We have seen that the Bible is a book of life and building and that the Gospel of John is also focused on life and building.
The Gospel of John reveals that in Christ, the Word of God, is life (1:4); that He came that man may have life (10:10b); and that He Himself is life (11:25; 14:6). Furthermore, this gospel shows us that Christ is the bread of life (6:35); that He has the water of life (4:14); that He gives life to man (5:21); and that He even lives in man as life (14:19).
The Gospel of John unfolds the building. In 1:14 we see that Christ in the flesh was the tabernacle for God’s habitation among men on earth. “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Also, Christ’s body was the temple before His death and after His resurrection (2:19-22). Before His death His body in the flesh was the temple, and after His resurrection His resurrected body remained the temple of God. This is the building. Furthermore, this gospel reveals that the believers are to be built as the abode of the Triune God (14:2, 23). This is adequately and fully disclosed in John 14. According to that chapter, all the believers will be built together as God’s eternal habitation with so many abodes. Thus, as the Lord’s last prayer found in John 17 indicates, all His believers must be built up into one (vv. 11, 21-23).
The first section of the Gospel of John, composed of the first thirteen chapters, is on the coming of the Lord Jesus to bring God into man and to declare God to man. This section tells how the Lord was the Word of God, which was God Himself, coming through His incarnation to bring God into man and to declare God to man. Before the time of His incarnation, He was separate from man. God was God, and man was man. However, through His incarnation He brought God into man. God became one with a man named Jesus, a man who was both God and man. Although no one has ever seen God, through incarnation the only begotten Son of God has declared God to man in life, light, grace, and reality. We shall see more of this in the following messages. For the time being it is sufficient to remember that in the first section of John we see how God was brought into man and declared to man.
The second section, composed of the last eight chapters, is on the Lord’s going in death and coming back in resurrection to bring man into God and to abide in and with man for God’s building. In the first section He brought God into man; in the second section He passed through death and resurrection to bring man into God. Thus, He is able to enter into man and to abide in and with man for God’s building.
Although the language of the Gospel of John is simple and brief, this book is deep and profound. The language is so elementary that even a first grader can read most of it. “In the beginning was the Word”; “I am the light”; “I am the life”—such statements are simple, but their meaning is profound. What does “the Word” mean? Try to define it. What does it mean to say that “in Him was life”? Who can say what life is? It is profound, far beyond our understanding. Hence, this gospel, in its brief and simple style, uses many allegories and figures. In John 1 we have the Word. We know that this Word was Christ. However, do not think that Christ was a word with four letters; the Word here is an allegory, a figure, depicting what Christ means for God. In 1:14 we have the tabernacle, which also was Christ. Furthermore, in 1:29 Christ is called the Lamb of God, although He was not actually a lamb with four feet. We have seen that Christ called Peter a stone (1:42), but “stone” has a spiritual significance. Therefore, we should not try to understand the Gospel of John merely according to letters; we need to allegorize it in a proper way according to the revelation of the entire Bible.
Nearly every chapter of John’s gospel contains some figures. In chapter one we have the Word, the light, the tabernacle, the lamb, the stone, and the heavenly ladder; in chapter two the six waterpots, the wine, the temple, and the Father’s house; in chapter three the serpent on a pole; in chapter four Jacob’s well and the living water; in chapter six the living bread; in chapter seven the rivers of living water; in chapter nine the spittle and the clay; in chapter ten the door, the fold, the flock, the pasture, and the shepherd; in chapter twelve the grain of wheat; in chapter thirteen the foot-washing; in chapter fifteen the vine and the branches; in chapter sixteen the woman and the child; in chapter nineteen the bone, the blood, and the water; in chapter twenty the breath; and in chapter twenty-one the sheep and the lambs. We cannot understand this gospel properly without allegorizing all of its figures.
Because the matters of life are abstract, deep, and profound, it is extremely difficult to describe and express them with ordinary human language. Hence, this gospel uses various figures to signify spiritual things, the exceedingly profound matters of life and building. Thus, we need to read the Gospel of John carefully, praying to receive a genuine understanding of the allegories. To help you in this, we suggest that you read the Recovery Version of John, paying close attention to all the notes. If you read the text and the notes, you will be helped.