Lecture VII

The Apostle in this part of the chapter returns to the great doctrine of the whole epistle. It is not here so much the great truth which sets the soul before God, but the truth we have when we are before God. We have already been seeing the difference between Paul and John. While Paul sets the Church as justified before God, opening out the counsels of God, &c., John brings out the nature of God in the saints. It is not so much the ground of that which brought the soul to God, although he does speak of that too, but it is the character of the life that is communicated — the life which is in God the Father, derived through Christ; it is first in Christ, and then manifested in the saints. The traits of the divine nature are brought out through the Christian, and this is particularly brought out in John. There is also another thing in this chapter. It is not merely that there is a nature and capacity to enjoy God, but the Holy Ghost is given as the power of that nature. The Holy Ghost dwelling in us gives us the power of enjoyment; but that there may not be mysticism, that there may be no vacillation or uncertainty, he grounds the testimony in the public manifestation oif the Lord Jesus Christ; but Si sor joying the source of the life is by the power of the Holy Ghost dwelling in us. God is love, and that is first openly seen at the cross of Christ; and then in the new nature we have a capacity to enjoy that love; but the fear must be taken away, because fear hath torment, and torment is not enjoyment, and then he shows what removes the fear. “Perfect love casteth out fear,” not perfect righteousness, that had given the peace before God, but the revelation of Himself, and what He is, alone casteth out fear. If it be asked, How do you know God loves you? Oh, I reply, I have a certain and constant proof of that in the gift of His Son! and then besides that I have the daily and hourly enjoyment of God as my Father, and I know it because I am enjoying it. I may prove to another the love of God by certain acts, such as the gift of His own Son, which is an open manifestation of God’s love; but this does not take away from the daily enjoyment of God, the capacity for which I get in the new nature and by the power of the Spirit.

It is remarkable to see how the apostle guards from mysticism by bringing the mind back to the plain statement of the Gospel “We have seen, and do testify, that the Father hath sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” In the seventh verse He begins by saying, Beloved, let us love one another.” Here we have the love of God in exercise in the new nature, and the characteristic of this nature is to recognize iel wiotker. If I have got this divine nature, I can’t help liking it in another. I may have many prejudices to overcome, but there is an attractive power in the thing itself. I don’t speak of it as a mere duty; it is there in the nature, and being divine it is much above angels, although they are higher creatures. We are to love all men, to do good to all; that is, benevolence which acts towards that which is in need. I don’t speak of that now; but there is an attractive power in the communication of the divine liature which necessitates love, which links one to another, and to Christ. There is power there; it may be very imperfect in us, but it is real, and attracts to the Divine Person. We need something more than the new nature, because the new nature is a dependent nature, therefore wants something else. Christ when down here lived a dependent life. “I live by the Father.” The old man sets himself up and pretends to be independent, but all the while is under the power of Satan; but the new nature is a dependent nature. It leans on power, and delights to do so. The Holy Ghost is the power, “strengthened with all might by His Spirit in the inner man.” And that ’s the f illl blessing, both in the individual soul and in the Church of God. Though we have the new nature, we want the power of the Holy Ghost in us to remove the obstacles to its display. Labour won’t do; you may labour, but just as a mountain of cold snow, which no labour can remove, melts before the bright shining of the sun, and

SO nothing but the warm kindlings of divine affections in the soul by the power of the Holy Ghost will dissolve the thick ice of our hearts, and melt away all that which is in us to obstruct and hinder its fuller manifestation.

“Love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God.” When I have got this nature I am born of God, and am brought into a position to refer everything up to God; for the nature we get from God has God for the object of that new nature to act upon. When I see the traits of this nature in another I say he is born of Grod. I see love in natural affection, but here it is in a divine sense. In natural affection selfishness is the ground of it all; but in the saint he that loveth is born of God; while selfishness is the spring of everything out of God. We find in the soul that is born of God another principle, which takes a man dean out of himself, A man makes himself a for time by some new invention that makes the world more comfortable, and what is this but selfishness? and all that gives an impulse to the prpgress of the world is selfishness. And here is the difference, because we are in a world where we all have to follow our various occupations and callings. In a Christian it is not selfishness; it is love. He has got out of every other motive; he is born of God, and love is the spring of all his actions, as love is the principle of God’s natura It may be very feeble in me; but am I to be satisfied tli&t ii ahould remain

SO? Whatever is born of God came down from God, and returns to God again, therefore “be ye imitators of God as dear children.” This perfect love came down from God that it might return to God again; for who did Christ come down to glorify but His Father? for all that Christ did returned to God, a sweet-smelling savour, or else it would have been lost. There are many beautiful qualities in a creature of God, but do they return to God again? No; then it becomes sin. I get a good thing, and I enjoy it, and leave God out, and that is man’s sin. There may be a great deal of selfishness under that which outwardly appears like liberality, and you will see a Christian help his brother, and look up to God as doing it to Gt)d, because he loves God; but if he helps him and says to himself, “I have done well,” it ceases to be love; it is self-applause, and that is selfishness. The new nature gets God as the source, and God as the object, and thus is the truth of the new nature guarded, by being connected with this counter truth, that God is the object for this new nature to act upon. The new nature acts in us like God, so that others can see it; but then it knows God, and I can conceive of nothing higher than to know God. “Everyone that is born of Gt)d hnoweth Ood;” and it is a great comfort to say in everything, I have found God.

Then mark another tmth {v. 8), “He that loveth not knoweth not God,” Thei ia TL^^i tajkSs^V&y of God; but in the possession of the nature of God there is no power to apprehend Him. You may see His works, and say there must be a God; but is that knowing Him? I must have God’s nature to know Him, because none can know love but by loving, and he who thus knows Him will apprehend Him. Take a philosopher who talks about God, and set him in the presence of God, you would find it ’s the last place he would like to be in, and why so? Because he has never been there before.

“In this was manifested the love of God toward m** This is no abstract notion about love; it is not said merely,” In this was manifested the love of God,” but, “In this was manifested the love of God toward vs” Man’s mind can’t measure God; mind can only measure mind, measure thoughts; but mind can’t measure love, for love is only known by loving and being loved. If man’s mind were a competent judge of what God should be, Grod would not be God, and how must this love of God be found? In a most humble way (so much the better) the soul must come in as wanting this love; for if it can come in any other way it does not want God. The moment any soul finds its need of God, there and then God is waiting to meet its need. It was so in the case of the Syrophoenician woman, which brought forth that word of the Lord — “woman, gret is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt!” The ffreat faith is knowing my ned, counting on God’s willingness to meet it. It may be vague; it was in the woman who came into the house; but still there was faith. When I find that manifested in God which meets my need, that is faith. I never get into the place of God ’s meeting my need till I know God is God and I am a sinner. When we are in owr place we shall find God in His; when I am brought down to the sense that the only thing I have got is sin, then God can act; “when we were without strength” God acted “in due time.” God being the doer, does it in the perfectness of His own love and time. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us I can stand before God and talk to sinners, and say,” I know God in a way that angels don’t know Him, which things the angels desire to look into — God’s love toward us I don’t say me, but towards us, taking in all the saints — that little word us, ceaselessly rung in our ears by the Holy Ghost putting us in the full consciousness of the favour of God toward us, “that we might live through Him.” Not only is God’s love manifested when it is wanted, but where it must have its own proper perfectness, and it comes out perfectly where nothing depends on man to bring it out or make it clear. It ’s manifested when we were dead, “that we might live through Him If I were to examine my own heart I can’t find it out I know more of God’s heart than I do of my own; for my own is so subtle I can’t get to the bottom of it; for” the heart is deceitful above all thiiig&^Q.i!Ld das^^saifiJ^ wicked, who can know it? ‘* and the best man upon earth will be the first to confess this. I do not get the full character of God to my soul till I see it in the cross; for what was in man was nothing but sin, and when that sin was met there was nothing between God and His Son; and if He was alone in that work, this is a proof of what God has done in my circumstances of death. He sent His Son that I might live through Him, and not only live through Him, but my sins being all put away I see eternal life through Him for me, and He being the propitiation for my sins, I find my sins are gone, and life is come. Well then, after such a proof of God’s love, let us not be thinking of our love to God. Who am I that I should be coupling God’s love with mine? Don’t talk to me about loving God; it’s a wretched poor thing (I do love Him); but let us talk of God’s loving us. The moment I begin to think of my love to God, that moment it ceases, it is gone; the manna I gathered yesterday has turned to corruption.

Heaven will be when I have entirely forgotten myself, and am filled with Gk)d. That very same love which will fill heaven was manifested in the cross; for there it put all my sins away, and in heaven there are none. I want something on which my soul may be stayed. Well, God loves me; and that which makes me know how much He loves me is, that He gave His Son for me. Then, as my soul rests upon this love o£ God, no measure of failure can be adequate to shake my confidence, as I estimate God’s love in the gift of His Son. His love is not exhausted, though my need may be great and my failures many; but I have a constant abiding proof, which follows me all my life through. How much He loves me in the gift of His Son; and my soul rests in peace on this love, as manifested in the cross, which is ‘’the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” It was proved at the cross, and abides there; it was outside us in the world, and it was made known to us when we wanted it in getting life, finding nothing in us but the need that depends upon it. The enjoyment of this love is another thing, and that is carried on by the daily and hourly communion with God as our Father, by the Spirit in us.

Verse 11. The Apostle having given a proof of God’s love goes on to the exercise of it in us while down here. “Beloved, if God so loved us we ought also to love one another,” and this principle we find brought out in other parts of the Word, as in Eph. iv. 32: “Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you;” also in Col. iii. 13.

Verse 12. “No man hath seen God at any time.” I can’t know God by seeing Him; but in John’s Gospel (ch. i. 18), “The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” He who knew what was God’s love has told it out — the Son who dwelt in the bosom of the Father, who enjoyed the Fathet’a lovo* ^vtJasxiik any alloy, He is the One who comes to tell it to me, as He knew and enjoyed it Himself, and I know Grod according to that revelation He has made; for “He hath declared Him.” But in the Epistle of John He goes a step further. It is communicated livingly to vs. “True in Him and in you.” (Chap. ii. 8.) It was true in Him, and now it is true in you who believa

“If we love one another, Gk)d dwelleth in us. That is the source of it, and the enjoyment of it is by the power of the Holy Ghost. “His love is perfected in us.” It’s not my love perfected to God, but His love is perfected in me; and I know, being in Him that is infinite, I shall never get out of it. It is not that I am infinite myself, but “I am in Him that is infinite.” His love is perfected in us. “Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.” {v. 13.) Here it is communion, and not merely power. It s in the nature of God, and not merely the power of God. I enjoy it because He has given me of His own Spirit, the joy of communion being by the power of ffi$ Spirit Angels know not this joy, and why is this? Because they never have the Holy Ghost dwelling in them; but God hath “given vs of His Spirit,” because we are members of Christ, the fruit of the travail of His soul, what He desires (not we), for we are lost in Him; therefore, having received of His own Spirit, we ought to seek to have the life of Jeaxi made manifest in

THE FmST EPISTLS OF JOHN. 93

our mortal bodies. The divine nature in a man is shown by having God for its object

“And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” {v. 14.) Observe, the Apostle gets back to the person of the Son, but in a more advanced state of soul, as knowing Him who sent the Son “we have seen” Thus it was a known and enjoyed love. While Paul gives us the Church and the purposes and counsels of God, John speaks of the nature in which God dwells, and what is the eflfect of this? Worshipy because the highest thing we can enjoy in the knowledge of God. Look at the scene in the Sevelation. God is on His throne, and the elders are on thrones around. Can anything be higher than this? Yes; they fall down in worship before Him who sat on the throne, and cast down their crowns before the throne, saying, “Thou art worthy Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power.” Then observe, when the Apostle realized the privilege of getting up to the Giver of every good and perfect gift, then he turns to the very simplest truth — “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” Thus we see the very highest saints are the best Evangelists. The father in Christ links Himself with the weakest babe, and the very way of bringing God into a world of sinners was by lin k ing Himself with the most needy thing on the face of the earth. It is not the extent of knowledge that is needed, but the knowledge of God in the power of living communion that is th power of evangelizing. The love that reaches the highest will stoop the lowest.” The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world; it ’s not here merely as the Messiah to the Jews, but as the Saviour of the world.

“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in Him, and He in God.” (v. 15.) The soul that has this fellowship and communion God dwelleth in it, and it in God; for ‘’whosoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God is born of God.” “The Father sent the Son.” Here we have the subordination of the Son in connection with the Father. “The Father sent the Son.” His eye rests on Him, on the man Christ Jesus. We are not to reason about it. I must not have philosophy, but faith; and the soul taught of God can say, “I know that the man Christ Jesus was the Son of God.”

“Herein is love with us made perfect... because as He is, so are we in this world.” {v. 17.) Here he is not speaking of the love of God manifested to the sinner on the cross, but the extent of it in the saint, who is taken up in and with Christ. As He has been made sin for you on the cross, so you will be made the righteousness of Gk)d in Him in heaven, therefore there can be no question of judgment unless Christ can be judged.

“We have known and believed the love God hath to us.” Love can’t be enjoyed where there is a bad conscience, therefore you must get the conscience purged. Satan may act on the conscience as well as the Spirit of God, but you may always detect the difference as Satan always acts in the way of despair; while the Spirit of God always points to a resource in God, and the soul, however much distressed, feels there is goodness in God if it can only get at it. So the prodigal knew his need, and said, “There is bread enough and to spare in my father’s house/* Thus the soul knows God’s love, and believes in it; and when the Father is on the neck of the prodigal that settles every question; for the son is lost in the testimony of what the Father is, and having peace with God, we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. “God is love.” There is not a word here of what man is. God is love, that is the only God I know, and the only way that I can know Him. If I am in Christ, is God going to impute to me the sin Christ has put away? Certainly not. I have sins, but they have all been judged in Christ, then God will not judge them again. What difficulty we have in beUeving what God really is, because we have been so long away from God, that we have become so narrowed in ourselves; but if we do come to know Him, then our hearts should be as wax, ready to receive the impressions of His love.