Homiletic Magazine John 1:48 Nathanael said to him, From where know you me? Jesus answered and said to him, Before that Philip called you… There is an analogy between what is here said at the opening of the Gospel and what is written at the opening of the Old Testament of the law in the Book of Genesis. I. The two portions of Scripture REPRESENT THE REIGNING PRINCIPLES OF THE TWO DISPENSATIONS, EACH BY A TYPICAL OCCURRENCE ON ITS THRESHOLD. 1. There, at the garden of Eden, man a transgressor, conscious of his guilt, hides himself under the leaves of a tree to escape the punishment he deserves and dreads, and there the eye of the Almighty searches him out with a summons to judgment. 2. Here, at the introduction of the Gospel, just when the Lamb of God appears to take away the world's sin, man seeks the same covering, not to hide himself, from God, but to draw near to Him for communion; and here the same searching eye discovers him, not for rebuke, but for encouragement and blessing. Adam was ashamed and hid himself; in Nathanael there was no shame needing to be hid. II. THE TWO CHARACTERISTIC MOTIVE POWERS OF THE TWO PARTS OF REVELATION, both necessary, the terror of the law, alarming and rousing the conscience, and the attraction of grace moving and melting the heart. Not a jot or a tittle passes from the law till all is fulfilled, because conscience burns in us with its perpetual fire, and in his weakness and self-love every man needs to know that "the soul that sinneth, it shall die," yet none the less are we Christians to be mindful that we live under the new dominion of mercy, when no faintest movement of faith is forgotten, and no retiring act of holy obedience is unnoticed and unrewarded. (Homiletic Magazine.) Parallel Verses KJV: Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. |
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