Chapter 5 commences with a new aspect of man’s condition his weakness. All flesh is as grass, and all its glory as the flower of grass — the grass has withered, and its flower has faded. But an angel of Jehovah, mighty in strength, doing His commandments, had been there; for when had He left Himself without witness of the power and grace that were behind all and above all the ruin man had wrought? After this we have the question of the sabbath, the great theme of Jewish boasting; that is, man without strength and a sabbath without rest, are the two subjects first presented to us, with the answer to both in Jesus, who is “the power of God, “and rest for the weary soul of man. Thirdly, eternal life, and life-giving and resurrection-power in a Man, who says He can do nothing of Himself — the dependent Man and the Son of God are one — and, lastly, the fourfold testimony to His Person.
These are the great subjects of this precious chapter.
“Now there is in Jerusalem, at the sheep-gate, a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a multitude of sick, blind, lame, withered, awaiting the moving of the water. For an angel descended at a certain season in the pool and troubled the water. Whoever therefore first went in after the troubling of the water became well, whatever disease he labored under.” Yet there was One amongst them whom they knew not, mightier than the angel who troubled the waters, but He was not waited for; His mission, indeed, was not, dependent on the thoughts of men; He had come to minister unto others, and to give His life a ransom for many. “Wilt thou be made whole? “He says to the poor man. The will was indeed present with him, but the impossibility of man was with him also. And there was “no man “to, help. As was said of the poor prodigal, “no man gave unto him. And in the most interesting connection possible, His own Spirit speaks in the prophet, “When I came was there no man.” No! there is “no man,” whether the need of man demands it, or the call of God waits for an answer. The only Hope of Israel, as of man, was indeed in their midst, but unknown and unrecognized by man. To Him the Lord God had given the tongue of the learned, that He should know how to speak a word in season to him that, is weary. And here was a poor wearied one, listening to the word of the Lord God from the tongue of the learned, from Jesus Himself — “Wilt thou be made whole?”
This is the third aspect in which man’s state is viewed in this gospel; here, without strength, even when “to will” was present — power belongs to God, power and grace. In chapter 3 it was man in the flesh, in possession, outwardly, of all the religious privileges of Israel — “a ruler of the Jews,” “a teacher of Israel.” The Light of life shines, and the privileges are seen to be in the hands of the dead; man must be born anew. In John 15, it was simply the corruption of the flesh. Living water was not there. The life of the flesh differs in nothing from that which is the “sowing of the body in death. The same terms apply equally to each — weakness, corruption, dishonor. In chapter 3 it is the incapacity of the mind, though surrounded with the testimonies of God, to grasp the simplest truth which would lead to life and to God — in John 5, the inability of nature to take a single step towards the healing waters.
You see we are now coming upon great scenes in revelation; amongst these the sabbath holds a remarkable place, presented in the gospels in different connections, and wholly new bearings. The Lord brings it forward Himself, and in each place in ways of surpassing interest. It is no longer viewed in connection with rest from creation toil, the redemption of man in the flesh from fleshly enemies, the national sanctification of Israel; nor do we find it in connection with the true Manna from heaven (Ex. 16) — they would not eat it, though God had given it to them to eat — but with the truth now coming out on every side, that man could not rest because he was a sinner, and that God would not, because He was a Savior, — with failure in the whole creation, and with the unrest of every creature; with the presently to be revealed truth; that its foundation is in the atoning death of Him who, risen, ascended, and glorified, is become the Head of the new creation; that the eighth day (first day of the week, the resurrection-day), and not the seventh, characterizes the Christian position. That the cross is the judgment of the old thing; that neither rest, nor that which is the sign of it, can be connected with that which the death of Christ has judged. All must be new — new covenant for Israel; new birth for man; new song; new creation. Israel was in captivity and sorrow upon the sea of nations — the sea and the waves roaring as ever. Jesus, Creator and Redeemer, in their midst in rejection — was that a time or season to glory in the sign of that which could not be found, save in the person of the rejected One?
God’s rest in glory with His creatures, His people’s participation in His rest, was the great thought of which the sabbath was the sign. We find it in connection with grace, government (law), and redemption (Ex. 16, 20; Deut. 5); a sign of national sanctification and of the covenant in Ezekiel 20. It was a sign of creation-rest, and a type of that eternal rest that remaineth. The first had passed away through the creature’s sin; the second remains, no one has, entered into that. Rest in Jesus, and His finished, work, is another thought — rest of soul in Him. in whom the Father rests, but different from the rest that remaineth. In Exodus 16 we find the first mention of the sabbath as a divine institution for man’s observance. In Genesis 2 it is said simply that God rested, having finished the work of creation, and sanctified the day of His rest. In Exodus 16 we find the sabbath in connection with the manna; in Deuteronomy 5, with redemption — that is, with God’s work and God’s gift; Bread of God that, coming out of heaven, gives life to the world. The Redeemer and the true Bread from heaven are one; the knowledge of this gives the secret of rest. God gives the sabbath in one place, and commands its observance in the other. When the Lord allows the question of the sabbath to be raised in His presence, He so applies it to the conscience as to make it there the sign of the creature’s unrest. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Let the context be pondered. The application of the truth touching this sign of rest makes man’s unrest manifest; as the uncomprehending darkness is revealed by the shining of the perfect Light. These truths are really learned in the conscience only. How blessed, too, the divine order — redemption first — then rest (Ex. 15, 16). They can never be separated since sin has come into the world; these chapters, too, contain the first records of each. (Gen. 2 is God’s rest in creation.)
Before passing on, then, let us look for a moment at redemption — not so much in the work done against the enemy (his overthrow was total and complete, “destroyed him that had the power of death”), as in its blessed effects in the hearts of His redeemed, as much His work as the over-throw of the enemy. If He was glorious in His victory, O how happy they who were to participate in its glorious fruits! Strength, song, and gladness are its first fruits in the hearts of the redeemed; but it is the Lord who is all this to the soul, and therefore the joy is in Himself, and so a pure delight. His glory is appreciated in His triumph, in His power, and in His holiness. He is greater than all that He has wrought. We want Himself now — “He is my God, I will exalt Him,” the ceaseless note! heard again when glory comes, when the hand of Jehovah rests in the holy mount — “O God, Thou art My God, I will exalt Thee” (Isa. 25). “I will prepare him an habitation”—and He brings to the place that He has made for Himself to dwell in, in the midst of His redeemed people. We joy in Him, and He, seeing of the travail of His soul, is satisfied. We must not forget what comes out in the first burst — “I will exalt Him,” as the apostle expresses it, “that Christ may be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.” If Exodus 15 gives the first testimony of redemption, and with it the first recorded song on earth, Revelation 5 gives us the heavenly song of redemption:
“Because Thou hast been slain, and hast redeemed to God by Thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue,” and so on; and made them to our God kings and priests.
May we lay hold of this thought — redeemed to God, and made to God, and Who it is who did it.
Again, in Revelation 14 we find those redeemed from the earth, and from men, firstfruits to God and the Lamb — the remnant preserved for earthly blessing “not yet singing, but learning to sing, while they listened to the voice of glory out of heaven — that voice like great waters, “and like harp-singers playing on their harps” (power and praise), and no one could even learn this song but the redeemed. Gladness, then, strength, and salvation, are the fruits of redemption known and enjoyed in the Lord. It is important, too, to notice that God’s holiness is first mentioned in connection with redemption (holiness is not spoken of in Genesis, save the sanctification of the day of His rest). He brings the redeemed to Himself, they must, therefore, resemble Himself in nature; and He is glorious in holiness. His habitation also amongst men is first spoken of when the redeemed are there. He visited Abraham, and even Adam in paradise, but He did not dwell with either. He dwells with His redeemed. His eternal habitation with man is the holy Jerusalem: everything in the earthly house, in the city, and in the and of Judah is stamped with holiness to the Lord (Zech. 14). All in the end responds to His nature. I have spoken thus of redemption, because of its connection with rest.
Verse 10. “The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath-day; it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? And he that was healed wist not who it was; for Jesus had conveyed Himself away, a multitude being in that place. Afterward, Jesus findeth him in the temple” and so forth. It was a good place for man to be found in, before it was rendered desolate by the departure of Him whose presence alone gave it a place before God; there men inquired, and beheld His beauty; there the devout soul longed to dwell, because it was His dwelling-place; there He was sought in the time of trouble, and glorified in praises when deliverance came (Psa. 27). Does the last thought explain the presence there of the impotent man? “Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honor dwelleth”; and faith and love still clung to it amid all the vicissitudes of their wondrous story. Its former glory had long departed — yea, the glory itself; and the predicted “latter glory” had not yet returned (See Hag. 2, margin). But in the mind of the Spirit the house was one, and viewed as subsisting till filled again with the glory of Him who comes in the name of the Lord. Could faith forget that the Lord had said, “Mine eyes and my heart shall be there continually”? No, it was still for the heart, amid the wreck of time and downfall of Israel, “our holy and our beautiful house where our fathers praised Thee.” Yet Jesus was about to say, “YOUR house is left unto you desolate,” refusing to own it as His, being Himself at that moment the temple and dwelling-place of God, and place of rest for the heart of sin-weary man. The soul’s present sabbath is found only in Him.
Our thoughts turn instinctively to that other house of which He is at the same time Builder and Chief Corner-stone, which in Him also increases unto a holy temple, a habitation of God in Spirit; Hades gates prevail not against it; as was said of Himself, it “must increase.” The desolation of the earthly temple can never be its portion, God’s habitation it remains till its completion in heaven; until, in another figure, Christ presents it to Himself glorious, without spot or wrinkle. There is another aspect in connection with responsibility, but it does not, and cannot, affect the blessed truth of Ephesians 2 and 5.
Verse 17. “But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” This passage is, perhaps, the fullest expression of the grace of God which we find anywhere, a blessed and wondrous revelation, that, outside the scene of ruin, the defacement of His own likeness it the moral creation, above the darkness of this world, in the glorious light of His own perfections, superior to all evil, the Father and the Son had been working in patient grace and long-suffering. Not merely as from the high and holy place of His habitation letting His compassions fall, as it were, like rain upon the parched earth; but in all their afflictions, afflicted, while, in the activities of love to His rebellious people, He found motives which they could not supply in Himself, His name, His glory — He “wrought “for His name’s sake. Indeed “hitherto” is a movable term when applied to the ways of God in grace, you cannot fix it until He shall “work” no more. Look for a moment at the beginning of those ways in Israel as He Himself records them.
“In the day when I chose Israel, and made Myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up My hand unto them, saying, I am the Lord your God, in the day when I lifted up My hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt unto a land . . . the glory of all lands . . . I said, Cast away the abominations I am the Lord your God. But they rebelled but I wrought for My name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen . . . in whose sight I had made a Myself known unto them, in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.”
Then He brought them into the wilderness, and gave them His statutes, judgments, sabbaths. What was the result? “The house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness, they walked not in My statutes, despised My judgments, polluted My sabbaths; but I wrought for My name’s sake.” He said He would not bring them into the land, the glory of all lands, but, addressing their children, said, “Walk ye in My statutes,” etc., but they also rebelled. He spoke of judging them; but retreated immediately into Himself, saying, “I withdrew My hand, and wrought for My name’s sake.” Again, He tells them He will scatter them among the nations, and defeat the purpose of their evil heart, of becoming like the nations, and would bring them under the rod; rebellion still was their only answer. So it came out that He that scattered them alone could gather them; accordingly He brings them to His holy mountain, and accepts their sacrifices there. And then, when He had wrought “for His name’s sake,” in bringing them to His holy mount, when grace had triumphed where evil was, they would know the Lord.” It is grace reigning through righteousness, and mercy rejoicing against judgment, that gives the true knowledge of God — “They shall know the Lord.” And there, in the enjoyment of acceptance, when its righteous ground should have been shown them by the Lord, how grace had reigned through righteousness, would the fruits of grace be manifested in holiness. They hate sin for its own sake, because it is sin, and loathe themselves, because they had been loathsome.
But this is holiness, as in that beautiful Psalm 45: “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity, therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” In the, end all answers to the nature of God. “In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord; and the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 14). And when the new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven from God, she is called the “holy city.”
I think the difference between righteousness and holiness will be easily seen from what we have been considering. How blessedly the Spirit of God, in His afflicted servant, uses this plea: “Thy name’s sake”; “The throne of Thy glory”; “Thy covenant with us” (Jer. 14). There was nothing in man to plead with God, all was gone there; but for faith there remained what God was in Himself and His ways. It was sin, then, all the way from the land of Egypt, and Jehovah working; but Father and Son — essential relationship — is also the name of deepest grace.
If Jehovah had wrought in Israel from the days of Egypt onward, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work,” embraces all time; they were working from the days of paradise itself — “from the day thou eatest thereof.” To know the Father and the Son is eternal life, and they had “wrought hitherto.” Thus we are let into the profoundest secrets of grace. Alas! how little they are sought out by His professing people. It is not until we come to Revelation 21 that we find the “hitherto” fixed, and for ever — His “working” was over. “Behold, I make all things new” — “It is done”; after that there will be no occasion any more to repeat that word, “hitherto.” All things made new — God all in all — His tabernacle with men. Up to that time, even including the millennium, it could be said, in some sense, “hitherto.” But now, He that sits upon the throne says, “It is done”; as Jesus had said upon the cross, “It is finished.” Will He ever need to repeat that work or that word? or He that sits upon the throne to say again, “It is done”? In Revelation 21:33And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Revelation 21:3), “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,” we see the, fullness and realization of the thought of Exodus 25: “Make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them (His redeemed) — but here men, as such, are the redeemed, and we are to be there His dwelling-place (tabernacle) “with men.” Shall we not participate in His own delight in being “with men,” without losing our own distinctive place, through endless grace, of being His tabernacle, with God but at the same time with men also, in fellowship with God? But, to be “with men,” without restraint or fear! for now, enmity on man’s side, and God’s call on the other (we being, like the remnant, redeemed from the earth and from men), keep us apart. But then what joy it will be to find ourselves — God Himself in our midst — “with men.” Christ’s “delights were with the sons of men,” and His delights will be ours in that day. Become a Man Himself, the angel announced divine delight in men. What fellowship with God this will be! “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. . . . and God Himself shall be with them.” What a wondrous scripture! giving us as the end of God’s counsels and workings — His dwelling “with men.” Jesus Himself — a Man — in this final scene will be the link in these glorious thoughts, God with men, and men forming His; tabernacle, as now He holds the place of only Mediator between God and man. (See 1 Cor. 15:2828And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:28); 1 Tim. 2:55For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; (1 Timothy 2:5).)
But to continue the study of this great subject in John 5. Let us mark how Jesus answered them, and presently we shall see how He answers His adversaries on the same subject from another point of view, in Matthew 12. Verse 17 of our chapter, “My Father . . . and I,” the special name of grace. Eternal life is revealed and communicated in this name (John 17). Father and Son had “wrought,” from the days of paradise to that hour. “But that is making yourself equal to God,” they said, and said the truth; the head was right, the heart all wrong; yet out of it are the issues of life! What, then, was their state before Him? But His second answer is as remarkable as the first.
1. “That He had life eternal in Himself, quickening whom He would, even like the Father.
2. “That the hour was present when the dead in sins would hear His voice as Son of God, and live; another hour coming when all that were in their graves should hear His voice, and come forth.
3. “That He had authority to execute judgment as Son of Man; that in result, and as having all judgment given to Him by the Father, He should be honored of all even as the Father was honored.
But what is chiefly remarkable in the Lord’s second answer is, that this power, with the glory connected with it, is spoken of as conferred and emanating from the Father, wielded by One who, in His place of suffering for man, could say; “But I am a worm, and no man.” He who was Himself the eternal life in His own Person tells them it was given Him of the Father to have it in Himself (The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do.) The Creator, He, by whom and for whom all things were created, receives authority to execute judgment. Perfect lowliness and dependence — infinite glory linked to infinite perfection in humanity. “Son of the Father,” “Son of Man,” and “Son of God,” shine forth in the same revelation in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and in answer to these poor Jews.
Now, in turning to Matthew 12, we see that what gave occasion for bringing forward this subject was, the disciples plucking the ears of corn, and eating them on the sabbath-day. It was not lawful, the Pharisees said. They did not know that the letter kills, or were careless about it, provided they could wield it against others. And here, it will be remarked, the Lord does not once refer to the glorious truth of the Father and the Son working from the beginning, as in John. It was necessary here to meet and refute these hypocritical religionists on their own ground — they had read the scriptures. They were of those who rested in the law, and made their boast in God, and knew His will, being instructed out of the law; this was the place they took (Rom. 2). The Lord therefore refers them to the well-known history of the greatest of their kings — the man after God’s own heart; and of God’s priests in Israel. In David’s time, as when the Lord Himself was there, all was in disorder in Israel, the Lord’s anointed cast out and rejected. Which was of most value in God’s sight, the life of His chosen one, or a morsel of the showbread? It was not lawful, it is true; but if they did not know that principle, “The letter killeth,” etc., they did know that, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice,” formed part of those oracles in which they boasted — the case of the priests was plain. Having thus met and exposed the hypocrisy of these men on their ground, the letter of scripture, He stands before them upon His own. The rejected Son of David was One greater than the temple, and Lord of the sabbath in which they gloried, the outward sign of their national sanctification. He leaves them in order to accomplish a work of mercy on the same sabbath-day.
Their rage knows no bounds, and can only be appeased by putting Him to death. In recording it, the Holy Ghost bears testimony to Him anew, in giving God’s thoughts about Him from Isaiah 42. Jesus had already borne witness to Himself. Thus, in a chapter in which man’s enmity is so remarkably displayed we find a testimony to the glory of His Person, and the perfectness of His ways, in which each Person in the Godhead has His part. The Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath, and greater than the temple (a divine Person) greater than Solomon, greater than Jonah, Beloved of God, Ruler over the Gentiles, Jehovah’s Servant, His chosen: these last words were Jehovah’s testimony, now brought forward afresh, by the energy of the Spirit, when man was rising up against God’s Beloved, in whom His soul was well pleased. It reminds us of Isaiah 49: “To him whom man despiseth . . . to him whom the nation abhorreth . . . because of the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.”
Verse 24. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed out of death into life.” This is what the apostle calls bringing life to light — a new revelation — like that of the Father and the Son working hitherto; as is also the execution of judgment committed to Jesus because He was Son of Man. The revelation of this great truth of life eternal depended upon the presence of the Son (that eternal life that was with the Father); it appears first in John 3 — “gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might have eternal life.” At the end of that chapter it is stated positively and negatively, “He that believeth on the Son has life eternal; he that is not subject to the Son shall not see life.” In John 5, the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that have heard shall live. The Father has given to the Son to have life in Himself. He that hears My word, and believes on Him that sent Me, has life eternal, and is passed out of death into life. Here the word is evidently the word of the Son, and He that sent Him is the Father — the doctrine of John 17. “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” — that is, to know the Father and the Son. The knowledge of the Father and the Son, as said before, carried eternal, life with it. It is in John that we get this great doctrine first brought to light. How he loves to dwell on it — rather the Spirit by him. Eternal life, living waters, the living Spirit — it is all living when we have to do with Jesus, the Son of the living God — the living Bread from heaven. His eyes had seen, his hands had handled, what his mouth proclaimed, Jesus of Nazareth was that very eternal life that was with the Father. The life eternal possessed by Christians was in the Son. This is bringing life to light by the gospel.
It will be easily seen that the Son receives all from the Father in the place of Servant (sent One), from which He never departed. The identity of Jesus of Nazareth with the Son, is as true as the Son’s identity in nature with the Father. “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.” “I and My Father are one.” He who could give from heaven the commission to turn from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God, could be none other than God’s Son — He receives all, then, from the Father, to communicate as Servant, in the lowly place He had taken amongst men, as perfect in that position as in His eternal one as Son. “Behold My servant, Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth.” “And lo! a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I have found My delight.”
Verse 30. “I can of Mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge, and My judgment is just because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me.” He gives the moral reason for that — “because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me. If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness.” Then He gives a fourfold series of witnesses to His Person, the leading thought; being that He has eternal life to communicate (vss. 26-39). In 1 John 5 you have a threefold testimony that eternal life is in Christ Himself, and that God has given it to us. Thus you get a sevenfold testimony on this subject. The four here are — first, John; second, the Father Himself; third, the scriptures bore witness; and fourth, the works He did. “Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me.” But in 1 John 5 it says, “There are three that bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood” (vss. 10, 11). “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” It is very important to read that verse 11 in connection with the three that bear witness. What was it the three bore witness to? What is the testimony?
There is a certain testimony given, and there are three witnesses that bear testimony to it. In the gospel we had that the Son had eternal life to communicate, and there were four witnesses to His Person, and they would not come to Him that they might have life. Here we have the water, the blood, and the Holy Ghost witnessing to this great truth, that eternal life is in the Son, and that God has given it to us. The serious study of these two passages will make us understand what a great revelation it is, and how deep its importance. You cannot get eternal life in the first man. When the Lord raised the question of the sabbath, He set aside for ever the hope of rest for the old creation, that was judged, for the sabbath was its SIGN, and, at the same time, the hope of life for man in nature was extinguished, for that was to be on this. principle, “Do, and live,” but the sabbath was the sign of the old covenant, “Do, and live,” also. Thus we have another testimony that life is not to be found in the first Adam. You must look to the last Adam and second Man (what had become of the first?) if it is a question of eternal life. In the passage before us (1 John 5:66This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. (1 John 5:6)) it is, said, He came by water and blood; in that way, not by water only, but in the power of water, and in the power of blood — cleansing and expiation: but the water that cleanses, and the blood that expiates, are found in the dead body of Jesus — in that death which is the judgment of the flesh, and end of all its hopes. God has, in that sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. The very work which is a sacrifice for sin is the everlasting condemnation of sin in the flesh! Then the Holy Ghost, sent down by the ascended Lord, bears witness, “because He is truth,” and gives vitality in the soul to the testimonies of the water and the blood. It is in Jesus, who has died, risen, and ascended, Jesus — the second Man — the Son, that eternal life is found. The testimony is that God has given it to us, and that it is in the Son.
A few words more on this subject of the sabbath. Have you marked the interesting connection between the end of Matthew 11 and beginning of Matthew 12? In the former chapter the rejected Savior turns first in conscious Sonship, to the Father, to thank Him for the present result of His will, Himself unknown on earth, known only of the Father, and then, from out of the depths of that marvelous position, turning to the wearied ones in the world, He presents Himself as the alone sabbath of rest for man, blessed Son of the Father! in His place of rejection on earth. Impossible for any one who understands this wondrous teaching to dream of another sabbath before the rest of God has come. But now let us look again at chapter 12, and listen to the words of our divine Teacher. David, when he was hungry, and ate the showbread, did that which was not lawful, but he explains in the parallel place (Mark 2) that the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. How true it is that the letter killeth! Could God have preferred the maintenance of an ordinance made for man to the life of His anointed king, the man after His own heart? But, not to go into the details, He presents Himself in another character of glory — the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath. Who but Himself could speak thus? The Son of Man of chapter 12, Lord of the sabbath, is the sabbath of rest Himself in chapter 11.
In John 3 you get eternal life in connection with the cross (the Son of Man must be lifted up). The new birth is in connection with the kingdom. The water and the blood, the means of sanctification and expiation for sin, are both found in a dead Christ. Water is a figure of death, and death the way of holy liberty, as we get in Romans6 — He that is dead is freed from sin.” Death is the means of sanctification, the Holy Ghost its power. Christ died to sin; we are counted as having died in Him, and so dead to sin. Thus, in a dead, risen, and ascended Christ, we get everything. In the gospel we have the four witnesses that Christ has eternal life; in the Epistle three witnesses to the blessed fact that we have got it, and this being in the Son, we can never lose it (so all the promises of God are in Him, and have in Him their Amen. And so, too, grace and truth subsist by Jesus Christ (see New Translation), full of grace and truth, and of His fullness have all we received). Then it ends with a threefold “we know.” By the Spirit of God he writes these things, that we may know that we have eternal life; and then we come in with our “we know (1 John 5:13, 18-2013These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13)
18We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. 19And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. 20And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. (1 John 5:18‑20)); we have the witness in ourselves. Then he adds, “we are in him that is true”; it is thus that we realize the knowledge of Him in the truth of His nature, in that we are in Him that is true.
In John 17 we realize the Father’s love, in that the Son Himself is in us, that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.