 |  |
this meaning, for the word erchomenon, "cometh" is balanced by eskenosen, "dwelt",
both words referring to the incarnation, the coming into the world of "the Word made
flesh".
We now reach the central member of the prologue, the great dividing of the ways.
This we shall hope to deal with in our next article.
#10.
Revelation, and its reception or rejection (1: 10-13).
pp. 147 - 152
We have now descended by a series of six steps, from the "beginning", down through
the fact of creation, and the vital function of light, to the witness of John the Baptist in
connection with the true light that "came into the world". The seventh step (see the
structure of the prologue, Volume XXIX, page 174) leads us to the great issue of
"reception" or "rejection".
If "revelation" is to prove effective it must be "received"; otherwise it is stultified.
The very object for which the Lord came into the world would be rendered void by
unbelief. If it were true that not one believer had ever existed or would exist, then the
whole scheme of revelation and redemption would have come to an abrupt end. Blessed
be God, this has never been the case, and His purpose therefore goes on. It is good for
us, however, to visualize the negative side for a moment, if only that we may appreciate
more fully the place that faith occupies in the Divine plan. Just as there can be no selling
if there be no buyer, no music if there be no listener, no colour if there be no retina, so
there can be no revelation if there be no reception. God could have spoken, of course, but
the only result would have been a series of echoes down the corridors of time.
Turning back to the structure of the passage, we find that the verses before us occupy
a central position and are concerned with the question of receiving and rejecting.
G | 1: 10, 11. RECEIVED NOT (Paraelabon).
G | 1: 12, 13. RECEIVED (Elabon).
The reader should note carefully the difference between verses 10 and 11. In the
earlier verse we read: "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the
world knew Him not." This does not refer to the birth at Bethlehem, but to the fact that
the Creator, though "in the world" in His providence and made manifest by the works of
His hands to every seeing eye, was nevertheless unknown--"The world knew Him not."
A similar thought is expressed by the Apostle in Acts 14:
"The living God, Which made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things are therein
. . . . . He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from
heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14: 15-17).