Scripture Reading: John 2:1-11, 19-22; 3:14-15, 29-36; 4:10, 14; 5:17, 21
Ⅰ
In John 2 Christ is presented as the Life-changer and as the temple:
A
For Christ to be the Life-changer, the One who is life, means that He changes fallen man's death into life—vv. 1-11; 2 Tim. 1:10:
１
This life has conquered death and will swallow up death—Acts 2:24; 2 Cor.5:4.
２
As the Life-changer, the Lord Jesus can change our death into life.
３
The Christian life is altogether a matter of the Lord's changing our death into life—Rom. 5:17, 21.
B
John 2:19-22 reveals that Christ is the temple:
１
The body that the enemy destroyed by crucifixion was merely the body of Jesus—v. 19.
２
What was raised up by the Lord Jesus in resurrection was not only His physical body but also everyone who is joined to Him by faith—v. 21; 1 Pet.1:3; Eph. 2:6.
３
Since the day of His resurrection, the Lord Jesus has been enlarging His Body in resurrection life—John 2:21.
Ⅱ
John 3:14-15 speaks of Christ as the bronze serpent:
A
The Lord Jesus applied to Himself the type of the bronze serpent, indicating that when He was in the flesh, He was in "the likeness of the flesh of sin" (Rom. 8:3), which likeness is equal to the form of the bronze serpent—John 3:14; Num. 21:4-9.
B
When He was lifted up in the flesh on the cross, by His death Satan, the old serpent, was dealt with—John 12:31-33; Heb. 2:14.
C
Christ destroyed the devil so that the believers may have the eternal life of God—John 3:15.
Ⅲ
Christ is the Bridegroom—v. 29:
A
All the believers should experience and enjoy Him as the pleasant Bridegroom.
B
As the Bridegroom, Christ has the regenerated ones as His bride; the believers in Christ as the corporate bride are prepared for Christ as the Bridegroom—v. 30; Rev. 19:7-9.
C
Christ increases by regenerating the redeemed sinners, making them His bride—John 1:29; 3:3, 5-6.
Ⅳ
John 3:31-36 presents Christ as the immeasurable Son of God:
A
These verses reveal an unlimited, all-inclusive, and immeasurable Christ; such a One needs a universal increase to be His bride to match Him—v. 29.
B
In love, the Father has made the Son to be above all and to be all in all—vv. 31, 35.
C
As the One sent by God, Christ speaks the words of God to impart the riches of God into His believers, and He gives the Spirit not by measure—v. 34.
Ⅴ
We may experience and enjoy Christ as the gift of God—4:10:
A
God so loved the world—sinful, fallen people—that He gave His only begotten Son, His expression, so that they might obtain His eternal life to become His many sons and to be His corporate expression for the fulfillment of His eternal economy—3:16; 1:12-13; Rev. 21:2, 10-11.
B
Christ, the gift of God, imparts the living water, the water of life, which signifies God in Christ as the Spirit flowing Himself into His redeemed people to be their life and life supply—John 4:10, 14; Rev. 21:6; 22:1.
C
John 4:14 indicates that the Triune God flows in the Divine Trinity in three stages: the Father as the fountain, the Son as the spring, and the Spirit as the river.
D
The flowing Triune God is "into eternal life":
１
In verse 14 into means "issuing in," or "to be," "to become," speaking of a destination; the eternal life is the destination of the flowing Triune God.
２
This destination is the eternal life as the totality of the divine life, and eventually the eternal life will be the New Jerusalem; thus, into eternal life means into the New Jerusalem—Rev. 21:2, 10-11; 22:1.
３
The Father is the fountain as the source, Christ the Son is the spring, and the Spirit is the flowing river, and this flowing issues in the eternal life, which is the New Jerusalem as the destination of the flowing Triune God— John 4:14; Rev. 21:2, 10-11; 22:1.
Ⅵ
We may experience and enjoy Christ as the One who is equal with God and as the One who gives life—John 5:17-18, 21, 26:
A
Christ's enlivening of the impotent man testifies that He is equal with God the Father in giving life—vv. 1-18.
B
Whatever the Father wants to do in the matter of life-giving, the Son does it accordingly, working with the Father—v. 17; 10:30.
C
The Father and the Son were working for fallen man's redemption in order to fulfill God's original purpose, which is the building of God's eternal habitation— 2:19-22; 14:2; Rev. 21:2-3.
D
Both the Father and the Son have life in Themselves; thus, the Son can and does enliven people with His life as the Father desires; in life's enlivening the Son truly is one with the Father—John 5:21, 26.