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THE KING’S BUSINESS
they will believe on Him in a deeper sense yet. Faith constantly means more and more to the one who comes to know Jesus Christ. At the very beginning of our Christian life we be lieve on him, but the belief that we have at the beginning of our Christian life is as nothing to the belief that we have as we come to know Him more fully and more accurately. One of the most prominent characteristics of this Gospel is that it traces the growth of faith on the part of the disciples (and of unbelief on the part of those who would not yeild to the truth). The little company that had gath ered around our Lord were first mere ly followers of Christ (ch. 1 :37) ; then they became something better than followers, they became “disciples” ; now they were something better than mere disciples, they were believers. Such are the results of intercourse with Himself: as we walk with H im ' and He manifests His glory, disciple- ship is transformed into faith. It is notable that while we are told the disciples believed on Him, we are not told that about the guests. They saw the sign, but they did not see it as a sign. Just as at a later date the multi tude saw the loaves and fishes multi plied and enjoyed our Lord’s bounty on that occasion, but they did not see the sign as a sign (ch. 6:26 R. V.). Not one of the guests outside the com pany of the disciples seemed to have been led by this sign to accept Jesus as the Messiah. We have here a reve lation of the hardness and blindness of the average human heart. They went away with full stomachs and erftpty hearts. The Greek words translated “Be lieved on Him” are peculiar and very expressive. Literally translated they would read, “Believed into Him,” and suggest how true faith sinks itself right into the Lord Himself. The ex pression is almost peculiar to John.
this first sign was wrought in an ob scure village, far distant from Jeru salem, in a quiet festal gathering. Surely, He was not seeking honor from men (John 5:14). John tells us that there was a two fold effect of this sign: First, It mani fested Christ’s glory. The glory was in Him from the beginning, “In Him dwelt all the fullnes of the godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9), but the glory was veiled: now it bursts forth from be hind the veil and becomes visible to men. In this act men were able to be hold His glory, “glory as of the only begotten from the Father” (ch. 1 :14). It was not only Divine power that was manifested in the act, but Divine wis dom and grace as well; it was a typi cal illustration of how God in Christ enriches and gladdens human life at every point where He touches it. It was in striking contrast with the gifts of nature, which are constantly failing at the critical moment, and with the severity of the law as manifested in the old dispensation. His glory was manifested, not merely in that the work was supernatural and thus re vealed His divine power, but in that it was wondrously gracious and a rev elation of His love for and sympathy with man in the homeliest details of daily life. It also revealed His sov ereignty over nature. The character of his miracle and the conditions un der which it was performed are worthy of our deepest meditation. Second, John tells us that the second effect of the sign was that it served as a ground of faith in those who were already His disciples. At first sight these seemed like strange words, “His disciples be lieved on Him.’ The thought that naturally comes to us is that being disciples they already believed on Him and so they did (cf. ch. 1 :41, 49). But they believed on Him now in a far deeper sense than they had ever be lieved in Him before, and later still
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