for he that could do this, what was it he could not do? Verse John 1:29 opens John's testimony to his disciples. It is there that we found the Lord, in the other synoptic gospels, fulfilling His ordinary ministry. For the astonishing thought is, not merely that Jesus receives the Holy Ghost without measure, but that God gives the Spirit also, and not by measure, through Him to others. They were not to wonder then at what He says and does now; for an hour was coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those that have done good to resurrection of life, and those that have done evil to resurrection of judgment. 12 When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. The word "premillennial" itself is derived of two components-"pre" signifies before, and "millennium" denotes a period of one thousand years. The Lord and the disciples are next seen in the country district, not far, it would seem, from John, who was baptizing as they were. One needs no more than to read, as believers, these wonderful expressions of the Holy Ghost, where we cannot but feel that we are on ground wholly different from that of the other gospels. (ver. All rights reserved. So we see in the attractive power, afterwards dealing with individual souls. We have now the Word made flesh, called Jesus Christ this person, this complex person, that was manifest in the world; and it is He that brought it all in. So in the baptism with the Holy Ghost, who would pretend to such a power? Then, resuming the strain of verse John 1:14, we are told, in verseJohn 1:16; John 1:16, that "of his fulness have all we received." 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. and they might the rather be induced to take such a step, since, "He came unto his own [things], and his own [people] received him not. Expressly had He told the man to take up his couch and walk, as well as to rise. (Ver. But if the Spirit speaks of the Son of God, the law dwindles at once into the smallest possible proportions: everything yields to the honour the Father puts oil the Son. In short, the riches of God's grace are here according to the glory of the Son, and in the power of the Holy Ghost. P07901 Death Knell for John Knox 1972 Etching 18 5/8 19 3/4 (473 500) on paper watermarked 'Arches France' 37 3/8 29 1/2 (955 750) printed by Jack Shirreff, Westbury and published by the artist Inscribed 'John Bellany 72' b.r. Scripture is, or may be, before man always. His aspect as thus tabernacling among the disciples was "full of grace and truth." John 4:1-54 presents the Lord Jesus outside Jerusalem outside the people of promise among Samaritans, with whom Jews had no intercourse. John 3:19; John 3:19) Other things, the merest trifles, may serve to indicate a man's condition; but a new responsibility is created by this infinite display of divine goodness in Christ, and the evidence is decisive and final, that the unbeliever is already judged before God. "He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. Second, it interprets present world political trends as signs of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Thus, manifestly, the whole question is terminated at the very starting-point of our gospel; and this is characteristic of John all through: manifestly all is decided. John then declared his own waning before Christ, as we have seen, the issues of whose testimony, believed or not, are eternal; and this founded on the revelation of His glorious person as man and to man here below. Jesus not only could go up, as He did later, but He had come down thence, and, even though man, He was the Son of man that is in heaven. Had it been meant, it was no wonder that Nicodemus did not know how these things could be. Such is God's vindication of His outraged rights; and the judgment will be proportionate to the glory that has been set at nought. Nay, the Father has given all judgment to the Son. It was meet that so it should be; for, as a question of right, none could claim; and grace surpasses all expectation or thought of man, most of all of men accustomed to a round of religious ceremonial. to let them know, that those who sought only for a temporal None else could do either work: for here we see His great work on earth, and His heavenly power. (VersesJohn 3:20-21; John 3:20-21). with a big assist from Olivia Beavers, Sarah Ferris and Marianne LeVine. But here it was not God's purpose to record it. John 7:24) They reason and are in utter uncertainty. I apprehend the words the Authorised Version gives in italics should disappear. But this is not the question of grace: not what she was, but what He is who was there to win and bless her, manifesting God and the Father withal, practically and in detail. Nothing in the slightest degree detracted from His own personal glory, and from the infinitely near relationship which He had had with the Father from all eternity. He that comes from above from heaven is above all. And so, in fact, it was and is. Judgment is the alternative for man: for God it is the resource to make good the glory of the Son, and in that nature, in and for which man blind to his own highest dignity dares to despise Him. Then He rebukes the carnality of His brethren. The first four chapters of John precede in point of time the notices of His ministry in the other gospels. king; For if, on the one side, God has taken care to let us see already the glory of the Son, and the grace of which He was full, on the other side, all shines out the more marvellously when we know how He dealt with a woman of Samaria, sinful and degraded. Alas! mountain alone". 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. John 5:19-29), It is evident, then, that the Lord presents life in Himself as the true want of man, who was not merely infirm but dead. "For God," He says, "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." The Father did not judge, but committed all judgment into the hands of the Son, because He is the Son of man. What can be conceived more notably standing out in contrast with the governmental system God had set up, and man had known in times past? (VerseJohn 4:1; John 4:1) It was strange to her that a Jew should thus humble himself: what would it have been, had she seen in Him Jesus the Son of God? "John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This is he of whom I spake: He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me." It is here we learn in what condition of His person God was to be revealed and the work done; not what He was in nature, but what He became. 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. The disciples of John dispute with a Jew about purification; but John himself renders a bright witness to the glory of the Lord Jesus. This is the more striking, because, as we have seen, the world and Israel, rejecting Him, are also themselves, as such, rejected from the first. Now it is that the great question is decided; now it is that a man receives or refuses Christ. Still the eternal day alone will show out the full virtue of that which belongs to Jesus as the Lamb of God, who takes away the world's sin. Glory would be displayed in its day. Nor was it yet complete. The thrust of Lindsey's book is two-fold: First, it espouses the premillennial theory of Christ's second coming. Here there could not be more, and He would not give less: even "grace upon grace." Augustine believed God's purposes were always being fulfilled, the gospel was always advancing into "the nations at the four corners of the earth." The saints who had been spiritually raised to. If a man looks at the Lord Jesus as One who entered the world in a general way, and calls this the incarnation, he will surely stumble over the cross. 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. King James Version (KJV) (John 2:1-25) The change of water into wine manifested His glory as the beginning of signs; and He gave another in this early purging of the temple of Jerusalem. The results for the believer or unbeliever are eternal in good or in evil. Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, but withal, as he had said, the eternal One, yet in view of His manifestation to Israel (and, therefore, John was come baptizing with water a reason here given, but not to the Pharisees in verses 25-27). He who inspired them to communicate His thoughts of Jesus in the particular line assigned to each, raised up John to impart the highest revelation, and thus complete the circle by the deepest views of the Son of God. How singularly is the glory of the Lord Jesus thus viewed, as invested with the testimony of God and its crown! He entered this world, became flesh, as born of woman; but there was no diminution of His own glory, when He, born of the virgin, walked on earth, or when rejected of man, cut off as Messiah, He was forsaken of God for sin our sin on the cross. As being the omniscient God, who knew their hearts, and the (1-4) A crowd gathers to Jesus near the Sea of Galilee. 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. It was impossible that there should not be righteous dealing with human evil against God, in its sources and its streams. And he saith, I am not. Heavenly things are set in evident contradistinction, and link themselves immediately here, as everywhere, with the cross as their correlative. John 6:15. behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. In these two points of view, more particularly, John gives testimony to Christ; He is the lamb as the taker away of the world's sin; the same is He who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. Canon Law tells us to obey the old law, (Can. Her testimony bore the impress of what had penetrated her soul, and would make way for all the rest in due time. (Ver. There is but one unfailing test the Son of God God's testimony to Him. Clarke's Commentary. How withering the words! but. (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. John 1:17; John 1:17) The law, thus given, was in itself no giver, but an exacter; Jesus, full of grace and truth, gave, instead of requiring or receiving; and He Himself has said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. It was not the time now to demonstrate in public power these coming, yea, then present truths. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." On this basisJohn 7:1-53; John 7:1-53 proceeds. None the less did the result of His death proclaim His Deity. 29) on which, as it were, Jesus speaks and acts in His grace as here shown on the earth. In the beginning of the chapter it was rather an essential indispensable action of the Holy Ghost required; here it is the privilege of the Holy Ghost given. 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." And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. (Ver. California - Do Not Sell My Personal Information. (Verses John 7:16-18) , The Jews kept not the law) and wished to kill Him who healed man in divine love. 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. 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. If, on the contrary, a soul has been taught of God the glory of the person of Him who was made flesh, he receives in all simplicity, and rejoices in, the glorious truth, that He who was made flesh was not made flesh only to this end, but rather as a step toward another and deeper work the glorifying God, and becoming our food, in death. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Here the unlimited scene is in view; not Israel, but the world. Also one of the two thus drawn to Him first finds his own brother Simon (with the words, We have found the Messiah), and led him to Jesus, who forthwith gave him his new name in terms which surveyed, with equal ease and certainty, past, present, and future. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life. Here we see Him accepting, not as fellow-servant, but as Lord, those souls who had been under the training of the predicted messenger of Jehovah that was to prepare His way before, His face. . Thus in one way or the other all must honour the Son. I do not mean by this all individuals, but creation; for nothing can be more certain, than that those who do not receive the Son of God are so much the worse for having heard the gospel. he left the company directly, upon this resolution of theirs, and Granted He was the Son of man; but as such, He had all judgment given Him, and would judge. The sound goes back and forth between a harder chime and a muffled chime. For "he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. On the third day is the marriage in Cana of Galilee, where was His mother, Jesus also, and His disciples. It finds, of course, a present application, and links itself with that activity of grace in which God is now sending out the gospel to any sinner and every sinner. No such sounds, no such realities were ever heard or known in Israel. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. He acts as such. "He must, increase, but I decrease." John 3:31-36) he speaks of His person in contrast with himself and all; of His testimony and of the result, both as to His own glory, and consequently also for the believer on, and the rejecter of, the Son. The truth is, the design of manifesting His glory governs all; place or people was a matter of no consequence. 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. "Master, eat," said they. that we may give an answer to them that sent us. (VerseJohn 4:10; John 4:10) Infinite grace! One must be born again for God's kingdom a Jew for what was promised him, like another. Christ here, it will be noticed, is not so much the quickening agent as Son of God (John 5:1-47), but the object of faith as Son of man first incarnate, to be eaten; then dying and giving His flesh to be eaten, and His blood to be drank. How was this? 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. He who, living, was received for eternal life, is our meat and drink in dying, and gives us communion with His death. he departed again into a mountain, himself He wanted nothing; He came to give yea, the very best, so to speak, that God has. His joy was that of a friend of the Bridegroom (to whom, not to him, the bride belonged), and now fulfilled as he heard the Bridegroom's voice. man, and seize him in a violent manner, whether he would or not; All is fitly closed by the declaration, that "the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand." For if the Son (cast out, we may say, in principle from Judaism) visited Samaria, and deigned to talk with one of the most worthless of that worthless race, it could not be a mere rehearsal of what others did. "No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son," etc. This is the truth; but the Jews had the law, and hated the truth. But as many as received him, to them gave he power [rather, authority, right, or title] to become children of God." (John 12:48). The disciples come; the woman goes into the city, leaving her waterpot, but carrying with her the unspeakable gift of God. What sayest thou of thyself? * He says, One was among them of whom they had no conscious knowledge, "that cometh after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to loose." So does his confession: Rabbi, thou art the Son of God: thou art the King of Israel. This leads Philip to Nathanael, in whose case, when he comes to Jesus, we see not divine power alone in sounding the souls of men, but over creation. The refusal of His precious blood will, on the contrary, make their case incomparably worse than that of the heathen who never heard the good news. This is grace and truth. Historically it was the second of three bells rung around death, the first being the passing bell to warn of impending death, and the last was the lych bell or corpse bell, which survives today as the funeral toll . Thus it is not only the person of our Lord viewed as divine, and coming down into the world. God orders matters so that a favoured teacher of men, favoured as none others were in Israel, should come to Jesus by night. Therefore, it seems to me, He adds verse 24. , And this very circumstance is perhaps the cause, that nowhere do we read that Jesus, whilst He teas sojourning on the earth, entered, even though that town was very close to Jerusalem. It is the wider, universal glory of the Son of man (according toPsalms 8:1-9; Psalms 8:1-9); but the most striking part of it verified from that actual moment because of the glory of His person, which needed not the day of glory to command the attendance of the angels of God this mark, as Son of man. "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Just as in John 4:1-54, so here it is a question of power in the Holy Ghost, and not simply of Christ's person. (Verses John 5:1-7), On the other hand, the Lord speaks but the word: "Rise, take up thy couch and walk." By MELANIE ZANONA. John 7:6-8) They belonged to the world. Neither does the Spirit say exactly as the English Bible says "sons," but children. His glorious person would have none now in relation to God but members of the family. Of course it is the revelation of Christ; but here He was simply revealing the sources of this indispensable new birth. He will have all honour the Son, even as Himself. But Jesus finds him in the temple, and said, "Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." No charge could be remoter from the truth. Why should He not show Himself to the world? Such shall live. At once their malice drops the beneficent power of God in the case, provoked at the fancied wrong done to the seventh day. secret thoughts and purposes of them; or, as man, understood by As the Lamb of God (of the Father it is not said), He has to do with the world. It is our evangelist's way of indicating His Galilean sojourn; and this miracle is the particular subject that John was led by the Holy Ghost to take up. The allusion to the fig-tree confirms this. John 1:26-27; John 1:26-27) For himself he was not the Christ, but for Jesus he says no more. Resurrection will be the proof; the two-fold rising of the dead, not one, but two resurrections. - Jesus therefore knowing (having found, perceived (), by ominous movements in the crowd, or in any other way still more explicit) that they were about to come and by violence, or force, seize him in order that they might make him King. Their purpose was to make Him king. They had no common thoughts, feelings, or ways with the Father and the Son. Remark, too, the extent of the work involved in verse 29. If he receives Him, it is everlasting life, and Christ is thus honoured by him; if not, judgment remains which will compel the honour of Christ, but to his own ruin for ever. Jesus, therefore, answered, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. The death knell is recognizable by its muffled sound. It was much, yet was it little of the glory that was His; but at least it was real; and to the one that has shall be given. Still the Lord refused the crown then: it was not the time or state for His reign. The healing of the courtier's son, sick and ready to die, is witness of what the Lord was actually doing among the despised of Israel. The brethren of the Lord Jesus, who could see the astonishing power that was in Him, but whose hearts were carnal, at once discerned that it might be an uncommon good thing for them, as well as for Him, in this world. It is the final setting aside of Judaism then, whose characteristic hope was the display of power and rest in the world. All this clearly goes down to millennial days. This language is said of both, but most strongly of the latter. It was an extraordinary birth; of God, not man in any sort, or measure, but a new and divine nature (2 Peter 1:1-21) imparted to the believer wholly of grace. Art thou that prophet? To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, En une ardeur de zele inconsidere et temeraire. The Lord meets him at once with the strongest assertion of the absolute necessity that a man should be born anew in order to see the kingdom of God. contrary to all others, renders it, "Christ departed from the Thus the Holy Ghost, given by the Son in humiliation (according to God, not acting on law, but according to the gift of grace in the gospel), was fully set forth; but the woman, though interested, and asking, only apprehended a boon for this life to save herself trouble here below. And Jesus answers, "I that speak unto thee am he." He is a divine person; His manhood brought no attainder to His rights as God. 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. Article Images Copyright 2023 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. He could be declared only by One who was a divine person in the intimacy of the Godhead, yea, was the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. How truly it is man under law! Hence, then, we have the Lord Jesus alluding to this fresh necessity, if man was to be blessed according to God. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers. No doubt He must become a man, in order, amongst other reasons, to be a sufferer, and to die. kingdom, in which they might hope for great secular advantages: Sons they might have been in bare title; but these had the right of children. He is ever God; He is the Son; He quickens and raises from the dead. As a present fact, the Lord justifies the judicial act before their eyes by His relationship with God as His Father, and gives the Jews a sign in the temple of His body, as the witness of His resurrection power. He could, therefore, tell them of heavenly things as readily as of earthly things; but the incredulity about the latter, shown in the wondering ignorance of the new birth as a requisite for God's kingdom, proved it was useless to tell of the former. (Verses John 3:1-6), But the Lord goes farther, and bids Nicodemus not wonder at His insisting on this need. their words and gestures: that they would come and take him by force, and make him a and 'Death Knell for John Knox' bottom centre and '3/23' Purchased from Monika Kinley (Grant-in-Aid) 1983 The following . It was not intended for other beings it was God's free gift to man, to the believer, of course.
