them. He reproves their error by setting forth God's truth. Here then we have plainly declared to us the essential Divinity of Christ. He was not a creature subsequently made by God, but He was in the beginning with God. In that mysterious eternity which it is beyond our present powers to fathom or to conceive, Christ ever existed with God.' And He was God; one of the three Persons in the eternal Godhead. From the Creator we come down to the things created. Unlike our earthly reasonings, which can but look "through nature up to nature's God," from earth to heaven; this Gospel, "the Genesis of the New Testament," 2 glances from heaven to earth.3 "We still linger on the threshold of Creation. In Him was Life.'" He is the fountain of life." Eternal life issues from Him, as its original source. He gives it to all who believe in Him. Darkness in the Scripture is put for ignorance, wickedness, and its attendant misery. Light for Divine knowledge and its fruits of liberty and joy. Here by a common figure we have the effect put for the cause. What Christ does, that He is said to be. He is called the Light, because He gives light." "The Evangelist is hinting at the New Creation first page of the New Testament again recalls the first page of the Old." 4 The world was in a state of moral darkness when Christ came. He threw light upon the unknown future. He brought life and immortality to light. But now in this prologue a sad note is heard. It seems to shine in vain. The Light came, big with blessings, but it received not that welcome from the world which might have been expected. The reception of the Gospel is sadly disappointing.

9

7

1 St. John xvii. 5; 1 St. John i. 2.

2 Bp. Wordsworth. And this we say, though St. Matt. begins "The Book of the genesis (so in the original) of Jesus Christ." For he is there occupied with our Lord's incarnation in time, but our Evangelist here with this eternal generation.

Compare Ps. xxxiii. 6; cii. 24, 25;

8

The

II.

THE WITNESS TO THE LIGHT.

St. John i. 6-13.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Having spoken to us at the outset of the Word, the Evangelist, proceeding on his road, comes to the Herald of the Word, his namesake John." He was indeed Himself, as the Lord testified, "a burning and a shining light," but he was not that Light; he was not the Light. So the Evangelist, having brought in the Baptist, and stated the object of his coming, proceeds to speak further of Christ under this figure. Christ was the true or original Light, the source of spiritual illumination. The true Light moreover as opposed to those false prophets and false christs who had arisen, or should arise. True also as opposed to those false teachers of whom we have already heard. He is to the spiritual what the sun is to the material world. "The true Light, which, coming into the world, enlighteneth every man." "Not that every man is illuminated, but that no man is illuminated but by Him." 2 For there are who will not come unto Him that they may have light and life.3 His own world rejected Him; as a rebel country might reject a good and lawful king. The work of His own hands, that which was indebted

1 Chrysostom, in S. Jo. Hom. vi.
2 Augustine, Enchirid. ciii.

3 St. John v. 40.
4 St. Luke xix. 14.

to Him for its very being, refused to recognise Him. The people of Israel, who, whatever others might have done, should have received Him with open arms-they too joined with the rest of the world in rejecting Him. They seemed indeed the most mad against Him; as undutiful and unnatural children might be the first to rise up against a parent. And so He founded to Himself a new people, a nation made up of as many as received, that is, believed in Him. We cannot now receive Christ into our houses, but we may receive Him into our hearts.3 Christ may now dwell in our hearts by faith. And to all who thus believe on His name, that is in the character He claims, to them He gives the right or privilege of becoming sons of God, partakers of the Divine nature. And admission into this new family depends not upon the circumstances of a man's birth, but upon the power of God. This was a truth most necessary to be taught to those prejudiced Jews, who boasted of their descent, and depended upon their pedigree, and thought they must surely be the sons of God inasmuch as they were the posterity of Abraham." But besides this, there is doubtless intended here a deep contrast between the natural birth and the new birth, between generation and re-generation, between the being born and the being born again."

In the original of v. 11 there are two several expressions for our rendering "his own." The former seems more general, His own world, His own chosen land, His own peculiar people; the latter particular and personal, fixing the charge upon those responsible.

2 St. Matt. x. 21. We may recal King Lear's pathetic speech, "How sharper than a serpent's tooth

it is

To have a thankless child!”

3 Aug. Ser. ccxxxii. 7.

42 St. Pet. i. 4, with Heb. ii. 14.

5 In the original of v. 13, the plural is used, "bloods." It may denote the different degrees of consanguinity, and so have reference to the several ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from whom the Jews boasted that they were sprung. In Hebrew however the plural is sometimes used for the sake of dignity. Augustine (in S. Jo. Tr. ii.) interprets it of male and female; (Ser. cxxi. 4) of God and the church.

6 St. John viii. 38-44.
St. John iii. 6.

III.

THE INCARNATION.

St. John i. 14.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.) full of grace and truth.

2

The Eternal Word or Son of God, we are here told, became incarnate; that is, He took upon Him our flesh, became a man, and tabernacled among us. The Jews in the wilderness had a Tabernacle or tent, wherein they worshipped God. There the glory of God was seen. Over the Mercy-seat hovered the Shechinah. A mystic light, the symbol of the Divine presence, shone ever in the Sanctuary. So Christ, who is "the brightness of the Father's glory," the true Shechinah, tabernacled among us. His flesh, His body of human nature, was as a tabernacle, in which resided that Divine nature of which the glory in the Jewish Tabernacle was the sign. The Evangelist speaks as a Spectator. The Apostles were eye-witnesses of His Majesty. They saw with their eyes, they heard with their ears, those Divine words and works, on which they built their testimony that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.3 And this glory that He manifested forth was such as the only Son of God alone could have; a glory beyond that of any of the adopted sons; a glory in which none but the only-begotten Son, the promised seed, could share. In Him all fulness dwells. He is full of grace towards us, full of truth in Himself. Thus our Evangelist sets Him before us, both in His Divine and in His human nature, perfect God and perfect Man.

1 So in the original.

2 Ezekiel xxxvii. 27; Revelation xxi. 3.

3 St. John ii. 11; xx. 30, 31; 2 St. Pet. i. 16-18; 1 St. John i. 1-3.

Heb. xi. 17, 18.

IV.

THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.

St. John i. 15-18.

John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

Having already mentioned the fact that John the Baptist came to bear testimony to Christ, the Evangelist here states in a parenthesis what that testimony was. The Baptist bears witness again and again." He cried, lifting up his voice like an ancient prophet. In point of appearance in the world, Christ was after the Baptist. These words therefore plainly prove that He had an existence before He appeared on earth as man.3 Then the Evangelist returns to what he had been speaking of. In Christ, as in a treasurehouse, is the store of grace and truth, out of which He gives freely to all who apply to Him earnestly, whether they be Jews, or whether they be Gentiles. He gives the grace of the New Testament for that of the Old Testament, the Gospel for the Law. The one witnesses to the other, and the less proclaims the greater. For what is the Law but the Gospel announced beforehand? Or the Gospel, but the Law fulfilled." "He says, the Law was given, but Grace came; because the one was sent by a servant, the other was brought

The present tense; because, as Lampe notes, the testimony has regard to the whole church. Cried is in the past, because that act had reference only to those that heard him cry.

2 vv. 29, 30, 35, 36.

The word in the original rendered

was means (as in v. 1) existed. The expressions too which in the E. V. have each the same rendering " before me," are different in the original; the former expressive of dignity, the latter of priority.

4 Justin Martyr, Quast et Resp. ci.