Books by T. Austin-Sparks

[Shammu]

Then, secondly, it is an essence not only of being, entity, but of constitution, nature, outlook; altogether different from ourselves, differently constituted. So complete is the difference of constitution that it contradicts - very often - our very best and highest ideas and judgments and thoughts. Different nationalities have different conceptions. When certain nationalities come into our country, or we go into theirs, we find that they would do things we would never think of doing, and we do things they would never think of doing, and things done represent an altogether different conception and standard. We should say: That is a thing not done in our country; for that to be done in our country would represent something in the nature of a scandal; it is not so with you, it is the accepted thing. They would perhaps say the same of many things among us. Take the matter of language; the same words in different countries mean entirely different things. We in England think a great deal of our delightful word "homely." If you say that about things in America you find people frowning at you. We think it is the greatest compliment in this country to say a woman is a "homely" woman. That saying, in America, means she is very plain and ugly. There is a difference altogether in conception. Now in that sense, this "Otherness" is different from our conception, our ideas, our judgments, our standards; even our highest, our best are very often challenged by this "Otherness." It is an "Otherness" of constitution. To put it in a word, God is other than ourselves at our very best. A break has come, and there is no such thing as the continuity of God in the fallen race. Oh, a great deal is made of the continuity of God in the fallen race, in man. A great deal is said in certain realms about God in every man. Much is said about the Christ in us. But a break has come, and in man by nature God is not resident, and Christ is not present. God is other than man, and as utterly other than man as is possible for the two to be; so much so that God, rather than put forth a finger or speak a word to save, to rescue Himself in that creation, consigns the whole thing to destruction. God would not do that, if He were in it. He would be consigning Himself to destruction. If the Cross of the Lord Jesus was a representative thing in which the whole race died under the hand of God, then God slew Himself, if He were in the race. So utterly is the race without God, that God will not save it as it is. No, there is a break, the continuity has been ended. That is the "Otherness."

We have spoken rather in the impersonal so far, now we have to bring it to the personal, and say the essence of the new birth is God coming in, in Christ, by the Holy Spirit. It is God Himself in Christ, by the Holy Spirit coming in where He is not. God is not in man by nature. Christ is not in man by nature. The Holy Spirit is not in man by nature. "The Christ in every man," of which we hear so much, is a phrase which makes Christ impersonal and speaks of Christ as some THING. But NEW BIRTH IS AN ADVENT NOT A REVIVAL. It is as distinctly and definitely an advent as the birth of the Lord Jesus at Bethlehem. That was not an evolution, and that was not a revival; that was an advent. Revival is not for unsaved people. New birth is for unsaved people. Revival is for saved people in whom the life has become either stagnant or has waned. New birth is the definite act of the Lord coming and taking up residence as the Lord, other than we are. You remember what the Lord Jesus said about the Kingdom, and its coming. "There be some of you standing here, who shall not taste of death, until ye have seen the kingdom of heaven coming in power." When did that take place? Its first movement was on the Mount of Transfiguration, its second movement was at Pentecost. The Kingdom came at Pentecost. But what was Pentecost? The advent of the Spirit! And what was the advent of the Spirit? The residence of the Spirit within the Church! It was an advent. Everything was in a state of suspense under Divine order until then. All the truth was apprehended, but if they had gone and preached the truth about Pentecost, they would have been in a false position, an unbalanced state; there would have been inconsistency, and that truth would have come back on them to break them, and not work for them. Pentecost, the Advent of the Spirit, was the cradling of the Spirit of God within the Church. There were foreshadowings and indications of it before then; there were the principles of it clearly marked and defined before then. There was a parenthetical period in which everything was in movement, but the actual consummation of that did not take place until Pentecost. I mean the Upper Room was the Church representatively in being, and when the Lord breathed on them there and said: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost"; that was the Church constituted by the Holy Ghost figuratively, but it was not then allowed to move, neither could it function. Everything was suspended for a probationary period until the Advent of the Spirit, which made all that good. Now the law of the Kingdom of God is birth from above, which is the Advent of God in Christ by the Spirit in our heart, constituting an "Otherness" which is to be our true life to the end.

Those of you who have any spiritual sense and understanding and knowledge at all know how true that "Otherness" is. It is the thing upon which perhaps we have fallen back again and again as the last word in an argument, or debate with ourselves over our own Christian lives. That is, there are times when by reason of various conditions or circumstances, trials, difficulties, dark passages of experience, the enemy hedges us up in a corner, and makes us question the reality of everything; the reality of our own experience, the reality of our own salvation; and what is our last word in this argument? Very often in my own case the last word has been: Whatever I am, or whatever I am not, this "Otherness" is the greatest reality I know. I know by experience, that when for me certain things have been totally impossible, spiritually, mentally, and physically, this "Otherness" has come to the rescue and accomplished them. I know that my experience is not the product of my own genius; I know the work that I have done is not the outcome of my own ability. I know perfectly well my limitations, but I know there is a history which cannot be accounted for by anything of my own. I know it when every ounce of my being on its best side argues in a certain direction, and that "Otherness" will not go with me and persuades me against it, and the issue proves that that "Otherness" was right and I was wrong at my best. What is that "Otherness"? It is the Lord the Spirit. That is the essence of the birth from above, the Lord Himself. He is not as we are - He is other.

[Shammu]

The New Birth - Its Basis

The third thing, the basis of the new birth. It is the accepting of the end of the possibilities of the old birth. That so far as the Kingdom of God is concerned and all that relates to it of character and conduct, of being and doing, of knowing and understanding and functioning, the natural birth provides absolutely no possibility, it cannot bring us there. We cannot naturally see the Kingdom of God. Even on the high level of a Nicodemus - equipment, religiously, intellectually, ecclesiastically, morally, we cannot see the Kingdom of God at our very best by nature, or by human achievement. Of course I know I am saying commonplace things to many, but be patient; it is very important that in taking the first thing we should say familiar things, and say them strongly. It is not settled as to why the Lord Jesus changed the order of His answer to Nicodemus in the fifth verse from the third. One thing is clear, that Nicodemus had misapprehended His statement. Nicodemus had taken Him up as meaning what our Authorized Version seems to suggest: "Ye must be born again." That conveyed to him an altogether different idea from being born from above. The Greek word used allows of that conception and apprehension; indeed the same word is used elsewhere in the sense of again, a second time. Nicodemus just dwelt on that particular aspect of the word, that of the Lord's statement in terms of a birth repeated. The Lord, in His changed address, language, evidently intended to deal with that misconception and misapprehension, and that is the only way in which you can explain what He meant in His second statement: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Now some think that the Lord, using the word "water" referred to the Word of God. Others, and I think by far the greater number, hold that it refers to baptism. The word here is: "...out from water and the Spirit." Now if it does mean that, in the Lord's usage, it touches immediately what we were saying in the earlier statement; but whether the Lord meant baptism and the Spirit or not, the principle holds good that to be born from above, as set over against a Nicodemus-position, means that one history is entirely closed, and another - an entirely different history - comes in at its commencement; therefore the principle is the same, that if it is baptism, baptism is A TYPE of death to the old creation, death and burial, in which one entire system, order, and creation is put aside and out of God's sight; crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, then of course, raised in Christ. It is our acceptance of the end of the possibilities of the old birth. We do not bring an end to those possibilities, that has been reached long ago, and God sees it and declares it, and birth from above presupposes and postulates the fact that this old birth at its best can never see or enter into the Kingdom of God, therefore it is futile and useless. You and I will never come into the Kingdom of God on any other ground than that God comes into us in a new birth; in that sense we are born from above; an act of God by the Holy Spirit; "...so is every one that is born of the Spirit." "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The new birth means that we, by an act of God in the Holy Spirit, become spiritual, in this sense - that we totally correspond to the Kingdom of God in its spiritual nature. It is a suitability to God. "God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

Well, now I think we see why the Lord immediately, and so peculiarly and strangely, pulled Nicodemus up short with an imperative. Nicodemus starts his conversation - I do not know whether in a patronizing way, or in a somewhat high-falutin' manner, "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." What is the connection? The thing does not seem to be connected at all, it hardly seems relevant. It is a tremendous break in on the part of the Master, calling this whole thing to a halt, and saying, in effect: Let us go no further, your need is to be born from above, if you have come to discuss spiritual things. If you have come to talk about the Kingdom of God and how to get into it, you must be born from above. If you are interested in Me and what I represent, you can only have a living interest and understanding as You are born from above. You see, He brings right forward the end that Nicodemus probably had in mind, and plants it with an imperative at the commencement, and says, virtually: Look here, Nicodemus, it is no use you and I discussing these things, we are in two different realms; we need to be in the same realm to have understanding and appreciation of these things, and I am from above; you have to come from above, Nicodemus, to be in fellowship with Me; we cannot talk over the thing while you stand in one world and I in another, you must come over to the realm where I am, and we will have fellowship and understanding, because that means you will have new capacities, a new consciousness; you will be able with spiritual ability to enter into these things; which is quite impossible to you, even as a master in Israel, until you are born from above. That imperative, that "must" carries with it all the content of the utter impossibility of man by nature, even at his highest, to enter into the things of the Kingdom of God, and all the mighty content on the positive side of what it is to be in the Kingdom of God. That is, to have what is of God resident within by birth; Divine capacity, Divine consciousness, Divine understanding and intelligence, and all that belongs to God - excepting deity.

For myself, the wonder of the Christian life is the reality of what I have called the "Otherness." The reality of Another so closely related within me, subjective and yet objective. In me, but not me, and yet as close to me, to my consciousness as it is possible for anything to be. That is the foundation of all our hope and confidence; it is the spring of everything for the ultimate realization of perfect God-likeness; "Christ in you the hope of glory."

In a further chapter we shall see with what a forceful illustration the Lord enforced His dictum as to the necessity for new birth, and the why of it.

[Shammu]

Chapter 4 - The Necessity for New Birth

READ: John 2:1-11; 3:1-21; 4:1-26; 1:4

As we continue our consideration of "Great truths and their Laws, as in John's Gospel," and come into chapter four, we pass from Nicodemus to the woman of Sychar, from Judea to Samaria, with a spiritual link between. It is interesting to notice what a little place time and space have in this spiritual realm of John's Gospel. Chapter four follows chapter three very swiftly. There is just the fragmentary statement at the end of chapter three that the Lord, because of certain uprisings of hostility in Judea from the Pharisees, left Judea, and made His way toward Galilee. That is barely stated and then certain observations are made by John the Baptist, and a comment is made by John, the writer of the letter, upon the words of John the Baptist, and at one point it is exceedingly difficult to know whether it is John or Christ speaking, the two blend so thoroughly (I mean the last part of chapter three), but with that bare reference to the movement you find yourself over a considerable space, both of time and geography, because the Lord has spent nine months in Judea to which no reference has been made. But from the time of His meeting Nicodemus in Jerusalem nine months seem to drop altogether out of existence, and Jesus is here on His way to Galilee in Samaria, at Jacob's well by Sychar. The time is lost sight of, the geography takes a very remote place. It is in keeping with what we said, that when you come into "John" you come into a different realm from the other Gospels, which are so much related to the earth, and things here, related to time and the earth. You come into the realm of spiritual things in "John," and there geography does not count for a great deal, and time ceases to be a dominating factor; what you come into is the sequence of spiritual history. And so you find yourself moving from Nicodemus to the woman of Samaria, as it were, in rapid transition, but with a spiritual link, a very clear, definite spiritual link between the two, indicating that it is spiritual history that John is writing. It is not the history of time and things here, but it is the history of what is eternal. It is very interesting to recognize that, and it is important, valuable and helpful in our reading of this Gospel. It is the spiritual order of history that is before us here, and that spiritual order is Cana in Galilee, Nicodemus in Jerusalem, the woman of Sychar.

From Nicodemus to the woman of Samaria is our immediate object. We said when we were in chapter two on the sign in Cana of Galilee, the turning of the water into wine at the marriage, that that was an inclusive thing of all that follows in the Gospel. That that sign, that event, that incident in Cana of Galilee, comprehended the Gospel, and all that follows can be found in germ there in Cana. Now we shall see how true that is in these two cases.

Referring to chapter three and Nicodemus, Nicodemus corresponds to the wine having failed. You think about that for a moment and you will see how true that is. Nicodemus comes in all the fulness of natural life religiously, morally, ecclesiastically, intellectually. He presents himself to the Lord Jesus as a model man on the old creation level, even religiously. And what Nicodemus comes for is teaching. He wants to be taught, he wants to learn something more, and the Lord Jesus breaks in instantly, and says in effect: Nicodemus, it is impossible for you, we shall never get anywhere on your level, you must be born from above. In effect He says: You can never learn anything from Me until you are born from above and have that heavenly union which I have, because I am from above. And here at its best, the old wine fails, and Nicodemus is evidently very disconcerted; and that is how they were at the marriage, for the old wine failed. There was an impasse, an arrest in the proceedings, and the atmosphere is just that of: Well, we cannot get any further on this level, with this resource, by this means; we can go no further. Nicodemus corresponds to the wine having failed and the miracle of birth from above; that is Christ's intervention in connection with "Mine hour." The hour of the Son of Man is the hour when He accomplishes that which makes new birth possible.

Why New Birth Is Necessary

And then the Lord presses that further. He does not only show that there is an impasse, and that He cannot get anywhere with Nicodemus, and Nicodemus cannot get anywhere with Him, except on the ground of this birth from above, He proceeds to show why, and He heaps upon poor Nicodemus the ignominy of this situation by following with the serpent in the wilderness. We know that serpent in the wilderness represents God's thought about man. It is elevated, erected upon a pole, lifted up: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness...." Remember the serpent is the cursed thing because it is symbolically the embodiment of sin, it is sin personified. Cursed and lifted up. And oh, the terrible nature of the interpretation of that: "...so must the Son of man be lifted up." And you need Paul to explain: "Christ made a curse for us": "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin"; and He therefore was made a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." If you want to know more about the awful comprehensiveness of the curse, read Deuteronomy, chapters 27 and 28. It is all gathered up in one thing, not doing the will of God, not obeying the commandments of the Lord. And He Who came in delight to do the will of God, came to do His Father's will, and Who did it perfectly, at a point in His life took the place voluntarily of man who had wholly failed to do the will of God, and received the curse of God in exclusion from the presence of God in judgment, and thus represented man, in man's state, and under that curse and judgment represented God's thought about man by nature. Put that over on to a Nicodemus, and you will find there is an awful shock for a man such as he. And the Lord brings that home to Nicodemus. That is bringing things down to a great and terrible depth. A death has taken place; a low place of death has been reached under condemnation and judgment. We may say zero has been reached.

The Truth of Eternal Life

Now then, the way is prepared for the matter of eternal life to be considered, and that is your transition from Nicodemus to the woman of Sychar. Listen: John 3:36, which is the last verse in the chapter, the link between the two chapters: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." That is the serpent in the wilderness. Now that is the link between the two chapters, but of course there ought to be no chapters. Pass on to what is our chapter 4:14: "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." When the death place has been reached, and the zero point has been touched, then eternal life can come into view, but not before, and Sychar represents that. Sychar brings in that teaching of eternal life. It is the second great truth, eternal life. There is no need for me to take you back to Cana of Galilee. We can see it so patently, life out of death; but life springing from a zero point. The Lord Jesus marked a very definite pause in things there. His mother said: "They have no wine." He did not just carry the thing on and not allow a sense of an end to be felt, He paused. Yes, that is the end, that is one realm, one history. We are not going to perpetuate that. That pause is related to "Mine hour," and "Mine hour" is always related to the Cross, and the Cross is always a great pause in the history of this universe - Silence in heaven. One history has closed. There is a gap, not a continuity; and then a new history begins. The Lord Jesus said to His mother: "Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come." There is the pause, and then the taking up after a pause, the bringing in of something new. Not making the old to be eked out to the end of the feast, but the doing of something new altogether: His own principle of: "And no man putteth new wine into old bottles... but new wine must be put into new bottles." Something altogether new coming in. New wine, something different from what was.

So we find that with chapter four we are brought into the doctrine of eternal life, a doctrine which, if we were exhaustively to consider it, would occupy us for many pages, but, for our present, purpose has to be brought within the very small compass of a few lines, so that we must put it into one or two comprehensive statements.

[Shammu]

The Meaning of Eternal Life

What is the doctrine of eternal life? In a statement it is the need for having what is of God within, as the basis of all that is related to God in life, fellowship, service, and the eternal future. The question with Nicodemus was that of entering the Kingdom of God. We saw that the Kingdom of God is a state before it is a realm. Only that enters the Kingdom of God which is of God. The realm of God is that in which everything of God and nothing else obtains. Through the death of chapter three we move to the place where we see what is basic to the realm of God, that which has to do with every phase of our relationship to God; that is, the life of God, Divine life, known as eternal life, and that within us, as the ground upon which all the activities and operations of God proceed. Are we going to be united with the Lord? Well, that is the first step in the life of the believer. That is the very first phase of spiritual life, of the true Christian life. It is being united with the Lord. The nature of union with the Lord is the sharing of His own life, Divine life; the life of God, uniting us with Himself. Not something broken off from Him and given to us, for life can never be cut up into fragments like that and distributed; life is one, one in essence, and it makes organically one every part into which it enters. It is the life of one body, not organized but organic. Union with God then is by reason of receiving the life of God.

Do we want fellowship with God, which is beyond union; a walk in communion? It will be only upon the basis that God's life is active within us. God will commune with that which is of Himself in us. God will bring us into fellowship with Himself by putting something into us with which He can have fellowship. God can have no fellowship with flesh, with man by nature. God's fellowship is with that which is essentially Himself, and that is given to us in the gift of God which is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Do we contemplate, or desire service for the Lord? The same principle governs that; that real fellowship with the Lord in service is upon the basis of that life of God, active and energetic within us. Paul speaks about that "energy which energiseth in me mightily"; and then he spoke of God Who is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that WORKETH IN US." There is the active vocational service side of things. The doing of God upon the basis of an energetic principle (an energetic "something" I will call it for the moment). Service demands Divine life in us, and Divine life is the basis of Divine service. Many of us have proved that by Divine life we can do what is totally impossible to us by natural life; very often Divine life comes to our rescue when we are well-nigh dead, and enables us to do things which are an astonishment to ourselves, and anyone else who knows of our inner history.

Are we contemplating knowing the Lord more fully? It will be upon the same principle: "In him was life; and the life was the light of men." It is as the life of God is unarrested and uninterrupted in us in its growth, in its movement; as we do not put any obstacle in its way by disobedience to its claims and demands, that we enlarge in our spiritual knowledge of the Lord. Life issues in light. Find the believer, the child of God, who is going on freely, and clearly, and powerfully, transparently with the Lord in spirit, without prejudice, without questioning, without controversy, without disobedience, and you will find that that child of God is coming into an ever-increasing knowledge of the Lord. Find the child of God who has put such a difficulty in the way of the Lord by disobedience, a reservation, a hesitation, an arrest, a rebellion, and you will notice two things follow instantly. One is an arrest of life, and the other is a darkening of the understanding. It is always so, the two things go together.

Then further, have we in view the hope of eternal resurrection? Well, resurrection unto life is based upon, and exclusively upon, the fact that we have got eternal life already resident within us. That does not mean that those who have not got eternal life will not be raised from the dead for the judgment purposes. They will! But John makes a discrimination, and that discrimination is also made by Paul. "They that have done good, unto the resurrection of life": literally, "the life resurrection." "They that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgement" - the resurrection of eternal judgment. There is a resurrection of life and there is a death resurrection. Resurrection unto eternal life is based upon our having this Divine life in us. That is the argument of 1 Cor. 15. That resurrection body will be formed round a seed, a germ, and it must be there. Something must be there to be clothed upon. Paul speaks of himself and of us as being clothed upon. What is it that is going to be clothed upon? That living spirit indwelt by the life of God. There is no hope of eternal resurrection only on the ground of our already being in possession of resurrection life. Resurrection life will be given a resurrection body. The resurrection body will evidence the resurrection life, so that we must have spiritual resurrection now in order to have physical resurrection, glorified resurrection, later on.

Now the point of all that is, that the doctrine of eternal life is the need for having what is of God within us, as the basis of everything in relation to God. And in saying what we have said, we have covered the whole ground of the doctrine of eternal life, although if you like to go to your New Testament with a concordance, that will help you in this matter, or if you are able to read the original language, and trace through the one word which is used for eternal life, you will find a tremendous mass of detail and you will see how very illuminating the New Testament is upon this whole doctrine, and how many-sided is its application.

Having broadly stated the truth of eternal life, we come nearer to our chapter, to look for a moment at the local setting of this teaching, and at the teaching of the Lord on this matter. The local setting of it is a very good illustration of the absence of eternal life. You may look at it from several standpoints if you wish. Look at it, for instance, from the spiritual standpoint. The condition of this woman, viewed from the spiritual standpoint, represents an abiding sense of lack; a sense of lack which continues, which persists, no matter what she does. There is an atmosphere of longing, of desire; it may not be that she intelligently understood her own heart, it may not be that she could interpret the deeper feelings of her heart, but undoubtedly there is an atmosphere around this incident of a sense of lack, a sense of longing, a sense of desire. It comes out quite clearly. The Master had only to touch upon the subject of satisfaction, and it was as though instantly she said: Ah! that is what I want to know. Yes, in relation to this sense of lack the activities of life were without satisfaction. "Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." In effect she meant: I am all the time coming here to draw, but my continuous activities, in the direction of meeting that lack, go disappointed, never reach an end; I never come to a point where I have any sense of feeling, or of being able to say, Now that is done and never need be done again. If we can read our own hearts we can get well into the atmosphere of this chapter. If we read the spiritual life of the world, it is just that. There is perhaps an uninterpreted, perhaps unrecognized lack in the whole race at heart. There is that sense, recognized, acknowledged, or not so, that there is an incompleteness about things, that something ought to be which is not. That life has in it something of the will-o'-the-wisp, something which draws you on but which you never get. There is a phantom element about life. You know you ought to have something, but you have it not, and you cannot get it; and all that you are doing whether you would put it into words or not, is your own effort, your own activity to get that something which you feel you ought to have possession of and which would bring to an end that sense of lack, would make good an abiding deficiency in life. There is a deficiency about life in nature. Everything, in view of that sense of reaching the ultimate, is a miscarriage, is a breakdown. That is from the spiritual standpoint. Now that is an evidence of the fact that eternal life is not there.

[Shammu]

Look at it then, if you will, from a further standpoint - the moral. This woman's life from the moral standpoint was entirely out of harmony with God's standard. We know the story. The Lord Jesus was above all others sensitive. He was not coarse, He was not vulgar, He was not unkind, and yet He would drag that story right out; He would bring that skeleton out of the cupboard and expose it; He would not allow this thing to be covered up. It is an essential thing on the way to life that we come to a place where we recognize how out of harmony with God's standard we are morally. "Go, call thy husband." "I have no husband." "Thou hast well said, I have no husband; for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband." "Sir, I Perceive that thou art a prophet." Do you notice the sleight of hand? "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." She has come up against a challenge, and now she is going to talk about the saints, and to set one over against the other. She will start upon a doctrinal, and the logical, and ecclesiastical line as a hedge to this thing. People do that when they begin to get at close quarters with the Lord about sin, and they will begin to discuss the saints, talk religion, to hedge the issue; but the Lord knows how to deal with a situation like this. We will not anticipate, though, for a moment. The way to eternal life is to come not only to recognize the fact that there is an abiding lack and deficiency, it is to see that lack as altogether out of harmony with God, and that morally we do not represent God's standard by nature; and if in this woman you think you have a somewhat extreme case, oh! be reminded that it is only a matter of degree, for the Lord has brought the serpent in the wilderness very close to a Nicodemus, and said that even for a Nicodemus the mind of God is that, and it is only a matter of degree. There may be no need for putting ourselves into the category of this woman in actualities of sin, but moral distance from God is just the same in nature whether it be in a Nicodemus representation, or in a woman of Sychar. What I mean is this, that God's standard and irreducible minimum is His Son, the perfection of Christ. Can you stand up to that? Can any man stand up to that? Neither Nicodemus nor this woman can stand up to that. It is only a matter of the degree in actual expression, but the separation from God morally is just the same. You say: How can anyone be saved if Christ's perfections are God's irreducible minimum? We shall find ourselves faced with the question before we are through with this story; what Christ is in Himself.

Then you may look at it from one more standpoint; religiously. We have seen how, as a kind of back door out from this embarrassment and awkward situation, she turned to discuss religion, but she betrayed something when she introduced those matters. "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Well, in any case it is tradition without power. "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain...." What moral effect has that upon her? What moral effect or spiritual effect has it upon her that she has a temple in Mount Gerizim, and a copy of the Old Testament Scriptures, and her fathers worshipped? It is no use talking about the fact that: "My grandfather was a great saint and my parents good Christians." That is not the way out. So far as she was concerned it was mere tradition without power. It did not bring her to satisfaction or to moral deliverance; and viewed from the religious standpoint, religion was rather an enemy to her than an ally. Religion was no help to her. The religion of her fathers meant nothing to her. And very often the fact that we have been brought up amongst Christians, and have Christian traditions behind us, may be working rather to our undoing or against us than otherwise. It is not always an unmixed blessing to have Christian upbringing. Oh! no one would limit the value, or seek to minimize the value of any help. Some of us wish that we had a good deal more of the strain of genuine saintliness and Godliness in our blood. Perhaps the conflict has been all the greater for want of it, and yet a religious upbringing is not always an unmixed blessing, and certainly it does not mean, that because we have had it, we are all right in the sight of God. Tradition may be without power so far as we are concerned. Certainly it was in her case.

Now all this is the local setting of things, and it all shows the absence of eternal life. It is all one strong argument that there is lacking here that which is the central theme, eternal life. Eternal life answers all these questions. Eternal life brings to an end that sense of eternal deficiency. You know that you have got something which brings finality to your heart, when you receive eternal life. Eternal life brings moral deliverance. You will see how that is in a moment. Eternal life changes all our traditions into living realities. Would that there could be the opening of the flood gates of eternal life into the traditional systems of today. But all this was seeming life that was not life, but death.

The Nature of Eternal Life

Then what is the nature of eternal life? There are four Greek words translated "life" in the New Testament. (1) "Bios," which means the manner or period of life, the kind of life we lead, or the means of living and the duration here. (2) "Psuche," which means animal life; sometimes breath; it really means a living being, a being that is animate or possesses life. (3) "Pneuma," which is spirit, and very largely means liveliness, activity. It is only used in this case once, in Rev. 13:15. But "pneuma" is the Holy Spirit. (4) "Zoe." This is the word always related to God, or almost always. It is the gift of God in Christ, what Christ came to give; what Christians alone have. There is the denominative "eternal (aeonian) 'Zoe'"; incorruptible life, Divine life.

Having said that, and arrived at this eternal life, we are able to notice its nature. It has two elements. One is its quality, and the other is its duration; its quality, and its abiding endurance. Its quality is its main factor, and is the factor in its permanence; and because its quality is its permanence, when it is received it brings with it a sense of permanence, and therefore of satisfaction. It is the life of God, and being the life of God has in its very essence the very nature of God. That is eternal. That is final. That is absolute. And when you receive that in germ, and in a vital way, you know that you have found the answer to all your questions and all your longings, and it is only a matter of time now for you to enter intelligently into the answer of everything.

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The effect of receiving eternal life within us is to bring instantly a sense of having reached an end. I know it opens up new possibilities, new ranges, but you know you have got the essence of satisfaction. You may yet have much to learn, you may have a long way to go, there may be new worlds to be explored and conquered, but you have got the secret of the end of all in possessing this life.

What is the first thing that one really born from above is conscious of? When you really do pass from death into life, and are born from above, what is the first uninterpreted, undefined, but very real thing in your consciousness? Well, you have found what you have been longing for! You have reached an end of that long history of dissatisfaction; moreover, you have discovered the secret of your very being, why you are here in this world; you have a sense of being here for something now. The spontaneous issue of that life in the New Testament was that the people immediately went out and talked to others. It created a purpose and an object in life. Their whole bearing and conduct said: We have found the explanation of our being in the world. You never will find that, until you find eternal life. It brings that as its essence. Why are we here? You have the answer to that question when you have the Lord! You may not be able to define it, but you know by an inner strong sense that you are here with a purpose, and that purpose is not something of time, it is eternal. It links you with eternity. It is the essence of eternal life which brings satisfaction and, therefore, the sense of permanence. Its nature is the permanence of the universe, because it is God. Receive that, and you know the deeper meaning of the poor English word "eternal." That is why John has so little to do with time and geography; he is out in that which is eternal.

The Law of Eternal Life

Now I close with just one word about the law of eternal life. What is the law of eternal life? The indwelling of the Holy Spirit! The Lord's words in this chapter about the spring of water within undoubtedly relate to the Holy Spirit, and we must not divide between Divine life and the Holy Spirit. We have to come to see that it is not an "it"; it is He; it is the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of life. Insofar as it is an "it" it is only an expression of Him. We speak of the effect of a person's presence. You come into this room; you are a person, but from you there may come an influence; that influence may be of life, or it may be of death; it may be of joy, or it may be of depression; it may be of good fellowship, or it may be of suspicion. The Holy Spirit with His presence emanates that which is eternal life; the life is that which comes with Him, from Him, is always a part of Him. It is something in itself, but it is something related to Someone, and you cannot have life as an indwelling reality, as a thing apart from the Person.

We cannot stay to enlarge greatly upon the law of the indwelling Holy Spirit. When speaking of Nicodemus we said that the new birth from above is an advent, not a revival; it is the definite taking up of residence within, in an act, by the Lord. Well, this is only the same truth. On the positive side the Holy Spirit must, in a definiteness of faith appropriation, be received. Do you notice how, later, with the Acts and onward, that is stressed? The Word is repeated again and again: "And that thou mightest receive the Holy Spirit." It was said to Paul at His conversion, and it was said at Pentecost. "Repent and be baptized... and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." To the Ephesian disciples who had not been instructed, and whose relationship to the Lord was, therefore, very imperfect, the Apostle said: "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" There must be the recognition of the fact that our life as children of God is based upon our receiving of the Holy Spirit. "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." So that the life of the child of God is not just some kind of becoming interested in Christianity and religious things; and taking up religious work, and entering into a religious realm outside of which we lived before, and in which we then had no interest. It is something far more radical than that. It is the Spirit of the Living God, in an act, coming to take up His residence in one who has come to the place where they recognized that they were dead, and there were no possibilities whatever in the realm of God for them except on the basis of being born from above. And the coming in to dwell of the Holy Spirit begins everything, and on that basis everything goes on. We said that the doctrine of eternal life means the putting within of that upon which every Divine activity takes place, but that is the Holy Spirit in us working in harmony with God in heaven; and God in heaven working in us by His Holy Spirit. That is the larger way of putting the same truth. We must not think of this as abstract. It is personal. This life is not merely an essence, a vapor, an abstraction; it is an intelligent thing. You cannot take life as you may take the ether and think of it as having personal intelligence. This life is a life which has the intelligence of God, Eternal intelligence because it is the Holy Spirit. When you think that having the Holy Spirit resident within means that there within us is all the knowledge that God possesses, what tremendous possibilities there are of usefulness! Our business throughout the spiritual life is to learn how to live in the Spirit. Yes, we have in the Holy Spirit all that God has to give us. Now we have to learn how to appropriate what we have, how to ENJOY what we have.

All Related to Christ Personally

Then a final word. The whole matter is related to Christ. Notice what He says here when the woman turns to talk about their temple, their worship, and the temple and worship of Jerusalem. He breaks in with one of His strong arrests and says: "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.... But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him."

There are two things there to be recognized. The force of: "But the hour cometh, and now is..."; that, as He uses it, represents a change of history. That phrase means that the whole course of history takes another form. Jerusalem worship, Samaritan worship - they are ended, as such they are finished. Worship is neither here nor there on the old lines. "But the hour cometh, and now is...." What hour? What is the nature of this hour? What is it that in this hour makes that change? In a word - Christ has come, and all the worship that ever was at Jerusalem with the whole system of that worship was all pointing to Him. The Temple? Yes He is the Temple. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up... he spake of the temple of his body." They thought He spake of the temple at Jerusalem. He was saying, in effect: That is the type, I am the Anti-type! Was there a priesthood? He is the High Priest! Were there sacrifices? He is the Lamb of God! Those sacrifices never took away sin. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Every fragment of that worship was typical, pointing to something typified. That has come, He is here, and now from the external, formal, traditional you come into the true spiritual meaning of that by being spiritually united with Him by the indwelling Spirit.

The other thing clearly is this, that the true worshippers from this hour onward are not those who worship formally, but who are spiritual. The difference between formal and spiritual worship is tremendous. What He is saying is that a spiritual state is basic to real fellowship with the Father Who is a Spirit. A spiritual state! How is that spiritual state brought about? By the Holy Spirit being within. On what ground does the Holy Spirit come within? On the ground that we have taken our place in death and have been born from above.

That is only analyzing the law of eternal life. It is the fact of the indwelling Spirit; the nature of the indwelling Spirit; the result of the indwelling Spirit. The result of the indwelling Spirit is to make us spiritual in all our relationships with the Lord; to make us spiritual people; a spiritual state by reason of the Holy Spirit indwelling making everything now true. The traditional, the formal was not the eternal, it always lacked a sense of being eternal. If we are linked up with what is a traditional system of religion, however good it may be, we know there is a lack about it, if it is just that; but when we come by the Holy Spirit to know Him, Who is for us the Sanctuary of God, the One in Whom we meet the Father, we come to know Him spiritually by the Holy Spirit as our High Priest, as our Sacrifice, as our everything in relation to God; we have come into the truth because we have come by the Spirit: "...in spirit and in truth." You can only know the truth by the Spirit, but when you know the Spirit, then you know the truth.

It may be that some know all about the traditional thing, the formal thing, and do not know the truth. What such need is eternal life. What is needed is the living experience of the Holy Spirit within making alive unto God.

Now it is a tremendous question, a tremendous issue, which is at stake for us. Really, have we eternal life? Do we know the activity and energy of eternal life? Many of us do know this. I hope that can be said of you; if not, well, the issue is tremendous. The Lord lead us by faith to receive the gift, the free gift of God, which is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Chapter 5 - Walking in the Power of God

READ: John 5.

KEY VERSES: 19, 20, 21 and 30.

In chapter 5 we are back again with Christ in Jerusalem. We must not miss the importance and significance of the visits to Judea and Jerusalem as recorded in "John." These visits have a relationship with the position, condition and destiny of the Jewish nation in an official sense. Take, therefore, full account of every visit and every event, and, the connection of each. The details of these will come out as we move on, but we call attention in a general way to two aspects; one, the close association with Israel's past history, and the other, the place of the Mosaic order.

Look at some of these:

Chapter 1. "The Lamb of God." What a lot of history in Israel there is behind that phrase.

Chapter 2. The marriage. Just look at two passages.
Jeremiah 31:35-33: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people."

Hebrews 8:7-10: "For if the first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people."

Here, as you see, the point was a marriage covenant, and this is transferred from the covenant made through Moses to the covenant made in the Blood of Jesus Christ.

Chapter 3. The serpent lifted up. (Numbers 21.)

Chapter 4. The springing well. Here it is interesting and significant to notice, that in Numbers 21 the springing well came into view almost immediately after the lifting up of the brazen serpent, and this is the order in John 3 and 4.

Chapter 5. The impotent man. (We are going to deal with this in the present chapter.)

Chapter 6. The Manna.

Chapters 7, 8 and 9. The Feast of Tabernacles.

Chapter 10. The Feast of Dedication.

Chapter 11. Contains the spiritual meaning of Jordan - death, burial and resurrection as something right at the heart of Israel's history.

Chapter 12. Israel's blindness (verses 37-41). See in this connection the passages in Isaiah, chapters 6 and 53, quoted.

Chapter 15. The Vine. Isaiah 5 represents Israel as the vine, or the vineyard, and the vine was a common figure amongst the prophets of Israel. This is transferred in John 15 by the Lord Jesus from Israel to Himself.

Chapter 17. The High Priest, with the altar and the whole burnt-offering in view.

This is only a selection, and more features can be traced, but there is one thing to be remembered that is, that everything to do with Israel in "John" is in a bad light, and represents the setting aside of Judaism to bring in the Church. This is done by Christ Himself taking all the elements of Israel's true life, and embodying them as the spiritual features of the Church's constitution, life and vocation. Everything which subsequently comes out in the doctrine of the New Testament will be found in germ in the Gospels, and especially in "John."

Now we can come to our particular chapter, John 5. Here, as on a number of occasions in "John," it is a Feast of the Jews which brings Him to Jerusalem, or is the occasion of His being there. What Feast this one is is quite uncertain. Other Feasts are mentioned, some by name such as the Passover and some are marked by such definite features as to leave us in no doubt as to what they are. In this instance the article is not present. It does not say THE Feast of the Jews, although some translations have included the article. If it were present we should know that it refers to the Passover. We are left very largely to conjecture, but, as far as it is possible to trace the date of this incident, it would seem that it is the Feast of Purim. This Feast was originated in the days of the captivity, and we have the account of it in the book of Esther. It related to the marvelous overruling by God of the counsels of the evil Haman, and the deliverance of the Jews from the awful death, under sentence of which they were living until the Lord turned their death to life.

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If this is the Feast of chapter 5, then verses 24-27 take on a wonderful significance: "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. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." Carry these words back into the book of Esther and see how wonderfully they fit in. Condemnation and death exchanged for life, and the Lord Jesus taking the place of Mordecai, to Whom at length the authority to execute judgment is given, even to Him Who has been set aside, humiliated and rejected by men.

But there is another historical feature in the background of this chapter. The immediate foreground is occupied by the impotent man at the pool, and we are told that he had been there in that state for thirty-eight years. Now that was exactly the period of Israel's wanderings in the wilderness, from the giving of the law at Sinai to the death of Moses. Note these two things: (1) the law given, (2) a subsequent life in impotence, weakness and failure as under the law. What a lot of light is thrown upon this for us by the subsequent writings of the New Testament. The apostle Paul says a good deal about it in his letter to the Romans. He points out that, while man was weak, the weakness of man was not made manifest and brought to light until the law was given; and then, when the law came, the great fact, the universal fact that man is utterly impotent in the presence of the requirements of a holy God is made all too apparent. Not that the law is evil in itself. Nay, but good, and if only it could be lived up to, it would be a great blessing to man. God never imposes upon man anything that is not for his good, but then, because of sin and man's fallen state, there is an inherent weakness, which renders him totally incapable of standing up to God's demands; and so, what should be for his good and benefit, becomes the very instrument of his conscious weakness and helplessness.

This is exactly what we have in John 5. Here is a man on his bed for thirty-eight years. A bed is intended to be a good thing, a blessing, but in the case of this man the bed has become the symbol of his weakness and bondage, and had really become a tyrant rather than a friend. So, right in the heart of Jerusalem, we have this long stretch of Israel's helplessness illustrated in the life of a single man lying in the bondage of his own weakness for thirty-eight years. What is the hope for Israel? What was the hope for this man? Hope lay only in one direction. That direction is indicated right at the commencement of John's Gospel: "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Hope, then, lies in the direction of grace and truth, coming in the Person of the Lord Jesus. Thus we find Him coming on the scene when all other hope had faded and disappeared, and well-nigh, if not altogether, settled down in the heart of this poor, helpless victim.

What a picture this is, not only of Israel but of all men without Christ. It is not a matter of sins, many or few. It is not a question of comparative moral strength, greater or lesser; but it is the issue of standing face to face with the perfection of God in the Christ. How can man at his best measure up to that, and give an answer wholly satisfactory to God? There is no man who can do it. Remembering that a breach in one point declares imperfection, and involves the individual, and the race, in the fact of sinfulness, we have to come to Paul's conclusion: "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." "There is none righteous, no, not one." But we cannot escape. We must all give an account before the judgment seat. What is our hope? Our hope is in Christ alone, and the grace of God in Jesus Christ. In his wonderful letter to the Galatians the apostle Paul opens up for us God's matchless grace in delivering us, through the death of Christ, and our death with Him, from the bondage of the law.

Now this man did not finish his history there. There was a glorious issue when the Lord Jesus came into his life. Whereas at the outset his bed was his master, at the end he was the master of his bed. Whereas in the beginning he was completely dependent upon others, and all his strength was outside of himself, in the end there was that within him which made it possible for him to stand upon his own feet, and, not only walk, but, as the Greek tense of the words shows, "keep on walking," or "be walking all the time."

So we see, then, that what is in view in the first place is deliverance from the bondage of the law, and from the hopeless impotence and weakness of all men by nature, when they stand confronted by the standard which God demands, and from which He will not excuse one single individual. That deliverance is found to be mainly along the line of grace, brought into experience by reason of a vital relationship with the Lord Jesus. But, while walking in the power of God is the object in view, what we have to see before we close is the law of this divine truth and blessing. What is the law of this walk in life and power? Well, our key verses bring us to that. The man in the story had tried many, many times to find in himself the energy by which he could get upon his feet and walk. That energy he had never found. Now, when the Lord Jesus comes on the scene, that man discovers that in Him (Christ) there is energy, and that energy flows out as the words are spoken - a literal fulfillment of another thing said by the Lord Jesus in this Gospel: "...the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." So that this man, unable to walk as out from himself, found himself able to rise up and walk by the energy which proceeded from Christ; and the simple law of this walk in the power of God is that of meeting everything as out from the Lord, and not from ourselves. This was the law of Christ's own life of moral and spiritual ascendency. Taking the place of man representatively, He said: "The Son can do nothing out from himself, but what he seeth the Father do...." He spoke of the words, and the works, as proceeding out from the Father, and not out from Himself. In the text the little word "of" is the Greek preposition "out from." So that Christ lived His life as out from the Father, meeting every demand, carrying every liability. Thus His life was one of victory over all weakness and ineffectiveness.

But notice further, this all took place on the Sabbath day, and the Sabbath in this chapter signifies God's rest. God has come to the end of His works, and rests. As in every part of this Gospel, Christ is the chief character in view, and this Sabbath points to Him and says: God has reached the end of His works in His Son, is satisfied and at rest. Christ is the sum total of all the works of the Father. Out of that fullness of God in Christ we, who have labored under the bondage of the law, may now walk in the rest of being set free by faith in Jesus Christ.

Now the life of the believer is one of learning continuously and progressively how to live as out from the Lord. We shall always be conscious of our own weakness. In ourselves we shall never be anything but weak and impotent, but we do not stay there. We see that in Christ all strength, all ability, all wisdom, all grace resides, but that it is in Him for us, and as we, refusing to accept our own state as the criterion and the final argument, by faith take hold of the Lord Jesus, and move out to meet our obligations as out from Him, we shall find that we are able to do what we have never been able to do before, though we may have tried many times. We shall learn now what the apostle meant when he said that the Lord had told him that His strength was made perfect in weakness. Do we feel crippled? Do we despair of ever being able to walk and serve to any good purpose? Have we tried and failed again and again? Let us learn the lesson of John 5. Nothing out from ourselves but everything, hitherto impossible, out from Christ.

Let us ask the Lord to show us how to live by faith in the Son of God. That life is a life of overcoming what has before been our bondage, our very tyranny. It is not something, it is the Lord Himself, and, reverting to the Esther link which may be somewhere in the background of this chapter, we shall know the wonderful joy of what is recorded in that little book as the issue of the divine intervention, "a good day"!

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Chapter 6 - Life Triumphant Over Death

John 6.

You will notice that the two main parts of the chapter are the feeding of the multitude, and the discourse of the Lord upon Himself as the Bread of Life.

In seeking to recognize the great truths and their laws as brought before us in the Gospel by John, the truth which is at the heart of the sixth chapter, is the truth of life triumphant over death, as a present and continuous testimony. It is probable that you have not so read the chapter, and that that may be a new thought for some; but I think, if I give you an indication from the content of the chapter, you will more readily recognize that that is what the chapter deals with.

Firstly let me point out that the word "life" occurs no fewer than eleven times in this chapter; in verses 27, 33, 35, 40, 47, 48, 51, 53, 54, 68. Then the word "live" occurs four times; the word "living" three times; "not die" occurs once, in verse 50; and "resurrection'' is mentioned four times, in verses 39, 40, 44, 54. On the other hand the word "dead" occurs twice, 49, 58. When you recognize all that, you have a substantial reason to believe that life and death take an important place in the chapter, and you are on your way to realize what is here as the underlying truth, the truth of life triumphant over death. Indeed, that is a New Testament truth, and as a present and continuous Testimony, it is revealed throughout the New Testament to be what Lord desires.

Union with Christ in Life a Dominant Theme

When we commenced these meditations we saw that the two main themes of the whole Gospel by John are the Person of Christ, and union with Christ. This chapter is a very strong, very rich, very full unveiling of that twofold truth. The "I AM" of this chapter is very strong. Again and again we have "I AM" related to life. Then "Except ye" is connected with "I AM"; a relationship is found between the two. That carries with it this; that if this chapter represents Christ as relating to life, and the "Except ye" brings us into relationship with Him - union with Him in
that particular sense - then the Testimony to life triumphant over death is the issue, the outcome of this chapter. That can be carried forward right through the New Testament, and you will call to mind much, if you make a fresh enquiry with this thought in mind. You will be tremendously impressed with how much there is bearing upon the Lord's desire, that there should be in His Own a present and continuous Testimony to life triumphant over death. I think it unnecessary, even if it were possible in the space available, to carry you right through the whole of the New Testament teaching on the matter. Let us be reminded at this time that that is the Lord's will, that there should be in us, and in all of His Own, a present and continuous Testimony to life triumphant over death. It seems to me, that in a very large sense the Gospel by John is occupied with that theme; it is viewed in this Gospel from various standpoints, and seen to have various effects; but there is a main note, a thread, running through the whole Gospel bearing upon the matter of life, and that is set over against certain conditions which speak of death, which represent features of death, forms of death.

We have said more than once that the first "sign" of the second chapter, the turning of the water into wine at the marriage of Cana in Galilee, was a comprehensive sign embodying the rest of the Gospel, and the central note of that sign, that work, was and is, that of life triumphant over death. Contemplate that incident again and surely that is clear.

The next movement in chapter three brings in Nicodemus, and the serpent lifted up in the wilderness. The one, showing a state of death, under the curse resting upon the whole race; the other, the way out of death or over death, by new birth from above. New birth from above is surely, throughout the New Testament, the Testimony to life triumphant over death.

The next chapter, four, is again a presentation of death features and then the implanting of eternal life within.

Chapter five has the background of death under the Law; a living death, in bondage, weakness, impotence, and despair. The triumph comes, and newness of life, in Christ.

Now chapter six carries on the same theme from another standpoint, and with a fresh and added factor. Thus you go on through the Gospel right to the end, and you find step by step, and stage by stage, it is a touching upon, or dealing with, this very subject, life triumphant over death. You will come to Lazarus before long; you will come to the Good Shepherd Who giveth His life for the sheep; another form of the Testimony. That the sheep might live, the Shepherd dies; and the fact that the sheep do live, is a Testimony to victory over death in the Shepherd Who gives them life. And so you will see that this whole Gospel, from one standpoint, is one continuous unveiling, disclosing, and developing of this great truth of life triumphant over death. We could easily pass on into Acts, where we should not have much difficulty in establishing our affirmation. The first few chapters of the book of the Acts are little else than a Testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and the testifiers are the witnesses; that is, the Testimony is in the witnesses. Then the letter to the Romans. We are familiar enough with the Roman letter to know, that when you pass from the first chapters, you are passing from the realm of death from which you emerge into the realm of life triumphant over death; through chapter six into chapter eight. So we go on. It is good for us to know what a solid mass of Scripture there is back of anything which we have presented as the Lord's will. I mean this: it is a tremendous thing for you, or for me, to say that the Lord desires to have a present and continuous Testimony to life triumphant over death. That will be a challenge continually. What ground in Scripture have we got for that, to support us? What is there as a solid mass of rock under our feet to bear us up when we take such a position? Are we hanging a great declaration like that, with all that it involves, upon some unrelated, detached bit of the Word of God; or have we a sufficient foundation for such a position? That is why I have stayed to open out beyond the one chapter in relation to this. There is a tremendous amount of the Word of God to support that position, that the Lord desires in His Own there should be a present and continuous Testimony to life triumphant over death.

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The Law of Feeding Upon Christ

Now then, we come to break it up into some of its fragments. And that, of course, will mostly have to do with the law which governs this truth. There is the great truth, but it has a governing law; and in order to enjoy the Testimony, to have the experience of life triumphant over death now and continuously, we must recognize the law, and be adjusted, and obedient thereto. What is the law? Simply, it is feeding upon Christ. What feeding upon Christ means, we will not deal with for a moment, but recognize the fact as it relates to the truth. You notice two things that come up in this chapter, one early, and one later. Verse 4: "Now the passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Jesus therefore lifting up his eyes...." Do you get the link of that "therefore"? You might say in reading the first word: "After these things Jesus went away to the other side... a great multitude followed him, because they beheld the signs which he did... and he went up into a mountain and sat with his disciples... now the passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand." What has that to do with it? Why is that "Jesus therefore" put in there? There was something in the back of His mind, just as there was in Cana of Galilee when He said: "Mine hour is not yet come." "Jesus therefore lifting up his eyes, and seeing that a great multitude cometh unto him, saith unto Philip, Whence are we to buy bread, that these may eat?" Do you notice the Passover comes up in relation to this; the Passover in the mind of the Lord is related to this, or rather, this is related to the Passover. There is a background to this feeding of the multitude; it is related to some spiritual truth. Hold that for a moment, the fact that the Passover comes up at the beginning of this. Move on to verse 31: "Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness... Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, It was not Moses that gave you the bread out of heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread out of heaven." You have the Passover introduced, and now you have Moses, the wilderness, and the manna brought in, all in the same connection. Then what is the link between those two things, and the main truth of life triumphant over death? Well, the Passover had a great deal to do with that. You are taken back into Egypt, back into the realm of death, back into the place where the Destroyer is abroad, where death is rampant, and the eating of the Passover is life triumphant over death. It is found right at the commencement of their history; it fixed the date of their national constitution. They were constituted a nation by the Passover. "This is the beginning of months." So that their history, as the people of God, was based upon that which represented life triumphant over death, the feeding upon Christ, the appropriation of Christ as their life. Now later the wilderness comes into view, and what you have in the wilderness is death. There are no signs of life in a wilderness; no element of life in a wilderness; there is no resource for life there. The wilderness was - apart from God - the place of death. When they ceased to be obedient to the Lord, they died in the wilderness. Their cry was: Were there no graves in Egypt that thou hast brought us out to die in the wilderness? Oh, yes, it was the place of death! The manna was given, and it raised in them the Testimony of life triumphant over death as a continuous thing. That feeding upon the manna constituted the continuous Testimony in them to life triumphant over death.

The Significance of a Changed Tense

Now here is a remarkable thing. Look at verse 53: "Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves." Now the Greek tense there is that of something done: it is the second AORIST active subjunctive; that is, something which has been done, but which has to be carried on. An aorist tense is something done, but with something yet to be the outcome, the outworking. Literally it is completed in the past, but wholly indeterminate; that is, it has not reached its final issue although it is already done, something completed. It is something done in the past. When you come to the next verse, 54, you have a change of tense: "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." The tense there is the present active participle: He that keeps on eating, makes a habit of it. So we have something done at the beginning, as a complete basis for something to come out and be carried on continually; a thing which relates to the origin of our history and of its continuation. I think that is a magnificent example of the Holy Spirit controlling grammar. It is a remarkable thing that at the beginning you have the Passover as the basic act, in which everything really is complete, and yet an implication that something else is to be done. Then the wilderness is introduced, and the very grammar here indicates that the wilderness experience is to be a habitual eating, something going on all the time. Life triumphant over death is something which we have completely when we first receive the Lord Jesus, but there has to be an outworking of it, and we have continually to receive Christ for the maintenance of the Testimony.

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Christ's Body - an Incorruptible Humanity

Do remember that this eating of the flesh and drinking of the Blood of the Son of Man, is the receiving of that which is incorruptible and has incorruptible life in it (comp. Acts 2:27). The flesh was the body of Christ, was that in which death was conquered: "A body hast thou prepared for me." Why? That, in a body - the sphere of death in the race - death should be conquered. I am so glad that the Lord met death just in death's own residence, the body. Death has struck right at the race in its very humanity. Humanity was a thought of God of a very high order; a perfect humanity. Humanity is something unique. Humanity is something special. "For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him?..." Of a higher order than angels is man. The inhabited earth to come is not to be under the dominion of angels, it is to be under the dominion of man. "Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" Angels are subject to man, when man is what God intended him to be. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" They are ministers in relation to salvation; ministers to man, in order to bring man to the place for which God eternally intended him. Humanity is a high thought of God, something higher than the angelic order. Ah! but it was there that the enemy struck, and it is in humanity that death reigns, and it is in our mortal bodies that death has its ground. That is the teaching of the Word, "our dying bodies." In a body the Lord Jesus conquered death, and dealt with man's moral condition, which was the basis of death; He did it in a body. His body was the instrument of His triumph over the moral state of man, and death, the result of that moral state. Remember, in His body He met every temptation which is common to man and overcame it. In His body, in humanity: "...in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Temptation is not temptation if you do not feel it. The question of how a perfect being can be tempted misses the point altogether. He was tempted, He was tried, and He was Victorious, and victory is nothing if you have no ordeal: victory has no meaning if you never have a battle. In His body He met from without, the assault of every kind of evil suggestion, evil influence; He was left alone with the very Devil himself in trial and temptation. In His body He triumphed, and in His body He bore our sins. "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body upon the tree...." We would be careful to say that we do not believe that there was any sin in Christ Himself in any part. Therefore we underline "from without." Now in that body triumphant there is incorruptible life. This Holy One did not see corruption because He had triumphed morally; it was not possible that He should be holden of death, because death had no place of residence in that body. "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." Life triumphant over death is in our appropriating all that which is represented by His body. That is faith appropriation of Christ in His victory, in humanity. We will explain what that is presently. But we must remember that it was in His flesh, in His body that He triumphed over death; if you like - in a body He overcame. Christ's body was, and is, a body in which all Calvary's work and victory was accomplished. Receive the virtue of that, the spiritual efficacy of that by faith, and you are receiving Calvary's victory. Calvary's victory is not some doctrine you adopt, it is a spiritual exercise in relation to Christ Himself in victory: the taking of Christ, the making Christ yours by faith. That is the way of Calvary's victory. Feeding on Christ is sharing His victory. Feeding on Christ is strength, is growth, is endurance; it is not doctrine or teaching, but feeding, taking, assimilating, appropriating, making ours. That is the way of victory over death continuously. A thing we do at the beginning once and for all. We take Christ; and then we do so habitually every day; just as those in the wilderness had to do afresh every morning. The Lord there carefully stipulated that they were not to live on yesterday's manna. Nothing was to be left overnight; anything left over in the evening was to be burned. It was to be fresh every morning; not yesterday's exercise in relation to Christ, but today's, every day. The wilderness; well, Christ was in a wilderness with the Devil, and the first assault was concerning bread: "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." What was the Lord's answer? The Lord's answer is out from the wilderness: "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." You LIVE, even in the place of death, by the Word of the Lord. He is the Word in Person, and in commandment.

We will now move to the end of this meditation by saying a little about what feeding upon Christ is, as the way of the Testimony of life triumphant over death continuously. We shall be very elementary.

What Feeding Upon Christ Means

Feeding upon Christ! Remember that you have made a start by making Christ your life, and that has to be kept up as a habit. That it will not do, according to the Lord's Word and stipulation, to have done it yesterday, and not to do it today, or to think that that is enough for a few days; it has got to be continuous, daily, habitual. What then is feeding upon Christ? It relates to several simple things, but the importance and magnitude of these things, which are regarded as commonplace, can only be recognized from the standpoint of the Testimony to which they lead. Is there a greater Testimony than life triumphant over death? There is none! And you and I, as we go on with the Lord, will discover that it is the highest thing in our experience, and the thing concerning which all hell rages. We are really up against the naked forces of the Devil, and they are against us, when once we have taken our place with the Lord Jesus, and the issue will be either the destruction of our Testimony by the forces of death in bringing us to death spiritually, and in any other way, or the Testimony will be maintained, the Testimony to Christ's tremendous victory over all the power of the Devil. When you view things from that standpoint, related things take on importance, and when one speaks about feeding upon Christ as being, in the first place a matter of prayer, then prayer is immediately related to the Testimony of life triumphant over death.

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Feeding by Prayer

We do feed upon Christ in prayer. To put that in another way, there is an imparting of Himself to His Own in prayer. We may go to prayer in weariness, and rise in freshness; we may go to prayer exhausted, and rise renewed. Is it that we have simply uttered some form of prayer, prayed some prayer? We know quite well if that is so we do not get up very much invigorated. Formal praying does not bring very much life. Going through a form of prayers sometimes only ministers death. But really seeking the Lord, reaching out, taking hold of the Lord, giving ourselves up to the Lord in prayer, never fails to have renewing, uplifting, strengthening results. You say prayer may wear you out? Yes, but there is a wonderful strength that comes by wearing out prayer. There is vitality given to the spiritual life even in prayer that tires us physically, and we go in the strength of it. Yes, prayer is a way in which Christ is ministered to us by the Holy Spirit. Prayer is a way in which we feed upon Christ; He becomes our life.

Feeding by the Word

Then of course the Word: there is a value, a strengthening, enriching, building-up value in giving ourselves to the Word of the Lord, I mean spiritually. We can study the Bible in a technical way, and it may not mean a great deal of spiritual help. But to go to the Word of the Lord, in order that our spiritual life may be enriched; not with a congregation in view, not with increased information as our objective, but because of our own spiritual life; and to take pains with the Word of the Lord and to give ourselves, and not to be discouraged because for a little while we are getting nothing: there is a real value in that; and it is remarkable how, after the initial period of discouragement, you begin to get something. It seems as though the Lord tests us out, and then there is a ministration of Christ by the Spirit through the Word. Yes, but it is not only reading the Word of the Lord; there is a value in that; but that passage, quoted by the Lord in the wilderness to the Devil, has a deeper meaning than that. Go back to the book of Deuteronomy with it, and you will find that it was not Israel's reading or studying of the Law that was in view, it was their obedience to it. They lived by obedience to the Word of the Lord, and in every act of obedience to the Word of the Lord there is a fresh ministration of Christ. You can never be obedient to any part of the Word of the Lord without gaining Christ. It is always so. That is how we live by the Word, being obedient to it. Obedience to the Word is life, because it is an increase of Christ.

Sustenance by Fellowship

Then we feed upon the Lord, and He becomes our life, when we recognize the Divine order of spiritual fellowship. That is a Divine order. You have it brought in with Acts: "And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers." There is a tremendous means of grace, a tremendous enrichment of Christ in the fellowship of the Lord's people. I believe the enemy will get believers, when they are together, to talk about anything under the sun rather than about the Lord. It is easy when you meet together with the Lord's people to be carried off with all kinds of matters of interest, and not to begin to talk about the Lord; but if you do there is always an enrichment, always a strengthening, always a building up; it is the Divine way. Fellowship is a means of imparting Christ to the believer. And wherever spiritual fellowship is possible, you and I ought to seek it, look after it, cherish it. There are all too many of the Lord's children today, who have no chance of spiritual fellowship, and who would give anything to have it. The Lord would have us at least two together. That is His order, and there is something in ministering Christ to one another. There will be something lost unless that is so. These are ways in which we feed upon the Lord.

Enrichment by Worship

There is one other way. It is worship. There is a wonderful enrichment in worship. What is worship? Strangely enough worship in the Old Testament, by which the person or persons were themselves enriched, was by bringing something to the Lord, for Him. Yes, there is some enrichment, building up, enlargement, impartation of Christ, when we take account of what He is, and speak to Him of what He is to us. I do not think we have yet learned all the value of worship as a factor in our spiritual upbuilding.

When all is said about the way of feeding upon Christ, what is the all inclusive effect? What should it all lead to? What does it mean to appropriate the Lord Jesus? Well, you see He is everything that God ever wants us to have spiritually and morally, and there is all the difference between our struggling to be like Jesus and our taking Him to be His own likeness in us. I think that struggling to be like Him is a starvation way; we shall finish up as skeletons. Most people do, who try to be like the Lord by an effort; but when we begin to recognize this, that on the one hand I am insufficient, I never can be anything; on the other hand, He is all, and He is God's provision in that very respect to meet my deficiency, if that I by faith can take Him for that, then there is victory whatever it may be. The way of victory is not struggling to overcome, it is taking Christ as the Victor. Is it a spiritual matter? A moral matter? Or a physical matter? He is what we need. I mean by physical, do we need physical strength? Well, nature will not give us what we need for spiritual purposes. The Lord has taught us strange lessons in this way. Sometimes we have thought that what we needed for spiritual purposes was physical renewal along ordinary natural lines of a holiday, and we have made that our objective, and, oh! what a poor holiday it has been; and the Lord has shut us up to something else and showed us that spiritual purposes required spiritual resources, and there are spiritual resources for physical needs for spiritual ends. I do not mean the Lord deprives us of holidays. The Lord gives some people good holidays! The Lord lets us go out for a good day. That is not wrong, but I am saying there is a law which is deeper than that, and unless you recognize that law, the other will not work. The law is, that being tired, exhausted, thoroughly played out, yet if the Lord wants you to do something, He can make you able to do it without giving you a holiday. When you have settled that, and recognized that, and do not make the natural course the essential, the indispensable, well, the Lord may give you the other, and doubtless He will. That is the Testimony. Where is the Testimony of life triumphant over death in the physical if you go away and have a good holiday and thorough rest, and come back and work for the Lord on that basis alone? Where is the Testimony? There is something behind that, and the Lord would hold us down to that basic principle, and then: "...no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly," and: "...seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." When we are settled on that, the Lord is free to give the other; but if we think that this natural course is the only way to a spiritual Testimony, it is a contradiction. The Lord is life for us physically for all that He requires. The Lord is life for us morally for all that He requires. He has triumphed morally, and on every moral question that victory is for us. The Lord is life for us spiritually. We must take Him by prayer, by the Word, by obedience, by fellowship, by worship; take the Lord! There is the truth, life triumphant over death, a present and continuous Testimony. There is the law; feeding upon, appropriating the Lord as our life. The Testimony requires the law. You cannot maintain the Testimony without observing the law. Fail on any one point of that spiritual law and the Testimony breaks down. You will never live in victory, if you do not pray, and pray every day. You will never live in victory, if you do not feed every day upon the Lord in His Word. You will never live in victory, unless you come to use all spiritual fellowship for spiritual ends, if it is available. If it is not available, the Lord will have to be extra to you, and He can be in other ways. But we must recognize what He is made unto us of God, and take Him as that.

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Chapter 7 - A New Day Foreshadowed

With chapter six the first section of the Gospel is concluded. This section is bound up with the word "Life." It has been made clear, and emphatic, that life is inseparably related to Christ. This declaration, with what was involved as to the death of Christ, caused much offense, and many went away. It is ever so! Jesus the Teacher, Worker, or Good Man may be accepted, but make His death the exclusive way to life, the feeding upon the Broken Bread the only ground of union with Him, and of fellowship with God, then that way is rejected. From the days of the apostolic fathers up till now there has been strong deviation of opinion as to whether the words "the passover," in verse 4 of chapter six, should be there, and are original. Whatever the arguments against may be, we submit that the whole spiritual teaching of the Gospel by John justifies their being there. The very words: "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves" carry back to the Passover. As we have seen, the Passover was the life of Israel when death was abroad, and it is fitting that with John six the whole question of life should be headed up in the Passover, or the Cross of Christ. Chapter six marks a transition from life to light, but combines them both. The same declaration, emphasis, and conclusion will be made in relation to light, as in the case of life, and the same result will follow; offense and rejection through unbelief. The light will sift, as it ever does. We have observed that chapter one comprehends, by its words, the whole Gospel. This second section is, therefore, foreshadowed in such words from that chapter as: "In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness..." "The same came... that he might bear witness of the light..." "There was the true light... which lighteth every man, coming into the world."

Then the discrimination between those who see, and those who do not, is marked by Nathanael (1:45): "...ye shall see..." (verse 51). Over against those who were in darkness, even when the light was present, was one, truly, of their number, but different. This was an Israelite indeed and without guile; an Israelite, in whom was no Jacob. The self-seeking, self-sufficient, time-serving Jacob was subjected to the spiritual, transparent, God-seeking Israel. This difference will determine who will come to the light, and who will have their darkness doubly darkened.

Christ Fulfills the Feast of Tabernacles

Returning to chapter seven, we find that another feast is in view, and is the occasion of what comes out. It is interesting that in "John" the narrative moves swiftly from the Passover to the Feast of Tabernacles. In Exodus and Leviticus the order is the Passover, on the 14th day of the first month; then the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and, lastly, Feast of Tabernacles. Thus the Feast of the Passover is on the 14th day of the first month, and the Feast of Tabernacles on the 15th day of the 7th month. All that lies between is missed out in "John," and in one step we are from Passover to Tabernacles. This is significant, and is in keeping with what we said earlier about spiritual history (see chapter 4). Let us note that the Feast of Tabernacles is the last of the Mosaic Feasts (the Feast of Purim was something which came in much later in Israel's history). Thus the Feast of Tabernacles looks back over all to the beginning, and commemorates detachment and separation from the world (Egypt), and speaks of a life of faith. The security (?) of Egypt has been forsaken, and the tents of the wilderness have been accepted. The stone houses have been exchanged for booths, but this new order is not so flimsy as may appear, for there will be the infallible governmerit of the pillar of cloud and fire. There will also be the "...rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:4). This separation is from the light and life of nature, which is shown to be darkness and death, unto life and light in union with Christ. At the Feast of Tabernacles, as celebrated in the Temple, a great candelabrum was lighted, and great vessels of water from the Pool of Bethesda were poured out in the Temple. These, as we well know, are symbols of light and life for those who believe. Christ takes hold of this custom, and puts Himself in the place of both, uniting in Himself the two-fold symbolism of the light and the life.

The transitional factor in chapter seven is seen to be this: the question of knowing the Father and the Son is quite definitely in view, and it will be noted how through this chapter, and those subsequent, the matter of ignorance in both these directions is strongly emphasized and reiterated. The whole question of spiritual light, knowledge, understanding, truth, turns upon this final emphasis upon life (7:37-39), and this by reason of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Before there can be a knowledge of the Lord which means fellowship, there must be the life. Life leads on to light. This is a crucial test, and shows how crucial chapter seven really is. Reject the life, which comes alone by way of the Passover, the death of Christ, and whatever the traditions may be, the historic light, yet the intelligent apprehension of God, the real spiritual understanding and fellowship with Him is impossible.

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Christ in Glory, and the New Day

Now a further great mark of chapter seven is that it presupposes Christ in glory, and that represents the new day. That new day is typified by the eighth day, which, according to Leviticus 23:36, is the last great day of the Feast of John 7:37. That eighth day, as we know, sees concluded the history of Israel under the Law, and brings in the Church under grace. It is the day when, all God's works having been perfected in Christ, Christ is seated at His right hand in glory, and the Spirit is poured forth, just as the waters from Bethesda were poured out in the Temple. The eighth day has become the first day for the Church, and with it all things begin anew on resurrection ground. The new day is that of the Spirit as life and light.

Looking again at this seventh chapter we find the antagonism to Christ is coming out with increasing severity. What has been latent is now becoming manifest, and the hostility is well-nigh universal. Even the members of His own family are said not to believe in Him. There is suspicion, prejudice, and even danger to life itself. Realizing this we cannot but be impressed with the calm, undisturbed dignity; the strong, steady moral ascendency in which Christ continues to move. His confidence is not for one moment upset. He goes on as One Who is perfectly assured that nothing can befall Him or overtake Him until His work is done. What is the secret of this spiritual and moral elevation? To answer that is to disclose the law which governs the new day of the Spirit, and all that that day brings in for the believer.

The Law of the Life Hidden in God

That law, as represented in the Lord Jesus, is the law of a hidden life in God. From that secret fellowship He refuses to be drawn out. Note how even His brethren would argue with Him. Note how they seek to impose upon Him the accepted religious order, the recognized ordinances, the things which are done by the religious people. Note how He is advised to be politic in these matters; and then note how He puts it all back, refusing its domination. There is something for Him which takes pre-eminence over all religious systems and accepted forms; something which is more than policy or diplomacy. It is the witness of the Father in His heart. If you have gone through this Gospel, and put your pencil under every occurrence of the name "Father," you have been astounded with the result. This gives you the background of everything in the life of the Lord Jesus. It is His filial devotion to His Father, and it is in that secret communion that everything is determined for Him. Things, methods, times, means, all have to be decided back of the clamoring, shouting, coercing, arguing elements of men - even religious men and commonly accepted orders. It is never a question for Him as to whether the thing is what is done by others, or what it may involve, or even what the advantage may be in doing it. Everything for Him is: Does My Father will it? If so, how does He will it? And, when does He will it? Thus you see there seems to be some contradiction at the commencement of this chapter, when He says that He goes not up to this Feast, and then when the others have gone up He does go. The explanation is that for Him it is not government by what exists outwardly, but He waits to receive the inward government of the Father's witness.

How many of the Lord's people have come to failure, defeat and even disaster by becoming a part of an accepted order, and surrendering themselves to the government of an organized system, and have sacrificed thereto the inner walk with God. Thus their ascendency, spiritual power, and effectiveness have become severely limited, and they have not been able to help others as they might have done, because they have not learned to know the Lord by an inward, secret fellowship and walk with Him. This may raise difficulties for many, but all those difficulties would be solved if the Lord's work were so constituted that, even where the matter of government obtains, all things were done by prayer, and, as far as possible, in fellowship.

Surely that is what is characteristic of the new day, the day of the Holy Spirit, the day of life and light, in individual and collective union with Christ.

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Chapter 8 - Made Free by the Son

Let us look at verses 32 and 36. These give us a key to the chapter:

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

"If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

That speaks to us of freedom by knowledge of the truth. You will notice that the declaration made by the Lord Jesus in these words about the truth making free, immediately raised in those to whom He was speaking the whole question of bondage. Their instant reaction to His words was, that they repudiated the suggestion that they were in bondage. Said they: "We... were never in bondage to any man..." and in so saying they betrayed themselves very thoroughly. They showed how utterly blind they were, and they completely justified the words with which this portion commences: "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness." There is no need for a light, if there is no darkness. The Lord Jesus made the statement that He was the Light. He knew right well how deep the darkness was, but they were not aware of that darkness, and therefore they saw no need for Him. They were not aware of bondage; therefore they saw no need for liberation. It is just wonderful how this whole chapter justifies Him in declaring Himself as the Light, and as the Liberator, because of darkness and bondage existing, although they were unconscious of it.

Thus this chapter brings out both the fact and the nature of the darkness, and of the bondage, and then shows the way of deliverance, and that way is the Lord Jesus Himself. They said: "We... were never in bondage..."! He will show four ways at least in which they were in bondage, and, inasmuch as they did not recognize any one of them, it is proved how utter the darkness was.

(1) Bondage to the Law

First of all He will make it perfectly clear they were in bondage to the law. In bondage to the law in this way; that that law stood over them as a master, as a judge, as something from which they could not get clear, from which there was no escape, to which they would have to capitulate by compulsion. They were in that way in bondage to the law. The first eleven verses of this chapter are a remarkable parenthesis. We shall see how they form a part of this general matter. You notice that these rulers brought the woman taken in sin, and said to Him: "Master, this woman hath been taken in adultery, in the very act. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such: what then sayest thou...?" Of course, it was an utterly illegal act of theirs. They had a court, a recognized court for such cases, where the law was administered. They had no business to take it away from the proper quarter and bring it, as it were, to a private person, especially to One in Whom they did not believe. But man will do anything with a view to getting an end upon which he is set, and these rulers were out to entrap Him. They were trying to get Him to adjudicate, and to bring Him into conflict with the Sanhedrin, the judicial court. We leave that, but notice the issue that arises: "Moses commanded... what sayest thou?" Will He uphold Moses? If He does so, and pronounces judgment, He takes the place of the Sanhedrin, and also immediately comes into conflict with the Roman authorities who, for the time being, have superseded Moses in the administration of the law. Will He set aside Moses? If He does, then He will be implicated in the sin, He will be condoning it, and will be a party to evil. It looks like a trap from which there is no escape.

He is sitting in the temple teaching, and when they bring in the woman, and make their charge, and interrogate Him He bends down from His seat, and writes on the ground. They press Him with their question, and all He says, lifting up His head, is: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone..." and then stoops down again. When He has been writing a little while He looks up, and they are all gone; the Word says: "They... went out one by one, beginning from the eldest, even unto the last." Do you say they are not in bondage to the law? He has brought home to them the law they were trying to bring home to this woman. He has turned the weapon on to the accusers, and they, who thought they stood well with Moses, have come under the lash of Moses, and cannot stand up to the law. If they could have stood up to the law of Moses, that woman would have been stoned, but they could not do it; the law judged them, condemned them. How proven was their state of bondage, when they went out!

We make our application as we go along. Not only they but all are in bondage to the law in that way. God has uttered His law, and has never taken one fragment away from that law. That law stands! It is comprehensive, detailed; it touches everything in life and in character. On the one hand there is a whole comprehensive catalogue of: "Thou shalt not!" On the other hand there is an equally comprehensive catalogue of: "Thou shalt!" And then the whole of both sides is gathered up into one thing: If you are guilty of breaking the law at one point, you are guilty of the whole law. If you break down at one point, you are responsible for all the rest. We cannot stand up to that. We are in bondage by nature. God has spoken, and we cannot get away from it. We are responsible for all that God has made known of His mind, of His requirements, both on the side of: "Thou shalt"; and on the side of: "Thou shalt not." We shall never get away from that, but shall have to answer for that one day. Every one of us has got to stand before God, to answer to Him for His law, and there is no escape. God will bring it home to us sooner or later, and it will mean condemnation and judgment for every one. There is only one way of escape, but we are all in bondage to the law by nature, and we have all to answer for the law. Is there one who can say he has kept the whole law, and never violated any bit of God's commandment? It is not a matter of how many sins. If you only commit one violation of God's commandment, you are guilty of all the rest before God. The law is broken, you are proved a sinner, and you might just as well go the whole way, so far as your standing before God is concerned. The fact of sin is established, and, whether it be sin more or less, it is judgment.