Jesus is the witness of the Father to men. He knew the Father. He knew
Him by closest intimacy. He lived with Him. He came down to _tell_ what
He knew. He wanted others to know too. He wanted them to know _even as_
He knew. _Telling_ is the whole of Jesus; telling men of the Father.

His mere presence, His character, His warm sympathy, His practical
helpfulness, His words, His actions, most of all His dying and His
rising, all these were a _telling_, a witnessing, a wooing; telling the
Father's love, telling the damnableness of our sin by giving His very
life blood to get it out of us; so telling us how we might really know
the mother-heart of the Father.



Jesus the Dividing Line.


There are several contrasts between the first three Gospels and John's.
It is very striking to notice one in particular in this connection. One
reading the first three Gospels for the first time is impressed with the
fact of Jesus' _rejection_. This stands out peculiarly and dominantly.
It was the great fact, told most terribly in the death of Jesus. It was
the thing that stood out sharpest in the generation to which Jesus
belonged, the generation for whom these three Gospels were written at
the first.

But John wrote his story for an after-generation, a generation that had
not known the man Jesus by personal touch and observation. And so it was
for all after-generations. And John makes it very clear that Jesus was
rejected, _and_ accepted.