Bible Commentaries

The Intellectual Type

John 3:1

I. The prominent feature of this man's nature was pure intellectuality—the love of truth as such; a strong John 3:1

Jesus does for Nicodemus the three things which every thorough teacher must do for every scholar. He gives him new ideas, He deepens with these ideas his personal character and responsibility, and He builds for him new relations with his fellow-men. When Nicodemus goes away from Jesus he carries with him the new truth of regeneration; he is trembling with the sense that, to make that truth thoroughly his, he himself must be a better man; and by-and-by he is seen setting himself against the current of his fellow-judges to speak a word for the Master who had spoken such educating words to him.

—Phillips Brooks, The Influence of Jesus, p178.

References.—III:1.—A. G. Mortimer, The Church's Lessons for the Christian Year, pt. iv. p282. C. Perren, Sermon Outlines, p307. III:1 , 2.—W. H. Evans, Short Sermons for the Seasons, p55. C. Bickersteth, The Gospel of Incarnate Love, p22. H. J. Bevis, Sermons, p254. III:1-8.—Expositor (5th Series), vol. ix. p54. III:1-12.—Ibid. (6th Series), vol. vi. p197. III:2.—W. P. Balfern, Lessons from Jesus, p27. G. Trevor, Types and the Antitype, p193. Expositor (7th Series), vol. vi. p422. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. John 3:2-3

Three times Nicodemus is mentioned in the Gospel story. Each time the fact is mentioned that he came to Jesus by night. Why is it that this peculiar stress is laid upon the fact that Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. I think it is because John would lay emphasis upon the fact that Nicodemus had a mind that was dark with perplexity and difficulty on the great problems of the soul and of religion. He came by night because there was something in the dark obscurity of the night which answered to the condition of his own soul. But why did he come to Jesus about the difficulties? Because he had watched Jesus, he had heard His words, and he had perceived that there was a secret about Christ that he desired to understand.

I. The first thing I wish you to notice, then, is that this is not an old and obsolete story; it is a new and living story, because it is a representative story. It represents two things common to mankind in all ages: the desire to discover the best kind of life, and dissatisfaction with any kind of life that is not the best.

II. Nicodemus did something—he went to Jesus. He did something positive, he did something that cost him much. Be sure of this, it always costs us something to come to Jesus. It is not an easy thing. But the man whose heart is really aching for peace and rest will not stop to think about what others think of him. And he must do something. He came to Jesus. And what was Christ's word to him? "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

III. And now, think of what it means to be "born again". It means getting back to your childhood. To get back to childhood, to get the weight of sin removed, to start anew—Jesus says you can. Science tells us that all that is wanted to create a new star is a start. There is the vast floating nebulæ. If it will only cohere at some little point, then the globe will begin to form, and presently you will have a star. All that you want is the point of contact, the cohering point; then the new life will begin to stir in you, and the new soul begin to grow into the starry image of Christ.

—W. J. Dawson, The Evangelistic Note, p133.

The Extinction of Evil

John 3:3

I. Let us consider the bearing of the doctrine of regeneration on the moral classes. Plato was inclined to believe that virtue was not really teachable, or to be acquired by any prescribed discipline, but that it was the special volition and grace of the gods; and Christ taught this truth distinctly and emphatically. The suggestion and interrogation of the Greek passes into clear revelation in the Master. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And these words of Christ are obviously reasonable. Goodness cannot be taught any more than genius can. And do not thousands of moral men feel this to be the case? They very exactly and assiduously observe moral precepts and ecclesiastical order without ever feeling the reality of goodness, that John 3:3

Our Lord had just left the Temple, whence He had driven out those who bought and sold, and He had also worked several miracles. Then He retired, probably very weary, to some quiet house in the city for the purpose of repose and rest.

I. The Secret Approach.—If we had been in the streets of the city we might have seen a figure creeping quietly along wherever the houses would throw a shadow (I say "throw a shadow," because it was Passover time, and the bright Passover moon would be shining, making the streets almost as light by night as they would be by day). At last we should have seen him stopping opposite some house which he very quietly entered. Who is this man? A great deal of the importance and the interest of the whole account depends on that. He was not one of the mere common people who were beginning to throng around our Lord to listen to His words. He was a man of great importance; he was a member of the great council of the Jews, and he was a Pharisee. You would have to think for a few minutes to realise for yourselves what would have been the result if it had been known that the great Nicodemus, the counsellor, was privately and by night seeking an interview with our Blessed Lord. When we contemplate these two within the house we have that which is of extreme interest, for we have a highly educated man seeking to know more about the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have the Lord Jesus Christ Himself preaching His own Gospel.

II. His Perplexity.—Now we must just look a little more closely into the character of the man. Evidently he was a very timid man. I think we see something of the character of the man in the very way he began to speak. "Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God, and no man can do the work which Thou doest unless God be with Him." There was all that, but still he was a man who could not sit quiet when his conscience was telling him that his conduct was wrong. There were many others who had been touched by our Lord's actions, and touched as much as John 3:4

Nicodemus represents humanity when he says, "How can a man be born when he is old?" and the Jews represent humanity when they said in a bewildered and perplexed tone to the Saviour and about Him, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?"

I. Nicodemus said, "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus was stunned by the new language. Christianity has a language of its own and a gamut of its own, music peculiarly belonging to it, and incommunicable to all who do not know the secret and pine after its expression as by the urgency and sweet pressure of a most holy and irresistible instinct. Some men are now trying to rub out the peculiar language of Christianity: when they do that, they will rub out Christianity itself. Christianity has a language of its own, and a tone of its own, not the oily twang that has been ridiculed in fiction, but a tone without which it cannot express the deepest mysteries of its palpitating and self-sacrificing heart—a new John 3:5

It would appear as if this glorious chapter had been chosen for the Feast of Trinity, in order that clearly and definitely there might be put before us the distinction of the three Persons in the work of human salvation. The Father loves the world, and gives His only begotten Son (ver16); the Son comes into the world and is lifted up on the cross, in order that all who believe in Him may have everlasting life (ver15); and then in this work the Holy Ghost engages, Who implants the seed of everlasting life in holy baptism, and John 2:23.

(b) It was this that prepared him to receive Christ's teaching. Though he had not yet the courage of his convictions, he was of willing heart to hear Christ's words.

II. The New Birth is Given by the Lord Jesus Christ.—"Verily, verily, I say unto thee," etc. Christ answers the thoughts rather than the words of Nicodemus. He had come to inquire about this new kingdom, for which he was waiting—the terms of admission; but his thoughts were rather carnal than spiritual, outward rather than inward. Christ teaches—

(a) The necessity of Spiritual regeneration to entrance into the kingdom of God (vers5 , 7). He shows in what this necessity lies (ver6).

(b) Spiritual regeneration is difficult for the carnal to understand. "Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?"

(c) And if this is difficult, how much more the mysterious nature of Him Who had been in heaven and came down to be crucified? "How shall ye believe if I tell you of these heavenly things?"—mysteries higher than the new birth (vers13 , 14 , 15).

III. The New Birth Recognises the Agency of the Holy Spirit (vers5 , 7).

(a) The water of holy baptism is the outward symbol of this agency.

(b) This agency, like the wind, is unseen and mysterious. Then the whole Trinity is concerned in our salvation. The Father certifies the work of the John 3:6-7

God is every man's Father, but it does not follow that every man who is God's offspring is therefore a son of God. The Fatherhood is often interpreted as if it involved the sonship, but it does not The Christ who reveals the Universal Fatherhood of God denies the universal sonship of men. "As many as received Him to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name." It was a right bestowed, not a right recognized. Consistently with this teaching, the New Testament sharply divides all men into two classes—the children of God and the children of the Devil.

I. This distinction Christ attributes to the operation of the fundamental and universal law: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit". All living things come into being by birth. Parentage determines nature. Upon this universal law Jesus bases the universal necessity of the New Birth. The spiritual kingdom demands a quality of being not possessed by the natural man. Here again we touch a fundamental principle. Every kingdom demands as a condition of citizenship correspondence with its own quality of life. Therefore the first demand of a spiritual kingdom is a spiritual nature.

II. The natural man is disqualified for a spiritual kingdom. Man is born of the flesh and needs to be born again of the spirit. The term flesh is variously used in the New Testament: (1) Of all living creatures, 1 Corinthians 15:39; (2) the substance of the living body, Colossians 2:1, 2 Corinthians 4:11, Galatians 4:13; (3) the life lived in the body, Galatians 2:20, Hebrews 5:7; (4) natural generation, Romans 9:3; Romans 9:5; (5) the animal nature of man without suggestion of depravity, St. John 1:13; (6) the whole of man's human nature, Romans 8:3, 1 John 4:2, 1 Timothy 3:16; (7) ethically of life lived in the power and dominion of the flesh. In its ethical sense it (a) is the avenue of evil, St. Matthew 26:41; (b) incites to sin, Romans 7:18; Romans 13:14, Galatians 5:16-21, Judges 1:23; (c) makes captive to sin, Romans 7:14-23; Romans 8:6-8; (d) brings forth death, Romans 7:5, Galatians 6:8. Christ's condemnation of the flesh is threefold: (1) It cannot see the kingdom of God; (2) it cannot enter the kingdom of God; (3) it chooses evil and darkness rather than goodness and light. The mind must be enlightened, the heart renewed, and the will emancipated before we can enter the kingdom of heaven. The need of this New Birth is universal.

III. What is it to be born of the Spirit? God has thrown an impenetrable veil over the beginnings and processes of life. Life is evident to the consciousness, manifest to the senses, but mysterious in its process. So it is with the life that is born of the Spirit. There are, however, some instructive negatives, and one or two positive truths revealed concerning even the process. The children of God are born, we are told, "Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of John 3:7

1. Its Naturalness

I. The reasonableness of the New Birth as illustrated by that which appears elsewhere. (1) Thus, to take an illustration on a much lower level, almost at the bottom of the scale of existence, you find a dividing line of a very similar kind. Nothing is more familiar to us than the broad difference that separates all living things from those which are not possessed of life. The living and the dead constitute different worlds and between them is a great gulf fixed. (2) Again, higher up the scale, you have a somewhat similar example. A chasm also divides the conscious from the unconscious. Under the former are to be included not only human beings of course, but the entire sensitive creation. (3) And so is there also, to take one more example, a gulf between man and all those other existences by which he is surrounded. Here, then, are three several gaps in the scale of existence. Nor is a passage from one to the other conceivable unless by a miracle.

II. Will you observe here, then, that the distinction between the natural and the spiritual is as broad and complete as any of those referred to. (1) Thus the typical man of the world is just what his name implies, that is to say, he belongs to, is part and parcel of this present world, in which we all meanwhile play our part. His roots are fastened in it; he draws his life from it; and the fruit he bears corresponds to the soil on which it grows. (2) He again who is "of the Spirit" belongs to another world than this. The narrow walls that shut in the present have been thrown down for him, and he has found himself already in a true sense in the midst of the eternal. If now all this be true, is it not indeed the case that a very wide interval divides them? And are we not entitled to conclude that it need not be looked for that any man shall merely develop naturally into God's kingdom? The chain of evolution is broken here once more.

III. See, then, the infinite service which is rendered to us here by Jesus Christ. That He was not "of the earth, earthy," as we are, is clear. He is "from above, and is above all". He descends from that upper realm of light and love that He may bring us thither again. He is the ladder let down from heaven, by which humble and trustful souls pass up from an earthly, sinful, worthless life to God and true life in Him. Two worlds are ours. One belongs to us by nature—or shall we say we belong to it? To another we belong by right. But between them a great gulf is fixed. But Christ has bridged the gulf, and our salvation consists in making use of Him. Lay hold of Him by faith, and let Him lay hold of you by His Spirit, and He will create a new life within you and transfer you into a new world.

—A. Martin, Winning the Soul, p233.

Marvel Not

John 3:7

Every man comes into the world wrapped in an atmosphere of wonder—an atmosphere from which his whole after-life is a prolonged effort to escape. This sense of wonder is not an evil thing, although it is a thing to escape from. There are three possible ways in which different minds attempt to escape from this sense of wonder. They take refuge in knowledge, or in mystery, or in ignorance. The first of these, knowledge, satisfies the sense of wonder. The second, mystery, deepens it. The third, ignorance, crushes it. Marvel not at all, says ignorance, because you cannot know at all. Marvel more, says mystery, because you cannot know more. Marvel not, says knowledge, because you know enough. Christ in our text says, "Marvel not".

I. Marvel not—as if it were unintelligible. There is nothing more unintelligible in the world than how a soul is born again. There is nothing more intelligible than that it is. We can understand the fact, however, without necessarily understanding the act. All the complaints which have been showered upon this doctrine have referred to the act—the act with which we have really nothing to do, which is a process of God, the agency of the unseen wind of the Spirit, and which Jesus Himself has expressly warned us not to expect to understand. "Thou canst not tell," He said, "whence it cometh or whither it goeth." But there is nothing to frighten search in this. For precisely the same kind of mystery hangs over every process of nature and life. We do not avoid the subject of electricity because electricity is a mystery, or heat because we cannot see heat, or meteorology because we cannot see the wind. Marvel not, then, from the analogy of physical nature if, concerning this spirit of regeneration, we cannot tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. If we care again to take the analogy from the moral and intellectual nature, the same may be said with even greater emphasis. The essence of regeneration is a change from one state to another—from an old life to a new one. Now, intellectually, changes at least in some way similar are happening every day.

II. Marvel not—as if it were impossible. There is one thing we have little difficulty in always referring to the creating hand of God—life. We call Him the Author of life, and the Author of life is a wondrously fertile Author. Well, if God can give life, He can surely add life. Regeneration is nothing in principle but the adding of more life. So there is nothing impossible in being born again, any more than there is impossible in being born at all.

III. Marvel not—as if it were unnecessary. (1) When men come into the world, they are born outside of the kingdom of God, and they cannot see into it. Therefore the critical value of a worldly man's opinion on religious matters is nothing. (2) Human nature demands regeneration as if it were necessary. (3) If human nature makes it necessary, much more does the Divine nature.

—Henry Drummond, The Ideal Life, p185.

The Mystery of the New Birth

John 3:7-8

I. In this miniature parable of regeneration Jesus reminds us of the sovereignty of the Spirit, who quickens men to newness of life. "The wind bloweth where it listeth." The wind John 3:8

It is described for us by the Lord Himself, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit". Every one that is born of the Spirit.

I. So then the life of the Spirit-born is free. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and the Spirit-born follows no law but his own law. Is this a bold thing to say? No, it is the only possible way in which freedom can be expressed. But this true freedom is achieved by the sacrifice of our own will and the acceptance of God's will. When the soul truly accepts God's will its own will dies, and then it enters into the only freedom of which the human being made in the image of God is capable. We are God's free men when we accept God's will. Can we always know that will? We cannot now hear the voice that spoke to the disciples. There seems something forlorn in the words: "The Apostles came together to consider the matter," when we think that Christ might have been among them in His old manner, with His "Verily, verily, I say unto you". Yet it was not John 3:8

II. Its Mystery

The figure under which our Lord speaks here of the Spirit is that of the wind. And what is the most obvious feature of the wind? It is its unknowable character. When it is there we know the fact. But in itself it is viewless, trackless, impalpable. Of the working of the Spirit then, we are to understand that one thing is evident enough. The fact of its presence is apparent always. Men will "hear the sound thereof," and have no doubt about it. But it is another matter when they come to try to give an account of these operations to themselves.

I. In endeavouring to realise this to ourselves it may be useful to turn first to the working of the Spirit on the larger scale—I mean in the religious life of the world generally. There have been epochs at which His presence and power among men have been very specially manifest. (1) First of all, for example, at the birth of the Christian Church in the world. When the believers had gone forth with their new endowment it was not long till they were effecting a spiritual revolution of the most extraordinary and far-reaching kind. And what is the explanation of the stupendous fact? No ordinary causes will account for it. It was an irruption of the Divine energy in the sphere of human experience that occasioned it. (2) Or take the Reformation. No feeble efforts of any "Reformer before the Reformation" can account for it, and no human instrument can estimate what its effects have been and will be. (3) And the same thing may be said about those revivals of true religion with which God still is pleased to bless His Church from time to time.

II. Turn now to the smaller scale of the individual life. And here perhaps the most important point of all is that which our Lord signalises first. "Thou hearest the sound thereof," He says. The Christian life then should, in every case, be recognisable. This, our Lord implies, is a fundamental requirement of it.

III. What is it, then, that ought to render the presence of the Spirit in any life so clearly recognisable as this? If we turn to the Gospel we find the answer. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Jesus of Nazareth. (1) The Spirit of Jesus is a Spirit of unworldliness. (2) This is the second outstanding feature of the Spirit of Jesus—His inward adherence to His Father in faith and love and His passionate devotion to the fulfilment of His will. (3) And once more there John 3:14

The old is always becoming the new. "As Moses... so the Son of man;" as the old, so the new; as the historical, so the prophetical. All the pattern of the spiritual temple has been shown in the mountain, and has been frayed out in shapely and significant clouds which themselves were parables. "That the Scripture might be fulfilled." History always has something to do more than it seems to have; it does not only record the event of the day, it redeems old subjects, old vows and oaths; it takes up what seems to be the exhausted past and turns it into the present and energetic action of the moment. As Moses, As John 3:14

The Gospel for Trinity Sunday sets before us each one of the Persons in the Godhead. The Father is represented as sending the Saviour to a sinful race, the Son as coming down from heaven for man's salvation, the Spirit as working regeneration and life in the human heart In this reference to a picturesque and memorable incident in the history of Israel in their desert wanderings, our Saviour exhibits Himself as the divinely appointed Healer and Saviour of mankind.

I. An Emblem of Sin.

(a) The bite of the venomous serpents is a figure of the operation of sin in human nature and in human society. It is diffused in its action, rapid in its progress, painful to those affected, dangerous and deadly in its consequences.

(b) The death which followed upon the bite of the serpents is emblematical of the spiritual results of the introduction of sin into the world.

II. An Emblem of Redemption.

(a) God's mercy appointed the remedy in both cases. It was by the command of Jehovah that Moses prepared the serpent of brass, and it was God who sent His Son that He might be the Healer and Physician of souls.

(b) In both cases there was a remarkable connection between the disease and its cure. As the brazen serpent was the means of healing those bitten by the fiery flying serpents of the desert, so Christ was made in the likeness of a sinful flesh, and endured as our representative that death which is the penalty of sin.

(c) The lifting up of the pole is representative of Christ's crucifixion and exaltation. The banner-staff of the wilderness is the cross of Calvary, the sign of victory and of suffering. By the lifting up, which is mentioned by the Lord here and elsewhere, is meant, first, the elevation of the Saviour upon the cross of suffering and shame, and then as an appointed result His exaltation to the throne of heaven.

III. An Emblem of Salvation.

(a) The publication of the news corresponds to the preaching of the Gospel; the scene of the former was the camp, that of the latter was the world.

(b) The looking of the wounded Israelite towards the brazen serpent suggests the indispensable, enjoined, but not meritorious gaze of faith.

(c) The healing of the bitten and dying represents the blessing of those who look unto Jesus, instantaneous and complete.

Christ's Musts

John 3:14

I have chosen this text for the sake of one word in it, that solemn "must" which was so often on our Lord's lips. The expression is most frequently used in reference to the Passion and Resurrection. There are many instances in the other Gospels in which He speaks of that must. If we put these instances together, we shall get some precious glimpses into our Lord's heart and His view of life.

I. Here we see Christ recognising and accepting the necessity for His death. My text, if we accept John's Gospel, contributes an altogether new element to our conception of our Lord as announcing His death. For the other three Gospels lay emphasis upon it as being part of His teaching, especially during the latter stage of His ministry. But it does not follow that He began to think about it or to see it when He began to speak about it. There are reasons for the earlier comparative reticence, and there is no ground for the conclusion that then first began to dawn upon a disappointed enthusiast the grim reality that His work was not going to prosper, and that martyrdom was necessary. If John's Gospel is a true record, that theory is shivered against this text. And why must He go to the cross? Not merely as the other evangelists put it that "it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the prophets". He could not be the Saviour of the world unless He was the Sacrifice for the sins of the world.

II. In a second class of these utterances we see Christ impelled by filial obedience and the consciousness of His mission. "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" That was a strange utterance for a boy of twelve. He is our great Example of spontaneous obedience which does violence to itself if it does not obey. It was instinct that sent the boy into the Temple. Thus He stands before us the pattern for the only obedience that is worth calling John 3:16

We are not concerned to deny the immense advance in thought and knowledge, the ceaseless floods of sunlight that have poured into every region where the human mind energises. We have asserted the right and the duty of every Christian Church to follow the leadings of the Spirit; but our Gospel remains unaffected. We can preach it, if that were possible, more fully than our fathers could. That Gospel is no other than my text: "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten John 3:16

These words explain to us the relation in which Jesus stands as Son of John 3:16

There are three great mysteries which are conveyed in this text.

I. Here, first of all, is the mystery of the Divine love of the world. The world, as we know it, does not seem to be an object for love. Yet God saw it not only in its darkness and its ruin, but as it might hereafter be, transfigured and ennobled, a new heaven and earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. "God so loved the world." And this is a truth which I am sure we should be happy if we carried in our hearts. Is it not a strange and wonderful thing how, if you go through the world with an honest and pure heart, everywhere you find tokens that the world is not left to itself? Everywhere you find tokens of the Presence of God the Holy Ghost. Sometimes we are surprised, and hang our heads with shame to find some man who makes no profession of religion—a business John 3:16; Ephesians 3:18

I. First: the breadth of the love of God—"God so loved the world". That world is a term used in Scripture in three different senses. In its first sense it means the universe of created things. "The world and all that therein is. "Its more usual meaning, as it is found so frequently on the lips of our Lord and in the Epistles, is that of those forces of evil opposed to goodness and to God, whose inspiring spirit is the evil one. The love of that world is deadly to faith and holiness. Its third sense is that which is employed here. The world of sinning and suffering, sorrowing and rejoicing, loving and aspiring men and women. That is the world that God loves. Who does not at times relapse into hate? We take up Mr. Darwin's Voyage of the "Beagle," and read his compassionate account of the natives of Patagonia. The picture of their low and sunken state of mind fills us with disgust. We read the last book of travels in inland China, and we recoil from its story of pitiless cruelty and callous greed. We take up the account of a criminal trial, and our minds rise in revolt at the deliberate malice, the almost diabolic love of sin, the shameful delight in dragging others into the pit of shame, which is disclosed. Robert Moffat, whose quick and tender heart beat with an undying passion for South Africa, confesses that he was almost roused to loathing by the brutal and sunken minds of the heathen villagers among whom he lived. Even Thomas Chalmers confesses his deep distaste at the crowds who packed the churches, as he preached, and looked up in admiration, complaining of "the stare and animal heat and pressure". Yet it is this world whose low and sunken state, whose shameless evil and mad rebellion, God sees and knows and feels, as you and I do not, that God loves. It is the men and women whose sins are set in the light of His countenance that God longs after. Surely "it passeth knowledge".

II. Secondly: the length of the love of God—"He gave His only begotten Son". The test of love, accurately and permanently, is to what length it will go.

Test the love of God. It had been easy for God to have given what some men call proof. He might have written it in letters of light among the stars, white as the pillar of cloud by day and radiant as the pillar of fire by night. He might have created a new world with fresh opportunities for men. He might have altered the external conditions of this world and made life a primrose path of ease for idle feet. So would some men have God work easy and wicked miracles. These would have told us nothing of God's love, for they would have cost Him nothing. But God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. You must come and stand below the cross of Christ before you can comprehend the length of the love of God.

III. Thirdly: the depth of the love of God—"That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish".

The depth of love is to be understood only in the love of Christ. It is expounded in all His gracious words and merciful deeds. It is set forth in His Incarnation, that infinite descent from the presence of God, and in His exile from God's fellowship during His earthly life among men. Have we realised the deeps of sorrow and trial and pain of that descent? It was a descent from a throne to the anguish and shame and desolation of the cross. But all that is not the depth of the love of God. This descent was made not for the flower of human chivalry, nor for the high and rare and lovely among womanhood; not even to save the unstained lives of little children; but for the worst, the lowest, the most sunken, for the publican, the harlot, the thief, for even the Pharisee and the Sadducee, for "whosoever should believe, that they might not perish". "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

IV. Fourthly: the height of the love of God—"But have everlasting life". Breadth, length, depth, height. How shall we comprehend its height? Its height is seen in the high and holy purpose it cherishes. Love may be real and yet may be low. It may have no vision, no uplifting purpose for the beloved, no sublime end to reach. The height of God's love is seen in its ultimate purpose that those He loves should have everlasting life.

—W. M. Clow, The Cross in Christian Experience, p52.

John 3:16

The doctrine (or a doctrine) of the New Testament goes so far as to say that God Himself gave (and is eternally giving) up what is dearest to Himself in order to save the life of the world. (Death is self- surrender; all loss is a kind of death; "the only begotten Son" is the summing up of what is dearest, most ones own.) I.e. God can only be at one with His work by eternally dying—sacrificing what is dearest to Him. God does not thereby cease to be; He does not annihilate Himself: He lives eternally in the very process of sacrificing his dearest work.

—R. L. Nettleship.

References.—III:16.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi. No1850. R. A. Armstrong, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p340. G. A. Sowter, From Heart to Heart, p141. J. Clifford, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p187. J. Keble, Sermons for the Holy Week, p400. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, pp203 , 204. B. Deedes, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lviii. p350. R. Allen, The Words of Christ, p55. A. S. Peake, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p264. R. J. Campbell, New Theology Sermons, p81. John Thomas, Myrtle Street Pulpit, vol. ii. p309. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p205; ibid. vol. ii. p60; ibid. vol. v. p409; ibid. (5th Series), vol. ix. p442; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iii. p128. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture—St. John 3:17

This is one of a knot of passages. This is a lesson on endeavouring to find out what a thing is by first discovering what it is not. Sometimes by beginning at the other end we find our way most surely to the end that is final. Some scholars, slow of mind but willing of heart, can only learn things by first cutting away all the things that represent only the negative side. There are very few positive scholars or original intellectual inventors; some of us can go but slowly; thank God if we can go surely. And first of all we have to find out in many cases what a thing is not, what a man is not, what a policy is not, and then we may perhaps suddenly come face to face with what it is.

I want to collect specimens from the life of Christ which illustrate this homely but not unprofitable style of education and progress. Jesus Himself repeatedly told us what He was not. When we had learned that lesson, which a little child might learn, we began to wonder what He was, what He did come to do, what He did want to teach; in a word, what the Man wanted to be at. Sometimes we have to take a seat on the negative form and spend a whole day in writing down what Jesus Christ was not.

I. Let us hear this sweetest of all speakers of sweet things. "I came not to call the righteous." That shuts up one section of society. Jesus Christ had nothing to say to the self-righteous, He left them to rot in their own conceit, He boycotted them, He would not deign to speak to them; for they did not realise their need of Him, and until need is realised prayer is impossible. It was very wonderful to watch the hauteur by which and through which He passed the righteous John 3:19

In My Confession (chap11) Tolstoy describes his awakening from a life of pleasure and selfish vice. "I erred not so much from having thought incorrectly as from having lived wrong. I understood that the truth had been hidden from me, not so much because I had erred in my reasoning as because I had led the exceptional life of an epicure bent on satisfying the lusts of the flesh.... I understood the truth which I afterwards found in the Gospel: "That men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For every man that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." I understood that, for the meaning of life to be understood, it was first necessary that life should be something more than an evil and unmeaning thing discovered by the light of reason."

John 3:19

He that has an eye and a heart can even now say: Why should I falter? Light has come into the world; to such as love Light, so as light must be loved, with a boundless, all-doing, all-enduring love. For the rest, let that vain struggle to read the mystery of the Infinite cease to harass us. It is a mystery which, through all ages, we shall only read here a line of, there a line of.

—Carlyle on Characteristics.

References.—III:19.—Archbishop Magee, Christ the Light of all Scripture, p31. III:21.—C. F. Aked, The Courage of the Coward, p11. III:22-30.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p1. III:23.—Ibid. vol. vi. p251.

Friends of the Bridegroom

John 3:29

St. John the Baptist here compares his own position with regard to our Lord to that of the friend of the bridegroom. Let us free ourselves from all the mean and lowering associations of a worldly marriage, and think of it only as it abides in the heart of God. This is what the Baptist is thinking of, and it is for us to consider in what points that figure of the bridegroom's friend is like unto him.

I. St. John's Admiration of Christ.—There John 3:29-30

I had the pleasure of introducing my honoured and reverend friend, Mr. John Wesley, to preach at Black-heath. The Lord give him four thousand times more success than He has given me.

—Whitefield.

References.—III:30.—J. Keble, Sermons for the Saints" Days, p268. H. M. Butler, Harrow School Sermons, p202. J. H. Holford, Memorial Sermons, p154. III:33.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxvi. No2158. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p117. III:34.—A. Whyte, The Scottish Review, vol. iii. p525. III:34 , 35.—Expositor (5th Series), vol. v. p250. III:36.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii. No1012. S. Cox, Expositions, p183. H. P. Liddon, University Sermons (2Series), p119. J. A. Alexander, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, p75. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p203; ibid. vol. ii. pp62 , 424; ibid. vol. x. p108. IV.—Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p464. IV:3.—Ibid. vol. vii. p94.