John 1:19-37; John 1:19-37) It is here presented historically. Did the dead (for so men are treated, not as alive under law) did they hear the voice of the Son of God? "And this is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. This the Lord refuses, and goes up the mountain to pray, His disciples being meanwhile exposed to a storm on the lake, and straining after the desired haven till He rejoins them, when immediately the ship was at the land whither they went. (VersesJohn 7:33-36; John 7:33-36) Jesus was returning to Him that sent Him, and the Holy Ghost would be given. Let them learn, then, that as Son of man (for which nature they despised Him, and denied His essential personal glory) He will judge; and this judgment will be no passing visitation, such as God has accomplished by angels or men in times past. (Ver. Here the unlimited scene is in view; not Israel, but the world. by this miracle, they could not doubt of his being able to Were the Jews zealously keeping the sabbath? The same God who did not leave Himself without witness among the heathen, doing good, and giving from heaven rain and fruitful seasons, did not fail, in the low estate of the Jews, to work by providential power at intervals; and, by the troubled waters of Bethesda, invited the sick, and healed the first who stepped in of whatever disease he had. All this, however, was abstract, whether as to the nature of the Word or as to the place of the Christian. Such is God's vindication of His outraged rights; and the judgment will be proportionate to the glory that has been set at nought. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. Here again, apart from this divine insight, the change or gift of the name marks His glory. Neither does the Spirit say exactly as the English Bible says "sons," but children. (Ver. So rich and transparently divine was the grace: not some souls, more meritorious than the rest, rewarded according to a graduated scale of honour, but "of his fulness have all we received." One of the peculiarities of our gospel is, that we see the Lord from time to time (and, indeed, chiefly) in or near Jerusalem. This is indispensable; for God is a Spirit, and so it cannot but be. Scripture is, or may be, before man always. mountain alone". man, and seize him in a violent manner, whether he would or not; Nevertheless the Son had taken the place of being the sent One, the place of subordination in the earth, in which He would say, "My Father is greater than I." The distinctiveness of such a testimony to the Saviour's glory need hardly be pointed out. How blessed the contrast with the people's state depicted in this chapter, tossed about by every wind of doctrine, looking to "letters," rulers, and Pharisees, perplexed about the Christ, but without righteous judgment, assurance, or enjoyment! None the less did the result of His death proclaim His Deity. Thus we have here the other side of the truth: not merely what God is in life and light, in grace and truth, as revealed in Christ coming down to man; but man is now judged in the very root of his nature, and proved to be entirely incapable, in his best state, of seeing or entering the kingdom of God. In vain did any come to the Baptist to report the widening circle around Christ. (Psalms 132:1-18) Then they wanted to make Him a king. It is the revelation of God yea, of the Father and the Son, and not merely the detecter of man. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time. The Light, on coming into the world, lightens every man with the fulness of evidence which was in Him, and at once discovers the true state as truly as it will be revealed in the last day when He judges all, as we find it intimated in the gospel afterwards. The Father and the Son were at work. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. He bows to, as he explains, the sovereign will of God. (Verses John 4:31-38). A greater work was in hand; and this, as the rest of the chapter shows us, not a Messiah lifted up, but the true bread given He who comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world; a dying, not a reigning, Son of man. A person (the bell ringer) would place a leather muffle over half of the bell's clapper. John 3:14-15; John 3:14-15) It is not a question simply of the Son of God, nor is He spoken of here as the Word made flesh. The chapter pursues this subject, showing that it is not only God who thus deals first, with the necessity of man before His own immutable nature; next, blessing according to the riches of His grace but, further, that man's state morally is detected yet more awfully in presence of such grace as well as holiness in Christ. Lastly, closing this part, we have another most remarkable contrast. Thus, in fact, we have the Lord setting aside what was merely Messianic by the grand truths of the incarnation, and, above all, of the atonement, with which man must have vital association: he must eat yea, eat and drink. Nobody had gone up to heaven: God had taken more than one; but no one had gone there as of right. This will be displayed in the millennium, when the marriage will be celebrated, as well as the judgment executed (Jerusalem and its temple being the central point then). Jesus explains: "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. it was no lack of testimony; their will was for present honour, and hostile to the glory of the only God. he left the company directly, upon this resolution of theirs, and It was but preliminary, of course; still it was a deep reality, the then present grace in the person of the Son, the Saviour of the world, who filled their once dark hearts with light and joy. (ver. (Ver. First, we must worship, if at all, in spirit and in truth. John 6:39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. Therefore, it seems to me, He adds verse 24. John 1:29; John 1:29John 1:34; John 1:34) of John Baptist's testimony here named; the first day (ver. This language is said of both, but most strongly of the latter. A second and wholly new man appears the bread of God, not of man, but for men. As a weapon of conviction, most justly had it in the mind of the Lord Jesus the weightiest place, little as man thinks now-a-days of it. 05/28/2021 07:55 AM EDT. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours." John, therefore, who had been the honoured witness before of God's call, "the voice," etc., does now by the outpouring of his heart's delight, as well as testimony, turn over, so to say, his disciples to Jesus. His own love and person were warrant enough for the simple to lift the veil for a season, and fill the hearts which had received Himself into the conscious enjoyment of divine grace, and of Him who revealed it to them. As being the omniscient God, who knew their hearts, and the Nor would the rejected Christ, the Son of man; for if lifted up on the cross, instead of having the throne of David, the result would be not merely earthly blessing for His people according to prophecy, but eternal life for the believer, whoever. God never left Himself without witness; He did not even among the Gentiles, surely yet less in Israel. Read full chapter. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came ( ) by Jesus Christ." (Ver. Thus we all not only receive of His fulness, (and what fulness illimitable was there not in Him!) This gives occasion to Jesus to teach us the lesson that conscience must be reached, and sense of sin produced, before grace is understood and brings forth fruit. To the Pharisees, indeed, his words as to the Lord are curt: nor does he tell them of the divine ground of His glory, as he had before and does after. 13 Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. alone, for the sake of secret retirement, and private prayer; and Thus we have traced, first, hearts not only attracted to Him, but fresh souls called to follow Him; then, in type, the call of Israel by-and-by; finally, the disappearance of the sign of moral purifying for the joy of the new covenant, when Messiah's time comes to bless the needy earth; but along with this the execution of judgment in Jerusalem, and its long defiled temple. Premillennialism turns Jesus into a liar. Now, it is no longer a question of nature, but of relationship; and hence it is not said simply the Word, but the Son, and the Son in the highest possible character, the only-begotten Son, distinguishing Him thus from any other who might, in a subordinate sense, be son of God "the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father." There is no other way in which the new nature is made good in a soul. he might be; and this, too, as the expression of the true and full grace of God in His only-begotten Son given. 1 Cor 15:26 states that Christ will reign until the destruction of death. It is not merely a Messiah, who comes and offers Himself, as we find in other gospels, with most painstaking diligence, and presented to their responsibility; but here from the outset the question is viewed as closed. (Verse John 3:10). In the Word was life, and the life was the light of men. If He judges, it is not without full warning. His earthly rights are just where they should be; but not here, where the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father has His appropriate place. (SeePsalms 2:1-12; Psalms 2:1-12) But the Lord tells him of greater things he, should see, and says to him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, henceforth (not "hereafter," but henceforth) ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man. So in the baptism with the Holy Ghost, who would pretend to such a power? But what we learn is, that our Lord (viewed as having entered into heaven as man on the ground of redemption, i.e., ascended, after having passed through death, into glory) from that glory confers meanwhile the Holy Ghost on him that believes, instead of bringing in at once the final feast of gladness for the Jews and the world, as He will do by-and-by when the anti-typical harvest and vintage has been fulfilled. Not Israel, but for men law was given by Moses, but grace truth. 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