Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| In This and the Four Following Chapters It is Shewn, by a Minute Analysis of St. John's Gospel, that the Father and Son are Constantly Spoken of as Distinct Persons.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter
XXI.—In This and the Four Following Chapters It is Shewn, by a
Minute Analysis of St. John’s Gospel, that the Father and Son are
Constantly Spoken of as Distinct Persons.
Consider, therefore, how many passages present
their prescriptive authority to you in this very Gospel before this
inquiry of Philip, and previous to any discussion on your part. And
first of all there comes at once to hand the preamble of John to his
Gospel, which shows us what He previously was who had to become
flesh. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God: all
things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing
made.”8009
Now, since these
words may not be taken otherwise than as they are written, there is
without doubt shown to be One who was from the beginning, and also One
with whom He always was: one the Word of God, the other God (although
the Word is also God, but God regarded as the Son of God, not as
the Father); One through whom were all things, Another by whom were all
things. But in what sense we call Him Another we have
already often described. In that we called Him Another, we must needs
imply that He is not identical—not identical indeed, yet not as
if separate; Other by dispensation, not by division. He,
therefore, who became flesh was not the very same as He from
whom the Word came. “His glory was beheld—the glory
as of the only-begotten of the Father;”8010
not, (observe,) as of the Father. He “declared” (what was
in) “the bosom of the Father alone;”8011
| 8011 Unius sinum Patris.
Another reading makes: “He alone (unus) declared,” etc. See
John i. 18. | the Father did not divulge the secrets
of His own bosom. For this is preceded by another statement:
“No man hath seen God at any time.”8012
Then, again, when He is designated by John (the Baptist) as “the
Lamb of God,”8013
He is not
described as Himself the same with Him of whom He is the beloved
Son. He is, no doubt, ever the Son of God, but yet not He
Himself of whom He is the Son. This (divine relationship)
Nathanæl at once recognised in Him,8014
even as Peter did on another occasion: “Thou art the Son of
God.”8015
And He affirmed
Himself that they were quite right in their convictions; for He
answered Nathanæl: “Because I said, I saw thee under the
fig-tree, therefore dost thou believe?”8016
And in the same manner He pronounced Peter to be “blessed,”
inasmuch as “flesh and blood had not revealed it to
him”—that he had perceived the Father—“but the
Father which is in heaven.”8017
By asserting
all this, He determined the distinction which is between the two
Persons: that is, the Son then on earth, whom Peter had confessed
to be the Son of God; and the Father in heaven, who had revealed to
Peter the discovery which he had made, that Christ was the Son of
God. When He entered the temple, He called it “His
Father’s house,”8018
speaking as
the Son. In His address to Nicodemus He says: “So God loved the
world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”8019
And again: “For God sent not His
Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he that
believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the
name of the only-begotten Son of God.”8020
Moreover, when John (the Baptist) was asked what he happened to
know of Jesus, he said: “The Father loveth the Son, and hath
given all things into His hand. He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life,
but the wrath of God abideth on him.”8021
Whom, indeed, did He reveal to the woman of Samaria? Was it not
“the Messias which is called Christ?”8022
And so He showed, of course, that He was not
the Father, but the Son; and elsewhere He is expressly called
“the Christ, the Son of God,”8023
and not the Father. He says, therefore,” My meat is to do the
will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work;”8024
whilst to the Jews He remarks respecting the
cure of the impotent man, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I
work.”8025
“My Father
and I”—these are the Son’s words. And it was on this
very account that “the Jews sought the more intently to kill Him,
not only because He broke the Sabbath, but also because He said that
God was His Father, thus making Himself equal with God. Then indeed did
He answer and say unto them, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but
what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth these also
doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him
all things that He Himself doeth; and He will also show Him greater
works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father
raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son also
quickeneth whom He will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath
committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honour the
Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son,
honoureth not the Father, who hath sent the Son. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, He that heareth my words, and believeth on Him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is
passed from death unto life. Verily I say unto you, that the hour is
coming, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and when
they have heard it, they shall live. For as the Father hath eternal
life in Himself, so also hath He given to the Son to have eternal life
in Himself; and He hath given Him authority to execute judgment also,
because He is the Son of man”8026
—that is,
according to the flesh, even as He is also the Son of God through His
Spirit.8027
Afterwards He goes
on to say: “But I have greater witness than that of John; for the
works which the Father hath given me to finish—those very works
bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me. And the Father
Himself, which hath sent me, hath also borne witness of
me.”8028
But He at once
adds, “Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His
shape;”8029
thus affirming that
in former times it was not the Father, but the Son, who used to be seen
and heard. Then He says at last: “I am come in my Father’s
name, and ye have not received me.”8030
It
was therefore always the Son (of whom we read) under the designation of
the Almighty and Most High God, and King, and Lord. To those also who
inquired “what they should do to work the works of
God,”8031
He answered,
“This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He
hath sent.”8032
He also declares
Himself to be “the bread which the Father sent from
heaven;”8033
and adds, that
“all that the Father gave Him should come to Him, and that He
Himself would not reject them,8034
| 8034 The expression is in
the neuter collective form in the original. | because He had come
down from heaven not to do His own will, but the will of the Father;
and that the will of the Father was that every one who saw the Son, and
believed on Him, should obtain the life (everlasting,) and the
resurrection at the last day. No man indeed was able to come to
Him, except the Father attracted him; whereas every one who had heard
and learnt of the Father came to Him.”8035
He
goes on then expressly to say, “Not that any man hath seen the
Father;”8036
thus showing us
that it was through the Word of the Father that men were instructed and taught. Then,
when many departed from Him,8037
and He turned to
the apostles with the inquiry whether “they also would go
away,”8038
what was Simon
Peter’s answer? “To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words
of eternal life, and we believe that Thou art the
Christ.”8039
(Tell me now, did
they believe) Him to be the Father, or the Christ of the
Father?E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
