READINGS ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
[p. 398] READINGS ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
Ques What would you say was the great subject of the gospel?
FER John tells us at the close of chapter 20: 30, 31. The great thought that prevails is the introduction of life into the world. The world is dominated by death, but the thought of God is to bring life into it. This gospel does not bring out as others the faithfulness of God to His people, but solves the question of life.
In chapter 3 you get what was in the heart of God. “He gave his only begotten Son”, but the point is bringing life in. He takes away the sin of the world and baptizes with the Holy Spirit. John claims the world for God. The bread of God is He which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. The world is all held in bondage to sin, but Christ comes in to set aside everything. He takes away the sin of the world.
On the one hand there is the complete subjugation of all that is not of God; but on the other He introduces the influence of God. Ultimately the world is made to become a scene of life instead of death; it is the world that comes into view continually in John; Christ gives His flesh for the life of the world.
The world does not realise its own position and does not understand it. In result it is “I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh”. We must look upon everything in the light of the coming day; everything in John’s gospel has that in view, “the world to come”, bringing God into the world. We have very limited ideas of the extent of God’s ways; we are often limited to our own ideas. The character of Christ is as the sent One; the thought of sent One is continually used in John’s gospel; but to give effect to the Father’s will there is a purpose in connection with the revelation, and not the revelation [p. 399] only, but the bringing in of God’s purpose. “The light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not”. There was an end of that. Chapter 3 brings in the great thought of God, that whosoever believeth might have everlasting life.
Ques What does chapter 1 present?
FER It brings in the light as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
Ques What do you mean by the sin of the world?
FER It has become detached from the influence of God, but Christ comes and brings the world under the influence of God into gear. John takes things up very much in the light of divine purpose, the Father’s will, etc. I think it is a very great fact: “The Son of God was manifested” to “undo the works of the devil”. The end of chapter 1 brings in the accomplishment of Psalm 8, “the Son of man”. The world to come is put under the Son of man. Things in heaven as well as things on earth are put under Him. He is set over all the works of God’s hands. Angels are placed at the service of man. Son of God is an official title. He is King of Israel. As in Psalm 2 it is in a kind of way limited to His claiming the nations; but as Son of man all things are put under His feet.
Chapter 2 brings in that everything is put on the ground of resurrection. Man comes to an end, the wine runs out; but he does worse, he corrupts the temple of God. God can do nothing for man but on the ground of resurrection; it is there that all evil and the power of Satan is set aside. Christ has power and authority on the ground of resurrection to bring life into the world; it only waits the appointed time. Christ came to meet all that had been brought in by the sin of man by not only cleansing but expiation; in virtue of that He comes again and binds all the forces of evil, and not only that, but brings in all the influence of God. In the meantime the believer has eternal life; the way is in chapter 4. You would not speak of Israel in that way; it would not [p. 400] in the same way apply to Israel.
Eternal life is explained in chapter 17: 3, in the knowledge of the Father and the Son. In having the Son you have everything that is in Him. In the end of chapter 2 you have the setting aside of the man. I have thought that the Lord’s purpose in Nicodemus was to set the Jew aside. In the gospel of John you get three passovers. This is the first, then, in chapters 6 and 12. The cleansing of the temple was introductory to His ministry. He takes account first of all that was here. The marriage feast is the one great occasion in a man’s life, and the wine ran out, there is no power of continuance; there is death. The temple, then, was the next great thing, but it had become a house of merchandise. Everything is surpassed in chapter 2 on the ground of resurrection.
He spoke of the temple of His body. When the marriage really takes place the wine will not run out. I think it refers to the nuptials of Christ and Israel, and the wine will not run out. It really is because man has got to the bottom of himself and does not trust himself. It is extremely interesting that the Lord takes everything He finds down here into account. He went down to the marriage feast, and does He not take account of things in the present day? Yes; you can see that in the first three chapters in Revelation. Everything passes under His eye. Men will be maintained in the world to come in the sense of the goodness of God, and so the wine will not run out.
Ques What is the difference between new birth and eternal life?
FER New birth is an operation of the Spirit of God, but Christ is eternal life. God gives eternal life, but the way He does it is in giving Christ.
Ques Is this a new thing or was the kingdom there?
FER The defect was in man, he needed ability to see; the kingdom was there all the time.
The position of things in this chapter was that the kingdom of God was presented in Christ, but man did [p. 401] not see it. People might be struck by miracles, but they take no account of it. After the death of Christ the thought of being born of God is when you get the children of God. New birth is only stated in this chapter as a necessity. In the first chapter it is privilege; verses 12 and 13 of chapter 1 form a summary of the effect of the presentation of Christ in the world. Now chapters 3 and 4 together bring in the disposition of God to man, His disposition in the giving of His Son — that is, God’s mind in regard to the world. Chapter 3 is essentially evangelistic, but all that it gives is His mind; then chapter 4 tells you how you get it in the well of water springing up.
Ques Why is it in Titus the grace of God that brings salvation and here the love of God?
FER Well, I should say in Titus the point is salvation and here eternal life. One is deliverance and the grace of God, and the other what God would bring man into. It must be experimental, or else christianity is a mere term. It all consists in the work of the Spirit down here in believers. Everything is in Christ, but the Spirit works in you according to Christ. You cannot go back to make out the state of things in the Lord’s lifetime. The Lord did a great many things that the Holy Spirit does now in expounding; it is all anticipative and all on the ground of the Son of man lifted up, and chapter 4 is on the ground of the giving of the Spirit. Chapter 3: 16 is the spring of verse 14, the love of God to the world, but He had to be lifted up. You must distinguish between the world as a system and the world as the people in it.
The casting off of the Jew was the reconciliation of the people in it, and not the system. Satan is the god and prince of the system, not of men. All the fashions, it is said, are set by the loosest set in Paris. They all spring from below; God will not have any peace with that. On the other hand, God can look on the world in regard to the people in it. God was in Christ, reconciling the [p. 402] world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses. He is the Saviour of the world, not simply of the Jew, like Joseph. It is all the world in John’s gospel, the revelation of God in His nature, what He was before promise. The world is claimed by Christ for God in spite of Satan. The Son of man is One who is exalted above all things, because He suffers for all things. As in Hebrews, “by the grace of God should taste death for everything”. It is a most important thing in the next chapter: “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst”, and not only that, but it springs up into everlasting life. You get the thirst met.
A man must be satisfied in the first instance. There is something in it that precludes thirst. The beginning of a new state is “never thirst”, and following that is the springing up. The love of God is shed abroad in his heart; he has got something that satisfies him for ever. I think it is a wonderful thing the Lord expatiates on the virtue of the water. I would rather have that gift than forty millions of money, because that man might thirst. It is man set up in a wholly new state. As Son of man He takes up the judgment of our state that He might bring us into a wholly new state.
Ques How does it spring up?
FER I think it is in knowledge (individual), as in chapter 17: 3: To “know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”.
FER I think it was thought well to touch on chapters 5, 6 and 7, together; they form the revelation of God in a scene of death here. Chapter 5 is the Father, He is really revealed in His works; chapter 6 is Christ as bread, and chapter 7 is living water which flows out in life.
When you take the three together you have the revelation of God, not exactly in what divine Persons are, but in what they become with regard to men, to a scene of death and dearth. Christ has become incarnate,
[p. 403] the Father has revealed Himself in His works and the Holy Spirit is given.
The Father’s work is raising man up from the power of death. He comes out in that way. The Son came here with the intent to make the work of the Father known, to make evident the work of the Father, the raising up of man in divine love from the time sin and death came in, that was the time it was really working from.
You get a picture at the beginning of the chapter typical of the raising up of Israel in the time to come; everything is under the shadow of death, and not only that, but moral dearth. The wonderful thing is the way God has been pleased to adapt Himself to the state of things down here, and all in view of the world to come; the coming of Christ brought into view what the Father had been going on with: “my Father worketh hitherto, and I work”; it was all an enigma before that, no one understood. He brought the Father to light, that is the point of this chapter; the voice of the Son of God is distinctively in His death: it speaks the love of God in contrast to law, but He says, “the hour is coming, and now is ..”.; but the utterance was there and abiding, all on the ground of His death. You cannot interpret His ministry except by the light of His death; it is in His death you get the full light of divine love coming out, and that explains every act of His life.
Ques The voice of the Son of God, would you limit that to the love of God?
FER Yes; when the light of it in the death of Christ comes home to a person he lives, because it is possible for a person to live in the light of the love of God; there is love in God that can overcome His judgment; you can see that in His death. I think the “now is” is the present time.
Ques But did not that start with chapter 1?
FER Well, yes, it did, because the gospel started de novo from His death, ignoring all that had gone before.
[p. 404] It has been said that you do not get the beginning of the gospel in John; what you get really is the revelation of what was in the heart of God, and the beginning of the gospel takes into account responsibility and forgiveness, which you do not get in John; it is not the blood in Egypt and the Red Sea, but the brazen serpent. John goes to the bottom and shews how the state of things was to be met.
Ques What about John 3: 16?
FER It is always true, and you are entitled to preach it, but you would not get a moral foundation by that, because man must recognise where he is in regard to God, his responsibility must be raised and met; but that does not interfere with verse 16, because that is gospel but not the beginning of it; you cannot make man right unless he understands something about righteousness; there will not be a moral foundation, it is a necessity there should be.
Ques Define righteousness?
FER Well, I think it is relative, as the earth with the sun and moon, they are not out of gear with each other, and that is the point with man; he requires to be brought into gear with God and Christ in his own sense of things; righteousness is the bond of the moral universe. In John the Lord takes account of man’s state; a man must be born again, the first element is the raising up of man from the power of death.
Rem That is sovereignty.
FER Yes; you get the expression, the Son quickens whom He will.
Ques How do you understand quickening?
FER Well, it is emancipation from all that holds in bondage, and it goes on to the body; quickening is not resurrection, it is really liberation from the power of death, and applies to those living when the Lord comes. He will quicken your mortal bodies. He completes everything, death is swallowed up in victory.... Scripture does not contemplate [p. 405] anything beyond the time of those addressed.
Ques Now about chapter 6?
FER Well, I think it is one of the most difficult chapters in scripture to explain, it shews what is consequent on incarnation, that all the good of heaven is really brought down to the service of man, that many may eat it and live by it.
We have to look at the world as when Christ came, the greater part idolatrous and corrupt. Look what a profound effect the incarnation produces, a complete change of the texture of man; as you would change the food of a child, it would almost change the texture of the child. Christ will change the whole character of things in the world when He comes. He will give His “flesh ... for the life of the world”, it will mean a completely new condition of things morally starting from Himself.
Ques What about ourselves now?
FER Well, what does a man know about holiness, love or mercy, except by Christ? The philosopher knew nothing about them, he could spin cobwebs about commonwealth, but could not tell you anything about these moral things. You have got to look at it in Christ, all was here in Him; His death is our side; the thought of His death brings in that. To get the good of what He was here incarnate, your mind must be in accord with His death. To be dead with Christ is, that my mind is in accord with the death of Christ.
Ques. Romans 6?
FER Yes; but one states it positionally and the other practically. In Romans: “Reckon yourselves dead ..”.; it is more positional. If I say I am crucified with Christ, what does it mean? It means that my mind is in accord with the death of Christ, what He came to in fact, we come to in mind; that is essential.
A man alive in this world, alive in sin, does not find his delight in the good of heaven; you get an illustration of it in the early part of the chapter, the hungry multitude, they were satisfied with the good of heaven. I wonder [p. 406] how you are going to put on the new man except by eating the living bread; you eat His flesh and drink His blood, that is first, and you find delight from it and derive every right idea from what is come down from heaven. The bread of God is not simply to Israel, but He that comes down gives life to the world; but all that is benefit to the church.
Ques It gives life to the world?
FER People are not going to heaven to stay in heaven; the church has to fulfil its function in the world to come, and has to come out of heaven for that purpose. I try to contemplate the fearful moral dearth that affected this world when Christ came into it, and to think of what He brought into it; no one knows the extent that the world has been affected by it. In chapter 7 you get what meets the thirst, it is connected with Jesus glorified. Jesus is triumphant. He is the Head of all principality and power, and if you once get a sense of that there will be living waters flowing out to others. You are so well fed and nourished by living bread that you benefit others, you nourish others. I cannot conceive anything more wonderful than living bread, and that living waters flow out, the effect of Christ going up into heaven to the right hand of God, and so you get the time will come when those that are in their graves will hear His voice and will come forth.
Ques. Why is it rivers?
FER Well, they tend to fertilise down here, they run in different channels. The Spirit is the power, Jesus glorified is the source, and the believer is the mouth. I do not know how far it is made good in us. I heard a remark made by some one the other day; ‘How often I have longed for somebody to say something to me’, and there are many like that.
Rem If what we have had were true of us we should have better times than the feast of tabernacles.
FER I think you get the thought in Ephesians 3 when the apostle prays that Christ may dwell in their [p. 407] hearts by faith by being strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. Christ should be dwelling in our heart by faith.
Ques Why did the Lord not want witness from man?
FER Well, the sun shines, it does not require witness; the Lord did not want witness, but He accepts it to bring conviction home to them.
Chapter 10 In what way is chapter 10 connected with chapters 8 and 9?
FER I think all three are connected; you can scarcely understand the chapter by itself, it is a conclusion.
Ques What are the premises?
FER Well, they are the introduction of the light. The thought in chapter 8 is the coming in of the light. The Lord says, “I am the light of the world”. Then everything is reversed, as shewn in chapter 10, by the flock which is composed of those who see.
The blind man is a sample; the Lord comes out as the light. “Then spake Jesus ... unto them, ... I am the light of the world”. What occurred in regard to the woman proved Him to be the light, because I think everybody was exposed, they were all exposed in their conscience by the light. Jesus stooped and wrote on the ground; that is His touching humanity, and He left His mark — the introduction of a great luminary into the world which shewed the order and proportion of everything. He was the truth, and so everything came out in its true order and proportion. The Lord making clay and putting it on the eyes only made the Jews the blinder; those who saw were made blind, and those who were blind saw; things were completely reversed. We see that in the flock. There is a great danger with the young to become so used to the light that they in a sort of way become indifferent and get hardened. The Jews took the ground [p. 408] of seeing, and they really were made blind; I think it was in a way judicial, and so their sin remaineth: they said they had no sin.
Ques Is Christ the light of the world today?
FER Not in the same way as He was when here; for the moment the light of the world is hid in heaven, all the light in the present time comes from heaven; but the church is like the moon, it shines by reflected light. The Lord said, “Ye are the light of the world”; it is not inherent light. The effect of Christ being the light of the world was to test it, and it resulted in the judgment of the world, because they rejected the light; but the blind were made to see, those who made no pretension. In chapter 8 you must take into account that those who saw were made blind, or you would not have the premises of chapter 10.
Ques Does not verse 12 suppose that you follow the Lord into another world?
FER If you follow Him you will have the light of life; death or resurrection did not alter Christ as being the light, that which He was morally.
Ques What is the point of chapter 10?
FER I think “that those who see not might see”. Everything was overturned, all the pretension of man was exposed; the real source of it was in chapter 8, the devil. There was a regular lying spirit in them, the devil was a murderer and abode not in the truth. The effect of the sin of man is, that man has become a liar, he has no sense whatever of his true position in regard of God, and not only that, but man is naturally a liar in chapter 8. Christ was from above and spoke the truth; man was tested, of course it must be so the moment Christ came in, because you not only have God revealed, but Man according to God. A perfect standard, and everything was properly tested by the standard, the great luminary, the light of God come in. He was the luminary, because there you get a perfect thought, order and proportion. The Jews were tested and proved all [p. 409] lawless by the truth. You get righteousness and man properly in his relation to God. The first great lesson that the blind man had to learn when his eyes were opened was that everything was out of gear; it is a most painful experience to go through, for one to find everything here out of gear, hollow and false.
Ques How would you explain the class, ‘those who saw not’?
FER The man who does not see is the man who makes no pretension of seeing.
Ques What was the significance of the Lord putting the clay on his eyes?
FER It really made the Jew blinder than ever, and they were hurried on to perdition like the parable of the demoniac.
Ques Opening the eyes of the blind?
FER It is by preaching their eyes are opened, as in Paul’s commission.
Ques Why was it on the sabbath day?
FER Well, I think the Lord was continually putting a slight on the sabbath, what could it be to Him? It was made for man, not for God. What was the worth of it? It was a sign of the covenant, and they had not continued in the covenant. If a man’s eyes are opened it is that a man might get into gear, to hold the Head like the blind man; when a man gets free from natural relations, etc., he has not much left.
What I understand by opening a man’s eyes in a moral sense is undeceiving a man. Men are all deceived. It was the apostles’ work or the work of the Spirit of God, and it is Christ’s work, but He does it through agents. The water of the pool of Siloam represented the word applied by the Spirit, and the result was that the man saw; the pool of Bethesda represented a kind of providential benefit; the testimony of Christ, of the sent One, is what is used to open men’s eyes.
Ques “Except a man be born again he cannot see” — is there any connection, why born [p. 410] again?
FER Well, because I think God just does as little as He can in that way; man must get everything through exercise. God in His sovereignty does what is indispensable; but all has to be wrought in a man morally. You might present the light, but I do not get it from you, God has prepared me for it by exercise.
I do not think there can be a doubt for a moment that people’s eyes are opened by the presentation of Christ, the mistake that people make sometimes is that they think they convert people. It is a tremendous thing to open men’s eyes — to undeceive people, when it is a question of God.
Ques Do you not think it is a great danger to press people to decide?
FER Well, with all respect it is a dangerous thing to extort a confession beyond what people are capable of.
Now chapter 10 brings in the issue, you have a parenthesis in chapters 8 and 9, in chapter 10 you get a flock of an entirely different character, composed of those who see. The effect of the light of necessity carried people out of the fold.
Ques What fold are you in?
FER Well, to tell you the truth, I do not quite appreciate a fold; a fold was to keep people from the wolf; but a christian is kept now by attachment and the appreciation of Christ. Let a man hold the Head and he will not be a bit afraid of the wolf.
Ques Is appreciation of Christ holding the Head?
FER If you hold the Head you appreciate Christ. How is any one of us kept down here in the world? Not by a fold, it is perfectly powerless to keep you. It is by the appreciation of Christ: “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved”.
Ques Would not seeking a fold now be going back?
FER The wonderful thing at the present time is that the Shepherd is absent and we are kept down here in the absence of the Shepherd without the need of a fold. The door is to lead us in to God, to get the [p. 411] knowledge of God.
Ques What is the meaning of: “I ... am known of mine as ... I know the Father”
FER That is very wonderful; no one knew Him down here but the Father, now we may know Christ as He knows us. It is reciprocal, though people will ridicule us if we say we know Him.
It is the good Shepherd who gives His life for the sheep, that there may be one flock and one Shepherd. The people that claimed privilege, and who saw, were those who were made blind, and if the Lord could make those who did not see to see, on the same ground the Lord could bring in the gentile, that there might be one flock. A flock is not for heaven; a flock follows the shepherd like Israel in the wilderness. All the flock is dependent on the Shepherd now, on Christ, for everything in the present moment depends on the Spirit. It is not public, it is spiritual now. Israel in the world to come will become Jehovah’s flock.
Ques What is life more abundantly?
FER Light has come in by the death of Christ and you can live in the love of God. “I am the door”, that is evangelistic; you ought to preach the gospel from that.
The unity all depends upon life, upon the knowledge of the good Shepherd, upon affection. All unity must be the unity of spiritual affections; if we take the ground of loving Christ we shew it by loving one another.
Chapter 12 In the previous part chapters 8 to 10 we had the effect of the light, and the change in the character of things as seen in the flock. Here we get the witness given to Christ in the relation He is in to the world to come; in chapter 10 He is the Shepherd. Of course that is applicable in a kind of way to the present time. In chapters 11 and 12 we have the witness borne to Him as the resurrection and the life, the King of Israel and the Son of man. Things must come out in that order; you [p. 412] could not have the King of Israel without the resurrection and the life.
He comes into Jerusalem as Zion’s King, but that is consequent upon resurrection. The One in whom there is the revival of everything. He says, I am the resurrection, the revival of all that God had ever established. It had been lost in death, but in Christ all is revived, promises and what was official. Stephen goes over all that ground and shews how all had been lost, but the revival of Christ is the revival of everything for God, and must be on the ground of resurrection to be beyond the power of evil and of Satan, because all had been spoilt by Satan. The first man died and lost his place of headship, but all will come to light again. You might go all through the history of scripture from Adam — death came in upon everything.
Ques Is that the sense of the sheet let down from heaven?
FER Not quite; that was the result of headship; but in the resurrection you get the revival of everything; you get priesthood and even the headship of the gentiles, all are in a way revived. Every position that God had ever established had been lost in death, and in Christ you have the revival of it. The resurrection of Lazarus was really a witness of what Christ was, and so He says in connection with it, “I am the resurrection and the life”.
Ques Do you include creation in that?
FER Well, I do in a sense, because He takes up everything as Creator. Death came in upon everything, but the great truth is, that you get everything revived. He tasted death for everything, and everything is revived in Him. The resurrection of Lazarus was a sign “that the Son of God may be glorified”.
Ques What do you mean by the world to come?
FER Both heaven and earth, the connection between them is very intimate, that God might make known the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness [p. 413] toward us through Christ Jesus. I have that, that in it I should be able to go and tell a Jew more about his calling than he knew himself; because I think in the present time God has gathered up every thought in the church, and we are so well acquainted with these things that we could go and tell a Jew his calling. Israel will be brought into the good of the covenant. I trust we know something of the house of God, the flock, etc., and when we get instruction in these things it helps us in the knowledge of Christ. They will be revived in Him. When He comes out these things will come out in Him. He has not come out of heaven yet. He is the second Man, the Father is the starting-point, everything must come out from above. I think the point is, everything should come out from God out of heaven.
Lazarus was a witness given to Christ as the resurrection and the life; the world to come is where God is glorified. God has been dishonoured here, sin and death have come in; but in the world to come God will be glorified, everything will come in in a Man. In order to have a kingdom you must have the throne established in a Man; in the eternal state it will be more the supremacy of God through all; then every enemy will have been subdued, all moral questions are solved, all has that great end in view. The kingdom only exists for a purpose to solve the questions of good and evil.
Ques What is the meaning of “that the Son of God might be glorified thereby”?
FER I think it was in the witness; I believe in the resurrection of the dead, that is orthodox, but the mistake is in not seeing that Christ is the resurrection and the life.
Ques How does the feast come in?
FER The supper comes in as a testimony to Christ again. Mary anointed Him for His burying.
Ques What is the meaning of, that he might “gather together in one the children of God ... scattered abroad”?
FER Well, He was not confined to that nation.
It is a great thought, “I am the resurrection and the life:” death could not hold Him, He must rise. He might go into death. There was a fragrance about His death. He was anointed for His burial, and He must rise; there is no fragrance about a saint’s death, but there was a fragrance about His death. Christ comes out of death, and in coming out of death everything is revived now for God. We “are come to mount Zion”, etc.; everything is revived.
Ques. What is mount Zion?
FER I think it is symbolic of the enduring mercy of God, the sovereign mercy of God when everything was forfeited. David placed the ark on mount Zion, and then they say, “His mercy endureth for ever”. In losing the ark they really lost all link with God, and God in the sovereignty of His mercy brought back the ark, and that will be the keynote in the future, and the time will come when they appreciate it.
Man cannot get any blessing until he is free of the judgment of death. The Sun is risen, that is the point for me; we have the witness brought in to Christ as the resurrection and the life, as the King of Israel and Son of man. We have all this light as to Christ in the world to come, but for the moment everything has terminated in death, and we announce the Lord’s death till He come. You cannot follow Christ except in the communion of His death. You cannot get to another scene except in the communion of His death. It is as lifted up from the earth that Christ has become the point of attraction, and He draws all to Himself. He is lifted up vicariously, the Lord could not die upon earth, and it is as lifted up from the earth He dies vicariously.
Ques Does the lifting up not go beyond the cross?
FER No, I do not think so, because He was lifted up vicariously. In His providence God allowed man to lift Him up, because He was the righteous One and could not die upon earth. It is extremely important to apprehend the place of Christ in the world to come, and [p. 415] then the provisional place now.
He is the Head of every man. My object in preaching is to try and enlighten people as to the position of Christ in relation to men. You get a beautiful verse in Proverbs 8. “I wisdom ... lead in the way of righteousness”. He is wisdom, and it is an appeal on the part of One who is the Head of every man to draw every one to Himself.
Ques Is that the sense of Christ as the wisdom and power of God?
FER Well, He is wisdom with regard to man. The woman of the city appreciated wisdom, and Simon trusted his own head, and was a fool; but the woman trusted Christ, and I suppose she inherited substance. Christ is the resource of God and the power of God, He is the sign of God’s intervention on behalf of man. I do believe that we should get great gain if we apprehended the relation of Christ to the world to come, and in the present time He is gathering out the vessel in which God will be glorified, just like God taking a rib out of Adam when in sleep to form Eve. It is the moment of Christ’s decease, and God is taking the church out of Christ. I believe the world lost a good deal in not seeing Christ when He was here. It is a great comfort that Christ will present the church glorious in spite of all the defection. The kingdom is all dependent on the Lord, and we have the Lord and the Holy Spirit. In the fourth book of Psalms we have a whole book as to the coming in of the kingdom. It is David’s kingdom in a kind of way, but it is Jehovah’s kingdom. A person could not be in the kingdom unless he has received the kingdom. The effect of the rejection of Christ was the breaking up of all the world system of which Israel was the centre; the times of the gentiles have become much more prominent; the world in that day was the world of which Israel was the centre, when they were prepared to follow the lead of Satan and reject and crucify Christ, all that system was judged and broken up.
[p. 416] Abraham was called out, but another kind of world was revived in the seed of Israel. The gentile empires are wild beasts, and in the present time you have a kind of suspension. These wild beasts will come into view again; the prince of this world is cast out for us, the Lord could see it.
Chapter 14 I think in chapters 3 and 4 we get the thought of God’s love and the way in which it is expressed and brought into effect. In chapters 5, 6 and 7 we really find in what eternal life consists, in the way it has pleased God to reveal Himself and come out in connection with the world to come, the Father in His word, Christ as living bread and the Holy Spirit as living water; in chapters 8, 9 and 10 the sheep are brought to light; in chapters 11 and 12 we get Christ as the subject of testimony and as the point of gathering, that completes that part; then we get in part two Christ and the Spirit present. The Lord was always working to the end — that of eternal life; the reason of it was that it was the Father’s commandment, and it is the last word to the world. See chapter 12: 50.
Chapter 13 is introductory, and chapter 14 brings in the coming of the Comforter. Chapter 13 is preparatory as bringing to light all those who were true. The real work must come out in connection with the Priest; it gets rid of the Judases. The great point, as in the first verse, was to bring to light those who were His own. Feet washing is refreshment, I think, and removes defilement. It is a service we carry out one towards another. He has left it to us to carry out. Christ does it now mediately. The Lord says: “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them”. It comes out in more than one way, it is not literal. A man has to be convicted first; conviction is not feet washing. Paul had a measure of joy in the Philippians, and he said to them “fulfil ye my joy”. It means refreshment, as [p. 417] that which is said of the widow: “If she ‘wash’ the saints’ feet”.
The Lord was sifting. ‘Have part with Me’ was to have association with the Lord where He now is; everything was to be changed, and they were to pass on to new ground with Him. I think the question of feet washing is an extremely important one. I think we are bound to serve one another, to refresh one another. You may depend upon it, where people get depressed you will not revive them but by bringing the word of Christ to bear upon them. It is in the intercourse of saints one with another. The very fact of saints being refreshed shews that you remove the defilement. People get a little bit jaded and depressed. That is the effect of things down here on the saints, and they want their feet washed; they want refreshment. If I am a little bright in Christ myself, I will refresh others.
You really want to bring people back to where they started from to their original brightness; where you get a positive disposition to depart from the truth you want more than feet washing, something more drastic. There is not much feet washing in the address to the seven churches. We are left under a sort of obligation to it. I feel under an obligation to my own circle, those who are in the faith. I do not think that the Lord ever washed the feet of Judas. My reason for it is that it was in connection with bringing Judas to light the Lord said, Now “ye are clean, but not all”. He puts us under obligation to wash one another’s feet. The feet washing was an occasion of bringing Judas to light. There was the definite intent to betray Him, therefore the Lord exposes him. I think another very important point in the latter part of the chapter is that where you get a great display of evil it is followed on the part of God by the Son of man being glorified. You find the same in Revelation: the exposure of the harlot is succeeded by the marriage of the Lamb. I think it is common in the ways of God, some great combination of evil followed by [p. 418] some great action on the part of God. The Son of man was glorified on the cross. The Son of man is to be glorified in chapter 12: 23.
The cross is really the effulgence of God, the Son of man being glorified; glory is that God shines out; you can add nothing to God. God is really glorified in making Himself known; that all comes out in the death of Christ. It was there that God was effulgent. Christ was glorified in Himself (God) in being set at the right hand of God. “And shall straightway glorify him” was that He would not have to wait for the public glory as Son of man. Stephen saw that. Son of man is employed as a designation for the Son of God, because the secret of God being effulgent was that He was glorified in the Son of man. God is not glorified in us in the same way; it is only reflected glory in us, the glory of Christ reflected.
It is excessively interesting to see that some great climax of evil is followed by some remarkable interposition of God. You see it in Revelation. The great red dragon gives his authority to the beast, and the harlot rides the beast. What could be more awful, yet it is all followed by the marriage of the Lamb. The bride makes herself ready.
You have the same principle in the Old Testament. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him”. In chapter 14 you get a place, access and works. A place with the Father, and the Lord says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”, and then: “Greater works than these shall he do”. The Lord does not say because I die, ye shall die also, but “because I live, ye shall live also”. You can only follow the Lord now through death morally; you cannot say a person is dead until he is risen. Man could not reach resurrection except by death.
The three points in chapter 14 belong to us. The Lord says, “I go to prepare a place for you”. In chapter 13 the Lord surveys the state of things down [p. 419] here and shews how it is to be met, and I think it is by our love one to another; but the elements of comfort all come in in chapter 14. The new commandment is what is true in Christ and in us. It is a great thing to get hold of what belongs to us. We have got a place! A man likes a place down here — a nice house and garden — but we have got a place to which Christ comes to take us, and our access is measured by our appreciation of Christ. Greater works are done now than ever were done when Christ was here. You may get a number of people converted. The greater works would be consequent on His position. He goes to the Father, and everything is greater. On the day of Pentecost three thousand were converted, all consequent on His going to the Father. It is done to a much greater extent than when the Lord was here, and so you see a much greater extent of works and even greater works. You cannot read the Acts of the Apostles without seeing the great power of the Holy Spirit. You have got no witness now. The witness of the Spirit is so marred, so dimmed, it is a great hindrance to unity and spiritual affection.
The Lord prays in chapter 17 for the unity of the saints, that the world may believe that the Father sent the Son. Look at all the great organisations all around, see how the witness is obscured. The saints were to be the living exponents of the truth. All that was of God was to be living in the saints. What conveys it to me more than anything else is the prayer of the apostle in Ephesians 3, that there might be nothing in which God has come out that would not be seen in the saints. The place where Christ was to dwell was in the hearts of the saints — the length, breadth, depth and height, the whole extent in which God will be glorified. A wonderful thing that a power has come in to put everything in its place and proportion in the soul. Truth really brings everything to order and proportion — truth in the inward parts, that is the effect of the Spirit of truth, I take it.
[p. 420] The apostles were kept dependent, they would have unlimited access and would have abundant answers. The Father and the Son were to be abiding here in the saints. Christianity is the continuation of Christ, that not a jot or tittle that came out in Christ might fall; but everything required to be regulated and ordered according to God. Order and proportion is a very great thing. What would the physical world be without it? The Spirit of truth will do it. Man is much greater than the sun, the sun cannot worship God, the sun cannot love God. Science has never done anything for man, but the Spirit of truth will regulate everything. What a wonderful and beautiful picture a christian is. He loves God, he loves Christ, he loves the brethren, and he is faithful in every relationship.