reveals Christ to the heart and glorifies him (ἐμὲ δοξάσει); he bears witness to him (μαρτυρήσει
περὶ ἐμοῦ); he calls to remembrance and explains his teaching (ὑμᾶς διδάξει πάντα καὶ ὑπομνήσει
ὑμᾶς πάντα ἅ εἷπον ὑμῖν ἐγώ); he leads the disciples into the whole truth (ὁδηγήσει ὑμᾶς εἰς τὴν
ἀλήθειαν πᾶσαν); he takes out of the fulness of Christ and shows it to them (ἐκ τοῦ ἐμοῦ λαμβάνει
καὶ ἀναγγελεῖ ὑμῖν). The Holy Spirit is the Mediator and Intercessor between Christ and the believer,
as Christ is the Mediator between God and the world. He is the Spirit of truth and of holiness. He
convicts (ἐλέγχει) the world, that is all men who come under his influnce, in respect of sin (περὶ
ἁμαρτίας), of righteousness, (δικαιοσύνης), and of judgment (κρίσεως); and this conviction will
result either in the conversion, or in the impenitence of the sinner. The operation of the Spirit
accompanies the preaching of the word, and always internal in the sphere of the heart and conscience.
He is one of the three witnesses and gives efficacy to the other two witnesses of Christ on earth,
the baptism (τὸ ὓδωρ), and the atoning death (τὸ αἷμα) of Christ.^849
V. Christian Life. It begins with a new birth from above or from the Holy Spirit. Believers
are children of God who are "born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God."^850 It is a "new" birth compared with the old, a birth "from God," as compared with that
from man, a birth from the Holy "Spirit," in distinction from carnal birth, a birth "from heaven,"
as opposed to earthly birth. The life of the believer does not descend through the channels of fallen
nature, but requires a creative act of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel. The life
of the regenerate is free from the principle and power of sin. "Whosoever is begotten of God doeth
no sin, because his seed abideth in him; and he cannot sin because he is begotten of God."^851 Over
him the devil has no power.^852trinity of the divine revelation has an exegetical basis in the pre-existence of the Logos and the Spirit. The trinitarian revelation
reflects the trinitarian essence; in other words, God reveals himself as he is, as Father, Son, and Spirit. We have a right to reason
from the revelation of God to his nature, but with proper reverence and modesty; for who can exhaust the ocean of the Deity!(^849) 1 John 5:8. There are different interpretations of water and blood: 1st, reference to the miraculous flow of blood and water
from the wounded side of Christ, John 19:34; 2d, Christ’s baptism, and Christ’s atoning death; 3d, the two sacraments which he
instituted as perpetual memorials. I would adopt the last view, if it were not for τὸ αἶμα, which nowhere designates the sacrament
of the Lord’s Supper, and more naturally refers to the blood of Christ shed for the remission of sins. The passage on the three
heavenly witnesses in 5:7, formerly quoted as a proof text for the doctrine of the trinity, is now generally given up as a mediaeval
interpolation, and must be rejected on internal as well as external grounds; for John would never have written: "the Father, the
Word, and the Spirit," but either "the Father, the Son, and the Spirit," or God, the Word (Logos), and the Spirit."
(^850) 2 John 1:13: τέκνα θεοῦ ... ἐκ θεοῦ ἐγεννήθησαν. The classical section on the new birth is Christ’s discourse with Nicodemus,
3:1-15. The terms γεννηθῆναι ἄνωθεν, to be born anew, afresh, or from above, i. e., from heaven, Comp. 3:31; 19:11 (the
reference is not to a repetition, again, a second time,πάλιν, δεύτερον, but to an analogous process); 3: 6, 7; γένηθῆναι ἐξ ὒδατος
–ϊκαὶ–ͅϊπνεύματοςof water (baptism) and spirit, 3:5;ἐκ θεοῦ, of God, ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦfrom heaven, are equivalent. John himself
most frequently uses ἐκ θεοῦ, 1:13; 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18. He does not use ἀναγεννάομαι , to be begotten or born
again (but it occurs in Justin Martyr’s quotation, Apol. I. 61; also in 1 Pet. 1:23, ἄαγεννημένοι ... διὰ λόγου ζῶντος θεοῦ, and
1 Pet. 1:3,ἀναγεννήσας ἡμᾶς είς ἐλπίδα), and the noun ἀναγέννησις,regeneration, is not found at all in the Greek Test. (though
often in the Greek fathers); but the analogous παλιγγενεσία occurs once in connection with baptism, Tit. 3:5 (ἔσωσεν ἡμᾶς δαὶ
λουτροῦ παλιγγενεσίας καὶ ἀνακαινώσεως πνεύματος ἁγίου), and once in a more comprehensive sense of the final restitution
and consummation of all things, Matt. 19:18. Paul speaks of the new creature in Christ (καινὴ κτίσις ,2 Cor. 5:17) and of the
new (καινὸς ἄνθρωπος ,Eph. 4:24). In the Rabbinical theology regeneration meant simply the change of the external status of
a proselyte to Judaism.
(^851) 1 John 3:9; comp. 5:18. But 5:16 implies that a "brother" may sin, though not "unto death," and 1:10 also excludes the idea
of absolute freedom from sin in the present state.
(^852) 1 John 5:18: ὁ πονηρὸς οὐχ ἃπτεται αὐτοῦ.
A.D. 1-100.