Christ the Source of Life
William John Hocking
Table of Contents
Christ the Source of Life: Part 1
The General Character of John's Gospel
The subject of eternal life is peculiar to the fourth of the Gospels. And that this peculiarity should be found there will not be a matter for surprise when the character of this Gospel is remembered—a character which is easily observed on comparison with the others. For while the Synoptics, as the first three are often called by way of distinction, set out the varied glories of Christ as the One who was deputed, in mercy and righteousness, to establish God's order in a world of disorder and sin, the disciple “whom Jesus loved” was inspired to write upon a more exalted theme. To him was assigned the high and holy task of presenting, in His divine nature, the Person of Him who came forth from the Father. In other words, John gives us the Godhead side of the marvelous and mysterious Incarnation, not stated in the abstract terms of a philosophical disquisition, but exemplified for our spiritual apprehension in the words and actions of Jesus the Son of God.
In this Gospel, then, the children of God have the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ, and receiving this by faith we receive Him, and receiving Him we receive Him that sent Him. Yet it is well to remember that this reception on our part must be in a progressive sense. Nathanael may exclaim in wondering rapture at a transient vision of His glory, “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel"; and Simon Peter, illuminated by the revelation of the Father may confess, “Thou art the Son of the living God.” But this knowledge of theirs must deepen and develop before either the one or the other can attain to that stage of Christian growth at which a person is said to know Him who is from the beginning (1 John 2:14).
THE INFLUENCE OF THIS GOSPEL UPON THE NEW LIFE
It is a matter of common experience among the simplest of believers that the Gospel of John possesses an irresistible attraction above other parts of Scripture. And this attraction, apart from the recognition of the all-absorbing Personality who shines in radiant glories throughout its chapters, is inexplicable. The new nature turns instinctively to Him who is its source of light and life and love. Hence we always in the devout reading of this Gospel discover heights and depths altogether beyond our comprehension. We feel an inexpressible sweetness which is nowhere else. We recognize that its study brings us into a sphere of elevating and ennobling influence such as we love. Why is this so? Is it not because we have here the dignities and glories of the Lord Jesus Christ? The record of His majesty captivates our heart's affections. We cannot but rejoice to learn the greatness of Him who comes so near to us in His love. We delight in the knowledge of the glory of Him in whom we trust. We see that He is not one of ourselves, not one of the saintly personages of divine history, not one of the mighty angels from above, but the Son of God, the Word become flesh. And He is, therefore, One whom, in His ineffable love, we cannot but worship and adore.
The only-begotten Son has revealed the Father and His love. Clearly we could not have penetrated heaven to obtain the knowledge of this love. Neither is such a task now needful, since this love in its glory and heavenly perfection has been brought down to us in the Person of Jesus Christ. And to know Him and the Father who sent Him is eternal life.
This knowledge comes to us through the Scriptures. Hence it is that the Gospel of John which testifies of the Son as the Revealer of the Father exercises such a powerful influence upon the spiritual life. The perusal of it develops the essential quality of deep reverence. It is not sufficient to love, we should also honor a loved one. And for all believers there is need that the habit of reverence should be acquired and practiced. For we are exposed in a greater degree than we sometimes realize to the serious danger of undervaluing the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are liable to depreciate His work for us and His care for us. But the scriptural record affords a needful corrective of these natural tendencies, the Gospels and Epistles of John setting the Lord before us in the very atmosphere of heaven, as it is written, “The Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3:13). When we see Him we see the Father. When we hear Him, we hear the One who is in the bosom of the Father. And such experience as this cannot but affect the most deep-seated springs of our inner spiritual life.
THE NATURE OF LIFE UNKNOWN
We have seen that there is an intimate relation between the subject of eternal life and that aspect of the Incarnation revealed through the apostle John. It is clear that apart from the possession of eternal life there is no apprehension of the Father nor the Son. The sheep know the Shepherd, but then He gives them eternal life. The fact of this gift is declared plainly enough, but the nature of the life bestowed is, in its essence, unrevealed and therefore remains unknown. That portion of Holy Writ which is so full of references to life eternal as possessed by the family of God contains no definition of the nature of this subtle principle. What the new life is abides a mystery inscrutable to psychological and every scientific inquiry, just as physical life, that is, the life which is the common possession of mankind, baffles all research into its nature and origin. Nor can the enshrouding veil be lifted even in the case of the lowliest organism. God has reserved, to Himself the knowledge of the mystery of life, whether in man or in monad. This is true in the natural order of things, and it is certainly true in the matter of spiritual life.
However, we do not find that this ignorance of the nature of physical life in any way interferes with the faithful discharge of its duties and responsibilities. Were such knowledge necessary in spiritual things we may be sure it would have been revealed. And it is worthy of remark that the many references to this subject in scripture are made in terms which are addressed not so much to the intelligence as to the heart. The various statements are not susceptible to analysis and definition like the theme of a philosophical treatise.
Life itself—the fact of it, the truth of it—is the main thing. And the knowledge of this we receive on the authority of the word of God. We know we are born of God not only by the subjective evidence of our own love to God and to the brethren (1 John 3:14; 5:1), but by the objective testimony of the record that God has given of His Son.
The truth of eternal life is the truth of our present life. It is the basis of our being now children of God. And this life is in the Son. As to the old creation it is true that in God we live and move and have our being, and as to the new creation our life is hid with Christ in God.
THE SOVEREIGN RIGHTS OF THE SON
We are now brought to the theme of the chapter before us. For in John 5 we learn that the origin—the source—of divine Life is the Lord Jesus Christ. This life may be and is utterly beyond our comprehension, but we may derive much comfort from the knowledge that it originates with the ever-living Son. And it is as the Quickener that He displays Himself in this connection. Moreover, in this act of quickening, which is essentially a divine one, He claims to exercise His own sovereign right— “the Son quickeneth whom he will.”
Now the sovereignty of our Lord is prominently displayed throughout this chapter, and indeed is especially noticeable in the incident of healing with which it opens. The person healed was one of a great company of afflicted folk, all of whom were desirous to avail themselves of what relief there was to be obtained at the troubling of the waters of Bethesda. But the Lord chose to go to this company, without any invitation, so far as the record goes. And He went among them as One who had His sovereign rights in this world, making a selection from the crowd according to the good pleasure of His own will.
We must remember that this man, desperate and pitiable as his case was after thirty-eight years' suffering, was not thereby entitled to demand relief from God. Neither had he physical strength to seek Him who came from heaven to render relief. But the Lord sought him where he was. In this He was exercising His right. So on another occasion He demanded the use of an ass with the simple statement of His paramount rights: “The Lord hath need of him.”
But this is altogether an exceptional instance; for throughout the Gospels we have many examples of individuals coming to Jesus and seeking some favor from Him, and when the case was stated the Lord readily gave more even than was asked. And if crowds came He would help and bless them all. There was mercy for any and for all.
[W. J. H.]
(To be continued)
Christ the Source of Life: Part 2
The Man at the Pool
Here then we have the unique instance of the Lord singling out one from a number of sick folk, and putting to him the question, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Why is this case given? Because it is good for us to know that He possessed the right to help and to heal whomsoever He would. It is so still. In our prayers, for example, we have no rights before God. The rights are wholly His. He is gracious to hear and to answer, but He is supreme, and we have no valid claims upon His bounty.
The Lord's question awakened only surprise in the sick man. It was to him a strange question. From the countenance of the speaker he did not discern the Lord of glory. He only regarded Him as a man who might perhaps have kindness enough to stand by and put him into the pool at the proper moment. His thoughts rose no higher than this: “I have no man to put me into the pool,” he said in reply. There was thus no recognition of the Lord. The eyes were dull, the heart heavy, the sensibilities blunted. The Son of God was speaking in solicitude; but there were no ears to hear. There was no appreciation of the Person who addressed him. In short, there was no spiritual life there.
This deficiency however proved no hindrance, for the Lord had come to Bethesda to supply all that was lacking in this case, in contrast with the provisions of the law. “If there had been a law which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law” (Gal. 3:21). While the law was “weak through the flesh” the Lord rose above such limitations. In spite of the man's dullness, debility, and deadness, He bestowed upon him the gift of healing. He was acting here in His own rights as the Son of God.
Thereupon the word of the Lord went forth to the prostrate sufferer, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” Now with that word went a supernatural power which wrought a stupendous change in the hearer. He no longer regarded Jesus as a man who might peradventure put him into the pool. He now recognized Him as One whom he was bound to obey. The word of the Lord imparted new life to him. He believed. He obeyed. He was confident that the word which bade him rise was not spoken in mockery and that the ability to respond which he lacked in himself would in some manner be supplied. He believed the Lord, and like millions beside, he was not made ashamed.
PERSECUTION BY THE JEWS
A great testimony for God was hereby rendered in the city of Zion. The Son acting in His Father's name avoids the temple which He had already pronounced to be no longer His Father's house, and visits the crowd of impotent folk waiting for one of their number to be benefited by the troubling of the pool. He selects an absolutely helpless and hopeless man who, in obedience to His command, carries his bed through Jerusalem on that very sabbath as a witness to the genuineness of the cure. But this was a witness to more than the power of Jesus; it testified also to the authority He possessed as the Son of God to abrogate the conventionalities of the law.
This act of grace by the Lord became a reason for His abuse and His persecution by the Jews. They repudiated altogether the claims He made. They sought to kill Him because He had broken the sabbath, and because He said that “God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.”
This obstinate unbelief and opposition of the Jews gave occasion for the Lord to reveal further glories concerning Himself. Their blindness of understanding showed the desperateness of their case as a nation. Though they were well acquainted with the letter of the ancient oracles, they utterly failed to receive the Lord and His words, and this failure in the face of such exceptional testimony was because they were spiritually dead.
What then is the resource when there is such hopeless obduracy? What sort of a person can help in such circumstances where the powerlessness is that of death? Only One who can act for God without any compromise of the nature of God; and, more than this, only One who can act as God and with God. Hence the Lord said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Such a One then can only be God's own Son. He possesses more than a delegated authority, for in His own inherent right He can speak in His own authority. This He does, prefacing His words with the phrase characteristic of this Gospel, “Verily, verily, I say unto you” (verses 19, 24, 25).
THE SON CLAIMS EQUALITY WITH THE FATHER
The Lord in His answer to the Jewish cavils demonstrates His equality with the Father. This mode of reply is to be weighed. In respect of His work of mercy on the Sabbath, the Lord does not here refer, as in the other Gospels, to the case of David and the show-bread, nor to the priests in the temple, nor to the utilitarianism of the act justifying it, as when the life of a sheep was preserved. In this instance He calmly asserts His divine right as the Son of the Father.
The Lord then declared His glory as the Eternal Son, resting it upon three grounds. He showed that His Sonship appears—
(1) In His union and communion with the Father (verses 19, 20).
(2) In Himself as the Quickener of whom He will (ver. 21).
(3) In Himself as the appointed Judge of mankind (ver. 22).
In the first place then, the Son is seen to be acting in the Father's name. His competency to do this is shown by His union with the Father. And the union is implied in the statement, “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do; for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” His adequacy is also further affirmed by the communion existing with the Father; “for the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.”
Had He not said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work"? To work in such partnership involves equality with the Father; for while not acting independently, i.e., “of Himself,” He is competent to do all the Father does, and to do it all in the same manner, that is, divinely. The Son does not only what He is told to do, but also what He sees the Father do. Consequently, in the life, the actions and the words of the Lord Jesus Christ we have the fullness of the Father's heart of love, otherwise inaccessible to man, brought into view in this world. It is indeed cause for marvel when we reflect that in that lowly Man passing patiently onwards through a path of obloquy we have a perfect exhibition of the Father's love on high. So that looking upon and studying Him we learn the essential features of God's ineffable grace and truth.
And this subject we can only learn in communion with the Father and the Son. There is a great difference between learning a thing from a companion and learning it from a book. Affection and regard play not a small part in the former process. This part of the New Testament, which from one standpoint may seem abstract and dreamy, enters into the very marrow of Christian life because the Person of Christ stands there revealed in His highest glory. Through and in Him the believer learns his most valuable lessons.
The Christian life is not a mere code of ritualistic obedience to a series of specified commands, the fulfillment of certain duties defined with precision. Such was the Mosaic method, where you have not the operations of a new life so much as the repression of the old life. The law came with the coldness of an “army order"; it lacked life. The letter killeth, the spirit giveth life.
Eternal life brings us into relationship with the living Word—a Person to whom we may come and appeal directly, telling Him our sorrows and our joys, and find comfort and peace in the telling. For this privilege, true from the beginning, is not now obsolete, except so far as we make it so by our neglect.
We now come to the second point: the Son is the Giver of life. It has been observed that He is in no whit inferior to the Father. What God does, the Son does in like manner. What a Savior for sinful men! In addition, we are taught that the Son exercises the divine function of bestowing life. “As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.” And this function He exercises in His lowliness as Son of man: “As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself” (ver. 26). This attribute was displayed in His ministry. Everywhere He went He had life in Himself. There could therefore be no death in His presence. He possessed a store of life-giving energy, to the power of which the daughter of Jairus, the widow's son of Nain, and the beloved Lazarus were monuments.
It is true that in all these vivifying acts, He was the subject One, but still in the place of subjection He had what no creature could have, His sovereign rights, and could give life when and where it pleased Him: “the Son quickeneth whom he will.”
In the third particular, also, the Son is said to exercise a divine function. Who but God can in the absolute sense (and this is the only possible sense here) judge men? And we read, “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.”
This authority to judge mankind is conferred upon Him “because He is the Son of man.” But being Son of God He is at the same time competent in His own right to execute this high function. In the days of His flesh He was in this dark and evil world as Heaven's Light to expose, not to judge, sins, to forgive sins not to condemn the sinner. But we learn that He who was sent to atone for sin is He who will be sent as the Executor of divine judgment, all judgment being committed unto the Son.
Hence the call to honor the Son in His proper excellency. Those who do not by faith see His glory in His humiliation will be compelled to witness and acknowledge it when He is manifested in His own glory and in His Father's. This glory will be so transcendent in character that it will perforce bow all stubborn hearts and knees in reverent homage to the Son of man, the Father's fiat being that all should honor the Son even as they honor Him.
The believer recognizes this equality in worship and adoration. Whatever God is, the Son is also. This we freely and gladly acknowledge, and God is jealous of this, since it was the Son who suffered for sins. God was glorified in Him. And “if God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself” (John 13:31,32).
[W. J. H.]
(Continued front page 203) (To be continued)
Christ the Source of Life: Part 3
(Concluded from page 219)
The Charter of Life
The passage relating to the present possession of eternal life is familiar: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life.” This positive statement comes to us with an intensified force of conviction as we view its context. We recollect the glory of the Speaker. He who speaks of the possession of life is the One who quickens. Words carry weight in proportion to the dignity of Him who speaks, and to His ability to establish the truth of what He utters. Here the Son of God speaks, the divine Quickener, the Judge of all.
Our part is to receive His words by faith in spite of our feeble apprehension of their significance. The value of them is only to be measured by the Person of Christ. Their validity rests upon Omnipotence. When the Son of God says that a person shall not come into judgment He has the unchallengeable right to speak on such a matter. For the Judge is speaking, the One who will preside at that Great Assize. He has therefore the necessary authority to grant an exemption from the process of judgment. This He does in the solemn declaration, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and shall not come into judgment.” The word “condemnation” in the Authorized Version falls short of the meaning of the text. This may imply being judged but escaping punishment, whereas the Lord promised freedom from the judgment itself, that is, from arraignment at the trial.
This assurance is made to the hearer of Christ's word. Hearing, however, is not merely listening, but receiving in the heart the Son's word of grace and power. It was so with the man at the pool. If he received the word “Rise” as the word of a man he could only regard it as a mockery of his helplessness; but discerning it as the voice of One who spake as never man spake he received the power he otherwise lacked. Essaying to rise in obedience to the command, he rose in a strength bestowed by the Life-giver. So, hearing the word of the Son, and believing the Father who sent Him, are inseparable from the living water which the Son of God imparts to the needy.
Thus in this passage we have the assurance (1) from the Quickener that the hearer and believer possesses eternal life, and (2) from the Universal Judge that he is immune, from future judgment. These momentous questions are by this text answered definitely and finally, and placed once for all upon an immutable foundation.
SIGNS OF LIFE
The presence of life is determined by its action. An absolutely impassive life is unthinkable. This is true of physical life which invariably exhibits itself in motion; where there is none, death is assumed. And so, by analogy, it is spiritually; without motion Godward, there is spiritual death. But if a person possesses eternal life, he has passed “from death unto life.” Such a person has the consciousness of God as Father, of the Son as Savior and Lord. He has esteem, regard and reverence, as well as adoration and worship, for the Father and the Son.
Eternal life places a person in the right relationship of heart and will to the revealed Godhead. It must not be confounded with active philanthropy. A sense of duty towards one's fellow-creatures is not necessarily evidence of the possession of eternal life. Take the case of Judas Iscariot who had every symptom of such a regard for men. In this world of suffering and sin he did many wonderful works of healing and mercy in the name of the Lord; but there was no appreciation of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ upon his lips. He did not confess like Simon Peter, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Judas betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver. There was no life in him—no honoring the Son even as the Father.
Again: hearing the voice of the Son of God is evidence of eternal life; “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.” How can this be? Can a dead person hear? In a natural sense, it involves a contradiction of terms. Yet the testimony of Scripture is that Lazarus, and the widow's son, and Jairus' daughter heard that voice. So it is with dead souls according to the witness of the verse before us. The Speaker is the Son of God. And God in the Person of His Son quickens. He gives life—not notions, not creeds. Our part is that of faith. We miss the value of the words of Jesus if we seek to compass them by our own puny thoughts and ideas. Let us believe; for in this is life.
THE TWO HOURS
Moreover, life-giving is a present act. It is a process in progress. The “hour” for it “now is.” Spiritual life is bestowed on those who hear the word of the Son. But there is another “hour” of which the Lord goes on to speak. “The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth.” As the present hour has reference to the inner life of man, so the future one refers to the body. Light is here shed upon the darkness of the tomb into which the voice of the Life-giver will penetrate.
Resurrection is life for the dead body. The spirit of the departed believer is with Christ, which, as the apostle says, is a “far better” state than the present. This state is reached immediately upon falling asleep. Hence the Lord said to the robber, “Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” There was, in consequence, for his spiritual nature, an instantaneous transfer to the highest heaven, while the mangled body waits in the dust of the earth for the awakening word of life in the coming hour. Then in the first resurrection the Lord's redemptive work will be completed for spirit, soul and body—for him and for all who had like faith.
But this resurrection of life is the resurrection of those who heard the voice of the Son of God in the first hour. The response to His voice at His coming is the response of those that are Christ's. It is the response of a previously formed, and a living, relationship. The Lord comes into the air and speaks, and a resurrection from among the dead is the immediate result. This is the secret rapture—secret because the voice of the Lord will be unperceived then as it is unperceived now by the world, and was formerly unperceived by ourselves.
The result then of hearing the Son's voice in that coming time for those who hear His voice now, is that life will then be known by them in fullness and glory. Now the new life is hindered and hampered by the influence of present things. The spirit is clogged. Then we shall rise unfettered to ascend into a sphere of uninterrupted communion with God the Father and God the Son. The life already imparted rises to its source—to Him who is the true God and eternal life.
But the wicked dead will not escape the power of that all-compelling voice—the summons from their Judge. They will subsequently (Rev. 20) rise too in the resurrection of judgment, from which the believer, as we have seen, is exempted.
In conclusion, we may observe that the possession of eternal life is not the result of a personal struggle. It is not consequent upon a successful career of morality and philanthropy. It is a divine gift— “the gift of God is eternal life.” There is therefore no adequate cause for self-satisfaction or boastfulness. The free gift is of grace. The Son quickens whom He will. He sought us when we were lying helpless in the folly and degradation of sin. He granted unto us a new life, breathed out from Himself. Let us, therefore, as Scripture teaches us to do, ascribe all praise and glory to Him who is the Bestower of life upon those who hear His word. W. J. H.
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