(NOTES OF AN ADDRESS ON 1 John 1:1-5; 2:1,21That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) 3That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. 5This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:1‑5)
1My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1‑2))
OUR attention has been drawn, beloved brethren, to what grace brings us into — the sovereign grace of God — and what it presents for our enjoyment. There is not only receiving and blessing us (the best robe was put on the prodigal), but what we are introduced into. The apostle speaks of what was “from the beginning,” not the same as “in the beginning” in Genesis. There was a beginning in God’s creative power, but what John takes up is another thing — the beginning of a new history, the manifestation of Christ down here, life in the midst of death, a new order of things into which we are introduced. In general, we are more occupied with what we are brought out of than what we are introduced into. But when we are brought out, and when we are recipients of grace, there is that which grace brings us into that we may be happy, and enjoy communion with the Father and the Son. “Our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
We get, in the beginning of this chapter, Christ presented to us objectively; it is heaven brought down to earth. Paul takes us up, and gives us a divine standing before God. But in John it is life, Christ personally. I suppose no one present will have any objection to its being said that Christ was personally the Life, the Eternal Life always with the Father; then, the apostle says, “He was manifested, and we have seen, heard, and touched Him.”
“Whatsoever doth make manifest is light.” The Light was manifested and seen here, the expression of the thing in its entirety, because He was it. Then he goes on, “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” He writes it that persons may be brought into the fellowship of what they had seen and heard.
In Psalms 22 The Lord says, “I will declare Thy name unto My brethren; in the midst of the church I will sing praise unto Thee.” In John 20 He says, “I ascend unto My Father and your Father; and to My God and your God” as though He said, “I will introduce you into the very highest possible blessing into which a soul can be introduced” — “I will declare Thy name unto My brethren.” And the apostle says, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
What a marvelous thing it is! How feebly we have entered into this wonderful blessing which is ours! Suppose all the distance is removed, and we find the One with whom we had questions is in our favor. We are introduced into fellowship with the Father, and that in connection with the Person of Christ. The voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” and this voice was heard. That is what the Father thinks about the Son. The Father, when the Son was on earth, had an object that could perfectly satisfy His heart; and that is the Son. He trod the path on this earth of obedience and dependence. He delighted to be in the pathway of testimony He was set in on the earth, and delighting to do God’s will. We have no other path to walk in. We have the revelation of God’s mind and the Spirit, and He puts us down on this earth to enjoy fellowship with His thoughts. He writes these things that our joy may be full, that is where we are found when we are simple, and the more simple the better. What greater happiness can we have in heaven? What is there to make us unhappy now? Only the allowance of sin.
I read the second chapter. We are introduced into the light, our fellowship is with the Father and the Son, and now, how is it sometimes we are not in the enjoyment of God, we are not happy? Sin has come in. I would say one thing, as there are young ones here, we have to learn, that having been introduced into the light, brought to God, accepted in the Beloved, if sin is allowed, it does not change our relationship with God at all. Our standing and relationship depend on what God is to us in grace. We are in the relationship of children, we have received the Holy Ghost, and this all stands unchanged. Have you sinned? “Yes,” you say, “and being in the light I am not happy.” Sin has come in. What is to be done? Christ cannot die again. Here is the provision of divine love, “These things I write unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin” — there is confession — “we have an Advocate with the Father.” There is that blessed One who is our righteousness, our Advocate with the Father.
It is not to make light of sin. The One who is our Advocate by the Spirit and the Word, brings our consciences into the light to have to do with Him. There is the application of the Word which gives us to see what sin is in God’s sight, how sin reduced Christ to ashes. It is the red heifer (Num. 19); the sorrow produced in our souls. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” This is confession, and confession produced in the Christian is the effect of the advocacy of Christ. It leads to confession, and you never find an individual Christian or a company that has done wrong going on with God, unless there is full confession.
T. H. T.