Those who are born from above, that is, those who receive a divine impartation of life and light from God, see his Kingdom — apprehend and consent to its heavenly truths and laws; and what is this but entering into the knowledge of God as he discloses his nature and purposes in human history? God does indeed reveal himself to man (in historic action; but this outward revelation only becomes a real possession through the soul's appropriation of it according to its true meaning and power. The light of God came into the world in Christ, but it illuminates only those who open their hearts to it. God can dwell only with him who loves that which is Godlike. Love is therefore the essence of the knowledge of God (xiv. 2123). Love is the true bond between the soul and God; it alone can open the way to the realization of eternal life. Here again we are brought back to the Synoptic teaching that love is the sum of all God's requirements (Mk. xii. 28-31; Mt. xxii. 35-40), the indispensable condition of all growth in the life and likeness of God (Mt. v. 43–48).

CHAPTER III

THE SINFUL WORLD

"THE world" is spoken of in the fourth Gospel in three distinguishable senses. It sometimes means creation in general, as when Jesus speaks of the fellowship which he had with the Father "before the world was" (xvii. 5), or "before the foundation of the world" (xvii. 24). Sometimes it denotes humanity the present world considered as a realm of rational and moral action. In this sense Christ came into the world as its light (iii. 19); that is, he came to man and entered into his life that he might bring to him the blessings of salvation (xi. 27; xvi. 28). This idea of the world easily passes over into that which is characteristic of our source, namely, the idea of the world as a sphere of evil the world as alienated from God by sin. Hence Christ came to "save the world" (xii. 46, 47). It was in danger of perishing in consequence of its sinfulness; but God in his love sent his Son to save it (iii. 16). In this sense "the world" means mankind as it is by nature — sinful man exposed to the divine judgment and needing the divine mercy.

The world, then, in this sense is mankind as the subject of redemption and includes all men so far as they still fall short of the true life of fellowship with God or of likeness to him. Hence the contrariety between Christ's Kingdom and the world (xviii. 36). The people of his time for the most part illustrated the spirit of the world which is alienated from God. The world, he declares, did not know God (xvii. 25); hates his disciples (xvii. 14); cannot receive the Spirit of truth (xiv. 17), and is in bondage to Satan as its prince (xii. 31; xiv. 30). Jesus was the champion of a spiritual life and a spiritual Kingdom; the

people of his time were mainly given over to religious formalism and selfish ambition. Between him and them there was little common ground. Without a marked change of standpoint and temper they could never appreciate his truth. They were from beneath, he was from above; they were of this world, he was not of this world (viii. 23). Jesus described their state as one of bondage (viii. 33-36). It was a bondage, however, which they had imposed upon themselves by sin. From this servitude he offered them freedom through the acceptance of the truth as it was embodied in his own person. The true life of love life according to its perfect pattern, the nature of God himself was open to them. But most were too blind to see it, lacking in the very capacity to desire it. They had become willing captives to the world of selfseeking ambition-bondslaves of sin (viii. 34). Steeped in self-satisfaction the people were insensible to their own need and folly. Though really blind, they persisted in saying: "We see" (ix. 41). Here was a double fault. To be spiritually blind through wilful self-perversion were, indeed, bad enough; but how radical must be the moral depravity of those who are not even conscious of their blindness, who have extirpated the very capacity to desire the spiritual life.

In the Johannine discourses sin is represented as darkness, while truth and holiness are analogous to light. Darkness is the symbol of ignorance, evil, and death. The sinful world loves the darkness rather than the light, and hence rejects him who brings to it the truth and the life. This is, indeed, the world's judgment that it prefers its own folly to the heavenly wisdom which Christ offers (iii. 19-21). He is the light of the world and offers the light of life to those who are walking in darkness (viii. 12; xii. 35, 46). By this analogy, drawn from the natural world, the evil of sin is set in contrast to the joy and blessedness of goodness. Light suggests every attribute of goodness its purity, its beneficence, its perfect accord with man's true nature, its divineness. On this white background is set the deformity, the misery, the wicked

folly of sin. Sin is the eclipse of the soul; the obscura[tion of man's sense of his divine origin and destiny. It is failure, perversion, moral death. It is a defacing of the image of God in man; the forfeiture of man's true life as a son of God.

The Synoptists also represent Jesus as making use of the figure of light and darkness in his teaching concerning holiness and sin. There, too, light is the symbol of the blessedness of the spiritual life. As the light fills the world with brightness and beauty when the eye which is adapted to it is healthy, so God fills the spiritual world with supreme attraction and interest when the soul is freely open to his heavenly truth (Mt. vi. 22-24). Light is a name for man's true and normal life as a son of God. The resulting doctrine is the same as we have found in John. To refuse the light is to become "full of darkness. It is to forfeit one's true life and to renounce his divine destiny. It is, so far, to lose one's own self (Lk. ix. 25). Sin is thus that which is abnormal in the moral life of man. It is discord in a world which is divinely attuned to harmony; rupture in a world which is made for unity; a shadow which obscures to human eyes the very purpose of the Eternal, spreads its fatal blight over all the relations of life, and darkens the brightest dreams of human happiness and achievement.

The contrast of flesh and spirit is also found in our source: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (iii. 6). This passage is a part of Jesus' teaching concerning the "birth from above." It rests upon the idea that there are two orders, the order of nature and the order of spirit. Our natural birth pertains to the former; by it we are ushered into the realm of personal, independent activity. But if we are to fulfil our supreme destiny, we must experience another birth — birth into the world of spiritual interests and realities. To both these realms we are related; it is not enough to fulfil our relation to one, and not to the other and higher. Jesus does not here represent the natural life as essentially sinful, but only as something lower

than man's proper destiny. He must live the spiritual life, the life of God's Kingdom, if he is to attain his divinely destined goal. The inference is inevitable, however, that if the lower life is made supreme and sufficient, the sinful perversion which has been described under other terms. must follow. The outward, the incidental, the mere husk (of existence, is not inherently evil, although it is comparatively valueless (vi. 63). But it may become an occasion of evil if chosen and estimated as supreme. Then the lower becomes the enemy of the higher. This false esti(mate Jesus seeks to prevent by leading men to esteem as highest that which is truly highest, by placing first that which is really supreme-the spiritual life of love in fel(lowship with God, a primary interest in the highest things. We find essentially the same contrast and the same resulting doctrine in the Synoptic version of Jesus' teaching. Flesh and blood" has not revealed Jesus' messiahship to Peter (Mt. xvi. 17); he did not derive the knowledge of it from any outward or natural source of information, but by spiritual discernment. He had spiritually perceived what Jesus was by that living apprehension, that vital affinity of life with him, which is fittingly described as an inspiration from God. This higher spiritual nature of Peter, this eager interest and devoted attachment to his Master's person, was very strong in him; the spirit was willing, but on the dark night of Jesus' sorrow and betrayal, it was temporarily overcome, because the flesh was weak. The lower nature-the natural fears and aversion to danger-asserted themselves, calling forth the mild rebuke: "Couldst thou not watch one hour?" (Mt. xiv. 38). The lesson running through both forms of teaching is: Subordinate the lower to the higher; place that first which is first; make the spiritual life primary; seek God's Kingdom and righteousness first (Mt. vi. 33), and let every other legitimate object of desire be sought second.

There is no formal definition of sin in the Johannine discourses. It is, however, described as an enslaving power (viii. 34), a perverting principle which gains sway