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The Love of God

JOHN, III.

Cf. 2 Kings, 5, 12.)

towards the World. many distinguished critics allege, denying that there | In both cases, it is by directing the eye to the uplifted was any such thing as regeneration before Christ. For Remedy that the cure is effected; in the one case the our Lord's proposition is universal, that no fallen man bodily eye, in the other the gaze of the soul by "believ is or can be spiritual without a regenerating operation ing in Him," as in that glorious ancient proclamation of the Holy Ghost, and the necessity of a spiritual "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the obedience, under whatever name, in opposition to mere earth," &c. (Isaiab, 45. 22). Both methods are stummechanical services, is proclaimed throughout all the bling to human reason. What, to any thinking Israelite, Old Testament. 11-13. We speak that we know, and... could seem more unlikely than that a deadly poison have seen-t.c., by absolute knowledge and immediate should be dried up in his body by simply looking on a vision of God, which the only-begotten Son in the reptile of brass? Such a stumblingblock to the Jews bosom of the Father" claims as exclusively His own, and to the Greeks foolishness was faith in the crucich. 1. 18. The "we" and "our" are here used, though fied Nazarene, as a way of deliverance from eternal Himself only is intended, in emphatic contrast, pro- perdition. Yet was the warrant in both cases to expect bably, with the opening words of Nicodemus, "Rabbi, a cure equally rational and well-grounded. As the we know,' &c. ye receive not, &c.-referring to the class serpent was God's ordinance for the cure of every bitto which Nicodemus belonged, but from which he was ten Israelite, so is Christ for the salvation of every beginning to be separated in spirit. earthly things- perishing sinner-the one however a purely arbitrary such as regeneration, the gate of entrance to the king- ordinance, the other divinely adapted to man's comdom of God on earth, and which Nicodemus should plicated maladies. In both cases the efficacy is the have understood better, as a truth even of that more same. As one simple look at the serpent, however earthly economy to which he belonged. heavenly distant and however weak, brought an instantaneous things-The things of the new and more heavenly evan-cure, even so, real faith in the Lord Jesus, however Lelical economy, only to be fully understood after the tremulous, however distant-be it but real faitheffusion of the Spirit from heaven through the exalted brings certain and instant healing to the perishing Saviour. no man hath ascended, &c. There is some- soul. In a word, the consequences of disobedience are thing paradoxical in this language- No one has gone the same in both. Doubtless many bitten israelites, up bat he that came down, even he who is at once galling as their case was, would reason rather than both up and down.' Doubtless it was intended to obey, would speculate on the absurdity of expecting the startle and constrain His auditor to think that there bite of a living serpent to be cured by looking at a piece must be mysterious elements in His Person. The of dead metal in the shape of one-speculate thus till old Socinians, to subvert the doctrine of the pre-ex- they died. Alas! is not salvation by a crucified Reistence of Christ, seized upon this passage as teach-deemer subjected to like treatment? Has the ofing that the man Jesus was secretly caught up to heaven to receive his instructions, and then "came down from heaven" to deliver them. But the sense manifestly is this: The perfect knowledge of God is not obtained by any man's going up from earth to heaven to receive it,-no man hath so ascended-but He whose proper habitation, in His essential and eternal nature, is heaven, hath, by taking human flesh, descended as the "Son of Man" to disclose the Father, whom He knows by immediate gaze alike in the flesh as before He assumed it, being essentially and unchangeably "in the bosom of the Father"' (ch. 1. 18). 14-16. And as Moses, &c.-Here now we have the "heavenly things," as before the "earthly," but under a veil, for the reason mentioned in v. 12. The crucifixion of Messiah is twice after this veiled under the same lively term-"uplifting," ch. 8. 28; 12.32, 33. Here it is still farther veiled-though to us who know what it means, rendered vastly more instructive-by reference to the brazen serpent. The venom of the fiery serpents, shooting through the veins of the rebellious Israelites, was spreading death through the camplively emblem of the perishing condition of men by reason of sin. In both cases the remedy was divinely provided. In both the way of cure strikingly resembled that of the disease. Stung by serpents, by a serpont they are healed. By "fiery serpents" bitten-serpents, probably, with skin spotted fiery-red [KURTZ] -the instrument of cure is a serpent of brass or copper, having at a distance the same appearance. So in redemption, as by man came death, by Man also comes life-Man, too, "in the likeness of sinful flesh," differing in nothing outward and apparent from those who, pervaded by the poison of the serpent, were ready to perish. But as the uplifted serpent had none of the venom of which the serpent-bitten people were dying, so while the whole human family were perishing of the deadly wound inflicted on it by the old serpent, "the Second Man," who arose over humanity with healing in His wings, was without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. In both cases the remedy is conspicuously displayed; in the one case on a pole, in the other on the cross, to "draw all men unto Him" (ch. 12. 32).

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fence of the cross" yet ceased?
For God so loved, &c.-What proclamation of the Gos-
pel has been so oft on the lips of missionaries and
preachers in every age since it was first uttered? what
has sent such thrilling sensations through millions of
mankind? what has been honoured to bring such mul-
titudes to the feet of Christ? what to kindle in the
cold and selfish breasts of mortals the fires of self-sac-
rificing love to mankind, as these words of transparent
simplicity, yet overpowering majesty! The picture
embraces several distinct compartments :
** THE
WORLD"-in its widest sense-ready "to perish;" the
immense "LOVE OF GOD" to that perishing world,
measurable ouly, and conceivable only, by the gift
which it drew forth from Him; THE GIFT itself
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son," or, in the language of Paul, "spared not His own
Son" (Romans, 8. 32), or in that addressed to Abraham
when ready to offer Isaac on the altar, “withheld not
His Son, His only Son, whom He loved" (Genesis, 22.
16); the FRUIT of this stupendous gift-not only deliver-
ance from impending "perdition," but the bestowal
of everlasting life; and the MODE in which all takes
effect-by "believing" on the Son. How would Nico-
demus' narrow Judaism become invisible in the blaze
of this Sun of righteousness seen rising on "the world'
with healing in His wings! 17-21. not to condemn, &c.
A statement of vast importance. Though "condem-
nation" is to many the issue of Christ's mission (v. 19).
it is not the object of His mission, which is purely a
saving one. is not condemned-Having. immediately
on his believing "passed from death unto life, ch. 6.
24. condemned already-Rejecting the one way of de-
liverance from that "condemnation" which God gave
His Son to remove, and so wilfully remaining con-
demned. this is the condemuation, &c.-Emphatically
so, revealing the condemnation already existing, and
sealing up under it those who will not be delivered
from it. light is come into the world-in the Person of
Him to whom Nicodemus was listening. loved dark-
ness, &c.-This can only be known by the deliberate
rejection of Christ, but that does fearfully reveal it.
reproved-by detection. doeth trut-whose only object

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in life is to be and do what will bear the light. There fore he loves and "comes to the light," that all he is and does, being thus thoroughly tested, may be seen to have nothing in it but what is divinely wrought and divinely approved. This is the "Israelite, indeed, in whom is no guile."

to Christ,

had said, "All come to Him" (v. 26. The Baptist here
virtually says, Would it were so, but alas! they are
next to none.' [BENGEL. They were far readier to
receive himself, and obliged him to say, I am not the
Christ, and he seems pained at this. hath set to His
seal, &c.-gives glory to God whose words Christ
speaks, not as prophets and apostles by a partial com-
munication of the Spirit to them. for God giveth not
the Spirit by measure-Here, again, the sharpest con-
ceivable line of distinction is drawn between Christ
and all human-inspired teachers: 'They have the
Spirit in a limited degree; but God giveth not [to Him]
the Spirit by measure.' It means the entire fulness
The present tense
of divine life and divine power.
"giveth," very aptly points out the permanent commu-
nication of the Spirit by the Father to the Son, so that
a constant flow and re-flow of living power is to be
understood.' (Cf. ch. 1. 51.) (OLSHAUSEN.] 35, 36. The
Father loveth, &c.-See on Matthew. 11. 27, where we
have the "delivering over of all things into the hands
of the Son." while here we have the deep spring
of that august act in the Father's ineffable "love
of the Son."
See on v. 18, and ch. 5. 24. shall not see life-The con-
trast here is striking: The one has already a life that
will endure for ever-the other not only has it not now,
but shall never have it-never see it. abideth on him-
It was on Him before, and not being removed in the
only possible way, by "believing on the Son," it neces-
sarily remaineth on him! N.E.-How flatly does this
contradict the teaching of many in our day, that there
neither was, nor is, any thing in God against sinners
which needed to be removed by Christ, but only in
men against God.

hath everlasting life- already hath it.

CHAPTER IV.

22-36. JESUS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE EAPTIST-HIS NOBLE TESTIMONY TO HIS MASTER, 23-24 land of Judea-The rural parts of that province, the foregoing conversation being held in the capital. d-in the sense explained in ch. 4. 2. Euon... Salim on the West of Jordan. (Cf. v. 26 with ch. 1. 28.) John not yet cast into prison-Hence it is plain that car Lord's ministry did not commence with the imprisorment of John, though, but for this, we should have drawn that inference from Matthew. 4. 12. &c., and Mark. 1. 14, express statement. 25, 28. between some cf- rather, 'on the part of. and the Jews-rather scording to the best MSS., and a Jew.' about puriyag-... baptising, the symbolical meaning of washng with water, being put (as in ch. 2. 6) for the act itself As John and Jesus were the only teachers who baptized Jones, discussions might easily arise between the Baptist's disciples and such Jews as declined to sanit to that rite. Rabbi, &c.- Master, this man tells us that he to whom thon barest such generous witness bevond Jordan is requiting thy generosity by drawing all the people away to himself. At this rate. then shalt soon have no disciples at all. The reply to this is one of the noblest and most affecting utterances that ever came from the lips of man. 27-30. A man, I do my heaven-prescribed work, and that * enough for me. Would you have me mount into my Master's place? Said I not unto you, I am not the Christ! The Bride is not mine. why should the people Ver. 1-42. CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA ay with me? Mire it is to point the burdened to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, to -THE SAMARITANS OF SYCHAR. 14. the Lord knew tell them there is balm in Gilead, and a Physician-not by report, but in the sense of ch. 2. 25, for which there. And shall I grudze to see them, in obedience reason He is here styled "the Lord." Jesus baptized to the call, flving as a cloud, and as doves to their not-John being a servant baptized with his own hand: windows? Whose is the Bride but the Bridegroom's? Christ as the Master,"baptising with the Holy Ghost,' Emzh for me to be the Bridegroom's Friend, sent administered the outward symbol only through His by Him to negotiate the match, privileged to bring disciples. left Judea-to avoid persecution, which at together the Saviour and those He is come to seek and that early stage would have marred His work. departed into Galilee-by which time John had been cast into in save, and rejoicing with joy unspeakable if I may bat" stand and hear the Bridegroom's voice." witness- prison (Mark, 1. 14). must needs go through Samariain the blessed espousals. Say, ye, then, they go from for a geographical reason, no doubt, as it lay straight me to Him? Ye bring me glad tidings of great joy. in his way, but certainly not without a higher design. He must increase, but I must decrease: this, my joy, 5. cometh to-i.e., as far as: for He remained at some A man can receive, &c.-' can distance from it. Sychar-the "Shechem" of the Old therefore is fulfilled.' avame nothing,' i e., lawfully and with any success: Testament, about thirty-four miles from Jerusaad, Every man has his work and sphere appointed lem, afterwards called "Neapolis," and now "NaLim from above. Even Christ Himself came under blous." 6-8. wearied...sat thus-i.e., as you might this law Hebrews, 5. 4. 31-34. He that, &c.-Here fancy a weary man would;' an instance of the graphic is the reason why He must increase while all human style of St. John. (WEBSTER & WILKINSON.] In fact, teachers must decrease. The Master "cometh from this is perhaps the most human of all the scenes of above" - descending from His proper element, the our Lord's earthly history. We seem to be beside Him. region of those "heavenly things" which He came to overhearing all that is here recorded, nor could any reveal, and so, although mingling with men and things painting of the scene on canvass, however perfect, do on the earth, is not "of the earth." either in Person or other than lower the conception which this exquisite Word: The servants, on the contrary, springing of narrative conveys to the devout and intelligent reader. earth. are of the earth, and their testimony, even But with all that is human, how much also of the though divine in authority, partakes necessarily of divine have we here, both blended in one glorious their own earthiness. (So strongly did the Baptist manifestation of the majesty, grace, pity, patience. feel this contrast that the last clause just repeats the with which "the Lord" imparts light and life to this first It is impossible for a sharper line of dis- unlikeliest of strangers, standing midway between tinction to be drawn between Christ and all human Jews and heathens. the sixth hour-noonday, reckonteachers, even when divinely commissioned and speak- ing from 6 A.M. From Song of Solomon, 1. 7. we know, as from other sources, that the very flocks "rested at tog by the power of the Holy Ghost. And who does noon. "But Jesus, whose maxim was, "I must work not perceive it? The words of prophets and apostles are undeniable and most precious truth; but in the the works of Him that sent me while it is day" (ch. 9.4). words of Christ we hear a voice as from the excellent seems to have denied Himself that repose, at least on Glory the Eternal Word making Himself heard in our this occasion, probably that He might reach this well own flesh, what he hath seen and heard-See on v. 11, when He knew the woman would be there. Once there. and ch. 1. 18.) no man receiveth, &c.-John's disciples however, He accepts the grateful ease of a seat on the

Christ Talketh with a

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JOHN, IV.

Woman of Samaria. pare the prodigal; see on Luke, 15. 15.) Doubtless our Lord saw through the fetch: but does He say. That question is not the point just now, but Have you been living in the way described, yea or nay? Till this is disposed of I cannot be drawn into theological controversies.' The Prince of preachers takes another method: He humours the poor woman, letting her take her own way, allowing her to lead while He follows-but thus only the more effectually gaining His object. He answers her question, pours light into her mind on the spirituality of all true worship, as of its glorious Object, and so brings her insensibly to the point at which He could disclose to her wondering mind Whom she was all the while speaking to. 21-24. Woman, &c.-Here are three weighty pieces of informa tion: (1.) The point raised will very soon cease to be of any moment, for a total change of dispensation is about to come over the church.' (2.) The Samaritans are wrong, not only as to the place, but the whole re-grounds and nature of their worship, while în all these respects the truth lies with the Jews. (3.) *As God is a Spirit, so He both invites and demands a spiritual worship, and already all is in preparation for a spiritual economy, more in harmony with the true nature of acceptable service than the ceremonial worship by consecrated persons, place, and times, which God for a time has seen meet to keep up till fulness of the time should come.' neither in this mountain nor at Jerusa lem-i.e., exclusively. (Malachi, 1. 11; 1 Timothy, 2. 8.) worship the Father-She had talked simply of “worship" our Lord brings up before her the great OBJECT of all acceptable worship-"THE FATHER." Ye worship ye know not what without any revealed authority, and so very much in the dark. In this sense, the Jews knew what they were about. But the most glorious thing here is the reason assigned, "FOR SALVATION IS OF THE JEWS," intimating to her that Salvation was not a thing left to be reached by any one who might vaguely desire it of a God of mercy, but something that had been revealed, prepared, deposited with a particular people, and must be sought in connexion with, and as issuing from them; and that people "the Jews." hour cometh and now is evidently meaning her to understand that this new economy was in some sense being set up while He was talking to her, a sense which would in a few minutes so far appear, when He told her plainly He was the Christ. 25, 26. I know Messias cometh...when He is come, &c.-If we take our Lord's immediate disclosure of Himself, in answer to this, as the proper key to its meaning to His ear, we can hardly doubt that the woman was already all but prepared for even this startling announcement, which indeed she seems (from v. 29) to have already begun to suspect by His revealing her to herself. Thus quickly. under so matchless a Teacher, was she brought up from her sunken condition to a frame of mind and heart capable of the noblest revelations. tell us all things -an expectation founded probably on Deuteronomy. 18. 15. I that speak...am he-He scarce ever said anything like this to His own people, the Jews. He had magnified them to the woman, and yet to themselves He is to the last far more reserved than to her-proving rather than plainly telling them He was the Christ. But what would not have been safe among them was safe enough with her, whose simplicity at this stage of the conversation appears from the sequel to have become perfect. What now will the woman say? We listen, the scene has changed, a new party arrives, the disciples have been to Sychar, at some distance, to buy bread, and on their return are astonished at the company their Lord has been holding in their absence. 27, marvelled that he talked with the woman - It never probably occurred to them to marvel that He talked with themselves; yet in His eye, as the sequel shows. He was quite as nobly employed. How poor, if not

patriarchal stone. But what music is that which I hear from His lips, "Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew, 11. 28). Give me to drink-for the heat of a noonday sun had parched His lips. But in the last, that great day of the feast," Jesus stood and cried, saying, "If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink" (ch. 7. 37). 9-12. How is it that thou not altogether refusing, yet wondering at so unusual a request from a Jew, as his dress and dialect would at once discover him to be, to a Samaritan. For, &c.-It is this national antipathy that gives point to the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke, 10. 30, &c.), and the thankfulness of the Samaritan leper (Luke, 17. 16, 18). If thou knewest, &c.-q.d., In me thou seest only a petitioner to thee; but if thou knewest Who that Petitioner is, and the Gift that God is giving to men, thou wouldst have changed places with Him, gladly suing of Him living water-nor shouldst thou have sued in vain' (gently reflecting on her for not immediately meeting His quest). Art thou greater, &c.-already perceiving in this Stranger a claim to some mysterious greatness. our father Jacob-for when it went well with the Jews they claimed kindred with them, as being descended from Joseph, but when misfortunes befel the Jews they disowned all connexion with them. [JOSEPHUS, 9. 14, 3.) 13. 14. thirst again... never thirst, &c.-The contrast here is fundamental and all-comprehensive. "This water" plainly means this natural water and all satisfactions of a like earthly and perishable nature.' Coming to us from without, and reaching only the superficial parts of our nature, they are soon spent, and need to be anew supplied as much as if we had never experienced them before, while the deeper wants of our being are not reached by them at all; whereas the "water" that Christ gives-spiritual life-is struck out of the very depths of our being, making the soul not a cistern, for holding water poured into it from without, but a fountain (the word had been better so rendered, to distinguish it from the word rendered "well" in v. 11), springing, gushing, bubbling up and flowing forth from within us, ever fresh, ever living, The indwelling of the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of Christ is the secret of this life with all its enduring energies and satisfactions, as is expressly said (ch. 7. 37-39). "Never thirsting." then, means simply that such souls have the supplies at home. into everlasting life-carrying the thoughts up from the eternal freshness and vitality of these waters to the great ocean in which they have their confluence.' Thither may I arrive!' (BENGEL] 15-18 give me this water, &c. This is not obtuseness-that is giving way-it expresses a wondering desire after she scarce knew what from this mysterious Stranger. call thy husband-now proceeding to arouse her slumbering conscience by laying bare the guilty life she was leading, and by the minute details which that life furnished not only bringing her sin vividly up before her, but preparing her to receive in His true character that wonderful Stranger to whom her whole life, in its minutest particulars, evidently lay open. 19. 20. Sir, I perceive, &c.-Seeing herself all revealed, does she now break down and ask what hopes there might be for one so guilty? Nay, her convictions have not reached that point yet. She ingeniously shifts the subject from a personal to a public question. It is not, 'Alas, what a wicked life am I leading!' but Lo, what a wonderful prophet I got into conversation with: fle will be able to settle that interminable dispute between us and the Jews; Sir, you must know all about such mattersour fathers hold to this mountain here, pointing to Gerizim in Samaria, as the divinely consecrated place of worship, but ye Jews say that Jerusalem is the proper place-which of us is right? How slowly does the human heart submit to thorough humiliation! (com

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Christ Declareth His Zeal

JOHN. IV.

Alse, are many of our most plausible estimates! sose said... What ... Why 1-awed by the spectacle, and thinking there must be something under it. 28-30. eft her water-pot- How exquisitely natural! The presence of strangers made her feel that it was time for her to withdraw, and He who knew what was in ter heart, and what she was going to the city to do, let her go without exchanging a word with her in the bearing of others. Their interview was too sacred, and the effect on the woman too overpowering (not to speak His own deep emotion) to allow of its being contrued. But this one artless touch-that she "left her water-pot"-speaks volumes. The living water was aready beginning to spring up within her; she found that man doth not live by bread nor by water only, and that there was a water of wondrous virtue that rised people above meat and drink, and the vessels that held them, and all human things. In short, she rss transported, forgot every thing but one; and her heart running over with the tale she had to tell. she basters home and pours it out. Is not this the Carist -The form of the question in the Greek is a distant, Eolest way of only half insinuating what it seemed Early fitting for her to affirm; nor does she refer to What He said of Himself, but solely to His disclosure to her of the particulars of her own life. they went out, -How different from the Jews! and richly was her openness to conviction rewarded. 31-33. meanBee, while the woman was away. Master, eat Fatigue and thirst we saw He felt; here is revealed another of our common infirmities to which the Lord Tas subject-hunger. meat ye know not of-What spininality of mind! I have been eating all this while, and such food as ye dream not of. What can that be? they ask each other; have any supplies been brought Ha in our absence? He knows what they are saying theach He hears it not. My meat is, &c.-'A Servant here to fulfil a prescribed work, to do and to finish that is "meat" to Me: and of this, while you were away. I have had my fill.' And of what does He speak thus? Of the condescension, pity, patience, wisdom He had been laying out upon one soul-a very humble eman, and in some respects repulsive too! But He Lad gained her, and through her was going to gain more, and lay perhaps the foundations of a great work in the Gentry of Samaria; and this filled His whole soul, ad raised Him above the sense of natural hunger Matthew, 4. 4). yet four months, and then harvest1. In current speech, ye say thus at this season; bet lift up your eyes and look upon those fields in the ht of another husbandry, for lo! in that sense, they even now white to harvest, ready for the sickle.' The simple beauty of this language is only surpassed by the glow of holy emotion in the Redeemer's own wal which it expresses. It refers to the ripeness of these Sycharites for accession to Him, and the joy of that great Lord of the reapers over the anticipated tering. O could we but so "lift up our eyes and look" upon many fields abroad and at home, which to dll setse appear unpromising, as He beheld those of amara, what movements, as yet scarce in embryo, and accessions to Christ, as yet seemingly far distant, Fat we not discern as quite near at hand, and thus, attat difficulties and discouragements too much for Laure to sustain, be cheered-as our Lord Himself in circumstances far more overwhelming-with 800 in the night!" he that reapeth, &c.-As our Lordcould not mean that the reaper only, and not the Bower, received wages." in the sense of personal reard for his work, the "wages" here can be no other than the joy of having such a harvest to gather in-the 30y of gathering fruit unto life eternal." rejoice toher-The blessed issue of the whole ingathering is the interest silke of the sower as of the reaper; it is no more the fruit of the last operation than of the first;

for God's Glory. and just as there can be no reaping without previous sowing, so have those servants of Christ, to whom is assigned the pleasant task of merely reaping the spiritual harvest, no work to do, and no joy to taste, that has not been prepared to their hand by the toilsome and often thankless work of their predecessors in the field. The joy, therefore, of the great harvest festivity will be the common joy of all who have taken any part in the work from the first operation to the last. (See Deuteronomy, 16. 11, 14; Psalm 126. 6; Isaiah, 9. 3.) What encouragement is here for those "fishers of men" who "have toiled all the night" of their official life and, to human appearance. "and have taken nothing!" I sent you, &c.-The I is emphatic-I, the Lord of the whole harvest: "sent you," points to their past appointinent to the apostleship, though it has reference only to their future discharge of it, for they had nothing to do with the present ingathering of the Sycharites. ye bestowed no labour-meaning that much of their future success would arise from the preparation already made for them. See on v. 42. others laboured-Referring to the Old Testament labourers, the Baptist, and by implication Himself, though He studiously keeps this in the background, that the line of distinction between Himself and all His servants might not be lost sight of. Christ represents Himself as the Husbandman (rather the Lord of the labourers) who has the direction both of the sowing and of the harvest, who commissions all the agents-those of the Old Testament as well as of the New-and therefore does not stand on a level with either the sowers or the reapers.' [OLSHAUSEN.] 39-42. many believed, &c. The truth of v. 35 begins to appear. These Samaritans were the foundation of the church afterwards built up there. No miracle appears to have been wrought there [but unparalleled supernatural knowledge displayed]: "we have heard him ourselves" sufficed to raise their faith to a point never attained by the Jews, and hardly as yet by the disciples-that He was "the Saviour of the world." (ALFORD.] "This incident is farther remarkable as a rare instance of the Lord's ministry producing an awakening on a large scale.' [OLSHAUSEN.] abode two days - Two precious days, surely, to the Redeemer Himself! Unsought, He had come to His own, yet His own received Him not; now those who were not His own had come to Him, been won by Him, and invited Him to their town that others might share with them in the benefit of His wonderful ministry. Here, then, would He solace His already wounded spirit, and have in this outfield village-triumph of His grace a subline foretaste of the inbringing of the whole Gentile world into the church. 43-54. SECOND GALILEAN MIRACLE-HEALING OF THE COURTIER'S SON. 43. 44. After two days-lit., the two days' of His stay at Sychar. For Jesus testified, &c.-This verse has occasioned much discussion. For it seems strange, if "His own country," here means Nazereth, which was in Galilee, that it should be said He came to Galilee because in one of its towns He expected no good reception. But all will be simple and natural if we fill up the statement thus: He went into the region of Galilee, but not, as might have been expected, to that part of it called "His own country' Nazareth (see Mark, 6. 4; Luke, 4. 24), for He acted on the maxim which He oft repeated, that a prophet,' &c. 45. received-welcomed' Him. having seen... at the feast-proud, perhaps, of their Countryman's wonderful works at Jerusalem, and possibly won by this circumstance to regard His claims as at least worthy of respectful investigation. Even this our Lord did not despise, for saving conversion often begins in less than this (so Zaccheus, Luke, 19. 3, &c.). for they also went

ie., it was their practice to go up to the feast. 46. 47. nobleman-courtier, king's servant, or one connected with a royal household; such as Chuza (Luke, 8. 3), or

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Manaen (Acts, 13. 1). heard that Jesus was come cut of
Judea- where he had doubtless seen or heard what
things Jesus had done at Jerusalem (v. 45). [BENGEL]
come down-for Capernaum was down on the North
West shore of the sea of Galilee. 48-54. Except ye see
signs, &c.-He did believe, both as his coming and
his urgent entreaty show; but how imperfectly we
shall see; and our Lord would deepen his faith by
such a blunt and seemingly rough answer as He made
to Nicodemus. Come down ere my child die While
we talk, the case is at its crisis, and if thou come not
instantly, all is over.' This was faith, but partial, and
our Lord would perfect it. The man cannot believe
the cure could be wrought without the Physician
coming to the patient-the thought of such a thing
evidently never occurred to him. But Jesus will in a
moment bring him up to this. Go thy way; thy son
liveth-Both effects instantaneously followed:-"The
man believed the word," and the cure, shooting
quicker than lightning from Cana to Capernaum, was
felt by the dying youth. In token of faith, the father
takes his leave of Christ-in the circumstances this
evidenced full faith. The servants hasten to convey
the joyful tidings to the anxious parent, whose faith
now only wants one confirmation. "When began he
to amend?" "Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the
fever left him"-the very hour in which was uttered
that great word, "Thy Son liveth!" So "himself be-
lieved and his whole house." He had believed before
this, first very imperfectly; then with assured
dence of Christ's word; but now with a faith crowned
by sight." And the wave rolled from the head to
the members of his household. "To-day is salvation
come to this house" (Luke, 19. 9); and no mean house
this! second miracle Jesus didi.e., in Cana; done
"after he came out of Judea," as the former before.
CHAPTER V.

on the Sabbath Day.

there were multitudes living when this gospel was published who, from their own knowledge of Jerusalem, could have exposed the falsehood of the evange list, if no such cure had been known there. The want of v. 4 and part of v. 3, in some good MSS., and the use of some unusual words in the passage, are more easily accounted for than the evidence in their favour if they were not originally in the text. Indeed v. 7 is unintelligible without v. 4. The internal evidence brought against it is merely the unlikelihood of such a miraclea principle which will carry us a great deal farther if we allow it to weigh against positive evidence.) 5-9. thirtyeight years-but not all that time at the pool. This was probably the most pitiable of all the cases, and therefore selected. saw him lie and knew, &c.-As He doubtless visited the spot just to perform this cure, so He knows where to find His patient, and the whole previous history of his case (ch. 2, 25). Wilt thou be made whole?-Could any one doubt that a sick man would like to be made whole, or that the patients came thither, and this man had returned again and again, just in hope of a cure? But our Lord asked the question. (1.) To fasten attention upon Himself; (2) By making him detail his case, to deepen in him the feeling of entire helplessness; (3.) By so singular a question, to beget in his desponding heart the hope of a cure. (Cf. Mark, 10. 51.) Sir, I have no man, &c.—Instead of saying he wished to be cured, he just tells with piteous simplicity how fruitless had been all his confi-efforts to obtain it, and how helpless and all but hopeless he was. Yet not quite. For here he is at the pool, waiting on. It seemed of no use; nay, only tantalixing-"While I am coming another steppeth down be fore me "--the fruit was snatched from his lips. Yet he will not go away. He may set nothing by staying. he may drop into his grave ere he get into the pool; but by going from the appointed, divine way of healDIS-ing, he can get nothing. Wait therefore he will, wait he does, and when Christ comes to heal him, lo! he is waiting his turn. What an attitude for a sinner at

Ver. 147. THE IMPOTENT MAN HEALED COURSE OCCASIONED BY THE PERSECUTION ARISING THEREUPON. 1. a feast of the Jews-What feast? No question has more divided the Harmonists of the Gos-Mercy's gate! The man's hopes seemed low enough ere pels, and the duration of our Lord's ministry may be Christ came to him. He might have said, just before said to hinge on it. For if, as the majority have thought Jesus passed by that way," This is no use; I'l (until of late years) it was a Passover, His ministry never get in; let me die at home.' Then all had been lasted three-and-a-half years; if not, probably a year lost. But he held on, and his perseverance was reless. Those who are dissatisfied with the Passover-warded with a glorious cure. Probably some rays of view all differ among themselves what other feast it hope darted into his heart as he told his tale before was, and some of the most acute think there are no those Eyes whose glance measured his whole case. But grounds for deciding. In our judgment the evidence the word of command consummates his preparation as in favour of its being a Passover, but the reasons can- to receive the cure, and instantaneously works it. Rise, not be stated here. 2. 3. sheep (market]-The supple- take up thy bed, &c.- Immediately" he did so. "He ment should be (as in Margin) sheep (gate), men- spake and it was done." The slinging of his portable tioned Nehemiah, 3, 1, 32. Bethesda.e., house couch over his shoulders was designed to show the place) of mercy.' from the cures wrought there. five perfection of the cure. the saine day was the Sabbath porches for shelter to the patients. impotent-or in--beyond all doubt this was intentional, as in so many firm. 4. An angel, &c.-This miracle differed in two other healings, in order that when opposition arose on points from all other miracles recorded in Scripture: this account men might be compelled to listen to His (1.) It was not one but a succession of miracles periodi- claims and His teaching. 10-16. The Jews-e., those cally wrought: (2.) As it was only wrought "when the in authority. See on ch. 1. 19. It is not lawful to carry waters were troubled," so only upon one patient at a thy bed-a glorious testimony to the cure, as instantime, and that the patient "who first stepped in after taneous and complete, from the lips of the most prejuthe troubling of the waters." But this only the more diced! (And what a contrast does it, as all our Lord's undeniably fixed its miraculous character. We have miracles, present to the bungling miracles of the heard of many waters having a medicinal virtue; but Church of Rome) In ordinary circumstances, the what water was ever known to cure instantaneously a rulers had the law on their side. (Nehemiah, 13. 15; single disease? And who ever heard of any water Jeremiah, 17. 21.) But when the man referred them curing all, even the most diverse diseases-blind, to "Him that had made him whole" as his authority. halt, withered"-alike? Above all, who ever heard of the argument was resistless. Yet they ingeniously such a thing being done only at a certain season," parried the thrust, asking him, not who had "made and most singularly of all, doing it only to the first him whole"-that would have condemned themselves person who stepped in after the moving of the waters? and defeated their purpose-but who had bidden him Any of these peculiarities-much more all taken together-must have proclaimed the supernatural character of the cures wrought, (If the text here be genuine, there can be no doubt of the miracle, as

take up his bed and walk," in other words, who had dared to order a breach of the Sabbath? "Tis time we were looking after him-thus hoping to shake the man's faith in his Healer. he that was healed wist net

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