He was in the world, and the world was made by him; and the world knew him not. (11) He came unto his own, and his own received him not. (12) But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name : (13) Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God:
This is a most beautiful passage, and serves to illustrate and explain the many glorious truths which the Evangelist had before been advancing concerning Christ. He was in the world. When? Yea! from all eternity. Not in his human nature, for he had not as then, openly tabernacled in flesh. And it is not said of his divine nature only, for in that sense it would have been a needless observation. But He was in the world when in his covenant character he was set up from everlasting, and when Jehovah possessed him (as he himself expresses it) under another of his Mediator-names, Wisdom; see Proverbs 8:22 with 1 Corinthians 1:24. And the world was made by him. This hath been before shewn, see John 1:2-3. And the world knew him not. By the fall in the Adam-nature of sin, all men lost all apprehension of God, and became ignorant both of themselves and their Maker. Psalms 10:4; Psalms 10:4. He came unto his own. What own? The world and all that is therein was his own by right of creation. But this is not what is meant by the phrase his own. Neither is it meant his own by right of redemption, when it is added, that his own received him not. For they did, and will all of them receive him. For so the promise in the charter of grace runs, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Psalms 110:3. And the Lord Jesus himself confirms the same, when he saith, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. John 6:37. But the own of Christ here spoken of, means his own nation the Jews, to whom was committed the law, and the service of God and the promises; and they fulfilled their own scriptures in rejecting him. See Romans 9:4 with Acts 13:27. For a further account of Christ's own, see John 13:1. Now, Reader! having taken notice of those who, though Christ's own, as a nation received him not; I pray you to mark the very different character of those his own in right that did. And observe well for you own sake how they are known; and then see whether in experience you bear a correspondence to them. They are described as not born of blood. Nothing of the hereditary blood of Adam gives birth to this chosen seed; neither the outward blood of circumcision by Moses; not the old birth of nature contributing to the new birth of grace. Nor of the will of the flesh. Nothing derived by human generation from father to son; nothing arising out of the corrupt stock of a fallen race, can lead to a spiritual regeneration by the Lord. Nor of the will of man, but of God. No ungodly man can will an ungodly man into these high privileges. No! Neither can a godly father will the son he loves into them. The great father of the faithful Abraham wished it for Ishmael, but could not will it. Genesis 17:18. It is not (saith One that could not be mistaken), of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. Romans 9:16. Reader! what saith your own personal knowledge of these things? Oh! the preciousness of distinguishing mercy!