THE GLORY OF THE SON OF GOD IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

The key to this gospel is the first thirty-four verses. The Word, a divine Person, One who was with God eternally and was God, became flesh, came into human condition. That is what we rightly speak of as the incarnation.

It is to be noted that in this gospel we get no genealogy and no account of His birth. He is the true Melchisedec, the Son of God, without beginning of days, or end of life, the eternal “I am”. He became flesh that He might reveal the Father, and accomplish His will. The incarnation involved three things: the revelation of God in the name of Father, the taking away of the sin of the world, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. On these three great facts the universe of God is being built up; what we speak of as the eternal state. These three things, equally with creation, manifest His divine glory as Son of God. Only One who was Himself God could reveal God. No creature, prophet, or apostle, or angelic being could reveal Him. “The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”, John 1: 18. No creature could deal with the question of sin, and take it out of the world. It involved His becoming a sacrifice for sin. Then who but One who was God could baptise with the Holy Spirit? Nothing less than the new-creation, eternal order of things could be the adequate answer to the stupendous fact of the incarnation. Yet having come into man’s estate He always acted suitably to that condition, ever doing the Father’s will, acting in dependence and subjection, never seeking His own glory but the glory of Him that sent Him, always doing the things that were pleasing to the Father. He was the true meat offering and burnt offering. His life was always Godward. Even in laying down His life and taking it again He did it in obedience to the Father’s commandment. As He said, “I do nothing of myself”, John 8: 28. He could not act independently. In the end He received everything from the Father, even the glory which He had with Him before the world began. All this was in suitability to the estate of manhood into which He had entered. Nevertheless, in every chapter His divine glory shines forth. It was veiled in flesh, yet clearly seen by the spiritual eye.

In chapter 2, He speaks of raising up (not being raised up) the temple of His body: “In three days I will raise it up”, v 19. In the end of this chapter we get an example of His omniscience: He “needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man”, v 25.

In chapter 3, He is the Son of man, who came down out of heaven. “He who comes out of heaven is above all”, v 31. He is the Son, the Object of the Father’s love; the Father has given all things to be in His hands. That could never be said of any creature; everything committed to the creature has always broken down. He is the Object of faith: “Whosoever believeth in him”, “He that believeth on the Son”. No prophet or apostle ever presented himself as an object of faith. They might present their testimony for faith, but in their testimony they called attention to divine Persons as the Objects of faith.

In chapter 4, He speaks as only a divine Person could speak. ‘‘If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”, v 10. None but God could give living water. But God was there, come near in the Person of His Son. ‘‘The water which I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”.

In chapter 5, He quickens whom He will, yet not apart from the Father: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”, v 17. Souls hear the voice of the Son of God and live. The hour is coming when all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall go forth. And the purpose of God in all this is that all should honour the Son even as they honour the Father. All the scriptures bear witness to Him, and the Father bears witness to Him too. He is the subject of testimony from the beginning to the end.

In chapter 6, in which He is presented as Son of man, He speaks of the Father drawing to Him that He may give eternal life to such as come to Him, and that He may raise them up at the last day. Several times He speaks of raising up at the last day. And then He said, “What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?”, v 62.

Again in chapter 7, He presents Himself as the Object of faith. “He that believes on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”, v 38.

Chapter 8, He says, “I am the light of the world”, v 12. None but a divine Person could so speak. Then you get a definite statement of His deity, “Before Abraham was, I am”, v 58.

Chapter 9. He opens the eyes of one born blind, displaying the work of God in doing so. In the end of the chapter He presents Himself as the Son of God, and allows the man whose eyes He had opened to worship Him. Only God can rightly be an Object of worship. In Revelation 19: 10, the angel refuses to be worshipped and says, “worship God”.

Chapter 10, He could say, ‘‘No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself ... and I have power to take it up again”, v 18. But He does it in obedience and to the Father’s commandment. Only a divine Person could speak thus. Again He says, “I and my Father are one”, v 30. “Believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him”, v 38.

Chapter 11 in a most striking way demonstrates His glory as Son of God, as He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby”, v 4. He was declared Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead. He could say, “I am the resurrection, and the life”, v 25. This was demonstrated in the resurrection of Lazarus. “In him life was” (chap 1: 4); that could only be said of One who was God. We must remember that while men were used to raise the dead, such as Elijah and Elisha, they did so by power conferred upon them, but He (Christ) by power that was inherent in Him, though always acting subject to the Father’s will and in communion with Him.

Chapter 12. The evangelist applies to Him what the prophet said when he saw the glory of Jehovah (Isa 6): “These things said Esaias because he saw his glory and spoke of him”, v 41. This proves that Jesus was the Jehovah of the Old Testament. There could be no plainer statement of His divine glory.

Chapter 13. He speaks of coming from God and going to God. Then again we have the evidence of His sovereignty and His omniscience in the choice of His disciples. He knew whom He had chosen, knew that one of them would betray Him. In speaking of His death, He could say, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself”, 31, 32. Who could use such words, or who could undertake such a work but a divine Person? Yet He could only accomplish this great work by becoming Man and by going into death. The efficacy of His death depended upon the glory of His Person. “Who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God”, Heb 9: 14.

Chapter 14. He presents Himself as the Object of faith to the disciples: “Ye believe in God, believe also in me”, v 1. He could say, ‘‘He that hath seen me hath seen the Father”. No mere man could say that. Only One who was God could fully represent God. He could say, too, “I am in my Father”, v 20.

Chapter 15. Speaking of the Holy Spirit, He says, “Whom I will send unto you from the Father”, v 26. And again (chap 16), “If I go I will send him to you”, v 7. Who but a divine Person could send another divine Person? The Spirit comes to glorify Him. The Spirit would not glorify a creature. Further, He says, “I came out from [with] the Father ... again, I leave the world and go to the Father”, v 28.

Chapter 17 is the language of one divine Person speaking to another divine Person in the intimacy which belongs to such Persons. Here the Lord speaks of returning to a glory which He had with the Father before the world was, a glory which He had relinquished in taking upon Himself the form of a servant, and becoming in the likeness of men. Yet He receives this glory from the Father, and goes back into it as man. “And now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was”, v 5. This is the glory ever belonging to Him in the Godhead, equally with the Father. He never ceased to be God in becoming Man, but He laid aside the glory belonging to Him in the Godhead, “made himself of no reputation ... he humbled himself”, Phil 2: 7, 8. In chapter 18, when He said, “I am” (v 5), before Him the whole multitude went backward and fell to the ground. Chapter 19. When all was accomplished, He said, “It is finished”, bowed His head, and “delivered up his spirit”, v 30. It was His own act. “He laid down his life”, 1 John 3: 16.

Chapter 20. The sepulchre testified to the dignity of the One who had risen; everything was left in perfect order. John specially notices this. Then again in this gospel He ascends. It is His own act; He goes up as one who had a divine title to do so. In Mark He was “taken up into heaven”, chap 16: 19. In Luke He was “carried up into heaven”, chap 24: 51. But in this gospel He says, “I ascend”. This is in keeping with the spirit of the gospel. Then as the ‘‘last Adam’’ He breathes His own life into the disciples, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. “The last Adam a quickening spirit”, 1 Cor 15: 45. This again proves that He is a divine Person, the Son of God.

In chapter 21, He commands the fishes of the sea, and the disciples say, “It is the Lord”. None of them dared ask Him, ‘‘Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord”. Then as the Lord, He gives Peter his commission, saying, “Feed my lambs”, “Shepherd my sheep”. And of John He says, ‘‘If I will that he tarry till I come”.

These are some of the incidents, among others, in which His glory as Son of God shines out in this gospel. He never sought to glorify Himself, yet “He could not be hid”. In this gospel, the Son of God is always seen as a divine Person in manhood, God manifest in flesh.

At the same time, nowhere is His perfection as Man Godward more evident. He sought not His own glory, but the glory of Him that sent Him. His meat was to do the will of Him that sent Him. He speaks of Himself as “the sent one” about forty times. He was the true meat offering and burnt offering; these two offerings always went together. His life and death in this gospel are always presented Godward.

Speaking of the object for which the signs in this gospel are recorded, the apostle says, “‘These are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name”, chap 20: 31. First He is “the Christ”, the anointed Man; secondly, the Christ is ‘‘the Son of God”. In the epistle it says, “He is the true God, and eternal life”.

I should say the first great object for which the gospel was written was the revelation of God in the name of Father, and secondly the development of eternal life, as seen in Christ here as Man with the Father.

From Words of Grace and Comfort vol 1 (1925)