The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 127

(a) Salvation must be life, the possession of more than the transitory, ever-vanishing always-threatened earthly existence which we are content to call by the name. It i; a mode of being unmcnaced by the ten thousand perils of earth and by the organizer! enmity of hell, rendered incapable of perishing, delivered from the tempter, an,! freed from the fear which bath torment. Life, not a diseaaed, paralyzed, and dist<Jrted exist- ence, the source of endless unrest, and ever tending to destruction; but life in its whole- ness and perpetuity-" life" independent of these local conditions and physical sur- roundings, o.nd " more abundant" than can be realized in the flesh ; " veritable,'' answering to its fundamental idea, a life which is proper to man as a veritable child of God; "eternal lifo," a life which flows on like a river abounding in its strength into the great ocean of eternity. "The living water," the spiritual life, the Holy Spirit him- self, shall be in those who receive bis girt of life as a well-spring which leaps up in boundless fulness and entire sufficiency for all human craving for ever and ever. The constant references made in the Gospel to "life," "eternal life," show that it was the synonym of the salvation which Christ came to give. It is more than existence, or continuity of an existence which had been forfeited. It is the blessedness of complete satisfaction, the continuity of participation in the very nature of him who has life in himself, and who" bath given to the Son to have life in himself" (eh. v. 26, 27). In the Logos is life, and in the Logos incarnate, "made flesh," is life (eh. i. 4, 14); "He that bath the Son bath life;" "God bath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son" (1 John v. 11, 12). 'fhe record of the Gospel insists upon and illustrates the life-giving power of the Logos when made flesh. Thus he maintains that, though the temple of his body be destroyed, he will raise it up; and though he lay down his life, he will take it again, by the intrinsic life which is in him. Due relation to him is to secure "eternal life" (eh.iii. 16, 17, 36); he offers to give it totheSamaritans(ch. iv.14); he confers "life" on the paralyzcd man (eh. v. 9); and he vindicates his authority to do this on the sabbath by the position that "as the Father raiseth and quickeneth the dead, so the Son quickeneth [ maketh to live] whom he wills" (eh. v. 21); and he predicts that the dead souls and dead bodies of men shall arise to life at his word (eh. v. 25-29). He supplies the means of life to the starving multitudes (eh. vi. 1-14), he protects from death his troubled disciples (eh. vi. 15-21), and then expounds his willingnes3 to give himself as the veritable Bread of God for the life of the world. " He that eateth of this Bread shall live for ever" (eh. vi. 51). The apostles recognized this lofty preroga- tive, and declared their unalterable decision not to leave him, because he had "the words of eternal life" (eh. vi. 68). In other imagery describing those who appropriate the Word and the gift, be said (eh. x. 28, 30) that they should not by any me!\Ils perish, and they should have eternal life, and no power should pluck them out of his hand or his Father's hand, since he and the Father are one in essence and power to protect and bless. The life-giving is most wonderfully set forth afterwards as a concrete fact. The death of the body, the corruption of the grave, are no barriers, though they may be a concealment of his power to give life, and so he snatches from death and the grave the man he calls his" friend" (eh. xi.). He further illustrated his power to give life on the night of the Passion, by saying, "Because I live, ye shall live also" ( eh. xiv. 19). In the intercessory prayer he gives eternal life to those whom the Father has given him (eh. xvii. 2, 3). The final scenes record the victory he won over death in bis own Person, and the pledge he thus becomes and gives to all who, whether they hwe had phenomenal proof of it or not, believe on his Name. The whole Gospel is written that believing we might have life in his Name (eh. xx. 31). (b) Salvation, however, is more than life: it includes a further conception, which pervades the Gospel from end to end; it is synonymous with light. The antithesis of life, or of continuous participation in the nature of God, is death-death of body and death of soul, destruction, loss of privilege, insensibility to the Divine. The antithesis of light is darkness, equivalent to ignorance, corruption, impurity, evil The life that is in the Logos is light. " God is light, and in him is no darkness." This is the great burden of the New Testament. All darkness is alien from his nature, whatever our weak sense or feeble intelligence may su~gest to the contrary. The Father is free from all imperfection, and the glory, moral splendour, of his essential nature consists in this, thnt it i~ diffusive, rndinting forth !\S uushndowed light in all places of bis dominion; uJli lNTRODUCTION TO