He saw him under the fig tree. John 1:17; John 1:17) The law, thus given, was in itself no giver, but an exacter; Jesus, full of grace and truth, gave, instead of requiring or receiving; and He Himself has said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. This was necessary for the kingdom of God; not for some special place of glory, but for any and every part of God's kingdom. For Jesus perceived that they were on the point of coming and carrying Him off to make Him king. (John 12:48). What can be more evident, or more instructive? 1. This statement (verse John 1:15) is a parenthesis, though confirmatory of verse John 1:14, and connects John's testimony with this new section of Christ's manifestation in flesh; as we saw John introduced in the earlier verses, which treated abstractly of Christ's nature as the Word. (VersesJohn 6:1-21; John 6:1-21). But here these streams of the Spirit are substituted for the feast of tabernacles, which cannot be accomplished till Christ come from heaven and show Himself to the world; for this time was not yet come. The question really is, whether man would trust God. Such shall live. Here was One on earth who knew all secrets. Nor could any question be more momentous. Observe, it is not (as is often very erroneously said or sung) a question of sins, but of the "sin" of the world. The Jews, with all their privileges, were strangers here. even took not his disciples with him, who were in the same way of If, on the contrary, a soul has been taught of God the glory of the person of Him who was made flesh, he receives in all simplicity, and rejoices in, the glorious truth, that He who was made flesh was not made flesh only to this end, but rather as a step toward another and deeper work the glorifying God, and becoming our food, in death. (Verse John 3:10). John 6:15 in all English translations. In the five porches, then, of this pool lay a great multitude of sick, blind, lame, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. by this miracle, they could not doubt of his being able to (Verse John 1:9) The world therefore surely ought to have known its Maker. He tells Philip to follow Him. So on the last day, that great day of the feast (the eighth day, which witnessed of a resurrection glory outside this creation, now to be made good in the power of the Spirit before anything appears to sight), the Lord stands and cries, saying, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." There is the nicest care to maintain His personal glory, no matter what the subject may be. It is no question here of every man, but of such as believe. "In the consistory of Dec. 15, 1958 . I will answer this question on why I am a Historic Premillennialist in 5 Parts: 1. In a certain sense, the principle of John 4:1-54 was made true in the woman of Samaria, and in others who received Christ then. It was not the time now to demonstrate in public power these coming, yea, then present truths. Thus it is not only the person of our Lord viewed as divine, and coming down into the world. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him." And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. ( ) flesh, and dwelt among us." He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. (Verse John 7:39), Nothing can be simpler than this. Heavenly things, therefore, could not but be natural to Him, if one may so say. The sound goes back and forth between a harder chime and a muffled chime. and the more manifest from His lips to one who was a real impersonation of sin, misery, blindness, degradation. How were they not enjoyed in despised Samaria those two days with the Son of God among them! As the new birth for the kingdom of God, so the cross is absolutely necessary for eternal life. This question is raised, or rather settled, by the Lord in Jerusalem, at the passover feast, where many believed on His name, beholding the signs He wrought. Rev 20:7, 14 states death is thrown into into the lake of fire after the thousand year period. Verse 15. (Verses John 7:40-53). On the third day is the marriage in Cana of Galilee, where was His mother, Jesus also, and His disciples. This only secures His honour in those that believe God's testimony to Him, the Son of God; and to these He gives life, everlasting life now, and exemption from judgment, in this acting in communion with the Father. John 7:25-31) He is going where they cannot come, and never guessed (for unbelief thinks of the dispersed among the Greeks of anything rather than of God). The Lord Jesus presents Himself as putting an end to all this now for the Christian, though, of course, every word God has promised, as well as threatened, remains to be accomplished in Israel by-and-by; for Scripture cannot be broken; and what the mouth of the Lord has said awaits its fulfilment in its due sphere and season. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. They spoke of the world; the world might hear them. A second and wholly new man appears the bread of God, not of man, but for men. It was meet that so it should be; for, as a question of right, none could claim; and grace surpasses all expectation or thought of man, most of all of men accustomed to a round of religious ceremonial. What can be conceived more notably standing out in contrast with the governmental system God had set up, and man had known in times past? Thus solemnly does the meek Lord Jesus unfold these two truths. From the very first, man, being a sinner, was wholly lost. (Ver. Thus we feed on Him and drink into Him, as man, unto life everlasting life in Him. One of the peculiarities of our gospel is, that we see the Lord from time to time (and, indeed, chiefly) in or near Jerusalem. Jesus not only could go up, as He did later, but He had come down thence, and, even though man, He was the Son of man that is in heaven. Jesus saw the man, and knowing that he was long thus, prompts the desire of healing, but brings out the despondency of unbelief. John 7:6-8) They belonged to the world. Now it is that the great question is decided; now it is that a man receives or refuses Christ. The judgment, all of it, whether for quick or dead, is consigned to Him, because He is Son of man. Such was the grace that God was displaying in Him, the true and full expresser of His mind. What more glorious proof than that the Holy Ghost is given not a certain defined power or gift, but the Holy Ghost Himself; for God gives not the Spirit by measure! [whose?] Details are not called for now, but just the outline of the truth. Besides this, goodness overflows, in that the Father is gathering children, and making worshippers. He was God. * He says, One was among them of whom they had no conscious knowledge, "that cometh after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to loose." Not only is there no healing to be extracted from the law by a sinner, but the law makes more evident the disease, if it does not also aggravate the symptoms. but. Expressly had He told the man to take up his couch and walk, as well as to rise. , , . Here again, apart from this divine insight, the change or gift of the name marks His glory. It is not a question of the law, but of hearing Christ's word, and believing Him who sent Christ: he that does so has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life. Jesus Walks on the Sea. In the Word was life, and the life was the light of men. Thus in one way or the other all must honour the Son. Nor was it yet complete. What love! Nay, therefore it was they, reasoning, denied Him to be God. he left the company directly, upon this resolution of theirs, and How withering the words! Here we see Him accepting, not as fellow-servant, but as Lord, those souls who had been under the training of the predicted messenger of Jehovah that was to prepare His way before, His face. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. Jesus explains: "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. "He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. None else could do either work: for here we see His great work on earth, and His heavenly power. Fritzsche, p. 21). This would make all manifest. For "he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? In these two points of view, more particularly, John gives testimony to Christ; He is the lamb as the taker away of the world's sin; the same is He who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. Thus, as in the former case the Lord's dealing in Galilee was a type of the future, this appears to be significant of His then present path of grace in that despised quarter of the land. Thus former things pass away; the old man is judged, dead, and clean gone. But all that is historically related of the Lord Jesus inJohn 1:1-51; John 1:1-51; John 2:1-25; John 3:1-36; John 4:1-54. was before the imprisonment of the Baptist. Take him by force, to make him a king The Jews had often suffered by famine in those times in which their enemies were permitted to prevail over them; but, finding that Jesus had such power as to multiply a few loaves to feed thousands, they took it for granted that while he was at their head no evil could possibly happen to them, and therefore were . Further, it is connected intimately with the evidence of man's ruin by sin. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? The allusion to the fig-tree confirms this. His was an errand incomparably deeper, more worthy of God, and suitable to One "full of grace and truth." "John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This is he of whom I spake: He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me." John 1:29-34) How rich it is, and how marvellously in keeping with our gospel! Thus it is not the Spirit of God simply giving a new nature; neither is it the Holy Ghost given as the power of worship and communion with His God and Father. The person of the Son was there the object of divine and overflowing joy even then, although, of course, in the full sense of the word, the Holy Ghost might not be given to be the power of it for some time later; but still the object of worship was there revealing the Father; butJohn 7:1-53; John 7:1-53 supposes Him to be gone up to heaven, before He from heaven communicates the Holy Ghost, who should be (not here, as Israel had a rock with water to drink of in the wilderness outside themselves, nor even as a fountain springing up within the believer, but) as rivers flowing out. It was but preliminary, of course; still it was a deep reality, the then present grace in the person of the Son, the Saviour of the world, who filled their once dark hearts with light and joy. Accordingly, if the law raised the question of righteousness in man, the cross of the Lord Jesus, typifying Him made sin, is the answer; and there has all been settled to the glory of God, the Lord Jesus having suffered all the inevitable consequences. For them, Israel, or the world, all is over. not the Jews only; for, as far as intelligence went, it was little better with the disciples till He rose from the dead. Granted He was the Son of man; but as such, He had all judgment given Him, and would judge. (VerseJohn 4:1; John 4:1) It was strange to her that a Jew should thus humble himself: what would it have been, had she seen in Him Jesus the Son of God? Then (ver. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Christ here, it will be noticed, is not so much the quickening agent as Son of God (John 5:1-47), but the object of faith as Son of man first incarnate, to be eaten; then dying and giving His flesh to be eaten, and His blood to be drank. Without sign, prodigy, or miracle, in this village of Samaria Jesus was heard, known, confessed as truly the Saviour of the world ("the Christ" being absent in the best authorities, ver. (VersesJohn 7:33-36; John 7:33-36) Jesus was returning to Him that sent Him, and the Holy Ghost would be given. Second, it interprets present world political trends as signs of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. This scene throws light on the use of in Matthew 11:12. (Verses John 7:3-5) The Lord intimates the impossibility of anticipating the time of God; but then He does it as connected with His own personal glory. (Verses John 1:41-44), On the morrow Jesus begins, directly and indirectly, to call others to follow Himself. Be they who they may now, as many as receive Him become children of God. This brings in the great counterpart truth, that even God present on earth and made flesh is not enough. But see the blessed fruit of receiving it. None the less did the result of His death proclaim His Deity. It is not John's business here to call attention to His Messiahship, not even when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask, Who art thou? Nay, the Father has given all judgment to the Son. Nicodemus remonstrates but is spurned; all retire to their home Jesus, who had none, to the mount of Olives. (Verses John 5:1-7), On the other hand, the Lord speaks but the word: "Rise, take up thy couch and walk." John 6:15. In John He is One who could be described as Son of man who is in heaven; but He belonged to heaven, because He was divine. It would not suit God, if it would suit man, that He, seeing all, should just pronounce on man's corruption, and then forthwith let him off with a bare pardon. (Verses John 1:44-51). To this last the Lord attaches the deepest importance. Verse John 1:29 opens John's testimony to his disciples. No doubt there are intervening applications; but such is the ultimate result of His work as the Lamb of God. kingdom, in which they might hope for great secular advantages: But there was this difference from the former occasion, that, at the marriage in Cana (John 2:1-25), the change of the water into wine was clearly millennial in its typical aspect. John 3:31-36) he speaks of His person in contrast with himself and all; of His testimony and of the result, both as to His own glory, and consequently also for the believer on, and the rejecter of, the Son. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, En une ardeur de zele inconsidere et temeraire. (Verse John 3:16), Let it not be passed by, that while the new birth or regeneration is declared to be essential to a part in the kingdom of God, the Lord in urging this intimates that He had not gone beyond the earthly things of that kingdom. Thus, in His person, as well as in His work, they joined issue. But if the Spirit speaks of the Son of God, the law dwindles at once into the smallest possible proportions: everything yields to the honour the Father puts oil the Son. This is why premillennial-ism is based on a kind of hermeneutical fundamental of the Christian Faith. Here there could not be more, and He would not give less: even "grace upon grace." It was not that they were better than their neighbours. One needs no more than to read, as believers, these wonderful expressions of the Holy Ghost, where we cannot but feel that we are on ground wholly different from that of the other gospels. for he knew He was the Christ. In Mark 1:14-15, Jesus told those around Him that the kingdom was as hand. Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 44:3, Isaiah 59:21, Ezekiel 36:25-27 ought to have made the Lord's meaning plain to an intelligent Jew. Art thou that prophet? John 5. For though the Son (that eternal life who was with the Father) was a man, in that very position had the Father given Him to have life in Himself, and to execute judgment also, because He is Son of man. Under all changes, outwardly, He abode as from eternity the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. Alas! Phil 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: Predetermined performance - no will involved. Were the Jews zealously keeping the sabbath? and inasmuch as death is the last enemy, the destruction of the remaining powers ("when he shall have destroyed all rule and authority and power") will have to be understood not as a final struggle beginning after the parousia, but as the definite victory of christ that has already begun in his cross and resurrection and exaltation (cf., e.g., His own love and person were warrant enough for the simple to lift the veil for a season, and fill the hearts which had received Himself into the conscious enjoyment of divine grace, and of Him who revealed it to them. "He that believeth on him is not judged: but he that believeth not is judged already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 6:39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. Such was Jesus in person, contrasted with all who belong to the earth. This is the more striking, because, as we have seen, the world and Israel, rejecting Him, are also themselves, as such, rejected from the first. that they had "determined", as the Arabic version renders it; or Let them learn, then, that as Son of man (for which nature they despised Him, and denied His essential personal glory) He will judge; and this judgment will be no passing visitation, such as God has accomplished by angels or men in times past. It finds, of course, a present application, and links itself with that activity of grace in which God is now sending out the gospel to any sinner and every sinner. Death knell. "He was in the world, and the world was made by him." On this basisJohn 7:1-53; John 7:1-53 proceeds. The Father and the Son were at work. their words and gestures: that they would come and take him by force, and make him a As a weapon of conviction, most justly had it in the mind of the Lord Jesus the weightiest place, little as man thinks now-a-days of it. No such sounds, no such realities were ever heard or known in Israel. Do any believe on His name? The contrasts are as strong, at least, as the resemblance with the healing of the centurion's servant in Matthew 13:1-58 and Luke 7:1-50, which some ancients and moderns have confounded with this, as they did Mary's anointing of Jesus with the sinful woman's in Luke 7:1-50. Man, dead in sins, was the object of His grace; but then man's state was such, that it would have been derogatory to God had that life been communicated without the cross of Christ: the Son of man lifted up on it was the One in whom God dealt judicially with the evil estate of man, for the, full consequences of which He made Himself responsible. Man is morally judged. The looking for signs and wonders is rebuked; but mortality is arrested. All rights reserved. For the astonishing thought is, not merely that Jesus receives the Holy Ghost without measure, but that God gives the Spirit also, and not by measure, through Him to others. Here He is not portrayed as the Son of man who must be lifted up, but as the Son of God who was given. 2. There is no changing or bettering the old man; and, thanks be to God, the new does not degenerate or pass away. Life resurrection will display how little they had to be ashamed of, who believed the record given of His Son; the resurrection of judgment will make but too plain, to those who despised the Lord, both His honour and their sin and shame. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. It was sabbath-day. "Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." As there is an absolute necessity on God's part that man should be thus born anew, so He lets him know there is an active grace of the Spirit, as the wind blows where it will, unknown and uncontrolled by man, for every one that is born of the Spirit, who is sovereign in operation. to deliver the nation from the Roman yoke, and set up a temporal This the Lord refuses, and goes up the mountain to pray, His disciples being meanwhile exposed to a storm on the lake, and straining after the desired haven till He rejoins them, when immediately the ship was at the land whither they went. Here the Lord was really owned by the multitudes as the great Prophet that should come; and this in consequence of His works, especially that one which Scripture itself had connected with the Son of David. As a present fact, the Lord justifies the judicial act before their eyes by His relationship with God as His Father, and gives the Jews a sign in the temple of His body, as the witness of His resurrection power. We have seen already that thus light was shed on men. Rest is not the question now at all; but the flow of the Spirit's power while Jesus is on high. Salem Media Group. Blessed servant he of an infinitely blessed and blessing Master! God never left Himself without witness; He did not even among the Gentiles, surely yet less in Israel. But He, being God, was manifesting and, on the contrary, maintaining the divine glory here below. (Verses John 7:16-18) , The Jews kept not the law) and wished to kill Him who healed man in divine love. It was not so. . Canon Law tells us to obey the old law, (Can. (Ver. Till then the Holy Ghost could not be so given only when Jesus was glorified, after redemption was a fact. California - Do Not Sell My Personal Information. John 3:1-36 follows this up. In short, the riches of God's grace are here according to the glory of the Son, and in the power of the Holy Ghost. This leads Philip to Nathanael, in whose case, when he comes to Jesus, we see not divine power alone in sounding the souls of men, but over creation. It is there that we found the Lord, in the other synoptic gospels, fulfilling His ordinary ministry. John 4:1-6; John 4:1-6) What a picture of rejection and humiliation! and proclaim him the King Messiah; place him at the head of them, (ver. 29) on which, as it were, Jesus speaks and acts in His grace as here shown on the earth. THE WORLD'S GREATEST . The one, like the other, contributes to this great end, whether the Son of man necessarily lifted up, or the only begotten Son of God given in His love. 64). Here, then, we have a remarkable display of that which preceded His Galilean ministry, or public manifestation. Also one of the two thus drawn to Him first finds his own brother Simon (with the words, We have found the Messiah), and led him to Jesus, who forthwith gave him his new name in terms which surveyed, with equal ease and certainty, past, present, and future. This is grace and truth. Catalogue entry. Just as in John 4:1-54, so here it is a question of power in the Holy Ghost, and not simply of Christ's person. (Verses John 3:1-6), But the Lord goes farther, and bids Nicodemus not wonder at His insisting on this need. And as life is in the person of the Son, so God in sending Him meant not that the smallest uncertainty should exist for aught so momentous. that we may give an answer to them that sent us. And worship is viewed both in moral nature and in the joy of communion doubly. Nor will the full force of this expression be witnessed till the glorious result of His blood shedding sweep away the last trace of sin in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Thus a despised Christ is not merely a crucified Son of man, and given Son of God, as in John 3:1-36, but Himself a divine giver in communion with the Father, and in the power of the Holy Ghost who is given to the believer, the source of worship, as their God and Father is its object for the worshippers in spirit and truth (though surely not to the exclusion of the Son, Hebrews 1:1-14). Coming after John as to date, He is necessarily preferred before him in dignity; for He was ( ) [not come into being ( )] before Him. This movement was not an unnatural one. This He does in verses 16-19. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." John 1:26-27; John 1:26-27) For himself he was not the Christ, but for Jesus he says no more. support such an army of men, and to succeed in the enterprise; In John 6:1-71 our Lord sets aside Israel in another point of view. There is difference of manner for the world and His own ignorance and rejection. John 6:16. Deeper questions demanded solution. It is not denunciation, but the most solemn sentence in the calmest manner. Premillennialists believe that Revelation does imply this because Jesus is on the throne and Satan is bound. He wanted nothing; He came to give yea, the very best, so to speak, that God has. , And this very circumstance is perhaps the cause, that nowhere do we read that Jesus, whilst He teas sojourning on the earth, entered, even though that town was very close to Jerusalem. How truly it is man under law! It was not intended for other beings it was God's free gift to man, to the believer, of course. Please enter your email address associated with your Salem All-Pass account, then click Continue. Later He was determined to be Son of God with power by resurrection of the dead. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. (Verses John 7:19-23) What judgment could be less righteous? In the beginning of the chapter it was rather an essential indispensable action of the Holy Ghost required; here it is the privilege of the Holy Ghost given. The law works no deliverance; it puts a man in chains, prison, darkness, and under condemnation; it renders him a patient, or a criminal incompetent to avail himself of the displays of God's goodness. The Jan. 6 commission's death knell. All this clearly goes down to millennial days. 1 Cor 15:26 states that Christ will reign until the destruction of death. It passes over all question of dispensations, until it accomplishes, in all its extent, that purpose for which He thus died. John 1:11-12; John 1:11-12) It was not a question now of Jehovah and His servants. It is not merely a Messiah, who comes and offers Himself, as we find in other gospels, with most painstaking diligence, and presented to their responsibility; but here from the outset the question is viewed as closed. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If His time was not yet come, their time was always ready. Because John declares that the one who does not believe in God's testimony is calling God "a liar." This is crucial to see. Neither does the Spirit say exactly as the English Bible says "sons," but children. For this, therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill Him; because He added the greater offence of making Himself equal with God, by saying that God was His own Father. The answer given by modern premillennial apologists usually suggests that premillennialism was overcome for illegitimate reasons. Still the Lord refused the crown then: it was not the time or state for His reign. John 1:35-40) Our Lord acts as One fully conscious of His glory, as indeed He ever was. He could be declared only by One who was a divine person in the intimacy of the Godhead, yea, was the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. Augustine believed God's purposes were always being fulfilled, the gospel was always advancing into "the nations at the four corners of the earth." The saints who had been spiritually raised to. But Jesus finds him in the temple, and said, "Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." For evidently it is the theme of worship in its Christian fulness, the fruit of the manifestation of God, and of the Father known in grace. Proud member It is our evangelist's way of indicating His Galilean sojourn; and this miracle is the particular subject that John was led by the Holy Ghost to take up. Man might pull Him down destroy Him, as far as man could, and surely to be the basis in God's hand of better blessing; but He was God, and in three days He would raise up this temple. Not only man under law has no health, but he has no strength to avail himself of the blessing that God holds out. (Ver. Could they, then, reject the Son, and merely miss this infinite blessing of life in Him? And they asked him, What then? Why should He not show Himself to the world? Article Images Copyright 2023 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. We have had his name introduced into each part of the preface of our evangelist. that his kingdom was not of this world; to teach his followers to Hence the Lord, while fully owning the labours of all preceding labourers, has before His eyes the whole boundless expanse of grace, the mighty harvest which His apostles were to reap in due time. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? Here, in suited circumstances to render the thought and way of God unmistakable, pure and boundless grace takes its own sovereign course, suitable to the love and personal glory of Christ. And in this He is sovereign. The close of the chapter shows us the Lord in Galilee. Indeed, it is the total eclipse, not merely of law and remedial mercies, but even of promised Messianic glory, by everlasting life and resurrection at the last day. The incarnate Word was here full of grace and truth. He reminds them of his previous disclaimer of any place beyond one sent before Jesus. He gave them title to take the place of children of God, even to those that believe on His name. The effect is thus final, even as His person, witness, and glory are divine. But it is important we should know how He entered the world. At once their malice drops the beneficent power of God in the case, provoked at the fancied wrong done to the seventh day. If He spoke the truth, they were blasphemers. encourage them in this undertaking: the mountain Christ went "For God sent not his Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world through him might be saved." Here (John 5:1-47) the first view given of Christ is His person in contrast with the law. - Jesus therefore knowing (having found, perceived (), by ominous movements in the crowd, or in any other way still more explicit) that they were about to come and by violence, or force, seize him in order that they might make him King. It is not only the nature, but the model and fulness of the blessing in the Son, who declared the Father. It is here we learn in what condition of His person God was to be revealed and the work done; not what He was in nature, but what He became. (Verses John 6:59-71) What and if they should see Him, who came down and died in this world, ascend up where He was before? For He who spoke was divine. This, of course, supposes the setting aside of Jerusalem, its people and house, as they now are, and is justified by the great fact of Christ's death and resurrection, which is the key to all, though not yet intelligible even to the disciples. The brethren of the Lord Jesus, who could see the astonishing power that was in Him, but whose hearts were carnal, at once discerned that it might be an uncommon good thing for them, as well as for Him, in this world. Here, accordingly, it is not so much the means by which life is communicated, as the revelation of the full blessing of grace and communion with the Father and His Son by the Holy Ghost, in whom we are blessed. Christ did not wait till the time was fully come for the old things to pass away, and all to be made new. He would have every soul to know assuredly how he stands for eternity as well as now. Such is God's vindication of His outraged rights; and the judgment will be proportionate to the glory that has been set at nought. Scripture is, or may be, before man always. For nothing can be more observable than the way in which He becomes the centre round whom those that belong to God are gathered. king; King James Version (KJV) he departed again into a mountain, himself Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. 2. (SeePsalms 2:1-12; Psalms 2:1-12) But the Lord tells him of greater things he, should see, and says to him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, henceforth (not "hereafter," but henceforth) ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man. This brings all to a point; for the woman says, "I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things." The chapter pursues this subject, showing that it is not only God who thus deals first, with the necessity of man before His own immutable nature; next, blessing according to the riches of His grace but, further, that man's state morally is detected yet more awfully in presence of such grace as well as holiness in Christ. None but a divine being could thus deal with the world. (Ver. Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, but withal, as he had said, the eternal One, yet in view of His manifestation to Israel (and, therefore, John was come baptizing with water a reason here given, but not to the Pharisees in verses 25-27). God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." The Light, on coming into the world, lightens every man with the fulness of evidence which was in Him, and at once discovers the true state as truly as it will be revealed in the last day when He judges all, as we find it intimated in the gospel afterwards. They had stumbled before, and the Lord brought in not alone His person, as the Word made flesh, presented for man now to receive and enjoy; but unless they ate the flesh, and drank the blood of the Son of man, they had no life in them. As this chapter sets forth the Lord Jesus with singular fulness of glory, on the side both of His Godhead and of His manhood, so it closes with the most varied and remarkable testimonies God has given to us, that there may be no excuse. How striking the omission! John 7:37) It is not a question of eating the bread of God, or, when Christ died, of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. He who owns the reality of Christ's incarnation, receives most thankfully and adoringly from God the truth of redemption; he, on the contrary, who stumbles at redemption, has not really taken in the incarnation according to God's mind. But the chapter does not close without a further contrast. Nathanael's call is just as clearly typical of Israel in the latter day. alone, for the sake of secret retirement, and private prayer; and It is not simply the new birth such as a saint might, and always must, have had, in order to vital relations with God at any time. So rich and transparently divine was the grace: not some souls, more meritorious than the rest, rewarded according to a graduated scale of honour, but "of his fulness have all we received." Sons they might have been in bare title; but these had the right of children. They should have understood more about Him those that were specially favoured. The issue of all is, that the will of man is the real cause and spring of enmity. The refusal of His precious blood will, on the contrary, make their case incomparably worse than that of the heathen who never heard the good news. However, we know that Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father shortly after His resurrection and ascension (Hebrews 8:1; Revelation 4:2). Nevertheless, the heavenly part is little dwelt on, as John's gospel displays our Lord more as the expression of God revealed on earth, than as Man ascended to heaven, which fell far more to the province of the apostle of the Gentiles. The results for the believer or unbeliever are eternal in good or in evil. They were on the way to Jerusalem, and they were thirsting to throw off the yoke of Rome and of . No man hath seen God at any time. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? Read full chapter. Verse John 6:15. But they learn that it was his divine Physician who had not only healed, but so directed him. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." He bows to, as he explains, the sovereign will of God. The Lord, in the latter part of the chapter (verses John 6:27-58), contrasts the presentation of the truth of God in His person and work with all that pertained to the promises of Messiah. John then declared his own waning before Christ, as we have seen, the issues of whose testimony, believed or not, are eternal; and this founded on the revelation of His glorious person as man and to man here below. They had eyes, but they saw not; ears had they, but they heard not, nor did they understand His glory. This we have had fully before. Before the manner of His manifestation comes before us in verse 14, we have the secret explained why some, and not all, received Christ. How blessed the contrast with the people's state depicted in this chapter, tossed about by every wind of doctrine, looking to "letters," rulers, and Pharisees, perplexed about the Christ, but without righteous judgment, assurance, or enjoyment! for he that could do this, what was it he could not do? (Verses John 4:20-30), The disciples marvelled that He spoke with the woman. (Ver. The dreadful truth comes out: the Lord did not trust Himself to them, because He knew all men. conjunction with the Lord's Second Coming) (Hebert 2006c:5-6). (Ver. John 6:1-15 describes Jesus' feeding thousands of peoplethe fourth of the gospel of John's seven ''signs'' of Christ's divinity. No doubt He must become a man, in order, amongst other reasons, to be a sufferer, and to die. It is thus strikingly an anticipation of the result in glory. , to snatch suddenly and forcibly (derived from the swoop of the falcon, the ; hence, the Harpies). The chapters we have had before us (John 1:1-51; John 2:1-25; John 3:1-36) are thus evidently an introduction: God revealed not in the Word alone, but in the Word made flesh, in the Son who declared the Father; His work, as God's Lamb, for the world, and His power by the Holy Ghost in man; then viewed as the centre of gathering, as the path to follow, and as the object even for the attendance of God's angels, the heaven being opened, and Jesus not the Son of God and King of Israel only, but the Son of man object of God's counsels. John 1:29; John 1:29John 1:34; John 1:34) of John Baptist's testimony here named; the first day (ver. There was sentence of death pronounced on their system, and they felt accordingly. In vain did any come to the Baptist to report the widening circle around Christ. And he saith, I am not. John 3:19; John 3:19) Other things, the merest trifles, may serve to indicate a man's condition; but a new responsibility is created by this infinite display of divine goodness in Christ, and the evidence is decisive and final, that the unbeliever is already judged before God. Clarke's Commentary. This closes the various aspects of the Lord Jesus, completely blotting out Judaism, viewed as resting in a system of law and ordinances, as looking to a Messiah with present ease, and as hoping for the display of Messianic glory then in the world. Then He rebukes the carnality of His brethren. The hour was one for faith, or unbelief. and they might the rather be induced to take such a step, since, "The law was given by Moses." Governmental healing even from Him might only end in "some worse thing" coming. (Ver. and the two disciples leave John for Jesus. John 6:15. God does not here condescend to call it His, though, of course, it was His and holy, just, and good, both in itself and in its use, if used lawfully. Had it been meant, it was no wonder that Nicodemus did not know how these things could be. Here the Lord introduces the cross. John was not yet cast into prison. Ringing of the death bells is done slowly and reverently. The Son had not come to execute the judgments of the law they knew, nor even to promulgate a new and higher law. "He came unto his own [things], and his own [people] received him not. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours." The Son gives life, as the Father does; and not merely to whom the Father will, but to whom He will. Historically it was the second of three bells rung around death, the first being the passing bell to warn of impending death, and the last was the lych bell or corpse bell, which survives today as the funeral toll . But what we learn is, that our Lord (viewed as having entered into heaven as man on the ground of redemption, i.e., ascended, after having passed through death, into glory) from that glory confers meanwhile the Holy Ghost on him that believes, instead of bringing in at once the final feast of gladness for the Jews and the world, as He will do by-and-by when the anti-typical harvest and vintage has been fulfilled. Observe: not which was, but "which is." Pharisaic jealousy had wrought; and Jesus, wearied, sat thus at the fountain of Jacob's well in Sychar. Did they charge Jesus with self-exaltation? John 1:20-25) John does not even speak of Him as one who, on His rejection as Messiah, would step into a larger glory. The Jews, then, who could not help, and pitied not their fellow in his long infirmity and disappointment, are scandalized to see him, safe and sound, carrying his couch on that day. Now, it is no longer a question of nature, but of relationship; and hence it is not said simply the Word, but the Son, and the Son in the highest possible character, the only-begotten Son, distinguishing Him thus from any other who might, in a subordinate sense, be son of God "the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father." "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Did the dead (for so men are treated, not as alive under law) did they hear the voice of the Son of God? The healing of the courtier's son, sick and ready to die, is witness of what the Lord was actually doing among the despised of Israel. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time. Alas! The first four chapters of John precede in point of time the notices of His ministry in the other gospels. "Master, eat," said they. I do not mean by this all individuals, but creation; for nothing can be more certain, than that those who do not receive the Son of God are so much the worse for having heard the gospel. What sayest thou of thyself? he might be; and this, too, as the expression of the true and full grace of God in His only-begotten Son given. It is not now the revelation of God meeting man either in essential nature, or as manifested in flesh; nor is it the course of dispensational dealing presented in a parenthetic as well as mysterious form, beginning with John the Baptist's testimony, and going down to the millennium in the Son, full of grace and truth. contrary to all others, renders it, "Christ departed from the Their purpose was to make Him king. (Verses John 3:11-13) He (and He was not alone here) knew God, and the things of God, consciously in Himself, as surely as He knew all men, and what was in man objectively. Grace begins, glory descends; "Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink." Lastly, closing this part, we have another most remarkable contrast. It is His person as incarnate first, then in redemption giving His flesh to be eaten and His blood to be drank. Man was judged: another Man was there, the Lord from heaven, soon to stand in resurrection. Read full chapter John 6:15 in all English translations John 5 John 7 New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. Nicodemus not wonder at His insisting on this need 15, 1958 the care! Whom God hath sent why is john 6:15 the death knell of premillennialism, who had none, to be drank wrong done to world! 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