No. 6.
1 John 1.
WHEN a man is taken out of nature’s misery and nakedness, by the power of Divine grace, he is brought to do with God, he is called to fellowship with the Father and the Son. Love will always be true to its object, and the saint will think little of any blessing without the person of Jesus. We have everything in Him. There it is I see the exceeding grace of God in manifestation, not only giving blessing, but giving His beloved Son, and so much in Him, that if I have Jesus I have all. “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” This is not peculiar to the advanced saint, but every saint is privileged with this high calling, and he ought to know it. This, then, is what God has called us to, not merely pardon and peace, but to fellowship with His Son; and in the same chapter we find that He is “made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (1 Cor. 1)
I would say, in passing, that there are two things we need in order to get practically into these things, ―the Word and the Spirit. The Word is the lamp, and the Spirit is the power. We get the power in faith and prayer, the light in reading. If you read much, you will get light and little power; if you pray much, without reading, you will get power and little light; but God has put both together, and we should not separate them. If any are so made up in doctrine as to say, I am so one with Christ that I do not feel that I need to pray for more power of the Spirit, they are under a great mistake. We are not to pray for the Spirit as something we have not, but to wait on Him for power―for the supply of what we have in union with the Son.
To return to the subject of fellowship, what we are called to is partnership with Christ. He has made our sins His, and has given us Himself and all that He has―all belong to the believer, become his property, for he is in partnership with Christ. The believer sometimes is very weak, not strong enough to say that all things are his, and appropriate them; but this will ever be the language of faith. To lay one’s hand on everything Christ has purchased, nay, even on Christ Himself, and say “He is mine,” what else do we want? This is the way to view our blessings as in Christ; bat we are so selfish, so apt to look at the blessing, instead of looking at Him who blesses; but let us look more to Him, touch Him with the hand of faith, for we never touch Jesus without getting blessing. It is God’s mind, His will, that His own dear children should be in the consciousness of this fellowship, that they should know the wonderful treasure that is given them in Jesus, and that is the reason He has manifested Himself. Faith says, I know the Father loves me, and I go and serve Him. Dear brethren, can you gather up a little of what this fellowship is; namely, the happy consciousness in the soul that Jesus is ours? God gave the Church to Jesus, and Jesus to the Church; there is the blessedness, and all we want is to know more and more of it.
Nominal profession had come in when this epistle was written. God had brought in fellowship, and the devil had taught some to have fellowship on their lips, while their hearts were in darkness; and the Spirit of God directed the Apostle to write, to clear away the mist, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.” (Ver. 6.) God says so. “God is light;” and if we walk in the light we prove the cleansing power of the blood. (Ver. 7.) There are many uses of the blood; the remission of sins is through the blood―life through the blood―but here it is its cleansing power, and it is only as we are in fellowship that we prove this. I do believe that if a man is really converted, it is his privilege to see that his sins are forever buried in the sepulcher of Jesus; always to know this, because it depends on God’s testimony to the value of the Lord’s death, not on fellowship. He may know it if not in fellowship, but then sin and corruption have power over him; while in fellowship he has power over it-he is one with the Father and the Son. Do not start back and say, Is it possible that a person can be in a state in which there is no conscience of sin? Yes, it is the state in which all ought to be; having no conscience of sin, though consciousness of sin. A carnal unregenerate man can do nothing but sin; every thought, word, and act, are sin; but the conscience of a believer may be blessedly clean through the blood of Christ, though the moment you look at self you are conscious of indwelling sin. If you say, I have not experienced the purged conscience, we answer, God has provided for it in the shed blood of His beloved Son, and faith in God’s thoughts concerning that blood will enable you to realize this wondrous blessing. Seek and ye shall find. (Heb. 10:22For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. (Hebrews 10:2).)
I would not for a moment direct any one to look into himself who is walking in fellowship; but if not, look and see what temper, what lust, what worldliness, what Babylonish garment hinders fellowship, and put it away.
If we confess our sins, God is just to forgive and faithful to cleanse. (vs. 9.) The great mystery of the gospel is, how God can be just, and yet forgive sin. He is just in forgiving, for the sin was laid on Christ, and judged on Him.
The Apostle says in the first chapter, “These things write we unto you that your joy may be full;” but in the second chapter, “These things write I unto you that ye sin not.” It is impossible to be in communion and in sin. Willfulness is sin. Only follow self-will, and that is sin. All unrighteousness is sin. It is the teaching of the great Liar that you can have fellowship with God, and sin too; but God’s object is to raise us above it, and you never can be in fellowship but when you are above sin. When sin comes in, what are we to do? To lie down helpless and hopeless and say. “Where is the blessedness I knew?” All my fellowship is gone! No. Blessed be God He has made provision, not only to bring us into fellowship, but to restore it when lost. It is the desire of God’s heart that we should be in fellowship with Him; sin interrupts it, and shall we hang down our heads in despair? No. “We have an Advocate with the Father.” When any of us sin, Satan stands ready to accuse us, to tell God of it, and to desire that He will punish us. What then is our consolation? “We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” This word righteous shows His fitness, that His advocacy is not hindered by anything, that He is qualified for the office. Satan cannot say that He failed in one point, and he watched Him most narrowly; but He stood immovably, and now He is our Advocate. But when Satan accuses, how can our Advocate benefit us? He cannot deny my sin. He cannot palliate it. He cannot draw a veil over it. He cannot make light of it. What then is to be done? Well, “He is the propitiation for our sins.” The advocacy of the blessed Jesus is connected with this propitiation, for there must be something more than advocacy, there must be blood. There is the Beloved One in the presence of God not to palliate my sin, not to make light of it, but to show the value of His own blood, His own work on the Cross. He can stand and meet every insinuation of the wily serpent against us, and say, “It is true they have transgressed, but there is My blood.” I know nothing to silence Satan but the blood; there is the power of the advocacy, there is the ransom, the price that Jesus has paid. Satan may war against us, but the blood answers all. What is the conclusion we may draw from this? You say, I am out of communion. Well then, come in again; there is the blood before God, it answers Satan, and keeps the way open until the last of God’s little ones is brought in. So if you are out of communion, come in; if pride, temper, anything, I do not care how horrible, has hindered it, there is the High Priest at God’s right hand, and I say, Come to God; do not suffer yourself to be hindered, do not look at self, but look at God, believe Him, that we have an Advocate with the Father. You say, I am such an unclean creature, I have been rolled by the Devil in the filth of sin, till I am loathsome in the extreme; well, that may be, but look at the blood, and Christ is honored. Come at once, the worst way that Satan can hinder is breaking down confidence in God. Oh, poor unclean ones that have been doing deeds of darkness, look at the provision God has made, confess your sin. It may have been the power of the world leading you to do what you know is wrong, or some evil temper, or lust, but look at the rent veil, the High Priest, the blood, and what is to hinder? It is nothing but an evil heart of unbelief that keeps us from God. Oh, ye backsliders, could you but look up and see what God has done, what provision He has made, meeting us in every way suited to our varied necessities! Oh, consider that Christ crucified is the sin-offering. Days, months, or years may have passed since you tasted this fellowship, but come now; whatever be the amount of your sin, it cannot be greater than God’s estimate of the blood of His dear Son.
May God make us to know more of the cleansing power of the blood, and to live daily in fellowship with Him through its power; to walk above this evil world, its ways, follies, sins, in His presence where our joy is. May we be enabled by faith to continually look up and see Christ at the right hand of God! May He be brought so near, and become so precious, that all else may be easily given up for Him, and that we be strengthened to bear the cross for the “little while,” looking at the eternal weight of glory.
One word more. If, beloved, you have been allowing any evil, look at the blood, and renew your fellowship with God.