12/14/2020 – Day 211 – John 1 – 2/post 2 of 5// “The evangelist here lays down the great truth he is to prove, that Jesus Christ is God, one with the Father”
My quote in the title is from Matthew Henry’s commentary for the first two chapters. “The Eternal Word” – by God’s hand, John doesn’t waste anytime getting to the unfathomable truth – Yeshua (Jesus), eternally one with the Father, all that Truth packed tightly into just the first five verses.
I will not waste anytime either as I hand it off to Matthew Henry to give us commentary on these first two chapters. I have one clock hour left for tonight, so I don’t know how far I can get, even though Just to give you an idea, Matthew Henry’s commentary of the just the first two chapters covers 12 pages, the entire gospel covers 130 pages, and his commentary on the entire Bible – 1,986 pages. My entire Evidence Bible , a heavily footnoted bible, comes in just under 2,000 pages. With what I have read in this commentary in the past few days just from our weekend Ezekiel reading and these two chapters, whatever this commentary costs, I would pay it many times over just to get these two relatively brief commentaries.
Ok, let me get started with what I bracketed for direct quotes on the first chapter , recognizing it isn’t more than a full page:
“… It is clear that he (John) wrote last of the four evangelists, and, comparing his gospel with theirs , we observe, 1. That he relates what they omitted; he brings up the rear, gleans up what they had passed by. 2. That he gives us more than the mystery of that of which the other evangelists gave us only the history. Some of the ancients observe that the other evangelists wrote more of the bodily things of Christ, but John writes of the spiritual things of the gospel, the life and soul of it.
(In small print – the following paragraph is a summary of Chapter 1)
The scope and design of this chapter is to confirm our faith in Christ, as the eternal Son of God, and the true Messiah, and Saviour of the world. In order to this, we have here : I . The inspired penman himself, fairly laying down, in the beginning, what he designed his whole book should be a proof of, ver. 1-5; and again, ver. 10-14; and again, ver. 16-18. II. The testimony of John Baptist concerning him (ver 6-9; and gain, ver. 15); but most fully and particularly, ver. 19-37. III. His own manifestation of himself to Andrew and Peter (ver 38-42), to Phillip and Nathaniel, ver 43-51.
Verses 1-5
Let us enquire what there is in those strong lines. The evangelist here lays down the great truth he is to prove, that Jesus Christ is God, one with the Father.
…. The evangelist, in the close of his discourse (v 18), plainly tells us why he calls Christ the Word – because he is the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, and is declared him. Word is two-fold: Word conceived and Word uttered. There is word conceived, that is, thought, which is the first and only immediate product and conception of the soul. Thus, the second person of the Trinity is fitly called The Word, for he is the first-begotten of the Father. There is nothing we are more sure of then that we think, yet nothing we are more in the dark about then how we think. Surely then the generations and births of the eternal mind may well be allowed to be great mysteries of godliness, the bottom of which we cannot fathom, while yet we adore the depth. (Jimmy note – recall the pastor’s sermon plea that I posted yesterday: “Please , let us not for a moment even harbor a momentary notion of creating God in our own image!”)
2. There is the word uttered, and this is speech, the chief and most natural indication of the mind. And this Christ is the Word, for by him God has in these last days spoken to us. He has made known God’s mind to us, as a man’s word or speech, makes known his thoughts. John Baptist was the voice, but Christ the Word.
II What he saith of him.
- His existence in the beginning: “In the beginning was the Word. This bespeaks his existence, not only before the incarnation, but before all time. The world was from the beginning, but the Word was in the beginning. The Word had a being before the world had a beginning. He that was in the beginning never began, and therefore was ever.
….. The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord, and it was the eternal Word that lighted this candle, The light of reason, as well as the life of sense, is derived from him. From whom may we better expect the light of divine revelation than from him who gave us the light of human reason?..
“The light shines but the darkness comprehends it not... (1) The eternal Word as God, shines in the darkness of natural conscience. Something of the power of the divine Word all mankind have an innate sense of. (Jimmy note- see my near term post: “The Argument from Desire” Reference: Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Peter Kreeft & Ronald K Tacelli) 2) The eternal Word shone in the darkness of the Old Testament prophesies and promises. He that had commanded the light of this world to shine out of the darkness was himself long a light shining in the darkness.
… (2) The disability of the degenerate world to receive this discovery: the darkness comprehended it not.“
Well, I got through the first four verses of Matthew Henry’s commentary on the book of the Gospel of John, still skipping through way too much good stuff noted by “…..”.
Always connected by His grace and through prayer….. (“…..” – the unfathomable good stuff never ends!) Soli Deo Gloria!