CHAPTER XII: That Christ, as God-man, is the Creator of all things, proved from John 1:1, 2, 3.
therefore it was also that God commissionated him to make them, as being considered God-man, to make his title of Lordship, even as Son of man, proper and direct, and adequately full to him. So then
God appointed him to all this, and the Son of God then existing, and consenting to and taking this office of Lord on him, and person of God-man, and Christ acting accordingly in all that was done, as the Lord and heir of all, there needeth no more to verify this we are upon, namely, that as God-man he made the worlds, and virtually as man, as well as efficiently both as God and man, in the sense it hath been explained in.
CHAPTER XII
That Christ, as God-man, is the Creator of all things, proved from John 1:1, 2, 3.
Whether ὁ λόγος, the WORD, import not as the second person existing, as God with God in the beginning, so withal connotating that person, as sustaining before God the personage of God-man, by whom as such all things were created.—An interpretation of Prov. 8 from ver. 22 to 32, with a parallel between that scripture and this of John 1:1, 2, 3.—A brief exposition of the first chapter of John, continued unto the 14th verse.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.—JOHN 1:1, 2, 3.
In the prosecution of this assertion of Christ (as God-man) his being instrumental to all God's purposes, and decrees, and works, as namely, the creation, providence, &c., I shall further add what the forepart of this chapter, which speaks of the creation by him, under the title of the Word, may contribute hereunto. Wherein it will be
meet to inquire whether that title, the Word, be to be understood of him merely as second person, or also as bearing the personage of God-man?
In discoursing of the person of our Lord Christ, I fell upon that title of his, whereby John here styles him the Word; and then discoursed how it importeth both his being, 1. The image of God the Father, which he is as second person.
2. The image, the manifestation of God unto us in a human nature.
Which two are suitably consistent; the Word in both those tongues the scripture was written in, signifying the inward image, or conceptus of the mind framed within itself, and also that which is uttered in speech, which is the truest interpretation or index of the mind, and the most immediate lively image and manifest of what the mind conceives within itself to others.
Many of our modern protestant divines have (as I then observed) altogether declined the first sense, and betaken themselves to the latter, namely, that Christ is called the Word, as in relation to his being manifested in a human nature, and therein to manifest the whole of God unto us; for as manifested in our nature, it was only that he was to manifest God to us. In the Old Testament, besides those other titles of Shiloh, Messiah, Son of God, the Seed of the woman, Adonai, The Lord, &c., this of his being the Word was known and used among the Jews. Nor otherwise had the Greek Septuagint so often used it, when Christ was spoken of, naming him ὁ λόγος, the Word, as it is found they have done. That it is not appropriated to him only as Son of God, and second person, is manifest, as in the discourse of the person of Christ I have shewn, that in the New
Testament he is styled so, as Son of God united to that human nature; and as such is evident from Rev. 19:13, 'And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.' For it is spoken when he came to do execution as God's deputy.
Now John gives him that title here, long afore he had assumed it, even in the beginning, and at the creation, which was the first appearance or manifestation that can be supposed of him, seeing creation was the first of works God himself ever did act of himself.
What I have commented from those other former scriptures, hath put me on a further inquiry, viz., whether the title be not given him then, in respect of God's having set him up, and himself undertaken, and as then acting the person of God-man (in the sense hitherto driven) one day actually to take flesh, but in the mean time, under the name of the Word, performing this part. I proceed to it by degrees.
1. It seems fair to me, that if he be thus termed the Word, after the assumption of our nature, and as acting in it, why should not his being termed the Word, before his incarnation, by John, have relation to his undertaking that office or person afore? Now it is evident that he is termed the Word of God in this sense, as subsisting in a human nature, and therein executing the decrees and counsels of God, as king of his church and nations; thus expressly, Rev. 19:11–16,
'And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true; and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew but he himself: and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called THE WORD OF GOD. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of almighty God. And he hath on his vesture, and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.' And we know also, that he acted virtually as man, afore he came into the world as mediator, and so as God-man, and appeared as a man; for in such an appearance, he, the angel of the covenant, conversed with the fathers. For the angels that came into Sodom, the inhabitants took for men. Among the Jews also that style of 'the Word,' as that of
'Wisdom,' Prov. 8 (which is all one), was the usual title taken up among them to express the mediator by. It was the name he was called and known by as such. One eminent evidence of this is that of the Chaldee paraphrast, who hath enstyled him the Word, as mediator, and thereof as God-man, in the paraphrase and translation of that promise made to Abraham, Gen. 22:15, 16, 'By myself have I sworn, in blessing I will bless thee, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.' The Chaldee turns it, 'By my Word have I sworn.' Now compare with it Heb. 6:17: the apostle's paraphrase on that oath is this: his words in the original import, that God did intermediate by oath; the margin itself varies it, interposed.
So then, put both together, the effect is this, that God, in making the promise to Abraham, swore by that Word of his, his Son, that was to be the mediator and interposer, &c., to make that oath good through his interposition; who being one in essence with God, God is therefore also said to swear by himself. Or perhaps, rather thus, that the Son of God being that person that appeared to the fathers, did swear by himself, as to become the Word, and by oath undertook to mediate, and to that end to become, as Heb. 2:16, the seed of Abraham, and to bless that nation. But still, out of either sense is collected this, that Christ as mediator is the Word.
2. Secondly, At other times he is spoken of as mediator (and so Godman), under that title. So in that great promise to Abraham, God interposed by his Word. So to David, 'for his Word's sake' (as Daniel, chap. 9:17, 'for the Lord's sake'). And these were the two great persons in the Old Testament to whom, and in whose name, the promises were made. And, 3. Thirdly, I found, that here this title is given him in respect of his being ὁ λόγος, and so that to be esteemed the first title of all other, in relation unto God's works ad extra; and that by him as second person, all was created: and comparing it with those other
Scriptures, I considered whether it might not be given him, in relation to his having undertaken to be man, as well as merely the Son of God.
4. Fourthly, I found that title of 'Wisdom' (which is near akin, if not all one with this of 'the Word'), to be understood of him as God-man, as set up in God's decree, with his own undertaking that personage; so in Prov. 8. And that under that title, he is there spoken of as set up with God long before the creation. I compared that Scripture with this, and found them parallel in many respects.
5. I then, fifthly, found Christ applying that title unto himself as Son of man, as sending out prophets, which Wisdom is said to do; and in the Proverbs, Wisdom's calling upon her disciples under the name of children, Prov. 8:32, 'Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.' And Christ referring to it, says, 'Wisdom is justified of her children,' Mat. 11:19; and that speech doth verily suppose him God-man. Also he is found delighting in the sons of men on earth, which Ps. 16:3, is spoken of Christ as man, 'My righteousness extends to the saints on earth, with whom is all my delight;' which are almost the very words in Prov. 8:31, 'Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of men.'
6. Sixthly, When I came to the creation, as in Gen. 1, from whence this title is given him, as by comparing John and Moses appears, I considered, whether God, by a word within himself, did speak it as in corde. Now so he had said, 'Let there be light,' and that from everlasting; and therefore why may we not suppose it to have been uttered at the beginning of every day's work? And that voice being a creature, whether that clothing with words at creation, shewed not that Christ was to be clothed on with a creature, to speak God's mind unto us creatures, and that he had so undertaken, as being that Wisdom who had sustained it in God's purpose, and now appeared to execute it.
The interpretation of the words, John 1 ver. 1, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.'
These words do willingly, and without constraint, offer up this one import of them, that he that was known as the expected Messiah, by the usual name of the Word of God, both as the image of God to himself, and as who was ordained to be the Wisdom of God, the manifestation of God to us, the great interposer and mediator in a human nature, to come one day into the world; his person was existing in the beginning, and was God, and with God. Thus for his personal existence, which having affirmed, as to this existence of his person, Then, ver. 2, he adds, 'The same was in the beginning with God.'
This being in view but a repetition of the former, and indeed meant of the existence of his person, is no other in the sense of it. I inquire therefore, whether this expression, 'The same was in the beginning with God,' be not distinct from the former in this, that qua λόγος, or as the Word, as sustaining that personage (as I have often distinguished it), that eo nomine, et persona, he was then with God?
He was this same Word in the beginning with God; and not only that he that was the Word, was from the beginning with God. He had said afore, ver. 1, that he was in the beginning, and that he was with God.
To what end repeats he this? Say I, to this eminent meaning, which as yet John before had not spoke out, namely, that as the Word he had existed in the beginning, and was with God as such, and so read it thus: this same Word spoken of was with God in the beginning; or, he was this same Word from the beginning. The existence of his person, and his being God, and with God, the first verse holds forth; but his existence also with God tanquam, as the Word or mediator, this the second holds forth; and that as a preface unto that which follows concerning the creation.
Ver. 2, 'The same was in the beginning with God.' 1. It imports that the second person, besides his personal existence, spoken of, ver. 1, and relation of a Son which he stood in towards God, did then between him and his Father, sustain, and took on him another relation, or person of the mediator; and not only undertaking it, but
further, even then entering upon the office of it, and acting the part of it, sustaining the place and reputation of it.
2. He was so in God's repute or esteem, as we use to say, one is so or so with another one, or, he is all in all with him. Such speeches import not only a real existence, but also a being such or such in real repute and esteem with another. Thus, that second person (who also personally then existed, and was with God, and in God, and one with him) was in God's real repute and esteem the Word, and sustained that name, and relation, 'The Word was with God,' that is, he was with God, the Word. God had that account or honour for him; and in their actual converses, God owned him as such, and himself took it on him to be such, afore God, and with God. In which sense the man
Jesus, praying for the possession of that glory he hath now in heaven, urgeth that he had it with God afore the world was, when yet the man actually existed not, John 17:5. It is the same phrase there and here.
And there it is necessarily to be understood of the glory of God-man, which he had in God's decree and designment; and the second person then existing and taking the name and thing upon him, God conversed with him under that title, &c. For it was that glory which, during the term of his humiliation, after the man had been actually united to the person of the Son, was suspended until now the time of his praying. And therefore he prays to have it as then bestowed, in the real possession of it, according to the model which was in God's heart and design about it before the world was, that so he might be existently and really possessed of it in and with God, as he had been ordained to it and bore the repute of it with God. This to be the meaning of that his petition, and of that phrase 'with God,' I have at large elsewhere handled upon that text. And when I say in repute with God, I understand it thus: it was among the three persons, and their converses afore the world was made, as if three men, who purpose to erect a company, or to found a college, should in their contrivements, long before they set upon the work, take several relations on them, and offices aforehand, which they mean executively to bear, when that corporation is erected, or the adventure begun; one of them being reckoned treasurer or purser, to
lay out all; another, master or governor, &c., and according they beforehand esteem and call each other such, in their speech of and to each other; and in the very first founding that college, the treasurer lays out the money out of his purse as treasurer, and so manageth it afterwards.
3. The words are to be understood that he did then virtually exist as such, as being considered the foundation of those works that follow creation, and the like. Thus in the like phrase of speech he is said to be, 'the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world,' Rev. 13:8, that is, from the fall, for so the phrase 'from the beginning' there is taken, the meaning of which is, that Christ's death was considered from that time as virtually existing as if it had been past, in that upon the consideration of that his death, God saved Eve, yea in that respect
Christ did exist as mediator, during all the days of the Old Testament, 'Jesus Christ the same to-day, yesterday, and for ever.' In like manner may Christ be said then in the beginning to be the Word, as virtually under that consideration, being the foundation of the world, and all God's works therein. So then, it was not only an existence in God's decree, as in like manner that glory he is said to have had with the Father afore the world was (John 17) is not spoken simply in decree, for the like speech is nowhere said of any elect man or angel, nor is compatible to them, as if they had a glory with God afore the world was. No, it was peculiar to Christ; and the reason of the difference is evident, because the person then existing actually
(as men and angels did not) might well undertake and bear this person apart, as in the Old Testament, de facto, he did before he was incarnate. So besides the essential glory as second person (which he there speaks not of), he had the honour, repute, renown, and glory with God, as the mediator and saviour of his church, which now in his prayer the human nature challengeth to be bestowed upon him as his ancient investment and endowment; the second person having before the world was, by an agreement and complot with his Father, undertaken to assume human nature, and all that while, bearing and sustaining and acting that person, his Father did as between themselves repute and converse with him as such, and gave him
reputatively a glory, a name between themselves correspondent to that glory, which now (when God-man glorified in heaven) he actually hath bestowed upon him, which is thus expressed by him
—'the glory which I had with thee'—which yet had been his due actually to have received from the first moment of his assuming human nature, but he had laid it down both before God and men, taking 'the form of a servant,' and becoming 'of no reputation' (as it is Phil. 2:7), neither with God, so far as God's outward dispensation held forth, nor with men during the time of his humiliation; during which he had given up even that glory, in the respect he had had with God before the world was. Hence, therefore, he having finished that work of humiliation for man's sin, (which was but part of the work, which as God-man he was to do by the way, whilst in the world) he now desires God to give him actually and visibly before saints and angels that glory, and cause it to break forth in that human nature he had assumed, which reputatively between themselves he had given him before the world was, when he had undertaken it, and bare that person of God-man, which glory was but his due inheritance, whenever he should take our nature. And this I truly take to be the genuine sense, and fairest meaning that can be given of these words of Christ, John 17:5, 'Now, O Father, do thou glorify me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was;' namely, that which then he had in real repute in relation upon his bearing that person, before God, which now he had assumed, and now seeks to have actually and visibly bestowed upon that nature which he had, avoiding to his ancient undertaking, assumed.
It is well known unto those who have met with that question, Whether Christ, as a Redeemer, was the first intended in God's decrees, or whether considered as man simply, in order to other glorious ends, were not the primitive great decree; which hath been agitated both by papist and protestant writers; it is well known, I say, that those which are for the latter, do insist and urge much that of Proverbs 8; where Wisdom, that is, Christ, for so Christ expressly takes it on himself, in those words spoken of himself by himself,
'Wisdom is justified by her children:' Prov. 8:22–31, 'The Lord
possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled; before the hills was I brought forth: while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.'
These things (say they) cannot be understood of Christ simply as second person, or as a Redeemer.
1. Not as Redeemer, which supposed this world first to be decreed to be made, and man to be created, yea, and fallen; but as God-man, and considered as such, as subservient to other ends of God, as well as redemption, in the utmost latitude of God's vast purposes, which he made in Christ, besides those of man's redemption, and the beginning of all his ways, ad extra.
2. Not as second person singly considered, for he is there made the object of God's decrees; which as God's Son simply considered he did no way come under. But only as God-man, 1 Pet. 1:19–21, 'But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.' And yet Wisdom, or Christ as here spoken, is made the object of a decree of God's, 'I was set up from everlasting,' and 'the Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way;' that is, he so designed and decreed me afore all his other
ways, and as the foundation of them; or as the Revelation hath it, 'The beginning of the creation of God:' Rev. 3:14, 'And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.'
Now compare but this Prov. 8 with this of John 1, from the second verse. Besides that the titles are in effect and significancy the same in the original languages, 'the Word,' and 'Wisdom,' you will find that Solomon speaks but the same things of him there that John doth here. He calls him by the same name (that is, the same in sense and meaning) for 'Wisdom' and ὁ λόγος, 'the Word,' are all one, and both respect us; that which is there in John said of the Word, that 'he was in the beginning,' is, ver. 22 of the 8th of Proverbs said, 'The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way.' And so it may explain what is meant by 'in the beginning' here, namely, of the creation alluded to there. For the ways of God are his goings forth towards the creatures, which are called opera ad extra; and therefore is not meant of his eternal generation; for so Christ is not the beginning of God's ways. That speech is all one with Col. 1:15, where he is called 'The first-born of every creature,' being in God's decree of creation the first, the corner stone, and beginning of the rest. So as it must be meant of Christ as God-man, and not simply as second person.
Again, that which is here said, 'was with God,' is there said, 'the Lord possessed me.' They dwelt together; he was with God as possessed of him. And ver. 30, 'Then was I by him;' and from ver. 23 to ver. 30, he rehearseth the particular works of creation by parcels; as here they are in this one sum, 'all things were made by him.' And ver. 30, that which is translated 'I was brought up with him,' as a nourishing,* or one nourished, passively taken, is rendered by Junius actively, educans, as one nourishing; that is, by my power supporting the creatures, and God's decrees about them, and his purpose to create.
And that which is here said, that he was 'the life of man,' is there said, ver. 31. lætificans, that is, 'blessing,' or 'with blessing, making joyful the sons of men;' so Junius out of the Hebrew reads it; and Cartwright also, with others. So as the one place may interpret the other.
Nor doth this interpretation weaken or derogate anything from alleging these texts as strong proofs for the actual existing of the second person, as Son of God, begotten by him from everlasting. For look, as the greatness of a personage doth argue the greatness of the person in his birth (when such or such an office or dignity goes by birth), so here, all this said hitherto doth necessarily suppose and argue our Christ to have been God (as John affirms), and natural Son of God; and that he did then also actually exist, as bearing and sustaining this dignity and office afore God, of being his Word and Wisdom. Insomuch as if this natural greatness of his person were not as the substratum, first supposed and laid down, all these assertions we have insisted on would fall at once to the ground, as having no basis or foundation to stand upon; if there were not a person of original worth for such a place and employments. And accordingly, the apostle, Heb. 1, argues and infers from the one to the other; and also this 1st of John, that he is God.
To come then to that which is eminently and summarily intended in his being called the Word, in respect of his then sustaining and assuming the person of God-man, in relation to all God's works, ways, and counsels, whereof John gives instance in the creation, and the like; John 1:3, 4, 'All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men;'— We find, 1 Cor. 1:24, that Christ is said to be 'the power of God, and the wisdom of God,' both which are spoken of him not as they are essential attributes, in God's nature, for the person of Christ is as a person distinct from the attributes which are common to all three; and so he is not styled the attribute of wisdom, but they are thus spoken of Christ manifestatively, and instrumentally, and executively, and as he is from God, and made use of by God towards us, and in things that concern us to be the whole scene and manifestation of God's wisdom, and substratum of his counsels concerning us, and so also the executive power by whom God effects all he doth. And that this is the meaning is evidently interpreted by
that which follows, ver. 30, 'God hath made him to us wisdom,' &c.
And although it be a maxim applied to that particular of preaching the gospel unto us men, which is the wisdom and power of God to our salvation, yet it is a general maxim brought in to confirm that particular. Such generals the apostle often useth to allege upon particular occasions, as in Rom. 8:29, our predestination to be conformed to Christ's image is brought upon occasion of afflictions; so then Christ, in relation to what he is as a medium between God and us who are creatures, is both the wisdom of God and the power of God. Neither is it said of him simply as second person, but as Christ, God-man; for so only he is made these to us.
Now these two which as there spoken of Christ, in what he is to us as saints (which is the strict scope of the apostle there), serves yet summarily and particularly to express what he is as he is termed ὁ λόγος, or the Word, by John (as that title relates to the manifestation of God by him, and instrumentality of him to us), both that he is the wisdom of God and the power of God.
1. That it expresseth him to be the wisdom of God, and is congenial with the proper import of the word ὁ λόγος, ratio, conceptus, the mind or counsel of God about the creatures, or to be manifested to the creatures, those that are versed in the languages the Old and New
Testament were written in, will universally acknowledge; and the correspondency of that title of Wisdom, Prov. 8, with this of John, is an abundant confirmation of it.
2. And that the executive power of God as erected and put forth in the creatures is therein fitly comprehended also, and thereby intended, that observation evidently demonstrates, which Cameron and many others have made, by comparing Moses, Gen. 1, and this
1st of John together, which many things parallel lead to; that whereas Moses in the creation mentions God the Father, and the Spirit, two of the persons, that he veils the Son under that so often repeated speech used of the creation, that 'God said, Let there be light;' 'God said, Let there be a firmament,' which could not be
without mystery; and what other than Christ was that Word by whom God created all things? Whom therefore when John speaks, referring to Moses's 'In the beginning,' and of the creation of all things, he terms, ὁ λόγος, the Word. God's power was erected and put forth by his Word; Ps. 18:4, 5, 'He commanded, and they were created;' as, 'where the word of a king is, there is power,' Eccles. 8:4; so God's word and his executive power are all one. When therefore
Christ is termed the Word of God, the meaning is, he is the power of God in being his instrument and agent in all he doth or means to do.
I shall therefore distinctly insist on these two:
I. How Christ as thus God-man, the Word, is the wisdom of God.
II. How he is the power of God.
And then proceed to add an interpretation of the forepart of this chapter, unto ver. 14, which is all of Christ.
I. He is the Wisdom of God, and that in a double respect.
1. In respect to the manifestation of God unto us; for Christ considered as God-man, and through his assuming human nature, was to be the sum of that wisdom or revelation by which the Godhead would make itself known, that whereas the persons and nature of the Godhead were invisible, they should be uttered or revealed in him as the λόγος, or the Word of God; and so he, by taking on him this person of God-man, became God's Wisdom or best image to express his mind by, λόγος, est mentis imago, the image of God's mind and thoughts. Now as that Christ should be
God-man was the first great and most comprehensive thought of God to express himself by; so he assuming or taking upon himself so to be, did accordingly become λόγος, or the 'image of God' who was invisible, but in him made visible, as hath been explained, Col. 1:15.
This I take to be John's meaning, as appears by ver. 18 of this first chapter, 'No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.'
2. And, secondly, his being thus constituted the wisdom of God, as God-man then with God, imports how all God's counsels, thoughts, and purposes which God took up, and from all eternity was contriving of towards his elect, they all depended and hung upon this as their foundation, that he would become λόγος, the Word, or Godman, to manifest God. Thus, in Eph. 3, as to that part of his counsel, the gospel, the whole model of it, from first to last, ver. 10, is called
'the manifold wisdom of God;' ver. 11 is said to be 'purposed from eternity in Jesus Christ,' because he from eternity took on him that person of being the Christ; and so in him, considered as such, did
God proceed to frame all his other counsels, the whole frame of them depending upon that one engine. Thus God elected us and bestowed all things upon us before the world was, even in Jesus Christ (Eph.
1:4), as then bearing this person of God-man. And thus all the promises which the written word of God contains, were made for us unto Christ, as really bearing that person; and 2 Tim. 1:9, 'They were given us in Christ before the world began.' So that Christ then, as sustaining the person of God-man (with promise one day to become man) between him and his Father, was the original Word or Wisdom to be revealed to us, and so more truly called λόγος than the word written, by how much the original in God's breast deserves the name better than the extract or copy. Notable to this purpose is that place,
Tit. 1:2, 3, where the apostle first says that 'God promised eternal life before the world began.' A promise is a word given forth, and is more than a purpose with one's self, for it is to another. There was a promise made to Christ, as then with him. Now, as merely second person, he is capable of no promises, but only as he is God-man. It is the Son of God, as he is Jesus Christ, in whom all promises are 'yea and amen.' 2 Cor. 1:19, 20, 'For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen, unto the glory of God by us.' Secondly, the apostle, in that place to Titus adds, that 'God hath in his due time manifested his Word through preaching.'
By Word is meant that original Word then given before the world began, which was founded on Christ, and his undertakings for us;
and further, as he did then sustain a person, to whom the promises for us were made, as a public person bearing our persons, so was he likewise the thing promised, and in both these respects called λόγος, the Word; and so is termed by John, 1 Epist. chap. 1 ver. 1, 'the Word of life.' In Titus it is termed 'the promise of eternal life' (for all promises and counsels of God were rooted in him, Eph. 1:4); and so most properly called ὁ λόγος, then but still as God-man considered.
Thus he was the Word in respect of the elect, even as he was the wisdom of God.
II. But, secondly, he was the Word also as he was the power of God, in a general relation to all the creation. This follows here, John 1:3,
'All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.' And therefore, 1 Cor. 1:24, as he is called 'the wisdom of God' to be revealed to us, so 'the power;' which, though there specially brought in to the preaching of him in the gospel, and the efficacy thereof, yet is a general maxim applied and specified to that particular. The power of God; that is, as undertaking to execute, and actually executing, all that God ever meant to do, and in this respect as undertaking to be God-man; and, as bearing that part, he is termed 'God's arm,' Isa. 53:1 and Isa. 27:5. Without him God could, or at least would, do nothing, no, not first begin to create; and he was then the Word, as taken for the power of God in a double respect.
1. As his bearing this person was in God's mind that which did uphold God's purpose to create, and this before the world was, so Prov. 8:30, 31, 'I was by him,' then before the world was, educans, fostering, and lætificans terram suam (as Tremelius reads it), gladding his earth. His bearing the person of God-man, one day to be by him assumed, was it that made the creatures exist in God's purpose. God else would never have thought of them but for his sake, as God-man; therefore he is said to be 'the first-born of every creature,' for whom and by whom all things were made.
2. Yea, secondly, when God came to make the creatures, he did it by him as sustaining this person. The Scripture says, 'God created all things by Jesus Christ,' Eph. 3:9.
John having thus enstyled him the Word, ver. 1, 2, then goes on to shew how from him, as such, it is that all things are: 'All things were created by him.' Yea, it is added, 'nothing was made without him that was made,' merely to shew the instrumental general dependence God had of him in this work. He was his all in all; as we say of one that is a right hand to another, He does nothing without him. Such was
Christ to God, not that God had not power essential to have created without him. For it is by that power that Christ did it, but that this power God's will would never have put forth, but for his assuming to be God-man; even as although God hath essential power to sanctify a sinner, and Christ adds no such power to God, or his Spirit, which they had not before, but because God without Christ would never have put forth that power; therefore he is said to be the power of God therein. Now, therefore, he is said to create as God-man, not only because he undertook or promised to become a man, and so in virtue of that God put his power forth; but further, God created by him, as sustaining that relation, and bearing that title with God (as in the similitude afore-mentioned), one of a society chosen treasurer lays the corner-stone of a college out of his own purse. And many interpreters and others do observe that the evangelist calls him ὁ λόγος in reference to that of Moses, Gen. 1. That whereas Moses in the creation had made mention not only of God creating, but as by a word—'God said, Let there be light'—God the Father he had been mentioned as the Creator in those first words, 'In the beginning God created;' and the Spirit as 'moving upon the waters.' But the second person, the Word, is couched, personated, and signified in dixit, that
'GOD SAID.'
The greatest objection against this is from ver. 14. For if his being considered ὁ λόγος, the Word, had imported his being God-man, how comes it after to be said that he was 'made flesh,' for that argues
he had been spoken of as second person only afore, the manhood not included?
Ans. 1. That word 'made' imports evidently his having now actually assumed man's nature; and so in distinction from his having hitherto but sustained that person afore God, in contract with God, which now in the fulness of time he, according to his contract, did perform; and until this performance de facto, he had borne the title of the Word, which he sustained at the creation, and from thence on still until this assumption. But now, though he bears it still, yet ever after John speaks of him as Jesus and Christ, &c. For now he was actually made man in frail flesh.
The second answer lies in that other word, 'made flesh,' that is, a frail man, taking a tabernacle of flesh, not a glorious body as was his due, as he was λόγος, the Word; and so it carries this with it, that whereas his due, according to that first designed glory and repute which he had had with God before the world was, was to have had a glorified nature, such as now he hath in heaven; instead of this the evangelist expresseth it, that he took frail flesh, he took that nature in frailties at the first, and 'dwelt with us in a tabernacle' (as the word is), which was to be taken down. And though he had had a glory with God answerable to his place of God-man as his due, yet he never shewed it (says the evangelist) to us but once, and that was when he was transfigured, at which time 'we saw his glory' (saith the apostle), in that nature, such as could be in none, but 'the only begotten Son of God.' Which Peter also brings as an evidence of his being the Son of God; as John likewise here doth, who was also an eye-witness of it.
The glory of Elias and Moses was not such, for they saw theirs at the same time; but this was so transcendent as they could easily discern with difference, this to be the glory of God's only begotten, and so to differ from that of theirs, as the glorious lustre of the sun, in comparison of lesser stars. And though Christ always manifested not such a glory (and indeed but once), yet he always shewed himself 'full of grace and truth,' says he, in all his converse with us. Full of truth, namely, in those glorious revelations of his Father made by him, ver.
18, and full of grace, that is, holiness, even a holiness transcending Adam's, or any creature's. Neither was this fulness a plenitudo vasis, sed fontis, and a fulness to be communicated to men: for, lo! 'we all have received of his fulness, and grace for grace.' He presents all the apostles as coming from a dole, with their laps filled with grace, so to encourage others to go to Christ. Afterwards, in the 17th verse, comparing him with Moses, he opposeth grace and truth to the law of Moses. And then by truth there, he means that Christ was not a figure, as the law was, but the substance of all types. So Heb. 10:1, where verum non opponitur falso, sed figuræ. And he is there called truth, because he made good the covenant and promises, which the law did not. Thus, Rom. 15:8, he was a 'minister of the truth of God, to confirm the promises.' And then he is full of grace too, which the law was not, that had neither justifying nor sanctifying grace annexed; but Christ had both.
And, 3, when the days of his flesh are over (as now in heaven they are), then the same John, seeing him in the vision of a glorious conqueror, and coming and appearing at last to destroy all the enemies of the church, and bringing in the thousand years, then he appears as ὁ λόγος. Again, Rev. 19, and according to the glory he had from everlasting in God's designment and repute. Rev. 19:11–13,
'And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True; and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns: and he had a name written, that no man knew but he himself: and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.'
I shall now proceed, in a brief exposition of the following verses of this first chapter of John, unto ver. 14, as they relate unto the WORD; what follows in ver. 4, is to be understood in the same coherence and dependence with the other, of Christ as God-man.
Ver. 4, In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The evangelist descends from the creation in general, unto the giving of
life, both of reason and holiness, unto men, at their first creation, whiles they were in innocency.
First, 'In him was life.' He speaks not of that essential life in himself; for that which follows in the next words, where he calls him 'the Life,' is so to be understood. But when here he says, 'in him was life,' the meaning is, he was a fountain of life to us, being first Life in himself.
It is one attribute of Christ's, as he is God-man, yea, as he is man taken up into that union, to have life independently in himself, even as God the Father hath; John 5:26, 'For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself,' and therefore he is called the Life, namely, to himself first, and so in him is life for us.
Secondly, 'The life was the light of men.'
1. The light; that is, of holiness, or God's image, which is called light, in opposition to darkness, which is sin (as ver. 5). The life of grace is so called; and in Scripture, light is often put for life, and darkness for death.
2. Of men; that is, of men in their primitive estate of innocency. For, (1.) He joins it with the creation of all things. (2.) He useth the word was, as noting a state past. Now Adam's holiness was from him; for he was made after God's image. When Adam was created, all the persons of the Trinity acted their several parts; and the Son acted the part of God-man: and so the Father eyeing him as such, and as him who was in that respect the image of the Godhead, he thereupon says, 'Let us make man after our image;' Christ's human nature being the πρωτότυπον and exemplar. And so he breathed in that breath of life and holiness which he had at his first creation.
Ver. 5, And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. When that light of holiness in man was extinct, and man by the fall became darkness, that is, full of sin, then all that light moral, or the light of conscience in heathens (which is that truth
spoken of, Rom. 1:18), and the light of the law (which the Jews had), to convince them of their darkness, all this light that shined in this darkness was from Christ. It ariseth not from any sparks of the old light which was before the fall, and now left in man's nature, but all light being extinct, this is put in by Christ as the Word and mediator.
And therefore, because he speaks of man's present condition, he saith in the present, 'shineth,' and in that respect Christ is said, ver.
9, to be 'that light which enlighteneth every man coming into the world.' That phrase, 'coming into the world,' argues that he speaks of what is infused by Christ from their birth. For the Jews call man as born into this world, veniens in mundum. And he says, 'every one,' to shew that he excepts no man. So Christ, John 18:37, useth the phrase, 'for this cause was I born, and came into the world.' So that it is all one as to be born; and therefore he speaks of a natural light from our birth, which is all from Christ. He pitied man's nature so corrupted, and put into it all the light and comfort which men now have. So as, not only all the light of holiness, which Adam in innocency at first had, was from him considered as God-man; but all the light since the fall, which the wise heathens or Jews had, was from him, considered as the Lamb slain. They all did light their torches at this sun and fountain of light. Yea, not only all natural light in men fallen, but all the light of grace and holiness that hath shone in the hearts, lives, and gifts of the best of men sanctified, it was all borrowed from hence. To this purpose he instanceth in John the Baptist, for all the rest.
Ver. 6, 7, There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was the most known and universally acknowledged holy man in those days and times, whom all the Jews esteemed as a 'burning and shining light,' John 5:35. Yet it is said of him, that 'he was not that Light, but was sent only to bear witness of that Light,' ver. 8. John was but a particular light shining in Judea, and in that age only, as a lantern hung out in some street; he was but as the morning-star to this sun. But Christ was and is an universal light (as he is the sun) in all ages, and in all places, and to
all saints. Yea, as John was 'not that Light,' so if all that grace and light that ever was in all saints were gathered into one, yet all would not make that Light who enlightened John and all man-kind universally, as the sun doth the stars above, and terrestrial bodies below.
Ver. 9. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And so he is called 'the true Light,' that is, which is naturally, and of himself such (ἀυτὸ φὼς, as Plato called him), not shining with a borrowed light, as John and all else do, and who in that respect are not true lights; for truth is opposed to what is obtained aliunde, and which is not natural. As you call that false hair which is not, and that true hair which is, one's own; so Christ is called the true Son, 1 John 5:20, that is, the natural, we being but adopted. And all this is what Christ did; and it was before his incarnation.
Now, having proceeded thus far in this chapter, as proper to the subject I have in hand, I will briefly go over the rest of the verses, from ver. 10 to ver. 15, wherein he shews his coming into the world himself, as before he had shewn how he had done all in the world before he came into it. And therein, First, He describes the manner of his coming; as,
1. How he was in the world as one unknown. Ver. 10, 'He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.'
Like Ulysses, who came as a beggar disguised to his own house, so obscure was Christ's coming into the world.
2. He was; implying that he is now gone out of the world again; as having (as it ware) secretly passed through it.
Secondly, He sets out the entertainment of him in this world. And herein,
1. He tells what bad entertainment the most afforded him, with the aggravation of this their sin.
2. The good entertainment that some gave him. To illustrate all which he covertly compares the world unto a house, wherein men are the indwellers, but Christ the owner of it, and all things in it (as ver.
11), and that by a double title.
(1.) Of creation, ver. 10, 'The world was made by him.'
(2.) Of purchase, insinuated ver. 11, 'He came unto his own, and his own received him not.'
1. Now when he came into this his house, and was in it, or conversed in it (as ver. 10), his entertainment was,
(1.) That some did not so much as know him, ver. 10.
(2.) Others, though they knew him, yet 'received him not,' as ver. 11.
They shut him out of doors, not receiving him into their hearts, which the evangelist sets down as an aggravation of the sin of unbelief; his scope being to persuade to, and work faith; or receiving of Christ into men's hearts, by shewing from what a one Christ is and was to us, what an inhuman sin unbelief is, both against the law of creation and bonds of nature, and also of grace. It is to refuse him whose own we are, as having made the world and us at first, and when we were fallen, bought us and upheld us. So as the very benefit of creation, and the propriety that Christ hath in us, as a Lord of us, and of all we have, doth oblige us to believe in him, and to own him at least—(even the or knows his owner)—otherwise it becomes an aggravation of our sin, as shutting Christ out of his own; for the word receiving, ver. 11 (being put for believing), is all one with owning him as a Lord and Saviour; as a king is said to be received in his own dominions, when he is submitted to, and acknowledged, and owned for their king. I know some interpret 'the world' to be all mankind; and 'his own' (mentioned ver. 11), to be the Jews; and his being in the world, to be in respect of the light he gave of himself to the Gentiles.
But for this latter, sure by his making the world the Gentiles could not know him, though the Godhead they might; and that natural light which he gave was only of the Godhead, not of his person as God-man, nor yet of the mystery of the Trinity, there being no footsteps of it in the creation. And I take it, his own is meant also and as well of the world, as made and purchased by him, as of the Jews, his own countrymen. Therefore he says, τὰ ἴδια, as speaking of proper goods, not kinsmen; his own, that is, his household-goods and servants.
2. Secondly, Then follows the entertainment of him by the good, and the privilege which he gave them. Even as great persons, entertained well, use to bestow rewards, and as a king usually dubs those knights, or creates them earls or barons, who have given him royal entertainments, so did Christ to those who received him. By which the evangelist does further set out Christ, shewing what he is to his elect, as before he shewed what Christ is and was to all the world.
The benefit given is adoption to be 'sons of God,' ver. 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;' which he endeareth as the highest favour that could be. So 1 John 3:1, 'Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God.' Christ he was born the Son, ver. 14, but to us it is given;
'to them he gave,' &c. And in being sons, we become heirs and coheirs with himself, of the world which he made, and of all that is called his. So Rom. 8:17, 'And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.' 'He gave them,' ἐξουσίαν, that is, both the 'dignity' and the 'power to become the sons of God.' So it is taken for power, Col. 1:16, 'principalities and powers:' and it is also put for dignity. Thus Rom. 13:1, because a magistrate's place of power hath honour likewise annexed to it, therefore the word is put for honour. And so, because this honour of being sons of God hath power annexed to it, even over all creatures (as they are heirs and coheirs with Christ, and so kings of the world); therefore he rightly calls it ἐξουσία, to import both power and dignity, and both