I N D E X
THE DISPENSATIONAL PLACE OF JOHN'S GOSPEL
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(5) Are all believers today members of the church which is His body, whether they know it or not?
To refute this position we should have to reprint the bulk of the last thirty-five years' witness concerning the
dispensation of the mystery. We cannot find justification for assuming that any believer is a member of the body of
Christ unless he believes the Word of God given to make that blessed position known. As that word is found in the
testimony of the Lord's prisoner, and is the revelation of a mystery, membership of that body will be manifested by
belief of the truth revealed concerning it, as surely as salvation is manifested by the belief of the gospel.
Without, therefore, pretending to have given anything more than a cursory glance at these varied views, we
proceed to the examination of Scripture to discover whether there has been written a book, an epistle, or section of
the New Testament that embraces all the peculiar conditions that characterize the outer circle of faith among
Gentiles today.
The ministry for the many. An eightfold proof
What are these peculiar conditions?
(1) During the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus, He limited Himself to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and
at the close commanded His disciples to go into all the world. One of the conditions that belong to the
present enquiry is that the message shall be pre-eminently world-wide.
(2) It is evident to the most casual reader that the bulk of the Bible was written for Jews. The present condition,
however, demands a book that shall give evidence that non-Jewish readers are in view.
(3) The Gospel of Matthew does not speak of the rejection of Christ by Israel until chapter 12; Paul's earlier
epistles give considerable prominence to Israel, whilst Peter at Pentecost calls upon the nation to repent and
be saved. The book we seek should take it for granted, or should early state that Christ was rejected by
Israel, and that its message is addressed to those who have believed after that rejection has reached its
climax.
(4) The Lord's Supper is directly connected with `the new covenant' (Matt. 26:28; 1 Cor. 11:25), so that the
message we seek will of necessity omit this feast of remembrance, seeing that its terms cannot be put into
operation until Israel as a nation are restored (Jer. 31).
(5) The present position of the Lord Jesus is that of ascension, ascribed to Him in the prison epistles, and we
must find our message in a book giving due prominence to this exalted position.
(6) The epistles of the mystery do not speak of Christ as the Son of Abraham, or the Son of man, but go back
behind all these to the wondrous title of the Image of the invisible God, Who is, moreover, the Creator of all
things visible and invisible. This revelation of His Person will colour the message that is addressed to the
outer circle today.
(7) We shall find in that message the great desire expressed by the Lord that, though He was rejected by His
own, the world might yet believe and know that He was the Sent One of God.
(8) There will be an indication that the gift of `miracles' possessed by the church, as at Corinth, no longer
obtains.
By common consent the Gospel according to John was written when Paul's ministry was finished, and
corresponds fully to the conditions suggested above, as well as to many more to be entered into later. Let us for the
present, however, confine ourselves to noticing how John's Gospel deals with these peculiar conditions.
(1) The World
`The world was made by Him' (John 1:10).
`The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world'