Scripture Reading: John 8
In the foregoing chapter we pointed out that today in actuality and practicality for our experience Christ is the life-giving Spirit, and this Spirit is the extract of the last Adam, God incarnate. Let us now go on to consider the essence of this divine extract.
The greatest argument between the Lord Jesus and the Pharisees in chapter 8 of the Gospel of John concerned who the Lord was. The Jews said to Him, “Are You greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too. Who are You making Yourself?” (v. 53). It was difficult for the Lord Jesus to answer this question, because who He is and what He is are not simple matters and cannot be expressed in simple terms. According to John 8, the Lord Jesus is the Son of the Father. The first element of the divine extract is the Son of the Father. The One who is the Son of the Father is the Emancipator, the One who sets us free.
In this chapter it is revealed very clearly that the wonderful Emancipator is the Son of the Father. The Father is the unique source. He is the source of the divine economy and of all that the Triune God is. The Emancipator, the One who sets us free from the slavery of sin, is the Son of this source. He is the expression, the coming forth, of the Father.
In 8:12 the Lord Jesus said, “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.” This indicates that the whole world is in darkness and is filled with darkness. Darkness implies sin and death. What is the darkness that fills the entire world? This darkness is sin, which issues in death. All of human society, the entire human race, is under darkness. Sin is darkness, and sin results in death. Consider the situation in the world today. In every country, including remote backward countries, the people are living in sin. They do not have any light but instead live in darkness.
John 8 deals with fornication as the basic sin. In principle, fornication is the base for all sin. The first sin committed by Adam and Eve was, according to its spiritual significance, the sin of fornication. This means that they committed fornication in turning to something other than God. Although they were made by God and for God, they left God. They turned their heart and their being to something in place of God. In principle, that was the committing of fornication. Hence, the first sin committed by Adam, according to its spiritual significance, was the sin of fornication. For this reason, we say that fornication is the basic sin, the base for all other sins.
In chapter 8 John uses a case of fornication as an illustration of what sin is. This case is a sign that, in principle, every sin we commit is a sin of fornication. To commit spiritual fornication is to turn away from God to something apart from Him. Today the entire human race is turning away from God to other things. This means that, no matter what they are doing, in principle they are committing fornication. Whenever we enjoy other things, such as worldly entertainments and amusements, in place of God, in His sight that is fornication. John 8 deals with fornication as the basic sin.
We have seen that in this chapter the Lord Jesus declared that He is the light of the world. This light shines in the darkness, repels it, and even swallows it. Only light can swallow darkness. When light comes, darkness vanishes immediately. Only light can repel darkness. There is no way to get rid of darkness unless light comes. Who is the light that repels the darkness of sin and death? This light is Jesus, the Son of God.
When we receive the Lord Jesus, He becomes the light of life to us. This means that the light becomes life and brings in life. According to Genesis 1, when there was light, it was possible for living things to come into existence.
Light issues in life. As the Son of God, Christ is the light of the world. When we receive the shining of this light, we receive life, for the light, as the light of life, issues in life. This light is different from natural light or electrical light, which are not living. The light that we have received from Christ is living. It lives in us, it grows, and it reproduces because it is the light of life.
Now we have seen three elements of the divine extract: the Son of the Father, light, and life. Let us now go on to consider the great I Am.
The Lord Jesus is the I Am. His name is I Am, the eternal One. In 8:58 the Lord said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham came into being, I am.” The Lord as the great I Am is the eternal, ever-existing God. Hence, He is before Abraham and greater than Abraham.
The words I Am are related to the verb to be. To be is to exist. In His creation God called things into being. Actually, God did not make anything but rather called everything into being. In Romans 4:17 Paul speaks of God as the One who “calls the things not being as being.” For something to be called into being is for that thing to exist. At one time there was no light. This means that light did not exist. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and light came to be; that is, it came into existence.
Do you know who God is? God is the unique I Am. He is the unique One who has being, the great “To Be.” We, on the contrary, are not. In ourselves, we do not have any being. This means that the verb to be can be applied only to God and not to us. We need to realize that we are nothing, that in ourselves we do not have any being. Do you know what it means to be nothing? It means that you are not, that the words I am and to be cannot be applied to you. Only God is the I Am. Only He has being. He is the To Be. God is the universal To Be, the genuine being. Apart from Him, nothing else has any being. Rather, everything is vanity; everything is nothing.
When the Pharisees asked the Lord who He was, He replied by saying, “I Am.” Here the Lord seemed to be saying, “I Am who I Am. I am the unique being; I am the To Be. But you scribes and Pharisees are nothing. You are nobody. I am the eternal One, the only One who is, the only One who is real.”
Only the I Am is reality. Because He is the To Be, He is reality. Anything that does not have being cannot have any reality. Whatever does not have being is empty, vain. Because only God is the I Am, Solomon could say that all things are “vanity of vanities.” Only One is the I Am.
We have seen that in John 8:58 the Lord Jesus spoke of Himself as I Am. This expression is used two other times in this chapter. In verse 24 the Lord Jesus said, “Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” “I Am” is the meaning of the name Jehovah (Exo. 3:14), and Jehovah is the name of God in relation to man (Gen. 2:7). Hence, it denotes the Lord as the ever-existing God in relation to man. If any man does not believe that the Lord is this very God, that man will die in his sins. In John 8:28 the Lord went on to say, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am.”
In 8:32 the Lord said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Truth here is not doctrine but the reality of the truth that is the Lord Himself (14:6; 1:14, 17). John 8:32 says that the truth will set us free. But verse 36 says, “If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.” 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, truth is the element of God realized by us. When the Lord as the great I Am comes into us as life, He shines within us as light, and this light brings the divine element as reality into us.
The Lord is the truth because He is the I Am, because He is the To Be. Therefore, truth is the I Am, the To Be. The truth that sets us free is this I Am. The great To Be sets us free. This One is Jehovah, the One who was, who is, and who will be. Jesus is this very Jehovah. The name Jesus means Jehovah the Savior. Therefore, Jesus is the great I Am, the great To Be. Because He is the To Be, He is the truth.
The Lord told the scribes and the Pharisees, “Before Abraham came into being, I am” (v. 58). The past tense is used for Abraham, but the present tense is used for the Lord Jesus. Grammatically speaking, the Lord’s word seems to be wrong. We would not say, “Before you came, I am.” Instead, we would say, “Before you came, I was here.” However, it is altogether correct for the Lord to say, “Before Abraham came into being, I am.” The Lord is the ever-existing One. Before Abraham came into being, He was already the I Am. This great I Am, the eternal To Be, is the truth.
As the Emancipator, the Lord releases us from the bondage of sin and makes us sons of God free from death (8:32-36, 51). The Lord is the One who frees us from sin. In verse 51 He said, “If anyone keeps My word, he shall by no means see death forever.” This indicates that when we become sons of God, we shall never die. The Son of God is everlasting. The Son of God is eternal because the life of the Son of God is eternal life, which never dies. Hence, He can release us from the bondage of sin and, by imparting eternal life to us, make us sons of God free from death.
In verse 28 the Lord Jesus referred to His being lifted up on the cross. According to this verse, the Lord was lifted up on the cross as the Son of Man. The Lord Jesus is the Son of the Father. As such, He is the great I Am, the eternal To Be. But when He was lifted up on the cross, He was the Son of Man. This Son of Man is also one of the elements in the divine extract.
Thus far we have seen a number of elements contained in the divine extract. The first element is the Son of the Father. The second element is the light of the world, which becomes the light of life within us. The third element is the universal I Am. Now we see a fourth element — the Son of Man. Because the life-giving Spirit is an extract containing all these elements, this extract is truly powerful and effective.
In chapter 8 of the Gospel of John there is no mention of the Spirit. But there is a clear word concerning the Spirit in 7:37-39. On the last day of the feast the Lord cried out and said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water” (vv. 37-38). Then verse 39 follows to say, “But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” In chapter 8 we can see Christ glorified, for here we have the lifting up of Christ as the Son of Man. This lifting up was followed by resurrection, and in resurrection the Spirit as the Spirit of Jesus Christ came into being. In chapter 7 the Spirit was “not yet.” But in chapter 8, after the lifting up of the Son of Man, the Spirit came into being. This Spirit is the extract of the Son of the Father, the light of life, the eternal I Am, and the Son of Man. In this extract we have all these elements.
The One who is the great I Am and also the Son of Man honored the Father and never sought His own glory (vv. 49-50, 54). Here we do not have an element of the divine extract, but we do have the nature of the element of the Lord’s living as the Son of Man. The nature of this element is the Lord’s honoring the Father and not seeking His own glory. The Lord always honored the Father, and He never sought glory for Himself.
If we do not honor the Father but instead seek our own glory, in principle we commit spiritual fornication. We need to be set free from this. This means that to be set free from sin in John 8 includes to be set free from honoring ourselves and from seeking glory for ourselves. If we seek glory for ourselves, in principle we are committing fornication.
Here we have a deeper understanding of sin. Even if we seek a little glory for ourselves, we are committing sin, in principle committing fornication. For example, when you give a testimony in the meetings, you may desire to hear many Amens. If this is your desire, you are seeking glory for yourself, and you are not honoring the Father. This is sin. What can deal with this sin? Only the divine extract can deal with it. The nature of this extract is that it does not seek self-glory but always honors the Father.
In 8:56 the Lord Jesus said, “Your father Abraham exulted that he would see My day, and he saw it and rejoiced.” Although Abraham expected the Lord with exultation, we are no longer expecting Him — we are enjoying Him.
The Lord Jesus as the Son of the Father was slandered by religious people, who regarded Him as a Samaritan possessed by a demon (vv. 48, 52). According to verse 48, they said, “Have we not spoken well in saying that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Here we see that they slandered the Lord by accusing Him of being impure. A Samaritan is a person of mixed blood, a person who is part Jewish and part pagan. The religious people not only accused the Lord of being a Samaritan but accused Him of being a Samaritan possessed by a demon. What slander this is! In principle, religious people are doing the same thing today by opposing those who take the Lord’s way.
The Lord Jesus was also tempted and persecuted by those who sought to kill Him (vv. 6, 20, 37, 40, 59). The Lord was slandered, tempted, and persecuted, and certain ones were looking for the opportunity to kill Him. Those in the religious world slandered this Emancipator or persecuted or sought to tempt Him. The church in the Lord’s recovery today is in a similar situation of being slandered and persecuted. But while others slander, tempt, and persecute, we enjoy the wonderful One who is our Emancipator.
