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| The World, of Which the Sin is Taken Away, is Said to Be the Church. Reasons for Not Agreeing with This Opinion.
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38. The World,
of Which the Sin is Taken Away, is Said to Be the Church. Reasons
for Not Agreeing with This Opinion.
The reader will do well to consider what was said above
and illustrated from various quarters on the question what is meant in
Scripture by the word “world”; and I think it proper to
repeat this. I am aware that a certain scholar understands by the
world the Church alone, since the Church is the adornment of the
world,4983
| 4983 κοσμος means both
“ornament” and “world.” | and is said to be
the light of the world. “You,” he says,4984
“are the light of the
world.” Now, the adornment of the world is the Church,
Christ being her adornment, who is the first light of the world.
We must consider if Christ is said to be the light of the same world as
His disciples. When Christ is the light of the world, perhaps it
is meant that He is the light of the Church, but when His disciples are
the light of the world, perhaps they are the light of others who call
on the Lord, others in addition to the Church, as Paul says on this
point in the beginning of his first Epistle to the Corinthians, where
he writes, “To the Church of God, with all who call on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Should any one consider that the
Church is called the light of the world, meaning thereby of the rest of
the race of men, including unbelievers, this may be true if the
assertion is taken prophetically and theologically; but if it is to be
taken of the present, we remind him that the light of a thing
illuminates that thing, and would ask him to show how the remainder of
the race is illuminated by the Church’s presence in the
world. If those who hold the view in question cannot show this,
then let them consider if our interpretation is not a sound one, that
the light is the Church, and the world those others who call on the
Name. The words which follow the above in Matthew will point out
to the careful enquirer the proper interpretation.
“You,” it is said, “are the salt of the earth,”
the rest of mankind being conceived as the earth, and believers are
their salt; it is because they believe that the earth is
preserved. For the end will come if the salt loses its savour,
and ceases to salt and preserve the earth, since it is clear that if
iniquity is multiplied and love waxes cold upon the earth,4985
as the Saviour Himself uttered an expression
of doubt as to those who would witness His coming, saying,4986
“When the Son of man cometh, shall He
find faith upon the earth?” then the end of the age will
come. Supposing, then, the Church to be called the world, since
the Saviour’s light shines on it—we have to ask in
connection with the text, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world,” whether the world here is to be taken
intellectually of the Church, and the taking away of sin is limited to
the Church. In that case what are we to make of the saying of the
same disciple with regard to the Saviour, as the propitiation for
sin? “If any man sin,” we read, “we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the
propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins
of the whole world?” Paul’s dictum appears to me to
be to the same effect, when he says,4987
“Who is
the Saviour of all men, especially of the faithful.” Again,
Heracleon, dealing with our passage, declares, without any proof or any
citation of witnesses to that effect, that the words, “Lamb of
God,” are spoken by John as a prophet, but the words, “who
taketh away the sin of the world,” by John as more than a
prophet. The former expression he considers to be used of His
body, but the latter of Him who was in that body, because the lamb is
an imperfect member of the genus sheep; the same being true of the body
as compared with the dweller in it. Had he meant to attribute
perfection to the body he would have spoken of a ram as about to be
sacrificed. After the careful discussions given above, I do not
think it necessary to enter into repetitions on this passage, or to
controvert Heracleon’s careless utterances. One point only
may be noted, that as the world was scarcely able to contain Him who
had emptied Himself, it required a lamb and not a ram, that its sin
might be taken away.
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