He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the eternal Word who was God and the true Light and life of men, by whom the world was made and who was personally present in the world He Himself had made and sustains. He came in flesh in humility, veiling His divinity and union with the Father as a helpless babe without royal display, and lived more than thirty years among men yet was acknowledged as divine by only a few. The world knew Him not, meaning men did not recognize, receive, honor or believe in Him, even His own chosen nation and rulers rejecting and crucifying the Creator who stood to be judged by beings He had created. They rejected Him because they loved darkness and evil deeds rather than light, blinded by Satan, pride, love of worldly honor and gain, and unprepared by misreading of Scripture, though His lowly manner did not suit their expectations. He came to reveal the invisible Father, to bear sin as Substitute and Surety and break Satan's power, so that all who receive Him and believe on His name are given power to become sons of God, born of God and partakers of the divine nature.
Creator Present in World
He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the eternal Word who was God, the true Light and the life of men, by whom the world was made, who was personally present in the world He Himself had made. He came among humanity in human form as the true Light, the Word through whom the world was made, entering the world He created to live among people and give His life to redeem them. All things and the natural things in the world are the works of His own hands, and He also sustains the world He made. Studying this gives knowledge of God the Creator and of Jesus Christ the only begotten Son, which is true education that ennobles the intellect and expands the mind.
He came in flesh in humility, clothing divinity with humanity and veiling His divine character and union with the Father. Though He could have come with an angelic retinue and royal display, He came as a helpless babe, leaving His royal throne to bless and save at infinite sacrifice. Though divine and possessing infinite power and equal with God, He was found living as a man among His own subjects without being recognized or welcomed, receiving curses and blasphemy instead of praise, friendship, or shelter. He came by purpose from the throne of the Infinite to a guilty world nearly two thousand years ago, as the Light of the world and the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He came at the appointed time when the world seemed wholly given into the control of the enemy, an event in which all heaven was interested, to give evidence of the love of God by dying for the fallen race.
He lived on earth as a man for thirty-three years yet was acknowledged as divine by only a few. For more than thirty years He lived among the people while even disciples did not understand who He was, their earthly concerns and the opposition of religious leaders clouding their judgment. After three years of public labor of self-denial, benevolence, purity, suffering and devotion the world could endure His presence no longer. Because all things were made by Him He chose the open air as His sanctuary, desiring to be surrounded by the works of His creation. He did the largest part of His work and gave the greatest number of lessons in the open air in the highways of travel to reach people coming and going from cities and towns, connecting lessons with common things in nature and taking what His own hand had made as His lesson book for spiritual instruction, using things familiar to His hearers to represent truth and seeing in them more than finite eyes and senses could comprehend, so that the common people heard Him gladly.
Though Creator, His life in the world was marked by humility, poverty and self-sacrifice with no home of His own and no place to lay His head. He lived as a wayfarer through the kindness of friends and walked and worked among the needy and suffering for whom He had done so much, without being recognized or honored. His life in the world He created is a pattern of humility and self-denial for those engaged in saving souls. When He came to work out redemption He was met with ingratitude and abuse, toiling for the good of degraded sinners in poverty and self-denial up to His humiliation and the soul-agony of Gethsemane that forced great drops of blood from His pores until He could say It is finished, held by a love without parallel and unswerving devotion to the Father's will and refusing to grow weary or return to heaven discouraged, so that men now reap the fruits of that infinite self-sacrifice.
World Knew Him Not
Not knowing Him meant not recognizing, understanding, receiving, welcoming, honoring, or believing in Him, though His personal presence among humanity should have led people to know who He was. The Word through whom the world was made entered it without human exaltation or tyrannical power, yet men did not see Him or believe in Him, failed to see His divine character and union with the Father, and did not desire Him, and that failure to recognize Him accompanied rejection of Him. To be unknown by the world is to have no appreciation of Christ and not receive Him, living while showing Him disrespect, rejecting His companionship and walking with the enemy of God, failing to accept Him as personal Saviour, failing to center hope of eternal life in Him and to give Him the heart's best and holiest affections, so that instead of gathering with Him one scatters abroad and risks eternal loss while the heavenly universe watches.
The rejection is astonishing because people live in God's house and daily receive His favors, yet turn aside their own Creator. The Creator received less honor than senseless heathen idols received, for even the most ancient heathen were taught to make special preparation to come into the presence of their gods, approaching them with the greatest reverence and devoting days to self-purification through offering sacrifices, contemplation, and self-denial, with solemnity and ceremony, believing the gods would not condescend to give favor unless their dignity was recognized, even though those false deities could give no blessing and do men no good.
His own nation, His chosen people whom He had led out of Egypt and guided through Moses and entrusted with sacred Scriptures, types and prophecies, did not recognize, believe or receive Him but rejected and crucified Him, treating Him as a stranger and demanding a sign. The rejection reached even the people entrusted with sacred truth, who refused the Messiah and joined in opposition to Him and tried to extinguish the light meant for everyone, revealing how deeply people can sink into darkness. The Jewish rulers, priests, and highest authorities who professed to know God and claimed to be His children refused Him because He did not come in a way to suit their opinions and ideas and His teachings were not in harmony with their own teaching. They were too proud and self-righteous to admit their ideas were incorrect and needed remodeling and to consent that they needed repentance and conversion to obtain salvation, so they counted Him an imposter, yet refusal to see the light does not extinguish it, and people who believed they possessed great light thus rejected the true light He brought.
In contrast the Roman centurion, though not of Israel, showed greater faith and appreciation of Christ than many Israelites, for he trusted Christ's spoken word to heal his servant and approached Him with humility and concern for another. Being an Israelite in the truest sense is therefore not determined by ancestry or status, but by receiving Christ in faith. Even His brothers, though they professed faith in God, did not recognize God with them in the flesh, judging by human standards and rejecting His divine mission. Even His disciples struggled to believe in Him, for though He lived among them for more than thirty years and the Light shone in the world's darkness, their earthly concerns and the opposition of religious leaders clouded their judgment, and they failed to understand who He was and to appreciate Him even while He taught and lived among them, so that His death seemed to them to end their hope.
At His trial the divine Creator, clothed in humanity with divinity veiled, stood before human beings He had created to be judged by them and by His own nation. Though He could have revealed His glory and destroyed His enemies, He patiently endured their abuse rather than retaliating. He was despised, rejected, mocked, persecuted, insulted, accused, abused, betrayed, denied, scourged, pierced, crowned with thorns, and forced to bear the cross, with Satan stirring human hostility and resistance to the salvation He brought and driving people to inflict suffering, yet He did not retaliate when reviled and His death completed the plan of salvation and demolished Satan's throne. This not knowing is willful rejection of every provision Heaven has made to restore the moral image of God in man, continuing the rejection that has marked the world ever since Cain lifted up his hand against Abel, when men cast even this Gift aside as worthless and rejected and crucified Him, choosing Barabbas instead.
Why They Rejected Him
Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil, refusing to come out of error's darkness into heaven's pure light to believe and practice truth in faith that works by love and purifies the soul. To receive Him is to leave self-glory and come into that light, while those who refuse Him remain in darkness without God's light and life, resisting the Holy Spirit's work. Light can shine in darkness without being understood, and those who see it yet refuse to walk in it keep their sin and stand condemned, as when people see the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is true yet refuse to keep it because great men do not keep it and they go with the crowd.
The world had sunk into unbelief, moral darkness and depravity, covered by distorted ideas about God from Satan's misrepresentations, so that it did not know God and did not recognize God's character in Him who came to reveal God to human understanding and remove the separation. Though He came clothed in humanity to manifest the invisible Father in words, character, power and majesty and to embody the law, with divinity flashing through humanity in softening, subduing light and with purity and benevolence imaging God, depravity and darkness kept men from recognizing Him as the Son of God despite overwhelming evidence, miracles, the Spirit's conviction, and God filling the world with evidence of His goodness and majesty. Sin blinded hearts and shut them against the light and power before them so they saw it not and could not receive it.
That unbelief was inspired only by Satan, who blinded minds, clouded Scripture so it was misinterpreted and misapplied, stirred hostility and resistance to salvation, and worked through opposition, attempts to trap Christ, and the people entrusted with sacred truth who joined him to extinguish the light meant for everyone. He drove people to despise, reject, mock, persecute, betray, scourge, pierce and crown with thorns the pure, holy and undefiled One, and the rejection culminated in death on the cross, yet Christ did not retaliate when reviled, could not be led into sin, and by His death demolished Satan's throne and completed the plan of salvation.
Pride, self-righteousness and desire for applause, riches and worldly honor led them to reject Him, for His self-sacrificing life set Him apart and because He would not join them in their pursuits they hated Him. His teaching challenged accepted ideas and was not in harmony with their own teaching, calling for repentance, conversion and remodeling of ideas, but priests and rulers were too proud to admit their ideas were incorrect and to consent that they needed salvation, so they counted Christ an imposter. Because men do not see and believe in Him they take great power and lordly titles to themselves, though their lives are in His hands, while accepting Him does not stoop men down but raises them high; and refusal to see the light does not extinguish it.
His humility and unassuming manner did not suit their opinions, outward standards of piety and display-centered religion, for He came without riches, splendor, human exaltation or tyrannical power, continually doing works of mercy yet not advertising His virtue, self-denial or generosity. He brought meekness, purity and virtue with which they could not harmonize, judging Him irreligious while promoting their own public deeds and claims of sinlessness. His union with the Father and the glory of His divine character were hidden, and therefore they despised Him.
Greed for money and worldly gain blinded people to Him, including Israel His chosen people whom He had led out of Egypt and guided through Moses. The cares and fleeting pleasures of earthly life occupy minds and affections, turning them from God and from eternal interests, from the promised immortal crown and glory, despite the love revealed in giving His Son for fallen humanity.
The Jewish nation had lost sight of His character and the manner of His coming though Scripture plainly described them, and estrangement from the pure spirituality that comes through obedience to God's law left them unprepared to receive Him and teaching human commandments as doctrine. God sent Him in person into the world He had created because that nation had been unfaithful to its trust to share the light and keep His holy law and to make known His character and the laws of His kingdom, yet though the Creator stood in His own created world the world did not recognize Him.
Contrary to the claim that all would fall down and worship glorified truth if it appeared, truth did come down from heaven in Christ the Creator personally present in the world He had made, yet the world did not know Him. When He came in human form the treatment He received from the nation's highest authorities, who professed to know God, exposed the limits of human wisdom and reason, which could not form a correct understanding of God from His ways and works.
The people failed to see His divine character and union with the Father, did not understand Him and did not desire Him, and that failure accompanied rejection. He came without riches or splendor to bless and save, living among His own subjects as a man though divine and possessing infinite power, yet received curses and blasphemy instead of praise, friendship or shelter. They mistook His suffering for evidence that God had struck and afflicted Him.
Saving Mission Accomplished
He is the light and the life of men, the true Light who lights every person coming into the world, and all spiritual light is also spiritual life so that all light and life come from Him and men depend wholly upon Him. Not receiving and walking in His light leaves men dead in trespasses and sins, spiritually ignorant, depraved, debased and wretched, and those who reject it remain without God's light and life. Those who do not comprehend Him do not understand that the greatest blessing possible is offered to them, and people are to look to Him as source of life, wisdom and strength rather than depend on human beings. He came to His own highly favored to bring the principles of heaven as a merciful and gracious gift, but they comprehended the light not and would not receive His words.
He came to reveal God to human understanding and remove the separation between humanity and God caused by Satan's misrepresentations, for the world was covered by moral darkness and distorted ideas about God which He alone could dispel. With divinity clothed in humanity He manifested the invisible Father in words, character, power and majesty, embodying the law of God and showing the Father's attributes, with divinity flashing through humanity in softening, subduing light. In His pure and benevolent life the world saw God imaged in purity and benevolence, yet because of depravity and darkness men did not recognize Him as the Son of God despite overwhelming evidence. Receiving His word is receiving Christ, the revelation of God's character, law, love and life and the only foundation for a lasting character.
He took humanity upon Himself and bore the consequences of sin, though He was sinless, being tempted in all points as men are yet without sin. He overcame by prayer and strong supplication, perfecting in human nature a character after the divine similitude and by perfect obedience procuring redemption for all who will be obedient. His enduring trials and temptation proves that walking in obedience does not escape trials because the enemy hinders those seeking heaven, yet the Saviour promises help to bear them. As Substitute and Surety He shed His bright rays to enlighten men and make them alive to God, so the gifts of light and life come together, and He suffered the penalty of sin to enlighten them.
He became humanity's substitute and surety, bore its transgression and the penalty of sin, and made freedom and redemption available through faith in Him. By becoming the Sin-bearer He broke the power of Satan to become the center of the redeemed world, and by His death He demolished Satan's throne and completed the plan of salvation for fallen humanity. He gathered the penalty resting on the sinful race into His own pure, sinless soul and offered Himself as sacrifice as substitute and surety for sinners, thereby revealing the love of God and the immutability of God's law, not one jot or tittle of which could be changed to meet man in his fallen condition. His coming thus opened hope for sinners so that those who receive Him are freely pardoned and become members of the royal family.
He entered the world to ransom man from the power of the destroyer and gave His life to save humanity from Satan's yoke, yet the world did not know Him because the world had chosen Satan's side. He came to rescue sinful people from transgression and bring them to obedience and righteousness, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself on the cross of Calvary, and those who receive Him as Redeemer and believe in His name are given right to become God's children with promise of eternal life. By creation and redemption all its possessions and every human being belong to Him, and His claim rests on both, though the world does not acknowledge that He purchased the human race at infinite cost. By redemption He has purchased the race at infinite cost, and as Redeemer He has been given the deed of possession entitling Him to claim human beings as His property. The world belonged to Him because He made it, yet when He came to work out redemption He was met with ingratitude and abuse, toiling in poverty and self-denial with no place to lay His head up to Gethsemane and the cross, held by love without parallel until He could say It is finished.
As Creator He gave Eve to Adam as helpmeet and formed marriage as His own sacred institution in Eden, bestowing on man His two great gifts of woman as helpmeet and the Sabbath as day of rest. The same Creator commenced His public ministry by His presence at the marriage festival, thereby giving decided sanction to marriage again and witnessing that He will not refuse His presence on marriage occasions when marriage is kept pure and undefiled in purity and holiness, truth and righteousness. Though unrecognized by the world, He raises fallen human beings from spiritual death, quickening them with His own life and filling their hearts with hope and joy. Knowing Him gives strength to overcome, with the Spirit helping human weakness even as the flesh wars against the Spirit, and His matchless love and special interest in humanity invites people to come to Him for happiness and rest.
Receiving Him as Children
John the Baptist bore witness of Him as the One through whom men may become sons and daughters of God, that men might believe. Though the Maker of the world came into the world He had made, the world did not recognize or know Him. In contrast to that failure, those who receive Him as personal Saviour and Redeemer and believe on His name are given power and right to become sons and daughters and children of God, with the promise of eternal life. That divine sonship cannot be gained by self-effort, by family descent, or by human will, for grace and godliness are not inherited from a parent, and the power comes from Christ who gave His life to save humanity from Satan's yoke. His coming declared the truth by which people may be sanctified, and He revealed the Father's glory full of grace and truth as the Word become flesh.
To as many as receive Him He gives power to become sons of God, born not of blood nor of flesh nor of man but of God. He imparts the divine nature, so that by His Spirit energizing those who seek Him with the whole heart they partake of that nature, overcome the assaults of Satan, escape the corruption in the world through lust, and are able to be saved to the uttermost in coming to God by Him. Looking to Jesus they reflect His purity and goodness in pleasantness, obedience, happiness, love, justice and mercy that draws others to the Saviour. Though tempted in all points as men are, He remained without sin, overcame by prayer and strong supplication, perfected in human nature a character after the divine similitude, and by perfect obedience procured redemption for all who will be obedient, putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself on the cross of Calvary.
True Christians are distinguished from the world that knew Him not by receiving Him, becoming sons of God, carrying out His principles, and representing Him by compassionate tenderness for one another. Increasing faith in Christ produces sincere sanctified love for the saints, unity in Christian fellowship, and closer knitting of heart to heart in affection as members of Christ's body, of His flesh and of His bones. They behold and reveal His glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth, having received of His fullness grace for grace, while mere profession without an abiding Christ and without unity and love fails to reveal that light in clear distinct rays. Those who accept Jesus are brought into close relationship with God and called the sons of God through the Father's love, but the world does not know them because it did not know Him, so receiving Christ must continue day by day by confessing Him as personal Saviour. Steadfastness in truth and growth in grace may lead even a spouse and children to receive Christ.
All who receive Him, He will receive in return, so no one need be discouraged but may come to the Saviour bringing nothing in hand and clinging only to His cross by deciding now to stand on the Lord's side. He is truly set forth not by human art, which can never picture Christ the image of the Father nor represent God or heaven, but in the words of Scripture. Though in human form He spoke with the authority of true greatness by commission from the Excellent Glory, calling for submissive attention, and God summons the world to listen to Him and receive every word He utters as law and life, for receiving His word is receiving Christ the revelation of God and the manifestation of His character, law, love and life, the only foundation for a lasting character. Studying this gives knowledge of God the Creator and of Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God, and that knowledge is true education that ennobles the intellect and expands the mind, so students should have their minds drawn to this Word and feed upon the teaching of Christ.
Following the Rejected Lord
The failure of the world to know Christ explains why it does not know, recognize or favor His followers, for those chosen out of the world belong to Him, bear His character and share His lot in being unknown by it. His self-sacrificing life set Him apart from those who pursued applause, riches and worldly honor, and because He would not join them they hated Him, so His followers should not expect recognition or favor and must value God's approval above the world's and remain loyal to His commandments rather than conforming to the world's beliefs, habits and customs, which are no safe standard of faith. They are not to join the world in its customs but to follow Christ, confess Him day by day as personal Saviour, and seek to draw others away from the world, for those who accept Jesus are brought into close relationship with God and called sons of God through the Father's love. Being unknown and unreceived is His experience in saving work, so laborers for souls have no stronger reason for discouragement than He had, and because He did not fail nor become discouraged they must awaken to earnest activity and work by faith.
Not knowing Him means having no appreciation of Him, showing Him disrespect, rejecting His companionship and walking with God's enemy, failing to accept Him as personal Saviour, to center hope of eternal life in Him and to give Him the heart's best and holiest affections. Instead of gathering with Him such a one scatters abroad and risks eternal loss while the heavenly universe watches, a state that sinks souls to depths of degradation and remains true of many professed Christians who do not know God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. The same history of not recognizing and receiving Him at His first coming is being repeated today and will be repeated again and again before He comes in the clouds of heaven, when Satan's deceptions rest upon earth-dwellers and Satan claims to be Christ to deceive all except those steadfast and true to God. Neglecting to obey the Word can blind spiritual sight so that God's people do not discern Jesus working through the Holy Spirit and His servants, and those who reject truth can be deceived into treating humanity as God and accepting a counterfeit instead of Christ.
The same spirit that rejected Christ continues when people fail to recognize God's light and reject His message and messengers. It is shown when those claiming to be God's children reject truth sent from heaven because it does not coincide with errors they have received, as priests and rulers too proud and self-righteous to admit their ideas were incorrect and needed remodeling and to consent that they needed repentance and conversion counted Him an imposter because He did not come to suit their opinions and His teachings were not in harmony with their own, yet refusal to see the light does not extinguish it. Sin blinded hearts and shut them against the light and power before them so they saw it not and could not receive it, and that same blindness by sin can keep God's people now from discerning the work of God as the message rises to go with power. Rejecting the Holy Spirit's reproof of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, even when that reproof comes through human agents God uses, leaves the soul surrounded in darkness as the Jews who refused the light sent through God's beloved Son were left. Light can shine in darkness without being understood, and those who see the light yet refuse to walk in it keep their sin and stand condemned for choosing darkness rather than light. The Jews had light that He was the Messiah, but because He came in humiliation only a few accepted Him, and that same rejection happens when people see that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is true yet refuse to keep it because good and great men do not keep it and they will go with the crowd.
The verse is to be studied whenever fresh manifestations of His rich grace melt and subdue the heart, because it reveals believers as the purchase of His blood and the objects of His tenderest care and affection. Though He came to His own and His own did not receive Him, as many as receive Him and believe on His name are given power to become sons of God, and increasing faith in Him produces sincere sanctified love for the saints, unity in Christian fellowship and closer knitting of heart to heart as members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. Contemplating His unrecognized, unhonored life and mission brings cheer and blessing, for He came to show the way to the haven of eternal rest. His self-sacrificing life in the world He made, having no place to lay His head, is a pattern of humility and self-denial for those engaged in saving souls. Though the world belonged to Him because He made it, when He came to work out redemption He was met with ingratitude and abuse, toiling for degraded sinners in poverty and self-denial with unswerving devotion to the Father's will and a love without parallel up to His humiliation and the soul-agony of Gethsemane that forced great drops of blood from His pores until He could say it is finished, refusing to grow weary or return to heaven discouraged, so that men now reap the fruits of that infinite self-sacrifice, a fact that condemns ignoble sloth, careless indifference and wicked selfishness when labor and means are wanted to aid Him in the salvation of souls.
That same rejection continues, so crimes of cruelty, monstrous wickedness and iniquity of every stripe in cities and towns should cause no surprise, human nature unsanctified by faith in Jesus Christ can be given no confidence or trust, and love of the world brings no peace. He was in the world as the Life and Light of the world, the divine personification of the Infinite God, yet the world did not know Him and would not receive and confess Him but rejected and crucified Him, choosing Barabbas instead, while in contrast those who know Him have Him as precious and risen Saviour. His presence among the Jewish nation brought its most solemn test, with the light of God's truth shining through His words and works, making those who reject truth responsible for refusing the life He offers.
He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the eternal Word who was God and the true Light and life of men, by whom the world was made and who was personally present in the world He Himself had made and sustains. He came in flesh in humility, veiling His divinity and union with the Father as a helpless babe without royal display, and lived more than thirty years among men yet was acknowledged as divine by only a few. The world knew Him not, meaning men did not recognize, receive, honor or believe in Him, even His own chosen nation and rulers rejecting and crucifying the Creator who stood to be judged by beings He had created. They rejected Him because they loved darkness and evil deeds rather than light, blinded by Satan, pride, love of worldly honor and gain, and unprepared by misreading of Scripture, though His lowly manner did not suit their expectations. He came to reveal the invisible Father, to bear sin as Substitute and Surety and break Satan's power, so that all who receive Him and believe on His name are given power to become sons of God, born of God and partakers of the divine nature.
Creator Present in World
He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the eternal Word who was God, the true Light and the life of men, by whom the world was made, who was personally present in the world He Himself had made. He came among humanity in human form as the true Light, the Word through whom the world was made, entering the world He created to live among people and give His life to redeem them. All things and the natural things in the world are the works of His own hands, and He also sustains the world He made. Studying this gives knowledge of God the Creator and of Jesus Christ the only begotten Son, which is true education that ennobles the intellect and expands the mind.
He came in flesh in humility, clothing divinity with humanity and veiling His divine character and union with the Father. Though He could have come with an angelic retinue and royal display, He came as a helpless babe, leaving His royal throne to bless and save at infinite sacrifice. Though divine and possessing infinite power and equal with God, He was found living as a man among His own subjects without being recognized or welcomed, receiving curses and blasphemy instead of praise, friendship, or shelter. He came by purpose from the throne of the Infinite to a guilty world nearly two thousand years ago, as the Light of the world and the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He came at the appointed time when the world seemed wholly given into the control of the enemy, an event in which all heaven was interested, to give evidence of the love of God by dying for the fallen race.
He lived on earth as a man for thirty-three years yet was acknowledged as divine by only a few. For more than thirty years He lived among the people while even disciples did not understand who He was, their earthly concerns and the opposition of religious leaders clouding their judgment. After three years of public labor of self-denial, benevolence, purity, suffering and devotion the world could endure His presence no longer. Because all things were made by Him He chose the open air as His sanctuary, desiring to be surrounded by the works of His creation. He did the largest part of His work and gave the greatest number of lessons in the open air in the highways of travel to reach people coming and going from cities and towns, connecting lessons with common things in nature and taking what His own hand had made as His lesson book for spiritual instruction, using things familiar to His hearers to represent truth and seeing in them more than finite eyes and senses could comprehend, so that the common people heard Him gladly.
Though Creator, His life in the world was marked by humility, poverty and self-sacrifice with no home of His own and no place to lay His head. He lived as a wayfarer through the kindness of friends and walked and worked among the needy and suffering for whom He had done so much, without being recognized or honored. His life in the world He created is a pattern of humility and self-denial for those engaged in saving souls. When He came to work out redemption He was met with ingratitude and abuse, toiling for the good of degraded sinners in poverty and self-denial up to His humiliation and the soul-agony of Gethsemane that forced great drops of blood from His pores until He could say It is finished, held by a love without parallel and unswerving devotion to the Father's will and refusing to grow weary or return to heaven discouraged, so that men now reap the fruits of that infinite self-sacrifice.
World Knew Him Not
Not knowing Him meant not recognizing, understanding, receiving, welcoming, honoring, or believing in Him, though His personal presence among humanity should have led people to know who He was. The Word through whom the world was made entered it without human exaltation or tyrannical power, yet men did not see Him or believe in Him, failed to see His divine character and union with the Father, and did not desire Him, and that failure to recognize Him accompanied rejection of Him. To be unknown by the world is to have no appreciation of Christ and not receive Him, living while showing Him disrespect, rejecting His companionship and walking with the enemy of God, failing to accept Him as personal Saviour, failing to center hope of eternal life in Him and to give Him the heart's best and holiest affections, so that instead of gathering with Him one scatters abroad and risks eternal loss while the heavenly universe watches.
The rejection is astonishing because people live in God's house and daily receive His favors, yet turn aside their own Creator. The Creator received less honor than senseless heathen idols received, for even the most ancient heathen were taught to make special preparation to come into the presence of their gods, approaching them with the greatest reverence and devoting days to self-purification through offering sacrifices, contemplation, and self-denial, with solemnity and ceremony, believing the gods would not condescend to give favor unless their dignity was recognized, even though those false deities could give no blessing and do men no good.
His own nation, His chosen people whom He had led out of Egypt and guided through Moses and entrusted with sacred Scriptures, types and prophecies, did not recognize, believe or receive Him but rejected and crucified Him, treating Him as a stranger and demanding a sign. The rejection reached even the people entrusted with sacred truth, who refused the Messiah and joined in opposition to Him and tried to extinguish the light meant for everyone, revealing how deeply people can sink into darkness. The Jewish rulers, priests, and highest authorities who professed to know God and claimed to be His children refused Him because He did not come in a way to suit their opinions and ideas and His teachings were not in harmony with their own teaching. They were too proud and self-righteous to admit their ideas were incorrect and needed remodeling and to consent that they needed repentance and conversion to obtain salvation, so they counted Him an imposter, yet refusal to see the light does not extinguish it, and people who believed they possessed great light thus rejected the true light He brought.
In contrast the Roman centurion, though not of Israel, showed greater faith and appreciation of Christ than many Israelites, for he trusted Christ's spoken word to heal his servant and approached Him with humility and concern for another. Being an Israelite in the truest sense is therefore not determined by ancestry or status, but by receiving Christ in faith. Even His brothers, though they professed faith in God, did not recognize God with them in the flesh, judging by human standards and rejecting His divine mission. Even His disciples struggled to believe in Him, for though He lived among them for more than thirty years and the Light shone in the world's darkness, their earthly concerns and the opposition of religious leaders clouded their judgment, and they failed to understand who He was and to appreciate Him even while He taught and lived among them, so that His death seemed to them to end their hope.
At His trial the divine Creator, clothed in humanity with divinity veiled, stood before human beings He had created to be judged by them and by His own nation. Though He could have revealed His glory and destroyed His enemies, He patiently endured their abuse rather than retaliating. He was despised, rejected, mocked, persecuted, insulted, accused, abused, betrayed, denied, scourged, pierced, crowned with thorns, and forced to bear the cross, with Satan stirring human hostility and resistance to the salvation He brought and driving people to inflict suffering, yet He did not retaliate when reviled and His death completed the plan of salvation and demolished Satan's throne. This not knowing is willful rejection of every provision Heaven has made to restore the moral image of God in man, continuing the rejection that has marked the world ever since Cain lifted up his hand against Abel, when men cast even this Gift aside as worthless and rejected and crucified Him, choosing Barabbas instead.
Why They Rejected Him
Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil, refusing to come out of error's darkness into heaven's pure light to believe and practice truth in faith that works by love and purifies the soul. To receive Him is to leave self-glory and come into that light, while those who refuse Him remain in darkness without God's light and life, resisting the Holy Spirit's work. Light can shine in darkness without being understood, and those who see it yet refuse to walk in it keep their sin and stand condemned, as when people see the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is true yet refuse to keep it because great men do not keep it and they go with the crowd.
The world had sunk into unbelief, moral darkness and depravity, covered by distorted ideas about God from Satan's misrepresentations, so that it did not know God and did not recognize God's character in Him who came to reveal God to human understanding and remove the separation. Though He came clothed in humanity to manifest the invisible Father in words, character, power and majesty and to embody the law, with divinity flashing through humanity in softening, subduing light and with purity and benevolence imaging God, depravity and darkness kept men from recognizing Him as the Son of God despite overwhelming evidence, miracles, the Spirit's conviction, and God filling the world with evidence of His goodness and majesty. Sin blinded hearts and shut them against the light and power before them so they saw it not and could not receive it.
That unbelief was inspired only by Satan, who blinded minds, clouded Scripture so it was misinterpreted and misapplied, stirred hostility and resistance to salvation, and worked through opposition, attempts to trap Christ, and the people entrusted with sacred truth who joined him to extinguish the light meant for everyone. He drove people to despise, reject, mock, persecute, betray, scourge, pierce and crown with thorns the pure, holy and undefiled One, and the rejection culminated in death on the cross, yet Christ did not retaliate when reviled, could not be led into sin, and by His death demolished Satan's throne and completed the plan of salvation.
Pride, self-righteousness and desire for applause, riches and worldly honor led them to reject Him, for His self-sacrificing life set Him apart and because He would not join them in their pursuits they hated Him. His teaching challenged accepted ideas and was not in harmony with their own teaching, calling for repentance, conversion and remodeling of ideas, but priests and rulers were too proud to admit their ideas were incorrect and to consent that they needed salvation, so they counted Christ an imposter. Because men do not see and believe in Him they take great power and lordly titles to themselves, though their lives are in His hands, while accepting Him does not stoop men down but raises them high; and refusal to see the light does not extinguish it.
His humility and unassuming manner did not suit their opinions, outward standards of piety and display-centered religion, for He came without riches, splendor, human exaltation or tyrannical power, continually doing works of mercy yet not advertising His virtue, self-denial or generosity. He brought meekness, purity and virtue with which they could not harmonize, judging Him irreligious while promoting their own public deeds and claims of sinlessness. His union with the Father and the glory of His divine character were hidden, and therefore they despised Him.
Greed for money and worldly gain blinded people to Him, including Israel His chosen people whom He had led out of Egypt and guided through Moses. The cares and fleeting pleasures of earthly life occupy minds and affections, turning them from God and from eternal interests, from the promised immortal crown and glory, despite the love revealed in giving His Son for fallen humanity.
The Jewish nation had lost sight of His character and the manner of His coming though Scripture plainly described them, and estrangement from the pure spirituality that comes through obedience to God's law left them unprepared to receive Him and teaching human commandments as doctrine. God sent Him in person into the world He had created because that nation had been unfaithful to its trust to share the light and keep His holy law and to make known His character and the laws of His kingdom, yet though the Creator stood in His own created world the world did not recognize Him.
Contrary to the claim that all would fall down and worship glorified truth if it appeared, truth did come down from heaven in Christ the Creator personally present in the world He had made, yet the world did not know Him. When He came in human form the treatment He received from the nation's highest authorities, who professed to know God, exposed the limits of human wisdom and reason, which could not form a correct understanding of God from His ways and works.
The people failed to see His divine character and union with the Father, did not understand Him and did not desire Him, and that failure accompanied rejection. He came without riches or splendor to bless and save, living among His own subjects as a man though divine and possessing infinite power, yet received curses and blasphemy instead of praise, friendship or shelter. They mistook His suffering for evidence that God had struck and afflicted Him.
Saving Mission Accomplished
He is the light and the life of men, the true Light who lights every person coming into the world, and all spiritual light is also spiritual life so that all light and life come from Him and men depend wholly upon Him. Not receiving and walking in His light leaves men dead in trespasses and sins, spiritually ignorant, depraved, debased and wretched, and those who reject it remain without God's light and life. Those who do not comprehend Him do not understand that the greatest blessing possible is offered to them, and people are to look to Him as source of life, wisdom and strength rather than depend on human beings. He came to His own highly favored to bring the principles of heaven as a merciful and gracious gift, but they comprehended the light not and would not receive His words.
He came to reveal God to human understanding and remove the separation between humanity and God caused by Satan's misrepresentations, for the world was covered by moral darkness and distorted ideas about God which He alone could dispel. With divinity clothed in humanity He manifested the invisible Father in words, character, power and majesty, embodying the law of God and showing the Father's attributes, with divinity flashing through humanity in softening, subduing light. In His pure and benevolent life the world saw God imaged in purity and benevolence, yet because of depravity and darkness men did not recognize Him as the Son of God despite overwhelming evidence. Receiving His word is receiving Christ, the revelation of God's character, law, love and life and the only foundation for a lasting character.
He took humanity upon Himself and bore the consequences of sin, though He was sinless, being tempted in all points as men are yet without sin. He overcame by prayer and strong supplication, perfecting in human nature a character after the divine similitude and by perfect obedience procuring redemption for all who will be obedient. His enduring trials and temptation proves that walking in obedience does not escape trials because the enemy hinders those seeking heaven, yet the Saviour promises help to bear them. As Substitute and Surety He shed His bright rays to enlighten men and make them alive to God, so the gifts of light and life come together, and He suffered the penalty of sin to enlighten them.
He became humanity's substitute and surety, bore its transgression and the penalty of sin, and made freedom and redemption available through faith in Him. By becoming the Sin-bearer He broke the power of Satan to become the center of the redeemed world, and by His death He demolished Satan's throne and completed the plan of salvation for fallen humanity. He gathered the penalty resting on the sinful race into His own pure, sinless soul and offered Himself as sacrifice as substitute and surety for sinners, thereby revealing the love of God and the immutability of God's law, not one jot or tittle of which could be changed to meet man in his fallen condition. His coming thus opened hope for sinners so that those who receive Him are freely pardoned and become members of the royal family.
He entered the world to ransom man from the power of the destroyer and gave His life to save humanity from Satan's yoke, yet the world did not know Him because the world had chosen Satan's side. He came to rescue sinful people from transgression and bring them to obedience and righteousness, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself on the cross of Calvary, and those who receive Him as Redeemer and believe in His name are given right to become God's children with promise of eternal life. By creation and redemption all its possessions and every human being belong to Him, and His claim rests on both, though the world does not acknowledge that He purchased the human race at infinite cost. By redemption He has purchased the race at infinite cost, and as Redeemer He has been given the deed of possession entitling Him to claim human beings as His property. The world belonged to Him because He made it, yet when He came to work out redemption He was met with ingratitude and abuse, toiling in poverty and self-denial with no place to lay His head up to Gethsemane and the cross, held by love without parallel until He could say It is finished.
As Creator He gave Eve to Adam as helpmeet and formed marriage as His own sacred institution in Eden, bestowing on man His two great gifts of woman as helpmeet and the Sabbath as day of rest. The same Creator commenced His public ministry by His presence at the marriage festival, thereby giving decided sanction to marriage again and witnessing that He will not refuse His presence on marriage occasions when marriage is kept pure and undefiled in purity and holiness, truth and righteousness. Though unrecognized by the world, He raises fallen human beings from spiritual death, quickening them with His own life and filling their hearts with hope and joy. Knowing Him gives strength to overcome, with the Spirit helping human weakness even as the flesh wars against the Spirit, and His matchless love and special interest in humanity invites people to come to Him for happiness and rest.
Receiving Him as Children
John the Baptist bore witness of Him as the One through whom men may become sons and daughters of God, that men might believe. Though the Maker of the world came into the world He had made, the world did not recognize or know Him. In contrast to that failure, those who receive Him as personal Saviour and Redeemer and believe on His name are given power and right to become sons and daughters and children of God, with the promise of eternal life. That divine sonship cannot be gained by self-effort, by family descent, or by human will, for grace and godliness are not inherited from a parent, and the power comes from Christ who gave His life to save humanity from Satan's yoke. His coming declared the truth by which people may be sanctified, and He revealed the Father's glory full of grace and truth as the Word become flesh.
To as many as receive Him He gives power to become sons of God, born not of blood nor of flesh nor of man but of God. He imparts the divine nature, so that by His Spirit energizing those who seek Him with the whole heart they partake of that nature, overcome the assaults of Satan, escape the corruption in the world through lust, and are able to be saved to the uttermost in coming to God by Him. Looking to Jesus they reflect His purity and goodness in pleasantness, obedience, happiness, love, justice and mercy that draws others to the Saviour. Though tempted in all points as men are, He remained without sin, overcame by prayer and strong supplication, perfected in human nature a character after the divine similitude, and by perfect obedience procured redemption for all who will be obedient, putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself on the cross of Calvary.
True Christians are distinguished from the world that knew Him not by receiving Him, becoming sons of God, carrying out His principles, and representing Him by compassionate tenderness for one another. Increasing faith in Christ produces sincere sanctified love for the saints, unity in Christian fellowship, and closer knitting of heart to heart in affection as members of Christ's body, of His flesh and of His bones. They behold and reveal His glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth, having received of His fullness grace for grace, while mere profession without an abiding Christ and without unity and love fails to reveal that light in clear distinct rays. Those who accept Jesus are brought into close relationship with God and called the sons of God through the Father's love, but the world does not know them because it did not know Him, so receiving Christ must continue day by day by confessing Him as personal Saviour. Steadfastness in truth and growth in grace may lead even a spouse and children to receive Christ.
All who receive Him, He will receive in return, so no one need be discouraged but may come to the Saviour bringing nothing in hand and clinging only to His cross by deciding now to stand on the Lord's side. He is truly set forth not by human art, which can never picture Christ the image of the Father nor represent God or heaven, but in the words of Scripture. Though in human form He spoke with the authority of true greatness by commission from the Excellent Glory, calling for submissive attention, and God summons the world to listen to Him and receive every word He utters as law and life, for receiving His word is receiving Christ the revelation of God and the manifestation of His character, law, love and life, the only foundation for a lasting character. Studying this gives knowledge of God the Creator and of Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God, and that knowledge is true education that ennobles the intellect and expands the mind, so students should have their minds drawn to this Word and feed upon the teaching of Christ.
Following the Rejected Lord
The failure of the world to know Christ explains why it does not know, recognize or favor His followers, for those chosen out of the world belong to Him, bear His character and share His lot in being unknown by it. His self-sacrificing life set Him apart from those who pursued applause, riches and worldly honor, and because He would not join them they hated Him, so His followers should not expect recognition or favor and must value God's approval above the world's and remain loyal to His commandments rather than conforming to the world's beliefs, habits and customs, which are no safe standard of faith. They are not to join the world in its customs but to follow Christ, confess Him day by day as personal Saviour, and seek to draw others away from the world, for those who accept Jesus are brought into close relationship with God and called sons of God through the Father's love. Being unknown and unreceived is His experience in saving work, so laborers for souls have no stronger reason for discouragement than He had, and because He did not fail nor become discouraged they must awaken to earnest activity and work by faith.
Not knowing Him means having no appreciation of Him, showing Him disrespect, rejecting His companionship and walking with God's enemy, failing to accept Him as personal Saviour, to center hope of eternal life in Him and to give Him the heart's best and holiest affections. Instead of gathering with Him such a one scatters abroad and risks eternal loss while the heavenly universe watches, a state that sinks souls to depths of degradation and remains true of many professed Christians who do not know God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. The same history of not recognizing and receiving Him at His first coming is being repeated today and will be repeated again and again before He comes in the clouds of heaven, when Satan's deceptions rest upon earth-dwellers and Satan claims to be Christ to deceive all except those steadfast and true to God. Neglecting to obey the Word can blind spiritual sight so that God's people do not discern Jesus working through the Holy Spirit and His servants, and those who reject truth can be deceived into treating humanity as God and accepting a counterfeit instead of Christ.
The same spirit that rejected Christ continues when people fail to recognize God's light and reject His message and messengers. It is shown when those claiming to be God's children reject truth sent from heaven because it does not coincide with errors they have received, as priests and rulers too proud and self-righteous to admit their ideas were incorrect and needed remodeling and to consent that they needed repentance and conversion counted Him an imposter because He did not come to suit their opinions and His teachings were not in harmony with their own, yet refusal to see the light does not extinguish it. Sin blinded hearts and shut them against the light and power before them so they saw it not and could not receive it, and that same blindness by sin can keep God's people now from discerning the work of God as the message rises to go with power. Rejecting the Holy Spirit's reproof of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, even when that reproof comes through human agents God uses, leaves the soul surrounded in darkness as the Jews who refused the light sent through God's beloved Son were left. Light can shine in darkness without being understood, and those who see the light yet refuse to walk in it keep their sin and stand condemned for choosing darkness rather than light. The Jews had light that He was the Messiah, but because He came in humiliation only a few accepted Him, and that same rejection happens when people see that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is true yet refuse to keep it because good and great men do not keep it and they will go with the crowd.
The verse is to be studied whenever fresh manifestations of His rich grace melt and subdue the heart, because it reveals believers as the purchase of His blood and the objects of His tenderest care and affection. Though He came to His own and His own did not receive Him, as many as receive Him and believe on His name are given power to become sons of God, and increasing faith in Him produces sincere sanctified love for the saints, unity in Christian fellowship and closer knitting of heart to heart as members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. Contemplating His unrecognized, unhonored life and mission brings cheer and blessing, for He came to show the way to the haven of eternal rest. His self-sacrificing life in the world He made, having no place to lay His head, is a pattern of humility and self-denial for those engaged in saving souls. Though the world belonged to Him because He made it, when He came to work out redemption He was met with ingratitude and abuse, toiling for degraded sinners in poverty and self-denial with unswerving devotion to the Father's will and a love without parallel up to His humiliation and the soul-agony of Gethsemane that forced great drops of blood from His pores until He could say it is finished, refusing to grow weary or return to heaven discouraged, so that men now reap the fruits of that infinite self-sacrifice, a fact that condemns ignoble sloth, careless indifference and wicked selfishness when labor and means are wanted to aid Him in the salvation of souls.
That same rejection continues, so crimes of cruelty, monstrous wickedness and iniquity of every stripe in cities and towns should cause no surprise, human nature unsanctified by faith in Jesus Christ can be given no confidence or trust, and love of the world brings no peace. He was in the world as the Life and Light of the world, the divine personification of the Infinite God, yet the world did not know Him and would not receive and confess Him but rejected and crucified Him, choosing Barabbas instead, while in contrast those who know Him have Him as precious and risen Saviour. His presence among the Jewish nation brought its most solemn test, with the light of God's truth shining through His words and works, making those who reject truth responsible for refusing the life He offers.