In his first epistle, John finds conclusive proof of the love which God has "toward us" in the fact that He "sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him;" and he defines the purpose of the Saviour's coming in these significant words, "to be the propitiation for our sins." The advent of the Messiah as the Son of God had long been anticipated by the Hebrew race. That there would come one who should be Redeemer and Saviour was their firm conviction, and the longing for his appearance finds expression in many passages of the Old Testament. Malachi records the word of God to this purpose: "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me." And the character of the work he should perform is set forth by the prophet in beautiful metaphor: as a refiner and purifier of silver, as a refiner's fire, as a fuller's soap, would he touch and heal mankind. Such was the message which the last prophet of the Old Testament received as to the character and function of the often promised and long awaited Messiah.
How unlike the anticipated coming of the kingdom and of "the King in his glory" was the advent of the gentle Jesus! Born in a stable, and cradled in a rough manger; carried in haste by his parents into Egypt to save him from Herod's wicked plan; reared in the humble circumstances of a carpenter's family in a small town set in a basin of the Galilean hills; and yet, despite all these lowly beginnings, he became the most important personage who has ever lived on earth. Why? Because he knew more about God than any other; and he more completely envisaged the utter unreality of matter, of every claim of evil. He knew its innate falsity and, through his knowledge of reality, destroyed its pretensions.
Without doubt, Jesus' unique spiritual experience was due both to the unusual circumstances surrounding his birth and to the unfolding concept of God which came to him through the years. Was he not sent of God? The centuries of struggle on the part of the children of Israel to gain a clearer concept of God, combined with their yearning for a Messiah, resulted in a state of exaltation among that spiritually endowed people which enabled them to gain a purified vision of Deity. Progressively they knew Him as He is. In the fullness of time, because of this unremitting longing, appeared Mary, whose concept of God as Father, as Life, the source of all existence, was so pure that she was blessed above all women in the priceless privilege of virgin motherhood. Jesus was, indeed, the "only begotten Son" because none other has attained to Mary's supremely purified concept of God as the Father of all. Accordingly the infant Jesus, destined to become Saviour and Way-shower for all mankind, entered upon his human experience under conditions unprecedented and unparalleled in the annals of the human race. His was a unique advantage of birth, a circumstance which enabled him to perform that service for mortals of which they were, and still are, most in need.
