If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire." (Rev 20:11-15) In other words: 1. The answer given by modern premillennial apologists usually suggests that premillennialism was overcome for illegitimate reasons. Just as distinct and beyond comparison is His testimony who, coming from heaven and above all, testifies what He saw and heard, however it might be rejected. Mark what, as such, He does declare Him. For the astonishing thought is, not merely that Jesus receives the Holy Ghost without measure, but that God gives the Spirit also, and not by measure, through Him to others. Nor will the full force of this expression be witnessed till the glorious result of His blood shedding sweep away the last trace of sin in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. The law works no deliverance; it puts a man in chains, prison, darkness, and under condemnation; it renders him a patient, or a criminal incompetent to avail himself of the displays of God's goodness. It is now eternal reality, and the name of Jesus Christ is that which puts all things to a final test. Beholding Him as He walked, he says, Behold the Lamb of God! When Jesus therefore perceived Truth and grace were not sought nor found in man, but began to subsist here below by Jesus Christ. So we see in the attractive power, afterwards dealing with individual souls. Their purpose was to make Him king. The one, like the other, contributes to this great end, whether the Son of man necessarily lifted up, or the only begotten Son of God given in His love. It was not so. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. (Verses John 5:13-16), A graver issue, however, was to be tried; for Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. The effect is thus final, even as His person, witness, and glory are divine. Christ was the true sanctuary, not that on which man had laboured so long in Jerusalem. Thus the Holy Ghost, given by the Son in humiliation (according to God, not acting on law, but according to the gift of grace in the gospel), was fully set forth; but the woman, though interested, and asking, only apprehended a boon for this life to save herself trouble here below. Even now faith knows, that instead of sin being the great object before God, ever since the cross He has had before His eyes that sacrifice which put away sin. Verse John 6:15. The same God who did not leave Himself without witness among the heathen, doing good, and giving from heaven rain and fruitful seasons, did not fail, in the low estate of the Jews, to work by providential power at intervals; and, by the troubled waters of Bethesda, invited the sick, and healed the first who stepped in of whatever disease he had. The truth is, the design of manifesting His glory governs all; place or people was a matter of no consequence. The contrasts are as strong, at least, as the resemblance with the healing of the centurion's servant in Matthew 13:1-58 and Luke 7:1-50, which some ancients and moderns have confounded with this, as they did Mary's anointing of Jesus with the sinful woman's in Luke 7:1-50. And while He does not hide the privilege of the Jews, He nevertheless proclaims that "the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. Meanwhile there was a manifestation of goodness, active in love in the midst of evil, and toward such; active in the making known God and man, and every moral relation, and what He is toward man, through and in the Word made flesh. He will have all honour the Son, even as Himself. We have had his name introduced into each part of the preface of our evangelist. It was an extraordinary birth; of God, not man in any sort, or measure, but a new and divine nature (2 Peter 1:1-21) imparted to the believer wholly of grace. Scripture is, or may be, before man always. No such sounds, no such realities were ever heard or known in Israel. Both of them were in relation to man on the earth; the one while He was here, the other from above. John 1:26-27; John 1:26-27) For himself he was not the Christ, but for Jesus he says no more. His glorious person would have none now in relation to God but members of the family. As mentioned in the Introduction Section, premillennialism was the prevailing view of the Early Church for about the first three centuries, "He that believeth on him is not judged: but he that believeth not is judged already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 4:1-54 presents the Lord Jesus outside Jerusalem outside the people of promise among Samaritans, with whom Jews had no intercourse. "He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. contrary to all others, renders it, "Christ departed from the Canon Law tells us to obey the old law, (Can. In the five porches, then, of this pool lay a great multitude of sick, blind, lame, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. , And this very circumstance is perhaps the cause, that nowhere do we read that Jesus, whilst He teas sojourning on the earth, entered, even though that town was very close to Jerusalem. What is there in God more truly divine than grace and truth? Be they who they may now, as many as receive Him become children of God. His exaltation there is not without notice in the gospel, but exceptionally. Rest is not the question now at all; but the flow of the Spirit's power while Jesus is on high. In a certain sense, the principle of John 4:1-54 was made true in the woman of Samaria, and in others who received Christ then. What can be conceived more notably standing out in contrast with the governmental system God had set up, and man had known in times past? of these men, and particularly the disciples; that they might be All is fitly closed by the declaration, that "the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand." It is the final setting aside of Judaism then, whose characteristic hope was the display of power and rest in the world. Granted He was the Son of man; but as such, He had all judgment given Him, and would judge. Take him by force, to make him a king The Jews had often suffered by famine in those times in which their enemies were permitted to prevail over them; but, finding that Jesus had such power as to multiply a few loaves to feed thousands, they took it for granted that while he was at their head no evil could possibly happen to them, and therefore were . and inasmuch as death is the last enemy, the destruction of the remaining powers ("when he shall have destroyed all rule and authority and power") will have to be understood not as a final struggle beginning after the parousia, but as the definite victory of christ that has already begun in his cross and resurrection and exaltation (cf., e.g., How singularly is the glory of the Lord Jesus thus viewed, as invested with the testimony of God and its crown! Here, in suited circumstances to render the thought and way of God unmistakable, pure and boundless grace takes its own sovereign course, suitable to the love and personal glory of Christ. As a weapon of conviction, most justly had it in the mind of the Lord Jesus the weightiest place, little as man thinks now-a-days of it. "He must, increase, but I decrease." Thus former things pass away; the old man is judged, dead, and clean gone. This was necessary for the kingdom of God; not for some special place of glory, but for any and every part of God's kingdom. Matthew, Mark, and Luke start, as far as regards the public labours of the Lord, with John cast into prison. No man hath seen God at any time. (VerseJohn 4:1; John 4:1) It was strange to her that a Jew should thus humble himself: what would it have been, had she seen in Him Jesus the Son of God? (Verses John 4:20-30), The disciples marvelled that He spoke with the woman. It was sabbath-day. Jesus explains: "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. (1-4) A crowd gathers to Jesus near the Sea of Galilee. As mentioned in verse 10, the unbeliever is calling God a liar, in that he or she refuses to believe in God's testimony, namely, that which "God has given about His Son" (vs.10). Before the manner of His manifestation comes before us in verse 14, we have the secret explained why some, and not all, received Christ. (VersesJohn 3:7-8; John 3:7-8), It is hardly necessary to furnish detailed disproof of the crude, ill-considered notion (originated by the fathers), that baptism is in question. It is not that He denies the truth of what they were thus desiring and attached to. I will answer this question on why I am a Historic Premillennialist in 5 Parts: 1. seize him in order that they might make him King. It seemed natural: He had fed the poor with bread, and why should not He take His place on the throne? "He was in the world, and the world was made by him." Sons they might have been in bare title; but these had the right of children. 42). He reminds them of his previous disclaimer of any place beyond one sent before Jesus. Art thou that prophet? reasons of his departure, were to prevent the attempt; to show Had it been meant, it was no wonder that Nicodemus did not know how these things could be. (Verse John 7:39), Nothing can be simpler than this. This is indispensable; for God is a Spirit, and so it cannot but be. This is why premillennial-ism is based on a kind of hermeneutical fundamental of the Christian Faith. Bear in mind that one of the points of instruction in this first part of our gospel is the action of the Son of God before His regular Galilean ministry. The Jews, then, who could not help, and pitied not their fellow in his long infirmity and disappointment, are scandalized to see him, safe and sound, carrying his couch on that day. (Ver. (Verses John 5:17-18). 64). Now it is that the great question is decided; now it is that a man receives or refuses Christ. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, En une ardeur de zele inconsidere et temeraire. Judgment is the alternative for man: for God it is the resource to make good the glory of the Son, and in that nature, in and for which man blind to his own highest dignity dares to despise Him. His earthly rights are just where they should be; but not here, where the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father has His appropriate place. A death knell is the ringing of a church bell immediately after a death to announce it. So in the baptism with the Holy Ghost, who would pretend to such a power? for he that could do this, what was it he could not do? 1 Cor 15:26 states that Christ will reign until the destruction of death. This only secures His honour in those that believe God's testimony to Him, the Son of God; and to these He gives life, everlasting life now, and exemption from judgment, in this acting in communion with the Father. their words and gestures: that they would come and take him by force, and make him a The allusion to the fig-tree confirms this. But this, however worthy of God, and indispensable for man, could not of itself give an adequate expression of what God is; because in this alone, neither His own love nor the glory of His Son finds due display. Do any believe on His name? Premillennialism turns Jesus into a liar. But there was this difference from the former occasion, that, at the marriage in Cana (John 2:1-25), the change of the water into wine was clearly millennial in its typical aspect. Second, it interprets present world political trends as signs of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. John 7:37) It is not a question of eating the bread of God, or, when Christ died, of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. There was purpose in it. God never left Himself without witness; He did not even among the Gentiles, surely yet less in Israel. (ver. For He who spoke was divine. However, we know that Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father shortly after His resurrection and ascension (Hebrews 8:1; Revelation 4:2). John 7:25-31) He is going where they cannot come, and never guessed (for unbelief thinks of the dispersed among the Greeks of anything rather than of God). The Lord Jesus did, without question, take humanity in His person into that glory which He so well knew as the Son of the Father. Hence, then, we have the Lord Jesus alluding to this fresh necessity, if man was to be blessed according to God. We have seen already that thus light was shed on men. It is our evangelist's way of indicating His Galilean sojourn; and this miracle is the particular subject that John was led by the Holy Ghost to take up. It is not John's business here to call attention to His Messiahship, not even when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask, Who art thou? Starting with only a tiny lunch of bread and . The Jews, with all their privileges, were strangers here. Nevertheless the Son had taken the place of being the sent One, the place of subordination in the earth, in which He would say, "My Father is greater than I." The Word, in order to accomplish these infinite things, "was made. As being the omniscient God, who knew their hearts, and the (Verse John 1:9) The world therefore surely ought to have known its Maker. The first four chapters of John precede in point of time the notices of His ministry in the other gospels. On this basisJohn 7:1-53; John 7:1-53 proceeds. Her life is laid before her by His voice, and she confesses to Him that God Himself spoke to her in His words: "Sir [said she], I perceive that thou art a prophet." Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 44:3, Isaiah 59:21, Ezekiel 36:25-27 ought to have made the Lord's meaning plain to an intelligent Jew. A second and wholly new man appears the bread of God, not of man, but for men. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. conjunction with the Lord's Second Coming) (Hebert 2006c:5-6). The result immediately follows. Augustine believed God's purposes were always being fulfilled, the gospel was always advancing into "the nations at the four corners of the earth." The saints who had been spiritually raised to. This closes the various aspects of the Lord Jesus, completely blotting out Judaism, viewed as resting in a system of law and ordinances, as looking to a Messiah with present ease, and as hoping for the display of Messianic glory then in the world. The hour was one for faith, or unbelief. (Ver. And they asked him, What then? He is ever God; He is the Son; He quickens and raises from the dead. "What is premillennialism?" Premillennialism is the view that Christ's second coming will occur prior to His millennial kingdom, and that . man, and seize him in a violent manner, whether he would or not; If He put forth His power, it was not only beyond man's measure, but unequivocally divine, however also the humblest and most dependent of men. The results for the believer or unbeliever are eternal in good or in evil. "And this is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. And as life is in the person of the Son, so God in sending Him meant not that the smallest uncertainty should exist for aught so momentous. "No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son," etc. By MELANIE ZANONA. It is here we learn in what condition of His person God was to be revealed and the work done; not what He was in nature, but what He became. For if the Son (cast out, we may say, in principle from Judaism) visited Samaria, and deigned to talk with one of the most worthless of that worthless race, it could not be a mere rehearsal of what others did. The chapter pursues this subject, showing that it is not only God who thus deals first, with the necessity of man before His own immutable nature; next, blessing according to the riches of His grace but, further, that man's state morally is detected yet more awfully in presence of such grace as well as holiness in Christ. Simpler than this the true sanctuary, not that on which man had so. 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