condition and filled his soul with the blackness of despair. He needs redemption from the indwelling power of sin, not less than from the curse of God's broken law; and such redemption God offers him through Christ in the gift of his Spirit. And how glorious does this grace appear in the hour of the soul's extremity! Christ offers himself to the sinner as his sanctification, not less than his justification; as one who can and will make all who come to him in faith, victorious over the inward corruption of their hearts, and raise them at last to the perfect purity and blessedness of heaven. These two provisions of Christ's redemption, pardon and sanctification, include in themselves all other needed blessings, guidance, discipline, protection, support, comfort, and the everlasting fruition of heaven. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" They who have learned to depend on Christ for pardon and sanctification, have learned that in him all fulness dwells. They daily lean their whole soul upon him with holy composure and gladness, and are filled with the delightful assurance that in him all their wants are satisfied. Christ lives in their souls, as the centre about which their warm affections cluster, and without their souls in their daily life. Now they need no human teacher to expound to them the meaning of those strong figures by which the holy Scriptures set forth the union between Christ and his disciples, and the quickening power that flows from him through this union, into their souls. They have themselves drank of the water that Christ gives, and it has become in their souls "a well of water springing up into everlasting life," and flowing out thence in "rivers of living water." They have become branches of the true vine, and they feel the life-giving current flowing from it through their whole being, and making them green and fruitful. It is from this position alone that we can rightly understand and interpret our Lord's discourse in the synagogue at Caper. naum. The ground-idea which underlies it throughout is: Christ in his personality, the life and sustenance of the soul. Throughout the whole address our Lord draws the confidence of his hearers 1 Rom. 8: 32. * John 4: 14, • John 7: 38, to his own person, as the centre whence flows forth the redemption of both soul and body. He does not occupy himself, as did the prophets before him, with directing them to God for salvation (though this he might have done, for in the work of redemption he and the Father are one1), but he sets forth himself, as having in himself life, and giving life to all that come to him. And he not only calls himself "the living bread which came down from heaven," of which all who eat shall live forever, but he particularizes his flesh and his blood: "Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." Thus, while he makes the idea of faith in his person more certain and prominent, he also foreshadows, as will be shown hereafter, the great idea of the eucharist, which is: Christ crucified, the life and sustenance of the soul. The true view of Christ as a Divine Redeemer who has made propitiation for sin through his blood; who, through the indwell. ing of the Holy Ghost, cleanses the heart from the pollution of sin; and who will, at the last day, raise the bodies of all who believe on him in glory; so that in him we have pardon, sanctifi cation, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting; this view of Christ's person and office makes the language of the discourse under consideration natural and appropriate. It is the very language in which the believer who knows Christ as his Redeemer loves to express the fulness of his confidence in him, and the completeness of the salvation which he receives through him. But to the man who has been unable to discern in Christ anything more than a great and good teacher, sent by God to instruct him concerning his duty, it must appear both exaggerated and incongruous. A strange way, truly, of con veying the simple idea: Except ye listen to my doctrine, ye cannot know the truth and be saved by it; so strange that, if Christ be only a teacher, and not a Divine Redeemer, one might be excused for saying: "This is an hard saying; who can hear it?" 1 Compare John 10: 27—30: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them; and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me, is greater than all; and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one;" where the salvation of believers is ⚫ ascribed to the joint act of the Father and the Son. 2 John 10: 54, 55. II EXPOSITION OF THE DISCOURSE. The historic events that gave occasion to this remarkable discourse, are familiar to our readers, and need not be stated in detail. Our Saviour had miraculously fed a great multitude in the desert region that borders the north-east coast of the Sea of Galilee. Under the immediate impression of this miracle, the people were ready to "take him by force, to make him a king." To avoid this, Jesus retired "into a mountain himself alone;" and, in the course of the following night, miraculously joined his disciples, who had sailed for Capernaum, by walking on the sea. The day following, the people, finding that both Jesus and his disciples had departed, followed him to Capernaum, where they found him teaching in the synagogue. V. 25. And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him: Rabbi, when camest thou hither? "The other side of the sea" is here the western side, to which they had just returned from "the desert place, belonging to the city called Bethsaida." Their question implies wonder at the unexplained manner of our Lord's passage. They had been present when the disciples embarked without him, and yet there was no other boat in the place. V. 26. Jesus answered them, and said: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw signs, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. The words εἴδετε σημεία (σημεία without the article) should be rendered: ye saw signs. They contain a general reference to his miracles which the multitudes had witnessed. Our Lord does not mean to deny that they had, in some sense, been moved to follow him by the sight of his miracles; but he teaches that it was not the miracles themselves that attracted them, but only the earthly good which they had received from them. The true end of Christ's miracles was to manifest his Divine glory, and 1 It was 66 a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida" (Luke 9: 10), which lay in Gaulonites, at the north-eastern extremity of the lake, near the en. trance of the Jordan. 2 V. 15. Agnáṛew autóv, to seize and bear him off in triumph; the appropriate word for such an act. Tacitus, Hist. L. I. Cap. 29. VOL. XI. No. 44. 60 thus draw men to himself as their divinely constituted Teacher and Lord. But these men valued them only for the loaves and fishes which they had furnished, and they sought in Jesus only a minister to their earthly wants. V. 27. Work1 not for the food which perisheth, but for the food which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you; for him hath God the Father sealed. Egyálεova, with the Acc., is here, to gain by labor. The uniform doctrine of the Scriptures is, that, while salvation is a gift of God's free grace, the condition of our receiving it is that we labor for it. So in the book of Proverbs we are exhorted, if we would find knowledge, to seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures, because "the Lord giveth wisdom;" and the Apostle's injunction is: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." The food which perisheth, is food whose nourishing power perishes; and which cannot, therefore, give eternal life. To this is opposed the food which endureth unto everlasting life - food which has power to give everlasting life to those who partake of it. To scal, is here, to certify; that is, to attest as the Messiah. God sealed Jesus as the Messiah both by his testimony at his baptism, and by the Divine works which he commissioned him to perform." Our Lord advances slowly, and by several successive steps, to the full development of the great doctrine: "Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life." The present verse contains his first position: The Son of man has for all who will come to him, food that endureth unto everlasting life. He does not yet exhibit his person as "the bread of life," but only declares that he has this bread to bestow upon men. The occasion of this figure, which he unfolds with such Divine grandeur and majesty, rising continually higher in his representations of himself, was the perishable bread wherewith he had fed the multitude on the other side of the sea. Thus he sought to raise their low and earthly minds to the pursuit of spiritual good. 'Egyά code. By rendering "Labor not," our translators have obscured the connection between this exhortation and the question in the verse following. 2 Prov. 2: 3-6. 6 John 5: 36. 8 Phil. 2: 12, 13. 6 V. 54. 4 Matt. 3: 17, al. V. 28. They said, therefore, unto him: What shall we do that we may work the works of God? The works of God, are works which he requires and approves. Jesus had just exhorted the multitude to work for the food which endureth unto everlasting life. They correctly understood him to be speaking figuratively of a religious service which God will reward with eternal life; but, in accordance with their legal notions, they thought at once of some particular outward duties. The plural number is not without significance. It points to "the broken manifoldness of legal works."1 V. 29. Jesus answered and said unto them: This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. He calls off their thoughts from the multiplicity of outward legal observances, through which they had been taught to seek salvation, to the one inward and spiritual work of faith in himself; a work which comprises in itself the sum of all that God requires. Vs. 30. 31. They said, therefore, unto him: What sign showest thou then, that we may see and believe thee? what dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Nothing can more forcibly illustrate the truth of our Lord's declaration: "Ye seek me, not because ye saw signs, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled," than this reply to his demand of faith in himself. If his miracles had made on their minds a true impression, by revealing to them his Divine character and mission, then would they have been ready to receive him, and submit themselves to his authority. But in the Saviour's mighty works they had seen and admired, not his glory, but only the gratification of their earthly desires. Now that he attempts to call them away from earthly to spiritual good, they at once deny his claim to their faith and obedience. Here the words of Calvin are very pertinent: "If Christ had offered them hope of earthly felicity, they would have greeted him with continued applause; he would have been saluted by them without controversy as Prophet, and Messiah, and Son of God; now, because he rebukes them for being too much given to the flesh, they do not think him worthy of being further listened to." 2 1 Die zersplitterte Vielheit der Gesetswerke.-De Wette, in loco. |