READINGS ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (1)
[p. 7] READINGS ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (1)
GR Could you say in a few words what the subject of this gospel is?
FER I think the point in it is the presentation of Christ according to what Christ is. It differs in that way from the other gospels, because they present Christ more or less officially, while John presents Christ according to what Christ is.
GR What He is in His own Person?
FER Yes, personally; therefore I look upon John as being in a sense the backbone of all the gospels.
JT It is not Christ in relation to anything that existed previously?
FER I think not. In Matthew’s gospel Israel is taken up in Christ. In Luke’s gospel man is taken up in Christ, and in Mark the prophetic word is taken up. But John’s gospel is different. It presents Christ as the Son of God. It is in fact the revelation of God.
JSA I suppose the result of that as affecting man is that there must be a new kind of man or being to say to Him?
FER The Son of God is the starting point.
WM I suppose that is brought out in the preaching of the apostle, God “was pleased to reveal his Son in me”, Galatians 1: 16.
FER Yes, “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law, ... that we might receive sonship”. Galatians 4: 4.
It is important to see that John is peculiar, in that there you get the revelation of God.
RSS Would you say that the first man, the man after the flesh, was really in the way of what you speak? That God could not reveal Himself in connection with him; so you get Him coming into the world and the world knowing [p. 8] Him not, and to His own and His own receiving Him not; and then the Son of man is lifted up at the very beginning in this chapter.
FER The Son of man lifted up is really the testimony of God. It is God coming out in love — the Son of man lifted up is the point of attraction. “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me”.
WM Like the brazen serpent lifted up in the eyes of perishing men.
RSS Is it not the setting aside of man?
FER That is incidental in it; the point is the testimony itself. The death of Christ is the great testimony of divine love. The Son of man must be lifted up, for God so loved the world.
It is God coming out in love to take up the liabilities under which man was, hence the Son of God must needs become incarnate, so that all that lay upon man might be taken up in a Man, but it was the testimony of divine love.
WM So the removal of man was incidental.
FER The point is what was behind it on the part of God, and that was the love of God.
WM When it is a question of the Son of man being lifted up, that does not bring in divinity; is not that in the Son of God more?
FER He must be lifted up as Son of man. It is only thus He could be lifted up. He must assume that condition to be lifted up, but the point is that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. The Son of man is the only begotten Son of God who must be incarnate to be lifted up.
JT You think the expression “Son of man” alludes to His incarnation.
FER I do.
RSS In connection with what you said at first, that in John it is what Christ is personally; you find the love of God coming out, because it is His nature.
FER And there is the revelation of the Godhead. The revelation of the Godhead could not be except in a [p. 9] divine Person. God could not reveal Himself by writings; no prophet could reveal God. He could speak what God told Him to say, but neither prophet nor inspired man could reveal God. God is not revealed in writings or prophecies. It is in God coming out in the Son. God has spoken to us in these last days in the Son. He has revealed Himself.
RSS In connection with that, it is remarkable that you get in the first chapter “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”.
FER Exactly; that leads you to what lies behind Scripture. The Scriptures are inspired and give us the account of the revelation and how the revelation has been received, and the responsibility connected with the revelation, but the revelation itself is behind it all.
WM Many people confound inspiration with revelation.
GWH Would you say there had been no revelation of God until Christ came?
FER There had been communications, but no revelation of God, because there had not been anybody adequate to reveal Him. God is declared now, but it is by the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. Everything is changed by the revelation of God.
JSA God was in Christ. It is not merely that He spake by Him. He was in Christ.
RSS We have been in the habit of saying that in Old Testament times God was partially revealed and made known. For instance, in the way He spoke to Moses, “by my name Jehovah was I not known”. Would you not speak of that as revelation?
FER I would not. It left man to a very large extent in dimness; there was no real revelation of God in His nature.
JT The expression “Jehovah” spoke of God coming out in Christ.
FER All was anticipative. God dwelt in the thick [p. 10] darkness; that characterised Old Testament times. He dwelt behind the veil. It was in the death of Christ that the veil was rent from the top to the bottom. Not exactly in the life of Christ; that is, not fully. In the death of Christ God came out.
WM So in that way Christ’s flesh was a veil.
JT The faithfulness of God really depended on the Son becoming man to bring out what “Jehovah” signified.
FER I have no doubt the revelation of God was bound up with another immensely important point; that is, the Son coming out in order that He might be the Head and centre of the creation of God. I think the two thoughts are most intimately connected. When the moment arrives for Christ to come out as the Head you get the full revelation of God.
JT So the Old Testament scriptures could not be understood actually until the Son became Man.
FER The prophets did not understand their own prophecies. We understand them because we have the Centre.
JT I think that is very important, because I do not think it is quite seen that these things were anticipative. All looked on to the introduction of the Son.
FER So the Lord Jesus said, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me”.
JSA It was said at Quebec you could never understand the Old Testament until you read it in the light of the New.
WM The New Testament is morally before the Old.
FER For the simple reason that Christ is the beginning. It is difficult to a great many people to understand that Christ is the beginning. He is the Head of the body, the church, which is the beginning, not merely the Head of the body, but the beginning. So the Lord speaks of Himself to the angel of the church at Laodicea, “the beginning of the creation of God”.
WM This present creation?
FER Yes. He is “the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God”.
JSA And what was really the divine thought was only brought out after the responsible side has been gone through.
GR It has been said that Christ is the beginning of the new creation?
FER Can you refer us to the scripture?
GR No, I could not. I could refer you to a hymn. I think it is exceedingly important that Christ is the beginning of the creation of God.
JT And I suppose that this has its bearing on us even as connected with the present order of things. For instance you would not go back to Genesis for instruction as to your conduct even in your family. You get it all from Christ now.
FER Exactly. He is the beginning of the creation of God. It is only in Christ that you get the right idea of things. I have no doubt that things which God established from the beginning, relationships, etc., really had Christ in view.
WLP What does creation in that light really mean?
FER It takes us back to the beginning. To get the true idea of things morally you must learn all in Christ, because God established everything in view of Christ.
WLP Is it the same thought in Hebrews, “by whom also he made the worlds”?
FER You get the thought anyway, in Proverbs 8, in the idea of wisdom.
JSA And Adam was a figure of Him who was to come.
FER No doubt Adam bore certain traits of Christ.
JA So if families are allowed on earth God would have His own family also.
FER The relationship of man and wife has manifestly Christ and the church in view.
JSA It is referred to in the instruction as to how you are to behave in that relationship.
[p. 12] FER So also the position in which God set Adam as the image and glory of God had Christ in view.
JSA I think you were saying some time ago that no doubt all creation had some reference to Christ — the sun in the heavens, and so on.
FER I think so. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God; there is wisdom seen in the order of the universe, and wisdom was Christ.
JSA I think there is practical gain in seeing that, because it connects everything with which we have to do with Christ.
JT And it puts a saved soul in connection with its proper centre.
FER Because the truth of the gospel is really Christ Himself. It is not only what Christ has done. I think what Christ has done is in a way secondary, the gospel is the introduction of Christ Himself, I mean as the Head and centre — like the introduction of the sun into the universe, so Christ has been brought into the universe and that is glad tidings.
WM And Christ is being presented as Head in testimony before He is publicly brought in as the Sun.
JSA And what the believer gets is not simply certain things from and through Him but everything in Him.
FER Yes, in whom we have redemption.
JT And that holds good in connection with all the characters of the Old Testament. You think of Christ as the Heir of the world.
FER Every man of faith presented some trait of Christ because Christ was in view. It is important to apprehend the existence of some traits of Christ before sin came in. One can understand it after sin had come in, but it is important to see that Christ was in the mind of God from the outset.
WM So the world to come is not established until the marriage of the Lamb takes place.
JT What do you allude to as traits of Christ before sin [p. 13] came in?
FER In what Adam was as created we see a difference from all the rest of the creation. You get in him intelligence. He was the object of reverence to the inferior creation, set over the works of God’s hand, etc. He was the image and glory of God, the centre of the whole order of things down here upon earth. This was all in view of Christ. It was to be fulfilled in the Son of man. You get man and the Son of man in Psalm 8, but the object of divine counsels is not man but the Son of man.
GWH Do you get the thought of the headship of Christ when you see Him as the beginning?
FER I think so. I think the Head is wisdom incarnate. Wisdom is the explanation of all God’s dealings. Then wisdom becomes incarnate, and incarnate wisdom is the Word, or perhaps the Word is incarnate wisdom.
GWH And I suppose it is to Christ as Head that man has to say.
FER I think so, because the Head is wisdom for man; the idea of a head you get in your own head, what guides you entirely is your bead. The members are accustomed to look there naturally for guidance, but now the point is, that the real Head over all things, of every man, is Christ. He is the wisdom.
JT But the necessity for wisdom coming in would be because of the confusion.
FC Do you think the unconverted man would get the good of Christ as Head?
FER Yes, if there were no Head there would be judgment and nothing else. If God had not brought the Head in things would have been cut off long ago.
FC We know that man often does turn to the Lord in time of difficulty for instance.
FER I think the present moment is remarkable. It is the accepted time and the day of salvation, the world is brought into reconciliation, but all consequent on the truth of Christ having come in as Head, and all that goes on. People are often surprised that God can go on with such an evil world, but He will not act in judgment until [p. 14] the world sets up a rival head. When the apostasy and the antichrist have come in then the judgment of God arrives. That is what we get in 2 Thessalonians 2. God has now opened a door of faith to the gentiles and they stand in the goodness of God.
GWH God will execute His judgment on the rival head.
FER Exactly, and on man who sets up the rival head. Antichrist is set up by Jew and gentile; it is not the work of Jew alone, but antichrist really gets his existence by apostasy of Jew and gentile.
JA And meanwhile God gives us opportunity in the gospel to turn to our true Head.
FER And men get the benefit. Look at the material development in this immense country. It is largely owing to Christ being Head. They may not acknowledge Him as Head, but the great prosperity of the western world is a consequence of Christ being Head.
WLP That is because it is stamped as christian.
FER Yes and a certain amount of light is there. Christianity has given enormous impetus to the intelligence and cultivation of man, much more than men allow; but it brings in responsibility.
JT What would you say about the state of things before the Head came in?
FER Before that time the world was in the greatest moral degradation, the Jew as bad as the gentile, and the gentiles all idolatrous. Things are much altered in the world on account of the Head having come in, and in connection with that, christianity.
GWH Do you get the description of the state of things in Romans 1?
FER Quite so. That is the world that was, then God set forth Jesus to be a mercy-seat through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness, and everything is changed. The world is on different ground; all were liable to the judgment of God, but now the world is in reconciliation, man has another Head [p. 15] in Christ.
JSA And therefore the true character of preaching is to present Christ as Head.
FER Judgment cannot come in until man shows his hand thoroughly. You get the principle in the Old Testament; until the iniquity of the Amorites was full God did not dispossess them. And judgment does not come in until man shows his hand. “He who now letteth will let”.
JT Christ as Head will be on the side of man.
FER Yes. He has taken up His position as Head in virtue of redemption. He has accomplished redemption in taking up man’s liabilities in order that He might occupy His position of Head. Christ has a right to every man, and every man has a right with regard to Christ.
WLP That is the thought in “The grace of God which carries with it salvation for all men has appeared”.
JT The grace would be commensurate with the place that man has with God.
FER Christ has bought the field for the treasure.
WM You mean the people when you say the field?
GR You made a remark at Quebec that whatever Christ did He did for Himself.
FER I was only saying that He accomplished redemption in order that He might be the Head, so He accomplished righteousness that He might be the Sun of righteousness. Whatever Christ accomplished, the first effect was in regard of Himself. He gave Himself a ransom for all that He might be the Mediator.
RSS You speak of Christ in that way officially?
FER As Head.
JSA And you get the idea pretty simply in the statement that if He is to be the leader of our salvation He must be made perfect through sufferings; that explains the thought of doing it for Himself.
FC So it is not true that the wrath of God abides upon all men now.
FER I cannot see how you can get that; it is contrary to the statements of Scripture. When it speaks of “now”
[p. 16] being the accepted time I do not see how you can connect wrath with a reconciled world.
FC We have used that verse in the end of John 3 in that way.
FER I think the “he” in that verse is representative; it is fulfilled in the Jew; wrath has come upon the Jew to the uttermost. They are suffering under the wrath of God nationally and governmentally; they are scattered over the earth.
WM But that is not final; it is provisional.
FER But there it is; wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. It will apply to those who declare themselves as against Christ, but God waits for man to declare himself. We are so impatient.
GR Does not God’s way with the Jew make that very clear? Wrath did not come upon them until they had distinctly said, “We will not have this man to reign over us”.
FER Then He sent forth His armies and burned up their city. I do not think the gentile has quite declared himself in a public way so that God can deal with him in wrath.
JT He will deal with those “that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” 2 Thessalonians 1: 8.
FER That must come out in a public way.
GR So today Christ is the test for every man.
FER Quite so, the testing is not yet over.
JSA That is a very important principle in a general way for though you may have a very distinct impression of things morally and feel how they are going, yet according to God you do not take judgment of it until it is declared manifestly.
JA When an individual takes his place as a sinner and confesses Christ he finds instead of wrath being upon him that grace is for him.
RSS This principle comes out in the disciple who betrayed the Lord. The Lord did not expose Judas or [p. 17] reject him from the circle of the apostles, but left him there until he declared himself.
WM And so the long-suffering of God is salvation.
JT I think the idea of patience is very practical. I was thinking of the passage in Thessalonians that follows on the instruction as to the antichrist, he adds, “the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patience of the Christ”.
FER You will find the truth of long-suffering going through Scripture. The ark was a hundred and twenty years in building, so in the case of the Amorites, God waited four hundred and thirty years. So in Israel, God was loath to cast them off. After He had cast them off He brings part of them back into the land to put the test of Christ to them. They reject Christ and even after that is so He gives them another test, and that is the Spirit; and when they refused every overture on the part of God wrath came upon them to the uttermost.
WM And thus the world comes into reconciliation.
FER Yes, because Christ bought all, and God now regards the world as being Christ’s. But when the world publicly refuses Christ, and sets up the rival head, everything is changed.
GWH Would you say the reason for His long-suffering is to display the riches of His grace?
FER And to accomplish His purposes for Christ bought the field for the sake of the treasure, and now the point is to bring out the treasure.
WM The treasure represents His purpose in purchasing the field.
FER The elect have to come to light. You find that in the epistle to the Romans; in chapter 8, the elect are brought to light.
GR Would this third of John be the beginning of God’s getting the treasure?
FER I think so. All is put on the broadest and largest ground. It is a question of God’s thought and heart [p. 18] toward man. It is a most wonderful thing that God could come out in that way.
RSS I think that we ought to learn a good deal in our ways with one another in seeing God’s patient ways with men.
FER The common thought has been that the effect of the death of Christ was to bring all men under the judgment of God and that there was only one outlet from that judgment, and that was by faith in the blood of Christ. But the fact is this, the effect of the resurrection of Christ has been to change the entire aspect of things down here and to bring all men, the world, into reconciliation by Christ. Now the question arises in regard of men, not of escaping from the wrath of God but of accepting the situation. God has formed the situation; is man going to accept it? If he does, he gets the Spirit and is by the Spirit attached to Christ. If not, he declares his lawlessness and that lawlessness will in result find its head in antichrist; that is the truth of things. Now is an accepted time. The emphasis is on the word now. The apostle gives a present application to that scripture.
JT The great thing then is to present the situation rightly.
FER I think that is the thing for preachers, so that man may apprehend and accept it. That is faith because the situation is not public so that man’s eye can see it. It is interesting to see in Luke 7 that both debtors were forgiven. “He frankly forgave them both”. People forget that sometimes.
JT It was wonderful grace that Christ was in Simon’s house.
FER God was as favourable toward Simon as toward the woman, only the woman appreciated the situation. Simon, the self-righteous man, rejected it, and therefore did not get the good of it.
JSA That brings out a point which is very important, that what is set forth in Christ is God’s thought for every one, not for believers only.
[p. 19] FER That is one of the most important principles I know of. What God has set forth in Christ is His mind for man. It sounds a little strange at first, but the more you look into it the more you see it.
WM We are never called upon to believe anything with regard to ourselves. We believe what is true for everybody.
Ques Is that why that verse comes in in Colossians, “warning every man”?
FER Yes, Christ is the expression of God’s mind for every man. The apostle sought to present every man perfect in Christ.
JT I suppose we might say our title to what is in Christ is because we are men.
FER Yes, through God’s mercy I believe in Christ and what is set forth in Christ, but I have no more title than any other man.
RSS And no less. I suppose what was before us in what we read was really God stating what His attitude is, that “God so loved the world, that be gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.
FER Exactly, in redemption He has taken up the liabilities. The serpent lifted up in the wilderness carries us back to the garden of Eden. God goes back there. The biting serpent was lawlessness. All the dealings of God had failed with Israel. They had come out perverse after thirty-eight years in the wilderness and then God goes back in testimony to the garden of Eden, to the original serpent; the spirit of lawlessness which came in by Satan. By one man sin entered into the world; the truth of it is expressed in the serpent lifted up. Christ was lifted up in testimony, made sin; Christ took up that under which man was, according to the love of God, in testimony.
JSA And therefore it is rather more radical; it is not merely what man has done but the state of man.
FER Romans 2 and 3 are not occupied with what man has done but with the state of man. They take up the [p. 20] state of the gentile and the philosopher, then the Jew. It is state that is in question. “Their throat is an open sepulchre”, Romans 3: 13.
FC As a result of the work of God souls are often occupied with what they have done rather than what they are.
FER That may be, but there is not much effect produced in people until they come to the consciousness of what they are.
FC Would you say that forgiveness is in connection with what man has done?
FER Yes. Man’s responsibility is in connection with what he has done, not with what he is. So man must have a sense of forgiveness, but after all the great question is man’s state.
JSA And forgiveness of sins is not mentioned in the gospel of John.
FER Except “whose soever sins ye remit” That is administrative.
WM I suppose the death of Christ is the introduction of order into the moral universe.
FER I think order is brought into the moral universe by Christ Himself. He is the beginning of order. There was not order in the physical universe until the earth was set in relation to the sun. You get certain things preparatory, but rule in creation was in connection with the sun. The greater light was set to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. Order and regularity were brought in by the sun, and the same applies in regard of the moral universe. So John says, “the darkness is passing and the true light already shines”. 1 John 2: 8.
WM And the gospel is the test of whether men will come into attachment to Christ and thus into order.
GWH Does it say God loves the world or is it He loved the world?
FER I think it is His great testimony.
GWH How about the scripture “Now is the judgment of this world”?
FER You cannot always read Scripture terms in the same way. For instance, John says, “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world”. That is a different idea from “God so loved the world”. John sometimes uses the ‘world’ as the state of things down here morally, that is, moral principles; but John also uses the ‘world’ for the people in it. It is not the world system that God loved but the people in it. It is the world in contrast to the Jew.
JSA It would be rather on the line of Titus, the “love of God our Saviour toward man appeared”.
GWH I suppose in John 12 it is the moral system.
FER I think it is that state of things which existed in regard of Israel, to which the Lord refers in, “Now is the judgment of this world”. There has been one world as a system and there will be another. I do not think there was any world in one sense until Israel came in, and Israel became the head and centre of the world which God regarded and in the midst of which He dwelt. All that world has come under judgment. It has been swallowed up by Babylon, but there is another world coming which is spoken of in Hebrews 2, “the world to come”.
GWH Would you say that the world to come in Hebrews 2 is a moral system characterised by Christ?
FER The world which has been was to a large extent put under angels. In some way or other there was the administration of angels in connection with that world, but the world to come is put under Christ. I take it that is the reason of what we get in John 1; the Lord speaking to Nathanael says, “Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man”.
JT That would be when He judges the world.
FER When He establishes the world to come. I do not think there is any state of things down here which God owns when Israel is cast away.
JSA “When the most High divided to the nations [p. 22] their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel”. Deuteronomy 32: 8.
FER When you get the judgment of Israel, you get the judgment of all the nations that stood in relation to Israel, the whole family. God knew Israel in a special way, but He took account also of the nations around, of Moab, Ammon, the Philistines, etc.; these constituted the world of which Israel was the centre.
JSA And you might say God would not recognise any world except where Israel had its place.
FER That is the point of the world to come. Jerusalem becomes the joy of the whole earth. God allowed Israel to be entirely swallowed by Babylon; Babylon is the world of man’s glory, but the world to come will be the world of God’s glory.
WM Who delivered “us from this present evil world”, that is the world that was.
FER That is the whole Babylonish system down here; the two things are mixed up, the church and Babylon.
WM What is the force of commanding repentance in view of the statement that God will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath appointed? Is it connected with His administration in the world to come?
FER Yes. God is not going to tolerate the existing condition of things. The whole system down here is Babylonish; the mind of God is favourable toward all men, but if you look at the organisation and state of things in the world it is Babylonish. Man is glorified. Babylon is man’s glory and that characterises the day. You get great kings and leaders, politically and commercially. It is a day of man’s glory without moral title or qualification. Do you think that God is going to bear with that forever?
GR So you would say there is no one nation in any greater favour than another.
FER None.
JT [p. 23] The great thing is that God will bring in judgment.
FER Judgment will return to righteousness. It has been divorced from it but it will return.
RSS What does that scripture in the end of Acts 17 refer to? Is it the judgment-seat of Christ?
FER No, it is in view of God taking up the government of the world publicly, in view of the kingdom.
WM So that men are commanded to forsake lawlessness in connection with introduction of order into the universe.
FER It is a kind of last word which Paul gave them because they were perverse. Paul says, the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. So repentance is preached in the gospel.
RSS Would you say that repentance is a breakdown?
FER It is man forsaking lawlessness. When a man accepts Christ as the divinely appointed Head, he forsakes lawlessness. He has been ruled hitherto by his own will, but he turns to Christ. He presents to us righteousness. Righteousness is God’s will; lawlessness is the will of man and Satan. Repentance is the first movement in turning from lawlessness to righteousness.
GWH Would you say that the Thessalonians did that?
FER Yes, they turned to God from idols. It is a wonderful thing to see that God has a moral universe before Him and that He is seeking to attach souls to the Head and centre of that universe.
RSS Would you say what you mean by attachment to Christ?
FER As a woman is married to a man, she is bound. What God is going to display is a moral universe, a world has already been set forth in the providence of God, but God is going to display a moral universe in His light. When God comes out in holy splendour then there will be a universe ordered on moral principles. Now you have a [p. 24] world where man has a great opportunity of glorifying himself and doing his will and he does not fail to avail himself of it, as much in this country as in any other.
GWH Would you say attachment is the forming of a divine link?
FER Exactly. If you take another illustration it is seen in what exists between the earth and the sun, there is nothing lawless in the heavens. That is what the psalmist says in Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God”. Attachment is the contrast to lawlessness. If the earth did not move in an orbit it would be lawless, but it does move in an orbit and proves it is attached to the sun.
WM And therefore in the heavens there is no disorder.
FER The heavens declare the glory of God.
JSA And the link in us with Christ is the Spirit.
FER And therefore the testimony in John 3 is that you may get the living water in John 4.
RSS You spoke at Quebec of three steps, attraction, attachment and affection.
FER Every man has to be attracted, and then attached, and then you get affection for Christ.
JA And until you are attached, you do not properly answer to the purpose God has for you.
FER No, you are lawless.
RSS Your illustration of husband and wife applies all the way through.
FER It is a scriptural illustration, we are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that we should be married to another.
JT Would you say that God undertakes to set things right on the principle of attraction, not by repression?
FER Yes. He has brought in the Head, and all are attached to that Head, “I ... will draw all men unto me”.
WM So the gospel is the setting forth of that situation.
FER The gospel is the glad tidings of Christ. What a wonderful thing it is that there is a moral universe. I see a very immoral world now, but God is going to set forth a moral universe in the light [p. 25] of divine love.
RSS And I think the more you know of the flesh in yourself and in your fellow men the more thankful you are that God is going to bring in another order of things.
JSA And nothing else would suit His glory.