If we try to understand Matthew and John with our limited mentality, we will only be confused. Matthew wrote a book about Christ in which he tells us that He is the son of David and the son of Abraham. But John tells us that He is the Word, and the Word is God. John makes it clear that He is the Son of God. So what is He? Is He the son of David, or the Son of God? Praise the Lord! He is all-inclusive. We cannot analyze, and we cannot systematize Christ. There is no -ology with Him. There is just the pure Word. We should learn not to analyze, but to simply take the true Word.
Matthew goes back to Abraham, but John starts from the beginning. Before the foundation of the world, before creation, the Word was there. And the Word was God! Then one day, this Word who was God became something else. “And the Word became flesh” (John 1:14). He became flesh to dwell among us full of grace and reality. He is a wonderful person! Then John continues by telling us that He is the Lamb of God. “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Following that, in chapter three, he tells us that Jesus is the bridegroom. “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom” (John 3:29).
Jesus is so wonderful! He is not only the Lamb, but also the Bridegroom. He has many aspects. For redemption, He is the Lamb. Mankind is fallen, and full of sin. Therefore, He must be the Lamb to take away the sin of the world. But He is the Bridegroom for the marriage. Redemption is not the goal; redemption is just the procedure. Marriage is the goal! In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. Then the Word became flesh. So He is the Word, God and then the flesh. And the flesh is the Lamb. He must be the flesh to shed His blood as the redeeming Lamb. And He is also the Bridegroom.
In just the first three chapters of John we see that He is five things: the Word, God, the flesh, the Lamb, and the Bridegroom. He is so much. As the Word and God He became flesh. This means He became a man, a human being. Then this human being is the Lamb of God to redeem man. Hallelujah! But this is not all. He is also the universal Bridegroom. In the whole universe, the most pleasant person is Jesus as the Bridegroom. John the Baptist tells us that He that has the Bride is the Bridegroom. So He comes for the Bride.
Then in the following chapters of John we are told that He is the bread of life. Moreover, in John 10 we are told that He is the door, not the door to heaven, but the door out of religion! God’s people in John, chapter ten, were confined in the Jewish religion, and Jesus came to be the door that they might come out. He took the lead to come out of that Jewish religion. Peter followed, John followed, and the blind man of John 9 came out also. Eventually, even Saul of Tarsus followed. He came out of that religion. Jesus is the door out of religion! This is still true today. Jesus is the door for religion, not for people to enter, but for them to leave. Then, when we come out of religion, He is our Shepherd. And under His shepherding, He is our green pasture. We read furthermore that He is the life, the truth, and the way. He is the light, and even the living air for us to breathe. He is so many things!
John in his Gospel makes us clear that for Jesus to be so many things to us He must become the Spirit. In chapter fourteen the Lord says, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I am coming to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 14:16-20).
He said that He would ask the Father to send us another comforter. But we should not consider this other comforter as another one besides Himself. No, this comforter is the Lord as the Spirit of reality. This is why He told the disciples that He was not going to leave them. He was coming to them. His going away for three days was for His coming. Those three days would be a kind of process to transform Him through death and resurrection into the Spirit. After the resurrection, the Lord came back to the disciples. He had been fully processed through crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Now He is not merely God; neither is He only God in the flesh. Now He is God in the flesh crucified, buried and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Now it is so easy to take Him in. This is why we read in John 20:22, “And when he had said this, he breathed into them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit.”