The Nature of Man
For the Lord’s Day:  the 4^th of July 2004 

John 2: 23-25

“Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, may believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.  But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. ”

Introduction:  I am reminded of some lines once written or quoted by Gordon Clark.  His words related to the depth of faith experienced by mankind.  My memory is imperfect, but as I remember it: first there was a generic faith in Christ, then a faith grounded in Him and finally a realization of the fact that only Christ could save through faith.  Just as I taught about the object of love in and through the Camelot Saga for many years: King Arthur’s queen was more in love with love itself than she was in love with her king and husband.  Love is a verb like faith which demands an object and only if the object of such a verb is really and truly sought – only then is that verb truly and finally active in its accomplishment of delivering the benefits of its true affection.  But, our first lesson today from this study and especially this text is the glorious gospel that unless the good Lord Himself has us in mind – the merely human understanding of love is all the more delinquent in its affection.

To illustrate this important sense of the Gospel of Grace, let me outline C.S. Lewis’ understanding of the word love.  In the English language, we are impoverished in the lack of any common sense understanding of what the single word in our language conveys.  Not so the Greek in which John and Paul wrote of God’s Covenantal love for us and the rest of Christ’s Church.  The ancient Greek had four words for love; Lewis’s book is entitled simply:  Four Loves. 

The first love was “storge” or as we might translate it “affection.”  This is the type of love that the animals have for their young – this is also what Archie Bunker felt for his chair, or what any one of us may feel for the objects with which we surround ourselves.  This is a type of comforting love that holds many, many people fast in churches no longer worthy of the name, because of the beauty of the facilities, the richness of the music and the time honored traditions which may or may not enhance any understanding of the Gospel.

The second love is “philia” or “friendship” in our vocabulary.  This fellowship of a shared experience is what provides the glue for military formations and its lack or misunderstanding of can create a shambles of any modern assembly line.  Friendship is normatively between man and man, or woman to woman.  Despite all of the social engineering – it is rarely achieved between an unmarried man and a single woman, let alone between men and women married to others.  One of the local pastors in my area has complained about the factory socialization where the workers spend more time with different male or female partners than they do with their own spouses.  Even as the military wives all too well understand – friendship on board ship, in an Iraqi prison or in any unit stationed away from home base – the temptation is all to real to improve upon the relationships supposedly only friendly in nature.

This habitual modern problem is more related to the third love of Lewis: “eros.”  This self love as poor Echo learned in the Greek fable about Narcissus.  He was the young stud so in love with himself that he pined away when he caught a glimpse of his handsome beauty in the reflections of a pond.  This is the self-appreciation and esteem so prized by modern psychologists and educators.  Instead of giving studentkind any higher being to look up too and emulate – the psychological self becomes the be all and do all for emotions, morals and every single relationship.  In this week’s Hagar the Horrible, the daughter admits that she and her beau share the same love for her person!  “Eros” is the passion of every love misplaced, all wrapped up in the self or another object other than the greater glory of the One true God.

The fourth and final love in this outline is that of “agape” or “charity” as the old King James Version translated Paul’s great ode to the overwhelming all powerful love of God for the objects of His love.  Agape is the unmerited, undeserved love whereby one is loved for no other reason than the kind and perfect charity of the One God who so loved men, that He came to earth and died on the cross so that they could have life in Him, now and into eternity.

Development:  I hope that out of that discussion, you understand the fallen nature of mankind’s understanding of even the terminology that God uses in the ordinary discourse of the scriptures.  When God uses language, He is precise exactly.  And all too often, when we read the words on the printed page – we miss the point and learn an altogether different lesson then what He had in mind.  Of course, mankind has consistently translated His revealed word in ways that fall short of His original intent.  A recent translator in England has dramatically changed the morality of the scriptures by paraphrasing Paul’s admonition to drink a little wine for the stomach into an advocation for any kind of loving relationship whose exact premise is erotic in nature.

Leaving that behind, let us turn our attention to the Greek word for “faith,” which is “pistuos.”  This active verb has three connotations related to the affections of the heart, the focus of the mind and the avocation of the hands in demonstrating the force of such a faith once understood and applied.  Now, we are getting at the crux of the text before us today.  R.V.G. Tasker observes that during the Passover in question “many were led to a belief in Jesus because of the miracles they had seen Him perform.  It is clear, however, from the sequel that to these believers the miracles were not signs indicative of the true nature of Jesus.  He did not therefore ‘trust himself to them’.”

While the general population may have been impressed with the greatness of this Teacher, who challenged the conventional wisdom of their leaders, who performed unexplained miracles before their eyes, and who taught them concepts from the Word of God barely noted or understood – still they knew Him not, at least not yet, as we realize in the report to follow immediately next week!  Calvin instructs us: “this appearance of faith, which hitherto was fruitless, might ultimately be changed into true faith, and might be a useful preparation for celebrating the name of Christ among others; and yet what we have said is true, that they were far from having proper feelings, so as to profit by the works of God, as they ought to have done.”  He further notes: that while they may have been convinced that Jesus was at least a Prophet, perhaps even the Messiah – still “their faith was absurd, because it was exclusively directed to the world and earthly things.  It was also a cold belief, and unaccompanied by the true feelings of the heart.”  This is still a dead faith as the Apostle James announces it:  “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.  … Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? … For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” (James 2: 17, 20 & 26).

Do you get a sense of the full orbed “pistuos,” here in James?  That which begins in the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, infects not only the metal capacities but also the impulses of the whole body, in order that which is believed fills and informs the whole of the believer’s life being worked out on the stage of history.  Raymond Brown evaluates the faith in question here in this passage:  “Verses 24-25 show us that the faith produced by Jesus’ signs in verse 23 is not satisfactory.  … the reachtion described here is intermediary.” 

While this general faith is not hostile to the cause of Christ, still Brown declares that “it is not equal to the faith of the disciples at Cana ... who are brought through the sign to see Jesus’ glory.”

Application:  In the last two verses, Tasker tells us that: “Knox takes the first reference as specific and the second as generic: ‘he did not need assurance about any man, because he could read men’s hearts.’”  Let us remember that we are talking about the Lord of all the earth here!  Just as the Lord Jesus Christ knows the heart of every man, woman and child – so does He appreciate what is in the heart of any single person.  And, in this crowd at this time – He knew full well that there was as yet no real faith to be evident.  There was promise of course, but only within the grace and mercy of God.  Calvin cites the wisdom of Solomon in Proverbs 21: 2, in this regard:  “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.”  Calvin goes on to warn us all:  “let us remember, therefore, that none are the true disciples of Christ but those whom He approves, because in such a matter He alone is competent to decide and judge.”

On this text, I have an old sermon entitled “Can Christ Believe in You?”  Obviously, I have matured in my understanding since I penned that title thirty-three years ago!  While we can appreciate that the Kingdom of God cannot be entrusted to citizens such as these who are only enamored with the Messiah, still the prosperity of that Kingdom, its growth, fulfillment and final establishment have nothing what-so-ever to do with the faith and abilities of its human population.  Truly, as He later claimed on the way to the cross: “My Kingdom is not of this world.”  And it is not the affections of this world that will establish the heavenly kingdom.  We may talk all we want about the nature of love and faith – their meaning, their application and their object alone in Christ.  However, in the human equation and vocabulary we might as well agree with prisoner Saddam: that he is still the President of Iraq and will be addressed as such!

The purpose of this short section in the glorious Gospel of John is to teach us full well that we do not have the kingdom in us, we cannot recite any pledge of allegiance or confession of faith with enough sincerity to merit citizenship.  The definitive admonition here is simply this:  don’t think too highly of yourself, it is not your faith that saves, but as Gordon Clark defined it:  “It is Christ [alone] who saves through faith.”  And this will be the topic for expansion in the following chapter, and it is to highlight the teachings of the great third chapter, that John pens these verses – laying the groundwork for the necessity of the second birth – that even a Doctor of the Old Covenant Church could not immediately comprehend.  Certainly, we all grow in grace and knowledge, even as the crowd there in Jerusalem did over time.

Paul writes for our benefit in Galatians 5: 5:  “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.”  In the book of Ephesians 2:  8 we read further of God’s plan and promise to the elect:  “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before hand, that we should walk in them.”  I am reminded of a science experiment that I watched many years ago in high school.  The teacher demonstrated how a piece of metal could be magnetized so that it might be attracted thereby to another suitable object.  In a far greater manner, the Lord of life changes us so that we are able to place our faith in Him.  So therefore, let us all be humbled and patiently wait for what God is doing for us by the power of the Holy Spirit – that we can affirm the faith that He is giving.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

 Brown, Raymond E.  The Anchor Bible: The Gospel According to John.
Parker, T.H.L.  Calvin’s Commentaries: The Gospel According to St John.
Tasker, R.V.G.  Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: The Gospel According to St John.
The Holy Bible:  English Standard Version.

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