The opening verses of John (vss. 1-18) introduce the most glorious subject which God Himself ever gave in employing the pen of man; not only the most glorious in point of theme, but in the profoundest point of view; for what the Holy Spirit here brings before us is the Word, the everlasting Word, when He was with God, traced down from before all time, when there was no creature. It is not exactly the Word with the Father; for such a phrase would not be according to the exactness of the truth; but the Word with God. The term God comprehends not only the Father, but the Holy Spirit also. He who was the Son of the Father then, as I need not say always, is regarded here as the revealer of God; for God, as such, does not reveal Himself. He makes His nature known by the Word. The Word, nevertheless, is here spoken of before there was any one for God to reveal Himself to. He is therefore, and in the strictest sense, eternal. “In the beginning was the Word,” when there was no reckoning of time; for the beginning of what we call time comes before us in the third verse. “All things,” it is said, “were made by Him.” This is clearly the origination of all creaturehood, wherever or whatever it be. Heavenly beings there were before the earthly; but whether—no matter of whom you speak, or of what—angels or men, whether heaven or earth, all things were made by Him.
Thus He, whom we know to be the Son of the Father, is here presented as the Word—who subsisted personally in the beginning (ἐν ἀρχῆ)—who was with God, and was Himself God—of the same nature, yet a distinct personal being. To clench this matter specially against all reveries of Gnostics or others, it is added, that He was in the beginning with God. Observe another thing: “The Word was with God”—not the Father. As the Word and God, so the Son and the Father are correlative. We are here in the exactest phrase, and at the same time in the briefest terms, brought into the presence of the deepest conceivable truths which God, alone knowing, alone could communicate to man. Indeed, it is He alone who gives the truth; for this is not the bare knowledge of such or such facts, whatever the accuracy of the information. Were all things conveyed with the most admirable correctness, it would not amount to divine revelation. Such a communication would still differ, not in degree only, but in kind. A revelation from God not only supposes true statements, but God’s mind made known so as to act morally on man, forming his thoughts and affections according to His own character. God makes Himself known in what He communicates by, of, and in Christ.
In the case before us, nothing can be more obvious than that the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God, is undertaking to make known that which touches the Godhead in the closest way, and is meant for infinite blessing to all in the person of the Lord Jesus. These verses accordingly begin with Christ our Lord; not from, but in the beginning, when nothing was yet created. It is the eternity of His being, in no point of which could it be said He was not, but, contrariwise, that He was. Yet was He not alone. God was there—not the Father only, but the Holy Spirit, beside the Word Himself, who was God, and had divine nature as they.
Again, it is not said that in the beginning He was, in the sense of then coming into being (ἐγένετο), but He existed (ἦν). Thus before all time the Word was. When the great truth of the incarnation is noted in verse 14, it is said—not that the Word came into existence, but that He was made (ἐγένετο) flesh—began so to be. This, therefore, so much the more contrasts with verses 1 and 2.
In the beginning, then, before there was any creature, was the Word, and the Word was with God. There was distinct personality in the Godhead therefore, and the Word was a distinct person Himself (not, as men dreamed, an emanation in time, though eternal and divine in nature, proceeding froth God as its source). The Word had a proper personality, and at the same time was God— “the Word was God.” Yea, as the next verse binds and sums up altogether, He, the Word, was in the beginning with God. The personality was as eternal as the existence, not in (after some mystic sort) but with God. I can conceive no statement more admirably complete and luminous in the fewest and simplest words.
Next comes the attributing of creation to the Word. This must be the work of God, if anything was; and here again the words are precision itself—“All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” Other words far less nervous are used elsewhere: unbelief might cavil and construe them into forming or fashioning. Here the Holy Spirit employs the most explicit language, that all things began to be, or received being, through the Word, to the exclusion of one single tiling that ever did receive being apart from Him; language which leaves the fullest room for Uncreate Beings, as we have already seen, subsisting eternally and distinctly, yet equally God. Thus the statement is positive that the Word is the source of all things which have received being (γενόμενα); that there is no creature which did not thus derive its being from Him. There cannot, therefore, be a more rigid, absolute shutting out of any creature from origination, save by the Word.
It is true that in other parts of Scripture we hear God, as such, spoken of as Creator. We hear of His making the worlds by the Son. But there is and can be no contradiction in Scripture. The truth is, that whatever was made was made according to the Father’s sovereign will; but the Son, the Word of God, was the person who put forth the power, and never without the energy of the Holy Spirit, I may add, as the Bible carefully teaches us. Now this is of immense importance for that which the Holy Spirit has in view in the Gospel of John, because the object is to attest the nature and light of God in the person of Christ; and therefore we have here not merely what the Lord Jesus was as born of a woman, born under the law, which has its appropriate place in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, but what He was and is as God. On the other hand, the Gospel of Mark omits everything of the kind. A genealogy such as Matthew’s and Luke’s, we have seen, would be totally out of place there; and the reason is manifest. The subject of Mark is the testimony of Jesus as having taken, though a Son, the place of a servant in the earth. Now, in a servant, no matter from what noble lineage he comes, there is no genealogy requisite. What is wanted in a servant is, that the work should be done well, no matter about the genealogy. Thus, even if it were the Son of God Himself, so perfectly did He condescend to the condition of a servant, and so mindful was the Spirit of it, that, accordingly, the genealogy which was demanded in Matthew, which is of such signal beauty and value in Luke, is necessarily excluded from the Gospel of Mark. For higher reasons it could have no place in John. In Mark it is because of the lowly place of subjection which the Lord was pleased to take; it is excluded from John, on the contrary, because there He is presented as being above all genealogy. He is the source of other people’s genealogy —yea, of the genesis of all things. We may say therefore boldly, that in the Gospel of John such a descent could not be inserted in consistency with its character. If it admit any genealogy, it must be what is set forth in the preface of John—the very verses which are occupying us—which exhibit the divine nature and eternal personality of His being. He was the Word, and He was God: and, if we may anticipate, let us add, the Son, the only begotten Son of the Father. This, if anything, is His genealogy here. The ground is evident; because everywhere in John He is God. No doubt the Word became flesh, as we may see more of presently, even in this inspired introduction; and we have the reality of His becoming man insisted on. Still, manhood was a place that He entered. Godhead was the glory that He possessed from everlasting—His own eternal nature of being. It was not conferred upon Him. There is not, nor can be, any such thing as a derived subordinate Godhead; though men may be said to be gods, as commissioned of God, and representing Him in government. He was God before creation began, before all time. He was God independently of any circumstances. Thus, as we have seen, for the Word the apostle John claims eternal existence, distinct personality, and divine nature; and withal asserts the eternal distinctness of that person (vss. 1-2).
Such is the Word Godward (πρὸς τὸν Θεόν). We are next told of Him in relation to the creature (vss. 3-5). In the earlier verses it was exclusively His being, In verse 3 He acts, He creates, He causes all things to come into existence; and apart from Him not one thing came into existence which is existent (γέγονεν). Nothing more comprehensive, nothing more exclusive.
Verse 4 predicts of Him that which is yet more momentous: not creative power, as in verse 3, but life. “In him was life.” Blessed truth for those who know the spread of death over this lower scene of creation!’ and the rather as the Spirit adds, that “the life was the light of men” (vs. 4). Angels were not its sphere, nor was it restricted to a chosen nation: “the life was the light of men.” Life was not in man, even unfallen; at best, the first man, Adam, became a living soul when instinct with the breath of God. Nor is it ever said, even of a saint, that in him is or was life, though life he has; but he has it only in the Son. In Him; the Word, was life, and the life was the light of men. Such was its relationship.
No doubt, whatever was revealed of old was of Him; whatever word came out from God was from Him, the Word, and light of men. But then God was not revealed; for He was not manifested. On the contrary, He dwelt in the thick darkness, behind the veil in the most holy place, or visiting men but angelically otherwise. But here, we are told, “the light shines in darkness” (vs. 5). Mark the abstractedness of the language—it “shines” (not shone). How solemn, that darkness is all the light finds! and what darkness! how impenetrable and hopeless! All other darkness yields and fades away before light; but here “the darkness comprehended it not” (as the fact is stated, and not the abstract principle only). It was suited to man, even as it was the light expressly of men, so that man is without excuse.
But was there adequate care that the light should be presented to men? What was the way taken to secure this? Unable God could not be: was He indifferent? God gave testimony; first, John the Baptist; then the Light itself. “There was (ἐγένετο) a man sent from God, whose name was John” (vs. 6). He passes by all the prophets, the various preliminary dealings of the Lord, the shadows of the law: not even the promises are noticed here. We shall find some of these introduced or alluded to for a far different purpose later on. John, then, came to bear witness about the Light, that all through him might believe (vs. 7). But the Holy Spirit is most careful to guard against all mistake. Could any run too close a parallel between the light of men in the Word, and him who is called the burning and shining lamp in a subsequent chapter? Let them learn their error. He, John, “was not that light;” there is but one such: none was similar or second. God cannot be compared with man. John came that he might “bear witness about the light,” not to take its place or set himself up. The true Light was that which, coming into the world, lighteth every man. Not only does He necessarily, as being God, deal with every man (for His glory could not be restricted to a part of mankind), but the weighty truth here announced is the connection with His incarnation of this universal light, or revelation of God in Him, to man as such. The law, as we know from elsewhere, had dealt with the Jewish people temporarily, and for partial purposes. This was but a limited sphere. Now that the Word comes into the world, in one way or another light shines for every one: it may be, leaving some under condemnation, as we know it does for the great mass who believe not; it may be light not only on but in man, where there is faith through the action of divine grace. It is certain that, whatever light in relation to God there may be, and wherever it is given in Him, there is not, there never was, spiritual light apart from Christ—all else is darkness. It could not be otherwise. This light in its own character must go out to all from God. So it is said elsewhere, “The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared.” It is not that all men receive the blessing; but, in its proper scope and nature, it addresses itself to all. God sends it for all. Law may govern one nation; grace refuses to be limited in its appeal, however it may be in fact through man’s unbelief.
“He was in the world, and the world was made by him” (vs. 10). The world therefore surely ought to have known its Maker. Nay, “the world knew him not.” From the very first, man, being a sinner, was wholly lost. Here the unlimited scene is in view; not Israel, but the world. Nevertheless, Christ did come to His own things, His proper, peculiar possession; for there were special relationships. They should have understood more about Him—those that were specially favored. It was not so. “He came unto his own [things], and his own [people] received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power [rather, authority, right, or title] to become children of God” (vss. 11-12). It was not a question now of Jehovah and His servants. Neither does the Spirit say exactly as the English Bible says—“sons,” but children. His glorious person would have none now in relation to God but members of the family. Such was the grace that God was displaying in Him, the true and full expresser of His mind. He gave them title to take the place of children of God, even to those that believe on His name. Sons they might have been in bare title; but these had the right of children.
All disciplinary action, every probationary process, disappears. The ignorance of the world has been proved, the rejection of Israel is complete; then only is it that we hear of this new place of children. It is now eternal reality, and the name of Jesus Christ is that which puts all things to a final test. There is difference of manner for the world and His own — ignorance and rejection. Do any believe on His name? Be they who they may now, as many as receive Him become children of God. It is no question here of every man, but of such as believe. Do they receive Him not? For them, Israel, or the world, all is over. Flesh and world are judged morally. God the Father forms a new family in, by, and for Christ. All others prove not only that they are bad, but that they hate perfect goodness, and more than that, life and light—the true light in the Word. How can such have relationship with God?
Thus, manifestly, the whole question is terminated at the very starting-point of our Gospel; and this is characteristic of John all through: manifestly all is decided. It is not merely a Messiah, who comes and offers Himself, as we find in other Gospels, with most pains-taking diligence, and presented to their responsibility; but here from the outset the question is viewed as closed. The Light, on coming into the world, lightens every man with the fullness of evidence which was in Him, and at once discovers the true state as truly as it will be revealed in the last day when He judges all, as we find it intimated in the Gospel afterward (John 12:4848He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. (John 12:48)).
Before the manner of His manifestation comes before us in verse 14, we have the secret explained why some, and not all, received Christ. It was not that they were better than their neighbors. Natural birth had, nothing to do with this new thing; it was a new nature altogether in those who received Him: Who “were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (vs. 13). It was an extraordinary birth; of God, not man in any sort or measure, but a new and divine nature (2 Peter 1) imparted to the believer wholly of grace. All this, however, was abstract, whether as to the nature of the Word or as to the place of the Christian.
But it is important we should know how He entered the world. We have seen already that thus light was shed on men. How was this? The Word, in order to accomplish these infinite things, “was made (ἐγένετο) flesh, and dwelt among us.” It is here we learn in what condition of His person God was to be revealed and the work done; not what He was in nature, but what He became. The great fact of the incarnation is brought before us—“The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father).” His aspect as thus tabernacling among the disciples was “full of grace and truth.” Observe, that blessed as the light is, being God’s moral nature, truth is more than this, and is introduced by grace. It is the revelation of God—yea, of the Father and the Son, and not merely the detecter of man. The Son had not come to execute the judgments of the law they knew, nor even to promulgate, a new and higher law. His was an errand incomparably deeper, more worthy of God, and suitable to One “full of grace and truth.” He wanted nothing; He came to give—yea the very best; so to speak, that God has.
What is there in God more truly divine than grace and truth? The incarnate Word was here full of grace and truth. Glory would be displayed in its day. Meanwhile there was a manifestation of goodness, active in love in the midst of evil, and, toward such; active in the making known God and man, and every moral relation, and what He is toward man, through and in the Word made flesh. This is grace and truth. And such was Jesus. “John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.” Coming after John as to date, He is necessarily preferred before him in dignity; for He was (ἦν) [not come into being (ἐμένετο)] before him. He was God. This statement (vs. 15) is a parenthesis, though confirmatory of verse 14, and connects John’s testimony with this new section of Christ’s manifestation in flesh; as we saw John introduced in the earlier verses, which treated abstractly of Christ’s nature as the Word.
Then, resuming the strain of verse 14, we are told, in verse 16, that “of his fullness have all we received.” So rich and transparently divine was the grace: not some souls, more meritorious than the rest, rewarded according to a graduated scale of honor, but “of his fullness have all we received.” What can be conceived more notably standing out in contrast with the governmental system God had set up, and man had known in times past? Here there could not be more, and He would not give less: even “grace for grace.” Spite of the most express signs, and the manifest finger of God that wrote the ten words on tables of stone, the law sinks into comparative insignificance. “The law was given by Moses.” God does not here condescend to call it His, though, of course, it was His—and holy, just, and good, both in itself and in its use, if used lawfully. But if the Spirit speaks of the Son of God, the law dwindles at once into the smallest possible proportions: everything yields to the honor the Father puts on the Son. “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came (ἐγένετο) by Jesus Christ” (vs. 17). The law, thus given, was in itself no giver, but an exacter; Jesus, full of grace and truth, gave, instead of requiring or receiving; and He Himself has said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. Truth and grace were not sought nor found in man, but began to subsist here below by Jesus Christ.
We have now the Word made flesh, called Jesus Christ— this person, this complex person, that was manifest in the world; and it is He that brought it all in. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Lastly, closing this part, we have another most remarkable contrast; “No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son,” and so forth. Now, it is no longer a question of nature, but of relationship; and hence it is not said simply the Word, but the Son, and the Son in the highest possible character, the only-begotten Son, distinguishing Him thus from any other who might, in a subordinate sense, be son of God—“the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.” Observe: not which, was, but “which is.” He is viewed as retaining the same perfect intimacy with the Father, entirely unimpaired by local or any other circumstances He had entered. Nothing in the slightest degree detracted from His own personal glory, and from the infinitely near relationship which he had had with the Father from all eternity. He entered this world, became flesh, as born of woman; but there was no diminution of His own glory, when He, born of the virgin, walked on earth, or when rejected of man, cut off as Messiah, He was forsaken of God for sin—our sin—on the cross. Under all changes, outwardly, He abode as from eternity the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. Mark what, as such, He does declare Him. No man hath seen God at any time. He could be declared only by One who was a divine person in the intimacy of the Godhead, yea, was the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. Hence the Son, being in this ineffable nearness of love, has declared not God only, but the Father. Thus we all not only receive of His fullness, (and what fullness illimitable was there not in Him!) but He, who is the Word made flesh, is the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, and so competent to declare, as in fact He has. It is not only the nature, but the model and fullness of the blessing in the Son, who declared the Father.
The distinctiveness of such a testimony to the Saviour’s glory need hardly be pointed out. One needs no more than to read, as believers, these wonderful expressions of the Holy Spirit, where we cannot but feel that we are on ground wholly different from that of the other Gospels. Of course they are just as truly inspired as John’s; but for that very reason they were not inspired to give the same testimony, Each had its own; all are harmonious, all perfect, all divine; but not all so many repetitions of the same thing. He who inspired them to communicate His thoughts of Jesus in the particular line assigned to each, raided up John to impart the highest revelation, and thus complete the circle by the deepest views of the Son of God.
After this we have, suitably— to this Gospel, John’s connection with the Lord Jesus (vss. 19-37). It is here presented historically. We have had his name introduced into each part of the preface of our evangelist. Here there is no John proclaiming Jesus as the One who was about to introduce the kingdom of heaven.
Of this we learn nothing here. Nothing is said about the fan in His hand; nothing of His burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. This is all perfectly true, of course; and we have it elsewhere. His earthly rights are just where, they should be; but not here, where the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father has His appropriate place. It is not John’s business here to call attention to His Messiahship, not even when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask, Who art thou? Nor was it from any indistinctness in the record, or in him who gave it. For “he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?” (vss. 20-25). John does not even speak of Him as one who, on His rejection as Messiah, would step into a larger glory. To the Pharisees, indeed, his words as to the Lord are curt: nor does he tell them of the divine ground of His glory, as he had before and does after. He says, One was among them of whom they had no conscious knowledge, “who cometh after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to unloose” (vss. 26-27). For himself he was not the Christ, but for Jesus he says no more. How striking the omission! for he knew He was the Christ. But here it was not God’s purpose to record it.
Verse 29 opens John’s testimony to his disciples (vss. 29-34). How rich it is, and how marvelously in keeping with our Gospel! Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, but withal, as he had said, the eternal One, yet in view of His manifestation to Israel (and, therefore, John was come baptizing with water—a reason here given, but not to the Pharisees in verses 25-27). Further, John attests that he saw the Spirit descending like a dove, and abiding on Him—the appointed token that He it is who baptizes with the Holy Spirit—even the Son of God. None else could do either work: for here we see His great work on earth, and His heavenly power. In these two points of view, more particularly, John gives testimony to Christ; He is the Lamb as the taker away of the world’s sin; the same is He who baptizeth with the Holy Spirit. Both of them were in relation to man on the earth; the one while He was here, the other from above. His death on the cross included much more, clearly answering to the first; His baptizing with the Holy Spirit followed His going to heaven. Nevertheless, the heavenly part is little dwelt on, as John’s Gospel displays our Lord more as the expression of God revealed on earth, than as Man ascended to heaven, which fell far more to the province of the apostle of the Gentiles. In John He is One who could be described as Son of man who is in heaven; but He belonged to heaven, because He was divine. His exaltation there is not without notice in the Gospel, but exceptionally.
Remark, too, the extent of the work involved in verse 29. As the Lamb of God (of the Father it is not said), He has to do with the world. Nor will the full force of this expression be witnessed till the glorious result of His blood-shedding sweep away the last trace of sin in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. It finds, of course, a present application, and links itself with that activity of grace in which God is now sending out the gospel to any sinner and every sinner. Still, the eternal day alone will show out the full virtue of that which belongs to Jesus as the Lamb of God, who takes away the world’s sin. Observe, it is not (as is often very erroneously said or sung) a question of sins, but of the “sin” of the world. The sacrificial death of Him who is God goes far beyond the thought of Israel. How, indeed, could it be stayed within narrow limits? It passes over all question of dispensations, until it accomplishes, in all its extent, that purpose for which He thus died. No doubt there are intervening applications; but such is the ultimate result of His work as the Lamb of God. Even now faith knows, that instead of sin being the. great object before God, ever since the cross He has had before His eyes that sacrifice which put away sin. Notably, He is now applying it to the reconciliation of a people, who are also baptized by the Holy Spirit into one body. By and by He will apply it to “that nation,” the Jews, as to others also, and finally (always excepting the unbelieving and evil) to the entire system, the world. I do not mean by this all individuals, but creation; for nothing can be more certain, than that those who do not receive the Son of God are so much the worse for having heard the gospel. The rejection of Christ is the contempt of God Himself, in that of which He is most jealous, the honor of the Saviour, His Son, The refusal of His precious blood will, on the contrary, make their case incomparably worse than that of the heathen who never heard the good news.
What a witness all this to His person! None but a divine being could thus deal with the world. No doubt He must become a man, in order, amongst other reasons, to be a sufferer, and to die. None the less did the result of His death proclaim His Deity. So in the baptism with the Holy Spirit, who would pretend to such a power? No mere man, nor angel, not the highest, the archangel, but the Son.
So we see in the attractive power, afterward dealing with individual souls. For were it not God Himself in the person of Jesus, it bad been no glory to God, but a wrong and a rival. For nothing can be more observable than the way in which He becomes the center round whom those that belong to God are gathered. This is the marked effect on the third day (vss. 29, 34) of John Baptist’s testimony here named; the first day (vs. 29) on which, as it were, Jesus speaks and acts in His grace as here shown on the earth. It is evident, that were He not God, it would be an interference with His glory, a place taken inconsistent with His sole authority, no less than it must be also, and for that reason, altogether ruinous to man. But He, being God, was manifesting and, on the contrary, maintaining the divine glory here below. John, therefore, who had been the honored witness before of God’s call, “the voice,” and so forth., does now by the outpouring of his heart’s delight, as well as testimony, turn over, so to say, his disciples to Jesus. Beholding Him as He walked, he says, “Behold the Lamb of God!” and the two disciples leave John for Jesus (vss. 35-40). Our Lord acts as One fully conscious of His glory, as indeed He ever was.
Bear in mind that one of the points of instruction in this first part of our Gospel is the action of the Son of God before His regular Galilean ministry. The first four chapters of John precede in point of time the notices of His ministry in the other Gospels. John was not yet cast into prison. Matthew, Mark and Luke start, as far as regards the public labors of the Lord, with John cast into prison. But all that is historically related of the Lord Jesus in John 1-4 was before the imprisonment of the Baptist. Here, then, we have a remarkable display of that which preceded His Galilean ministry, or public manifestation. Yet before a miracle, as well as in the working of those which set forth His glory, it is evident that so far from its being a gradual growth, as it were, in His mind, He had, all simple and lowly though He were, the deep, calm, constant consciousness that He was God. He acts as such. If He put forth His power, it was not only beyond man’s measure, but unequivocally divine, however also the humblest and most dependent of men. Here we see Him accepting, not as fellow-servant, but as Lord, those souls who had been under the training of the predicted messenger of Jehovah that was to prepare His way before His face. Also one of the two thus drawn to Him first finds his own brother Simon (with the words, We have found the Messiah), and led him to Jesus, who forthwith gave him his new name in terms which surveyed, with equal ease and certainty, past, present, and future. Here again, apart from this divine insight, the change or gift of the name marks His glory (vss. 41-44).
On the morrow Jesus begins, directly and indirectly, to call others to follow Himself. He tells Philip to follow Him. This leads Philip to Nathaniel, in whose case, when he comes to Jesus, we see not divine power alone in sounding the souls of men, but over creation. Here was One on earth who knew all secrets. He saw him under the fig tree. He was God. Nathaniel’s call is just as clearly typical of Israel in the latter day. The allusion to the fig tree confirms this. So does his confession: Rabbi, thou art the Son of God: thou art the King of Israel. (See Psa. 2) But the Lord tells him of greater things he should see, and says to him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Henceforth (not “hereafter,” but henceforth) ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man. It is the wider universal glory of the Son of man (according to Psa. 8); but the most striking part of it verified from that actual moment because of the glory of His person, which needed not the day of glory to command the attendance of the angels of God—this mark, as Son of man (vss. 44-51).