Preface to the Commentary

John’s Gospel of Freedom
Our Exodus from Slavery to Sonship

PREFACE

During a seemingly unproductive season in my life, I conducted some overdue soul-searching. (Experience isn’t half as good a teacher as is reflecting on them.) While in my forties and my mother in her late eighties, it dawned on me that I have become half her age. If, therefore, I also live into my late eighties, I’m only halfway through; an amazing thought for someone saved in the 1970s when so many believers were thoroughly convinced the end of the world was just around the corner. So...it’s halftime in my life, time to put the ministry football down, come off the playing field for a little while and listen intently to Coach Jesus. As I’ve gone into the locker room and sat down on the bench, I‘ve prepared myself to hear Coach tell me what I did right and wrong, and what needs tweaking so I’ll be a more effective quarterback in the second half of my ministry life. I thought He would say, “My faithful servant, you did a great job, except for those two interceptions you threw!”

The Lord’s words to the waiting soul, while always gentle and loving, can be so piercingly truthful. Here’s what I’ve heard as I’ve sat on the bench with my helmet in my hands and my eyes closed so I can really concentrate on Coach’s words: “You’ve been a faithful servant of the Lord here in the Big Apple for almost thirty years now, Charles; planting churches, evangelizing, teaching and pastoring. I now want you to focus mainly on relating to Me as a son, and not just as a servant.”

It’s true. For nearly three decades I’ve served God more often as a diligent servant than as a devoted son, the type of Son we see lovingly serving the Father in John's Gospel. Our Father wants to bless us with a ring of authority, a robe of righteousness and many other blessings, including spending time with Him feasting on roasted veal, just as the parable of the prodigal son declares (from Luke, chapter 15). But deep in our hearts, many of us have instead echoed this thoroughly downtrodden son’s inner thoughts:

When he came to himself, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.’” (Luke 15:17-19, NKJV.)

In other words, I’ll be content just to have a roof over my head and food on my table. My Father’s servant’s quarters will do just fine.

And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.” (v. 21)

Notice the Father didn’t even allow him to finish his little prepared speech about becoming one of his hired servants:

But the father said to his servants, “Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” And they began to be merry. (22-24)

Perhaps you too have been better at being a servant than a son (or a daughter) of God. What if this prodigal son had stayed around the pigpen a little too long and developed a sickness that impaired his hearing? A bad strain of the swine flu virus, perhaps. If he had developed a hearing disorder and was unable to hear and receive the Father’s reply, would he have made his little speech, hung his head down, and proceeded to walk over to the servant’s quarters? How could he possibly be so oblivious to all the great blessings his father had in store for him? I could ask the same question about myself, and perhaps you could, too. When our gracious Heavenly Father points out our shortcomings, I know it’s because He desires to teach us how to overcome them. God lovingly and tenderly brings things to the surface so He can deal with them and make us whole.

So, here’s my response to Coach God: “Teach me how to relate to You as a son, instead of merely as a servant.” That became my constant prayer for the next few months. When a new January was approaching, I felt the Lord give me my own personal New Years’ resolution: Read and study the Gospel of John. I wasn’t initially aware that this was in answer to my prayer request, but my servant’s heart kicked in and for the entire year and most of the following year, I read and studied John every single day, without fail. I doubt if I skipped more than one or two days in the entire twenty-four months that followed. It was never a chore, but a tremendous delight. I love the Word of God. When I wasn’t reading it, I was listening to it on my mp3 player in the car or watching the scripturally accurate movie version of John’s Gospel. As I read and listened and watched, it began to dawn on me that the Lord’s inner prompting towards this book was answering my prayer of how I can learn to relate to Him as a Son, instead of merely as a servant.

Let’s join the party our Father has prepared for us, and dine on the scrumptious meal that I have entitled: John’s Gospel of Freedom, Our Exodus from Slavery to Sonship.

SUMMARY OF THE BOOK THAT I MAY PUT ON THE BACK COVER:

Jesus made seven “I am” declarations in the Gospel according to John.
In the same manner, we can boldly declare who we now are in Christ
based on John’s seven signs.

“In Christ, I am:

1. a beloved and highly favored child of God.
2. Energized by His Words,
3. I’m able to walk like Christ
4. and wholeheartedly live by and for Him.
5. I am well cared for,
6. continually enlightened,
7. and divinely commissioned and anointed to be an effective witness to those who are yet in spiritual darkness, to whom I am now sent.”

This declaration, when believed in and acted upon,
becomes the basis of our Exodus out of an Egyptian-slavery-mentality
and into the Promised Land of intimate, life-giving sonship.

HOMEWORK FOR THE WEEK! Read the Gospel of John through at least one time.