The Gospel of John is a book of life. This life is simply the Triune God Himself. Christ came that we might have this life and might have it abundantly (John 10:10). Through His death and resurrection He released this life and has imparted it into us. We now have the Triune God within us as our life.
Life always has an issue. Living things bring forth fruit. Surely the divine life will have a divine result. In the Gospel of John the Triune God as the divine life brings forth the church. Though this actual term is not used in John, the implication is strongly apparent. The verses above are the references in John which allude to the church.
When Christ cleansed the temple, He said, “Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise” (John 2:16). When the Jews asked for a sign of His authority, He told them if they destroyed this temple, in three days He would raise it up. Contrary to their understanding, He was referring to the temple of His body. While He was on earth, His physical body was the temple of God.
The Old Testament type was firstly the tabernacle and then the temple, two stages of one thing, both typifying Christ. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” His human body was a tabernacle. Like the tabernacle of old, it was God’s dwelling place on earth. Then in John 2 the Lord likens His physical body to the temple. He predicts that the Jews will kill Him and destroy His body, yet in three days it would be resurrected. This is a clear indication that He considered His body the temple or house of God, the place where God dwelt on earth.
In resurrection Christ raised up not only His physical body, but also His mystical Body, which includes us. First Peter 1:3 says that we were begotten again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. His mystical Body was begotten with Him in resurrection. The body of Christ, then, both physically and mystically, is the house of God. This mystical Body of Christ, as we know, is the church.
There is the implication in John 2, then, that out of Christ’s resurrection the church will be produced. His physical body was a small type of His mystical Body. Today Christ has a larger Body, the church, which is God’s house.
“He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine therefore is made full” (John 3:29). The bride here, of course, is the church, and Christ is the bridegroom.
You recall the occasion when John the Baptist spoke these words. More and more of his followers were leaving him to go to the Lord Jesus. John’s disciples were unhappy about this. When they complained to him, John reminded them that he was not the Christ, but only one testifying for Him. The bride belongs to the bridegroom. Since John was only the friend of the bridegroom, surely the bride should not be with him.
Since John 3 is the chapter on regeneration, we know that the bride is the sum total of those who have been regenerated. Out of regeneration the children of God are produced. Taken together, they form the bride. In Revelation John was still writing of the bride and the sons. He saw the New Jerusalem come down out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (21:2). He heard the promise that the overcomer will inherit these things, “and I will be God to him, and he shall be a son to Me” (21:7). The sons of God are the components of the bride. Such a statement is beyond our mental understanding, but this is what the Bible reveals.
We may describe regeneration as the divine life in action. The result of this action is the sons of God that constitute the bride of Christ. That this bride is the church is fully revealed in Ephesians 5:23-32. In John’s mending ministry, however, the church, alluded to in John 3 as the bride, will ultimately consummate in the New Jerusalem.
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