THE REVELATION OF GOD AND ETERNAL LIFE

John 3: 14-17; 7: 37-39; 17: 1-3

In the Old Testament there are only two positive statements with regard to eternal life—one in Psalm 133 and the other in Daniel 12. The reading of these passages would suffice to show that they belong to the future. They are really prophetic and connected with the future history of God’s earthly people, and I think you can understand how, of necessity, eternal life in the Old Testament could only be spoken of in the way we have just mentioned—it awaited the revelation of God. The wonderful thing we come to in the gospel by John is the revelation of God. From the very outset of the book, the revelation of God is viewed as an accomplished fact. I will just cite one verse to prove that; “No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”, John 1: 18. Hence, in the gospel of John, you get eternal life as a present thing.

In Matthew, Mark and Luke it is connected with the habitable world to come; but in the gospel of John it is a present thing, and you can understand why and how it can be presented to us in that way in the gospel of John, because in that gospel you are brought face to face with that most marvellous fact—the revelation of God. There are many facts full of interest and of great importance in the Scriptures, but it is not too much to say that the greatest of all is the perfect revelation of God in the Person of the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, but it is in Him viewed as Man down here. Indeed, the revelation of God forms the foundation of the gospel, the foundation of Christianity, and I wish just to draw your attention to two or three points in connection with the scriptures we have read.

First, I want to speak of the revelation of God, and then I would speak a little of the divine intent which God had before Him in the revelation of Himself in the Person of His Son, and then to show a little what eternal life is, and who are entitled to eternal life and how those who are entitled to it are brought into it.

I do not want to make any invidious distinctions in Scripture, but I think I may say simply and freely in regard to the verses read from John 3 that there is a marvellous concentration of light in this passage. It is the light of God, the light of the perfect revelation of God in the Person of Jesus, who is the Christ, the Son of God. It would be difficult in all the compass of Scripture to find a passage where there is such a marvellous concentration of light as in these wonderful words uttered by our Lord Jesus Christ, in His interview with Nicodemus. I need not attempt to say much—for John 3:16 has been spoken of so often and so fully—but where in all the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, can you find such an unveiling of the heart of God as in that wonderful verse, “For God so loved the world” &c.? The very heart of God is there unfolded, and that in a most wonderful way.

I trust you will bear with the utterance of such simple and obvious truths, but where else in Scripture do you read of God’s love for the world? There are many scriptures which speak of God’s love for His children—for His people, for those who are in relationship with Himself—but where else, except in this wonderful verse, do you read of God’s love for the world? There has been a moment (and what a moment) in the history of the world when all the love of God for the world shone out. I need not say that the statement, “God so loved the world”, is not the love of complacency; it is not the love of delight. One can hardly think of the world, especially in the light of John, being an object of complacency, or even those who composed the world being objects of divine complacency or delight, but it is the love of omnipotent pity, of infinite compassion.

Now, taking up these verses again for a moment, I think the revelation of God is two-fold. I think in verses 14 and 15 it is the revelation of God in righteousness. Someone has said, and it has been well said, that the righteousness of God is witnessed in the removal, in judgment, of the man that brought in sin and judgment. We are apt, I think many believers are apt, to limit the thought of the righteousness of God to the way that God has dealt with our sins in the death of Christ. But if man according to the flesh, the man who has brought in sin, if that man were allowed to remain, the righteousness of God would be compromised before the universe. But “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up, that every one who believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”.

Many elder believers here, perhaps, will remember a very simple little tract written a great many years ago by Charles H Macintosh on the two “musts” in John 3 (King James’ Version). I think most of us recognise the first “must” as a necessity on account of man’s condition, but I understand that in the second “must” (v 14) it is not the necessity of our condition—it is the necessity of the rights and claims of God. Man according to the flesh must be removed in the lifting up of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of man. That was the great antitype of the brazen serpent, lifted up in Numbers 21. The righteousness of God was revealed in the removal of man according to the flesh.

Of course, when we speak of the removal of man, we do not refer to any individual, or to any person as such, because we have but to read the Scripture to its end to see that is not the force of what we are speaking of. God is revealed in righteousness and then (v 16) is the revelation of God in love. That God might be revealed in righteousness the Son of man must be lifted up, but if God is to be revealed in His love for the world, then nothing short of the gift of the only-begotten Son could give expression to that love. I need hardly add that while there is distinction between verses 14, 15 and 16, there is no separation, because we learn that the “Son of man” is the “only-begotten Son”. The Lord’s words here are the light of the revelation of God. Verses 14 and 15 were spoken anticipatively—that is, you have to travel to the end of the gospel of John before you see the Son of man lifted up on the cross.

But the Lord’s words here are in the light of the perfect revelation of God. It is not simply that God was revealed in Him, or by Him, but I think it might be put more strongly—that divine Person, as Man down here, was the perfect revelation of God. No doubt we have to speak in a comprehensive way, because we have to go on in the path of the Lord Jesus Christ till we reach the cross. It all concentrated there and was completed there. The Son of man was lifted up, and hence we have it, “not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10), and it was not in the life of the Lord, as in the days of His flesh, that propitiation was effected, but it was in His death.

Now I wish to speak of the divine intent, what God had before Him in revealing Himself. If we adhere to the language of the Lord here, and we are surely safe in adhering to His language, then I think we should have to say this—that what God had before Him in coming out in the revelation of Himself was that man might have eternal life. There is very little in the gospel of John about forgiveness, or justification. There is nothing that answers to the passover or the Red Sea. The very first mention by the Lord Himself of His death is in chapter 3: 14, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up, that every one who believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”. I think we might say, and it is an interesting point in John, that the revelation of God is connected with the purpose of God, and yet while that is true, it is in the gospel of John as in no other gospel, that you get that wonderful expression “every one”.

The light shines, a light for all, and if it is the light of the revelation of God, no one can impose any restriction, or place any limitation to that light. Yet on the other hand, the revelation of God is in connection with God’s purpose, and this wonderful expression “eternal life” is the expression of the divine intent of blessing for man. It is wonderful in the gospel of John how prominent eternal life is.

Salvation in the gospel of John always follows eternal life, never precedes it. In verses 14 to 16 it is life eternal. In verse 17 it is, “For God has not sent his Son into the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him”. Then in John 10: 9 the Lord says, “I am the door: if any one enter in by me, he shall be saved”. Salvation comes as the consequence of entering in, and what do you enter into? You enter into that which is set forth in Himself—the perfect light of the perfect revelation of God. In this connection I call your attention to the words in John 17: 3, because they are important, “And this is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”.

In John 20: 30, 31 it says, “Many other signs therefore also Jesus did before his disciples, which are not written in this book; but 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”. The “Son of God”, in Scripture, does not set forth the truth of His Person as a divine Person, but sets forth the truth of His Person viewed as Man in relation to God.

I think you can begin to understand, in a sense, how eternal life is the great point of blessing. It is the great intent that God had in the revelation of Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is the Father revealed in the Son as Man, and eternal life consists in the knowledge of the Father as the only true God, and the knowledge of Jesus Christ the Father’s sent One. Man had turned away from God, he had lost the knowledge of God, he was in idolatry and lawlessness, and God comes out in the revelation of Himself in that blessed Man, Jesus Christ. The Father is presented as the only true God for the recovery of man from idolatry, and Jesus Christ, the Father’s sent One, is presented as the perfectly dependent and obedient One, as the point of recovery from lawlessness.

Who has title to eternal life? The answer in John’s gospel is, “He that believes on the Son”, John 3: 36. The great point in the gospel of John is to bring you to believe, “that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name”, John 20: 31. It is the believer who gets it. The great gain of believing is that you get the Holy Spirit, and then you come into the realm and region of knowledge. Receiving the Holy Spirit you come to know the Father as the only true God, and you come to know Jesus Christ, the Father’s sent One. May God make these things real to us, so that we may be found answering to the blessed light of the revelation of God in the Person of His only-begotten Son.

NEW YORK

May 1911

From Ministry of James Taylor—Old Series vol 12