John’s writings not only are all-inclusive concerning the Person of Christ and polemical against heresy, but they also inoculate the believers against all heretical doctrines (philosophies) concerning God and Christ. Such writings were needed not only for the first century but have also been needed throughout all the centuries. Even today in the twentieth century, we still need them. In the coming days they will still be a great help in keeping the truth concerning the Person of Christ and in preserving His believers in all the divine realities. We hope that these Life-studies may serve the same purpose.
If we do not see the revelation of the divine things contained in John’s writings, we cannot be complete, mysterious, all-inclusive, or polemical. Furthermore, we shall not be properly inoculated against heresy. But if we see this revelation, we shall be mysterious, all-inclusive, and polemical, and we shall be inoculated against all heresies.
Here I would like to point out that the Trinity of the Godhead is revealed more fully in the Gospel of John than any other place in the Bible. We know from the Gospel of John that Christ was the very God in eternity (John 1:1) and that He became a man in time (John 1:14). His deity is complete, and His humanity is perfect. Hence, He is both God and man (John 20:28; 19:5), possessing both divinity and humanity.
As a man He was anointed by God with the Spirit (John 1:32-33; Matt. 3:16) to accomplish God’s eternal purpose. Hence, He is the Christ, the anointed One (John 20:31).
Christ is the Son of God (John 20:31), who is the image of God (Col. 1:15), the effulgence of God’s glory and the express image of His substance (Heb. 1:3), subsisting in the form of God and equal with God (Phil. 2:6; John 5:18). As the Son of God He came in the flesh with (Gk., para, from with) the Father (John 6:46) and in the name of the Father (John 5:43). Hence, He is called the Father (Isa. 9:6). He was with God, and He was God in eternity past (John 1:1-2), not only coexisting but also coinhering with the Father all the time (John 14:10a, 11a; 17:21). Even while He was in the flesh on the earth, the Father was with Him (John 16:32). Hence, Christ was one with the Father (John 10:30), working in the Father’s name and with the Father (John 10:25; 14:10b), doing the Father’s will (John 6:38; 5:30), speaking the Father’s word (John 3:34a; 14:24), seeking the Father’s glory (John 7:18), and expressing the Father (John 14:7-9).
As the eternal God, Christ is the Creator of all things (John 1:3), and as a man who came in the flesh (1 John 4:2) with the physical blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14), He is a creature, the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15b). Hence, He is both the Creator and the creature.
As the Sender and the Giver of the Spirit (John 15:26; 16:7; 3:34b), whom the Father sent in His name (the Son’s name, John 14:26), the Son, being the last Adam in the flesh, became the life-giving Spirit through death and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45b; John 14:16-20), who received all that is of the Son (John 16:14-15) to testify concerning the Son and glorify the Son (John 15:26; 16:14), and who is the breath of the Son (John 20:22). Hence, He is also the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17) to abide coexistingly and coinheringly with the Son and the Father in the believers (John 14:17, 23) to be the Triune God who is Spirit (John 4:24) mingled with the believers as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17) in their spirit (Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22). Eventually, He became the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 1:4; 4:5), who are the seven eyes of the Son, the Lamb (Rev. 5:6).
I believe that many of these points will be puzzling to those who hold to traditional systematic theology. For example, how can the seven Spirits, who are the Spirit of God, be the seven eyes of the Son, the Second of the Godhead? If the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are regarded as separate persons, how can the Third of the Godhead be the eyes of the Second?
Furthermore, in the Gospel of John the Lord Jesus said that He came in the Father’s name. This is the reason that, according to Isaiah 9:6, His name is called the Father. When the Lord Jesus came, He also came with the Father. Have you ever thought that when the Lord Jesus came down from the heavens, He came with the Father? Some Christians may have the concept that when He came, He left the Father. But when the Lord Jesus came, the Father came also.
Moreover, the Lord said that He came to work in the Father’s name. Who, then, was the One working, the Son or the Father? According to the Gospel of John, the Son came in the Father’s name, He came with the Father, He came to work in the name of the Father, and He came to work with the Father. The Son did not do anything of His own will. Instead, He did the will of the Father. Likewise, He did not speak anything from Himself, but He spoke the Father’s word. He also sought the Father’s glory and expressed the Father.
The Son in John’s Gospel is both the Sender and the Giver of the Spirit. But, eventually, He Himself became the Spirit. This Spirit is the seven Spirits of God, the seven eyes of the Lamb, the Son.
It certainly was foolish of Philip to say, “Lord, show us the Father and it suffices us” (John 14:8). To this request, the Lord Jesus replied, “Am I so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (v. 9). Because the Lord Jesus came in the Father’s name and with the Father, worked in the name of the Father and with the Father, did the Father’s will, spoke the Father’s word, sought the Father’s glory, and expressed the Father, to see the Son was to see the Father.
If we see the revelation of the Trinity in the writings of John, we shall certainly become polemical. Those who are polemical cannot be political. However, even though we should be polemical in our fight for the truth, we still need to speak with others in a proper way.