The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 129

men, os symbolic of the direct personal treatment of souls. In the symgnaue at Ne.znreth (Luke iv. 18); in the blind man nt Bethsaida, whose ~a.dual cure se:ms to correspond with the gradual illumination of the disciples (Mark "viii. 22-26); in the two blind men nt Capernaum; and in blind Bartimreus,-the great privile<>e is souaht and conferred in vindication of the prime condition of faith (Matt. ix. 27-31°; xx. 2~-34). In reply to the messengers from John's prison, he bade them tell the Baptist that" the bliad receive their eight" (Matt. xi. 5). The Fourth Gospel, in one of its most characteristic and circumstantial narratives, sets forth the Light of the world as opening the eyes of one born blind. Christ does not even ask for faith, but he heals first, and then reveals himself as Son of God. The teaching of the narrative corresponds with the whole of the Saviour's work with humanity. The power of vision is conferred by the new birth (eh. iii. 3, 4). The writer takes explicit pains to reveal the entire moral of the cure of blindness, and regards this as the complement to the assertion, "I am the Light of the world." Salvation as light is inadequate and incomplete, unless with light comes also the power of vision. "I am come that those which see not miaht see," said the Light of the world. 1'he special grace which is thus suggested is not the objective illumination with which his unique Personality floods the ,,Jo-µ.,,s, but the subjective work of his Spirit on individual souls, re-creating their dormant faculties, producing a new manhood, calling into being powers which from birth or by disease or folly bad been in utter abeyance. This imperial exercise of the power to save leads us forward to the grandest definition of all. (c) Salvation as LOVE. The first great utterance of the prolf1gue is that the glory of the Only Begotten was full of grace, i.e. of unmerited, self-co=unicating favour. The sublime suggestion of the eighteenth verse is that he the Only Begotten was the eternal Object of an infinite love: "He was in the bosom of the Father." He very early made the supreme announcement that God loved the world (eh.. iii. 16), and sent him forth as the expression of the Divine love. "God is Love," said St. John; "and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God; " "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is Love" (1 John iv. 16, 8). Jesus was reminded on grand occasions of the Divine love to himself; and he knew that the Father loved him. because, said he, " I lay down my life that I may take it again" (eh. x. 18). His most exhaustive and comprehensive self-manifestation was not of life or light, but of love. The whole of the Divine self- manifestation as set forth in the Gospel is a revelation of this the most comprehensive of all the Divine perfections, and is the adequate expression of them all-the supreme blessedness of giving, of imparting self for the life and joy of others. The other apostles grasped the same thought, and Paul held it not to sacrifice thereby, but to express therein the Divine righteousness. "God commendeth his love to us." Love of God. shed abroad in the heart, and producing within us an adequate response, is one of the fundamental themes of the Epistle to the Romans (v. 5, 8). Jude tells us to "keep our- selves (T71piw) in the love of God," as in a citadel and well-defended sanctnary, "looking [thence] for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life" (Jnde 21). But the chief burden of the Fourth Gospel is the love of God, and the manifestation of that love in power, in healing, in sacrifice, in death, in resurrection. The motive of the first miracle, though it be one of power, is love to his mother and her friends. The key- note of the discourse to Nicodemus is the self-sacrificing love of God. The self-humilia- tion of the \\<ell of Sychar discloses the vast compass of his love to meo, that his great aim was the saving of others by the forgetfulness of self. The great miracles of eh. vi. 1-21 are displays of love to his disciples, and they become the text on which he proclaims the extent of his own self-sacrificial love in securing the lire of the world. 'fhe love which saves the siuuer while it denounces sin beams through the heated and angry discussions of eh. vii. and viii.; and it dictated the healing of the blind man, and it is also the stimulus to the good Shepherd to effect the redemptive acts which would save the scattered and imperilled sheep. The treatment of the family of Bethany and of the deceased or sleeping Lazarus is the very apotheosis of love. Jesus risks his human life that he may give life and cheer to the home which he loved. He weeps. He struggles with death. He wins by love. The victory of love over death is followed by the first and earliest response of unbounded love to himself (eh. xii. 1-8); a token was given which has been the precio\lll memorial of Christendom, and, by its imitation, the beginning of herLven upon cxliv INTRODUCTION TO ------- ------------------ earth. He te8tifies his love unto the uttermost in eh. xiii. 1, etc., where the humili11tlon of the God-Man receives its highest sanction, and prepares for a most surprising and con- tinuous diRplay of the throbbin_g of an infinite love to his very own. His high-priestly prayer for those who have believed that be came out from God, was that " the love wherewith he h11rl loved them," to the point of "laying down his life for them," might be "in them," tb11t they might know that "the Father himself loved them " even as be lo,,ed the Son (eh. xiv. 21; xv. 12; xvi. 27; xvii. 23-26). The love for them is ~een in marvellous display on the arrest by the temple-guards (eh. xviii. 8). The entire demeanour of the august Victim is the unveiling of an eternal love to those who were bitt.erly misconceiving it. The care of his mother, in his dying moments, expresses and intensifies the consummation of a perfect love. The whole manner of the resurrection lays special emphasis on the condition of mind which would most certainly appreciate and believ.i in the revelation. The highest revelations were made to the Magdalene, whose love opened her eye and ear to perceive the stupendous fact. The disciples whom he loved, and Thomas who was ready to die with him, were singled out to be recipients of his supreme revelations. The final scenes on the Lake of Gennese.ret were for the last time the putting into human forms of the Divine self-abandonment of e. perfect love. " The Logos made man " is the expression of the supreme affection of the eternal God to man, heightened and completed by the response of human love ; and the more.I and spiritual result in humanity of the reception and response of love to God is, on tho part of believers, love to one another. 'l'his is especially conspicuous when the curtain falls over the public ministry, and the Lord enters into familiar relations with those who have at length, for life and death, accepted the revelation of heaven and of God made in his Person. Thus love to himself is made the ground and reason of obedience to his commandments (eh. xiv. 15), and (eh. xiv. 21) love to Christ carries with it the love of the Father, and further manifestations of himself; and the surprising assurance is given that "we will come and take up our abode with him who guards e.ad keeps the Ao-yo• of Christ." The abiding in the love of Christ becomes the initiation of holy joy (eh. xv. 9-11). The ruling condition, guarantee, and fruit of holy love ie keeping the greatest commandment of all, viz. the love of one another ( eh. xv. 12, 17). The supreme benediction for which the high-priestly Intercessor prays is that "the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them, and I in them" (eh. xvii. 26). (3) Tiu MEANS adopted by 01J,r Lord to effect the salvation of men. How does St. John represP.nt the Life and Light and Love of God beccming ours 1 Most certainly Christ gives life. He is the Life of those who are united to him. "Because I live, ye shall live also." He vindicates his authority to bestow life upon those partially and absolutely deprived of it or in peril of losing it. His full authority to do this thing is reserved for the future, when the Son of ma.n shall have been lifted up, shall be :;:lorified, shall have re-entered upon the glory which he had with the Father before the world was Still he describes him.self as the Vine-stock, of which the disciples are the branches, and the life in him.self is to awaken and sustain their life (eh. xv. 1-10). He speaks of power to convey this life, to dispread this energy, through the personality of those united to Lim. "I am' come that they might have life more abundantly;" "He that eateth me shall live on account of me." The union of his life with that of his followers is t.he specie.I theme of eh. vL and xv., and implies an exercise of IJiuine authority, and nothina0 short of Divine preroo-ative. 'l'he Divine Humanity is the stay of all believing men. As he is one with GoJ; they also become one with the Father, and one in him. Be is their Resurrection and their Life, to such an extent that whosoever liveth and believeth in him shall never die, shall not experience in dissolution what death means- shall live for ever. The method he is represented as employing is a Divine giving to those who can and will receive the gift. (a) The shining of the Light. We have already seen that his method of communi• catina light and truth to souls is twofold. He is Light, and he opens blind eyes to see this illumination, and all other things thereby. '!'he constituticn, therefore, of the Personality of the God-Man is the forthstreaming of eternal light on human life and duty, or human way and human destiny. This is not all, because of the opacity and dulness of hwnan faculty, and so by his spiritual power he produces receptivity in the l.ruman ~ubject. The Sl'irit will lea.cl into all the truth coocerning himself and all othef  'l'HF, OORPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. cxlv