IX.

THE UNBELIEF OF THE JEWS.

JOHN i. 11.

He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

Or the Hebrew nation God had said, "This people have I formed for myself, that they might show forth my praise." And the Father and the Son are one. So that, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the city of David, and when he ministered throughout the towns and villages of Judæa, it is truly said, that he came unto his own, to his chosen nation, his peculiar people. But his own received him not. The Jewish nation in general, as we know, did not receive him as their Messiah: and even the people who had listened willingly to his discourses, or had been relieved by the merciful exercise of his power, suffered him to be led to execution, while not a single voice was raised in his favour. "The Son of man goeth as was determined of him!"

If we inquire on what ground they received him not, was it that he did not answer the predictions which had gone forth respecting him? We know that his lineage, his birth, his life, and his death, did fulfil the prophecies and correspond with the types concerning him, in the most minute and remarkable particulars. Was it that

he did not show such signs and wonders and mighty deeds, as were reasonably to be expected from the Messiah! It was acknowledged,-"This man doeth many miracles; "No man can do the miracles which thou doest, except God be with him; "-" He saved others," though himself he did not save. Was it that his discourses and his doctrines were not in agreement with the character which he claimed? It was acknowledged, that "never man spake like this man: "—that “all men were astonished at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth: "-that "he taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes." And yet they received him not.

The reason was not in him, but in themselves. He came in a particular character. He came as a Saviour. He was announced as such by the angels. "Unto you

is born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." For this he was promised, predicted, sent; for this he took our nature, ministered, and died; that he might redeem a lost world, and deliver a race which sin had ruined. Now, to receive one who comes in this character, and purports to be such a Saviour, requires a certain state of mind in those who so receive him. To receive one who offers deliverance, implies a sense of danger, a sense of destitution and helplessness. To receive redemption through Christ Jesus, was to acknowledge a state of bondage and condemnation. To receive eternal life as the gift of God for his sake, was to cast themselves on his mercy, to abandon all personal claim, to renounce all merit in themselves.

The Jewish people perceived this: against this their pride and their self-complacency revolted; and for this

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cause they received him not. So St. Paul expressly shows, arguing with his countrymen in his epistle to the Romans. They lost, he says, the blessing offered them they did not become the sons of God, because they persisted in trusting to themselves, and refused to rely on Jesus as a Saviour. "They being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." The fifth chapter of this Gospel supplies an example, where we find our Lord reasoning with the Jews around him. "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testify of me." Here he addresses them as expecting eternal life, and thinking that they had it in their Scriptures; but not rightly interpreting the Scriptures, and therefore not having salvation, because they refused to seek it through him who is the author of it. "Ye will not come unto ME, that ye might have life." Ye will not come to the fountain, or ye might be cleansed. Ye withdraw yourselves from the physician, or ye might be healed. Ye will not seek the appointed door, or ye might enter in. Thus they maintained their self-dependence. They would not receive salvation" of grace." They did not receive him, because of their proud, unhumbled, selfconfident, self-justifying heart. They would not humble themselves, that they might be exalted; but they would exalt themselves, and therefore they remained abased before God.

But more than this:-Jesus came as a Saviour, not only from the guilt, but from the power of sin. It was

1 Rom. x. 3.

ordained concerning him, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins." While he invited them to receive eternal life, he also required them to repent; for "the wages of sin is death; "-to "bring forth fruits meet for repentance."

And here again they stumbled. A deliverer from a foreign yoke, a deliverer from Herod and the Romans, they would gladly have followed. But a deliverer from sin had no attraction for them. That yoke they had not felt heavy. They did not grudge the tribute which they paid to Satan.

We meet with an example in the eighth chapter of this Gospel. There our Lord, discoursing in the presence of a large company, said to some who believed on him, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." This saying offended his hearers. They answer,-" We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?" They would not understand, -it did not suit them to understand,-that "whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin." They did not understand-nor care to understand-that he alone who could renew the heart in righteousness and true holiness, could make them "free indeed."

To receive him who required them to be, and who would make them, "poor in spirit," and "pure in heart," and lovers of righteousness, and merciful, and meek,—was to lay aside their pride, and their sensuality, and their love of this present world, and their covetousness. And therefore they received him not. And "this was their condemnation: that light was come into the

world; but they loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." This was their condemnation, that when He came unto his own, his own received him not. They rejected him, because of their proud, unhumbled, unsubdued, self-confident, self-justifying, heart. They depended on themselves that they were righteous, and "had need of nothing;" and have left a perpetual warning, lest there be in any "an evil heart of unbelief, so as to receive the grace of God in vain."

X.

PRIVILEGES OF CHILDREN OF GOD.

JOHN i. 12, 13.

12. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to those that believe on

his name.

13. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

ST. JOHN had before stated, that when the Son of God appeared, he did not meet with acceptance. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." It was necessary in the divine counsels, that the word of God should be first spoken to the Jews: but they "put it from them, and counted themselves unworthy of eternal