THE DISPENSATIONAL PLACE OF JOHN'S GOSPEL
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of Isaiah 6:10 in John 12 is not accompanied by the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but focuses attention upon
the rejection of the Lord by His own people.
(4) The Lord's Supper
It is not our purpose to discuss the vital association of the Lord's Supper with the new covenant - that can be
seen both in Matthew 26 and 1 Corinthians 11. The terms and parties of the covenant are distinctly set out in
Jeremiah 31 and repeated in Hebrews 8. It is not a matter for discussion but of believing what God has said. The
Gospel according to John makes no mention of the Lord's Supper, and the omission is as eloquent as the non-Jewish
and world-wide evidences already brought forward. During the Acts period Gentile churches observed this feast of
remembrance, but with the setting aside of the covenant people, the covenant feast was discontinued, and John, who
was present and knew all about it, was as inspired to omit it as Matthew, Mark and Luke were inspired to include it.
(5) The ascended Lord
Paul's prison ministry is impossible apart from the ascension `far above all'. Matthew's record ends without
reference to the ascension; Mark and Luke close their accounts with it, but John speaks of it as early as the third
chapter: `And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which
is in heaven' (John 3:13). Again, in John 6, the Jews objected to the Lord's statement that He was the true bread
that came down from heaven saying: `Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How
is it then that He saith, I came down from heaven?' (John 6:42). Also, when the disciples were offended with His
teaching He said: `What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before'? (John 6:62). It is John
alone who tells us the Lord's first message after His resurrection, and that He ascended to the Father on that first day
of the week, forty days before the visible ascension from the Mount of Olives. `Touch Me not; for I am not yet
ascended to My Father: but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to
My God, and your God' (John 20:17).
The reader should add to the above the passages which use the phrase: `Because I go unto the Father', and
similar expressions.
(6) `The image of the invisible God ... the Creator'
John's Gospel is distinguished from the Synoptics by the opening words:
`In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... All things were made by
Him ... No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, Which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath
declared Him' (John 1:1-18).
`Before Abraham was, I am' (John 8:58).
Here also, in close harmony with the standpoint of the dispensation of the mystery, are the wondrous words of
John 17:24 :
`Father, I will that they also, whom Thou has given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory,
which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world'.
True, beholding this glory, and being manifested with Him in glory, having this body of humiliation fashioned
like unto the body of His glory (Col. 3:4 and Phil. 3:21 ) are very different; yet if there is a circle of believers, called
into blessing during this parenthetical period, but not constituting the body, it is appropriate that their blessings
should in some way be associated with the ascended Christ, and the glory that was His before the world was. The
distinction to be observed between the glory of John 17:24 and that of the epistles of the mystery must be considered
elsewhere, for it is too great a subject for the present survey.