Address—P.L. Johnson
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John three and verse one. There is a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, 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. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus said unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he ever the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.
Rather not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
The wind blows blood lusted, and thou hearest the sound thereof, that canst not tell whence it cometh. And whither doeth, Sir, is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knoweth not these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak, that we do know and testify that we have seen, and you receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things, and no man hath ascended up to heaven?
But he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
So God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth in him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world. And men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. You know, in this man Nicodemus comes to speak to the Lord.
He comes as one who is.
A very respectable person, he comes as one who is.
Prepared to talk about the spiritual things, religious things.
He is not a man who is a dissolute character, a drunkard or an outcast from society.
Nicodemus was a very honorable and respectable man, I'm sure that.
In the day of which we live, a man of the character of Nicodemus would be highly respected in any community, and that people would be very happy to have such a man in their neighborhood.
We are often perhaps inclined to think of the Pharisees as being very unsavory persons because of the way the Lord speaks to them as hypocrites. That we must realize that when the Lord speaks to them as He does, it is because He is speaking according to the truth of what there is. He sees them not as how they appeared before men.
They certainly did not have an unsavory character in the presence of their fellow man. The Pharisees were the most respected of the Jews in their days.
There were highly attractive men because of their deportment.
And they will accord it to their nation.
As the discerning eye of God is concerned, he could see through that that outer whitewashing to see what the state of heart was. But as far as their conduct before men, they were righteous and they were respectable persons. So when Nicodemus is before us here in this chapter, we do not have brought out a man who is, who is an utterly worthless person as far as society is concerned.
And I mentioned this because it seems to me here that the Lord says to him something very remarkable, and in view of the fact of his character, the Nicodemus turns to talk to the Lord. Why, right at the very outset the Lord puts him in his proper place by saying, Nicodemus, you have to be born again to see the Kingdom of God.
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And accept a man be born again, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
What are you saying that Nicodemus is that you have to start all over again?
You have to make a fresh start. There is nothing that you have in yourself that you can bring to God.
You have nothing which you can offer to God. All that you have is.
In the sight of God as a filthy rag, so to speak, you have nothing at all to offer to God. You have to make a fresh start.
As I say, that's a very remarkable thing to say to a man like Nicodemus.
You know, when we think ordinarily a person's making a fresh start, you think of someone who's made a, a wealth or a failure of their life. I remember not long ago reading of a man in Texas who spent many years in prison, and righteously so because of crime, a crime that he committed. And after he was released from prison, he, he made this remark that he had to start all over again because.
He had made such a rash and failure of his life. I think he was imprisoned his his very young man.
And he said, now I have to start all over again. And I thought of that, that that's usually.
The way we speak of it, I say we, I mean the persons in this world without Speaking of it, according to the mind of God, that for those who have made a wreck and a failure of their life, then they have to start all over again. But you know, that wasn't true of Nicodemus. He hadn't made a a failure of his life as far as man's estimate and standards were concerned. And yet the Lord says, now you got to start all over again.
Nicodemus understood that, he says, well, how can I start all over again?
He says, how can a man to deserve be born again? He says, how can I start all over again? He understood what the Lord meant. He understood that the Lord was saying to him that Nicodemus, you have to make a fresh start, just like someone, just like a little baby born in the world is just starting your life. You've got to start all over. What a blow to this man who was, as I say, a very respectable man. And this is characteristic of John's gospel.
That the Gospel of John.
Take that man not as a responsible creature before God, not as one who is being tested as to his responsibility as to how far he would respond to God, but he takes up man as being worthless. He takes up man as being perishing, as man without life and without resources.
Without one thing that he can offer or bring to God.
Now, you know, we find very often that human nature is not exactly reticent to admit the fact that all have sinned.
It's a rare thing to find anyone who would crawl with that statement. All have sinned. Oh yes, we've all sinned. But the thing that we find that human nature resists apart from the work of God and human nature would resist is the fact that not only have we sinned, but the man in himself is without resources for God.
There is nothing in human nature for God.
Or you say that's strong. That's really the standpoint of the Gospel of John and that's the the beginning. Or you might say the the starting point with John's Gospel is that there is nothing in man for God. I'm not saying that that there is nothing in man that is that is good.
Why I I think it would be wrong to say that every man is just as thoroughly bad as he could be, and it would be wrong to say that there are no what we might say, amiable traits in human nature there are many things we see in the in persons and individuals that are amiable and.
Beneficial and even pleasing. But when we speak about nothing in human nature for God, we mean that man in himself, in his own nature, as born into this world of natural generation.
Does not seek the glory of God. Here there is nothing, therefore God's glory. There is no fruit to God.
We find that the condition of man is as being without life toward God and he's perishing, and as such he's under the wrath of God. Notice in this third chapter verse 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life. It does not say he that believeth not the Son shall lose his life.
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It says he shall not see life because he is seen in John's Gospel as already being in a state of death, and being in a state of death he will never get out of it.
Without the Lord Jesus Christ, man in a state of death, in separation, moral separation from God, will remain in that condition throughout eternity unless he comes to the Lord Jesus Christ and receives eternal life. And not only that, he says the wrath of God abides upon him. It doesn't say the wrath of God will abide upon him.
It doesn't say that he will be exposed to the wrath of God. He's already under the displeasure of God. Man, apart from Christ is lifeless.
And under the wrath of God, that is, God is displeased with him.
God does not find that in man, in human nature, that we are by nature and every man in this world.
That which brings him pleasure, he finds that which brings him displeasure, because man's nature is is centered around himself. For instance, turnover to two passages, first in Ephesians 2. And again I say we're not saying that that there is nothing.
Good about man you know we find in scripture.
Sometimes the same word and used in a different way in the context has to give us.
The proper meaning we read in Romans.
Chapter 3 is it not? There is none good? No, not so much as one talking about men. There's none good. And yet we read in the 5th chapter that scarcely for a righteous man would one die, yet for a good man one would, would, would die, give his life for a good man. So there we see that there is such a thing as good men.
There is such a thing as a Goodman. Well, there is no contradiction there. What it means when it says there is none good? No, not so much as one. It means that for bad use for God there is none good. There is no one apart from having this eternal life from the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no one who is is a good for God's use. It's just like you might say one goes to a marketplace.
And.
You you go to a stand there and you want to buy some fruit and as you pick one up you see a little rotten spot. You say, well that's good for nothing. You pick up another one and you find that the whole batch is of no use. As far as you're concerned, it's no good for your use. Well, that's man. As far as God is concerned, there is none good. But when it comes to man's treatment of his fellow man, when it comes to.
One's walk through his fellow men here it is entirely possible.
They want to be doing good to his fellow man, to be a Goodman in that sense.
And so there is a sense in which there are those that are good and there are good things that people can do.
One would never deny that. I think that the word of God would bear that out there. When we speak of men being lost and perishing and there's none righteous or none or none good, we mean as far as you might say the benefit of God is concerned. Because a man might be the most benevolent man on earth. He might be the most patient, the most kind, the most thoughtful, the most unselfish, and not have one bit of love in his heart for God the Lord.
But as far as God is concerned, he's no good for him. What can God do for it with a man in his presence? It doesn't love him. What could God do with a man in eternity in his presence that is a Christ hater. And yet that man who is a Christ hater might be a benevolent man toward his fellow man. He might be kind and liberal in all of those things. So we're not talking about the fact that there is no such thing as a person being good to his fellow man.
Then we speak about man being no good and without resources and lost and perishing and under the wrath of God. We mean that he does not have a heart that beats for God. He doesn't have the love in his heart for God. It is not the love of God that motivates him even in his good deeds. There are many men and women in this in this land who seek to help others.
Not because of our love for God and our love for Christ.
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But because of the loss of their fellow man and a desire to aid society.
Well, all of those things are beneficial for man. One would not deny it, and certainly one would.
One would admire, in a certain sense, those who do go out of their way to help their fellow man. That's not the thought we're talking about. But all of this may exist without a love for God. And after all, you see, as far as life in this world is concerned, it's all temporary anyhow. The whole provision from the beginning of creation of Genesis One through the day which we're living now.
And on through any days that might be afterwards is all in a sense just a temporary provision.
Just a little spot in eternity and God is going to have a great eternal day in which they're going to be souls enjoying himself and enjoying the Lord Jesus Christ. And in conditions of eternal life where there is no death, no sickness, no sorrow, none of the things that is marred life in this scene, but all of them are going to be God lovers, lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's going to be no one there no matter how.
Benevolent he may have been to his fellow man who doesn't love the Lord Jesus Christ. It would spoil the whole scene to have one discordant note.
It would be, as it were, a reenactment of what has taken place in this world to have in that scene one who is not in the possession of eternal life, that is just in in human nature without the love of God.
Well, turn out of Ephesians 2.
Now these are in the past tense because of course he's writing to believers, he said in verse 3.
Among whom also we all had our conversation, our manner of life in times past.
And the less of our flesh.
Now this word lest in the King James Version.
Merely means desire.
It's what one likes. You know, we don't use the word less than this sense today. It has acquired a more restricted sense. And you never hear of a young person, some, some girl or something say, oh, I, I lust after that. They would never say that, but they would say I like that. It's something I desire, something I like. Well, that's all this word lust means. It just means that you like to do.
The the likes or the desires of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Desires of the flesh means bodily things, things that just satisfy ones that bodily appetite.
And then there's also the metal things, desires of the flesh and the mind.
Well, this is this is what human nature is apart from the work of God. This is not eternal life. This is not the knowledge of God. This is this is not in this is not bringing one into communion with God. No, this is what alienates man from God. Fulfilling, living this life, fulfill it, fulfilling the desires of the flesh in mind is that which alienates one from the life of God.
Then turn to Titus.
Chapter 3.
Again, he speaks in the past tense.
And verse 3.
So we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers less than pleasures. Now that expression again here.
Serving various desires and pleasures is where it should read various desires and pleasures. Now what are those desires and pleasures?
That it varies at first with each individual. It varies as to age groups.
What what are the very what are the desires and pleasures that belong to children do not necessarily interest the the older ones. And then of course the young adults and then the middle age and all the way through life there are various desires and pleasures, but the man who knows not Christ, just man in the flesh, man in human nature.
Apart from the worth of God and apart from the possession of the Lord Jesus Christ his whole life, from beginning to end, there's nothing more than a fulfilling of the various desires and pleasures. Whatever brings him pleasure there. There are people who get pleasure from helping others.
It isn't done for the glory of God. It becomes it brings them a personal satisfaction for having, of having done something for someone else serving whatever is their own pleasure or their own desire. Now this is what man is by nature. This is not eternal life.
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This is certainly nothing for God in this. So we see that Nicodemus, of course, as I said, was one of those who was a was a character of.
A sterling said he was not a man who was dissolute, a man whom society would cast out. So we see that the reason that there must be this fresh beginning, no birth starting all over again, is because human nature being what it is, just fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind and serving just.
The desires and pleasures.
That comes to 1 whatever one wants to do by all of this.
Is what man is by nature. So there has to be a fresh beginning. A fresh beginning. Ye must be born again as far as man is concerned.
He is without resources. This is his state and his condition. So I say this is.
One of the characteristic features of John's gospel, in fact, he begins from that standpoint that there is nothing in man. He has no resources. He's just living in, in desires and pleasures and without life toward God. And he's going on in this perishing state. He's not presenting anything to man as far as man's responsibility is concerned.
And in this we have a distinction between John's Gospel and the 1St 3, Matthew, Mark and Luke.
In our Matthew, Mark and Luke we have the Lord Jesus presented to man for man's acceptance.
In Matthew as the king of the Jews to the Jews and Mark, we have him as the servant of Jehovah, and his service is presented there. And in Luke we have, you might say, heavenly grace presented in the man Christ Jesus. But in all of these he is presented to man for man's acceptance, and man rejects him. But when we come to John's Gospel.
There is nothing presented to man on man's responsibility.
Man is seen to be without resources.
Lost and under death.
And now then, there is a question of what God is bringing in from above. Now notice in this third chapter that we read another verse that gives us the key to John's Gospel.
13.
While it's set in the dark background of man's condition, in verse 13 we read no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. So John, the gospel is characterized by that which has come down from heaven. Now it is seen that as far as man on earth is concerned, there is nothing here for God in man.
And there are no resources in man in this world.
These without resources, and if there's going to be anything for God in man at all, and blessing for man in his soul, it must come down from above.
It must come down from above, and this is what we find in John's gospel. It's what God introduces.
From outside this world you might say out of heaven itself, bringing forth into this world, displaying it in the person of Christ.
And then, through his work on the cross, communicated unto us. And what is that but eternal life?
We read in the Epistle of John.
That that eternal life that was with the Father. That eternal life that was with the Father.
And was manifested unto us. Well, it was manifested in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and now communicated unto us.
Through his work on the cross of Calvary, no man hath ascended up to heaven.
That he that came down from heaven, it's what God is bringing in from heaven.
You know, I thought of how how that man today is so interested in in things that are outside and beyond this this earth, these explorations of the universe, and he's so interested in what's outside. But here we have in John's gospel something that God has brought in, you might say, from from outer space.
He has brought something down from heaven itself right into this world. We don't have to go up into heaven to find out about it. God, in His grace and mercy, has brought that eternal life right down here into this world in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And it's communicated into everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. The bow down into this world in the person of the sun. Turn back to the first chapter.
Here we have the way the Gospel of John starts, the way it begins.
Shows us what God is bringing into this world and where it comes from and its connection.
Notice in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. As has been often pointed out, this beginning here is.
Goes back beyond the time of Genesis 11 where we have in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
This goes back into Jesus and the word was with God and the word was gone.
And I believe John starts off his gospel in this way to assure us.
That what we have in his gospel.
Is now that man is seen to be totally corrupt and without resources. Every trial has been given unto man. The final trial being as we have in the first three Gospels, the presentation of Christ demand that final trial and rejected. Now then it's a question of what God is going to bring in from himself. God then comes in himself.
With resources from himself in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice how this is brought out in verse 4.
In him was life.
Not only was he the Creator.
This one who has come down into this scene, but in Him was life, and then in verse four also the length was the light of men. It was not only that, as I say, He was the Creator and He was one who had an uncreated thing in Himself life.
But this life that was in him, as we read here was the light of men. It was something for man. Now coming down from the glory above in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ was that life that was to be the light of men. It was for men by the grace of God. When I hear in these first few verses of John's Gospel, we don't have brought out how this life is communicated to us, how we get it, but what we have here is.
That is true of the person himself in whom this life is displayed.
It's we look, we have a view of the Lord Jesus Christ as to who He is in Himself and what is found in him. He was the one in the beginning with God, and He was God. He was the Creator of all things. He is the one in whom length was found, and the only one in whom who has life in Himself. And now this life was the life of men, and the light shines in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
But at least the light did shine in the person of the Lord Jesus. The darkness here, of course, is the moral condition of man.
In darkness and departed from God. Well, this is what God has brought down into this world in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As you said in that third chapter, verse 13.
No man hath to send it up to heaven.
But he that came down from heaven.
We find this all the way through John's Gospel, that one which came down from heaven.
Because as I say, there is nothing in man here below for God and there are no resources in man. And if there's going to be anything in man for the glory of God and blessing for man in his own soul. And if man is going to be brought out of this condition of of perishing and lost forever, it has to be and though that which is brought down from heaven in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well then, he goes on in verse fourteen of our chapter 3.
And verse 15 and 16. And you'll notice now in these 3 verses he unfolds.
The wonderful thought of God for men. The purpose of God for man in verse 15. At the end of the verse he says that they should not perish but have eternal life.
And at the end of verse 16 it says they should not perish, but have eternal life. Now the King James has everlasting in 16 but.
Why they why they made this variation? I don't know. It's the same word in the original. It should be eternal life in both cases.
They are the exact equivalent that man should not perish but have eternal life twice at stages.
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As bringing before us what we might say is the thought that God had.
In his mind, for man, what is it that God? What is it that God had for man?
As we read in Romans 6, the gift of God is eternal life now.
That's not the same as saying that the eternal life is a gift of God, which is true. Eternal life is a gift. But it's more than that. That is the gift of God. That was the that was what God had in his heart for man, eternal life.
This was the grand purpose and design for a blessing for man. The blessing that God had in his heart and mind for man is described as eternal life.
Well, we know, of course, that eternal life in its complete and full sense will only be realized when we are in the glory with the Lord Jesus in conditions of eternal life. In John's Gospel we find eternal life as a present possession by faith. The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has that eternal life in his soul.
We find in the writings of the Apostle Paul that eternal life is considered in the future sense.
The end of the pathway, because they are looking at it in two different aspects. Eternal life is both the present possession of the believer in his soul. He has eternal life. He has that life now the life of Christ, that the eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested in this world is communicated to the soul of every believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he has it. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
But also eternal life in its full.
Purpose, as far as God is concerned, for a man is seen in the Lord Jesus Christ, now in the glory of God, on the other side of death.
In other words, as far as eternal life is concerned, we do not have it yet in all of its fullness, because we still have death working in our bodies.
And we're in a scene of death and decay. We see just the opposite of eternal life. All the way around us. We find debt. Death is the is the most characteristic feature of this world. I'm sure we all recognize that. And it is. If there's any one thing you might say that you could put a label on this world, you'd have to put death on it. It's the one thing that is sure and certain and is universal.
And certainly we do not see the conditions of eternal life all about us.
With death on every hand and sickness and sorrow, and we have this death, as I say, working in our bodies where we have unredeemed bodies.
Eternal life in its full sense will be when we are in the glory with the Lord Jesus Christ. We see it now in Him there.
As the glorified man, he's beyond death. He's beyond judgment.
He is not even in a scene where death and sin has anything to do. He's in all of the bliss and glory of God.
Well, this is the full thought of God, of every believer on the Lord Jesus.
If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, his thought for you is, as I say, not only that you have that life now so that you will never perish. And in that life we have the enjoyment of the Father and the Son, even the present time, that the full thought is that we should be in those very conditions of eternal life so that there is no death either working in the body or the soul or even.
In Roundabout, in our circumstances, taken completely out of the very scene of death itself, so that it no longer exists.
Well, this was the grand thought of God here. This is the gift of God, eternal life. Now I might say too, that this eternal life is characterized by the knowledge of the Father and the Son, as we have in John 17.
This is eternal life, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. Eternal life is more than just living forever.
Of course, eternal life obviously is a life that is for eternity.
But it's more than just living forever.
We find that man in the scripture is presented to us as having an immortal soul.
That is, he has a soul that will exist forever. When God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life, he became a living soul.
No animal was brought into existence in such a way.
It's only of Adam that there was that direct connection from God himself. God breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul.
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And as possessed with a living soul, if you want to use the word living, you shall live forever. It's not really life at all. That which is really life is eternal life. But the soul of man will exist forever, so eternal life is not just eternal existence.
Eternal life is more than that. Eternal life is really that life that was in the presence of God, that life, that life that was found in the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God even before he came into this world, as John says, that eternal life that was with the Father, that's where it was. Eternal life never had a beginning.
It was always with the father and the Son.
Now it had a beginning as far as man in this world is concerned, and that's what John's epistle verse one of chapter one means when he says that which was from the beginning.
Eternal life, as far as man is concerned, had a beginning in this world and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested in this world in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, it never had a beginning of itself.
It did have a beginning as far as its manifestation in this world, in the Lord Jesus.
So it's more than just living forever. It is that life, that life of Christ that never had a beginning, communicated now to believers. And it brings us into communion and fellowship with the Father. We know him as the true God. We know Jesus Christ whom he has sent. It involves that, that fellowship in communion with the Father and the Son. So it has a, we might say, a qualitative character.
As well as duration.
Surely it does apply to duration. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. But it also has that quality of communion and fellowship with the Father and the Son. When I here we see that this was God's purpose. But now notice in verse 14.
While it was the purpose of God, the desire of God to not only manifest this eternal life, but to give it as His gift to those that believe something had to take place first, it wasn't enough for this life to be manifested in the sun.
That would have never brought this life into our dead souls. No man would have ever had a life.
If it were merely that it was manifested in the person of the Sun here below.
No, that's why he says that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Something had to take place before this eternal life that God had in his heart from man could be communicated to those who believe. Something had to take place first. This is a necessity. It's a must on God's part. Now, on man's part, you must be born again. That was a necessity. Manward we might see.
But here is a necessity, Godward.
In other words, if God is going to give this gift of eternal life, he has to do something first.
There's something He has to do before He can give that eternal life, and that is that the Son of Man must be lifted up upon the cross. Well, I'll turn over to the 12Th chapter where we see what this lifted up refers to. When He says the Son of Man being lifted up, it doesn't mean his exaltation to the right hand of God. Verse 32 of John 12 and I, if I be lifted up from the earth.
Will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.
It's not his lifting up into heaven, not his being taken up into glory, it's his being lifted up from off the earth.
Signifying what death he should die. It's the death of the cross.
It's not merely that he should die, but what death he should die. He should die of the death of the cross. He should die of the death of one being condemned, not only rejected of man. That's true. He's rejected off the earth by man, but he's not received up into heaven either. The view here is of the Lord Jesus, as it were, suspended between heaven and earth, rejected by a man off the earth.
And not received into heaven by God, because here He is on the cross, He was made sin.
Not only was he rejected by a man, but he was made sin, and God judged him as sin. He was made sin for us there on the cross of Calvary. That's signifying what death he should die. But this is what is involved when he says to Nicodemus that the Son of Man must be lifted up. He must stand in that place of condemnation. He must take the place.
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That belonged to you and me.
He must take that place in judgment before God in order that everything that hindered God's giving unto us eternal life might be removed. And what was it that hindered it? God could not righteously communicate this eternal life unto us as long as we were in a lost and guilty condition, as long as there were sins chargeable to us.
As long as we were those.
Who had a debt to pay unto God? This community, this eternal life could never be communicated. He has to do it righteously. It has to be done in a righteous manner, because God is light as well as love and His righteousness demanded that the Son of man be lifted up in judgment, bearing our sins in His own body, standing in that place of condemnation for us.
In order that the barrier, the hindrance to His communicating eternal life unto us might be removed. That's the thought of 14 and 15. You might say that here was God and his thought of eternal life, His purpose of eternal life, and in between himself and the accomplishing of that purpose stood our sins and all of our guilt.
And that had to be removed because it would have. It would have.
Established a barrier. It would establish a barrier to prevent that blessing of eternal life being brought unto us. For his righteousness would demand that the Sinner die. The soul that sinneth it shall die, which is a righteous pronouncement on the part of God. And so the as the serpent lifted up the as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
Even so, must the Son of Man be lifted up, and he must be lifted up there.
In condemnation on the cross of Calvary. And then this grand purpose of eternal life is given unto all of those who believe that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. Of course, it's believing in him as that one who hung upon the cross, as the one who bore our sins in his own body, the one who stood in the place of judgment.
It's not believing on Him as the one who manifested eternal life.
You remember in the 9th chapter of John's Gospel there was a man who was born blind.
And I have no doubt that's a picture of what we've been saying about man in his lost and helpless condition and without resources. A blind man, well, he can't see anything. I remember when the Lord, before the Lord opened his eyes, when he went to him, the first thing he did was to make.
Mud from the clay, and he put it upon the eyes of the blind man. Well, you might say that made him doubly blind. He couldn't see by nature. And now with this.
Mud peak upon his eyes. He certainly couldn't see that. Didn't open his eyes, did it? Well, you might say that as far as man is concerned, he's blind by nature. And the Lord Jesus coming down in manhood, of which that clay would speak, He's coming down into manhood and manifesting eternal life here, would not open our eyes either.
He says he said to Nicodemus, except the man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God was displayed in the person of Christ, as he said one time to the Jews that the Kingdom of God is is among you in your midst. Another time he said, the Kingdom of God has come upon you in his own person. The Kingdom of God was displayed in Christ. Well, they couldn't even see that. One could not even see that, even though it was there. The light shines in the darkness.
But the darkness couldn't see it, so the light shining did not bring light into the soul, just as putting that Cliff on the eyes of the blind didn't open his eyes. But what did open his eyes? When he told him to go to the pool of Siloam and wash. And we're told what that means. Siloam means scent. It was when he saw him as the scent one from God, when he saw him as the one whom the Father is sanctified and sent him to this world to die on Calvary's.
His eyes were open, and so the believing on him here is not merely believing on him as the one who manifested eternal life.
But believing on Him as the one who was sent of the Father to suffer on the cross of Calvary, to be lifted up as the Son of Man. And when we see Him lifted up as the Son of Man on the cross for our sins, and one can say by faith, for my sins, he was lifted up on Calvary cross. Then the eyes are open, the eyes of the blind are open. Then to see Him and to eternal life as we read here is communicated.
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Unto such an one. And now, verse 16.
That verse that is so often quoted John 316.
Here we have again the thought of God that eternal life should be given to those that believe.
And why are the repetition?
In verse 15 we have that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
And the middle of verse 16, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Why is it repeated? Because I believe that God would want us to know that it was not merely the fact that it was a necessity that the Son of God died upon the cross, the Son of man. It was not merely that His Holiness demanded that Christ die.
In our room instead. But it was the love of his own heart that gave him.
To die upon the cross of Calvary in order that we might know the disposition of the heart of God.
That the center might know that not only was it we might say a moral necessity for Christ to die for God to give us eternal life, but it was that the Lord that God himself gave this and provided this way because of the love that was in his own heart. You know, it's a it's a wonderful thing when one is brought into the to the understanding and the appreciation and enjoyment of the disposition of the heart of God. Now what do.
You remember when the prodigal son decided to return back to his father?
Why he wasn't sure what his father was going to think about him when he after he had taken all of the money and gone out and lost it all and had lived such a terrible life. He wasn't sure of the father's thoughts. And on the way back, he, he made-up the little speech, you know that he said, when I return, I'll say to my father, I'm not worthy to be called to thy son. Make me one of thy hired servants. And when he came back and the father fell upon his neck.
And kissed him.
He still wasn't sure about the father's thoughts, but after the father brings him into the house.
And gives him the best robe, and the ring upon his finger, the shoes upon the feet.
And he kills the fatted calf. Then we don't read anymore about. We do not read anymore about.
This little speech of the prodigal to make me as one of Thy hired servants. Why he wouldn't dare say that? Because he knew the heart of the father. He knew his father's thoughts. He knew the disposition of the heart of his father. He knew that his father loved him. He knew that love had provided all of that, that he was enjoying there at the table of his father. And he couldn't say such a thing. Well, this is what God would want us to know, not merely that He is willing to forgive us all of our sins.
Not merely that He has, that the Son of Man has suffered on the cross for our sins, but the disposition of His heart toward us is one of love. God loves us. God so loved the world, and this is the manner in which He loved the world. It's not an adverb here of degree, it's an adverb of manner. In other words, it's this God in his love for the world.
Loved us in this manner. That's a particle. Now. It wasn't necessary for the father to kill the fatty cat.
And that's why that elder brother couldn't understand it. Why did he do such a thing? It wasn't necessary. He could have received that son back without killing the fatted cat. He could have received that son back without giving the best rule. He didn't have to do all of that. He could have received him back in his rags. But if that wasn't the desire of the father's heart, the manner of the father's love was seen in those things that he gave him.
Well, that's what it is here. We could be saved and taken to heaven as servants, you might say.
We could, perhaps there may be some other thing that God could have done for us, but this is the manner of His love that He gives His only begotten Son, in order that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life, that we might be brought into that place of nearness with Himself, to have the life of His beloved Son Himself. I don't mean now the life and deity, I mean that eternal life that was in Him and manifested now in this scene is communicated into us.
He that hath the Son hath life.
We have life in Christ. The very life of Himself is now our life. That eternal life is ours in Him. This is the gift of God, and it comes from that heart of love. God so loved the world, and He loved the world in this manner that He gave His Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Well, this is I, I believe, a very simple thing that even the youngest as well as the oldest can play hold upon.
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Simply by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Seeing him as that sent one of the Father, knowing that he was there on the cross.
For our sins. And now God gives unto us that eternal life in our souls. We have it now as a present possession.
And then we're going to have it in all of its fullness when we're taken to be with Him in the glory.