CHRIST is the eternal life, and if we have Christ we have eternal life. “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”
We have also an object for the heart as well as life, as in Galatians 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20), “I live by the faith of the Son of God.” We have the same affections and feelings as Christ — the same delights, because the same nature — however poor and feeble they may be; thus we have fellowship. Divine life is always itself through all modifications of circumstances, it is not affected by them, but walks above them.
We are called to walk not merely according to but in the light; we are brought to the essential holiness and purity of God — not to walk as in law. God was hid in law, did not reveal Himself there. The rent veil introduces us into light as He has revealed Himself in Christ. We are called to the glory in which He is. There is no hiding here of the essential holiness of God, and we must walk in this. The law is the rule of what man ought to be, not what God is: it curses a man who attempts to stand before it.
The light makes manifest everything that we are before God. So Adam in the presence of this light hid himself among the trees. We are fitted for this light by God Himself. He acts for Himself and from Himself. Our fitness is a question of His washing, not of our conduct. Christ washes well; what He does, He does perfectly. Men have a way of talking of great and little sins, but there is no real difference, we need all to be washed to fit us for God. The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin. We are made white as snow. We have thus the conscience clear.
We may try as the prodigal did to be better; and the nearer we get we may become the more anxious. We cling in hope, but are not sure of our reception. He, though a picture of one converted, had not got to God in conscience, though God had got to him; he was hoping for something short of perfect grace; he went to God not knowing what He would think; he knows when he gets there what He does think — he is met by the resources of His own grace. May we all thus know God as He has revealed Himself in grace, have our consciences at peace, and know the ways of God in doing it.
Ver. 9. “If we confess our sins” — not alone in a general way, the flesh as sin, but what the flesh has produced, all the sinful thoughts, words, and actions, as well as weightier trespasses which the sinful nature produces, there is more here than the confession of our sinful nature— “He is faithful and just” (not speaking of mercy) “to forgive us our sins.” There are two points here — we want forgiveness for the heart as well as cleansing for the conscience.
Take the case of a young man and his father — a spendthrift. The father pays his debts, but this does not satisfy the heart, he wants forgiveness. God can’t have sin in His sight, and therefore it says, “cleanseth,” and this cleansing comes according to God Himself by the cleansing of the blood of Christ.
We have a third thing — our daily weakness with all its practical details and results. We fail for want of watchfulness. This does not alter my standing ground or my righteousness. Christ is this, both the one and the other, and He cannot alter. I may alter; and again God cannot excuse a fault or a failure, but He has said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Am I then set under law in failure? No: here the advocacy of Christ comes in. He is first my righteousness, and second the propitiation for my sins. May we then go on in sin that grace may abound? God forbid that we should find pleasure where Christ has found pain, and that we should love what cost Him agony and death. This makes sin infinitely more hateful. Christ makes me feel this as He did to Peter. He looks upon me as He did upon him. He detected the root and dealt with him about the very thing that brought him into sin. Peter had boasted of his love and of the strength of his love, and Jesus detected all and exercised his heart about this in the question, “Lovest thou Me more than these?”
We may have a proud nature, it must be broken down. There is no imputation of the sin; but if I do not judge myself — He will. He exercises the heart about it; because the sin is not imputed. He brings the heart into true contact with light and holiness, and it is well to have the heart thoroughly exercised daily before God.
“Without shedding of blood is no remission,” not sprinkling. There is no other Christ to die. If the putting away of sin is not finished, a finished and perfect work, when is it to be so? The sins are put away forever, there is no more blood to be shed.
And now we have the advocacy of Christ for the daily cleansing of our walk from the defilement we pick up in our contact with the world. We are exercised by the Holy Ghost as to the discovery of what we are, that we may judge ourselves and confess our sins, and “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” so that communion may be restored. But there is no other atonement, we have only the washing of the feet. “Ye are clean every whit.” “He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet.” Thus we have peace and fellowship. Christ has forever sat down, and is now the propitiation of our sins. May our hearts know this! J. N. D.