John 5:19-29), It is evident, then, that the Lord presents life in Himself as the true want of man, who was not merely infirm but dead. Nathanael's call is just as clearly typical of Israel in the latter day. If a man looks at the Lord Jesus as One who entered the world in a general way, and calls this the incarnation, he will surely stumble over the cross. But how precious the grace, in presence of their hatred and proud self-complacency! 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. But if the Spirit speaks of the Son of God, the law dwindles at once into the smallest possible proportions: everything yields to the honour the Father puts oil the Son. (VersesJohn 5:8-12; John 5:8-12), But were the Jews mistaken after all in thinking that the seal of the first covenant was virtually broken in that deliberate word and warranty of Jesus? What Makes Covenant Theology So Important? And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. GOD LOVES YOU. Still the Lord refused the crown then: it was not the time or state for His reign. In John 6:1-71 our Lord sets aside Israel in another point of view. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? Blessed servant he of an infinitely blessed and blessing Master! Could they, then, reject the Son, and merely miss this infinite blessing of life in Him? You are right when you say you have no husband. These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. (Verse John 3:16), Let it not be passed by, that while the new birth or regeneration is declared to be essential to a part in the kingdom of God, the Lord in urging this intimates that He had not gone beyond the earthly things of that kingdom. First, a new nature is insisted on the Holy Ghost's quickening of each soul who is vitally related to God's kingdom; next, the Spirit of God takes an active part not as source or character only, but acting sovereignly, which opens the way not only for a Jew, but for "every one." For The Baltimore Sun. What is there in God more truly divine than grace and truth? The Jews were not satisfied with that, but demanded still that he should be put to death, John 19:39-40. He who If, on the contrary, a soul has been taught of God the glory of the person of Him who was made flesh, he receives in all simplicity, and rejoices in, the glorious truth, that He who was made flesh was not made flesh only to this end, but rather as a step toward another and deeper work the glorifying God, and becoming our food, in death. Such are the grand emphatic points to which the Lord leads. John 4:1-6; John 4:1-6) What a picture of rejection and humiliation! This brings in the great counterpart truth, that even God present on earth and made flesh is not enough. - Now Jesus knew (perceived by his Divine penetration of human thought here quickened by their anxious look and hurried whisperings) that they were wishing to question him, and he said to them, Are you inquiring among yourselves concerning this that I said, A little while, etc. If He put forth His power, it was not only beyond man's measure, but unequivocally divine, however also the humblest and most dependent of men. If believers genuinely love God they will also obey his commandments. Expand. The man went off, and told the Jews that it was Jesus: and for this they persecuted Him, because He had done these things on the sabbath. In the process of torturing Jesus, the soldiers ironically coronate him king. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." They knew what they worshipped, but not the Father, nor were they "true." 6 There came a man who was sent from God. Because he would put a difference between his baptism and that of John, who baptized all himself; for he baptized as a servant, Christ as a master. Further, John attests that he saw the Spirit descending like a dove, and abiding on Him the appointed token that He it is who baptizes with the Holy Ghost even the Son of God. For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. Nobody had gone up to heaven: God had taken more than one; but no one had gone there as of right. 18 The fact He who, living, was received for eternal life, is our meat and drink in dying, and gives us communion with His death. He had no need that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. (Verse John 7:39), Nothing can be simpler than this. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. (Ed. But the chapter does not close without a further contrast. This would make all manifest. In truth, Christian baptism did not yet exist, but only such as the disciples used, like John the Baptist; it was not instituted of Christ till after His resurrection, as it sets forth His death. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? John 4:19-20. Verse John 1:29 opens John's testimony to his disciples. Heavenly things are set in evident contradistinction, and link themselves immediately here, as everywhere, with the cross as their correlative. He bows to, as he explains, the sovereign will of God. As there is an absolute necessity on God's part that man should be thus born anew, so He lets him know there is an active grace of the Spirit, as the wind blows where it will, unknown and uncontrolled by man, for every one that is born of the Spirit, who is sovereign in operation. Just as in John 4:1-54, so here it is a question of power in the Holy Ghost, and not simply of Christ's person. John, therefore, who had been the honoured witness before of God's call, "the voice," etc., does now by the outpouring of his heart's delight, as well as testimony, turn over, so to say, his disciples to Jesus. 17 This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day - our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. It was much, yet was it little of the glory that was His; but at least it was real; and to the one that has shall be given. called also John the Baptist. Jesus declared of God the Father, God is Spirit, (John 4:24) meaning that God the Father has no tangible body which may be seen. Still, such is the effect on man under law, that he could not take advantage of an adequate remedy. But He, being God, was manifesting and, on the contrary, maintaining the divine glory here below. As to Himself, He does not go at that time to the feast of tabernacles; but later on He goes up "not openly, but as it were in secret" (verseJohn 7:10; John 7:10), and taught. "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life." a male mule, or more Granted He was the Son of man; but as such, He had all judgment given Him, and would judge. Glory would be displayed in its day. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." The Word, God (and only begotten Son in the Father's bosom), He was eternally Son of God, too, as born into the world. Hence the Son, being in this ineffable nearness of love, has declared not God only, but the Father. All this, however, was abstract, whether as to the nature of the Word or as to the place of the Christian. Thus, manifestly, the whole question is terminated at the very starting-point of our gospel; and this is characteristic of John all through: manifestly all is decided. And as life is in the person of the Son, so God in sending Him meant not that the smallest uncertainty should exist for aught so momentous. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came ( ) by Jesus Christ." Of this we learn nothing, here. 1. 9 The true Light who gives light to every man was coming into the world. There is difference of manner for the world and His own ignorance and rejection. This will be displayed in the millennium, when the marriage will be celebrated, as well as the judgment executed (Jerusalem and its temple being the central point then). Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? The Word, in order to accomplish these infinite things, "was made. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. The resurrection of the Lord is not more truly a demonstration of His power and glory, than the only deliverance for disciples from the thraldom of Jewish influence. * He says, One was among them of whom they had no conscious knowledge, "that cometh after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to loose." So only is man born of God. He was God. One must be born again. but they go down into the depths of God, lifting burdens off the heart of humanity, turning duty into delight, and changing the aspect of all things. John gives us this point of contact with them, though in an incident peculiar to himself. (Verses John 7:16-18) , The Jews kept not the law) and wished to kill Him who healed man in divine love. (sometimes initial capital letter) a prostitute's customer. Further, it is connected intimately with the evidence of man's ruin by sin. John 3:1-36 follows this up. Who Is Lillith and Why Don't We Find Her in Our Bible? John 19 Jesus Is Crucified A. Jesus is condemned to crucifixion. 1. (1-4) Pilate hopes to satisfy the mob by having Jesus whipped and mocked. So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. His death on the cross included much more, clearly answering to the first; His baptizing with the Holy Ghost followed His going to heaven. John 3:17; John 3:17) This decides all before the execution of judgment, Every man's lot is made manifest by his attitude toward God's testimony concerning His Son. This is indispensable; for God is a Spirit, and so it cannot but be. The Lord, in the latter part of the chapter (verses John 6:27-58), contrasts the presentation of the truth of God in His person and work with all that pertained to the promises of Messiah. "For God," He says, "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Jesus not only could go up, as He did later, but He had come down thence, and, even though man, He was the Son of man that is in heaven. "He that believeth on him is not judged: but he that believeth not is judged already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Thus, in His person, as well as in His work, they joined issue. Thus we have traced, first, hearts not only attracted to Him, but fresh souls called to follow Him; then, in type, the call of Israel by-and-by; finally, the disappearance of the sign of moral purifying for the joy of the new covenant, when Messiah's time comes to bless the needy earth; but along with this the execution of judgment in Jerusalem, and its long defiled temple. I apprehend the words the Authorised Version gives in italics should disappear. 1 John 4:16. If he receives Him, it is everlasting life, and Christ is thus honoured by him; if not, judgment remains which will compel the honour of Christ, but to his own ruin for ever. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours." A person falling thousands of feet through the air would experience sheer terrorunless they knew a parachute would soon open. Here there is no John proclaiming Jesus as the One who was about to introduce the kingdom of heaven. It was meet that so it should be; for, as a question of right, none could claim; and grace surpasses all expectation or thought of man, most of all of men accustomed to a round of religious ceremonial. The effect is thus final, even as His person, witness, and glory are divine. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life. Here (John 5:1-47) the first view given of Christ is His person in contrast with the law. Details are not called for now, but just the outline of the truth. (ver. It is there that we found the Lord, in the other synoptic gospels, fulfilling His ordinary ministry. John then declared his own waning before Christ, as we have seen, the issues of whose testimony, believed or not, are eternal; and this founded on the revelation of His glorious person as man and to man here below. This leads Philip to Nathanael, in whose case, when he comes to Jesus, we see not divine power alone in sounding the souls of men, but over creation. Just as distinct and beyond comparison is His testimony who, coming from heaven and above all, testifies what He saw and heard, however it might be rejected. As a weapon of conviction, most justly had it in the mind of the Lord Jesus the weightiest place, little as man thinks now-a-days of it. No doubt there are intervening applications; but such is the ultimate result of His work as the Lamb of God. Besides this, goodness overflows, in that the Father is gathering children, and making worshippers. And so, in fact, it was and is. Here again, apart from this divine insight, the change or gift of the name marks His glory. Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 44:3, Isaiah 59:21, Ezekiel 36:25-27 ought to have made the Lord's meaning plain to an intelligent Jew. Thus, in fact, we have the Lord setting aside what was merely Messianic by the grand truths of the incarnation, and, above all, of the atonement, with which man must have vital association: he must eat yea, eat and drink. It was not so. This statement (verse John 1:15) is a parenthesis, though confirmatory of verse John 1:14, and connects John's testimony with this new section of Christ's manifestation in flesh; as we saw John introduced in the earlier verses, which treated abstractly of Christ's nature as the Word. No charge could be remoter from the truth. They should have understood more about Him those that were specially favoured. Matthew Henry's Commentary on John 4:16-19 Commentary on John 4:4-26 (Read John 4:4-26) There was great hatred between the Samaritans and the Jews. Here He is not portrayed as the Son of man who must be lifted up, but as the Son of God who was given. He that comes from above from heaven is above all. He wanted nothing; He came to give yea, the very best, so to speak, that God has. It was sabbath-day. In vain did any come to the Baptist to report the widening circle around Christ. For them, Israel, or the world, all is over. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." WebJesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. The Lord Jesus did, without question, take humanity in His person into that glory which He so well knew as the Son of the Father. (sometimes initial capital letter) a fellow; guy. It is not merely a Messiah, who comes and offers Himself, as we find in other gospels, with most painstaking diligence, and presented to their responsibility; but here from the outset the question is viewed as closed. The Lord and the disciples are next seen in the country district, not far, it would seem, from John, who was baptizing as they were. How were they not enjoyed in despised Samaria those two days with the Son of God among them! john 8 32) 1 John 4:16 (King James Version) 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. No doubt He must become a man, in order, amongst other reasons, to be a sufferer, and to die. Thus the Holy Ghost, given by the Son in humiliation (according to God, not acting on law, but according to the gift of grace in the gospel), was fully set forth; but the woman, though interested, and asking, only apprehended a boon for this life to save herself trouble here below. This He does in verses 16-19. The allusion to the fig-tree confirms this. God never left Himself without witness; He did not even among the Gentiles, surely yet less in Israel. This gives occasion to Jesus to teach us the lesson that conscience must be reached, and sense of sin produced, before grace is understood and brings forth fruit. As an experienced minister, Alistair shares his approach to preaching. WebJohn repeats that people must believe in Jesus as the Son of God in order to be saved, and that love for God is inseparable from love for Gods people (5:1). At first she tried to hide her sins, but Jesus The chapter pursues this subject, showing that it is not only God who thus deals first, with the necessity of man before His own immutable nature; next, blessing according to the riches of His grace but, further, that man's state morally is detected yet more awfully in presence of such grace as well as holiness in Christ. Jesus explains: "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. 17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 17 And as we live The close of the chapter shows us the Lord in Galilee. (Verses John 7:40-53). But this is not the question of grace: not what she was, but what He is who was there to win and bless her, manifesting God and the Father withal, practically and in detail. But "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must ( ) the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Johns answer goes down to the depths, for his notion of love is the response of the believing soul to the love of God which was manifested on the Cross of Calvary. What a witness all this to His person! go, call thy husband, and come hither; go directly from hence to the city of Sychar, and call thy husband, and come back hither along with him again: this Christ said, not to have him come to teach and instruct him, and as if he would more readily and easily understand him, and that he might be with her, a partaker of the same grace; but to bring on some further conversation, by which she would understand that he knew her state and condition, and what a course of life she now lived, and so bring her under a conviction of her sin and danger, and need of him and his grace. , to be a sufferer, and making worshippers Word, in order to accomplish these infinite,. Italics should disappear a further contrast torturing Jesus, the soldiers ironically him..., being in this ineffable nearness of love, has declared not only. Up. but grace and truth came ( ) by Jesus Christ. they! 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