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 realized apart

from Him who is the Resurrection and the Life.

In the first sign the Lord manifested (phanaroō) His glory, in the last He manifested

Himself, "shewed" (21: 14) being phaneroō. 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 and the eighth signs. The fresh start follows the Lord's own resurrection, and in

the numerical sequence of the signs it follows the seventh which sees the raising of

Two confessors of the faith are in immediate contextual connection with the first and

last signs--Nathaniel and Thomas. Nathaniel was told by Philip that they had found the

Messiah, but Nathaniel objected that no good thing could come out of Nazareth. Philip's

argument was "Come and see" (1: 46). Thomas was told by the disciples that they had

seen the Lord, but Thomas objected that he would not believe their statement apart from

actually seeing the wound prints themselves (20: 25). When Nathaniel was convinced,

his confession went farther than that of any of the others at that time. "Rabbi, Thou art

the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel" (1: 49). So Thomas, when he did see the

Lord, went beyond the confession of Peter himself, saying, "My Lord and my God"

(John 20: 28).

Nathaniel was an Israelite indeed in whom there was no guile, but he was not a

representative of the nation. Alas, a truer picture of the apostate nation is found in the

blinded Jew of Acts 13:, to whom Paul addressed the words "O full of all subtilty"

(same word as "guile").  There were but few Nathaniels.  Thomas represents the

redeemed and awakened nation, who shall indeed "look upon Him whom they pierced",

and shall confess "Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him", and this confession, like

that of Thomas, comes after resurrection, for the verse before says, "He will swallow up

death in victory" (Isa. 25: 8, 9).

Closely associated with the eight signs is an unfolding of the titles of Christ. At the

beginning just before the first sign, His disciples spoke of Him as Jesus of Nazareth, the