There is a connection between John’s Gospel, his epistles and the Revelation. The same truth is prominent in each of these three books, but each looks upon that truth from a different perspective.
John was not the one chosen for the communication to us of the heavenly calling, nor of the mystery, nor of the organization of the churches in the wilderness. Such subjects flowed rather from the pen of a Paul. Neither does John present us with the effects of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus upon believers from among Israel, as do Peter and James. John’s subject is eternal life and what flows from it. That eternal life which was in Jesus is the subject which is found everywhere in John’s writings, but each of his works has something by which it is distinguished from the rest. Yet in all of them there is, as the governing truth, the eternal life which was in Christ.
The Gospel
In the Gospel, we have the eternal life which was in Christ Jesus, and the history of the sufferings which were necessarily His, if He would communicate eternal life to poor sinners. The moment that all this is finished, He departs. He left the earth to take His seat as Son of Man at the right hand of God in the majesty of the highest. The curtain drops upon the scenes of His earthly career, and He is lost to the sight of those who are but men upon the earth.
The Epistles
In the epistles, we have the stream of this eternal life which is seen flowing from Him as its fountain—a fountain of living water, placed in the midst of the throne on high. As it flows, it brings into light a heavenly people here below and fills them, as saints of the living God, during their pilgrim course through the wilderness.
The Revelation
In the Revelation, it is the effects of this eternal life. It is not the life manifested in the Gospel in Jesus in humiliation, nor, as in the epistles, made good by faith to a heavenly people who are on earth, but the results of these two testimonies. It deals with the effects of the eternal life, according to God, both upon those not subjected to it and as to those who are so, whether upon the earth or in heaven. The Lord who had eternal life in Himself is He who first manifested it here below; He did and suffered all that was needed either for the communication of this life on the part of God or for the reception of it on the part of poor sinners. Without that which Christ did and suffered, holiness kept closed the way of divine goodness, on the one hand, and, on the other, the poor sinner never could be free before God. When all was done, His grace began at Jerusalem. Rejected there, He gave the blessing to His saints as such, a people prepared for the heavenly places. Finally, there must be manifested what is the glory of His person and what the judgment is which God has formed concerning Him. He must reign upon the earth over an earthly people, to whom He will be manifested in the celestial glory which He has given to His heavenly bride. The final result of the humiliation of the Son will be that everything that will not humble itself under Him will be judged, for it becomes God to make the light of that eternal life shine forth; it is necessary for Him to make manifest both upon earth and in heaven what His judgment is of the work of His Son. If the Son of God became Son of Man, He is the resurrection and the life, and, as such, everything connected with man must be presented in the light of His glory.
The divine glory must be fully manifested, that glory which the eternal life, manifested in Jesus as Son of Man, has vindicated, even in the very moment of His being rejected.
All Committed Unto the Son
What we have in the Revelation seems established in that which we find presented in John 5: “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent Him. . . . For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself; and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.” So also in Acts 10:42: “He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is He which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead.” In Acts 17:30-31, we read, “The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.” The same doctrine is found in other scriptures.
The Son of God became Son of Man in order to reveal the grace of God to poor sinners. Therefore God gives testimonies to Him upon earth, but the results of such testimonies in grace must be fully made manifest. The churches, the state of the earth as a whole, the state of the Jews, the state of the nations, the power of Satan, accredited by the carnal nature of the men of this world, who have denied God both in His government and in His worship — all must be made manifest in its true character by Jesus, and having made it manifest, He will judge it — setting it aside in order to establish the millennial reign. Thus we have eternal life plainly set forth: first, in Jesus, perfectly and according to the claims of God and the state of things upon the earth (as in the Gospel of John); second, by means of His Spirit in a feeble people (as in the epistles); and third, its triumph over all things whatsoever their character (as in the Revelation). Such are the governing truth and the distinctive thoughts of the writings of John.
G. V. Wigram, adapted