Although we have completed our life-study of the Gospel of John, we still need to see something more as a conclusion to all these chapters. The apostle John not only wrote the Gospel of John but also his Epistles and the book of Revelation. His writings are of three important categories. The Gospel of John is for the imparting of life, his Epistles are for the fellowship of life which is for God’s building, and the Revelation is for the consummation of God’s building. Thus, there are three stages of spiritual matters in his writings. The first stage is that of life imparting, the second stage is that of spiritual growth and building, and the last stage is that of maturity and the completion of God’s building. Therefore, after studying the Gospel of John, which is related to the first stage of spiritual matters, we must at least mention something about the second stage of spiritual growth and about the third stage of maturity and conclusion. Revelation is not an easy book, but we can still receive something about the ultimate conclusion, or ultimate completion, of God’s dealings throughout the generations.
We have seen that John’s Gospel is divided into two parts: chapters one through thirteen and chapters fourteen through twenty-one. As we have pointed out, in the first part the Lord as the Son of God came to bring God to man, and in the second part He went to bring man to God. In other words, the first part reveals that the Lord is the manifestation of God who came to man, brought God to man, and mingled God with man. The little man named Jesus is the mingling of the very God with man; He is the unity of God with man. In Him and through Him, God is one with man. In the little man named Jesus we see God (God is with Him), and we see man (man is with God). In Matthew 1:23 Jesus is referred to as Emmanuel, which means God with us, or God with man. By His incarnation, God has mingled Himself with man. This refers to the Lord’s coming.
The second part of this Gospel refers to the Lord’s going. Firstly, He came from God to man. Then He went from man to God and brought man into God. His death and resurrection prepared the way for man to be brought into God. Fallen man was separated from God and was a great distance from Him. But by His death the Lord eliminated the distance and all the hindrances which separated man from God. Now, through Christ’s death and by His blood, man can be brought into the presence of God—and not only into the presence of God, but also into God Himself. By His death and resurrection, the Lord not only went back to God from man; He also went to God with man and brought man into God. Therefore, by His coming, God is mingled with man, and by His going, man is brought into God. By the Lord’s coming and going, God and man, man and God, are mingled together as one.
There is another way of looking at this Gospel: it may be divided into three parts. The first part, composed of the first seventeen chapters, reveals that God is manifested in man. The first seventeen chapters present a picture showing that the very God Himself, the almighty, infinite, unlimited, and eternal God, has been manifested in a man. These chapters are a history of a man, a real man of flesh and blood, a man named Jesus who lived on earth and manifested God. When the Lord Jesus lived on earth as a man, He did not live by the life of man; He lived by another life, the life of God. In these seventeen chapters we do not see a human life lived out through this man; rather, we see a divine life lived out through Him. Thus, the unlimited and infinite God was manifested through this little man. It is for this reason that the Lord told people many times that He did not speak of Himself but of the Father (12:49). Whatever He spoke was of the Father, for it was the Father speaking in Him. Furthermore, whatever He did was not of Himself (5:30). He did everything in and by the Father, for the Father was working in Him. Because He lived, not by man’s life, but by God’s life, God was manifested in and through Him.