Insights into the Gospel of John: Chapter 12

By Lloyd Ellefson

From our discussion in John 11, we know that resurrection life is for now. In resurrection we experience God's life in our daily Christian walk. In resurrection we are awakened from our sleep of unconsciousness toward God, and brought into the consciousness of what He is saying. We are brought from death into life.

Now we can begin to live in the life the Spirit gives. This goes beyond the letter of the word. The letter without the Spirit remains dead because it is only one testimony - and one testimony is not enough. The word of God is a spiritual, quickening, creative word; it differs from the letter of the scriptures in that it is alive. The writers of the scriptures were inspired by the Holy Spirit, but the letter is not inspired - only those who recorded it were. Once the message was recorded, it needed to get back into inspiration before the true meaning could be recovered. It has to be resurrected out of dead letter and into life again. The scriptures we now have are only a translated version of the original scriptures. How can we call the translated versions the "Word of God"? They are a testimony. So if we rely only on the letter, we have a problem. If we say, "The Bible says so", it may legally prove a truth and give us natural comprehension, but that is not spiritual life.

Spiritual life operates beyond the letter. Inspiration was initially given to man, and it operates in him for the good of humanity. To ascertain the true meaning of what was said in the Spirit, we must go back to where it was first used in the scriptures and let the Holy Spirit bring us His illumination. The meaning is constant throughout the scriptures.

God has provided illumination in Jesus Christ. This is the realm beyond the letter and we need to live and walk in it. This realm cannot be reached through studying the scriptures, nor by proclaiming how much the letter blesses us. To enter this realm we must listen to one voice only - the voice of the Son of God which brings life. If we hear His voice we shall live; as Jesus said, "...the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live." (John 5:25b) It's important to HEAR His voice in our spirit - teaching and interpreting the scriptures to us - otherwise we will not receive life. So let's listen to what He says!

"Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him." (John 12:1-2) Lazarus, who had been raised from death, was now eating with Jesus. Spiritually speaking, this has also happened to us. We have been raised from death and are now living by the Word of God - just like Jesus lived. In Him we have our existence.

"Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, `Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii, and given to poor people?' Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it." (vv.3-6) Judas was filching money out of the bag, and Jesus knew it, yet said nothing. Jesus knew all along that Judas would betray Him, because He referred to him when He said that one of the twelve was a devil. It really boggles my mind that Judas was selected for being treasurer; yet Christ forgave even Judas! When Jesus died on the cross, He said, "Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." This includes all of us, even Judas! Paul, who delighted in the death of Stephen the martyr, committed that sin in ignorance. In former times God overlooked the times of ignorance, but now God declares to men that all people everywhere should repent. (Acts 17:30) When God delivers us from this ignorance, we no longer deny Christ.

"Therefore Jesus said, `Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.'" (vv.7-8) The disciples would not always have Him in this realm, but they would always have people with needs to whom they could give money. This is so true! We always have people who are poor! The money which is in the world will never be evenly distributed and there will always be people who are suffering.

This is just the way it is, because there is a limit to material things. When some people accumulate money, others will suffer. Because of this inequity and lack of equality, poor people are not cared for. Jesus said, "Woe to you who are rich." (Luke 6:24) Riches erode our trust in God so that we trust riches instead of God. Here on earth, wealth is valued according to the value we give it. Money is printed and people assign a value to it, but in God's eyes it doesn't mean anything; it is just a piece of paper. The accumulation of money produces a defiling effect in the world.

The Holy Spirit will show us that there is no true value in riches. The Lord is the supplier of everything! We are to take no thought for the things we need, because God knows our needs. Consider the lilies! The source of our supply is God - not money. If we stop trying to get money and subject ourselves to the care of God, we will be obedient followers of Christ. Jesus referred to Judas as the son of perdition because he demonstrated more of this deception than the other disciples.

"The large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus." (vv.9-11) Lazarus had become an object of curiosity because he had been in the grave for 4 days. Can you imagine the corrupt mentality of these people who wanted to do away with Jesus and wipe out all evidence of what He had done?! Actually, this mentality is not unusual, for it is a type of the world and the religious systems, for they try to destroy all evidence of life by putting it to death. They try to make light of all that Christ has done in the Spirit. The Jews hated to see so many leaving their own teaching and believing in Jesus.

"On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, `Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.' Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, `Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey's colt.' These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him." (vv.12-16)

While Jesus was fulfilling Old Testament prophecy by the things He did, He was at the same time fulfilling something in the Spirit. In Mark 4:11 Jesus explained to the disciples that to them was given the mystery of the kingdom, but those who were outside got everything in parables. The natural man, regardless of rank or education, does not have reality! Everything spiritual is operating in parables in him. The spiritual man compares spiritual with spiritual. (1 Cor. 2:13) A natural man compares natural with natural. A parable can only symbolize a spiritual truth, but it cannot bring light and explanation to it.

Those who are truly spiritual do not live in types and shadows and their explanations, but in their fulfillment! Only being amazed at the wonders of types and shadows leaves them in the natural realm. That which is said spiritually, has to be received in the spirit by a spiritual person.

We must not be satisfied with natural thinking. It will not benefit us to know all the historical details of the destruction of Tyre and Sidon, without knowing the spiritual reasons which caused it to happen. Storing knowledge in our physical mind may enhance our ego, but it does nothing for us spiritually. It can only feed our pride. There is no life in only knowing a lot about God without knowing Him!

"So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that he had performed this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, `You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him'." (vv.17-19) Since the people who had been with Jesus when He raised Lazarus from the grave were giving witness to this fact, the Pharisees were very upset. They began to argue among themselves, pondering how to stop Jesus. They were afraid of losing their authority because He was so popular with the common people.

"Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, `Sir, we wish to see Jesus'. Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus." (vv.20-22)

Jesus answered these people in a very strange way. He did not ask them to come and see Him, for He was not interested in promoting Himself; He was interested in having people see the Father! Yet people were intent on seeing Him as the man of Galilee - the man who could work miracles. Even the disciples did not see the Father, for Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father. To him Jesus sadly replied, "Have I been with you so long and yet you don't know Me? He who has seen Me, has seen the Father." For people to really know Jesus, they first have to come to the Father, for only the Father can reveal the Son, and only the Son can reveal the Father. This is God's order, and it is the only order that works. Only seeing Jesus physically does nothing for us spiritually. Unless our hearts and lives have been touched by the Spirit of God, we cannot know Him.

"And Jesus answered them, saying, `The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit'." (vv. 23-24) This illustration has spiritual implications. A grain of wheat can lie dormant for thousands of years if it does not have the right environment for growth, as proved by the stored grain found with Egyptian mummies. When this wheat was put in good earth and watered, it germinated and grew. It has to germinate or regenerate itself before it can produce fruit!

Germination produces changes. As the seed sprouts and appears out of the earth, it first produces a stalk, then leaves, husks and a head. After the grain has matured, the whole plant together with its stalk, leaves and grain is cut down, and only the grain is kept. But the outward appearance does not give us a clue as to what causes the seed to germinate, sprout and grow. The life in the grain is not visible - all we can see is the plant in which the life is contained. Yet it is essential to bring forth reproduction. It is the invisible life which causes the plant to become visible! The life remains unseen. When the plant is cut off from the earth and the chaff is burned, all that is left is the seed which was reproduced and multiplied from the planted seed.

What a beautiful spiritual lesson! As long as our concepts of Christ are in an earthy form, they will not produce any fruit. The outward part has to die and fall away so that growth can take place. So here we are, reproducing the invisible life which was hidden in the seed and causing its growth. We are a demonstration of this invisible life on the earth, and this life is actually food for people. Cutting this life off from the earth does not cut off its regeneration, because regeneration is not in the stalk, nor in the leaf, husk or shuck. All these outward things are gathered together and burned as chaff. They are put under fire judgment to show that these things are not the reality; the reality is in the seed itself. All that is left when we are cut off from the earth, and our chaff is put under judgment, is that which was reproduced by the seed that was put into the earth. This symbolizes the church, the many-membered body of Christ.

So we see that the complete outward display in religion will eventually be cut off from the earth and subjected to fire or judgment. That means that all our repentance, baptisms, communions, and behavior patterns will be burned, because they are not the life, even though they were useful and necessary for our maturing. However, they are only the effect of the life (forms of life), and are no longer necessary. It is the LIFE into which we are taken which is important! This is where we want to live and have our consciousness and identification! It is not in the outward show; it is in that inward invisible life of God where the fruit is produced and becomes visible in the earth.

"He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal." (v.25) The word LIFE here is a mistranslation and should be properly translated SOUL. "He who loves his soul will lose it." We cannot lose our life because it is God's life, and His life is the only life there is! Everything that flows from His life demonstrates that life. Now we are to be brought back into the consciousness of that life! The consciousness of that life generates the spiritual energy to live by faith in who and what God is!

The soul is our sense of being. It retains our experiences and the spiritual understanding that is ours, and this forms our sense of being. The redemption we receive in Christ is based on His SOUL coming to us. We are redeemed by His blood. The soul is represented by the blood; it is the Spirit who gives life! The mistaken idea that life is in the blood goes back to a mistranslation in Leviticus, where instead of saying, "The soul is in the blood," it says the life is in the blood. (Lev. 17:11) The spiritual man has a different body, soul and consciousness of life than the natural man.

We know that we are redeemed by the soul of Christ, because it was prophesied in Isaiah 53 that His soul would redeem man. Peter said we are bought back or redeemed by the precious blood, which is the soul - not the life; this is the sense of being of Jesus Christ. His life as the Son of God was the basis of everything. He operated in the consciousness or soul of the Son of Man (the spiritual man).

When we come to Christ, we become aware of the fact that ALL things are made new. The spiritual body of Jesus Christ is our new body, because we are baptized into His body. We have a new soul because we have the mind of Christ and a new consciousness of spirit. So we are new creatures. We are a new humanity in Jesus Christ, and have a new body, soul and spirit.

We receive all this by faith. These things are new to us, but not to God. Eastern religion teaches that we consist of a spirit and a soul, and live in a body. If we can't believe that we are made new, we will mix Eastern religion with natural Christian concepts. This will result in trying to marry the soul to the spirit, and the spirit to the body, and then wait for a resurrection of the body. The scriptures teach that we are made new now. Our new person is spiritual and invisible. The things which seemed real to us, such as the consciousness of our physical body and of who we are according to our natural mind, do not have reality in God. God came to change our wrong sense of being and bring us into a true sense of being in Christ. He came to make us new creatures and to give us a new world - for we are not of this world!

Christ is the truth and He brought us spiritual truth. Since truth is not in the seen realm, we have to live by faith. The fruit of living by faith is a confession that consists of having been resurrected and being new creatures in Christ. Living by faith and confessing our faith causes us to grow in it. If we don't believe that Christ has crucified our old humanity, then we are living in UNBELIEF, and ALL SIN IS UNBELIEF. Every sin springs from the fact that we have missed the mark, and haven't believed what God said. The result is false humility - we will think we are still sinners, and that the more we can debase ourselves, the better God can help us. This is nonsense! He wants us to believe what He says He has done in Jesus Christ. He wants us to know it, declare it and live in it! If we are ridiculed because of it, it won't bother us because we KNOW who we are. Paul said, "What we know we preach."

Jesus said, "He who loves his soul will lose it." If we want to hold on to our natural sense of being instead of exchanging it for a spiritual sense of being, we will lose our soul. We will end up with nothing, because our natural idea of who we are does not have reality; it is in delusion; it's error - it's death. Our natural sense of being cannot embrace life and truth, which is Christ. So it crucifies the truth. If we love our soul we will lose it, but if we hate our soul in this world we shall keep it to life eternal. In other words, if we hate our natural worldly consciousness, we'll be willing to exchange it for the spiritual consciousness that Christ has for us! Receiving Christ's consciousness brings us into another world. There must be another world because Jesus used the expression, `this world'.

Christ came to declare God in truth. The Jews rejected the truth, the spiritual mind that is in Christ, for they were operating in their carnal mind. So they put Christ to death. On the other hand, Christ never allowed the Jews to infringe on His consciousness of life nor on His actions; by not yielding to their demands He put their ideas to death. The spiritual battle which existed at that time is still going on today.

"If any one serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him." (v.26) Jesus was in His physical body and looked like everyone else when He said this. Notice that He did not say that He is going to be where we are - but we are to be where HE IS! We will enjoy the same relationship with God that He enjoys. We know that He has promised never to leave us nor forsake us, but the question is: are we asking Him to come and do something to enhance our old sense of being, or are we giving up our soul, our old sense of being, so that we may live in the relationship that He has with the Father, doing what He wants?

Christ's relationship with the Father consisted of doing the Father's will, hearing the Spirit and knowing what God was doing on earth! So our relationship with God should be the same - at least in a measure and growing! God will not ask us to do exactly what Christ did, because some of those have been fulfilled. Although we have heard what Christ said, we so often only want physical virtues, blessings, healings, and comforts - like houses, goods, money and health. If we are satisfied with these, we are deluded because we think that is all He wants for humanity. But He wants more for us! He gives us an inward peace and keeps us in sufficient physical health to bear His testimony that the integrity of the message can be kept. If we want to serve Him, we must follow Him and be where He is.

"Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, `Father, save Me from this hour?' But for this purpose I came to this hour. `Father, glorify Your name.' Then a voice came out of heaven: `I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.'" (vv.27-28) Jesus felt like asking the Father to save Him from the terrible experience of having to prove that humanity does not love God, does not serve God, and hates the demonstration of God in Christ - and who wouldn't? But then He said that was the purpose of His coming, so He wanted to go through with it.

God was going to glorify His name through Christ. God does not glorify His name through natural man, earthy conceptions, and vanity. Man glorifies his own name. People who own big businesses give buildings their own names to honor themselves. Their pictures are hung in the halls of Congress, halls of fame, etc. But God is not like that! Christ did not come to glorify Himself! He said, "Father, glorify Your name." We know that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee shall bow. Christ is the Anointing! The name of Jesus Christ denotes the essence of His being, and as we come into a relationship with Him, we come into the meaning of that name.

Since Christ has been divested of His human form and nature, He is God the Savior. He brings an anointing of the Word for a people that need to be redeemed from their earthiness. They need to be rescued from their own soul - the awareness of who they think they are. Christ obviously had an entirely different sense of being than humanity had, because He was saying that God was His Father. This had never before happened in the history of Israel! Although the fathers and leaders had witnessed many miracles which God performed in their midst, none of them dared to call himself a son of God, nor to call God his Father.

Jesus readily admitted that God was His Father. He was not bragging; He was simply stating a fact which was in His consciousness of being. The first Adam's soul had been subjected to vanity, so his awareness of who he was sprang from earthiness; he did not have a sense of being in God. Christ came to call us out of this sleep of darkness, so that our soul might become as the soul of Christ. His sense of being and understanding comes to us in an identification of oneness with Christ. This oneness gives us a new sense of being in God.

Our life is not perpetuated in the flesh but by God, for He is our source of life. In order to be released from the death which works in the carnal mind, we need a new understanding. Looking for an outward manifestation, a pleasant feeling or extension of life, will not do away with death. How hard it is for us to believe that the flesh profits nothing, and that which is formed from dust shall return to dust! Our Adamic nature is destined to go back to where it came from; that identification with Adam has to be put to death and exchanged for the new consciousness of being that is in Christ Jesus. The Old Testament feasts, the wanderings in the desert, and the law show us our need for a new consciousness. God has prepared us for a new identification; and the fulfillment comes when Christ comes - not when we go to heaven.

All the fullness of God is in Jesus Christ! It is not in historical time; it is in our growth and progress IN Christ! Christ is enough! We do not need another anointing. The Greek, CHRISTOS, is translated as ANOINTING, ANOINTED, MESSIAH and CHRIST. A recent article stated that God is giving us a new anointing, and if we do not participate in this we will miss out on God. In the writer's ignorance he is saying that we need a new Christ. This means that the anointing or the Christ we have is not enough. This mentality reveals that people are not presently receiving Christ in His fullness, but are postponing it for the future. They are looking for a greater euphoria, ecstasy, glory, wonder and astonishment because of the things God is going to do. This emphasis causes us to depend on feelings - especially feelings of grandeur. That is not the way God works in us. He works in a simple, stable willingness, which gives us an inner joy. We are satisfied with Christ when we understand the treasure and life we have in Him!

We have to grow in the new creation we already are in Christ! Christ is truth and life; we do not need anything new beyond Christ, or in addition to Christ. Therefore we don't need any kind of company, rapture or millenium. Christ is all we need; He is the anointed Word in whom we live and breathe and have our being in a spiritual sense.

Christ's way of glorifying God's name was not by glorifying His own name. Christians have raised Christ up and glorified Him, but Christ does not pay any attention to that because He does not receive honor from men. He only receives the glory the Father gives Him! Those who are like Christ will only want to glorify the Father's name and not receive glory for themselves. It is God who reveals the Son in us! It is only God who can glorify His name, so He has to do it.

Those who desire glory, will enjoy being addressed by a title which distinguishes them from others, such as doctor, pastor, prophet, etc. Desiring honor is carnality. Those who shepherd spiritually do not use carnal methods, like establishing behavior patterns, doctrines, morality, etc. They just feed their flock spiritual food. Growth, maturity and fruit-bearing comes in due time.

"So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, `An angel has spoken to Him.'" (v.29) Most of them associated it with a familiar sound; some said an angel had spoken to Him. As usual, the average person does not understand what the Spirit is saying, so it remains a mystery to him. But Jesus Christ understood what was said. As we identify with Him we will hear what He is saying.

"Jesus answered and said, `This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes. Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out." (vv.30-31) Jesus did not need confirmation because He had spiritual understanding. Jesus did not say He would have to come again in order to pass judgment upon the world; He said the world was experiencing judgment NOW. The world is judged because it has rejected God's declaration of Jesus Christ being His Son. Whenever the presence of Jesus Christ is manifested in a person and then rejected, judgment follows NOW. All judgment has been given to the Son! He is the truth, and truth judges all error!

Therefore the Christ in us judges the world. Paul said, "Don't you know that you will judge the world?" Don't you know that you saints will judge angels? Unless we are living in Christ, we will be in the same delusion the world is in, and will be unable to judge whether angels (messengers) are from God or not, whether they are speaking truth or error, or whether good or evil spirits are speaking to us.

The ruler of this world rules in the minds of people who live in this world. He has to be cast out of our minds or consciousness, for he no longer belongs there. He is no longer our ruler or lord. So the ruler of this world, or mediator of this world system is being cast out. Jesus Christ is the truth of God and the Word of God, and He was walking in the knowledge of God! The difference between Him and other people was not a physical difference, but a spiritual one. He was simply letting the words of God dwell in His spiritual mind. He was a mediator of the power of God! That is the way God will work in everyone who is being conformed to the image of Christ.

"And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." (v.32) When Jesus is lifted out of our earthy consciousness and raised into our spiritual consciousness in the heavens, He will draw men to Himself. He did not draw all men to Himself when He was on earth; in fact, many did not like Him. The leaders were blind leaders of the blind, and called Him a blasphemer. Some people followed Jesus for personal advantage, while others were indifferent. Finally He was forsaken by all and crucified. So we have to be lifted out of our earthy concept of a physical Jesus, and see Him as the corporate spiritual man that He is. Then others will be drawn to Him as well.

"But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die." (v.33) His death on the cross was more than a physical death! He died to the human, natural realm of things, so that He could again live spiritually with the Father.

"The crowd then answered Him, `We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, "The Son of Man must be lifted up?" Who is this Son of Man?' So Jesus said to them, `For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light'. These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them." (vv.34-36) While Christ was on earth He was the light (illumination or understanding) of God among men. He knew who God was, who He was, what creation was and what the world was. Therefore we can believe in this light, and become children of light who come into the same understanding Jesus had.

"But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which He spoke: `Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?'" (vv.37-38) At this point the seed of life was planted; the words of Christ were spoken, but they only generated life after His death when His Spirit came. The Spirit brought them into life!

"For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, `He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.' These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and He spoke of Him." (vv.39-41) Christ did not want the people to only function in their natural understanding; nor did He want spiritual understanding to be perverted. So He blinded their eyes until the Holy Spirit would come to teach them truth.

"Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. And Jesus cried out and said, `He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.'" (vv.42-45) Jesus did not advertise Himself. The natural popular thing is to advertise speakers with pictures and write-ups in an effort to get people to come and hear them. Jesus always pointed to the Father. So if we see Him in the true light, we see the Father also. We will see Him who sent Jesus!

"I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness." (v.46) Everyone who does not believe in Jesus is in darkness for he lacks light and understanding. Believing in Jesus is the only way of getting out of this darkness and getting understanding.

"If anyone hears My sayings, and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world." (v.47) Jesus did not come to condemn or judge the world, yet His presence brought judgment. Actually, they were already judged by the law, but they did not realize it. The true spiritual understanding in Christ was judging the world. Jesus Christ came to show us what is good and true; yet some people still think He is fighting evil and trying to establish the good. This is not what He is doing. He is only bringing reconciliation; He is not bringing condemnation.

"He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day." (v.48) Christ's words will judge those who reject Him. His words demonstrated a relationship with God and a spiritual understanding of God which had never before been declared. The minds of the hearers had a wrong understanding of God, so a conflict arose within them. Anyone who does not believe the words of Christ will be worshiping his own idea of God. There will always be a conflict between the revelation of God which is in Christ Jesus, and man's natural understanding of God. It is beyond natural man to comprehend spiritually.

"For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me." (vv.49-50) These are wonderful words! The more we hear and grasp the words of Christ, the more we come to realize that we have to align ourselves with what He said. We have to learn to differentiate between how the word came to humanity in its unregenerate mind, and how it was in the mind of Christ.

In this new dispensation we are to have the mind of Christ; we are to think like He thought, so we can be conformed to His image and say things from the same standpoint of relationship to God as He did. He has the pre-eminence in all things. Even though we are like Him in nature, we are not like Him in total growth; yet we have this wonderful peace, knowing we are like Christ and growing in relationship and understanding. He is the perfect one! We may be like children, but we are one with Him in identification!

As we read the scriptures we learn not to identify with man, but with Christ. We understand that we are IN Christ. Our life in Christ demonstrates and declares resurrection. We proclaim light and testify to our new sense of being. As we study and appropriate these teachings, we will grow and develop spiritually. Then we can comfort one another, and have good fellowship and communication in our identification with Christ. Amen.

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