I N D E X
PARABLE, MIRACLE, AND SIGN
112
(1)
I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE (6:35).
(2)
I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD (8:12).
(3)
I AM THE DOOR OF THE SHEEP (10:7).
(4)
I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD (10:11).
(5)
I AM THE RESURRECTION, AND THE LIFE (11:25).
(6)
I AM THE TRUE AND LIVING WAY (14:6).
(7)
I AM THE TRUE VINE (15:1).
The Lord's title as revealed to Martha is twofold, and refers to the two classes of believers that must come under
the beneficient effects of His mighty power.
(1) To the dead believer, He is the RESURRECTION.
(2) To the believer who is alive at His coming, He is the LIFE.
No words could indicate more clearly the Lord's consciousness of triumph than these; yet what condescension!
What lowly sympathy is exhibited in that smallest of verses, `Jesus wept'! (verse 35). Though He is indeed a great
High Priest, yet He is not untouched with the feeling of our infirmities. When Martha interposed with the fact that
Lazarus had been dead four days, the Lord said, `Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest
see the glory of God?'
Christ was raised by the `glory of the Father' (Rom. 6:4). It is a great pity that some, not seeing the close
relationship between the `glory' and the `resurrection' render the words of Ephesians 1:17, `the glorious Father'.
We must retain the rendering, `The Father of glory', seeing how closely it is connected with the exceeding greatness
of the power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. The Lord had already said:
`The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth' (John
5:28,29).
And here before the grave of Lazarus He gave a foretaste of that blessed day:
`Lazarus, come forth! and the dead man came forth' (11:43,44 Author's translation).
The last sign given by the Lord before His sufferings is the sign of Israel's restoration. Romans 11:15 says:
`For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life
from the dead?'
Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones also looks forward to that same blessed day. Indeed, there is no
blessing that can be enjoyed in its fulness apart from resurrection. The blessings of our pilgrimage are foretastes of
coming glory. The life that is life indeed is future.
While we may not range ourselves with those whose hope is defined in John 5:29, may we nevertheless ever
remember that our `blessed hope' can never be realised apart from Him who is the Resurrection and the Life.
(8)
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes
The One Sign following Resurrection (John 21:1-14)
In the first sign the Lord manifested (phaneroo) His glory; in the last He manifested Himself, `shewed' (21:14)
being phaneroo . In the first sign we read, `They have no wine' (2:3); in the last that `they caught nothing', and had
nothing (21:3,5).
There is a dispensational reason for this correspondence of subject. What the Lord came to do at His first
advent, He will fully accomplish at His second. Resurrection is the master key of the Bible. Quite apart from
human guilt, it was the purpose of God to establish a kingdom, with His Son as King, and when the intruding
element of sin has been removed that purpose will be brought to a consummation. That is the teaching of the first