Concerning the Son as the expression (1:18), we need to see the following sixteen points:
(1) The Son is the Word who is God and who was with God in the beginning (vv. 1-2). He is God, and He was with God. On one hand, verse 1 says, “The Word was with God,” but on the other hand, it also says, “The Word was God.” This is truly a mystery.
(2) The Son is equal with God (5:18).
(3) The Son and the Father are one (10:30; 17:22). The Father and the Son are equal, and They are also one.
(4) The Son is the expression of the Father (14:8-9; 8:19). When the Son comes, the Father is expressed.
(5) The Son lives because of the Father (6:57). The Son does not live apart from the Father. The Father and the Son, the Son and the Father, cannot be separated.
(6) The Son came to carry out the Father’s will (v. 38; 5:19-20, 30; 12:49). The Son did not do anything according to His own desire; He did everything according to the desire of the Father.
(7) The Son became flesh, bringing grace and reality (1:14, 16-17; 8:32, 36; 14:6). If the Son had not become flesh, both the Father and the Son would be too mysterious and abstract. The Son became flesh, passing from infancy through childhood into a man who was thirty years old when He began to minister. In the flesh God was expressed and made tangible to humanity. He was so tangible that He could even lie in a manger. Isaiah 9:6 says, “A child is born to us,” and “A Son is given to us.” The child was Jesus, but the Son who was given would be called Mighty God and Eternal Father. According to 1 John 1:2, the Word of life, who was with the Father, has been manifested, and we have seen, heard, and touched Him. John touched Him, Peter touched Him, and the other disciples touched Him.
When He became flesh, He brought grace and reality (John 1:14). Grace denotes enjoyment. The Son comes with God to be our enjoyment. At the same time, the Son comes also with reality. The incarnated Jesus is light, love, and life. He is the reality.
(8) The Son became a man to be the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world (vv. 29, 36). Not only did the Son become flesh, but He also became a man. As a man coming to be the Lamb of God, He had flesh and blood—a body. He bore our sins in His physical body, and He shed human blood to redeem us from our sins and to wash away our sins.
(9) The Son baptized people in the Spirit (v. 33). He not only took away the sin of the world but also baptized people in the Spirit. Sin was taken away, and the Spirit came. In the flesh through His incarnation the Son removed our sins, and in His resurrection He baptized us in the Spirit.
(10) The Son is life so that people may have life; He is also the bread of life so that those who eat Him will live because of Him (14:6; 11:25; 10:10; 6:35, 57). He not only takes away our sins and baptizes us in the Spirit but also enters into us as life so that we may have life. He is also the bread of life as our life supply. Without Him as the bread of life, our life could not be sustained. Thank the Lord that He is also the bread of life.
(11) The Son is a grain of wheat bearing much fruit (12:24). The Son as a grain of wheat fell into the ground and died. In His enlivening resurrection, He brought forth many grains. Today every one of us is one of the many grains; we all are grains produced by Him.
(12) The Son is the good Shepherd who will gain His flock (10:14-16). He is not only the grain of wheat that brings forth many grains but also the good Shepherd who cares for us. On one hand, we are many grains, and on the other hand, we are many sheep as one flock. Today the Lord is shepherding us as His one flock.
(13) The Son is the Bridegroom coming for His bride (3:29-30). We are not only the many grains and the flock; we are also the bride waiting for the Bridegroom to come and marry us. On the one hand, we are already married to Him, but on the other hand, we are waiting for Him to come and marry us. He is the Bridegroom, and we are His bride.
(14) The Son is the vine cultivated by the Father (15:1). To cultivate is to carry out an economy. God the Father has a great economy in the universe, and this great economy is centered on the Son as the vine. We are the many branches of this vine (v. 5).
(15) The Son died, shedding His blood, for the redemption of sins and flowed out as living water, even as the Spirit (7:38-39; 19:34). The Lord took away our sins through the shedding of His blood in death, and He baptized us in the Spirit through the release of the Spirit, as living water, from within Him in resurrection.
(16) In resurrection the Son was breathed into us as the Spirit (20:22). All the foregoing fifteen points speak of what He is and has done. All these items are in the Spirit. He became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection, and He was breathed into us as the Spirit. In John 1:1 He is revealed as the Word who was with God and who was God, but at the end of the Gospel, He is revealed as the Spirit of life, the breath of life, to be breathed into us (20:22). Today the Lord is the Spirit. He is the last Adam who became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). The last Adam, Jesus as the Lamb of God, accomplished redemption on the cross, and in His resurrection from the dead, He became the life-giving Spirit. When this life-giving Spirit is breathed into us, we receive the Spirit and life.