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I. Two views concerning Christ:
А. The physical view according to the synoptic Gospels — Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
B. The mystical view according to the Gospel of John.
II. Three periods of Christ:
А. The Christ in the flesh in the four Gospels for thirty-three and a half years, from His incarnation to His death.
B. The Christ as the Spirit (the pneumatic Christ) in Acts and the twenty-one Epistles from Romans to Jude, from the resurrection of Christ to the beginning of the degradation of the church in about A.D. 60, before the martyrdom of Paul, who wrote his second Epistle to Timothy in about A.D. 67, with many points related to the degradation.
C. The Christ as the seven Spirits (the sevenfold intensified Spirit) in Revelation, from the degradation of the church to eternity.
III. The Gospel of John is a record of Christ living as a physical person but having His being all the way mystical; hence, it is a mystical record.
I. This is the first crystal in the Gospel of John. The Word of God here in John 1:1 refers to Christ, the only begotten Son of God (v. 18), as the definition, explanation, and expression of God:
А. The great I Am, self-existing and ever-existing — Exo. 3:14-15; John 8:24, 28, 58.
B. Eternal, without beginning or ending — Heb. 7:3.
II. John 1 is the introduction to the whole Gospel of John, and the main stress of this introduction is that Christ is the Word of God — the definition, explanation, and expression of the mysterious and invisible God. It refers to Christ in the five greatest events in the history of the universe:
А. In the creation of all things in the beginning of time (1:3).
B. In the incarnation of the invisible God to be a visible man (v. 14), partaking of man’s flesh and blood (Heb. 2:14), for the redemption of the lost universe to bring in the New Testament age.
C. In becoming the Lamb to take away the sin of the world (mankind) judicially for the New Testament (John 1:29, 36).
D. In becoming the Spirit for the transformation of God’s redeemed people into stones (vv. 32-42) for the building of God’s house (Bethel — v. 51) organically for the New Testament.
E. In being the heavenly ladder to bring heaven to earth and join earth to heaven at Bethel, the house of God, from His coming back to eternity (v. 51; Gen. 28:11-22).
F. In all these five universal, historical events, Christ, the Word of God — as (1) the Creator in creation, (2) the man in incarnation, (3) the Lamb in redemption, (4) the Spirit in transformation, (5) the ladder in joining earth to heaven — defines, explains, and expresses the invisible God:
1. In His creation “the heavens declare the glory of God, / And the expanse [firmament] proclaims the work of His hands. / Day to day pours forth speech, / And night to night tells out knowledge. / There is no speech and there are no words; / Their voice is not heard” (Psa. 19:1-3), and the invisible things of God, “both His eternal power and divine characteristics, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world” (Rom. 1:20). What is referred to in Acts 14:15-17 and 17:24-29 serves the same purpose of revealing Christ’s creation.
2. In His incarnation He unveils that the Creator has become one of His creatures (Col. 1:15), bringing God into man, mingling divinity with humanity as one, and in His human living He expresses God in the divine attributes through His human virtues.
3. In His becoming the Lamb for the redemption of the lost world, Christ speaks to us how God accomplished His redemption judicially through His death as the procedure according to His righteousness.
4. In His becoming the Spirit for life-giving and transforming (1 Cor. 15:45), Christ speaks to us further how God carries out His economy organically by His divine life for His divine purpose according to His heart’s desire.
5. Christ, in His being the heavenly ladder at Bethel, also speaks to us how God desires to have a house on the earth constituted with His redeemed and transformed elect, that He may bring heaven to earth and join earth to heaven, to make the two as one for eternity.
G. In addition to all the above items, John, in his last writing, Revelation, tells us that even in the warfare for the kingdom of God, Christ is the Word of God speaking for God’s purpose (19:13).
I hope that we can all be brought into the reality of the outline for this chapter. By reading the outline, we can see that the revelation presented is new, high, and complicated.
The subject of this book is a “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John.” We finished the life-study of the entire Bible within twenty and a half years, beginning in 1974. Since the fall of 1994, we began to have another way in the study of the holy Word, which is more intrinsic. We call this intrinsic study a crystallization-study (see the Crystallization-studies of Romans, James, and Song of Songs). We desire to put all the crystals of the Bible together from every book.
In this introductory word we first need to see that there are two views concerning Christ in the four Gospels.
There is the physical view of Christ according to the synoptic Gospels — Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They are called synoptic Gospels because they bear the same view.
The second view is the mystical view, not the spiritual view, according to the Gospel of John. John among the four Gospels stands by itself because all the other three Gospels are concerning Christ as a man. In Matthew we see Him as the King, in Mark as the Slave, and in Luke as the man. The view in these Gospels is physical concerning Christ as a man, but John is concerning Christ as God.
This one person is of three periods. In order to understand this crystallization-study of John, we have to know the three periods of Christ.
Christ, the very God in eternity past, became flesh and lived in the flesh for thirty-three and a half years, from His incarnation to His death, as seen in the four Gospels. This is the stage of incarnation (John 1:14).
First, there was the Christ in the flesh, in incarnation. But in His resurrection He was transfigured to be the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This is the stage of Christ as the Spirit (the pneumatic Christ) in Acts and the twenty-one Epistles from Romans to Jude, from the resurrection of Christ to the beginning of the degradation of the church in about A.D. 60, before the martyrdom of Paul, who wrote his second Epistle to Timothy in about A.D. 67, with many points related to the degradation. This is the stage of inclusion. The pneumatic Christ is the all-inclusive Spirit.
First, Christ was in the flesh in incarnation; second, He became the Spirit in resurrection; and third, He is the seven Spirits (the sevenfold intensified Spirit) in Revelation, from the degradation of the church to eternity. This is the stage of intensification. These three stages, or periods, of Christ are the three is — incarnation, inclusion, and intensification.
The Gospel of John is a record of Christ living as a physical person but having His being all the way mystical; hence, it is a mystical record. He is a man, yet He is a mystical man, a mysterious man.
“In the beginning was the Word” — this is the opening declaration of John (1:1). The Word of God, the first crystal in the Gospel of John, refers to Christ, the only begotten Son of God (v. 18), as the definition, explanation, and expression of God.
John unveils Christ as the great I Am, self-existing and ever-existing (Exo. 3:14-15; John 8:24, 28, 58). Everything other than Christ is vanity of vanities. Only He is the reality, the I Am, the One who is.
Christ is the One who is eternal, without beginning or ending (Heb. 7:3).
John 1 is the introduction to the whole Gospel of John, and the main stress of this introduction is that Christ is the Word of God — the definition, explanation, and expression of the mysterious and invisible God. It refers to Christ in the five greatest events in the history of the universe.
John 1 reveals Christ in the creation of all things in the beginning of time (v. 3).
Christ is also seen in the incarnation of the invisible God to be a visible man (v. 14), partaking of man’s flesh and blood (Heb. 2:14), for the redemption of the lost universe to bring in the New Testament age. The incarnated God has blood. Acts 20:28 says that God purchased the church with His own blood. God partook of man’s flesh and blood for the redemption of the lost universe. The entire universe, including the heavens, was contaminated by Satan, an archangel created by God, in his rebellion against God. This first rebel caused the entire universe to become lost, so all things on earth and in the heavens needed to be redeemed by God (Col. 1:20). Without Christ’s redemption they could not have remained for so many years. The solar system is still going on due to Christ’s redemption.
Christ redeemed the universe by becoming a man. The New Testament age began at the incarnation of Christ. It is significant that the entire world today uses one calendar, which counts the years from Christ’s incarnation. Creation brought in a universe, but this universe became lost. Then God came to be a man by the name of Jesus with a human nature to redeem the lost universe back to a new age, the New Testament age, starting from the day that Christ was born.
Christ is also revealed in His becoming the Lamb to take away the sin of the world (mankind) judicially for the New Testament (John 1:29, 36). This is the third great event in the history of the universe. When He was put to death on the cross, God considered Him the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He became a man for the purpose of redeeming the lost universe, yet He still needed to take a further step to go to the cross to die, bearing the sins of mankind on the cross as the Lamb.
John 1 first speaks of Christ as the Word. Then it reveals that this Word speaks for God through His creation. Then He speaks further for God through His incarnation and in His being the Lamb. The fourth great event in the history of the universe, through which Christ as the Word speaks, is His becoming the Spirit. John 1:32 says, “John testified, saying, I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He abode upon Him.” This is the Spirit descending as a dove upon the Lamb. Christ was the Lamb. Then He became the dove, the Spirit. Christ is revealed in John 1 in His becoming the Spirit for the transformation of God’s redeemed people into stones (vv. 32-42) for the building of God’s house (Bethel — v. 51) organically for the New Testament.
We need to be not only redeemed but also transformed. If we were merely redeemed, we would still remain men. In order to become like God, we need transformation. The first step of transformation is to regenerate, to remake, us. Even though we were made in the image of God and according to the likeness of God, we still do not have anything real of God in us until we are regenerated. We need to be regenerated to begin our transformation into stones for God’s spiritual building, His house. The house of God, Bethel, first is the church, then the Body of Christ, and consummately the New Jerusalem.
Finally, Christ is referred to in His being the heavenly ladder to bring heaven to earth and join earth to heaven at Bethel, the house of God, from His coming back to eternity (v. 51; Gen. 28:11-22). We can remember these five great historical events with five words: creation, incarnation, Lamb, Spirit, and ladder. John 1 begins with Christ as the Word and ends with Him as the ladder. Christ as the Word speaks through the creation, through the incarnation, through His becoming the Lamb, through His becoming the Spirit, and through His being the ladder. In order to have a ladder, there is the need of a base, and the base for Christ to be the heavenly ladder is the house of God, Bethel. The reality of Bethel is the church and then the Body of Christ and the New Jerusalem.
In all these five universal, historical events, Christ, the Word of God — as (1) the Creator in creation, (2) the man in incarnation, (3) the Lamb in redemption, (4) the Spirit in transformation, (5) the ladder in joining earth to heaven — defines, explains, and expresses the invisible God.
In His creation “the heavens declare the glory of God, / And the expanse [firmament] proclaims the work of His hands. / Day to day pours forth speech, / And night to night tells out knowledge. / There is no speech and there are no words; / Their voice is not heard” (Psa. 19:1-3), and the invisible things of God, “both His eternal power and divine characteristics, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world” (Rom. 1:20). What is referred to in Acts 14:15-17 and 17:24-29 serves the same purpose of revealing Christ’s creation speaking for God.
In His incarnation Christ unveils that the Creator has become one of His creatures (Col. 1:15), bringing God into man, mingling divinity with humanity as one, and in His human living He expresses God in the divine attributes through His human virtues. This is the new language of the new culture in the Lord’s recovery.
When Jesus was born, God was brought into man and mingled Himself with man. About two thousand years ago, there was a man who was the mingling of divinity and humanity. To be a Christian means to be a man of Christ. Christ is the mingling of divinity with humanity, and we, the men of Christ, are the same. We are also the mingling of divinity with humanity.
In His becoming the Lamb for the redemption of the lost world, Christ speaks to us how God accomplished His redemption judicially through His death as the procedure according to His righteousness.
In His becoming the Spirit for life-giving and transforming (1 Cor. 15:45), Christ speaks to us further how God carries out His economy organically by His divine life for His divine purpose according to His heart’s desire.
Christ, in His being the heavenly ladder at Bethel, also speaks to us how God desires to have a house on the earth constituted with His redeemed and transformed elect, that He may bring heaven to earth and join earth to heaven, to make the two as one for eternity.
The Word of God is Christ in His creation, in His incarnation, in His becoming the Lamb, in His becoming the life-giving Spirit, and in His being the ladder. In these five greatest historical events, Christ speaks for God. In this sense, we may say that the creation is the Word, the incarnation is the Word, the Lamb is the Word, the Spirit is the Word, and the ladder is the Word.
In addition to all the above items, John, in his last writing, Revelation, tells us that even in the warfare for the kingdom of God, Christ is the Word of God speaking for God’s purpose (19:13). When He comes to fight God’s enemies for the kingdom, His name is called the Word of God. In His fighting, He is God’s speaking. Christ is the Word of God speaking for God’s purpose.
