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(2)
"I and My Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones to stone Him . . . . . Thou,
being a man, makest Thyself God" (John 10: 30-33).
(3)
"Thomas answered and said unto Him, my Lord and my God" (John 20: 28).
We have already seen that it is the object of this Gospel to expand and prove the truth
revealed in the prologue (John 1: 1-18), and we shall hope to deal in detail with the
passages quoted above as we come to them in the course of our exposition.
#9.
"The Life was the Light of Men" (1: 4).
pp. 116 - 122
Our studies up till now have been occupied with the prologue in general (John 1: 1-18),
and in particular with its opening verse. The majestic simplicity of this opening verse
seems to call for worship rather than further scrutiny, and we therefore proceed with our
study, without attempting to explain that which lies outside our sphere. Whatever may be
the name under which He is revealed, God must always be made known to us relatively.
We must always remember that the words used are symbols and not the realities
themselves. The great object of the Scriptures is not to make us theologians (though the
day is coming when we shall "know even as we are known"), but to teach us our own
need and God's provision for it, in view of the future day of glory. We believe the
statements of John 1: 1 without reserve, but this does not mean that we have
comprehended the mystery of the Godhead. If John had been inspired to devote several
chapters to the exposition of this opening verse, we should have been delighted to follow
in his steps, but he has not done so. He leads us from the height of uncreated glory in
verse 1 to the "glory as of the only begotten of the Father" in verse 14, and then he travels
back again to the closing verse of the prologue, where the introduction of the title
"Father" seems to supply the missing feature that we were perhaps unconsciously waiting
for as we read the statement of John 1: 1.
After the opening reference to the Person of the Creator, John moves on in verse 3 to
His work: "All things were made by Him." Then, by a beautiful transition, the writer
suggests that what "life" is to the physical creation, "light" must be in the new creation;
and so we reach the central point of the prologue (verses 10-13), where some "received
Him not", and some "received Him". The narrative then commences its return ascent,
placing the new creation of verse 17 over against the material creation of verse 3, and so
back to the starting-point, the declaring of God by Him Whom in the beginning was the
Word, and Who, since the incarnation, has been made known as "the Son". We shall
look in vain in the subsequent story as it is developed in this Gospel, for any further
explanation of the title "The Word", and we shall learn nothing further concerning the
physical creation of "all things". Instead, we shall be led step by step, from one sign to
another, to the great objective of the Gospel, that we might believe that "Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we might have life through His name". We are
led, in effect, from the contemplation of Him, in Whom our physical life is found, to Him
in Whom alone we may find that life which is age-abiding.