(Continued from page 290.)

Chapter 1 :1-4.

In the various ways in which I have thus far spoken of God (as coming out of the light in which He dwells to display before men some distinct and special characteristic of Himself), He remained still the invisible God. In none of them had He yet placed Himself in conditions in which He could be seen; but in the incarnation He has done so. There we see "God manifest in flesh."

The incarnation is a profound mystery. The mind of man cannot explain it or understand how it was effected, but the fact is plainly evident. The power of the Holy Spirit in and through the virgin produced a Man who is both a divine and a human Person. Thus supernaturally come into the world, He unites Deity and humanity in Himself-in one Person. He is thus truly God and truly Man:with human spirit, soul and body-God is seen in flesh.

The incarnation of the Son of God then was a stooping from "the form of God" (Phil. 2 :6), the condition of essential Deity to the condition of humanity-a coming down into the condition of human and creature-dependence. In this human condition He is not only " the Firstborn of all creation " (the One who has the first and highest rank in it), but also the image, the representation of God (Col. i; 15). Come thus from the unapproachable light, from the bosom of the Father, to be the image of God among men, He has declared the God whom no man has seen nor can see (Jno. i :18). So far as knowledge of God is communicable He has fully communicated it. He has fully expressed and exhibited it.

Here I may mention the competency of the Son of God become Man to witness to God and declare what He is-to reveal Him to man. Being Himself a divine person, one of the dwellers in the unapproachable light, He knows God in a divine way, with absolute knowledge in the essence of His being; He knows what His moral nature and character are; He could, and did say, "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen " (Jno. 3:11). "What He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth," was said of Him by the Spirit through John the Baptist (ver. 32); and Himself said, that He did the works and spoke the words He knew in the Godhead intimacies (Jno. 8 :26, 38; 12 :49)

Existing eternally as one of the Godhead, when He came down into our dependent creature-place He brought with Him the eternal intimacies in which He was with the Father and the Spirit, and possessed them and lived in them here. As living in them from everlasting, He was fully competent to declare and reveal them here.

While tabernacling among men, He was the Light of the world (Jno. 8:12; 9:5). He was not, as some others, a light merely; He was the Light. Every prophet was a light, some brighter than others. John the Baptist "was a burning and a shining light" (Jno. 5:35). But all these were mere lights-were fallible men, though under the power of the Holy Spirit for the light they gave (2 Pet. i :21); but Christ was in His own person the Light-God in humanity manifesting Himself.

What light in which to see God ! God Himself come out of the unapproachable light, in the person of His own Son, to be seen, heard, studied, and even handled by men! What light in which to see the invisible God, had men eyes to see! Alas, they had not. They were in the darkness, and blinded by it, they could only think of Him as a blasphemer-He the incarnate Son of God! (Jno. 10:33).

But what wondrous revelations of God were to be seen in Him ! What illumination of those partial revelations in the Old Testament ! The promised woman's Seed, the Man from the Lord had come- Abraham's Seed and heir-David's Son and Lord- the foreordained Lamb of God, to whom the oft-repeated sacrifices of the Old Testament ages all pointed-the One of whom the prophets all had spoken, and the psalmists in Israel had sung and prophesied. But how could I enumerate, much less unfold, all the revealed glories of the incarnate Son, as the light of men (Jno. 1:4)? There are some, however, which need special mention as having to do with what is before us in our studies of this epistle.

First is the revelation of the Godhead relationships of Father and Son. I have already mentioned the fact that God who dwells in the unapproachable light is made known to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit-three Persons in the one Godhead-a Trinity in unity, a community of essence in life, nature and character. In the Old Testament, Elohim (the Hebrew word for God) is a plural form, implying at least three, and is constantly used as the subject of singular verbs, suggesting plurality in unity. It may be of interest to some to mention that in Isaiah 48:16 we have the three persons of the Godhead spoken of:"The Lord God and His Spirit hath sent Me." This trinity in unity is thus clearly indicated in the Old Testament, though not in the terms of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

But He is thus made known to us in the New Testament, by one of the persons of the Godhead coming forth from that unapproachable light, stooping down from the form of God to the form of a servant, tabernacling among men, a veritable Man and Son of God, uniting deity and humanity in one Person.

When this Visitor from heaven was baptized by John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit descended and abode upon Him (Jno. i :32), and a voice from heaven said, "This is My beloved Son" (Matt. 3:17). Thus God is revealed to be Father, Son and Holy Spirit-relationships which were not revealed and therefore not understood before. Our Lord, however, constantly speaks of "the Father" and addressed Him as " My Father." He speaks of Him as One who has already been declared as the Father (Matt, ii:25, 26; Mk. 13:32; Lk. 9:26; Jno. 4:23; 5:20, and many other places).

In His life upon earth the Son of God was for men a revelation of the life and character of God. In Him was life (Jno. i:4). As the Father has life in Himself-a life uncreated and eternal-thus also has the Son life in Himself (Jno. 5:26).

He was therefore personally the Life eternal that was with the Father (ver. 2). Had it not been in Him as in the Father, it would not have been said "'with the Father." It was a community of life therefore in the persons of the Godhead.

So also as regards the activities of the life. It surely is impossible for us to measure the infinite fulness of the joys that filled the divine Persons' bosom as they mutually and reciprocally participated in constant fellowship of eternal activities. There are many scriptures implying this, but none perhaps that helps us more to appreciate this fact than Proverbs 8 :30, 31:"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." If we apply this (as undoubtedly we may) to the Second Person of the Godhead, as being the personification of the wisdom of God, then we have expressed here the eternal happiness of God in the activities of divine life. What mutual intimacies ! How deep the outflow of love responding to love! What a community of enjoyment; what fellowship of the Father and the Son in these eternal, divine activities!

And when the Son of God became Man, He did not cease to have life in Himself. The same underived, eternal and divine life that was in Him as dwelling eternally with the Father was in Him in humanity. He was the only Man to whom it was given to have life in Himself. In the first man, Adam, God breathed the breath of life, and he became a living soul. This was a creature-life-not the divine, eternal life. But the human life assumed by the Second Man was produced by the power of the Spirit in the virgin. Thus in Him were the divine and human life united in one Person, a unique Person, a unique Man:"The Word was made flesh." Life was essentially in Him upon earth as in the Father (John 5:26).

(To be continued.)