INTRODUCTION
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sons of God, as many as believed in His name; this I read not.
Again, I read there (i.e. in the writings of the philosophers) that
God the Word was born, not of flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will
of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God. BUT THAT THE
WORD WAS MADE FLESH, and dwelt among us, I read not there'.
Augustine puts his finger on the crux of the matter. Human reason
could go so far as to see the necessity for the Logos - for all God's
ways are wrought with reason - but it could never penetrate the
mystery of godliness and discover that `God was manifest in the flesh'.
The glorious fact that `God was in Christ reconciling the world unto
Himself' was the secret of the God of Love, and it was this secret that
was John's message, both in Gospel and Epistle.
The Structure of the Gospel
The Key of the Eight Signs
So far we have merely cleared the way for the blessed task which
now lies before us: an examination of the teaching of this fourth record
of the earthly life and ministry of the Son of God. Our first duty is to
see the book as a whole, in order to discover its theme and the way in
which that theme is elaborated, illustrated and proved. At the very
beginning of this Gospel we are at once struck by its unique point of
view. Let us compare the way in which it opens with that of the other
Gospels.
MATTHEW. This gospel opens with the words: `The book of the
generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of
Abraham' (1:1).
MARK. The writer omits all reference to genealogy, and opens with
the words: `The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son
of God' (1:1).