THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD
[p. 115] THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD
The knowledge of the Son of God must put a distinctive mark on everyone who has it. Indeed, to contemplate the possibility of having this knowledge brings before the awakened affections of the believer a prospect which throws into the shade, not only all the idols of the earth, but also the conceptions of blessing which are most commonly cherished and pursued by christians.
The question at once arises, How does the soul reach the knowledge of the Son of God? This inquiry has been anticipated, and a divine answer to it furnished, in the chapter before us. Here we see a wonderful picture of “the works of God” (verse 3) in man, preparing him for the reception of divine light, and leading him on in a path of growing light to that which is the crown and consummation of all blessing — the knowledge of the Son of God.
The first thing that we find here in figure is the demonstration of man’s state. I have no doubt the anointing of the man’s eyes with clay was a figure of the effect of the Incarnation as demonstrating the true state of man. The effect of the Son of God coming into touch with man was to make man’s condition all the more palpable. There might have been some question as to his blindness before; there could be none after. Man is entirely alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in him because of the hardness of his heart (Ephesians 4:18).
It is evident that this is a far deeper thing than any question of guilt, or even of incapacity to carry out the will of God. The natural man cannot discern or appreciate what God is, even when God presents Himself in a fulness of [p. 116] grace that would meet divinely every need of his conscience and heart. It is terrible to think of man rebelling against God’s authority, but it is more awful still to see that he will not have God in grace and fulness of blessing. When the Son of the Father came into this world and brought all that God was in divine grace near to man without extracting anything from man’s heart but hatred, it was demonstrated for ever that man has no capacity to appreciate light — that is, to appreciate God — he is blind.
This being the case, it is clear that if man is to be brought to know God there must be a work of God in him and it seems to me that the nature of that work is set before us in the significant action of washing in the pool of Siloam. I have no doubt this is a figure of man coming under the application of death in his own spirit so as to be morally cleansed from everything that is of himself. All christians admit that they can only be cleansed before the eye of God by death. I mean, of course, the death of Christ. But if all that we are morally has had to be judged and set aside before God in the death of Christ, in order that we might have infinite blessing from God on the ground of what Christ is, it is certain that we shall only really enter into that blessing after death has come into our spirits upon all that we are as in the flesh. God will not bring man as in the flesh into blessing, but will entirely set him aside in judgment. God will not link the blessings of christianity with such a moral ruin as man after the flesh. Nor will He leave the subject of His grace under any misapprehension on this point. He will bring in death upon what we are as in the flesh and this not only at the cross, but in our own spirits.
God has to put every soul that He will bless through the pool of Siloam before He can bring him into the light. “Except any one be born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”, John 3:5. Death must be applied to all that man is morally, if he is to have any access [p. 117] into an order of things which is of God. Nicodemus ought to have known this though the explicit statement of it in terms seemed to startle him. The application of water (death) is the moral setting aside of all that previously existed in man. It is death brought into a man’s spirit as to all that he is as a child of Adam. Job knew something of this, and so did David, Isaiah, Daniel and other Old Testament saints. Death is that state out of which nothing comes for God. If I have realised that there is nothing in me for God, and that nothing can come out of me for God, I have been down under the water of the pool. The water of death has flowed over my spirit. This has certainly been the case with everyone who can say, “I abhor myself” and “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell”. Death has come in on, has been applied by God to, all that flesh is morally.
This is the divine preparation for an entirely new order of things. For the one who has realised that there is no good in himself is prepared to understand that all good must come from God — it must be SENT. The Holy Spirit expressly calls our attention to the interpretation of Siloam as “Sent”, a characteristic word of John’s gospel — the gospel which more definitely than any other takes the ground of man’s utter blindness and incapacity Godward, but which unfolds in the fullest way what has been sent from God into the world in the person of His beloved Son.
I do not think any man would realise that there was no good in himself without also having a sense in his soul of God as the sovereign source of all good and blessing. The one “born of water” is also born “of Spirit”, and we are told that “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”. There is thus the introduction of that which is entirely diverse from flesh, of that in which there is capability of having to say to God. A man born of the Spirit is capable of receiving light from God, and the knowledge of God becomes a great necessity to him. He has got, by the work of God in him, a new faculty of [p. 118] perception; he now appreciates what comes from God — what is sent. In a word, he has received sight.
Then spiritual formation begins. We are formed spiritually in the light of God, that is, by the revelation of God, and every element of that revelation shines in the blessed person of the Son of God. The one who is prepared by the work of God in him to appreciate what is sent from God is thus introduced into an entirely new world. He is taken into a world of divine realities, of divine revelation.
First, he is made acquainted with a divine Saviour. The first confession of the man in John 9 was, “A man called Jesus ... .” Jesus means Saviour. This is the first great acquisition of one who is brought into the light; he has a God-provided Saviour. I remember well the first thought I had of Jesus as a Saviour from God — One sent to be my Saviour. I had had questions and difficulties of various kinds, but they all melted away in the presence of this fact, that Jesus was sent by God as Saviour. This presented Him as so supremely worthy of all the confidence of my poor heart, that to believe on Him seemed the most natural thing in the world. One lost sight of all one’s difficulties and perplexities in the presence of such a Saviour. I believe that if preachers would set forth the greatness, glory, and grace of the Son of God as Saviour, instead of labouring so much to meet particular difficulties of souls, people would more quickly get clear of their difficulties, and, what is more, they would begin their christian life with a divine thought of that blessed Person. I have seen a good many souls get relief and a certain measure of blessing by having their particular difficulties met, but I never saw one really brought into peace with God by this process, or distinctly and personally linked with Christ. This can only be as we take in the thought of what He is. It is not this or that difficulty that I want meeting; I am altogether lost; I must have a divine Saviour. If there is no such Person, mine is a hopeless case. If there is such a [p. 119] Person, the whole case is met, and every difficulty solved for those who believe on Him. If salvation comes in from God, that very fact ensures its completeness, and puts the believer in presence of infinite divine grace and love.
Then, in answer to further interrogation, our friend of John 9 gives evidence of having travelled another stage of his wonderful journey of light. He says, “He is a prophet”. This is the second step in the knowledge of Christ; He becomes known to the believer as the Communicator of the mind of God. We must remember that in saying this the man said a great deal. There was certainly no other “prophet” in Israel at the time. The scribes and Pharisees had taken, in a way, the prophet’s place, and pretended to make known the mind of God. Would this man look to them for divine light? No, to him Jesus is the “Prophet”.
We are first taken outside man for salvation, and then for divine revelation. The saved one comes under the influence of Christ as the One by whom is communicated all the mind of God. In Luke 10 the Samaritan sets forth what He is as Saviour, and the following verses present Him in Martha’s house as the Prophet. One who had known what it was to sit at His feet and hear His word would hardly care to return to the teaching of the scribes. Indeed, the mark of one who has known the blessedness of this is perfect liberty from the influence and teaching of men. He is prepared to be an Antipas against all, (Revelation 2:13), and to take a course entirely independent of the countenance of man.
If we stop with the knowledge of Jesus as “Saviour” we may go on with the religious world, but the recognition of Him as “Prophet” involves a clean break with every kind of religious authority here. It was at this point the line was definitely drawn between the once blind man and the Pharisees. It is as we grow in the knowledge of God that we are delivered from the religious opinions of men, and it is the Son who reveals Him.
[p. 120] But it is evident that we shall not enter much into what Jesus reveals as Prophet, if we have not known what it is to come under His Lordship. We must be commanded and controlled by Him. When the once blind man asks, “Do ye also wish to become his disciples?” he plainly confesses his own discipleship — he acknowledges Jesus as Lord to him whatever He might be to them. The thought of His Lordship is that He commands the blessing of God for us, and He commands us for the blessing. The man of John 9 had proved the blessedness of the Lordship of Christ in his own experience. Christ had commanded the blessing for him, and had commanded him for the blessing. He was in the good of the Lordship of Christ, and it is this which makes a soul bold to confess Him.
The whole vast range of divine blessing, from forgiveness of sins right on to eternal life, is at the disposal of His hand; He is the Administrator and Dispenser of it all. It is a great thing to prove that He is Lord in blessing. Many have a legal thought of the Lordship of Christ as if it was merely authority exacting submission and obedience. They make Christ a greater Moses with a more exacting claim. But Christ, as Lord, exercises authority in the way of blessing. The reason why we are not filled to overflowing with divine blessing is that we have come so little really under the Lordship of Christ. If we were more simple in the sense of grace, and gave ourselves up to Him, if I may so say, we should find that He would bring us into infinite blessing. Mary was commanded by Him, and found “the good part”; Martha was devoted to His service, but not commanded by Himself. Hence, instead of being happy, she was only conscious of the deficiency of the service.
But another stage of the journey must be travelled before the soul is fully prepared for the question, “Thou, dost thou believe on the Son of God?” And this stage is reached when the man declares, “If this man were not of [p. 121] God he would be able to do nothing” (that is, nothing of such a nature as the act which was in question.) In the apprehension of this man’s soul Jesus was recognised as being altogether of a divine order. He stood quite alone; there was no other to compare with Him; He was “of God”.
It is an immense thing when a soul comes to the apprehension of Christ in this way, because in doing so he gets the idea of an entirely new beginning of things. Many look at Christ as coming in on the line of promises and prophecy, taking up the Old Testament links. But in John’s gospel this is not at all the way in which He is presented. It is an entirely new beginning in One who comes forth from God and from the Father, One who was altogether different from John the Baptist or any prophet, the thong of whose sandal the greatest of them was not worthy to unloose. Christ is here presented to us as coming from above, and out of heaven, as being One who had not His origin in the earth, neither was He of the earth. Such a One was necessarily “above all”, (John 3:31).
The man whose history we are following clearly got a sense in his soul of an entirely new beginning of things. “Since time was, it has not been heard that any one opened the eyes of one born blind. If this man were not of God he would be able to do nothing”. The very nature of that which was wrought by Him had carried the consciousness into this man’s soul that everything was beginning anew, that for God there was an entirely new beginning, and for him this new order of things was all taking its character from the Person in whom it was inaugurated. It is in the apprehension of this that we come into the knowledge of Christ as Head. Of course it is as risen from the dead that He definitely takes that place, for we read that He is “the head of the body, the assembly; who is the beginning, firstborn from among the dead, that he might have the first place in all things”, (Colossians 1:18). But here in John 9 we get it in picture and principle.
To this man Christ was “the beginning” and Christ had the pre-eminence; he estimated everything by its relation to Christ. The rudiments of the world, and the commandments, doctrines, and traditions of men were in full force against him. The Pharisees and the synagogue represented everything that was traditional and venerable in Israel, but what was all this to a man who realised that God was beginning everything after a new order, of which Christ was the Head and source? Such a one was not moved by the rejection and scorn of the religious leaders, though he might marvel at the blindness of their hearts. For him it was all clear as a sunbeam; for him things had begun entirely anew; he was in the conscious enjoyment of the results of this new departure in the ways of God, and everything now dated for him, not from tradition or even from prophets of old, but from the One who had given him sight. I think he presents a fine illustration of one “holding fast the Head”. Consciously in blessings of an entirely new order, he was fully prepared to accept reproach and rejection at the hands of those who would maintain what was now an empty shell — a system of things entirely given up by God. We may be sure that these religious leaders after the flesh altogether discredited themselves in the estimation of this man when they said, “we know that this man is sinful”, and again “We know not whence he is”. No act of wickedness could have so discredited them as having any title to set forth the mind of God. After that I do not suppose he felt it any disgrace to be cast out of the synagogue. I rather fancy he must have been better pleased to be out than in. No doubt it was a fearful revelation to him of the state of man, but he must have felt something of what the apostle expresses when he says, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the wicked one” (1 John 5:19). He was perfectly conscious that the One who had opened his eyes was “of God”, and in having this consciousness he evidenced that he was “of God” himself. Such is the divine effect of the works of God. The subject of those works is constituted of the same order morally as the One who does them. He derives morally from the One who is “of God”. Hence we read, “which thing is true in him and in you”, John 2:8; and again, “As the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”, 1 Corinthians 15:48. As we increase “with the increase of God” (Colossians 2:19) we are formed in a wholly new state, in which everything is derived from Christ.
I think we cannot consider all this without seeing that the man to whom the question was propounded, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” was ready for it. He was ready to be conducted into the full knowledge of the blessed Person in whom everything was beginning for God. He had been travelling the path of the just, and it had been shining more and more as he went along, and now he was about to reach the “perfect day”. He was ready for the presentation to his heart of all that is expressed in the name “Son of God”. “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him?” The answer to this question brings us to the very core and centre of christianity in its divine completeness of blessing.
I cannot think of attempting to set forth anything like a full or perfect answer to this question, but it seems to me that three great and absorbing features of infinite perfection are presented in the Son of God for the contemplation, satisfaction and adoration of our hearts.
In the first place, He is the object of the Father’s delight and love. This is a statement which falls so often on our ears that we may have come to regard it as a spiritual commonplace. But who can measure the blessedness of that which it conveys? None but those who have been withdrawn from the whole crowd of seen things into the secret place of God’s rest — who have been taken apart in spirit from the moral deformity which thrusts itself upon our notice in every sphere and at every moment of mans activity — can have [p. 124] any idea what it is to be in presence of a perfection in which the heart of the Father finds changeless and eternal complacency. All believers, indeed, accept that there is a glory and beauty beyond compare in the Son of God, but how few are filled with absorbing desire to behold that beauty, and with the energy of a holy decision that will “seek after” this “one thing”, (Psalm 27:4.) Indeed, it is lamentable how little our hearts are moved by the wondrous divine thoughts which are being continually presented in one way or another to our minds.
“This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. I can conceive nothing more calculated to attract the heart than this. That the Father should place within the reach of our apprehension that in which He finds eternal complacency and satisfaction is an action of His love which calls forth, surely, the deepening wonder and adoration of our hearts. To contemplate the glory of such a Person — a glory as of an only-begotten with a father — is one of the choicest gifts that ineffable love could bestow upon its subjects. To trace out the moral perfections which necessarily attach to such a Person, to apprehend His divine greatness, to see the motive and the manner of His every action, to appreciate the fulness of grace and truth that subsisted livingly in Him and was expressed in all His words and ways, to learn the precious and divine affections that constituted the inner life of His spirit and out of which everything flowed in holy obedience and absolute devotedness to God — in a word, to know Him — is the present and inexhaustible joy and delightful occupation of everyone in whom “the works of God” are perfected: that is, of those who have eyes to appreciate what is so exceedingly fair to God. The perpetual wonder is that we are not more absorbed with such perfections, and in result abstracted and alienated from the vileness and imperfection of man after the flesh and his world. The second great thought which is prominent in connection [p. 125] with the Son of God is that it is in Him the Father is revealed. We see in the Son of God the perfect revelation of God as the sovereign source of good and of infinite blessing for man. The One who dwelt in the intimacy of His love — in the bosom of the Father — alone was competent to reveal Him in all the activity of His nature of holy love. The knowledge of God must ever be the highest blessedness of His intelligent creatures. And how much it means to us in whom evil has had its place and way! All the proper links of man as having a spirit are with God, and his true blessedness is to be with God. But sin has so corrupted man that what is properly characteristic of him — viz, his spirit — is either brought, as in false religions, under the influence of demons, or it is quite thrown into the background, so that man is simply controlled by his own selfish lusts. Through infinite grace, by the renewing of the Holy Spirit and as formed in the divine nature, we are made competent to share the portion of the saints in light, to have the knowledge of God in a far more blessed way than would have been possible in a world of innocence. For moral questions of infinite depth have been raised in connection with which all the attributes of God have come into display, and in the solution of which His nature has disclosed itself, so that the full “glory of the blessed God” may now be known by those who were in the darkness and alienation of sin. And to whom do we turn for this wondrous revelation? To the Son of God, in whom it has all come out, the Light of men, the One in whose face now shines every ray of the divine glory.
God grant that the greatness of this revelation may more affect our hearts. May we, indeed, “turn aside and see this great sight”! May we know more of what it is to behold the glory of that unveiled face!
One more thought in connection with the Son of God, and then I must conclude. He is the One in whom everything is established for God. “For the Son of God, Jesus [p. 126] Christ, he who has been preached by us among you ... . did not become yea and nay, but yea is in him. For whatever promises of God there are, in him is the yea, and in him the amen, for glory to God by us”. (2 Corinthians 1:19, 20). We are sufficiently familiar, I think, with the man in whom is the nay to appreciate the contrast which is thus suggested to our hearts. We have learned in scripture and in our own experience something of the utter moral ruin and worthlessness of a man who is the constant negation of God’s will and pleasure. But in the Son of God we find One of whom it can be said, “Yea is in him”, and this not only as to His personal perfection, but as to the whole circle of divine pleasure and purpose. Everything has broken down in connection with man according to the flesh, but everything is established in the Son of God. The most pious and conscientious believer is the one who will have the deepest sense of his own imperfection. He will have a profound consciousness that his house is “not so before God”; and this is the necessary and divine preparation for entering into an intelligent appreciation of “an everlasting covenant, Ordered in every way and sure”, according to the terms of which everything is established in another Person, who becomes “all my salvation and every desire”. (2 Samuel 23:5.) Our hearts are thus disengaged from every kind of secret wish to connect the blessing of God with ourselves as in the flesh. We are set in the presence of One in whom all is established without a shade of imperfection. This is the line of .”the works of God”. His great work is to establish us in Christ in the power of a holy anointing which is divinely effective to this end.
Christ thus becomes practically everything to our hearts, all our salvation and all our desire. We delight to forget the things which are behind — things creditable to us as in the flesh, but in which everything carried the stamp of imperfection — and to press on after Christ. “The excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” shines in [p. 127] such divine lustre before the awakened affections, that the heart esteems all other excellence and beauty as worthless filth. “That I may gain Christ, and that I may be found in him”, “to know him”, become the ardent breathings of the soul, and the one cherished desire of the heart. Such is christianity in its true moral power. Such is the divine Person who is presented to opened eyes. “Thou hast both seen him, and he that speaks with thee is he”.
“And he said, I believe Lord: and he did him homage”. In John’s Gospel believing is a matter of the affections; it is that which attaches to the divine nature. It is in the divine nature that we have capacity to know the Son of God. He becomes the object of those new and divine affections which are wrought by “the works of God” in men. It is not that we trust Him to do this or that for us, but He becomes the engrossing object of the heart’s interest and affection. That is, He has His own knit to Him in ties of bridal affection. (John 3:29.)
That but few have reached this wondrous goal of the soul’s history must be sorrowfully admitted, but not less on this account does it shine before our hearts as the only adequate consummation of the present purpose of God. It is certain that all “the works of God” in human souls are to secure this great end. The Father works for it in the drawings and teachings of His gracious power. The Holy Spirit ever moves in this direction. “The servant took Rebecca and went away” (Genesis 24:61.) We may be sure that that way led to Isaac. Of Rebecca it is said that she “followed the man”. May we with the same whole-hearted decision follow our Eliezer to the true Isaac — the Son of the Father’s love! All grace and gifts and ministries are to this end, “until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God”. (Ephesians 4:13.) May God awaken and maintain in our hearts, and in the hearts of all His beloved children, a profound interest and exercise as to this great purpose of His [p. 128] love! May He graciously deliver us from mean and commonplace thoughts of the scope of christian blessing! May He deliver us from what is merely doctrinal and intellectual, and engage our hearts with increasing fervour of affection with His beloved Son!