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condescending interpretation the spiritual realities behind the interpretation would remain
for ever unknown. What the written Word has done by figures of speech, the Lord Jesus
has done in Person. He Himself is the Word. He, as the Word, became flesh, and
revealed the invisible Father, and, as He sat weary upon the well, knew more fully than
we can appreciate the gulf that exists between God, Who is Spirit, and His creatures, who
are flesh and blood. The Lord Who spoke to Philip revealed the only way whereby God,
Who is Spirit, can ever be known:--
"Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto
him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that
hath seen Me hath seen the Father: and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?" (John 14: 8-10).
"God is Spirit."
"This God is our God."
#3.
Light and love (I John 1: 5 and 4: 8).
pp. 227 - 231
If God, Who is Spirit, is to be known to men, it becomes a necessity that He shall
reveal Himself in terms that come within the limits of their understanding. This is not
only true of man by nature, but is equally true of the believer, who, though "spiritual",
has a capacity which is finite, whereas God is infinite. We move, therefore, from
Heb. 11: 6 with its statement, "God is", and from John 4: 24 with its definition, "God is
Spirit", to a twofold manifestation revealed in the first epistle of John: God is light and
God is love. The relation between these passages and that of John 4: 24 may be
demonstrated thus:--
/
LIGHT (I John 1: 5).
God is SPIRIT (John 4: 24).
{
and
\ LOVE (I John 4: 8).
We believe that we are right in saying of John 4: 24 that it is a definition, whereas
I John 1: 5 and 4: 8 are not definitions, but manifestations. God is not "light" in the
same sense that He is "Spirit". We understand the former to mean that God is like light,
and that light as we know it represents God, Who is beyond our ken.
The verb "to be" ("is", "am", "are") is often used in metaphor. For example,
"The field is the world" means, "The field represents the world". "The seven stars are
the angels of the seven churches" obviously means that the seven stars represents the
seven angels. So, in the wonderful words of John 10: 9, "I am the door", or of
John 6: 35, "I am the bread of life", and in many other passages we recognize the
presence of this figure of speech.