The true Light in its manifestation.
I. THE NATURE OF THIS LIGHT. "There was the true Light."
1. Christ was the true Light, as opposed to false or imperfect lights. He was the ideal Light, not subject to the vicissitudes of time and space.
2. He was the true Light in opposition to ceremonial types and shadows.
3. He was the true Light in opposition to all light that is borrowed from or communicated from another.
II. THE EXTENT OF THIS LIGHT IN ITS ACTION. "It lighteth every man." "The darkness is past: the true Light now shineth." In a strict sense, all men receive the light of reason, and the consciousness of right and wrong; but, biblically considered Christ shines sufficiently for the salvation of all men, both Jews and Gentiles, so as to leave them without excuse if in their blindness they refuse to see him.
III. ITS PROGRESS. It was ever "coming into the world." In prophecy, type, creed, judgment.
The double rejection of the Light.
I. THE FIRST REJECTION. "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not." These words describe the world's unbelief before his incarnation.
1. He was here invisibly, though the world had no eyes to see him. In him "all things live, and move, and have their being." The revelation of himself has been continuous since man was made. The Life has always been the Light of men. He was and has ever been in the world.
2. The world's ignorance is all the more remarkable because "the world was made by him." The world did not see the evidences of boundless skill and beauty all around. It is a precious thought to the believer that the Creator of the world is his Friend. "It is my Father's house. It is my Brother's handiwork."
3. The mystery of the world's ignorance. "The world knew him not." "The world by wisdom knew not God." The Apostle Paul found an altar to the "Unknown God" at Athens. What a satire on man's privileges! This darkest page in the world's history may well sadden us every time we read it.
II. THE SECOND REJECTION. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not."
1. Israel was the home of our Lord. Its land, its cities, its temple, were all his own property, and were originally granted by himself, Israel was "his inheritance."
2. His people, the Jews, were not left to interpret the light of nature, conscience, and history as they could. Light first broke upon them when it broke upon Abraham, but it was only a preparation for the Incarnation, which is the central fact in the world's history—the pivot on which its history turns.
3. His own people rejected him. They "received him not." This is stronger than the statement that the world did not know him. The Jews were more guilty than the Gentiles in their rejection of the Redeemer, because they were of those "who see, and therefore their sin remaineth" (John 9:41). "The God invoked by the nation appears in his temple, and is Crucified by his own worshippers."
The grace of adoption.
The Jews might boast themselves of being children of Abraham, but Christ gives his disciples the far higher privilege of being sons of God.
I. THE NATURE OF THE RIGHT OR PRIVILEGE ENJOYED BY TRUE BELIEVERS. "As many as received him, to them gave he the right to become the children of God."
1. It is more than creation—sonship. It is more than the relationship of God as a Father to all men as rational and moral creatures; that sonship belongs to all men by virtue of their birth.
2. It is more than the restoration to man of his original relation with God before the Fall.
3. It is a new relation, involving a new filial standing and a new filial character, and has for its blessings freedom of access to God, deep fellowship with him, a sure interest in his fatherly care and discipline, and a well grounded hope of enjoying the inheritance of sons.
4. It originates in the free grace of God; for we are "predestinated to the adoption of sons" (Ephesians 1:5). "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1, 1 John 3:2). We are said to "receive the adoption of sons" (Galatians 4:5).
II. THE CONNECTION OF ADOPTION WITH THE PERSON AND MEDIATION OF JESUS CHRIST. Though the Father adopts (1 John 3:1), it is the Son through whom we become sons of God. In virtue of his Mediatorship he gives the right to it. God predestinates us "to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:5, Ephesians 1:6).
III. THE ADOPTION IS EFFECTED BY REGENERATION ON GOD'S SIDE, AND BY FAITH ON MAN'S SIDE. Faith is the first and immediate effect of regeneration. Faith may be mentioned before regeneration, because it is, so to speak, that element which is nearest to man, and that clement by which man has his first point of contact with Christ; but there can be no faith till it be given by God's Spirit in regeneration (Philippians 1:29).
1. Regeneration is necessarily connected with the entrance of sinners into evangelical sonship. "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." The Jews might believe that they were sons of God by descent from Abraham, or from human parents in direct descent from the patriarch. The apostle says that believers are born:
2. The evangelical sonship is effected on man's part by faith in Christ. "Even to as many as believe in his Name." There are other testimonies to the fact. Believers become "children of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26). "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" (1 John 5:1). There is no sonship to God without living faith in the Son of God.
(a) It is not a mere belief of the truth, though this is essentially implied in it.
(b) Nor is it a belief of the fact that "Christ died for me," or any such proposition.
(c) It is trusting in a Person. We believe on Christ for salvation.