John 20:31

John 20:31

The Trinity Disclosed in the Structure of St. John's Writings

I. The Gospel of St. John commences with a solemn exposition of the Divinity of the Word and Son of God, considered in His immediate relation to the Deity of the Father, as commissioned to represent His unapproachable glory in the world of time and sense. It is the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. "He is the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, and hath declared Him." But in the influences of the second, a new power is discovered, which all Scripture assigns to a third agent; and thus in the brief preface, the Father, the Word made flesh, the inworking Spirit proceeding from both, are shadowed before us; the opening prologue presents a summary of the whole majestic drama which follows.

II. The great article of faith which the Church commemorates on Trinity Sunday pervades the works of St. John, not only as a separate truth, but as a presiding principle; not only in the phraseology of the parts, but in the structure of the whole. We see that to him, the threefold activity of Father, Son and Spirit, was indeed the abstract of theology; it is a plastic power, working the whole mass of the composition to its peculiar type; somewhat as the vital principle of an organised frame silently gathers the entire aggregate of particles into the definite form appropriate to itself. In making this threefold distinction the basis of his whole scheme of instruction, St. John has taught you not only its absolute truth, but its relative importance. Learning from him the proportion of the faith, we will safely value that most which he thought most precious. If, under those brief but wondrous words Father, Son and Spirit he was accustomed to classify all the bright treasures of his inspiration; if into this mould every narrative, every exhortation, naturally flowed; if he was wont to see, in the adoration that bowed before this mysterious Triad of eternal powers, the last and loftiest act of religion; we cannot be wrong in preserving the equilibrium that he has fixed. And if to him this great belief was more than belief, this light was also life. May we also find in the Trinity, the ground of practical devotion, pure and deep, till, quickened by the power of this faith, the Three that bear record in heaven shall bear witness in our hearts.

W. Archer Butler, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical,p. 64.

References: John 20:31. Contemporary Pulpit,vol. viii., p. 275; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 48; vol. iii., p. 289; F. W. Farrar, Church of England Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 85.John 20 W. Sanday, The Fourth Gospel,p. 258. John 20; John 21 J. Vaughan, Children's Sermons,vol. ii., p. 31.