The Gospel of John
Overview
The goal of fallen man is self-deification, to be as God (Gen. 3:5), whereas the goal of redeemed man is to be God's covenant man. Christ's perfect humanity is our standard, not his deity. We cannot have Christ as our God if we will not have him as our true man, as our federal head. In the first Adam, we are born into sin and death; in the last Adam, we are born into justice or righteousness and life. Jesus is the true bread of life, come down from heaven. His flesh, his true humanity, is our bread of life; this he gives for the life of the world. We are in him no longer the sinful and death-bound sons of fallen Adam, but the just and life-bound people of the last Adam. Christ gives us his flesh, his glorious humanity, so that we are remade into people of righteousness and eternal life.
To feed on Christ is to know him as the true man and our only hope for life. We become members of him and serve his purpose, to bring every area of life and thought into captivity to him. In this commentary, renowned theologian Rousas John Rushdoony maps out the Gospel of John starting from the obvious parallel to the book of Genesis ("In the beginning was the Word") and takes the reader through the glorious conclusion of Christ's death and resurrection.
Top Highlights
“Our Lord does not answer this question. Curiosity governed it, and our Lord, like His written word, says nothing merely to satisfy man’s curiosity.” (Page 64)
“The glory of God means His presence among men in power and in fulness of His justice.” (Page 185)
“What is new is the motive, that we love one another as Christ loves us.2” (Page 186)
“By this baptism, those of Israel who received it acknowledged that, like all other peoples, i.e., the Gentiles, they were under sentence of death. In the words of Arthur W. Pink, ‘they acknowledged that death was their due.’ In this, John’s baptism differs from Christian baptism. In Christian baptism, the believer does not confess that death is his due, but he shows forth the fact that he has already died to sin, died with Christ (Rom. 6:3–4). Christian baptism marks the fact that we are now members of the new creation and of Christ’s new humanity.” (Page 13)
“‘The Lamb of God’ means the unblemished sacrifice for atonement; Jesus is thus recognized as the sin-bearer who makes atonement for the sins of His people. ‘The Messiah,’ or Christ, means the anointed one who comes to exercise dominion. ‘King of Israel’ indicates that Jesus, as the promised Son of David, is the great restorer of the Kingdom of God, the one who brings it to its full power. ‘The Son of God’ tells us that the disciples knew Him to be God in the flesh.” (Page 16)
Product Details
- Title: The Gospel of John
- Author: Rousas John Rushdoony
- Publisher: Ross House Books
- Publication Date: 2007
- Pages: 320
Rousas John Rushdoony (1916–2001) was was a well-known American scholar, writer, and author of over thirty books. He earned degrees from the University of California, received theological training at the Pacific School of Religion, and received an honorary Doctorate from Valley Christian University for his book The Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum.
Rushdoony was an ordained minister and served as pastor at two California churches. He served for almost nine years as a missionary to the Shoshone and Paiute Indians in a remote area of Nevada. It was during this time as a missionary that Rushdoony began writing. The Institutes of Biblical Law and Commentary on the Pentateuch are just a few of the titles that Rushdoony has penned.
The Chalcedon Foundation, an educational organization devoted to research, publishing, and cogent communication of a distinctively Christian scholarship to the world at large, was founded by Rushdoony in 1965. He served as the editor of The Chalcedon Report, the monthly magazine of the Chalcedon Foundation.
Rushdoony also published the Journal of Christian Reconstruction and was an early board member of the Rutherford Institute which was founded by John W. Whitehead.