n W,J. Erdman An Outline Study of the Gospel According to John ihxavy of t:he CheoIo0ical ^etninarjo PRINCETON . NEW JERSEY FROM THE LIBRARY OF ROBERT ELLIOTT SPEER .d.LGG An Outline Study of the Gospel According to John W. J. ERDMAN Germantown, Pa. An Outline Study of the Gospel According to John. THEME: JESUS THE CHRIST THE SON OF GOD: LIFE IN HIS NAME THROUGH FAITH. PRINCIPLE OF STRUCTURE: ** I came forth from the Father; and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." John i6: 28. To be obtained from the Author and Booksellers. Pricey twenty-five cents, postpaid. Printed by James M. Armstrong, 718 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, Pa. FOREWORD. The following study is intended to aid in the understanding of the Gospel of John by means of an Analysis and Notes which however brief may still be suggestive and interpreting. If any fresh light should fall upon familiar words of this marvellous Scripture, the writer will feel abundantly rewarded, knowing full well that it is all due to the Spirit of Truth of whom Jesus said : "He shall glorify Me." INTRODUCTION. The Gospel of John is a record of the Testimony to the divine-human Personality of Jesus Christ. The intent of the Testimony is both to beget faith and to confirm it, for it was written for those who already believed. Through faith "the Life in the Name of the Son of God" becomes an ever-increasing possession. The Life is said to be in His Name, even in Himself as fully made known. By faith He is received and made manifest in "the fruit of the Spirit" and in likeness to Himself. The source of the testimony is first of all in the signs Jesus did. In this Gospel the miracles are always called signs; they indicated the presence of One, they pointed to One Who was Himself the Sign of the presence of God in the world; and because of this great fact not the miracles only attested that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, but all He said and did, all the titles He accepted, all the divine homage He affirmed to be due to Him; in brief, the revealed contents of a unique consciousness, all bore witness to One Who knew He had come from God and was going to God all the while He was in the world. In the following Study of this Gospel the attention is spec- ially directed to this consciousmess of peculiar relations to the Scriptures of the Old Testament, to promise and prediction, to the types or "earthly things" both of the law and of crea- tion, and to the revelation of God as Father. Involved in all are the facts of human sin and divine love, of propitiation and forgiveness, and in order that men may not perish but have life eternal through faith in the Only Begotten Son of God. As we follow Him and note what He says and does through all the varied scenes of His ministry, His own heart's desire s is that we should believe in Him more and more and have life in us more abundantly. Before taking up such study, attention is first called to cer- tain great words in this inspired record which tell us what He is. I. "In Him was Life ;" life natural, life spiritual, life eter- nal ; all the principles and manifestations of life in mind and matter, in spirit and nature. Did God of old speak a word only, and life of every form and kind came forth, so now ap- pears One who speaks but the word, and life creative works in the eyeless blind, in the corrupted leper, in the dead body and in the dead soul. His name can be no other than the Word of Life which was with God and was God. Every realm which death had invaded and overcome, He entered and over- came death. n. Christ as Light was the embodiment and manifestation of all the elements of truth and holiness; He came, the real Light, to man as sinful and unholy, and in bondage to a dark and false nature. He reveals like light what man is, and wherein man is in darkness ; that is, without truth or holiness. He also reveals what God is and wherein God is ; in light and love, full of grace and truth, moving toward men to make them children of light and sharers of the divine love. HL Likewise to say, "God is Love," is to make known the one and same nature which is made known in the words "God is Light;" both are the outgoings of the one Life. To have fellowship with the Father and with the Son is to share with them the one divine nature. It is to be "of God," a word denoting origin and kind. Herein do we know that we have this life, if we do righteousness as He is righteous*, and love as He loved in laying down His life for us. All this Life, holy and good, is in its sum and fullness all the virtues, excellencies and graces, all the words of truth no other man spoke, all the works of love no other man did. It 6 is and was and ever shall be life and its light and love; it is holiness and mercy ; truth and grace ; righteousness and good ness; freedom and harmony; the swiftness and joyance, the cleanness and quietness of light, its sweet gentleness and mighty power ; and it moves in the beauty of holiness, patient and unwearied in giving, ever true and ever to be trusted, full of warmth and comfort, healing in its cleansing touch, har- monious in its potent sway. Into the world all contrary and opposed, dead and defiled, dark and discordant, yet in utter need of this saving and trans- forming life, the Lord of glory came. Its darkness knew Him not, and its falseness shrank from Him; its wisest and best after the flesh beheld Him only as a teacher come from God not knowing whence He came and whither He was going, and its blindest and worst in envy and hate put Him to death asi a great deceiver of men. But to impart this divine nature and new and holy life the Prince of Life sufi:"ered and died and rose again. "As many as received Him to them gave He power to become the chil- dren of God, even to them that believe on His name; which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." The word is not, "to become the sons of God," but the "children," the born ones of God, a word implying nature and kind. "'Sons" indeed they are, but through redemption, and "children" through the new birth. Gal. 4: 5-7; John i : 12-13. Love like God's flows from life like God's, and righteous- ness like the Son's is the outgoing of life like the Son's. It is the thought of life and nature, or birth and growth, of like- ness and deed, that marks this Gospel of the Only Begotten of God. And finally as He on earth revealed not all the full- ness of majesty and power belonging to Him, so they who have fellowship in the "life eternal" with the Father and with the Son, however fainti and faulty its expression now may be, shall at last manifest it in perfection of spirit, sioul and body, in power and in love, in wisdom and in holiness, even in "the liberty of the glory of the Sons of God." "We know that 7 when He shall appear we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is." IV. Yet another word is used in this Gospel which stands for all this revelation of what God is as Light and Love ; "We beheld His glory" Glory may be defined as "manifested excellence." Nothing unworthy can be glorious. The glory of God is God made manifest in all His excellencies, virtues, attributes ; He is the most excellent of all beings, He is the most glorious. "Doxa (glory) is the revelation of God in the totality of His at- tributes." Various words like honor, beauty, majesty, esteem, praise. are employed in the Scriptures to render the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek word for "glory." In the Hebrew it is lelated to "weight" or what is impressive, dignified, great, most excellent ; and in the Greek to what is esteemed and honored, to the splendid, bright, clear (clarus, gloria), to the best, the subject of praise or boasting. The two ideas of weight and glory are combined in the passage "The far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." The symbol of* the glory of God in nature is the sun ; in the Scriptures, the Glory of the Cloud of the Tabernacle, with its surpassing splendor and majesty. To the Hebrew mind the Cloud and the Glory became thoroughly identified with the presence of God ; the Glory became the name of Jehovah, its synonym and symbol. All this Jesus was in the world when He tabernacled among men ; the Life as Light and Love, full of grace and truth. As "goodness" or grace Jehovah made "His glory pass" be- fore Moses when he represented Israel with its covenant broken as an unworthy and altogether guilty people ; Ex. 33 : 13; 34- 7'> as holiness to Isaiah representing Israel as an un- clean people; Is. 6: 1-13; and as Hfe to Ezekiel representing Israel as a dead, dismembered people ; and these three, life, holiness, grace, are seen in one complete manifestation when in a later day the Only Begotten Son came to the same peo- ple unworthy, unholy, dead, in order to quicken, purify and bless. All of God once not fully and clearly known is now seen in Him. To glorify God was to make Grod known in His in- most being, and for the Son of Man to be glorified was to bring to light all the riches of grace and truth in Him on earth and after the work on earth was finished, all the riches of glory in heaven. He could say when His hour had come : "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him." Only He could utter such marvelous words, who a few moments later prayed : "And now O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." V. And especially was it the object of the Mission of the Son to declare the name of God as Father. This great truth was the completion and culmination of all hitherto taught in the Old Testament concerning God. With it came into clearest light the fact of personality. Not vague notions of the divine fatherhood are made to float through the minds of men with whom Jesus had to do. Not principles in opposition are portrayed, but persons are seen face to face ; natures are made manifest. In the dark background of each scene of opposition to the Son of God moves in mystery the Evil One whose works the Son of God came to destroy. All is personal, all is respon- sible, and all is moving to a crisis, but all, too, is decided by its relation to the Son of God whether in Him and for Him or without Him and against Him. Express is the contrast between "spirit" and "flesh," be- tween God and "the world," between the Son of God and the devil. The best of men after the flesh must begin again as if they never had been, being born from above, born of the Spirit, born of God ; coming whence and going whither no one after the flesh can tell. Throughout this Gospel then, Jesus the Christ as the Only Begotten of the Father, the Light which coming into the world lighteth every man, is presented to men their Life and their 9 Salvation ; and by His "signs," even by words which none other man ever spoke and by works which none other man ever did, must men discover who He is, and the Father through Him. As the Word all things become through Him; as the Life all things live in Him ; as the Son in Him the Father is seen as Light is seen in Light ; as the Prophet He is the personal Revealer of God, speaking for God to men but Himself being the Word of all divine words; as the Witness of the words and works of God He is the ever-beholding and ever-rehears- ing One ; and as the Sent One of the Father, He is the Light of Light, Love of Love, the Apostle of Grace and Truth. In brief over this Gospel of His self revelation might be written, I am that I am ; I know who I am. All this Scrip- ture is of person and nature, of the divine person, the divine nature, the life eternal. In the early Church in what seems to be a hymn of the Spirit, is heard a fitting confession of the greatness of this mystery of godliness, which moves through the scenes of the Gospel of John in veiled splendor : "God was manifested in tFie flesh, "Justified in the spirit, "Seen of angels, "Preached among the nations "Believed on In the world "Received up in glory." I Tim. 3: 16. VI. In passing, a verbal peculiarity is worthy of note. By the use of verbs and participles instead of kindred nouns it is in- timated that we may learn who Jesus is by what H'e said and did. Verbs of being and existence tell of Him the I AM, the Life; verbs of knowledge speak of Him the Word living and inworking, piercing and disclosing ; and verbs of love utter the glad tidings of what God is in grace. The verb "give" in this Gospel of the grace of God is found seventy-two times; the noun but once, "If thou knewest the gift of God;" by such manifold giving men are to learn to know the Giver. The verb "testify" is found thirty-three times, the impersonal noun "testimony" fourteen; but the personal noun not at all. The testimony must prove one to be a witness indeed, and the act of witnessing is unceasing and all inclusive of the mutual knowledge of the Father and the Son. To evangelize and herald is never found in this Gospel, all is personal testifying. The verb "believe" or "trust" is found ninety-seven times; the noun "faith" or "trust" not once, as if believing were the one continuous, uninterrupted act of a child of God. And the verb "glorify" most fitly is used altogether of either the Son or the Father as glorifying each other; men are said in the other Gospels to be glorifying God, but in this, God is seen to be glorifying Himself as Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Vn. The lines of the Structure of this Gospel are easily discerned. Whether all readers would agree or not, it cer- tainly is very evident that words of motion, movement, mis- sion, give to this record of Him Who came from God and, again, went to God, a characteristic which is most fully ex- pressed in these words: "I came forth from the Father, "And am come into the world; "Again, I leave the world, "And go to the Father." 16: 28. This truth was stated on the last night and in His last teach- ing before He suffered ; it is the completed statement and cli- max of all of His claims; it describes the vast circle of His movement from God to God. 13 : 1-3. As a statement covering His whole career it corresponds to the oi:der of thought and also to the structure of this Gospel. It speaks as to the order of thought: i. Of the divine pre- existence of Christ and of His incarnation ; 2. Of His histori- cal manifestation in the world, and, 3. Of His return to God. II John i6: 28; i : 14-18; 6; 62; 7: 32-33; 8: 14; 13: 1-3; i?: n I 20: 17. Between the Prologue, i : 1-18, and the Epilogue, 21 : 1-25, lies the narrative which forms the body of the Gospel. This is naturally divided into four parts. Over each part in suc- cession may be written as a title one of the four clauses of this great saying. Through the successive scenes of the historic movement the testimony is cumulative and climacteric that we may know and be sure that this is He Who came from God and went to God, and is the Only Begotten Son in the bosom of the Father and He Who declared Him. Vni. A final word as to the Writer and Symbol of this Gospel. The Writer was most rriicetly John "the disciple whom Jesus loved." He was doubtless the first one of the two who heard John the Baptist testify, and following Jesus abode with Him, and as the first of the brethren he fitly wrote the life of the Firstborn of many brethren ; and as the one who leaned on Jesus' bosom he rehearsed the declarations of the Only Be- gotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father ; the innermost learner made known the innermost Gospel of the Son of God. His name John means the gift of God and he told of Jesus whom God gave, and of the many gifts in Him. He never mentions himself by name, though all is so per- sonal in his record, for he would testify of Jesus and glorify Him alone ; so proving by this self-hiding, the Spirit of the Truth was dwelling in him indeed. Doubtless out of deep regard for Jesus' honor he forbade a stranger the casting out of demons, and at another time would call down fire from heaven upon an unfriendly Samaritan village. It was he whose eye anointed of love first knew Jesus as He stood on the shore of the sea in the gray dawn when the disciples had toiled all night and caught nothing; and it was he. though a "son of thunder" yet a lamb in sacrificial willingness, who followed Jesus of his own accord on that same memorable morning when Simon Peter in symbolic act was foretold by the Lord the death he should die to the glory of God. In these and other incidents are found hints of the fitness of "the beloved disciple" to rehearse with that deep, far look and with words right forth all lucid and luminous the glory of the Only Be- gotten full of grace and truth. The Symbol of this Gospel is the Cherubic Eagle, heaven- born, heaven ascending, dwelling in high and lonely vision of the all-illumining sun. "Bird of God ! with boundless flight Soaring far beyond the height Of the bard or prophet old; Truth fulfilled, and truth to be; Never purer mystery Did a purer tongue unfold." «3 OUTLINE. The Prologue i : 1-18 — "From God." "Into the World." "To God." Part I. — i: 19-2: 11. "From the Father." Part 11. — 2: 12-12: 50. "Into the World." Part III. — 13-17. "Leave the World." Part IV. — 18-20. "Go to the Father." The Epilogue — 21 : 1-25. "With the Glory * * before the World zvas." Divisions and Sections. The Prologue. 1: 1-18. Its Testimony to Jesus Christ the Only Begotten Son of God. I. — "The Word was God." "With God." "From God." i : 1-5. 2. — "In the world." "Made flesh." "Full of grace and truth." 1 : 6-17. 3. — "In the bosom of the Father." i : 18. PART 1. 1:19-2: II. "From the Father" The Testimony introductory and preparatory. Sect. I. — 1 : 19-34. Of John the Baptist to Israel and its rulers. Sect. 2. — 2: 35-51. Of the first five disciples of Jesus. Sect. 3. — 3: i-ii. Of the first sign of the Glory of the Son of God. PART II. 2: 12; 12-50. "Into the World.'' The Testimony from the day of the manifestation of Jesus Christ to Israel to the Day of His departure and hiding from His unbelieving people; or the testimony personal and official, of Jesus the Christ, from the first to the last Passover, as the Prophet, the Priest, the King, the Only Begotten Son of God. Div. I. — 2: 12-3: 21. The Testimony to Jesus as the * Prophet. The First Passover. Jerusalem. Sect. I. — 2: 12-22. Of the cleansing of the Temple; His body the "temple" (naos) of the Glory of the Only Begotten. Sect. 2. — 2: 23-3: 15. Of the interview with Nicodemus. "He knew all men." "The Son of Man who is in heaven." Sect. 3. — 3: 16-21. Of the additional words corncerning judg- ment and the light and the darkness. "For * * * jo loved." Div. II. — 3: 22; 4-54. The Testimony to Jesus the Christ in Judea, Samaria and Galilee. Sect. I. — 3 : 22-36. Of the last words of John the Baptist. Judea. Sect. 2. — ^4: 1-42. Of Jesus at Jacob's well and in Samaria. Sect. 3. — /\: 43-54. Of Jesus in Galilee in the sign pertinent to the Gentiles. Div. III. — 5: 1-47. The Testimony to Jesus as God's own Son on the occasion of the sign of healing at the pool of Bethesda. Pentecost. Jerusalem. Sect. I. — 5: 1-18. Of this third sign of His Glory, and of His claim of equality with God. "God His own Father," the first great self-revelation. Sect. 2. — 5: 19-29. Of Jesus as equal with, and yet subor- dinate to, the Father. Sect. 3. — 5: 30-47. Of the four witnesses to Jesus as the Life Eternal, and of His closing claim of Messiahship. IS Div. jV. — 6: 1-71. The Testimony to Jesus and His Glory in relation to the second Passover, as the Prophet, the Priest. Sect. I. — 6: 1-14. Of the sign of the bread-giving. Sect. 2. — 6: 15-21. Of the sign of walking on the sea. Sect. 3. — 6: 22-71. Of the discourse in the synagogue of Capernaum. Div. V. — 7: 1; 10: 42. The continuous and culminating Testimony to Jesus at the Feasts of Tabernacles and Dedication, as the Prophet, the Priest, the Dedicated Shepherd, "the Man, Jehovah's fellow." Sect. I. — 7: 1-8: II. Of the Feast of Tabernacles. Sect. 2. — 8: 12-59. Of the discourse after the Feast of Tabernacles ; "in the treasury." "Before Abraham ivas I am," the second great self-revelation. Sect. 3. — 9: i-io: 42. Of the sign preluding that of His dis- course to the blind shepherds of Israel concerning Himself as the Door and the Good Shepherd, and of His essential oneness with the Father. '7 and my Father are one," the third great self-revelation. Div. VI. — 11: 1-54. The Testimony to Jesus, the Son of God and His Glory at the raising of Lazarus. Bethany. Sect. I. — 11: 1-32. The testimony preparatory to the last greatest sign. Sect. 2. — II : 33-44. The testimony at the doing of the sign. Sect. 3. — II : 45-54. The testimony of the effect of the sign. Div. VII. — 11. 55-12: 50. The Testimony to Jesus at the third Passover, as the Messiah, the King, the Priest, the Prophet, the Son of God. Sect. I. — II : 55-12: 19. Of the anointing and royal entry and futile commandment of the rulers. Sect. 2. — 12: 20-36. Of the presence of Greeks as the repre- sentatives and earnests of a world-wide salvation, while God hides His face from blinded Israel. Sect. 3. — 12 : 37-50. Of the final observation of John and of the summary of Jesus. 16 PART III. 13-17 chs. "Leave the World:' The Testimony to Jesus, the first-born of many brethren to His chosen and tried and confessed disciples as He is about to go to the Father. DIv. I. — 13: 1. — 15: 16. The Testimony to Jesus while showing His disciples their special relations both to each other and Himself, because of His going to the Father. Sect. I. — 13: i-ii. Of His consciousness in the feet-wash- ing. Sect. 2. — 13: 12-20. The act a perpetual example of mutual love and humility. Sect. 3 — 13: 21-30. The sacred disclosures concerning His going to the Father withheld until Judas is separated from the company. Sect. 4. — 13: 31-38. The immediate and exultant announce- ment of His glorification, and of the new commandment to His disciples, interrupted by the sudden question of Peter and the answer of Jesus. Sect. 5. — 14: i-ii. The second and plain announcement of His going to the Father, and its object, interrupted by the ques- tionings of sad and bewildered disciples. Sect. 6. — 14: 12-31. The announcement of the greater works to be done by the disciples because of His going to the Father and sending the Holy Spirit. Love, and the keep- ing of Christ's words, the condition of the Spirit's action; the peace bestowed during the Lord's absence; their joy over His presence with the Father; His delight to do the Father's will. Sect. 7. — 15 : 1-16. The parable of the vine and the branches illustrating the foregoing, and the growth of ''the fruit of the Spirit." Div. M. — 15: 17-16: 33. The Testimony to Jesus in His predictions of tiie world's treatment of His disciples. Sect. I. — 15: 17; 16: 4. The announcement of the unjustifi- able hate of the world toward disciples and Himself, and the promise of the help of the Spirit of Truth. Sect. 2. — 16: 5-15. The further and third announcement of His going to the Father, and of its relation to the coming of the Comforter. Sect. 3. — 16: 16-33. The parabolic reiteration of His going to the Father and its consequences, and the final plain declaration whence He had come and whither He was going. Div. III. — 17: 1-26. — The Testimony to Jesus in the prayer of intercession; the sublime consciousness of being equal with the Father in power and in glory, the reveal- ing Word, the priestly intercessor, the Kingly One, hav- ing "power over all flesh," the Giver of Life Eternal. Sect. I. — 17: 1-5. The prayer in relation to the Son and His glory. Sect. 2. — 17: 6-19. The prayer in relation to the disciples in the world. Sect. 3. — 17: 20-26. The prayer in relation to the whole church of first-bom sons. PART IV. 18-20 chs. "Go to the Father." The Testimony to Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, on His going to the Father through the fulfillment of type and prediction, in Crucifixion and Resurrection. Div. I. — 18: 1-19: 16. The Testimony to Jesus In His voluntary surrender to "the princes of this world." Sect. I. — 18: i-ii. Before the soldiers in the garden. Sect. 2. — 18: 12-27. Before Caiaphas and Israel, and of the fulfilled prediction concerning Peter. Sect. 3. — 18: 28-19: 16. Before Pilate and the world-power. power. Div. II.— 19: 17-42. The Testimony to Jesus in the cruci- fixion and the burial. Sect. I. — 19: 17-30. The unconscious testimony of the Gen- tile world-power, and of the soldiers fulfilling prophecy, in contrast with the serene, self-conscious death of the Son of God. Sect. 2. — 19: 31-37. Of the unconscious fulfilment of Scrip- tures by the inconsistently scrupulous Jews. Sect. 3. — 19 : 38-42. Of the manner and place of His burial. Div* III. — 20: 1-31. The Testimony to Jesus m His resur- rection and the two manifestations. Sect. I. — 20: 1-18. Of the fact and manner of His resurrec- tion, and in the announcement to Mary of His ascension to the Father. Sect. 2. — 20: 19-23. Of the first and symbolic manifestation to the disciples. Sect. 3. — 20: 24-29. Of the second and symbolic manifesta- tion to Thomas. The intent of this record of the signs of the Glory of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. 20: 30, 31. 19 21 : I-2S. THE EPILOGUE. "With the Glory * * before the World was" The Testimony of the symbolic third manifestation of the glorified Son of God as directing and allotting from out of Unseen Holiest, the service and suffering and wait- ing of His church in the world of nations until He comes again. "If I will." I. — As to corporate service. 21 : 1-14. 2. — As to individual service and suffering. 21 : 15-19- 3. — As to waiting. 21 : 20-23. CONCLUSION. 21 : 24, 25. All the testimony of this Gospel is true, and Its things capable of ever-increasing reproduction. THE STUDY IN OUTLINE. In every scene should be sought the proofs of the pres- ence of One Who claimed to be the Christ, the Son of God; and that there Is Life in His Name for all who believe In Him. THE PROLOGUE. 1: 1-18. 1. The deep sayings in i : 1-5 pertain to the Word in rela- tion to God, and to Creation, and to the World. I. As to God. 1 : 1-2. In the beginning; therefore pre-existent. "With God ;" therefore a distinct Person. "Was God;" therefore equal and of the same essence. "In the beginning with God ;" therefore eternal. Christ is therefore all that God is, was and ever will be ; and it is of Him as such, of the Person Who came and took upon Himself our nature, that all things in the Gospel are said; the divine nature is the first and pre-eminent fact to be kept in mind. 2. As to Creation, i : 3. Christ is the Creator of all : He is, therefore, before all ; He is, they become; He was, they became; and they be- came through Him. 3. As to the World, i : 4. Christ is the Life of all, i. e., the ground of all that becomes. He is the Light of all ; as Life He is the Light of men, i. e., to man as originally created. He is all truth, all reality, all holiness, as against sin, unreality, error and falsehood. In relation to the darkness, i. e., to men as sinful and ignor- ant, the Word, the Light, pre-incarnate and incarnate shone in the darkness, on a ruin. Gen. i : 2. The darkness neither "took it in," nor could "suppress" it altogether ; some believed. II. The successive statements from i : 6 to i : i8 correspond to the four great parts of the Gospel, as follows : 1. The mission of John the Baptist in i : 6-8 corresponds to his testimony in i : 19-34. He consummates in himself as a witness the testimony of former prophets to the Word when yet unincarnate, in pointing now to the Word incarnate as the Lamb of God, the Son of God. 2. The entrance of the Light into the world, i : 9, receives its full illustration, in i : 35-51. in the Presence all illumining, all discovering, all manifesting, and in 2: i-ii as transfiguring and glorifying. 3. The blindness of men to the Lord of Glory, their rejec- tion of the incarnate Word noted in i : lO-ii is attested in the public ministry from 2 : 12 to 12 : 50. He was not received by His own people, neither were His own possessions given to Him. 4. The reception by believing children of God is seen in fullest form in chs. 13-17. 5. The fulfilment of all given through Moses (i: 17), is found in the grace and truth of the antitypical experiences narrated in chs. 18-19. The "law" ceremonial is there seen giving way to the permanent "truth" or reality, and the "law" moral to "grace." 6. The return of the Only Begotten to the Father when the personal revelation was finished in i : 18 ("that One declared Him") is attested in the mysterious movement and manifes- tations in 20 : 1-29. 7. And finally, the last verse of the Prologue corresponds to the last chapter of the Gospel, the Epilogue, for the eternal being and glory of the Only Begotten One with God, affirmed in 1 : 18 is illustrated and attested in the final chapter as hav- ing all power in heaven and earth, ruling, directing, controll- ing all events, persons, purposes and experiences until He comes again. The whole movement of the Word is thus depicted in miniature from "the beginning with God" to the being "in the bosom of the Father;" but the name "the Word" found only in I : I, 14 in giving way to the name "Jesus" throughout the Gospel proper, transfers and imparts to the latter all its infinite divine significance so that Jesus is none other than the God- Man. To sum up ; in the Prologue 1. God came, and the natures divine and human were united in one person, Jesus Christ, i : 18. 2. The Creator of all came, i : 3. 3. The Life came, i : 4 ; 5 : 26 ; 6 : 35 ; 11 : 25 ; 14 : 6. 4. The Light came, i : 4, 9 ; 3 : 19 ; 8 : 12 ; 9 : 5 ; 12 : 35-46. 5. The Love came, Love as the abiding reason for incar- nation in order to redemption, for that God is Love is shown not in the goodness of God to all in creation, but in that "God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have eternal life." 3: 16; 10: 17. The Son as one with the Father is what the Father is, Light and Love. "No one has seen God at any time: an Only Be- gotten God, the one existing within the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." i : 18. 6. The Fullness of God as abiding grace and truth came, in contrast with the temporary giving of the law. i : 14, 16, 17; 14: 6, 16. 7. The Glory of this divine-human person came and showed forth itself in signs of life, and knowledge and power from the transfiguration of the water to the resurrection of the dead ; not only in the raising of Lazarus, but much more in laying down His life and taking it again. "Christ as absolute re- demption zvas pure grace ; as absolute revelation pure truth." "This divine-human personality forms the basis of His work, which is the redemption, reconciliation and reunion of men with God." "Four factors are necessary to the complete conception of Christ's Person: i. True and proper deity; 2. True and proper humanity; 3. The union of deity and humanity in one Person : 4. The distinction of deity from humanity in the one Person, so that there be no mixture of natures," 23 1 : 19 — 20: 31. ANALYSIS AND NOTES OF THE FOUR PARTS OF THE GOSPEL. PART L i: 19 — 2: II. "From the Father." The Testimony introductory and preparatory to the Public iVIinistry. Sect. I. — 1 : 19-34- The Testimony of John the Baptist to Israel and its Rulers. John the vanishing Voice of Law and Prophecy bears wit- ness to and introduces the ever-abiding Word the Fulfilment and Reality of promise, type, prediction. The witness of John is as follows : First negative, then posi- tive. Negative, i, 2, 3, 4. 1. "Not the Messiah," therefore how "great" the Christ must be; seeing John was "greatest" of prophets, i: 19-20. 2. "Not Elijah," therefore the grace and truth of a suffer- ing Messiah precede even Elijah's coming before the Day of the Lord, so first revealing God in His inmost being as Love. 7: 21. 3. "Not the Prophet," therefore "the Prophet" must be the Revealing Word Himself, the perfect Revelation of God. i : 21. 4. And if but a "Voice" and humblest of servants though greatest of men, the Lord must be great indeed, and as the Word infinitely great, for the transient, ever decreasing Voice can but introduce the eternal ever-increasing Word — and be gone. 1 : 22-28. Positive, 5, 6, 7. 5. The "Coming One" "was before" John ; his Chief, i : 27, 30; therefore the Chief of all preceding prophets, Moses and all. 24 6. "The Lamb of God." i : 29, 36; therefore the fulfilment of the whole sacrificial Typology from the beginning of the world. 7. The Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, i : 33 ; therefore one with Jehovah. Num. 12: 25; Joel 2: 27-28; Is. 44: 2-3, And so the conclusion must be "this is the Son of God." i : 34. This One could be no other. The testimony closes in a cli- ■max. Sect. 2.— i: 35-51. The Testimony of John leads the first two disciples to Jesus and is confirmed in the memorable interviews of Christ with the five disciples first gathered. 1. John again testifies Jesus is the Lamb of God. i : 35-37. 2. He is the "Rabbi" indeed all knowing, i : 38, 42, 48. 3. Jesus accepts the declaration that He is the Christ, i : 41-42. 4. He finds Philip that Philip may find Him "of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write." i : 43-45. 5. He mets Nathanael and endorses him and all preceding confessions, "Thou art the Son of God," "Thou art the King of Israel," by announcing Himself in a final climacteric claim as the Son of Man, the Lord of Angels of Jacob's dream, the Law Giver of Isaiah's vision, the Mediator between God and man, the Reconciler of heaven and earth, i : 50-51. Gen. 28: 10-22. Is. 2: 1-4. And all this is accepted or spoken by one most humble, most human, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Joseph, i : 45-46. "Come and see ;" Christianity is open to all rational investi- gation. Sect. 3. — 2: i-ii. The Testimony of the first Sign of the Glory of the God Man. It is the glory of the theanthropic Personality now taber- nacling among men ; "His own glory." With transfiguring creative power the Lord of Glory is in the world; and in the House of Israel appears the Bridegroom indeed. John 2 : 5. Gen. 41 : 55 ; Ixx. "The conscious water saw its God and blushed." In deep- est knowledge of Himself and of His mission He gives this sign of festal joy significant of the spirit of the New Day and Dispensation. The Old could not do aught else than leave men athirst in utter want; but now came One Who as the true Bridegroom changes the tasteless Water of the Old into the wine of joy of the New Creation, everlasting and inexhaustible. 2: i-ii. This is the first illustration of 20: 30-31. This "sign" of the Glory led faith as along a line of light to its source — the divine Doer of the marvellous deed. The signs of 20: 30-31 cannot be only post-resurrection, for the writer says "in this book." PART II. 2 : 12—12 : 50. "Into the World." The Testimony from the day of the Manifestation of Jesus Christ to Israel to the day of His departure and hiding from His unbelieving people; or the testimony, per- sonal and official, of Jesus the Christ, from the first to the last Passover, as the Prophet, the Priest, the King, the Only Begotten Son of God. THE ANOINTED. I. This Part contains the record of the PubHc Ministry of Jesus in Relation to the great Festivals of Israel. Throughout we behold in them Jesus in His Messianic, offi- cial character. He is the Mediator and the Reconciler, the Prophet, the Priest, the King. A Mediator is one who comes between two estranged parties to reconcile them. Gal. 3: 19-26; I Tim. 2:5; Heb. 8; 6; 9: 15; 12: 24. A Prophet: One who speaks for God to men. Ex. 4: 16; 7 : 1-2] Deut. 18 : 5 ; Isa. 61 : i ; Heb. i : i. Each office, whether of prophet, priest or king, relates to re- demption. The conscious relations to these three Messianic offices proves how Jesus beheld Himself as the Fulfilment and Truth of all promise, type and prediction of the Scriptures, the An- ointed One of all the anointed ones. In addition to all, the Father bore witness that He who claimed such official names had personally another name that alone could give worth and dignity to them, the name Son of God. The voice of the Father proclaimed from heaven three times that Jesus was the Son of God; at the beginning of the min- istry of the Prophet after His baptism, John i: 32-34; Matt. 3: 16-17; at the Transfiguration shorly after the priestly feed- ing of the thousands, Matt. 17 : 5 ; and a third time after the royal entry into the city of the great King, John 12 : 27-28. THE PASSOVERS. 2". The Passover is specially characteristic of the Gospel of John. Three are mentioned. If there were four during the min- istry of Jesus, the three are doubtless like the seven miracles of this Gospel selected for a symbolic use. Jesus is related to- the first as the Prophet, to the second as the Priest, to the third as the King. Before each it is said, it is "nigh;" the Body casts its Shadow bfore. John 20: 30-31; Heb. i: 1-3; Deut. 18: 5; I Kings 19: 16; Ps. 133: 1-3; Psa. 2:7; Col. 2, At the Second Passover He was not at Jerusalem at alU though it is mentioned as "nigh" according to the deep mean- ing of the words of the Gospel. The sacrifice of the lamb was the root and foundation and inclusion of all the sacrifices ; the Festival of the Passover was the basis and beginning of all the festivals, and the idea of re- demption from Egypt which underlay all was then only fulfilled when the nation had actually entered Canaan and was rejoicing in its Feast of Tabernacles. The One Symbolical Year of Redemption was then finished. Rev. 3:8; Gen. 3: 21, 12: 7-8; Lev. i: 17; Ex. 12: 2, 13: 14-17; Ex. 34: 23-24; Isa. 61: 2; 63: 4- Thus to move from Passover to Passover, from Festival to Festival of solemn God-given rite and ceremony, the conscious "Body" and Reality of all, when all involved in them is con- sidered, is to give most astounding evidence that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, Jehovah who spake to Moses. And in all such revelations He is the offered Redeemer, who came to give life to the world. In brief. He came as the Sent One from God ; the sanctified to come to do His will ; to bring life eternal ; to save the world ; to speak the words of God ; to do His works and in the Father's name ; to seek God's glory ; to glorify God's name ; to reveal the Father; to declare the name of God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and consequently He came to call men to believe on Him whom God sent. He came, however, as Life of Life, Light of Light, Love of Love, for He could also say "He that sent Me is with Me;" "He that seeth me, seeth the Father." 3. The Progress of this part of the Gospel, 2: 2-12: 50, is a demonstration of the illumining power of the Prophet of Grod. Over it is written the following Scripture, which seems to serve as a proposition to be proved and illustrated by the whole public ministry of Jesus : "Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast day, many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man : for He knew what was in man." 2 : 23-25- A Nicodemus, the best product of formal Judaism, a teacher, a sage, a moralist, a patriot, is presented first as an illustration of the power of the all-knowing Word, of the all-manifesting Light; and at the other end of the scale a sinful woman and Samaritan, whose life and thoughts and needs Jesus thoroughly knew. And this, too, is like another Scripture. "For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two- edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart ; neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do," Heb. 4: 11-13- But all this disclosing of the hearts of men is done that He may reveal Himself as their Life and Salvation ; and yet some are not drawn to the Light and prefer to remain in the dark- ness they love. Throughout this whole historic movement Jesus is thus seen not only as the Prophet and Word of God revealing and communicating the mind and will of God, but also as the Word searching and testing and separating believer and un- believer. And finally after He has tried and sifted with "hard sayings" professed disciples, and separated Judas, and warned Peter, He commits Himself in free full self-revelations to His confessed disciples, as is seen in that "upper room." This continual miracle of knowledge was truly the Sign of the presence of the Prophet, the Revealer, the Light, the Word of God, even of the Glory of God, from whose light and heat there is nothing hid. Ps. 19 : 6 ; Isa. 3 : 8. His revelation of Himself is gradual, and He reaches critical points where His sayings become touchstones of the temper of the people. In truth He is Himself the Touchstone, the Light, the Revealer at one and the same time of what He is and of what the world is. THE MOULD. 4. A final observation as introductory to the analysis con- cerns a characteristic mould in which the testimony is cast. The Order and the Form of the Narration of the Events at each Passover and at the other Festivals is generally as follows : 1. Jesus is Present in some official character. 2. He is engaged in an Act pertinent to that character, 3. He foretells the invariable Sign of His death and resur- rection. 4. He speaks the significant Word which tests the heart. 5. He produces the Effect of a separation of believer from unbeliever, or reveals faith or unbelief. DIv. I. — 2: 12-3: 21. The Testimony to Jesus as the Prophet at the First Passover. Sect. I. — 2: 12-22. At this Passover Jesus is attested as the "true" Prophet, the "true"' Temple and its inseparable Glory. In one myster- ious word it is implied "here is One greater than the temple" (Matt. 12: 6), a vast all-sweeping claim for altar, sacrifice and priest pass away at once with it, as the Substance is greater than the Shadow; but all can be fulfilled only through death and resurrection. Blind zeal for the temple a few years later fulfilled both this mysterious word, and afterward occasioned the destruction of the idolized temple iself. Here now is seen also the first illustration of the Mould. He is present as the Prophet who sees with indignation to what base uses Scribe and Pharisee have permitted the Temple to come; His Act is the purification of His Father's House; His Sign, death and resurrection, the destroyed and rebuilt Temple ; His Word, too mysterious for the disciples now and until He rose from the dead. We have also at this official beginning of His ministry the first illustration of the misunderstanding of the "natural man" of the words of Jesus when He spoke of "heavenly things" under typical and earthly forms. The Jews thought of the Temple they idolized when He spoke of the shrine of His body in which the Glory of God tabernacled. And this misunderstanding of the "earthly things," 3 : 12, is repeated again and again as to "birth," and "well," and "water," "bread," and "manna," and "freedom," and "blind- ness," and "sleep," and "the way," and many other S)mibols and types of heavenly and divine realities. Jer. 23 : 11 ; Ezek. i : 15 ; Matt. 12: 9; Mark 8: 38; Matt. 26: 61; Mark 11: 15; Zech. 6: 13. 31 Sect. 2.-2: 23—3: 15. The Testimony in the Interview with NIcodemus. The self-revelation of the real Teacher to the Teacher of Israel. This ruler of the Jews furnishes the first and most impres- sive proof of the statement that Jesus knew all men and did not entrust Himself to them. Very suggestively and in keeping with the character of His Mission as the Light, He begins His revelations in the night- time and to one who was Himself professedly the teacher of Israel, "a guide to the blind, a light of them which are in darkness." "And there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews" — whom Jesus thoroughly knew. For some reason the translators omitted the "and" which is intended to lead the mind back to what had been said about trusting men. The Teacher from God, the Son ever hearing the words and seeing the works of the Father, is teaching the "Teacher of Israel" the heavenly import and substance of the symbolic earthly things of Nature and of the Old Covenant. The Teacher is Himself the heavenly Truth of the earthly Sem- blance. The word "true" is real as fulfilling type and shadow ; Christ is the true Light, created light is but the shadow of the real ; preaching and saving is the real, the highest fulfil- ment of the proverb, "One soweth and the other reapeth;" Sons of God are real worshipers of the Father; Christ is the real Bread, the real Vine; in brief, the Reality of all things foreshadowing Him and forecreated by Him or foreappointed in religious and natural type and shadow. Heb. 9: 23, 8: 5, 10: i; Col. 2: 17; Ex. 25: 40, 26: 30; Acts 7: 44. A Nicodemus can recognize in Jesus " a teacher come from God" and that God is with him as a prophet, but he knew not that each name had a higher, divine, heavenly meaning, the real and ultimate. In all this Nicodemus saw and spoke like a natural man, and all unlike a Nathaniel who beholding in Jesus the King of Israel, the Son of God, proved himself to be "an 32 Israelite indeed." Not yet taught of the Spirit, Nicodemus cannot say "Jesus is Lord," i Cor. 12 13 ; nor born only of the flesh, see the Kingdom of God ; and so the first word of Jesus went right to the heart of the matter. The Self-witness of Jesus. 1. Jesus is conscious of being more than Nicodemus de- clared Him to be. 3:1-2. 2. He gives hint of His whence and whither. "Born from above" is true of each believer in Christ. The children of God are born of the Spirit and know whence they are and whither they are going. 3 :3-8. 3. He is the mysterious One existing in two spheres of being, knowledge, will and power; "the Son of Man which is in heaven." 3 19-13. Compare 3:13 and 6:62 and Prov. 30:4. 4. He is God's own Son who came in the likeness of the flesh of sin and was lifted up as an offering for sin. The last act of Moses, who stood for the Law, was to point the dying to the brazen serpent; the first intimation of the Son of Man that He must be lifted up brings the last type of the wilder- ness and the antitype together. Jesus is conscious of being the Fulfilment and Body of all. Sect. 3. 3 : 16-21. The Testimony of the additional words concerning judg- ment and the light and the darkness. "For God so loved." 1. Jesus is not a mere teacher as Nicodemus considered Him, but "the Only Begotten Son of God." 3 16-17. 2. He is also a Judge and Divider on a matter of eternal moment. 3. The nature and reason of the Judgment is g^ven. Life as Love and Light enters the World of hate and dark- ness and death, because it is Love, i Pet. 52:21; Matt. 19:28; Ezek. 36 : 26-27, Z7 '• i-i4- 33 The Word divides the light from the darkness; it brings a crisis, a separation, a judgment. Gen. 1:4; John 9:39. THE MOULD. The Prophet is present; His Act is teaching of the highest kind as of a witness who infallibly knows, for He is the Son of man in heaven; He foreshows the Sign of the lifting up; He speaks the testing words; He reveals the presence of be- lief or unbelief; the love or the hate of the Light. John 3 :i4. "After these things," is a note of time indicating the close of one period of a peculiarly related ministry and the begin- ning of another. 3:22, 5:1; (R. V.) 6:1, 7:1, 21:1. DIv. II. — 3: 22-4; 54. The Testimony in Judea, Samaria and Galilee. Sect, I. — 3 : 22-36. Final Testimony of John the Baptist to the Prophet greater than himself. The disciples baptize into the name of Jesus; the number increases ; all is significant of the waxing old of the ineffectual Law. This is confirmed by John the Baptist, great in his humility. Heb. 8 : 13 ; Rom. 8 : 3. He confesses that the Law with its "many waters" and "purification" could not cleanse; that in his own decreasing importance, even in himself the very Voice and impersonation of the Old Covenant, could be seen a symbol of the temporari- ness of its earthly types and shadows. He declares the highest honor possible for one like himself, who would not live to see the day of the Spirit of Sonship was to be like Abraham a "friend." the one the "friend of God," the other the "friend" of the Bridegroom. Sonship came when redemption had been accomplished. Gal. 4: 4-7. John 15: 15. In sum : John was a man sent from God, not God become man, i : 6, a prophet not the Revealer, 10 : 41, a herald not the King, 3 128, a witness not the Truth, i :7, a friend not the Bridegroom, 3 : 29, a lamp not the Light, 5 : 33-36, a vanishing voice not the abiding Word, i : 23. And therefore to Jesus all men should come, 3 : 26, for He is the greater Witness and from above, 3: 31-33; the Possessor of the Spirit without measure, and of all revelation and might, 3 : 34-35, even the Life eternal, 3 : 36. He brought no measured piecemeal word of God, such as came through the prophets to the fathers, because He is Himself the full revelation of the Truth and Life of God. He is greater than Moses. The fellowship in the mystery of the Godhead is perfect. Love knows all, tells all, gives all. Heb. 9: 10; Acts 13: 39; Rom. 3: 20; Heb. i : 1-2. Faith in the Son holds Life in its essential form as from the 35 Father and for a son; while unbelief retains its death under the wrath of God. Matt, ii: 27; John 5: 20, 13: 3, 16: 15, 17: 7; Col. 1:19, 2: 3-9; Heb. 1:2; Heb. 2: 8. (John 3: 32 must be spoken of a later day for it had just been said "all men come to him." 3: 26.) Sect. 2. 4: 1-42. The Testimony at Jacob's Well. To the Woman, 4: 1-26. To the Disciples, 4 : 27-38. To the Samaritans, 4 : 39-42. Jesus is seen weary and hungry and thirsty; "made like unto His brethren," yet "greater" than Jacob and Jacob's well. 1. He is the Giver of the living water leaping ever heaven- ward. 4: ID. 2. The Prophet or Searching Word. 4: 19. ^ 3. The Source of Salvation and Revealer of the true wor- ship. 4: 20-24. 4. The Messiah. 4:29. 5. The Doer of the will of the Father. 4 : 34. 6. The Lord of the harvest. 4 : 38. 7. The Saviour of the world. 4 : 42. Jacob's well in the heart of Samaria is a symbol of the truth, "Salvation is of (out of) the Jews." Only through this Hebrew prophet the gift of God could come. The water is to flow throughout all nations ; the Messiah is the Saviour of the World ; its harvest is always ripe and the gathering abundant ; the result is worshiping children of God everywhere. He is greater than Jacob and his well, i Kings 8: 41-43; Ps. 72: lo-ii; Isa. 2: 2; II : 10; 42: i, 6; Micah 5: 8; Isa. 48: 21; S5-- I. The woman always said "well," Jesus said "spring." THE MOULD. The Prophet is present; the Act is the teaching of the Son unwearied in His Father's service ; the Sign, the living Water 36 from the riven Rock; the Word, laying open the life and heart; the Effect, faith and instant testimony. Sect. 3- 4: 43-54- The Testimony of the Sign pertinent to the Gentiles. The first sign was symbolically in the house, to them that were "near." to Israel ; the second to the "far-off," to the Gen- tile, but both ways the Glory was manifested. "The Prophet without honor in His own country" the hint of Israel's rejection. "The Light of the Gentiles "is here." Those far off are brought nigh. They believe without see- ing. Jesus heals with a word out of the unseen, and at the full time. Jesus delights in faith without "signs." All is a mirror of Gentile faith, and salvation. Isa. 9: 1-2; Rom. 9-1 1; Luke 2: 32; Acts 2: 39; Eph. 2: 13, 17; Matt. 8:8; Luke 4: 36, 7: 7. THE MOULD. The Presence of the Glory is felt from afar; the Act is that of the world-wide Healer ; the Sign is given in the dying and revived child; the Word of seeming reproof is spoken; the Effect is full and confirmed faith in the Lord. Div. III. — 5: 1-47. The Testimony of Jesus to Himself as God's "Own Son" on healing the Impotent men. This feast was probably that of Pentecost. The internal testimony of the deed and the interview and discourse is to that effect. According to the historic order, and the typical import, the finished Redemption of the Passover is followed by the wit- nessing and preaching of the Day of Pentecost. Acts 2 : 46, 3 : I, II ; 4: 5-6, 5: 21. It is a Day of quickening, "the Hour which now is;" it is a Work of making whole; it is the true Sabbath work, not ser- vile. He is greater than Bethesda. Ex. 23: 16, 34: 22; Deut. 16: 9-12; Acts 2: 14-36, 3: 12, 26. The Pentecostal preaching bears witness to the lordship of Jesus, to the resurrection, to the judgment. Num. 28: 26; Acts 2 : 14-20. The sermons of Peter and the whole Book of the Acts, or works of the Spirit of Christ, expand and illustrate this "feast" of John's Gospel. All the feast becomes a miniature of the yet unended Pente- costal Day of the Church. Pentecost was only one day. The disciples of Christ are the hint to the chief leaders of the people, of the new meat offering of Pentecost. Lev, 23 : 21. And just as in the later apostolic preaching and miracle- working the Rulers of Israel began to persecute, so here we meet the first crisis with the professed enemies of Jesus. The attitude of opposition and unbelief on the part of the Jews in this feast makes this scene also typical of their rejec- tion; 5: 17, 18; 6: 9; 7: 60; and instead of a national Pente- cost came the Pentecost of the Church, the first fruits of the harvest, the meat offering "unto the Lord for the priest." "Eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him." Rev. 14-4; Num. 28 : 26-31 ; Lev. 23 : 20; Jas. i : 18 ; John 17 : 2. 38 Sect. I. 5: 1-18. Sect. 1. — 5: 1-18. Testimony of the third sign of His glory, and of His claim of equality with God. ''God, His own Father.'* The first great self-revelation. This sign betokens the impotence of nature and the law to make whole. It furnishes an occasion for testimony to the great and faith- ful Witness of God and to the Doer co-equal with God. The claim is an advance on, "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." The two charges are violation of the Sabbath and the claim that God is "His ozvn Father." This claim that Jesus knew was one wholly unlike their own, for they also claimed God to be their Father. 8 : 41. Sect. 2. 5 : 19-29. The Testimony to Jesus as equal with, and yet subordinate to, the Father. There is a mysterious seeing and doing in a divine fellow- ship of ineflFable love. Jesus raises and quickens, and is therefore omnipotent; He judges and therefore omniscient; He is honored as the Father and therefore to be worshiped ; and faith in Him an- ticipates and forestalls judgment. For all this He must be sinless and possess limitless knowl- edge and power touching all men, events, generations, ages, lands, peoples, laws natural, laws spiritual, and all pertaining to all experiences of all men that have lived, now live, will yet live. Sect. 3. 5: 30-47. The Four Witnesses and the final claim as greater than Moses. Jesus for a moment (8: 12-20) waives aside His own testi- mony and appeals to that of the Father and of the works and of John the Baptist and of the Old Testament, but He finally reaffirms all in claiming to be the true Messiah, in predicting Israel's future acceptance of the false Messiah ; and in accusing them of unbelief in Moses of whose writings He claims to be the theme. He thus re-ascends to a climacteric claim of great- ness beyond that of Moses and all the Mosaic institutions, as being the very Fulfilment and Reality of all that Moses wrote. (5: 30 "just," 8: 16 "true.") In 5: 16-29 is seen the high and divine side; in 5: 30-47 the humble and human, but in both is found the one chief claim of being the Giver of Life. This Gospel adds to the four witnesses already mentioned, three more, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the disciples. THE MOULD. The Prophet and Revealer, the faithful and true Witness Who cannot deny His oneness with the Father or His continual seeing and hearing what the Father is showing Him, is present to fulfil the idea and purpose of the feast of Pentecost; HHs Act is the symbolic work of healing which the law was im- potent to do ; the Sign of His own death and resurrection i j implied in His power to raise others ; the Word spoken tests and reveals the mind of the unbelieving Jews ; He is a dis- cerner of the thoughts and intents of their hearts ; the Eflfect is unbelief in their own Scriptures so often made a hint and prophecy of Jewish rejection of the Son of God; and the final warning of Jesus suggests the many antichrists, and at last the Antichrist whom on coming in his own name they will receive. Rev. 3 : 14 ; Lev. 16:2; Matt. 24 : 24 ; Luke 21 : 22 ; 2 Th. 2 : 4. Div. IV. — 6: 1-71. The Testimony to Jesus in Relation to the Second Passo/er as the Prophet and the Priest. The special self-revelation is that of the great Priest and the Bread of God, while the Prophet in word and act also continues. The "after this" which introduces the first Pass- over, 2 : 12, and the "after these things" the Judean ministry, 3: 22, and the feast, 5:1, and the Passover, 6: i, and finally the Tabernacles, the last feast of the year, 7: i, all indicate transitions and progress in the historic movement. But the last found at 7 : i, intimates how from Tabernacles on, the truth and testimony pertinent to Jesus as the Prophet and the Priest is cumulative and comes to a climax in the Third Passover, includmg thus that of the Feast of the Dedi- cation. A Priest: One who acts with God for men. Ex. 19: 22 Heb. 5:1; Levit. 10: 11; Mai. 2: 7. In Capernaum comes the crisis with His professed dis- ciples; and rejected by the representatives of His people Jesus retires into Galilee manifesting there His glory. Sect. I. 6: 1-14. The Testimony of the fourth Sign of His Glory. The discerning Word tests a Philip and an Andrew and per- ceives the intent of the multitude; but He does not commit Himself to men. He "knew in Himself" as one who ever held within Himself the Urim and Thummim, Ex. 28: 30; Deut. 33 : 8 ; Ezra 2 : 63. Jesus reveals Himself in the priestly act of feeding the multitudes ; and in refusing to be King now before the priestly offering of Himself is made. His discourse is inseparable from the nighness of the Passover, its blood and its flesh. 41 Sect. 2. 6: 15-21. The Testimony of the fifth Sign. While the Jews are seeking their King, the Church is tossed upon the Sea of Nations until Jesus comes ; but as soon as He appears "in a moment" they are at land. Matt. 14: 22- 33; Mark 6: 45-52; r Cor. 15: 52; i Th. 4: 17. Sect. 3. 6: 22-71. The Testimony in the Synagogue of Capernaum. The Rebuke to the Multitude; and the Exhortation to work for the Real Bread of God of which the manna was but a perishable type. In still hidden meaning (6: 33 not "he" but "that which") He proceeds in His discourse until He makes the plainest avowal of being what only the infinitely gracious God can be to the soul of man witii its limitless need and desire ; its Bread, its Food ; its Life. 6: 27-33. 1. They who judge after the flesh do not understand that He is the Son of Man who gives the imperishable Food, ()\ 'Z'j', that He is the Sealed One, 6: 27; that He is the Sent One, 6: 29 ; that He is the Pre-existent One, 6 : 32 ; that He is the Lifegiver, 6: 33. 6: 34-40. 2. There follows the plain avowal of all the foregoing, and in addition that He is the Raiser of the dead. 6: 41-S1. 3. The avowal is repeated with the further claim that He hath seen the Father, and is from the Father; and that His "flesh" is the "bread." 6: 52-59. 4. The repetition is made and the claim that no life is pos- sible for man apart from Him, and only through His blood, which is here mentioned for the first time. The climax, begun in the obscure statement "For the bread of God is that ivhich" 42 -—not "he," see R. V. of 6: 33. is here openly reached. 6: 60-65. 5. It is all a "hard saying," and made still harder for such who thought the expected Messiah would abide on the earth forever after He once came. His dying and rising again and ascending on high was indeed foreign to the thoughts of all the disciples. 6: 66. 6. The "hard saying" has its divisive effect and discloses the unbelief of many. 6: 67-71. 7. His pleading inquiry of the twelve is met by their grate- ful testimony. In spite of their ignorance they cling the more to Him and receive His words of life and believe and know He is the Christ, the Holy One of the Living God. And yet there is a blinded one who heeds not the warning from Him Who is the all-searching Word and revealing Light. THE MOULD. The Prophet is present in His priestly character and con- scious whence and wherefore he came into the world; His ministering Act, the giving of the bread ; His foretold Sign the giving of His flesh and the raising up of the dead; His mysterious Words are spirit and life to faith, but hard sayings to unbelief, even to professed disciples ; they draw forth earnest confession from the chosen, they uncover unbelief in the many. He is greater than the manna, Ex. 16: 14; Num. 11:7; Heb. 9:4; Rev. 2: 17. 43 Djv. V. — 7: 1-10; 42. The continuous and culminating Testi- mony at Tabernacles and Dedication as the Prophet, the Priest, the Dedicated Shepherd, the Man, the Fel- low of Jehovah. These Festivals close the Sacred Year, and the once obscure saying of a return to God is now more plainly declared. His "day of twelve hours" begins to decline. (The final departure from Galilee noted in the other Gospels coincides with this Festival.) The turning point has been reached in His progress from the Father to the Father. Henceforth the movement, though at the last through the darkness of death and the under world for a little time, is evermore toward the glory He had with the Father before the world was. 7 : 32-36. His teaching of the people also culminates ; and as if He now had the right to expect faith in Him as the Messiah, He cries out against their unbelief. "Ye both know me and ye know whence I am ; and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not ; but I know him, for I am from him and he hath sent me." And they sought to take him. 7 : 26-31. The teaching culminates both as to His divine nature and the implied need of men to be born from above, and have God indeed their Father. Jesus conscious of all the Festivals signify, and that He is Himself their great Fulfiller attends the Feast of Tabernacles, which followed the Day of Atonement, and teaches as the great Priest. "For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth ; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." Mai. 2 : 7. The Prophet like unto Moses is also here to communicate the will of God. Deut. 18: 5; Mai. 2:7; Ezra. 7: 10. And the great Rabbi is present to bring out the meaning of this last great Festival of the Year commemorating the redemp- 44 tion out of Egypt and the settlement of the Nation in the Land. In this seventh month, the first of the civil year, the Nation was at last thoroughly organized for its Mission of righteous- ness and peace unto all nations by the presence of the indwell- ing Glory. In its attained rest the Nation could serve God freely. Lev. 22: 34; i Kings 8: 2; 2 Ch. 7: 8-11 ; 5: 14; 6: 4; Ezra 3:3; Zech. 14: 16-17; Neh. 8: 18; i ICings 12: 32; Heb. 4:8-9. The Teaching commanded at this festival is given by this Rabbi as never before. John 7 : 46. Sect. I. 7: 1-8: II — The Testimony of Tabernacles. 7: 1-13. 1. The Testimony to Himself as conscious ever of the "hour," the due time of Hils manifestation. 7: 14-36. 2. The Testimony of His teaching as sent from God, to its climax in the plain affirmation of His return to God. He is not seeking His own glory and must therefore be true. He made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath, and the people should know He had come to make the nation whole, to serve the Lord with joy and gladness in the great predicted Sabbath of Messiah's Day. This was no servile work, but divine. He is greater than the Law. Deut. 30: 6; Col. 2: 11; Lev it. 23: 35. As Jehovah sent Moses to Israel, 30 the Jews knew the Father had sent the Son, and should have received Him as the Messiah. Their mutual contradictions and controversies prove it; but again all is doubt and confusion over His Word, "I c[o unto Him that sent me." 7: 37-52. 3. The Testimony in the promise of the Spirit attains Its great height and produces again a divisive effect. 45 It involves return to God. It makes Him one with God. Is. 32 : 15, 44 : 3 ; Joel 2 : 28. It implies His previous death ; the Rock once smitten sends forth the Water of Life. Exod. 17: 5-6. From the glorified and therefore once suffering Messiah the Spirit comes to baptize all into One Holy Nation; even when the Passover is by, and redemption is finally consummat- ed in the land of the promised Rest at Tabernacles. It will be on the last day, that great day of the Feast, when the decreasing Shadow keeping pace with the successive reductions of the sacrifices of this Festival, at last merges into the luminous Reality. Every believer will then become a Siloam, sending forth the water of eternal life. He is greater than all Feasts. Joel 2: 28-29; Isa. 32: 15; 44: 3; Ezek. 36: 27; Isa. 59: 21; Num. 29: 12-38; John 9: 7. The Church has received the Spirit already; Israel will re- ceive the Gift in the day of the Kingdom. Then Israel will, as one made whole by Him, know whence the Messiah is and was ; then the people truly knowing the law and "without sin," no more evil and adulterous, will walk in the Light of the Life-giving Glory. 7 : 27 ; 9 : 29-33 ; 8 : 14 ; 7 : 49 ; Num. 23 : 21. 7: 53-8: II. 4. The Testimony to the Presence of the Light and the Love in searching all hearts. It quickens the conscience; it convicts accusers; it gives pardon and grace. Sect. 2. 8: 12-59. The renewed Testimony at the Feast "in the treasury." Jesus as the Light of the World. The Teacher in the most public place bears witness of Him- self as having the Father with Him and of His going to the Father. Light of Light he had come into the World of dark- ness. The splendid lights of the Feast have all gone out, and just as when the sacrifices had decreased Jesus appeared with the promise of the Spirit, so now when all is dark He comes, 46 the light of the world. He speaks to them plainly of the Father and whence the Son came and whence they are, but though all are in the dark concerning His words, many believe on Him. Num. 29 : 8-38. To these professed disciples He now brings the testing words of true freedom and Sonship, but the effect is the uncov- ering of deep-rooted unbelief and hate. Rom. 8: 26; Gal. 4: 1-6. 8: 12-20. 1. The testimony once waived in humility, 5: 31-39, is now asserted. Whither He was gomg He knew as well as whence He came; His consciousness He could not deny; "Even if I bear witness of myself my witness is true, for I know whence I came and whither I go, but ye know not whence 1 come or whither I go." The Son and the Father both teotify whence the Son came and whither He is going; men's judgment 01 the mystery is according to the flesh. o: 21-30. 2. The two origins ; of Christ and of the unforgiven. The lifting up of Christ, the final proof of His claims and of His relation to the Father. 8: 31-47. 3. The claim to set free and make true childen of God. The sin-enslaved nature and the real kinship of the unbeliev- ing; they are not real children of Abraham but of the devil, the father of the lie. All in contrast with the Son of God as to father, nature, truth and sinlessness : they are not "of God." Jesus "never fell out of harmony with God or with Himself; He alone needed no repentance, no forgiveness." 8: 48-59. 4. The final charge against Christ of Abraham's unreal children ; and Christ's answer of mingled humility and great- ness making the way for His climacteric claim of eternal pre- existence as the everexi sting One the "I Am," the Jehovah of their fathers. This IS His Second Great Self -revelation. 47 In 8: 24 He declared "except ye believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins," now He positively announces, ''Before Abraham was I am." Another crisis for faith and unbelief came. The whole movement throughout these scenes is by "divi- sions" and crises. This is especially the case at this Festival of Tabernacles. The Light shone into the darkness and the thoughts of many hearts were revealed. Israel did not know Him the Glory predicted, and has been walking in darkness ever since ; but the day will come when the splendor of this Festival will be gladly seen to pale in the Light of the Glory to whose bright- ness the Gentiles and their kings shall comle. All nations shall then keep this Feast of Tabernacles at Jerusalem. Israel shall look in contrition on Him whom they lifted up and pierced. The Truth and Spirit of Sonship shall make them free indeed, Sons of God freed from the bondage of the Devil, the Pharaoh of the Egypt of this World. He is greater than Abraham. They shall become true sons of Abraham rejoicing in the Day Abraham saw, and confess the Jesus crucified to be the I AM, who is and who was and who has come, the Almighty. Deut. 16: 13-15; Hosea 12: 9; Zech. 14: 14-18; Isa. 60: 3; 66: 11; Zech. 12: 10; Ex. 4: 22, 23; Rev. 1:7; Rev. i : 4-8; 11-17. Sect. 3. 9: i-io: 42. The Testimony of the sign preluding His discourse to the blind shepherds of Israel concerning Himself as the Door and the good Shepherd, and of His essential one- ness with the Father. "I and my Father are one." 9: 1-34. I. The Light of the Blind. He leaves them in their darkness, but will yet in passing give them one startling Sign of the presence of the Glory in the healing of the blind men. He is greater than the Fes- rival lights of the Temple, and than the Sun itself. 48 From this turning point on He begins to speak as of evening shadows on His pathway, and of an ending of His day of work; "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day ; the night cometh when no man can work ;" and yet un- hasting and calm, He could again go to face danger, for He could answer, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth because there is no light in him." All things had their own time and place with Him. 9: 35-41. 2. To the blind the Son of God brings sight, but to the seeing the Light is blinding. 10: 1-21. 3. The Shepherd of Israel, and the Door (pre-incarnate) of all true shepherds. 10: 1-6. a. The blind hirelings and false shepherds know not the true Shepherd; the sheep know Him. 10: 7-8. h. He is the Door of all true shepherds; the acknowledged Jehovah, and they know His Messiah. 10: 8-10. c. He is the Door of salvation and Giver of life abundantly. 10: 11-15. d. He lays down His life for the sheep as the Good Shep- herd : and Shepherd and sheep have mutual knowledge akin to that of the Father and the Son. 10: 16. e. The flock is one out of Israel and all nations. 10: 17-18. f. The voluntary laying down of life by the Son and the love of the Father inseparable. The love of Father and Son is all redemptive. 10: 19-21. g. Another schism comes between faith and unbelief. The Light discloses; and the final word "Can a demon open the 49 eyes of the blind,'' fitly closes His testimony of this Festival of lights. THE MOULD. The great Prophet has indeed appeared; He has taught in most positive and public manner; in the Light men should have seen Hght; He has sealed His teaching with the Sign, the healing of the blind ; He has foretold the Sign of the Smitten Rock and of the Uplifted One; and His searching, startling words, like light exposing all things, wake faith in some, and unbehef in others. id: 22-42. The Testimony to Jesus the Dedicated One continued in the Feast of Dedication to its cimacteric great self- revelation of Jesus as the Shepherd and Fellow of Jehovah. The Festival comes a few weeks later, but is characterized by the same features of light and joy. These Festivals of Tabernacles and Dedication were celebrated with brilliant illumination of the Temple and City ; at the best but a feeble and melancholy substitute for the Glory that filled the Temple of Solomon at its Dedication at the Feast of Tabernacles, and a sad reminder of the absence of that Glory, when Judas Mac- cabeus cleansed the later temple and re-established the wor- ship of Jehovah, i Kings 8: i-ii ; i Mace. 4: 52-59; 2 Mace. 10: 5-8. The discourses of the two Feasts virtually are one in kind. The parable of the Shepherd seems to be the connecting link. The prophetic and priestly relations are combined. He is greater than all the dedicated, whether sacrifices or sons. "It was winter:" the days of darkness and of death; but the Light of Life has come to revive all with the heat from which nothing can be hid. Job 6: 17; Psa. 19: 6; Cant. 2: 11. Thrice is the Lord dedicated; the Shepherd Himself has come to lay down His life for the Sheep; the Father sancti- fied the Son and sent Him into the World; the Jewish Coun- cil devotes Jesus to death. Heb. lo: 5-10; Psa. 40: 6-8. 10: 22-25. a. The suspense of faith and appeal to the divine works. 10:26. b. The reason for the unbelief. 10: 27-29. c. The life eternal and the everlasting security of the sheep in the hands of the Father and the Son. 10: 30-33. d. The climacteric claim and final great self-revelation to the world: '7 and the Father are one;" the words of the prophet Zachariah being the key to this entire section of the good Shepherd and His sheep : "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, "And against the man that is my fellow ; "Saith Jehovah of hosts." 13 : 7. He of whom the Jews said "Thou being a man makest thy- self God" was verily none other, Jehovah's Shepherd and Jehovah's partner, the God Man, the same in essence, equal in power and glory. 10: 34-36. e. The argument from the less to the greater ; this was the representative Son of all "the Sons of the Most High," His very equal, "the effulgence of his glory and the very image of his substance." Heb. i: 1-14; Ps. 82. Jesus in deepest consciousness of His priestly offering to be made and of the real meaning of a shepherd's calling, testifies to His death as the crowning proof of His obedience and deep- est ground of His Father's love. He is greater than all the Shepherds of Israel. 10:37-38. f. The renewed appeal to His works ; the repetition of His great claim ; and the fresh attempt to take Him. 10: 39-42. g. The escape to the place beyond the Jordan where believ- ing ones utter the last testimony to Bis great forerunner, that SI he without any "sign" had proved the truth of all he said of Jesus, for now the whole career of Jesus was itself the greatest of all "signs" to prove that God had sent Him as the Messiah and Shepherd of Israel. Resume of the Great Self-revelations. They progress to a culmination. It is one and the same Person before He took upon Himself human nature, and when on earth and now "in the glory He had before the world was." 1. Jesus Christ is one Person belonging to two realms of being; of two natures; He is in heaven while on earth. His is at last the name and knowledge of the Holy One for which Agur in his oracle inquired in vain of old. John 3: 13; Prov. 30: 1-4. 2. Jesus Christ is the Son of the Father in a peculiar, unique, all-excluding sense. "God was his own Father." He is equal to God but is also subordinate in this great work of Redemption. John 5 : 16-47. 3. Jesus Christ is the ' Everexisting One, the I AM. John 8: 12-58. 4. Jesus Christ is of one and same essence of the Father, and one in love and will and work, and one in power to pre- serve. John 10: 22-38. Div. VI. — 11: 1-54... The Testimony to Jesus the Son of God, and His glory at the raising of Lazarus. This is the last and greatest "sign" of the Glory of the Son of God to the World. Sect. I. II : 1-32. The Testimony preparatory to the last and greatest sign. II : i-io. 1. The great thing is the Glory or manifestation of the ex- cellencies of Jesus as the Son of God. His movement to appointed work is like that of the stars He created, "unhasting and unresting." It has no mistiming and there is therefore no stumbling. All is a witness of a majestic evenness of progression in accord with the harmony of His whole being. II : 11-16. 2. In what high words misunderstood by the natural man would Jesus speak of death. How also "flesh" does not know that faith in Him is of more importance than the temporary alleviation of human sorrow. And yet what affection for Him, willing to risk life with Him, had been wrought in the heart of one (Thomas) who knew not what all this wondrous mission of the Son of God meant until he beheld the Crucified risen from the dead. II : 17-32. 3. The testimony of a Martha accords with the very testi- mony of Jesus that God always heard Him. On hearing the great word, "I am the Resurrection and the Life," she does confess "I (the emphatic word) have believed," but the faith is not yet perfect as seen later on at the grave. The testimony of Mary is that of Martha as to our Lord's power over death, but she rose not up to meet Him until He called her ; her faith was deeper than her sister's in waiting for the exact time, leaving time and act all to Him. 53 Sect. 2. II : 33-44- The Testimony at the Doing of the Sign. II : 33-38. 1. The tears of Jesus attest the reality of His humanity. In the words of another, "He speaks the divine word that raises the dead while His cheeks are still wet with human tears." At sight of all this human sorrow and misery caused by sin and death, He is indignant in spirit, troubles Himself in in- most soul as betokened by bodily tremor, and then speaks the word of power that penetrates the world of the dead. 11: 39-40. 2. The maturing of Martha's faith by the word of Jesus concerning the glory of God now to be seen. 11: 41-44- 3. The prayer of the Son ever heard by the Father, and all to beget faith in Him. God expects man to do what man can do, and does Himself what only God can do. "Loose him and permit him to withdraw" is suggestive. Sect. 3. 11:45-54. The Testimony of the Effect of the Sign. 11: 45-48. 1. The involuntary confession of the rulers of Israel to the greatness of the miracle. 11: 49-50. 2. The unconscious prophecy of the high priest a culminat- ing word of the significance of priestly sacrifice and ceremonial ; its inmost truth that atonement is vicarious. 11: 51-54- 3. In their zeal for their place and nation, for their purified and renewed temple, they ignorantly devote it to desolation and ruins, and prepare the way for the building of the living stones, the scattered children of God, into "an holy temple in the Lord" to be filled with the Spirit of Glory, i Cor. 3: 16-17; 2 Cor. 6: 16; Eph. 2: 22; i Pet. 2:5; Isa. 28: 16. 54 But the Lord died for Israel too; and for that nation a baptism of the Holy Spirit is waiting to organize them in due time into one people, holy and blessed ; Jehovah's witness to the nations ; and of whom He hath said, "The people which I formed for myself, that they may set forth my praise." Is. 43: 1-21. THE MOULD. In the scenes from the Dedication to His last Passover, the priestly Prophet is Present; the Act is the teaching of the same truths of tne beginning with greatest freedom and plain- ness, the light is most intense; the Sign is given in the death and resurrection of Lazarus ; it is the pledge of His power to lay down and take up again His own Hfe, and that He is the Resurrection and the Life ; and it manifested the Glory of the Son as one with the Father; He speaks the wonderful Word "I and the Father are one," and the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Rom. 4: 4. DIv. VII. — 11:55-12; 50. The Testimony of Jesus to Him- self at the Third Passover as the King of Israel. A King: One who rules for God over men. I Sam. 13: 13-14; 2 Sam. 23: 3; i Ch. 29: 23; 2 Ch. 19: 6; Rom. 13: I. The self-revelation of the Son of God as King, the King of Glory. 12: i-ii. Sect. I. — II : 55, 12: 19. Of the anointing and royal entry and futile commandment of the rulers. II : 55, 12: II. 1. At his anointing the chief priests and the Pharisees give commandment to "all the congregation of Israel" to take the Paschal Lamb out of the Flock ; but they know not what they do. Ps. 24: 7-10; Zech. 9:9; Ex. 12: 3-6; Acts 3: 13-18. The Dedicated One is anointed for the burial. He who had come not to be ministered unto, but to minister, cannot deny His conscious dignity as the King of Glory, and therefore can- not refuse festal service and royal ointment and perfume. "While the Kjng sitteth at his table my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof." He knew too well whence He had come and whither He was going, and He delighted in this rich and fragrant foretaste of the personal love the kingly children of God would forever show Him. The priestly One who lays down His life for his own is the King: He who serves the most is the greatest. He is greater than all poor in his poverty. Matt. 20: 28, 16: 21-26; John 12: 35-8; Heb. 1 : 9, 7: 1-2; Cant, i: 12. II : 12-19. 2. Of His Royal Entry into the Holy City. The Prince of Peace comes having salvation ; the King of Israel seeking the throne of His Father David. For three days Jesus mysteriously has His own way in the City and Temple. S6 Sect. 2. — 12: 20-36. Of the presence of Greeks as the representatives and earnest of a world-wide salvation, while God hides His face from blinded Israel. . The world-wide salvation is seen in the seeking and coming of the Greeks to believing Israelites to find their King. The whole scene of this suffering and exalted Messiah in the midst of Jew and Gentile is prophecy in a symbol. Isa. 2: 1-5, 60: 3. "Draw all" — without distinction, not without exception. The Prince of Life was about to cast out the prince of this world ; for this the Son of God had left the Glory and equality with God, but the great mysterious circuit from the Glory to the Glory must pass through the sorrows and darkness of death and the under world. The way to the Throne was by the Cross. The King must first offer as Priest. In the very Hosannas of the multitude was heard the undertone of the sorrow by which alone salvation came. As once before on the "holy mount" the three in glory spoke of the decease (exodous) He should accomplish at Jerusalem, so again the brief hour of royal honor and triumphal progress is seen rising and setting in the gloom of a lost world. Heb. 2: 14; Phil. 2: 5-11; Psa. 16: 8-11; Acts 2: 24-28; Luke 9: 30-31. Sect. 3—12 : 37-50. Sect. 3. — Of the final observation of John and summary of Jesus as to His ministry. Jesus had now appeared as each Passover "drew nigh" the Prophet, Priest and Kmg ; His teaching and acts correspondent and congruous to each. The result of all was now to be seen; three years before it had been written, "Many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did," 2 : 23 ; now it is written, "But though he had done so many signs before them, yet they believed not on him," 12: 37. Professed faith had been tested and much proved without root, and without fruit. Withdrawing Himself from them He reveals the conscious 57 dignity of His Person and the grace and judgment of His Mission — in His final words as the One to be lifted up, the Light of the World, the King whose glory Isaiah beheld, the Judging Word, the Life Eternal. THE MOULD. The Prince of Peace, the King of Glory is Present; His act, the royal entrance into Jerusalem, the City of the Great King ; His Sign, death and resurrection, the Corn of Wheat, the lift- ing up from the earth : the Word spoken and the prayer are evidence as from the beginning that He and the Father are one, so that what glorifies the one glorifies the Other ; and all is confirmed by the voice from heaven whither the Son was about to return; the Effect is wonder and old questionings to strug- gling faith and unbelief. Ps. 2: 1-12, 24: i-io; Isa. 6-1, 9-6; Bech. 9:9; Matt. 5: 35, Ps. 48: 2; Num. 20: 16; John 3: 14. PART III. Chs. 13-17. "Leave the World" The Testimony to Jesus, the first-born of nnany brethren to His chosen and tried and confessed disciples as He is about to go to the Father. — "The Upper Room." "But as many as received Him to them gave Hie the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name." Jesus withdrawn from the world whose day of teaching was now over and whose Light had now departed from them, speaks freely to His beloved disciples of His returning to the Father. They who believed on His name, on what He essentially is as made manifest, received from Him the fullest inmost revela- tion of Himself. And all this is recorded in the section of the wonderful Scriptures beginning with the scene of the feet washing. Here to His tried and chosen disciples, after Judas was re- moved from the Light and went out into the darkness ("and it was night") He makes fully known the divinity and majesty of His person ; in His conscious oneness with God in glorifica- tion, in claiming to be the way by whom the Life and Truth of God come to men, and by whom men come to the Father; in His promise of the Holy Spirit thereby claiming to be the co-equal of the Father in sending the Comforter ("another comforter" co-equal with Jesus) ; in the High priestly prayer whose answer came in the gift and presence of the Holy Spirit in believers now, and as the earnest of the glory to be revealed in them hereafter. DIv. I. — 13: 1-15; 16. The Testimony of Jesus while show- ing His disciples their special relations both to each other and to Hiimself, because of His going to the Father. Sect I.— 13: i-ii. The Testimony of the Feet Washing. In His conscious oneness with God He stoops down to do the service of a menial, washing their feet, and so sets them one more example of priestly love and humility before He is lifted up. The words "Now before," 13 i, imply that Jesus knowing all the Passover meant and that through its fulfilment lay the way of return to God, moved by love comes out of His re- tirement to tell them of what would be in His absence as made known in the sublime and affecting communications of this memorable night. Sect. 2. — 13 : 12-20. The feet-washing a perpetual example of love and humility. The sacred disclosures concerning His going to the Father withheld until Judas is separated from the company. He sends forth Judas and then in view of the mutual glory of the Father and the Son says, "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." "Unto the Jews," — how distant the world already, how strange His own people, who received Him not. Sect. 4—13: 31-38. The immediate and exultant announcement of His glorifica- tion, and of the new commandment to His disciples, interrupted by the sudden question of Peter and the answer of Jesus. He separates with the discerning word, "'Thdt thou doest do quickly," Judas the son of darkness ("and it was night") from the children of light and their fellowship. Jesus exults in spirit for a m!oment as if already glorified, and then turning again to the priestly brethren, mindful it would be but a little 60 while before He would enter into His glory, He gives them the new commandment whereby they may be known as the Sons of God who are also on their way to their Father's House. With the departure of Judas, the day closed, as it is written "and it was night." 13 : 30, ii : 9, 9: 4. The searching Word also warns Peter for the last time. He knows not whither he is going. "He that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth." In 13 : 31 the goal of the great progress is at once an- nounced, and in 17: 1-3 it is announced again. Sect. 5. — 14: i-ii. The second and plain announcement of His going to the Father, and its objects, interrupted by the questionings of sad and bewildered disciples. The "way" is short, 14: 6, according to 14: lo-ii; the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father. Sect. 6. — 14: 12-31. The announcement of the greater works to be done by the disciples because of His going to the Father and sending the Holy Spirit. Love, and the keeping of Christ's words, the condition of the Spirit's action. The Princely one speaks like one familiar with His Father's House and its many mansions. The Priest having offered one sacrifice for sins, of ever-continuing efficacy, is about to sit down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. But though going away He is coming again. He is going away to prepare a place for the brethren troubled and perplexed at His sayings, but will come again to take them there. Whence He came, the disciples ask not; that they knew, unlike the unbelieving world; but they would not have H5m go away, not knowing the need and expediency; they knew not whither He was going ; they thought the Messiah when He came would "abide on the earth forever." 61 Sect. 7—15: 1-16. The parable of the vine and the branches illustrating the foregoing, and the growth of "the fruit of the Spirit." They can glorify the Father only by bringing forth much fruit, and to do this must abide in the Son. Apart from Him they have neither light nor food, knowledge nor strength to serve. Abiding in Him, it will be a fellowship of love and joy. As friends of God like Abraham He had told them all, and now fruitful service should abound. Col. 2 : 6-9 ; Eph. 4 : 6-9 ; I John 2 : 24-28. It is very suggestive that from the scene of the feet washing to that of the high priestly prayer, is an evident progress from the Laver to the Golden Altar of the Father's House ; and the parable of the Vine and its branches corresponds in such progress to the Vestibule of the Temple. "The Vestibule was wid-er than the rest of the House ; its front was adorned with a golden vine of colossal proportions." Oiv. II. — 15: 17-16; 33. The Testimony to Jesus In His predictions of the world's treatment of His disciples. Radically different in nature is the world opposed to them, and especially the more identified Christians are with Christ in life and conduct and testimony, but the Comforter is their stay and solace. Sect. I. — 15: 17-16; 4- The announcement of the unjustifiable hate of the world towards disciples and Himself; and the promise of the help of the Spirit of Truth. To make all, salvation, righteousness, life etenal, depend upon faith in Jesus of Nazareth rouses the hate of the natural man. The "world" will be religious and moral and admire Christ just short of the point of faith in Him as a Saviour, but there it stops. These three, the World, Satan and Antichrist deny and hate the fact that the love of God is shown chiefly and necessarily in giving His Son as a propitia- tion for sins. And all this makes the hate of the world cause- less; but it discloses its innate depravity and its ignorance of God. Sect. 2. — 16: 5-15. The further and third announcement of His going to the Father, and of its relation to the coming of the Comforter. To overcome such hate and opposition of the natural man the Spirit will be sent. He will testify, convict and con- vince. And for the disciples too He will glorify Christ and lead into all the truth. Sect. 3—16: 16-33. The parabolic reiteration of His going to the Father and of its consequences, and the final plain declaration whence He had come and whither He was going and its effect on the disciples. This ignorance of the whither will remain until the Spirit of Truth has come; but a partial gleam of the light passes through their hearts just before Jesus offers the priestly prayer. 63 "The Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out fom God. I came forth from the Father and am come into the world; again, I leave the world and go unto the Father. His disciples said unto him, lo, now speakest thou plainly and speakest no proverb. Now we are sure that thou knowest all things and needest not that any man should ask thee ; by this we believe that thou comest forth from God," Jesus wil not need to make request of the Father for any one who has made request of Jesus, for they are one. i6: 26, 30. But though they now at last believed whither He was going, they knew not and would not believe the way was through death and resurrection, as Jesus at once implies in His an- swer, and as their subsequent forsaking at His arrest proved. The Spirit of Truth has not yet been given them ; the Light is not in them, the Holy House of God, and the first need of a house is light; their eyes are holden. i John 2: 20, 2: 27; Ex. 40: 24-25. They shall indeed be the Candlestick and the Light of the World, but the Holy Oil has not yet manifested Itself in light ; they shall abound in blossom and fruit, but the life of the pomegranate tree and of the many branched Vine is yet to flow through them; Witnesses of Christ, but the Great Witness has not yet testified of Him to them; they shall preach the gospel to the world, but the convicting Spirit has not yet come ; they shall teach and comfort the brethren, but the Comforter has not yet appeared to teach them; they shall eat the priestly bread of fellowship with God and drink the wine of joy, but there is no light for them in the Holy Room to see the one Loaf, but when He shall have blessed and broken and given unto them their eyes shall be opened to know both Him and each other; they shall offer up incense of priestly prayer and intercession, but they see not the golden altar nor the sprinkled blood; like one of old they are as in a dream and will not be able to say until the morning light awakens them : "This is none other but the House of God and this is the Gate of Heaven." 64 Div. III. — 17: 1-26. The Testimony of the prayer of inter- cession. In this is revealed the sublime consciousness of being equal with the Father in power and in glory, the revealing Word, the priestly intercessor, the Kingly One, having "power over all flesh," the Giver of Life Eternal. In the prayer all the previous teaching concerning His Per- son and the whence and the whither is consummated. The true God can be known only through Jesus Christ whom He sent; He is the Giver of Life Eternal; He had co-equal glory with the Father before the world was ; He manifested the name Father to the disciples ; they remain awhile in the world, He goes to the Father; and through them the world will know the Father sent Him when the sons of God are made manifest in the glory they shall share with him. Sect. I.— 17: 1-5. I. The Prayer in relation to the Son and His preincamate Glory. To glorify is to make manifest excellencies, virtues, attri- butes. "The Glory of God is the revelation of God in the totality of His attributes." The preincarnate glory of the Son is now His as incarnate forever. But especially in the purpose and work of redemption is seen the mutual glory of God and of the Son as incarnate; and Jesus could say exultingly in view of the cross and of all that lay beyond, "Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him." The gift of the Spirit was both the witness of such glory and the answer to this prayer of intercession ; and all was in- separable from the work Jesus came to do. "I in them" is the answer to the prayer. Acts 3: 13, 2: 33; John 12: 23-28. Sect. 2. — 17: 6-19. The prayer in relation to the disciples in the world. In receiving the Son believers receive the Father as to His "name," "words," "all things." The prayer is for them as equally the Father's and the Son's. In the marvelous "name" Father with all its excellencies, virtues, attributes made manifest by the Son they are kept. As sons of a heavenly birth and nature they are "not" of the world, though in it, and kept from the evil one, and as such they too are sanctified and sent into the world on a divine mission. Sect. 3. — 17: 20-26. The prayer in relation to the whole church of first-born sons. Believers in the Son of God are one Body of first-born ones ; beloved as He is ; to share His glory and be where He is. The ever-continuing revelation of the Father's name is made known by His Spirit ("I in them") pouring forth the love of God in their hearts. Rom. 5: 5. The chrism of glory came from the glorified Christ. 66 PART IV. Chs. 18-20. "Go to the Father." The Testimony of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, on His going to the Father through the fulfilment of type and prediction in crucifixion and resurrection. "His ozcn received him not." The self-revelations in this hour of the great Fulfilment of One who was and is both God and man. Div. I. — 18: 1-19; 16. The Testimony of Jesus in His volun- tary surrender to "the princes of this world." Sect. I.— 18: i-ii. Before the soldiers in the garden. In this part of the gospel describing the arrest and cruci- fixion all is pervaded by this presence of the divine majesty of His person. No kiss of a Judas is mentioned, no agony of Gethsemane is therein depicted, no word is heard of legions of angels to deliver, but th*' impotence of men is seen who fall to the ground at the mere look and answer of infinite calmness of One whose life no man could take from Him; and all the confessions before High Priest and before the governor be- token the consciousness of the Only Begotten, the Lord of Glory, the King of Israel, on whom the princes of this world would not have dared to lay their hands had it not been writ- ten, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." Ps. 40: 6-8; Heb. 10: 5-10. Sect. 2. — 18: 12-27. Before Caiaphas and Israel, and of the fulfilled prediction concerning Peter. From the Jews comes the confession true from the lip but false from the heart until Jesus the Messiah returns. "We have no King but Caesar." Then deceived and betrayed by the 67 last world ruler, but at length delivered shall they look upon Him whom they pierced, their paschal Lamb ; and hail Him as their King : "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Sect. 3. — 18: 28 — 19: 16. Before Pilate and the world-power. To a Pilate once more comes the word congruous with time and place, "Thou sayest that I am 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." Pilate heard Him not, though confessing Jesus to be innocent and faultless ; and to His troubled ques- tion "whence art thou," Jesus gave him no answer. Div. II. — 19: 17-42. The Testimony of the crucifixion and the burial. All is characterized by marks of royalty and divinity. Sect. I. — 19: 17-30. The unconscious testimony of the Gentile world-power, and of the soldiers fulfilling prophecy, in contrast with the serene, self-conscious death of the Son of God. Pilate, the representative of the world-power, temporarily on Israel's throne, becomes the conscious witness of the truth of His Messianic Kingship in writing, "Jesus the Nazarene the King of the Jews," and in saying in spite of Jewish protest, "What I have written I have written ;" and in His death Jesus retaining His spirit until He knew all things had been finished, reveals almighty power and the calmness of One Who knew all that had been written of Him from of old. And yet mingling with His Majesty what tender human- heartedness in commending His mother to the care of the dis- ciple whom He loved. Sect. 2.— 19: 31-37. Of the unconscious fulfillment of Scriptures by the inconsis- tently scrupulous Jews. 68 How divine prediction and human agency met in fulfillment. and the worthiness of the great sacrifice was attested in that "a bone of him was not broken." Sect. 3.— 19: 38-42. Of the manner and place of His burial. In His burial and grave, moreover, all is fragrance and freshness, betokening the presence of One Who is the Life of a new Springtide, the Resurrection, the Firstborn from the dead, the Head of the New Creation. His dignity is attested by the minute fulfillment of the typical and prophetic Scriptures, and by the honor and royalty of His burial and new sepulcher. DIv. Ml. — 20: 1-31. The Testimony of the resurrection and of the two manifestations. "Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me ; because I live ye shall live also." Jesus in rising from the dead proves Himself to be the Resurrection and the Life ; the Firstborn of many brethren ; the Giver of the Peace with God as crucified for sinners, and the Giver of the Peace of God as glorified with the Father; the one coming with the Spirit, the other coming with the blood. This, the first manifestation, is followed by the second, when the majesty of His adorable Person is attested by a Thomas with the "my Lord and my God;" and at the third Jesus re- veals Himself as out of the unseen Holy Place, having all power in heaven and in earth, and with His mighty, wise and loving "I will" directing and controlling all the events of His Church and of individual saints, whether servmg, suffering or waiting for His return. Sect. I. — 20: I -18. Of the fact and manner of His resurrection, and in the an- nouncement to Mary of His ascension to the Father. 69 Jesus reveals who He is in the unhaste and majesty of His rising; in the appearing of the angels in the empty tomb; and in the words to Mary weeping over a dead hope, when first He could call His disciples "brethren." Not until He had re- deemed them and risen from the dead could He call them such. Gal. 4: 1-7. Sect. 2. — 2.0'. 19-23. Of the first and symbolic Manifestation to the disciples. At last they understood that the return to God was by way of the death of the cross and through resurrection; now they knew the way and the whither; now they not only believed that He had come from God and had gone to God, but also what His once mysterious announcements of "rising from the dead" meant. Evermore, Jesus was indeed the Messiah, but a glorified One, and from Whom only as glorified could life eternal and the Holy Spirit and all spiritual blessings come. Ascended on high He would send forth the Mighty Breath of Pentecost and the peace of a Son of God in which they could face all opposition in their service. In symbolic act He signifies that the peace He leaves is that of a forgiven sinner and ever to be associated with Him as crucified, and the peace He gives is that of a Son of God and inseparable from the Spirit to be poured out, when the day of service began and sins were remitted or retained thro' faith or thro' unbelief. Sect. 3—30: 24-31. Of the second and symbolic Manifestation to Thomas. The first Manifestation relates to the Church, the second to Israel as represented by Thomas in his former unbelief and doubt. But also then on seeing Him Whom they pierced there will be no doubt of His deity and lordship. But "blessed are they that have not seen and yet have be- lieved." 70 And now note here how at this very conclusion of the Gos- pel the final testimony of a Thomas confirms and consum- mates all the preceding, and links back his "My Lord and my God" to the opening affirmation "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." 20: 28. The intent of this record of the signs of the Glory of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. All the signs, all the words, all the works, all the revelations, all the unfoldings and unveilings recorded in this Scripture of the Truth have the one blessed, gracious intent that who- soever through them believeth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, hath life in His Name, the eternal Life. "Herein was the love of God manifested in our case, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him." "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." I John 4: 9-10. n 21 : I -25. THE EPILOGUE. "With the Glory * * * before the world was." "If I wilV' The Testimony of the symbolic third manifestation of the glorified Son of God as directing and allotting from out of the Unseen Holiest, the service and suffering and waiting of Hiis church in the world of nations until He comes again. The final manifestation is indicative of His power in the min- istry of His Church; of His grace in their refreshment and fellowship; of His priestly mercy and power in the reinstate- ment of the erring and fallen ; in His absolute power and dis- posal of all things and persons until He comes again, and in the infinite possibilities of the revelation of Him. the Word of all the words of God, past, present and to come. To the disciples by the sea, the mysterious Form appears, but "none of the disciples durst ask him who art thou? Know- ing that it was the Lord ;" the signs of the glory He was wont to show "while He was yet with them," were too unmistak- able ; and whither He had gone was too evident from the word implying whence He again would come: "If I will that He tarry till I come, what is that to thee ; follow thou me." 21 : 1-14. 1. The Lord wills as to Corporate Service. The fishing He directs represents all missionary and evangelistic ministry of the Church whose number of com- pleteness is symbolized by the seven disciples present. He provided also all refreshment after toil. 21 : 15-19. 2. The Lord wills as to individual Service, and as to gifts and experiences of sorrow and suffering. 72 In Peter's reinstatement it is seen how the Lord allots all pastoral service in relation to all classes, to "lambs" or the "little children" of John's epistle, to the "sheep" or "fathers," to the "sheeplings" or "young men." And also it is deeply significant of the Lord's power and purpose to overrule human sorrow and pain and disappoint- ment to His glory and to the good of His Church in the case of Peter who was to suffer and die on the cross before the Lord returned for His own ; for it is this apostle who wrote the tender, compassionate, admonitory epistle which ever con- trasts present sufferings with the glory about to be revealed. I Peter i : 3-9; 5: 1-4. 21 : 20-23. 3. The Lord wills as to patient, ardent waiting for His re- turn. "The disciple whom Jesus loved," and who according to the thinking of "the flesh" might be deemed to be the one first to die and be with the Lord, outlives all, and even to behold the foreboding shadow of the Antichrist fall upon the final pathway of the Church ; but in his case also as in that of Peter, all his love and longing, waiting and tribulation are made sub- servient to the will of the Lord, and this apostle becomes most meet of all to behold and depict the visions of the Revelation of the Son of God. And in it, in a vision of royal triumph, the seer beholds Him as the One Who was also the theme of the Gospel he wrote, "and his name is called the Word of God." Rev. 19 : 13. n 21 : 24-25- THE CONCLUSION. All the testimony of this Gospel is true, and its things capable of ever-increasing reproduction. The faithful and true witness of all that Jesus said and did might overfill the world with testimony as once the bread and fish Jesus broke might at His will have kept on increasing ever- more. "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Col. 1 : 6-23 ; 2 : 9 ; Job 27 : 14 ; Hab. 2 : 14 ; Mark 16 : 25 ; Ps. 19: 4; Rom. 10: 18. 74 DATE DUE ...riiisW' ^a.iiii.T*' ..^^^^-^ DEMCO 38-297 Syracuse, N. Y. Stockton, Calif. '0^ BS2615.8.E66 An outline study of the Gospel according Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 00065 3503 ■#S^Js^ «^ «-i. 1^: