Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXIMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. John -- Commentaries
Some of us do not think that it is sin at all; and tell us that man is
no more responsible for his belief than he is for the colour of his
hair, and suchlike talk. Well, let me put a very plain question: What
is it that a man turns away from when he turns away from Jesus Christ?
The plainest, the loveliest, the loftiest, the perfectest revelation of
God in His beauty and completeness that ever dawned, or ever will dawn
upon creation. He rejects that. Anything more? Yes! He turns away from
the loveliest human life that ever was, or will be, lived. Anything
more? Yes! He turns away from a miracle of self-sacrificing love, which
endured the Cross for enemies, and willingly embraced agony and shame
and death for the sake of those who inflicted them upon Him. Anything
more? Yes! He turns away from hands laden with, and offering him, the
most precious and needful blessings that a poor soul on earth can
desire or expect.
And if this be true, if unbelief in Jesus Christ be indeed all this
that I have sketched out, another question arises, What does such an
attitude and act indicate as to the rejector? He stands in the presence
of the loveliest revelation of the divine nature and heart, and he sees
no light in it. Why, but because he has blinded his eyes and cannot
behold? He is incapable of seeing 'God manifest in the flesh,' because
he 'loves the darkness rather than the light.' He turns away from the
revelation of the loveliest and most self-sacrificing love. Why, but
because he bears in himself a heart cased with brass and triple steel
of selfishness, against the manifestation of love? He turns away from
the offered hands heaped with the blessings that he needs. Why, but
because he does not care for the gifts that are offered? Forgiveness,
cleansing, purity a heaven which consists in the perfecting of all
these, have no attractions for him. The fugitive Israelites in the
wilderness said, 'We do not want your light, tasteless manna. It may do
very well for angels, but we have been accustomed to garlic and onions
down in Egypt. They smell strong, and there is some taste in _them_.
Give us _them_.' And so some of you say, 'The offer of pardon is of no
use to me, for I am not troubled with my sin. The offer of purity has
no attraction to me, for I rather like the dirt and wallowing in it.
The offer of a heaven of your sort is but a dreary prospect to me. And
so I turn away from the hands that offer precious things.' The man who
is blind to the God that beams, lambent and loving, upon him in the
face of Jesus Christ--the man who has no stirrings of responsive
gratitude for the great outpouring of love upon the Cross--the man who
does not care for anything that Jesus Christ can give him, surely, in
turning away, commits a real sin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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