The Lost Gospel and Its Contents by Michael F. Sadler (most popular ebook readers TXT) 📖

of the Priesthood? Is it not Mediation and Intercession, and the Fourth Gospel more than all sets forth Christ as Mediator and Intercessor? As Mediator when He says so absolutely: "No man cometh unto the Father but by me;" "As my Father sent me so send I you; whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them."

Again, the idea of Priesthood is actually inherent in the figure of the good Shepherd "Who giveth His Life for the sheep;" for how does He give His life?--not in the way of physical defence against enemies, as an earthly "good shepherd" might do, but in the way of atoning Sacrifice, as the author of "Supernatural Religion" truly asserts, where he writes (vol. ii. p. 352):--

"The representation of Jesus as the Lamb of God taking away the sins
of the world is the very basis of the Fourth Gospel."

Again, in the same page:--

"He died for the sin of the world, and is the object of faith, by
which alone forgiveness and justification before God can be
secured."

Again, with reference to His Intercession, we have not only the truth set forth in such expressions as "I will pray the Father," but we have the actual exercise of the great act of priestly Intercession, as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of the Fourth Gospel. If we look to words only (which the author of "Supernatural Religion" too often does), then, of course, we allow that the epithet "priest" is quite foreign not only to the Fourth Gospel, but to every other book of the New Testament, except the Epistle to the Hebrews; but if we look to the things implied in the idea of Priesthood, such as Mediation and Intercession, in fact Intervention between God and Man, then we find that the whole New Testament is pervaded with the idea, and it culminates in the Fourth Gospel.

The next assertion of the author of "Supernatural Religion" on the same passage betrays still more ignorance of the contents of St. John's Gospel, and a far greater eagerness to fasten on a seeming omission of the letter, and to ignore a pervadence of the spirit. He asserts:--

"It is scarcely necessary to point out that this representation of
the Logos as Angel, is not only foreign to, but opposed to, the
spirit of the Fourth Gospel." (Vol. ii. p. 293)

Now just as in the former case we had to ask, "What is the characteristic of the priest?" so in order to answer this we have only to ask, "What is the characteristic of the angel?"

An angel is simply "one sent." Such is the meaning of the word both in the Old and New Testament. The Hebrew word [Hebrew: mlakh] is applied indifferently to a messenger sent by man (see Job i. 14; 1 Sam. xi. 3; 2 Sam. xi. 19-20), and to God's messengers the Holy Angels, that is, the Holy Messengers, the Holy ones sent. And similarly, in the New Testament, the word [Greek: angelos] is applied to human messengers in Luke vii. 24, [Greek: apelthontôn de tôn angelôn Iôannou], also in Luke ix. 52, and James ii. 25. That the characteristic of the angel is to be "sent" is implied in such common phrases as, "The Lord sent His Angel," "I will send mine angel," "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister?" &c.

Now one of the characteristic expressions of the Fourth Gospel--we might almost have said the characteristic expression--respecting Jesus, is that He is "sent." To use the noun instead of the verb, He is God's special messenger, His [Greek: angelos], sent by Him to declare and to do His will: but this does not imply that He has, or has assumed, the nature of an angel; just as the application of the same word [Greek: angelos] to mere human messengers in no way implies that they have any other nature than human nature. Just as men sent their fellow-men as their [Greek: angeloi], so God sends One Who, according to Justin, fully partakes of His Nature, to be His [Greek: angelos].

This sending of our Lord on the part of His Father is one of the chief characteristics of the Fourth Gospel, and the reader, if he cannot examine this Gospel for himself, comparing it with the others, has only to turn to any concordance, Greek or English, to satisfy himself respecting this matter.

Jesus Christ is said to be "sent of God," i.e. to be His [Greek: angelos], only once in St. Matthew's Gospel (Matthew x. 40: "He that receiveth me receiveth Him that sent me"), only once in St. Mark (ix. 37), only twice in St. Luke (ix. 48; xx. 13), but in the Fourth Gospel He is said to be sent of God about forty times. [84:1] In one discourse alone, that in John vi., Jesus asserts no less than six times that He is sent of God, or that God sent Him; so that the dictum, "This representation of the Logos as angel is not only foreign to, but opposed to, the spirit of the Fourth Gospel," is absolutely contrary to the truth.


SECTION XIV.

THE PRINCIPAL WITNESS ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY.


The author of "Supernatural Religion" asserts:--

"The Fourth Gospel proclaims the doctrine of an hypostatic Trinity
in a more advanced form than any other writing of the New
Testament." [85:1]

This is hardly true if we consider what is meant by the proclamation of the doctrine of a Trinity.

Such a doctrine can be set forth by inference, or it can be distinctly and broadly stated, as it is, for instance, in the First Article of the Church of England, or in the Creed of St. Athanasius.

The doctrine of the Trinity is set forth by implication in every place in Scripture where the attributes or works of God are ascribed to two other Persons besides The Father. But it is still more directly set forth in those places where the Three Persons are mentioned together as acting conjointly in some Divine Work, or receiving conjointly some divine honour. In this sense the most explicit declarations of the doctrine of the Trinity are the Baptismal formula at the end of St. Matthew's Gospel, and the "grace," as it is called, at the end of St. Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians.

St. John, by asserting in different places the Godhead of the Word, and the Divine Works of the Holy Ghost, implicitly proves the doctrine of the Trinity, but, as far as I can remember, he but twice mentions the Three adorable Persons together: Once in the words, "I will pray the Father and He shall give you another Comforter." And again, "But the Paraclete, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father shall send in My name, He shall teach you all things."

Now, in respect of the explicit declaration of the doctrine of the Trinity, the statements of Justin are the necessary [86:1] developments not only of St. John's statements, but of those of the rest of the New Testament writers.

I have given two passages in page 10.

One of these is in the First Apology, and reads thus:--

"Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ, Who also was born for
this purpose, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, Procurator of
Judea in the times of Tiberius Caesar; and that we reasonably
worship Him, having learned that He is the Son of the true God
Himself, and holding Him in the Second place, and the Prophetic
Spirit in the Third, we will prove." (Apol. I. ch. xiii.)

Again, he endeavours to show that Plato held the doctrine of a Trinity. He is proving that Plato had read the books of Moses:--

"And, as to his speaking of a third, he did this because he read, as
we said above, that which was spoken by Moses, 'that the Spirit of
God moved over the waters.' For he gives the second place to the
Logos which is with God, who he (Plato) said, was placed crosswise
in the universe; and the third place to the Spirit who was said to
be borne upon the water, saying, 'and the third around the third.'"
(Apol. I. ch. lx.)

Now unquestionably, so far as expression of doctrine is concerned, these passages from Justin are the developments of the Johannean statements. The statements in St. John contain, in germ, the whole of what Justin develops; but it is absurd to assert that, after Justin had written the above, it was necessary, in order to bolster up a later, and consequently, in the eyes of Rationalists, a mere human development, to forge a now Gospel, containing nothing like so explicit a declaration of the Trinity as we find in writings which are supposed to precede it, and weighting its doctrinal statements with a large amount of historical matter very difficult, in many cases, to reconcile perfectly with the history in the older Synoptics.


SECTION XV.

JUSTIN AND ST. JOHN ON THE INCARNATION.


Two further matters, bearing upon the relations of the doctrine of Justin to that of St. John, must now be considered. The Author of "Supernatural Religion" asserts that the doctrine of Justin respecting the Incarnation of the Word is essentially different from that of St. John:--

"It must be borne in mind that the terminology of John i. 14, 'And
the Word became flesh ([Greek: sarx egeneto]) is different from that
of Justin, who uses the word [Greek: sarkopoiêtheis]." (Vol. ii. p.
276.)

Again, with reference to the word [Greek: monogenês], he writes:--

"The phrase in Justin is quite different from that in the Fourth
Gospel, i. 14, 'And the Word became flesh' ([Greek: sarx egeneto])
and tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the
Only-begotten from the Father' ([Greek: hôs monogenous para patros],
&c.) In Justin he is 'the Only-begotten of the Father of all'
([Greek: monogenês tô Patri tôn holôn)], 'and He became man'
([Greek: anthrôpos genomenos]) 'through the Virgin,' and Justin
never once employs the peculiar terminology of the Fourth Gospel,
[Greek: sarx egeneto], in any part of his writings." (Vol. ii. p.
280.)

Again:--

"He [Justin] is, in fact, thoroughly acquainted with the history of
the Logos doctrine and its earlier enunciation under the symbol of
Wisdom, and his knowledge of it is clearly independent of, and
antecedent to, the statements of the Fourth Gospel." (Vol. ii. p.
284)

This passage is important. I think we cannot be wrong in deducing from it that the Author of "Supernatural Religion" considers that the Gospel of St. John was