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Chapter 4
“A Man Sent from God”
“There was a man sent from God, whose name [was] John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all [men] through him might believe. He was not that Light, but [was sent] to bear witness of that Light. [That] was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:6-14)
Find a man sent from God, and you have found a man you would be wise to hear. Find a man sent from God, and you have found a man just like any other man, sinful, weak, and in constant need of grace, and yet a man unlike any man. Find a man sent from God, and you will have found a prophet, a messenger of God to your soul.
A Man Sent
The first thing set before us in this portion of Holy Scripture is “a man sent from God.” John begins his Gospel narrative by declaring that Jesus Christ is God our Creator, asserting without explanation that the Man Christ Jesus is the eternal God (vv. 1-5). Having declared our Savior’s eternality and eternal Godhead, showing him to be the Creator of all things, the source of all life, and the Light of the world, John proceeds to introduce us to John the Baptist and his ministry. This prophet, John the Baptist, is held before us as an exemplary gospel preacher. Like John the Baptist, every true gospel preacher is “a man sent from God.”
Here is a divinely inspired description of every man sent from God. — He is sent “for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.”
Preachers are not priests. They are not mediators between God and men. Christ alone is our Priest and Mediator. Gospel preachers are not social workers, psycho-therapists, counselors, educators, or religious cheerleaders. And they certainly are not trained religious parrots, who simply repeat what they have heard others say! Those men who are sent of God are witnesses. They are sent to bear testimony to God’s truth, as first-hand witnesses, telling what they know by personal experience.
A man I know very well, after preaching the gospel for nearly thirty years, began to alter his doctrine. He sent out what he called “a clarification.” This is what he said about the message he once preached. — “What I might have said or written in the past was because others said it.” That man who is sent of God does not parrot what others have said. He bears witness to that which he has seen for himself and knows for himself, by personal experience. That is precisely what John the Apostle said about John the Baptist here; and that is exactly what he says about himself in the opening verses of 1st John 1 (1 John 1:1-3).
Specifically, that man who is sent of God bears witness to this blessed revelation of grace: — The Lord Jesus Christ is the only Savior of men, the only Light through whom lost sinners believe. That is what Peter did on the day of Pentecost. — “With many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation” (Acts 2:40). That is what Paul tells us about his preaching. — He preached, “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21).
Gospel preachers testify what they know by the Word of God, the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and their own experience of grace, bearing faithful witness to Christ. Any preacher who does not bear faithful witness to Christ in all the fulness of his person and work is not sent of God. So long as the preacher bears faithful witness of the Light, so long as he faithfully preaches Jesus Christ and him crucified, he performs his work faithfully. His preaching is honoring to God and is honored by God, whether those who hear him believe or do not believe (2 Corinthians 2:14-17).
The preacher’s object in preaching is “that all men through Christ might believe.” The words “all men” must be understood in a limited sense. They do not refer to every person in the world. Obviously, the Spirit of God does not intend for us to understand that there is the possibility that every person in the world might believe. Some were already in hell when John came preaching. They could not believe. Those who never hear the gospel cannot believe. And those to whom the Spirit of God is not given cannot believe.
The words “all men” simply refer to all classes of men. We preach the gospel to all men for the salvation of God’s elect scattered among all men. The gospel of Christ is the means by which God the Holy Spirit gives chosen, redeemed sinners life and faith in Christ (Romans 10:17; 1 Peter 1:23-25).
Yet, no man can preach the gospel effectually, in the power of the Spirit, except he be sent of God. — “How shall they preach, except they be sent?” (Romans 10:13-17) I ask you to pray for me and for our brethren around the world that, having been sent of God, we may be sent every time we stand to preach, that we may, like those of old, “be filled with the Holy Ghost and speak as the Spirit gives us utterance.” As you send your pastor out to do the work of an evangelist, pray for him, “that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19), “that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ” (Colossians 4:3).
Verse 8 might seem to be a redundant statement. — “He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.” But the sad fact is, many treat preachers as though they were Christ himself. There was an ancient, heretical sect which held that John the Baptist was the Messiah. Some in his own day presumed that the Baptist prophet was the Christ. Therefore, he said in verse 20, “I am not the Christ!” You may think, “No one today would be that foolish.” — But multitudes are! Papists treat the pope and their priests as if they were themselves christs. Multitudes of Protestants treat preachers and religious leaders as though they were christs. And many Baptists are just as guilty, treating preachers as if they were christs.
What is a preacher? Ask any true prophet, and he will tell you plainly. — “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord” (v. 23; Isaiah 40:3). Does anyone ask, “What is a preacher?” I like the answer I heard Bro. Scott Richardson give to that question many, many years ago. — “A preacher is a nobody sent to tell everybody about somebody who can save anybody.”
Christ the Light
In verse nine the Holy Spirit tells us, as he did in verse 4, that Christ is the Light. — “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”
Christ is to the souls of men what the sun is to the world — The Light. Twice our Savior declared, “I am the Light of the world” (John 8:12; 9:5). Christ is that Light of whom all gospel preachers bear witness. He is the Light and the fountain of all light to all creatures. He is the true Light, in distinction from typical lights of the Mosaic, Levitical ceremonies in the Old Testament. Christ the Light gave light to the dark earth in the beginning, and spoke light out of darkness. Christ the Light is the Light of all men, “which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”
Both the light of reason and the light of conscience come from Christ. All natural light and understanding comes from him. But the light of nature, of reason, and of conscience, while sufficient to render all without excuse before God (Romans 1:18-20), is not and never can be spiritual, saving light. The Lord Jesus warns us plainly and solemnly that the light that is in men by nature, as it relates to spiritual things, is utter darkness (Matthew 6:23; Luke 11:35; John 3:18-21).
When John says that Christ “lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” it is obvious that he is talking about natural, not spiritual light. I say that is obvious, because all men do not have spiritual light. But if you do, if you have light in your soul, if you possess the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, if you have the light of life, and grace, and salvation, it is because Christ has given it to you by the gospel. And whatever light you have regarding the things of God is the gift of Christ, the Light.
God “hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” (2 Timothy 1:9-10)
Unknown by the World
Third, in verses 10 and 11 John tells us that Christ, who is the Light of the world, is completely unknown by the world. — “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”
Read those five statements just as they stand in this chapter. John is not here describing our Lord’s earthly life and ministry. These five rich and instructive statements illustrate and explain the glorious things John has been declaring in the first nine verses of this chapter about our Savior.
1. “He was in the world.” — When was he in the world? This does not refer to our Lord’s incarnation. John speaks of that in verse 14. This statement, “He was in the world,” speaks of a past existence in the world. It is written, as A. T. Robertson points out, in the “imperfect tense of continuous existence in the universe before the incarnation as in verses 1 and 2.” — “The word ‘was’ denotes past existence in the world, even all the time past from the creation of the world” (John Gill). When was he in the world? He was in the world from all eternity. He was not in the world in his human nature, for the world had not yet been created by him and he had not yet become flesh. And it cannot be understood that John refers to him being in the world merely in his divine nature, because that would have been a needless observation. But he was in the world when in his covenant character he was set up from everlasting, and when Jehovah possessed him (as he himself states it), “from the beginning or ever the earth was” as our Surety and Mediator, when he stood up in the counsel chambers of eternity as our Wisdom, “Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth” and delighting himself in his chosen (Proverbs 8:22-31). Then we read…
2. “And the world was made by him.” — This is exactly what John told us in verse 3. — “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” Hebrews 11:3).
3. “And the world knew him not.” — By the sin and fall of our father Adam, the whole human race was plunged into darkness and “knew him not” (Psalm 14:1-2; 10:4). The world knew him not as their Creator. The world refused to acknowledge the mercies they received from him. The world refused to worship, serve, obey, love, and fear him as God.
4. Then we read, “He came unto his own.” — The words might be read, “He came unto his own people,” referring not to his elect and redeemed people, who shall be made willing in the day of his power and shall receive him (Psalm 110:3; John 6:37), but I am more inclined to think the Holy Spirit is referring to his own physical people, the Jews, to whom he gave the law, the prophets, the service of God, and the promises. Throughout the Old Testament “he came unto his own,” to the Jewish people, before his incarnation. He came in the types and pictures given to the nation of Israel. He came in promises and prophecies, and in the word and ordinances of the Old Testament. He came to them personally, in person, as he did to Moses in the burning bush. He came in person to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt on the night of the passover. The Lord Jesus himself came and redeemed them with a mighty hand and a outstretched arm; and in his love and pity he led them through the Red Sea as on dry ground and through the wilderness in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He came to them in person at Mount Sinai, and gave them the oracles of God. He came in person to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to Gideon, Manoah, and his wife, to Daniel in the lion’s den, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the furnace. Throughout the days of the Old Testament, “he came unto his own.”
5. “And his own received him not.” — They did not believe in him and refused to obey his voice. They rebelled against him and tempted him often. They provoked him to anger and vexed and grieved his Holy Spirit. They despised his prophets, generation after generation. Then, after he came into the world, the Jews despised him and his Gospel, fulfilling their own Scriptures by their rejection of him (Hosea 9:17; Acts 13:27).
Oh, how wicked, how desperately wicked the heart of man is! Christ was in the world invisibly, long before the Word was made flesh. He was in the world from the very beginning, ruling, ordering, and governing the whole creation, “upholding all things by the word of his power.” He gave to all life and breath, rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons. By him kings reigned and nations were increased or diminished. Yet, “the world knew him not,” and honored him not. They “worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator” (Romans 1:25).
Then, when the Son of God came visibly into the world, when he was born at Bethlehem, he fared no better. He came to the very people he had brought out of Egypt, to the Jews, whom he had separated from other nations, and to whom he had revealed himself by the prophets. He came to those very Jews who read of him every sabbath day in their synagogues, and professed to be waiting for his coming. And yet, when he came, they received him not, but crucified him!
But there is far greater proof of the wickedness and depravity of the human heart than all of that. — How often the Lord Jesus Christ has come to you by the Gospel, being “evidently set forth, crucified among you” (Galatians 3:1). Yet, you obstinately refuse to obey the truth, and receive him not! To such unbelieving rebels he says, in Lamentations 1:12, — “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.”
Another People
Fourth, John tells us about another people. The Jewish nation refused him; but the purpose of God is not thwarted (Romans 3:3-4). Blessed be his name, there is another people, a spiritual seed, who are his people by election and redemption, a people who shall be willing and shall receive him in the day of his power. — “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (v. 12).
Saving faith is here spoken of as receiving Christ. To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is to receive him, to reach out and take him for your own. That is what the word “receive” means: — take. We receive him as the Word of God. We receive him as God our Savior. We receive him as our Lord and Redeemer. We receive grace out of his fulness. We receive pardon, forgiveness, righteousness, and an inheritance among the sons of God by his blood. We receive life by his death. Receiving him, we receive all by him and with him and in him! — “Christ is all and in all!”
Who are these many who receive him? The Scriptures tell us plainly. They are the many, out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, who were ordained unto eternal life (Acts 13:48), the many who were redeemed by his precious blood (Isaiah 53:10-12), the many whom the Lord our God shall call by his Spirit (Psalm 65:4; Acts 2:39).
Blessedness of Faith
Look at verse 12 again. Here is a brief description of the blessedness of faith in Christ. — “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”
Several years ago, one of the men in our congregation asked me about this statement: — “To them gave he power to become the sons of God.” He asked, “Does that word ‘power’ mean ability or authority? I answered, “Yes.” It means ability and authority. This is not the word translated power in Romans 1:16. This is a different word altogether. In Romans 1:16 the word translated “power” means “mighty ability, violent strength, or abundant might.” It is the word from which we get our word “dynamite.” The gospel of Christ is the mighty, explosive, violent power of God unto salvation.
The word translated power here means both “authority and ability.” It is similar to our word “exercise.” It has the idea of putting something to use, or of putting something into operation, by right and with skill and ability (John 5:27; 17:2). As the Lord Jesus Christ has been given power (the right and authority) to execute judgment with skill and ability, and to govern the universe, so the Lord Jesus gives to every believing sinner the power (the right to execute with skill and ability) his adoption. We were adopted in eternity and named the children of God in election before the worlds were made; but now, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are the sons of God, and have every right (the authority and ability) to call God our Father (1 John 3:1-2; Galatians 4:6-7; Colossians 1:12-14).
We who believe are “the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26). All who trust Christ are, as J. C. Ryle wrote, “born again by a new and heavenly birth, and adopted into the family of the King of kings. Few in number, and despised by the world as they are, they are cared for with infinite love by a Father in heaven, who, for his Son’s sake, is well pleased with them. In time he provides them with everything that is for their good. In eternity he will give them a crown of glory that fades not away.” These are great things, privileges beyond expression! But faith in Christ gives sinners like us the right to possess them.
New Birth
This faith we have in Christ is the result of the new birth, the result of being born again by God the Holy Spirit. Here in verse 13 we are told in no uncertain terms that the new birth, by which God gives us faith in Christ, is altogether the gift of God. “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
The new birth has nothing to do with who our parents may or may not be. It is “not of blood.” It does not come by family descent. Having Abraham for your father does not give you a step up toward God. Nothing derived by human generation from our depraved fathers, nothing arising out of the corrupt stock of a fallen race can contribute anything to spiritual life. The new birth, and that faith in Christ which comes with it is not something we obtain by “the will of the flesh,” by the exercise of our imaginary free will (Romans 9:16). And this new birth is not something one man can will to another. It is not by “the will of man.” Abraham desired it for Ishmael, and prayed for God to let Ishmael live before him; but he could not will Ishmael into life and salvation. David desired it for Absalom, but Absalom still perished. No father or mother can will a son or daughter into life! No man can will, or talk, or persuade, or scare a dead sinner into life and faith in Christ.
All who are born again are born again by the sovereign, eternal, irresistible will “of God”. All who receive Christ, all who trust him believe by “the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (Ephesians 1:19-20). Oh, how great, how precious, how wonderful is God’s saving grace and distinguishing mercy to poor sinners!
“Sons we are, through God’s election, Who in Jesus Christ believe; By eternal destination, Saving grace we now receive. Our Redeemer, our Redeemer Does both grace and glory give!
Every soul of man, by sinning, Merits everlasting pain; But God’s love, without beginning, Formed and fixed salvation’s plan. Chosen sinners, (countless millions!), Shall with Christ in glory reign!
Pause, my soul! Adore and wonder! Ask, ‘O why such love to me?’ Grace has put me in the number Of the Savior’s family! I will glory, I will glory Only in the Lord my God!”
Would you be numbered among the sons of God? Receive Christ. — “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved!” Oh, may God give you faith in his dear Son, faith to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (John 1:14; 2 Corinthians 4:6-7).
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” In order to save such things as we are, the Son of God took on himself our humanity, dwelt among us, and laid down his life as the sinners’ Substitute, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him! Now, believing on him, we behold “his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” This faith in Christ is the blessed gift of grace, begotten in us by the preached gospel (1 Peter 1:23-25), by a man sent from God (Isaiah 52:7-10; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13).
Don Fortner
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