The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 124

he<xlmC'fl lhinknhlc. As a c0111lcns11.tion or St. Paul or a corrective of second-century ideas, it iB incredible and oonfused. .•i The Fourth Gospel thus does much to prepare the Christian Church for the full doctrine of the Godhead. The consciousness of Jesus was so set forth therein ns to induce nll Chrislians to believe in God, not in the form of a ~olitnry Monad, but as Ono who from et<'rnity cont.ained in his own Being the relations of Father and Son, and whose unity of essence is it~clf as personal as is the Father or the Son. To bring together the whole teaching that emerges from the "Word made flesh," from the God-Man ss the centre of the life of a renewed humanity, we are led to ro~itive distinct-ions in that Deity which stood in such close relations with human 1rn ture. •• The Spirit " is none other than the Spirit of the Christ enercrizing in the hearts 0f believers. The Spirit of the Christ which unites the Logos and the"' flesh is none other t.h~n the Spirit of the Logos, the Spirit of God's Son; and the Spirit of the Son is the Rpirit. of the Father, for the Father and the Son are one. Tho doctrine of the immanent Trinity seems an inevitable consequence of any admission that the Fourth Gospel sets forth historically the verit.<1ble consciousness of the Lord Christ. The argument moves on from incident to incident, from word to word, from synonym to synonym, of the all- l>lessed One; until he who is hailed as Messiah and sacrificial Lamb and theocratic King appears, to be the Opener of heaven, endowed with creative power, the Lord of th~ temple, the Reader of human hearts, the Source of life and healing, the Bride- ~room of the true theocracy, greater than he who was the greatest of the sons of men. We follow on in the narrative, to find that, though the flesh of the Christ provokes endless antagonism, and so moves the" darkness" that it becomes a fearful and felt oppression, yet the idea of the Divine humanity becomes more and more intense in each department of this mighty synthesis. The humanity admits the need of water from Jacob's well, but flashes forth, while so doing, such spiritual truth that he is hailed as the Messiah-Prophet and Saviour of the world. The bestowment on the impotent man of life leads Jesus to declare the power that he wields to confer life on dead souls and bodies, and the authority he has received to judge the quick and dead (eh. v.); he assumes to be the Life of the world by two great signs on land and sea (eh. vi.), and by conferring upon mankind himself as the veritable "Bread of God which had come down from heaven." In grent variety of form he claims to be not only life, but light. He calls himself the Shepherd of souls (eh. x:.), able to give to those who submit to him eternal life, because he and the Father are one. He wrestles with death, and snatches one whom he specially loves from the grave (eh. :ri.). At that grave his mysterious Personality is displayed as intensely hum.an and unmistakably Divine. Throughout the closing scenes he becomes more and more conscionsly Divine, as his heart breaks with human tenderness. He loves to the uttermost when he is most of all alive to the fact that all things are entrusted to him (eh. :xiii 1-5). So complete is his revelation of the Divine love that he dares to i;ay, "He that hath seen me bath seen the Father" (eh. xiv. 9). He promises to bestow the Divine gift of "the Spirit," and with the Father to come and dwell in human hearts. He takes the whole future into his glance, and offers prayer for those who shall believe on him to the end of time (eh. xvii. 20). He goes forth to meet his doom, to dtink the cup of trembling and humiliation to the dregs. He is condemned and submits. He triumphs over death, and receives the unreb_uked ?xclamat~on, "M! L?rd and my G?d I" If this be an historical setting forth of one mdub1table series of his highest revelat10ns, then we recognize the consciousness of Jesus as having cast a gleam of surpassing light into the " thick darkness" and profoundest mysteries of the Di vine Being. The record of his words and life, as set. forth by his most loving friend, furnishes the largest pro- portion of those facts which the Christian consciousness has endeavoured to bring together in what is called the doctrine of the Trinity. 2. The Johannine uaching roncerning the world. This divides itself into a trilogy, even as the doctrine of the God.head does. (1) The world as the creature of God; (2) the world of men; (8) the world's prince. (1) .All things (roirrrz) came into existence through th~ agen~y of th! ~ogos. ~ot one (thing) entity, atom, force, can be excepted.. The entire region of Divine operation is itself the creation of God by the Logos, corresponding to the teaching of the writer tTJ the IIelm:ws, that by the agency of the Son (equivalent to Lozos) God made thecil~v11sJ  THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOITN. cxxxvl.l ·----·------------------------------- tho v~1l conditions of time and pln.ce. In antithesis to this last conception an organi~cd oppos1t10n appears to the Creator-Logos. Darkness, which is not merely negative of !ight, but an antagonism to it, must, so far as it is II rlesirnation 0 of moral aa-encies be the creation of the Logos, not as darkness, bnt as free to act in opposition tJ; God, ~nd thus to fa.ke on itself the aspect and characteristics of darkness. In the "all thincrs" not, however, called 1<&rrµos, there is both an "above" and a "beneath;" the heaven f~o:ri which the Son of man has come, and to which he will return, and to which "he lifts his eyes" in prnyer, and where are his" Father's hou.~e" and "many m1111sions.'' He who is "from above is above all." The process that passes over men in their becomincr sons of God is n birth "from above," or "from the beginning," or "from the Spirit? This heaven opens over and behind the Son of man (eh. i. 51), and he is consciously in "heaven," and may be seen by regenerated eyes to be one who can and does pa.~s from earth to heaven, from heaven to earth (eh. iii. 13). The 1<&rrµos is often used to denote the whole of this visible, tangible, terrestrial dwelling-place. Into it the Son of man comes when the Logos is made flesh (eh. i. 13, 14). From it at last he ascends (eh. vi. 62), when he has conquered death and put on the vesture of an immortal humanity (eh. xx. 17). Christ speaks of the "light of this world," meaning that which proceeds from the sun (eh. xi. 9). '£he Johannine Christ notices the most striking features of the earth in which we live-the wind that careers over its surface; the local dwelling- places of men ; the food that human bodies need, even his own; the washing of feet from its defilement; the soil in which the corn of wheat takes root; the vineyard and the sheepfold; the burning of the pruned and fruitless branches; the contests among its children for sovereignty over it. All things are put under him, and all the powers of the world are at his disposal. He can accelerate processes of nature and meet great forces of the ,c&rrµos with his will. He can face all the powers of nature and all their protest against man with the simple fiat of his will ; saving men from starvation and from shipwreck by his word. He told the Jews that they were" of this world," but that he was "not of this world." 'l'here is no indication that the (il.\11) stuff or matter of whieh the world was made was evil, or that the forces of nature were per se opposed to their Maker or to the interests of man. He utilizes them, he makes them the instru- ments of his most beneficent deeds (eh. ii., vi,, ix., xiii.). Nor is the 6.\11 eternal; for it had its beginning, and af!:ain the world and the fashion of it will pass away (1 John ii. 17). It is the scene of Divine manifestation. The very flesh which he had himself assumed was" of this world," though he, the Ego dwelling in it, was "not of this world." He loved his own to the uttermost while they were "in the world" (eh. xiii. 1). He did not pray that they should be " taken out of the world," but kept from the evil (eh. xvii. 14-16). (2) The world of men. The sense of the word thus considered is not the whole connotation of the word. It is used more frequently (1<&0-µos, not ciiwv, or 6 vvv cilwv), for the whole of humanity considered independently of God. The rc&o-µos, which was made by the A&-yos (eh. i. 10), recognized him not, even when he was in the world, whether immanently or by incarnation. 'l'his power of cognition, which was not exer- cised, indicates moral freedom and intellectual power, and therefore refers to men, not things. In the great prayer the Lord said (eh. xvii. 25), "0 righteous Father, the world [humanity as a whole] bath not recognized thee." 'l'he world of men was, in its ignorance and estrangement, in great danger of destruction (eh. iii. 16), and was exposed to judgment (1<plrris). The world hates the Christ for the light that he throws on its own evil, and will hate the disciple as it does hate the Master (eh. xv. 16-19). But the world of men, notwithstanding its antagonism to and separation from God, is an object of Divine love (eh. iii. 16). This love is the condition end occasion of the mission of the only begotten Son. Jesus has come to save the world ; he took upon himself the sin of the world (eh. i. 29); he is the Propitiation for the sing of the whole world (1 John ii. 2); he came down from heaven to give life to the world (eh. vi. 33, 51). So that it was not an inert mass of incuro.ble corruption. 'l'hose who are "saved," who receive "life," who are chosen out of the world and called to holy service, reveal the great contrast between themselves and those who "will not come to him that they may have lifo" ( eh. v. 40), and a more restricted use of the word 1<&rrµos, is confined to those who from that standpoint resist, hate, persecute, all who approach and fincl him. So that "world" is often the antithesis of the children of Goel (eh. xiv. Hl, 22). Ye,  INTUODUOTION TO - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- enn the "world," in this darkest, deadliest, hatefullest form, is not irretrie,·11bl,r doomed. ,k~nR Ren<ls his disciples into this very world to teach it, and promises the gi~ and ai<l of the Comforter to convict it of sin, righteousness, and judgment (oh. xvi. l:1-11). The world may give the disciples much "tribulation;" but (snid Christ) "be of gnod cheer; I have overcome the world" (eh. xvi. 3:~)- 'l'he fellowship and love of the <li~ciples for c>ach other is to c-onvinre the worl<l. The purport and end of the con\""ictinn is 1h11t the worl<l may believe (eh. xvii. 23-26). Thl' effort that the school of Hilgenfeld and others made to find a Gnostic dualism an unreml'diable darkness set O\""er against an eternal light, has failed in dealing with these definitions of" the world." The caustic and terrible- words of the eicrhth chapter should he judged by the dramatic controversy in which they occur. 'l'he deadly hatred of the Jews to Christ was at its climax intensified by the very suppression and failure of its attempts, and Christ pr;essed home the alliance between them and the author of all murder and falsehood; and dedared that they would "die in their sins" because they did not believe that he was essentially that which he had evermore said to them (eh. viii. 24-26). But a very forced conclusion is drawn from the words when this teach- ing is identified with dualism. The condition of deliverance is conspbuous throughout. A recognition of the scene as historic certainty at once shatters the speculation that has been founded upon it. Doubtless throughout the Gospel, as throughout the New Testament and the Old Testament, the selective and redemptive activity of God's grace is referred to. 'l'here are those who are not drawn to the Son by all his tenderness, and are not given to the Son, that, having reached him, they may find access by him to the Father (see notes, eh. vi. 44; xiv. 6). There are who practise evil ('ll'prlrrrrol"Tu Tm ,pa.fill.a.), and who will not come to the light (eh. iii. 20, 21), upon whom the wrath of God abides (eh. iii. 36), who will eventually come forth to the resurrection of judgment (eh. v. 29),-whom the Moses in whom they trust charges with sin (eh. v. 45). One human being is spoken of as 5,#Joll.Ds (eh. vi. 70). Christ's unbelieving hearers are contrasted with himself as being ta: Toii 1<orrµ.oii To6,-ov (eh. viii 23). They are "the servants of sin" (eh. viii. 34). They are children of the manslayer, of the liar, of the devil (eh. viii. 43, 44). They fancy that they see, but are blind, and their sin remaineth (eh. ix. 41). The final summary of the teaching quotes Isa. vi., "He bath blinded their eyes," etc. (a passage quoted by all the synoptiats and St. Paul). In every one of these passages of St. John there is no other dualistic teaching than that which pervades the New Testament. The redemptive work itself is arrested and limited by responsible disobedience and unbelief of men. The entire position of the Johannine theology recognizes the human will as the agency which is to appropriate or reject the full benediction. The exclusion from privi- lege is hypothetical, not predestinated. The mission and message of the Son of God is not pri,man?y one of judgment, but one of mercy and of deliverance. "The world," which is the synonym and comprehensive term for "humanity apart from grace," is love,d by God.. The Son of God came to save it; the Comforter to convict it of sin, righteousness, and judgment; and the answer to the great intercessory prayer will be that the 1<orrµ,os, till then estranged, hateful, unsusceptible, will believe that the Father has sent him. (3) The prince of tl,is world. The J ohannine teaching recognizes a centre to the evil that is in the world, a personal antagonist to God and goodness; but in this it ill not so explicit as the synoptic or the Pauline teachh1g. It is to the synoptists we must turn to see the distinct work of this hostile spirit. The peculiarity of John's report is that some of the Jews are addressed as the children of the devil, doing their father'ij work, imitating the source of falsehood and the first murderer of human life in the evil passions and pnrposes they were at that moment cherishing. I have discussed (sect. VIIL C. 3) the supposit.ion that John puts into the lips of Jesus a reference to the father of the devil. 'l'he language cannot bear this interpretation. We have simply the strong metaphor which treats the resemblance of nature as equivalent to filiation. The evil desires and plans of the would-be murderers of J eaus are referred to the suggestion of the father of lies. They are in the strong language of the synoptio Baptist and Christ, the "offspring of vipers," the seed of the serpent. John's Gospel doe11, however, bestow a title on the great evil spirit which is in per- foot harmony with the claim made by the devil in the synoptic account of the tempt&-  TIIE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.