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The Lord’s word in John 14 through 16 is deep and mysterious because the Lord wanted to bring the disciples into the depths of the unfathomable divine mysteries. These mysteries include the Father’s house with its many abodes, the vine tree, and the newborn child.
John 14 through 16 reveal that the believers in Christ live in the organism of the Divine Trinity and participate in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. The Divine Trinity is an organism constituted with Christ and all His members. Christ is organic, and so are His members. Christ and all His members have been brought into a divine constitution to become an organic entity, the living organism of the Divine Trinity. The believers live in this organism and participate in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity for their transformation with the result of being conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God.
By living in the organism of the Divine Trinity, the believers are convicted by the Spirit of reality (16:8-11). The Spirit of reality is commonly called the Spirit of truth (v. 13). In the writings of John, truth does not denote doctrine; rather, it denotes the divine reality. Hence, the Spirit of truth, that is, the Spirit of the divine reality, has convicted the believers concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.
John 16:8-11 says, “When He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe into Me; and concerning righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” First, the Spirit convicts people concerning sin. Sin came through Adam (Rom. 5:12); in Adam we were born in sin. The only way to be freed from sin is to believe into Christ, the Son of God. If we believe into Him, He becomes our righteousness, and we are justified in Him (3:24; 4:25). If we do not repent of the sin in Adam and do not believe into Christ, the Son of God, we shall remain in sin and suffer judgment with Satan for eternity.
The unique sin, which can cause a person to perish, is to not believe into the Son. Therefore, the sin referred to in John 16:9 is the unwillingness to be transferred from Adam into Christ. There is no need for a person to commit sin in order to perish; simply refusing to believe into the Lord Jesus is the qualification for perishing. The unique way to escape from our sinful situation is to believe into the Lord; the unique sin that qualifies us to perish is to not believe in Him. According to the New Testament, God’s judgment of unbelievers is not according to the Ten Commandments but according to the unique commandment to repent and believe into the Son of God. Today God has only one commandment for the world—believe into His Son. The Spirit of the divine reality comes to convict us concerning the sin of unbelief. Whoever does not believe into the Son remains a sinner in Adam until the time of judgment.
In John 16:10 the Lord Jesus said that the Spirit will convict the world concerning righteousness: “Because I am going to the Father and you no longer behold Me.” Righteousness is the resurrected Christ (1 Cor. 1:30). Christ the Son in resurrection went to the Father in the heavens. This is a strong sign that Christ has accomplished God’s redemption and that His redemption has been accepted by God the Father. If we believe into Christ, we receive God’s righteousness in Christ, and this righteousness is Christ Himself. Through this righteousness we are justified by God. God’s Son, having fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Father and having been accepted by Him, was given to the believers to be our righteousness; in Him we are justified before God.
Finally, the Spirit of reality convicts the world concerning judgment, “because the ruler of this world has been judged” (John 16:11). Through the death of Christ on the cross, Satan, the ruler of this world, has been judged (12:31-33; 3:14). Therefore, the judgment in 16:11 is related to Satan, the devil, the author of sin, the origin of death, the father of sinners, and the ruler of the world. The lake of fire is prepared for God’s judgment upon Satan; the lake of fire is not intended for human beings, but those who refuse to be transferred from Adam into Christ will share in the judgment upon Satan. This means that all those who do not believe into the Son will be with Satan, sharing his judgment. God loves the world (3:16), and He has no intention of casting man into the lake of fire; this judgment is for the devil. However, if a person refuses to believe in the Son and remains a companion to Satan, then God has no choice but to allow him to suffer Satan’s judgment.
The three major items in John 16:8-11 are related to Adam, Christ, and Satan: sin is related to Adam, righteousness to Christ, and judgment to Satan. We were born in Adam, but we believed into Christ and have received Him as our righteousness. However, those who do not believe into Christ and remain followers of Satan will share in the judgment upon Satan. The Spirit came to convict us concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment. Those who have repented and believed into the Lord Jesus have escaped the judgment upon Satan. We have been transferred out of Adam into Christ to become the children of God and the members of Christ. We are Christ’s members, living in the organism of the Divine Trinity and participating in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
The believers also live in the organism of the Divine Trinity and participate in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity by being born as a newborn child (vv. 19-22). In His resurrection Christ gave birth to a corporate child—the corporate new man—with Himself as the firstborn Son of God and His many brothers as the many sons of God. In verses 20 and 21 the Lord Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her hour has come; but when she brings forth the little child, she no longer remembers the affliction because of the joy that a man has been born into the world.” Here the Lord indicated that the disciples were like a woman travailing in birth and that He was the child to be brought forth in resurrection (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; Rom. 1:4).
Actually, the child in John 16:21 is a corporate man, comprising Christ and all His believers. The birth accomplished by Christ was not merely an individual birth but also a corporate birth, which includes the firstborn Son of God and the many sons of God. Through this one birth, many sons were born. All God’s chosen people were born together with Christ in His resurrection. This resurrection was the birth of a corporate child.
The believers were born as a newborn child through Christ’s going and coming, that is, through His death and resurrection. According to the Gospel of John, the Lord’s going was His all-inclusive death to put away sin, to terminate the old creation, to judge the world, to destroy Satan, to abolish the law of the commandments in ordinances, to release the divine life, and to prepare a place for the believers to enter into God.
Many readers of the Gospel of John consider that the Lord’s word about His coming again after going away in John 14 is about His second coming; rather, the Lord was speaking of His resurrection, an event that would take place in a few days. The Lord’s coming was His resurrection for our germination so that He might have a new creation to produce the church, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. Therefore, in John 14 the coming of the Son signifies His coming as the Spirit in His resurrection. His going was His death, and His coming was His resurrection; death was the preparatory step to resurrection. The Lord Jesus died that He might enter into resurrection. His going was His coming; He comes by going.
Therefore, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “I am coming to you” (v. 18). Then He continued, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (v. 20). That day was the day of resurrection (20:19-22). On the day of resurrection the Lord returned to the disciples and breathed Himself as the Spirit of the divine reality into them. Hence, through Christ’s going and coming, that is, through His death and resurrection, a newborn child was born.
The newborn child is the aggregate of all God’s children, or sons (1:12), who were born with Him in His resurrection to be His many brothers (Acts 13:33; 1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 8:29). This newborn child is constituted with Christ as the firstborn Son of God and all His brothers. Therefore, all the believers are parts and members of this newborn child.
According to 1 Peter 1:3, God regenerated us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When Christ was resurrected, we also were regenerated to be God’s children. The newborn child is the aggregate of all God’s children who have been regenerated through Christ’s resurrection. Hence, the Lord’s resurrection is a universal birth—not the birth of a single child but the birth of a corporate child comprised of Christ as the Head and the many brothers as the Body. This is the birth of the corporate new child that includes Christ and the believers.
The newborn child born with Christ in His resurrection is the new man—the Body of Christ (Eph. 2:15; Col. 3:10-11). The birth of the newborn child is the birth of the new man in reality. The old man was created by God in Genesis 1 and 2, but the new man was born through Christ’s resurrection. We were born in the old man, but we were regenerated in the new man; this new man includes Christ as the Head and all the believers as the Body. The Head is God’s Firstborn; the Body is constituted with the many sons of God, the many brothers of the Lord. This new man, this child, was born through Christ’s death and resurrection.
The believers, through abiding in the Son (the vine as the organism of the Divine Trinity) with the Father to be the expression of the Father (John 15:1-8; 14:9-10), live in the organism of the Divine Trinity and participate in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman” (15:1). He also told the disciples, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (v. 5). Christ, the true vine, is the universal organism of the Divine Trinity. The Son is the vine, the Father is the husbandman, and the Spirit is the One who testifies. Hence, this vine is the organism of the Divine Trinity.
Christ and the believers, the vine with its branches, constitute the organism of the Divine Trinity in the divine dispensing. Therefore, the vine in John 15 is a universal vine that includes Christ and the believers as the branches. In this vine, this organism, the Triune God lives, expresses Himself, and dispenses Himself into the believers as the branches.
Christ as the vine is God’s economy, the center of God’s universal enterprise. The Bible depicts the universe as a vineyard with a vine, which is Christ, as the center of the universe. All that God the Father is and all that He has are for this center, the vine tree, and He is expressed and manifested bodily through this center. God as life needs an organism through which He may grow and be expressed. God longs to grow in this organism and to express Himself through this organism. This organism is the vine with its branches, that is, Christ with the believers, to be the organism of the Divine Trinity. This vine tree is corporate and universal.
The Lord said, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 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” (vv. 4-5). The branches of the vine need to abide in the vine; only when the branches abide in the vine can the vine be everything to the branches. Our life and enjoyment depend upon our abiding in the vine; our destiny as branches is to remain in the vine. Apart from the Lord Jesus, the true vine, we the branches can do nothing. Therefore, we must abide in Him and let Him abide in us. In this way Christ can be everything to us for our experience and enjoyment.
When we abide in Christ the Son, who is the Father’s expression, we abide in the Son with the Father. This is a mystery. We are Christ’s members not only abiding in Him but also abiding in Him with the Father. When we abide in the Son, we abide in the Son with the Father. This means that when we abide in the Son, we abide in the Father also.
Our abiding in the Son is for bearing fruit. Fruit-bearing takes place through the branches abiding in the vine and allowing the vine to abide in the branches. Fruit-bearing is the overflow of the riches of the life of the vine, that is, the overflow of our inner life. When we continually enjoy Christ as our everything, we have the riches of life. From these riches there will be a stream of water reaching men, permeating their living, and bearing fruit. This is the fruit-bearing through the overflow of the riches of the divine life.
Fruit-bearing is for the Father to be glorified. In John 15:8 the Lord Jesus said, “In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit.” In fruit-bearing, the Father’s life is expressed; hence, in fruit-bearing, the Father is glorified. The vine tree with its branches is the organism for the Father to be glorified. With the vine, the Father is glorified through the expression of the riches of the divine life in fruit-bearing.
The fruit produced by the branches of the vine is the expression of the vine. If the branches do not bear fruit, there will not be the expression of the inner life element of the vine. The fruit produced by the branches is the expression of the inner life of the vine. This attests of the Father’s being glorified through our fruit-bearing.
In verse 8 glory indicates the expression of the Father’s desire, content, inner life, and inner riches. When the vine bears clusters of grapes, the riches of the divine life are expressed. This expression is the glorification of the Father because the Father is the divine life.
The Father is the source and the substance of the vine tree. Without the fruit produced by the branches, the essence, substance, and life of the vine would be hidden and limited. But when the branches bear much fruit, the riches of the inner life of the vine are expressed in the fruit. This expression is the release of the divine substance from the vine. This is the glorification of the Father because this is the expression of the riches of the Father’s life. When we bear much fruit by abiding in the vine, the result is that the Father is glorified.
Through living in the organism of the Divine Trinity, the believers participate in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. This organism is constituted with Christ and all His members. This is for our transformation, which results in being conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son. Since the believers are persons living in the organism of the Divine Trinity, the Spirit of reality has convicted us concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment. Sin is related to Adam, because sin came through Adam. In Adam, everyone in the world is born in sin; hence, to not believe in the Son is the unique sin that causes people to perish. Righteousness is related to Christ, because the Son went to the Father in resurrection and ascension; this is proof that Christ has accomplished God’s redemption, that this redemption has been accepted by God the Father in fulfilling His righteous requirement, and that the believers can be justified by God through this righteousness. Judgment is related to Satan, because the ruler of this world has been judged; all those who refuse to be transferred from Adam into Christ will suffer with Satan in his judgment. But the believers who believe into Christ are transferred from Adam into Christ to become children of God and members of Christ, living in the organism of the Divine Trinity and participating in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
In addition, the believers were born as the newborn child through Christ’s going and coming—His death and resurrection. The Lord’s going was His all-inclusive death, which prepared a place for the believers to enter into God; the Lord’s coming was His resurrection for the germination of the believers to produce the church. In His resurrection Christ gave birth to the corporate new man, who is comprised of Himself as the firstborn Son of God and of His many brothers as the many sons of God. This newborn child is the aggregate of all of God’s children (sons), born together with Christ in His resurrection, including Christ as the Head and the many brothers as the Body. Therefore, this newborn child is the new man, the Body of Christ.
Christ the true vine is the universal organism of the Divine Trinity, which includes Christ and the believers as the branches with the Father as the husbandman and the Spirit as the One who testifies. This vine tree is the center of the universal vineyard; all that the Father is and all that He has are expressed and manifested through this center. The believers are the branches. Through abiding in Christ the Son (the vine as the organism of the Divine Trinity), we experience and enjoy Him, and by abiding in the Son with the Father, we become the Father’s expression. Our abiding is for fruit-bearing, which is the overflow of the riches of the life of the vine, and the Father is glorified in the matter of fruit-bearing through the expression of the divine life, because the Father is the divine life.
