JOHN 5 (1)
JOHN 5 (1)
FER We had the revelation of God — His present mind, the revelation of His will — in chapter 3, and then we got the communication of the Spirit in chapter 4. The latter comes out in Samaria in connection with the Lord’s progress from Judaea to Galilee. Then He goes on to Galilee, and completes the testimony by showing God’s faithfulness to the Jew, or rather to Israel.
[p. 46] The great point in what comes out in Galilee is that between Israel and God there must be the link of faith; so the Lord says to the nobleman, “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe”. He challenges him in that way. The nobleman, however, believes the word of Jesus, and the link is established between them in that way, while Israel, as a whole, would be characterised by the craving to see “signs and wonders”. Without faith a man has no light or knowledge of God. It is by faith the link is formed. This man is brought into distress, and in a kind of way he feels that Christ is his only helper, but he was really looking upon the raising up of his son as a ground of faith, and the Lord rebukes that. When he rested simply on the word of Christ he gets the sign as a confirmation. You see, faith would not be moral if it depended upon a sign, but when faith is there, the sign comes in to confirm it. It is so difficult to man — and I think we know something of it in ourselves — to believe in the goodness of God, that He has pleasure in good.
I think chapter 5 brings in a further development. Chapters 3 and 4 go together. You get in chapter 3 light as to what is God’s will — what He had before Him — and chapter 4 brings in the way in which it is effected in us. One great point is emancipation from sin. You get a person taken up who was under the control of sin, and the effect of the Spirit springing up in her was to emancipate her from sin. It answers to “That the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin”. That is what the Lord made good in regard to her. In chapter 3 there is foreshadowed the truth of the old man being crucified with Christ, but then the woman was to be emancipated from sin, and that is really by the power of the Spirit within her, as set forth in chapter 4. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”. It is the emancipation [p. 47] of a poor sinful woman in the very place of her sin, for it was in Samaria that she was emancipated. She was not taken out of Samaria, but emancipated there. The very principle of Christianity is that in the scene of your sin you are to be delivered from it. So, too, it is in the world that you are to overcome the world. Resurrection is what takes place upon earth — it is not in heaven, but upon earth, that by the power of God a man is taken out of death; it is in the very scene where he died. This is very distinctly dealt with in chapter 5. Chapter 4 is emancipation, while chapter 5 brings in quickening. This latter comes in really in view of relationship.
Ques Does that bring in the thought of nature?
FER Well, I think it does, in a sense. The thought of quickening in Scripture is that it introduces the object of it into relationship. I think that quickening is a much broader term than we have supposed. You are looked at as being made alive out of the state of death in which you were found, in order to get an entirely new place of relationship with the Father. He quickens “whom he will”. It is for Himself — for the place they are to have before Him.
Ques It is not just emancipation here?
FER No; it is more positive. Here you share the place of the Son of God. It is the same in Ephesians — you are quickened together with Christ. We are made alive before God in company with Christ, it is “with him”.
Ques What about the man here at the pool?
FER He is really, in type, quickened that he might live before God. The man is raised up by the word of Christ. It is really, in type, the application of the word of Christ to the Jew, and will get its accomplishment in the future with the Jew, when the law is written in the heart of the Jew. Then it is he will carry his bed. It has often been said that what marks the present moment with the Jew is that his [p. 48] bed carries him; but when the law is written in their hearts, they will carry their bed. The man here is helpless, yet at the word of Christ he carries his bed.
Ques Is that why he was healed on the sabbath?
FER I think it was the purpose of the Lord to call attention to it — it was providential. The sabbath was the sign of the covenant, and many of the Lord’s miracles were wrought on the sabbath. The covenant had grown old and was on the point of being broken up. It has often been a stumbling-block — the Lord doing miracles on the sabbath. In the eye of God the covenant was already broken.
Ques Why does it specify thirty-eight years?
FER Well, it corresponds with the length of the wilderness journey up to the time of the brazen serpent, and to the death of Moses. It indicates the probationary period; it was over — he had lain there thirty-eight years in that case, but now he gets a new start by the word of Christ.
It is so important to see that quickening really means that a man is made consciously alive out of a previous state of death. But then, how? You must be made alive in reference to something. It is not just like a vegetable — a man is made alive in reference to something, and, as a matter of fact, he is made alive in relation to the Father. The effect of the quickening word is to bring you consciously into relationship to the Father. “The Father quickens whom he will”.
Ques Why is it that it comes in after the gift of the Spirit, as in chapter 4?
FER Well, you find the same thing in Romans 8. You first get emancipation, and then later on you have the same Spirit spoken of as the Spirit of sonship. The Spirit is looked at first as the power of deliverance, and then you get the thought of life, and then, too, of sonship. You have all in the power of the same Spirit, but there is a kind of moral order. The Lord says,
“[p. 49] It is the Spirit which quickens, the flesh profits nothing”. I believe people put too limited a meaning on the word “quickening”. There is a remarkable force in it.
Rem It has been applied to new birth.
FER Yes; but that is not the idea of it in Scripture. It is evident enough in this passage that the Lord was quickening in view of the Father — that is the great point in the chapter — and He was acting in perfect concert with the Father.
Rem “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do”.
FER Exactly. If you are quickened by the Son, it is that you may live to the Father. It is to bring you into the place of children, and He completes the work eventually. It goes on to the raising of the body.
Ques Does quickening come after the gift of the Spirit?
FER Well, at all events, the realisation of it does — the effectuality of it is really after the Spirit is received.
Rem But you must have the Spirit to know it.
FER The Spirit is received before there is any formative work of the Spirit. Quickening is the result of the Spirit’s formative work, and not simply of His being there. A man is made alive, he is quickened, in that relationship.
Rem Actually it is after.
FER Well, yes. It is the renewing of the Holy Spirit; you get that, too, when the Holy Spirit is received. He is “shed on us abundantly”, and then He renews. The renewing was when the Holy Spirit was shed, not before. We cannot know this relationship apart from love. The fact of it is, that quickening brings you into the divine nature. It is a positive thing. No one can know the Father — can touch Him — except in love. It is not faith that enables you to know the Father. To believe in the Father is one [p. 50] thing, but to know Him is another. I do not think you know the Father apart from the divine nature.
Rem The one is objective, and the other subjective.
FER Yes. The Holy Spirit is the completion of one line, but then He is the beginning of another. If you take the responsibility line in a man, the Holy Spirit is the completion of that line in this way, that when he has faith, then he is sealed by the Spirit. God puts His seal on him, and that is the end of that line; but then there is the line of purpose and the Holy Spirit is the beginning of that line. I venture to say there are thousands of Christians who apprehend the Spirit as the closing up of the one line, but they do not know Him as the beginning of another line. When you get to Romans 8 you begin on an entirely new line.
Ques Is there any type which sets forth the first to us?
FER The first, I imagine, is supposed when they come through the Red Sea — the presence of the Holy Spirit is assumed when they are brought through the Red Sea.
Ques That is, on God’s side?
FER Yes, it is. But then it was a kind of seal upon them.
Rem You were saying that God justifies a man in order to give him the Spirit.
FER Yes, quite so. Everything depends on the Spirit.
Ques Does the gospel end at the first?
FER Well, yes, in one way. But you know you have to take into account a good deal more than that. Man is to be justified by faith in the blood of Christ, and the Holy Spirit is given; and then, in a certain sense, that is the end of the gospel — the man is sealed for the day of redemption. If you look at a Christian as on the line for heaven, he is sealed for it, and the whole course is clear; but then that is only one line,
[p. 51] and that line, too, in one sense, will come to an end. But what is so important is this, that the Holy Spirit is the beginning of another line, and that is according to God’s purpose — that is where you really begin.
Rem I think you have pointed out that Miriam never got into the land.
FER No. Neither Miriam nor Aaron. Even Moses came to an end, and the new line all comes out in connection with Joshua. He is the leader on the new line.
Ques Is quickening new creation?
FER Well, they stand in different connections, but they are virtually the same. New creation is connected with good works, and walk, and all that — in a moral connection. We are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them”, and the “new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness”. Then in Galatians we have, “As many as walk according to this rule” — that is, the rule of new creation. New creation and good works go together, but quickening is that which God effects for Himself — it is not that He quickens you for good works. When it is the thought of the Father, then you get quickening, but new creation is more a moral idea.
Rem The one is man-ward and the other God-ward.
FER The new man comes out where the old man was, that is, down here. “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works”. Now the whole point of this chapter is that you are quickened for the Father.
Ques Is that what you mean when you speak of a soul beginning on a new line?
FER Yes. It is “the renewing of the Holy Spirit”. A vast number of Christians apprehend the Holy Spirit on the one line who do not apprehend Him on the other. The former is on the responsibility [p. 52] line, but the latter on the line of God’s purpose. Now the gospel of John almost ignores the former, and makes very prominent the latter — it is almost exclusively occupied with the purpose line.
I think the first part of the chapter is very beautiful, and the beauty is that the Lord does not go beyond what is proper to Israel. He does not speak of heavenly things, but He tells forth what will be true for Israel, and then He goes on to show them “greater things”.
In the legal system everything depended upon a man’s ability to get the relief which it afforded him, but we see here that the man who most wanted it was the man who did not get it. The whole providential system was given on legal ground, which took account of competency in man to avail himself of it. If there had been any grace in the others they would have let the man who had been there thirty-eight years get down first, but, as he said, “While I am coming, another steppeth down before me”, and that had been not only once or twice, but thirty-eight times. There is not much grace there, in fact the system did not admit of it.
I think now we see the revelation of God in contrast with providence. Many people’s thoughts do not go beyond providence. They say, “God helps those who help themselves”. I believe many people think that, but the revelation of God comes in and helps a man who cannot help himself. In this chapter we see that one word of Christ helps the man who cannot help himself “Take up thy bed and walk”; and on the same day was the sabbath. When man is relieved from the pressure which is upon him, then you get a sabbath.
Rem And that is what God will do for Israel.
FER Yes, quite so, and that brings in the true sabbath. The law will be written in their hearts, although we must remember that this can only be done [p. 53] by One who can relieve them from death. Christ can quicken out of death — the judgment of God — and that is the reason why the Lord is brought before us in this chapter as the Son. No one could take man out of that state but the Son; and so the law can be written in their hearts because it is in the power of Christ to relieve from the pressure of death. I do not hesitate to use the expression that really God Himself came into the place of man’s judgment. I know what I am saying — it was the great testimony of God that He, in the Person of His Son, came into the place of man’s judgment. If it was God’s judgment, none but God could relieve man from it, and He did it by coming Himself into the place of that judgment. “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law”.
Rem It presents God in a very blessed way.
FER I think it is the whole gist of the chapter that He could remove the judgment, He could quicken man out of death. Death was upon man, as well as in him, and that judgment must be removed in order that man might pass out of death.
Ques What is meant by death in man?
FER It is man’s weakness, his inability to please God. The law brings home to me that death is in me, and it brings death into me. The man in Romans 7 was dead before, but he did not know it; he only realises it when the claims of the law are recognised.
I think that expression of the Lord, “Take up thy bed and walk”, is one of the most wonderful things that came out in the Lord’s ministry. The man was to walk in newness of life, and on the same day was the sabbath. What does that imply? They would be able to please God. Enoch walked with God, and had the testimony that he pleased God. That was outside of death. He was translated, and had light as to [p. 54] translation, which was outside of death, just as Abel had light as to acceptance; that was his light.
Ques What about the man sick of the palsy in Luke 5 — he took up his bed and walked? Is that the same at all?
FER Yes, it is just the same principle. Palsy sets forth man’s moral weakness — his inability to walk. But there was another thing in connection with this man — the Lord says to him, “Thy sins are forgiven thee”. The proof that his sins are forgiven is that he is relieved from death, and no man can say that his sins are forgiven if he is not relieved from death.
In Romans 6 death is on man, and in chapter 7 it is in him. In the former you are buried because sin is on you — you are buried into Christ’s death. Christ has come into my death and I am buried into His. Then in chapter 7 I know that death was on me, but the law brought home that death was in me — it killed me, I was perfectly helpless.
There is one thing very painful in this chapter (John 5), and that is, that the man is so heartless that he does not seem in the least touched, and the Jews are perfectly heartless. The Lord says to him, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee”; but I cannot help thinking that if the man had been touched, he would have stayed with the Lord, or gone home, and not have gone to the Jews, apparently with a view to stirring up opposition. I have noticed that, where you find orthodoxy, it is almost always allied with great heartlessness. There may be great zeal for the truth and so on, but very little in the way of warmth or affection. In this case the Jews were zealous for the sabbath, but see how hard they were. However, it all serves as an occasion for testimony. “The Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day”. But Jesus answered them, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”. And therefore they sought the more to kill [p. 55] Him, because, as they declared, not only had He broken the sabbath, but said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.
It is very wonderful the character of the Lord’s works. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” — not great works of destruction, such as man may work, but here it is a palsied man, who had lain on his bed for thirty-eight years, to whom the Lord said, “Take up thy bed, and walk”. The fact is, when God comes into a scene of sin, it is to relieve man from the pressure and effects of sin. Ever since sin came into the world that had been true. The ways of God all foreshadowed man being relieved from the pressure which sin had brought in upon him. You will find all through Scripture the thought presented of death being set aside. It comes out from the very beginning — man died, Abel died, but he had first found a place of acceptance with God. Then Enoch comes in, and he is translated so that he should not see death at all. You get testimony after testimony of what was God’s thought about it. With Moses, too, at the bush, the testimony is, “I am ... the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”, that is, that death is being set aside by resurrection.
“My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”. How often, in the present day, you come across people who are insensible to any goodness in God. People talk about “the Psalmist”, and that sort of thing, and quote Scripture in a flippant sort of way, but they have not the faintest impression of the goodness of God. It is so sad, in the midst of a people professedly Christian, with a certain familiarity with the letter of Scripture, to see how little knowledge there is of God’s goodness. God’s dealings in grace are really summed up in the expression, “My Father worketh”. The law was dealing with man in responsibility, but the [p. 56] idea was that it was to be written. For the moment, I know it was written on tables of stone, but the divine idea was that it was to be written in the heart of man. When Moses went up into the mount, he unveiled his face — he was a picture of Christ. God looked to the end, and the end really was “the glory of the Lord”. The people were not allowed to look to the end, but it was there before God, and I think you can understand why the law was written on tables of stone. It was because Christ had not yet come. Until He was here upon earth you could not have the law written on men’s hearts; He must be the first, and when He came, He could say, in the language of the Spirit in David, “Thy law is within my heart”. It was not that it needed to be there — it was there, and it was God’s thought from the outset. It was from that standpoint that God could charge Moses to take from the people of Israel the materials for the building of the sanctuary.