(A quick journey through the gospel of John, chapters 1 through 4)

In this article, I’d like to share some reflections of my journey with the Holy Spirit through these four chapters of John’s gospel. It had dawned upon me for sometime now, that when the Holy Spirit brings revelation straight from Himself, and through the written Word, the heart of the human agent hears the voice of Christ, and life happens!

And Life happens in surprising ways as these four chapters showed me.

In chapter 1, I am struck by how the Eternal Word of GOD was incarnated through Jesus Christ, and John says in verse 14, “We beheld His glory, as of the only begotten of God, full of grace and truth”. The verses before, 12 and 13, had struck me deeply way back when I first came to the Lord almost 48 years ago whilst still in school in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I couldn’t understand how “He came to His own, but His own received Him not”. But I didn’t really give this verse too much time for meditation. I was more interested in the next verse, “But to all who received Him, He gave the right to become the children of God…” However, it would take almost 34 years later for me to realize the depth of the reality of how that particular verse ends, ” Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Salvation truly belongs to the LORD by grace alone, faith alone, through Christ in Scripture alone, to the glory of GOD alone!

It was hard to internalize and realize the profoundness of that truth, “He gave the right to become children of GOD.” The next almost 35 years would put me onto a roller coaster of being tossed and turned by all sorts of doctrines propounded by various preachers and teachers of various denominations because the one chief doctrine-the doctrine of justification by faith in union with Christ-was not the chief Cornerstone upon which the house of my faith was built on.

As I entered Cana with Jesus and His disciples in John’s chapter four, I was stunned by the extravagance of Jesus’s grace! Turning water into wine?! That wasn’t a major spiritual event! Why did Jesus listen to His mum? But when I read carefully, and listened to the Spirit to teach me, I realized that Jesus had said to His mum, “my time has not come yet”. It helped me understand that the beautiful things that Jesus crafts in our lives are ALWAYS according to His time, not mine.

And when we surrender to His time, and His way of faith (just ask the servants who were instructed to fill the water jugs with water, and then, take some to the Master of Ceremonies-usually a wine connoiser!), we experience the unique taste of GOD’s richness that cannot be compared to anything earth has to offer.

But such extravagance missed the expert theologian, Nicodemus whom we encounter in chapter three. Nicodemus knew something was on with the young carpenter from Galilee. He himself admitted to Jesus that no one can do the things Jesus was doing unless God was with Him. Yet, Nicodemus wanted Jesus at his level. His greeting of Jesus as “Rabbi”, says as much. We wanted a theological exploration. He was seeking. And Jesus cuts to the chase by giving him the full-frontal “born-again” message. Practically gave Nicodemus an ultimatum; “You cannot enter the kingdom of God without being born-again”.

And that’s the thing with GOD! All throughout Scriptures, GOD uses different terminology, concepts, phrases, and words for the same divine reality-the Life of GOD Himself! The Creator who created all mankind in His image, knew that men needed multiple terms, concepts, phrases, and words unique to their own individual and societal context in order that they may realize that it is only through His self-revelation through the Spirit of His Son, that men can come to know Him, and to call upon Him for salvation.

Jesus did not take that route with the Samaritan woman. Nicodemus came seeking out Jesus for answers. Jesus came to Samaria seeking out a heart lost in multiple attempts to find the quality of relationship satisfaction that only He could provide. He wanted to go to Galilee from Jerusalem. He could have bypassed Samaria. He would not bypass the Samaritan woman.

I love to read and enjoy John chapter 4. I love to see the progression of Jesus’s conversation with this woman, from her initial veiled hostility to awe of His knowledge of her secret life, to a last ditch attempt to cover up her heart with a theological debate!

Jesus who “knew all men”, relentlessly pursues her with his goodness and grace. And by the time the disciples return from their food grocery errand, the woman had become a flaming evangelist, “Come and see a man who told me all things I’ve done”. Evidently she had a reputation! Because so many men come to Jesus, and after hearing Jesus speak, they urge Him to stay on for another few days. They too, like the woman, were already receiving the water of life from the Source of Life, and they wanted more.

It was then that I realized that every one of us who have already experienced Jesus, and His life-giving Spirit, are candidates to receive His Life, again and again. The Life of God, the Holy Spirit, is given to us at the moment our hearts are regenerated, or “born-again”, by the gospel of the truth of God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is all by grace, and all of grace! Our response as we hear His voice, as the woman at the well heard, is to keep listening and hearing the voice of Jesus. As we mediate on God’s Word, the Spirit fills us again and again.

Once we are “born-again”, we are already IN the kingdom of GOD. The Spirit is ours. Sin blocks us from time to time because the stream of GOD dwindles to a dribble because of our fleshlyness. But the Spirit never leaves us. Christ never leaves us. God never leaves us. He did not make a mistake when He saved us, when we were regenerated by the Word of the truth of the gospel and by the Spirit.

And through the Spirit, we are transformed from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor 3:18). Believers of Jesus Christ are co-inheritors with Christ of all heaven’s glory. This glory is for us to share with the world, whether they receive it or not. Like Christ, His glory did not stop Him from being crucified. We will experience pain and suffering in our walk of faith with Christ. However, the other side of the coin of suffering is glory. In Christ’s resurrection, we too have been resurrected. All the resources of heaven are ours to be a blessing to the nations, starting with our neighbors. Let the grace, wine and the Spirit empower us, and enable us to do so.

Soli Deo Gloria!