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Scripture Reading: John 2:16-22; 3:26-30; 10:16; 11:52; 12:24; 14:2-3; 15:5, 12; 17:11, 21-23
The Gospel of John is a book of life. This life is simply the Triune God Himself. Christ came that we might have this life and might have it abundantly (10:10). Through His death and resurrection He released this life and has imparted it into us. We now have the Triune God within us as our life.
Life always has an issue. Living things bring forth fruit. Surely the divine life will have a divine result. In the Gospel of John the Triune God as the divine life brings forth the church. Although this actual term is not used in John, the implication is strongly apparent. The verses above are the references in John that allude to the church.
When Christ cleansed the temple, He said, “Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise” (2:16). When the Jews asked for a sign of His authority, He told them that if they destroyed this temple, in three days He would raise it up. Contrary to their understanding, He was referring to the temple of His body. While He was on earth, His physical body was the temple of God.
The Old Testament type was first the tabernacle and then the temple, two stages of one thing, both typifying Christ. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” His human body was a tabernacle. Like the tabernacle of old, it was God’s dwelling place on earth. Then in John 2 the Lord likened His physical body to the temple. He predicted that the Jews would kill Him and destroy His body, yet in three days it would be resurrected. This is a clear indication that He considered His body the temple or house of God, the place where God dwelt on earth.
In resurrection Christ raised up not only His physical body but also His mystical Body, which includes us. First Peter 1:3 says that we were regenerated unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. His mystical Body was regenerated with Him in resurrection. The body of Christ, then, both physically and mystically, is the house of God. This mystical Body of Christ, as we know, is the church.
There is the implication in John 2, then, that out of Christ’s resurrection the church will be produced. His physical body was a small type of His mystical Body. Today Christ has a larger Body, the church, which is God’s house.
“He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine therefore is made full” (3:29). The bride here, of course, is the church, and Christ is the Bridegroom.
You recall the occasion when John the Baptist spoke these words. More and more of his followers were leaving him to go to the Lord Jesus. John’s disciples were unhappy about this. When they complained to him, John reminded them that he was not the Christ but only one testifying for Him. The bride belongs to the bridegroom. Since John was only the friend of the bridegroom, surely the bride should not be with him.
Since John 3 is the chapter on regeneration, we know that the bride is the sum total of those who have been regenerated. Out of regeneration the children of God are produced. Taken together, they form the bride. In Revelation John was still writing of the bride and the sons. He saw the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (21:2). He heard the promise that the overcomer will inherit these things, “and I will be God to him, and he will be a son to Me” (v. 7). The sons of God are the components of the bride. Such a statement is beyond our mental understanding, but this is what the Bible reveals.
We may describe regeneration as the divine life in action. The result of this action is the sons of God that constitute the bride of Christ. That this bride is the church is fully revealed in Ephesians 5:23-32. In John’s mending ministry, however, the church, alluded to in John 3 as the bride, will ultimately consummate in the New Jerusalem.
“I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must lead them also, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock, one Shepherd” (John 10:16). The flock is the totality of the sheep. God’s people are His flock. The Lord Jesus was saying that besides the sheep in the Jewish fold, He had other sheep. He would gather all of them together into one flock.
The fold is an enclosure where the sheep are kept to protect them from danger and bad weather. At night or during storms or in wintertime when the shepherd was not with them, the sheep would remain in the fold. Until Christ came as the Shepherd, the Jews were kept in the fold of religion, preserved during the cold, dark time of His absence. Now the Lord had come to gather the flock together and lead them out. Besides those kept under the guardianship of the law, this unique Shepherd had other sheep — the Gentiles who believed. They must be brought together with the Jews to form the one flock. This one flock is the church.
John 10, besides telling us of the one flock, also says that Christ came that we may have life “and may have it abundantly” (v. 10). The life that the Lord came to make available goes hand in hand with the church. The life and the flock are brought together in this one chapter. The more we enjoy the life of Christ, the more we desire to be with the flock. If we have no interest in the life and no growth in life, we do not care about the church life. But when we receive life from Christ and that life grows in us so that we enjoy life more abundantly, there wells up within us the desire for the church life. We feel like scattered sheep, and our longing is to be gathered together into one flock. Thus, John 10, a chapter on life, alludes to the church, the one flock.
The high priest Caiaphas prophesied that “one man die for the people and that not the whole nation perish” (11:50). This meant that the Lord Jesus was “to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but that He might also gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad” (vv. 51-52). These verses are also referring to the church. By this one death there would be a way for God to gather His scattered children. They could be brought together in the church.
Even today God’s children are scattered and divided, but through the death and resurrection of Christ we can be gathered together. The more we experience the death and resurrection of Christ, the more we are gathered with others into one. It is sad that many of God’s children care more for doctrines and practices than they do for the experience of the death of Christ and the enjoyment of His resurrection.
The church is implied, then, in John 11 by the gathering together of God’s scattered children through the death and resurrection of Christ.
“Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (12:24). The Lord thus likened Himself to a single grain falling into the ground and dying. The fruit that resulted was the church. From typology we know that the many grains are for the making of a loaf of bread. First Christ was alone, but after His death and resurrection many grains sprang up. By the blending together of these grains into one loaf, the church as the Body of Christ was produced.
Again in John 12, then, we find the church implied. It is the Body of Christ, issuing from His resurrected life.
“In My Father’s house are many abodes; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be” (14:2-3).
The Father’s house, we know from 2:16, was the temple, which today is the church, the house of God. In God’s house there are many abodes. The word translated “abodes” is the noun form of the verb abide. Every member of the church is an abode, or a room, in God’s house. The Lord was intimating to His disciples that by His death and resurrection He would prepare rooms for them.
This is clear from 14:23, where the word abode again is used: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” By comparing this verse with verse 2 we can clearly see that the abodes in God’s house are those who love the Lord Jesus. We must interpret the Bible by the Bible, not according to our natural, religious, or traditional concepts. Those who love the Lord will be an abode for the Father and for the Son.
From 1 Timothy 3:15 we know that the church today is the Father’s house: “I write that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.” All we who are members are abodes in this house, which was prepared by Christ’s death and resurrection. The Lord passed through death and entered into resurrection in order to prepare the church. He thus cleared away every obstacle and released the riches of the divine life. Without His death and resurrection there would have been no way for us to be the church. We were hindered by sins, the flesh, the old creation, worldliness, and the devil. But by His death and resurrection He took away sins, destroyed the devil, and released the divine life. Thus He prepared the church, making us all abodes in the house of God.
Do not consider the Father’s house in John 14 as a place. Yes, the Lord did say that He was going to prepare a place for us, but this place is not a lifeless space. This place is actually a living person. This is apparent from verses 5 and 6, where the Lord told Thomas that He Himself is the way to this place. Since the way to the place is a person, the place also must be a living person. The way is a living person, and this way leads us to a living person. This living person is the church. Do you know that the church is the enlargement of Christ? Christ Himself is the living way, leading us to the church, which is His enlargement. The personal Christ is the way leading us to the enlarged Christ.
No doubt, what I have said conflicts with how these verses have been traditionally interpreted. I was taught that the Father’s house is in heaven, where there is a golden street. The Lord Jesus went there to prepare us a heavenly mansion. Over nineteen hundred years have gone by, and still that mansion is not completed. Think what a splendid mansion that will be, that after so many years it is still not finished! This is what the Brethren taught. I believed it and thanked the Lord for the wonderful mansion He was still working on. It must not yet be finished, because He had promised He would come back and receive me there; since He still had not returned, He must still be laboring on it.
Most Bible teachers interpret the Lord’s words in verse 3, “I am coming again and will receive you to Myself,” to refer to His second coming. However, in verse 18 the Lord again says, “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.” Then He adds, “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” (vv. 19-20).
When the Lord went to prepare a place for the believers by death and resurrection, He came again in resurrection to them. His going was His coming. He came back to enter into the disciples by going into death. “I am going away and I am coming to you” (v. 28). This coming is not His second coming but His coming in resurrection. For a little while they lost Him, but they would behold Him. Because He lived, they also would live. In that day they would know that He was in the Father, they were in Him, and He was in them. “In that day” is not the day of His second coming; if it were, we would all be here as orphans. “That day” came after three days. On the day of resurrection He brought us not to the heavens but into the Father. The Father was the place where He was and where He promised to bring us (v. 3).
The Lord’s concept was that He was in the Father but that we were not. We were outside. He would die to take away our sins, to destroy the devil, and to release the Father’s life. Then in resurrection He would bring us into His Father. Thus where He was, we also would be.
Through His death and resurrection He has brought us into the Triune God. For this Triune God we are the many abodes of the Father’s house. This is the church. The church is implied in John 14 in this wonderful way. The church is our home, yet we are all rooms (abodes) in which the Father and the Son may dwell.
You may never have heard such an interpretation of John 14 before. I hope you will not pass off my words as a peculiar way of looking at these verses. If you take the traditional interpretation, you will destroy these four chapters. To consider these verses as referring to literal heavenly mansions is too low, too physical. Such an interpretation is off. John 14 through 17 reveals that we the redeemed ones, through the death and resurrection of Christ, have been brought into the Triune God. The thought here is the Triune God, not heavenly mansions. Because we have been brought into Him, we become Christ’s mystical Body. As His mystical Body, the church is the house of God. In this house of God, which is the real temple of God, are many abodes. Each of us is one of these abodes.
The church is the Father’s house. For centuries 14:2 has been wrongly interpreted. When the Father’s house is mentioned in 2:16, Bible teachers do not connect it with the heavenly mansions. They all recognize that the Father’s house refers to the temple on this earth. Why, then, do they think that the Father’s house in 14:2 refers to heaven? It is a principle of biblical interpretation that we must understand the Bible by the Bible. God’s dwelling place in this age on this earth is the church.
The Father’s house in John 14, then, refers to the church. We, the regenerated ones, are the abodes in this house.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing...This is My commandment, that you love one another even as I have loved you” (15:5, 12). The branches of the vine are the church. When the Lord said that we should love one another, He was implying that fruit-bearing is not an individual matter. If we each go our separate ways and seek to bear fruit, there does not need to be any love for one another. To bear fruit while we love one another means that together we bear fruit. The fruit is brought forth in a collective way.
The branches of the vine form a corporate entity, the church. If our concern is only to win souls and we have no regard for the church life, we are being individualistic. We are killing the Body while we are “bearing fruit”!
In John 17 the word one is used four times (vv. 11, 21, 22, 23). The last reference says not only “that they may be one” but adds two more words, perfected into one.
We all have our defects and shortcomings. Whenever we are together, even for a short period of time, these are exposed. The ways of others are annoying to us. Even if we are one with the saints, we are not perfected into one.
How do we handle these annoyances? Do we feel that we must put up with them in order to keep the oneness? We keep the oneness while we gnash our teeth! Our oneness needs to be perfected. We need to be transformed so that our shortcomings and defects are left behind. All of us need this perfecting.
I am a punctual person. When I travel with the brothers, however, they sometimes keep me waiting until the last minute. We have a plane to catch, but they do not show up until the time is too short, and we must rush to the airport. For years the brothers have kept me waiting.
It may be almost time for the meeting to begin, yet I see that some are still outside talking. What shall I do? Shall I lose my temper with you? I must stay on the cross and be perfected. We all need this perfecting.
Yes, the church life is surely wonderful. But even while we declare how wonderful it is, we hold back our tears, acknowledging that we need to be perfected. John 17:23, the last of the four references in this chapter to the oneness, adds this last aspect: “That they may be perfected into one.” Perfected!
There can be no divorce from the church life. It is as permanent as marriage. There is no back door and no fire escape. The church door is good only as an entrance. Once you step across the threshold, the door locks behind you. It will not unlock for you to leave. If there is any place where you may come and go as you please, that place is not the church. The church is the Body. Could your nose decide to stop being part of your body? No member of the Body can leave. If you feel at liberty to withdraw, you are probably only a denture, not a genuine member. Your thumb may be in a great deal of pain, but can it say, “That is all I can stand. I quit!”? Can the thumb leave the body? Because the church is the Body, your only way is to be perfected; there is no way out.
I have been in the church life almost fifty years. Do not think that every day has been happy. Yes, there may be a honeymoon at first, but a honeymoon is of short duration. Our whole marriage will not be like that; it is the “vinegar-moon” that is real! But there can be no divorce in the divine marriage. We have to be perfected. We cannot be separated.
There are only four things that the church will not tolerate. The first is idolatry. To worship idols is an insult to God; the church cannot allow idolatry. The second is fornication. Because this damages the humanity God created for His purpose, the Bible strongly forbids it. The third is division. Because it damages the Body of Christ, the church cannot permit division. The last is the denial of Christ’s person and redemptive work. The church cannot accept any teaching which denies that Christ is the Son of God who died for our sins; nor can the church receive anyone who holds such a teaching.
Apart from these four things — idol worship, immorality, division, and the denial of Christ’s person and redemptive work — the church must be tolerant. If someone stands up in a meeting and speaks in tongues, what will you do? You cannot cast him out; to do so would be sectarian. If someone insists that believers should be sprinkled, will you reject him? If you insist that your way is right, or if you reject him, you are being sectarian.
We are here for the proper church life, standing on the genuine oneness. We are not trying to be one in doctrine or in practices; a oneness in these areas is not genuine. Our oneness is in the Triune God, not in our beliefs or ways of doing things. As those who believe in the Lord Jesus and are the regenerated children of God, we are all members of the Body of Christ. Regardless of the differences we may have in practice or in doctrine, we have no way but to remain here in the genuine oneness. We can give no place to idol worship, immorality, division, or the denial of Christ’s divinity and redemptive work. But of other things we must be tolerant.
May the Lord preserve us in Himself so that we may enjoy the real oneness.
