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In this message we will consider the aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ revealed in chapters seven and eight of the Gospel of John.
In John 7 we have Christ as the Feast of Tabernacles and as the Spirit.
Verse 2 says, “Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was near.” The Feast of the Passover is the first of the Jewish annual feasts, and the Feast of Tabernacles is the last (Lev. 23:5, 34). The Feast of the Passover, being the first feast of the year, implies the beginning of man’s life (cf. Exo. 12:2-3, 6), which involves man’s seeking for satisfaction and results in man’s hunger. The Feast of Tabernacles, being the last feast of the year, implies the completion and success of man’s life (cf. 23:16), which will end and will result in man’s thirst. In the scene of the Feast of the Passover in John 6, the Lord Jesus presented Himself as the bread of life, which satisfies man’s hunger. In the scene of the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7, the Lord Jesus promised that He would flow forth the living water, which quenches man’s thirst.
God ordained the Feast of Tabernacles so that the children of Israel would remember how their fathers, while wandering in the wilderness, had lived in tents (Lev. 23:39-43), expecting to enter into the rest of the good land. Hence, this feast is a reminder that today people are still in the wilderness and need to enter into the rest of the New Jerusalem, which is the eternal tabernacle (Rev. 21:2-3). Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob also lived in tents and looked forward to this eternal tabernacle (Heb. 11:9-10), in which there will be a river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb to quench man’s thirst (Rev. 22:1, 17). At the end of such a feast, which had such a background, Christ cried out the promise of the rivers of living water, which will satisfy man’s expectation for eternity (John 7:37-39).
After the full harvest of their crops, the Jewish people observed the Feast of Tabernacles to worship God and enjoy what they had reaped (Deut. 16:13-15). The Feast of Tabernacles, therefore, was held at the time of the reaping of the harvest of the good land given by God. For us today, the reality of this good land is the Spirit (Gal. 3:14; Phil. 1:19). The physical aspect of the blessing that God promised to Abraham was the good land (Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3-4), which was a type of the all-inclusive Christ. Since Christ is eventually realized as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17), the blessing of the promised Spirit corresponds to the blessing of the land promised to Abraham. Actually, the Spirit as the realization of Christ in our experience is the good land as the source of God’s bountiful supply for us to enjoy.
The Feast of Tabernacles was a feast for God’s people to enjoy and be satisfied before God (Lev. 23:40b; Rom. 14:17b). As the last feast of all the feasts ordained by God for His people (Lev. 23:34, 39-43), the Feast of Tabernacles is for their enjoyment of the rich produce of the good land at its harvest time for their satisfaction. Christ as the reality of the Feast of Tabernacles is such a feast for our experience and enjoyment today.
John 7:37-39 speaks of the Spirit.
Jesus became the Spirit through His glorification. Regarding this, verse 39b says, “The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” John’s word indicates an expectation — expectation that although the Spirit was “not yet,” the time was coming when the Spirit would be there. The Spirit of God was there from the beginning (Gen. 1:1-2), but at the time the Lord Jesus cried out at the feast, the Spirit as the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19), was not yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified. Jesus was glorified when He was resurrected (Luke 24:26). After Jesus’ resurrection the Spirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Jesus Christ, who was breathed into the disciples by Christ in the evening of the day on which He was resurrected (John 20:22). The Spirit is now the “another Comforter,” the Spirit of reality promised by Christ before His death (14:16-17). When the Spirit was the Spirit of God, He had only the divine element. After He became the Spirit of Jesus Christ through Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, the Spirit had both the divine element and the human element, with all the essence and reality of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ. Hence, through resurrection the Spirit who was “not yet” became the Spirit who now is; such a Spirit is now the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ as the living water for us to receive.
Everyone who thirsts and comes to Christ and believes in (drinks) Him receives Him as the Spirit for his satisfaction, and out of his inner being shall flow rivers of living water. John 7:37 says, “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.” The last day here signifies that all the enjoyment of any success in human life will end. There is a “last day” to every kind of material thing of the physical life. If anyone thirsts and comes to the Lord Jesus and drinks, believing into Him, “out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water” (v. 38). The Lord Jesus does not speak of just one flow but of rivers. The unique river of living water is the Spirit. Out of this unique river, many rivers will flow out. These “rivers of living water” are the many flows of the different aspects of life (cf. Rom. 15:30; 1 Thes. 1:6; 2 Thes. 2:13; Gal. 5:22-23) of the one unique “river of water of life” (Rev. 22:1), which is God’s “Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2). One river is the river of peace, and other rivers are joy, comfort, righteousness, life, holiness, love, patience, and humility. We do not know how many rivers there are. These rivers of living water flow out from the depths of our being. This is the experience and enjoyment of Christ as the Spirit.
In John 8 Christ is presented as the light of the world, the I Am, and the freeing Son.
In verse 12 the Lord Jesus says, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” The light of life (1:4) shines within us by the inner sense of life to deliver us from sin. When we received the Lord Jesus, He came into us as our life. This indwelling life now shines within us as light. This is the light of life. Spontaneously this shining of the indwelling light sets us free from sin. Then we do not walk in darkness but have the light of life.
In chapter eight Christ is further unveiled as the I Am (vv. 24, 28, 58, 51-52).
As the I Am, Christ is Jehovah, the eternal and everlasting One, who was, is, and will be the Triune God (Exo. 3:14-15; Rev. 1:4). “I Am” is the meaning of the name Jehovah, and Jehovah is the name of God (Gen. 2:7), the One who is and who was and who is coming, the self-existing and ever-existing One. This name is used in speaking of God in His relationship with man. Hence, it indicates that the Lord Jesus is the ever-existing God who has a relationship with man.
The Lord Jesus as the great I Am is the everlasting One who exists from eternity to eternity. He is without beginning or end of time. As the I Am, He is the self-existing One who exists from eternity to eternity. He is not only Jesus, a man from Nazareth; He is the great I Am. For Him to be the I Am in our experience and enjoyment of Him today means that He is whatever we need. To have Him as the I Am is like having a blank check on which we may fill in the amount that we need. The Lord Jesus, the great I Am, is everything we need.
As the I Am, the Lord Jesus existed before Abraham. In John 8:58 He said, “Before Abraham came into being, I am.” The Lord Jesus as the great I Am is the eternal, ever-existing God. Hence, He was before Abraham and is greater than Abraham (v. 53).
As the I Am, the Lord Jesus died for our sins on the cross (vv. 24, 28). In verse 28 He said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am.” The phrase lift up refers to the Lord’s being lifted up on the cross (cf. 3:14; 12:31-34) to die for our sins. In John 8:24 He said, “Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” Any man who does not believe that the Lord Jesus is the very God, the I Am, will die in his sins.
According to the word in verses 51 and 52, everyone who believes in Him as the I Am will not see (taste) death forever. Here we see that the Lord Jesus is able to save us from the result of sin, which is death. Once sin has been dealt with, spontaneously the result of sin will be removed.
In John 8 Christ is also unveiled as the freeing Son (vv. 34, 36).
In verse 34 the Lord Jesus said, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.” A slave is always under a certain kind of bondage. Satan, the devil, has brought all humankind under the bondage of sin by injecting himself into man as the sinful nature that compels man to sin. It is impossible for anyone to free himself from such a slavery.
This slavery is not an outward matter; it is inward and is even in our nature. Satan’s subtlety was not only to cause us to do something wrong but to inject himself into us as the sinful nature. Sin, therefore, is not merely objective, not merely an outward wrongdoing. Sin is in the subjective nature of our being; it is in our nature and even has become our very self. As a result, anything that is outside of our nature cannot help us in dealing with the sin that is in our nature. For this, we need another life, a stronger, richer, higher life, to come into us and be our life to encounter the satanic nature within us and thereby to set us free from the slavery of sin. This life is actually Christ Himself as the great I Am. He is such a life because He is the divine life. The divine life is higher than the human life and also higher than the satanic life. When this divine life comes into us, it defeats the satanic life and nature.
The Son frees us from the slavery of sin that we may enjoy His freedom. In verse 36 the Lord Jesus declared, “If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.” The Son sets us free by shining within us as the light of life (v. 12). The light of life is not an outward light but an inward light. The very life which is Christ Himself has been given to us, and this life shines and becomes light within us (1:4; 10:10). This light sets us free. For this reason we must have the instant and constant fellowship with Him, not only every minute but even every second. Every second we need to be one with Him, fellowshipping with Him. Then He works as life within us. When life works, it shines, and when it shines, it sets us free. The bondage of our sin is not a chain on our shoulders; it is something in our constitution, in our being, in our fallen nature. Nothing outward can set us free from such bondage except the inward life which is Christ Himself working and shining in us. Day by day we may experience and enjoy Christ as the indwelling life shining within us as the light of life that gradually and spontaneously frees us from the slavery of sin.
The Son frees us from sin not only by shining as the light of life but also by being the reality of what God is. “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (8:32). Truth here is not the so-called truth of doctrine but the reality of the divine things, which is Christ Himself. This verse says that the truth, the reality, will set us free, whereas verse 36 says that the Son sets us free. This proves that the Son, the Lord Himself, is the truth. Since the Lord is the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9), He is the reality of what God is. Hence, reality is the divine element, the very element of God, realized by us. When Christ as the great I Am comes into us as life, He shines within us as light, bringing the divine element as reality into us. This reality, which is the divine element imparted into us and realized by us, sets us free from the bondage of sin by the divine life as the light of man. In this way the Son frees us from the slavery of sin that we may enjoy His freedom.
If we would experience Christ as the freeing Son, we need to realize that today Christ is in us as the life-giving Spirit and that this Spirit is the universal reality. The life-giving Spirit is the reality of the all-inclusive Christ, the One who is the great I Am, the Son of God, and the Son of Man. This Spirit is the reality of the One who died on the cross, resurrected from the dead, and who is now in ascension. This One is in us as the life-giving Spirit. He is living, capable, and powerful, and He sets us free from sin.
