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Library of The Theological Seminary 
 
 PRINCETON ° NEW JERSEY 
 
 6 <a) 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 The Author 
 
 
 
The Gospel of J 
 
 A complete analytical exposition 
 
 of the Gospel of John 
 
 
 
 Byawe 
 A:no CLEMENS GAEBELEIN 
 Editor of “Our Hope” 
 
 PUBLICATION OFFice “Our Hopr” 
 
 456 FourtTH AVENUE 
 
 New York, N. Y. 
 And All Booksellers 
 
Copyright 1925 
 

 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2022 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/gospelofjohn00gaeb 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 Chapter sR Ara iSite SNOB eal weet RENO A ES 11 
 Chapter Da Pc auetala Do! averel stele area ee kee ovate ste L Cran 46 
 Gap ter ML EL were ee we MeR en He eMC eM Ne 55 
 Chapter UA as SA ea Mi early pet i Ame lA) 82 
 Chapter NST bara ae MU a ORIGIN HW rear tet 98 
 Chapter MLE Gao Svinte neote Monten reoR' agarnta cringe 116 
 ROTA DLC IN VAL LS ess pias ciaenee tes ad cae ada a orate p tema 139 
 SHAD ECHR V LU eaten on i cre is ula sy ieee ees ape ins 154 
 sel SE oath ci Bh Gh pein pa MU ager uate cere AUT an UG NA i ay 168 
 Chapter Dy RA 7 NEA AT i Ca rk Gat aA 178 
 UNE ep eve Spek De G) Nec ABI etal aida) aia Hay een ta IG et VAG 193 
 DETR ND erenis cor Une stALien trem Ml Menai oui MTV arar vat 218 
 READ TOT TN LULA WORN ey We LEA Ray tea setand War uty! Aan a 244 
 MOTT ADL ETRE UNL Vc ee ence ry mit ole VausiaN ann ue DON: IAL ah 263 
 SA DECT WIP BON cise Uk hen stat we ahaha ute Har A ARR E 292 
 CP VOL CE Ne VD giitstiys foes Sen mates aRilletaMnMiRat, comune ie 302 
 ROTEATS CCK AVL Lise Gyan siie bia\ i Sen BURN HLM WRU AINE iL 311 
 REE OCOTIONV LER fe alah Ch aia ci desir aida Cra MG ain 336 
 PTE CFR SG BY i Ay SEM RESTA Rs URIS a oll ROR RO 353 
 RG rater atacuen yt coe atu ager si cre Kiel SOavaiarene tain Cian, raretig RAL 379 
 
 CAEP oso 1D, OG Bet Teh ant. be OUP, AAR ee Na 402 
 

 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The fourth Gospel has been ascribed from earliest times 
 to the beloved disciple, the Apostle John. He was one of 
 the sons of Zebedee. His mother Salome was especially 
 devoted to the Lord. (See Luke vii:3; xxiii:55, and Mark 
 xvi:l). He knew Him from the beginning of His ministry 
 and had followed Him with much love and faithfulness, 
 and seems to have been the most beloved of our Lord. He 
 never mentions his name in the Gospel, but nevertheless 
 speaks of himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved (Chapter 
 xiii:23; xix:26; xx:2; xxi:7, 20, 24). With James and Peter 
 he was singled out to witness the transfiguration and to go 
 with the Lord to the garden of Gethsemane. The three also 
 were present when the Lord raised the daughter of Jairus 
 from the dead (Mark v:37). John was likewise an eye- 
 witness of the sufferings of Christ (xix:26, 35). 
 
 The Johannine Authorship. 
 
 The Johannine authorship of the fourth Gospel is proven 
 by the testimony of the Church-fathers. Theophilus of 
 Antioch, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus, 
 Origen, Dionysius of Alexandria, Eusebius, and above all, 
 Irenaeus, speak of this Gospel as the work of the Apostle 
 John. Other ancient authorities might be added. Of great 
 value is the testimony of the two most pronounced enemie 
 of Christianity, Porphyry and Julian. Both speak of the 
 Gospel of John, and neither one doubted that the Apostle 
 John wrote this document. Had there been any evidence 
 against the Johannine authorship we may rest assured that 
 these two prominent adversaries would have made good use 
 of it to reject the authenticity of the Gospel, which empha- 
 sizes so fully the absolute Deity of Christ. 
 
 The most interesting and conclusive evidence for the 
 Johannine authorship is furnished by Irenaeus and Polycarp. 
 Polycarp had known the Apostle John personally, and 
 Irenaeus knew Polycarp. Ina letter to his friend Florinus, 
 Irenaeus wrote as follows: 
 
 “I can describe the very place in which the blessed Poly- 
 carp used to sit when he discoursed, and his goings out and 
 
6 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 his comings in, and his manner of life, and his personal 
 appearance, and the discourses which he held before the 
 people, and how he would describe his intercourse with 
 John and with the rest who had seen the Lord, and about 
 His miracles, and about His teaching, as having received 
 them from eye-witnesses of the life of the Word, would 
 relate altogether in accordance with the Scriptures.” 
 
 Now Irenaeus who had known Polycarp the friend and 
 companion of the Apostle John, speaks of the Gospel of John 
 as the work of the Apostle John; he treats the entire fourth 
 Gospel as a well-known and long used book in the Church. He 
 does not mention what authority he had for doing this. 
 There was no need for it in his day, for everybody knew that 
 this Gospel had been written by John. ‘‘When Irenaeus who 
 had conversed with Polycarp, the friend of the ApostleJohn, 
 quotes this Gospel as the work of the Apostle, we may 
 fairly presume that he had assured himself of this by the 
 testimony of one so well capable of informing him.’’* ‘This 
 strongest evidence for the Johannine authorship has been 
 ably stated by R. W. Dale of Birmingham in the following | 
 words:—“Irenaeus had heard Polycarp describe his inter- 
 course with John and the rest who had seen the Lord; this 
 must have been long after John’s death, perhaps as late as 
 A. D. 145, or even A. D. 150, for Irenaeus lived into the 
 third century. Was the Fourth Gospel published before 
 that time? Then Polycarp must have spoken of it; if John 
 had not written it, Polycarp would have denied that it was 
 genuine; and Irenaeus, who reverenced Polycarp, would 
 never have received it. But if it was not published before 
 that time, if it was unknown to John’s friend and disciple 
 forty or fifty years after John’s death, then, again, it is 
 incredible that Irenaeus should have received it.” 
 
 Polycarp’s martyrdom was in the year A. D. 155 or 
 A. D. 156. He had known John; and for more than fifty 
 years after the death of John he was one of the trustees and 
 guardians of John’s memory. During a great part of that 
 time he was the most conspicuous personage among the 
 Churches of Asia Minor. Nor did he stand alone. He 
 lived to such an advanced age, that he probably survived 
 
 *Dean Alford, Greek N. T. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 7 
 
 all the men who had listened with him to John’s teaching; 
 but for thirty or forty years after John’s death there must 
 have been a large number of other persons who would have 
 associated themselves with him in rejecting a Gospel which 
 falsely claimed John’s authority. While these persons lived, 
 such a Gospel would have had no chance of reception; 
 and for thirty years after their death, their personal friends, 
 who had heard them speak of their intercourse with John, 
 would have raised a great controversy if they had been asked 
 to receive as John’s a Gospel of which the men who had 
 listened to John himself had never heard, and which con- 
 tained a different account of our Lord from that which 
 John had given. But within thirty years after the martyr- 
 dom of Polycarp our fourth Gospel was universally regarded 
 by the Church as having a place among the Christian Scrip- 
 tures, and as the work of the Apostle John. ‘The conclusion 
 seems irresistible; John must have written it. 
 
 The Defeat of the Critics. 
 
 The Johannine authorship of this Gospel was first doubted 
 by an English clergyman by name of Evanson, who wrote 
 on it in 1792. In 1820 Prof. Bretschneider followed in the 
 history of the attack upon the authorship of this Gospel. 
 Then came the Tubingen school, Strauss and Baur. Baur, 
 the head of the Tubingen school gave the year 170 as the 
 date when the Gospel of John was written; others put the date 
 at 140; Keim, another critic, at 130; Renan between 117 and 
 138 A. D. But some of these rationalists were forced to 
 modify their views. The Tubingen school was completely 
 defeated and is now the dead thing of the past. We could 
 fill many pages with the views and opinions of these critics 
 and the answers which able scholars who maintain the 
 orthodox view, have given to them. This, we are sure, is not 
 needed for true believers. The ripest and the best scholar- 
 ship declares now that the fourth Gospel was written by 
 John. Well said Neander, ‘“This Gospel, if it be not the 
 work of the Apostle John, is an insoluble enigma.” 
 
 While the correct year in which the Gospel of John was 
 written cannot be given, it seems quite evident that it was 
 about the year 90 A. D. 
 
8 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 The Purpose of the Gospel of John. 
 
 Modern critics of this Gospel have opposed the genuineness 
 of it on the ground of the radical diversity between the views 
 of the Person of Christ and His teachings as presented in 
 the Gospel of John and the Synoptics. Such a diversity 
 certainly exists, but it is far from being an evidence against 
 the genuineness of this Gospel. It is an argument for it. 
 
 The synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, were 
 already in existence for several decades and their contents 
 known throughout the Church. If an uninspired writer, 
 some other one than John the Apostle, has undertaken to 
 write another Gospel, such a writer would, in some way 
 at least, have followed the story which the synoptics so 
 closely follow. But the Gospel of John is, as already stated, © 
 radically different from the three preceding Gospels, and yet 
 no critic can deny that the Gospel of John reveals the same 
 wonderful Person who is the theme of the other Gospel 
 records. Matthew wrote the Jewish Gospel, describing our 
 Lord as the King; Mark makes Him known as the true 
 Servant, and Luke pictures the Lord as the perfect Man. 
 Thus the Synoptics emphasize His true humanity and show 
 Him forth as the minister of the circumcision. The first 
 two Gospels at least belong as much to the Old Testament _ 
 as they belong to the New. ‘True Christianity is not fully 
 revealed in these Gospels. They move on Jewish ground. 
 And what had taken place when finally the Holy Spirit 
 moved the Apostle John to write his Gospel? The nation 
 had completely rejected their Lord and King. The doom 
 predicted by the Lord Jesus had fallen upon Jerusalem. 
 The Roman army had burned the city and the temple. 
 The Gentiles had come into the vineyard and the nation’s 
 dispersion among all the nations had begun. ‘These facts 
 are fully recognized by the Spirit of God in John’s Gospel. 
 This we find on the very threshold of this Gospel. “He 
 came unto His own, and His own received Him not” 
 (John i:11). That Judaism was now a thing of the past is 
 learned from the peculiar way in which the Passover-feast 
 is mentioned. ‘‘And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was 
 nigh” (vi:4; also ii:13; xi:55). The Sabbath and the Feast 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 9 
 
 of Tabernacles are spoken of in the same way (v:1; vii:2). 
 Such statements that the divinely given feasts were but 
 “feasts of the Jews”, are not found in the Synoptics. In 
 John’s Gospel these statements show that we are outside of 
 Judaism. Hebrew names and titles are translated also and 
 the Gentile meaning is given. Messiah, which is interpreted 
 Christ, (1:41). Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, 
 Master (1:38). The place of a skull, which is called in 
 Hebrew, Golgotha (xix:17), etc. ‘This is another evidence 
 that Judaism is no longer in view. 
 
 But something else had happened since the three first 
 Gospels had been written. The enemy had come in per- 
 verting the truth. Wicked apostates and anti-Christian 
 teachers asserted themselves. They denied the Person of 
 the Lord, His essential Deity, the virgin birth, His finished 
 work, His physical resurrection, in one word, ‘“‘the doc- 
 trine of Christ.”” A flood of error swept over the Church.* 
 
 “Gnosticism”? was corrupting the professing church every- 
 where. This system spoke of the Lord Jesus as occupying 
 the highest rank in the order of spirits; they also denied the 
 redemption by His blood and the gift of God to believing 
 sinners, that is, eternal life. God in His infinite wisdom | 
 held back the pen of the Apostle John till these denials had 
 matured, and then he wrote under divine guidance the final 
 Gospel in which the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the 
 Only-Begotten, the Second Person of the Godhead, is made 
 known in the fulness of His Glory. Linked with this mar- 
 velous picture of Him, Who is the true God and the Eternal 
 Life, is the other great truth made known in the fourth 
 Gospel. Man is dead, destitute of life; he must be born 
 again and receive life. And this eternal life is given by the 
 Son of God to all who believe on Him. It is communicated 
 as a present and abiding possession, dependent on Him, 
 Who is the source and the Life as well. At the same time 
 
 
 
 *The Epistle of John, besides the early Christian literature, bear 
 witness to this fact. See 1 John ii:18 23; iv:1-6. Men were scattering 
 the anti-Christian doctrines everywhere, so that the Spirit of God 
 demanded the severest separation from such. ‘“‘If there come any unto 
 you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not in your house, neither 
 bid him God speed. For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker 
 of his evil deeds”? (2 John:10-11). An exhortation which is in force 
 for all times. 
 
10 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 the Third Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, is revealed 
 in this Gospel as He is not revealed in the Synoptics. The 
 Gospel which reveals the Eternal Life is necessarily the 
 Gospel in which the Holy Spirit as the Communicator, 
 Sustainer and Perfecter is fully made known. The Gospel 
 of John is therefore the New Testament Gospel, the good 
 news that Grace and Truth have come by Jesus Christ. It 
 makes known what is more fully revealed in the doctrinal 
 Epistles. 
 
 ~~ The last chapter in which we hear the Lord Jesus Christ 
 speak, before His passion, is the seventeenth chapter. He 
 speaks to the Father in the great prayer rightly called “‘the 
 high priestly prayer.” In it He touches upon all the great 
 truths concerning Himself and His own made known in this 
 Gospel, and we shall also find that all the great redemption 
 truths given in their fulness by the Holy Spirit in the Epistles, 
 are clearly revealed in this prayer. 
 
 John’s Own Testimony. 
 
 At the close of the twentieth chapter of this Gospel we find 
 John’s own testimony concerning the purpose of this Gospel. 
 ‘“‘And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His 
 disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are 
 written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the 
 Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through 
 (in) His Name.” Thus the twofold purpose of the fourth 
 Gospel is given by the Apostle—Christ the Son of God and 
 the Life He gives to all who believe. 
 
 The characteristic features of this Gospel are too numerous 
 to mention in this introductory word. We shall point them 
 out in the exposition. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Uy 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Verses 1-18. The opening verses (1-4) manifest the 
 character of the fourth Gospel. The Synoptics (Matthew, 
 Mark and Luke) begin with historical statements concern- 
 ing the wonderful Person who walked among men. The 
 Gospel of John opens with a doctrinal revelation of that 
 same Person. The beloved disciple is the chosen instrument 
 of the Holy Spirit to reveal the full glory of the Son of God, 
 the Only-begotten of the Father, tabernacling among men 
 and manifesting Him. We find nothing said in this Gospel 
 of Him as the son of David and the son of Abraham. The 
 character of the Gospel of John is therefore more doctrinal 
 than historical. It reveals Him who is the true God and the 
 eternal life. He came forth from the Father, with whom He 
 is one; He came into the world to reveal the Father and He 
 has returned to the Father (chapter xvi:28). And He who 
 is the life and light of men communicates eternal life to 
 men, so that born again as children of God they are no longer 
 in darkness, but know the light and walk in the light. 
 
 The first eighteen verses contain the great truths of His 
 Person, His Godhead, that He is the Life and the Light of 
 men, that He came into the world which was made by Him 
 and that the world knew Him not, and then the great results 
 of His coming, for those who receive Him, are mentioned. 
 These opening verses contain the entire Gospel of John in 
 embryo. 
 
 “In the beginning was the Word.” ‘The definite article 
 before “‘beginning” is not found in the Greek, so that the 
 literal translation is, “‘In beginning was the Word.” ‘This 
 first statement takes us beyond the first verse of the Bible. 
 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” 
 This is the beginning of creation, but here is another begin- 
 ning, a timeless beginning, that beginning without a begin- 
 ning, which our finite mind cannot fathom nor understand. 
 All things had their beginning, but God has no beginning; 
 He has always been. He who is the Word was in the begin- 
 ning; He whois before all creation, before all things, and above 
 all creation, has no beginning. ‘The little word “was” means 
 
12 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 “existing.” We hear Him say later in this Gospel, “Before 
 Abraham was, I am’; He is the self-existing One. Here 
 then we have the sublime revelation that our Lord Jesus 
 Christ is an eternal Being. 
 
 But why is He called by John the Word? No other writer 
 of the New Testament uses the word Logos. Much of 
 interest is connected with this fact. Philo of Alexandria, 
 a mystical Jewish philosopher, used the same term, and 
 numerous critics have charged the writer of this Gospel 
 with having borrowed this expression from Philo. But one 
 of the greatest authorities On these ancient sources, Professor 
 Harnack, has completely abandoned this theory and states 
 that “the Word, as used by the Apostle John, has little 
 more in common with the Logos of Philo than the name.” 
 Still another reliable scholar declares that ‘‘nothing could 
 be more unlike than Philo and John.” ‘The fact is that 
 Philo with his mystical speculations spoke of the Logos 
 as an undefinable something, as an intermediate agency 
 between God and man, but he never spoke of the Logos 
 as a person. 
 
 Others have traced the use of the word Logos to the 
 Aramaic paraphrases of the Hebrew Scriptures in the so- 
 called ‘Targumim. ‘These paraphrases employ the word 
 “Memra” (the Aramaic equivalent for the Greek Logos) 
 whenever God is spoken of as revealing Himself to man. 
 All His relations to the world are in these paraphrases ascribed 
 to the Memra, the Word. It is so used in hundreds of 
 passages. But John could not have copied from these 
 exegetical works because they were written several centuries 
 after he wrote his Gospel. 
 
 But we do not need to speculate on the use of the expression. 
 The Holy Spirit had before spoken of the second person of 
 the Godhead as the Word. “By the Word of the Lord were 
 the heavens made” (Psalm xxxiii:6); “He sent His Word 
 and healed them” (Psalm cvii:20); both passages may be 
 interpreted as meaning the Son of God. And the Son of 
 God is called the Word, because He is the express image of 
 God, just as the invisible thought is made visible by the 
 spoken word. He is the revealer and interpreter of the mind 
 and the will of God. Martin Luther explains it in a very 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 13 
 
 simple way: “Just as a man has a word in his heart, so also 
 God in His eternal majesty and Deity has a Thought, a 
 Word in His own heart, with Himself. This Word, which 
 God the Father has is so entirely one with Him, that there 
 is nothing in God which does not also belong to the Word; 
 so that when we see the Word we see God.” 
 
 The first sentence then, “In the beginning was the Word” 
 reveals the fact that the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 is eternal. He is with God before all things. The second 
 statement shows that He is a Person, distinct from God the 
 Father, and yet one with Him. “And the Word was with 
 God.” Where God was from all eternity there also was the 
 Word, the Son of God, sharing His Glory and all His at- 
 tributes; their Godhead is one. And the Word was the 
 object of God’s eternal Love, for He became not Love 
 yesterday, but “‘God is Love.” He has always been Love. 
 Of this eternal love-relation the Lord Jesus Christ bears 
 witness in His great prayer recorded in this Gospel, ‘‘For 
 Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” 
 (Chapter xvii:24). 
 
 And then the crowning revelation, “And the Word was 
 God.” He therefore is very God and not a creature, an 
 angel, or any other being inferior to God. In nature, essence 
 and substance He is God. Human language could not make 
 it plainer than it is made in this statement, that the Lord 
 Jesus Christ is very God. This first verse of the Gospel of 
 John is one of the profoundest revelations of the Bible, yet 
 so blessedly simple that a child can know its great truth. 
 We must likewise remember that throughout this Gospel 
 we have the self-witness of our Lord to the three great facts 
 concerning Himself as stated in this revelation. The Lord 
 testifies of His own eternal existence, “I and the Father 
 are one,” ‘‘He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,” “‘I 
 am in the Father and the Father in me” (Chapter x:30, 
 xiv:9-11). How marvelous 1s that fifth chapter in which 
 the Lord Jesus Christ confirms by His own words the 
 Spirit’s testimony of this first verse! Well has it been said, 
 “To maintain in the face of such a text, as some so-called 
 Christians do, that our Lord was only a man, is a mournful 
 proof of the perversity of the human heart.” And Uni- 
 
14 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 tarianism and its kin, Christian Science, falsely so-called, 
 Russellism (alias International Bible Student Association), 
 and Modernism, furnish “the mournful proof of the per- 
 versity of the human heart.” How anyone in view of such 
 plain statements can maintain that our Lord is only a creature 
 and not very God, is hard to believe. But it is written that 
 the god of this age blinds the eyes of them that believe not. 
 Well has a saint of God said on this verse, “It is rashness 
 to search too far into it. It is godliness to believe it. It is 
 Life eternal to know it. And we can never have a full 
 comprehension of it till we come to enjoy it.” 
 
 “The same was in the beginning with God” (verse 2). 
 This is a repetition of the great truth stated in the previous 
 verse, the Holy Spirit anticipating the time when men 
 would teach that the Lord Jesus Christ was not from all 
 eternity a person in the Godhead distinct from God the 
 Father, and yet with Him in an eternal and ineffable union. 
 The very repetition of it shows its great importance. “Repeti- 
 tions in Scripture have divers uses. In prayer they argue 
 affection. In prophecy they note celerity and certainty. 
 In threatenings they note unavoidableness and .suddenness. 
 In precept they mean the necessity of performing them. 
 In the truths, like that before us, they serve to show the 
 need of believing and knowing them.” 
 
 The next verse takes us into the realm of Creation, the 
 beginning of which the first verse of the Bible speaks. “‘AIl 
 things were made by Him; and without Him was not any- 
 thing made that was made” (verse 3). When the Holy 
 Spirit wrote through the Apostle Paul the message to the 
 Colossians, who were being influenced by false views on the 
 Person and Glory of Christ, He gave the same revelation. 
 “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and 
 that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be 
 thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things 
 were created by Him and for Him” (Col. 1:16). He is the 
 Creator of all things. But that does not mean the creation of 
 evil; God is not the author of moral evil. The evolution 
 theory practically makes Him that. The question, “If noth- 
 ing was made without Christ, from whence came sin?” has 
 often been raised by theologians. Sin came in after all things 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 15 
 
 had been created. ‘‘By one man sin entered into the world” 
 (Satan’s fall was before that). ‘““IThat sin could not have 
 entered without divine permission, and that its entrance has 
 been overruled to the display of Divine Love and Grace in 
 Redemption, are undeniable truths. But we have no right 
 to say that ‘sin?’ was among the ‘all things’ which were 
 made by Christ.” 
 
 And this creation, so wonderful in its vastness, and in the 
 minutest details, this great Book of Nature, speaks of Him 
 and makes known His Glory. Alas! how little we know of 
 that revelation of Himself in creation! 
 
 “In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. And 
 the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended 
 it not.” After we have learned of His Godhead and His 
 Creatorship we hear of what was in Him. “In Him was 
 life.’ While it is true that He is the source of all life, mere 
 physical life is not meant, for the second part of this verse 
 declares that this life was the light of men. It must there- 
 fore be more than physical life; it is spiritual life. And this 
 spiritual life which is in Him is eternal life. He alone is the 
 source of eternal life. It is true of Him, ‘‘With Thee is the 
 fountain of life; in Thy light we shall see light’? (Psalm 
 xxvi:9). John speaks of this in His Epistle, “‘God hath 
 given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 
 vii). And that life was the light of men; it was active from 
 the beginning, and then that life which was with the Father 
 was manifested unto us, the Word became flesh. 
 
 “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness 
 comprehendeth it not.” Solemn truth this is! The light 
 has been constantly shining in the darkness which sin has 
 brought into the world, and the darkness isso dense and 
 horrible that the light as such cannot banish. The spiritual 
 darkness comprehended (or apprehended) it not. The 
 commentator Bengel remarks on these five first verses of 
 this Gospel, “In the first and second verses of this chapter 
 mention is made of a state before the creation of the world; 
 in the third verse the world’s creation; in the fourth the 
 time of man’s uprightness; in the fifth the time of man’s 
 tals 
 
 But how feeble are human words of comment on these 
 
16 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 wonderful statements on the threshold of this Gospel! 
 They are inexhaustible. Only the light of eternity will 
 reveal the fullest meaning of them. 
 
 Verses 6-10. He who was sent of God to witness to the 
 Light is now introduced in this Gospel. We notice the strik- 
 ing contrast between Him, the Son of God, and John. Our 
 Saviour is the Creator, John the creature; He is the Life 
 and the Light, John a witness, “‘a man sent of God.” His 
 person and work as the forerunner is clearly predicetd in the 
 Old Testament (Isaiah xl:3, etc.; Mal. iii:1). Of him our 
 Lord testified that among them that are born of women no 
 greater one hath risen than John the Baptist, and yet the 
 least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he (Matthew 
 xi:10-12). He was born in as miraculous a way as Isaac, 
 and was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. 
 His great call was to witness to the Light. But he was not 
 that Light. In chapter v:35 our Lord speaks of John as 
 ‘a burning and shining light.” How exact the words of 
 God are may be learned by the two words used for Light, 
 in connection with our Lord as “the Light’? and John the 
 Baptist as a burning and shining light. The Greek word 
 used in describing John as a light means “candle,” trans- 
 lated thus in Matthew v:15 and Rev. xviii:23. The word 
 used to describe our Lord as the Light is the word “Phos” 
 —““the Light.” He is the fountain and source of all light. 
 And as it has been said, ‘‘What an assurance of a worldfa 
 away from God, that the light must have one to proclaim 
 it, the Creator must have one to introduce Him into His 
 own world. And then it was necessary to say, ‘He was not 
 that light,’ lest men should mistake the witness to Christ 
 for the Christ he witnessed to.” 
 
 And here we may notice the difference between what is 
 said of John the Baptist and his ministry in the Synoptics, 
 especially in the Gospel of Matthew, and what we read of 
 him here. In Matthew he is heralding the King and pro- 
 claims that the promised Kingdom, promised by the Proph- 
 ets of God, had drawn nigh. In bearing that witness he 
 also witnessed concerning the Light. But why, istthere 
 nothing said of this peculiar ministry in John’s Gospel? 
 Why do we not read again of that Kingdom being nigh? 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 17 
 
 Why is all this omitted in the fourth Gospel? The reason 
 is very simple. Jerusalem and the Temple had been de- 
 stroyed some twenty years before the beloved disciple was 
 instructed by the Holy Spirit to write. ‘The nation had been 
 overtaken by that which the lips of the Son of God had so 
 vividly pictured. They had fallen by the edge of the sword 
 and were now being scattered among all the nations. When 
 John wrote his Gospel, the new dispensation, this present 
 dispensation of Grace, had fully set in. Judaism is no longer 
 recognized by God and this Gospel repeatedly bears witness 
 to this fact, as we hope to show. It is different with the 
 synoptic Gospels; these move upon Jewish ground. Judaism 
 being set aside, the fact of Israel having rejected the king- 
 dom makes it unnecessary to introduce John the Baptist 
 as the herald of the King in this Gospel. . The truth is, 
 if the forerunner’s witness to Israel were brought into this 
 Gospel, it would be all out of keeping with the scope of it. 
 
 His witness was given concerning Christ as the Light, 
 that all might believe through him. This does not mean, as 
 some expositors have it, through Christ, but through the 
 witness of John the Baptist. We must also notice that in 
 verse seven the word “‘men”’ is in italics. It does not mean 
 that all mankind should believe through hearing the witness 
 John bore, but those Jews who were waiting for the conso- 
 lation of Israel, who believingly expected the coming of 
 Christ as their Redeemer. In this chapter we find later a 
 blessed illustration of the results of the witness to Christ 
 through John. And Christ is the true Light, yea, the only 
 Light. Notice the correct rendering of verse 8. “The 
 true Light was that which, coming into the world, lighteth 
 every man.” ‘This verse has occasioned much difference of 
 opinion. It would take pages to state them all. “These 
 words take us beyond the confines of Israel. ‘The true 
 Light, lighteth not the Jews only (though it is true that 
 only to Israel promises were given), but the true Light 
 lighteth every man who is in the world, the Gentiles as well 
 as the Jews. He is dispensing Light to all who are in the 
 world.* He casts His Light on every human being in the 
 
 
 
 *The word “world” as we shall learn from the exposition is on. 
 the great characteristic words of the Gospel of John. 
 
18 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 world. There is much said about heathen darkness, but 
 from this we learn that there is heathen light as well. 
 
 But what does the Light find in the world? Nothing but 
 the darkest darkness, opposing Him as the true Light. This 
 we learn from the next statement: ‘He was in the world, 
 and the world was made by Him” (came into being through 
 Him), “and the world knew Him not.” Before He ever 
 became incarnate and appeared in the creature’s garb on 
 earth to make God known to man, He was in the world. 
 There was a revelation of Himself in Creation as well as 
 a primeval revelation; His Spirit also was at work among 
 men, for He said, ‘My Spirit shall not always strive with 
 man” (Gen. vi:3). But the world turned away from the 
 Light. We find this in the first chapter of Romans: ‘“Be- 
 cause that which may be known of God is manifest in 
 them, for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible 
 things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly 
 seen, being understood by the things which are made, even 
 His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without 
 excuse. Because that, when they knew God, they glorified 
 Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain 
 in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. 
 Professing themselves wise, they became fools.” (Rom. 1: 
 19-22.) These words are the right comment of the tenth 
 verse of the first chapter in John. 
 
 Verses 11-14. He came in the fullness of time, in God’s 
 own time, to the nation, which had been specially prepared. 
 The advantage of the Jews was that unto them were com- 
 mitted the oracles of God. (Rom. iii:2.) Theirs was the 
 adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving 
 of the law, and the service of God, and the promises. “‘Whose 
 are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ 
 came, who is over all, God blessed forever.”” (Rom. ix:4, 5.) 
 To this nation He was promised, of this nation, as the 
 seed of Abraham and the son of David He came, and when 
 He came, of whom all their prophets spake, they received 
 Him not. It is again of interest to note the two words 
 used in the original for “His own.’ He came unto His 
 own, which means, what was His own, His own things; 
 and His own, His own subjects, recerved Him not. The 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 19 
 
 land to which He came, the city and the temple, all were 
 His own; and those who should have bowed in homage at 
 His feet received Him not. It does not say “they knew 
 Him not” (in contrast with the world which knew Him 
 not); they deliberately refused to receive Him. They re- 
 jected their King. 
 
 The eleventh verse embodies all that which in detail is 
 described in the preceding Gospels. How He came to His 
 own, manifested Himself in their midst and then was re- 
 jected by the nation. This is the story of the Synoptics in 
 a nutshell. And now we are led in this Gospel into some- 
 thing new, which in the preceding Gospels is not even hinted 
 at. With the statement that His own received Him not, the 
 way is opened to bring in that which was in the eternal 
 purpose of God, though not fully revealed in the Old Testa- 
 ment Scriptures. His own rejected Him, but what about 
 those who receive Him? The answer is blessed indeed— 
 “to them gave He the right” (or authority) “‘to become the 
 children of God, to those believing on His Name.” It is 
 Grace which comes in at this point. Of course, it is all in 
 anticipation of the Cross and the great work accomplished 
 there in the death of Christ. The world knew Him not; 
 the Gentile world had turned away from Him, the Jews 
 had rejected Him; all the world is guilty before God. And 
 now Grace acts, and this Grace makes of lost sinners chil- 
 dren of God by faith in His Name. Nowhere in the Old 
 Testament is the sonship of individual believers declared. 
 Here for the first time in the Word of God we find the 
 precious good news, the Gospel of Grace, that those believing 
 on His Name, the Name of a rejected Christ, a Christ who 
 died and is risen from the dead, become the children of God. 
 
 Well may we pause here and think. Here is the eternal 
 truth of Grace. Here we are face to face with truths which 
 remain as long as a race of sinners is on earth. We have 
 learned of the human race not apprehending the light, the 
 world not knowing Him, the Jews rejecting Him, and God 
 in Grace coming in and saving those who are lost, making 
 them His children and accomplishing this in ONE way only. 
 ‘Believing on His Name.” But these great truths, these 
 heavenly truths, unchangeable as God is unchangeable, 
 
20 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 are the truths which are rejected in our day. One of the 
 most widespread false teaching today is that which claims 
 that all men are children of God, and that if man lives 
 right and acknowledges God in some kind of a religion, God 
 is his Father and all is well with him. We are reminded of 
 the eloquent preacher who, a few years ago, preached on 
 the mutilated text of Scripture, ““We are all the sons of 
 God.” He preached to his audience the old delusion of a 
 Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man and claimed 
 that all men are sons of God, and none will be lost. But 
 the second half of this verse he omitted—‘“‘We are all the 
 sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ.”’ And the latter, per- 
 sonal faith in the Son of God, the Christ who died for the 
 ungodly, is today not only ruled out, but bitterly opposed 
 and ridiculed. 
 
 We pass on to our readers a sad illustration of how men 
 gave up the faith in the Gospel, though they once taught it 
 and evidently believed. Before us is a commentary on 
 John’s Gospel, published half a century ago. The author, 
 then a young man, gives an excellent comment on the words 
 of verse 12. Let us listen to him: 
 
 ““*To become sons of God.’ Sons and therefore (1) par- 
 takers of the Divine nature, (2) entitled to walk in freedom 
 as children, not in bondage as servants, (3) heirs of God 
 and joint heirs with Christ, His only Begotten Son. But 
 the full conception of the meaning of this sonship we cannot 
 know till in the other world we see Him as He is. . 
 
 “Riven to them that believe on His Name.’ His Name 
 is Jesus—t. ¢., Saviour—given to Him because He saves His 
 people from their sins. To have faith in that name is to 
 have faith in Him as a personal Saviour from sin. Observe, 
 then, that this verse comprises the whole Gospel in a sen- 
 tence. It declares (1) the object of the Gospel, that we are 
 by nature the children of wrath and may become sons of 
 God; (2) the source to which we are to look for this pre- 
 rogative of sonship: power conferred by God; (3) the 
 means by which we are to attain it; personal faith in a per- 
 sonal Saviour from sin.” 
 
 Could any one state it better? Yet the hand which wrote 
 these words fifty years ago has written since that which 
 
Th GOSPHI OR TOHN 21 
 
 denies and destroys that faith. The above quotation is 
 from the “Commentary of the Gospel of St. John,” by 
 Dr. Lyman Abbott. And he is one of the many known as 
 no longer holding that faith, which was once and for all 
 delivered unto the Saints. 
 
 We must not pass lightly over this great Gospel text: 
 “But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right 
 to become the children of God, to those believing in His 
 Name.” The reader will note that we change the word 
 “sons” in the authorized version to “‘children.”? John never 
 uses the word “son.” In 1 John iii:1 it is mistranslated, 
 as itis here. Not “Behold what manner of Love the Father 
 hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of 
 God,” but “the children of God.” In John’s writings it 
 is always the question of life in Christ, having been born 
 again and thus brought into the family of God. Sons of 
 God believers are likewise, but the Apostle Paul is used to 
 tell us of the fullest meaning of our sonship and heirship 
 in Christ. 
 
 And we become children of God by the new birth which 
 is a communication of life and nature. ‘‘Who were born, 
 not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
 man, but of God.” To be thus begotten of God is brought 
 about by receiving the Word, believing on His Name, and 
 by the action of the Spirit of God. The above negative 
 statements answer all the modern inventions which deny 
 the new birth. Not of blood, that is by inheritance, as the 
 Jews boasted of having Abraham for their father; not of 
 the will of the flesh, by reformation, and the efforts of 
 themselves; nor of the will of man, by the acts and deeds 
 of others, as the religious man does, by looking to an ordi- 
 nance or a man-made priesthood to help him. 
 
 The fourteenth verse tells us of the incarnation, the reve- 
 lation of God to man, in Him who became man. 
 
 The eternal Word, the Word which was and is God, we 
 are now told, became flesh, He took on the human nature. 
 In the early Church a system arose under the name of 
 Docetism, which was the source of Gnosticism.* One of 
 
 *This wicked system is in some of its teachings reproduced by 
 Satanic agencies in ‘‘Christian Science” of our times. 
 
22 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 the representatives of Docetism was Cerinthus, a contempo- 
 rary of the Apostle John. The Docetists believed that our 
 Lord had only an apparent human body. We believe the 
 term “flesh”? is employed by the Apostle John to show the 
 reality of the manhood of our Lord and thus to rebuke 
 these false teachers. We might mention here that four 
 other heresies are completely answered by John i:14. (1) 
 Arianism, which holds that our Lord was not true God. 
 This heresy is alive today in Unitarianism, Russellism (In- 
 ternational Bible Students, as they call themselves now), 
 Christian Science and other cults. The fact that this verse 
 states that the Word became flesh, and the first verse of this 
 Gospel states that the Word was God, furnishes a perfect 
 denial of Arianism. (2) Appollinarianism, which taught that 
 our Lord was God and Man, but this system held that our 
 Lord only had a human body and not a human soul. The 
 word ‘‘flesh’”? contradicts this, for it means a real man with 
 body and soul. (3) Nestorianism holds that the Godhead 
 made one person, and the manhood another person. ‘This is 
 also answered by this text, ‘‘the Word became flesh,” which 
 shows union and not separation. (4) Eutychianism con- 
 founded the natures of our Lord and taught that Christ is 
 from two natures, but not of two natures. This speculative 
 theory is also silenced by this statement. And there are 
 other false teachings concerning the Person and the nature 
 of our Lord. We believe that John 1:14 answers them all. 
 
 The truth stated in this verse is not for reason to explain, 
 but for faith to believe. How the two perfect and distinct 
 natures were united in one Person, perfect God and perfect 
 Man, the finite mind of man cannot explain nor define. 
 There is an old Latin inscription, said to date back to the 
 first century, which is interesting, as it embodies the faith 
 of the beginning. It represents ““The Word” which became 
 flesh, giving this self-witness: “I am what I was—that is 
 God.”—“T was not what I am—that is man.”—“I am now 
 called both, that is both God and Man.” 
 
 The modern heresy which goes by the name “Kenosis”’ 
 and which is taught in many of the leading theological sem- 
 inaries of today, must be branded as dangerous and wicked 
 in the light of the simple statement, ‘““The Word became 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 23 
 
 flesh.” The term signifies “emptying” and is derived from 
 Phil. ii:7—“‘He emptied Himself’? (Greek: Ekenosin). This 
 theory teaches that in His incarnation our Lord voluntarily 
 limited and abridged His divine powers, and that during 
 the entire period of His humiliation the divine attributes 
 were suspended, and He thought and spake as a mere man. 
 In other words, this theory teaches that He ceased to be God 
 when He took on the body of man; “The Word became 
 flesh” tells us that He did not cease for a moment to be 
 God, for He is God manifested in the flesh. He emptied 
 Himself of the outward glory which He had with the Father 
 before the world was (John xvii:2); He could not empty 
 Himself of His Deity. God cannot cease to be God. “It 
 was the God-man that lived, suffered, died, and rose again. 
 It is written, that God has purchased the Church with His 
 own blood. It was the blood of one who was not man only, 
 but God.’’* 
 
 Furthermore, the word “flesh”? does not mean that He 
 had a body as a true man in which was sin. He did not 
 take on ‘“‘sinful flesh.”” He knew no sin, not only in the 
 sense that He did not sin, but that He had a nature which 
 could not sin. The body He took on in incarnation was 
 called into existence by a creative act of the Holy Spirit. It 
 was a holy body, a prepared body. No taint of sin or cor- 
 ruption was in that body. The eternal Word, as holy as 
 God is, for He is God, could never tabernacle in a human 
 body which in any way had something of fallen human 
 nature in it. The peccability of our Lord is another evil 
 doctrine. Many good Christians hold it without realizing 
 what an awful dishonor is done by it to our Lord, and 
 that the logical consequence is, that if our Lord could have 
 sinned and sin was in His human nature, He needed a 
 Saviour and could not have been our Saviour. And because 
 the body of our Lord, a real human body, had no sin and 
 knew no sin, death, which is in the world by sin, had no 
 claim on His body. Yet because it was a real human body, 
 it was possible for that body to die. When He went to the 
 cross, He Who knew no sin was made sin for us and then 
 He gave that body as the unspeakable, great sacrifice. Yet 
 
 *Bishop Ryle. 
 
 
 
24 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 that body of flesh given on the cross, which died there, could 
 not see corruption. Therefore that body was raised from 
 among the dead. In that body He left the world and went 
 back to the Father. Sitting at the right hand of God, inter- 
 ceding in behalf of His people as a priest and advocate, He 
 is still Man as well as God. Christ’s humanity and Deity 
 are both in heaven. And when He returns to establish His 
 Kingdom He comes in that same body. 
 
 And the Word became flesh ‘‘tabernacled among us.”’ 
 This is the better translation, which, however, does not 
 mean that the Son of God dwelt in His human body as in 
 a tabernacle, which He abandoned when He went back to 
 the Father. Well has one said, “Christ continueth now, 
 and shall forever, as true Man as when He was born of the 
 Virgin. He so took human nature as never to lay it down 
 again.” He made His abode with men, tabernacled here 
 for thirty and three years. Some blessed coming day, when 
 the eternal purposes of God are all accomplished, when the 
 new heaven and the new earth have been called into exist- 
 ence, He will forever tabernacle with redeemed men. ‘‘Be- 
 hold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell 
 with them.” (Rev. xxi:3.) 
 
 And He who tabernacled down here for thirty-three years, 
 who pitched His tent in His own land, among His own, is 
 the same who dwelt of old with Israel, who dwelt in that 
 earthly tabernacle, whose glory was seen in the midst of His 
 people and whose glory filled the temple. 
 
 ‘“‘And we beheld His glory, the glory as of an Only Be- 
 gotten with the Father, full of Grace and Truth.” ‘This is 
 the witness of John and his fellow disciples. See also John’s 
 first Epistle (1 John i:1). They beheld His Glory; they 
 were eye witnesses. We doubt not the allusion is mostly 
 to the transfiguration, of which John was a witness, and 
 where they were, according to the statement of Peter, eye- 
 witnesses of His Majesty, when He received honor and glory 
 from the Father (2 Peter i:16, 17). But they also beheld 
 the Glory of His Deity in His miracles. And He is the 
 Only Begotten with the Father. Only John by the Spirit 
 of God uses this phrase, “‘the Only Begotten’; it tells us of 
 His eternal Sonship. He was always the beloved of God; 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 25 
 
 always with God. And here again we are constrained to 
 say, we must believe and not even attempt to explain. 
 
 “The subject is one of those which we must be content to 
 believe and reverence, but must not attempt to define too 
 narrowly. We are taught distinctly in Scripture that in the 
 unity of the Godhead there are three Persons of one sub- 
 stance, power and eternity, the Father, the Son, and the 
 Holy Ghost. We are taught, with equal distinctness, that 
 ‘Sonship’ describes the everlasting relation which exists 
 between the first and second Persons in the Trinity, and that 
 Christ is the only begotten and eternal Son of God. We 
 are taught, with equal distinctness, that the Father loveth 
 the Son, and loved Him before the foundation of the world. 
 (John xvii:24). But here we must be content to pause. Our 
 feeble faculties could not comprehend more if more were 
 folditisy © 
 
 And such a One has opened to a world of sinners the 
 riches of God’s fathomless Grace and Truth. He has made 
 known Grace and Truth; all Grace and Truth are in Him, 
 by Him and through Him. See the blessed foreshadowing 
 in Exodus xxxiii:18, 19. 
 
 Verses 15-18. John the Baptist’s witness is next recorded. 
 It was given long before this Gospel was written by the 
 beloved disciple. In the Greek the verb is in the present tense, 
 not “‘bare witness,” but “beareth witness.” While the 
 witness-bearer had left the earthly scene, his testimony 
 was not dead, but still living and glorifying the Son of 
 God. And this is his witness: ‘““He that cometh after me is 
 come to be before me, for He was before me.”” John appeared 
 first and was, according to the testimony of our Lord, the 
 greatest prophet. ‘The Lord Jesus in His ministry came after 
 John, but the forerunner now declares that He who came 
 after him, has come into a greater place of honor and glory, 
 and then the Baptist bears witness of the pre-existence of 
 our Lord; John did not say “for He is before me,” but, “for 
 He was before me.” 
 
 The sixteenth verse is not the witness of John. It is a 
 word of praise, of grateful, adoring acknowledgment of those 
 who have believed on His Name and who have found in Him 
 “*Ryle on John. 
 
26 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 all their need and wants supplied. The beloved disciple, by 
 the Spirit of God, utters this praise and every individual 
 believer may join in. It is the universal praise of the Re- 
 deemed, that all their springs, their blessings are in Him, and 
 in Christ alone. The fullness here is that fullness of the God- 
 head which dwells in Him bodily, as the risen, glorified 
 Christ with whom the believer is one. And out of that 
 blessed union with Him there flows forth grace upon grace, 
 nothing but grace, without measure and without limit. All 
 that our souls need is found in Him and supplied by Him, 
 grace upon grace. It has been explained to mean “‘grace 
 in the place of grace, constant, fresh, abundant supplies of 
 new grace, to take the place of old grace, and therefore un- 
 failing, abundant grace, continually filling up and supply- 
 ing allourneed.”? And that grace which is stored up in Him 
 is inexhaustible. Chrysostom said, ‘““The sea is diminished 
 if you take a drop from it, though the diminution be imper- 
 ceptible; but how much soever a man draw from this 
 Fountain, it continues undiminished.” 
 
 The law was given through Moses; it could do nothing 
 for man, for it was weak through the flesh, man being a 
 sinner without strength (Rom. viii:3). The Son of God 
 came and Grace and Truth came to be by Him. He is the 
 Truth and manifests the Truth, and Grace is by Him also. 
 The remarks of Augustine on this verse are helpful. “The 
 law threatened, not helped; commanded, not healed; 
 showed, not took away our feebleness. But it made ready 
 for the Physician, who was to come with grace and truth.” 
 The second giving of the Law (the first tables of stone having 
 been broken) brought down the Lord; He descended in a 
 cloud and stood with him (Moses) there. And the descended 
 Lord proclaimed the name of the Lord. In the proclamation 
 of that Name, He said “Abundant in Grace and Truth.” 
 And that Lord who descended was none other but the Son 
 of God (Exod. xxxiv:4-9). 
 
 It was at that time that Moses prayed “Show me Thy 
 Glory.” And he received the answer “Thou canst not 
 see my face; for there shall no man see me, and live” 
 (Exod. xxxiii:20). No man hath seen God at any time. 
 But here is One who has always been with the Father, 
 
THE GOSPED OP, JOHN 27 
 
 the Only-begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, 
 and He hath declared Him. There can be no question 
 in the presence of this positive statement “no man hath 
 seen God at any time” that all the manifestations of God 
 in Old Testament times were not the manifestations of 
 God the Father, but of God the Son. And Christ the 
 Son of God is in the bosom of the Father (not was in the 
 bosom for He never left that place). It expresses the love- 
 place He has, the place of greatest intimacy and affection. 
 And as such He came to declare the Father, to make Him, 
 who is invisible, visible to man. 
 
 We have concluded with this verse this marvellous 
 Opening section of this Gospel. That we have in this 
 section one of the greatest revelations of God’s Holy Word 
 can never be denied. Still it is denied, and men, calling 
 themselves scholars, talk of the Johannine theology, as if 
 John’s mind put these great and inexhaustible, fathomless 
 statements together. No man could ever conceive such 
 wonderful truths as they are put together in these first 
 eighteen verses of this chapter. Let us meditate on them 
 more and praise God for His wonderful Love and Grace in 
 giving us such a Saviour and such a salvation. 
 
 The second half of this chapter introduces this wonder- 
 ful person of whom the opening verses bear witness. The 
 Evangelist now describes, in His own God-given way and 
 manner, that blessed Life in His earthly ministry; the 
 historical part begins here. 
 
 Before He appears upon the scene we have the witness 
 of John the Baptist. 
 
 Verses 19-28. The witness of John the Baptist as re- 
 corded in this Gospel is of a different nature from the re- 
 corded witness in the preceding Gospels. There it is the 
 witness to the nation, but here he bears witness to the 
 person of Him who was about to appear in their midst, 
 All that which concerns the nation, the promised kingdom. 
 is omitted in this Gospel. The fact that the Jews sent 
 priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him who he was, 
 shows the effectiveness of his preaching. It must have 
 created a great sensation; the delegation was probably sent 
 by the Sanhedrim. ‘Then he confessed and denied not. He 
 
28 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 confessed that he was not the Christ and he did not deny 
 who he was. It is a beautiful example of true humility. 
 He takes no honor whatever for himself, but Christ is 
 the Person whom he desires to honor and to exalt. 
 
 “The greatest saints of God in every age of the Church 
 have always been men of John the Baptist’s spirit. In 
 gifts, and knowledge, and general character they have 
 often differed widely. But in one respect they have al- 
 ways been alike; they have been “clothed with humility” 
 (1 Peter v:5). They have not sought their own honor. 
 They have thought little of themselves. They have been 
 ever willing to decrease if Christ might only increase, to 
 be nothing so that Christ might be all. And here has been 
 the secret of the honor God has put upon them. “He that 
 humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke xiv:11). 
 
 “If we profess to have any real Christianity, let us strive 
 to be of John the Baptist’s spirit. Let us study humility. 
 This is the grace with which all must begin, who would 
 be saved. We have no true religion about us, until we 
 cast away our high thoughts, and feel ourselves sinners. 
 This is the grace which all saints may follow after, and 
 which none have any excuse for neglecting. All God’s 
 children have not gifts, or money, or time to work, or a 
 wide sphere of usefulness; but all may be humble. This 
 is the grace, above all, which will appear most beautiful 
 in our latter end. Never shall we feel the need of humil- 
 ity so deeply, as when we lie on our deathbeds, and stand 
 before the judgment-seat of Christ. Our whole lives will 
 then appear a long catalogue of imperfections, ourselves 
 nothing, and Christ all.’’* 
 
 They did not ask him if he was the Christ. Every real 
 Jew believed in the coming of Christ, the Messiah. From 
 Luke we learn that John was really suspected of being the 
 promised One. “And as the people were in expectation, 
 and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were 
 the Christ or not” (Luke iii:15).. But was he perhaps Elias? 
 He answered very positively, “I am not.” Here we face 
 the well known difficulty, how could the John Baptist 
 make such a statement when the Lord Himself bore witness 
 ~ *Ryle on John. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 29 
 
 that John is Elias? “Elijah truly shall first come and re- 
 store all things. But I say to you, that Elijah is come al- 
 ready, and they knew him not, but have done unto him 
 whatsoever they listed . . . then the disciples understood 
 that He spoke to them of John the Baptist” (Matt. xvii:11- 
 12). The Jews expected Elijah, the literal Elijah to come 
 back, before the advent of Messiah. John confesses that 
 he is not that Elijah whom they expected and who is pre- 
 dicted in Malachi iv:5. Many of the oldest commentators 
 like Augustine, Gregory, Jerome and others taught and 
 believed a double coming of Elijah. ‘“‘As there are two 
 comings of Christ, first to suffer, then to judge, so there are 
 two comings of Elijah; first of John before Christ’s first 
 coming, who is called Elias, because he came in the manner 
 and spirit of Elias; secondly, of the person of Elijah, before 
 Christ’s second coming” (Chrysostom). ‘‘Whereas John 
 denieth himself to be Elias, and Christ after affirmeth it, 
 there is no contradiction. ‘There is a double coming of 
 Elijah. The one is in spirit before Christ’s coming to re- 
 deem; the other in person, before Christ’s second Coming. 
 According to the first, Christ’s saying is true, This is Elias. 
 According to the second, John’s speech is true, I am not 
 Elias” (Gregory). ‘‘What John was to the first advent, 
 Elias will be to the second advent. As there are two ad- 
 vents, so there are two heralds” (Augustine). And this 
 solves the difficulty. 
 
 They asked him next if he was that Prophet. This 
 question is based on Deuteronomy xviii:15. But the prophet 
 promised in this passage is Christ Himself. 
 
 From Acts iti:22 we know that “The Prophet like unto 
 Moses” is Christ. Evidently the questioners did not know 
 that the Prophet promised by Moses is Christ. The tradi- 
 tions of the Elders probably taught something different. 
 
 Having only received negative replies from John the 
 Baptist, they continued the interview by asking him, 
 Who art thou? What sayest thou of thyself? These questions 
 he answered by a statement of Scripture. He does not use 
 Malachi’s prophecy concerning Elijah, but quotes Isaiah. 
 “IT am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make 
 
30 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 straight the way of the Lord” (Isaiah xl:3).* He claims the 
 fulfilment of this prophecy and that this mission is to prepare 
 the way for Christ. Again we notice his great humility. 
 He speaks of himself as only a voice. He whom he heralds 
 is the Lord, Jehovah, but he only a voice crying in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 There was no answer from the side of the delegation. 
 They probably were in complete ignorance of the claim 
 John the Baptist had made. The passage in Isaiah was 
 known to them; the meaning of it was hidden from them; 
 but John being filled with the Spirit from his mother’s 
 womb had applied it to himself. The prominence which 
 John gave to water baptism brings forth a second question. 
 The inquirers had been sent by the Pharisees, the ritualistic 
 sect of Judaism. ‘The action of John, by commanding 
 baptism, must have greatly concerned them. “Why 
 baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, 
 neither that prophet?’ Baptisms at different times and 
 with a religious meaning were important ceremonials of 
 the sect of the Pharisees. They taught all kinds of ablutions, 
 including the washing of hands. They are anxious to know 
 why he baptizes, what authority he has in doing it, if he 
 is not that Christ or Elijah. Evidently they connected 
 Baptism with the coming of Christ. According to ancient 
 Judaism, baptism in water is, with circumcision, the essential 
 thing for proselytes; without baptism no one could be ad- 
 mitted into Judaism. The traditional belief of Judaism was 
 that when Messiah comes the nations would all turn to 
 Judaism; and it may have been this belief which brought 
 forth the question. Baptism was also looked upon by 
 ancient Judaism as an expression of penitence. ‘This of 
 course was the meaning of John’s Baptism. When those 
 who listened to him believed the message and repented, 
 they went into the river Jordan and outwardly witnessed 
 to their repentance by water baptism. Jordan is the type 
 of death. This is proven by the meaning of the word 
 Jordan, which is “descending,” and by the typical meaning, 
 
 *It will be learned by reading Isaiah xl that in this chapter there 
 is as in so many other prophecies in the Old Testament, a blending 
 of the firstsand second coming of Christ. Isaiah xl:1-11 can only 
 be fully understood in the light of the Second Coming of Christ. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 31 
 
 as seen in the passage of the children of Israel through 
 Jordan. In submitting to John’s baptism and going into 
 Jordan the confession was made that death was their due 
 on account of their sins. No greater mistake can be made 
 than to identify John’s Baptism with Christian Baptism. 
 Yet theological writings and commentaries are filled with 
 this error. Calvin, for instance, wrote, “it is a foolish mistake 
 into which some have been led, of supposing that John’s 
 Baptism was different from ours.” Acts xix answers this 
 perfectly. There in Ephesus the Apostle Paul found certain 
 disciples. They were baptized with John’s baptism, and 
 ignorant of the great redemption facts, including the gift 
 of the Holy Spirit. Then after Paul had instructed them, 
 and when they heard and believed, Paul baptized them again 
 in the name of the Lord Jesus. If John’s baptism is the same 
 as Christian Baptism, the Apostle Paul would have made 
 a colossal blunder in baptizing these disciples the second 
 time. John’s Baptism was unto repentance; Christian 
 Baptism could then not be instituted. It was given after 
 the death and resurrection of our Lord, and is therefore 
 into the death of Christ (Rom. vi:3-4). This is also one of 
 the numerous arguments against the post-millennial theory 
 that when John the Baptist preached the Kingdom, he 
 announced the present dispensation. Neither the Kingdom 
 preaching of John, nor his Baptism, has anything to do with 
 this present dispensation, or with the Church. 
 
 And how it should have thrilled them when this humble 
 Prophet, the voice, declared, ‘“There standeth One among 
 you, whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me 
 hath come to be before me; the latchet of whose shoes I 
 am not worthy to unloose.’”’ How they should have at 
 once asked the question, Where is this One? Who is He, so 
 that we may know Him? But they are silent. They care 
 not to know the One whom John so blessedly exalts in His 
 witness. And so it is today in ritualistic Christendom. 
 
 Verses 29-34. It was the next day after the conversation 
 with the Jerusalem delegation at Bethany* when the blessed 
 
 *This is not the Bethany where Mary, Martha and Lazarus had their 
 home, but another place called by that name near one of the fords of the 
 River Jordan. The place cannot be fully located. Bethabara as in 
 the Authorized Version is an incorrect reading. 
 
32 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 One whom John had announced, He who is the Life and the 
 Light of men, appeared at the same place. He was not 
 present the previous day, and probably came out of the 
 wilderness where He had just spent the forty days in fasting 
 and prayer, where He had been tested by the Devil. Then 
 joyfully John acclaimed Him as the Lamb of God. “Behold 
 the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.” 
 This shows that John the Baptist knew Him as the Lamb 
 of God, the Sin-bearer and the Saviour; he trusted in 
 Him and his faith testified of Him. There are some who 
 teach that John called Him the Lamb of God on account 
 of His meek character, but this view is incorrect. While 
 He was meek and lowly, John testified of Him as the One 
 who had come to fulfill in His sacrificial death on the cross, 
 all which had been foreshadowed in the Old Testament 
 dispensation and all which the prophets predicted. He is 
 the true Passover-Lamb, the Lamb of whom Isaiah spoke, 
 “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep 
 before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth” 
 (Isaiah liii:7). The expression John used is so much more 
 significant as the Passover was near, which we learn from 
 Chapter 11:13. 
 
 Every Jew was familiar with the meaning of the lamb, for 
 it was used as the daily sacrifice morning and evening. 
 Therefore sacrifice cannot be separated from the lamb; the 
 two words belong together. He came to give Himself as the 
 sacrifice for sinners. It must be noticed that John did not 
 say that He was then taking away, as the Lamb of God, the 
 sin of the world. When it says elsewhere in Scripture, “He 
 was made sin for us,”’ it does not mean that He was made sin 
 in His holy life on earth; He did not take away sin by His 
 life. Nor does it say, ‘He will take away sin” nor “has 
 taken away,” but “who taketh away the sin of the world.’’ 
 It is a broad statement which includes the Person of the 
 Saviour, the work He will do and the ultimate, great result 
 of His work, the final effect of His sacrificial death. Upon 
 the work of Christ as the sin-bearer, the Christ who died 
 for our sins according to the Scriptures, the Gospel is preached 
 and when believed blessed results follow. Sinners are 
 cleansed, saved by grace, born again, made children of 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 33 
 
 God and heirs of glory, are filled with the Spirit and united 
 into one body. But all this, infinitely blessed as it is, is far 
 from being the full meaning of this statement of John, nor is 
 it the ultimate result of the precious work of the Lamb of 
 God. We use the words of another. 
 
 “When Christ comes again in His Kingdom, there will bea 
 further result; for all creation will then be delivered from the 
 bondage of corruption, and Israel will at length look upon Him 
 whom they pierced in their blind unbelief. The blessing 
 resulting from the sacrifice of Christ will then be far and wide 
 extended, but not yet complete. Only the new heavens and 
 the new earth (and this exceeds the limited scope of the Jew- 
 ish prophets) will behold the ultimate fulfillment; and then 
 indeed it will be seen how truly He was “The Lamb of God 
 who taketh away the sin of the world.’ For then, and not 
 till then will sin have disappeared absolutely and all its active 
 consequences. ‘The wicked having been judged and cast 
 forever into the lake of fire, as well as Satan and his angels, 
 righteousness will then be the footing of God’s relationship 
 with the world, not sinlessness as at first, nor dealings in 
 Christ in view of sin as since and now, but all things made 
 new.’* 
 
 This is wonderfully illustrated by that blessed word 
 which came from the lips of the Lamb of God, before He 
 bowed His head and dismissed His Spirit—“‘It is finished.”’ 
 We find it first in Prophecy in the twenty-second Psalm. 
 That Psalm begins with the cry of the forsaken one, “My 
 God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” the very words 
 which came from His lips when the waves and billows of 
 divine wrath swept over Him. The Psalm ends with a state- 
 ment which is the equivalent of “It is finished”—“He hath 
 done.” And between the bitter cry of the cross in the first 
 verse of this Psalm, and the exultant declaration of the last, 
 we read of those who are His brethren (the Church), that 
 Israel too will be saved by Him, that the ends of the earth will 
 turn unto the Lord, and that He will get the Kingdoms of the 
 earth. Still more striking is the use of this expression, “It 
 is done,” which is practically the same as “It is finished,” 
 in the book of Revelation. When the seventh Angel pours 
 ~*Wm. Kelly on John. 
 
34 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 out his vial, in which the wrath of God is finished (marking 
 the end of the great tribulation) we read that a great voice 
 out of the temple in glory, from the throne said, “It is done.” 
 With this event the Lord returns and takes possession of the 
 earth and the kingdoms become His kingdom. The last 
 time “It is done” is used is in Revelation xxi:6. ‘And He said 
 unto me, It is done.” When? When the new heaven and 
 the new earth are come. And of ‘‘God shall wipe away all 
 tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, 
 neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more 
 pain, for the former things are passed away.” It is then that 
 the voice is heard, ‘Behold I make all things new—It is 
 done.”’ Only then will the meaning of John’s great message 
 be completely fulfilled, ““The Lamb of God, who taketh away 
 the sin of the world.” 
 
 Let us not overlook the fact that the text does not speak 
 of the “‘sins of the world,” but of “‘sin.’’ While it is per- 
 fectly true that the work of the Cross is sufficient to save the 
 whole world, that the blood was shed for the sin of the world, 
 it is only of those who believe that we read that Christ bore 
 their sins in His body. But some have said that because 
 Christ made atonement for all, and is the Lamb of God who 
 taketh away the sin of the world, the whole world will be 
 ultimately saved. “I have no doubt,” says an able expositor, 
 “from Scripture, that the vast majority of the world’s 
 inhabitants will be found at last to have received no benefit 
 from Christ, and to have died in their sins. I repudiate the 
 idea of universal salvation as a dangerous heresy and utterly 
 contrary to Scripture. But the lost will not prove to be lost 
 because Christ did nothing for them.” He died for the 
 ungodly, and for all there is the possibility of the offer of a 
 free and full salvation; those who refuse must die in their sins, 
 and die as if Christ had not died for them. 
 
 And then John the Baptist must have pointed to Him, the 
 Lamb of God, saying, This is the One of whom IJ bore witness 
 yesterday, of whom I told you. After me cometh a man, who 
 is come to be before me. Here He stands Himself, He who 
 was before me! 
 
 Then he witnesses concerning what had taken place at 
 the Baptism of our Lord. He who sent John to baptize with 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 35 
 
 water had given to him this sign, ““Upon whom thou shalt see 
 the Spirit descending and abiding on Him, He it is who 
 baptizeth with the Holy Spirit.”». When and how John re- 
 ceived this sign from God we do not know; he had no doubt 
 many revelations from God, but they have not been placed 
 on record. And so it was when the Son of God came out of 
 Jordan, heaven was opened unto Him, and the Holy Spirit 
 descended upon Him like a dove out of heaven and then abode 
 upon Him. As we read in the Gospel of Luke, ‘““The Holy 
 Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove,” from which 
 some conclude that it was not necessarily a real dove, but a 
 bodily shape resembling a dove in its downward flight. The 
 dove is a beautiful emblem of the Holy Spirit, and also a type 
 as we have it in connection with the flood and Noah. The 
 Holy Spirit came on the Son of God and found His resting 
 place there. This is the Anointing which He received. It is 
 foreshadowed in the meal offering, that consisted of a cake 
 of fine flour mingled with oil, with no leaven in it. This 
 typifies the holy, spotless humanity of our Lord, produced by 
 the Holy Spirit. And before the meal offering was baked and 
 exposed to the fire, the type of the sufferings of Christ, oil 
 was poured upon it (Levit. ii). But the great fact before 
 us in this statement is not so much that the Holy Spirit 
 descended upon Him, but that He is the Baptizer with the 
 Holy Spirit. There is perfect order in this great revelation 
 in the first chapter of this Gospel. The Deity of our Lord 
 stands first, He is the Word, the eternal One. Then we 
 heard that the Word was made flesh, His incarnation, that 
 He is the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world, 
 His sacrificial work, and now besides accomplishing redemp- 
 tion, He is the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit. For this He 
 received the Holy Spirit as man, so that he might be the giver 
 of Him to others. And He gives the Holy Spirit to His own 
 who have received Him and accepted Him as Saviour; such 
 are baptized by His Spirit into the Body of Christ. 
 
 It is of great interest to note the difference in the announce- 
 ment of John the Baptist as reported in the Gospel of Mat- 
 thew and in the Gospel of John. In the kingly Gospel, 
 where John’s ministry as the herald of the King in proclaiming 
 the nearness of the promised kingdom is more fully given, 
 
36 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 John makes the following announcement: He shall baptize 
 you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, whose fan is in His 
 hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His 
 wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with 
 unquenchable fire’ (Matthew iii). And here in the Gos- 
 pel of John only one sentence is given, “He it is who bap- 
 tizeth with the Holy Spirit.” It does not say here “Who 
 baptizeth you with the Holy Spirit.”’ It seems clear that the 
 words in the Gospel of Matthew must be considered as hav- 
 ing some special relation to Israel. ‘The nation has in the Old 
 Testament a promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 
 (See Joel ii:28, etc.) The fire which John speaks of is not the 
 gift of the Holy Spirit, but the fire Baptism means Judgment 
 which is connected with His second coming. All this fits 
 beautifully into the Gospel of Matthew, which is so promi- 
 nently dispensational. Not a word of it is mentioned in the 
 Gospel of John. Nor is it said here, “He shall baptize you,” 
 but “He baptizeth with the Holy Spirit.” 
 
 The statement of John “I knew Him not” has been called 
 by some a contradiction on account of Matthew iii:14, 
 “John said unto Him, I have need to be baptized of thee, and 
 comest Thou to me?” Different ways of explaining this dif- 
 ficulty have been suggested. John evidently did not know 
 Him perfectly as to His Person, though he had a deep impres- 
 sion as to His holiness when He came to be baptized by him. 
 But when He had been baptized, and the sign was fulfilled 
 by which John was to know Him as the Christ, and the giver 
 of the Spirit, then he knew Him fully. Therefore he declares, 
 “I have seen and borne witness that He is the Son of God.” 
 And yet a short time later when John is in prison he sent two 
 of his disciples to the Lord with the question, “‘Art Thou He 
 that cometh or look we for another?” (Matthew xi:3). 
 It shows that John the Baptist, though filled with the Spirit 
 from his mother’s womb, was subject to like passions as we 
 are (James v:17). 
 
 Verses 35-39. And now comes another day. On the 
 previous day John the Baptist had pointed out the Lord as 
 “The Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.” 
 Such is the testimony of the Old Testament to Christ and His 
 work in redemption. When John announced Him thus he 
 
THE GOSPEL: OF JOHN 37 
 
 spoke as a witness of the Old Dispensation. But now comes 
 another day on which John announced Him again, and unlike 
 the previous day, there is now direct result from his testimony 
 in the gathering of disciples to Christ. When we turn to 
 verse 43 we find a second day mentioned; on that second day 
 Nathanael is brought to the feet of the Lord. In the second 
 chapter “‘the third day”? begins; on that day there was a 
 marriage in Cana of Galilee. 
 
 These three days have an interesting typical meaning 
 which we mention before we follow the text. The day on 
 which John heralds Christ with the words, “Behold the 
 Lamb of God!” on which disciples follow Christ, dwell with 
 Him in an unknown, a secret abode, is the type of the present 
 age, after Israel rejected the message of the Lamb of God. 
 In type we see what takes place during this age in the gather- 
 ing of His own, which constitute the Church. 
 
 When that is concluded the second day comes. Nathanael 
 unbelieving, is a type of the Jew, more strictly speaking, 
 of those Jews who are God-fearing, still waiting for Messiah. 
 Nathanael gets a demonstration of the Deity of Him of whom 
 he said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” 
 Then he believes on Him as the Son of God, the King of 
 Israel. That comes and takes place after the Church is 
 completed. 
 
 On the third day there was a marriage in Cana. The Lord 
 Jesus was there, His mother, His disciples,and then He mani- 
 fested His Glory. That third day stands typically for the 
 coming age of glory, when the water will be turned into wine. 
 
 On this day (verse 35) John stood and two of his disciples 
 were with him. A short distance away the Lord Jesus was 
 taking a walk, the Creator of all things moved about the 
 fields. How lovely He must have been as in meekness and 
 lowliness, in unspeakable loveliness, He walked along! John 
 is enraptured by the sight, for he knew Him; and so he gives 
 a second testimony. ‘“‘Behold the Lamb of God.” Behold 
 Him, how lovely He is! Behold Him whom the Father has 
 sent! Behold Him who will ere long be the Lamb of God 
 in sacrifice! He bears witness to His Person and to His 
 Work. He is the Son of God and the Sin-bearer. And 
 this is the great message of the Gospel for this present age, 
 
38 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 the message concerning the Son of God and His work, the 
 work of the Cross, where the Lamb of God died for the un- 
 godly. It is the core-truth of Christianity; omit it and 
 Christianity is reduced to a religious, ethical system of no 
 more value or meaning than Confucianism. But the mes- 
 sage of the Christ, the Son of God and the Lamb of God, 
 carries with it power. There is a physical law of attraction 
 in God’s creation, the law of attraction through the message 
 of the Lamb of God works in the spiritual realm, because 
 the Spirit of Life and power operates in and through it. 
 Oh! the blindness that men claiming to be teachers of 
 Christianity do not see this and substitute the Devil’s 
 counterfeits in the place of the one message which has power, 
 which attracts, which saves. 
 
 We see it working on this first day, the beginning of the 
 gathering of the disciples to Him who is the Center, who 1s all. 
 These two disciples (Andrew and probably John, the author 
 of this Gospel) heard the brief message. They heard the 
 Word of God. Then as they heard, faith took hold of their 
 hearts, for faith cometh by hearing, and having heard and 
 believed they followed Jesus. And this is the way of 
 salvation. 
 
 A God-given Saviour, a God-given message, a God-given 
 power through that message in touching the dead condition 
 of the human soul: Hearing, Believing and then Fellowship 
 with Him, the Lamb of God. That is how the first disciples 
 were brought to Christ and that is the way the Church has 
 been gathered ever since, and is still being gathered. And 
 now He turns. He knew them, He knew their hearts; 
 yea, from before the foundation of the world He knew these 
 two and that just such a scene as this would take place and 
 that they would form the beginning of His Church; and, 
 beloved reader, He knew us also as He knew these two, 
 that we too would hear, believe and follow Him. And so He 
 turns and says unto them, “‘What seek ye?” ‘They address 
 Him as Rabbi,* Teacher, accustomed to do so as the dis- 
 ciples of John and by Jewish usage. Rabbi, where dwellest 
 
 
 
 *The parenthetical statement giving the meaning of this Hebrew 
 word shows that the Gospel was written for Gentiles more than for 
 Jews. It is the same in other places of this Gospel, when ignorance 
 of Hebrew or Aramaic is supposed. 
 
THE GOSPER OF TORN 29 
 
 Thou? Where dost Thou abide? The word “Dwell’’ is 
 the same as the word “Abide” used elsewhere in this Gospel. 
 (vi:27; xv). They want to be with Him, to share His 
 abiding place. Their wish is granted. He speaks the first 
 great word recorded as coming from His lips in this Gospel, 
 “Come and see.” 
 
 Three little words, yet how inexhaustible they are! Come! 
 That is the royal word of Grace. He used this word long 
 before He ever appeared in the form of man. “Come now 
 and let us reason together, saith the Lord (the same Lord 
 who speaks here); though your sins be as scarlet, they shall 
 be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they 
 shall be as wool” (Isa. i:18). At the crossroads, when His 
 people were beginning to reject the Kingdom offer and 
 He pronounced His woe upon Chorazin, Bethsaida and Caper- 
 naum, we hear Him say, “Come unto Me.” Zacchaeus in 
 the sycamore tree, with a burdened, longing soul, hears it. 
 “Make haste, come down.” And the “comes” in this 
 Gospel! ‘Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast 
 out” (vi:37); and again, ‘‘No man cometh unto the Father 
 but by Me” (xiv:6). ‘‘He that cometh to Me shall never 
 hunger, and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst.” 
 “Come, for all things are now ready.’? And we also have 
 heard this royal word of Grace. We came and we have seen; 
 we have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Some day we 
 shall see—we shall see Him as He is, not as the two disciples 
 saw Him, in the garb of humiliation, but we shall see Him 
 in His Glory and then abide in His abode, the Father’s house 
 with its many mansions. 
 
 All this is blessedly foreshadowed in this first event in the 
 Gospel of John. They came, following Him, and abode with 
 Him in the place unnamed and unknown to others. It 
 typifies that place in Him which the believer has, the fellow- 
 ship with Him, which belongs to all who trust in Him. And 
 there they were for the night; they spent the night with Him. 
 Perhaps the abode was outside in some shack, for He had not 
 where to lay His head. But some one may say the night 
 is not mentioned. It says they abode with Him that day, 
 for it was about the tenth hour, about four in the afternoon; 
 hence it must have been the entire night they spent in His 
 
40 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 fellowship. As another has said, “No night is mentioned, 
 for where He is, it is day.”’ And so those gathering to Him, 
 His true Church, abide in Him and with Him during the 
 night, this present age, and when the morning breaks on 
 that coming day His own shall come forth with Him and 
 then share that abiding place of Glory with Him forever. 
 
 Verses 40-42. How this company is to be gathered and 
 built and increased is seen in this paragraph. This simple 
 story is the pattern of soul-winning and leading others to 
 Christ. Andrew was one of them who had followed the Lord 
 and enjoyed His fellowship. How he must have thought 
 that night of his own brother Simon and wished that he too 
 might be in that fellowship. 
 
 The first thing he did when morning came, he went and 
 sought out his brother Simon and brought him the good news: 
 “We have found the Messiah.” He took him by the hand 
 and brought him to Jesus. To his own brother Andrew, 
 Simon, surnamed Peter, owes the knowledge of becoming 
 acquainted with the Lord Jesus. 
 
 “The fact before us is most striking and instructive. Out 
 of the three first members of the Christian Church, one at 
 least was brought to Jesus by the private, quiet word of a 
 relative. He seems to have heard no public preaching. He 
 saw no mighty miracle wrought. He was not convinced by 
 any powerful reasoning. He only heard his brother telling 
 him that he had found a Saviour himself, and at once the work 
 began in his soul. The simple testimony of a warm-hearted 
 brother was the first link in the chain by which Peter was. 
 drawn out of the world and joined to Christ. The first blow 
 in that mighty work by which Peter was made a pillar of the 
 Church was struck by Andrew’s words, ‘We have found the 
 Christ.’ 
 
 “Well would it be for the Church of Christ if all believers 
 were more like Andrew! Well would it be for souls if all men 
 and women who have been converted themselves, would 
 speak to their friends and relatives on spiritual subjects, and 
 tell them what they have found! How much good might be 
 done! How many might be led to Jesus, who now live and 
 die in unbelief! The work of testifying the Gospel of the 
 grace of God ought not to be left to ministers alone. All who 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 41 
 
 have received mercy ought to find a tongue, and to declare 
 what God has done for their souls. All who have been de- 
 livered from the power of the devil ought to ‘go home and 
 tell their friends what great things God has done for them’ 
 (Mark v:19). Thousands, humanly speaking, would listen 
 to a word from a friend who will not listen to a sermon. 
 Every believer ought to be a home missionary—a missionary 
 to his family, children, servants, neighbors and friends. 
 Surely, if we can find nothing to say to others about Jesus 
 we may well doubt whether we are savingly acquainted a 
 Him ourselves.’’* 
 
 And Simon, true to his name (which means “hearing’’), 
 heard at once. And when the Lord looked upon him He 
 said, ‘“Thou art Simon the son of Jonas (‘‘the dove’’); thou 
 shalt be called Cephas, which is, being interpreted, a stone” 
 (Greek, Petros-Peter). But does this not clash with Mat- 
 thew xvi where the Lord calls Simon Peter by his name at 
 an entirely different occasion, that is, at Cesarea Philippi, 
 after Simon’s great confession of Him as the Son of the living 
 God? 
 
 But let us notice, in answering this supposed discrepancy, 
 that the Lord here at first meeting Simon speaks of the future. 
 It is the language of prophecy, ““Thou shalt be called Cephas,”’ 
 this will be your name some day. The knowledge of Simon the 
 Lord here displays is that of omniscience. He knew who 
 he was and told him here of what He intended to make of 
 him. That name is then fully revealed in its meaning in 
 Matthew xvi. He is, of course, not the Rock upon which 
 the Church is built, that is Christ the risen Son of God, but 
 Peter was a stone, one of the living stones of which the 
 Church is composed (1 Peter 11:4). 
 
 The word Cephas is Aramaic, Peter from Petros is Greek. 
 It has been pointed out by church historians that three popes 
 were so ignorant that they supposed that the word “‘Cephas’”’ 
 in Greek means ‘‘Head,” mistaking it for the Greek 
 “Cephale.” Upon this ignorance these popes build their 
 wicked assertion that Peter is the head of the Church. Even 
 the great Cardinal Bellarmine made the same blunder. 
 
 Verses 43-51. A second day follows, and on that day the 
 ~ *Bishop Ryle. 
 
42 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Lord Himself called one to follow Him. He found Philip 
 and said unto him, ‘‘Follow Me.” Philip and Nathanael who 
 was first unbelieving, give us a most interesting dispensational 
 picture. As we pointed out, the previous gathering of dis- 
 ciples, upon the testimony “‘Behold the Lamb of God,” and 
 their abode with the Lord, gives a prophetic picture of what 
 takes place during the present age, the gathering of His 
 Church. Philip and Nathanael typify the calling of the 
 remnant of Israel, after the true Church is gathered and her 
 testimony ended. 
 
 Philip means “lover of horses.” We noticed once in New 
 Mexico a Spanish church building named “San Filipe’— 
 “St. Philip’s Church.” On the outside wall had been painted 
 a race-horse with outstretched neck toward the goal. Who- 
 ever caused that race-horse to be painted understood ee 
 the meaning of the Greek word Philip. 
 
 He represents that portion of the people Israel, who dur- 
 ing the tribulation period will hear the call of the King and 
 then with outstretched neck, like a race-horse, press on 
 towards the goal, when the King comes back to deliver them. 
 And through this believing remnant a testimony will be given 
 to others, who are still unbelieving. This is represented by 
 Philip finding Nathanael. Philip’s testimony is different 
 from the testimony which John the Baptist bore. “We have 
 found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets 
 did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Philip 
 voices the belief of the Jews of his times. They knew that 
 God had given them through Moses and the prophets a 
 revelation, and in that revelation He had promised to them 
 a Saviour-King, the Messiah. The baptised infidels in the 
 professing church, who call themselves “‘Modernists” deny 
 both, the fact of revelation and the prophecies concerning 
 a Messiah. 
 
 The testimony which Philip gave to Nathanael has even 
 been used by these rationalists as an evidence against the 
 Virgin birth of our Lord. Did not Philip say that Jesus of 
 Nazareth is the son of Joseph? The supposed inconsistency 
 of this statement, and the account of Christ’s supernatural 
 birth as given by Matthew and Luke, is purely imaginary. 
 Philip was ignorant of the birth of Christ. Like others he 
 
THE GOSPEL“OF JOHN 43 
 
 heard of Him as “the carpenter’s son” (see Matt. xiii:54-57). 
 
 Nathanael (which means “‘the gift of God’’) was, like 
 Philip, an expecting Jew, who did not deny the fact of 
 prophecy, centering in the Messiah, the son of David, as the 
 hope of God’s people. But he was shocked when Philip 
 spoke to him of that promised One as of Nazareth. Had 
 he said—Jesus, the Son of David, of Bethlehem, Judah, 
 Nathanael would have spoken differently. It would have 
 arrested his attention immediately. But when Philip men- 
 tioned Nazareth, Nathanael said, ‘‘Can there any good thing 
 come out of Nazareth?” In the Greek there is a scornful 
 emphasis on the word Nazareth. Nazareth was an insignifi- 
 cant village. Its inhabitants were called ‘‘Am-horatzin’— 
 ignorant country people. They were of low origin and un- 
 believing (Mark vi:5-6). They were rough and violent, so 
 that they were ready to murder Him, who was brought up 
 in their midst (Luke iv:28). No wonder Nathanael was 
 greatly disturbed when his friend spoke to him of the Messiah 
 coming from such a place. With the rest of his contem- 
 poraries he looked for the Messiah as the conquering King, 
 coming from David’s city to establish His kingdom; the 
 story of His rejection, as revealed also by the prophets, he 
 knew not. He is a type of that class of Jews during the very 
 end of the present age, who are still ignorant of the identity 
 of the coming King, and who stumble at His humiliation, 
 but whose eyes will be opened, as Nathanael’s eyes were 
 opened. 
 
 Philip ignored Nathanael’s objection. He invites him to 
 come and to see. Well has it been said, “‘Personal experience 
 is the best test of the truth of Christianity.”? While all this 
 was going on the Lord Jesus knew all about it. He knew 
 Nathanael; He knew his sincerity, his faith in the Word and 
 promises of the God of Abraham; He knew his character 
 and the secrets of his heart. 
 
 Nathanael was ready to do what Philip had asked. He 
 was moving towards the Lord Jesus, who must have stood 
 not far away. And as Nathanael neared to Jesus, He 
 greeted him with the words “‘Behold an Israelite indeed, in 
 whom is no guile.”” The omniscient Lord knew him as a 
 true believer in whom the Holy Spirit had wrought His 
 
44 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 work (Rom. ii:28, 29; Gal. iii:29, vi:15, 16; Ps. xv, xxxii:1-3). 
 Nathanael is amazed at such a greeting. It was the first 
 time he had looked into the face of the Lord Jesus. Where 
 did He have the knowledge as to his own person? ‘“‘Whence 
 knowest Thou me?” ‘This question gives the Lord the 
 opportunity to say something more startling than the 
 previously uttered description of Nathanael’s state of soul. 
 The Lord said, ‘‘Before that Philip called thee, when thou 
 wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.” The Lord had first 
 demonstrated to Nathanael His supernatural insight, and 
 now He reveals His supernatural sight, His omniscience and 
 His omnipresence, both of which show that He is God. 
 What happened under that fig tree is a secret. Only the 
 Lord and Nathanael know what it was, and the Holy Spirit 
 has withheld the revelation of what took place. But we 
 may surmise that Nathanael spent some time beneath that 
 fig tree in deep soul exercise; perhaps he made an important 
 decision relating to his spiritual life, on account of which the 
 Lord had called him an Israelite indeed. Nor must we 
 overlook the fact that what transpired was under the fig 
 tree, which is one of the emblems of the people Israel. Per- 
 haps in his musings, Nathanael, as a Messiah expecting 
 Jew, had earnestly desired to know the Messiah. Many 
 God-fearing Jews were convinced at that time that the 
 promised King must soon appear in their midst. 
 
 With such a manifestation of Deity which the Lord Jesus 
 had given to Nathanael his prejudice falls to the ground and 
 he bursts out in ecstasy, “‘Rabbi, ‘Thou art the Son of God; 
 Thou art the King of Israel.’”? Perhaps the Spirit of God 
 brought suddenly before the heart of this believing Israelite 
 the second Psalm, in which the Sonship of the Messiah and 
 His Kingship is announced. He therefore confessed his 
 belief in Him as the promised Christ. The full meaning 
 of what he was saying, he probably knew not. And the 
 Lord Jesus Christ did not correct him, but accepted the 
 worship of Nathanael. Renan and other unbelievers in the 
 Deity of our Lord advanced the theory that the belief that 
 Christ is God was the outgrowth of His followers’admiration 
 towards the end of His ministry, and that it was then tacitly 
 accepted by Christ. But here He accepts the titles of Son 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 45 
 
 of God and King of Israel in the very beginning of His 
 ministry. 
 
 Like Nathanael, that portion of Israel which still holds 
 to the promises of God as to the Messiah, will receive the 
 demonstration, during the closing years of this present age, 
 that the rejected and despised One, whom their fathers 
 delivered into the hands of the Gentiles, the rejected Stone 
 and stone of stumbling and offence, is the Son of God, the 
 King of Israel. 
 
 In answer to Nathanael’s confession, the Lord assured 
 him that he would see greater things. “Verily, verily, I say 
 unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the 
 angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of 
 Man.” ‘These words are generally spiritualized. It is 
 pointed (out, “and nightly. so,’ that here '\is)a\reference./to 
 Jacob’s vision, when he saw heaven open and the angels of 
 God ascending and descending on a ladder. Then the 
 application is made that Christ is the ladder for the sinner 
 to ascend into heaven, thus the angels are used as types of 
 sinners, and of spiritual blessings, which come to earth 
 through Christ. ‘The meaning is a different one. ‘The words 
 of the Lord are prophetic. 
 
 In the first place the word “‘hereafter,” it is claimed, should 
 be omitted. This is the opinion of such prominent scholars, 
 whose knowledge of manuscripts is trustworthy, as Tischen- 
 dorf and Alford. If we omit it, it reads ‘‘Ye shall see 
 heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending 
 upon the Son of Man.’ It could then be applied to both, 
 the present and the future. But they did not see the angels 
 of God ascending and descending during His life time. They 
 were ministering to Him, but Nathanael did not behold this 
 ministry at any time. 
 
 The present therefore is excluded. It is the matter of 
 the future. The words of our Lord will be literally fulfilled 
 in the day of His visible, glorious return to the earth. Then 
 heaven will be opened and He will be revealed from heaven 
 in flaming fire and with His holy Angels, who will be His 
 attendants in that great event. We refer the reader to the 
 book by the author on ‘“The Angels of God,” in which this 
 interesting truth is more fully developed. 
 
46 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Verses 1-11. It was probably the third day after 
 Nathanael had believed on the Lord as the Son of God 
 and the King of Israel, when the marriage in Cana of 
 Galilee took place. But there is another meaning to this 
 third day, which we point out in our exposition. From 
 Chapter xxi:2, we learn that Nathanael was of Cana, a 
 small place not very far from Nazareth; possibly our Lord 
 visited this place on the anvitation of the new disciple. 
 Whose marriage it was which took place in Cana we do 
 not know, for there is nothing said about it. Wicked Mor- 
 monism teaches that it was the marriage ofour Lord! But 
 the mother of Jesus was there and Jesus was called, and 
 His disciples, to the marriage. By accepting the invitation 
 to attend this marriage, a feast of joy and gladness, our 
 Lord fully endorsed what He Himself as the Creator had 
 instituted. For it was He who said, “It is not good that 
 the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet 
 for him” (Gen. ii:18). And the first Adam and his bride 
 are types of the second Man and the Church, as Eve was 
 of the body of the man and also his bride. And now the 
 marriage relation on true Christian ground is a precious 
 symbol of Christ and the Church (Ephesians v). How 
 contradictory are the miserable inventions of Romanism on 
 this point. ‘The Romish church on the one hand decries 
 marriage, speaks of it as fleshly and imperfect, and then 
 advocates celibacy. On the other hand Rome has made 
 marriage a sacrament, because the Lord Jesus attended this 
 wedding feast. That there should be such perversions as 
 to the divinely instituted state of matrimony was foreseen 
 by the Holy Spirit, for we read in 1 Timothy iv:3, “For- 
 bidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, 
 which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of 
 them which believe and know the truth.” This prophecy 
 has found its fulfillment in the Romish church. 
 
 And when they wanted wine at the marriage, His mother, 
 who seemed to have been at home in the place where the 
 marriage took place, said to Him, ‘They have no wine.” 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 47 
 
 Why did she say this and appeal thus to Him? Different 
 answers have been given. Luther’s comment is as follows: 
 “Mary thinks He is so good and gracious, that it needs no 
 petition; I will only inform Him what is wanting, and He 
 Himself will do more than we can ask.” Others like Bengel 
 suggest that it was a hint from her that He and His. disciples 
 might withdraw and not embarass the house. But that seems 
 unreasonable. Mary knew who He was. She knew that He 
 is the incarnate Son of God whom, as to His human body, 
 she conceived by the Holy Spirit, and though He had not 
 yet worked miracles and manifested His Power and His 
 Glory, she believed that He could supply all the need at that 
 feast. And He fully understood what was in her heart, 
 what she meant, that she tried to induce Him to act. Would 
 He then, the infallible Son of God, take his orders from 
 His mother? He at once utters a word of reproof. “‘Woman, 
 what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come!” 
 Romanists have tried hard to explain away this word of 
 correction but they have all failed in doing it. The rebuke 
 shows her error, her mistake. He did not want her to inter- 
 fere with His Work. Well saith Bishop Ryle, ‘She erred 
 here, perhaps from an affectionate desire to bring honor to 
 her Son, as she erred on other occasions. The words were 
 meant to remind her that she must henceforth leave our 
 Lord to choose His own times and modes of acting. The 
 season of subjection to her and to Joseph was over. The 
 season of His public ministry had at length begun. In 
 carrying on that ministry, she must not presume to suggest 
 to Him. The utter contrariety of this verse to the teaching 
 of the Roman Catholic Church about the Virgin Mary is 
 too palpable to be explained away. She was not without 
 error and sin, as Roman writers have dared to assert, and 
 was not meant to be prayed to and adored. If our Lord 
 would not allow His mother even to suggest to Him the 
 working of a miracle, we may well suppose that all Roman 
 Catholic prayers to the Virgin Mary, and epecially prayers 
 entreating her to “command her Son” are most offensive and 
 blasphemous in His eyes.” 
 
 And Mary accepted the reproof and spoke a word which 
 shows her submission, ‘“‘Whatsoever He saith unto you, do 
 
48 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 it.’ She tried to command Him and now she urges the ser- 
 vants to do whatsoever He saith. It might be called the 
 “commandment of Mary” and be pointed out to Romanists, 
 in helping them to see the true Gospel. 
 
 Then He speaks. The six water-pots are filled at His 
 command with water to the brim. He commands again 
 to draw out and to bring it to the governor of the feast. 
 He tasted what was offered unto him and found that the 
 liquid which he tasted was not water, nor water and wine 
 mixed, but pure and excellent wine. He then told the 
 bridegroom that he has kept the good wine till the last, 
 contrary to the usual custom of serving the best wine first 
 and the worst wine last. 
 
 It was a miracle. While in the previous chapter our 
 Lord manifested His Divine Omniscience, here He re- 
 veals Himself as the Omnipotent Creator. ‘The Creator’s 
 power was needed to accomplish what was done in the 
 twinkling of an eye. He needed no grapes, no mellow- 
 ing process, nothing whatever. His power made the wine, 
 and thus in the beginning of miracles He manifested forth 
 His Glory. In the previous chapter we read that the Law 
 was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus 
 Christ. Moses’ first miracle was the turning of water into 
 blood, typical of the ministration of the law unto death; 
 and our Lord’s first miracle was turning water into wine, 
 typical of the joy and the ministration of Grace. Wine 
 is the symbol of joy and gladness; surely His Love is bet- 
 ter than wine. It is the emblem of His own precious blood 
 which He gave on the Cross, when He was poured out like 
 water. And He keeps the good wine last. How different 
 from the world! It gives that which man esteems good 
 first, and then the bitterness and disappointment. His 
 people have tribulation in the world, from which His grace 
 saved them, but in it all the real joy and peace which 
 comes in believing. And finally there comes a day, the 
 day of His Coming, when we shall see Him as He is, and 
 then we shall find out how true it is, “Thou hast kept the 
 good wine until now!’ What joy and glory, then, when 
 we shall drink anew with Him in His own presence! 
 
 And what is the dispensational application of this first 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 49 
 
 miracle? Let us remember that the marriage was on the 
 third day. We believe this third day relates to the two 
 days marked off in the first chapter of this Gospel. As 
 we pointed out, on that first day the two disciples followed 
 the Lord and dwelled with Him, a blessed type of the 
 Church and what is going on throughout this age—the 
 preaching of the message, Behold the Lamb of God, and 
 the gathering of His Church around Himself, ‘Then the 
 second day, on which Nathanael believed, the type of the 
 Jewish remnant. The third day brings us to the consum- 
 mation, when Israel is restored to her former relationship 
 with the Lord, when they will be received back. It is the 
 day of which Hosea so beautifully writes when he records 
 Israel’s future confession, “‘After two days will He revive 
 us, in the third day He will raise us up and we shall live 
 in His sight” (Hosea vi:1-3). The mother of Jesus, who 
 is at the feast, typifies Israel; the disciples who come with 
 the Lord represent the church-saints, with whom He comes 
 when Israel’s time of blessing and glory has come. The 
 marriage here must not be identified with the marriage 
 of the Lamb in Revelation xix. Some apply that marriage 
 scene also to Israel, and make the Lamb’s wife the reinstated 
 Israel. But the marriage in Revelation xix takes place 
 in heaven and not on earth; it is the Church which, symbol- 
 ically speaking, becomes the Lamb’s wife. The marriage 
 of Israel takes place on earth and is an earthly scene of glory. 
 
 And up to now His hour is not yet come. But all is 
 waiting for that third day. When it comes, the sad, de- 
 plorable history of Israel and mankind will be reversed. 
 The best wine will then be given, and it will not fail when 
 He is upon the Throne. And let us note it will be the begin- 
 ning of miracles, the manifestation of His Glory. What 
 glory will then follow! Yet the whole earth will be filled 
 with His Glory. 
 
 Verses 12-17. From Cana He went down to Capernaum, 
 which was situated on the lake of Galilee. There our Lord 
 seems to have spent much of His time and worked some of His 
 great miracles. Yet Capernaum was unbelieving and rejected 
 Him, as we learn from Matthew. ‘“Then He pronounced 
 judgment upon the city” (Matt. xi:23), His mother and 
 
50 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 brethren accompanied Him, but He did not abide there 
 many days. Here for the first time “His brethren’ are 
 mentioned in the Gospel. We read of them in the seventh 
 chapter that they did not believe on Him (vii:5). In the 
 first chapter in the Book of Acts we receive the informa- 
 tion that they were among the waiting company, so that 
 they had believed on Him. There is no certainty about 
 these brethren of our Lord. Some claim they were the 
 sons of Joseph by a former marriage. The Apostle James 
 is also called the Lord’s brother (Gal. 1:19) and yet he was 
 the son of Alpheus or Cleophas, the husband of the Virgin 
 Mary’s sister. In Mark vi:3 their names are given. 
 
 The Passover being at hand He went up to Jerusalem. 
 John does not call it the feast of Passover, or unleavened 
 bread, as Matthew does, but John writes, “the Jews’ pass- 
 over.” He uses this expression because this Gospel was 
 written after the destruction of Jerusalem and the complete 
 setting aside of the nation. Their feasts are now no longer 
 “the feasts of Jehovah” but their own feasts and ordinances. 
 The Apostle John exclusively mentions this particular Pass- 
 over, when He entered the temple and cleansed the house. 
 It must not be identified with the other cleansing of the 
 temple recorded in Matthew xxi:12, 13; Mark xi:15; Luke 
 xix:45. The cleansing of the temple which the synoptic 
 Gospels give is the cleansing which took place during His 
 last visit to Jerusalem; John reports the cleansing of the 
 temple in connection with His first visit to Jerusalem in the 
 beginning of His ministry. Here He made a scourge, but 
 at the cleansing of the temple during His final visit to Jer- 
 usalem no scourge is mentioned at all. 
 
 The courtyard of the temple when our Lord entered was 
 filled with those who sold oxen, sheep and doves to those 
 who came to bring the appointed sacrifices, while others 
 changed foreign coin. The whole scene shows the pro- 
 fanation of the house of the Lord, the divinely appointed 
 place of worship for God’s earthly people. It’ showed 
 the state of heart in which the Jewish people were. Their 
 holiest functions had become commercialized, the house 
 of the Lord had been degraded to a house of merchan- 
 dise. Such was the spiritual condition of Israel. It is 
 
THE GOSPELY OF. JOHN 51 
 
 not better today in professing Christendom. We do not 
 mean to say by this that a “church building” is the same 
 as the house of the Lord. True worship is not in a house, 
 with an altar and a priesthood such as Israel possessed. 
 The words of our Lord to the woman of Samaria will open 
 this more fully to our hearts. Ritualistic Christendom 
 looks upon a building set apart for religious meetings as 
 a holy place and patterns everything after the earthly 
 house of worship which the Jews possessed. Protestantism 
 has followed the same error in calling a place set apart 
 for preaching of the Gospel, prayer and the ministry of 
 the Word, the house of the Lord, as if He dwelt in a special 
 manner in such a building. To speak of a “church building”’ 
 as the courts of the Lord, His dwelling place, His house, a 
 temple, etc., is the language of the Philistine, and should 
 _ never be used by those who are called to worship in the Holiest 
 
 where He has entered, made nigh by His own precious blood, 
 and who are enabled to worship in Spirit and in Truth by 
 the power of the indwelling Spirit. 
 
 But it is equally true that in a place set apart for prayer 
 and the ministry of the Word, the place where the holy 
 things of our faith are ministered, a spirit of quietness, rev- 
 erence and decency should be maintained. How the so- 
 called ‘‘churches”’ with all their high sounding names have 
 become houses of merchandise, places of amusements, the- 
 atricals, moving picture shows, political conventions, differ- 
 ent shows, including dancing for the young people, etc., we 
 need not dwell upon at length. It is a worse profanation 
 than the profanation of Israel’s house in the day our Lord 
 stepped into its court. It shows that those who profess 
 Christianity have made common cause with the world and 
 know nothing of that separation which God demands of His 
 redeemed people. The ministry of the Word, evangelistic 
 campaigns led by evangelists who have “incorporated,” 
 aiming at big collections to which Saints and Sinners, Jews 
 and Gentiles, are urged to give, the different schemes to 
 raise big sums of money, all these are greater evils than the 
 selling of oxen and sheep in the temple court of Israel. It is 
 unholy trafficking in the Truth of God. 
 
 The scourge He made was probably used to drive out the 
 
52 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 animals. Nothing is said that He used the whip on the 
 persons. His person was sufficient to strike terror into the 
 hearts of these traffickers. How His eyes must have flashed 
 with holy indignation! It has been pointed out that in this 
 transaction He used more physical force than at any 
 other time. ‘‘Here we see Him doing no less than four 
 things: (1) Making the scourge. (2) Driving out the ani- 
 mals. (3) Pouring out on the ground the changers’ money. 
 (4) Overthrowing the tables.” 
 
 Then came from His lips, the lips into which Grace was 
 poured (Psalm xlv), the scathing rebuke ““Take these things 
 hence! Make not my Father’s house a house of merchan- 
 dise!” In comparing His words here with the words He 
 spoke at the cleansing of the temple three years later, we 
 notice that here He speaks of His Father’s house; three 
 years later He said “‘My house.” ‘That He mentioned here 
 the temple as ““My Father’s house” is another witness of 
 our Lord to His Sonship. In Chapter v:18, He bears the 
 same witness and then the Jews were ready to stone Him. 
 But here His majestic, holy indignation strikes terror to 
 their hearts and they flee His presence. And when three 
 years later our Lord found the same conditions He said, 
 “Ye have made it a den of thieves.” The profanation had 
 increased at a fearful rate so that the house had become a 
 den of thieves. 
 
 And the incident has a striking dispensational, prophetic 
 meaning. It foreshadows that cleansing which will take 
 place when He comes again and manifests His Glory. The 
 Jews in the future will erect another temple in Jerusalem 
 where once more sacrifices will be brought, which are to 
 the Lord an abomination, for they are the expression of 
 their unbelief and apostasy (Isaiah Ixvi:1-4). This will 
 be during the time of Jacob’s trouble, when the unbelieving 
 part of the Jews are following and worshipping the Man 
 of Sin. At that time the abomination will be set up in 
 Jerusalem, that image of which we read in Revelation xiii. 
 (See Daniel xii:11; Matthew xxiv:15). But when the 
 Lord returns He will cleanse Jerusalem and purge it with 
 the spirit of burning, that is judgment (Isaiah iv). Of this 
 time of cleansing the Prophet Zechariah speaks. ‘In that 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN oe 
 
 day shall there be . . . every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah 
 holiness unto the Lord of hosts; and all they that sacrifice 
 shall come and take of them, and seethe therein, and in 
 that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house 
 of the Lord of Hosts” (Zech. xiv:21). The word Canaan- 
 ite means “‘traflicker.”? The house and the nation will be 
 cleansed. But when He comes again His wrath will be 
 manifested, foreshadowed in the small scourge He made 
 of cords. It will be the wrath of the Lamb (Psalm ii:12; 
 Rev. vi:16). And this wrath will be displayed not only 
 against idolatrous Judaism but against apostate Christen- 
 dom as well. The disciples remembered what is written in 
 the Psalm, “‘the zeal of thine house has eaten me up.” It 
 shows how well they were acquainted with the Word of 
 God and the Spirit of God taught them the application of 
 this Scripture. We find it in the sixty-ninth Psalm, the 
 Psalm which is so frequently quoted in the New Testament 
 Scriptures as a prophecy of our Lord in His humiliation 
 and suffering. 
 
 Verses 18-22. It is significant that there was no protest 
 from the side of the Jews against the action of our Lord. 
 They evidently recognized the wrong in having defiled the 
 house of the Lord. But they questioned His authority. 
 Had he credentials that He is authorized to do this? If He 
 is really divinely commissioned let him prove it by signs! 
 This was their demand. But instead of working a miracle, 
 which He might have done, He spoke a word which was an 
 enigma to them. “Destroy this temple, and in three days | 
 will raise it up.”’ He did not mean the temple buildings, but 
 the temple, His body, which He the Lord of all had taken 
 on. In that body dwelt the Son of God, as in the bodies 
 of God’s children the Holy Spirit dwells. This is the answer 
 He gave. His body would be killed but He would raise 
 this temple in three days. He spoke these words as the 
 omnipotent Son of God who has the power to lay down 
 His life and the power to take it again (John x:18). Not 
 only did the Father raise Him from the dead, but He arose 
 by His own power. 
 
 The Jews did not understand what He meant. They 
 thought only of the temple building, which Herod had re- 
 
54 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 built and repaired. According to the Jewish historian 
 Josephus, at the time our Lord was in Jerusalem it was 
 exactly forty-six years that this work had been going on. 
 Nor did His disciples grasp the meaning of these words of 
 our Lord. But when He was risen from the dead they re- 
 membered it and then believed the Scripture through the 
 illumination of the Holy Spirit, who showed unto them the 
 things of Christ. The last three verses belong properly to the 
 next chapter, with which a new section of this Gospel begins. 
 
 Verses 23-25. These closing verses of the second chapter 
 form an introduction to the great teachings which now 
 follow, and which are so characteristic of the Gospel of John, 
 namely, the unfolding of the truth concerning eternal life, 
 how it is imparted to man, and what goes with it. Here we 
 have first of all a picture of the condition of man and how he 
 is in need of a new nature, and must be born again. He 
 was in Jerusalem during Passover, and at that time He did 
 miracles by which He manifested His Power and Glory. 
 These miracles were the credentials of King Messiah. They 
 were the signs of the Kingdom. As a result of these signs 
 He wrought many believed on His name; they therefore 
 conceded Him to be the Messiah, the Son of David, the 
 promised King; the miracles were evidences to them of the 
 true Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth. But while they be- 
 lieved on His Name, not as Son of God, but as Messiah, He 
 did not commit (or trust) Himself to them. Their faith 
 was not such as affected their moral nature, not a faith 
 which is expressed in complete submission to Him, or which 
 opens the heart to receive Him. While they were fully 
 convinced that He who did these miracles is the Messiah, 
 their hearts were untouched. It was an intellectual belief 
 which could assent to outward evidence, but which felt no 
 need of a Saviour and would not own the real condition 
 before God. It is an illustration of what the natural man 
 is; how spiritually dead he is. The Lord Jesus looked 
 through these men. Because He is God He knows the hearts 
 of all the children of men (1 Kings viili:39). He is the 
 searcher of hearts, who alone can sound the desperately 
 wicked depths of the human soul. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 55 
 
 CHAPTER Il 
 
 Verses 1-3. We are now introduced to one of this class, 
 who believed, because he had seen the miracles of the Lord, 
 and yet he seemed to have a deeper desire than the others; 
 this desire led Nicodemus to interview the Lord personally. 
 He was a Pharisee, which was an honored sect among the 
 Jews, known for their extreme religiousness in keeping the 
 law, as well as the traditions of the elders, the interpretations 
 of that law. How the Pharisees as the religious-ritualistic 
 class hated and opposed the Lord Jesus, and how they finally 
 made common cause with the Saduccees, the rationalistic 
 school, in rejecting Christ, the synoptic Gospels fully reveal. 
 But here is a Pharisee whose heart is touched. And he was 
 a ruler among the Jews, he held a high ecclesiastical position 
 in his nation, a position which demanded a clean, moral 
 character. We find a third description of this man in verse 
 10. The Lord addressed him as “‘the teacher in Israel.’’ He 
 had the reputation in his generation of being a leading, 
 deeply educated teacher, to whom the people looked for 
 instruction and guidance. That such a prominent teacher 
 lived in the days of our Lord is confirmed by the Jews. He 
 was a leading member of the Sanhedrim and a man of much 
 wealth. In Talmudical literature he is mentioned as Nico- 
 demus Ben Gorion, an outstanding figure in Jewish economy 
 of the first Century.* 
 
 He sought the Lord Jesus by night. Twice more this fact 
 is emphasized in this Gospel (chapters vii:50, xix:39). While 
 he had an earnest longing for the truth, which made him 
 take a great risk, he was at the same time timid, fearing the 
 scorn and condemnation of his co-religionists. 
 
 Before he ever made his appearance before the Lord Jesus 
 in that memorable night, the Lord knew him. He knew what 
 burdened his heart; he knew the longing of his heart. The 
 conversation which follows is of great importance and de- 
 serves very careful study. Some have asked why only John 
 records this important event. The reason is very clear. He 
 was commissioned to write the Gospel document which shows 
 ~ *See Jewish Encyclopedia Vol. IX, page 300. 
 
56 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 our Lord as the true God and the eternal Life, with power 
 to give eternal Life, a truth which the Holy Spirit held back 
 from the pen of the three preceding Evangelists. ‘The con- 
 versation with Nicodemus, the great truths our Lord here 
 teaches concerning the new birth, form the proper starting 
 point for the unfolding of the great theme of the fourth 
 Gospel. Others have asked where John got the correct in- 
 formation from to write an accurate account of the night 
 visit of the great Pharisee, especially since some forty years 
 had gone by since it took place. This question has been well 
 answered by another. ‘How any one can waste time, as 
 some famous commentators do, in speculating how the con- 
 versation between Christ and Nicodemus was reported, is 
 to my mind perfectly astonishing. ‘To hint, as one has done, 
 that Jesus must have told John about the conversation after- 
 wards, or that John must have been present, appears to me 
 to strike a blow at the very root of inspiration. Both here 
 and elsewhere, frequently, John describes things which he 
 only knew by the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit’ 
 (Bishop Ryle). 
 
 Nicodemus addressed the Lord as “Rabbi’”—which means 
 “Master” or Teacher, and then said, ““We know that thou 
 art a teacher come from God (literally rendered, “‘From God 
 thou hast come a teacher”) for no one can do these miracles 
 that thou doest, except God be with him.” Most likely 
 Nicodemus had a strong impression that Jesus must be the 
 Messiah, yet he was cautious and made therefore an attempt 
 to know more about Him and by private conversation. 
 
 And the Lord answered him at once without permitting 
 Nicodemus to continue his address. What was in Nico- 
 demus’s heart? About what did he intend to speak to the 
 Lord? We read how the Lord answered him, and what our 
 Lord said gives us a hint of what was in the heart of Nico- 
 demus. The Lord anticipated his question, and at once 
 touches upon the whole matter which had exercised his mind. 
 “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”’ Nicodemus came to in- 
 quire concerning the kingdom. Messiah and the kingdom 
 were inseparably associated in the Jewish mind. If this Man 
 does miracles, as He did, is He the Messiah, and, if He is, 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 57 
 
 what about His kingdom? This must have been the supreme 
 thought with Nicodemus. The words our Lord spoke to him 
 indicate this. 
 
 The question then arises, What kingdom does our Lord 
 mean when He addressed Nicodemus in this abrupt way? 
 This we must ascertain first, and after that the meaning of 
 being ‘‘born again,” as well as the mode of this new birth. 
 
 The Gospel is often preached, and that rightly so, from 
 the story of Nicodemus. In doing so emphasis is laid upon 
 the great truth that there is only one way into the kingdom, 
 and that is the new birth. But the Gospel preacher gener- 
 ally identifies the kingdom of God with salvation, and speaks 
 of it in the sense of being right with God, getting saved and 
 receiving eternal life, which is all very true. But the original 
 meaning in connection with Nicodemus is quite overlooked. 
 Nicodemus certainly did not understand by the kingdom 
 anything different from that kingdom which the Prophets 
 of his people had predicted. It is the kingdom promised to 
 Israel, the kingdom which is not now, which will come some 
 day and into which Israel will enter. We fully agree with 
 the comment of one of the most spiritual expositors, who 
 knew how to divide the Word of Truth rightly, the late 
 Frederick W. Grant. We quote his words: 
 
 “The Kingdom of God was that which the prophets had 
 announced, and for which all Israel waited. We must not 
 think of it in the form it has now taken, the King being 
 away, and its administration being in the hands of men. 
 We must think of it as established by power at the Coming 
 of the Lord, when of Israel alone a remnant will enter it 
 whose character Isaiah explicitly declares (chapter iv:2-4). 
 For ‘in that day shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful 
 and glorious, and the fruit of the earth be excellent and 
 comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall 
 come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remain- 
 eth in Jerusalem shall be called holy; even every one that 
 is written among the living in Jerusalem; when the Lord 
 shall have washed away the filth of the daughter of Zion, 
 and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst 
 thereof by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning.” 
 
58 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Then follows the account of the glory of Jerusalem in mil- 
 lennial days. 
 
 “It is certain, therefore, that, when Israel enters the King- 
 dom, every one will be born again that does so, and it should 
 be clear that this is what a Jew like Nicodemus would ex- 
 pect, and had a right to expect, if taught of the prophets. 
 Of the Christian form of the Kingdom he could know nothing, 
 and could be expected to know nothing; for it was not yet 
 revealed. Nor could the Lord’s words even apply to the 
 present time, in which, all the parables declare, a mingled 
 condition of things, tares and wheat together, wise and fool- 
 ish virgins” (Numerical Bible). 
 
 Later in the conversation our Lord expressed surprise over 
 the great teacher’s ignorance. “Art thou the teacher in 
 Israel and dost thou not know these things?’ It is clearly 
 revealed in the Old Testament prophetic Word that Israel’s 
 blessing, restoration and entrance into the future earthly 
 kingdom, which will be set up when King Messiah returns 
 to earth, is intimately connected with the new birth of 
 the remnant of the nation. ‘This is clearly stated in the 
 great restoration chapter in the Book of Ezekiel. After 
 the promise, “I will take you from among the nations, 
 and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into 
 your own land,” the Holy Spirit promises that for the nation 
 which will be their new birth. ‘Then will I sprinkle clean 
 water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthi- 
 ness and from your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart 
 also will I give you, and a new spirit will J put within you 
 and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and 
 I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit 
 within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye 
 shall keep my judgments and do them” (Ezekiel xxxvi:4-28). 
 
 While this is true of Israel in the future, that they can 
 never enter in and possess the promised kingdom unless 
 born again, it is equally true of the entrance into the King- 
 dom of His Son, which is now (Colossians i:13). There is no 
 other way, but the way of being born again. What man is in 
 himself, what he makes of himself, as a religious, a moral nad 
 educated man, such as Nicodemus was, can never bring the 
 soul into the presence and fellowship of a holy God. This 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 59 
 
 is the one unalterable condition for Jew and Gentile, “ye 
 must be born again.” 
 
 It has often been remarked with what abruptness our 
 Lord treated Nicodemus, interrupting him as He did, and 
 then laying down this great demand as the one great con- 
 dition of the kingdom. And what a contrast with her of 
 whom we read in the next chapter, the woman at the well! 
 Both needed the new birth, though the one dressed in the 
 garments of his own pharisaical righteousness (only filthy 
 rags), and the other garbed in that of an abandoned woman. 
 Yet He did not speak to the woman of the absolute necessity 
 of the new birth in order to see the kingdom of God. In 
 fact, our Lord did not make a similar statement and de- 
 mand of any other person apart from Nicodemus. He se- 
 lected this one man, the natural man at his best, to emphasize 
 the one great need, the new birth. 
 
 Verses 4-8. The question which Nicodemus asked of the 
 Lord, after His emphatic statement concerning the new birth, 
 reveals the ignorance of the natural man, though he may be, 
 like Nicodemus, in the eyes of man a great teacher and relig- 
 ious leader. He was just as ignorant as the Samaritan woman 
 who did not know what the Lord meant by “‘living water.” 
 In answer to Nicodemus our Lord enlightens him as to the 
 new birth, that it is a birth of the water and the Spirit, and 
 repeats once more the absolute necessity of such a birth 
 for entrance into the Kingdom of God. 
 
 We examine first the very weighty and important state- 
 ment “that which is born of the flesh is flesh.”” It was no 
 doubt spoken first of all in answer to the words of Nicode- 
 mus: “‘Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb 
 and be born?”’ Even if this were possible it would not open 
 the way into the Kingdom of God, for flesh, the fallen 
 nature of man, cannot produce anything but flesh. This is 
 the great truth our Lord makes known in this terse state- 
 ment. Man enters into the world by the natural generation 
 with a nature of sin, a fallen, corrupt nature. The whole 
 race is by nature unfit to be in the presence of God. Both 
 Jews and Gentiles are under sin and on account of sin the 
 whole world is guilty before God. Out of an unclean thing 
 nothing clean can be brought forth (Job xiv:4). Well 
 
60 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 may we pause here and think of that other statement in the 
 beginning of this Gospel, in which also the word flesh is 
 used—“‘the Word was made flesh.” If the Son of God 
 was born like any other human being is born (as blasphem- 
 ers in different colleges and in pulpits of evangelical denom- 
 inations boldly declare), then He too falls under this state- 
 ment, that He was born of the flesh and therefore flesh, and 
 hence it would have been impossible for Him to be the 
 Saviour of men. The holy, perfectly holy, sinless character 
 and life of the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be explained in any 
 other way than by His virgin birth. We mention this argu- 
 ment here because the destructive critics, with their boast of 
 scholarship, declare that John’s Gospel has nothing to 
 say about the supernatural birth of Christ. But of Him it 
 was never true “‘that which is born of the flesh is flesh,”’ but 
 He was conceived and born by the Holy Spirit of God and 
 therefore holy, without sin, and without the possibility of 
 sinning. Of every other human being it is sadly true, born 
 of the flesh and therefore flesh, sinful and alienated from 
 God. 
 
 And this nature of flesh, this corrupt nature, cannot be 
 changed into something better, because it is not good at all 
 and so evil that it can only bring forth evil. The root is 
 corrupt and so must be the fruit. Of this nature the Spirit 
 of God testifies that ‘‘they that are in the flesh cannot please 
 God.” It is enmity against God, for it is not subject to 
 the law of God, neither indeed can be (Romans viii:7-8). 
 How important is this truth! Whenever it is denied it will 
 affect the w hole Gospel and will lead to the shameful denial 
 of the Truth of God. And because human nature is abso- 
 lutely corrupt, with nothing good in it, not even the imagined 
 “‘divine spark” or a faint trace of good, therefore its off- 
 spring must be evil and nothing but evil, with no hope of 
 self-improvement; an entirely new nature is needed in order 
 to see the kingdom of God and enter therein. This new 
 nature is the nature produced by the Spirit of God, and there- 
 fore a spiritual nature, the divine nature, which only is fit 
 and fitted to be in the presence of Him who bestows it. 
 
 This birth is of water and the Spirit, ‘‘except a man 
 be born of the water and the Spirit.”” We could fill many 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 61 
 
 pages with the different views which have been expressed 
 on this sentence. Its application to baptism is the most com- 
 mon and held by many. But this view is totally wrong. The 
 Lord did no more mean baptism in using the term water, 
 than He meant the Lord’s supper when in the sixth chapter 
 He speaks of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. If 
 He meant baptism then it would follow very logically that 
 only those who are baptized can enter the Kingdom, and 
 that all those who are baptized must of necessity possess 
 eternal life. Baptism is the figure of death. Romans vi; 
 Colossians ii and I Peter iii:18 bear witness to this; as Paul 
 writes in the sixth chapter of Romans, “‘Know ye not that 
 so many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were bap- 
 tized into His death?”? But our Lord here does not speak 
 of death, nor of His death and the believer’s death in Him, 
 but he speaks solely of the communication of life in the new 
 birth. 
 
 ‘Christian Baptism was not instituted, nor did the facts 
 exist which it symbolizes, till the Lord died and rose. How, 
 then, could Nicodemus by any possibility anticipate them or 
 understand what the Lord gives as the clearing up of this 
 difficulty as to being born again? Yet the Lord reproached 
 him as “‘the teacher in Israel”? with his slowness of intelli- 
 gence. That is, he should have known these things, which 
 he could not possibly know if the Lord alluded to a Chris- 
 tian institution as yet undivulged” (W. Kelly). Bishop 
 Ryle of the Church of England, which more or less holds 
 the view that water means baptism, gives a number of ex- 
 cellent reasons why this view is erroneous. We give his six 
 reasons. (1) There is nothing in the words of the text 
 which necessarily requires to be referred to baptism. (2) The 
 assertion that ‘‘water’? must mean baptism is an asser- 
 tion utterly destitute of Scripture proof. It is a mere gra- 
 tuitous assumption and must fall to the ground. (3) If 
 water means baptism it follows as a logical consequence 
 that baptism is absolutely necessary to salvation, and that all 
 who have died unbaptized since these words were spoken 
 have been lost. (4) If we accept the theory that baptism 
 is the means of regeneration, that all baptized persons are 
 necessarily regenerated we are irrestibly involved in the 
 
62 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 most dangerous and pernicious consequences. (5) If it 
 means baptism it is difficult to understand why our Lord 
 rebuked Nicodemus for his ignorance. (6) If water means 
 baptism, it is most extraordinary that there is so little about 
 baptism in the Epistles of the New Testament. Paul 
 thanked God that of the Corinthians he had baptized none 
 but Crispus and Gaius. He would surely never have said 
 this, if all whom he baptized were at once born again. Im- 
 agine Paul saying, “‘I thank God I renegerated none of you.” 
 
 Baptism as an ordinance cannot communicate life, nor is 
 it essential to salvation. Water here is figurative of the 
 Word of God as it is also in the thirteenth chapter, in con- 
 nection with the feet washing of the disciples, and in Ephe- 
 sians v:26: ““The washing of water by the Word.” ‘Then 
 there are three passages which show conclusively that 
 the Word of God is meant: 1 Corinthians iv:15, “‘for in 
 Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel,” 
 James i:18, “Of His own will begat He us with the Word 
 of Truth,’ and 1 Peter 1:23. In the last named passage 
 Peter writes: “‘Being born again, not of corruptible seed, 
 but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and 
 abideth forever.” ‘This Petrine statement is sufficient to 
 silence the view that water baptism is an agent in the 
 new birth. And this is so much more remarkable because 
 Peter is the Apostle through whom ritualistic Christendom 
 claims to have received its authority and doctrine. The 
 Spirit of God uses the Word of God to bring about the 
 new birth. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing cometh 
 by the Word of God. The Word believed and accepted, the 
 Holy Spirit accomplishes by His power the new birth, and 
 the new nature, the eternal life is recerved. We may well 
 call the Word of God the mother of all those who are be- 
 votten again, while the Holy Spirit is the Father. For this 
 reason Peter exhorts new-born babes, those just born again, 
 to desire the sincere milk of the Word to grow thereby 
 (1 Peter 11:2). This is the only meaning of the word water, 
 the written, the living and abiding Word of God. 
 
 This new birth by believing the Word of God, and through 
 the Holy Spirit as the agent of life and power, is absolutely 
 necessary for entrance into the Kingdom of God. It is this 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 63 
 
 which delivers from the power of darkness and translates 
 us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love. And, as stated 
 before, Israel cannot enter that coming Kingdom, the King- 
 dom which will come with the coming of the King, except 
 by the new birth. The remnant of Israel will be born again 
 in that coming day, and a great national regeneration is in 
 store for that nation (Ezekiel xxxvi). 
 
 The Lord then said again, “Marvel not that I said unto 
 thee, Ye must be born again.”’ He bids him to stop won- 
 dering, and the repeated emphasis confirms the great 
 importance of the new birth. No matter how this age 
 may progress in educational and scientific matters (it can 
 not progress in righteousness for it is an evil age) the de- 
 mand of the Son of God can never be changed—“‘Ye must 
 be born again.” Dean Alford adduces from this state- 
 ment an argument of the supernatural birth of our Lord. 
 “The Lord could not say of Himself what he said to Nico- 
 demus. He said ‘Ye’ and not ‘We’ must be born again. 
 Why? Because in the full sense in which the flesh is in- 
 capacitated from entering the kingdom of God, He was 
 Hoteporn of. the flesh... “.> . Pherefore Hevincludes not 
 Himself in this necessity for the new birth.” 
 
 Furthermore, our Lord said, ‘““The wind bloweth where it 
 listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
 whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one 
 that is born of the Spirit”? (verse 8). This applies to the 
 mysterious and incomprehensible operations of the Spirit of 
 God in the new birth. 
 
 Verses 9-13. For the third time Nicodemus speaks; it is 
 the last time he answered the Lord. He had first addressed 
 the Lord expressing his faith in Him as a teacher come from 
 God. When our Lord had told him of the new birth as the 
 only way into the kingdom, Nicodemus answered foolishly, 
 and now after he had heard from the lips of the Son of God 
 all the great truths concerning man’s corrupt nature, the 
 necessity of the new birth by water and the spirit, and 
 about the agent in the new birth, the Holy Spirit, in His 
 incomprehensible operations, he asks, How can these things 
 be? What an evidence of the blinded condition as to spir- 
 itual things this great teacher in Israel revealed! It is the 
 
64 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 blindness of the natural man which is the condition of all 
 of us. After our eyes are opened we realize it as the blind 
 man did whom the Lord healed—*‘one thing I know, that, 
 whereas I was blind, now I see” (Chapter ix:25). 
 
 Nicodemus revealed ignorance even in the elementary 
 things he should have known as the teacher of Israel. “Art 
 thou the teacher of Israel, and knowest not these things?” 
 As such he should have known through the study of the 
 Scriptures, at least in a general way, that Israel before 
 entering and possessing the kingdom promised to them, 
 must be an Israel not only circumcized in the flesh, but 
 in the heart as well. The Lord had spoken to Nicodemus 
 of these earthly things and not of heavenly things at all, 
 not of this present dispensation and a Church witha heav- 
 enly calling, but of that kingdom of blessing and glory, 
 an earthly kingdom, promised to Israel. 
 
 The Scriptures make it very plain that only the born- 
 again remnant of Israel will enter the land and enjoy the 
 millennial glories. “I will purge out from among you the 
 rebels, and them that transgress against me. I will bring 
 them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they 
 shall not enter into the land of Israel, and ye shall know 
 that I am the Lord” (Ezek. xx:38). ‘And it shall come 
 to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein 
 shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 
 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will 
 refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold 
 is tried; they shall call on my name, and I will hear them; 
 I will say it is my people, and they shall say, the Lord is 
 my God” (Zech. xiii:8-9). The ungodly, the apostate in 
 Israel cannot enter the kingdom. In the Psalms and in 
 the Prophets the necessity of a spiritual re-birth of Israel 
 is often brought forth in connection with the coming king- 
 dom. For instance in Psalm xv which begins with the 
 questions—‘“‘Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? Who 
 shall dwell in Thy holy hill?” ‘The answer is the demand 
 of righteousness, the result of the new birth. Or in Psalm 
 Ixxiil, God will be good to Israel, fulfill all his promises to 
 them, “‘to such as are of a clean heart.” ‘The new cove- 
 nant which is yet to be made with all Israel mentions the 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 65 
 
 new-birth. “But this shall be the covenant that I will 
 make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the 
 Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write 
 it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall 
 be my people. . . . I will forgive their iniquities, and I 
 will remember their sin no more” (Jerem. xxxi:33). But 
 the clearest prophecy on this line is the one to which we 
 referred before—(Ezekiel xxxvi:23-36). Long before that 
 the Lord had announced through Moses the world-wide dis- 
 persion of the nation, their return in repentance and their 
 new birth. ‘And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy 
 heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest 
 live” (Deut. xxx:6). 
 
 Of these earthly things, the earthly kingdom and the 
 conditions to enter therein, the Lord had spoken, and 
 Nicodemus did not know these simple things revealed 
 in the Hebrew Scripture. Of ‘“‘the heavenly things” the 
 Lord did not speak to Nicodemus, and these heavenly 
 things concern the fullness of redemption, the believer’s 
 identification with Himself, the gift of the Spirit, the Church 
 as the body and fullness of Christ. From this we learn con- 
 clusively two important facts. First, the Kingdom of God 
 has an earthly and heavenly side; the earthly side is the 
 kingdom promised to Israel (called in Matthew “the King- 
 dom of heaven’’); the heavenly side is the Church with her 
 heavenly calling and destiny. The second fact is that the 
 Lord speaks of the earthly things of the kingdom, the 
 heavenly things were made known after the Holy Spirit 
 came to earth. 
 
 In the next place He who spoke thus to Nicodemus re- 
 veals Himself, who He is, not “fa great teacher,” but One 
 who came down from heaven, and though in the form of 
 man, is in heaven. The words He spoke to Nicodemus 
 demand our careful attention. 
 
 “No man hath ascended up to heaven.” Some have 
 looked upon this statement as a contradiction and point to 
 Enoch and Elijah, who went to heaven without dying. It 
 just depends what one understands by ‘“‘heaven.” The 
 heaven of which our Lord speaks is the third heaven, where 
 
66 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 the dwelling place of God is. Into this heaven no man 
 ever has ascended (Acts ii:34). Nor have the Saints of 
 God since the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven to take 
 His place at the right hand of God, gone into that heaven. 
 The day will come when the redeemed will be brought into 
 that heaven. The Lord speaks of Himself. “He that de- 
 scended is the same also who ascended far above all heavens, 
 that He might fill all things” (Ephes. iv:10). We may well 
 connect this statement of our Lord with Proverbs xxx:4— 
 “‘Who hath ascended up into heaven or descended?) Who 
 hath gathered the wind into his fists? Who hath bound the 
 waters into a garment? Who hath established all the ends 
 of the earth? What is His Name, and what His Son’s Name, 
 if thou canst tell?’ But why does He speak here first of 
 ascending into heaven, and afterward mentions His descent? 
 He speaks prophetically, that is in anticipation, as elsewhere 
 in this Gospel, especially in His prayer in the seventeenth 
 chapter. There He said, “I am no longer in the world,” yet 
 He was still in the world. So here He anticipates His ascen- 
 sion. And He descended, came down from heaven first. It 
 is another precious evidence of His pre-existence and Deity. 
 Equally so are the words, “‘the Son of Man who is in heaven.” 
 
 This is a sublime statement with which Unitarians and 
 others have meddled. That so-called Twentieth Century 
 New Testament, which claims to be a translation from the 
 Greek, when in reality it is nothing but a perverted para- 
 phrase, against which we have repeatedly warned the people 
 of God, translates and gives verse 13 as follows: “There is 
 none gone up to heaven, except the one who came down 
 from heaven—the Son of Man Himself.”” These men who 
 are responsible for this Twentieth Century New ‘Testa- 
 ment have taken an astonishing liberty with one of the 
 greatest statements which came from the lips of our Lord 
 —they have taken out the declaration of the Son of God 
 that as Son of Man He is in Heaven, though He walked 
 upon the earth. It shows what kind of a spirit is behind 
 these attempts to modernize the Word of God. 
 
 Others have tried to correct this statement by saying “‘the 
 Son of Man who was in heaven.” While this is perfectly true, 
 it does not say so in the text. ‘“The Son of Man who is in 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 67 
 
 heaven”’ reveals His omnipresence, the omnipresence of God. 
 While living on earth as Man, He was at the same time in 
 heaven; as God He dwelt in heaven; as Man He dwelt on 
 earth. Every moment between His coming down from 
 heaven, and His going back, this statement was true of 
 Himself. It shows us that He did not relinquish His Deity 
 when He appeared in the form of a servant. This Gospel 
 shows us His three great attributes of Deity, omnipotence, 
 omniscience, and here omnipresence. 
 
 ‘The expression ‘who is in heaven’ is one of those many 
 expressions in the New Testament which can be explained 
 in no other way than by Christ’s Deity. It would be ut- 
 terly absurd and untrue to say of any mere man, that 
 at the very time he was speaking on earth he was in heaven. 
 But it can be said of Christ with perfect truth and pro- 
 priety. He never ceased to be very God, when He became 
 incarnate. He was ‘with God and was God.’ As God He 
 was in heaven while He spoke with Nicodemus. The ex- 
 pression is one which no Unitarian can explain away. Ii 
 Christ was only a holy man and nothing more, He could 
 not have used these words. The explanation of the former 
 part of this verse, viz.: that Christ was caught up into 
 heaven after His baptism, and there instructed about the 
 Gospel He was to teach, would be of itself absurd, and a 
 mere theory invented to get over a difficulty. But the 
 conclusion of the verse is a blow at the very root of the 
 Socinian system. It is written not only that Christ ‘came 
 down from heaven,’ but that ‘He is in heaven.’ ’’* 
 
 Verses 14-17, In the previous verse the Lord had spoken 
 of Himself as the Son of Man who is in heaven, and now He 
 speaks of Himself as the Son of Man to be lifted up. Nico- 
 demus must have remembered as the teacher in Israel that 
 the Prophet Daniel spoke of the Messiah as the Son of Man. 
 He saw Him in the night vision coming in the clouds of 
 heaven to receive the kingdom (Dan. vii:14). Nicodemus, 
 in common with the nation, expected the coming of the 
 Messiah to set up His kingdom, and overlooked the fact 
 that the same prophet who beheld Him coming to receive 
 the kingdom, also records the rejection of the Messiah. 
 
 *Bishop Ryle. 
 
 
 
68 THE GOSPEL: OF JOHN 
 
 “Messiah shall be cut off and have nothing” (Dan. ix:26). 
 Our Lord therefore points out to him that before the glory 
 can come there must be suffering first. ‘The Son of Man, 
 who will receive the throne of His Father David, and the 
 promised kingdom, must first be lifted up. 
 
 This is the second “‘must” in the third chapter of this 
 Gospel. If man must be born again in order to see and 
 enter the kingdom of God, the Son of Man must be lifted 
 up so that man dead in trespasses and sin, destitute of eternal 
 life, may receive such life and not perish. The words of 
 our Lord give the answer to the question Nicodemus had 
 asked, ‘“‘How can these things be?”—The Son of Man must 
 be lifted up. 
 
 What our Lord means by the sentence “the Son of Man 
 must be lifted up” is His death by crucifixion. The twelfth 
 chapter makes this plain. “And I, if I be lifted up from the 
 earth, will draw all to Me. This He said signifying what 
 death He should die” (Verses 32-33). The incident in the 
 wilderness, Moses lifting up the serpent, demonstrates the 
 same fact. ‘This is recorded in Numbers (xxi:4-9). God 
 had sent into the camp of Israel fiery serpents as a judg- 
 ment. ‘The bite of these serpents was deadly. But when 
 they cried “We have sinned’? God provided a remedy. 
 He told Moses to make a serpent of brass and set it upon a 
 pole, with the assuring promise that everyone who is bitten 
 and looks upon the brazen serpent should live. And Moses 
 made the serpent and put it upon the pole, and whenever an 
 Israelite was bitten, and he looked, he lived. This serpent 
 of brass was carefully preserved by the people Israel and 
 finally became an object of idolatry (like the cross in the 
 Romish “‘church’’) till King Hezekiah destroyed it (2 Kings 
 xvil:4). In spite of this fact a Romish church in Milan, 
 Italy,claims to have the original brazen serpent Moses made. 
 
 The use of this incident to illustrate the wonderful truth 
 of redemption, manifests the heavenly wisdom of our Lord. 
 It also confirms the typical teaching of Old Testament events, 
 that“‘all these things happened unto them for types, and they 
 are written for our admonition” (1 Cor. x:11). 
 
 The condition in the Camp of Israel is a picture of the 
 ravages of sin, and the wages of sin, which is death. The 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 69 
 
 fatal poison of sin is working in the race and man is spiritually 
 dead. ‘The brazen serpent lifted up on a pole is the type of 
 Christ in His sacrificial work on the cross. ‘That serpent was 
 the very image of what was destroying the Israelites, but 
 the brazen serpent had no poisonous fangs; there was no 
 poison in it. Though it bore the likeness of the serpent, the 
 emblem of sin, it was harmless. Thus the Son of God 
 appeared in the form of man, in the likeness of sinful flesh 
 (Rom. viii:3), but He was without sin; He knew no sin. 
 And when He was lifted up on the cross, on that cross He 
 who knew no sin was made sin for us, and by the offering of 
 Himself for sin, He put away sin. Hanging on that cross 
 He bore the curse and redeemed those who believe on Him 
 from the curse, being made a curse for us, for it is written, 
 Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree (Gal. iii:13). 
 Looking up to the brazen serpent, the Israelite saw the very 
 thing which had put death and ruin upon them, triumphed 
 over, completely conquered. And so as we look to Christ 
 crucified, made a curse, bearing sin, we see sin judged, con- 
 demned, triumphed over, robbed of its power and stripped 
 of its strength. 
 
 And as the Israelites looked to the lifted up brazen 
 serpent, and beheld there a representation of God’s power 
 over that which wrought death, and beheld thus God’s 
 ability to save, to end death and to give life, the power of 
 God was blessedly manifested in their salvation—‘‘when he 
 beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”,—Even so, when we 
 turn our eyes to the cross of Calvary, we behold the power 
 of God in salvation. The old man has been crucified with 
 Christ, that the body of sin might be annulled, that hence- 
 forth we may not serve sin. We see ourselves redeemed from 
 the guilt and power of sin; death is ended and life is given, 
 even eternal life. Let us also notice that the death-stricken 
 Israelite was not saved by a natural process of improvement 
 or by a gradual restoration, but by a sudden supernatural 
 manifestation of divine power. That life by which they 
 lived was miraculous in its character. How blessedly and 
 fully all this foreshadows and illustrates the Gospel of our 
 salvation! ‘The question Nicodemus asked as to the “Show” 
 of the new birth is wonderfully answered. Christ died for the 
 
70 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 ungodly and believing on Him means salvation from eternal 
 perdition and the gift of eternal life. What is it to believe? 
 It is the same that the Israelites did when in simple faith 
 they accepted God’s Word, believed it true and then looked 
 to the brazen serpent on the pole. This is the way to 
 salvation, as announced long before our Lord spoke these 
 words of life to the teacher in Israel—“‘Look unto Me, and 
 be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isaiah xlv:22). 
 There is life in a look at the crucified One; 
 There is life at this moment for thee; 
 
 Then look, sinner—look unto Him and be saved— 
 Unto Him who was nailed to the tree. 
 
 His anguish of soul on the cross hast thou seen? 
 His cry of distress hast thou heard? 
 
 Then why, if the terrors of wrath He endured, 
 Should pardon to thee be deferred? 
 
 We are healed by His stripes. Wouldst thou add to the word? 
 And He is our righteousness made; 
 
 The best robe of heaven He bids thee put on; 
 O couldst thou be better arrayed? 
 
 Then doubt not thy welcome, since God hath declared 
 There remaineth no more to be done; 
 Christ once in the end of the world hath appeared, 
 And completed the work He begun. 
 
 How needful it is in these days of apostasy to declare 
 and to defend this one great truth concerning our salva- 
 tion. In the very midst of the evangelical denomina- 
 tions, which generations ago preached this salvation by 
 grace, men have arisen who boldly say that man is not 
 saved by one act of faith, who deny the great and eternal 
 truths of real salvation as they came from the lips of 
 our Lord. But it is worse than that. The modern the- 
 ology sees nothing in the death of Christ but an act 
 of self-sacrifice, the martyr’s death, and it denies Christ’s 
 substitutionary sacrifice. There is a veritable sneer in 
 apostate Christendom at the words “vicarious sacrifice.” 
 And that masterpiece of Satan “Christian Science” does 
 the same. It denies the reality of sin and death, and 
 hence has only words of contempt for redemption by 
 blood. Whoever it is who denies the substitutionary 
 sacrifice of Christ as the only means of salvation, whether 
 he is a professor or pulpiteer in some Protestant denomi- 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 71 
 
 nation, a Christian Scientist, a Spiritualist, or whatever 
 other name he may bear, is a deluded, lost soul, the 
 instrument of the powers of darkness, a blind leader of 
 the blind, a hypocrite, of whom the Son of God has 
 spoken His just words of condemnation: ‘Ye serpents, 
 ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damna- 
 tion of hell??? (Matthew xxiii:33). If an apostate should 
 read these lines, be warned, there is no escape for any 
 man or woman who denies the atoning death of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 But who is able to give an exposition of John i1i:16? 
 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only 
 Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should 
 not perish but have everlasting life.’ We do not say 
 too much when we say, this is the most wonderful verse 
 in the Bible. Luther said, “I love this text beyond meas- 
 ure.” And so do we. Every Christian, who knows the 
 Gospel, presses this. precious utterance to his heart, and 
 prizes it more than the riches of the whole world. Dr. Martin 
 Luther’s comment on this verse written four hundred years 
 ago is still one of the best. We can do nothing better 
 than to pass it on in translation to our readers, most of 
 whom have no access to Luther’s works. 
 
 “The Person of the Giver. In the first place, the Giver 
 is not a man, an emperor, or an angel, but the high, 
 eternal Majesty, God Himself, in comparison with whom 
 all men are dust and ashes. He is no task-master, who 
 only demands from us, nor is He now a devouring and 
 consuming fire, but a rich, flowing, eternal fountain of 
 grace and gifts. 
 
 “Secondly, the cause. What was the cause and motive 
 of the giving? Nothing but pure, unspeakable love; for 
 He does not give from obligation or duty, but from His 
 own goodness, as such a Lord who likes to give, and 
 takes His pleasure and joy in giving; He gives purely 
 and freely, without the asking. 
 
 “Thirdly, the gift itself. What, then, does He give? 
 Not heaven and earth and all they contain, but His Son, 
 who is as great as God Himself. This is an eternal, an 
 incomprehensible gift, which is a well and fountain. of 
 
 3 
 
72 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 all grace, goodness and kindness; yet, the possession and 
 ownership of eternal goods and treasures. When God 
 gives His Son, what does He retain and what does He not 
 give? Yea, He gives Himself entirely. (Rom. viii:32.) 
 
 ‘Fourthly, how and in what manner is the Son given? 
 Look upon Him and see what He does and suffers, in that 
 He must take upon Himself the fury and rage of the devil 
 and sin and contend with them; this means to “give” 
 in the highest sense. 
 
 ‘Fifthly, the recipient to whom all this is given is also 
 painted in the text. In one word it is called “World.” 
 This 1s wonderful, extraordinary loving and giving. For 
 what is the world, but a great mass of people who do 
 not fear, trust or love God; in addition, also, the dis- 
 obedient, murderers, whoremongers, thieves and knaves, 
 transgressors of all the commandments, and opposers of 
 them in all respects, clinging to the very devil, the arch 
 enemy of God. 
 
 “Sixthly. Now follow the fruit and the benefit of this 
 gift, “Should not perish but have everlasting life.’ That 
 is, | shall not remain in sin, I shall not have a bad con- 
 science, nor be under the law. This grace shall effect 
 this, that it shall extinguish hell for me, cast the devil 
 under my feet, and in place of a frightened, despondent 
 and deadened heart, I shall receive a joyful, living heart; 
 in short, an eternal, imperishable life, instead of eternal 
 destruction and death. 
 
 ‘‘Seventhly, the manner in which such treasure and gift 
 is to be received, and the purse or casket into which it 
 is to be laid is faith alone. Faith holds out her hands, 
 opens the bag and receives abundant grace. Faith may 
 be only a small, diminutive casket, but it contains such 
 a noble, precious jewel, a pearl or an emerald such as 
 the world does not contain.” 
 
 But all these explanations are but the stammering lips 
 of a child. Could Luther speak from the glory, he would 
 own the insufficiency of these words. We believe that 
 the world God loved, means the world just as Luther ex- 
 plained it. The view of Electionists, that the world means 
 only the elect, whom God loved and predestinated before 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 73 
 
 the foundation of the world, while the rest is predestinated 
 to damnation, is unsound. The term ‘‘world” means the 
 whole race of mankind. ‘“To confine God’s love to the 
 elect, is taking a harsh and narrow view of God’s character 
 and fairly lays open Christianity to the modern charges 
 brought against it as cruel and unjust to the ungodly. If 
 God takes no thought for any but His elect, and cares for 
 none besides, how shall He judge the world? I believe in the 
 electing love of God the Father as strongly as any one. 
 I regard the special love with which God loves the sheep 
 whom He has given to Christ from all eternity, as a most 
 blessed and comfortable truth, and one most cheering and 
 profitable to believers. I only say, that it is not the truth 
 of John iii:16.”—Bishop Ryle. 
 
 Even John Calvin endorses the true meaning of the 
 word ‘‘world.” He says on this text, ‘‘Christ brought 
 life, because the heavenly Father loves the human race, 
 and wishes that they should not perish. Christ employed 
 the universal term ‘whosoever,’ both to invite indis- 
 criminately all to partake of life, and to cut off every excuse 
 from unbelievers. Such also is the import of the term 
 ‘world.’ ” 
 
 And who is able to give even a full comment on the 
 smallest word in this text, which is the word ‘‘so”? No 
 tongue nor pen can tell out the full meaning of these two 
 letters. And then the words “He gave.” How unsearch- 
 able and inexhaustible they are! 
 
 “The expression ‘he gave’ is a remarkable one. Christ 
 is God the Father’s gift to a lost and sinful world. He 
 was given generally to be the Saviour, the Redeemer, the 
 Friend of sinners—to make an atonement sufficient for 
 all—and to provide a redemption large enough for all. 
 To effect this, the Father freely gave Him up to be de- 
 spised, rejected, mocked, crucified, and counted guilty 
 and accursed for our sakes. It is written that He was 
 ‘delivered for our offences,’ and that ‘God spared Him 
 not, but delivered him up for us all’ (Rom. iv:25; viii: 
 32). Christ is the ‘gift of God,’ spoken of to the Samari- 
 tan woman (John iv:10), and the ‘unspeakable gift’ spoken 
 of by St. Paul (2 Cor. ix:15). He Himself says to the wicked 
 
74 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Jews, ‘My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven’ 
 (John vi:32). This last text, be it noted, was one with which 
 Erskine silenced the General Assembly in Scotland, when he 
 was accused of offering Christ too freely to sinners. 
 
 “It should be observed that our Lord calls Himself ‘the 
 only begotten Son of God’ in this verse. In the verse but 
 one before this, He called Himself ‘the Son of man.’ Both 
 the names were used in order to impress upon the mind 
 of Nicodemus the two natures of Messiah. He was not 
 only the Son of man but the Son of God. But it is striking 
 to remark that precisely the same words are used in both 
 places about faith in Christ. If we would be saved, we must 
 believe in Him both as the Son of Man and the Son of God.”’* 
 
 The greatest statement in this verse, which we cannot 
 exhaust, is in the words, that he whosoever (it means you) 
 believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting 
 life. No human knows what it means to “perish,” that 
 awful destiny which is ours by nature, an endless, conscious 
 existence in the outer darkness, with the load of sin unlifted, 
 perishing and no end to this perishing. Nor do we know 
 the fullest meaning of what the Glory is for which God has 
 saved us and to which He brings His own. Only when we 
 shall know, as we are known, when no longer we look into 
 a glass darkly shall we measure the heights and depths of 
 John 11:16. 
 
 Furthermore, the Lord told Nicodemus, that God did 
 not send Him into the world that the world should be 
 judged (the meaning of the word “‘condemned’’) by Him, 
 “but that the world through Him might be saved.” Later 
 our Lord spoke words to the same effect. “I came not 
 to judge the world, but to save the world” (John xii:47). 
 The Old Testament prophetic Word shows Messiah as the 
 Judge of the nations and of the ungodly, both among Israel 
 and the Gentiles. His Coming means judgment and for 
 the earth the rule of righteousness, when righteousness will 
 reign through Him as King of kings. Nicodemus and the 
 Jews who expect the promised Messiah and His kingdom, 
 therefore expected Him to come as Judge. They overlooked 
 the fact that His second Coming will bring the judgments 
 
 *Notes on John 
 
 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 75 
 
 announced in the Prophets and the establishment of the 
 throne of righteousness. His first coming is not for the 
 fulfillment of promises to establish His Kingdom. While 
 the Jews were blind as to the purpose of His first Coming, 
 the professing church of today is even more blind as to His 
 Second Coming. The purpose of His first Coming is that all 
 the world might have a door of salvation opened through 
 Himself; that Salvation might be provided for all the 
 world, and that those who believe on Him might be saved. 
 But it does not mean, that all the world will be saved in 
 this age. When those who believe are gathered out, when 
 the Church, the Body of Christ, is complete, His Second 
 Coming takes place, and then He will judge the world in 
 righteousness. 
 
 “The readiness of natural men everywhere to regard 
 Christ as a Judge much more than as a Saviour, is a curious 
 fact. The whole system of the Roman Catholic Church 
 is full of the idea. People are taught to be afraid of Christ, 
 and to flee to the Virgin Mary! Ignorant Protestants are 
 not much better. They often regard Christ as a kind of 
 Judge, whose demands they will have to satisfy at the last 
 day, much more than as a present personal Saviour and 
 Friend. Our Lord seems to foresee this error, and to correct 
 it in the words of this text.” 
 
 Verses 18-21. While it is true that the Son of God was 
 not sent to condemn the world, yet in another sense the 
 world is condemned already, for the world which lieth in the 
 wicked one, yea the whole world is guilty before God and 
 under condemnation. (Romans ili:19.) But the sinner who 
 believes on the Son of God is no longer under that condem- 
 nation. ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth 
 my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlast- 
 ing life, and shall not come into comdemnation; but is passed 
 from death unto life.” (Chapter v:24.) But what a solemn 
 truth it is that “he that believeth not is condemned already,” 
 he remains in his guilty condition before God, with wrath 
 abiding upon him (verse 36); he is judged because he does 
 not believe on the Son of God. Unbelief then is the sin 
 which damns. Well has it been said, ‘‘Nothing is so pro- 
 voking and offensive to God as to refuse the glorious salvation 
 
76 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 He has provided at so mighty a cost, by the death of His 
 only begotten Son. Nothing is so suicidal on the part of 
 man as to turn away from the only remedy which can heal 
 his soul. Other sins may be scarlet, filthy, and abominable. 
 But not to believe on Christ is to bar the door in our own way, 
 and to cut off ourselves from heaven. It has been truly 
 remarked that it was a greater sin in Judas Iscariot not to 
 believe on Christ for pardon, after he had betrayed Him, than 
 to betray Him into the hands of His enemies. To betray 
 Him no doubt was an act of enormous covetousness, wicked- 
 ness and ingratitude. But not to seek Him afterwards by 
 faith, was to disbelieve His love, mercy and power to save. 
 Luther said on this passage, ““Henceforward, he who is con- 
 demned must not complain of Adam, and his inborn sin. 
 The seed of the woman, promised by God to bruise the 
 head of the serpent, is now come and has atoned for sin, 
 and taken away condemnation. But he must cry out against 
 himself for not having accepted and believed in Christ. If I 
 do not believe on Him, sin and condemnation must continue.” 
 With this tremendous, never changing utterance of our Lord 
 before us, let us think of the masses about us. Every man 
 and woman, though they make some kind of a religious pro- 
 fession, who does not believe on the Son of God, is condemned 
 and lost. A Unitarian, a Christian Scientist, a Universalist 
 and the vast majority of Ritualists and professing Protestant 
 Church members, who have only the outward form of godli- 
 ness and are destitute of real salvation, are all under the 
 sentence of condemnation; they are lost. How well for us 
 to remember that we owe to them the Gospel, and that we 
 must witness to them concerning this solemn truth. 
 
 And this is the condemnation that He, the Light, came 
 into the world, and through His coming it has been mani- 
 fested what the heart of man is. Because man has an evil 
 heart and evil deeds, he loves darkness rather than light. 
 It was so with the Jews; it is so still. The light of the Gospel 
 is here; it has been shining for nineteen hundred years, yet 
 man continues to love darkness and refuses the light. And 
 has the rejection of the Gospel-light ever been greater than 
 it is now! Rejecting the Light, the Gospel, the Cross, is 
 the greatest tragedy of human existence for it seals an eternal 
 doom. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 77 
 
 “The words, ‘because their deeds were evil,’ are very 
 instructive. ‘They teach us that where men have no love 
 to Christ and His Gospel, and will not receive them, their lives 
 and their works will prove at last to have been evil. Their 
 habits of life may not be gross and immoral. They may be 
 even comparatively decent and pure. But the last day will 
 prove them to have been in reality ‘evil.’ 
 
 “Pride of intellect, or selfishness, or love of man’s applause, 
 or dislike to submission of will, or Self-righteousness, or 
 some other false principle will be found to have run through 
 all their conduct. In one way or another, when men refuse 
 to come to Christ, their deeds will always prove to be ‘evil.’ 
 Rejection of the Gospel will always be found to be connected 
 with some moral obliquity. When Christ is refused we may 
 be quite sure that there is something or other in life, or heart, 
 which is not right. Ifa man does not love light his ‘deeds 
 are evil.” Human eyes may not detect the flaw; but the 
 eyes of an all-seeing God do. 
 
 “The whole verse is a deeply humbling one. It shows 
 the folly of all excuses for not receiving the Gospel, drawn 
 from intellectual difficulties, from God’s predestination, from 
 our own inability to change ourselves, or to see things with 
 the eyes of others. All such excuses are scattered to the 
 winds by this solemn verse. People do not come to Christ, 
 and do continue unconverted, just because they do not wish 
 and want to come to Christ. ‘They love something else 
 better than the light. The elect of God prove themselves 
 to be elect by ‘choosing’ the things which are according to 
 God’s mind. The wicked prove themselves to be only fit 
 for destruction, by ‘choosing, loving, and following’ the 
 things which must lead to destruction.’* 
 
 But he that doeth truth, who in sincerity believes, cometh 
 to the light, and walks in that light, and thus it will be mani- 
 fested that his deeds are wrought in God, the fruits of that 
 new nature he received in believing on the Son of God. 
 
 Verses 22-36. ‘‘After these things came Jesus and His 
 disciples into the land of Judea; and there He tarried with 
 them, and baptized. And John also was baptizing in Aenon 
 near to Salim, because there was much water there; and 
 
 *Bishop Ryle. 
 
78 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 they came and were baptized. For John was not yet cast 
 into prison” (verses 22-24). The conversation with Nico- 
 demus ended with the previous verse. We shall find Nico- 
 demus mentioned twice more in this Gospel. After the 
 conversation, perhaps the next morning, our Lord left 
 Jerusalem and went into Judea, that is the surrounding 
 country, where he tarried for some time with His disciples. 
 There also the disciples baptized. The next chapter makes 
 it clear that our Lord did not baptize Himself (iv:2) but 
 His disciples baptized. We do not know anything else of 
 this baptism, which must have been of the same character 
 as John’s baptism unto repentance. And John also con- 
 tinued in his ministry, baptizing in Aenon near Salim. He 
 had not yet been cast into prison. 
 
 “Then there arose a question between some of John’s 
 disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto 
 John, and said unto him, Rabbi, He that was with thee 
 beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the 
 same baptizeth, and all come to him” (Verses 25-26). 
 
 What the question was between the disciples and the 
 Jews is not fully stated. It probably concerned the question 
 of baptism, which of the baptisms, that by John, or the 
 disciples’ baptism, was the most valuable and purifying. {It 
 is evident that the unrecorded dispute brought the disciples 
 of John to their master in a spirit of jealousy; they were 
 sectarians and were disturbed by the action of the disciples 
 of the Lord in baptizing the people. But this brought out 
 a most wonderful testimony to Christ from the side of John. 
 
 John answered and said, ““A man can receive nothing, 
 except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear 
 me witness, that I said I am not the Christ, but that I am 
 sent before Him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: 
 but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and 
 heareth him, rejoiceth greatly on account of the bridegroom’s 
 voice; this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, 
 but I must decrease” (Verses 27-30). 
 
 Blessed statement! It bears witness to the great spirit- 
 uality and humility of John the Baptist. How else could it 
 be? For of him it is written, “He shall be filled with the 
 Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke i:15). 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 79 
 
 And whenever the Spirit fills, He produces humility, lowliness 
 of mind and exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He rested 
 in the will of God, perfectly content and assured that all is 
 well. What then does it matter if more men came to Him, 
 concerning whom he had borne witness, than to himself. 
 He was fulfilling his mission as the herald of the King. 
 Another one filled with the Holy Spirit manifested the same 
 humility and contentment, Paul in the prison of Rome. He 
 knew nothing of the spirit of jealousy, though some preached 
 Christ out of contention, to add affliction to his bonds. But 
 he rose above it all, when he wrote: “What then? Not- 
 withstanding every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, 
 Christ is preached, and I therefore do rejoice, yea, and will 
 rejoice” (Phil’ 1:18). 
 
 John then speaks of Christ as the Bridegroom. He that 
 hath the Bride is the Bridegroom. But whois the Bride? Not 
 Israel, who nationally held the position of the married wife 
 (symbolically), being unfaithful, she was divorced, which is 
 her present condition. A day is coming when Israel will be 
 re-instituted and become once more married unto the Lord 
 in earthly glory (see Isaiah Ixii:4 and Hosea 11:16). But a 
 divorced wife taken back into favor can hardly be called a 
 Bride. The Bride of which John the Baptist speaks is the 
 Church, gathering now to the heavenly Bridegroom, destined 
 to be the Lamb’s wife and to share with Him all His heavenly 
 glory. John calls himself only the Bridegroom’s friend. As 
 such he greatly rejoiced to hear the Bridegroom’s voice. 
 Thus Christ was all his joy, to exalt Him the business of his 
 ministry. Therefore he was content to decrease and see 
 Christ increase. ‘“‘He must increase, but I must decrease.”’ 
 This is the third “must” in this chapter. Even so it should 
 be in the individual experience of every believer. Christ 
 must ever increase and we decrease. 
 
 “He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of 
 the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: He that 
 cometh from heaven is above all. And what He hath seen 
 and heard, that He testifieth; and no man receiveth His 
 testimony. He that hath received His testimony hath set 
 to his seal that God is true. For He whom God hath sent 
 speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by 
 
80 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 measure unto Him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath 
 given all things into His hand. He that believeth on the 
 Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the 
 Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him” 
 (Verses 31-36). 
 
 The Spirit-filled John exalts Christ and bears witness to 
 His Deity. He is from above and therefore He is above all. 
 Having come from above, He speaks of the heavenly things 
 He has seen and which He knows. The words of Christ 
 therefore are the unchangeable, the unchanging, the ever- 
 abiding words of heavenly truth. He is the Truth and His 
 Word is Truth. With Him whom he thus exalts he compares 
 his own inferior ministry; he is of the earth and his con- 
 ception earthly, weak and imperfect, as all earthly things are. 
 The sentence, ‘‘no man receiveth His testimony” anticipates 
 His rejection. But if any one believes the testimony of Him 
 who is above and who has made known heavenly things, 
 he hath set to it his seal that God is true. The seal is attached 
 to a document to confirm and to attest it; even so he who 
 receiveth the testimony of Christ, believes on Him, trusts in 
 Him, declares thus his belief that God is true to His Word, 
 and has kept His promises as to Christ and salvation. On 
 the other hand “‘He that believeth not God hath made Him 
 a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave 
 of His Son” (1 John v:10). 
 
 The Son of God, sent by God, One with God, speaketh the 
 words of God. How could it be otherwise? And there is 
 another great statement: “For God giveth not the Spirit by 
 measure unto Him.” In Him the fullness of the Godhead 
 was pleased to dwell. Prophets in the Old Testament re- 
 ceived the Spirit by measure, not so He whois very God. He 
 in whom the Father dwelt was also the dwelling place of the 
 Holy Spirit. And those who are in Him receive the Holy 
 Spirit not by measure, but He Himself comes as the abiding 
 guest, so that believers are the temples of the Holy Spirit. 
 Verse 35, ““The Father loveth the Son and hath given all 
 things into His hand,” means that the Father, in anticipa- 
 tion of the redemption work of His Son has given Him the 
 pre-eminence in all things. All things belong to Him in 
 His essential Deity; but as the incarnate Son of God who 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 81 
 
 finished the work, He alone could finish, the work of the Cross, 
 He has been made the heir of all things. 
 
 The final testimony of John is a very solemn utterance. 
 It is a fit termination of this great chapter. Eternal life is 
 the possession of all who believe on the Son. This great 
 truth we shall find more fully developed in the next chapters. 
 Here John the Baptist states the way to life, to receive 
 eternal life as a present possession (hath), which is faith in 
 the Son of God. And he that believeth not the Son shall not 
 see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. What an 
 important statement this is! Many are today disbelieving 
 the revelation of God’s word concerning the wrath of God 
 and the eternal punishment of all those who do not accept 
 the Lord Jesus Christ and who do not believe on Him. 
 Some deny altogether that the sinner is by nature a child of 
 wrath. Others say that the wicked man dies like the beast; 
 they persuade themselves that somehow in some way, the 
 wicked are annihilated and have no immortality, and that 
 only those who believe on Christ possess immortality. Others 
 have invented a second chance theory; others believe, or say 
 they believe, in universal salvation, while others call it restitu- 
 tion or restorationism. All these theorists deny that there 
 is such a thing as the eternal, never ending wrath of God. 
 All of them juggle with the Hebrew and Greek words trans- 
 lated “forever” and “‘everlasting’’ as if these are terms of 
 limitation. ‘The one sentence, the final testimony of this 
 Spirit filled man of God answers all their delusions and 
 hallucinations. ‘“‘He that believeth not the Son shall not 
 see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Here we 
 learn that man is by nature a child of wrath (Eph. 11:3), for 
 the wrath of God in order to abide upon the natural man, 
 who does not believe in the Son, must be upon him already. 
 In the second place annihilationists are proven to be liars, 
 for if sinners are annihilated the wrath of God cannot abide 
 upon them. Russellites, California Restorationists, Univer- 
 salists and all others are completely answered by this 
 solemn declaration “‘the wrath of God abideth on him.” It 
 is IMPOSSIBLE to say that this statement means anything 
 less than timelessness and endlessness. It is clear cut an 
 permits no deceitful handling. And may we all realize a 
 
82 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 never before what an awful thing it is to reject the Son of 
 God and to neglect so great salvation. And knowing this 
 may we go forth and give a dying world the Gospel of His 
 grace. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Verses 1-6. The Lord left Jerusalem and Judea and 
 turned towards Galilee. On the way there He must needs 
 go through Samaria. In His omniscience He knew her 
 whom He had come to seek and save. In the Gospel of 
 Matthew we read that He said to His disciples, when He 
 sent them forth as His messengers, that they should not go 
 to Samaria nor to the Gentiles, but only to the lost sheep of 
 the house of Israel. (Chapter X.) The message which He 
 gave then was the message for Israel—““The Kingdom of 
 heaven is at hand,” that is the promised, literal kingdom. 
 He sent them forth to herald that kingdom; they were the 
 messengers of the King, the Son of David. It was a national 
 affair. It took place before John the Baptist had been put 
 into prison. But now John’s ministry is ended; he is in 
 prison; he is not seen again in the Gospel, and is mentioned 
 but twice more (Chapter v:33; x:40). The Lord with His 
 disciples did not enter Samaria to announce the nearness of 
 the kingdom, but He went there for the sake of the woman to 
 whom He would reveal even greater things than He revealed 
 to the teacher in Israel, Nicodemus. 
 
 The reason for the Lord’s departure from Judea was His 
 knowledge that the Pharisees were greatly stirred up by the 
 fact that He was making more disciples, had a greater fol- 
 lowing, than John. They must have recalled the testimony 
 John had given concerning Him, they also knew what had oc- 
 curred inthe temple. No doubt they were even then secretly 
 plotting to end His ministry. The omniscient Lord knew it 
 all. Therefore He left Judea, and spent two days in Samaria, 
 before He reached Galilee, to manifest His gracious power 
 again and to perform His second great sign. 
 
 We must not pass over these events without pointing out 
 their typical significance. When our Lord left Judea and 
 
THE. GOSPEL “OF ‘JOHN 33 
 
 Jerusalem it foreshadows the setting aside of Jerusalem, 
 which rejected Him. His going into Samaria for two days 
 to bring the message of salvation to the outcasts, to reveal 
 Himself in the fullness of grace, is typical of what would 
 happen after Jerusalem rejected Him, the Gospel of grace 
 preached to the Gentiles. Then comes the third day, when 
 He reached Galilee, is received, heals the nobleman’s son, 
 which foreshadows the restoration of Israel. (See and com- 
 pare with Hosea vi:i-3.) 
 
 He must needs go through Samaria, for it was the only 
 direct way to reach Galilee. The Galileans, when going to 
 Jerusalem to attend the feasts of the Lord, always had to 
 journey through Samaria, but some of the strictest Jews 
 when obliged to go to the northern part of the land made 
 a detour and passed through Perea, so as not to become 
 defiled by contact with the Samaritans. The Jews hated and 
 despised the Samaritans, because they were a mongrel race 
 with a religion partly Jewish, and partly heathen. (2 Kings 
 xvii:24-41). 
 
 But the Lord knew why He must needs go through 
 Samaria. While in the preceding chapter Nicodemus sought 
 Him, here He seeks the woman. 
 
 He came to the city of Samaria called Sychar, which 
 means “purchased.” It is unquestionably identical with 
 Shechem, and is a very historical place. God first appeared 
 unto the father of the nation at Shechem (Gen. xii:6). 
 Jacob dwelt there (Genesis xxxiv:2). At that place Joseph’s 
 brethren fed their flocks (Genesis xxxvii:12). It was one of 
 the cities of refuge (Josh. xx:7-8) and Joshua delivered at 
 this place his great message (Josh. xxxiv:1). At Shechem the 
 bones of Joseph were buried as well as those of his fathers 
 (Josh. xxiv:32; Acts vii:16). Shechem is also prominently 
 connected with the revolt of the ten tribes (1 Kings xii:1, 25). 
 
 There at Jacob’s well, on the stone rim of the well, we 
 see Him sitting, being wearied with His journey. The dusty 
 looking traveler, tired out and thirsty, is the Lord of Glory, 
 in creature form. “Thus,” He’ sat on the- well. Said 
 Chrysostom, “What meaneth thus? Not upon a.throne; 
 not upon a cushion; but simply.and as He.was upon the 
 ground.” It is a beautiful illustration and evidence of His 
 
84 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 humiliation and the reality of His human body He had taken 
 on in incarnation. Well may we think of Him when we are 
 weary, knowing that He can and He does sympathize with 
 us in our weariness (Hebrews iv:15). And it was about the 
 sixth hour. This was at noon, in the hottest, most sultry 
 part of the day. And there He waited patiently for her to 
 come, who knew Him not, but who was known by Him. It 
 has been mentioned by Burgon that “‘Jacob and Moses each 
 found his wife beside a well of water; and here is seen that a 
 greater One than they, their divine Antitype, the Bridegroom 
 taking to Himself His alien spouse at a well likewise.” 
 
 Verses 7-10. And now sheappears with her waterpot and 
 finds the stranger sitting there. It is customary to go to the 
 well towards evening, but she came at noon, probably on 
 account of her character, an outcast, ashamed to mingle with 
 others. 
 
 She also was weary and alone; she knew not what was 
 before her, and that in a little while she would leave her 
 waterpot, forget her weariness, and fly back to the village 
 to bring glad tidings to other weary souls, after her own 
 refreshment. ‘“‘Give me to drink,” were the words the 
 stranger addressed to the woman. How simple the request; 
 yet it was heavenly wisdom which made it. Another has 
 pointed out the significance of it in the following words: 
 
 “In this simple request of our Lord there are four things 
 deserving notice. (a) It was a gracious act of spiritual 
 agression on a sinner. He did not wait for the woman to 
 speak to Him, but was the first to begin conversation. (b) It 
 was an act of marvelous condescension. He by whom all 
 things were made, the Creator of fountains, brooks, and 
 rivers, is not ashamed to ask for a draught of water from the 
 hand of one of his sinful creatures. (c) It was an act full 
 of wisdom and prudence. He does not at once force religion 
 on the attention of the woman, and rebuke her for her sins. 
 He begins with a subject apparently indifferent, and yet one 
 of which the woman’s mind was doubtless full. He asks her 
 for water. (d) It was an act full of the nicest tact, and ex- 
 hibiting perfect knowledge of the human mind. He asks a 
 favor, and puts Himself under an obligation. No line of 
 proceeding, it is well known to wise people, would be more 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 85 
 
 likely to conciliate the woman’s feelings towards Him, and 
 to make her willing to hear His teaching. Simple as the 
 request was, it contains principles which deserve the closest 
 attention of all who desire to do good to ignorant and thought- 
 less sinners.” 
 
 ““Give me to drink.” But there was another thirst in His 
 loving heart for the poor lost soul. He thirsted for her 
 salvation. ‘But what a sight to God, and indeed, to faith, 
 the Son of God when driven out by the jealous hatred and 
 contempt of man, of His own people who received Him not, 
 occupying Himself with an unhappy Samaritan who had 
 exhausted her life in quest of happiness never thus found!” 
 And the woman was greatly surprised that He, a Jew, should 
 ask her, a Samaritan woman to give Him to drink. ‘There 
 was great enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans. A 
 Samaritan, on account of past history, was looked upon as 
 an outcast, who had forfeited all rights of membership in the 
 commonwealth of Israel. They despised them. One of the 
 vilest utterances made against our blessed Lord is the one 
 recorded in Chapter viii:48, when His enemies said to Him, 
 “Say we not well, Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a demon.” 
 
 How blessed is His answer. He does not enter with her 
 in a discussion of the differences between the Jews and the 
 Samaritans, nor does He explain why He had asked her to 
 give Him to drink. He says something which at once 
 aroused the curiosity of the woman and made her forget her 
 surprise that a Jew should make such a request of her. “If 
 thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto 
 thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him 
 and He would have given thee living water.’”’ He speaks of 
 Himself, for He is God’s unspeakable gift. Yet in the first 
 instance when He said, “‘If thou knewest the gift of God” 
 He meant God’s condescending grace coming down to seek 
 the lost sinner, ready to give all man needs. This marvelous 
 grace, God willing to give, is expressed and demonstrated in 
 His own person, the Son of God. If she had known, that it 
 is Jehovah manifested in the flesh, the promised Messiah, 
 she would turn to Him with a request to give her, and He 
 would give her living water. But she was ignorant of these 
 facts in her darkened, sinful heart. She knew nothing of 
 
86 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 God’s abundant grace, nor of Him who had come to reveal 
 that grace. Such is still the blindness of the natural man, 
 even though he may have confessed to be religious, as the 
 Samaritans were religious. 
 
 He told her that He could give ‘“‘living water.” What 
 did our Lord mean by this term? In Jeremiah 11:13 we 
 read that the Lord is called a fountain of living waters, 
 and in Isaiah xliv:3 the water poured forth is identified 
 with the Holy Spirit—‘‘I will pour water upon him that 
 is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour 
 my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine off- 
 spring.” But we do not need to go outside of the Gospel 
 of John for an explanation of this term. It is once more 
 used by our Lord in the seventh chapter of this Gospel, 
 and there we find a divinely given comment. “If any 
 man thirst,’’?. said our Lord at the Feast of Tabernacles, 
 “let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on 
 Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow 
 rivers of living water. But this He spake of the Spirit 
 which they that believe on Him should receive, for the 
 Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet 
 glorified” (vii:38, 39). The “living water” is the gift of 
 the Holy Spirit. We find this verified when we hear what 
 else the Lord had to say to this woman about the living 
 water. 
 
 Verses 11-14. She speaks as Nicodemus spoke, knowing 
 nothing of the great spiritual Truth the Lord had uttered. 
 She reasoned about His words, the only thing the natural 
 man can do and the natural man generally does. The well 
 is deep, how is He going to draw the living water? Is this 
 stranger a greater man than Jacob, or has he a better well? 
 
 He makes it clear to her first of all that He is not speak- 
 ing of the literal water, that she is mistaken in thinking 
 He meant the water in the well before them. Whosoever 
 drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Even so it is true 
 not only of the physical water, but of all temporal, material 
 things; they can never satisfy the human soul. He'who 
 drinks of these and finds his enjoyment in earthly things 
 will thirst again. But He has another water to give, living 
 water. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 87 
 
 He can give living water for the soul’s need, just as in 
 creation He has supplied the physical water, free, without 
 money and without price, to satisfy the creature’s need. 
 And that living water, when received from Hin, satisfies. 
 He who drinketh of it shall never thirst (or: in no way 
 thirst for ever). And more than that; He promises that 
 the water He gives shall be in him who receives it a well 
 (or: spring) of water springing up unto eternal life. He 
 speaks of the gift of the Spirit, whom all receive who believe 
 on Him. To Nicodemus the Lord unfolded the necessity 
 of the new birth, by the water and the Spirit, and now 
 He speaks of what the believer, who knows the gift of God, 
 receives. He gives the Holy Spirit to be in him as a spring 
 of water springing up unto eternal life. The Holy Spirit is 
 in the believer to satisfy his needs, for communion and for 
 worship, and becomes thus a perpetual exhaustless source 
 for joy and peace, so that if this spring flows unhindered, 
 thirst after other things ceases. All this was spoken by our 
 Lord in anticipation of His work on the Cross, His resurrec- 
 tion and glorification as the risen Christ. The words of our 
 Lord tell us that He who knows the gift of God, His free 
 gift, eternal life in Him whom He has sent, receives from 
 Christ the living water, the Holy Spirit, who indwells the 
 believer, abiding with him forever and supplying all his needs, 
 so that all soul thirst is satisfied.* 
 
 Verses 15-18. The woman with her darkened mind still 
 thinks of the literal water; she did not know, nor under- 
 stand, what the Lord Jesus meant when He spoke of living 
 water and of the indwelling fountain. Yet here is also 
 the first evidence that her heart responded to His Words. 
 He had said to her “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who 
 it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst 
 have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living 
 
 
 
 *Shall thirst no more for ever. What an assurance this is! But 
 how little oftentimes does it seem to justify itself in actual realization. 
 Here comes in the sad reminder for us of how we with our unbelief 
 limit the glorious largeness of the divine promises, and often seem 
 bent upon making falsehood of eternal Truth. Christ speaks accord- 
 ing to the fullness of the gift bestowed. As toourenjoyment of it, it is 
 always conditional upon the way in which faith entertains it. We 
 are not to expect that it will be realized without the activity of faith 
 and the diligent use of what God has given us as means to its attain- 
 ment.—Numerical Bible. 
 
88 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 water.” And now she said to the unknown stranger, “Give 
 me this water.”” Though she did not know what she asked, 
 yet it was a prayer. It expressed a want, though she knew 
 not what it was; she realized she was in the presence of One 
 who could give and she asked Him to give to her. It is the 
 first, faint desire of her heart for something. “It would 
 be as foolish to scrutinize the grammatical construction 
 of an infant’s cry, as to analyze the precise motives of a 
 soul’s breathings after God.” This fully applies to the case 
 of the woman. 
 
 Then the Lord abruptly changed his mode of speech; He 
 drops the figurative language He employed, and no more 
 mentions after this the living water. Up to this point He 
 had spoken to her of the gift of God, of His Grace, of His 
 power to give living water. But her conscience was un- 
 reached; yet the conscience must be aroused, deeply exer- 
 cised, before grace, and the gift of grace, can be understood 
 and appreciated. The Lord therefore asked her to call her 
 husband. He knew her whole sad history of sin; and laying 
 bare the secrets of her life He aimed at her conscience to 
 produce conviction of sin, and to show her His own omnis- 
 cience. It has been well said “the first draught of living 
 water which the Lord gave to the Samaritan woman was 
 conviction of sin.”? Nor must we lose sight of the fact that 
 while our Lord touched her sinful life by saying, “‘Go call 
 thy husband” that He also added ‘‘and come hither.”” How 
 His wonderful grace shines out in this request once more! 
 If she is a sinner, living a vile, unclean life, He is the sinner’s 
 friend ready to welcome her. ‘“‘And come hither” is His 
 word of welcome to her; grace speaks once more. 
 
 Her answer is brief. ‘“‘I have no husband.” We take it 
 that it was a confession of her evil life, and not an attempt 
 to deceive the Lord, as some have thought. A few words 
 come from His lips and she is fully uncovered as to her sinful, 
 wicked life. Yet, what words these are which the omniscient 
 Lord addresses to her! He shows the full knowledge of her 
 sin in a few words, yet these words are not harsh words of 
 condemnation. ‘“Thou hast well said’”—He commended her 
 honest confession and then He laid bare her past life, a life 
 of adultery, and tells her of her present sin, that she lived 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 89 
 
 with a man who is not her husband. He closed His terse 
 answer by telling her again “thou has truly said.” He 
 who is the light of the world has manifested her darkness, 
 yet He did it in a loving, gracious manner, such as He, full 
 of grace and truth, alone could do. 
 
 Verses 19-24. ‘The woman is convicted of her sin. She 
 acknowledges the truth of the words He has spoken, that 
 they were words of divine power, and that He who had 
 uttered them must be the mouthpiece of God. Her conscience 
 is awakened because her sins were so fully exposed, and 
 therefore she turns to Him for instruction and light, which 
 was an evidence of her spiritual anxiety. Her first thought 
 is to do something. Her mind thinks of worshipping God, 
 which she probably in her sinful career had totally neglected. 
 
 She was fully aroused and deeply anxious to know the 
 truth; but how is she to know what is true worship and the 
 true way to God? Asa Samaritan she remembered at once 
 that their mode of worship differed from the Jewish worship. 
 The Jews claimed that Jerusalem was the only place where 
 men ought to worship. ‘Our fathers,’ she said, “‘worshipped 
 in this mountain” pointing, no doubt, as she spoke, towards 
 Mount Gerizim. According to Samaritan tradition Gerizim 
 was the mountain where Abraham offered up Isaac. This 
 tradition is not true; but Gerizim is the mountain where a 
 rival temple had been built, which, according to Josephus, 
 was destroyed by Hyrcanus in the year 129 B. C. To this 
 day this mountain is called “‘the holy mountain.” 
 
 The answer our Lord gave to this seeking soul is of great 
 importance. He reveals great truths concerning true wor- 
 ship, that is Christian worship, which in these words of our 
 Lord is mentioned for the first time in the Bible. ‘“‘Woman, 
 believe Me,” he said to her. It is the only time our Lord 
 used this phrase “‘believe Me.” What He was about to 
 reveal was something altogether new and it required faith 
 to lay hold on it. The hour He speaks of is the present 
 Christian age. During this dispensation worship of the 
 Father will not be done upon a mountain nor in an earthly 
 Temple, in Jerusalem. Not alone will the worship of the 
 Samaritans cease, but the whole system of the God-ap- 
 pointed Jewish worship, altars, sacrifices, offerings, priests, 
 
90 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 etc., would pass away. Ritualistic Christendom with its 
 show-worship, apes after the ancient Jewish worship, is, in 
 view of these words of our Lord an invention. “To bring 
 into the Church holy places, sanctuaries, altars, priests, 
 sacrifices, gorgeous vestments and the like, is to dig up that 
 which has been buried long ago, and to turn to candles for 
 light under the noon-day sun. ‘The favorite theory of the 
 Irvingites that we ought as far as possible in our public 
 worship, to copy the Jewish temple service and ceremonial, 
 seems incapable of reconciliation with the words of our Lord.” 
 (Bishop Ryle.) 
 
 In all their worship, thesLord told her, the Samaritans 
 did not know what they worshipped; it was different with 
 the Jews, they knew what they worshipped ‘“‘for salvation 
 is of the Jews.” The Samaritans had no authority for their 
 worship, but the Jews had all authority. Salvation, or as it 
 is in the Greek, “the salvation” is of the Jews. The Lord 
 meant Himself. The Hebrew word for “salvation” is 
 Jehoshua; the Greek “Jesus” is derived from the Hebrew 
 word. Everything in the worship of the Jews in Jerusalem 
 foreshadowed the Messiah and His salvation, and foremost 
 of course, the great prophecies of the prophets revealed 
 Him and His work. And when that work was finished on 
 the Cross there would be as a result another worship; 
 there would be true worshippers, who worship the Father in 
 spirit and in truth. Then the Lord announced that “the 
 Father seeketh such to worship Him.” Nowhere in the 
 Old Testament do we read that God was worshipped as 
 “Father”; the worship of God, of Jehovah, is everywhere 
 mentioned, but the relationship of a believing sinner to God 
 as Father, and as a son of God is unknown in the Old Testa- 
 ment Scriptures. The Son of God alone has made known 
 this marvelous truth and it is made known through His 
 finished work on the cross. 
 
 In Judaism God dwelt in thick darkness, and the testi- 
 mony rendered by the whole Levitical system (with its 
 sacrifices, priests, veil, incense, etc.) was, that the way into 
 the Holiest had not yet been made manifest. When Christ 
 died the veil was rent from top to bottom, and eternal re- 
 demption was found; the worshippers once purged from their 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 91 
 
 sins have no more conscience of sins and can draw near. 
 Such is Christianity, God having revealed Himself as the 
 Father in the Son through the Spirit. To know Him, the 
 only true God, and Him Whom He sent, His only Begotten, 
 is life eternal. And the mighty work which was done on 
 the cross hath dealt with all our evil, so that we are free to 
 enjoy Himself. We know, therefore, Whom we Worship and 
 not merely “‘what.”’ 
 
 And this worship in spirit and truth, this heart worship 
 of the Father, is only possible with true believers, who are 
 in Christ and possess the Holy Spirit, who alone makes such 
 worship possible, “For we are the circumcision, who wor- 
 ship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus, and do 
 not trust in the flesh” (Philippians i1i:3). This true wor- 
 ship necessitates living in the truth and walking in the 
 Spirit. 
 
 “And such the Father seeketh to worship Him.” We do not 
 find such a statement anywhere else in the Scriptures. No- 
 where is it said that the Father seeketh; but here the Son of 
 God makes known that the Father seeketh true worshippers, 
 worshippers in spirit and in truth. And this seeking of the 
 Father of true worshippers goes on throughout this present 
 age through the Spirit of God. All who accept the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and are saved are thus sought by the Father 
 as worshippers. It is true we are saved to serve; but a still 
 higher truth is we are saved to worship. In fact only if we 
 worship right, can we serve right. This true worship centers 
 in the Lord Jesus Christ; true worshippers are not gathered 
 to earthly names, institutions, denominations, sects or 
 parties, but unto the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The 
 day will come when “‘the hour” in which the Father seeketh 
 such to worship Him will end; this dispensation in which the 
 true Church is gathered will end, like previous dispensations 
 ended. The true Church will be brought to glory, and is 
 seen there, in the Book of Revelation, as a company of wor- 
 shippers. (Revelation iv-v.) And after that another form 
 of worship will be introduced on the earth for Israel and the 
 Nations. This will center once more in Jerusalem, in a 
 house to which all nations gather in the Kingdom. (See 
 Vizekiel xl; ete.) | 
 
92 THE GOSPEDSOEFR JOEN 
 
 “God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship 
 Him in spirit and in truth.” The declaration our Lord made 
 to the woman as to the nature of God is one of the profound- 
 est ever made. It is impossible for the finite mind to define, 
 to explain or understand fully this great utterance “God is 
 a Spirit.” True worship must, therefore, be in correspond- 
 ence with the nature of God; He can only accept spiritual 
 worship. 
 
 “The importance of this great principle, laid down in this 
 and the preceding verse, can never be perverted. Any relig- 
 ious teaching which tends to depreciate heart-worship, and 
 to turn Christianity into“a mere formal service, or which 
 tends to bring back Jewish shadows, ceremonies and services, 
 and to introduce them into Christian worship, is in the face 
 of these remarkable verses most unscriptural and deserving 
 of reprobation.”* And this false worship we find today 
 almost universally in connection with the counterfeit Gospel, 
 against which the Holy Spirit so solemnly warns in the 
 Epistle to the Galatians. 
 
 Verses 25-27. And now this Samaritan woman thinks of 
 Messiah, the promised Saviour-King. Her heart is ready, 
 yea, made ready by the Lord, to receive the truth as to the 
 Person before her. She had heard of ‘“‘living water’; her 
 life of sin and shame had been uncovered, which she fully 
 owned and did not deny; she had with an awakened con- 
 science inquired about worship and was told of true heart 
 worship, which she was unable to render. And now convict- 
 ed and perplexed, she wishes for Him, the Messiah (of whom 
 the Samaritans had knowledge and in whose coming they 
 believed), who would reveal all things. She expressed thus 
 her desire to know the promised One who, according to the 
 faint conception she had, would supply her need and solve 
 her difficulties. No sooner had she uttered this wish, than 
 the Lord in His gracious condescension makes Himself known 
 to her. 
 
 It has been pointed out how the story of the Samaritan 
 woman reveals the mercy, the wisdom, the patience and the 
 power of our Lord. His condescending mercy that He 
 should take up such a one and seek her; His wisdom in deal- 
 
 *Notes on John. 
 
 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 93 
 
 ing with this sinful soul; His patience in bearing with her 
 ignorance and His power in drawing her to Himself. The 
 returning disciples wondered that He talked with a woman. 
 They marveled that He instructed a Samaritan woman. 
 Yet they did not dare to ask Him a question about it, 
 knowing as they did, the dignity and glory of their Lord and 
 Master, that all He did was right and perfect. 
 
 Verses 28-30. After the Lord had told the woman that 
 He was the Messiah she forgot all about her errand, why she 
 had come to the well; she left the waterpot empty and un- 
 filled at the well. It was probably a large jar and of value 
 to her; but her soul was so stirred that she paid no attention 
 to the jar and rushed back in haste to the city as a messenger 
 to others. She gives a glowing testimony of Him who had 
 found her, both of His grace and of her own sinfulness. 
 ““Come and see a man, who told me all things that I ever 
 did. Is not this the Christ?’ She becomes a witness for 
 the Lord, and is anxious to make Him known to others, who 
 needed Him. While the Lord had told her first “‘go and call 
 thy husband” she now goes to the city to call the men of the 
 city to come out and see Christ. They must have known 
 her character; how great must have been their surprise when 
 this abandoned woman, all aglow with fervor and emotion, 
 brought such a message! Her “Come and see,” the blessed 
 words of grace we found so prominent in the first chapter 
 of this Gospel, used first by the Lord and by His disciples, 
 found a great response, forthe men went out and came to 
 Him.* 
 
 Verses 31-38. ‘These words were spoken by our Lord to 
 His disciples during the interval of the woman’s departure and 
 the coming of the Samaritans. How little they knew with 
 what their Lord and Master was occupied! They thought 
 of only the body and its temporal wants, and were ignorant 
 of what filled His holy soul. They were ignorant of the meat, 
 the other food, He was eating. ‘Their ignorance is at once 
 revealed when they speak to each other, “Hath any man 
 
 
 
 *What foolish inventions the Roman Catholic Church has made may 
 be learned from the commentary of Cornelius a Lapide. He says the 
 woman’s name was Photine; she later suffered martyrdom, and that her 
 head is kept as a relic in the Basilica of St. Late in Rome, and that it 
 was actually shown to him! 
 
94 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 brought Him ought to eat?’ But the meat He meant was 
 not that which satisfies the body, but that which refreshed 
 His soul, namely, doing the will of His Father who sent Him, 
 and to finish His work. That was His delight. And when 
 He spoke of finishing His work, He must have looked on 
 towards the goal, why He had come to earth—to die the 
 death of the Cross. The will of His Father had been done 
 in leading the Samaritan woman to Himself, so that ere long 
 she would be a worshipper in spirit and in truth. And how 
 His loving soul must have longed for the Samaritans to come! 
 
 Then He quoted a familiar saying, well known at that 
 time: “‘Four months, then cometh the harvest.” But He 
 speaks of another field and*another harvest. Perhaps when 
 He uttered these words, “lift up your eyes, and look on the 
 fields, for they are white already to harvest,’ He pointed 
 towards the Samaritan city and the stream of the inhabitants 
 passing through the fields to seek His presence. These men 
 coming to Him showed that the fields were ripe for the 
 harvest. We should also remember that our Lord used 
 the field as a type of the world in which the good seed is 
 to be sown. (Matthew xiii.) Reaping and sowing, sowing 
 and reaping, will continue in this field till the harvest, the 
 great harvest comes, when He comes again. And He that 
 goeth into that field and reapeth, receiveth wages and 
 gathers fruit and results, not for this present life, but for 
 eternal life. Then, in glory comes the time when the sower 
 and the reaper will rejoice together. These statements of 
 our Lord, as well as those which follow, must be looked upon 
 by way of contrast with the work done in the Old Testament 
 by the Prophets. ‘“‘I sent you to reap that whereon ye 
 bestowed no labor; other men labored and ye entered into 
 their labors.”” The “other men” are the laborers of the 
 Old ‘Testament who prepared the ground and sowed the 
 seed; the disciples with their testimony as to Christ and His 
 finished work would reap the harvest. Nor must we forget 
 Himself as the great sower and the great reaper, that the 
 joy and the glory belongs to Him. Of Him it is true what 
 is Written in the Psalms—‘“‘He that goeth forth and weepeth, 
 bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with 
 rejoicing, bringing His sheaves with Him.” And when He 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 95 
 
 comes, bringing His sheaves with Him, all His servants will 
 receive the reward for the sowing and reaping. 
 
 Verses 39-42. How wonderfulitis! ‘The simple testimony 
 of the woman, her ‘“‘Come and see,” her witness to Christ in 
 the few words she spoke, brought such glorious results, so 
 that many Samaritans believed on Him. She had become a 
 soul winner. Every Christian should be a soul winner. The 
 more simple, earnest, direct and unassuming a testimony to 
 the Lord Jesus Christ is, the more it will be owned by the 
 Spirit of God. Every true believer may be used as this 
 Samaritan woman was in leading others to Him. And when 
 the Samaritans came, saw Him and heard His words, they 
 entreated Him to tarry with them and He abode two days. 
 They were not like the Gergesenes who asked Him to depart. 
 Then many more believed on Him because of His own words; 
 they had a higher evidence than the testimony of the woman. 
 Hearing Him they knew that He is indeed the Saviour of 
 the world. 
 
 We must not leave this portion of the Gospel without 
 showing its interesting dispensational meaning. When 
 our Lord went to Samaria He had left behind Jerusalem, 
 and that which is represented by it, Judaism. In Samaria, 
 He is, so to speak, on Gentile ground. What we have 
 learned, the truth our Lord unfolds to the Samaritan woman, 
 is specifically Christian truth. The fullness of grace, as 
 the result of the finished work of Christ on the Cross; the 
 coming and the gift of the Holy Spirit, indwelling the be- 
 liever; the true worship, the Father seeking such worshippers; 
 the witness bearing of the woman; the many Samaritans 
 who believed on Him as the Saviour; are all the characteristic 
 blessings of this age, the blessings of the Gospel as preached 
 among Gentiles. The two days our Lord tarried in Samaria 
 have, therefore, also a typical meaning. They foreshadow 
 the time when divine grace is being manifested to the Gen- 
 tiles, while Jerusalem is set aside. The same period of time 
 is indicated in the prophecy of Hosea. In chapter vi of that 
 Prophet we find a prophetic description of the repentance of 
 a part of the Jews in the future. They will say then: 
 “Come, and let us return unto the Lord, for He hath torn, 
 and He will heal us: He hath smitten and He will bind us up. 
 
96 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 After two days will He revive us; in the third day He will 
 raise us up, and we shall live in His sight’? (Hosea vi:1-2). 
 The third day is the day of their coming restoration when 
 Israel receives the kingdom, which the Lord as the promised 
 Messiah-King first preached unto them and which they 
 rejected. That third day, the day of the coming Kingdom 
 will last 1,000 years; it is the millennium. The preceding 
 two days during which Israel is dead, spiritually and nation- 
 ally, cannot mean two literal days; they are prophetic days 
 as God measures days—“‘One day is with the Lord as a 
 thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.’’* 
 
 The two days here in this Gospel when our Lord tarried 
 with the Samaritans have the same meaning typically, 
 foreshadowing the period of time when His grace goes 
 forth to the Gentiles, as it still does. The remainder of this 
 chapter fully confirms this and we shall see how the recorded 
 events show what is yet to take place in the future, when He 
 returns and Israel is restored and blest. But before we do 
 this we call attention to another fact. The Lord did not 
 perform a single miracle among the Samaritans. Not a 
 sick one was brought to be healed; the Samaritan woman 
 and the other Samaritans believed without seeing a single 
 sign, or manifestation of His divine power. It was different 
 when the Lord sent His disciples to carry the Gospel of the 
 Kingdom to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then 
 He told them,“Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into 
 any city of the Samaritans enter ye not.” . ... ‘Heal 
 the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons”’ 
 (Matthew x:7-8). And why did the Lord give power to 
 His disciples to perform miracles? Because they were the 
 heralds of the kingdom the King was offering to Israel, and 
 that offer demanded the outward signs and miracles promised 
 in connection with the kingdom. But when in Samaria the 
 Lord did not perform a single miracle, in harmony with the 
 characteristic of this age, the age of faith and not the age of 
 sight. This ought to help those who have been misled by 
 false teaching, who think that miracles, healings, certain 
 
 
 
 *We do not want our readers to understand that we teach that this 
 present age, therefore, must last the full two thousand years. The 
 exact duration of this age, or the duration of the times of the Gentiles 
 cannot be definitely ascertained. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 97 
 
 gifts, like the gift of tongues, ought to be revived in connec- 
 tion with the preaching of the Gospel of Grace and the Church. 
 
 Verses 43-45. The two days over, the Lord came to 
 Galilee, back to Cana, where He had turned the water into 
 wine; He came back to His own country, that which was 
 His land. So will He return some day to His own and as the 
 Galileans received Him, even so He will find a welcome from 
 the faithful remnant of His people. That Cana is mentioned 
 again where He had made the water wine, the blessed type 
 of the coming days of joy and glory, is to tell us that when the 
 days of gracious Gentile visitation are over that which His 
 first miracle foreshadows will be accomplished. 
 
 Verses 46-54. The nobleman was a courtier, probably 
 attached to Herod’s magnificent court. This nobleman 
 is of course not the same person mentioned in Matthew viii:5, 
 for there it is a servant who is healed, here it is ason. The 
 miracle reported by John is nowhere else mentioned in the 
 synoptic Gospels. This courtier had heard that Jesus had 
 come, and then he appeared in His presence, beseeching Him 
 to heal his son who was sick unto death. The words which 
 our Lord first addressed to him, “Except ye see signs and 
 wonders ye will not believe,” bring out the contrast between 
 the simple faith of the Samaritans and the unbelief of the 
 Galileans and the Jews, which demanded signs and wonders 
 in order to believe. ‘The request of the nobleman is answered 
 by the Lord; the son was healed by the Word of the Lord. 
 He demonstrated His power, the power of God. The very 
 hour the Son of God had spoken ““Thy son liveth” the deadly 
 fever had left him. The healing Word, “Go thy way; thy 
 son liveth,” was spoken at one o'clock p. m. Capernaum, 
 where the healing took effect, was about twenty miles away. 
 The late Professor Curtis rode from Cana to Capernaum 
 easily in a little more than four hours. The nobleman 
 might have been back and by his son’s side by five o’clock, 
 yet we read that it was the next day before he went home. 
 What kept that father, but a moment before Jesus spake 
 the life-restoring Word so filled with fear and distress about 
 his son, quietly at Cana all those hours? Nothing, clearly, 
 but a new born faith in the power of His Word, and a new 
 born love for Himself. Nothing less than this could have 
 kept that father from the bedside of his son. 
 
98 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 The experience of millions confirms the truth of the inci- 
 dent; for the Christian’s assurance rests on the Word of God 
 and on that alone. We are saved by believing in Christ 
 according to the Word of God, and we have quietness and 
 assurance by believing what the Word says about the finished 
 ‘work of Christ. This second sign the Lord did typifies the 
 healing and restoration of Israel, the third day, when He will 
 raise them up and they shall live in His sight and declare 
 His glory. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 With this chapter begins a new section of this book. It 
 is introduced by the phrase “‘After this,” or as it should be 
 rendered, “After these things.” The Apostle John uses 
 this expression frequently. It has also been translated by 
 “Afterward” and “‘Hereafter.”’ Eight times this phrase is 
 used\ in: jhis; Gospel.) (iis22s vila va) See 
 xix: 38 and xxi: 1); in the Book of Revelation it is used ten 
 times. 
 
 Verses 1-4. Wedonot know what feast it was; certainly 
 not Purim as some think, more probably Passover. But the 
 feast is no longer ‘‘Jehovah’s feast,”’ but the ‘‘feast of the 
 Jews”; simply an outward, religious observance, strictly 
 kept as to the letter by a rebellious, unbelieving people, and 
 therefore no longer owned by the Lord. And yet the Lord 
 Jesus went up to Jerusalem. As “‘made under the Law” 
 (Galatians iv:4), He graciously conformed to these institu- 
 tions which He Himself had ordained. And if the feast was 
 Passover, as we believe it was, it is of blessed significance 
 that He went up to Jerusalem, beginning with the second 
 Passover mentioned in this Gospel the more public teaching 
 concerning eternal life, the life given through the sacrificial 
 death of the true Passover Lamb. 
 
 At the sheep-gate (Nehemiah 11:1) there was a pool, called 
 Bethesda (House of Mercy), surrounded by five porches in 
 which a large number of sick people rested. They all waited 
 for the moment when the waters of the pool became agitated. 
 It was the evidence that an angel had stirred the waters, and 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 99 
 
 whosoever of the sick stepped in first was made whole. The 
 troubling of the waters occurred only at certain seasons; we 
 are not told how often. The genuineness of this verse has 
 been doubted by many, among them such leading scholars 
 as Tischendorf, Alford, Meyer, Tholuck and Olshausen. 
 Others concede that the passage is genuine and should be 
 maintained, but suggest that there was no real angel who 
 troubled the water, that it was only the superstitious belief 
 of the sick who had gathered there. So Dr. Bullinger in 
 the “Companion Bible” introduces a parenthesis by which 
 he attempts to clear up the difficulty—‘“‘For (it was said) 
 that an angel went down. .” But there is no need 
 to omit this passage nor to add words to explain it. Why 
 should this incident be thought impossible? The ministry 
 of angels was not an uncommon occurrence in the history 
 of the Jews. We find the record of their ministries else- 
 where in the Gospels and in the Book of Acts. Why then 
 should this passage be rejected as unreliable? The objec- 
 tion originates mostly in the minds of men who would like to 
 eliminate, if possible, everything miraculous and _ super- 
 natural manifestations from the Word of God. If minis- 
 tries of angels are believed, and that these beings carry out 
 God’s wishes and designs, then there is nothing strange at 
 all in this record. We believe it as it reads. It is serious 
 to meddle with any portion or statement of the Word of God. 
 God sent this angel at certain times to produce the healing 
 power of the water, to remind His people of His power as it 
 had been in their behalf in the past, and that He was still 
 the same Jehovah, who doeth wondrous things. But there 
 is a deeper lesson than the historical fact. 
 
 The sick, the impotent, the halt, the withered, scattered 
 throughout the five porches, are typical of the moral condi- 
 tion, the helplessness and ruin of the people to whom the 
 Lord came, the people Israel. ‘Though they had the Law, 
 the five books of Moses, in which they boasted, yet they were 
 without strength. Laying about in those five porches at 
 the pool could not heal them; grace alone could do that. 
 
 Verses 5-9. Among the multitudes was a special case, an 
 impotent man, who had been in that case for thirty-eight 
 years. He is helpless. The remedy is in sight but for him 
 
100 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 it was unavailing, for he had no power and strength to get 
 into the pool, and no one was there to have mercy on him 
 to assist him. 
 
 Here again we have a picture of Israel’s condition as under 
 the Law, and in a broader sense, of man in his sinful, helpless 
 condition. The thirty-eight years remind us of the years of 
 Israel’s wandering in the wilderness after the Law had been 
 given. But that Law could not help them, as it cannot help 
 the sinner, for he is without strength, like the impotent man 
 who saw the remedy but could not use it. Then the Lord 
 Jesus Christ appeared on the scene to do that which the 
 man could not do. He knew the poor, miserable sufferer. 
 He knew his disease and how it originated, for later He told 
 him “‘sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (Verse 
 14). And what a comfort it is for God’s children that the 
 Lord Jesus still knows every pain, every heartache, every 
 suffering and every disease; yea more than that, we know 
 He is still the same. 
 
 How lovingly He then addressed the man, “‘Wilt thou be 
 made whole?’ Was that his earnest will, his deep desire? 
 Hast thou a wish to be made whole? It was addressed to 
 him so that faith might be produced in the heart of the man. 
 Desire and willingness to be healed is all Grace asks of the 
 sinner, and with it acceptance of what is offered. The man 
 answered: “‘Sir, | have no man when the water is troubled 
 to put me into the pool.” He did not answer the question 
 directly yet his reply shows his earnest desire. Perhaps all he 
 expected of the Lord who had spoken to him, was the friendly 
 assistance, when next the water was troubled, to help him at 
 once to it. But the friend of sinners did not touch him, nor 
 make him a promise. From His lips came the word of 
 command, the word of omnipotent power, which now pro- 
 duced the faith needed in the heart of the helpless sufferer. 
 “Arise, take up thy bed and walk.” Grace had spoken 
 and power is there also. The first word ‘‘Arise’” was for 
 faith to obey, and as the man obeyed the quickening power 
 of the Lord was manifested. ‘‘And immediately, the man 
 was made whole, took up his bed and walked.” This is the 
 third miracle reported in the Gospel of John. We have 
 called attention before to the number three, as the number 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 101 
 
 which signifies resurrection and restoration. This healed 
 man, raised up, completely restored,is a type of Israel in 
 that coming third day when they will be raised up and walk 
 before Him (Hosea vi:1-2). 
 
 The three miracles as given in this Gospel, the water 
 turned into wine on the third day, the healing of the noble- 
 man’s son, and the third miracle, the healing of the impotent 
 man, are all prophetic pictures of what will be when the 
 Lord returns. ‘The healing of the impotent man was a sign 
 for the Jews that the King promised to them was in their 
 midst. The first miracle done after Pentecost when once 
 more the Kingdom was offered to the Jews, was the healing 
 of another impotent man (Acts ii). The use of the Name 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, His power, had made him whole, 
 so that he leaped and praised God. It was a miracle to 
 show to the Jews that the same One who had healed the 
 impotent man, who lay in the porch at the pool of Bethesda, 
 the Christ whom they had delivered into the hands of 
 the Gentiles, who was crucified and who died, is risen 
 from the dead and is living. Among the signs of the King- 
 dom promised to Israel is the sign of the lame man who 
 shall leap as an hart (Isaiah xxxv:6). Both healings in 
 the Gospel of John and in the Book of Acts were witnesses 
 to the Jews that the Lord Jesus is the promised King with 
 the powers of the Kingdom. . 
 
 Verses 10-16. The healed man at once attracted atten- 
 tion. But it was not, as one would suppose, on account of his 
 miraculous healing, but because he had taken up his bed 
 (a very light thing consisting perhaps only of a rough 
 blanket). ‘That the miracle was witnessed by others who 
 had known the man for many years is certain; yet the Jews, 
 those in authority, did not take notice of it. The evidence 
 of Sabbath-breaking was the chief concern of these extremely 
 self-righteous religionists; and when they found out that it 
 was the Lord Jesus who had healed the man and told him to 
 take up his bed, they were ready to manifest their zeal by 
 killing the Lord. The Sabbath was everything to them; 
 the Lord of the Sabbath they did not want. It is true that 
 bearing of burdens on the Sabbath is mentioned in Nehemiah 
 xiii:19 and Jeremiah xvii:21. But the burdens in both 
 
102 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 passages mean merchandise, and the command could hardly 
 be applied to a poor man, who had been miraculously healed 
 and who took his belongings from the ground to carry them 
 away. 
 
 When the Jews asked the healed man, he told them 
 that he but obeyed the one who had made him whole. If 
 he had manifested such gracious power towards him, how 
 could it be wrong to obey him and take up the bed and walk 
 away? The maliciousness and heart-hardness of the Jews 
 becomes evident when they tried to get more information as 
 to the person who had healed him and told him to take up 
 his bed. They did not care about the healing, the act of 
 mercy and the miracle which had been performed, but they 
 were eager to display their zeal for the Sabbath. The man 
 did not know that it was ‘the Lord Jesus; not could he find 
 out, for the Lord had suddenly disappeared, perhaps in a 
 miraculous way (as the word indicates) the same as in Luke 
 iv:30 and John x:39. But some time later the Lord Jesus 
 found him in the temple. From the words which then our 
 Lord spoke to the man whom He had healed we may gather 
 that it was a special sin which had been responsible for his 
 long affliction. That sin had brought its awful harvest for 
 his body. Here again we see the divine omniscience of 
 our Lord. The man had committed that sin before our 
 Lord had appeared on earth in the form of man; but He 
 knew, for He is God. But what is the worse thing which 
 would happen unto him should he after this deliverance go 
 on in deliberate sinning? Thirty-eight years of helplessness 
 is an awful harvest from sin, but the worse thing is the loss 
 of the soul and eternal punishment. ‘This our Lord solemnly 
 means in speaking of the worse thing. 
 
 The motive of the man when he told the Jews that it was 
 Jesus who had healed him was not evil, but probably because 
 as a good Jew he felt it was his duty. From that moment 
 began the Jewish leaders to persecute the Lord Jesus and 
 sought to kill Him. 
 
 Verses 17-18. They had charged Him with breaking the 
 Sabbath. He tells them, “My Father worketh hitherto, and 
 I work.” Their understanding of the Sabbath was that of a 
 blind and literal legalism; but the Son of God told them that 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 103 
 
 neither God His Father, nor He as one with God, knew any 
 cessation of labor. It is true God rested on the seventh day, 
 but that rest was soon broken by man’s sin. He had rested 
 in creation because it was good. But when sin entered in 
 and produced the horrible results of suffering, misery and 
 death, God could no longer rest. He began after the entrance 
 of sin His work of redemption, manifesting His love and 
 His grace. If He had been satisfied with the conditions 
 which sin produced, and continued His rest, He would not 
 be God. But while the Father and the Son (as well as the 
 Holy Spirit) had worked in creation and then rested; the 
 work of redemption began at once when sin and its ruin had 
 come, and ever since it has been as the Lord told the Jews, 
 “My Father worketh hitherto (literally: until now) and I 
 work.” And this still is true. While God has found His 
 rest in a sense in the blessed, finished work of His Son on 
 the Cross, who came to work the works of Him who sent 
 Him, the great Sabbath is not yet come and will not come 
 till “God is all in all’? and there ‘‘shall be no more curse.” 
 All this the Jews knew not; equally ignorant of these facts 
 are professing Christians. 
 
 But here is a greater truth of vast importance. By 
 uttering this weighty sentence the Lord states His equality 
 with God. If we analyze these few words we discover in 
 them the same great facts which stand out so boldly in the 
 beginning of this Gospel. He is God; He is one with God; 
 He is in fellowship with God and shares His councils and His 
 work. His hearers at once detected the one meaning of 
 this statement. They saw that He claimed a Sonship 
 which was nothing less than Oneness with God. The Jews 
 understood Him in this way. Had He said “Our Father” 
 perhaps no objection would have been raised; but when 
 He said “My Father’ they concluded “that God was His 
 own particular Father” in a sense as no other being could 
 claim it. 
 
 Dean Alford in his Greek New Testament remarks: 
 “The Jews understood His words to mean nothing short of 
 peculiar, personal Sonship, and thus equality of nature 
 with God. And that this their understanding was the 
 right one, the subsequent discourse testifies. All might 
 
104 | THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 in one sense, and the Jews did in a closer sense, call God 
 their, or, our Father; but they at once said that the indi- 
 vidual use of ‘My Father’ by the Lord Jesus had a totally 
 distinct, and in their view a blasphemous, meaning; this 
 latter especially, because He made God a participator in 
 His Sabbath breaking. Thus we obtain from the adver- 
 saries of the faith a most important statement of one of its 
 highest and holiest doctrines.” 
 
 Verses 19-23. In these marvelous words of self-witness 
 our Lord tells now the Jews that they had not misunderstood 
 Him, that He, the Son, is in full union, in complete identi- 
 fication with the Father, that He does nothing without the 
 Father, but all He seeth the Father do He does also. 
 Deniers of the essential Deity of our Lord have tried to 
 twist these words around to prove that He is not God, 
 especially the statement that He can do nothing of Himself. 
 Well said Bengel in his Gnomen: “‘This is a glory and not an 
 imperfection.”” ‘The words do not mean limitation, but 
 attest the complete, perfect unity which is between the Father 
 and the Son. In His relation to the Father, the Son can do 
 nothing independently, or separately, from the Father; 
 if He would act independently He would be another God, 
 which would be an impossibility. ‘He can do nothing of 
 Himself”? therefore does not affect the question of power 
 (He is omnipotent), but it is the question of His will; He 
 will not act differently from the Father, from His own 
 independent will. Of course the fact that He, the eternal 
 One, became man also enters into this saying. He is in the 
 place of dependence on earth, yet He does what the Father 
 does, doing His work and carrying out His will. 
 
 Much has been written on these great words of our Lord 
 which is very helpful, and it may not be out of order to 
 quote some of the sayings of the servants of Christ of past 
 generations, as today we are surrounded by so many false 
 witnesses, and the leaven of “Unitarianism” as well as “Rus- 
 sellism” and other cults is working, denying the essential 
 Deity of our Lord. Augustinus said tersely: “Our Lord 
 does not say, whatsoever the Father doeth the Son does 
 other things like them, but the very same things. If the 
 Son doeth the same things, and in like manner, then let the 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 105 
 
 Jew be silenced, the Christian believe, the heretic be con- 
 vinced; the Son is equal with the Father.” 
 
 Hilarius (401-449 A. D.) wrote: “Christ is the Son of 
 God because He does nothing of Himself. He is God 
 because whatsoever things the Father doeth, He doeth the 
 same. ‘They are one because they are equal in honor. 
 He is not the Father because He is sent.” 
 
 Bishop Joseph Hall (1574) made the following paraphrase 
 on verse 19: “I and the Father are one indivisible essence, 
 and our acts are no less inseparable. The Son can do 
 nothing without the will and act of the Father; and even as 
 He is man, can do nothing but what He seeth, agreeable 
 to the will and purpose of His heavenly Father.” 
 
 Hundreds of similar words of comment could be quoted 
 showing that the leading teachers of the Church agree in 
 their interpretation. If another meaning is given to them 
 it shows how darkened the mind of the natural man is. 
 
 In verse 20 our Lord speaks of the Father loving the Son, 
 showing Him all things He doeth and greater works than 
 these, that they might marvel. It is all a matchless setting 
 forth of His Oneness with the Father. Neither statement 
 implies that the Father is superior and the Son inferior. 
 Well has it been said: ““This love is not the love of an earthly 
 parent to a beloved child. “The ‘showing’ is not the showing 
 of a teacher to an ignorant scholar. The ‘love’ is meant 
 to show us that unspeakable unity of heart and affection, 
 which eternally existed and exists between the Father 
 and the Son.’”* ‘The greater works are explained in the 
 next verses, that is, the power to raise the dead and to 
 quicken them, and His work as Judge. These words show 
 still more His Divine authority and equality with the 
 Father; yet they also have woven in them the fact of His 
 work in incarnation, of redemption as Saviour and Lord. 
 Only God can raise the dead and give them life, whether 
 they are the physically dead or the spiritually dead; God has 
 the power to do this. The same power belongs to the Son 
 of God, not a derived power, by Divine commission, but 
 sovereignty, “even so the Son quickeneth whom He will.” 
 
 *Bishop Ryle. 
 
106 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 It is sovereign power. How He exercised and manifested 
 this power the Gospel of John reveals also. 
 
 Next our Lord speaks of judgment, and when He does He 
 no longer speaks of the Father doing and He doing the same 
 the Father does. He does not say ““The Father judgeth 
 and I judge,” but ‘“The Father judgeth no man, but hath 
 committed all judgment unto the Son.” Judgment, there- 
 fore, is committed into His hands. It is one of His acquired 
 glories, which belong to Him as the risen, glorified man. 
 The occupant of the different judgment thrones is the Son 
 of God, who died for sinners. All judgments are still in 
 the future. The first to be executed will be the judg- 
 ment seat (the award-seat) of Christ, before whom His 
 own people will have to appear, not to be judged by thetr 
 works, but that their works may be manifested (1 Corinthians 
 v:10). Then follows the judgment of nations which will 
 take place when He has taken His own throne in connec- 
 tion with the earth, after His visible and glorious mani- 
 festation. In the age which follows He will judge the earth 
 in righteousness. “God hath appointed a day in the which 
 He will judge the world in righteousness by that man 
 whom He hath ordained; wherefore He hath given assur- 
 ance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the 
 dead” (Acts xvii:31). The day in this passage is “the 
 Day of the Lord,” which will last a thousand years, during 
 which He reigns over the earth and His redeemed people 
 with Him. The final judgment throne He fills is “‘the 
 great white throne”; then all the wicked dead will have 
 to face, in that second resurrection, Him whom they rejected. 
 
 But more than that, the Son is to be honored and therefore 
 worshipped as the Father is honored, “that all men should 
 honor the Son even as they honor the Father.’”’ Some have 
 taught that God alone should be worshipped and not the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. In the light of these words of our Lord 
 this invention is completely answered. And all who do not 
 honor the Son do not honor the Father, for He sent Him; 
 rejection of God the Son means rejection of God the Father. 
 This unity with the Father we have elsewhere expressed by 
 our Lord. “He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and He that 
 receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent me” (Matthew x:40). 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 107 
 
 “He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me—but on 
 Him that sent Me. And He that seeth Me seeth Him that 
 sent Me” (John xii:44-45). How anyone in the presence of 
 such words can deny the Deity of the Lord Jesus and His 
 Oneness with God is difficult to understand. 
 
 In this great self-witness, our Lord reveals Himself as very 
 God, the Lord of life and death, and as the Judge of all. 
 The words which He speaks next give the practical conse- 
 quences of this, the manifestation of Himself as the Life- 
 giver and the Judge in connection with man. 
 
 Verses 24-27. Four times He uses the word “Verily” — 
 Amen, Amen—emphasizing the solemnity and importance of 
 what He now declares. These words show indeed how He 
 will have to be honored by all men. Those who hear His 
 Word and believe are quickened by Him; the spiritually dead 
 who hear His voice shall live. Thus He is honored as the 
 Life-giver. And those who reject the Son and do not honor 
 Him by believing on Him, will be compelled to honor Him 
 by undergoing judgment. 
 
 And what a blessed, precious assurance it is the Lord gives 
 in the twenty-fourth verse! It has been used countless times 
 in the salvation of the souls of men, and in leading nominal 
 and doubting professing believers out of the mists of un- 
 certainty, into the sunshine of grace and perfect assurance. 
 The Son of God gives the positive, unchangeable assurance, 
 that sinners who are by nature destitute of “‘eternal life,” 
 who are children of wrath, can have eternal life, and not 
 come into judgment, and pass out of death into life. 
 
 We have frequently asked professing Christians the 
 question: “Do you know that you have eternal life?” 
 Many times we received the answer—“I hope so”’— while 
 others said: “It is presumption to be too sure about going to 
 heaven’’—as if going to heaven would be decided at the time 
 of physical death. But eternal life is not something bestowed 
 when man dies physically, but it is a present gift and a present 
 possession. ‘““The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord.” That it is something in the believer, 
 which he possesses as abiding in Him, we learn by way of 
 contrast from 1 John iii:15, where we read of having “eternal 
 life abiding in him.” It is the great, fundamental need of the 
 
108 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 human soul, to pass out of the state of spiritual death into life, 
 to receive life, eternal life. This eternal life, which man does 
 not possess because he is in the state of spiritual death, is 
 received, fully assured and forever bestowed by hearing 
 Christ’s Word and believing God (not on God) who sent Him. 
 “He that heareth My Word and believeth Him that sent 
 Me, hath eternal life.” God sent His Son into the world that 
 He might give eternal life to sinners dead and lost. ‘There- 
 fore believing Him means the gift of life, the impartation 
 of the new nature, which is spiritual, eternal life. The Lord 
 Jesus says nothing about works, nor about ordinances or 
 anything else; hearing and believing is all needed for the 
 present reception and abiding possession of eternal life. Thus 
 every sinner who heareth His Word and believeth Him who 
 sent Him hath, not shall have, but hath, eternal life. If any 
 one questions this, it means nothing less than questioning the 
 truthfulness of the Son of God. Acceptance of the “Verily” 
 of the Lord means assurance and perfect peace. Further- 
 more, in having this eternal life, judgment is forever gone 
 (not condemnation)—‘“‘cometh not into judgment, but 7s 
 passed out of death into life” (not shall pass). Sinners saved 
 by grace, in possession of that life which is in Him, can never 
 come into judgment; the judgment seat before which the 
 believer has to appear does not decide whether he is saved 
 or lost, but the believer’s works will there be manifested. 
 
 The hour in verse 25 began with the declaration of these 
 truths by our Lord and covers the entire dispensation, the 
 day of grace. The dead are the spiritually dead. What a 
 testimony the Son of God gives as to the condition of the 
 whole race! What a rebuke to those teachers who deny the 
 truth the infallible, omniscient Son of God states! Those 
 who receive life are they who hear His voice, that is, who 
 hear and believe. 
 
 When next the Lord speaks of the Father having life in 
 Himself and that He gave to the Son to have life in Himself, 
 and that He hath given Him authority to judge, He speaks 
 of Himself as the Son of Man, the sent One of God. As 
 Son of Man He quickens, and as Son of Man He will judge. 
 The day in which He quickens still goes on, but some day 
 it will end. ‘Then comes another hour, of which He speaks 
 jn the verses which follow. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 109 
 
 Verses 28-29. Here then He speaks of His authority to 
 raise the physically dead and to judge. That hour has not yet 
 come, nor will it come as long as the gracious purpose of the 
 present age remains unaccomplished. When this is reached, 
 when the out-called company, the Church is gathered, then 
 begins that future hour of which the Lord speaks. His voice 
 will be heard to call forth those that are in the graves. But 
 the Lord does not teach here a general resurrection, when the 
 righteous and the unrighteous are raised up together. Such 
 a general resurrection is nowhere mentioned in the Word of 
 God. Matthew xxv:31-46 is mostly used to confirm the 
 belief in such a resurrection; but this passage does not 
 concern the dead at all, but it reveals a judgment of living 
 nations. Our Lord teaches that there will be two resurrec- 
 tions. ‘The first will be the resurrection of those who have 
 practiced good and theirs will be a resurrection of life. 
 This class are they who believed, and as a result practiced 
 good, lived a righteous life. The second resurrection is 
 the resurrection of judgment, and those concerned in it did 
 not practice good, because they believed not and did not 
 pass from death unto life, and hence they come into judg- 
 ment; while those who believed have share in life and are 
 exempt from judgment. ‘The details of these two resurrec— 
 tions are not revealed here, nor the chronological order of 
 events preceding and following the two resurrections. The 
 Spirit of God unfolds this in the Epistles, and the last Book, 
 the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, speaks more fully of 
 these two resurrections. 
 
 Every Christian who searches his Bible knows that the 
 voice of the Son of God will be heard first when He descends 
 from heaven with the shout (1 Thessalonians iv:13-18). 
 That shout will open the graves of those who have died in 
 Christ; their bodies which slept* will rise, and all believers, 
 those who heard His voice and who believed Him that sent 
 Him, who live in that most blessed day, when His voice 
 breaks the silence of many centuries, will be changed in a 
 moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Thus begins the first 
 resurrection. ‘The risen Saints, with those who were changed, 
 will be caught up together in clouds to meet Him in the air. 
 
 
 
 *Sleep of the body, not the soul. 
 
110 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 On earth the tribulation rages after that; Satan and the beasts 
 will have control. Then others die the martyr’s death. They 
 are beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God. 
 They worshipped not the beast, neither his image. And these 
 tribulation Saints will also be raised up when the great tribu- 
 lation is ended (Revelation xx:4). Then we read ‘“‘But the rest 
 of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were 
 finished. This is the first resurrection”? (Revelation xx:5). 
 The thousand years are literal years when the Lord Jesus 
 Christ will reign and His Saints with Him; then He judgeth 
 the earth in righteousness. And after the thousand years 
 are ended His voice will be heard again, and a second resurrec- 
 tion takes place of the wicked dead. The description of it 
 we find in Revelation xx:11-15. 
 
 Verse 30-31. Some have pronounced this utterance of 
 our Lord as one of the most difficult in the entire Gospel. 
 We pass by these supposed difficulties, for the believing heart 
 finds none in these words. It is evident that our Lord speaks 
 once more of His oneness with the Father, which makes it 
 unalterably impossible to do anything solely of Himself. 
 His relation to the Father, as one with Him, necessitates that 
 all He does must be done just as the Father does it, and never 
 separately from Him. As very man He had of course a 
 will, but that was in entire subjection to the Father; it 
 could not be otherwise. An ancient writer (Chrysostom) 
 comments on this verse as follows: ‘Just as when we say it 
 is impossible for God to do wrong, we do not impute to Him 
 any weakness, but confess in Him an unutterable power; 
 so also when Christ saith ‘I can of mine own self do no- 
 thing,’ the meaning is that it is impossible,—my nature 
 admits not—that I could do anything contrary to the 
 Father.” These words therefore do not mean, as some 
 teach, that He is not very God, but they are the evidences 
 of His oneness with God. It is the same truth as we found 
 it in the nineteenth verse of this chapter. And He judged 
 as He heard, therefore His judgment must be just and will 
 be just in all the future judgments committed into His 
 hands as the Son of Man. It shows that all He heard 
 (from the Father) is manifested by Himself, and therefore 
 what He utters is the Word and Will of God. But if He 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 1 
 
 bore witness alone, just He Himself, this witness would 
 not be true. It does not mean in the least that if He were 
 only to witness of Himself, that this witness would be a 
 false witness. He spoke to the Jews, and in point of law a 
 self-witness, uncorroborated, is invalid and open to suspicion. 
 The law demanded at least two witnesses. And of the 
 other witnesses He speaks next. 
 
 Verse 32. Not a few have applied these words to the 
 witness which John the Baptist gave of Him. But this is 
 incorrect. The use of the word “witnesseth” excludes this 
 application, for John had witnessed, but had passed away; 
 but here is One who witnesseth, that is a witness which 
 continues. ‘The witness whom our Lord means is the Father 
 Himself. Then follows the threefold witness of the Father— 
 the witness of John the Baptist; the works the Father gave 
 Him to do, bearing witness that the Father had sent Him; and 
 the witness of the Scriptures. 
 
 Verses 33-35. They themselves had sent unto that 
 remarkable prophet who had arisen in their midst, John the 
 Baptist (John i:19). As the witness he had borne testimony 
 to the Truth. They well knew the great witness this unim- 
 peachable witness had borne in pointing to Him as greater 
 than himself. In his light they had been willing to rejoice for a 
 season, when all Judea and Jerusalem went out with many 
 of the religious leaders of the people. The Lord thus bears 
 witness that what John had said concerning Himself, that 
 He is the Christ, the Lamb of God, who was before him, is 
 true. But did He need this testimony? Was it necessary 
 that He should receive a testimony from man as to His 
 own person? Or did He seek such a testimony as others 
 do? His claim does in no way depend upon such a human 
 witness, but He permits it and uses it that they might 
 believe on Him and be saved. How this reveals His loving 
 heart, so deeply concerned about their salvation! But 
 John’s witness pales in the presence of the greater witness. 
 
 Verses 36-38. John did no miracles, yet for a time at 
 least they were ready to receive him, and believed that he 
 might be the Christ. The miracles Christ had performed 
 were the positive evidences that God had sent Him. The 
 honoured Nicodemus, the great teacher in Israel, was con- 
 
112 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 vinced of that (Chapter iii-2). When later in Solomon’s 
 porch they asked Him “Tell us plainly if Thou art the 
 Christ,” He answered, ““The works that I do in my Father’s 
 Name, they bear witness of Me” (x:25). They could never 
 deny the fact of His miracles. ‘The system which is far 
 worse and more damnable than anything else, the Destruc- 
 tive Criticism, may deny His miracles; the thousands who 
 beheld them, who saw the blind restored to sight, the de- 
 mons driven out, the lepers cleansed and the dead raised, 
 could never doubt. They did not dare to deny them, but 
 some attempted to explain them in that blasphemous sug- 
 gestion, that they were wrought by the powers of Satan. 
 (See Matthew xii). They were the miracles given to Him 
 to do by the Father; the display of the Father’s power as 
 well as His own. 
 
 “Five things should always be noted about our Lord’s 
 miracles. (1) Their number, they were not a few only, 
 but very many. (2) Their greatness, they were not little, 
 but mighty interferences with the ordinary course of nature. 
 (3) Their publicity, they were not done generally in a corner, 
 but in open day, and before many witnesses, and often 
 before enemies. (4) Their character, they were almost 
 always works of love, mercy and compassion, helpful and 
 beneficial to man, and not merely barren exhibition of power. 
 (5) Their direct appeal to men’s senses, they were visible, 
 and would bear any examination. The difference between 
 them and the boasted miracles of Rome, on all these points, 
 is striking and instructive.’’* 
 
 And besides these miracles the Father had witnessed of 
 Him. His voice they had never heard, nor had they ever 
 seen any appearance of Him. They had no knowledge of 
 God, nor had they His Word abiding in themselves, the 
 Word in which the Father’s voice is heard concerning His 
 Son. For this reason they did not believe on Him whom 
 the Father had sent. To believe on Christ necessitates first 
 of all belief in the Word of God; when the Word of God is 
 disowned, Christ also must eventually be rejected. This 
 important truth, the witness of the Scriptures, is next given 
 by our Lord. 
 
 
 
 *Expository Thoughts on John. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 113 
 
 Verses 39-43. They searched the Scriptures (the Old 
 Testament) and thought that they found in them eternal life, 
 but they really did not search the Scriptures, for if they had 
 they would have recognized Him whom the Father sent. 
 “‘They testify of Me.” In Hebrews x:7 we also find the same 
 testimony by our Lord, “In the volume of the Book it is 
 written of Me.” Martin Luther once asked, ‘“‘What Book 
 and what Person?’—“‘There is only one Book”’ was his reply 
 —‘“‘the Scriptures; and only one Person—Jesus Christ.’”? The 
 Lord Jesus Christ is throughout the Scriptures revealed in 
 many ways, not only in direct prophecies, but. in types and 
 in the levitical institutions. All this is known to every child 
 of God. But it needs restatement in these days when the 
 authority and inspiration of the Old Testament Scriptures 
 are so widely denied. Our Lord endorses the Jewish Canon, 
 as it was then, and as it is now, as the Word and revelation 
 of Himself. The Critics, boasting of scholarship, audaciously 
 calling it even “reverend Criticism,’ deny this completely. 
 If we refer them to this passage they tell us that our Lord 
 but accommodated Himself to the current opinion of His 
 times, but that in reality He did not mean to assert His own 
 belief in these writings. What this involves we would 
 rather leave unsaid. 
 
 The Scriptures bear their infallible witness both to His 
 Person and to His work. How well Philip of Bethsaida 
 spoke when he said to Nathanael—‘‘We have found Him of 
 whom Moses in the Law, and the prophets did write’ 
 (1:45). He had searched the Scriptures, hence he believed 
 on Christ as the promised one. And we also must search 
 the Scriptures and find anew that they testify of Him, whom 
 we know as our Saviour-Lord. Then follows that saddest 
 of all words, “‘Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have 
 life.’ What a word this is! It gives us the solemn reason 
 why men are lost. 
 
 The Greek is more emphatic than the English version; 
 it is more than “‘Ye will not come”; it means literally ren- 
 dered “Ye do not will to come.” After hearing His won- 
 derful testimony, the different witnesses He had marshalled, 
 they still refused to believe on Him, and had no heart and 
 no desire to come to Him to receive that life which He alone 
 
114 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 can give. But He did not speak thus in their hearing be- 
 cause He desired honor from men. It was spoken for 
 only one purpose, for their own good. But He knew as the - 
 omniscient One what was in their hearts; though they 
 professed to be worshippers of God, the real love of God 
 had no place in them. This fact was evidenced by not 
 receiving Him who had come to them as the love-gift of 
 the Father. If they loved and honored the Father they 
 would never have rejected the Son. 
 
 Then He uttered a prophecy. “If another shall come in his 
 own name, him ye will receive.”” The words have been true 
 in the past. After the death and resurrection of our Lord, 
 during the first century of our era, over three score false 
 Messiahs appeared among the Jews. They all came in their 
 own names and were miserable deceivers, yet no matter how 
 brazen they were, each had a vast following, and each led 
 them to disaster. But this prophecy remains still to be 
 fulfilled, for our Lord predicts that final Antichrist, the 
 man of sin. The argument often raised about the person- 
 ality of this Antichrist is settled by this passage of Scripture. 
 He will be a Jew, for the Jews would not accept a Messiah 
 unless he is of their own race. This Antichrist is the second 
 Beast in Revelation xiii, coming out of Israel’s land; the first 
 Beast is the little horn of Daniel vii, the head of the Roman 
 Empire and as such an apostate Gentile. The early Church 
 believed that the Lord predicted in His words the Antichrist 
 as he is to be revealed before the second Coming of Christ. 
 
 Verses 44-47. According to the word of the Lord, those 
 who look for the honor which comes from man cannot 
 believe. Seeking the praise of man is the constant tendency 
 of the heart of man and excludes true faith, for true faith 
 looks not to man but to God, and seeks the honor which 
 comes from the only God. Such was the condition of the 
 Jews and especially the condition of their leaders. And such 
 is the condition of the great professing Christendom and their 
 ritualistic and rationalistic heads. Still they boasted in 
 Moses. While the Jews speak of Abraham as “‘our father,” 
 they call Moses “‘our teacher.”? By not believing the writ- 
 ings of Moses, Moses himself in whom they trusted became 
 their accuser. Even today they read his books, the Penta- 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 115 
 
 teuch, and these are the accusing witnesses of their unbelief. 
 If they believed Moses they would also believe Him, for 
 Moses wrote of Christ. Every believer who studies the 
 five books which were written by Moses knows what a 
 wealth of truth they contain relating to the Person of our 
 Lord and His work as Prophet, Priest and King. It is 
 simply unsearchable. Yet that pernicious, infidel school, 
 Destructive Criticism, claims that Moses never wrote any- 
 thing and some go so far as to doubt the very existence of 
 this man. But how true what the Son of God says in 
 conclusion of this remarkable discourse. “But if ye believe 
 not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?’ Reject 
 Moses and you reject Me. Such has been the road of 
 apostasy and the end is not yet reached. Well has the 
 late William Kelly summed it up in the following paragraph. 
 
 “What an estimate of the authority of those very Scrip- 
 tures, which self-sufficient men have assailed as untrust- 
 worthy! They dare to tell us that they are neither Mosaic 
 in origin, nor Messianic in testimony, but a mass of legends 
 which do not even cohere in their poor and human reports 
 of early days. On the other hand, the Judge of all declares 
 that these Scriptures testify of Him, and that Moses wrote 
 of Him, setting the written word in point of authority above 
 even His words. As the Lord Jesus Christ and Rationalism 
 are thus in direct antagonism, the Christian has no hesitation 
 which to receive and which to reject, for one cannot serve 
 both masters. Either he will hate the one and love the 
 other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other. So 
 it is, and must be, and ought to be; for Christ and Rational- 
 ism (Destructive Criticism) are irreconcilable. ‘Those who 
 pretend to serve both have no principle as to either, and are 
 the most corrupting of all men. They not only do not possess 
 the Truth, but they make the love of it impossible, and are 
 enemies alike of God and man.” 
 
116 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Verses 1-4. John passes over many months of the minis- 
 try of our Lord and does not report what else happened in 
 Jerusalem. The great miracle of the healing of the impotent 
 man and the subsequent discourse of our Lord, as given inthe 
 previous chapter is not mentioned by the synoptics, and John 
 in his Gospel does not record the greater part of the ministry 
 of the Lord in Galilee. In all this we see the divine guiding 
 hand of the Spirit of God. He did not lead Matthew, Mark 
 and Luke to write of the healing of the man at the pool 
 of Bethesda and the words which were spoken then, for He 
 intended to use the pen of John to reveal these things in har- 
 mony with the scope of the fourth Gospel. 
 
 A great multitude followed Him. Mark explains how 
 they followed the Lord as He crossed the lake. ‘‘And the 
 people saw them departing, and many knew Him, and ran 
 afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came 
 together unto Him” (Mark vi:33). While the Lord entered 
 into a ship to take Him to the other side of the lake, the 
 multitude went on foot around the lake to the place where 
 the ship landed. What kind of a multitude they were we 
 learn from the chapter itself. Like those mentioned in the 
 close of the second chapter, they believed in a certain way 
 because they had seen the miracles. Many of them evidently 
 claimed discipleship, but after the words of our Lord spoken 
 concerning Himself as the bread of life many of these pro- 
 fessing disciples went back and walked no more with Him 
 (Verse 66). ‘The time was immediately before another 
 Passover, here significantly called a feast of the Jews. 
 
 Verses 5-14. This great event is also fully recorded by 
 the three preceding Gospels, where we find additional facts 
 connected with the feeding of the five thousand. He saw 
 this great multitude and was moved with compassion for 
 they were as sheep having no shepherd (Mark vi:34); He 
 also taught them many things. 
 
 Here we read that He asked Philip ‘“‘whence shall we buy 
 bread that these may eat?” From Luke’s Gospel we learn 
 that the place was near Bethsaida. Philip was of that place 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 117 
 
 (John i:44) and that is probably the reason why the Lord 
 asked him about supplying the need of the hungry people. 
 But He did not ask thus because He was perplexed; it was to 
 try Philip. Philip might have answered—Oh! Lord, Thou 
 knowest and Thine is all power! One would expect such 
 an answer, for Philip had heard Nathanael’s great confession 
 “Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel.” 
 But the question the Lord asked is blessedly guarded by the 
 Spirit of God through the writer of the record—‘“He Himself 
 knew what He would do.”’ The miracle of the feeding of the © 
 multitude was one of the works the Father gave Him to do; 
 He knew all about what He would do and what should take 
 place, for He is the same who gave Israel the bread in the 
 wilderness (Exodus xvi). Then the brother of Simon Peter, 
 Andrew, called His attention to the lad with the five barley 
 loaves and the two fishes, and he was but a little boy (the 
 meaning of the Greek word), hence the loaves must have 
 been very small. But how could this insignificant supply 
 satisfy the needs of this vast crowd of people? He did not need 
 the two hundred pennyworth; the little things are chosen by 
 Him to manifest His power; yea, He could have fed them all 
 without the use of the five loaves and the two fishes. ‘Then 
 He speaks. They were told to sit down, as.we learn from 
 Mark’s Gospel, in perfect order in ranks of hundreds and 
 fifties. What a beautiful scene it must have been, these five 
 thousand men, besides the women and children, peacefully 
 resting in the place of “much grass’! It suggests the green 
 pastures into which He leads His people (Psalm xxiii:2; 
 John x:9). 
 
 And with what expectancy they all must have looked to 
 Him as He stood in the midst! Then He took the loaves 
 and after giving thanks He distributed to the disciples, and 
 the disciples distributed to them that sat down. It must 
 have been in that moment, after He had given thanks and 
 handed the loaves to the disciples, that the miraculous 
 multiplication of the loaves and fishes took place. Being 
 one of His great signs, wrought by Him, the omnipotent 
 Lord, it is unexplainable. There is a tendency manifested 
 in our times, even among men who hold to the inspiration 
 of the Bible, to explain some of the miracles of the Bible as 
 
118 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 natural occurrences. This has been done with the miracle 
 of the parting of the Red Sea, the miracle of the sun stand- 
 ing still in Joshua’s day, and others. As soon as a miracle 
 can be explained it ceases to be a miracle. Some of the 
 rationalistic critics have attempted to explain away this 
 miracle also. Some have suggested that the seated com- 
 pany all brought out the provisions they carried with them, 
 and that this is how they were fed. But all these explana- 
 tions, the inventions of pure infidelity, are so ridiculously 
 silly that they do not deserve an answer. It has been well 
 said “it requires more faith to believe their explanations 
 than to believe the miracle and take it as we find it.” With- 
 out question the feeding of this immense company was a 
 wonderful manifestation of the power of the Creator,, who, 
 though in creature’s form, had not divested Himself of the 
 attributes of Godhead. 
 
 And after this miraculous feast provided by Himself 
 He commanded that the fragments be gathered up “that 
 nothing be lost,’ another wonderful fact, that the omni- 
 potent Lord should care even for the fragments of what 
 He called into existence. How true it is in all His creation. 
 In nature, so wonderfully fashioned and ordered by His 
 hands, nothing is lost. And if He thus orders and main- 
 tains such a principle it behooves us to reckon with it in 
 all our ways. 
 
 Twelve baskets were filled with the fragments, abundant 
 evidence that a great miracle had been performed, for what 
 was left over was perhaps a hundred times more than the 
 original supply.* 
 
 The great sign He wrought has also a striking dispensa- 
 tional meaning. While He revealed Himself thus as the 
 omnipotent Lord, the loving, caring Lord, He is likewise 
 seen as Israel’s King. We read in Psalm cxxxii a prophecy 
 which fits in with the scene before us. “For the Lord 
 hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. 
 This is my rest forever; here will I dwell; for I have de- 
 sired it. I will abundantly bless her provision, I will satisfy 
 
 
 
 *It was a custom of the Jews that when they are together they should 
 leave something to those that served. The little portion which each one 
 left was called “the servants’ part.”? The baskets were probably the 
 baskets the Jews carried with them in their travels. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 119 
 
 her poor with bread” (Verses 13-15). This will be fully 
 realized in the coming kingdom. And He had come as the 
 promised King; He was in their midst and when He thus 
 satisfied them with bread and abundantly blessed their 
 provision, they might have beheld in Him their King. The 
 twelve baskets too have a meaning, for twelve is the number 
 of Israel. That they had some conception of all this we 
 learn from what followed. When they saw this miracle they 
 said ““This is in truth the Prophet that should come into the 
 world.”” ‘The reference is to Deuteronomy xviii:15-16, and 
 from John 1:21 we learn that the delegation from Jerusalem 
 suspected that John the Baptist might be “‘that Prophet.” 
 Ancient Jewish interpretation states that the Prophet 
 promised in Deuteronomy is the Messiah. 
 
 Verse 15. Perhaps they gathered in groups talking 
 together and scheming to make Him a leader, to make Him 
 a king, but not “The King.’ And He knew their carnal 
 plans. This was but another attempt inspired by the same 
 being, who on the mountain top had shown to Him the 
 Kingdoms of the earth, and had offered them to Him. Here 
 through the enthused multitudes, because He had satisfied 
 their wants, Satan tried to achieve his end once more, quite 
 willing to have Him to receive the crown without going first 
 to the cross, where alone His crown rights in redemption 
 through the shedding of His blood could forever be secured 
 and established. But all they meant was to use Him for 
 their own selfish ends, to make Him some kind of a ringleader, 
 to lead in a revolt against the Roman government, so that 
 they might be freed from the Gentile yoke. ‘They wanted to 
 make him a king; they erred and knew not the Scriptures, 
 which foretold that He must suffer first and that God Him- 
 self would enthrone Him as King upon the holy hill of Zion, 
 to receive the nations for His inheritance and the utter- 
 most parts of the earth for His possessions. Then when He 
 appears crowned with many crowns, as King of kings and 
 Lord of lords, when the true remnant of Israel bows before 
 Him in true humiliation and looks upon Him whom they 
 pierced, the promised blessings of the cxxxii Psalm, and 
 the many other prophecies as to the millennial glories, will 
 be accomplished. And when here He suddenly departs into 
 
120 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 a mountain alone to spend the whole night there, we see 
 readily how this foreshadows His ascension, to be in the 
 presence of God throughout this age. Their scheming to 
 use Him in a carnal way had revealed their own heart. 
 They knew nothing of a true turning to God. What Hosea 
 had declared, “‘I will go and return to my place” was fulfilled 
 “ill they acknowledge their offence and seek my face.” 
 And that will be ‘“‘in their affliction” (the coming great 
 tribulation) when they will say ‘“‘Come, and let us return 
 unto the Lord” (See Hosea v:15; vi:1-3). 
 
 Verse 16-21. The sea, the night during which He is 
 absent, the storm, are symbolical of the present age. The 
 incident is fully reported in Matthew’s Gospel. (See our 
 Exposition of Matthew.) It is thus because of the dispensa- 
 tional-Jewish character of the first Gospel. When we read 
 in that Gospel of Peter leaving the little ship to go forth to 
 meet the Lord, we have a beautiful type of the Church, while 
 the ship with the frightened disciples represents the Jewish 
 remnant as it existed when He left the earth to return to 
 heaven, and a similar remnant which will be on earth before 
 He returns from heaven for their deliverance. Like it was 
 on that sea so it is with this age. It is getting darker and 
 the wind more boisterous. And how God’s people even now 
 may say “‘it is now dark and Jesus has not yet come.” But 
 we know He will come for Hisown. And after that comes the 
 great darkness and the great storm with which this age 
 closes. 
 
 Then another miracle took place. He came walking on 
 the sea. The so-called laws of nature were entirely sus- 
 pended. He who is the author of these laws can do as it 
 pleaseth Him. Of course “the scholarly” and “reverend” 
 critics have also set aside this miracle, and probably some 
 scientist will explain it in some “natural way” or that it may 
 have been an “illusion.”? But the giving up of the belief in 
 the miraculous must lead ultimately, and in most cases 
 speedily, to the giving up of all revealed Truth. The dis- 
 ciples knew they were face to face with a supernatural oc- 
 currence, for they were afraid. But precious is that voice 
 which was heard by them above the noise of breaking waves 
 and howling tempest—“‘It is I; be not afraid.” May we 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 121 
 
 all, dear readers, hear that same voice speaking to our 
 hearts. The practical remark has often been made, that 
 many of the things which frighten Christians and fill them 
 with anxiety, would cease to frighten them if they would 
 endeavor to see the Lord Jesus in all, ordering every provi- 
 dence, and overruling everything, so that not a hair falls to 
 the ground without Him. ‘They are happy who hear His 
 voice through the thickest cloud and darkness and above 
 the loudest winds and storms, saying “It is I; be not afraid.” 
 
 And when He came, how glad they were to receive Him. 
 And when He came, how quickly the storm ended and the 
 ship was brought to the land. So will it be when He comes 
 again. The darkness will end; the storm will cease. His 
 Church will be with Him and the remnant of Israel will be 
 brought to the promised haven. 
 
 What we have followed up to this point may be termed 
 the introduction to the great truths concerning the special 
 message of this Gospel, the message of eternal life, which we 
 find in the rest of this great chapter. 
 
 Verses 22-25. The multitudes were evidently greatly 
 puzzled about the disappearance of Him who had fed them so 
 miraculously. ‘They did not know how He could have come 
 to Capernaum. They took shipping and had come to Caper- 
 naum, seeking for Jesus. A difficulty has been raised here 
 by the supposition that all the five thousand men had fol- 
 lowed Him. Criticism, trying to pick flaws, has stated how 
 impossible it would have been to have ships for this large 
 company of people to cross the lake. But the supposition 
 is incorrect. It does not say that all those who had been 
 fed by the Lord on the previous day crossed Tiberias in ships. 
 Matthew tells us that He sent the multitudes away (Matthew 
 xiv:22). The great majority went to their homes, or con- 
 tinued their journey towards Jerusalem to celebrate Passover 
 there. There is nothing whatever in the text to show that 
 all the people crossed the lake, probably only a small number 
 followed Him. They found Him right on the seashore. But 
 if we read on in this chapter we discover that thé words 
 which our Lord spoke at this time, the great discourse, was 
 not delivered at the sea shore, but in the synagogue of Caper- 
 naum. “These things said He in the synagogue, as He 
 
122 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 taught in Capernaum”’ (Verse 59). This is the conclusive 
 evidence that not all the five thousand men were present, 
 but just a small number. The question prompted by their 
 curiosity, ‘“‘Rabbi, when camest Thou hither?’ He left 
 unanswered. 
 
 Verses 26-29. The Lord, the searcher of hearts, knew why 
 they had followed Him. They did not seek Him because 
 they believed on Him as the Son of God; they did not even 
 seek Him, as it is stated in the beginning of the chapter, 
 “because they saw His miracles,” but they sought Him for a 
 very selfish reason. Their motive was thoroughly carnal. 
 “Ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because 
 ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.”’ Before this they 
 wanted to make Him King and He suddenly disappeared, 
 because He knew that the same selfish desire was behind it. 
 And so He is still the discerner of the thoughts of men and 
 knows the innermost motives of the heart. How many there 
 are today who make a religious profession, who claim to seek 
 the Lord and follow Him, but the “loaves and fishes” are 
 underneath all their religiousness. This is especially true 
 today in some heathen lands where destitution prevails and 
 relief from earthly want is offered; it is likewise true in the 
 larger cities of our land. 
 
 Then He resumes His blessed teaching concerning eternal 
 life. He exhorts not to labour for the food which perisheth 
 but for that food which endureth unto eternal life. They 
 had followed Him strenuously to obtain perishing food, that 
 which sustains the physical life; He tells them to work for 
 the food which abideth unto life eternal and this eternal life, 
 which man cannot obtain by working for it, He, the Son of 
 Man whom the Father sealed, is able to give. The latter 
 expression means that He as Son of Man is accredited by 
 God as His Son, sealed by the gift of the Spirit, with power to 
 give eternal life (Chapter xvii:2). He is the giver of both, 
 the life and the food that abides unto eternal life; and He 
 Himself is the life and the food. In His own blessed, all- 
 wise way He begins once more to feel His way to their 
 hearts and consciences as He had done with the woman at 
 the well. They ran after Him, exerted all their physical 
 energy to get more of the bread that perisheth, as the woman 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 123 
 
 had come for the water to Samaria’s well. He uses their 
 selfish desire to teach them the greater need. 
 
 Henry Martyn, the noble Apostle of India and Persia, who 
 gave his young life in October 1812, was greatly discouraged 
 in preaching to the poor Hindoos at Dinapore, India. He 
 was tempted to give up the work entirely for he discovered 
 they did not care a bit for his preaching, they had no desire 
 to listen to the Gospel, and only came for temporal relief, to 
 receive the bread that perisheth. But one day the young 
 man was reading the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John 
 and when he read this verse he said: “‘If the Lord Jesus was 
 not ashamed to preach to mere bread-seekers, who am I, that 
 I should give over in disgust?” He had learned from Him 
 and so can we follow His blessed example. 
 
 And what answer did they give Him? It is the answer of 
 the darkened heart of the natural man. “What shall we do 
 that we might work the works of God?’ He had spoken of 
 *“‘Labouring not for the food which perisheth” and now they 
 are ready to work* for the food that abideth; they speak of 
 working the works of God. ‘Their poor hearts did not realize 
 that they were sinners, that the guilt and curse of sin was 
 resting upon them; nor did they reckon with the Holy 
 character of God. They thought themselves capable of 
 satisfying God with their works, and by working obtain life 
 and favour with God. What the human heart was then it is 
 now. It has not changed in the least, but is still as blind 
 and corrupt as it always has been. It is the “‘Cain-heart”’ 
 and though there may be a religious profession, a form of 
 godliness, as Cain had it, yet it is solemnly true of the natural 
 man as it was of Cain, “the way of peace have they not 
 known; there is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 
 11:17-18). The natural man thinks he can do something 
 and by doing he will make himself acceptable with God. 
 And thus they speak of “the golden rule,” as if man had 
 inherent capacity to practice it. Or someone else says 
 ““do some good deed every day”’’; as if good deeds are the way 
 to peace and glory. Even pagans have done this, as it is 
 
 *The word “‘work” is the same in the Greek as “‘labor”’ in the preced- 
 ing verse, 
 
124 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 said of Emperor Titus that he declared when a day passed 
 without a good deed, “‘I have lost a day.” 
 
 Without laying bare the delusion of their hearts or con- 
 demning their presumption, the Lord told them what they 
 were todo. “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the 
 work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” 
 It is the same as in the previous chapter. ‘He that heareth 
 my words and believeth Him that sent Me hath eternal 
 life” (v:24). The only thing they could do was to believe 
 on Him, and this faith in Him is the work of God, while the 
 object of faith is He whom the Father sent, the Son of God. 
 This is the common starting point for every sinner; there 
 cannot, nor ever will be, another. ‘‘Now to him that work- 
 eth is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to 
 him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth 
 the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 
 iv:4-5). Later when an awakened sinner cried out ‘‘What 
 must I do to be saved?’ the answer was given at once by 
 the Spirit of God, ‘‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
 shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts xvi:31). This is still 
 the answer to the most momentous question of human 
 existence. Faith may therefore well be termed the greatest 
 work of all works; the one work which pleaseth God, for with- 
 out faith it is impossible to please Him. 
 
 Verses 30-40. The words of the Lord to believe brought 
 forth a manifestation of their unbelief. While He has said 
 that the work of God is to believe on Him whom the Father 
 hath sent, they demanded a sign, which they could see and 
 then believe, not on Him, but believe Him. Is spite of 
 having witnessed that great sign, the feeding of the multitude 
 on the previous day, they ask for a sign, and the question 
 “What dost thou work?” It has always been so with the 
 Jews; only when they saw the signs which Moses and Aaron 
 did in their presence they believed. This tendency is stated 
 by Paul in the Epistle to the Corinthians, ‘““The Jews require 
 a sign” (1 Corinthians i:22). Their reasoning must have 
 been something like this—‘“‘He did a miracle in feeding the 
 multitudes, but what is this in comparison with what hap- 
 pened in the history of our fathers? Our fathers did eat 
 manna in the desert; he, that is Moses, gave them bread from 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 125 
 
 heaven. Moses fed a far greater number than this man fed; 
 his miracle is not as great as the miracle Moses did. What 
 sign showest thou us, that we may see, and believe Thee?”’ 
 
 But they were mistaken and the Lord corrects their mis- 
 take. Not Moses gave them that bread from heaven, “but 
 my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.” From 
 the words of the unbelieving Jews we learn that they at 
 least believed in the historical fact that their forefathers were 
 miraculously fed in the wilderness. ‘The modern Bible - 
 Criticism rejects this and denies the truthfulness of the 
 record in Exodus. What evil such a denial involves we learn 
 from this passage, for our Lord confirms the miracle in the 
 wilderness; a denial therefore impeaches His knowledge and 
 His veracity. But while our Lord confirmed the truth- 
 fulness of the event, He speaks of the true bread from heaven, 
 which the Father giveth, the bread which is come down from 
 heaven, that is, He Himself. ‘‘For the bread of God is He 
 which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the 
 world.” He is more than that manna which was given; He 
 has come from heaven, not to sustain physical life, but to 
 give eternal life, not for Israel alone, but for the world. 
 
 Then they answered Him, “Lord, evermore give us this 
 bread.” Like the Samaritan woman, who had said when 
 the Lord spoke of living water “‘give me this water,” they 
 felt that He spoke of something higher and better which 
 they were not able to grasp. ‘Then He spoke, as only He 
 could speak, yet to ears which would not hear nor under- 
 stand. “I am the Bread of life; he that cometh to Me shall 
 never hunger, and he that believeth in Me shall never 
 thirst.” Even so He had spoken to the Samaritan at 
 Jacob’s well, ““Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall 
 give him shall never thirst.”” Both water and bread are 
 necessary for human existence, and as such indispensable. | 
 But man’s spiritual need is life,and the Son of Man who 
 came from heaven is that life, and sustains it; apart from 
 Him, there is no life for sinful man. 
 
 As we follow the wonderful words of our Lord concerning 
 Himself as the bread of life, we shall see the blessed way 
 in which He leads on in the true and full meaning of this 
 term. Here he states the fact that he is the bread of 
 
126 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 life, and that “He that cometh unto Me shall never hunger, 
 
 and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.’ Man 
 
 must come to Him and believe on Him in order not to 
 
 hunger and not to thirst, but to be satisfied. The words 
 
 “Come” and “Believe” mean practically the same thing. 
 
 What He is and what He gives must be appropriated, 
 
 and that is accomplished by coming to Him, and believing 
 
 on Him. To come to Christ is to believe on Him, and to 
 
 believe on Him is to come to Him. Both expressions mean 
 
 that act of the soul whereby, under a sense of its sins and 
 
 necessity, it flees to Christ, lays hold on Christ, trusts 
 
 in Christ and casts itself on Christ. “Coming” is the\ 
 soul’s movement towards Christ. ‘‘Believing” is the | 
 soul’s venture on Christ. And He assures us that He 
 will satisfy. He satisfies the soul to the full, and the soul 
 
 who trusteth in Him, though weak and erring, shall never 
 
 hunger nor thirst in all eternity; believers in Christ can never 
 
 be cast off nor can they ever be forsaken.* But he knew 
 
 their unbelieving hearts; they had seen Him, yet believed 
 
 not. They would not believe and come to Him to have life, 
 
 to receive the true bread. Such is the unbelieving heart 
 
 of man. 
 
 Who then will come unto Him? He gives the 
 answer. “All that the Father giveth Me shall come unto 
 Me; and him that cometh unto Me I will in nowise cast 
 out.” Blessed and most precious as these words are they 
 have occasioned a great deal of controversy. What is 
 known as ‘“‘Calvinism”’ has made much of the first clause, 
 while the system called ““Arminianism” has used the second 
 part of the statement of our Lord. The first question 
 which confronts us is touching the word “all.”’ The literal 
 meaning of the Greek is not all persons, but “‘everything,” 
 for it is a neuter singular, and not a masculine plural. It 
 means therefore the whole company of His elect people whom 
 the Father has given to the Son. This gift was made to the 
 Son by the Father before the foundation of the world (Ephe- 
 sians i:4); it is the election of God in His own Sovereignty. 
 
 *The better translation is ‘‘shall in nowise hunger” . . . “shall 
 in nowise thirst.”” It is the same as in John x,“shall in nowise perish”; 
 words which speak of the assurance of salvation, that believers in Christ 
 are saved and safe. 
 
 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 127 
 
 There is an elect body, and of this body our Lord speaks, that 
 it is given to Him and that each member of that elect body 
 will come to Him. This is a blessed and most comforting 
 truth for God’s people. They are the gift of the Father to 
 the Son, a gift He made when there was no world and no 
 human being. Often the question has been asked by those 
 who do not believe in God’s electing grace—how can I know 
 that I really belong to that elect company? Every believer 
 who has accepted Christ and belongs to Him can rest assured 
 that he belongs to this elect body, and is given to the Son by 
 the Father. Beza said, “Faith in Christ is a certain testi- 
 mony of our election, and consequently of our future glorifi- 
 cation.” And all who are given to Christ will also come to 
 Him; no power can keep them from coming. Of course 
 here are mysteries which our poor finite minds cannot solve 
 nor fully understand. We believe the plain statements of 
 Scripture as to election, but we also believe that the Gospel 
 message is for all and knows nothing of election. In ““The 
 Gospel and its Ministry” the late Sir Robert Anderson gives 
 valuable light on the question which has puzzled so many 
 Christians. 
 
 ‘““When the gift of life was proffered us, we were conscious 
 
 in accepting it that we did so freely, voluntarily. 
 But now that we have received the message, and are come 
 within the scene of joy and blessing to which it bid us, we 
 have to learn that, in a deeper sense and fuller still, grace is 
 sovereign. ‘The Gospel of our salvation spanned the open 
 door of grace as we approached it; above the inner portal, we 
 now read the words, ‘Chosen in Him before the foundation 
 of the world.’ 
 
 “‘And surely this mystery of election is both fitted and 
 intended to bring deep blessing to the believing heart; but 
 the sad fact is too patent to be ignored, that with a vast 
 majority of Christians it is so inseparably linked with con- 
 troversy as to be removed from blessing altogether. Upon 
 one side, the plain testimony of Scripture is tampered with, 
 if not rejected; upon the other, the doctrine of election is 
 asserted with a narrowness which is uncongenial, if not 
 absolutely incompatible with truth.—How can grace be 
 compatible with election? ‘The Gospel proclaims reconcilia- 
 
128 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 tion for all and grace is ‘salvation-bringing to all men.’ 
 Election on the other hand, assumes that the believer’s 
 blessings are the result of a divine decree. These, it is 
 objected, are wholly inconsistent, and one or the other of 
 them must be explained away. Doubtless they may appear 
 to be incompatible, but to maintain that therefore they are so 
 in fact, is to put reason above revelation, or in other words to 
 place man above God.” 
 
 That God wants all men to be saved and is not willing that 
 any should perish shows that hyper-Calvinism, which 
 claims that God has foreordained a part of the human 
 race to eternal damnation, cannot be true. And here our 
 Lord adds another statement, “Him that cometh unto 
 Me I will in nowise cast out.’ Here then is His own 
 gracious assurance that He will receive every one who 
 cometh unto Him; He will in nowise cast out those who 
 have believed on Him. All may come to Him; all are in- 
 vited to come and those who do come are received and kept 
 by Him. Whatever may happen they can never be cast 
 out. “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own 
 will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the 
 Father’s will who hath sent Me, that of all He hath given 
 Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the 
 last day.”’ He came down from heaven (another great wit- 
 ness to His pre-existence) and He came to do the will of God, 
 the will which concerns the salvation of those given to Him, 
 and none of them can be lost, and that body will be raised up 
 when the consummation comes. ‘The fuller revelation as to 
 the first resurrection, the resurrection of those who died 
 having believed on Him, and the changing of those who live 
 and believe on Him when He comes for His Saints (1 Thes- 
 salonians iv:13-18) was not given by our Lord while on 
 earth, but this blessed Hope in its full revelation was made 
 known in a special way to the Apostle Paul. It belongs to 
 the “many things’ which the Lord promised to reveal 
 “afterwards,” that is after His death and resurrection. 
 
 Then once more the blessed and assuring statement, 
 which should fill the heart of every child of God with joy, 
 and his lips with praises—‘‘every one which seeth the Son, 
 and believeth on Him, may have eternal life.” 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 129 
 
 Verses 41-46. The Lord had finished His testimony con- 
 cerning Himself as the bread come down from heaven. 
 They had listened to Him and it may have been at this point, 
 when He had arrived at the synagogue, where He continued 
 to speak the words which follow. Then the Jews murmured 
 at Him, like their fathers did in the wilderness. They 
 objected to what He had said as to being “‘the bread of life 
 which came down from heaven,” and the reason why they 
 objected was because they thought Him to be the son of 
 Joseph. “Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father 
 and mother we know? How is it then that He saith, I 
 came down from heaven?” And their murmurings would 
 have been fully justified, if what they said was true. If He 
 was ‘‘the son of Joseph,” if Joseph was His father, and if 
 He was therefore born like any other man was born, then 
 His claim to be the bread come down from heaven was not 
 true. And what the Jews said at that time we hear today 
 throughout the camp of Christendom, a brazen denial of 
 His Virgin birth. If this denial were true then He would 
 not be the Saviour of man, nor the bread of life. Thus the 
 Virgin birth is the great foundation rock of our faith. 
 
 The Jews might have known from their own Scripture 
 that the Messiah had to be born of a Virgin (Isaiah vii:14). 
 The blessed facts of His birth, as found in the first chapter 
 of Matthew and in the beginning of the Gospel of Luke, 
 were not known to the Jews at that time. And the Lord 
 answered them, “Murmur not among yourselves.” From 
 this we may conclude that the murmuring was done secretly. 
 They must have formed small groups standing around and 
 reasoning in secret about Him. He knew their thoughts. 
 But in answering them He did not explain the mystery of 
 His Virgin birth. He knew He was surrounded by unbe- 
 lievers, enemies who would before long deliver Him into the 
 hands of the Gentiles. To tell such that He was conceived 
 by the Holy Spirit, that Joseph was not His father, would 
 have been that against which He warned, ‘‘Cast not pearls 
 before swine.” He goes deeper in His words than a refutal 
 of their erroneous belief and rejection of His) claim. In 
 His answer the Lord Jesus utters the same truth’ as in verses 
 37-40. ‘“‘No man can come to me, except the Father who 
 
130 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 hath sent me draw him.’ But while in the former passage 
 He had spoken of the Father giving Him those which 
 constitute the elect company, here He speaks of the Father 
 drawing. ‘Those who are given to Him by the Father cannot 
 come to Him and really believe on Him, unless the Father 
 draws them tocome. ‘The nature of man,” it has been well 
 said, “‘since the fall is so corrupt and depraved, that even 
 when Christ is made known and preached to him, he will 
 not come to Him and believe on Him without the special 
 grace of God inclining his will, and giving him a disposition 
 to come. Moral suasion and advice alone will not bring 
 him. He must be ‘drawn.’ This is no doubt a very humbl- 
 ing truth, and one which in every age has called forth the 
 hatred and opposition of man. ‘The favorite notion of man 
 is that he can do what he likes, repent or not repent, believe 
 or not believe, come to Christ or not come,entirely at his own 
 discretion. In fact man likes to think that his salvation is in 
 his own power. Such notions are flatly contradictory to the 
 text before us. The words of our Lord are clear and un- 
 mistakable and cannot be explained away.’ And what 
 about the modern methods in big evangelistic campaigns, 
 where every possible device is used to have men and women 
 take a stand, and then join some religious affiliation.* 
 Cards are signed, there is handshaking, “hitting the trail,” 
 a rather unsuited term for the blessed Gospel, and there are 
 other schemes to bring men and women to decision. ‘To the 
 writer it has always appeared as if such methods need not to 
 be applied, if we believe that the Father will draw every 
 soul, whom He has given to the Son, and that He will draw 
 them to Him, to believe on Him, in His own wonderful way. 
 The great business of the Evangelist is to preach the Gospel 
 in a plain and simple way, and leave the drawing to the 
 Spirit of God. Some remarks on this important statement 
 of our Lord by Bishop Ryle of Liverpool are helpful. He 
 says the following: 
 
 “(a) We must never suppose that the doctrine of this 
 
 *We have seen reports of some of these “‘card-system revivals,” in 
 
 which it was stated that hundreds of these man-made converts joined 
 Romish, Unitarian, Christian Science churches, and even Synagogues. 
 What a farce! 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 131 
 
 verse takes away man’s responsibility and accountableness 
 to God for his soul. On the contrary, the Bible always 
 distinctly declares that if any man is lost, it is his own fault. 
 ‘He loses his own soul’ (Mark viii:36). If we can not 
 reconcile God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility now, 
 we need not doubt that it will be all plain at the last day. 
 
 ““(b) We must not allow the doctrine of this verse to make 
 us limit or narrow the offer of salvation to sinners. On the 
 contrary, we must hold firmly that pardon and peace are to 
 be offered freely through Christ to every man and woman 
 without exception. We never know who they are that God 
 will draw, and have nothing to do with it. Our duty is to 
 invite all, and leave it to God to choose the vessels of mercy. 
 
 “‘(c) We must not suppose that we, or anybody else, are 
 drawn, unless we come to Christ by faith. This is the grand 
 mark and evidence of any one being the subject of the 
 Father’s drawing work. If ‘drawn,’ he comes to Christ, 
 believes, and loves. Where there is no faith and love, there 
 may be talk, self-conceit, and high profession. But there 
 is no ‘drawing’ of the Father.” 
 
 Then the Lord refers to Scripture, when He says “It is 
 written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. 
 Every man therefore who hath heard, and hath learned of 
 the Father, cometh unto Me.” The words He quotes are 
 found in Isaiah liv:13, and similar words elsewhere, as in 
 Jeremiah xxxi:33-34. Those who come to Christ and are 
 His shall be taught of God; but every man that comes to 
 Christ hath first heard from the Father, and learned, so that 
 all is of God and of sovereign grace. And God hath spoken 
 in His Word and spoken concerning His Son, but no one 
 hath seen the Father except the Son. 
 
 Verse 47-59. With another “Verily, verily” the Lord 
 takes up the interrupted teaching as to Himself. In verse 40 
 He stated that he who believeth on Him should have eternal 
 life, and now He speaks still more positively, “‘Verily, verily, 
 I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath eternal life.” 
 And to this He adds “I am that bread of life.” These are 
 blessed words, words of life and words of peace. He the Son 
 of God having come down from heaven, is the object of 
 faith and assures the sinner who believes on Him that he 
 
132 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 hath eternal life. He is that bread of life—not His words, not 
 His doctrines, but He Himself. They had spoken to Him 
 about their fathers eating manna in the wilderness and He 
 tells them the contrast. ‘“‘Your fathers (not our fathers, as 
 the Apostles wrote later) did eat manna in the wilderness, 
 and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from 
 heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.”’ Their 
 fathers had been unbelieving; they could not enter the 
 promised land; they died in the wilderness, and though they 
 ate the manna it did not save them. Then He speaks of 
 Himself as the bread from heaven, so that man may eat 
 thereof and not die, but have life. 
 
 For the third time He mentions Himself as the bread of 
 life, and adds that He is the living bread. Up to this point 
 incarnation is in view; He came as the bread of life from 
 heaven, and if man eats of this bread he shall live and not 
 die. But now He tells us that the bread He gives is His 
 flesh, which He will give for the life of the world. The flesh 
 is His body, and that body He came to offer up in sacrifice 
 on the cross. It is His great sacrificial work, which He now 
 unfolds, when He says “‘the bread which I will give (not 
 which I have given) is my flesh, which I will give for the life 
 of the world.” He looked forward to the cross, where He 
 would pay the redemption price by which eternal life was pur- 
 chased for a lost world. 
 
 Those who deny the sacrificial work of our Lord, His 
 vicarious suffering and death, must pass by these words. 
 They cannot be explained in any other way. No other 
 explanation is possible. So clear and plain are these words 
 of our Lord that no other meaning can be read into them. 
 The bread which He gives is His flesh, and this, His body, 
 He gives for the life of the world. 
 
 It is interesting to read what Dr. Lyman Abbott wrote in 
 1875 in his exposition of these verses. It is well known that 
 this prominent “religious leader’ so-called, denied as an old 
 man, this faith. ‘The words he wrote forty-six years ago con- 
 demn him and the rest of the Congregational Unitarians. 
 We quote from his commentary: 
 
 “And the bread which I will give’-—note the future 
 tense. He speaks therefore of a gift yet to be perfected by 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 133 
 
 His passion and death—‘is my flesh, which I will give for 
 the sake of the life of the world.’ Compare with John 
 iii:16. It seems to me that these enigmatical words are 
 added to guard the Church from falling into the error of 
 supposing that Christ’s doctrine is the bread of life, and that 
 to hear and believe His words as a Divine teacher is to secure 
 the life eternal of which He speaks. This bread is not 
 merely the teaching nor the example of Christ. The Sacri- 
 fice is an essential principle of that spiritual food which He 
 has provided for the world’s life.” But that is exactly what 
 this man taught later, that the teachings and the example 
 of Christ are to be followed, while the sacrificial death of 
 Christ is denied. What an illustration of the warning 
 given by our Lord in the sermon on the Mount, “If, there- 
 fore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that 
 darkness!” 
 
 When the Jews heard that He spoke of His flesh they at 
 once began to contend one with the other, ‘How can this 
 man give us His flesh to eat?”? The question reveals once 
 more, as it was in the case of Nicodemus and the woman at 
 the well of Samaria, the darkened heart of the natural man. 
 
 He answers by another “Verily, verily.””> He speaks of 
 eating the flesh of the Son of Man, and drinking His blood, 
 and except they do this they possess not life in them. “He 
 that feedeth on my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal 
 life, and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is 
 truly food, and my blood is truly drink. He that feedeth 
 on my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me and [| in 
 him.” That these words cannot mean the eating of His 
 flesh and the drinking of His blood in the literal sense of 
 the word is apparent. It is figurative language. Ritual- 
 istic Christendom teaches that our Lord means, what is 
 called “‘the sacrament” of the Lord’s supper, that the 
 flesh and the blood mean the bread and wine. But He 
 does no more mean “the Lord’s supper” than He meant 
 to teach “Baptism”? when He speaks of “born of the water 
 and the Spirit’ in the third chapter. ‘The finest refutal of 
 this obnoxious and unscriptual, as well as unreasonable 
 theory, that our Lord meant “the Lord’s supper,” which has 
 appeared in print, is the one which Bishop Ryle of the 
 
134 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 “Church of England” has furnished. It is not out of order 
 to quote it in full, for ritualistic “Protestantism,” especially 
 in Great Britain, is again accepting the old Romish heresy. 
 
 “(1) To say that our Lord meant the Lord’s supper in 
 this text is a most cruel and uncharitable opinion. It 
 cuts off from eternal life all who do not receive the commun- 
 ion. At this rate all who die in infancy and childhood,—all 
 who die of full age without coming to the communion,— 
 the whole body of the Quakers in modern times,—the peni- 
 tent thief on the cross, all—all are lost for ever in hell! 
 Our Lord’s words are stringent and exclusive. Such an 
 opinion is too monstrous to be true. In fact, it was to avoid 
 this painful conclusion that many early Christians, in 
 Cyprian’s time, held the doctrine of infant communion. 
 
 (2) ‘To say that our Lord meant the Lord’s supper in 
 this text, opens a wide door to formalism and superstition. 
 Thousands would wish nothing better than to hear,—‘He 
 that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood,—that is, eats 
 the sacramental bread and drinks the sacramental wine,— 
 has eternal life.’ Here is precisely what the natural heart 
 of man likes! He likes to go to heaven by formally using 
 ordinances. ‘This is the very way in which millions in the 
 Romish Church are making shipwreck of their souls. 
 
 (3) To say that our Lord meant the Lord’s supper in 
 the text, is to make a thing absolutely necessary to salva- 
 tion which Christ never intended to be so. Our Lord com- 
 manded us to use the Lord’s supper, but He never said that 
 all who did use it would be saved, and all who did not use it 
 would be lost. How many hundreds repent and are con- 
 verted on their death-beds, far away from ministers and 
 sacraments, and never receive the Lord’s supper! And will 
 any one dare to say they are all lost?) A new heart and an 
 interest in Christ’s cleansing blood are the two things nee- 
 ful to salvation. We must have the Blood and the Spirit, 
 or we have no life in us. Without them no heaven! But 
 the Scripture never puts between a sinner and salvation an 
 outward ordinance, over which the poor sinner may have 
 no control, and may be unable to receive it, without any 
 fatilt ‘of his owns « 
 
 But what do His words mean? By flesh and blood, He 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 135 
 
 meant the sacrifice of Himself on the Cross of Calvary. 
 By eating and drinking He meant the act of faith, by which 
 the soul participates in the most blessed and precious results 
 of His substitutionary sacrifice. It is by faith we partake 
 of it. Without it there is no life. In verse 53 He speaks of 
 those who have accepted Him, partaken of His redemption 
 purchased by the shedding of His blood, and therefore have 
 life. In verses 54-56 He speaks of continuing in eating and 
 drinking of Him. The believer must feed on Him. The 
 eternal life we have can only be sustained, nourished and 
 kept by Himself; hence must continue feeding on His dying 
 love. Of this the Apostle speaks in His great confessions: 
 “The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of 
 the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”’ 
 (Galatians 11:20). Eating and drinking of Him, we become 
 one with Him—‘“He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my 
 blood abideth in me and I in him.” 
 
 Verses 60-66. The Lord had finished His great synagogue 
 address. ‘The final word reminded them once more of the 
 great truth He had taught them, and also of the contrast 
 between the manna given in the wilderness, and Himself,the 
 living bread from heaven. ‘This is that bread which came 
 down from heaven; not as your fathers did eat manna, 
 and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live 
 forever.” 
 
 And now we have before us the results which followed this 
 wonderful teaching as to eternal life, as given and sustained 
 by His sacrificial death. It is obvious that the “many dis- 
 ciples’ who murmured and turned away from Him were 
 not the twelve disciples. These did not murmur, though 
 Judas, who betrayed Him, down in his heart, unbelieving as 
 he was, probably also murmured. ‘The disciples, not a few 
 but many, were those who had followed Him, expecting that 
 He would, as the Messiah, set up His kingdom of power and 
 glory. With their carnal expectations they called them- 
 selves “‘his disciples’? and followed in mass. ‘They were of 
 the same stamp as those mentioned in the closing verses of 
 the second chapter. They are those who tried to take Him 
 by force and make Him King (verse 15). Judas, with his 
 covetous heart, followed with carnal expectations, but when 
 
136 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 it became evident that the Lord would not be King then, to 
 satisfy his lust, he betrayed Him. 
 
 They said ‘“This is a hard saying.” Hard, they meant, 
 because it shattered their hopes; hard because it was repel- 
 lent. ‘They did not believe what He said as to the need of 
 receiving eternal life; they were stumbled by His declaration 
 that this life can only be received and nourished by eating 
 and drinking of Him. Instead of bowing to His teaching, 
 and they had followed Him as a teacher, they refused to 
 accept it. It was so contrary to their natural opinions and 
 carnal hope. And our Lord, the omniscient One, knew in 
 Himself all about their thoughts and murmurings. He did 
 not need to listen to their excited utterances amongst 
 themselves for ‘““He knew what was in man.” 
 
 If they were offended at His teaching, what would they 
 say, if finally they should see the Son of Man ascending into 
 heaven, where He was before He came to earth? This is an 
 important statement which we must not lightly pass over. 
 They had murmured when He declared that He came down 
 from heaven. Then they had murmured when He spoke 
 about eating His flesh. And now He speaks of the same 
 body which He had taken on in incarnation as Son of Man, 
 the same body which He would give for the life of the world 
 on the cross. And in this body, as Son of Man, He would in 
 time ascend into heaven. This anticipates both His physi- 
 cal resurrection, and His bodily ascension into glory. It 
 answers the deniers of a physical resurrection and a physical 
 ascension of our Lord. The body the Son of God took on 
 in incarnation, that prepared body, called into existence by 
 a creative act of the Holy Spirit, the body which hung on 
 the cross, which died and was buried—that same body is 
 now at the right hand of God. He is there as the glorified 
 Son of Man, and in that body He will some day return to 
 earth. Nor must we overlook the strong testimony our 
 Lord bears once more as to His Deity. He declares that 
 the place where He goes after His passion is the place where 
 He was before. No Unitarian, Russellite nor others can 
 explain this word of our Lord, for it is His unanswerable 
 testimony as to His pre-existence. 
 
 When next our Lord says “it is the Spirit that quicken- 
 
 > 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 137 
 
 eth” He means the Holy Spirit. Inasmuch as His words 
 are spiritual, the Spirit of God uses them to quicken the 
 spiritually dead and thus He gives life. The flesh profiteth 
 nothing. Much has been written on these statements of our 
 Lord which is incorrect. That He means the Holy Spirit, and 
 His work in imparting the eternal life to the believer, is in full 
 harmony with the rest of the teachings of our Lord in this 
 Gospel. Eternal Life and the Holy Spirit cannot be separated. 
 
 And while He spoke He read every heart. He knew that 
 some believed not; as He looked upon the twelve, He knew 
 that Judas would soon betray Him. But their unbelief, 
 rejecting Him and His words, was but a confirmation of the 
 words He had spoken before unto them, that ‘‘no man can 
 come unto Me, except it were given unto him of my Father.” 
 And this was more than a confirmation, it was His comfort 
 and His joy, as they turned away from Him, and no longer 
 followed Him, that all whom the Father had given to Him 
 would come to Him and be His own. 
 
 Verses 67-71. ‘They are all gone. What a scene it must 
 have been, as they left with murmuring lips that synagogue 
 in Capernaum, and then formed, probably, their groups to 
 continue their heated discussion outside. He is alone with 
 the twelve. What loving look He must have given them as 
 He asked “Will ye also go away?” He knew, of course, what 
 they would do; for His own information He needed not to 
 ask the question. But His loving heart yearned even then 
 for an expression of their trust in Him. And Peter an- 
 swered for the rest. His impulsive nature, so sympathetic 
 and aggressive, bursts forth in the blessed question, which 
 thousands upon thousands of the Saints of God have re- 
 peated—“*To whom shall we go?” He expressed thus in 
 deepest feeling his conviction that if they left Him too, there 
 would not be another One like Him to go to. To know 
 Him, to believe on Him, to trust Him, to follow Him, to 
 walk in His fellowship is the most blessed experience of 
 human life. And if Christ were given up to whom can 
 the hungry soul of man go to find its need supplied? ‘There 
 are many who offer something apart from Christ. But 
 “there is none but Christ that satisfies.”” ‘There is nothing 
 in the wide world which satisfies, but Christ only. 
 
138 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Once more we quote Dr. Lyman Abbott’s words. He says 
 in his comment on Peter’s question—““To go away from 
 Christ is to go out even here into the darkness; unto lone- 
 liness, hopelessness, despair.”» How unspeakably sad it is! 
 The man who wrote these words which ring true has gone 
 away from Christ and “gone out even here into the dark- 
 ness,” for in the closing pages of his autobiography he bears 
 witness to this fact. 
 
 Peter’s confession which follows his question is twofold. 
 First a confession that He has words of eternal life, and then 
 the confession of His person, ““Thou art the Christ, the Son 
 of the living God.” No other lips had ever spoken of 
 eternal life as the lips of the.Lord Jesus Christ did. Peter, 
 believing on Him, had believed His words and he knew 
 that eternal life, of which the Lord had spoken. Then fol- 
 lows the noble confession of his faith in Him as the Messiah, 
 the Son of the living God. But while Peter was the spokes- 
 man for the twelve, the Lord knew that in the little com- 
 pany there was one who was a devil. He spoke of Judas 
 Iscariot. He had chosen him, as He had chosen the others. 
 But this does not mean “unto salvation.’ Some have 
 argued that the betrayer of our Lord was also a gift of the 
 Father to the Son, and that the Lord Jesus chose him for 
 salvation. ‘Those who give this view argue “‘that Christ’s 
 selecting, and the Father’s giving and drawing, do not 
 exclude final falling away.” Ii this were true there would 
 be an irreconcilable clash between the Lord’s actions and 
 His words, for later He teaches that His sheep, those given 
 to Him by the Father, shall in no wise perish. 
 
 The choosing of Judas means that the Lord had chosen 
 him for the office of an apostle. He had selected him for 
 that office, knowing at the same time that this man would 
 do the work which the prophetic Word in the Old Testa- 
 ment had foreseen and announced. Judas never was a true 
 disciple; he had never believed on Jesus as Peter believed, 
 “‘the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The Lord called 
 him “a devil,’ for he was an unsaved man, and as such 
 linked with the author of sin and death. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 139 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Verses 1-9. It must be remembered that the ministry of 
 our Lord as reported by John is confined to Jerusalem and 
 Judea, with the exception of the first, second, fourth and 
 sixth chapters. After the events recorded in the previous 
 chapter the Lord left Judea and for months labored in Galilee. 
 The omniscient One knew all the plottings of the leaders of 
 the Jews, how they hated Him, and were in council to do 
 away with Him. Not alone did He know all this, but He 
 also knew the exact time, when and under what circum- 
 stances, His passion should begin. ‘The time was not yet and 
 therefore He withdrew from Judea. The Passover feast, 
 which comes in the spring, was past; the feast of Pentecost, 
 the feast of weeks, which comes after Passover, is not men- 
 tioned here. He did not go to Jerusalem for that feast. It 
 is a significant fact that the feast of Pentecost is nowhere 
 mentioned in the Gospels. That feast is mentioned only in 
 the Book of Acts, and once in the First Epistle to the Corin- 
 thians, when Paul wrote of being in Ephesus at Pentecost. 
 
 The law commanded that every male Jew should attend 
 every year the three great feasts in Jerusalem, Passover, 
 Pentecost and the feast of Tabernacles. Our Lord accord- 
 ing to the Gospel records went to Jerusalem for Passover 
 and for the feast of Tabernacles, but not once is it said that 
 He attended the feast of Pentecost. These feasts have a 
 great typical and prophetic meaning. ‘The Passover stands 
 for the Cross, and the blessed work the Lamb of God fin- 
 ished there; Pentecost is typical of the coming of the Holy 
 Spirit for this dispensation, for the outgathering of the 
 Church, and the feast of Tabernacles proclaims the blessed 
 and glorious consummation when Christ comes again to 
 bless His people and set up His Kingdom. 
 
 The summer months were then spent by our Lord in 
 Galilee; He was absent from Jerusalem, but came back when 
 the feast of Tabernacles was about to be celebrated. It 
 foreshadows the character of the present dispensation which 
 began with Pentecost. During this dispensation the Lord 
 
140 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 is not here in person, but when this age closes He is coming 
 again to reveal Himself, to manifest His glory in Jerusalem, 
 and then the feast of Tabernacles will have its blessed ful- 
 fillment. The Lord therefore never appeared in Jerusalem 
 during the feast of Pentecost. 
 
 His brethren in Galilee urged Him to depart at once for 
 Jerusalem and show Himself in public. Much has been 
 written on the question of the brethren of our Lord. Some 
 say that they were the offspring of Mary by Joseph after the 
 birth of our Lord. In the early Church two opinions were 
 held regarding the relationship of those who are termed “‘the 
 Brethren of the Lord.” Some maintained that no blood 
 relationship existed, that these brethren were the sons of 
 Joseph by a former wife, before he espoused the Virgin, and 
 that they are called His brethren only in the same way in 
 which Joseph is called His father. On the other hand others 
 maintained that they were the Lord’s brethren as truly as 
 the Virgin Mary was the Lord’s mother, being her sons by 
 her husband Joseph. During the end of the fourth century 
 Jerome advanced another theory. In answer to one Hel- 
 vidius, who had attacked the prevailing view of the superiority 
 of a Virgin over a married person, and laid great stress 
 on the fact that Mary had other children from her husband, 
 Jerome declared that the Lord’s brethren were His cousins. 
 We do not think that this question can be definitely settled; 
 nor is it of any importance. They were blood relations of 
 some kind. The text shows that they did not believe on 
 Him. They questioned His Messiahship and urged Him, 
 perhaps sarcastically, to come to the front and demonstrate 
 before the gathered multitudes in Jerusalem that He is the 
 promised King—Messiah. From the first chapter of Acts 
 we learn that they were converted afterward, for they are 
 among the waiting company in Jerusalem (Acts i:14). 
 
 He answers them calmly. His time was not yet come. 
 Their time was always. They had nothing to fear from the 
 side of the Jews and the world would not hate them, for 
 being unconverted, they were still of the world. It was 
 otherwise with Him. He was not of the world and His 
 testimony He bore about the world was that its works 
 are evil, that is why He was hated. Well has it been said 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 141 
 
 “the wickedness of human nature is painfully shown in this 
 sentence, ‘The Lord Jesus was hated’—it is an utter de- 
 lusion to suppose that there is an innate response to perfect 
 moral purity, or an innate admiration of the true, the pure, 
 the just, the kind, and the good in the heart of man. God 
 gave 1900 years ago, a perfect pattern of purity, truth and 
 love in the person of our Lord, and man’s response was 
 ‘hatred.? Nor has the human heart changed since. If 
 our Lord were to come again in humiliation the world today 
 would hate Him, as they hated Him then. If Christians 
 live true Christian lives, walking even as He walked, testi- 
 fying against evil, if their lives are a constant testimony 
 against the world, then the hatred of the world will be their 
 portion. Thus He prayed: “The world has hated them, 
 because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the 
 world.’ How little of all this is known to Christians today! 
 The great professing church seeks the favor and applause of 
 the world and makes common cause with the world which 
 lieth in the wicked one. Let a believer live in separation 
 from the world and its ways and he will soon find out that he 
 is hated by the world, including what has been called ‘the 
 religious world.’ Erasmus used to say that Luther might 
 have had an easy life, if he had not touched the Pope’s 
 crown, and the monks’ bellies. 
 
 “Let us note, that unpopularity among men is no proof 
 that a Christian is wrong, either in faith or practice. The 
 common notion of many, that it is a good sign of a person’s 
 character to be well-spoken of by everybody, is a great error. 
 When we see how our Lord was regarded by the wicked and 
 worldly of His day, we may well conclude that it is a very 
 poor compliment to be told that we are liked by everybody. 
 There can surely be very little ‘witness’ about our lives if 
 even the wicked like us. ‘Woe unto you when all men shall 
 speak well of you’ (Luke vi:26). That sentence is too much 
 forgotten.”’* 
 
 He refused to accompany them. And while they jour- 
 neyed towards Jerusalem He abode in Galilee, awaiting the 
 time of His departure. 
 
 Verses 10-13. His relations had gone, probably disap- 
 
 *Notes on John. 
 
142 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 pointed at His refusal to join them. He did not want to 
 attract attention, nor give an occasion to repeat what had 
 been attempted before, ‘“‘to make Him King” (vi:15) and so 
 He went not openly, joining a larger company, but as in 
 secret. ‘The Jews, the rulers and the Pharisees, were on the 
 lookout for Him, expecting that He would appear at the 
 feast. They asked “Where is He? More literally trans- 
 lated this question is ‘‘Where is that man?’ It implies 
 contempt. Not alone did the Jewish leaders expect Him 
 and look for Him, to vent their hatred upon Him, but the 
 mass of people also expected Him and had Him in their 
 thoughts. How could it be otherwise? The healing of the 
 impotent man and the great message the Lord had delivered 
 in connection with the miracle was still vivid in their minds. 
 The miracle of the feeding of the multitudes was also known 
 to them. Probably there were hundreds of those who had 
 been fed in Jerusalem, as the requirement was that every Jew 
 should participate in the great feast of Tabernacles. ‘They 
 must have scattered the news of what had taken place in 
 Galilee and what He had said as to Himself being the Bread 
 of Life come down from heaven. The gathered masses were 
 divided as to Himself. Some proclaimed Him to be a good 
 man; but others, and they were most likely the larger class, 
 denied that He was a good man, and branded Him as a 
 deceiver. But there were no voices heard which spoke of 
 Him as the Messiah, the King of Israel. Those who be- 
 lieved in Him as a good man were afraid to declare them- 
 selves for fear of the leaders. 
 
 Verses 14-20. The feast of Tabernacles lasted for seven 
 days and was, and still is (among orthodox Jews), an occasion 
 of great rejoicing. Booths of tree branches were made, com- 
 memorating the dwelling in booths when their fathers left 
 Egypt. The law commanded great sacrifices (Numbers 
 xx1x:12-34) to be brought throughout these seven days. 
 It followed immediately after the feast of the blowing of the 
 Trumpets (foreshadowing the future regathering of Israel) 
 and the great Day of Atonement (typical of Israel’s spiritual 
 restoration and the forgiveness of their sins), and, as already 
 stated, the feast of Tabernacles is typical of our Lord’s 
 Return and the blessed results of peace and joy which will 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 143 
 
 follow that coming great event. When the feast was in full 
 swing, in the middle of the week, He appeared in their midst. 
 He went at once up into the Temple toteach. The portion 
 of the Temple where teaching was permitted was the outer 
 Court. Over twenty years before the boy Jesus was in 
 the same outer Court, sitting in the midst of the teachers, 
 hearing them and asking questions. We wonder if some of 
 the older teachers and doctors of the law remembered that 
 boy. 
 
 It has not pleased the Holy Spirit to record what our 
 Lord taught when He entered the Temple. But we know 
 that it was wonderful, for the Jews marveled. Where did 
 He receive all His knowledge? Did He ever attend a great 
 school of learning? Did He sit at the feet of some great 
 Gamaliel? Had He conformed to the demands of rabbinical 
 custom, that anyone who appears as teacher must have 
 been for a number of years the companion of a learned 
 rabbi? And furthermore did He not come from Nazareth? 
 Was He not brought up in that town of ill-repute on account 
 of its uncultured and ignorant population? What good 
 thing can come out of Nazareth? ‘‘How knoweth this man 
 letters, having never learned?”’ 
 
 He answered their question. What He taught He had 
 not learned of others; nor was it something which He had 
 brought forth out of His own mind. The Father had 
 taught Him and therefore He spoke these things (Chapter 
 viii:28). The doctrine He taught was not of Himself, but of 
 another, even of Him that sent Him into the world, the 
 Father with Whom He is one, and apart from Whom He 
 does nothing. The great truth He uttered in the fifth 
 chapter is here once more put before them. It is again 
 mentioned by Him in the twelfth chapter: “I have not 
 spoken of Myself, but the Father which sent Me; He gave 
 Me commandment, what I should say, and what I should 
 speak” (xii:49). All then which came from His blessed 
 lips is the revelation of God. But He gives them a test. 
 They also may know whether His doctrine is of God or that 
 He speaks from Himself. If anyone is willing to do His 
 will, that one shall find the truth. 
 
 “They would know this, if they were but willing to do the 
 
144 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Father’s will, for the spirit of obedience clears out the earth- 
 vapors that obscure the heavens; he who has not heart-felt 
 desire for the truth will scarcely learn it. This is itself 
 simple, if only we believe that God can certify the truth to 
 His creatures, and that He cares enough for them to desire 
 that they should have it. But, simple as it is, if we believe 
 it, what does it reveal with regard to the condition, not of the 
 world merely, but of the children of God today? The 
 various and conflicting views of Christians as to almost 
 every Christian truth, how are they to be accounted for, 
 with the Bible open before us, and the Spirit of Truth to 
 lead us into all truth? What heart searching should it not 
 give us, to learn how far we are really willing to have the 
 truth—the whole truth, at whatever cost.’’* 
 
 He gives another test. The man who speaks from him- 
 self always seeks his own glory; speaking from himself, he 
 speaks for himself and tries to advance his own interests. 
 This is the mark of all teachers of error, who speak not 
 according to the truth of God and through the guidance of 
 the Spirit of God, but from themselves. But the statement 
 “He that seeketh the glory of Him that sent Him, He is 
 true and no unrighteousness is in Him” can only be fully 
 true in Him Whom the Father sent, our Lord. Yet every 
 servant of God, who seeks the glory of God and not his own 
 glory,will be kept from that which is untrue and unrighteous. 
 
 But they rejected Him and the doctrine which the Father 
 had given Him to proclaim, yet were they boasting of the law 
 given by Moses. “Did not Moses give you the Law?” From 
 Deuteronomy xxxi:10, we learn every seventh year the Law 
 was to be read publicly during the feast of Tabernacles. It 
 is quite possible that it was a seventh year feast which the 
 Lord attended, and if this is the case the statement as to the 
 Law has additional meaning. But with all their boasting 
 in the law they did not keep, little did they know that the 
 omniscient, holy Lawgiver stood in their presence. They 
 were going about to kill Him and thus breaking that Law. 
 Not the rulers and the Pharisees answered Him, but the 
 people, those who did not believe on Him as a good man, 
 
 *Numerical Bible. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 145 
 
 but thought Him a deceiver. They were ignorant of the 
 secret plottings of the religious leaders. Not knowing the 
 truth they charged Him with having a demon. Thus they 
 treated Him who is the Light and the Life. 
 
 Verses 21-24. From these words spoken by our ominis- 
 cient Lord it becomes apparent that the great miracle 
 performed by Him at the pool of Bethesda was the real cause 
 of their hatred. They had not forgotten the healing of the 
 impotent man. They persecuted Him then and sought to 
 slay Him because He healed the man on the Sabbath. They 
 had nourished the same feeling against Him ever since. He 
 reminds them of circumcision given by Moses, yet it was not 
 appointed by Moses, for circumcision was prior to the law, 
 given unto the fathers. The law commanded that the 
 Sabbath should be kept holy and no work to be done in it; 
 but the law also demanded that every male child should be 
 circumcised on the eighth day. The eighth day many times 
 fell on the Sabbath, and that the law of Moses might not be 
 broken, the child was circumcised on the Sabbath. He 
 showed them thereby that they did a certain work on the 
 Sabbath, a religious ordinance made necessary by the com- 
 mandment of God. But what is circumcision in comparison 
 with the great work He had done, a work which glorifies 
 God and made a man perfectly whole! Why should they be 
 angry with Him because He had healed the man on the 
 Sabbath? They had judged Him hastily; they condemned 
 Him because they were blind ritualists, standing and defend- 
 ing the letter of the law. Their lips were silenced. They 
 could not give Him an answer. 
 
 Verses 25-27. Jerusalem was crowded with people on 
 account of the feast,and those who speak now were not 
 visitors but natives of Jerusalem. Ina preceding verse the 
 people said: “Who goeth about to kill thee?” (verse 21). 
 These inhabitants of Jerusalem were better informed; they 
 knew something of the hatred, and of the plans which were 
 being made against Him. ‘‘Is not this He, whom they seek 
 to kill?? They were astonished that He spoke openly in the 
 way He did. None of the Elders or Priests said anything to 
 Him. They did not open their mouths to denounce Him, 
 nor did they lay hands on Him. They could not explain the 
 
146 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 inactiveness of their rulers, when they had such a good 
 opportunity to arrest Him. Some even thought that their 
 leaders had changed their minds about Him. ‘‘Have the 
 rulers indeed acknowledged that this is Christ?’ 
 
 Mockery and sneers followed. ‘They thought they knew 
 where He came from. They knew Him by the name “Jesus 
 of Nazareth.”’ These proud Jerusalem Jews said, “He is 
 nothing but a Galilean, from that little town of Nazareth.” 
 And later, when He rode into Jerusalem, the people said: 
 “This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth.” Then it was 
 written over His cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the 
 Jews.” They knew this much, that the Messiah must come 
 from Bethlehem. But this-man, they said, is a Nazarene, 
 brought up as a carpenter in Nazareth. ‘They did not 
 know of His virgin birth, nor that He was born in the city 
 of David, Bethlehem. ‘They manifested their ignorance by 
 their statement: “As to Christ, when He comes, no one 
 knows whence He is.” Perhaps back of this strange ques- 
 tion lie some of the foolish traditions and sayings of the 
 Jews, which even then, at least in part, were circulating 
 among the people. 
 
 Verses 28-32. This is one of the few passages in the 
 Gospels in which it is recorded that He cried, which means 
 that He spoke with a loud voice. The Prophet Isaiah had 
 announced, ‘‘He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any 
 man hear His voice in the street” (Isa. xlii:2). This was 
 His lovely and meek character, yet at times He spoke with 
 a loud voice. Once more in this chapter He cried (verse37); 
 also in chapter xii:44. Then He cried with a loud voice on 
 the cross (Matt. xxvii:46) and also when He yielded up 
 His spirit. 
 
 “Ye both know Me and ye know whence am.”’ This was 
 His utterance. He acknowledged they were right in say- 
 ing that they knew Him, yet they knew Him not in the real 
 sense of the word. ‘They knew He was from Nazareth; they 
 knew about His relatives, those called “‘his brethren’; they 
 knew that He had lived for thirty years and over in Nazareth; 
 yet of His miraculous birth, of His Deity they knew nothing 
 whatever. ‘That is what He affirms: “But He that sent 
 Me is true, whom ye know not. But I know Him be- 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 147 
 
 cause I am from Him, and He hath sent Me.” Brief, yet 
 weighty words these are. Once more the Lord bears witness 
 as to His Deity and Oneness with the Father. He is the sent 
 One of God; He is from Him; He knows Him. He was 
 always with Him, one with Him, equal with Him. They 
 understood at once what He meant. His former words 
 when He had healed the impotent man must have been 
 remembered by some: “My Father worketh hitherto, and 
 I work” (verse 17). They were then ready to kill Him. 
 And here He had made statements of the same character. 
 Their antagonism was raised to the highest pitch, and they 
 sought to take Him, but they were divinely restrained from 
 laying hands on Him. No hand could touch Him, for His 
 hour had not yet come. That hour when He was to be de- 
 livered into the hands of men, to be crucified and to finish 
 the work He came to do, was scheduled from all eternity. 
 The exact hour was known and appointed before the foun- 
 dation of the world.* When His enemies finally laid hold 
 on Him, it was because His hour had come. 
 
 Another effect of the words of our Lord was that many 
 believed on Him. They probably believed in the same way 
 as those mentioned at the close of the second chapter. They 
 may have been Galileans, for they said: ‘““When Christ 
 cometh, will He do more signs than these which this man 
 has done?” But few signs and miracles had been done by 
 Him in Jerusalem, but His great signs had been wrought in 
 Galilee. They seemed to be convinced that He was the 
 Messiah, but we hear nothing of them that confessed Him as 
 Lord and as Christ, nor did they follow Him. The Pharisees 
 soon discovered that He whom they hated was the most 
 talked of person at the feast. Everybody spoke of Him, 
 and when they found that many voices were heard that He 
 must be the Messiah, they thought the time for action had 
 come. ‘They therefore commissioned officers to arrest Him. 
 
 
 
 *In a certain Bible Study Magazine we saw recently the statement 
 that our Lord died ‘‘a premature death.” We suppose the author of the 
 article from which we quote this, which also contains other dishonor- 
 ing statements about our Lord, means that He might have lived longer. 
 It is foolish for any one to write such inventions. Think of Christ 
 dying a premature death, when a certain hour for His death on the 
 Cross was known in all eternity! 
 
148 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Verses 33-36. Surrounded by the multitudes, with the 
 officers of the Pharisees approaching to carry out the com- 
 mand of the chiefs of the people, the Lord addresses them. 
 The officers were not only powerless to do what they had 
 been told, but they were forced to listen to His words. Later 
 we find what they said to their superiors about what they 
 had heard from His lips. 
 
 They had come to lay hold on Him. His words tell them 
 that it could not be done, for yet a little while He was to be 
 with them, and when that little while is gone He would go 
 back to the Father who sent Him. He speaks in full assur- 
 ance, in perfect knowledge of what would take place. He 
 would accomplish the great work and then go back to Him, 
 the Father. And after He is gone, He said, ‘‘Ye shall seek 
 Me and not find Me.” ‘This is a prophetic utterance of our 
 Lord; it goes beyond the people who listened to Him at 
 that time. It concerns the nation itself, that after He had 
 gone back to the Father, they would look in vain for the 
 promised Messiah. They would then seek Him and not 
 find Him. Still more solemn is the next sentence, “‘Where 
 I am ye cannot come.” Let us notice that our Lord does 
 not say, “Where I am going ye cannot come,” but “‘Where 
 I am.’ The place He speaks of is heaven; this is the place 
 which is His, and even while He was on earth in creature’s 
 form in His Deity He was in heaven, and did not cease from 
 being there when He walked on earth (see John iii:13). 
 Well may we confess, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for 
 me.” And those who reject Him, who do not believe on 
 Him, can NEVER be in the place where He is. This one 
 sentence answers all the unscriptural inventions of a second 
 chance for those who rejected Christ and died unsaved, it 
 is a complete refutation of the “‘larger hope” and the cun- 
 ningly devised fables of ‘“‘reconciliationism,” the misappli- 
 cation of the Scriptural term “the restitution of all things.” 
 It is an utter impossibility that those who die in their sins 
 and in unbelief can ever reach the place where He is. Men 
 may please themselves with thinking it is kind and loving 
 and liberal and large hearted to believe and to teach that 
 all men and women of all sorts will finally be found in heaven. 
 One word of our Lord Jesus Christ’s overturns the whole 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 149 
 
 theory: Heaven is a place, He says to the wicked, where 
 “ve cannot come.” 
 
 They understood not what He said. They imagined that 
 He thought of going to those Jews who were dispersed among 
 the Greeks and then also teach the Gentiles. They surmised 
 something which came true after His death, resurrection 
 and ascension. The Holy Spirit came down from heaven, 
 and the witness was first given in Jerusalem. Once more 
 the kingdom promise is preached. ‘They rejected the mes- 
 sage, and then theGospel was sent far hence unto the Gentiles. 
 
 Verses 37-39. The feast of Tabernacles terminated with 
 the eighth day. It was on this last day, that the voice of our 
 Lord was heard uttering this most blessed invitation and 
 promise. For seven days water had been drawn from the 
 brook Siloam and poured out, under the rejoicing of the 
 people assembled to keep the feast. It was a memorial of the 
 miracle in their history, when the Lord, during their wilder- 
 ness experience, supplied water out of the cleft of the rock. 
 But more than that, for the well informed Israelite, who 
 believed the promises of God made to the nation, it was 
 prophetic. Zechariah’s final vision tells of the time “‘when 
 living waters shall go out from Jerusalem” (Zech. xiv:8). 
 Ezekiel, too, had beheld the waters like a mighty river flowing 
 forth from the great temple. And in the distant past 
 Balaam, likewise, had spoken a similar prophecy (Num. 
 xxiv:7). All these prophecies will be fulfilled in the day the 
 King comes back to be in the midst of His people. The 
 last great day of the feast was called “the Hosanna Rabba,”’ 
 when the air was fairly rent with the Hosannas of the mul- 
 titudes. But on the eighth day the ceremony of pouring 
 out water ceased. It was symbolical of the fact that after 
 the wilderness wanderings were over they entered the 
 promised land, where the springs of water supplied all their 
 need to the full. 
 
 And here their own King-Messiah is with them. He 
 through whom all these promises can only be fulfilled, He 
 who is the rock which followed them (1 Cor. x:4) is in their 
 midst. He is the rejected One. ‘The hour nears when He 
 will be cast out and delivered into the hands of the Gen- 
 tiles to be lifted up on the cross. All that the feast of 
 
150 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Tabernacles signifies prophetically cannot be now; it can- 
 not be fulfilled, “rivers of living water’ flowing forth from 
 Jerusalem. In this last day, when the feast was about 
 ended, He stood and uttered these wonderful words: “If 
 any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink’’; and then 
 the promise, “He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture 
 hath said, from his belly shall flow forth rivers of living 
 water.” While the national promise is impossible, on 
 account of His rejection, He offers something new, giving 
 an individual invitation, and an individual promise. He 
 is the fountain of living water and He invites the thirsting 
 one to come to Him and drink. Then having come to Him 
 to drink, believing on Hint, He gives the great promise, 
 from that one, should flow forth rivers of living water. We 
 are told in the next verse that this means the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost, which all those receive who believe on Him. 
 Yet this gift was conditioned on the death of Christ and 
 the resurrection and ascension of Christ; the words ‘“‘for 
 Jesus was not yet glorified” include all these great events 
 in the redemption work of our Lord. 
 
 The promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Christ 
 was glorified and the Glorifier of Christ, the Holy Spirit 
 came down from heaven to earth. He came to dwell in and 
 to fill those who have come to Christ and believed on Him. 
 And so it was on that memorable day when the promised 
 gift was given. Ever since, whosoever believes on Him 
 shares in that gift and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And 
 that Spirit is to manifest Himself through the believer as 
 streams of living water, flowing forth from Him. It does 
 not mean that there is to be a supernatural manifestation 
 of the presence of the Holy Spirit in some startling sign— 
 gifts, such as the “gift of Tongues,” the lowest of all the 
 gifts, but that the believer is to be the source from which 
 blessings flow forth to others by bearing witness to Christ.* 
 
 Noteworthy is Martin Luther’s vigorous and simple 
 paraphrase on these words of our Lord. “He that cometh 
 
 *“The possession of the gifts of the Spirit, it is evident, in the early 
 church is quite compatible with an ungodly heart. A man ora woman 
 might speak with tongues, and yet be like salt that has lost its savour. 
 
 The possession of the fullness of the graces of the Spirit, on the contrary, 
 was that which made any man a blessing in the world.” 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 151 
 
 to Me shall be so furnished with the Holy Spirit, that he 
 shall not only be quickened and refreshed himself and de- 
 livered from thirst, but he shall also be a strong stone vessel, 
 from which the Holy Spirit with all blessing shall flow to 
 others, refreshing, comforting and strengthening them, even 
 as he was refreshed by Me. Peter on the day of Pentecost, 
 by one sermon, as by a rush of water, delivered three thou- 
 sand from the devil’s kingdom.” An old comment says: 
 “When a man turns to the Lord, he is like a fountain filled 
 with living water, and rivers flow from him to men of all 
 nations and tribes.”’ Even so it is. God’s people are not 
 called to be stagnant pools, or reservoirs which only receive 
 and never give forth, but our calling is to be rivers, which 
 constantly give because they have in themselves the foun- 
 tain of living water. 
 
 “But where else shall we find so wonderful a picture of 
 what the man indwelt of the Spirit is in the world, as wit- 
 ness of the glory of His rejected Lord? As we have to say 
 of kindred utterances in this Gospel, it seems too highly 
 drawn for a picture of any save the rare exceptions among 
 Christian men. But let us accept the reproof of this, and 
 try rather to realize what a man indwelt of the Spirit would 
 be normally as that. The Spirit of God—God dwelling 
 within one—the Living Center of the practical life; the 
 Enlightener of mind and conscience; the Energy of the 
 affection and the will: all power, all wisdom in Him who 
 as Vice-regent of Christ has come to hold me for Christ 
 against all that in a world opposed to Him would hinder 
 my witness!—what competency, what fulness at all times 
 accessible to me does all this imply! 
 
 “A perpetual spring in a vessel must needs overflow the 
 vessel in which it is, the smallness of which is no limit to 
 the spring itself. When once the vessel is full, all the power 
 of the spring will manifest itself in the overflow. Hence, 
 (if we think of the spring and not of the vessel), ‘rivers of liv- 
 ing water’ are not too much to predicate of the outflow 
 from this divine Source of blessing within the soul, which, 
 first filling to complete satisfaction the soul itself, must 
 surely then flow out for the need of others. 
 
 “This is the Lord’s own witness to the gift He gives, who 
 
152 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 cannot err in the estimate He makes of it. When we realize 
 what it is, we cannot think it to be too high. Our experi- 
 mental knowledge will depend indeed upon our practical 
 subjection to the Spirit indwelling us; but how blessed te 
 know that this is to be gained in so simple a way, and that 
 this is the picture the Lord can give us of the normal 
 Christian.’’* 
 
 Verses 40-44. Evidently the attention was arrested. To 
 see this One standing up, and telling out such a message, 
 must have astonished the multitude. We doubt not there 
 were thirsty souls there, sin-laden souls, souls to whom these 
 words went home. They thought that He must be the 
 Prophet, the one whom Moses had announced would come 
 some day (Deut. xviii:15-18). But there were others and 
 they seemed to be convinced that “this is the Christ”; they 
 saw in Him, as He really was, the promised Messiah, the 
 King, the Son of David. They were probably saying this one 
 to another, so that others heard of it. ‘Therefore some made 
 objection. They knew Messiah could not come out of 
 Galilee; they thought our Lord was nothing but a Galilean, 
 and therefore He could not be the Messiah. They knew 
 that Messiah must be a Son of David and come from the 
 city of David, Bethlehem; and they knew not that He was 
 the Son of David from Bethlehem. The result was a divi- 
 sion among the people. Some said He is the Prophet, some 
 He is Christ, others objected and still others hated and de- 
 spised Him. And so it is still, there is ‘‘a division among the 
 people on account of Him.” Some day the burning question, 
 “What think ye of Christ, whose Son is He?”’ will be for- 
 ever settled for Jew and Gentile, and that will be the day 
 of His coming Glory. 
 
 Verses 45-53. These officers had been sent several days 
 before (verse 32) to arrest our Lord. They probably 
 watched Him very closely and looked for a convenient time to 
 carry out their commission. They could not do so, because 
 His hour was not yetcome. Here they return empty handed 
 and when asked why they did not bring Him a prisoner, their 
 defense is, “Never spake man like this man.” It was not 
 cowardice on their part, that, fearing the great mass of 
 
 *Numerical Bible. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 153 
 
 people, they refrained from touching His person. The power 
 and beauty of the words of the Son of God restrained them 
 completely from taking action. They listened to Him and 
 then forgot all about the orders they had received. Often 
 has this been repeated in the lives of evangelists and mission- 
 aries who preached faithfully the Word of God and did not 
 know that wicked men were plotting to do them harm; the 
 Word preached touched their consciences, and they were 
 unable to carry out their threats. 
 
 “Are ye also deceived?” said the Pharisees to them. 
 “Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed on Him?” 
 “Who are ye, hirelings of the Sanhedrim that you should be 
 captivated by His words? We, the rulers and the Pharisees, 
 we, the learned doctors of law, men of authority, are the 
 judges. This miserable mob which shouts out that He must 
 be the Prophet, and others saying He must be Christ, know 
 not the law; they are cursed.” Perhaps they meant with this 
 that they had sympathy with Him, whom they considered 
 a law-breaker, because He had healed on the Sabbath, and 
 therefore, the multitude also not knowing the law, were 
 cursed. Everything shows that the Pharisees were beside 
 themselves, filled with rage, with envy, hatred and malice 
 against the Lord. 
 
 But suddenly one of their own number speaks; it is 
 Nicodemus. The Holy Spirit adds, so that there might be 
 no question as to who this Nicodemus is, “he that came to 
 Jesus by night.” As we know from the third chapter, 
 Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a ruler and the teacher in Israel. 
 That he speaks now in the presence of his associates, mem- 
 bers of the Sanhedrim, shows that the blessed words our 
 Lord had spoken to this man in that memorable night had 
 not been spoken in vain; they had touched his heart. He 
 ventures, though weakly, to defend the Lord. “Doth our 
 law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he 
 doeth?” He appealed to the law (Deut. i:17, xvii:8, xix:15). 
 They knew the law well, and also the instructions by the 
 elders which required that every accused person should 
 have a hearing, with an opportunity to confront the wit- 
 nesses against him and to cross-examine them. They felt 
 the rebuke and could not answer; instead they sneered at 
 
154 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 their colleague, “Art thou also of Galilee?’ which meant, 
 are you also ignorant, thou, our great teacher, the honored 
 and respected Nicodemus? ‘Then sarcastically, “Search and 
 look, out of Galilee hath arisen no prophet.” Their fury 
 and malicious bitterness had blinded them completely. 
 They quite forgot that Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Jonah and 
 probably Nahum were Galilean prophets. Then they 
 dispersed. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Verses 1-11. This passage has been rejected by some as 
 an interpolation. The chief arguments against it are the 
 following: It is not found in some of the oldest manuscripts 
 and earlier translations; that some of the Greek fathers never 
 refer to it; that it differs in style from the rest of this Gospel; 
 that the incident would foster immorality.. All these argu- 
 ments have been proven invalid. Some of the most reliable 
 manuscripts contain this paragraph, and in others it was 
 omitted on purpose, because the grace, which shines forth so 
 marvelously in the Lord’s dealing with this woman, was 
 unpalatable to those teachers who leaned towards legality. 
 It seems the fear that it might lead to license seems to have 
 influenced a good many in the early Church to discountenance 
 this blessed story. Augustinus in one of his works refers to 
 this. In speaking of the case of a wife who has committed 
 adultery, he says, how well it becomes a Christian husband to 
 be reconciled to her, upon her repentance, because our Lord 
 said, ‘Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more.” 
 This, however, rather shocks the minds of some weak be- 
 lievers, or rather unbelievers and enemies of the Christian 
 faith, insomuch that, afraid of its giving their wives im- 
 punity in sinning, they struck out of their copies of the 
 Gospel this that our Lord did in pardoning the woman taken 
 in adultery; as if He granted leave of sinning, when He said, 
 *“Go, and sin no more.” 
 
 It is evident from the text that this story belongs here and 
 must be genuine. If we leave it out the text would make no 
 sense, for in verse 53 of the previous chapter we read: “Every 
 man went to his own house.” If we leave out the first eleven 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 155 
 
 verses of this chapter, the next verse, verse 12, ““Then spake 
 Jesus again unto them,” makes no connection whatever. 
 But from the beginning of chapter vili we learn that our 
 Lord, having spent the night on Olivet, returned early to the 
 temple and was surrounded at once by the people who still 
 lingered in Jerusalem after the feast of Tabernacles. Then 
 He sat down and resumed His teaching. But before He 
 could do so His enemies were once more active. In the pre- 
 vious chapter they had failed to take Him by force. The 
 officers had returned without Him, for His hour had not 
 yet come. Their attempt is now to ensnare Him so as to 
 find occasion to accuse Him of some inconsistency. 
 
 The woman who had just been apprehended in adultery 
 is brought into His presence. They form a circle about 
 Him and put the woman alongside of the Lord, thus putting 
 the Holy One of Israel alongside of one of His sinful, lost 
 creatures, for whom He had come to die. We do not know 
 who this woman was, as her name and history are not given. 
 They state the case against her. She was taken in adultery. 
 The Law of Moses demanded that she suffer the death 
 penalty by stoning (Lev. xx:10, Deuteronomy xxii:22). 
 They demand “‘What therefore sayest thou?” ‘There is no 
 difficulty in finding out why they put this question to Him. 
 In their cunning they thought He must answer that the law 
 of Moses must be upheld and the sentence executed. If he 
 had answered thus they would have gone at once to the 
 Roman authorities and accused Him as some kind of a rebel 
 against the orders of the Government, for it was not lawful 
 for the Jews to put anyone to death (xviii:31). If He 
 would answer negatively, that the woman should not be 
 stoned, they would have made coin out of this, and quickly 
 passed the word that He was a lawbreaker, one who upheld 
 unrighteousness and sin. 
 
 And while they plotted and concocted this scheme to harm 
 Him, He knew their thoughts. Nothing was hid from His 
 omniscient eye. While they waited for a reply, He stooped 
 down and wrote with His finger on the ground. It is the only 
 passage in the Gospels which tells us that our Lord wrote. 
 What did He trace on the ground? No one knows, for there 
 is nothing said about it by John. But let us remember the 
 
156 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 same finger which wrote in the dust is the finger which 
 wrote the law—He is the lawgiver; that law pronounces 
 death, it is written in the dust, the dust of death. Not 
 a word came from His lips. But the questioners were per- 
 sistent and determined to get an answer. ‘““Then He lifted 
 up Himself and said unto them, He that is without sin among 
 you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again He stooped 
 down and wrote on the ground.” His perfect wisdom is once 
 more revealed. He was not the one to sit in judgment and 
 pronounce the sentence. The witnesses according to the 
 law were to be the executioners of the sentence of the law. 
 They had come bringing the charge. Were they guiltless, 
 or had they also broken the commandment, ““Thou shalt not 
 commit adultery’? If there was one in that company who 
 had not sinned in this line, he might come to the front and 
 cast the first stone at the woman. They all sneaked out. 
 The eldest left first; they were convicted by their own con- 
 science. If they were guilty of the same sin which the 
 woman had committed, then they were under the same 
 sentence of death for the same sin. He who spoke to them 
 knew their lives and sin. What a testimony this is to the 
 moral condition of the Jewish people in the days of our Lord! 
 These Scribes and Pharisees with their high profession and 
 pretensions were guilty of grossest sin. 
 
 They had all gone away. The accusers were gone, the 
 accused woman remained face to face with Him, who knew 
 no sin, in whose mouth no guile was found. ‘‘Woman, where 
 are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? 
 She said, No man, Lord.’”? How delicately and graciously 
 He treated the poor woman! He might have asked her about 
 her sin and guilt. He might have rebuked her. But 
 none of all this came from His blessed lips. He did not need 
 to ask her about her guilt. He knew her life’s history, as 
 He knows ours. And the woman addressed Him as “Lord,” 
 which is evidence that she believed in Him. She expressed 
 her faith in Him, uttering this one word ‘‘Lord,” the word 
 a disciple of our Lord, Judas Iscariot never used. And 
 because she believed in Him as Lord, He said, ‘‘Neither do 
 I condemn thee; go, and sin no more.” He revealed His 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 157 
 
 grace unto her, but that grace demands holiness. Forgive- 
 ness must be followed by the new life. 
 
 Verses 12-20. The incident of the woman brought before 
 the Lord was an interruption. He had returned in the 
 early morning to the temple to teach. Probably the sun was 
 just beginning to shine, when looking towards the sunrise He 
 made this great statement, ‘‘I am the light of the world.” 
 It is another great self-witness. He is the light, already so 
 blessedly announced in the first chapter of the Gospel. 
 This means He is the light and gives light; apart from Him all 
 is darkness, but in His light we see the light. He is the light 
 of the world, it is to reach the Gentiles. This is especially 
 revealed in Isaiah (Chapter xlix). After the complaint of 
 Messiah, prophetically stated, and as relating to Israel, “I 
 have laboured in vain’’—the rejected One is announced as the 
 light for the Gentiles—‘‘I will also give thee for a light to 
 the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends 
 of the earth” (Isaiah xlix:1-6). And he that followeth 
 Him, He assures us, shall not walk in darkness but shall have 
 the light of life. Following necessitates believing on Him, for 
 none can follow Him as the light, unless there is faith in Him. 
 “‘What the teacher is to the scholar, the master to the 
 servant, the guide to the traveler, the general to the soldier, 
 the shepherd to the sheep, that is Christ to the believer who 
 follows Him.” 
 
 Following Him is walking in the light and not in darkness. 
 Man on account of sin is in moral and spiritual darkness. 
 Believing on Christ and following Him delivers from both. 
 In his fellowship the believer is delivered from the power of 
 darkness, from the power of sin and from ignorance as to 
 spiritual things. No prophet ever made such an assertion 
 as this, and only He could make it because He is Lord and 
 God, the Life and the Light. 
 
 Then the Pharisees answered Him, ‘“Thou bearest record 
 of Thyself; thy record is not true.”” Because He spoke thus 
 of Himself, they branded His self-witness as untrustworthy. 
 Their objection was another evidence of the darkened mind 
 of the natural man, as well as the hatred of their hearts. 
 The Lord answers at once, that though He bore record of 
 Himself, yet His testimony concerning Himself is true. How 
 
158 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 abundantly this has been confirmed in the experiences of 
 believing sinners in every generation, men and women 
 uncountable, who believed on Him, followed Him, and 
 rejoiced in the light of life, walking in the light as He is in the 
 light. But He added “‘for I know whence I came, and whither 
 I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come and whither I go.” 
 He knew who He was, the Son of God, the Lord of glory. 
 He knew the great work He came to do in redemption, and 
 He knew that He would return to the glory from which He 
 came. Of this they were ignorant, or else they would not 
 have charged Him with bearing an untrustworthy testimony, 
 but would have worshipped at His feet. They judged only 
 after the outward appearance, but He did not judge man in 
 this manner. He did not come to judge the world, yet the 
 day will come when He will execute the judgments com- 
 mitted into His hands by the Father. When that judgment 
 time comes, His judgment will be true; for in it He is not 
 alone—‘“‘For I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent 
 Me.” Here once more the great testimony of John’s Gospel, 
 the inseparable union of the Father and the Son, is in 
 evidence. 
 
 In the law it is written “that the testimony of two 
 men is true’ (Deuteronomy xvii:6; xix:15). There were 
 two witnesses as to Himself and His mission; He bore 
 witness of Himself and the Father also witnessed concerning 
 Him, for He had sent Him. Then His enemies wanted to 
 know about His Father, ‘‘Where is Thy Father?’ In asking 
 this question they showed contempt, as if saying, ‘“‘Where 
 then is this father of yours? Why does he not show himself 
 and tell us all about you?” 
 
 Then the Lord answered and said, ‘‘Ye neither know Me, 
 nor My Father; if ye had known Me, ye should have known 
 my Father also.”? These are weighty words again. Notonly 
 do they show once more the unity of the Son with the Father, 
 but they teach us that knowledge of the Father is only 
 possible through the Son. Not knowing Christ means not 
 knowing the Father. But knowing Christ, believing on Him, 
 following Him, gives the knowledge of the Father, and as 
 believers know Christ better, they learn to know the Father 
 more and more. ‘‘Whosoever denieth the Son, the same has 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 159 
 
 not the Father” (1 John 11:23). ‘Whosoever shall confess 
 that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he 
 in God” (John iv:15). “He that hath the Son hath life, 
 ‘and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 
 212); 
 
 All this took place in the temple, in that portion called 
 the treasury. Boldly He had declared His Messiahship and 
 His Oneness with God. But no one laid hands on Him, not 
 for fear of the multitudes, many of whom sided with Him, 
 but because His hour was not yet come.* 
 
 Verses 21-27. These words were spoken by the Lord 
 probably some time later on the same day, but not in the 
 same place, “in the treasury of the temple” (verse 20). In 
 the beginning of this new discourse He tells them that He is 
 going Hisway. Whatwayisthis? Itis the way marked out 
 in the eternal purposes of God. That way led Him from the 
 throne of glory down into the world to die for sinners, and 
 after that the way led Him back to the Father. “I go my 
 way’; blessed expression! He came that way for us, and 
 those who believe on Him, for whom He died, follow Him in 
 that way to the Father’s house. Then they would seek Him. 
 This evidently means that they would look for the Messiah, 
 but, having rejected Him, there is no other to seek. As the 
 result of His rejection, they would die in their sins, “‘whither 
 I go, ye cannot come.” ‘This is a most solemn utterance of 
 our Lord. Those who do not believe on Him die in their 
 sins and, dying unsaved, there is no possibility of ever being 
 in heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ has gone. No 
 matter what theories have been invented to hold out a hope 
 for the unsaved after death, they all wither into nothing- 
 ness before this word of our Lord. But they were unable 
 to understand His words. Perhaps their own murderous 
 
 *The expression should be carefully noticed, and remembered by 
 all true Christians. It teaches that the wicked can do no harm to 
 Christ and His members until God gives them permission. Not a 
 hair of a believer’s head can be touched until God in His sovereign 
 wisdom allows it. It teaches that all times are in God’s hand. There 
 is an allotted ‘hour’ both for doing and for suffering. ‘Till the hour 
 comes for dying no Christian will die. When the hour comes nothing 
 can prevent his death. These are comfortable truths, and deserve 
 attention. Christ’s members are safe and immortal till their work is 
 
 done. When they suffer, it is because God wills it and sees it good.” 
 —‘Thoughts on John.” 
 
160 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 thoughts suggested the idea that He meant to take His own 
 life, “Will He kill Himself? It shows how dreadful is the 
 darkness of the natural man. 
 
 Then He gives a double contrast. “Ye are from beneath; 
 I am from above. Ye are of this world; I am not of this 
 world.”’ And this is not only true of the Jews who listened 
 to His words, it is true of every human being. By nature 
 we are all from beneath, we are all of this world, and because 
 we are from beneath and of this world, we are lost sinners. 
 But how precious to know that through grace, through His 
 own blessed work of sinbearing, the sinner who believes on 
 Him is born from above. The ‘‘from beneath” is changed 
 to “from above.” ‘The.newborn believer then is no longer 
 of this world. He expressed this marvelous truth in His 
 own great prayer (chapter xvii) when praying for His own, 
 for all who believe, “they are not of the world, even as I 
 am not of the world.” 
 
 Then He takes up the previous thought of “dying in 
 your sins.” What does it mean? Did He mean their 
 individual sins only. It means that the great sin on account 
 of which they die in their sins is unbelief. ‘“‘For if ye believe 
 not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.”’ This is still the 
 Truth. No matter how great a sinner a man or woman may 
 be, there is salvation at the door of each by believing on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, believing that He is the Son of God and 
 died for the ungodly. No matter how morally a man and a 
 woman may live, how much good they may do, if they reject 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, if they refuse to believe on Him, it is 
 true of all, as it was true of those Jews in the days of our Lord, 
 “if ye believe not that I am He (the Lord) ye shall die in your 
 Sissy, 
 
 This only incensed them more. Who art Thou? they asked 
 Him, perhaps sarcastically, certainly not honestly. May- 
 be they tried toensnare Him. His brief answer suggests this 
 thought, “Even the same that I said unto you from the be- 
 ginning.” 
 
 Once more He bears witness of His oneness with Him who 
 sent Him, His Father. Many other things He might have 
 spoken and many other judgments He might have uttered 
 concerning them; He did not do so, for He spoke just those 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 161 
 
 things which accorded with what He had heard of Him, who 
 sent Him. But so dense were their minds and unbelieving 
 hearts that they understood not that He spoke to them of the 
 Father. 
 
 Verses 28-33. In the next place He speaks of His com- 
 ing death. The words are a prophecy. He predicts once 
 more His death by crucifixion and that they would do it, 
 “When ye have lifted up the Son of Man.” But what does 
 it mean when He tells them that then they would know “that 
 I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself’? Does it mean 
 that some of them would then believe on Him and acknow- 
 ledge Him as the Messiah, the Son of God? Or does our 
 Lord mean that the judgments which came upon the unbe- 
 lieving nation would be a proof by which they would find out 
 that He was the sent One of the Father? We think both views 
 are true. After His death thousands of the Jews who had re- 
 jected Him believed on His Name and were saved. His 
 resurrection demonstrated the fact that He is the Son of God, 
 and that all He spoke was of the Father. But, on the other 
 hand, the Jews, and Jerusalem, impenitent as a nation, found 
 out also that He is the Sonof God. The great Jewish histor-— 
 ian Josephus attributed rightly the misfortunes of the Jewish 
 people to the death of Christ. What calmness and assurance 
 breathe in His words, ‘And He that sent Me is with Me; 
 the Father hath not left Me alone; for I do always those 
 things that please Him.’’ Never was that fellowship between 
 the Father and the Son broken. On the Cross He was for- 
 saken of God, but in anticipation of His coming suffering He 
 could say to His disciples, ‘““Ye shall leave Me alone, and yet 
 I am not alone, because the Father is with Me” (xvi:32). 
 Then many believed on Him, but not in the true sense of the 
 word. They were convinced in a certain measure, but hearts 
 and consciences were not touched. We have no record 
 that they fell at His feet to worship Him, or that they fol- 
 lowed Him as true disciples. 
 
 Those who professed to believe on Him He now addresses 
 in a few sentences, and what follows demonstrates the fact 
 stated above that they did not believe on Him in true faith. 
 He gives them a test of true discipleship. “If ye continue in 
 my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.”? Such is the only 
 
162 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 real and safe proof of discipleship. He that is truly saved 
 and a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ will continue in His 
 Word. ‘‘And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall 
 make you free.”” Knowing the Lord Jesus Christ is knowing 
 the Truth, for He is the Truth. And furthermore He is the 
 key which unlocks all the Truth of God, for He is the center 
 of God’s revelation. And Christ the Truth, He and His 
 Word, make us free, free from the bondage and burden of sin, 
 free to serve God in newness of life. But how much more 
 there is included in this one verse! 
 
 Verses 33-41. Those whom He addressed had professed 
 faith in Him. But now their language in answer to His 
 words betrays their condition. Had they been true believers 
 they would have accepted His Word and continued in it. 
 They were proud, self-exalted Jews, unchanged from the 
 condition in which they were when John the Baptist called 
 them to repentance, for they said then, ““We have Abraham 
 for our father” (Matt. iii:19). They boasted of freedom, yet 
 they were domineered over by the Romans, and it was a 
 heavy yoke. But underneath this language was the un- 
 changed heart, the heart of pride and self-sufficiency. It is 
 so today. We find thousands upon thousands in the pro- 
 fessing churches who are in the same condition. ‘They have 
 never seen their lost condition; they do not believe that they 
 are dead in trespasses and sins; they do not own themselves 
 helpless and slaves to sin. What the Jews said, ‘‘Webe 
 Abraham’s seed,” is heard throughout the professing sphere 
 of Christendom; ‘‘We go to church. . . . we were baptized. 
 
 . we do this and do that. . . . Howcan we be lost?” 
 
 His answer to them is, “‘Whosever committeth sin is a 
 servant of sin.”’ This sentence demonstrates what freedom 
 the Lord meant, not political freedom, but freedom from 
 the slavery of sin in which every natural man is. Man is 
 a sinner, he has a nature which is corrupt and which is 
 capable of nothing else but sinning. He must live habitually 
 in sin, and therefore he is mastered by sin, he is a slave. It 
 is the new nature, the new life in Christ, which delivers 
 from this bondage. 
 
 The servant abideth not in the house forever, but the 
 Son abideth ever. They were under the Jewish economy 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 163 
 
 nothing but servants, and there was no hope for them in 
 their own system of ever advancing beyond that, or abiding 
 in the house forever. It is different with a son, he abides 
 forever. And Sonship was offered to them by Him who had 
 spoken to them, and in whom they professed to believe. “‘If 
 the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free 
 indeed.”” This connects with verse 32 and has the same 
 meaning, with the additional meaning of free from the law, 
 which is a bondage and heavy yoke. 
 
 They did not need to tell Him that they were Abraham’s 
 seed. They sought to kill Him, because His word had no 
 place in them, they had refused to believe on Him, and 
 therefore the murderer from the beginning could use them 
 as his ready instruments. This thought is further brought 
 out in the verses which follow. He, the Son of God, speaks 
 what He had seen with the Father, but they did what they 
 had seen of their father, and their father was the devil, as 
 we learn from verse 44. 
 
 Once more they fall back on their father Abraham, most 
 likely because the Lord had contrasted His Father with their 
 father; so they said “‘Abraham is our father.” But if they 
 really were Abraham’s children they would also do Abra- 
 ham’s works. But how could they do Abraham’s works if 
 they had not Abraham’s faith. He believed God and that 
 was counted to him for righteousness. He whom Abraham 
 believed was now in their midst, yet they did not believe 
 on Him; therefore they were not in truth children of Abra- 
 ham. He uncovered their hearts. They sought to kill Him, 
 and He calls Himself ‘‘a man” who had told them the truth. 
 Would Abraham have done a deed like this? Here is the 
 evidence that they did not the works of Abraham, but the 
 deeds of their father, another one. This they resented and 
 then claimed the Fatherhood of God, with all their satanic 
 wickedness in their hearts. 
 
 Verses 42-47. But was this the truth? He is the Son; 
 they hated Him whom they saw; if God were their Father 
 they would manifest it by loving the Son, whom the Father 
 had sent, who had come to them from God. “Love” it has 
 been truly said, “‘is the infallible mark of all true children of 
 God. Would we know whether we are born again, whether 
 
164 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 we are children of God? There is one simple way of finding 
 it out. Do we love Christ? If not, it is vain and idle to 
 talk of God as our Father, and ourselves as God’s children. 
 No love to Christ, no sonship to God.”” They did not under- 
 stand His speech because they were not willing to hear and 
 accept His word. 
 
 Then He tells them to their faces what He meant when 
 He had spoken of their father. In verse 44 we have the 
 Lord’s revelation concerning the devil, that once magnifi- 
 cent and glorious being, who fell and became the enemy 
 of God. They were his followers, for they were ready to do 
 his bidding in killing the Lord of glory. He was a murderer 
 from the beginning and abode not in the truth, for there is 
 no truth in him. Some apply this to his first murderous 
 act, when he induced Cain to slay his brother Abel, but it 
 rather means that this being from the beginning was de- 
 termined to bring in sin and death. Besides this he is the 
 liar and the father of it. Our Lord teaches here the per- 
 sonality of the devil; He teaches the fall of this being as 
 well as the character of him. Yet the modern Theology 
 denies both the existence of the devil and the fall of such 
 a being. If the devil can laugh, he must surely laugh over 
 these theological scholars whom he has blinded to such a 
 degree that they deny their own master’s existence. The 
 devil spoke the lie, the Jews believed that lie; the Son of 
 God in their midst spoke the truth, and Him they believed 
 not. 
 
 Two questions follow: “Which of you convinceth Me of 
 sin?”? There was no answer. In Him was no sin; He was 
 holy and undefiled; not a flaw in all His spotless holy life. 
 The second question, “If I say the Truth, why do ye not 
 believe Me?” Nor did they have an answer for this. The 
 Lord answers the last question. “He that is of God heareth 
 God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are 
 not of God.” They were not of God, therefore they hated 
 Him and did not believe His words. 
 
 Verses 48-53. The Lord had told them “ye are of your 
 father, the devil’ (verse 44). They now bear witness to the 
 truth of His words, for what they say concerning Him is 
 satanic abuse and blasphemy. They did not understand 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 165 
 
 what He had been saying to them; their natural minds could 
 not lay hold on what He taught, yet they must have felt the 
 power of His words and the power of His own person. Un- 
 able to answer they manifested their hatred in calling Him 
 vilenames. ‘To calla Jew a Samaritan meant the same as 
 making of the Jew an outcast, a deluded, wicked apostate. 
 Furthermore they charged Him with being possessed by a 
 demon. With this they committed the same sin which is 
 called in the Gospel of Matthew ‘“‘the blasphemy and sin 
 against the Holy Spirit”? (Matthew xii:31), for if He was a 
 Samaritan and controlled by the devil’s power, His works 
 were not done by the power of God. 
 
 But this horrible abuse only brings out the moral glory of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. He does not hurl back at them some 
 harsh words, which they well deserved. One feels the very 
 calmness of His holy soul in the recorded answer He gives. 
 “T have not a devil; but I honor My Father, and ye dishonor 
 Me.” It is a straightforward denial of their blasphemous 
 charge. In all His words, in all His works, He honored the 
 Father who had sent Him; hence they were dishonoring 
 Him. Had He come simply to seek glory for Himself, the 
 accusation they uttered would have completely humiliated 
 Him in His ambition; but He did not come to seek His own 
 glory. He sought only the glory of the Father, therefore 
 they had insulted God. He added a solemn word—“There 
 is One that seeketh and judgeth.”” He means the Father. 
 While He the Son came to seek His Glory, the Father 
 seeketh the Glory of His Son. Whenever we, as believers, 
 honor the Son, seek His glory, exalt His Name, we please the 
 Father, whose delight is in the Son. But the Father not 
 only seeketh the Glory of the Son, but He is going to judge. 
 He will deal with all who dishonor His beloved Son. ‘“‘What 
 have you done with my Son?” will be the great question the 
 unsaved and the Gospel-rejectors have to face, when He, 
 the Son, will occupy the judgment throne, to execute the 
 judgments the Father has committed unto Him. All the 
 dishonor done to Christ, the dishonor done to Him by the 
 destructive critics, by Unitarians, Christian Scientists, Jews, 
 Theosophists and Spiritists will then be reckoned with. 
 
 And now once more He speaks of the great truth which all 
 
166 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 along in this Gospel is unfolded, the truth concerning eternal 
 life. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep My say- 
 ing, he shall never see death.”” This had been His great 
 message in the sixth chapter, and now once more He declared 
 it in their hearing. If they would keep His saying, which 
 means, hear the words He had spoken, believe on them and 
 obey them, death could not touch them. It cannot mean 
 physical death, but that other death, the eternal loss of the 
 soul. Augustinus comments on this passage as follows: 
 “The death from which our Lord came to deliver us is the 
 second death, eternal death, the death of hell, the death of 
 damnation with the devil and his angels. ‘That is indeed 
 death; for this death of ours is only a migration.” 
 
 These wonderful words of life brought forth the former 
 accusation from the listening Jews. ‘They found in them, in 
 the darkness of their hearts, an evidence that their charge 
 that He had a devil was true. ‘“‘Now we know that thou 
 hast a devil.” ‘Their reasoning is human. They think of 
 Abraham and the prophets. They are all dead and here is 
 one who claims that if His sayings are kept by a man “‘he 
 shall never taste death.” But the Lord had not said this at 
 all; they misquoted His words. ‘Thus they always perverted 
 His words; it is still so today as far as the blind world is 
 concerned. Whom makest thou thyself in view of the fact 
 that Abraham is dead and the prophets are dead? 
 
 Verses 54-59. He disclaims all honor for Himself; His 
 Father honoreth Him, the same whom they claimed as the 
 God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 
 He told them that they did not know Him. They professed to 
 know God; by their deeds they denied Him. But He, the 
 Son, knows the Father, and if He were to say “I know Him 
 not”? He would be a liar, as they were liars. ‘Then He added 
 that significant statement: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to 
 see My day; and he saw it and was glad.” Previously they 
 had asked “fart thou greater than our father Abraham?” 
 This question He now answers. He does not say “our father 
 Abraham” as the Jews still say when speaking of the father 
 of the race. By using ‘‘your’” He gave them to understand 
 the He cannot be classed with the nation as such. While 
 He was the Son of David and the Son of Abraham, yet was 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 167 
 
 He not the Son of Abraham in the same sense as every Jew 
 is the Son of Abraham. ‘Then the omniscient Lord said that 
 Abraham rejoiced to see His day, that he actually saw it and 
 was glad. This shows that Abraham had knowledge of the 
 coming of the Messiah, his seed, in whom all the nations 
 are to be blest. The Holy Spirit opened the eyes of the father 
 of the faithful and showed him the future days of the prom- 
 ised One. We do not know at what time such a vision was 
 given to Abraham. It may have been when the Lord visited 
 him in the tent at Mamre; perhaps it was on the great day 
 when he put his beloved Isaac upon the altar as the sacrifice, 
 and received him back from the altar, the blessed types of 
 the death and the resurrection of our Lord. It is certain 
 from the words of the Lord that Abraham looked forward 
 to the days when He, the Lord of glory, would be in the midst 
 of His people. 
 
 Astonished at such a statement His hearers said, ‘“Thou 
 art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?” 
 Some have supposed that the face of our Lord must have 
 looked care-worn, furrowed by deep lines, so that the people 
 thought that He was perhaps nearly fifty years old. It 
 was probably only an expression of common usage; His 
 exact age was not known tothem. What He meant they hear 
 now from His lips. “Verily, verily, [ say unto you, Before 
 Abraham was, I am.” Without doubt this is one of the 
 greatest words spoken by our Lord in witnessing to Himself. 
 There is only one explanation possible. He speaks of Him- 
 self as Jehovah, the I Am, the self-existing One. Before 
 them stands the same One who appeared in the burning 
 bush unto Moses and said, “‘Say unto the children of Israel, 
 I AM hath sent me.” Here then is the great testimony 
 He bears as to His own person. He reveals Himself as 
 Jehovah, the pre-existent One. Before Abraham was— 
 not I was—but, I Am. 
 
 This, at least, the Jews seemed to understand. They 
 were not in doubt of what He meant. He had spoken to 
 them in no uncertain tones and they realized that He claimed 
 to be Jehovah, very God Himself. All their satanic hatred, 
 born of unbelief, is now manifested. They took up stones 
 to stone Him. They were but following their master, the 
 
168 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 murderer, from the beginning. It is one of Satan’s attempts 
 to kill the Lord. ‘But Jesus hid Himself, and went out 
 of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed 
 by.”” Did He merely hide Himself, or was it a miraculous 
 disappearance? We believe it was the latter. In his com- 
 ment Augustinus says, ‘“‘Jesus did not hide Himself in a corner 
 of the temple as if He were afraid, or take refuge in a house 
 or run behind a wall or a pillar; but by His heavenly power 
 He made Himself invisible to His enemies, and went through 
 the midst of them.”” We believe this is the correct meaning 
 of this event. His enemies could not touch Him till the 
 appointed hour for His passion and death came. And 
 when it came He suffered and died, not because He could 
 not escape, but because He would not. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Verses 1-5. ‘The contents of the entire ninth chapter are 
 only found in this Gospel. As to the time, whether im- 
 mediately after the happenings recorded in the previous 
 chapter, or some time after, we have no certainty. It was 
 probably a few days later, on a Sabbath (Verse 14). Some 
 have stated that the miracle of the healing of the blind man 
 happened as the Lord passed from the murderous multitude, 
 inasmuch as the word rendered “‘passed by” is the same as 
 in the last verse of the eighth chapter. But that is impos- 
 sible, for we read, “Jesus hid Himself,” and that was a mirac- 
 ulous hiding. | 
 
 As he passed by he saw that blind man. No appeal came 
 from his lips. He knew nothing of Him and His power who 
 passed by, nor could he see the Lord. But the Lord saw 
 the blind man, and perhaps halted and looked compassion- 
 ately upon him. How the disciples knew that his affliction 
 was congenital blindness we do not know; perhaps he was 
 like the impotent man in the third chapter of Acts, a familiar 
 figure, and, as a mendicant, may have been in the same 
 place for many years. His disciples asked Him, ‘‘who did 
 sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind.” The 
 question arose undoubtedly from the Jewish opinion that 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 169 
 
 such afflictions were the result of some special sin and that 
 the man born blind was punished on account of it. In a 
 general way all disease and affliction is the result of sin. 
 The Jewish error that physical afflictions are the direct result 
 of some wicked deed may have originated by misunder- 
 standing what the Lord spoke in Exodus xx:5, “visiting 
 the iniquity of the fathers upon the children.” Job’s friends 
 also shared this common idea as to suffering, and charged 
 Job with being an unrighteous man. It seems that the in- 
 habitants of the island Melita also held the same view, for 
 when Paul had been bitten by the viper they said, “this 
 man is a murderer.” 
 
 The same is held by some of the extreme “faith healers” 
 and so-called “‘divine healers.”” They teach that a child of 
 God is afflicted on account of some unconfessed sin; some 
 have gone so far as to say when no results follow the “‘anoint- 
 ing with oil’? and the sick one is not raised up, that it is on 
 account of some special sin. ‘This is foolish, unscriptural 
 fanaticism. 
 
 The Lord corrects this popular error, that some special 
 affliction is and must be a-punishment for some special sin. 
 “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents.” The blind- 
 ness with which the man was afilicted from his mother’s 
 womb was not the result of some particular sin. ‘This man’s 
 blindness was known to God; it was permitted by Him in 
 His all-wise purpose. It was thus allowed by God so that 
 His own glory through this miracle of mercy and power 
 might be demonstrated—“‘that the works of God should be 
 manifested in him.” A double work was then manifest in 
 this man; he was miraculously cured and then, after his cure, 
 another work of God was worked, when he believed on the 
 Son of God; as it is written, “the work of God is to believe 
 on Him whom He hath sent” (John vi:29). 
 
 It is a deep and weighty statement our Lord made, and 
 throws some light on the question of the origin and existence 
 of evil. God permits it and allows it to exist for His own 
 glory; yet this does not fully explain God’s great mystery, 
 unfathomed by the finite mind of man, as toevil. The man 
 was thus ordained to be blind so that the works of God might 
 be made manifest. It was so with Lazarus, whose death 
 
170 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 was permitted “for the glory of God, that the Son of God 
 might be glorified thereby” (John xi:4). 
 
 Then our Lord speaks of the fact that His activity as man 
 upon the earth is now soon toclose. “I must work the works 
 of Him that sent Me, while it is day; the night cometh when 
 no man can work.” But what did He mean when He spoke 
 of the approaching night. As long as He was here on earth 
 it was “‘day.”’ When he left this earth, rejected by man, 
 it became “night.”’ This age in which we live is “‘night,” 
 yet faith in that night, the faith of the believer, can look 
 up into the heavens and know itself there in Christ. Such 
 use is made of night and day by the Apostle in Romans 
 xili:12—“‘The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” The 
 night is now, when Christ is not here; the day refers to His 
 coming again. ‘This interpretation is fully confirmed by the 
 next statement our Lord makes: “As long as J am in the 
 world, I am the light of the world.” 
 
 Verses 6-7. The blind man had listened to the words of 
 the Lord Jesus, but we hear nothing of an appeal from his lips. 
 The Lord healed him of his blindness unasked and un- 
 expectedly. Instead of speaking the word of power by which 
 He could have given sight to the eyes of this blind man, He 
 did, partially, that which He had done before in healing one 
 deaf and dumb (Mark vii:33), and another blind man 
 (Mark viii:23). He spat on the ground, and made clay 
 of the spittle and then anointed the eyes of the blind man 
 with the clay. It is said that it was believed at that time 
 that clay and spittle had curative properties, but even if 
 there were any truth in this foolish belief, one born blind, 
 with no optic nerves, could not be healed by such a remedy. 
 Why did the Lord do this? To do this He had to 
 lean down, as He did in the eighth chapter, when He leaned 
 down and wrote on the ground. The finger which wrote 
 thus had also written the law which pronounced death upon 
 the sinner, and here in forming clay with spittle, we have a 
 reminder that He once formed man out of the dust of the 
 earth and that He has therefore the power to heal one born 
 blind. And the miracle which took place is the evidence 
 that He who healed the man was the Almighty Creator 
 Himself. Spittle is connected with humiliation and deepest 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 171 
 
 reproach. ‘The action of our Lord appears then to be a wit- 
 ness to His own person. He is the Lord who has all power; 
 He came in humiliation to suffer shame. He had come to 
 Israel to open their eyes. 
 
 But the application of the clay did not remove the blind- 
 ness of the man. If nothing else had been done, the blind 
 man would not have been healed. The Lord sent him to a 
 pool of water. ‘‘Go wash in the pool of Siloam (which is 
 by interpretation, Sent). He went his way, therefore, and 
 washed, and came seeing.” ‘That also was the instruction 
 given to the leper Naaman when Elisha told him, “Go, 
 wash in Jordan.” Not that the waters of Jordan or Siloam 
 had power in them to heal of leprosy or blindness. It was a 
 test of faith and obedience. The water typifies both the 
 Word of God and the Spirit of God. The meaning of Siloam 
 is especially emphasized as being “‘Sent,’”’ because the heart 
 must believe on Him who is the sent One, whom the Father 
 sent into the world to do His will and to finish the great work 
 on the cross; then the Holy Spirit does His gracious work. 
 And so this blind man obeyed the voice he had heard, 
 though he did not see the person. We do not know if some 
 one took him by the hand when he expressed the desire, or 
 if he groped his own way towards the pool of Siloam. He 
 did not question the direction given to him, but obeyed 
 implicitly. Then he was healed and came seeing. And this 
 is the process still with the natural man in spiritual darkness. 
 
 A careful survey of the Gospels will show that our Lord 
 healed more blind people than any other class of afflicted 
 ones. A deaf and dumb one had his hearing and speech 
 restored; then there was one case of palsy and dropsy healed; 
 two lepers and two suffering with fever are recorded as hav- 
 ing been healed; three were raised from the dead, but four, 
 or probably five, cases of blindness healed are recorded. The 
 reason for this is not far to seek. In the great prophecy of 
 Isaiah relating to the Messianic Kingdom, the coming 
 millennium, we read, “then the eyes of the blind shall be 
 opened” (Isaiah xxxv:5). Again it is written in Isaiah, 
 “in that day . . . the eyes of the blind shall see out of ob- 
 scurity, and out of darkness” (xxix:18); and in Isaiah 
 xlii:7 it is stated that the work of the King will be ‘“‘to 
 
172 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 open the eyes as of the blind.’ ‘These miracles the Lord 
 wrought when He opened the eyes of the blind attested Him 
 as the promised King. They were of an evidential character 
 and showed to Israel that the King was in their midst with 
 the powers of “the age tocome. . .”’ Significant, therefore, 
 is this healing of the man born blind, as it follows after His 
 great self-witness in the preceding chapter, on account of 
 which the unbelieving Jews wanted to stone him. The 
 miracle showed Him that He is Jehovah and Israel’s King. 
 
 Modern “‘faith healers,” the present-day miracle men and 
 women, with their twisted and unscriptural teachings, 
 claim to perpetuate miracles of healing, among which the 
 healing of the blind takes a prominent place. They some- 
 times claim, what deluded Christian Science claims, that 
 they do the same miracles our Lord did. But have all these 
 “divine healers’? ever healed a man who was born blind? 
 Will they ever do it? Certainly not. 
 
 Verses 8-12. The miracle attracted wide attention. All 
 the neighbors, who probably knew the blind beggar for 
 many years, came together, and seeing him healed, asked in 
 astonishment: ‘‘Is not this he that sat and begged?’ Some, 
 who knew him well, said, ‘“This is he,’ while others expressed 
 a doubt and said, “He is like him.”” He himself set all their 
 questionings at rest by affirming that it was he. 
 
 They asked him the question how his eyes had been opened, 
 and he gives them a simple account of what had happened. 
 But when they asked him “where is He?”’—that is, Jesus, 
 who had healed him—he answered, “I know not.” 
 
 Verzes 13-16. ‘There must have been great excitement 
 among the people on account of this great miracle. ‘Those 
 who knew him intimately were convinced that it was a 
 miracle. He had been blind from his birth and now he 
 possessed complete sight. It was therefore not a “‘fake- 
 miracle,” like those claimed today in Christendom by the so- 
 called miracle men and women who, through hypnotism, do 
 certain things which last just as long as a hypnotic spell lasts. 
 The people therefore brought the man before the religious 
 authorities to be examined by them. And here the informa- 
 tion is given that it was on the Sabbath-day our Lord had 
 made the clay and healed the blind man. ‘The Pharisees now 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 173 
 
 begin to question him how he had received his sight. The 
 healed beggar gives a straightforward witness; they could not 
 pick a flaw in the simple testimony. As it was with the lame 
 man in the fifth chapter, whom the Lord also healed on the 
 Sabbath day, and on account of which they tried to slay 
 Him, so here; they charge Him with not being of God because 
 He had done the deed on the Sabbath. 
 
 But not all of the rulers branded the Lord as a wicked 
 man, because He had done this good deed on the Sabbath. 
 Others said: “How can a man that is a sinner do such 
 miracles??? We doubt not that Nicodemus headed this fac- 
 tion, which attempted a defense of the Lord. This great 
 Pharisee and teacher in Israel had given expression to his 
 belief when he visited the Lord. He was convinced that the 
 miracles the Lord Jesus did were of God and that God was 
 with Him. As a result there was a division among them 
 (See viii:43). 
 
 Verses 17-23. On account of the division among those 
 who were the rulers of the people, they were obliged to in- 
 vestigate this case more fully. A closer examination there- 
 fore follows. They therefore inquire first of all what he 
 thinks of the one who opened his eyes. With this question 
 they practically confessed that they believed that his eyes 
 had been opened. If this question was asked by those who 
 declared that “This man is not of God, because he keepeth 
 not the Sabbath,” then malice must have been the motive; 
 they hoped that some damaging statement might come from 
 the lips of the healed man. He answered, ‘‘He is a prophet.” 
 How did the man know that. It is evident that the healed 
 beggar did not see the Lord at all. The Lord sent him to 
 wash, and the record says nothing of the blind man that he 
 had even a glimpse of Him who had anointed his eyes and 
 told him to wash. Verses 35-38 make this very clear. How, 
 then, could he say that He is a prophet. In all probability 
 he must have asked the people whoit was. And they may 
 have answered, ‘‘Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth”; for this 
 seems to have been the popularconception among the masses. 
 
 He must have heard that it was the Prophet of Nazareth; 
 he believed what he heard and gladly confessed Him as 
 Prophet. Faith thus began in his soul. 
 
174 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Finding that the healed man gave a straightforward 
 answer once more, which they could not twist and pervert, 
 they tried another avenue of approach. They tried to find 
 a way to discredit the miracle by refusing to believe that he 
 had been blind at all. They called his parents, hoping that 
 they might say something which they might misconstrue 
 and disprove the miracle. ‘They ask them if he is their son 
 and if he was really born blind. It was a direct question 
 and it was unhesitatingly answered by the father and mother 
 of the man. We know this is our son, and that he was born 
 blind. There could be no possible mistake about it. But 
 they also asked, ‘“‘How then doth he now see.”’ 
 
 But instead of repeating*the story as their son had given 
 it to them, they professed ignorance as to who opened his 
 eyes and by what means it was accomplished. They tell 
 the rulers of the people that their son is no longer a child, 
 that he is of age; that they cannot be held responsible for 
 him. They request the rulers to ask him, and that he will 
 speak for himself. We are not left in doubt why they spoke 
 thus. It was for fear of the Jews of authority and power. 
 The Sanhedrim had agreed that anyone who would confess 
 that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ should be put out 
 of the synagogue and be excommunicated. ‘They feared if 
 they rehearsed what they had heard, how the Lord Jesus 
 performed the miracle, that this might be their fate. 
 
 Verses 24-29. Completely defeated with attempt to up- 
 set the story of the healing of this man, unable to get any 
 information from the parents, which would have helped 
 them in the denial of the miracle, they once more call the 
 man himself. They start in with a very pious phrase, “Give 
 God the praise.”?’ Acknowledge yourself now that only God 
 could have done this miracle of opening your eyes. This of 
 course was true. Only God can open the eyes of one who 
 was blind from birth. But the pious statement was pure 
 hypocrisy, for they added, ‘“‘We know this man is a sinner.” 
 They tried to ensnare him to assent to this statement that 
 God had healed him, and then reject Him who wrought 
 the miracle. How simple is this man’s answer. He speaks 
 of two things, one thing which he knew not: ‘‘Whether He 
 be a sinner or no, I know not.”” Then he spoke of another 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 175 
 
 thing he knew: “One thing I know, that, whereas I was 
 blind, now I see.’”? Concerning Him who healed him he 
 could not bear witness, for he knew not who he was. Later 
 the Lord revealed Himself to the healed one and then he 
 fell at His feet to worship. 
 
 But of one thing he was sure. One thing could never be 
 questioned. One thing was gloriously true, “Being blind, 
 now I see”’ (literal rendering). The awful night of blindness 
 had been lifted and he saw the sun and enjoyed a new exis- 
 tence. A wonderful change had come over him and all the 
 world could never shake his testimony. 
 
 And millions after him have used his words of testimony 
 after being saved by grace. Yea, this is the true confession 
 of every child of God who has passed from death to life, 
 from darkness to light, from the power of Satan into God: 
 “One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” 
 The great change brought about by the operation of the 
 Spirit of God in the heart and life of the believer is as great 
 as the healing of a man born blind. 
 
 The Jewish rulers were again defeated. They had ac- 
 knowledged that the man had been healed, and now his 
 own words sealed this fact beyond any doubt whatever. 
 Yet they were not discouraged. Once more they questioned 
 him as to the manner in which our Lord had opened his 
 eyes. They but digged their own graves of shameful defeat. 
 
 It seems as if the healed beggar lost his patience. He had 
 told them before how the Lord had made clay, put it on his 
 eyes, sent him to the pool to wash, and now they asked 
 once more, “What did He do to thee.” In sarcasm he 
 answered them, and asked why they wanted to hear it 
 again; if they intended to be His disciples also. 
 
 They reviled him for his bold language and ridicule and 
 charged him with being a disciple of the Lord, which in the 
 darkness of their wicked hearts they imagined a great dis- 
 honor, while they claimed to be Moses’ disciples. They 
 were convinced that God spoke to Moses. In this at least 
 these religious corrupt leaders were better than the destruc- 
 tive critic leaders of Christendom, who deny that God ever 
 spoke to Moses. But they denied that the Lord, whom 
 they called “this fellow,’ had been sent by God; they be- 
 
176 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 lieved that He had no divine commission, yet the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the eternal Jehovah had appeared unto Moses, com- 
 missioned Moses, and spoken to him. He is greater than 
 Moses. 
 
 Verses 30-34. We doubt not that the man in answering 
 back had the aid of the Holy Spirit, for what he says presents 
 a perfect and unanswerable argument. He expressed aston- 
 ishment that these leaders of the nation said that they knew 
 Him not, nor who gave Him the power to perform so great 
 a miracle in opening his eyes. ‘Then he declares that it 
 would be impossible that He who had opened his eyes was 
 a sinner, for God would not hear a sinner, but if God acknowl- 
 edges a man and manifests His power through him, he must 
 be a true worshipper of God and be obedient to Him. He 
 becomes bolder and declares that since the world began such 
 a thing as opening the eyes of a blind man, by a mere man, 
 was never heard before. Then he crowned his masterly 
 argument by expressing his conviction that the man who had 
 healed him must be of God. 
 
 He had silenced the great men of the Pharisees completely. 
 They could not reply to these statements and were, there- 
 fore, defeated. All that was left to them was either to accept 
 the testimony or to reject it. They became infuriated. 
 They charged him that he was altogether born in sins, that 
 he was a wicked man, and they cast him out. They did that 
 which we read in verse 23, they put him out of the synagogue. 
 
 Verses 35-41. Probably the man was staggered. He 
 may have trembled at the thought that he had been ex- 
 communicated, for it was a shame to be put outside; it made 
 him an outcast, one who had no more right to the appointed 
 worship and the privileges of the commonwealth of Israel. 
 It must have had the meaning for him as if he were now a 
 lost soul. 
 
 They had cast him out, but in doing this they only cast 
 him into the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 
 Where our Lord was while all this took place we do not 
 know, but we know that He knew all that had happened, 
 and though He was not bodily present, He had heard every 
 word which had been spoken, for He is the omniscient Lord. 
 When the excommunication of the healed man was publicly 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 177 
 
 announced then our Lord looked for the man. He had kept 
 track of him; he was never out of His sight. He found him. 
 Says Chrysostom on this passage: “They who for the sake 
 of the truth and confession of Christ suffer anything and 
 are insulted, these are specially honored. So it was here 
 with the blind man. The Jews cast him out of the temple, 
 and the Lord of the temple found him. He was dishonored 
 by those who dishonor Christ, and was honored by the 
 Lord of angels.”? He had lost the synagogue but finds in- 
 stead the Lord, heaven and glory. The synagogue would 
 not longer have him, but he becomes the sheep of the good 
 Shepherd, as we find it in the chapter which follows. 
 
 He asks him a direct question: “Dost thou believe on 
 the Son of God?” Then came from the man the longing 
 heart cry, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” 
 And he did not need to wait for the answer to his question. 
 The Lord at once revealed Himself. ‘““Thou hast both seen 
 Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.” Thus our Lord 
 once more bore witness to His Deity. Did the blind man 
 know that the One who was speaking to him was He who 
 had healed him. The text says nothing about it. As we) 
 saw before, the blind man had not seen the Lord after his 
 eyes had been opened. Though the Lord did not say to 
 him in words, I am He who healed thee, yet the man must 
 have known and felt, as the Lord addresses him and re- 
 veals Himself as the Son of God, that He had healed him. 
 He probably also recognized Him by the tone of His voice. 
 Then he said, “Lord, I believe” and worshipped Him. Faith 
 and true worship go together. 
 
 When next our Lord declares that He came for judgment 
 into the world, it does not mean that He came for con- 
 demnation (John iii:17); He came to reveal the right 
 conditions, to lay them bare by His omniscient discrim: 
 ination. The comment of Augustinus on this verse is 
 correct: “‘Who are those that see, those who think they 
 see, who believe they see? The judgment which Christ has 
 brought into the world is not wherewith He shall judge the 
 quick and the dead in the end. It is a work of discrimination 
 rather, by which He discerneth the case of them that believe 
 from that of the proud who think they see, and therefore 
 
178 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 are worse blinded.”’ ‘““Those who see not” may be applied 
 to the Gentiles, and “those who see,” or claimed to see, 
 the Jews. The boast of the Jews, especially the boast 
 of the Pharisees, was that they had the light. Paul 
 bears witness to this in Rom. iii:19: “And art confident 
 that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them 
 which are in darkness.”” And when He came who is the 
 Light of the world they rejected Him, and thus they became 
 blind, with all their profession that they were seeing. 
 
 Some of the Pharisees listen to these words. ‘They voice 
 at once their displeasure, realizing He meant them. Are 
 we blind also? It was another sneer at Him and His teach- 
 ing. Heanswered them as.they well deserved. If they were 
 really blind they would have no sin in having rejected Him, 
 but their boast was that they were seeing, and yet they re- 
 jected Him; their sin therefore “‘remaineth.” 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Verses 1-6. ‘The blind man, whom our Lord had healed, 
 who had fallen at His feet, worshipping Him as the Son of 
 God, and who had been cast out by the blind leaders of the 
 blind, had become the sheep of the Shepherd, who came to 
 seek and to save that which is lost. ‘The teachings given 
 next by our Lord are therefore closely related to this incident. 
 The beginning of this chapter refers to the false teachers and 
 guides of the Jewish people, those whom the Lord denounced 
 in the closing verse of the eighth chapter. The sixth verse 
 tells us that the Lord spoke to them in a parable,““This 
 parable spake Jesus untothem.” It is one of the few parables 
 recorded in John’s Gospel not found in the Synoptic Gospels. 
 
 The parable is introduced with another, “‘Verily, verily, I 
 say unto you.” ‘The parable contains a very familiar figure 
 of the Old Testament Scriptures. Jacob in his prophecy 
 spoke of “the Shepherd of Israel,”’ who is “‘the stone of Israel” 
 as well (Gen.xliv:24); in the eightieth Psalm, that great 
 prophetic Psalm, the Shepherd of Israel is addressed, and 
 that Shepherd is the Lord Himself, for ““He dwelleth between 
 the Cherubim” (Psa. lxxx:1). Isaiah beholds Him feeding 
 
THE GOSPLE OF JOHN 179 
 
 His flock, “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd” (Isa. 
 xl:11); Ezekiel received a great message concerning the false 
 shepherds of Israel, their judgment, and the true Shepherd 
 who will gather His sheep (Ezek. xxxiv); Zechariah, too, had 
 a vision concerning the shepherds (chapter xi); and in another 
 passage we read, ““Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, 
 and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of 
 hosts; smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, 
 and I will turn my hand to the little ones” (Zech. xiii:7). If 
 the listening Pharisees, the false shepherds of the nation, 
 knew their own Scriptures, the parable of the Lord in its 
 meaning would have been clear to them, “but they under- 
 stood not what things they were which He spake unto them”’ 
 (verse 6). 
 
 Here the sheepfold is Judaism, and to it the Shepherd of 
 Israel, the promised Messiah, had come. He came in the 
 appointed way, not in “some other way,” like the thief and 
 the robber, those who sought their own gain and benefit. 
 These are the false shepherds, including the leaders of the 
 people in whose presence He spoke this allegory. And because 
 He came by the right door to the sheepfold, in grace and right- 
 eousness, as the holy One, the porter opened to Him. The 
 porter signifies the power of God by His Spirit, by which 
 the door was opened, though the false shepherds tried to 
 keep Him out. He came, and as a result “‘the sheep hear 
 His voice.”” But all the sheep of Israel did not hear His 
 voice and accept Him; only those who were given to Him 
 by His Father. ‘Thus He came and called “His own sheep”’ 
 by name. The healed man was one of them, and so were 
 Philip and Nathanael, as well as Mary, Martha, Lazarus, 
 and the others who believed on Him and followed the true 
 Shepherd. 
 
 Then follows what is nowhere mentioned in the prophets, 
 “He leadeth them out,” which means that He leads 
 them out from the fold of Judaism into different pas- 
 ture. Luther comments on this passage in the following 
 words: “The ‘leading out’ is the Christian:liberty, that:they 
 are now free and no longer locked up and imprisoned as 
 they were before under the anxious constraint and fear of 
 the law and divine judgment; but are now under the sweet 
 
180 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 kingdom of the grace of Christ.””> Those who followed Him 
 were set free, receiving from Him eternal life; they were 
 to be brought outside of the Jewish fold and to constitute 
 afterwards not another fold, but His flock, the one flock, 
 His Church. He Himself “goeth before them” as the shep- 
 herd goes before the sheep. Wherever the Shepherd goes 
 the sheep follow after Him. They cast Him out and He 
 was outside; there the sheep are with Him. The path He 
 went is the path in which His sheep follow. And when the 
 Shepherd died for the sheep, He went before them in a still 
 higher sense. The good Shepherd became the great Shep- 
 herd of the Sheep in resurrection, and has gone before to 
 the place where in His own time all His sheep will follow 
 Him. The mark of His own sheep is that they hear His 
 voice, and that a stranger they will not follow; they own 
 but the one voice and the one authority. Like the sheep 
 in the pasture, which know the tone of the shepherd’s voice; 
 but when a strange voice calls they become frightened, 
 and instead of obeying the strange voice, they flee; thus 
 His own sheep know the voice of Himself, and, having spir- 
 itual discernment, they will not follow another, though the 
 false shepherd may simulate His voice. 
 
 Verses 7-13. There was no response from the side of His 
 hearers, for their darkened minds, and probably more so, 
 their proud hearts, kept them from understanding what He 
 said unto them. If they had known the message of Ezekiel 
 (chapter xxxiv) and believed what Ezekiel had written, they 
 would have understood what He spoke about. He, there- 
 fore continues to speak to them: “Verily, verily I say unto 
 you, I am the door of the sheep.” While He entered as 
 the true Shepherd by the door into the sheepfold, Judaism, 
 He now speaks of Himself as the door of the sheep. The 
 only way of becoming a sheep of His flock is by Himself; 
 there is no other way into the flock of God, the sheep of 
 Christ, but by the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 The eighth verse presents a difficulty: ‘‘All that ever 
 came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep 
 did not hear them.” ‘That this cannot mean the true 
 Prophets of God, who came before Christ appeared on 
 earth, is obvious. Attention has been called to the fact 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 181 
 
 that in a number of leading manuscripts the two words 
 translated “before me’ are omitted. Others translated 
 these two words “instead of Me.’’ The latter would 
 necessitate the view that our Lord speaks here prophet- 
 ically, inasmuch as no persons preceded Him who claimed 
 Messiahship, but the false Christs came after Him. ‘The 
 difficulty seems to disappear if the words “‘before Me”’ are 
 taken to mean precedence in authority, those who claimed 
 precedence above Him. The Greek tense of the verb 
 _ “come” (Aorist) does not necessarily mean a coming of the 
 past only. Now the Pharisees rejected the authority of 
 Christ and claimed to be teachers above Him. This they 
 did in the examination of the blind man (ix:16 and 24). The 
 view, then, that our Lord had in mind the Pharisees of His 
 own time, who rejected Him and denied His Messianic 
 authority, thereby claiming a place above Him, seems to 
 be the correct one. The learned Lightfoot, in his comment, 
 says that our Lord probably refers to the Pharisees, Sad- 
 ducees, and the Essenes,who had long misled the Jews before 
 Christ came, and that these three Jewish sects were the 
 three false shepherds whose casting off is foretold in Zech. 
 xi:8. And the sheep, true believers like Simeon and Anna, 
 with many others did not hear them and placed no faith in 
 these arrogant leaders and teachers of their nation. 
 
 In the next verse we find another mention of the word 
 *“‘door,” and here the great blessing—which is for those who 
 have entered in by Him, who is the door—is more fully re- 
 vealed. “I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he 
 shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” 
 When He speaks of Himself again as the door, it is in antici- 
 pation of His death and resurrection. Not the Christ who 
 walked in obedience on the earth is the door through which 
 salvation, and all that goes with it, is bestowed through 
 grace, but the Christ who died and rose again. Of this He 
 speaks directly. Through the shepherd who died for the 
 sheep salvation is secured. ‘The first great blessing through 
 Him, by believing on Him, is salvation. This priceless gift 
 for which He paid as the substitute of His sheep, belongs 
 to each believer; it is the present and eternal possession of 
 
 ce 
 
 every sheep of Christ. That door stands open for “any 
 
182 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 man”; this is the “whosoever” of John 111:16 and Rev.xxii:17. 
 
 But there is more than salvation, there is liberty and 
 food as well. ‘“‘And shall go in and out,” this is liberty. 
 The narrow fold does not permit that, for it means con- 
 finement, lack of liberty. Thus it was in the Jewish fold. 
 Christendom speaks unscripturally of different folds today: 
 it means also confinement and not the liberty wherewith 
 Christ has made us free. There is an anticipative state- 
 ment of this word of our Lord in Num. xxvii:17. Moses 
 asked the Lord to set a man over the congregation, those 
 who are the people of His pasture, the sheep of His hand 
 (Psa. xcv:7), and Moses said that the man whom the Lord 
 would choose ‘‘may go out before them, and go in before 
 them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring 
 them in, that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep 
 which have no shepherd.” ‘Then the Lord appointed Joshua, 
 at his word they were to go out and at his word they were 
 to go in (verse 21). Joshua is the name of our Lord; for 
 the Greek Jesus is the Hebrew Joshua. And Joshua stands 
 typically for Christ risen from the dead, who brings in His 
 people. The Lord Jesus leads out into perfect liberty His 
 own sheep and leads them in. Under the law there was no 
 such liberty, but He came, sent forth by God to redeem 
 those under the law, to lead them forth from bondage into 
 the hberty of sons (Gal. iv). 
 
 And there is food too, ‘‘and shall find pasture.” The 
 pasture is not in the fold. ‘The sheep must go forth, out- 
 side of the fold, to find that which sustains. Thus spake 
 David of the great Shepherd, ‘‘He maketh me to lie down 
 in green pastures” (Psa. xxiii). The blessed Shepherd pro- 
 vides the food for His own; yea, He Himself is that food. 
 
 This is followed by a contrast—‘The thief cometh not, 
 but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come 
 that they might have life, and that they might have it 
 more abundantly.” The false shepherd, the thief, behind 
 whom stands the liar and murderer from the beginning, 
 comes to steal, to kill and to destroy; He came for the one 
 great purpose, “‘that they might have life and have it abund- 
 antly.”” The thief came to take life; He came to give life. 
 What is the life and the life abundant? Life is the posses- 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 183 
 
 sion of all who believe on Him; the believers in the Old 
 Testament possessed spiritual life, for in Him was life; and 
 the life was the light of men (John1:4). But He had come, 
 the true God and the eternal life, and as we have learned 
 from the preceding chapters, eternal life is His gift to all 
 who believe on Him. ‘‘He that believeth on the Son hath 
 eternal life.” : 
 
 Those who heard Him speak and believed on Him when 
 He was on earth received life, for He had said, ““The hour 
 is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice 
 of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.” It was 
 true then, as it is true now, “‘He that heareth my words and 
 believeth Him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall 
 not come into judgment, but is passed from death into 
 life’ (John v:24). His disciples who had believed on Him 
 possessed this life; they knew the Father and the Son, for 
 “this is eternal life,’ as He tells us in His great prayer (chap- 
 ter xvii), “that they should know Thee the only true God, 
 and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”? But life abund- 
 ant, the fullness of that life, the abundance of it, was 
 made known after His finished work, after He had passed 
 through death, was raised from among the dead, seated at 
 the right hand of God, and after the Holy Spirit came. Now 
 the abundant life is fully revealed, and those who have 
 believed on Him possess in Him that abundant life, which 
 has triumphed over death; they are risen in Christ, seated 
 in Christ, complete in Him, sons of God, heirs of God, in- 
 dwelt by the Holy Spirit, one spirit with the Lord, identi- 
 fied with Him, and members of His body. This abundant 
 life is the believer’s portion. It does therefore not mean 
 some kind of a deeper, individual experience, unscripturally 
 termed “the second blessing,” or ‘fa holiness experience.” 
 Every believer through grace has this life abundantly. 
 
 Then follows that precious verse in which He speaks of 
 Himself as the good Shepherd, and His sacrificial work. 
 “TI am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd giveth His life 
 for the sheep.” This statement sums up all the predictions 
 and types of the Old Testament Scriptures concerning Him 
 and His work of love. He came to die for the sheep, those 
 who are given to Him by the Father. This statement also 
 
184 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 answers completely the miserable invention that Christ 
 died to seal in death the Truth He had preached, that He 
 was a martyr on account of His convictions and His doc- 
 trine. He did not lay down His life for His doctrines, but 
 for His sheep. 
 
 And now He speaks no longer of ‘thieves and robbers,” 
 who entered the sheepfold, but of the hireling shepherd. 
 What a contrast! The hireling only cares for what he can 
 get out of the sheep. “They feed themselves . . . they 
 eat the fat...they clothe themselves with the wool” 
 (Ezek. xxxiv:1-6). They are not his sheep and he cares 
 not for them. When the wolf appears, he flees. ‘The wolf 
 catches the sheep and scattereth them. Such is the hire- 
 ling; he knows nothing about loving the sheep. ‘The wolves 
 are the false prophets and teachers (Matt. vii:15 and Acts 
 xx:29) and behind them stands the great enemy, Satan. 
 The hireling is the instrument through which the wolf 
 catcheth and scattereth the sheep. 
 
 Verses 14-18 Once more He speaks of Himself as the good 
 shepherd, but now He mentions the fact that He knows His 
 sheep, those for whom He died. He knows His own. Let 
 us think of Him as One who knows thoroughly everything 
 that each one of His own is feeling, and cannot utter to 
 others. Every temptation from riches, from poverty, from 
 solicitude, from society, from gifts of intellect, from the want 
 of them, from gladness of spirit, from the barrenness and 
 dreariness of it, from the whirlwind of passion, from the 
 evil thoughts which spring up out of fleshly appetites, every 
 sorrow and heartache, and everything else—He knows, and 
 He knows us. And all He knows is through intense, in- 
 most sympathy, not with the evil which is assaulting, but 
 with His own who are assaulted by it. Thus He knows His 
 sheep, as only He can know them; yea, He knows each by 
 name. But the knowledge is mutual. He knows us and 
 we know Him. But it is unfortunate that the authorized 
 version has obscured the real meaning by a wrong punctua- 
 tion. The right rendering is as follows: “I am the good 
 shepherd and know Mine, and Mine know Me, even as the 
 Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father, and I lay down 
 My life for the sheep.” It is a most precious thought which 
 
THE “GOSPEL: OF “JOHN 185 
 
 we meet here, that the mutual knowledge of Christ and His 
 sheep is after the pattern of the knowledge of the Father 
 and the Son, and the Son’s knowledge of the Father. The 
 knowledge of the Father and of the Son is of mysterious, 
 unfathomable depth, and because the knowledge of the Lord 
 of His own and the knowledge of His own of Himself, is like- 
 wise sO very wonderful it is thus linked with the mutual 
 knowledge of Father and Son. 
 
 Then once more He speaks of His great work of re- 
 demption: “I lay down my life for the sheep.” In con- 
 nection with His coming sacrificial death our Lord speaks 
 Dim, other shcepia these) other sheep are ‘the Gentiles. 
 That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same 
 body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the 
 Gospel, was not made known in other ages (Eph. ii1:1-6). 
 Here our Lord gives the hint that such would be the 
 case after He had laid down His life for the sheep, not 
 only for the sheep of the Jewish fold, but the other sheep, 
 the Gentiles. The other sheep, which are not of the Jew- 
 ish fold, He would also lead, and they would hear His voice 
 and follow Him. Then there will be one flock and one 
 shepherd. The authorized version states “fone fold,” but 
 this is a serious mistake. Not one fold, but one flock, not 
 an exclusive enclosure of an outward church—but one 
 flock, all knowing the one Shepherd, and known of Him.* 
 This one flock is the one body as revealed in the great 
 Epistles, especially in Ephesians. The fold is Jewish; to 
 speak of the Church as a fold is Judaizing the Church, which 
 is the almost universal thing today. Even those who have 
 been used to emphasize the truth of the oneness of the body 
 of Christ, who speak and teach of the Church as “‘the one 
 flock,” have now their different folds or parties, and manifest 
 the same unscriptural sectarian spirit as the more prominent 
 sects. 
 
 ‘*Therefore (on this account) the Father loves Me, because 
 ~ *Luther’s comment is helpful: “The sheep, thought the most simple 
 creature, is superior to all animals in this, that he soon hears his shep- 
 herd’s voice, and will follow no other. Also he is clever enough to 
 hang entirely on his shepherd, and to seek help from him only. He 
 cannot help himself, nor find pasture for himself, nor heal himself, 
 
 nor guard against wolves, but depends wholly and solely on the help 
 of another.” 
 
186 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 I lay down my life, that I might take it again.” This is 
 another deep statement revealing the relation of the Father 
 and the Son. It has been said “‘we must be content to 
 admire and believe what we cannot fully understand.” 
 The infinite complacency, and approbation by the Father 
 of the work His ever blessed Son came to do, was expressed 
 by Him when our Lord in the beginning of His ministry, 
 had gone into the baptismal waters of Jordan, and the 
 Father’s voice declared, ‘“This is my beloved Son, in whom 
 I am well pleased.”? Nor must we overlook the fact that 
 in these words, as well as what follows in the next verse, 
 our Lord speaks of Himself consciously as God: “I lay 
 down my life....I take it again...I have power 
 to lay it down....I have power to take it again.” It is 
 the “I” of the Lord. Yet here, too, is His obedience in 
 humiliation, “This commandment I received of My Father.” 
 
 Verses 19-21. This is the third time according to this 
 Gospel that there was a division on account of Him in Jeru- 
 salem. ‘The schism was caused on account of these sayings. 
 Thus was fulfilled Isa. vili:14: “He shall be... for a stone of 
 stumbling’; and Simon’s word, “‘Behold this child is set 
 for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a 
 sign which shall be spoken against” (Luke 11:34). Then 
 once more the blinded Jews accused Him of having a devil, 
 while others defended Him. “Can a devil open the eyes 
 of the blind?’ His miracles were not spurious, or produced 
 by hypnotic influences, as it is the case today in Christian 
 Science and different faith healing cults, but they were the 
 manifestation of His own Divine power. In Isa. xxxv:5, 
 that great prophecy concerning the kingdom and the king- 
 dom signs, the opening of the eyes of the blind is especially 
 mentioned. Some understood and believed that He is the 
 Messiah, the promised King of Israel. 
 
 Verses 22-31. The feast of dedication is mentioned only 
 in this passage; nowhere else do we read of it. It is not a 
 feast appointed by Jehovah, but a feast of commemoration 
 of the cleansing of the temple after the defilement by An- 
 tiochus Epiphanes, and was first appointed by Judas Mac- 
 cabaeus in the second century before Christ (see 1 Mac. 
 1v:52-59). It is known today as the feast of Chanukah, a 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 187 
 
 feast of joy and gladness. While they were making glad 
 on account of the past deliverance, the Lord of Glory, who 
 dwelt in visible glory in the tabernacle and in the Solomonic 
 temple, was in their midst, uttering these words of eternal 
 life, and they knew Him not. 
 
 The place where our Lord walked was in the outer court, 
 a part of which was a kind of a colonnade, where teachers 
 and rabbis often met, to debate on religious questions. 
 Then a company of Jews, probably Pharisees, approached 
 Him. Perhaps some time had elapsed, when they had 
 become divided on account of Him. During this interval 
 they probably decided to put a question to Him. ‘“‘How 
 long dost Thou make us to doubt? If Thou be the Christ, 
 tell us plainly.” They were undecided, in a state of sus- 
 pense; they were uneasy. They demanded that He show 
 Himself “‘plainly,” which in this case means ‘‘openly, with 
 all boldness.” ‘They evidently wanted a manifestation 
 from His side which corresponded to their carnal expecta- 
 tions. 
 
 But He had told them and they had not believed. All 
 along, beginning with the fifth chapter in this Gospel, He 
 had given this great witness about Himself. Furthermore, 
 He had done the great works in the name of His Father, 
 and all these works bore witness of Him. In spite of it all 
 they were unbelievers and had rejected His own words 
 and the witness of the Father. The Lord adds, “But ye 
 believe not, because ye are not of My sheep, as I said unto 
 you.” That they were not His sheep was evidenced by 
 their unbelief. The cause of their unbelief was not some 
 kind of an election, which had marked them out before 
 they ever were born, to be excluded from the flock the 
 Shepherd came to gather; but it was their unbelief which 
 was the cause of not becoming His sheep. 
 
 Then once more He speaks of “His sheep.” The character 
 of sheep as illustrating a believer in Christ has often been 
 pointed out. Sheep are helpless and much dependent on 
 the shepherd; they are harmless, weak and foolish, and more 
 than any animal they lose their way and go astray. Such 
 we are, every child of God will gladly acknowledge. But we 
 are His sheep, for whom He died, and He keeps and guards, 
 
188 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 protects and shields, feeds and guides His sheep, because 
 they are His property. ‘They hear His voice and follow Him. 
 
 Full of comfort to all His sheep are His words of gracious 
 assurance. His sheep shall never perish. ‘The eternal life 
 they possess is His gift, the gift of His own power; and that 
 life is His own life. “They shall in no wise perish”; and 
 that for the simple reason “‘no one shall seize them out of 
 My hand.” If those who oppose the doctrine of the 
 perseverance of the Saints, that a believer, a sheep of Christ, 
 can never be lost, would consider that He who uttered these 
 words is the omnipotent Lord in Glory, that He not only died 
 for His sheep to save them, but that He keeps them by His 
 own power, all the unfortunate quibblings of the Arminian 
 theology would end forever. That there are powers which 
 try to wrest the sheep of Christ from Him, the powers of the 
 devil, the flesh and the world, is indicated by the word “pluck” 
 or “seize hold on.” Every true sheep of Christ knows this 
 and experiences constantly the conflict with these powers. 
 But what power is greater, the power of sin, of the devil and 
 his demons, of the world, or the power of Him who died, 
 who arose, who is exalted far above all principalities and 
 powers, who has all power in heaven and on earth? ‘There 
 can be but one answer. To say that the power of sin, the 
 devil and the world can snatch away a saved believer, who 
 received eternal life and the Holy Spirit, so that he is lost, 
 is to believe that the power of Christ is insufficient. We 
 quote Bishop J. C. Ryle’s helpful words: 
 
 “The doctrine plainly taught in this text may be called 
 ‘Calvinism’ by some, and by others ‘a dangerous tendency.’ 
 The only question we ought to ask is, whether it is Scriptural. 
 The simplest answer to this question is, that the words of 
 the text, in their plain and obvious meaning, cannot be 
 honestly interpreted in any other way. ‘To thrust in, as 
 some enemies of perserverance do, the qualifying clause, 
 ‘they shall never perish so long as they continue My sheep,’ 
 is adding to Scripture, and taking unwarrantable liberties 
 with the words of Christ.* But let us also note that only 
 
 *Whitby interpreted it: ‘“They shall never perish through any de- 
 fect of mine,” though they may fall away by their own fault, is a sad 
 instance of unfair handling of Scripture. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 189 
 
 ‘His sheep’ shall never perish. The man who boasts that 
 he shall never be cast away and never perish, while he is 
 living in sin, is a miserable self-deceiver. It is the persever- 
 ance of the Saints, and not of sinners and wicked people, 
 that is promised here. Doubtless the doctrine of the text 
 may be misused and abused, like every other good thing. 
 But to the humble believer, who puts his trust in Christ, 
 it is one of the most glorious and comfortable truths of the 
 Gospel. Weare safe in Christ, we shall never perish; this 
 is one thing; but to feel that we are safe is quite another. 
 Many true believers who are safe do not realize and feel it.” 
 But more than that, we are not only His sheep, but we are the 
 gift of the Father to the Son, and the Father is greater than 
 all. To believe that the sheep of Christ, given to Him by 
 the Father, can be plucked out of the Father’s hand, is 
 miserable unbelief. 
 
 “* ‘My Father who hath given to Me is greater than all, 
 and no one is able to seize out of the hand of My Father. 
 I and the Father are one.’ Here we rise to that height 
 of holy love and infinite power, of which no one could speak 
 but the Son; and He speaks of the secrets of the Godhead 
 with the intimate familiarity proper to the Only Begotten 
 who is in the bosom of the Father. He needed none to tes- 
 tify of man, for He knew what was in man, being Himself 
 God; and He knew what was in God for the self-same 
 reason. Heaven or earth, time or eternity, make no differ- 
 ence. Not a creature is unapparent before Him, but all 
 things are naked and bare in His eyes. And He declares 
 that the Father, who had made the gift, resists all that can 
 threaten harm, and as He has given to Christ, so He is 
 greater than all, and none can seize out of His hand. Indeed 
 the Father and the Son are one, not one Person, but one 
 thing, one Divine nature or essence. The lowliest of men, 
 the Shepherd of the sheep, is the Son of the Father, the true 
 God and the eternal life. And He and the Father are not 
 more truly one in Divine essence than in the fellowship of 
 Divine love for the sheep.”* 
 
 “I and the Father are one.’”? This one matchless state- 
 
 *Wm. Kelly. 
 
190 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 ment silences forever Arianism, Unitarianism, Russellism 
 and other perverters of the essential Deity of our Lord. 
 Then for the third time the Jews took up stones to stone 
 Him. As Augustinus remarks on this incident: ‘‘Behold 
 the Jews understood what the Arians do not understand.” 
 And another ancient commentator declares: ““These stones 
 cry out against the Unitarian.” 
 
 Verses 32-42. ‘The third time they had tried to stone Him. 
 Many hands had reached down to the ground and picked up a 
 convenient stone; they were ready to stone Him. Behind 
 this new attempt stood the murderer from the beginning, 
 Satan. All along for 4,000 years this fallen being had tried 
 to frustrate God’s plan in redemption, and, knowing that 
 these purposes of redemption centered in the promised 
 Redeemer, the Son of God, Satan aimed at Him. Beginning 
 with the first fratricide when Cain slew Abel, to the cold- 
 blooded murder of the little boys in Bethlehem, when the 
 promised child had been born, he attempted to make im- 
 possible the work of redemption. Yet he failed continually. 
 And here Satan made another attempt. Yet they were 
 unable to cast a single stone. Surrounded by the howling 
 mob which cried “‘Stone Him!” as they cried later “‘Crucify 
 Him!”, He is the picture of majestic calmness. He re- 
 bukes them. He appeals to the great works, the miracles 
 of divine power He had done. ‘These were the evidences 
 of His Messiahship. They showed that He is God, one 
 with the Father. Was there anything in these works He 
 had shown them from His Father, which required such an 
 action which they were about to execute when they picked 
 up stones? ‘“‘For which of these works do ye stone Me?” 
 But they were ready with an answer. The logic of His 
 words was at once recognized by these shrewd assassins. 
 
 “The Jews answered Him, saying, For a good work we 
 stone Thee not; but for blasphemy, and that Thou, being 
 a man, makest Thyself God.’ ‘Thus they had to bear once 
 more a witness that all His works were good, that what He 
 did was not evil, but good and righteous. What galled 
 them was His repeated witness that He is God, one with the 
 Father. They had not forgotten what His lips had spoken 
 when the lame man had been healed by Him, when they 
 
THE’ GOSPEL) OF 'JOHN 191 
 
 realized that He claimed God as His Father, thus making 
 Himself equal with God (John v:18). It shows clearly 
 that the Jews in our Lord’s time attached a much higher 
 and deeper sense to our Lord’s frequently used language 
 about God being His Father than modern readers are apt 
 to do. In fact they regarded it as nothing less than a claim 
 to equality with God. Modern Arians and Socinians (that 
 is, Unitarians, Christian Scientists and the Russellites), who 
 profess to see nothing in our Lord’s sonship but a higher 
 degree of that relationship which exists between all be- 
 lievers and God, would do well to mark this verse. What 
 they say they cannot see, the Jews, who hated Christ, did 
 see. “That ‘contemporaneous exposition,’ to use a legal 
 phrase, of our Lord’s words, deserves great respect, and 
 carries with it great weight and authority. As a man, our 
 Lord was a Jew, educated and trained among Jews. Com- 
 mon sense points out, that the Jews, who lived in His time, 
 were more likely to put correct sense on His words than 
 he modern deniers of His Deity.’’* 
 
 Their answer charging Him with blasphemy contains the 
 claim that they stood up in honor for God, and that they 
 defended Him against this man. If this were true, God, 
 because He is righteous, would have had to reward them for 
 their holy zeal in rejecting a blasphemer. But instead of 
 receiving a reward after they had rejected the Lord Jesus 
 and delivered Him into the hands of the Gentiles, God had 
 their city burned, the temple, of which they boasted, de- 
 stroyed, and the whole nation was dispersed among all 
 nations. ‘The subsequent history of the Jewish people, a 
 history of blood and tears, is a witness that He whom they 
 hated without a cause, whose works they saw, whose words 
 they heard, was and is the Son of God, one with the Father, 
 and not a blasphemer. Every generation of Jews since that 
 day when they condemned the Lord of Glory, sharing by 
 unbelief in this rejection, has borne witness through suf- 
 ferings untold, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 
 
 He answers the awful charge by the Scriptures. In the 
 eighty-second Psalm is a little statement, which He in His 
 
 *Expository Thoughts on John. 
 
192 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 infinite wisdom selects to show them their fatal error. They 
 had said, “Thou being a Man makest Thyself God.” In 
 that Psalm it is written, “I said ye are gods.” Asaph, who 
 penned these words by the Spirit of God, speaks of those 
 whom God had put in places of authority among His people, 
 such as kings, priests and rulers, as being gods. The same 
 fact is stated in Exod. vii:1: ‘‘“And the Lord said unto Moses. 
 See I have made thee a god to Pharaoh.” He was to act 
 in the place of God towards the Egyptian king. Kings, 
 judges and rulers derive their power from God and act thus 
 under His authority; therefore they are called ‘“‘gods.” 
 Then the Lord applied this brief Scripture statement: “If 
 he called them gods, unto. whom the Word of God came, 
 and the Scripture cannot be broken; say ye of Him whom the 
 Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou 
 blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God?” The 
 writer of the Psalm by the Spirit of God called others gods, 
 to whom the Word of God came, that is, who were com- 
 missioned by God to act in rulership, why, then, did they 
 call Him, whom the Father had set apart and appointed 
 and finally sent into the world, a blasphemer, because He 
 claimed to be the Son of God? ‘The argument is perfect. 
 Nor must we overlook that brief statement, ‘‘the Scripture 
 cannot be broken.”’ He thus bears witness to the inspiration 
 and authority of every word in the original text of the Bible. 
 Every word is of God and it cannot be set aside. 
 
 Again He appeals to His works. If they were not the 
 works of the Father, they should not believe Him. But all 
 His works were of the Father, of which they must have 
 been convinced. And if He does the works of the Father, 
 though they believed not His words, they ought to believe 
 the evidence of His works and thereby believe that the 
 Father must be in Him and He in the Father. But this 
 plain statement following His great argument only stirred 
 up their Satanic hatred and opposition. A great tumult 
 must have followed. Perhaps many hands were stretched 
 out to catch Him, to lay hold on Him, to arrest Him and 
 through murder make an end of His ministry. “But He 
 escaped out of their hand.” ‘This was done in a miraculous 
 way; no other explanation is possible. Here is the seeth- 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 193 
 
 ing mob, Satanically energized, ready to tear Him to pieces. 
 They rush upon Him, but suddenly He is gone. We do 
 not know how the escape was effected. He may have 
 become invisible; or their eyes may have been suddenly 
 blinded. How it was we do not know; but it was a miracle, 
 and demonstarated once more the fact that His life could 
 not be touched; He alone had the power to lay it down and 
 to take it again. Once more it is true, “His hour had not 
 yet come.” 
 
 He is seen next beyond Jordan in the place where John 
 had first baptized. There He abode. It was at this place 
 where He began His blessed ministry about three years 
 ago (John i:28). There He had been proclaimed by the 
 lips which were silent now, as the Lamb of God. And as 
 His ministry was about to end He returned to the same 
 place. There He abode awaiting now the time when He 
 would offer Himself as the Lamb of God. 
 
 A great gathering then took place—‘‘many resorted unto 
 Him.” They remembered John the Baptist. They remem- 
 bered well the words which the great herald of the King had 
 spoken. He himself did no miracles. But while John 
 worked no miracles, what he had spoken about Him, who 
 had gone into Jordan to be baptized, had become true. The 
 result was “‘that many believed on Him there.” How they 
 believed, whether only convinced in their minds that He 
 is the Messiah, or whether they believed on Him as the Son 
 of God and as Saviour, no one can tell. Perhaps the many 
 who resorted to Him and believed on Him, belonged to those 
 who on the day of Pentecost were saved. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Verses 1-6. Another great chapter, one of the greatest in 
 the four Gospels, is now before us. The miracle it records is 
 nowhere else given. What is written in connection with it 
 reveals Him, who had borne such a great witness concerning 
 Himself, in all His glory. Here we find the fullest demon- 
 stration of His Divine power as well as of His loving sym- 
 pathy. His heart of love, the love which passeth, knowledge, 
 
194 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 is blessedly revealed in the record of this chapter. He had 
 claimed the same power with the Father to raise the dead, 
 and now He manifests that power. While on the one hand 
 He is seen as God in raising Lazarus from the dead, on the 
 other hand we see Him as very Man, for He wept. The 
 great miracle is introduced here by the Spirit of God to 
 supply the incontrovertible proof that all He had spoken 
 concerning Himself is true, and to give to the Jews the 
 evidence that He is the Messiah, the Son of God. 
 
 The sickness of Lazarus of Bethany is at once mentioned 
 in the opening verse. Lazarus was the brother of Mary and 
 Martha of Bethany, and he is introduced here for the first 
 time. His name is the same as the Hebrew name Eleazer, 
 which means ‘‘God is help.” Different guesses have been 
 made as to his identity, but we know nothing beyond what 
 is stated of him in this chapter. That he was well to do and 
 widely known may be learned from the large number of 
 Jews who attended his funeral, who had come to mourn for 
 him and were subsequently the witnesses of his resurrec- 
 tion. 
 
 Lazarus was sick. The Lord loved Lazarus, yet He who 
 is omnipotent permitted him to be sick. In our own days 
 men and women who pose as healers make the strange 
 assertion that sickness among the children of God is an 
 evidence of their disobedience, or their sins, and, therefore, 
 something by which the Lord expresses His displeasure. 
 They say that a believer who is sick must have done some- 
 thing which is wrong and that bodily sickness is the result 
 of it. All these strange theories are disproven by Scripture. 
 The Lord loved Lazarus, and with all His love He did not 
 prevent his illness. 
 
 Beautiful is the action and the example of the two be- 
 lieving sisters, Mary and Martha. They sent a messenger 
 to Him with the message, “Lord, behold, he whom Thou 
 lovest is sick.””. They turned at once to the Lord to acquaint 
 Him with what had befallen the beloved brother. No 
 doubt they had a physician, too, and used means, but im- 
 mediately they dispatched the messenger. ‘This is still our 
 great privilege, to go to the Lord first in case of sickness and 
 other troubles, Wecan do what Hezekiah did when he went 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 195 
 
 into the house of the Lord and spread Sennacherib’s letter 
 before the Lord (2 Kings xix:14). 
 
 And the message they sent was not a demand, not a prayer 
 that Lazarus should be healed at once, as the centurion’s 
 servant was healed, by the speaking of a word. How 
 different this is from the divine healers who ‘‘demand” and 
 who think that ‘‘demanding”’ is real faith. It was the highest 
 faith when the two sisters thus turned to the Lord, acquainted 
 Him with the fact that Lazarus was sick and then left it in 
 His own hands. 
 
 Then the Lord gave the messengers the answer. ‘This 
 sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the 
 Son of God might be glorified thereby.”” These words of 
 our Lord have raised questions. Why did He say that this 
 sickness is not unto death, when Lazarus actually died and 
 was buried? Why did He not say in plainer words, he will 
 die and I shall raise him up from the dead? When our Lord 
 said that his sickness was not unto death, He must have 
 meant death in its complete form, including the complete 
 dissolution of the body, when it returns to dust. This did 
 not happen to Lazarus. The second part of this verse 
 anticipates Lazarus’s death, for by his resurrection the Son 
 of God was glorified. 
 
 Then His love for Martha and her sister is stated. Atten- 
 tion must be called to the fact of how the Spirit of God guards 
 this statement in the original text. In the third verse we 
 read the word “love” in connection with the brother of the 
 sisters. [The word used in verse 3 is expressive of love as 
 the supreme affection, the same word which is used in 
 John 11:16. But here the word “love” is a different one, 
 inferior to its meaning as the word used in the third verse. 
 
 But how strange that after the information of the sickness 
 of Lazarus was imparted unto Him, that He abode two days 
 in the same place where He was! Of course the omniscient 
 One knew what would happen. He knew what great work 
 He was to accomplish, that Lazarus would die. Well, said 
 Chrysostom in his comment, ‘“‘Christ tarried that none 
 might be able to assert that He restored Lazarus when not 
 yet dead, saying it was lethargy, a fainting, a fit, but not 
 death. He therefore tarried so long that corruption began.” 
 
196 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 But what soul agony the sisters must have passed through 
 when He did not come at once! They saw their beloved 
 brother getting weaker and weaker and finally he passed 
 away. It was a supreme test of faith. Perhaps they re- 
 membered Job’s word “though He slay me yet will I trust.” 
 What perplexity theirs must have been! Yet they trusted. 
 How beautifully they met it all will be seen later when we 
 read the words of Martha when she met Him. 
 
 Verses 7-16. Then He told His disciples, when the two 
 days were gone, that He would go back to Judea. ‘They were 
 astonished and could hardly believe that He would return to 
 Judea, where the Jews had threatened to stone Him. He 
 answered their objections and fears. His working hours had 
 not yet expired. ‘They could not touch His life. His hour 
 had not yet come, hence there was no possibility that they 
 could kill Him. As a man walking in the daylight stum- 
 bleth not, because in the sunlight he sees the road before 
 himself, so He walked in certainty. 
 
 Then He gave them an exhibition of His omniscience. 
 “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may awake 
 him out of sleep.”” He spoke thus, because He knew that 
 Lazarus had died. Death is a sleep out of which there comes 
 an awakening. Well has it been said by a commentator, 
 “Sleeping, in the sense of dying, is only applied to men, 
 because of the hope of resurrection. We read no such thing 
 of brutes.”’ And He called Lazarus ‘“‘friend’’; though he 
 had passed away, Lazarus was still the friend of Christ. 
 
 The disciples understood not what He meant. They 
 thought of the natural sleep and supposed it would be a sign 
 of his recovery. And if he is getting well, why should we go 
 at allinto Judea?) This probably was in their minds. Then 
 the Lord spoke in plain words, ‘“‘Lazarus is dead.” 
 
 If the Lord had been in Bethany when Lazarus was ill, He 
 would have porbably healed him at once. Therefore the 
 Lord was glad for the sake of the disciples that He was not 
 there to prevent the death of His friend, for now they were 
 to witness the greatest of all His miracles, for the confirmation 
 of their faith in Him. Then He told them, “but let us go 
 unto him.” 
 
 It has been suggested, on account of the words of Thomas 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 197 
 
 which follow, that the disciples surmised, because He said, 
 “let us go to him,” that He meant He wanted to die, to 
 be with Lazarus. But this is a far-fetched suggestion. 
 When Thomas said, “‘Let us also go, that we may die with 
 Him,” he expressed his fear that if the Lord returned to 
 Judea He would surely be killed. While much has been 
 said and written about ‘‘doubting Thomas,” here we behold 
 the fact that his heart was greatly attached to the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and he expresses the desire to die with Him. 
 
 Verses 17-29. Some one has said ‘“There is a grand 
 simplicity about this passage, which may almost be spoiled 
 by human exposition. ‘To comment on it seems like gilding 
 gold, or painting lilies.” We shall follow the story in all its 
 majestic simplicity, asking His gracious guidance to write 
 something which will be a help in grasping the many spiritual 
 lessons. The Lord Jesus arrived in Bethany with His 
 disciples, and He found that His friend Lazarus had been 
 put aside into the tomb; he had lain in the grave already 
 four days. He knew, of course, that Lazarus had been put 
 into the grave. He knew all that had taken place. He knew 
 what He would do. Therefore He could afford to take His 
 time and wait with His arrival, until there could be no 
 question about the actual death of Lazarus. ‘Thus the sup- 
 position, so commonly used by infidels, that Lazarus was 
 in a trance, is completely silenced. But the infidels in the 
 camp of Christendom go a step further and claim that the 
 miracle never happened at all. 
 
 The news that Lazarus had died and been buried, probably 
 the same day he passed away, had brought many Jews to 
 Bethany. ‘They came to comfort the two sisters. Lazarus 
 must have been well known; Simon the leper, who was prob- 
 ably the father of Lazarus and his sisters (Matthew xxvi:6) 
 may have been a rich and influential man. ‘That he is not 
 mentioned in this chapter denotes that he must have died. 
 Besides a great company of Jews from the surrounding 
 country and Jerusalem, there were present the professional 
 mourners (Mark v:38) to carry out what the rabbinical 
 laws demanded at such occasions. All this was ordered by 
 the Lord. The great gathered company was there to sym- 
 pathize with the mourning sisters, to do what Jewish eti- 
 
198 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 quette demanded; but the Lord had brought them there in 
 His providence that they might be the witnesses to the 
 great miracle He was about to perform. It is not im- 
 probable that many of the Jews who came to Bethany had 
 heard our Lord when in His great testimony He claimed to 
 have the power to raise the dead (John v). 
 
 The news that “‘the Prophet of Nazareth,” as many called 
 Him, had arrived with His disciples, must have created a 
 big commotion. ‘The good news that He had come reached 
 the home where the sisters were, surrounded by the mourning 
 friends. Both sisters heard that ‘Jesus is coming” and at 
 once the characteristic temperament of the two is manifested. 
 Here we must consult Luke x:28-43. In this passage we see 
 the Lord entering Bethany, and the record tells us ““Martha 
 received Him into her house.” No sooner had the divine 
 guest entered but Mary sat at His feet to drink in His words 
 of life. While Martha was distracted with much serving, 
 running hither and thither in preparing for the comfort of 
 the wonderful visitor, Mary let Him serve her by His 
 gracious ministry. And when Martha ventured to rebuke 
 her sister, when she even suggested that the Lord did not 
 care, He answered her saying, ‘“Martha, Martha, thou art 
 careful and troubled about many things; but there is need 
 of one, and Mary has chosen the good part, the which shall 
 not be taken from her.” Here Martha shows the same 
 characteristic. She is the same active, hurrying, impatient 
 Martha, rushing forth at once tomeet Him. Mary sat still 
 in the house. No doubt she sat there in quiet meditation, 
 thinking of Him, knowing that soon He would be in her 
 presence. What sorrow, anxiety and trial of faith must 
 have exercised the two sisters during the days their beloved 
 brother had been laid aside. And Martha, so anxious, may 
 have had the thought once more—‘“‘Lord, dost Thou not 
 care?”; while Mary in confidence must have felt in her soul, 
 “He does all things well.” 
 
 Martha may have gone to the outskirts of Bethany to 
 meet Him. Martha, however, was not the loser by going at 
 once to Him, for she heard wonderful words from His 
 gracious lips. Mary by sitting still in the house missed 
 His words and the great comfort He imparted to Martha. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 199 
 
 The words with which Martha greeted the Lord expressed 
 her faith as well as her great disappointment. “Lord, if 
 Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” What 
 a marvelous statement! She knew Him as the Lord of life 
 and power, the great Jehovah. She knew that in His 
 presence death had to flee away. And when today God’s 
 Saints fall asleep, we too can say, ‘‘Lord, if Thou hadst 
 been here, my brother would not have died.”” Some blessed 
 day when He comes again, when His shout will gather the 
 Saints together, to meet Him in the air, there will be no 
 death for His own who live. “Behold I show you a mystery, 
 we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, 
 in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians xv:51). 
 
 Her words have in them faith, disappointment and a sug- 
 gestion of reproach, as if she meant, if thou hadst only come 
 sooner, my brother would still be here. Her faith is trium- 
 phant; her doubts and her reproach give way to perfect con- 
 fidence in Him. “But I know—not I hope—that even now, 
 now when my brother has lain four days in the grave, whatso- 
 ever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee.” Like 
 Abraham, in this hour of extremity and human impossibility, 
 “against hope, believed in hope” (Romans iv:18) she also 
 hoped in Him, who has the power to raise the dead. 
 
 But at the same time, swept by different emotions 
 she lowered His dignity. Through her tears she did not 
 see Him clearly, whom she addresses as Lord. Her words 
 mean that she looked upon Him as destitute of inde- 
 pendent power, as if He needed to get the insurance of 
 the power of God by prayer. Yet He had clearly taught 
 that the Father’s power is His power (John v:21). 
 And He answers her at once with a definite promise— 
 “Thy brother shall rise again.” But did Martha realize 
 what He meant? His disciples, if they heard these words 
 spoken must have understood what He meant, for He 
 had told them, ‘“‘I go that I may wake him out of sleep.” 
 Her answer shows that she did not think of an immediate 
 resurrection. She expressed her faith, and that faith was 
 according to her knowledge in believing the Old Testament 
 Scriptures. ‘I know that he shall rise again in the resurrec- 
 tion at the last day.” The orthodox Jews believe that all 
 
200 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 the dead go to Sheol and there await the coming of the 
 Messiah, who would call the righteous dead and bring them 
 back, while the wicked dead would be thrust back into Sheol 
 again. Evidently her answer expresses disappointment. 
 The last day for her was a far-away event; it seemed to 
 have little comfort for her in the present sorrow. 
 
 There came from the lips of the Son of God the never-to- 
 be forgotten words, words which have been for all genera- 
 tions of Christians, for a countless multitude, the words of 
 hope, comfort, peace and glorious assurance. “I am the 
 resurrection and the life, he that believeth in Me, though 
 he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth, and 
 believeth in me shall never die.” 
 
 Who is able to comment on these blessed words in a 
 satisfactory way. Like all the words of eternal life which 
 came from Him, these words are inexhaustible. He speaks 
 of Himself as the resurrection and the life. Let us note that He 
 puts resurrection before life. ‘True He is the life as He is the 
 light of men (See John i). When He puts resurrection first 
 it must have been in anticipation of His death. He speaks 
 once more of Himself as the “I Am,” the Jehovah. Well it 
 is to put alongside of His words here, the words which He 
 spoke to John in the Isle of Patmos, “Fear not! I am the 
 first and the last; I am He that liveth, and was dead, and, 
 behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys 
 of hades and of death” (Revelation i:18). Iam the resurrec- 
 tion and the life! No prophet before Him, though some of 
 them raised the dead, spoke like this. No prophet could 
 even have conceived such a statement. It is unique and 
 one of the strongest arguments for the Deity of our Lord. 
 He who spoke these words is the eternal Jehovah, the source 
 and spring of all life. And He passed through death, as 
 He said to John, “‘and was dead’’; thus the power of death 
 was annulled ‘and He is the resurrection and the life for all 
 who believe in Him. 
 
 Some have explained the words “‘he that believeth on Me, 
 though he were dead, yet shall he live,”’ as meaning the same 
 as John v:26, that is the spiritually dead. While it is per- 
 fectly true that the spiritually dead, hearing His voice and 
 believing on Him live, in this passage it cannot possibly 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 201 
 
 mean the dead sinners, but it means the physically dead. 
 Those who have believed on Him have life; they are one 
 with Him. If the believer lays down his body, like Lazarus 
 did, he shall live, as surely as He liveth who died for our 
 sins and conquered death and the grave. And when our 
 Lord adds, “And whosever liveth and believeth on Me 
 shall never die”? He gives assurance that for those who be- 
 lieve on Him and live in that coming day, when the righteous 
 dead shall hear in their graves the voice of the Son of God, 
 that the living believers will not see death. The great 
 statement of our Lord at this occasion is an anticipation 
 of the fuller revelation which He gave to the Apostle Paul, 
 when he penned his first epistle. ‘“‘For the Lord Himself 
 shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the 
 Archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in 
 Christ shall rise first. ‘Then we which are alive and remain 
 shall be caught up together with them in clouds, to meet the 
 Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord” 
 (1 Thessalonians iv:16-17). 
 
 Here in John xi:25, 26 we have the two classes likewise. 
 Those who have died in Him and who will be raised 
 from among the dead; and those who remain till He \ 
 comes and who will be exempt from physical death. In| 
 that glorious day of His coming, the truth that He is 
 the resurrection and the life will be fully demonstrated. 
 The Lord asked Martha, | ‘“Believest thou this?’ Her 
 answer was one of faith, though she did not, and could not 
 fully understand the words He had spoken to her. “Yea 
 Lord, I believe (more literally: I have believed and do 
 believe) that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which 
 should come into the world.” It is as great, if not greater, 
 than Peter’s confession of Him. She believed that He is 
 the promised Messiah, the Son of David; that He is the Son 
 of God and that He came into the world, to be the Redeemer, 
 the Saviour-King. 
 
 Then she thought of her sister. ‘The message she whispered 
 to Mary was that He had come and called for her. Mary 
 then arose quickly. It was the Lord’s call which stirred her 
 at once and she came to Him. 
 
 Verses 30-37. We learn next that all that had taken place 
 
202 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 between the Lord and Martha happened outside of the 
 Bethany village. When Mary so suddenly arose, the Jews 
 which were also in the house with her, to comfort her, thought 
 she was going to the grave to weep there, and the whole 
 company followed her outside. Evidently they did not hear 
 Martha’s message to Mary, for it was given to her secretly. 
 They followed Mary; but they were to meet another to be the 
 witnesses of His power and glory. 
 
 Then followed the meeting. As soon as Mary saw Him 
 she fell down at His feet; her sister had not done so. Three 
 times we see Mary at the feet of the Lord Jesus. She sat 
 at His feet and listened to His words; in this she owned Him 
 as Prophet. Here she falls at His feet craving His sympathy; 
 she acknowledged Him as Priest. Once more we see her at 
 His feet when she anointed Him; she did it for His burial 
 (xii:3-7). And falling at His feet, as she did here, in the 
 presence of the company of Jews, was a testimony for the 
 Lord Jesus Christ; she acknowledged Him openly as her 
 Lord in this act of worship. Mary then repeated the same 
 words which Martha had addressed to Him, but she does 
 not say all Martha had spoken. She said, “Lord, if Thou 
 hadst been here my brother would not have died”’ and then 
 she stopped. Perhaps her voice was choked with tears; she 
 could not utter another word. Martha had not wept at 
 His feet. And when Mary was weeping, the accompanying 
 Jews were so touched by her grief, that they also wept. The 
 word used here for “weeping” has the meaning of ‘“‘loud 
 lamenting.”? When later the weeping of our Lord is recorded 
 an entirely different word is used. 
 
 Then our Lord became deeply stirred as He looked upon 
 the lamenting sister, and the Jews who wailed with her. He 
 is touched with the feeling of their sorrow and infirmity, 
 thus revealing His true humanity. He was greatly agitated, 
 so that He groaned in spirit; His whole soul was moved 
 in compassion and was troubled, or, as the marginal reading 
 gives it, ““He troubled Himself.”? Perhaps the latter was 
 the outward expression in His face of the inward emotion, 
 which gave way to His blessed tears. 
 
 ‘Let us carefully remark that our Lord never changes. 
 He did not leave behind Him His human nature when He 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 203 
 
 ascended up into heaven. At this moment at God’s right 
 hand, He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, 
 and can understand tears as well as ever. Our great High- 
 priest is the very friend that our souls need, able to save as 
 God, able to feel as man. To talk of the Virgin Mary 
 feeling for sinners more than Jesus is to utter that which is 
 ignorant and blasphemous. ‘To teach that we can need any 
 other priest, when Jesus is such a feeling Saviour, is to teach 
 what is senseless and absurd.’’* 
 
 Then the Lord asked them, ‘‘Where have ye laid him?” 
 They said unto Him, ‘‘Lord, come and see!’ But the 
 question our Lord asked was not to gain information as to 
 the location of the grave. As Quesnel states, “Christ does 
 not ask out of ignorance, any more than God did when He 
 said, ‘Adam where art thou?’”’ Those who answered Him 
 must have been believers for they addressed Him as Lord; 
 perhaps Mary and Martha spoke these words, “‘Lord, come 
 and see.”” ‘Then His tears could not be restrained any longer. 
 “Jesus wept.”” What a wonderful sentence this is! It shows 
 once more the real humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. As 
 stated before, the word for weeping is a different one than 
 that used in connection with Mary and the Jews. The word 
 here (dakruo) means a silent weeping, the shedding of tears. 
 The former word (f/aio) the loud lamenting, is the one 
 employed to describe the weeping of Christ over Jerusalem, 
 when He beheld the city (Luke xix:41). Then He lamented 
 loudly; here as He approached the grave of Lazarus He 
 wept silently. The weeping over Jerusalem was the public 
 lamentation of a prophet; the weeping here was the expres- 
 sion of deepest sympathy with the sorrowful affliction of 
 His friends. Let us remember once more that He is still the 
 same loving, sympathizing Lord. ‘‘For we have not a 
 high priest not able to sympathize with our infirmities, but 
 was tempted in all things in like manner, apart from sin” 
 (Hebrews iv:15, correct translation). 
 
 The Jews said, ‘“‘Behold how He loved him!’ while others 
 said, “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the 
 blind, have caused that even this man should not have died ?”’ 
 
 
 
 *Bishop Ryle. 
 
204 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 They were touched with His loving sympathy. But even 
 here they sneer at Him. ‘They remember the blind man He 
 had healed in Jerusalem. Why then, they say sarcastically, 
 did He not prevent this man from dying? 
 
 Verses 38-46. ‘Then once more He groaned in Himself as 
 He came to the grave, which was a cave closed up with a 
 stone. ‘This cave was a kind of a horizontal chamber hewn in 
 arock. ‘These burial places used by the Jews were sometimes 
 natural caves (See Genesis xxiil:9); others were artificially 
 hollowed out from a rock (Isaiah xxii:16; Matthew xxvii:60), 
 in a garden (John xix:41) or in some field (Genesis xxxv; 
 1 Kings 11:34). 
 
 What a moment it must have been when He commanded 
 “Take ye away the stone!” He could have spoken the word 
 and by His omnipotent power the stone would have rolled 
 away, like the stone which sealed His own grave. But He 
 said, ‘“Take ye away the stone.” ‘This command impressed 
 the assembled witnesses with the reality and truth of this 
 great miracle about to be performed. ‘They knew in this 
 cave four days ago the body of Lazarus was laid. ‘There his 
 body.rests. Perhaps some of the men had assisted in putting 
 the stone over the mouth of the cave. And now they were 
 to open the tomb. What witnesses they made to attest the 
 miracle which had been performed! 
 
 Then we hear the voice of unbelief. Martha said unto 
 Him, “‘Lord, by this time he stinketh; for he has been dead 
 four days.” Yet while she spoke this she confirmed the 
 indisputable fact of the death of her brother Lazarus. She 
 would never have spoken like this if she had not been fully 
 convinced that her brother had died. Perhaps he expired 
 in her arms. Her unbelieving utterance was used as a link 
 in the chain of evidence which makes the miracle of Lazarus’s 
 resurrection unimpeachable. ‘There could be no deception. 
 Martha had not the remotest thought of what the Lord was 
 abouttodo. She did not think, nor expect, thatthe Lord would 
 raise him from the dead. Some infidels have suggested that 
 the whole incident can be explained by selfedeception, if not 
 by imposture, but Martha’s words make these infidels’ claims 
 look ridiculous. When she said “he stinketh” she referred 
 to that which was perfectly natural and true, for a dead 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 205 
 
 body in a tropical climate becomes the subject of decom- 
 position in a very short time. There can be no question that 
 the stench of corruption came from the cave, when the stone 
 was removed. Martha knew it and she shrank from having 
 the stone taken away, for she did not believe that the Lord 
 could bring her brother back to life out of such a state. She 
 did not remember that He who commanded ‘“‘take ye away 
 the stone” was the omnipotent Lord, the creator of all 
 things, who has the power over life and death, with whom 
 there is nothing impossible. In the traditional belief of 
 orthodox Jews is held a theory which may shed light on the 
 four days; why the Lord permitted Lazarus to remain buried 
 not for three days, but four days. The tradition asserts the 
 following: after a person dies, the spirit of the dead person 
 lingers about the burial place, waiting to see if there might 
 be a chance to return to the body. But when the countenance 
 changes, and the signs of decomposition appear, then the 
 spirit disappears and goes to its place. ‘Therefore orthodox 
 Jews did not certify the actuality of death till three days were 
 gone, for they said then the countenance changes and after 
 the third day the spirit of the deceased leaves the sepulchre 
 and there in no hope of the dead coming back to life. Now 
 this is a tradition only, but if it was held by the Jews in the 
 days of our Lord, as it probably was, it may explain the 
 reason why Lazarus was not raised on the third day, but on 
 the fourth. 
 
 And He answered her unbelieving words in a gracious 
 manner. ‘Said I not unto thee, if thou wouldest believe, 
 that thou shouldest see the glory of God?’ He must have 
 referred to the message which He had sent to the sisters 
 before He came (see Verse 4). He tells her that if she would 
 believe she would see the glory of God. But with the Jew 
 it has always been seeing first and after seeing believing 
 (John xx:29). It is faith in Him which makes possible the 
 manifestation of the glory of God. We doubt not that 
 His gracious word kindled that faith in her and she believed, 
 so that the mist of unbelief and uncertainty was scattered. 
 
 The command He gave is obeyed. Obedience to it had 
 been delayed by Martha’s unbelieving interruption; but 
 His answer was the signal to the men who had started to 
 
206 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 remove the stone to finish the task. The mouth of the cave 
 is uncovered. Looking in they all must have seen the corpse 
 in its grave-clothes. What a wonderful moment it must 
 have been! No painter could ever picture this great scene; 
 no pen is able to describe the agitation, the emotions and the 
 thrill of all these eye witnesses. Here He stands in blessed, 
 undisturbed calmness. Perhaps on either side were the two 
 sisters, both looking, not towards the mouth of the cave, but 
 they must have looked into His face. There was no more 
 doubt in their faces. They believed. A little further back 
 the many Jews; their faces must have revealed intense 
 expectation, curiosity and astonishment. 
 
 A few moments of silence and then we hear His voice. 
 His eyes were lifted up to heaven and He said, ‘‘Father, I 
 thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. And I know that 
 Thou hearest me always; but because of the people which 
 stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast 
 sent me.” All along in His self-witness as recorded in this 
 Gospel, He spoke of His oneness with the Father and that 
 the Father had sent Him. Once more He bears witness to 
 the fact in the presence of those who had heard Him speak 
 such words before. He addresses the unseen One, whom 
 He knows and sees, Father. What He speaks in their hear- 
 ing is for the sake of the assembled company “‘that they may 
 believe that Thou hast sent me.”” His words begin not with 
 a petition, as prophets do, but with giving thanks. One 
 would have expected prayer for the manifestation of God’s 
 power at this thrilling moment. “Father, I thank Thee 
 that Thou has heard me.”’ It has been suggested that He 
 must have prayed to the Father since He knew that Lazarus 
 had died. But this can hardly be the right view. The next 
 sentence gives us the true meaning. “I know that Thou 
 hearest me always.” Here is His assurance, knowing as He 
 did beforehand, that He has already what He would ask. He 
 knew His prayer was answered before it ever was uttered. 
 Chrysostom said on this passage, ‘‘Who ever prayed in this 
 manner? Before uttering any prayer, He said, I thank Thee, 
 showing that He needed not prayer.’”’ And because His 
 request was granted before it was made, He gave thanks 
 unto the Father. It shows forth again His oneness with the 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 207 
 
 Father. And He expressed Himself thus publicly for those 
 who surrounded Him, so that they might be convinced and 
 believe, that He acted with the Father and never without 
 Him, even as He had said, ‘“The Son can do nothing of Him- 
 self, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever 
 He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise’? (v:19). His 
 words spoken in their presence were an evidence that He is 
 the Christ, the One whom the Father had sent, and who 
 was about to do what the Father doeth—‘‘For as the Father 
 raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the 
 Son quickeneth whom He will.” 
 
 Then came the supreme moment. He cried with a loud 
 voice, ‘‘Lazarus come forth!” What a shout it must have 
 been! And the loud voice which was heard here before the 
 open tomb in which Lazarus’s body rested, will be heard 
 again. Again He will speak with the commanding shout, 
 another majestic “Come forth.” For the Lord Himself 
 shall descend out of heaven with a shout (I Thess. iv:16). 
 Then the graves of the dead in Christ will be opened; cor- 
 ruption will put on incorruption; and we, the living ones, 
 shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye; 
 this mortal will put on immortality. The loud cry “Come 
 forth” was the word of omnipotent power. 
 
 And how the many eyes of all must have been riveted on 
 the opening of the cave! How they must have been almost 
 breathless as that loud voice reached their ears! What a 
 hush of expectation! And all at once out of the darkness of 
 the cave there looms up the white figure. Slowly that 
 figure moves towards the entrance, and now every eye sees 
 that it is Lazarus. ‘“‘He that was dead came forth!” En- 
 cumbered by the grave-clothes, Lazarus, brought back to 
 life, was tottering towards the daylight. He comes forth, 
 the mighty witness to the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, a 
 witness to all the Lord Jesus Christ had spoken, the attesting 
 seal that His Word is true. Here is the witness to the great- 
 ness of His power; the power over death. But Lazarus came 
 forth “bound hand and foot with the grave-clothes, and his 
 face was bound about witha napkin. Jesus saith unto them, 
 Loose him and let him go.” There is no difficulty here, 
 as some have imagined. They say, “how could Lazarus 
 
208 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 have come forth out of the grave, if hands and feet were 
 bound by a winding sheet of linen?” But the custom of 
 the Jews was to wrap the dead comparatively loosely in the 
 linen sheet. Around the jaw, to prevent the falling of the 
 lower jaw, was tightly bound a napkin. ‘These grave-clothes 
 and the napkin also bore their witness that Lazarus had 
 actually died. And there he stood in the portal of the cave. 
 Life had been given by Him who is the Resurrection and the 
 Life. But he needed something else. ~The grave-clothes and 
 the napkin had to be removed; he had to be set at liberty, 
 so that he could walk about and breathe. He could not do 
 it for himself for neither his hands nor his feet were free. 
 He might have spoken one word and the hindering objects 
 would have dropped from the body of Lazarus. He called 
 on them to doit. It aroused them from their great astonish- 
 ment and for all we know the very men who had wound the 
 body of Lazarus in the grave clothes and bound the napkin 
 over his face, were the men who now loosed him from the 
 bondage. 
 
 The greatest miracle had taken place. All He had 
 claimed in His great self-witness (Chapter v) was now 
 confirmed; what He spoke is the Truth. But in that great 
 chapter He speaks of both, the spiritually dead and the 
 physically dead. Both, He tells us, will hear the voice of the 
 Son of God. The resurrection of Lazarus therefore has a 
 typical meaning; it gives a picture of what the Lord of Life 
 does for the spiritually dead. Lazarus dead and buried, in the 
 darkness of the grave, in corruption, is a picture of the 
 natural man. He is dead in trespasses and sin; he is in 
 darkness and all his works are but corruption, filthy rags, 
 obnoxious to the holy and righteous God. What man 
 needs is life. He cannot give it to himself. He is as helpless 
 to raise himself up, as Lazarus was, shut up in the cave. 
 Nor can the dead raise the dead. No one in that company 
 could do anything for Lazarus; they were as helpless as the 
 dead man was in the grave. Only One could give life and 
 that is He who is “‘the resurrection and the life.” He spoke 
 the word of life, “Come forth!’ Resurrection—life then 
 followed at Once. And thus it is with the spiritually dead. 
 Those who hear His voice, who believe on Him, receive life 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 209 
 
 through Him and in Him, the resurrection-life, eternal life 
 (John v:24). Whenever the spiritual resurrection of a lost 
 sinner takes place it is a miracle. 
 
 But Lazurus needed liberty, freedom from the bondage 
 of the grave. The unloosing of the grave-clothes was the 
 condition of the exercise of the life which had been given to 
 him. If the grave-clothes had not been taken away he 
 would have sunk back into the tomb. And so the Lord 
 Jesus Christ delivers from the grave-clothes, the grave- 
 clothes of Judaism, that which is of the law, the insignia of 
 death and not of life. Free from the law, is the happy state 
 of the sinner who has been quickened and raised up, saved 
 by grace. And in Christ the believer has perfect liberty. 
 The grave clothes are gone. “Stand fast therefore in the 
 liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not en- 
 tangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians v:1). 
 And in that life there is deliverance from more than the bond- 
 age of the law, there is deliverance also from the bondage, 
 the dominion of sin. In making known this liberty He uses 
 His gifts, the teachers of His Word, as He used the men who 
 stood at the tomb of Lazarus to loose him, so that he could 
 walk in perfect liberty. 
 
 The effect of the great miracle was that many of the Jews 
 believed on Him. What else could they do as they beheld 
 the startling evidence that He is the Christ, the Son of God. 
 Perhaps many of them were among the converts on the day 
 of Pentecost. But what about the sisters? We hear nothing 
 in the record about them at this occasion. Well can we 
 imagine how both of them must have fallen at His feet in 
 adoration and worship, while afterward they embraced the 
 beloved brother. But His enemies, under satanic blindness, 
 went to the then plotting Pharisees to give a report of what 
 had taken place. Weadd some remarks on this great miracle 
 from “‘Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John.” 
 
 ‘‘We should observe that we are not told of anything that 
 Lazarus said about his state while in the grave, and nothing 
 of his after history. Tradition says that he lived for thirty 
 years after, and was never known to smile; but this is prob- 
 ably a mere apocryphal invention. As to his silence, we can 
 easily see there is a Divine wisdom about it. If St. Paul 
 
210 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 “could not utter” the things that he saw in the third heaven, 
 and called them ‘unspeakable things’; it is not strange that 
 Lazarus should say nothing of what he saw in Paradise (2 
 Cor. xii:4). But there may be always seen in Scripture a 
 striking silence about the feelings of men and women who 
 have been the subjects of remarkable Divine interposition. 
 God’s ways are not man’s ways. Man loves sensation and 
 excitement, and likes to make God’s work on his fellow- 
 creatures a gazing-stock and a show, to their great damage. 
 God almost always seems to withdraw them from the 
 public, both for their own good and His glory. 
 
 “‘We should observe that we are told nothing of the feelings 
 of Martha and Mary, after they saw their brother raised to 
 life. ‘The veil is drawn over their joy, though it was not over 
 their sorrow. Affliction is a more profitable study than 
 rejoicing. 
 
 ‘“‘We should observe lastly that the raising of Lazarus is 
 one of the most signal instances in the Gospels of Christ’s 
 Divine power. To Him who could work such a miracle 
 nothing is impossible. He can raise from the death of sin 
 any dead soul, however far gone and corrupt. He will raise 
 us from the grave at His own second appearing. ‘The voice 
 which called Lazarus from the tomb is almighty. “The dead 
 shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and they that hear 
 shall live’ (John v:25).” 
 
 Before we follow the last portion of this great chapter a few 
 statements as to the objections and inventions of infidelity 
 might be in order. We mention first the worst form of 
 infidelity, which goes by the name of “modern Biblical 
 scholarship,” the camouflaged title of that system which is 
 in the fullest sense of the word “‘destructive,” for it destroys 
 everything in the line of true faith. To show what this 
 miserable criticism teaches we quote first from an article on 
 Lazarus in the Standard Bible Dictionary, written by Pro- 
 fessor Samuel Dickey of the McCormick Theological Seminary 
 (Presbyterian), of Chicago, Ills. He says the following: 
 
 “The problem is inseparably connected with the larger 
 one of the authorship and historicity of the fourth Gospel. 
 Those who believe this Gospel to be purely allegorical 
 fiction(!) take the story of Lazarus to be a free composition 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 211 
 
 out of elements drawn from the Synoptic Gospels 
 
 It is more usual, however, today to admit that there are 
 many trustworthy data underlying the accounts of the 
 fourth Gospel, and that it is not to be considered, therefore, 
 simply a religious and dogmatic allegory. In that case the 
 story of Lazarus may contain trustworthy elements, even 
 though it may be difficult to determine just how much 
 is due to modification and interpretation of the fact in the 
 mind of the Evangelist. Obviously it is very difficult to 
 explain the absolute silence of the Synoptic Gospels regarding 
 Lazarus, containing reference as they do to the two sisters 
 and an anointing in Bethany, even though we freely admit 
 the partial character of the sources of these Gospels. Such 
 an event with such consequences as are described in the 
 fourth Gospel could hardly escape notice. ‘There are also 
 certain details in the narrative which, as they stand at least, 
 strike us incongruous. Yet, on the other hand, it is perhaps 
 more difficult, once the hypothesis of pure allegory is 
 abandoned, to psychologically explain the story’s com- 
 position as an ideal construction by the Evangelist to illus- 
 trate his views of Christ as ‘“‘the resurrection and the life.” 
 It is too stupendous for any personal follower of Jesus, at 
 least, to have simply invented it. Some historical foundation 
 is required, and the underlying facts, whatever they are, may 
 therefore belong to that body of trustworthy information 
 regarding a ministry of Jesus in Judea which appears to 
 have been known to the author of the fourth Gospel alone. 
 Assuming this to be true, and that our philosophical attitude 
 to the miraculous does not preclude its possibility, the 
 resurrection of Lazarus may have occurred, and the words, 
 ‘J am the resurrection and the life’ have had, therefore, 
 more than a spiritual significance.” 
 
 We have put certain words in this article in italics. Herc 
 is a Critic who tries to make it appear that he is orthodox. 
 He is one of those who occupy the convenient place on the 
 fence. But when he writes of the possibility that “the 
 resurrection of Lazarus may have occurred’ he shows that 
 he has no faith in inspiration. It is the language of doubt 
 and uncertainty. A believer in the plenary inspiration of 
 the Holy Scriptures does not use such language. 
 
“ie THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 We quote next from one who is more outspoken, who does 
 not grant the possibility that the resurrection of Lazarus 
 may have occurred. Before us is the large volume of ““The 
 Fourth Gospel in Research and Debate, by Dr. Benjamin 
 W. Bacon Buckingham, Professor on New ‘Testament 
 Criticism in Yale University.” 
 
 We quote from pages 348 and 349 the following: 
 
 “The Christian world instinctively and rightly turns to 
 Jesus’ tender expostulations with Martha’s tears, and with 
 the timid suggestion of both sisters that a miracle should be 
 wrought to alleviate their individual sorrow, these are among 
 the loftiest and purest expressions of Christian faith in face of 
 bereavement. But we do injustice to this Cospel when we try 
 to force 1t to our demand for the ‘historical.’ It 1s not historical, 
 but ‘spiritual.’ The story of the Raising of Lazarus, abso- 
 lutely excluded as it 1s by Synoptic tradition, should suffice of 
 itself alone to settle this point once for all.” 
 
 Here we have it. The story of Lazarus’s resurrection is 
 not historical. All that is written in the eleventh chapter 
 of John’s Gospel never occurred. It is an invention of the 
 author of the fourth Gospel, whoever he may be. ‘This view 
 is now taught in many of the leading theological seminaries, 
 like Union, Chicago, Boston, etc. It is infidelity pure and 
 simple. ‘The critical statements of these ‘“‘scholars” do not 
 reveal “maturity” but “blindness.” If they had just a little 
 bit of the knowledge which every child of God possesses, 
 the knowledge imparted not by human intelligence, but by 
 the Spirit of God, they would not write such foolishness. 
 If the Synoptics did not mention the resurrection of Lazarus 
 it was thus ordered by the divine Author of their documents, 
 the Holy Spirit. He reserved the record of this miracle for 
 the pen of the Apostle John, into whose Gospel it properly 
 belongs. 
 
 The infidel-critical view then is this. The story was 
 created by the writer of the Gospel for the purpose of illus- 
 trating the truth that Christ is the resurrection and the life, 
 and that it was perhaps developed by him out of some con- 
 versation of Jesus, or perhaps out of the story of Lazarus and 
 the rich man, possibly out of some incident in the life of 
 Lazarus. They even suggest that Nain is an abbreviation of 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN CANS. 
 
 Bethany, and that the narratives of the resurrection of 
 Lazarus and the widow’s son have a common origin, etc. 
 The denials of Destructive Criticism may be reduced to 
 these three propositions: (1) John did not write this account 
 at all. (2) The author of the Gospel of John invented the 
 story, building it on a very slight foundation. (3) That it 
 may be truth that Lazarus had been sick, but that the whole 
 story was a fraud perpetrated by Lazarus and the sisters. 
 Such is the infidelity in the camp of Christendom today. It 
 deserves the most scathing denunciation and every true 
 Christian should turn from it with abhorrence. ‘The French 
 infidel Renan held the same view as some of the Critics hold, 
 perhaps they stole it from him. Renan declared that the 
 death of Lazarus was only apparent; that the supposed 
 resurrection was a fraud contrived by the friends of Jesus 
 in order to give eclat to His anticipated entrance into Jeru- 
 salem, and that to this fraud He lent himself, in a moment of 
 intense fanatical enthusiasm. 
 
 All these French, German and Theological Seminary in- 
 fidels try to dispose of the reality of this miracle. We quote 
 a simple, yet masterly answer to all their objections. The 
 author of this defense we shall name after the quotation. 
 
 ‘The only alternative is belief in the miracle. The evi- 
 dence of John’s authorship of the fourth Gospel refutes the 
 hypothesis that John did not write the account. The nar- 
 rative itself is neither ideal nor dogmatic, neither an artistic 
 picture nor a concealed argument. It isa perfectly colorless 
 narrative of events concerning which there was no possible 
 room for mistake. The writer does not draw from the 
 narrative any conclusion; he does not say that any miracle 
 was wrought or even that the dead was raised. He simply 
 tells his readers what he saw and heard, and leaves them to 
 draw their own conclusions. He was with Jesus beyond the 
 Jordan; word came to them that Lazarus was sick; Jesus 
 remained where He was two days; then He told the disciples 
 that Lazarus was dead; when they reached Bethany they 
 found a scene of mourning; the friends had come, according 
 to Jewish custom, to console the sisters’ family; both sisters 
 stated impliedly and reproachfully that Lazarus was dead 
 when they arrived at the grave, one of them said that he 
 
214 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 had been dead four days, and that corruption—though this 
 apparently was only her presumption—had already com- 
 menced; Christ directed the stone to be taken away, com- 
 manded in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus come forth,’ and he came 
 fourth bound in his grave-clothes. A scientific commission 
 could not have reported the facts with more absolute im- 
 partiality. The writer expresses no opinion whatever re- 
 specting the occurrence. This is not the method of an 
 idealist who has invented the occurrence for the purpose of 
 glorifying his Master, or of a dogmatic who has written it 
 to prove a doctrine; it is the language of a pre-eminently 
 honest, fair-minded and impartial witness. And upon this 
 narrative the great mass of readers and students have come 
 to but one conclusion—that to which both friend and foe 
 came at that time—that it was a genuine resurrection from 
 the dead, a great and notable miracle.” 
 
 The author of this fine piece of logic in answer to the de- 
 structive infidels is Dr. Lyman Abbot, late editor of the ‘‘Out- 
 look.” It is quoted from page 148 of his commentary on the 
 Gospel of John, published in New York City fifty years ago. 
 Yet this faith he once held was abandoned by him and for 
 years he has destroyed what he once believed. 
 
 We conclude by saying that the great miracle, unimpeach- 
 able as to its historicity, is the supreme evidence of the 
 Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Infidels of every description 
 have acknowledged that such must be the case if the miracle 
 is true. The Jewish philosopher Spinoza, with his pantheistic 
 theory, declared ‘‘Could I be persuaded of the truth of the 
 raising of Lazarus, I would have broken into pieces my 
 whole system, and would have embraced without repug- 
 nance the ordinary faith of Christians.” 
 
 Verses 47-57, ‘The great miracle had taken place. The 
 self-witness of our Lord had been crowned by this mani- 
 festation of His omnipotence. Many Jews had been wit- 
 nesses; none of them could deny it. The Sandedrim, the 
 great council, composed of chief priests, great teachers, 
 elders and rulers, is called together. The great question 
 which was raised, is the question, What shall we do about it? 
 Then follows a most startling admission. ‘“Ihis man doeth 
 many miracles.”’ His foes bore united testimony to the fact 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 215 
 
 that He performed many miracles. The miracles He had 
 done as recorded in this Gospel are all coupled with His 
 claims of Messiahship and Deity. His repeated assertions 
 of Oneness with God, who sent Him, were attested by these 
 miracles. If these miracles had not been incontrovertible, 
 if even the slightest uncertainty had been possible, these 
 national leaders of Judaism would never have made such an 
 admission. They did not even submit the question about 
 His miracles. They were indisputable. Yet today the 
 modern Sadducees in their councils, the faculties of semin- 
 aries, the boasters of ‘“modern Biblical Scholarship,” deny the 
 miracles of Christ, 1900 years after they had been done, 
 when the eye-witnesses declared that He worked many 
 miracles. If these Pharisees and chief priests who saw 
 Christ, saw His miracles, and who left no stone unturned 
 to oppose Him, never dared to even dispute the genuineness 
 of these miracles, it is ridiculously absurd, to deny His 
 miracles now. Great was the satanic blindness of these 
 Jews; greater still and many times worse is the infidelity of 
 the destructive critics in the camp of Christendom. 
 
 What shall we do about it? That is their question. If 
 we let Him alone, everybody is going to believe on Him, 
 acknowledge Him as the sent One, the promised Messiah, 
 King-Messiah. ‘Then follows an argument produced by 
 the ignorance of unbelief. Selfishly they feared for their 
 national institution. The Romans, if He should be believed 
 on as the promised King, will take away our place (the 
 temple) and destroy our national existence. They thought 
 that His rejection would insure safety for them; that 
 His acceptance would lead to disaster. But the disaster they 
 feared came upon the temple, Jerusalem and the nation 
 because they condemned Him to death. The cry “‘His blood 
 be upon us and upon our children” has found its dreadful 
 accomplishment in their history of nineteen hundred years. 
 
 One of their number speaks. It is Caiaphas, who was 
 high priest that year. He and his father-n-law, Annas, 
 were Sadducees (Acts v:17). It seems that the Sadducees 
 must have controlled the great council at that time. Cai- 
 aphas and Annas both held the office of high priest (Luke 
 i11:2) during the ministry of our Lord and after. That they 
 
216 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 were in power in the Sanhedrim seems to be confirmed by 
 the sneer of Caiaphas against the statement made by the 
 Pharisees—‘“Ye know nothing at all, you are ignorant 
 about this whole question,” and he continues “‘nor consider 
 that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the 
 people, and that the whole nation perish not.”” He suggests 
 that He be put out of the way for expediency’s sake. “It is 
 expedient for us,” what a statement this is!) Whether He 
 is innocent or not, whether He is our Messiah or not, whether 
 He is God manifested in the flesh or not, for the benefit of 
 the whole nation, but one course is open, He must die. The 
 question of right and law is not in view at all. God was 
 not in their thoughts. He spoke as a clever politician, like 
 the politicians of the world to this day, it was not the question 
 of right with him, but the question of profit. 
 
 But there is another side. While Caiaphas acted in wicked- 
 ness, God nevertheless used him as a mouthpiece to utter 
 a great truth. He used him as an instrument, the same as 
 Balaam, who hated Israel, was used to pronounce Israel’s 
 blessedness. He spoke through Caiaphas whose official 
 standing as high priest gave his words official weight and 
 authority. However, Caiaphas was not aware that he was 
 made the mouthpiece of the Spirit of God and that his words 
 were prophetical. He had said in all satanic maliciousness 
 that it would be a very good thing, an expedient thing, that 
 this one man should die for the people, that the whole nation 
 perish not. The truth was that “‘Jesus should die for that 
 nation’; so that the nation might ultimately be saved by 
 the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the 
 Spirit of God had spoken long ago. ‘“‘For the transgression 
 of My people was He stricken” (Isaiah liii). Being miracu- 
 lously compelled by the Holy Spirit, Caiaphas spoke the 
 same Isaiah had written over seven hundred years before. 
 And He died for that nation. The day will come when the 
 remnant of Israel will be saved because He died for them. 
 Then they will confess Him in the very words of Isaiah’s 
 great vision. ‘Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried 
 our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God 
 and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, 
 He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our 
 
 — 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 217 
 
 peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed” 
 (Isaiah ]ii:4—5). 
 
 And adds the Spirit of God ‘‘Not for that nation only, 
 but that also He should gather together in one the children 
 of God that were scattered abroad.” It is written in 
 Ephesians ‘‘He loved the church and gave Himself for it.” 
 This fact is brought out here in anticipation of the calling of 
 the elect from all nations, the other sheep, to form the Church, 
 His body. 
 
 The advice of Caiaphas must have made a deep impression 
 on the majority of the council. If Nicodemus was there, as 
 he probably was, for he belonged to the Sanhedrim, his, and 
 perhaps the objections of others, were speedily silenced. 
 From that day forth they took counsel together for to put 
 Him to death. ‘To accomplish this needed great caution; 
 with all their wicked endeavors they were great cowards, 
 governed in every detail by self-interest. How many 
 council meetings they held is not reported. 
 
 And our omniscient Lord knew all about it. He was not 
 present when Caiaphas advocated His death. He needed 
 not the information of what had taken place to reach Him 
 through friends. He knew their thoughts; He heard their 
 words and therefore He walked no more openly among the 
 Jews. He knew what would follow; He knew when His 
 hour would come, but now He withdrew to a village called 
 Ephraim. There He tarried. Nothing is said of His 
 activity there; no record is given of what He spake and did 
 in Ephraim. From this we may conclude that He spent the 
 time there in fellowship with His Father and in communing 
 with His disciples. 
 
 It was now Passover time; the Jews’ feast drew near. 
 Large numbers were traveling towards Jerusalem to attend 
 the feast in the holy city. It seems that many of these 
 Jewish worshippers looked for the Lord Jesus. His name 
 was widely known; His great miracles were known to the 
 multitudes. There was a great expectation among them 
 that He would appear at the feast in. Jerusalem and manifest 
 still greater glory. So they gathered in groups in the 
 yard of the temple eagerly asking the question, What think 
 ye, that He will not come to the feast? 
 
218 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 It seems the plotting enemies of our Lord had reached a 
 definite decision. They knew He had disappeared. No 
 one knew where He lodged. So they had issued orders that 
 if any man knew where He was, to report His hiding place 
 at once, so that they might apprehend Him and carry out 
 their dark counsels. But the Christ was not in their hands. 
 Before He laid down His life voluntarily, before His hour 
 came, He must be presented to Jerusalem as King openly. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Verses 1-11. We come riow to the final public appearance 
 of our Lord before the Jews of Jerusalem. After this 
 chapter the record of John’s Gospel gives us the blessed 
 messages He spoke to His own disciples, which are not 
 reported by the synoptic Gospels. And after they were 
 finished He uttered that matchless prayer before He went 
 to Gethsemane and willingly stretched forth His loving 
 hands to be bound and led away “‘as a Lamb to the slaughter.” 
 
 What the other Gospels report that happened on the way 
 to Jerusalem, like the healing of the blind man in Jericho, the 
 incident with Zacchaeus, etc., is all omitted by the Apostle 
 John. We shall not burden our pages with additional 
 objections and questionings of an infidel Bible criticism. 
 
 He returned to Bethany. It was His last journey to 
 Jerusalem, as we read in Luke’s Gospel. On the way there He 
 informed His disciples what would now soon take place: 
 “Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are 
 written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be 
 accomplished. For He shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, 
 and shall be mocked and spitefully entreated and spit upon. 
 And they shall scourge Him, and put Him to death, and the 
 third day He shall rise again” (Luke xviii:31-33). Thus 
 He walked along with His disciples in perfect calmness. He 
 knew all the suffering and all the shame which awaited Him 
 in David’s city. He set His face like flint in fullest con- 
 fidence that He would not be ashamed but finish the work 
 the Father gave Him to do and have the victory. (See 
 Isaiah 1:6-7). He arrived in Bethany on the eve of the 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 219 
 
 Sabbath, that is, on Friday afternoon. He spent that last 
 Sabbath with His beloved friends in Bethany; the next 
 Sabbath His body rested in the tomb. Then on the first 
 day of the week, following the Sabbath, He rode into Jer- 
 usalem publicly on an ass. In connection with His arrival 
 in Bethany the fact is mentioned that Lazarus was there— 
 “‘where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He raised 
 from the dead.” Ever since Lazarus had been raised from 
 the dead he had dwelt in Bethany as the witness of the 
 omnipotent power of the Christ. That the miracle was widely 
 known, that it was then made known to the Jews, who had 
 come to attend the Passover, may be learned from verse 
 nine; multitudes of Jews came to Bethany to see Lazarus. 
 
 “There they made Him a supper.”? Martha was as busy 
 as ever with serving. She serves now without being cum- 
 bered with much serving. Then Lazarus is mentioned as 
 being one of them that sat at the table with Him. MHere 
 Lazarus is mentioned for the last time; after this we never 
 hear of him again. We do not know how long he lived, or 
 how he lived. The last record given of him is here, being at 
 the table with Him who had raised him from the dead. This 
 supper in Bethany is a beautiful type of that great coming 
 marriage supper of the Lamb, which will take place in 
 glory (Revelation xix). The Lord Jesus Christ will then 
 meet His own in glory. Lazarus represents those who died 
 and who are raised from among the dead; the sisters Martha 
 and Mary, those who are alive when He comes. There is 
 still another lesson. We have seen how Lazarus, dead, 
 represents the sinner dead in trespasses and sins; his resur- 
 rection, the life he receives who believes on him; then 
 followed liberty, ‘‘loose him and let him go.”’ Here Lazarus 
 is in fellowship with the Lord, enjoying communion with 
 Him. Life, Liberty and Fellowship—these are the three 
 great facts of the Gospel of Grace. 
 
 The great event which happened at this supper was when 
 Mary is at His feet again and anoints them with spikenard, 
 very costly, and then wiped His feet with her hair. It was 
 the expression of her deepest love and gratitude, an act of 
 worship by which she acknowledged Him as Lord. In 
 Matthew and Mark the record tells us that she anointed His 
 
220 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 head also (Matthew xxvi:6-13; Mark xiv:3-9). In both of 
 these Gospels we hear that the Lord declared wherever the 
 Gospel is preached throughout the whole world, that her 
 deed is to be mentioned; but in John’s Gospel the odor of 
 the anointment is mentioned as filling the whole house. 
 These differences are not discrepancies, nor is it necessary, 
 in order to harmonize these differences, to invent several 
 anointings, as some have done. There was but one anoint- 
 ing. She anointed both His head and His feet; John passes 
 over the fact that she anointed His head. It must have been 
 in this wise: she first anointed His head and then sank 
 down at His feet and anointed them as an act of deepest 
 humility, gratitude and worship. Thus alone the act as 
 anticipation of His burial was fully expressed. And Mary 
 of Bethany was not among the women who went to the 
 sepulchre to embalm the body of our Lord; she knew He 
 would rise from among the dead. 
 
 Let us also remember that the woman who was a sinner 
 ' (Luke vii:38) wiped His feet with her hair. Here are no 
 more tears, but all is joy and gladness; Mary brought her 
 alabaster box containing a pound of ointment of spikenard, 
 very costly, not using just a little, but breaking the alabaster 
 box she emptied it all, for He is worthy of all. What the 
 ointment was, the spikenard, cannot be ascertained; the 
 fact is stated that it wasofvery great value. Such costly 
 ointments were much used among the ancients and highly 
 prized, but generally a very little was used of it. Perhaps 
 the alabaster box containing the precious ointment was a 
 great treasure of the family. It was the best Mary pos- 
 sessed and she gave it to Him. As we read:in 1 Corinthians 
 x1:15, the glory of the woman is her long hair; she put all 
 her glory at His feet to glorify Him. She expressed in this 
 way that Christ was her all; she bore witness to His Deity, 
 and she alone among all His disciples had realized in faith 
 that He was on the way_to the cross, that He would die, be 
 buried and rise again. No word was spoken by her, but 
 her silent act of faith, adoration and worship, the savour 
 of it, filled the whole house. It was done unto Him; it 
 magnified Him, His blessed person and His equally blessed 
 work. And sweet to Him was this act of worship, this lavish 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 221 
 
 expression of love., She is the standing pattern of true 
 affection for the Lord Jesus Christ and devotedness unto 
 Him. But that can only be attained by communion with 
 Him, sitting at His feet as Mary did. Such devotedness to 
 Him, exaltation of His ever blessed and worthy Name, is 
 still the sweet savour unto Him and still fills the whole house. 
 Such devotion Satan hates. He did not let this scene go 
 unchallenged. His voice is heard through one of the dis- 
 ciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray Him. 
 According to Matthew and Mark the other disciples also had 
 indignation, considering the great act of love as wasteful. 
 Judas was the spokesman and the other disciples in their 
 ignorance endorsed his sentiment. Before this our Lord had 
 indicated the character of Judas, who was now about to 
 betray Him. He knew that he had a devil (John vi:64). 
 Judas had no affection for the Lord Jesus Christ, though he 
 was a disciple; he had no affection for Him because he did 
 not believe on Him as Lord, and always called Him, Rabbi. 
 Therefore he did not think of the Lord Jesus. Why was not 
 this ointment sold for three hundred pence (denarii), and 
 given tothe poor? It has been calculated that three hundred 
 pence make about fifty dollars; the thirty pieces of silver for 
 which Judas sold Christ make about fifteen dollars. But 
 did he really care for the poor? The omniscient Spirit of 
 God tells us that it was but the cover for a more sordid 
 motive. He was a thief; he carried the bag, and all along 
 covetousness, the love of money, had led him to steal. This 
 gives us an interesting side-light on the poverty of Him, 
 who was rich, and had become poor. The bag was not a 
 portmanteau, but a chest into which voluntary contributions 
 both in coin and in provisions were put by friends, like 
 Joanna, Susanna and many others (Luke viii:3). Thus the 
 Son of God, the Creator of all things, in poverty was main- 
 tained, as well as His disciples, by the voluntary contributions 
 of His friends. Judas had charge of all this. Many a 
 nominal Christian uses today the same falsehood Judas used 
 to hide the love of money. ‘They excuse themselves from 
 certain duties, like assisting foreign missionary work. They 
 plead “‘charity begins at home,” that the poor and needy 
 must be helped, but in reality they are covetous and selfish. 
 
222 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 “He was a thief.” This statement should silence the 
 foolish inventions that Judas was moved by a noble purpose 
 in betraying the Lord Jesus. ‘The theory claims that Judas 
 wanted the Lord Jesus to be King. He thought if He was 
 betrayed and taken captive, He would exercise His divine 
 power, overthrow His enemies and take the throne; thus it is 
 claimed he tried to hasten the Kingship and Kingdom of 
 Christ. He was a thief! 
 
 Then the Lord rebuked Judas and vindicated Mary. Her 
 act was prophetic: it foretold His coming death and burial. 
 To help the poor is always possible, for poverty will 
 always exist throughout this age, and He added “but Me ye 
 have not always.’’ He -was soon to return to the Father, 
 then His bodily presence would cease. Attention has been 
 rightly called that this one statement of our Lord silences 
 completely the abominable blasphemy of Rome of the 
 Lord’s bodily presence in the ‘‘Mass.” 
 
 On that memorable day a large number of Jews came to 
 Bethany; they had heard that He was there, and as the 
 village was near Jerusalem they hurried there to see Him. 
 They also were curious to see Lazarus to convince themselves 
 that he was really alive. The crowds which came must 
 have been very large; the attention of the chief priests was 
 called to it and they at once consulted to put Lazarus to 
 death also. The miracle could not be denied and so they 
 tried to silence the witness. What a confirmation of another 
 word of our Lord as to unbelief: “Neither will they believe 
 though one rose from the dead’’! 
 
 Many Jews going away from Bethany believed on Jesus, 
 that He is the Messiah. They must have spread their con- 
 viction among others so that everywhere it must have been 
 heard, something like this—He is the Messiah, none but the 
 Messiah could raise any one from the dead. 
 
 Verses 12-19. A number of times in this Gospel we have 
 learned how our Lord withdrew, disappearing from the 
 multitudes, retiring into the wilderness to be alone; but now 
 He no longer hides Himself. In chapter vi:15 they wanted to 
 make Him King by force, but now He appears voluntarily 
 and presents Himself as the promised King to Jerusalem. 
 
 This had to be done before He died on the Cross, in fulfill- 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 223 
 
 ment of the prediction uttered by Zechariah. This fact an- 
 nihilates completely the invention of a prolific writer who 
 has tried to demonstrate that Christ did not come as King 
 with an offer of the promised kingdom; his theory has sadly 
 miscarried. 
 
 The next day mentioned is the day known in Christendom 
 as “‘Palm Sunday,” the beginning of that memorable week 
 in which He died as the substitute of sinners, in which He 
 laid in the grave; the next week begins with the glorious 
 day of resurrection. On that day the 483 prophetic years 
 given in Daniel’s great prophecy (Daniel ix) had expired. 
 An immense crowd of people from all over the land had 
 gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover feast. No doubt 
 hundreds, if not thousands had seen Him, heard Him, were 
 fed by Him in the wilderness; and now they were in the 
 City, perhaps eagerly looking for Him. All at once the news 
 sweeps through the crowd—He is coming! He is coming! 
 The vast multitude had heard of the great miracle which had 
 taken place in Bethany. There had been a stream of 
 visitors and probably these brought the news to Jerusalem, 
 He is coming to the feast. Soon a great throng of people 
 gathered and as they went forth on the road they plucked 
 branches from the palm trees to welcome the King. ‘This 
 was an ancient custom in welcoming Kings and victorious 
 generals. The palm branches therefore denote victory; this 
 is the case in the Book of Revelation (vii:9). The palm 
 trees are very prominent also in the description of the 
 Millennial Temple (Ezekiel xl, etc.). Then followed a 
 mighty cry, ‘““Hosanna!’’ Perhaps this cry came when the 
 crowds beheld Him for the first time, riding upon the ass. 
 Hosanna is taken fromthe Messianiccxviii Psalm. “Savenow, 
 I beseech thee, O Lord”’ (verse 25). It is a cry for salvation. 
 This was followed by another, partial quotation from the 
 same Psalm. “Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in 
 the name of the Lord.” But the words “The King of 
 Israel’? are not found in the Psalm. It was added by the 
 people in their enthusiasm in welcoming Him, whom many 
 believed to be the promised Messiah. In Matthew’s Gospel, 
 after the Lord had spoken the words of condemnation 
 against the leaders of the nation, He said, before He left 
 
224 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 the house, ‘‘For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me hence- 
 forth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name 
 of the Lord.” This of course was not fulfilled when they 
 cried thus when He was about entering Jerusalem. It will be 
 fulfilled in the future when our Lord returns in power and 
 glory and a remnant of His people welcomes Him as the 
 deliverer. 
 
 Matthew tells us about the particulars of the pre- 
 paration to enter Jerusalem upon the ass (Matthew xxi:7; 
 see our exposition of Matthew). ‘The ass is a symbol not of 
 a great conqueror, but of humility. Yet we know from 
 Deborah’s song that great men rode upon white asses 
 (Judge. v:10). “‘No Roman soldier in the garrison of Jer- 
 usalem, who standing at his post or sitting in his barrack 
 window, saw our Lord riding on an ass, could report to his 
 centurion that He looked like one who came to wrest the 
 kingdom of Judea out of the hand of the Romans, drive out 
 the governor and his legions from the tower of Antonia, and 
 achieve independence for the Jews with the sword.” ‘The 
 day is coming when He will sit upon a white charger, when 
 He comes, not traveling over a dusty country road, but when 
 He comes forth out of the opened heavens; then, and not 
 till then will all the kingdoms fall, and His Kingdom come. 
 Yet there can be no question that many in that vast throng 
 expected something to happen at this time, some startling 
 manifestation by which their carnal expectations of deliver- 
 ance from the Roman power was to be realized. When it 
 did not come, and they saw Him in the hands of the Romans, 
 a bound captive, the crowds turned from the popular 
 applause, the expecting “‘Hosanna,” to the horrible cry 
 “Crucify Him!” 
 
 John alludes briefly to Zechariah’s prediction. It must be 
 noticed that Zechariah’s great prediction was not fulfilled on 
 that day. The Holy Spirit in quoting from it leaves out on 
 purpose certain statements which can only be fulfilled when 
 He comes again. In fact, like so many other Messianic 
 prophecies in the Old Testament, Zechariah ix:9-11 is a 
 blending of His first and second coming. 
 
 His disciples beheld all this and yet they understood not. 
 They failed to see the meaning of all this. It was ordered 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 225 
 
 thus by our Lord; His Spirit hid the full meaning of all these 
 things for a purpose. Had they grasped it all, had they 
 understood all about His sufferings, His rejection, His 
 Cross (though it was plainly written in their Scriptures), the 
 enemy might have brought the charge that all was a well- 
 laid scheme. But the fact that they did not understand, 
 nor expect His resurrection from the dead, makes 
 deception, and self-deception especially, impossible. The 
 truth came to them “when Jesus was glorified.”” This 
 means the gift of His Spirit after His resurrection and 
 ascension, the Holy Spirit who is here as the witness that 
 Christ is in glory, Of Him our Lord had said “He shall 
 teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, 
 whatsoever | have said unto you” (John xiv:26). When He 
 had come and dwelt in them they understood it all and saw 
 how wonderfully the Lord had dealt with them, used them, 
 and how Scripture had been accomplished. 
 
 Verse 17 puts before us once more that greatest of all 
 miracles, the raising up of Lazarus. ‘Those who had been in 
 Bethany, who were the eye witnesses of what had taken 
 place, were undoubtedly in the lead. They bare record, 
 probably somewhat in the following manner: We are well 
 acquainted with Lazarus, Mary and Martha. We often 
 visited their home. Some time ago we received the news 
 that Lazarus was very sick and a few days later we heard that 
 he had died. We at once went to Bethany and found that 
 the report was true. We went to mourn with our friends; 
 some of us wrapped the corpse in the grave clothes and 
 deposited him in the tomb; we put the stone before the 
 tomb and then waited the customary three days. On the 
 fourth day, this man Jesus of Nazareth came. He was a 
 friend of the family; Mary and Martha had sent for Him, 
 as soon as their brother had fallen sick. He delayed His 
 coming till Lazarus was dead and put into the grave. He 
 demanded to see the place where his friend rested in death. 
 Then He astonished us by calling us to take away the stone. 
 Some of us right here responded and we removed the stone 
 from the opening of the tomb. Then He said “Lazarus 
 come forth!” No sooner was the word spoken but Lazarus 
 came forth and life was restored to him. We saw it all and 
 
226 THE GOSPEL. OF JOHN 
 
 you can go to Bethany and see Lazarus and convince yourself 
 that he is living. And this man, who is riding upon an ass, 
 is the One who did all this. Such must have been their 
 witness before the great multitude. For this cause, on 
 account of this testimony the vast multitude came forth to 
 meet Him, and to join in the cry of welcome. 
 
 His enemies, the Pharisees, now appear upon the scéne. 
 They were the witnesses of this triumphal entrance of the 
 hated and despised Nazarene, Him, whom they tried to stone, 
 and had counselled to put to death. They acknowledge 
 their helplessness? ‘“Che Pharisees, therefore, said among 
 themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? Behold 
 the world is gone after Him.” They were at their wits’ 
 end. All along they had planned and tried maliciously to 
 incite the mob against Him, so that they might put Him 
 out of the way. Perhaps they had hoped to accomplish 
 something against Him with the large crowds of people fill- 
 ing the city. But instead of having the masses on their 
 side, they saw that they were on the side of their enemy, 
 acclaiming Him as the King of Israel. They looked on and 
 said amongst themselves: “Behold what has happened!’ 
 **Just look at these multitudes with palm branches! Listen 
 to the Hosanna cries!” ‘They confess that the whole world 
 has gone after Him. How true this was! According to the 
 reckoning of Josephus about three million people assembled 
 from everywhere at the Passover time in Jerusalem, and 
 they all shouted His name. The next paragraph tells us 
 that even the attention of Greek Gentiles had been arrested 
 and they desired to see Jesus. 
 
 What a moment of triumph! Yet not a word is said 
 about Himself. No record given that He spoke one word 
 in all this scene, or that He, in any way responded to the 
 enthusiasm of the multitude. We believe, unmoved as He 
 was, He looked beyond all what was taking place. He 
 knew what was about to come. 
 
 Verses 20-22. And now certain Greeks asked for Him. 
 This incident must have taken place sometime after the 
 triumphal entry of our Lord into Jerusalem, for if it had been 
 at that time, the inquiring Greeks would have beheld Him, 
 for He was the central figure on that memorable day. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 227 
 
 These Greeks were not Grecian Jews, that is Jews who had 
 been away from Palestine and who had become more or less 
 identified with Greek life and spoke the Greek language. 
 Such were the Grecians mentioned in Acts vi. ‘They were 
 natives of Greece who, like some Romans, had turned away 
 from idols and had become proselytes to the Jewish faith. 
 They came up to Jerusalem to the feast to worship, for they 
 had adopted the Hebrew religion, and came to Jerusalem to 
 participate in the divinely commanded feasts of the Lord. 
 To the same class of proselytes belonged the centurion 
 whose son our Lord healed; Cornelius to whom Peter was 
 sent, and the eunuch whom the evangelist Philip met on the 
 road to Gaza. 
 
 Perhaps it was the Greek name of Philip which attracted 
 them to him and to present their petition, “‘Sir, we would 
 see Jesus.” ‘The original is more emphatic, ‘‘We wish, we 
 desire to see Jesus.”” We do not know what their motive 
 was, probably more than idle curiosity. The historian 
 Eusebius mentions a tradition that they had been sent by 
 the Syrian king Edessa with a commission to invite Jesus to 
 come to his realm, assuring Him a hearty and princely 
 welcome. But this is nothing but a tradition. The visit of 
 the wise men at the time of the infancy of our Lord was 
 prophetic; the coming of these inquiring Greeks is also 
 prophetic. The leaders of the nation were seeking even 
 then to kill Him, but Gentiles came to seek to know Him; 
 rejected by His own the Gentiles would turn to Him. 
 
 Verses 23-26. The request was not granted. Another one 
 might have snatched this opportunity to increase his triumph, 
 for while multitudes had acclaimed Him as the King of 
 Israel, those from afar had come also to know Him. But our 
 Lord is not carried away by any enthusiasm. Instead of 
 motioning the Greeks into His presence to converse with 
 them He said,‘“The hour is come, that the Son of Man should 
 be glorified.” 
 
 It is a different glorification from that which man seeks for 
 himself. He spoke of the glory which should follow His 
 suffering. ‘The coming of these Greeks indicated the time 
 when the strangers from the commonwealth of Israel would 
 seek Him as Saviour, when the middle wall of partition would 
 
228 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 be broken down, and the salvation of God would go far 
 hence to the Gentiles, so that the other sheep (John x) might 
 be gathered in, to form with the sheep from the Jewish fold, 
 the one flock. But all this could not be accomplished by 
 His earthly life; it necessitated His death. He had to be lifted 
 up first on the cross before all could be drawn to Him. 
 Through death alone could come the glory, the glory He 
 received, and the glory of salvation for a lost world. The 
 words which follow make this clear. “Verily, verily, I say 
 unto you, Except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and 
 die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much 
 fruit.’ It is a simple, yet deep saying. The seed, the corn 
 of wheat, may be stored in the granary but it is useless 
 there. In order to be a blessing, to reproduce itself, to 
 bestow life, the corn of wheat must be put into the ground, 
 to decay and to die. Out of death life springs and much 
 fruit results. He must die and only through His death 
 could salvation and life be procured. Like the corn of 
 wheat in the granary, if our Lord had done nothing but live 
 and teach and do deeds of mercy, He would have remained 
 alone. Like the corn of wheat put into the ground to die, 
 He died and from His death, His life given vicariously, alone 
 comes the harvest of salvation, life and glory. This great 
 statement of our Lord, introduced with the solemn ““Amen— 
 Amen—Verily, Verily” disposed completely of the delusive 
 teaching that union with Christ is brought about by His 
 incarnation, by taking on a human body and living among 
 men. A certain school speaks of Him as taking on sinful, 
 fallen humanity, which is a wicked statement, and that by 
 having taken upon Himself humanity, He lifts humanity 
 back to the favor of God. ‘This one verse silences this evil 
 invention. Not His life, but His death lifts man from the 
 horrible pit and the miry clay. ‘The Just One died for the 
 unjust that He might bring us to God.”’ The verse answers 
 another equally wicked invention of the natura! mind. The 
 modern theology regards the death of Christ as an act of 
 self-denial; or they speak of Him as suffering the martyr’s 
 death. When our Lord illustrates His coming death and the 
 blessed results of His death, by the dying of the corn of 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 229 
 
 wheat, He gives a complete answer to these modern enemies 
 of His sacrificial and finished work on the cross. 
 
 But who is able to estimate the fruits of His death! It 
 will take all eternity to know and to enjoy the surpassing 
 riches of His grace. ‘The source of all we have and are, what 
 we shall have and shall be, is the cross of Christ, His blessed, 
 precious death for us. 
 
 When the corn of wheat dies it reproduces itself in other 
 corns of wheat. The life of the corn of wheat which passed 
 through death is communicated. Even so, we, who have 
 believed, possess His life, the life which passed through 
 death. 
 
 “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his 
 life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” ‘The same 
 statement we find in five other passages in the Gospels 
 (Matthew x:39; xvi:25; Mark viii:35; Luke ix:24; xvii:33). 
 
 The same principle of self-sacrifice holds good for the 
 believer, who follows Christ. His path is theirs, a path of 
 suffering and shame. It means to be dead to the world, its 
 glory and its ambitions, to give up and sacrifice, constantly 
 reaching out after the things which are above. What Paul 
 wrote to the Philippians illustrates this saying of our Lord, 
 *‘But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for 
 Christ . . .for Whom I suffered the loss of all things, and 
 to count them but dung, that I may win Christ... That 
 I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the 
 fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto 
 His death” (Phil. i11:7-10). The practical condemnation 
 which the statement of our Lord, “‘he that loveth his lite 
 shall lose it, etc.” passes on the life lived by many should 
 never be overlooked. How few hate their lives here! How 
 many love their lives, and care for nothing but how to make 
 them comfortable and happy! The eterna] loss or the eternal 
 gain are often entirely forgotten. How little of the real 
 self-denial and self-sacrifice is known even among God’s 
 people in our easy going, pleasure and comfort loving 
 generation! Let us remember it daily, “If ye then be risen 
 with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ 
 sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affection on 
 things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, 
 
230 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who 
 is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him 
 in glory” (Col. iii:1-4). 
 
 True service for the Lord is to follow Him. “If any man 
 serve Me, let him follow Me.” It is a service inseparable 
 from following Him, living in His fellowship, walking in 
 His footsteps, being obedient to Him. How much there is 
 called Christian service, and service for the Lord, which 
 is but service in self-will! True service in Him and 
 with Him has two great promises, given here by our 
 Lord. The first is ““Where I am, there shall also my 
 servant be.” This gracious promise is repeated in the 
 fourteenth chapter, “I will-come again and receive you unto 
 myself, that where I am ye may bealso.” There will be an 
 eternal union of Christ with His own, an eternal fellowship. 
 All who are Christ’s and serve Him will be with Him; 
 wherever He is there we shall be with Him. And whatever 
 He has we shall have and possess with Him. But what does 
 it mean, “If any man serve Me, him will My Father honour”’! 
 No Saint has ever discovered the full meaning of this great 
 promise, one of the greatest in the Word of God. The 
 Father’s delight is His Son. Him He has honored; to Him 
 He has given the pre-eminence in all things. He delights 
 in all who honor His Son, who exalt Him, give Him the 
 first place in their lives, serve Him and follow in His foot- 
 steps. Such He will honor; His blessing will be upon 
 them. What will it be in that coming eternity when we 
 shall be in His presence! All who have served the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, who have been true and loyal to Him, will be 
 honored by the Father. This will be heaven: with Christ, 
 and receiving honor and glory from the Father. 
 
 “It is impossible not to see throughout this verse that our 
 Lord’s intention is to discourage the carnal and earthly 
 expectations of His Jewish followers, and yet to encourage 
 them by showing what they might confidently look for. 
 They must follow in His steps if they were His true servants, 
 and in so following they would find a cross, and not a crown, 
 whatever they may be thinking, at that moment, while the 
 hosannas of an excited crowd were sounding in their ears. 
 But though they had a cross, they should not miss a reward 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 231 
 
 finally, which would make amends for all. They would be 
 with Christ in Glory. They would be honored by God the 
 Father’’* 
 
 Verses 27-33. In the midst of this scene, when the Greeks 
 had inquired for Him, when He had spoken of the necessity of 
 His death, so that, like the dying corn of wheat, there might 
 be from Him much fruit, He uttered these words of deep 
 soulical emotion. What else did produce this sudden agony 
 but the Cross, which loomed up before His eyes! He was 
 even in His humiliation the omniscient Lord. He knew all 
 things. He knew but a few days more and they would spit in 
 His face, smite His cheeks, scourge His back with the cruel 
 scourge, and nail Him to the tree. But the knowledge of 
 the coming shame and suffering did not affect Him thus. 
 There was something deeper than that. He was to suffer 
 in a way not fully known tous. As the substitute of sinners 
 He who knew no sin was to be made sin and a curse for us. 
 Well says a German expositor: “The only solution of this 
 extreme trouble is the vicarious significance of the sufferings 
 and death of Christ. If our chastisement was upon Him, in 
 order that we might have peace, then in Him must have been 
 concentrated all the horror of death. He bore the sin of the 
 world and the wages of that sin is death. Death therefore 
 must to Him assume its most frightful form. ‘The physical 
 suffering was nothing compared to the immeasurable suf- 
 fering of soul which impended over the Redeemer, and the 
 full greatness and depth of which He clearly perceives.” f 
 He looked forward to the cross, and knowing all it meant 
 when He would become the Sin-bearer His holy soul was 
 stirred by this deep agony. No finite mind can comprehend 
 what it was when He said ‘‘Now is My soul troubled.” He 
 adds, “What shall I say?” It is a question of anguish, per- 
 plexity and deep distress. 
 
 Then follows a prayer: “‘Father, save Me from this hour.” 
 This brief utterance must not be detached from the next 
 statement, ‘‘But for this cause came [ unto this hour.”” The 
 prayer to be saved from this hour reveals His human nature, 
 though it was sinless, yet in that nature He could suffer, 
 
 
 
 *Thoughts on John. 
 tHengstenberg. 
 
232 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 and instinctively He shrank from it. His human nature 
 would suggest to ask the Father to save Him from this hour. 
 Thus He spoke in Gethsemane also, ‘“O My Father, if this 
 cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will 
 be done” (Matt. xxvi:42). But He answers with a, No. While 
 He tells out His feeling as a true man, He knows that for 
 this cause, to suffer and to die as substitute of sinners, He 
 came unto this hour. Thus He declared His entire submis- 
 sion to His will, to accomplish the purpose of His coming 
 into the world. As one has said, ‘““The struggle is like one 
 of those fissures in the crust of the earth, which enables 
 science to fathom the bowels of the earth. It lets us read 
 the very inmost depths of the Lord’s being.” 
 
 But it was more than a submission to the will of the 
 Father, who sent His Son. His great desire was that the 
 Father’s Name might be glorified, “Father, glorify Thy 
 Name.” In the great work He came to do the Father is 
 glorified both as to His Name and His attributes. The 
 agony and the pain which passed through His soul are for- 
 gotten and His holy ambition is the Father’s Glory. We 
 see three significant steps in these utterances of our Lord. 
 First, His sinless human soul shrank from the sufferings. In 
 the second place He expresses His entire submission to the 
 Father’s will, and finally He desires the Glory of the Father’s 
 Name. It has been remarked that the utmost reach of the 
 renewed will of a believer is to say always, “‘Father, glorify 
 Thy Namein Me. Do with Me what Thou wilt, only glorify 
 Thy Name.” The glory of God after all is the end for which 
 all things were created. Paul was filled with this when he 
 wrote the Philippians, as the prisoner in Rome, ‘“That in all 
 things, by life or by death, Christ might be magnified in my 
 body.” 
 
 And the Father answers at once. What had taken place, 
 the words His well beloved Son had spoken, pleased Him. 
 Therefore His voice was heard from heaven. It is the third 
 time the Father spoke above His Son. That voice was 
 heard when the Lord had gone into Jordan for baptism; it 
 was heard on the Mount of Transfiguration, and now for 
 the third time, as the Son of God is about to suffer and to 
 die, the Father speaks. Here as at the other occasions the 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN . fae 
 
 positive proof is given that the Father and the Son are two 
 distinct persons. It was a miracle when that voice was 
 heard; while we cannot explain it, as no other miracle can 
 be explained, we reverently believe it. The voice declared, 
 “T have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”” What 
 glorification is this? Some have explained it as meaning that 
 the Father had been glorified in His incarnation, in His 
 miracles, in the Word which His Son had spoken, and now 
 His Name was to be again glorified in His suffering and 
 death. We believe it refers rather to the resurrection of 
 Lazarus from the dead and to His own resurrection. When 
 our Lord was informed of the illness of His friend, He said, 
 “This sickness is not unto death, but unto the glory of 
 God.” When therefore Lazarus was raised from the dead 
 it glorified the Name of the Father. Again, He would be 
 glorified in the resurrection of His own Son. 
 
 That something miraculous had taken place the whole 
 company of people who were present realized. All heard it 
 and some said that it was thunder, while others hearing the 
 sounds distinctly declared that it was an angel who had 
 spoken. None recognized the Father’s voice, the Son only 
 heard and understood. Some think that the Greeks, who 
 were probably still in that company, said that it thundered, 
 while the Jews knew that a voice had really spoken, and 
 they thought it was an angel. But that there must have 
 been persons among them who heard the actual voice is 
 vouched for by the words of our Lord when He said: ‘This 
 voice came not for My sake but for your sakes.” It con- 
 firmed once more the fact of His Deity. 
 
 ‘Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince 
 of this world be cast out.”? This passage, which has been 
 considered one of the difficult verses in this Gospel, becomes 
 simple when we consider that it is anticipative. He speaks 
 of the work of the Cross as already accomplished, and that 
 the result of it will be the judgment of this world and the 
 casting out of the Prince of this world (Satan). The death 
 of Christ is the condemnation of this world and all its glory; 
 believers, who are in Christ, dead with Him and risen with 
 Him, are dead to the world and the world is dead unto them. 
 The sentence of judgment is passed upon the world, and its 
 
234 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 prince is also judged, in due time he will be cast out. How 
 and when this is to be consummated the Book of Revelation 
 tells us more fully (Rev. xii and xx). The death of Christ 
 has stripped the prince of this world of his power and sealed 
 his coming eternal doom, but it is by His death that He 
 ‘spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of 
 them openly, triumphing over them” (Col. 11:15). In speak- 
 ing these words our Lord regarded all accomplished by His 
 sacrificial death, as it will be in fact in His Second Coming. 
 
 We quote an excellent comment on this verse by Dr. 
 Lyman Abbott, given in his commentary on the Gospel of 
 John, written fifty years ago, when this man was sound in the 
 faith and not a critical unbeliever. ‘““The world’s battle was 
 fought and the victory won at Calvary. The Second Coming 
 of Christ is not to redeem the world, but to realize for the 
 world the fruits of redemption, in an established and eternal 
 kingdom of righteousness, after, by the cross, humanity has 
 been judged, the devil cast out, and the redeemed race lifted 
 up. The passages of the New Testament which imply the 
 continuing influence of the devil (Rom. xvi:20; 2 Cor. iv:4; 
 Eph. 11:2; vi:12; etc.) are not inconsistent with Christ’s 
 language here, because what Christ says is prophetic; He 
 speaks of that as already accomplished which is absolutely 
 certain to be accomplished by the power of that divine sac- 
 rifice, so soon by Him to be consummated.” 
 
 “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men 
 unto Me. This He said, signifying what death He should 
 die.’ Quite often the statement of our Lord is applied to 
 the preaching of the Gospel, that if Christ is lifted up in 
 preaching, His power to attract will be manifested. This 
 certainly is true, but it is not the meaning of the words our 
 Lord spoke here. He spoke of His death by crucifixion. 
 Nor does the lifting up mean His ascension. It must also 
 be noticed when He speaks in this manner of His being 
 lifted up, nailed to the cross, He did not say, “When I be 
 lifted up,” but “zf I be lifted up.” His crucifixion was con- 
 tingent; it was dependent on His own voluntary submission. 
 Even in the hour of His arrest the way of deliverance was 
 open to Him. And this great work finished, Christ cruci- 
 fied, lifted up, dying for sinners, making known the love and 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 235 
 
 righteousness of God, is His power to draw all men unto 
 Him. “All men” does not mean what Calvin read into it, 
 and which a few of his followers still maintain, that it means 
 only the elect. Nor does it mean the salvation of every 
 member of the human race as others teach. All men means 
 both Jews and Gentiles, those who hear the Gospel, and 
 hearing, believe on Him. We must not think that these 
 words support the deadly heresy of universal salvation. 
 We must not suppose them to mean that all men shall 
 actually be saved by Christ’s crucifixion, any more than we 
 must suppose that Christ actually “‘lights’ every one into 
 the world (John 1:9). The analogy of other texts shows 
 plainly that the only reasonable sense is, that Christ’s cruci- 
 fixion would have a ‘“‘drawing”’ influence on men of all 
 nations, Gentiles as well as Jews. Scripture and facts show 
 us that all persons are not actually drawn to Christ. Many 
 live and die and are lost in unbelief.* The meaning of this 
 statement of our Lord is wider still. ‘The day will come 
 when the nations of the earth will be gathered into the king- 
 dom. 
 
 Verses 35-36. The question they had asked of Him: 
 “How sayest Thou, the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who 
 is the Son of Man?” He left unanswered. He knew that 
 these questions came not out of sincere, seeking hearts. 
 Behind them He saw sneers and ridicule and He never 
 answered such. Instead He made some great declarations. 
 He is the Light. For a little while longer, only for a few 
 days, He would tarry with them. Soon He would be no 
 longer in their midst. The day of light and opportunity 
 for them as His people was drawing rapidly to a close. He 
 had seen with His omniscient vision that the storm clouds 
 of judgment were gathering over Jerusalem and the nation, 
 and therefore urges them to act now, while it was still light 
 for them, and flee to Him and to His shelter. Darkness was 
 rapidly approaching and coming upon them, then would they 
 wander about in darkness without any ray of light, without 
 aim and without any peace and rest. History tells us how 
 all this was fulfilled after they had delivered the Son of 
 
 *Bishop Ryle. 
 
236 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Man into the hands of the Gentiles. The years between 
 the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the siege 
 and destruction of Jerusalem under Titus in the year 70, 
 were years of darkness and confusion. Judicial blindness 
 settled upon them and ever since they were dispersed among 
 the nations, the prediction of our Lord has been literally 
 fulfilled; they walk in darkness and know not where they 
 are going. And such is the fate of all who reject Him who 
 is the Light and refuse to acknowledge Him as Saviour and 
 Lord. A human being can find light, and be a child of light, 
 only by believing on Him. Then He departed; He was 
 hidden from them. This action may be looked upon as 
 confirming what He had spoken, a kind of symbolical action. 
 Verses 37-41. Here is a deep and interesting commentary 
 on some of the great utterances of the Prophet Isaiah, which 
 are of much importance at the present time, when this great 
 prophetic book is so much slandered by the infidel critics in 
 the camp of Protestantism. The first quotation is from the 
 great Fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. Here is the fullest 
 confirmation that this famous chapter, revealing the rejec- 
 tion, the death, the sacrificial work, the burial, the resur- 
 rection and glory of the Servant of the Lord, applies to the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. The ancient synagogue always believed 
 this. When it was found out by Jews that this chapter was 
 extensively used in convincing Jews of the Messianity of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, they invented the theory that the 
 person described in that chapter is not the Messiah, but the 
 Jewish nation, that they suffer vicariously for the other 
 nations. In doing this they revealed their awful blindness 
 as well as hatred against the Lord. ‘This miserable invention 
 is upheld and taught in all the theological institutions, 
 seminaries and Bible institutes which are on the side of the 
 evolutionary, modern theology, if it deserves to be called 
 by this honored name. In other words, destructive criticism 
 has joined hands with infidel Judaism in rejecting the 
 Messianic meaning of the great Isaiahian prophecy. 
 Isaiah in the Spirit foresaw the unbelief of the nation, 
 which was now about to be consummated in the rejection 
 of Jesus, our Lord. Some fatalists, ultra-Calvinists, claim 
 upon these words, ‘“They believed not on Him that the say- 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 237 
 
 ing of Isaiah the Prophet might be fulfilled,” that they mean 
 that their unbelief was manifested in order that this proph- 
 ecy might be fulfilled. God knew that they would not 
 believe, and therefore Isaiah spoke these words. Chrysos- 
 tom wrote: “It was not because Isaiah spake these words 
 that they believed not, because they were not about to be- 
 lieve, that He spake.”’ ‘The next statement appears more 
 dificult: ““ITherefore they could not believe, because that 
 Isaiah said again.” It does not mean that the Jews were 
 unable to believe, though willing, because Isaiah had spoken 
 these words seven hundred years before. Long before our 
 Lord appeared on earth the Jewish people had deliberately 
 hardened their hearts and turned away from Him. They 
 were already in that state of judicial blindness, which Isaiah 
 had predicted, and for this reason they were not able to 
 believe. 
 
 The quotation is from Isaiah vi in connection with the 
 great vision of the glory of the Lord. The words which are 
 quoted here concerning their hardened hearts and their 
 judicial blindness are quoted also in Matthew xiii and in 
 the last chapter of the Book of Acts. The dispensational 
 character of Matthew xiii is known to all Bible students 
 and teachers, who divide the Word of ‘Truth rightly. 
 In the opening chapters of the Gospel of Matthew the Lord 
 Jesus is seen as the promised King, heralding the Kingdom, 
 that kingdom which is promised to Israel. In the twelfth 
 chapter the opposition and the unbelief of the Jews becomes a 
 known fact,and symbolically our Lord breaks off the relation- 
 ship with His people Israel; and declares a coming new rela- 
 tionship with all who do the will of His Father. Then at the 
 seashore He teaches concerning the kingdom in another 
 form, the form it takes on after His own received Him not. 
 In connection with this we find Isaiah vi quoted; and it is 
 fitting that it should be so. ‘‘And in them is fulfilled the 
 prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, 
 and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and 
 shall not perceive; for this people’s heart is waxed gross, 
 and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have 
 closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and 
 hear with their ears, and should understand with their 
 
238 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them 
 (Matt. xili:14-15).* 
 
 Here in the Gospel of John, preceding the death of our 
 Lord, the same prophecy is quoted. The continued miracles 
 of our Lord, His words and His warnings were not heeded by 
 the nation, hence they were given over to blindness as a 
 just punishment, just as the Prophet had foreseen. 
 
 In the last chapter of Acts, the prisoner of the Lord, the 
 great Apostle to the Gentiles, gathered in his lodging a 
 number of Jews; they were “the chief of the Jews.” It is 
 also understood by all well balanced Bible teachers that the 
 Book of Acts begins with another testimony on kingdom 
 lines to the Jews first, only to reveal the same hardness of 
 hearts and blindness. When Paul gave a final testimony 
 to these chief Jews and they turned a deaf ear to it, the 
 passage of Isaiah is quoted for the last time (Acts xxvili:25- 
 31). The prediction of Isaiah has now been true for almost 
 1900 years, and will be in force till some day a remnant will 
 return and “they shall look upon Him whom they pierced 
 and mourn for Him” (Zech. xii:9-14). 
 
 “This is no doubt a very solemn and awful subject. It 
 seems at first sight to make God the author of man’s de- 
 struction. But surely a moment’s reflection will show us 
 that God is a Sovereign in punishing, and may punish in 
 any way He pleases. Some He cuts off suddenly the mo- 
 ment they sin. Others He gives over to judicial blindness, 
 and ceases to strive with their consciences. “The Judge of 
 all the earth will certainly do right.’ Those whom He is said 
 to ‘harden and blind’ will always be found to be persons 
 whom He had previously warned, exhorted, and constantly 
 summoned to repent. And never is He said to harden and 
 blind, and give men up to judicial hardness and blindness, 
 till after a long course of warnings. ‘This was certainly the 
 case with Pharaoh and with the Jews. 
 
 “The consequence of God blinding and hardening a person 
 is that He does not ‘see’ his danger with his eyes, or ‘under- 
 stand’ his position with his heart. The result is that he holds 
 on his way unconverted, and dies without his soul’s disease 
 
 *See our larger Commentary on Matthew for a fuller treatment of 
 this important truth. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 239 
 
 being healed. ‘Seeing’ and ‘understanding’ are essential 
 parts of conversion. No simpler reason can be given why 
 myriads of church-goers continue careless, unaffected, un- 
 moved and unconverted; they neither ‘see’? nor ‘under- 
 stand.’ God alone can give them seeing eyes and under- 
 standing hearts, and ministers cannot. And one solemn 
 reason why many live and die in this state is, that they have 
 resisted God’s warnings, and are justly punished already 
 with a judicial blindness and hardness, by Him whom they 
 have resisted. 
 
 “The key to the whole difficulty, after all, lies in the answer 
 we are prepared to give to the question: ‘Is God just in 
 punishing the sinner?’ The true Christian and honest Bible 
 reader will find no difficulty in answering that question in 
 the affirmative. Once grant that God is just in punishing 
 the ungodly, and there is an end of the problem. God may 
 punish by giving over the obstinate sinner to a reprobate 
 mind, as really as by sentencing him to everlasting fire at 
 the last day. 
 
 “One thing only must never be forgotten. God ‘willeth 
 not the death of any sinner.’ He is willing to soften the 
 hardest heart, and to open the blind eyes of the greatest 
 sinner. In dealing with men about their souls we must 
 never forget this. We may well remind them that by hard- 
 ened impenitence they may provoke God to give them up. 
 But we must also press on them that God’s mercies in Christ 
 are infinite, and that, if they are finally lost, they will have 
 none but themselves to blame.’’* 
 
 And here is still another important fact and comment in 
 connection with the sixth chapter of Isaiah. When Isaiah 
 saw the Lord sitting in the temple and saw His Glory, He 
 saw the Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. ‘‘He saw His glory 
 and spake of Him.” ‘This is one of the blessed evidences 
 that the Lord Jesus revealed Himself in pre-incarnation 
 times and that He is God, and possesses the glory of God. 
 
 Verses 42-43. His testimony had not been in vain. A 
 number of the chief rulers believed on Him; among them 
 were Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. Yet they were 
 
 *Thoughts on John, 
 
240 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 cowards; they did not come out boldly to confess Him. 
 From chapter ix:22, we learn that they had agreed among 
 themselves, that if any did confess that Jesus is the Christ, 
 that he should be put out of the synagogue. This was before 
 man a great dishonor; it meant that the excommunicated one 
 was on the same level as the Gentile, outside, a dog. For 
 such a one there was no hope of salvation nor any hope to 
 participate in the future hope of the nation. ‘The blind man, 
 whom the Lord healed (chapter ix) was the first one whom 
 they cast out, but he became one of the sheep of the flock 
 the Shepherd came to gather. But there was a moral reason 
 why they did not want to confess Him openly. They loved 
 the praises of man moresthan the praise of God. ‘They re- 
 ceived honor from each other and did not seek the praise 
 which comes from God only (John v:44). It showed that 
 they had no true faith in God, hence they could not be true 
 to their convictions. ‘They knew it meant ridicule and dis- 
 honor; it meant their standing and good name, as the world 
 says. ‘They were not willing to pay the price. And this 
 is still the case with Jews and Gentiles as well. We have 
 talked with Hebrews about the Lord Jesus and heard their 
 confession, that they believed that He is their Messiah, but 
 on account of the fear of being repudiated by their friends, 
 and loss of business, they would not make a public confession. 
 “The fear of man bringeth a snare” (Prov. xxix-25). It is 
 thus among professing Christians and also among believers. 
 The latter know often that the men who teach and preach 
 are deniers of Christ and the Truth of God, but loving the 
 praises of man more than the praise of God, they can con- 
 tinue in active fellowship with these modern Judases, and 
 thus becoming partakers of their evil deeds (2 John verses 
 10-12). Such lose their rewards, while those who are not 
 ashamed to confess Him before men, and leave “‘the camp” 
 where He is denied and dishonored, will receive their glorious 
 reward in the day of His appearing. 
 
 Verses 44-50. These words contain the final public 
 testimony of our Lord, according to this Gospel. In the 
 chapter which follows, the mass of unbelieving Jews are left 
 behind and He 1s alone with the twelve; but soon he who was 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 241 
 
 not a believer in Him, Judas, left, and Christ has but the 
 eleven with Him. 
 
 He has departed. For a time He was not seen by them. 
 At His return He uttered these solemn words. Once more He 
 gives His great self-witness, so prominent in this Gospel, 
 as to His unity with the Father. This great witness began 
 with the fifth chapter. He also bears the same witness in 
 the next section of this Gospel before His disciples. Belief 
 in Him means not only belief in Himself but also in Him who 
 sent Him, that is God, the Father. Seeing Him means seeing 
 Him who sent Him. “He that hath seen Me hath seen the 
 Father” (xiv:9). There is such complete unity between 
 the Father and the Son, that believing in the Son means 
 believing in the Father. Perhaps our Lord spoke this word 
 also for the encouragement of those who were afraid to 
 confess Him, as He spoke later to His disciples—“Ye believe 
 in God, believe also in Me.” In the next place He speaks of 
 Himself once more as the Light. “I am come a light into 
 the world that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide 
 in darkness.”” He was always the Light, dwelling with God 
 and in God, in that unapproachable Light. Of Him it is 
 true, “God is Light, in Him there is no darkness at all.” 
 But He came into the world, a world of darkness and sin. 
 Through Him the darkness is dispelled and those who believe 
 on Him abide no longer in darkness. “This verse shows 
 that (1) Christ existed before His incarnation, even as the 
 Sun exists before it appears above the Eastern hills; (2) that 
 Christ is the one Saviour of the world, even as there is but 
 one Sun; (3) that He came not for one nation, but for all, 
 as the Sun shines for all the world.’’* 
 
 And those who hear His words and believe not, He does 
 not judge; for He came not to judge the world, but to save 
 the world. These words do not clash in the least with His 
 statement in the fifth chapter when He said, ““The Father 
 judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the 
 Son.”? It must be understood the same way as John 111:17. 
 In connection with His first coming our Lord does not judge; 
 His judgment work is linked with His second coming. Of 
 
 *Dean Bourgon. 
 
242 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 this future judgment He speaks in the following words: 
 “He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not my words, hath 
 one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the 
 same shall judge him in the last day.” The word “reject” 
 means literally translated ‘“‘displace.” ‘To reject Christ does 
 not necessarily involve a deliberate rejection of His person. 
 The simple fact of neglecting Him, thinking Him of not much 
 importance is a rejection of Himself, whom the Father sent. 
 Any one who slights Him thus, and does not give to Him 
 the place which belongs to Him, also does not receive His 
 words; while on the other hand those who receive Him, bow 
 to His authority, believe on Him as Saviour, the sent-One 
 of the Father, receive His words and obey them. ‘They will 
 be that which judgeth all who rejected Him, it is the word which 
 He had spoken. In the judgment to come His Word will 
 rise up and condemn all who did not believe, for in that day 
 it will be found out that His Word is true and all who rejected 
 it and did not receive Him, who is the living Word, will be 
 judged. ‘The destructive Critics of today, with their inven- 
 tions and hatred of the Word of God, will then receive their 
 well deserved condemnation. Such a judgment is surely 
 coming, for the infallible Son of God tells us so. 
 
 His words which He had spoken were not spoken independ- 
 ent of the Father. The Jews who listened to Him and to 
 His words might think that He spoke of Himself, but He 
 declares that all His words were God-given. What He spoke 
 was always spoken in closest fellowship with the Father. 
 He is the One whom Moses announced: ‘‘I will raise them up 
 a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and I 
 will put my words into his mouth; and he shall speak unto 
 them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to 
 pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which 
 he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him” (Deut. 
 xvili:18-19). ‘The Son of God had received from the Father 
 the commandment, what He should say and what He should 
 speak. 
 
 “When we read of the Father ‘sending’ Christ, and giving 
 Christ a ‘commandment,’ we must carefully dismiss from our 
 minds all idea of any inferiority to God the Father on the part 
 of God the Son. The expressions are used in condescension 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 243 
 
 to our weak faculties, to convey the idea of perfect oneness. 
 We are not speaking of the relation that exists between two 
 human beings like ourselves, but between the Persons in the 
 Divine Trinity. The ‘sending’ of the Son was the result of 
 the eternal counsel of that blessed Trinity, in which Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost are co-equal and co-eternal. The 
 eternal Son was as willing to be ‘sent’ as the eternal Father 
 was to ‘send’ Him.—The ‘commandment’ given by the Father 
 to the Son as to what He should teach and do, was not a 
 commandment in which the Son had no part but to obey. 
 It was simply the charge or commission arranged in the cov- 
 enant of redemption, by all three Persons in the Trinity, 
 which the Son was as willing to execute as the Father was 
 willing to give.’’* 
 
 The commandment of which He speaks particularly is 
 that of life everlasting. ‘The words He spoke are the words 
 of life, as Peter said, ““Thou hast the words of eternal life.” 
 Beginning with the third chapter we have followed the great 
 unfoldings of that life which He came to reveal, and finally 
 we read in His great prayer that the Father has given Him 
 power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as 
 many as the Father has given Him. 
 
 With this statement the public ministry of our Lord as 
 recorded in this Gospel ends. With the next chapter we 
 enter into that part of the Gospel where we find our Lord 
 alone with those given to Him by the Father, His eleven . 
 disciples. 
 
 *Dean Bourgon. 
 
244 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 CHAPTER XIil 
 
 The structure of this Gospel has been compared with the 
 three divisions of Israel’s earthly sanctuary. ‘There was 
 an outer court, a holy part and the holy of holies. The first 
 twelve chapters have been likened to the outer court. Our 
 Lord moved in the midst of the mass of Jews, surrounded 
 by His enemies, bearing witness to Himself, manifesting His 
 glory in the signs of power, and hated by the great number 
 of Jews. And now He leaves them behind and gathers His 
 disciples about Himself to address them. He is in the holy 
 part in fellowship with His own. The holy of holies is 
 the seventeenth chapter. 
 
 Every reader of the New Testament knows that chapters 
 Xlll-xvii are peculiar to this Gospel; what we find here 
 recorded is not mentioned in the preceding Gospels. That 
 these great words of our Lord were known to Matthew no 
 one doubts. He belonged to the twelve and was present in 
 the place where our Lord had gathered His disciples. Why 
 did he not put these words, and the occurrence of the feet 
 washing into his record?’ ‘The answer is not difficult to find. 
 Matthew wrote about our Lord as King; his Gospel is the 
 Gospel of the kingdom. There was no place in his Gospel 
 to give an account of what took place between the Lord and 
 His disciples. Nor could these sayings of our Lord be right- 
 fully embodied in the other two synoptic Gospels. The Holy 
 Spirit did not permit their record in the Gospels of Matthew, 
 Mark and Luke, but reserved the writing for the pen of John. 
 In this Gospel with its great message as to His Deity and the 
 eternal life those receive who believe on Him, we shall find 
 that the teachings He gives to His disciples are but an ex- 
 pansion of the truth concerning eternal life, what it is, what 
 goes with it, prayer, fruit-bearing, and the gift of the Holy 
 Spirit and His mission on earth during the physical absence 
 of our Lord. 
 
 On the other hand, many sayings and events of the days 
 preceding the sacrificial death of our Lord, recorded in the 
 Synoptics are not found in the fourth Gospel. ‘The parables 
 relating to the kingdom are omitted. John has nothing to 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 3. iiiip 245 
 
 say about the Pharisees and Sadducees tempting the Lord, 
 nor does He mention the public charge against these leaders, 
 as given in Matthew xxiii. Still more significant is the 
 omission of the entire Olivet Discourse. As we know, that 
 discourse is a great prophecy, recorded in full only by Mat- 
 thew, for the discourse contains the prophecy concerning the 
 return of the King. Inasmuch as John’s Gospel records the 
 message of our Lord as to salvation, the gift of eternal life, 
 the gift of the Holy Spirit, anticipating the Church, the one 
 flock (John x), the visible and personal return of the Lord 
 for the regathering of Israel and the judgment of the nations 
 is not embodied in this Gospel. Instead of these prophetic 
 teachings, so prominent in the Synoptics, we find in this 
 Gospel a new promise, given to His eleven disciples, when 
 He spoke to them about the Father’s house and assured 
 them, “‘I will come again and receive you unto myself, that 
 where I am, there ye may be also.” 
 
 Nor do we read anything in this Gospel about the insti- 
 tution of the Lord’s supper. Some commentators say that 
 John thought it needless to repeat this account, because 
 each of the preceding Gospels give it, and Paul also recorded 
 it in the Epistle to the Corinthians. Such a statement 
 makes John the author of the Gospel and not the Holy Spirit. 
 
 There is a good reason why neither baptism nor the Lord’s 
 supper are mentioned in this Gospel. These two ordi- 
 nances are omitted in this document in which salvation and 
 eternal life are taught, showing that neither has anything 
 to do with the gift of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our 
 Lord. The Holy Spirit anticipated the time when in ritual- 
 istic Christendom ordinances would be proclaimed as neces- 
 sary to salvation, and that without the sacraments, duly 
 administered, eternal life would be impossible. 
 
 Verses 1-5. Passover was about to take place. The 
 hour had come, the hour of His suffering, His death and resur- 
 rection, the hour that He should depart out of this world, 
 which knew Him not, and return to the Father. That 
 hour was fixed before the foundation of the world in the 
 eternal counsels of the Godhead. He knew this hour from 
 the beginning; nothing could happen to Him till this hour 
 came. We heard Him say in this Gospel, ‘“‘Mine hour is not 
 
246 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 yet come.” But now the great and solemn hour had come. 
 He knew it from the beginning. He knew the hour in His 
 boyhood, and when He read His own Hebrew Scriptures He 
 saw the hour of the cross on every page. He knew it in His 
 youth, when toiling in the carpenter shop of Nazareth. He 
 knew it at the time of His baptism, and all along in His 
 gracious ministry He knew the hour, and now it had come. 
 
 In connection with this we find a most tender statement, 
 *“Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved 
 them unto the end.” All along they had been the objects 
 of His love. He knew what they were in themselves. He 
 knew that in a few hours they would forsake Him and Peter 
 would deny Him, yet He loved them unto the end. His love 
 was undiminished. They were Hisown. He had come unto 
 His own and His own received Him not (i:11). But here 
 are those who are His own in a higher sense of the word. 
 Of these eleven disciples He says later in His great prayer, 
 “The men which Thou gavest Me out of the world.”” Those 
 who believe on Him, accept Him, trust Him and serve Him 
 are His own; as born again they are not of the world, even 
 as He is not of the world. Yet believers though not of the 
 world yet are still in the world, surrounded by evil. In 
 this world they have tribulation, but His love towards His 
 own remains always the same. His love passeth knowledge. 
 And now He is in an act of deepest condescension to demon- 
 strate that love and show symbolically the continuation of 
 that love, even unto the end, till they are brought home to 
 be with Him. 
 
 The supper was in progress. It was not the supper called 
 “The Lord’s Supper,” but the ordinary Passover supper, 
 which the Lord ate with His disciples. Before we read of 
 His act of love and condescension, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s 
 son, is brought to our attention. ‘Twice we read of him in 
 this chapter. Here is the record that the devil had put it 
 into his heart to betray the Lord. Before our Lord had 
 announced that one of the twelve was a devil (chapter 
 vi:70). He was the only one among the disciples who did 
 not believe on Jesus as Lord. He called Him, Rabbi, or 
 Master. Judas Iscariot did not believe in the Deity of Christ 
 and underneath his unbelief was sin; he loved money, he 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 247 
 
 was a thief. Yielding thus to sin, living in sin, rejecting the 
 matchless love of Him in whose outward fellowship he walked, 
 whose acts of power and mercy he beheld, he became the will- 
 ing tool of the devil. ‘“The devil having now put into the heart 
 of Judas,’ means literally, “‘the devil having already dropped 
 into the heart of Judas.”’ The seed had been sown in the un- 
 believing heart of this man of sin, the son of perdition. The 
 devil probably had done this at the anointing by Mary 
 (Matt. xxvi:14). 
 
 Judas was present at the washing of the feet; he was present 
 during the supper, and after the Lord had given him the 
 sop, Satan actually entered into him. After that he went 
 out into the night, that night of eternal woe and darkness. 
 And now before we see our Lord rising from the supper and 
 girding Himself for service, we are reminded once more of 
 His Person and His knowledge, “Jesus knowing that the 
 Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was 
 come from God and went to God.” We believe this state- 
 ment is here introduced to show forth the greatness of His 
 loving condescension. He who is one with the Father, who 
 came from God, went back to God, who is God and in whose 
 hands are all things, stooped down to wash the feet of the 
 creature. 
 
 Everything is minutely described. First, He arose from 
 the supper. None of them knew what He was about to do. 
 Then He laid aside His garments, that is the long loose, 
 flowing outer garment, which would have hindered Him in 
 performing what He was about to do. Then He took a towel 
 and girded Himself. He garbed Himself as a servant ready 
 to do a servant’s work. 
 
 Then He took a basin, filled it with water, and began to 
 wash the disciples’ feet, and wiping them with the towel 
 with which He was girded. Jeetwashing was a rite of hos- 
 pitality, as we learn from different passages in the Old Tes- 
 tament. Immediately after a guest presented himself at 
 the tent door, it was customary to offer the necessary mate- 
 rials for washing the feet (Gen. xviii:4, xix:2, xx1v:32, xliv: 
 24; Judges xix:21). It was considered an act of humility 
 and affection. But who can describe the scene before us, 
 
248 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 kneeling at His disciples’ feet and in unfathomable love serv- 
 ing them in this manner! 
 
 Verses 6-11. Probably He had washed the feet of several 
 disciples before He came to Peter. It was too much for 
 Peter, to see Him, at whose feet He had fallen and cried out, 
 “Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man,” to see His 
 holy Lord ready to take his feet into His hands and wash 
 them. ‘“‘Dost Thou wash my feet?” ‘The emphasis must 
 be placed on the word ‘“‘Thou.” Chrysostom says Peter 
 meant, ‘‘With those hands with which Thou hast opened 
 eyes, cleansed lepers and raised the dead?’ 
 
 He receives as an answer from the Lord the information 
 that His action in its true meaning was unknown to Peter. 
 “What I do Thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know 
 afterward.” ‘The application is first of all to what the Lord 
 was doing here; the afterward means the time when the 
 Holy Spirit had come and made the things of Christ more 
 fully known to their hearts. But the application in a wider 
 sense cannot be denied. Many things are happening in the 
 lives of God’s people, losses, suffering of various descrip- 
 tions, strange and unexplainable providences, mysterious 
 leadings. How often it is true, ‘What He does now we do 
 not know,” but it is equally true, ‘‘We shall know after- 
 ward,” and all will be known by us, that it was all-wise, 
 all-merciful, all-loving, yea, that all things worked together 
 for good. But Peter did not profit by these words; he did 
 not hold forth his feet so that the Lord might wash them. 
 He withdrew more fully and said, *‘In no wise shalt Thou 
 wash my feet forever.” He refused completely. Then the 
 Lord told him, “‘If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with 
 Me.” But let us see, before showing the deeper meaning 
 of this impressive scene, what Peter answered and what the 
 Lord said in reply. Peter, when he heard these words, 
 went to the other extreme. When he heard it was a question 
 of having part with Christ, he burst out with the request, 
 “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” 
 To this the Lord answered, “He that is washed (bathed) 
 needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit; 
 and ye are clean, but not all. For He knew who should 
 betray Him; therefore said He, Ye are not all clean.” 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 249 
 
 That all this has a deeper meaning than the literal action 
 of our Lord appears on the surface. The statement of our 
 Lord that they would know the meaning afterward makes 
 this clear. And now that the Holy Spirit has come we know 
 what the washing of the disciples’ feet symbolizes. In this 
 Gospel we read much of water and of blood. Blood is for 
 atonement, water is for purification. In the first epistle of 
 John we also read of water and blood, “He that came by 
 water and blood, not in water only, but in water and blood” 
 (1 John v:6). 
 
 It is His precious blood which washes our sins away; but 
 it is the water which cleanses those who belong to Him. 
 Out of His pierced side came blood and water (chapter xix: 
 34), the emblems of atonement and cleansing. In washing 
 the disciples’ feet, when our Lord said to Peter that all had 
 been washed, or as this word indicates (bathed), and were 
 clean every whit, He meant by it the new birth by water 
 (the Word) and the Spirit. They had believed on Him and 
 were born again, except Judas, who was meant when He 
 said, “but notall.”” Weread in Titus iii1:5, “Not by works of 
 righteousness which we have done, but according to His 
 mercy He saved us by the bath of regeneration and renewing 
 of the Holy Spirit.””. This great work is done once and for 
 all; it cannot be repeated, just as the natural birth cannot 
 be repeated with the same individual. 
 
 He washed the disciples’ feet, not their hands. Hands are 
 for work and feet for walking. As the believer walks in an 
 evil age he contracts defilement, and this interrupts our 
 fellowship with Him. We therefore need cleansing. This 
 He has graciously provided and the washing of the feet typi- 
 fies this need. ‘To accomplish this He uses His Word. It 
 is the great truth which the Apostle Paul states in Ephesians: 
 “Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it; that He 
 might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water 
 by the Word” (Eph. v:25-26). We must come to Him with 
 our sins and failures, with our imperfect walk and our de- 
 filement, and place ourselves into His loving hands as the 
 disciples placed their feet into His hands. He searches us 
 by His Spirit and cleanses us, so that we can have part with 
 Him in fellowship. ‘This necessitates from our side heart- 
 
250 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 searching, self-judgment and confession. If this is not 
 practiced we may be saved, but we know nothing of real 
 fellowship with Him, and are at a distance. “If we confess 
 our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and 
 to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”’ ‘‘My little children, 
 these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any 
 man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ 
 the righteous” (1 John i and ii). It is His blessed work as 
 advocate that He cleanses us by the washing of water by the 
 Word and restores us to His fellowship. ‘“The great prac- 
 tical truth,” says another, “in these words ought to be 
 carefully noted and treasured up by all believers. Once 
 joined to Christ and cleansed in His blood, they are com- 
 pletely absolved and free from all spot and guilt, and are 
 counted without blame before God. But all this they need 
 every day, as they walk through the world, to confess their 
 daily failures, and sue for daily pardon. They require, in 
 short, a daily washing of their feet, over and above the great 
 washing of justification, which is theirs the moment they 
 first believe. He that neglects this daily washing is a very 
 questionable and doubtful kind of a Christian.” Luther 
 remarks pithily, ‘“The Devil allows no Christian to reach 
 heaven with clean feet all the way.” 
 
 May we know and use the great and loving provision made 
 for us who belong to Him—the washing of water by the Word 
 which the Holy Spirit applies in answer to the Advocacy 
 of our Lord with the Father. 
 
 Verses 12-17. The act of the washing of the disciples’ feet 
 was ended. The towel with which He had girded Himself 
 was laid aside, and the garment, the loose flowing robe which 
 He had discarded to be free for His service, was once more 
 puton by Him. After He sat down again in their midst, He 
 asked the question “Know ye what I have done to you?” 
 There was probably a brief pause; no answer came from the 
 disciples. They knew that He had washed their feet; the 
 deeper meaning they understood not. And so He continued, 
 “Ye call me the Master (or Teacher) and the Lord; and ye 
 say well, for so I am.” According to the original text 
 He did not speak of Himself as “fa Master” and “fa Lord,” 
 but the definite article is connected with the words ‘‘Master”’ 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 251 
 
 and “Lord.” He is the Master and the Lord—so I am, He 
 said. The humble service performed had been performed 
 by one who was not only fully conscious of His greatness but 
 who in the very service claimed that greatness. Before 
 in this Gospel, He had witnessed to His Lordship in the 
 presence of the unbelieving Jews, and here He bears witness 
 to it again in the presence of the twelve. He sanctions and 
 fully endorses the disciples in their calling Him the Lord. 
 It was faith in them which honored Him in this way. 
 
 Well may we think here of the unscriptural habit which so 
 many Christians have of using constantly the name “Jesus,” 
 never speaking of Him as the Lord, or of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. Certain movements, like the Pentecostalists, men 
 and women evangelists, all kinds of cults and fanatical sects, 
 never speak of Him as the Lord, but with an astonishing spirit 
 of familiarity they speak of “Jesus” in a sentimental way. 
 The same is true of the literature of the destructive criticism. 
 They also speak and write about “Jesus” and do not own 
 Him in His Lordship. ‘The Holy Spirit, who is here to glorify 
 Christ will never lead any person to use the earthly name 
 “Jesus.” ‘“‘Wherefore I give you to understand, that no 
 man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, 
 and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the 
 Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians xii:3). 
 
 “If I then, the Lord and the Master, washed your feet, 
 ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given 
 you an example, that ye should do as I have done unto you.” 
 The text does not say “‘your teacher” or “‘your Lord.”? That 
 might mean that He was their Lord and Teacher by their 
 own selection; but He said, “If I then, the Lord and the 
 Master (or Teacher), washed your feet.” Then follows the 
 command “Ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.”’ Is 
 this a command which is to be literally understood and 
 practiced? Is feet-washing an ordinance like “the Lord’s 
 supper” or “‘Baptism’”? ‘The only other reference to feet- 
 washing in the literal sense isin 1 Timothy v:10. There can 
 be no question that it means in that passage not a religious 
 ceremony but an act of hospitality. It was in the fourth 
 century that feet-washing as a religious act is mentioned for 
 the first time in ecclesiastical history, It was then practiced 
 
252 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 in connection with baptism. It is still practiced in some 
 monasteries of the Greek Orthodox Church. The Romish 
 Church also practices it in a strange way. The “‘would-be 
 head” of the church and vice-regent of Christ, the Pope, 
 once a year on the so-called “Maundy-Thursday,” the 
 Thursday before Easter, washes the feet of certain poor men, 
 we believe twelve, who are specially selected and prepared 
 for the occasion. ‘Then there are certain small Protestant 
 bodies, which practice feet washing. ‘That the feet-washing 
 is not to be literally carried out is demonstrated by the silence 
 of the Epistles about this act. Both Baptism and the Lord’s 
 Supper are repeatedly mentioned in the New Testament, and 
 their literalness as ordinances maintained; the Church has 
 practiced both ordinances from the very beginning. Butthe 
 Epistles have nothing to say about feet-washing as an 
 ordinance. Furthermore if our Lord had meant a literal 
 feet-washing, why did He ask the disciples ““Know you what 
 I have done to your’ He had reference to the spiritual 
 meaning and not to the literal act. 
 
 The feet-washing has a true spiritual meaning. He served 
 them in love and in humility, so should we serve one another. 
 He had given them an example. He had taught the same 
 in words before as He did in the washing of the feet. “‘Who- 
 soever will be great among you, let him be your minister; 
 and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your 
 servant; even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered 
 unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for 
 many” (Matt. xx:26-28). As He had waited on them, so 
 should we wait on each other; as He had taken the lowest 
 place in their midst, though Lord of all, so should we take 
 the lowest place before each other; as He had ministered, so 
 should we minister to each other. But we must go still 
 deeper. Inasmuch as the washing of the disciples’ feet 
 signifies, as we stated before, the cleansing of the disciples 
 feet from defilement, the work of Christ for His own by 
 washing them by the cleansing of water, the Word of God, 
 the Lord teaches us that what He does for us in His gracious 
 ministrations, that we should also do to each other. If a 
 fellow Christian has soiled his feet, has sinned, we must go 
 after him in love and humility to restore him. ‘Brethren, 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 253 
 
 if a man be overtaken in any fault, ye that are spiritual 
 restore such an one in a spirit of meekness” (Gal. vi:1). 
 This is true feet-washing. In the restoration of a brother in 
 Christ who has failed, not the sword is needed to cut and to 
 wound, but the basin and the towel, the humble, gracious 
 service. But that needs faith, self-denial and deep affection, 
 such which the Holy Spirit alone can impart. And therefore 
 He said, ‘For I have given you an example, that ye should do 
 as J have done unto you’’—I have shown you symbolically 
 in washing your feet the cleansing which you need and which 
 I perform for you; do the same to each other. 
 
 Another ‘“‘verily, verily’ follows. The servant is not 
 greater than his lord, nor is he that is sent greater than he 
 that sent him. It is a solemn remembrance charge that the 
 servant must follow the example of the Teacher, the sent one, 
 the example of him that sent. Love and humility are the 
 two great features in this blessed scene in the upper room, 
 and love and humility must be reproduced in the servant of 
 Christ. And the Lord who spoke these words and pro- 
 nounced a blessing—“If ye know these things happy are ye 
 if ye do them’’—knew in His divine omniscience how soon 
 those who claim to be his ministers would manifest hatred 
 instead of love, pride instead of humility; and so it is still, 
 but not without the exception of many who through grace 
 follow His gracious example. The words, “‘If ye know these 
 things happy are ye if ye do them,” guard strongly against 
 the literal interpretation of the literal feet-washing. Know 
 what things? That He had washed their feet? Of course 
 they knew that. Therefore it is the spiritual meaning which 
 is to be known and to be practiced. 
 
 Verses 18-20. ‘The eighteenth verse evidently takes up the 
 statement given by our Lord in the tenth verse. He had 
 chosen twelve and He had washed the feet of all His twelve 
 disciples, but He knew whom He had chosen. He knew Judas 
 who was about to betray Him. He had chosen him as a 
 disciple, knowing that he had a devil (chapter vi:70). 
 
 And Judas Iscariot had never known Him as Lord; he 
 never spoke of Him as the Lord, hence Judas was not born 
 of God. But why did the Lord select him to such a place 
 of honor? Why, knowing his character as He did, did He 
 
254 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 make him one of the twelve, one of His constant companions? 
 The answer is given by Himself and we do not need to spec- 
 ulate or try to reason to find an answer to the “Why?” He 
 had chosen him an apostle ‘‘that the Scripture may be ful- 
 filled, He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel 
 against Me” (Psalm xli:9). It is unfortunate that the verses 
 are divided as they are. The better division is to put the 
 first sentence of verse 19 over to the preceding verse and 
 read, “He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel 
 against Me, now I tell you before it come. That when it is 
 come to pass ye may believe that lam.” ‘The fulfillment of 
 His prediction based on the prophecy of the forty-first 
 Psalm would prove to them His Deity, that He is the om- 
 niscient AM. Psalm xli refers to the treachery of Ahithopel 
 towards David, and is therefore a prophetic type of Judas’s 
 treachery against David’s Son and David’s Lord. The words 
 which follow in verse 20 were spoken by Him to comfort His 
 true disciples and to show them that they were unaffected 
 by Judas’s coming betrayal and horrible fall. 
 
 Verses 21-30. As the Apostle John does not record the 
 institution of the Lord’s supper, the question arises at what 
 point did it occur? ‘There has been much written on this 
 question, and also on Judas’s presence at the supper. It may 
 have been at this time that the Lord’s supper took place, for 
 there seems to be a pause between the twentieth and twenty- 
 first verses. And now again we see Him troubled in spirit. 
 (See xi:33 and xii:27). Great distress is upon Him. But 
 that distress was not on account of Himself, a feeling of self- 
 pity and fear. ‘These emotions had no place in the holy soul 
 of our Lord. ‘The distress was produced by His own holiness, 
 and love in behalf of Judas about to betray Him. He loved 
 Judas. On the other hand, in His holiness He was troubled 
 over the awful sin which His disciple was about to commit, 
 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray 
 Me (or give Me up).” We behold the anxious looks of the 
 disciples. ‘They looked at each other; they were puzzled 
 and did not know of whom He spake. Evidently the heart 
 of Judas was hardened to such an extent that no blush on his 
 cheek, no paleness of face, not a single change of feature was 
 noticeable to the eleven; as they looked into the face of Judas 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 259 
 
 they saw he was calm and undisturbed, yet all was planned 
 in his sinful, unbelieving heart. 
 
 According to oriental custom the Lord and the twelve were 
 not sitting on chairs around a table; they were reclining, 
 and leaning on the bosom of the Lord, next to His heart, was 
 the beloved disciple, none other than John the writer of this 
 Gospel. He speaks of himself for the first time here as the 
 beloved disciple. Four times more this term is employed by 
 John. In all, the phrase ‘whom Jesus loved”’ is found seven 
 times in this Gospel, twice it is used in connection with 
 Mary, Martha and Lazarus, and five times it refers to John. 
 Why the Lord Jesus had singled him out for His special 
 love we do not know. John has been charged with egotism 
 in speaking of himself thus. Such a charge is unfounded. 
 He wrote under the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit; it was 
 He who put this statement into his pen. And let it be noticed, 
 while John undoubtedly loved the Lord, it is not his love for 
 the Lord, but the love of the Lord for John, which the 
 Spirit of God reveals. ‘Then Peter turned to John. It is the 
 same earnest, zealous, impetuous Peter. He is agitated over 
 the words which the Lord had spoken; he must know at 
 once. He requests John to find out from the Lord who it is. 
 And John whispered to Him, “‘Lord, who is it?” A solemn 
 moment it must have been. Then the Lord answered the 
 request. Was it spoken in a loud voice? We rather think 
 it was whispered to John. “He it is, to whom I shall give 
 the sop, when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped 
 the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.” It 
 is an oriental custom to dip a choice morsel of bread or meat 
 into the sauce, and pass it as a special token of kindness to a 
 favored guest. This our Lord did to Judas. No doubt it 
 was a loving act from the side of our Lord, His last appeal 
 to the heart of Judas. The betrayal had been planned by 
 this disciple. It has been suggested that Judas knew of 
 different attacks upon the life of our Lord and that He 
 escaped; that he thought that He would also escape on this 
 occasion, while he would reap a reward to gratify his besetting 
 sin; and afterward Judas might have looked for mercy after 
 his deed had been unsuccessful. We cannot be sure of this 
 but it is not unlikely that the liar from the beginning, who had 
 
 3 
 
256 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 put it into his heart to betray Christ, used some such de- 
 ceptive suggestion. 
 
 “And after the sop Satan entered into him.” He had 
 Mfejected the winning love and the warning words, and now 
 - Satan got full and complete possession of him. All along 
 
 Judas had been under the influence of his master, whom he 
 served instead of the Lord, whose lovely face of grace he 
 beheld and whose works of power and mercy he had seen for 
 three years. But now after he had received that love-token 
 from the Christ whom he so willfully rejected, without 
 yielding to repentance, then Satan entered into him. That 
 awful being possessed and controlled him now fully. As 
 are many today who love sin, who love darkness more than 
 light, who also have yielded themselves completely as tools 
 to Satan. 
 
 “Then said Jesus unto him, What thou doest do quickly.” 
 These words have been variously interpreted. It is a solemn 
 sentence for it announces for Himself that His life down here 
 was soon to end, while for the deluded Judas, Satan’s in- 
 strument, it announced everlasting, never-ending wrath. 
 Some have suggested that the Lord desired to hasten this 
 act of consummated wickedness; but this is not true. He 
 knew all that would take place and the act which Judas was 
 to perform; He knew that Satan had entered into him. The 
 murderer from the beginning was about to use man to kill 
 the Lord of glory. Judas had hardened his heart; there was 
 no remedy for him; he had set his heart on doing it and 
 therefore the Lord said, ‘“Go on and do it; there need be 
 no delay; it needs to be done this very night and I am ready 
 for it all.” 
 
 All the disciples heard this; it was not whispered into the 
 ear of John. Not one of the disciples knew the real truth 
 of what was meant. None imagined that Judas was to 
 do the deed he did that night. Because Judas had the bag, 
 they thought it was a command to buy the necessary things 
 for the feast, or that some love-deed was contemplated by the 
 Lord. ‘The verse is interesting as it gives valuable informa- 
 tion. ‘The verse shows that the Lord Jesus Christ in His 
 humiliation did not make use of His omnipotent power to 
 supply the daily needs of Himself and His disciples by a 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 257 
 
 miracle. We know from other Scriptures that He who had 
 become poor for our sakes received from others means to 
 keep Him. ‘‘And certain women, which had been healed of 
 evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of 
 whom went seven demons; and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, 
 Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which 
 ministered unto Him of their substance” (Luke viii:2, 3). 
 Then we learn that our Lord, out of these gifts which Judas 
 kept, ministered to the poor. It was done, like all His 
 gracious works, unostentatiously. In the sermon on the 
 mount He taught ‘‘But when thou doest alms, let not thy 
 left hand know what thy right hand doeth,” a command 
 which the believer follows gladly. Whatever He preached 
 He also practiced. Many times before He must have given 
 instruction to Judas what to give and where to give it, 
 without the others knowing anything about it. ‘The surmise 
 of the disciples suggests this also. And all along Judas was 
 the thief. Well, remarks another, ‘‘Let us recognize the 
 snares which attend the possession, fingering and handling of 
 money. ‘The man who has care of the money in our Lord’s 
 little company of followers, is the very man who makes 
 shipwreck of his soul forever, through the love of money.” 
 *‘Give me neither poverty nor riches” should be a Christian’s 
 frequent prayer (Prov. xxx:8). 
 
 Then follows the mournful record ‘‘He then having received 
 the sop went out immediately; and it was night.” Judas 
 realized now that the Lord knew all his dark and sinister 
 plans. He disappeared at once. He could no longer remain 
 in His presence. May he not have feared a further dis- 
 closure from the side of the Lord and an interference from 
 the other disciples? We do not know. He left and sig- 
 nificantly the eye-witness, the beloved disciple, tells us “It 
 was night.” It was night physically. It was night for 
 Judas. He went out into that night and hunted up the 
 enemies of the Lord to receive the thirty pieces of silver and 
 to give them the needed information. That night on earth, 
 the night of sin, ended for Judas when he committed suicide. 
 But that did not end his night. His soul went “‘to his place,” 
 the place of outer, eternal and conscious darkness.: In that 
 
 place, that eternal prison house, he is forever and ever with 
 
258 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 no hope in all eternity. From the Gospel of Matthew we 
 learn that our Lord sent after him that wail of deepest 
 sorrow, when He said “It had been good for that man if he 
 had never been born” (Matthew xxvi:24). What did our 
 Lord mean? If it is true that man’s soul is not immortal; 
 if it is true that the wicked man is annihilated soul and 
 body; if it is true that the wicked man has a second chance; 
 if it is true that there is a “‘reconciliation” for all the lost and 
 that all the wicked will be finally saved, then our Lord spoke 
 a meaningless sentence. But there are not a few errorists 
 among Christians who have accepted the foolish invention 
 that Judas will finally, after ages of punishment, get to 
 heaven. 
 
 Verses 31-35. One cart easily imagine how the departure 
 of Judas Iscariot must have relieved our Lord and cleared 
 the atmosphere in the upper room where they were as- 
 sembled. And now Judas was gone and only the eleven 
 remained behind, and they were all believers in His Messiah- 
 ship; they knew Him as Lord. He is free to express Himself, 
 for the restraint which was upon Him ever since He had 
 stooped to wash the disciples’ feet was removed. Then He 
 said, ‘‘Now has the Son of Man been glorified, and God has 
 been glorified in Him. If God has been glorified in Him, 
 God also shall glorify Him in Himself, and shall straight- 
 way glorify Him” (literal translation). The late Dr. Lyman 
 Abbott in his Commentary on John, makes the following 
 comment: ““The phrase ‘Son of Man’ was a common Jewish 
 designation of the Messiah, and would have been so under- 
 stood by His disciples. ‘They had come up to Jerusalem 
 anticipating the coronation of the Messiah as King of the 
 Jews. They had entered Jerusalem in triumph, hailing 
 Him as such. Two of his disciples on the way had 
 come to Him privately for the best offices (Matthew xx:21, 
 28). ‘The twelve even had quarreled for pre-eminence as they 
 were sitting down at the table (Luke xxii:24). The immediate 
 object of Christ in the discourse which follows is to prepare 
 them for the terrible revulsion of feeling, the shock of dis- 
 appointment and despair which to-morrow had in store for 
 them. He begins, therefore, with the declaration that the 
 glory of the Messiah is already an accomplished fact, He 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 259 
 
 had been glorified; by His incarnation, His life of loving 
 self-sacrifice, His patience and His love; and in His life and 
 character God had been glorified. Then He adds a prophecy 
 of further glory; not that of death: not that of resurrection; 
 not that of the ascension; but that again of being one with 
 the Father. The Father shall glorify Him in Himself. 
 He foresees and foretells the answer to His prayer: ‘Glorify 
 Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had 
 with Thee before the world was,’ and for this there is to be 
 no waiting; no delay for an earthly coronation. ‘There 
 must be a long interval of redeeming work before He can 
 see the travail of His soul and be satisfied; before every knee 
 will bow; before He can reign as King of kings and Lord 
 of lords; but for this the Father will not wait. Immediately 
 that His work of self-sacrifice is over, He will return to the 
 Father, to share with Him the glory which He had from the 
 foundation of the world.’’* 
 
 While this comment has some good suggestions it misses 
 the mark in not emphasizing the Cross, the atoning work 
 of our Lord, as that which glorifies the Son of Man, and in 
 which He gloried. When He speaks here of being glorified 
 it has the same meaning as in chapter xii when He said at the 
 occasion of the inquiring Greeks, that the Son of Man is to 
 be glorified. The context shows that it was His death, 
 the death of the corn of wheat falling into the ground which 
 He meant by being glorified. It is the Cross which is before 
 Him again, the Cross and its ever blessed and unfathomably 
 deep work, in which the Son of Man is glorified and God’ 
 glorified in Him. The glorification which He. beholds, 
 yea, longs for, is His atoning death as the sinner’s substitute, 
 the death through which God would receive the highest 
 glory, in which God’s Holiness, Righteousness, Mercy, 
 Love and Grace would be so wonderfully demonstrated and 
 glorified. It is refreshing to see how our Lord, in looking 
 on toward the cross, estimates that cross as the most glorious 
 part of His work in incarnation; and so it is. 
 
 The tense of the verb, ““Now has the Son of Man been. 
 glorified” is not a difficulty. In John xvii:4 He also speaks 
 
 ee ee 
 
 *Commentary on John, page 170. 
 
260 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 of having finished the work, yet the work was then still 
 unfinished. He also prayed, “I am no longer in the world,” 
 yet He was still here. He spoke these words in anticipation 
 of the accomplished fact. 
 
 But what does it mean, ‘‘God shall also glorify Him in 
 Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him’? This un- 
 questionably refers to His own glorification by the Father, 
 after His finished work, when He raised Him from the dead 
 and gave Him glory. It is that acquired glory of the Son of 
 Man with which God rewarded Him by putting Him at His 
 right hand, by making Him the heir of all things, the glori- 
 fication which the Holy Spirit so blessedly reveals in Ephe- 
 sians 1, Philippians ii and Hebrews i. 
 
 And now that Judas had left, He addressed His own by the 
 endearing term ‘‘Little children.” Judas, who rejected His 
 Lordship, was not one of His children. Only those are the 
 “little children”? who are born again. Nor are the Unitarian 
 deniers of Christ, the Christian Scientists, the Spiritists, the 
 Theosophists, the Destructive Critics, and other rejectors of 
 the Deity of Christ, children of God. 
 
 “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye 
 shall seek Me; and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, 
 ye cannot come; so now I say to you.” He announced in 
 this brief statement the fact that in a very short time He 
 would leave them and they would be left alone. Then they 
 would wish for Him; want Him, and seek Him. He had said 
 to the Jews, “I go My way, and ye shall seek Me, and shall 
 die in your sins; whither I go ye cannot come” (viii:21). 
 He reminded them of it, that He had spoken such words 
 to the unbelieving Jews. They were also applicable to them 
 but in a far different sense. They could not follow Him 
 to that place, for He was going back to the Father and to the 
 Father’s house, while they were to remain here. But soon 
 He dispels the gloom which must have come upon them, 
 when He spoke these mystifying words; there He promises 
 His coming again for His own to take them to the place 
 where He is. But in the meantime He gave them a new 
 commandment to be kept by His own while awaiting His 
 return, “That ye love one another; as I have loved you, 
 that ye also love one another.” 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 261 
 
 This commandment is not identical with the one given in 
 the law, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (Lev. 
 xix:18). That was the commandment given to the nation 
 Israel. A new relationship is here established, that of the 
 family of God, later revealed as the Church, the body of 
 Christ. ‘The next verse shows that this new commandment 
 is given to those who are His disciples, His own, who belong 
 to Him, “By this shall all men know that ye are My dis- 
 ciples, if ye have love one to another.”’ ‘The measure of that 
 love is to be His own love. Nowhere in the law is there such 
 a command; it is indeed a new commandment, for that new 
 relationship which He called into existence by His death and 
 resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit, who forms this 
 relationship. ‘The first Epistle of John makes it a test of 
 the family relation, and the Holy Spirit through the beloved 
 disciple enlarges and presses home these blessed words of our 
 Lord. ‘‘Here is our Lord leaving the world, speaking for the 
 last time, and giving His last charge to the disciples. ‘The 
 very first subject He takes up and presses on them is the 
 great duty of loving each other, and that with no common 
 love, but after the same patient, tender unwearied manner 
 that He has loved them. How vast the extent of Christian 
 love ought to be! The measure and standard of it is the 
 love wherewith Christ loved us.”* And that love was a 
 love unto death. Alas! how little we think of it! How 
 loving and forgiving He is! How impatient and often un- 
 loving and even unforgiving His own are, never remembering 
 that it is written, ‘““Forbearing one another, and forgiving 
 one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as 
 Christ forgave you, so also do ye” (Col. i1i:13). It is only 
 as we keep ourselves in His love, and remember His matchless 
 grace towards us, that we can be enabled to manifest that 
 love one to another. But we shall find these words again 
 (chap. xv). 
 
 Verses 36-38. Then Peter’s voice breaks in once more, 
 even in this solemn moment. He speaks for his fellow 
 disciples. ‘‘Lord, whither goest Thou?” With all He had 
 spoken about going up to Jerusalem, to be delivered into the 
 
 *Thoughts on John. 
 
262 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 hands of the Gentiles, to be crucified and raised from the 
 dead, they did not understand. They still were in darkness 
 about this, hence Peter’s question to find out where He was 
 going. And He answered, ‘‘Whither I go, thou canst not 
 follow me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterward.” He 
 was going to the place in glory where none of His own could 
 follow Him at once, but to which all would follow Him after- 
 wards, for this is the glorious goal of His own, to be withHim, 
 where He is. Peter’s answer still more demonstrates his 
 ignorance of what the Lord meant; his answer is self-con- 
 fident and presumptuous. ‘‘Lord, why cannot I follow Thee 
 now? I will lay down my life for Thy sake.” It was the 
 natural heart which revealed itself in this self-confident 
 assertion, though he meant well and showed thereby his 
 attachment to the Lord. He thought highly of himself, of 
 his courage and determination. He did not know his utter 
 weakness and helplessness, nor did he remember that the 
 Lord had told him before, that Satan had desired to sift him 
 as wheat, and that sifting was about to take place. The 
 Lord in His divine omniscience tells Peter what would happen 
 that very night, and that the next sunrise would find Peter 
 bitterly weeping. ‘‘Wilt thou lay down thy life for My sake? 
 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow, till 
 thou hast denied Me thrice.”? What astonishment these 
 words must have brought to Peter’s heart, perhaps more 
 than that, gloom to him and to all the disciples. And so it 
 came true; he denied his Lord, as the Lord had told him. 
 Yet how marvelous His grace and kindness shine forth in all 
 this. He knew what Peter would do; yet He loved him. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 263 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Verses 1-3. We may imagine a brief pause between the 
 last verse of the preceding chapter and the beginning of this 
 new chapter. He had spoken another “‘Verily.”’ It con- 
 cerned Peter’s coming denial. All must have weighed 
 heavily upon the hearts and minds of the little company; 
 each one must have felt that something was about to happen, 
 which none of them could realize. Judas had gone out 
 into the night; their Lord had spoken words which they were 
 unable to grasp and to understand at the time they were 
 spoken. That Peter, to whom they all looked as their 
 spokesman, should deny Him thrice, when they all knew of 
 his former confession, must have been still more troublesome 
 to them. No doubt they were greatly troubled and per- 
 plexed. Then His loving, gracious voice broke the silence 
 as He continued His discourse: ‘‘Let not your heart be 
 troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me.’ Wonderful 
 words! In this awful hour of unparalleled events looming up, 
 with Gethsemane, the betrayal, the denial, the mockeries, 
 the cruel scourging and the shameful, painful death by 
 crucifixion in full view, the Lord does not think of Himself. 
 The heart trouble of His beloved disciples occupies His 
 loving heart. Another one might have sought comfort; 
 He seeks none, but instead comforts. Let not your heart be 
 troubled! How precious it is to note that He did not say 
 “hearts,” but ‘‘heart’’; it means that His loving comfort is 
 for each individual heart. And God’s people at all times, 
 ever since these words were penned by the beloved disciple, 
 have turned to this chapter and appropriated in faith the 
 precious words which He spoke. A very old Bible in the 
 possession of the writer, used by numerous generations for 
 centuries, shows many of the pages in the Old Testament so 
 clean and perfect, that it looks as if they came from the 
 printer’s press but yesterday. But the page which contains 
 the fourteenth chapter of John is well-worn and is spotted 
 by the teardrops of different generations. Let not your 
 heart be troubled! It is, with the precious words which 
 follow, the great anaesthetic of our great Physician. As a 
 
264 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 physician gives an anaesthetic to produce painlessness, so our 
 Lord has His anaesthetic for the heart troubles, for the sor- 
 rows and bereavements of His people. Thus He speaks still 
 to our hearts, and with these words wipes our tears away and 
 stills our troubled hearts. 
 
 But faith is needed to receive and to enjoy this comfort. 
 They believed on God, and He told them “‘believe also in Me.” 
 He was about to be rejected by the nation, delivered into 
 the hands of the Gentiles and to be crucified. It would 
 stumble their faith as Jews in Him, the Messiah. ‘Therefore 
 He said, as ye believe on God, believe in Me also. He claims 
 for Himself the same faith and trust which belongs to God, 
 which is perfectly right, for He is God. He was about to 
 leave them and to go back to the Father; how necessary, 
 then, to trust on Him, to believe on Him. Then follow 
 some of the sweetest words which were spoken by Him: “In 
 My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so I 
 would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And 
 if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and 
 receive you unto Myself, that where I am ye may be also.” 
 
 What is the Father’s house? Let us remember that our 
 Lord spoke of the temple as His Father’s house. When He 
 cleansed the temple, He said: “Take these things hence, 
 make not My Father’s house an house of merchandise” 
 (11:16). But that earthly house, in which once He dwelt in 
 visible glory, was the figure of another house. In fact, the 
 earthly house which Israel possessed was patterned after 
 that Moses had seen on the mountain (Acts vii:44 and Heb. 
 vili:5). The places made with hands, that is, the earthly 
 tabernacle with its outer court, the holy part and the Holy 
 of Holies, were the figures of the true; there is a true taber- 
 nacle which the Lord had pitched and not man (Heb.viii:2). 
 
 This great universe is the great House of God (Heb. iii:4). 
 In that great house there is, in the third heaven, the 
 eternal dwelling place of the eternal God. ‘“‘Heaven is My 
 throne and the earth is My footstool’ (Isa. Ixvi:1). That 
 third heaven corresponds to the Holiest in the earthly taber- 
 nacle, and the temple, which our Lord called ‘“My Father’s 
 House.”” Into that place the Lord Jesus Christ went after 
 His resurrection from among the dead; of this Father’s house, 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 265 
 
 the glorious home, and the home for all the family of God, pur- 
 chased by His blood and fitted for that home, He speaks 
 now. He tells us that in that blessed home, the Father’s 
 house, are many mansions. ‘The Greek word does not mean 
 what we understand by that word, magnificent palaces. 
 Even the original meaning of the English word “‘mansion”’ 
 is not a place, but a palace to abide, a dwelling place.* ‘The 
 same word is used again in. this chapter, in verse 23, and 
 then it is translated “‘abode.”? Since olden times the word 
 “mansions” has been interpreted as meaning different de- 
 grees in glory. Chrysostom, Augustinus and many others 
 taught this as it is still done by teachers, and often fanciful 
 embellishments are added. They speak of the mansions 
 as being located on different planets and stars, and 
 that the most faithful on earth will receive the most glorious 
 mansions in some star. All this has no Scriptural founda- 
 tion. That there will be degrees in glory, different re- 
 wards and crowns, every Christian knows, but this is not 
 the teaching our Lord gives when He speaks of the Father’s 
 house with its many mansions. ‘To be in the Father’s house 
 with its eternal dwelling places is not the result of our 
 worthiness as believers, but the fruit of His own blessed 
 work on the cross. The Father’s house is for the children 
 of God, born again; and even the youngest and the weakest 
 believer belongs there. And then He assured them and 
 us that we need not fear, but be perfectly at rest about it. 
 **If it were not so I would have told you.”’ 
 
 Next, He speaks of going back to the Father’s house to 
 prepare a place for them: “I go to prepare a place for you.” 
 This statement of our Lord has also been surrounded with 
 many fanciful imaginations. Some teach that this prepara- 
 tion of the place is now going on continually. But this is 
 not the case. As long as He walked on earth, Paradise, the 
 third heaven, was not fully prepared. His blessed atoning 
 work on the cross opened the portals of the Father’s house, 
 and there He has gone a forerunner; there He is as the Priest 
 and Advocate of His people, and thus by His death, by His 
 entrance there as the forerunner, by His presence in the 
 
 *Like the French maison. 
 
266 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Father’s house, He has prepared the place for us. Yet 
 there is a deeper meaning attached to this, when we think 
 of the statement in Ephesians i:14 concerning “the redemp- 
 tion of the purchased possession,” and of Hebrews ix:23, 
 where it is written that the heavenly things had to be puri- 
 fied with better sacrifices. Not alone earthly things were 
 defiled by sin, but even the things in this great universe, 
 the house of God, have been affected. He Himself by His 
 atoning work and great victory has prepared heaven for 
 the reception of His blood-bought children. Heaven, there- 
 fore, is a prepared place for a prepared people. 
 
 “And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again 
 and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye 
 may be also.” This is still more precious. He was about 
 to leave them; they were to be left alone in the world. His 
 going away was not a spiritual departure, but a physical 
 one. In His resurrection, the body which He had offered 
 on the cross came forth out of the tomb, and in that body 
 He left the earth to go back to the Father. When He there- 
 fore tells His eleven disciples ‘‘I will come again,” it surely 
 cannot mean a spiritual coming again. Yet this is the 
 teaching of a large number of commentaries, that “I will 
 come again’ means His spiritual coming on the day of 
 Pentecost in the person of the Holy Spirit, hence the teach- 
 ing so widespread, that the second coming of Christ hap- 
 pened when the Holy Spirit was given. But the Holy Spirit 
 is the third Person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 the Son of God, is the second Person of the Trinity. How, 
 then, can the promise of the second Person of the Trinity 
 to come again mean the coming of the third Person? 
 
 Another teaching is that when our Lord promised to come 
 again and to receive His own unto Himself, so that they 
 might be with Him, means the death of the believer. They 
 tell us, when the Christian dies the Lord comes again, so 
 that every day the coming of the Lord takes place hundreds 
 of times, because hundreds of Christians die each day the 
 world over. This error is clearly refuted by the fact that 
 elsewhere in the New Testament the Spirit of God tells us 
 that the believer’s death is not the Lord coming to the 
 dying believer, but the death of a Christian means that he 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 267 
 
 goes to be with the Lord; he goes in his disembodied spirit 
 to be with Him. For the believer to be absent from the 
 body means “present with the Lord,” and that is a con- 
 scious presence. Soul sleep, between the death of the be- 
 liever and the resurrection, is a miserable invention (2 Cor. 
 v:1-8). Paul wrote to the Philippians: ‘‘For I am in a 
 strait between two, having a desire to depart, and to be with 
 Christ, which is far better.” 
 
 And there is still another view placed upon this promise 
 of our Lord. It is said that the Lord meant that afterward 
 He would lift believers to share in Him the heavenly places, 
 as revealed in the Epistle to the Ephesians. When He said: 
 “T will receive you unto Myself,’? He meant, they tell us, 
 to be seated in Christ in the heavenly places. This far- 
 fetched theory does not need an answer. 
 
 When our Lord told His disciples, “‘I will come again,” 
 He meant only one thing, and that is His own, personal 
 coming again. ‘These words cannot be logically explained 
 in any other way. 
 
 Here is an important and unique revelation. ‘The coming 
 of the Lord, that is, His second Advent, is revealed in the 
 Old Testament as a glorious, visible event. It is preceded 
 by troubles, wars, different calamities and upheavals for 
 Israel and the nations; even nature will be affected by it. 
 He is predicted to come to judge the nations, to deliver the 
 remnant of His people, to bring them to their own land, to 
 cover that land with His glory, to establish His kingdom, 
 to reign over the nations as King of kings, and to bring 
 peace to the earth. Now what our Lord reveals about His 
 second coming, reported in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, 
 Mark and Luke) is nothing new. It is a restatement of 
 what His Spirit taught in the Prophets and in the Psalms. 
 What He predicts in the Olivet discourse is but a confirma- 
 tion of what the Old Testament teaches about the second 
 Advent. The great tribulation of which He speaks is the 
 same tribulation recorded by Daniel and others, which did 
 not happen in the year 70, but is that great tribulation which 
 precedes His visible, personal and glorious return to earth. 
 In other words, the references we have in the first three 
 Gospels about His coming again all mean His personal and 
 
268 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 glorious return to the earth. The disciples are addressed 
 there as representatives of the godly remnant of their nation 
 at the end of this age. That remnant will wait for Him in 
 the last days, and their hope is to see Him coming in the 
 clouds of heaven to deliver them from the antichristian forces 
 and to give them a promised kingdom, as Daniel states “the 
 saints shall possess the kingdom,” not Church-saints, but 
 Jewish saints. 
 
 But here in John xiv the Lord gives a new and unique 
 revelation; He speaks of something which no prophet had 
 promised, or even could promise. Where is it written that 
 this Messiah would come and instead of gathering His saints 
 into an earthly Jerusalem, would take them to the Father’s 
 house, to the very place where He is? It is something new. 
 And let it be noticed in promising to come again, He ad- 
 dresses the eleven disciples and tells them, ‘‘I will receive 
 you unto Myself, that where I am ye may be also.” He 
 speaks then of a coming which is not for the deliverance of 
 the Jewish remnant, not of a coming to establish His king- 
 dom over the earth, not a coming to judge the nations, but 
 a coming which concerns only His own. Therefore He has 
 nothing to say here about a preceding great tribulation, nor 
 does He speak of signs on earth and in the heavens, nor does 
 He describe a visible coming in-the clouds of heaven in 
 power and great glory. All He says is: “‘I will come again 
 and receive you unto Myself, that where I am ye may be 
 also.”” We repeat this is a new and unique revelation. 
 
 But if we had asked one of the eleven at that time to 
 explain the meaning of the words of the Lord, none of their 
 number would have been able to tell us what He meant 
 and what that coming to be with Him is. ‘They were ignor- 
 ant of it. And even after Pentecost Peter would not have 
 been able to explain this promise; when he mentioned the 
 return of Christ in Acts i11:19 it is His visible coming to 
 earth, to bring the restoration promised by the. prophets, 
 and not a coming to take His own to the place where He is. 
 
 But the full meaning of the promise of our Lord to His 
 eleven disciples was revealed through the Apostle Paul. 
 To him was committed the truth about the Church as the 
 body and the bride of Christ, and with it the revelation of 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 269 
 
 the heavenly destiny of the Church. It was therefore fitting 
 that he should also be the instrument to make known 
 by revelation “that blessed hope’—the coming of the Lord 
 for His saints. This revelation given to him is the expansion 
 of the words of our Lord in the passage before us. It is 
 found in 1 Thess. iv:15-18. When Paul says in this passage, 
 that is was spoken by the Word of the Lord, he does not 
 mean that he cites the prophetic Word in the Old Testa- 
 ment, for nothing of this nature is found there. It was a 
 direct word which he received from the Lord, revealing 
 how the promise “I will come again and receive you unto 
 Myself, that where I am ye may be also,” will be accom- 
 plished. It is still the unfulfilled promise. Saints are wait- 
 ing in glory for it, and their bodies are sleeping in the dust 
 of the earth. The living believers are waiting for it. The 
 day is surely coming when He who spoke these words will 
 also fulfill them. Before the great tribulation, before the 
 days of Antichrist, before the visible manifestation of Him- 
 self takes place, He comes for His saints, to catch them up 
 to meet Him in the air and to lead them into the Father’s 
 house. 
 
 Verses 4-7. The beautiful words of comfort and cheer had 
 been spoken. Perhaps there was a brief pause before He con- 
 tinued ‘‘And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.” 
 He had spoken to them before of His return to the Father’s 
 house. But it seems His words now were mostly spoken to 
 provoke further inquiry from their side. Let us remember 
 that the Lord Jesus Christ is omniscient. He knew their 
 hearts, their innermost thoughts, yea He knew their thoughts 
 from afar off (Psalm cxxxix:2). To draw them out, and 
 move them to questions He spoke these words. ‘Thomas then 
 speaks. Three times we have the record of his words. In 
 chapter xi:16, he manifested his devotion to the Lord when 
 he suggested “‘let us also go, that we may die with Him.” 
 In chapter xx:24 we read of him again; here it is his unbelief 
 in the resurrection of the Lord. On account of his unbelief he 
 has been called ‘‘the rationalist among the disciples,” but he 
 possessed with his inclination to doubt a warm heart full 
 of affection for the Lord. What he spoke in the passage 
 before us was probably the uppermost thought in the heart 
 
270 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 of all the disciples. He was their spokesman. The Lord 
 waited just for this question. It was the means of bringing 
 forth one of the greatest utterances of our Lord. “Jesus 
 saith unto him; I am the way, the truth and the life; no man 
 cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” The words are so 
 simple that a child can understand them. They have 
 depths which no saint has ever fathomed. No such words 
 were ever spoken by a human being before. No prophet 
 ever spoke thus, and, if he had, he would have been a deceiver. 
 The blasphemous comparison of our Lord with religious 
 leaders of the past is often made by the rationalistic leaders 
 in Christendom. ‘These critics place Him on the same level 
 with Confucius, Zoroaster, Buddha, Socrates and others. 
 But did any of these men with their religious philosophies, 
 if they deserve to be called philosophies, ever say anything 
 like this? Did any religious teacher of the past ever make 
 such a claim? If Confucius, Zoroaster or Buddha had done 
 so they would have branded themselves as miserable liars. 
 Nowhere do we find even a suggestion that any of these 
 men ever uttered a word approaching the declaration of 
 our Lord. Only one who not only knows God, but who is 
 wGod, can speak such words and make such claims. We 
 shall find later a still greater word (verse 9). If our Lord 
 were but a human being, towering, as it is claimed today, in’ 
 religious sentiment, undertaking and character, above the 
 rest of the race, these words would convict him of self-exalt- 
 ation and deception. All who deny His Deity charge Him 
 with being untrue, in the light of this claim. ‘The words 
 * He spoke are unique and even this fact confirms His Deity. 
 
 “T am the way. ‘This has been perverted as meaning 
 “TIT am the way-shower”’; I show man how to live, how to 
 practice the golden rule. Look at Me and see in Me an 
 expression of real manhood! Iam your example, follow Me! 
 This conception produced a number of years ago that puerile 
 novel “What would Jesus do?” ‘This conception has its 
 source in the denial of the lost condition of man. What 
 man needs is not one, in the first instance, to show him how 
 to live, but man needs a Saviour, because he is lost, dead 
 in sins, without strength to do anything. When our Lord 
 declares, “I am the way” He means by it that He is the 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 271 
 
 One who has made the way for lost sinners to come back 
 to God. As He said in the tenth chapter, “I am the door, 
 by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved,” meaning 
 by it that, in virtue of His sacrificial death, He is the door 
 through whom all must enter, so here, He is the way, be- 
 cause by His death on the cross, He has become the way 
 for lost sinners, by which they can be saved and draw near 
 to God. He is ‘fa new and living way, which He hath 
 consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh” 
 (Hebrews x:20). 
 
 Thus He is the way to the Father and to the Father’s 
 house with its many mansions. For those who believe on 
 Him He is the way in which they walk. 
 
 “IT am the truth.” This means more than being the true 
 Messiah; it means more than revealing the truth, He is the 
 Truth Himself. While the Word of God, the written revel- 
 ation of God, is truth, He, the living Word, is the Truth. 
 Whosoever knows Him knows the truth, for in Him are 
 found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. To 
 know the truth means to know Him, and the more we know 
 Him, the more we know the truth and walk in the truth. 
 
 “Tam the Life.’ He is the true God and the eternal life. 
 He is the source and fountain of all life. This life, which 
 He is, is imparted to the believer. The eternal life which 
 He promises to give to those who believe on Him is He Him- 
 self. The First Epistle of John develops this great truth. 
 We share as believers the life which He is, and that life is to 
 be manifested, as it was manifested in His life on earth. 
 
 “No one cometh to the Father but by Me.” Because 
 He is the way, the truth and the life, there is no other way 
 to the Father. No one else, nor anything else, can bring the 
 lost sinner to the Father. No one can know the Father 
 and be a child of God apart from Him. ‘The soul which 
 rejects Christ and does not believe in Him as the Son of 
 God is therefore a lost soul. 
 
 “We should mark carefully what an unanswerable argu- 
 ment this one sentence supplies against the modern notion 
 that it does not matter what a man believes, that all re- 
 ligions will lead men to heaven if they are sincere; that 
 creeds and doctrines are of no importance; that heaven is a 
 
272 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 place for all mankind, whether heathen, Mohammedan or 
 Christian; and that the Fatherhood of God is enough to 
 save all at last, of all sects, kinds and characters! Our 
 Lord’s words should never be forgotten, “There is no way 
 to the Father but by Me.’ God is a Father to none but 
 those who believe on Christ. In short there are not different 
 ways to heaven. ‘There is only one way.’’* 
 
 “If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father 
 also; and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him.” 
 To the unbelieving Jews our Lord had made previously a 
 similar statement: ‘‘Ye neither know Me, nor My Father: 
 if ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father 
 also” (Chapter vili:19). _ 
 
 It has for a foundation the deep declaration of our Lord, 
 also made in this Gospel, “I and the Father are one.”” Once 
 more, as so often before in John’s Gospel, He witnesses to 
 the perfect union which is between Him and the Father. 
 To know Him is to know the Father and the more we know 
 Christ, the more we learn to know the Father through Him. 
 When our Lord said, “from henceforth, ye know Him, and 
 have seen Him,” He had reference to the revelations which 
 He was now making to them, especially in the words which 
 follow: 
 
 Verses 8-11. How little the disciples understood Him 
 is seen from the question of Philip. It is the Philip who had 
 found Nathanael, to whom he gave the message: “‘We have 
 found Him of Whom Moses in the law, and the prophets 
 did write * * * Come and see” (i:45-46). Though 
 he knew that He is the promised Messiah, he had 
 no understanding of the great fact, of which the Lord spoke 
 so often, the fact of His oneness with the Father. He speaks 
 as a Jew speaks, asking for a sign, for some visible evidence. 
 He probably thought of the theophanies in the Old 
 Testament, how prophets beheld the visible glory of the 
 Lord, and he longs for such a visible manifestation. He 
 thought if he only could get a glimpse of Him, whom their 
 Lord called Father, it would be sufficient. 
 
 The Lord rebuked him in a tender way. “Have I been 
 
 
 
 *Ryle on John. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 273 
 
 so much time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, 
 Philip??? Philip was one of the earliest disciples. For 
 almost three years he had been in constant companionship 
 with Him. They had journeyed together, lived together, 
 and were intimate. All had seen His mighty works; they 
 were the witnesses of the miracles He performed; they had 
 seen the miraculous feeding of the multitudes, the cleansing 
 of the lepers, the opening of the eyes of the blind, the raising 
 of the dead. They had seen the works which only omnipo- 
 tence could perform. They had listened to His words. 
 They knew that He was the Lord. Yet Philip asked, 
 “Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us.” He had not 
 understood what the Lord had said, “if ye had known Me, 
 ye should have known My Father also.” He did not realize 
 that He and the Father are one. We do not know if the 
 other disciples had any deeper knowledge than Philip. 
 But all was changed after the Holy Spirit came to take of 
 the things of Christ to reveal them to their hearts. Then 
 John wrote this blessed Gospel with the full revelation of 
 the Lord and His glory. In both the Gospel and the First 
 Epistle, he voiced the faith of his brethren: “That which 
 was from the beginning, which we have heard, which 
 we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, 
 and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; for the life 
 was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and 
 shew unto you that eternal life; that which we have seen and 
 heard, declare we unto you, that ye may have fellowship 
 with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and 
 with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John i:1-3). 
 
 Then He spoke the great word concerning Himself. 
 *“He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how 
 sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not 
 that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words 
 that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father 
 that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” 
 
 In the Old Testament the prophets beheld the visible 
 glory of the Lord. He dwelt in the midst of His people, both 
 in the tabernacle and in the Solomonic temple. Many 
 times His glory was seen. Isaiah beheld Him in the temple 
 vision; Ezekiel saw the glory and in the midst of the glorious 
 
274 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 cloud one like unto a son of man; Daniel beheld Him in 
 His visions and saw Him face to face on the river banks of 
 Hiddekel. They did not know that He who appeared in 
 visible glory—whom Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and 
 other holy men of God saw—was none other but He in whose 
 companionship they had walked, who was speaking to them 
 now. Through Him, God the Son, God the Father had 
 revealed Himself in olden times. But now the Son, who is 
 one with the Father, was incarnate. He had come to reveal 
 the Father in His own person. Of God it is written, ““Whom 
 no man hath seen, nor can see” (1 Timothy vi:16); ““No man 
 hath seen at any time: the only begotten Son, who is in the 
 bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (John 1:18); 
 “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and 
 we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of 
 the Father) full of grace and truth.”’ And the day is coming 
 again when His visible glory will be seen, when it will be 
 no longer a spiritual but a physical vision. That will 
 be in the day of His return when every eye shall see Him. 
 The transfiguration was a foregleam of this coming glorious 
 event. | 
 
 What majestic words these are, “he that hath seen Me 
 hath seen the Father”! To deny in the face of them His abso- 
 lute Deity shows the awful darkness of the natural mind. 
 How could He who was perfect in His blessed life on earth 
 have spoken such marvelous words, and made such a claim, 
 if it were not true that He and the Father are one! We 
 let another speak, who alas, made such a shipwreck years 
 after he had penned the words which we quote: 
 
 “The language of Christ here, and indeed throughout 
 this whole discourse is utterly inconsistent with the con- 
 ception of Him as a mere human or superhuman ambassador 
 of God. He represents not merely the divine government, 
 but the divine Being. The Father is in Him so that who- 
 ever looks within the tabernacle beholds the glory of the 
 only begotten of the Father. He is the manifestation in 
 the flesh, not of the divine government, but of God (1 
 Timothy ii1:16). It is impossible to refer this answer to the 
 mere union in sympathy and purpose of Jesus with God. No 
 Christian, even if perfected, could say—He that hath seen 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN tah 
 
 me hath seen Christ. How much less then, could a Jew, 
 though perfect, have said, He that hath seen me hath seen 
 the Father.’’* 
 
 His words and His works are the evidences that He is in 
 the Father and that the Father is in Him. It is the same 
 self-witness which we have had before in this Gospel 
 (Chapter v). ‘‘Believe Me that I am in the Father, and 
 the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the very works’ 
 sake.”” Have faith in Me that I am in the Father and the 
 Father in Me, is what the Lord tells Philip and the rest of 
 the disciples. And in His graciousness, without any severe 
 word of rebuke, He condescends to the weakness of His frail 
 followers, ‘‘or else believe Me for the very works’ sake.” 
 They were His credentials; by these signs He manifested 
 Himself as one with the Father, for the works which the 
 Father does, He did also. 
 
 Verses 12-14. The words which follow the answers which 
 our Lord gave to the questions asked by Thomas and by 
 Philip must be linked with the comforting assurance He gave 
 to His disciples in the beginning of this chapter, ““Let not your 
 heart be troubled.” We may look upon verses 5-11 as an 
 interruption in the address of our Lord to His own. The 
 “Verily, verily’’ of verse 12 should be connected with verse 4. 
 He was returning to the Father and in verse 12 He speaks 
 of the result of His going to be with the Father. 
 
 It is a great statement He gave to them: “Verily, verily, 
 I say unto to you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I 
 do shall he also do; and greater works than these shall he 
 do, because I gounto my Father.” Itis one of the significant 
 passages in the Gospel introduced by a double ‘“‘verily” 
 and which, we paraphrase by ‘“‘be assured it is so beyond a 
 doubt.” It is just as sure and certain as the other statements 
 in this Gospel which begin with the same words. 
 
 But what does our Lord mean? ‘This verse wrongly inter- 
 preted has been the fruitful soil upon which all kinds of 
 delusive and fanatical movements have flourished. It 
 is so still, especially in connection with the men and women 
 who go about teaching and preaching a restoration of apos- 
 
 *Quoted from a Commentary on John, by Lyman Abbott, D. D. 
 
276 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 tolic gifts, such as the gifts of speaking in tongues and of 
 healing the sick. 
 
 The question is what did our Lord mean when He spoke 
 of greater works that those He did on earth, which those who 
 believe on Him should do after His departure? Did our 
 Lord mean miracles of healing, such as He performed on 
 earth as the evidences of His Deity and the credentials of 
 His Messiahship? The greatest miracles our Lord did 
 were the miracles of the resurrection of the dead. He raised 
 the daughter of Jairus; He gave back to the widow of Nain 
 her only son and He brought back to life the brother .of 
 Mary and Martha. The raising of Lazarus after he had 
 been dead for four days, so that decomposition had started 
 in, is the greatest of all His miracles. Could there be a greater 
 miracle than that? Any sane person sees at once that our 
 Lord could not have meant by the ‘“‘greater works” the 
 works of healing and the raising of the dead. 
 
 It is then clear that the greater works cannot mean His 
 works of physical miracles. But it is equally clear that when 
 our Lord said in the first part of this verse ‘‘the works that 
 I do shall he do also” that He meant his miraculous works. 
 He indicated thereby that when He had left his disciples, 
 when they were to be His witnesses, testifying to Him as 
 the Messiah, they should not be troubled about a continua- 
 tion during their ministry of the same works of power and 
 mercy, which He had shown and by which He had been 
 attested as the Messiah-King. The same assurance He gave 
 to His eleven disciples at the close of the Gospel of Mark. 
 (See Mark xvi:17-20). 
 
 And these promises have been fulfilled during the life- 
 time of the Apostles. The “Verily” of our Lord of the 
 verse before us is seen accomplished in the beginning of the 
 history of the Church in the book of Acts. The sick were 
 healed, demons were driven out and even the dead were 
 raised. 
 
 Let us remember when our Lord sent forth His disciples 
 with the message that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, a 
 message which was only for the kingdom people, that is, 
 Israel, He conferred upon the messengers His own miracu- 
 lous power to heal the sick, to cleanse the lepers and to raise 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 277 
 
 the dead. The message of the kingdom requires outward 
 evidences. The Jew asks for a sign and has a perfect right 
 to do so, for signs and wonders are promised with the estab- 
 lishment of the kingdom as predicted by the Prophets. 
 
 Every believer who has learned to divide the Word of 
 Truth rightly also knows that the beginning of the book of 
 Acts starts with a message to Jerusalem, and once more the 
 fact is presented that He who had lived amongst them, whom 
 they crucified and whom God had raised from the dead, is 
 the promised Messiah, Israel’s King. Hence we find not 
 yet in the beginning of Acts the full message of the Gospel of 
 Grace and the revelation concerning the Church, but Peter’s 
 testimony is at first exclusively addressed to Israel. ‘The 
 call is once more “‘to the Jew first to repent, and the promise 
 is a Kingdom promise, the times of refreshing and the restor- 
 ation of all things by the return of Him whom the heavens 
 received. It was a repeated offer of the kingdom to the 
 nation, so beautifully indicated in the parable of the marriage 
 of the King’s Son in Matthew xxii:1-10. And during this 
 period, especially, we find the word of our Lord fulfilled. 
 They did the works which He did. Many miracles took 
 place in Jerusalem, in Judea and in Samaria as the outward 
 evidences that the message not alone was true, but that He 
 who had done the miracles on earth is living, risen from the 
 dead, and that His power is undiminished. These outward 
 evidences of the truth of Christianity continued as long as 
 the full revelation of God had not yet been put into the hands 
 of man. We find miracles in the life and ministry of the 
 Apostle Paul and his associates. But as he received from 
 the Lord the great revelations, and wrote them under the 
 guiding pen of the Holy Spirit, these outward signs became 
 less. Finally, when Paul wrote these marvelous documents, 
 which complete the Word of God (in the sense of giving the 
 highest revelation) we see him a prisoner in Rome. In the 
 beginning of Acts the Lord did miracles in sending angels 
 to deliver the Apostles, and later Peter, from prison. 
 But there was no miraculous deliverance from prison in the 
 case of the Apostle Paul. 
 
 There is no evidence anywhere in Scripture that miracles 
 such as our Lord did in physical things, such as the healing 
 
278 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 of diseases, the cleansing of lepers, or the miraculous feed- 
 ing, and the raising of the dead are to continue throughout 
 the history of the Church. As long as the Apostles lived, to 
 whom the promise was given, these signs were present. As 
 long as the full truth of Christianity had not been revealed 
 outward evidences were needed. After the Word of God 
 had been completed by the Spirit of God in the epistolar 
 testimony, the character of the age, as an age of faith and 
 not of sight, was fully established, and miracles in the sense 
 as our Lord did miracles ceased, and then begin “‘the greater 
 works.”? Before we explain what these greater works are 
 we wish to say that in the post-apostolic times miracle- 
 workers arose who claimed-to have power to heal and to 
 perform all kinds of miracles. Church history reports many 
 incidents, and the lives of the saints are filled with miracu- 
 lous happenings, healing of divers diseases, manifestations 
 of angels, and other supernatural manifestations. Period- 
 ically, movements started which claimed tobe a revival of 
 apostolic times and a restoration of miracles. All these 
 claims were proven counterfeits and not a few of these 
 movements became the hotbed of false doctrines and even 
 immoralities. ‘The present day Pentecostal movement, with 
 its so-called miracle women and miracle men, with its false 
 teachings, with its claims and subtle deceptions, belongs 
 to this class. In some of these Pentecostal sects the most 
 abominable things of the flesh under the garb of great 
 spiritual attainments have been practiced. 
 
 But what are “the greater works” of which our Lord 
 speaks? Our Lord did not only work physical miracles, 
 but there were other miracles, the conversion of sinners. 
 The conversion of a sinner is a spiritual miracle. We know 
 from Scripture that not many more than five hundred had 
 been gathered by His earthly ministry, who believed on Him 
 as the Son of God and were born again. When the Holy Spirit 
 had come on the day of Pentecost and Peter preached, three 
 thousand miracles of grace took place. This was a greater 
 work spiritually than He had done. And so throughout 
 this present age over and over again through His chosen 
 instruments, which are His gifts to His body, these greater 
 works have been done. And these greater works are the 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 279 
 
 results of His return to the Father and the subsequent com- 
 ing of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 To this promise is linked the promise of prayer. ‘And 
 whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that 
 the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any- 
 thing in My name, I will do it.” This is another comfort 
 with which He comforted His soon to be orphaned disciples. 
 He heard their requests while He was with them; He knew 
 their thoughts and their desires and graciously dealt with 
 them. He was about to go to the Father’s house to pre- 
 pare the place for them, and now He gives them the promise 
 that they can pray to the Father in His name and whatso- 
 ever they ask in His name that He will do. He had given 
 them before the form of prayer, which is commonly called 
 “The Lord’s prayer,” that is the “Our Father.” His name 
 was not mentioned in that prayer. But now in anticipa- 
 tion of His sacrificial work, His resurrection, His ascension 
 and His presence at the right hand of God, He institutes 
 prayer in His name. ‘This fact is emphasized by Him when 
 He said to them later in His discourse, ‘‘Hitherto have ye 
 asked nothing in My name; ask and ye shall receive, that 
 your joy may be full” (xvi:24). But what does it mean, 
 “Ask in My name’’? It means more than using His blessed 
 name in a form of prayer. In order to pray in His name 
 it is necessary that the person is in Him and identified with 
 Him. The phrase “in the name” as used in the New Tes- 
 tament generally signifies the representation of the person 
 whose name is used, standing in his stead, fulfilling his pur- 
 poses, manifesting his will and showing forth his life and 
 glory. To pray, therefore, effectually in His name means to 
 realize our standing in Christ, our union with Him, and 
 seeking His glory. The mere use of the name of our Lord 
 in prayer without the spiritual reality of our oneness with 
 Him and deep desire to glorify Him by having His will 
 done in our lives is unavailing. But knowing Him and 
 bent on doing His will we can pray in His name. Whatso- 
 ever we ask must be qualified by whatsoever we ask accord- 
 ing to His will, that which is in harmony with His will; true 
 prayer in His name will be like His own prayer, “Not my 
 will but thine be done.” 
 
280 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 ' Ever since this comforting promise was given the Lord’s 
 people have cast themselves upon it, and, pleading in simple 
 faith, with hearts devoted to Him as their Saviour and 
 Lord. They asked of Him and received His gracious answer. 
 It is still the comfort of all trusting hearts, and as long as 
 His people journey through the wilderness towards the 
 homeland, they can test and make use of the promise. 
 It is most blessed to come to the Father with our wants 
 and remind Him of the words His Son spoke on earth, the 
 encouragement He has left His people, to ask in His name 
 and expect in faith the answer. 
 
 And in answered prayer the Father will be glorified in 
 the Son. It means by the use of His name, by sinners re- 
 deemed by Himself, as their needs are supplied and be- 
 lieving prayer answered, God the Father will get glory on 
 account of it. Then He restates the same promise: “If ye 
 shall ask anything in My name I will do it.” It is most 
 emphatic, as if He would want to remove even the slightest 
 doubt. Just ask anything in my name and see how I will 
 do it. In both instances He says “I will do it,” while in 
 chapter xvi:23 we read, ‘“‘Whatsoever ye shall ask the 
 Father in My name He will do it.” Prayer is to be addressed 
 to God. When our Lord speaks that He will do it He gives 
 another evidence to the many of this Gospel that He is 
 God. Well said Bengel, ‘“This ‘I’ indicates the glory, the 
 glory of Him who is One with the Father.” 
 
 Verses 15-20. In these words our Lord told His disciples 
 of the gracious provision He was making for them after His 
 departure. They loved Him. But He loved them in a 
 measure which they could not understand. Their love was 
 expressed by sorrow when He told them that they were now 
 soon to be orphaned. This must be a reason why He said to 
 them “If ye love Me keep My commandments.” The test of 
 love for Him is obedience, that is doing His will. Then fol- 
 lows a new revelation and promise. He had spoken to them 
 about praying in His Name, but now He tells them, what He 
 had not said before, that He would pray the Father in their 
 behalf. The Greek word used here and translated “pray” 
 is of interesting significance. Three Greek words of different 
 meaning are translated in our English Bibles by the word 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 281 
 
 pray. One means “to ask”; another “‘to request’’; and the 
 third “to entreat.” ‘The word used here is the word ‘‘to 
 request.” In chapters xvi:26; xvii:9, 15 and 20 the word 
 “‘ask” is used. Not once does the Holy Spirit employ in 
 connection with our Lord’s praying the word ‘‘to entreat.” 
 His is not the entreating petition of a creature, but the request 
 of the Son from the Father. 
 
 His request for His own concerns the gift from the Father 
 of “another Comforter.” This word is also inadequately 
 rendered. The Greek is a compound, Paracletos. It means 
 to call to one’s side (Para kaleo). It is the same word trans- 
 lated ‘“‘Advocate” in 1 John ii:2.. There it is the Lord Jesus 
 Christ who is the Paraclete, the Advocate with the Father. 
 And here He promises the third person of the Trinity to take 
 His place in the believer as the Advocate. The statement 
 “another” shows that the Holy Spirit is to do the same work 
 in the believer as the glorified Christ does in heaven for the 
 believer. 
 
 Before we take up the promise of the Paraclete and His 
 work we call attention to the three persons of the Trinity 
 as revealed in verse 15. The Son of God is requesting of 
 the Father, the Father is giving as the result of the request 
 of the Son, and the Holy Spirit comes to abide. There are 
 some queer Bible students, as they call themselves, who 
 refuse to believe in the Trinity, because the word does not 
 appear in the Bible. They do not belong to Unitarians or 
 the vicious “Latter Day Saints,” known as Mormons, both 
 of whom deny the Trinity, but they claim orthodoxy. This 
 verse alone should deliver them from their foolish imagin- 
 ation, for here are three persons and the three are one. 
 
 ‘Twice before our Lord had spoken about the future gift 
 of the Spirit, to the woman of Samaria at the well and in the 
 seventh chapter (verse 35). In the latter passage we read 
 that the gift of the Spirit was dependent on His death, 
 resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God. Of this 
 condition He spoke again in chapter xvi:7, “Nevertheless I 
 tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; 
 for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; 
 but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” Here in chapter 
 xiv:16 He announces for the first time definitely the gift of 
 
282 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Him, who would take His place in and with His own during 
 this present age. As already stated He is to be an Advocate, 
 one who stands alongside of those who belong to Christ, as 
 the glorified Christ is the Advocate with the Father. The 
 Lord Jesus Christ exercises His office as Advocate in behalf 
 of His people when they sin. He then intercedes in their 
 behalf. Such is also the ministry of the other Advocate, the 
 Holy Spirit, for it is written “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth 
 our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as 
 we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with 
 groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans viii:26). 
 Whatever help the believer needs in prayer, worship, witness- 
 bearing, service, in trial, sorrow and all other circumstances, 
 the Holy Spirit as Advocate is in the believer to cheer, com- 
 fort, lead, teach, and to give strength. 
 
 And the Lord promises Him as a permanent gift, “that He 
 may abide with you for ever.” He was present during Old 
 Testament times. Even in the age before the deluge He 
 manifested His power (Genesis vi:3). But never before was 
 He present on earth as the Spirit indwelling believers and 
 abiding for ever, without leaving them. David prayed: 
 “Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm li:11). He had 
 seen the tragedy of Saul, the mad king, as the Spirit had left 
 him and an evil spirit had taken His place. The New 
 Testament Saint is assured that the Holy Spirit, given to 
 him through grace in believing on Christ will abide with 
 him. We are sealed by Him unto the day of redemption 
 (Ephesians iv:30). 
 
 Our Lord describes Him as the Spirit of Truth. God the 
 Father is Truth, the Son of God is the Truth and so is the 
 Holy Spirit Truth, another evidence that the three persons 
 in the Godhead are one. In his first epistle John writes, “It 
 is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth” 
 (1 John v:6). He dispels the darkness and reveals the Truth 
 concerning Him who said “I am the Truth.” He teaches 
 the Truth and guides into all the Truth, which He makes 
 known in the written Word, of which He is the commun- 
 icator. The world cannot receive this Spirit of Truth for the 
 simple reason that the world has rejected Christ, nor can 
 anyone receive this gift of God’s Grace unless by the hearing 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 283 
 
 of faith (Gal. iii:2), that is by believing on Jesus Christ as 
 the Son of God and Saviour, who died for our sins, was buried 
 and arose on the third day. The natural man does not know 
 Him, cannot see Him nor receive Him. ‘“The natural man 
 receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are 
 foolishness to him, neither can he know them”? (1 Cor. ii:14). 
 
 It is otherwise with those who own Christ as their Saviour 
 and Lord. “But ye know Him, for He abideth with you and 
 shall be in you.”” It must be noted that the Lord spoke of 
 the fact that the Holy Spirit was with them, but He an- 
 nounced His indwelling as taking place at some future 
 time, for He said “He shall be in you.” As they had be- 
 lieved on Christ as the Son of God, followed Him, they were 
 born again and the Holy Spirit was with them. His personal 
 indwelling had not yet come; that was consummated on the 
 day of Pentecost, when the promise was fulfilled and the third 
 person of the Trinity came to earth to dwell in the hearts of 
 believers. And this is the blessed truth of Christianity, that 
 all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, are washed in His 
 blood, saved by His Grace, born again, and have received 
 the Holy Spirit. He dwells, not an influence, but a person, in 
 every believing heart, putting His seal there of ownership. 
 The bodies of believers are the temples of the Holy Spirit. 
 This is not the question of seeking a personal experience of 
 receiving the Holy Spirit, but it is the question of believing 
 that the Word of God assures us that this is the case. ‘‘What, 
 know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit 
 which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your 
 own?” (1 Cor. vi:19). Thousands of Christians today 
 believe the false doctrine that a saved Christian must have 
 a personal experience of a personal Pentecost, evidenced by 
 the gift of an unknown tongue. Where does our Lord 
 speak of this in these final words in John’s Gospel? Nowhere! 
 
 Following wrong teachings concerning the Spirit of God, 
 seeking certain influences, powers and gifts, supposing that 
 they come from the Spirit of God, is a dangerous path to 
 follow. It is on this territory that the enemy manifests his 
 most awful power and garbs himself as an angel of light. 
 The Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. He is here 
 and no other Pentecost is needed. Every individual believer 
 
284 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 shares in the baptism which took place, just once, on that 
 day and becomes through grace the temple of the Holy 
 Spirit. It is unbelief in what God has said, if a believer seeks 
 a special experience of receiving the Holy Spirit. The other 
 truth connected with the gift of the Paraclete, the formation 
 of the Church on earth, uniting believers with Christ in glory, 
 thus constituting the body of Christ, is not taught in the 
 Gospel of John. 
 
 And all this must be realized in faith and then expressed 
 in a life of devotion and obedience to our Lord. Those who 
 profess that they are in Christ, indwelled by His Spirit, 
 His temples, and do not walk in separation, serving two 
 masters, dishonor, grieve and quench Him, and show that 
 their hearts know but little of true love for Christ. 
 
 “Tf the Spirit be come to dwell in us, the first requisite is 
 readiness of obedience. Wondrous are the possibilities held 
 out to us in this marvelous gift; but marvelous also is the 
 possibility we have of belittling even a gift like this. The 
 Galatians had it, who were giving up the Gospel for the Law. 
 The Corinthians had it, who were carnal, and walked as men. 
 It belongs to the mystery of our nature that we may have as 
 though we had not. It belongs to the royalty of it that we 
 may debase ourselves. Stranger still is it that the children 
 of this world may be wiser in their generation than the 
 children of light, and that the Lord should even have to 
 put this as if a characteristic thing. Were we not unfaithful 
 to ourselves and to God, how would the world be lighted up 
 with the reflection of the glory that is in the unveiled face 
 of Jesus! how we should go through the world as visitants 
 from another sphere! Thus we need not wonder that the 
 Lord should almost seem to put it as if the gift of the Spirit 
 were dependent upon the reality of one’s obedience. What! 
 can we have God in us, and entertain Him so poorly? Noth- 
 ing could make such a thing credible but the sad experience 
 of so lamentable a fact! Yes, men who know that Christ has 
 died for them—who know that the Spirit of God dwells in 
 them—who know that God’s way is the only way of peace and 
 joy and power—can yet live and act as if nothing of all this 
 were true. Wecan give up certainties of blessing for certain- 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 285 
 
 ties of spiritual loss! Who can enough bewail the misery 
 of such unaccountable folly ?’’* 
 
 Then follows the precious assurance, “I will not leave you 
 comfortless; I will come to you.” ‘Though this sentence is 
 beloved by many saints it is far from expressing the original. 
 The correct rendering is, “I will not leave you orphans.” An 
 orphan is not without parents. Death came and deprived 
 the child of father and mother. Then memory looks back 
 to them and hope looks forward also to meeting them again, 
 but the parents are not present. Such an orphaned state 
 was before the disciples; they were soon to be solitary and 
 friendless. He therefore assured them, “I will not leave you 
 orphans.” 
 
 But what does it mean when He assures them “I will come 
 to you”? It has been explained as meaning His manifesta- 
 tion after His resurrection. But this cannot be the meaning, 
 for their state as orphans began after His ascension. 
 Augustine, Bede, Ryle and others apply it as meaning 
 His second visible coming. But it cannot mean this for it 
 was spoken to the eleven disciples as a comforting assurance 
 during their lifetime. It seems the context gives the correct 
 interpretation. It means the promise of verse 23, that He 
 and the Father will come to the believer’s heart to make their 
 abode with him. It must not be detached from the promise 
 of the indwelling Spirit; thus Christ dwells in our hearts by 
 faith (Eph. iii:17). 
 
 “Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but 
 ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also.” A short time 
 only, and as far as the unbelieving world is concerned, they 
 would no longer see Him. The last the world saw of Him 
 was when they looked upon Him hanging on the cross be- 
 tween two thieves. None of the world beheld Him risen from 
 the dead. The world will see Him some day when He comes as 
 a thief in the night. He assured His disciples that while the 
 world would not see Him any longer that they would see 
 Him. To apply this to His second coming is incorrect, 
 for it is the present tense, “ye see Me.” It means the 
 spiritual vision of Himself which the true believer has in 
 
 *F, W. Grant. 
 
286 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 virtue of the indwelling Spirit. It is what Paul writes in the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews: “‘But we see Jesus, who was made a 
 little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned 
 with glory and honor’ (Hebrews 11:9). Then comes the 
 assurance of life. ‘‘Because I live ye shall live also.” Into 
 what a depth we look through this one sentence of our blessed 
 Lord! The life which He has we have; the life of the head 
 in glory is the life which is in every one of His members on 
 earth, and we are the members of His body, His flesh and 
 His bones. His life can never die, never be affected or 
 destroyed by enemies, and such is our life. It is hid with 
 Christ in God. , 
 
 “On that day shall ye know that I am in My Father, and 
 ye in Me, and I in you.” ‘This day has also been explained 
 as the day of His appearing. It is, of course, very true that 
 in His day, when we shall be with Him, we shall know as 
 we are known. But it is a strained view to make this 
 verse the future day of our Lord’s return. Itis the day when 
 the Holy Spirit came to make known the things which our 
 Lord had indicated to them. He did not tell His disciples 
 that they were going to knowwhen the Holy Spirit comes, how 
 He is in the Father, how they are in Him and He in them, but 
 the fact that such is the case is to be made known to them. 
 This is distinctly the work of the Spirit. The great Pauline 
 Epistles reveal this blessed fact of the union of the believer 
 with Christ. 
 
 Verses 21-26. The twenty-first verse evidently connects 
 with verse 15, and the statement there is now fully unfolded 
 and emphasized. It also must be linked with the preceding 
 promise of the indwelling Spirit. The Spirit of God produces 
 in the believer His fruits, which are the results of practical 
 obedience. Love for Christ can only be manifested by 
 obedience to His words; obedience therefore is the true test of 
 love. In the First Epistle of John this test is made likewise, 
 and John brands there those who profess to know Him, and 
 do not keep His commandments, as liars. ‘He that saith I 
 know Him and keepeth not His commandments is a liar and 
 the truth is not in him” (1 John ii:4). Many have the com- 
 mandments of Christ, yet they do not keep them. Such do 
 not give an outward evidence of real love for Him. But 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 287 
 
 what are His commandments? They are all summed up in 
 two words, “Follow me.” He has left us an example that 
 we should follow His steps. “He that saith he abideth in 
 Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked” 
 (1 John ii:6). ‘‘Let this mind be in you which was also in 
 Christ Jesus” (Phil. 11:5). One who walks in union with 
 Christ, follows Him, will keep all His sayings, and the in- 
 dwelling Spirit supplies the power to walk in the Spirit. 
 A blessed promise is attached to this demand. “He that 
 loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, 
 and will manifest myself to him.” What a marvelous 
 promise and what an incentive to obedience! ‘This is the 
 way that every believer may become a “beloved disciple.” 
 Here is a special love of the Father for those who express 
 their love for His Son in practical obedience. How deep 
 we may drink at this well oflove! What gracious possibilities 
 are here! Then He Himself assures us that He will love such 
 a one and manifest Himself to him. The manifestation is, 
 of course, a spiritual manifestation. In our days certain 
 deluded people, given to an emotional fanaticism, claim that 
 they have deeper experiences, that these experiences include 
 visions and dreams, besides other supernatural manifesta- 
 tions. Our Lord never promised such things. That these 
 people are not sound is shown by their unscriptural teachings, 
 by their spiritual pride and often by worse things. The 
 manifestation of which our Lord speaks is the consciousness of 
 His presence with us, the satisfying knowledge that we please 
 Him, and the precious comfort of intimate fellowship with 
 Him. Only to those who are obedient to Him can He reveal 
 Himself thus. 
 
 Judas’s voice breaks in. Judas Iscariot was no longer 
 present. He had gone out into that awful night to betray 
 Him. It is the other Judas, called in Matthew’s Gospel 
 Lebbaeus, and in Mark, Thaddaeus. The Spirit of God calls 
 attention to the identity of Judas, that he was not Iscariot, 
 the betrayer, who said, “Lord.” Judas Iscariot never ad- 
 dresses Jesus as Lord, because he did not believe on Him as 
 the Son of God. His question literally translated is ‘Lord, 
 and what has happened that Thou wilt manifest Thyself to 
 us, but not at all to the world?’ One can easily read in this 
 
288 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 question the disappotnted Jewish Hope. Had they not 
 followed Him as the Messiah, the King of Israel? Had they 
 not announced that the long-promised kingdom is at hand? 
 He and the other disciples expected that He would manifest 
 Himself as King with power and glory before all Israel and 
 the nations of the world. And now He had announced that 
 He would manifest Himself only to the disciples. What had 
 happened? He was greatly perplexed, not understanding 
 the deep spiritual meaning of the words of the Lord. 
 
 Our Lord, therefore, speaks words similar to those recorded 
 in verse 21: “If a man love me he will keep my word, and 
 my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and 
 make our abode with him.” ‘The spirit of obedience is 
 again made prominent and here it is not keeping His com- 
 mandments, but keeping His Word (not words). Keeping 
 the Word, being obedient to it, has attached to it one of the 
 greatest promises. The Father and the Son promise, 
 “We will come and make our abode with him.” This is, 
 of course, a spiritual coming and abiding in the heart of the 
 obedient believer. It is the highest and the best manifesta- 
 tion promised to the child of God, to become the dwelling 
 place of the Father and the Son. The realization of this 
 promise is conditioned on obedience to His Word. Well 
 has another said, “In God’s ordered path alone can we find 
 God. In His marked out way it would be impossible not 
 to find Him.” And when our Lord said, “We will come,” 
 He testifies again to His unity with the Father. 
 
 Then follows the same truth presented negatively: “He 
 that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings.” But there is 
 more than that involved. One who does not love Him and 
 shows his character by not keeping His sayings does more 
 than reject His words, he rejects the Father whose words 
 the Son declared. ‘‘Where there is no obedience to Christ, 
 there is no love. Nothing can be more plain than our Lord’s 
 repeated warnings that practical obedience, keeping His 
 commandments and sayings, doing His will, is the only sure 
 test of love to Him. Without this obedience, profession, 
 talk, knowledge, church-membership, yea, even feeling, 
 conviction, weeping and crying, are all worthless things.” 
 
 And as they listened with their ears to all these words of 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 289 
 
 comfort and instruction, their hearts did not grasp the mean- 
 ing of what He was saying to them. He told them that the 
 time would come when they would know and understand. 
 “But the Comforter (Paraclete) which is the Holy Spirit, 
 whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you 
 all things, and bring all things to your remembrance what- 
 soever I have said unto you.” The person of the Holy 
 Spirit, the other Advocate in their behalf, would supply 
 their lack of understanding. Through this coming One 
 they would remember all these things; He would teach them 
 and lead them into the things of Christ, even as He has done 
 and still does through the blessed redemption truths, 
 as taught by Him in the Epistles. The promise that the 
 Spirit would bring all things to their remembrance vouches 
 for the perfect accuracy of the four Gospels. ‘‘It is in the 
 fulfillment of this promise to the Apostles that their suffi- 
 ciency as witnesses of all that the Lord did and taught, 
 and consequently the authenticity of the Gospel narrative is 
 grounded.” 
 
 Verses 27-31. He gives them a legacy: ‘“‘Peace I leave 
 with you, my peace IJ give unto you.” About to leave the 
 world and go back to the Father, He made His will and be- 
 queathed to His own the priceless treasure of peace. But 
 we must notice the difference between the peace He left and 
 the peace He gives; the latter He calls ““My peace.” He 
 made peace in the blood of the cross. ‘Therefore being 
 justified by faith, we have peace with God through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ”? (Rom. v:1).\Peace’ with God 1s the 
 legacy of His death for all who trust in Him. It is the peace 
 He made and which we cannot make nor maintain. It is 
 ours as the gift of grace, a peace which can never be undone. 
 But there is also “the peace of God” of which we read in 
 Phil. iv:7.. This peace of God is the same as the peace He 
 promises to give and which is His own peace. While the 
 peace with God is the result of having accepted Christ as 
 Saviour, His peace is dependent on obedience to Him and 
 communion with Him. The Holy Spirit is given to dwell 
 in the believer so that the believer may know and enjoy 
 His own peace. The peace of God is that peace which God 
 possesses in the serenity of His being, and, because Christ 
 
290 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 is God, He had this marvelous peace which nothing could 
 disturb. He stood unmoved and unperturbed in the courts 
 of Caiaphas and in the judgment hall of the Roman Pilate. 
 We behold nothing but calmness in His blessed life. When 
 the waves began to fill the little ship and the disciples cried 
 out for fear, He knew no fear, but rested in perfect peace on 
 His pillow. When they wanted to cast Him down some 
 mountain side, or picked up stones to stone Him, He re- 
 mained undisturbed. He trusted God and knew the issues 
 of all. Hence this majestic peace. 
 
 We see the promise realized in the beginning of the history 
 of the Church on earth. It enabled the Apostles to stand 
 fearless and unmoved before the threatening Jewish author- 
 ities. It gave to Stephen a heavenly calmness in the midst 
 of the shower of stones. Peter, having “His peace,” slept 
 peacefully in chains. Paul and Silas, in possession of the 
 peace of God, sang praises at midnight, and Paul remained 
 undisturbed, surrounded by the Jerusalem mob, as he was 
 unmoved when the shipwreck was about to take place. It 
 was His peace, which kept the millions of martyrs, and 
 enabled them to meet the lions and the tigers with a song of 
 praise. Such is His blessed legacy. We also may enjoy 
 it all as we do His will and rest in Him. The formula for 
 it is simple. “Be anxious for nothing; but in everything by 
 prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests 
 be made known to God. And the peace of God, which 
 passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds 
 through Christ Jesus’ (Phil. iv:6-7). 
 
 Then there is the second, “‘Let not your heart be troubled, 
 neither let it be afraid.”’ Here is the true remedy for fear. 
 It is His peace in a life of trust and obedience. 
 
 In verse 28 He refers to His words in chapter xiii:33-36 and 
 xiv:2,3,12. In view of His going away and the promise of 
 His return, instead of being grieved, they should rejoice, for 
 He went back to the Father to represent them in His presence, 
 and finally He would return and take them to the Father’s 
 house with its many mansions. What did our Lord mean 
 when He said “for My Father is greater than I’’? Unitarians 
 and other anti-trinitarians use it as one of their star texts to 
 uphold their unscriptural theories. Is this statement not 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 291 
 
 inconsistent with the many declarations in this Gospel as 
 to His perfect unity with the Father? He who is one with 
 the Father had taken the place of a servant; He became man. 
 As such He was sent forth by the Father, derived His au- 
 thority from the Father, obeyed the Father, did the 
 Father’s will. The Lord Jesus Christ while very God, is 
 God manifested in the flesh, and God in His absolute Being 
 is greater than any manifestation of Him. God absolute 
 is more than God revealed. An ancient creed states, 
 “Christ is equal to the Father as touching His Godhead and 
 inferior to the Father as touching His manhood.” 
 
 He had told them before what would take place. After- 
 ward they would remember it all, as they did when they 
 believed. His words would be few for the time of His 
 passion was almost at hand. 
 
 Significant is the statement, ‘“I'he prince of this world 
 cometh and has nothing in Me.” He does not say that His 
 enemies are coming, but He mentions but one person, Satan, 
 the Devil. And he is ‘‘the prince of this world.” hat an 
 important statement from the lips of the Son of God! In 
 his first epistle John tells us that the whole world lieth in the 
 wicked one. Sin has made Satan the ruler over fallen man, 
 and the system which man builds up is alienated from God. 
 And when the world rejected Christ this sinister being 
 became “the god of this world,” or age (2 Cor. iv:4). He 
 came before to the Son of God with his tests, but found 
 nothing in Him. All he tried to do to keep Him back from 
 doing the will of God in redemption resulted in defeat. There 
 was nothing in our Lord which in any way could respond to 
 the Devil’s suggestion, for our Lord was absolutely sinless in 
 His human nature. And now Satan came for the final assault 
 and found only another defeat. 
 
 “But that the world may know that I love the Father, and 
 as the Father gave Me commandment even so I do. Arise, 
 let u's go hence.”” He was ready to go to the cross and thereby 
 show His love for the Father, by being obedient unto death, 
 yea, the death of the cross. 
 
292 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 The last sentence of the previous chapter is, ‘‘Arise, let us go 
 hence!”” A number of expositors think that our Lord arose 
 from the place where He had washed the disciples’ feet and 
 where He had spoken all these precious words, and that He 
 moved onward towards Gethsemane. On the way there He 
 continued to talk to the disciples till at some convenient place 
 He offered His great prayer in their presence, after which 
 Judas, with the band of men and officers, appeared to arrest 
 Him. We do not share this opinion. It is almost incon- 
 ceivable that our Lord shquld have spoken the great words 
 contained in chapters xv and xvi in the act of walking in 
 the night. It would also have been quite impossible for all 
 the eleven disciples to have heard Him if He walked ahead 
 of them. But the first verse of chapter xviii contradicts 
 the view that He left the room and walked across Kedron to 
 Gethsemane. ‘“‘When Jesus had spoken these words, He 
 went forth with His disciples over the brook Kedron, where 
 was a garden into which He entered, and His disciples.” 
 
 But if He did not leave the place, what did He mean when 
 He said, “‘Arise, let us go hence”? It must have a sym- 
 bolical meaning. He was about to leave the world, for Him, 
 though He is the creator of all, a strange place. Repeatedly 
 in His discourse and also in His prayer He mentions the 
 world. ‘The world cannot receive the Holy Spirit (xiv:17). 
 Only to His own and not to the world is He manifesting 
 Himself (xiv:21,22). He giveth, not as the world gives 
 (xiv:27).. The world hates Him and those who belong to 
 Him (xvi:18). They are the chosen ones out of the world, 
 and therefore separated ones (xvi:19). They are not of the 
 world even as He is not of the world (xvii:16). He was 
 leaving the world to go back to the Father, and for His own 
 it becomes also the strange place, no longer their home. 
 While they are in the world they are not of it and must be 
 separated from it. They must take their places with Him. 
 This is the spiritual meaning of the words He spoke and 
 what follows in His teaching confirms this. 
 
 Verses 1-8. Hespeaks to them ina parable. Those who 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 293 
 
 teach that He left the chamber where He had taught, say that 
 the parable was suggested by the vineyards on the way to 
 Gethsemane; others say that over the great doors of the 
 temple there was an immense vine carved, and that this vine 
 was in the mind of the Lord when He uttered these words. 
 We must look for a deeper reason. Every student of the 
 Word of God knows that Israel is symbolized by the three 
 trees, the Olive, the Fig-tree, and the Vine. These three 
 trees are mentioned together for the first time in Jotham’s 
 parable, in which they typify Israel; and the bramble, the 
 Gentiles (Judges ix:7-15). Asaph speaks of Israel thus: 
 ‘Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt, Thou hast cast out 
 the heathen and planted it” (Psalm Ixxx:8). Through 
 Jeremiah the Lord declared ‘Yet I had planted thee a noble 
 vine, wholly a right seed; how then art thou turned into the 
 degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?” (Jeremiah 
 11:21). 
 
 Ezekiel speaks of Israel as the vine (Ezekiel xv:2). Hosea 
 bears witness against Israel under the figure of the vine. 
 Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: 
 according unto the multitude of his fruit he hath increased 
 the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have 
 made goodly images” (Hos. x:1). But aboveall Isaiah has 
 a great message on Israel as the vine and the failure of Israel. 
 It is the song of the vineyard contained in chapter v:1-7. 
 He pictures first what the Lord did for Israel as the vine, and 
 then pictures Israel’s failure. “Wherefore when I looked that 
 it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?” 
 Then judgment is announced. “I will tell you what I will 
 do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof and 
 it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and 
 it shall be trodden down.” The fulfillment of all this was 
 at hand. Israel was about to crown its shameful history by 
 casting out the Son who had come to the vineyard and by 
 killing Him (see Matthew xxi:33-41). Israel as the vine had 
 completely failed; its judicial blindness and world-wide dis- 
 persion was near, not far away. 
 
 But here is the trwe Vine. Israel is called in Isaiah “‘the 
 servant of the Lord”; they failed, but Christ is the true 
 servant. He is the true Israel (Isaiah xlix) and He is 
 
294 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 the true Vine, as He is the true Light and the true 
 Bread. Upon the failure of Israel He announces Him- 
 self as the true vine, and those who believe on Him as 
 branches. What then is the meaning of this parable? In 
 the interpretation of it we must first of all remember the 
 purpose of a parable. It is to illustrate a great principle by 
 certain figures and pictures. ‘To apply each part of a par- 
 able to something definitely, or give it a literal interpretation 
 has done much harm. ‘Let us, instead of perplexing our- 
 selves with minor details, bear in mind that in interpreting 
 each of our Lord’s parables, the great purpose for which it 
 was delivered is ever to be born in mind, if we would under- 
 stand it rightly.”* ‘To base some great doctrine on the 
 figure of speech in a parable would lead, in some instances, 
 to confusion. What is the purpose of this parable? The 
 most prominent word is the word “‘fruit.”’ Six times we find 
 this word and it leaves us therefore not in doubt that the 
 purpose of the parable is fruit-bearing. Israel, the vine, had 
 brought forth wild grapes; Israel, the fig-tree, had nothing 
 but leaves; the branches of the olive tree were unbelieving 
 and had to be broken off. But now the true source of 
 fruitfulness for God is made known. It consists in living 
 union, in the closest identification with Christ. This fact 
 was prophetically hinted at in Hosea. There it is said of 
 Ephraim, Israel, which had joined itself to idols, that in some 
 future day they will say, ‘“‘What have I to do any more with 
 idols? I have heard Him, I have seen Him ae 
 Then the Lord says: “From Me thy fruit is found”? (Hosea 
 xiv:8). And when the Holy Spirit after the departure of our 
 Lord unfolds the fulness of Christianity, we read of the 
 truth taught in this parable in the Epistle to the Romans. 
 At the close of the sixth chapter of this great Epistle we read 
 of believers being made free from sin, bearing fruit unto 
 holiness. That this fruit is not produced by law-keeping, 
 by the use of the law, to which the true believer is dead, is 
 the teaching in the beginning of the seventh chapter. Then 
 we read: “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead 
 to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married 
 
 
 
 *Dean Bourgon. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 295 
 
 unto another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that 
 we should bring forth fruit unto God.” This is the great truth 
 the Lord illustrates in the parable of the vine and the 
 branches. The marriage union is used in Romans to illus- 
 trate the same principle. ‘The law could not produce fruit, 
 but being married to Him who is risen from the dead, 
 identified with Him, results in fruit bearing. 
 
 Christ, not in incarnation, but risen from the dead, the 
 corn of wheat, which fell into the ground and died, is the 
 source of life and power, the source of true fruit unto God. 
 This is the meaning of the figure ‘‘the true vine.”? Those 
 who believe on Him, accept Him as Saviour, are consequently 
 born again, and thus receiving the new nature, eternal life, are 
 constituted branches of the vine. The life and nature which is 
 in the vine is in the branch. The condition of fruit-bearing 
 is that the branch abide in the vine. If the branch is not 
 in the vine, the sap in the vine does not circulate in the 
 branch; there can be no fruit and the branch withers and is 
 dead; the only thing it is good for is to be cast into the fire 
 and to be burned. The secret of fruit-bearing is, therefore, 
 as mentioned repeatedly, to abide in Him and He in us, for 
 without Him we can do nothing. 
 
 But while He calls Himself the true vine, He also speaks 
 of the Father as the husbandman. The vine needs the care 
 of the husbandman, as also do the branches. We must not 
 overlook the fact that the Son of God came to earth and 
 brought fruit also unto God in dependence on the Father. 
 He testified to this fact when He said: “The Father who 
 abideth in Me doeth the works.”” As the Father was in Him, 
 and He in the Father, so the true believer is in Christ, and 
 Christ in him. To abide in Him means the con- 
 tinued exercise of faith in Him, that faith which is the very 
 breath of the new nature, which realizes constantly that 
 Christ is all, that depends on Him for everything and knows 
 its utter helplessness apart from Him. As a result of 
 such dependence the believer clings close to Him and lives 
 the life of close and intimate communion with Him. This 
 is the true abiding in Him, and explains the meaning of His 
 words: “‘Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot 
 bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can 
 
296 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the 
 branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in Him, the same 
 bringeth forth much fruit, for without Me ye can do nothing.” 
 But what is the fruit? The fruit which the branch bears is 
 the fruit of the vine. It is the fruit of Himself, produced 
 by the indwelling Spirit, the fruit which is like the true vine 
 Himself; it is Christlikeness. If this fruit is lacking it is an 
 evidence that the branch is lifeless. 
 
 “Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh 
 away, and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, 
 that it may bring forth more fruit... If a man abide 
 not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and 
 men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are 
 burned.” Here we face a difficulty. How can these state- 
 ments be reconciled, some ask, with the teachings of Scripture 
 of the perseverance in faith of the children of God, that a 
 true believer can never be lost? The verses we have quoted 
 have been used by many an Arminian theologian to con- 
 tradict what so many other passages teach, that is, the eternal 
 security of all believers. 
 
 The branches which bear no fruit, which are taken away 
 and finally perish do not represent true believers at all. 
 Whenever a person takes upon himself the profession of a 
 Christian, he claims by that outward profession to take the 
 place, the position, the privileges and responsibility of a 
 believer in Christ. He is in his profession a follower of 
 Christ, a separated one and also a branch in the vine. But 
 while his profession in churchmembership indicates all this, 
 in reality this person is only nominally a follower of Christ, 
 only nominally a branch in the vine, only nominally identi- 
 fied with Christ. He has not the reality of it, he does not 
 possess what he has taken upon himself in profession, for he 
 was never born again. Asa result there is no fruit, because 
 there is no life, Such a professing branch is here in view, a 
 branch joined to the church by profession, but not joined to 
 the Lord by a living faith and the power of the Spirit of 
 God. That there are thousands upon thousands of such 
 branches, dead and unfruitful in the professing church, does 
 not need any demonstration. It is only too evident. Such 
 will be taken away in judgment. But the real branches are 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 297 
 
 purged (or cleansed) by the ‘Father, to bring forth more 
 fruit. The evidence of being a living branch in the vine is 
 the fruitage,and the Father who desires fruit does to the true 
 believer what the husbandman does to the branch, in cutting 
 away and cleansing, so that there might be more fruit. The 
 cleansing is by the Word, and the different disciplines are 
 providences which the Father graciously uses with His beloved 
 children. 
 
 In verse 6, the solemn warning, it must be noticed that 
 our Lord changes his words from “‘ye” to “‘any one.” He 
 does not say “If ye (His disciples as true believers) abide 
 not in Me,” but, He says: “If any one (or man) does not 
 abide in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and 
 men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are 
 burned.” This change of address is significant and con- 
 clusive. The Lord thereby indicates that His true disciples 
 are not meant by Him. He would not have it supposed that 
 it might be possible for those who belong to Him, the gifts 
 of the Father, in whom His own life dwells, to be cast forth 
 and to share the fate of the wicked. In the next verse He 
 speaks again of His true disciples, and not of a mere pro- 
 fessor. “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, 
 ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” 
 Here is one of the secrets of effectual prayer, conditioned on 
 our nearness to Him. 
 
 “The doctrine here laid down and implied is a very remark- 
 able one. There are some Christians whose prayers are more 
 powerful and effectual than those of others. The nearer a 
 man lives to Christ, and the closer his communion with Him, 
 the more effectual will his prayers be. The truth of the 
 doctrine is so self-evident and reasonable, that no one on 
 reflection can deny it. He that lives nearest to Christ will 
 always be the man that feels most, and prays most earnestly, 
 and fervently, and heartily. Common sense shows that such 
 prayers are most likely to get answers. Many believers get 
 little from God, because they ask little, or ask amiss. The 
 holiest saints are the most earnest in prayer, and they con- 
 sequently get the most.’’* 
 
 *Bishop Ryle. 
 
298 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 In bearing much fruit, His Father is glorified, and in glori- 
 fying Him, whom the Son glorifies, we give evidence that we 
 are His disciples. 
 
 Verses 9-11. Could there be a greater comforting assur- 
 ance than that which our Lord gave to His disciples and to us 
 as well, contained in the ninth verse? “As the Father hath 
 loved Me so have I loved you; continue ye in My love.” He 
 was the Father’s delight and the object of His love. Who 
 can measure the love which the Father has for the Son? And 
 His own are now the objects of the love of the Son of God in 
 the same degree as He is beloved by the Father. Believers - 
 are the “Beloved of God called Saints” (Rom. 1:7). But in 
 order to know this love, to enjoy it, we must continue, abide 
 in His love. What it means to abide in His love is made 
 known in the verse which follows. ‘If ye keep my com- 
 mandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept 
 My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” He 
 walked in obedience as Man; His meat and His drink was 
 to do the will of Him that sent Him, thus He abode in His 
 Father’s love. This must be the path of His own. It is in 
 practical obedience that we abide in His love; without it 
 there can be no assurance and enjoyment of His love. 
 “Hereby we know that we know Him, if we keep His com- 
 mandments” (1 John ii:3). And if we fail in this practical 
 obedience, as we often do, we flee to Him with confession and 
 self-judgment and find that His mighty, loving advocacy 
 restores us to the fellowship which disobedience severed. We 
 call attention to the little word “as.” It is used by our 
 Lord several times in these chapters. As the Father loveth 
 Him so He loveth us. As He kept His Father’s command- 
 ments so we are to keep His commandments. ds He is not 
 of the world, even so are we not of the world (xvii:16). 4s 
 the Father sent Him into the world even so has He sent us 
 into the world. 
 
 The blessed purpose of all these words is that His joy might 
 remain in us and that joy inus might be full. He had spoken 
 of His peace, the legacy He has left (xiv:27) and now He 
 speaks of His “joy.”? His is the greatest joy, the joy of the 
 Redeemer, who has accomplished redemption. ‘This was the 
 joy set before Him, for which He endured the cross and 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 299 
 
 despised the shame (Heb. xii:1-3). We can share His joy, 
 and as we walk in His blessed steps, following Him as our 
 pattern, abiding in Him and in His love, our joy in Him will 
 be full. We rejoice with Him in the things in which He 
 rejoices. 
 
 Verses 12-16. In chapter xiii:34 He had given the new 
 commandment that believers should love one another; this 
 He repeats and adds again the measure of that love, “fas [have 
 loved you.” The Holy Spirit in the Epistle to the Colossians 
 speaks of true Christian conduct, “‘Forbearing one another 
 and forgiving one another; if any man have a quarrel against 
 any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye”’ (Col. iti:13). 
 If the words of our Lord were always practiced and this ad- 
 monition of the Spirit of God obeyed, there would never be 
 any disagreement or unpleasantness amongst God’s people. 
 Some one writes: ‘“The crossness, spitefulness, jealousy, 
 maliciousness and general disagreeableness of many high pro- 
 fessors of ‘sound doctrine’ are a positive scandal to Christian- 
 ity. Where there is little love there can be little grace.” 
 With these words we fully agree. 
 
 Then He spoke to them as His friends. They were Jewish 
 believers, and as such under the old dispensation they were 
 servants, but grace made them His friends (Gal. iv:1-7). 
 The manifestation of the greatest love is to lay down the life, 
 that is self-sacrificing love, dying for His friends. This love 
 He manifested towards them by dying in their stead, and 
 though He called them His friends, by nature they were, as 
 we all are, enemies by wicked works, and as such we need 
 His propitiatory death. ‘‘For when we were yet without 
 strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For 
 scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure 
 for a good man some would even dare to die. But God com- 
 mendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet 
 sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom. v:6-8). Such is the 
 example of His love. And self-sacrificing love must be the 
 measure of our love towards our brethren. Our relationship 
 to Him as friends demands obedience. 
 
 While it is true that every believer is a servant of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the word servant in verse 15 refers to the 
 state of Jewish believers under the law. Identified with 
 
300 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Him He constitutes us His intimate friends and introduces 
 us to all things He has heard of the Father, making known 
 to the believer’s heart through the Scriptures the deep 
 things of God. We are reminded here of Abraham, not 
 under the law-covenant (the law came 430 years after), 
 but under the grace-covenant, that the Lord made the secret 
 things known to him. Abraham is called the friend of God 
 (Isaiah xli:8; James 11:23). The Lord came to Him in the 
 garb of man and then said, ‘‘Shall I hide from Abraham that 
 thing which I do?” And let us remember in that theophany 
 the same One was revealed to Abraham who talked to these 
 sons of Abraham in these blessed words. 
 
 “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and 
 ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and 
 that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask 
 of the Father in My name He may give it you.”” The choice 
 here means both the choice of eternal election to salvation 
 and to the office of apostles. We did not seek Him, but He 
 sought us when we were lost and completely undone. What 
 a precious assurance it is, not that we have chosen Him, but 
 that He has done so. The following remarks by the late 
 Bishop J. C. Ryle give additional suggestions on this verse: 
 
 “When our Lord says, ‘I have chosen and ordained you 
 that ye should go and bring forth fruit,’ I think He refers to 
 the work of conversion and building a church in the world. 
 ‘I chose and set you apart for this great purpose, that ye 
 should go into all the world preaching the Gospel, and 
 gathering in the harvest and fruit of saved souls; and that 
 this work begun by you might remain and continue long after 
 your deaths.’ And then to encourage the eleven, He adds, 
 ‘It was part of my plan that so bringing forth fruit, ye should 
 obtain by prayer everything that ye need for your work.’ ” 
 
 Verses 17-21. When our Lord says “these things I 
 command you,” He had reference to all these instructions He 
 had given to them. He speaks next of the identification of 
 Himself with His disciples. ‘The blessed truth He states, the 
 oneness of the believer with Himself, is fully made known in 
 the Pauline epistles. For the first time He states the great 
 fact that believers in Him, those who are the gifts of the 
 Father, whom He hath chosen out of the world, are not of the 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 301 
 
 world. In His highpriestly prayer we shall return to this 
 great statement. He was not of the world, and those who 
 are born again, in possession of the divine nature, are not of 
 the world, even as He is not of the world. Because He is not 
 of the world, the world which lieth in the wicked one hates 
 Him, and it hates equally all who belong to Him. Alas! how 
 little of this hatred from the side of the world is known today 
 to true believers. Has the world changed? Is it no longer 
 the evil world? Is ita different world from what it was 2,000 
 years ago? Is it no longer in the wicked one? The world 
 does not change in its moral aspect; it is the same evil age it 
 has always been. Satan is still the prince of this world, and 
 the god of this age. The world does not improve; it still hates 
 Christ. But the trouble is with believers. They do not live 
 out their separation. ‘They have forgotten the fact that 
 believers are dead to the world and the world dead unto them. 
 Nor are exhortations like James iv:4 and 1 John ii:15-17 
 heeded. If we live as separated ones, bearing a definite 
 witness in our lives as to our place in Christ, we soon shall 
 find that the words of our Lord are still true. The servant 
 is not greater than His Lord. They hated Him, they would 
 hate them; they persecuted Him, and the disciples would 
 also be persecuted. 
 
 Verses 22-27. In verses 22 to 25 He gives a resume of the 
 three years now closing He had spent in the midst of His 
 people. He had spoken to them the words of life, revealed 
 the truth, warned them, invited them, yea, He would have 
 gathered them as a hen gathers her chickens, yet they would 
 not. They compassed Him about with words of hatred; for 
 His love they became His adversaries (Psalm cix:3-4). They 
 hated Him, they hated His Father. He had done His 
 mighty works and the works of the Father; they had seen 
 both and hated both. Their own Scripture had been ful- 
 filled, they hated Him without a cause (Psalm cix:3). 
 
 Another announcement of the soon coming of the Paraclete, 
 the Holy Spirit, sent by Him from the Father, the Spirit of 
 truth, follows. When He comes He will testify of Him. This 
 is the great work of the Holy Spirit, to bear witness to Christ. 
 Chapter xvi:13-15 enlarges upon this. And when He has 
 come, they also would be enabled to bear witness, on account 
 
302 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 of their association with Him from the beginning of His 
 ministry. ‘This promise is repeated by Him after His resur- 
 rection: ‘““But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy 
 Spirit is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me 
 both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto 
 the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8). 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Verses 1-7. The chapter division at this point is un- 
 fortunate. There should be no break between the last verse 
 of the preceding chapter and the beginning of the sixteenth. 
 He had informed them of the world’s hatred; it would be the 
 same hatred with which the world hated Him. Linked with 
 this information is the promise of the coming of the Holy 
 Spirit to testify, and to enable them to be witnesses. The 
 thought might have arisen in their minds that the coming of 
 that Spirit would change things as far as the world is con- 
 cerned. He guards them against such a false hope and gives 
 a prophetic warning so that they might not be offended. He 
 announces that they would be put out of the synagogue. 
 Such an excommunication carried with it the meaning of a 
 complete cutting off from the nation and the national hope, 
 so that the Jew who was treated thus was considered out- 
 side, like a heathen. It meant the loss of everything. The 
 blind man whom the Lord healed (chapter ix) had been 
 cast out of the synagogue. Such was to be their fate. But 
 He predicts more than that. They would be killed, and their 
 death would be considered service for God. This prophecy 
 has been fulfilled in the entire history of the Church. Saul 
 of Tarsus, the young Pharisee and son of a Pharisee, perse- 
 cuted the Church and wasted it. He made havoc of the 
 Church, entering every house and hailing‘ men and women and 
 committing them to prison, and consenting to Stephen’s 
 death (Acts vili:1-4).. He thought it was zeal for God, for he 
 testified later “‘concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touch- 
 ing the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Phil. 
 11:6). And when this erstwhile persecutor had been saved, 
 he also found out the truth of these words. The Jews hated 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 303 
 
 him; they persecuted him, scourged him and tried to take 
 his life, thinking, as he did once, that they were serving 
 God. Behind all persecutions stands the liar and murderer 
 from the beginning, that is, the devil. During the Middle 
 Ages, when the papal persecutions swept over many lands, 
 when the horrible inquisition ruled, with its satanic tortures, 
 and countless thousands were put to a cruel death, popes, 
 bishops and priests acted as murderers under the satanic de- 
 lusion that they were serving God and the Church. 
 
 The future will bring another fulfillment of the words of 
 our Lord, for during the coming great tribulation pious 
 Jews, who believe on Jesus as their Messiah, their coming 
 King, will be martyred again. The prophet Daniel (chapter 
 1x:19-22) and the book of Revelation (chapter xii) tell us 
 of this. He is forewarning them and those who came after 
 them, yea, His whole Church, what they were to expect dur- 
 ing this present evil age. He did not speak of these things in 
 the beginning, when they first followed Him, so as not to 
 discourage them, but now He told them what the unbeliev- 
 ing Jews and the hating world would do unto them. 
 
 He told them that He was going back to Him who 
 sent Him, and perhaps mournfully He added, ‘“‘None of you 
 asketh Me, Whither goest Thou?” It is true Peter had 
 asked the question, but at best it was just a question of 
 inguisitiveness and not a desire to lay hold on the deeper 
 meaning of His return to the Father. Instead of asking of 
 Him more about that place to which He said He would 
 soon go, and the future glory of which He had spoken, they 
 were only moved by the thought that He would leave them; 
 on account of this their hearts were filled with sorrow. His 
 going away was expedient for them. ‘‘For if I go not away, 
 the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart I will 
 send Him unto you.” His going away meant, of course 
 first of all, His sacrificial death on the cross, followed by His 
 burial, His triumphant resurrection and His glorious ascen- 
 sion, when He took the place on the right hand of God. As 
 a result of His blessed work, the third person of the Trinity 
 came down to earth, to take His place in and with His own. 
 The presence, that is, the omnipresence of God the Holy 
 Spirit in the true Church, and in every individual believer, 
 
304 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 is a better thing than the continued presence of our Lord on 
 earth, in His state of humiliation. In this sense it was 
 beneficial for them that He should go away. 
 
 ““The presence of the Holy Spirit is a greater comfort and 
 advantage to us than the presence of Christ in the flesh. 
 Christ’s bodily presence was comfortable, but the Spirit is 
 more intimately a Comforter than Christ in His fleshly 
 presence; because the Spirit can comfort all believers at 
 once in all places, while Christ’s bodily presence can com- 
 fort but few, and that only in one place at once. The bene- 
 fit of Christ’s presence was great, but the advantage of the 
 Spirit’s renovation and holy inspiration is much greater.” 
 
 Verses 8-15. What the effect of the presence of the Holy 
 Spirit means in the world is now taught by our Lord. These 
 words are generally misunderstood. ‘The common interpre- 
 tation is that the Holy Spirit convinces people that they are 
 lost sinners, that they need righteousness and also convinces 
 them of a coming judgment. Conviction of sin is certainly 
 the work of the Holy Spirit, who also quickens those who 
 believe, but this is not the teaching of the passage before us 
 in this paragraph. Much depends on the right rendering of 
 the word “reprove.” It has not the meaning of an inward 
 conviction, but rather means a conviction by demonstra- 
 tion. It means conviction by an unanswerable argument. 
 The Holy Spirit on earth is the convicting demonstration of 
 the world’s sin, for having cast Him out, and rejecting the 
 Lord of Glory, and having not believed on Him. The world 
 therefore is under condemnation and the Holy Spirit in His 
 presence on earth bears witness to it. ‘Then the presence 
 of the Holy Spirit is the convicting demonstration of right- 
 eousness, because He has gone to the Father. The Son of God 
 who lived the life of perfect righteousness on earth, who 
 pleased God always, was condemned by the world as an 
 unrighteous man. They cast Him out and all was done 
 in the name of God. Perhaps some of them stood before the 
 Cross when that dread darkness enshrouded the Lamb of 
 God and heard the cry ‘““My God, My God, why hast ‘Thou 
 forsaken Me?” and they may have imagined a vindication 
 of their awful deed. But God in His righteousness acted in 
 His behalf. He raised Him from the dead and gave Him 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 305 
 
 glory. He rewarded Him who had been obedient to Him 
 in His holy life, obedient unto death, the death of the cross. 
 The world sees Him no more but the presence of the Holy 
 Spirit demonstrates His righteousness and is the con- 
 victing argument that He is at the right hand of God. And 
 therefore but one thing remains for the unbelieving world 
 with its guilt, and that is judgment. Already the prince of 
 this world is judged, though the full sentence of judgment 
 in the all-wise purpose of God is not yet executed. The 
 Holy Spirit on earth therefore is the convicting evidence 
 of that coming judgment. 
 
 The many things which were on His loving heart they could 
 not understand in their present condition. The coming of 
 the Spirit would bring to them the revelation of these things. 
 He is the Spirit of truth and therefore He will lead into all 
 truth. The word truth, means both the written Word and 
 the living Word. The Spirit has come to guide us into all 
 truth, the truth as it is revealed in the Bible. Believers, 
 many of whom are found in certain Pentecostal sects, who 
 believe and teach that there is a Spirit-guidance indepen- 
 dent of the Bible, by inward impressions, by dreams and 
 visions, are deluded. Some have gone so far as to declare 
 that their inward experiences are sufficient and that they 
 have no more need to study the Word of God. And the 
 Word of God, which is truth, witnesses of Him Who 1s the 
 Truth. It is noteworthy that in the Greek the word truth 
 in the above passage has the definite article—He shall 
 guide you into all the truth. Through the written Word He 
 guides to Him Who is the Truth, our Lord. 
 
 He does not speak from Himself, that is in independence 
 from the Father andtheSon. His testimony is the testimony 
 of the Father and the Son, as the Son on earth heard the 
 Father’s voice and spoke of that which He heard from 
 the Father. Furthermore, He will show things to come. 
 This was fulfilled in the inspired witness of the Apostles, 
 Paul, Peter, John, James and Jude all bore a prophetic 
 testimony; they prophesied concerning the future of the 
 church, the evils to come, the coming of Christ and the day 
 of the Lord. Let no one therefore think that the Holy 
 Spirit continues now to give prophecies through individuals. 
 
 a“ 
 
306 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 He has shown the things to come in the completed Word of 
 God and we must turn there to know these future events. 
 
 But His great work is to glorify Christ. Hereby may be 
 known the real ministry of the Spirit, when Christ is exalted. 
 The Book of Acts is a witness to all this. Peter on the day 
 of Pentecost exalted Christ by the Spirit who filled him and 
 used him as His mouthpiece. Every leading testimony in 
 the Acts has but one theme, Christ. The heart filled with the 
 Spirit, governed by Him, has but one ambition, to glorify 
 Christ. And all things which are Christ’s, the glory the 
 Father has given to Him, He will show to those who abide 
 in Christ. 
 
 Verses 16-24. What did our Lord mean when He said to 
 His sorrowing disciples “A little while, and ye shall not see 
 me”’ and “‘a little while and ye shall see me’? What is the 
 meaning of ‘“‘a little while’? It has been applied to His 
 death and resurrection in the sense that He meant it would 
 be a little while until He would die and be buried, a little 
 while and they would see Him in resurrection. ‘This view is 
 untenable. Equally so is the view that the Lord meant by 
 “the little while,’ the time when they would see Him, His 
 second coming. 
 
 It is true the same expression in the original is used in 
 Hebrews x:37, where it undoubtedly means the return of 
 our Lord, but this in itself is no proof at all that it must 
 mean the same in this verse. If we consult the original 
 language, we find that there are used two different verbs 
 translated with “‘see.”? The first “‘see’? has the meaning of 
 beholding with the physical eye; the second, used in the 
 sentence ‘‘a little while and ye shall see Me,” has the meaning 
 of “perceiving”’—that is, a spiritual vision. Inasmuch as the 
 Holy Spirit employs these two words, the first one mean- 
 ing an external perception by the physical eye, the other 
 meaning a spiritual perception, our Lord could not have 
 meant His second coming. It must be interpreted as the 
 coming of the Holy Spirit to take His place as the other 
 Comforter. ‘Through his office and work the believer beholds 
 Him in faith who has gone to the Father. Such was the 
 effect of the Holy Spirit’s filling Stephen. ‘But he being 
 full of the Holy Spirit, looked steadfastly into heaven, 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 307 
 
 and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right 
 hand of God” (Acts vii:55). His, of course, was an actual 
 vision, but the Holy Spirit in the believer gives the spiritual 
 vision of Christ in glory. | 
 
 This saying of our Lord occasioned new questionings 
 among the eleven disciples. They were greatly puzzled 
 about the expression, “‘a little while.” 
 
 They frankly confessed that they did not know what He 
 was speaking about. When they were thus conversing 
 among themselves, they probably stood by themselves, 
 withdrawing from the Lord a little distance. But He, the 
 omniscient One, knew what they were talking about and what 
 was on their hearts, and that they were anxious to ask 
 Him. After stating Himself their perplexity, He said to 
 them: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep 
 and lament, but the world shall rejoice, and ye shall be sor- 
 rowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” It is 
 another “verily” with which He introduced this prophetic 
 statement. The word used for weeping is the general word 
 for external expression of grief; the word lament means 
 to wail, and is used in connection with the hired mourners 
 at funerals (see Mark v:38; Luke xxiii:27); the word sor- 
 rowful expresses the inward feeling of the heart. Such 
 were for the disciples the emotions connected with His 
 death, the ignominous death of the cross, while the world, 
 their enemies, exhibited a malignant joy. But the words of our 
 Lord picture also the conditions prevailing throughout this 
 age, the age called elsewhere, Man’s day. This age is 
 for true believers an age of sorrow, weeping and lamentation, 
 while the self-secure world, blinded by the god of this age, 
 goes on with seeming Joy. 
 
 This view is supported by His own words in Matthew 
 ix:15, “Can the children of the bridechamber mourn as 
 long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, 
 when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and 
 then shall they fast.” 
 
 He speaks of a woman. When she is in travail to give 
 birth to a child she is in sorrow, “‘but as soon as she is delivered 
 of the child she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy 
 that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore 
 
308 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall 
 rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” This also 
 refers to this age and the anguish and sorrow for His true 
 people, looking forward to the time when all groaning, sorrow 
 and pain ends for His waiting Church, when all His own, 
 in the day of His coming again, will see Him as He is. Then 
 the joy begins which will never end. ‘These words also have 
 a more special meaning in connection with the close of the 
 present age. Before the great promised regeneration takes 
 place, when He will take His own throne (Matthew xix:28), 
 there will be a great travail in pain and sorrow among the 
 remnant of His people Israel. Of this the prophetic Word 
 speaks repeatedly in passages like Isaiah xxvi:17; Ixvi:7, 
 Hosea xiii:13 and especially Micah iv:9-10. Then the rem- 
 nant of God-fearing Jews, typically represented by the 
 eleven, will be delivered by His glorious manifestation. 
 
 The verse division in verses 23 and 24 obscures the real 
 meaning. ‘The first sentence of verse 23 must be added 
 to verse 22, and the last sentence of verse 23 belongs to verse 
 24. We read it correctly in this wise: “But I will see you again 
 (at His coming glory) and your heart shall rejoice and your 
 joy no man taketh from you. In that day (of His return) 
 ye shall ask Me nothing.” The word “ask” is a different 
 word from that used in the second half of verse 23. It 
 means to ask questions, such as they were asking. In that 
 coring day all believers shall know, as they are known, and 
 shall look no longer in a glass darkly. Therefore, He said 
 that in that day they will have nothing more to ask. 
 
 Then we read verse 24 in this wise: ‘‘Verily, verily I say 
 unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name 
 He will give it to you. Hitherto ye have asked nothing in 
 My name; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be 
 full.” It is the last “Verily” in the Gospel of John, in which 
 this blessed word of precious assurance is so frequently 
 used. It concerns prayer and its blessed use, after the 
 coming of the Holy Spirit. Up to now they had prayed the 
 prayer which any pious Israelite might pray, that form of 
 prayer which He gave them on their request to teach them 
 to pray, as John the Baptist had taught his disciples to pray. 
 I'rom now on they were to pray in His name. And what a 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 309 
 
 marvelous privilege it is—the God-given means of a full 
 joy. The saintly Gerhard spoke of prayer as follows: 
 
 “The benefit of prayer is so great that it cannot be ex- 
 pressed!—Prayer is the dove which when sent out, returns 
 again, bringing with it the olive-leaf, namely peace of heart. 
 Prayer is the golden chain which God holds fast, and lets 
 not go until He blesses. Prayer is the Moses’ rod, which 
 brings forth the water of consolation out of the rock of salva- 
 tion. Prayer is Samson’s jawbone, which smites down our 
 enemies. Prayer is David’s harp, before which the evil 
 spirit flies. Prayer is the key to Heaven’s treasures.” 
 
 Verses 25-33. This paragraph records the final words of 
 the memorable discourse of our Lord, preceding the greatest 
 of all, His intercessory prayer. He reminds them first that 
 He had spoken all these things in proverbs, or figures, show- 
 ing that He knew how unable they were to comprehend all. 
 But this would soon be changed, when He would show them 
 plainly the Father. What time is this? No doubt the time 
 when the Holy Spirit came toearth. The entire dispensation 
 of the Spirit has brought to believers the full knowledge 
 of the Father and the Son. The Fatherhood of God and the 
 Sonship of the believer is the distinctive revelation given 
 to the believing heart by the Holy Spirit. ‘“‘And because 
 ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into 
 your hearts, crying, Abba, Father’? (Gal. iv:6). “For ye 
 have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but 
 ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, 
 Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself beareth witness with 
 our spirit that we are the children of God” (Rom. vii: 
 15, 16). Once more prayer in His name is mentioned by 
 Him and the assurance given of the Father’s love, and that 
 He will hear those who come to Him in His name. 
 
 Verse 28. “I came forth from the Father, and am come 
 into the world; again I leave the world, and go to the 
 Father,” is a most important declaration. It is a summary 
 of the whole Gospel of John in its scope. It is more than that. 
 It contains all the great facts of His Person, His Glory, and 
 His Work. Here we have His Deity; He came forth from 
 the Father: His incarnation; He came into the world: 
 His life on earth; His leaving the world supposes His sacri- 
 
310 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 ficial death and His resurrection: His going back to the 
 Father; His ascension and glorification. 
 
 This wonderful statement made a deep impression upon 
 the disciples and seems to have clarified their vision. They 
 acknowledged the plainness of His speech, that it was no 
 longer in a figurative way He spoke. They had a vision of 
 His Deity; they realized afresh that He knew all things; 
 they expressed their faith that He came forth from God. 
 And the Lord answered them by a word of warning. “Do 
 ye now believe?” Is it so in reality? He knew their 
 faith would soon be severely tested. As the disciples had 
 said ‘““Thou knowest all things,” even so He knew what 
 would happen. <A few hours more and they would be 
 scattered; Peter would deny Him and all would leave 
 Him alone. Then He added His own precious assurance. 
 ‘And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.” 
 But how can this be reconciled with the fact that He 
 hung on the cross, and, when that dread darkness en- 
 shrouded Him, uttered that unfathomable word, “‘My 
 God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” There is no 
 difficulty. Some speak carelessly of Him as being forsaken 
 by the Father on the cross; but He was never forsaken by 
 the Father. The Father never forsook Him; the Father 
 never left Him alone. He was forsaken of God. 
 
 And blessed are His words of comfort and cheer, not 
 alone for those who heard Him, but for all His own. “These 
 things have I spoken to you, that in Me ye might have 
 peace.” Peace, true peace, lasting peace is only found in 
 Him. He announces tribulation for His own in the world. 
 “But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 311 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 We reach the most precious portion of our Gospel. The 
 chapter which is now before us has rightly been called the 
 Sanctum Sanctorum of the Gospel. It is the Holy of Holies, 
 for we behold here our great High Priest in the presence 
 of the Father, and we hear Him utter His great prayer of 
 intercession. It is the true Lord’s prayer. The so-called 
 Lord’s prayer, the “Our Father,” was given to His disciples 
 in answer to their request, but He never prayed that prayer 
 Himself. He spent nights in prayer on mountain tops, in 
 desert places, but we do not know what He prayed, for it 
 has not pleased the Holy Spirit to give us a record of these 
 prayer nights. Here we have the words of the prayer which 
 He prayed. It has depths which the finite mind cannot 
 fathom. No saint can comprehend the full meaning of this 
 great prayer. No complete exposition or interpretation can 
 ever be given. Three of the Puritan preachers have expounded 
 this chapter. Manton’s sermons on it make a volume of 
 400 folio pages; George Newton’s exposition is contained 
 in nearly 600 folio pages and Burgess’s sermons on this 
 chapter comprise 700 large pages. But not one of these 
 great preachers claimed to have given a complete exegesis 
 or exhaustive treatment. If all the Puritan preachers and 
 all the other men of God in all ages were to combine, they 
 would not be able to exhaust the riches of the seventeenth 
 chapter of John. 
 
 We approach it, therefore, with the deepest reverence, for 
 we are on holy ground. Let us remember that eleven men 
 listened to Him praying. As they heard these blessed words, 
 as they came from His lips, they learned afresh how He 
 loved them, how He cared for them, what He had done for 
 them, what He would do for them, and they heard also of 
 their glorious future. Through these words of prayer they 
 had a deep glimpse of His loving heart. And as we begin 
 to meditate on His words we still hear Him pray, and as we 
 
Gr THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 listen to His voice we too shall learn more and more of his 
 mighty love, the love which passeth knowledge.* 
 
 Verses 1-3. ‘There is no need of speculating about the 
 locality where this took place. Some think it was in the 
 same place where He had given His farewell words; others 
 think it must have been out in the open, and they surmise 
 it may have been before He passed over Kedron to enter the 
 garden. ‘The text shows nothing as to the exact place. He 
 had finished speaking all these words, recorded in the pre- 
 ceding chapters, and now He lifted up His eyes to heaven. 
 From there He had come, a little while longer and He would 
 go back to. heaven. Between the present solemn moment 
 when He addressed the Father, and His physical return to 
 heaven to take His place at the right hand of God, lies the 
 cross, His sacrificial death, His burial and His resurrection. 
 Many times before had He lifted up His eyes to heaven. He 
 did so when He broke the five loaves to feed the thousands 
 who had gathered. He looked to heaven when He healed the 
 deaf and dumb. When He stood before the tomb of Lazarus 
 about to raise him from the dead, He also lifted up His eyes 
 to heaven. And how many more times He must have looked 
 up! Then the first word came from His lips. He said, 
 “Father, the hour is come.” Five more times our Lord 
 uses the word Father in His prayer (verses 5, 11, 21, 24 
 and 25). He is the Son of God and as such addressed God 
 as Father. And all who believe on Him, and are therefore 
 born again, born into the family of God, also lift up their 
 eyes to;heaven and say with Him, Father. ‘“‘As many as 
 received Him, to them gave He power to become the children 
 of God, even to them that believe on His name, which 
 were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of 
 God” (i:12, 13). And because we are sons, God hath sent 
 forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying Abba, 
 Father (Gal. iv:6). For through Him we both have access 
 by one Spirit unto the Father (Eph. ii:18). 
 
 
 
 *We do not care to say much about the views of the modernists. 
 Their wicked infidelity becomes very evident when they claim that the 
 Lord never uttered these words, and when they deny the Johanine 
 authorship. They say that some unknown Greek writer, aided by the 
 Pauline theology composed this prayer. This invention is as puerile 
 as it is vicious. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 313 
 
 The first thing He tells the Father is that the hour is 
 come. What hour is it? Several times before He had spoken 
 of that hour, that it was not yet come (chapter vii:30 and 
 viii:20). It is the hour which had been fixed by the triune 
 God before the foundation of the world; the hour which in 
 the eternal counsels had been marked out for the sacrificial 
 work and death of the Son of God, the appointed Lamb of 
 God. For four thousand years the Spirit of God in the 
 Word announced that hour. Beginning with the third 
 chapter of Genesis where the fall of man is recorded, that 
 hour becomes the subject of divine revelation. In type, 
 history and prophecies it is constantly pointed out, the 
 hour in which He should make “His soul an offering for 
 sin.’ For the sake of that hour He had left the bosom of 
 the Father, for that hour He had taken on in the Virgin 
 birth the human body. It was the great end purpose of 
 the incarnation. 
 
 Then follows His first petition. “Glorify Thy Son, that 
 Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” We notice first another 
 striking evidence of the Deity of our Lord. Only one who 
 is equal with God, who is God, could ever utter such words. 
 They would be blasphemy in the lips of a mere creature. 
 The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has glorified the 
 Father every moment during His life on earth and now He 
 asks to be glorified, so that He might glorify the Father 
 in being glorified. These words can only be explained 
 in their meaning by what was to take place in the hour 
 before Him, and what would follow that hour, namely, 
 His sacrificial death, His burial, His resurrection and His 
 exaltation to the right hand of God. ‘This glory He asked 
 of the Father. And as a result of being thus glorified as 
 the Lamb of God, the sin-bearer by His suffering and death, 
 as well as His glorious resurrection and exaltation, the 
 Father would be glorified. The work of God the Son in His 
 suffering and the glory which followed, glorifies every 
 attribute of the Father. It manifests His holiness, His 
 righteousness, His justice, His mercy, His love and His 
 faithfulness, as well as His power. In all the Son of God 
 suffered as the sin-bearer the Father is glorified and in all 
 He received in glory the Father is glorified. 
 
314 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Next the fact is stated by Him that the Father has given 
 Him power, or authority, over all flesh, to bestow eternal 
 life to as many as the Father has given unto Him. All 
 power and authority belongs to the Son of God, and, in the 
 realm of redemption, power is conferred upon Him by the 
 Father. This power extends over all flesh, which denotes 
 the entire human race, Jews and Gentiles. But all flesh 1s 
 not being saved, but those who believe on Him, are the 
 gift of the Father to the Son, and these constitute the 
 members of His body.  Ultra-Calvinists apply the term 
 ‘fall flesh” to the elect only, but that is incorrect. ‘There is 
 implied a redemption in its offer, but not in its results. The 
 whole is given to Him, but only that He may impart eternal 
 life to the chosen. Who are thus chosen is indicated in 
 chapter vi:40, namely, “every one that seeth the Son and 
 has faith in Him.” The gift He bestows upon those is 
 eternal life, as we read in Romans vi:26, “The gift of God 
 is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” What this eternal 
 life is we have expounded before. But we read, “‘And this 
 is life eternal, that they might know ‘Thee as the only true 
 God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” Eternal 
 life is something received, the impartation of a new nature, 
 the divine nature. It is therefore a present possession and 
 carries with it the positive and blessed knowledge of the only 
 true God, and the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom the 
 Father sent into the world. Such knowledge is out of the 
 reach of the natural man. Such a one may have a head 
 knowledge about God and Christ, but what is meant here 
 is the true knowledge of God, and our Lord, and which is 
 manifested in a life of righteousness, a walk in fellowship 
 with the Father and the Son. 
 
 Critics have made much of it that the third person is used, 
 as well as the fact that our Lord speaks of Himself as Jesus 
 Christ. It is true such a declaration is not found elsewhere 
 in the Gospels, but this is not an evidence that a later writer 
 composed this prayer, as the rationalists claim. ‘The time 
 had come for Him to declare His Messiahship and He did 
 so in His prayer, and called Himself Jesus the Christ, the 
 Messiah, in the Father’s presence and within the hearing 
 of His disciples. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 315 
 
 Verses 4-5. We cannot be in doubt what the first part of the 
 fourth verse means. It refers to His holy life on earth, in 
 which He constantly glorified the Father. But what does it 
 mean “I have finished the work Thou gavest Me to do’’? 
 We have, in teaching on this chapter, always stated it 
 means the finished work on the Cross. But some have a 
 difficulty. If He meant the finished work, His death, how 
 could He speak thus, when that work was still unfinished? 
 We must remember that elsewhere in this prayer He speaks 
 of being “no longer in the world” yet He was still here. In 
 anticipation He looks onward beyond the cross. He knew 
 His work could never fail, that it would be finished,and there- 
 fore He gives expression to it in the presence of the Father 
 and for the comfort of His own. Augustinus states this in an 
 excellent way: “Christ saith He has finished, that which He 
 most surely knows He will finish. Thus long before in 
 prophecy He used verbs of past tense, when that which He 
 said was to come to pass after many years. “They pierced 
 my hands and feet’ He says, not they will pierce.” 
 
 The fifth verse introduces us to one of the most striking 
 utterances of our Lord, which demonstrates His Deity. 
 If there were in the whole Bible no other statement revealing 
 the Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ but only this fifth 
 verse in this chapter, His Deity would be forever established. 
 The self witness of our Lord as spoken to the Father tells us 
 two things: He was with the Father before the world ever 
 existed and He possessed glory with the Father. That out- 
 ward glory, the very glory of God, for He is God, He had left 
 behind when He came down to earth to be born in Bethlehem. 
 Going back to Him who sent Him, He clothed Himself 
 with that eternal Glory of Godhead. In what that glory 
 consists we do not know, for it is unrevealed and passes 
 our comprehension. 
 
 Verses 6-8. After having told the Father about Him- 
 self, the work He finished, and after requesting His glory, 
 He speaks of those who belong to Him. Before Him, listen- 
 ing to His petitions, were eleven men. What He says con- 
 cerned them. But all believers are included as well. Verse 
 20 makes this clear. 
 
 The first thing He mentions in speaking about those who 
 
316 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 belong to Him, because they believed on Him as the Son of 
 God, is, the manifestation of the name of God. Jews re- 
 vered the name of Jehovah. Even at the present time strictly 
 orthodox Jews are afraid to pronounce the name “Jehovah” 
 and substitute in its place the name “Adonai.”? And now 
 the Lord says, “‘I have manifested Thy name.” ‘The word 
 manifest means literally “‘to cause to shine forth.” The 
 name that was enshrouded in darkness, in thick darkness 
 (Exod. xx:21), the name of Him who dwells in an unap- 
 proachable light, which no man can find out by searching, 
 is caused to shine forth through the Son. ‘“‘No man hath seen 
 God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom 
 of the Father, He hath manifested Him” (1:18). 
 
 But what name of God has He made known? ‘The name, 
 Father. David and the other inspired writers of the Psalms, 
 like Asaph and the children of Korah, employed different 
 names of God. Not once did they use the word “Father” 
 in their prayers and hymns of praise. No prophet, priest or 
 king of the Old Testament dispensation ever addressed God 
 as Father. It is true nationally Israel was God’s firstborn 
 son, and therefore God was the Father of the nation (see Isa. 
 ]xiii:18 and lxiv:8), but the individual knowledge of God as 
 Father, andthe Fatherhood of God, His character and His 
 attributes, could only be made known by the Son. All 
 through the preceding discourse He had manifested to them 
 what His Father is and as He knew Him. He did not speak 
 about the Father to the unbelieving Jews, but only to His 
 own. Well may we remember in these days of an obnoxious 
 Modernism, that the knowledge of God as Father is only 
 possible in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of 
 God. Apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ, the Virgin- 
 born Son of God, who died for our sins, there is no Father- 
 hood and Father-knowledge of God. It was after His death, 
 resurrection and ascension that the full realization of all 
 this was bestowed upon believers in the gift of the Holy 
 Spirit. He is the Spirit of Sonship, by Him we cry, Abba, 
 Father. 
 
 “Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me; and they 
 have kept Thy Word.” Believers are given, or entrusted 
 (the meaning of the Greek verb) by the Father to the Son; 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Sig 
 
 and now the Son tells the Father that they were His in the 
 beginning. Some have applied this to Israel, the chosen 
 people, but this is incorrect. It means all believers. All 
 believers are given by the Father, predestined and chosen; 
 their very number and names were known before the foun- 
 dation of the world. ‘This is a wonderful fact which our 
 finite minds cannot comprehend, but which we reverently 
 believe. All true believers who believe and repent, who 
 have received the Spirit, may fairly take comfort in the 
 thought, that they were known and cared for and given to 
 Christ by an eternal covenant, long before they knew Christ 
 or cared for Him. It is an unspeakable comfort to remember 
 that Christ cares for that which the Father has given Him. 
 The fact that His own keep His Word, give attention to it 
 and believe it, is the evidence that they belong to Him and 
 are born again. 
 
 He speaks of their knowledge. ‘They had realized that His 
 words and His works were of the Father. While the enemies 
 attributed His mighty works to satanic agencies and charged 
 Him with blaspheming when He spoke of His Father and 
 His union with Him, while others, like Nicodemus, were con- 
 vinced that God was with Him, His own knew that all He 
 said and all He did was of the Father. From Him they had 
 received the Father’s words, believed them, and they knew 
 that He had come from the Father. 
 
 Verses 9-12. With the ninth verse the specifically inter- 
 cessory part of His great prayer begins. He makes requests 
 for those given to Him by the Father, and as we shall see, 
 He prays for their sanctification, their union, their preserva- 
 tion and their glorification. ‘I pray for them; I pray not 
 for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me.” 
 These words have been interpreted in different ways. Some 
 teach that our Lord, when He said, “I pray not for the 
 world,” meant that He did not pray at that particular time 
 for the world, and that He certainly makes in heaven inter- 
 cession for the wicked. Others say He is only praying for 
 the elect and all others are excluded and have no share in 
 His prayers. It is the question as to the character of His 
 prayer. In His mediatorial work He is the mediator between 
 God and man, and this certainly includes the unsaved world. 
 
318 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 But the prayer before us is the prayer of priestly intercession 
 and that concerns only His people. The high priest in the 
 Old Testament is the type of Him who is our great High 
 Priest. Aaron carried upon His bosom the breastplate of 
 twelve stones and upon his shoulders two stones. In the 
 breastplate and the shoulder stones the names of the twelve 
 tribes of Israel were engraven. He presented the people of 
 God in the presence of the Lord and not the Jebusites, the 
 Amorites or the Hittites. The Epistle to the Hebrews makes 
 it plain that our High Priest appears in the presence of God 
 only for those who believe on Him. ‘Those who do not be- 
 lieve on Him, who reject Him, have no share and part in 
 His priestly intercession. “Wherefore He is able also to 
 save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, 
 seeing He ever liveth and maketh intercession for them” 
 (Heb. viui:25). His priestly intercession in glory is occupied 
 with His own. He prays for those given to Him by the 
 Father, and who are the members of His body. The day is 
 coming when that body is complete, when the last one given 
 to Him by the Father is added to it; then that body will be 
 taken to glory, in answer to the last petition in this prayer 
 (verse 24). When the redeemed are brought to the Father’s 
 house, those who died in the Lord, raised in incorruption, 
 and those who live when His shout is heard, changed in a 
 moment, then His prayer for His own ends. They need it 
 no longer. Another request will He then make of the Father. 
 He will pray for the world at that time. There is an un- 
 prayed prayer, which our Lord has not yet uttered. In the 
 second Psalm God addresses His Son: ‘‘Ask of Me and I will 
 give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance and the utter- 
 most parts of the earth for Thy possession.” ‘That prayer 
 will be answered and at His second coming He will receive 
 His blood bought inheritance and claim the uttermost parts 
 of the earth. 
 
 ‘And all mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I 
 am glorified in them.” This is a parenthetical statement 
 and brings out once more the same truth so prominent 
 in this Gospel, the unity which exists between the Father 
 and the Son. What Luther said on this verse is true, “‘Any 
 man may say, What is mine is thine, but only the Son can 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 319 
 
 say, What is Thine is Mine.” His equality with the Father 
 is testified to by Himself. All the Father is and has, He, the 
 Son is and has. “Thine are Mine” means, therefore, Thy 
 nature, Thy Name, Thine eternity, Thy holiness, Thy per- 
 fection, Thy fulness, Thy glory, Thine attributes, Thy throne, 
 Thy people, and everything else. Previously He had wit- 
 nessed the same when He said, ‘‘All things that the Father 
 hath are Mine; therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, 
 and show it unto you” (xvi:15). Inasmuch as believers 
 belong to the Father, are His gift to the Son, our Lord in 
 this statement includes them. ‘Those who have believed 
 on Me are Thine, O Father; they are Mine likewise. They 
 are ours mutually, equally and eternally. What marvels of 
 Divine Love and Grace we are facing in this unsearchable 
 statement of our Lord! ‘Therefore because we are owned, 
 possessed by the Father and the Son, our temporal and 
 spiritual interests are their interests. We are the objects 
 of the Father’s and the Son’s love and care. Here our faith 
 rests. ‘Then we look onward to eternity and realize in the 
 light of these words spoken by our Lord what glory awaits 
 us in that everlasting fellowship with the Father and the Son. 
 
 And He is glorified in them, that is, in His people. Be- 
 lievers are the blessed and ever precious fruit of His own 
 work; we are His workmanship. Our salvation and all that 
 goes with it is His glory. His power, His faithfulness, His 
 never-failing grace, all His loving-kindness and condescen- 
 sion, as well as everything else He is, is glorified, manifested 
 in His people. ‘There the Church, to which all true believers 
 belong, is called His body, the fulness of Him who filleth all 
 in all, It is His glory. 
 
 “T am glorified in them.” We feel as if we could dwell 
 on this sentence, and never weary of the wonderful theme 
 it presents tous. It is a precious prism, every aspect of it 
 sheds forth divine radiancy. Angelic might cannot display 
 Christ’s strength so much as our weakness does, the riches 
 of heaven cannot display Christ’s fulness so much as our 
 poverty does; the holiness of the archangel cannot speak 
 His praise so much as the covering of our righteousness does; 
 the anthems of the seraphim cannot utter His glory as do 
 the praises of the redeemed; and not all the worship of 
 
320 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 heaven’s hosts can render to Him so grateful an offering, or 
 crown Him with so rich a crown, as the love of His pardoned 
 people. ‘1 am glorified in them.”’* 
 
 “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in 
 the world, and I come to Thee.” That is, these words are 
 an evidence that our Lord speaks of Himself, as having 
 finished the work on the cross, risen and ascended to heaven. 
 He was soon to be no more in the world and in anticipation 
 He speaks of it as already accomplished. But while He 
 went back to the Father, His own are still in the world. This 
 fact that ‘‘these are in the world” is now in His intercessory 
 prayer the chief burden. He speaks of them as being in 
 the world, not of the world, hated by the world, and to be 
 in the world, as He, the sent One of God, was in the world. 
 His first petition is for their preservation. ‘This is the only 
 time we hear our Lord addressing His Father as “Holy 
 Father.”’ The reason why here only He mentions His 
 Father as the holy Father is not difficult to discover. His 
 own were left in an unholy world, surrounded by evil on all 
 sides. As belonging to the Father and the Son they were 
 called to holiness. He commits them, therefore, to the care 
 and keeping of the Father, He who is holy and who is able 
 to keep them free from the dominion of evil and able to 
 make them sharers of His holiness (1 Peter i:14-17). He 
 prays that the Father may keep them in the power of that 
 name, which He had manifested to them. ‘That keeping 
 means everything. Keeping from falling away, from evil 
 doctrines, from being overcome by sorrow, or in tribulation 
 and suffering, keeping them in life and in death. From this 
 first petition of our Lord’s prayer we learn the absolute 
 security of a true believer. If a true believer, one who be- 
 longs to Christ, who has been given by the Father to the 
 Son, for whom the Son of God intercedes, can be lost, it 
 would mean the loss of Christ’s glory, the loss of a part of 
 the travail of His soul. It would mean the helplessness of 
 God in that He could not accomplish what He destined 
 before the foundation of the world, and that the world, the 
 flesh and the devil have greater power than God has. It 
 
 *Rainsford. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 321 
 
 would mean that Christ died in vain, and as a result of the 
 loss of true believers, demons could forever sneer and mock. 
 But the impossibility of this was taught before by our Lord 
 (chap. x). Here He puts those given to Him by the Father 
 into the Father’s hand and keeping. 
 
 The second petition ‘‘that they may be one, as we are,” 
 we shall examine more fully in connection with verse 21. 
 
 He tells next to the Father that while He was with them, 
 His disciples, He kept them. ‘“Those that Thou gavest Me 
 I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdi- 
 tion; that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”” And that one 
 was Judas Iscariot, concerning whom the Lord said that it 
 would have been better if he had never been born. Judas 
 never had believed on Jesus as the Son of God. He did not 
 own Him as Messiah and Lord. He addressed Him as 
 Rabbi, and as we pointed out before, when the other apostle 
 by name of Judas addressed Jesus by the divine name Lord, 
 the Holy Spirit makes it clear, it was not Judas Iscariot 
 who confessed Him thus (chaps. xiv:22). The Scriptures had 
 foretold his case (Psalm |xix:25, cix:8), it was foreseen that 
 he loved cursing and did not delight in blessing, that he would 
 bea thief, and the Lord knew that he had a demon and would 
 betray Him. Arminian theologians delight to quote Judas 
 as an example that a believer can fall from grace, but he 
 did not, for he never hadit. And what asolemn warning he 
 is! A man may go far in professing discipleship and even 
 enjoy special privileges, and yet be unsaved and on the road 
 to eternal perdition. Churches are full today of unsaved, 
 unregenerated, professing Christians. They are going to 
 be lost, for they never were saved; church membership, 
 ordinances and religiousness of an outward form does not 
 save. Many have asked the question why was it ordered 
 that there should be a Judas among the twelve? We give 
 a good answer from another. “It may be this: our Lord, 
 when He came to this world, came to be tried, He came to 
 taste the sorrows and the difficulties of His people, so that 
 He might know them all. There is not a greater trial or 
 sorrow for a tender heart than unkindness and ingratitude. 
 Here was one bound up with Him in the family circle, the 
 constant companion of Christ, admitted to the closest 
 
322 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 fellowship, and yet a traitor to Him in heart, watching Him 
 with malice, and betraying Him for thirty pieces of silver. 
 I believe it was one of the bitterest of sorrows which He 
 tasted here. Or it may be this: here was a traitor in the 
 camp, a spy upon Christ, and if he had discovered a fault 
 in thought, or word, or deed, he would have been ready to 
 tell it, ready to expose and exaggerate it, but it is something 
 glorious to hear this enemy forced to confess, ‘I have sinned 
 in that I betrayed innocent blood.’ ”’ 
 
 Verses 13-16. All these words addressed by our Lord to 
 His Father were spoken audibly in the presence of His dis- 
 ciples. ‘They heard every word which fell from His lips. 
 This is the meaning of the phrase, ‘“These things I speak in 
 the world.” ‘The purpose was that His joy might be ful- 
 filled in them. The joy of which He speaks is His joy, 
 which is His to bestow, of which He is the author and the 
 giver, and of which He Himself is the object. It is His own 
 personal joy which He imparts to those who have trusted 
 in Him and walk in His fellowship. When the disciples 
 listened to His prayer they knew nothing of that joy. It 
 became their abiding portion after the Holy Spirit, the other 
 paraclete, had come upon them. Then they entered into 
 His joy and realized all it meant. This joy is ours, too, 
 and belongs to all the children of God. It is the joy of salva- 
 tion, the joy which comes in believing, which is the result 
 of trusting in Him and accepting the bounties of His grace. 
 Thus we rejoice in the knowledge that our sins are forgiven, 
 that we are reconciled, that God is our Father, the Son of 
 God our Loving Lord and Friend, the Holy Spirit our in- 
 dwelling guest, and that the Father’s house is our blessed 
 and eternal home, where we shall meet Him, to be forever 
 with the Lord. And we rejoice in Him. The fulness of joy 
 is He Himself. Rejoice in the Lord is the repeated ex- 
 hortation of the Spirit of God. “In whom, though now ye 
 see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable 
 and full of glory.” 
 
 With verse 14 our Lord prays concerning His own as 
 present in the world, though no longer of it, but called to 
 be His representatives down here. He speaks of having 
 given to them His word. The Father had sent Him, the 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 323 
 
 Word; He is the expression of the Father’s mind.* He had 
 entrusted to them the Father’s Word for the purpose that 
 they should in the world reveal and manifest that Word. 
 Such is the calling of a true believer in Christ. And the 
 world, of which John in his epistle bears witness as lying 
 in the wicked one, hated them. The world can do nothing 
 but hate that which the Father has given, for this world is 
 controlled and governed by its god, which is Satan, the 
 prince of this world. But there is another reason why the 
 world hates those who are Christ’s. The Lord states it in 
 that profound declaration ‘‘Because they are not of the 
 world, even as I am not of the world.” This is stated once 
 more by Him in verse 16. It is a great declaration of tre- 
 mendous meaning, but alas! how little it is understood and 
 how little is the great truth it contains manifested in the 
 lives and in the conduct of God’s children. 
 
 Our Lord was not of the world. In Him was no evil, no 
 sin; He had no fallen nature. The prince of this world 
 came and found nothing in Him. Because He was not of 
 the world, not indwelt by the principles which govern the 
 world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of eyes and the pride of 
 life, He lived that holy life in which He glorified God. We 
 are by nature of this world. We have a fallen nature because 
 we are conceived and born in sin. We are enemies by wicked 
 works and linked with the author of sin. Yet the Lord Jesus 
 Christ speaks here of His own as being not of the world, 
 even as He is not of the world. His disciples as well as we 
 and all other true believers are by nature all which we state 
 above. But when we believe on Him we are born again. 
 In the new birth we receive the divine nature, and of that 
 new nature, the nature imparted by the Spirit of God, it is 
 written, “‘Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; 
 for His seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because 
 he is born of God” (1 John iii:9). The Son of God, our Lord 
 could not sin; and the new nature, the divine nature, re- 
 ceived in the birth from above, cannot sin. When we sin as 
 believers, it is our old nature. In this blessed sense, then, 
 
 *In verse 8 a different word is used than in verse 14, where the word 
 employed is ‘Logos,’ the same as used in the first chapter of this 
 Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word”—Logos. 
 
324 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 are believers no longer of the world, even as He is not of 
 the world. He has taken those who believe on Him out of 
 the world, by separating them from the world and unto 
 Himself, and giving them the divine nature. 
 
 Because believers are not of the world, even as He is not 
 of the world, they have the capacity to walk even as He 
 walked (1 John ii:6) and be His representatives. If believers 
 live according to His calling, separated from the world, they 
 will be hated by the world. But if the believer is conformed 
 to this world, loves the things of the world, lives a worldly 
 life (as so many professing Christians do), they know nothing 
 of that hatred. The separated life stirs up the world, and 
 especially the “religious world” and hatred follows, for the 
 faith and the corresponding life of separation condemns the 
 world. If we were more consistent in our lives, more out- 
 spoken, more faithful in our daily witness, more separated 
 from the ways and methods of this evil age, we would also 
 find out that it is still true that the world hates us. But, on 
 the other hand, believers must guard against courting the 
 world’s hatred by discourtesy or by erratic ways and man- 
 ners. How soon a believer may forget this weighty saying 
 of our Lord, “not of the world, even as I am not of this 
 world!’ It can be realized only as we keep our hearts and 
 minds fixed upon Him in yonder glory and our heavenly 
 calling in Him. As a result the Holy Spirit will lead us into 
 an unsparing self-judgment as to our ways. 
 
 “That the world improves for Christ or His own is as 
 false as that the flesh can ameliorate. Such a belief is light 
 become darkness and how great is that darkness! There 
 may not be the reflex of the latter part of the first chapter 
 in Romans, but it answers to the beginning of 2 Tim. iii. It 
 is the natural man knowing enough to forego what is shame- 
 less, and to invest all with a religious veil; it is the world 
 essentially occupying itself with the things of God in pro- 
 fession, but in reality of the world, where common sense 
 suffices for its service and its worship, and the mind of Christ 
 would be altogether unapplicable. What a triumph for the 
 enemy! It is just what we see in Christendom; and noth- 
 ing irritates so much as the refusal so to walk, worship, or 
 serve. It does not matter how loudly you denounce or pro- 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 325 
 
 test; if you join the world, they will not mind your words, 
 and then you are faithless to Christ. Nor does it matter 
 how much grace and patience you show; if you keep apart 
 as not of the world, you incur enmity, hatred and contempt. 
 To act as not of the world is felt to be its strongest condem- 
 nation; and no meekness or love can make it palatable. 
 Nor does God intend that it should, for He means it as part 
 of the testimony of His Son. And as the world neither 
 receives nor understands the Father’s word, so it hates those 
 who have that word and act upon it.’’* 
 
 His prayer for His own is not that they should be taken 
 out of the world, but that the Father should keep them from 
 evil. ‘This does not clash with the great revelation the Lord 
 gave later to the Apostle Paul. The time will come when 
 the Lord in glory will ask the Father for the taking out from 
 the world of all who belong to Him. In fact He requests 
 this later in His prayer (verse 24). When that prayer is 
 answered He will ‘‘descend out of heaven with a shout, with 
 the voice of the archangel and the trump of God.” Then 
 the righteous dead will be raised from among the dead, the 
 living believers changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an 
 eye and caught up together with them in clouds to meet 
 Him in the air. Then all are taken out of the world. But 
 the time for that was not yet when He spoke these words 
 of prayer, nor is the time now. His own are to remain in the 
 world for a very definite purpose. Many a believer, if not 
 all, would love to leave this dark world with its conflicts 
 and troubles behind at once to be with Him forever. If the 
 Lord would take all true believers at once out of the world, 
 it would be disastrous to the believers, as well as to the world. 
 Believers need the conflict, the trials, the bitter experiences 
 in the world for their own good. Well has it been said 
 “Believers would never value Christ and heaven as much 
 as they will do one day, if they had not been kept here on 
 earth, taught to know their own hearts, and be made like 
 Him, perfected through suffering.” It would be equally 
 disastrous to the world itself if all true believers were at once 
 taken out of it. The world would be deprived of the 
 
 *William Kelly. 
 
326 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 testimony and the light which believers are called to give 
 and be. Supposing all these eleven men had been taken with 
 Christ to glory, when He left the earth, how could the world 
 have received a testimony apart from them and believe? He 
 still leaves us here for the double purpose, for our own good, 
 and for the good of the world. When the hour comes, 
 scheduled before the creation of the world, when His body 
 shall be joined to Him, every true believer will be taken out 
 of the world. Here also is a refutal of asceticism. Men and 
 women still shut themselves up in cells to be separated from 
 the world, to flee from it. But this cowardly desertion of 
 the world, as practiced in Romish monasteries, is not Chris- 
 tianity. It is a pagan institution. Buddhism and other 
 Oriental religions have their monasteries, and practice the 
 same asceticism as Rome. 
 
 Instead of asking that they might be taken out of the world, 
 He prayed “that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” 
 Does this mean evil in the general sense of the word, or does 
 it mean “the evil one,” that is Satan? The Greek may mean 
 both, evil and the evil personified in Satan. We think the 
 evil one is meant. It has this meaning in Matthew xiii:25, 
 38 and 39. John in His first epistle uses the same expression 
 and there it always means the evil one. See 1 John 11:13, 14; 
 11:12; v:18. What we call evil, trials, losses, bereavements, 
 temptations, persecutions, slanders, etc., are the things which 
 all must work together for our good. It is inconceivable 
 that our Lord should have prayed that His own might be 
 kept from this. The devil is a roaring lion seeking to devour 
 the children of God and Satan transforms himself into an 
 angel of light. His aim is to destroy or to corrupt those who 
 belong to Christ and snatch them out of His hands. Hence 
 our Lord prays the Father that they may be kept from the 
 evil one. And when he comes to ask for them, as he asked 
 for Job’s testing and for Peter, the intercession of Christ 
 in the behalf of His beloved ones keeps them from being 
 overcome. “I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail 
 not,” He said to Peter before Satan ever appeared to sift 
 him as wheat. 
 
 Then once more He tells the Father of the position of His 
 disciples. ‘“They are not of the world even as I am not of 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 327 
 
 the world.”” As He overcame and Satan’s power could not 
 harm Him, so His own, no longer in the domain of the power 
 of darkness, but belonging to Him, will be kept. 
 
 Verses 17-19. ‘To the most precious things already men- 
 tioned by the praying Lord He adds now the petition for the 
 sanctification of His disciples. “Sanctify them by Thy 
 Truth; Thy Word is Truth.”’ Many expositors have greatly 
 misunderstood the meaning of this simple request. ‘They 
 speak of it as if the Lord requested their setting apart for 
 ministry. We quote from one of these expositors: ‘“The 
 original may mean either ‘consecrate’ or ‘sanctify.’ It 
 means both to set apart from a common to a sacred use, 
 and also to make holy for that use; in other words, it may 
 mean to make holy in mission and in character. ‘The former 
 is evidently the meaning here; Christ prays that the Father 
 will set apart His disciples to a life of divine service as priests 
 unto God.” But this view is incorrect. ‘The petition for 
 their santification must be connected with the preceding 
 verse, which we quote once more, ““They are not of the 
 world, even as I am not of the world.”” As we have pointed 
 out before, believers in Christ as the Son of God, as these 
 disciples were believers, have received the new nature, the 
 divine nature, and inasmuch as it is a holy nature they are 
 constituted in Christ Saints, they are sanctified. The peti- 
 tion which follows for their sanctification by the Truth of 
 the Father concerns the believer’s practical sanctification, 
 how they are to live as not of the world in a life of separa- 
 tion. ‘This is accomplished in the first place by the Father’s 
 Word, that word which is ‘Truth, while He whom the Father 
 sent and through whom His Word is given, is the Truth. 
 As the believer walks in the truth, the truth made known 
 by the Father through the Son, he is increasingly sanctified 
 and enabled to walk even as He walked. It reminds us of 
 chapter vi:32: “And ye shall know the Truth, and the 
 Truth shall make you free.” In his expository thoughts on 
 the Gospel of John, the late Bishop Ryle makes some ex- 
 cellent remarks on sanctification which will be helpful to 
 all. He gathers four great principles from this petition of 
 our Lord. 
 
 (1) The importance of sanctification and practical god- 
 
328 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 liness. Our Lord specially asks it for His people. Those 
 that despise Christian life and character, and think it of no 
 importance so long as they are sound in doctrine, know very 
 little of the mind of Christ. Our Christianity is worth noth- 
 ing, if it does not make us value and seek practical sancti- 
 fication. 
 
 (2) The wide difference between justification and sanc- 
 tification. Justification is a perfect and complete work ob- 
 tained for us by Christ, imputed to us, and external to us, as 
 perfect and complete the moment we believe, as it can ever 
 be, and admitting of no degrees. Sanctification is an in- 
 ward work wrought in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and 
 never quite perfect so long as we live in this body of sin. 
 The disciples needed no prayer for justification; they were 
 completely justified already. They did need prayer for their 
 sanctification; for they were not completely sanctified. 
 
 **(3) Sanctification is a thing that admits of growth; else 
 why should our Lord pray, ‘Sanctify them’? The doctrine 
 of imputed sanctification is one that I can find nowhere in 
 the Word of God. Christ’s imputed righteousness I see 
 clearly, but not an imputed holiness. Holiness is a thing 
 imparted and inwrought, but not imputed. 
 
 “‘(4) The Word is the great instrument by which the Holy 
 Spirit carried forward the work of inward sanctification. 
 By bringing that Word to bear more forcibly on mind and 
 will, and conscience, and affection, we make the character 
 grow more holy. Sanctification from without by bodily 
 austerities and asceticism, and a round of forms, ceremonies, 
 and outward means, is a delusion. True sanctification begins 
 from within. Here lies the immense importance of regularly 
 reading the written Word, and hearing the preached Word. 
 It surely, though insensibly, promotes our sanctification. 
 Believers who neglect the Word will not grow in holiness and 
 victory over sin.” 
 
 The next sentence is closely linked with the petition for 
 the sanctification of His people, ‘“As Thou hast sent Me into 
 the world, even so have I sent them into the world.” While 
 believers are not of the world even as He is not of the world, 
 they are in the world as His representatives, sent into the 
 
 world, as the Father had sent Him. What a high and holy 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 329 
 
 calling this is!) Well may we cry out, ‘‘Who is sufficient for 
 these things”! While this applied first of all to the disciples 
 who surrounded Him then, whom He sent forth as His 
 messengers, it equally applies to us. We are His sent ones. 
 As such we must be holy, separated from evil. As His rep- 
 resentatives and witnesses we need to be spotless and blame- 
 less, and for this He prayed when He said, “‘Sanctify them.” 
 
 Another important statement follows: “‘And for their 
 sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified 
 through the Truth.” Here is the second means for the 
 sanctification of believers. They are not only practically 
 sanctified by the Word, His Truth, but He Himself for their 
 sakes has sanctified Himself, that by this sanctification they 
 also might be sanctified through the Truth. Most exposi- 
 tors apply these words of our Lord to His sacrificial death 
 on the cross. They claim that it was then He sanctified 
 Himself for us, that is, in the offering of His body. It is 
 true that the believer is set apart, the meaning of the word 
 sanctified, by the death of Christ, for we are sanctified 
 through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ (Heb. x:10), 
 but this is not the real meaning of the words spoken by our 
 Lord. If His sanctification meant the work of the cross it 
 should have preceded the prayer-petition, sanctity them by 
 Thy Truth, for all practical sanctification is the result of His 
 work for us on the cross. 
 
 But our Lord sanctified Himself in another way. He set 
 Himself apart to God after His passion; He went to heaven, 
 receiving glory at the right hand of God, and is now in His 
 risen and glorified humanity the image of God (see 2 Cor. 
 iv:4). In that glory light in which He has set Himself apart 
 for our sakes He is the pattern of His own redeemed ones. 
 What He is they all shall be in that glorious day when He 
 will be manifested, when all His own will see Him as He is 
 and will be like Him. He is the Firstborn among many 
 brethren, and ultimately all His own, whom He is not 
 ashamed to call brethren, will be conformed into the same 
 image of Himself in resurrection glory. The contemplation 
 of this wonderful truth, the highest and the best, leads to 
 our own sanctification. As we behold His glory as in a glass 
 we are changed into the same image from glory to glory. 
 
330 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 It is the contemplation of, and the heart occupation with 
 Christ glorified and we in Him, which detaches the believer 
 from the world and leads Him in the path of separation. 
 For this He prayed. First, that the Father’s word He had 
 communicated to His own might sanctify us, and that His 
 own place in glory at the right hand of the Father might 
 accomplish our sanctification also. 
 
 Verses 20-21. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for 
 them also which shall believe on Me through their word; 
 that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me and I 
 in ‘Thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world 
 may believe that Thou hast sent Me.” We hear from His 
 own blessed lips that all believers are included in this gracious 
 intercession. If this word had not been spoken one might 
 think that He prayed only for His disciples, but His words tell 
 us that all His Saints at all times are included. They all need 
 preservation, sanctification, and His ministry as priest and 
 advocate. He prayed for all coming believers, for generations 
 upon generations, including ourselves, whom He knew would 
 be given to Him by the Father. 
 
 His petition is for their unity. In verse 11 He had prayed 
 also “‘that they may be one as we are.” In that verse it 
 concerned the Apostles. It was accomplished in them by 
 the power of the Holy Spirit. Here is another and larger 
 unity, for all who believe on Him, which means again all 
 future believers, are to be one. Unbelievers have fre- 
 quently ridiculed this request of our Lord as they pointed 
 to the many denominations, the different creeds, cere- 
 monials, and the confusion which exists in professing Chris- 
 tendom, and then claimed that Christ’s own prayer has 
 never been and never will be answered. But our Lord 
 did not pray for an outward unity expressed in an im- 
 posing organization. The true Church, the body of Christ, 
 Is not an organization but an organism, with the Head in 
 glory and members put into this mystical, invisible body 
 by the operation of the Holy Spirit. The unity is a unity 
 in the Father and in the Son, ‘‘that they also may be one 
 in us.” It is that fellowship with the Father and with His 
 Son Jesus Christ of which John writes in his first epistle 
 (1 John i:2). It is fellowship in virtue of the Father made 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 331 
 
 known in the Son, and of the Son the object of the Father’s 
 love and delight, into which all true believers are brought 
 by the Holy Spirit. As we delight ourselves in the Son we 
 are one with the Father, for He is His delight; as we know 
 God as our Father and the Father’s love, we are one with the 
 Son. This is the unity of which our Lord speaks here. Into 
 this spiritual unity, Jew, Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond 
 and free are brought in Christ. The Jew hated the Gentile 
 and the Gentile hated the Jew; one was bitterly opposed to 
 the other, hating and being hated. But now this unity, this 
 blessed oneness! Jew and Gentile in Christ, the middle wall 
 of partition broken down, both having access by one Spirit 
 unto the Father! 
 
 And this unity needs to be manifested in a practical way, 
 that is in love for the brethren, for all the Saints. In this 
 is the call for the world to believe that the Father sent the 
 Son. Not through the law but by the coming of the Son 
 of God these blessed results have been brought about. 
 Whenever believers walk in fellowship with the Father and 
 the Son and in fellowship one with another, loving each 
 other with a pure heart fervently, they bear a witness to 
 the world that the Father sent the Son, for it is the work of 
 Christ which has accomplished this. Alas! that the world 
 in our own day should have so very little of this witness! 
 
 Verses 22-26. He had prayed for the preservation and 
 the sanctification of His own, and now He prays for their 
 glorification. It is a wonderful legacy which the Lord of 
 glory bestows upon His people and with which He introduces 
 the final section of His prayer, “The glory which Thou hast 
 given Me I have given them.” Commentators have fairly 
 wrestled with the question, what did our Lord mean with 
 these words? What glory is it He promises to give? We 
 mention a few of the different opinions. 
 
 Augustinus and others with him thought it is immortality 
 and glory which those received who have served Him 
 faithfully. Calvin stated that it is the restoration of the 
 image and likeness of God. Bengel, the author of the Gno- 
 men, declared that the glory means that insensible power, 
 influence and authority, which accompanied all our Lord 
 did and said during his earthly ministry. Zwingli, Brentius 
 
332 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 and others taught that the glory is the power of working 
 miracles, while two other well known exegetes, Stier and 
 Hengstenberg held that the glory is unity of mind and 
 heart. Even so good an expositor as Bishop Ryle says, 
 “the question will probably never be settled.” 
 
 There is no difficulty whatever connected with this saying 
 of our Lord. Like the other statements “I have finished the 
 work Thou gavest Me to do,” “I am no longer in the world,” 
 the gift of His glory was spoken in anticipation of His 
 resurrection. In resurrection the Father rewarded Him for 
 His faithful work. This is the demand of the righteousness 
 of God. His ever blessed Son came to earth, glorified 
 Him in His holy life, and finally glorified Him in His death 
 on the cross, in which He vindicated the holy character 
 of God and satisfied His righteousness in behalf of lost 
 sinners. ‘This demanded a reward. ‘The reward is that 
 God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory. It 
 is the truth stated elsewhere, as in Phil. ii, ‘‘Being found in 
 fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient 
 unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God 
 also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which 
 is above every name.” ‘This acquired glory it is which He 
 gives to His own. It is a most refreshing and wonderful 
 truth. The Son of God came to die for our sins and when 
 He died as our substitute He took upon Himself all which 
 we deserved as guilty sinners—Jesus paid it all. Then 
 God, because He did this work, righteously rewarded Him, 
 because He and He alone deserves a reward. This reward 
 consists in glory. Then our loving Lord gives the glory 
 He deserves and He received to all those who belong to 
 Him. He makes His own sharers of His acquired glory. 
 
 It is not difficult to find the acquired glory of our Lord 
 in the New Testament. It is sevenfold. We mention 
 them briefly and show how the believer participates in 
 these acquired glories. (1) He received in resurrection the 
 glory of sonship, inasmuch as He is the First begotten from 
 among the dead. We share this sonship with Him and are 
 sons of God in Him. (2) Then God made Him the heir of 
 all things (Heb. 1:2). The International Bible Student Asso- 
 ciation, also known as Russellites, sometimes give this fact as 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 333 
 
 an evidence that the Lord Jesus Christ was a created Being 
 and not very God, that He received divinity after His 
 death. Such an argument shows the ignorance of these 
 people. Christ is God and all the glory of God is His glory. 
 But to make redeemed humanity, redeemed through His own 
 precious blood, sharers of all things, God made Him heir 
 of all things as the head of the new creation. And we are 
 heirs of God and fellow-heirs of Christ. (3) God gave Him 
 a glorious place for a reward. He seated Him at His own 
 right hand. The man in Glory is as near to God and as 
 dear to God as any Being can be. He holds a place higher 
 than the angels. In Him we are seated in the heavenly 
 places of Christ Jesus. (4) He received as His reward a 
 glorious name, ‘‘the name which is above every other name.” 
 And it is written “I will give him a white stone, and in the 
 stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he 
 that receiveth it,” the promise to the overcomer (Rev- 
 elation 11:17). “‘And I will write upon him My new name” 
 (Rev. ii1:12). “‘And they shall see His face, and His name 
 shall be in their foreheads” (Rev. xxii:4). (5) He received 
 the glory of Priesthood, being constituted a priest after the 
 order of Melchisedec. And we are priests with Him. (6) He 
 is made King of kings and God will give Him the promised 
 kingdom. The throne over all the earth is His and the 
 nations will yet be His inheritance. His own are to reign 
 and rule with Him. (7) Finally He received the glory of 
 Judgeship. All judgment is committed to Him. This 
 also His own will share with Him, for it is written “Do ye 
 not know that the Saints shall judge the world? Know ye 
 not that we shall judge angels?” (1 Cor. vi:1, 3). 
 
 Such are His acquired glories and our participation in 
 them. ‘The consummation of all is not now but in that 
 coming day of glory, ‘“‘when He is manifested we shall be 
 manifested with Him in glory.”’ It is the day in which He 
 will come “‘in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the 
 holy angels” (Luke ix:26). His own will be with Him in 
 that glory; they shine in His glory. Therefore in that day 
 He will receive the request of His lips and the desire of His 
 heart (Psl. xxi:2). Then He will receive the travail of His 
 soul and be satisfied when “He cometh to be glorified in His 
 
334 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 saints, and to be admired in all them that believed” (2 Thess. 
 i:10).. Thus shall we be perfected in one, and the world will 
 then not be called upon to believe that the Father sent His 
 Son, but the world will know. Faith will be changed into 
 sight. ‘There will be a glorious public display, when the Son 
 brings many sons in His glory. In that day the whole 
 world will know and all the present day infidelity will be 
 forever banished. It will be the answer of God to all the 
 inventions of modern rationalism as upheld by the liberal 
 teachers in Christendom. It will be the answer of God to 
 silence the delusion cults. It will be the means of the con- 
 version of the remnant of Israel. 
 
 Then follows that blessed and gracious petition, which to 
 the full still remains unanswered. “Father I will that they 
 also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; 
 that they may behold My glory, for Thou lovedst Me before 
 the foundation of the world.”’ It is His Prayer for the glori- 
 fication of His people. In praying He uses a word which He 
 used nowhere else, the word “I will.” The original verb 
 (Delo) has a meaning of a positive purpose. It is therefore 
 more than a mere request, it is a demand. He had promised 
 them “I will come again and receive unto myself that where 
 I am ye may be also (xiv:3)” and now He tells the Father 
 what He wills in behalf of His own, because His will was in 
 perfect harmony with the Father’s will. Here is the blessed 
 hope for those who belong to Him. It is not the visible 
 manifestation, but the home-bringing of those who are His. 
 How this will take place is revealed in that great revelation 
 given to the Apostle Paul by the Word of the Lord and 
 recorded in 1 Thess. iv: 16-18. It awaits its glorious ful- 
 fillment. The same Lord who promised “I will come again,” 
 the same Lord who prayed ‘‘Father, I will,” the same Lord 
 who is our intercessor in the presence of the Father, will 
 descend out of heaven with a shout. The great transforma- 
 tion will take place. The sleeping saints (as to their bodies) 
 whose spirits are in a disembodied state in His presence, 
 will receive their resurrection bodies, and we shall be changed 
 to be caught up together with them in clouds to meet the 
 Lord in the air. Then shall we be with Him where He is and 
 share His glory as well as behold His own glory, which here 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 335 
 
 is the glory which is proper to Himself, as the object of the 
 Father’s love, a love which goes beyond the time of the 
 world’s foundation. What will it be when it shall be done! 
 What glory is our happy and eternal portion! 
 
 Then He tells the Father of the contrast between the 
 world and His own. “O righteous Father, the world hath 
 not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and these have 
 known that Thou hast sent Me.” 
 
 Before He had addressed the Father as “Holy Father,” 
 but here He speaks of Him as ‘‘Righteous Father.’ That 
 righteous Father the world did not know, and all along His 
 gracious ministry the world refused to know Him. But He, 
 the Son, has known Him, though He walked in the garb of 
 a servant, having humbled Himself, yet all along He knew 
 the Father, even as He had said before, ‘“‘Neither knoweth 
 any manthe Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever 
 the Son will reveal Him” (Matt. xi:27). Then He spoke of 
 His disciples, “these have known that Thou hast sent Me,” 
 and in this knowledge that the Father sent the Son, they 
 know and have the Father also. It was His comfort that 
 while the world knew Him not, His disciples knew Him and 
 were in the fellowship with Him and the Father. 
 
 This great chapter ends with the final word which He 
 prayed. It is another word of comfort and cheer when He 
 tells the Father, ““And I have declared untothem Thy name, 
 and will declare it; that the love wherewith Thou hast 
 loved me may be in them, and I in them.” ‘To make the 
 Father’s Name known to those whom the Father had given 
 Him had been His ministry to the disciples. Only He who 
 knew the Father could make Him known. But this ministry 
 is not confined to the past, it is a present ministry, for He 
 says, ‘‘and will declare it.”’ Therefore, from heaven, He 
 continues to make known to the hearts of those who believe 
 on Him, the Father and the Father’s love, so that all may 
 have the consciousness of the same love which rested upon 
 Himself when He was on earth. He Himself is identified 
 with His own; Heisin them. And the marvelous thing is 
 that we all can say in faith, “I am loved ‘as, He‘is, loved.” 
 Our poor doubting hearts object, and the thought comes of 
 our weakness, our imperfections, our sinfulness. May we 
 
336 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 realize that we are beloved thus not on account of any 
 loveliness which is in us, but because we are in Him, who is 
 altogether lovely. Because we belong to Christ, are in Him 
 and He is in us, because we are one with Him, of His flesh 
 and bones (Ephes. v) we are loved as He is loved. We close 
 our meditations on this most precious and holy portion of the 
 Gospel of John with the words which George Newton, the 
 puritan preacher, put at the close of his exposition of this 
 chapter. 
 
 “How earnest and importunate is Christ with God the 
 Father, that we may be one here, and that we may be in one 
 place hereafter! Oh, let us search into the heart of Jesus 
 Christ, laid open to us in this abridgment of His intercession 
 for us, that we may know it and the workings of it more and 
 more, until at length the precious prayer comes to its full 
 effect, and we be taken up to be forever with the Lord, and 
 where He is there we may be also.” 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Verses 1-11. A comparison with the account of the ar- 
 rest of our Lord as given by the synoptics, with what John 
 records will show marked differences, but certainly not dis- 
 crepancies. Matthew, Mark and Luke speak of the agony 
 in the garden; Luke only reports the sweat in the garden, 
 like great drops of blood, but John does not write anything 
 of this agony at all. He passes it over, for his pen is guided 
 by the Holy Spirit, to bring out in his Gospel the glory of 
 Christ as the Son of God, therefore describing His sublime 
 Deity; there was no need of mentioning the agony in the 
 garden, or the blood-sweat of the Son of Man. But John 
 mentions things which are omitted by the other evangelists. 
 He alone names the brook Cedron; he tells us of the collapse 
 of the mob which had come to arrest Him, and only John 
 gives the name of the disciple who drew the sword. All these 
 differences are for a purpose and were ordered by the Spirit 
 of God. 
 
 The brook Cedron (Kidron) is repeatedly mentioned in 
 the Old Testament. It means “the black torrent.” When 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 337 
 
 Absalom started his rebellion against his father, David went 
 weeping across that brook (2 Sam. xv:23). And now He, 
 whom David called His Lord, the root and offspring of David, 
 went across the same brook, to the place where in agony of 
 soul He offered up prayers and supplications with strong 
 crying and tears (Hebrews v:7). He is now to drink “‘of the 
 brook in the way” (Psalm cx:7). His deepest humiliation 
 was at hand, the path which led to the cross and from there 
 to glory. There is a tradition that our Lord followed the 
 way by which the scape goat, the Azazel, was sent on the 
 day of atonement into the wilderness. He crossed the brook 
 and His disciples with Him. We do not know if there was a 
 bridge to cross or if they waded through the swollen winter 
 stream. Perhaps the latter was the case; for the greater 
 part of the year the brook was dry. He was going through the 
 deep waters of death, through which He went as once the 
 ark of God carried by the Levites made a way through the 
 waters of Jordan. The brook forded, they were in the garden, 
 the garden of Gethsemane. Augustine in his comment on 
 Gethsemane said: “It was fitting that the blood of the 
 great physician should there be poured out, where the disease 
 of man first began.” It is of course, not true that His 
 blood was poured out in the garden; it was poured out on 
 the cross. But the suggestion is correct. It was in a garden 
 where the fall of man took place, and our Lord’s entrance 
 into the garden marks the beginning of his great sacrificial 
 work as the seed of the woman, first announced on the 
 scene of man’s fall. 
 
 He entered that garden with His disciples. It was a 
 familiar place to Him, for often had He been there before, 
 perhaps in anticipation of the final visit when His hour had 
 come. Judas knew the place and knew that our Lord often 
 passed the nights out of doors. Judas through the influence 
 of the chief priests had with him a detachment of Roman 
 soldiers; then there were the officers, that is the temple 
 police, quite a large company. In spite of the full moon 
 they carried, besides their weapons, lanterns and torches, 
 if necessary to seek the prisoner among the darker recesses 
 of the garden. It was a great multitude, perhaps several 
 hundred men (Matt. xxvi:47). Jews and Gentiles were 
 
338 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 thus represented in the mob ready to seize upon the Lord of 
 glory and lead Him forward to the death of the cross. Did 
 they expect resistance, or perhaps a demonstration of His 
 power? He knew beforehand all things that should come 
 upon Him. He had a perfect knowledge of all the suffer- 
 ing and shame which awaited Him. He knew it before the 
 foundation of the world. He knew it in time. It was 
 always before Him, even in His tender years. He saw it 
 in Scripture. He knew every blow which was to be dealt 
 Him, the smiting of the cheek, the plucking of the hair, the 
 spitting in the face, the cruel Roman scourging, the crown 
 of thorns, the nailing to the cross, all the shame and the 
 suffering on that cross. “There was no need of searching for 
 Him. Majestically, when the mob led by Judas advanced, 
 He stepped ahead of His disciples and said, “‘Whom seek 
 ye?’ His hour was come. If it had not yet come, then 
 not all the treachery in the world, nor Rome’s power could 
 have laid hold on Him. And if He had spoken but a word 
 another angel of the Lord would have smitten the great 
 multitude, as once he smote the proud army of Sennacherib. 
 
 His question is answered. ‘They seek Jesus of Nazareth. 
 It is evident from what we read in Matthew and Mark that 
 many of the company did not know Him by sight. Judas 
 had given them a sign, the sign of love, the kiss, so that they 
 might know which one it is. When was that kiss given? 
 It must have been given after the Lord had answered their 
 question. The next moment brings His answer, “I am.” 
 It must be noticed that here, as it is in John iv:26, the word 
 ‘the’ is in italics, it is supplied. In chapter viii:58, He had 
 told the Jews, ‘‘Before Abraham was, I am.” 
 
 Enraged by His use of the divine title, *“‘I am,” from which 
 they surmised that He claimed to be the I am, Jehovah, 
 they attempted to stone Him. Here once more He uses 
 the same “J am.”’ But now they are not picking up stones to 
 stone Him, but when He had said, “I am,” they all fell back- 
 ward to the ground. What a spectacle it must have been 
 when all these men, that great multitude, fell helpless, 
 backward to the ground, while He stood there in all His 
 dignity! It was a demonstration of His Deity and, as such, 
 a miracle. Not one Roman soldier nor the Jewish officers 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 339 
 
 could stand on their feet. An irresistible power prostrated 
 them to the ground. The miracle occurred for two reasons. 
 First to show to the disciples, and to His enemies as well, 
 that He is the Lord of glory. It was His own omnipotent 
 power which He displayed once more. For this reason it is 
 embodied in the Gospel of John, written to show that Jesus 
 is the Christ, the Son of God. In the second place, it hap- 
 pened to show that His arrest and subsequent crucifixion did 
 not take place because He could not help it, but because He 
 was willing to have it so. Perhaps Psalm xxvii:2 may be 
 taken as a prophecy of what happened here. ‘‘When the 
 wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to 
 eat me up, they stumbled and fell.”’ Well has an ancient 
 commentator said: “If He did this when about to be judged, 
 what shall He do when He sits in judgment? If He did this 
 on the eve of death, what shall He do when He comes to 
 reign?’ Then all His enemies will lick the dust. Then 
 every knee must bow, of beings in heaven, on earth and under 
 the earth, and every tongue must confess that Jesus Christ 
 is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 11:10, 11). 
 
 For the second time, probably after the whole company 
 had risen to their feet, He asks the question, ““Whom seek 
 ye?” And when He spoke the second “I am,” they did 
 not fall to the ground. ‘There was no second exhibition of 
 His power, but He manifested His grace. ‘‘Jesus answered, 
 I have told you that I am he; if therefore ye seek Me, let 
 these go their way.”’ Then the Spirit of God reminds us that 
 it was spoken, what He had said in His great prayer, 
 “Of them which thou gavest me I have lost none.”” Willingly 
 He stretched forth His hands, to let Himself be bound, on 
 the condition that His own should be free. He.is the Good 
 Shepherd ready to give His life for the sheep. 
 
 Then Peter acted. He comes forward to resist, perhaps 
 encouraged by the power which had been manifested. He 
 had been sleeping when he should have been watching and 
 praying. He acted in the same spirit in which he said to the 
 Lord, when He had announced His passion, “‘Be it far from 
 thee, O Lord!’ His hasty action was out of keeping with 
 the grace the Lord was showing. He marred it all when he 
 drew the sword and dealt Malchus, the servant of the high 
 
340 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 priest, a blow which cut off his ear. All the other Gospel 
 records mention this incident, but only John gives the name 
 of the servant and the name of Peter. Peter probably tried 
 to kill Malchus, but God in His mercy prevented this. As 
 we learn from the Gospel of Luke, the Lord touched the ear 
 of Malchus and healed him instantaneously. It was the 
 last miracle of physical healing our Lord performed, and in it 
 He manifested His wonderful grace, to one who was an 
 enemy. Some of the present day “healers,” who claim to 
 do the same miracles of healing which Christ did, say that 
 faith is necessary for healing. ‘They declare where there 1s 
 no true faith and trust in the Lord He is unwilling and 
 unable to manifest His power. ‘The incident here disproves 
 their claims. This Jewish servant had no faith in Christ, 
 nor did he trust in Christ for healing. 
 
 “Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the 
 sheath; the cup which my Father hath given unto me shall 
 I not drink it?” It was a rebuke to Peter. He wanted to 
 prevent Him from drinking that cup, which the Father had 
 given to Him, the cup concerning which He had pleaded a 
 little while before in those memorable words, ‘‘Father, if 
 thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not 
 my will, but thine be done.” He came to drink that cup 
 and in perfect obedience, as the hour had come, He takes it 
 to empty it to the last drop. 
 
 “The believer will note the bearing of our Lord throughout 
 these closing scenes—His lowliness, His dignity, His infinite 
 superiority to all who surrounded Him, friends or foes, 
 His entire submission and withal His power intact. Heisa 
 Man, sent One of God, throughout. It is He who shelters 
 and secures the disciples; it is He who offers Himself freely. 
 The traitor and the band, the torches and the weapons, 
 had all failed, if He had not been pleased in letting His own 
 go to give Himself up. For this He had entered the world, 
 and His hour was now come. But it was His own doing and 
 according to the will of His Father.” 
 
 Verses 12-14. These three verses give an incident in the 
 passion of our Lord which is not mentioned by the other 
 three Gospels. Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas. 
 Annas had been appointed high priest of the Jews in the 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 341 
 
 year 7 A.D., but had been removed by the Roman Procurator 
 several years previous, and Joseph Caiaphas, his son-in- 
 law, had been appointed in his place. In Luke iii:2, both 
 are called high priests, and in Acts iv:6 and xxiii:2, the title 
 is given to Annas. This is not a contradiction. The prob- 
 able explanation is that while Caiaphas held the office, he 
 was really controlled by his father-in-law, whom the Jews 
 probably regarded as their true high priest, in opposition 
 to the Roman deposition of Annas. At any rate, we know 
 from the Jewish historian, Josephus, that the office of the 
 high priest, when our Lord was here, was characterized by 
 disorders and irregularities. It seems Annas was the con- 
 trolling spirit and a great politician..; There were not fewer 
 than twenty-eight high priests from} the reign of Herod to 
 the destruction of the temple by Titus in,the year 70. Of 
 these, five, besides Caiaphas, were sons of Annas. 
 
 They bound first the willing victim. If they had known 
 that He whom they bound with cords is the Creator of all 
 things, and that those hands uphold all things, and that some 
 day He will be their judge, what terror would have struck 
 their guilty consciences. They acted under the power of 
 darkness and their eyes were blinded. But they needed not 
 to bind Him. He would not have escaped to be free. He 
 yielded Himself and gave Himself over to them, or they could 
 not have bound Him. We are reminded by John that 
 Caiaphas was he who gave counsel to the Jews, that it was 
 expedient for one man to die for the people. (See John 
 xi:49-51.) 
 
 Verses 15-27. While the other disciples were scattered 
 two of them followed Jesus. Peter, as we know from the 
 other Gospels, followed Him ‘‘afar off.” He is making a 
 feeble attempt to make good his boast. What feelings must 
 have surged in his bosom! He loved the Lord. He is filled 
 with anxious care; he wants to see what will happen to Him. 
 Yet his first step towards his shameful denial was done when 
 he followed Him afar off. He chose the middle of the road. 
 Instead of clinging close to the Lord he lagged behind, and 
 soon the enemy swept him off his feet. 
 
 There are men today who may well take a lesson from 
 Peter. They claim to be the “middle of the road men,” 
 
342 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 They declare that they believe in the Bible, they believe in 
 Christ, but they want to be charitable and not to be out- 
 spoken for the fundamental truths of the Gospel. They 
 do not want to be classed with these premillennial conserva- 
 tives, nor do they want to be classed with the Modernists. 
 They keep in the middle of the road. We have watched 
 some of them and found out later that the middle of the road 
 led them to deny Christ. In our perilous times the safest 
 place is on the Lord’s side, not partly so, but wholly. 
 
 Who is the other disciple? Some have thought it was 
 Judas. But there is no evidence whatever that it was the 
 traitor. ‘There is no difficulty in identifying this other 
 disciple with John. In chapter xx:2, 3, 4 and 8 the same ex- 
 pression is used, and in these passages it is John; so it is 
 John here also. John evidently was well acquainted in the 
 palace of the high priest and knew him personally, so that 
 he had no difficulty in entering in with the Lord. How the 
 humble Galilean fisherman had become acquainted with the 
 influential Caiaphas is not stated. Commentators have ad- 
 vanced all kinds of theories. One made the conjecture that 
 John being a fisherman might have become acquainted with 
 the high priest when he came to Jerusalem to sell his fish. 
 It is of little profit to find out these minor details, which are 
 omitted on purpose in the Word of God. Those who main- 
 tain that the other disciple was not John point to Acts iv:13, 
 where Peter and John stood before Annas and Caiaphas, but 
 both seemed to have been unknown to them. For this reason 
 some suggested that the other disciple might have been 
 Nicodemus, but he could hardly be called a disciple. 
 
 Peter stood outside. Admittance probably was refused to 
 him by the doorkeeper, because he was a stranger. What a 
 good thing it would have been for him if he had remained 
 outside. But the other disciple was anxious for him to gain 
 admittance also; he spoke to the woman who acted as door- 
 keeper. Little did he think of the consequences for his com- 
 panion which his introduction to the girl at the door would 
 have, by which Peter was enabled to enter. Someone said 
 Peter should have gone away when the door was shut for 
 him. “It was by God’s providence that the door was shut. 
 He got a warning then to leave off but would not. These 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 343 
 
 impediments, cast in our way when we purpose to do a 
 thing, should not be idly looked at.”? Yet the word spoken 
 by our Lord concerning Peter’s denial had to be fulfilled. 
 
 The portress recognized him. She must have seen him 
 somewhere for she put the question to him at once, “Art 
 thou not also one of this man’s disciples?’ Perhaps she only 
 surmised this. Certainly she had not assumed a threatening 
 or accusing attitude. The lie which Peter told when he 
 answered, “I am not,” was but the result of what had gone 
 before. He had been self-confident. In the garden instead 
 of watching and praying, he had relaxed and fallen asleep. 
 Here is the fruit, so often repeated in the lives of the Lord’s 
 people. Here also Peter’s impulsive character, so unstable, 
 comes to the front. A short time ago he would face the 
 garden mob single handed with a sword, and now he is so 
 scared by a damsel and her question that he seeks refuge in 
 a cowardly lie. He enters through lying and something 
 worse follows. It was a cold night and there was a coal fire 
 which was surrounded by the servants and officers, the 
 enemies of Christ who had arrested Him and were now to 
 drag Him from place to place. This miserable company 
 Peter joined to warm himself too and to give the impression 
 that he also belonged to this group. It was another lie, for 
 by mingling with these enemies he tried to conceal his 
 identity. And at the other end of the hall stood the Lord, a 
 prisoner. 
 
 Then the judicial examination begins. This examination 
 is not recorded in the preceding Gospel records. Annas asks 
 Him two questions as to His disciples and as to His doctrine. 
 The object of the first question was to get information about 
 His followers and evidence against them. He ignores the 
 first question and says, “I spake openly to the world; I ever 
 taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whether the Jews 
 always resort; and in secret I have said nothing. Why 
 askest thou Me? Ask them which heard Me, what I have 
 said unto them, behold, they know what I said.” It is a 
 very dignified answer. He had taught for three years; all 
 was done openly. Not like others who were deceivers did 
 He plot in secret, but in many synagogues, besides in His 
 temple visits He taught the truth. There was no need for 
 
344 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Annas to ask such a question. Furthermore he and his son- 
 in-law Caiaphas had sent officers at a certain time to report 
 His teaching. They had returned with the testimony that 
 never spake man as He did. Why should then he, the judge, 
 ask of a prisoner to say that which might be used against him? 
 It was not fair nor reasonable. That there is a striking dif- 
 ference between the words of our Lord here, and the words 
 which he used before Caiaphas and the council, as reported 
 by Matthew, Mark and Luke, is known to all thoughtful 
 readers of the Gospels. It is explained that here in John 
 we have another examination before Annas which the 
 Synoptics do not record at all. 
 
 Then one of the officers offended by His dignity and His 
 just and fair demand, smote Him with his hand. The Greek 
 literally rendered means “‘gave a blow on the face,” which 
 probably was done with a staff, in fulfilment of Micah v:8: 
 “They shall smite the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the 
 cheek,” This was probably the first blow our blessed Lord 
 received in His passion. 
 
 How calm and perfect is His answer to the insulting and 
 painful blow! “If I have spoken ill, bear witness of the ill; 
 but if well, why smitest thou Me?” His sublime perfection 
 is seen in this terse answer. ‘There was no defense from His 
 side. Yet His answer is a rebuke. Luther remarked on 
 this: “‘Christ forbids self-defense with the hand, but not with 
 the tongue.” In what a different manner Paul acted when 
 he was treated in a similar way (Acts xxiii:3). Then Annas 
 sent Him away to Caiaphas. 
 
 Peter was still warming himself as the Lord was led away. 
 Perhaps the coal fire flared up and the company he had 
 joined began to notice him. They may have noticed his 
 Galilean dress and suspected him at once to be one of the 
 disciples. ‘‘Art thou not also one of his disciples?” What 
 will Peter say? Undoubtedly, he had watched from a 
 distance what had been going on. He saw, too, how the 
 officer had struck the face of the Lord. He fears the worst 
 for himself and so he utters his second denial. ‘He denied 
 and said, I am not.” But something worse is in store for 
 him. “One of the servants of the high priest, being his 
 kinsman whose ear Peter cut off, saith, Did not I see thee 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 345 
 
 in the garden with Him?”’ As he becomes the center of 
 observation, one scans his features more closely and then 
 expresses his conviction that he was surely in the garden 
 with Him. And this one happened to be a relation of 
 Malchus. Supposing it should be found out that he, Peter, 
 wielded the sword which wounded Malchus, what would be 
 the consequences for him? Poor Peter! for the third time 
 he denied His Lord and Master, and as we learn from the 
 other Gospels, he did this with a loud voice, cursing and 
 swearing at the same time. Then the cock crowed. It was 
 the awakening cry for Peter. It must have been to him a 
 veritable thunderclap. The words of the Lord came back 
 to him: ‘“‘before the cock crows thou shalt deny Me thrice,” 
 and thrice he had denied Him. From the other Gospel 
 records we learn that the Lord looked upon him as He left 
 the hall, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. 
 
 The fear of man bringeth a snare, and ‘‘What blinding 
 power of the enemy thus to involve a saint in direct and 
 daring falsehood, and thus to dishonor Him, who was his 
 life and salvation! But of what is not the heart capable 
 when the Lord is not before it, but fear or lust or aught else 
 by which Satan beguiles? God, however, took care that the 
 dread of man to His dishonor should cover the guilty dis- 
 ciple with self-reproach and utter contempt and humiliation, 
 when an eye-witness could brand him before all with his 
 reiterated lying in denial of his Master.’’* 
 
 The denial of Peter has many lessons. It shows where a 
 saint will drift to if he, like Peter, neglects to watch and to 
 pray. It shows what is in our poor human hearts, what 
 even His choicest saints are capable of doing. And it brings 
 out the loving tenderness and mercy of our Lord in Peter’s 
 restoration. And He is still the same who “restoreth my 
 soul.”” 
 
 Verses 28-32. Our Lord’s examination before Caiaphas 
 and the Jewish Sanhedrim, which the three preceding 
 Gospels, the Synoptics, mention, is passed over by John and 
 instead he describes more fully the trial before the Roman 
 governor, Pontius Pilate, adding certain facts which the 
 
 *W. Kelly. 
 
346 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 other Gospels do not state. There is no use to inquire into 
 the reason why this is the case. If these documents were 
 simply historical, produced by men who write history, 
 criticism of their work and their motives would be in order. 
 But they did not write as historians, but were the chosen 
 instruments of the Spirit of God who guided their pens. 
 The author of these records had His good reasons why He 
 held back certain information from the three men who wrote 
 their accounts many years before, and used John to add the 
 things they had to omit. We know, however, the scope 
 and purpose of each Gospel record accounts, at least 
 partially, for these differences. 
 
 It was early in the morning when they led their willing 
 victim from Caiaphas to the judgment hall. ‘The Greek 
 for “‘early’’ is the same used in chapter xx:1, so that it was 
 between daybreak and sunrise. The judgment hall was 
 the praetorium, the governor’s palace. Josephus, the great 
 Jewish historian gives the information that the governors 
 appointed over Judea had their residences in Caesarea, 
 but when they visited Jerusalem they used the palace of 
 Herod for their residence. / 
 
 The account shows the feverish haste with which these mur- 
 derers pushed on. They could not wait till daybreak, but 
 dragged the Son of God, before the day had fully come, into 
 the presence of the Gentile official, When they reached the 
 praetorium they halted. They feared defilement. According 
 to the interpretation of the law by the Pharisees, entering 
 the abode of a Gentile meant their defilement, and would 
 exclude them from eating the passover (Num. ix:6-11). 
 
 The Lord Jesus had spoken of “straining at a gnat and 
 swallowing a camel” (Matt. xxiii:24), and had called them 
 more than once “hypocrites.”” Such they were. They had 
 scruples about entering the house of a pagan, but had none 
 whatever in bringing false witness against the Lord of glory 
 to secure His condemnation by fraud and violence. Cere- 
 monial defilement they feared, but not the committing of the 
 sin of all sins—the rejection of the Just One, whom they 
 betrayed and murdered (Acts vii:52). 
 
 But is it any better today in Christendom? ‘The Ritualist 
 and the Rationalist manifest the same hypocrisy. ‘The 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 347 
 
 outside of the cup is kept clean, the inside is full of filth and 
 abomination. The Mexican bandit, and others in countries 
 where Rome rules, will be very conscientious in going to mass, 
 and going through all Romish superstitious inventions, 
 while at the same time he schemes and plans his crimes, 
 which do not seem to affect his conscience in the least as long 
 as he has done his superstitious ceremonies. So it is in 
 ritualistic Protestantism. It is the same in Modernism. 
 The Modernist hypocrite can make much about moral reform; 
 speak of evils in the world which ought to be remedied, 
 put on a goody-goody front as a minister of righteousness, 
 but, at the same time, he can deny that which is the founda 
 tion of all righteousness in the world, the revelation of God 
 in His holy Word, the Bible, and sneer at the Virgin-birth 
 of our Lord, and in denying His Deity betray Him many 
 times more than the Jews did when they haled Him before 
 the Roman Governor. 
 
 Pilate, perhaps hearing the clamoring mob at such an 
 early hour, or being notified by the guard, went out to them 
 and said ‘‘What accusation bring ye against this man?” 
 The Valerian law among the Romans demanded a definite 
 charge against a person before that person could be con- 
 demned. So, as the highest magistrate, Pilate inquires as 
 to the charge. The question put by Pilate was curt. They 
 answered him in a disrespectful manner, which the proud 
 Roman must have resented very much. ‘If He were not a 
 malefactor, we would not have delivered Him up unto thee.” 
 The shrewd character of the Jew comes here to the front. 
 The answer insinuates that the governor had said something 
 foolish in demanding the nature of the accusation. ‘“‘Do 
 you think we would trouble you at this early hour if we 
 brought to thee an innocent man and not an evil-doer?”’ 
 But they aimed at something else. They tried to get the 
 sentence of death signed without any hearing whatever 
 before the civil court. ‘‘Is it not sufficient that we have 
 found out ourselves that He is guilty? What is the use 
 of having another examination? Pronounce the sentence 
 of death!” The Governor answered them in another short 
 sentence. ‘““Take ye Him, and judge Him according to 
 your law.” He evidently did not want to have anything 
 
348 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 to do with this case at all. From the other Gospels we learn 
 that the motive of their accusation was “‘envy.” Pilate’s 
 wife had also warned him not to have anything to do with 
 this just person, for she had a significant dream about Him. 
 The miserable coward he was, for political reasons, fear- 
 ing man, he tried to evade the issue. 
 
 Perhaps Pilate thought they did not want Him to be 
 executed, but that He should be chastised according to 
 Roman law. If he did his wrong conception was at once 
 dispelled by the answer from the Jews. “It is not lawful for 
 us to put any man to death.” The authority of the Roman 
 government over the nation demanded that they had no 
 longer the right to pronounce the sentence of death. The 
 power which had conquered them had the exclusive right. 
 They confessed themselves that what the prophets had 
 predicted should happen had come to pass, when the iron 
 heel of Gentile power would be upon the nation. But it also 
 came about in this way, so that the prediction of our Lord 
 might be fulfilled. At least two of the Lord’s sayings are 
 in view here. He had predicted several times that He would 
 be delivered by them into the hands of the Gentiles. This 
 was now being done. In chapter xii:33 He predicted also 
 death by crucifixion. Stoning was the mode of death used 
 by the Jews. It was a mob, and not the law, which stoned 
 Stephen, the first martyr. Rome had invented a more 
 horrible form of death. Criminals were put to death by 
 crucifixion, This was now to be fulfilled, what He had said, 
 that He should be lifted up. 
 
 Verses 33-40. From Luke xxiii:2 we learn that the Jews 
 then stated their lying accusations. He called Jesus with 
 a loud voice to follow him (the meaning of the Greek word) 
 inside of the palace to speak with Him privately. What we 
 read from verse 33 to the unanswered question in verse 38, 
 “What is truth?” happened inside of the palace,and the mob 
 outside did not hear a word of it. The first question which 
 the Roman asked Him was the question concerning His King- 
 ship. “Art Thou the King of the Jews?” Pilate had evi- 
 dently heard of the accusation brought against Him, and 
 more than that, he could not have been ignorant of Jewish 
 prophecy and the expectation of the coming of the Messiah, 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 349 
 
 the son of David. The Roman historian Suetonius in his 
 work states that at that time there was a widespread an- 
 ticipation that a great king was about to take control of 
 Jewish affairs and would rule in due time over the whole 
 world. Pilate must have known of this. Each of the Gospels 
 state this question of the governor, so that there can be 
 no question it was uppermost in the mind of this man. 
 He, therefore, examined Him concerning His kingship. 
 Then he sentenced Him as King and had Him crucified 
 as King, and put above the cross the fact that He is the King 
 of the Jews, so that there might be no mistake about it. 
 Strange it is in view of all these facts concerning the Lord 
 Jesus Christ coming as the Messiah, the promised King, 
 preaching the kingdom first to Israel, that certain teachers 
 can deny this, and invent a theory which lacks scriptural 
 support and which opens the door to the postmillennial 
 hypothesis. 
 
 The Lord answered him with a question: “‘Sayest thou 
 this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of Me?” 
 Of course, He knew why Pilate had asked the question. 
 He knew also the motive which had inspired it. He did 
 not ask the question for information, but rather to speak 
 through it to the conscience of the man who was to be His 
 judge. If it had been a Roman officer who preferred this 
 charge of being a rebel against the Government it would 
 have been a serious matter, requiring the most painstaking 
 examination. But the accusers were the Jews, saying that 
 He claimed Kingship. But how could it be that the Jewish 
 ecclesiastical authorities should complain of one of their 
 own nation trying to emancipate them from the Roman 
 yoke? Pilate knew how the Jews would have thrown off 
 that yoke at any cost and welcomed any man who would 
 lead a movement against the pagan oppressors. So the 
 accusers were unwittingly the witnesses of His innocence. 
 Of course, Pilate had never heard a word that the man who 
 stood before him accused by the Jews had any desire what- 
 ever to lead a revolt against his Roman government and 
 to set Himself up as king. And Pilate was not slow to see 
 the point of the accused. His answer, “Am I a Jew?” 
 shows that. He acknowledged that the accusation came 
 
350 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 from the Jews and therefore was a false accusation. With 
 this answer he also voiced the fact that he, the Roman gover- 
 nor, despised the Jew. Many of the Roman authors and 
 historians like Horace, Juvenal, Suetonius, Tacitus and 
 Pliny, speak contemptuously of the Jews. We can imagine 
 the sneering face of Pilate, when he spoke these words, as 
 if he had been insulted. Then he added the truth, “thine 
 own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto 
 me. What hast thou done?’ With this sentence he shows 
 that the Jews were the accusers and that he had no use for 
 their charge as to his sedition. Then he appealed to the 
 prisoner to tell him what He had done. 
 
 The first question Pilate had asked: “Art Thou the King 
 of the Jews?” our Lord now takes up in His answer. “‘My 
 kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this 
 world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be 
 delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from 
 hence.”? As Pilate was honestly perplexed He answered 
 his question. Before Caiaphas and Herod He was silent. 
 Later also He did not answer Pilate. 
 
 His answer has puzzled a good many. What did our 
 Lord mean? In the mind of the pagan official the thought 
 was uppermost as to the kingdom which the Lord would 
 claim to originate and to control. ‘The kingdoms which are 
 of the world are established by human power, defended 
 by the world’s arms, and the world’s money upholds them. 
 “My kingdom is not of such a nature. When my kingdom 
 comes,” He wants to impress upon the mind of Pilate, “‘it is 
 not established by the world.”” And so it will be when He 
 returns as King and receives the kingdom, when all the king- 
 doms of this world will become His kingdom. It will come 
 from above; not the world will give to Him the kingdom, 
 but He will receive the kingdom from the hands of God 
 His Father. If His kingdom were an earthly, worldly 
 kingdom, such as the Roman empire, His servants would 
 fight and prevent His condemnation. 
 
 The little word ‘‘now’’ is here of immense significance. 
 “But now is My kingdom not from hence.”” The Jews had 
 rejected Him. ‘The promised and offered kingdom could 
 not come. ‘Now My kingdom in temporal power and glory 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 351 
 
 cannot come; it will come later but now the time is not. 
 My rule is now of a different nature. In this dispensation 
 I shall not have the earthly Kingdom to which I am entitled.” 
 
 It seems the Governor was unable to grasp this answer. 
 He seemed to be convinced that the Lord Jesus was not a 
 political offender. This much Pilate had understood, that 
 the Lord spoke of a kingdom which is now not of the world. 
 If He has any kind of a kingdom, then He must be a king. 
 That is why he asked next ‘‘Art Thou a king then?” 
 
 Jesus answered: ““Thou sayest that Iam a king. To this 
 end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, 
 that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that 
 is of the truth heareth my voice.” The Lord bears witness 
 here to the fact of His Kingship. Heis a King. The original 
 is best rendered, ““Thou sayest, for I am a King.” He gave 
 Pilate to understand that He had not come into the world 
 to build up a great kingdom by physical force, as is the 
 case in a worldly kingdom. He came for a higher purpose. 
 He came as a witness to the Truth, yea He Himself is the 
 Truth. Three great facts are to be considered in this good 
 witness which our Lord gave before Pilate (1 Tim. vi:13): 
 (1) The Lord Jesus Christ is a King. As such He came, be- 
 cause He is according to the flesh the son of David, entitled 
 to the throne of His father David. (2) The object of His 
 incarnation was to testify to the Truth, to bear witness to 
 it. His true humanity and His Deity are witnessed to by 
 Himself. When He said, “for this end was I born” He 
 states His true humanity, but when He declared “‘for this cause 
 came [ into the world” it is not a vain, unmeaning repetition 
 of His birth, but shows that He pre-existed and came from 
 ‘above. (3) They only hear Him (receive Him) who are of 
 the Truth. The meaning is that those proceeding from the 
 truth, who are born again by the power of the truth and the 
 Spirit of truth, hear Him. 
 
 Pilate had listened. But the words of the Lord had fallen 
 on barren ground. He has no answer save the question 
 “What is truth?’ Was it the question of an honest inquirer? 
 Had his conscience been touched? Would he know more? 
 Was he exercised in his soul? Such was not the case with 
 the proud Roman. The man who said shortly before, with 
 
352 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 a sneer, “Am I a Jew?” would not inquire of an accused 
 Jewish prisoner what the truth is and thus show willingness 
 to be taught by him. If the question had come from him as 
 a seeker for the truth the incident would not have ended 
 so abruptly. The Lord would have had something to say 
 to the inquiring soul. It was a sneering word, this inter- 
 jection, “What is truth?’* He turned suddenly around. 
 He went out to face the murderous mob. He told them, 
 “T find in Him no fault at all.”’ What a statement! The 
 judge who would sign ere long His death warrant must 
 publicly declare that there is no fault in Him. He was 
 found without spot and blemish as the sacrificial Lamb. 
 Then the politician comes out in all his lying character- 
 istics. One only needs to watch certain politicians of our 
 own day to discover that human nature has not changed 
 a bit since that day. Pilate knows the man before him is 
 innocent and guiltless and, therefore, he should be freed. 
 But he is a politician and he must guard his own political 
 interests. Supposing these Jews became offended? What 
 will happen then? Perhaps a great disturbance, and the 
 matter will be reported to Rome. It would not serve for 
 his best interests. Our next chapter shows what finally 
 induced him to pronounce the sentence (xix:12). Here he 
 tries to wiggle out of the perplexing situation. They had 
 a Passover custom to have released by the government a 
 notable prisoner (Mark xv:8). How and when this custom 
 originated we do not know. He takes refuge under this 
 custom. There was another prisoner, a robber, by name of 
 Barabbas. He was also a murderer (Acts ili:14). He was 
 
 *This famous inquiry of Pilate is certainly not the inquiry of an 
 honest seeker for truth (Chrysostom), for he does not even wait for 
 an answer; nor, apparently, the disconsolate question of one who 
 despaired of ever arriving at a standard of truth (Olshausen); for there 
 is no evidence that he ever sought the truth, either in philosophy or 
 religion; nor the scoffing question of one who believes that the truth 
 can never be found (Alford), and whose modern type is the positivist, 
 who believes that all creeds are false, and God, immortality and the 
 soul are unknowable, for there is nothing to indicate that such prob- 
 lems had any interest for him. It is rather asked, half in pity, half in 
 contempt; the question of the practical man in the world, to whom 
 this conception of a kingdom built on truth and maintained without 
 an army and exchequer seemed but the baseless phantom of a harm- 
 less religious enthusiast (Ellicott). These are the views of four of the 
 leading commentators. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 353 
 
 a lawless outcast. Pilate makes the proposition, “‘Will you 
 that I release unto you the king of the Jews?’ Back comes 
 the awful cry, ‘“Not this man—Barabbas!”’ What sin in all 
 the blackness of it and sinfulness of it, is here revealed, along 
 with Satan’s power. Oh! the horror of it, that man rejects 
 the Holy One, the Just One. Such are our hearts. 
 
 Bishop Ryle’s remarks on this incident are helpful and 
 worth repeating: “Even here at this juncture we have an 
 illustration of the great Christian doctrine of substitution. 
 Barabbas, the real criminal, is acquitted and let go free. 
 Jesus, innocent and guiltless, is condemned and sentenced 
 to death. So it is in the salvation of our souls. We are all 
 by nature as Barabbas, and deserve God’s wrath and con- 
 demnation; yet he was accounted righteous and set free. 
 The Lord Jesus Christ is perfectly innocent and yet He is 
 counted a sinner, and put to death that we may live. Christ 
 suffers, though guiltless, that we may be pardoned. We 
 are pardoned, though guilty, because of what Christ has 
 done for us. We are sinners, yet counted righteous. Christ 
 is righteous, yet counted a sinner. Happy is that man who 
 understands and believes this doctrine, who has laid hold 
 on it by faith for the salvation of his own soul.” 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Verses 1-5. The opening verses of this chapter bring 
 us face to face with the sufferings of our blessed Lord and 
 the shame which was heaped upon Him. We behold Him 
 scourged, crowned with a cruel crown of thorns, mocked, 
 dishonored, smitten and then made a public spectacle. For 
 the heart of every child of God this is a deeply affecting 
 scene. As we read it and mediate on it the eyes fill with 
 tears, the very innermost soul is moved, and we praise Him 
 that He suffered thus in our stead. 
 
 What an awful sentence—‘“‘then Pilate therefore ot 
 Jesus and scourged Him! ‘The scourging of criminals, 
 beating them with rods, floggings with whips, have been 
 in use among many nations, and are still used as penal 
 measures among civilized nations. Cruel Rome outdid all 
 
354 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 others in the ancient world in torturing their helpless 
 prisoners with the scourge. According to Josephus and 
 other sources, Rome tormented malefactors in every pos- 
 sible way before they were put to death. In many cases 
 the scourging with a cruel, knotted scourge in which sharp 
 pieces of iron and nails were embedded, continued till the 
 bones were exposed and the victim died. When we think 
 of the body of our Lord, the body which knew no sin, the 
 body which was never racked by disease, that tender body, 
 which He yielded in our behalf, we cannot even imagine 
 how painful this scourging must have been to Him. Some 
 have taught that Pilate did the scourging himself, because 
 it says that he took Him and scourged Him. The statement 
 means that he gave command that this be done. Rough, 
 half-barbarian soldiers were His tormentors. As they hated 
 the Jews, they were only too willing to treat Him with the 
 utmost cruelty. The place where it was done was the com- 
 mon hall (Matt. xxvii:27), a filthy guard room. The loving 
 substitute of sinners suffered stripes in our behalf (Isa. 11:5; 
 1 Peter 11:24).* 
 
 After the scourging was over, which Pilate had com- 
 manded as a compromise to save the Lord from the death 
 penalty (Luke xxiii:16), the soldiers began their mocking 
 torments. They had heard of the accusation and the claim 
 that He is the King of the Jews. When they were through 
 with their bloody work, and their victim stood bleeding 
 before them, they began their cruel sport. One perhaps 
 suggested a coronation. “Let us crown him king.’ “But 
 what crown is He to wear?” “Make it a crown of thorns!” 
 Thorns are very plentiful in Palestine, as the silent wit- 
 nesses that God’s curse rests upon the land. It did not 
 take long to gather thorns and to weave them into the form 
 of a crown. ‘Then they pressed this instrument of torture 
 upon His blessed brow, so that His precious blood streamed 
 down His face. 
 
 But little did these soldiers know what they were doing. 
 They only had one thought, mocking the King of the Jews 
 
 *The teachings of certain “divine healers” including the Pentecostal 
 leader, Mrs. McPherson of Los Angeles, that our Lord was scourged 
 
 for the physical healing of our bodies, is a miserable, unscriptural 
 invention. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 355 
 
 and venting their hatred in cruelty upon Him. They did 
 not know that they were witnessing through their vicious 
 action to the fact that their victim was bearing the curse 
 of sin upon His head. Thorns are the emblems of the curse 
 which rests uponcreation. Thorns came into existence 
 after man’s fall (Gen. i11:18). Unknowingly the rude soldiers 
 demonstrated with their crown of thorns that the Lord 
 Jesus is the curse-bearer, 
 
 What became of the crown of thorns? We do not mean 
 what became of it after it had served its purpose. Hundreds 
 of Romish churches in Italy, Spain and Mexico claim to 
 possess pieces of the original crown. If we were to collect 
 them we could form a thorn hedge a few miles long. What 
 we mean is, was the crown of thorns at once removed when 
 the mock scene had been ended? Or did this crown remain 
 on His brow? We believe some of the master painters, who 
 were godly men, had the right conception when they pic- 
 tured Christ crucified with the crown of thorns still on His 
 head. It was on the cross He bore the curse. 
 
 They also put a mock royal robe upon Him. It was 
 a purple robe, for purple was the color of Roman imperial- 
 ism. In the examination in Luke xxii:11, we read that 
 before Herod, He was likewise mocked by soldiers, who 
 arrayed Him ina gorgeous robe, in which He was sent to 
 Pilate. We do not know if it was the same garment which 
 was now put upon Him. It was done in mockery; the vile 
 soldiers showed their contempt. It was a Roman custom 
 whenever a new emperor ascended the throne to greet him 
 with the two words ‘‘ Ave Imperator” —Hail Emperor! This 
 custom they imitated, mocking the Lord with their “Hail, 
 King of the Jews.” 
 
 From the other Gospels we learn that they bowed their 
 knees in mock worship and also put a reed, as a mock 
 sceptre, into His hands. Finally they spit upon Him. Oh: 
 what awful hatred they manifested against the Holy and 
 Spotless One. Man was shown what he is, and what he is 
 capable of doing through the power of Satan, which was 
 manifested in this scene, in both Jew and Gentile. They 
 also smote Him with their hands. This was also probably 
 done with a rod, so that He was bruised afresh—‘“‘bruised 
 
356 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 for our iniquities.””. One act of scorn and contempt followed 
 the other. All man could do to Him was done under the 
 energizing power of the prince of this world. 
 
 The commentators of the early Church applied all these 
 sufferings, and the shame connected with it, to us for whom 
 He suffered. He wore the crown of thorns that we might 
 wear a crown of glory. He was clothed with a robe of shame 
 and contempt that we might wear the robe of righteousness 
 and glory. He bore all the contempt so that we might wear 
 all the glory. 
 
 Then Pilate appeared again before the Jewish mob. He 
 made an announcement: “Behold, I bring Him forth to 
 you, that ye may know tliat I find no fault in Him.” For 
 the second time the Roman Governor bears witness to the 
 innocency of the Lord Jesus in the same words as he did 
 before, “I find no fault in Him.” After this testimony had 
 been given the Lord Jesus came forth wearing the crown of 
 thorns and the purple robe. “And Pilate saith unto them, 
 Behold the Man!’ Artists have painted this great scene, 
 but no brush could depict Him as He was led forth from the 
 filthy guard room, with His face marred, His back a mass of 
 wounds, the blood trickling down His face as the crown of 
 thorns remained on His head. If angels can weep, all heaven 
 must have been in tears, while demons laughed and sneered. 
 
 Behold the Man. Ecce Homo. Was it contempt or was 
 it pity? Perhaps it was more the latter than the former. 
 Pilate had watched the patient sufferer. 
 
 Just as Isaiah had predicted, He opened not His mouth. 
 While others, who were scourged and tortured cursed their 
 tormentors and uttered fearful shrieks and groans, the Lamb 
 of God was silent. Pilate knew He was guiltless. Thus 
 pointing to Him, the thorn-crowned, bleeding Man of sor- 
 rows, clothed in the mock robe, the Roman tried to awaken 
 contempt and pity in the hearts of the clamoring crowd. 
 Like the soldiers who were ignorant of their doings, so 
 Pilate did not know what he was saying. ‘“‘Behold the Man,” 
 This is the message which would be sounded all over the 
 world—Behold the Man—Behold Him, the Lamb of God! 
 
 Verses 6-11. Pilate, who evidently tried to avoid the 
 condemnation of the Lord, because he knew He was inno- 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 357 
 
 cent, had miserably failed. His attempt to produce con- 
 tempt for such a miserable king had failed. Greater still 
 was the failure to create pity. Here were hearts of stone, 
 hearts which knew no pity, but under the influence of the 
 murderer from the beginning, these hearts would not be 
 content with anything less than His death. As soon as He 
 appeared and they laid their eyes on Him, a mighty shout 
 arose, led by the chief priests and their attendants—Crucify! 
 Crucify! Crucify! Let it be noticed that the chief priests 
 were the foremost in raising the cry for crucifixion. It 
 is a painful fact that in every age, none have been such hard, 
 cruel, unfeeling, and bloody-minded persecutors of God’s 
 saints, as the “ministers of religion.” 
 
 Then Pilate, in order to be relieved from the task of 
 condemning an innocent person, said, ‘“Take ye Him and 
 crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.” He seemed to be 
 vexed and irritated. In his anger he said, ‘‘do it yourselves.” 
 If they had taken him at his word he would have been un- 
 able to permit it, for it was against the law for the Jews to 
 put any criminal to death. For the third time he uttered 
 the significant verdict, “I find no fault in Him.’ 
 
 When thechief priests discovered that the political 
 accusation had been a failure they appealed to their own 
 law. ‘“‘We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, 
 because He made himself the Son of God.’ The law which 
 they had in mind is the law concerning a blasphemer (Lev. 
 xxiv:16). The penalty demanded by the law was death by 
 stoning. As we have learned in the study of the Gospel of 
 John, three times before the Jews tried to stone Him, and 
 each time when He claimed equality with God. They 
 changed therefore the charge to blasphemy. It frightened 
 the superstitious pagan when he heard that the man whom 
 he had scourged, who had been tortured and mocked by his 
 soldiers, might be after all a supernatural being. The 
 warning his wife had sent to him may at this time have come 
 back to his memory. If he was afraid before, he became the 
 more afraid now. ‘Therefore he went back to the hall and 
 spoke once more to the prisoner. 
 
 Having heard from the chief priests that He claimed 
 to be divine, Pilate asked the Lord, ‘‘Whence art thou?” 
 
358 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 The question suggests that he was eager to hear from His 
 own lips who He is, from where He has come. Pilate knew 
 undoubtedly Roman and Greek mythologies, that gods 
 visited the earth; he was acquainted with these super- 
 stitious beliefs. It may be that his question was put to 
 ascertain whether the prisoner was not after all a super- 
 natural being. Perhaps he hoped to hear something positive 
 from the lips of the Lord Jesus which would enable him to 
 dismiss the whole case and thus deliver Him from the hands 
 of the Jews. 
 
 But he was doomed to disappointment in this expecta- 
 tion. Jesus gave him no answer. He stood silently before 
 the man who was to be His judge. Why did our Lord keep 
 His lips closed at this extremely critical moment? ‘Though 
 our Lord was now delivered unto the Gentiles and had been 
 scourged and mocked, He was still the omniscient Lord, 
 who knows all things. He knew what was going on in the 
 heart of Pilate; He knew the state of his soul. The Lord 
 had given him the truth. He had rejected it. In spite of 
 the conviction that the Lord Jesus was without fault, Pilate 
 had Him cruelly scourged, and permitted the soldiers to 
 crown Him with a crown of thorns, to spit in His face and 
 to bruise Him. He deserved no further notice. He was 
 unworthy of an answer. 
 
 But there is another reason why our Lord was silent and 
 refused to answer the question. Pilate was an instrument 
 of Satan. He belonged to the seed of the serpent, and the 
 old serpent whose chief aim has always been and still is to 
 prevent God’s eternal purposes in redemption, would, have 
 liked to use Pilate in keeping back the Lord Jesus from 
 going to the cross, where Satan would be stripped of his 
 power. He had tried this before. It was his aim on the 
 mount of temptation, when he offered the kingdoms of the 
 world to the Lord. When Peter said, after the Lord Jesus 
 had announced His coming death, “Be it far from Thee, 
 Lord” it was the same being who used Peter to keep the 
 Lord from the cross. The Lord knew who stood behind 
 Pilate and what would have happened had He answered 
 Pilate’s question. Supposing He had told him, ‘‘I am the 
 Lord, God is my Father; I am from above’’; and at the 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 359 
 
 same time manifested some of His hidden glory, it would 
 have probably impressed Pilate in such a way that he would 
 have refused to go a step further and never permitted the 
 crucifixion. The Lord knew His hour was come. He was 
 subject to the Father’s will. It was His will that He should 
 now be obedient unto death, the death of the cross. He 
 knew the Father wanted Him to be silent and refuse the 
 answer to Pilate’s question. 
 
 It is plainly to be seen that Pilate was very much vexed 
 at the silence of his prisoner. “‘Speakest Thou not to me? 
 Knowest Thou not that I have power to crucify Thee, and 
 have power to release Thee?” And now the Lord answers 
 him in a calm and dignified manner. He had spoken of 
 power to crucify and power to release. He gives him to 
 understand that he could have no power whatever except 
 it were given to him from above, that is from God. It was 
 the will of God which permitted the use of this power, for 
 all that the Prophets had spoken concerning His sufferings 
 and His sacrificial death was now to be accomplished. 
 God’s will had to be done. But this did not leave Pilate 
 guiltless. But the sin of the Jews, the sin of Caiaphas, of 
 Judas, along with the other chief priests, was greater. They 
 were not like the pagan Pilate, in ignorance as to who He 
 is, for they knew the display of His divine power and grace 
 in their midst, as well as the testimony of their own Scrip- 
 tures concerning His person. ‘On account of this he that 
 delivered Me up to thee hath greater sin.” 
 
 Verses 12-18. Evidently a great impression had been 
 made upon the Roman Governor. We do not know what 
 meaning Pilate attached to the words which the prisoner 
 before him had just spoken. It is evident, on account of 
 what our Lord had said, Pilate sought to release Him. More 
 than ever he seemed to be convinced of the innocency of 
 the meek sufferer. We do not know what means he em- 
 ployed when he sought to release Him. The Jews were 
 aware of his attempt, ‘They knew of Pilate’s determination 
 to release Him whom they hated. A great uproar followed 
 Pilate’s weak effort. Behind the Jews stood Satan’s power 
 and he inspired them to speak as they did. “If thou let 
 this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend; whosoever maketh 
 
360 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 himself a king speaketh against Caesar.’’ The words the 
 Jews spoke were sheer mockery. ‘The people who hated 
 the Roman government and its emperor, suddenly make it 
 appear that they wish to defend the Caesar in Rome and 
 stand up for his rights, in order that He who is of their 
 own race might be condemned to death. What hypocrisy! 
 And Pilate now fully manifests his abominable character. 
 
 Who was Pilate? It is supposed that he was a freedman. 
 About the year 26 A. D. he had succeeded Valerius Gratus 
 as procurator of Judea and Samaria. ‘This position he held 
 for ten years. Josephus records the fact that he hated the 
 whole Jewish race. He also was tyrannical toward the 
 Samaritans. They entered a complaint against him and 
 he had to go to Rome to defend himself. Before he arrived, 
 Tiberius Caesar, whom he feared, had died. According to 
 the historian Eusebius Pilate committed suicide. 
 
 Pilate knew that the Lord Jesus was innocent. He had 
 made a number of times a public declaration to this effect. 
 “I find no fault in Him” was the verdict of the Roman 
 judge. Finally this conviction had become so strong that 
 he sought to release Him. ‘Then came the threatening cry 
 of the Jewish mob. His mind must have worked fast. He 
 knew that the Roman imperator whom he served, Tiberius 
 Caesar, was a very suspicious monarch. As Tacitus and 
 Suetonius, the Roman historians, record Tiberius feared con- 
 stantly a revolt against him, and any suspicious character 
 among his appointed officers was dealt with by him with 
 utmost cruelty. Pilate also knew the maliciousness of the 
 Jews, that they would report the case to Rome; he knew 
 they would use it as an evidence that he is no friend of 
 Tiberius in permitting a conspirator to plot against the 
 government. He realized that Tiberius would be displeased, 
 and that in all probability if the report reached Rome it 
 would cost him his position, if not his life. Perhaps he 
 glanced once over at the prisoner before him and then he 
 trampled upon his conscience and his convictions and 
 fell in line with the Jewish murderers. 
 
 He did not speak a word. Jesus is brought forth while he 
 took his place upon the judgment seat, called in Hebrew, 
 Gabbatha. The judgment seat consisted in an elevated 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 361 
 
 platform in the open air. The pavement mentioned was a 
 tessellated or mosaic square upon which the judgment seat, 
 the Bema, stood. The word Gabbatha means a raised 
 place. What a solemn moment it was! The Son of God, 
 the Lord of glory stands bound, crowned with the crown 
 of thorns, His blessed visage marred and bleeding before 
 Pontius Pilate. A hush of satisfaction must have come 
 upon the Jewish mob of priests, scribes and elders as 
 they realized that the moment had come when their satanic 
 plottings were to be crowned with success. Angels looked 
 on while demons sneered. 
 
 It was the preparation of the Passover. This means that 
 the day was set apart for the preparation of the Passover 
 Sabbath. John therefore marks very accurately and pre- 
 cisely the day of crucifixion. It was the day preceding the 
 Passover Sabbath, also called the great Sabbath. And He 
 who is about to be condemned is the true Passover Lamb. 
 It was about the sixth hour. If we read the account of 
 Mark we find that he states it was the third hour (Mark 
 XVi25); 
 
 This presents a difficulty and the fact that Mark men- 
 tions the third hour and John the sixth hour has been held 
 up by critics, modernists and similar infidels, as a glaring 
 contradiction. We acknowledge the difficulty but not the 
 contradiction. Many attempts have been made to solve 
 this problem. It has also been pointed out that five manu- 
 scripts, called uncials, and four cursives read in the original 
 or in corrections “the third hour.” However, the most 
 ancient manuscripts read the sixth hour. The most satis- 
 factory solution is that Mark reckons according to Jewish 
 time and John employs the Roman mode of reckoning, 
 which was from midnight to noon, as we do. That this 
 must be correct may also be adduced from the fact that 
 Pilate’s wife sent a message in which she spoke of suffering 
 much “to-day in a dream because of Him”? (Matth. xxvii:19). 
 Furthermore, we must also notice that John says “about 
 the sixth hour’; it was about that time when the cry to 
 crucify Him was raised, while Mark gives the third hour as 
 the actual time of the crucifixion itself. John undoubtedly 
 
362 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 uses in his Gospel record the reckoning of time according to 
 the civil day. (See chapters 1:39; iv:6, 52.) 
 
 It was about the sixth hour when Pontius Pilate opened 
 his lips again, saying, “Behold your King!’ Why did he 
 speak thus again, when in his heart he had fully decided to 
 put Him to death? Wasit the final, feeble attempt to have 
 Him released, or was it mockery? We believe it was the 
 latter. It was sarcasm addressed to the Jews whom he 
 despised so much. Look at Him! This thorn-crowned 
 figure, torn and bleeding, helpless and harmless—this is 
 your king! His mockery and sarcasm was followed by a 
 tremendous outburst. ‘‘Away with Him! Away with Him! 
 Crucify Him!’ Poor blinded mob headed by their own 
 religious hierarchy! If they had but known their own 
 Scriptures they would have seen that they were fulfilling 
 what their prophets had predicted (Isaiah xlix:7; liii:2). 
 
 We can see the sneer on Pilate’s lip as he said in his final 
 word, “Shall I crucify your king?’ Then the voices of the 
 chief priests were heard above the rest of the murderous 
 rabble, “We have no king but Caesar!’ And so to-day the 
 leaders of the Christ-rejecting rabble are the alleged and 
 accredited preachers and teachers in Christendom, who deny 
 the Master who bought them. Fatal word it was, “We 
 have no king but Caesar!” With this brief sentence they 
 renounced the faith of their fathers and the truth God had 
 given to them, and even God Himself. Their fathers, when 
 they asked for a king in the days of Samuel, had rejected 
 God from being their King. After the mad king had proven 
 a failure God gave to the nation David, the man after His 
 own heart. In him and his kingdom, as well as in Solomon 
 his son, God foreshadowed the true King and His kingdom. 
 That promised King was to come from the loins of David, 
 David’s son and David’s Lord. Prophet after prophet 
 spoke of that King and the glories of His kingdom. Genera- 
 tions after generations waited for Him to come. When the 
 fullness of time had come He came, Jesus Christ, the son 
 of David, the son of Abraham (Matth. i:1). He came as 
 King, offered the promised kingdom to Israel, manifested 
 His power as King and witnessed to His kingship. And now 
 the chief priests declare with one utterance that the only 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 363 
 
 king they know of is the Gentile ruler in Rome. It was the 
 complete evidence or their apostate condition. Their decla- 
 ration has come upon their own heads, for ever since the 
 Gentile world power has domineered over them and the 
 nation has had her well deserved history of blood, tears 
 and sorrow as Jerusalem has been trodden down by the 
 Gentiles. Nor will there be a change till the day arrives 
 when the rejected King returns and a believing remnant 
 welcomes Him as the Redeemer-King. 
 
 Perhaps it was at this point that Pilate washed his hands 
 in their presence saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this 
 just person, see ye to it” (Matth. xxvii:24). And their 
 answer was, “His blood be upon us and on our children.” 
 
 Pilate then delivered Him to be crucified. Luke tells us 
 that Pilate pronounced the death sentence. “Pilate gave 
 sentence that it should be as they required” (Luke xxiii:24). 
 He delivered Him to their will and the willing victim was 
 led away, led as a lamb to the slaughter and never opening 
 His mouth, as Isaiah had predicted over 700 years before. 
 
 It was the custom of that day that condemned criminals 
 had to carry the instrument of torture and of death. And 
 so our Lord bore His cross. What kind of a cross was it? 
 We know that four times the cross is spoken of in the New 
 Testament as a tree (Acts v:30, x:39, xiii:29; 1 Peter 11:24). 
 Then in Gal. i11:13 it 1s also stated, “Cursed is every one 
 that hangeth on a tree.’ We know from classical literature 
 that often a forked tree was used instead of a manufactured 
 cross. ‘To this must be added the meaning of the Latin for 
 cross-bearer, which literally means “‘forked-tree bearer.” 
 It seems there is some ground for the view that it was a 
 forked tree making a cross. On the other hand the universal 
 tradition of the Church and art of the earliest day is that it 
 was a piece of wood with a transverse piece fixed across it. 
 There is no discrepancy between John and the Synoptics. 
 The latter tell us that Simon the Cyrenian was compelled 
 to bear it instead of the Lord. The cross was laid upon 
 Him and He probably dragged it along for some distance 
 till the executioners, the rough Roman soldiers feared that 
 He might break down and succumb under the burden. 
 We do not say that He might have succumbed, but that the 
 
364 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 soldiers probably feared it and therefore pressed the Cyrenian 
 into service. 
 
 That our Lord bore the cross fulfills another type. Abra- 
 ham put the wood for the burnt-offering upon the back of 
 Isaac. The Hebrew commentary Bereshith rabba says that 
 Abraham laid the wood upon Isaac “‘in the form of a cross.” 
 He was led forth outside of the city to a place called Gol- 
 gotha. Golgotha means the same as the Latin Calvaria, 
 the place of a skull. This place cannot be located, the only 
 thing we know is that it was without the gate, as Paul writes 
 in the Hebrew epistle “Jesus suffered without the gate.” 
 The sin-offering on the Day of Atonement was to be carried 
 “without the camp” (Lev. xvi:27). Why the place was called 
 “fa skull’ we do not know, for a certainty. Many con- 
 jectures have been made. In many hymns and poems Cal- 
 vary is spoken of as a hill, or a mountain. 
 
 There is a green hill far away 
 Without the city wall, 
 
 Where the dear Lord was crucified 
 And died to save us all. 
 
 If it was “a green hill’ it certainly was not far away. But 
 where in Scripture do we find it stated that Golgotha was a 
 hill or a mountain? There is not a single passage which 
 would warrant such a belief. Later in this chapter we read 
 that in the place where He was crucified there was a garden 
 (verse 41). It was a garden where Adam fell and where the 
 first announcement of redemption was made. In a garden 
 the last Adam met the penalty and fulfilled the promise. 
 
 It is noteworthy that no inspired pen enters into a de- 
 tailed description of the crucifixion itself. ‘““They crucified 
 Him there.’ It was indescribable. For this reason we do 
 not attempt, as others have done, to draw upon the imagina- 
 tion and picture the awful scene when the Lamb of God 
 was. nailed to that cross of shame, a suffering which we 
 cannot fully understand. John also mentions that others 
 were crucified with Him; He in the midst. Another pro- 
 phetic utterance is seen fulfilled, “He was numbered with 
 the transgressors” (Isa. liii:12). What happened to these 
 malefactors John does not record as the other three Gospels 
 do. The one to the right turned to Him in the last moments 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 365 
 
 of his sinful life and believing on Him was saved; the other 
 to the left died in his sins, an unrepenting sinner, and was lost. 
 
 Verses 19-22. It was customary to bear before the 
 criminal led away to the place of execution an inscription 
 which designated his crime; this was subsequently nailed 
 to the cross, as a warning to others. Pilate put over the 
 cross of our Lord the inscription, “Jesus of Nazareth the 
 King of the Jews.” It was written in three languages, in 
 Latin (the political court language); in Greek (the language 
 of the Gentiles) and in Hebrew, rather Aramaic (the sacred 
 religious language). As it was near the city many Jews 
 who passed by, probably along the highway, read it. Here 
 again, Pilate acted without knowing what he did. He 
 meant it as an insult to the Jews. They were not slow to 
 recognize this, and therefore the chief priests tried to have 
 it changed. But the inscription showed to all who passed 
 by that Jesus really was hanging on that cross, that He was 
 not released, but suffered on the cross, and, furthermore, the 
 inscription made it clear that He is the King of the Jews, 
 the Son of David, the Messiah. Being in the three great 
 languages of the times, Jews and Gentiles read it, and as 
 they passed on they spread the news that one by name of 
 Jesus, the King of the Jews, had been crucified at the time 
 of the Passover. 
 
 But the inscription produced two results apart from the 
 anger of the chief priests who wanted to have it written in 
 a different way. We read in Mark’s Gospel, “The chief 
 priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, 
 He saved others; Himself He cannot save. Let Christ the 
 King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may 
 see and believe. And they that were crucified with Him 
 reviled Him.” The inscription produced vile mockery. 
 But it produced a most blessed fruit. It seems to us that 
 the thief at His right hand must have glanced at that in- 
 scription. Over the crosses of the two malefactors were 
 written the shameful record of their crimes—thieves and 
 murderers. Over His cross, the Man in the middle, no crime 
 was written, but only the terse sentence, “‘Jesus of Nazareth 
 the King of the Jews.’ And the thief must have read it, 
 and reading, he believed that He is the King. He rebuked 
 
366 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 his companion in sin. He declared, because he believed, 
 that the Lord Jesus Christ had done nothing amiss. Then 
 he turned to Him with that great and wonderful request, 
 “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy king- 
 dom.” And the suffering Lord answered him and his faith 
 with the blessed assurance, “Verily I say unto thee, today 
 thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” In all probability the 
 inscription of Pilate written in ignorance and out of spite 
 helped to save the soul of the dying thief. 
 
 The final word of Pilate is, ““What I have written, I have 
 written.” Well commented Augustinus on this sentence, 
 saying, “If a man like Pilate can say, what I have written 
 I have written, and will not alter it, can we think that God 
 doth write any in His book and blot it out again?” 
 
 Verses 23-24. ‘The account which John gives of this in- 
 cident is more complete than the account in the synoptic 
 Gospels. (See Matt. xxvii:35; Mark xv:24; Luke xxiii: 
 34). After the bloody work of crucifixion had been done 
 the four soldiers (called a quaternion) detailed to do this 
 work remained. It seems it was a Roman custom, as it is 
 still in some countries, that the executioners received the 
 clothing of the condemned. They divided therefore the 
 garments of our Lord into four parts, so that each soldier 
 received a share. What these garments were we do not need 
 to specualte about, for it is of little interest. But one garment 
 is specially mentioned in the record, the seamless coat woven 
 from the top throughout. In the eyes of the soldiers it must 
 have had some value. It was probably the outer garment, 
 and it is possible that the soldiers knew that people had 
 touched the hem of this garment and had been healed. If 
 they knew of this it may have increased the value of the coat 
 in their eyes. The coat was probably a gift of some of the 
 women who ministered unto Him (Luke viii:1-3). They 
 agreed not to tear this seamless coat into four parts but to 
 gamble for it. Dice were extensively used among the old 
 Romans, as they are still used for the same purpose. 
 
 This incident shows the awful hard-heartedness of man, 
 the vile depths into which sin has plunged him. A little 
 distance away stood the cultured, the religious scribes and 
 priests sneering, mocking and insulting the crucified One. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 367 
 
 Their hearts just as vile and wicked as the hearts of the four 
 soldiers. ‘These gambled right beneath the cross. They sat 
 down cooly under a dying man to wrangle for His garment, 
 and arbitrate their avaricious differences by casting dice for 
 His tunic, with hands spotted with spattered blood, warm 
 and yet undried upon them. If they but had known that 
 that precious blood flowing from the veins of the crucified 
 Lord was shed in their own behalf! What became of the 
 seamless garment? No one knows. In ‘Treves dark, 
 heathen, lying Rome exhibits the so-called ‘‘holy coat,” 
 claiming to be the seamless robe of our Lord. It is one of the 
 scandalous deceptions of the mother of harlots and the mother 
 of ignorance. No sane person will believe such humbuggery 
 practiced for filthy lucre’s sake. 
 
 But all was done in fulfillment of prophecy. A thousand 
 years before the Holy Spirit witnessed in the xxii Psalm as 
 to this incident. It is one of the many evidences of the 
 marvelous and minute fulfillment of prophecy. The very 
 minuteness of it bears witness to the accurate reality of 
 prophecy. 
 
 Verses 25-27. ‘This incident of His loved ones standing 
 by the cross is not recorded by the other Gospels. It is a 
 most blessed scene. Mary the mother of Jesus, his mother’s 
 sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene had 
 taken their places by the cross, surrounded by the taunting 
 Jews and the gambling soldiers, to show to the very last their 
 unswerving affection for Him. When we remember that 
 our Lord was a condemned criminal, peculiarly hated by the 
 chief priests, executed by Roman soldiers, the faithfulness 
 and courage of these holy women can never be sufficiently 
 admired. As long as the world stands they supply a glorious 
 proof of what grace can do for the weak, and of the strength 
 that love to Christ can supply. When all men but one for- 
 sook our Lord, more than one woman boldly confessed Him. 
 Women, in short, were the last at the cross and the first at 
 the tomb.* 
 
 Mary the mother of our Lord is mentioned the only time 
 here in the passion of our Lord. Rome constantly speaks of 
 
 *Expository thoughts on John. 
 
368 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 her as the “Virgin Mary,” a title which is not used in Scrip- 
 ture, but she is always called, the mother of our Lord. Only 
 once more is she mentioned in Scripture, in the first chapter 
 of Acts. It is evident that the Holy Spirit anticipated the 
 idolatry which apostate Rome would practice with her person 
 and therefore He has but little to say about her person. She 
 probably had come from Galilee to attend the annual Pass- 
 over feast and may have been also a witness of other phases 
 of the suffering of her virgin-born Son. She was, of course, 
 no longer young, as she is so frequently pictured by artists, 
 but must have been close to fifty years. What she must 
 have suffered when she looked up and saw Him to whom she 
 had given birth, hanging in agony on that cross of shame can 
 hardly be imagined. Old Simeon’s prediction was then ful- 
 filled. ‘A sword shall pierce through thine own soul also” 
 (Luke 11:35). 
 
 A still more touching scene follows. John the writer of 
 this Gospel stood there also. In true humility he mentions 
 himself last and then not by name, but as elsewhere in this 
 Gospel, as the disciple whom Jesus loved. While our Lord 
 suffered as the sacrificial Lamb, He manifested perfect human 
 affection and sympathy. As He looked upon the little 
 group, so faithfully sharing His rejection also, He knew what 
 was going on in the mother heart. His mighty love and 
 sympathy was not altered by His intense physical suffering. 
 He had prayed a little while before, ‘‘Father, forgive them for 
 they know not what they do.”’ He spoke to the dying thief 
 words of love and assurance. And He now addressed His 
 suffering mother. ‘Translated literally it is: “Woman! 
 Look! Thy Son!” and to John “Look! Thy mother!” In 
 these words He made gracious provision for His mother. 
 This certainly is sufficient evidence that Joseph, the husband 
 of Mary had died and also that she had no one else to take 
 care ofher. ‘The Lord therefore commended her to the care 
 of the beloved disciple. It is also highly significant that 
 our Lord did not address her as ‘‘Mother,” but spoke to her in 
 the same term He had used at the marriage supper of Cana, 
 “Woman.” Bishop Ryle remarks on this: ‘‘I cannot help 
 thinking that, even at this awful moment, He would remind 
 her that she must never suffer herself or others to presume on 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 369 
 
 the relationship between her and Him, or claim any super- 
 natural honor on the ground of being His mother. Hence- 
 forth she must daily remember, that first aim must be to live 
 the life of faith as a believing woman, like all other Christian 
 women. Her blessedness did not consist in being related to 
 Christ according to the flesh, but in believing and keeping 
 Christ’s word. I firmly believe that, even on the cross, Jesus 
 foresaw the future heresy of ‘Mary-worship.’”? A German 
 commentator says: “Our Lord’s design was not to provide 
 for John, but to provide for His mother’’; while Dean Alford 
 observed: ““The Romanist idea that the Lord commended 
 all His disciples, as represented by John, to the patronage of 
 His mother, is simply absurd.” 
 
 And John obeyed at once and ever after he took care of 
 Mary, the mother of our Lord. Where John lived, how long 
 Mary lived, are questions which cannot be answered, though 
 many traditions are about, but they are unreliable. 
 
 Verses 28-30. John does not say anything about the 
 three hours of darkness and the momentous utterance which 
 came from our Saviour’s lips: ““My God, my God, why hast 
 Thou forsaken Me?’ This is passed over by John. Nor is 
 any mention made of the rending of the veil, the earthquake, 
 the centurion’s confession. ‘These omissions have often been 
 pointed out by critics as demonstrating a human and fallible 
 authorship. In reality they are evidences of verbal in- 
 spiration, for the Gospel of John shows our Lord in His es- 
 sential Deity and as the Eternal Life. As the Son of God, the 
 maker of all things in fellowship with the Father. His 
 sacrificial death is set forth in the fourth Gospel. ‘The omis- 
 sions are for a very good purpose. But we shall point out 
 more of that as we meditate on this section. 
 
 What John reports now must have followed the three hours 
 of darkness. ‘That is immediately after He had commended 
 His mother to the care of the beloved disciple, the darkness, 
 the mysterious darkness enshrouded the cross. Out of that 
 darkness came but one utterance, so awfully deep that no 
 saint has ever sounded its depths. 
 
 What a majestic statement it is which we find in verse 28! 
 “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now ac- 
 complished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I 
 
370 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 thirst.”” All through His suffering He was perfectly con- 
 scious, and He knew all He had to suffer beforehand and all 
 which was to be accomplished by His suffering and death. 
 He knew the betrayal of Judas, His arrest in the garden, the 
 trial, the scourging, the crown of thorns, the mockery, the 
 shame and physical suffering connected with the cross. He 
 knew that in the three hours of darkness He would be made 
 sin and drink the cup of judgment in the place of guilty and 
 lost sinners. And now, the three hours passed. He knew all 
 things were accomplished. One Scripture He knew was still 
 unfulfilled. It is written in Psalm lxix:21 “* * * in my 
 thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.” He knew this had 
 also to be accomplished. ~In Matthew xxvii:34 we read that 
 they offered Him vinegar and gall, which He refused. It 
 was before they drove the nails through His blessed hands and 
 feet. As it was a stimulant to deaden pain He refused to 
 drink it. But now He suffered intense thirst. It was pro- 
 phetically described a thousand years before by David’s in- 
 spired pen. “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, 
 and my tongue cleaveth to My jaws, and Thou hast brought 
 Me into the dust of death” (Psalm xxii:15). The two little 
 words “J thirst” tell us of the physical agony through which 
 He passed. ‘This simple statement shows what He must have 
 suffered. His suffering was not miraculously overcome, but 
 He suffered really and in a manner which was indescribable. 
 A commentator says: ‘“The torments of hell are represented 
 by a violent thirst, in the complaint of the rich man who 
 begged for a drop of water to cool his tongue. ‘To that ever- 
 lasting thirst we had all been condemned, if Christ had not 
 suffered on the cross, and said ‘I thirst.’”’ He suffered thirst 
 that we might thirst no more but drink the water of life 
 freely. And He spoke thus expressing His intense agony, 
 that at the same time the Scripture might be fulfilled. A 
 soldier, perhaps moved with pity, filled a sponge with vinegar, 
 which was in a vessel nearby, put it on hyssop and reaching 
 up put it to His mouth. Here too is a deep allusion to the 
 sacrificial work of the divine sufferer. Hyssop was used in 
 sprinkling the door posts with blood in the Passover night. 
 It was also used in sprinkling with blood and water the book 
 of the law, and the people (Heb. x:19). So small a thing as 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 371 
 
 hyssop was not overlooked in the fulfillment of His redemp- 
 tion work, 
 
 Immediately after He had received the vinegar He said: 
 “It is finished!” and He bowed His head and delivered up 
 His Spirit. The synoptic Gospels do not record this majestic, 
 unfathomable utterance. Matthew writes: “Jesus, when He 
 had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the Spirit” 
 (Matt. xxvii:50). Mark records the same. Luke states: 
 ‘‘When Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, 
 into Thy hands I commend My Spirit, and having said thus 
 He gave up the Spirit” (Luke xxiii:46). From the testi- 
 mony of the synoptic Gospels we learn that our Lord must 
 have uttered the word which John records, “It is finished!’ 
 with a loud voice. In the Greek it is one word— Tetelstai. 
 As He uttered this one word with a loud voice it means a 
 shout of triumph and of victory. With every phase of His 
 redemption work a shout is connected. As the risen One, 
 He greeted His disciples with a shout of Joy—All hail! which 
 means literally ‘Rejoice!’ He went up with a shout, and 
 some day He is coming back witha shout (1 Thess. iv:16-18). 
 
 But who can tell what this one word “It is finished!” 
 means? It is as glorious as it is inexhaustible and unsearch- 
 able. Never before and never after was spoken such a 
 marvelous word, which means so much. No Saint is able to 
 measure the depths of this triumphant shout. It means 
 that His great sacrificial work, the sin-bearing, was now 
 finished. All that needed to be done to satisfy the right- 
 eousness of God and to vindicate His holiness was finished; 
 peace was now made in the blood of His cross; all that God 
 in His eternal counsel had purposed was finished; prophecies 
 and types relating to His matchless atoning work were finish- 
 ed. Yea, all was finished to reach down to man in his deepest 
 degradation and to save him to the uttermost, so that the 
 lost, the guilty, the hell-deserving sinner becomes, trusting in 
 Him, a child of God and an heir of glory. All is finished to 
 put on the side of the believer every spiritual blessing which 
 an infinite God is able to bestow. But all these statements 
 we have made are but the A. B. C. of the meaning of this 
 great utterance of the Lamb of God. 
 
 At the close of the Twenty-second Psalm, the Psalm which 
 
372 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 tells out so fully His suffering and His glory, we find a word 
 which is equivalent to the exclamation “It is finished!’ 
 There we read “That He hath done.”’ If we ask what has 
 He done or finished we find an answer in the preceding verses. 
 There we read that Israel will yet accept Him and the ends 
 of the world shall turn to the Lord. All this was done by 
 Him on the cross. ‘Twice in Revelation we find the same 
 expression. In chapter xvi:17 there is heard a great voice 
 out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “‘It is 
 done.”” The seventh angel poured out the vial; the com- 
 plete end of man’s day has come and the day of the Lord 
 with millennial blessing and glory is now ushered in. The 
 foundation for all these blessings was laid by Him in His 
 finished work on the cross. One more we read the same 
 statement in Revelation. “‘And He that sat upon the throne 
 said, Behold I make all things new. And He said unto me, 
 Write, for these words are true and faithful. And He said 
 unto me, It is done. J am Alpha and Omega, the beginning 
 and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the 
 fountain of the water of life freely”? (Rev. xxi:5-6). 
 
 And after the triumphant ‘‘ Tetelstar”—‘“‘It is finished,” 
 He bowed His blessed thorn-crowned head and delivered 
 up His spirit. In Luke’s Gospel we read that our Lord said: 
 “Father, into Thy hands ] commend my spirit.” John does 
 not record this for He writes of Him as the Son of God and 
 as such, one with the Father, unforsaken by the Father 
 (Chapter xvi:32) He did not need to commend Himself to 
 the Father. The expression ‘He delivered up His spirit’ 
 is nowhere else used in the Bible of a dying person. We die 
 because we cannot help it, but His death was a voluntary 
 action. He delivered up His spirit by His own free will. 
 
 The remarks on this verse by Augustinus of the fourth 
 century are most appropriate. “Not against His will did the 
 Saviour’s spirit leave the flesh, but because He would, and 
 when He would, and how He would. Who is there that even 
 can go to sleep when he will, as Jesus did when He would? 
 Who thus puts off his clothes, when he will, as Jesus un- 
 clothed Himself when He would? Who goes thus out of 
 doors when he will, as Jesus, when He would, went out of 
 this world?” 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN SPS 
 
 ‘It is finished!” sinners, hear it, 
 
 Tis the dying victor’s cry; 
 “Tt is finished!” angels, bear it, 
 
 Bear the joyful truth on high: 
 “Tt is finished!’ 
 
 Tell it through the earth and sky! 
 
 Hear the Lord Himself declaring 
 All performed He came to do; 
 Sinners, in yourselves despairing, 
 
 This is joyful news to you; 
 Jesus speaks it, 
 His are faithful words and true. 
 
 “Tt is finished!” all is over, 
 
 Yes, the cup of wrath is drained, 
 Such the truth these words discover, 
 Thus the victory was obtained— 
 
 *Tis a victory 
 None but Jesus could have gained.” 
 
 Verses 31-37. What is meant by “the preparation’’? 
 It means the day preceding the Passover Sabbath. It was 
 considered a high day, or, better rendered, a great day. 
 This seems to be conclusive evidence that the death of our 
 Lord took place on Friday. Some in order to get the three 
 days and three nights have tried to fix the day of the death 
 of our Lord on Wednesday, and others on Thursday. ‘The 
 Jewish mode of reckoning explains the apparent difficulty. 
 On account of the approaching great Sabbath they were 
 particular that the law of Moses should not be broken. It 
 is written in Deut. xxi:23 concerning the man who is put 
 to death and is hanged onatree: ‘‘His body shall not remain 
 all night upon the tree.”? The miserable hypocrites had 
 no scruples in murdering an innocent man, but they were 
 scrupulous about letting the dead man hang on the cross 
 over night. ‘They evidently feared that the bodies of the 
 three criminals might hang over the Sabbath on the crosses. 
 They came therefore to Pilate and requested him that their 
 legs might be broken and that all three be taken away. 
 Did they fear anything else? The place of crucifixion was 
 near the wall of the city and near the temple. It was along 
 the highway leading into the city on which hundreds entered 
 the city. Did they fear that the sight of the One in the 
 middle with His bowed, thorn-crowned head, and the in- 
 scription above—‘“‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” 
 might arouse a mighty sentiment against them from the 
 
374 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 many who had followed Him and had been benefited by 
 His works of mercy? 
 
 The breaking of the legs of crucified criminals was a 
 Roman custom to hasten death. They did not hesitate to 
 urge the Roman heathen to resort to this barbarous custom 
 and to add additional suffering to the dying men. They 
 evidently did not know that the Lord Jesus had bowed His 
 head and that His body had died. But what would have 
 happened if they had not made the request? As far as we 
 know all three bodies would have remained on the crosses 
 over the Sabbath and the prediction that He would rise 
 again on the third day would have remained unfulfilled. 
 Furthermore, if the Jews had not made the request to break 
 the legs of them, the prediction which is quoted from the 
 Psalms would have had no meaning. The very hatred and 
 malignity of these Jewish leaders, anxious to dispose of 
 the body of the hated One, was instrumental in accomplishing 
 the purpose of God and the fulfillment of His own Word. 
 How true it is, as someone has said, the wickedest enemies 
 of God are only axes, saws and hammers in His hands, and 
 are ignorantly His instruments for doing His work in the 
 world. 
 
 Then the soldiers began their ghastly work. Two of 
 them started in with the two thieves and broke their legs, 
 which was probably done with a heavy club of some kind. 
 Then the thief who had turned to the Lord passed away 
 and found the blessed meaning of the promise of the Lord: 
 “To-day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.” ‘The Lord 
 who had delivered up His spirit had gone before him. The 
 other thief, impenitent to the last, also died and passed 
 into the outer darkness. 
 
 Then they turned to the cross in the middle. The bowed 
 head, the closed eyes, the limp body, the blanched face, 
 told the story. He had died. There was no need to break 
 His legs. A soldier, at random, pierced His side. There 
 is nc ancient source which even gives a hint that such a thing 
 was ever done before. It was not a Roman custom to 
 pierce the side of a dead criminal. The soldier did not 
 follow the command given to him to break the legs of the 
 three to hasten their death; he had no authority to take 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 375 
 
 the spear and pierce His side. Even he was divinely guided 
 in doing this. The Roman government had not authorized 
 the act, but God did, so that the most conclusive evidence 
 of the death of Christ might be given and that Scripture 
 also might be fulfilled. 
 
 The blood and water coming from the pierced side was 
 in the first place an evidence that He was dead. ‘The spear 
 pierced the very vitals of the body, the pericardium; if He 
 had not been dead this spear thrust would have accomplished 
 it. So God took care that the lie of rationalism, trying to 
 disprove His physical resurrection by saying, He had not 
 actually died, should have no weight with any sensible 
 being. But it was more than an evidence that Christ had 
 died. The flow of blood and water out of His side is one 
 of the miracles of the cross; it was a supernatural event. 
 From a dead man no blood flows forth; the flow of blood 
 was a special manifestation of God’s power. ‘The Apostle 
 John bears witness to it that he saw it with his own eyes. 
 In his first epistle he also alludes to it. ‘“This is He that 
 came through water and blood, Jesus Christ; not in the 
 power of water only, but in the power of water and blood. 
 And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit 
 is truth” (Chapter v:6). Very foolishly some expositors 
 have applied this to baptism and the Lord’s supper, and 
 others made the strange assertion that wine and water 
 should be mixed at the Lord’s table. The blood stands 
 always for atonement, the water for purification, for cleans- 
 ing. This is the evident meaning of the miracle, to give 
 an outward evidence of the meaning of His sacrificial death— 
 justification and sanctification—typified by blood and water, 
 and both are received by faith in the death of the Son of 
 God. 
 
 “Thy love, by man so sorely tried, 
 Proved stronger than the grave; 
 The very spear that pierced Thy side 
 
 Drew forth the blood to save.” 
 
 And all was in fulfillment of the Holy Scriptures. How 
 marvelously God took care that nothing should be over- 
 looked in His Word! These wonderful fulfillments of 
 prophecy are one of the outstanding evidences of the super- 
 
 naturalness of the Book. The soldier could not break the 
 
376 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 legs of the Lord Jesus, because He is the true Passover 
 Lamb and no bone of the Passover lamb was to be broken 
 (Exod. xii:46). The soldier had to pierce His blessed side 
 not only to give sure evidence of His death and to show 
 miraculously by the blood and water the spiritual results 
 of His death, but to do it because Scripture demands it. 
 It is written in Zechariah xii:10: ‘And they shall look 
 upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn 
 for Him, as one mourneth for his only son.” But let it 
 be noticed, John avoids the word “at was fulfilled.” He 
 did not use this term because the Scripture which predicts 
 this was not fulfilled at that time, nor has it been fulfilled 
 since then. It is true thousands upon thousands have 
 looked to Him and believed on Him, and were saved. It 
 is true 
 
 “There is life in a look at the Crucified One, 
 There is life at this moment for you.” 
 
 But if-we examine the passage in Zechariah we learn that 
 it will be fulfilled in the future, when the repentant remnant 
 of Israel in the last days of this age turns to Him and when 
 He comes again, then they will look upon Him whom 
 they pierced. Thomas, the unbelieving disciple, who would 
 not believe till he put his hand into His side, is a picture 
 of the unbelieving Jew, who always wants to see first and 
 then believe. When He comes the second time this Scrip- 
 ture will be fulfilled and not before. 
 
 Verses 38-42. The burial of His blessed body is next 
 brought before us by John’s inspired pen. It was a custom 
 to leave crucified criminals unburied. Often they were 
 left hanging on the cross for the vultures to feed upon. His 
 burial had also been predicted by the Spirit of God. Isaiah 
 wrote (correctly translated) “His grave was appointed with 
 the wicked, but with the rich man was His tomb” (liii:9). 
 It means this—the Jews would have liked to have His 
 body treated as if it were the body of a wicked man, but 
 God stepped in, and He who had said that “His body should 
 not see corruption,” the body which knew no sin, gave 
 His beloved Son for a resting place the tomb of a rich man. 
 Who Joseph of Arimathea was we learn from all four Gospels. 
 He was a wealthy man (Matt. xxvii:51). He was an 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 377 
 
 honorable counsellor who waited for the Kingdom of God 
 (Mark xv:43). He was a good man and just and had not 
 consented to the counsel and deed in condemning the 
 Lord Jesus Christ (Luke xxiii:50). He was a secret disciple 
 of the Lord. While in His life this noble man kept in 
 the background, His death led him out to make a confession 
 by his action. Being an influential man, probably well 
 known to Pilate, he had no difficulty in getting the ready 
 consent of the Roman official. We do not know why he 
 acted so boldly. Many things might be conjectured. He 
 may have been led to confess Him, when His own disciples 
 had forsaken Him, on account of the startling events which 
 took place in connection with the death of the Lord; or 
 it may have been the power of God which enabled him to 
 disregard all danger and ridicule and claim the body of 
 Christ. However, it was an act of faith and confession. 
 A commentator says: ‘When Christ was working wonders, 
 and speaking as never man spake, all this moved not Joseph 
 to come forth and show himself. But now, Christ being 
 dead and in shame, he comes out. Whereunto do I ascribe 
 this? I ascribe it to the power that comes from the death 
 of Christ. ‘There was never a living man in the world that 
 had such power as that dead body had. More mighty 
 was His death than His life.” 
 
 It is also a curious incident, perhaps more than that, 
 that it was a ‘‘Joseph” who handled probably first the body 
 of our Lord, as an infant, at the time of His birth in Beth- 
 lehem, and that it was another “Joseph” who handled the 
 lifeless body for burial. 
 
 Nicodemus appears next on the scene. He is even of 
 greater interest than Joseph of Arimathea. We read of him 
 only in this Gospel. He came to the Lord Jesus by night, 
 and heard the great truth concerning the kingdom of God 
 (John iii). The next time he is mentioned is in chapter 
 vii:10. He belonged to those in authority and when they 
 met and were angry at the officers who returned without 
 the hated One, whom they were commissioned to arrest, 
 Nicodemus ventured a weak defense of the Lord. Each 
 time, here and in chapter vii, the Spirit of God adds by way 
 of identification “he that came to Jesus by night,” so that 
 
378 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 there might be no mistake that it was the same person. 
 And now he comes bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, 
 about one hundred pound weight. Did he know Joseph 
 of Arimathea? Was Joseph’s action the reason that he 
 also came out to confess Christ? Or was it the death of 
 Christ? These questions are unanswerable. But we have 
 always thought that Nicodemus must have been an onlooker 
 when our Lord was crucified. He saw Him nailed to the 
 cross and hanging there. As the teacher of Israel he knew 
 the Scriptures and beheld how Scripture was being fulfilled. 
 Perhaps then the memorable words the Lord had given to 
 him that night came back to him. “As Moses lifted up 
 the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be 
 lifted up; that whosoever believeth on Him should not 
 perish, but have everlasting life.” Perhaps that very moment 
 he believed and was born again. And now a great Pharisee 
 and ruler of the Jews, the teacher in Israel, comes out 
 boldly to do honor to Him who, in the eyes of the law, had 
 died a criminal. He comes to do honor to the body of the 
 Lord Jesus. 
 
 They took the body and wound it in linen cloth with 
 spices, according to the manner of Jewish burial. The 
 fine linen was provided by Joseph (Mark xv:46). This also 
 shows conclusively that the body was dead. Strange it is 
 that some think that the large amount of spices were used 
 to keep back the corruption of the body of our Lord. No 
 spices, no myrrh, no embalming process was needed for 
 that. Corruption is in the world on account of sin. He 
 had no sin, but gave His sinless body; therefore corruption 
 of His body was impossible in fulfillment of the prophecy 
 in Psalm xvi. 
 
 From verse 41 we learn that in the place where He was 
 crucified was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre 
 which had never been used. As we learn from Matthew, 
 it was hewn outofarock. An ancient commentator says 
 “Tt is a striking proof of our Lord’s poverty, that while He 
 lived He had no house of His own, and when He died He 
 was buried in another’s tomb.” The sepulchre was very 
 near and there the blessed, precious body was deposited. 
 There He rested till the dawn of the third day, the first 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 379 
 
 day of the week. ‘“Thus ended the most wonderful funeral 
 the sun ever shone upon. Such a death and such a burial— 
 so little understood by man and so important in the sight 
 of God,—there never was and never can be again. Who 
 need doubt the love of Christ, when we consider the deep 
 humiliation that Christ went through for our sakes! ‘To 
 tabernacle in our flesh at all, to die after the manner of a 
 man, to allow His holy body to hang on a cross, to suffer 
 it to be lifted, handled, carried like a lump of cold clay, and 
 shut up in a dark, silent, solitary tomb,—this was indeed 
 love that passeth knowledge. What true believer need 
 fear the grave now? Solemn as is the thought of our last 
 narrow bed, we must never forget that it is the place where 
 the Lord lay. ‘The sting of death is sin, and the strength 
 of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us 
 the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor. xv:56).’* 
 
 Matthew Henry says “Christ’s death should comfort us 
 against the fear of death. The grave could not long keep 
 Christ, and it shall not long keep us. It was a loathsome 
 prison before, it is a perfumed bed now. He whose Head 
 is in Heaven, need not fear to put his feet in a grave.” 
 
 
 
 *Expositoy Thoughts on John. 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 If the Gospel of John ended with the previous chapter, 
 with the account of the burial of the Crucified One, we would 
 have no Gospel of salvation at all, no assurance and no hope. 
 That most subtle and dangerous infidelity, which is known 
 as ‘‘Modernism,” denies the physical resurrection of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. It leaves Him in the grave. The tomb 
 was never opened and the body of our holy Lord became the 
 prey of corruption. According to Modernism, He did not 
 rise from the dead, nor did He ascend into heaven, nor is 
 He in heaven as the glorified Man, nor is He ever coming 
 again. Yet this monstrosity claims the name of “Christian- 
 ity’! The two great pillars upon which Christianity rests 
 are the Virgin birth, and the physical resurrection of Christ 
 after He had expired on the cross, as the substitute of sin- 
 
380 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 ners, and was buried. If either one of these pillars is de- 
 molished the whole Gospel scheme collapses. It has pleased 
 the Spirit of God to give us His logic on this point. In the 
 First Epistle to the Corinthians there is a divine definition 
 of the Gospel, by which sinners are saved. ‘For J delivered 
 unto you first of all that which I also received, how that 
 Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and 
 that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day 
 according to the Scriptures.’ ‘Then after marshalling the 
 mighty witnesses of His physical resurrection, we find that 
 magnificent argument as to the immense importance of His 
 bodily resurrection. If Christ be not risen—then what? 
 ‘And if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain, and 
 your faith is also vain.’ There is nothing left to preach 
 about, and any faith in Christ is a vain and a foolish thing. 
 ‘“Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we 
 have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He 
 raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.”? Cephas and 
 the twelve, the five hundred brethren, James and all the 
 Apostles, as well as the women who claimed to have seen 
 Him, conversed with Him,seen Him alive, in whose presence 
 He ate, were all miserable deceivers, and bore a false wit- 
 ness, when they said He was risen from the dead, if He had 
 never left the grave. And the Apostle Paul also was a false 
 witness, when he declared he had seen Him in the glory 
 light on the road to Damascus. 
 
 ‘“‘And if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain; ye are 
 yet in your sins.”” For a dead Christ has no power to save. 
 If His body was never raised from the dead, His death and 
 His precious blood has no more power to do anything for 
 man than the death of any other human being. ‘“Then they 
 also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” They 
 died trusting in a false hope of resurrection; if He was not 
 raised then nobody will be raised from the dead. “‘If in 
 this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men 
 most miserable.” For one who hopes in Christ, suffers on 
 account of his faith, has hardship, denies himself, is most 
 miserable inasmuch as he hopes in one who is dead, who 
 cannot do anything for him. Such is the divine logic, 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 381 
 
 showing the great importance of the physical resurrection 
 of Him who died on the cross. 
 
 Therefore His bodily resurrection is an event upon which 
 the whole redemption plan rests; it is one of the cardinal 
 doctrines of Christianity. The evidences of His literal and 
 physical resurrection are of such a nature that they are con- 
 clusive. It rests on fuller evidence and surer and better 
 grounds than any event in history. 
 
 He was seen eleven times after His death and burial, and 
 appeared at different times of the day, to different persons 
 in different ways. He was seen by women and by men, at 
 the sea-shore, in rooms when doors were closed, on a country 
 road and on a mountain. At one time five hundred saw 
 Him. It is impossible that so large a number of brethren 
 could be self-deceived, or concocted a falsehood. And those 
 who saw Him, to whom He appeared, talked with Him, 
 walked with Him, sat at the table with Him, they saw Him 
 eat and touched His body. It must also be remembered 
 that many of these witnesses were reluctant to believe the 
 report, that He was alive. Thomas would only accept the 
 report of His resurrection by seeing Him, and putting his 
 hand into His side. And the little band of His followers, 
 who had nearly all deserted Him, who were cowards in 
 spirit, a short time after became courageous witnesses to the 
 fact of His resurrection. All apostolic preaching centers in 
 the resurrection of Christ. Peter in his inspired testimony 
 on the day of Pentecost preached the fact of His resurrection, 
 and ever after, as well as the other witnesses, including the 
 Apostle Paul. Something happened or they could not have 
 given such a bold and unflinching testimony; even the ration- 
 alist, Strauss, who, like the present day Modernist, denied 
 the resurrection, said ‘‘something extraordinary must have 
 occurred.” 
 
 The destructive critics, as they are now generally called, 
 Modernists, like other infidels have charged the divine 
 records concerning the resurrection of our Lord with being 
 contradictory. They claim that there are discrepancies 
 which cannot be reconciled. While there are difficulties 
 they are not contradictions, such as the Modernist claims 
 them to be. Furthermore, the different accounts can be 
 
382 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 satisfactorily harmonized. Instead of being the marks of 
 errors, or deception, these different records bear witness to 
 their genuineness and trustworthiness. 
 
 Verses 1-10. The first day of the week was soon to dawn. 
 It was early and still dark, though the sun was about to 
 rise (Mark xvi:2) when Mary Magdalene came to the 
 sepulchre. Here we face the first difficulty. Was she alone 
 or did other women accompany her? Mark in his record 
 says that the first appearance of our risen Lord was to Mary 
 Magdalene (Mark xvi:9), but he does not describe the 
 manner of that appearance. The Apostle John tells us 
 how He appeared to her (verses 11-13). According to John 
 she came alone to the sepulchre; but Matthew, Mark and 
 Luke tell us that other women were in her company. There 
 can be no question that Mary Magdalene was not alone 
 when she went to the sepulchre. It would have been un- 
 natural, not woman-like, for her to venture out alone when 
 it was still night, especially in view of the fact that a large 
 number of strangers were encamped outside of the walls of 
 Jerusalem, on account of the Passover feast. There is a 
 hint that others were with her in the second verse. When 
 she met Simon Peter and the other disciples she said, ‘“They 
 have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know 
 not where they have laid Him.’ Had she been alone she 
 would have said, “I know not where they laid Him’’; but 
 she said “‘we know not” evidently speaking for the other 
 women who were with her. The Holy Spirit makes her 
 prominent in this account as given by John, because his 
 inspired pen was to give the details of the first appearance 
 of the risen Christ. He singled her out, out of whom He 
 had cast seven demons (Mark xvi:9), to be the first witness 
 of His triumphant resurrection. The loving gratitude she 
 felt for Him prompted her to be probably the leader of the 
 company of women, who went out so very early to the 
 sepulchre. 
 
 When Mary Magdalene and her companions arrived at 
 the sepulchre, they found the stone taken away from the 
 sepulchre. Mary Magdalene observed this before the others 
 noticed it. Perhaps in her eagerness to get to the sepulchre 
 she walked faster than the other women and therefore 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 383 
 
 noticed first that the stone was rolled away. The resurrec- 
 tion had already taken place. No human eye had witnessed 
 the great act when God raised Him from the dead, as no 
 created eye had witnessed the mystery of His sufferings on 
 the cross, when darkness for three hours enshrouded the 
 divine sufferer. 
 
 Matthew tells us that there was a great earthquake, for 
 an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and rolled 
 back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. And for fear 
 of him the Roman soldiers trembled and became as dead. 
 But before the stone had been rolled away He had arisen. 
 Mary Magdalene and her companions came after all this 
 had transpired. ‘They probably knew nothing of the guard 
 which had been placed before the sepulchre, or they would 
 not have gone so early to the place. The soldiers had fled. 
 None of the women saw anything of them. And Mary 
 Magdalene, the moment she saw that the stone was taken 
 away ran off, without a further investigation of the empty 
 tomb. She ran to tell Peter and the other disciple whom 
 Jesus loved, which is John. Where she met them we do not 
 know, but it may be surmised that their dwelling place was 
 not at a very great distance from the garden where He had 
 been buried. And while she ran the rest of the women drew 
 nearer to the sepulchre. Peter and John evidently dwelt 
 together, and let us not forget, that Mary, the mother of 
 Jesus was there also. How fast the feet of loving, grateful 
 Mary Magdalene must have run to convey the good news, 
 that the stone was rolled away, to the two disciples and to 
 the mother of the Lord! And yet she did not know the full 
 truth. She was still ignorant of the good tidings ‘‘He is 
 risen.” All she knew was “They have taken away the Lord 
 out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have 
 laid Him.” She did not even imagine that He was alive, 
 but thought somebody had taken the lifeless body of her 
 Lord and put Him somewhere. Then there was some more 
 running. Both Peter and John ran a race to reach the 
 garden where the sepulchre was as quickly as possible. 
 John beat Peter in this race and came first to the sepulchre. 
 How often Peter and John are seen together. They were 
 fishermen together. They were present with James on the 
 
384 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 Mount of Transfiguration, at the house of Jairus and in 
 Gethsemane. John was a witness of Peter’s shameful denial 
 also. Perhaps during the two nights after Peter’s denial 
 there was but little sleep for either one. Peter was over- 
 come with grief and we suppose loving John tried to comfort 
 him and cheer his heart, when suddenly Mary appeared, 
 with her astonishing news. No wonder that both ran as 
 quickly as they could. What thoughts of wonder and 
 amazement must have filled their minds as they ran thus 
 together! 
 
 While John reached the place first, because he was the 
 younger, and saw the linen burial clothes lying, he did not 
 enter in. Peter, who followed him closely, went into the 
 sepulchre, saw the linen clothes ‘“‘and the napkin, that was 
 about His head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped 
 together in a place by itself.””’ Then John also went in and 
 saw and believed. 
 
 Here, then, was a conclusive and perfect proof that the 
 body of the Lord had not been hastily removed by thieves, 
 whether friends or foes. Like one who had slept, and who 
 disposes in an orderly way of his garments, the Lord in 
 arising from the sleep of death, had folded the linen clothes 
 and the napkin. There was no haste displayed, but all 
 had been done calmly and deliberately. When Lazarus came 
 forth from his grave, at the command of the Lord, the 
 grave clothes were about him, and they had to loose him. 
 Not so with the Lord. He needed no one to loosen the bands 
 and the napkin. He did it Himself. 
 
 “The linen clothes lying were a sign of the resurrection. 
 For neither if any person had removed the body, would they, 
 before doing so, have stripped it; nor if any had stolen it, 
 would they have taken the trouble to remove the napkin, 
 and roll it up and lay it in a place by itself. They would 
 have taken the body as it was. On this account, John tells 
 us, by anticipation, that the body was buried with much 
 myrrh, which glues linen to the body not less firmly than 
 lead, in order that when thou hearest that the napkin lay 
 apart, thou mayest not endure those who say the body was 
 stolen. A thief would not have been so foolish as to spend 
 so much time on superfluous matter. Why should he undo 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 385 
 
 the clothes? How could he have escaped detection if he 
 had done so? But why did the clothes lie apart while the 
 napkin was wrapped together by itself? That thou mayest 
 know that it was not the action of men in confusion or in 
 haste.”’* 
 
 It seems up to this moment neither John nor Peter had 
 understood the meaning of the Scriptures, that Christ 
 should rise after His passion, nor His own words in which 
 He had predicted this momentous event. But now they 
 saw and believed, though the full meaning, as revealed in 
 the Scriptures, was not known to them, just as Cleopas and 
 his companion on the road to Emaus were ignorant of it. 
 Peter and John returned to their dwelling. 
 
 Verses 11-18. Peter and John had returned to their 
 own home, probably to eat their breakfast. It shows a 
 strange indifference, the result of not knowing the Scriptures. 
 The sight of the empty tomb had convinced them that the 
 body was not there. If they had known the Scriptures 
 they would have remained, constrained by love and hope, 
 to see Him who was risen from the dead. It was different 
 with Mary. She remained at the sepulchre. She had 
 not entered, as Peter had done. Standing without she wept. 
 She too was ignorant of the Word of God concerning His 
 resurrection. But what she lacked in knowledge was made 
 up by her deep love for Him who had delivered her, by His 
 divine power, from the dominion of demons. She tarried 
 at the hallowed spot, with tears streaming down her face, 
 hoping that in some way her question, where they had put 
 the body of the Lord, might be answered. An old commen- 
 tator says: ‘The going away of Peter and John commends 
 Mary’s staying behind. To the grave she came before 
 them, from the grave she went telling them, to the grave 
 she returned with them, at the grave she remained behind 
 them.” 
 
 Then weeping still she stooped down, and ventured a 
 look into the sepulchre. She had not done this before. 
 When she saw the stone taken away, and the Roman soldiers 
 gone, she surmised that the grave was empty. Then Peter 
 
 
 
 *Chrysostom. 
 
386 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 and John had convinced themselves that the body was gone. 
 Mary now wanted to see with her own eyes, and as she looked 
 into the sepulchre, she saw what the two disciples had not 
 seen. She beheld two angels in white sitting, the one at the 
 head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus 
 had lain. There can be no question that they had been 
 there when Peter and John had examined the sepulchre, 
 but they were invisible to them, while they became visible 
 to Mary. Modernists use this fact as an alleged evidence 
 of the untrustworthiness of this record. They claim here 
 is an irreconcilable contradiction. Like the Sadducees, 
 Modernists do not believe in angels. If they believed in 
 these supernatural beings» of whom the Bible has so much 
 to say, they would also believe the record. The Angels of 
 God appear and disappear, become visible and invisible, 
 instantaneously and supernaturally, according to God’s 
 command. Elisha saw the heavenly hosts, while his servant 
 did not see them; but in answer to the prophet’s prayer the 
 servant beheld them likewise. | 
 
 Were these angels sent in connection with His triumphant 
 resurrection, or were they present at the moment when the 
 lifeless body of our Lord was deposited in the sepulchre? 
 While Scripture does not answer this question, we believe 
 they were sent by God the moment the body was laid in the 
 grave to keep guard over His holy body, as it is written in 
 the ninety-first psalm “He shall give His angels charge 
 over Thee.” 
 
 And Mary was not startled by beholding these tenants of 
 the heavens. There is no outcry of fear, no alarm, as is 
 generally the case when angels suddenly appear. Her heart 
 was so fully occupied with the Lord, and the absence of 
 His holy body, that she was delivered from all fear. And 
 we too, if our Lord is the absorbing object of our heart, 
 shall fear nothing. 
 
 The angels then spoke to her. ‘‘Woman, why weepest 
 thou?’ What tender sympathy this question reveals! 
 They knew, of course, why she wept. Here is an evidence 
 that the holy angels of God enter with sympathy into 
 human affairs, the sorrows of His people, as they also 
 rejoice when a sinner repents, and are the unseen witnesses 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 387 
 
 of Christian worship.* But the question carried with it 
 assurance, which weeping Mary was not able to grasp. 
 Why weepest thou? Was there any reason for this pro- 
 longed lamentation? Their presence should have con- 
 vinced her that all was well. With such a guard no enemy 
 would have taken away His blessed body. Why weepest 
 thou? There is no place for tears here. Instead of weeping 
 eyes there should have been lips of holy laughter, shouts 
 of joy and shouts of praise. But she knew not this. She 
 answered the angelic question. She takes it for granted 
 that the angels knew whom she meant and of whom she 
 spoke as “my Lord.” Yet not the faintest thought that 
 He might be risen and alive enters her mind. As another 
 says: “All was in error; tears of grief,—but false grief, 
 imagining that to be which was not, and Him to be dead, 
 who was alive. She weeps, because she finds the grave 
 empty, which, God forbid, she should have found full, 
 for the Christ must have been dead still, and there would 
 be no resurrection. And this case of Mary Magdalene is 
 our case oftentimes. It is the error of our conceit to weep 
 when we have no cause, and to joy when we have as little. 
 False joys and false sorrows, false hopes and false fears, this 
 life of ours is full of them.” 
 
 And now suddenly something happens. The all-impor- 
 tant statement, which burdened her heart, had been made 
 to the heavenly visitors and watchers in the tomb. Natur- 
 ally she expected an answer. Her eyes must have eagerly 
 watched the faces and the lips of the angels. Instead, when 
 she had said this, she turned backward. She turned around 
 and away from the angels. What produced this changed 
 attitude? Something must have occurred which made her 
 turn away so abruptly from the empty tomb, without 
 waiting for an answer from the angels. She may have 
 heard approaching footsteps; or she may have felt instinc- 
 tively that some one stood behind her. Perhaps the angels 
 were responsible for directing her attention away from them- 
 selves to the person which had appeared. ‘They knew the 
 Lord. They may have arisen in holy awe and worship, 
 
 
 
 * Our volume, “‘The Angels of God,” covers this interesting truth 
 more fully. 
 
388 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 and riveting their eye upon Him, Mary too turned around 
 to see who the Person was. 
 
 She sees Him, but does not know that it is Jesus. Not 
 her tear-dimmed eyes prevented her recognition of the Lord, 
 whom she knew so well, but, as it was with the two on the 
 road to Emmaus, her eyes were supernaturally holden. 
 And perhaps the element of glory which enshrouded now 
 the risen body of His humiliation also contributed to the 
 failure to know that it was Jesus. And now He speaks. 
 “Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?” 
 Just as the angels knew, why she was weeping, so He knew 
 all about her tears and whom she was seeking. Like the 
 angels, He questioned her thus to show His loving sym- 
 pathy, only His is greater than the sympathy of angels. 
 Whom seekest thou? was a searching question. She had 
 believed on Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God. 
 She had witnessed His miracles. She herself had been 
 miraculously delivered by Him and His Word of power. 
 Art thou seeking such a One, who came to seek and save 
 you? Seeking Him among the dead who is the Prince of 
 life, the Lord of glory! The question has in it a gentle 
 rebuke to her anxious weeping. 
 
 And Mary thought she was speaking to the gardener. 
 She comes with the same burden she had stated twice before. 
 “Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast 
 laid Him, and I will take Him away.” She manifests again 
 her fullest occupation with Him only. She takes it for 
 granted that the gardener must know whom she means; 
 and though the person before her appears as a stranger, 
 she is not a bit more alarmed, than when she faced the angels. 
 And in her impulsive, passionate speaking, she declared her 
 willingness to take His body away, if she only could discover 
 where the body is. Then He speaks. ‘Mary! This one 
 word was enough to open her eyes. She turned again, 
 probably to fall at His feet, and cried out “Rabboni.”” What 
 joy must have filled her heart at the great discovery, that 
 He who died is risen from among the dead and stood now 
 before her in His resurrection glory. She had sown in tears 
 and reaps now in joy. “It was the Good Shepherd calling 
 His own sheep by name. She was the same to Him as ever. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 389 
 
 He stood in resurrection power; but His love was the same 
 to her, certainly not less than when He had cast seven demons 
 out of her. Doubtless there was a sameness in the expres- 
 sion of her name, which went straight home to her heart, 
 and recalled her from her dream about His person, once dead, 
 but now in truth alive forever more.” 
 
 We see her at His feet, and then He spoke: ‘““Touch me 
 not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my 
 brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, 
 and your Father, and to my God and to your God.” From 
 this we surmise that she was about to lay hold of His feet 
 and cover them now with her tears of joy and gratitude. 
 If we turn to Matthew xxviii:9 we read that the women 
 “came and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him.” 
 Needless to say that this also has been pointed out as a 
 discrepancy. It is not, but a mark of the divine authorship 
 of the Gospel records. 
 
 Conservative exegetes have tried to explain the Lord’s 
 words to Mary in different ways. Some have thought that 
 our Lord knew that she might have been carried too far 
 in her loving demonstration, under momentary excitement, 
 and that the Lord forbade her to touch Him, to repress 
 these feelings. We do not think this explanation is worthy 
 of consideration. 
 
 The better explanation is on the dispensational aspect of 
 the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of John. 
 
 In spite of much scribbling against the teaching that the 
 Gospel of Matthew is the Kingdom Gospel, with a striking 
 dispensational aspect and message, all painstaking students 
 of this Gospel maintain this still and find in it the great 
 wisdom of inspiration. We see in this first Gospel the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, as the Son of David, coming to His own 
 as the promised King. He preached the Kingdom and 
 that was rejected. Then He died and rose from among the 
 dead. One characteristic feature of the Gospel of Matthew 
 is that nothing is said of the ascension. If we had only 
 the Gospel of Matthew we would have to believe that the 
 risen Christ never left the earth, but is still herein person. 
 The evident purpose of this is to show that the Son of David 
 will some day be the King on earth, as it is so abundantly 
 
390 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 predicted in the prophetic Word. At the close of the Gospel 
 of Matthew the Lord is seen resuming His relation with the 
 Jewish remnant. The women who held Him by the feet 
 and worshipped Him represented typically that remnant, 
 who will, after His return, enjoy His kingly presence on 
 earth. 
 
 But this is not the viewpoint in the Gospel of John. Here 
 we are outside the kingdom aspect; a new order of things is 
 to be introduced and a new relationship is to be established. 
 As the risen Christ He ascended on high to take His place 
 at the right hand of God. He is now to be regarded not 
 in His bodily presence here on earth, but as the object of 
 faith, received up in glory. To exemplify this the Lord 
 Jesus Christ told Mary not to touch Him, for He was not 
 yet ascended to His Father. After His ascension believers 
 are brought into a spiritual union with Him, and know Him 
 no longer after the flesh, but know Him as glorified in heaven; 
 and through Him know His Father, as their Father, and 
 His God, as their God. The command to Mary ‘“Touch Me 
 not” has therefore an interesting and deep symbolical 
 meaning. The earthly relationship with the Jews ceases 
 and a new relationship, the heavenly, is to be introduced. 
 In the earthly relationship with the Jewish remnant, resumed 
 at our Lord’s return, He will be bodily present in the king- 
 dom; but in the heavenly relationship He is bodily absent 
 and believers are in a heavenly union with the risen Christ. 
 Chrysostom’s comment is helpful and interesting. 
 
 “Methinks Mary wished still to converse with Jesus as 
 before, and in her joy perceived nothing great in Him, 
 although He had become far more excellent in the flesh. 
 To lead her therefore from this idea, and that she might 
 speak to Him with awe (for neither with the disciples doth 
 He henceforth appear so familiar as before), He raiseth her 
 thoughts, that she should give more reverent heed to Him. 
 To have said, ‘Approach Me not as you did before, for 
 matters are not in the same state; nor shall I henceforth be 
 with you in the same way,’ would have been harsh and high- 
 sounding. But the saying, ‘I am not yet ascended to my 
 Father,’ though not painful to hear, was the same thing. 
 For by saying, ‘I am not yet ascended,’ He showeth that He 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 391 
 
 hasteth and passeth thither, and that it was not meet that 
 one about to depart thither, and no longer to converse with 
 men, should be looked on with the same feelings as before.” 
 
 Then He sent her with a message, ‘‘Go tell my brethren.” 
 It is the message of this new relationship. It had been 
 indicated by Him at the close of Matthew xii, when Israel 
 had rejected the kingdom message (Matthew x1i:50). In 
 the twenty-second Psalm, after the suffering is over, we read, 
 “IT will declare Thy Name unto My brethren.” This 
 relationship is brought about by His death, His resurrection 
 and His ascension. As His brethren believers are put 
 through grace into the same place as Himself. And how 
 glad Mary Magdalene must have been for the commission! 
 And what a messenger of good tidings she must have made! 
 
 Verses 19-23. The great day, which we might well call 
 one of the most eventful in human history, had a wonderful 
 ending. He had appeared four times in His risen glory. First 
 Mary Magdalene had seen Him; then the women as they 
 returned from the grave met Him (Matt. xxviii:9); then 
 He appeared to Peter and also to the two who were on the 
 road to Emmaus. 
 
 And now the evening of this first Lord’s Day (Rev. i:10) 
 had come. The disciples had gathered together in a room, 
 perhaps the same room where He had instituted the memorial 
 feast, which we call the Lord’s Supper, and where He had 
 uttered His last words to them, and prayed His great prayer. 
 It is hard to imagine in what state of mind they were. They 
 were reluctant to believe the good news of the empty tomb. 
 Their hope had died, when He had been nailed to the cross, 
 and when He had been buried. And when finally they be- 
 lieved, it was like being begotten anew, as Peter expresses 
 it, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us 
 again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ 
 from the dead”’ (1 Pet. i:3). 
 
 The doors were tightly closed for fear of the Jews. Their 
 fears were not unfounded, for the report had been circulated 
 on the self-same day, by the lies and the bribery of the Jewish 
 elders, that the disciples had stolen the body while the 
 Roman guard slept (Matt. xxviii:13). They feared arrest. 
 
392 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 But that arrest on the false charge that they were thieves 
 never came. ‘The soldiers did not dare press the false 
 charge, for if they did they took their lives into their hands; 
 it was a crime for a guard to sleep, punishable by death. 
 
 Suddenly, with the doors securely fastened, He came and 
 stood in their midst. Did the doors open by themselves in 
 a miraculous way, or did they remain closed, and He enter 
 in through the closed doors? We know when Peter was 
 delivered out of prison by the ministry of an angel, the doors 
 were caused to open by supernatural power; it was a miracle. 
 The same had happened before (Acts v and xii). But here 
 no such miracle took place, but we have a startling mani- 
 festation of the power of the risen body of our Lord. The 
 doors needed not to be unbolted to let Him in. The text 
 makes it clear that the doors remained closed, especially 
 when He appeared again, “‘the doors being shut, He stood 
 in the midst.”” The risen body of our Lord was not bound or 
 controlled by the laws which bind and control the natural 
 body of man. He could enter in, without an angel coming and 
 opening the doors for Him. The risen body is a miracle 
 in itself. That body is supernatural. While it was a real 
 human body, a material body, a body which could be touched 
 and handled, which had bones and flesh, yet it was a spirit- 
 ual body, endowed with powers which are above our under- 
 standing. In that body He appeared and disappeared, was 
 visible and invisible, entered through a closed door and de- 
 parted through a closed door, and it could finally be lifted up, 
 no law of gravitation putting a check upon it, and carried ina 
 moment, in the twinkling of an eye, through the heavens into 
 heaven itself. The resurrection body is a great mystery and 
 will remain a mystery till we look no longer into a glass 
 darkly. When that blessed day comes, we shall have the re- 
 demption of our body, and that future body, in which we shall 
 spend eternity, will be like unto His own glorious body (Phil. 
 1ii:21). Then we shall know. Then we shall live as He lives, 
 in a resurrection body of glory. 
 
 Modernism ridicules such a faith. They talk of philo- 
 sophical and scientific impossibilities, which is so “high 
 sounding.” We believe the Word of God, what God has 
 been pleased to reveal. True faith bows in humility acknowl- 
 
™~ 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 393 
 
 edging on the one hand the limitation of the finite mind, and 
 on the other, an omnipotent God who can do all things. 
 Modernism is the pride of the natural man gone to seed, and 
 unbelief in the power of God. 
 
 “Peace be unto you” was the first word He uttered in the 
 presence of the disciples. This is still the greeting among 
 orthodox Jews, as it was the mode of salutation among 
 the Jewish people in those days He walked on earth. But it 
 is more than the formal, every-day greeting. One of the 
 last words He had uttered before the cross was that word 
 “Peace” (xvi:33). The first word He speaks here is the 
 same. And what had happened? He had died the sacri- 
 ficial death as the Lamb of God. Peace was made in the 
 blood of the Cross. The great work had been finished. What 
 had happened? Peter had denied His Lord; they all had 
 forsaken Him, had acted like cowards; they had been 
 unbelieving. But as He appears no word of reproof or accusa- 
 tion came from His lips. Instead of reminding them of their 
 shameful failure, He said, ‘‘Peace be unto you.” His greeting 
 told them that all was forgiven and forgotten; that there 
 was nothing between Him and them. What cheer it must 
 have brought to their accusing consciences, and what 
 comfort to their hearts! 
 
 But was He really ‘“‘the same Jesus”? Was He the One 
 who hung on the cross, or was it some kind of an apparition, 
 a ghost or an illusion? It is all settled by Himself. “He 
 showed unto them His hands and His side. Then were the 
 disciples glad when they saw the Lord.” It seems up to 
 the moment He showed them His hands and His side, they 
 were not quite convinced that it was really their risen 
 Lord. But now as they beheld the pierced hands, which a 
 short time before had been nailed to the cross, and when they 
 beheld the place where the spear had pierced His blessed 
 side all doubts vanished, joy and gladness filled their hearts. 
 One look at the marks of His passion was sufficient to give 
 them assuring joy. There faith looks still, realizing that 
 peace with God is not what we have done, but what He has 
 done. But what will be our joy when we see Him as He 
 is in His second coming! It is strange that John Calvin 
 should have taught that the nail-prints, and the spear wound, 
 
394 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 were only seen for a short time, till the Apostles were fully 
 convinced; afterwards they disappeared. These marks of 
 His passion and love are still seen in heaven, in His glorified 
 body. Revelation v:6 tells us so. All the redeemed in 
 glory shall see them, and when He comes to earth again the 
 pierced hands, feet and side will be the marks of identifica- 
 tion for the Jew. (See Chapter xix:37.) 
 
 Once more He said “‘Peace be unto you.” This second 
 announcement of peace must be linked with the commission 
 He gives to them. They are to carry the Gospel of peace to 
 others, peace to him that is far off (the Gentile) and to 
 him that is near (the Jew) (Isaiah lvii:19). He was the sent 
 One of the Father, and so-they, and all believers after them, 
 are sent forth by the Lord. He was the representative of 
 the Father, and we are His representatives. What an honor 
 and dignity! And what responsibility also! How little 
 God’s children think of all this. We are no longer of the 
 world, but He has sent us to it to bear witness of Him and 
 of His peace. What He had prayed before the cross (xvii:18), 
 He now does. 
 
 Then follows a significant act. ‘He breathed into them 
 and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” The 
 term “breathed into” (them, is not in the Greek) is mentioned 
 only here in the New Testament. The Greek word used is 
 the same with which the translators of the Septuagint trans- 
 late Gen. 11:7, when the Lord breathed into man the breath 
 of life. This gives the real, symbolical meaning of this 
 action of our Lord. In creation the same Lord, who is now 
 in the midst of His own, in resurrection glory, had breathed 
 into Adam the breath of life. Here by this breathing He 
 indicates the communication of another life. The One 
 by whom and for whom all things were created, in whose 
 image the first man was created, and into whom He breathed, 
 as quoted above, became Man Himself. He is the last 
 Adam. He is now, after His work as the other Adam had 
 been accomplished, the communicator, the giver of a better 
 life, of eternal life. ‘““The last Adam is made a quickening 
 Spirit” (1 Cor. xv:45). He is the beginning of the new 
 creation, as the first Adam was the beginning of the old 
 creation. The inbreathing therefore stands for the com- 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 395 
 
 munication of eternal life, which He bestows upon those 
 who believe on Him. But those disciples were already in 
 possession of eternal life, for they had believed on fim. 
 It could therefore not mean that He gave them the life, 
 which they already had. For this reason we say, it is a 
 symbolical action. He manifests Himself now openly, as 
 risen from the dead, as the Last Adam. 
 
 But what does it mean when He said, “Receive ye the 
 Holy Spirit’? Many explanations have been given. Some 
 think He revived by it the life which they already had; 
 others say that He bestowed energy to wait patiently for 
 the coming of the Holy Spirit, or that they became filled 
 with better knowledge and understanding. That it was 
 not the coming of the Paraclete, the other comforter 
 He had promised, is obvious. The third person of the Trinity 
 did not come till the Lord Jesus was glorified, and that 
 glorification demanded His return to the Father. The 
 Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost, and not here 
 in the upper room on the first Lord’s day. In saying these 
 words He shows that He is not only the communicator 
 of life, but also the giver of the Spirit; the Holy Spirit not 
 only proceeds from the Father, but from the Son as well. 
 He showed beforehand by these words they would receive 
 the Holy Spirit personally, as the power and energy of His 
 own risen life in them. The reception of the Spirit was 
 accomplished on Pentecost. 
 
 The final words, spoken by Him at this occasion, have 
 often puzzled Christians, mostly on account of the claims 
 made by an unscriptural priesthood in the professing church. 
 *‘Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto the 
 whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” 
 
 We state briefly some of the leading interpretations of 
 this verse. (1) Some explain that the Lord gave power to 
 the Apostles to absolve men from sin, and also to retain 
 sin. But this power was purely personal power, belonging 
 only to the Apostolic Age, ceasing with the sign gifts, such 
 as the gift of tongues and the gift of healing. (2) The Romish 
 view is that the Apostles received this power of infallibly 
 absolving and anathematizing, and that this same power 
 was conferred by the Apostles to their successors, thus 
 
396 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 constituting a self-perpetuating hierarchy. It is found in 
 a modified form in different ritualistic denominations of 
 Prdf€stantism. It is an unscriptural view from start to 
 finish. There is no hint anywhere in Scripture that the 
 Apostles appointed successors and therefore apostolic 
 succession is an invention. (3) A third view is that the 
 power promised and authority given is in connection with 
 the preaching of the Gospel, announcing on what terms 
 sins would be forgiven, and if these terms are not accepted 
 sins would be retained. (4) Still another view is that the 
 Lord gives in these words a warning as well as a promise. 
 Some teach that Christians remit sins when, by their in- 
 fluence, their testimony.and their example, they induce 
 sinners to repent and accept Christ; that they retain sins 
 when, by their negligence, they keep sinners back from 
 accepting Christ. This is a far-fetched interpretation. But 
 there are other views. 
 
 The power to forgive sins is God’s prerogative. The Jews 
 said when the Lord Jesus told the paralytic, “Man, thy 
 sins are torgiven thee,’”’ “Who is this which speaketh blas- 
 phemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?’ (Luke 
 v:21). They were right. If the Lord Jesus Christ is not 
 God then He uttered a blasphemy. And s0 it is a blasphemy 
 for man to claim power to forgive the sins of another man. 
 This is what Romanism teaches by claiming the power 
 to absolve sinners, and also to shut heaven against persons 
 not absolved. It is a monstrous teaching. 
 
 But what did our Lord mean when He spoke these words? 
 
 He conferred upon them undoubtedly the power of de- 
 claring through the preaching of the Gospel, in the power 
 of the Holy Spirit, whose sins are forgiven, and whose sins 
 are not forgiven. Their.preaching in the Book of Acts gives 
 us examples of this declaration. Peter said in the house of 
 Cornelius, “Whosoever believeth on Him shall receive 
 remission of sins.” When Paul preached the Gospel in 
 Antioch of Pisidia, he said, ““Through this man is preached 
 unto you the forgiveness of sins,’” and later he said to the 
 jailor in the Macedonian city, “Believe on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ and thou shalt be saved.” They declared that those 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 397 
 
 who believe have their sins remitted, and, naturally, those 
 who do not believe their sins are retained. 
 
 But this is not all. As a result of the gift of the Holy 
 Spirit on the day of Pentecost the assembly, that is, the 
 Church, was formed. The assembly, the gathering of those 
 who have believed and are saved, has power and authority 
 in discipline. ‘Those who believe are accepted into fellow- 
 ship, their sins are remitted. The wicked person, of whom 
 we read in the Corinthian assembly, was ordered to be 
 put away by the assembly, but after his repentance, his 
 self-judgment and deep sorrow, was received back. And 
 Paul wrote, ““To whom ye (the assembly) forgive anything, 
 I also; for also what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven 
 anything (it is) for your sakes in the person of Christ” 
 (2 Cor, 11:10), Thus the assembly by receiving, pronounce 
 the remission of sins, and by putting away out of fellowship, 
 the retaining of sins. 
 
 Verses 24-31. The final portion of this chapter brings 
 before us a second manifestation of the risen Christ, probably 
 in the same place, a week after the first manifestation. 
 Thomas, one of the twelve, who was called Didymus, had 
 been absent at the first appearance of Christ. Why he had 
 not gathered with the others is not stated. Twice before we 
 have met his name in this Gospel, and apart from these pas- 
 sages we know nothing else. He has been called a rationalist 
 with a warm heart. His devotion to the Lord we have 
 pointed out before. (See Chapter xi:1-4.) 
 
 When the other disciples gave to him the blessed informa- 
 tion “We have seen the Lord,” he refused to believe what 
 these reliable witnesses told him. They were his friends and 
 his fellow disciples. What could be their motive in telling 
 him an untruth? His absence from the gathering and his 
 unbelief in the Lord’s resurrection may have been permitted 
 by the Lord, so as to furnish one of the most conclusive evi- 
 dences of His physical resurrection. And so he declared in 
 the presence of the ten trustworthy witnesses, emphatically 
 and passionately, that he would not believe that the crucified 
 One is alive, unless he himself would see and touch His body. 
 
 But what must have been the state of mind of the doubting 
 disciple during the week which followed? While his com- 
 
398 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 panions enjoyed the blessed assurance that their Lord and 
 Master is alive, and were filled with great joy and peace, 
 Thomas was in darkness, and must have wandered about 
 with a heavy heart, produced by the uncertainty which laid 
 heavy upon him. 
 
 After eight days had passed all was changed. ‘‘And after 
 eight days again His disciples were within, and Thomas with 
 them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in 
 the midst, and said, Peace unto you.” A full week had gone 
 by. The memorable day, the first day of the week, on which 
 He arose from among the dead, found them again gathered 
 in the place “within”? where they had been the week before. 
 There can be no question that this is the beginning of the 
 keeping of the first day of the week, as the day of rest and 
 worship. From the earliest times the day after the Jewish 
 Sabbath was called ‘““The Lord’s Day” (Rev. i:10*). 
 
 What led Thomas to be present at that time we can only 
 surmise. Perhaps it was his uncertainty, the thought that 
 the disciples were truthful in their witness, which induced 
 him to seek their fellowship at this occasion. Perhaps during 
 the week the Spirit of God may have brought to his remem- 
 brance some of the words which the Lord had spoken about 
 His death and resurrection on the third day. 
 
 Then suddenly the same happened which happened a 
 week before. The doors were shut as they were at the first 
 visit. All at once He stood in the midst. And as it was be- 
 fore, He utters His blessed ‘‘Peace unto you.” 
 
 From the words which follow it is evident that this second 
 appearing of the risen Christ was exclusively for the sake of 
 Thomas. Thomas had been unbelieving, yet the Lord in His 
 great kindness, knowing his whole story, does not rebuke 
 him directly for his unbelief, though the words addressed to 
 the unbelieving disciple contain a gracious and loving re- 
 minder of his weakness and failure. ‘Reach hither thy 
 finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, 
 and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but be- 
 lieving.” In speaking these words to Thomas, He showed 
 
 
 
 *Not “The Day of the Lord” as Bullingerism teaches. This strained 
 exposition, besides other errors of the late Dr. B., are now being taught 
 by certain Bible teachers. 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 399 
 
 that He had heard every word which Thomas had spoken 
 when first told by the disciples that the Lord had appeared 
 unto them. The words He spoke to him reveal His great 
 condescension. 
 
 “To come into the world at all, and take on the human 
 body, then to allow that body to be scourged, crowned with 
 thorns, nailed to the cross, and laid in a grave—all this, be- 
 yond doubt, was astonishing condescension. But when the 
 victory over sin and death was won, and He had taken on 
 Him His resurrection body, to come to a doubting, sceptical 
 disciple, and bid him touch Him, put his finger into the nail 
 prints on His hands, and put his hand into His side—all this 
 was condescension which we can never sufficiently admire 
 and adore.” Thus He treated in marvelous kindness a dis- 
 ciple, who believed in Him, yet was weak in faith. And in 
 this He has left us also an example, how to deal with brethren 
 who are weak in faith. But it is a different matter with the 
 outspoken rationalist, who does not believe, not because he 
 cannot, but because he will not. 
 
 But did Thomas do what the Lord bade him to do? Did 
 he put his hand into His side, or did his fingers touch the 
 nail prints in His hands? It seems that he did not. He is 
 taken completely by surprise and bursts out in one great 
 ejaculatory sentence, “My Lord and My God.” These five 
 words contain the expressions of astonishment, delight, re- 
 pentance, grief, faith, confession and adoration. This con- 
 fession of Thomas, that Christ is God, is the last witness to 
 His Deity in this Gospel. We remind the reader that the 
 first testimony to the Deity of Christ in this Gospel was 
 uttered by Nathanael. The dispensational-prophetic mean- 
 ing we shall point out directly. 
 
 Thomas had seen and therefore believed. Unitarians 
 have twisted this testimony in such a way so as to suit their 
 denials of the Godhead of our Lord. The late Dr. Lyman 
 Abbott in his commentary on this Gospel, written when he 
 believed in the Deity of Christ, which was over fifty years 
 ago, made the following remarks on the Unitarian attempts 
 to break the forceful meaning of the believing outburst of 
 Thomas: ‘To interpret this utterance as a mere expletory 
 outcry is the shallowest of criticism. It reduces a sublime 
 
400 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 and exalted confession of faith to an irrelevant and semi- 
 profane exclamation. It is grammatically, psychologically, 
 and spiritually untenable; grammatically, because it is 
 expressly said that Thomas addressed the words directly to 
 Jesus; psychologically, because it is equally irrational to 
 suppose that Thomas, just convinced of the resurrection of 
 his Lord, should break out into a meaningless exclamation, or 
 that John should have reported it if it had been uttered; spir- 
 itually, because Christ on the strength of this confession 
 of Thomas recognizes his faith.” 
 
 “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen 
 Me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, 
 and yet have believed.” These were His words to adoring 
 Thomas. Here we must consider, in explanation of these 
 words, the dispensational aspect of the occurrence. Thomas 
 is a type of the Jews, not the grossly materialistic portion, 
 sO prominent in our days, who have cast off every bit of the 
 faith of their fathers, but of that remnant which is coming 
 to the foreground during the last years of the present age. 
 Like Thomas, they are still unbelieving; they know Him 
 not who is risen from among the dead and who is the King 
 of Israel. They, too, like Thomas, want to see first, before 
 believing. It is constitutional with the Jew that he asks for 
 a sign, and does not want to believe till he sees. As it was 
 with Thomas, the Lord appeared the second time, so will He 
 appear the second time unto them that look for Him (this 
 expecting Jewish remnant) unto salvation. When He comes 
 again, He will, as it was with Thomas, display the nail prints 
 in His hands and feet and His pierced side, so that it might 
 be fulfilled “They shall look upon Me whom they pierced, 
 and they shall mourn for Him,” for they learn then that He 
 was wounded in the house of His friends, wounded for their 
 transgressions and bruised for their iniquities. And, like 
 Thomas, they will cry out ““My Lord and My God.” Thus 
 they will confess Him, when He comes for their final deliver- 
 ance, their restoration and spiritual blessing. 
 
 “Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He 
 will save us. This is Jehovah, we have waited for Him, we 
 will be glad, and rejoice in His salvation” (Is. xxv:9). 
 
 When our Lord said “Blessed are they that have not seen, 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 401 
 
 and yet have believed,” He did not mean the Old Testament 
 Saints, but He meant the believers from among the Gentiles, 
 gathered into the Body of Christ during this age. This is 
 the age of faith and not of sight. We, who love Him, though 
 we have never seen Him, and rejoice in Him with joy un- 
 speakable and full of glory, have a greater blessedness, than 
 the Jew who will see Him in the day of His visible coming, 
 and then believe. 
 
 Bishop Ryle remarks on the sentence ‘“‘Blessed are they who 
 believe, and yet have not seen”: “The principle contained 
 in the sentence before us, is one of vast importance in every 
 age, and specially in our own. In a day of scepticism, free 
 inquiry and rationalism, so-called, when hundreds are con- 
 tinually railing against creeds, and dogmatism, the sen= 
 tence deserves close attention and consideration. Noth- 
 ing is more common now-a-days than to hear people 
 say that they ‘decline to believe things above their reason, 
 that they cannot believe what they cannot entirely under- 
 stand in religion, that they must see everything clearly be- 
 fore they can believe.’ Such talk as this sounds very fine, 
 and is very taking with young persons and superficially edu- 
 cated people, because it supplies a convenient reason for 
 neglecting vital religion altogether. But itis a style of talking 
 which shows a mind either proud, or foolish, or inconsistent.” 
 
 We must point out in conclusion the correspondence of 
 Thomas with Nathanael, in the first chapter of this Gospel. 
 The reader remembers that the day in which the Lord Jesus 
 received His first disciples, who followed Him and spent the 
 night with Him, is typical of this age in which He gathers 
 His Church. To this corresponds the first appearing of the 
 risen Christ, recorded in the present chapter. Then in the 
 first chapter, on the day following, the second day, Philip 
 is called and Nathanael, doubting first, is convinced of the 
 Deity and Messiahship of the Lord. We pointed out the 
 same lesson we have found here in the case of Thomas; both 
 represent the future remnant of Israel. 
 
 The writer of the Gospel, the beloved disciple, speaks of 
 many other things which Jesus did, but which are unre- 
 corded in this Gospel. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit 
 he had written what this Gospel contains, to show that Jesus 
 
402 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we might 
 have life through His Name. And this is the double purpose 
 of this blessed fourth Gospel, as we have learned in our 
 exposition chapter after chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 Certain critics have treated this last chapter of John with 
 suspicion. Grotius among the more modern commentators 
 stated what Tertullian many centuries before had advocated, 
 that the Gospel of John ends with the twentieth chapter, 
 and that the concluding chapter was written by another 
 hand. ‘The notion that chapter xxi is at best a kind of an 
 appendix is held by many among them Alford, Stier, Neander, 
 Tholuk, Westcott, and a score of others. ‘The contents 
 of the chapter prove conclusively that it was written by 
 John and forms an important part of the Gospel, therefore 
 it is not an appendix at all. 
 
 “From all these theories I entirely dissent, and repudiate 
 them altogether. I see no proof whatever that the two last 
 verses of the twentieth chapter were intended to be a winding 
 up of the whole Gospel. To me they appear to be a char- 
 acteristic comment of the Evangelist, such as he often makes, 
 on the account he has given in the chapter of our Lord’s 
 appearances to the disciples after his resurrection, and 
 nothing more. ‘To me it appears perfectly natural that he 
 should go on writing, and give a further account of our Lord’s 
 most instructive appearance at the sea of Galilee; and I see 
 in the narrative no abruptness or awkward fitting whatever. 
 On the contrary, I see a peculiar beauty in the selection of 
 the matter which the twenty-first chapter contains. It 
 seems to me a most fitting conclusion to the whole narrative 
 of the Gospel, to tell us our Lord’s last sayings about two 
 such Apostles as Peter and John.—Concerning Peter, it 
 should be remembered that none of the Apostles had pro- 
 fessed so much, and yet fallen so sadly as he had.. John takes 
 care to tell us how graciously and emphatically Jesus restores 
 him to his commission, and specially bids him feed His 
 Church, and foretells his end.—Concerning John, it should 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 403 
 
 be remembered that he had been peculiarly mentioned, as 
 the disciple whom Jesus loved. He meekly tells us that the 
 only prediction about himself, if it can be called one, was 
 that his future end was left in obscurity by his Lord. And 
 thus he concludes his Gospel. If any one thinks that such a 
 chapter comes in awkwardly, and is not a fitting conclusion 
 to John’s narrative after the twentieth chapter, I cannot 
 agree with him”’—J. C. Ryle. 
 
 Verses 1-3. The chapter is at once defined as containing 
 another manifestation of the risen Christ. It is clearly 
 marked as the third time that He showed Himself to His 
 disciples (verse 14). There are then two previous mani- 
 festations. The first one when Thomas was absent, taking 
 place on the resurrection day; the second one a week later, 
 recorded at the close of the preceding chapter. The pro- 
 phetic-dispensational meaning of these two manifestations 
 has been pointed out before. But there must be a third 
 time, as in the beginning of the Gospel there is marked off 
 -athird day. That third day brought the marriage in Cana 
 of Galilee, a blessed picture of the Kingdom which follows 
 Israel’s conversion, typified by Nathanael’s conversion. 
 
 The three days in the beginning of this Gospel (chapter 
 1:35, 43 and ii:1), with their sweet and instructive dispensa- 
 tional lessons, are repeated at the close of the Gospel in the 
 three manifestations of the risen One. ‘The third time He 
 showed Himself to his disciples is, as we shall see, a striking 
 prophetic picture of what will happen after Israel has con- 
 fessed Him, as Thomas did. The lesson is the coming in- 
 gathering of the Gentile nations into the millennial kingdom. 
 This is a strong evidence that this Gospel could not end with 
 the twentieth chapter. 
 
 The scene is at the sea of Tiberias, or as it is also called, 
 the lake of Gennesaret, the sea of Galilee. What holy and 
 blessed memories gather around this historic lake! It is 
 the sea across which the disciples toiled hard in rowing, with 
 the wind contrary; the sea across which He came walking, 
 when Peter left the little ship and walked to meet Him. 
 The lake is often stormy; but He stilled the waves and the 
 wind with His commanding word of power. At another 
 occasion there was a miraculous draught of fishes, when the 
 
404 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 net broke. In this lake Peter caught the fish, at His direction, 
 which supplied the coin to pay the tribute money. Sitting 
 in a boat at the lake shore, He delivered some of His parables 
 (Matt. xiii). On its shore He fed the multitudes, and in this 
 lake the 2,000 swine had rushed to destruction, when the 
 demons had entered into them. In one word this lake was 
 the frequent scene of the display of His divine power and 
 glory. Once more it is to witness His gracious power, His 
 loving kindness, His mercy as well as His Lordship. 
 
 We see seven disciples gathered together, among these 
 the two disciples which figure so prominently in the beginning 
 and in the end of this Gospel, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee 
 and Thomas. Were they. in Galilee following the instruction 
 of the angel and as commanded later by Himself? (Matt. 
 xxviii:7,10). Simon Peter is evidently the leader of the little 
 group. He proposed to go a fishing and the others followed 
 him as leader. There was nothing wrong with these disciples 
 when they took up their trade as fishermen. The time for 
 witness bearing had not yet come, for the promised Spirit 
 had not yet been given. The fear of the Jews still controlled 
 them all. Perhaps it was also the matter of necessity, for 
 they were poor men, who had to toil to support themselves. 
 But their labors were in vain. Though they were excellent 
 fishermen, and fished all night, they caught nothing. Well 
 may we see the lesson here that all toil without the Lord 
 goes for nothing; unless He directs there is no success. 
 
 Verses 4-14. When the morning was come the risen One 
 appeared suddenly on the shore. It was as sudden an appear- 
 ance as at the two previous occasions, when they met behind 
 closed doors. Where our Lord was between these different 
 visible manifestations we do not know. ‘The disciples saw 
 a figure standing on the shore, but they did not know that 
 it was Jesus, their Lord and Master. They did not recognize 
 Him, just as the two going to Emmaus did not know Him, 
 because their eyes were holden. And as He called to them 
 across the water, they did not know Him either by His 
 voice. He spoke like one of their comrades, ‘‘Boys (not 
 children) have ye anything to eat?’ And they answered 
 Him, “‘No.”? Then He spoke a word of command, ‘“‘Cast the 
 net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.” This 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 405 
 
 instruction must have given to the disciples the first hint 
 that the speaker might be the Lord. Would they have 
 followed the command of a total stranger? Were not John 
 and Peter reminded of the time when many months before, 
 on the same lake, they had toiled all night and caught 
 nothing, but at His Word they let down the nets once more 
 and a miraculous draught of fishes resulted! The net was 
 cast at once, following the direction given, and when the 
 multitude of fishes were caught, the identity of the stranger 
 at the shore was no longer guess work with them. 
 
 John, with a heart filled with love, which made him keen- 
 sighted, recognized the Lord at once, just as he outran 
 Peter and was the first to believe that Christ is risen. As 
 elsewhere in this Gospel, which his inspired pen wrote, he 
 speaks of himself as “‘that disciple whom Jesus loved.” He 
 said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” But Peter is again close 
 behind the beloved disciple. Impetuous, impulsive, yet 
 affectionate, he rushed at once into action, he cast himself 
 into the sea to reach the shore as quickly as possible. He 
 is not going to be left behind now, as it was when John beat 
 him in running to the tomb in the garden. And probably 
 he succeeded this time. The other disciples came in a little 
 ship, dragging along the net with fishes, which unlike the 
 other net, when there was a miraculous draught of fishes, 
 was not broken (Luke v:1-10). What took place, if Peter 
 reached the Lord first, is not recorded. Here then is another 
 spiritual lesson. Service without Him and without His 
 guidance is barren. Alas! how much of such service there is 
 today. Service in self-will, or under the leadership of a man, 
 as it was with the six disciples who followed Peter that 
 memorable night. But if we take our directions from Him 
 who is our Lord, especially as “fishers of men,” that is soul 
 Winners, and are obedient to His words, and follow His 
 directions, His own gracious power will accompany our toil. 
 
 Another miracle is seen by them when they gather at the 
 shore. ‘‘As soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire 
 of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread.” How did 
 this coal fire, the broiling fish and the bread get there? 
 A little while before they had acknowledged that they had 
 nothing to eat. And here is a breakfast prepared for His 
 
406 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 beloved, toiling servants. There is but one solution of this 
 mystery. The pierced hands of the Christ had prepared 
 this meal. He started the coal fire. He produced by His 
 own omnipotent power, the fish and the bread. He 
 showed once more, as He did in the days of His humiliation 
 on the same scene, by feeding the multitudes with bread, 
 that He is a compassionate, tender, loving Lord, who cares 
 for the bodies and temporal needs of His own, as He cares 
 for their souls. Such a Lord He is still, He is touched with 
 the feeling of our infirmities; He is interested even in a 
 breakfast for His children. As we look upon this beautiful 
 scene, His deep compassion, remembering that He is still 
 the same, the Lord that changeth not, we take new courage 
 to come with boldness to the throne of grace, and tell Him 
 all our needs. He loves to be trusted and loves to show 
 forth His loving kindness and tender mercies, as He did 
 when He prepared that morning meal. 
 
 What is the dispensational meaning of this third manifesta- 
 tion of the risen Christ and the miraculous draught of fishes? 
 It is the picture of the coming kingdom, established after 
 Israel’s conversion, when the nations of the earth will be 
 gatheredin. The miraculous draught of fishes in the Gospel 
 of Luke is a picture of the Gospel net during this present age. 
 It breaks and those which are caught can not be numbered. 
 But it is different here; the net did not break and the actual 
 number of the great fish caught is given, there were One 
 Hundred and Fifty and Three. Much guess-work has been 
 done as to the meaning of this number. We cannotbe dogmatic 
 about it. But the fact that the exact number is given shows 
 that it has a meaning. It is of great significance that his- 
 torians of the first century speak of the number of nations 
 known to them as being 153. This is the only meaning 
 which we know of. All the nations, when the Lord comes, 
 will be gathered into His Kingdom. 
 
 Then the divine host asked them to partake of the spread 
 meal He had so graciously and miraculously provided. 
 Here again we see His tender compassion. He knew they 
 were tired and hungry. He Himself in the days of humilia- 
 tion had been tired and hungry, and therefore He is always 
 touched with the feeling of our infirmities. But what will 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 407 
 
 be the feast to which He brings His own in days to come, 
 the marriage supper of the Lamb? But why did they not 
 ask Him, who art Thou? They knew it was the Lord. It 
 must have been a holy awe which kept them from asking. 
 Here too is proof that His resurrection-body, though the same 
 incarnation body, must have been altered. 
 
 Verses 15-17. The meal was over and the Lord turned 
 next to Peter. His denial had led Peter to the depths of 
 repentance and self-judgment. We must rehearse briefly 
 some of these things. Let us remember before Peter ever 
 denied the Lord, He knew what was coming. Satan saw 
 that Peter was amarked man. He had heard what the Lord 
 had said about him (Matt. xvi). He tried to snatch him 
 away from the Lord, and so Satan had asked permission to 
 sift him, just as long before he had asked for Job. And the 
 Lord assured Peter of His intercession in his behalf. Peter’s 
 faith for this reason could not fail. 
 
 When the denial had taken place, the Lord “‘looked upon 
 Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord.”” What 
 a look that must have been! Then Peter went out and wept 
 bitterly. A blessed weeping it was. 
 
 In the third place the risen One sent a special message to 
 Peter through the women: “Tell His disciples and Peter that 
 He goeth before you into Galilee.” But more than that He 
 appeared to Peter. ‘“The Lord is risen indeed, and hath ap- 
 peared to Simon” (Luke xxiv:33). “He was seen of Cephas’’ 
 (1 Cor. xv:5). What occurred at this mysterious interview is a 
 secret. No doubt the Lord had then direct dealings with 
 Peter, which he was not permitted to reveal. 
 
 And now we come to his restoration to that which he had 
 lost by his denial. He addressed Peter. The meal which 
 they had enjoyed together was an expression of fellowship. 
 Not a word of rebuke had come from the lips of the Lord. He 
 might have pointed to the coal-fire and might have asked 
 Peter if he remembered another coal-fire, before which he had 
 warmed himself a number of days ago in the palace of the 
 high priest. He might have asked him of the words of denial 
 he had then spoken. But He addressed him in these words, 
 “Simon Peter, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these?” 
 The reason for this question is very plain. What the Lord 
 
408 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 asked him was exactly what he had professed. He was loud- 
 mouthed in his profession of devotion to Him, saying, “Lord, 
 I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison and to death.” 
 Confidently he had spoken thus of his strength. Then he 
 denied Him thrice. When the Lord asked him the same 
 question three times He touched most graciously the sore 
 spot, reminding him of his past profession of devotion, and of 
 his three denials. It had to be done not in secret, but before 
 the six witnesses. Forgiveness was not involved in this. 
 The Lord had forgiven him already; it was the answer to his 
 penitential tears. The Lord had to restore him to service. 
 In the presence of these witnesses He commissioned Peter 
 once more, as He had done at Cesarea Philippi, after Peter 
 had confessed Him as the Son of God. If such a restoration 
 and renewed commission had not taken place others might 
 have pointed to Peter and charged him with having forfeited 
 his apostleship by his denial, while Peter would have been in 
 serious doubt and uncertainty. 
 
 Roman Catholic theologians claim that the Lord estab- 
 lished him here as the head of the Church. Dean Burgon 
 answered this claim in the following statements: ‘“The profane 
 and ridiculous pretensions of the Church of Rome are based 
 in great part on the words our Lord addressed to St. Peter in 
 this passage. The Papists assume (1) that He hereby 
 appointed Peter to be His vicar upon earth; (2) that Peter 
 was the first Bishop of Rome and (3) that Peter transmitted 
 to the Bishops of the same See, in endless succession his own 
 supposed authority over the rest of Christendom. [Each one 
 of these assumptions is simply unfounded and untrue; 
 opposed alike to Scripture and reason; to the records of the 
 early Church and the opinions of the primitive fathers.” 
 
 “Lovest thou Me more than these?”” Then Peter answered 
 “Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee.” Our version 
 does not distinguish at all between the two words used in the 
 _ Greek, translated by “‘love”. ‘The two words are the verbs 
 ““Agapao’; this expresses fully our English “love”; then 
 there is the word “‘Phileo”, which corresponds to our English 
 “like”, or as it has been translated ‘‘to have a friendly 
 feeling.” When the Lord put His question to Peter, the 
 first word is used, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest (4gapas) thou 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 409 
 
 Me more than these?” Now if Peter had not judged him- 
 self, if he had still adhered to the same self-confidence he ex- 
 hibited before, he would have answered enthusiastically by 
 using the same word the Lord had used. Instead he an- 
 swered ““Thou knowest that I love (Philo) Thee.” He did not 
 dare to use the word which expresses the highest affection. 
 It is the evidence that he had learned the lesson and judged 
 himself. The second time the Lord asked Peter He uses the 
 same word, and Peter answers Him in the same way, em- 
 ploying also the same word, expressing a friendly affection. 
 But when the Lord asked Peter the third time He uses the 
 same word Peter had used, ‘‘Peter, lovest (Phileis) thou 
 Me?” And Peter was grieved because He had asked him the 
 third time, and answers appealing to His divine omniscience, 
 “Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love 
 (Philo) Thee.”? The wound had been probed to the very 
 bottom, though not a word of blame or reproach had come 
 from the lips of the Lord. Peter had revealed in his three 
 answers that his old self had been judged and broken. 
 
 And He, who knows indeed all things, knew the condition . 
 and state of his soul. He knew that Peter loved Him, and so 
 with the first question He commissioned afresh and said 
 “Feed My lambs.” He did not mean, as it is so often taught, 
 little children; He means by this term believers, who are 
 young in the faith and lack in deep spiritual experience. 
 They are the little children in the epistle of John, and that 
 which is weak has always His first and tenderest care. Hven 
 so Isaiah had spoken of Him as the shepherd. “He shall 
 feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs 
 with His arms, and carry them in His bosom, and shall 
 gently lead those that are with young” (Is. xl:11). This 
 blessed work, to feed that which is weak with the bread of 
 life, he committed to Peter. It is a higher work than the 
 exercise of the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, Those 
 keys were used by Peter when he preached to the Jews on 
 the day of Pentecost, and used again in the house of Cornelius, 
 preaching to the Gentiles. With this the use of the keys 
 was exhausted. Feeding His lambs is the more permanent 
 work. 
 
410 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 The second time the Lord commissions him, if we trans- 
 late literally, to shepherd His sheep. ‘The sheep are those 
 which the Spirit of God in John’s epistle designates as 
 “young men and fathers,” the more mature believers. 
 He is commissioned to tend these sheep, to exercise a loving 
 charge over them, doing a true shepherd’s work. Augustinus 
 called attention to the fact that the Lord calls the lambs 
 and the sheep “My” and not “Thy.” The flock is not the 
 flock of a man, but the flock of God. Often preachers 
 speak of “my flock” or ‘‘my people.”’ This is an evil habit 
 and many servants of Christ speak thus unthoughtfully. 
 “He, who treats Christians as his congregation, is guilty 
 of the same forgetfulness of Divine grace and authority as the 
 congregation in regarding the minister as their minister, in- 
 stead of Christ’s. If any think these to be slight distinctions, 
 it is clear that they have no right apprehension of a difference 
 which is as deep in truth as it is fraught with the most 
 momentous consequences for good and ill in practice. Only 
 this gives moral elevation, as it alone springs from faith; 
 this alone delivers from self, and gives the true relation and 
 character, even Christ, whether to those that minister, or to 
 those ministered to.” (Wm. Kelly.) 
 
 When Peter later wrote his letter he exhorts the elders, 
 as an elder, to do the same which the Lord commissioned 
 him to do. ‘‘Feed the flock of God which is among you, 
 taking the oversight, not by constraint, but willingly; not 
 for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being 
 lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock” 
 (1 Pet. v:2-3). 
 
 And once more the Lord said “Feed my sheep,” or as 
 some manuscripts record it, “little sheep,” which is a term 
 of endearment. And what the Lord told Peter He tells 
 all those who are called by Him to minister to His flock. 
 It is the expression of His own love for His sheep, which 
 the servant of Christ is to manifest and which must con- 
 strain him. Well has it been said, “Love is the great endow- 
 ment of a true pastor of Christ’s flock. He says not to 
 Peter, ‘Art thou wise? or learned? or eloquent?’ but “Lovest 
 thou me?’ Then, ‘feed.’ Love to Christ begets love to His 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 411 
 
 own people’s souls, which are so precious to Him, and care 
 of feeding them.” 
 
 Verses 18-25. But He spoke other words to Peter, 
 which are also linked to his former conduct. “Verily, 
 verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young thou girdest 
 thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest, but when thou 
 shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another 
 shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. 
 Thus spake He, signifying by what death he should glorify 
 God. And when He had spoken this, He saith unto him, 
 Follow Me.” It is the last “Verily” of this Gospel, in which 
 this word so frequently appears. In self-confidence Peter 
 had boasted that he would go to prison with the Lord, and 
 die with Him. He failed miserably. But what he offered 
 to do and could not do, the risen Christ would make possible 
 for him. He announced the manner of his death and the 
 time of his death, and thereby proving that as Lord He con- 
 trols the departure of His servants out of this life. Peter 
 was not yetanold man. He was still in his prime of natural 
 vigor. When younger still he ventured to go whither he 
 would, that is in self-will and self-confidence, as he did when 
 he walked into the palace of the high priest after boasting 
 that he would die with Christ. The Lord told him when 
 he would be older, an aged man, what he as a young man 
 in fullest vigor failed todo, the Lord through Grace and 
 Power, would enable him to do. He announced that the 
 mode of his death would be like Christ’s death, by cruci- 
 fixion. When he wrote his second epistle, he was an old 
 man. He referred then to these words spoken to him by 
 the Lord, “Knowing that shortly I must put off this my 
 tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me” 
 (2 Pet. 1:14). 
 
 There is a legend that Peter was in Rome when he was 
 condemned to be crucified. It is said he tried to escape, and 
 outside of Rome he met the Lord, whom he addressed 
 by saying in Latin “Quo Vadis Domine,” Whither goest 
 thou Lord? And the Lord answered, “To be crucified 
 afresh”; then Peter turned back. But it is only a 
 legend. We can rest assured when the time came Peter, 
 as the Lord had said, stretched out his hands, ready to be 
 
412 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 crucified. It was the Grace and the Power of the risen, 
 enthroned Christ, which made it possible. And so it was 
 with the martyred millions in the beginning of the Church, 
 as well as the host of martyrs before, during and after the 
 reformation. 
 
 Then He said to Peter “Follow Me.” Here too we are 
 reminded of Peter’s former words, “Lord, why cannot I fol- 
 low Thee now?” This was in answer to the statement of 
 the Lord ‘‘Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now; 
 but thou shalt follow Me afterwards” (John xiii:36,37). 
 The time for this had come and came still more fully when 
 Peter died on the cross. It also may be looked upon as a 
 renewed call to follow Him, not afar off, as he had done, 
 but in closest fellowship. And into this He has called us 
 all. 
 
 Then Peter’s eye rested upon John and he said “Lord, 
 and what shall this man do?’ By this question he evi- 
 denced a loving interest in the beloved disciple with whom 
 he had been more closely associated than with his brother 
 Andrew. This interest in John made him curious to know 
 his future destiny. The Lord answered him with a gracious 
 rebuke. “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is this to 
 thee? Follow thou Me.” He rebuked the curious anxiety 
 of Peter and gave him to understand that He as the Lord 
 and Master of John would order everything in John’s life 
 as He had in the life of the questioner. What is this to 
 thee? What good will it do you? The words “If I will 
 that he tarry till I come’ have been differently interpreted. 
 The Lord probably meant that John should be the last of 
 His Apostles to pass from this earth, and that he was the 
 chosen one who should behold in a great vision, as he did 
 in Patmos, the end of the age, and the Lord’s return in judg- 
 ment and in the establishment of His kingdom. Others 
 have taken it as an hypothetical expression, that the Lord 
 was just supposing to have him tarry till He comes. 
 
 At once a tradition was started among the brethren that 
 John should not die. Just a little word had been omitted, 
 the little word “if.” The Lord did not say “I will that he 
 tarry till I come”; or that John should not die. How much 
 harm there has been done, and is being done today, by 
 
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 413 
 
 wrong quotation of Scripture and building upon a perverted 
 text, a misquoted saying, some unscriptural doctrine. And 
 this saying did not die with the apostolic age. Solate as 
 the sixteenth century an enthusiast was burned at Toulouse 
 who claimed to be the Apostle John. 
 
 The closing verses have been denied a Johanine author- 
 ship by many scholars and critics. There is no valid reason 
 for such a supposition. It was not an amanuensis, or a 
 friend of the Apostle, who concluded this Gospel with the 
 statements of the last two verses, but John himself. He 
 bears a solemn declaration that he is the author of all this 
 document contains. The beloved disciple wrote these 
 things. This is sufficient evidence. When he wrote ‘‘we 
 know that his testomony is true” he writes as he did in his 
 epistles—we have heard—we have seen and we know. The 
 last verse is a description of the quantity and value of 
 Christ’s works and words. For the adoring John they 
 seemed so wonderful, so vast in their meaning and so deep, 
 that the world could not contain the books that might be 
 written. 
 
 We have reached the end of this blessed Gospel and we 
 quote the late Bishop Ryle’s words with which he concluded 
 his excellent exposition of John, from which we have fre- 
 quently quoted. 
 
 “Reader, I have now set before thee thy Saviour the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, that very Son of God, who was be- 
 gotten by the Father by an eternal and ineffable gener- 
 ation, consubstantial and coequal with the Father in all 
 things;—but in these last times, according to prophet- 
 ical oracles, was incarnate for us, suffered, died, rose again 
 from the dead, and was made King and Lord of all things. 
 This is He who is appointed and given to us by God the 
 Father, as the fullness of all grace and truth, as the Lamb of 
 God who taketh away the sin of the world, as the ladder 
 and door of heaven, as the serpent lifted up to render the 
 poison of sin harmless, as the water which refreshes the 
 thirsty, as the bread of life, as the light of the world, 
 as the redeemer of God’s children, as the shepherd 
 and door of the sheep, as the resurrection and the life, as 
 the corn of wheat which springs up into.much fruit, as the 
 
414 THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 
 
 conqueror of the prince of this world, as the way, the truth, 
 and the life, as the true vine, and finally, as the redemption, 
 salvation, satisfaction, and righteousness of all the faithful 
 in all the world, throughout all ages. Let us therefore 
 pray God the Father, that, being taught by His Gospel, 
 we may know Him that is true, and believe in Him in 
 whom alone is salvation; and that, believing, we may feel 
 God living in us in this world, and in the world to come 
 may enjoy His eternal and most blessed fellowship.” Amen 
 and Amen. 
 
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