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the import of our Lord’s words at the time; but the words remained in their mind, and when this mysterious utter ance of their Lord was fulfilled in His resurrection from the dead, they then saw the meaning of them, “and they believed the scripture.” The phrase, “the scripture” occurs ten times in John’s Gospel (7:38, 42; 10:35; 13:18; 17:12; 19:24,28, 36, 37; 20:9). In every case except in 17:12 and 20:9 he refers to a definite passage of Old Testament Scripture given* in the con text, and in these two passages refers to definite fulfilment of some definite scripture, not specifically cited, so the inevitable implication is that in this passage John had some definite scrip ture in mind. The passage of Scrip ture that he had in mind was probably Psalm 16:10 (cf. Acts 2:27, 21, 36; Acts 13:34, 35). He may also have had in mind Isaiah 53:10; Hosea 6:2; (cf. Luke 24:25, 26). When they came to understand the meaning of our Lord’s words, i. e., after His resurrec tion, they believed not only the Scrip tures, but they believed the word which Jesus had said, not only the specific word that He spake at this time about His resurrection, but His whole word of which this was one of the most remarkable and apparently incredible parts and the fulfilment of which was an endorsement of every thing that He said; so our Lord’s say ings from that time on had with them an equal authority with the Old Tes tament Scripture which they accepted as the absolutely inerrant word of God (cf. John 14:1). The gram matical construction of “believe” in verse 22 is different from that in verse 11. There is no preposition in verse 22. The thought is that they put their trust in the Scriptures and also the word of Christ as absolutely true. We find the same construction in John 4:40. The attitude that the disciples took toward the Scriptures and the
word of Christ after His resurrection, is the attitude that we should take to day. We should trust them as abso lutely true. Our Lord often uttered sayings which were not intelligible at the time to those who heard them, for He was speaking not merely for the moment, but for all time to come. In doing this He displayed His Divine fore knowledge of the future needs of those to whom He was speaking, and said these things to them not to meet their immediate need, but the need which should come later. Many of the promises of God’s Word appear like riddles to us at one stage in our experience, but afterwards they are solved by our experience and become luminous and full of most precious meaning. It is well for us to keep in mind even those passages in the Bible that we cannot understand at present, for the day will come when they will be full of meaning. The es tablished fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a wonderful con firmation of His Divine foreknowl edge as seen in the remarkable pre diction which He made to the Jews at this time. “ Praying always with all prayer and supplication, in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and sup plication for all saints; and for me; that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery, of the gospel.” (Eph. 6:18 19). “ He that winneth souls is wise.” “ They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.” “ He that converteth a sinner from his way, shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins. ’ ’
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