The Spirit was given, breathed out, by Jesus risen (John 20). The Holy Spirit then proceeded from Him, and that way became the Spirit. But will it be thought that He was not “the Spirit” in the Godhead before? Never, by a saint. And so the Son. He was born of the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, and so became the Son of God; but, in like manner, shall that effect the thought that He was “the Son” in the Godhead before?
Look again at John’s First Epistle. There he addresses “fathers,” “young men” and “little children” (Chapter 2). And he distinguishes them:
The “fathers” are they who “have known Him that is from the beginning.” They abide in “the doctrine of Christ,” having “both the Father and the Son.” The unction is powerful in them, if I may so express it. They have listened, as it were, with deep attention of soul, to the declaration of the Father by the Son (John 1:1818No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (John 1:18)). Having seen the Son, they had seen the Father (John 14:7-117If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. 8Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? 10Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. (John 14:7‑11)). They keep the words of the Son, and of the Father (John 14:21-2321He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. 22Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 23Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:21‑23)). They know that the Son is in the Father, they in the Son, and the Son in them, they are not orphans (John 14:18-2018I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 19Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. 20At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:18‑20)).
The “young men” are they who “have overcome the wicked one,” that wicked one who animates the world with the denial of the mystery of the Christ (1 John 4:1-61Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 4Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 5They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 6We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:1‑6)). But they are not in the full settled power of that mystery, as the “fathers” are, and they need exhortation; so that the Apostle goes on to warn them against all that belongs to the world, as they had already stood in victory over that spirit in it which was gainsaying Christ.
The “little children” are they who “have known the Father.” But they are only “little children,” and need warning, teaching and exhorting. Their knowledge of the Father was somewhat immature; not so connected with the knowledge of the Son, of “Him that is from the beginning,” as was that of the “fathers.”
He, therefore, warns them of antichrists, describing them as set against “the truth,” or “the doctrine of Christ.” He teaches them that “whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father;” that if the anointing they have received abide in them, they will surely abide in the Son and in the Father; and that the house of God was of such a character as that none who savored not of such anointing could remain there. He reminds them that the promise which the Son has promised is eternal life. And, finally, he exhorts them so to abide in what the “unction” teaches, that they may not be ashamed in the day of the Son’s appearing.
It is, therefore, all about the person of the Son, or “the doctrine of Christ,” that this distinguishing scripture deals. It is their attainment in that truth, their relationship to it, and not their general Christian character, which distinguishes them as fathers, young men, and little children. These addresses, therefore, hold in jealous view the great object of the whole epistle; and that is, the Son of God. For the mention of the Son of God pervades it all from beginning to end. Thus: It is the blood of the Son that cleanses. It is with the Father we have an Advocate; which intimates the Advocate to be the Son. It is in the Son the “unction” causes us to abide. It is the Son who has been manifested to destroy the works of the devil. It is in the name of the Son we are commanded to believe. It is the Son who has been sent to manifest what love is. It is the Son, faith in whom gives victory over the world. It is the Son about whom God’s record or testimony is. It is the Son in whom we have life. It is the Son who is come to give us an understanding. It is the Son in whom we are. It is the Son who is the true God, and eternal life.
All this is declared to us in this epistle about the Son of God; and thus it is the Son who is the great object through the whole of it; and the fathers, the young men, and the little children, are distinguished by the Apostle because of their relation to that object, I believe, because of the measure of their souls’ apprehension of it. All is; in this way, divinely and preciously consistent.
And in this same epistle, John speaks much of love and of righteousness, as necessary parts or witnesses of our birth of God. But, in the midst of such teaching, He speaks of right or wrong confession of Christ. Does he, I ask, treat the former as living and practical matter, and the latter as speculative? He gives no warrant to any one thus to distinguish them. Not at all. All are treated as being equally of one character, and he lets us know that the exercise of love and the practice of righteousness would not complete the witness of a soul being born of God, without the knowledge of the Son.
Had the opened eye of Isaiah tracked the path of Jesus through the cities and villages of His native land, how must he have been kept in continual adoration! He had been taken into a vision of His glory. He had seen the throne, high and lifted up, His train filling the temple, the winged seraphim veiling their faces as they owned in Jesus the Godhead glory. Isaiah “saw His glory, and spake of Him” (Isa. 6; John 12). And it is the like sight, by faith, which we need—the faith of the Son, the faith of Jesus, the faith of His name, the apprehension of His person, the sense of the glory which lay behind a thicker veil than a seraph’s wing, the covering of the lowly and earth-rejected Galilean.
And let me, in closing, remember what the Lord says about giving the household their meat in due season (Matt. 24; Luke 12). We must be careful not to corrupt that meat. “Feed the church of God, which He has purchased with His own blood,” says one Apostle. “Feed the flock of God which is among you,” says another. And the church of God or the flock of God is to increase with “the increase of God.” Wondrous language!
Let us watch, beloved, against the attempt of the enemy to corrupt the meat of the household. The unfoldings of John about the Son of God, and of Paul about the church of God, are meat in due season now; and we are not to attemper the food, stored up of God for His saints, to man’s taste or reasonings. The manna is to be gathered as it comes from heaven, and brought home to feed the traveling camp with angels’ food.
(Continued from page 194.)