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Christian Chronicles, September 2006 - Volume 7, Issue 127

The Editor's Pen

Every new believer finds great encouragement and personal blessings from John’s Gospel. It is one of those books of the Bible that touches the very heart and mind of every Christian. Unlike the other three Gospels, which are primarily historical accounts of Christ’s ministry on earth, written from earthly perspectives, John’s Gospel, presenting Jesus as the Son of God, reaches a height of spirituality that is unparalleled in the writings of any other author of any book of the Bible. While John also presents an historical narrative, he gives us quotations from our Lord that we would not otherwise have. For example, chapters three, eight, ten, fourteen—sixteen, and seventeen all contain quotations that are not only sublime in their literary quality, but give us a sense of the love and the promises that Jesus has for every believer. John’s Gospel takes his readers from the temporal to the eternal, and offers such security and strength of faith as to become the foundation for all spiritual understanding. What Paul does for the theology of our faith, satisfying our minds, John does for our hearts, satisfying our spirits.

This issue of Christian Chronicles presents an overview of the whole Gospel by Rev. Hugh Sherrill, and a topical article by notable Scholar Dr. Ozie Mark that exposes the depths of our lord’s prayer in Chapter 17. We will examine some of what our Lord had to say about our assurance of eternal salvation, as well as why the world hates Christians.

It is difficult to limit any exposition of this Gospel to eight pages, seeing that there are seminal truths scattered throughout John’s writings. Nevertheless, that is the challenge that faces us. We know even before we begin that we will not cover everyone’s favorite portion of this most uplifting Gospel, and we must beg your indulgence.

Perspectives

I, John,
your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom
and perseverance which are in Jesus,
was on the island called Patmos
because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
(Rev 1:9)

How simply John puts his exile: “I was on the island called Patmos because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” Situated near the eastern border of the Aegean Sea, modern Patmos hosts four villages, primarily small, coastal fishing towns. In John’s day, however, it was not home to any but exiles from Greece and Asia Minor, slaves of mine owners. Patmos is roughly twenty-one square miles of rocky, barren, sun-baked island desert. Today, tourists flock to its villages from the cruise ships that ply the waters of the Aegean, but John wrote The Revelation in one of the caves on the island. Exiled from Ephesus, John, “son of thunder,” learned patience. He received that name on account of his impetuosity, and his quick temper, but working in the marble mines of Patmos, the sheer physical exertion for such an old man as John would have worn away the sharp edges of his youth. In need of care himself, he had no one but the slave-masters. No soft bed was his, but gravelly sand. We are not told anything much about John’s life, either before, during, or after his exile. The ruler Domitian exiled him to Patmos, and when Domitian died, in 96 A.D., John, we are told by the early Church fathers, was allowed to return to Ephesus, where the curtains of his life closed. When his eyes rested in Christian sleep, the last of Christ’s closest disciples had passed into eternity.

Domitian increased the pressure on the fledgling Church, stepping up in intensity the awful persecutions of Christians. If the devil had tried to prevent the birth and ministry of the Messiah, he redoubled his efforts to destroy the Church. By every method available to him — vicious slayings, infiltration with false doctrine, torture, divisions and threats — the devil sought to crush the infant Church before it could gain widespread currency. But he failed. John surely suffered greatly in his travails on Patmos, but any poet or artist or musician can testify that the greatest works are produced in times of deepest trials. John said that he was on Patmos “because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” It was his whole adult life, and he was surely not going to recant what he knew to be the truth simply because Domitian didn’t like it. He went to Patmos not knowing that there he would pen the last book of the Bible, The Revelation of Jesus Christ. It is the message of Satan’s defeat; but more, it is the message of Christ’s victory. The visions that John saw, both in heaven and on earth, were the most dramatic that any man has ever seen. Even in exile, or maybe especially in exile, we do not see the sublime beauty of John’s Gospel, but we see stark concision, frank details of a time such as never has been, nor will be again.

Gentle John. One can visualize him with his head resting upon Jesus’ breast. Such a tender portrayal of loving devotion would be characterized today in most unflattering terms, but John knew who Jesus was, and was neither afraid nor embarrassed to love Him. In his Gospel, John shows us the tender heart of a loving Savior, a merciful God who would give His life for His sheep. In The Revelation, John gives us a word picture of the wrath of the Lion of the tribe of Judah. We do not know where John was when he wrote his Gospel, but it was not on Patmos. There is more evidence that he wrote the Gospel during his long stay in Ephesus before his exile to Patmos than anywhere else.

Surely, in Ephesus, John thought much about the Lord Jesus. He must have remembered with great poignancy the times when he and James and John were alone with Christ, and the words that Jesus spoke must have hammered at his consciousness with the hope of his Gospel. How it must have thrilled him to hear our Lord say, “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain” (Jn 15:16). But when he was on Patmos, he surely understood that his isolation was not without purpose. By the time he had gotten to Patmos, he was an old man, wise in the Lord, and mindful of God’s ways with His ministers. His heart was surely trusting what Paul had written to the Romans, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, who are the called, according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28). Another man might have wondered why God would put him in such harsh conditions in his old age, but not John. The one who had penned the Gospel that bears his name understood, in ways that we cannot fathom today, the depth and breadth, the height and all-encompassing scope of God’s love for His saints. John surely knew that he was on that island for a purpose, and must have awaited the fulfillment of that purpose patiently. By then, surely, he had learned patience.

Middle East Update

In the days following the war between Hizbollah and Israel, various news agencies reported as many as one hundred forty-two nations pledging aid to Lebanon. The number pledging aid to Israel, the press sets at zero. Israel’s response to the attack from Hizbollah, which killed eight Israeli soldiers and kidnapped three, is said to have been disproportionate. The world accuses Israel of war crimes for the killing of as many as 1,000 civilians, apparently forgetting England’s and America’s carpet bombing of Dresden in World War II where many more thousands were killed, though as many missiles rained down upon Israel in six weeks as fell upon England during the entire war against Germany. If Israel’s retaliation was disproportionate, then England’s and America’s was also, and if Israel committed war crimes, then so did England and the U.S. in WWII. The attitude of the world toward Israel is that any response is too much. If Israel does not lie supinely upon her back and let her neighbors terrorize her citizens and bomb her cities, then she is doing too much to harm the Iranian bred and fed radicals who cannot seem to get enough of attacking her in their fruitless quest to annihilate her.

In a live interview on HBO on Friday, September 8, Benjamin Netanyahu correctly stated that Israel was not fighting Hizbollah. He said that Israel was at war with Iran, without whom Hizbollah would become just another frustrated terrorist group. He claims that Iran set the timetable for that war, supplied every rifle and missile, paid for the whole war, and was in no way vilified by the press for their participation in the wholesale missile attack on Israel. Netanyahu is widely expected to win the next Israeli election of a Prime Minister. From this perspective, that would seem to be Israel’s best counter to any planned threat from either Lebanon, Syria, Iran; or al Qaeda, who says that its next attack will come upon either American allies in the gulf region or Israel.

President Mahmoud Abbas, of the Palestinian territories, and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh have agreed to form a unity government in the territories. Abbas, a moderate, has recognized Israel, but Haniyeh, leader of the Hamas terrorist group, has thus far refused to do so. Therefore, it seems that Abbas has adopted Hamas’ harder stance against Israel, rather than the other way around. Though it is supposed that a less violent policy toward Israel will be forthcoming, because the Palestinians desperately need the Western financial aid that has been withheld, until Hamas recognizes Israel’s right to exist, nothing has changed materially. The Hamas charter calls for the elimination of Israel and the expulsion of Jews from the entirety of the Middle East. While the agreement between the two Palestinian factions is being touted as a breakthrough, Hamas remains dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state, and refuses to renounce terrorism as a means of accomplishing its aims. Nevertheless, it is probable that the Western nations will relent, at least to some degree, in order to encourage further “concessions” from the Palestinians. This can only work to Israel’s disadvantage. Israel has stated that the new government could create momentum for peacemaking if it recognized Israel, renounced violence and ensured the release of a soldier abducted by militants in June.

The fact is, God is not amused by the wranglings of either Israel or the Gentile powers. He has declared that, though He gave the land to Israel as an everlasting possession, it remains His own land, as possession does not necessarily imply ownership (See Joel 3: 1-2). Even today, Israel is placing her hope and her security in the hands of Gentile nations, all of which have added their part to the coercion of Israel to surrender God’s land for peace.

There can be no doubt that some sort of comprehensive peace agreement will be reached between Israel and her neighbors. When that happens, and it may come at any moment, the Church Age will end with the rapture of all Christians saved between Pentecost and the end of the age, Israel and the Gentile nations will feel God’s wrath, and God’s righteous indignation will be vindicated. In the meantime, it is incumbent upon saints of the Church Age to be about the business of winning souls with the word of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18-21). We see the signs everywhere in the world, and yet the churches are, in the main, silent about our place on the great span of time that separates eternity past from that which is yet to come. Look up, Saints, and get busy!

Fruit of the Vine

At every sporting event in this country, at least one sign bearing the inscription, “Jn 3:16” can be seen. Actually, John 3:18 states the means of salvation even more clearly than 3:16: “He who believes in Him is not condemned; he who does not believe in Him is condemned already because he has not believed…” And this is the passage that deals with the necessity of the new birth. Nowhere else in Scripture does Jesus Himself make either salvation or the eternal security of the believer as clear as He does in John’s Gospel. “For as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:14).

Any Christian who would be fruitful in these last days of the age must take those to whom he witnesses to the foot of the cross. There is no other method in the Scriptures by which we might lead men to Christ than by the word of reconciliation. One can talk all day about how God has changed or blessed his life, but until a sinner understands the remedy for sin, he will not be saved. If we preach against sin and do not offer the only solution, then we have driven the lost from God, not drawn them to God. The solution for sin is in the crimson flood at the foot of the cross, the scarlet pool at Calvary. We do not preach the word of condemnation, but the word of salvation; not the bad news of hell for sinners, but the good news of heaven for believers. There is nothing more elemental in Christendom.

Jesus: God in the Flesh HGS

The four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John each present the Savior in a different aspect. Both Luke and John plainly state the purpose for which they wrote the Gospels that have their names. In Luke 1:4 That you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed (NKJV). Some one once said the key to the Gospel of Luke hangs on the front door, the key to the Gospel of John is found at the back door. John 20:30-31 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

Matthew presents The Kingdom Gospel, with Christ as the King.

Mark presents Christ as a Servant.

Luke presents Christ as the Man or Son of Man.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all three, present Christ Jesus the Savior in His patient, humble, long-suffering ways of grace in this world of sin. These three Gospels always speak of the Christ as man, presented to men in such a way that many may receive Him. They also point out that He was rejected by most – even His own people – and that He was crucified, buried, raised, ascended, and is now living with the Father.

The Gospel of John presents Our Lord in quite another manner. John presents the Divine Person, who is the Father, taking a body of flesh and coming down to man: God manifested in flesh in this world. He declares the incarnation to be a proven fact on which all of man’s history depends. In the Gospel of John there is no longer a question of genealogy; no longer a need for the messenger who goes before, declaring, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord”; no longer Messiah coming according to prophecy; no longer Emmanuel – Jesus who will save His people from their sins. John’s gospel opens with the tremendous statement: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In the very beginning of this glorious Gospel, it is God Himself, as God, who, in the man Christ Jesus, shows Himself to men.

The key to the Gospel of John (Jn 20:30-31) sets forth three things about Christ:

His Deity: He is the Son of God.

His humanity: He is Jesus, Savior.

His Messiahship: He is Christ; He was God’s Christ in the beginning; He became Jesus, Man’s Savior, when He left the Father’s house and was born of the virgin Mary.

All three are easily traceable throughout the Gospel of John.

A simple outline of the Gospel of John is as follows:

Christ, in the beginning, with the Father 1:1.

He was manifested in the flesh 1:14.

Christ was manifested as the Son of God, revealed the Father in word, in deed, and in public testimony 1:15-12:50. (This covers approximately 33½ years of the life of Jesus on earth.) 4. Jesus, our Savior, was privately manifested to His disciples as the Son of God. 13:1- Ch. 17. Chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 - 5 chapters that cover the span of one night. Look what He taught His disciples (us) in one night!

Chapter 13 – Jesus washes the feet of disciples. John did not tell us about the breaking of bread and the fruit of the vine at the Last Supper but he told of the humility of our Savior.

Chapter 14 – Jesus comforts His disciples. He said “Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God believe also in Me.”

Chapter 15 – Jesus as the true vine. This chapter is a testimony of comfort for us if we abide in Him. The word abide is used 10 times to show us how to bear fruit.

Chapter 16 – Our Savior tells of the work of the Holy Spirit whom He promised would come, in Chapter 14.

Chapter 17 – The Lord’s Prayer, His wonderful intercessory prayer for us, shows us as all 5 of the chapters in which, on that last night on earth, He had not only His disciples on His mind, but all of us throughout the centuries who would come to know Him as our personal Savior. Verses 1-5 – He prays for Himself (as also we should do). Verses 6-19 – He prayed for His disciples. Then verses 20-26 – He prayed for the entire Church (us) all that come to know Him as Savior.

Chapter 18 – His betrayal, arrest and trial.

Chapter 19 – His death and burial.

Chapter 20 – His resurrection.

It is impossible to appreciate the words and deeds of Christ Jesus the Lord unless we know who He is, and one need not read many verses in the Gospel of John to know that the Christ of God, Jesus, our Savior, was in the beginning with God, and He was one with God, co-equal with Him in all things. When we realize that our Savior was God in the flesh, then we are in a position to appreciate His words, which are “spirit and life” (Jn 6:63). When we realize who He is (the Word made flesh to tabernacle among men), then we are in a position to appreciate His deeds and His miracles.

John, the beloved disciple, gave himself to Jesus with a passion of devotion never equaled by any other; and having done so, his heart closed around its object and Jesus became all in all to him. John, the beloved’s, fellowship with Jesus was so true that the Holy Spirit gave to John five of the greatest books in the New Testament: The Gospel of John that tells us how to be saved more times than any other book in the Bible; 1^st John, its theme being fellowship with God, and one with the other; 2^nd John, its theme is Christ’s commandment; 3^rd John, its theme being walking in truth; and then, of course, the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the last book in the Bible.

Remember the key we stated at the beginning…. “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31).

When Jesus Prayed for Us OMM

"I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; (Jn 17:20)

The Lord Jesus Christ prayed for you and me and for all who would believe the testimony of the apostles. Christ is preached risen from the dead according to the disciples, and ascended in glory according to Paul’s revelation of the mystery. The benefits of the gospel and the mystery are ours because of what the Lord has prayed here.

The Mystery in the Gospel of John:

...that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.( Jn 17:21)

Three things here: our unity with each other, our unity with God and the effect on the world, thereby adding to our unity. Christ prayed we would all be one, and that we are. Despite disobedience on our part, in following the doctrines of demons known as denominationalism, we are one Body, kept in unity by the Spirit (1 Cor 12:12, Eph 4:4). Our base failure is eclipsed by God’s glorious success. The great commandment given us is to preserve that unity in the Spirit (Jn 13:34; Rom 12-15; 1 Cor 13, Eph 4:3). And all we who believe are in God (This is the great subject of the mystery as expounded in Ephesians: “In Christ”). And because our lives are hidden in God, the lives we exhibit to the world, is the life of Christ; therefore, the world may believe in Him. Truly, the believer who is obedient to this mystery may be a fruitful minister of Christ. The believer is in Christ and Christ is in the believer; evangelism succeeds. (2 Cor 5:17-18).

"And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; (Jn 17:22)

The mystery hidden from Old Testament revelation is now hinted at here. Christ prayed for our great spiritual blessing from heaven, that we would all partake of His glory. This is the secret plan of God, only explained in its totality, clearly, by Paul (Col 1:25-27). To us who believe in Christ now, and share in the one true Church, we partake of His glory. Dear Christian, do not wait until you are physically in Heaven to partake of the blessings of His glory which are yours now (Eph 1:3). And again, all is so that we may be one even as the Father, Son and Spirit are one. Can you not see the evil of sectarianism? That all heresy exists so that the devil may divide us (1 Cor 1:10-13)? That legalism kills fellowship (Gal 5:14-15)? The unity, which we are commanded to diligently preserve (Eph 4:1-16), is threatened and disrupted by anger and unforgiveness sown by devilish discord from evil doctrines of the flesh! (Eph 4:17-32). The answer to Christ’s prayer is not found in any modern Christian religion, but in true love in the Spirit that upholds the Word of truth. We are to keep His Word that we may love one another (1 Jn 3:11, 23; 2 Jn 1:5).

I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. (Jn 17:23)

I in them: the mystery of Christ in you, the hope of glory! (Gal 2:20; Col 1:27) To think, God dwells in us; and yet, this mystery is especially experienced by those who are wise and mature, who have faith in the glorified Christ (2 Cor 12:9; Gal 4:19; Eph 3:17-19; Col 1:28). Oh, to be established in Christ having grown to His standard of perfection in maturity (Rom 16:25-26)! And once again; so that the world may know. We have not won the world because we have lost Christ. We have lost each other. Look clearly again at Rom 16:25-26. When we obey and believe this mystery. This is what God has commanded all nations to do. How can we live and preach what we have disregarded? Can it be only Paul (Col 1:23-29) and Timothy (2 Tim 4:1-7) who would fulfill this calling? And how about you and me? Do you need encouragement? See here that God has loved you even as He has loved His Son (Rom 5:5). And you too are a child of the Father. He makes His love for you known through you to the world. You have a role in the day-to-day fulfillment of John 3:16. The change they see in us is not reformed behavior so much as the inescapable truth that God loves us. These who come to believe from the world realize this (1 John 3:1).

"Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world. (Jn 17:24).

The Son, loved from eternity, has now become for us the Father of Eternity (Is 9:6 literally- Darby’s translation). The present believer is a new man in Christ who possesses eternal favor beyond the born again Israelite, past or millennial saint future. (Eph 1:9-10). We who are the Bride and the Body of Christ have a particular glorious inheritance in the heavenlies in Christ to the praise of the glory of God’s grace. (Please read Ephesians 1). Who, then, is a believer entitled to this blessing? Those whom the Father has given the Son are true children of God (John 6:65). Do you see you are elected of God, chosen by Him, and this is not of you, but of His sovereignty (Eph 1:4; 2 Th 2:13)? Should we not put far from us messages evoking the so-called free will of man? These falsehoods are pixies, flying in the face of the true glorious gospel.

Now Christ’s great desire and anticipation for every one of us is to be personally in His heavenly presence to behold His glory. The great mystery of the rapture of the Church accomplishes this for the Church (1 Th 4:15-17). And yet, for those who cannot wait until the rapture, realize this: if we die, we who have believed are immediately in the Lord’s presence. (2 Co 5:8). We whom the Father has given to the Son so that we may be one with another, and one with God, are predestined to behold Christ’s glory! For, as God loved His Son from eternity, He has also chosen you and me to love from eternity to eternity.

“Righteous Father, --and the world has not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known; that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them” (Jn 17:25-26).

We have been chosen, loved, indwelt by Christ, and unified in Christ to behold and partake of Christ’s glory. The Mystery, taught by Paul, to be obeyed by all that all men might see – this was first prayed for when Jesus prayed for us.

What if I Sin After I am Saved?

In so many denominations, it is taught that a person is saved by grace through faith, but that he can lose that salvation if he continues to sin. The argument, most notably in Lordship Salvation, as espoused by John MacArthur, is essentially that, if one continues to sin after he is saved, he never was truly saved to begin with. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The preacher or teacher who tells you that he no longer sins tells a very dangerous lie. The teacher or preacher who says that you can be lost again once you have been saved is driven by the very devil himself to steal your hope and make you resentful toward the God whom you have believed, so that you will become unfruitful. That, or he wishes to develop in you a self righteousness that will cause you to become a harsh judge of others, holding everyone else up to the false image that you have of yourself, as he himself does, so that you measure everyone’s salvation by his deeds and not by his beliefs. The fact is, while you will grow to abhor the sin that is in you, that sin will remain in you until death or the rapture, whichever comes first. You cannot root it out any more than Paul himself could (Rom 7:15-25). To suppose that you either can or must is to give the lie to the God who saved you. Even with the indwelling Holy Spirit, the human will frequently brings the believer to the brink, and over the edge of the precipice of righteousness into many and diverse sins. If it was true of Paul, you can bet that it is true of you as well.

How many sins did Adam have to commit before he became lost and condemned? One. And how many sins did you have to commit in order to be guilty of your own volitional sin? One. And how many sins, then, would it take to condemn you again, if you lost your salvation? Just one. And if you committed that single sin, how would you become saved again? If Jesus had not paid for that sin when He died at Calvary, it would be necessary for Him to return to earth and die once again to cover all the sins he “missed” when He first was crucified. And since He is not going to do that, then no one, once saved, lost, could ever be saved again. And since everyone commits many sins, then it would necessarily follow that no one at all would finally be saved. And then the whole of Christianity would become a cruel joke, and our faith would be in nothing, and our hope would be futile. Furthermore, Jesus, tragically, would have died on the cross for nothing. His earthly mission to save mankind would have been a dismal failure. And He, therefore, would prove Himself the world’s biggest fool. Blasphemy? No, blasphemy would not be to say what we have said, but to say that He did, in fact, die for nothing; which is the end and only result of a salvation that could be lost because a saint continued to sin. Jesus Himself has much to say about the security of the believer right here in John’s Gospel. Let us examine a bit of it.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh” (Jn 6:47-51). And again, He said to the woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (Jn 4: 13-14). And that famous verse in Jn 3:16 and verses preceding and following: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (Jn 3:14-18).

It is not difficult to understand these verses. The difficulty comes into play when one does not take them for what they say, but attempts to apply some other meaning to them. If someone promised to give you a full glass of water, but then only gave you half a glass, his promise would have been a lie. If God promised eternal life to as many as would believe, and then took it back from them, He would have lied when He promised, in simple statements, to grant them eternal life. The life they received would not have been eternal after all, would it? Throughout this Gospel, our Lord promises eternal life, not to those who keep the Law, but to those who, knowing that they cannot keep the Law, believe in the sacrifice of the Son of Man at Calvary. When He was asked what a man may do that he may work the works of God, Jesus’ reply was not that they should be as good as they can be and everything will somehow “work out.” No, Jesus’ reply was much easier than that. He said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (Jn 6:28-29). Jesus knew that no man could possibly be good enough to get to heaven on his own merit, because the flesh is inherently sinful. He knew that He would settle the sin question forever at Calvary. Thus, when He had told the Jews that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood, and they were offended, he sought to make them understand by saying to them, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe” (Jn 6:63-64).

Those who seek to become good enough to get to heaven on their own merit do not understand the things of the Spirit (Jn 14:17; 1 Cor 2:14-16). When He spoke to the woman at the well, she did not understand what he meant when He spoke of “living water,” but He explained it at the feast of the Passover when He stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ But this he spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive…” (Jn 7:37-39a).

In these verses, and many, many more, John records our Lord’s words in such a way as to impart spiritual understanding to those who believe. They are somewhat mystical; to the unregenerate mind, they are incomprehensible. But to the saved, the born again, they are thrilling. We who have the Spirit of God dwelling in us know what our Lord meant, and they are words of great comfort.

Jesus later said to believing Jews, “If you continue in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (Jn 8:32). Christians know the truth when they hear it. It is never limiting, except insofar as anything less than the pure love of God is wrong. But Christians are not smart enough to always recognize that which is false, because the serpent is more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God has made (Gen 3:1). The only way that we can spot a lie is to become utterly familiar with God’s Word, so that the wiles of the devil become somewhat more apparent. It is dangerous to attend a church where the teaching is not sound, or to flip through the “religious” channels on television, where the devil plies his subtle craft most effectively. Not all television ministry is false, but like much of the professing church, more is than is not. The fact is, God’s Word liberates. It removes the sinner from the law, not freeing him to do that which is evil, especially toward others, but it liberates him from the commandments and traditions of man, freeing him to serve God in ways that the world cannot and will not understand or approve. When the light of God’s Word illuminates our pathways, we do not make missteps, but when we darken our hearts to His Word, we become much like the unsaved in our thoughts, deeds and reactions to earthly stimuli.

This discussion began with the problem of sin in the Christian’s life. How can we know that, no matter our sins, we remain saved? Chapter ten of John’s Gospel makes that abundantly clear. Jesus begins by declaring that He is the door of the sheep, and that no one can enter His sheepfold any other way than through Him. It was His sacrifice at Calvary that opened the door to eternal life to all who would believe. Those who would attempt to lead someone into heaven other than by Calvary are thieves and robbers. And what do they steal? Ah, they steal the eternal life that one might gain by a sound Gospel. But Jesus says that He comes that they might have life, and have it more abundantly (Jn 10:10). He is not talking about earthly riches and worldly possessions. Not at all! He is talking about life, and no life is more abundant that that life which is eternal. Jesus said, “I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (Jn 10:11). The Jews asked Him to tell them plainly if He was the Christ. He responded, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (Jn 10:25-30).

We are engraved on the palms of the Father’s hand (Isa 49:16) the moment we accept the Gospel. In order for a Christian to lose his salvation, one must pry open God’s hand and rip from His palm the skin with the name engraved therein. When Jesus told them that He and the Father are One, they began to stone Him. It happens frequently today that, when a person cannot argue against some inescapable truth, he gets angry, and often violent. Thus did they do so with Jesus when He told them truths they could not argue against. He had declared to them that the works (miracles) that He was able to do testified to His unity with the Father, but still they would not believe. Christian friends, if those Jews, who were eyewitnesses to our Lord’s miracles, could persuade themselves not to believe, how difficult do you suppose it is for those today who have not believed to continue in their unbelief? It is not difficult at all. Many will declare the Gospel to be too simple to be true. Because all of their earthy experience has led them to believe that you get nothing for nothing, it cannot be that God will give you grace without performance of that which is good. And they convince themselves thereby that they must be worthy if they are to receive eternal life. They do not grasp the true concept of grace. But neither do those who declare that a saved person can be lost grasp grace. They profess to believe that salvation is by grace through faith, but their doctrine of the possibility of being lost again testifies, as clearly as Christ’s works testified of His unity with the Father, that they never truly believed in grace in the first place, not having understood that it is an accomplished fact, and not some promise of very dim hope that is dependent upon the sinless perfection of the one who is saved. Such a doctrine is not only false doctrine, but it is also not in sound accord with simple logic, to which they profess to cling in their reasoning. The only doctrine that makes sense doctrinally or logically is the simple doctrine of eternal security.

Why Does the World Hate Christians?

Why do the poor resent the rich? Because the rich have that which the poor can only hope to have somehow someday, all the while persuaded by their own minds that they will never have it. The poor hate the rich because the rich have power that the poor can never attain themselves. The poor hate the rich because the rich have knowledge of how to get rich and stay rich, and it is knowledge that is not available to the poor, especially those whose ancestors have never had anything beyond poverty. And are the poor right to hate the rich? No, we ought not hate anyone. But it is natural for the poor to hate the rich; just as it is natural for the lost to hate the saved. And for the same reasons that the poor hate the rich. The poor are jealous of the rich, and the unsaved resent the calm demeanor, the quiet faith of the saved, no matter the trials they face. A saved man can lose anything—everything—and not be phased by it. But a rich man will whine over the loss of twenty dollars. And an unsaved man will be bitter toward a saved man. It is easy to understand why the poor hate the rich, but it does not quite make sense why the unsaved should resent the saved. The poor hate the rich because of the power their money gives the rich over them. But the saved have no power over the unsaved, except the power to present the word of reconciliation, which is itself a word of power. The unsaved resent the saved because of the assurance of the saved in what they believe and know.

There is a larger and more important reason why the unsaved resent, even hate, the saved. It is because they are driven by Satan. God does not know them. Satan is their god, and there can be no question that he hates God’s saints. He hates Jesus and all who are His. Jesus said to His followers, “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming that whoever who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me” (Jn 16:2-3). Because Paul warned of the apostasy of the professing churches in the last days of the age (1 Tim 4:1-6; 2 Tim 3:1-5), we know that this applies not only to synagogues, but to those apostate churches as well. Many are the devout saints who have been tossed unceremoniously out of churches for insisting on sound doctrine. When Satan could not crush the life out of the fledgling church, he began to corrupt it, and now he wants nothing of sound doctrine in those gatherings of the lost. Jesus had said earlier (Jn 15:18-21), “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; it they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent me.”

Paul wrote to Timothy that, “...all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, but evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim 3:12). This brief passage comes just before Paul outlines the characteristics of the apostate churches in the end days, referenced above.

Saints of God, we should be quick to recognize that our citizenship is not earthly, but heavenly (Phil 3:20), and we ought not become too entangled with earthly ambitions or conformed to the ways of earthly men. If we learn anything from the Bible, and especially from the Gospel of John, it ought to be that we are not like ordinary men and women. We are different. We are in the flesh, but these fleshly vessels of clay bear within them the very Creator God of the universe. No other people on earth have ever had this distinction, and none will ever have it again once this age ends and the rapture takes us home. If we are not being persecuted in the world, then we have cause to examine ourselves to see if we are walking in the Spirit or the flesh. Paul did not say that some who desire to live godly will suffer persecution, but that all will. More Christians than not rarely consider what all this really means. That is why it is good to revisit this Gospel frequently in our Christian lives. All of Paul’s epistles are uplifting and edifying, but some give us a better idea of the practical aspects of the Christian walk and responsibility than others. Philippians and Colossians give us a fuller understanding of who we are, for example, than Titus and Philemon. While we should not neglect the others, we certainly ought to spend time in study and meditation of those two short epistles, even as a part of our study of John’s Gospel. When we have a proper understanding of John’s Gospel, we begin to see ourselves in a different light.

Take, for instance, the miracle of changing the water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana. These were clay pots, and they were empty. Clay vessels speak of the natural man, the man of flesh. Before the new birth, we are devoid of anything truly spiritual. Our hearts are stony and cold. Those vessels held something on the order of twenty to thirty gallons of water when they were filled. If one were able to remove the scalp of a man and through that opening remove everything inside the skin, and then fill that skin with water, he would hold something on the order of twenty to thirty gallons, depending upon the size of the man. The pots were empty, but Jesus commanded that they be filled with water, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Not just filled, but filled to the very brim. And that is what happens when an unbeliever becomes a believer. We are filled to the brim with the Holy Spirit. Jesus told them to draw some out and take it to the steward who was attendant upon the party. When he did so, it was discovered that this water had been changed into wine, another symbol of the Holy Spirit, but more related to testimony. It was drawn out and given to the bridegroom to drink, and he found that it was excellent wine indeed, just as our “wine,” drawn out and given to those to whom the Spirit leads us, proves to be excellent “wine” also, providing eternal life to all who will drink it.

Children of God, we ought to see ourselves constantly as those full waterpots, ready on the instant to give a taste to all who will drink it. We ought to always see ourselves as bearers of God Himself, for that we are. We should understand that the world hates us because it hated Christ first, but we ought to be willing to follow Christ to the very giving of our own lives for the sake of the Gospel. There are many devoted saints today, but one must wonder how many would give their lives to save another. We ought to embrace the persecutions of the world, because it is those persecutions that have been granted to us (Phil 1:29) so that we might lay up treasure in heaven as we suffer for His sake.