In all His dealings in grace, the great purpose of God is to bring us into fellowship with Himself. “Truly our fellowship is with the Father.” Thus we have the full knowledge of God, as far as it can be known, in full communion with Himself. This knowledge and communion is not in the way of creation, that is, not merely as being His creatures, but it is in “union.” We are made partakers of the Holy Spirit that there may be power; “we dwell in Him and He in us.” There cannot be anything more intimate.
Knowledge or science has nothing to do with this, for if it be the human mind working in the things of God, it is only a “high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God.” Babes in Christ have possession of these things; they do not have to seek for them, for they are in possession of them, though, of course, they have to grow in acquaintance with them. Mere knowledge puffs up, but being brought low, the Spirit of God can act upon the soul and give knowledge in communion with God.
The Epistle of John
Although the Epistle of John is very abstract, yet it is abstract about things that the very feeblest saint knows in Christ. God is brought down to our nature, for God can come down to us in our weakness, in Christ. John speaks of the nature of God Himself. The purpose and object of God is to bring us into full fellowship with Himself. There are three things I would here notice:
First, there is the work of God by which we can stand in His presence perfectly free from any question of sin, so that we can enjoy all that God is.
Second, there is justification by faith and acceptance in the Beloved—the perfect cleansing of the conscience, knowing we are accepted so as to be able to be before Him in perfect peace.
Third, there is the new birth. There must be a new nature capable of affections towards God. An orphan, who never knew a father, has the affections of a child and is capable of loving a father and is often very unhappy because he has no object towards whom those affections would naturally flow. So the capacity to love God is that which we get by being partakers of the divine nature. The Holy Spirit gives us competency to enjoy these things. We have an unction from the Holy One enabling us to enjoy what God has given to us.
Vessels of His Fullness
Remember, we received life in the humblest and simplest way. He who came into the world to save sinners, He has made us vessels of His fullness. Thus we have fellowship with the Father and with the Son, and we display it. “Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” The effect is that we have the Father and the Son, and we lack nothing. I have the Father and the Son. I may have more to learn. If a man is on the ocean, there may be a great deal he has to discover of it, but he has not to get there; he is there. So I am in the truth. I have got a great deal to learn, but I am in the Father and the Son, and I am in the truth. I do not want to seek it if I am in it. I have the very eternal God in whom I dwell — I have come to the Father.
When there is a consciousness of this, oh, what comfort! what peace! This not only guards us from evils without, but it gives spiritual rest within. “These things write we unto you that your joy may be full.” This is the place where God brings the saint when there is humbleness. And if there is not humbleness, we shall slip. When we lose the sense of God’s presence (I say the sense of it, because we are always in His presence in truth), we are at the point to sin. My natural character or flesh will show itself if I am out of His presence. There is such a thing as the saint’s dwelling in the conscious presence of God without fear. If there is anything between me and God, my conscience will be at work, but when the Spirit is not grieved, the soul is in the presence of God for joy — learning holiness, it is true, but in joy, because occupied in communion instead of in detection, and that is a great thing. There is such a thing as being in His presence without the conscience having to be exercised and in perfect joy. “My peace I give unto you.” This was full peace of heart with God. Christ was divinely perfect — all His affections were always in tune with God. Now, through the grace and power of God, we may be brought to that. Christ having been revealed to the soul, the world is cast out, and Christ is everything, and there is perfect joy. This is often what our experience is after conversion, but afterwards the love to Christ grows less fervent — the world creeps in little by little, and we have less joy.
The Christian Position
There are three things in these verses of 1 John 1 which characterize a Christian.
First, he is in the light as God is in the light. Now God had said to Israel, “I will dwell in the thick darkness,” and at Sinai He told them to keep off. There was a great deal of good there, but He was in His pavilion of darkness, not seen. God acted towards Israel, but did not show Himself. Now the veil is rent from top to bottom, and all is light. God is now manifestly revealed, and He that comes in through the rent veil stands in the light of God’s holiness, perfect purity in itself. The light shows everything that is not pure.
Second, there is “fellowship one with another.” We are there together, and all have fellowship by the same Holy Spirit dwelling in all.
Third, we can be there because “the blood of Jesus Christ . . . cleanseth us from all sin.” The more thoroughly we are in the light, the more it shows that there is no spot on us through that blood. This could not be said of a Jew in the Old Testament, but now the righteousness of God is set forth, and we are brought into the light as He is in the light. This gives us joy.
If we are true of heart, we shall be glad of the light which detects any darkness in us. “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” We do not want to escape from the light, but to be searched by it — not with a pretension that we have no sin, but with the consciousness that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, for the effect of being in the light is that we confess our sins. There are two things here, the confession and the love.
The Link of Fellowship
The power of the affections of the new nature forms a link of fellowship with God, and only as we keep in the light shall we know the practical enjoyment of it. We must be in the light that evil thoughts may be shut out, so that we may have fellowship with God. In many things, in our relationship with one another or with the world, self comes in and is not judged by us. There is a practical consciousness in the Christian that he cannot go on without God, so he judges, waits and confesses, trusting in God, and thus his heart is kept calm and in peace.
There are two important things: the manifestation of the eternal life which has been manifested to us, and, second, we are partakers of it —we have fellowship with the Father and the Son. He has communicated to us that nature so that we can delight in His fellowship.
The Lord give us to keep ourselves in the love of God — in His presence, in the light, detecting everything that is not of Him, judging it, and thus to be in the enjoyment of His love.
The Girdle of Truth, 1:232, adapted