The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. IDods, Marcus
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I
Dods, Marcus
Bible. John; Bible. John -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
If God is to reveal Himself at all, the revelation must be made not
solely or chiefly to the understanding, but to that part of us which
determines character, and is capable of appreciating character. The
revelation must be moral not intellectual. As our Lord’s ministry
proceeded He recognised that it was always the simple who most readily
accepted and trusted Him; and He recognised that this was a thing to be
thankful for: “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that
Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes.” And every one who thinks of it sees that it must be
so—that a man’s destiny must be decided not by his understanding, but
by his character and leanings; not by his ability or disability to
believe this or that, or to prove that his belief is well grounded, but
by his aspirations, by the real bent of his heart. We should feel that
there was something very far wrong if our faith depended upon proofs
that not every one could master, and if thus the clever man had an
advantage over the humble and contrite. “The evidence must be such that
spiritual character shall be an element in the acceptance of it.” And
such we find it to be. The reality and the significance of the
revelation of God in Christ are more readily apprehended by the
spiritually than by the intellectually gifted. Persons who are either by
nature humble and docile, or whom life has taught to be so, persons who
feel their need of God, and deeply long for an eternal state of peace
and purity, these are the persons to whom God finds it possible to make
Himself known. And if it be thought that this circumstance, that simple
and docile spirits are convinced while hard-headed men are unconvinced,
throws some suspicion on the reality of the revelation, if it be thought
that the God and the eternity they believe in are but fancies of their
own, it may fairly be replied, that there is no more reason for such a
thought than for supposing that the rapture of a trained musician is
fanciful and self-created, and not excited by any corresponding reality,
because it is not shared by those whose taste for music is unawakened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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