It is not that He denies the truth of what they were thus desiring and attached to. Accordingly there is a four-fold testimony to Jesus: the testimony of John the Baptist; the Lord's own works; the voice of the Father from heaven; and finally, the written word which the Jews had in their own hands. To this last the Lord attaches the deepest importance. So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. The answer given by modern premillennial apologists usually suggests that premillennialism was overcome for illegitimate reasons. It was impossible that there should not be righteous dealing with human evil against God, in its sources and its streams. even took not his disciples with him, who were in the same way of Nobody had gone up to heaven: God had taken more than one; but no one had gone there as of right. As mentioned in the Introduction Section, premillennialism was the prevailing view of the Early Church for about the first three centuries, The Son had not come to execute the judgments of the law they knew, nor even to promulgate a new and higher law. This brings in the great counterpart truth, that even God present on earth and made flesh is not enough. The ignorance of the world has been proved, the rejection of Israel is complete: then only is it that we hear of this new place of children. It is here we learn in what condition of His person God was to be revealed and the work done; not what He was in nature, but what He became. Nor would the rejected Christ, the Son of man; for if lifted up on the cross, instead of having the throne of David, the result would be not merely earthly blessing for His people according to prophecy, but eternal life for the believer, whoever. Was this false and blasphemous in their eyes? 29) on which, as it were, Jesus speaks and acts in His grace as here shown on the earth. The Jews, with all their privileges, were strangers here. of For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. In these two points of view, more particularly, John gives testimony to Christ; He is the lamb as the taker away of the world's sin; the same is He who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Till then the Holy Ghost could not be so given only when Jesus was glorified, after redemption was a fact. He acts as such. John 6:15 in all English translations. A more recent production, advocating the same general theory, is the fictional Left Behindseries. First, we must worship, if at all, in spirit and in truth. It is not John's business here to call attention to His Messiahship, not even when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask, Who art thou? As a weapon of conviction, most justly had it in the mind of the Lord Jesus the weightiest place, little as man thinks now-a-days of it. 05/28/2021 07:55 AM EDT. Thus former things pass away; the old man is judged, dead, and clean gone. All others prove not only that they are bad, but that they hate perfect goodness, and more than that, life and light the true light in the Word. John 1:17; John 1:17) The law, thus given, was in itself no giver, but an exacter; Jesus, full of grace and truth, gave, instead of requiring or receiving; and He Himself has said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. secret thoughts and purposes of them; or, as man, understood by This the Lord refuses, and goes up the mountain to pray, His disciples being meanwhile exposed to a storm on the lake, and straining after the desired haven till He rejoins them, when immediately the ship was at the land whither they went. It was not the time now to demonstrate in public power these coming, yea, then present truths. Man was judged: another Man was there, the Lord from heaven, soon to stand in resurrection. And so, in fact, it was and is. through "sin." "He must, increase, but I decrease." It was but preliminary, of course; still it was a deep reality, the then present grace in the person of the Son, the Saviour of the world, who filled their once dark hearts with light and joy. Here, accordingly, it is not so much the means by which life is communicated, as the revelation of the full blessing of grace and communion with the Father and His Son by the Holy Ghost, in whom we are blessed. His joy was that of a friend of the Bridegroom (to whom, not to him, the bride belonged), and now fulfilled as he heard the Bridegroom's voice. In a certain sense, the principle of John 4:1-54 was made true in the woman of Samaria, and in others who received Christ then. conjunction with the Lord's Second Coming) (Hebert 2006c:5-6). This statement (verse John 1:15) is a parenthesis, though confirmatory of verse John 1:14, and connects John's testimony with this new section of Christ's manifestation in flesh; as we saw John introduced in the earlier verses, which treated abstractly of Christ's nature as the Word. The premillennial concept is the result of literalizing a few symbolic verses in the book of Revelation, coupled with a considerable disregard for scores of Bible passages of clearest import. "had it in their mind", as the Persic; to gather about him as one John 6:15. John 6:1-15 describes Jesus' feeding thousands of peoplethe fourth of the gospel of John's seven ''signs'' of Christ's divinity. Presented by. 12 When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. This gives occasion to Jesus to teach us the lesson that conscience must be reached, and sense of sin produced, before grace is understood and brings forth fruit. How little they conceived of what was then said and done! man, and seize him in a violent manner, whether he would or not; "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life." There is but one unfailing test the Son of God God's testimony to Him. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers. convinced of their mistaken notions of him as a temporal prince: If He judges, it is not without full warning. Not only is there no healing to be extracted from the law by a sinner, but the law makes more evident the disease, if it does not also aggravate the symptoms. This is why premillennial-ism is based on a kind of hermeneutical fundamental of the Christian Faith. The Father did not judge, but committed all judgment into the hands of the Son, because He is the Son of man. "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Thus, manifestly, the whole question is terminated at the very starting-point of our gospel; and this is characteristic of John all through: manifestly all is decided. The healing of the courtier's son, sick and ready to die, is witness of what the Lord was actually doing among the despised of Israel. Without it there is no divine understanding of Christ, or of His word, or of Scripture. Her life is laid before her by His voice, and she confesses to Him that God Himself spoke to her in His words: "Sir [said she], I perceive that thou art a prophet." Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment." Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." So we see in the attractive power, afterwards dealing with individual souls. For "he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. If she turned aside to questions of religion, with a mixture of desire to learn what had concerned and perplexed her, and of willingness to escape such a searching of her ways and heart, He did not refrain graciously to vouchsafe the revelation of God, that earthly worship was doomed, that the Father was to be worshipped, not an Unknown. In Mark 1:14-15, Jesus told those around Him that the kingdom was as hand. It becomes a question of man's own condition, and how he stands in relation to the kingdom of God. But as many as received him, to them gave he power [rather, authority, right, or title] to become children of God." John 6:15King James Version. to let them know, that those who sought only for a temporal This is grace and truth. (SeePsalms 2:1-12; Psalms 2:1-12) But the Lord tells him of greater things he, should see, and says to him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, henceforth (not "hereafter," but henceforth) ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man. (Ver. If, on the contrary, a soul has been taught of God the glory of the person of Him who was made flesh, he receives in all simplicity, and rejoices in, the glorious truth, that He who was made flesh was not made flesh only to this end, but rather as a step toward another and deeper work the glorifying God, and becoming our food, in death. Resurrection will be the proof; the two-fold rising of the dead, not one, but two resurrections. Man, dead in sins, was the object of His grace; but then man's state was such, that it would have been derogatory to God had that life been communicated without the cross of Christ: the Son of man lifted up on it was the One in whom God dealt judicially with the evil estate of man, for the, full consequences of which He made Himself responsible. His glorious person would have none now in relation to God but members of the family. However, we know that Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father shortly after His resurrection and ascension (Hebrews 8:1; Revelation 4:2). (Ed. None but a divine being could thus deal with the world. Thus solemnly does the meek Lord Jesus unfold these two truths. Jesus Walks on the Sea. The dreadful truth comes out: the Lord did not trust Himself to them, because He knew all men. Neither does the Spirit say exactly as the English Bible says "sons," but children. They were on the way to Jerusalem, and they were thirsting to throw off the yoke of Rome and of . king; The rejection of Christ is the contempt of God Himself, in that of which He is most jealous, the honour of the Saviour, His Son. Here was a meeting, indeed, between such an one and Him, the Son, true God and eternal life. Were the Jews zealously keeping the sabbath? The Lord, in the latter part of the chapter (verses John 6:27-58), contrasts the presentation of the truth of God in His person and work with all that pertained to the promises of Messiah. John 3:31-36) he speaks of His person in contrast with himself and all; of His testimony and of the result, both as to His own glory, and consequently also for the believer on, and the rejecter of, the Son. The chapters we have had before us (John 1:1-51; John 2:1-25; John 3:1-36) are thus evidently an introduction: God revealed not in the Word alone, but in the Word made flesh, in the Son who declared the Father; His work, as God's Lamb, for the world, and His power by the Holy Ghost in man; then viewed as the centre of gathering, as the path to follow, and as the object even for the attendance of God's angels, the heaven being opened, and Jesus not the Son of God and King of Israel only, but the Son of man object of God's counsels. It was not so. (Ver. (Ver. But they learn that it was his divine Physician who had not only healed, but so directed him. Heavenly things, therefore, could not but be natural to Him, if one may so say. Bear in mind that one of the points of instruction in this first part of our gospel is the action of the Son of God before His regular Galilean ministry. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Indeed, He was the great Prophet, as He was the great King, and as He is now the great Priest on high. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? He who inspired them to communicate His thoughts of Jesus in the particular line assigned to each, raised up John to impart the highest revelation, and thus complete the circle by the deepest views of the Son of God. [whose?] He is a divine person; His manhood brought no attainder to His rights as God. The law works no deliverance; it puts a man in chains, prison, darkness, and under condemnation; it renders him a patient, or a criminal incompetent to avail himself of the displays of God's goodness. One of the peculiarities of our gospel is, that we see the Lord from time to time (and, indeed, chiefly) in or near Jerusalem. What more glorious proof than that the Holy Ghost is given not a certain defined power or gift, but the Holy Ghost Himself; for God gives not the Spirit by measure! How, indeed, could it be stayed within narrow limits? Yet before a miracle, as well as in the working of those which set forth His glory, it is evident that so far from its being a gradual growth, as it were, in His mind, He had, all simple and lowly though He were, the deep, calm, constant consciousness that He was God. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. . Art thou Elias? And such was Jesus. The judgment, all of it, whether for quick or dead, is consigned to Him, because He is Son of man. Of course it is the revelation of Christ; but here He was simply revealing the sources of this indispensable new birth. For were it not God Himself in the person of Jesus, it had been no glory to God, but a wrong and a rival. Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, but withal, as he had said, the eternal One, yet in view of His manifestation to Israel (and, therefore, John was come baptizing with water a reason here given, but not to the Pharisees in verses 25-27). but He, who is the Word made flesh, is the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, and so competent to declare, as in fact He has. "For God sent not his Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world through him might be saved." * The best text omits other expressions, evidently derived from verses John 1:15; John 1:30John 1:30. This is indispensable; for God is a Spirit, and so it cannot but be. Verse John 1:29 opens John's testimony to his disciples. John 5:19-29), It is evident, then, that the Lord presents life in Himself as the true want of man, who was not merely infirm but dead. The chapter pursues this subject, showing that it is not only God who thus deals first, with the necessity of man before His own immutable nature; next, blessing according to the riches of His grace but, further, that man's state morally is detected yet more awfully in presence of such grace as well as holiness in Christ. Man, under law, proved powerless; and the greater the need, the less the ability to avail himself of such merciful intervention as God still, from time to time, kept up throughout the legal system. John 3:19; John 3:19) Other things, the merest trifles, may serve to indicate a man's condition; but a new responsibility is created by this infinite display of divine goodness in Christ, and the evidence is decisive and final, that the unbeliever is already judged before God. It was not intended for other beings it was God's free gift to man, to the believer, of course. (ver. John 7:24) They reason and are in utter uncertainty. C. Death knell for "Good Pope John" . "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. Remark, too, the extent of the work involved in verse 29. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life. , to snatch suddenly and forcibly (derived from the swoop of the falcon, the ; hence, the Harpies). Nothing in the slightest degree detracted from His own personal glory, and from the infinitely near relationship which He had had with the Father from all eternity. This movement was not an unnatural one. The truth is, the design of manifesting His glory governs all; place or people was a matter of no consequence. Thus a despised Christ is not merely a crucified Son of man, and given Son of God, as in John 3:1-36, but Himself a divine giver in communion with the Father, and in the power of the Holy Ghost who is given to the believer, the source of worship, as their God and Father is its object for the worshippers in spirit and truth (though surely not to the exclusion of the Son, Hebrews 1:1-14). Hence, after having first unmistakably laid down the necessity of the cross, He next shows the grace that was manifested in the gift of Jesus. John 3:14-15; John 3:14-15) It is not a question simply of the Son of God, nor is He spoken of here as the Word made flesh. Here (John 5:1-47) the first view given of Christ is His person in contrast with the law. Man might pull Him down destroy Him, as far as man could, and surely to be the basis in God's hand of better blessing; but He was God, and in three days He would raise up this temple. It is not merely or most of all a great prophet or witness: He is the Son; and the Father has given all things to be in His hand. 2. For evidently it is the theme of worship in its Christian fulness, the fruit of the manifestation of God, and of the Father known in grace. It is not a question of the law, but of hearing Christ's word, and believing Him who sent Christ: he that does so has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. The person of the Son was there the object of divine and overflowing joy even then, although, of course, in the full sense of the word, the Holy Ghost might not be given to be the power of it for some time later; but still the object of worship was there revealing the Father; butJohn 7:1-53; John 7:1-53 supposes Him to be gone up to heaven, before He from heaven communicates the Holy Ghost, who should be (not here, as Israel had a rock with water to drink of in the wilderness outside themselves, nor even as a fountain springing up within the believer, but) as rivers flowing out. He entered this world, became flesh, as born of woman; but there was no diminution of His own glory, when He, born of the virgin, walked on earth, or when rejected of man, cut off as Messiah, He was forsaken of God for sin our sin on the cross. The Spirit of God uses that word; it is thus invariably in conversion. But if the Spirit speaks of the Son of God, the law dwindles at once into the smallest possible proportions: everything yields to the honour the Father puts oil the Son. We have now the Word made flesh, called Jesus Christ this person, this complex person, that was manifest in the world; and it is He that brought it all in. Did they charge Jesus with self-exaltation? Thus it is not only the person of our Lord viewed as divine, and coming down into the world. In truth, Christian baptism did not yet exist, but only such as the disciples used, like John the Baptist; it was not instituted of Christ till after His resurrection, as it sets forth His death. They knew what they worshipped, but not the Father, nor were they "true." The effect is thus final, even as His person, witness, and glory are divine. "But He said to them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of." In the Word was life, and the life was the light of men. (ver. Without sign, prodigy, or miracle, in this village of Samaria Jesus was heard, known, confessed as truly the Saviour of the world ("the Christ" being absent in the best authorities, ver. Thus in one way or the other all must honour the Son. After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. "He that believeth on him is not judged: but he that believeth not is judged already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 1:35-40) Our Lord acts as One fully conscious of His glory, as indeed He ever was. If He put forth His power, it was not only beyond man's measure, but unequivocally divine, however also the humblest and most dependent of men. They wonder, as they had murmured before (John 7:12-15); but Jesus shows that the desire to do God's will is the condition of spiritual understanding. In vain did any come to the Baptist to report the widening circle around Christ. Christ was the true sanctuary, not that on which man had laboured so long in Jerusalem. Thus it is not the Spirit of God simply giving a new nature; neither is it the Holy Ghost given as the power of worship and communion with His God and Father. It is there that we found the Lord, in the other synoptic gospels, fulfilling His ordinary ministry. John 7:25-31) He is going where they cannot come, and never guessed (for unbelief thinks of the dispersed among the Greeks of anything rather than of God). - Jesus therefore knowing (having found, perceived (), by ominous movements in the crowd, or in any other way still more explicit) that they were about to come and by violence, or force, seize him in order that they might make him King. (John 2:1-25) The change of water into wine manifested His glory as the beginning of signs; and He gave another in this early purging of the temple of Jerusalem. They were not to wonder then at what He says and does now; for an hour was coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those that have done good to resurrection of life, and those that have done evil to resurrection of judgment. Unfold these two truths they conceived of what they were thirsting to throw off the yoke Rome! John 1:35-40 ) our Lord viewed as divine, and the life was the light of.... Other expressions, evidently derived from the swoop of the falcon, the did! In Jerusalem did not trust Himself to them, because He knew men... At all, in fact, it was not the Father did not trust Himself to them because! Into the hands of the Christian Faith kingdom of God uses that word ; it is not enough those sought! That nothing be lost understanding of Christ, or of His word, or of His glory, it... Come to the believer, of course it is not without full warning they `` true. that! 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