Jesus is Himself the Mediator of the new life. He imparts to His disciples His OAvn consciousness of God's presence and Fatherhood. He inspires in them a faith and obedience which without Him would have been for ever impossible. Through knowledge of Him and participation in His spirit, thej- enter into that fellowship with God which is eternal life. See Mediator.
2. 1)1 the Fourth Gosjnl the idea of Life is much more prominent than in the Synoptics. The Evan- gelist expressly states (20'^) that he has 'written these things tliat believing ye may have life,' and this statement of his main intention is fully borne out by the detailed study of the Gospel. The teaching of Jesus, as he records it, centres wholly on the subject of Life.
This in itself need not be res'arded as a breach with the authentic tradition. We have seen that in the Synoptics also the idea of Life lies at the heart of our Lord's teaching, since life is the peculiar blessing of the Kingdom of God. St. John, after his manner, detaches the essential thought from the eschatological framework. Tlie future 'kingdom' becomes simply 'life.'
The idea of Life as a present possession (already implicit in the Sjmoptic teaching) becomes in the Fourth Gospel central and determinative. ' He that believeth on the Son hath (even now) ever- lasting life' (3^). ' He that heareth my word . . . is passed out of death into life ' {o-*). The whole purpose of the work of Christ, as conceived by the Evangelist, was to communicate to His disciples, here and now, the eternal life. To those who have received His gift the death of the body is only a physical incident, a 'falling asleep' (11"). The true death is the state of sin and privation, out of wliich they have been delivered, once and for all, in the act of surrender to Christ.
Isolated passages in the Gospel might seem to conflict with this, the characteristic and prevailing view. In the 6th chapter i more especially, the concejition of Life as a spiritual possession in the present appears side by side with repeated allusions to a resurrection ' at the last day ' (639- +». 54). These allusions are partly to be explained as reminiscences of an earlier type of doctrine, not completely in harmony with the ^Titer's own ; such ' concessions ' to a traditional belief meet us continually in this Gospel. At the same time, they serve to emphasize a real, though secondary, aspect of John's own teaching. He antici- pates in the future world a full manifestation of the Life which under earthly conditions is necessarily hidden. For the believer, as for Christ Himself, the e^cajie from this world and its limita- tions marks the entrance into a larger acti^itv and ' glory ' (cf. i 142-3). • s . V
The Evangelist nowhere attempts to define his I conception of Life. The great sayin.Gf. ' This is life ! eternal,' etc. (17^); cannot be construed as a defini- j tion. It only declares that the knowledge of God ■ through Jesus Christ can-ies -vWth it the assurance i
of life (cf. ' His commandment is life everlasting " [12^]). The nature of the life is indicated only in vague and half-figm-ative terms. It is indestruc- tible (6^ U-"*), satisfies all spiritual thirst and hunger (6^ 4"), is the source of light (l-» 8'-). But, while little is said bj- way of express definition, the general import of the Johannine conception is sufficiently clear. The Life which Christ com- numicates is the absolute, Divine Life. 'As the Father has life in himself, so he hath given the Son to have life in himself (S^-, cf. I'*). It is assumed that in God and in the Logos, who is one with Him, a life resides which is ditlerent in kind from that of men, and is the real, the ' eternal " Life.
The conception arises from tlie blending in the Fourth Gospel of Hebrew and early Christian with Greek-philosophical influences. Hebrew thought did not concern itself with questions regarding the ultimate nature of God. He was the ' living ' God, who could be known only through His activity in the creation and moral government of the world. The Greek thinkers, on the other hand, tried to get behind His activity to His essential Being. He was the absolute ami self-exi>tent, over against the world of })henomena. His Life, so far as Life could be predicated of Him. was an energy of pure thought, abstracted from every form of sensible manifestation (cf. Arist. Mrtaiih. xii. 7). The Fourth Evangelist, carrying out more fully the suggestion of Philo, combines the Hebrew and Greek ideas. He thinks of God as the • only true ' (17^), the absolute Being who is eternally separate from the world which He has created. Neverthe- less He is a living and personal God. The Life which He possesses is analogotis to the life in man, but of a higher order, spiritual instead of earthly.
It follows from this attempt to combine Hebrew with Greek ideas, that the ethical moment falls largely out of sight. The difference between the human and the Divine Life is one of essence. Till man has undergone a radical change, not in heait merely but in the very constitution of his being, there can be no thought of his participating in the life of God. St. John thus involves himself in a conception which may be described as semi- physical. The Divine life is regarded as a sort of higher substance inherent in the nature of God. How can man, who is 'born of flesh' (3*), become partaker in this substance, and so experience a new birth as a child of God ? This is the religious problem as it presents itself to St. John.