The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 6

or Christ dwelt in men richly in all Rpiritual understanding (Col. iii. lG). They remembered his word that it was "more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts xx. 35). Hitunlism and extcrno.lity in religion were vanishing before the remembrance that he was "Lord or the sabbath" and "greater than the temple," that his interpretation of the sabbath had emancipated men from the letter. The ministration of the Spirit, of righteousness, an,l of life was more glorions to men in Corinth and Philippi than the miaistration of death (2 Uor. iii. 7, etc.). The Christ's death was the o!Tering of the true Paschal Lamb (1 Cor. v. 7); and circumcision was regarded as the symbol only, not the reality, of religious life (Rom. ii. 25). Faith in Christ made men of different nation- alities fellow-heirs of a great inheritance. Because Christ had been raised from the dead, them also who sleep in Jesus would God bring in triumph. Those who believed would not be balled by death ; they would be " for ever with the Lord " (1 Thess. iv. H ). 'l'he intimate mystic fellowship between the glorified Lord and those who were united to him by "like precious faith'' was set forth in wonderful imagery, and was read of eagerly by Corinthians, Ephesians, and Romans. Christ was the Head, they were the members of his body (1 Cor. xii. 12, 27). Christ was the Husband, and the Church was his bride (Eph. v. 23). Christ was the Tree of life, into which the branches broken off might be engrafted (Rom. xi. 24). All kinds of metaphors were used to indicate what he had done for humanity. Christ was cuJTently believed to be the Foundation of the true temple of God (1 Cor. iii. 11; Eph. ii. 20); the Substance (body), of which the Jewish sabbath and ritual were the shadows (Col. ii 17). He was " the End of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Rom. x. 4). i• He died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord both of dead and living" (Rom. xiv. 9). He was set forth, as a Propitiation (Rom. iii. 25). God's righteousness by faith was declared in the blood of Christ. He was a great Intercessor, realizing the very ideal of prayer (Rom. viii. 34). He had appeared in the presence of God for us. He would judge the world. There was no condemnation for those who were in Christ Jesus (Rom.. viii.1). He would over- come death and hell. He would save all men. He would consmnmate the kingdom. All things should be subjected to him. He would deliver np the kingdom to God, even the Father, that God might be all in all (1 Cor. xv. 22-28, 57). In this .brief outline of dominant· and widely circulated ideas about Jesus, the main substance of which is drawn from uncontested authorities, we are often led, irrespective of the documents attributed to John, to ask in wonder and with trembling- Where and whence did these ideas arise, Notwithstanding all the search that has been made in Jewish literature, either in the sacred or apocryphal books, or in the Targums or Mishna or Gemaras, in classical or Oriental sources, or in Alexandrine theosophy or logosophy, we can find nothing sufficient to account for the profoundly rooted senti- meats, the mutually understood commonplaces of the Christian faith, which appear to lie between the lines of almost every verse of the four undisputed Epistles, to say nothing of the rest of the Epistles of Paul, and of Peter, James, and Jude, and the writer to the Hebrews. The profundity and compass of these ideas contrast very forcibly with the prevailing sentiment in the end of the first century or throughout the second century. We find, in the writings of the apostolic Fathers and apologists, much practical teaching, crude allegory, underlying suggestions of ecclesiastical platform, or of passionate desire for martyrdom, and the hint of much dreary controversy with active or incipient Gnosti- cism. A stream of gracious nnd ethical teaching flows apparently at the side of these writers. 'l'hey made abundant use of the Old Testament, and they also quote from nearly all the books of the New 'l'estament; but they differ from both in a manner truly surprising. There are no springs of living water bursting and bubbling through their words. Often when we sink a shaft into their verbose and wearisome iterations, the indications of some life-spring that we trusted might gush forth runs off and escapes us. 8. Some potent cu.use must account for the strength of spiritual life, the novelty and abundance of religious ideu.s and hopes, which confront us in the pages of the New 'l'estament itself. 'l'he air we breathe braces our moral nature, and is intensely prac- tical; but we cannot but feel the close nearness of the eternal world, a constant occupation of men's minds with the idea of salvation from sin and of reconciliation with God, the sense of union through Christ with the Father, large conceptions of viii INTRODUCTION TO