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The Father loveth the Son

John 3:35

Norman Anderson

"The Father loveth the Son" is no new theme in John's Gospel. We learn from John 1:14 He is "the Only Begotten of (from with) the Father," and from verse 18, "the Only Begotten Son Who is in the bosom of the Father.

Relation and affection, proper to the unique relationship, are indicated here. Little wonder then we read, "The Father loveth the Son," and is so complacent in respect to Him, so at rest in the confidence of His competency, that He has given all things into His hand. Obviously, our Lord as Son is Heir. Everything is committed to His capable hand. Universal rule will be exercised by Him, who was "appointed heir of all things," before anything existed. The worlds were made by Him in view of His administering all to the glory of God (Heb. 1:2). According to Psalm 2:8 He was invited - note, one divine Person speaks to Another - "Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."

Here, in John 3:35, without His asking, all things are given into His hand, of the Father because the Father loves Him. Once again we read in this gospel, "For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth Him all things that Himself doeth" (John 5:20). He is treated by the Father as on equal terms with Himself. Blessed truth, indeed! In John 16:27 the Son says to His disciples, "For the Father Himself loveth you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God." Such is the Father's love for the Son that He loves those who love Him!

John 6:37: "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me;" although Psalm 102:24 says, "take me not away in the midst of my days;" and Daniel prophesied, "And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, and shall have nothing;" and also Isaiah 53:8, "He was cut off out of the land of the living." We may rest assured, as our Lord says here, "of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day" (John 6:39).

"His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him, all nations shall call him blessed" (Psalm 72:17). "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord" (Psalm 22:27). (Read also Ezekiel 21:25, 26, 27). Then in the New Testament, Col. 1:20, "by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." Also Ephesians 1:10; "That.. He (God) might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth: even in Him." Yes, it shall certainly be raised up again (as though from the dead), "at the last day" - that day of kingdom glory, when he shall usher in "the world to come, whereof we speak." The last day of God's dispensational dealings with the creation, the day of Millennial glory, righteousness, peace and blessing - see Isa. 2 and 31; and Psalm 85.

John 6:40: "... everyone that seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." Blessed answer to the faith, distinguished from the murmuring of verses 41 and 43, faith which, as it were, saw beneath the badger skins and discerned the glory of the Father's Son - "...and we beheld His glory... " (John 1:14). Such, then, shall be raised up to share with Him the glory of His kingdom - "the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them." (John 17:22).

John 6:44

The Father draws to the Son and none can come otherwise. In the kingdom of the Son of His love, that "last day" of crowning, blessing and glory, raised up by the Son, shall be that unique company which had been drawn by the Father to the Son in the day of His humiliation, rejection, and crucifixion. In that last day the Son shall honour the Father, by saying unto Him, "Behold I and the children whom God has given Me." (Heb. 2:13).

John 6:54:

These all, seeing in the humbled Nazarene, the Son of the Father; and drawn by the constraint of the Father's love to the Son shall, none-the-less, come by way of the cross. The appropriation, in faith, of the death of Christ, opens the way on our side for our part with Him in the last day. The Cross leads to the Glory! Our Lord said in John 12:32, as to all things, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto Me." The Son of the Father's love is the gathering centre for the universe of bliss and glory!

John 11:25:

It could well be that Martha had heard something of our Lord's teaching as to "the last day" - "I know that he shall rise again in resurrection at the last day." In this she referred to our Lord's word as to her brother Lazarus, "Jesus saith unto her thy brother shall rise again" (verse 23). Or she could have been thinking in terms of Daniel 12:2, or even Ezekiel 37:12. (See also Romans 11:15). What she really needed to know was that the power of resurrection and life was there before her in the Person of our Lord, the great I AM of John 8:58. While as Son of God He speaks life to dead souls now, so giving them to live before God in the blessedness of a life - eternal life - to which neither sin nor death can have anything to say. Shortly He shall act as the resurrection and the life to the bodies of His own. Then those believers who have died shall live, while those who live, physically, and believe shall never die. In other words, sleeping saints shall be raised - "I am the resurrection" - living saints shall be changed - "I am the life." Then shall be fulfilled His prayer 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 lovest me before the foundation of the world." So we close as we commenced with this blessed note: "The Father loveth the Son."