(1 John 5)
" This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus (the) Christ; not by the water only, but by (the) water and (by the) blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is (the) truth."
There is no point in which the blessing of the way of God by faith fails. But then there must be the reality of faith in regard to each distinctive point of the divine testimony. It is not enough that the word of God should not be disbelieved, or that it should remain a matter of consideration on our minds. Its objects presented in Christ must, in simplicity and directness of faith, be received as the objects of faith. It is thus alone that we can "know (in the (ac)knowledge(ment) of Him) what is the exceeding greatness of God's power to usward who believe according to the working of the power of his might, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places." It is in faith the blessing is transferred to our souls, and by which we are made partakers of it; and " it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is (the) truth." We enjoy the power in the blessing of faith, energized by love, for the accomplishment of the ends and thoughts of
God toward us in Christ Jesus.
Such is the wonderful way of grace, inconceivable in the goodness and greatness of love: God takes the manhood into Himself, that through death and resurrection, the manhood, as in us, might partake by faith of God in Christ. And it is in the way of " faith, that it might be by grace;" as it must be if sinners are to be partakers of it. " By man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead," even by Him who is " the resurrection and the life." How can the soul fail to bow in worship at the thought? " The first Adam was a living soul, the last Adam is a quickening spirit." How sad is it when the condescension of God becomes the ground of dishonor with His creatures! The name of the SON OF GOD, therefore, becomes, by the marvelous grace of God, resurrection to me and eternal life, which are in Him and in me, by grace through faith: for " he loved me, and gave himself for me."
Christ, then, the object of all God's thoughts, is presented to us in various characters, with a peculiar power attached to each. He Himself is this peculiar power. To enumerate some that attach more especially to His person: Christ-.-Christ Jesus -Jesus Christ-Jesus the Christ-Son of God-the power of God-the wisdom of God-Lord-in the various power applicable to the use of the word in Scripture. May we think with reverence of these wonders I For there is danger of failing in reverence.
The simplicity of the word that reveals God in the Son, and the blessings that are in Him and by Him, would render explanation unnecessary, except for others, were Christ more simply and directly the object of faith and love. It was given me to make the following observations in a letter to an individual, intended as a communication to a particular assembly:-
" That the righteousness of God is imputed in every separate object of God's appointment believed on. If we believe any one such object and they are as diverse as the objects presented to us by the word of God, being such as we are to receive blessing by=—the believer is accounted righteous, and is the accepted object of God for the blessing and power that God has given in it, or by it. The one case we ordinarily hear of is, that if we believe on Christ, the Son of God, the righteousness of God is imputed to us. We thank God for the clearness this has daily received of late. Now, Christ believed on, contains everything that God has to give in Christ. The case in which the righteousness of God is ordinarily looked on as imputed, is in the remission of sins and the acceptance of the believer in the presence of God. We are not to confine this grace, and the manner of the grace, to this singly. Faith in the resurrection of Christ, by the glory of the Father, is counted for righteousness. By Him we believe in God that raiseth the dead. We are counted righteous unto justification of life. Righteousness is equally imputed unto us in this case as in the former; for it is written, Righteousness shall be imputed unto us, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, who died for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification (Δικαιωσις). Abraham believed God as to the life of his body, though dead, and it was counted to him for righteousness, and God fulfilled His grace in his begetting a son in his old age.
"As to forgiveness, it is applied to us in the sprinkling of our hearts from an evil conscience. Now, the whole circle of things presented to our faith by God, in the several ends of them, stand on the same ground, and the results are offered to the faith of them as of Him. Faith in the Holy Ghost is faith in God, as faith in the Son is faith in God. Faith in the Son, His person and offices, is necessary to enter into the blessings of the Son. Faith in the Holy Ghost, His person and offices, is necessary, if we would enter into the blessings of the Holy Ghost. I mean faith working by love. To fail to possess ourselves of that which we might, which is necessary to our spiritual wellbeing and completion in the way of Christ and the c, is chargeable before God; for all that should be worked out in the way of blessing is lost through the faith not being directed to the object as of God."
So in this place: " This is he that came by water and by blood." (1 John 5) The emphasis is peculiar with which the water and the blood out of the side of Christ is mentioned in John 19:34,3534But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. 35And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. (John 19:34‑35). It is mentioned apparently with a different intent and in relation to the certainty of His death; but here it is taken up on the ground of the doctrine of it, and as it respects the blessing by the water and the blood.
The water is not, I think, the Spirit, as in several other places in Scripture, but the new nature. But this could not be alone-redemption is conjoined with it. The world knoweth it not, but it is our life. It is not fitted to be of the world, nor to live in conjunction with it, but to God, and according to the calling we have received in Christ. It is true that, though having the new nature, the world is our place for a while; but in that nature we overcome the world, being redeemed out of it by the blood. It is redemption out of the world that is here the work of " the blood," and it is the object of our faith. It is not His death as our substitute that is here presented, nor our cleansing, but the overcoming the world as purchased out of it; and this with a new nature (the water out of His side), as fitting us for our new position as strangers and pilgrims in the world, and to be perfected in it. This, however, would not avail were there not such a faith of His person as the very Son: for " who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"
"By weakness and defeat
He won the meed and crown,
Trod all our foes beneath His feet
By being trodden down."
A wondrous way, indeed, of overcoming! " Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
This chapter begins with another declaration as to the faith, which is prior, in the order of the Spirit, to that just noticed. " He that believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God"-Christ the anointed One of God-" anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power." Again: " No man saith Jesus, Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." Thus it is here; but we advance one step farther. It is the essential character of SON that carries all with it both in nature and circumstance; and so heirship of God and eternal life is in the SON. By this He is heir of the world and of all things: and we sons of God and co-heirs in our place in and with Him.
To those who are subject to Christ none of the commandments of God are grievous. " His commandments are not grievous." For if "love is the fulfilling of the law," we also read, in chapter ii. 7 of this epistle, of " an old commandment" that the apostle had written, and "a new commandment," in close alliance with the old, " which (says he) is true in him and in you." How could His commandments be grievous where the love of God is; where its fulfillment is in the identity of the source of its fulfillment P "He that doeth righteousness is righteous, as (καθ-ως after the same manner as) he is righteous." It is “Christ in you;" and, "The life is the light of men." "I have written unto you fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning." He then adds, in address to the " young men," "love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." The love of those only that are begotten of God can be in this kind and in this faith.
This chapter, as I observed, begins with the faith that "Jesus is the Christ," I. e., He that was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power. I must own His place as the Christ, and a description of such as own Him is that " they overcome the world"-the world in its present form, order, objects, desires, obedience, and own Him and His commandments. The victory that overcometh the world is even our faith. But here we advance a step. " Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the SON OF GOD? "
I need present instrumentality and condition of being in order to overcome the world. " The water and the blood" from the side of Christ present this condition and this instrumentality. I overcome in the power of them. I accept them as my power of overcoming; and the consequence is that the world, through the love of God, has lost its hold. I am a partaker of Christ. " This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." " This is he that came by water and by blood:"
"And death by dying slew."
Christ and the world are diametrically opposed. "The prince of this world" is the rival of Christ; and the question is, Who shall rule and reign? This question is answered by the faith, Nothing can now sanctify the world; but (as it is expressed by the prophet) " In the midst of it shall be a tenth, and the holy seed is the substance thereof." These alone are accounted of God, and called above to be with Christ and to come with Him. Ye are "risen with Christ" therefore " set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth."
All the peculiarities of the apostle are markedly in this chapter, and its general abstraction is manifest. But the divine principle of it is evident; as also in the gospel of the same apostle, as practically applied, in chapter 15, to servants.
This chapter relates to the ministry and service of Christ; and the " Father is the husbandman" who prunes the branches. And I cannot but think that the word He spake unto them which made them " clean" (ver. 3), was clean for this end, viz., service and ministry. This, I think, is shown by the connection of the terms αιρει, καθαιρει, and καθοροι. (Ver. 2, 3.) It was the live coal from off the altar, of Isa. 6, which the seraph laid on his mouth and said, " Thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged." So that he that had said, " Woe is me for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips," now said, " Here am I; send me." "Ye have not chosen me (saith the Lord), but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated use before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." He sent the Comforter: " My peace give I unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you," The command was to love one another in the sympathy of both not being of the world that hated them, because it hated Him and the Father. How can the Spirit rest where the world is, or anything of it, and which " could not receive him?" Thence comes the question, "Is the Comforter come, and is He gone?" Christ was in a world contrary to His Father. In the same world we confess Christ. The Holy Ghost testifies to the glory of Christ, and His glory rested on His not being of the world. " Ye are not of the world, as I am not of the world." " As my Father sent me, so send I you," As I live by the Father so shall ye live by me. On whom will the Spirit of God and of glory rest
The testimony from 1 Tim. 6:1212Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:12) must not here be omitted: " Fight the good fight of THE faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast confessed a good confession before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickened' all things, and before Jesus Christ, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; [' Now my kingdom is not of this world'] that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing (επιφανεια) of our Lord Jesus Christ."
We must however say a few words as bringing us plainly back to the individual consideration (though the truth of the Church makes all ministrants one to another in the faith, in the grace which is to every man according to the gift of Christ). Dying we must die where we are dead, even on the cross; that living, we might live where we have life even in Him risen. We have the water and the blood and the Comforter, and are partakers of Christ. He witnesses to the truth. In advancing let us never leave the place from which we start, binding ourselves to Him or the cross, and in whom we are risen, that nothing may escape us by the way. Amen.