19. world seeth--beholdeth.
me no more, but ye see--behold.
me--His bodily presence, being all the sight of Him which "the world"
ever had, or was capable of, it "beheld Him no more" after His departure
to the Father; but by the coming of the Spirit, the presence of Christ
was not only continued to His spiritually enlightened disciples, but
rendered far more efficacious and blissful than His bodily presence
had been before the Spirit's coming.
because I live--not "shall live," only when raised from the dead;
for it is His unextinguishable, divine life of which He speaks, in view
of which His death and resurrection were but as shadows passing over
the sun's glorious disk. (Compare
Lu 24:5;
Re 1:18,
"the Living One"). And this grand saying Jesus uttered with death
immediately in view. What a brightness does this throw over the
next clause, "ye shall live also!" "Knowest thou not," said LUTHER to the King of Terrors, "that thou didst devour
the Lord Christ, but wert obliged to give Him back, and wert devoured
of Him? So thou must leave me undevoured because I abide in Him, and
live and suffer for His name's sake. Men may hunt me out of the
world--that I care not for--but I shall not on that account abide in
death. I shall live with my Lord Christ, since I know and believe that
He liveth!" (quoted in STIER).
JFB.
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