Scripture Reading: John 1:14, 29; 3:14; 12:23-24
Ⅰ
“The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us…, full of grace and real- ity”—John 1:14:
A
For the Word as God (v. 1) to become flesh is for God to have the human life and the human nature.
B
The flesh that the Word became had only the likeness of the flesh of sin and did not have sin in the flesh—Rom. 8:3.
C
That the Word, who was God, became flesh means that the Triune God became a man of flesh in the likeness of a sinful man—1 Tim. 3:16; Col. 2:9:
１
By so doing, God entered into sinful man and became one with sinful man; however, He had only the likeness of sinful man and not the sin of sinful man—Rom. 8:3.
２
Christ was a sinless God-man, the complete God and a perfect man, having two natures, the divine nature and the human nature—Luke 1:35:
ａ
Although the two natures were mingled to produce a God-man, the individual characteristics of the two remained distinct; the two natures did not intermix to form a third nature.
ｂ
The divine nature existed in the human nature and was expressed through the human nature, full of grace, which is God enjoyed by man, and reality, which is God obtained by man—John 1:14.
ｃ
The invisible God was expressed so that man can obtain and enjoy Him as his life for the fulfillment of His New Testament economy—v. 4; 10:10; 11:25.
D
The deep thought in the Gospel of John is that Christ, the incarnate God, came as the embodiment of God, as illustrated by the tabernacle (1:14), so that man could contact God and enter into Him to enjoy the riches contained in God.
Ⅱ
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”—v. 29:
A
In redemption Christ is the Lamb of God, who died on the cross to deal with sin and sins:
１
As the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus died for our sins—1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Pet. 2:24; Heb. 9:28.
２
The Lord's death also dealt with sin, the poisonous nature of Satan that had been injected into the human race—2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 9:26.
B
In redemption Christ as the Lamb of God satisfied God's requirements—the re- quirements of God's righteousness, holiness, and glory—Gen. 3:24; Rom. 2:5; Heb. 12:29; 9:5.
C
The Lamb of God signifies the Word in the flesh (John 1:1, 14) as the fulfillment of all the Old Testament offerings to accomplish a full redemption:
１
Christ is the totality of all the offerings—Heb. 10:5-9.
２
Through Christ as the Lamb of God fulfilling all the offerings, we may enter into God and participate in the divine life and nature—John 3:14-15; 2 Pet. 1:4:
ａ
We may boldly come into God, knowing that He does not have the right to reject us, because we come through His Lamb—Heb. 10:19.
ｂ
We have full redemption in Christ, and we are therefore enabled to enter into God to enjoy all that He is—John 1:14, 16-17.
Ⅲ
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up”—3:14:
A
This verse indicates that Christ died on the cross as a serpent in form.
B
The Lord Jesus applied to Himself the type of the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness (Num. 21:4-9), 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.
C
When He was lifted up in the flesh on the cross, by His death Satan, the old serpent, was dealt with—Heb. 2:14:
１
It was through being crucified as a serpent in form that the Lord Jesus crushed the head of the old serpent, the devil—Gen. 3:15.
２
In this way He judged the ruler of this world and destroyed the devil, who had the might of death—John 12:31; Heb. 2:14.
３
As the One who died as a serpent in form under God's judgment, the Lord Jesus dealt with the devil and his world, the satanic system.
Ⅳ
“Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”—John 12:24:
A
Christ has a reproduction, and in His reproduction He was a grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died in order to produce many grains in His resur- rection—1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 2:6:
１
In His resurrection Christ imparted the divine life into us and made us the same as He is in life and nature to be His reproduction—John 1:12-13.
２
After He fell into the ground and died, He grew up in resurrection, producing many grains, which are His reproduction, His multiplication.
B
This reproduction of Christ in resurrection is His propagation—12:24:
１
Through His death and resurrection Christ has been multiplied and propa- gated—1:1-13; Rom. 8:29.
２
This propagation is for the producing of the church; through His death and resurrection He has produced the church as His reproduction—Matt. 16:18.
C
This reproduction through death and resurrection was also the Lord's glorifica- tion; the Lord Jesus was glorified in the producing of many grains, which are for the building up of His Body—John 12:23; Eph. 1:20-23; 4:16.