To see nature carried lengths, unknown before, in hypocrisy and hardness of heart, one has only to read the opening verses of this chapter.
Of sense of shame, or of the guilt of sin, or of sorrow for the poor erring one, there is no trace amongst these religiously bad men; for we must remember it was a religious matter, a question of morality, the morality of scribes and Pharisees. Their holiness, of which they made great show, was founded on hatred, even unto the death, of God’s Holy One, and carried out in an effort to convict Him publicly, as He taught the people in the temple, of allowing the sin which the law of Moses condemned. Having made void the word of God by their traditions, their corrupted religion, as if in judgment from God, had corrupted themselves. There was no lack of wisdom, either, in their selection of the temple as the scene of their operations; this wisdom did not descend from above, it is true; nor is any argument needed to show that it was “earthly, sensual, devilish.”
But what a triumph for Satan would be the accomplishment of his thought! to discredit forever, even in His Father’s house, the blessed Teacher and His doctrines in the eyes of all the people; for if He demanded the application of the law of Moses, the grace that came by Jesus Christ was no more, gone forever, with the salvation that it came to bring. If mercy, yielding of its boundless store, spared the sinner, then Moses and the authority of the law were denied; in either case, His adversaries trusted to succeed, because of the divorcement of authority from testimony.
For what is testimony without authority, but form without power? Now the form of Jesus testimony (the grace and authority with which it was rendered) was its power, and as true and real as the testimony itself; inseparably united with it, and equally divine: commending itself to the people even in spite of themselves. They “wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of His lips.” What a word is this! they say, “for with authority and power He commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out” (Luke 4).
Alas! the divine Witness, and all His gracious words, were alike rejected; for the precious seed had fallen upon rocky places, where they had not much earth, and immediately they sprang up out of the ground, because of not having any depth of earth, but when the sun rose, they were burnt up, and because of not having any root, were dried up.” (New Trans.)
Verse 5. “Moses commanded,” say they, “but what sayest Thou?” Never was wickedness so vile expressed in fewer words. A simple statement, and an equally simple question. Could the authority of Moses be set aside? Could Christ deny Himself?
The grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ could not be denied, any more than the law that was given by Moses. These wretched men were the agents, but who was the author of this scheme to tempt Him, who was over God’s house in all the authority and glory of Son, to impugn the authority of the servant, who, as such, was faithful in all that house? This would have been to “break the word of God”; to set aside, not only the authority of Moses testimony, but of all divine testimony on earth.
Did not He that sitteth in the heavens laugh? Will devices like this hinder the accomplishment of His purpose? “Yet have I set My king upon My holy hill of Zion.” The Lord will have them in derision.
In the thoughts of these men, there was no escape from the snares which they had woven around their looked-for victim. The contrast between deepest darkness and brightest light, was never, perhaps, so defined in any moral picture before. The poor woman stood in their midst in the corruption of nature, but the Pharisees were the willing instruments of Satan’s enmity against Jesus Himself. Therefore no expression of indignation, of anger, or of reproof, proceeded from His lips; He writes on the ground, His only answer! until their persistence draws forth the word, “Let the sinless one cast the first stone.”
Nowhere is the moral grandeur of Christ’s character more conspicuous. In a few quiet words, He puts every one, and everything, in its own place. The accusers depart, self-condemned, so that He needed not to utter a word. The woman remains silent before Him, till asked, “Hath no man condemned thee?” then she hears those blessed words, “Neither do I — go in peace — sin no more.”
The poor sinner is pardoned in grace; the righteous claims of the law are admitted; to administer its judgments, none were competent: Some one has remarked, that the law is like a two edged sword without a handle, you cannot, use it against another without wounding yourself; the sin, it never could reach, the sinner, it could never spare! “When the commandment; came, sin revived, and I died” (Rom. 7).
We have also the mind of Christ with respect, to the relative bearing of law and grace at that; moment. It could not then be said, “Ye are not under law, but under grace”; yet in the way of divinest wisdom, grace finds a way for its blessed outflow, teaching that against which there is no law (Gal. 5:2323Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:23)). How graceful and simple are the actings of divine power! Holding in His hands the keys of all God’s dispensations, He is Himself for us, through the knowledge of Him, the key to all God’s ways.
Verse 12. “I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” It is His Person everywhere, that must mainly occupy us, blessed necessity! In the beginning of chapter 6, we have seen that Jesus, accomplishing what was written of Jehovah (He abundantly supplied her poor with bread) is thus identified with Jehovah Himself. But in verse 27, the Jewish field is left, and a new departure taken, in which the; world itself comes into view, as the scene of a new revelation of the glory and of the grace of Him, who coming out of heaven, gives life to a once lost world. “Giveth” is the word here, yes, giveth according to the fullness of the thought, as it existed in the heart and mind and counsels of God.
This was the glorious thought filling, yea, feeding the divine mind now: the best thing that earth could yield, was now but as food that perisheth: the Son of Man, as One sealed by the Father, would give eternal life. The thoughts were all new, and as glorious as they were new. By the name of Father, God had not been known to His earthly people. God Almighty was the name of relationship to the patriarchs, Jehovah His covenant name in relation with the people of Israel. The revelation of “Father” came in with that of eternal life. Eternal life, we must remember, was brought to light by the gospel.
In John 7, He stands at the head, as it were, of the river of life. Whoso came to Him and drank, out of his belly should flow rivers of living water. This spake He of the Holy Ghost.
But here He presents Himself, not as the Bread, but as the Light of life. Nothing can be more important, nothing more beautiful, than these revelations, and the order in which they are given. They embrace, as their subject-matter, eternal life, with the manner of its reception; the power of that life (the Holy Ghost, sent by Jesus glorified, from the Father); and the light of life, of which He Himself is the radiant center.
It is neither union, nor justification, nor forgiveness, but life with its power and guidance.
The enjoyment of this light is the fruit of individual faith. Jesus, then, was the Light of the world, and the Light of life in His Person and ways.
But the Pharisees, who did not like to follow Jesus, nor yet to be told that, if they did not, they should lack the light of life, contend that He bore testimony to Himself. The subject of their controversy now, is the truth of His Person and testimony, united in “light of the world,” and “light of life”; they could not be separated. In the beginning of the chapter, their enmity was shown in the endeavor to place Jesus in opposition to Moses, so as to destroy His testimony to the people; here, they seek to invalidate it, by alleging that He bore witness to Himself. It is plain that His Person, who He is, is the subject of controversy now; they cannot, here at least, be charged with hypocrisy, and Jesus does not write on the ground.
In His answer, He, first of all, takes ground new and strange to man. He knew whence He came, and whither He went. Who, of the children of men, had ever solved the (to them) dark and impenetrable mystery of whence one comes and whither one goes? The key to which was never more earnestly sought after than in this our day; the professors of wisdom have here, more than anywhere, made their folly apparent. The truth is, it is not one for the creature to solve. For the Eternal it is no question at all, simply the truth, Jesus is the Eternal. The wise, the scribe, the disputer of this world, where is he, or whence? Ask him, he cannot tell. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world, that He may put to shame the wise. To the poor blind man of the following chapter, it was simply a wonder that they did not know whence Jesus was, and “yet He hath opened mine eyes!” Wisdom is justified of her children, was he not one of them?
Verses 13-20. The character and authority of His testimony. God had had many servants amongst men, but One only was called “His holy servant Jesus.” Some amongst them He visited from time to time in special grace, but there was One only, who, during His service on earth, had a Son’s place in the Father’s bosom; His witness was unique. “Even if I bear witness of myself,” He says, “My witness is true, because I know whence I come and whither I go.” The faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, alone could speak thus; but His judgment also was true, and for a reason equally outside the range of the creature’s thoughts or experience; “If also I judge, My judgment is true, because I am not alone, but I and the Father who has sent Me.”
His witness and His judgment alike proved that His Person and mission were divine.
Further, what was written in their law, that the testimony of two persons was true, was supremely true here also. “I am one who bear witness concerning Myself, and the Father who has sent Me bears witness concerning Me”; presently He tells them that if they had known Him, they would have known the Father also.
No such language or thought was ever found in the heart or mind of man. Nor did the law, taken in its most extended sense, pretend to embrace in its subject-matter, the revelation of the Father. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, and He alone hath declared Him.
Every word uttered, every position taken, bears witness to the divinity of Him, who both in word and deed, was the manifestation of the Father, as also to His true humanity, even in saying, “Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” Moreover, amid all God’s testimonies concerning His servants there was one only which included a Father’s testimony concerning His Son, the supreme Object of His Father’s affections, counsels, promises “His beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased.”
Could the Father leave Him alone, who did always the things that pleased Him? His ways on earth, like His words, were but the expression of Himself. How lonely had been the path of the Man of sorrows in a world like this, save for that divine presence. His thoughts none could enter into, with His feelings therefore none could sympathize, this is to be alone!
I was just thinking of the beginning, or at least the first revelation; of those things in which He always pleased the Father. It is found in Matthew 3, where we read of the heavens opening to Him, their wondrous and only Object; of the Holy Ghost descending and coming upon Him, and of the Father’s voice in testimony concerning Him: “This is My beloved Son.” In Luke it is directly to Him, “Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I have found My delight.
Had ever the heavens been in such relation to earth before? No! not even when the morning stars sang together. Had the Holy Ghost ever left the heavens to come (and abide, as stated, chapter 1) upon a son of man, or the Father’s voice been heard in such testimony before? Had any event taken place on earth, so as to be an occasion for the manifestation, at the same moment, of the thoughts and affections of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?
A lowly man was praying on the banks of Jordan; it is thus the wondrous story begins; a more blessed one had never been traced by the pen of the ready writer Himself. He had gone up from the baptism of John, where the Holy One had associated Himself with a company of poor sinners confessing their sins.
How little did they apprehend that God Himself was with them in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, or that where the sense of sin had led them, He had gone in the fulfilment of all righteousness. By this action, more eloquent than language could convey, they would discover that none were so near them as He against whom they had sinned. Never had there been before such an expression of sympathy as this. Traced up to heavenly springs, it was His Father’s heart that Jesus had been telling out in the waters of Jordan.
The distinguishing feature in His service was not its extent; the sphere could hardly be more contracted — Galilee of the Gentiles, Jerusalem, Samaria: while its effects embrace the heavens, and the earth, and all creation. But the great feature of it, as remarked, was that He did always the things that pleased the Father. On coming into the world, His first thought is, Lo! I come to do Thy will”; on leaving it, His word is, “I come to, Thee,” preceded by, “I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” He would not leave His place with the Father, save to do His will, could not return to it without having accomplished that will. It never was a question with Him of doing great or little things, (this distinction is hardly, divine), but those things that pleased the Father. If anyone wishes to do His will, he shall know whether Christ in His doctrine can be apart from God. Have those who take the place of teachers in the church of God weighed the import of these words?
Think of Him, in His blessed ways, as Servant, Man, and Teacher; the perfect Servant sought not His own glory, but the glory of Him that sent Him; the Man, who was perfect as such, could do nothing of Himself; and the Teacher, come from God, refused to own His doctrine as His own. Everywhere infinite dependence, obedience, and love, with moral glories of every kind, power displaying itself in weakness, weakness swallowed up of power. This union of power and weakness, who can understand? “The Son can do nothing of Himself”; yet, “what things soever He [the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” How constantly we are reminded of His own words: “No one knows the Son, but the Father”!
For forming a just judgment, or discerning the doctrine which is of God, there was but one way — to do His will, and but one Teacher of that way, He who, coming into the world, said, “Lo, I come to do Thy will.” He will own no judgment, no power, no place of service as His own, apart from the Father, by whom He lives (His life as Man down here). If He judged, His judgment was true, for He was not alone, but, “I, and the Father who has sent Me.” And thus, too, was the requirement of the law met, the testimony of two was true. Then they changed the ground of attack, asking, “Where is Thy Father?” By this question they showed that they knew neither Jesus nor the Father.
These words were spoken in the treasury. After this, the Lord’s controversy with them deepens in solemnity — their true moral state is brought fully to light, the sources of it uncovered.
Verse 21. “I go away, and ye shall seek Me,” (yet should not find Him, the day of grace gone for them, the door shut,) “and shall die in your sin; where I go, ye cannot come.” It is all dark to them. “Will He kill himself?” is all they can say or think.
Then their moral origin is unfolded as in no other scripture that I can remember: “ye are from beneath”; “ye are of this world”; “ye are of your father the devil”; the murderer and liar from the beginning. From beneath “(hell)”; this world and the devil, its prince, are seen to be, thus, connected in the mind of Christ; thus to be “of this world,” and to be “from beneath,” is the same thing in Christ’s mind. It seems as if this solemn truth was all but obliterated from the minds of many orthodox professors. Is there not a danger for such of forgetting that He “gave, Himself for our sins, so that He should deliver us out of the present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father”?
Verse 24. The argument now turns more simply than before on His Person, no special glory or quality is referred to: “Unless ye shall believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” They say, “Who art thou? His Person is the pivot upon which everything turns. His answer thereupon, in its real depth of meaning, brings out the wondrous truth that God manifest in the flesh, and none other, is He who says, “I am altogether that which I say unto you.”
Not more perfectly did the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, bear witness to the holiness of the throne in which it had its source, than the words of Jesus presented Himself. A little further on, He says, “The prince of this world comes, and finds nothing in Me”; nothing, from His inmost thought to the expression of that thought in outward deed, inconsistent with a life lived by or on account of the Father. In Psalm 17, He says, “Let Thine eyes behold the things that are equal.” The fine flour of the meat-offering expressed the equality of the perfections of Jesus. What grace was predominant where all was perfection in the consistency of goodness Itself? He says in spirit, “Thou hast tried Me, and shalt find nothing”; nothing that was not of, and for, God. All that the fine flour, mingled and anointed with oil, (born of and anointed with the Holy Ghost) with the frankincense put thereon, signified, had its accomplishment in a Man, Who, as such, could present Himself to God, according to the holiness; of a nature, that in Him could not be separated; from the Holy Ghost, and all the sweetness of ineffable grace. “Because of the savor of Thy good ointments; Thy name is as ointment poured I forth.” This was man before God! When He speaks of Himself as a Light come into the world; it was as from God, a Light in which God was shining before man. Had he eyes to see? Alas! the god of this world was there, too, blinding the eyes of them that believe not.
In the passage before us (vs. 25), it is important to note, that it is not any relative position of Christ, which engages our attention here, it is not whence He came or whither He went, or His conscious knowledge of that, which indeed proved Him to be a divine Person, but man on earth, bearing witness for God in a testimony which was identified with the Witness. Himself, a new thing, and without parallel in the history of man! It was very Man, and yet One greater than man who was there. Through these communications, which flowed forth pure as the waters of the river of life, it might have been perceived Who was there, had there been eyes to see, what human eyes had never seen before; “the Life” manifested, moving onward in the path which divine counsels and wisdom had marked out for it; and telling itself out in language and spirit peculiar to itself. “Let Thine eyes behold the things that are equal; Thou hast proved Mine heart; Thou hast visited Me in the night: Thou hast tried Me, and shalt find nothing.” Could other than Himself thus address God?
When standing before men, His word was, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” The footsteps were human; yet it was God who walked in them, God was manifest in the flesh. The path led, straight as an arrow, to the throne and right hand of God. No path of the destroyer received the print of His footsteps; but in the thoughts by the way, and the exercises of that holy heart, the saints find light and nourishment for their souls — “Light of the world,” and “Bread of heaven!”
There was this peculiarity, also, as to the path, that His footsteps alone could make it; it was a path not found, but made, and even as to Himself, the path of life had been shown by Jehovah, so He shows His own path to His peopled for them the only one, as one has lately sung,
There is but that one in the waste,
Which His footsteps have marked as His own.
The temptings of the adversary, by the way, were answered in a power that displayed itself in obedience that was perfect, with a simple, “Thus it is written.” The enemy was foiled, for the weapon was divine!
Opposition from man, and indignities of every kind, were endured in sorrowing love, or met with “Father, forgive them.” In anyone else, wounded self-love would have clamored for vengeance, the maintenance of rights and place; but in that holy heart the self-consciousness that stirred, at the sound of anger and reproach, was full of glory and of grace. “The Father loveth the Son,” (was not that an answer to it all?) “and hath given all things into His hands.” “Father, I thank Thee!” Could the spirit of vengeance mingle itself with affections thus divinely satisfied? But His own, seeing no beauty in Him that He should be desired, could even ask, “Who art Thou?” Alas! for them, as for many in our day, there was no unction in the oil, the incense had no fragrance. They had even asked Him for a sign. How offensive to the spirit of Christ was this request for a sign from heaven; what grossness of heart, that had failed to recognize the greatest of all signs in “Emanuel” (God with us). It was indeed an evil and adulterous generation. A sign, indeed, would be given them; but not that which they looked for, the desire of their hearts answered in being permitted to kill the “Prince of life,” in whose grave however, lay the death of all their hopes. Howbeit, they thought not so!
Surely the soul of Jesus was sorrowful! Aforetime the Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonas; a Gentile queen had come from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: but a greater than either Jonas or Solomon was present amongst them, His wisdom accounted folly, His Person rejected! His sorrow was the sorrow of love rejected; He would find consolation in replacing the links now broken with Israel in the flesh, by new and personal relationships, not founded on any former connection with His earthly people.
Mark their character, and say if, in the history of man, whether from a divine or human source, anything like it had ever been heard before; whosoever did the will of His Father in heaven, the same was His brother and sister and mother. The voice of the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father was heard in these words. I have referred to the demand for a sign in Matthew 12, as that passage gives us, in the most touching way, the thoughts and feelings of Christ of which it was the occasion. What can vie in interest, and profit too, for His people, with the unfolding of those thoughts and affections?
Before we proceed with our chapter, look for a moment at John 6, where a sign is also requested. In Matthew 12, it is the scribes and Pharisees, of whom, apparently, “the evil generation who asked for a sign” is composed. Self-deceived by the forms of piety, which they adopted and loved so well, they seemed to have assumed that the form included the power. Everywhere the adversaries of Christ, the height of their profession may be taken as a measure of the depth of their hypocrisy. “Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” Thus He, who knew what was in man, describes them; but in chapter 6, it is the crowd who asked for a sign; the poor unbelieving people had really come, not because of the miracles; but, as Jesus tells them, on account of the loaves.
They were not found in the ranks of the deliberate adversaries of the Lord; but were an ordinary sample of poor “lost sinners, for whose salvation He had come. Therefore the doom of the evil generation,” whom even the Ninevites and queen of the south would condemn in the judgment, is not once alluded to. Eternal life is His blessed theme with them, and food, such as Moses never gave. His Father would give them the true Bread; Bread of God, of heaven and of life.
In verse 26, we have a characteristic word in the gospel of John — the word World, I speak unto the world those things which I have heard of him. The world is before His spirit from the beginning, even when speaking to the Jews, “God so loved the world.” “The bread of God is he who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.” “The bread withal which I shall give is My flesh which I will give for the life of the world.” “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. “I am the light of the world.” We must not forget that at the same time He was a minister of the circumcision for, the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers. (But this is rather in Matthew). There had been promises to the fathers; there were mercies for the Gentiles; afterwards when the Holy Ghost had come, eternal counsels were revealed which embraced the church, through which the all-various wisdom of God is made known to the heavenly powers. We find man everywhere in view, those who were, dispensationally, nigh, the far off ones and those who, as yet, only existed in the purposes and counsels of God, and finally the Tabernacle of God with men. But in John it is simply the world, God loving it and Christ giving life to it. An examination of the passages where the word world occurs would help one much in apprehending the true character and scope of these blessed scriptures.
In the first chapter the world is viewed as an apostate system, it knew not its Creator; and the favored people, whom alone He had “known of all the families of the earth,” would not receive Him.
Their moral state in nature is perfectly described in the words of verse 13, “Born of blood,” natural descent with its outward religious privileges: “the will of man” and the “will of the flesh.” Now these three things include all that appertains to man, as such, I might add conscience, but a bad one, characterizing the race. The blood of Christ alone can purge it. We have seen what was found in man, what alone he could call his own, in other words, sin; but that in Christ was life and that life the light of man: whoever received Christ was born of God.
In the mind of the Spirit, Jews and Gentiles were equally component parts of that world, which God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believed might have eternal life, never revealed until now. And here is another characteristic word in this gospel, “life,” eternal life! And this along with yet another kindred word, almost peculiar to John — light. The life was the light of men. “The light of life” was found in the thoughts, energies, motives, and objects of that life, for it was “manifested and we have seen it,” says the apostle. Had man ever walked by such light as that? It was not possible: for until Jesus came It was not here, but with the Father. God was manifested in the flesh. Could one talk in that way of the law? Was God, in His nature manifest in a system of commandments and ordinances imposed on sinful man, on Israel in the flesh?
It was holy, just, and good, it is true, and His creatures ought to have obeyed it; but were they able to do so? Take the two first commandments, who has kept them, what creature I mean? But is holy, just, and good what God is in Himself? Why, they are only attributes, in the highest thought of them, and learned through His dealings with sinful, yet responsible man. Some one was guilty of the amazing folly of saying that they expressed Himself! In reality, the law, even if perfectly kept, would have been only man’s righteousness, what the apostle calls, “my own righteousness, which is by the law.” The righteousness of God is altogether another thought, see the early chapters of Romans: but Light is what God is in His nature.
But I come now to another of those beautiful words, which give special character to this gospel; the reader has surely anticipated me when I write the word love. Is that an attribute? or not rather like light, what God is in Himself. It is most true that the law demanded the creature’s love, but was powerless to produce it. It will be perceived that we are on wholly new ground from the beginning in John. God had never been seen at any time, nor declared according to His being and nature, until the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father was here to “declare” Him? Can one say in the face of this scripture that the law in any sense “declared” Him? Grace and truth, we are told, “subsist through Jesus Christ.” Not having actually been in being before [that is, in the world] now begin to be so. “It follows that the law could not be a revelation, even of the grace and truth of God, which have their being in this world, only through Jesus Christ; it is as simple as it is deep and important. Two systems are in contrast here, the law given by Moses, grace and truth subsisting in the world through Jesus Christ.
Moreover the law is not faith; (not on that principle) but the man that doeth them, shall live in them; but the just shall live by faith, (on that principle) and here we have another word largely used by John, and contributing to stamp his writings with their own peculiar character, this word is faith. It is in his writings that we read that God is light and God is love. He is not speaking of qualities and attributes, but of what He is in Himself.
In the law, then, we have that which is holy, just and good; but the revelation of God as light and love is not found in it; nor the grace and truth which subsist through Jesus Christ. Now, I think we can see the lines upon which the Spirit of Christ was moving all through this wonderful gospel.
All around and from the beginning with brief intervals of intervention on God’s part, in mercy and goodness, the world lay prostrate in moral ruin, into the midst of this, into the very focus of evil upon earth, (the corruption of that which He had set up) God enters in the Person of Christ, full of grace and truth: in the love and light of His being. All this was entirely new, there was also the revelation of the Father.
With regard to the words already referred to, as so constantly occurring in John, and characterizing the gospel by him, it is interesting to see the number of times they are used by each of the evangelists.
Verse 31. “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him,” (for some had professed to believe) “if ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” The many who had believed, had abandoned the ground of adversaries and therefore the Lord changes His voice in addressing them. It is no longer unless ye shall “believe that I am He, ye shall die in your sins”; but “if ye abide in My word, ye are truly My disciples.” It is a question of continuance in His word. These things would follow and be the proof of their continuance in His word, they would be His disciples indeed, should know the truth, and the truth should make them free. It would be found in the knowledge of Himself. The test applied, their state is at once made manifest, haughtiness of the flesh and ignorance of the truth characterize it. All that these poor slaves of sin, Satan, and the Romans can say, is, we were never in bondage to any man, “We are Abraham’s seed.”
They did not know, in their pride of heart, that sin was their master; that the servant does not abide in the house for ever; but that the Son abides ever, and that whosoever is made free by Him, is free indeed, were truths they had never known.
The Jews were in the house, but only servants (slaves); the Son was over the house for ever, in all the authority and rights and glory of Son. (See Heb. 3). The house was really God’s house, over which Christ was as Son. The Lord does not explain to them the character of this freedom; nor the manner of its accomplishment. His servant Paul was used afterwards, when the Holy Ghost had come to develop its blessed meaning. To be under the law was the same thing as to be under sin. “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law but under grace.” Christ, in dying for sin, died also unto sin, we having been baptized unto His death are become identified with Him in the likeness of His death. “In that He has died, He has died to sin once for all; but in that He lives, He lives to God. So also ye reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
In this part of Romans 6, the doctrine is developed, he that has died is free, (cleared, justified from sin) believers are called to reckon themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. It is not a matter of experience, nor dependent upon feelings, though the truth, when known produces blessed feelings and experiences; but a position given us — Christ’s resurrection-state beyond sin and death, the power of Satan and the judgment of God. But until Christ had died, was risen, and glorified, these truths could not be communicated, the ground for them not being yet laid. The Lord simply announces Himself, His Person, the Son makes free indeed. They were Abraham’s seed; Christ’s word had no place in them, therefore they sought to kill Him — the true Son of Abraham.
The real point here was not their descent from Abraham, important as that was in connection with Jewish privilege; but this, that the word of Christ had no place in them; they had heard it, outwardly, and could even reason about it; but it had no place in them. A solemn word for conscience always. But though Abraham’s seed, they were not in the moral sense, Abraham’s children, if they were they would do the works of Abraham. As little title had they to their boast of having God for their Father, if God were their Father they would have loved Jesus. They could not understand His speech because they could not hear His word, it was not the mind but the heart that was all wrong. “Lest they should understand with the heart,” the Lord says, when He is pronouncing their judgment, (Matt. 13) it had become gross; even Nicodemus could not understand what the new birth meant, therefore he could not understand the Lord’s speech. They could neither hear His word, nor had it any place in them. This is what the “Light” made manifest, the real truth as before God, touching the state of a people boasting that they were the children of Abraham and of God. At last He tells them plainly who their father was; they were morally, the children of the murderer and the liar; to such an extent under his influence, that the reason of their not believing was, because the Lord told them the truth. The reason why they did not hear God’s word was, that they were not “of God.” In the epistle (1 John 4) it is written, “he who is not of God does not hear us” (the apostles); the principle is the same. In their minds He was but a Samaritan or a Galilean, Jesus of Nazareth. While in His own wondrous mind going lower than their hearts could conceive, that God might be glorified in man, “But I am a worm and no man,” He says; see the glorious results in the latter part of that Psalm (22), and for what was personal to Himself Philippians 2, high exaltation and a name above every name; but before all, for His heart, the glory was from Him, whom through sufferings and love that had no measure, He had glorified on earth. It was a gift and at the same time the reward of service such as He alone could render. It was to God the Father’s glory that every tongue should confess Him in the position given Him. Thus the Father glorified Himself in glorifying Jesus of Nazareth. The best thing, nay, the only good thing that ever came out of this earth was that which came out of Nazareth!
But one knows not how to speak or even to think, where to linger or where to end, when Jesus, His sufferings and His glories are before us: but the Spirit joins also its help to our weakness (New Trans.). Thus the weak heart is comforted and encouraged.
Verses 54-58. “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom ye say, He is our God. And ye know Him not; but I know Him: but if I said I know Him not, I should be like you, a liar. But I know Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham exulted in that he should see My day, and he saw and rejoiced. The Jews therefore said to him, Thou hast not yet fifty years, and hast Thou seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Verily, verily, I say unto you Before Abraham was, I am.” The Eternal! The “coverture” is rent! and Jesus of Nazareth is Jehovah, “I am!” Then took they up stones to cast at him.
Before we go on to chapter 9, it may be well to gather up what we have been considering. The main subject of the chapter commences at verse 12. “I am the light of the world,” as the second part of chapter 6 with the subject of life. Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto life eternal, which the Son of Man shall give to you: for him has the Father sealed, even God. “For the bread of God is He who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.” Read with these two passages John 8:1212Then 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. (John 8:12). “I am the light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” What a glorious ministry they announce! one of Life and of Light! of which His presence amongst them was the expression. Compare the ministry of righteousness and the Spirit as committed to the Apostle Paul (2 Cor. 3), and mark the difference; he was not that which he ministered, his sufficiency for it was of God, he could not go beyond that.
Sealed of the Father and in the enjoyment of His abiding presence, Jesus proceeds in His service of testimony, in the strength and joy of the authority which the Father’s abiding presence with Him afforded.
Everywhere lowly, dependent, obedient, He lived, indeed, by the Father. Could there have been a moment when Jesus was without the blessedness of that presence, when He ceased to do the things that pleased Him? Ever a moment when the Father could not say, “This is My beloved Son in whom I have found My delight”? It is in His service as Sent, Taught and Sealed by the Father, that He shines as the light of the world, the light of men, and the light of life; always in Himself, and absolutely, both the Light and the Life. How solemnly now Isaiah’s words sound in our ears, and how verified in the chapter before us. “He is despised and rejected of men.” “He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him!” As in apostate Christendom they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved — such is man!
And here I call to remembrance the words of a beloved servant of the Lord who has lately finished his course.
It is impossible to read John’s or any of the gospels where what He was, His Person, specially shines forth, without meeting, at every moment, this blessed fragrance of loving obedience and self-renouncement. It is not a history — it is Himself, whom one cannot avoid seeing — and also the wickedness of man, which violently forced its way through the coverture and holy hiding-place which love had wrought around Him who was clothed with humility — the divine Person that passed in meekness through the world that rejected Him: but it was only to give all its force and blessedness to the self-abasement, which never faltered, even when forced to confess His divinity. It was I am, “but in the lowliness and loneliness, of the most perfect and self-abased obedience, no secret desire to hold His place in His humiliation; and by His humiliation: — His Father’s glory was the perfect desire of His heart. It was, indeed, I am that was there, but in the perfectness of human obedience. This reveals itself everywhere. The divine in John, displayed in man, specially comes out. Hence his gospel attracts the heart, while it offends infidelity “(Lev. in Synopsis).
One feels that the chapter before us might have afforded occasion for these beautiful remarks. Is it not everywhere the wickedness of man forcing into view Him who was clothed with humility and making manifest that He, who so clothed Himself, was a divine Person — the Son of the Father — the Eternal!
He knew whence He came (could a mere man say that?) and whither He went; why, this is the problem which the intellect of man has ever sought to solve, only to find it to be a rock upon which it went to pieces. Jesus alone, of men, knew this, and so manifested that He was a divine Person.
Again, His challenge, “Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” remains unanswered, we well know why: but a man without sin in a fallen world is a divine Person. “He, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
If His judgment was in question, He could say, “My judgment is true, because I am not alone, but I and the Father who has sent Me”; as in John 5: “My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My will, but the will of Him that has sent Me.” His Father’s presence, and His own perfections alike warranted the truth and justice of His judgment. Had any one ever pretended to know the Father? could a mere child of man thus associate Himself with the Father, without a thought of sin or offering for sin? No, He who thus speaks, though very Man is greater than man. When it is a question of testimony to His Person remark His answer. “Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, because I know whence I came and whither I go.” Again in Matthew 3 and 17, the Father’s testimony is, “My beloved Son.” When they say, “Where is Thy Father?” He answers, “If ye had known Me, ye would have known also My Father.” It is needless to remark that the Revealer of the Father could alone be the only-begotten Son who is in His bosom. See the effect of man’s wickedness and Satan’s enmity! the holy coverture being rent, the divine Person shines forth!
Then comes the great solemn unfolding of their state and His own in a contrast, terrible for them but glorious for Him. He was from above and not of this world, they were from beneath, of this world, and of the devil, their father, whose lusts they would do. He did the will of His Father in positions created by that will, as Sent, Taught, and Sealed by Him. The coverture how lowly! He receives everything from the Father; but who amongst the mighty had brought to God an offering like His? He gave Himself a sacrifice, an offering of sweet smelling savor.
At length the controversy draws to an end, when they ask Him directly, “Whom makest Thou Thyself?” Already they had said, “Who art Thou?” It terminates with the rending of the coverture and holy hiding-place which love had wrought round Him. Man’s wickedness forces into view the “I am “—the Eternal. “Before Abraham was, I am.”