There are many exceedingly beautiful points in this passage, but I will only touch on four of them. There is little of ourselves here; all is about God—what He is and what He does.
By nature, neither you nor I have any confidence in God. It was want of confidence in God that led Eve to parley with Satan. The moment there is any parley with the devil, he gets bolder. All the family of Eve have got their father's and mother's likeness stamped in their hearts—lack of confidence in God. And that is where the gospel comes in. What does it open up to us? I know a poet has written of "Paradise Regained," but it is false. The gospel opens up to us God's paradise, not man's. He displays what He is in Himself, in the life and ways of His Son. What begets confidence in our hearts is this—the discovery of what is in God's heart.
In this epistle God does not say He loves us; He proves it. You might slight the love of God, you may scorn it, you may trample it underfoot, but you cannot deny it; God is love!
Whence comes love? from the heart of man? No! from the heart of God. Is there any true, genuine love in your heart to any of God's people? It comes from God. If there be love in your heart to any of God's people, it will come out. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." Chap. 3:14. Not because we say we are converted, but because we love. We cannot know God, and be born of Him, without these blessed characteristics coming out in us. Can you say you love? Then I will tell you something better—you are a child of the Father. Is there anything better in this world than to know God? He is revealed in the Person and life of His Son. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." John 17:33And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3). "He that loveth not, knoweth not God." You cannot get in contact with Him without loving Him. It is the first mark of a converted soul.
Look how the Apostle, in this passage, unfolds four things. In the 9th verse, there is the love of God manifested in sending His Son that we might live through Him. You cannot say God does not love you; you dare not say it. You ask, Why? I answer, Because you are part of the world.
1. LIFE
In the 9th verse there is something God wants you to get which you have not got - life; and in the 10th verse He wants you to get rid of something which you have got - sins. Had I written this, I am sure I should have put the 10th verse before the 9th; that is, put the question of my sins first. But no, there is a deeper thing, the fact that I have not life—eternal life. "In Him was life." No one else had life; life was found alone in Jesus.
What is the state that Scripture describes as true of us? In death! "dead in trespasses and sins." I grant you, you have natural life; but you cannot be sure of it for twenty-four hours. I press this, that you have an eternal existence. You will last as long as God lasts; but that is not eternal life. Eternal life is being with Christ—knowing Him—not merely eternal existence.
Eternal life is association with Christ. What does the gospel present? There is a dead man, and God sends His Son to give him life. He might have left us alone. What an awful thing—to be left alone! But, blessed be His name, He brought in a remedy. "The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world." What we have not got, He sends His Son to communicate; we get all through Christ; we are shut up to Christ.
But you ask, What about the law? Could the law give life? No; Christ gives life; having gone into death, He has brought life and incorruptibility to light. The life of Jesus will not do. We hear a great deal about His life, and very beautiful it is to trace His life and ways on earth; but He must die, for "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Hence we get
2. PROPITIATION
Not only does God propose to give me that which will fit me for His presence, but He says, Sinner, you have something about you that will keep you out of My presence. So He sends His Son to be the propitiation for my sins. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us." When did He give Him? When we were sinners. I have got the positive and the negative side in the gospel: the positive in what God gives, the moment you believe, you have it; the negative is, my sins are all taken away. He sent His Son, a propitiation for our sins. Do you believe that? The 9th verse gives us His life; the 10th gives us His death. On the cross Jesus makes propitiation for sin. He was made sin who knew no sin. He was there, pouring out His soul unto death, meeting all God's claims against sin. Look at it; the Son of the very God you have sinned against, has made propitiation for the very sin that would have brought you into eternal damnation. Now He is exalted and gone on high; the veil is rent; He is gone back as man; the work is all done for which He came to die. Atonement has been effected by Christ, accepted by God; and the fruit-peace-is to be enjoyed by the believing sinner.
What about your sins? you may ask. They were borne by Christ. There is the proof of the love of God to me—of the love of Christ—"God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Sin was condemned, and sins were blotted out when Christ made propitiation for sin. "Herein is love." Do you want a greater or a better proof of love? The heart that believes can say, I have now got what I had not, and I have lost what I had; I have got life, and lost my sins.
3. POWER
There is another thing God does (v. 13). He gives us of His Spirit, and that is power. The moment you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you cease to be a lost sinner; your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Look at Eph. 1:1313In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, (Ephesians 1:13): "In whom... after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." In The Acts also: "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word." Chap. 10:44. On whom? On believers. It is the sinner who hears and who believes. He says, I need this salvation. His heart gets plowed up. I would like it, he says; I believe it; and God seals that one with the Holy Ghost. If I bought a flock of sheep at the market, should I drive them home at once? No; I should put a mark on them—my mark—before driving them home. Do you know how God knows His sheep? They have all got the Holy Ghost, and the price He paid for them was the precious blood of Christ. The devil's children have their mark; they are spotted with sin. God's children have a lovely mark.
4. BOLDNESS
All this is the fruit of love—God's perfect love. It is love "toward us" (v. 9), love "in us" (v. 12), love "to us" (v. 16), and love with us (v. 17); and this gives us our fourth point, boldness. We get another "herein" in the 17th verse—"Herein is love with us" (as the margin rightly puts it) "made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment." There are thus four things we get: life, peace, power (by the Holy Spirit), and boldness in the day of judgment. There is no fear in love. God's perfect love casts out all fear, because fear has torment. To paraphrase a common saying, when love comes in at the door, fear goes out at the window.
God's perfect love casts out fear, for "As He is, so are we in this world." Look at these nine monosyllables. Exactly as Christ is, so is the Christian. When he dies? No. When he has attained to a state of perfection? No, "In this world." I know nothing sweeter to the heart, than to see that peerless Man, who was in death, but has gone back to heaven, at the right hand of God; and God says, "As He is, so are we in this world." See Him, the Father's delight from all eternity. How is He? Is He on the other side of death? So are we. Is He where no sin can touch Him? So are we. Is He the Father's delight? So are we. If you believe this, you will have life, peace, power, and boldness in the day of judgment. I shall be at His side in that day. He is the One who took my judgment on the cross.
"Bold shall I stand in that great day,
For who aught to my charge shall lay?"
He has given us His place—"As He is, so are we in this world." The Lord lead us to rest in Himself, and thus to walk in the enjoyment of His love till we see Him face to face.