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Scripture Reading: John 1:18; 5:19-20; 6:38; 7:16-18, 28-29; 8:13-16; 10:30, 37-38; 14:7-11; 17:21-22
John 1:1-18 is an introduction to the Gospel of John. In this chapter we will cover the last item in this introduction: “The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (v. 18). This statement points out that God the Father is declared only through the Son; there is no declaration of God other than the declaration of the only begotten Son.
Verse 18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” This verse says that no one has ever seen God, but then it speaks of “the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father,” not “the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of God.” We must pay attention to the fact that John changes the term from God to Father. This points to the mystery of the Triune God. Whenever we speak of the Lord declaring the Father and expressing God, we must realize that this is a matter related to God being triune — three yet one.
Him in verse 18 refers to God, not to the Father. We need to understand that God at the beginning of the verse includes both the Father and the Son; it does not refer only to the Father. The Father is God, and the Son is also God. We may use a hand as an analogy, although this illustration is not fully adequate. A hand has a palm and five fingers; that is, a hand includes a palm as well as five fingers. Similarly, God involves the Father as well as the Son. The Father is God, and the Son is also God. The Son is not apart from God. The Bible does not reveal two Gods; it reveals only one God.
The Gospel of John contains two sections. The first thirteen chapters speak of the Lord’s coming, and the last eight chapters speak of the Lord’s going. The entire Gospel of John speaks of the Lord’s coming and going. In the Lord’s coming, the Father is in the Son; in the Lord’s going, the Son became the Spirit. In the Lord’s coming, the Father came among men in the Son; in the Lord’s going, the Son became the Spirit to enter into men (10:30, 37-38; 14:16-18). The Lord’s coming was His incarnation, and His going was His death and resurrection. When the Word became flesh, the Son came with the Father among men. When the Lord went through death and resurrection, He became the Spirit to enter into the disciples. Hence, the Lord’s coming and going are a story of the Word’s incarnation and of the Lord’s death and resurrection; it is a story of the Son coming from the Father and with the Father and of the Son becoming the Spirit.
The Father is in the Son, and the Son has become the Spirit; this is the story of the Triune God. God is one, but in person He is three. Although there are three persons — Father, Son, and Spirit — they are not three separate Gods. We can use another inadequate illustration. Ice, water, and vapor are actually the same thing in three different forms. Ice, when heated, becomes water; water, when heated, becomes vapor. The opposite is also true. When vapor meets cold air, it becomes water, and if the water is cooled down further, it becomes ice. Hence, ice becomes water, and water becomes vapor. Vapor turns into water, and water again turns into ice. Ice, water, and vapor are three forms of one substance.
There is only one God, but this one God is revealed in three persons. 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.” Here we see that God incorporates both the Father and the Son. In chapter 14 we see that God also incorporates the Spirit. God is not only the Father and the Son, but the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
God the Father, who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16), was hidden in eternity. God the Son came forth from eternity and entered into time. He came from the heavens to the earth, from a realm of unapproachable light to a place where He could be contacted. He came forth in this way and was manifested among men and contacted by man as the Son. However, if He were only the Son, He could be contacted by man, but He could not enter into man. When the Lord Jesus was on earth prior to His death and resurrection, He walked with Peter, James, John, and the other disciples, but He could not enter into them. For this reason He had to change in form. Through death and resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit, and He came to the disciples to enter into them as the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; John 20:22). As the Spirit, He is able to enter into man. This is the Triune God.
The Father is the source, and the Son is the manifestation, the declaration. As the source, God dwells in unapproachable light in eternity in heaven as the Father. As the declaration, God is manifested to man as the Son. It is not necessary to ask whether or not a person has a father, because everyone has a father. Whenever we see a person, we see a son. Every son has a father. However, we cannot say that every man is a father, because in order to be a father, a person must have at least one child. Although a son certainly represents his father, he may not be a father. Thus, the function of declaration belongs to a son, because not all men are fathers. A son always declares his father, because the declaration of a father depends on a son. Everyone who sees us knows that we have a father because we are a son.
It is also possible to have some understanding of a father by looking at his son. A son always expresses his father. A son resembles his father, not only in facial features but often in disposition and temperament. From the father’s perspective, the father is the source of the son. From the son’s perspective, the son is the declaration of the father, the expression of the father. The father is the source, and the son is the expression.
The Lord Jesus is the Son; hence, He expresses the Father. However, if the Lord Jesus were merely the Son, He could not enter into us. Prior to His death the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “Where I am going, you cannot come” (13:33). Going is not a pleasant word. When someone we love tells us that he is going, we are not happy. Hence, when the Lord said that He was going, the disciples were sorrowful. Consequently, the Lord Jesus said, “Do not let your heart be troubled” (14:1). Later, He said, “It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you” (16:7). He said that He would ask the Father to give them another Comforter, the Spirit of reality, to be with them always (14:16-17). The Spirit of reality is the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus. If He did not go, that is, if He did not pass through death and resurrection, He would not have been able to enter into the disciples as the Spirit. Because He went, the Spirit of reality was able to enter into the disciples to be with them always (vv. 16-20).
The Holy Spirit comes in order to enter into man. The Father is the source, the Son is the manifestation, and the Spirit is the entering in. God is one in three persons. In His being hidden, unfathomable, and unapproachable, He is the source, the Father. In His being manifested for men to see, contact, touch, and know, He is revealed as the Son. In His entering into man to live in man, touch and operate in man, He is experienced as the Spirit.
Our relationship with God and our knowledge and experience of God must reflect these three stages. We need to acknowledge that God is both hidden and unfathomable (Rom. 11:33). We need to further acknowledge that God has been manifested among us and to us in the person of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus (1 Tim. 3:16; 2 Tim. 1:9-10; 1 Pet. 1:20; 1 John 4:2). We must acknowledge the Father and acknowledge the Son. As those who are saved, we must also acknowledge the glorious fact that the Spirit has entered into us to speak in us and operate in us (Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Tim. 1:14). When we have the Spirit, we have the Son, and when we have the Son, we have the Father.
A person who only acknowledges God as the source may not have the Son, the God who has been revealed and manifested. If he only acknowledges the existence of God, he cannot receive the Son, and in order to receive the Son, he must receive the Spirit. When the Holy Spirit touches a person and knocks on the door of his heart, he must open his heart and receive the Lord Jesus as his Savior. Then the Holy Spirit will enter into him. When a person has the Spirit, he has the Son, and when he has the Son, he has the Father.
In our salvation we experience the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. However, our experience does not begin with the Father but with the Spirit. Once we receive the Spirit, we give ground in our being to the Son, and when we have the Son, we have the Father. When we were first saved, we did not know how to explain this, but we experienced it. We all can recall the Holy Spirit knocking on the door of our heart and moving us to open our heart and confess that we were sinners in order to receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior. At that moment the Holy Spirit entered into us. As soon as we experienced this, we had a sense that the Lord was in us, and we also had a deep sense that God was our Father.
As the only Begotten of the Father, the Son is the unique One who has declared God: “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). There is only one declaration, because the Son is the only Begotten. The Son’s status as the only Begotten makes His declaration unique. There is only one Son; there is not another Son. Hence, God’s declaration is also one. No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son has declared God. When the Son was incarnated, God was manifested among men.
The word bosom in verse 18 implies nearness. When a mother embraces her own child in her bosom, it speaks of her nearness, dearness, and love for the child. What a person places in his bosom is something that is dearly loved. Hence, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father means that the Lord is the One who is most dear, most loved, and most delightful to the Father. In the universe there is not one who is more dear and lovable to the Father than the Son. The only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father is the One who is most dear, lovely, delightful, and near to the Father.
Because the Son is so dear, lovely, delightful, and near to the Father, when He comes forth to declare the Father, His declaration is complete. The only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father is the One most dear, most loved, and most delightful to the Father; He cannot be any closer to the Father. The Son understands and comprehends all that the Father is and has, including the Father’s intention. Therefore, the Son is the expression, the declaration, of God. He declares God in the fullest way.
The first verse in the introduction to the Gospel of John says, “In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God” (1:1), and the last verse in the introduction says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (v. 18). Following verse 18 John begins to present case after case to show the Son’s declaration of the Father. The entire Gospel of John is a further explanation of this matter.
When a person first reads the Gospel of John, he may think that it is merely the record of a Jewish man. This response is like the reaction of the Samaritan woman in chapter 4. When the Lord Jesus asked her for water, her first thought was related to her realization that a Jewish man was asking a Samaritan woman for water (v. 9). When we first read the Gospel of John our first thought concerning the Lord Jesus may have been that He was a man. However, when we read it again, we had a deeper sense that the Lord Jesus was different from other men. When we read it a third time, we had a sense that this difference was rather pronounced, and when we read it a fourth time, we had a sense that He was different because God was being expressed through Him.
We often praise the Lord at the table meeting, saying, “O Lord, there is love in Your heart, there is grace on Your lips, and Your words are full of grace.” Although this utterance is not bad, it is based on our natural concepts. In the Gospel of John the Lord Jesus did not always speak sweet words. Sometimes He spoke harsh words. For example, He said, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father” (8:44). Such a word would not cause people to feel that there was love in His heart and grace on His lips. However, even when the Lord spoke harsh words, God was coming forth from Him. His rejoicing was of God, and His weeping was of God. His meekness was of God, and His wrath was of God.
The more we read the Gospel of John, the more we have a sense that all His words and actions were an expression of God. Today many Christians view the Lord Jesus in a limited way. They see only His goodness, sacrifice, and love as a man. These descriptions are not wrong, but they are not complete, because the Lord Jesus was not living according to His human goodness or human love; rather, He was living out God.
In chapter 4 the Lord was tired, hungry, and thirsty, so He went to the well at Sychar. When a woman came to draw water, He conversed with her in words that expressed more than just goodness or mercy. He expressed the omniscient God, the One who knows the secrets of man’s heart, but who is also willing to contact sinners. Some may say, “His contact with people surely shows His goodness and mercy.” I agree that it does. However, if we think that only goodness and love were revealed, we are lacking a full appreciation of Him. We must recognize that His goodness and mercy were declarations of God Himself.
When the Lord Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, God was certainly expressed. However, those who were around the Lord still spoke foolishly, saying, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world” (6:14). Some may view this case as simply showing the Lord’s mercy and compassion for the hungry crowd. Surely the crowd must have thought of Him as being good and merciful. They even came the next day because they had this thought. When they came, however, the Lord did not give them any bread; instead, He said to them, “You seek Me not because you have seen signs, but because you ate of the bread and were filled. Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life” (vv. 26-27). This word was more than a display of mercy; it was an expression of the God who wanted to be received by man. He wanted people to receive Him.
In chapter 8 the Pharisees brought a sinful woman before the Lord and asked if she should be stoned. The Lord did not reply, because He could say neither yes nor no. In fact, He was not there to declare what was right and what was wrong; He was declaring God. When He finally answered, He said, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (v. 7). His speaking manifested God. Who is without sin? Only God is without sin. The Pharisees were interested in right and wrong, but the Lord’s reply expressed God. After His reply they all went out one by one, beginning with the older ones. When only the Lord and the woman were left, He asked, “Has no one condemned you?” (v. 10). She said, “No one, Lord.” Then the Lord Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more” (v. 11). Is this merely goodness and mercy? No, this is God being expressed. Even though He was a genuine man, He lived out, expressed, and declared God.
The Lord lived out God because He spoke and worked by the Father. Although He was a Jewish man from Nazareth, He lived a life of denial and rejection. The Lord was rejected and denied not only by others, but even more, He rejected Himself. He said, “The Son can do nothing from Himself except what He sees the Father doing, for whatever that One does, these things the Son also does in like manner” (5:19). He also said, “The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works” (14:10). The Lord knew that the Father was in Him; hence, He lived out the Father.
This is the key point of the Gospel of John: in the living and person of a genuine man from Nazareth, only God was declared. No one has ever seen God, but the Son declared Him. The Son could declare God because God lived in Him and was His life, but even more, He could declare God because He did not live by His genuine and perfect human life. The Lord Jesus could have lived by His human life or by the divine life, and of these two possibilities, He chose to live by God. If He had lived by His human life, He would have been independent from God, and He would have failed to express God just as Adam failed. However, the Lord Jesus chose to live by the Father. He was a man who lived by God with the divine life, not by Himself with His human life. Hence, He expressed and declared God.
As we live on the earth, we also face these two possibilities: we can live by ourselves, or we can live by the indwelling God. With the first possibility we can only live out ourselves, but with the second possibility we can live out God. Before the Lord’s resurrection the only begotten Son was the unique One who declared God. Today there is the need for many sons to declare God. God dwells in us as our life; this is a fact. The only issue that we face is whether or not we will allow the cross to work deeply in us. Through the work of the cross, will we allow our words and actions to be terminated so that He can speak and act in us? May we deny and forsake ourselves, learn to put ourselves under the cross, and not live by ourselves but rather by Him. May we speak by Him and act by Him. If this is our case, God will be declared in us. God’s declaration was once possible only through His only begotten Son. Today God can be declared through His many sons. May the Lord have mercy on us so that we may learn the lesson of declaring God.
