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Scripture Reading: John 1:1, 12-14, 16-17, 29; 3:14-15; 12:24
The New Testament reveals to us that Christ has taken two major steps. The first was His incarnation, which opened the way for Him to fulfill His earthly ministry. He finished His earthly ministry when He accomplished redemption on the cross. The second step was His resurrection and ascension, at which time He began His heavenly ministry. By these two ministries, His earthly ministry and His heavenly ministry, Christ has accomplished His divine commission. To see His earthly ministry is simple, but His heavenly ministry is hidden. Nonetheless, without it Christ cannot fulfill God’s eternal purpose, which is to have the church as Christ’s Body.
The accomplishment of redemption brought fallen mankind back to God. Once this earthly ministry was completed, however, Christ still needed to build up His Body and produce the church in order for God’s purpose to be realized. This heavenly ministry, which is far greater and more significant than His earthly ministry, is unfolded to us in the writings of Paul.
In Colossians 1:25 Paul tells us that his ministry was to complete the word of God. If the New Testament lacked the fourteen Epistles of Paul, the divine revelation would not be complete. From his writings, and only in his writings, do we learn:
(1) Christ lives in us. He must be our life, and we must be His living.
(2) Christ is all-inclusive. He is the embodiment and mystery of God, the reality of every positive thing, our life, and the constituent of the new man.
(3) Christ is the Head, and the church is His Body.
No other books in the Bible tell us that the church is the Body of Christ, that this Body is the center of God’s eternal purpose, and that God’s purpose is not only to redeem His fallen people but also to regenerate them and make them the Body of Christ to express Christ. This revelation granted to Paul brought to completion the word of God.
After the time of Paul, whose writings were finished about A.D. 66, differing teachings crept in to damage the church. In the quarter century after the death of Paul, Satan insidiously brought in false teachings regarding both the person of Christ and the church. Heresies came in, claiming that Christ was not God, that Christ was not the Son of God, and even that He did not come in the flesh.
To counter these heresies, around A.D. 90 the apostle John began writing his books. One was a Gospel, three were Epistles, and the last was Revelation. As we study these writings, we will see that John was mending what was damaged. Paul completed the revelation in the Bible, but before too long it was damaged. Thus, after the completing ministry there needed to be a mending ministry. With these two ministries the Bible is concluded. Notice that with John’s writings the Gospels are concluded; the Gospel of John was the last to be written. Then his three Epistles are the conclusion of the Epistles. Finally, his Revelation brings to an end the New Testament and even the whole Bible.
Without the ministries of Paul and John, the Bible would have no conclusion. Their main goal, furthermore, is to reveal Christ’s heavenly ministry. In their writings we can see what Christ is now doing in the heavens. Yes, they sometimes refer to Christ’s earthly ministry, but primarily they are concerned with the carrying out of His heavenly ministry.
If my jacket gets torn, it needs to be mended. The part that is repaired will be even stronger than the original fabric. So it was with the writings of John. Paul wrote strongly of the church as the Body of Christ. John, however, was even stronger. He described the churches as lampstands, which would eventually consummate in the New Jerusalem. How much stronger is the city than the Body!
With this chapter we will begin a series on the mending ministry of John. We will begin with the Gospel of John.
John’s Gospel, though it has twenty-one chapters, has only two main sections. Chapters 1 through 12 form one section; chapter 13 stands in the middle, belonging to neither the first nor the second section; and then chapters 14 through 21 comprise the second section.
The first section presents Christ as God. The very first verse says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word was not only with God; He was God. I would ask you, Is Christ the Son of God or God Himself? Even in John 1 this problem arises; verse 18 refers to Him as “the only begotten Son.” In 1:1 Christ is God; in 1:18 He is the Son of God. I leave this question for you to consider.
Verse 14 further says regarding the Word, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace and reality.” God became flesh. No wonder Paul says, “Great is the mystery of godliness” (1 Tim. 3:16). God was manifested in the flesh. Jesus of Nazareth was nothing less than God. He was God incarnate. Hebrews 13:8 does tell us, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes, even forever.” In eternity past, however, Christ was not a man. In the beginning (John 1:1) means in eternity past. Then He was God but not man. A day came, however, when He became incarnate. In the incarnation He took on another form. There was no change in His divine nature; only His outward appearance changed. He existed in the form of God “but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6-7).
For what purpose did Christ become a man? It was in order that grace and reality might come to us (John 1:14). What is reality? Everything in the universe is vanity. Nothing is real except God. Without Him, whatever we have is vanity. God has come, by the incarnation, to be our reality.
What is grace? The Word incarnate was “full of grace.” Verse 17 goes on to tell us, “The law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” Many Christians consider material blessings as God’s grace. From this verse, however, it is clear that before the coming of the Lord Jesus, grace was not available to man. There may have been material blessings in the Old Testament, but there was not grace. When God became a man, grace came. Grace is God as our enjoyment. When we receive Him, we have reality. This reality becomes our enjoyment, which is grace. Grace is God Himself as our life, our light, our holiness, and our righteousness. To enjoy God in such an all-inclusive way is to enjoy grace. Before Christ came, such an enjoyment of Him was not possible. Now that He has become incarnate, He can be man’s reality and grace.
Verse 16 says, “Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” We have received of His fullness. This includes countless items: joy, comfort, peace, rest, forgiveness, redemption, righteousness, patience, holiness, power, light, sight, etc. In ourselves we lack all these. We do not have patience. We are not submissive. All that we have is negative — sins, weaknesses, and shortcomings. The Bible tells wives to submit to their husbands (Eph. 5:22) and husbands to love their wives (v. 25). Who can fulfill this word? Women are not submissive, and men are not loving. But both submission and love are included in the fullness we have received from Christ. We have received of His fullness, grace upon grace.
There are three major problems that needed to be taken care of. How could our sins be taken away? How could Satan be destroyed? How could God’s life be ours?
In the first twelve chapters of John these problems are fully resolved. Christ is portrayed in three different ways. These three pictures are of three different aspects of His death.
In John 1:29 Christ is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Christ died first as the redeeming Lamb. On the cross He died for our sins and redeemed us by His blood. His death has taken away our sins.
In 3:14 the Lord, referring to Himself, said that “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” In the eyes of God, when Christ was lifted up on the cross, He was in the form of a bronze serpent, that is, in the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3). Why was He in this form? It was “that through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). By the death of the cross He judged Satan and destroyed him. Christians appreciate Christ’s dying for us as the Lamb of God, but few have ever heard that He died also in the form of a bronze serpent.
The story of the bronze serpent is recounted in Numbers 21:5-9. Two kinds of serpents are described. The first kind was the fiery serpents that bit and poisoned the children of Israel as a punishment for their complaining. The second kind was the serpent of bronze, which Moses made at the Lord’s command and set on a pole; anyone who was bitten and looked at this serpent was healed.
Christ was like that serpent of bronze. He was lifted up on the cross so that “everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life” (John 3:15). Because the devil was judged and destroyed by Christ’s death, we may have eternal life by believing into Him.
In 12:24 the Lord likened Himself to a grain of wheat: “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Christ died in the form of a grain of wheat in order to release the divine life and impart it into us. Originally, life is only in the single grain. But through death the life in this grain is released and imparted into many grains. We are those grains of wheat.
Have you seen these three aspects of the death of Christ? It is because of all three that we are able to receive of Christ. We were sinners, under the dark power of Satan and without the divine life. Through His death as the Lamb, Christ bore away our sins; as the bronze serpent, He destroyed Satan; as the grain of wheat, He imparted the divine life into us. Our sins are gone. The devil is destroyed. God’s life in Christ is available to us. There is no longer any hindrance for us to receive all things of God. We have boldness through the blood of Christ to enter the Holy of Holies to receive mercy and find grace for timely help.
Whatever you need of Christ you may receive. Right now if you need refreshing, you can turn to Him and declare, “Hallelujah! My sins have been taken away, the devil has been destroyed, and life has been imparted into me!” You will be refreshed by Him. If you ask me what my need is, I will reply that my need right now is for utterance. While I am speaking, I am looking to the Lord for power, for impact, for utterance. I need a fresh, instant utterance in order to gain you for the Lord. As I speak, I am praying, “Lord, gain Scandinavia! Gain Sweden! Norway! Denmark! Finland!” I am hungry for this. I need the Lord to satisfy my hunger. You too can have your hunger and thirst satisfied. To be hungry for Him indicates that you are pursuing Him. How is it that you can pursue Him? It is because on the cross He took away your sins and destroyed Satan. The devil is under your feet. Sins and Satan are on the negative side; on the positive side, the divine life has been imparted into you, making you a child of God.
John 1:12-13 reveals that we are God’s children: “As many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name, who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” How is it that we human beings can be children of God? It is because God’s life has come into us. This came about because a grain of wheat fell into the ground and died. The life in that grain has been released into many grains. We are those many grains, God’s children possessing His life.
What are the grains of wheat used for? They are used to make a loaf of bread. “Seeing that there is one bread, we who are many are one Body; for we all partake of one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17). The many sons of God are the members of Christ for Him to have a living Body.
What we have covered in this chapter is part of John’s mending ministry. Even in our time this matter of the many grains possessing the divine life so that Christ may have a Body is almost entirely overlooked by the vast majority of Christians. This item was damaged. John stepped in to repair the damage. The other Gospels do not cover this. It is John who tells us that our Christ was God; that He became a man to bring us reality and grace; and that for us to receive Him, He died on the cross — as the Lamb of God to take away our sins, as the bronze serpent to destroy the devil, and as the grain of wheat to release the divine life into many grains, children of God for the Body of Christ.
This is the first main point of John’s mending ministry. Paul’s ministry had completed the word of God a quarter of a century earlier. In the years after that, many damaging teachings found their way into the church. Because of this damage, John wrote his Gospel, his Epistles, and Revelation. These writings were to repair the torn fabric of the church. How much we owe to his mending ministry!
