Part 10 (2/2)

Now John writes about Jesus. And what this closest friend says will be of intensest interest to all lovers of Jesus. But it is of even intenser interest to note keenly _when_ John writes. He waits until the end. He gets the longest range on Jesus that his lengthening years will permit.

Distance is essential to perspective. You must get far away from a big thing to see it. The bigger the thing to be seen, the longer the distance needed for good perspective. John shows his early appreciation of the size of Jesus by waiting so long. When all his mental faculties are most matured, when any heat of mere youthful attachment has cooled off, when the eye of the spirit is clearest and keenest, when the facts through long sifting have fallen into right place and relation in the whole circle of truth, then the old man settles to his loving task.

He had been _looking_ long. His perspective has steadily lengthened with the looking years. The object has been getting bigger and bigger to his eyes. He is getting off as far as possible within his earthly span. At last he feels that he has approximately gotten the range. And with the deep glow of his heart gleaming up out of his eyes, he picks up a freshly-sharpened quill _to tell folk about Jesus_.

As he starts in he takes a fresh, long, earnest look. And so he writes, like a portrait artist working, with his eyes ever gazing at the vision of that glorified Face. He seems to say to himself, ”How _shall_ I--how _can_ I ever _begin_ to tell them--about _Him_!” Then with a master's skill he sets out to find the simplest words he can find, put together in the simplest sentences he can make, so simple folk everywhere may read and get something of a glimpse of this Jesus, whose glory is filling his eyes and flooding his face and spilling out all over the pages as he writes.

He is seeing back so far that he is getting beyond human reach. So he fastens his line into the farthest of the far-reaches of human knowledge, the creation, and then flings the line a bit farther back yet. He must use a human word, if human folk are to understand. So he says ”_beginning_.”

”In the beginning,” the beginningless beginning, away back of the Genesis beginning, the earliest known to man.

Then he recalls the tremendous fact that when, in the later beginning man knew about, the worlds came into existence, it was by a _word_ being spoken, a _creative, outspoken word_. The power that created things revealed itself in a few simple words. Then he searches into the depths of language for the richest word he knew to express thought outspoken. And taking that word he uses it as a _name_ for this One of whom he is trying to tell. The scholars seem unable to sound the depths of the word that John in his own language uses. It means this, and beyond that, it means _this_, deeper yet, and then _this_. And then all of these together, and more. That is John's word. ”In the beginning was _the Word_.”

Then with a few swift touches of his pen he says, ”This was Jesus before He came among men, the man Jesus whom we know.” In the earliest beginning the whole heart and thought of G.o.d toward man was outspoken in a person.

This person, this outspeaking G.o.d, it was He who later became known to us as Jesus. Jesus, away back before the farthest reach of our human knowledge, was G.o.d speaking out of His inner heart to us. This Jesus _is_ G.o.d speaking out His innermost heart to man. Did you ever long to hear G.o.d speak? Look at Jesus. He's G.o.d's speech. This One was _with_ G.o.d. He _was_ G.o.d. It was _He_ who spoke things into being, that creative span of time.

Only through Him _could_ anything come into being. All life was in Him, and this life was man's light. It is He who came into our midst, s.h.i.+ning in the darkness that could neither take Him in nor hold Him down from s.h.i.+ning out.

Every now and then as he writes John's heart seems near the breaking point, and a sob shakes his pen a bit, as it comes over him all anew, and almost overcomes him, how this wondrous Jesus, this throbbing heart of G.o.d, was treated. Listen: ”He came to His _own possessions_, and they who were His--own--kinsfolk--and the quiver of John's heart-sob seems to make the type move on the page--_His own kinsfolk_ received him not into their homes, but left Him outside in the cold night; _but_--a glimpse of that glorious Face steadies him again--as many as _did_ receive Him, whether His own kinsfolk or not, to them He gave the right to become _kinsfolk of G.o.d_, the oldest family of all.”

<u>G.o.d's Spokesman.</u>

John has a way of reaching away back, and then by a swift use of pen coming quickly to his own time, and then he keeps swinging back over the ground he has been over, but each time with some added touch, like the true artist he is.

John's statement, ”the world was made by Him,” takes one back at once to the early Genesis chapters. There the creating One, who, by a word, brings things into existence is called G.o.d. And then, that we may identify Him, is called by a _name_, Jehovah. The creator is G.o.d named Jehovah. And this Jehovah, John says, was the One who afterward became a Man, and pitched His tent among men. And as one reads the old chapters through, this is the G.o.d, the Jehovah, who appears in varying ways to these Old Testament men, one after another. He talked and walked and worked with Adam in completing the work of creation, and then broken-hearted led him out of the forfeited garden.

Then to make his standpoint unmistakably plain to every one, before starting in on the witness borne by the herald, he makes a summary. All that he has been saying he now sums up in these tremendous words, ”_G.o.d_--no one ever yet has seen; the only begotten G.o.d,[7] in the bosom of the Father, this One has been the spokesman.” In what He _was_, and in what He _did_ as well as in what He _said_, He hath been the spokesman.

Here is a difference made between the Father G.o.d, whom no one has seen, and the only begotten G.o.d, who has been telling the Father out.

Now G.o.d revealed Himself to men in the Old Testament times. Repeatedly in the Old Testament it distinctly speaks of men seeing G.o.d in varying ways and talking with Him. Adam walked with Him, and Enoch, and Noah. Abraham had a _vision_, and talked with the three men whose spokesman speaks as G.o.d. Isaac has a night-vision and Jacob a dream and a night meeting with a mysterious wrestler. Moses _spoke_ with Him ”face to face” and ”mouth to mouth,” and is said to have seen His ”form.” Yet after that first forty days on the mount when Moses hungrily asks for more, He is told that no man could endure the sight of that great glory of G.o.d's face. And he is put in to a cleft of the rock, and G.o.d's hand put over the opening (in the simple language of the record), and then only the _hinder_ part of G.o.d pa.s.sing is seen, while the wondrous voice speaks. Yet the impression so made upon Moses far exceeds anything previous and completely overawes and melts him down. The elders of Israel ”saw G.o.d,” yet the most _distinct_ impression of anything seen is of the beautiful _pavement under His feet_.

Isaiah's most definite impression, when the great vision came to him, was of a train of glory, seraphim and smoke and a voice. Ezekiel has rare power in detailed description. He has overpowering visions of the ”glory of Jehovah.” Yet the most definite that he can make the description is a storm gathering, a cloud, a fire, a centre spot of brightness, a clearness as of amber, and four very unusual living creatures.

These men ”saw” G.o.d. He ”appeared” to them. Evidently that means many different things, yet the word is always honestly used. It never means as we gaze into another man's face. But always there is that profound impression of having been in G.o.d's own presence. They _met_ Him. They _saw_ Him. They heard His voice.

Yet John says here, ”_G.o.d_--no one ever yet at any time has seen; the only begotten G.o.d, in the bosom of the Father--this One has been the spokesman.” Clearly John, sweeping the whole range of past time, means this: they saw Him whom we call Jesus. Jesus is Jehovah, the only _begotten_ G.o.d. To all these men the only begotten G.o.d was the spokesman of the Father.

Sometimes it was a voice that came with softness but unmistakable clearness to the inner spirit of man, a soundless voice. Sometimes in a dream, a more realistic vision of the night or of the day time; again, in the form of a man, thus foreshadowing the future great coming. This One who _came_ to them in various ways, this Jehovah has _come_ to men as Jesus. This is John's statement. This is the setting of His gospel. The setting becomes a part of the interpretation of what the gospel contains.

It explains what this that follows _meant to John_.

Is it surprising that John's Gospel has been pitched upon as the critics'

chief battle-field of the New Testament? Battle-field is a good word. The fire has been thick and fast, needle-guns--sharp needles--and machine-guns--Gatling guns and rattling--but no smokeless powder. The cloud of smoke of a beautiful scholarly gray tinge has quite filled the air. Men have been swinging away from a man, the Man to a book. But no critic's delicately shaded and shadowing cloud of either dust or smoke, or both, can hide away the Man. He's too tall and big. The simple hearted man who will step aside from the smoke and noise to the shade of a quiet tree, or the quiet of some corner, with this marvellous bit of ma.n.u.script from John's pen for his keen, Spirit-cleared eye, will be enraptured to find a _Man, the_ Man, the _G.o.d_-Man.

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