NOTES OF A READING
NOTES OF A READING
CAC It is of the utmost importance that we should know the greatness of the One who has expressed God to us. None of the prophets could have been spoken of as “the Word”; they were channels of communication by which God made known certain things according to His pleasure, and none of them expressed God. In knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as “the Word” we regard Him as the One in whom God has been perfectly expressed. All that God is morally and in His nature has been expressed and expressed to men. If we think of that rightly we must be conscious that no one was competent to do it but One who was Himself God.
In the first three verses we see divine Persons in Their own sphere. We learn the eternal Deity of the Lord Jesus, and His distinct Personality in the Godhead, and we see Him as the universal Creator: everything received being through Him. These are great realities which are intended to be the subject of reverent contemplation and adoration. The Spirit of God would, in the first place, engage us with the greatness of the Person in whom God has been expressed; that gives infinite value to all that He said and to all He did and, we might add, to all that He gives; His greatness covers all with divine glory.
In verse 4 men come into view. “In him was life and the life was the light of men”. As light He is the object for faith (verse 7). All the light of God has come into a scene of utter darkness and death, for verse 4 is evidently relative to death and darkness.
“All things received being through him”. As Creator He acted “in the form of God”; we are told He subsisted “in the form of God” (Philippians 2:6), and as in that form He was the universal Creator. But now in the same Person as Man God has introduced life, and has introduced it as light for men.
It is rather remarkable that the condition in which the Lord came is not mentioned until verse 14. I think the Spirit of God would, in the first place, call our attention to what was there morally, and to the greatness of the Person Himself before He dwelt upon the condition into which the Person came. It is most important for us to get a right thought about the greatness of the Person, otherwise the condition into which He came might belittle Him, for He became flesh; He was here in man’s lowly guise and dwelt among men. We need to have a most exalted thought of the Person before we think of the condition into which He came, “The Word became flesh”. But the Spirit dwells first on what was there morally in Him before He speaks precisely of the condition in which it was expressed. A divine Person came into a new condition, as becoming Man, but His Person remained unchanged and unchangeable.
The life would not have become the light of men if He had not become a Man, but it is striking that John does not begin by saying He became flesh. It is helpful to see how the Spirit enlarges upon the glory of the Person before He speaks of the condition into which that Person came. We see all through this gospel the essential glory of the Person brought into view; we get it in such a word as “Before Abraham was, I AM”. There His essential Personality comes out, what He ever was, however lowly the condition into which He came. This gospel was written to give us great thoughts of the Lord viewed mediatorially, but in order to do that we must have great thoughts of Him personally. What He was personally gave character, fulness and blessedness to everything He became [p. 28] mediatorially. I believe the present exercises which the Spirit of God is promoting among the saints are to that end. The Spirit is ever faithful to His mission; the Lord said of Him, “He shall glorify me”. The Spirit could never detract from Him, or give Him any place that is less than His proper place.
Ques Why are we so ignorant of all this?
CAC I suppose on account of the presence of darkness. Every one of us began in absolute darkness, without a single ray of light in our souls as to God. But now, while the Son of God has become light to us, that does not mean that all the darkness has gone on our side. John says in his epistle “the darkness is passing” — not passed but passing — “and the true light already shines”. It is very much like a dissolving view, one picture going and another coming. The light is coming in and the darkness going; every ray of the light which comes in means more of the darkness going out. All our imperfections as to knowledge and as to apprehension and as to adoration arise from the presence still in our souls of elements of darkness. The great value of this gospel is that it brings before us absolute light in the Person of the Son of God, and in contemplating Him we get outside every shade of darkness. He could say, “I am come into the world as light” (chapter 12:46), and “As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world” (chapter 9:5). There was in Him the absolute shining of divine light without a single obscuring element. The only place that the greatest servant can have is to bear witness concerning the light. According to the measure in which we have apprehended the light we can bear witness to it. Darkness is ignorance of God; God unknown by an intelligent creature is terrible darkness. Men’s minds have become enshrouded in more than Egyptian darkness that shuts out from them the true knowledge of God. Now God has brought in light so that all darkness might be [p. 29] dispelled from our hearts and that we might live in the light of what God is. The natural man is so completely dark that he cannot apprehend the light. “The light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not”. The darkness spoken of here is so positive in its character that if the brightest light is brought in it makes no difference. There is nothing like that in nature; however dark a place is, if a light is brought in the darkness goes; but this moral darkness is so intense that not even the brightest light affects it one bit, so there must be a work of God in man if he is to appreciate the light.
Ques Would you explain “In him was life”?
CAC Life was there in that Person and it was in Him as light for men. It is helpful as giving the clue to the way John speaks of life; he first speaks of it objectively. It is life in a sense in which it can be light for men; it can shine on men.
The opening chapters of Genesis help us as to the great primary thoughts of God. We can see there that God’s thought was to have a world characterised by the presence of light and instinct with life. In the first two chapters living and life are mentioned seven times, indicating that God, being Himself a living God, must have a living universe. “Living souls” are mentioned six times in the first two chapters of Genesis. And then when God created Adam and Eve He said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”. That introduced the family idea as being capable of vast expansion. God’s primary thoughts are His greatest thoughts; He is not like man. Man begins with immature thoughts which gradually develop, but God begins with the greatest and most complete thoughts. Genesis 1 gives the thought of a scene where there is light, and which is full of the evidence of life. And then in relation to man the first thought God gives expression to is a family thought; He enjoins on [p. 30] Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. They were to fill the earth with a human family. These thoughts come out very distinctly in John’s gospel — light, life and a family of children for God.
It has pleased God from eternity to think of men; and Scripture shows us that though God has mighty hosts of intelligent beings in heavenly regions, beings of exalted character, and who have never fallen, yet no creatures that God ever brought into being have the place with Him that men have. Wisdom’s delights were with the sons of men. God has never given us a thought that His delights were with angels. Think of the greatness of God, and that He should bind up the delights of His heart with creatures like you and me! Does it not bow the soul in adoration? We are filled with reverential appreciation of the blessedness of God in His nature!
God would bring in life for men in the glorious Person spoken of in John 1:1 - 3, and it is in the knowledge of God made known in love that we have life. If we entered into the thought that God in love had found delight in us, and has eternally planned that we should find most wonderful blessing in the knowledge of Himself as love, that would be life in our souls. “The life was the light of men”; it gives one a living thought of light. J.N.D. expressed in one of his hymns: ‘And who that glorious blaze of living light can tell?’ (79:7). It is the light of God Himself known as love; everything that He could express of Himself was expressed in His beloved Son and it was expressed in a living way. “In him was life”, and it was expressed so as to become light for men. Life is light, as J.N.D.’s note to his Translation says, as equivalent, one equal to the other; you could turn it round and say the light was life.
Ques How is life objective?
CAC Life consists in certain conditions that can be enjoyed; if you could take away from me all happy [p. 31] conditions there would not be much left that could be spoken of as “life”. I might still exist, but that is not life. Our human life consists in surroundings and associations and the system of affections in which we move; our life is in these things. Now life is brought in here in that way; it is brought in as being the expression to us of what God is in His nature and His character so that it may be life to us; not merely light but that we may live in it. “He that hath the Son hath life”. The great controversy about eternal life in 1890 turned on that. Some wanted to think they had eternal life in themselves, and they were not pleased to have their attention called to the fact that eternal life was in a blessed divine Person, the Son of God. It was to be known and enjoyed there.
Ques Does the thought of God and men come into view here before the thought of relationship?
CAC Yes, and it leads to relationship, the family thought, as in verse 13. But, before the family thought is introduced we have the basis of it in the knowledge of God in love. If we do not know God in love, we shall not touch the family thought. Knowing God in love is the start, and the light of the love of God has come to us in His Son. As receiving Him by believing on His name we have right to take the place of children of God; thus the family thought is brought to pass.
What is brought to us in the Son of God is eternal in its character; it is unassailable by the power of evil or death. “In him was life” suggests that something is brought in which the power of death cannot touch. God has introduced a new Head and in that new Head is life. We do not connect the thought of life with ourselves or our experience, but with a living Person in whom it is.
Rem “That we might live through him”, 1 John 4:9.
CAC Yes, that is it exactly. The wonderful consideration of God comes out in the fact that the light [p. 32] becomes the subject of witness — verses 6, 7 and 8 refer to that. It brings out the consideration of God for men. Why should God give witness to the light? It is in pure consideration for men. He would not send the light into the world without heralding it; He would not let it break, as it were, unexpectedly on man. He would make it a subject of witness. So “There was a man sent from God, his name John. He came for witness, that he might witness concerning the light, that all might believe through him”. Think of the consideration of it! God specially sending a man to bear witness of the light. The light was to be the object of faith and God in His consideration was pleased to call attention to it by witness being borne to it, even a human witness, specially sent for that purpose. Chapter 5 in this gospel brings out very fully the thought of the Son of God being the subject of witness. John, the Father, the works and the Scriptures are all brought in as witness. The thought of witness is very affecting because it shows how the blessed God would consider for us in our condition, and would actually take pains to draw our attention to the light in a definite systematic way. John came to be witness in a peculiar way; it was not given to any other prophet to bear witness to Christ here on earth; it was reserved for John to point Him out; he was allowed that wonderful place of honour. People who received John’s testimony could say afterwards that all that John spoke of Him was true. What a blessed testimony! There was a unique character about John’s testimony; it was different from anything that had gone before; it stood in immediate relation to Christ the Son of God as actually present on earth.
Rem The thought of sending is very prominent in this gospel.
CAC Yes, sent is a very characteristic word of this gospel; I think it occurs about forty times. It is a mediatorial word; wherever you find the word “sent” you may [p. 33] conclude at once that it is in a mediatorial connection. The relations that subsist between the Sender and the sent One are not relations of absolute equality; they imply authority on the part of the Sender and subjection and obedience on the part of the sent One; so the word “sent” is mediatorial. You could not connect the word “sent” with the essential and eternal glory of the Son of God; it belongs to His mediatorial glory. The Lord’s own words make it clear; He says in this gospel, “the bondman is not greater than his lord, nor the sent greater than he who has sent him”, John 13:16. There is a similar relationship between the sender and the sent as there is between the lord and the bondman. There is subordination to the will of another in the idea of the word “sent”. Now the Lord as in that place is in the mediatorial place; it is not the place of His proper personal and eternal glory, but the place of His mediatorship as the sent One. I take that to be of vital importance to apprehend. “Whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world”; such statements bring out the mediatorial glory of the Lord in a wonderful way. They bring out the place into which He has come, not to do His own will, but to declare God — the place of service and obedience. Whenever you read the word “sent”, think of the Lord’s words in chapter 13 that the sent One is not greater than He who sent Him. As the sent One He could say, “My Father is greater than I”, John 14:28. He would not say that in regard to His eternal personality; He was co-equal in glory and majesty with the other Persons in the Godhead. This lies at the root of a great deal that is in controversy at the present time. We need to be exercised to understand the difference between His Personal glory which never changes, and never can change; “who is over all, God blessed for ever” (Romans 9:5), and His mediatorial glory as the sent One; the subject One who came to do the will of the One who sent Him.
[p. 34] Rem Before He was sent was there a movement on His part as a divine Person?
CAC Yes; we find that in Philippians 2: 5 - 7. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus; who, subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God; but emptied himself, taking a bondman’s form, taking his place in the likeness of men”. That is what He did Himself; taking a bondman’s form was His own act as a divine Person. But having taken that form He ever acted according to the truth of the place He had taken. He never acted from His own will, He was the obedient One. His coming down from heaven was His own act, but He came down to be here in the subject place, not to do His own will but the will of the One who sent Him. The two things are ever distinguished, though in John’s gospel His personal glory and His mediatorial glory are interwoven and blended; so that we find them, as it were, side by side, yet they are perfectly distinguishable. When He says, “I am come down” (John 6:38), that is His own sovereign act; but what did He come down for? “Not that I should do my will but the will of him that has sent me” — that is the servant position. You see how closely the two run together, but they are clearly distinguishable.
By His own act He emptied Himself and took a bondman’s form. We think of Him now as the glorious and glorified Man. There was no more humiliation after He had completed the work which was given Him to do. He was raised triumphant by the glory of the Father, and after displaying the power of resurrection during forty days, He ascended and was, as Paul tells us, “received up in glory”, 1 Timothy 3:16. There He is at God’s right hand, glorified at the right hand of the greatness on high; His humiliation is for ever past. He will be the subject One eternally. It will be His eternal glory to be placed in [p. 35] subjection. Our Lord having taken up mediatorial glory will never divest Himself of it. He will wear it through God’s eternity. But every creature who knows Him in that subject place will worship Him as God over all, blessed for ever! His personal glory and His mediatorial glory will blend throughout eternal ages. What a Person to know and love and serve! May the Lord help us to see more of His glory!