John 1

John 1:1-5

The scope and design of this chapter is to conform our faith in Christ as the eternal Son of God, and the true Messiah and Saviour of the world, that we may be brought to receive him, and rely upon him as our prophet, priest, and king, and to give up ourselves to be ruled, and sought, and saved by him. In order to this, we have here, 1. An account given of him by the inspired premen himself, ver. 2—5. And again, ver. 10—14. And again, ver. 16, 17, 18. 2. The testimony of John Baptist concerning him, ver. 6—9. And again, ver. 15. But most fully and particularly, ver. 19—37. 3. His own manifestation of himself to Andrew and Peter, ver. 38—42. to Philip and Nathaniel, ver. 43—51.

and essential perfections. The same was in the beginning with Gods before any creature had yet been spoken into being.

3. His agency, in the formation of the world, and all things therein. All things were made by him, not as a subordinate instrument, but as the self-sufficient author of them; and without him was not any thing made that was made; from the highest to the lowest all are the creatures of his hand, and such power proves him to be very God, Ise. aliv. 24.

4. He is the original of life and light to all the creatures he hath made. In him was life, self-existent and independent; and he is the eternal fount from whence all beings, sensitive or rational, receive their life, and are maintained by supplies out of his fulness; and the life was the light of men; from him was communicated to us all that reason and understanding of which we are possessed, and from him alone comes all divine light and life since the fall, by which we can be restored to the knowledge and enjoyment of God.

5. The light shineth in darkness. By the fall all divine light is utterly banished from the minds of men, and they are by nature funk in the blackness of spiritual darkness. The glimmering of tradition, and the brighter light of revelation, shining in the shadows and types of the law, or the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament, were utterly ineffectual to lead men to eternal life and salvation, without divine illumination: the darkness comprehended it not: the plainest and most obvious truths the natural man can no more comprehend, than the blind can discern the objects before them. He, therefore, who first gave eyes to our bodies, must, by the same divine power, give light to our darkened minds, or we must for ever remain under spiritual darkness and ignorance.

6. ¶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe. 8. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. 9. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10. He

IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2. The same was in the beginning with God. 3. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.

St. John opens his gospel with an account of that divine personage, concerning whom he was about to write. He is called the Word, or Logos; the essential word of God, to whom he ascribes all the attributes peculiar to the One Jehovah. We have,

1. His eternal self-existence. In the beginning was the Word, not only before his incarnation, but ere creation rose, or time began to measure its periods; from everlasting he exited, as the great I AM.

2. His co-existence with the Father. The Word was with God, and the Word was God; not as one God with another, but as one divine person co-existing with another in the same godhead, and partaking with the Father in the same divine nature

3. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.

In 60—14. The clearest revelation of gospel light began with the Baptist’s ministry. To him therefore the Evangelist refers, as bearing the most glorious testimony to the uncreated Word.

1. He relates the million and preaching of John. There was a man first from God, while none was John: his miraculous birth, his extraordinary gifts, and remarkable facility, were plain indications of his million from above. The same came for a witness, to hear witness of the light, to point out to their notice the Sun of righteousness, that was now about to arise; but to whom, through the blindness of their hearts, they were indisposed to pay due attention and regard; and to testify that this was the Messiah of God: that all men through him might believe; not every individual, but men of all sorts, who were, without distinction, turned by him to look to Jesus and to be Sarah. He was not that light; though his energetical discourses, and mighty influence, acted in the minds of many an apprehension that he was the promised Christ, he assumed no such title; but his honour was to be the morning star, the harbinger of day, to usher in the rising Sun: he was just to hear witness of that light, and prepare the way of the Lord. Whilst we rejoice in the light of ministers, we must remember they are only witnesses to the Light; and as they preach not themselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, to him must our eyes be alone directed.

2. Before he proceeds farther with John’s testimony, the Evangelist enlarges on the glorious character and office of him, to whom the Baptist bore record. That was the true light, in opposition to the false lights of Gentile philosophy, and in contradistinction to the glimmering taper of ceremonial types and figures; he was eminently the true light, the fountain from which all wisdom and knowledge flow, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, either as the author of natural reason to all men, or as feuding the light of his gospel to all nations, or rather as the giver of spiritual light to the soul of every sinner who is brought out of the kingdom of darkness, and translated into that new world the kingdom of God’s dear Son. He was in the world, and the world was made by him: from the beginning his power and providence were displayed; but such was the blindness and stupidity of mankind, that the world knew him not, nor in the expanded volume of nature, opened to their view, discerned his eternal Godhead. Nay, he came unto his own, appearing incarnate in the fulness of time, and manifesting himself by his doctrine and miracles to the Jewish people, who were his own in a covenant of peculiarity, and his kindness according to the flesh; and his own received him not; they were in general hardened and obstinate, and rejected their God and Saviour. But a remnant according to the election of grace received, and to as many as received him in his real character, as the promised Messiah, the Prophet, Priest, and King of his people, to show grace he power to become the Son of God, even to them that believe in his name. By faith embracing him as their God and Saviour, and placing their whole dependence on his atonement and righteousness, they were advanced to the high dignity and privilege of being accounted the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, entitled to the inheritance of glory as joint-heirs with Christ, and endowed with all those heavenly graces and filial dispositions which proved their adoption of God. And all who truly believe in and receive the same Jesus into their heart, trusting on him alone as the atoning Saviour, and are devoted to him as their Lord and Master, shall be made partakers of the same invaluable blessings and honours. We, who were by nature children of wrath, are now become the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. And this is not merely a relative change, but a real one: where God confers the dignity of a child, he gives the spirit of adoption. Those therefore are his sons, which were born not of blood, not by natural defenses, for nothing but conception runs in the blood of all the fallen sons of Adam; nor by circumcision, which was only the outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace, without which that bloody rite availed nothing to the soul; nor of the will of the flesh; nor regeneration springs not from any power or ability in ourselves, for we are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; nor both it come of the will of man; the wisest reasoners, the most powerful orators, spend their rhetoric in vain, moral fashion in ineffectual, unless enforced by divine operation; and therefore the Evangelist adds, has of God; the renovation of the soul to the work of sovereign and almighty grace alone, and we can only be quickened from the death of trespasses and sins to spiritual life by the same divine power and energy which

first breathed into the lifeless clay a living soul. And, in order to this great design of man’s salvation, the Word was made flesh, became incarnate, not by the conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking the manhood into God: he took out nature, that, in the likeness of sinful flesh, he might make reconciliation; and dwelt among us, in all the fulness of the Godhead taking up his abode in the body, which was prepared for him, as the Shenchanah dwels in the temple. (And we beheld his glory, the brightness of which dared through the veil that for a time obscured its lustre, and appeared in all the miracles he wrought, in the transcendent wisdom, goodwill, grace, power, and majesty he displayed on various occasions, and particularly blazed forth at his transfiguration, his resurrection, and ascension; all which divine manifestations of himself, the more they confederate, the more were they filled with reverence and godly fear, and could not but regard the glory of Jesus as the glory of the only begotten of the Father) such as it became this divine Perishance to appear in, who was the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person; and who was full of grace and truth: full of grace, of all spiritual blessings to bestow on his people; and of truth, fulfilling in his own person, as the Judgment, all those typical institutions which were the shadows of good things to come, together with the prophecies which chiefly centred in him, and accomplishing all the engagements he had undertaken in the behalf of his people. With what entire satisfaction then may we rest our souls on this adored Redeemer, so admirably qualified for the office of Mediator, possessed of all the excellence which the human nature is capable of receiving, and infinitely exiled in the uncreated glory of the divine? The more we consider his humiliation in becoming incarnate, the more deeply should we be affected with the sense of his grace and love; and, whilst we view the man Christ Jesus as the very God of very God, the more confidently should we trust upon his complete salvation.

15. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This is he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me, is preferred before me; for he was before me. 16. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. 17. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 18. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

John 1:15-18

We have here,

1. The Baptist’s farther testimony to Christ. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This is he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me. He was the herald sent to prepare the way of the King Messiah, to proclaim about the coming of the incarnate God, and at his baptism to point him out to the notice of the world, as infinitely his superior in dignity, though after him, in point of time, entering upon his ministry and mission. And this preeminence he justly ascribes to him, both in the view of his eternal sufficiency as a divine Person, and also of his confirmation to the office of Mediator before the world’s were; for he was before me. Nate, (1.) The greatest of ministers and the chief of Jesus are always most careful to ascribe nothing to themselves, but ever to exalt the name of their adored Lord and Master as alone worthy of all honour and glory. (2.) The younger in office is often seen to be the greater in grace.

2. The Evangelist takes up the word, and expatriates on the unsearchable riches of Christ, in connection with what he had said, v. 14. Out of his fulness, the pheintude of gifts and graces resident in this Son of God’s eternal love, have we all received: not only they, as apostles, were indebted to their incarnate Lord for all the wondrous abilities with which they were qualified for the discharge of the truth committed to them, but also all Christians, of every degree, in every age, draw from the ever-growing, overflowing, fountain of a Saviour’s grace the supply of all their spiritual wants; and grace for grace; which singular expression is differently interpreted; either as representing the fulness as well as freedom of the gospel blessings, as grace upon grace, heaped up unto glory; or as the supply suited to our necessities, and effectual to strengthen us for all the work and duty to which the Saviour calls us; or such grace as exactly corresponds to that which is in him, transforming us into the same image, as the wax bears the impression of the seal; or as descriptive of the more abundant measures of grace dispersed under the gospel than under the law, to which birds the following were seen to direct us. For the law came by Moses: he, as the minister of God, declared his will to the Jewish people; and it was a matter of grace and favour that God by him revealed himself and his law unto them: but one unpleasantly greater than Moses is here, the author of a new dispensation, which in glory far excelseth, 2 Cor. iii. 10. for grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He is the sum and indulgence of all the types and prophecies, and in him they receive their accomplishment: the gospel, which he declared, contained the brightest discoveries

discoveries of the divine grace and goodness, and the most reviving promises, confirmed by the veracity of the unchangeable God; and as he reveals the only way of obtaining the divine favour, and how we may walk so as to please God, he ministers also the ability for that which he enjoins, and his gospel is a law of the Spirit of life, communicating spiritual life and power to the soul. The greatest prophets who went before him are not to be compared with him; and his word must need, in the clearness and fulness of it, extol all the other revelations of his will which God hath been pleased to vouchsafes to the sons of men; for no man hath seen God at any time; neither men nor angels are capable of that intimate knowledge of the divine country, nor were ever admitted into his secrets: He only baptizes Son, which is in the before of the Father, and by his participation of the Godhead most perfectly understands all the designs of grace which were in the eternal mind; in nature one with the Father, and indirectly dear to him; he hath declared him, being most transcendently qualified to make such discoveries of God and his eternal counsels, particularly of his wisdom and grace in the redemption of lofty sinners, as none of the prophets, nor John himself, could be supposed to do, they being but servants over the house of God; He the Son in his own house; and therefore hath more gloriously and distinctly than ever, brought life and immaculity to light by his gospel. They who went before us saw but through a g’sk darkly, we with a disillusion of vision, like that of face to face. May the light of gospel reach, so clearly revealed to us in and by the Son, be accompanied with the effectual power of gospel grace to our hearts!