«　WEEK 4　DAY 4　»

　　John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

　　14 …The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (…we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.

　　32 And John testified, saying, I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He abode upon Him.

　　John 1 first speaks of Christ as the Word. Then it reveals that this Word speaks for God through His creation. Then He speaks further for God through His incarnation and in His being the Lamb. The fourth great event in the history of the universe, through which Christ as the Word speaks, is His becoming the Spirit [v. 32]….This is the Spirit descending as a dove upon the Lamb. Christ was the Lamb. Then He became the dove, the Spirit. Christ is revealed in John 1 in His becoming the Spirit for the transformation of God’s redeemed people into stones (vv. 32-42) for the building of God’s house (Bethel—v. 51) organically for the New Testament.

　　To become like God, we need transformation. The first step of transformation is to regenerate, to remake, us….We were made in the image of God and according to the likeness of God, [but] we still do not have anything real of God in us until we are regenerated. We need to be regenerated to begin our transformation into stones for God’s spiritual building, His house. The house of God, Bethel, first is the church, then the Body of Christ, and consummately the New Jerusalem. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” p. 337)

　　The Triune God became a God-man, bringing divinity into humanity and mingling divinity with humanity as a prototype for the mass reproduction of many God-men. He became the embodiment of the Triune God (John 1:14), bringing God to man and making God contactable, touchable, receivable, experienceable, enterable, and enjoyable. The very God who was in eternity became, through transformation, the very embodiment of the Triune God, which is typified by the tabernacle, a solid entity for people to contact, to touch, to receive, to experience, to enter into, and to enjoy.

　　He could not have lived a human life unless He had been transformed into a man. He lived a human life, yet He lived not by His human life but by His divine life to express the divine attributes in His human virtues. Such a living is the model of the human living of His mass reproduction of the many God-men (1 Pet. 2:21). He was not only the prototype for the mass reproduction of Himself; He was also a model, an example, for His mass reproduction of the many God-men to repeat His living, to be “xerox copies” of His human living. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” p. 378)

　　The Gospel of John speaks repeatedly about how we should have subjective experiences of the Lord. He became flesh for the purpose of working Himself into us. He became the living water so that we may drink Him, the bread of life so that we may eat Him, and the breath of life so that we may breathe Him. Nothing can be more subjective than the subjective experiences produced when water, bread, and breath get into us.

　　However, we have to see that…all the subjective experiences that are linked to the Spirit and are hinged on life are for the producing of the church. The issue of our receiving the Lord into us is that we become constituents of the church. To be sure, in the Gospel of John we are shown the subjective experiences. Though the term church is not used, we should not overlook the fact that this book speaks of how the constituents of the church are produced. (CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The Subjective Truths in the Holy Scriptures,” p. 123)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” chs. 1, 2; Life-study of John, msg. 5