Piper writes of John 7:53-8:1, “The most remarkable point of this story is that Jesusexalts himself above the Law of Moses, changes its appointed punishment, and reestablishes righteousness on the foundation of grace.”
C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity: “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next… [they] all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with heaven… Aim at Heaven and you will get earth thrown in; aim at earth and you will get neither.“
Even Jesus's own [half] brothers did not believe (i.e. have faith) in him. We see from John 7:1-13 that familiarity with Jesus does not necessarily equate submission to him. But the offer of Jesus is invitation into a 'new kind of family' through his own life, death, and resurrection! This is the family of God. More than mere metaphor—it is reality-altering truth!
True disciples of Jesus will increasingly grow at submitting more and more of their whole live to the empowering presence and lordship of Jesus and teach others to do the same.
Jesus takes the "I am the living bread" statement and doubles down. He switches focus form the Galileans who seem to be missing the points and, as Bruce Milne points out, focuses on the true disciples who will respond and showing them confidence in their eternal security, identity, and identity.
Jesus says, "I AM the bread of life," declaring that he alone has the power, love, and authority to give us eternal life. But that eternal life is not just a declaration about a life never ending, it's also about a quality of life that surpasses anything we could ever imagine.
Jesus must be King over our whole lives, but we must submit to the King that he actually is and not the king we're tempted to make him.
To know Jesus is to know God because he is God (cf. John 1:1, 5:21; Colossians 1:15-20; Hebrews 1:3ff; etc.). One of the primary ways the God has established that we might know him is through his Scriptures/the Bible. When we are ignorant of the Bible, we are ignorant of God (cf. John 5:37-47).
Being a disciple of Jesus means, in part, that we are continually allowing him to redeem both our human categories (how we view/categorize the value/worth of others AND ourselves) and our human frailty (both physically and spiritually).
Though John's retelling of Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well is brief, it's chalked full of challenges for all that would become his disciples. Jesus challenges what we believe about humanity, sin, salvation, and worship.
In John 3:22-36, the primary difference between the Baptist and his disciples is not that one knew about Jesus and the others did not (they all knew of Jesus and his activity). The difference was what they knew about themselves! John knew who he was only because he knew who Christ was.
In John 2:13-22, John is ulitmately trying to show us is that Jesus’ cleansing of the temple is a lot more than just an act of [totally justified] moral outrage. Jesus, becoming the new/better/permanent temple is God’s love on display–and it makes the previous temple pale by comparison.
Signs, for John, answer the question, “Who is Jesus?” At the wedding feast in Cana, John reveals (amongst other things) that Jesus ushers in the messianic age in which wine (evidence of blessed fruitfulness and provision) will flow in overwhelming abundance and the mountains will drip with the best wine for the joy of God’s people (cf. Joel 3:18, Amos 9:13-14, and Her, 31:12
The invitation that Jesus provides to all of his disciples is a relationship–to be with him, to become like him, to do what he did–to find flourishing by joyfully and increasingly submitting every area of our lives to his empowering presence and Lordship!
"In Jesus, old covenant types (i.e. Adam, the Passover Lamb, the Tabernacle, etc.) give way to the new creation antitype—shadow is supplanted by substance. To “Behold, the Lamb of God” is to see in Jesus the arrival of the suffering servant of Isaiah’s prophecy (Isa. 53:4–12), who took the punishment we deserve to give us the grace we could never earn." — ESV Gospel Transformation Bible
Grace is the pipeline—the inexhaustible well—through which we receive all that God wants to give us (i.e. the greatness of Christ, the greatness of his love, the greatness of the gospel). But this isn’t just a concept to be understood, it’s a reality to be lived into.
There is no parallel anywhere else in the world’s religions to the sympathetic presence of God in Christ sharing our human struggle with us. Our God was not immune to human suffering. Therefore, ‘Christmas can only be understood as a wonder’ — Karl Barth.
No one had ever seen God in a full/complete way until Jesus revealed him (1:18) — The world still cannot see God except through Jesus’ through his witnesses (i.e. his Church/disciples) modeling their lives after the character of Jesus (John 13:35, 17:21-23; 1 John 4:12).
Jesus is eternally one with the Father—the very Word of God (John 1:1–2), God’s agent in creating all things (vv. 3–4). And as he spoke light and brought life into the dark void of pre-creation chaos, so Jesus brings light and life into the dark world of sin and death.
What we see in Jesus, the creator of all things, is both the joy of creating itself and the love of sharing it with others. Our understanding of and belief in Jesus as the Creator is an indispensable attribute to our ability to mirror his creativity as image bearers.
In vv. 1-2, John is saying the gospel reveals that the meaning of life isn’t an abstract idea or to “find what makes you happy and do it” (like the Greeks believed), but to be in a relationship with the creator of the universe — an idea as mind-boggling as it is wonderful!