Scripture Reading: John 1:1-5, 12-13, 14, 16-18, 29, 32-33, 36, 41-42, 51
In this chapter we will consider the significance of the six signs in John 1. These signs are the Word, the tabernacle, the Lamb, the dove, the stone, and the house of God.
The Word is eternal; that is, it is self-existing, without beginning (Heb. 7:3). This is contrary to the heretical teaching that says that the Word, the Logos, was created by God. According to the revelation in John’s Gospel, the Word was not created. However, the Word became flesh (1:14), and the flesh is a created element. John 1:1 says that the Word was in the beginning. This reveals that the Word is eternal. Then John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh, something created by God. By this we may say that John reconciles the schools of thought that say respectively that Christ was God and not man and that He was man and not God. This is the reason some teachers say that John’s writings are conciliatory. As we pointed out in the foregoing chapter, we prefer to say that the writings of John are all-inclusive. John reveals that, on the one hand, the Word is eternal, uncreated, but that, on the other hand, He became flesh, something created by God.
The Word is living, a divine person, Christ the Son of the living God (Rev. 19:13). The eternal Word is our Lord Jesus Christ, and He is also the living Word. Furthermore, Christ is the written Word, the holy writings, the Bible (Heb. 10:7; Luke 24:27, 44). Christ is also the spoken Word, the rhema, the instant word to be spirit and life to man (John 6:63). Therefore, Christ is the eternal Word, the living Word, the written Word, and the spoken Word. Such a Word signifies the mysterious and invisible God defined and expressed. Concerning this, John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Also, according to Hebrews 1:3, Christ is the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of His substance. As the Word, Christ is the definition and expression of God. Therefore, He could say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
Through the Word all things came into existence (1:3; Heb. 11:3). According to John 1:4 and 5, in Him are the divine life (God imparted) and the divine light (God shining).
John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” This incarnated Word is a tabernacle. This tabernacle signifies the Word becoming flesh as God’s expression. Here the word expression is the same in significance as the gold in the tabernacle. The tabernacle was built with boards of acacia wood overlaid with gold. Anyone who entered the tabernacle would see the shining gold, the gold that signifies God expressed. When Christ was on earth, there was a certain kind of shining with Him. That shining was the expression of God, which is typified by the gold of the tabernacle. Eventually, we also will be overlaid with shining gold.
As the tabernacle, Christ, the incarnated Word, shared in humanity. For the Word to become flesh means that the Word took on human nature. Humanity is typified by the acacia wood of the tabernacle (Exo. 26:15, 29). The shining gold and the acacia wood signify respectively the divine nature of Christ and His human nature, His humanity.
As the tabernacle, Christ is God’s embodiment. Colossians 2:9 says, “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Not only was the Father embodied in Christ but the fullness of the Godhead was embodied in Him. This means that the fullness of the Godhead was embodied in the tabernacle. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit were embodied in the tabernacle, and this embodiment is God’s dwelling among men.
The fullness of the Godhead was embodied in the tabernacle so that man can enter into God and enjoy Him. Originally, God was mysterious, invisible, and untouchable. But now God has been embodied in a tabernacle that can be entered, one that we may call an enterable tabernacle. This means that God is enterable; we can enter into Him and enjoy Him. Once we enter into God, we may say that we can walk around in Him to enjoy Him. We may enjoy Him as our life supply, signified by the bread on the table of the bread of the Presence, and as our light, signified by the lampstand. In particular, we may enjoy Him as the Ark. Then we may abide at the incense altar not only to commune with Him but also to intercede for His eternal purpose. How marvelous!
Our God today is different from the God of the Jews. In a sense, He is even somewhat different from the God experienced by many Christians. The God we experience and enjoy in the Lord’s recovery is the One revealed in the Bible. Hallelujah, our God is enterable, and we can enjoy Him!
With the tabernacle we have grace (God enjoyed) and reality (God realized). John 1:16 and 17 say, “Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” Grace is the enjoyment of God for man, and reality is the realization of God for man. Therefore, grace is God enjoyed by man, and reality is God realized by man. When we enter into the tabernacle, we may enjoy the bread, the light, and the Ark. All this is grace. What grace we enjoy at the table of the bread of the Presence and at the lampstand! We especially enjoy grace at the Ark, with the hidden manna and the cherubim. As we are enjoying God, we fully realize Him. He becomes our life supply, our light, our hidden manna, our budding rod, and our law. What a marvelous reality this is!
The tabernacle in John 1:14 is just a beginning. This tabernacle will consummate in the eternal tabernacle in the new heaven and the new earth (Rev. 21:2-3). The entire Bible consummates in one item — the tabernacle. Revelation 21 says that the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God. The tabernacle we have today will have a consummation, and the consummate tabernacle will be the New Jerusalem.
John 1:29 says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” The Lamb of God signifies the Word in the flesh as the representation of all the offerings to accomplish God’s full redemption. Christ is the totality of all the offerings. He is not only the sin offering but also the trespass offering, the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the wave offering, the heave offering, the freewill offering, and the drink offering. With Christ as all the offerings we have God’s full salvation and full redemption. Through Christ as the Lamb of God representing all the offerings, we may enter into God and participate in the divine life and nature (3:14-15; 2 Pet. 1:4). Because of Christ as the Lamb of God, we are well able, even enabled, to enter into God. We may boldly come into God, knowing that God does not have the right to reject us, because we come through the Lamb. We have full redemption in Christ, and therefore we are enabled to enter into God to enjoy all that He is.
According to John 1:32, John the Baptist testified, saying, “I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He abode upon Him.” The One upon whom the Spirit descended was the Lamb. Matthew 3:16 says, “Having been baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him.” Therefore, we have the dove upon the Lamb. John the Baptist could testify that he saw a heavenly dove descending upon the Lamb of God and abiding upon this Lamb. In this way the two, the Lamb and the dove, became one entity. We may refer to this entity as a Dove-Lamb.
Some theologians use the term pneumatic Christ. The Dove-Lamb is the pneumatic Christ. The word pneumatic, meaning “spiritual,” is an adjective derived from the Greek word for spirit, pneuma. After His resurrection Christ became the pneumatic Christ, the Dove-Lamb. However, many theologians and Bible teachers see Christ only as the Lamb, not as the Dove-Lamb. This means that they see only the Christ in the flesh, not the pneumatic Christ. Who is this pneumatic Christ? According to 1 Corinthians 15:45, He is the last Adam who has become the life-giving Spirit. The life-giving Spirit is the pneumatic Christ. Today Christ is not merely the Lamb or merely the dove. He is the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit, the Dove-Lamb.
The Dove-Lamb signifies the Redeemer in the flesh, after accomplishing redemption, becoming the life-giving Spirit to impart the divine life into man. This is for man to be regenerated (John 3:5-6), transformed (2 Cor. 3:18), and built up into the house of God to express Him in a corporate way (1 Tim. 3:15-16). This is a marvelous vision that we all need to see. How I thank God that He has given us the light concerning this and the utterance to express it!
According to John 1:42, when the Lord Jesus first looked at Peter, He said, “You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas (which translated means a stone)” (lit.). The significance of a stone is that it denotes a work of transformation to bring forth material for God’s building (1 Cor. 3:12). The stone in John 1:42 signifies the believers in Christ, after being born of God, regenerated, by receiving Him (vv. 12-13), to be transformed into living precious stones. This is for the building of the church, the house of God (Matt. 16:18; 1 Pet. 2:5; 1 Cor. 3:12). How wonderful it is to be transformed into living precious stones for the building of the church!
The house of God (John 1:51) signifies Christ increased with the church built up with the believers as stones and with the life-giving Spirit as the oil to be the enlarged house of God (Bethel) for the fulfillment of Jacob’s dream (Gen. 28:10-19). As the universal ladder, Christ brings heaven to earth and joins earth to heaven and thereby makes God and man one for eternity. Jacob’s dream is being fulfilled today. We in the church are experiencing the fulfillment of this dream. We have Christ in His humanity as the universal ladder joining earth to heaven and heaven to earth. In Him God and man become one for eternity.
John 1:42 reveals that the believers are stones, and verse 51 refers to the house of God. We are not only individual stones — we are a part of the house of God. This requires that we be built up together as God’s house. What is your situation with respect to the building of God’s house? Are you scattered, piled up, or built up? To be scattered means that we do not come together with the believers in the meetings. To be piled up together means that we do nothing more than come to the meetings. The gathering of building materials is for the building up. For example, several years ago we bought a great many materials for the building of this meeting hall in Anaheim. First, those materials were piled up on the building site. But after several months those materials became the building. Now we no longer have materials piled up — we have a building. This is an illustration of the fact that in the church life we should not be only a pile of materials but materials that have been built together into God’s house.
The six signs in John 1 cover both the span and the scope of the central line of God’s entire economy. God’s economy is the universal story, a story that involves a number of great mysteries. The first of these mysteries is the universe itself. The vastness of the universe is beyond measure. We may say that the measure of the universe is Christ Himself, for in Paul’s words, Christ is the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth (Eph. 3:18). Our human mind is not able to comprehend such vastness. In this vast universe there is an economy, a divine operation.
God’s economy as the universal story is fully embodied in the Word. At the beginning of both his Gospel and his first Epistle, John speaks concerning the Word. As the story of the universal economy, the Word is the embodiment of the Triune God. Although the Triune God is mysterious, He is nonetheless embodied in the Word. The Word denotes the definition, explanation, and expression of God. The Triune God embodied in the Word is explained, defined, and expressed. Therefore, the Word is the definition and expression of the mysterious and invisible God.
The Word is the wonderful, all-inclusive, divine person. He is both God and man, both the Creator and a creature. He includes all the divine things and all the divine matters. This Word is revealed and developed in the writings of John in his Gospel, Epistles, and Revelation.
According to John 1:14, the Word as the embodiment of the Triune God became flesh. This flesh is the tabernacle, God’s dwelling place.
In the four Gospels we see a portrait of the tabernacle in motion. When Christ was on earth, He was a living and moving tabernacle. He could travel from Galilee to Judea. He could stay for a while in Jerusalem and then go to Samaria. Hence, we may say that He was a traveling tabernacle.
While the Lord Jesus was on earth as God’s tabernacle, no one was able to enter into Him, because the way had not been prepared, and the entrance was not open. For this reason, after thirty-three and a half years on earth, He suddenly told His disciples that He was going away. This troubled the disciples, for they thought that He was leaving them forever. Then the Lord revealed to them that His going was actually His coming. It seems that the Lord was saying to them, “If I do not go away, I would only be here among you. You would not be able to enter into Me, and I would not have a way to come into you. Therefore, I need to go away through death and resurrection to accomplish redemption for you and to open the way for you to come into Me.” Through death and resurrection the Lord opened the gate and prepared the way for us to come into Him as the living, moving tabernacle, the very God embodied in the flesh.
Furthermore, after dying to accomplish redemption, the Lord changed His form and in resurrection became the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit. This makes it possible for Him to enter into us. Therefore, in John 14 the Lord also seemed to be saying to the disciples, “On the day of My resurrection you will know that I am in the Father, that you are in Me, and that I am in you. Today I am still the tabernacle among you but outside of you. You are outside of Me, and you have no way to come into Me. Neither is there a way for Me to enter into you. This is the reason that I must die to accomplish redemption and open the way that you may enter into Me as the tabernacle and that the Triune God, embodied in Me, may enter into you. Then where I am, there you will be also (v. 3; 17:24). You will know that I am in the Father, that you are in Me, and that I am in you.”
On the day of His resurrection the Lord appeared to His disciples. Although the door was shut, He suddenly and mysteriously appeared. Then He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (20:22). In this way He entered into the disciples.
In John 1 we have the Lord as the Word, the tabernacle, the Lamb, and the dove. The dove is one with the Lamb, becoming the Dove-Lamb. The Dove-Lamb is another aspect of the tabernacle. The tabernacle is the embodiment of the Word, and the Word is the embodiment of the Triune God. Now the Triune God in the Word, the Word in the tabernacle, and the tabernacle through the Lamb with the dove may enter into people to regenerate them and transform them into precious stones to be built up together as God’s house. God’s house today is the church. But the consummation of the church will be the New Jerusalem, the tabernacle of God in its consummation, in eternity. This is the story of God’s economy, a story that is altogether wrapped up with the person of the living Word.
The living Word and the written Word are one. The living Word is the reality of the written Word, and the written Word is the definition of the living Word. The living Word said that in Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets many things were written concerning Him. In Luke 24 He expounded to two of the disciples the things in the Scriptures concerning Himself (v. 27). By this we see that in the Bible we have the story of the Word. Christ is the Word, and the Bible also is the Word. The Word was and still is the eternal and the living Word. As we have seen, the living Word is also the written Word. When Christ, the living Word, spoke, this spoken Word was the rhema, which is spirit and life to us (John 6:63). Therefore, the universal story is a story of the Word, and this Word is the universal economy of God. In this economy we can see a person, the living Word, with the written Word and the spoken Word.
The Triune God is embodied in Christ, Christ is embodied in the flesh, and this flesh is the tabernacle. The embodiment of God becomes His dwelling and our dwelling. Simultaneously, this incarnate Word is the totality of all the offerings to accomplish redemption and prepare the way for us to enter into God and for God to enter into us. After accomplishing redemption, He became the life-giving Spirit to come into us. When He came into us, all the elements included in the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit also came into us. These elements include God, man, incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. Now the divine life with the divine nature has been imparted into our being to make us stones and to build us together to be the church. Eventually, the churches in the different localities will consummate in the New Jerusalem. This is the economy of God.
The six signs in John 1 — the Word, the tabernacle, the Lamb, the dove, the stone, and the house of God — cover the entire central line of God’s economy. This economy is altogether a story of the Word, a story of the eternal Word, the living Word, the written Word, and the spoken Word that is spirit and life to us. May we all understand the story of this Word.
