Part 36 (1/2)
21 Ibid. pp. 575, 207.
22 John vi. 57.
23 John i. 4.
24 Philo, vol. i. p. 121.
25 John i. 18.
26 Philo, vol. i. pp. 427, 560.
27 John vi. 27.
28 Philo, vol. ii. p. 606.
29 1 John iii. 5.
30 Philo, vol. i. p. 562.
be repeatedly substantiated before the close of this chapter: in regard to the statements in the preceding sentences no further proof is thought necessary.
With the aid of a little repet.i.tion, we will now attempt to make a step of progress. The tokens of energy, order, splendor, beneficence, in the universe, are not, according to John, as we have seen, the effects of angelic personages, emanating G.o.ds, Gnostic aons, but are the workings of the self revealing power of the one true and eternal G.o.d, this power being conceived by John, according to the philosophy of his age, as a proper person, G.o.d's instrument in creation. Reason, life, light, love, grace, righteousness, kindred terms so thickly scattered over his pages, are not to him, as they were to the Gnostics, separate beings, but are the very working of the Logos, consubstantial manifestations of G.o.d's nature and attributes. But mankind, fallen into folly and vice, perversity and sin, lying in darkness, were ignorant that these Divine qualities were in reality mediate exhibitions of G.o.d, immediate exhibitions of the Logos. ”The light was s.h.i.+ning in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” Then, to reveal to men the truth, to regenerate them and conjoin them through himself with the Father in the experience of eternal life, the hypostatized Logos left his transcendent glory in heaven and came into the world in the person of Jesus. ”No man hath seen G.o.d at any time: the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him.” ”I came down from heaven to do the will of Him that sent me.” This will is that all who see and believe on the Son shall have everlasting life. ”G.o.d so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” ”The bread of G.o.d is He who cometh down from heaven and giveth life to the world.”
The doctrine of the pre existence of souls, and of their being born into the world in the flesh, was rife in Judea when this Gospel was written, and is repeatedly alluded to in it.31 That John applies this doctrine to Christ in the following and in other instances is obvious. ”Before Abraham was, I am.” ”I came forth from the Father and am come into the world.” ”Father, glorify thou me with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”
”What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?” As for ourselves, we do not see how it is possible for any unprejudiced person, after studying the fourth Gospel faithfully with the requisite helps, to doubt that the writer of it believed that Jesus pre existed as the Divine Logos, and that he became incarnate to reveal the Father and to bring men into the experience of true eternal life. John declares this, in his first epistle, in so many words, saying, ”The living Logos, the eternal life which was with the Father from the beginning, was manifested unto us;” and, ”G.o.d sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.” Whether the doctrine thus set forth was really entertained and taught by Jesus himself, or whether it is the interpretation put on his language by one whose mind was full of the notions of the age, are distinct questions. With the settlement of these questions we are not now concerned: such a discussion would be more appropriate when examining the genuine meaning of the words of Christ. All that is necessary here is the suggestion that when we show the theological system of John it does not necessarily follow that that is the true
31 John i. 21; ix. 2.
teaching of Christ. Having adopted the Logos doctrine, it might tinge and turn his thoughts and words when reporting from memory, after the lapse of many years, the discourses of his Master. He might unconsciously, under such an influence, represent literally what was figuratively intended, and reflect from his own mind lights and shades, a.s.sociations and meanings, over all or much of what he wrote. There are philosophical and literary peculiarities which have forced many of the best critics to make this distinction between the intended meaning of Christ's declarations as he uttered them, and their received meaning as this evangelist reported them. Norton says, ”Whether St. John did or did not adopt the Platonic conception of the Logos is a question not important to be settled in order to determine our own judgment concerning its truth.”32 Lucke has written to the same effect, but more fully: ”We are allowed to distinguish the sense in which John understood the words of Christ, from the original sense in which Christ used them.”33
It is to be observed that in all that has been brought forward, thus far, there is not the faintest hint of the now current notion of the Trinity. The idea put forth by John is not at all allied with the idea that the infinite G.o.d himself a.s.sumed a human shape to walk the earth and undergo mortal sufferings. It is simply said that that manifested and revealing portion of the Divine attributes which const.i.tuted the hypostatized Logos was incarnated and displayed in a perfect, sinless sample of man, thus exhibiting to the world a finite image of G.o.d. We will ill.u.s.trate this doctrine with reference to the inferences to be drawn from it in regard to human nature. John repeatedly says, in effect, ”G.o.d is truth,” ”G.o.d is light,” ”G.o.d is love,” ”G.o.d is life.” He likewise says of the Savior, ”In him was life, and the life was the light of men,” and reports him as saying of himself, ”I am the truth,”
”I am the life,” ”I am the light of the world.” The fundamental meaning of these declarations so numerous, striking, and varied in the writings of John is, that all those qualities which the consciousness of humanity has recognised as Divine are consubstantial with the being of G.o.d; that all the reflections of them in nature and man belong to the Logos, the eldest Son, the first production, of G.o.d; and that in Jesus their personality, the very Logos himself, was consciously embodied, to be brought nearer to men, to be exemplified and recommended to them. Reason, power, truth, light, love, blessedness, are not individual aons, members of a hierarchy of deities, but are the revealing elements of the one true G.o.d. The personality of the abstract and absolute fulness of all these substantial qualities is G.o.d. The personality of the discerpted portion of them shown in the universe is the Logos.
Now, that latter personality Christ was. Consequently, while he was a man, he was not merely a man, but was also a supernatural messenger from heaven, sent into the world to impersonate the image of G.o.d under the condition of humanity, free from every sinful defect and spot. Thus, being the manifesting representative of the Father, he could say, ”He that hath seen me hath [virtually] seen the Father.” Not that they were identical in person, but that they were similar in nature and character, spirit and design: both were eternal holiness, love, truth, and life. ”I and my Father are one thing,” (in essence, not in personality.) Nothing can be more
32 Statement of Reasons, 1st ed. p. 239.
33 Christian Examiner, May, 1849, p. 431.
unequivocally p.r.o.nounced than the subordination of the Son to the Father that the Father sent him, that he could do nothing without the Father, that his Father was greater than he, that his testimony was confirmed by the Father's in a hundred places by John, both as author writing his own words and as interpreter reporting Christ's. There is not a text in the record that implies Christ's ident.i.ty with G.o.d, but only his ident.i.ty with the Logos.
The ident.i.ty of the Logos with G.o.d is elementary, not personal.
From this view it follows that every man who possesses, knows, and exhibits the elements of the Divine life, the characteristics of G.o.d, is in that degree a son of G.o.d, Christ being pre eminently the Son on account of his pre eminent likeness, his supernatural divinity, as the incarnate Logos.
That the apostle held and taught this conclusion appears, first, from the fact, otherwise inexplicable, that he records the same sublime statements concerning all good Christians, with no other qualification than that of degree, that he does concerning Christ himself. Was Jesus the Son of G.o.d? ”To as many as received him he gave power to become the sons of G.o.d.” There is in Philo a pa.s.sage corresponding remarkably with this one from John: ”Those who have knowledge of the truth are properly called sons of G.o.d: he who is still unfit to be named a son of G.o.d should endeavor to fas.h.i.+on himself to the first born Logos of G.o.d.”34 Was Jesus ”from above,”
while wicked men were ”from beneath”? ”They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Was Jesus sent among men with a special commission? ”As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” Was Jesus the subject of a peculiar glory, bestowed upon him by the Father? ”The glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one.” Had Jesus an inspiration and a knowledge not vouchsafed to the princes of this world? ”Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” Did Jesus perform miraculous works?
”He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.”
In the light of the general principle laid down, that G.o.d is the actual fulness of truth and love and light and blessedness; that Christ, the Logos, is the manifested impersonation of them; and that all men who receive him partake of their Divine substance and enjoy their prerogative, the texts just cited, and numerous other similar ones, are transparent. It is difficult to see how on any other hypothesis they can be made to express an intelligible and consistent meaning.
Secondly, we are brought to the same conclusion by the synonymous use and frequent interchange of different terms in the Johannean writings. Not only it is said, ”Whoever is born of G.o.d cannot sin,” but it is also written, ”Every one that doeth righteousness is born of G.o.d;” and again, ”Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of G.o.d.” In other words, having a good character and leading a just life, heartily receiving and obeying the revelation made by Christ, are identical phrases. ”He that hath the Son hath life.” ”Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not G.o.d.” ”This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” in the doctrine of Christ.