The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 118

avouched or implied in our Lord's words (eh. v. 37). This reduces the theophanies of the Old Testo.ment to something less than they were supposed to establish. They are a.lung the line of Divine manifestations, b11t he himself was witness of far more than patriarch or prophet over beheld. The representation, however, is perfectly different from the philosophic conception of" the abyss," or " the ahsolute," from the dream of the Gnostic or the impassive and impersonal abstraction of the Hindu. The personality and individuality of the very essence of Deity is affirmed by every reference to the activity o.nd characteristics of God. (1) One of the most fundamental utterances is that "God is [aJ Spirit" (eh. iv. 24)--:i. sto.tement which makes the spiritual nature of man the surest guide to human concepts of his invisible essence. Man's inmost ego, hie self-conscious intelligence, the centre of his mental processes, gives the direction to all our approximations to the essence of God. He is the" veritable God" (eh. xvii. 3), answering as no heathen deity has ever done to that august reality. Two other co=anding and comprehensive terms lie at the heart of the Johannine conception. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John i. 5). This is suggestive of the absolute perfection of the Divine Spirit, the illumination which proceeds from him, by which all other things can be perceived, as well as of the unsullied purity of all his character. We learn that God is (not luminous, but) Light itself. The Lord addresses him as "righteous" (eh. :i:vii. 25), justifying all his ways and vindicating all his providence. The other supreme definition of the essence of the Godhead is "God is love," and "love is of God" (1 John iv. 8). The most fundamental and comprehensive idea of God is that he loves, that he lavishes, bestows himself upon the objects which he has made. The God of whom Jesus speaks "loved the world" (eh. iii. 16), and evermore con- templates the world which he has made with supreme satisfaction. He is "in the beginning" (eh. i. 1), and therefore" before all things;" and his "bosom" (eh. i. 18) is spnken of as the dwelling-place of infinite blessedness. (2) But the most instructive term which is frequently on the lips of the evangelist is "the Father." The idea is not an original one fashioned by this writer or set down alone by him, but it is the dominant and all-pervading one. God was described by the prophets as the Father of the theocratic people (Deut. xxxii. 6; Isa. lxiii. 16; lxiv. 8; Jer. xxxi. 9, 20; Hos. xi. 1). Israel is spoken of in some of these passages as his "eons and daughters" (Isa. i. 2, 4; lxiii. 8; Deut. xiv. 1). A spiritual rebtionship between God and his people, based on fundamental qualities, and connoting far more than the creatorship or the makership of z,h 1raT~P u116pol11 n e,.,,, TE. Our Lord is reported by the synoptists to have called God "my Father" (Matt. xi. 27), and in many places to have spoken of "your Father" (Matt. vi. 4, 6, 8, 15 ; xriii. 9 ; Luke vi. 36). The term is expanded in many ways by the addition "in heaven," or "heavenly" (Matt. v. 16, 45; vi. 1, 9, 14, 26, 32; vii. 11). God is not the Father of inanimate or irrational beings, showing that those who can call God their " Father " possess a nature akin to his own. But the Fatherhood of God suggests a special form of moral and spiritual relo.lionship which may ho.ve been forfeited, and which by Divine love is re-established. The Gospel of John represents our Lord as continually speaking of God as "the Father," "my Father," and as" your Father" (eh. xx.17). He is the" living Father" who has" life in himself" (eh. v. 26), who seeks for spiritual worshippers (eh. iv. 23), who loves the Son (eh. v. 19; x. 17; xvii. 24, 26) with a supreme affection which yet passes over and through the Son to those who have entered into living harmony with himself (eh. xvi. 27; xvii. 26). The connection between God as Father and God !IS Spirit is strenuously preserved (eh. iv. 22-24), the latter term expounding the method in which the Fo.therhood energizes and reveals itself in its fulness of power. The Father is .Almighty, and this is especially enforced in his power to quicken the dead (eh. v. 21). He is greater than all (eh. x. 29)-greater than the Son (eh. xiv. 28). He ie eternal (eh. xvii. 5, 24), holy (eh. xvii. 11), and righteous (eh. xvii. 25). This writer builds his entire conception on this ns its fundamental basis. It differ;i profoundly from that of the .Aloxandrine or Oriental metaphysic; and though abundant preparation had been made for it in the Old Testament, and though all its essential features are found in the synoptists, it is the distinguishing element of the teaching of Christ in the Fourth Gospel, and had verily saturated the mind of the author of the ~~ k  CXXX INTRODUCTION 'l'O