3. (Chap. 8:2-12:) Brought to God in the Power of Resurrection.
The third section divides, like the second, into three parts:(1) chap. viii, the soul in the light,- the presence of God, revealed in grace; (2) chap. ix, x, the light in the soul,-Christ as Object and Shepherd of His people; (3) chap. xi, xii, life in the power of resurrection. The internal connection of these things we shall see better as we examine the chapters in detail.

(1) Chap. 8:The soul in the presence of God revealed in grace. To be now in the presence of God, whatever the exposure from the light of that presence, means grace. The law never revealed God, as it never brought to Him :an unrent vail was the characteristic of that dispensation. This shows the spiritual blindness of the scribes and Pharisees, zealots for the law, who would condemn by it the light for shining. In His presence they find to their own confusion that it does shine, while the convicted sinner whom they bring there finds the only safe place possible for such an one, a refuge in the grace of the One so revealed.* *Whether indeed she found it as salvation for her soul docs not seem indicated in the narrative, and is not needed for the lesson intended to be conveyed, (Grace was there for her, at least, in all its fullness, if there were faith to receive it.* It is upon this the Lord announces Himself as the "light of the world "-the revelation of God in it. Whoever followed Him should not walk in darkness, but" have the light in the only possible way for the dead to have it,-that is, as "the light of life" the light attaching to eternal life.

All turns upon the divine glory of His person therefore, which men ignorant of God, judging after the flesh merely, refused, though the Father had openly borne witness with Himself. To those who believe on Him, He adds, that continuing in His word, they should be His disciples indeed, and should know the truth and be set free by it. To the caviling, (plainly of the unbelieving Jews,) He answers in a way which seems to confuse, but in fact designedly identifies, the servant of sin and of law. "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant [bond-servant] of sin; and the servant"-the one serving in bondage, the place the law alone could give,-"abideth not in the house forever; but the Son abideth ever." The reference is plainly to Hagar and her child, types of the law and its children, as the apostle shows us:"(The covenant] from Mount Sinai, bearing unto bondage, which is Hagar. . . . But what saith the Scripture? ' Cast out the bondwoman and her son." It is plain the Lord and the apostle are speaking similarly of the footing upon which according to the law men stood with God. It is as plain that the former identifies the bond-servant to sin with the bond-servant to law; and that he who is made free by the Son is freed from sin and law together. And so, says the apostle again, "Sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under law, but under grace." It is as brought to God, accepted, and standing in grace, His love in Christ made known to the heart, the tyranny of sin is broken.* *The connection of this with the story of the woman taken in adultery in the beginning of the chapter shows how foolish is the criticism which would deprive us of this latter. A gap would be left by its absence, very apparent to one who follows, as we have been doing here, the truth contained in it. And what uninspired hand could or would have written or interpolated here this wondrous passage?*

The Lord goes on to convict the Jews of their opposition to God in Him, and to bring out more and more His full glory to whose day their father Abraham had looked on rejoicing. They were no true children of Abraham; much less, as they falsely claimed, of God; but rather of Satan, the liar and man-slayer from the beginning. He that kept His saying, on the other hand, should never see death. Here already we have anticipated the doctrine of the eleventh chapter.

(2) Chap. ix, 10:Christ become the Object, Lord, and Leader of the soul. The next two chapters are self-evidently one, the story of the man born blind being but the usual narrative-introduction to the truths which follow.

The man is born blind, as spiritually we all arc. In healing him, the Lord once more proclaims Himself the light of the world. The clay made with the spittle is no doubt the figure of His own person in that lowly form which blinded indeed the eyes of carnal men, but which when revealed in the power of the Holy Ghost, the sent One, ("Siloam" means "Sent,") is the entrance of true light into the soul. Here, again, its being the Sabbath testifies to the grace of God apart from law. The Pharisees are once more roused. They question the man, seeking ground for the refusal of what is plainly the work of God. In the face of the miracle, owning too they know not whence He is, they condemn the Lord, and cast out of the synagogue the one who confesses Him to be of God. But so cast out, the man is found of Him, who is in fact leading His sheep out of the Jewish fold, and who reveals Himself to him as the Son of God.

This introduces the discourse in the next chapter, in which Jesus contrasts Himself with all pretended shepherds. Entering in by the door,-in the way of lowly submission to all divine requirements, the Spirit of God gave Him access to the sheep; those that were His own in Israel heard His voice and recognized His authority. He Himself became the door, not into the fold- there was to be no fold any longer,-but of the flock:* by Him, if any one entered in, he should be saved, go in and out, and find pasture. Salvation, liberty, sustenance, would all be found with Him, who had come to give life, and that abundantly, by the giving up of His own. In this flock, Judaism being done away); the Gentiles would have part. *In the sixteenth verse, as is well known, it should be, "One flock and one Shepherd."*

The guidance of a living Leader, whose love known in salvation has attached the heart to Himself, is here substituted for the mere measurement of sin by a code. To follow Him who laid down His life for the sheep is a new holiness, in which liberty is safe. Moreover, His everlasting arms of love are ample security, which the walls of the fold could never give. The Father's love to the saints is specially dwelt on in this chapter. They are those whom the Father has given to Christ; gave Him commandment to die for them, an act which has drawn out to Him peculiarly the Father's love. And now the Father and Son are both engaged to keep the possessors of eternal life.

(3) Chap. xi, 12:The power of resurrection-life. But this eternal life as given to man is life out of death, placing him who receives it therefore beyond death, in a new place outside the world, and which gives character to his life while in the world. This is to the glory of God, by which the Son of God is glorified. Lazarus brought up from the grave is the illustration of this.

The power of death for the disciples is shown in the first part of the eleventh chapter. They cannot understand how the Lord should go back into Judea, where of late the Jews sought to stone Him; nor His quiet talking of death as sleep. Martha and Mary rise but in their thoughts to this, that His presence would have saved their brother from dying. But now he is dead, and will rise but in the resurrection at the last day-far off for present comfort. The Lord, in reply, brings out the great distinctive feature of the new day which is coming in:"I am the resurrection and the life:he that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and he that liveth and believeth on Me shall never die."

Here, "he that believeth on Me, though he were dead," speaks evidently of Old-Testament saints; while "he that liveth and believeth on Me" speaks of the time now beginning, the characteristic of which is that the Resurrection and the Life has come. For believers in the past, the power of resurrection can be known only when they are raised from the dead by the coming Lord. For those now alive, there is, on the other hand, a present power of resurrection. Such have no death to pass through. All the reality of it has been taken from them. If they go through it, it is in the triumph of Him who has "abolished death, and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel."

Thus the believer of the present time finds his type in Lazarus raised from the dead for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby. In fact, this testimony it is that makes many to believe on Him, as it rouses, on the other hand, the opposition of the Pharisees to its height. Bethany becomes known as the place of resurrection; and there we find, in the beginning of the twelfth chapter, a supper made for Him. The place is significant of that in which He can alone see of the fruit of the travail of His soul; and here Martha serves, Lazarus sits at table with Him, Mary anoints His feet with her ointment:service, communion, worship, have each their representative there where no cloud ever casts its shadow.

But now, if the Lord is to be to others the resurrection and the life, we have to see what this involves for Him. He enters Jerusalem, is hailed as King of Israel; and then certain Greeks come up, desiring to see Him:upon this He announces the approach of the hour in which the Son of Man should be glorified. But in what? "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." No way could life come for us but out of His death; resurrection-life out of death accomplished. And with this, judgment is come for the world, the prince of this world's doom, to be cast out; Christ lifted up from the earth is yet to draw all men unto Him.

The chapter closes, as so many others, with warnings because of their unbelief. The greater the blessing, the sadder to be lost; the more the mercy, the worse the judgment for its rejection; and even as the last miracle which attests the Deliverer is the water turned into blood, so says the Lord, "He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him:the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day."