NOTES OF A READING
NOTES OF A READING
CAC It is important that we should think much of the Lord as coming into the world as light. John does not occupy us with what we have been or done but he regards us as being naturally in a condition of darkness. Whether we have been good or bad, as men might judge, we have all been in complete darkness as to God. “Ye were once darkness” (Ephesians 5:8), Paul says to the gentile Ephesians. This is a deep matter for it brings out the real state of man as away from God through the fall. Whether a man may be good or bad, judged by human standards, makes very little difference if he does not know God. We do need the forgiveness of sins, and to have our burdens lifted, but a deeper question is that we were darkness and we needed light.
Ques Is it like, “God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”, 2 Corinthians 4:6?
CAC Yes, that is light, giving the knowledge of God. What we see in John 1 is that light has come to men in the way of grace, and it shines for every man. That is the force of verse 9, “The true light was that which, coming into the world, lightens every man”. It shone for every man; it was not restricted or limited to the Jew. The Lord says, “I am come into the world as light”. Our knowledge of God depends on receiving light; we have no knowledge of Him in any other way. God has not only sent light, but in His grace and consideration for men He has provided witness to the light. John came for witness,
[p. 50] and God has given many witnesses to the light, every witness in Scripture is to Christ, and all the light of God is in Him.
Ques Is there any difference between light and revelation?
CAC Light is that there is illumination for men so that they may know the true character of God. It is a public shining, whereas revelation would seem to be rather what is communicated individually. See Matthew 11:25, 27; Matthew 16:17. God has shone out as made known in love, and there is no need now for any man to be in darkness.
Ques Does that explain the difference between “God is light” and God “is in the light”?
CAC “God is light” is a marvellous message heard from Him; “In Him is no darkness at all”. And now He “is in the light”; that is, He is not hidden behind clouds and in thick darkness. He is made known in love through His beloved Son. That is the light in which christians walk. We walk in the light of God made known in love. There is no other light in which to walk, and it has come to us mediatorially in the Person of the Lord Jesus.
Ques What is the meaning of “out of darkness light should shine”, 2 Corinthians 4:6?
CAC That is a reference to Genesis 1. The first speaking of God in creation was that there should be light, and there was light. When all was universal darkness God spoke; He commanded that light should be, and light was. Saul of Tarsus was in complete darkness without a ray of light as to God; but the same God, who commanded light to be at the beginning of creation, shone in Saul’s heart for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It shone in Paul’s heart that it might shine forth through the gospel to the nations. The great thing that men need is light as to God, but what men call light is often the grossest darkness. When God [p. 51] commanded that out of darkness light should shine, it did shine without the darkness contributing anything to it. It is like that in the souls of men. There is darkness and then suddenly light as to God comes. Though the light is there all the time yet it needs an operation of God in the soul to enable men to perceive it. The state of the world was darkness and light came into it, but the darkness was so dense and impenetrable that it did not apprehend the light. That shows that no amount of light that God can give will meet the case. If God sends the greatest light possible, men do not apprehend it. The darkness cannot and will not apprehend it.
Rem I suppose we have no idea of the tremendous darkness in which we once were.
CAC I am sure we have a very feeble sense of the terrible character of the fall, and therefore we have a feeble sense of the intervention of God in reference to it. We see here, “He was in the world and the world had its being through him and the world knew him not”. The world did not know its Creator. There is nothing in man to build on; he is lost and dead; there is not a pulsation in the natural man that answers to God. We have to face that; it is a solemn reality. Man is lost and dead in darkness. Even if God gives man religious privileges, as He did to the Jews, we read in verse 11 that “He came to his own, and his own received him not”. That identifies the Lord Jesus with Jehovah. In Him Jehovah came to “his own”, to a people He had been educating, teaching, dealing with in His discipline and government for two thousand years! He came to them and they would not receive Him. Jehovah came into the world, and the people He had nurtured and cared for would not receive Him. They were men with all the religious advantages that God could give them; and man is not a bit better today than he was then. So if we had not the next verse the thing would be altogether [p. 52] hopeless, but the next verse brings in the thought of an operation of God whereby men are born of God and that is the only thing that will meet the case.
At the present time God is working in sovereign love so that there may be persons who will receive the light. If this mighty secret working of God did not take place all would be hopeless, notwithstanding light being given to men. But if the world does not know Him and His own will not receive Him, there are those who do receive Him because they are born of God. No one receives the light but those who are born of God.
In John everything is seen from the divine side. Those who receive Christ as the great Light as to God are entitled to take the place of being children of God. All those who know God as made known by His Son are His children. His family thought is realised. Such are born into the family of God by His own sovereign act so as to have a nature which is of God. Such a nature welcomes every ray of light as to God, and finds the effulgence of God in His Son. It is a question here not of doing but of receiving — a question of taking in what is expressed in Christ. Men are born of God that they may take it in. The Lord constantly recognised that there was nothing to be trusted in man except what was wrought of God. He said, “No one can come to me except the Father who has sent me draw him”.
Ques Then how would you preach the gospel?
CAC What John presents is not exactly the gospel as you would preach it to sinners. You would go rather to Luke for that, and to the Acts of the Apostles to see how they preached, while the doctrine of it is in Romans 1 - Romans 5, John presents things from the side of divine sovereignty and the work of God in men.
Ques Would it not be right in preaching the gospel to announce that man is lost?
[p. 53] CAC The preaching of Christ exposes the whole state and need of man as nothing else does. I do not think we have a better idea of how to preach the gospel than the apostles had!
Ques What about new birth?
CAC It is God’s sovereign act, and it is thus in keeping with what is said here of those who receive Christ, that they are born of God. It is not that we are born of God by receiving Christ, but we are born of God in order that we may receive Christ; no one will receive Christ unless he is born of God. But to make that known is not quite the gospel. It might be right under certain circumstances to press on people that they must be born again, because we preach to people who profess to be christians, but to state that is not the gospel. The gospel is the preaching of Christ. The Acts of the Apostles is the finest college for any preacher to go to! We need to study the preaching in the Acts and see what the apostles preached. They preached Christ; they did not talk much about their hearers, but they announced the grace that was for them, and a solemn warning in case of rejecting it. The whole substance of their preaching was Christ, and we cannot improve on it. The gospel is the presentation of Christ as God’s salvation, and if we had more power to preach Christ we should see more conversions. If I have received Christ as the light of God made known in love I am entitled to take the place of one of the children of God. I have an entirely new nature by actual birth into the family of God; we come into the family of God by being born of God. It is a generative act on God’s part.
Ques Does the gospel bring that to light?
CAC Yes. When we preach Christ we find certain people deeply interested. A crowd may come to the preaching and go away like a door turning on its hinges, but among them there may be one soul intent on receiving [p. 54] light from God in Christ. Now that one is born of God, and those born of God ever retain an intense interest in divine light; they want more of the light of God. That is what brings believers together week after week, and year after year. They come together to consider the Scriptures and to hear ministry. They want more of the light of God, and it is all to be found mediatorially in His beloved Son. The ability to perceive and receive it comes through a marvellous act on God’s part — such are born of God; “not of blood” — it is not a question of natural descent. It is not because my father was a believer that I am one, and it is not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man in any shape or form. It is of God.
This Scripture looks at the thing in its completeness; the operation that brings us into the family of God is entirely of God, and the effect is that the light becomes precious; every ray of light seen in Christ is valued; we find certain persons who never lose their interest in Christ. It may be said that they are a poor lot, and it may be possible to point out many defects in them, but it is a wonderful thing to see persons in this world who never lose their interest in Christ and are always glad to get one more ray of light in Christ. This is not a question of what we do but of how we appreciate the light of God in Christ; that is far more to God than anything we can do. It is far more to God that I should appreciate His precious light in His beloved Son than that I should go as a missionary or do any other great thing. We come together on Lord’s day morning because of the intensity of our appreciation of God’s blessed Son, and because we love to respond to Him. God’s great design is that Christ shall be the Centre and Sun of a universe of bliss. He is educating us for that. People may say we are lazy and do not do what we might. No doubt that is true, and we would not excuse slothfulness in service, but it is of very great importance to get a [p. 55] right sense of relative values, and to see that our reception and appreciation of divine light in the Son of God is more to divine Persons than any service could be. If it were merely a question of work God could send twelve legions of angels who could do more in one minute than the church has done in two thousand years! But that is not what God is after; His great work is to bring light as to Himself into the hearts of men.
Ques Are the operations of God limited? Or are they for all men?
CAC Nothing is clearer in Scripture than that God’s salvation in Christ is for all men, and His Spirit strives with men in the preachings and in other ways also. But neither the salvation that is in Christ, nor the Spirit’s strivings with men will in themselves produce a result for God. We must face the fact that unless there is a work of God in man all the striving of the Spirit with men will be resisted. Stephen said, “Ye do always resist the Holy Spirit”. And man, as such, will always neglect the great salvation. But when God comes in and breaks down a man, that is divine working in the man. In Acts 2 they were pricked in their hearts and say, “What must we do?” — that was the result of a work by the Spirit in their consciences and hearts. The most wonderful preaching that ever was will effect nothing unless God works by His Spirit in men’s hearts. We are not on the side of man’s responsibility here, but a scripture like this gives us to see that if things were left to man’s responsibility alone every child of Adam’s race would be lost eternally.
To love darkness rather than light is worse than to be a murderer, thief or drunkard; it is far worse than any immoral conduct because it indicates hatred of God. It proves what Scripture says, that “the mind of the flesh is enmity against God”. The light comes in love now, and to love darkness rather than light is terrible. “This is the [p. 56] judgment, that light is come into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than light; for their works were evil”, John 3:19. The light is the light of God in love, for those words immediately follow “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”. That is light, and if men love darkness rather than light it is because their works are evil and they will be judged. At the great white throne men will be judged according to their works. God will have men to be brought to repentance and saved, and He gives light to that end, but men hate it. They do not love the light because they want to go on in sin; the secret is that their works are evil; that is they are not wrought in God. See John 3: 20,21. Nothing in man is of any value in God’s sight that is not the fruit of His own working. The gospel is a commandment, for it is God’s command that we should repent and believe on His Son Jesus Christ (Acts 17:30; 1 John 3:23). The gospel is made known according to commandment of the eternal God (Romans 16:26). If men do not believe the gospel they rebel against the authority of God. Every one who comes under the sound of the gospel, and does not believe it, is not only despising the grace and love of God, but is setting himself in defiance of the authority of God. Men would rather believe any nonsense, such as evolution, than have light from God. God has done everything to make blessing possible to men. He gives men light as to the provision He has made for their blessing. Christ is God’s salvation to the ends of the earth. He is light and salvation shining for every man, but such is the state of man’s heart relative to God that he does not care to have God’s blessing, though knowing that without it he must perish. Man hates the gospel more than he hates the law, because the law seems to give man the place of doing something, but the gospel is wholly of God. It is sad to [p. 57] think that the more God is made known to a lost creature the more is demonstrated the terrible state of alienation from Him in which that creature is found.
In verse 14 we come to the marvellous statement that the Word became flesh. It is the first mention in this gospel of the condition into which Christ came. Previously He is spoken of as the light; that is, what was there morally in Him. But now we have the condition into which He came; He has become flesh. The One who was God according to verse 1 became flesh. It is not He was made it but He became it; it was His own act as a divine Person. Becoming flesh brings before us how tangible it was. He actually came into that condition in which man lives; man lives in the flesh but He became flesh. That is essential to His mediatorship. He became flesh and dwelt among us. John presses very much the thought of His coming in flesh; he makes it the test of the antichrist. “Every spirit which does not confess Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God: and this is that power of the antichrist”, 1 John 4:3. There were many in the early days of the church who believed that the Lord was only in appearance a man. The first attack of the enemy on the truth was to assert that the Lord was only in the appearance of a man just like the Old Testament appearances of God. John meets that by saying ‘He became flesh’.
The verse now before us brings out the unique character of His flesh. He has come into man’s condition in very deed and truth. He became flesh, but it was flesh altogether different from any other flesh. It must be so if the blessed God became flesh; and His flesh must be of its own order; no other kind of flesh or humanity could be like it.