THE KING’S BUSINESS
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ual, comes from Christ. Do all men, even the heathen, have some light? (cf. Romans 1; 2:14, 15): Christ is the Life and Light of the nations. This fact is an argument for the Church to spread the light of the gospel in missionary fields. (b) Variously received by mankind, 1:5-14. The word “apprehended” means comprehended, overcome, or laid hold of as a prize so as to make one’s own (cf. 12 :35; 1 Corinthians 9:24; Mark 9:18; 1 •Thessalonians 5 :4). The light did not extinguish the darkness, nor the darkness the light, so that both exist together now. Men love darkness rather than light. Unbelief is moral rather than intellectual. All men have enough light if they will fol low it. Who are meant by “His own ?” The Jews, primarily, but practically all those who need Him. Christ is received by a'believing portion of mankind (1:12, 13). A principle appre hended now becomes a person received. What truth is there in the universal father hood of God?—That all men are, by crea tion, sons of God, but there is a Unique sonship through faith in Christ. There is a difference between Christ’s Sonship and ours: we become sons of God by faith; Christ was always the Son of God. The Word sojourned with the sons of men (1:14). The invisible and intangible Word became the visible and tangible Son of Man dwelling or tabernacling among men just as God tabernacled among His people in the wilderness. The incarnation was God taking upon Himself human form. Christ was not the best man that God coqld make; He was God incarnate. This was a becoming thing to Deity. The incarnation was an act becoming to Jesus Christ (Heb. 2:17), to God. (Heb. 2:10), and to man (Heb. 2:14). It was not beneath God to thus step down and take upon Him our nature (Philippians 2:5-8). It was as congruous to God as it was suitable to and necessary for man. To the Father, to be able, through the death of Christ, “to lead many Sons unto glory,” was worth the price paid. In pro viding for the human race for evermore,
through the incarnation, a merciful and a faithful priest who could help the suffer ing and sinning sons of men, seemed to the Father, as well as to the Son, a fitting and congruous thing to do. It was becoming, too, that God should become man, if thereby the power of death, which Satan held in his control, should be wrested from him (Hebrews 2:14). So that in all things —pertaining to God, to Christ, to man, yea, even to Satan, it was a fitting thing, "a thing not by any means beneath God, to under take, in this way, the redemption of His people. All the attributes and perfections of the divine nature harmonized in the incarna tion—His wisdom and His mercy, His jus tice and His holiness* His power and His truth—in the act of God becoming man there was no conflict, of one attribute with another, nor did one triumph over another. There was “no prodigality which infinite wisdom cpuld reprove; no facility which infinite holiness could challenge; there was a common rejoicing of all God’s attri butes in their common and harmonious exercise. In His^piercy He was righteous, in His justice. He was merciful, in His wisdom He was. strong, in His power He was patient.” 4 . The relation of the Word to the Old Testament'' dispensation, 1 : 15 - 18 . It was natural for the Jew to think of this relationship. The types and ceremon ies of the Old Testament as indicating the nature of the Old Testament religion, namely, longing and expectation, Christ satisfies and fulfills. Our attention here is drawn to the contrast between the law and the gospel. A . SELF-MANIFESTATION OF JESUS TO THE WORLD, 1:19-12:50. Contrasted effects. Unbelief triumphant. Christ rejected. I. P rivate manifestation—-Chiefly to individuals, 1 :19 -2 :11. i. To John the Baptist (The witness of God), 1 : 19 - 40 . There is a noticeable difference between the testimony of John the Baptist as
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