What I do now you will understand hereafter; the importance of inculcation John 13:7-10

John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

 

John 13:2And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him,

 

John 13:3Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God,

 

John 13:4 rose from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself about.

 

John 13:5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

 

John 13:6 And so He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?"

 

John 13:7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you shall understand hereafter."

 

This only happened once and would never be repeated.

 

Neither Peter, nor the other disciples will understand the significance of what Jesus is doing at this time. But the promise is that they will later on.

 

What is going to happen between this night and the future when they understand?

 

They will receive the filling of the Spirit and they will receive more doctrine and they will struggle to apply that doctrine in success and failure.

 

This is the key to understanding any doctrine. It cannot just be heard, but it has to be heard under the filling of the HS. It cannot just be heard once, but it must be repeated many times. It cannot just be dormant in our hearts, but it must be applied to circumstances in success and in failure. Failures and successes should be evaluated in light of the grace of God for future application.

 

As this process continues in the heart of the positive believer more understanding of the plan of God occurs and more understanding of what has happened to us in the past occurs.

 

If you don’t understand what God is doing in your life right now, don’t jump to erroneous conclusions, but rather wait and continue to take in doctrine. Remember that God is for you and not against you.

 

And even though at times it feels like the answer or the deliverance is a million miles away, it’s never as far away as you think. This is the problem solving device of faith rest and the reason that God the HS has recorded hundreds of promises in the Old and New Testaments.

 

When the Lord says, “you shall know,” He uses the verb ginwskw [ginosko], which means to come to know. This is the verb for the experience of learning doctrine.

 

Peter will learn doctrine in the future, including the principle of GAP, how it relates to the rebound technique, and the lesson the Lord was teaching by washing the feet.

 

Another great principle comes from this as it is related to the shock in Peter over the Lord’s stance as a servant.

 

Principle: Ignorance of doctrine results in disorientation to God’s grace. Ignorance of doctrine both shocks and confuses the believer in his disorientation to the grace of God.

 

If ignorance of doctrine continues then it will results eventually in reversionism.

           

Peter’s statement would be commended by many because of its sincerity—“You are not going to wash my feet Lord.” Sincere people are always stupid and always wrong.

 

Sincerity is not a part of the Christian way of life, it is a façade of human viewpoint. There is no virtue in sincerity. Bible doctrine produces something greater than the hypocrisy of sincerity. Peter is very sincere, he wants to do the right thing. However again, sincerity is no substitute for knowledge of doctrine or for GAPing it. Sincerity is no substitute for doctrine in the right lobe, for the ECS, and for the discernment of the supergrace life. Sincerity never accomplishes the will of God.

 

John 13:8 Peter said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."

 

Peter uses a double negative with an aorist tense, which is as strong a negative that anyone can say. “Never shall you wash” is the aorist active subjunctive of niptw[nipto] plus a double negative, o)u mh [ou me].

 

Only the Lord can wash Peter’s feet. Only the Lord can cleanse us from all sin and the effects of post-salvation sinning.

 

If Peter refuses he will sit at the table with dirty feet. This is like trying to serve the Lord while you are out of fellowship, and like trying to metabolize doctrine while you are out of fellowship.

When out of fellowship the believer can only produce human good at best, and he cannot produce anything on the basis of Bible doctrine.

           

Jesus answered with a 3^rd class condition [maybe yes, maybe no], showing that Peter does have volition—e)anplus the subjunctive. “If I do not wash you” - aorist active subjunctive of niptw, analogous to rebound.

           

“you have no part with Me” - meroj [meros], which means business, partnership, function; which is fellowship. “If I don’t wash your feet you have no business in association with me.” The principle He is emphasising is that rebound precedes fellowship and therefore the correct function of metabolizing doctrine.

 

If Peter doesn’t make these wonderfully human and impulsive statements then we don’t glean these beautiful principles.

 

And fortunately for us he is not done putting his foot in his mouth.

 

John 13:9 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head."

 

Peter again is sincere, but very wrong and ignorant. Once he has understood that this washing is necessary to be in partnership with the Lord, though he doesn’t fully comprehend what that partnership means, through his desire to be with the Lord, his love for the Lord, and possibly his competition with the other disciples, he now wants more than the foot washing.

 

Peter runs from one wrong end of the spectrum to the other wrong end.

 

One is either in fellowship with the Lord or out of fellowship. He is either 100% spiritual or 100 % carnal. Peter thinks he can have more partnership with the Lord, but no such thing exists. Once you are a partner with the Lord, i.e. in fellowship with Him, then you are 100% a partner. There is no 110%.

 

The body wash or second bath that Peter now wants is analogous to salvation and eternal security. No one can lose their salvation and so no one ever needs to get saved again. There is one bath and many foot washings.

 

John 13:10 Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you."

 

“He who has bathed” - the perfect passive participle of louw[louo] which means to wash the entire body, to take a bath. Perfect tense: once saved, always saved. Passive voice: the believer receives salvation. He receives the bath, as it were, at the point of salvation. The participle sets up a concept. The entire body is washed once—“He having been washed.”

 

The principle: Saved once; rebound many times. Louw[louo] is used as the illustration of salvation; niptw[nipto] is used for rebound. Sin and carnality do not mean that a believer must be saved again.

 

“to wash” - aorist middle infinitive of niptw, to wash the extremities, the feet. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety every time rebound is necessary. The middle voice benefits the subject. This is a reflexive middle and it indicates that every believer priest must rebound for himself, and therefore is benefited. The infinitive expresses purpose, this rebound in the part of the plan of God.

           

“the feet” - there is no fellowship when the believer is defiled by sin. You cannot eat with God and have dirty feet;

 

Then the contrast of rebound is set against the eternal security.

 

“but is clean” - present active indicative of e)imi[eimi] with the predicate nominative singular kaqoroj[kathoros = clean] and the adverb o(loj[holos] which means all over.

 

Then the Lord confirms for them that they are eternally saved through faith in Him by saying, “and you are clean” - present indicative of e)imi, plus kaqaroj: you keep on being clean. That is eternal salvation.

 

With one exception, “but not all” - there is one exception and this refers to Judas Iscariot. This message is not for him. In the analogy, the others came with dirty feet but Judas came without a bath. I’m sure he took a bath, but he never took a spiritual bath through faith in Christ. In other words, Judas is unsaved and therefore this particular message and all the messages in the upper room discourse are not pertinent to Judas at all.

 

John 13:11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, "Not all of you are clean."

 

Though He knew Judas was betraying Him, He loved Judas to the end and would still offer salvation to him two more times before Judas left the upper room.

 

John 13:12 And so when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments, and reclined at the table again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you?

 

Jesus had taken off His outer garment to wash their feet. This is analogous to the cross where He was stripped naked and upon the cross provided eternal salvation as well as the power of the rebound technique.

 

Now He puts His outer garment back on. This is analogous to the resurrection.

 

And then He reclines at the table. This is analogous to His session. Now that He is seated at the right hand of the Father, the Father can do something He was not able to do before, and that is to open the heavens to reveal the mystery doctrine for the Church that was kept hidden from all past human history.

 

In the upper room, which everyone finally having clean feet, and Jesus able to relax with them, He begins this communication. He cannot communicate all of it since the HS is not given yet.

 

He asks them if they have understood, but He doesn’t wait for them to answer because He is sure that they don’t understand. And so He begins to explain.

 

Because of the rejection of Him by Israel and because of their faith in Him and willingness to follow Him to this point He begins to give the greatest doctrine the world has ever known.

 

When the Lord is finally seated at the right hand of God, then all of it will be given and recorded in the NT - the greatest doctrine ever known in human or angelic history.

 

John 13:13 "You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.

 

“Teacher” is the Greek word didaskaloj[didaskalos] which means teacher and is the same word used for the pastor/teacher.

 

“Lord” is kurioj[kurios] which means Lord and refers to His deity and authority.

 

Jesus Christ is the right pastor while He is on earth to these eleven apostles and He is now and ever has and will be their God/Lord/authority.

           

He confirms this by saying, “you are right or accurate for I am.”

 

The present active indicative of e)imi[eimi] often refers to the deity of Christ and here is refers to the eternal nature of the hypostatic union. He will always be the source of all doctrine and the Lord of all things, so this confirmation to the disciples is a solemn warning to listen carefully to what He is about to say.

 

This is so important to us. Every word of Scripture is God-breathed and therefore the doctrines of the pastor and God of us all. He is the word and the source of it all. All doctrine is pertinent to our glorification of Jesus Christ and so every time you are listening to doctrine you should understand its importance. Therefore, be filled with the Spirit and concentrate no matter what the doctrine is. Listen carefully. How you spend eternity depends 100% on the doctrine you have come to understand and transformed into wisdom by means of the Spirit.