CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE KEY TO THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

I have studied the Gospel of John for many years, but in this crystallization-study I have seen something more intrinsic. This book, especially in chapters 1 through 4 and chapters 6 and 7 on the two feasts of the Passover and of Tabernacles, portrays a flowing Triune God. The Triune God flows in the Divine Trinity in three stages. John 4:14b says, “The water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.” When the fountain springs up, that is the fountain emerging. Then a river flows. The Father is the fountain, the Son is the spring, and the Spirit is the river.

This flowing Triune God is “into eternal life.” The Greek preposition translated as “into” is rich in meaning. Here it speaks of the destination. The eternal life is the destination of the flowing Triune God. A fountain is in us springing up as a river into a destination. This destination is the eternal life. The New Jerusalem is the totality of the divine, eternal life. The eternal life eventually will be the New Jerusalem. Thus, into eternal life means into the New Jerusalem. We must have something flowing into that divine New Jerusalem in order for us to arrive there. The entire Bible is needed to interpret John 4:14. The Father is the fountain as the source, the Son is the spring, the Spirit is the flowing river, and this flowing issues in the eternal life, which is the New Jerusalem. The Gospel of John opens by saying, “In the beginning was the Word” (1:1). The Word is for speaking, and speaking is the start of God’s flowing. Speaking is flowing, spreading is flowing, and dispensing is also flowing. God flows through speaking, through spreading, through dispensing.

In order to understand the Gospel of John we must see its intrinsic revelation, which is that John reveals the Triune God. No other book in the Bible reveals the Triune God so much and so clearly and intrinsically as John, especially in chapter 14. Even in chapter 1 of John the Triune God is revealed. God has the Word to speak for Him, and He also has the Spirit to bring forth the Word. The Son is the Word, the Father is the source, and the Word speaks the source. This means that He spreads the source, flows the source. Spreading implies dispensing, and dispensing implies imparting the Triune God in His Divine Trinity. This takes place through His becoming flesh (v. 14), becoming the Lamb (v. 29), and eventually becoming the life-giving Spirit signified by the dove (v. 32). This life-giving Spirit is for dispensing, for giving life, to transform the clay material into stones for building the house of God, Bethel (v. 42). The church as the Body of Christ is today’s Bethel. Eventually, the totality of Bethel is the New Jerusalem, where the only begotten Son of God will be the Son of Man as the heavenly ladder with Bethel as the base (v. 51).