John 3

Chapter 3. Life in the Gospel of JohnThat we might have life through His name is the great object of this little treatise. This word, “life,” is the most pronounced keynote of the Gospel of John. Matthew teaches us of righteousness; Mark, of service; Luke, of mercy; but John opens the deeper fountains of the source of righteousness and the spring of service. We can trace the development of this beautiful evolution through 12 distinct stages and sections. Christ the Source

1. Christ is the Source of life, and is Himself the Life. “In him was life” (John 1:4), or, as the same apostle expresses it in his epistle, “He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). Life is not a thing, but a throb of His own heart in us. Natural Life
2. Natural life comes through Christ. “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:3-4). Creation is the outflowing of His life. Man’s life and reason come from Him. He is the true Head of the natural creation, and He alone is worthy to be preeminent and to be the Head of the spiritual creation. A New Creation
3. He has come to bring us the life of a new creation, which takes the place of the old life which has failed through man’s sin and fall. This is set forth in the miracle of Cana, the turning of the water into wine (chapter 2). The first wine at the marriage feast represents our natural life, and the failure of the wine before the feast was ended, vividly shadows forth the failure of human life and happiness through sin. The time comes in every experience when the cry goes forth, “There is no wine.” The joys of youth and affection fade, and nature has no remedy. Then it is that the new wine of His love is revealed; not made in any measure from the wine of earth, but from the pure water of the Holy Spirit poured into the empty vessels of our hearts and bodies, richer, sweeter, purer far than all the pleasures of earth, so that even the world says, when it truly tastes, “you have saved the best till now” (John 2:10). This miracle is a parable of Christ’s entire teaching, and indeed of the gospel of His grace. Wine is the natural emblem of the deep, full pulses of life, and the blending of the two figures, the wine and the marriage feast with its love and joy, constitutes the most vivid and expressive unfolding of the fullness of life and love in our consummated redemption. Regeneration
4. The life of regeneration in the succeeding chapter of John next unfolds the spiritual meaning of this new wine. The first stage of our spiritual life is regeneration, and this is unfolded more clearly and completely in Christ’s interview with Nicodemus than in any other portion of the Scriptures. The Jewish rabbi had come to discuss the question of doctrine, but Jesus puts His hand upon his heart and tells him that what he must have is life, and that until he possesses true heavenly life he cannot know aright, or even see the kingdom of God. This is not a matter of individual understanding, or even of moral character; it is a newborn life coming definitely and divinely from above, as real as the impartation of physical life to the newborn child. It is even more than the repentance and outward reformation which John the Baptist taught them, and symbolized in their immersion in the Jordan. That is only being born of water. The life of which He speaks must be imparted directly by the Holy Spirit and be as truly a new creation as the divine touch which made the heavens and the earth or in-breathed the physical life of man. The outward senses cannot trace, and the understanding of man cannot penetrate its mystery, even as we cannot comprehend the simplest form of physical life in the natural world. What it is we know not, although we may perceive its effects; and so of the deeper life of the Spirit, it is true that it is wrapped in mystery, like the viewless wind, known only by its power and its results. “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). Perhaps the greatest comfort implied in the beautiful teaching of this figure is that this birth begins at the lowest, weakest stage, with the simple helplessness and feebleness of a babe. Let no one therefore, despair, because he has not been born like Adam, into fullgrown manhood. If there is life enough for a cry, thank God, and praise Him for an infant’s cry. Nicodemus, at this time, was scarcely even a babe, but the time came when he stood up with manly courage in the midst of the Sanhedrin to defend his Lord, and even went to Pilate and begged His body for honorable burial. The Lord then proceeds in the discourse that follows, to show the manner in which this new life may be received. It flows from the eternal love of God in the gift of His Son that “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). It is obtained by simply receiving and trusting Jesus, who is Himself the life. This is the true secret of regeneration, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13). All who thus receive the Savior are quickened into His own spiritual life and become by birth the children of God; and all who reject Him remain in condemnation with the added guilt of His rejection. Indwelling Life
5. Indwelling life comes through receiving Christ into the heart (John 4:13-14). In His conversation with the woman of Samaria, the Savior carries this thought farther and deeper, revealing to her, for her thirsty and unsatisfied heart, the divine source of rest and pleasure which He had come to impart, under the beautiful figure of the wellspring in the heart, which the Holy Spirit gives to those who truly receive the indwelling Christ. The life becomes now not merely a draught of water, but a perennial fountain, an artesian well with its source in the soul itself, and its supplies as lasting as eternity. This is more than regeneration; it is the fullness of Christ Himself, our life. Eternal Life
6. Eternal life comes through our deliverance from the law and judgment of God (John 5:24). Here life is regarded in its judicial aspect as secured to the believer through the eternal decree of the righteous Judge, absolving forever from condemnation and preserving from future failure. It is not mere probation; but it is a decree of life from the very Judge upon the throne, based upon the redeeming work and unchanging word of Jesus Christ, and delivering from death and even judgment all who receive it. Believing in His name we pass into a new world out of death into life, and shall not come into judgment. He who is our Savior is to be the future Judge, and accepting Him and saved by Him, we can stand without fear now, and shall meet His coming without condemnation. It is everlasting life for those who receive it. The judgment is already past, and the resurrection is already past in its spiritual and most immediate sense, for the dead have heard the voice of the Son of God and have come forth in a spiritual resurrection to die no more. Therefore they need not fear the future call which shall be the same voice which has already spoken through their souls to everlasting life. This life is inseparably linked with Jesus Himself, and all who reject Him must inevitably lose it, and therefore in closing this paragraph, His one complaint against His enemies is, “yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:40). The Living Bread
7. We receive spiritual and physical life day by day through vital union with Jesus (John 6:32-35, John 6:47-51, John 6:53-58, John 6:62-63). We have now come to the deeper waters of Ezekiel’s river. They are waters to the loins. They touch the very springs of our entire being. Many of His disciples could not receive teachings so spiritual and profound. This discourse was the turning point in His Galilean ministry. From that time many went back and walked no more with Him. Such teachings are still the turning point in the lives of many Christians. They require a closer union and a more abiding fellowship with the Master than most people care for. He reveals Himself in this beautiful discourse as the very substance of His people’s life. His flesh and blood give complete life for both body and spirit, and are the true supply of our spiritual and physical need. After the resurrection, His living person, through the Holy Spirit, is to be the imparted life of all who dwell in Him. In the closing verse of the paragraph, He distinctly points forward to His ascension, and the revelation which the Holy Spirit is to bring, and the time when all this is to be fully realized. It is scarcely necessary to say that the Lord intended no such idea as that implied in the gross and literal doctrine of Roman transubstantiation. Even if they could eat the literal flesh of Jesus it would be of no avail. But we can partake of the essence of His life and strength, imparted to our flesh by the Holy Spirit, as the subtle and yet supernatural force and vitality of our being. It is this that gives quickening and power to the spiritual life, and this is the true secret of divine healing; it is the life of Jesus made manifest in our mortal flesh. Thus He Himself lived upon His Father’s life, and thus we are to live upon His. “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). Therefore, He could say in the temptation, when Satan tried to persuade Him to seek for physical strength from forbidden sources, speaking for us as well as Himself, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). This, then, is the true ideal of Christian life, complete and continual dependence on the person of Jesus through the Holy Spirit for our entire life and strength; not only through outward and inward means of grace and strength, but personally and directly by the impartation of Himself. This requires the most intimate and uninterrupted communion with Him; therefore, He says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him” (John 6:56). It is a union as close as that of the branches and the vine, the head and the body, the throbbing heart and its physical members, the mother and the babe that lives upon her very life. Overflowing Life
8. We receive a life overflowing in service for others (John 7:37-39). Here we find the deep fountain of life running over the spring and finding vent in rivers of living water that go out to bless and save the world around us. It is beautiful to notice that as the blessing grows unselfish it grows larger. The water in the heart is only a well (in the fourth chapter), but when reaching out to the needs of others, it is not only a river, but a delta of many rivers, overflowing in majestic blessing. This overflowing love is connected with the person and work of the Holy Spirit who was to be poured out upon the disciples after Jesus was glorified. This is the true secret of power for service, the heart filled and satisfied with Jesus, and so baptized with the Holy Spirit that it is impelled by the fullness of its joy and love to impart to others what it has so abundantly received; and yet each new ministry only makes room for a new filling and a deeper receiving of the life which grows by giving. Life More Abundantly
9. We receive life more abundantly (John 10:10). There are still deeper and richer experiences in the blessed Christ life, as the soul now passes into the experience of this precious chapter. Here we find ourselves in the fold of Christ and in the intimacy of His discipline and love, as He leads us in and out through richer pastures, as He goes before us and makes us know His voice, and receives us into an intimacy with Himself as close as His intimacy with the Father, and as He makes us know the meaning of His blessed covenant, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28). Resurrection Life
10. We receive resurrection life (John 11:25; John 12:24-25). We now rise to the very highest teaching about our life in Christ. We come to the central principle of Christianity, death and resurrection. Not in the old natural sphere is this life perfected. Like the kernel of wheat it must fall into the ground and die, or it abides alone. Like Lazarus it must pass to the tomb and come forth again. Like the Lord Himself it must pass through the gates of death and come forth in union with His resurrection life. This was the symbolic meaning of His baptism; this was the profound significance of the cross, and this is the very heart of all true spiritual experience. The life of nature, the strength of self-will, the affections of earth, the self-confidence of impulse, the ideas and opinions of the flesh, must all be laid down in the grave; and we must come forth as those who are dead and their life is hid with Christ in God, and drawn henceforth, each moment, from Him alone. This was why Lazarus had to die, to foreshadow the greater resurrection. This was why the cup could not pass from Him, that it might bring the better resurrection. And this is why it is still true of all who follow Him, “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25). The two Greek words used here for life are different; the first signifying our self-life and the second our higher and everlasting life in Him. Abiding Life
11. We receive life through abiding union and fellowship with Him (John 15:1-16). We are now ready for the fullness of that personal communion which He had foreshadowed in the sixth chapter of John, but between that and their actual experience lay the floods of death. These have now passed, and the way is open for the fullness of His indwelling. There is a double union, “Remain (abide) in me, and I will remain in you” (John 15:4). The first secures our standing and justification, the second our quickening and deeper life. The word “abide” expresses the habitual and moment by moment character of our walk with Him. Everything depends on the uninterruptedness of this life. It is simply a moment at a time, and Christ sufficient for that moment. The fruits of this blessed union and abiding are: first, our sanctification—“You are already clean” (John 15:3); second, our fruitfulness—“he will bear much fruit” (John 15:5); third, answered prayer—“ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (John 15:7); fourth, the Father glorified—“This is to my Father’s glory” (John 15:8); fifth, a consistent example before the world—“showing yourselves to be my disciples” (John 15:8); sixth, the fellowship of His love—“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (John 15:9-10); seventh, the fullness of His joy—“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11); and eighth, His own personal friendship and intimacy—“I no longer call you servants,… Instead, I have called you friends” (John 15:15). Glorified Life
12. The perfection of our life comes in the glorious and final union of the whole body of believers in the Father and in the Son, in the unity of the Church below, and through the ages of glory beyond (John 17:21-26). These words express our Savior’s loftiest ideal for the life of His people, that it should be one of perfect union with Him and the Father, even as he is one with the Father; not only thus in each individual, but the perfect union of the whole body of the believers together, with each other and with Him. This should be realized even in the present life; for it is the Master’s will and prayer for all His disciples, and it will be the glory of the New Jerusalem and the perfection of the Bride. Even yet it will be fulfilled before the world, we believe, in such a manner that they will believe that the Father has sent Him. But its full realization is anticipated in the closing prayer, “to be with me where I am, and to see my glory” (John 17:24). Let us so live, and labor and pray that we may hasten the accomplishment of His dearest desire and hope for the Church for which He died.