“T. A. A.” Your difficulty as to the word “our,” in 1 John 4:17,17Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17) will be at once removed by the correct reading in the margin “Herein is love made perfect with us.” God has perfected His love toward us by introducing us into a position of association with His risen and glorified Son. This assuredly is the perfection of love. It is not merely that we are forgiven and saved from the eternal consequences of our sin and guilt, but we are actually identified with a risen Christ, at the right hand of God, so that the inspired apostle can say, “As He is, so are we in this world.” Marvelous grace! It is not possible for love, even the love of God, to go beyond this; and hence it is said, “Herein is love perfected with us.” If you will take from the ninth to the eighteenth verse, you will find four distinct results of the love of God, four distinct things which that love bestows upon us; namely, life, peace, power, and boldness.
1. Life. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” (v. 9.) There is no life but in Jesus. “In Him was life.” “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” All outside of Him is death. Men talk of seeing life, and enjoying life; but it is all a fallacy. There is no life to be seen or enjoyed but in Christ. As some one has truly said, “The very moment a man begins to live, he begins to die.” Such is man's natural condition. The seeds of death are in his very nature, and at his birth these seeds begin to germinate, so that in living he is dying. Hence our Lord said to a master in Israel, “You must be born again;” you must get a new, an eternal life; and this life was in the Son. But ere the life could flow forth to us, the Son had to die; for we could only get life through death.
2. But then there are many who have life that have not peace. They are quickened by the word, the voice of Jesus; but their consciences have not been set at liberty they feel themselves tied and bound by the cord of their sins they do not know what the cross of Christ has accomplished for them. Such persons need to ponder the tenth verse of our chapter. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Thins the love of God meets me at each point with the very thing I want. It meets me with life when dead; and it meets me with propitiation when exercised and anxious, and gives my soul peace. I find that God so loved me, even when I was an enemy, as to send His Son to atone for and put away all my sins. This sets me free, and nothing else can. It is of the utmost importance that quickened souls should be led to see and understand the true ground of rest for the conscience, should be led to rest and rejoice in the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ, and in that alone. I am not to rest in the fact of my conversion, in the circumstances thereof, the feelings attendant thereon, or the experiences connected therewith. It must be the blood, and the blood alone.
3. But not only do we want life and peace, we want power also, and this we have as the fruit of the love of God.
Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.” (v. 13.) The new nature in the believer is dependent upon the Holy Ghost for power. Very many Christians fail to recognize the distinction between the new nature in the believer and the Holy Ghost. Eph. 3:1616That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; (Ephesians 3:16) is conclusive on the point. “Strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.” Here we have the two things. “The inner man” is the new nature which the Holy Spirit strengthens. He surely does not strengthen the old nature. No; He strengthens the new to subjugate the old. I have no power but by the Holy Ghost. I can neither think, feel, experience, speak, or act aright but by the Holy Ghost.
4. Finally, we have boldness in the Day of Judgment. “Herein is love perfected with us, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is so are we in this world.” Here we reach the very loftiest point to which the love of God could conduct us. I read, that “for every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” But so completely am I taken off this ground by union and identification with a risen and ascended Saviour who met death and judgment on my behalf, so entirely am I taken off the ground on which, as a man in nature, I once stood exposed to judgment for every idle word, that I actually have boldness in the day of judgment, “because its He is so are we.” Is there any judgment for Him? Surely not. He met it all. Death and judgment, are behind Him. Well, as He is so are we. This is the perfection of love. May I then speak idle words? Far be the thought. “Whosoever is born of God Both not commit sin.” The very nature which has been communicated to me is incapable of sinning; and although my old nature is as bad as ever, and ready to speak idle words, if not mortified, yet am I called and privileged to walk ever in the power of the new nature, which cannot sin, because it is born of God. I do not refrain from idle words because I am afraid of the Day of Judgment, but because I possess a nature which cannot speak idle words; and if my old nature betrays me into an idle word, I judge it, because I am not to come into judgment.