OH 1:1-2:22
The main feature of this most precious book that lies before us is the exhibition of the Lord Jesus as the Word made flesh, the glory of the only Begotten who is in the bosom of the Father, and who reveals the Father as one with Him. The book is made up of these glories, which pass successively before our eyes in its successive chapters. Hence there is so much of " testimony" and "witness" in it: God calling our attention, as it were, all through to Him in whom all Heaven's glories meet, and meet for the supply of man's need, discovered in its deepest in the light of this glory; for "whatsoever doth make manifest is light."
Man's need in its deepest is that he is "dead in trespasses and sins." At the end of long ages of trial the full manifestation of this was made in the person of Jesus come in grace among men. Man's trial was not limited to that. It was only the close of a long course of it which God in His patience had given him: the "ages," of which the apostle Paul speaks in Heb. 9:2626For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:26), at the " completion" of which Christ " appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."
The cross thus stands as the dividing line between two periods of entirely different character; the former of which was characterized, as I may say, by its being the time of man's being manifested and God hidden; while the latter shows us, on the contrary, man set aside and God revealed.
It is most important to see this, to which the whole of Scripture gives the most unequivocal testimony. So in 1 Cor. 10:1313There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13), it is said, " Upon whom the ends of the world (literally αιωνων, ages) are come." As to the character of these ages (of which several other passages make mention) Rom. 5:66For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6) speaks-" When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." The " due time" was when man had been thus manifested, "ungodly" and "without strength." These ages had run on from the fall itself; and their probationary character, as to the most important of them, is strongly marked in Scripture. Take the law. " God is come to prove you," says Moses, before it was given. And the apostle Paul, answering that question, which still perplexes multitudes, " Wherefore serveth the law?" replies, " It was added "-not as our translators have it, " because of trangressions," but-" for the sake of transgressions;" that is, to produce them, to bring out the sin of man's heart in open shape, as transgression of the plain command of God. Take it as elsewhere, where there needs no emendation of the text-" The law entered that the offense might abound " (Rom. 5:2020Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: (Romans 5:20)), the necessary result of " proving " one, of whom " every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually."
But this verdict upon man's state had been pronounced long before. It was spoken at the close of his first trial, which the judgment of the flood ended. For the full result God had waited. He had let men have the earth to themselves, and given them ample time to show what they would do in it; and at the end of nearly two thousand years " God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." then God said, " The end of all flesh is come before me."
"But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord;" and in his person, brought through the judgment, wherein " the world that then was, perished," human government was set up of God, and man was made his brother's keeper. " Whoso shed man's blood, by man his blood was to be shed." Such was the divine principle. But instead of that, the form it takes is that of tyranny in the hands of Nimrod, and that course of ambition and thirst for power begins which has filled men's chronicles ever since. All fails once more, and God calls Abram from his kindred and his father's house to walk with Him, a pilgrim and a stranger upon earth.
The character of the law, which followed after that, we have already seen. In it God took up man again in his own way, to see what he could do. The people undertook it,-" all that the Lord bath spoken;" but the covenant is broken before ever the tables of testimony are come to them from the Mount. Under pure law they do not stand a moment. The law finds them under its curse; but God retreats into Himself, and falling back on His divine prerogative of mercy, takes them up anew. "I will have mercy," says He, " upon whom I will have mercy." And though the law is given a second time, there is now along with it a proclamation of the "Name of the Lord." Christianity is not that, it is a declaration of the Father's name. This to Moses was not properly a revelation of God Himself, but of His "back parts"-the skirts of His glory. " And He said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me and live;" but "it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen."
I would call attention to these words, because they give us so perfectly the contrast between those long dark ages, and the blessed light of Christianity, into which we are brought. Take the brightest display of God's goodness to the most favored of His people then, still it was -" No man can see me and live.".The veil of the holiest afterward, according to Paul's testimony in the Heb. 9, declared the same thing—" The way into the holiest was not yet made manifest." No one could come into God's presence, to see Him face to face. The high-priest on the Day of Atonement, if a seeming, was no real exception: he was to " put incense on the fire before the Lord that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat, that is upon the testimony, that he die not;" for the presence of the Lord was there.
The difference between "proclaiming the name of Jehovah," and " declaring the Father's name" was in short, all the difference between God hidden and " God manifest." The first was Judaism; the last Christianity.
It was an important announcement, no doubt, and served, in some measure, to temper the severity of an outraged law. Yet it did not change it, nor man's nature. It gave no life and therefore no righteousness. It left man space for repentance, but wrought no repentance in him. It left him under responsibility to meet God still and answer for himself.
" And the Lord descended in the cloud, and proclaimed the name of the Lord (Jehovah): and Jehovah passed by before him, and proclaimed Jehovah, Jehovah God, merciful and gracious; long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third, and to the fourth generation."
Christian reader, with all the grace of this announcement, is it the revelation of God, such as we know Him? Could you or I go into His holy presence on the footing of what is here declared? Alas, the veil of the holiest and the high-priest's incense tell the same truth about it, and our consciences bear witness we could not. For law is still law here, whatever be the mercy, and a God who "can by no means clear the guilty," is not one before whom we can stand. The grace here may, like the angel's hand, trouble the waters of -the law and make them " Bethesda,"-a pool of healing; but what are we to do with our poor, palsied limbs?
Yet though it were but the " back parts," not the face of God that was seen here (as to which the passage itself is conclusive), yet God having declared Himself " gracious," He could still go on with those who had already manifested themselves " a perverse, rebellious people.' He could patiently show out His goodness, and manifest His power in their behalf. All this protracted, indeed, the trial without altering the result. But it was of God that it should be protracted, that man should have full time and space to show himself in. And so he does, alas, to the end. Law broken, mercy despised, God's messengers persecuted whom 1-le sent in His love, "rising up early and sending them"; such is his course throughout. And at length the trial is once more over, and with the sentence of " Lo-Ammi" upon them (not God's people), they are led away captive to Babylon. " The mind of the flesh is not subject to the law of God, nor can be."
Still the " due time" for the display of God, the full revelation of Himself, was not come even yet. One last resource remained, one last way of trial: it is thus represented by the Lord Himself in the parable of the vineyard-" And he said, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence my son, when they see him."
And " God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." In the lowliest form, in the " form of a servant," self- emptied, yet full of power and grace for man's deliverance from all that sin had brought upon him, the earth was hallowed by the footsteps of One " who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him."
Such a sight it had never seen before; such a sight it shall never see again. He could touch the leper, and his leprosy was gone. He could heal the sick. He could raise the dead. Devils would give up their victims at His word. He could speak as never man spake. He could say, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," and work a miracle to assure that it was done. He was the Friend of sinners, and blushed not to own it. From whomsoever needed Him He could not be hid. And in all this, it was His constant declaration that He came but in His Father's name, to declare Him, whom knowing they knew not; that God, whom behind the veil and "in thick darkness" they had worshipped, now made known.
Alas, " He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not."
They said, " This is the heir; come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours." " So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him."
The mind of the flesh, when under law, "not subject. to the law," was now manifest, outspoken " enmity against God."
But if sin had now reached its height, it was time for God's grace to abound over it. Man, "dead in sins," could be set aside, and God could unveil Himself. Christ died, and the veil was removed. The way into the holiest was made manifest. Man could see God and live.
Instead of One who " could by no means clear the guilty," there shone out the glory of Him who " justifieth the ungodly."
It will require little thought to understand my object in dwelling upon this so much at length. It is most needful to the right apprehension of the whole scope and character of John's gospel. For this gospel is lust the shining forth of this divine glory which in Judaism had dwelt within the circling flames of Sinai, or behind the veil of the temple. God is no longer here "in the thick darkness"; the testimony is that He "is light, and in Him is no darkness at all"; and we " walk," therefore, " in the light, as He is in the light."
Not indeed that the full time of manifesting God, in one sense, had come, while Jesus walked on earth, though He were indeed Himself " God manifest." A verse in this first chapter of the gospel explains the seeming contradiction. For though "in Him was life, and the life was the light of men," yet it is added, " and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." Nor was this true only of dead men upon whom the light might shine, but not remove their darkness. Even the eyes of disciples,-of those who could say afterward, "We beheld his glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,"-were scarcely opened to it They saw what was " the glory of the Only Begotten," but not at that time did they apprehend its wondrous significance. Only after Christ's death had fully rent the veil, and the Spirit of God had come to lead them into all truth, did they apprehend it. Only then could they say, " the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth." Even at the very close of that marvelous course Philip could say, " Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us," and the Lord answer, " Have I been so long time with you, and past thou not known me, Philip?" What a flashing out of glory it must have been, when the true light did indeed shine unto their souls! " In that day," says the Lord again, "ye shall know that I am in the Father;"-yea, and beside that,—" and ye in me, and I in you."
But the Gospel of John, nevertheless, puts us in the full light of this already. For it is not man's history simply, true history though it be, but God's revelation. It is the Spirit of God, now come, taking of the things of Jesus, and showing them to our souls. Hence, though historically and for man, the veil of the holiest was not rent, there is no veil here. And though men were not yet introduced into the blessing, the blessing itself is already here. -his ",God manifest in flesh," manifest in love and grace for men " grace and truth come by Jesus Christ." It is divine fullness for men's need, and when that need is fully exposed. " Life" for him as dead; "light" for him as in darkness; "grace" for him-as a mere sinner, and only grace, nay, as it is expressed here, "grace upon grace."
In a word, man is set aside, as fully convicted and exposed, and God is manifested. The cross is, as it were, over; (not of course that it historically was;) "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." That is, as it were, the moral of Luke's Gospel. " He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." That is pre-eminently Matthew's. And now " to as many as received. Him, to them gave He power" (privilege or authority, rather) " to be the- sons of God, even to those that believe on His name." And- what of these? " Who were born, not of blood (or natural generation), nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
Thus at the outset we are met by this great truth of regeneration. And after the introductory portion of the gospel is over, it is that with which (in Chapter 3) we start again. None of the other gospels speak of it at all. They give us the grace of God in its appeal to man: its solemn warnings, its exhortations, its tender and blessed invitations.- But it is not these we have- in John: There is not so much as " Come to me, and I will give you rest." There is, surely, the solemn, truth stated, " Ye will not come," but no invitation, though " him that cometh, He will in no wise cast out." But it is not man's coming that we are occupied with, nevertheless. It is " God's coming," rather. He quickens. He " quickens whom He will." Men are " born of God ": a thing into which one's own will enters as little as when we are born into the world.
And then it is upon this being born of God, that all blessing, is founded. Being born of Him, we are owned His children; and thus are given to lay hold of and enjoy that revelation of the Father, which. Christ, the only begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, Makes of Him.
And I add another thing. In the light which manifests everything in its true form and character, a dead Jew is no more than a dead Gentile. Judaism is therefore already gone, (not historically, as I said in another case: that was at the cross, but practically;) and " the true light,"-true to the nature of light, falls on all alike. " That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." In contrast to the law, as one outside it, (and so He says, " What is written in your law?")-it is said, " The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
It will be seen that these are the principal features of Chapter 1:1-18, which is evidently the doctrinal introduction to the whole gospel, and gives its distinctive character. The whole, however, of the first chapter, and down to the end of ver. 22 of the second, is introductory, and beyond that the main subject matter of the book begins in the distinct enunciation of man's real need, and its only true remedy. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," so that " ye must be born again."
And thence out of the fullness of the "'Word made flesh," is developed in varied and orderly succession, the blessedness which is his. Man put in his true place as a recipient merely, the fullness of divine bounty is poured into his bosom,-" grace upon grace" indeed,-commencing with the supply of first wants, but pouring on and on, till the full cup overflows in deep, adoring worship, in the unveiled presence of Him to whom we are brought: " presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy."
Before going on to consider this, however, I would spend a short time upon the introductory portion of the book. This seems evidently to divide into three parts. The first, simply doctrinal (as we say), and which I have now briefly noticed (John 1:1-181In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 15John 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. 16And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. 17For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 18No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (John 1:1‑18)). The second, the witness of John (John 1:19-3419And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? 20And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. 21And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. 22Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? 23He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. 24And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. 25And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? 26John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; 27He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose. 28These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. 29The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 30This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. 31And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. 32And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. 33And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. 34And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God. (John 1:19‑34)). The third, the dispensational view of the grace here witnessed of, first, with regard to the saints of the present time (John 1:35-4235Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; 36And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! 37And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. 38Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou? 39He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour. 40One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. 42And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone. (John 1:35‑42)), and then to the remnant of Israel in the last day (43-51); the whole closing with the millennial features of glory and of blessing (John 2:1-111And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: 2And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. 3And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. 4Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. 5His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. 6And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. 7Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. 8And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. 9When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, 10And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. 11This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him. (John 2:1‑11)), of a holiness.; which is to be maintained in power, by Him, who is " declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection of the dead' (verses 12-22). And surely of great importance it is to have these distinctive characters of blessing set before us in the first place, before we go on to consider the portion of the heavenly saint, as it is detailed in the following chapters of the book.
As for the first section of this introductory part, what I have already written may suffice. I would now notice how beautifully characteristic is the Baptist's testimony in this book, and how the glory of the Son of God completely fills the eye and heart of him whom the other gospels give us as the preacher of repentance. Here he whose place was in the wilderness, who came in the way of righteousness" to others, apart from them as judging them unclean, himself falls into the dust before those blessed feet, "whose shoe latchet he is unworthy to unloose." Here we see it was no thought of self-righteousness that set him in that place apart. The eye that now drinks in " the light of this world " was once closed to it as much as others. Nothing but infinite grace had made the difference. " I knew him not" is, twice over, his lowly acknowledgment. It was the registry of the condemnation of the world.
But how the eye, divinely opened, is taken up with the object now revealed to it. And the Spirit of God Himself, how He presents to us this picture, as delighting in it, of a man absorbed with Christ. They come out to him from Jerusalem, attracted by his fame, to find one whose heart is an utter stranger to it all. He is "not the Christ," he says. What need they care who he was, when he was not Christ? He was " a voice " only: a voice that spoke not of itself but of another; a voice to imprint the imperishable " Word" upon the hearts of men; and then to be forgotten. " He confessed and denied not, but confessed," says the recording Spirit with emphasis.. A little thing, it might seem, and only not presumption; but among such as we are, how great a thing! " He must increase, but I must decrease:" words how true for us all! but only grace can add to it such words as elsewhere the Baptist,." This my joy therefore is fulfilled." And this is he of whom our Lord said, " Among those that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist." If this is true greatness, then, how is " the first last, and the last first!" how human thoughts are reversed! But is not he really greatest, who in lowliness is likest to his Master?
And what then must be the blessedness of heaven, where these principles have their only full and uninterrupted sway. You get a blessed picture of that in Mark 10, and which in many parts of it we cannot wonder to find repeated elsewhere. It is where the Lord is enforcing this principle of true glory, and showing Himself in opposition to all the narrowness of man's heart, even in disciples, where all sought their own. Peter had been reminding Him of the "sacrifices," as we speak, that they had made to follow Him. And the Lord assures him, that He knew it all, in a love which could not forget the very smallest particular, and would not be left a debtor, but overpay it a hundredfold.
But he adds the significant reproof,—for it was needed, -that the judgment of God would yet be the very opposite of man's own. And many that are first shall be last, and the last first." He whose heart vaunted the largeness of its offering was not of necessity the one who had offered largest. Giving to receive was not a gift. Love would forget nothing indeed that was the fruit of love.
But he who thought he had done most only showed the poverty of his love in it. For love reckons not what it does, and where truest, has its blessedness, after the pattern of Him in whom it is perfect, in giving rather than receiving.
How sweetly is the unutterable grace of God maintained, and yet the heart searched in its inmost workings, in this word of Jesus.
But it does not end here; for then we find the Lord laying open His own heart. His way was even then to the Cross.—" Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and,unto the Scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they shall mock Him and shall scourge Him, and shall spit upon Him, and shall kill Him, and the third day He shall rise again."
It falls as the " shadow of death " indeed upon them.
There is no response to it. But the solemn lesson of the cross unheeded, they return to that which occupies them. Two of those most honored, one of them the disciple whom Jesus loved," ask Him for the best seats, right and left beside Him in the kingdom. The Lord proposes to them the Cross. Are they able to drink His cup, and be baptized with His baptism? The, moment it is set before them as the way to their own blessing, they " are able." Jesus says, that though they shall have His cup and baptism, as " seeking their own in it, it would be folly: the places in the kingdom should, be given to them " for whom it was prepared of the Father."
But this arouses the jealousy of the rest, and "they began to be much displeased with James and John. And now comes the full answer to it all. "Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles; exercise lordship over them, and their great ones exercise authority upon them." A few simple words, but how, again, they search the heart! Is it not the key to the-whole history of human " greatness"? " Seeking honor one of another": place, and power, authority and patronage; how much of this, or what would satisfy man's pride in this sort, do we suppose we should find in the possession of those seats in glory? Nothing; absolutely nothing. There will be such seats; but all that on earth men covet in them, what of that? " So shall it not be among you, but who will be great among you shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be servant of all." That is " the first last, and the last first " again. Not only fitness to rule is required in the servant's place, (though so it surely is;) but heaven's order -is the reverse of man's order, and heaven's " greatness" the reverse of all his thoughts. The greatest is the lowliest, and where all shall be, delivered from the " reproach of Egypt," circumscribed the second time, and delivered from that badge of misery, " seeking one's own," in the glory of the kingdom, rule" shall be " service" still; the blessedness of giving higher than of receiving; the pattern of all greatness, of all blessedness, He who is the same Jesus, impossible to change, who, as " Son of man " down here, " came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many."
And recurring to what our Lord says of John the Baptist, have we not the real key to it here, and to what He adds to it, which has been not a little cause of perplexity to many. " Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." I cannot turn to these opening chapters of John's Gospel without feeling this "greatness" to be that of a man (whose like in it Scripture indeed scarcely spews us again) to whom Christ is all, and to whom therefore, self is nothing; and the words " notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he," open to me not a vista of thrones and titles, but a glorious scene when (in the coming kingdom) Christ shall be the one blessed and satisfying object filling perfectly all hearts. John shall be greater than himself there, and the least in it shall be more perfect in it than this precious picture which we have of him.
He was no stoic steeled to human sympathies, though he walked so alone, apart from all. He was no practicer of a long penance, done to propitiate a God he knew not, like many, his would-be imitators since. He was simply a man occupied with Jesus; too happy in it to turn aside to other things. His sanctity (notwithstanding his garb and food, in which he stood a witness to others simply) was no creature of his own making, no fruit of ordinances and self-mortification. No, it was the abstractedness (if you please) of one who was simply filled with the glory of another, whose whole heart said, with his lips, '44 Behold the Lamb of God." We shall do well to ponder it.
With the 35th verse of the first chapter begins the third division of this introductory portion of the Gospel.
It begins with this witness to Jesus as " the Lamb of God," the fulfillment of and contrast to; all Jewish shadows, a witness which, given from the fullness of a believing heart, gathers disciples to the Lord. That which follows is a beautiful picture of believers in the present time. The question as to where Jesus dwells,- the place itself unnamed as if earth knew it not,-their stay with Him through the night that follows,-are all significant. They are things indeed which spiritually interpreted characterize the Christian now, while He who declared, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world," is absent from us. In this way we learn to say, while looking for the morning of His return, " The night is far spent, the day is at hand." Yet even so we are not children of the night, but of the day,- though the night be about us; we know where He dwells, and in heart and spirit dwell with Him whence the night is banished.
And no less significant is the adding to the number of these first disciples, of one who was afterward, though " apostle of the circumcision," chosen of God to teach others the lesson he had himself first to learn, to " call no man common or unclean," and to open the door of the kingdom to the Gentile: one to whom as taken out of natural relationships, a new name in grace is given, speaking of the spiritual ones into which he should be brought, as a living " stone" in that building of God, which was to be His own peculiar " habitation."
And similarly significant are all these "interpretations." Grace is speaking another language from that of Judaism. Even the Hebrew title " Messias" is changed into the Gentile "Christ" And in all this who cannot see intimated the great change that was at hand, as well as its character? The temple was already empty, the people already were " Lo-Ammi," and now people and temple were to be but one in the new Christianity which was to replace this worn-out system, and this temple should never be deserted: the Spirit given to abide with us forever, should dwell in it and consecrate it to God forever.
Not that it should abide here or belong ever to " the world." Like the tabernacle, which "grew into " the temple, and which was in germ the temple, it should have the wayfaring character and be a pilgrim. Indwelt of, and dwelling with the Lord we yet mourn His absence and look for Him, and are (as I said before) in heart and spirit with Him where He is, "not of the world" just as and because He is not.
And this I say again is Christianity. It is marvelous, yet how thoroughly lost sight of in men's systems. It could never without changing its very nature, gain the throne of the world. Nor will it change the world. Its mission is to gather out of it " a people for His name": a people who will be to the end, and even in the most fair-seeming times, " a little flock," poor, despised, persecuted, struggling against all the power of him who is the " god of this world," and against the " course of this world," ruled by him.
If the world were to receive the Gospel, we should have in large measure to lay aside our Bibles as quite unsuited to times so changed. The whole web and woof of Scripture, so far as it affects our Christian walk and character, would be distorted and displaced. We could no longer say "the whole world lieth in wickedness." He " that would live godly in Christ Jesus" would no longer "suffer persecution." That which makes up " the world" for God would no longer be " the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." Such things would be the mere records of a state of things which had passed out of being.
And yet the word of God shall surely be fulfilled, and " the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." Yes, when " He shall appear in His glory." But at that time,-it is the express assurance of the Word,-" when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory." And when " this King shall reign in righteousness," we " shall reign with him " who has " made us," in all the value of His work, " kings and priests to God." Is it now this reign of righteousness? Are Christ's foes now made His footstool?, Are all things now, put under Him? Nay, says the apostle, "we see not yet all things put under him."
That will be in what he calls "the world to come" (Heb. 2), not heaven, but earth blessed and purified, a dominion extending to,-according to the apostle's quotation of Psa. 8-even " all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air and the fish of the seas, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas."
But if those who now look and wait for Christ are in the day of His power to sit down with Him on His throne and share His dominion, who are to be the subjects of this blessed rule? Chief among these is to be restored Israel: " Ye which have followed Me," says the Lord to His disciples, " in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit -upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Than this nothing can be more precise. It distinguishes the two parts, the heavenly and earthly glories of the kingdom which is to be set up. Other passages speak of " Jerusalem " being " the throne of the Lord," in those days, and " the law going forth out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Then shall " Israel blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit": " the Gentiles shall come to the light" of that glory of the Lord, now risen upon her, " and kings to the brightness of its rising."
I do not enter upon these things more at length. But the same passage which I have just quoted forewarns that the darkest of the night will precede the dawning of this millennial day. It is when " darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people," that "the Lord," it is said to Israel, " shall arise upon thee; and his glory shall be seen, upon thee."
Thus darkness as gross as that which for ages has covered Israel is yet to fall upon all the vaunted enlightenment of Gentile Christendom.. They would not " walk in the light " while they had the light, and it shall be taken from them. The saints caught up to meet the Lord in the air, the." light of the world" gives place to darkness. Out of this darkness, according to the testimony of this passage in Isaiah,. Israel is to be the first to emerge.
She is to be new-born to God with all the throes and anguish of childbirth. She is to be " chosen," once more, "in the furnace of affliction." It is impossible to go into detail. All I can say here is that a little remnant of Judah will first be brought to the Lord amid the cruel persecution of their unbelieving brethren. And in the judgments of those days " it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God." (Zech. 13:8,98And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. (Zechariah 13:8‑9).)
This is not a needless digression from the subject of the chapter before us. In ver. 43 we are carried in spirit beyond the Christian and (in principle) Gentile confession of the Lamb of God, to a new acting of grace which gives rise to a new testimony, and Nathanael becomes the representative of the gathering of a future day, as Peter has already been seen the representative of the present. " We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write," is Philip's testimony; and Nathanael questioning at first, is drawn nevertheless to Jesus to find in Him one who had already known him in grace (as it ever is) and all the exercises of his heart, while yet unconscious of the love that even then was yearning over him. " Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee." The fig tree is the constant figure of the Jewish nation, and the book of Psalms is the precious witness to this remnant in their " time of trouble " among the mass of the unbelieving people, of a true and tender heart in sympathy with them. When they " look upon Him whom they have pierced" what a witness it will be of His love who has all through " borne their griefs and carried their sorrows." Nathanael like, their hearts shall burst forth in the adoring exclamation, " Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel."
This is the complete reversal of former unbelief. The two charges that they brought against the Lord, and in the order in which they were brought, are here recalled. That He made Himself the Son of God was the charge before the Jewish court. That He made Himself king was that before Caesar's. They shall yet acknowledge Him as both and then the Lord's words to Nathanael shall find their complete fulfillment, " Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the figtree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, from henceforth (αρ’ αρτι) ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." Even thus Israel's eternal day shall begin in the glory of an open heaven, and the angels, the ministrants of their past economy, shall wait upon Him whom they have rightly owned as Son of God, and who Himself delights to -call Himself by that touching name of sympathy and tenderness, "the Son of man."
To use the figure of Revelation (Chapter 12.) Israel clad with the glories of the risen sun, shall issue forth from her " night of weeping," all her past reflected glory, but as the dim moon eclipsed by day-dawn, beneath her feet.
The second chapter carrying on the type, gives us restored Israel's union with the Lord. The figure of a marriage is no uncommon one in the prophets, and with express reference to Israel. Thus their past relationship with the Lord is styled, and their departure from Him is judged as adultery. So Jeremiah and Ezekiel speak, and so their return to the Lord in the latter days is given as under the figure of the renewal of marriage-vows: " Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married to you: and I will take you one of a city and two of a family, and bring you to Zion" (Jer. 3). And in Hosea, after the sentence of divorce for unfaithfulness is pronounced: " Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am 1 her husband," and the judgment against her is fully executed, then in judgment mercy is remembered: "'Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the- wilderness and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Athol' for a door of hope; and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt; and it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shall call me Ishi, (my husband) and I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment, and in loving-kindness and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord" (Chapter 2:14-16, 19, 20.)
The scene at the marriage at Cana in Galilee is a divine picture of what the prophet thus foretells. The very mention of " the third day " marks it as a period of resurrection-gladness. The question put to Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones will be answered then. With noise and shaking bone will have -come to bone, and the sinews and flesh covered them, and the breath from the four winds- come unto them. Israel's hope, which they have clung to through so many long and weary years, will at length have reached fruition; and men will realize in their case that " the gifts and calling of God are " indeed "without repentance."
Israel's Bridegroom, too, will be the risen Lord. In the type of it here, He takes as it were that place towards the close, providing the wine of the feast, which it was the bridegroom's part to do. Thus it is told forth what He will be when the day comes for accomplishing these shadows. Yet very sweetly, notwithstanding, is the higher blessing of His heavenly " disciples " kept in view. " Both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage." So inseparable from Him are they, that if one were called so must be the other. And so it will be when the day of Jerusalem's bridal comes. " When Christ shall appear, we shall appear with Him in glory." Then, when those hitherto empty waterpots being filled with the purifying water,- they shall draw out of them with gladness the best wine kept till now.
What a striking figure of hollow formalism were those empty waterpots! And even such was the nation when the Lord first came among them. Like the mother of Jesus they asked Him for the wine then, but His "hour was not yet come." He must shed His blood for that: noway else could they have it. The " wine that cheereth. God and man" comes from the side of the Crucified One. This is the Samaritan's balm for our deadly wounds. This is the " strong drink " for those " ready to perish," the cordial for those " of heavy hearts:" " that they may drink, and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no
more."
And when the set time to favor Zion shall have come, when " they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced," they " shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son, and be in bitterness for Him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born." Then the antitype of their day of atonement will have come, " a sabbath of rest," when "they shall afflict their souls," and through the offering made for them, " be clean from all their sins before the Lord." Then the water pots shall be filled even to the brim, but the water of repentance shall be, by a mightier miracle than that of Cana, changed unto the wine of joy and gladness forever. Those resurrection words of blessing shall be again spoken: " Peace be unto you," and He shall say again as He said once to Thomas: " Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing." And with Thomas they shall answer and say to Him:, " Our Lord and our God." But the higher' blessing still shall be theirs, who having not seen, have yet believed. We, too, shall be Nazarites no longer. We shall drink of this new wine also. In a higher sense still to us, that shall be fulfilled: " I will drink the wine new with you in my Father's kingdom."
In the 13th verse of this chapter, another feature of this time of blessing is presented. Cleansing the judgment is what is before us there. The Lord is as one whom zeal for His Father's house devours. His title to cleanse is resurrection: "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." " He spake of the temple of His body."
And very blessed it is to see, that just as Jesus is represented to us all through His blessed life of lowliness down here,-One who comes not in His own name, nor seeking His own glory, but His who sent Him,-, so is He the selfsame Jesus, "yesterday, to-day and forever," when in glory He takes the kingdom. When on earth the prayer He put into the mouth of His disciples was not for His own, but for the Father's glory: " Our Father,... Thy kingdom come," passing over His own throne as Son of man,-passing over the blessedness of the millennial day,-on to the time when in the " new heaven and new earth," (for there only " righteousness " shall "dwell,") " His will shall be done on earth even as it is in heaven." In like manner when He takes His throne on earth, He reigns until " all things are subdued unto Him," and when that is accomplished, " He delivers up the kingdom "-none taking it from Him-" to God even the Father." And " then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him who put all things under Him, that God may " be all in all."
Of course this touches not the truth of His absolute divinity. As God He gives up no place: as man He is subject. How wondrous the union of these two, in one adorable Person! " The image of the Invisible God,"- " the first-born of every creature." The blessed unperishable link between God and all that He has made. The eternal display of divine glory in its fullness before the eyes of all. God who loveth,-who is Love,-and who has brought us unto Himself that in the knowledge of Him our hearts might be filled with joy,-might over* flow in worship. For that it is WORSHIP that is so to occupy us in heaven, is just the testimony of how full, even to overflowing, every heart shall be. G.