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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 Matt. 26: and I Cor. 11: The terms and parties of
the covenant are distinctly set out in Jer. 31: and repeated in Heb. 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 hast 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."