Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

Question:

In reply to “M. S., Lyndhurst,” with reference to John 1:51: ―

Answer:

The first chapter of John’s Gospel is a magnificent unfolding of the person and personal titles of the Lord Jesus, from His existence as the Word of God ― the eternal Son ― till His millennial glory as Son of Man; His relative characters of High Priest, Head of the Church, and Messiah, being omitted. It begins by showing that He was God, then that He became flesh, and concludes by showing Him the Son of Man ― God and Man. Nathanael at the close of the chapter, gives us a striking figure of the faithful of the Jewish nation at the end of this age, before the introduction of the Millennium, who own the Lord Jesus when He appears as the “Son of God,” and “King of Israel,” according to His title and person in the second Psalm, “Thou art my Son;” “I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion.” The Lord Jesus answers, that he would not have to wait until that day to see His glory, but that “henceforth (this is the force of the word, not ‘hereafter’), ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” In other words that the Son of Man was even at that moment the object of the attention and ministry of the most excellent of God’s creatures. By and by He will reign in His full Melchisedec character ― “a Priest upon his throne … and the Lord” will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel” (Hosea 2:21-22). He will be the connecting link between the heavens and the earth, when all things in heaven and earth shall be gathered together in Him (Eph, 1:10).