The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 490

bandlc>d by St.. Penl (Rom. vi.11.nd vii.). The by acquiring the true spirit and regeneratetl relation between sin as a prindple and sins life of a son oon any man be delivered from as ,ict.s of the will is a great New Testament the bondage induced by ignorm1ce of the re,·eletion. The personal oommission of sin nctue.l truth about God, about man,and a.bout nugments the force of the corrupt tendency the relation between God and mo.u. Thia which l<'nds to and facilitates fresh traus- knowledge is produced by the Sou of God gre~sion. Every compliance with evil forges who is the Truth. A full and believing R new fetter, and imposes it on the will of apprehension of the Son of Goel, a realizo.- the transgressor. "The strong man guards tion of what he is, confers a new life and his house, and his goods a.re in peace" (Luke reveals the wonderful possibilities and re- xi. 21). lations of human nature. The incarnation Ver. 85.-This being the facte.s to sin and of the Son of God e.s a veritable Son of mo.n its servitude, the Lord proceeds to deal emancipates the soul fettered by the tyranny with ser\'itude in God's house. Scr..-itude of nature and baffled by the mastery of time end its spirit nre manifested in the house of and sense, inasmuch as it disoloses the- tl..tc Father. The bond-slave abideth not in august majesty of its own origin. Essential the house for ever. So long as he is a freedom o.ocrues to him who knows that sin is hond-slave and not emancipated from the pardoned, thRt death 1s vanquished, tha.t the fetters of mere race, so long as be is ruled prince of this world is cast out. The eager by the servile spirit, there is no perpetuity Jew might look through the be.ttered walls of a.bout his relation to the Father. He oon Zion and the charred fragments of its gorgeous be sold away (Gen. xxi. 10; Gal. iv. 80). temple,and still see the e.dame.ntine structure An involuntary subject of the Law, who and its agelong triumph. But the disciples of belongs to tlic theocracy a.s a sla..-e merely, Jesus, with John e.s their leader, when these and because he cannot help himself, and words were recorded by him a.a they fell occupies a position which a slnve does in the from the Lord in their true connection, saw family of sin, has lost ail freedom and spon- the new Jerusalem coming down out of taneity in his service, and will find hil!lself heaven as a. bride adorned for her husband, cast out at last. But the son abideth for ever, with its open gates, its crystal stream, a.nd Sonship is the only principle on which con- the Lord God .Almighty and the Lamb as tiriuancc in the house can be secured. It the Light of it. The freedom of e. perfect has been mnch debated whether the I, 11/os service and the glorious liberty of the sons of the thi1ty-fifth verse goes beyond the idea. of God was theirs; in. proportion as they of sou.ship, the generic antithesis to the idea accepted their emancipation from the Son of slave. Certainly this seems the primary himself (l <Jor. vii. 22; Rom. viii. 35, 36; reference. In the following verse, the Son, 2 <Jor. iii. 18). The sons a.re "free indeed," in his loftiest fnnctioua, and a.s identifying whatever the world, or the Hebrew Chris- himself with" the truth" of ver. 32, entirely tians, or the philosophers might think or say. ful.filB the conception of "Sonship" a.nd Ver. 37.-Iknow (oIBa, I know absolutely, eternal abiding in the Father's house, a.nd I do not come to know it from your retort) therefore is entrusted with the power of tha.t ye are the seed of Abraham. They eme.ncipe.ting all slaves, of adopting sons belonged to the noble race, ".whose are the into the Father's royal honse. Thus· we fathers;" they were the rnrepµa of him who may suppose tha.t the first use of the term received the promises. Christ admitted the "son," though laying special emphasis on pedigree, but he proceeds to show tha.t mere the spirit o.nd conditions of sonship, yet hereditary descent would be of no avail points to him who entirely embodies, en- to them apart from moral considerations. shrines, and has from before all worlds These ideas, these revolutionary conceptions, realized the Divine idea of Son-the only so far es Juda.ism was concerned, were not begotten Son-in the bosom of the Father. the evolution of Christian ideas in the second Ver. 36.-Therefore if the Son - who century. It is most instructive to see how abideth ever in the Father's bosom, and fills clearly St. Paul ha.d already grasped them, the houee with his glory, and is the Heir of and woven them into' e. powerful e.rgument ell thing;;-make you free, ye &he.ll be free when dee.ling with the J udaizers in Gala.tia, i.ndsed (t.,.,-,.,,, "essentie.lly," only here 11Sed many years before this Gospel was written by St. John, who elsewhere uses the word (see the entire argument of Gal. iii., which a.A.716ii,s, ver. 31 ; eh. i. 48 ; iv. 42; vii. 40 ; thus rests on the teaching of the Christ him- vi. 14). The Son is he who gives power to self). But ye seek to kill me. This charge is beoome the sons of God. "The law of the certainly difficult to suppose applioa.ble to Spirit of lifa in Christ Jesus frees from the those who "bad come to believe in him" la.w of sin and death" (Bom. viii 2). Only (ver. 81). One of three suppositions must be ma.d~ither (1) the believing Jews were strong e x ~ n in th•t of • &lave {Plov, surrounded by angry groups· of his bitter :u:ix. 21)." enemies, to whom he here addressed hiJDBelf; oe. vm. 1-69.) 'rHE GOSPEL ACl)ORDING TO BT. JOHN. 363