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Scripture Reading: John 1:29, 32-33, 36; 14:16-20; 19:33-34; 20:19-22; 1 Pet. 1:1-2, 19; 2:24; 3:18; 4:14; 1 John 1:7; 2:1-2, 2:27; 3:24; 10, 4:13
When John the Baptist came out to testify of the Lord Jesus, it was in the midst of a background full of religious concepts. Of all the people around the Lord Jesus, only John the Baptist, who was sent by God, had revelation; everyone else was full of religious concepts based on their religious background in Judaism. All those who came to the Lord Jesus, whether to contact Him, inquire of Him, or even to follow Him, were under the influence of deep religious concepts. These people surrounded the Lord Jesus, and with this religious background, there was a strong religious element in their response to the Lord.
According to their religious concepts, the Jews were expecting a Messiah to come to receive the kingdom and to be a King to restore the nation of Israel. They also were looking for a Prophet to perform miracles, as Moses did to rescue God’s people, or to be as powerful as Elijah. At a minimum, they were looking for a great Rabbi, a great Teacher, to come and teach them. However, their most earnest hope was for the Messiah to come and be the King of Israel so that the Israelites might break away from the iron rod of the Roman Empire, escaping from the domination of Rome and obtaining their freedom. When people went to see the Lord Jesus, whether they were leaders in the Jewish religion or lowly people, they were full of these religious expectations.
However, in the midst of this religious atmosphere, John the Baptist’s twofold testimony was full of revelation. While everyone was looking for the Messiah, the King of Israel, the Prophet, Elijah, or a Rabbi, John the Baptist cried out, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). John’s testimony differed greatly from the concept of others, who were hoping that the Lord was the Messiah, the Prophet, or Elijah. He testified that the Lord Jesus came to the earth to be the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. Not only so, he also testified, “I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He abode upon Him. And I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water, He said to me, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and abiding upon Him, this is He who baptizes in the Holy Spirit” (vv. 32-33). John saw the Holy Spirit descending upon the Lord Jesus as a dove. Therefore, he testified that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God (v. 34), who came to give people the Holy Spirit in order for them to receive the Holy Spirit.
In John’s two simple testimonies we see two signs — the Lamb and the dove. The Lamb indicates that Christ takes away our sin, and the dove indicates that He gives us the Holy Spirit. The Lamb of God takes away something negative, whereas the dove imparts something positive. The Lamb takes away our sin, and the dove supplies the Holy Spirit, who is God Himself.
John the Baptist’s twofold testimony covers matters not only in the Gospel of John but also in John’s Epistles, in the other Gospels, and even in the entire New Testament. The entire New Testament speaks of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb with the Spirit as a dove. He is the Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world and thus removes the barrier of sin between man and God. Whenever we speak of the Lamb, we must consider the cross. The story of the Lamb is the story of the cross. Our sins were taken away by the Lamb at the cross. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He solved not only the problem of sin but also the problems related to the world, Satan, the flesh, and the self. All the problems between us and God were solved by the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God on the cross. The New Testament repeatedly, thoroughly, and from many directions speaks of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God, who died on the cross and shed His blood for our redemption, solving all the problems between us and God.
Furthermore, since the Holy Spirit is not separate from the Lord (Matt. 1:20; Luke 4:1), the Lord gives the Holy Spirit to the believers and baptizes the believers in the Holy Spirit (1 John 3:24; 4:13; John 1:33). Thus, He causes the Holy Spirit to enter into man and causes man to enter into the Holy Spirit. As a result, man is inwardly and outwardly filled with the Holy Spirit, mingled with the Holy Spirit, and fully immersed in the Holy Spirit. When a person is immersed in and mingled with the Holy Spirit in this way, he is mingled with God as one. In the New Testament there are many places that speak of the dove — the Holy Spirit. If we removed the Lamb, the cross, the blood, the death of Christ, and the Holy Spirit from the New Testament, there would not be much content left. John the Baptist’s twofold testimony covers nearly all the testimony of the New Testament.
The original intention of God and the focus of His work in the New Testament age concern His Son being the Lamb with the dove. As the Lamb, He takes away the sin of the world, removes the barrier of sin between God and man, and solves man’s problems before God. The Lamb on the cross is a great termination. As the Lamb with the Holy Spirit as a dove, the Lord gives man the Holy Spirit and mingles man with the Holy Spirit. These two aspects of God’s work accomplish His eternal desire. This is God’s revelation.
God’s intention is beyond man’s religious concepts. It is beyond the concepts of those in the Jewish religion of the Old Testament and even among many Christians in the New Testament age. A Christian may appreciate the Lord Jesus’ crucifixion, including His death on the cross and His shedding of blood for our sins. According to this understanding, however, the Lord Jesus is merely a kind and merciful Savior who delivers sinners from afflictions and rescues them from the lake of fire. The thought that the Lord died on the cross only out of a compassion to rescue condemned sinners from the lake of fire originates from deformed religious concepts. Many genuinely saved Christians have only a religious understanding of the Lord’s work of redemption because they do not see clearly that God desires to mingle Himself with man and man with Himself. This desire was in God before man ever sinned.
In order to carry out His intention, God was incarnated and entered into man; the Word became flesh (v. 14). This is a marvelous, extraordinary matter. The Word became flesh and entered into man to fulfill God’s original desire, which is to work Himself into man. Hence, there was a genuine man on the earth, and God was tabernacling in Him; the name of this man was Jesus. As the incarnated and tabernacling Word, God came to bring God into man and to bring man into God. This is the purpose of the Word becoming flesh in the person of Jesus Christ.
In creation man was outside of God, and God was outside of man. This separation increased and, apart from a sacrifice for sin (Heb. 10:12; 9:12), was made irreconcilable because of sin. After the fall man and God were even enemies (Rom. 5:10), and there was also a barrier between them related to sin, the world, Satan, the flesh, and the self. All these items created an insurmountable distance between man and God. Given this distance, there was no possibility for God and man to be mingled together; God was truly unapproachable. In order to carry out His intention, God Himself came through incarnation in the person of Jesus. He came to bring God into man and man into God. In order to fulfill His purpose, the distance between man and God, created by sin, the world, Satan, the flesh, and the self, had to be eliminated. The first step in eliminating this separation involved the incarnation. The second step involved the Lord Jesus, as the Lamb of God, shedding His blood on the cross and accomplishing an all-inclusive death that terminated sin, the world, Satan, the flesh, and the self. His death eliminated the distance between man and God caused by sin. Then, in His resurrection from the dead, the Lord became the life-giving Spirit to enter into man and to bring man into God. As the Spirit, He brings man into God so that God can be in man and man can be in God. The Lord Jesus spoke of this in John 14, saying, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (v. 20). John also says, “In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit” (1 John 4:13). These words, which are altogether according to God’s revelation, cannot be understood by a religious mind.
Our minds are full of religious concepts, especially the thought that the Lord Jesus is merely a kind and merciful Savior who delivers people from afflictions. According to God’s revelation, however, we need to see that the Lord dwells in us, and we dwell in Him. Hence, we need a change in our concept.
At the time of John the Baptist Judaism was filled with religious concepts concerning the Messiah, the Prophet, Elijah, a Rabbi, and the King of Israel. The Lord Jesus was indeed the Messiah and the Prophet, and He was also a Rabbi who taught people, and John the Baptist even resembled Elijah. However, those who heard John the Baptist were full of religious concepts, and few saw that the Lord’s coming was related to being the Lamb of God with the dove. The Gospel of John shows how the Lord turned His followers from their religious concepts so that they could see Him as the Lamb with the dove.
When two of John the Baptist’s disciples heard his testimony, they followed the Lord Jesus. One of them was Andrew, Peter’s brother, and the other was John (John 1:35-37, 40). Later, Peter and James, John’s brother, also followed the Lord (vv. 41-42). Peter, Andrew, James, and John are mentioned first among the names of the twelve disciples in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (Matt. 10:2; Luke 6:13-14). Peter and Andrew were a pair; James and John were another pair. Philip, who found Nathanael (John 1:43, 45), and Nathanael, who was also called Bartholomew (cf. Matt. 10:3), can be considered as another pair. These were the disciples who first followed the Lord.
When these disciples first met the Lord, they all had religious concepts. Their minds were filled with thoughts concerning the King of Israel and the Messiah. Andrew told Peter, his brother, “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41), and Philip said, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote, Jesus, the son of Joseph, from Nazareth” (v. 45). Nathanael also said to the Lord, “You are the King of Israel” (v. 49). They spoke these words according to their religious concepts. However, the Lord is not presented in the Gospel of John as the Messiah or the King; rather, He is revealed as the Lamb of God with the Holy Spirit as a dove. The Lord Jesus came to be the Lamb of God in order to shed His blood for man’s redemption and reconciliation to God; the Lord Jesus came also to be the dove so that redeemed and reconciled man could receive the Holy Spirit.
Beginning in chapter 2 every case that is recorded shows how the Lord Jesus did things contrary to religion so that the disciples would be turned from their religious concepts. In chapter 2 He is not spoken of as the Messiah or the King of Israel but as the One who can change water into wine, death into life (vv. 1-11). In chapter 3, when Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to see the Lord Jesus, he addressed the Lord as Rabbi, thinking that the Lord came to be a teacher. However, the Lord Jesus responded, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God...You must be born anew” (vv. 5, 7). The Lord also said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life” (vv. 14-15). The Israelites thought that the Lord Jesus came to be the Messiah or a teacher, but the Lord said that He came to be a bronze serpent. He was in the likeness of the flesh of sin, but He did not participate in any way in the sin of the flesh (Num. 21:4-9; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 2:14).
In John 4 the Lord asked a woman for water so that she could receive the living water of life (vv. 6-30). In chapter 5 He enlivened a man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years, causing him to immediately rise up and walk (vv. 5-9). After doing this, He said, “He who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life...The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (vv. 24-25).
In chapter 6 He performed a miracle by feeding five thousand with five loaves and two fish. The Jews who saw it said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world” (v. 14). Then they tried to take the Lord Jesus by force to make Him King, but the Lord withdrew to a mountain by Himself (v. 15). When they found the Lord Jesus the next day, He said, “You seek Me not because you have seen signs, but because you ate of the bread and were filled” (v. 26). Then He said, “I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever...He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life...The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (vv. 51, 54, 63). The Lord turned them to see Him as living bread that man can eat in order to live by Him.
In chapter 7 the Jews were celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. On the last day of the feast, the Lord Jesus stood and cried out, saying “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). In chapter 8 the Lord Jesus was face to face with a sinful woman who was caught in the act of adultery, but He did not condemn her; instead, He empowered her to be freed from her sin (vv. 3-11). In chapter 9 the Lord Jesus anointed a blind man’s eyes with clay made of spittle. When the man washed in the pool of Siloam, he came away seeing (vv. 6-7). In chapter 11 Lazarus died and was buried for four days and even smelled (v. 39). The Lord Jesus said only a brief word, “Lazarus, come out!” (v. 43), and Lazarus was resurrected and came out of the tomb (v. 44). In all these cases the Lord did not reveal Himself as the King, the Messiah, or the Prophet. Rather, His actions showed His desire to eliminate the distance between man and God by taking away the sin of the world as the Lamb and by giving man the Holy Spirit as the dove. Because the Lord Jesus is the Lamb with the dove, man can receive the Holy Spirit, and God can enter into man and man into God.
The Lord Jesus came to be the Lamb of God to die on the cross. Like many of us today, however, none of the disciples understood the Lord’s intention. When He was on the road to Jerusalem to be killed, James and John asked Him, “Grant to us to sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory” (Mark 10:37). Although they had followed the Lord from the beginning of His ministry, they still had a concept that the Lord Jesus came to bring in the kingdom and to be the King of Israel.
On the night that the Lord Jesus was betrayed, He told His disciples that it was time for Him to depart from the world and return to the Father. This filled His disciples with sorrow. Then the Lord Jesus told them not to be disturbed or sorrowful; furthermore, 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; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7). The Comforter is the Holy Spirit. When the Comforter came, He entered into the disciples, and when the Holy Spirit entered into the disciples, the Lord Jesus entered into them. The Lord told the disciples, “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (14:18-20). He also said that in that day their heart would rejoice (16:22). However, at that time the disciples could not receive His word because of their religious concepts concerning the coming Messiah and King. This is the reason that they asked about sitting on His right and on His left. Since they did not understand the preciousness of being in Christ and of Christ being in them, their hearts were filled with sorrow (v. 6).
Even though the disciples did not understand or treasure what the Lord revealed, He still came among the disciples after His resurrection, showing them His pierced side and breathing into them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (20:19-22). The Lord’s pierced side spoke of Him being the Lamb, and the Lord’s breathing into them spoke of Him being the dove. The end of the Gospel of John altogether reveals that the accomplished work of the Lord involves the Lamb with the dove, which the disciples did not understand.
When the Lord Jesus came to the disciples in resurrection in Acts 1, they still asked a question according to their old concept, saying, “Lord, are You at this time restoring the kingdom to Israel?” (v. 6). Immediately the Lord Jesus interrupted and said, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set by His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (vv. 7-8). The Lord told them not to ask concerning the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. Rather, He wanted them to know that they would be empowered to be His witnesses, because He had died for them as the Lamb and would come upon them as the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost, the disciples received a revelation in the Holy Spirit (2:1-4). On the day of Pentecost Peter, James, and John no longer spoke of sitting on the Lord’s right and left. When they stood and preached, they spoke of the Lord as the Lamb with the dove. When the crowd heard these words and were pricked in their heart, they asked Peter, “What should we do?” (v. 37). Peter’s reply did not mention the Messiah or the kingdom of Israel; rather, he said, “Repent and each one of you be baptized upon the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (v. 38). The forgiveness of sins was accomplished by the Lord as the Lamb, and the giving of the gift of the Holy Spirit was accomplished by the Lord as the Lamb with the dove. From the day of Pentecost the disciples turned from their religious concepts, and they preached, testified, and cried out according to the revelation of the Lamb with the dove. They did not strive for the throne; instead, they were willing to suffer death for the Lord’s sake. The first martyr among them was James, the brother of John. This shows that the disciples turned from their religious concepts.
When Peter wrote his Epistles, he did not speak of the Messiah or the kingdom of Israel. Rather, he says that the believers were “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied” (1 Pet. 1:2). The sprinkling of the Lord’s blood refers to the work of the Lamb, and the sanctification of the Spirit refers to the work of the dove. In chapter 2 Peter says, “Who Himself bore up our sins in His body on the tree, in order that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness” (v. 24). Then in chapter 3 he says, “Christ also has suffered once for sins, the Righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God, on the one hand being put to death in the flesh, but on the other, made alive in the Spirit” (v. 18). In chapter 4 Peter says, “If you are reproached in the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (v. 14). This is Peter’s testimony in his last days. All his speaking is related to the Lord being the Lamb with the dove.
The testimony in the Epistles of the apostle John also clearly speaks of the Lamb and the dove. First John 1:7 says, “The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.” In chapter 2 he says, “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins” (vv. 1-2). These verses refer to the Lamb. However, in verse 27 John speaks also of the anointing, saying, “The anointing which you have received from Him abides in you.” This refers to the Holy Spirit, the dove. In 3:24 he says, “He who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And in this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us.” This also speaks of the dove. In 1 John there is no reference to the Messiah or the kingdom of Israel.
On the day of Pentecost the disciples dropped their religious concepts and received revelation. They saw that the Son of God is the Lamb with the dove, bringing God to man by solving the problem of sin and removing the distance between man and God so that man and God can draw near to each other and God can be wrought into man and man can be wrought into God.
The disciples not only had revelation but they also had experience. The Lord Jesus solved their problem of sin, the Spirit entered into them, and they dwelt in the Holy Spirit, in God. There was no barrier between them and God; they were mingled with God as one. Their problem of sin was solved because of the Lamb, and they received God because of the dove. Their experience was altogether related to the Lamb with the dove, not the Messiah, the King of Israel, or the Prophet. The Lamb delivers man from sin, and the dove enables man to receive God.
Among Christians today there is still a need for this revelation and light. Few have the realization that the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus on the cross does not emphasize delivering people from the lake of fire but taking away the barrier of sin between man and God. These two views are as far apart as the highest heaven and earth. The first view is not wrong, but it falls short of God’s intention. First Peter 2:24 says, “Who Himself bore up our sins in His body on the tree, in order that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness.” The work of the Lord on the cross does not emphasize delivering people from the lake of fire, but it emphasizes that believers, having died to sins, live to righteousness, which is to draw near to God. As the Lamb, the Lord came to take away the sin of the world, thus eliminating the barrier of sin and the distance between us and God so that we can be mingled with God. Peter does not say that God caused the Righteous to suffer on behalf of the unrighteous so that we could be rescued from the lake of fire. Rather, he says, “That He might bring you to God” (3:18). We absolutely believe that there is a lake of fire for God’s judgment, but the Lord Jesus did not shed His blood on the cross merely to rescue people from the lake of fire. In Christianity today many equate redemption only with deliverance from the lake of fire. This thought is especially strong due to the influence of religious concepts.
The Lord died and resurrected and is now the Spirit in order to enter into man as life so that God and man and man and God can be mingled as one. Man has not merely passed out of death into life but even more is mingled with God. The Lord became a Lamb to eliminate the distance and barrier of sin between man and God; furthermore, He came with a dove so that man can enter into God and also God can enter into man and that man and God and God and man can be mingled as one.
I hope all God’s children will truly see that we were saved when we believed in Jesus; however, our understanding of salvation should be based on God’s revelation, not on our natural concepts. Salvation means nothing less than God entering into man and man entering into God because the barrier of sin has been taken away. This is God’s salvation in the Bible.
If we believe that Jesus is a Savior who gives prosperity and peace, we will be disappointed. Many believers of the Lord do not have much outward peace. The apostle James was killed by the sword (Acts 12:2), John was exiled to the island of Patmos (Rev. 1:9), and Peter was nailed upside down on a cross. Saul persecuted Christians, but after he was saved, he too was put in chains, imprisoned, and eventually martyred for the Lord’s sake. James, John, Peter, and Paul were all witnesses of the Lord. The word witness in the original Greek means “martyr.” To testify for the Lord Jesus is to be a martyr. Hence, receiving outward peace is not the purpose of believing in the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus came to be a Lamb to eliminate the barrier of sin between God and man; furthermore, He came as a dove to work God into man so that man would receive God and live in God. Since the world does not want God, it will oppose those who believe in the Lamb and receive the dove. If the world opposes such ones, where is there hope for outward peace? The only way that we can have peace and prosperity in the world is to compromise with the world and live in darkness. If we stand against the corrupted age, evil, and darkness and if we live for God and the Lord’s testimony, it will not be easy for us to have outward peace and prosperity.
The Word became incarnated as a Lamb, and on the cross He eliminated the barrier of sin and the distance between us and God. In resurrection He became the Spirit as a dove to come upon and enter into us who believe in Him. He also brings us into Himself so that we and He, He and we, are mingled as one. Eventually, we will be mingled to such an extent that we do not know anything except God. We will have no expectations of peace and prosperity, nor will our expectations be limited to avoiding the lake of fire and going to heaven. We will know only one thing: God is mingled with us, and we are mingled with God. This will be our joy, peace, and prosperity. Our joy, peace, and prosperity will be God Himself. Some may have regarded John’s exile to the island of Patmos as a great misfortune, but it was an honor to John. Some may have regarded Peter’s upside-down death on a cross as a great suffering, but it was an unparalleled blessing to Peter. Some may have regarded Paul’s imprisonment as a sad ending, but it was a supreme glory to Paul. Religious concepts differ greatly from God’s revelation. What people regard as a treasure, Paul regarded as dung. What people regard as suffering, Paul regarded as joy.
Today we need to be like those who followed the Lord after Pentecost and who were delivered by God from their religious concepts. We must be more than nominal Christians, who attend meetings and pray occasionally but who are not much different inwardly from those in the world and those who are religious adherents filled with religious thoughts. Some people preach the gospel, saying, “A noble person should not be without a religion. The most noble religion is Christianity. If you believe in Christianity, you will receive peace and prosperity.” If a person becomes a “believer” because he is convinced by this kind of speaking, he will merely be a “peace and prosperity believer,” not a believer in Christ. Believers in Christ want only Christ. He is the Lamb with the dove. He takes away man’s sin so that man can receive God. He causes God to enter into man and man to enter into God so that man and God can be mingled together as one. This is too glorious! In the universe nothing is more glorious than this. This is the Savior in whom Peter, John, James, and Paul believed, and this is the salvation that they received and enjoyed. Our Savior is the Lamb of God with the dove.
