in touch with God, and theirs is dead. Thus they are soulish, limited to the
faculties of their souls.
Perhaps the most descriptive verse of all for our time is 2 Tim. 3.7, where Paul wrote
that man is always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of truth. How true. We
have more universities with more professors making more studies and amassing more facts
than at any other time in history, but man does not know truth. He cannot solve his
problems, but they grow worse and worse.
All of this is the result of a spirit that is dead toward God and a soul that is
consequently darkened. It cannot know truth because it has no means of communication
with the Source of truth.
Man’s emotions are darkened as well as his mind. What is the source of depression,
fear, low self-esteem, insecurity, and all the other psychological maladies so characteristic of
our time? It is not God or his word. What is depression but a sense that things are going to

145

turn out badly and that no one cares? But the word of God says that God loves each person
individually and has wonderful plans for every single person. There is no reason to be
depressed, even when things do go badly, for God is able to use everything for good, and
will do so if we will but turn to him. Depression is the result of Satan’s lie to the darkened
emotions. We see something of this is 1 Jn. 4.18: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love
casts out the fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and the one who fears has not been
perfected in love.” God is perfect love, and when one knows that love he has no fear, for he
knows that God will use everything in his life for good and will bring him to a perfect end.
But Satan has hidden this truth from the darkened emotions of fallen man and led him to
believe, through the vague sense of guilt that lingers despite all attempts to deny it, that
things will turn out badly. And of course they will turn out badly if the person does not turn
to God, but they need not, for he can turn to God. But the point at present is that the
emotional aspect of the soul of man is darkened when the spirit is dead toward God. [We do
not mean that there is no such thing as mental or emotional illness, chemical imbalance, and
so forth, things which need proper medical treatment, but that a great deal of, if not most,
depression and the like have a spiritual root in deceit.]
The will of man is also in darkness. This darkness may take either of two forms. Man
may be weak-willed, unable to control himself. We live in a day of excess, whether it be diet,
pleasure, gambling, alcohol, drugs, spending. We are unable to say no to our desires, and
live for more and more. On the other hand, there is the strong-willed person who knows
exactly what he wants and how to get it and does not care whom he hurts to achieve his
goals. He leaves misery in his wake. God did not intend for man to be either weak-willed or

strong-willed, but able to control himself through a disciplined will submitted to his Spirit-
filled spirit, but in his fallen condition, man’s will is in darkness. He does not know how to

exercise his will properly.
Behind all of this soul-darkness is the spirit of darkness, Satan, as we have seen in Jn.
8.44. This darkness is not accidental. Someone is lying to men to bring it about, and that
someone is a spirit. He is a murderer whose objective is to destroy everyone in hell, and his
method is deceit. If he can succeed in keeping man in darkness, he will gain his ends.
This, then, is what the Bible means by darkness. It is first of all spiritual, meaning
specifically that the spirit of man is dead toward God and therefore unable to receive light,
and then that this darkness extends to his soul in every aspect, mind, emotions, and will. All
of this proceeds from the prince of darkness who is constantly lying to men, and who is so
clever that they believe him even while they are destroying themselves through his lies.
What is the answer? It is simple, really. It begins with the new birth. When one is born
from above, he is born spiritually. His spirit becomes alive toward God. Thus he is able to
receive light, which begins to shine into his mind, emotions, and will. If he abides in and
keeps the word of God, as the Lord Jesus said in Jn. 8.31 and 51, the light grows and the
knowledge of truth increases. One does not get light for himself, for that comes by revelation.
He submits to God in his heart, and God will see to it that he gets light.

146

This light extends to his mind. In Rom. 12.2 Paul wrote, “And do not be conformed to
this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” What is the renewing of the
mind? It is the shining of light into it from the word of God through a spirit that is alive
toward God and receiving revelation from him. We quoted 1 Cor. 2.14 above. Now let us add
v. 15: “But the spiritual man judges all things….” A man who is spiritual, who has been born
from above in spirit and whose spirit has gained ascendancy over the soul, is able to
understand the things of God. They are not foolishness to him. And he finds that he is able to
solve problems, not through his own intelligence, but through the revelation of God to his
enlightened mind through his spirit. Prov. 1.7 says that the “fear of I AM is the beginning of
knowledge.” Man today, especially the psychologists, says that the rejection of God is the
beginning of knowledge, but look where that has gotten us! When one begins to fear God, he
begins to have light, a mind that is able to grasp not just facts, but truth.
The emotions also become enlightened and are set free. We quoted 1 Jn. 4.18 above.
Let us repeat it: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out the fear, for fear has to do
with punishment, and the one who fears has not been perfected in love.” Fear is a darkened
emotion. There is no reason for fear, for God loves us, is always with us, and will take care of
us, but Satan has been able to lie to darkened emotions and create fear. But when one is born
from above and begins to receive light from God, one aspect of the light he receives is that
God loves him, and as he grows in that love, the fear begins to be dispelled. An enlightened
emotional system is one that basks in the light of God and is free from the lies of Satan that
bring on negative feelings.
Finally, the will of the spiritual man is also enlightened. In quoting Rom. 12.2 above
we left off the end of the verse. Let us now add it: “And do not be conformed to this age, but
he transformed by the renewing of the mind, that you may be able to prove what the will of
God is, the good and pleasing and perfect.” When one’s spirit is alive toward God and ruling
over his soul, the will comes into subjection to the will of God. It is neither weak nor strong,
but an instrument for God’s purposes under a spirit full of the Spirit of God.
That is darkness and that is light in the word of God. This is a major theme in the
gospel of John, and we will see more of it as we proceed. Let us conclude our thoughts on it
with this prayer from Paul in Eph. 1.17-18, “. . . that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may grant to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowledge of him,
having the eyes of the heart enlightened….” Amen.
9.1-41
Having recorded the words and deeds regarding the Lord Jesus as the light of the
world in chapter 8, John in chapter 9 turns to a physical example given by the Lord Jesus of
these truths. This example was miraculous. As we noted at the beginning of our study of
John, the first twelve chapters of this gospel describe the public ministry of the Lord Jesus

147

and contain seven miracles called signs. The sixth sign is the subject of Jn. 9.1-41, and it
illustrates what the Lord Jesus taught in chapter 8.
1And passing by he saw a man blind from birth, 2and his disciples asked him
saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this one or his parents, that he should be born blind?” 3
Jesus
answered, “Neither this one nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God may be
manifested in him.
Recall that at the end of the conflict between the Lord Jesus and the Jewish leaders
after his teaching that he was the Light of the world, the Jews took up stones to put him to
death, but that he was hidden and left the Temple. Then in 9.1 John says that as he passed, he
saw a man who had been blind since birth. This man’s condition was a physical example of
the spiritual condition of the Jews. They were spiritually blind. Furthermore, this man had
been blind from birth. This fact is a further illustration of the spiritual condition, for we are
all born blind. David said that his mother conceived him in sin (Ps. 51.5), and that is true of
all of us. Natural birth does not give one any standing with God, but only introduces us to
sin and spiritual blindness. It is only by the new birth that we see the things of God. Our
spiritual blindness is the result, first of all, of our physical birth into a fallen world, and then,
of our deliberate choice to continue in sin and reject God’s answer to it. We are all blind from
birth.
When the disciples saw this man, they asked Jesus who had sinned, the man or his
parents, that he was born blind. It seems odd that they could have thought the man was born
blind because of his own sin. How could an unborn child sin? Did they believe in
reincarnation? Of course not. Did they believe God was prejudging him for a sin he knew he
would commit later? We are not told. Whatever their belief about this particular matter, the
disciples were betraying their Jewishness, for it was the common Jewish view that physical
circumstances indicated spiritual condition. Those who were righteous were blessed by God
outwardly, and those who were sinners were cursed. Thus it was obvious that this man had
sinned, for he was blind.
It was only natural that the Jews would hold such a view, for the promise of God in
the Old Testament was that if they kept the Law, they would he healthy, prosperous, fertile,
and free from their enemies. In addition, the Jews of the Old Testament did not hold the
belief in the afterlife that is clearly revealed in the New Testament, and thus it was only in
this life, they thought, that one reaped the reward of his attitudes and actions. These beliefs
were behind the advice of Job’s friends, convinced as they were that his afflictions were
proof that he had sinned. Another example of this theology occurs in Mk. 10.25-26. After the
encounter with the rich young ruler, the Lord Jesus made the remark to the twelve that it is
hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Their reaction was an astonished, “And
who can be saved?” That is, if a rich man, obviously blessed by God because of his
righteousness, can barely make it, who can?

148

The answer of the Lord Jesus made it clear that this kind of thinking was wrong.
Under the Law it was true. If the Jews had kept the Law perfectly, God would have kept his
promises to them of great material blessing. They did not keep the Law, though, and they
did not experience the promises based on it. But the Lord Jesus revealed the spiritual world
and grace, and that is entirely different from the Law. God will keep his promises spiritually,
but our physical experience may include difficulty and suffering. But, the Lord Jesus said,
this is not a tit for tat punishment for sin (though sin is the ultimate cause of all suffering),
but an occasion for the glory of God. This man was not born blind because of his sin or his
parents’, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
In making this statement, the Lord Jesus got at the heart of the purpose of suffering. In
the first place, suffering had no place in the original, eternal purpose of God. He created a
paradise and placed man in it with the opportunity of a perfect existence leading to the tree
of life, the receiving of the Lord Jesus as eternal life, making that perfect existence eternal.
The book of Revelation reveals that in the end, when God restores all things, the same
situation will exist, with man living from the tree of life, the Lord Jesus. That is the way God
made things, and suffering had no place in it, but man ruined it all, bringing in sin and
suffering. We blame God for our suffering, but it is our fault, not his. He made creation a
paradise and we brought in suffering by our own sin.
But God is redemptive. We think of redemption only in terms of the new birth and
escape from hell, but redemption is so much more. God can redeem any situation. He works
in the life of the Christian to bring redemption in his difficulties just as he works to redeem
the lost from going to hell. That is the case with suffering. It is our doing, not God’s, but he
will use it redemptively if we will turn to him and let him do so. He will display his works
through our suffering if we yield to him, and those works will result in his glory and our
edification through the putting to death of our flesh by the application of the cross, for that is
what suffering really is. It is the dealing of God with the flesh that would drag us down to
destruction. It is intended for our good, and that good results when faith is the response to
trial. Such was the case with the man born blind. He had suffered for many years, but God
was about to use that suffering to glorify himself and to bring this man to far more than
physical sight.
4We must work the works of the one having sent me while it is day. Night is coming when
no one can work. 5While I am in the world I AM the Light of the world.”
The Lord Jesus continued his reply to the disciples in vs. 4 and 5, where the theme of
darkness and light is stressed once again: “We must work the works of the one who sent me
while it is day. Night comes when no one can work.” This metaphor comes from an
agricultural, non-electrified society whose people had to get their work done while it was
daylight and quit when darkness came, then get up again as soon as day broke so they could
again take advantage of the light. Work had to be done in the light because it could not he

149

done in the dark. The same is true spiritually. We live in a dark world, but there is a Light
shining in it. But darkness has its day. John uses the words darkness and night. Darkness is
the condition of spiritual ignorance and deceit that men live in, but night is the climax of
darkness, its triumph.
Such a night came with the death of the Lord Jesus, and he had predicted its coming.
He did so here in Jn. 9.4. He did so in Luke 22.53 at his arrest: “But this is your hour and the
authority of darkness.” There is always darkness in this world, but that darkness has its
supreme hour, when it appears to have won the day. While the Lord Jesus lay in the grave,
the Light was extinguished and no man could work. There was no hope in the world for
three dark days. The Lord is to be praised that the dark night of death could not hold the
Light of the world!
That night comes for every person as well. If the Lord does not return first, we will all
die. Though we go to be with him, our day in this world is done and we can no longer do the
work he has called us to. How vital it is that we do the Lord’s work now while we can. We
will not lose our salvation, but we can forfeit our value to God and our reward in Heaven if
we do not work while it is day.
Night comes for those the Lord wants us to win for him or help along the way
spiritually. Once a person has died, we can no longer bring him to Christ, or help him grow
in Christ. If God is calling us to minister to a person and we fail to do so until that night falls,
we will never again have that opportunity to be used by God, and we will have to give an
account to God for our failure. Night comes when no one can work.
6Having said these things he spat onto the ground and made mud from the spittle, and
smeared the mud on his eyes 7and said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” (which
being interpreted is “Sent”). So he went and washed and came seeing.
It is very interesting that this entire chapter is taken up with the healing of this man
and its spiritual meaning, but the miracle itself takes only two verses, six and seven. When
the Lord Jesus had taught the twelve the correct view of suffering and warned them of the
approach of night, he spat on the ground, made clay, applied it to the blind man’s eyes, and
told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. The blind man obeyed and returned seeing. That
is all we are told. One who was blind received sight. One in darkness received light. How
does this happen? Physically, any way God chooses. Spiritually it happens by the new birth
through faith in the Lord Jesus, though again God works in many ways in different
individuals to bring them to life.
Even though we are told only such a small amount about the miracle itself, yet there is
so much meaning in what we are told. In the first place, the fact that Jesus spat on the ground
and made clay to apply to the man’s eyes reminds us of Gen. 2.7, the record of the original
forming of man by God. There God formed man from the dust of the ground. After he had
done this, there was lying there on the ground a lump of clay shaped like a man, but it had

150

no life. Then God breathed into the lifeless form, and it came alive and became a living soul.
The production of life from the action of God on the clay of the earth is paralleled by the
action of the Lord Jesus, God in the flesh, on the clay. The saliva of the Lord Jesus, combined
with dust, produced life in the form of sight. It was God who originally made man and gave
him life, and it is God who provides the life that man needs to meet any problem he may
have.
The clay also speaks of the flesh of man, not now in the sense of physical flesh but the
principle of self-centeredness that is in all men. The blind man’s eyes were full of flesh, so
even though he was alive, he could not see. How true this is of the Christian who has not had
his flesh dealt with by the Lord or has resisted this dealing. He has life, but his spiritual
vision is still clouded by the flesh and he does not perceive truth clearly. What is the answer?
The washing away of the flesh. Water in the Bible, as we have seen, is symbolic of the Holy
Spirit. When a fleshly Christian is dealt with by the Holy Spirit through the application of the
cross to his flesh, that flesh is washed away and spiritual vision comes clear. The Christian
begins to see things in the spiritual realm that he did not see before, even though he was
born from above and had the life of God. That life must grow in us through the action of the
Spirit of God in applying the cross to our flesh. The blind man was alive but he could not see.
The fleshly Christian is alive spiritually, but he cannot see spiritually. Both need the washing
of the Holy Spirit through the cross.
In the story of the healing of the blind man, though, the water is only symbolic. Just as
in the ceremony of pouring out water in the Festival of Tabernacles as a symbol of the
hoped-for pouring out of the Holy Spirit, so the water in this story is only a symbol, not the
reality. But by using it, the Lord Jesus made the point that he was bringing in the reality. He
was not just wishing the blind man well. He actually healed him. He had not hope, but the
thing hoped for.
This blind man was told by the Lord Jesus to wash in the Pool of Siloam, the very pool
from which the Jews drew the water for their ceremony. But that was a ceremony depicting
life, of which water is a symbol in the Bible. This story concerns light and sight, the other
aspect of Tabernacles that the Lord Jesus drew on in these chapters. By telling the man to
whom he was giving light to go wash in the pool that symbolized life, he again emphasized
the point that we have made before, that light comes from life, not vice versa. We do not gain
life from knowledge, but knowledge from life. The blind man did not come alive spiritually
because he saw. He saw because he touched the life of God in the Lord Jesus. Life came first.
Life always comes first. What a vital principle that is for the people of God. Light can be
utterly true and utterly dead. Life is the issue. When we have life, we will gain knowledge,
but knowledge will never produce life. Thus the Lord Jesus tied together the two major
ceremonies of the Festival of Tabernacles in such a way as to teach a vital lesson.
Finally, the word “Siloam” means “sent.” The blind man was sent to the Pool of Sent.
What does that tell us? It tells us that those who have received life and light from God are to
be sent ones, as the Lord Jesus himself was. God does not give us life and light just for our

151

own enjoyment, but that he might send us out to be used by him. The blind man was sent to
the Pool of Sent to receive his sight that he might be sent by God to take the life of God to
others. So are we.
Indeed we do learn much from these two short verses on the giving of sight to the
blind man. Then in vs. 8-13 we see the popular reaction.
8Therefore the neighbors and those seing him before, that he was a beggar, were asking,
“Is this not the one sitting and begging?” 9Others were sayinmg, “This is he.” Others were
saying, “No, but he is like him.” He was saying, “I am he.” 10Therefore they were saying to
him, “How were your eyes opened?” 11That one answered, “The man called Jesus made
mud and smeared my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So having gone and
washed I saw.” 12And they said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I don’t know.” They were
taking him to the Pharisees, the one formerly blind.
We have seen all through John that the miracles of the Lord Jesus are not just
wonderful happenings, but are signs. They signify something, point to something beyond
themselves. This sign shows us the triumph of the life of God over spiritual darkness and its
ability to give light. But did the crowds see this significance? No, they were fascinated by the
remarkable occurrence and debated over whether or not it had really happened: was this
really the man who had been born blind or only someone who looked like him? They
bickered back and forth and wanted to know the details. They wanted to know where the
Lord Jesus was. Their interest was not in committing themselves to him, but in curiously
beholding this wonder-worker and in hoping for more entertainment. Finally, they took the
man who had received sight to the Pharisees.
14Now the day on which Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes was a Sabbath,
15so again the Pharisees asked him how he received his sight, but he said to them, “He put
mud on my eyes and I washed and I see.” 16Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying,
“This man is not from God, for he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How is a
sinful man able to do such signs?” And there was division among them.
Vs. 14-34 deal with the appearance of the man before these Jewish leaders. Vs. 14-16
tell us that the day on which Jesus had healed the blind man was a Sabbath and that the
Pharisees therefore rejected the Lord Jesus for working on that day: he had made mud.
Again the Pharisees, those staunch upholders of the Law, put the letter of the Law ahead of
its purpose, man’s good. The very reason the Law was given was to help man order his life
so that he would know blessing instead of misery. The Lord Jesus came giving exactly what
the Law was intended for, but by his time the Law had been made an end in itself and it
purpose, the good of man, was lost sight of. Blindness! And there was continued division

152

among the Pharisees, some disqualifying Jesus on the basis of breaking the Sabbath, and
others wondering aloud how a sinner could work such a miracle. Even they called it a sign.
17Therefore they said to the blind man again, “What do you say about him since he opened
your eyes?” But he said, “He is a prophet.” 18Therefore the Jews did not believe
concerning him that he was blind and received his sight until they called the parents of
the one himself having received his sight 19and asked them saying, “Is this your son of
whom you say that he was born blind? How then does he see now?”
This line of thought continues in vs. 17-19 where the unbelief of the Pharisees is
revealed in their denial of the fact of the miracle itself. They decided that the man had not
been blind and had not been healed, but was lying about the whole incident, so they called
his parents to testify. They went from legalism to division to unbelief.
20Therefore his parents answered and said, “We know that this is our son and that he was
born blind, 21but how he now sees we don’t know, or who opened his eyes we don’t know.
Ask him. He is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22His parents said these things because
they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess
him to be Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. 23Because of this his parents said,
“He is of age. Ask him.”
The parents appeared and verified that the man was their son and that he had been
born blind, but they were unwilling to offer any opinion on what had happened, and John
tells us that their reason was fear of the Jews. It had been decided by the Pharisees that if
anyone confessed the Lord Jesus to be the Messiah, he would be put out of the synagogue.
In our day of many denominations and secular society that takes no account of God,
that may not seem to be a problem, but in the Jewish society of that day, it meant complete
ostracism. No Jew would have anything to do with another Jew who had been put out of the
synagogue. Thus he was left entirely alone, with no family or friends. This attitude continues
to this day in some circles, and there have even been instances of Jewish people holding
funerals for Jews who have left Judaism, as though they were dead. In addition, of course,
being put out of the synagogue raised the question of eternal destiny, for by the time of the
New Testament some of the Jews had developed a belief in the resurrection. This threat of
expulsion from the synagogue was too much for this man’s parents, and they refused to get
involved, as we put it today.
This matter of the fear of man is dealt with in the Bible. Heb. 11.23 tells us that the
parents of Moses spared his life when Pharaoh had ordered that all Jewish baby boys be put
to death because they knew he was pleasing to God and they did not fear the king’s edict.
Jesus himself said in Mt. 10.28 not to fear him who could destroy the body, that is, man, but
him who could destroy both body and soul in hell, that is, God. Sometimes it is costly to

153

follow the Lord. Many have given their lives for doing so. How tragic it is, though, for a
person to give up his eternal relationship with God out of fear of man. Man can indeed hurt
a person, but only temporarily and only physically. Eternity is long, and how short the
tortures of man are in comparison. How sad for these parents that they were controlled by
the fear of man. Perhaps later they came to the fear of God that overcomes the fear of man.
May God grant that we fear him and not man.
24Therefore they called the man out who had been born blind a second time and
said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25Therefore he
answered, “Whether he is a sinner I don’t know. One thing I do know, that having been
blind, now I see.”
One of the more ironic passages in the Bible occurs in vs. 24-34, where the ignorant
man teaches the teachers. After the testimony of his parents verified the fact that the man
had been healed, the Pharisees called him in again. First they told him that he should give
glory to God, meaning that he should tell the truth, for the Lord Jesus was a sinner, and
therefore could not have performed a healing. Then the man who had been healed made one
of the classic statements in the Bible: “Whether he is a sinner I don’t know. One thing I do
know, that having been blind, now I see.” The Pharisees had knowledge, but this ignorant
man had experience. They were living proof that truth can be dead. He showed that while
truth is important, it is secondary to life, and he had life. Living truth would flow from that
life, and indeed had already begun to do so, as the rest of the passage shows.
26Therefore they said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He
answered them, “I told you already and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear again?
Do you also want to become his disciples? No.” 28And they reviled him and said, “You are
a disciple of that one, but we are disciples of Moses. 29We know that God has spoken to
Moses, but this one, we don’t know where he is from.” 30The man answered and said to
them, “In this is a marvelous thing, that you don’t know where he is from, yet he opened
my eyes.
Stumped by an irrefutable fact, the Pharisees asked again how the Lord Jesus had
healed him. The man said that he had already told them and asked sarcastically if they
wanted to know so that they could become disciples of the Lord Jesus, too. This man had a
lot of what we call gumption. These Pharisees had the power to ostracize him from society,
but he knew what he had experienced and stood up to them. Most men in better situations
than his would have been intimidated, but he was not. When the Pharisees reviled him for
suggesting that they might he interested in becoming disciples of the Lord Jesus, saying that
that was what he was while they were disciples of Moses, he again came back with the facts:

154

he pointed out that the Pharisees claimed ignorance of where the Lord Jesus was from
(compare 6.42 and 7.27), yet Jesus had opened his eyes. Then he really became bold:
31We know that God doesn’t hear sinners, but if anyone be God-fearing and does his will,
he hears this one.

32From the age it was not heard that anyone opened the eyes of one born
blind. 33If this one were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34They answered and said to
him, “You were wholly born in sin and you are teaching us?” And they cast him out.
Again the man confronted the arguments of the Pharisees with the truth of his
experience. They had knowledge; he had experience. They had facts; he had truth. Unable to
deny the fact of his healing or the valid arguments of this ignorant man, they, the learned,
resorted to an emotional response and replied with the greatest of self-righteous arrogance:
“You were born entirely in sin, and you teach us?” We are the righteous. We know the
Scriptures. We do not need to be taught anything, especially by the likes of you. And they
expelled him from the synagogue, the dreaded punishment.
35Jesus heard that they cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you have
faith into the Son of Man?” 36That one answered and said, “And who is he, Lord, that I
may have faith in him?” 37Jesus said to him, “You have both seen him and that one
speaking with you is he.” 38And he said, “I have faith, Lord.” And he worshipped him.
When the Lord Jesus heard that he had been put out, he went to find him, and we
have recorded in vs. 35-38 the encounter of the healed man with his Healer and Lord. Thus
far only the man’s physical eyes had been opened, though he had begun to get a glimmer of
spiritual sight. The Lord Jesus asked him if he had faith in the Son of Man, but the healed
man did not know who the Son of Man was. He was willing to have faith, though, and asked
who he was that he might have faith. When the Lord Jesus then revealed that he was the Son
of Man, the man’s spiritual eyes were opened and he saw the Messiah and responded, “I
have faith, Lord.” And he worshipped him. Thus the story is complete. He received both
physical and spiritual sight.
The completeness of the story is seen further in the progression of the man’s
understanding of the Lord Jesus. When asked by the crowds in v. 10 how he was healed, he
replied that the man called Jesus had done it. Then when the Pharisees asked him what he
had to say about the one who had healed him, he said in v. 17 that he was a prophet. In v. 33,
he has moved on to seeing that his Healer was a man from God. But in v. 38, after the Lord
Jesus revealed himself, the man, with full sight now, worshipped him. That is a long way
from “the man called Jesus,” but his eyes had been fully opened, both physically and
spiritually.

155

39And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those not seeing may see and
that those seeing may become blind.” 40Those of the Pharisees, those being with him,
heard these things and said to him, “Are we also blind? No.” 41Jesus said to them, “If you
were blind you would not have sin, but now you say, ‘We see.’ Your sin remains.”
Vs. 39-41 conclude the chapter with the last words of this passage on spiritual
blindness. The truth is that we are all born blind. The coming of the Lord Jesus is a judgment
in this situation, for he brings light. He is light. Those who refuse to admit their blindness
stay blind and come under judgment. They remain in their sins, for they claim to see when
they do not. They reject the Light. Those who admit their blindness receive sight, and escape
judgment, for they judge their sins now, before it is too late, and leave them.
Blindness is not the absence of light, but the inability or refusal to perceive it. There is
plenty of light, but those who refuse to perceive it remain in darkness. Those who are unable
to perceive it, but who admit their inability and want to see, are healed.
Thus the Lord Jesus gave a miraculous physical example of a spiritual truth. This
work was a sign, as John puts it. It pointed to something beyond itself. It was a sign that its
worker was able to give spiritual sight to those blind to the things of God. The Jews were
blind, but would not acknowledge their blindness, so were not healed. This poor, ignorant,
begging blind man got his physical sight and became forever God’s example that his Son
Jesus gives spiritual sight. The Lord Jesus is the Light of the world!
Austin-Sparks takes chapters eight and nine together and makes the point that what
the Lord Jesus taught in chapter eight about light, he gave an example of in chapter 9. The
blind man is an example of the old Israel spiritually. They were spiritually blind. Yet the
Lord Jesus is able to heal this blindness for any who will put faith in him. The Jews were just
as blind spiritually as the man born blind was, but they rejected the Lord Jesus and thus
continued in blindness. What Israel was intended by God to be, a light to the nations (Is. 42.6,
49.6), but failed to be, the Lord Jesus was. He represets the new Israel. He is the light to the
nations. He is the Light of the world. (The On-High Calling, Vol. II, pgs. 20-29)

THE DOOR OF THE SHEEPFOLD, THE DOORKEEPER, AND THE GOOD

SHEPHERD
John 10.1-21

The Festival of Tabernacles has formed the background of the scenes and sayings of
Jn. 7-9, and now we come to the final passage in this series, Jn. 10.1-21. In Jn. 7, the ceremony
of the pouring out of water as a symbol of the hoped-for pouring out of the Holy Spirit was
used by the Lord Jesus to make his great claim that he would give the water of life, not the
symbol but the reality, the Spirit himself. The ceremony of lights gave occasion for Jesus’
statement in chapter 8 that he was the Light of the world. In chapter 9 he gave a physical
example of this spiritual truth. Now we come to chapter 10.

156

In this chapter we have the presentation of the Lord Jesus as the Door to the
sheepfold, the Doorkeeper, and the good Shepherd. As the Door, he is the one who lets in
undershepherds (under him as the Chief Shepherd, 1 Pt. 5.4) and the one through whom
sheep must come to be a part of the flock, that is, through whom people are saved. So we
have a mixture of figures in this passage, door, doorkeeper, shepherd, undershepherds, the
saved.
There is not a direct connection between Tabernacles and the shepherd-sheep motif of
Jn. 10, but there is an indirect connection. Even though Tabernacles came over a period of
time to deal with the harvest, the Holy Spirit, and the final restoration of all things, its origin
was the wandering of the people of God in the wilderness and his care for them there. For
forty years they lived in tents and booths in the wilderness, and God led them and provided
their food. Thus when they came into their land, they were commanded by God to set aside a
week each year to live in tents or booths outside their homes as a reminder of how he had
cared for them in the wilderness and of what he brought them from. This care of God for his
people is much like that of a shepherd for his sheep. Indeed this very statement is found in
the Old Testament, though not in connection with Tabernacles. Ps. 77.20 reads, “You led
your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron,” and Ps. 78.52 says, “But he
brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the desert.” Both of these
verses refer to the time of wilderness wandering of Israel, commemorated by Tabernacles,
and show God’s care for them as a shepherd cares for the sheep. It is this picture that forms
the background of Jn. 10.
In addition, there are other Old Testament passages that help us to understand this
chapter. Perhaps the favorite psalm of all is Ps. 23, which shows us the kind of Shepherd God
is:

I AM is my shepherd; I will not be in want. He makes me lie down in green
pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters; he restores my soul. He guides me in paths
of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they
comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint
my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the
days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of I AM forever.
What a marvelous picture that is of the loving Shepherd Lord we have, who tenderly
cares for us. That is the kind of Shepherd who manifests himself in Jn. 10.
There are two other passage in the Old Testament that show us the negative
background of Jn. 10, Jer. 23.1-4 and Ezek. 34. We will quote Jeremiah in full, but because of
the length of the chapter we will quote only the first six verses of Ezek. 34, but the entire
chapter should be read.

157

“Woe to the shepherds destroying and scattering the flock of my pasture,” says
I AM. Therefore, thus says I AM, God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my
people, “You have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not tended
them. Behold, I am about to tend to you for the evil of your doings,” says I AM. “And
I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them,
and I will bring them back unto their fold, and they will be fruitful, and multiply. And
I will raise for them shepherds, and they will feed them, and they will be afraid no
more, nor terrified, and none will be missing”, says I AM.
The word of I AM came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of
Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Lord I AM says: Woe to the
shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care
of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the
choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the
weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays
or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were
scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became
food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on
every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or
looked for them.’”
Ps. 23 shows the good Shepherd. Jer. 23 and Ezek. 34 shows the bad shepherds. Both
are seen again in Jn. 10.
One final verse that is background to Jn. 10 is Jn. 9.34, where the Pharisees, who
claimed to be the shepherds of Israel, put the blind man out of the synagogue, proving
themselves to be Ezek. 34 shepherds. Here was a man in great need, physically and
spiritually, and they not only did not minister to his need themselves, but they expelled him
when someone else did.
Thus we see the background of the Bible’s great chapter on the Shepherd and the
sheep: the Tabernacles commemoration of God’s care in the wilderness, Ps. 23, Jer. 23, Ezek.
34, Jn. 9.34. One final thought needs to be added before we get into an examination of the
passage itself. That is that certain tests are given in Jn. 10, which can be applied to determine
whether or not one is a true shepherd or undershepherd or sheep. It will immediately be
seen that these tests can be applied not only to the Lord Jesus, who is the Chief Shepherd of
the passage, but to men who have the responsibility of undershepherd as well, and to sheep.
The undershepherds were men who were called by God to shepherd his people in the Old
Testament, and there are men in the church who are called by God to be undershepherds to
his people. There is some misunderstanding of this term, for it is normally used in our day to
mean what we call a pastor, but what we call a pastor is not found in the New Testament.
Our pastors are men who are in charge of a church and have all the responsibility of

158

ministry, and may move from church to church several times during a life of ministry. They
are not only pastors, but teachers, evangelists, exhorters, counselors, administrators, fund
raisers, and so on. And there is only one of these in most churches. That is not the New
Testament pattern. In the New Testament, there was a number of men in a local church who
performed the various ministries. There would probably be more than one man who would
be a pastor. Others would take care of the other responsibilities. One man might do more
than one job, but no one man would do all the jobs, and there would always be a plurality of
elders who ministered. This was God’s way of insuring that one man did not come into
control of his people and that the church functioned as a body. Christ, not a pastor, is the
Head of the body. And these ministries would be performed by men already in the local
congregation. There is no New Testament example of a man being called by a church from
some other location to come and be its pastor. Of course, we have gone entirely away from
that and put one man in charge, in violation of the Scriptures. Our churches suffer because of
it, but that is another topic. Let us just say that the tests of a shepherd in Jn. 10 apply to the
Lord Jesus, and he passes them perfectly, but they also apply to men who would shepherd
God’s people. We will see these tests applied to both the Lord Jesus and the undershepherds.
But first we will see the figure of the door. Let us turn now to our passage.
It begins with the Lord Jesus as the Door of the sheepfold, the picture being that all
who want access to the sheep must come by way of the Lord Jesus if they are to be true
undershepherds.
1Amen, amen I say to you, the one not entering through the Door into the fold of
the sheep, but going up another way, is a thief and a robber, 2but the one entering through
the Door is a shepherd of the sheep.
The Lord Jesus begins by saying that anyone who does not enter by the Door into the
sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, is not a true shepherd (actually an undershepherd
under him), but a thief and a robber. The sheepfold, in v. 1, is Israel, the Jewish people of
God. The Door, of course, is the Lord Jesus himself, the way (Jn. 14.6). Anyone who tries to
pose as a shepherd of Israel who does not come to Israel by way of the Lord Jesus is a false
shepherd. He is from Jer. 23 and Ezek. 34. One might say that Moses was a shepherd of Israel
and he did not come through the Lord Jesus. He did not even know about him. Yes he did!
He did not know him by name (though he very nearly did, for God revealed himself to
Moses as I AM and “Jesus” means “I AM Saves”), nor did he know all that would happen
when the Lord Jesus came, but he knew about him. He prophesied in Dt. 18.15 that God
would raise up for Israel a prophet like himself. That was the Lord Jesus he was talking
about. He recorded in Gen. 49.10 the prophecy of Jacob that the scepter would not depart
from Judah until Shiloh came. Judah is the royal tribe and Shiloh is a reference to the
Messiah: the Messiah would come from the royal tribe, and that tribe would hold the
rulership in Israel until the Ruler came to whom the rule of God’s people rightly belonged.

159

That was the Lord Jesus Moses was writing about. Moses knew the Lord Jesus and he came
through him to God’s people as a shepherd.
The Pharisees, though, tried to climb up another way. Instead of coming to God’s
people through the Lord Jesus, they rejected him and came through the Law and their
tradition. The purpose of the Law was good, and that Law said that no work should be done
on the Sabbath. The Lord Jesus healed the blind man on the Sabbath. The Pharisees rejected
him because he did this work, which fulfilled the very purpose of the Law they claimed to
uphold. They did not come to God’s people as shepherds by way of the Lord Jesus, and
indeed expelled this poor man in chapter 9 who received from the Lord Jesus what they
should have given him.
Thus we have the first test of a true shepherd. He enters by the Door, and the Lord
Jesus is the Door.
3To this one the Doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own
sheep by name and leads them out. 4Whenever he may put all his own out, he goes before
them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
Now the Lord Jesus is the Doorkeeper by whom true undershepherds are given access
to the sheep. Anyone who tries to get in by another way is a false shepherd, a Jer. 23 and an
Ezek. 34 shepherd. The sheep hear the voice of the Door and Doorkeeper, the Lord Jesus,
through the voice of the undershepherd and they follow him because they know his voice.
The Lord Jesus may also speak directy to his sheep.
Here we have two tests of the sheep. Ezek. 34 says that not only are there false
shepherds, but there are also false sheep, those in the flock who do not really belong to God
(See Zech. 11.4-17). They will eventually be judged and cast out. Vs. 3-4 say that one test of
the sheep is that they know the voice of the Shepherd, whether spoken directly to them or
spoken through the undershepherd. This does not mean that the Lord Jesus speaks out loud
to us, but that we hear him in our hearts. We have made much of the separation between
soul and spirit, and here is an example of where that distinction is important. One of the
functions of the spirit is intuitive knowledge by revelation from God. Our minds gain
knowledge by observation of physical reality or by logical thinking, but our spirits gain it by
revelation from God. We know something to be true or false in our spirits. We cannot say
how we know: we just know. That is what the Bible calls the witness of the Spirit. That is the
voice of the Shepherd. All of us who are his sheep know that voice. We know when we are
going wrong and that “No” rises up within us. We know when we are following him and
there is peace within that says to proceed as we are going. The Shepherd speaks to his sheep
and they know his voice.
Ps. 95.6-8 forms an interesting commentary on these thoughts: “Come, let us bow
down in worship, let us kneel before I AM our Maker; for he is our God and we are the

160

people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden
your hearts….”
We are told that we are God’s sheep, and then that he speaks to us, and he says that
he speaks to us today. That “today” is vital. We do not live by rules and regulations, but by
the fresh, living direction of God day by day. He wants to speak to us daily and guide our
lives. One final note needs to be added at this point, and that is that while God does speak to
us in our hearts, we must always compare what we hear inwardly with the written word of
God. God will never tell us anything that does not agree with the Bible, and that is our
security from going wrong. Satan can speak to us as well, and he does try to counterfeit the
voice of the Shepherd. If we know the Scriptures, we will know when something that we
hear within is not right. Thus it is vital that we study and know the written word of God, the
Bible.
The second test of the sheep occurs in v. 4: they follow the Shepherd, directly or
through the undershepherds. The Lord Jesus does lead his people. He has a will for us and
he makes it known to us. If we are true sheep, we will be obedient to him. We will follow
him.
5But a stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the
voice of strangers.”
V. 5 shows us that the true sheep will not follow a stranger because they do not know
his voice. That is a negative test of the sheep. They do not respond to voices they do not
know. Again, an important aspect of this non-response is knowledge of the written word.
That knowledge will make the voice of strangers strange, and we will not follow them if we
are true to the Shepherd.
6
Jesus spoke this figure of speech to them, but they did not know what the things were
which he was saying to them.
John tells us in v. 6 that these words of the Lord Jesus were a figure of speech. He was
not dealing with shepherds and sheep but with himself and people. But, says John, the Jews
did not understand. Again their literal-mindedness comes out. They saw themselves as the
defenders of God’s Law, and here was one who had committed a serious violation of that
Law by giving sight to a blind man. Horrors! They were concerned to deal with this grave
situation, and here was this man babbling on about sheep. What was he talking about? Not
about sheep, John says, but about the people of God, about the false shepherds of Jer. 23 and
Ezek. 34 fulfilled in these Pharisees, and about the Lord Jesus himself, the true Door and the
true Shepherd. But they did not get it.

161

7Therefore Jesus said again, “Amen, amen I say to you, I AM the Door of the sheep. 8All,
as many as came before me, are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.
So the Lord Jesus spoke more plainly. In v. 7 he said, “I AM the Door.” He made it
plain to them that he was talking about himself. First we must note again that recurring
phrase, I AM. When the Lord Jesus used this term, he was claiming to be God in the flesh. “I
AM” was the name of God in the Old Testament, the Hebrew “YHWH,” translated in
English as “I AM.” When he said, “I AM the Door…,” he was saying that the very God of the
Old Testament who had revealed himself to Moses had taken human flesh and become the
Door into the people of God in the person of the Lord Jesus. He was claiming divinity. And
he was claiming to be the way into God’s sheepfold.
He said further that all who came before him were thieves and robbers. As we saw
above, he did not mean such people as Moses and Joseph and David, who were true
undershepherds, but those who tried to come some other way than through him. Again the
division between true and false sheep is seen, for the Lord Jesus said that his sheep did not
listen to these false shepherds. We think, for example, of the time when Elijah, a true
undershepherd, thought he was the only one left in Israel who was faithful to God. God told
him that there were seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19.18).
They were true sheep who heard the true Shepherd through Elijah and did not listen to the
false shepherds, Ahab and Jezebel and their prophets of Baal.
9
I AM the Door. If anyone enter through me, he will be saved and will go in and go out
and will find pasture.
Then the Lord Jesus said in v.9, “I AM the Door. If anyone enter through me, he will
be saved and will go in and go out and will find pasture.” Salvation is in the Lord Jesus, both
the initial reception of eternal life through the new birth and the ongoing, lifelong process of
being saved from sin and self and their consequences in this life. Going in and out is normal
everyday life. Pasture is the need of the sheep. If one has come through the Door, as he lives
his everyday life, he will find his needs met, for the Shepherd will care for him.
10The thief doesn’t come except that he might steal and kill and destroy. I came that they
may have life and have it abundantly.
V. 10 gets to the heart of the good news of John. First the Lord Jesus shows negatively
that the thief, ultimately Satan, but also his demonic and human servants, comes only to steal
and kill and destroy. Like the false shepherds of Jer. 23 and Ezek. 34, they prey on the sheep
instead of providing for them. Satan’s aim is to rob the lost person of any opportunity of
salvation, with the ultimate aim of destroying him eternally in hell. His goal is to rob the
Christian of what he has in the Lord and of growth in the Lord. He cannot take away

162

salvation, but he can rob of victory and usefulness to God if we let him, and his ultimate goal
is to make the Christian fleshly and useless to God, to destroy his witness and effectiveness.
Satan is a thief and a killer and a destroyer.
Then the Lord Jesus showed the contrast: “I came that they may have life and have it
abundantly.” We have already noticed several times that life is the issue in the good news of
John. His purpose in writing, stated in 20.30-31, is that we may have life through faith in the
Lord Jesus. We have noticed life manifesting itself in various ways all through the good
news. Now the Lord Jesus states his purpose in coming: “that they may have life.” There is
nothing of selfishness in this. Jesus did not come to use us for his benefit, as rulers usually
do, but to enable us to have life. And that life is of a special sort. The Greek word is zoe, the
same word as used elsewhere in John and throughout the New Testament for God’s life in
us, for eternal life. It is the kind of life that, we have seen, wells up into joy, power, light,
whatever the need is, and it is forever.
And the Lord Jesus did not come for us just barely to have this life, just enough to get
to Heaven. He came that we may have it abundantly. He says first that he came that we may
have life, referring to the initial experience of the new birth that gives us life, and then that
we may have abundant life, that we may grow in that life and that it may grow in us. He is
not the God of just enough. He is the God of abundance. When he fed the five thousand,
everyone did not get a bite. Everyone was filled, and they took up twelve baskets of
leftovers. He wants us to be filled with life.
Normally when we think about abundant life, we think in terms of it being an
experience of continual joy, a constant wonderful feeling. But joy according to the New
Testament definition and emotional happiness are two different things. Joy is a matter of the
spirit and springs from the life of God in us. Emotional euphoria is a matter of the soul, the
psychology, and varies. We all have our emotional ups and downs. Sometimes we feel
anything but happy. We certainly are not exempt from the hardships of life because we are
Christians, and life can be devastating. But the Lord Jesus promised abundant life, that is,
enough of the life of God to meet any situation with victory, with life left over. Joy can
indeed come from that life, even in the midst of deep sorrow, but it is not the bubbling over
of a satisfied soul, but the sure knowledge that God uses everything for good, even when we
do not see how that is possible. There are times when we are all aglow emotionally, and
there is nothing wrong with that. God made our emotions and wants them to function
properly under the governance of our spirits, and that means that we will have times of
wonderful feeling. But that feeling is not substance. God and his word are, and that is what
we go by. Body chemistry, lack of sleep, and circumstances can change feelings in a moment,
but the word of the Lord abides forever (1 Pt. 1.25). That is our source of joy, for the words of
the Lord Jesus are Spirit and life (Jn. 6.63), and it is life that produces joy, not in our souls but
in our spirits. That is abundant life, the adequacy of the life of God to bring victory in any
and every situation. That is what the Lord Jesus came to bring.

163

There is another aspect of joy that goes beyond having victory and is indeed the basis
of that victory. We noted at the beginning of our study of John that he wants us to have faith
and that faith is ultimately trust in the character of God. God is love and that love is what
governs everything he does in our lives. We have a hymn that says of God, “whose every
thought is love.” The true source and substance of joy is the relationship with God himself.
Think back over your life as ask yourself what have been the greatest experiences of joy you
have had, not happiness, but joy. Are they all involved with relationships, with people you
love and who love you? It is the same with God. The most important aspect of our lives is
God, and in him, love (1 Cor. 12.31b-13.13). When we have such a relationship with him that
we love him and experience his love for us, that is pure joy, the greatest joy we can know.
That is the love of a bride, and we are to be the bride of Christ.
11I AM the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12The hired man, not being a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming
and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf seizes and scatters them, 13for he is a hired
man and it does not matter to him about the sheep.
In v. 11, the Lord Jesus further drew out this matter of his coming that we may have
life by showing how he would do so: by giving his own life, and here the metaphor of the
passage changes. Up to now he has been the Door and the Doorkeeper. Now he says that he
is the good Shepherd, and adds that “the good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Again he uses the term “I AM” of himself, showing once more that this is the God of the Old
Testament who is the good Shepherd giving his life for the sheep. We read Ps. 23 at the
beginning, where David writes, “I AM is my shepherd,” and we have seen that “Jesus”
means “I AM Saves.” This Jesus who is the I AM of the Old Testament is also the Shepherd
of Ps. 23, now in human flesh as the good Shepherd. The Lord Jesus is everything. He is the
Door. He is the Doorkeeper. He is the Shepherd. And of course, he is the Lamb of God.
We have seen several tests in this chapter, tests of the Shepherd and undershepherds
and of the sheep. Now the truest test of the Shepherd and undershepherds comes out. Both
in v. 11, where the Lord Jesus says that he lays down his life for the sheep, and in vs. 11-13,
where he contrasts himself with a hired shepherd, he shows that the willingness to lay down
life is the ultimate test. The hired hand flees in danger, not caring about the sheep, but about
himself. And of course, when we are dealing with sheep, that is as it should be, for a man is
of more importance than any number of sparrows or sheep. If there is a choice between
saving the man’s life and that of the sheep, then by all means save the man. But we are not
dealing with sheep. This is a figure of speech. We are dealing with people, and the Lord
Jesus says that a true shepherd will lay down his own life for the sheep. He passed that test
himself in every way. He came to this sinful, suffering earth from the joys of Heaven. He
lived for others while in the flesh. And he died physically for us. True undershepherds will
follow his example. We may or may not be called on to die physically for the sheep, though

164

we should be willing to do so if the need arises, but we are tested by this willingness to live
our lives for the benefit of the sheep as well. Are we out to serve the sheep, or to use them to
make us a name and a comfortable living and so forth? The good shepherd lays down his life
for the sheep.
14I AM the Good Shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, 15as the Father knows
me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Another test of both sheep and shepherd is personal knowledge, as we see in vs. 14-

The shepherd knows the sheep and the sheep know him. If the President of the United
States walked into the room and I said, ‘Hello, Mr. President, he would say, “Hello. What is
your name?” But if the Lord Jesus walked in and I said, (after getting up from falling at his
feet) “Hello, Lord Jesus,” he would say, “Hello, Tom.” He knows me personally and
individually. I am not a number in his computer. It is the same with you. He knows you by
name. He loves you. He has plans for you. He is actively working in your life at this moment
to bring about the very best for you, now, in the kingdom, and in eternity. He is the good
Shepherd. He knows you. And his sheep know him. There is nothing sweeter than the
presence of the Lord, is there? All who know the Lord know when he is making his presence
felt. We are only sheep and he is God, King of kings and Lord of lords, but in his grace he has
made the relationship between him and us personal and intimate. What a Savior!
16And other sheep I have that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will
hear my voice and there will be one flock, one Shepherd.
We saw in v. 1 that the sheepfold there was the Jewish people of God, Israel. In v. 16
the Lord Jesus says that he has other sheep, not of that fold, whom he must also bring in.
That is the Gentiles. That is us. Praise God, we are not left out. One does not have to be a
racial Jew, but a spiritual one, to be included in the people of God. We, too, hear his voice,
and we become one flock with one Shepherd. God does not have two flocks, the Jewish and
the Gentile. Everything has been made one in Christ. It is the Apostle Paul who draws out
many things that the Lord Jesus only briefly states in the gospels. This is one of them. In Eph.
2 especially Paul shows how the Lord Jesus has made both one through his blood. What a
wonderful chapter that is. We who were without God and without hope have been included.
17Because of this the Father loves [agapao] me, that I lay down my life that I may take it
again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have authority to lay it
down and I have authority to take it again. This commandment I received from my
Father.”

165

Vs. 17-18 show us the response of God to the willingness of the Lord Jesus to lay
down his life. God loves him for it. God delights in the Lord Jesus because he is an obedient
Son. It was God’s will for him to lay down his life and he was willing to do it, so God loves
him. It is very instructive that the word for “life” that Jesus uses in this verse is psuche,
“soul.” This word usually means “soul,” our psychology, but it often means “life” in the
sense of that which animates our bodies. But it is still the psychology, the mind, emotions,
and will, the personality. Is that not the life of the body? The life is actually the spirit, but
when the spirit comes into the body, the result is a 1iving soul, as Gen. 2.7 shows us. A dead
body has no personality, no soul. The soul is the location of the will. The Lord Jesus was
willing to give that up. The physical death of the Lord Jesus was not the real issue. The battle
was whether or not he would give up his will to that of the Father. He made that decision.
He laid down his soul-life, his self-will (Mt. 26.39, Mk. 14.35-36, and Lk. 22.42 show that it
was not the will of the Lord Jesus to go to the cross), and chose to do the Father’s will
instead. That was the victory, and when the cross came, he went through with it because his
soul-life, his self-life, had been laid down. Indeed, he has been the slain Lamb from eternity
(Rev. 13.8).
This brings out another important point, namely, that no one took the life of the Lord
Jesus. He gave it. He came to earth in obedience to the will of God. Everything he said and
did was in obedience to the will of God. He was given authority by God to die and to rise
again, and when the time came, God told him to lay down his life and he did it. Satan did not
kill him. Pilate did not kill him. Herod did not kill him. The Jews did not kill him. The
Roman soldiers did not kill him. He laid down his life. And when the time came, he took it
up again, in obedience to the will of God.
We see, too, the importance of both the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
He had to die that our sins might be dealt with, for we are all sinners (Rom. 3.23), and the
Bible says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb. 9.22). He had to
be the sacrificial Lamb or we would still be in our sins. But it is just as vital that he was raised
from the dead. Paul makes it quite clear in 1 Cor. 15 that we cannot do without the
resurrection of Christ. If he was not raised, there is no life available. The dead have perished.
We have no hope. We are of all men most to be pitied. But the Lord Jesus did die for us, and
he did come out of the grave alive! May his name be forever praised! He is a wholly
adequate, living Savior.
19Again there was a schism among the Jews because of these words. 20Now many of
them were saying, “He has a demon and is insane. Why are you listening to him?”
21Others were saying, “These speakings [rema] are not of one having a demon. Is a demon
able to open the eyes of the blind? No.”
Up to this point, Jn. 10 has been one of the loveliest, tenderest, most comforting
passages in Scripture. Then we come to vs. 19-21. If they were not the inspired word of God,

166

put there for a purpose, we could almost wish they were not there. For what do we see as a
response to the sublime thoughts of vs. 1-18? More bickering by the Jews. More division.
How can there be division over these wonderful words? How can there be anything but
falling down at the feet of the Lord Jesus in worship? But there it is, human reasoning,
argument between those who think he has a demon and those who do not see how a demon
could open the eyes of the blind. How they needed their own eyes opened! But how blind
they were. That poor man they had cast out of the synagogue in 9.34 had received his sight at
the hands of the Lord Jesus. All these learned men could do was argue over him. How sad.
How tragic. Would that these verses were not necessary, but they record the awful truth of
willful blindness in the presence of great Light.
We have seen that God was working in the Lord Jesus to create a new, spiritual Israel
that would replace the old, earth-bound Israel, until the end of the age when the Jews, at
least some of them, would recognize their Messiah and bow before him. Austin-Sparks
writes, “One Israel is being put aside and another Israel is being put in its place. The earthly
is going, the heavenly is coming in to take its place, and this heavenly Israel becomes the
new flock under the Shepherd.” (The On-High Calling, Vol. II, p. 34)
How do we conclude our thoughts? The point running through all of chapters 7-10 is
that the Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of Tabernacles. He gives the water of life. He is the Light
of the world who opens blind eyes. He is the Door and the Doorkeeper and the Shepherd
who cares for the sheep in the wilderness of this world. He is everything we need. What do
you need? Are you thirsty for spiritual reality? Are you ignorant of the truth and living a life
of buffeting at the lies of Satan? Are you in need of tender care? Then come to the Lord Jesus.
He is all you need. He came not just that they, but that you, may have life and that you may
have abundant life. Come to him and drink. Come to him and let him touch your eyes. Come
to him and listen to him and follow him. Come to the Lord Jesus.

THE IDENTITY OF THE MAN JESUS

John 10.22-42

The events and words of Jn. 7.1-10.21 took place against the background of the
Festival of Tabernacles, and much of what took place in those chapters is explained by the
elements of that festival. Now the scene changes, and the Festival of Dedication forms the
backdrop of the current passage.
After the return of the Jews from Babylonian captivity to their land, there was a
period of over 350 years of changing foreign rule. The Persians had conquered the
Babylonians during the captivity and had allowed the Jews to return. Then Alexander the
Great of Macedonia and Greece displaced the Persians. Upon his death, his empire was
divided among four of his generals. Within this group, there was a center of power in Egypt
and another in Syria, with Israel between. Thus Israel became a battleground between these

167

two powers, and fell back and forth from one to the other as their might ebbed and flowed.
In the 160’s B.C. the Syrians had the upper hand under their ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
In his efforts to bring harmony to his empire, he required all his subject peoples to accept his
religion. Many of the Jews, of course, rebelled against this. Antiochus desecrated the Temple
in Jerusalem by erecting an altar to Jupiter and sacrificing a pig on the Jewish altar. Further
enforcement of his religious requirements on the Jews led to a revolt led by the family of
Mattathias, whose son Judas succeeded his father as the leader. Judas was known as
Maccabeus, the hammer, and the group became known as the Maccabees. They succeeded in
overthrowing Syrian rule and established Jewish independence for the only time since the
Babylonian captivity. This period of independence lasted until 63 B.C. when the Romans
asserted their authority. Not until A.D. 1948 did the Jews again know political independence
in their land.
After the success of the Maccabean revolt, the Temple was cleansed and a new altar
erected. There was great celebration, and the decision was made to hold an eight-day festival
every year on the anniversary of the rededication of the Temple and altar. That festival was
known in the time of Jesus as the Festival of Dedication. We know it today as Hanukkah,
Hebrew for Dedication. It takes place in December, explaining John’s statement that it was
winter.
How does this festival form the background of Jn. 10.22-42? In the first place, the
events of the passage took place in the Temple, the dedication of which was the subject of the
festival. What thoughts must have gone through the mind of the Lord Jesus as he walked in
Solomon’s portico? He knew that the true Temple of God was himself and his people, as he
taught in Jn. 2, and that this building would be destroyed under the judgment of God on the
Jews. If they had accepted him, perhaps they could have avoided that judgment. But they
would not. And it was necessary for the Lord Jesus to die for our sins.
That is the more general setting of this passage. More particular is the fact that the
Festival of Dedication was not one of those commanded by God in the Old Testament. God
had told the Jews to observe Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Weeks, Trumpets,
Atonement, and Tabernacles. Dedication was man-made. The ceremonies of the other
festivals were prescribed by God in the Old Testament, but the Jews had to devise their own
ceremonies for Dedication. Since Tabernacles was the last of the festivals in the year,
occurring in September or October, and Dedication took place shortly after it, many of the
features of Tabernacles were taker over into Dedication. Thus Dedication is known as the
festival of lights because of the nine-branched menorah used in its rites, an emphasis on light
taken over from Tabernacles. The menorah of the Tabernacle and Temple commanded by
God was seven-branched.
22There was then the Festival of Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter 23and Jesus
was walking in the Temple in the portico of Solomon. 24Therefore the Jews encircled him

168

and were saying to him, “Until when are you keeping our soul in suspense? If you are the
Christ, tell us plainly.”
The emphasis of Dedication, man-made and not God-given, was on the fulfillment of
Jewish nationalistic expectations. They were celebrating the time when the nation had
become free of foreign rule and established its own kingdom. That kingdom had fallen to the
Romans, and now the Jewish hopes were for a Messiah who would be a military leader, one
who would defeat the hated Romans and restore Jewish independence and glory. They
looked for an earthly kingdom set up by an earthly Messiah. That is exactly what was on the
minds of the Jews as the Lord Jesus walked in Solomon’s portico during the Festival of
Dedication, and that is why they asked him, in v 24, “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
They were looking for the Messiah, at this time of year above all others, and they wanted to
know if the Lord Jesus was the one of their expectations, and that is just the problem. He was
the Messiah, but not the one of their expectations. Thus the identity of the Lord Jesus is the
central issue of this passage. Who is this man who claims to be the Messiah, yet who, even at
the festival that celebrates messianic hope, will not do what the Messiah is supposed to do?
25Jesus answered them, “I told you and you didn’t believe. The works that I do in the
name of my Father, these testify concerning me. 26But you don’t believe because you are
not of my sheep.
His answer to them, in v. 25, was that he had already told them who he was, but they
would not believe. Why did they not believe? Because he did not meet their expectations.
The Jews were so bound by their traditions that God did not have any freedom to work

among them in a way that did not fit those traditions. They were so earthbound and literal-
minded that they could not grasp that God might do something spiritual. They did not even

know what that meant. They had all the truth once for all, so they seemed to think, and God
was required to work within that framework. Thus when he came in the person of the Lord
Jesus and did something spiritual and new, they rejected him.
The Lord Jesus appealed to his works as support for his words. He said that he had
told them who he was, and that he had done works that indicated that his words were true.
He had worked miracles. He was not just all talk, as we say. He could back up his talk with
action. But, he said, the Jews could not be expected to believe because they were not of his
sheep. This statement shows us the true basis of belief. It is being of the sheep of God. This
does not mean that some are predestined to be God’s sheep and others are not. It means that
God in his foreknowledge knows who will have faith in the Lord Jesus and who will not.
These he has given to his Son (Jn. 17.2, 6, 12). “Faith comes from hearing and hearing
through the speaking [rema] of Christ” (Rom. 10.17). Why does one have faith and another
does not? Why does one hear the speaking [rema] in the word [logos] and another does not?
We cannot say. It is grace, but then why do not all evidence grace by hearing and having

169

faith? We cannot say. But each one has a choice as to whether or not he will be of the sheep of
the Lord Jesus. The Jews chose to reject his words and not to accept the testimony of his
works. Thus they had no capacity for further faith and did not believe Jesus.
27My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. 28And I give them eternal
life, and they will not perish into the age, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
29My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them
from the Father’ hand.
In vs. 27-29 the Lord Jesus described the relationship between himself and his sheep.
Much of what he said here was dealt with in our study of Jn. 10.1-21, so we will only mention
those points now, without going into detail. He said that his sheep know his voice. That is
the inner knowing, in the spirit, of the yes and no of the Lord Jesus. He knows his sheep. He
knows each one individually, by name, loves each one, has plans for each one, intercedes
before God for each one by name. He is praying for you right now! His sheep follow him.
How human it is for us to want him to follow us! We think we know what is best for
ourselves and it is God’s job to bring it about. How much of our prayer time is spent trying
to get God to see things our way? He is the Shepherd, and we are supposed to follow him
(see Rev. 14.4).
The Lord Jesus gives eternal life to his sheep. That is the issue of the good news of
John. He wrote that we may have life. The Lord Jesus came that we may have life. The
ministry of the Lord Jesus was one continuous manifestation of the life of God in various
ways. The result of this giving of life is that the sheep will never perish. They may die
physically, but they have received spiritual life that will live on forever. Only the body dies:
the person does not. Then the Lord Jesus gave double emphasis to the security of the believer
in him. He first said that no one could snatch his sheep from his hand. The Jews had tried to
snatch the man born blind from the hand of the Lord Jesus. He had given him not only
physical, but spiritual, sight, and that means, of course, that he had given him life, for light
comes from life. The Jews had done everything they could to get the man to deny the Lord
Jesus and lose eternal life, but they could not snatch him away. That man had been born
blind to manifest the works of God, and a part of that work was the giving of eternal life to a
lost sinner. When the time came for him to receive that life, he received it, and the Pharisees
could not snatch him out of the hand of the Lord Jesus, try as they did. What security the
believer has!
But that is only half the story. In v. 29, Jesus added that the sheep were in his hand as
a result of the work of his Father, the greatest of all, and that no one could snatch the sheep
from his Father’s hand. We are in the hand of the Lord Jesus, where we could imagine no
greater security, but his hand is in the hand of his Father. How could anyone, even Satan
himself, snatch us away? No one can. We are secure, doubly secure, in the hand of the Lord
Jesus within the hand of God.

30The Father and I are one.”
Then the Lord Jesus finalized this revelation of his identity in v. 30 when he said, “The
Father and I are one.” He had said that he was the Messiah, that he was the one who was
able to do miraculous works, that he was the Shepherd who had ability to give eternal life to
his sheep. That is the identity of this man. Then he added that he was one with God. What
could that mean but that he was God? This man was God in the flesh.
31The Jews again took up stones that they might stone him.
The Jewish response was to take up stones to stone him. This was blasphemy, and the
penalty was death. And, of course, it was blasphemy, unless it was true. What would we
have done if we had been there when one who, to all appearance, seemed to be a man like
any other, claimed to be God? Would we have believed him? If anyone made such a claim
today, we would think he was insane or egomaniacal. Before we judge the Jews too harshly,
let us examine our own hearts. Indeed it is not our place to judge anyone.That is God’s
prerogative.
32Jesus answered them, “Many good works I showed you from the Father. For which work
of these do you stone me?”
As they took up the stones, the Lord Jesus reminded them that he had done many
good works from God and wanted to know which of them they were about to stone him for.
He kept appealing to his works as the validation of his words. If he were really a
blasphemer, he would not be able to work miracles, for only God can work miracles and he
would not lend his power to a blasphemer. He used the argument that the blind man he had
healed had used in 9.31.
33The Jews answered him, “We don’t stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy, and
because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
The Jews replied that they were not stoning him for any work, but for his
blasphemous words, for he, a man, had made himself out to be God.
34Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’? [Ps. 82.6] 35If
that one called them gods to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be
broken, 36are you saying of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You
are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I AM the Son of God’?

171

The Lord Jesus had appealed to his works all along, beginning in v. 25, but the Jews
kept returning to his words that they regarded as blasphemy. So the Lord Jesus, in vs. 34-36,
accepted, for the moment, their ground of argument. He quoted to them Ps. 82.6, where men
are called gods. In the psalm, the meaning is simply that man was made in the image of God
and was made to become like God, and indeed Paul says in Rom 8.29 that God is busy
making us like Christ (and John himself writes in 1 Jn. 3.2 that one day we will be like Christ,
one of the more remarkable truths of the Bible), but the literal-minded Jews were sure to
have trouble with such a statement. In a sense, Jesus was playing a trick on them, though we
do not wish that statement to be taken in the wrong way. The Jewish Rabbis would spend
hours and years debating just such a question. The best example of all is the time near the
end of his life on earth when the Lord Jesus kept fielding questions designed to trap him. He
was asked if the Jews should pay taxes to Caesar and whose wife in the resurrection a
childless woman would be who had married seven brothers. At that time, he turned the
tables on the Jews by asking them a question: How could the Messiah be David’s son and
David’s Lord? That was guaranteed to keep them tied up in knots for years. That is exactly
what the Lord Jesus was doing here in Jn. 10. He was showing the Jews the absurdity of their
position by showing that the very book they claimed to uphold called men gods and asking
why it was blasphemous, then, for him to call himself the Son of God. That was one they
could get into rabbinic debate over for a good many years.
37If I am not doing the works of my Father, don’t believe me. 38But if I am, even if you
don’t believe me, believe the works, that you might come to know and go on knowing that
the Father is in me and I in the Father.” 39Therefore they again were sssking to seize him,
and he went out of their hand.
But the Lord Jesus was not being frivolous. It was tragic that these men so steeped in
the Scriptures could be so blind to what they say. Sad to say, he was only pointing out their
condition. Then he returned to the real issue, his works. His words were of paramount
importance, but anyone can talk. He was able to do works that backed up the truth of his
words. The words were the issue, but the works were the proof, so the Lord Jesus said that if
his works were not of the Father, they should not believe him. But of course they were of the
Father. They were all good works, healing, feeding the hungry, and so forth. None of them
could be the basis of unbelief, so, said the Lord Jesus, even if they did not believe him, they
should believe the works, and that, of course, would lead to belief in him, for they testified of
him. If they would accept the works, the result would be belief in him, and the result of that
would be that they would understand who the Lord Jesus was: the one in whom the Father
was and who was in the Father. That is the issue of this passage, the identity of the Lord
Jesus. The Jews were looking for certain works from the Messiah. The Lord Jesus would not
do those works, but he did other works that were every bit as validating, more so, in fact, for
they were true to the nature of God unlike the expectations of the Jews, full of hatred as they

172

were. And it is faith that leads to this understanding of the Lord Jesus. Faith does not come
from knowledge any more than life comes from light. Knowledge comes from faith just as
light comes from life.
This statement by the Lord Jesus that the Father was in him and he in the Father led
the Jews to try again to seize him. They would not accept either his words or his works, and
they were determined to put this blasphemer to death. Thus the episode at the Festival
ended in sadness. The Jews were celebrating a past national deliverance and hoping for a
Messiah to come and bring another. He was in their midst and they did not recognize him
because he did not meet their expectations. What a lesson for us! How vital it is that we lay
aside our expectations of God and let him be the Lord, in fact and not just in name. He is free
to do anything he pleases in our lives and we must not reject him if he does not do what we
thought he would. We must bow to him. He is God.
40And he went again across the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing,
and he stayed there. 41And many came to him and were saying, “John did no sign, but all
things, whatever John said, about this one were true.” 42And many had faith into him
there.
Vs. 40-42 end the passage with the brief note that the Lord Jesus withdrew. His hour
had not yet come, so rather than continue to press the issue, he left. The Messiah, the King,
had come to his capital city, and they had not recognized him, so he returned to the land of
the religiously impure, looked down on by the self-righteous of Jerusalem, those who could
not recognize their Messiah, and there he was accepted, as he had been at the beginning. He
went back to the place where John had been baptizing, a symbol of death and resurrection,
thereby showing that he had left Jerusalem, not to return until his hour had come. These
people believed the words of John, even though he had done no works to back them up, as
Jesus had done, only to be rejected. But the words of John had come about. Jesus did what
John had said he would. Thus they believed not only John, but Jesus. They, at least some of
them in some measure, saw the identity of this man. The Festival of Dedication called for a
Messiah. Here he was, rejected at the festival, but accepted among the outcasts. He would
return to Jerusalem only to be an outcast himself in the ultimate sense. That is the identity of
this man: he was the good Shepherd who would lay down his life for the sheep.

THE SEVENTH SIGN
John 11.1-54

In some ways the eleventh chapter of John is the high point of the book. As we saw in
our introductory study, the first twelve chapters deal with the public ministry of the Lord
Jesus and are organized around seven miracles that John calls signs. Jn. 11 contains the
account of the seventh sign, the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

173

Seven is a very meaningful number in the Bible. It is the number of spiritual
completeness. (For a fascinating study of the number seven in Scripture, see E. W. Bullinger,
Number in Scripture.) If we were to review the seven signs in John, which point to the various
ways in which the life of God is manifested in the Lord Jesus, we would see perfection. The
seven signs demonstrate that God is adequate for every situation and every kind of situation.
Thus the eleventh chapter is paramount, for it brings this series of signs to its perfect
conclusion.
It is also the climax of John because it shows the greatest triumph of the life of God, its
triumph over death in every form. Death is the greatest and last enemy (1 Cor. 15.26), but the
life of God is sufficient to deal with it. Death is the ultimate in hopelessness for man, but
when all man’s hope is gone, God is able.
Perhaps the best way to study this chapter is simply first to go through it and see the
whole story, noting a few points along the way, and then to summarize some of the lessons
we learn from it.
1Now there was a certain man, being sick, Lazarus from Bethany, from the village of
Mary and Martha her sister. 2Now it was the Mary, the one having anointed the Lord with
ointment and and having dried his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
3Therefore the sisters sent to him saying, “Lord, look, the one whom you love [phileo] is
sick.” 4But having heard Jesus said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of
God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
To begin with, John tells us that a certain man was sick, Lazarus by name. Lazarus is a
form of the Hebrew name Eleazar and means “God is helper.” The name itself is meaningful,
for this man gets into a position of complete helplessness, death, where only God can help.
This man lived in a village named Bethany with his two sisters, Mary and Martha. V. 2 tells
us that the Mary referred to was the one who anointed the feet of the Lord Jesus and wiped
them with her hair. Interestingly, this incident is not recorded in John till chapter 12. These
two sisters sent a message to the Lord Jesus that Lazarus was sick. They knew of his ability to
work miracles and hoped that he would heal their brother. In the message, they called
Lazarus “he whom you love.” It is clear from this passage that the Lord Jesus and these three
knew a close relationship of genuine love. He stayed in their home, and they ministered to
his material needs even as he ministered to their spiritual needs. Now they needed a physical
need ministered to by him.
Thus the stage is set for the words and works of the Lord Jesus. His immediate
response was, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God
may be glorified through it.” Of course he did not mean that Lazarus would not die, as we
will see, but that death would not be the end of the matter. The purpose of the sickness was
not to bring the life of Lazarus to a close, but to glorify God through his Son.

174

5Now Jesus loved [agapao] Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6When therefore he heard
that he was sick, then he stayed in the place in which he was for two days.
V. 5 tells us plainly what we saw above, that Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.
Then v. 6 has one of the Bible’s “therefore’s,” and it is a strange one. He loved these three:
therefore he stayed where he was two days, letting Lazarus die, as we know. What an odd
way to show love! How are we to explain this act? We will see as we go along.
7Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8The disciples said to
him, “Rabbi, just now the Jews were seeking to stone you, and you are going there again?”
After the two days, the Lord Jesus said to his disciples that it was time to go to Judea
again, thus arousing their doubtful questions. The leaders of the Jews in Judea were opposed
to him. They had already taken up stones to put him to death more than once, and they had
resolved in their hearts to kill him. A return meant certain death. The disciples raised these
objections.
9
Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walk in the day, he
does not stumble, for he sees the light of this world. 10But if anyone walk in the night, he
stumbles, for the light is not in him.”
The reply of the Lord Jesus shows his assurance of the security of the will of God:
“Are there not twelve hours in the day? If one walks in the day, he does not stumble, for he
sees the light of this world. But if he walks in the night, he stumbles, for the light is not in
him.” the Lord Jesus was not referring to himself as the Light of the world in this statement,
but was using the sun as the world’s source of light as an example of a spiritual truth. The
day has a certain amount of daylight, and one who works in that period can see what he is
doing, so that he can work safely. God has assigned a period of daylight to each person, a
period of time in which he is to live. As long as that time lasts, nothing will happen to him to
shorten it, for he is in God’s will. When God’s time comes for that period to end, it will end.
God had assigned his Son a certain period of time in which to live and minister. As long as
that time lasted, he had nothing to fear from the Jews, for his hour had not yet come. We
have already seen two or three times when the Jews attempted to kill the Lord Jesus and he
simply walked away. They had no power over him, for it was still God’s day for him. And
indeed, when the time came for him to die, they did not take his life. He laid it down, as we
saw in 10.18. Thus the Lord Jesus and the disciples had no reason to fear a return to Judea. It
was still God’s day. He could do the work of God in raising Lazarus without fear.
11He said these things, and after this he said to them, “Lazarus our friend [philos] has
fallen asleep, but I am going that I may awaken him.” 12Therefore the disciples said to

175

him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep he will be healed.” 13But Jesus had spoken about his
death, but they thought he was speaking of the rest of sleep. 14Then therefore Jesus said to
them plainly, “Lazarus died, 15and I am rejoicing because of you that you may have faith,
that I was not there. But let us go to him.” 16Then Thomas, the one called Didymus, said to
the fellow disciples, “Let us also go that we may die with him.”
After he said this, the Lord Jesus said that Lazarus had fallen asleep, but he would go
and awaken him. The twelve took this statement literally and remarked that if Lazarus slept,
that was a good sign he would get his rest and get well. So the Lord Jesus said plainly that
Lazarus was dead. Then he added another strange word in v. 15: “And I rejoice because of
you, that you may have faith, that I was not there.” He is glad that Lazarus has died? He is
glad that this situation will provide an opportunity for the disciples, and indeed Mary,
Martha, and Lazarus, to gain something of eternal benefit, something far more valuable than
physical life: “that you may have faith.” Faith in the Lord Jesus is eternal life.
The response of Thomas, one of the twelve, to this determination of the Lord to go to
his death, as he thought, was to say, “Let us go also that we may die with him.” This was a
brave, noble, and sincere statement by Thomas. These men loved their Lord and were
prepared to die fighting for him. What they did not yet grasp was that he would not fight,
and when he gave himself voluntarily to his captors, they fled in terror. It is one thing to give
one’s life in the heat of battle. It is another to face arrest and time to think about the coming
execution. Thomas meant what he said about dying with him, but none of them could face
what the Lord Jesus submitted to.
17Having come therefore Jesus found him already having four days in the tomb.
18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia [about two miles]. 19Many of the
Jews had come to Martha and Mary that they might comfort them concerning the brother.
20Then Martha, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet him, but Mary was
sitting in the house. 21Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here my brother
would not have died, 22but even now I known that whatever you may ask of God, God
will give you.”
So the Lord Jesus and his followers went to Bethany. When they got there they found
that Lazarus had been dead four days. Bethany was only about two miles from Jerusalem.
Many of the Jews from that city had gone to Bethany to console Mary and Martha. When
Martha heard that the Lord Jesus was coming, she left Mary and this group of friends and
went to him. When she got to him, her first words were, “Lord, if you had been here, my
brother would not have died.” This may have been a rebuke on her part, or just a simple
statement of the hopelessness of the situation. You could have healed him if you had been
here, but you were not, and now it is too late. There is nothing we can do. Then she added,
“Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” It is not clear what she

176

meant by this statement. It does not seem that she harbored some hope that the Lord Jesus
would raise Lazarus, for the rest of the passage indicates that such a thought never entered
her mind. She was perhaps not aware of the possibility. Perhaps she simply hoped that he
would be able to bring God’s comfort to them in their sorrow in a greater way. We do not
really know what she meant.
23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24Martha said to him, “I know that he
will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25Jesus said to her, “I AM the
resurrection and the life.
The Lord Jesus replied to her that Lazarus would rise again. Martha answered that
she knew he would rise again at the resurrection on the last day. The Jews were divided on
this question of resurrection. The Sadducees, the party of the priests, did not believe in a
resurrection, and ridiculed the Pharisees’ belief in it when they asked the Lord Jesus the
question about the woman who had married seven brothers and died childless (Mk. 12.18-
27): Whose wife would she be in the resurrection? The Pharisees did believe in the
resurrection, and he used this division between the two parties to start them arguing among
themselves when they were trying to trap him, as did Paul in Acts 23.6-9. Whatever her other
convictions, Martha believed in the resurrection, but to her it was a theological doctrine, a
far-off hope, not a living reality. The Lord Jesus said to her, “I AM the resurrection and the
life.” That is, do not believe in the resurrection as a doctrine. Have faith in me. Life is not in
correct belief, though correct belief is important. Life is in the Lord Jesus. One can believe all
the correct doctrines and be spiritually dead. None of us have all the truth, but we can
nonetheless be alive in the Lord Jesus.
This is another of the “I AM” sayings of the Lord. Over and over he used these words
of himself, and by doing so he was identifying himself with the God of the Old Testament
who revealed himself to Moses in Ex. 3 by the personal name, I AM. That is God’s name, and
this man Jesus was I AM as a man. How appropriate that he would call himself I AM the
resurrection and the life, for that is what the name I AM implies more than anything else. I
AM is the present tense. God is not I was or I will be. He is I AM. He is the always alive. He
is eternal life. He is the resurrection and the life. He took human form in the man Jesus.
Again John emphasizes the divinity of this man.
Another truth comes to the fore in this statement by the Lord Jesus, and that is that he
is, not has, what we need. We want God to give us things. He wants to give us himself. We
look at ourselves and say, “I am impatient. God, give me patience.” God will never give us
patience. It is not our nature to be patient. But it is the nature of the Lord Jesus to be patient,
and God wants to give him to us. We will see more of this later.
The one having faith into me will live even though he die, 26and the one liveing and
having faith in me will not die into the age. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes,

177

Lord, I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one coming into the
world.”
In saying that he was the resurrection and the life, the Lord Jesus promised Martha
that even if a person dies he will live again if he has faith in him, and then he said that
everyone who has faith in him will never die, meaning that though the body may die, the
spirit, the real person who lives in the body, will not die, but will only move to a new
location, Heaven. Then he asked Martha if she believed what he was saying. She showed a
bit of growth when she said, “Yes, Lord. I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of
God, the one coming into the world.” That was belief in Jesus, not in a doctrine. She was
making progress!
28And having said this, she went and called Mary her sister secretly having said,
“The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29Now when that one heard, she rose quickly
and went to him. 30Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place
where Martha met him. 31Therefore the Jews, those being with her in the house and were
comforting her, having seen Mary, that she rose quickly and went out, followed her,
thinking that she was going to the tomb that she might weep there.
Then apparently the Lord Jesus asked her to go for her sister, for she left and told
Mary that the Lord Jesus was calling for her. Martha told Mary this secretly, and we are not
told why, but Mary left quickly on hearing the news. The Jews who had been consoling her
in the house, having thought she was going to the tomb of Lazarus to weep and followed
her.
32Therefore Mary, when she came to where Jesus was, having seen him she fell at his feet,
saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” 33Jesus
therefore, when he saw her crying and the Jews having come with her crying, was
indignant in spirit and troubled, 34and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him,
“Lord, come and see.” 35Jesus wept.
When Mary came to the Lord Jesus, her first words were the same as her sister’s:
“Lord, if you had beer here, my brother would not have died.” Again there could be a
rebuke or the same expression of hopelessness as in Martha’s words. We are not told the
response of the Lord Jesus to Mary, but we are told that when he saw her weeping and that
of the Jews who followed her, he was indignant in spirit and troubled. Why was he
indignant? All sorts of suggestions have been made, that he was angry at Mary and Martha
for their unbelief, at the Jews for their opposition, even at himself for the tears he felt welling
up within, thinking that to be an unacceptable expression of emotion. None of these
possibilities seem adequate, and the last seems silly. Remember that the Lord Jesus was the

178

Creator of the world (Jn. 1.3). He made the world perfect, without sin, and now he looks on
the weeping of Mary and the other Jews, feels the deep sadness of suffering humanity, and is
moved to indignation at Satan and sin and the sorrow they have caused. He did not make
the world to be a place where people suffer and die and their survivors grieve. He made man
to eat of the tree of life and live forever. It was the deceit of Satan and the sin of man that
brought all the misery the Lord Jesus encountered in Bethany, and everywhere he went, and
it angered him to see his perfect creation spoiled as it was. That was the reason for the
indignation of the the Lord Jesus.
In this indignation, he asked where the tomb was, for he was determined, under the
will of God, to do something about the suffering Satan had brought about. He would counter
it in this specific case, and he would do an act prophetic of his ultimate countering of the
works of the devil. When they replied that he should come with him to see where the tomb
was, Jesus wept.
This weeping of the Lord Jesus, thought by some to be the reason for his anger at
himself, was, on the contrary, the outflowing of his love for these three friends in Bethany,
and for all men suffering under the heavy hand of Satan. We have stressed all through that
while John reveals the divinity of the Lord Jesus more than the other gospel writers, he
nonetheless holds forth his full humanity as well. The Lord Jesus was God as a man, but he
was fully a man. As such he felt normal human emotions and was man enough, as we say,
not to be afraid of them.
We see in this incident a very important example, in the Lord Jesus himself, of how
God made man to function with regard to soul and spirit. John says that the Lord Jesus was
angry in spirit. His spirit was full of the Holy Spirit and was completely subject to the will of
God. Thus this anger was not as ours often is, leading to a sinful outburst. It was the
righteous indignation of God toward Satan. The Lord Jesus knew what Paul later wrote, that
we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against spiritual evil (Eph. 6.12). We become
angry and lash out at man. The Lord Jesus knew the real enemy was Satan, spiritual evil, not
man. Thus his spirit, in touch with his Father, felt anger at the spiritual enemy of God and
man. And his action was not to lash out in sinful anger, but to do something positive to deal
with the situation.
His weeping was an expression, not of his spirit, but of his soul, the seat of the
emotions. He felt sorrow for these suffering people that he loved and he wept with them. But
his emotions were under the control of his spirit, as God meant them to be. He was not
weeping uncontrollably, without hope, as the Jews did. He was not mourning the death of
Lazarus as such, for he knew what he would do about that. And, as we have already seen, he
was not letting his emotions rule with the result that he reacted emotionally and sinfully, as
we so often do. In most cases, we react emotionally, and our emotional reaction is usually
sinful, an outburst of anger at someone, for example. The Lord Jesus did not do this. He felt
the anger of God in his spirit, but he ruled his emotions, allowing them to give vent to the

179

human sorrow he felt, but not to lead him into sin. The Lord Jesus was what God made man
to be: his spirit was full of the Holy Spirit and ruled over his emotions.
36Therefore the Jews were saying, “See how he loved [phileo] him.” 37But some of them
said, “Was not this one having opened the eyes of the blind able to have done something
that this one also might not have died?”
When they saw his tears, some of the Jews said, “Behold how he loved him.” (It is of
interest that the Greek word for loved used in this statement is not agapao, the word used for
the love of God, but phileo, friendship.) Others, though, revealing yet again the attitude of the
Jews, took an opposing position and reviled him: “Was not this one who opened the eyes of
the blind man able to do something that this one also might not have died?” The division
among the Jews continues. Some see his tears and feel his pain. Others see them and doubt
his power.
38Then Jesus, being indignant in himself again, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave
and a stone laid against it. 39Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the
one having died, said to him, “Lord, already there is an odor, for it is the fourth day.”
40Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you have faith you will see the glory of
God?” 41So they took the stone away.
Ignoring all this, the Lord Jesus came to the tomb, and again felt indignant in his
spirit, indignant at death, the great enemy of man and work of Satan. There was a stone
blocking the cave where Lazarus’ body had been put, and the Lord Jesus said to remove it.
Martha protested that Lazarus would stink by now, for he had been dead four days. Perhaps
she thought that the Lord simply wanted to have one last look at his friend before leaving
him in the grave, but she knew that Lazarus would have begun to decompose by then. What
the Lord Jesus was about to do never entered her mind. But he replied, “Did I not say to you
that if you have faith, you will see the glory of God?” And so the stone was rolled away.
Surely Martha did not have any inkling, even then, of what the Lord Jesus was about
to do. He had tried to teach her, in vs. 23-27, to have faith, not in correct doctrines, but in
him. Apparently he had some success, for she allowed the stone to be rolled away without
knowing what he was about to do. But she trusted him. That is the key. He often, no, usually,
does not tell us what he is doing, but do we trust him anyway? He can be trusted.
Now Jesus lifted his eyes upward and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me, 42but I
knew that you always hear me. But because of the crowd standing around I spoke, that
they may believe that you sent me.” 43And having said these things he called with a great
voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44The one having been dead came out, feet and hands having

180

been bound with strips of cloth, and his face had been wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to
them, “Unwrap him and permit him to go.”
When the stone was rolled away, the Lord Jesus prayed aloud, and he made it clear in
his prayer that he was praying aloud for the sake of his human hearers. He did not need to
say a special prayer in situations, for he was always in touch with his Father and knew his
will, but he wanted his hearers to know that it was God who was doing the work about to be
done, and doing it through him. God always heard him because he always heard God, with
obedience.
Having prayed he called out loudly, “Lazarus, come out.” And Lazarus came out. The
Lord Jesus had manifested the triumph of the life of God over death. Lazarus was wrapped
in the grave cloths, so Jesus said to unwrap him and let him go.
45Therefore many of the Jews, those having come to Mary and having seen what things he
did, had faith into him. 46But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what
things Jesus did.
What was the response to this greatest of miracles? The same as in vs. 36-37: many
had faith, and others ran off to report to the Pharisees. Faith is the proper response to a
miracle of the Lord Jesus. That is why John wrote about them, as we have emphasized from
Jn. 20.30-31. He wrote down these signs that we may have faith in the Lord Jesus, and that
having faith we may have life. And does not the miracle confirm that he is indeed the source
of life, he who can raise the dead?
But a miracle may or may not create faith. It reveals it. Many did have faith, having
their faithful hearts revealed by the miracle. Others did not, and the miracle did not create
faith in them. They went to tell on Jesus to the Pharisees.
47Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Sanhedrin and were
saying, “What are we doing, for this man is doing many signs? 48If we should leave him
alone thus, all will believe into him and the Romans will come and will take away both
our place and nation.” 49But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being High Priest that year,
said to them, “You don’t know anything, 50nor do you take into account that it is better for
you that one man should die for the people and the whole nation not be destroyed.” 51But
he did not say this of himself, but being High Priest that year he prophesied that Jesus
was going to die for the nation, 52and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather
into one the children of God having been scattered abroad. 53From that day therefore they
plotted that they might kill him.
The response of the Pharisees in vs. 47-53 was that the Lord Jesus was indeed doing
miracles, but instead of having faith in him because of them, they feared that he would

181

attract such a following that the Romans would see in him a popular uprising and come and
put it down, taking away their place and nation. All they were interested in was an earthly
kingdom, and they wanted a Messiah who would establish one. This Jesus had to be done
away with before he brought down the wrath of the Romans. Thus they determined officially
to kill him. Now all that awaited was the opportunity.
The sovereignty of God is revealed in the fact that the very decision taken by these
wicked men prophesied of what God was about to do. Caiaphas, the high priest, said, “You
don’t know anything, nor do you take into account that it is better for you that one man die
for the people and the whole nation to not be destroyed.” Caiaphas meant only that the
death of the Lord Jesus would be for the nation in the sense that it would spare it from the
wrath of Rome, but he did not know that he was speaking prophetically, as High Priest, that
the Lord Jesus would die for the sins and spiritual salvation of the people. And, John adds,
not just for the Jews, but for all men.
54Therefore Jesus no longer walkd openly among the Jews, but went from there to
the region near the desert, to a city called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the
disciples.”
The Lord Jesus had already left Jerusalem for the last time after the controversy at the
Festival of Dedication. Now he withdrew from any public appearance in Judea until the time
came for him to lay down his life. He spent whatever time there was in the wilderness with
his disciples.
So ends the story of the raising of Lazarus. What do we learn from this account
beyond what we have already seen? Perhaps we can best answer that question under two
headings. First let us inquire as to why the Lord Jesus let Lazarus die. He could easily have
healed him from a distance when he first heard the news of his illness, as we learned in Jn.
4.46-54. He could have spared Mary and Martha all the grief of losing their beloved brother.
Why did he let him die?
The Lord Jesus himself told us why he let Lazarus die. In v. 4 he said that it was for
the glory of God through the Son of God. God often allows us to go through a difficult time
to achieve a higher purpose. Vs. 5-6 say plainly that the Lord Jesus stayed away and let
Lazarus die because he loved him and his sisters. How was this an expression of love? We
think only in terms of immediate comfort and happiness, but he knew that this life would
soon be over and the kingdom and then eternity would be faced. Only what we do in this life
that prepares us for the kingdom and eternity will matter then. In his love for Mary, Martha,
and Lazarus the Lord Jesus allowed them to go through a difficult trial now in order to work
in them something of eternal value. John wrote that we may have faith and that having faith
we may have life. The Lord Jesus did this work to reveal himself, not as a human being, but
as the resurrection and the life, to his three friends, that they might have faith in him and
have life, life that would survive physical death. He glorified God by revealing his power

182

over death in this incident, and he benefited his friends as well by building their faith in him.
He was working for the kingdom and eternity.
It is very much like the subject of Heb. 12.5-11, where we are told that no discipline is
pleasant while it is going on, but that it yields rich rewards well worth the pain. In addition,
it is a sign of true sonship. God disciplines all whom he loves. That is what was taking place
with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus: they were being trained by God for his kingdom and for
eternity. That entails a certain amount of suffering, but it was well worth it. Those three had
the blessing of seeing the Lord’s victory over death, and they have been privileged to bless
the Lord’s people for two thousand years now as their story and its meaning have been told
and retold, even as we are doing now. What privileged people they were: they were allowed
to glorify God trough their suffering. How tragic to suffer for nothing. We all suffer. It is the
common human lot. But we have a choice. We can turn to God in our suffering and see it
used for his glory and our blessing, as well as the blessing of others, or we can turn against
God and we see the suffering wasted. How we need, like Mary and Martha, to “send for” the
Lord Jesus when trial comes. (The little book Don’t Waste Your Sorrows by Paul Bilheimer is
excellent on this truth.)
A continuation of this line of thought is the truth that the Lord Jesus allowed Lazarus
to die to get his sisters into an impossible situation. Why would he do this? So that when the
answer came it would be quite clear that it was God who did it. It was to get them to depend
on God, and so that God would get the glory. God allowed Gideon to get into such a
situation in Judges 7. When Gideon called for the army to go out against the Midianites,
32,000 men responded, more than enough. But God said, “The people who are with you are
too many for me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying,
‘My own power has delivered me’” (NASB). God allowed Gideon to get into the impossible
situation of having to face a multitude of Midianites with three hundred men, but the victory
was won, and everyone knew God had done it. The Lord Jesus let Lazarus get into the
impossible situation of death, but the answer came, and everyone knew that God had done
it, those who had faith, at least.
Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 1.26-29,
For consider your calling, brothers, that there are not many wise according to
the flesh, not many powerful, not many of noble birth, but God chose the foolish
things of the world that he might put to shame the wise, and the weak things of the
world God chose that he might put to shame the strong, and God chose the
insignificant things of the world, and the despised things, the things that are not, that
he might nullify the things that are, that no flesh may boast before God.
That is why the Lord Jesus let Lazarus die, that he might do a mighty work in him
that was undeniably God, that God might get all the glory and no flesh might boast that it
had any part in it. And by his grace he blessed the people involved in the process.

183

There is another reason that the Lord let Lazarus die, and that is that it gives us a
physical example of a spiritual truth, something the Lord Jesus often did. This truth is that
often our desire is for God to improve our flesh, but God’s word says that the flesh cannot be
improved. It must die. Paul wrote in Rom. 7.18 that nothing good dwells in our flesh, and all
of Rom. 6-8 is about the crucifixion of the flesh and the replacing of it with the life of God
through the Holy Spirit. We say that we are impatient and ask God to give us patience. He
does not want to give us patience and will not. Impatience is a mark of the flesh and the flesh
will never be improved. Instead of giving us patience, God wants to put to death the
impatient flesh in us and raise up the Lord Jesus in us. He is patient, and he will manifest
that patience in us if we allow God to deal with our flesh and form Christ in us.
The Lord Jesus could easily have kept Lazarus from dying, but he let him die, saying
thereby that he will not keep the flesh alive and try to improve it, but that he will let it die
and raise up a new life, his own, in its place. That is a vital spiritual lesson that is drawn out
in Rom. 6-8 and Gal. 2.20, among other passages, Scriptures that deserve close study in this
connection.
The second heading under which we may consider what we learn from the story of
the raising of Lazarus is the fact that this miracle was a sign. That is the heart of Jn. 1-12: all
the works of the Lord Jesus point to something beyond themselves. They signify something.
What does this sign signify?
First, and perhaps most important, is the obvious meaning. It signifies the triumph of
the life of God over physical death. We say that this raising of Lazarus was only a sign of that
triumph, and not the actual triumph, because it was not a resurrection. It is often called that,
but Lazarus was not resurrected. Resurrection is not only coming from the dead, but coming
at the same time into a spiritual, incorruptible body. Lazarus did not receive such a body at
his raising. He was not resurrected; he was resuscitated, brought back to this life. He died
again. But his raising was nonetheless a sign of resurrection. It was a specific triumph of God
over death and prophesied the ultimate victory.
Death is the great enemy of us all. There is not one who has not made that sorrowful
trip to the graveyard to bury a loved one and felt the pain of knowing that that dear one
would never be seen again. And we all face death ourselves. Unless the Lord returns, every
one of us will cross that cold river. How final death is, and how helpless we are in its
presence. How we long for some answer to it. There is an answer. Though we face physical
death now, we know that it is not the end. It is only the body that dies, not the person. And
we know that we will be raised from the dead and given that new, spiritual body that will
never suffer, die, or decay. And more, we know that there will come a wonderful day when
death itself will be done away with. In 1 Cor. 15.26 Paul wrote that death is the last enemy,
and that it will be abolished. Rev. 20.14 shows us its abolition: after the millennium and the
final rebellion of Satan, Satan will be cast into hell where the antichrist and the false prophet
will already have been thrown, then sinful men will be judged and thrown into hell, and
then finally death and Hades, the abode of the dead, will be thrown into hell. Death is the

184

last enemy to be judged, but it will die itself. Death will be no more. What a blessed hope we
have in the Lord, and that is the hope that the raising of Lazarus holds out to us. We have
seen the life of God manifesting itself in various ways all through John, and now we see its
greatest manifestation in triumph over physical death, our great and last enemy. May God be
praised!
This raising of Lazarus is also a sign of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Without
that, the resurrection of man would be an impossibility. That is the basis of our greatest
hope: our Savior is alive. The Lord Jesus had already told Martha that he was the
resurrection and the life, and then he raised Lazarus, giving a picture of what he meant.
Lazarus came out of the grave back to this life. The Lord Jesus would come out of the grave
into resurrection life, with an incorruptible body. And he promised that those who have faith
in him, though they pass through physical death, will experience the same resurrection. That
is what the raising of Lazarus signified. It was only a resuscitation, but it signified
resurrection.
Finally, the raising of Lazarus signified something about the Jews. The Judaism that
the Lord Jesus came into reeked of death. We have seen it all through John, the death of a
religion of Law that requires men to observe certain regulations in order to be acceptable to
God while all the time shutting God out. We have seen the constant arguing over the
manifestations of God through the Lord Jesus, the inability to recognize the very God they
claimed to represent. The whole situation was like what Martha thought about Lazarus: it
stunk!
What did the Lord Jesus propose to do about this situation? Let us quote Ezek. 37 at
length:

The hand of I AM was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of I AM
and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth
among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were
very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Lord I AM, you
alone know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry
bones, hear the word of I AM! This is what the the Lord I AM says to these bones: I
will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and
make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you
will come to life. Then you will know that I am I AM.’” So I prophesied as I was
commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the
bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them
and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me,
“Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Lord I
AM says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they
may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they
came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army. Then he said to me: “Son of man,

185

these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our
hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the
Lord I AM says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from
them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know, that
I am I AM, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.’”
This passage was written when Israel was in the death of Babylonian captivity. It was
God’s promise to bring them back to their land, but it has a much wider application. It forms
the background for the understanding of the raising of Lazarus as it applies to Israel. The
Judaism the Lord Jesus came into was a valley of dry bones. Judaism was dead spiritually.
By raising Lazarus against this background, he was promising to raise Israel. The fulfillment
of this promise takes two forms.
First is the spiritual. The Lord Jesus raised up a new, spiritual Israel, the people who
have faith in him. A true Jew, Paul says, is not one who is a Jew physically but one who is a
Jew spiritually, in his heart (Rom.2.28-29). The Lord Jesus and Paul both said that descent
from Abraham is not a matter of physical birth but of faith. There is a new Israel, spiritual in
nature, and it includes all those, Jew and Gentile, who have faith in Jesus Christ. Just as the
Lord Jesus promised a new, spiritual Temple in chapter 2, a Temple consisting of himself and
his people, and declared that he himself fulfilled the Jewish festivals, so he now points to the
fulfillment of the promise of God in Ezek. 37 in himself. Israel will come from the grave of
Judaism into life in the Lord Jesus, a new, spiritual Israel.
But there is another fulfillment. God will yet bring the physical race of Israel back to
himself. Judaism is still dead in our day. Many Jews do not believe in God at all, not to
mention the Lord Jesus. Atheism is strong among the people of God! But there will come a
day when a remnant of the Jews will recognize their Messiah, Jesus, and will accept him as
such, and a fountain will be opened for their cleansing (Zech. 12-13). They will experience
the blood of Jesus. They will come out of the graves of Judaism and atheism into life in Jesus
the Messiah. May that day hasten, for it will be the day when redemption dawns for all of us,
and when our great God comes into his glory. Come, Lord Jesus!

THE LAST PUBLIC EVENTS OF THE MINISTRY OF THE LORD JESUS

John 11.55-l2.50

55Now the Passover of the Jews was near and many went up to Jerusalem from the
country before the Passover that they might purify themelves.
Jn. 11.55 says that the Passover was at hand. We have noticed throughout John that
the Jewish festivals often provide the background for the events John reports. This is the
third time we encounter the Passover. In Jn. 3 the aspect of Passover that came to the fore

186

was the fact that it was the birth of the nation. When God delivered that group of slaves from
the judgment of death on the firstborn of Egypt and led them across the Red Sea, they
became a nation. Against this backdrop of the birth of the nation, the Lord Jesus taught about
the new birth.
The deeds and teachings of Jn. 6 also occurred against the background of a Passover.
The Passover was a one-day festival, but it was immediately followed by the week-long
Festival of Unleavened Bread, in which the Jews were required not to eat leavened bread, but
only unleavened, leaven being symbolic of evil in the Bible. The picture is of the sinless life of
our Savior, just as the lamb and the blood of the lamb of the Passover symbolize the Lord
Jesus as the Lamb of God who shed his blood for our deliverance from the judgment of death
and hell. Because of their closeness in time, Passover and Unleavened Bread were often
considered one event. With these thoughts in the minds of the people, the Lord Jesus made
his great statement, “I AM the Bread of life.”
When we come to the present passage, we find that the Passover again provides the
background, but this time, it is the central aspect of Passover that dominates. When God was
about to judge the firstborn of Egypt with death, he provided that the Israelites would kill a
lamb and sprinkle its blood on the doorposts and lintels of their houses. When God came in
judgment, he would pass over the houses where he saw the blood. Thus the lamb became the
symbol of deliverance from judgment through the shedding of blood. Just as the Lord Jesus
fulfilled the Passover’s aspects of birth and bread, so he fulfilled its central reality, the lamb.
We might write across Jn. 11.55-19.42, “Behold the Lamb of God.” That is the truth of
Passover that we see now, and all through Jn. 12, the cross begins to loom. Everything begins
to point to the death of the Lord Jesus.
How ironic this is! The central issue of John is life. He says that his purpose in writing
is that we may have life. The LordJesus said that he came that we may have life. And he said
that he himself was life. And yet, as the gospel story comes to its final week, we find
everything pointing to death, the death of Life!
All Jewish men were supposed to go to Jerusalem three times a year to appear before
the Lord, and Passover was one of those times. They had to be ceremonially clean to take
part in the festivities, so many would go early to go through a period of cleansing before the
festival. Thus John notes that many were in Jerusalem for this purpose a week before the
festival.
56Therefore they were seeking Jesus and saying among one another as they were standing
in the Temple, “What do you think? That he may not come to the festival?” Now the chief
priests and the Pharisees had given command that if anyone should know where he was
he should make it known, that they might seize him.
What were these men talking about during this week? The Lord Jesus, Jn. 11.56 says.
He was the issue in Judaism at that time. It was true then, and it still is, that when the Lord

187

Jesus is presented as he is, no one can ignore him. Some love him, some hate him, and some
want to use him, but no one ignores him. He was the topic of conversation at the Passover.
They wondered if he would appear, knowing that the Pharisees had already determined to
kill him.
So Jn. 11.55-57 sets the stage for the events and words of chapter 12. It is Passover, the
crowds are excitedly discussing the Lord Jesus, and the Pharisees are looking for a way to
put him to death.
1Then Jesus, before the days of Passover, went to Bethany, where Lazarus was,
whom Jesus raised from the dead. 2Therefore they made dinner for him there and Martha
was serving, but Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. 3Then Mary, having taken a
pound of pure perfume of nard, very costly, anointed the feet of Jesus and dried his feet
with her hair. Now the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
Chapter 12 begins with a simple and beautiful story of love, the anointing of the Lord
Jesus by Mary. He was in Bethany, the hometown of Lazarus, whom he had just raised from
the dead, and his sisters, Mary and Martha. A dinner was held for him. Lazarus was a guest
and Martha, as was her custom, served. As they reclined at the table, Mary brought a pound
of very expensive perfume and anointed the feet of the Lord Jesus with it, so that the
fragrance filled the house. Then she wiped his feet with her hair.
4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, the one about to betray him, said, “5Why was this
perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6But he said this not
because it mattered to him about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having the
money box he was taking out the monies put in.
Judas objected to this waste, complaining that the perfume could have been sold and
the proceeds given to the poor. He said that the perfume could have been sold for three
hundred denarii, a sum equal to about a year’s pay for a laborer. We will return to Judas’
complaint.
7Then Jesus said, “Leave her alone, that she may observe this for the day of my burial, 8
for

the poor you always have with you, but me you don’t always have.
The response of the Lord Jesus to Judas was, “Leave her alone, that she might keep it
for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but me you do not always
have.” He was not being callous about the poor, for he loved them, but simply stating the
fact that because of the fallen condition of the world, there will always be poor people until
his return. Thus there would always be opportunity to minister to them.

188

Two or three facts emerge from this story. First is the tender love of Mary for the Lord
Jesus. He and her family had long loved one another, as we saw in chapter 11. And now, of
course, he had brought her brother back from the dead. She longed for some way to make
adequate expression of her love, and her way was to give perhaps her most valuable
possession to him. What a lovely picture this is.
Then we see that nothing given to the Lord Jesus is wasted. Nothing we could ever
lavish on him would be enough to express our love for what he has done for us. He deserves
far more than our very best. Often when we serve the Lord, there seems to be waste. Perhaps
some talent or position has to be given up for him, when it seems to us that it would be so
useful for him. Perhaps someone dies at an early age, someone who seems to give such
promise of valuable service to God. It seems such a waste to us, yet we are not living for this
age, but for the kingdom and eternity. Anything we give to the Lord in this life is saved up in
Heaven for us and will last forever, though it may now seem to be wasted on earth.
Then we see Mary, probably unknowingly, prophesying the death of the Lord Jesus. It
was the custom of the Jews, who did not embalm, to anoint their dead with spices and
perfumes before burial. It is not likely that Mary understood that the Lord Jesus was to die,
though she probably did know that the Pharisees intended to kill him. Even the twelve, who
had been plainly told that he would die, did not understand. The Messiah would reign, not
die. Yet he took the anointing by Mary as an anointing for his burial. She had shown by her
tender deed what would take place that very week.
We said that we would return to the objection of Judas to this waste. John says that
Judas was not really concerned for the poor at all, but was a thief, and being the one of the
disciples who carried the money box, he would steal from it. The question arises as to why
the Lord Jesus would put a thief in charge of the treasury. He hand-picked these men to be
his disciples, and he knew all about all of them. He knew that Judas was a thief, and he knew
that he would betray him. Why did he not put an honest man in charge of the treasury? Why
Judas, the thief of the group?
The Lord Jesus put Judas in charge of the money because he was not concerned about
money, but about Judas. He knew the heart of Judas, and he wanted to put him into a
position that would reveal what was in him (see Dt. 8.2), thus giving Judas an opportunity to
see himself as he was and to repent, though he did know that Judas would not repent. God
does that with all of us. He will put us all into situations that will reveal what is really in us.
In that unguarded moment when we blurt something out or act instinctively, the truth comes
out. In that circumstance of life that forces us to act, the truth comes out. We all have sin in
our hearts, and God wants to bring that sin to light, not to judge us, but to bring us to
repentance. We have the choice of repenting or resisting. Judas resisted, and look at how he
ended his life. When life reveals what is in us, what is our response? That is why the Lord
Jesus put a thief in charge of the money.

189

9Then the large crowd of the Jews knew that he was there and they went not
because of Jesus only, but that they might also see Lazarus whom he raised from the dead.
10But the chief priests plotted that they might kill Lazarus also, 11for because of him many
of the Jews were going away and having faith into Jesus.
Vs. 9-11 tell us that when the Jews, who had been wondering in 11.56 if the Lord Jesus
would appear at the Passover, learned that he was indeed there they went out to Bethany to
see him, and not him only, but Lazarus as well, for Lazarus was quite an attraction, having
been raised from the dead. There are two reactions to the raising of Lazarus discernible in
this account. One is that of curiosity-seeking. There was no doubt that the Lord Jesus had
worked a remarkable miracle, but it did not arouse commitment to him in the people. To
them Lazarus was just a side-show attraction, something else to see and be entertained by.
But v. 11 tells us that there were those who had faith, those who realized that one who could
do such a deed had a claim on their faith, their worship, their commitment. Thus the sign of
the raising of Lazarus had its intended effect, faith, in the case of some.
There were three primary responses to the Lord Jesus. We see two of them in these
two groups. Some believed in him and gave themselves to him. Others liked what he was
doing and wanted the benefits of his ministry, but had no interest in committing themselves
to him. We see the third response in v. 10, opposition. The Pharisees now wanted to put not

only the Lord Jesus to death, but Lazarus as well. They wanted to get rid of the trouble-
maker, and destroy the evidence of his works, too. If he could raise from the dead, instead of

believing in him, they would kill him and the one he raised. They would put Lazarus back
into the grave. It is remarkable how blind the Pharisees were, how bound by their religious
system. They were so bound up by their religious system that God had no freedom to work
among them, and when he did, they resolved to put the Lord to death and to destroy his
works. Why they were so blind we will see a bit later.
12On the next day the large crowd, the one having come to the festival, having heard
that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem, 13took palm branches and went out to meet him, and
they were calling out, “Hosanna, blessed is the one coming in the name of the Lord [Ps.
118.25-26], even the King of Israel.” 14But Jesus having found a donkey sat on it, as it is
written, 15“Don’t be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your King is coming, sitting on a
donkey’s colt.” [Zech. 9.9]
Vs. 12-19 contain the account of the entry of the Lord Jesus into Jerusalem, what we
usually call the triumphal entry because of his reception by the crowds who proclaimed him
King. Jerusalem was filled with Passover pilgrims, and they welcomed him as the King of
Israel. Indeed he was the King, but not as they thought. They proclaimed him King
according to their expectations of a military conqueror who would liberate Israel and take

190

the earthly throne. But the Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem, not on a mighty white horse, but on
a donkey. Thus he fulfilled the prophecy of Zech. 9.9 of a humble Messiah.
The Old Testament prophesies both the suffering and the glory of the Messiah, and
many Jews saw this but could not understand it. Not being able to grasp how the Messiah
could both suffer and reign, they developed the theory that there would be two Messiahs,
one who would suffer and one who would reign. They were not unaware of the suffering
Messiah of Old Testament prophecy, but they did not know what to make of it. They did not
have the advantage we have of looking back, and of the New Testament, so that we realize
that there are not two Messiahs but two comings of the one Messiah, once to suffer, and a
second time to reign. Of course, the Messiah they wanted was the one who would reign, and
that is what they had in mind when the Lord Jesus entered the city, but he came riding on a
donkey, the lowliest beast of burden. He would be King, but he would go by way of the
cross.
16His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then
they remembered that these things were written of him and that they did these things for
him.
V. 16 tells us that the disciples did not know what was going on either, but later, when
they had experienced the resurrection and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, they looked back
and remembered this incident and saw what it meant, that the Messiah was coming the first
time, to suffer.
17Therefore the crowd, the one being with him when he called Laarus from the tomb and
raised him from the dead, were testifying.

18Because of this the crowd went to meet him,
for they heard that he had done this sign. 19Therefore the Pharisees said to one another,
“You see that you are doing no good. Look, the world has gone after him.”
In vs. 17-19 we see the intensification of the conflict. The multitudes were going over
to the Lord Jesus because of the raising of Lazarus, and the Pharisees were becoming more
desperate in their efforts to find some way to stop him: “You see that you are achieving
nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”
20Now there were certain Greeks from those going up that they might worship in
the festival. 21Then these went to Philip, the one from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him
saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22Philip went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip
went and told Jesus. 23But Jesus answered them saying, “The hour has come that the Son
of Man may be glorified.

191

Into this gathering storm stepped some Greeks who had gone to Jerusalem for the
Passover. There were Gentiles who believed in the God of the Jews, and some of them would
go to Jerusalem to keep the festivals. Such were these Greeks. They wanted to see the Lord
Jesus and told Philip so. Philip told Andrew and the two of them told the Lord Jesus.
We are not told whether or not the Lord saw these Greeks, but the impression is that
he did not. His answer was, to begin with, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be
glorified.” We have noticed all through John references to “the hour” or “the time” (2.4, 7,6,
8, 30, 8.20, 12.23, 27, 13.1, 17.1). Up to now, they have all said that the Lord Jesus’ hour has
not yet come, indicating that there was a time in the will of God for him to die, and that man
had no power to put him to death till that time arrived. Indeed, several times the Lord Jesus
walked away from situations in which his enemies tried to kill him, and they could do
nothing. But now Jn. 12.23 says that the hour has come. It is time for him to die.
Thus it seems that the Lord Jesus was making the statement that it was not time for
him to receive Gentiles, but to die. There would be a time for him to receive Gentiles, but that
would not be in the flesh. It would be in the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the church.
He had said earlier (Matt. 15.24) that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Israel was called by God to be a light to the nations, but they failed to fulfill that calling. A
part of the ministry of the Lord Jesus was to call Israel back to that calling. Of course, they
rejected him and that calling by him, so he opened the way to God to the Gentiles by his
death and resurrection. It was not a part of the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus to reach the
Gentiles. As a man, he was limited in his outreach and could not have reached the whole
world, unless it had been the will of his Father. And it was God’s plan to reach the Gentiles
through the church and for the Lord Jesus to call Israel back to God, and then to die for the
sins of the world when Israel failed to respond.
24Amen, amen I say to you, unless a grain of wheat, having fallen into the ground, die, it
remains alone, but if it die, it bears much fruit.
Then the Lord Jesus continued with v. 24, one of the key verses in all the Bible:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat, having fallen into the ground, die, it
remains alone, but if it die, it bears much fruit.” What a revelation of the way God works
this statement is. God’s way is life out of death. As long as anything is limited to the natural,
it will remain alone and will eventually die, but if it is dealt with by God, the natural will be
put to death and the life of God will be released, resurrection life, and it will produce much
fruit. It is the principle of the seed. There is life in a seed, but it is trapped inside a husk. As
long as the husk is protected, there will be only one seed, though there is life in it. But if the
husk is allowed to die, the life inside will escape and produce abundance.
The Lord Jesus was talking first about himself. He was full of the life of God, but he
was only one man, and there had to be a way for that life to get out to others. The problem
was that all men were sinners and therefore could not come into contact with the life of God,

192

which would have destroyed them because of their sins. Something must be done about the
sins. The answer was that the Lord Jesus became sin for us and died, allowing the flesh to be
dealt with by the cross as he took our sins and sin nature on himself. When he died, because
he was an innocent, unblemished Lamb, the sins were dealt with once for all, not in symbol
as in the Old Testament sacrifices, but in reality. Thus the life was released, and look at the
result. Now instead of there being the life of God in only one man, it is in many millions.
Much fruit has been produced. But it took the willingness of the one man who could do it to
fall into the ground and die.
It should be noted here that we have said that the issue in John is life. This verse
shows us the way of life, of God’s life that is not subject to death. It is resurrection life, but for
there to be resurrection, there must be death. The seed must fall into the ground and die.
Vs. 25-26 show that the Lord Jesus was talking not just about himself, but about his
disciples as well:
25The one loving [phileo] his life loses it, and the one hating his life in this world will keep
it for life eternal. 26If anyone would serve me, let him follow me, and where I am, there my
servant will also be. If anyone serve me, the Father will honor him.
The Lord Jesus hated his life in this world and laid it down to achieve God’s will.
Now he says that his disciples must take the same course. As followers of the Lord Jesus, we
may not necessarily be called on to die physically, though that may happen, but we are
called on to give up our lives to him, to live for him and not for ourselves. It is very
instructive that the word translated “life” in these verses is psuche, the word for “soul,” the
psychological aspect of man, and the center of the self-life. The Lord Jesus is really saying
that his followers must die to self, to the soul-life, even as he did, and follow him. Where did
he lead? To the cross.
The Lord Jesus contained the life of God, but it was not trapped in a husk of sinful
flesh, for he had no sin or sin nature. We do have that husk, and he became that sin for us
that he might take it to the cross and do away with it. Thus the Lord allowed the husk of
flesh to be broken in a substitutionary way, taking our place. In our case, though, the husk
must be dealt with directly. We do have the life of God in us, if we are born from above, but
it is trapped in a husk of self, of soul-life, of flesh. As long as we try, even as Christians, to
protect our flesh, we will not bear fruit for God, and we will be like a solitary seed on a shelf.
But if we will submit to the dealings of God with our flesh through the trials of life, we will
find that more and more he makes actual in our experience the death of the flesh that the
Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross, and more and more the life of God is released. More
and more fruit is produced, not the vain efforts of the natural man to do something for God,
but the flowing of the life of God from the person. That is the secret of service to God.

193

27Now my soul is troubled. And what do I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ But
because of this I came to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from
Heaven, “I both glorified it and will glorify it again.” 29Then the crowd, the one having
stood and heard were saying it to have been thunder. Others were saying, “An angel has
spoken to him.” 30Jesus answered and said, “This voice has not come because of me, but
because of you.
Vs. 27-28 are very revealing of the nature of the Lord Jesus. We call ourselves human,
but the truth is that Jesus is the only man who has ever lived who was what God made man
to be. God made Adam innocent and placed him in a paradise, where he had every
advantage toward being all that God had in mind for man, a creature of perfect love and
fellowship who would exercise dominion over his creation under the guidance of his will.
The result would be eating of the tree of life and gaining eternal life. But man fell into sin and
ruined not only the creation but himself as well. Never since then has man functioned fully
as God intended. In that sense we are less than human.
We have already seen that God intended for man to be ruled by his spirit, filled with
the Holy Spirit, and for his soul, the psychological aspects of mind, emotions, and will to be
subject to the spirit. But with the fall of man and the subsequent loss of contact with God by
the spirit, the soul gained the ascendancy. Ever since, men have lived mostly by their
emotions, with some contribution by intellect and will-power. Of course, emotions are
notoriously up and down, and therefore unreliable, the mind is darkened by the deceit of
Satan, and the will is self-centered. Some even sink to the level of being ruled by their bodies,
giving in to all their physical appetites without restraint. Thus man has wallowed in sin and
he and society have suffered the consequences.
It needs to be made clear that the New Testament does not teach the destruction of the
soul, but the death of it to itself. When we say that the flesh must be put to death, we do not
mean that the soul ceases to exist, but that the mind, emotions, and will stop living for
themselves and come under the control of the spirit, which in turn is submitted to the Spirit
of God. That is a dying to self.
Jn. 12.27-28 shows us that the Lord Jesus had a soul that functioned normally. He
shrank from the cross. He knew that his hour had come, and in his soul he was troubled. He
was emotionally upset. His will was to escape the cross. Yet he functioned as God intended
man to function. His spirit was filled with the Holy Spirit and it governed his soul. Though
his soul wanted to avoid the cross, his spirit overruled and he submitted to the will of God
that he accept it. After expressing the trouble in his soul, he asked the question, “What
should I say, Father, save me from this hour?” Then he answered his own question: “But for
this reason I came to this hour.” He knew it was the will of God for him to die, and thus he
could not ask to be released. His spirit rises to the ascendancy when he says, “Father, glorify
your name.” The purpose of the Lord Jesus was to glorify his Father, even if it meant his own
death. His soul was subject to his spirit. That is the way God made man to function.

194

The response of God to this submission by the Lord Jesus was to speak aloud out of
Heaven, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” The reaction of the crowd to this
voice was typical. Some had faith and some did not. Some thought it had only thundered.
Others said an angel had spoken to him. Those twin reactions of faith and unbelief seem to
be a theme in John. Every time something happens, some have faith and some doubt. Some
had faith when Lazarus was raised and some ran off to report to the Pharisees. The Lord
Jesus made it plain that the voice from Heaven was not for him, but for the crowds. He did
not need an audible voice, for he always heard God in his spirit, but the voice spoke that the
crowds might know that he had come from God and did speak the truth. But even so, it
required faith to hear God in the sound.
31Now is judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
V. 31 is another verse of vital importance, not just in this passage but in the entire
Bible. It shows us what was really going on, and what eternal issues were being decided. It
appeared that the Lord Jesus was being judged. The human authorities had decided to kill
him and were about to arrest him, put him through a mockery of a trial designed only to find
a legal way of murdering him, and turn him oven to the Romans for execution. But he had
already said that no one could take his life. He laid it down of himself (10.18). It was not the
Lord Jesus who was on trial, and it was not really the Jews and the Romans. V. 31 makes it
quite clear that the world and the ruler of this world were on trial. The world is human
society organized against God by Satan, and the ruler of this world is Satan. Satan is a
usurper. He has no right to rule this world, but gained his position through treachery,
deceiving man into sin. God intended for man to have dominion, but Satan gained dominion
through man. Thus God planned for another Man to regain dominion. It is man who lost it
and Man who will regain it. Not only had the hour of Jesus come, but the hour of Satan had
come, too. It appeared outwardly that the Lord Jesus was being judged, but in reality the
usurper was being judged.
The point is that the greatest spiritual issue in the universe was being resolved. Paul
was to say later in Eph. 6.12 that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against
spiritual evil. The Lord Jesus saw that clearly and knew that what was going on was
spiritual. His enemy was not the Jews or the Romans, but Satan. The battle was not physical,
for his life, but spiritual. How was the Lord Jesus to win the victory? By dying sinless. It was
Satan’s object to cause him to sin and thus to bring him under his dominion like every other
man, but the Lord died rather than sin. Thus his death was his greatest victory, and indeed
he calls it his glorification (17.1). Perhaps Satan’s greatest temptation of the Lord Jesus came
when he was on the cross being taunted by the words, “Come down from the cross.” He
knew he could do so, and it must have been so tempting to show these scoundrels what he
could do, but that would have been sin, for it would have been the will of Satan, not of God.
It took a lot more of what we call manhood to hang there and die than to retaliate, and the

195

Lord Jesus hung there and died. Thus he was victorious over Satan, and thus the ruler of this
world was cast out. The spiritual issue was decided. Satan lost and the Lord Jesus won. It is
only a matter of time now till he takes his throne and Satan is cast into the abyss.
32And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men to myself.” 33But this he said
signifying by what kind of death he was about to die.
The Lord Jesus went on to say in v. 32, “And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw
all men to myself.” He said this to show by what kind of death he would die, namely by
crucifixion, as v. 33 shows, but it is also an extension of the thought of v. 31. At first it seems
not to be a true statement, for it appears that he has not drawn all men to himself. Most men
reject him. Thus it is a puzzling statement. But when we think of it in the light of v. 31, we
see the truth of it. Until the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, Satan was the ruler of
this world. With the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, he lost that position. He still
exercises it under the sovereignty of God, but it will be taken away when God is ready.
When that time comes and King Jesus takes the throne that is rightfully his, what will
happen? Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil. 2.10-
11). He will draw all men to himself. The tragedy is that for many, it will be too late and will
do them no good. How important it is that we confess the Lord Jesus now while it will result
in eternal life.
34Then the crowd answered him, “We heard from the Law that the Christ remains into the
age, and how do you say that it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up? Who is this
Son of Man?” 35Therefore Jesus said to them, “For yet a little while the Light is among
you. Walk while you have the Light that darkness may not overtake you. And the one
walking in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36While you have the Light,
have faith into the Light, that you may become sons of light.”
The Jews believed from the Old Testament that the Messiah would reign forever, and
indeed that is true. We saw above that they knew about the Old Testament predictions of the
sufferings of the Messiah, but could not understand them, and thus postulated two
Messiahs. With their belief in the eternal reign of the Messiah, they asked the Lord Jesus how
he, whom they took to be claiming to be the Messiah, could be speaking of his death. His
answer to this question was, in effect, that they should not worry about answering all the
questions, but to walk in the light they had. If they did not do that, darkness would come
upon them, but if they would, they would become sons of light. They would be light
themselves even in darkness. Sonship in the New Testament deals with maturity. The point
is that if we walk in the light we have, we will grow, receive further light, and become more
mature in the things of God. And some of those questions that seemed so difficult will be

196

answered. Others will not seem so important. The way to get our questions answered is not
to suspend serving God until we do, but to walk in the light we have.
The humanity of the man Jesus has been important in vs. 24-36. The divinity of the
Lord Jesus is one of the main themes of John, but that does not take away from his full
humanity. By grace he accepted the limitations we have and lived a perfect life, making the
way for us. This divine one that John portrays became a man. The title that Jesus used for
himself more than any other was “Son of Man.” It has long been debated what this name
means. Many think that the Jews of his time used it as a title for the Messiah, and thus
understood him to be claiming to be the Messiah when he used it of himself. However,
charges were brought against the Lord Jesus not because he claimed to be the Son of Man,
but because he claimed to be the Son of God. It does not appear from a careful study of the
Scriptures and other Jewish writings of the period that “Son of Man” was understood
messianically by the Jews. What then did it mean?
The term occurs some eighty-seven times in the book of Ezekiel, and it is quite clear
that it is God’s name for the prophet to mean that he is a man and not God. A Son of God is
God. A son of man is a man. Like produces like. The term occurs over thirty other times in
the Old Testament, and in every case the use is the same: it designates a person as a man as
opposed to being God. Perhaps two of the clearest examples are Num. 23.19 and Job 25.6,
where the whole point is that God is not a man or a son of man. A son of man is a man. That
is all the term means in the Old Testament.
The only Jewish writing outside the Old Testament in which the term may be used
messianically is a book called 1 Enoch, but it is not known when that book was written, and
it is very possible that it was written after the earthly life the Lord of Jesus when “Son of
Man” had become accepted as a messianic title because of his use of it. Thus the evidence of
1 Enoch cannot be admitted. There is no other evidence outside the Bible.
In Jn. 12.34, when the Jews questioned the Lord Jesus about his reference to the Son of
Man being lifted up, they asked, “Who is this Son of Man?” They did not know what he was
talking about. If the term had been a messianic title, they would have known exactly what he
meant. Taking all these facts, the use of “son of man” in the Old Testament, its absence of use
in any other literature, and the reaction of the Jews to its use by the Lord Jesus, it seems clear
that the term as used by him was his way of designating himself as a man. By calling himself
the Son of Man, he was simply saying that he was a man like the rest of us. He shared our
common humanity. He went through what we go through. He was tempted as we are. Thus
he is our brother (Heb. 2.11) and our High Priest who is touched by our weaknesses (Heb.
4.15) as well as our Lord. What a wonderful Savior we have.
It is instructive to contrast the uses of the terms Son of Man and Son of God. We will
not take the space to quote them, but will only list the passages where each occurs, so that
the reader may look them up and study them for himself. Son of Man occurs in Jn. 1.51, 3.13,
14, 5.27, 6.27, 53, 62, 8.28, 9.35, 12.23, 34, and 13.31. Son of God occurs in 1.34, 49, 3.18, 5.25,
10.36, 11.4, 27, 19.7, 20.31. It is very interesting that in no case is “Son of God” used when the

197

death of the Lord Jesus is referred to. It is always “Son of Man” in that case. The point is that
Jesus, God, became a man to die for our sins. He is fully divine, Son of God, and fully
human, Son of Man. Both of these terms call for faith. When the Lord Jesus is called the Son
of God, faith is required because he appears to be only a man. And when he is called Son of
Man, faith is required to see more than just a man in this human being.
The point is that this divine Son of God did indeed become a son of man and dwell
among us, accepting all that we have to go through that he might be our example, but more
than that, that he might die for us as the Lamb of God and provide the power, the life of God,
to enable us to follow his example.
We noted at the beginning of this passage that the Passover provides the background
for it. The Lord Jesus is the Passover Lamb. As Son of Man, a man like us, one of us, he gave
his life for us. Everything is pointing now toward his death, toward his fulfilling the Festival
of Passover as the sacrificial Lamb. His hour has come. He will fall into the ground and die.
He will be lifted up from the earth. He is the Son of Man.
These things Jesus said, and having gone away he was hidden from them. 37But he
having done so many signs before them, they were not having faith into him, 38that the
word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke might be fulfilled, “Lord, who believed our
report? And to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed?” [Is. 53.1] 39Because of this they
were unable to believe, for again Isaiah said, 40“He has blinded their eyes and he
hardened their heart, that they may not see with the eyes and understand with the heart
and be turned [converted], and I will heal them.” [Is. 6.10]
V. 36b tells us that after the Lord Jesus’ answer to the question, “Who is this Son of
Man?” he withdrew and hid himself. Especially in the other gospels, his withdrawal from
public ministry as he neared his death is obvious. Why did he withdraw? One reason was to
instruct his disciples, preparing them for what was about to take place, as Jn. 13-16 show.
Another was to pray, preparing himself, as we see in Jn. 17. V. 37 says that unbelief was a
major reason. The Lord Jesus had performed many signs, intended to arouse faith, but when
they met with unbelief, he withdrew. That is the way God works. By grace, he gives us every
opportunity, but if we do not respond with faith, he will not force himself. Vs. 38-40 show
the sobering, fearful final result of continued resistance to the work of God.
John says that the unbelief of the Jews and the withdrawal of the Lord Jesus fulfilled
the prophecies of Isaiah. He first quotes Is. 53.1 to show that the Old Testament prophesied
the unbelief of the Jews: “Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed?” Is. 53 is the Old Testament’s greatest revelation of the Lord Jesus,
picturing him as the Suffering Servant of God who gives his life for the sins of men. This
Messiah who comes as such a servant is not believed, but is rejected, and that is why he
suffers. He fulfilled Is. 53 by being rejected and giving his life, and the Jews fulfilled it by not
believing him.

198

Then John makes a terrible statement in v. 39: “They were unable to believe,” and he
shows why in v. 40, again quoting Isaiah, this time from 6.10: “He has blinded their eyes and
hardened their heart, that they may not see with the eyes and understand with the heart and
be turned, and I heal them.” Is. 6 is the chapter that records Isaiah’s vision of God in the
Temple and his subsequent call by God. When God calls for someone to go to his people,
Isaiah offers himself, and God sends him to blind the people and harden their hearts. Israel
had fallen so deeply into sin and had resisted God for so long that they had come under his
judgment. God had already decided on judgment and he sent Isaiah to proclaim it. The very
sobering lesson in this fact is that it is possible to resist God to the point that he judges with
blindness to spiritual things so that a person cannot have faith even while he lives. He is
under the judgment of unbelief. That is what John says had happened to the Jews who
rejected the Lord Jesus. They could not have faith because they were under the judgment of
blindness.
Why was this the case? When the Lord comes, it is a time of great blessing for those
prepared for him, but a time of great judgment for those who are not. That will be the case
with the second coming of Christ, and it was the case with his first coming. At his second
coming the judgment will be obvious, for those who oppose him will be physically
destroyed, and then will appear before him for judgment and be cast into hell on the day of
judgment. But at his first coming, the judgment was not so obvious. Indeed, it appeared that
he was the one being judged. But the judgment was real nonetheless. It was the judgment of
blindness, the judgment prophesied by Is. 6.10.
John the Baptist had come as a forerunner to prepare the way for the coming of the
Messiah. How did he prepare the way? By preaching repentance. Is that not the proper way
to prepare for the Lord’s coming? If the Lord is coming, people need to get ready for him.
When the Lord Jesus came the first time, those who had prepared for him by listening to
John and repenting were ready for him and were blessed by him. But the Jewish leaders,
who did not believe John, as Mk. 11.31 tells us, did not repent and were not ready for the
coming of the Messiah. Thus when he came, they were judged rather than blessed. But their
judgment was not the obvious one of death and hell but the hidden one of spiritual
blindness. They could not recognize their Messiah, and thus they opposed the very God they
claimed to serve and killed his Chosen One. They could not believe, fulfilling Is. 6.10.
What a fearful lesson this is for us. This is not written to point an accusing finger at
the Jews, but to learn from their mistake and to warn us not to resist the dealings of God, and
to urge us to pray for those who do not know the Lord. It is possible for a lost person to get
beyond grace. A person can sin and resist God to the point that he is judged with blindness
and can no longer recognize God even though God may work mightily in his presence. Let
us have soft hearts before God ourselves, and let us pray for those we know who do not
know God that they will yield to his conviction and repent. Judgment, even in this life, is a
possible result of resistance. The judgment of God is a fearful prospect.

199

41These things Isaiah said because he saw his glory and spoke about him.
In v. 41 John adds a wonderful note to this terrible one. He says that Isaiah wrote
these tragic verses because he saw the glory of the Lord Jesus and spoke of him. What a
revelation of the Lord Jesus Isaiah had! He lived six hundred years before Christ came, yet he
saw him clearly enough to tell of the circumstances of his birth and to describe his
appearance and his death. He knew all the tragic circumstances that surrounded the earthly
life of Christ, yet he knew, too, that God would use it all to redeem his people. He saw the
glory. What is Isaiah about? Indeed, what is the entire Old Testament about? It is about the
Lord Jesus Christ.
42Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed into him, but because of the Pharisees
they were not confessing, that they might not be put out of the synagogue. For they loved
[agapao] the glory of men more then the glory of God.
Then John tells us in vs. 42-43 that even though the Jews in general were under the
judgment of blindness, there were many who did believe in Jesus, but they had another
problem, a twofold one, fear of man and love of the world. What a deadly combination. Man
is able to kill only the body. God can pass eternal sentence on the soul and spirit. Those who
reject God out of fear of man to gain a few years’ safety in this life are swapping an eternity
for that few years. It is not worth it, even if martyrdom is the result of faithfulness to God
Love of the world is just as deadly spiritually. These who believed in the Lord Jesus
had a choice between the glory of men and the glory of God. The glory of men may be heady
and enjoyable, but it is fickle and it is temporary. The glory of God is faithful and eternal.
They chose the glory of men. What a tragedy. They enjoyed the esteem of men for a few
years, then had to face an eternal God whom they had denied. Who cares what man may
think of us, if only we have the approval of God? The same men who speak so highly of us in
one moment may turn against us in the next, or pass on to some other celebrity, but God will
stand by us eternally. The glories of men will all end one day, but the glory of God is
everlasting.
Paul tells us in Rom. 10.9-10 that it takes both belief with the heart and confession
with the mouth to receive salvation. These Jewish leaders in Jn. 12.42-43 believed in the Lord
Jesus, but they would not confess him with their mouths. Their belief was not really in their
hearts, but in their minds, and faith in the Bible is not intellectual but spiritual, and this
passage shows us that faith is not just belief, but belief plus action based on the belief. James
tells us that the demons believe, but they tremble (Ja. 2.19). These people accepted the
evidence of the signs that Jesus was the Messiah, but they would not give their hearts to him
and come out for him. How sad. How eternally sad. Let us take warning from this entire
section, Jn. 12.36-43: let us yield to the dealings of God, turn away from the fear of man and

200

the love of the world, and confess with the mouth the Lord we believe in. The result is
salvation and eternal glory.
44But Jesus called out and said, “The one having faith into me does not have faith in
me, but into the one having sent me, 45and the one seeing me sees the one having sent me.
46I have come as Light into the world, that everyone, the one having faith in me, may not
remain in the darkness. 47And if anyone hear my speakings [rema], and does not keep
them, I don’t judge him, for I did not come that I may judge the world, but that I may save
the world 48The one rejecting me and not receiving my speakings [rema] has the one
judgeing him: the word [logos] which I spoke. That will judge him on the last day, 49for I
did not speak from myself, but the Father having sent me himself has given me
commandment what I should say and what I should speak. 50And I know that his
commandment is life eternal. Therefore the things I speak I say as the Father has spoken
to me.”
Jn. 12 and the public ministry of the Lord Jesus end with vs. 44-50, his final public
utterance. In vs. 44-45 and 49-50, he says that anyone who receives him receives God, and
anyone who rejects him rejects God, and in vs. 46-48 he tells why. The Lord Jesus came as
light, so there is no excuse for anyone to remain in darkness. Light is available to all. What
about the blind? He can heal the blind. Those who remain blind have only themselves to
blame. They have rejected the Light.
Another way of putting this same truth is that the words of the Lord Jesus reveal
truth, and those who hear his words without hearing the truth again have only themselves to
blame. We have seen that there are two Greek words for “word,” logos and rema. Logos is the
fundamental truth of God whether anyone believes it or not. The Bible, as such, is logos. It is
the written word of God and it is true whether anyone accepts it or not. Rema is the spoken
word of God, the bringing alive of logos to us by the speaking of God to our hearts in a living
way. We may read the Bible many times and get nothing out of it, and then suddenly God
speaks through it and it becomes alive. That is logos becoming rema. Jn. 12.47-48 use these
two words very instructively. Let us quote them, using these words in Greek where they
occur (rema is in the plural in these verses):

And if anyone hears my rema and does not keep them, I don’t judge him, for I
came not that I might judge the world, but that I may save the world 48The one who
rejects me and does not receive my rema has one who judges him: the logos which I
have spoken. That will judge him on the last day.
What is the Lord Jesus saying? He is saying that his spoken words contain the logos,
the fundamental truth of God. Rema is what we so desperately need. We must hear God
speak to us, for, as Paul tells us in Rom. 10.17, faith comes from hearing and hearing through

201

the rema of Christ. Yet these Jews heard the rema of the Lord Jesus, his spoken words, and
completely missed the truth of it. They could not tell that what they heard contained logos.
Just as they were blind in vs. 36-41 and could not recognize their Messiah, so here they are
deaf and cannot hear the spoken word of God. Nonetheless the spoken words of the Lord
Jesus were full of logos, and on the day of judgment those who heard them and rejected them
will have no excuse. The one thing we must have is rema, for that is the source of saving faith.
These people had it in their physical presence in the person of the Lord Jesus and they
rejected it. In the end, the truth will judge them.
Again this is a sobering warning to us. We do not have the physical presence of the
Lord Jesus, but we do have his written word and the Holy Spirit. How vital it is that when
the Spirit brings something from the Bible alive to us we take it to heart and heed it. We must
be doers of the word (logos in James 1.22) and not hearers only. We do not want to reject
what God says to us (rema) and have the logos that was in it rise up in judgment against us on
the last day. Let us not forget that Christians as well as the lost will be judged by God. We
will not be judged for salvation, for that has been settled. The Lord Jesus took that judgment
for us on the cross and when we accepted him we came into the good of it, but we will be
judged by our works for reward (1 Cor. 3.12-15, 2 Cor. 5.10). We need not fear hell if we have
been born from above, but how tragic it will be to lose our reward in the kingdom and have
nothing to cast at the feet of our Savior when we see him face to face (Rev. 4.10). We do have
the logos and God does make it rema for us. He that has ears to hear, let him hear.
Thus ends the public ministry of the Lord Jesus. How interesting that John begins
with the Word (logos) in 1.1 and ends the public ministry with the Word in 12.44-50. Our God
speaks to us, and the Bible is the record of his speaking. The Lord Jesus Christ himself was
his greatest Word to us. How important it is that we hear him and respond to him.
We see the cross looming. It is Passover. The lambs are about to be slain. The Lord
Jesus has been rejected. Mary anoints him for his burial. He comes on a donkey, not on a
mighty white horse. He says that his hour has come. He says that he is a seed who will fall
into the ground and die. He is the Son of Man who will be lifted up. Behold the Lamb of
God.

A WONDERFUL EXAMPLE AND A STARK CONTRAST

John 13.1-30

The public ministry of the Lord Jesus is over. Chapters 13-16 of John deal with his
private instruction of the disciples before his death and the ensuing events. The shadow of
the cross is cast over all, as we saw in chapter 12. Chapter 13 begins with the observation that
it was the time of Passover. The Lamb was about to be slain. Before his offering, he wanted to
spend time preparing his disciples for what was about to take place.

202

1Before the Festival of Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he
should go from this world to the Father, having loved [agapao] his own who were in the
world, loved [agapao] them to the end.
John says that the Lord Jesus knew his hour had come. We have seen this phrase
repeatedly in John and noted that it refers to his death. Man did not take the life of the Lord
Jesus. God had a time for him to die, and when that time came, he laid down his life. The
time was now very near. But John adds a new note to the meaning of the hour. It was not just
the time of his death of Jesus, but the hour of his departure from this world to the Father. The
death of the Lord Jesus was his moment of greatest victory, for it was then that he obeyed
God most fully, if we may put it that way, for he always obeyed him perfectly. At the cross
he died rather than disobey God, whose will it was that he die. Thus it was the extreme limit
of obedience and his greatest victory. As a result he went from this world to his Father.
Where was the Lord Jesus while he was physically dead? He was with the Father. He was a
perfect man who died sinless, and thus he gained Heaven by his death. He is the only man
who ever lived who earned Heaven. All the rest of us who go there get there by grace, but
our Lord got there because he deserved it.
Then John adds that the Lord Jesus loved those who were his own in the world and
that he loved them to the end. His love for man, together with his submission to his Father,
was the basis of his action. Later we will see more of the significance of this love.
2And while supper was going on, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas
Iscariot, the son of Simon, that he should betray him, 3

Jesus, knowing that the Father had
given all things into his hands and that he came from God and was going to God, 4
rose
from supper and laid aside the garments, and having taken a towel girded himself.
V. 2 tells us that Satan had already put it into the heart of Judas to betray the Lord
Jesus, a matter we will return to, and then vs. 3-4 say that the Lord, knowing that the Father
had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to
God, rose from supper, took a towel, and wrapped it around himself. That is, he was about
to perform a very lowly act of service, but the reason he was able to stoop so low, as it
appeared, was that he was fully assured within himself of who he was and of his standing
with God. He did not need to maintain a position of pride. He had nothing to gain and
nothing to prove, for all things were his already.
5Then he put water into the washbasin and began to wash the feet of the disciples and to
dry them with the towel with which he was girded.

6Then he came to Simon Peter. He said

to him, “Lord, are you washing my feet?” 7

Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am
doing you don’t know now, but you will know after these things.” 8Peter said to him, “You
will not wash my feet into the age.” Jesus answered him, “If I don’t wash you, you have

203

no part with me.” 9Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also the hands
and the head.” 10Jesus said to him, “The one having been bathed has no need except to
wash the feet, but he is wholly clean. And you are clean, but not all.” 11For he knew the
one betrayin him. Because of this he said, “You are not all clean.”
The act of service he performed was to wash the feet of his disciples. That was a very
necessary act in that dusty society. People usually had to walk wherever they went and
roads were usually dusty or muddy. It is obvious that they would need to wash their feet
after a journey. The common practice was for a home to have a basin of water and towels
ready for visitors when they arrived. Homes that could afford servants had one who did this
job. Of course, it was considered one of the lowest of jobs. That is the task the Lord Jesus
chose to perform as he began his instruction of the disciples.
Instruction it was, too, for he did it not just, or primarily, to clean their feet, but to
teach them a lesson. He had begun washing dirty feet, and when he came to Peter, the dear,
impulsive man who always got it wrong protested. The Lord Jesus told him that he could not
understand what was being done now but that he would later. But Peter persisted and said
that the Lord Jesus would never wash his feet. The Lord was to be a King, and Peter would
not allow the King to perform such humble service. But the reply of the Lord Jesus was that
if he did not, Peter had no part with him. Then Peter compounded his error by crying out,
“Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head.” Peter went from one extreme to
the other, from forbidding Jesus to do his will to asking for more than his will. Did it ever
occur to him just to submit to the will of the Lord Jesus?
The Lord was gentle in his response though, not rebuking Peter, but telling him that
he who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, and then he is completely clean. The
background of this statement is the Tabernacle and the Temple of the Old Testament. Ex. 27
records the instruction to Moses by God to make a bronze altar for the Tabernacle, and Ex.
30, a bronze laver. The Tabernacle consisted of a great curtain that enclosed a large courtyard
in which was a tent with two rooms, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. When one
entered the courtyard, the first thing he came to was the bronze altar of sacrifice, where the
sin offerings were burned before the Lord. This altar corresponds to the cross, where the Sin
Offering was sacrificed, taking our judgment on himself. Then one came to the laver, a large
basin of water. The priests, the only ones who could enter the Holy Place, were required to
wash their hands and feet before entering the tent. What is the meaning of the laver? As the
altar corresponds to the cross, where our sins are dealt with and forgiven, the laver
corresponds to the daily cleansing we need after we have been saved. We need not return to
the altar of sacrifice for salvation, but we do sin, even though we should not, and need to
turn back to the Lord each time for cleansing from the defilement. Peter had already been
washed all over. He was a saved man. Yet he was still sinful in practice and needed, not a
bath all over, but his feet cleaned, that part of him that contacted the world.

204

But there is more to this washing than just cleansing from sin by a Christian. It also
speaks of the dealing of God with our sin nature. Sins are the wrong acts we commit, but the
sin nature is the source of the sins. The problem is not really the sins but the nature. If we
only try to stop committing sins, we are dealing with symptoms and will never succeed, but
if we can put to death the sin nature, we will see the sins dry up. That is the continual
cleansing the Lord Jesus referred to in his reply to Peter. He had already been washed all
over, had his sins forgiven and been saved, but he needed to have his sin nature dealt with,
and that is a process that goes on throughout life. It is a continual cleansing. There is
disagreement about the sin nature. Some say Christians have two natures, the old sin nature
and the new nature that wants to serve God. Some say we can have only one nature, either
the old or the new. This argument seems to me to miss the point. Whether we have one
nature or two, there is that battle in all of us between obedience to God and the desires of the
flesh and the temptation to sin. The flesh must be dealt with as long as we are in this body.
12Then when he washed their feet and took his garments and reclined again, he said
to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13You call me Teacher and Lord, and well
you speak, for I am. 14If therefore I washed your feet, the Lord and Teacher, you also ought
to wash one another’s feet. 15I gave you an example, that as I did to you, you also should
do. 16Amen, amen I say to you, a slave is not greater than his lord, nor a sent one greater
than the one having sent him. 17If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
After this act of lowly service and these words of instruction, the Lord Jesus again
reclined at the table with the disciples and asked them if they knew what he had done to
them. If they thought that he had given them a religious ceremony to observe as a part of
their church services, they did not understand what he had done to them. That is not what he
had done at all, for it is entirely possible to wash someone’s feet at a church service and then
do him wrong outside the church building door, or inside it for that matter. No, that is not
the point at all, but the Lord Jesus went on to explain it. He said that they called him Teacher
and Lord, observing that they were right, and then said that if he the Lord and Teacher had
washed their feet, they should do the same. But he did not mean a religious ceremony. He
meant that they should follow his example of service. Their ambition in the church should
not be to gain a name or a position or a title, but to serve one another. There may be times
when the Lord leads those assembled to wash feet, but at all times he wants us to serve one
another, not use one another or lord it over one another. If the Lord served, what on earth are
the servants supposed to do?
If we look at Luke 22.24-27, we find that after the Lord’s Supper, the disciples
disputed among themselves as to which would be the greatest. Their thought was that the
Lord Jesus was about to set up his earthly kingdom, and they were jockeying for the best
positions in it. They wanted to be on top. The reply of the Lord Jesus was,

205

The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them and those who have authority over
them are called benefactors, but you are not so, but let the greatest among you become
as the youngest, and the ruler as the servant. For who is greater, the one who reclines
or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines? But I am in the midst of you as
one who serves.
Jn. 13 occurs in the same context. It was the Lord’s Supper, as vs. 26 and 30 show. The
point that the Lord Jesus wanted to get across to his disciples before his death was that they
should serve one another. His kingdom was not of this world, and their places in his
kingdom were not places of human greatness. The best places in his kingdom were the
places of lowest service, just like the one the Lord and Teacher took in washing their feet. A
man’s value to God is not measured by how many schools he has studied at and how many
degrees he has, but by how humble he is before the Lord. It is not what we learn in man’s
schools that is of value to God, but what we learn from him, and that comes only with
humility before him. As we take the low place, God can teach us and use us. If we take the
high places, we may be well thought of by man and may make a name for ourselves, but we
will not be of much use to God. That does not mean there will never be Chistians in high
places, and there are leaders among Christians, but those in these places must always occupy
them humbly and be servants of God’s people in these positions. In thinking about leaders,
we might note that the word we have translated “sent one” in v. 16 is apostolos in Greek,
“apostle.” “Sent one” is the literal meaning of the word.
The Lord Jesus closed his thoughts on this matter in v. 17 with the words that
knowing these things is not enough. We are blessed only if we do them (see Ja. 1.22-25). It is
not enough to speak of humble service. We must indeed take the low places. What is our
ambition in the church, to be somebody or to serve?
There is one other instructive aspect of this teaching of the Lord Jesus that we need to
take note of. He washed their feet, indicating that he was dealing with their sins and their sin
nature, and then said that this was a service to them. Is that not true? It is indeed a service to
us for God to deal with our sinfulness, for even though it is unpleasant, our sins and our
flesh would destroy us if not dealt with. His willingness to confront us with sin and deal
with it comes from his love for us, and is that not what we saw in v. 1 was the basis of the
action of the Lord Jesus? He was characterized by service based on love, and an aspect of
that service was dealing with our sin.
But then the Lord Jesus said that we should do the same. That is, if he cleansed us of
sin, we should do the same toward one another. Does this mean that we need to spend our
time pointing out one another’s faults and straightening each other out? No, none of us are
qualified to set the others straight. But this matter of church discipline is one that is much
neglected. Whether it is our permissive society or our fear of offending anyone so that he
might stop contributing to the budget or whatever it may be, we do not see much discipline
in the church. Of course, it is difficult because what we call the church is not the church, but

206

a man-made organization, and if we tried to discipline someone, he would just leave and go
to another such organization, which would likely be glad to have another member. Thus it is
hard to know how to enforce discipline. Nonetheless it is a matter that the Lord’s people
should pray over and study the word over.
Matt. 18.15-18 says that if a brother sins, the one who knows it should go to him in
private and confront him with his sin. If the sinner will not listen, the other should take one
or two more with him, and if he still will not listen, he should tell it to the church. If the
sinner will not listen to the church, he should be treated as a tax collector and a Gentile.
These are the words of the Lord Jesus, telling us that we have an obligation to one another to
deal with sin. Why, so that we can set ourselves up as righteous and be proud of ourselves?
No, because it is a service to the one who sins. Sin will destroy him, and we should help him
deal with what will destroy him. It is unpleasant to do such a task, but it is a needed service.
Gal. 6.1-2 tells us the spirit in which we should undertake such a job, one of gentleness
and fear before God so that we do not sin ourselves. We do not rebuke a brother as though
we were righteous. Our righteousness is in Christ, not in us, and we are just as capable of
being the sinner as the one who actually did sin. This is territory we must walk in if the need
arises, but we must walk in it very softly and carefully.
This is a vital part of the lesson that the Lord Jesus taught in Jn. 13 when he washed
the feet of his disciples. He is among us as one who serves, and a part of his service is not just
dying for our sins, but confronting us with our flesh and doing something about it. We have
the same obligation to deal with sin in our midst.
Jn. 13.1-17 sets the tone for all of Jn. 13-16. The first and primary lesson the Lord Jesus
wanted to get across to his followers before his death was that discipleship is like
Messiahship, and as Messiah he washed their feet. He served, and so should they. And of
course, he went to the cross. Their call was not to be high officials in the church, but to be
servants.
18I don’t speak of all of you. I know whom I chose, but that the Scripture may be fulfilled,
‘The one eating my bread raised his heel against me.’ [Ps. 41.9]
The next section of Jn. 13 presents a stark contrast to vs. 1-17, for it shows us not the
lowly service of one who loves us to the end, but the betrayal of the Lord Jesus by Judas. The
passage begins with the statement that he did not speak of all the disciples when he gave the
example of lowly service, for he knew that one would not follow that example. Then he
quoted from the Old Testament, saying that the verse quoted was a prophecy of the betrayal
by Judas. The quotation was from Ps. 41, a Messianic psalm, one of those psalms that make
specific predictions about the Messiah. Ps. 41.9 is the verse quoted, but the entire psalm
points to the Lord Jesus. Let us look at it briefly.
Ps. 41 was written by David about his own situation. It is not likely that he was
consciously writing prophetically about the Messiah. Yet the Holy Spirit was inspiring him

207

as he wrote, inspiring him to write words that would apply to the Messiah as well as to
himself. The first half of the first verse pictures the kind of person the Lord Jesus was and is.
He is one who “has regard for the weak.” Then vs. lb-3 show us God’s protection of the man
Jesus during his earthly ministry. Is that not true? Recall the times that the Jews took up
stones to put him to death, and he simply walked away. How was he able to do that? His
hour had not yet come and God was protecting him.
Some would say that v. 4 does not apply to the Lord Jesus because it is a confession of
sin. David could speak these words truly enough about himself, but the Lord had no sin. But
the Bible tells us that he took our sin on himself and indeed became sin for us (2 Cor. 5.21).
That is the meaning of this verse. It is the Lord Jesus, not confessing his own sin, for he had
none, but feeling the weight of our sin as he took it on himself.
Vs. 5-8 picture the plot against the Lord Jesus by the Jews. The last part of v. 8
captures the essence of their hatred of him: “He will never get up from the place where he
lies.” That was their desire, to do away with him, and of course, when they had killed him,
they thought they had accomplished their purpose.
V. 9 is the statement quoted by Jesus in Jn. 13.18: “Even my close friend, whom I
trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” That is the prediction in
the Old Testament of the betrayal by Judas. This Old Testament picture of an event in the life
of the Lord Jesus fits perfectly in its place in the story of his life.
Vs. 10-11 tell us of the resurrection, v. 12, of the ascension to the right hand of God,
and v. 13, of the praise of the Lord Jesus to God for all that he did for him through his earthly
ministry and beyond. What a wonderful picture of our Lord Jesus this psalm is.
19From now on I am telling you before it comes about, that when it comes about you may
have faith that I AM.
Having quoted an Old Testament prophecy of his betrayal, when it takes place Jesus
next said that he himself was giving a prophecy, and he said that his reason for doing so was
that when it came to pass, his hearers would believe that he was I AM. I AM, as we have
seen over and over in John, was the Old Testament name of God, and when it takes place
Jesus claimed to be I AM in a human person. He gave evidence of the truth of his claim by
making a prediction. When it came to be they would know. And, of course, it did come to be.
20Amen, amen I say to you, the one receiving whomever I may send receives me, but the
one receiving me receives the one having sent me.”
V. 20 indicates that when the disciples saw the truth of the claims of the Lord Jesus
through the truth of his prophecies, as well as through other proofs, they would be sent out
by him, and those who received them were actually receiving him, for they represented him,
just as those who received him received his Father, whom he represented. When one accepts

208

a representative, he accepts the sender. That is the case with the Lord Jesus and his followers.
They believed on the basis of the testimony he gave. Others believe on the basis of the
testimony they gave.
21Having said these things Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified and said,
“Amen, amen I say to you that one of you will betray me.”
After the Lord Jesus had made these initial statements about the betrayal, and as he
was about to say plainly that one of the twelve would betray him, he became troubled in
spirit. Remember that in Jn. 12.27 we saw that the Lord Jesus said his soul had become
troubled. Now it is his spirit. There is a difference. The soul is the psychology of a person,
and Jn. 12.27 speaks of the human emotions that the Lord Jesus felt as he faced the cross and
the events leading up to it. He did not want to go through these sufferings and he prayed
that the cup might pass from him, but he yielded to the will of his Father. He felt the
emotions that any normal person would feel when faced with such an ordeal.
Jn. 13.21, though, deals with the spirit of the Lord Jesus. The spirit is the person. The
body is only the fleshly tent that a person inhabits during his earthly life, and the soul is the
psychological makeup that expresses the personality of the individual, but the spirit is the
person, and it is that aspect of the person that enables him to understand the spiritual world
and to move in it. Jn. 13.21 says that the Lord Jesus was troubled in spirit because Judas was
about to betray him, but the reason he was troubled in spirit was that he knew the betrayal
by Judas was not just a man’s act, but was a spiritual matter. He knew that behind Judas was
Satan, a spirit, the evil spirit. The greatest spiritual battle of history, time and eternity, was
about to be joined. Judas would play his role, but the issue was spiritual. The Lord Jesus
knew that he was about to come face to face with Satan in the person of Judas.
22The disciples were looking at one another, being at a loss about whom he was speaking
of.
23One of his disciples was reclining on Jesus’ bosom, whom Jesus loved [agapao].
24Therefore Simon Peter motioned to this one and said to him to ask who it could be about
whom he is speaking. 25Therefore that one having leaned thus on the breast of Jesus said
to him, “Lord, who is it?” 26Jesus answered, “That one it is for whom I will dip the morsel
and will give it to him.” So having dipped the morsel he gave it to Judas, son of Simon
Iscariot. 27And after the morsel, then Satan entered into that one. Jesus said to him, “What
you do, do quickly.”
Vs. 22-24 reveal a very sobering truth about all of us. In these verses, the disciples
asked among themselves who it was who would betray the Lord Jesus. They did not know
which one it was, and showed by their discussion that it could have been any one of them,
and indeed it could have been. And the same potential lies in each of us. It is easy to point a
judgmental finger at Judas and talk about what a terrible person he was, but his nature was

209

no worse than anyone else’s. We are all sinners and rebels against God. Except for his grace,
we would all go the way Judas went.
In v. 24 Peter told the disciple whom the Lord Jesus loved and who was reclining next
to Jesus, John, to say whom the Lord spoke of. His answer, in v. 26, pointed to the fulfillment
of the prophecy of Ps. 41.9: one to whom he gave the bread after dipping it. Then he dipped
the piece of bread and gave it to Judas. V. 27 says that after Judas had received the bread,
Satan entered him. In v. 2, the idea of betrayal had been planted in the heart of Judas by
Satan. Now Satan himself has entered the man and taken possession of him.
What a lesson that is for us. No one is born in the mature stages of sin. It starts
somewhere with a small choice to do something probably almost insignificant in itself. It
starts with a temptation, an idea. If one accepts that idea and nurtures it, dwells on it, lets it
take root, he will find himself doing what he only thought of at one time. James describes
temptation and sin that way in his epistle, Ja. 1.14-15: one is tempted; when he, in desire,
accepts the temptation, that desire conceives; when that desire matures, it gives birth to sin;
and sin, as it matures, brings death. That is exactly what happened with Judas. Satan
whispered an idea to him. Instead of rejecting it on the spot and looking to God for
deliverance, Judas took the idea in and considered it. In the end, he betrayed his Lord and
took his own life in remorse. How vital it is that we reject temptation at the outset, not
allowing those evil desires to take root in our hearts. If they do, they could very well produce
sin, and sin, death.
The Lord Jesus then told Judas to be quick about doing what he was going to do. The
Lord Jesus knew exactly what was going to take place. He knew that his hour had come, and
he was ready to go into it. When he told Judas to be quick about it, he was showing that he,
the Lord Jesus, was in charge, not Judas or the Jews or Satan. His life was not taken. He laid
it down.
28No one of those reclining knew why he said this to him, 29for some thought, since Judas
had the money bag, that Jesus said to him, “Buy what things we have need of for the
festival,” or that he might give something to the poor.
Vs. 28-29 again reveal the lack of understanding of the disciples. In a way the story of
the disciples in the gospels is almost comic. They really were spiritual bunglers. They were in
the presence of God in the flesh and had the benefit of his teaching and miracles, yet they
always misunderstood what was going on. They always said the wrong thing. They always
did the wrong thing. But of course, as in the case of Judas, we cannot point any fingers, for
we are the same.
The eleven were true to form in these verses. The greatest issue of the universe was
about to be settled, and they had no idea what was happening. They thought the Lord Jesus
was telling Judas, the treasurer, to buy supplies for the festival or to give to the poor. If we
were not so spiritually dull ourselves, we might almost be tempted to laugh at them, but

210

instead we laugh with them and include ourselves in the laugh, try to learn from them, and
thank God for his grace.
30So having taken the morsel he immediately went out. Now it was night.
Something of a climax in the gospel of John is reached in v. 30. We have seen that John
is a book of themes. It deals with the I AM sayings, with the world, with love and life and
light. Another of those themes is darkness, the theme that comes to a head in Jn. 13.30. Before
dealing with this verse, let us review the theme all through John, beginning in 1.5.
In that verse, John writes that the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness could
not comprehend it. The point is that this world is a place of darkness, that is, of deceit. Men
do not know the truth and live by the lies of Satan. Into that darkness, John says, Light
shone, the Light of Jesus Christ. He shows men the truth by which they can overcome
darkness and its consequences. And the darkness cannot understand the Light.
The next occurrence of this theme is in 3.2, where we are told that Nicodemus came to
the Lord Jesus by night. We saw when we considered this passage that the meaning is not
only literal, with Nicodemus coming late in the day, but also figurative, pointing to the lack
of understanding of spiritual things by Nicodemus. He came not only at nighttime, but in
spiritual darkness. He was supposed to be a leader and teacher of the people of God, and yet
he was in darkness, knowing nothing about the spiritual world and spiritual reality. He was
in the darkness of religion.
We read of darkness again in 3.19. The Lord Jesus said that men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds are evil. Light is available, but many do not want the light
because they prefer their sins and want to cover them up. Satan has some in such darkness
that they do not realize it means their destruction, and they prefer it to what will lead to their
eternal life.
The story of the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda contains the next reference
to the theme of darkness. We are told in 5.3 that in the five porticoes of the pool lay a
multitude of sick, blind, lame, and withered people. Those five porticoes picture the five
books of the Law, and show us the inability of the Law to give life. It can only require
righteousness, but it cannot bring it about. Those who are trying to please God by the Law
are spiritually sick, blind, lame, and withered. Their darkness is the blindness of legalism.
In 6.17 we read of the disciples sailing on the sea in the darkness just before the Lord
Jesus came to them walking on the water. Again that darkness is a literal reference to the
time of day, but it is also a figurative reference, as is the sea. The sea in the Bible is sometimes
seen as the entrance of hades, the abyss, and so is associated with Satan as the one who has
the power of death, the last enemy (Heb. 2.14). As such, it is a dark place. The sea also
pictures the nations of the world in the Bible. Are they not dark places, places where God is
not known, where man rules in his own wisdom under the deceit of Satan, where people
rush to their destruction chasing materialism and pleasure? What darkness the world is in.

211

We see again the answer to the darkness in 8.12 where the Lord Jesus said, “I AM the
Light of the world. The one who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the
Light of life.” He is the Light that delivers us from darkness.
All of chapter 9 is taken up with this theme. It is the story of the healing of the man
born blind. It would be beneficial to the reader to go through the chapter again, noting all the
references to blindness. We saw in our study of the chapter that it is not only literal, but
symbolic of the spiritual blindness of us all, and of our healing by the touch of the Lord Jesus
if we trust in him. We are all in the darkness of spiritual blindness till we put our trust in
him.
One verse of particular importance in Jn. 9 is v. 4, where the Lord Jesus said that night
is coming. He was referring to a high point of darkness. We will return to this thought.
The great impact of the healing of the blind man is seen in 10.21 and 11.37, where it is
referred to by the Jews. In 10.21, some of the Jews defended the Lord Jesus against charges of
being demon-possessed by referring to the healing as evidence against the theory. The Jews
in 11.37 are somewhat critical of the Lord, indicating that he who opened the eyes of the
blind man could have kept Lazarus from dying. In both these verses, we see the effect the
deliverance of a man from darkness had on the Jews.
In 11.10, the Lord Jesus said that anyone who walks in the night stumbles. Is that not
true? The world is walking in Satan’s darkness, and is there not stumbling on every hand?
What are drug abuse, marital failure, rampant crime, lack of discipline, the failure of the
educational and judicial systems, greed, and so on, but the stumblings of the darkened
minds of men?
In 12.35, the Lord Jesus indicated that we need to walk in the light while we have it, so
that the darkness will not overtake us. The point is that we should take advantage of the
light we have. If we do, it will grow. If we do not, our darkness will grow till it takes us over.
It is so important to walk in the light we have, however little it may be. That leads to further
light, just as rejection of the light for the darkness leads to further darkness.
An extreme of darkness is reached in 12.40, where Is. 6.10 is quoted. We are told that
God has blinded the eyes of those who continually resisted him. It is one thing to be in the
darkness of Satan’s deceit. There is a remedy for that, the Light of the world. But to be in the
darkness that is God’s judgment for rejecting him is fearful. There is no remedy, for God
himself has brought the blindness as a judgment. Unless he chooses to lift the judgment,
there is no hope.
These occurrences of the theme of darkness bring us to our present verse, 13.30. The
Lord Jesus has predicted his betrayal. He has dipped the bread in the bowl and given it to
Judas. Judas took it and went out at once and it was night. Darkness has reached its zenith.
Recall that the Lord Jesus predicted in 9.4 that night was coming. Now it has come. Satan has
entered Judas and led him to betray the Son of God. As the Lord put it in Luke 22.53, “This is
your hour and the authority of darkness.” Darkness is about to reach its greatest
achievement, the murder of the Prince of life. And indeed it was an hour of darkness. Did

212

not the sun fail and darkness rule over the earth at midday for three hours until the Lord
Jesus died? How symbolic that physical darkness was!
But there is a most interesting fact. After this climax of darkness in John, there is no
more mention of it. True, the word “night” occurs in 19.39, and “dark” in 20.1, but they
prove the point. The mention in 19.39 is to a past event, to the coming of Nicodemus by
night. Now the man is in the light, not afraid to come openly to take the body of the man he
had come to have faith in as God. And in 20.1, the darkness is only apparent. Mary
Magdalene came to the tomb while it was still dark, but the darkness was only because of her
ignorance of what had happened. The Lord Jesus had risen from the dead. Light, eternal
light, had dawned. As soon as Mary learned what had happened, she knew that the darkness
had been dispelled, that the darkness of the tomb was not real. She was already in the light
and did not know it. What light she came into when the risen Lord called her name!
Why is there no more mention of this theme of darkness, except to show its
destruction? Because that is exactly what had happened. Darkness had been destroyed. In
12.31 the Lord Jesus said that what appeared to be his judgment was in actuality the
judgment of Satan. It was not he who was destroyed at the cross. He rose from the dead. It
was Satan who met his end at the cross. The moment of the death of the Lord Jesus was the
moment of his greatest triumph, for it was the moment of his greatest obedience to his
Father. He died rather than commit sin. And it was the moment of Satan’s greatest defeat. In
dying rather than committing sin, the Lord Jesus dealt Satan his death blow. Darkness had
its greatest hour in Jn. 13.30 and the events ensuing from it, and it failed. Light triumphed.
It is true that Satan is still active, but he has no power. His means of operation is
deceit. He cannot make us do anything. We cannot take him lightly, for he is the cleverest of
all liars and knows exactly how best to tempt and deceive each of us, but if we stay close to
God and abide in his word, we will be aware of the wiles of Satan and find that we are
already in victory, the victory that the Lord Jesus won on the cross. Satan is a defeated foe,
and it is only a matter of time until God says, “Enough,” and binds him in the abyss. Yes,
darkness reached its high point and did its worst, but it was not enough to triumph over the
Savior. May his name be forever praised.
One final matter needs to be brought out as we conclude our thoughts on this passage.
That is the name Judas. It is the same name as Judah, the son of Jacob and founder of the
royal tribe of Israel that gave birth to the Messiah. It is the same as Judea, the New Testament
name for Judah, the land around Jerusalem. The basic meaning of the word is “to use the
hand,” and its developed meaning is “to praise,” as with hands extended. “Judas” means to
use the hands for the praise of God. Judas had the choice of using his hands in that way.
There was nothing wrong with his hands. They were neutral. Their use was up to him.
Instead of using them for the praise of God, though, Judas chose to use them to reach out and
take that thirty pieces of silver, his price for betraying his Lord. We may use our hands to
point accusing fingers at Judas, and we may talk of what a villain he was, but that is not the
reason the Bible’s stories were recorded. They were written for our instruction. We have the

213

same choice as Judas. We all have a pair of hands, just as Judas did. How will we use them?
Will we lift them in praise to our God, or will we in effect betray him by using them for our
own selfish purposes? May God grant us the grace to use our hands aright.

WHERE THE LORD JESUS IS GOING AND THE IMPLICATIONS

John 13.31-14.6

As we begin our study of the present passage, keep in mind that the Passover forms
the background, and that the setting is the Lord’s Supper. The Passover Lamb is about to be
offered, and the Lord Jesus is keeping the Passover meal with his disciples. He has set the
example of lowly service that is to characterize his church, and Judas has gone out to betray
him.
There is one note that keeps sounding all through Jn. 13.31-14.6, and that is that the
Lord Jesus was going somewhere, and the passage draws out several of the implications of
that fact. We have already seen where he was going. Jn. 13.1 says that he was about to depart
out of this world to the Father. As we go through these verses, we will see what this going of
the Lord Jesus means.
31Therefore when he had gone out Jesus said, “Now has the Son of Man been
glorified and God has been glorified in him. 32[If God has been glorified in him,] God will
also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him immediately.
In the first place, the Lord Jesus said, in vs. 31-32, that his going was a glorification of
himself and of his Father. That seems to be a contradiction of the circumstances. Jesus was
about to be arrested, “tried,” condemned, and executed, and not just executed, but put to
death as a blasphemer and a criminal. The official charge against him was treason, setting
himself up as a king. It was the Jews who brought this charge in order to persuade Pilate to
condemn him, though their own charge against him was blasphemy since he claimed to be
God. We have seen, though, that the real reason they wanted to get rid of the Lord Jesus was
that they feared he would become so popular that the Romans would take away their place
and their nation (Jn. 11.48). In addition to all the suffering involved in this disgrace and the
agony of crucifixion, he, the sinless one, was going to bear all the sins of all history. The one
who had known perfect, unbroken fellowship with God from eternity and as a man was
about to experience God turning away from him. We all know something of physical pain,
but none of us will ever know what it was for the Lord Jesus to bear our sins. How could
such a situation be called a glorification? There does not seem to be much glory in that set of
circumstances.

214

It was the glorification of the Lord Jesus because it was his moment of greatest victory.
He was perfectly obedient to his Father, to any extent, and when it came to death, he did not
turn back from obedience. It was the will of his Father for him to die, and he accepted it. He
knew that he was indeed to be King, but he knew that the way to his throne led by way of
the cross. One of Satan’s great efforts was to get him to attain the throne in some way other
than God’s way. At the beginning of the ministry of the Lord Jesus, when Satan tempted him
in the wilderness, Satan said to him that if he would bow down and worship him, he would
give him all the kingdoms of the world. The temptation was to gain the throne the easy way,
not God’s way. When Peter confessed that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah and the Lord then
revealed that as such he would die, Peter rebuked him (imagine that!). What did the Lord
Jesus say to him? “Get behind me, Satan.” Satan was using Peter to tempt the Lord Jesus to
avoid the cross and gain the throne in some other way. When the Lord Jesus hung on the
cross and the Jews mocked him, telling him to come down from the cross, what a temptation
that must have been. He could have done so and shown them all that he was who he said he
was, but he just hung there and died in obedience. Never did he yield to the temptations of
Satan to avoid God’s way to the throne. Thus his death was his glorification. It was his
greatest triumph.
It was a glorification, too, because it was the defeat of Satan. In that moment when the
Lord Jesus died, Satan lost all. He had done his worst to defeat the Lord Jesus, and he had
failed. The enemy of God and man has lost the battle of the universe, and it is only a matter
of time till God draws the final curtain.
The Lord Jesus said that not only was he glorified, but God was also glorified in him.
Indeed God was glorified. The death of his Son revealed the love of God for us sinners, for it
was his love for us that moved him to send his only Son to die in our place. What glory God
gained in revealing his fathomless love through the death of the Lord Jesus. That death also
revealed the power of God to keep a man. The man Jesus, though God in the flesh, lived as a
man, as we have to do. He depended on God to lead him through in victory, and God did so.
Just as his death glorified the Lord Jesus as his greatest moment of obedience, so it glorified
God in revealing his ability to keep a man faithful unto death. Many have been faithful unto
death, but no one else has been faithful unto death under such temptation as he went
through, knowing he must bear all sin and experience his Father turning away from him.
God imparted such power in the case of the Lord Jesus. His death also glorified God in
revealing his power over death, for God raised him from the dead. Because he was sinless,
death had no claim on him and could not hold him. It was the power of God that raised the
Lord Jesus from the dead, thus glorifying God.
33Little children, yet a little while am I with you. You will seek me, and as I said to the
Jews, ”Where I am going you cannot come,” I also say to you now.

215

The Lord Jesus was going away, back to his Father, and his death was the means of
his going. The first implication of that death was that it was great glory for both Father and
Son. V. 33 reveals the second implication. It is that we cannot now go where he went. We are
left behind. Why is that? Why does God not just take us on to Heaven when we are born
from above so that we can escape the sufferings of this world and enjoy his presence forever?
There are at least two reasons why we are left here. One is that this world and this life are a
training ground for us.
The Lord Jesus said that we could not go where he was going. Where was he going?
Not just to Heaven, but to the throne. Our Lord is a King. He will rule everything there is
forever. He wants his church to be his bride, reigning with him. But one is not able to reign
unless he is trained for it. All the difficulties we go through in this life are God’s means of
preparing us for the throne. How will we react to them? If we resist them and become bitter
against God because of them, we will gain nothing from them, but if we yield to God in our
troubles and allow him to use them, he will indeed use them to drive us into him, to build us
up spiritually, to teach us how to reign. If we cannot reign over circumstances here, how can
we reign in eternity? If we do get on top of circumstances now, we will be prepared to reign
then.
Every Christian will go to Heaven, but not every Christian will reign in the kingdom.
We will be judged by our works, not for salvation, but for reward (Luke 19.11-27, 1 Cor. 3.12-
15, 2 Cor. 5.10). Those who have not taken advantage of their sufferings in this life will have
even what they had taken away and given to a faithful servant. Those who do exercise good
stewardship of their trials will be made ruler over five cities or ten cities or whatever God
chooses. This life is not so important in itself as to what happens in it. It is a preparation for
the kingdom. What matters is how we respond to what happens. Will we turn to God in
what happens and let him use it for good, or will we turn against God for letting us suffer?
The choice is ours. That is one reason we are left here.
The second reason is that God has work for us to do. There is a lost world that needs
to hear about the Savior. There are hurting Christians that need to find their sufficiency in
the Lord. We are to go into all the world proclaiming the good news. We are to help one
another grow in the Lord. There is much work to be done, and thus we are left behind. We
will go where the Lord Jesus has gone, but not just yet.
34A new commandment I give to you, that you should love [agapao] one another; as I
[agapao] loved you, that you also should love [agapao] one another. 35By this will all know
that you are disciples to me, if you have love [agape] for one another.”
A third implication of the going away of the Lord Jesus is that he has given us a new
commandment, outlined in vs. 34-35. That commandment is that we love one another. What
does the giving of this commandment have to do with his going away? Just this: if he had not
gone away, we could not keep it. The whole problem with the Old Testament is that it is a

216

Law. It can tell us what to do, but it cannot empower us to do it. Thus it can only condemn
us. That is one reason that the Lord Jesus came. He came to make it possible for us to do
what God requires. How did he do that? First by dying for our sins and thus getting the sin
problem dealt with, but then by going away, for what did he do when he went away? Acts
2.33 tells us. He received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit and poured him out
on us. That is how we are able to keep the commandment of the Lord Jesus: he fills us with
his Spirit and changes us from within, so that now, instead of trying to keep an external Law,
we are given power by the God within us to live as he wills.
If the Lord Jesus had only given us another commandment, we would be no better off
than the Jews of the Old Testament, for we would not be able to keep the Law any more than
they were. Indeed, we have a harder commandment to keep than they did, for their
commandments governed their actions, and one can do a rather good job of doing right most
of the time. But the commandment of the Lord Jesus governs our attitude, and it is
impossible for a human being to be always loving. We may not do a person wrong, but
sometimes we surely want to! The Old Testament says not to do it. The Lord Jesus says not to
want to do it. The Sermon on the Mount is a case in point. In a sense it is the Christian
“Law.” It is harder to keep than the Jewish Law of the Old Testament. The Jewish Law says
not to do it. The Christian “Law” says not even to think about it. There is no way for us to
keep that commandment in ourselves, but the Lord Jesus went away, received the Holy
Spirit, and poured him out on us. Thus we can love one another. That is another implication
of the going away of the Lord Jesus.
V. 35 says that this love that we are commanded and empowered to have is the sign of
discipleship. How do others know that we are Christians? It is not by the crosses that we
wear around our necks or the fish symbols in our lapels or on the backs of our cars. One may
display those symbols and go against all that God commands. Others know that we are
Christians by our love for one another. That is one of the great problems with the divisions in
the church. Instead of Christians having enough love for each other to stay together and
work out their disagreements, they have just split up, and now we have thousands of
denominations and innumerable church splits telling the world that we are not disciples of
the Lord Jesus. Since he cannot impart enough love to us to keep us together, why should the
world turn to such a weak Lord? (Of course, he can, but we have free willI and he will not
override it.) Is that the kind of testimony we want to give? It is the one we are giving by our
division. The badge of Christians is love, not shallow love, but the deep love of God
implanted in our hearts by his presence and his dealings. That kind of love should be one of
the implications of the going away of the Lord Jesus. Is it?
36Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him,
“Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later.” 37Peter said to
him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38Jesus

217

answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Amen, amen I say to you, a cock may not
crow till you will deny me three times.
Instead of responding to the Lord Jesus’ command to love one another, Peter replied
to his statement that the disciples could not go where he was going. He did so by asking him
where he was going. When he answered, not by telling Peter where he was going, but by
saying again that he could not go there himself at present, and adding that he would later,
Peter asked why he could not go with him, and boasted, “I will lay down my life for you.”
To this claim the Lord Jesus said, “Will you lay down your life for me? Amen, amen I say to
you, a cock will not crow till you deny me three times.” And that is exactly what happened,
as John reveals in chapter 18.
Why did the Lord Jesus allow Peter to go through that horrible experience of denying
his Lord whom he genuinely loved? He did so to teach Peter a valuable lesson. One of the
implications of the going away of the Lord is that we cannot go where he went in the flesh or
in the boasting of the flesh. Peter’s boast that he would lay down his life for the Lord Jesus
was nothing more than confidence in his own flesh. When he took that position, the Lord’s
response, in effect, was, “Peter, if you have confidence in your flesh, we will just have to let
you go through an experience that will shatter that confidence.” God did not allow the denial
to embarrass Peter or make him feel bad. He did it to make the man lose confidence in
himself, in his flesh, and put all his confidence in his Lord. It is not our flesh that will take us
where the Lord Jesus went. It is he himself.
In 2 Cor. 1.8-9 we read,
For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning our tribulation
which happened in Asia, for we were excessively burdened beyond ability, so that we
despaired even of life. But we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we might
not put confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.
Then in 2 Cor. 4.7 we read, “But we have this treasure in vessels made of clay that the
surpassing power might be of God and not of us.” Finally, Phil. 3.3 says, “For we are the
circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and put no
confidence in flesh.” Paul later learned the same lesson that Peter learned through his bitter
experience. Paul realized that his sufferings in Asia were not by chance. They were used by
God to pass the sentence of death on the flesh that Paul might put his confidence only in one
who can raise the dead, in God. We must not put our confidence in the flesh. If we do, God
will bring circumstances that will destroy it.
Perhaps the best Old Testament example of this truth is Jacob. Jacob the con man had
great confidence in the ability of his flesh to cope with life by getting the best of others. He
even tried to bargain with God. When he first met the Lord at Bethel, his words to God were,
“If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me

218

food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s house, then I AM will be
my God…” (Gen. 28.20-21). Indeed! How considerate of Jacob to allow God to be his God on
Jacob’s terms! Then God put him through twenty years of his own medicine with his
swindling father-in-law. After making Jacob thoroughly sick of his cheating ways, God
brought him to the River Jabbok where the two wrestled. Jacob was a strong man, very
confident in the flesh, and for a while he prevailed against God. But then God touched his
thigh and put it out of joint, and Jacob was broken. That thigh is symbolic of the flesh, and
the picture is spiritual. As long as Jacob had confidence in the flesh, as long as he was strong
in the flesh, he was of no use to God, but when his flesh was broken and he was cast upon
God alone, he became strong in spirit. From that moment till the end of his life Jacob limped
on that thigh. The flesh had been broken, but the spirit was becoming strong. At the end of
his life we find Jacob not conning people, but worshipping God and blessing people. He
became a man of God when he lost confidence in the flesh and put his confidence in God.
That is why the Lord Jesus let Peter have the bitterest experience of his life. It did not
just happen. God had a purpose in it. It was to show Peter, and us, that we cannot follow the
Lord Jesus in the flesh. It is only by casting ourselves on him that we may go where he has
gone.
14.1-6
1Don’t let your heart be troubled. You have faith into God; also have faith into me.
2
In my Father’s house are many abiding places. If not, would I have said to you that I go to
prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and
will receive you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Jn. 14.1-3 reveals to us another implication of the going away of the Lord Jesus. The
disciples would have troubled hearts because he was going away, but he said in v. 1 that
they should not let their hearts be troubled. Why? First because they were to have faith in
God and in his Son. Faith is the cure for worry, for a troubled heart. The two are mutually
exclusive. If we worry we are not trusting God. If we trust him we will not worry. Probably
no one is perfect in this matter, but God is working to develop our faith. The fact that we
sometimes worry does not mean that we have no faith, but that our faith needs to grow. To
the degree that we worry we are not trusting. If we are sincere about the Lord in our lives,
though, he will provide experiences that will give our faith opportunities to grow. If we are
growing in the Lord we will see worry lessening and faith increasing. That is the answer to a
troubled heart, faith in God.
In this passage, the Lord Jesus indicated that our faith is to be in a specific promise of
his. Our hearts are not to be troubled about his going away because of one of his reasons for
going away: he was going to prepare a place for his disciples, and if he prepared a place, he
would come again and receive them to himself, that they might be with him. This is the great

219

promise to and hope of the people of God. The Lord Jesus has gone away and he is absent
from us. We are to be his bride and we long to see him as a bride longs for her husband.
We have the promise of the Lord Jesus that he will prepare a place for us. We need
have no fear that when we get to Heaven there will be no room for us. In our Father’s house
are many abiding places (see “abide in me” in Jn. 15.4). It is possible to go to a hotel, even
when we have made advance reservations, and find that there was a mix-up and there is not
a place prepared for us. Not so with the Lord Jesus. When we see him face to face, he will
take us into his house to an abiding place prepared for us. He will be ready for us.
And he will come. Do we have any greater comfort and hope than that our Lord will
descend with the clouds and call us home? Death is the last enemy of us all, but there will be
some alive at the coming of the Lord who will not have to face death. That is our hope, that
he will come for us while we live. The longer we go on with the Lord and the dearer he
becomes to us, the more we long for his coming. How wonderful it would be if it were today!
4And you know the way where I am going.” 5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know
where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6

Jesus said to him, “I AM the way and

the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The Lord Jesus concluded these thoughts by telling the disciples that they knew the
way where he was going. That seems at first to be untrue, for they had no idea where he was
going and thus no idea how to get there. But it was true, for the Lord Jesus is the way, and
the disciples knew him. They knew the way but they did not know that they did. They, like
so many, probably supposed that the way was the observance of religious rites or the effort
to live a good life or a combination of the two, but the way to God has nothing to do with
religion or our merit. The way to God is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our great need is to know
him. If we know him, we do know God.
How does one get to God? Through the Lord Jesus, the way. How does one overcome
the darkness of this world? Through the Lord Jesus, the truth. How does one gain eternal
life? Through the Lord Jesus, the life. We do not get things. We get a person. He is truly all
we need. Without him we have nothing. With him we have everything.
The Lord Jesus went away and we are left here without him, but he wants us where
he is. We do not get there by religion or merit, but by being in him, and we can go ever
deeper into him in this life and in eternity. Our faith is not in a system, but in a person. May
God grant us the blessing of knowing the Lord Jesus by the Spirit in an ever more intimate
way as we pass the time here away from him, and as we look to that glorious day when we
see him face to face. And may that day come soon.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE LORD JESUS AND HIS FATHER AND

BETWEEN THE TRIUNE

220

GOD AND THE DISCIPLES
John 14.7-31

Having said in Jn. 14.6 that he was the way to the Father and that no one could come
to the Father but through him, the Lord Jesus carries the thought a step further in vs. 7-11,
where he deals with his relationship with his Father. Vs. 7-10a describe the personal
relationship, and 10b-11, their work.
7
If you had known me you would have known my Father also, and from now on
you know him and have seen him.” 8Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father and it is
enough for us.” 9

Jesus said to him, “So long a time I AM with you and you have not
known me, Philip? The one having seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show
us the Father?’ 10Do you not have faith that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The Lord Jesus begins in v. 7 by stating that if the disciples had known him, they
would have known the Father, too, and that from that point on they both know and have
seen him. The disciples could not grasp the point of his words, knowing that God was
invisible and not yet fully grasping who the Lord Jesus was. Thus Philip said to him that if
he would show them the Father, it would be enough for them. He did not yet see that he was
God in the flesh and that those who had seen him had therefore seen God.
The response of the Lord Jesus was to question Philip as to why he had not come to
know him after such a long time together, and the clear statement that the one who had seen
him had seen the Father. Then the Lord Jesus asked, “Do you not have faith that I am in the
Father and the Father is in me?”
If we take into account the Holy Spirit, who is not mentioned in these verses, all this
amounts to a statement of the Trinity. The Lord Jesus maintained that he and the Father were
one, yet they were distinct persons. Instead of trying to explain this relationship, we must
simply confess that it is beyond human understanding. No one can grasp the meaning or
possibility of the idea of the Trinity. How can three persons be distinct and yet actually one,
be one and yet distinct? We do not know, but the word of God teaches it. This man the
disciples saw and heard was God in the flesh.
A part of our difficulty in grasping the meaning of this idea is our lack of knowledge
about the spiritual world in general. We have seen that one of the chief characteristics of John
is the emphasis on the spiritual nature of what the Lord came to do. That spiritual nature
springs from the fact that God is a spirit, that the heavenly world the Lord Jesus came from is
spiritual, and that the relationship between him and his Father is spiritual. We do not really
know what that means. We, too, are spiritual, but we presently live in fleshly bodies in a
material world, and we do not perceive the spiritual world very well. We cannot see it or feel
it or taste it or smell it or hear it. We do have some awareness of it in our spirits, but that is so
undeveloped as we struggle with the effects of the fall on our bodies and souls. If we had a

221

clearer grasp of the spiritual realm, as we someday will, perhaps we would understand
better the Trinitarian relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now we see through a
glass darkly, but then face to face. All we can do now is confess our lack of comprehension
and accept the word of God. The Trinitarian relationship is spiritual.
The speakings [rema] that I say to you I don’t say from myself, but the Father abiding in
me is doing his works. 11Have faith in me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.
But if not, have faith because of the works themselves.
Having in effect claimed divinity and oneness with the Father, the Lord Jesus went on
in vs. l0b-11 to discuss his works. We tend to think of our works as Christians as something
we do for God. Those with a legalistic turn of mind might be trying to gain acceptance by
him, or even salvation, by their works, though that way of thinking is foreign to Scripture.
Those who have a better understanding of grace might do their works out of gratitude and
obedience. This is not a bad thing, but it falls short of the example set by the Lord Jesus. The
works that he did were not something he did for God, for any reason, but were expressions
of his oneness with God. They flowed from the relationship. They were God working
through him, not him working for God. How vital it is that we learn to work in the same
way, not trying to do something for God, but experiencing his working through us.
It is very instructive, too, that the Lord Jesus said that the words he spoke were the
Father doing his works. Did he not mean that the words he spoke were the Father speaking
his words? No, he meant exactly what he said. What are the works of God? They are words.
How did God create everything there is? By words: “Let there be….” Gen. 1 is the account of
God saying, “Let there be…,” and it being! He did his work by words. That is the ministry of
the Lord Jesus. How did he work his miracles? By speaking: “Stretch forth your hand;”
“Lazarus, come out.” How powerful the word of God is! The speaking of God is one of the
fundamental truths of the universe. Is that not what the Bible is, the record of the speakings
of God? Does not God still speak through this written record? Indeed he does! Keep these
truths in mind, for they become important again a bit later in our consideration of our
relationship with God.
V. 11 says in effect that the works of the Lord Jesus are evidence that his Trinitarian
claims in vs. 7-l0a are true. He called on the disciples to have faith that he was in the Father
and the Father in him, and then called on his miraculous works to give their testimony. If
they would not have faith simply on the basis of his words, they should have faith because of
the works. If he were not in the Father and the Father in him he could not do such works.
Thus we see in vs. 7-l0a that the Lord Jesus claimed oneness with the Father, that his
words were the works of God, and that those works bore out what he claimed.
12Amen, amen I say to you, the one having faith into me, the works that I do that one will
do also, and greater than these he will do, for I am going to the Father.

222

We now turn to the relationship between this triune God and the disciples. The first
thing that the Lord Jesus said about that relationship, in v. 12, was that the one who had faith
in him would do the works that he did, and that he would do greater works. That is a hard
statement to understand. How could anyone do what the Lord Jesus did, not to mention
doing anything greater? He raised the dead! Apparently the explanation comes in the little
word “because.” The Lord Jesus said that we would do greater works than he “because I am
going to the Father.” What does that mean?
We have already referred to Acts 2.33, the verse that explains what he meant: “Having
been exalted therefore to the right hand of God and having received the promise of the Holy
Spirit from the Father, he poured out this which you both see and hear.” The Lord Jesus was
one man on the earth who had a ministry in one tiny geographical area to a few people. After
three years of the most effective ministry in history, he had something over 500 followers (1
Cor. 15.6). After his death, resurrection, and ascension, he poured out the Holy Spirit on 120
of them (Acts 1.15), and in one day they brought 3000 to the Lord. From there the gospel
spread throughout the world. Thus the statement of the Lord Jesus that we would do greater
things than he did apparently did not mean that we would do things more miraculous than
he did, but that our outreach would be so much greater in terms of land area and numbers of
people. And indeed it is not our doing, but that of the Spirit in us. It is still the Lord Jesus
doing the work, but now through his body the church, consisting not of one Spirit-filled
man, but of many Spirit-filled men and women. We do these works because he went to the
Father, received the promised Holy Spirit, and poured him out on us.
13And whatever you may ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in
the Son. 14If you should ask me anything in my name I will do it.
The Lord Jesus continued this theme of our works in vs. 13-14, where he promised
that anything we ask in his name, he would do We need to examine carefully the meaning of
this statement, for many have used it to teach false doctrine. We have become so accustomed
to repeating the phrase “in Jesus’ name” at the end of our prayers that it has become almost
like a magic formula. It really means that we tell God what we want, and because we tack on
the magic words, he has to do it. But that is not at all what Jesus meant.
Others use this and similar statements by the Lord Jesus to claim that we can get
anything we want from God simply by asking for it in Jesus’ name. Do you want health,
wealth, fame? Just ask for it in Jesus’ name and it is yours. “Name it and claim it” is the
slogan used. That is not what the Lord Jesus meant either. What did he mean?
To do something in someone’s name is to do it as that person. It is to act as his duly
authorized representative. A representative is someone who stands for someone in his
absence, but who receives his instructions from the one he represents. When he speaks in the
name of the one he represents, he is speaking according to his instructions and will be

223

backed up by his sender. Our government has an ambassador in virtually every capital in the
world. When that ambassador is to speak as the representative of the United States, he cables
Washington for instructions. When he does what he is told, he is speaking in the name of the
United States, and all the power of this nation is behind him. If he speaks on his own,
without getting instructions or in violation of them, he will or might be disavowed.
It is the same with us as Christians. Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 5.20 that we are
ambassadors of Christ in this world. Where is our headquarters? In Heaven, where Christ is.
When we are to speak or act in this world as his representatives, we must first contact him in
Heaven and get his instructions. Only when we have heard from him can we speak in his
name. It is really the word of faith of Rom. 10.17: “Faith comes from hearing and hearing
through the word of Christ.” When he has told us his mind on a matter, we can speak it in
faith, and all the power of Heaven is behind us because we speak in the name of the Lord
Jesus, as he in effect. That is what it means to ask in the name of the Lord Jesus. It is not a
magic formula to add to the end of our prayers. It is knowing the will of God and voicing it
in faith. A good commentary on this statement is 1 Jn. 5.14-15: “And this is the confidence
that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us, and if we
know that he hears us, whatever we may ask, we know that we have the requests that we
asked of him.” A representative first finds the will of his government and then speaks the
word of faith. Then he will have what he speaks. Just asking for anything YOU or I want is
not the promise.
We saw that the words of the Lord Jesus were the works of God because of the
relationship between him and the Father. It is to be the same with us. When we speak in the
name of Jesus, we are entering into the same relationship, not, of course, of divinity, but of
dwelling in Christ and he in us. If we speak in his name, our words are his works, just as his
words were the Father’s works. In that sense, our relationship with the triune God is to be
the same as that of the Son with the Father. The Lord Jesus never spoke anything he did not
hear from the Father. That is what speaking in the name of Jesus is.
15If you should love [agapao] me you will keep my commandments,
The Lord Jesus next said, in v. 15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
The only basis of speaking in the name of Jesus is keeping his commandments. He will not
communicate his instructions to us if we are living in disobedience to him. But the only basis
of keeping his commandments is loving him. The problem with the Law revealed in the Old
Testament is that it could only tell us what we should do, but it could give us no power to do
it. Thus it could only condemn us. If the Lord Jesus came only to give us more
commandments, then we are no better off for his having come, but he did not come just to
give more commandments. He came to put within us the power to live in obedience to him.
Our lives as Christians do not consist of continual effort to keep a list of rules so as to gain
God’s approval. Christians have been changed from within. We already have God’s approval

224

in Christ, and he has put within us the desire and the power to obey him. Love for him
draws on that power, enabling us to keep his commandments and to speak in his name.
16And I will ask the Father and another Helper he will give you, that he may be with you
into the age, 17the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, for it does not see him or
know him. You know him, for he abides with you and will be in you.
None of us are perfect, of course, either in loving the Lord Jesus or in keeping his
commandments. We all fail many times, but he tells us in vs. 16-17 that if the intent of our
hearts is to love him and obey him, he will give us a Helper. The Greek word for “Helper” in
these verses is parakletos, meaning, literally, “one called alongside.” It has been translated in
various ways, as Comforter and Counselor. It can also mean Encourager or Exhorter or
Advocate (1 Jn. 2.1). “Helper” is an excellent translation because it includes all of these
possibilities. The Lord Jesus tells us a number of facts about this Helper.
First, he says, the Helper will be given to us by the Father at his request. His presence
with us is the gift of God, resulting from the finished work of Christ. We have already seen
this truth more than once in referring to Acts 2.33. This Helper is “another Helper.” There are
two Greek words for “another,” one meaning “another of a different kind,” and the other
meaning “another of the same kind.” It is the latter word that is used in v. 16. The Holy
Spirit, for that is who this Helper is, is just like the Lord Jesus, for indeed he is one with him
in the Trinity. The disciples had no need to fear that the one who came after the ascension of
the Lord Jesus would be different from him, would treat them differently or make different
requirements of them. He would express the same love and power to them that the Lord
Jesus had.
The Holy Spirit is a Helper. He would enable the disciples to love and obey the Lord
Jesus. The very thing they had to do, but could not do, he would help them do. God requires
far more of us than we are capable of, but then he gives the power in the person of the
Helper.
This Helper will be with us forever. Human helpers may fail us, either through the
weakness of the flesh or through death or through deliberate turning away. The divine
Helper, though, will never leave us. We need have no fear that his help will end.
He is the Spirit of truth. This statement tells us first that he is a Spirit. What an
important point that is. The battle that we are engaged in is spiritual. Our enemy is spiritual.
One reason that there is so much failure on the part of the church is that we are fighting a
spiritual enemy with fleshly weapons. We cannot defeat Satan with our intelligence and
programs and ability. If we are to be victorious over the enemy, we must have spiritual
power, and the only way to have that is to be filled with the Spirit of the one who has already
defeated Satan.
Furthermore, the fact that the Helper is a Spirit means that he can dwell within us. As
we noted above, the problem with the Law is that it makes demands but supplies no power.

225

That is because it is external to us. It cannot get inside us and change us, making us able to
keep its requirements, but the Holy Spirit can. We are spirits in essence. Our bodies are only
tents we live in for a while. Our essence is soul and spirit. As such they can be indwelt by the
Holy Spirit, and that is just what happens. He gets inside us, changes us from within, and
thereby enables us to do what God requires.
There is another reason why the fact that the Helper is a Spirit is important that will
become evident presently. For now, we will hold that reason.
This Spirit is the Spirit of truth. Two or three facts are bound up in that statement. The
first is that he is the opposite of Satan. We saw in John 8.44 that Satan is a liar and that deceit
is his means of working. His plan is to get us into darkness, one of the themes of John, so that
he can lead us down paths that lead to misery and ruin. If we are lost people, those paths
will end in hell. If we are Christians, he cannot take us to hell, but he will try to destroy our
witness and make us useless to God. The ways of Satan are darkness and deceit, and they do
work very well. It is remarkable that he is able to get people to do things repeatedly that
bring misery on themselves. He destroys a marriage by getting the partners to live only for
themselves. Then he gets them to get into a second marriage on the same basis. Some have
been through three our four or more marriages without ever getting the message. They never
say to themselves, “What I am doing is not working. I am going to try something else.” They
are living under the deceit of Satan and usually blame the other partner for the failure. Years
ago I heard someone say about Elizabeth Taylor, a star actress of that era, that she should be
consulted on matters of love since she had been married eight times! Ha! Self-love, maybe.
The Holy Spirit is not like that. He reveals the truth to people. He shows them ways of
life that make for blessedness. That does not mean a lack of problems. Trial is just as much a
part of the Christian way of living as of any other way, perhaps more so, for the Christian
way incurs the wrath of Satan. But the Spirit leads a person in such ways that he does not
bring misery on himself. He does not drink or take drugs, and thus destroy himself. He does
not rebel against authority and thus leave himself unprotected against the attacks of Satan.
He does not live for money, gain it, and find life empty. The ways of the Spirit of truth work
for our well-being.
Then the Spirit of truth reveals spiritual truth to us. We noted above that we are in a
spiritual battle. If we are to prevail, it is imperative that we know the truth about the
spiritual world, about ourselves, about the victory of the Lord Jesus over Satan, about how
Satan operates, about our spiritual weapons. This is not the place to go into all these matters
in detail, but if we yield ourselves to the Lord, the Spirit of truth will guide us into the truth
of them.
Finally, the Greek word for “truth” implies reality. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of
reality. That is, he both requires and enables us to face reality. Karl Marx called religion “the
opiate of the people.” By that he meant that religion has no truth but is an escape from the
hard reality of life. While we obviously disagree with Marx’s atheism, there is some truth in
what he said. For many people, religion is an escape from reality. Religion, of course, is not

226

the relationship between God and man that the Lord Jesus came to establish, but man’s
efforts to gain God’s approval. Often religion is no more than an effort to escape from the
hard realities of everyday life. It is a fantasy world. Christianity is not a religion, but a
relationship.
The Spirit of God will not allow such an escape for his people. We are required to face
reality. Christians are not exempt from problems, and often suffer more greatly precisely
because they are Christians, for God desires to purify them and Satan wishes to destroy
them. But the Spirit of truth, the Helper, will help Christians face their trials and go through
them victoriously. Life can be very hard, with all sorts of difficulties besetting us. We may
suffer illness, financial trouble, the loss of loved ones, rebellious children. The list could go
on and on. But we have an inward, almighty Helper in these trials. Our God is the God of
reality. He will not excuse us from it, but he will empower us to deal with it. He is the Spirit
of reality.
The Lord Jesus then said that the world could not receive this Spirit because it did not
see or know him. What did he mean by this statement? We noted above that we would hold
for the moment that there was another reason for the importance of the fact that the Helper is
a Spirit. That reason explains this statement by the Lord Jesus. The world is dead in spirit
toward God (Eph. 2.1). Thus it cannot perceive God. It has no means of doing so. God is a
Spirit, and only another spirit can perceive him and communicate with him. The air is full of
radio signals at every moment, but only those with radios can receive those signals. So it is
with God. Only those with born-from-above spirits can perceive the Holy Spirit. God is not
seen with the physical eye, but in the spirit (see Heb. 11.27).
But, said the Lord Jesus, the disciples knew him because he dwelt with them and
would be in them. He dwelt with them in the person of the Lord Jesus, the only person on
earth at the time who was Spirit-filled. They did not know that they knew the Spirit, but they
did because they knew the Lord Jesus, who was full of the Spirit. Later on, after their sins
had been dealt with at the cross and the Lord Jesus had ascended to his Father to receive the
promise of the Spirit and pour him out on his people, the Spirit would dwell in his disciples
just as he did in the Lord Jesus. They would then be conscious of knowing the Spirit.
18I will not leave you as orphans. I am coming to you.
The Lord Jesus said in v. 18 that he would not leave the disciples as orphans, but
would come to them again. He had already told them that he was going away, and they had
reacted with troubled hearts, so he told them that he would come again. He was not referring
to the second coming, his bodily return to earth, but to his return in the person of the Holy
Spirit to dwell within his people spiritually until the time of his bodily return. He was
referring to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

227

19Yet a little while and the world sees me no more, but you see me. Because I live you will
live also. 20In that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you.
21The one having has my commandments and keeping them, that one is the one loving
[agapao] me, and the one loving [agapao] me will be loved [agapao] by my Father and I
will love [agapao] him and reveal myself to him.”
The Lord Jesus continued this line of thought in vs. 19-21. Again the point was made
that the world could not see him, because he would leave in the flesh and be present only in
the Spirit, whom the world had no means of perceiving, but the disciples would see him.
They would do so with the eye of faith because the Lord Jesus would dwell within them
through the Spirit. The reason the disciples will be able to see him when the world no longer
can is that they will have the same life as he, spiritual life. The life that raised him from the
dead will dwell in them, giving them spiritual perception. That life is the Holy Spirit.
V. 20 emphasizes that the disciples will come to know the relationship that the Lord
Jesus has with his Father, as he described it in v. 10. The Lord Jesus and the Father are one,
each dwelling in the other. Those who are born from above enter into the same relationship.
We do not know divinity, but we know by experience what it means to dwell in God and
have him dwell in us. We cannot explain it any more than we can explain the Trinity, but we
experience it. It is far better to experience it without understanding than to understand it
without experience.
In v. 15 the Lord Jesus said that if we love him we will keep his commandments, and
he returned to this theme in v. 21. There he made the point plainly that the keeping of his
commandments is the proof of expressions of love. It is easy to speak of love, but actions
speak louder than words. If one only says he loves the Lord Jesus without obeying him, he
gives the lie to his words. “By their fruits you will know them,” he said elsewhere (Mt. 7.16,
20).
The result of loving the Lord Jesus is being loved by his Father. The Lord Jesus is a
perfect Son and God delights in him. He made everything for him and plans to give him
everything. And he takes the position that he will love anyone who loves his Son. How can
we be loved by God? By loving his Son. Of course, God loves us anyway, but the Lord Jesus
speaks here of our knowing God’s love by experience. God showers his love on any who
love the one he loves.
In addition, the Lord Jesus will love the one who loves him, and will reveal himself to
him. Do you want to know him? Then love him. He has promised to make himself known to
the one who loves him.
22Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, and what has occurred that you are about to reveal
yourself to us and not to the world?” 23Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone love
[agapao] me he will keep my word and my Father will love [agapao] him and we will
come to him and make an abiding place with him.

228

We have seen on numerous occasions the failure of the disciples to grasp spiritual
truth, and that trend continues in the present passage. After all the explanation just given by
the Lord Jesus of the spiritual nature of the relationship between himself and his followers,
Judas, not Judas Iscariot but the other disciple of that name, asked how it could be that the
Lord Jesus could reveal himself to them but not to the world. He did not yet know anything
about a spiritual relationship. He thought only in terms of the physical. If the disciples could
see the Lord Jesus, why could the world not see him? Would he hide somewhere, in a place
only the disciples knew?
The Lord Jesus did not explain the answer directly, but said to Judas and the others,
“If anyone love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to
him and make an abiding place with him.” Again he pointed to the spiritual nature of the
relationship, the dwelling of the Father and the Son within those who have faith. Those who
love the Lord Jesus and obey him find the answer to the question of Judas. They can see the
Lord Jesus without the world doing so because he is within them in the person of the Holy
Spirit. Thus the answer comes by experience, not by explanation.
24The one not loving [agapao] me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is
not mine, but the Father’s having sent me.
V. 24 adds the thought that just as the one who loves the Lord Jesus keeps his words,
so the one who does not love him does not keep his words. Of course, rejection of the word
of the Lord Jesus is rejection of God, for his word is not his own, but his Father’s. Obedience
or disobedience to the Lord Jesus is the proof of whether or not one accepts the place of God
in his life.
25These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. 26But the Helper, the
Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, that one will teach you all things and
will remind you of all things that I said to you.
The Lord Jesus returned to the subject of the Holy Spirit in vs. 25-26 by saying that he
had spoken these things while with them in the flesh, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, would
teach them all things and call to mind what he had said in the flesh. Naturally they would
not recall everything he said, but one of the roles of the Spirit was to bring to their minds
what he had said when they needed to remember something. Jn. 2.22 is one example. In that
passage, the Lord Jesus had prophesied that if the Jews destroyed his temple, meaning his
body, but understood at the time to mean the building, he would raise it up in three days.
After the resurrection, the disciples remembered that he had said this, and they had faith as a
result. Another example, though not a word, but an act, of the Lord Jesus, is Jn. 12.16. The
week before his death he had entered Jerusalem riding a donkey, in fulfillment of the

229

prophecy of Zech. 9.9. The disciples did not understand at the time what he was doing, but
when the Lord Jesus was glorified, they remembered that this act was prophesied in the Old
Testament. The Holy Spirit had recalled these things to their minds when they needed them.
He performs the same ministry in our lives today. We did not hear the Lord Jesus
speak in the flesh, but we do have the Bible. It is vital that we be faithful to read the word, for
even though we may get nothing out of it at the time, we are nonetheless storing it up in our
minds, and the Holy Spirit will call it to mind when we need it. If we neglect the Scriptures,
the Spirit will have nothing to call to mind in our time of need. How diligent we need to be
in reading and studying the word of God!
The Lord Jesus also said that the Spirit would teach the disciples all things. Many
things were not revealed by him to his followers, but were revealed later by the Spirit. Many
things that the Lord Jesus only mentioned were drawn out by the Spirit through the apostles.
The greatest Teacher is the Holy Spirit. While we are thankful for men who speak and write
on the word of God, it is only as we learn from the Spirit himself through the word that we
move deepest into the Lord. It is my earnest prayer that these words will edify the reader,
but more importantly, that they will give him a hunger to study the word for himself under
the tutelage of the Spirit of God.
It is instructive that the Lord Jesus said that the Spirit would be sent by the Father in
the name of Jesus. We noted in vs. 13-14 that we are privileged to ask in Jesus’ name, and that
that means that we are his representatives on earth in his absence and are speaking on his
instructions. So it is with the Holy Spirit. God is one. The Spirit does not act on his own, but
out of his oneness with the Father and the Son. He is the full representative of the Lord Jesus
on earth. Whatever he communicates to us is in the name of Jesus and constitutes our Lord’s
directions to us. The Spirit has full authority to instruct us as to the mind of Christ. Just
remember always to test anything we think we hear from the Lord by Scripture. Satan can
speak to us, too, but Scripture will not support him.
27Peace I am leaving with you. My peace I am giving to you. Not as the world gives do am I
giving to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled or cowardly. 28You heard that I said to you,
I am going away and I am coming to you. If you loved [agapao] me you would have
rejoiced, for I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29And now I have told
you before it comes about, that when it comes about you may have faith.
In vs. 27-29, the Lord Jesus returned to the theme of his going away. He had already
told the disciples that he would go away. They had grown to love this man and to see in him
far more than a man. Thus their hearts were troubled at the news, so his word to them was,
“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.
Don’t let your heart be troubled or cowardly.” The Lord Jesus recognized their troubled
hearts at what to them was bad news, so he spoke a word of peace to them. The world
understands peace as the absence of conflict, but the Bible, while including that thought,

230

means much more by the word. Have you ever had a sleepless night because of worry?
Peace in the Bible is rest. It is a positive state of well-being. It includes prosperity and health.
This does not mean that all Christians will be materially rich and physically healthy, for our
blessings are spiritual. It means that if we are trusting in the Lord and living in obedience to
him, we will he spiritually prosperous and healthy, conditions that will last eternally, far
after the health and wealth of this world have been forgotten.
The Lord Jesus does not give as the world gives. When he says, “My peace I give to
you,” he means that he gives himself. He is our peace (Eph. 2.14). He does not give us things.
He gives us himself, and he is whatever we need. His presence in our hearts through the
Spirit is peace. Furthermore, the world gives only to get something in return, and it gives
only to take back. The Lord Jesus gives freely and eternally.
In v 28, the Lord Jesus explained why the disciples should not have troubled hearts at
the announcement of his departure. In the first place, he promised to come again, and that
coming meant primarily, in this context, his spiritual presence through the Holy Spirit,
though we cannot exclude his bodily return. Secondly, he said that they should have rejoiced
that he was going to his Father. What a blessing that was for him! He had been eternally one

with the Father and had always known the glories of Heaven. He left all that to live in a sin-
filled, sorrowful world, to suffer rejection, abuse, and crucifixion by men, and most of all, to

experience separation from the Father as he was made sin for us. Now he was about to
return to Heaven to an even higher exaltation won by his victorious life on earth. Should not
those who loved him be happy for him? We need not have troubled hearts because the Lord
Jesus is not here with us in bodily form, though we long to see his face. He is with us in
Spirit. He will come again bodily. And he whom we love is enjoying the glories of Heaven
and the presence of his Father. Let us rejoice!
Though the Lord Jesus was eternally God, he has also eternally chosen to take the
place of the Son in submission to the Father, thus revealing that authority and fellowship are
at the heart of God. He carried out that submission perfectly in eternity past, and he did so
during his fleshly ministry on the earth. That approach is revealed in the statement of the
Lord Jesus in v. 28 that “the Father is greater than I.” He was ever the submissive Son, ever
the delight of his Father. That is why he would return to Heaven in triumph to sit on his
Father’s throne, at his right hand.
V. 29 repeats the thought of 13.19. The Lord Jesus was, among other things, a Prophet.
He told the disciples about the coming of the Holy Spirit and his ministry to them before it
took place. When it did, their faith in him was confirmed and strengthened.
30I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and in me he
has nothing, 31but that the world may know that I love [agapao] the Father and as the
Father commanded me, so I do. Rise, let us go from here.”

231

Vs. 30-31 close this passage with a very interesting thought. The Lord Jesus said that
the reason he would not speak much more with them was that the ruler of the world was
coming. That is, the time was short, for Satan was about to incite men to put to death the
Prince of life. Yet, the Lord Jesus said, Satan has nothing in me. What did he mean by that
statement?
God had told Adam in the garden that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil he would surely die. The wages of sin are death (Rom. 6.23). Adam ate and he died,
spiritually at the moment and physically later on. We have all sinned and we all deserve to
die. Death was in the power of Satan (Heb. 2.14). When he demands the death of a man, it is
his right, for he has something in all of us. We are under the sentence of death because we
have gone Satan’s way. But the Lord Jesus was sinless. Satan had nothing in him, no basis for
requiring his death. Thus, the Lord Jesus said in v. 31, he was not dying because Satan was
demanding his death or causing it. Satan was indeed stirring up wicked men to kill the Lord
Jesus, but neither he nor they had any power to do their deed. He voluntarily laid down his
life because he loved the Father and it was the will of the Father. The Scriptures are clear that
when the time came for him to die, he dismissed his spirit. And by doing so, he rendered
powerless him who had the power of death (Heb. 2.14). While our physical death is still a
certainty if the Lord Jesus delays his return, we will live eternally in the presence of the Lord
in resurrected, glorified bodies because Satan had nothing in the Lord Jesus, who gave his
life for us in obedience to his Father. May his name be forever praised!

THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES

John 15.1-17

1”I AM the true Vine and my Father is the Vinedresser.
In Jn. 15.1-17 the Lord Jesus continues his teaching about the relationship between
himself and the disciples, likening it to a vine and its branches. He begins in v. 1 by saying, “I
AM the true Vine, and my Father is the Vinedresser.” Before going into the full meaning of
this statement, it is necessary for us to look at the background of it. We begin with Is. 5.1-7:
I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a
vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with
the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then
he looked for crop of good grapes, but it yielded only wwild grapes. “Now you
dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What
more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked
for good grapes, why did it yield only wild ones? Now I will tell you what I am going

232

to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break
down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor
cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to
rain on it.” The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of
Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for
righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
We have seen that one of the themes of John is that the Lord Jesus came to do what
Israel was called by God to do but failed to do. Israel was called by God to be his vineyard,
to bear fruit for him, but instead of fulfilling this calling, Israel was neither open to the
nations to which she was supposed to be a light (Is. 42.6, 49.6), nor just to her own people.
She produced only wild grapes. The Lord Jesus was the true Vine. He was all that Israel
should have been. He was a Light to the nations. He produced the fruit of justice and
righteousness that God looked for.
Another Old Testament passage that forms background for Jn. 15 is Ps. 80:
Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who led Joseph like a flock; you who sits
enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and
Manasseh. Awaken your might; come and save us. Restore us, O God; make your face
shine upon us, that we may be saved. I AM, God of Hosts, how long will your anger
smolder against the prayers of your people? You have fed them with the bread of
tears; you have made them drink tears by the bowlful. You have made us a source of
contention to our neighbors, and our enemies mock us. Restore us, God of Hosts;
make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved. You brought a vine out of
Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it, and it
took root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty
cedars with its branches. It sent out its boughs to the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.
Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes? Boars
from the forest ravage it and the creatures of the field feed on it. Return to us, God of
Hosts! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine, the root your right
hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself. Your vine is cut down, it is
burned with fire; at your rebuke your people perish. Let your hand rest on the man at
your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself. Then we will not
turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name. Restore us, I AM, God
of Hosts; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.
Israel was a vine transplanted from slavery in Egypt to freedom and victory in
Canaan, but in the psalm she was under the judgment of Babylonian captivity. Why?
Because she had failed to be a fruitful vine for God. The psalm is a prayer for the restoration
of the vine. In the psalm, Israel calls herself the son of God’s right hand, the son of man that

233

God had raised up for himself. That prayer was answered in the Son of Man, in the Lord
Jesus, who was the true Vine, fruitful for God as Israel never was.
One final passage concludes the background of this passage. It is in Matt. 21.33-46:
“Hear another parable. There was a man, a landowner, who ‘planted a
vineyard and put a hedge around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower,’ and
he gave it out to tenants and went away. But when the time of the fruits drew near, he
sent his slaves to the tenants to receive his fruits. And taking his slaves, the tenants
beat one and killed one and stoned one. Again he sent other slaves, more than at first,
and they did them the same way. Last of all he sent to them his son, saying, ‘They will
respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This
is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and we will have his inheritance.’ And taking him,
they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the master of the
vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will destroy
those evil ones severely, and he will give out the vineyard to other tenants, who will
give him the fruits in their times.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the
Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this one became the head of the
corner; this is of the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I say to you that
the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation that bears its fruits.”
And when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard the parable, they knew that he
spoke about them, and seeking to seize him, they feared the crowds, for they held him
to be a prophet.
These words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew show us the fulfillment in the New
Testament of the prophetic words of Is. 5.1-7, already fulfilled once in the Babylonian
captivity. That fulfillment was a judgment designed to purge Israel of idolatry and turn her
to her God with a whole heart. In Matthew, it was a rejection of Israel based on her rejection
of the Messiah. God was through with Israel for a time and raised up a new nation that
would bring forth fruit for him. That nation began with the Lord Jesus, but extended to
include the church, just as a vine includes branches. The church as a whole, with the Lord
Jesus as its Head, has replaced Israel as the Vine, and the individual members of the church
are the branches. It is only the grace and mercy of God that in the end, Israel will be brought
back and will be a fruitful vine, just as the church is the recipient of God’s grace and mercy.
God has watched over the Jewish people and kept them as an identifiable race despite the
efforts of men to destroy them, and he will take them up again at the end of this age.
We have seen, too, the spiritual nature of what the Lord Jesus came to do. Israel was
the earthly people of God. The church is his spiritual people. The relationship between the
Lord Jesus and the church is spiritual, as we saw in our consideration of Jn. 14.7-31. That is,
he dwells in each individual through the Holy Spirit, making them all one with him and in
him.

234

This, then, is the background of Jn. 15.1-17. The Lord Jesus came to be the true Vine, to
be all that Israel failed to be, to bear fruit for God, and to include the church in the Vine as
the branches. He was constituting a new, spiritual Israel.
Austin-Sparks deals with this chapter by referring to the Old Testament passages that
we have seen above and adds Ezk. 15.1-6, and writes of that Scripture passage,

You have the Old Testament background to that in the passages we have read:
What Israel was intended to be, failed to be, and their destiny – “Cast into the fire”. It is
clear from these Scriptures that Israel was God’s vine, but it became a false vine and
God had cast it into the fire, where it has been for nearly twenty centuries.
But when God cast that vine into the fire, He brought forth another. We have
said that this Gospel by John sets forth the putting away of the old and the bringing in
of the new Israel, and here in this chapter the vine is taken over. When Jesus said “I
am the true vine”, He emphasized that word “true”. If you could hear Him saying that
phrase, it would be like this: “I am the true vine”. The implication is perfectly clear: ‘I
take the place of the false vine. That has been cast away and I am the true vine which
takes its place. (The On-High Calling, Vol. II, p. 50)
Let us turn now to this chapter in John. To begin with, the Lord Jesus started by
saying, “I AM….” We have seen this phrase numerous times in John. It is a theme in the
book, one that shows the divinity of the Lord Jesus, for it was the Old Testament name of
God. By using it, he said that he was God in the flesh. So he said in Jn. 15.1 that God himself
became a man and fulfilled what he had called Israel to do. It was God the Father, the
Vinedresser, who was at work in God the Son, the Vine.
2Every branch in me not bearing fruit, he takes it away, and every one bearing fruit, he
prunes it that it may bear more fruit.
A vine has branches. In v. 2 the Lord Jesus said that a branch that did not bear fruit
would be taken out of the vine. What is the purpose of a vine and its branches? To bear fruit.
It has no other reason for existence. The wood of a vine is not good for anything. Its only
purpose is to bear fruit. If the vine, or a branch, does not bear fruit, it is removed. This must
refer first to Israel, the unfruitful vine that was removed. But it refers also to Christians, for
the branches in the immediate context are Christians. What does it mean for a Christian
branch to be removed from the vine? There is a theological argument among Christians as to
whether or not a Christian can lose his salvation. Some say he can, and others say he cannot.
The former would say that the removal of the branch means the loss of salvation. The latter
would say that it means either a loss of reward, but not of salvation, or that the person was
never really born again to begin with. Both can find passages of Scripture to back them up. It
is not our desire to take sides in a theological dispute that can never be resolved this side of

235

the return of the Lord, though my own view is that salvation cannot be lost, but I am aware
that there are verses that can be taken to mean that it can be lost. The real point is that there
is sufficient question about which side is right for all Christians to be careful with their
salvation. Can we lose our salvation? Perhaps not, but is it worth the risk? Far better is it to
be a fruitful branch and not have to face the question.
What about those branches that do bear fruit? Are they admired and commended by
the Lord? No, they are pruned! That is, they are dealt with severely. Why is that? So that they
will be more fruitful. Just as a farmer will cut away some of the branches or a part of a
branch to concentrate the energy of a fruitful plant and make it more fruitful, so the Lord
prunes his fruitful children. There is a play on words in the Greek with the words “takes
away” or “removes” and “prunes.” “Takes away” is airei in Greek, and “prunes” is kathairei
(notice airei in both words). No fruit – airei. Fruit – kathairei. Both are dealt with. One is
removed. The other has the parts removed that are not fruitful or interfere with fruit bearing.
That is one of the reasons for our trials. Why do Christians suffer? There are several
reasons. One is that they are fruitful, and God is pruning them to make them more fruitful.
No matter how fruitful we may be, we all have the problem of flesh to contend with. The
flesh is of no use to God, and indeed is in opposition to him, even if it is religious, perhaps
especially if it is religious. Thus he will deal with it. Anyone who gives himself to the Lord
will experience suffering, the application of the cross to the flesh, to put it to death that the
life of God may flourish in its place.
When a Christian suffers pruning he should rejoice, for it means that God considers
him fruitful. If a Christian never experiences pruning, perhaps he is near to being taken out
of the vine. It is not suffering, but a lack of it, that is cause for concern.
3Already you are clean through the word that I have spoken to you.
The Lord Jesus added a further word of explanation in v. 3 when he said that his
disciples were already clean, and this statement furthers the play on words in v. 2. The word
for “clean” in v. 3 is katharoi. It is a different word, but it sounds like the word for “prunes,”
kathairei. The fruitful branch is already clean, katharoi, that is, washed from sin, and it is
pruned, kathairei, of anything that would make it less fruitful for God. The Lord Jesus told
the eleven that they did not need to be concerned about getting into the Vine. They were
already clean, in the Vine, through the word he had spoken to them, for they had responded
to it with faith. They might need further pruning (kathairei), just as they did in Jn. 13.10, but
they did not need an initial cleansing (katharoi). They were in the Vine, and needed only
pruning. Pruning is evidence that we are in the Vine.
4You remain in me and I will remain in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself
except it remain in the vine, so you cannot except you remain in me. 5

I AM the Vine, you,

236

the branches. The one remaining in me and I in him, this one bears much fruit, for without
me you can do nothing.
Vs. 4-5 open to us a vital principle of Christian service. One of the key words is
normally translated “abide,” but that really misses the point to some extent. Though it is a
beautiful, poetic, and time-honored word, it really means to dwell somewhere, and though
that is included in the thought, it is not the whole thought. The word really means “remain.”
It is not just that we dwell in the Lord Jesus, but that, now that we have come into him, we
are to stay there. Don’t leave! Don’t go anywhere! It is necessary that we stay where we are
because otherwise we cannot bear fruit. We saw above that the only purpose of a vine and its
branches is to bear fruit. But the only way we can bear fruit is to remain in the Lord Jesus.
Why is that? Because he is the source of life. It is life that produces fruit, and we have no life
in ourselves. We have life only in the Lord Jesus. He is life. If we do not remain in him, we
are cut off from the source of life and cannot bear fruit.
So many of us think that we can do something for God. We have some talent or ability
that we want to use for God. We are good speakers or musicians or organizers or writers.
With every good intention we decide to use our abilities for God. That may be an admirable
desire, but it will not work. We can do nothing for God. Our natural abilities are only flesh,
and the flesh profits nothing (Jn. 6.63). We will bear fruit for God only as we remain in the
Lord Jesus and let his life flow through us. A branch does not try to bear fruit. It just stays
where it is, in the vine, and the fruit just happens. Fruit is a natural by-product of life. If we
stay in the Lord Jesus, it will happen. Apart from him, we can do nothing. How utterly
important it is that Christians get hold of this truth, that we can do nothing for God. It is only
as he deals with our flesh and he himself works through us that anything of value will be
produced. He will use our talents and abilities, but it must be he using abilities that have
been pruned (taken to the cross, nailed to the cross), not us trying to do something for him.
6
If anyone does not stay in me, he is thrown out like the branch and is dried up, and they
gather them and throw them into the fire, and he is burned.
Alford points out that v. 6 does not repeat the thought of v. 2, that a branch can be
taken away from the Vine by God, but that a branch can choose not to remain in the Vine. He
was one who believed that one could fall from grace by free will, as opposed to the Calvinist
view that one was predestined by God without free will. We need not repeat our
observations on this matter, but simply note that the importance of the matter was such that
the Lord Jesus saw fit to refer to the possibility of being in Christ and then out, whether
taken out by God or leaving voluntarily, twice in such a short space. How precious our
salvation is! How careful we should be to walk worthy of it!

237

7
If you should remain in me and my speakings (rema) should remain in you, ask whatever
you would and it will be to you.
In v. 7 the Lord Jesus gives a further explanation of his teaching in 14.13-14. There he
told us that if we asked anything in his name, he would do it, and we saw that that means,
not that we just tack some magic words onto the end of our prayers, but that we act as his
representatives, having heard from him. The present statement confirms that understanding.
The Lord Jesus says that if we remain in him and his words remain in us, we may ask
whatever we wish and it will be done. What a promise! Is that a blank check for us to do
anything we please? In a way, yes. We have seen that there are two Greek words for “word,”
logos and rema, logos referring to the fundamental truth of God whether anyone believes it or
not, and rema, to what God has spoken to us livingly in our hearts. It is the word rema that is
used in this verse. The Lord Jesus said that if, as his representatives, we have received his
instructions, have heard from him, we can ask anything in accordance with those
instructions and it will be done. It is speaking the word of faith, for “faith comes from
hearing, and hearing through the word [rema] of Christ” (Rom. 10.17). That is one of the
results of remaining in the Vine. We will be able to declare his mind and see it come about.
8By this is my Father glorified, that you should bear much fruit and become my disciples.
In v. 8 the Lord Jesus declared that God is not glorified by empty words, though he
does want the fruit of our lips (Heb. 13.15). Words without works are lies. It is the fruit that
glorifies God and proves discipleship. “By their fruits you will know them,” the Lord Jesus
said elsewhere.
9As the Father loved [agapao] me I also loved [agapao] you. Remain in my love [agape].
The question as to what is fruit is brought to our minds by v. 9, where Jesus speaks of
love: “As the Father has loved me I also have loved you. Remain in my love.” Some would
hold that fruit is the lost people who are won to the Lord. However, those who are born from
above are born of God, not of us, and they are God’s children, not ours. Paul tells us plainly
in Gal. 5.22-23 what fruit is: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.” Fruit is the Christian character that the Holy Spirit
develops in us, and that, in fact, is Christ himself formed in us (Gal. 4.19). Love is one of the
fruits of the Spirit, and that is what the Lord Jesus spoke of in v. 9. He told us to remain in his
love. We noted above that the branch makes no effort to produce fruit. It simply remains in
the vine, and the life flowing through the vine into the branch produces the fruit. We are not
to try to be loving, but just to stay in the Lord Jesus. If we do, he will produce love in us. The
fruit of the Spirit will be instrumental in bringing the lost to Christ, but the fruit is not those
won but Christ in us manifested in his various characteristics.

238

10If you should keep my commandments you will remain in my love [agape], as I have
kept the commandments of my Father and remain in his love [agape].
How do we remain in the love of the Lord Jesus? V. 10 tells us: by obedience. Is this
salvation by works? No, we do not obey in order to gain God’s love. We already have his
love by grace. We obey to remain in his love. God will not stop loving us if we do not obey,
but we will not experience his love. Obedience is the key to the continued experience of and
growth in the love of God. It is like Acts 5.32: God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey
him. Does this mean that a person does not receive the Spirit until he has reached some
required level of obedience to God? No, the Spirit is received by faith when a person turns to
Christ in repentance and faith and is born from above. If he is then disobedient to God, he
does not lose the Spirit, but he quenches him and grieves him and does not enjoy a greater
supply. If he obeys God, then he finds the Spirit being supplied in more and more fullness.
As his capacity is expanded by obedience, the fullness of the Spirit increases. We remain in
God’s love by obedience.
11These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be
made full.
Another fruit of the Spirit is joy. The point of the Lord Jesus in v. 11 is that if we
remain in him, thereby letting the Spirit do his work in us, joy will be produced. Everyone
wants to be happy. People have differing ideas of what will make them happy, but they all
agree on happiness. The Lord Jesus says that happiness is not a worthy goal. If a person has
happiness as his goal, he will not attain it. Why is that? Because happiness is not a goal but a
by-product. It is a fruit. It is produced by the life in a person, not by his efforts to attain it.
God made us so that true happiness is found in self-giving. That is the nature of God, and he
made us in his image. If a person is seeking happiness, that is necessarily self-centered, so the
quest will fail. But when one remains in the Lord Jesus, thus allowing the Holy Spirit to deal
with his flesh and change him from a self-centered into a self-giving person, he will find joy
welling up within him. It will just happen. It is a fruit that the Vine produces in its branches.
The joy of the Lord is not the carefree happiness of the world. Many Christians think
they will be exempt from suffering when they turn to the Lord and are surprised to learn
that the path of the Lord leads through all sorts of trials. The world’s idea of happiness is
freedom from problems and having what one wants. God produces something far better, joy
out of sorrow. It is better because it deals with reality. Everyone suffers. The wish for a
problem-free existence will not he fulfilled. It is better, also, because it is enduring. Joy that
has been tested by sorrow and prevailed will not fail. The world’s kind of happiness will
vanish with the slightest inconvenience. Biblical joy will well up in the midst of suffering.
That is one of the fruits of remaining in the Lord Jesus.

239

12This is my commandment, that you should love [agapao] one another as I loved
[agape] you.
The Lord Jesus said in v. 10 that keeping his commandments is the key to remaining
in his love. Now in v. 12 we are told one of his commandments: that we love one another as
he loved us. Our relationship with God must affect our relationships with each other. We
cannot say that we love God if we do not love our brothers. That is one of the points of John’s
first epistle. But, as we saw earlier, if this command to love is nothing more than a command,
we are no better off than the Jews under the Law. The Law tells us what to do but imparts no
power to do it. That is why the Jews failed. We fail, too, if we attempt to keep the commands
of the Lord Jesus as laws. How do we keep them? By remaining in him. If we do so, his Spirit
fills us and works in us to change us from within and to fill us with his power to be obedient.
The key to obedience is not effort, but remaining in the Vine.
13Greater love [agape] than this has no one, that someone lay down his life for his friends
[philos].
14You are my friends [philos] if you should do the things I command you. 15No
longer do I call you slaves, for the slave doesn’t know what his lord is doing, but I have
called you friends [philos], for all things that I heard from my Father I made known to
you.
Vs. 13-15 bring up a thought that is full of blessing, that of friendship with God. The
Lord Jesus showed us in v. 13 that he is the example. Having just given the command to love,
he showed the height of love, laying down one’s life, and that, of course, is what he did. And
he added that one did this for his friends. Then in v. 14 he spoke those wonderful words,
“You are my friends….” Until this point the eleven had been disciples and servants (the
Greek word literally means “slaves”). Now they were called friends. But there is an “if”
attached to the appellation. They were the friends of the Lord Jesus “if you do the things I
command you.” What he had commanded was that they love one another and that they obey
him, and we have seen that the key to that obedience is remaining in him.
V. 15 adds to the idea. The Lord Jesus would no longer call the disciples slaves
because a slave did not know what his master was doing. He would call them friends
because he was revealing to them what God was doing. A slave would be given a job to do,
but his master’s plans and dreams would not be revealed to him. He would receive only the
day’s assignment. But the master would reveal his ultimate plans to his friends. He would be
excited about his projects and would want to talk about them to his friends. So it is with God.
He has wonderful plans and he is excited about them. If we remain in the Lord Jesus, we are
his friends and he wants to tell us his dreams.
There are tremendous issues bound up in this revelation by the Lord Jesus of what
God was doing. He was revealing the eternal purposes of God. God is not just restoring the

240

Jews to earthly glory, though he will do that when they acknowledge their Messiah. He is
not just redeeming lost men, though he is doing that. He is preparing to give all things to his
Heir, his beloved Son. He is preparing a bride to reign with that Son for eternity. The nature
of God is love and authority, and he is readying a Son and a people to exhibit that nature
forever through fellowship and dominion. We do not know the full extent of what God will
do in eternity, or even much of it, but it will be marvelous beyond our imaginations. The
Lord Jesus reveals some glimmer of that to his friends.
There is a very interesting parallel in the Bible to these statements by Jesus. In 2 Chron
20.7, Is. 41.8, and James 2.23, Abraham is called the friend of God, the only man in the Old
Testament so called. And what do we read in Gen. 18? After the angels had announced to
Abraham that a son would be born to him a year later, they started off toward Sodom on
their mission of destruction of the wicked city. But then they stopped and the Lord said,
“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” Abraham was the friend of God, so
God would reveal to him his plans. What a wonderful relationship with God that man of
faith came into. We may enter into the same fellowship, if we do as the Lord Jesus
commanded, remain in him.
16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear
fruit and that your fruit would remain, that whatever you may ask the Father in my name
he would give to you. 17These things I command you, that you should love [agapao] one
another.
The thoughts of the Lord Jesus on the matter of fruit-bearing are brought to a close
with a most instructive statement. Perhaps we all have the tendency to think that we had a
number of options and chose to follow the Lord Jesus. In a way that is true for we do have
free will, but the deeper truth, as revealed in v. 16, is that we did not choose him, but he
chose us. That is a staggering statement. He is God, the eternal, almighty, holy God. We are
sinful creatures, far beneath him both in nature and in sin. Yet he chose us to be his. What
grace! What incomprehensible love! There is little that needs to be said about Jn. 15.16 by
way of explanation. We can only worship at the feet of one who loves us so.
But he chose us for a purpose, that we should bear fruit. Christ himself is to be formed
in us so that his character is displayed in us. Again he says that if we so remain in him as the
branches remain in the vine, we will be able to ask anything in his name, and the Father will
give it. And again he says that he commands us to love one another. Love, God’s love, above
all things, is the mark of Christians. It is the fruit of the Spirit, for it is the very nature of God.
In closing our own thoughts on this passage, let us ask a few questions. First, let us
ask again, what is the purpose of a vine? It is to bear fruit. What fruit, specifically? Grapes.
What are grapes for? For making wine. What is wine in the Bible? A symbol of the Holy
Spirit. That is, our purpose as branches in the Vine is to be channels of the Holy Spirit into
the world through the character he produces in us, and that character, of course, is Christ

241

himself. But how is the wine produced? By crushing the grapes. The Lord Jesus himself is the
example. He was crushed that the life of God might flow out to us. And we are to be crushed
that his life might flow to others. That is another explanation of our sufferings. They are the
dealings of God with our flesh, that it might be put to death and his life flow out in its place.
The grapes must be crushed that the wine may flow.
One final question: what is fruit for? We tend to think that the fruits of the Spirit are
ornaments that make us look good as Christians. As the Spirit produces his fruit in us, we
become admirable. But fruits are not ornaments. Fruits are intended to be eaten, and they are
the vine’s means of spreading its seed. They are means of conveying life. God does not
produce his fruit in us so that we can be admired, but so that we can be channels of his life.
The Lord Jesus is the one to be admired. He is the Vine, the source of the life. We are only
branches through whom that life flows, so long as we remain in him. Let us indeed remain in
the Vine, that his life may flow through us to our fellow Christians and to a lost world.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE DISCIPLES TO THE WORLD

John 15.18-16.4

Jn. 13-16 is the record of the final, intensive instruction the Lord Jesus gave his
disciples before his death, resurrection, final appearances, and ascension. He began with the
most important lesson, teaching them by his example of washing their feet that the church
was not to be a place where they would compete for position and title, but a place where
they would be servants. Then he went on to detail various aspects of their relationship with
him and with the triune God. Now, in the present passage, he deals with what might be
called the negative side, the relationship of the disciples to the world.
18If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before you. 19If you were of the
world, the world loves [phileo] its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose
you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20Remember the word that I
spoke to you, “A slave is not greater than his lord.” [Jn. 13.16] If they persecuted me, they
will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these
things they will do to you because of my name, for they don’t know the one having sent
me.
In vs. 18-20, the Lord Jesus made it plain that the world would hate the disciples, just
as it hated him. They should not be surprised when it happened, for they had the example in
him, and they, his servants, were not greater than their Lord. Persecution is to be the lot of
the followers of the Persecuted One.
This persecution was clearly for the sake of the name of Jesus, as v. 21 shows. The
disciples bore his name, and as such were identified with this one the world had rejected.

242

They did not know God, so they rejected the one God sent. They would likewise reject those
he sent.
22If I hadd not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no
excuse for their sin. 23The one hating me also hates my Father. 24If I did not do the works
among them that no other one did, they would not have sin, but now they have both seen
and hated both my Father and me, 25but that the word having been written in their Law
might be fulfilled, ‘They hated me without cause.’ [Ps. 35.19, 69.4]
Vs. 22-24 comprise one of those difficult passages of Scripture. The Lord Jesus said
that if he had not come, the world would not have sin. Why, then, did he come? Would it not
have been better for them if he had left them alone? It seems as though his coming
condemned them. A similar thought is expressed by Paul in Rom. 7.9-13. The answer seems
to be that the Lord Jesus meant that they would not have knowledge of their sin if he had not
come. They still would have had sin. If an unconscious man is put into a boat headed for a
waterfall, he will be ignorant of his danger, but he will plunge to his death nonetheless. So
the world is in sin, though it may not know it. The coming of Christ takes away any excuse
for not dealing with sin, for he has revealed the truth and provided a way out. God is never
without a witness (Acts 14.17). No man, standing before God for judgment, will be able to
say that God is unfair with him, that he never had a chance. Even nature testifies to the
reality of God. In Rom. 1.18-20 Paul clearly states that the reality of God is known from
nature, but that men have suppressed the truth. The coming of Christ goes far beyond nature
in testimony to God. If those who ignore the testimony of nature are without excuse, how
much more those who have been in the presence of Christ or that of the good news? And the
coming of the Lord Jesus not only revealed the sin of the world, but provided a way for that
sin to be forgiven. Not accepting that forgiveness is sin in itself.
The Lord Jesus showed that this hatred of the world for him was prophesied in the
Old Testament by quoting from Ps. 35.19 and 69.4. He said that they hated him without a
cause, and how true that was. All he did was express the love of God in words and in works.
He gave no reason for arousing hatred, yet the world hated him anyway. Ps. 69 is a
messianic psalm, one of those psalms that particularly prophesy of Christ. It would be
beneficial to the reader to study that psalm noting especially vs. 4, 9, and 21, all prophecies of
Christ, and 25, a prophecy concerning Judas, the betrayer.
26When the Helper may come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth
who goes out from the Father, that one will bear witness concerning me, 27but you also are
witnesses, for you are with me from the beginning.
The first aspect, then, of the disciples’ relationship with the world is that it will hate
them as it hated their Lord. The second is seen in vs. 26-27. When the Holy Spirit came, he

243

would reveal to the disciples inwardly that all that the Lord Jesus said was true, despite his
rejection by the world. He would bear witness concerning Christ. So would the disciples, to
the world. Their relationship with the world was to be one of witnessing to it the truth
concerning the Lord Jesus, despite its rejection of him and them. We will see more of this
aspect of the relationship a bit later.
1These things I have spoken to you that you may not be caused to stumble.
The Lord Jesus had told the disciples these things in preparing them for their coming
rejection by the world, and he indicated this truth in 16.1 by using a figure used over and
over of him by the Bible. He said that he told them these things so that when they happened,
they would not stumble. The idea of stumbling is connected with the fact that the Lord Jesus
is a rock. He was the Rock in Exodus from which the Israelites drank water when Moses
struck it with his staff. He is the Rock of Dan. 2 that will crush the kingdoms of this world in
the end. He is also the Rock over which we can stumble or on which we can build (1 Peter
2.6-8). The difference between stumbling and building is faith. The Lord Jesus does not meet
our expectations, so we must make a choice when we encounter him. Will we have faith in
him or not? If we do not, we stumble over this Rock who is not what we thought Messish
would be. If we do have faith in him, he becomes the foundation stone of our lives.
The disciples expected earthly glory for Israel when the Messiah came, but Jesus knew
they would get, not glory in the world, but persecution from it. He knew that their
expectations would cause them to stumble if they were not prepared for what would
happen, so he told them in advance what their relationship with the world would be.
2They will make you banished from the synagogue, but an hour is coming that everyone
having killed you would think it to offer service to God.
V. 2 gives a further indication of the shocking and wicked nature of the persecution
the disciples would suffer. It would come, not just from those who rejected God, but from
those who claimed to represent him. They would be put out of the synagogues for their
faithfulness to Christ. Indeed, some would be killed by the religious establishment. This
prophecy shortly came true in the persons of Stephen and James, the brother of the author of
this gospel, in Acts 7 and 12. And how often it has proved true down through the centuries.
The translation given is a bit awkward, but it cannot be put into polished English in a way
that truly conveys the thought of the Greek. The word translated “in order that” is a word
expressing purpose. It is not just that an hour will come when this will take place, but in
order that it will take place. It is part of the purpose of God. Just as the Lord Jesus had his
hour (“My hour has not yet come;” “knowing that his hour had come”), so do the disciples.
Its purpose is to reveal what is in the world and to refine the followers of the Lord. We will
see more of this in 16.32.

244

There has always been a religious establishment that has claimed to represent God,
when it in fact is a tool of Satan. It is one of Satan’s cleverest ploys to raise up religious men
who do not know God. In the day of the Lord Jesus, the establishment was Judaism. The
Jews killed the Son of God in the name of God. In our day, all too often, the establishment
calls itself Christian. Much of Christendom is no more than man’s religious system, not the

people of God. If the Lord Jesus came incognito, as he did the first time, to many of our so-
called churches today, he would be cast out just as surely as he was by the synagogues of

Judaism. He would proclaim the truth, by word and by life, and the “churches” would not
tolerate him. Christians today who take a clear stand for the Scriptural Jesus often find their
worst persecutors to be not those who reject God, but those who claim to speak for God.
3And they will do these things because they did not know the Father or me. 4But I have
spoken these things to you that when their hour may come you may remember that I told
you of them, but these things I did not tell you from the beginning because I was with
you.
V. 3 shows that the reason these religious men act as they do is that they do not know
God, any more than the first-century Jews did. Not knowing God, they did not know who
the Lord Jesus was, and they killed him. It is no different today.
The Lord Jesus then said again that he was telling the disciples these things to prepare
them. When they happened, they would remember his words and know how to respond. He
had not told them earlier because he had been with them, and because his hour had not yet
come, their hour had not yet come and they were in no danger. Now they would be in
danger, not just of persecution, but of stumbling, because he would no longer be with them
in the flesh, and they would enter into his humiliation in a way they had not known before.
The Lord Jesus is still the humiliated Messiah in this world, and will be until his return in
glory. His disciples walk that path. But he has prepared us for it by warning us ahead of
time. We can only expect the persecution of the world. That we can endure, even if it costs us
our lives, for eternity is our destiny. We cannot endure stumbling, so our gracious Lord has
prepared us.
Let us now summarize the teachings of Jesus about the relationship of disciples with
the world. The first question we need to ask is, What is the world? The world is human
society organized against God. It may appear to be chaotic, but it is not. It has a ruler who
has it well organized to carry out his purposes of usurpation against God. Jn. 12.31 tells us
that Satan is the ruler of this world. Eph. 6.12 speaks of “the rulers, the authorities, the world
powers of this darkness, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.” These are wicked
spirits whom Satan has appointed to govern various aspects of the world. Daniel gives us a
particular glimpse of this reality in chapter 10, where he records that when he prayed, an
angel was sent with the answer at once, but was hindered by the prince of Persia and thus
was delayed. This prince was the evil spirit who ruled Persia on behalf of Satan. One cannot

245

help wondering if that same spirit is in charge of the events of recent years in Iran (modern
day Persia).
Men of the world are deceived. They do not even know that Satan exists and scoff at
the idea. They certainly would not admit that they are controlled by him, but they are. John
tells us in his first epistle that the whole world lies in the evil one (5.19). Satan has organized
all of human society to oppose God, and men are his unconscious dupes. Do not the recent
happenings in the areas of morality, education, judicial systems, entertainment,
environment, and so on, give testimony that Satan has organized the world against God?
The world lusts after things that are limited in space and time. We normally think of
lust in terms of sexual desire, but it is possible to lust after anything. The world lusts after
things that will not last, material things, pleasure, power, fame. None of these things will go
beyond the grave with the person who lusts so heartily after them, yet it is part of Satan’s
deception of the world that he has men spending all their time and energy trying to acquire
things that will do them no good in eternity.
The word “world” (Greek kosmos) occurs in fifty-seven verses in the gospel of John. It
is one of the themes of John. Because of the large number of occurrences, we will not attempt
to list them all here, but we will note a few that give characteristics of the world. In Jn. 3.19,
we learn that the world is in darkness. That is the deception of Satan that we have noted. The
world does not even know that it is in Satan’s control, and many in the world do not know
that they are in opposition to God. We saw in Jn. 16.2 that the religious establishment will be
in the forefront of persecution of those who are true to God and his word. The religious ones
who do not know God are a part of the world, for the Babylonian system of religion, as
opposed to the Jerusalem from above, is of the world, of Satan and man, not of God.
Jn. 7.7 shows us that the world’s deeds are evil and that it hates the Lord Jesus
because he reveals its evil. We saw in Jn. 15.18-20 that the world hated the Lord Jesus first
and then his followers. Jn. 7.7 gives us the reason. The world does not want to admit the
truth about itself. The world is religious and wants God’s stamp of approval, but it wants it

by way of justification of its evil deeds, not by way of repentance. If we preach an all-
inclusive Jesus whose love allows him to excuse all and exclude none, the world will love

that Jesus and us, but he is not the Jesus of the Bible. That Jesus proclaims a blood-bought
salvation that is available only to repentance and faith. The world will not have that. It hates
that Jesus and those who proclaim him.
We have already noted Jn. 12.31, which reveals to us that the world has a ruler, Satan.
Men are not acting independently, as they proudly suppose. They are deceived.
Jn. 14.17 tells us that the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit because it does not
behold or know him. That is, the world is dead in spirit and has no means of communicating
with God, except repentance and faith. The world is out of touch with reality! The world that
prides itself so on consisting of hard realists who are so with it, is in fact out of touch with
reality, for it has no means of contacting its Maker and Judge who will still be on the throne

246

long after the world is forgotten. God is the ultimate reality, and the world knows nothing of
him because it cannot. It is dead in spirit.
These are just a few verses in John that reveal to us truth about the world. One final
verse is 16.33, where we learn that the Lord Jesus has overcome the world. Whatever the
world may do to us by way of persecution, we can rejoice in the fact that we dwell in the one
who is victorious over the world, and he dwells in us. Even if the world destroys our bodies,
it only releases us into that blessed presence. It can do nothing to harm us.
How do we sum up the relationship of disciples with the world? Three facts stand out
from Jn. 15.18-l6.4. First, we are to be separate from the world (2 Cor. 6.17-18). This
separation does not mean physical separation. It is not possible to get physically separated
from the world, for it is not a material thing but a principle in our own hearts. Paul wrote in
1 Cor 2.12 of “the spirit of the world.” The fallacy of monasticism is the belief that one can
escape the world by going apart to a monastery. If there were a place where the world was
not, as soon as a human being entered, the world would be there, for he would take it with
him. The world is in our hearts. It is in all of us. How then do we separate from the world?
By following the admonitions of John in 1 Jn. 2.15: “Do not love the world…,” and of Paul in
Col. 3.2: “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things on the earth.” Separation is a
matter of remaining in the Vine, of loving the Lord Jesus, of being submissive to his
indwelling Spirit who will win our hearts away from the world to Christ. We separate from
the world in our hearts by loving the Lord Jesus. Then, though we dwell in the world
physically, we are separate from it in heart. The Lord wants us in the world, for that is where
the need is that he wants to use us to meet, and where the opportunities to refine us are, but
he does not want us to be of the world.
The second aspect of our relationship with the world is that we will be hated by it. If
we hold fast to the word of God as it is, not as watered down, and to the Jesus of the New
Testament, we will incur the wrath of the world. It will not stand for the Jesus of the Bible or
for anyone who is true to him. We can expect persecution if we are faithful.
This statement raises a question. The truth is that in America we suffer little as
Christians. Those times may be changing, for already there is legal restraint on morality in
favor of freedom for a complete lack of morality. How far this trend will go only time will
tell. Nonetheless, at present, our Christian lives are relatively persecution-free. What does
this say about the extent of our commitment to Christ? The Lord Jesus, Paul, and Peter were
all quite clear about the fact that faithfulness to Christ would result in persecution. If we
suffer no persecution, are we really all-out for the Lord? These questions are raised not to
arouse guilt, to cause introspection, or to incite to rash action, but simply to bring us to our
knees before the Lord. If we are to be persecuted, it is under his sovereignty, and that means
in his time. We need not endeavor to bring persecution on ourselves. But we do need to
examine ourselves honestly before the Lord. If our behavior does not elicit the same response
from the world that our Lord’s did, what about our behavior?

247

The final aspect of our relationship to the world that is brought out by our passage is
that we are to be witnesses to Christ in the midst of it. We need to understand quite clearly
that we will not convert the world to Christ. One often hears that it is the task of the church
to win the world for Christ. That is not true. The world opposes God and always will. Its
opposition will end only when God intervenes himself and destroys it. Our job is not to win
the world, but to bear witness to it. There are some in the world who will come out of it if we
hold forth the truth. We are to shine as lights in the darkness. In Phil. 2.14-16, Paul writes,
“Do all things without complaining and arguing, that you may be blameless and innocent,
children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among
whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life….” That is it. We are to
be lights in the world, just as the Lord Jesus was and is the Light of the world. We will not
end the darkness, but some in it will respond to the light.
Thus we have the teaching of our Lord Jesus on our relationship to the world: we are
to be separate from it; it will hate us; we are to bear witness to it. May God grant us the grace
to be in such a living relationship with him that we relate rightly to the world as well.

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

John 16.5-15

In Jn. 14.1-3 and 14.28, the Lord Jesus had already dealt with the disciples’ response to
his announcement that he was going away. In the first instance, he told them not to have
troubled hearts because he was going to prepare a place for them and would come again for
them; in the second, that they should rejoice for his sake, that he was returning to the glories
of Heaven and his Father’s presence. Now, in 16.5-6, the matter comes up for a third time.
5But now I am going to the one having sent me and none of you is asking me,
‘Where are you going?’ 6But because I have told you these things sorrow has filled your
heart. 7But I tell you the truth, it is an advantage to you that I should go away, for should I
not go, the Helper will not come to you, but if I should go, I will send him to you.
The Lord Jesus has announced that he will be going away. Instead of being concerned
with his future course, the disciples are only preoccupied with their own sorrow at losing
one they love. That is only a natural response, but if they really loved him, would they not
have some interest in where he was going and what he would be doing? They did love him,
but such is the imperfection of human love.
This time the answer of the Lord Jesus to their troubled hearts is to tell them that it is
to their advantage that he go away, and v. 7 tells us what that advantage is. The advantage is
that he will send the Helper. Why is it an advantage to have an unseen Helper instead of the
obvious presence of the Lord Jesus? It is an advantage because it fills a desperate need of

248

ours that can be met in no other way. Up to the time of Jesus, the relationship to God had
been material and external. God dwelt in the Tabernacle or the Temple and was separated
from the people, even the priests, by walls and curtains. No one could go into the presence of
God on pain of death. The worship of God was external and from a distance. The people
went up to the Temple and offered their sacrifices. They observed the Law. Thus they were
approved by God, but they never got to know God.
Of course, their observance of the Law was imperfect, and thus they were never really
approved by God. That is just the failing of the Law. It can tell us what to do, but it can
impart no power to do it. No man can be justified under the Law because no man can keep it
to perfection.
When the Lord Jesus came, he internalized and spiritualized the relationship with
God. Because of his death our sins have been effectively dealt with, and thus we can come
into the presence of God. But more than just coming into his presence, we have an even
greater blessing. We have noted Acts 2.33 several times, the verse that tells us that when the
Lord Jesus ascended to the throne of his Father, he received the Holy Spirit and poured him
out on his people. The Spirit was not just poured onto people, but he took up residence
within them. In Jn. 14.17 Jesus told the disciples that the Holy Spirit was with them and
would be in them. Now we do not have an external Law demanding our observance without
providing the power to keep it, but an internal Spirit giving us an inward desire and power
to obey God. That is why it was to our advantage that the Lord Jesus go away: he sent what
we need, the indwelling Spirit.
Rom. 7 is the record of the Christian who has a genuine desire to serve God, but who
has not yet learned the way of victory. He is still trying to serve God in his own strength, and
he cannot do so any more than the Old Testament Jew could keep the Law. Rom. 8 gives the
answer: the indwelling Spirit. The Christian in Rom. 7 has the Spirit or he would not be a
Christian (Rom. 8.9), but he has not learned to walk in the Spirit and enjoy the victory of
Christ manifested by the Spirit. When he comes into that realization, he moves into Rom. 8
and victory. That is the advantage the Lord Jesus spoke of, both the new birth through the
entrance of the Spirit and the victorious life of the fullness of the Spirit. Without the going
away of the Lord Jesus to send the Spirit, we would not have this blessing of God himself
living within us and meeting our deepest needs.
8And that one having come he will convict the world concerning sin and concerning
righteousness and concerning judgment; 9concerning sin because they don’t have faith
into me; 10concerning righteousness because I am going to the Father and you are no
longer seeing me; 11concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged.
In Jn. 15.18-16.4 we saw the relationship of the disciples with the world. Now the Lord
Jesus turns to the relationship of the Holy Spirit with the world. It is one of conviction. The
Spirit convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. We use the verb

249

“convict” in two senses. One refers to causing someone to feel guilt, as when we say that
someone is under conviction. But the world does not feel its guilt, at least not consciously as
from God, and that is not the way the word is used in this passage. The other meaning is the
legal one, the finding guilty of a person by the court whether he is or feels guilty or not. He
may be innocent, but if the court convicts him, he is convicted. He may be guilty of the
wrongdoing, but feel no guilt, but if the court convicts him, he is convicted. That is the sense
of the word in these verses. The Holy Spirit convicts the world.
Just what does that mean? The Spirit convicts the world concerning sin because it did
not have faith in the Lord Jesus. The world did not have faith in the Lord Jesus and rejected
him. It went so far as to execute him as a criminal. But lack of faith is a sin. We saw in Jn. 6.29
that the work of God for us is that we have faith in the Lord Jesus. Paul wrote in Rom. 14.23
that whatever is not of faith is sin. Heb. 3.19 says that the Jews could not enter the land
because of lack of faith. Lack of faith is a sin. The world was guilty of lack of faith in regard
to the Lord Jesus. The very presence of the Holy Spirit in the world convicts the world of the
sin of lack of faith because it was the Lord Jesus who sent the Spirit (Acts 2.33). The world
was wrong about Jesus, and he was right. The Holy Spirit is present in our hearts and in the
world because of the Lord Jesus. The world stands convicted in the court of Heaven of lack
of faith in the Lord.
The Spirit convicts the world concerning righteousness because the Lord Jesus went to
the Father. The world said the Lord Jesus was unrighteous and executed him as a criminal.
In effect, it said that he was unrighteous and would go to hell. But he went to his Father,
proving that he was righteous and the world, unrighteous. He sent the Spirit, and the very
presence of the Spirit convicts the world of unrighteousness concerning the Lord Jesus
because his presence shows that he went to the Father, not to hell, and thus is righteous. The
world stands convicted in the court of Heaven of unrighteousness because of its rejection of
the Righteous One.
The Spirit convicts the world concerning judgment because the ruler of the world has
been judged. We have already seen that the world is opposed to God, that it lies in Satan (1
Jn. 5.19), and that it is ruled by Satan. We have also seen that Satan has been judged and
defeated by the Lord Jesus. Satan is a usurper, but now he has been judged by the Lord Jesus
and it is only a matter of time till the King of kings and Lord of lords chooses to assert his
rights in this world and cast Satan into the abyss. Since the world is under the control of
Satan it shares his judgment. The Lord said this plainly in Jn. 12.31.
When the Lord Jesus was arrested, “tried,” and executed, it appeared that he was
under judgment, but in truth he was the one doing the judging. The world condemned itself
by its rejection of the Lord Jesus. He was not being judged. He was in complete control of the
situation and voluntarily laid down his life because it was the will of God.
Now we see that the presence of the Spirit in the world and in believers is proof that
Satan and the world have been judged, for it shows that the Lord Jesus went to the Father, or
he could not have received and poured out the Spirit. The world was wrong about the Lord

250

Jesus as seen in their condemnation of him, when he was innocent and went to his Father.
Then he poured out the Spirit. The very presence of the Spirit is proof. The world stands
convicted in the court of Heaven concerning judgment.
12I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now, 13but when
he may come, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak
from himself, but whatever he will hear he will speak, and he will tell you the things
coming.
14He will glorify me, for he will receive of mine and will tell you. 15 All things,
whatever the Father has, are mine. Because of this I said that he receives of mine and will
tell you.
Vs. 12-15 turn to a more positive aspect of the work of the Spirit, that of his ministry to
the disciples. The Lord Jesus said that he had much more to teach the disciples, but he could
not do so because they could not bear it at the time. How true that was. They had not even
understood what he had already told them. How could they grasp more? Why was this? The
answer is in 1 Cor 2.14, where Paul tells us that spiritual things are spiritually understood.
The disciples did not yet have the Spirit dwelling within them, though he was with them in
the person of the Lord Jesus, so they had not yet had their spiritual eyes opened, the eyes of
their hearts enlightened, as Paul has it in Eph 1.18. They needed a Spirit of wisdom and
revelation (Eph. 1.17). That was why they could not understand. Thus, though we may
sometimes be amused at their bungling, we cannot be judgmental of them. We have what
they did not have at the time, the indwelling Spirit, and we do no better. They are our
brothers!
But the Lord Jesus promises an answer in v. 13: the Spirit would come, and when he
did so he would guide into all the truth. There are two sides to this guiding into all the truth.
First is knowledge. Is that not the rest of the New Testament? The Spirit revealed many
things to the New Testament writers that the Lord Jesus did not deal with or only mentioned
without developing. Satan is the spirit of error, but the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. Satan
wants to deceive us, into hell if possible, but if not, into ruining our lives and stealing our
witness for God. But the Spirit reveals the truth, what is correct doctrine and what is the
right way to live. That is the knowledge side of the matter.
But the Spirit also wants to guide us into the experience of the truth. That is, he does
not just want us to know the truth. He wants us to live in the good of it. We may know all the
major doctrines and deeper life teachings and be able to preach sermons and write books
about them, but if we cannot apply them and live in victory, what good is our knowledge?
The Spirit wants us to know about crossing the Jordan from the wilderness into victory (from
Rom. 7 to Rom. 8), but he also wants us to cross the Jordan! He wants us to experience the
victorious life. He wants to lead us into both the knowledge and the experience of the truth.
In addition, the Spirit, when he came, would show the things to come. Is that not the
book of Revelation, among other passages? In Rev. 19.10 he is called the Spirit of prophecy.

251

There are other prophetic passages in the New Testament, such as 1 Thess. 4 and 2 Thess. 2,
but Revelation is the primary prophetic book. The Spirit has revealed what will happen at
the end to bring into manifestation the judgment of Satan and the world and to bring King
Jesus to the throne of the world that is rightfully his.
Finally, vs. 14-15 tell us that the Spirit will glorify the Lord Jesus, and this is the real
test of our emphasis on the Spirit. When we emphasize the Spirit, as we are doing now, does
it glorify the Lord Jesus, or does it glorify the Spirit himself? The Holy Spirit is worthy of
being glorified, for he is just like the Lord Jesus, humble, self-effacing, but he does not want
to be glorified, and it is not the will of God that he be glorified. The Lord Jesus is the delight
of God, his Heir to whom he intends to give everything. He sent the Spirit to glorify him.
Even when we deal with the Spirit, it should glorify the Lord Jesus.
When we deal with the Spirit, does it glorify the Lord Jesus, or does it glorify some
manifestation of the Spirit? God certainly does not want us to put the emphasis on an
experience, no matter how wonderful it may be. The manifestations are given to build up the
body that it may be able to glorify the Lord Jesus. What a wrong way it is to go for Christians
to magnify some experience, even though it be a genuine manifestation of the Holy Spirit,
and especially is it wrong when they insist that everyone else must have the same
experience. The Spirit gives different people different gifts and experiences, but all to the
edifying of the body in its testimony to Christ. This is the primary work of the Holy Spirit in
this world, the glorifying of Jesus Christ, and that is the test of all our claims of spirituality
and dealing with the Spirit. Do they glorify the Lord Jesus?
Thus we see five aspects of the Holy Spirit’s work revealed by the Lord Jesus. He is
our Helper. He convicts the world. He guides into all truth. He reveals things to come. He
glorifies the Lord Jesus. There is more to his work, but these are the matters dealt with by the
Lord in these verses. May God grant us the grace to know the Spirit of God intimately in
these workings, and may he use us, like that blessed Spirit, to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ.

JESUS’ FINAL WORDS OF INSTRUCTION TO HIS DISCIPLES

John 16.16-33

We come now to the last words of instruction by the Lord Jesus to his disciples.
Chapters 13-17 comprise his final, intensive preparation of them for his impending death and
all that followed. Most of what has gone before dealt with the various relationships of the
disciples, to each other, to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to the world. Now he offers
a concluding word to his own.
16A little while and you no longer see me, and again a little while and you will see
me.” 17Therefore some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he is saying
to us, ‘A little while and you don’t see me, and again a little while and you will see me?’

252

And, ‘For I am going to the Father?’” 18They said, “What is this that he says, ‘the little
while’? We don’t know what he is saying.” 19

Jesus, knew that they were wanting to ask
him and said to them, “Are you asking among yourselves concerning this, that I said, ‘A
little while and you don’t see me, and again a little while and you will see me?’

20Amen,
amen I say to you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice. You will be made
sorrowful, but your sorrow will become joy.
The present passage is one of the more difficult in John to interpret. The reason is that
it is not entirely clear what the Lord Jesus meant by the phrase a “little while,” used seven
times in vs. 16-19. He told the disciples that in a little while they would no longer see him,
and in another little while they would see him again. There are two “little whiles.” Two
possibilities present themselves for each one.
The first little while could refer to the time between when the Lord Jesus spoke and
his death. At his death he would be taken from them and they would see him no longer. If
that is what he meant, then it is probable that the second little while refers to the time that he
was in the grave. At his resurrection, they saw him again.
On the other hand, the first little while could refer to the time between when he spoke
and his ascension, at which time he passed from the sight of the disciples, no longer to be
seen by them. If this is the meaning, then the second little while would refer to the time until
the second coming of Christ, at which time his followers would see him again. It would not
be the original disciples who would see him again in this case, requiring that the reference by
the Lord Jesus be to his followers in general, and not to the eleven men he spoke to at that
time.
These words of the Lord Jesus follow immediately on his teaching that the Holy Spirit
would come to them, and this would argue for the latter possibility, for the thought would
be that while the Spirit was with them, they would no longer see him. However, the subject
changes in Jn. 16.16, so this argument is not conclusive.
In v. 17, in their questioning of one another, the disciples linked Jesus’ going to his
Father with the little whiles. This might at first glance appear also to argue for the latter
view, but it does not necessarily do so. We learned in Jn. 13.1 that the Lord Jesus went to his
Father at his death, in spirit, before he went to him in body at his ascension. Thus the
mention of his going to his Father in v. 17 could refer to either going, the spiritual or the
physical, so this factor is not conclusive.
V. 20 could also apply to either situation. The disciples had great sorrow at the death
of the Lord Jesus, while the world rejoiced, and that sorrow was turned to joy at the
resurrection. But there is also sorrow at the absence of the Lord Jesus and the persecution
and trials of this life since his ascension, and that sorrow will also be turned to joy at his
appearing. So neither is this statement conclusive.
How then are we to take the Lord Jesus’ reference to the two little whiles? In v. 23 he
tells the disciples that “in that day,” after their sorrow has been turned to joy, they would ask

253

of the Father in his name and he would give it to them. That seems to be a clear reference to
the age we now live in, the time after the resurrection. If that is true, then it is the
resurrection that ended the second little while. It was the resurrection that gave joy to the
disciples as they saw their Lord alive after all their hopes had been dashed by his death. The
first little while referred to the time between when the Lord Jesus spoke and his death, the
second, to his time in the grave. That is how we take the passage. Alford says that the second
little while began to be fulfilled at the resurrection (which would mean that the first began
when the Lord Jesus first spoke these words), was mainly fulfilled at Pentecost, and will be
finally fulfilled at the second coming of the Lord.
Let us hasten to add, however, that this is the primary meaning and does not totally
exclude the other possibility. The joy that disciples experience in knowing the resurrected
Lord will come to an ultimate fulfillment at his return. Joy that is tempered now by human
limitation and worldly suffering will know no bounds in that day. We still know some
measure of sorrow because we do not see the Lord Jesus face to face, even though we joy at
his presence in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and we know the sorrow of suffering. All
will be pure joy when we look on him who died for us.
While the disciples were wondering among themselves about all this, the Lord Jesus
perceived the confusion without their asking him. It is interesting that the eleven had all the
answers present in their midst, but instead of asking him, true to human nature they pooled
their ignorance. How often we humans do that. We discuss some matter endlessly among
ourselves when none of us has the answer. Why do we not look to the Lord? He has all the
answers. Having perceived their desire to question him, the Lord Jesus spoke first. He told
them that they would have great sorrow: they would weep and lament. The world would
rejoice. They had come to love the Lord Jesus and to believe that he was far more than a man.
All the joy they found in that relationship would be destroyed almost in a moment by his
death.
What a witness to the truth of this statement are the two walking on the road to
Emmaus in Luke 24. When the Lord Jesus joined them and asked what they were discussing,
they were amazed that he was the only person in Jerusalem who did not know what was
going on concerning him. They explained a bit about the events, and then said that they had
hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel. Hope gone! Sorrow reigning.
And the world rejoiced. The Jews had gotten rid of the trouble maker who would
destroy their religious system and perhaps even what measure of freedom and national
existence they had. Rome had executed a traitor and need not worry about a pretender to the
throne. A revolt had been nipped in the bud. The world at large could now get on with its
sins without the exposing searchlight of this meddlesome prophet.
21A woman when she gives birth has sorrow, for her hour has come, but when she gives
birth to the child she no longer remembers the tribulation because of the joy that a man

254

was born into the world. 22So you now also have sorrow, but I will see you again and your
heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy from you.
But, said the Lord Jesus, the sorrow of the disciples would be turned to joy. Then he
gave an illustration. A woman who is bearing a child has great sorrow because of the pain of
childbirth. Yet, instantly, when the baby is born, she forgets all the pain for joy that a man
has been born into the world. Is that not true? Every mother has suffered the agonies of birth,
but every mother has seen the sorrow swallowed up by joy at the sight of that little face and
the sound of that little cry. Just as suddenly was the sorrow of the disciples turned to joy
when they saw the Lord Jesus alive.
There is a further close correspondence between the example of childbirth and the
death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The sorrow and the joy of both are inherently
related. The pain of childbirth is necessary for the joy. Without the pain, there would be no
joy. So it is with the Lord Jesus. When the disciples saw him again, he was in resurrection
life. Their joy was on a completely different foundation. It was now indestructible, for it was
based on life from the dead, life no longer subject to death. Yet the death was necessary for
the resurrection. There can be no resurrection without death. The joy springs directly from
the sorrow, which is necessary for its existence. A new life has come into the world,
resurrection life, just as a new life comes into the world when a baby is born. Both come out
of sorrow. This is perhaps why the Lord Jesus is called “the firstborn of the dead” in Col. 1.18
and Rev. 1.5. Also, Acts 2.24 says that when God raised up the Lord Jesus he was “releasing
the birth pangs of death.” That is, the sufferings of the Lord Jesus at the cross were the birth
pangs of the age to come, the millennial reign of the Lord. You might read the book of
Philippians from this perspective. Philippians is known as the book of joy. Read it, counting
the references to joy and the references to suffering (using various words). There are more
references to suffering. The reason the joy of Philippians is so great is that it is joy that has
triumphed over suffering and sorrow.
The Lord Jesus emphasizes the eternal nature of the joy the disciples felt at his
resurrection in v. 22: “… and no one takes your joy from you.” It lasts forever. It is in
resurrection. This lasting forever brings up the matter of the Lord’s return, the kingdom, and
Heaven. The woman who gives birth first goes through the great pangs of labor, but that
labor gives way to joy. The Bible teaches that there will be birth pangs before the new world
that the Lord Jesus will bring in when he returns: Matt. 24.8: There will be great suffering as
this age draws to a close, but that suffering will suddenly turn to joy for those who are
awaiting the return of the Lord when he appears with power and great glory. Amen! Come,
Lord Jesus!
23And in that day you won’t ask me anything. Amen, amen I say to you, whatever you may
ask the Father in my name he will give to you.

255

V. 23 begins a new section of the passage before us. The Lord Jesus makes further
revelations about the nature of the relationship between the disciples and their risen Lord.
“In that day,” he says, they will have two things, fullness of knowledge and fullness of
power. He says that they will ask him no question. That is fullness of knowledge. That does
not mean that we know everything in our heads. We are still full of questions, are we not? It
means that we have dwelling within us the one who does have all the answers, and he will
reveal them to us as we need to know them, if we are in a condition to hear. God speaks in a
small whisper, as Elijah learned in 1 Kings 19.12. He will not shout above the clamorings of
the world, or our own clamorings. We must be still to hear God. We cannot hear him above
the television and the radio. We cannot hear him when we are speaking, especially when we
are shouting at God to do what we want. But when we get quiet and spend time before the
Lord in his word, he will make known the answers we need as we need them. (I remember a
time in my own struggle when I ws constantly crying out for God to speak to me, and he
said to me, rather bluntly, “If you would shut up you might hear me.”) We have fullness of
knowledge dwelling within. That is what John means in his first epistle by the anointing that
remains (1 Jn. 2.27).
We also have fullness of power. If we ask anything in the name of the Lord Jesus, God
will give it to us. We have already seen what that means, in 14.13-14, not that we have a
blank check from God to get anything we want, but that we are his representatives. When we
act on his instructions, we can be sure of his response. All the power of Heaven backs up the
ambassador who follows instructions.
24Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive that your joy
may be made full.
V. 24 shows the change that is taking place in the way God relates to men. We will see
more of this in v. 28. Up to this point, the disciples had asked nothing in Jesus’ name. They
were Jews. They simply did what the Law said. They had no means of access to God other
than through the priestly system. Now they are coming into a completely different
relationship with God. Instead of following a system in which every step is outlined ahead of
time, they can ask of God through Jesus Christ. They will receive, and their joy will be full! Is
that not true? On those occasions when God obviously and exactly and quickly answers a
prayer, do we not feel joy? Of course we do. It is wonderful to receive from God.
25I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. An hour is coming when I will no
longer speak to you in figures, but I will speak to you plainly about the Father.
In v. 25 the Lord Jesus says that a further change will be made. Up to now he has
spoken figuratively. Everything has been in parables and examples. But in that day, when
they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit who will open their eyes inwardly, they will be able to

256

understand. The things told them plainly comprise the rest of the New Testament after the
gospels. Jesus only hinted at much truth without developing it. Paul and John and the other
writers developed it under the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus. And it was plainly
spoken, not covered over by parables designed to conceal the truth from those under
judgment and to put heavenly truth in earthly language for men whose spiritual eyes had
not yet been opened by the indwelling of the Spirit. They would be able to discern spiritual
things, for they would be spiritual men (1 Cor. 2.14).
26In that day you will ask in my name, and I don’t say that I will ask the Father for you,
27for the Father himself loves [phileo] you, for you have loved [phileo] me and have had
faith that I came out from the Father.
In vs. 26-27 Jesus says that when the disciples ask of God under these new conditions,
he does not say that he will ask God to do it for them, for God himself loves them and will
do it for them. This does not mean that the Lord Jesus does not intercede for us, as he
certainly does (Rom. 8.34, Heb. 7.25). It means that we have come into a new relationship
with God because of him. Two facts explain what he was getting at. First, Rom. 5.10 says that
before the Lord Jesus dealt with our sins, we were enemies of God. God loved us, as Jn. 3. 16
tells us, but we did not experience and enjoy that love because we were his enemies. We shut
ourselves off from it.
The second fact is that the Greek word for “love” in Jn. 16.27 is the word phileo. The
word normally used for the love of God (the verb is agapao, the noun, agape) is unconditional
love that is dependent on the nature of the lover, not the actions of the one loved. God loves
all men in that way no matter what, and that is why he sent his Son. That is the word for
“love” in Jn. 3.16. The word phileo, though, means to love as a friend. The Lord Jesus says
that the Father himself loves us as friends. That is, we are no longer his enemies. We have
been reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5.18-19) and have come into the good of agape. We have
become God’s friends. That is what the Lord Jesus referred to in 15.13-15. In that sense, we
do not need the Lord Jesus to ask God to do things for us, for we may ask him ourselves. But
we must understand clearly that we do indeed need the Lord Jesus, for it is in him that we
have access to God. He is our High Priest. We may ask God because, and only because, we
are in Christ.
Why have we become friends of God? Because we are friends of the Lord Jesus and
have had faith in him. The same word for “love,” phileo, is used of our love for him in v. 27.
We have loved him as a friend. He is the delight of God, and anyone who befriends him and
has faith in him will be the friend of God the Father. What a marvelous relationship we stand
in! Praise the Lord!
The Lord Jesus had said that he would no longer speak in figurative language, but
would tell us plainly of the Father. One of the things he would tell us was of the love of God.
It is John again who wrote in 1 Jn. 4.16 that God is love. That is plain speaking. And it

257

represents an advance in understanding, for the Greek word for “love” in 1 Jn. 4.16 is agape.
We do want to be friends of God, but as we come to know more about God, we realize that
his very nature is love and that his love is not based on whim or on our actions. There is
nothing we can do to stop God from loving us. It is his nature. We may fall out with a friend,
but we will never escape the love of God. That is agape.
28I came out from the Father and have come into the world. I am leaving the world again
and am going to the Father.”
V. 28 shows what has been happening in the earthly ministry of Jesus, to he climaxed
in his death and resurrection. The Lord Jesus came from the Father into the world; now he is
leaving the world and going back to the Father. That seems a simple statement, but it is full
of meaning. Why is he going back? Because his work is finished. That phrase “the finished
work of Christ” is an old theological term, and a very good one. It means that Christ has
done all the work necessary for our salvation. There is nothing more to be done, either by
him or by us. He does not need to die again, and we do not need to do any works to gain
salvation. All there is for us to do is to receive by faith what the Lord Jesus has provided. His
work is finished. Because it was finished, there was no more need for him to stay in the
world and he went back where he came from.
The result of that work of the Lord Jesus is that God relates to men in a different way.
When he came, God related to man on the basis of the Law: do this and you will live. Of
course, man did not and could not keep the Law. Its purpose was to show him that he
needed something more. That something more was the finished work of Christ and the
consequent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That was brought about by the earthly ministry
and death of the Lord Jesus. Now God relates to man on the basis of grace. All we need has
been freely given by God. All we have to do is accept it. God does not say, “Do this and you
will live.” He says, “You live, so do this.” We do not do good works in an effort to gain
God’s approval. We have God’s approval, if we have accepted what Christ has done for us,
and that is why we do good works, and not just any good works, but the revealed will of
God. We live in the age of grace, when salvation, God’s acceptance, is freely available to all
who will take it. Christ’s work is finished. He has gone back to the Father.
29His disciples said, “Look, now you are speaking plainly and you are not speaking in
figures. 30Now we know that you know all things and have no need that anyone should
question you. By this we have faith that you came out from God.
At this point the disciples respond. They say that now they understand because the
Lord Jesus is speaking plainly, not in figurative language. Now they know that he knows all
things and has no need for anyone to question him. By needing no one to question him, they
do not mean that there are no questions, just as in v. 23, for we have many questions. They

258

refer to the reason for the questioning. There are two reasons to question a person. One is to
get information. That is not their meaning in this verse, for they and we need much
information. The other is to establish the truthfulness of a person. When someone makes
claims, people may doubt his honesty or knowledge and question him in an effort to
establish the truth of what he says. The disciples mean that they have come to know that the
Lord Jesus is both truthful and fully knowledgeable, so there is no need to question him to
establish these facts.
As a result of this, they say, they have faith that the Lord Jesus came from God. This
statement was of mixed character. They really did have faith, and they loved the Lord Jesus.
They were prepared to die with him, as Peter had said, sincerely, in 13.37, and Thomas in
11.16. Yet, as with Peter in 13.37, there was an element of boastfulness, of confidence in the
flesh, in their claim to believe. It was as though they said, “Now we have it. We do not need
anything else from the Lord. We have faith.” We have faith. That is just the trouble. The
emphasis was on the “we.” The confidence was in the flesh. the Lord
One of the most important lessons we can learn is the one the Lord taught Peter
through his denial, and that is to put no confidence in the flesh, and that includes our faith. If
we trust in our ability to exercise faith, even that will fail. God wants to purify our faith. We
read in 1 Peter 1.7 about “the testing of your faith, more precious than gold which perishes,
though tested by fire.” Why does God test our faith by fire? Because like gold it is not pure.
We have faith in God, but our faith is mixed with unbelief and confidence in the flesh. Thus
God puts us through fires of testing to burn out that dross and refine our faith so that we
may arrive at what Paul wrote of in Gal. 2.20: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no
longer live, but the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith which is of the Son of
God.” That is the exactly literal translation, “faith which is of the Son of God.” God wants to
bring us to the point where we put no confidence whatever in our flesh, even in our ability to
have faith. He wants us to have a purified faith which is of the Son of God. Our confidence is
to be in him and him alone, even to exercise faith.
31Jesus answered them, “Now you have faith? 32Look, an hour is coming and has come that
you may each be scattered to your own places and you will leave me alone, though I am
not alone, for the Father is with me. 33These things I have spoken to you that in me you
may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take heart: I have overcome the
world.”
That was a lesson the disciples needed to learn as they boasted of their faith. So what
did the Lord do? The same thing he did with Peter. He arranged for a failure, one that had
been prophesied in Zech. 13.7: “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will he scattered.” That,
said the Lord Jesus, is what would happen. A time was coming, and had come, for the eleven
to be scattered. They would all desert him in his hour of trial. What was the reason for this
desertion? On the human level, it was simple cowardice. They ran for their lives, let happen

259

what may to the Lord Jesus. But God was behind it. He wanted all the eleven, like Peter, to
see themselves as they were and to lose all confidence in the flesh. The Greek uses the same
word of purpose that we saw in 16.2: an hour is coming and has come in order that you may
each be scattered, in order that you will leave me alone. Like Peter, they were restored, but
they always knew that they had deserted. They always knew they could not trust
themselves. They learned their lesson. What a blessed truth to know! God give us grace to
learn it.
The Lord Jesus finished his intensive instruction of the disciples with a comforting
word. He said, “These things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace. In the
world you have tribulation, but take heart: I have overcome the world.” By “these things” he
meant everything he had said or would say in chapters 13-17 to prepare them for the coming
events, but he also meant specifically to comfort them in the heartbreak they would feel over
deserting him and in the persecution they would suffer from the world after his ascension.
They would go through self-tribulation when they realized they had run away like cowards
when Jesus faced death. They would be persecuted by the world when they did his work
later on. But they could be at peace in all this, in him, he said. That “in him” is key. The Lord
Jesus is our peace. He does not give peace as a thing separate from himself. He is peace. We
have peace when we rest in him.
The reason we can have peace in him is that he has overcome the world. The Lord we
serve is victorious already. We know the outcome in advance. We are simply waiting for
time to run out. No matter what the world may do to us, it cannot hurt us ultimately, even if
it takes our physical lives, because we are in Christ. If we die physically, that is a blessing, for
we enter his visible presence.
One of the great calls of the Bible to the Lord’s people is to be overcomers. Not all
God’s people overcome. There are always a few who make the way into the blessings of God
for the whole. In the Old Testament, they are called the remnant. In the New Testament, they
are the overcomers. It was John again who wrote much about the overcomers in Revelation.
How do we overcome? By resting in the Overcomer. It is not by self-effort. It is by knowing
that the Lord Jesus has overcome, by resting in him, and by working out of that rest in
obedience to him.
The Passover Lamb is about to be sacrificed. That sacrifice will make possible all the
blessings of God revealed in his word. The Lamb has prepared his followers, and he leaves
them with this comforting word. They, as he did, will suffer persecution. “But take heart: I
have overcome the world.” That same word of comfort was recorded by one who heard it
spoken by those blessed lips that we, too, may take heart. We serve the same overcoming
Lord. Take heart. The Lord Jesus has overcome!

THE PRAYER OF JESUS BEFORE HIS ARREST

John 17.1-26

260

Chapters 13-16 of John were concerned with the private, intensive instruction of his
disciples by the Lord Jesus before his arrest, “trial,” and crucifixion. Now we come to his last
act before these final events, his prayer, apparently prayed aloud in the presence of the
eleven, for John remembered and recorded it.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this prayer is its utter unselfishness. The
Lord Jesus, the eternal Son of God, had always known perfect fellowship with God. As a
man he had lived a sinless life. Now he, an innocent man, faces execution as a criminal and
blasphemer and separation from his Father as he is made sin. One would think that his only
thought would be for himself, either for deliverance from this hour or at least for strength to
get through it. He did pray in this way in the other gospels, though not selfishly and with
complete submission to the will of God, but in this prayer in John, there is hardly a thought
of himself. He prays, in vs. 1-5, that the Father would be glorified through what is about to
transpire, and in vs. 6-26, that the disciples would be kept through and beyond his death,
and that, too, for the glory of God.
1These things Jesus said, and having lifted his eyes to Heaven he said, “Father, the
hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2as you gave him authority
over all flesh that to all whom you have given him he may give the gift of eternal life.
The Lord Jesus began by lifting his eyes to Heaven and saying, “Father, the hour has
come.” We have seen that this thought about the hour is a theme in John. It occurs numerous
times beginning in 2.4. The truth contained in this term is that God has a set time for him to
die. Nothing could harm him before that time, and we noted incidents when he simply
walked away from opponents who were about to attempt to kill him. When the hour came,
no one would take his life: he would lay it down because it was the Father’s will. That hour
had now come. The next event after this prayer was the arrest of the Lord Jesus.
Then the Lord Jesus asked that he might be glorified, but his unselfishness is revealed
in his stated reason for wanting to be glorified: “that the Son might glorify you.” The desire
of the Lord Jesus in this situation was that God would be glorified. It was indeed glory to
God for him to die as he did, for, first, it was perfect obedience on the part of the Lord, and
second, it was the means by which God brought salvation to the world. The words “glory”
and “glorify” occur eight times in this chapter. We will delve more deeply into its meaning
when we come to v. 4.
The Lord Jesus continues in v. 2 to show how he had already glorified God. He did so
by exercising authority over all flesh and by, in that authority, giving eternal life to those
given him by God. The events that are taking place make it appear that the Lord Jesus is
under judgment: he is the one about to be arrested, condemned, and executed. But the truth
is that he is exercising authority. He is the judge. His very presence forces men to make a
choice, and their choice determines their judgment. He exercised the authority of God all

261

through his earthly ministry, always ruling in every situation, and he rules now at the end.
He is about to lay down his life voluntarily. He is the authority in these circumstances. This
exercise of God’s authority glorifies God, for it shows that God, whose ways are not man’s
ways, is controlling the situation.
God is further glorified in the giving of eternal life. Man is lost, helpless, and hopeless.
Only God could do anything about it. He did so in Christ. It is glory to God for a man to
receive eternal life, for it reveals the power and love of God. The Lord Jesus secured eternal
life, thereby glorifying his Father.
3Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom you sent.
In v. 3 he reveals what eternal life is. It is simply knowing God as the Father and Jesus
Christ. Eternal life is not a thing we gain or receive. It is a person. The Lord Jesus does not
give us eternal life as a separate thing. He gives us himself. He is eternal life.
The average person who believes in God and an afterlife thinks that one gets to
Heaven by living a good life or observing certain religious practices or some combination of
the two. That is not what the Bible teaches. If we gained eternal life by living a good life, that
would mean that we earned it by our own efforts. The Bible is quite clear that we do not and
cannot earn eternal life. It is the free gift of God. It is not by our merits, for we are all sinners
who fall far short of the glory of God. It is by the merits of Jesus Christ as we put our faith in
him.
If eternal life were gained by living a good life, how could one ever be sure where he
stood? Who is keeping score? No matter how many good things a person did, he would still
be a sinner and he might leave undone something that he ought to do. How could he ever be
sure that his good outweighed his bad? It would seem to be a very precarious situation to be
trusting in one’s own goodness for God’s approval.
Neither are we saved by religious observance. A person can sit in a church service
every Sunday and go through all the rites or practices and still be lost. The most religious
people on earth were the Pharisees, and the Lord Jesus told them that they were children of
hell (Matt. 23.15). God is not religious. It is man who is religious. It is man who has invented
religious ceremonies for the church. They are not in the Bible. God is interested in
relationship, not religion. He wants people to know him and love him and enjoy his
presence.
How does one get to know God? First, by the new birth of Jn. 3. When a person puts
his faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior, the Holy Spirit enters him and makes his spirit alive
toward God, and he begins to know God. Then as he spends time in the Bible, in prayer, and
in fellowship with the Lord’s people, he grows deeper in his knowledge of God. It is not
knowledge about God, though that is an aspect of it, but knowing him personally. One

262

cannot get to know God by spending his time in the things of the world. It is only by
spending time with God that one gets to know him.
Many people draw back from the thought of spending time with God. It is a chore to
have to read the Bible and say prayers and so forth. They ask how much time they have to
spend in these activities to be acceptable. What a misconception! That is making reading the
Bible and praying into religious exercises that one must endure for some reason known only
to God, much as he is expected to sit through a boring church service. Somehow we have
gotten the idea that a few hours of torture a week gains us approval! What kind of God is
that? Not the one of the Bible.
God loves you. He wants to make himself known to you. Do you love anyone? Do
you ask how much time you are required to spend with someone you love to be acceptable?
Of course not! Twenty-four hours a day is not enough to spend with someone you love
(Well, some loved ones are a bit difficult to tolerate!). Do you love God? Knowing God is a
relationship, not being religious. As you spend time reading his word and listening for his
voice and making your thoughts known to him, he will begin to reveal himself to you. You
will probably not hear him speak out loud, but you will hear him speak by faith in your
heart. What a sweet experience it is to know the presence of God. There is nothing else like it
on this earth. But it takes time. It takes effort. You will not get to know God in front of the
television. As you get to know him, you will know what eternal life is: it is the Lord Jesus
himself, dwelling in your heart.
4
I have glorified you on the earth, having completed the work which you gave me that I
should do.
The Lord Jesus said in v. 4 that he glorified God on the earth by accomplishing the
work God gave him to do. We saw in Jn. 1.14 that the glory of God has to with his presence
and his power. When God’s presence is physically manifested, it is usually associated with
light. We noted Ex. 24.16-17, where the presence of God was like a fire burning on the
mountain top. Then God’s glory has to do with his deeds. When God works, he is glorified in
what he does. Our Scriptural examples were 1 Chron. 16.24 and Ps. 19.1, where God’s deeds
and his glory are equated. The reason God’s deeds bring glory to him comprises the third
element of glory: recognition. We saw in Ps. 79.9 and Is. 43.7 that God’s works cause people
to recognize him for who he is. This matter of recognition really gets to the heart of the
matter of glory. Glory is really fame in a positive sense. It is being thought well of by people
for great accomplishment. When God does something, people think well of him. He gains
glory.
That brings us to the real essence of glory. Both the Hebrew and Greek words for
“glory” have the same root meaning: weight. Glory is weight, heaviness, substance. It is that
which impresses. A person of weight and substance is impressive. That is the way God is. He
is impressive. Glory is the recognition someone gains through doing something weighty. In

263

the context of Jn. 17, it is a manifestation of the presence and power of God that brings great
honor to God. In Jn. 17.4 the Lord Jesus says that he glorified God by accomplishing the
work God gave him to do. He himself was a manifestation of the presence and power of
God. His work was such a manifestation. Did he not do it perfectly? Did it not glorify God?
Indeed it did.
5And now you glorify me, Father, with yourself with the glory that I had with you before
the world was.
The Lord Jesus concludes this prayer for the glory of God in v. 5 with the request that
God glorify him, Jesus, with himself, the Father, with the glory which he had with the Father
before the world was. In the Lord’s statement, “You glorify me,” the “you” is emphasized
and the verb “glorify” is imperative. That is, the Lord Jesus is in a sense commading the
Father to glorify him. “You,” he says, “you – glorify me.” Of course, he does not actually
command the Father, but the construction emphasizes his claim on the Father because of his
perfect obedience to him, and his heartfelt wish for the eternal glory that he has shared with
the Father to be continued. This shows the eternal nature of the glory of the Lord Jesus. He
was a man on earth who glorified God, but that was not the whole story. He had known that
glory eternally. His life on earth was lived to continue the glorification of his Father. His
prayer is that his death will glorify his Father. His desire to regain the glory he knew
eternally with the Father has its root in the unselfish desire to glorify the Father. Thus the
theme of the first five verses of Jn. 17 is a desire on the part of the Lord Jesus only for the
glory of God the Father.
6
I revealed your name to the men whom you gave to me out of the world. Yours
they were and to me you gave them, and they have kept your word.
In v. 6 the Lord Jesus turns his prayer to his disciples, and the rest of the chapter is
taken up with his thoughts of them, though the desire for the glory of God still comes
through. Three thoughts stand out in v. 6. First, the Lord Jesus says that he has manifested
God’s name to the disciples. What is that name? It is I AM. We have seen over and over in
John that the Lord Jesus uses the name I AM for himself, and that that is the Old Testament
name of God revealed to Moses at the burning bush in Ex. 3. He revealed I AM in his flesh.
That is what John meant in Jn. 1.14 when he said that the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld his glory. Glory is an impressive manifestation of God. That is
what Jesus was, and in him the glory of God was beheld by men. The glory of I AM was
beheld by men.
Ps. 22 is the messianic psalm that deals especially with the crucifixion. It is a
remarkable description of that brutal means of execution that was made before the Jews even
knew about crucifixion. What a prophecy Ps. 22 is. In v. 22 of the psalm, David, speaking

264

prophetically as the Lord Jesus, says, “I will declare your name to my brothers….” In the
prayer of the Lord Jesus in Jn. 17 we see the fulfillment of that prophecy. He did indeed
declare the name of God, I AM, to his brothers, the disciples. We will consider the name I
AM more fully a bit later.
The second statement of v. 6 that stands out is his indication that the disciples were
given to him by God out of the world. The world is doomed to destruction, for it opposes
God and will not change, and all men were in the world at one time or another. But God has
people in the world whom he has called out of it and given to his Son. They no longer belong
to the world. Instead of opposing God, they glorify him. They are being prepared as the
bride of Christ to reign with him eternally. One of the great purposes of God is to give his
Son a bride. These he has called out of the world. They are still in the world, but they are no
longer of it.
Finally, the Lord Jesus notes that these have kept the word of God, and the word for
“word” is logos. It is clear throughout the gospels that the disciples were spiritually dull and
did not understand what was going on in the Lord Jesus. Yet they perceived something in
him, trusted him, loved him, remained faithful to what he was saying and doing, despite all
their mistakes. Their hearts were right if their heads were not. They kept the logos, the
fundamental truth of God that is true whether anyone believes it or not. That is vital, as we
have already seen, and as we will see again momentarily.
7Now they have know that all things, whatever you have given me, are from you,
One result of their faithfulness to the logos was that they came to know the origin of
what the Lord Jesus did, as v. 7 shows. There was no question that he did miraculous things.
The Pharisees admitted as much, and they could not deny the presence of Lazarus alive in
their midst after he had been certifiably dead. Unable to deny the mighty works of this man
Jesus, the Jews questioned their origin and accused him of casting out demons by the prince
of demons. They said that his works were empowered by Satan. The disciples did not know
who this man was at first, but as they stayed with him and grew to love him, they came to
understand that he was more than just a man. They believed that he was the Messiah sent by
God, and they believed that what he had came from God. They knew the origin of the words
and works of the Lord Jesus.
8
for the speakings [rema] that you gave to me I have given to them, and they received them
and knew truly that I came out from you, and they had faith that you sent me.
V. 8 reveals why the disciples knew the origin of what Jesus had: he gave the words
which God gave him to them. Now the word for “words” is rema, the logos spoken livingly
by God to a person. Because the eleven kept the logos, even though it had not yet come alive
to them, at least in their understanding, it did come alive to them. It became rema. That is

265

why it is so important to read and study the Bible, even in those times when it seems dry and
meaningless. Never mind that. It is God’s job to make it alive. It is our job to store it up in our
hearts and heads so that God has something to bring alive. He cannot make it rema to us if it
is not there to begin with. If we will keep the logos, God will be faithful to make it rema to us.
He will speak the written word to our hearts. What a blessed experience that is!
The disciples’ understanding of the origin of the Lord Jesus and what he had came
from their receiving of the rema from him. Because they kept the logos it became rema to them,
and because of that, they grasped the truth: the Lord Jesus came from God. And he did not
just come from him: he was sent by him. This man Jesus was in the world on a mission from
God.
In Jn. 16.30 we saw that the disciples had faith that the Lord Jesus came from God. We
noted there that there was a strong element of the flesh in their claim to faith. It was boasting.
Yet, we saw, there was genuine faith. As fleshly as they were and as boastful as they were,
they did really have faith. The truth of that assessment is now verified by Jesus in Jn. 17.8
when he says that they had faith that God sent him. They had faith. It just needed to be
purified, as ours does.
9
I am asking concerning them. I am not asking concerning the world, but for those whom
you have given me, for they are yours. 10And all things mine are yours, and yours mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
In v. 3 the Lord Jesus specifies that it is the disciples that he was praying for, not the
world. There is no need to pray for the world as such, for it is doomed. But there are those
who will come out of the world to God if they are prayed for and witnessed to. That is one of
the things the Lord Jesus came to do, as well as to make those things effective by his
sacrificial death. These that he prays for have been given to him by God, for they are God’s.
We do not understand why one person belongs to God and another does not, why one has
faith and another does not. Only eternity will open that mystery to us. But it is nonetheless
true that God has people in the world that he is calling out, and he gives them to his Son.
Not just people, but all things, are held in common by the Father and the Son, the
Lord Jesus says in v. 10. Eternal glory, the worship of the angels, their love nature, all things
that belong to him belong to God, and all things that belong to God belong to him. Col. 1.16
says that all things have been created through and for the Lord Jesus, and Heb. 1.2 says that
God has appointed him Heir of all things. There is nothing that God has withheld from his
beloved Son. Furthermore, the Lord Jesus has been glorified in these things of God. Not only
as the eternal Son, but as a man on earth, he exercised perfect obedience in his stewardship
of the things of God. The things of God were given to him not for him to use selfishly, but to
accomplish the purposes of God. He did that to perfection. He had all the power of God at
his disposal, but he would not use it for selfish ends. He could easily have turned stones into

266

bread when he was hungry, and there was nothing inherently wrong in such an act, but it
was not the will of God for him, so he would not do it
That is one of the reasons that the Lord Jesus was so powerful and that the church
today is so powerless. God could trust him with his power, so he put it at his disposal. He
often cannot trust us with it. If we get power, we are likely use it to build religious empires
with ourselves at the center rather than using it only under the direction of God. If God
could trust us with his power, we would see more of it. The perfect stewardship of Jesus in
the things of God brought glory to him.
11And no longer am I in the world, and they themselves are in the world, and I am coming
to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given to me, that they may
be one as we are.
There were two specific things that the Lord Jesus actually prayed for the disciples in
the first part of his prayer, and we come to them in v. 11. The first is that God would keep
them, and the second is that they might be one. Then he added another request or two near
the end of his prayer. We will deal with the matter of unity at a later verse. For now, let us
look at the prayer of the Lord Jesus that God would keep the disciples.
Since the Lord Jesus is about to depart from the world and the disciples are to be left
in it, he prays for God to keep them. The first point that needs to sink in for us is that we are
kept. If we think we are standing for God, we are sadly mistaken. Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 10.12,
“Therefore let the one who thinks he stands take heed that he not fall.” We are not standing.
We are being held up. God keeps us. Let us never make the mistake of thinking that we have
become sufficiently strong to stand for God. We are utterly dependent on him. Without his
support we would not last for one second. The Lord Jesus knew that and prayed that his
disciples would be kept.
And he asked God to “keep them in your name, which you have given me.” We saw
above in dealing with v. 6 that the name of God which he gave to the Lord Jesus is I AM, and
that the name “Jesus” means I AM SAVES. It is in that wonderful name, I AM, that we are
kept. We have seen all through the good news of John that the Lord Jesus used the name I
AM of himself, and he often added to it some word that told what he is. He is all we need to
be kept. In the context of this prayer that we might be kept in God’s name which he gave to
Jesus, we might understand it as I AM _, and fill in the blank with what we need. This is
not the “Name it and claim it” false teaching that is going around in our day. We cannot fill
in the blank with “Cadillac,” unless God tells us to. It means that God is indeed all we need.
Let us go back through John and look at the I AM sayings and see what the Lord Jesus is to
us.
In 4.26 he is the Messiah. That means that he is God’s anointed King. Does your life
sometimes seem out of control and in need of someone to rule over it? That is the Lord Jesus.

267

He is what you need in times of confusion and disorder. You can fill in the blank with
“King.”
In 6.35, he is the Bread of life. Are you spiritually hungry? Is there an inner
dissatisfaction that the things of the world cannot fill? The Lord Jesus can satisfy that hunger.
You can fill in the blank with “the Bread of life.”
Do you sometimes feel that you are in darkness, that you do not know the truth about
something or which way you should go? Do you think you have been deceived by Satan or
that he is trying to deceive you? The Lord Jesus is the answer for that need. In 8.12 he is the
Light of the world. He has the answer to your question, the direction for your life, the truth
that will expose and overcome Satan’s lies. You can fill in the blank with “the Light of the
world.”
In 10.7, 8, 11, and 14, the Lord Jesus is the Door of the sheep and the Good Shepherd.
What does a shepherd do? He leads, feeds, and protects his sheep Do you need a shepherd?
Do you need your life to be led in the right ways so that you do not go wrong and ruin it? Do
you need that spiritual feeding we mentioned a moment ago? Do you need to be protected
from the onslaughts of the enemy? The Lord Jesus does all that. You can fill in the blank with
“the Good Shepherd.”
One of the most comforting of all the words of the Lord Jesus occurs in 11.25: “I AM
the resurrection and the life.” Not one of us has escaped that sorrowful ride to the cemetery
to put away the mortal remains of a loved one. If the Lord does not return first, not one of us
will escape the same end to this life. What hope is there? The Lord Jesus. He overcame death
and will one day abolish it. In him we will see our loved ones again. In him we will live
eternally ourselves. Do you know the grief of death? Of course you do. Do you long to
conquer death yourself? Of course you do. You can fill in the blank with “the resurrection
and the life.”
In 14.6 the Lord Jesus said that he is the way, the truth, and the life. That is, he is the
means of getting to God and entering into eternal life. Do you long to know God? Has the
world left you empty and longing for something that really satisfies deep down? The Lord
Jesus is the answer. You can fill in the blank with “the way, the truth, and the life.”
Have you entered into life, but you have a struggle maintaining your walk with God
and the sense of his presence? Do you sometimes feel that you are losing your grip on God?
Jn. 15.1 has the answer: The Lord Jesus is the vine. What is a vine? It is the source of life for
the branches. You do not need to struggle to hold on to God. Just stay in the Lord Jesus. Just
relax in him. He will supply the life you need. You can fill in the blank with “the Vine.”
Those are all examples of what our Lord Jesus is. What is your need? You can fill in
the blank with love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, hope, faith, humility. The Lord Jesus is
all those things and more. He is whatever you need. He is I AM. It is in that marvelous name
that you are kept, for that name is the supply for all your needs, I AM. Indeed he is!

268

12When I was with them I was keeping them in your name which you have given to me,
and I guarded them and not one of the lost himself except the son of destruction, that the
Scripture may be fulfilled.
Vs. 12 and 13 continue the thought of v. 11. The Lord Jesus has asked the Father to
keep the disciples, and now he says that he himself kept them while he was with them. This
statement reminds us of 16.4. There, after having warned the disciples of persecutions to
come, the Lord Jesus told them that he had not so warned them previously because he was
with them. That is, he protected them. As long as his hour had not yet come, he was safe
from anything man could do, and so were the disciples. Now his hour has come. He will lay
down his life, and then will leave the disciples physically after his resurrection. Thus in 16.4
they needed to be warned, and now they need to be prayed for, that God will keep them. The
Lord Jesus kept them while he was with them, but now he is leaving, so he asks the Father to
keep them.
Not one of the twelve was lost by the Lord Jesus. I have translated, “not one of them
lost himself.” The Greek verb is in the middle voice, which refers the verb to oneself. The
Lord did not lose Judas. He lost himself. See also Jn. 18.9. Judas turned away, but the Lord
Jesus knew that would happen when he chose Judas. It was prophesied in the Old Testament
(Ps. 41.9, 69.25, 109.8 ). Judas was not lost by him: he was chosen to fulfill the Old Testament.
What a fearful term the Lord Jesus applies to Judas: “son of destruction.” The words “lost”
and “destruction” are the same word in Greek, the first a verb, the second a noun. In 2.
Thess. 2.3 Antichrist is called the son of destruction. Judas is contrasted with Peter. Both
failed the Lord, but Peter repented and was restored. Judas did not repent, and went away to
destruction, both physical and spiritual, and that eternally.
13But now I am coming to you and I am saying these things in the world that they may
have my joy made full in them.
As the Lord Jesus goes to the Father, he prays that the disciples may have his joy
made full in themselves. That is, he asks God to make all that he has said in chapters 13-16
joy to them. They are about to go through a terrible trial, and then through lives of trial, but
if they can grasp the significance of what the Lord Jesus has told them in these chapters, they
will find joy in the midst of trial. What is the essence of these chapters? Relationship. The
Lord Jesus did not give the eleven a list of doctrines to believe or practices to engage in,
though those things have their place. These chapters are all about the relationship between
the triune God and the disciples. They are to be in a living fellowship with Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. If the prayer of the Lord Jesus is answered and they do experience that
relationship, they will find joy no matter what happens. They will experience joy in the
relationship, joy in being kept. The source of joy is not outward circumstances, but knowing

269

God. It could not be circumstances, for they cannot be counted on, but God is faithful and
unchanging. Our joy is in him.
14I have given them your word, and the world hated them, for they are not of the world as I
am not of the world.
V. 14 shows why they will need this joy: the world will hate them, and thus they will
be persecuted. Why will the world hate them? Because the Lord Jesus has given his word to
them, and when the word of God gets into a person and does its work, it is a separating
factor. The word of God divides, as Heb. 4.12 tells us. It is so sharp that it can divide between
soul and spirit, something nothing else can do, between joints and marrow. It separates the
believer from the world, and it therefore reveals the world for what it is. The world is evil,
rotten, opposed to God. It does not want the truth to come out. How interesting it is that the

world is religious and wants to have God’s approval, but it wants it by way of self-
justification, not by repentance. It cries out and lashes out against any who reveal its evil

nature. Thus it hates those in whom the word of God has taken root, just as it hated the Lord
Jesus. They are no longer of the world, just as he is not. The world loves its own, but it hates
those not of it. In our day we are increasingly seeing the secularization of the world. No
longer is much of it religious. There is no belief in God at all. And yet it is religious: it
worships something, mostly money and pleasure, ultimately self.
15I don’t ask that you would take them out of the world, but that you swould keep them
from the evil one.
Then, perhaps surprisingly, the Lord Jesus says that he does not ask that the disciples
be taken out of the world, but that they be kept from the evil one. It would be far better to
leave this world, would it not? If what we believe about Heaven is true, the best thing that
could happen would be for us to be born from above and then leave immediately for
Heaven. But that is not the prayer of Jesus. He is leaving the disciples behind, and his prayer
is that they be kept. He knows that they will experience the onslaughts of evil and that the
evil one will try to use those attacks to gain the victory over them, so he again prays for God
to keep them.
16They are not of the world as I am not of the world.
Even though the disciples are to be left in the world, the Lord Jesus says in v. 16 that
they are not of the world, even as he is not of the world. That is, the origin and destiny of
believers in Christ is heavenly. In chapter 3 of John, the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus that he
must be born from above, and that word “from above,” as we saw, also means “again.”
There is no way to know which meaning John had in mind, though he probably meant both.

270

We must be born again, and that birth is from above. We have our natural life, which is of
the earth, replaced with a heavenly life. Our commonwealth is then in Heaven (Phil. 3.20).
We no longer belong to or in this world. That is why, as we grow in the Lord, we begin to
have those feelings of longing for the Lord’s return and of disgust with this world. It is
homesickness. We do not belong here and we want to be at home, in Heaven with the Lord.
The Lord Jesus is not of the world: his origin is heavenly. It is the same with his own.
17Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I also sent
them into the world.
If it is true that the disciples are to be left in the world, why is that so? Vs. 17 and 18
give us two reasons. The first is that we may be sanctified. That old theological term simply
means to be made holy. All of those words such as saint, sanctify, sanctuary are simply the
words for “holy” based on the Latin root, whereas “holy” itself is an old English word. A
saint is a holy person. To sanctify is to make holy. A sanctuary is a holy place (not a New
Testament concept as a building: God’s holy place in the New Testament is his people).
We are left in this world to be made holy. What does it mean to be made holy? It
means to be set apart for God. The fundamental meaning of holiness is difference,
uniqueness. God is the only one who is holy. He is unique. There is nothing else like him.
The wonder is that he calls a people to be made like him. As we are set apart for God, we
become like him. That is the purpose of the trials we experience in this world, whether
persecution by the world or the sorrows that we all go through in life. They are God’s means
of dealing with our flesh, our self-life, putting it to death as we turn to him in trial and
replacing it with more of his own life in us. Sanctification is really the forming of Christ in us,
and that is what Rom. 8.28-29 is all about. All those difficult things work together for good
for those who love God, for they conform them to the image of Christ. They make them holy.
That prepares them to reign with Christ as his bride in the kingdom to come.
How do trials sanctify? The Lord Jesus prays that his disciples will be sanctified in the
truth, and says that God’s word is truth. It is the working of the word within a person, as we
saw in v. 14, that sanctifies him. As trial comes, a person responds to it not by becoming
bitter toward God, always asking why and begging for relief, but by yielding to the Lord’s
purpose in the trial, for he knows that the word says that trials are God’s method, as we saw
in Rom. 8.28-29. The word guides us through trial. As we let it do so, as we maintain the
truth of what God says no matter how things may appear to us, we are sanctified.
James 1.21 says that we are to receive the implanted word, which is able to save our
souls. The Greek word for “word” in both Jn. 17.17 and James 1.21 is logos, the fundamental
truth of God, what is true whether anyone believes it or not. Sanctification is a process that
takes place as we get the word of God into our minds and hearts, yield to it, and let it do its
work. The marvelous thing is that if we are faithful to the logos, even when it seems dry and

271

meaningless, it will become rema to us, something spoken livingly to our hearts by God. That
is sanctification.
James 1.21 says that we are to receive the implanted logos. Eph. 5.25-26 says that Christ
loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by
the washing of water with the rema. Do you see the point? If we are faithful to the logos, it
will become rema in us. The cleansing action of that word working in us will sanctify us, set
us apart for God, both for his pleasure in us and for his use of us. It will make us like God,
for it will conform us to the image of Christ, who, as a man, was the image of God. That is
one reason we are left in this world, to be sanctified by our trials as we hold to God’s word in
the midst of them.
The second reason is revealed in v. 18: we have work to do in the world. The world is
lost and God wants his people to make the good news known to it. The world itself will not
be saved, as we saw in v. 9, but there will be some who will come out of the world to Christ
and find life in him. The word that the Lord Jesus used for “sent” is the verb form of the
word from which we get “apostle.” We are all “apostles.” An apostle is simply a “sent one.”
It is the same as a missionary. “Apostle” comes from a Greek root, “missionary,” from a
Latin root. Both mean the same thing: a sent one. We are all apostles. We are all missionaries.
The Lord Jesus is the great Apostle and Missionary of God, sent into the world to save
sinners. Now he sends his disciples into the world to proclaim that salvation and to point
people to Christ. I am not saying that we are all apostles in the sense that the New Testament
speaks of the eleven disciples, Paul, and so forth. They had a position of founding and
oversight that goes beyond what we say here about a missionary calling.
That is why we are left behind, to be made holy and to spread the good news, to be
prepared for the kingdom and to prepare others for eternity.
19And for them I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
One of the great truths about the Lord Jesus is that he does not ask us to do anything
that he did not do himself. He calls on us to be sanctified, to go through hard, bitter trials to
be made like him. That is exactly what he did. He became a man like us and submitted to all
that we go through. Heb. 2.10 says that he was matured through sufferings, and Heb. 5.8,
that he learned obedience through sufferings. Was he not always mature and obedient? Yes,
of course he was, but the Bible tells us that as a man he accepted the experience of what we
go through. He did not exempt himself. A human being is born innocent and ignorant and
undeveloped. It is through struggle that he becomes strong. It is difficult for a baby to learn
to walk. He often falls and hurts himself. But if his mother took pity on him and always
carried him, he would never learn to walk and would always be dependent. It is the struggle
that strengthens his legs so that he can walk. That is the course the Lord Jesus took. He
became an innocent little baby and was matured, not with regard to sin, but as a human
being, by the things he suffered. He became mature through suffering. He was set apart for

272

God’s service as a man by what he suffered. That is the beauty of v. 19. When he calls on us
to suffer, the Lord Jesus is not asking us to go through anything he did not go through
himself. Indeed he suffered far more than we will ever know. What a Savior!
The last half of v. 19 shows that the sanctification of the Lord Jesus is the necessary
basis of ours. If he had not been sanctified, we could not be, for our sins had to be dealt with
before anything else could be done, and if the Lord Jesus had not been sanctified, he could
not have dealt with sins. Because he was set apart for the service of God, specifically, to die
for our sins, we too can enter into fullness of life in him.
20But not for these only am I asking, but also for those having have faith into me
through their word,
V. 20 is one of the most wonderful verses in the Bible. Up to this point the Lord Jesus
has been praying for the eleven who were with him at that time, but now he says he prays
these things also for all who have faith in him through their word. That is you and me. The
Lord Jesus prayed for you and me nearly two thousand years ago. He prayed for us to be
kept. He prayed for us to be in unity. He prayed for us to be with him where he is. How can
we lose? The Son of God prayed for us. Praise him!
21that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they themselves also
may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. 22And the glory that you have
given to me I have given to them, that they may be one as we are one, 23I in them and you
in me, that they may be matured into one, that the world may know that you sent me and
that you loved [agapao] them as you loved [agapao] me.
Vs. 21-23 reveal what the Lord Jesus prayed for us: that we may be one. He adds to
this request the reason why he made it: that the world might believe that God sent the Lord
Jesus. What an indictment of us all that is. If it is true that our unity tells the world that God
sent the Lord Jesus, then it is just as true that our disunity tells the world that God did not
send him. And how disunited we are! How many denominations are there? Two thousand?
Three thousand? Does anyone know? The Lord intended that his people be one, and the
witness that we give by our divisions is a dishonor to his precious name.
In v. 22 the Lord Jesus says that he has given us glory that we may be one. That is, the
glory is the basis of unity. What does that mean? Glory, as we have seen, is a manifestation of
the presence and power of God. When God does something, people are impressed by it and
gather around it. The problem is that God is a living God, and when he does something, he
then moves on to something else, while man wants to stay on. Men always build a shrine any
place where God appears. But God is not a God of shrines. He is the God of the Tabernacle,
which can he packed up and moved at a moment’s notice, not the God of the Temple (in this
age: in the Old Testament, the Temple typifies the millennial rest and glory), which cannot be

273

moved. Men want to build temples in this age instead of waiting for God’s time to build
them, but God dwells in a tent.
Of course, as long as God is in a place, there is glory there and men are unified by that
glory. But when God leaves and men stay, the glory that unified them is also gone. Thus the
men have to try to keep the thing alive by programs and fund-raising and so forth. Soon they
begin to vie for preeminence and control of the situation. When two strong men clash, there
is division. That is the source of many of our divisions as Christians. We have held on to
something that the glory has long since departed from, and thus there is no basis of unity.
When God is not there to unify us, we fall apart. Instead of getting on our knees before God
and admitting that we cannot both be right, and maybe, even probably, both are wrong, but
that God wants us together, and asking God what he has to say about the matter, we split.
That is a sin before God. Our divisions as Christians are sin before God. He wants his people
to be one.
Ps. 133 gets to the heart of this matter:
How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! It is like
precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on
Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermon were
falling on Mount Zion. For there I AM bestows his blessing, life forevermore.
Oil in the Bible is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. In this psalm the Spirit is poured out on the
head. Who is the Head? The Lord Jesus. The anointing is on him, not directly on people.
How do people get the anointing? By living together in unity under the Head. When they do
that, the oil runs down from the Head onto them. The result is resurrection life, eternal life,
God’s life. But the key is unity. Why do we see so little power, so little anointing, among
God’s people today? For one reason, because we are so divided. There is only one church.
There is only one body of Christ. A body cannot be divided without doing it damage and
bringing death to parts, if not to the whole. God never intended for his people, his body, to
be divided. How deep is the sin of our divisions.
Does this mean that the prayer of the Lord Jesus for our unity was not answered?
Frankly, it is not being answered outwardly now, but in a spiritual sense it is, for all who are
born from above are in the one body. Spiritually we are one, but our outward division gives
the world freedom to say that God did not send the Lord Jesus. And his prayer will be
answered ultimately in every way. When he returns, all man’s divisions will disappear as we
are caught up with wonder and admiration at the sight of our lovely Savior. The glory will
once again unite us. May that day hasten!
24Father, what you have given me, I would that where I am they may be with me, that they
may see my glory which you have given to me, for you loved [agapao] me before the
foundation of the world.

274

Thus far the Lord Jesus has asked that his disciples be kept, that they be one, and that
they be made holy. Now, in v. 24, he sees the entire group of those given to him by his Father
as one community by using the singular “what you have given me.” He adds the request that
they be with him where he is, that is, in Heaven. He does not ask that we be taken out of the
world (v. 15), for we have work to do (vs. 17-18), but he knows our ultimate destiny is to be
with him. As we saw in v. 16, our origin and destiny are heavenly, for we are born from
above and our commonwealth is in Heaven. This request of the Lord Jesus is fulfilled now in
the spiritual sense, as the Lord reveals through Paul in Eph. 1.3 and 2. 6: we are even now
seated with Christ in the heavenlies (not actually Heaven, but the spiritual world). That is the
spiritual reality. We do not have to live on this earth from earth’s resources with an eye on
Heaven. We live from Heaven with an eye on earth. That is victory! Our sitting with Christ
in the heavenlies is what the old theologians called “positional” truth: it is the way God sees
us in Christ. Now it is up to us to live it out and make it a reality in experience by laying hold
of the word of God by faith, just as the Israelites, after crossing the Jordan, had to fight for
and win the land God said he had already given them. They fought in victory, not for it, and
so can we, for we are seated in the heavenlies in Christ.
This request of Christ will also be answered physically. When we are caught up to the
throne (Rev. 12.5) or to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4.17), our bodies will be changed in
a moment. We will have spiritual bodies like his and thus will be able to see him. Thus, says
Paul, continuing in 1 Thess. 4.17, we will always be with the Lord. Or as John himself puts it
in 14.3, the Lord Jesus will come again to receive us unto himself, that where he is we may be
also. All praise to our Savior: we will indeed be with him where he is eternally, and we will
behold the glory that he has always had with the Father.
25Righteous Father, also the world did not know you, but I knew you, and these knew that
you sent me,
The Lord Jesus begins to conclude his prayer in v. 25 with the statement that he has
known the Father, even though the world has not. Of course, he has always known the
Father as the eternal Son, but he seems to be referring to his time on earth as a man. He
showed us that it is possible to know God and how to know him. As always, because he
became a man like us, he is the example. In addition, his teaching and works and presence
have revealed to the eleven that he is more than a man: he was sent by God. The world does
not know God and thus does not know the origin of the Lord Jesus. It cannot judge him
correctly. The disciples have come to know his origin, revealing that they know God.
26and I made known to them your name and will make it known, that the love [agape] with
which you have loved [agapao] me may be in them and I in them.”

275

In his final statement in v. 26 the Lord Jesus reiterates that he has made known to the
disciples the name of God, I AM, and he adds that he will make it known. That is the rest of
the New Testament. By inspiring these eleven men and others through his Spirit, the Lord
Jesus made further revelation of God after his physical departure from earth. How much we
know of God that is revealed in the Acts, the letters, and the Revelation! And through his
word the Lord Jesus continues to make known the name of God to us today.
Why does he do this? That the love with which God loved the Lord Jesus may be in
us, and that the Lord Jesus himself may be in us. What a marvelous request on our behalf.
Love is the ultimate. That is the mark of the Christian, as we saw in Jn. 13.35. That is the
more excellent way of 1 Cor. 13. Doctrine and practice and experiences have their place, but
without love they are worse than useless. They are harmful, for they give us a false sense of
spiritual security. The word for “love” (agape) used in this verse is God’s kind of love,
unconditional love that springs from the nature of the lover, not from the loveliness of the
loved one. God loves even the unlovely because he is love. He wants that kind of love to be
in us.
The final request of the Lord Jesus is that he be in us. Christ in us is the secret of life.
We could read verse after verse in Paul’s letters that deal with the theme of Christ in us. Let
us quote just two that show that Christ in us is the secret of life, beginning with Rom. 5.10:
“For if being enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much
more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?” In the New Testament, salvation
is not just past, as we usually use the term in thinking of being saved, but present and future
as well. We were saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. It is really a lifelong
process. Initial salvation, when we first trust in the Lord Jesus, has to do, not with our souls,
but with our spirits. Our dead spirits are brought to life by the entrance of the Holy Spirit as
we are saved from our sins. Then comes the salvation of the soul.
To be saved means more than just to be rescued from the destiny of hell and put on
the road to Heaven. It means to be made whole, to be made healthy in every way, physically,
psychologically, and spiritually. That is the process that is now going on in those who have
been born from above. We have all incurred damage from the fall: we have physical illnesses
and deformities, psychological maladies, and spiritual problems. As Christians we are in the
process of being made whole from all these things, and we have the Lord’s promise that the
process will be completed. What is the key to the process? The life of Christ in us. As that life
finds its place in us and grows in us, we find ourselves more and more coming into full
health in him. We may not see our physical problems healed until the redemption of the
body (Rom. 8.23), but the Bible says that our souls are now in process of being saved, and we
certainly will grow spiritually if we stay in the Vine, and of course, physical healing is a
possibility if it is the Lord’s will. We are being saved by the life of Christ. Christ in us is the
key to life.

276

Gal. 2.20 continues this thought: “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer
live, but Christ lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith which is of
the Son of God….” We have seen in Jn. 6.63 that the flesh, the natural life, profits nothing. It is
the life of God that counts. In Christ, our natural life has been dealt with and his life does
dwell in us. We have been crucified with Christ so that the natural life is out of the way. This
is more positional truth that we must appropriate by faith and live out. What is it that now
makes us alive? It is Christ himself. We do not live for God. He lives in us. We cannot be
victorious. He is already victorious and he lives in us. Christ in us is the secret of life.
Christ in us is also the hope of glory, as Paul writes in Col. 1.27. Glory is a very
important theme in Jn. 17, as we have already seen. What is glory? It is recognition. We all
want to be recognized, to be honored. The problem with earthly glory is that it passes away.
People will eventually forget most of us, even if we leave behind great achievements. And
the world’s glory is fickle. What is fashionable this year may be laughed at next year. But Jn.
12.43 contrasts the glory of God and the glory of men. It is the word “glory” that is used in
that verse, though it is usually translated “praise” or “approval.” Jn. 12.43 is not dealing with
the glory that is intrinsic to God, but with his approval, his giving of glory to men. What a
marvelous experience it would be to stand before God when Christians go to be judged by
their works for rewards (1 Cor. 3.12-15, 2 Cor. 5.10) and hear the Lord say, in the presence of
all his people from the beginning of time to the end, “Well done.” That is glory worth
having! It is eternal. Christ in us is the hope of glory. The wonderful conclusion of this prayer
of Jesus is that he asked that we might indeed have that hope within us, that he might live in
us. Christ in us is the secret of life and the hope of glory. May he indeed dwell in us fully,
even as he prayed.

THE ARREST AND “TRIAL” OF JESUS

John 18.1-19.16

1Having said these things Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron wadi
to where there was a garden into which he himself and his disciples entered. 2Now Judas,
the one betraying him, also knew the place, for Jesus often gathered there with his
disciples. 3Therefore Judas, having received the cohort and the officers of the chief priests
and of the Pharisees, went there with torches and lamps and weapons.
The hour has come. The Lord Jesus, having finished his public ministry, his private
instruction of the disciples, and his prayer in their presence, now leads the disciples across
the Kidron wadi (a wadi is a stream that flows only in winter) into a garden, named by the
other gospels, Gethsemane. John does not tell us what happened there before the arrest of
the Lord Jesus, those details being filled in by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John does tell us

277

that Judas knew the place, for the Lord Jesus had often met there with the disciples, and that
he led there those who would arrest him.
It appears that the Jewish officials were determined to do away with the Lord Jesus,
but feared the crowds, many of whom held him to be a prophet, and some of whom believed
him to be the Messiah, and so they looked for some secret way to kill him before the crowds
could react. And of course, the crowds were very great, for it was Passover. Thus they made
the deal with Judas to lead them to an unknown place under cover of night so that they
could arrest the Lord Jesus and put him to death quickly. V. 3 says that Judas, having
received Roman soldiers and officers from the Jewish officials, led them to the spot in the
garden where the Lord Jesus was with the eleven They came with lanterns, torches, and
weapons.
4
Jesus therefore, knowing all things that were coming upon him, went out and said to
them, “Whom are you seeking?” 5They answered him, “Jesus the Nazarene.” He said to
them, “I AM.” Now Judas, the one betraying him, also stood with them. 6Then when he
said to them, “I AM,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
One fact that stands out in this story is that the Lord Jesus was the one in charge. He
was about to be arrested, condemned, and executed, yet he was in complete control of the
entire sequence of events. This is seen first in vs. 4-5. The officials came with weapons, but
Jesus took the initiative in going out to them and asking whom they sought. When they
answered, “Jesus the Nazarene,” he replied, “I AM.” This is the final occurrence of the use of
the name “I AM” by the Lord Jesus in John, in vs. 5, 6, and 8. His thought appears to be,
“You are seeking one whom you think is a man, Jesus, from Nazareth, one of your towns,
but the one you are really arresting is I AM, from Heaven.” This is not just a man they are
dealing with, though he is that.
The force of his reply was such that they fell down. What a remarkable situation. Here
are trained, professional soldiers, bearing arms, accompanied by others who are also armed,
and they are all knocked down by the word of one unarmed man. What power there is in the
name of God! How was the Lord Jesus able to exert such force? We have seen it before in
John, at the times when his opponents sought to stone him, and he, outnumbered and
unarmed, simply walked away, while they were powerless to stop him. How are we to
explain this ability?
We have probably all known people who had tremendously strong personalities, so
strong that they were able to control other people simply with a word. Hitler was such a
person. It is one of the most amazing facts of history that he had absolute control over people
by sheer force of personality. People would do anything he said, literally anything, simply
because he said so. Even in the last days of the war, when all was lost and there was no hope,
Hitler, powerless in his bunker, would order that some general be shot for failing in his
instructions and he would be shot. Astounding. I hesitate to use the name of the Lord Jesus

278

in such a context, but it is so instruvctive. The Lord Jesus was such a person, but there is an
enormous difference, of course. He is the one man who used such power solely for good, for
the will of God. Hitler, possessed by evil, used it for evil purposes. Therein lies a great lesson
for us.
We have discussed the difference between soul and spirit, the soul (Greek psuche)
being the psychology, the mind, emotions, and will, the personality. The spirit is the means
of communication with God, who is a spirit (Jn. 4.24). The force of personality that a man
might have is soul-power. It is a highly developed soul, an irresistible will-power, usually
combined with great intellect and strong emotional control. The problem arises when a fallen
man has such soul-power, as in the case of Hitler. His spirit was dead toward God, so his
soul-power knew no control and was used entirely in the service of evil. God intends for
man to function with his spirit in control and his soul acting in subjection to his spirit, and
with the spirit filled with and directed by the Spirit of God and guided by the word of God.
Man is not to be governed by his mind, his emotions, or his will, but by the Spirit and word
of God acting through the human spirit. That was the case with the Lord Jesus. He had
tremendous soul-power, such that he could walk away from a frenzied band of men with
stones in their hands, leaving them powerless to cast the stones, such that he could say, “I
AM,” and see a Roman cohort fall backward to the ground. But the soul-power of the Lord
Jesus was under the control of his spirit. He did not use it for selfish ends. He did only what
his Father told him to do.
Most of us do not have the kind of soul-power that Jesus had, or that a Hitler had, but
we do have some measure of it. We all have some degree of intelligence, will, and feeling.
How vital it is that we see the difference between the way an evil man like Hitler used his
soul and a good man like Jesus used his. We may not be able to do the worldwide damage or
good that these men did, but we can do damage or good in our own little worlds. May the
Lord grant us grace to grow in spirit and bring our souls, our minds, emotions, and wills,
under the control of spirits that are full of the Spirit of God and informed by the word of
God. May we take the Lord Jesus as our example, and more, as our indweller, our very life.
7So he asked them again, “Whom are you seeking?” They said, “Jesus the Nazarene.”
8
Jesus answered, “I told you that I AM. If therefore you are seeking me, let these go,” 9
that
the word that he spoke might be fulfilled, “Of those you have given me I lost not one.”
If this situation were not such a dark hour and so tragic, it would almost be
humorous, for here is the Lord Jesus having to ask again those who would arrest him,
“Whom do you seek?” They are armed. They represent the governing power. They are
supposed to be in charge, making an arrest. But the Lord Jesus has to help them arrest him.
They are on the ground before their intended victim. Again they said they were looking for
Jesus the Nazarene. Again he replied, “I AM.” But this time he adds the command that they
let the disciples go. In the first place, he shows his love for them, the good Shepherd laying

279

down his life for the sheep, and then, as John points out, he thereby fulfilled his own
prophecy of 6.39 and 17.12 that he would lose none of those given to him by God.
10Therefore Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the slave of the High Priest
and cut off his right ear. Now his name was Malchus. Then Jesus said to Peter, “Put the
sword into the sheath. The cup which the Father has given me, should I not drink it?”
We have seen that the disciples looked for an earthly kingdom to be established by the
Lord Jesus, with himself as King and themselves as his right-hand men, and with Israel
restored to earthly independence and glory. They had not grasped the spiritual nature of the
work of the Lord Jesus. Peter now betrays that misunderstanding by drawing his sword and
attacking. It is interesting that he did not challenge one of the Roman soldiers, but cut off the
ear of a slave! Brave Peter! But Peter was brave, really. He had vowed to Jesus in 13.37 that
he would die with him, and he meant it. Now he proves it. He is ready to fight. But he just
did not understand what the Lord Jesus had been saying all along. But the Lord Jesus
quickly put a stop to this attempt to bring in a worldly kingdom by force. He told Peter to
put up his sword and asked, “The cup which the Father has given me, shall I not drink it?”
This question reminds us of 12.27, where he, knowing that his hour had come, asked, “And
what do I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this I came to this hour.” He was
fully yielded to the will of his Father. If that will included drinking the bitter cup of the cross,
he would drink it. And he knew that it did include that cup.
12Therefore the cohort and the captain of one thousand and the officers of the Jews

took hold of Jesus and bound him 13and led him to Annas first, for he was the father-in-
law of Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year. 14Now Caiaphas was the one having

counseled the Jews that it is better for one man to die for the people.
So the soldiers and Jewish officials arrested and bound the Lord Jesus. Again there is
almost a touch of humor in this note, if it weren’t so terribly serious. The Lord Jesus had to
let them arrest him, indeed had to help them do it, yet they bound him!
They took him first to Annas, the father-in-law of the High Priest, Caiaphas. It was
Caiaphas who had spoken prophetically without knowing it in 11.50 about hiss dying for the
nation. We will return to these two momentarily. First, John brings Peter onto the scene.
15Now Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Now that disciple was
known to the High Priest and he went in with Jesus into the courtyard of the High Priest,
16but Peter stood outside at the door. Therefore the other disciple who was known to the
High Priest went out and spoke to the doorkeeper and brought Peter in. 17Then the slave
girl, the doorkeeper, said to Peter, “Are you not also of the disciples of this man?” That

one said, “I am not.” 18Now the slaves and the officers had been standing there, having

280

made a charcoal fire, for it was cold, and they were warming themselves, and Peter was
also with them, standing and warming himself.
Peter followed the arrested Lord Jesus, as did another disciple. The other disciple is
not named, but is universally thought to be John. This disciple knew the High Priest and
went into the court, but Peter, unknown, was left outside, so the other disciple brought him
in. When he did so, one of the slave girls, who was the doorkeeper, recognized him and
asked if he were one of the Lord Jesus’ disciples. Peter denied it, not remembering the
prophecy of the Lord Jesus. John notes that the slaves and officials there had made a fire
because of the cold and that Peter joined them in warming himself. How cold his heart must
have been as well at that moment.
19Then the High Priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching.
20Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I always taught in the
synagogue and in the Temple, where all the Jews come together, and I said nothing in
secret. 21Why are you questioning me? Question those having heard what I said to them.
Look, these know what things I said.” 22He having said these things one of the officers
standing by gave Jesus a blow saying, “Thus do you answer the High Priest?” 23Jesus
answered him, “If I spoke wrongly testify about the wrong, but if well, why do you strike
me?” 24Therefore Annas sent him, having been bound, to Caiaphas the High Priest.
V. 19 resumes the appearance of the Lord Jesus before Annas. Historically, the Jewish
high priesthood was a lifetime office, but the Romans had taken charge of the office and
controlled it. They appointed and removed High Priests at will. Annas had been High Priest
from A.D. 6 to 15, when he had been deposed by Rome. Caiaphas was High Priest from 18 to
36, when he was also deposed. In vs. 19 and 22 Annas is referred to as High Priest, though he
did not hold the office. Why was he so called? There are three possible reasons. Since the
Jews considered the High Priesthood a lifetime office, they may have considered Annas to be
the legitimate High Priest since he had once held the position. Or it may have been a loose
reference to the fact that he was in the High Priestly family. The third possibility is that
Annas was a man of great influence and actually shared the power of the High Priesthood
even though he did not hold the office. The third possibility certainly seems to be true,
whatever the merits of the other two. Perhaps all were true in this case. They are not
mutually exclusive.
Annas began to question the Lord Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. The
immediate impression created is that this was no trial at all. A trial is a legal proceeding in
which a charge is brought and witnesses are called to substantiate or invalidate the charge.
The goal is to find the truth and do justice. That was not the purpose of the appearance of the
Lord Jesus before Annas. It seems that there was no charge, that they had determined to kill

281

him, and that they were simply looking for a charge to make it legal. They hoped by
questioning him to get him to say something worthy of death.
But the Lord Jesus refused to have any part in such a kangaroo court. He replied that
he had always taught openly, having nothing to hide. Ask those who had heard him. When
he said this, one of the officials struck him, asking if that were any way to answer the High
Priest. Of course, the obvious truth is that the real High Priest in this scene was the Lord
Jesus. This true High Priest responded to the blow by calling for witnesses to testify what he
had spoken wrongly, and asked why he had been struck if he had spoken rightly. Of course,
there was no answer possible.
Apparently this appearance before Annas was a kind of pre-trial designed to fix the
charge against the Lord Jesus, for Caiaphas was actually the High Priest, and the Lord was
now led away to appear before him. That seems to be the “trial” itself. But what was really
going on? Recall that it was Passover. In Ex. 12, the account of the first Passover, v. 5 tells us
that the Passover lamb had to be without blemish. The Lord Jesus was the Passover Lamb,
and this so-called trial of him was in fact the inspection of the Passover Lamb for blemishes.
None were found. The only charges against him were trumped up to legalize his murder.
Thus the Lamb was found to be without blemish and was offered.
25Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. Then they said to him, “Are
you not also of his disciples?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” 26One of the slaves of the
High Priest, being a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Did I not see
you in the garden with him?” 27Then Peter denied it again, and immediately a rooster
crowed.
John tells us that the Lord Jesus was led away to Caiaphas, but does not describe that
appearance. He turns back to Peter, then goes on to the appearance before Pilate. As Peter
stood and warmed himself, some of those standing with him asked again if he were one of
his disciples, and again he denied it. Then a slave, a relative of Malchus, whose ear Peter had
cut off in the garden, asked Peter if he had seen him in the garden. For the third time, Peter
denied it, and the rooster crowed. John ends the account with that note, not telling us of
Peter’s response. The points are the truth of the prophecy of the Lord, that Peter would deny
him three times before the rooster crowed, and the utter failure of the flesh in the things of
God. Peter had boasted of his willingness to die with the Lord Jesus, and meant it, but when
he faced arrest and execution for a spiritual King who would not fight, as opposed to the
heat of battle for an earthly king who would fight, he failed. The spirit may have been
willing, but the flesh was weak. As the Lord Jesus said in 6.63, the flesh profits nothing. It is
of no use in the things of God. It is only the Spirit of God in a person that prevails. What a
bitter way for Peter to learn this lesson, but learn it he did, as we will see.

282

28So they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium. Now it was early. And they did
not enter into the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.
John returns to the proceedings against the Lord Jesus with the statement that he was
led from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, the residence of the Roman procurator. The permanent
residence was in Caesarea, the Roman headquarters city. The Praetorium in Jerusalem was a
temporary residence used only on visits there. Because of the unruliness of the Jews, the
Roman procurator kept the high priestly vestments in his own possession so that he could
control situations. He would visit Jerusalem with extra troops at festival time. While the
extra soldiers kept order, he would allow the High Priest to use his vestments to perform his
duties. That is why Pilate was in Jerusalem: it was Passover, and he was there with his
additional soldiers to keep the thousands of Jews who were crowding in from getting out of
hand.
When the Jews took the Lord Jesus to the Praetorium, they stood outside so that they
would not be defiled by entering a Gentile residence, for they wanted to be able to eat the
Passover. What an irony: it was permissible to commit murder, but not to contact a Gentile
or his surroundings. They could eat the Passover with murder in their hearts, but not with
Gentile defilement on their bodies. No comment is necessary.
29Then Pilate went out to them and said, “What charge do you bring against this man.”
30They answered and said to him, “If this one were not one doing wrong, we would not
have delivered him to you.” 31So Pilate said to them, “You take him and judge him
according to your Law.” The Jews said to him, “It is not permitted to us to put anyone to
death,” 32that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled which he spoke, signifying by what
kind of death he was about to die.
In v. 29 Pilate appears. This is the first mention of Pilate in John, and John does not tell
us who he was or anything about him. He apparently assumes that his readers will know
who he was, the Roman procurator. Pilate went out to the Jews who would not enter his
residence and asked what the charge against the Lord Jesus was. The answer of the Jews was
evasive. The truth is that there was no charge against him. They hated him and were
determined to kill him, so they had trumped up a charge of blasphemy, punishable by death
under Jewish Law. However, Pilate administered Roman law and cared nothing for Jewish
religious requirements. Blasphemy would be no charge in his court. So the response of the
Jews was, more or less, “Take our word for it. He deserves death.” Pilate, of course, could
not condemn a man simply on that basis. In v. 31 he told the Jews to judge him according to
their Law, so apparently it had come out that they considered Jesus to have violated it, or
else Pilate correctly took their evasive answer to mean that they had no charge valid in his
court.

283

Their response was that they were not permitted to put anyone to death. This raises a
question that has not been answered to this day, that is, whether or not the Jews could
execute an offender. This verse would indicate that they could not, Rome having reserved
that prerogative for itself. But the Jews executed Stephen in Acts 7. We do not have enough
facts to know the answer to this question, but whatever the truth was, the Jews did seek
Pilate’s condemnation of the Lord Jesus. John points out in v. 32 that this fact fulfills a
prophetic word of the Lord Jesus, recorded by John in 3.14, 8.28, and 12.32, namely, that he
would die by being lifted up, that is, by crucifixion. The Jewish method of execution was
stoning. The Old Testament had prophesied that not a bone of the suffering Messiah would
be broken, and stoning would have broken many bones. Crucifixion was used by the
Romans. Thus the death of the Lord Jesus fulfilled prophecy not only in its fact, but also in its
particulars. It is of no little note that when Ps. 22 was written the Jews knew nothing of
crucifixion.

33Then Pilate entered again into the Praetorium and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you
the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Are you asking this from yourself or did another
speake to you about me?” 35Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? No. Your nation and the chief
priests delivered you to me. What did you do?” 36Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of
this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would be fighting that I might
not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here.” 37Then Pilate said to
him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. I have been born
for this and have come into the world for this, that I may testify to the truth. Everyone, the
one being of the truth, hears my voice.” 38Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”
Pilate went back into the Praetorium and summoned the Lord Jesus. Apparently the
Jews had come up with a charge valid before Pilate, for he asked the Lord Jesus if he were
King of the Jews. Of course that would be a serious charge. It would be treason, punishable
by death. Was he a claimant to Caesar’s place?
As was often the case, the Lord Jesus answered Pilate’s question with another
question. He asked Pilate if he said this of himself or only because of what someone else said.
That is, was Pilate seeking spiritual truth for personal reasons, or was he just following up a
lead in a criminal case? Pilate’s response indicated that he had no interest in Jewish religious
matters. He was not a Jew. He was not there because he wanted to learn about the Lord
Jesus, but because the Jews had brought him there. What had he done to be brought there?
The reply of the Lord Jesus shows again the spiritual nature of what he came to do. He
told Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world. If it were, his servants would fight so that
he would not be captured and condemned by the Jews. As it was, they did not fight,
showing that they were not seeking an earthly prize. Of course, the disciples were seeking an
earthly prize, but the Lord Jesus would soon put an end to that and reveal to them that what

284

they sought was spiritual. The Lord admitted to having a kingdom, but stated again that it
was not from here.
To clarify matters, Pilate asked, “Then you are a king?” Again the answer of the Lord
Jesus was not direct, but put the burden of faith on Pilate: “You say that I am a king.” In
other words, it is up to you whether or not you believe I am a king. Your eternal destiny
rides on your decision. Then he added, not that he was a king, but that he had come into the
world to bear witness to the truth, and that everyone who was of the truth heard his voice.
That is, everyone who is of the truth will know that the Lord Jesus is a King, will hear royalty
in his voice. Faith will respond to the kingly in him.
Having thus been challenged to faith, Pilate reveals his lack of faith with the cynical
reply, “What is truth?” He was not concerned with the unknowable speculations of religion
and philosophy. He was a man of the world, concerned with politics, law, advancement in a
worldly kingdom. He was a realist, not a religious dreamer. What did he care about a
deluded would-be religious king? He found no fault in the Lord Jesus. So he did claim to be
a king. So what? He refused to raise an army and fight. He spoke of other, unreal, realms. He
was no threat to Caesar. Let him go on with his ravings. He was harmless.
And having said this he again went out to the Jews and said to them, “I find no
guilt in him, 39but it is a custom that I should release one to you at the Passover. Do you
wish therefore that I release to you the King of the Jews?” 40Therefore they cried out again
saying, “Not this one, but Barabbas.” Now Barabbas was a thief.
So Pilate told the Jews that he found no fault with the Lord Jesus. But Pilate, charged
with upholding justice, bent to political expediency. These Jews were a troublesome lot,
always rebelling against Rome in one way or another, either by refusing to obey Roman laws
or by actually taking up arms. The sacrifice of one innocent man would be a small price to
pay to keep them under control. So he brought up the custom of releasing a prisoner to them
at Passover, hoping that they would choose the Lord Jesus, but taking the risk that they
would not. And they did not. Instead, they asked for Barabbas, a robber, and Mark and Luke
tell us that he was a murderer as well, who had participated in a rebellion against Rome.
How ironic that the Lord Jesus is about to be condemned for treason against Rome for
proclaiming himself King, while Barabbas is released, he who had done the very thing the
Lord Jesus was falsely accused of. We will presently see more of Barabbas.
1Then therefore Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.
Having found the Lord Jesus innocent, Pilate now, in 19.1, has him scourged! By
doing so, he reveals his own character, his willingness to mistreat an innocent man for the
sake of political expediency. In order to quiet the always unruly Jews he abandons his
responsibility to enforce justice. Scourging was a particularly brutal form of punishment. It

285

involved lashing the back of the victim with a whip, in the ends of which were imbedded
bits of stone or metal. The flesh was ripped off the back, and many did not survive it. Such
was the beginning of the punishment that the Lord Jesus endured for our sins.
2And the soldiers, having woven a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and they put a
purple robe around him, 3and they were coming to him and saying, “Hail, King of the
Jews,” and they gave him blows.
In addition to this, the soldiers mocked this King by placing a crown on his head, a
crown of thorns, and a purple robe on him, purple being the color of royalty. While he was
so arrayed, they were mocking him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews,” and they were giving
him blows.
4And again Pilate went out and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you that you
may know that I find no guilt in him.” 5So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns
and the purple robe. And he said to them, “Look, the man.” 6Therefore when they saw
him, the chief priests and the officers called out saying, “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate said to
them, “You take him and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.
After all this, Pilate again admitted the innocence of the Lord Jesus. He went out to the
Jews and told them once more that he found no guilt in him. Then he brought him out,
wearing his crown of thorns and purple robe, and proclaimed to the Jews, “Look, the man.”
Their response? “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate, still not wanting to condemn the Lord Jesus, yet
unwilling to offend the Jews, told them to crucify him themselves. He was willing for an
innocent man to die, but he did not want to put him to death.
7The Jews answered him, “We have a law and according to the law he ought to die, for he
makes himself to be God’s Son.” 8Therefore when Pilate heard this word he was made
more afraid, 9and entered into the Praetorium again and said to Jesus, “Where are you
from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.
The response of the Jews at this point is strange. They have already had to come up
with a charge against the Lord Jesus that will stand up in a Roman court, rather than
blasphemy, a violation of Jewish Law, so they accused him of treason. But now they revert to
religious matters, saying that Jesus ought to die because he broke one of their laws by
making himself out to be the Son of God. This gains Pilate’s attention, though, for it is not
merely a question of Jewish law, but of who the Lord Jesus really is. Pilate was probably not
what we would call a religious man, but it is quite likely that he did believe in the
supernatural, in God or gods, and that he was afraid of offending him or them. Religion does
not tend to be ethical. That is, it does not affect the way a person lives. It teaches him that he

286

may live any way he pleases so long as he favors his god by certain religious observances. It
is Judaism and Christianity that are ethical, saying that a person should live the right kind of
life. Pilate probably was religious in the former sense, not living what we would call the right
kind of life, but observing the rites of religion so as not to offend the gods. So when the
question of the possible divinity of the Lord Jesus came up, he became afraid. Indeed he was
already afraid, as v. 8 says, knowing that he was doing wrong by letting an innocent man be
punished and executed. Now he is more afraid: perhaps this man is a manifestation of God
or a god. So Pilate went back inside and asked the Lord Jesus where he was from.
What an interesting way to phrase the question. Did Pilate mean, “Are you from
Heaven?” We do not know of course, but obviously he wondered if this man were just a Jew
from some Israelite town, or if he were something more. Of course, the Lord Jesus was from
Heaven, Bethlehem and Nazareth being only earthly homes of the eternal Son of God. But he
did not answer Pilate. Why did he not answer him? We are not told. Perhaps he knew Pilate
would not believe him, or perhaps he wanted Pilate to make some expression of faith.
Whatever his reasons, he did not answer.
10Therefore Pilate said to him, “You don’t speak to me? Don’t you know that I have
authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you?”
The response of Pilate was to express amazement that the Lord Jesus would not
answer, since he, Pilate, had authority to release or to crucify him. We are not told whether
Pilate said this in anger because his authority had been affronted by this upstart, or whether
it was simply an expression of incredulity that a man about to be crucified would not defend
himself.
11Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority against me except it had been given
to you from above. Because of this the one having delivered me to you has a greater sin.”
By his answer, the Lord Jesus reveals what is going on. He told Pilate that he would
have no authority if it had not been given him from above. This was not the doing of man,
but the will of God. It was God, not Pilate, who was in charge of these proceedings, and the
Lord Jesus was the man in charge. His life was not being taken. He was laying it down.
In addition, said the Lord Jesus, the one, apparently Caiaphas, who delivered him up
to Pilate had the greater sin. Pilate was only acting in his capacity as Roman procurator. He
had no background in the Old Testament or Judaism and knew nothing of these matters. He
was certainly guilty, for he was allowing an innocent man to be condemned, but the greater
sin was that of Caiaphas, and all the Jews, who knew the Old Testament, and thus should
have recognized the Lord Jesus as their Messiah, and at the very least should have known
better than to act with such hatred. Pilate was sinning in darkness. They were sinning against
light.

287

12From this time Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Jews called out saying, “If you
release this one you are not Caesar’s friend [philos]. Everyone, the one making himself
king, opposes Caesar.”
The desire of Pilate to wriggle out of this situation is again revealed in v. 12. He knows
the Lord Jesus is innocent and does not want to crucify him, so he tries once more. But the
protests of the Jews continue, and they add the final argument that Pilate cannot resist. They
made a scarcely veiled threat to complain to Caesar that Pilate was aiding a traitor, one who
made himself out to be a king. The force of this argument can be understood when it is
realized, from historical accounts, that Pilate had already been complained about to Caesar
twice. Besides that, the Jews were notoriously unruly. Pilate did not want to risk another
charge against him to Caesar or disorder in Judea, so with this threat he caved in.
13Therefore Pilate, when he heard these words, brought Jesus outside and sat on the
judgment seat in a place called Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14Now it was the day
of preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Look,
your King!”
Up till now, he has dealt with the matter in his residence and outside with the Jews.
Now he takes his place on the judgment seat. He has reached his decision and is ready to
pass judgment. It was six o’clock in the morning. The proceedings against the Lord Jesus had
gone on all night. John says that it was the day of preparation for the Passover, thus raising a
historical question that has never been answered: the Lord Jesus and his disciples had
already eaten the Passover, but now John says it was the day of preparation for the Passover.
Speculation on what day it was is fruitless, for the question cannot be answered. The
important matter is what was happening: whatever day it was, the Passover Lamb was being
offered, and our sins have now been dealt with. When God sees the blood, he will pass over
us. At this hour, six in the morning, Pilate displays his prisoner before his accusers and states
the charge: “Look, your King!”
15Therefore those called out, “Away, away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Should I
crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16Then
therefore he delivered him to them that he might be crucified.
Their reaction to this sight was, “Away, away! Crucify him!” Pilate asks, “Shall I
crucify your King?” Then comes one of the most tragic statements of history. The Jews had
been called to be the people of God and to be in special relationship with him. He was to be
their King, with no man ruling over them. Instead of being faithful to him and to their
calling, though, they rebelled in sin, and they also took their election as making them better

288

than anyone else. Instead of being a light to the nations they looked down on them. They
would not even enter Pilate’s house so that they would not be defiled! When they came
under foreign domination because of their sins, they hated their conquerors and wanted
more than anything else to be restored to independence and earthly glory. Nothing was
hated by the Jews more than Roman authority over them. No man was hated more than
Caesar. No one was longed for more than the Messiah who would deliver them from Rome.
But when their Messiah came and they had the opportunity of owning him as their King,
their choice was, “We have no king but Caesar.” They rejected their Messiah and chose the
one they hated most.
The history of the Jews since that time has been one of bitter suffering under the
kingship they chose. In Lk. 21.24 the Lord Jesus predicted that Jerusalem would be
destroyed, the people killed or led away captive to other nations, and Jerusalem trampled
underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Has that not happened?
In A.D. 66 the Jews rebelled against Rome, and in A.D 70, after siege, Jerusalem fell and the
Temple was destroyed. In A.D. 134-35, they rebelled again, and this time Rome destroyed the
city and made it illegal for a Jew to live in the promised land. They have wandered the earth
ever since, suffering persecution after persecution at the hands of the Gentile kings they
chose. Because they rejected their Messiah, they have been under the judgment of God, a
judgment of exile, homelessness, and Gentile oppression. How tragic. How sad. But, praise
God, it will end, for God will restore the Jews. His gifts and calling are irrevocable (Rom.
11.29). They will come back to him and own their King. May that day hasten!
Pilate having reached his decision and the Jews having chosen their king, Pilate
delivered the Lord Jesus to be crucified. The Passover Lamb was about to be offered.
So ends the account of the arrest and “trial” of the Lord Jesus. What are we to learn
from it? Perhaps the best way to learn its lessons is to look at the people involved.
The first actor in this drama is the Lord Jesus himself. What do we see in him? Of all
the people involved, he is the only one who is calm and at peace. Everyone else is emotional,
irrational, filled with hatred, troubled, screaming. But the Lord Jesus is the King, and he is
reigning in these circumstances that are so difficult for him. He is the one in charge. He
knows the will of God, and he is at peace.
The next character is really two men, Annas and Caiaphas, though Caiaphas does not
actually appear in John. These two represent the religious system. They were high religious
officials. They were wealthy and had great influence. Even though Rome was master, the
Jews had a measure of independence to conduct their own affairs so long as they paid their
taxes and did not cause trouble. Thus Annas and Caiaphas had a good thing going.
They were religious, serving as priests in Judaism, but they were almost secular. The
priests were largely Sadducees, a party that did not believe in the spirit world or in the
resurrection, as the New Testament tells us (Acts 23.8). Thus it was almost as though they
were using religion for their own benefit rather than actually believing it. There have been
examples in Christendom of men serving as priests or pastors in a state church not to serve

289

God, but because it paid well and had a good retirement benefit. This seems to have been the
attitude of the priests of Judaism to a great extent. They had a good position in the religious
system and did not want to tamper with the status quo. Caiaphas himself said as much in Jn.
11.47-50.
Peter is the next man to come onto the stage. Peter loved the Lord Jesus and swore to
die with him, and he proved that he meant it by drawing his sword and cutting off the ear of
Malchus when the Lord Jesus was arrested. He was ready to fight. But when he had time to
cool off and think about what was happening instead of being caught up in the heat of battle,
he lost his nerve. When he was asked if he were a disciple of the Lord Jesus, he denied it
three times. Then a rooster crowed. Peter shows us the absolute incompetence of the flesh in
the things of God. He had sworn to die with the Lord Jesus, but now he denies him. He is
man trying to serve God in the strength of the flesh, and failing.
Pilate comes next. Pilate is the realist, the man of the world, the pragmatist. He cares
nothing for religion and philosophy. He has a country to run. He has to deal with affairs of
state, with conquered peoples, with criminals, with diplomacy, with collecting taxes, with
getting things done. His concern is with the practical, what will work, not with lofty ideals.
So when the choice has to be made between what is right concerning an innocent man and
political expediency, he chooses the latter. Pilate is the practical man of the world who puts
pragmatism ahead of principle. The end justifies the means. It does not matter what is right,
just so it works.
The final actor is Barabbas. Actually, he is not an actor, for he makes no appearance in
John, but is only referred to. But he plays a major role, nonetheless, for Barabbas is you and
me. Barabbas is the guilty man who goes free while the innocent man is slain in his place. Is
that not you and me? That was our scourging that the Lord Jesus endured, not his. Those
were our sins he bore on the cross, not his. We are all free today because an innocent man
died in our place. We are all Barabbas.
As we think of these actors, let us ask ourselves how we compare to them. Are we like
the Lord Jesus, reigning in our circumstances? Have we learned to know God and his will,
and to be submitted to them, to the point that no matter what happens we are at peace? God
is trying to train us for reigning as the bride of Christ the King in the Millennium and on into
eternity. Are we learning to reign by reigning over our circumstances?
Are we like Annas and Caiaphas, having a good thing going with the religious status
quo and not wanting to rock the boat, using religion for personal benefit? Are we getting
paid for our service so that we do not want to risk our income for the sake of the will of God?
Do people admire us for how spiritual we are, and we do not want to do anything radical
that might make them think less of us?
We are all like Peter. None of us are able to serve God in the strength of the flesh. The
flesh profits nothing; it is the Spirit that makes alive (Jn. 6.63). Probably all of us have made
resolutions to serve God more and better, and we have certainly all failed to keep them. We
need to learn from Peter that we can do nothing for God, and give ourselves to him for him

290

to live in us and work in us to form Christ in us. The great lesson we learn from Peter’s
failure is to have no confidence in the flesh. When Peter trusted his own ability to serve God,
he failed miserably. But he learned his lesson. He came back to the Lord, and look at how the
Lord used a man who had lost confidence in the flesh and put all his trust in God. We are
failures like Peter. Have we learned the lesson he learned?
Perhaps we are like Pilate, putting the practical ahead of what is right. Most likely we
have all done that at one time or another, compromising our principles to gain some
advantage. We would not go so far as he, condemning an innocent man to death, but would
we exhibit the same character in justifying the means by the end?
And as we said, we are all Barabbas, the guilty freed by the sacrifice of the innocent
man.
As we look at ourselves before God in the light of these men, perhaps we will see
some of them in ourselves. Where we see the Lord Jesus expressing his perfection through
us, let us humbly praise him for his grace. Where we see the desire to use the things of God
for some personal advantage, the failure of the flesh, and the willingness to compromise
principle for gain, let us confess our sin to God. His word tells us, again through the pen of
John, that if we do so, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sin, and more, he will
cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 Jn. 1.9).
It appeared that the Lord Jesus was on trial, but in reality he was the Judge and all the
others were on trial. They were judged by their responses to him. He is on trial in our lives in
just the same way. Our verdict on him is in fact our verdict on ourselves. What will our
decision be, to be like Annas and Caiaphas, like Peter, like Pilate, like Barabbas, or like the
Lord Jesus? God grant us grace to make the right decision and to live it.

THE CRUCIFIXION AND BURIAL OF THE LORD JESUS

John 19.17-42

So they took Jesus, 17and carrying his own cross he went out to the place called
Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha,
Pilate having given in to the demands of the Jews and delivered the Lord Jesus to be
crucified, the Lord was taken out, bearing his own cross, for that purpose. That little
statement that he went out shows us what is happening. The Lord Jesus was crucified
outside the city wall of Jerusalem. Heb. 13.11-12 tells us that it was the sin offering that was
burned outside the gate, and that is just what we learn in the Old Testament. The first five
chapters of Leviticus describe to us the five kinds of offerings that made up the Jewish
sacrificial system. They were the whole burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering,
the sin offering, and the guilt offering. Only the sin offering was intended to deal with sin,

291

the others symbolizing different aspects of the relationship between God and his people.
And the sin offering was the only one that was burned outside the camp or city. The reason
is that there is no place for sin in the camp of God and his people, and the symbolism is that
sin must be taken out and destroyed. When the Lord Jesus went outside the city gate in Jn.
19.17, he revealed that he was the fulfillment of the sin offering. He died in our place for our
sins, taking them outside the camp of God and his people. The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus
was the sacrificing of the sin offering.
The crucifixion was carried out at the Place of a Skull. The Greek word for “skull” is
the word from which we get “cranium.” The Hebrew word, as John tells us, is “Golgotha”
(pronounced GOL-ga-tha). The Latin word is the word from which we get “Calvary.” The
words all mean the same thing, skull. Why was this place called the Place of a Skull? No one
knows. Some have speculated that this was the usual place of execution, so that bones would
have been left about, but this is very unlikely. The Jews regarded a dead body or any part of
it as unclean. Contact with it would have rendered the person unclean, and thus unable to
function in society, for a week. This inconvenience would have made the Jews very careful to
bury their dead very quickly and not leave bones laying about. Furthermore, the name was
Place of a Skull, not skulls. And would not Place of Bones have been more likely? Not just
skulls would have been there.
Another theory is that the Place of a Skull was a rocky outcropping on a hillside that
looked like a skull. There is such a place in Jerusalem, so that is a good possibility. No one
can know with certainty, and it really does not matter. What is important is not the place
where the crucifixion happened, but the fact that it happened and what it means.
18where they crucified him, and with him two others, on this side and on that side, but
Jesus in the middle.
John tells us very simply in v. 18 that they crucified the Lord Jesus. He does not
describe any of the gory details of this horrible means of execution. He does add that two
other men were crucified with him. These men were criminals deserving of punishment.
Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of Is. 53.12 that the Lord Jesus was “numbered with the
transgressors.”
19Now Pilate wrote an inscription and put it on the cross, and it was written: “Jesus the
Nazarene, the King of the Jews.” 20Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for
the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. And it was written in Hebrew,
Latin, Greek. 21Therefore the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, “Don’t write,
‘The King of the Jews,’ but that that one said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’” 22Pilate answered,
“What I have written I have written.”

292

Pilate wrote out the charge against the Lord Jesus and had it put on the cross: “Jesus
the Nazarene, the King of the Jews.” Thus it was officially announced that he was being
executed as a criminal for treason against Rome. Many Jews read this charge and had
opportunity to decide if this were really the King of the Jews, for the place was near the city.
No one had any excuse for not knowing who the Lord Jesus was.
The chief priests did not like what Pilate wrote and asked that he change it to say not
that the Lord Jesus was King of the Jews, but that he said he was King of the Jews. But Pilate
was firm. What he had written he had written. Why had he not been firm when he knew he
was condemning an innocent man whom he preferred to release? He caved in when it
mattered and was firm when it did not.
23Then the soldiers, when they crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four
parts, to each soldier a part, and the tunic. Now the tunic was seamless, woven from the
top through the whole, 24so they said to one another, “We should not tear it, but we should
cast lots for it, whose it will be,” that the Scripture might be fulfilled saying, “They
divided my garments among themselves and cast a lot for my clothing.” [Ps. 22.18]
Therefore the soldiers did these things.
According to custom, when the Lord Jesus had been crucified, the soldiers took his
garments and divided them among themselves. Did the four soldiers tear the outer garment
of the Lord Jesus into four pieces? That seems unlikely in that it would have destroyed the
garment. Was he wearing five garments? Govett says that the five were probably the turban,
the belt, the outer gament, and the sandals. Whatever the case may be, the inner garment of
the Lord Jesus was woven without a seam, so the soldiers decided to cast lots for it rather
than tearing it. Without knowing it they were fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. Ps. 22 is a
prophetic picture of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, remarkable not the least because
crucifixion was unknown to the Jews at that time. Crucifixion originated with the Persians
and was adopted by the Romans, and was not a Jewish means of execution. They used
stoning. One should study Ps. 22 in connection with the gospel stories of the crucifixion. In v.
18 of that psalm, it is prophesied that the clothing of the Lord Jesus would be divided among
his executioners, and that they would cast lots for his clothing.
In addition to the fulfillment of prophecy, which shows the foreknowledge of God
and the truth of his word, there is another lesson for us in this incident. In the Bible,
garments speak of righteousness, nakedness of sin, and death as the nakedness of the
disembodied spirit as the result of sin. Criminals were crucified naked, picturing in the Lord
Jesus his bearing all sins, in becoming sin (2 Cor. 5.21), and tasting death because of sin
(Heb.2.9). Is. 61.10 tells us that the saved are clothed by God in garments of salvation and
robes of righteousness. He became poor that we might become rich. He became naked that
we might be clothed. One of the beautiful pictures of the Bible occurs in Rev. 19.8 where we
see the bride of Christ clothed in fine linen, and we are told that the linen is the righteous

293

deeds of the saints. This fine linen is not the garment of salvation, but the reward of
obedience after salvation. It is the wedding garment of the bride of Christ. In Matt. 22.11-13
we learn of the guest at the wedding feast who was thrown out because he did not have a
wedding garment. We are saved by the free gift of God, but we make our own garment for
the kingdom by our obedience to God. Will we do his will and so be counted worthy to he
clothed in fine linen as a part of the bride of Christ in the Millennial kingdom, or will we be
among those Christians who will be saved but will not reign with Christ, who will suffer loss
in the kingdom? How vital it is that we weave a garment of righteous deeds in this life.
When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the garden, the first thing they realized
was that they were naked, so they made garments of fig leaves to try to cover their sin and
shame. Thus we see that nakedness pictures sin. We cannot hide our sin from God. We are
all naked before him (Heb. 4.13).
In 2 Cor. 5.14 Paul shows us that death, the result of sin, is the unclothing of the spirit,
and that that is an undesirable condition to be in. The disembodied spirit, even of the
Christian, is naked and longs to be clothed with a body. This truth is exactly opposite the
philosophy of man. Such men as Plato taught that man consists of soul and body. The soul is
the divine element in man, and the body is evil and the source of evil. Death is the release of
the soul from the body, the state to be desired, but the Bible teaches that man is not body and
soul, but body, soul, and spirit, and that the body is not evil. It was created by God and is a
good thing. In our fallen state we can use the body for evil, but it is not evil in and of itself.
One of our great hopes as Christians is that we will one day have transformed bodies that are
no longer subject to temptation, disease, pain, death, decay. Our spirits will inhabit glorified
bodies. Nakedness is not the state of the spirit desired by God. He wants it to be clothed with
a means of expression that will glorify him.
From these passages we see that garments speak of righteousness and nakedness, of
sin. What is the lesson in this regarding the casting of lots for the clothing of the Lord Jesus?
It is that he was clothed in righteousness, in a garment that was whole throughout and could
not be divided. His righteousness was perfect. He was sinless. Yet he became naked for us.
He became sin for us. In suffering that public humiliation of nakedness, the Lord Jesus
showed that he was becoming sin for us. Yet even in that, his garment of righteousness
remained whole. Even his death for sin and as sin was a righteous act.
V. 24 ends with the words, “Therefore the soldiers did these things.” Why did John
include this sentence? Why did he use the word “therefore”? The “therefore” indicates that
the soldiers were fulfilling prophecy. They were ignorant of it, but God saw to it that they
did what he had said they would. Their decision to cast lots for the inner garment of the Lord
Jesus was not an accident. They did it “therefore,” because God had said they would.
25Now his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary the
Magdalene, had been standing by the cross of Jesus.

26Jesus therefore, having seen his
mother and the disciple whom he loved [agapao] standing there, said to his mother,

294

“Woman, look, your son.” 27Then he said to the disciple, “Look, your mother.” And from
that hour the disciple took her into his own household.
Then John goes on to describe the scene in which the Lord Jesus saw his mother
standing there with some other women, and John himself. When he saw them he said,
“Woman, behold your son,” and “Behold your mother.” Thus he commended Mary into the
care of John. It is thought that Joseph was dead by this time, for there is no mention of him
after the Lord Jesus was twelve years old, and this incident at the cross lends credence to that
speculation. Furthermore, the brothers of Jesus did not believe in him at this time (7.5). The
Lord Jesus took care of his mother even in his own extremity. What a tender picture of his
loving nature. Even in his hour of greatest agony he thinks not of himself, but of others.
Indeed it was for others that he was there in the first place, and for the glory of the Father
(17.1).
In addition, this story shows us the need for the church to take care of its own. One of
the great tragedies of our day is the breakup of the family, the glorification of youth and
pleasure, and thus the considering of the old as a nuisance. Many abandon their older ones,
and many who keep them abuse them. In addition to that, the care of all needy people has
been taken over by the state, with the result that many people are not helped but are
established in poverty. The only ones who really benefit from all the government programs
are the government employees who administer them while drawing large salaries and
building up attractive pensions and the legislators who buy votes with these programs. The
supposed beneficiaries are given only enough to be kept in poverty. It is the duty of the
church, and of all Christians, to care for their own needy ones. Paul deals especially with
widows, as Mary apparently was, in 1 Tim. 5, a chapter that deserves study in light of Jn.
19.26-27.
28After this Jesus, knowing that all things had already been finished, said, that the
Scripture might be finished, “I am thirsty.” 29A vessel full of sour wine was standing
there, so having put a sponge full of the “sour wine” [Ps. 69.21] on a stalk of hyssop, they
put it to his mouth. 30When therefore he received the sour wine, Jesus said, “It is finished,”
and having bowed head he gave up the spirit.
V. 28 is a bit difficult to understand. It says that the Lord Jesus knew that all things
had been fulfilled, yet he had not yet died and it was his death that most important of all had
to be accomplished. It could not refer to the fulfilling of prophecies, for he was about to fulfill
another just at that point. Probably it was a general statement that the actual moment for
death had come, for everything else had been done. Thus he said, “I’m thirsty.” When he
said this, a sponge full of sour wine was given to him on a branch of hyssop. Thus was
fulfilled the prophecy of Ps. 69.21. Ps. 69 is another messianic psalm that deserves attention
in connection with the crucifixion of Jesus.

295

One of the instructive aspects of the life and death of Jesus is the negative things that
he suffered or became in order that we might have their opposite. For example, he became
poor that we might become rich (2 Cor. 8.9). In Jn. 19.28 we see that the Lord Jesus became
thirsty that we might drink of the water of life. Thirst was one of the elements of torture of
crucifixion. The victim would hang in the hot sun, gasping for breath, for hours, sometimes
for days, before death. Thirst would become unbearable, yet there was no remedy for it.
What an agony thirst really is! The Lord Jesus endured that thirst physically for our sakes,
and he endured the spiritual thirst for God that came at that moment, not recorded by John,
when he knew that he, having become sin, had been forsaken by God. What the Savior
endured for us we will never comprehend, even remotely.
Rev. 22.17 says, “And let the one who thirsts come; let the one who wishes take the
water of life freely.” That is why the Lord Jesus thirsted, that we might drink the water of life
freely, all we want without cost! In Jn. 7.37-38 he said, “If anyone is thirsty let him come to
me and drink. If anyone has faith in me, as the Scripture said, out of his inner being will flow
rivers of living water.” Then v. 39 explains that this living water is the Holy Spirit. That is
why the Lord Jesus thirsted, that we might not just drink of the living water, but that we
might have it springing up within us into a river that flows! May his name be forever
praised!
Having fulfilled the prophecy of Ps. 69.21, the Lord Jesus said, “It is finished,” bowed
his head, and gave up his spirit. This word translated, “It is finished,” is used three times in
vs. 28-30: “all things had already been finished,” and “that the Scripture might be finished”
being the first two. John seems to be emphasizing the theme of things being finished. Look
forward after the resurrection, to Lk. 24.44: “Now he said to them, ‘These are my words
which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that it is necessary for all things written in
the Law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms about me to be fulfilled.” And he
had told the two on the road to Emmaus, “And he himself said to them, ‘O foolish and slow
of heart to have faith in all things that the prophets spoke. Was it not necessary for the Christ
to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?’ And beginning from Moses and from all
the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things about himself.” The
sufferings of the Lord Jesus were finished with the cross. After that it was all glory and the
right kind of pleasure (Ps. 16.11). We don’t usually think in terms of the Scripture being
finished, but that terrible thirst, another part of his sufferings, that was prophesied of the
Lord Jesus had stood for hundreds of years and now it was finished. Two truths stand out in
this verse. One is contained in the statement, “It is finished.” One of the great old theological
phrases is “the finished work of Christ.” What does that phrase mean? It means that there is
absolutely nothing for us to do by way of works to gain salvation. All the work has been
done by Jesus Christ. It is a free gift, gladly given by God without cost. There is indeed much
work for Christians to do, but none of it is designed to earn salvation. That is the result of the
finished work of Christ. We work because we are saved, not to be saved. Salvation has been
provided. The work is finished. Praise the Lord!

296

The second truth is that the Lord Jesus gave up his spirit. That is, no one took it from
him. He laid down his life voluntarily. When we say that a person dies, we do not mean that
he does an active thing. We really mean that death did the acting and took him. But that was
not the case with the Lord Jesus. He actively died. He knew the will of God. He knew when
the exact moment came for him to die, and when it came, he gave up his spirit. It was God
who was in complete control of all that happened in these closing scenes of the life of the
Lord Jesus, in his arrest, “trial,” and crucifixion. It was Jesus the King who was reigning. The
Jews were under the control of passionate hatred. Peter was under the control of weak flesh.
Pilate was controlled by political expediency. The soldiers were just following orders. But
King Jesus was reigning! Hallelujah! No one took his life. He laid it down. And it is of great
interest that the Greek word for “betrayed” and “gave up” are the same. Judas “gave up” the
Lord Jesus in an evil act. The Lord “gave up” the spirit in obedience to the Father.
31Therefore the Jews, since it was the day of preparation, that the bodies might not
remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for the day of that Sabbath great, asked Pilate that
their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32So the soldiers went and
broke the legs of the first and of the other one having been crucified with him,
33but
having come to Jesus, when they saw him having already died, they did not break his legs,
34but one of the soldiers pierced his side with his spear, and immediately blood and water
came out.
The Jewish Sabbath began at sundown, about 6:00 o’clock on Friday night and lasted
till about six on Saturday night. The Lord Jesus was crucified at 9:00 in the morning and died
at 3:00 in the afternoon. Dt. 21.23 requires that anyone executed and hung on a tree be buried
the same day. His body was not to remain on the tree all night, so that the land would not be
defiled. Added to this command was the fact that the upcoming Sabbath was a special
Sabbath because of the Passover. Thus the Jews did not want the bodies of the three crucified
criminals to be left on the cross. It was not normal for a victim of crucifixion to die that
quickly, so they asked Pilate to have the legs of the victims broken that death might be
hastened and they might be buried before the Sabbath began in less than three hours. Pilate
consented.
When the soldiers had broken the legs of the two who were crucified with the Lord
Jesus, they went to break his legs as well but found him already dead. So instead of breaking
his legs, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and out came blood and water.
The blood and water speak to us of two aspects of the work of Christ in us. In the
Tabernacle of the Old Testament described in the book of Exodus, the first object that one
came to on entering the courtyard was the bronze altar of sacrifice. That is the place where
blood was offered for the forgiveness of sins. It corresponds to the cross of Christ, where our
sin is judged and we are forgiven. That is the blood, cleansing our sin so that we might be
born again.

297

The next object was the bronze laver, a large bowl of water from which the priests had
to wash before entering the Holy Place. The laver symbolizes the continual cleansing of the
Christian through the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the word of God. Water is
symbolic of the Holy Spirit, and Eph. 5.26 tells us that the Spirit uses the word of God as a
cleansing agent.
Thus the symbolism of the blood and water issuing from the side of Christ pictures for
us the work accomplished by him at the cross: the blood that initially cleanses us by dealing
once-for-all with our sins, and the Holy Spirit is released, who gives us life and keeps us
clean. The Lord Jesus fulfills the altar and the laver of the Old Testament.
In addition, when God had searched without success for a mate for Adam in Gen. 2,
he put Adam to sleep, opened his side, took out a rib, and made a woman from the rib, thus
providing Adam with a mate who was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. That is a
picture of Christ on the cross. Adam’s deep sleep corresponds to the death of the Lord Jesus.
When his side was pierced, there issued forth the elements that brought to life the church, his
bride, his mate. Just as Eve came from the side of Adam, so does the church come from the
side of Christ. Out of his death we have life.
35And the one having seen has testified and his testimony is true, and that one knows that
he speaks truth, that you also may have faith.
In v. 35 John makes an emphatic point of the truth of his testimony in what he has just
said. Why did he place such stress on this fact? Probably he did so because of the false
doctrine about the nature of Christ that was circulating in his day. There were those, basing
their beliefs on Plato’s doctrine of the evil nature of the body, who taught that Christ could
not have been a real man because he could not have taken on evil nature. Thus they thought
that the Lord Jesus was an ordinary man up till the time of his baptism. Then, when the Holy
Spirit descended on him, the heavenly Christ came on him and controlled him throughout
his earthly ministry. Then when he went to the cross the Christ deserted him and left him
there to die. Against such false teaching John maintains that Jesus and Christ were one and
the same, that in Jesus God became a man, that he was true flesh and blood and really did
die physically on the cross. Indeed it is John who says in his first epistle (4.1-3) that one of the
tests of spirits is their confession about the Lord Jesus: if they confess that Jesus Christ (note
the use of both names) has come in the flesh, they are of God; if not, they are not. John is the
gospel that holds forth most strongly the divinity of Jesus Christ, yet he holds just as firmly
to his humanity. One without the other is meaningless. We will have more to say about this
truth in our conclusion to this chapter.
For these things came about that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “Not a bone of his will
be broken,” [Ex. 12.46, Num. 9.12] 37and again another Scripture says, “They will look on
the one they pierced.” [Zech. 12.10]

298

John now returns to the fact that the soldiers did not break the Lord Jesus’ legs but
pierced his side. Pilate had given orders that the his legs be broken and had said nothing
about piercing his side, but God had prophesied in the Old Testament that not a bone of him
would be broken (Ex. 12.46, Num. 9.12), and that the Jews would one day look on him whom
they had pierced (Zech. 12.10). He saw to it that that was exactly what happened. These
soldiers knew nothing of the Old Testament, but they were instruments of the fulfillment of
prophecy. What a testimony they are to the truth of the word of God. They could not have
been guilty of any conspiracy to try to make prophecy come true. In complete ignorance and
against orders they did exactly what God had said they would.
Why was it important that not a bone of Jesus be broken? What did it matter? After
all, he was to rise again and God could easily mend broken bones if he could raise the dead!
It does matter! In the Old Testament, bones speak first of all of close relationship, and thus of
unity. We have already noted that when Adam saw Eve, he exclaimed that she was bone of
his bone and flesh of his flesh (Gen. 2.23). Bones are symbolically used numerous times in
this way in the Old Testament. In addition, they are sometimes used to signify the inner
man, what we might call the soul or spirit or heart. Because they are internal they can
represent the inner man.
When we put together these two thoughts of unity and spiritual nature, we see the
importance of the Lord Jesus’ not having any bones broken. He was first of all a man totally
unified within himself (see Ps. 86.11). He was one with himself. There was no inner conflict
in him. All the rest of us have a civil war going on inside. We want to serve God, but we are
tempted by evil and we want to do it. There is that constant struggle between good and evil
within us. Too often the evil carries the day. We experience what Paul described in Rom.
7.15: “For I do not practice what I wish, but I do what I hate.” Civil war!
The Lord Jesus, though, was (in fact, not just in intention as we often are) totally
surrendered to the will of God. We have seen over and over in John that he said that he did
nothing on his own, but only what the Father told him to do. He said that his food was to do
the will of God. He was even willing to die the shameful and excruciating death of the cross
if it was God’s will. He was even willing to bear our sins and have God turn his back on him
if it was God’s will. There was no civil war within the Lord Jesus. He was a man perfectly at
one with himself because he was perfectly at one with God. There was unity in the inner man
and in the outer man.
Thus the keeping of the bones of the Lord Jesus is a picture of the unbreakable nature
of that inner unity. Nothing could destroy it. But these are the bones of the Passover Lamb. It
is in Ex. 12, the story of the first Passover, that we have the first command that the bones of
the Passover lamb are not to be broken (12.46). The people of God were to eat the Passover
lamb. The Lord Jesus is our Passover Lamb, so he is not just to die for us: we are to feed on
him. He is our source of life. Thus his body, spiritually speaking, becomes the sustenance of
the life of us, the body of Christ.

299

Heb. 10.10 says that we have been sanctified by the offering of the body of Christ. That
is, the blood of Christ cleanses our sins, but it is the body of Christ that sanctifies us. What
does that mean? The body speaks of our identification with Christ on the cross. We have a
dual problem: we have committed sins that must be forgiven if we are to be justified before
God, but we also have a sin nature that gives rise to the sins, and that nature needs to be
dealt with, too. The blood washes away our sins, but the sin nature is still there. It is our
identification with Christ on the cross that deals with the sin nature. That is what Heb. 10.10
is getting at. That is what Paul deals with in Rom. 6, where he writes in v. 6, “… knowing
this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, in
order that we might not be slaves to sin any longer.” Thus when Christ died on the cross, we
died with him. The sanctification spoken of in Heb. 10.10 is the lifelong process by which the
Holy Spirit makes this identification with the death of Christ a reality in our experience.
What is the point? It is that the physical body of the Lord Jesus on the cross and his
spiritual body, the church, are in a sense one. Thus the unity that characterized Christ and
that caused God to command that not a bone of him be broken carries over to his body the
church. There is only one church and nothing can divide it. All the divisions among God’s
people that we see are manmade. They are not of God. They will not survive the return of
Christ. What we call the church is not the church, but any number of manmade
organizations. The church that came from the side of Christ is not an organization but an
organism, and it is one. Not a bone of it is to be broken!
The statement that the Jews will look on him whom they pierced is a quotation of
Zech. 12.10, a wonderful prophecy that at the end, when Christ returns, the Jews will
recognize him as their Messiah and own him as their King. No longer will they cry, “We
have no king but Caesar!” They will bow to their true King, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
will not cast them out. He will forgive them and receive them, as Zech. 13.1 tells us: a
fountain will be opened for the Jews, that cleansing fountain of the blood of Jesus that will
wash away their sins. What a glorious day that will be! Lord, hasten it!
38Now after these things Joseph from Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but
secretly because of fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of
Jesus, and Pilate permitted it. So he came and took his body. 39Now Nicodemus also came,
the one having first come to him by night, carrying a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a
seventy-five pounds.
In vs. 38-39 John tells us that Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of the
Lord Jesus that he might bury it, and that Nicodemus joined him in the burial. He tells us
here that Joseph was a secret disciple, and it appears that Nicodemus was one, too, or that he
became one as a result of the death of the Lord Jesus. We noted in Jn. 12.42-43 that many of
the Jewish leaders believed in the Lord Jesus but were afraid to make it known, valuing the
glory of men above that of God. It seems that Joseph, at least, and perhaps Nicodemus, were

300

in this group, but now they come out into the open. Something has happened to make them
value the glory of God above that of men. Note: the Greek text says “a hundred litras,” about
75 of our 16 oz. pounds.
40Then they took the body of Jesus and bound it with linen wrappings with the spices to
prepare for burial, as is the custom with the Jews.
Joseph took the body, and Nicodemus brought spices. The Jews wrapped spices with
the body, not to keep it from decaying but perhaps to slow decay a bit and to cover the odor
of death. These two wrapped the body of the Lord Jesus in a linen wrapping with the spices.
It was the custom of the Jews to do this, but there is a bit more significance in the case of the
Lord Jesus than simply the following of custom. In Matt. 3.13-15 the Lord came to John the
Baptist to be baptized. John resisted, protesting that he, John, needed rather to be baptized by
the Lord Jesus, who replied, “Permit it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness.” What did he mean by that statement?
God is a righteous God, and thus he must require that the penalty of sin be paid. We
are all sinners and thus all deserve judgment. Unless the righteousness of God is satisfied,
there can be no salvation for anyone. Baptism is a picture of death and resurrection, going
down into the water symbolizing death, and coming up, rising. By submitting to the baptism
of John, the Lord Jesus not only put his stamp of approval on the message of John, but he
also prophesied that he, the Lord Jesus, would die and rise again. Now at the end of his life
and ministry, he does die, but he does so as a perfect (sinless) sin offering that satisfies the
righteousness of God. Thus he fulfilled all righteousness. He had submitted to baptism as a
prophetic symbol that he would fulfill the righteous requirement of God, and now he has
done it by his death.
Linen in the Bible symbolizes righteous deeds. That is the meaning of linen in the
story of the Tabernacle in Exodus, and Rev. 19.8, as we saw in connection with the garments
of the Lord Jesus, tells us plainly that the linen of the bride of Christ is the righteous deeds of
the saints. When the body of the Lord Jesus was wrapped in linen, it was a symbolic
statement that the death gone through by him was a righteous act on his part, one approved
and accepted by God. He died in obedience to the will of God, and thus was clothed in
righteousness even in death.
Spices in the Old Testament often speak to us of the Holy Spirit in his role of stirring
up the fragrance of Christ in a place. Thus the body of the Lord Jesus was wrapped not only
in a symbol of righteousness but also in one of the Spirit. How unnecessary the physical
spices were in this case. The Lord Jesus had the real spice. His body would not decay and he
would rise again.

301

41Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden a new
tomb in which no one yet was laid. 42Therefore, because of the day of preparation of the
Jews, because the tomb was near, they laid Jesus there.
The place where Jesus was crucified was a garden, and in the garden was an unused
tomb. There his body was laid. Sin had its beginning in a garden, and it was put away in a
garden. The Lord Jesus came out of that tomb alive, but he left the sins behind!
So Joseph and Nicodemus buried the body of the Lord Jesus, doing so close by
because of the shortness of time created by the approaching Sabbath. Thus ends the story of
the crucifixion and burial of the Lord.
What is the importance of this story? There are many reasons it is important, but we
will mention only two or three. First and most obvious, of course, is the fact that the Lord
Jesus died as our sin offering. He effectively dealt with our sins once for all so that we can be
forgiven and born from above, so that we can be rescued from hell and destined for Heaven.
Heb. 9.22 tells us that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. The Lord Jesus
shed his blood, and we have forgiveness.
The story is important also because it stresses the true humanity of the Lord Jesus and
the historical reality of what happened. It is absolutely essential to our salvation that the
death of the Lord Jesus actually happened. There are those today, who call themselves
Christians, who teach that it does not matter whether the Lord Jesus really died or not, or
even if he ever lived or not. The whole story could be a fairy tale. The only thing that matters
is that we believe the moral of the story. That kind of teaching is a lie. God is righteous. He
does require that the penalty of sin be paid. If the Lord Jesus was not a real historical human
being who lived a sinless life and died for our sins, then we will have to pay the penalty in
an eternal hell. But the Lord Jesus was a real man and he did die and he was buried. That is
why John stresses these historical facts, and that is why he is so emphatic about it in v. 35.
Without the true historical events, we are lost. But they are true, and we are saved!
Oswald Chambers writes that the basis of life is not rational but tragic. That is, men do
not live on the basis of reason, as they like to humor themselves, and thus bring life to a
good, because rational, level and conclusion. The one overriding fact of life is that it is tragic
because it will end in death. It is literally true that all good things come to and end in this
life. No matter how wonderful an experience is, there is a grave at the end for everyone.
Unless the Lord returns, everyone who reads these words will be laid in a grave. Every
relationship will end. All our loved ones will die. Life is tragic. Wonderful as it may be at
times, it is ultimately tragic. Nothing is more tragic and more final than death, the last
enemy.
If we are psychologically and intellectually able to face this fact of life and be totally
honest about it, there are only two possible responses: despair or faith in God through Christ,
despair or faith that in Christ God has provided redemption from the tragedy that life is.
That is what the crucifixion story is, the answer to the tragedy that man has made of life. It

302

was necessary to satisfy the righteousness of God (Heb. 9.22), but it is so much more. God is
righteous, but he is not just righteous. He is also love (1 Jn. 4.16). The crucifixion shows us
that: “But God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for
us…. For while we were still enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his
Son” (Rom. 5.8, 10). The cross provides redemption from the tragic basis of life so that there
is hope, so that God can overcome what took place when Adam and Eve fell. Then he can
begin to fulfill the purpose he had for them, a purpose that will be fully revealed only in the
Millennium and beyond. That is one of the reasons the Lord Jesus died, to deal with the
tragic basis of life.
We could not exhaust the meaning of this event that is the hinge of history.
Everything turns on it. Without it we are all eternally lost. With it, we have the free offer of
salvation by a loving God. It satisfies his righteousness. It deals with the tragic basis of life. It
reveals the love of God. And so much more. In the end, we can only bow in worship before
such a God and Savior and receive what has been done for us with praise and thanksgiving.
May the Lord give us grace to know by experience the forgiveness, the sanctification, the life
that flows from the cross of Jesus Christ. For life, as we have seen, is the real issue in John.
The Lord Jesus died that we might have life, and have it abundantly, to his glory.

RESURRECTION DAY
John 20.1-29

All of the gospels report the most startling turn of events in history, the fact that the
Lord Jesus, having been crucified and buried, rose from the dead. One might ask why this is
the most startling fact in history. Are there not other instances of raising from the dead
recorded in the Bible? Elijah and Elisha raised the dead in the Old Testament. The Lord Jesus
raised the little girl and the widow’s son at Nain in addition to Lazarus. Paul raised
Eutychus, and Peter, Tabitha, in the book of Acts. But there is a difference.
None of these were resurrected. They were resuscitated. That is, they were restored to
physical life as we know it. They were still subject to physical laws. They were still subject to
disease, death, and decay. All of them died again. That is not resurrection. Resurrection is
raising from the dead to a new kind of life. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 15.44 that the resurrected
have a spiritual body. We do not know how that can be, for a spirit is immaterial and a body
is material, so how could there be such a thing as a spiritual body? We do not know, but God
does. A spiritual body partakes of eternal life, God’s life. It is not subject to physical laws,
disease, death, or decay. That is the kind of life the Lord Jesus was raised to. He was not
resuscitated, but resurrected.
While all the gospels record the fact of the resurrection, none of them describe the
event itself. We are simply told that when the women who were followers of the Lord Jesus
went to the tomb to prepare his body properly for burial, that not having been done in the

303

haste between his death and the Sabbath, they found the tomb empty, and subsequently
learned that he had risen from the dead.
1Now on the first day of the week Mary the Magdalene came to the tomb early, it
still being dark, and saw the stone taken away from the tomb. 2She ran therefore and came
to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved [phileo], and said to them,
“They took the Lord from the tomb and we don’t know where they laid him.” 3Therefore
Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. 4Now the two were running
together and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first, 5and
having bent down he saw the linen wrappings lying, but did not go inside. 6Then came
Simon Peter also, following him, and he went into the tomb. And he saw the linen
wrappings lying, 7and the face cloth, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen
wrappings, but rolled up, by itself in one place.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke indicate that several women went to the tomb, but John
names only Mary the Magdalene. However, he does not necessarily exclude others: in v, 2,
when Mary reports the empty tomb to Peter and John, she says, “We.” Mary went to the
tomb very early, while it was still dark. No doubt John means that description of darkness
literally, but it has symbolic meaning as well. We have seen that darkness is a theme all
through John. Such words as darkness, night, and blindness constantly occur, picturing the
spiritual darkness of the world, its ignorance of the truth at the hands of Satan. The climax of
darkness came in 13.30 when Satan entered Judas and he went out to betray the Lord Jesus,
“and it was night.” It appeared that darkness had prevailed: the Son of God, the Prince of
life, was about to be killed. To Mary it was still dark when she came to the tomb, but that
was only because she did not yet know that Light had dawned, forever triumphant over
darkness. It was really light, spiritually light; she just did not know it yet.
On the way to the tomb, the women wondered how the large stone that covered the
entrance would be moved for them, but when they got there, they found that it had already
been moved. John does not describe it, but apparently Mary looked into or went into the
tomb and found it empty. Not suspecting resurrection, she ran to Peter and John to tell them
that the body of the Lord Jesus had been moved and they did not know where. When they
heard this news, the two disciples ran to the tomb themselves, John outrunning Peter, but
stopping at the entrance and only looking in, thus seeing the linen wrappings lying there.
When impulsive Peter arrived, he burst into the tomb and saw the linen wrappings lying
there, and the face cloth as well, rolled up and in a place by itself.
We noted in 19.40 that the linen wrappings symbolized the fulfillment of the righteous
requirement of God that sin be paid for. Now these wrappings are left behind. What is the
meaning of that? It is just what we have said. God’s righteousness required that sin be paid
for. That is a legal requirement. But now it has been paid for. The Law has been satisfied, and
thus it is left behind. We are no longer under Law, but under grace. The need for God’s

304

righteousness to be satisfied has been left behind in the tomb, because it has been satisfied by
the Savior.
It appears that the significance of the linen wrappings and the face cloth lying
separately in v. 7 indicates that the burial clothes were left lying just as they had been when
the Lord Jesus was dead. That is, he did not get up and take them off, but simply passed
through them when he was restored to life and they collapsed where they were. He was able
to pass through physical barriers, as we will see later, so apparently he passed through the
grave clothes and then through the walls of the tomb. The stone was rolled away not to let
him out, but to let his followers in so that they could discover the empty tomb.
8Then therefore the other disciple, having come first to the tomb, entered and saw and had
faith, 9
for they did not yet know the Scripture that he must rise from the dead.
V. 8 tells us that after Peter rushed into the tomb, John entered, saw the linen
wrappings and the face cloth lying separately, and had faith. We are not told exactly what
John had faith in, but the meaning seems to be that he had faith that the Lord Jesus was alive.
How he understood that we are not told. V. 9 tell us that Peter and John did not yet
understand the Scripture, that the Lord Jesus must rise from the dead.
John does not tell us what Scripture he had in mind, but one or two psalms may be
cited which predict the resurrection. Ps. 16 is a messianic psalm, a psalm about the Messiah.
Vs. 1-9 describe various aspects of the life and ministry of the Lord. V. 10 tells us that his
body, after his death, would not decay, and v 11 says that he will rise again, being restored to
the path of life.
Ps. 23 is not usually cited as a messianic psalm, but it is. Pss. 22-24 are all messianic
psalms describing consecutive aspects of the ministry of Christ. Ps. 22 tells of his death, 23, of
his resurrection, and 24, of his coming again in glory. Ps. 23 says that the Lord Jesus will
walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but that he will dwell in the house of the
Lord forever. It predicts his resurrection.
10Therefore the disciples went to their homes again.
The response of Peter and John to their discovery of the empty tomb and the belief, by
John at least, that Jesus was alive is difficult to understand. John says that they went home!
That is remarkable. It seems that they would have been hastening to the other disciples to
give them the news, or even that they would have been in the streets shouting it! But that
they simply went home is hard to comprehend.
11But Mary was standing at the tomb, outside, weeping. Then as she was weeping
she bent down into the tomb, 12and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head
and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And those said to her,

305

“Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord and I don’t
know where they laid him.”
Apparently while Peter and John were running to the tomb, Mary the Magdalene was
returning there behind them. V. 11 says that after the two had left, she was still there at the
tomb, but she was weeping, for she did not yet know that the Lord Jesus was alive. She still
thought that his body had been moved. As she stood weeping, she bent down and looked
into the tomb and saw two angels sitting where the Lord Jesus’ body had been. They asked
her why she was weeping, and she replied that they had taken away her Lord, and she did
not know where.
14Having said these things she turned around and saw Jesus standing, and she did not
know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you
seeking?” That one, supposing that he was the gardener, said to him, “Sir, if you carried
him away, tell me where you laid him and I will take him away.” 16Jesus said to her,
“Mary.” Having turned that one said to him in Hebrew, “Rabboni,” which means
“Teacher.”
Then she turned and saw the Lord Jesus, but did not know that it was he. Some have
said that she did not recognize him because of her tear-blurred vision, but there is a much
more significant lesson in this fact. Recall that when the Lord Jesus appeared to the two on
the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, they did not recognize him either, even when he explained
the Scriptures to them so wonderfully that their hearts burned within them. Luke tells us
plainly that their eyes were held back from recognizing him. That is the same experience that
Mary had. The point is that the Lord Jesus is not known by natural sight, or by human
reason, but only by revelation. It was only when the Lord Jesus broke bread in their presence
that the two from Emmaus recognized him. It was only when he called her name that Mary
recognized him. We do not figure God out by our brain-power: he must reveal himself to us
or we will never know him. That is the lesson of Jn. 3.8, too.
The Lord Jesus also asked Mary why she was weeping. She supposed him to be the
gardener, and said that if he had taken him away to tell her and she would take the body.
Then Jesus said, “Mary,” and she knew it was he. She replied, “Rabboni,” literally, “My
Lord,” but in effect, “Teacher,” as John explains, for it was applied to teachers of the Law.
How instructive it is that Adam was the first gardener, told by God to cultivate and care for
the garden he was placed in. That first gardener failed and brought sin and death to the
garden. The Lord Jesus is not only the last Adam, but the last Gardener. He brought
forgiveness, righteousness, and life back to the garden.
17Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to
my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father and my God

306

and your God.’” 18Mary the Magdalene went, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the
Lord,” and that he said these things to her.
When Mary recognized Jesus and called him Rabboni, he told her to stop clinging to
him, for he had not yet ascended to the Father. What did he mean by that command? He
could not have meant simply that he should not be touched for some reason, for in the next
two paragraphs of John he had the disciples to touch him. The meaning seems to be
explained by his statement that he had not yet ascended. All the Jewish messianic
expectations were earthly. They looked for an earthly king who would liberate Israel from
her enemies and restore her to earthly glory. That is still what they expected, even after the
death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, as Acts 1.6 makes clear. By telling Mary not to cling
to him, he is making the point that he cannot be clung to physically. His body, as such,
cannot be clung to. He cannot be kept physically on earth. After he ascends to his Father, he
can be clung to, but that will be spiritual.
In addition to the command not to cling to him, the Lord Jesus told Mary to go and
tell his brothers that he was ascending to his Father and their Father and to his God and their
God. In 13.16 the Lord Jesus called the disciples servants; in 15.14-15, friends; and now,
brothers. By his atoning death and death-conquering resurrection, he has brought them into
the spiritual family of God, and thus they are now his brothers. God is not just his Father, but
their Father; not just his God, but their God.
In obedience Mary went to the disciples and told the glad news: “I have seen the
Lord,” and she gave the message that the Lord Jesus gave her to pass on.
19It being evening on that day, the first of the week, and the doors having been shut
where the disciples were because of fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst
and said to them, “Peace to you.” 20And having said this he showed the hands and the side
to them. Then the disciples rejoiced, having seen the Lord. 21Then Jesus said to them
again, “Peace to you. As the Father has sent me I also send you.” 22And having said this, he
breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you should forgive the
sins of any they have been forgiven them, and if you retain those of any they have been
retained.”
Vs. 19-23 record the first appearance of the Lord Jesus to the disciples. It occurred on
Sunday evening, the day of the resurrection. The disciples were behind closed doors for fear
of the Jews, but he stood in their midst. That is, he did not open the door and walk in. He
was just there. He had a spiritual body and was no longer subject to physical laws. His first
words to his followers were the antidote to their fear, “Peace to you.” Having said this, he
showed them his hands and his side. This fact is of utmost importance. The Lord Jesus was
no ghost. He was not the disembodied spirit of a dead man. He was physically alive again,
yet his body had been transformed. This was the same body that had been crucified, had

307

died, and had been laid in the tomb. It was now alive, and he showed them his wounds to
prove it. This is a very significant occurrence, as we will see more fully later. The disciples’
reaction was as we would expect: they rejoiced. That seems an understatement. They loved
this man, and they not only loved him, they had come to believe that he was more than a
man and they had put all their hopes in him. Then they had been cruelly disappointed. Now
here he was alive again. They rejoiced indeed!
The Lord Jesus spoke peace to the disciples again, and then said, “As the Father has
sent me I also send you.” Eph. 6.15 is the explanation of this sequence. That chapter is the
Bible’s great chapter on spiritual warfare. In describing the armor that the Christian is to put
on for his battles, Paul says that our feet are to be shod with the preparation of the good
news of peace. Having the feet shod means that we are to go. We have a mission, as the Lord
Jesus said in Jn. 20.21: “I also send you.” Having the feet shod with the preparation of the
good news of peace means that we must have peace ourselves before we can proclaim it to
others. We cannot impart what we do not have. One who does not know the Lord cannot
introduce someone else to him. God does not use professionals to convey the good news, but
people who have met him. Before the sending comes the peace. Once the peace comes, there
is a sending. We cannot have one without the other. We must have peace to be sent, but as
surely as we receive peace, we will be sent. By the way, the Greek word for “sent” in this
passage is the verb form of the noun that means “apostle” – “a sent one.”
Further equipment for our mission is given in v. 22. The Lord Jesus breathed on the
disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit. Since John does not describe Pentecost, but
ends with the resurrection appearances of the Lord Jesus, some have thought that this verse
is his summary mention of Pentecost. Perhaps that is the case, but the explanation seems to
lie elsewhere. In Gen. 2.7 God formed man from the dust of the ground, and then into the
lifeless form he breathed the breath of life, and man became a living soul. He received
physical life. Jn. 20.22 is the spiritual parallel. Man’s problem has ever been that he is dead in
sins (Eph. 2.1). That is, he is spiritually dead, though his body and soul are alive. His spirit is
dead toward God, and there was no way for it to become alive toward God. But when the
Lord Jesus dealt with sin, the way was opened for man to receive the Spirit of God and thus
come alive in spirit toward God. That is, being born from above, being born again. That is
what happened in Jn. 20.22. The disciples were not filled with the Holy Spirit as at Pentecost,
where they suddenly gained understanding of spiritual truth and power to communicate it,
but they came alive toward God. They were born from above. The Holy Spirit entered their
spirits and made them alive toward God. And it is very noteworthy that the exact word used
in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for God breathing into man the breath of life is
used here of the Lord Jesus breathing into the disciples the Holy Spirit. Adam received
physical life. The disciples received spiritual life. In fifty more days, they would be baptized
in and filled by this same Spirit.
V. 23 is one that is difficult to deal with, but not for the reasons usually cited. This
verse tells us that the sins of anyone that the disciples forgive have been forgiven, and the

308

sins of anyone that they retain have been retained. The debate about the meaning of this
verse usually deals with whether or not the disciples thus became “church officials” who
could dispense or withhold salvation, but that is not the meaning of the passage at all. Of
course they did not become church officials. There is no such thing. All such offices as
bishops and the like are man’s inventions and cannot be found in the Bible. The word
sometimes translated “bishop” literally means “overseer,” and overseers and elders are seen
to be the same in Titus 1.5 and 7. The New Testament knows nothing of a bishop as a man
over a number of churches and their clergy. In the New Testament, all Christians were
laymen, the word “laymen” coming from the Greek word laos, which simply means
“people.” They were all the people of God. There was no such thing as a clergyman and the
word cannot be found in the New Testament. Different Christians had different ministries,
but all were laymen, of the people of God. The distinction between clergy and laity is the
Nicolaitanism condemned by the Lord Jesus himself in Rev. 2.6 and 15. The word
“Nicolaitan” means “conquer the people.” That is exactly what has happened. The so-called
clergy have conquered the laity and rule over them, supposedly dispensing salvation and
blessing. That is the doing of man under the inspiration of Satan and is against the Scriptures
and God’s thought for the church. The church is simply the spiritual people of God.
Within the church there is authority, for God has called some to be elders, but there is
always a plurality of elders in the New Testament, never one man who is recognized as the
leader. Furthermore, the elders are not clergymen. Eldership is simply one of the ministries
that God calls men to within the church. The meaning of Jn. 20.23 is that there are authority
and discipline in the church as God intended it. Paul bears testimony to this fact especially in
1 Corinthians, where he deals with several matters of church discipline, and even tells the
Corinthians to deliver a sinner to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be
saved (1 Cor. 5.5). The problem we face in our day is that there is no church discipline. In the
first place, many of what we call churches are not churches but man-made organizations
which are concerned primarily with continuing to exist. They do not wish to offend anyone
for fear of losing membership and financial support, so they tolerate any behavior short of
the most appalling and disruptive. In the second place, what is called the church, but is not,
is so divided that if one were to be disciplined, he would simply go to another so-called
church or denomination. There is only one church in God’s sight, and the situation should be
such that man also recognized it and lived in fear of being put out of the church. But that is
not the case today.
That is why this verse is difficult to deal with. Its meaning is clear. There are authority
and discipline in the church. The difficulty is that authority and discipline no longer exist as
God intends, so man has made this verse largely irrelevant. Since it is irrelevant, why deal
with it? But it is not irrelevant to God. We will have to give an account to him for our failure
to maintain the unity of the body and the discipline that goes with it.

309

24But Thomas, one of the twelve, the one called Didymus, was not with them when
Jesus came. 25Therefore the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord,”
but he said to them, “Unless I should see in his hands the mark of the nails and should
put my finger into the mark of the nails and should put my hand into his side, I would not
believe.” 26And after eight days his disciples were inside again, and Thomas with them.
When the Lord Jesus made this appearance to the disciples, Thomas was not there. We
are not told why. The others testified to him that they had seen the Lord, but he refused to
believe unless he could see the nail prints in the hands of the Lord, and put his fingers into
them and put his hand into his side. The Lord Jesus could have refused this demand of
Thomas. He could have said that Thomas should have been there at his first appearance, and
now he ought to believe the testimony of the others. But he is a gracious Lord, and he had
prophesied that he would lose none of those whom God has given him, so on the eighth day,
he appeared again, and this time Thomas was there.
Eight in the Bible is the number of resurrection. Seven is a number of perfection, so
what else is there after seven? Something entirely new, resurrection, life from the dead. So
eight is the number of resurrection. It was no accident that the Lord Jesus appeared to
Thomas on the eighth day. That day was resurrection day for him. We all need an eighth
day.
Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in the midst and said, “Peace to you.”
27Then he said to Thomas, “Bring your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand
and put it into my side, and don’t be unbelieving, but believing.” 28Thomas answered and
said to him, “My Lord and my God.” 29Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me you
have had faith? Blessed are those not having seen and having faith.”
On the eighth day the Lord Jesus again passed through closed doors and stood in the
midst of the disciples, and again he said, “Peace to you.” Then he said to Thomas to touch his
wounds, the nail prints and the spear-wound in the side, and not to be faithless, but faithful.
We are not told whether Thomas touched Jesus or whether only the sight of him was
enough, but Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” John is, as we have seen, the gospel
that stresses the divinity of the Lord Jesus. The acceptance by him of this ascription by
Thomas is evidence for his divinity. If he were not God in the flesh, and if he were righteous,
he would have corrected Thomas. He did not, and thereby testified to his own divinity.
In addition, the Lord Jesus said to Thomas, “Because you have seen me you have had
faith? Blessed are those not seeing and having faith.” The first disciples, about five hundred
of them (1 Cor. 15.6), were allowed to see. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus was proved to
them as a foundation of the Christian faith. The rest of us are required to have faith without
seeing. We are blessed, said the Lord, if we do. Thus ends John’s account of the resurrection
day, the first one and Thomas’.

310

What should we say about the resurrection in conclusion? We need to say simply that
the resurrection is not only a fact, as John takes pains to make clear, but it is an absolutely
essential fact. Without it we are not saved. Paul says this quite plainly in 1 Cor. 15, his great
chapter on resurrection, and one which should be studied in connection with Jn. 20 and the
other gospel accounts. Vs. 12-19 of 1 Cor. 15 are especially clear on this matter.
The reason that the resurrection is vital is that death is the result of sin. It is the
penalty for sin. God told Adam that if he sinned he would die (Gen. 2.17). He sinned and he
died, spiritually at first and ultimately, physically. Ezek. 18.4 and 20 say that the soul that
sins will die. Paul writes in Rom. 6.23 that the wages of sin are death. Sin and death are the
real problem. That is the great enemy we all face and the one we want to be delivered from.
If the Lord Jesus had died for our sins and secured their forgiveness, but had not conquered
death, the penalty of sin, his dealing with sin would be meaningless. It would be like telling
a prisoner that he had been pardoned, but he had to stay in jail. What is the point in being
pardoned if we cannot get out of jail? What is the point in having our sins dealt with if we
are going to go to hell anyway, for that is what death is ultimately? No, it is absolutely
essential that the Lord Jesus was a real, historical, human person, that he died, and that he
rose from the grave victorious over death. If he did not, we are lost. Never accept the
teaching that it is our belief in the principles Christ taught that really matters whether he rose
or not. Never accept the idea that he lives on in his teachings. If he is not physically alive, we
are lost. If you wish to compromise your Christian faith, compromise on something other
than the resurrection. Without it, there is no Christian faith.
The truth is that the Lord Jesus is alive. He is alive physically, but not in the way that
we know physical life. His physical body came back from the grave, but it came back
transformed into a spiritual body, one that will never suffer or die. That is our source of
hope. We are promised that we will one day have the same kind of body. May that day
hasten when we experience not just the benefits of faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
but also the full enjoyment in his presence of all that resurrection means. He is alive!

THE PURPOSE OF THE GOOD NEWS ACCORDING TO JOHN

John 20.30-31

30Many other signs therefore Jesus also did before the disciples, which are not
written in this book, 31but these have been written that you may have faith that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that having faith you may have life in his name.
Jn. 20.1-29 deals with the resurrection and appearances of the Lord Jesus, and so does
21.1-23, but 20.30-31 breaks this natural flow and tells us of the purpose of the gospel of John.
These two verses read like the end of a book, so many have speculated that this gospel
originally ended with chapter 20, and that John later added chapter 21. This couldl be the

311

case, though we have no way of knowing with certainty. Whatever the truth may be, it is
very helpful to us that John told us, in vs. 30-31, why he wrote his book. Most of the books of
the Bible do not tell us so plainly why they were written, but we should have no trouble
understanding John. He wrote that we might have faith that the Lord Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that having faith, we might have life. Let us turn now to a detailed
consideration of this statement of purpose by John.
The evangelist begins by telling us that many other signs were done by the Lord Jesus
that are not written in this book, but that these were recorded for the purpose stated. Thus
the means by which John hopes to bring us to faith, and thus to life, are the signs of the Lord.
We saw at the beginning of our study that the word “signs” is of great importance because it
means that these works of the Lord Jesus point to something beyond themselves. These
works were miracles, but John never calls them by that name. He always refers to them as
signs. Thus his intention is not to call attention to the miracles for their own sakes, to cause
amazement at them, but to call attention to what they point to. What they signify is that the
man who did them is more than a man. Let us review briefly the significance of each sign.
The first, the changing of water into wine, occurs in 2.1-12. The primary point of this
sign is that the one who did it is able to manifest the life of God, adequate for every
eventuality, in the midst of the complete failure and emptiness of man.
The healing of the official’s son in 4.46-54 shows us that the life of God is not limited
by time and space. It operates in the spiritual realm and is not governed by natural law. The
Lord Jesus was able to speak a word at a distance of some miles, and what he said was
effective in the other location. What implications this has for prayer!
In 5.1-9 the man at the pool of Bethesda was healed. He, in bondage to his ailment for
thirty-eight years, just as Israel wandered in the wilderness for thirty-eight years, represents
Israel under the Law, and his healing signifies the working of the life of God to release man
from the bondage of the Law into the freedom of grace.
The Lord Jesus fed five thousand with five loaves and two fish in 6.1-14, and the
lesson is that the life of God in the person of Jesus Christ is our spiritual food. We no longer
have to go hungry spiritually, for bread has been broken on our behalf. Life and its
sustenance are available to us.
Vs. 16-21 of chapter 6 record the story of the Lord walking on the water. The sea is a
place of danger where there are storms of life created by the manifestation of evil, and the
walking on the water by the Lord Jesus shows us the mastery of evil and its outward
circumstances by him. The life of God is able to walk on circumstances, to reign over
circumstances.
The man born blind was healed in 9.1-7. From his story we learn that the life of God
gives spiritual sight, as 1.4 had already told us: light comes from life. We no longer have to
walk in the darkness of Satan’s deceit, for God has provided the opening of eyes to spiritual
truth.

312

Finally, the raising of Lazarus from the dead in 11.1-44 signifies resurrection, not just
the restoration to physical life as we know it, but the raising to an entirely new kind of life,
eternal life in a spiritual body that knows no pain or suffering or death or decay. It tells us
that the Lord Jesus is life.
All of these signs signify: they tell us something about the one who did them. He is
adequate in man’s failure, not limited by time and space, the deliverer from Law into grace,
the Bread of life, the victor over circumstances, the giver of spiritual sight, the resurrection
and the life.
We saw in our study of Thomas in the last chapter that eight in the Bible is the
number of resurrection. John records seven signs that he calls signs, but there is an eighth,
and it is the one that corresponds with its number. The eighth sign is the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus. It is the greatest sign of all and the one that ultimately validates all the others. It
proves to us, if we believe it, that the one who did these deeds is who John says he is.
The Lord Jesus, says John, is the man who did these signs, and he records them so that
we will believe certain things about this man. He will shortly tell us what he wants us to
believe, but he makes one or two other statements first, and we will consider them in order.
First John writes that the Lord Jesus did these signs before the disciples. That is a very
important statement in itself, for it tells us that Christianity is based on testimony and faith,
not on reason and what we would call scientific proof. Man cannot figure God out by his
own mental powers. He cannot come to know God by reason. Nor can man prove that God
even exists. Our faith is founded on the testimony of a few people who knew a man named
Jesus nearly two thousand years ago, people who said that he died and was raised from the
dead and that he was God in the flesh, and on the response of our hearts. Do we believe
what they said? There is evidence, but it is not what a scientist can put under a microscope
and look at. It is eyewitness testimony, but there is no physical evidence. God gives people
experience with himself, calls on them to testify of it, and requires faith. These signs done by
the Lord Jesus were done in the presence of people, who were then required to have faith
themselves and to bear witness. The knowledge of God comes by revelation, not by reason.
John now comes to his purpose as such. It is that, having read his account of the signs
that the Lord Jesus did, we might have faith. We have already seen that by faith the Bible
does not mean simply the mental acceptance of a proposition as true. It means committing
one’s life to what one believes. As James puts it, belief without works is dead. John’s purpose
is not that we agree that the Lord Jesus did what he says he did. It is that we give ourselves
to him.
Faith is believing what God says plus action based on the belief. The Lord Jesus is
who God says he is: the Word become flesh. God spoke in what he said and did, but even
though he did miraculous things, faith is still necessary. There were those who agreed that
he worked miracles, but they did not have faith in him. The Jewish leaders admitted that he
raised Lazarus from the dead, but their response was not to have faith in him but to propose
killing both the Lord Jesus and Lazarus to cover up what was happening! They believed with

313

their minds that the Lord Jesus worked miracles, but they had no faith. They did not respond
with the commitment of their lives to him. John wrote that we might have faith in the biblical
sense.
Furthermore, he wrote that we might have faith regarding certain things about this
man who did these signs. He wrote that we might have faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God. Much truth is wrapped up in these three names, Jesus, Christ, and Son of God. Let us
lock at each one in turn and see the progression.
Jesus is the human name of this person whom we are considering. He was with God
eternally, but at a point in human history, he was born of a woman and became a human
being. At that time he was given the name Jesus. That name is simply the English translation
of the Greek form of the Old Testament Hebrew name Joshua. Joshua means “I AM Saves,”
and that is what Jesus means, as we have seen. And that was the human name of this human
being who did these signs.
The point is that it was a man who did these works, but John wants us to see in this
man more than a man. He was fully human, a doctrine vital to the Christian faith, and it was
a flesh-and-blood, eating, sleeping human being that the first-century Jews saw doing these
works. But, John says, he was also more than a man. He wants us to have faith first that he
was the Christ.
Christ is the Greek word that translates the Hebrew word Messiah. Thus John is
simply saying that he wants us to have faith that this man Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.
Messiah literally means “anointed with oil.” It was the king who was anointed, so the word
Messiah in effect means “God’s anointed King.” Priests and prophets were also anointed,
and the Lord Jesus also fills both of those roles. John wants us to have faith that that is who
the man Jesus was. Why does it require faith for us to accept that? It requires faith because he
did not meet the Jewish expectations of what the Messiah would be.
The Jews looked for a Messiah who would deliver them from their oppressors and
restore them to earthly glory. The Lord Jesus did not do that, but took an entirely different
approach to Messiahship, and there is a vital lesson in his approach. The lesson of the Lord
Jesus’ approach to Messiahship is that the spiritual governs the outward and physical. The
Jews were in physical bondage to Rome because in their hearts they were in bondage to sin.
They wanted a Messiah to deliver them from Rome, but the point that the Lord Jesus made
by coming in humiliation as a suffering Messiah was that the spiritual issue must be dealt
with before the physical one can be dealt with. The Jews refused to deal with the spiritual
issue of their bondage to sin, and they are still in bondage to this day. But the Bible
prophesies that at the return of Christ, they will recognize and own him as their Messiah.
They will weep over him whom they pierced. They will repent. And what will happen? A
fountain will be opened to them for their cleansing. And then what will happen? Earthly
glory for Israel. They will be the greatest nation on earth under King Jesus, and the wealth of
the other nations will flow to them, in addition to the peoples of the world going to the Jews
to find God. When the spiritual issue is finally dealt with, the earthly problems will clear up.

314

What a lesson that is for us as well. The same principle is true for us. Our outward
circumstances are governed by spiritual reality. This whole age is governed by spiritual
issues. All the problems that are so critical in our world go back to man’s separation from
God, his deception by Satan, and his sinfulness. The issues in our world are not crime and
hunger and drugs and oppression and so on. Those are outward manifestations of the
spiritual sickness of man. When the spiritual issues are dealt with, the outward problems
will clear up. When the Lord Jesus rules the earth in righteousness, these crises will not exist.
This is true of our personal lives as well as of human society in general. Our own
circumstances are governed by the spiritual. How we need to learn that truth and live by it.
The first thing, then, where John wants us to have faith about this man Jesus is that he
is the Messiah, the one God has chosen to be his anointed King.
Then John wants us to have faith that the Lord Jesus is more than the Messiah. It is not
necessarily clear what the nature of the Messiah is. He could be either human or divine. It
would not occur to man that he could be both, for such a thing was never heard of before.
The Bible does not say plainly that the Messiah would be a man, or that he would be divine.
Thus to have faith that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah was really to have faith that he held a
position. But John wants us to go beyond that and have faith in something about his nature.
He wants us to have faith that he is the Son of God, and that means that we have faith in his
divinity. Jesus is the human name; Messiah is the office; Son of God is the divine name.
John’s purpose in recording the signs is that we might have faith that this man is the Messiah
and the divine Son of God.
John uses the title Son of God nine times in his gospel. Rather than dealing with each
occurrence, we will simply list them for the reader to study for himself. The title occurs in Jn.
1.34, 49, 3.18, 5.25, 10.36, 11.4, 27, 19.7, and 20.31. Each of these verses is instructive to us
regarding this divine person, and should be read.
If one has faith, that is, believes in the Lord Jesus and commits himself to him, says
John, he will have life. Life is the real issue in the good news of John. It is what he says here,
and it is why the Lord Jesus said he came in Jn. 10.10, that we might have life and have it
abundantly. John has told us how to have life: faith in the man Jesus as the Messiah and Son
of God. What does he mean by life?
We saw in our introductory chapter that there are three Greek words for “life,” bios,
psuche, and zoe. The first is physical life and the things necessary to sustain it. The second is
soul-life, the result of the combination of spirit and body, as Gen. 2.7 says: God “breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.” Zoe is spiritual life. That
is the life we need. We are already alive physically and psychologically, yet we are in dire
need of something more. In addition, we will die if the Lord does not return first and lose
our physical lives. Our great need is for an infusion of life that will meet our current
problems and that will last beyond the grave. That is the life that John is referring to and
wants us to gain by having faith. It is the entrance of the Holy Spirit into our spirits to make

315

them alive toward God, and then the filling of us with that life as God deals with our flesh
and the Spirit becomes a river of living water flowing out from us.
The word zoe occurs in thirty-two verses in John, and the phrase “eternal life” occurs
seventeen times in these thirty-two verses. Again we will only list them for the reader’s own
study. Zoe is found in Jn. 1.4, 3.15, 16, 36, 4.14, 36, 5.24, 26, 29, 39, 40, 6.27, 33, 35, 40, 47, 48, 51,
53, 54, 63, 68, 8.12, 10.10, 28, 11.25, 12.25, 50, 14.6, 17.2, 3, and 20.31.
One of these verses is of particular interest. In 12.25 Jesus said, “The one who loves his
life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.” We do
not get the sense of the verse until we see the Greek words for “life” that are used in it. When
Jesus says, “The one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this
world…,” he uses the word psuche, soul-life. The word for eternal life is zoe. The soul is the
center of man’s self-problem, of what the Bible calls flesh. If one tries to hold on to that life,
he will lose it, for he will die. But if, for the sake of the Lord, he hates that self-centered life
and allows God to deal with it, putting it to death by the working of the cross through the
trials of life, he will find that his soul-life is eternally saved with zoe life, not only to live
forever, but to be free of the self-centeredness that plagues it now.
John concludes this statement of his purpose by saying that the life we have is in the
name of the Lord Jesus. What does he mean by this? We saw in our study of Jn. 14.13-14 that
the name of Jesus has to do with his authority, and with the authority he has given us as his
representatives. If we are truly his and are receiving instructions from him, we have
authority to act in his name. One of the rights we are given is the right to life. We have
authority from Jesus Christ to enter into eternal life now and to continue in it forever.
There is a further aspect, though, to life in his name. When we become Christians, we
take the name of Jesus as our own, just as Israel took God’s name. In the Old Testament,
Israel is the wife of God (Is. 62.4-5, Jer. 2.1-2, Ezek. 16.8-14, Hos. 1.2). In the same way, we are
betrothed to Christ and are to be his bride. Israel was an unfaithful wife. Ex. 20.7 says that we
are not to take God’s name in vain. Our usual interpretation of that command is that we are
not to use God’s name as a curse word, but that is not what the verse means. To take God’s
name means to take it as a wife takes her husband’s name when they are married. To take
something in vain means to take it in such a way that it does not fulfill its purpose. “Vain”
means “empty.” To take God’s name in vain means to be married to him, thus receiving his
name as our own, and then to be unfaithful to him. Israel took God’s name in vain: she was
his wife and was unfaithful to him. We are to be the bride of Christ. We have taken his name:
we are Christians. We should take it in such a way as to bring honor to that lovely name and
to bring others to have faith that he is the Christ, the Son of God. By taking his name we take
life. Let us not take it in vain, but to the full realization of the purpose for which he gives it to
us.
Thus John states his purpose: first that we might have faith that this man Jesus is more
than a man, that he is the Messiah and the Son of God, and then that we might have life

316

because we have faith. That is the purpose of the coming of the Lord Jesus and of the good
news of John: that we may have life.

THE RESTORATION OF PETER

John 21.1-25

This last chapter of John is concerned primarily with the restoration of Peter to his
relationship with the Lord Jesus after his denial of him. Vs. 20-25 deal with other matters, but
they form a conclusion to the gospel. Vs. 1-19 are the heart of the chapter, and they focus on
Peter.
At the so-called trial of the Lord Jesus Peter had shamefully denied him three times, as
the Lord had said he would. Now in this passage, the Lord Jesus graciously deals with his
fallen friend to bring him back into a right standing and an ability to carry out the ministry
he has for him.
The first fourteen verses of this chapter appear at first not to deal so much with Peter
as with a manifestation of the Lord Jesus to the disciples in general, but as we look at them
closely, we see that Peter really is the center of attention.
1After these things Jesus manifested himself again to the disciples at the sea of
Tiberias. Now he manifested himself thus:
In v. 1, John introduces the passage by writing that the Lord Jesus manifested himself
to the disciples in the way described by the story that follows. The word “manifestation” is
important, for it refers to an act of God. Men do not manifest themselves. God does that. The
literature of religion is full of theophanies, manifestations of gods. They are mythological, of
course, but in the Bible there are real manifestations of God. The important point in the
current passage is that the Lord Jesus is acting as God. We have seen all through John that
the Lord Jesus was a man. That is how he came and many saw him as that and nothing more.
It required faith to see God in this man, but there was a group that had such faith and came
to see in this man the Messiah and Son of God, and thus to have life, the purpose of John.
Now that the resurrection has occurred and the Lord Jesus has appeared alive to the
disciples, there is no more effort on his part to appear to be only a man to them. He is still a
man and still has a human body, though a glorified one, but his actions are now the actions
of God. His appearances are manifestations, the revealing of himself to men by God.
2There were together Simon Peter and Thomas, the one called Didymus, and Nathanael,
the one from Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee and two other of his disciples.
3Simon Peter said to them, “I’m going fishing.” They said to him, “And we’re going with
you.” They went out and got into the boat and on that night they caught nothing. 4But

317

morning having already come, Jesus stood on the beach, but the disciples did not know
that it was Jesus. 5Then Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish? No.” They
answered him, “No.” 6He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat and you
will find some.” They cast it therefore and then they were not able to draw it from the
multitude of fish. 7Then the disciple, that one whom Jesus loved [agapao] said to Peter, “It
is the Lord.” Simon Peter therefore, having heard that it was the Lord, put on his outer
garment, for he was naked, and cast himself into the sea. 8But the other disciples came in
the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards, dragging
the net of fish. 9Then as they got out onto the land they saw a charcoal fire lying and fish
lying on it, and bread.
V. 2 tells us that there were seven disciples together, including Peter, and v. 3, that
Peter took the lead in going fishing. We are not told why they went fishing, and speculation
is not fruitful, though many have done it. Whatever their reason they went, and they labored
all night without catching anything. Their failure was no accident. It was designed by their
unseen observer to give him the opportunity to manifest himself. He controlled the fish (he
made them) and he knew exactly where they were. After the disciples’ night of fruitless toil,
the Lord Jesus called to them from the shore. They did not recognize him when he asked
them if they had any fish. Thus it is interesting and perhaps surprising that when he told
them to cast their net to the right of the ship, they obeyed. They were professional fishermen,
and it might have been more likely for them to ask the stranger who he thought he was! But
they did cast the net as instructed, and they caught so many fish they were unable to haul
them in. This miraculous act, this manifestation of God, opened John’s eyes, and he said to
Peter, “It is the Lord.” When Peter heard this, he dived into the sea and swam to the Lord
Jesus. He could not wait to get to his Lord.
This haste on the part of Peter is of great interest. It would seem that he would be so
ashamed after the denial that he would want to avoid the Lord Jesus, but that is not the case
at all. Peter, for all his faults, genuinely loved him. The Lord Jesus, of course, had already
appeared to the disciples, and perhaps he had already spoken words of forgiveness to Peter,
or perhaps Peter simply had the courage to face the Lord with his failure and try to make it
right. Whatever his reason, he plunged into the sea and swam ashore, leaving the others to
come in the boat.
This passage recalls to our minds two others in John. The first is 18.15-18:
Now Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Now that disciple was known
to the High Priest and he went in with Jesus into the courtyard of the High Priest, but
Peter stood outside at the door. Therefore the other disciple who was known to the
High Priest went out and spoke to the doorkeeper and brought Peter in. Then the
slave girl, the doorkeeper, said to Peter, “Are you not also of the disciples of this
man?” He said, “I am not.” Now the slaves and the servants were standing there,

318

having made a charcoal fire, for it was cold, and they were warming themselves, and
Peter was also with them, standing and warming himself.
Then Jn. 21.9 tells us, “Then as they came to land they saw a charcoal fire laid and fish
laid on it, and bread.” Was that charcoal fire there by accident? No, the Lord Jesus laid it
purposely to remind Peter of the last time he had stood by such a fire. Then he had denied
his Lord three times. Now he will have an opportunity to confess him. How gentle and
gracious the Lord is. He did not take Peter by the clothes and shake him and tell him what a
terrible person he was. He simply put him into a scene that let Peter do his own
remembering.
The second passage that this one recalls is chapter 6, where the Lord Jesus fed five
thousand with bread and fish and then proceeded to give the great teaching on spiritual
food. The point there was that spiritual food is what is really important. The feeding of the
five thousand by miraculous means was really a spiritual feeding. It pointed to the Lord
Jesus as the Bread of life. That is the case in Jn. 21. He was not concerned to feed the disciples
bread and fish. He was interested in giving Peter the spiritual nourishment he needed after
his shameful fall. Peter loved the Lord Jesus, and he loved Peter, too, and wanted him fully
restored. If nothing else does, that charcoal fire shows us that these verses center around
Peter.
The food of this occasion is also of interest. What is bread? That is the Lord Jesus. He
is the Bread of life. Bread is made by crushing wheat and subjecting it to fire. That is exactly
how he became bread for us. He allowed himself to be crushed and went through the fires of
judgment for our sins. Thus he became bread, able to feed our hungry spirits. But there was
also fish. What is the meaning of the fish?
Fish come from the sea. The sea, as we saw in Jn. 6.16-21, is a place where there is
danger. In that passage the Lord Jesus walked on the water, showing us that he is victorious
over the storms that Satan stirs up in our lives. He can walk on whatever Satan can do. That
place of domain, though, is the origin of fish. What does that say to us? It tells us that the
very things that Satan would use to destroy us can become our food if we will look to the
Lord when the difficulties come. We are reminded of Num. 14.9 where Joshua and Caleb,
when the other ten spies were afraid to enter the land, told the people that their enemies
would be food for them. It is same as it was with Joseph, when his brothers meant it for evil,
but God meant it for good. Satan is trying to destroy us, but God is greater than Satan and
uses him to develop us. All things work together for good for those who love God, even the
things Satan does, for Satan is subject to God and can bring nothing into our lives that God
does not allow. If God allows it, it has a good purpose. It is for our spiritual nourishment. If
we will turn to God in our trials, he will show us how to make food of them and they will
nourish our spirits. We will emerge from them stronger and healthier spiritually that when
they began.

319

10Jesus said to them, “Bring from the fish which you caught just now.” 11Therefore Simon
Peter went up and drew to land the net full of large fish, one hundred and fifty three. And
there being so many, the net was not broken. 12Jesus said to them, “Come eat breakfast.”
Now none of the disciples was daring to ask him, “Who are you,” knowing that it was the
Lord. 13Jesus came and took the bread and gave to them, and the fish likewise. 14This was
now the third time that Jesus, having been raised from the dead, was manifested to the
disciples.
There were two kinds of fish at this breakfast, that which the disciples caught, and
that which the Lord Jesus already had. Where did he get his fire and his fish and his bread?
We are not told. He is the one who created everything out of nothing with only a word, so it
was no problem for him to have fire and bread and fish. The fish which the disciples caught
picture what we have just said, that the Lord Jesus can show us how to make food of our
trials. But what about the fish that Jesus had? That tells us that he does not ask us to go
through anything he was unwilling to go through himself. He became a man like us and
subjected himself to all the trials we go through. Heb. 2.10 and 5.8 tell us that he learned
obedience and was matured through what he suffered. He has fish that he caught in his own
trials that he can feed us with, and he can show us how to make food of our trials. What a
wonderful Savior we have!
Jn. 21.2 tells us that there were seven disciples present at this incident, and 21.14, that
this was the third time Jesus manifested himself to the disciples. Numbers have significance
in the Bible. Seven is a number of completion, and the fact that there were seven disciples
present tells us that they represent the whole church. The story recorded in Jn. 21 is one of
spiritual feeding and restoration after failure. The point is that the whole church needs these
things, and that the Lord Jesus is adequate for the whole church. He can feed all, no matter
how many they may be. He can restore all who fail, and that is all of us, is it not? He is
adequate. The feeding of the five thousand showed that, with its baskets left over, and now
this final chapter on feeding shows it again.

There is another number in this passage, one that is not mentioned, but that is all-
important. It is the number eight, the number of resurrection, as we saw in dealing with

Thomas in 20.26 and in studying the resurrection as the eighth sign in 20.30. There were
seven disciples present, but there was also an eighth person there, the Lord Jesus, the
resurrected one. It was he who gave life to the group. The seven represent the whole church,
but without the Eighth Man, the resurrected man, there is no life. Resurrection life is the
essential, and that comes only from the Lord Jesus.
Three is the number of divine perfection. The point of this being the third
manifestation of the Lord Jesus is that he has done all that is necessary for people to have
faith in him. Nothing is lacking that will give anyone an excuse for rejecting the Lord Jesus.
His revelation of himself is perfect. All who will may come. That word “will” is the
important one.

320

15Then when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of
John, do you love me with God’s love [agapao] more than these?” He said to him, “Yes,
Lord, you know that I love you as a friend [phileo].” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
16He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me with God’s love
[agapao]?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you as a friend [agapao].” He
said to him, “Shepherd my sheep.” 17He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do
you love me as a friend [phileo]?” Peter was grieved that he said to him the third time, “Do
you love me as a friend [phileo]?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know all things. You
know that I love you as a friend [phileo].” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
After breakfast, the Lord Jesus turned his attention more fully to Peter. Peter had
denied him three times publicly, and now he provides Peter with the opportunity to confess
him three times publicly. He addressed Peter as Simon, son of John. Simon was Peter’s given
name. Peter was his new name given by the Lord Jesus. Peter means “rock”, and the name
points to what a man can become when he builds his life on the Rock. But Peter was no rock
at the “trial” of the Lord Jesus. He gave way at the first hint of danger. Thus the Lord Jesus
deals with him as he was, as Simon, the weak human.
Then the Lord Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him. The first time he asked
Peter if he loved him “more than these.” It is not entirely clear what he meant by “more than
these.” The two leading interpretations say that the Lord Jesus was asking Peter if he loved
him more than fishing and its equipment, that is, his old way of life, or that the Lord Jesus
was asking him if he loved him more than the other disciples did. There is something to be
said for the former, for Peter did begin this chapter by saying, “I’m going fishing.” But Peter
had boasted in Mk. 14.29 (not recorded by John), “Even if all are caused to stumble, yet not
I,” so the Lord may have been testing him to see if he would still boast of his great
faithfulness. Most seem to favor the latter interpretation.
It is difficult to catch the significance of Jesus’ questions without an understanding of
the Greek. There are four Greek words for “love.” Two of them are used in this passage. One
is agapao, the word for God’s loving us with unconditional, totally selfless love. The other is
phileo, to love as a friend. In the first two questions, the Lord Jesus asked Peter if he loved
him with God’s love. Both times Peter answered that he loved him as a friend. The third time
the Lord Jesus used Peter’s word and asked him if he loved him as a friend. Peter’s reply
again used the word for loving as a friend.
Why did the Lord Jesus begin with agapao and end with phileo? The purpose of Peter’s
denial gives us the answer. Peter had boasted that he would die for the Lord Jesus. The
problem was that that was exactly what it was, a boast. Peter was full of confidence in his
own flesh. The response of the Lord Jesus was that he would arrange for an experience that
would destroy Peter’s confidence in his flesh and drive him to full dependence on God.

321

Peter’s denial was no accident. It was designed by the Lord to teach Peter a lesson vital to his
ministry, that the flesh profits nothing (Jn. 6.63). Peter had to lose confidence in his flesh.
That is why the Lord Jesus asked Peter if he loved him with God’s love. He was
testing Peter to see if he had learned his lesson. If Peter had said yes, he would have revealed
that he had not learned his lesson. He would still have been boasting in the flesh, for no man
can love as God loves. But Peter passed the test. He said yes, he loved him, but at the same
time he said no, he did not love him as God loves, but he loved him as a friend.
The Lord Jesus asked him the second time if he loved him with God’s love, probing to
see if there were still some vestige of self-confidence. The second time Peter held his ground.
No, he did not love with God’s love, but yes, he loved him as a friend.
The third time the Lord Jesus used Peter’s word, asking him if he loved him as a
friend. Peter was grieved that him asked him the third time if he loved him. The usual
interpretation of Peter’s grief is that it came because the Lord Jesus asked him three times,
but the actual reason Peter was grieved was not because asked three times, but because on
the third time he used Peter’s word for love, love as a friend. He asked Peter if he really
loved him even as a friend. Peter was hurt, but it was a healing hurt, that of a Great
Physician. He was learning and growing. He did not defend himself and try to come up with
all sorts of reasons to prove his love. His defense was the omniscience of the Lord Jesus. In
effect he said to him, Why are you asking me if I love you? You know everything. You know
I love you.
Thus the Lord Jesus graciously reversed all three denials, giving Peter three
opportunities to confess his love for him. Peter did truly love him. How thankful he must
have been as he reflected on this occasion.
The response of the Lord Jesus to Peter’s confessions is equally instructive. After
Peter’s first confession, the Lord Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” After the second, he said,
“Shepherd my sheep.” After the third, he said, “Feed my sheep.” Why did he make these
replies? They were in effect the Lord Jesus’ call to Peter to his ministry. What are the lambs?
They are the young, weak ones. Peter was called by the Lord to feed young Christians, to
nurture them in the faith. It was Peter himself who wrote in 1 Pt. 2.2, “… as newborn babies
long for the spiritual, pure milk, that by it you may grow into salvation….” Heb. 5.11-13
says,
Concerning him we have much to say to you, and it is hard to explain, since you have
become hard of hearing. For you also ought to be teachers by this time, but you have
need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the beginning of the
sayings of God, and you have come to have need of milk and not solid food. For
everyone who lives on milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is
a baby.

322

Milk is for babies. There is nothing wrong with that. There are baby Christians in the
church and they need to be fed. The Lord Jesus is telling Peter to exercise this ministry of
taking care of the newborns and the young ones, not in chronological age but in spiritual age.
He is to teach them the basics of the faith and nurture them along toward maturity.
Then the Lord Jesus told Peter, after his second confession, to shepherd his sheep,
Shepherding includes feeding, but it involves more. It is the entire pastoral duty. A shepherd
had to lead his sheep to the right place, to feed them, water them, protect them. That is the
job of a pastor. A pastor is one who loves people and cares for them, who can weep with
them and rejoice with them, who can counsel and guide them, who can feed them with the
Lord. What we call a pastor in our day is not to be found in the New Testament. Today the
word “pastor” means a man who is in charge of a group of Christians and who must
perform multiple duties, preaching, teaching, counseling, evangelizing, administering,
raising funds, and so on. That is against the Scriptures. In the New Testament, there was a
plurality of ministers, called elders or overseers (see Ti. 1.5 and 7, which show that elders
and overseers are the same thing; the word “overseer” is sometimes translated “bishop;” the
literal meaning is “overseer,” and the New testament knows nothing of a bishop or overseer
who is over more than one church; he is a local church elder or overseer. See alo Acts 14.23)
in the church who did what they were gifted and called to do. A man was not expected to do
all of the above, and indeed it would not be healthful for him or the church, for it would
burn him out and it would subject the church to one man, something the Lord does not want.
A man might exercise more than one ministry in the local New Testament church, but he
probably would not exercise them all and there would be others who also exercised
ministries. The pastoral ministry that we are concerned with in Jn. 21 is different from
evangelizing and preaching and teaching and so on. It is specifically loving and caring for
the people of God. That is what Peter was called to.
It is of great interest that Peter himself wrote about this ministry in his first epistle,
5.1-4:
Therefore I, a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ and a sharer of the
glory about to be revealed, exhort the elders among you to shepherd the flock of God
among you, overseeing [note that the word “overseering” here is the verb form of the
noun used in Ti. 1.7 for “overseer”] not under compulsion, but willingly, according to
God, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not as lording it over your charges, but as
examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears you will receive the
unfading crown of glory.
The Lord Jesus told Peter to shepherd his sheep, and by doing so, he called him to the
pastoral ministry, that of loving and caring for the Lord’s people.
After the Lord Jesus’ third question to Peter, when he used Peter’s word for love as a
friend and Peter answered with the same word, the Lord Jesus said to Peter, “Feed my

323

sheep.” The first time he had said, “Feed my lambs.” Now it is sheep. We saw that the lambs
are the young ones who need milk, the elementary teachings of the faith. Thus the sheep are
the more mature ones. We quoted Heb. 5.11-13 concerning milk for baby Christians. We read
in Heb. 5.14, “But solid food is for the mature, those who have the powers of discernment
trained through practice to discern good and evil.” Peter is to be able not only to feed the
lambs on milk, but also to feed the more mature sheep on the deeper things of God. One of
the great tragedies in the church today is the lack of solid food. Churches that major on
evangelism always preach how to be saved, and often do not teach those who are saved how
to grow in the Lord. Evangelism is vital, but so are teaching and growth. Those that do teach
Christians usually fall into the error of Heb.6.1-2 and deal over and over with the same
elementary matters, never taking people deeper into the Lord. The doctrines that people
already believe are preached so that they can affirm them. They are told they ought to go to
church (they are already in church!), to tithe, to witness, to read their Bibles and pray, and to
abstain from sin. All of these things are right and necessary, but they are basic. What about
the deeper dealings of God with the flesh through the trials of life? What about the efforts of
God to drive us into dependence on him alone, such as he did with Peter when he arranged
for the denial? Matters such as these are rarely touched on, but they are vital. It is only when
we get beyond the basics that we come into all that God has for us. The Lord Jesus told Peter
that he was to be able to feed the mature on deeper matters. That is another aspect of his
pastoral ministry.
Thus we see that pastoring can include spiritual oversight, teaching, and loving and
caring for people. That is the ministry that the restored Peter, having lost confidence in his
flesh and having gained full confidence in his Lord, was called to exercise. This needy man
who was fed spiritually in Jn. 21.1-14 is now called to feed others. Peter caught some of his
own fish through the bitter experience of the denial of the Lord Jesus, but the spiritual lesson
he learned through that heartbreak fed him and others for the rest of his life on this earth,
and it continues to this day through his letters. He being dead still speaks. (He is not really
dead!) The Lord Jesus taught him how to feed on what could have destroyed him.
18Amen, amen I say to you, when you were younger you girded yourself and walked
where you desired, but when you will be old you will stretch out your hands and another
will gird you and take you where you do not desire.” 19Now he said this signifying by
what kind of death he would glorify God. And having said this he said, “Follow me.”
In vs. 18-19, the Lord Jesus prophesies to Peter about his own death. Peter’s boast had
been that he would die for the Lord. Instead he denied him three times. Now that he has
been restored and confessed him three times, he learns that he will indeed die for the Lord.
His boast will be fulfilled, but not in the flesh. In Jn. 15.13-14 Jesus said, “Greater love than
this has no one, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do the
things I command you.” In 21.15-17 Peter has confessed three times that he loves him as a

324

friend. Now he learns that he will have the opportunity to lay down his life for his Friend the
Lord Jesus.
When the Lord Jesus had made this revelation to Peter, he spoke the final and perhaps
real words of restoration, “Follow me.” That was the original call to Peter, but Peter had
fallen away from that call, denying his Lord. The Lord Jesus could have judged Peter and
cast him out for his failure, but instead he said, in effect, that the past had been dealt with
and forgiven and it was time to get on with what they started out to do. Peter was indeed to
follow his Lord: he went to death, and Peter was to follow him.
20Having turned around Peter saw the disciple whom Jesus loved [agapao]
following, who also reclined at the supper on his breast, and said, “Lord, who is the one
betraying you?” 21Seeing him therefore Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, but what about this
one?” Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain till I come, what is that to you? You
follow me.” 23Therefore this word went out to the brothers that that disciple is not dying,
but Jesus did not say to him that he is not dying, but, “If I want him to remain till I come,
what is that to you?”
In vs. 20-21 Peter noticed John and, reflecting on what the Lord Jesus had just revealed
to him about his own death, asked about John. We have this incident for two reasons. It
happened that Peter and all of us might learn another lesson: that is, in a nice way, mind
your own business. While we are a body and are to care for one another, nevertheless, it is
none of our business how the Lord deals with another individual. It is our business to love
him and pray for him and help him, but it is not our place to pry into the Lord’s way with
him. That is between the Lord and him. It was not Peter’s business when and how or if John
would be called home. Thus the Lord Jesus said to him that if he wanted John to remain till
his return, what was that to him. “You follow me.” The “you” is emphasized in Greek.
This saying of the Lord Jesus gives rise to the second reason that the story is recorded.
Since he had said this, some mistakenly took the words to mean that John would not die, but
he did not say that. He only asked the question that, if he should want John to remain till his
return, not that he did, what was that to Peter. Thus this scene is recorded to clear up the
misunderstanding.
In all likelihood, Peter had already died by the time John was written, and John’s
readers may have been familiar with Peter’s death and its circumstances. Thus John may
have recorded the Lord Jesus’ prophecy of Peter’s death to give another reason for having
faith in him: he was able to prophesy.
It is also possible that John himself had died by the time vs. 20-23 were written, and
that someone else added them onto John’s gospel to explain John’s death. Perhaps some had
difficulty understanding how John could have died when the Lord Jesus had said that he
would not die. These verses would then have been added to show that he did not in fact say
that John would not die, and thus to clear away the difficulty to faith in him. Or John himself

325

may have written these words himself as an expression of humility, to deflect any revering of
himself because of supposed belief that he would not die. That would certainly be in
character for John, who avoids direct references to himself throughout the gospel, though he
was one of the inner circle of the disciples. Either possibility is plausible, and either is
instructive to us. We need to handle the word of God carefully, and we need to be humble.
We are told in 1 Cor. 4.6 not to go beyond what is written.
24This is the disciple, the one testifying concerning these things and the one writing
these things, and we known that his testimony is true. 25But there are also many other things
which Jesus did, which if they should be written in detail, I suppose the world itself not to
have room for the books written.
The good news according to John closes with vs. 24-25. V. 24 again could have been
written by John to say that the one about whom the misunderstanding had arisen was the
author of the gospel and to affirm that his witness was true, or it could have been added by
another after John’s death to attest the truth of John’s testimony. Whichever is true, John was
an eyewitness, and he is giving testimony. That is evidence admissible in any court.
V. 25 is a bit of hyperbole that tells us one final important truth about our Lord Jesus:
“But there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I
suppose the world itself not to have room for the books written.” The Lord Jesus is
inexhaustible. For two thousand years people have studied, written about, and proclaimed
this humble man who was more than a man, and we have not yet approached exhausting the
treasure. All eternity will not exhaust the riches to be found in him. John has written to
reveal the man Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God, the Source and Sustainer of LIFE, and
he concludes with this note, that he is inexhaustible. Amen.
APPENDIX
John 7.53-8.11

53And they went each one to his own home, 1but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2Now early in the morning he again went to the Temple, and all the people ere coming to
him, and having sat he was teaching them. 3But the scribes and the Pharisees brought a
woman having been caught in adultery, and having stood her in the midst 4

they said to
him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the very act committing adultery. 5Now in
the Law Moses commanded us to stone such. You therefore, what do you say?” 6But they
were saying this testing him, that they might have something to accuse him of, but Jesus,
having bent down, was writing with the finger on the ground. 7But when they kept asking
him, he raised up and said to them, “Let the one of you without sin first throw a stone at
her.” 8And having bent down again he was writing on the ground, 9but those having heard
were going out one by one, having begun from the older ones, and he was left alone, the

326

woman also being in the midst. 10But having raised up Jesus said to her, “Woman, where
are they? Did no one condemn you?” 11She said, “No one, Lord.” Jesus said to her, “Nor do
I condemn you. Go, and from now on sin no more.”
The passage on the woman taken in adultery almost certainly does not belong in the
Scriptures where it is normally found in John, between 7.52 and 8.12. There are hundreds of
Greek manuscripts containing parts of the New Testament. The oldest do not contain this
passage at all. Some do have it at this place. A few have it after Jn. 21.25. One has it after Jn.
7.36. One group even has it after Luke 21.38!
Jn. 7.2-10.21 has the Festival of Tabernacles as its background. The last part of chapter
7 is specifically set against the Tabernacles ceremony of the pouring out of water, and 8.12
begins against the background of the Tabernacles display of lights, the two aspects of the
Festival of Tabernacles that show the Lord Jesus as the giver of living water and the Light of
the world. The story of the woman taken in adultery breaks this continuity. This fact seems
to substantiate the manuscript evidence that the passage does not belong here.
Most conservative Bible scholars consider the passage to be scriptural, and most
liberal ones do not, though Alfred Edersheim, a leading conservative of the last century and
a Jewish convert to Christianity, does not think it is scriptural because he thinks it is not true
to Jewish legal proceedings.
Remember that until the fifteenth century, all biblical manuscripts (all books, for that
matter) were copied by hand. It appears that the copyists of the old Greek manuscripts did
consider the passage to be scriptural, but did not know where to put it. Thus it was put into
different places by different copyists. Whatever the merits of all these various opinions, we
do have the story in many old manuscripts and it has as found its way into our Bibles. Thus
it should be considered. My personal view is that it is scriptural.
The point of the story seems to be the change from Law to grace. The Jews were
correct that the Law of Moses required the death penalty for adultery (Lev. 20.10). Their
motive in bringing the woman to the Lord Jesus was not to see justice done, though, but to
try to trap him. They wanted him to take sides. If he took sides with Moses and condemned
the woman, he would he going against his own teachings of grace mercy and of supposedly
violating the Law for human good, thus losing any standing as a teacher. He would have
become nothing more than another Rabbi expounding the Law of Moses, of which there
were more than enough. If he went against the Law of Moses and forgave the woman, that
would, of course, be a clear violation of the Law and would have given the scribes and the
Pharisees grounds for accusing him.
The wise way in which the Lord Jesus met this test was a threefold accomplishment.
In the first place, it avoided the trap set by the Jews. He did not take either side. His enemies
simply left the field, with embarrassment at their own sinfulness, which they could not deny,
legalists though they were.

327

Second, it showed the wisdom of the Lord Jesus. Who else would have thought of
such a way out of the trap, a way that was not simply a way out of a trap for its own sake,
but one that revealed a great truth? Of course, he said only what he heard from his Father.
And that brings us to the third aspect of what the Lord Jesus achieved by this
response. He showed, as we noted above, the change from Law to grace. Formerly such a
woman would have had to be dealt with according to the Law, and she was certainly guilty
and deserving of punishment. But grace gives all an opportunity to repent of their sins and
to receive the free gift of God’s favor in Christ. Are we not all guilty? We cannot point an
accusing finger at this woman, for we, too, are sinners. This does not, of course, rule out
church discipline, for the Lord Jesus did tell the woman to give up her sinful ways, and the
church has an obligation to deal with sin in its midst. But it is a dealing with the spirit of the
person, not condemning him to death. That judgment is left in the hands of God.
Thus we see the Lord Jesus with his usual wisdom revealing, by his actions and
words, that very wisdom, putting his enemies to shame, revealing their hypocrisy, dealing
tenderly with a sinner, thus bringing the sinner to God, and teaching great truth. Instead of
stoning her to death, he brought her into life, the goal of the good news according to John.
How wise and merciful our Savior is. Whatever its proper location in Scripture, how
meaningful the message of this tender story. May the Lord reveal it to us in the inner man
and teach us to live in its light.
And let us not overlook what is perhaps the main issue of this story. The Lord Jesus
said, “Let the one of you without sin first throw a stone at her.” He was the only one there
who could have cast that stone, but he did not. He forgave and called her to a new life, his
life.

Life, resurrection life, abundant life, eternal life, God’s life!

Copyright © 2021 by Tom Adcox. All rights reserved. You may share this work with others,
provided you do not alter it and do not sell it or use it for any commercial purpose. “Freely you
have received, freely give” (Matthew 10.8). Also you must include this notice if you share it or any
part of it.
Scripture quotations from the Old Testament are the author’s updates of the American
Standard Version. Quotations from the New Testament are the author’s translations.

THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFETHE GOOD NEWS ACCORDING TO JOHN

Blogs

THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE
THE GOOD NEWS ACCORDING TO JOHN