If we would divide this Gospel into three parts, the second part would consist of chapters eighteen and nineteen. In these two chapters we see a picture of how the Lord was arrested, brought to trial, sentenced to death, and crucified on the cross. But we must realize that this picture is a revelation of life manifested through death. In the first part of this Gospel, God is manifested in man; in the second part, life is manifested in death. Everything that happened to the Lord Jesus in chapters eighteen and nineteen was an aspect of death. Judas’ betrayal of the Lord, his bringing the soldiers to arrest the Lord, the judgment before the high priest and Pilate, the cruel treatment of the Lord, the false sentence against Him, and His being nailed to the cross—all were aspects of death. Nevertheless, all that happened to the Lord in these chapters did not put Him to death. If we say that the Lord was put to death, we are wrong. The Lord went into death voluntarily. Just as He was God coming into man, so now He is life going into death. As He was God manifested in man, so here He is life manifested in death.
Throughout the whole universe, nothing other than God is more powerful than death (S. S. 8:6). It is so powerful that no one can resist it. Only the God of resurrection can overcome it. Whenever death comes to a person, it is merciless, strong, and cruel. It does not care about your wife, children, or family. Therefore, everyone is afraid of death and no one would go into it voluntarily. Who would willingly offer himself to be visited by death? But in these two chapters we see that the Lord Jesus went into death willingly. He chose to go to the garden and to deliver Himself into the hands of the people. Knowing that His captors would come to the garden to seize Him, He went there deliberately for the purpose of being arrested. In doing this He showed that He is life. The only way in which life can be manifested is by entering into death. In and by death, the real life is manifested. In 12:24 the Lord referred to Himself as a grain of wheat. How do we know that there is life in a grain of wheat? We know it by putting the grain of wheat into death. By burying the grain of wheat in the earth, that is, in death, we see that life comes out. Thus, the life in the grain of wheat is manifested through death. If you bury a grain of sand in the earth, nothing will come out because there is no life in it. Hence, death is the means by which life is manifested.
As we have pointed out, everything the Lord Jesus experienced in these two chapters was an aspect of death. But the Lord, being life, was not afraid to die. He was never frightened nor troubled by death. Rather, He victoriously met every threat and attack of death. Even when the disciples were attempting to rescue Him, He told them not to resist, saying, “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?” (18:11). When the Lord Jesus asked those who came to arrest Him whom they were seeking and they answered, “Jesus the Nazarene,” He said, “I am” (18:5-6). When He said, “I am,” His captors, terrified by this word, “drew back and fell to the ground” (18:6). This proves that if the Lord had been unwilling to deliver Himself up to them, they could never have arrested Him. Moreover, as the soldiers were arresting the Lord, He easily and calmly took care of the disciples, saying, “If therefore you are seeking Me, let these go away” (18:8). All this reveals that the Lord was the life manifested in death and that death could do nothing to Him.
Chapters one through seventeen show that the Lord is God in man, chapters eighteen and nineteen reveal that the Lord is life in death, and now chapters twenty and twenty-one unfold the Lord in resurrection as the Spirit. The Lord is God, the Lord is life, and the Lord is resurrection. He is God manifested in man, He is life manifested in death, and He is resurrection manifested as the Spirit. Through man, God is manifested; through death, life is manifested; through the Holy Spirit, resurrection is manifested. In the three parts of the Gospel of John, we have the Lord as God in the first part, the Lord as life in the second part, and the Lord as resurrection in the last part. Thus, He is God, life, and resurrection. In the first seventeen chapters the Lord was in man as God; in the next two chapters the Lord was in death as life; and in the last two chapters the Lord is the Spirit as resurrection. This is the Lord in three stages.
The Spirit is the reality of the Lord’s resurrection. After the Lord’s resurrection, what is He? He is the Spirit, and as the Spirit He is the resurrection. In 11:25, the Lord clearly said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He is not only life—He is also resurrection. Do you prefer the Lord as God, the Lord as life, or the Lord as resurrection? I prefer the Lord as resurrection because it is in resurrection that God can be one with us and experienced by us. It is only in the Lord’s resurrection that we can have a subjective relationship with the Lord. It is by the resurrection that we can be in God. If God were only God, He could not be life and could not have anything to do with man. It is much better for God to be life than merely to be God. But even if God is only life, it is still rather difficult for us to have a real relationship of fellowship with Him. However, in resurrection, God can be one with us and we can experience Him in a very subjective way. Have you ever realized how far away God was from you? And do you realize how near He is to you today? When He was only God, He was very far from us. But now that He is in resurrection, He is very near to us, for He has come into us.
After His resurrection, the Lord came into His disciples and breathed into them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (20:22). What is the Holy Spirit? The Spirit is just God reaching man. God the Father is the source, God the Son is the expression, and God the Spirit is God’s entering into man. The Spirit as God entering into us is for our enjoyment. If God were only the Father and not the Son and the Spirit, we could never experience Him. But God is in the Son as life, and God is the Spirit as resurrection. By resurrection God releases Himself and imparts Himself into us. Therefore, the Lord told the disciples to receive the Holy Spirit. To receive the Holy Spirit is to receive God Himself. It is only in resurrection and by resurrection that God can be within us and be one with us.
Do you realize that God is not only life, but that He is also resurrection? Is this a fact and a reality to you, or is it merely a teaching and a doctrine? By the death and resurrection of Christ, God as resurrection is living within us. This must not be a mere doctrine to us. The One who is stronger and more powerful than all things is living in us. This One is the very God who became life, and this life is now the resurrection within us. The indwelling Holy Spirit is the reality of this resurrection. Therefore, He and we, we and He, have become one. Resurrection means the wonderful mingling of God and man in the Spirit. In resurrection, God and man are mingled together. Man becomes the abode of God, and God becomes the abode of man. Hence, man and God, God and man, can mutually abide in one another.