Some few may be anxiously seeking rest for a troubled heart, but seeking it apart from God. Such, weary with their own strivings, turn to that system which pretends to infallibility, not to Him who alone can give rest; for the Book that points the weary to Him is neglected and unread. If Rationalism be religious infidelity, Romanism may, with equal propriety, be called religious idolatry. In it are found image-worship, and hero-worship; or, which is the same thing in principle, the adoration of saints. Nay, I go farther, and say that Romanism is practically infidel as well as idolatrous; for the authority of God over the conscience is set aside, and His word is denied to the poor. In no other system is satanic wisdom more displayed, or a more fearful invention for deceiving souls. The harlot's golden cup contains every abomination.
The evil, now seen in the professing church and in Christendom, began in the first century. The apostle discerned its germ: “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock, Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29, 3029For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 30Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. (Acts 20:29‑30)). And the Spirit of God through the apostle warns the saints: “Therefore watch.”
The “perverse things,” which so soon were spoken, are the pregnant source of more evil doctrine since that time. The Arians, Unitarians, Universalists all who preach that judgment is not eternal—are the natural descendents of the early heretics, and specially of the Gnostics, who displaced the simple statements of truth by the foolishness of the wise of this world. The pagan, with his philosophy, without the light of revelation, is far less guilty than those who afterward sought to blend these silly fables with truth.
God foresaw the evil, and provided for it. In John's Gospel there is enough for faith to withstand and overcome every possible heterodoxy concerning the person of Christ. No doubt Gnosticism, with its infidel notions, was even in John's day undermining the truth, and John's Gospel may have been written specially against it; but it does meet, with absolute contradiction, every assertion of the infidel school which so early assailed the church with its impious and blasphemous doctrines.
How profound yet simple the declaration, “In the beginning was the Word.” He was, not He became. That is, He, the Word, had no beginning; it is the assertion of His eternal Godhead. Not a creature produced in time, as some said, though the highest; but eternal. “And the Word was with God” —His distinct Personality; not an influence, an emanation, a power put forth, but a person, of Whom it can be said, He was with God. And lest man should infer that though eternal, yet He was inferior to God, it is added, “and the Word was God.” Gnosticism varied in aspect, and divided into different sects, was always opposed to the doctrine of this first verse. Not one held conjointly the Eternity, the Personality, and Godhead of Him here called the Word. And as it were insisting against the infidel heretics of that day upon the oneness, the coequality, yet distinct Person of the Word, the apostle says “The same,” He, the Word, “was in the beginning with God.” By Him all things were created. Not, as some of these infidels said, that spirit and matter were created by different “aeons” previous to Christ, who, as a later “aeon,” came upon the man Jesus at His baptism (but leaving Him just before His death; thus asserting two distinct persons, Christ and Jesus), in order to correct the evil into which the spirit-part of creation had fallen through being seduced by the wicked principle inherent in matter! Even to speak of such blasphemy is like touching pitch. Oh, the grace of Him who said, All manner of blasphemy against the Son of man shall be forgiven! Did these perverse men comprehend their own doctrine? May we not say of them, as Paul said of the teachers of the law, “Understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm “?
He, the Word, the life, the light of men, was made flesh; not a phantom, the mere appearance of a man, but as truly a man of flesh and blood, as any for whom He died. This mystery of His person is the rock upon which all human wisdom is wrecked. So truly God was the Word; so careful, if we may so say, is the Holy Spirit to maintain and enforce this most necessary truth, that, while we read the Word was God, it is not written in such direct phrase, “The Father was God,” “the Holy Ghost was God.” Nor is it said that the Father dwelt in the Holy Ghost. But, when the Word was made flesh and became the Lord Jesus Christ, then the Father did dwell in the Son, and the Spirit in His fullness. The whole Godhead was there in Him and accordingly another scripture says, “God manifest in flesh.” Not the Father, not the Spirit, but God. Truly the Father was in Him— “the Father that dwelleth in me": “he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” No man hath seen God at any time; but the Word made flesh, “the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” That is, the Lord Jesus Christ was the visible manifestation of God, and of such form— “which we have seen and handled” —as was suited to the apprehension of man.
Gnostic infidelity in its Sabellian form denied this. Amazing truth, certainly; but is this a reason for denying it, attested as it is by every word, every act, by the whole life, of the Lord Jesus? To attempt to explain the mystery of the person of the Word made flesh is a direct road to infidelity. The fact is revealed to faith; but no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Men deeply imbued with pagan philosophy crept into the church, and began to pry into things not revealed. The result was infidel heterodoxy, of which the fruit yet remains.
How clear in John's Gospel the proof of the Word made flesh! how intimate the blendings of His Deity and His Humanity! And vain man attempted to unravel the mystery. His blessed and most holy person was, when here, the true temple of God; and like the Most Holy of the tabernacle within the veil, where not even the High Priest could go without a thick cloud of incense—not allowed to look upon even the symbols of God's presence—lest he die, so His person, as God and man, is shrouded from the intelligence of man, and known only to God. To believe the fact is another thing, and essential to salvation. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” To believe that Christ was God manifest in the flesh, that Christ on the cross was made sin for us, are facts divinely attested; but can a poor finite creature—even if he were not fallen—comprehend Him in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily? A mere saint may be filled with the Holy Ghost, like Barnabas, just as a small vessel may be filled from the ocean but cannot contain the ocean. Christ, as man, did contain the fullness of the Godhead. None but God can contain God. If the creature can comprehend God, he must be equal to God; and then he may comprehend the person of Christ.
We are permitted to see how the fact of His Deity and Humanity, yea suffering Humanity, was made manifest. At the well, as God, He gave living water; as man, He was weary and sat on the well. As God, He raised Lazarus; as man He wept, and groaned, and prayed. As man, in the garden, He sweat as it were great drops of blood, and prayed that if possible the cup might pass from Him; it was as God that He showed His power when at His word “I am He,” the whole band fell backward; and when by a touch He healed the high priest's servant, whose ear Peter had cut off. Every incident given in John is proof no less of His proper humanity than of His Deity. The “Word made flesh” is the text, and the whole Gospel the exposition of the wondrous truth.
The epistles of John open with the same truth. It is the Word. In the Gospel, the Word in His own divine nature, that which He is in Himself: “In Him—the Word—was life.” In the epistle, the Word in communication with man: “which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life.” Life is in Himself, and Word of life to man. Pre-eminently manifest after His resurrection, having overcome death: but what victory would there have been over death if there had been no real body to die, and no real body to be handled after His resurrection? The Lord gave proof of the reality of His risen body, and challenged the fears and doubts of His terrified disciples when He suddenly appeared among them. He bids them touch Him; He was no apparition, but real flesh and bones. “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” It was not only a real body, but the same that had been nailed to the cross. Is it not the rankest infidelity to say that His body was only an appearance, when such testimony as this is recorded? We might think it strange such grievous wolves could enter the church of God; but it is stranger still that such infidel teachers had followers. Alas first love for the person of the Lord Jesus was lost; and they could hear and receive that which denied the love of God, and dishonored His Son. They denied Jesus Christ come in the flesh, and were of Antichrist. The fool who says in his heart “No God,” is not more guilty nor more stupid than these men who boasted that they alone understood scripture, and in the vanity of their minds assumed the name of Gnostics—the men of knowledge. “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world “?
Paul also, by the Spirit, speaks of these men. Among the Corinthian saints some said there was no resurrection. This was the effect of the Gnostic notion that matter—and so the body—was the principle of evil. Therefore the body could not be the temple of the Holy Ghost, and it follows also that He has not come; but the Lord Jesus said He would send Him. There is denial of His word as well as dishonor to His person.
To the Colossians the apostle writes and warns them of the danger of not holding the Head, and to remind them that “He is before all, and all things subsist together by Him.” “Whom we preach, admonishing every man.” They needed warning, for among them were those who, vainly puffed up by a fleshly mind, would beguile them with a pretended humility, but doing their own will. Their notions were only the elements of the world and not according to Christ. “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” When writing to Timothy he speaks of the great mystery. “God has been manifested in flesh.” It is Christ, for He “has been received up into glory.” But in latter times some would apostatize from the faith, i.e., would deny this fundamental truth, giving their mind to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons in the hypocrisy of legend-mongers. The infidelity of the world against the God of creation is not so dreadful as this; for here are men who have in measure looked upon and handled of the Word of Life, did then denied Him. The impress of these early infidels is still retained by Christendom. Every succeeding generation flews it, slightly modified it may be, but essentially the same.