December 1924
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
789
sonallty, eternity and creation. Besides the manifold asser tion of the Deity of Christ in Scripture, the doctrine explains the mystery of His wonderful life. How could a mere man, obscurely born, raised in poverty, without culture or pres tige, found a religion, and make a demand for the whole heart, time, talent and resources of men, offering tribula tion, persecution, poverty and hard work as the only induce ments? By the mere force of His teaching and His holy life, He gathers a multitude of followers. He draws the fishermen from the lakes, the soldiers from the standards, the publi can from his money tables. The chief priests conspire against Him and put Him to death. They seal His tomb, and surround it with a Roman guard. In spite of their pre cautions, He rises from His tomb and is seen alive by five hundred people at one time. His disciples rally and His cause goes on. While He was on the earth, everything obeyed Him i the wind, sea, trees and fishes. He cured all diseases by a sin gle word. At His bidding, the dead rose to life. Call Him a mere man— it is incredible. Consider Him to be God— these works are easily understood. Neither Moses nor Elijah claimed to be God, but Jesus did. The Jews took up stones to stone Him because He claimed equality with the Father. Could a good man claim that which was not true? If He was not God He was not good. This claim is corroborated by the testimony of prophecy. John the Baptist, the last and greatest of the prophets, bore witness to Him. There is also the testimony of His disciples who said: “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only- begotten of the Father.” There has ever been the testi mony of the experience of those who believe on Him and follow Him. There are men today who are saying: “We have received of His fulness. He has saved us from our sins.” If we should ask the flowers how they know that the sun has light and beauty, they might reply: “ The sun has given us light andj beauty.” “ Of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” Christ, as the incarnate God, gives fulness of blessing to all who, by faith, receive Him as such. He gives to all believers the most satisfactory revelation of God and truth. What a word is to a thought, Christ is to the Father. A word is a thought visualized or vocalized. He is “ the Word made flesh,” or God in visible form. All revelation comes through Him. He was in the various theophanies of the Old Testa ment. This does not interfere with the work of the Holy Spirit, for it is the things of Christ which the Spirit takes and shows unto men. It is Christ Who gives to believers the adoption of sons. “ As many as received Him, to them gave He power to be come the sons of God.’* He imparts to them His filial Spirit and transforms them into His likeness. “ Sonship” includes “ heirship.” The heritage yet remains to be possessed-^' “ The riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints.” To be heirs of the earth means much, hut to be the heirs of heaven means a great deal more. To be the heirs of God means to have God as our portion forever. Eternity can not exhaust the meaning of this. Thus the Gospel of John is distinctively the Gospel of the Deity of Christ. It was the last of the four Gospels to be written. It was held back until the other Gospels had become fully known and the world filled with discussions concerning Christ. Then it was given to refute current errors and illuminate the other Gospels. The incidents peculiar to this Gospel which are. omitted by the other writers are incidents which are instinct with Deity. This last Gospel of the New Testament, like the first book of the Old Testament, begins with a preface. The two introduc
tions are somewhat similar. Both put God in the fore ground and emphasize His works. In Genesis, God works as Creator. In John’s Gospel, God works as Redeemer. Since Christ is God, we should enthrone Him in our hearts and seek His re-incarnation in our daily lives. God wants the life of Jesus to be made manifest in our mortal flesh just as the life of God was made manifest in Christ. We should have such fulness of Christ’s indwelling that we might be able to say, '“ It is no longer I that live but Christ who liveth in me.” As the Father put Himself into the liv ing Word, so the Son has put Himself into His words. “ The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” As we meditate on the words of Jesus, and all other Scripture which the Holy Spirit has caused to be written for our instruction, we feed upon Him, and He comes and makes His abode within us. (John 14:23). “ Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with Him.” » V. 14. Deity clothed itself with real humanity. His Divine glory became a matter of sensible perception, some thing that could be SEEN, and the glory that the Lord Jesus manifested in His person and in His earthly life was of such a character that it became COMMENTS evident to those who looked upon FROM THE Him with open eyes that He was COMMENTARIES “ the Only Begotten from the Thomas L. Colwell Father,” and “ full of grace and truth.” The incarnation of Deity in the person of Jesus Christ is the most fundamental and characteristic truth of Christianity. (1 John 4:1-3.) This is one of the many points at which “ Christian Science” shows itself utterly un-Christian: It denies the reality of the incarnation.— Torrey. V. 16. The word “ fulness” in v. 16 is a very expressive one; it sets forth the full measure of the Divine nature and power and grace, which were incarnate in Jesus Christ as the Incarnate Word. This is the only place in all his writ-' ings where the Apostle John used the word, but it is found five times in the epistles of Paul (Col. 1:19; 2:9; Eph. 1: 23; 3 :19 ;4 :13 ).— Torrey. V. 16. Luther called this verse “ parva Biblia” (little Bible. ) On his death-bed he said, “ It is my favorite cordial.” The verse is said to be “ the best thing ever put in human speech.’’^Arnold. A Methodist collier in Yorkshire opened his first sermon with this striking comment: “When God loves, He loves a world; when God gives, He gives His Son.’’^Arnold. Verse 16 has probably been used to the salvation of more persons than any other verse in the Bible. It contains the Gospel in a nutshell: (1) The need of salvation— “ shall not perish” ;* (2) The origin of salva tion— God’s love; (3) The ground of salvation— the death of Christ: “ God GAVE His only begotten Son” ; (4) The condition of salvation— “ believeth on Him” ; (5) The re cipients of salvation— “ Whosoever believeth” ; ( 6 ) Thè results of salvation— (a) Shall “ not perish” ; (b) Shall “ have eternal life” . The word translated “ only begotten” , in all places where used, denotes “ the only one of its kind” , and clearly teaches that Jesus was the Son of God in a sense that no other is the Son of God (cf. Mark 12:6, R. V.; John 5: 22, 23; 14:9).—Torrey. To believe in (or “ on” ) Christ is to accept Him as our Savior; to believe and obey His teachings. It implies a thorough repentance and a renounc ing of the old life, as well as obedience and faith.— Arnold. V. 18. The words translated “ the only begotten son” (v. 18), according to almost all the ancient MSS. should read, “ GOD ONLY BEGOTTEN.” This reading is preferred by all the standard authorities on Textual Criticism, except Tischendorf. If this be the true reading, it sets forth our Lord Jesus’ Deity not only as He was before His incarnation, but, furthermore, that He was “ GOD only begotten” during the days of His flesh.—Torrey. V. 18.. If we reject God’s purpose of love, then He who came to save only brings the great condemnation (cf. Heb. 10:28, 29).— Torrey. Manifestly these words again are per fectly fitted and designed to shake the Jewish views of Nicodemus. Pharisaic Judaism had perverted the principle, “ the believer is not judged, the unbeliever is judged,” into
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