The Lord's understanding of Exodus 3:6, revealed in Matthew 22:31-32, is an illustration of knowing the deep denotations of the word of God. Exodus 3:6 says, "I am...the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." It is easy to see the superficial denotation of this verse, but no one was able to see the deeper denotation until the wisest One, the Lord Jesus, came. In Matthew 22:31-32 the Lord said, "But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living." According to the Lord's interpretation of this verse, God is the God of the living and not the God of the dead; therefore, although Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob died and were buried, they will be resurrected. They are living ones, and God is their God. By this short word we can see that the Lord Jesus understood the Word of God in its deep denotation.
The Apostle Paul's understanding of Psalm 8:4-6, revealed in Hebrews 2:5-9, is another illustration of knowing the deep denotations of the word of God. Psalm 8:4-6 says, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet." We may think that we understand these verses. However, the phrase "crowned him with glory and honor" implies something very high and very deep that is difficult to comprehend. God gave dominion over all things to Adam, but He did not crown Adam with glory and honor. Furthermore, God did not subject all things under Adam's feet. These verses speak of One upon whose head is a crown of glory and honor and under whose feet all things are subjected. Paul understood these three verses more deeply than the Jewish teachers did. The Jewish teachers might have said that these verses refer to Adam, but Paul realized that they must have a higher and further meaning. Thus, in Hebrews 2 he interpreted this portion of the Word of God according to its deeper denotation. According to Paul's interpretation, these verses refer to Christ in His ascension, in His second coming and kingdom of a thousand years, and in eternity. In His ascension Christ was crowned with glory and honor, and in His kingdom and in eternity God will subject all things under His feet. Paul understood this portion of the Word of God in its deeper denotation.
We can also see Paul's knowledge of the deep denotations of the Word of God in his understanding of Psalm 2:7, as revealed in Acts 13:33. Psalm 2:7 says, "I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee." Apparently, this was the word spoken by God to David, the king of Israel. However, Acts 13:33 says, "That God has fully fulfilled this promise to us their children in raising up Jesus, as it is also written in the second psalm, You are My Son; today I have begotten You." According to its deep denotation, Psalm 2:7 refers to Christ's resurrection. Paul tells us clearly that Christ's resurrection was His birth. Christ was begotten by God in His resurrection. Christ was the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16) when He came to be incarnated, but He was born the firstborn Son of God in His resurrection. Christ's being born as the firstborn Son indicates that many others would follow Him to be born of God and become the many sons of God (Rom. 8:29). By this interpretation we can see how deep the apostle's understanding of the Bible was. Compared to his, our understanding of the Bible is very shallow.
The deep denotation of the Scriptures can be found also in John 3:16, which has been understood superficially by many believers for centuries. John 3:16 is one of the deepest verses in the Bible. To understand any verse of the Bible, we must take care of the context of that verse. John 3:16 is in a chapter of thirty-six verses. Thus, in order to understand this verse, we must take care of the entire chapter.
The subject of John 3 is regeneration. In order to be regenerated, we need two things—the cross and the Spirit. Verses 14-15 of this chapter say, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life." We can be regenerated because the Lord Jesus was crucified for us. Because we had become serpents by being bitten by the old serpent, the devil, Satan (Gen. 3:1, 13-15; Rev. 12:9a), the Lord Jesus died on the cross in the form of a serpent, that is, in our form. He died as our replacement so that we might have eternal life. Verse 6 of this chapter says, "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The Spirit mentioned here is the life-giving Spirit. Thus, we are regenerated through Christ's crucifixion and through Christ Himself becoming the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b).
John 3 also tells us clearly that regeneration is for the increase of Christ. The verses before verse 16 tell us the way in which we can be regenerated, and the verses after verse 16 tell us that the regenerated ones are the increase of Christ, and that this increase is Christ's counterpart, His bride. Thus, these verses reveal that the Lord Jesus came in the form of a serpent, that is, in the "likeness of the flesh of sin" (Rom. 8:3), in order to die for us, and after dying and being resurrected, He is now the Bridegroom waiting to have us as His bride. The marriage of the Bridegroom and the bride will take place in Revelation 19, but the preparation for the marriage is seen in John 3.
John 3:16 says that God gave His only begotten Son not to man but to the world. This verse says that God loved the world, not that He loved man. The world is composed not of men but of "serpents." Every nation on this earth is a nation of "serpents." The world mentioned in John 3:16 signifies not the earth but fallen man, who has been swallowed up by Satan, the serpent, and has been made a satanic system. This is why the Lord Jesus said that He would be lifted up and would die as a serpent, as our Substitute. Thus, God loved the "serpents," and He gave His Son to these "serpents." Furthermore, His Son became a serpent so that all these dying serpents could be made alive by having the eternal life. This eternal life produces the believers in Christ and forms and builds up the Body of Christ as His bride.
John 3:16 indicates further that the God who loved the serpentine world is triune. The fact that the Son is mentioned in this verse is an indication of the Triune God. The simple God does not have a Son; it is the Triune God who has a Son.
This is the deeper denotation in John 3:16. In brief, this denotation is that the Triune God, revealed in Genesis 1, so loved the serpentine people of the satanic world that He gave His only begotten Son, the Second of His divine Trinity, to them in incarnation to die for them in the form of a serpent as their Substitute and become the life-giving Spirit, that those who believe in Him as their Redeemer might be regenerated with His eternal life by Himself as the life-giving Spirit, to be the many sons of God (John 1:12; Heb. 2:10) and His many brothers (Rom. 8:29) to constitute His Body, the church (Eph. 1:23), as His increase and His bride, to satisfy and express Him; this will be consummated in the New Jerusalem, as revealed in Revelation 21—22, to manifest the processed and consummated Triune God for the fulfillment of His eternal economy. Thus, such a denotation is not only deep but also profoundly wide in its span, a span that covers the entire Bible from the first chapter, Genesis 1, to the last chapter, Revelation 22.