John (Holman New Testament Commentary)
Kenneth O. Gangel
Language: English
Pages: 369
ISBN: 2:00338549
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
One in a series of twelve New Testament verse-by-verse commentary books edited by Max Anders.
Includes discussion starters, teaching plan, and more. Great for lay teachers and pastors alike.
Lord identified himself as the Son of Man. According to Westcott, “This title … is the key to the interpretation of the passage. The words are spoken of as a relation of ‘the Son of Man’ to ‘God,’ and not of that of ‘the Son’ to ‘the Father’” (Westcott, p. 196). The phrase appears twelve times in John's Gospel and this is the last (1:51; 3:13–14; 5:27; 6:27,53,62; 8:28; 9:35; 12:23,34; 13:31). We have already studied the significance of glory (doxa) in its various forms. In these verses John
pray in Jesus’ name, it connects us to him by faith, it honors him as God, and proclaims his lordship in our lives. As Hughes points out, “Praying in Christ's name means coming only in his merit, not our own. Christ's full name is Lord Jesus Christ, which means Jehovah, Saviour, God's anointed. It is this name whose merit we must humbly pray. We cannot think that somehow God will hear us because of our virtue. We come by virtue of his merit. Poverty of spirit is the basis on which we approach
him work for three and one-half years. Now suddenly they claimed they had reached the conclusion that he came from God. Of course, naiveté still clouded their thinking. They did not yet have the Spirit's illumination. The difference between not understanding and understanding the Bible comes not from years of seminary training, but from the presence and teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit. Fear Turns to Peace (16:31–33) SUPPORTING IDEA: Jesus punctured deceptive self-assurance with a
thirty-five seems a reasonable approximation. John recorded only ten at the most. The number was of little concern to John. He chose the works and words of Jesus that would prompt readers to faith. That faith would give meaning to experience as believers found life in the name of Jesus. G. Campbell Morgan calls the resurrection “faith's anchorage” and tells us: “The living risen Christ is the Centre of the church's creed, the Creator of her character, and the Inspiration of her conduct. His
speak, nothing more than unanimated, dead flesh. Nothing is good about that condition. They experience only depravity and service to sin (7:25)” (Pyne, p. 187). So Nicodemus should not have been shocked by the message of the new birth. There is, however, a surprise in the Greek text. The first time You appears in verse 7 it is singular as in verses 3 and 5. Obviously Jesus was talking directly to Nicodemus. But in the last phrase of verse 7, the You becomes plural saying, in effect, “all of