li. The Johannine Teaching concerning the Cosmos. — (a) The evangelist, following his Rtaster, discriminates the -woxXa oi things irova that of men. Everywhere the cosmos is created, not self-origin- ated. It is the platform of the entire representa- tion, and consists both of heaven and earth. It is not evil in its origin or essence, though it is the theatre of both moral perversity and divine redemp- tion. (6) The Gospel and Epp.use/ciff/iO! for humanity considered apart from grace, just as they use aip^ for human nature apart from the spiritual life.
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JOHN, GOSPEL OF
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This may include humanity in its pride, power, civilization, and refinement. To this is not given the faculty of knowing the Eternal Father (' The world hath not known thee '), or of discerning the pre-incarnate Logos, or even of seeing the I'ather in the Son of His love. The world of men strangely hates the higliest light and shrinks from it (3'"), neither comes to it. The Father loves the world in its need (3") ; Jesus eomes into it to ' save,' to • draw it,' and to be a way for it unto the Father. There is vivid contrast between those who see the light, who live the heavenly life, who are ' con- vinced of sin, righteousness, and judgment,' who overcome the darkness and the tlesli, who follow tlie Good Shepherd, who feed on the bread of God, with whom tiie Father and Son take up their abode, who are ' of the truth ' and hear the voice of the Son of God ; and, on the other hand, those who do not come, are not drawn, nor convinced, who are in danger of perishing, are ' sons of perdition,' are veritably 'lost.' The ultimate cause of the contrast cannot be explained away, nor can any good or bad name which is assigned to it modify the issue. The intense severity of onr Lord's judgment (7. 8) is not due to a Gnostic twist given by this evangelist to the teaching of Jesus, nut to the historic accuracy with which the tendencies and liostility of the classes in Jems, were known and set forth. Yet the human will, and no ine.xorable fate, is (throughout the Johan- nine theology) the critical element in the question of light or darknes.s. The activity of the will is not the absolute solution of the puzzle, but it is the proximate occasion of all moral issues. The duaUsm of the Fourth Gospel is not more explicit than the dualism of other parts of NT, such as St. Paul or the Synoptists. (r) St. John and St. Paul, and the Synoptists also, recognize a moral centre of the evil in humanity. Though St. Jolin makes no reference to demoniacs, he refers to ' the Prince of this world ' as tlie source and occasion of the trials of the Lord, between whom and Christ there is irreconcilable antagonism. The designs of the enemies of Je.sus are alfiliated to tlie father of lies and manalRviiig, and the phra.se la akin to the use by our Lord and the Baptist of the terrible term 'ye brood of vipers.' Tlioma {lib. cit. '202-205) regards the circumscription of the operations of the Evil One to the mind of humanity a-s strong!}' ditlerentiating the Fourth Gospel from the rest of NT. True, there is no reference to ' pos.session ' in St. John ; but neither is there to leprosj-, or fever, or other forms of disease on whicli, as we hear (2^ 3' 4" 5" 20*"), Jesus wrought marvellous 8ij,'ns. The statement that St. .lohn ignores the \nsiljlo works of the devil is excejwive (see I Jn 3' and Jn 12"). Thoma does not agree with Hilgenfeld in finding the Valentininn Demiurge in St. .lohn's doctrine of the dpxw- It is refuted by the teaching of thetJospel and Epistle on the expulsion of the devil and the consecration of the world.
C. The ,/iihnnnine Soteriolngi/.—\n grasping the Johan. ideal of salvation, Heysdilng finds the same thought* as in the Sj-nop. teaching concerning 'the kingdom,' which pliriLse, when he finds it in ch. 3, he regards as the simple equivalent of ' the life ' and ' the eternal life ' given bv the great Teacher and Revealerof the Father. The kingdom and the life are closely allied in the teaching of Christ, and found in l>otli sources ; but they must be discrimin- ated. The kingilom of (!<k1 is the region within men and coinniunities and the world iu which the will of Go<l operiites thrnngh the free powers of the individual. The metlio<ls of discovering it, of enti'ring it, of finding in it hidden |K)tencies and of bringing forth its countles-s signs, whether acts or fr'iit8, are always in evi<lence. It is
originated as life is in new forms, by seed chLrged with its future. It has iuternaJ intensive for;e and extensive evolutionary energj-, embracing every form of divine indwelling and spiritutJ
frowth. In St. Jolin's Gospel, Salvation is Life, ight in its es.se r.o?, and Truth and Love in method, instrument, or form. But the verj- idea of salvation, which was appreciated, to begin with, by John the Baptist (1^) and by the Samaritans (Jn 4", 1 Jn 4"), implies from OT times the CTeat need of man and the greatest work of God. It denotes the rectification or reiustitution of all the relations which had been shattered by sin, — all that Ls else- where covered by such Pauline {)hrascs as pardon, justification, sanctification, adoption, — all such divine experiences as faith, hope, love, life eternal, — in fine, all the work wrought/or us by the Christ, the Son of God.^all the internal transformation which is etl'ected in us, in the fabric of our being, by the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. Christ in the Fourth Gospel makes provision for abolishing the shame and curse, and indicates the hojielessness involved in dyin" in sins. Tlie most damning sin is a steady retusal to admit His own claim. F'aith in Him is the condition of deliverance, not merely by its remoter ethical importance or its stimulus to obedience, but by the very nature of the case ; moral surrender to the highest revelatiou of God is salvation and eternal life.