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God became a man with the intention that man might receive Him, that He might become man’s life, and that man might be one to express Him. This is the message of the Gospel of John.
I hope you do not have the shallow concept of the gospel that is so prevalent today. The common teaching is that we were pitiful sinners on the way to hell but that God loved us and sent His Son to be our Redeemer. The Son died on the cross, was resurrected from the dead, and is now in heaven. We must believe in Him in order to be saved. Then someday we will go to heaven and have a good time for eternity. If this is your view of the gospel, you are missing the mark.
The word gospel means “good news” or “glad tidings.” The New Testament gospel is that God one day became man, the man Jesus. He lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. Consider what a restriction it was to the infinite God to be confined in man for so many years. He lived in a poor carpenter’s home in a despised town. After thirty years He came out to minister, not in a vast country but in the Holy Land, a narrow tract of land only three hundred by one hundred miles in size. God lived in a small country, in a small town, and in a small home.
When He was thirty-three, He went to the cross. There He terminated the old generation, the old creation, and the old man. He abolished death. He took away all natural differences. When He entered into death, He conquered and subdued it. In other words, He conquered the power of darkness, the despot Satan. He entered into death and then emerged from it in resurrection.
It was at this point that He became the life-giving Spirit. The Bible uses the word became twice in reference to this wonderful person who actually was God. He “became flesh” (John 1:14) and walked here on earth. Then He “became a life-giving Spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45). As God, He became flesh; as flesh, He became the life-giving Spirit. The interval of time between the two “becames” was about thirty-four years.
In eternity past, before Genesis 1, there was only God Himself. Then He created the universe, bringing it into being out of nothing. When He spoke, “Let there be...,” there was. How long the time was between creation and incarnation the Bible does not tell us. But we do need to be aware that God first accomplished creation out of nothing and then passed through incarnation, through which He became one with His creature man.
The human life that Jesus lived on this earth is beyond our understanding. He set up a model of the life that God wants. God does not want moral, ethical, or religious living. The four Gospels display a life of God mingled with man, a life expressing God. This model life is called the reality (John 1:17; Eph. 4:21). It is the reality of God manifested in humanity.
After He had set up this pattern, Christ went through death and resurrection to become the Spirit in order that He might enter into us. It is only as the Spirit that He can be received into us. After resurrection He ascended into the heavens to assume His position. There as a man He was enthroned, crowned, and made Lord and Head of all. This very One came down on the day of Pentecost and is still with us.
All God’s intention has already been realized. There is nothing that has not been accomplished. When were we reborn? It was when Jesus was resurrected. When were we crucified? It was when Jesus was crucified. When were the local churches brought forth? It was not when we began to meet around the Lord’s table but when Jesus was resurrected from the dead. In His resurrection and ascension the church has been produced, and we have been brought to the heavens.
Not only has this One accomplished all God’s purpose; He Himself includes His accomplishments. The incarnation is in Him. The human living as a pattern is in Him. Death, resurrection, and ascension are in Him. The life-giving Spirit is in Him. He is a composition of whatever He has accomplished. His accomplishments are components of Him.
When we receive this Christ into us, we receive creation, incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension into us. He is an all-inclusive drink. To drink of Him as the life-giving Spirit is to drink of the processed Triune God.
Such is the scope of the gospel. It extends from eternity past to eternity future.
All things have been accomplished. Our need is to experience this, not to try to accomplish things ourselves. The focus of the gospel is that God comes into us to be everything. We need to experience what He has become, all that He has done, and all that He is.
Suppose that as your father I prepare everything you need. I grow fruits and vegetables for you. I raise cows, lambs, and chickens so that you will have meat. You do not need to produce the crops or raise the animals. Your job is simply to enjoy all the things I have prepared for you. I can prepare them, but I cannot enjoy them for you. That you must do.
This is an inadequate illustration of what the Triune God in the Son and as the Spirit has done. He has accomplished everything needful, and it is now available to us in Him. Our part is to receive, enjoy, and experience. This is the focus of the Gospel of John.
John 1:11-12 says, “He came to His own, yet those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name.” The earlier verses tell us how this One came. He came as God, as life, and as light. Verse 14 adds that He came in the flesh and as a tabernacle and that He was full of grace and reality. He came!
He came with an expectation that His people would receive Him. But they did not. On His side it was a matter of coming; on our side it is a matter of receiving. He has not only come but has also accomplished all things by His coming. Now it is up to us to receive Him.
Have you received Him? To what extent? In what way? “Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace” (v. 16). How much have you received of His fullness? It is vaster than an ocean, but you may have received only four ounces. Paul mentions these limitless dimensions of Christ in Ephesians 3:18-19. His fullness is eternally wide. The concept of the hymn writer is too small: “And to an ocean fulness, / His mercy doth expand” (Hymns, #206). His fullness far exceeds any global measurement. An ocean is a poor comparison! Who can measure the breadth and length and height and depth of the fullness we received? And we received grace upon grace.
His fullness comes to us in two ways: by the Word and by the Spirit. We can liken this to electricity with its two wires, the antenna and the ground wire. The Spirit is the antenna, and the Word is the ground wire. These are the two lines that convey the heavenly electricity, which is Christ Himself, the life-giving Spirit. He is brought into the house, our being, by means of these two wires, the Spirit and the Word.
If you read the Gospel of John carefully, you will notice that at the beginning Christ is presented as the Word; then toward the end He becomes the Spirit (20:22). As the Word, He is the ground wire; He came down to us. As the Spirit, He is the antenna. These two, the Word and the Spirit, are brought together in John 6:63: “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” When the antenna and the ground wire become one, the electricity comes. When the Word and the Spirit are intertwined, Christ is conveyed into us.
How can we receive Christ? We must read the Word and touch the Spirit. Then we have both the antenna and the ground wire. This brings the heavenly electricity. With the Word as the ground wire and the Spirit as the antenna, all the riches of Christ will be transmitted to us.
This receiving is not once for all. It began when we believed in the Lord Jesus, receiving Him as our Savior. It should continue all day long, every day, along these two wires. I trust that by our considering the Gospel of John together in this way, your appetite for the Word has been stirred up. Several times every day come to the Word. Pray over it. Understand and receive it. Read it and love it.
I hope that we will eventually have the whole New Testament in the Recovery Version. For the present you can study the books that we have already finished. If you will use them, they will save you much time and effort. It has taken a great deal of research and many hours to compile them. We have checked interlinear translations, lexicons, concordances, and many other translations. By using the Recovery Version of the books we have completed, you will get all the benefit of our efforts. It will save you from studying too much on your own; studying is sometimes a frustration to the Spirit.
Especially read John, Romans, Hebrews, Ephesians, Colossians, and Revelation. Leave Matthew aside at first; that is a hard book. Besides your morning reading of a few verses, spend some other time to delve into these books. One way to study them is to notice the key words. In John, for example, pay attention to the word came. Then consider the word receive. Our receiving will last even to eternity, because we will still have the water of life to drink and the tree of life to eat.
How do we receive this Triune God? It is first by believing into Him, then by drinking, eating, and breathing Him. Drinking and eating are the best ways to receive, but the fastest way is by breathing. These are the three means of receiving what is organic. To accept something that is handed to you is not an organic receiving. But drinking, eating, and breathing are; they cause a metabolic change.
You must read the Word. You cannot drink without something to drink. You cannot eat without food. You cannot breathe if there is no air. The water, the food, and even the air are all in the Word. Come to the Word at least three times a day. You must build up this habit. As you get older, you will be grateful that you did.
The Word will make you grow and experience the riches of Christ. Then you will be impelled into the church life. The word ekklesia, which we translate “church,” means “a called-out congregation.” Without meeting together or congregating, there can be no church life. The more meetings we have, the better.
Our coming together is not just with ourselves. We come with Christ, with the growth in life, and with the experience of the riches of Christ. This will make our meetings living. Merely to shout “Praise the Lord!” may not help the meeting. From the Old Testament we can see that when the children of Israel gathered together, they brought a rich surplus of the produce of the good land. No one could appear there empty-handed (Deut. 16:16). It was not sufficient simply to shout. Of course, they did come singing the psalms of blessing, but singing was not the main factor. They had to bring a surplus of their produce.
For us this means that we come to the meetings with the riches of Christ. How full our meeting will be depends on how much we have experienced Him. Our experience of Christ is dependent upon our daily eating of the Word. The Word is our source. Eating of it regularly is basic. Our Christian life and the church life both stem from our being in the Word. If we practice this in a thorough way, every one of us will be a shining light. When we meet together, the church will be strong.
