10. CHILDREN OF GOD AND OF THE DEVIL.
The consequence, strictly speaking, was that all men were incapable
of receiving any divine gift. But the other idea 160also, which we have found among the Gnostics, that the souls of
men come from the upper kingdom, was very widespread. But not all souls. And so
the Gospel of Jn. reveals that deep division, which separates God and the world,
even between those men who are begotten from God (i. 13), and those who are the
children of the devil (viii. 44). It is only another mode of expressing this, when
it is said in iii. 6, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which
is born of the spirit is spirit.” And this sentence would lose all force, if we
were to continue: but that also which is born of the flesh can become spirit and
vice versâ. If it is to have any value, we must complete it thus: that which is
born of the flesh is and remains flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is
and remains spirit. Further it accords entirely with this when in viii. 47 it is
said: “ye hear not” the words of God, “because ye are not of God,” or in viii.
43, “ye cannot hear my word?” or in vi. 65, “No man can come unto me, except it
be given unto him of the Father.” And when he is leaving the earth, Jesus utters
those words in xvii. 9 which may well startle us: “I pray not for the world, but
for those whom thou hast given me.” In fact, if this were the Evangelist’s last
word, he could not be distinguished from a Gnostic; only destined men could come
to know the truth, and redemption would consist merely in enabling these alone to
recognise their heavenly origin and so to achieve their emancipation from the prison
formed by their body.
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