The witness of Jesus to His own pre-existence is not confined to the texts just quoted, remarkable as these are, but pervades the whole mass of His words in the Fourth Gosj^el, and forms the pre- suppo.sition of all the rest of His utterances about Himself. It is by commencing at this starting- point and following this clue that the student finds everything expanding before him as he goes on, and all the various ideas arranging themselves in their places on the right hand .and on the left.
Whether there be any analogy to the conscious- ness of Jesus at this point in what .some of the ancients believed about this life being a reminis- cence of a life preceding, or in what some of the modern poets have hinted about human beings trailing clouds of glory from an antecedent home, may l)e left to everj'one's own judgment ; but Jesus habitually spoke as if He were conscious of having had an anterior existence, where He had seen and heard wli,at He repeated during His earthly life, and had received commandment how He should afterwards act. Thus to Nicodenius He says (3"''*), 'Verily, verilj-, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen ; and ye receive not our witness. If I liJive told you earthly things, and ye lielieve not. how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things ? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he tliat came down from heaven, even the Son of Man wliicli is in heaven.' In the great inter- cessory prayer He says to His Father (17"), ' I have given unto them the words which tiiou gavest me ; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that tlum didst send me.' Cf. also G^^-e^
•-28. •-'!! g23. 2B. 27. 38 JOJ" 14^1 2515 J^B^
Out of tliis pre-existent state Jesus was con-
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SON OF GOD
SON OF GOD
scious of having been ' sent ' into the world. This recalls the mission of the prophets of the OT, who, though not haunted by any reminiscence of a previous state of existence, yet were all profoundly conscious that they had been chosen and ordained to do a particular work at a particular time ; some, like Jeremiah, being told that even from the womb they had been destined to their peculiar vocation. With this prophetic consciousness that of Jesus was in close analogy ; yet the references to it suggest a deeper mystery. Corresponding with this sending on God's part is a ' coming ' on the part of Jesus Himself ; and in some of the passages m which He says, 'I am come,' there is the same suggestion of something weighty and more than usually significant. Not infrequently both con- ceptions are blended, as in 6^^ ' I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me ' ; or l^- ^^ ' Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am ; and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not ; but 1 know him ; for I am from him, and he hath sent me ' ; or 8^^ ' If God were your Father, ye would love me ; for I proceeded forth and came from God ; neither came I of myself, but he sent me ' Cf 5^^' ^' ^^' ^^' ^® 6** 7'®" ^^ 8^®* ^^" ^^' ^^' *" 9* 10^*
1142 1244.49 1427 1521 155 178. 18.23 2021; alsO Q^' ^ 7" 939 1010 1627. 28_
The object or purpose for which He was thus ' sent ' and ' came ' into the world is expressed in a great variety of forms, all of which, however, are more or less siaggestive of the dignity and unique- ness of Him of whom they are predicated, though of course some make this imi^ression more than others. Thus He comes to reveal the truth and to glorify God thereby. So He said to Pilate, ' To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth' (18^'^). In His great High-Priestly prayer He says to the Father, ' I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do ' ; again, ' I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world ' ; and again, ' I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it ; that the love where- with thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them' (17^- ^■^^). So illuminating and comprehen- sive is this revelation, that He calls Himself ' the light of the world ' (see 8^2 9^ \2^- *% Sometimes He comes to judge. He even goes so far as to say, ' The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son ' (S^^). Sometimes He comes to ' save,' as in 10* ' I am the door : by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture ' ; or 12^^ ' I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.' But oftenest His mission is to give life, this being ex- pressed in a great variety of forms. Thus, in 10'", He says, ' I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.' Sometimes the opposite alternative is tragically suggested, as in the well known 3'®, where ' to perish ' stands in contrast with ' life ' ; or in 8'^ ' Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death,' where death awaits those who do not receive ' life ' from Christ. Frequently the adjective ' eternal ' is joined with life. It is a peculiarity of the Fourth Gospel to conceive of eternal life as cajjable of being enjoyed even in the present world ; but it also compre- hends the future, and this is sometimes the ruling idea. The intimate connexion of Jesus Himself with the bestowal of this life is extremely signi- ficant. Thus, in S^^, He claims, ' As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.' At the grave of Lazarus He exclaimed, ' I am the resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in me, though he were dead.