John 10

Chapter 10. Christ’s Discourses in John 5-6Continuing the discourses of our Lord in the Gospel of John we come to: Christ and the Father (John 5:17-23)

1. His first public claim to deity. In this passage Christ makes His first public claim in the presence of the Jews of equality with His Father, and gives this as the reason for His healing the invalid man on the Sabbath. In doing this He was simply coworking with God, who, from the beginning of the creation, has exercised His active omnipotence every moment in sustaining the universe and giving life and strength to all beings. Christ was doing only the same thing in restoring strength to this man on the Sabbath day. The Jews perfectly understood His meaning, and now, with a double ground of hostility against Him because He has insulted the Sabbath law and His alleged blasphemy in claiming equality with God, they began seriously to plot His destruction. Christ follows up His statement by declaring His absolute dependence upon the Father for all His works, and at the same time His equal partnership in all the Father’s works, and then announcing that He is yet to manifest still mightier works in the Father’s name, which will fill them with astonishment. Two of these He specifies, namely, the raising of the dead, and the prerogative of judgment upon every human soul. The purpose of all this He declares to be the Father’s glory, that “all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father” (John 5:23).
2. The Son’s message and gift of love and salvation to men in His Father’s name. Invested with this high authority and power, He comes to men and now offers them through faith in His word, the gift of everlasting life. First, it is a present quickening through His living voice and almighty power: “a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live” (John 5:25). This, of course, refers to the spiritual life which Jesus now imparts to the soul dead in trespasses and sin. Second, it is a life that delivers from condemnation and judgment by the law, and which takes us out of the place of guilt altogether and gives us eternal acquittal and justification through the decree of the very One who is Himself the Judge (John 5:24-27). Third, it unfolds the future resurrection of the body (John 5:29). This, then, is Christ’s great message and gift: to men in His Father’s name: life spiritually, life judicially, and life immortal in the resurrection.
3. The Credentials of This Divine Message What evidence does He bring to prove His high authority and the truth of His wonderful message? He does not ask them to receive Him on His own mere word, but He brings four great credentials (John 5:31-39): a. The witness of John, which they have already accepted in other respects. b. The witness of His Father, which has been explicitly given in His behalf. c. The witness of His own works as proof of His divinity. d. The very Scriptures on which they founded all their institutions and hopes bear unequivocal testimony to Him who is the fulfillment of all prophecy and the end of all the teachings of even Moses, in whom they trust (John 5:46-47)—credentials they cannot and do not attempt to dispute.
4. Their rejection of Him and the message of love He brings. In the face of all this evidence they willfully refused to receive Him. “You refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:40). Or it might be made even more emphatic, “You will not to come.” It is a perverse obstinacy in spite of truth and evidence. The reason for their unbelief He also tells them. First, it is because they have not the love of God in them; their heart is not single unto Him, and where this is the case there can never be the true light of faith. Secondly, they are under the influence of human opinions and selfish aims. “How can you believe if you acccept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44). What a solemn intimation of the danger of a divided heart in perverting the soul and blinding it even to the light of life. And yet, He warns them as He closes that, although so unwilling to believe Him with all the light and evidence He brings, they will become the willing dupes of a thousand impostors, and perhaps, at last, of the very Antichrist who will deceive them as the counterfeit of the true Messiah. Christ, the Living Bread This address, as we have already seen, was given in Galilee at the close of His ministry there, and immediately after the feeding of the 5,000 and perhaps on the Sabbath of the Passover which was then being celebrated in Jerusalem. Its one great theme, the revelation of Jesus Christ in His person, as the satisfaction of all the soul’s needs, stands in contrast with their earthly expectations of a Messiah, who was to give them mere human bread and relieve them from their temporal burdens and disasters. They were eager to make Christ their king if He would always feed them with such bread as His great miracle had furnished, but when He came to lead them to a closer fellowship with Himself and to require a deeper and more spiritual apprehension of Him, they turned away and rejected Him altogether. This discourse consists of seven sections, marked by the interruptions of His audience, and rising in succession to the final climax when the crisis is reached and their decision is made.
5. The True Bread in contrast with the food that spoils. “Do not work,” He says, “for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval” (John 6:27). This latter expression seems to refer to the ancient habit of putting a stamp or trademark on bread to indicate that it was the genuine production of a responsible tradesman. Christ bears the stamp of heaven as the True Bread of the world. They are seeking rather that which satisfies their earthly appetites, and He desires to elevate their thoughts and desires to the true source of spiritual life.
6. The true way to receive this Bread. “Do not work,” He says to them, “for food that spoils” (John 6:27). “What,” they ask, “must we do to do the works God requires?” And He answers, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:28-29). The one thing He requires of you is not that you labor for His free salvation, but that you receive it with simple trust, by believing on Him whom He has sent.
7. The heavenly character of this Bread in contrast, even with the manna of the desert. They now appeal (John 6:30-33) to their own history and the great miracle of Moses in giving them manna in the desert for 40 years, and they ask for some corresponding sign of His claims to the faith which He has demanded of them. In this request we see already the beginning of their perverse unbelief. Had He not already given them in the miracle in Galilee a sign as great as the miracle of Moses? So He does not meet them on their own plane by contrasting the greatness of His power with that of Moses, but seeks to raise their thoughts to a more spiritual plane by telling them that even the bread which Moses gave them, with all its manifestation of power, was not from heaven, after all, but mere earthly food, and that even if He should give them such bread continually, it would not be the real satisfaction they needed; and therefore He brings them bread from heaven itself, even the life which man has lost, and which only the divine love can restore.
8. Simpler and fuller explanation of this spiritual Bread. For a moment they seem to grasp His meaning, and they respond, “Sir… from now on give us this bread” (John 6:34). He tells them that this bread is nothing less than His own personal life imparted to them. It is all wrapped up in Himself. It is not “I give the bread,” but “I am the Bread of Life,” and to possess it there must be a personal relation to the fellowship with Him. This is the source of the only true rest and satisfaction. “He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). This is available and welcome to all who will truly receive it. There is no barrier in the way of any willing heart, either on the part of His Father or Himself. For Himself, He is so willing to receive any seeking soul that He puts on record the most absolute and unconditional of all His promises, “whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37). This is an invitation which admits anybody and everybody who is desirous not only of the saving mercy, but also of the sanctifying, satisfying and all-sufficient grace of Jesus to the last moment of life. Nor is His Father less willing to welcome sinful men. His very purpose in sending the Son, and His very will for men is that they should thus be saved and satisfied. And even if Christ were less willing than He is, He would yet be bound by His Father’s will, to save men (John 6:38-39). This life and satisfaction shall be eternal, reaching down beyond the grave and including the resurrection of the body in the last day (John 6:40).
9. Opposition and Reiterations Next we see the opposition of the Jews to His teachings concerning His own person as their life, and reiterations by Christ of this especial truth, with an additional reference now not only to His life, but also to His death (John 6:41-51). The opposition of the Jews was on account of His high pretensions in contrast with what they knew of His obscure human origin. “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” (John 6:42). Jesus answers them that no one can understand His divine character without divine teaching. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). And this, He adds, lest they should excuse themselves by saying that the Father had not drawn them: “Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me” (John 6:45). That is to say, the Father is teaching and willing to teach all who will learn; but they are not willing to be thus definitely taught and drawn. Then He adds two new thoughts to His former teaching, respecting the life He brings to men. First, the life it brings is not like the nourishment imparted by the manna, mere mortal life, but it is everlasting life. “He who believes has everlasting life…. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died” (John 6:47, John 6:49). The other thought is that this life must come through His death: “This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51).
10. This Life Must Be Received Through Vital Union with the Person of Christ and Living Communion with Him More and more His hearers become perplexed with this idea of eating His flesh. He now adds to it the other expression, drinking His blood. These together express most perfectly the idea of an actual participation in His death and risen life. Like many since, they understood it literally, and naturally asked, how can this man give us His flesh to eat? Jesus, however, now explains that what He means is such a union with Him as He has with the Father, by virtue of which His life is constantly sustained not by natural means alone, but by the constant impartation of the divine life. “Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me” (John 6:57). And then He adds, to show how close the union thus involved is, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him” (John 6:56). This was the constant support of His own physical and spiritual life, so that when tempted by the devil in the wilderness to make the stones into bread, He answered, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). This was not only for Himself, but it is implied in the expression “man,” not the Son of Man only.
11. This can be fully understood and realized through the Holy Spirit’s teaching and after His death, resurrection and ascension. Not in His present life among them as they see Him with their eyes and touch Him with their hands can He become to them fully the Living Bread. But after He has ascended to His Father’s right hand and sent forth the Holy Spirit to be the teacher and revealer of His truth and grace, and to lead His disciples to know and receive Him in His fullness, then shall these words be understood and appreciated. “What,” He says, “if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life” (John 6:62-63). Therefore Mary Magdalene, as she clasped His feet with her loving arms, must be taught that there was a higher touch and a more spiritual communion to which she must rise: “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17). This was too spiritual for their carnal hearts, and so we read, “many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:66). And this is the reason today that the multitudes of professing Christians know little of these great spiritual mysteries. They bring them too close to Christ, and require too pure an element of living for their earthly tastes and aspirations. Summing Up the Teachings of This Chapter a. The earthly bread is the type of the higher needs and supplies of our being, which Jesus comes to bring. b. Jesus Christ, in His own person, is the Supply of all our needs and is able and willing to impart His own very life as the strength and support of our entire being, spirit, soul and body. God has put into this one ideal Man all that man needs and needs to be, and He offers Himself to each one of us as the very Substance of our life. c. This divine provision began with His death for us as our ransom. His flesh was given for the life of the world in the sense of substitution, first. This therefore, is the primary meaning of drinking His blood, namely, partaking of the benefits of His death and atonement. d. But there is a far deeper meaning. Not only His death, but His risen life becomes for us the source of life—not only did He give His life for us, but He also gives it to us. His blood represents His life, and His flesh represents, especially, His physical life. And both together express the fact that Jesus Christ, in His entire humanity, offers Himself to His people as their imparted life and strength; His holiness, love, joy, power and even His physical vitality will be the support and supply of our every spiritual and physical need. e. In order to receive Him thus, there must be a very intimate union with Him expressed by the language “Whoever… remains in me, and I in him” (John 6:57). There must also be a habitual receiving of Him, expressed by the figure of eating and drinking, and also by the less figurative expressions, “he who comes to me,” “he who believes in me” (John 6:35), etc. f. Not in His earthly, but in His ascension life was this to be realized, and therefore, since Christ’s resurrection, He has been real to His people as He could not be before (John 6:62). g. We must be led into this knowledge of Christ and this best fellowship with Him by divine teaching. No man can thus come without the Father’s drawing and the Spirit’s revealing (John 6:44, John 6:63, John 6:65). h. But the Father is always drawing and the Spirit always teaching, and the Son always ready to receive all that come. Nowhere in all His teachings, do we find such an assurance of the willingness of Christ to receive the soul that comes to Him as in the very midst of these present teachings. This is not the exclusive privilege of a favored class, but without limitation it is said of all who are willing to come, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37). This is true not only of the soul that comes to Christ for salvation, but just as true of every advancing stage of our Christian life; and, especially, of this deeper experience into which the Lord is ever waiting and willing to lead His hungry and thirsty children. i. The climax of all this experience will be reached in the future resurrection. Therefore Christ adds repeatedly in this passage, “I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40). Then shall we know all that is involved in perfect union and fellowship with the person of our Lord, as we share both in our body, our spirit and our future glory, all the fullness of His life and all the riches of His glory.