John's Gospel reveals that Christ lived God and did the Father's will. He lived a life which was God Himself. No one has ever seen God, but Christ as the Son of God expressed Him (John 1:18). Christ lived a life manifesting God the Father and making Him known (John 14:9). At the same time He did the Father's will (John 5:30b; 6:38). He did not do His own work or accomplish His own intention but did the Father's will. When we see this, we will enjoy Christ and experience Him as the One who lives God and who does the will of God. This will enable us also to live God and to do the will of God. The more we enjoy Christ and experience Him, the more we will live God, express God, and do God's will.
If you put together all the aspects of Christ's work in the four Gospels you will see the ministry He carried out on this earth. I hope that you will take the time to study Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John with all the footnotes of the Recovery Version and the Life-study Messages on the four Gospels. If you do this, you will experience Christ and enjoy Him much more. Then in Japan there will be a garden of God to grow God and express Him. The Lord today needs a number of blossoming Christians, those who know Him, experience Him, and enjoy Him.
The second category of Christ's work is His crucifixion. In man's eyes, to die is not a work; but concerning Christ, His dying was a great work, a great accomplishment. While He was on the cross He was working, and when He entered Hades He was also working. Although it was unseen to human eyes, Satan with all the evil spirits knew that while Christ was dying on the cross, He was truly doing a great work. His working on the cross eventually became a battle, with God "stripping off the rulers and the authorities...triumphing over them" (Col. 2:15). While Christ was dying on the cross, Satan was there fighting. Whenever the police go to arrest a robber, there is always a struggle and a fight. The death of Christ on the cross was the arrest of Satan. In Genesis 3, God promised that Christ would bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15), and when Christ died on the cross, He destroyed the Devil (Heb. 2:14). Now let us consider all the accomplishments of Christ's crucifixion.
The first accomplishment of Christ's crucifixion was that He took away sin by being killed as the Lamb of God (John 1:29). John 1:29 says, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" Do you realize how heavy is the load of the sin of the world? The load of sin is like a great mountain, but Christ's death as the Lamb of God removed this mountain of sin. This was a great work accomplished by Christ in His death. The word sin in John 1:29 denotes the aggregate, the totality, of sin and of sins. In the Bible sin in the singular denotes our inward sinful nature (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 9:26), whereas sins in the plural number denotes our outward sinful deeds (1 Pet. 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:3; Heb. 9:28). Within man there is a sinful nature called sin, and outwardly there are many sinful activities called sins. The word sin in John 1:29 denotes the aggregate, the totality, of sin within and sins without. This totality of sin is a great load. Yet Christ took the load away. He removed this high mountain by being the Lamb of God dying on the cross. He was killed on the cross as the Lamb of God to be the greatest offering, the sin offering for sin and the trespass offering for sins. As the Lamb of God He was killed as the sin offering and as the trespass offering to remove the totality of sin and of sins from the world. Since Christ has done such a marvelous work, we must announce such a glad tiding, that sin has been removed.