The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 215

oapncity, They did not give him even a provisional reception WI such time as his claim could be examined; for such seems the force of rrapb..a{Jov. They were prejudiced ngninst him from the very first. Every word and act were twisted against him. What candour there is in these admissions of John I Christianity fears no statement of facts. 'l'ho more emphatic and biUer human rejections became tho more clearly the necessity of o. Christ was proved. III. RECEIVING CHRIST, AND ITS RESULT. Here is the whole truth. The world cannot receive Christ, but always there are some who go out from the world because they are not of the world. Among the children of men there is a rejecting spirit and a receiving spirit. He who receives Christ must be all the more determined and cordial in his reception, because he sees so many rejecting; and he who is at all inclined to consider the claims of Christ must be careful not to be turned aside because so many nre indifferent. See with your own eyes. .A.11 true things have met with scorn and persecution at first. But what is it to receive Christ? Evidently to deliver ourselves over to his rule and authority. If a man should receive a traveller into his house, and give him henceforth the disposiUon of everything there, that would give the analogy as to bow we should receive Christ; and so receiving Christ, we gain the right to become sons of God. We have our part in the natural world's existence through Christ, and that comes without our willing; but a part in the highest attainment belongiag to human life, even sonship towards God, can only come through our voluntary submission to Christ. Jesus gives true and humble disciples the right to become sons of God; and teaching them to say, "Our Father, who art in heaven,'' he involves the constant remembrance of this right in every true pmyer.-Y. Ver. 11.-Moses and Ohrist. Let us proceed at once to particular instances of the Lnw given through Moses, and of the grace and truth coming throngh Jesus Christ. 'fhus we shall better see how Moses is brought into connection with Christ, and Law iuto connection with irace and truth. Look, then, at Ex:od. xx., where the great principles of the Law given through Moses are stated. I. CONSIDER THE n..1.s1s OF JEHOVAH's CLAIM. "I am Jehovah thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." The fact of deliverance was indisputable, and just as indisputable the fact that the people had not delivered themselves; and for a while the delivered people hardly knew why they were delivered. Left to themselves, they might have scattered; but there was a compulsion on them all the time-a compulsion into liberty, a compulsion to go through the Red Sea, a compulsion towards the awful solitudes of Sinai. Then at List Jehovah tells them what he expects. He who has doae great things for them wants to kuow what they will do for him; and, lest they be inattentive, he states, to begin with, the sulid basis of his claim. 'l'hen turn from Moses to Jesus Christ, and we have but another aspect of the same Jehovah. Jehovah was really gracious in the giving of the Law; but the gracfl got hidden. In Jesus Christ grace is manifest to all. There is the b,1sis of a claim oa you. You have but to look back on the experiences of others, human beings like yourselves-like iu fofirmity, like in manifold needs, like in the pollution of an evil heart, like in suffering and sorrow, like in sickaess and mortality. .A.s Jesus in the flesh actually dealt with men in various positions, so now, in the spirit according to his view of your needs, will he deal with you. Jesus turned no water to blood, smote no cattle with pestilence, bruised no fields with hail, gathered no clouds of locusts, m-apt no hnd in gross darkness, robbed no parents of their fi.rstbom, overwhelmed no armies in the sea.. A little child can see that grace and truth a.re in Jesus Christ. II. CONSIDER THE CLAI:11 OF JEHOVAH ITSELF. Take the first item. "Thon sh,1lt have no other gods before mo." Look at all that is involved in this claim. It means that we are to worship Jehovah alone, and that, of course, assumes that we are actually worshippers of the one God to begin with. What if we a.re deluding ourselves with mere outward performances before a. name? Do we know what we worship? Labelling the unknown with the name of God does not make it better known . .A.nd Moses ga.ve no help in revealing the nature of God. He uttered bare law. But Jesus comes with a grace and truth which a.re strangely self-revealing. He winds gently into the hearts of men, by every eatrancc he can find, He quietly accepts as his right the reverence anJ adoration of every heart willing to render them. No Ion~ elucidations are neeucJ to  76 'l'HE GOSPEL ACCORDING Tu ST. JORN. [ou, L 1-61.