LIFE-STUDY OF JOHN

MESSAGE FORTY-TWO

LIFE PROCESSED FOR MULTIPLICATION

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John 18 and 19 tell us about the Lord’s betrayal, judgment, crucifixion, and burial. By reading the account of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus in the four Gospels, we discover that the first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are records along the same line. But the record of the Gospel of John is absolutely different. For example, in the first three Gospels the record of the Lord’s crucifixion and death on the cross is accompanied by many signs. For instance, the sky became dark, and the veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom (Matt. 27:45, 51). Also, the Lord’s cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” is another sign in these Gospels that cannot be found in the Gospel of John. However, John’s record contains that which cannot be found in the first three Gospels, such as the soldiers’ mocking of the Lord (19:2-3) and the blood and water pouring out from the Lord’s side (19:34). Therefore, these records are along two different lines. We must know the purpose behind these two lines.

According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the main purpose of the Lord’s death was to redeem us. He died for us and for our sins that He might accomplish the work of redemption. The Lord cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” because it was at that very moment that God put all our sins upon Him and the Lord became the sin-bearer, becoming a sinner in our stead to bear our sins. Therefore, God forsook Him. Luke especially notes that the Lord was the Redeemer to redeem us from our sins, for he tells us that the Lord died with two sinners, two thieves, one who was saved and one who perished (Luke 23:32, 39-43). Such a record cannot be found in the Gospel of John. What then is the purpose of John’s record? Since the Gospel of John is the gospel of life, his record of the death of Christ follows the line of life. John’s purpose was to show that the Lord Jesus is the expression of God as our life and that He died on the cross for the purpose of releasing Himself to us as life. His death on the cross was for the purpose of imparting His divine life into us.

At this point we need to visualize the whole Gospel of John. In this book, the writer, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, points out that the Lord Jesus as the expression of God came as life to meet all our needs, and that He had to die and be resurrected and transfigured into another form, the Spirit, so that He might come into us, be one with us, and bring us into God and God into us, making God and us a mutual abode. In John 17 the Lord prayed that all the disciples, being born of God, knowing the name and life of the Father, and belonging to the Father’s family, would be one in the Father’s name, separated from the world and sanctified to live in God, and be absolutely one in the Triune God, realizing the glory of being the sons of God. As this chapter reveals, by being in the life and nature of God, in sanctification, and in the glory of the Triune God, we all may be one as God’s corporate expression. In this way, the Lord, the Son of God, can be manifested and glorified through us, and the Father can be manifested and glorified in the Son through this corporate vessel. Following this, the writer gives a record showing how the Lord was crucified, went into death, and came out of death in resurrection. By considering this whole picture, we shall be able to see the purpose of the record regarding the Lord’s death in chapters eighteen and nineteen.

I appreciate the title of this message—“Life Processed for Multiplication.” I especially like the words processed and multiplication. John 18 through 21 reveal that life has undergone a process so that it might be multiplied. One grain has been multiplied into many grains (12:24). One unique only begotten Son has been multiplied into many sons. When we come to chapter twenty we shall see that the unique only begotten Son has produced many brothers in His resurrection and that these many brothers are His multiplication. How could the Lord have this multiplication? Only by passing through the process of death and resurrection.

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