The Gospel of John reveals to us even more than the book of Revelation what God’s economy is. Why did God create the heaven? the earth? the universe? mankind? you? In this Gospel this profound matter is unveiled to us in simple words.
What is God’s heart desire? Christianity has been on this earth for more than twenty centuries, and its influence, works, and activities have spread throughout human society. Yet if you have the vision from the heavenlies, you will wonder what Christian work satisfies the Lord’s heart.
The New Testament tells us clearly that what the Lord wants is a Bride. The Lord likens Himself to a bridegroom (Matt. 25:1-13). Suppose there is a wedding, and you offer the groom many good things, even the whole world. The groom would just say, “What do I care about all those things? Where is my bride? I only want her.”
It is the Gospel of John which unveils to us God’s heart desire. Of the four Gospels, Christians love John’s Gospel the most. Matthew, you may think, is too complicated, too tough to chew on, and Mark is not all that interesting, but John is as sweet as candy. Do you think John is so easy to understand? How would you explain verse 1? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” What beginning is this? When was it? What is the Word? How could the Word be God? This is surely not soft candy! Then verse 4 adds, “In Him was life.” In Him, in this wonderful One, was life. What is life?
Not too long ago, I heard a strange definition of life. One of the saints said, “Life is liberty.” Then do the birds in the air have more life than we do? Do the people yelling and screaming at football games have more life? That is not life. That is looseness. It is the release of the flesh.
These two verses show that life is linked with God. The Word was God and in Him was life. Here is another trinity-the Word, God, and life. What is life? Life is something in Him, in the very Word which was God. Life is just God.
John 10:10 has another reference to life. “I came that they may have life and may have it abundantly.” When Christ came, life came; surely when life came, it became available to all of us, even life abundant.
In chapter fourteen this One who is life declared to His disciples that the Spirit of reality would come and abide with them and be in them (vv. 16-17). Who is the Spirit of reality? Is He with you? Is He in you? Then verse 20 says, “In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” Do you know practically that He is in the Father? Do you really know that you are in Christ and that Christ is in you?
Then we come to chapter fifteen. “I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman....You are the branches” (vv. 1, 5). He told us that we must abide in Him that He may abide in us (v. 4). What is the meaning of these simple words-vine, husbandman, branches, abide?
In chapter seventeen, verses 21 to 23 say, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.” These verses are hard to follow. Verse 21 mentions being one. What is the difference between being united and being one? Then verse 22 refers to the glory the Lord has given us. Do you have this glory? He has given us the glory that we may be one. What does verse 23 mean when it says “perfected into one”?
Now consider chapter twenty, when the Lord in resurrection came back to His disciples and breathed upon (or, into) them, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (vv. 19-22). What is the meaning of this? And what does it mean in chapter six, verse 63, when it says, “It is the Spirit Who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life”? What is the Spirit? What is life?
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