262
CHAPTER XI.
THEOLOGY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH.
birth compared with the old, a birth “from God,” as compared with that from man, a birth from the Holy “Spirit,” in distinction from carnal birth, a birth “from heaven,” as opposed to earthly birth. The life of the believer does not descend through the channels of fallen nature, but requires a creative act of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel. The life of the regenerate is free from the principle and power of sin. “Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in him; and he cannot sin because he is begotten of God.”821 Over him the devil has no power. The new life is the life of Christ in the soul. It is eternal intrinsically and as to duration. Eternal life in man consists in the knowledge of the only true God and of Jesus Christ—a knowledge which implies full sympathy and communion of love.822 It begins here in faith; hence the oft-repeated declaration that he who believes in Christ has (έ̓χει) eternal life.823 But it will not appear in its full development till the time of his glorious manifestation, when we shall be like him and see him even as classical section on the new birth is Christ’s discourse with Nicodemus, 3:1-15. The terms γεννηθηναι ά̓νωθεν, to be born anew, afresh, or from above, i. e., from heaven, Comp. 3:31; 19:11 (the reference is not to a repetition, again, a second time, παλ́ ιν, δευτ́ ερον, but to an analogous process); 3: 6, 7; γεν́ ηθην αι εξ̓ υδ̀ ατος –ϊκαὶ–ͅϊπνεύματος of water (baptism) and spirit, 3:5;ἐκ θεου, of God, ἐκ του οὐρανουf rom heaven, are equivalent. John himself most frequently uses ἐκ θεου,1:13; 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18. He does not use ἀναγεννάομαι , to be begotten or born again (but it occurs in Justin Martyr’s quotation, Apol. I. 61; also in 1 Pet. 1:23, ἄαγεννημένοι ... διὰ λόγου ζωντος θεου,and 1 Pet. 1:3, ἀναγεννήσας ἡμας είς ἐλπίδα), and the noun ἀναγέννησις, regeneration, is not found at all in the Greek Test. (though often in the Greek fathers); but the analogous παλιγγενεσία occurs once in connection with baptism, Tit. 3:5 (έ̓σωσεν ἡμας δαὶ λουτρου παλιγγενεσίας καὶ ἀνακαινώσεως πνεύματος ἁγίου), and once in a more comprehensive sense of the final restitution and consummation of all things, Matt. 19:18. Paul speaks of the new creature in Christ (καινὴ κτίσις , 2 Cor. 5:17) and of the new (καινὸς ἄνθρωπος ,Eph. 4:24). In the Rabbinical theology regeneration meant simply the change of the external status of a proselyte to Judaism. 821 1 John 3:9; comp. 5:18. But 5:16 implies that a “brother” may sin, though not “unto death,” and 1:10 also excludes the idea of absolute freedom from sin in the present state 822 John 17:3, words of our Lord in the sacerdotal prayer. 823 1 John 5:12, 13: ὁ ἔχων τὸν υἱὸν έ̓χει τὴν ζωὴν ... ζωὴν ἔχετε αἰώνιον. Comp. the words of Christ, John 3:36; 5:24; 6:47, 54; and of the Evangelist, 20:31.
he is.824 Faith is the medium of communication, the bond of union with Christ. Faith is the victory over the world, already here in principle.825 John’s idea of life eternal takes the place of Paul’s idea of righteousness, but both agree in the high conception of faith as the one indispensable condition of securing it by uniting us to Christ, who is both righteousness and life eternal.826 The life of the Christian, moreover, is a communion with Christ and with the Father in the Holy Spirit. Our Lord prayed before his passion that the believers of that and all future ages might be one with him, even as he is one with the Father, and that they may enjoy his glory. John writes his first Epistle for the purpose that his readers may have “fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, and that thus their joy may be made full.”827 This fellowship is only another word for love, and love to God is inseparable from love to the brethren. “If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” “God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God and God abideth in him.” Love to the brethren is the true test of practical Christianity.828 This brotherly fellowship is the true essence of the Church, which is nowhere even mentioned in John’s Gospel and First Epistle.829 Love to God and to the brethren is no mere sentiment, but an active power, and manifests itself in the keeping of God’s commandments.830 Here again John and Paul meet in the idea of love, as the highest of the Christian graces which abides forever 824 1 John 3:2: οἱδαμεν ότι ἐὰν φανέρωθῃ (he, or it), ὅμοιοι αὐτῳ ἐσόμεθα, ότι οψόμεθα αὐτὸν καθώς ἐστιν. 825 1 John 5:4: αύτη ἐστὶν ἡ νικήσασα τὸν κόσμον, ἡ πίστις ἡμων. 826 John uses the term δικαιοσύνη, but never δικαίωσις orδικαιόω. A striking example of religious agreement and theological difference. 827 John 17:22-24; 1 John 1:3, 4. 828 1 John 3:11, 23; 4:7, 11; comp. John 13:34, 35; 15:12, 17. 829 The word ἐκκλησία occurs in the third Epistle, but in the sense of a local congregation. Of the external organization of the church John is silent; he does not even report the institution of the sacraments, though he speaks of the spiritual meaning of baptism (John 3:5), and indirectly of the spiritual meaning of the Lord’s Supper (6:53-56). 830 1 John 2:3, 4; 3:22, 24; 4:7, 11; 5:2, 3; 2 John 6; comp. the Gospel, John 14:15, 21: “If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments,” etc.
