Scripture Reading: John 8
In chapter 1 of the Gospel of John there are six signs: the Word, the tabernacle, the Lamb, the dove, the stone, and the house of God. From 1:1 and 14 we see that the eternal God became a man. This took place in time, not in eternity. This incarnated God, God in the flesh, is the tabernacle. This One is also the Lamb of God. Both the tabernacle and the Lamb of God are signs. According to 1:32, John the Baptist testified of Christ, saying, “I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He abode upon Him.” Here we see that the dove is upon the Lamb. Later, when Simon was brought to the Lord Jesus, the Lord said to him, “You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas (which translated means a stone)” (v. 42, lit.). This stone is also a sign. In 1:51 the Lord said to Nathanael that he would see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Here we see that the Son of Man is the heavenly ladder, and this ladder is related to Bethel, the house of God.
In chapter 1 we have the incarnated God as the tabernacle and the Lamb. Through the Lamb we have the dove, the Spirit, by whom we become stones for the building of God’s house. Therefore, chapter 1 begins with the eternal Word and issues in Bethel, the house of God. This is the extract of chapter 1 of John.
In chapter 2 we have the sign of changing water into wine. As we have pointed out, this signifies changing death into life. In this chapter we also have the sign of the raising up of the destroyed temple. This sign indicates that in resurrection God’s dwelling place is enlarged.
In chapter 3 an elderly, respected, learned gentleman came to the Lord Jesus. The Lord indicated that even such a person had a serpentine nature and needed Christ, the incarnated One, to die on the cross as his Substitute for his redemption. Furthermore, the Lord indicated in this chapter that this gentleman needed to be regenerated in order to become part of the bride as Christ’s universal increase.
In chapter 4 we have the case of an immoral Samaritan woman. Although she was not satisfied in her human life, she pretended to worship God, but her worship was not genuine. Therefore, the Lord Jesus told her that He is the fountain of living water to satisfy her and also the reality for her to worship God.
In chapter 5 the impotent man, who had been ill for thirty-eight years, was enlivened. In this chapter we see that the Lord Jesus annulled all religious things, such as the holy city and the pool of Bethesda. According to the revelation in this chapter, nothing and no one should replace Christ. Only He avails to enliven us. Not even the Scriptures can convey life to us apart from Him. Therefore, we need to come to Him for life.
After the Lord annulled the religious things in chapter 5, He presented Himself as the bread of life to the hungry ones in chapter 6. As the bread of life, the living and true bread of God that came down from heaven, He can nourish us.
In chapter 7 we see that the Lord Jesus is the living water to quench our thirst. In 7:37 He cried out and said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.”
With this review in mind, we may go on to consider the signs in chapter 8. Have you ever studied chapter 8 in the Recovery Version of John? If not, I urge you to study this chapter, paying careful attention to the outline and the notes.
In chapters 8 through 11 of John’s Gospel three negative things are dealt with: sin, blindness, and death. Sin is dealt with in chapter 8; blindness, which is spiritual darkness, is dealt with in chapters 9 and 10; and death is dealt with in chapter 11. Although we have been regenerated, have been transformed to some extent, have had our hunger satisfied by the Lord as the bread of life, and have had our thirst quenched by the living water, we still have the problems of sin, darkness, and death. How can we overcome these negative things? How can they be dealt with in our daily living? In the first seven chapters of John we have a picture of how we have been regenerated, satisfied, and supplied with living water. As a result, we may be quite happy. However, we still need chapters 8 through 11 to show us how we can overcome the three problems of sin, darkness, and death.
The Gospel of John is a book of signs. In this Gospel John does not speak of miracles; instead, he uses the word signs. For example, the feeding of the five thousand is a sign that the Lord Jesus is the only One who can truly feed us and that He feeds us with Himself as the bread of life. This bread is the bread of God, the true bread, the living bread, the bread that came down from heaven. Therefore, the feeding of the multitude in chapter 6 is a sign of the Lord feeding us with Himself as the true bread. As we will see, the story recorded in chapter 8 of John is also a sign.
When I was young, the account of the woman caught in adultery and brought to the Lord by the scribes and Pharisees was merely a story. However, this is not merely a story, an account of certain facts; it is also a sign.
The sign in 8:1-11 indicates that every human being is a slave of sin. When some hear this, they may say that they are not like the woman in this chapter because they have never committed fornication. Do not be quick to respond in this way. Do you know what the significance of fornication is in the Bible? According to the Bible, fornication means that a person gives up God and goes after other things. Fornication is thus a matter of departing from the way ordained by God.
God has ordained that regarding married life there should be one husband for one wife, and one wife for one husband. Furthermore, married life is a shadow, a figure, of the relationship between God and man. God is the real Husband, the universal Husband, and we human beings, both male and female, are in the position of the wife. This means that God is the Husband, and humanity is His wife. After God created Adam, He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18). In typology this indicates that it is not good for God to be alone. God desires a counterpart, and His counterpart is man. Hence, man was created by God and for God. This means that man must be for God. But if man is not for God, according to the significance before God, that is fornication.
In the Bible fornication is related to idolatry. Idolatry is spiritual fornication. In the Old Testament the children of Israel committed fornication before God in their high places, in the places where they worshipped idols. Their worship of idols was fornication, and that was abominable in the sight of God.
To go after something else in place of God is fornication. Because we all have left God to pursue other things, in His sight we all are females who have committed spiritual fornication. This means that the case of fornication in chapter 8 of the Gospel of John is a sign of spiritual fornication. Before God, we all are fornicators, and we all are slaves of sin.
As slaves of sin, we are children of the devil born of fornication (vv. 44, 41). In this chapter the Jews claimed that God was their Father. They said to the Lord Jesus, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, God” (v. 41). But the Lord Jesus told them, “You are of your father the devil” (v. 44). As sons of the devil, they were born of fornication.
In the Bible fornication signifies a relationship that is illegal in the sight of God. The children of Israel had an illegal relationship with the devil, and God regarded that relationship as fornication. Those who were born of that illegal relationship were children of the devil. The principle is the same with us. As fallen human beings, we all are children of the devil and in this sense were born of fornication. Therefore, we possess a devilish nature, and for this reason we are slaves of sin.
Because we were born of the devil, we have his evil nature. The sins that we commit are the outward expression of this nature. Sin is an act that expresses the devilish nature. It is an issue of the devilish nature within us.
Let us use fruit trees as an illustration. A peach tree brings forth peaches, and an apple tree produces apples. The bearing of such fruit is the expression of the inward nature of the trees. It is impossible for a peach tree to produce apples, or for an apple tree to produce peaches. A peach tree bears peaches according to its nature, and an apple tree bears apples according to its nature. The principle is the same with our committing sin. Why do we lie, and why do we hate? We lie and hate because we have the nature of the devil, Satan, within us.
Chapter 8 of John speaks of murder, lying, and hatred. All these things are related to Satan. Satan is a murderer and a liar, even the father of liars. Satan is also the one who hates.
These sins are prohibited by the Ten Commandments. The first four of these commandments are related to God, and the last six are related to humanity. According to the Ten Commandments, we are forbidden to murder and to lie by bearing false witness. However, who among us can say that he has never lied or never hated someone?
When the scribes and Pharisees brought to the Lord the woman caught in adultery, they said to Him, “Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do You say?” (v. 5). Their intention was to challenge the Lord. But the Lord said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (v. 7). The Lord’s word touched their conscience. “When they heard that, they went out one by one, beginning with the older ones” (v. 9).
This sign indicates that, no matter what kind of person we may be, we are all slaves of sin because we have the nature of sin. We have a devilish nature, the nature of the devil. Because we have a devilish nature, we hate and lie. Because we have a sinful nature, we commit sin.
As those who commit sin, we are condemned by the law, and we are also under God’s condemnation (v. 11). In this chapter the law is represented by Moses. According to the law, we should be stoned to death for our sins. The law, therefore, condemns us to death. Furthermore, as those under God’s condemnation, our destiny as fallen people was to die in our sins (vv. 21, 24).
Some may say that because they are saved, they are no longer slaves of sin. Doctrinally speaking, this is true. But in our actual experience we may still be slaves of sin. Whether or not we have been freed from the slavery of sin depends on how much the dear Lord Jesus is to us. Therefore, we need to consider from this chapter what this precious One is to us.
In this chapter the Lord Jesus indicated that He is the truth and the Emancipator. In verse 32 He said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Then in verse 36 He went on to say, “If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.” To be set free by the truth is to be emancipated. If we compare verses 32 and 36, we will see that the Son of God is the truth. Verse 32 says that truth sets us free, and verse 36, that the Son sets us free. This indicates that the Son is the truth that sets us free.
What does it mean to say that the Son of God is the truth that sets us free? In the previous chapter we pointed out that we may say that the truth of the universe is Christ. However, to say this may be to utter something vague and ambiguous. We need to see that the truth here is related to God incarnate, to the eternal God becoming a man.
In verse 28 the Lord Jesus spoke of the lifting up of the Son of Man, not of the Son of God. As we will see, in verse 58 the Lord indicated that He is the I Am. In order for the Son of God to be the truth that frees us from sin, He had to be incarnated. He had to be a man. If He had not become a man, He could not be the truth, and He could not set us free. The universal truth is God incarnate, the eternal God becoming a man. This incarnated God is both the tabernacle and the aggregate of all the offerings. Therefore, the truth in chapter 8 includes the eternal God incarnated to be a man, and this man is the tabernacle and the aggregate of all the offerings. This is the truth that sets us free.
The Christ whom we enjoy today is this reality. He is God incarnate to be the tabernacle and the offerings. The Christ whom we enjoy is One who includes God, incarnation, humanity, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. This One even includes His descent as the Spirit. As we pointed out in the foregoing chapter, today in His extract this Christ is the life-giving Spirit. Do we not have this life-giving Spirit within us? We all need to realize that today Christ as the life-giving Spirit dwells in our spirit. The power to overcome sin is in this extract, in this life-giving Spirit. We need to see that the life-giving Spirit is the actual and practical Christ.
Fifty years ago, I came to know that Christ is the One who sets us free from sin. However, I did not enjoy freedom from sin. I had Christ, but I did not have much enjoyment of Him because I did not realize the elements, the ingredients, of Christ. I did not realize that the extract of this Christ is the life-giving Spirit. Just as anyone who is not a doctor or a pharmacist may not know the ingredients, elements, and extract of a certain medicine, so we may not know the ingredients, elements, and extract of Christ. As a result, we may have Christ in doctrine, in terminology, but we may not have Christ in actuality and practicality. I do not ask if you know a doctrinal Christ but if you know the practical and actual Christ. Who is the actual Christ? Who is the practical Christ? The life-giving Spirit is the actual and practical Christ.
Today many Christians know only a doctrinal Christ. Some of those who hold to traditional teachings concerning the Trinity even oppose the truth that Christ is the life-giving Spirit. It is foolish to oppose this biblical truth. If we do not have the life-giving Spirit, we cannot have Christ in our experience. As the extract of an herb is actually the herb itself, so the life-giving Spirit as the extract of Christ is Christ Himself for our enjoyment.
The extract of an herb may be used as medicine for those who are ill. The extract is not needed in order for the herb itself to exist. In order for the herb to exist it is sufficient that it be an herb. In a similar way, in order for Christ to exist, there was no need for Him to become the life-giving Spirit. But in order for us to enjoy Him and participate in Him, it was necessary for Him to become the extract, to become the life-giving Spirit. Today we experience Christ as this life-giving Spirit. For this reason, we say that the life-giving Spirit is the actual, practical Christ.
Through my years in the Lord’s ministry, I have learned that if we speak of “Christ in the flesh,” people understand that Christ Himself became flesh. However, if we speak of “Christ in the Spirit,” most do not have a proper understanding. They regard Christ as separate from the Spirit. They think of Christ as the second person of the Godhead and the Spirit as the third person. Furthermore, they may think that the second is in the third. When they hear of Christ in the flesh, they do not regard Christ as separate from the flesh. Rather, they realize that Christ in the flesh is actually Christ Himself. But if we were to speak of Christ in the Spirit, due to traditional teaching, they would regard Christ as separate from the Spirit instead of realizing that Christ Himself is the Spirit. This is the difficulty in speaking of Christ in the Spirit.
Some writers use the expression pneumatic Christ. Derived from the Greek word pneuma, pneumatic means “spiritual.” However, the pneumatic Christ is not a spiritual Christ; the pneumatic Christ is the Christ who is the life-giving Spirit. The Christ who gives life is the pneumatic Christ. He is not Christ in the Spirit; He is the Christ as pneuma, as the Spirit. The actual Christ, therefore, is the pneumatic Christ.
We have seen that many Christians have only a doctrinal Christ or a historical Christ. They do not have the actual and practical Christ. It is crucial for us to see that it is the pneumatic Christ who is real and practical to us in our daily life. It is the pneumatic Christ, the actual and practical Christ, who is the truth that sets us free. Do you have this truth? We all should strongly reply that we definitely have this truth, which is the actual, practical, present, pneumatic Christ. In brief, this truth is the life-giving Spirit.
Who can set us free from the bondage of sin? Only the truth, which is the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ, can set us free. This is the One who is the eternal God becoming a man, passing through crucifixion, entering into resurrection, being lifted up to the heavens, and becoming the life-giving Spirit. This One is the truth that sets us free.
This reality includes the great I Am. The words I Am are the significance of the name Jehovah. Jehovah means “I Am who I Am.” In John 8:24 the Lord Jesus said, “Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” Then in verse 28 He went on to say, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am.” Here the Lord seems to be saying, “After you have lifted Me up as the Son of Man, you will realize that I am. You think that I am merely a man. After you have put Me to death on the cross, I will come out of the tomb. At that time you will know that the One you have crucified is not merely a man but is the eternal God, Jehovah.”
The name Jesus means “Jehovah our Savior.” Hence, the name Jehovah is included in the name Jesus.
Now do you see what is the truth that sets us free? This truth is the eternal God who became a man, who passed through crucifixion and resurrection, who is now in ascension, and who comes to us as the life-giving Spirit. Within this truth there are the elements of the great I Am and the elements of the Son of Man, incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection.
The fact that the Lord Jesus is the great I Am implies that He is the eternal One. In 8:57 the Jews said to the Lord, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” The Lord Jesus, who was not more than thirty-three years of age, replied, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham came into being, I am” (v. 58). Apparently, the Lord’s word is wrong grammatically. Instead of saying, “Before Abraham came into being, I was,” He said, “Before Abraham came into being, I am.” The Lord Jesus spoke the fact, the fact that He is the eternal I Am. As the One who is the I Am, to Him there is no past tense; every time is present. But although the Lord is the eternal One, He became a limited One in time. He is the Son of God who became the Son of Man.
How in a practical way can we be set free from sin? For example, how can we be delivered from our temper? If you want to be free from your temper, do not go to the Lord and make up your mind that from now on you will never lose your temper. That is vain. You need to realize that you have the extract of Christ, the life-giving Spirit, within you, and that this Spirit is the universal truth. The life-giving Spirit is the extract of the all-inclusive Christ, the One who is the great I Am, the Son of God, and the Son of Man. He is the One who died on the cross, who resurrected from the dead, and who is now in ascension. This One is in us, and the reality, the extract, of the all-inclusive Christ is the life-giving Spirit. He is living, capable, and powerful. He is in you, and He sets you free. Therefore, instead of making up your mind not to lose your temper, simply say, “O Lord Jesus, I worship You, I honor You, and I respect You. Lord, I love You and enjoy You. As the life-giving Spirit, You are in me to do everything for me.”
The life-giving Spirit, the extract of Christ, is our spiritual medicine. We should simply take this “medicine” and then rest and be at peace. The medicine will solve the problems within us. Praise the Lord for our “medicine”! Our medicine is the life-giving Spirit, the extract of the all-inclusive Christ, who is the universal truth within us.
