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Sunday  13  January

If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin:  but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass,  that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.     John 15, 24 - 25.

Thoughts on John’s Gospel (153)

In connection with both  His incarnation and His works and sayings the Lord twice said, in rapid succession: “They had not (= would have no) sin”. How are we to understand these words? It is obvious that all mankind are sinners. They were sinners at that time, and still are today. But their  condition only became properly  manifest when God’s grace came to them in the Person of Jesus Christ, that grace “that brunet salvation to all men” through its appearance (Titus 2, 11). The personal  acceptance of that grace ensures the forgiveness of all the sins one has committed.

However, that grace revealed man’s thorough corruption: he refused it and simultaneously rejected the Son and the Father. His sin consisted in this very expression of his hatred towards God. In wonderful harmony with His Father the Lord Jesus revealed nothing but good and love towards the human race. For that he reaped nothing but hatred; so his lament, “They hated me without a cause”, bore out a frequently expressed thought in the psalms.

(to be continued next Sunday)