Adrian Hall

John, who wrote this gospel, was ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’. As a young man he experienced over three years of close companionship with Jesus of Nazareth, yet he chose to write the gospel at the end of his life, towards the close of the first century. As best we can tell, he wrote it from the city of Ephesus, where he settled after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. John does not retrace the events recorded in the ‘synoptic’ gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke); rather, he tells us his reason for writing: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20 v 30, 31).

Each of the Gospels emphasizes a different origin of Jesus: Matthew shows Jesus came from Abraham through David, and demonstrates that he is the Messiah promised in the Old Testament (Matthew 1 v 1 to 17); Mark shows Jesus came from Nazareth, demonstrating that he is a servant (Mark 1 v 9); Luke shows Jesus came from Adam, showing Jesus to be the perfect man (Luke 3 v 23 to 38); John shows Jesus came from heaven, demonstrating that Jesus is God. The first three Gospels focus on what Jesus taught and did: John focuses more on who Jesus is.

John shows us who Jesus is by highlighting seven ‘signs’ (miracles) of Jesus, six of which are not mentioned in the first three gospels. John shows us who Jesus is by allowing Jesus to speak for himself in seven dramatic ‘I am’ statements, which were not included in the first three gospels. The Gospel of John has even helped scholarly sceptics to believe: the oldest surviving fragment of the New Testament is a portion of John 18, found in Egypt and dating well before 150 AD, indicating wide circulation by that early date.

John’s father was Zebedee. John’s mother was Salome, one of those to go to the tomb early on the morning the resurrection of Jesus was discovered. John’s older brother was James. John was a partner in the fishing business with Peter. John and his brother James were given the nickname ‘Sons of Thunder’.

John begins his gospel by asking the question: ‘Who is Jesus — really? Where did he come from?’ Verses 1 to 18 contain a summary of John’s most profound convictions about Jesus.  They focus on this central fact: Christianity is not a philosophy; it is about a person, Jesus.  He is central to the Christian faith.  To take Jesus out of Christianity is like taking numbers out of mathematics, or taking doctors out of medicine, or like trying to think of daylight without the sun…

The Gospel of John is a beloved gospel. Because of its paradoxical combination of both simplicity and depth, John has been called ‘a pool in which a child may wade and an elephant may swim’.

Anne Ogilvie (née Maxwell) was my grandmother’s grandmother.  She was born in 1822 in Dundee, Scotland, and according to her Memoirs, at the age of about 18 she accepted Jesus as her personal Saviour, after hearing the evangelistic preaching of Robert Murray McCheyne (the famous preacher who set Scotland ‘on fire’ with a series of revivals during the 1840s before his death from pneumonia at the age of 29).

The reason I believe Anne’s decision to accept Christ was significant is that in every generation of her direct descendants since that time there have been those who have been keen followers of Jesus.  Psalm 119 v 90 rings true: “Thy faithfulness is unto ALL generations”.

Now that I have two grandsons, David, who was born in May 2018, and Luke, born in September 2019, almost 200 years and six generations later, I pray that they also will follow Anne Maxwell’s example, and put their trust in Jesus…

Will you pray this too?

Anne’s Memoirs have been uploaded on to the Personal page of my website and are well worth reading!

The final two verses of Romans Chapter 7 (v 24 and 25) describe the victory that Paul finds in Jesus Christ.

“Wretched man that I am!” writes Paul in exasperation: the entire tone of this statement shows that Paul is desperate for deliverance; he is overwhelmed with a sense of his own powerlessness and sinfulness.

We must come to the same place of desperation to find victory. Our desire must go beyond a vague hope to be better.  We must cry out against self, and cry to God with the same desperation Paul had.

“Who will deliver me?” – Paul’s perspective finally turns to someone outside himself.

“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (v 25) – Paul finally looks outside himself to Jesus, and as soon as he looks to Jesus, he has something to thank God for – and he thanks God through Jesus Christ!

Paul sees Jesus standing between himself and God, bridging the gap and providing the way through to God.   ‘Lord’ means Paul has put Jesus in the right place – as Lord and master of his life…

Prayer – Lord, thank you for these wonderful truths.  We echo Paul’s words when he says, “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…  Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” 

We praise you that with Paul we can answer, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  Thank you, Jesus, that through the power of the Holy Spirit we can have daily victory over sin!

Thank you that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has indeed set us free from the law of sin and death!  Amen.

A few days ago, I read an article by an eminent theologian (who will remain nameless) that profoundly disturbed me.  The article was about ‘eternal security’, and contained a lot of good stuff, but included the provocative statement ‘This afternoon I could go to hell’.  I know this was written in the context of pastors and preachers turning apostate, and I have almost certainly taken this out of context; nevertheless, I seek to challenge such an assertion, and so dispel the feelings of disturbance and insecurity it has engendered within me…

By way of response, I’ve started to look at various scriptures and ‘case studies’.  Romans Chapter 8 contains some key verses on eternal security, but my favourite would have to be John 10 v 27 to 30:

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.”

Both the Father and the Son assure us of our eternal security.

And Romans 8 v 15 and 16 states:

You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God…

Thus the Holy Spirit testifies that we are children of God.

But then what happens if we turn ‘apostate’?  Do we lose our salvation?

What about King Solomon?  Towards the end of his life he turned apostate – he started well, but he did not finish well.  Did he lose his salvation?  When he died, did he go to hell?  My answer is ‘No’.  Solomon may have lost his ‘reward’ (or at least a part of it), but I do not believe he lost his salvation.  What do you think?

What about the thief on the cross?  He did not exactly lead a virtuous life.  I don’t think he went through the ‘four steps of salvation’, and he wasn’t baptised.  But the scriptures suggest that he feared God, and was at least remorseful about what he had done, if not repentant, and he recognised that Jesus had done nothing wrong.  So, after rebuking the other thief, he turned to Jesus, and asked Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom; and Jesus said, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”  So the thief was saved because he ‘called upon the name of the Lord’ (if nothing else), and the security of his salvation was guaranteed by Jesus’ word.  See Luke 23 v 39 to 43.

What about the prodigal son?  We all know Jesus’ parable, and there are many lessons we can draw from this.  But suppose the story took a different turn.  Suppose the younger son did not return from the far country to his father’s house, but instead made a living in that far country – maybe he became a slave to a wealthy landowner, or perhaps he started his own business there, and never returned.  Would he have ceased to be his father’s son?  What would the father have done?  I think that unless that father could go over to the far country himself to rescue his son, he would have waited patiently for his son to return – every day perhaps until he died.  I don’t think he would ever have disowned his son, even though father and son would eventually become estranged.  The son would thus never have lost his sonship – though of course he would have lost his ‘reward’, in the sense of missing out on reconciliation with his father, with the joyful celebration that is part of Jesus’ parable.  See Luke 15 v 11 to 32.

This truth – the guarantee and assurance of our eternal security and sonship – is in my view of vital importance, both theologically and practically.

I don’t for one moment believe that the statement ‘I could go to hell this afternoon’ is true.  I think that statement is contrary to many scriptures, including the John 10 and Romans 8 passages quoted above.

But let me apply it to myself.  What if – say in the next 10 to 20 years – I really ‘lose it’, emotionally or mentally?

It could so easily happen, perhaps because of a life crisis or trauma.  It could be temporary, or perhaps permanent.  What if, as a result of my ‘losing it’, I somehow become estranged from God, or even hostile?  Perhaps I might curse God, as Job was tempted to do.  Or I could myself become ‘apostate’ in a host of other ways.  But am I still God’s son?  I say ‘Yes’.  Will God ever disown me?  I say ‘Never’.  Can I lose my salvation?  I say ‘No’…

But I could lose my ‘reward’ (or at least part of it) – but that’s another story…

What do you think?

Day 5 (Saturday 06/07/19): After a good night’s sleep I sat in the window and watched the dawn.  Then I emailed an update based on my experience of Psalm 27 v 13 on 01/07/19.  Most of the day spent reading or listening to Billy Graham – summaries of his life, and clear teaching about death and Heaven.  Tour de France Grand Depart from Brussels.

I think one of the main things I learned from this experience is the brevity and fragility of human life.  I knew this in theory, of course, but now I was confronted by this truth in experience, and it is humbling, and rightly so.

During the hours leading up to the operation, all I could was to pray and meditate upon God’s Word, and I especially focused on the first 30 or so Psalms, noting down every verse that talked about God being our salvation, refuge, stronghold, shield, rock, deliverance etc.  There are many such verses; almost every psalm contains at least one or two.

Perhaps the key verse for me was Psalm 27 v 13, “I BELIEVE that I shall see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living”.  This is the perfect example of walking by faith and not by sight, ‘I believe…’.

When the morning of the operation came, and I was wheeled out of the ward, up the lift and into theatre, though it was scary I was not scared. I am sure that is because more than one of you specifically prayed that I would be delivered from fear – and I was!

And when I came round from the anaesthetic about 12 hours later (7.30 pm), I felt exactly as I predicted I would feel – an overwhelming sense of relief, almost euphoria.  I thought, never mind about the discomfort and pain, never mind about all the tubes and lines and wires.  I had made it!  The operation had been successful and my heart was fixed.  I was alive!  I was seeing the GOODNESS OF THE LORD in the LAND OF THE LIVING!  What I and many others had BELIEVED – had actually happened!

This is Adrian’s personal website, please feel free to browse and enjoy.