THE WAY OF LIFE (2)
[p. 375] THE WAY OF LIFE (2)
John 5: 1 - 18; John 6: 1 - 14
JT Our subject is, “The Way of Life”, and, inasmuch as John tells us expressly that he wrote these signs in order that those for whom they were written should believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that believing they might have life in His name, we thought the simplest course to pursue would be to take them up in their order and seek to arrive at an understanding of what is set forth in each, what feature of truth hinges on each. The first one in Cana of Galilee is referred to as the “beginning of signs”. It was pointed out that the two signs in Cana go together; the one referring to natural relationships and affections; we saw that life is not in these. The other has in view distinctions that exist in the government of God, such as titles, involving social relations; we saw also that life is not in these. And then further, that the teaching of John, chapters 3 and 4, is intended to instruct the believer in connection with the light in these two signs. The third chapter brings in certain necessities: one in regard to birth; we saw that natural birth does not count in this order of things: and the other, the necessity for the Son of man to be lifted up on account of what man is. The fourth chapter instructs us as to the spring, the Holy Spirit, in the believer for deliverance, so that the way of life is upwards. “The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath”, Proverbs 15:24. The well in the believer springs up.
RSS There are three things in John’s writings that he dwells upon greatly. I thought perhaps you might give us a word or two as to the relations between them. John speaks much of love, and light, and life. These three things seem to hang together in [p. 376] the gospel of John; and in the epistle he makes the wonderful statement that “God is love”, and then immediately adds, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we should live through him”, 1 John 4:8 - 9. So that love, what God is in His very nature, and life seem to be linked there very closely together, and in the first chapter of the gospel you get light and life brought closely together.
JT Light is the first thing that is brought in. “In him was life and the life was the light of men”, John 1:4.
RSS You say light is the first thing. It was in the creation and so I suppose in new creation.
JT The reference is, I think, to creation; only it is the light of life. If one is to understand life one has to see it in Christ as He was here in everyday circumstances; we see thus the working out of life. It came near to men in a lowly, approachable Man, so as to be light to them.
RSS That is what that passage refers to?
JT I think so.
WB-s That kind of life was not apprehended. “The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not”, John 1:5.
JT Quite, and then it says John came “for witness” of the light. He was not the true light. The Spirit of God immediately says, “The true light was that which, coming into the world, lightens every man”, John 1:9. That is to say, the true light is not partial; it is indiscriminate, it shines on every man.
AFM You distinguish then between the Lord and ourselves in regard to life? You spoke of Him in His everyday pathway and circumstances here. He lived, but then He lived in heaven. The way of life is above: “The Son of man which is in heaven”; John 3:13 you make a difference between the Lord and ourselves in that respect, do you not?
JT Oh, yes, but the movements of life were [p. 377] there from the very outset of His being on earth. His parents, of course, would see them, but it is doubtful if they understood. But a new thing had come into the world. He was cast upon God from the outset, although in governmental ways God did not act publicly in regard to that. He says to Joseph, “Take to thee the little Child and his mother and flee into Egypt”, Matthew 2:13. That is, God acted through relationships that existed; He acted in regard to normal conditions. There was nothing outward to attract attention, but God saw what was going underneath, if others did not. The cherubim of glory overshadowed the mercy seat, and the mother was the most suitable and most convenient vessel then to take care of the Child. Although He spoke to Joseph, He did not say to Joseph to take Him, but “Take the little Child and his mother”. Not the mother and Child, but the Child and His mother, because the Child was necessarily the object of the cherubim of glory. The life was there, and as He developed into boyhood and into manhood the life was always normal. God took account of things as they were, but the life was there, so when He became thirty years of age He went down to Capernaum, and dwelt there; He dwelt there, as Matthew tells us. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”, John 1:14. To see a person’s life fully it must be in his dwelling in a place, not simply visiting. The Lord came into the circumstances of men in that way and dwelt among them, so that any one resident in Capernaum at that time would come under that great Light. Those that sat in darkness saw “a great light”. It was One dwelling in ordinary circumstances here, but it was the working out of life in Him.
CAM What reason would you give for the infancy of the Lord not being in this gospel?
JT It is implied. If it said, The Word became a Man and dwelt among us you might think it was Christ in manhood, but it is “The Word became flesh”, and that covers His infancy.
CAM I was thinking of that verse we were quoting: “In him was life and the life was the light of men.”, As you were saying, that refers to His life as Man here, and that life was the light of men. The thought of the light of men, would entail manifestation.
JT It did, but the life was there from the outset. Everything was normal, however, so He awaited full levitical age before He took up levitical work.
AFM That would be substantiated in the Father’s voice at His baptism. “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”, Mark 1:11, Luke 3:22 which covered all the time of which you have spoken.
JT Quite so. That is a very good point, because it is not In Thee I find; but “In thee I have found”. And this adds another thought, that it does not refer to what Christ was personally in relation to God the Father in the Deity. You could not, I think, introduce the word ‘found’ there. It refers to what came under His eye in the Son as Man here. He had not found it elsewhere or before. He had not found all His delight in any man before. The word ‘found’ in Matthew, Mark and Luke, is to be noted particularly.
AP Simeon and Anna saw it from the outset.
JT Simeon says, “Mine eyes have seen thy salvation”, Luke 2:20. It was all there.
EHT It says in Psalm 22: 9, “Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts”. Would that not indicate life?
JT Certainly. So, “the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father” John 1:18 implies that He came into that. That remark requires the greatest guarding. He had come into it and because of that God found His delight in Him. It is not a question of what He was eternally, but of what He [p. 379] was as Man here. It speaks of the intrinsic value of His humanity. “Therefore doth my Father love me”, John 10:17.
HG John 8 emphasises what you were saying: “I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”, John 8:12. You are put in movement in seeing what is there, showing that Christ Himself becomes the study.
JT That would be implied in my following Him. How immense is the light of life in a scene of death!
RSS Life and love are closely linked together. I think it has often been said that where the love of God comes in the answer to it is life. I do not mean salvation merely; so in the Scripture I quoted from the epistle, “God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him”, 1 John 4:8 - 9.
JT So in John 3: 16.
HG Are life and eternal life synonymous terms in John?
JT I think they run together and sometimes are synonymous, but sometimes not.
FL It would not do to take the two terms as equivalents, would it?
JT No, because life is very often referred to as power here, and so is distinct from “eternal life”, which I understand is over Jordan — in the sphere of resurrection.
HG Yes, “the Spirit is life”, for example.
FL And would you not say that life in the abstract is a greater term even than eternal life, because it is employed as to God Himself.
JT He is “the living God”; all must proceed from Him. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God”, John 1:1. I think this becomes the key to the gospel — “The Word was with God”.
So, “as of an only-begotten with a father”; the impetus of all is from God.
WB-s Do you get the previous work of God, in this chapter? “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”.
JT We have been treating of natural relationships and social relationships, but the way of life is not in either. I think this chapter deals with religious relationships, and so you have progress in the instruction. We have here the word of Christ, involving His authority. “Rise, take up thy bed and walk”.
AFM Would you say a little more about the second miracle or sign?
JT I think the first thing to notice is that the person involved is a nobleman. It is well to take notice of the negative features in the signs, because the way of life involves that we have to find out the things in which life is not found, and that helps us as to where it is found. The fact that he was a nobleman is taken account of in this respect. His son was nigh unto death; death had come near the family, and so the need was urgent. I think the setting of this sign is still in relation to Israel. Life was ebbing out. Whatever power he had as a “courtier” (that is, one with access to human power), he had to go down from Capernaum, which was an important city, to what was apparently an unimportant place. The Lord did not go to Capernaum: He remained in Cana. The man would have had Him go down. “Unless ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe”, John 4:48 the Lord says. That is, we must learn to believe without any outward evidences of God’s power. “He that cometh to God must believe that he is”, Hebrews 11:6.
HG We have to learn, too, that God has to be known aside from material intervention; in believing on Him we can see the way He works spiritually with a view to [p. 381] life.
FL There is no hope for man’s continuance as in the flesh; through and in Christ he lives.
JT And I think the family should be perpetuated in a dignified way. The man says, “My child” and the Lord says, “Thy son”. The family would be perpetuated — if it be Israel, as it doubtless is; or if it be ourselves — only in a dignified way. The man says, “Sir, come down ere my child die”. The Lord says, “Go thy way; thy son liveth”. It is not simply recovery, but life “Thy son liveth”.
HG The nobleman thought of the child. It is the maintenance of the natural thing that causes the fever, whereas, if you really see the end the Lord has in view, it is a son.
PL So the family is secured in the dignity of a sonship; is that it?
JT Yes. The man was a “courtier”. There was no reproach in that, for it was according to the government of God in this world, but there is to be something in keeping with it in the spiritual order of things, and the Lord implies that. The Lord implies that, if the child is to live, he is to live as a son.
Well, the man believed the word that Jesus said. Like many of us, he just believed what met his own case. It does not say he believed any more, but he believed that, and went back to Capernaum. His servants met him on the way and they say, “Thy child lives”. What a word that would be to him! and he inquired as to when he began to amend. But it was not a question of amending, but of living. The Lord did not say, ‘Thy son hath begun to amend’ but “Thy son liveth”. That is a complete thought. A son living is a complete thought; the divine thought. The answer to the man’s inquiry is, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him”, and he does not question any more. He was so concerned that he noticed the time of day in [p. 382] which the Lord spoke, and the result was that he and his whole house believed. His house now had in it a son made to live by the power of God. It does not say what they believed; those in the house were now believers. They would accept all that was coming out in Christ.
FL In the parable in Luke 15 the Father says, “This my son was dead, and is alive again”, Luke 15:24. The complete thought is there also.
AFM This is in advance of what the nobleman believed earlier, as you were saying.
JT I think the truth of Christianity is to lift us out of whatever may be after the flesh, which is not great enough for Christians.
JB Is there not a good deal involved in the word here? It was not the act that caused him to believe first; it was the word. The man took the Lord at His word.
HG I suppose that is the right kind of faith.
JT Quite. “Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe” John 4:48 had a general reference.
EHT Do you not think the nobleman took things up with the Lord as to his social position, wanting to have continuity of life on the natural line, but the Lord brings in the spiritual.
JT Yes, and so you can bring up your children in the light of this second sign in a most dignified way. You can have the most dignified family spiritually, if you bring them up on this line.
JMcK That man and his family began to live; there was dignity there.
RSS It is said at the end of this gospel: “and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name”, John 20:30 - 31. Where do you see that coming out in this second [p. 383] sign?
JT It does not all come out at once. These signs are constructive. He is “marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead”, Romans 1:4. That comes out definitely, I think, in Lazarus’ case. “These are written” — you must have them all.
RSS It is not that each one of them sets that forth.
JT You need to have them all for the whole truth presented.
JMcK Would you say there was a good deal of fever in the families of the saints? Many of them get mixed up with the world, you know, and you will find, though they come to the meetings, they are not free from natural excitability.
JT What is needed in every case is this great truth of life that we have been speaking of. I was remarking the other evening about Dorcas, she was taken to the “upper chamber”, Acts 9:39. She died down below apparently.
PL Yes, you can easily live in relation to the dignity that your usefulness puts upon you. Apparently she carried out her operations on the ground floor. The service she did had its place, but she lived in it, and so had to be carried upstairs before there is any suggestion of life. Life belongs to the upper room, would you say?
JT So Peter presents her alive. And so with Eutychus, he was presented alive. “They brought away the boy alive”, Acts 20:12.
PL The dignity of the relationship in which love has set us is to be preserved in its lustre with us, and not to be beclouded by even our service for God. Are we not to prize the light of sonship above all and to see that we are preserved in the liberty and dignity of it?
FL Yet I suppose service must be performed where [p. 384] the need is.
JT Yes, but you live in the upper room.
PL We descend to the service, do we not?
JT The greatest service you can render, the greatest garment you can make, does not lift you to the upper room. Life is upward.
WB-s There is an instance in Luke 9 on this line. When the Lord and His disciples came down from the mount of transfiguration they met the man who besought Jesus to heal his son. The Lord came down to serve.
RSS All this is intended to awaken us to the greatness of our position as Christians. In our regular weekly readings here we have just come to the end of Hebrews 7 and have dwelt a good bit on “such an high priest became us” Hebrews 7:26 — He became the people of God. Wonderful statement! And there is an expression in Psalm 16 which I think should touch us all very much: the Lord in spirit speaks of “the excellent of the earth”, referring to the people of God. It is our privilege to look upon every Christian as belonging to that company.
JMcK So the greatness of the Priest and the greatness of the people go together.
RSS Does not that deliver us from all thought of any greatness here?
JT The fifth chapter of John brings in the word of Christ. It refers to what man is religiously, and the bearing of it is toward the religious institutions that exist — how impotent they are.
JMcK Is there anything in the sheep gate?
JT I think there is. It is in keeping with Bethesda — “house of mercy”. The Lord does not say anything against any of the things that were there. I think we may apply it to the religious institutions that exist, some of them more or less merciful, and we would not deny that some have a little virtue, too. As typified in this man, I have no power, and there is nothing in the religious systems [p. 385] to help me, so the way of life is not in the religious world. You would say that. You have been in it.
HG Undoubtedly.
FL So the essence of the thing is “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life”. You would say it is the word and how it affects the person.
JT Quite. The whole chapter hangs on this sign. It is a question of what Christ does, the power of His word, not only in the saved, but in the unsaved, and it goes right on to the end of time. The power of the word of Christ for the time being applies to believers.
FL There is no evidence of anything moral in the man; he has no personal link with Christ.
JT It is the effect of the word of Christ on any one. Even the ungodly will be brought out of their tombs.
PL There is no evidence that this was other than a stagnant pool, while in the pool of Siloam there is running water. See Isaiah 8:6.
JT And I think it represents the religious world.
WCR Where the Spirit is disallowed.
WHF You would emphasise the word of Christ.
JT And the power that is in it. As Paul said, “Not the speech ... but the power”, 1 Corinthians 4: 19.
FL I think the world in a way is greatly benefited by the pool and the sheep gate, but, as you say, it is not our business. When the disciples said, “We saw some one casting out demons in thy name and forbad him”, the Lord says, “Forbid him not”, Luke 9:49.
JT That is it. God can act where we cannot go. The Lord had compassion. He knew the man had been a long time there, and he speaks to him, “Wouldest thou become well?”
PL There was no one to follow up the intervention [p. 386] of the angel; no brotherly element there to give the man the advantage of the divine visitation. What marks the circle of life is that divine movements are followed up mutually to the prosperity of all.
HG Is your thought that the pool suggests what the religious world carries, a measure of relief to man, but leaving him as to his state still in the flesh, linked up with the world and in a way still under the Sabbath? That is, certain rules relegate him in his walk down here, whereas the Lord has in view carrying him on to an entirely new platform, clear of the flesh and of the world, and quickened together in His life.
JT There was something to be had, but the Lord brings out from him the true circumstances: “The infirm man answered him: Sir, I have no man, in order, when the water has been troubled, to cast me into the pool; but while I am coming another descends before me”. The man had no power and there was no one to help him. It is a striking picture of conditions existent under the old covenant; it also suggests current religious conditions in the world, as we have been saying.
AFM Would you tell us the difference between the setting of this sign and the previous two? You have made a point of the fact that the first two were in Cana of Galilee.
JT I think, far away from the influence of the political world and governmental dignity, surroundings were pretty much rural; whereas here we are in the centre of the religious world. Bethesda was, perhaps, the most commendable feature of it.
AL But it had not done anything for this man. In the presence of Jesus he says, “I have not a man”. His case was a terrible exposure of the absence of love in the place.
JT It is not going too far to say there is some virtue in the religious systems around, but the [p. 387] absence of love and of the brotherly spirit that would take account of need and meet it fully marks them.
CAM Do you think the thing is suggestive of all that order of things given by the disposition of angels? While that had a certain glory it only magnifies the greatness of His Person. Do you look at it in that way?
JT Yes; what I think we ought to see is the effect of the coming of Christ in the midst of all this. It seems to me that it indicates how ministry should be carried on now. You are not pulling down but seeking to help souls, and to help them in a gracious, sympathetic way. Wouldest thou become well? “and the man says, I have not a man”. Well, one would like to be that man.
JMcK The Lord says, I will be the Man.
AL The Lord leads him to something entirely different, because He heals him without the pool. He does not cast him into the pool or even tell him to go in.
AFM I was thinking of the different thoughts of life that we had earlier, eternal life and life as power. The Lord’s word was, “Arise, take up thy couch and walk”. Does that suggest life as power?
JT I think it does and the word necessarily governs you. There was no word spoken to the boy at Capernaum. “Go thy way, thy son liveth”, was said to his father, but you have a word spoken to the man now. His intelligence is taken into account, and under the influence of that word, “Arise, take up thy couch and walk”, I am moving in the recognition of the authority of Christ, and what He tells you to do is what should be done. If I am to be delivered I must learn to carry the thing that has supported me.
JMcK All here is superseded by Christ — the sheep gate, the pool, and the angels.
JT That is it.
PL So would you say in the first sign [p. 388] you have a bridegroom superseded, then you have Christ owned in a house; this would imply that the nobleman was superseded. Then you have man’s religious sphere superseded here.
JT I think the whole religious system viewed at its very best, even angelic power, is superseded.
PL The circle widening and the Lord filling it.
JT The word of His compassion and authority is heard in the religious sphere.
GAT What does the bed mean?
JT His carrying it would be a witness to the power he now had. It would refer to circumstances in which people devoid of spiritual power rest.
EHT Do you think the man walks in the wrong direction?
JT Yes; he does not seem to have been morally affected. The Lord does not seem to have much confidence in the man. He finds him in the temple, and says to him, “Behold, thou art become well; sin no more, that something worse do not happen to thee”. This does not denote confidence. This chapter brings out the great truth that the Son has to say to everything, and it greatly induces faith in Him. He says, “He that hears my word, and believes him that has sent me, has life eternal, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life”. That is a very full statement. We can appreciate the completeness of it.
AFM The chapter speaks of the authority of Christ’s word, but the sign must have some special value as a sign.
JT The value of it is, that I am delivered. There are thousands of souls held in the religious world, not the religious world of the sixteenth, seventeenth or eighteenth century, but the religious world greatly augmented by certain institutions. We have to do with that religious world and there are half-way houses. The end of the nineteenth century [p. 389] brought in a lot of things intended to counteract the great movement of God in the revival of the truth of the assembly, which brought into evidence what is entirely independent of the world. In those halfway houses, people would stay who would not stay in the institutions developing directly out of the reformation, because in those there is a certain recognition of the light that has come in. It is, to some extent, accredited there. This third sign, if understood, would deliver saints from that, making due allowance for whatever virtue there is in it. Bringing in the word of Christ and the power of Christ, involves complete deliverance from all that.
PL He is not speaking there exactly. His word is outside of that and in spite of it. I was thinking of what you said about these half-way institutions: there is just enough light there to leave the conscience undisturbed, but the way is not taken which involves the surrender of one’s life. There is a contrast between this Man and the man whose eyes were opened in chapter 9.
FL Yes, there is a great contrast. This man was not morally affected Christward. The man in the ninth chapter was found outside, and he owned Jesus as Son of God, and worshipped Him.
JT It was, so far, well that he was in the temple. The Lord found him. The word ‘found’ is most instructive in John’s gospel, showing that the Lord has His eye on us. His word is light, and after He speaks to us He watches for the full effect of it.
JMcK The Lord must have seen him carrying his bed. The people around saw it and challenged him for it. It is a wonderful thing when a man can take up the bed that carried him for thirty-eight years and carry it. That brings out the power of Christ in a wonderful way.
HG One who has found life in Christ should not be put under the shackles of a system that could not [p. 390] give life. If he has found life in Christ, Christ must be a rule of life to him.
PL You are speaking of persons starting out in life as named of the Lord in the dignity of sonship: that is in contrast to the mass of nominal Christians in weakness here, is it not? There is no distinctiveness in family relationships in Christendom. Everything is wholesale. Numbers figure, but numbers in weakness, a multitude of person here only adding to their weakness by their number, but your thought is that in the voice of the Son of God each is called forth into life and stands forth in distinctiveness, is that it?
JT Yes; “Let Reuben live, and not die; and let his men be few” (that can be counted easily); Deuteronomy 33:6. I think it is lovely to be able to count the brethren. They are not a mass. They are countable.
FL We ought to keep our companies small enough to be counted. “They sat down in ranks, by hundreds and fifties”, Mark 6:40. No unwieldy numbers. They could be looked after — shepherded and cared for.