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Scripture Reading: John 1:1, 14, 16
The beginning of the Gospel of John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). Verse 14 goes on to say, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.” Verse 16 says, “Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” The fullness of God is the expression of His riches. We may illustrate the fullness by pouring water into a cup. When the water partly fills the cup, we have the riches of the water, but when the water fills the cup to the brim, the overflowing of the water is the fullness, the expression, of the water. In his Epistles Paul speaks of the riches and the fullness. In Ephesians 3:8 he says, “To me, less than the least of all saints, was this grace given to announce to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel.” In 1:23 he speaks of “the fullness of the One who fills all in all,” and in 3:19 he says, “That you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.”
The riches of Christ are what Christ is. Christ is exceedingly rich. Christ is God (Rom. 9:5); He is man (1 Tim. 2:5); He is the Son (Matt. 16:16), the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), and also the Father (Isa. 9:6); and He is the body of all the shadows (Col. 2:16-17). The sun, the air, and water are all shadows. Even our eating and drinking and the feasts, new moons, and Sabbaths are shadows. Eating and drinking refer to our daily experience; the Sabbath refers to our weekly completion and rest; new moons refer to monthly new beginnings, with light in the darkness; and feasts refer to our yearly joy and enjoyment. Whatever we enjoy daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly is a shadow, but Christ is the body, the reality, of all the shadows. This Christ is our allotted portion (1:12). In the whole universe God has allotted Christ to us as our portion, in every way and in everything, as the real sunshine, air, water, food, feast, completion, new beginning, and rest. These are the riches of Christ. When we enjoy all the riches of Christ, we assimilate the riches into the fibers of our being. Then what we assimilate becomes our constitution, and we become the totality of what Christ is. The aggregate of this totality is the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ is Christ’s expression. Americans are the totality and expression of the riches of America that they have eaten and digested, including American beef, pork, and fish. In the same way, the expression of the riches of Christ that have been eaten, digested, and assimilated by us is the fullness of Christ, which is the Body of Christ.
The Gospel of John speaks of the fullness of Christ. John 1:14 says that Christ came as the incarnated One, full of grace and reality, and verse 16 says that we have all received of His fullness. This shows us that Christ came in incarnation for one thing: that we may receive Him. God is abstract and mysterious. The mystery of God is Christ (Col. 2:2), and this Christ became incarnated. Colossians 2:9 says, “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ as the mystery of God in a bodily way. Christ’s coming as the embodiment of God may be compared to serving water in a glass. When the water is in the water pipes, it is not possible to drink it. But when it is served in a glass, it is easy to take it in. Christ came in the way of incarnation in order that we may receive Him. The Word was God, and the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality, and of His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. This is the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John concerns the Triune God, God in His trinity, becoming the riches as the fullness that He may give, impart, and dispense Himself to us on His side and that we may receive the Triune God on our side. He is dispensing, and we are receiving.
Each of the four Gospels presents a particular aspect of Christ. Matthew presents Christ as the King, Mark presents Christ as a Servant, Luke presents Christ as a man, and John presents Christ as God. The Gospel of John tells us that Christ is the way, the reality, and the life (14:6); the light (8:12); the resurrection (11:25); and the great I Am (8:58). None of the other Gospels speaks in such a particular way concerning Christ. Although the Gospel of John is very mysterious, it does contain two definite and solid points: one concerns the Triune God’s giving, imparting, and dispensing of Himself into us, and the other concerns our receiving of Him. John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” Among the four Gospels, only John says that God gave Himself to us. God gives Himself to us in His trinity. He gives Himself to us as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. God is triune for the purpose of giving Himself to us. The love of God, the grace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14) are for God’s dispensing, for His giving of Himself to us. If God were not the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, He would have no way to give Himself to us.
The New Testament tells us that we believe into the Son to receive the Son (John 1:12). We receive the Son because through His death and resurrection the Son has become the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Therefore, the New Testament also tells us to receive the Spirit. John 20:22 says, “When He had said this, He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” In Galatians 3:2 Paul says, “Did you receive the Spirit out of the works of law or out of the hearing of faith?” The receiving of the Son and the receiving of the Spirit are not two receivings. To receive the Son is to receive the Spirit because the Son today is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Likewise, to receive the Spirit is to receive the Son because the Spirit today is the Son.
When we receive the Son, we also receive the Father. First John 2:23 says, “Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also.” Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). Since the Son and the Father are one, when we receive the Son, we also receive the Father. Jesus also said, “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me” (14:11). The Father and the Son coinhere; They cannot be separated. Therefore, when we receive one, we receive the other. The way to receive the Triune God is not to receive the Father directly but to receive the Son. The receiving of the Son is actually the receiving of the Spirit. When we have the Son and the Spirit, we have the Father.
According to John 3:16, the Son is for the Triune God to give Himself to us. In the Gospel of John the Son is likened to food and water. Jesus said that He is the bread of life (6:35, 48), the bread from heaven (v. 51b), and the living bread (v. 51a). This is marvelous. As the bread of life, He is the living bread. He is fresh and living. Jesus is also the living water (4:10, 14) and the flowing water (7:38). This corresponds to Revelation 22:1-2a, which says, “He showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street. And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life.” Out of the throne of God and of the Lamb flows the river of the water of life, and in this river the tree of life grows as a spreading vine. The Bible concludes with this river and its tree of life. The river and the tree are Christ given by God for us to receive. When we receive Him, whatever He is, is within us and becomes our constitution. This is the divine economy with the divine dispensing according to God’s central thought to mingle Himself with man, to make God and man, man and God, one entity, the New Jerusalem.
The Gospel of John also reveals Christ as the breath. After His consummation through His processes, Christ came to His disciples in resurrection and breathed into them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (20:22). The word for Spirit in this verse can also be translated “breath.” The holy breath is for Christ to breathe out and for us to breathe in. The entire Bible is a record of God breathing out and man breathing in. The Scripture itself is God’s breathing (2 Tim. 3:16). Every time we come to the Scripture, we should not only read it but breathe it in. This is pray-reading. Pray-reading the Word transforms us because in pray-reading we breathe. In pray-reading we first breathe out our sorrow and sin; then we breathe in God’s fullness.
A. B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, wrote a hymn concerning breathing the Lord (Hymns, #255), and the following stanza and chorus show how much he enjoyed the Lord by breathing Him in:
A. B. Simpson was one of the most spiritual persons the United States has produced in the past one hundred years. He enjoyed breathing in the Lord’s fullness and breathing out all the negative things within him. His mentioning of fulness in the chorus is a reference to John 1:16. The way to receive the Lord’s fullness is by breathing Him. This renews, sanctifies, transforms, and conforms us. Eventually, this will glorify us.
God gives Himself to us by breathing Himself out, and we receive Him by breathing Him in. Physically, the secret to a long life is proper breathing, eating, and drinking. The One who gives Himself to us is the breath, the food, and the water, and we receive Him by breathing, eating, and drinking. This is the way John shows us to receive the given One, who is the processed Triune God in His trinity, the aggregate of the all-embracing blessing of the full gospel of God. This is the highest understanding of the Gospel of John.
All the churches should learn how to “cook” something of the Triune God for their supply. When we come to the Bible, we must learn to exercise our spirit not only to read but also to pray-read. We may not understand a portion of the Word, but we can eat it. We can pray-read John 1:1, saying, “In the beginning was the Word. Amen! Oh, the Word! Hallelujah for the Word! The Word was with God. Hallelujah for the beginning, for the Word, and for God! Although I do not understand these things, I have God, the Word, and the beginning.” Pray-reading in this way will be a morning revival and a real “breakfast” to us. Pray-reading will also help us to have the proper understanding of the Word.
In the remainder of this chapter we will consider another twelve ways revealed in the Gospel of John to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit — the aggregate of the all-embracing blessing of the full gospel of God.
To receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, we must hate our soul-life in this world that we may keep it unto eternal life (John 12:25). Our soul-life is our self. Thus, to hate our soul-life in this world is to hate our self in our daily living. If we love our soul-life, we will lose it, but if we hate our soul-life, we will keep it. The word for unto in Greek carries the notions of for, with a view to, and resulting in. Hence, to keep our soul-life unto eternal life is to keep it for, with a view to, and resulting in eternal life.
We all have three lives. Our physical life is the life in our body. Our psychological life is the life in our soul. This is the natural life. The spiritual zoe life is the eternal life, the divine life, in our spirit. The way to enjoy the divine life in our spirit is to hate our soul-life. If we hate our soul-life, we will keep it, resulting in the enjoyment of the eternal life. The more we hate our soulish life, the natural life, the more we will keep it, resulting in more enjoyment of the eternal life. This enjoyment will extend for eternity. We have this eternal life, but we often do not have the enjoyment of it because we do not hate our soulish life. If we hate our self, we will keep our soul-life to enjoy and experience the divine life, which is in us from now unto eternity.
Another way to receive, experience, and enjoy Christ is by following Him in His death to release the divine life and to receive the Father’s honor (12:24, 26). In John 12:24 the Lord said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Here the Lord said that if He as a grain of wheat would fall into the ground and die, the divine life would be released, and He would become many grains and thus would increase and be multiplied. As the grains of wheat today, we must not learn first how to live; we must learn how to die. To die is to live. While Christ was on the earth, He was always being put to death. Now we need to follow Him in His steps of dying. If we learn to die, we will receive the Father’s honor. The more one talks, insists on certain things, and expresses himself, the less honorable that one is. Such a one is too active and living. The most honorable person is a dying person. It is not glorious to be living and active in the natural life; the glory is in learning to die. Thus, every Christian should be a dying person.
The way to receive, experience, and enjoy Christ is by keeping His new commandment to love one another for the expression of His love that all the people may know that we are His disciples (13:34-35). In the Old Testament there were ten commandments, but in the Gospel of John the Lord gave only one: love one another. If we love one another, we will express His love, and all men will know that we are Jesus’ disciples.
We receive, experience, and enjoy Christ also by taking Him as the way, the reality, and the life to come to the Father. John 14:6 says, “Jesus said to him, I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” This is an excellent verse concerning the way to receive and enjoy Christ. Without Jesus as the way, the reality, and the life, no one can come to the Father. This does not mean that no one can come to the place where the Father is, but that no one can come to the Father Himself. Some have misunderstood this verse to mean that the Father is in a heavenly mansion and that Jesus is the way for the believers to go to this heavenly mansion. However, since the way is Christ, a living person, so the place to which the Lord brings us must also be a person, God the Father Himself. The Lord Himself is the living way to bring man into God the Father, the living place.
The way refers mainly to the Son. The Son as the way was incarnated to bring God into man. Then He died to accomplish redemption and resurrected to impart the divine life. The reality refers mainly to the Spirit, for the Spirit is the reality and is called “the Spirit of reality” (v. 17; 1 John 5:6). The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father (John 14:11), and the Spirit comes as the Spirit of reality to be the reality of the Son. If we have the Spirit, we have the Son, who is the way.
The life refers mainly to the Father. We take Christ as the way to come to the Father. The way is the Son, and the destination is the Father as life. First John 1:2 says, “The life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.” This verse says that the eternal life was with the Father. The Son is the way, the Spirit is the reality, and the Father is the life as the destination. It is by this way that we come to the Father and enjoy Him as the source with the Son as the course and the Spirit as the reaching, the reality, of the Divine Trinity.
The way to receive, experience, and enjoy Christ is by loving Him and keeping His word to gain the Father’s love and to have Christ manifest Himself to us and have the Father and Him make Their abode with us (John 14:21, 23). If we love the Lord and keep His word, we will have three results. First, we will gain the Father’s love. This is the response of the divine love. Second, we will have the Son’s manifestation. Then, third, the loving One and the manifesting One will come to make Their abode with us. Love is from the Father as the source, the manifestation is through the Son, and the making of the abode is by both the Father and the Son. Not only do the Father and the Son make us Their abode, but They also become our abode. We and the Father and the Son become a mutual abode in the Father’s love and the Son’s manifestation. In this way the Triune God has an abode, and we the believers of Christ also have an abode. His abode is in us, and our abode is in Him.
The way to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ is also to abide in Him as a branch abiding in the vine to enjoy all the riches of what He is (15:4-5). We are not branches of the vine by birth, but we have become the branches of the vine by grafting (Rom. 11:17). If we as a branch abide in Him, we enjoy all the riches of what He is. As the branches of the wild tree that have been grafted into Christ as the true vine, we have the position, the capacity, and the right to enjoy whatever is in Christ. Therefore, this abiding is the way to enjoy the riches of Christ. After breathing, eating, and drinking Christ, we abide in Him as a grafted branch to absorb all His riches.
The way to receive, experience, and enjoy Christ is also by going forth to bear fruit, even remaining fruit, that we may be kept in the enjoyment of His riches (2, John 15:16). In order to bear fruit, we must go forth. We must go forth from one door to another door, even from one city to another city and from one country to another country. John 15:16 says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.” Christ set us, as grafted branches, in Himself to be those who go forth to bear fruit. If we do not go forth, we cannot bear fruit. We should go forth to contact people every day. We can at least go forth by contacting someone on the telephone. Moreover, to bear remaining fruit implies feeding. Fruit cannot remain without being fed. It must be watered and fertilized and have adequate sunshine and air. The reason that some of our fruit do not remain is that we have not cared for them adequately.
Going forth to bear fruit and helping the fruit to remain is the way to enjoy the riches of Christ. If we do not bear fruit, we will be cut off from the vine (v. 6). To be cut off from the vine is not to perish. It is to lose the enjoyment of the riches of the vine. To enjoy the aggregate of the all-embracing blessing of the full gospel of God, we must abide in the vine, but we cannot abide in the vine without bearing fruit. We must go forth to bear fruit and do something to cause the fruit to remain. Then we will be in the right position and will have the right to enjoy the riches of Christ. Some may claim that they have not been cut off from the vine. They still come to the meetings, pray, and function. However, this does not mean that they are enjoying Christ. If we bear even one remaining fruit, we will be joyful in the enjoyment of Christ. To see one of our fruit remain in the church and begin to serve in the same way that we do causes us to be joyful. This joy indicates that we are enjoying Christ. Without new fruit and without remaining fruit, we do not have such joy. This indicates that we have lost the enjoyment; we have been cut off from the riches of Christ.
Another way to receive, experience, and enjoy Christ is by being convicted by the Comforter, the Spirit of reality, concerning sin (from Adam), concerning righteousness (Christ), and concerning judgment (the devil’s eternal portion), that we may be justified and regenerated (16:8-11). On the one hand, the Spirit is the Comforter; on the other hand, He is the Convicter, the One who rebukes and reproaches. The best comforter always rebukes. If one always speaks well of you, he is a deceiver and has an evil intention. If one is an honest and faithful comforter, he will rebuke and reproach. He will tell others that as long as they do a certain improper thing, they will suffer and not have any comfort. He will exhort them to have a change and be corrected. The Comforter is the Spirit of reality. He comes to comfort us with convicting. He convicts us concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment. Sin came from Adam, and righteousness is Christ. We must give up Adam, that is, put sin aside, and receive Christ as our righteousness. Otherwise, we will participate in the judgment that is the ultimate portion of the devil. We came from Adam, but if we come to Christ, He will become our righteousness, and we will not suffer the eternal judgment that is the devil’s portion. We will be justified to have Christ as our righteousness and be regenerated to have the Spirit as our life.
The way to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ is also by receiving the riches of the Triune God through the transmission of the Divine Trinity so that we may partake of all the realities for His glorification. In John 16:13-15a the Lord Jesus said, “When He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality...He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Mine and will declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine.” Christ has inherited whatever the Father has. The riches of the Father’s being are Christ’s inheritance; what Christ inherits from the Father is received by the Spirit; and whatever the Spirit receives of Christ, He declares to us. This is a transmission. The riches are in the Father as the source, they pass through the Son as the course, and the Spirit is the reaching to us of all the riches of the Triune God. From the Father, through the Son, and by the Spirit, all the riches of the Triune God become our portion. We enjoy this blessing by being one with the Triune God and allowing the transmission from the Triune God to reach us. In this way we have the riches of the Triune God by the divine transmission.
The way to receive, experience, and enjoy Christ is also by being one with the believers to partake of the oneness of the Divine Trinity so that the people of the world may believe in Him (17:21). Oneness is a particular attribute of the Divine Trinity. The three of the Trinity are one, and we can participate in this oneness by being one. The more we are one with the believers, the more we are in the oneness of the Trinity. This is a corporate blessing. When we are not one with the brothers and sisters, we suffer. When we are one, we enjoy the riches of the Triune God. This is the participation in the Divine Trinity in Their oneness. Their oneness becomes our oneness, and as They coinhere, we coinhere with Them. Ephesians 4:4-6 speaks of one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father. These four coinhere together in oneness. The New Testament speaks strongly against division. Romans 16:17 says, “Now I exhort you, brothers, to mark those who make divisions and causes of stumbling contrary to the teaching which you have learned, and turn away from them.” Division diminishes our enjoyment of the Triune God in His triune oneness. To have such an enjoyment is a great blessing.
We receive, experience, and enjoy Christ also by receiving His breathing to enjoy Him as the pneumatic Christ (John 20:22). The Lord is breathing Himself out, and we are receiving not simply His breath but His breathing, which includes His person. This is our enjoyment.
The last way revealed in the Gospel of John to receive, experience, and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is by loving Him in feeding His lambs and shepherding His sheep for His flock — the church (21:15-17). Feeding the lambs, the young ones, takes place in the home meetings, and shepherding the sheep takes place in the group meetings. Feeding Christ’s lambs and shepherding His sheep are for His flock, the church, which is His heart’s desire and God’s good pleasure (Eph. 1:9). This is also the way for us to enjoy the Triune God.
By all the preceding points we can see that the Gospel of John is a book on the dispensing of the Triune God and the receiving of this dispensing by the believers through their breathing, eating, and drinking of Him and their abiding in Him.
