The dealings of the blessed God in this world of ours have more simplicity of purpose than we imagine. We have to look at God passing from one dispensation to another—yet in all, we are taught that there is but one purpose before Him, and that is, to manifest Himself in richest blessings, in love and mercy to poor sinners, unto His own eternal glory.
When the Saviour commented on all that had gone before His ministry, He said— “My Father worketh hitherto.” There we are let into the secret of the purpose of God. He came forth in the law to test what was in us; yet “our Father” had a deeper purpose than that—one with which His heart mixed itself. Mount Sinai was never the place of the Father’s ministry; Moses and the angels might work in Sinai; but deeper than all, “my Father” wrought, said Jesus. Though a little hid under a large and more public thing—yet the mind of Christ coming to apply itself to all that had gone on before, He said, “My Father worketh hitherto.” This lets the soul into this—that God from the beginning had been working in grace. The operation of the Father is another mode of expressing God working in grace. Here we get the unity of the divine design, from the beginning to the end, to be this—to bring Himself out to us poor sinners as “the Father of mercies.” Whether He be manifested to us as destined for earthly or heavenly glory, it is still as “the Father of mercies” to poor broken-hearted sinners.
What is the Gospel of John up to chap. 10? A trial whether man had learned that secret—that the Father had been working hitherto. In chap. 8, we have the Lord’s mind brought out in contrast with the Jew on that point— “If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also.” Why did they not receive Jesus? Because they had not been seeing the Father “working hitherto” —not learning God as poor broken-hearted sinners—not learning Him as the Father. If we do not learn Him in this character, we shall never learn Him aright.
What is the glory which passes before us in that Gospel? “The glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.” This Gospel of John is the passing of that glory across this ruined world of ours; but no eye of the children of men could discern it, save the eye of poor convicted sinners. There are many signs of this throughout that Gospel. It may shine in the world—may pass from scene to scene, but it is the eye of the poor conscious sinner, and of none else, that meets it it is the conscious sinner alone that understands it, that is gladdened by it, and falls into the train of it. Thus when John says (chap. 1) “Behold the LAMB OF GOD!” Andrew follows Jesus in that character, and the door of Jesus is opened to him. He had followed Jesus as the LAMB OF GOD—he had gone after the “glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,” and if any follow Jesus as such, His door shall be open to them. Just follow Jesus as the “LAMB OF GOD,” and He opens His house, His heart, His glory. All opens to us at once. Nicodemus comes not so (chap. 3), and he has to go back to the brazen serpent, and there get the faculty to apprehend the glory of the Father, and the things of the kingdom.
In chap. 4, the poor Samaritans receive Him, and He goes and dwells with them for two days. In that village “the glory of the only begotten of the Father” could unbosom itself, because He was received in character, Where there was an eye that had learned Jesus as the Friend of sinners, there the glory could go. This is the way to receive Him in character, and all that Jesus wants is to be thus received. We see the opposite to this in chap. 2, where He says, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” He was shining in “the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth;” and if His own mother could not see Him in that glory, He had naught to do even with her.
So in chap. 7. His brethren are distanced from Him, for they looked at Him in a glory that suited the world—but in the next chapter, and again in chap. 9, a convicted adulteress and a poor outcast, excommunicated one, are brought and kept near Him, for they learned Him in that glory which met their necessities as poor sinners.
Thus is it through these chapters. And it is comforting to our souls to keep the path of this glory before us. And in chap. 10 we see this blessed Son of the Father, as the Shepherd full of grace in the midst of His flock—His flock of poor, convicted, believing, accepted sinners. And after all this, we see this same one looking upward to the Father’s house. For in chap. 14 this glory of the only begotten of the Father, that had been thus shining down here to poor sinners for a while, is going again to its place; and Jesus says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions—I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” I rest on this promise of Jesus. When he comes again, He will receive me unto Himself. Is there not intimacy here? It is the first hope to rest on the sinner’s soul. He is gone to the Father’s house until all are gathered; when everything is ready He will come out to receive the children unto Himself—He “will come again to receive” these poor redeemed sinners UNTO HIMSELF—to meet them in the air, and then they will all go together to the FATHER’S HOUSE. This is the immediate hope, beloved, of POOR SINNERS such as us!
This, then, is the trial in John. It is the application of “the glory of the only begotten of the Father” to the eyes and consciences of men, to see if they would receive Him in that character.