John 7:53

And every man went unto his own house.

And every man went unto his own house - finding their plot could not at that time be carried into effect. Is your rage thus impotent, O ye chief priests? N.B.-On the genuineness of this verse, and of the first eleven verses of the following chapter, we reserve our observations until we come to that chapter.

Remarks:

(1) The springs of judgment and of action revealed in the first part of this chapter are so minutely and delicately natural as to defy invention, and to verify the narrative not only as a whole but in all its features. Here are Jesus and "His brethren" according to the flesh: on the principles somewhat largely explained on Luke 4:24, with Remark 2 at the close of that section, they have great difficulty in recognizing His claims at all; but His present procedure-so different from all that they presume it ought to be and naturally would be in the great predicted Messiah-stumbles them most of all. 'Surely One making such claims should at once and in the most open manner lay them before the public authorities at the capital: but instead of this, Thou hast been absent from Jerusalem for a very unusual time; and now that the last of the yearly festivals is at hand, no symptoms appear of a purpose to attend it: how is this?' The answer to these insinuations is in singular keeping with our Lord's habitual estimate of His own position, and the mingled caution and courage with which He laid and carried out all His plans; while the indifference which He stamps upon their movements, and the ground on which He regards them as of no consequence at all-this bears the stamp of entire historical reality.

But most of all, perhaps, His going up noiselessly by Himself, after the departure of "His brethren;" and not, as usual, before the commencement of the feast, nor until toward the midst of it; and then-after much speculation what had become of Him, and whether He would venture to appear at all-His proceeding to teach in the temple-court, and that so marvelously as to secure for Himself a footing not to be disturbed, insomuch that even the officers sent to seize Him found themselves unable, through the riveting effect of His teaching, to lay a hand upon Him; and then the rage of the ecclesiastics at this, and-while ascribing it all to a want of learned insight which, if they had been "rulers or Pharisees," they would not have shown-finding, to their mortification, a ruler and a Pharisee of their own number, one sitting beside them, taking the officers' part and rebuking their indecent desire to condemn without a trial: these are details which carry their own truth to the hearts of all readers not blinded by prejudice.

(2) When Jesus proclaimed, in such ravishing terms, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink," we may well ask, Is there any man who does not thirst? Satisfaction-if that be the word which covers all the cravings of our nature-is indeed as different as possible in the estimation of different men. With some the gratification of the lusts of the flesh is all the satisfaction desired; others crave domestic and intellectual enjoyment; a third class find the approval of conscience indispensable to their comfort, but, unable to come up to their own standard of character and excellence, are inwardly restless; while a fourth and smaller class groan under felt sinfulness, and-conscious that peace with God and delight in His law after the inward man are the great necessity of their nature and condition, but that these are just what they want and cannot reach-are wretched accordingly.

But to one and all of these-embracing every soul of man-Jesus here speaks; though to each His proclamation would be differently understood. The first class He would raise from a sensual to spiritual satisfaction-as from the hollow to the real, from wormwood to honey; the second class He would advance from what is good to what is better, from meat that perisheth-even in its most refined forms-to that which endureth to everlasting life; the third class He would draw upwards from toilsome and fruitless efforts to pacify an uneasy conscience by mere attempted obedience to the law, and when they have come to the fourth stage, of conscious inability to keep the law, and wretchedness for want of peace with God, He would then attract and invite them to Himself, as the Wellspring of complete and eternal Satisfaction. How He was so He does but partially explain here; but the proclamation of such an astonishing truth was itself enough in the meantime; and those whom its transcendant grace might win over to attach themselves cordially to Him would immediately find in their own experience how true it was, and very soon-on the Pentecostal descent of the Spirit-discover the secret of their satisfaction more in detail. But,

(3) When the Evangelist says that by the "rivers of living water which were to flow out of the belly of them that believed in Him," Jesus meant "the Spirit, which believers were about to receive: for the Holy Spirit had not then been given; because Jesus was not yet glorified" - he expresses the great evangelical truth, that it is the Holy Spirit who opens up in the souls of them that believe in Jesus the fountain of a new life, and by His indwelling presence and ever-quickening virtue within them, causes rivers of living water to flow forth from this internal fountain-in other words, makes exuberant and heavenly satisfaction to spring up and flow forth from within their own nature. But whereas He says that this glorious gift of the Spirit was so dependent upon the "glorification of Jesus," that until the one occurred the other could not be looked for-this expresses these further and most precious truths, that the formal and judicial acceptance of Christ's work done on earth by His Father in heaven behoved to take place before the Spirit could be permitted to carry it into effect; that the actual descent of the Spirit at Pentecost was the proclamation to the world that His Father had taken His work off His hands, so to speak, as a "finished" work; and that now the Spirit, in opening up the springs of this new and enduring life in the souls of them that believed in Jesus, was but carrying into effect in men what Christ did on earth for men, was but putting them in personal possession and actual experience of the virtue of Christ's work-even as Jesus Himself afterward said in express terms to the Eleven at the Supper-table, "He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it" - or 'make it known' [ anangelei (G312)] "unto you" (see the notes at John 16:14). Thus, as Jesus glorified the Father, so the Spirit glorifies the Son; and by one high, harmonious work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are sinners saved.