The Pulpit Commentary — 1 John — Section 132

admitted en all sides that "one Jesus" lived about nineteen hundred years aero and 1lrnt his inllucnce has extended far and "'ide. What nccount is to be given ':ir' thi11 Personage? The right teaching is that which confesses him to be the Ghrist. 'l'his is !n a£rcemout with eh. ii. 22. Cerinthus taught that the Christ had a tempomry abode m Jesus ; the Christian teacher declares Jesus to be the Christ. Dut the Christ refers us _to ~ivin_ity, e(e~n_al Sonship1 with which we ~ssociate ideas of immate1fa\ity, 1m·1s1b1hty, 1mpass1b1hty, exemption from death, Tins was virtually the understandin" ?f Cerinthus, and his way of accounting for the ?rdina.ry_ manifestations of humanity rn Jesus was that he was only a,pparently the Christ. This was the usual solution of the difficulty by the Gnostics. 'l'he right teaching is that Jesus is Christ come in the flesh. That is to say, the trne solution is the Incarnation. Christ is Divine, and as such w~ can think of him as essentially immaterial, invisible, impassible, undying; and yet he 1s human, and as such th_ere ~ould be connected w~th him materiality, visibility, suffermg, death. The Incarnat1on 1s well worthy of bemg made the great object of confession. For it proclaims the wonderful and indissoluble union between God and man with a v;ew to human redemption, which sometimes tends to repel by its stran"e• uess. It proclaims a new and unexpected outlet for Divine love, transcending all finite power of thought, to be esiimated adequately only by hiln in whose heart the love burned. In tliis view we obtain facts which are rich in meaning. We first stand in presence of his birth, when the mysterious union commenced. We are amazed as wo contemplate him growing up to manhood. We behold him setting himself to his work, and proving himself in a threefold encounter with the tempter. We are overwhelmed with awe to think of him, iu death, passing under the eclipse of the Father's counte- nance. V1e are profoundly interested to behold him rising from the dead, and to think of him as passing into the heavens in our glorified nature. That is the right kind of teaching which deals with these facts, puts them forward for the grasp of faith, uses them for the clearing of thought and the stirring up of love. 2. Negative. "And every i;pirit which confesseth not Jesus is not of God: and this is the spirit of the antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it cometh; and n_ow it is in the world already," The true confession has been defined; this is its contradiclion. There is implied a certain know- ledge of Christianity. The news has gone forth that God has become incarnate for human salvation. It is news which is fitted to arrest, and leaves no excuse for want of inquiry into the question of fact. Every teacher especially should have his mind made up with regard to it. The apostle lays it down as the test of a true confession. Dy this Cerinthus and other Gnostic teachers were to be coudemned. 'l'hey found a way of avoiding the Incarnation, and thus took away the impression of the great love of God manifested toward men. The same thiug is done by the Unitarians now. '!'hey withhold acknowledgment from Jesus. Many of their teachers plead for warmth of feeling toward Christ. "Without the passions which move incessantly, like glittering and intense fire, around the Person of Obrist, religious teaching will not make men's hearts so to burn within them as to bring them in crowds to hear and to obey, and to be impelled to become teachers in turn" (Stopford Brooke). 'l'hey do not, however, leave room for the calling forth of such love, inasmuch as they represent Christ as a mere man, only transcending other men in excellence of character. 'l'hey do not accept the Incarnation; it is not credible to them; it takes away from the simplicity of the faith. Their declaration must go forw&rd to judgment; a Higher than man will one day pronounce upon its worth. It is an important consideration for our guidance tliat Unitarianism stands clearly condemned by the apo8tolic test. It conl"esses not Jesus, adwits not the higher view of his Person and work. There are teachers of great ewinence "who occupy rather a negative and undefined position in relation to Christ and Christianity. They have written upon almost every subject of human thought- upon government and the Church, upon history and biography, upon morals and destiny. They have gone round the world to find heroes and representative mon, and Lave said many true and striking things about them; but, strange to say, they have 11ever clearly informed the world as to wbat they think of Christ. They are une.ccountably reticent upon a subject that i8 the most important of all. 'l'hey allow a p:.iuful bileuce to brood over a Name that i8 above every name, \Vhat can be the meaning of tl,is '! ls it because they have no faith in Christ, but do not think it 1,rutlent or necessary to profess their unbelief? Can they have faith withoqt profcssin1, on. rv. 1-21.J TIIE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF JOHN. 129