The Gospel of John: Fire, Salvation, Judgment

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, JESUS' FIRST SIGN, PART 8

By Dr. Stephen Jones:  Oct 16, 2019

Blog Post Date: 2-24-2020

Jesus was lifted up on the cross, not only as a sign of His death but also of His ascension and glorification (John 3:13). Later, on the night before He was to be crucified, His prayer equated His crucifixion with being glorified by His Father (John 17:5). Being lifted up on the cross was the ultimate way in which He manifested God’s name (John 17:6) to His disciples and the world as a whole.

If Jesus had been killed with a sword, or if He had been stoned, He would not have been “lifted up” in His death. The “ascension” theme would have been missing or lost. Neither would He have fulfilled His prophetic role as the serpent in the wilderness.

Yet because He was indeed lifted up and glorified in His death, He was able to save the world from the painful bite of the serpent that had brought death to all men. The incongruity between crucifixion and glorification is explained by the story of the fiery serpents in Numbers 21:6, where the term used is seraph nachash. The Hebrew word seraph is singular for seraphim. It literally means “to burn.”

The Burning Fire is His Glory, Not Hell

In Isaiah 6:1-3 the prophet saw seraphim around the throne of God, each having six wings. They were declaring, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.” These burning ones were manifestations of the glory of God. When Jesus was lifted up on the cross as the antidote to the fiery serpents in the wilderness, He was being manifested as a seraph and as nachash at the same time. He became sin for us, yet in so doing, He declared God’s fire and glory.

Another feature of this burning fire was that it fulfilled the principle of sacrifice, especially the burnt offerings in the law, which were burnt up entirely upon the altar. While some have misunderstood the law of sacrifice to mean that the penalty for sin is a burning hell, I see the fire as a manifestation of the glory of God in the seraphim.

If the fire were meant to teach us about an unending fiery judgment, then of necessity Jesus would still be in hell today to pay the penalty for sin. But instead, we find that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Death and hell are not the same thing, because “hell” is the grave and is translated correctly in the only passage in all of Paul’s writings where the word is used: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave [hades, or “hell”], where is thy victory” (1 Corinthians 15:55 KJV).

Paul was not a hellfire and brimstone preacher. Instead, he presented Christ as “the Lord of glory” in His crucifixion, and the spiritual “fire” seen in the seraphim. For example, 1 Corinthians 2:8 says,

⁸ the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

As for the “fire,” we find that the angels of God minister as “a flame of fire” (Hebrews 1:7). All of our works will be tried in the fire of His holy standard, and if they fall short of His glory, they will be burned up. 1 Corinthians 3:13 says,

¹³ each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.

So when Jesus fulfilled the prophetic type of the seraph nachash (“fiery serpents”), He was lifted up on the cross not only to take upon Himself the penalty for man’s sin but also to manifest His love, His mercy, His heart, and His glory.

Salvation, Not Endless Punishment

John 3:16 continues this thought, saying,

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

Putting this verse in context, we see that Christ was lifted up on the cross to die and to manifest the heart of God toward His creation, so that they may “have eternal life.” The next verse completes the thought, for we read in John 3:17,

¹⁷ For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.

Christ did not abolish judgment, for that, in effect, would disrespect the law of God, which defines His holiness. Instead, He took upon Himself the full penalty of the law so that the world would not be lost. To use the previous metaphor, God did not tell Moses to put the bronze serpent on a cross to judge or condemn those who had sinned; the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness “that the world should be saved through Him.”

Such is the love of God. What seemed to apply mainly to the Israelites in Moses’ day had a greater application for the entire world in Christ’s fulfillment of this prophetic type. As we see in the time of Moses, many Israelites experienced the judgment of God in that they were bitten by the fiery serpents; yet that judgment was designed to motivate the people to look upon the serpent that was lifted up for all to see, thereby healing them.

Christ’s Irresistible Love

The universal application of this prophecy is seen more clearly later when Jesus again refers to the serpent in the wilderness. John 12:32, 33 says,

³² “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” ³³ But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die.

In other words, being lifted up was not so much a matter of praising Him, as so many have interpreted it today, but was rather to show the manner of His death by crucifixion above the earth. It was to manifest the glory of the seraphim, the burning fire of God’s holiness, set above the earth as a flaming torch by which men might be drawn to the light.

The success of this plan is assured, for the result is that He would draw “all men” to Himself. The word “draw” is from the Greek word helko, “to drag.” The word does not mean “to woo” or “to entice,” as if the result were uncertain. This statement is actually a preview of the final result seen in the eighth sign in John 21:11,

¹¹ Simon Peter went up and drew [helko] the net to land, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three, and although there were so many, the net was not torn.

When fish are caught in a net, they are dragged to the boat according to the will of the fisherman. The fishermen (or fishers of men) do not ask the fish for their opinion, for they fully intend to overrule the will of the fish. Hence, the 153 fish, representing the sons of God, are brought to Christ, as we read in John 1:13, not “of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

The will of the fish is not abolished, but it is certainly overruled by a stronger will. So also, because Christ was indeed “lifted up” on the cross, He will drag all men to Himself. He does not abolish their human will, but He certainly overrules the will of all flesh and all men in the end. This ensures success in His plan to save “the world” and “all men.”

Paul tells us that “love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:8). Imperfect love fails to achieve full success, but the love of God never fails. In the end, He will drag all men to Himself at the Great White Throne. He will summon all who have ever lived to appear before Him, and when He manifests His love and His glory, every knee will bow and every tongue will profess Him as Lord (Philippians 2:10, 11).

In other words, all will experience His irresistible and unfailing love. and all will then know the truth. As Spirit-filled believers, they will then enter a time of judgment wherein the baptism of fire works within their hearts to cleanse and purify them of the “chaff” (flesh) that John the Baptist talked about in Matthew 3:11, 12. This is the “river of fire” in Daniel 7:10 as those resurrected from the dead are judged by God’s verdict, based on the standard of His own holiness seen in the seraphim. When His sentence, the river of fire, has been issued, it forms the “lake of fire” in Revelation 20:14, 15, for it is the outworking of the divine sentence over a period of time.

To become a believer is only the first step toward full salvation. It is a salvation on a Passover level. To be Spirit-filled is salvation on a Pentecostal level, and this is what takes time to bring men to spiritual maturity. So also those who bow their knees and profess Christ will not receive immortality until they have grown to maturity in that final Age. That Age will end with the Creation Jubilee, where any remaining debt to sin will be cancelled by grace alone, and all men will finally return to their lost inheritance.

But the final Jubilee is yet a long way off. Meanwhile, there is indeed judgment through God’s “fiery law” (Deuteronomy 33:2 KJV). Judgment is the process by which God drags all men to Himself. The “fish” do not like it at all, for it causes them fear, but the love of God continues to drag them to Christ in spite of their opposition.

The Judgment

John 3:18 says,

¹⁸ He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

This is why we ought to believe in Christ now, rather than waiting for the Great White Throne. Those who believe in this lifetime may avoid the judgment altogether. Those who do not believe, who do not claim the death of Jesus Christ as payment for their own sin, are responsible and liable to pay for their own sin. In other words, “he who does not believe has been judged already.” These carry the liability for Adam’s sin, which is why they are born mortal; and they are also liable for their own sin.

John 3:19-21 continues by defining the reason for this judgment:

¹⁹ This is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. ²¹ But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

In the end, the love of God will save all men and drag them to Himself. Meanwhile, however, the will of man opposes the love of God for as long as it can withstand His irresistible love. Jesus said that their motivation is that their deeds are evil, so they do not want those deeds to be exposed by the light of truth. Hence, they prefer darkness. The “fish” try to avoid the net for as long as they are able.

But those who love truth are drawn to the light. This too is a fishing metaphor. The disciples often fished at night (Luke 5:5), using a lamp to attract the fish to the boat. In John 21:3, 4, the disciples caught nothing all night, but as the day dawned, Jesus told them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat. Then they caught 153 large fish.

Such night fishing provided the metaphor of men who are drawn by the light of truth, men who do not love darkness, men who know that their deeds are “wrought in God.” These are the sons of God, represented by the 153 fish.

Jesus’ teachings in John 3 (in connection to the story of Nicodemus) are explanations of the first sign that Jesus did to manifest the glory of God. It is all about the manner in which the sons of God are transformed into the image of Christ. They are transformed from water to wine. These sons of God are those who, even now, are attracted to the light of truth. They no longer avoid the net but willingly come to the disciples in the boat who are shining the light of Christ across the sea of humanity.

These sons of God will not be judged. They are the first fruits of creation (James 1:18), for we know that all of creation is awaiting the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:19). The first fruits always sanctify the whole harvest, and when creation as a whole sees the first fruits presented to God, it rejoices, because this is the signal to begin the greater harvest of saving the whole world.

The Gospel of John: The Pleroma

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, PART 7, THE PLEROMA

By Dr. Stephen Jones:  Sep 16, 2019

Blog Post Date:  2-19-2020

John 1:15 says,

¹⁵ John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me’.”

This is an advance statement to his readers, because John’s story had not yet begun, and we read in John 1:31 that John the Baptist did not know that Jesus was the Christ until he baptized Him. Yet the apostle was giving us a preview of what was to come in the context of John’s witness.

As translated above, we also find here that John the Baptist recognized Christ’s pre-existence: “He existed before me.” The Emphatic Diaglott reads, “He who comes after me is in advance of me.” Its interlinear translation reads, “before me He has become.”

Those who deny Christ’s pre-existence understand the above verse to say only that Christ enjoyed a higher rank only because of His calling as the Messiah, not because He existed before John the Baptist. The full phrase reads literally, “before me He has become, for first of me He was.” This is somewhat obscure, because it does not explicitly tell us the basis of Christ’s rank above the messenger. Did Christ pre-exist John Himself? Did Christ earn that higher rank on account of His calling?

Yet to me, the natural reading supports the idea that the Logos was “in the beginning with God” (John 1:2). We can also view this as a preview of later statements from Jesus Himself, such as John 8:58, “before Abraham was born, I am.” When we link together all of these statements, it seems that John is painting a clear picture of Christ’s pre-existence, which was then the basis of His rank above the messenger who bore witness to Him.

It appears, then, that the apostle’s purpose in writing John 1:15 was to show that John the Baptist bore witness to the pre-existence of Christ and that His pre-existence shows that Christ outranked the messenger.

The Fullness (Pleroma) of Christ’s Glory

John 1:16, 17 continues,

¹⁶ For of His fulness [pleroma] we have all received, and grace upon grace. ¹⁷ For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

The Greek word pleroma means “that which has been filled.” This takes us back to John 1:14, which says that Christ’s glory was “full of grace and truth.” The word translated “full” is plera, which is related to pleroma, “that which has been filled.” So John was referring to the glory manifested in Christ. That glory is full of grace and truth, and when we receive Him, we are all partakers of that fulness (pleroma) of glory.

Paul uses the same term to describe the essence or nature of God. Colossians 2:9 says,

⁹ For in Him all the fulness [pleroma] of Deity dwells in bodily form.

The KJV, setting forth the Trinitarian view, reads, “the fulness of the Godhead.” The Greek word is theotes, “the state of being God.” Anything beyond that simple meaning only adds men’s understanding of the word.

But in John 1:14 and 16 the apostle applies the term to the glory of God, rather than to the nature of God per se. His glory is full (plera) of grace and truth; hence, grace and truth represent the fullness (pleroma) of His glory.

Grace and Truth

As we have seen, grace is based on the sovereignty of God and is thus linked directly to the New Covenant, where God makes vows, oaths, and promises according to His own will. Truth is more than the absence of errors and lies, especially when we view its Hebrew meaning.

The Hebrew word for truth is emet (or emeth). It means “firmness, stability, faithfulness.” Its root word is aman, a verb that means “to support, confirm, be faithful.” The word for truly (or “verily” in the KJV) is amen, based on the same root word, aman. The concept of truth, then, cannot be separated from faith—that is, being faithful—for when a person has genuine faith, he or she supports truth and confirms it with an amen.

Conversely, if one has faith in a lie, it is not biblical faith, nor can it save anyone, regardless of the strength or fervency of that belief. One must believe the truth, for the quality of one’s faith is measured by truth. Furthermore, faith confirms truth with an amen. Hence, John the Baptist had faith that Jesus was the Christ, and he faithfully bore witness to that truth. We too are called to follow his example, for Paul tells us in Romans 10:8-10,

⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, ⁹ that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved, ¹⁰ for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Here we see all of the Hebrew elements of faith, truth, and witness (or confession) expressed in a short passage. Such is truth, which, along with grace, form the pleroma of God’s glory that is manifested in the world through Christ.

With this in mind, we again read John 1:17,

¹⁷ For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

This should not be read (as so many do) to disparage the law of God, as if it were somehow inferior to grace and truth. The law is truth, and it reveals grace as well, most prominently in the law of Jubilee, where all debts are cancelled in the 50^th year whether one deserves it or not. The main distinction is not the law itself but the covenant by which the law is applied.

The Old Covenant was man’s vow to God, and the law holds men accountable to fulfill their vows. If they do not do so, their vow is rendered null and void. The Old Covenant basis of salvation is the will of man and his works, which are the outworking of his own will. The New Covenant sets forth the promise or vow of God, based upon His will and His ability to keep His promises.

Hence, from our own perspective, the New Covenant is of grace, for it removes from us the ultimate responsibility to become righteous by our own will and work. If we do not become righteous in the end, then God would be held accountable and liable. That is grace to us.

The pleroma of God’s glory, then, can be viewed as the law (truth) and the New Covenant (grace). Through Moses the Old Covenant applied the law in a way that could not succeed, for it was based on the will of man and his ability to be fully obedient. But, as John says, “grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.” Why? Because Christ was the Mediator of the New Covenant.

The New Covenant writes the law on one’s heart by the action of the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 8:10), whereas the Old Covenant makes man responsible to obey an external law imposed upon his unwilling flesh. Many think that the difference between the two covenants is that one includes the help of the Holy Spirit, while the other does not. But this is not so. The Holy Spirit assists under both covenants. The difference is the one who is responsible to fulfill the vow.

The New Covenant was not one where the Holy Spirit assists man to fulfill his own vow. No, that is how the Old Covenant worked, for men everywhere prayed that God would assist them in keeping their vow of obedience. That method clearly did not work, for not even righteous men were sinless. The righteousness which is of faith is where men have faith in the promises of God, not in their own vows or promises. They have faith that God is able to make us righteous by His own sovereign will and actions—not that God is able to help man fulfill his own vow.

The bottom line is that God has vowed to write His law (truth) in our hearts and in the hearts of all men in order that He may be our God and we may be His people. His promise is an act of grace, because it is based on His sovereign will. Our response is faith, in which we believe, with Abraham himself, “that what He had promised, He was able also to perform” (Romans 4:21). Hence, we confess and bear witness that God is indeed able to fulfill His promise.

The Only Begotten God

John 1:18 says,

¹⁸ No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

All the occasions where it seemed that God appeared to men were manifestations of Christ, “the only begotten God” in His pre-existent state. The Greek text is disputed, because some texts read “Son” while others read “God.” So the KJV reads “only begotten Son,” while the NASB reads “only begotten God.”

In such cases, I defer to Ivan Panin and his Numeric New Testament, which reads “an only begotten, himself God.” Panin himself had been a Russian nihilist who was exiled from Russia in the 1800’s for plotting against the Tzar. He got his education in Switzerland and later moved to America, becoming the head of the Physics and Astronomy Department for Harvard University for many decades in the early 1900’s.

He was a linguist who knew many languages, including Hebrew and Greek. He was an atheist until one day, while reading John 1:1, he wondered why the Word was with THE God and the word was God (no definite article in the latter). He began working with the mathematics of Scripture, because every letter in the Greek is also a number. He added the letters of each word, sentence, and paragraph, and discovered numeric patterns that could not have been random.

He soon realized that the original text was entirely mathematical, which convinced him that it was inspired by God. He was converted to Christ and spent the next 40 years working on the entire New Testament. Wherever there was a textual disagreement between various manuscripts, he was able to find which words continued the mathematical patterns which did not. Thus, he published his Numeric New Testament.

Having studied all of Panin’s notes that are available, I have confidence that the truth is established by the numeric values in the original text. It is known as the study of gematria. I believe that the mathematical patterns are God’s fingerprints that prove inspiration.

For this reason, I believe John 1:18 is properly translated by the NASB and that it ought to read “only begotten God.” The implications take us back to the first few verses of John’s gospel, proving that the Logos is indeed “God” and “with God.” Christ is not the Creator Himself, but He is the One through whom all things are created, according to the law of the double witness.

As we have seen, the double witness is provided by the Amen of God (Revelation 3:14), and hence, He is also “the Truth” (Hebrew, emeth, from aman), as we read in John 14:6. The truth is set forth in the law and the prophets. The Logos, or Memra, was seen as the living embodiment of the word and the law. Hence, Jesus is the Truth.

As we will see later, hearing and seeing God is pictured as eating His flesh and drinking His blood. When John says that “no man has seen God at any time,” it is plain that the only way to see God is to “drink” the blood of Christ, not literally, of course, but to partake spiritually of the New Covenant that is in His blood (Matthew 26:28).

John wrote this many decades after Christ’s ascension, so he tells us that this “only begotten God is (now) in the bosom of the Father.”