All Things Made in Him

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. JOHN 1:3–4

The second series of Unspoken Sermons contains a group of sermons that are among the most philosophical MacDonald wrote: The Creation in Christ, Life, The Truth, and The Knowing of the Son. In them he tried to say what it means that all things were made through the Son of God, and that in Him was life. These sermons are not easy, and MacDonald knew it. But they open onto a vision of the world, and of the Christian life, that underlies much of his other work.

Life made in Him

The Creation in Christ begins with a question of punctuation in the opening verses of John’s Gospel. MacDonald preferred a reading, found in some of the ancient manuscripts, that places the break differently, so that the verse says: that which was made in Him was life. He did not rest his teaching on this reading alone, but he found in it a picture of what Christ is. The Father, he said, is the source of all being; the Son, from all eternity, answers the Father’s love with a love that gives itself up entirely to the Father’s will. That self-giving, MacDonald believed, is the very life of Christ, and it is the life He came to share with us.

For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. JOHN 5:26

The life of Christ, as MacDonald described it, is this: that He does nothing for His own sake and cares with His whole soul for the will of His Father. And this, he said, is the only life there is for any of us. We were made by the Father, but we come alive as children only when we choose, as the Son chose, to live for the Father’s will. In one of the sermon’s clearest sentences, “To will, not from self, but with the Eternal, is to live.”

The light of men

The life in Christ, John says, was the light of men. MacDonald took this to mean that the life of the Son, lived out on earth in Jesus, became visible, so that men could see what true life is and choose it for themselves. Jesus did not only teach about life; He lived it, and in living it He showed it. MacDonald believed that this is why obedience is the way to understanding. The light is a life, and the only way to see it truly is to begin to live it.

In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. JOHN 1:4–5

The world as God’s speech

In his sermon The Truth, MacDonald turned from life to the created world. He believed that the things God has made are not merely objects for science to measure, though he honoured science. They are God’s speech, His thoughts made visible. The ordered beauty of the world — the flowers, the stars, the seasons, the faces of men and women — is a revelation of the God who made it. Of the world’s order he wrote: “Its so-called laws are the waving of his garments, waving so because he is thinking and loving and walking inside them.” And he believed that only the childlike heart truly sees this. “For things as they are, not as science deals with them, are the revelation of God to his children.”

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. PSALM 19:1

This conviction is the root of everything MacDonald wrote about beauty and imagination, which the next chapter takes up.

Weighing it

There is much in these sermons to be grateful for. MacDonald saw clearly that the Son is the one through whom all things were made, that in Him is the life of the world, that His life is a life of perfect obedience to the Father, and that the created world declares the glory of God. His vision of the Christian life as a sharing in the Son’s own devotion to the Father is rich and true, and close to the Lord’s own words about doing always the things that please the Father.

Two cautions should be added. The first concerns MacDonald’s language about the Son. In The Creation in Christ he wrote that the Father is the greater, and spoke of the Son as deriving His being and power from the Father. He did worship the Son, and he called Him the eternal Son of the eternal Father; and he was aware that all human speech about these things falls short. But the church, guarding the faith against error, has learned to say with care that the Son is begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father, equal to Him in power and glory. Readers should hold MacDonald’s phrasing in the light of that confession, which is the faith of the New Testament.

I and my Father are one. JOHN 10:30

The second concerns his reading of the opening of John’s Gospel. His preferred punctuation has some ancient support, and scholars still discuss it; but the common reading has strong support too, and it would be unwise to build much on the difference. What John clearly says — that all things were made by the Word, and that in Him was life — is enough, and it is glorious.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Read John 1:1–18 slowly. Give thanks that all things were made through Christ, and that in Him is life.

2. MacDonald said that to will with the Eternal is to live. Where are you living from your own will rather than God’s? Bring it to Him.

3. Go outside this week and look at one created thing — a flower, a tree, the sky — and let it speak to you of the God who made it.

4. Read John 5:19–30 and notice how the Son lives in dependence on the Father.

5. Confess the Nicene Creed, and give thanks for the Son who is one with the Father.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, all things were made by You, and in You is life, and Your life is the light of men.

Thank You for living among us the life of perfect love for the Father, and for showing us what it is to live.

Teach me to will not from myself but with You, and to see Your glory in the things You have made.

Eternal Son of the eternal Father, one with Him in glory, I worship You. Amen.