The characteristics of John’s Epistles, as we have before remarked, differ from those of Paul. In Paul’s writings we have the subject of righteousness, in those of John we have moral deliverance-new life in Christ. We have not Churches addressed—as Galatia, Colosse, and Ephesians; but individuals in various circumstances, as the “Elect Lady,” “Gaius,” &c. And is it not a great comfort to enter into the thought that God has a personal interest and delight in us? We do not become lost in the “great congregation,” though we have our proper place in that also. But the joy is, that my God has delight in dealing personally with me, my own self, and this thought is established especially in John’s writings.
You will remember our dwelling on the characteristics of John, when we reached verse 19. As in the Gospel, the Lord Jesus had not to excommunicate Judas, but he was forced out by the weight of His presence; so here the House of God is called to intensify her atmosphere in such a way, that those of contrary minds could not stand it, and this is a far higher kind of discipline. We must give heed and listen to both Paul and John, but there is a very marked difference between them. Could the sinner sport before Christ? He could come and welcome, with his sorrow for sin, but never with its defilements. So, beloved, if the House of God were in her true position, we should see this 19th verse in power amongst us. It may be, that we do not constitute the House of God, but still, when we do meet together, we should breathe an atmosphere, so filled with the glories of Christ, that an opposer could not endure it.
In verse 20, a new characteristic is displayed, and this shows us more of the varied glories of the Spirit. When Paul speaks of the Holy Ghost, he calls Him a seal—an earnest. John speaks of Him as an unction. Paul shows the Holy Ghost given me as a seal of my present faith and condition, and as an earnest of future glory. Most beautiful to find the Spirit come to verify what I am, and to ensure what I shall be! Yes, more than that, He comes to make me what I am. In John we have the Holy Ghost as the unction, which forms the soul anew; I am made a new creature! John does not speak of the Holy Ghost as a pledge of the future, but as making me what I am, in His own energy and power forming me a new creature.
There are varied characteristics of the Spirit, just as we see in Christ, the varied glories of David, Solomon, and of the Son of the Father. In Christ we see a constellation of glories, and we must neither confound nor separate them. And when we see the Holy Ghost as earnest, seal, and unction, each one speaks of Him as Divine. John is much in company with the early part of Genesis, he does not look at the dispensations, but speaks of the truth, which the Holy Ghost uses; truth which forms you, as opposed to Satan’s lie, the lie of the third of Genesis; truth which was brought to you by “That eternal life which was with the Father.” We are begotten by the word of truth, in combination with the Spirit of truth. When God visits us by the Holy Ghost the seed of God is sown, making us new creatures. God has then a new object in the soul, and He does look at it. It is not the flesh, but what is of the Spirit which is His object, and He does look at it with delight, and deals with it, to cultivate and enlarge it here and to glorify it hereafter.
Verse 21. —Not that you do not know these things already; he speaks because you do know them, and because you know that there is no alliance between truth and lies.
Verse 22. —John then goes on to show that the spirit of Antichrist is here. Beloved, I would ask you, what it was which was done by the lie of the serpent? Did it not rob Adam of Eden, of Eve, of happiness, and of life? Did it merely rob him of these things? No. It separated him from God. Satan’s lie could not have depraved Adam without separating him from God. It did indeed rob him of all these things, but it also robbed him of God! By faith God is restored to you! It is not only that you have a new nature, but faith sends you back all the way to God. You obtain what Adam never lost, you receive blessing far greater than his; you get Jesus as the Christ; the Father and the Son. Truth recovers you from the effects of the lie of the serpent, and gives you back your God. Adam lost the Lord God, in the garden, and in his creation glory; he ought to have walked uprightly, but he lost Him. Now you have regained Him; and that is deeper, richer glory than ever Adam had in Eden. You have found that the living God can become Jesus of Nazareth. You have seen Divine glory displayed in the Father and Son, and you have an unction from the Holy One.
Well may we stand before such a Gospel and say (as one did), “It is the greatest wonder outside God Himself!” The hosts of angels who kept their first estate—the creation of the earth and heavens-take what you please, there is nothing like the cross of Christ. There is nothing to match with the incarnation leading to the crucifixion. Yes, beloved, in one blessed person He traveled along the road; in that same person He suffered, rose, ascended up to the right hand of God. Adam did not know this. What theater was there whereon such grace might be displayed? It is your sin that has formed the platform for displaying the full glory of God. Dark background-do you say? Yes, well, you surely say it—a background of apostasy, but a brilliant foreground, bright with the full glory of God. In this light you stand, and he who denies it is Antichrist.
Verse 24. —Now this is pressed upon you, that you should not take Adam’s course, but let the word abide in you. Do not let it slip. “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” was a simple word, but Adam let it slip; it did not abide in him. Do you abide in it? Go back to God, and abide in the mysterious glory of the Father and the Son! Oh! how He has undone the mischief! He has taken meat from the eater, and from the strong sweetness. How magnificently has the truth outdone the lie! The lie never deprived me of all I possess now; the truth has taken occasion by the lie, to bring meat out of the eater.
“Let that, therefore, abide with you which ye have heard from the beginning;” that is, from the beginning of the gospel. Had Adam ever such promises? No; he had not indeed. If Adam had walked uprightly, he would have lived a forfeitable, defilable life. The life you possess is neither the one nor the other, but a triumphant, victorious life! In returning you receive more than you had lost-a richer, better life altogether.
Just suppose Adam to have obeyed, what would have been his term of life? As long as his obedience. He obeys today; well, he lives for today. He fails tomorrow, and he dies tomorrow! But you have got eternal life! As Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Verse 25. —John is not an argumentative writer. He does not give long arguments on any given subject. You might take it up, every verse, and study it apart. Not but there is fine moral connection, but you might pause at every verse. In Romans, Paul gives you arguments on righteousness; and in Hebrews on the priesthood, and you have the means of seeing your title without a cloud; but here it is the thoughtful soul, pausing over every step.
Verse 26. — “These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.” The serpent is as ready to seduce as ever. He would seduce you from Christ, and from the unction of the Holy One. You are as much in company with seducers now as in old days; but then, beloved, you have the anointing! (Adam had it not.) The seductions are very subtle, but you have full security.
Paul helped the Church at Corinth to look at its security. John goes to the individual saint and helps him to see his own security. Paul says, I betrothed you as a fair virgin to Christ; beware! I would fain present you chaste. This is ministerial guardianship. With John it is anointed guardianship. The Spirit brings out of the treasures “things new and old.” In all, we see the exquisite multiformity of the mind of Christ.
“And ye need not that any man teach you.” Are you conscious of this glorious personality? We should abide in our God, the loving God, from whom Adam fell. We are not merely recovered from Adam’s depravity, but also from his alienation. Wonderful secrets these! And yet this is not a favorite writing. Ah! the plummet sinks too deep for our souls. We would rather have Romans, or to run through other books; but oh, to cherish those things that shut us up to God. There the anointing secures us, in the very face of all seducers. Paul warns as an ecclesiastic, but John tells you—yourself to let these secrets have their tale in your own souls.
We shall leave the 29th verse as an introduction to the 3rd chap.; and now look at the depravity of the old nature by the light of the new. It is not that the bad Adam nature becomes better; no, that is left to perish, but we make a perfect escape out of it, by receiving from Christ a new nature, which is actually undefilable! And these are the provisions that grace makes ours.