John 1:1-18 - Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES

John 1:1. In the beginning, etc.—ἐν�. The בְּרֵאשִׁית etc., of Genesis 1 denotes the beginning of that movement of the divine creative energy from which sprang the visible universe. The Evangelist’s words take us beyond this definite point into the immeasurable eternity. In the beginning the Word was. The Logos was not then called into being. He existed “before all worlds” (John 17:5; John 17:24), i.e. before time, which measures the visible universe, had begun. As eternity has neither beginning nor end the Word is eternally existent (for the meaning of the term Logos see Introduction, p. 10, and notes below).

John 1:2. The same.—οὗτος. This [Word], etc. The distinct personal existence of the Word is more definitely asserted and emphasised to show that He was “anterior to the fact of creation of which He is the agent” (John 1:3).

John 1:3. All things, etc.—For the contents of πάντα see Colossians 1:16. Made.—I.e. became. “Creation is a ‘becoming’ in contrast with the ‘being’ emphasised before” (Westcott). Without Him.—The entire community between God and the Word is here declared (Godet); and see John 15:5.

John 1:4. In Him was life.—For the universe. The “fulness” of life dwells in Him, and He is the source of all life physical and spiritual. He is light through life. Life comes to men through Christ; and the result of that life in renewed hearts is light—the light of goodness, truth, holiness.

John 1:5. The light shineth, etc.—The Word was, ere the fall, the light of man, not only potentially, but actually. After the fall darkness covered the moral world. And now again at the Incarnation the light anew rises in power. The conflict evident in all history between light and darkness was now to end in the victory of light. Comprehended.—I.e. seized or laid hold of in a hostile sense; but perhaps what is here meant is a passive hostility—did not appropriate, i.e. comprehend or receive; did not permit the light to penetrate its massive bulwarks.

John 1:6. There was a man, etc.—ἐγένετο, there “became,” appeared. Notice the contrast between a man and the Word. The Word was; that is essential being. The man “became”; his being is derived. John.—i.e. the grace of God (Luke 1:13-14). He was well known, and therefore his testimony was of great force. The Evangelist called him by this name before the title of Baptist had become general (Halcombe, see Introduction).

John 1:7. Through him.—I.e. through his preaching. The Evangelist does not tell the subject of John’s preaching in the same terms as the Synoptists; but repentance is implied in believing, i.e. in saving faith.

John 1:8. He was not that light, etc.—Many were disposed to believe that John was the Messiah (John 1:19-20; Luke 3:15). It is supposed by some that there may have been those in Ephesus and its vicinity who still believed in John’s baptism only (Acts 19:3), and that it was with those in view that the evangelist penned these words; but they seem rather simply to emphasise further the distinction between the Logos and the man. “John was a light which was enlightened, but had not the light in itself” (Aug. in Wordsworth’s Greek Testament).

John 1:10. He was in the world, etc.—The Logos had ever been in the world (John 1:3-4), for by Him all things consist (Colossians 1:17). But He was now especially in it when the Baptist testified of Him, and when “the world knew Him not.” The world means the inhabited world, the material earth with its inhabitants blinded by sin.

John 1:11. His own (τὰ ἴδια) things.—T eated by and for Him (Colossians 1:16); but perhaps better His own home (Psalms 132:14, etc.), i.e. the land of Israel; and “His own (οἱ ἴδιοι, i.e. the chosen people who inherited the land of promise) received Him not,” though they should have done so gladly, and as His Church will do in the end (Revelation 21:2).

John 1:12. The term name must here be taken in the sense in which it is frequently used in Scripture. The name expressed the power of the divine nature of Christ.

John 1:13. Not of blood (see John 8:33; John 8:39; John 8:41-42).—Pride of descent from Abraham gave no claim to entrance into the kingdom of God. The will of the flesh.—i.e. of the lower animal nature and its desires. Nor of the will of man (man = ἀνδρός).—Perhaps the meaning here i the divinely implanted desire for offspring (Psalms 127:3), which is a higher motive than the former. But in every view of it “that which is born of the flesh is flesh.” The new life comes from God. True children of God are born “from above” (John 3:3).

John 1:14. The Word became flesh, etc.—He did not assume a mere appearance of man, as the Docetæ urged; nor did the Logos take to Himself only a body and not also a human soul, as Apollinarius and others held; nor was the Word simply united with the perfect man Jesus, as Nestorius maintained. He became flesh; He did not cease to be the Word, but He made the human nature which He assumed (“a true body and a reasonable soul”) one with Himself, in one person. So that thenceforward He was the God-man, Emmanuel. The Word and humanity were one (Revelation 19:11-16). And thus He dwelt (tabernacled) among us.—“Christ pitched not His tent in any particular person already existing, but in us, i.e. in our nature” (Bishop Wordsworth’s Greek Testament). We beheld His glory.—As the glory of God was manifested in the tabernacle in the wilderness, so it was exhibited in all its brightness in that tent in which the Word tabernacled here. “The σκηνὴ (tabernacle) of our humanity became the Shechinah of Deity” (1 John 1:1-2). As of an only begotten (born) son.—μονογενής, only son or child (Colossians 1:15), eternally standing in this relation to the Father. His relation to the Father is unique and unparalleled (Westcott), of the Father, or from with the Father, pointing to the manifestation of the divine glory of that sonship as beheld by men here. Grace and truth.—The same character which is ascribed to Jehovah in the Old Testament is here applied to Christ (Exodus 34:6). He expressed the fulness of the Father’s love, and as the Truth He revealed the Father’s will and way most fully to men.

John 1:15. John beareth witness of Him and hath cried.—The first verb is present, the last is perfect. His preaching was past when this prologue was written; but it was still powerful as a witness to Christ. The Baptist being dead yet spake.

John 1:16. Fulness.—πλήρωμα (see Colossians 2:9). “The plenitude, the full measure of all the divine powers and graces which were concentrated in Christ, the incarnate Word” (Westcott).

John 1:17. The law, etc.—“The law was given (Hebrews 3:5) by the servant, and made men guilty. The grace which came by the King freed them from guilt” (Aug. in Wordsworth’s Greek Testament).

John 1:18. No man hath ever yet seen, etc.—But there will in the end to the “pure in heart” be granted a divine vision (Matthew 5:8). The only begotten Son, etc.—Or, as the best MSS. (א, B, L, etc.), God. But this does not change the meaning of the passage. The Logos alone has declared and interpreted God to men (Matthew 11:27). In the bosom.—He alone has that filial intercourse with God which marks Him out as the only begotten. Thus He alone fully knows the divine mind and will, and can declare them to men.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— John 1:1-18

The revelation of the eternal Word, its influence and its end.

[The prologue to the Fourth Gospel treats of the eternity and divinity of Christ, the Word, as the end of divine revelation, and of His reception by men. This opening or introductory section sets forth the aim and intention of the Fourth Gospel, viz. to proclaim and testify to Christ as the Son of God (John 20:30-31). It may be questioned whether this Gospel as it stands is the product of an earlier or later apostolic age (vide Introduction). It may, however, be reasonably considered as the setting forth by the apostle John, toward the end of his life, in systematic form, of what had been constantly taught by him, with this prologue prefixed to meet and disarm Gnostic opinions that were pressing in on the Church. The prologue declares that though not understood by the world and rejected by “His own,” yet Christ was the divine Son, the long-promised Messiah.]

As Christ came to Israel He comes to us. The end of His coming is “life through faith in His name.” We as the men of John’s day have to answer the question, “What think ye of Christ?”
I. Who is He that comes to us for acceptance with such lofty claims?—

1. He is the eternal Word—thus called because He reveals God and the hidden things of God (Ephesians 3:9; Revelation 6:1), and in Himself declares the beauty of the divine nature, since He is “the brightness of His glory,” etc. (Hebrews 1:3).

2. He is eternal, for He was in the beginning the only begotten Son, “the firstborn before all creation” (Colossians 1:15). He did not become the Son of God. He was not created. He was. He existed with God, not in God, but with Him, the Man who is God’s “fellow” (Zechariah 13:7). He was not merely an attribute or a power of God, but a divine person co-equal with God from all eternity; for “the same was in the beginning with God” (John 1:2). And as a divine Person His position is the highest, cannot be higher, for He was God; so exalted is the Being here revealed. And when this truth has been grasped we are prepared for the further declaration that this exalted Being is—

3. The Creator of the universe, of all created things (John 1:3). He revealed God in creation. With the Father and the Holy Spirit He is the creator and upholder of all existences—not only of the ὕλη (hyle), i.e. material existences, but of all things, “the things in the heavens and the things on the earth,” etc. (Colossians 1:16). In Him are the sources of all beauty and order, all power and wisdom, all riches and fulness. He is the source of all; and thus when His people rest on Him they know no want, for His fulness is infinite. And as the upholder of all things, in whom all things subsist, He is—

4. The source and spring of life for men, for He is the life absolutely (John 11:25), life essentially, which He communicates to men, which takes its rise in the divine fulness of life, and which has its continuance in communion with God. By Christ men escape from spiritual corruption. He gives life in reconciliation, sanctification, glorification—eternal life. Whoso abides not in Him abides in death.

5. And this life brings light. “The human soul on whose consciousness God arises, and into which the divine life enters, becomes thus enlightened. This enlightened soul then sees itself and the world in light, i.e. in God” (Petri). Christ is essentially the light for men. From the hour when the first promise of restoration fell on the ears of fallen men, down through patriarch and prophet until His manifestation in time; and since His ascension, through His truth He has proved Himself to be the light of men. And despite the darkness which cannot comprehend it (John 1:5). His light is shining toward the perfect day. Then the last and most wonderful step in the manifestation of Himself is—

6. “The Word was made flesh” (John 1:14), and men beheld His glory. It was no merely supernatural or superhuman manifestation that He made to men. “God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). Christ the eternal Son took on Himself the nature of man. The manifestation was not confined to a mode in which men could not comprehend it. In love to men He came in human form to dwell among them, and to make clear to them the truth of truths. And in His coming He brought blessing. He was full of grace and truth; in Him there was fulness of divine blessing for men. Such was He who was thus gloriously revealed, and to whom the heaven-sent forerunner bare witness as the true light, etc. (John 1:9).

II. How did men receive Him?—

1. “He was in the world,” etc. (John 1:10). The darkened world did not comprehend Him. The world here means the lost race of men, for the material world did recognise its Creator and obeyed Him. But men have strayed from the light. The love of God, by which we chiefly know God, does not exist in the heart of the natural man. Though most sad, yet this is not exceeding wonderful. But it is more than sad to consider that—

2. “He came unto His own,” etc. (John 1:11). He came to those who were descendants of Abraham, who looked for the Star of Jacob, the Son of David (Numbers 24:17; Isaiah 11:1). Yet though He was the seed of David according to the flesh (Acts 2:30), “sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24), His own, shut up in the darkness of formalism and traditionalism, did not receive Him, as this Gospel specially shows, although they should have been attracted to Him and bound by double ties of loyalty and love (Isaiah 1:2-3). Though prepared by prophecy and promise, and especially warned and called to repentance, in view of His manifestation among men, by the forerunner, they turned away. This means more than the world’s want of knowledge. That was, indeed, the manifestation of the pitiable blindness of man’s fallen nature. Here we have the deeper blindness of unbelief and spiritual pride—the rejection of the guidance of the Spirit, who through the Word would have enlightened them. What a depth of judgment lies in the words, “His own received Him not”!

3. All did not reject. “To as many as received Him,” etc. (John 1:12). Thus there were some who believed in His name—in Him as the only begotten Son. They were not bound by the material Messianic conceptions of the unbelieving Jews. And to all such He gave “power to become children of God.” Christ is God’s Son by nature. Men by nature are “the children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). But united to Christ by faith they become His brethren, and in living union with Him are one with the Father. The Spirit of the Son is imparted to them, dwells in them, so that they cry, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:11; Romans 8:15).

4. Christendom has been highly favoured—far more so than was Judaism. What shall be the result of not receiving Him now after all the proofs of His divine power and glory? (Hebrews 10:28-29). Let us receive Him with reverence, in view of what He is—with faith in His revealed word and finished work—with longing, feeling our need of all grace. Let us increase in union with Him, participating in His life, radiant with His light, growing through the fulness of His grace.

III. Christ is manifested as the end of divine revelation.—

1. The law was a partial and dim revelation of God’s mind and will. The law was given by Moses. It was an external economy given through a human lawgiver, who passed away. “The law was sent by a servant; grace and truth came by the Son.” The connection of Moses with the law was temporary; and the law, as a preparatory economy, was “a shadow of good things to come” (Hebrews 10:1). Grace and truth, like the Son, are for ever. These gifts come with Him, as part of Himself; they are received with Him, bestowed by Him in their fulness on those who receive Him. And in this coming among men—

2. He revealed the Father. “No man hath seen God,” etc. (John 1:18). Even Moses was vouchsafed only a partial revelation of the divine glory (Exodus 33:18-23). No man can see God in His own essential glory (1 Timothy 6:16). The partial revelation given to the holy men of old was given through the grace of Christ, and they rejoiced to think of the fuller revelation that was to be made (John 8:56). Christ alone fully declares the Father to those who believe in Him (Matthew 11:27). And the centre, the crown of this revelation is that of the Father, i.e. of eternal love (1 John 4:8). “That they may know that Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me” (John 17:23)—this is the end of revelation.

John 1:1-4; John 1:14. “The Word was God.”—None of the gospel writers touch deeper chords of the eternal mysteries than the Evangelist John. He was doubtless, in the divine order, best fitted for conveying to men those deeper truths. “The disciple whom Jesus loved,” he perhaps understood better and sympathised more deeply with his Master than the other disciples. Hence he was likened to the eagle by ancient Church writers, as best able of all the Evangelists to look fixedly on the glory of the Sun of righteousness. His flight indeed is so lofty and prolonged that sometimes men can hardly follow him, even those gifted with keen spiritual vision. In this introductory portion of the prologue to his Gospel the Evangelist emphasises the Godhead of the Redeemer. The theme in all its fulness is far beyond finite, human comprehension. Men can advance only to the threshold of the divine mystery here revealed. There are two great facts meet us.

I. The eternity and divinity of the Word.—“In the beginning was the Word,” etc.

1. The imperfection of human language and the limitations of human thought make it impossible for even this most highly gifted and inspired writer to unfold fully the divine mysteries. But so far as careful and exact expression of thought can compass it, the divinity and eternity of Christ are here set forth. In these words the Evangelist passes beyond the limits of time and space into the eternities—into the presence of “the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy” (Isaiah 57:15). And there is revealed the existence in the Godhead of certain relations. In the beginning, and therefore in eternity, before all created existences were called into being, there existed, with God [or “in relation with God” (Godet)], One here called the Word. This divine Person, or hypostasis, though distinct, was yet in perfect unity with the divine Father, and “was God” [where Θεὸς without the article, “used as an attribute, simply expresses the notion of kind. It is an adjective which, while maintaining the personal distinction between God and the Logos, ascribes to the latter all the attributes of the divine Essence” (Godet)]. There was perfect unity between them, not only in Being, but in the revelation of the divine in the world.

2. The term “word” may be taken to mean generally “the expression of hidden thought,” etc. But it is more. It is the expression of our being, our true selves, when it is genuine and not feigned. So THE ETERNAL WORD is the expression not only of the thoughts, etc., but also of the Being of God. He is distinguished from God the Father, yet they are one. He is eternal, like the Father, and thus is before all things (Proverbs 8:22-28). And as words when sincere reveal men’s thought and their true being, so Christ, THE WORD, reveals the true nature of the Father, and His thoughts toward men; for “He is the brightness of God’s glory,” etc. (Hebrews 1:3). Thus He is the way to the Father, whilst still one with Him, as He claimed to be (Matthew 11:27).

3. This divine relationship is of such a nature that it may be described as like the relationship between father and son. The thought in us is what is hidden. The expression in speech or action or character of our thought is the revelation of ourselves. So the Father, “dwelling in light that no man can approach unto,” etc. (1 Timothy 6:16), is revealed by the Son to men in His incarnation, of which many think there were premonitory tokens in His appearing as the Jehovah-Angel (Genesis 22:11); the Prince of the host of the Lord (Joshua 5:13-15); the Angel of the covenant (Malachi 3:1). He was predicted as the Son (Isaiah 9:6); as Jehovah Himself (Jeremiah 23:6; Zechariah 2:8); as He whose outgoings are from eternity (Micah 5:2). And as the Revealer of God He has been the light of men in all ages,—in the law written in men’s consciences, and given with ordinances to Israel; in the prophetic word; in His special dealings with Israel, and His general dealings with men; in the dim starlight of heathendom, as in the glimmering dawn in Israel.

4. He is also the life of men as the creative Word (1 Corinthians 8:6); and because this power continues “in Him all things consist.” A word implies a corresponding thought. That which is revealed in Jesus is God. He is not the Father; but as the Son He is eternally what He is with and through the Father.

II. In the eternal Godhead of Jesus the Word there is proclaimed to us:

1. The eternity of divine love. “Thou lovedst Me,” etc. (John 17:24). And therefore as “the lamb slain from the foundation of the world” He was the centre and channel to man of that heavenly love that never failed. Thus His redeeming power was not restricted to the ages following His atoning work on earth, but looked backward to the ages past. His coming in time and all it implied was a necessary part of that work which has not ceased since Eden’s fall, etc.

2. This great truth also is a cause of rejoicing to us in the present. This rejoicing comes in the individual Christian’s happy experience, in the general spread of righteousness, in the evidence of the power of His gospel to raise men higher and nearer to God. It is the foundation of the Christian’s confident hope of the ultimate victory of Christ over sin and death, of the high honour and lofty destiny of humanity through Christ’s “not taking on Him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham” (Hebrews 2:16).

3. And there is hope for the eternal future for humanity in this great fact. He who is the eternal Word, “the same yesterday,” etc. (Hebrews 13:8), who so cared for sinful men that He died for them, who by His gospel has advanced and continues to elevate the whole race, will not in the eternal future fail those who trust in Him. “Heaven and earth shall pass away,” but His promises will not fail. No power can prevail against Him, and He can and will give freely all things to those who are His (1 Corinthians 3:22). Therefore

“All hail the power of Jesu’s name,” etc.

John 1:3. Christ the creator.—These verses may be compared to the massive foundation courses of the structure of gospel history. They are laid deep and broad in eternity; they proclaim in truth that divine Rock on which our faith may rest secure, whatever storms may blow, whatever foes assail. Apart from this eternal foundation, humanity can rear no firm and abiding, spiritual and moral structures for the soul’s refuge amid the tempests that will arise. The structures reared on the shifting sands of merely human opinion have fallen and will fall. The building reared on this foundation will stand the test of the day of trial. In these simple phrases two grand truths present themselves for consideration, i.e. that Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God, is the active agent in creation, and that by Him all things consist. Thus the sustaining and upholding of the created universe are part of His work—on Him it depends for its continuance. All things were created by Him (the original creative act was His), and without or apart from Him was not anything made that hath been made, i.e. the continued existence of created things depends on Him (see Dr. A. Maclaren, in loc.). We consider Christ as the agent in creation.

I. Christ was before creation.—

1. We are wont to think of the Redeemer more especially in reference to His redemptive work, and to leave out of sight His divine, eternal existence, which gives to His redemptive work its unique and incomparable value.
2. This foundation truth is revealed to us in Scripture—that Jesus Christ existed before all worlds. As the Son of the eternal Father, eternally derived from the Father, He is of the same substance, “equal in power and glory.”
3. Christ is expressly regarded as pre-existent by the New Testament writers. “He is the image of the invisible God,” wrote the apostle; and the Evangelist-apostle, in words in which he seems to struggle to give utterance to the grand truth, declares that the Word was God. Our Lord Himself claimed this eternal existence in the memorable words, “Before Abraham was, I am.”

4. In such declarations we are led beyond the bounds of time and space, before those shining orbs were swung in the abyss by the word of creative power. In the fathomless depths of eternity, in seeking to penetrate which thought and even imagination are powerless, Christ existed, i.e. with the Father, as the eternal Word.

5. There is community of nature between these divine Persons. The Son is not merely to be regarded as some attribute or power of the divine nature—not merely possessing some scintilla of the divine nature, as angels, or even man; but He is the complete reflection or image of the divine Father; He is the complete expression of the divine thought toward what is without; and also of the divine love, not alone toward what is without, but as that object in which God’s love found not only its expression but its satisfaction. “For only God is sufficient for God—the eternal Son for the eternal Father.”

II. Christ is the eternal manifestation of God.—

1. He is not merely the outward revelation of the Father, but He is so because He is eternally in and with the Father. All the fulness of the Godhead exists in Him. “It pleased the Father that in Him all fulness should dwell.” All the power, all the wisdom, and all the glory of the divine Father are communicated to the Son, residing in and issuing forth from Him with the same fulness.
2. The divine Word stands in this relation of unity with the Father, not beside Him as if He were another, equal to the first simply, but with Him in His eternal glory, so that all that the Father has the Son has, not from Himself, but eternally in and from the Father. “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way,” etc. (Proverbs 8:22).

3. The Word, however, has this further relationship toward what is without, if we may so speak, as the manifestation of God. “He is the Son as the brightness of the divine glory,” etc. (Hebrews 1), as “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). He manifests the divine wisdom in creation, the divine love in providence and redemption.

4. And it is to this expression of the divine love going forth through the divine Son and Word that all things owe their being. As thought becomes visible, so to speak, through the spoken word, so that thought of the divine love and wisdom was expressed by the Son in works of love and wisdom.

“Love is the root of creation; God’s essence worlds without number
Lie in His bosom like children; He made them for this purpose only—
Only to love and to be loved again. He breathed forth His Spirit
Into the slumbering dust; and upright standing, it laid its
Hand on its heart, and felt it was warm with a flame out of heaven.”—Longfellow.

5. Christ the Lord is one with the Father; but He is also to be distinguished from the Father as receiving His fulness from Him and revealing and manifesting it within the bounds of space and time.

III. Christ manifests the divine glory in creation.—

1. We are wont to think and speak of Christ’s first advent, meaning thereby His appearing as the incarnate Son, and of His second advent in reference to His coming again to “make all things new.” But it must never be forgotten that there was what might be called the original and prior advent of the divine Word in creation.

2. “All things were made by Him”; “By Him God made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:2); “In Him were all things created” (Colossians 1:16). He is the centre into which the creative energy is poured in all its fulness by the eternal Father. “There is but one God, the Father, in whom are all things.” But Christ is the expression of the divine thought, and thus of the divine wisdom. He is the Son in full accord with the divine will; and as the manifestation of that will, working by love, “He made the worlds.” Thus “there is to us one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him” (1 Corinthians 8:6).

3. All created things therefore exist in and through Him. “But He Himself draws everything from the Father, and refers everything to the Father.” Thus has been manifested to created intelligences the glory of God. We see and know and adore His power and wisdom and love, His essential glory, in those works which are His works done by and through the eternal Son, in whom His divine fulness dwells.

We may learn here:

1. The essential and eternal glory of the Saviour. We are not to regard Him merely from the side of His incarnation, although that is His crowning glory. We should remember also who and what He is by nature, so that our adoration and service may be reverent as well as loving.
2. To rejoice that this world was made by Him whose nature and name is Love, and who pronounced all things “very good.”

John 1:3, last clause, and 4, first clause. Christ the source of the world’s life and the world’s upholder.—Christ reveals God in creation not only by the original creative act, so that all existences in the created universe bear the impress of His wisdom and power as the manifestation of the Father; He also communicates to the world those vital forces in virtue of which it continues to exist. The continued existence and order of all created things depend on Him.

I. Christ is the source of continued life for the world.—

1. “In Him was life,” etc. “In Him all things consist’ (hold and stand together). It is not only spiritual life we owe to Him, but life in all its grades. In the created universe physical as well as spiritual life depends on Him.

2. This also was included in that infinite fulness which it pleased the Father should dwell in Him. The continuance of all created things depends on Him. Without Him we can do nothing, and we are nothing (John 15:5).

3. Thus we can in some measure realise how much in accord with His nature it was that He (even when incarnate and with His glory veiled) should be able to make the material universe supply Him with the means of physical life (John 6:1-13), and that He should be able to bid back the power of death and restore to life those who were in the power of the last enemy (John 11:43-44). For when He appeared in the world as the visible manifestation of the invisible God He came unto His own (things) (John 1:11), τὰ ἴδια, which He created and sustains.

II. Christ orders and controls the universe created by Him.—

1. He is not a demiurge, who, having created an imperfect world, also controls it imperfectly, or leaves it uncontrolled (Hebrews 1:3). He has all power and might, and is able to order and direct the universe He has framed. And even though for a time He laid aside the heavenly glory and tabernacled among men, He showed His power over the forces of nature, etc.

2. “And now the Father hath highly exalted Him,” etc. “He hath put all things under His feet” (1 Corinthians 15:27). All rule, all authority and power, shall be subject unto Him. “All power is committed to Him in heaven and in earth.” “All things are delivered to Me of My Father.”

3. And this is true not only of physical nature, but of the spiritual and moral worlds. He reigns and rules in them also as King of kings; and He is guiding and controlling all things for an appointed end, for

“that great divine event

Toward which the whole creation moves.”

III. Christ’s rule in the universe brings joy and hope to men.—

1. He is the manifestation of God’s love and care for man; and whilst eternal Love, “the same yesterday, to-day,” etc., is on the throne of universal power, then all things shall be, must be well. Righteousness shall in the end prevail.
2. This hope we need in the midst of so much that is dark and terrible in the world and the history of the race. When the wicked seem to prosper and go unpunished, etc., still even the wrath of man shall praise Him; and He can make even the sorrows and trials of life redound to the good of His people. All things shall work together for their good, etc.
3. It brings, therefore, joy and hope to God’s people—to them only—to know that, however untoward the course of history may seem, however full of tribulation to themselves the experiences of life, Christ, who loved men and gave Himself for them in accordance with the Father’s will and desire, reigns in love on the throne of the universe. So they may cry exultingly with the poet,—

“God’s in His heaven. All’s right with the world” (Browning), and

“His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour” (Cowper), etc.

John 1:4-5. Christ the life as the light of men.—In Scripture God and His working in the world are often symbolised by light and its effects. Indeed, from the first word of power (Genesis 1:2) to the final description of the new heavens and earth (Revelation 21), the working of the divine energy in the universe is very frequently symbolised by light. The divine life and light are constantly linked together. Wherever the divine life is in reality, there also is the divine light; and wherever that light shines, there we know is life, spiritual and eternal. Thus it could not have been otherwise that, when the eternal Son came to the world, He came as the life and light of men. As the sent of God, bearing His image (Hebrews 1:3), He could not have given a clearer revelation of the divine nature.

I. This was the revelation for which humanity longed.—For this they prayed all down the ages. They needed a quickening life which would help them to throw off the mortal and moral malady which had brought their whole being under the dominion of death. They needed light, not only that they might know themselves and the meaning of the present, but that they might have some assurance for the future. For this the race longed—light to illumine the way in which they should go, life to quicken them to walk therein (Psalms 43:3; Psalms 119:37).

II. But are not man’s deepest needs forgiveness and freedom from sin?—Did not Jesus come “to save His people from their sins”? (Matthew 1:21). Yes. But this is only another aspect of the same great truth. Sin is the cause of the darkness; nay, is that darkness that “covers the earth,” and the gross darkness that covers the people (Isaiah 60:2). Sin is the moral and mortal malady that is destroying the race. Therefore Christ, the true and only light, comes to disperse the darkness. Christ the life comes to save the perishing. This He does by imparting His life and light to men. Thus they become centres of the same? and thus ever more surely the darkness passes and the true light shines, the dominion of death is restricted and driven back.

III. Spiritual life and light are correlative.—

1. We cannot imagine the world of animated being existing without the great centre of the material world’s light, the sun.—In creation the first movement which led to the birth of order and beauty was the creation of light: “The ethereal first of things, quintessence pure” (Milton). When it vibrated in the chaotic elements, as the effect and accompaniment of the living, creative Spirit, it contained the promise and potency of the order and beauty which vanquished chaos and darkness. And in reference to this, Christ the Word is the light of the world (John 1:3; Proverbs 2:10-22, etc.).

2. So too is He the light of the moral world.—Humanity, by fatal choice, had become morally and spiritually dark—like a dark, sunless land. No perfectly healthy spiritual life could exist naturally in those fields of time in human nature—no bloom and fragrance of the higher virtues and graces of character could be expected—no fruit of higher service could be looked for. Not that all men at all times, during the long course of history until Christ came, were entirely in this dark state spiritually. Here and there among all tribes and families, in every period of earth’s history, some there were who saw the light, even though dimly and imperfectly. But those often solitary examples only served to emphasise more the intensity of the surrounding darkness. From the dawn of history we may trace the process of unfolding of the divine life in the intellectual and moral life of humanity. Although this life was never utterly destroyed by sin, it was yet enfeebled and darkened. Men lived in a dim moral and intellectual twilight, in which they erred from the heavenward path, as in the gloomy reaches of some vast, primeval forest, through which they vainly struggled often toward the light. Often they wandered further from the path to perish in the gloom. What a confused tangle, as of a gigantic, impenetrable undergrowth, has been the moral history of men! How few clearings were there where a glimpse of sun or star could be obtained! Through what thickets of ignorance, error, and moral obliquity have they had to press ere they could gain the light of freedom, truth, righteousness! But wherever the light of God, the Spirit of Christ, came, the darkness fled.

3. In one race this was conspicuous.—They gained a vantage-ground, through divine grace, from which the paths of truth and righteousness could in part be traced. But it is since Jesus, the light of the world, came to earth, that men have been guided more readily from the tangled mazes of ignorance and sin into the paths of truth and rectitude. This is not the statement of a theological dogma merely. It is the testimony of the annals of our race. It is an indisputable fact that wherever Christ’s Spirit comes with power, there in a marked degree intellectual life quickens and expands and a higher moral order reigns.

IV. But these effects arise ultimately from a change in the spiritual nature of men.—

1. It is there that the deepest darkness has reigned, and there emphatically that Christ is the light of every man. Through the working of His Spirit alone, quickening to a new and higher life, can man attain to true life and light. Hear one of the ancients: “By the conclusions of reason we cannot learn the will of the gods.” Thus spoke Socrates; and his great disciple also said: “If the gods themselves do not reveal the heavenly, you will search the universe in vain for it.” Thus the wisest among the heathen spoke words that amply confirmed the apostle’s saying: “The world by wisdom knew not God.”

2. As a consequence of this darkness all spiritual life was paralysed.—In Israel the moon of revelation of type and ceremony gave a pale, prophetic light. But among the heathen darkness as to God’s will and way reigned supreme. Now here certainly Christ is the light of men. Not only by His teaching but by His life he manifested the divine will and made known the Father to men. And with this revelation a new love comes into men’s hearts. Heat rays accompany the light rays. The nature that lay frozen in the spiritual darkness thaws beneath this combined influence. The heart that was hard and selfish is softened and transformed. The light brings a quickening power. During the long winter of the arctic circle, when only a fleeting aurora lights up the gloom, nature lies frozen and lifeless. But in summer, when the sun rises not to set for many days, the frost unlooses its hold, and under the combined influence of light and heat rays vegetation advances rapidly, quickened into sudden vigorous life—emblem of the nature of man when it is turned toward Christ, the life and light of men! The records of history and the continual testimony of experience declare that Christ is “the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”

John 1:6-7. The forerunner.—Here we have delineated the true character of John the Baptist, and his chief function as the forerunner of our Lord. He was a witness for Christ, and came for that end.

Consider the witness of John the Baptist to Christ, and the testimony of Christ to His forerunner.

I. The witness of John the Baptist to Jesus Christ.—This forerunner sent from God had all the characteristics of a perfect witness.

1. He was a faithful and disinterested witness;
2. A witness fully instructed and enlightened;
3. A faithful and irreproachable witness;
4. A zealous and ardent witness;
5. A constant and steadfast witness.

II. The testimony of Christ regarding John.—The Saviour of the world honoured His forerunner, and bore witness concerning:

1. The greatness of his personality: “Among those born of woman,” etc.
2. The dignity of his ministry: “What went ye out to see? a prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet,” etc.
3. The excellency of his preaching: he was “a burning and a shining light.”
4. The efficacy of his baptism: Jesus cometh unto John to be baptised of him.
5. The holiness of his life: “What went ye out to see? a reed shaken with the wind? a man clothed in soft raiment?”

Lesson.—Let us seek to live a holy life, so that Jesus Christ may confess us one day before His Father; and let us fear lest He may have to witness against us in view of the contradiction He may find between our life and conduct and that of John the Baptist.—Bourdaloue.

John 1:12-13. The divine sonship of believers.—The great races of heathen antiquity loved to trace their descent from the gods, and the father of gods and men, through a long line of demigods and heroes. This was no doubt a reminiscence dimmed and blurred of the great truth that man is made in the divine image. Far otherwise is it with a large section of scientific and literary thinkers of this age. They are seeking strenuously to prove that man is of the earth earthy. But materialism means death to human progress, and gives the lie to the feelings and aspirations of men. Therefore even leading materialists are fain to take refuge in agnostic theories or even spiritualistic puerilities. These theories of materialistic evolution are exercising a widespread influence. Even in the Church are found men who seek to reduce religion also into a product of the dust. But there have not been wanting others who have taken up arms against such attacks, even many who have given no special allegiance to the Church. Many of our greatest modern thinkers uphold the truth that men are offspring of the Eternal.

I. Men by nature are the offspring of God.—

1. God is “the Father of our spirits.”—Objections have been urged against this truth. It is said the only relationship of men to God is that of subjects to their sovereign ruler, creatures to their creator. But can they not bear the other relation also? Can it not be so among men, and shall the Creator be less free than the creature? True, it is not specifically in the material part of our being that we are God’s offspring. His image is reflected in the conscious, reasoning intelligence—in the heart or moral nature—in that conscience by which His law is authoritatively revealed for our guidance; whilst the signs of His fatherly love and care are all around us, and a bountiful provision is accorded to us far above what is bestowed on all other living creatures in the world. Divine revelation upholds this truth also (Malachi 2:10; Isaiah 63:16; 1 Corinthians 8:6).

2. This truth is not negatived by the fact that God deals retributively with those who despise His government and break His laws.—Many a ruler has had so to deal with a law-breaking child. God’s spiritual children by creation have rebelled against His righteous government, and have banished themselves, as it were, from the divine presence—have alienated themselves from God, and laid themselves open to the penalty which inevitably follows as a consequence of the breaking of divine law.

3. But even though they are fallen and alienated, no longer able to call God Father, yet He shows a paternal interest in them, proves that He cares for them with a father’s love.—For has He not devised a way by which His law may be vindicated and His rebellious children reconciled? Surely the fact of His doing this is an indisputable proof of fatherly love—above all, when it is considered in what manner that tender love and compassion were manifested, etc. When this is considered, the prophet’s words will become luminous—“Thou art our Father, O Lord, our Redeemer,” etc.

II. But the text speaks evidently of another sonship than the relationship all men bear to God by nature. The true Light of men is represented as giving power to those who believe on Him to become sons of God.

1. Why was this needful? i.e. if men were already sons of God. They have become estranged from God through sin, from their heavenly Father’s fellowship—have lost the privileges and repudiated the obligations of sonship. They do not regard God with filial reverence and affection and confidence. The gifts of His providence are still bestowed on them; but they have no claim to, and naturally no desire for, the inheritance of the saints. But God’s love is not turned from them. He is ready to receive them if they will return. This is impossible in their state of alienation; they could have no taste for the life of God’s children, could not keep the laws and rules of the Father’s house, or be fitted for the communion of saints. Of themselves they cannot return. Sin has choked the springs of wise and higher affection.

“Sin only is it that enslaveth him,
And maketh him unlike the Good Supreme.”

Dante, “Par.,” vii. 79.

2. But what is impossible with men is not so with God.—In no other action was God’s fatherly love to men more manifest than in His method of redeeming men (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9).

“Therefore it God behoved in His own way
To bring man back into the perfect path.”

Dante, “Par.,” vii. 31–34.

“To as many as recognised Him” (as the true light), etc. Men must recognise Christ as their Saviour, must awaken to a sense of their lost and ruined state, and look to Him as the way of return to God. To such He gives power, etc., i.e. not only pardon, freedom from guilt of sin, peace (to many these alone seem necessary), but also a new spiritual life, in which they break the fetters of evil and step once more into that spiritual liberty and communion with God for which they were created. This is the way of return to this high dignity—not by descent as children of Abraham, or as born in the Christian Church, or by any man-made plans or means (John 1:13); but by recognising Christ as the only begotten Son, and by the power of His love, through the grace and truth of His Spirit, being transformed into His likeness, do men attain the end of their creation and become again children of God (Ephesians 2:13; Galatians 4:6).

III. This is the grand purpose and aim of the gospel.—This restoration of men reveals in higher measure than could otherwise have been done God’s unspeakable love to fallen men. “Behold what manner of love,” etc. (1 John 3:1). What, in comparison of this, is the state of princes or the pomp of kings? And of what shall they be thought worthy—what shall be the end of those who, by continuing in a state of sin and alienation, not only rebel against God’s rightful authority as Creator, etc., but despise and think lightly of His wondrous love? Oh think, impenitent ones, what it is ye are rejecting to your own eternal loss! Children of God in Christ Jesus, remember your high privileges and duties! To you infinite Goodness promises every good and perfect gift: help in time of need; chastening when discipline is necessary; ever-growing communion through the Spirit indwelling, and in the end the assured hope of the blessed inheritance. Such are your privileges; and your duty may here be summed up in one word: “Walk as children of God, as children of the light and of the day.”

“Like as a wheel is equally revolved,
So let your will and your desire be moved
By the love which moves the sun and other stars.”

Dante, “Par.,” xxxiii. 143.

John 1:12-13. Children of God.—It would be impossible to analyse all that is contained in this astonishing and grand statement. It will suffice for edification, and prove a stimulus in the way of duty, to consider a few of the conceptions called up by such words. Eternity will not exhaust their meaning. Consider:—

I. The greatness of the thought brought before us.—

1. In pondering it we seem to be like explorers standing on the borders of a vast undiscovered territory: mighty rivers, great mountains, vast plains rise to their wondering gaze.
2. But what are all such wonders compared with the marvellous vista opened up in these words in time and eternity? “Children of God”—who can comprehend its fulness, who can tell its greatness and glory? The astronomer gazes with awe and wonder on the sublime spectacle of the starry heavens, and gets glimpses of the glory of the universe.

“Then felt I like, some watcher of the skies

When a new planet swims into his ken;

Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes

He stared at the Pacific—and all his men

Look’d at each other with a wild surmise—

Silent, upon a peak in Darien.”—John Keats.

But here there are glimpses given of truths more astonishing and glorious than those of astronomy.

3. The Psalmist had some conception of these truths when he wrote: “What is man that Thou art mindful of him?” etc. (Psalms 8:4). But the Evangelist sees more deeply through Christ into the mystery of divine goodness and love when he writes: “As many as received Him,” etc.

II. May men become children of God?—

1. At the present time the tendency seems to be to show that man is nothing more than the offspring of the dust—a higher kind of beast, but all the same simply a lineal descendant of the beasts that perish. It is not man’s future which concerns so many nowadays, but his past.
2. Whatever truth may lie at the basis of modern development-theories it has not yet been definitely and indubitably stated. It does not really matter much whether man physically was made by a direct act of the Almighty, or evolved from lower forms. All that can be said is that the theory is still a theory merely.
3. The main question is, What is man’s present and future? Is he a “magnetic mockery, wholly brain,” or is there within him that which tells of his relation to a higher sphere? Is there not within him a spirit which is his true self, and which may be brought into close relation with Him who is the source of all true life, moral and spiritual?
4. Men know their weakness and sinfulness so well that many stand abashed before this lofty height to which they are called to attain—to be children of God, or, as the apostle said “partakers of the divine nature.” Many seem to think it might be possible for an Enoch, etc., who look down so serenely from the lofty height of their character, to achieve this; but not ordinary men. But they were “men of like passions with ourselves”—with the same temptations, etc. And to us as to them the command is issued, “Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

III. How can men attain to this height?—

1. What is the nature of the divine Being? He is “wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” Because He is so He is the eternal and unchangeable Jehovah. And it is by becoming like Him, by being made partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), that men become His children.

2. But how shall we who cleave to the dust be able to build up within us this lofty character? Without some inner spring it would be impossible. The text tells us “as many as received Him, to them gave He power.” The receiving of Christ brings men into permanent union with the source of divine spiritual life. They are then born not of merely earthly elements. The reception of Christ is followed by the communication of a new principle, divine and heavenly, from which the heavenly character grows.

3. And the constraining force from within, which flows from this new life and which contains all its characteristics, is the power of love. It is the foundation principle of the divine nature. God is love. “Every one that loveth is born of God.” It is the love of God reconciling sinners to Himself that made it possible for men through redemption to become His children; and it is the mighty constraining power of this love within that gives them the power to live and walk as His children.

4. The power of a pure affection among men to constrain and bless cannot be estimated. And thus love to God working within, quickened by the Spirit of all grace, helps men to remove those obstructions that hinder their divine fellowship. When loving Him they realise His mercy, love, goodness, etc., in some measure; they will not continue to harbour what God abhors—sin, to remove which the Redeemer suffered and died. The love of Christ leads men to imitate Him, to empty their hearts of self, to take up the cross and follow Him. And as all the attributes of the divine nature inhere, so to speak, in this principle of love, so when the love of Christ constrains men it is that they should become holy, etc., as He is—i.e. children of God in Him.

IV. The condition of attaining.—

1. It is not in ourselves, but in Christ. We must know Him and receive Him in faith. The Jews as a people did not receive Him. To those who did He gave the right—which comes from God through union with His Son. They are adopted as spiritual children, babes in Christ, and thenceforward grow in the divine likeness (2 Peter 1:3-4). They are even here members of God’s great spiritual family—“of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19).

2. They seek through His grace to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust—to advance daily in the knowledge of Christ.

3. There is an easy gospel preached by too many. The New Testament reveals only two courses of life. In the one men rise by grace through victory over self to become children of God. The end of this course is eternal blessedness and joy. In the other men fall ever further away from God, the source of all true life and light. The end of this course is darkness and death. Those who receive and follow the Saviour shall be like Him. Those who live for this passing, perishing world, and are filled with the world’s spirit and life, cannot be called “children of God” (1 John 2:15-17).

John 1:14. The Word made flesh.—No one can for one moment doubt that this refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. Observe:—

1. His peculiar denomination, “The Word.”—John is the only one of the sacred writers who speaks of Him under this name; but this does not render it less worthy of regard, for “he wrote as he was moved by the Holy Ghost.” Three things seem to be derived from John’s use of the title.

(1) It is intended to mark a person. Nothing can be more forced than the meaning that it here means the wisdom of God. How could the wisdom of God be made flesh, etc., and be called the Only Begotten, etc.?

(2) The term marks previous existence. This is evident from the phrase The Word was made flesh, etc.

(3) The term is designed to mark a divine person. The name given to God is expressly given to the “Word.” Creation is ascribed to Him. This could not have been affirmed of a mere creature, or even of a super-angelic being. John here declares that He was God; and that He was the source of all life and existence.

2. Christ’s incarnation.—The Word was made flesh—i.e. He became man, although not ceasing to be God. As He was God before, so He could not cease to be God after He took on Him our nature; for He took not on Him, etc. (Hebrews 2:16). Hence the Scriptures ascribe many things to Him which will not apply to His divine nature or agree with His human nature separately. “Unto us a Child is given” does not refer to Him as God. “And His name shall be called Wonderful” does not refer to Him as man. There is neither contradiction nor impossibility in the incarnation of the Son of God; but it is a mystery, and will perhaps ever remain so. It is thus that the Deity is brought down to our apprehension—that He becomes our example, is able to sympathise—thus to suffer, bleed, die for us, etc.—W. Jay.

John 1:14. The end of Christ’s humiliation.—The apostles preached “Christ.” The only object that can give peace to the soul is “Christ and Him crucified.” To know Him is life. The first truth taught here is the humiliation of the Son. It is laid down in two parts.

I. The humiliation of the Son of God consisted in His being made flesh.—

1. What is not meant.

(1) It is not meant that He really took a body without a soul. As He dwelt among us He had also a loving human soul (John 12:27).

(2) It was not a sinful body. “He offered Himself without spot to God.” The one thing in which He differed from men was sin (Hebrews 4:15). His humanity was holy.

2. What is meant. He, the Word, became one with a holy human soul, and with a body with our infirmities, such as thirst, pain, etc. Why was He made flesh? (a) That He might obey the law of God in the same nature that had broken the law. He was made under the law that He might obey it, and under the curse of the law that He might endure it. It is the first of these that is brought forward here. He came that He might obey the law and do more honour to it than if it had never been broken. This is one reason why He remained so long on the earth—to show that the law is good. (b) He was made flesh that He might die, and bear the law’s curse (Hebrews 2:3; Hebrews 2:14). If He had remained in the bosom of the Father He could not have suffered. Therefore, in order to die He became flesh. (c) He became flesh that He might have sympathy with men (Hebrews 2:17). None but those who have felt as we have can have compassion and sympathy (Exodus 23:9). So God says to Christ, You know the heart of a man.

3. The second part of His humiliation. He dwelt among us. “Tabernacled among us as in a tent.” His life was one of poverty—He had not where to lay His head, etc.

II. The glory that burst through His humiliation.—We beheld His glory, etc. Angels saw it. The doctors in the temple were astonished at His words. At the marriage of Cana of Galilee, etc., it was seen. What is it? The glory of the divine perfections, divine wisdom, divine love, etc.

1. The glory of the divine wisdom was shining through Him.—This was seen not so much in His miracles, etc., as in the plan of redemption—the scheme He accomplished when He said, “It is finished.”

2. The glory of the divine love.—His very appearance in the manger at Bethlehem was a display of this love. When the sinner is brought to peace, when the soul says of Christ, “Here will I rest”—here is the glory of the divine love. Have we seen it?

3. The glory of the provision laid up in Christ.—“Full of grace and truth.” Some may say, If Christ be so glorious I cannot come to Him; I can only say with Peter, “Depart from me,” etc. How can I come? There is but one answer: He is full of grace and truth. He is full of grace for them who deserve wrath. How could the publicans and sinners sit beside Him in Levi’s house? “He was full of grace.” How suitable a Saviour! He is full of truth. “The law given by Moses,” etc. The law was a shadow; Christ is the substance. All that is in Christ is truth. The pardon He gives is a true pardon. The peace He gives is true peace. Come to Him. There are these two reasons why all should come:

(1) He is full of grace;
(2) He is full of truth. You need a divine Saviour, and yet you need one full of grace. There is none but Christ answers to this description. He is full of grace, though full of glory. Will you not let Him save you?—McCheyne.

John 1:16. Christ’s fulness of grace and truth.—The fulness of Christ here spoken of is the fulness of the divine attributes dwelling in Him, manifesting itself in that glory, full of grace and truth, which men beheld. And it pleased the Father that this “fulness” should be in Him as the Redeemer, so that men united to Him might freely receive of it; and that the Church of His redeemed might become “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.”

I. In Christ’s divine fulness there is provision for man’s need.—

1. God saw our need of all things—our “emptiness and woe”—our need of light on the path of life, of guidance and direction in the way of duty, of comfort in view of death, of peace in view of sin.
2. And Christ has filled up all these needs of ours. He is the Way, the Truth, the Life. He is the Light of the world. When He speaks Heavenly Wisdom speaks. Dwelling in the bosom of the Father, He has perfectly revealed the divine will. He brings peace through His atonement, and thus meets our utter need of salvation and grace. And He was able to effect this because in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

II. This provision is unfailing and inexhaustible.—

1. Christ is the same yesterday, etc. (Hebrews 13:8). The streams of grace and truth are ever full and overflowing from that perennial fountain.

2. “All we have received,” etc. To the Church during all these centuries grace has followed in the train of grace.

3. Have any ever found this fountain to fail when they have come in faith and longing? Has not each blessing received prepared the way for another (Matthew 13:12)? Every measure of grace gained by the faithful disciple fits him for receiving a fuller measure (2 Peter 3:18).

4. From the eternal fulness of the river of grace all may drink without diminishing one drop of its full tide. And then for millions now and in eternity it shall flow.

John 1:17. The law and grace—Sinai and Calvary.—In these words there is brought before us the preparatory and the final, the incomplete and the perfect revelation of God’s will—the temporary, typical, and the eternally abiding manifestation of His righteousness, mercy, and love. “The law was given by Moses.” It was a truly grand manifestation of the righteousness and holiness of God. It pointed out clearly the way to Himself. “Without holiness,” without conformity to that moral order revealed on Sinai, “no man shall see the Lord.” And if this revelation had stood alone it would have been, so far as men are concerned, a revelation of despair. “By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Romans 3:20). To those who sought by this way alone access to God there was opposed an impassable barrier—the barrier of moral inability. “If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law” (Galatians 3:21). But even the law itself, on its ceremonial side, showed its inability to give life, and pointed the faithful to the promise both concealed and revealed in it. The law led men, by showing them their inability to attain to its standard, directly to the promise, whilst the promise pointed and led them to Christ. And in Him that ability to attain is found. He does not give a mediate and partial revelation of God’s mind and will, as did Moses. He Himself is the embodiment and manifestation of the Father’s nature, of His love toward men; and thus also He is the revealer of that blessed truth, in part revealed, in part hidden, in law and promise. To-day then we stand in view of the two mountain peaks of divine revelation. On the one hand rises Sinai, stern and forbidding, filling the sinner with awe. Yet to the faithful, relying on the promise, even at Sinai hope shines amid the darkness, telling that the God who thus has revealed Himself has done so for men’s weal, and points them to that higher mountain—morally higher—rising beyond, wherein Christ grace and truth meet, where righteousness and peace are reconciled (Psalms 85:10).

Let us gaze to-day fixedly at those two peaks of divine revelation, Sinai and Calvary, so that we may be led to rest more trustingly under the cross of Him who suffered on Calvary—“Jesus, the mediator of the New Testament.”

I.[1] On Sinai we behold the forceful lawgiver publishing an inexorable law; on Calvary the suffering Redeemer manifesting the fulness of divine grace.—

1. How vast is the difference between the two scenes presented to our view! The law was given on Sinai under conditions of awful solemnity befitting its nature: the thick cloud covering the mount, with lightning flash and thunder roll; the trumpet sounding louder and louder as the stern proclamation was given that the people should not draw near (Exodus 19:16-20). It was a fitting accompaniment to the delivery of a law that revealed the divine holiness and truth, the divine justice and judgment, awful in their unswerving onward march to those who stand unprotected and unreconciled opposing them. For to sinful men the law was no proclamation of peace and life. As a revelation of the righteous character and will of God, as a formulation of those statutes written on men’s hearts by the Holy One, and by men violated all along the course of their history, it showed forth the divine glory, and pointed to the summit toward which men must strive if they would escape the penalty of the broken law. But although it was given to Moses to proclaim this divinely revealed law, he could not implant in the hearts of his people the spirit of obedience; he could not impart, or only dimly and imperfectly, the secret of that motive power which leads men to obey. The divine Sovereignty loomed conspicuous behind the thou shalts and thou shalt nots of the positive commands. The work of Moses, the stern lawgiver and leader, endowed with power to proclaim the divine will, to threaten and punish the disobedient, was a necessary work. In order to do God’s will men must first know it, have it proclaimed to them in its purity and fulness. God cannot be truly known, and men’s relation to Him, until the awfulness of His purity, and the horror and condemnation of sin, are seen in the light of His law. And men still need this revelation. It is still a light thing with many to “commit these abominations” that “fill the land with violence” (Ezekiel 8:17) and bring the divine judgments upon men. Thus to the end Moses and the law will bring to men “the knowledge of sin.”

[1] Divisions after Gerok.

2. But should we wish this to be all? Could we bear that yoke which even the chosen people were unable to bear? Could it bring us peace to listen to Moses alone, as many would actually have us do? No. “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse” (Galatians 3:10). And therefore we must turn to that fuller revelation of the mind of God given on Calvary. It is another voice that speaks to us from that holy mount, another and yet the same. For whilst there we still hear echoes of the voice that of old brought dread to Israel; and see in that crucified and thorn-crowned form, as in a mirror, the awful penalty of sin—

“Sins not His own His spotless soul

With bitter anguish tore.”

Yet we hear still more clearly in that same voice the accents of love and mercy, and see in the suffering Redeemer “the mediator of a new covenant,” etc. (Hebrews 8:6).

II. Sinai speaks of judgment and death; Calvary of righteousness and life.

1. There is something congruous and harmonious between the natural aspect of “the mount of the Lord,” where the law was proclaimed to Israel, and the meaning of the law itself in its reference to man.—The mountain top is a scene of desolate and solitary grandeur—giant cliffs of granite rising in sublime loneliness into the blue of heaven. But at the mountain foot stretches a small, but comparatively fertile plain, whilst here and there among the wadies, where springs gush forth, are patches of verdure and fertile spaces. So on the summit of the moral Sinai sits the divine Lawgiver in awful solitude. None of human kind by himself may venture to approach—can approach—that solitary height. And yet to those who, in times long gone, heard in the intervals behind the thunder tones of the divine Majesty the “still, small voice” of divine pity, compassion, and mercy, there were even at the base of Sinai fertile reaches, where they might dwell in safety, discerning in faith that the promise was above the law, which cannot annul the promise (Galatians 3:17).

Sinai still speaks to men as to Israel of old of condemnation and death. The Mosaic economy is expressly called by St. Paul “the ministration of condemnation.” Thus condemnation, judgment, is the end of the law. And is it not so still? It was emblematic of what the law would be and is to men of all time that at its delivery the summit of the mountain “was altogether on a smoke,” that a thunderstorm enwrapped it, and that the earth trembled and quaked. Well might earth tremble with her sons when it is remembered what the issues were that depended on that day’s revelation—blessing or curse, life or death (Deuteronomy 11:26-28; Deuteronomy 27:14-26; Deuteronomy 30:15).

And so to men now the mountain smokes, the thunders roll, the earth trembles when they seek anew a way to God by the law of Sinai; and they are compelled to add their Amen to the apostle’s word: “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Galatians 3:10). Which of us will dare to say with the young ruler, as the ten words are laid before us: “All these things have I kept from my youth up” in thought, word, and deed? (Matthew 19:20; Job 9:3). There is none—no, not one—can stand before the Holy One when He reckons with us for His broken law. By way of the mount of the law there is no peace or safety for men—rather condemnation and death.

“Christian turned out of his way to go to Mr. Legality’s house for help; but, behold, when he was got now hard by the hill (Mount Sinai), it seemed so high, and also that the side of it that was next the wayside did hang so much over, that Christian was afraid to venture further, lest the hill should fall on his head: wherefore, there he stood still, and wotted not what to do. Also his burden now seemed heavier to him than while he was in his way. There came also flashes of fire out of the hill that made Christian afraid that he should be burnt; here, therefore, he did sweat and quake for fear.”—Pilgrim’s Progress.

By this way there is no attainment, no bringing to perfection—sometimes lofty purposes ruined, attempts at the higher life frustrated—until the soul despairing cries out like the apostle: “Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24).

2. And it is here that those who desire deliverance will be led to look past and beyond Sinai, and in view of Calvary to exclaim: “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (John 1:25).—How different is the aspect of Calvary when compared with that of Sinai! In place of the towering, frowning, forbidding cliffs of the latter, the little hill of Calvary is insignificant. But in moral grandeur it far overtops Sinai’s most majestic peak. There are no elements of fear and terror there. It is true, that uplifted Victim bleeding and dying on the cross of shame speaks of judgment and righteousness—so also do the darkened heavens and trembling earth. But it is for Him who hangs there that these portents appear. It is He, bearing Himself the sin of the world, whom those ministers of divine wrath against sin, suffering and death, compel to drink the bitter cup to the dregs. But, beyond that, Calvary tells us of eternal love and eternal spiritual life. For He who hangs there is sent in love by Him who uttered His voice on Sinai; and He came willingly to do that to which Sinai pointed, but in which the law failed, and must fail. “What the law could not do,” etc. (Romans 8:3). Therefore the voice that speaks from Calvary is the voice of love. It does not bid men stand back, but rather calls them near. “Look unto Me,” etc. (Isaiah 45:22). “Ye are come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant,” etc. (Hebrews 12:24). Here on Calvary’s mount true righteousness blooms and fructifies for men. On Sinai’s granite top men cannot plant trees of righteousness; for them no flower and fruit of holiness can bloom there. But on Calvary a perennial fountain springs; there all the plants of righteousness may grow, and there fertility and beauty abound. “Blessed are they that hunger,” etc. (Matthew 5:6). “Satisfied not through their own efforts, but by grace divine.” “O blessed office of the New Testament, which preaches righteousness, and yet proclaims redemption and life in the name of Jesus to all who seek salvation! Though I could bring water from the smitten rock like Moses, and though I could call fire from heaven like Elias, yet would I rather proclaim to a sinful, penitent heart, ‘Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee’; I would rather open heaven to a troubled human soul by preaching the eternal love of God, and the heavenly home of His children” (Gerok).

III. On Sinai there was ordained a temporary economy; on Calvary Christ is the mediator of a covenant which is enduring.—

1. At Sinai there is no abiding.—The Israelites paused near it for a time; and having received the law passed on to realise it in the concrete form of a separated and consecrated people and nation. For many a century they strove to realise what the law pointed to and required. “But the law made nothing perfect.” The rites and sacrifices of the old covenant, when observed and offered according to the letter only as means of salvation, and without reference to their hidden typical, spiritual meaning, were worse than useless (Isaiah 1:13-15). And even the moral law, when regarded merely as an objective standard to which the outward life and conversation were to be conformed, became a galling yoke, an unspeakable burden, The law, in its outward, objective form, was passing and temporary. It is “our schoolmaster—to bring us to Christ” (Galatians 3:24). Its rites and ordinances passed away when Christ appeared and completed His atoning work. They were but shadows, that was the reality. Its moral precepts could not pass away, for they are the eternal reflection of the all-perfect character of God. To the believer, however, they are no longer an objective law, but a subjective standard, whereby aided by divine grace we may test and regulate our lives.

2. Thus the temporary economy passed away to give place to the abiding Covenant of Calvary.—“Jesus was worthy of more honour than Moses, inasmuch as He who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.” Moses was faithful as a servant over the House of God; but Christ as a Son over His own House abideth ever (Hebrews 3:3; Hebrews 3:5-6). “Christ alone brings to men the grace of life in communion with God; and truth, which is the beautiful reflection of the divine holiness. For Christ alone is eternally full of grace and truth as the only begotten Son” (Besser). Thus the new covenant which He makes is unchanging as His own eternal nature. He, as God, is “the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” The preparatory testament passes; but the gospel remains. The offerings and sacrifices of the legal covenant are rendered nugatory by that “blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel.” But the moral precepts of the old law remain as our criterion of life and attainment. And it is thus by Sinai that most earnest souls are startled at the view of their own weakness and sinfulness, and led to Calvary for redeeming grace and spiritual strength.

HOMILETIC NOTES

John 1:3-4. The only begotten Son of God is called “the Word” because:

1. He reveals what is hidden;
2. Manifests what is unseen;
3. Actively and creatively expresses the divine thought. He speaks and it is done, commands and it stands fast. “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” With what the heart is filled the mouth runs over. That with which the heart of God is filled is locked up in the Word, who is with God and was God.

The Word was with God and was God.—The Evangelist here warns us against and keeps us from:

1. A Judaistic numbing idea of the solitariness of the divine nature in the phrase the Word was with God; and

2. From a heathenish polytheistic idea when we further read and realise that the Word was God.

3. Without blasphemy, therefore, or the deification of man, do we in Christian baptism baptise in the name of Christ, as the name of the Son equal with the Father, as we baptise in the name of the Father and of the Holy Ghost.—From Kögel.

The starting-point of St. John.—Instead of opening his narrative at the human birth of our Lord, or at the commencement of His ministry, St. John places himself in thought at the starting-point (as we should conceive it) of all time. Nay rather, it would seem that if בראשׁית at the beginning of Genesis signifies the initial moment of time itself, ἐν� rises absolute conception of that which is anterior to, or rather independent of, time. Then, when time was not, or at a point to which man cannot apply his finite conception of time, there was—the Logos or Word. When as yet nothing had been made, He was. What was the Logos? Such a term, in a position of such moment, when so much depends on our rightly understanding it, has a moral no less than an intellectual claim upon us, of the highest order. We are bound to try to understand it, just as certainly as we are bound to obey the command to love our enemies. No man who carries his morality into the sphere of religious thought can affect or afford to maintain that the fundamental idea in the writings of St. John is a scholastic conceit, with which practical Christians need not concern themselves. And, indeed, St. John’s doctrine of the Logos denotes at the very least something intimately and everlastingly present with God, something as internal to the Being of God as thought is to the soul of man. In truth, the divine Logos is God reflected in His own eternal thought; in the Logos, God is His own object. This infinite Thought, the reflection and counterpart of God, subsisting in God as a Being or Hypostasis, and having a tendency to self-communication—such is the Logos. The Logos is the Thought of God, not intermittent and precarious like human thought, but subsisting with the intensity of a personal form. The very expression seems to court the argument of Athenagoras, that since God could never have been ἄλογος, the Logos must have been not created but eternal. It suggests the further inference that since reason is man’s noblest faculty, the uncreated Logos must be at least equal with God. In any case it might have been asked why the term was used at all, if these obvious inferences were not to be deduced from it; but, as a matter of fact, they are not mere inferences, since they are warranted by the express language of St. John. St. John says that the Word was “in the beginning.” The question then arises: What was His relation to the self-existent Being? He was not merely παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ, along with God, but πρὸς τὸν Θεόν. This last preposition expresses, beyond the fact of co-existence or immanence, the more significant fact of perpetuated intercommunion. The face of the everlasting Word, if we may dare so to express ourselves, was ever directed towards the face of the everlasting Father. But was the Logos then an independent being, existing externally to the one God? To conceive of an independent being, anterior to creation, would be an error at issue with the first truth of monotheism; and therefore Θεὸς ἧν ὁ Λόγος. The Word is not merely a divine Being, but He is in the absolute sense God. Thus from His eternal existence we ascend first to His distinct Personality, and then to the full truth of His substantial Godhead. Yet the Logos necessarily suggests to our minds the further idea of communicativeness; the Logos is speech as well as thought. And of His actual self-communication St. John mentions two phases or stages: the first creation, the second revelation. The Word unveils Himself to the soul through the mediation of objects of sense in the physical world, and He also unveils Himself immediately. Accordingly St. John says that “all things were made” by the Word, and that the Word who creates is also the revealer: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.” He possesses δόξα, that is in St. John the totality of the divine attributes. This “glory” is not merely something belonging to His essential nature, since He allows us to behold it through His veil of flesh.—Canon Liddon.

John 1:5. The world a dark place.—In paradise, before sin entered the world, spiritual darkness was unknown. But when sin entered it was like a cloud shutting out the light of God’s love, of His law, His will, His way. The world—the world of men—became truly a dark place.

I. But the light shone in the darkness.—

1. In the promises;
2. In the law;

3. In prophecy. Christ is the radiant centre of the Old Testament Revelation 4. And even among the heathen there were witnesses of the divine presence, glimmerings of divine light (Acts 14:17; Acts 18:27).

II. The darkness comprehended it not.—The world of men apart from God is darkness (Isaiah 60:2).

1. One chief reason why the darkness cannot comprehend the light is that unrighteousness reigns in men’s hearts. “He that doeth truth cometh to the light”; whilst those who do evil “hate the light” (John 3:20).

2. The entrance of light disturbs—shows what is noisome and unlovely in the moral world, causes pain and dissatisfaction. Men, therefore, do not desire naturally that light should penetrate the darkness. It is the love of darkness that prevents the light shining in on men.

John 1:6; John 1:8. “There was a man sent from God,” etc.—

1. “John was not that light.” He was but the aurora—the dawn, the herald of the sun-rising.
2. He was not the Word, but was a voice proclaiming the Word.
3. He was not the Way through the wilderness, but a guide to lead men to faith. Is it not the glory of the office of preacher, that the servant of the Word should speak all given to him by God, in order to lead men to Christ, and not to put himself forward?—After Kögel.

The true light.—τὸ φῶς, τὸ�: the true light. The epithet ἀληθινὸν is not true in contrast to false, but true in contrast to that which is derived or subordinate. The Greek has two words to express these ideas, ἀληθὴς and ἀληθινός, corresponding to verax and verus in Latin; but the English language has only one word, and we are obliged to express both ideas by the word true. In the preceding verse it is said of the Baptist: “He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light”; and then follow the words: “the true light was He who came into the world.” The Baptist, in one sense, was the true light. He was, as our Lord Himself says, “a bright and shining light” (John 5:35): ἀληθής, true, as opposed to false. But, in another sense, he was not the true light: ἀληθινός, true, as opposed to that which is subordinate and derived. Christ was as the sun, the original source of light; the Baptist was as the moon, deriving all its light from the sun. Ἀληθινὸς is a favourite term with St. John. It occurs twenty-eight times in the New Testament, and twenty-three of these occur in the writings of St. John—nine in the Gospel, four in his First Epistle, and ten in the Apocalypse. Thus our Lord declares Himself to be the true bread (ὁ�), which came down from heaven (John 6:32), not implying that the manna was not also the bread which came down from heaven; but that He was the original, of which the manna was only the type and emblem. So here Christ is the true Light, the archetype, the origin of all lights; all other lights are derived from Him as their source. As Archbishop Trench observes: “The eternal Word is declared to be τὸ φῶς τὸ�, not denying thereby that the Baptist was also a burning and a shining light, or that the faithful are lights in the world, but only claiming for a Greater than all, to be ‘the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.’ In the words of our own great poet:—

“ ‘Our little systems have their day,

They have their day and cease to be;
They are but broken lights of Thee,

And Thou, O Lord, art more than they,’ ”

ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον: coming into the world.—Here consists the difficulty in the exegesis of the passage. In the original the language is ambiguous, and grammatically admits of two different translations; and hence the true meaning is to be determined by other than grammatical considerations. There are two distinct series of interpretations:

1. Ἐρχόμενον may be taken in the accusative, agreeing with πάντα ἄνθρωπον, its nearest antecedent.

2. It may be taken in the nominative neuter, agreeing with τὸ φῶς. Adopting the first interpretation, we have the translation, “The true Light was, or was existing, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” This is the meaning preferred by Meyer, one of the greatest of modern exegetes, and was generally adopted by the early expositors. It is the meaning given in the Authorised Version. The great objection to it is that the words “that cometh into the world” are superfluous, as they are already implied in every man. To this Meyer replies, “There is such a thing as a solemn redundance, and we have here an epic fulness of words.” But such as “that cometh into the world” is never used in Scripture of ordinary birth, whereas it is frequently employed of the Incarnation—Christ’s coming into the world. In St. John’s Gospel it occurs seven times.…

Christ is the light of men: He is the source of all spiritual light to the saints both under the Old and under the New Testament dispensation; He is the source of all devout thoughts and all holy aspirations among the heathen; He is the voice of God speaking in the conscience of men. He is the Sun of righteousness shining in the midst of the darkness. All truth, all righteousness, all holiness, proceed from Him. He is not merely the Head of His body, the Church, but the King of the souls of men. He is the Spirit of all history. He regulates the events of the world. He rules and disposes all the affairs of men. Everything that happens is predetermined by Christ. He holds in His hands the destinies of the nations, and renders all things conducive to the accomplishment of His purposes. He is made Head of all things for the good of His Church. It is this living Christ in the world and in the soul that explains Christianity, and is the reason of its success and diffusion. If it were not for Christ, the world and the Church would both perish. In Christ all things consist. There is a sense in which it is true that Christ is in every man. In Him is life, and the life is the light of men—the true Light that lighteth every man.—Dr. J. Paton Gloag in “The Thinker,” December 1893.

John 1:13. “Not of blood,” etc.—And we, with all our literary fame and technical activity, with our pride in our religious reformation, cannot say we deserve to be called sons of God. To whom much is given, of them much will be required.… God’s children, as the name implies, must be born of God. As James writes (John 1:18), “Of His own will begat He us,” etc. Pride drives men to better their position. Jesus must give them the power, however, to change their condition. Who among us desire to be God’s children, and pray that they may be so? Who among us solemnly resolve, “I will arise and go to my Father”? Who among us are yielding themselves to be encouraged and strengthened by Him who has said, “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me”?—Kögel.

John 1:1-14. Three advent questions arising from this subject:

1. Do we diligently read the Scriptures?—One ought to read on one’s knees the Gospel of John, which, as it has been well said, has the simplicity not of a child, but of a seraph. When, many years ago, there was published in France a so-called Life of Christ—a sceptical, superficial work, which was much read in our own city—one of the greatest of German historians said, “A single line of the Gospel of John will prostrate that image of clay in the dust.” And it cannot be forgotten by me how the two Dutchmen—the physician Dr. Abraham Capadose, and the poet Isaac da Costa, both Jews originally, and both baptised in one day in Leyden—told me what an influential part in their conversion was due to reading the introduction of St. John’s Gospel, with its attractive power in the union of simplicity and majesty. Untouched by the novelties of the day, etc., the Gospel of John will continue to be read. “For God’s ways are not our ways,” etc.; and the natural man understands not the things of the Spirit of God. The heart will harden, the people become shallow, when they will not study the thoughts of God. Rather follow the Psalmist (Psalms 119:17-18).

2. Do we rest on God’s eternal counsel of love?—Jesus saw the wrath of foes enkindling, and He said, looking toward the gates of eternity, “Before Abraham was, I am.” He saw the cup, the cross, and stood fast as He prayed, “Father, glorify Me,” etc. (John 17:5). The more restlessly and inconstantly the waves of the world roll, so much the more blessedly will the child of God be sensible of the anchor which “reaches unto that within the veil.” … See what St. Paul wrote in Romans 8:29. These promises rest, as he shows, on the preexistence of the Son of God—His divinity. On this rests His prophetic office; the atonement, in His office as great high priest; the right to His kingly title; the effect of His resurrection; His right of possession of the souls of men; His power for final judgment.

3. Have we received Jesus?—Not as a burdensome lodger, not as an occasional guest, coming and going on Sundays and feast-days, but as our legitimate Lord, our best friend, truest counsellor, most gracious advocate, and almighty intercessor? Or, alas! shall the complaint of Him who was homeless on earth rise against us, “The foxes have holes,” etc.? He who is the Alpha and Omega … does He not still come unto His own? Do we bring Him our children, give Him our hearts, defend Him against a faithless world? Will we be saved through Him, and through Him alone?—Abridged from Dr. R. Kögel.

ILLUSTRATIONS

John 1:1. The “Word.”—Without noticing even in outline any of the learned inquiries and discussions as to where the evangelist found this name, and in what sense he meant it, it is enough to say that it was already in use at the time he wrote, and probably long before. In particular it had been woven into elaborate religious speculations by the Jews living in Alexandria. Just as our modern scientific culture, or the scientific spirit, as it is called, is exerting a wide influence in the domain of religious thought to-day, so did Greek philosophy, particularly that of Plato, among these Jews. Taking the writings of the Old Testament as the divine source of spiritual knowledge, and rejecting mere verbal literalism of interpretation, they endeavoured to give philosophic expression to the truths they apprehended, and to build them into a philosophic system. Under such conditions the doctrines of the Word (the Logos) took shape in the school represented by Philo, and no doubt soon became widely known. There is no ground, however, for supposing that the evangelist borrowed the name from Philo; it was in far wider and older use, having its origin as far back as the first chapter of Genesis, which I have no doubt was vividly present in his mind as he wrote, “And God said,” “and God made”: so it runs throughout that chapter, preparing for the utterance of the Psalmist, “By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” A word is a thought or emotion or volition expressed in sound, and abiding where it is lodged after the sound has passed away. You put yourself into your word, if it is a true word—your own mind, your own heart, your own will. In telling us that the Word was in the beginning, does the Evangelist then simply mean that God spake and called things into being by the word of His power? and that it was not “holy light” (as Milton sings), but voice or sound, that was the “offspring of heaven firstborn”? And is the voice of God here personified, as His “wisdom” is personified in the Book of Proverbs? Shall we say that God’s word in the beginning called the heavens and the earth into existence—that it afterwards came forth, generation after generation, to the children of men through the prophets—that in the fulness of time it came forth as a living and holy humanity—that God’s final word to men is a Man, even the Man Christ Jesus, who is the truth of God, the wisdom of God, and the power of God? We might be inclined to answer, Yes, it is but a strongly figurative way of telling us this, were it not that the marks of personality are so numerous and decisive, not merely in separate expressions, but in the whole scope of the paragraph. The English Version is right in naming the Word He, and not It; He, the person—not It, the voice.—Dr. John Culross.

John 1:3-4. Not only is Jesus Christ the creator of nature, but He holds it together.—By Him all things consist, and so of all the unconscious forces of the world He is Lord; and those who wrote over the grave of one killed on the Riffelhorn the words, “It is I; be not afraid,” understood in whose hands are all the powers of the universe that seem so blind and unreined. But putting it more generally, Jesus Christ is the Lord of providence—the true King with plenary power. It is He who rules over the evolution of events and the disclosing of the epochs in the world’s history. “There is much to confirm the thought which has visited all in hours of gloom—that history is nothing more than a shifting phantasmagoria of passions and desires. Sometimes men seem to be flung together, a rude and chaotic mass of creatures, who fight and howl over each other, and die, and are laid in the hopelessness of a beast’s grave. Sometimes history seems no more than a series of petty stage-plays, without connection and leading to no issue. But even sceptical thinkers admit the organic unity of all history. Only to many each event is but a link in the long chain of the harmony of the universe; to such the organic development of history will mean the unbroken sweep of natural law, without one breath of the creative spirit from on high; while to a higher school of thought the one purpose of history is the purpose of everlasting love worked out in and through human personality by a personal redeeming God” (Dr. Robertson Smith). We see above it all the throne where the King sits, who holds all things in His hand, and guides them according to the purposes of changeless love. The true exposition and idea of history are to be found in the kingdom of redemption.—Dr. W. Robertson Nicoll.

John 1:5. The joy of light.—The pleasant, welcome, benignant, and gladdening natural light of the world is almost universally considered an image of similar spiritual conditions, and signifies, therefore happiness, prosperity, peace, joy, health, and blessedness. The opposites of light—night, darkness, obscurity, which are to us unpleasant, unwelcome, frightful, and terrible—are indications of an entirely contrary and highly repulsive condition. Hence they include the ideas of unhappiness, injury, dispeace, sin, wickedness, pain, sorrow, and misery. With especial frequency do we meet with this great opposition between light and darkness in the Johannine writings.—Lisco.

John 1:12. The grandeur of man’s being.—Many of the leaders of men have most strenuously opposed the degrading materialism of the age, and the degradation of man to a level with perishing things. Such men as Richter, Lotze, Ulrici, Tennyson, Carlyle, have done so. No one more convincingly than the last, in this century, has preached the truths of the grandeur of man’s being and destiny. “The essence of our being, the mystery in us that calls itself ‘I’—ah! what words have we for such things?—is a breath of heaven: the highest Being reveals Himself in man.… We are the miracle of miracles—the great inscrutable mystery of God. We cannot understand it, we know not how to speak of it; but we may feel and know, if we like, that it is verily so” (Carlyle).

John 1:12. Man differentiated from other existences.—Unprejudiced science also, cultivated by men who have not been dazzled by the glamour of empirical, scientific, “explain-all” nostrums, does not deny that there has been in man from the beginning that which differentiates and separates him from all other living and material existences within our ken. Geology finds no indubitable trace of man before the current epoch of the world’s material history, when seas and lands received their present conformation, and were peopled by those genera and species which, with few exceptions, now exist. And when man does appear it is with a new power—the power of intellect (underived from merely material existences and forces), bringing in its train changes and innovations, of anything like which the long preceding ages knew nothing (vide A. R. Wallace, etc.). In short, in opposition to all ghastly materialistic fancies, however famous the names of those who uphold them, unprejudiced science and philosophy alike confirm Scripture in bolding that “there is a spirit in man: and the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding” (Job 32:8).

John 1:12. Better born.—A human analogy may help toward an understanding of this truth. In the slums of a great city there may sometimes be met, floating about on the malodorous tide which sweeps through those melancholy straits, one who, amid his rags and wretchedness, gives tokens that he is not a native of those dreary coasts. His speech, even when interlarded with the blasphemy and brutality of slumdom, betrays him. Something indefinite in manner and appearance—under all his swagger and bravado, under the rags and grime of the city’s purlieus—proclaims him as having been socially at one time of another sphere. As inquiries are made those suspicions are confirmed. The wretched waif was at one time in a high social sphere. He has perhaps noble blood in his veins. He was well educated. In his drunken fits he may quote Greek and Latin to enjoy the wonderment of a lodging-house crowd. Dissipation in various forms has brought him to the low level where he now lies. Is he fit for his former position? Could he in his rags and wretchedness live in his former noble home with parents and friends? Were he admitted even, would it bring any true pleasure to him any more than to them? Suppose a father’s love did descend to those depths, and bore away the prodigal to his home, clothed him, and gave him as far as possible the outward appearance of a gentleman, could there be any happiness to either whilst the old passions and habits still ruled the heart of the son, leading to many an outbreak and shameful scene? No. The man must first reform—break away from his debasing habits and associates—become a new man. Then he might, would, be received again into the old home as a son, doubly dear because rescued from a living death, and reinstated in the inheritance from which for the time he had been reluctantly cut off. Now, so far as a human analogy will serve, this shows us how men have lost that divine sonship, which was theirs originally, and how they can return by the way opened up by Christ. Surely a terrible thought for human kind it would be were there no hope for men beyond. Awful indeed it would be were all our strivings, all our advances in thought and knowledge to end for us at the cold grave’s brink! that men of one generation should leave for those who follow them wider ideas of the grandeur and possibilities of life, making the cup of existence more sweet, only that it may be dashed from their lips for ever at the gates of death!

John 1:12-13. Spiritual relationships.—Fellowship in the Spirit brings compensation for what is sweetest on earth—for the bonds of human love and friendship. It is truly a bitter loss and deprivation, which lasts through life, when a child is deprived of a mother’s love and a father’s care. But, nevertheless, faith gives superabounding compensations; and there is no orphan child, however poor and forsaken, whom we cannot point heavenwards and say: There thou hast a Father, the true Father of all who are called children in heaven and earth; there watches over thee more than a mother’s love, the love of Him who says, Though a mother should forget her child, yet will I not forget thee. It is truly a sorrowful position in which a bereaved wife weeps for the husband of her youth, the friend of her heart, the stay of her weakness. But blessed is she when she can stay herself on the best and heavenly Friend, the most faithful Counsellor, the Lord Jesus Christ. Many a lonely heart may with sadness regard a neighbour around whom joyful children are blooming, who gladden the evening of life. But knowest thou not that thou mayest beget spiritual children when thou dost edify immortal souls by word and walk, dost win hearts for God and His kingdom, just as a Paul or a John in their letters called those won by them their dear children? It is truly a bitter experience to stand alone in the world without friend or intimate. But it is sweet when a man realises that be is a member of the great fellowship of saints, bound up in the Spirit with all those who love the Lord, and can say: Whoever in the wide world does the will of God and believes in Christ, the same is my brother and sister and mother. It is truly sad when friend after friend is carried away from us by death; but there is also a most blessed comfort to be able to rejoice in hope of the shining company of blessed spirits in the heavenly Jerusalem above, of the innumerable company of angels, the Church of the firstborn and of the spirits of just men made perfect, of the vision of God and of Jesus the mediator of the New Testament. Yes; these are friendships which weigh thousandfold more than any earthly friendship. There fails not also of joy by which in the kingdom of God the joy of human fellowship is made up for. In place of the voice of father and mother there is the Word of God; in place of converse with a human friend, the converse of the heart with God, prayer; in place of an earthly dwelling of one’s own, the House of God, where one is best at home; in place of earthly pleasure this meat, to do the will of the Father in heaven; in place of human friendship this blessedness, to belong wholly to the Lord; in place of worldly cares for one’s self and one’s own, the peace of a soul satisfied with God. For earthly deprivation is given heavenly hope; and in the evening of life this comfort—I have fought a good fight; and beyond, the hope of the white robe of those who have come out of great tribulation, and the crown of the victor, and the fellowship of all the children of God. O Lord, take from us all, if it must be so, on earth; but only send us Thyself, and the blessed fellowship of Thy Spirit, and thine eternal, heavenly kingdom.—Translated from Karl Gerok.

John 1:14. God manifest in the flesh.—The eternal Son of God divested Himself of His glory, took upon Him the form of a servant, was found in the likeness of man, was found in fashion as a man—the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This is manifestly the great mystery which this Christmas season has anew proclaimed to us. And when we besides behold our Saviour on His earthly pilgrimage from the manger to the sepulchre, growing up in the cottage at Nazareth, teaching in the company of His disciples, eating at the table of the publican, sleeping in the ship on the lake, weeping at the grave of Lazarus, shuddering on the ground in Gethsemane, bleeding on the cross on Golgotha, ever and always we may realise for the comfort of our weak flesh and blood, “God is made manifest in the flesh.” In our poor flesh and blood the eternal goodness has clothed itself. How gently and confidingly does the eternal divine Majesty look on us out of those human eyes! how simply and graciously does eternal Wisdom speak to us from those human lips! how tenderly and sweetly are the divine love and pity stretched forth to thee in the human hand of our Lord Jesus Christ! We rejoice and are touched when we read in the lives of great men how they were men like ourselves, had human feelings, had laboured and suffered,—when we read how Alexander the Great, once on a difficult march in a waterless desert, poured out the water brought to him by a soldier in his helmet, the only drops that could be obtained in a wide circle, because the king would not taste it before the most ordinary soldier in the army; or how Charlemagne went on all his life wearing simple linen garments, while his courtiers paraded their silks and sables; Low the good King Henry IV. was once surprised by a foreign ambassador sitting on the floor of his room playing with his children; or how the warlike Luther, when during the day he had boldly joined issue with king and pope, world and devil, in preaching and writing, sat together with wife and child in the evening like a good father of the household, and sang to the accompaniment of his lute. But all such human traits of great men, what are they in comparison with the condescension of the King of kings, who went about on earth in the form of a servant—in comparison with the gentleness with which the holy Son of God encountered sinners—in comparison with the deprivations He endured from the cradle to the cross—in comparison with the humble coverings in which He concealed His glory, from the swaddling-bands in which they enswathed the infant, to the grave-clothes which they wound round His body! God is manifested in the flesh. Therefore let all flesh rejoice. Yes, through this great Brother how is our flesh and blood ennobled, through this dear Guest how has this poor earth been honoured! The garment which a famous man has worn, were it ever so poor and threadbare, men will regard after the lapse of centuries as a precious heritage. Behold, O man, Christ has also worn that dress thou wearest—that dress of flesh and blood: must not then this body become holy to you, even to the fingers on your hand, at the thought, My Redeemer has worn this garment also? The house in which a great man has first seen the light of this world or has dwelt long years, or has drawn his last breath, is regarded after centuries as a holy place. A golden inscription above the door makes it known to the traveller, and from far-off lands men make pilgrimages to visit it. Behold, O man, this world which was for three-and-thirty years the dwelling-house of the holy Son of God. Here on the ground on which thou dost walk, here under the heavens that shine down on you, He was born, He walked, He suffered, He died. Must not then this world be dear to thee and worthy of honour, in spite of its penury, with all its sins and sorrows, at the thought: My Saviour was also pleased to be here, saw also all this, went through it all?—Translated from Karl Gerok.

John 1:14. “Full of grace and truth.”—To be full of grace and truth was indeed a glory. It was the meeting of two things which in the souls of men are antagonistic to one another. There are souls which easily bestow grace, which find it not hard to forgive, but they have often a dim perception of the majesty of that truth which has been violated. There are souls which have a clear perception of the majesty of truth and a deep sense of the sin that swerves from it, but they are often inexorable in their justice and unable to pardon; they have more truth than grace. Here there is a perfect blending of extremes—fulness of grace united to fulness of truth. There is a forgiveness which is valueless, because there is no sense of wrong; there is a sense of wrong which is forbidding, because there is no power of forgiveness. Here perfect forgiveness is joined with perfect perception. The glory of Christ’s love is that it comes not from darkness, but from light; He forgave the sinner because He bore the sin. Never was His forgiveness so complete as when He bore His fullest witness to the awful truth. When did He cry, “Father, forgive them: they know not what they do”? Was it when He began to think lightly of a violated law? Nay, it was when the violated law was pressing upon His soul, and the reproach of sin was breaking His heart. His love was born of His pity, and His pity was born of His purity. He felt that we had already lost what He called our souls. He saw us blind in a world of light, deaf in a world of music, cold in a world of warmth, heartless in a world of love, dead in a world of life, and He lifted up His eyes and cried: Father, I am clouded in their darkness, give them light; I am wounded in their sorrow, give them joy; I am pierced in their coldness, give them warmth; I am crucified in their death, give them life eternal. O Son of man, that was Thine hour of glory. There, as in tints of blended rainbow, met colours that before had been disjoined—righteousness and peace, justice and forgiveness, penalty and pardon, the sentence of death and the message of life. Heaven and earth met together, judgment and mercy embraced each other, in the fulness of Thy glory. The hour of sin’s condemnation was the hour of a world’s redemption. Grace and truth stood side by side.—Dr. George Matheson.