CHAPTER III: THE DOCTRINE OF ST. JOHN. [549]

THE DOCTRINE OF ST. JOHN. [549]

PAUL is, in his statement of doctrine, as in his life, the man of contrasts and antitheses. He aims to show how deep is the gulf between human nature and God, that he may the more exalt the grace which has bridged the chasm; and he traces vigorously the line of demarkation between the old covenant and the new. It is not so with John. Having attained gradually, and without any sudden shock, the highest elevation of Christian truth, he starts from the summit and gently comes down again. He does not even pause to establish the superiority of the Gospel over the law. With him that is a settled point, an admitted principle from which he deduces the consequences. John does not commence, like Paul, with man and his misery, but with God and his perfection. His doctrine, by this character of sustained elevation, and by the part assigned in it to love and to the direct intuition of divine things, bears the impress of mysticism, but of a mysticism which is essentially moral, in which the great laws of conscience are always maintained, and which is as far removed from oriental pantheism as from Pharisaic legalism. __________________________________________________________________

§ I. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

At the summit of his doctrine, St. John places the idea of God. God is the Absolute Being, the great I Am, whom no eye hath seen or can see. He is a Spirit. [550] All perfection dwells in him; he is at once life, light, and love. As he is Absolute Being, so he is Absolute, Eternal Life, the inexhaustible source, the sole principle of every thing that is. [551] But this life is at the same time light. 1 John i, 5. Light represents perfect knowledge and spotless purity. [552] God knows all things; God is holy. But John does not pause at this abstract conception of moral good. He gives us a concrete notion of it when he tells us that God is love. [553] This he is, as essentially as he is life and light. Love is not only a manifestation of his being, it is its very essence. Never before had this sublime thought been expressed with such clearness; it had been discerned only by glimpses. Under the old covenant the love of God was subordinate to his justice. Under the new, this limited view had for a long time prevailed. St. Paul insisted with much force upon the love of God, but he considered it rather in its historical manifestation for the salvation of man than in its eternal principle. It is on this eternal principle that St. John dwells. He sees in the cross not only reconciliation between man and God, but also the revelation of the true name of God, of his very being. He is love; the God who is love is the true God. 1 John v, 20. Love is so assuredly the absolute truth, that he who loveth is "of the truth." He is a partaker of the nature of God. [554] Thus truth or light is inseparable from love; it is not simple knowledge, a mere theory. St. John does not recognize the ray of light which has no flame. Truth is, as it were, full of life; it is life as it is love. It is all that God himself is. To be of the truth is to be born of God, to possess him, to be what he is; it is, therefore, to have love in one's self. The object of knowledge being the God who is love, it is natural that true knowledge should be inseparable from love.

It must not be supposed, because John dwells especially on the moral attributes of God, that he passes by in silence his metaphysical attributes. These are all comprised in the absolute life which he ascribes to God. [555] To the Apostle, love is not one of the attributes of God, it is God himself; the metaphysical attributes are the attributes of the divine love. God is holy, infinite, almighty love, knowing every thing, every-where present. John delights, therefore, to give Him the name of the Father--that wondrous name which commands at once tenderness and reverence. John i, 14, 18; 1 John iii, 1.

But how does this invisible God reveal himself? How does He who inhabits the inaccessible light communicate himself to the creature, and what can be the first object of his love? We know the response of ancient philosophy to this question. At one time, finding no means of really bringing together the Infinite Being and the changing and finite creature, it left them face to face as two eternal principles--Uncreated Spirit opposed to uncreated matter. Again it sought in the Infinite Spirit the germ of the finite and perishable being, and arrived at the second by a series of descending steps from the first. Human opinion vacillated between Platonic dualism and the oriental or Alexandrian theory of emanation. Neither of these solutions is that given by St. John. The prologue of his gospel, written distinctly in view of the false philosophies of his age, solves the delicate problem of the relation of the invisible God to the world by the doctrine of the Word-a doctrine absolutely unknown before Christianity, and which, so far from being borrowed from Philo, is in direct opposition to his system. What is here treated of is not an impersonal Word, which is only a scholastic term to designate the world, or rather, the complex of the ideas realized in the innumerable beings of which the universe is composed. [556] The prologue speaks of a Being distinct from God, and yet God as God himself. He is, like him, life and light in an absolute sense. [557] The only begotten Son dwelling in the bosom of the Father, he is the eternal object of his love. Eternal love has thus an object like itself beyond the world and time. [558] The Son calls himself the Word, because he is the perfect manifestation of the Father. He reveals him in his person, which is his express image, and becomes the organ of his revelations in the world when it pleases him to create a world. The single fact that he bears this name of the Son and the Word appears to us to imply in the doctrine of St. John, as in that of St. Paul, a relation of subordination to the Father. The Son proceeding eternally from the Father is, in comparison with him, eternally in the relation of him who is begotten to him who begets. Their nature is identical because of this very relationship. He is God with God, but he is God begotten of God from all eternity. [559] He may nevertheless truly say, "I and my Father are one." [560]

After the Son and the Father, John recognizes a third Divine Person--the Holy Spirit, who is sent to the Church by the Father and the Son. John xiv, 26; xv, 26. This Spirit speaks of those things which he has heard. John xvi, 13. Here the subordination is evident. Some have even gone so far as to question the personality of the Holy Spirit, on the ground of certain expressions which seem to contradict it; but the offices attributed to him, such as teaching, consoling, the guidance of the Church, imply a personal existence. This fact appears to us to come out distinctly from the writings of St. John, though we may not be able to deduce from them a clear and complete statement of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. [561] __________________________________________________________________

[550] theo`n oudei`s eo'raken po'pote. John i, 18; iv, 24.

[551] He zoe` aio'nios. 1 John v, 20.

[552] Ginoskei panta. 1 John iii, 20. Hagnos esti. 1 John iii, 3.

[553] Ho Theo`s aga'pe esti'n. 1 John iv, 16.

[554] Pas o agapon ek tou Theou gege'nnetai kai` gino'skei to`n Theo'n. 1 John iv, 7.

[555] "The Father hath life in himself." John v, 26.

[556] See our exposition of Philo's doctrine in "The Life and Times of Jesus Christ."

[557] Ho lo'gos en pro`s to`n Theo'n, kai` Theo`s en o lo'gos. John i, 1.

[558] ?En auto zoe` en. John i, 4.

[559] Ho monogenes huios, o o`n eis to`n ko'lpon tou patro`s. John i,
18. M. Reuss sees in this passage only the idea of the free existence, not of the eternity, of the Word. But is not this eternity implied in the divinity so clearly recognized in the Word by St. John?

[560] Compare John v, 43; vii, 28; viii, 42. According to Fromman, neither the Father nor the Son alone constitutes the Deity. Just as the idea of the State is only realized by the co-existence of the governing and the governed, so the idea of the Deity is only realized by the co-existence of the Father and the Son, necessary to the relation of absolute love. (See Fromman's explanation of the prologue of St. John.) This analogy with the State is not happy, for the relations between the Son and the Father bear no parallel to those between the governing and the governed. But it may reasonably be said that there are ideas involved of complex elements, and of several agents, which are only realized by their co-existence.

[561] God himself is called a Spirit. John iv, 24. Mention is made of more than one Spirit. 1 John iv, 1, 2; compare John vii, 39, ou'po ga`r en Pneuma hagion, and John xx, 22. See Reuss, work quoted, vol. ii, pp. 413-432. __________________________________________________________________

§ II. The Word and the World.

The existence of the Eternal Word establishes the divine freedom, for in him absolute love finds its perfect realization.

God is under no constraining necessity to create. If he does so, it can only be by a determination of his free love. According to St. John, the Word takes an important part in creation. As the organ of revelation, by whom alone the light, life, and love emanating from God can be communicated, "all things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made." [562]

The Word not only created the world. He already, in part, gave himself to the world: "He was in the world." [563] In truth, the moral creature derives from him all the elements of the higher life. Something was imparted to it from the Word. The Word is the "light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." [564] Thus do we find in St. John a sublime commentary on the noble utterance of St. Paul--"For we are also his offspring." In reason and conscience man has in himself an inner Word, an emanation from the Eternal Word, by which he is rendered capable of perceiving divine things and of possessing God himself. Such a conception raises us far above any dualistic notion; nor is it possible to conceive a more decided opposition than that which subsists between this doctrine and that of Philo. While John admits an essential and true harmony between human nature and the Godhead, the Alexandrian philosophy declares plainly that it is impossible for man to draw near to God.

This harmony, however, has not been sustained. John recognizes the intrusion of a principle of discord into the world. The power of sin has been let loose. He does not enter into any argument on the origin of evil. He affirms the fact and is content with proving it. A kingdom of darkness has set itself in opposition to the kingdom of light, of which God is the sun. The devil has had a great influence upon man, seducing him into evil. He is not indeed to be regarded as Ahriman the eternal, confronted with the eternal Ormuz; no, the principle of light was before the principle of evil. Satan himself was born in the light, for it is said "He abode not in the truth." [565] It is evident that John supposes a fall in his case no less than in ours, and that consequently, in the origin of things, all was light and purity as became a creation called into being by the Word. [566] The cause of evil is entirely moral. "Sin," says the Apostle, "is the transgression of the law." [567]

There is a law for the creature. It is this law which John calls the old and new commandment, the commandment of love based upon the very being of God. 1 John ii, 5-10. The destiny of the moral creature is to become like his Creator, conformed to his nature. The law implies liberty, for it appeals to the will. Sin, then, was a free violation of the law of God. The creature took part against God; that is to say, he rejected life, love, and light. Thus the world became dark from the day in which it turned from God. It is now plunged in moral night; all the higher elements are stifled in man; the outward and sensible life predominates; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life enshroud it in threefold darkness. 1 John ii, 16, 17. It is given over to a lie because it has set itself against good and love-that is, against God and the Word. Its prince is he who was a liar and murderer from the beginning, (John viii, 44,) and who, having fallen himself, has dragged after him in his descent all those who have freely, and under no external constraint, followed his suggestions. John does not assert, however, that this darkness which envelopes the world is traversed by no beam of heavenly light. Even now, the Word enlightens the human soul; all that it possesses of intelligence, of true reason, of divine consciousness, it derives from him. When he comes to man he comes to his own. [568] If the fall were total--that is to say, if all spiritual capability were dead in man--it would then be irremediable, since there could be no more any point of contact between the heart and God. But if the buried germ of the Word were not fertilized by grace, mankind would be none the less irrevocably lost. __________________________________________________________________

[562] Pa'nta di' autou ege'neto, kai` chori`s autou ege'neto oude` e'n o` ge'gonen. John i, 3.

[563] En to ko'smo en. John i, 10.

[564] En to` phos to` alethino'n, o` photi'zei pa'nta a'nthropon, ercho'menon eis to`n ko'smon. John i, 9. Notwithstanding the contrary opinion held by many learned exegetes, our translation still seems to us more in harmony with the context and with grammar. In fact, the distance between en and ercho'menon is too great for the two words to be connected. We know that the rabbis were accustomed to designate man as "him that cometh into the world." Lastly, St. John, in the verse following, speaks not of the illumination of the world by the incarnation, but of the illumination previously given to the world by the Word. Therefore it is said that when He came into the world he came "unto his own." This last expression would indeed itself suffice to establish an essential link between the Word and humanity. See the discussion of this passage in the commentaries of De Wette, Tholuck, and Lücke.

[565] En te alethei'a ouk e'steken. John viii, 44.

[566] M. Reuss (work quoted, II, 380) misconceives John's idea, when he denies that the fourth gospel represents Satan as a fallen angel. Doubtless the fall of Satan does not explain ours; we might rather say, the reverse is true. The trial through which man passed as a free creature reveals itself to us as an indispensable condition of liberty for all moral creatures.

[567] He amarti'a esti`n e anomi'a. 1 John iii, 4.

[568] Eis ta` i'dia elthen. John i, 11. __________________________________________________________________

§ III. The Word and Redemption.

The Word, which was the organ of creative love, is also the organ of the compassionate love of the Father. The whole work of salvation rests upon him. This work is twofold. It is both internal and external, for it is to effect the reconciliation and reunion of God and man. It is not enough that God should draw near to man by a series of revelations; it is also necessary that man should be inclined toward God. In truth, that he may come to the fountain of living waters, man must be athirst. John vii, 37. He must be born from above in order to receive the Redeemer, who comes down from heaven. Only " he who is of God heareth the words of God." John viii, 23-49. The voice of the Good Shepherd is known only by his sheep. John x, 27. In other words, the soul must have recovered the sense of divine things, and there must be an affinity between it and the truth, in order that it may come to the light.

This religious aptitude, this pre-existing and necessary harmony between the conscience and the Gospel, John calls the drawing of the Father. John vi, 44. To arouse within the soul this thirst after God, to develop this infinite desire, is the inward work of the Word. Thus he is not satisfied with communicating the higher life of the soul to every man that cometh into the world. He sustains, nourishes, and developes this higher life, and shines into the darkness of every soul.
[569] He scrupulously respects, however, the sacred rights of free will--for man's return to God, like his departure from him, must be a moral act. The light which is in us may be relumed or wholly extinguished, according to the attitude we assume toward the revelations given to the world. If man plunges into sin his mind becomes wholly dark, and thus he repels the light, "because his deeds are evil." If, on the other hand, he seeks to do the will of God, if he fosters the love of truth and of good, he comes to the light, [570] and he recognizes it as it beams on him with gentle radiance. "If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." John vii, 17. The rejection of the light is a determination of the will. "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life." [571] Thus we find in the inner work of the Word the two poles of the moral world--grace and free will.

But this work within is not enough. To the infinite need of the soul there must be a corresponding infinite satisfaction. It returns to God: God must return to it. A positive revelation is necessary. John, like Paul, distinguishes two successive revelations. The first has only a preparatory value, it is but twilight; its rays proceed indeed from the Word, as all light does, but they only herald his appearance. "The law came by Moses," says John, "but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
[572] Thus the Apostle solves without discussion the great question which had excited so much controversy. The law was but the shadow of salvation; the new covenant, by communicating to man the grace and pardon of God, alone gives the substance of the good promised to humanity; it alone lifts him into that full light of truth which is inseparable from love. This was to proclaim the abrogation of the Mosaic covenant in unmistakable terms. John does not fail, however, to recognize its divine character. In the fourth gospel Jesus Christ appeals to Moses; (John v, 46;) he declares that "salvation is of the Jews," thus connecting his work with the whole series of antecedent revelations. [573] Like the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, but with far greater depth of argument, St. John establishes the superiority of the new covenant by the incomparable superiority of its foundation. The last and the greatest Prophet of the old covenant was not himself "that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light, that all men through him might believe." John i, 6-8. Jesus Christ, on the other hand, is the true light; he is that Word who is "God with God," the "Word made flesh." [574] He is not sent, like John the Baptist, that all men through him might believe, but that all might believe in him. He is the object of faith. Did he not say, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life?" John xiv, 6.

While St. Paul dwelt especially on the work wrought by the Saviour, St. John insists mainly on his nature. The incarnation is, in his view, the capital truth of Christianity. It is not only the necessary condition of redemption, it is the permanent condition of salvation. The proclamation of pardon is only the preliminary and initiative of salvation. For a man to be saved is to possess God--that is, to possess light, life, and truth; and as in the incarnate Word humanity appears closely and indissolubly united to deity, so it is by union with him that salvation is fully realized.

The incarnation thus regarded has an entirely new significance. Instead of being a pallid ray, which sinful man discerns quivering amid his thick darkness, it places him in the fullness of light; it restores him to his normal condition. Created by the Word, and for the Word, in the light and for the light, he was destined to walk in the full light of God. The incarnation is the true consummation of creation, while it is at the same time the only effectual reparation of the fall. We know with what emphasis St. John insists upon the reality of the incarnation in opposition to the heresies of his time, which, by a spurious spiritualism, regarded the body of the Saviour as a sort of delusive semblance. "Every spirit," he says, "that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." [575] Writing his gospel and epistles in presence of those dualistic tendencies which identified evil with the corporeal element, he felt himself called upon to magnify this glorious aspect of the incarnation. He does not dwell upon the humiliation of Christ as St. Paul does; but there is no contradiction on this point between the two Apostles. [576] If the glory of the only-begotten Son of the Father is apparent to John through the vail of mortal flesh, that glory is nevertheless revealed in shrouded splendor. He shows us Jesus Christ as subject to the weaknesses and suffering conditions of human life: he is weary, he groans, he weeps, he dies. This death is undoubtedly a lifting up, in a spiritual point of view, [577] and it was important to prove this in contradiction to Cerinthus, who regarded his death as only illusory. St. John gives emphasis to the truth that it is both glorious and real: "this is he that came by blood." But death is still death--that is, the depth of humiliation. The Saviour, as we read in the fourth gospel, prays before working his miracles. John xi, 41, 42. He is not, then, in possession of omnipotence on earth as in heaven. He is subject to a certain abasement; but he is subject to it voluntarily; it is an act of his divine freedom. The Son has power to lay down his life, and has power to take it again; [578] thus, in our aspect, he is glorious in his humiliation. Yet more, to the Apostle of love the highest glory is that which comes from love. For him, as for Pascal, this is the supreme order of greatness. Thus regarded, what glory can be compared with the glory of Him who gave his life for his brethren on the accursed tree?

St. John does not enlarge upon the incarnation itself. There is no trace in his writings of scholastic theories. He does not formally distinguish two natures in Jesus Christ. He is content with affirming that the Word was made flesh, and with showing how deeply his human nature was penetrated with the nature of God. In the eyes of John human nature has a divine capacity or potentiality. Est capax divinitatis. Jesus Christ is distinguished from all other men as the "only-begotten Son of the Father," who is like the Father, and, one with Him, [579] not only by virtue of his holiness, which is without blemish, [580] but by virtue of his origin--that is to say, he is God in a metaphysical as well as in a moral sense.

If the redemptive work of Christ is not fully brought out by St. John under all its aspects, it would be a grave error to see in it simply a revelation of the love of God. Such a revelation would be untrue and incomplete if it were not in harmony with the demands of justice, which are also the requirements of the human conscience. St. John is very far from ignoring this important aspect of Christianity. He ascribes a redeeming virtue to the Saviour's death. He died for us. [581] "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world." [582] Writing after St. Paul he uses expressions the meaning of which was already clearly defined. The importance which he attaches to the death of Jesus Christ, the necessity which he so clearly recognizes of appropriating him by faith, of eating his flesh, and drinking his blood, [583] all show that John discerns in him the sacred victim, who offers the sacrifice of perfect love. But he never separates the redeeming virtue of the blood of the cross from its purifying efficacy. The moral aspect is inseparable from the judicial, and is throughout St. John's writings most prominently advanced. [584] We are bound, moreover, to set all the particular points of John's doctrine in the light of his central and dominant principle, which is expressed in the words: "God is love." This love is a holy love, which demands satisfaction for wrong committed, and a penitent retractation on the part of mankind; but it knows nothing of vengeance. The crucifixion, as represented by John, is not an infinite compensation for an infinite crime. For him also, as for St. Paul, the cross is only the consummation of redemption. The entire life of the incarnate Word is comprehended in the redeeming work. The free sacrifice of love began to be offered from the time of his coming into the world, and at the very opening of his ministry John the Baptist pointed to him as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. John i, 29. The indwelling divine light shines forth with softened luster throughout the whole course of his life. His miracles are but rays more intense and sensible, revealing to men the existence of the sun within; but it is most of all the pure brightness radiating from his entire nature,, his ideal holiness, the heavenly love impressed on all his words and actions, which rekindles in human hearts the sparks of the higher life.
[585] The death of Christ is the culminating point of his redeeming work, for it is, first, the supreme surrender, the highest form of sacrifice; and next, it is the necessary condition of the diffusion of salvation. The love of the Word cannot be spread broadly over the world if it is not set free from all that is local and restricted as to space and time in its manifestation upon earth. "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." John xii, 24.

We thus understand the Master's words to his disciples: "It is expedient for you that I go away." [586] From the heaven to which he has returned he sends the Divine Comforter, the invisible and almighty Paraclete, who makes his presence real to his people; and in the abode of glory he carries on, by his intercession, his office of Mediator with the Father. [587]

Such is the work of the Word for the restoration of the world which he created, and which he thus morally re-creates by imparting himself to fallen man in a fullness greater than any to which man could have dared to aspire even in the days of his integrity. __________________________________________________________________

[569] Kai` to` phos en te skoti'a phai'nei. John i, 5.

[570] ?Pas ga`r o phau?la pra'sson, misei to` phos kai` ouk e'rchetai pro`s to` phos, i'na me` elenchthe? ta` e'rga autou. Ho de` poion te`n ale'theian e'rchetai pro`s to` phos. John iii, 20, 21.

[571] Ou the'lete. John v. 40.

[572] Ho no'mos dia` Mouse'os edo'the, e cha'ris kai` e ale'theia dia` Iesou Christou ege'neto. John i, 17.

[573] He soteri'a ek ton Ioudai'on. John iv, 22.

[574] Ho lo'gos sa`rx ege'neto. John i, 14.

[575] Pan pneuma o` omologei Iesoun Christo`n en sarki` elelutho'ta ek tou Theou estin. 1 John iv, 2, 3.

[576] We cannot accept M. Reuss' idea on this point. He maintains that from St. John's stand-point the humiliation of the Word is inconceivable.

[577] Hupsousthai. John iii, 14.

[578] Exousi'an e'cho theinai aute`n, kai` exousi'an e'cho pa'lin labein aute'n. John x, 18.

[579] ?Ego` kai` o pate`r e'n esmen. John x, 30.

[580] Erchetai ga`r o tou ko'smou a'rchon; kai` en emoi` ouk e'chei oude'n. John xiv, 30.

[581] Ho poime`n o kalo`s te`n psuche`n autou ti'thesin upe`r ton proba'ton. John x, 11.

[582] Auto`s ilasmo's esti peri` ton amartion emon, ou peri` ton emete'ron de` mo'non, alla` kai` peri` o'lou tou ko'smou. 1 John ii, 2.

[583] John vi, 53. Compare 1 John v, 6.

[584] To` haima Iesou Christou tou uiou autou kathari'zei emas apo` pa'ses amarti'as. 1 John i, 7. Compare iii, 5.

[585] Jesus Christ distinguishes between a faith based upon his holiness and a faith based upon his miracles; and he places the former on a higher level than the latter. "If I do not the works of my Father," he says, "believe me not; but if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works." John x, 37, 38. In other words, you ought to believe me because of my obedience to my Father, and my holiness; if not, believe me at least because of my miracles.

[586] Sumphe'rei umin i'na ego` ape'ltho. John xvi, 7.

[587] Para'kleton e'chomen pro`s to`n pate'ra. 1 John ii, 1. __________________________________________________________________

§ IV. The Word in the Christian and in the Church until the end of time.

Love being the primary idea in the doctrine of John, and that which gives color to all the rest, we may expect that he will attach great importance to the appropriation of salvation by the individual. Love in fact supposes reciprocity. It is in vain that God has love enough for man to pardon him--it is in vain that the Word has become incarnate, and offered the redeeming sacrifice--if this infinite love obtains no response on earth. We have already seen that the Word prepares every man to receive eternal life by vivifying the divine germ within him. This includes the whole preparatory work of grace, and it is during this process, which is often gradual and prolonged, that the capacity for receiving divine things becomes enlarged or contracted. On the first contact with the incarnate Word the condition of souls is revealed. His manifestation is in itself their condemnation or vindication, since they then receive the fruits of their previous determination. They show then to which side they have inclined--whether they have chosen darkness, or have sought the light. [588] John assigns a very large part to the operation of grace. It is God who first loves; it is the Word who chooses us, not we who choose the Word. [589] This election is not, however, with him a fixed decree, which takes no account of human freedom. Faith, which is with John as with Paul, the sole means of salvation, or rather, the sole means of appropriating salvation, requires a creative act; it is a new and divine birth, of which the Spirit of God is the agent; [590] but it is at the same time a work, the work which contains in germ all other works. [591] Faith is, in fact, not simply a trustful acceptance of pardon; it is first of all a spiritual view of God in the incarnate Word, accompanied by an act of submission which leads us to follow Him. John x, 4; xii, 26; xiv, 7-9. It is yet more than this: it unites us so closely to its object that it assures to us its possession; that object becomes one with us, as the bread we eat becomes part of our bodily substance. John vi, 53. It is a real communion with the Son and with the Father; by it we abide in Christ, deriving our nourishment from him as the branch from the vine. John xv, 1-4. Thus comprehended, faith communicates to us the three great attributes of God. By it we are made "of the truth," or children of light, for we possess him who is the Truth, (John xii, 36;) we receive life, eternal and divine life, even before the barrier which divides us from the invisible world is taken away; [592] and we are finally made perfect in love. To have Christ abiding in us, to enjoy close fellowship with him--is not this love, and love in the deepest and highest sense?

St. John, who never separates theory from practice, idea from fact, the truth from its application, binds closely together justifying faith and holiness. The latter is, indeed, implicitly contained in the former. Thus from the absolute and ideal stand-point, the believer is a saint. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." 1 John iii, 9. But the Apostle, who will make no compromise in the ideal, nevertheless recognizes the weakness of the actual Christian. All sin is, as he shows, a culpable inconsistency; nevertheless the Mediator still carries on his work of reparation for those who repent. John will lend no sanction to a delusive confidence; a life in sin he plainly declares to be incompatible with faith. He who truly believes is raised into a divine sphere, the sphere of love. To indulge hatred or bitterness is to quit this sphere, and to return into darkness. 1 John iii, 10-15; iv, 8. Having given us the theology of love, John gives us its morality. We ought to become like God, for, as Christians, we are born of him. The light of his love ought to shine within us, and the incarnate Word, who was his express image--made a sacrifice for us--ought to be the light of every regenerated man, as the creative Word was the light of every created man. [593] A holy society is founded in love--the society of the children of God, or the Church. The Apostle does not enter into any detail as to its constitution and organization. He only assumes the most complete equality among its members, since all have received "the unction of the Holy One, which teacheth all things." [594] There is no place for a system of external authority in the conception of St. John.

His views of the future of the Church bear the same impress of spirituality. He speaks in the gospel and the epistles as in the Apocalypse, of a general resurrection of the dead, a final judgment, a glorious triumph of Christ, inaugurated by his return, and a terrible conflict with the powers of darkness; but in his gospel he more clearly shows the connection of these great outward facts with the moral facts, which are their antecedents. [595] In a spiritual sense the resurrection, the judgment, and the conflict with Antichrist have already commenced. Those who hear the voice of the Son of man and live, are so many Lazaruses called to the life divine. [596] The separation of the darkness from the light effected by the preaching of the truth is a solemn judgment, and whosoever denies that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is Antichrist. Lastly, in a mystical sense, the adorable Master is come again to his own. [597] But so far from these spiritual facts being incompatible with the external facts declared in the Revelation, they prepare the way for them. After so much suffering and strife, endured from the beginning of the world, divine love will at length win a glorious victory on the very scene of its conflicts. Even the brilliant colors of the Apocalypse fail to depict this triumph, for St. John exclaims in his first epistle: "It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." [598] To be made like God--is not this the highest possibility of the development of the creature? Is it not the realization of the sublime purpose of the redeeming Word? Is it not the fulfillment of the prayer of Christ, "that they all may be one; as thou Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us." [599] Having ascended to these heavenly heights, the theology of John is complete; no mysticism can soar above it, however bold its flight. The perfect union of the creature with the Creator through the Word, is the ultimate expression of the doctrine of love; beyond it there is nothing. This is, therefore, the closing utterance of the apostolic age; the conclusion, and not the refutation, of all that has gone before; the conciliation of all contradictions in the Church; in a word, the last revelation from heaven, absolute truth, God himself. Freed from all error, comprehended in all its depth, it will ever be the grandest result wrought out by the historian of theology, who, bending over the book in which it was inscribed by the aged saint of Ephesus, seeks to decipher it from age to age. __________________________________________________________________

[588] Ho de` me` pisteu'on e'de ke'kritai. John iii, 18, 19.

[589] Ouch umeis me exele'xasthe, all ego` exelexa'men umas. John xv, 16.

[590] Oi` ouk ex aima'ton, oude` ek thele'matos sarko`s oude` ek thele'mato's andro`s, all ' ek Theou egenne'thesan. John i, 13.

[591] Touto' esti to` e'rgon tou Theou, i'na pisteu'ete eis o`n ape'steilen ekeinos. John vi, 29.

[592] Ho pisteu'on eis to`n uio`n e'chei zoe`n aio'nion. John iii, 36.

[593] En tou'to egno'kamen te`n aga'pen, o'ti ekeinos upe`r emon te`n psuche'n autou e'theke. 1 John iii, 16.

[594] ?Kai` umeis to` chrisma o` ela'bete ap? autou, en umin me'nei, kai` ou chrei'an e'chete, i'na tis dida'ske umas; all' os to` auto chrisma dida'skei umas peri` pa'nton, kai` alethe's esti kai` ouk e'sti pseudos, kai` katho`s edi'daxen umas, me'nete en auto. 1 John ii, 27.

[595] See our note on the Apocalypse, in which we refute M. Reuss's idea that there is a positive opposition between the fourth gospel and the Revelation.

[596] John v, 24-30. We hold with Lücke that it is not possible to give a purely spiritual application to this passage. It presents the point where the external and the moral fact become inseparable. In verse 28, Jesus Christ appeals to the resurrection of the body, which he will effect on the last day, in order to establish his power to quicken and to judge dead souls.

[597] Pa'lin e'rchomai. John xiv, 3.

[598] Ea`n phanerothe, o'moioi auto eso'metha. 1 John iii, 2.

[599] Hina kai` autoi` en emin e`n osin. John xvii, 21. __________________________________________________________________

[549] Schmid maintains that the Apostle's doctrine should be sought only in the prologue to the gospel and in the epistles, not in the gospel itself, because the latter gives us not the theology of the Apostle, but the teaching of the Master. We feel no such hesitation, for while we admit that John faithfully reproduces that divine teaching, it is evident that in the choice made by him of the words which he preserved, there is the clear impress of his own individuality. (See, for the doctrine of John, Schmid, work quoted, pp. 359-395; Neander, "Pflanz.," 874; Reuss, "Christian Theology of the Apostolic Age," ii, 276; Lechler, "Das apostolische und nachapostolische Zeitalter," 95; Fromman, "Der Johannische Lehrbegriff," 1857, See also the works quoted from Baur and Schwegler.) __________________________________________________________________