The Ex2}ository I'lmes, xx. 301.
212 THE AMAZING GIFT OF LOVE
III.
The World and Christ.
" Whosoever believeth on him."
The purpose of God in the gift to the world of His only begotten Son is that whosoever believeth on Him may not perish but have eternal life. For He wills that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, one Mediator also between God and man, Himself God, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all. Personal trust in Jesus as the infallible Eevealer of what God thinks and feels about us, and what He will do for the worst of us at our worst, kills the despair and self-torture born of sin, whilst it makes sin appear exceedingly sinful, lifts us into fellowship with the Divine, with right and purity and goodness and service, and compels us to feel that the God who suffers so inconceivably and mysteriously for us as He did will surely supply all our needs and make us sharers of His joy for ever. It is a new and renewing thought of God. The faith on Christ is love, the love is faith. Each works by the other, and both work on and towards righteousness, for Christ and righteousness are one ; and to trust and love Him is to trust eternal right and love it and work for it ; and so the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth on Jesus. The secret of Jesus is laid bare.
^ The other day, when I was in Northumberland, some one asked me in public, with evident sincerity, if it did not make a difference whether he accepted Christ or not ; and when we had arrived at a mutual agreement as to what we meant by "accepting Christ," we agreed about the question itself, namely, that it made all the difference whether a man accepted or rejected Him. To accept Him means to believe that truth and right are worth witnessing and, if need be, suffering for, in daily life, in the home, and the shop, and the office, and the factory ; that to give is more blessed than to receive ; it means a firm belief in the victory of goodness, all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding; it means the acknowledgment of the kingship of love. How far are we one and all from that consummation ! Yet not so far but that we desire it, and in our best moments strive after it.^
* J. "Warschauer,
ST. JOHN III. i6 213
1. St. John has in mind something more than merely intellectual assent.
(1) Believing does not, for example, mean here holding all that is taught in the Bible about Creation, about Adam and Eve, or about the Fall. Nor does believing here mean accepting all that is said about Christ in the Bible. A man might believe everything in the Bible and yet not believe on Christ in St. John's sense at all ; while, on the other hand, he miglit believe on Christ in St. John's sense, and yet not believe other things in the Bible.
(2) Again, believing does not mean here the kind of belief implied in the acceptance or the recitation of a Creed. Many solemnly and sincerely recite a Creed, and bow at the Name of Jesus, who yet never believed on Jesus in St. John's sense ; while, on the other hand, a man may believe on Jesus, in St. John's sense, and have Eternal Life, and yet conscientiously hesitate to recite a Creed, feeling that he could not honestly accept some of the points that are mentioned in it.
(3) Believing does not mean here simply holding a certain doctrine or theory of the Atonement. There have always been multitudes of people who have held the correct, orthodox view of the Atonement — or the view which in their time was generally held to be orthodox — have held it absolutely and passionately, and yet, in St. John's sense, have never believed on Jesus, and never had Eternal Life ; while there have been people who believed on Him in St. John's sense, and had Eternal Life, but who never attempted to formulate any theory of the Sacrifice which was offered by Jesus once for all.
2. St. John includes an undoubtedly intellectual element, when he speaks of "belief," as even this passage shows. His whole object in writing is to prove from the reminiscences of the life of the Lord that Jesus was the Word made flesh, that He was the only begotten Son of God, and that, though Son of Man, He was Divine. There is that intellectual element in St. John's idea of believing. But the distinctive meaning of " believe " in St. John's writings is not that intellectual element. That intellectual element underlies his thought, but it is not that which he is urging. In order to see what he means by using the word "belief," we should look at what results from the believing.
214 THE AMAZING GIFT OF LOVE
According to him, "belief" gives life. But what gives life is nothing but vital fellowship with God, and therefore by " believing " he means something which produces a vital fellowship with God. What is it that produces vital fellow- ship with God ?