In a sense, man, when under law, is principal rather than God, for all depends on his obedience. Man is the active party there. It was thus in the Garden of Eden. Not only Adam's own enjoyment of his estate there, but the Creator's continual enjoyment of the work of His hands (as Creator) alike hung upon Adam's allegiance. And it was thus also under Moses. Not only Israel's continuance in Canaan, but Jehovah's place in the midst of His land and people, under the first covenant, 'rested on the answer to this question, Would Israel be obedient?
Under grace it is otherwise. There God becomes principal; and the sinner's blessing depends on Him and His faithfulness. God is the active party: He is the giver, man the receiver. And this is as it should be. This puts things in a moral beauty, and in right relationship to each other, as well as raises God's delight and glory in the scene before Him and under Him; and increases and secures the blessedness of the creature.
This distinction, too, brings out the Lord in the different characters of a Judge and a Witness.
The law makes God a Judge; for He has to see that the one bound to Him, as under law, is keeping his place and doing his duty. The gospel makes Him a Witness; for He has, in grace, to reveal what He is, and not to be watching and proving what man is. The law makes man its object; the gospel makes God its object.
What a grander and more blessed thing this is! The glory of being a judge of man has no glory, by reason of the glory of being a witness to Himself, which excelleth.
Now, the character of a witness is that which the Lord Jesus at once assumes in St. John, and maintains throughout. In a sense, He is a Judge in St. Matthew; because there He is seen as coming to look after the condition of Israel, whether they were ready for Him, and thus equal and entitled to hold their place as God's Israel. Such a ministry as that in a sense made the Lord a Judge, as the law did; for Israel's condition was to answer the old question, should the link between the Lord and His people be continued or broken?
In John's gospel it is quite otherwise. The unfaithfulness of Israel is assumed at the very beginning. " He came unto his own, and his own received. him not." And this being so, Jesus is a witness. Man having failed in the place of responsibility, God becomes principal in the exercise of grace, or in the ministry of Himself and His salvation to sinners. He is therefore at once called " the Word"-so called, because He is a witness, or one who declares God and the Father.
Other evangelists, as well as God, call Him " the Son;" because that is His personal title. John alone calls Him "the Word;" because that is His characteristic title in his gospel.
Being then a witness, we have to notice the character of His testimony; and We find it to be this: it tells of God, or witnesses to God, in such form as suits a sinner. So that, we further read, not only that He is " the Word," who, having taken flesh, dwells among us; but does so, " full of grace and truth"-full of truth, as revealing God, full of grace, as suiting sinners. This is simple.
Accordingly, it is only sinners, convicted ones, who are joined to the Lord, in the progress of this gospel. And this tells us what the Lord is, in this gospel. He is a witness of God, or of the Father, to sinners. He will not be a judge; He will not be a king; but a witness; and that in a ruined world. This shows itself strongly in chap. viii. The Pharisees would have made Him a judge. They would have seated Him on Mount Sinai; but He has nothing to do there. He refuses, with a silence that is significant, and a simplicity that is sublime. He writes on the ground, as though He heard them not. He who had come from heaven as the One that was in the bosom of the Father, could not seat Himself on the fiery hill. But refusing to be a judge, He at once becomes a witness, raising Himself up and saying, " I am the light of the world." His office is to bring back light, or God, to that world which, through the lie of the serpent, had lost Him, and lies in the darkness of being without Him. And thus, " the light of the world" brings, as He further says, " the light of life."
The Witness of God is the Quickener of sinners. And in order to that, as He still further tells us, He consents to be " lifted up," like the brazen serpent on the pole, made a victim for the altar, that life may be brought (the only way it could be brought) in righteousness through death and atonement. And yet, further still, He lets us know that the accepting of this Witness and His testimony makes the sinner " free."
All this we get in John 8:1-311Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. 2And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. 3And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, 4They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 5Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? 6This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. 7So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 8And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 9And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? 11She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. 12Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. 13The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true. 14Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go. 15Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. 16And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. 17It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. 18I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. 19Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. 20These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come. 21Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. 22Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. 23And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. 24I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. 25Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. 26I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. 27They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. 28Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. 29And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. 30As he spake these words, many believed on him. 31Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; (John 8:1‑31). And this acceptance of the testimony of this Witness is faith. Faith is that obedience which a witness must look for: conformity to its demands is the due answer to law-faith to testimony.
I pass on to chap. 18. There this same Jesus of John's gospel is in the very character which He had taken up at the beginning. He is a witness still. (See ver. 37.) Pilate had said to Him, " Art thou a king, then?" Jesus owns this. He avows His kingdom. " Thou sayest that I am a king." And this is pregnant with the intimation that the day will come when He shall take His kingdom, and exercise His rights there. But He plainly tells him that, as for the present, His business was to bear witness to the truth. He who had before refused to act as a judge, now postpones to act as a king, that He might be, and that only, a witness to God, and of God, in the midst of a world of self-ruined sinners. This He lets Pilate know was His then present ministry. He had been born, He had come into the world, for the end of such a ministry; and we find, all through this gospel, from the beginning of it, and now at the end of it; He had been faithful to it. And this loved and cherished work we know He is pursuing still, all through this gospel-day, till every one," as He further says, " that is of the truth," i.e., belongs to God in grace, " hears his voice."
Simple and consistent, yet full of grace in its glory, all this is.
To His glory, by and by, it will be, that, as a judge, He will clear a defiled world of its corrupters. To His glory it will then be, that, as a king, He will rule a restored world in righteousness. To His still brighter glory, and still deeper joy, is it, that He now bears witness of the grace and salvation of God in a world of sinners; holding up God's truth in the face of the old serpent's lie, and manifesting God's love in answer to the charges of His accuser.
Now, this being so, He being a witness, we are to acquaint ourselves with Him. This is our duty. And the fruit of this is life; as He says, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." (Chapter 17:3.) And this knowledge of Him, which is eternal life, I may here add, appears beautifully to show itself in cases where either the convicted sinner or the rebuked saint is able, morally able, in spite of the conviction or rebuke, to abide in His presence. And such cases this same gospel gives us. This may be easily apprehended; because distance from God is the state or region of death. His presence is the place of life.
When a soul can abide near Him, or with Him, in spite of conviction; that is, though it have sinned, and been found out, life is in that soul. And it is only the knowledge of Him-the knowledge of Him in Jesus, whom He has sent, (which is indeed the only knowledge,) that gives the sinner, or the soul, this capacity, this moral power, to abide the divine presence.
The Samaritan of chap. 4., and the convicted sinner of chap. viii., illustrate this capacity. They are exposed, deeply and fully; but they do not leave Him till all is perfected in their condition.
Adam, too, in the beginning, in Gen. 3 and the Joshua of Zech. 3, illustrate the same. And, I may add, the prodigal in the parable is made to do the same. Each and all of these, though with loss of character, exposed, convicted, left as without a word to say for themselves, remain in the divine presence, which is the region, the native land, of life.
Adam might have remained under cover; and the convicted sinner might have gone out with her accusers: but they, like all in like faith with them, stay, though guilty. This was life, the knowledge of God in Jesus. Nay, it is eternal life. To keep the law would he life; but it would be life only for the day, or by the day. The same life would be to be acquired by obedience each succeeding day. Fresh title to it must be made each successive moment. The law, therefore, is never said to give eternal life. But this knowledge of Him, which restores us, sinners as we are, to the presence of God, is eternal life. It is drawn from Him who has eternal life in Himself; and having abolished death by putting away sin, (the secret, or spring, or principle of death,) thus has it for us sinners.
But, beside these cases of convicted sinners, we have cases of rebuked saints, having moral capacity to stand in the presence of God. And this capacity is the pulse of that life which they already have, as the capacity of the convicted sinner to stand in that same presence was the first symptom of that life. We have instances of such rebuked saints as Jacob, David, and the Peter of John's gospel. Jacob is rebuked, and rebuked sharply, in Gen. 32, where the Lord wrestles with him; but Jacob holds on; yea, though in the process of the wrestling or the rebuke, his thigh is put out of joint. This is very fine faith. This is courage which can only be accounted for by a rich, precious knowledge of God. And he holds on, in spite also of the word of the Lord: "Let me go, for the day breaketh." This is very fine, and the Lord delights in it. He gives him a blessing and a name of honor, and then joy in the Spirit. So David, He had sadly transgressed by going over to the Philistines; and the Lord very solemnly rebukes Him for this, by allowing the enemy to sack his town of Ziklag, and then to burn it. (1 Sam. 30) But he so blessedly knows the Lord, knows Him whom he had believed, that in spite of all this, which was surely enough to make a man a coward, David holds up: he-encourages himself in the Lord, as we read. And this again, as with Jacob, was precious faith, such faith as can only be accounted for by the soul having rich knowledge of God. And God acknowledges this faith. He gives David a victory, and the recovery of all that he had lost, yea, and a capture of such spoils as enables him to send presents to all the towns of his native land, so that the dishonor he had brought on his good name, by going over to the uncircumcised, may be obliterated and forgotten forever in these fresh glories. What riches of grace in God! What beauty in that faith which is the workmanship of the Spirit in the saints!
But Peter is another of these rebuked, yet believing saints, in the day of John's gospel. He sinned, denying His Lord with an oath; but He knows Him against whom He thus sinned, and this knowledge enables him to exercise that faith which keeps him in the presence of the Lord. As soon as he heard from John that the Lord was on the shore, he threw himself into the water to reach Him.
Was not this another pulse of that life which this saint had through the knowledge of God in Jesus? How strongly, I may rather say, is that pulse felt to be beating in all this! And blessedly again does He, who is the fountain of this life, own this life in Peter, as afore He had in Jacob and in David. He prepares a dinner on the shore, where He, and Peter, and His companions sit together. And Peter is set in full office again, pledged a strength and a presence that shall carry him through all temptations, fiercer by far than those under which he had lately fallen, and moreover, put on the way to the heavenly glory, as in the train of his divine Master-all this, surely, as fully blotting out the remembrance and the stain he had incurred, as the victory, and the spoils, and the distributions of David had obliterated from his kindred and his country the remembrance of his dishonorable sojourn among the uncircumcised.
What living histories are these! And these stories of convicted sinners and rebuked saints, finding in spite of shame and challenge, a home in the divine presence, are true to this day.
Eternal life is still gained by the sinner, when such knowledge of God in Christ is communicated to him as enables him, morally enables him, and righteously entitles him, to take his place in the presence of God. For that presence again we may remember is the region of life. The Son of the bosom of the Father is such a witness of God in this world that sinners who by faith receive His testimony, as delivered for their sins and raised again for their justification, enter into eternal life. It is eternal life to know Him, to know Him who says, " I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore."