Abiding in the Son and in the Father
THE Lord’s own words in the Gospel of John are remarkable for their references to our connection with the Christ, as that of being in Him and abiding in Him; of being in the truth, and abiding in the truth.
The bearing of all the preceding remarks upon this, and of this upon the preceding remarks, will be obvious. Connection with the Christ of God in most intimate closeness is that which is affirmed to be the beginning, middle, and end of a Christian man’s life on earth. This connection is brought about through the truth, by the power of the Holy Ghost; and the exhortations as well as warnings respecting all this are of the most solemn, and I might add, vehement kind.
Let us, for the enforcement of this, take up more specially and in detail one verse, viz. 1 John ii.
The Christ of Cod.
24. The whole of this Epistle hears more or less directly upon these points; hut this verse brings them home to the Christian’s conscience, and refers to their lifelong application to the Christian’s walk with God.
The word ‘you’ is, in the Greek, emphatic, from its position and its construction. The apostle is writing to men exposed to seducing influences; tempted with perilous error, and assailed by ‘many antichrists.” Whatever others may think or do; however far they may go astray or blaspheme, — do
1 The expression which we have in the above verse is used more than once by the Apostle Paul in reference to the churches as a whole. He writes ‘ to the Church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ ’ (1 Thess. i. 1; 2 Thess. i. 1). Thus, that which John applies to each individual saint is applied by Paul to the Church at large. In the special passage on which the remarks in this chapter are founded, it may be well to notice that, while in our translation there are three words used, ‘ abiding,’ ‘ remaining,’ and ‘ continuing,’ there is only one in the Greek. This greatly misleads the common reader, making him think that there are three distinct states set forth. There ought to have been but one word in the translation, and it does not much matter which of the three English words is employed; only, as we find a sort of mystical halo thrown round the word ‘ abiding, ’ it would be better to use ‘ remain ’ or ‘ continue. ’ Instead of ‘ remain ’ or ‘ continue,’ we have in many places simply the word ‘ to be:’ ‘ We are in the true One ’ (1 John v. 20).
The same word is used of the ro %pi<r/xoi, the anointing or unction, in ver. 27, ‘The anointing which ye have received of Him abideth (remaineth) in you; ’ and according to the ‘ remaining ’ of the ‘ anointing ’ is our remaining in Christ: — ‘ As it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him ’ (ver. 27).
you hold fast that which ye have received.’ This was his earnest message to the saints of the first century; it is no less his exhortation and his warning to the Church of the nineteenth.
It is of ‘ the truth’ (ver. 21) that he is speak¬ ing; he gives it a special name, * that which they had heard from the beginning; ’ he beseeches them to let that truth abide; he announces the blessed results of so doing.
I. The Truth. — Both in his Gospel and in his Epistles he dwells on what he calls by pre-eminence the truth, and lays great stress on the things that are true; the true words, and the true facts. He relates, too, the Master’s allusions to His speaking the truth (John viii. 45); and to Himself as “the truth;’ and he takes special pains to inform us that his own record is true, and that he knows that it is true; and all this to furnish a firm foundation for our faith: * He that saw it bare record, and his record is true; and he knoweth that he saith true., that ye might believe ’ (John xix. 35). The Master had said, — ‘My record is true; ’ ‘ My judgment is true; ’ ‘ If I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? ’ and so the disciple speaks. On true things, true words, a true person, and a true history, John would have us rest our faith; not on opinion, or speculation, or reason¬ ing, hut on evidence of the surest kind, the testimony of honest witnesses; on that which is more satisfying and immoveable than human demonstration, the testimony of the God who cannot lie. Thus, he teaches us to say in regard to divine things, ‘ we know them; ’ not we think or conjecture, but we know; they are absolutely true and certain; and our belief of them rests on the explicit word of God. Our faith rises above all other faith, not because it is of superior quality in itself, but because it rests on a divine basis, — the authority of the God of truth. This is the immoveable rock on which we rest; a rock which time and age cannot crumble down; a rock against which waves rush and winds roar in vain. 0 rock of God, rock of ages, rock of eternity, how firm the faith, how blessed the man, that rests on Thee!
II. The name by which he here designates the Truth. — ‘That which ye have heard from the beginning an expression very like one of the Master’s, when He said to the Jews, ‘Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.’ The truth, then, of which John spoke to them was not new, hut old; it was the one unvarying thing which they had all along heard: not modified, or improved upon, or refined, so as to suit the times; hut the same, unchanged and unchangeable. When apostles came amongst them for the first time, they preached ‘ the word of the truth of the gospel and in that word, that truth, that gospel, there had been no improvements; nothing had become obsolete, and nothing required amendment. That which they had heard from the beginning was all that they were called to abide on now. Nothing needed to be added to, or taken from it. Its contents were infinitely varied; but itself remained ever the same.
In this respect it is like the works of God’s hand around us. There is the sun in the firmament, just the same as at the beginning, in form, motion, light, and heat. It has not begun to be reckoned obsolete; nor has something new been proposed as a substitute. It does not require improvement; men have not begun to weary of it; nor have flaws been discovered in its glorious radiance. Development, in the sense of drawing out its treasures, and unfolding its beauties and perfections, is proceeding as science expands; but
The Christ of Gael.
development in the sense of addition, or improvement, is not dreamt of even as a possibility. Men are content with their old sun, the snn of Adam, the sun of Noah, the sun of Moses and Joshua; the sun that was lighted up on the fourth day, the sun that rose over Sodom, the sun that stood still on Giheon, the sun that was darkened for three hours at Jerusalem and over all the land. Modern enlightenment has not yet affirmed that its theories of progress admit of application to the sun, or that a higher science may yet do for astronomy what a higher criticism and a more advanced theology are doing for religious truth, and for “the Christ of God, That which we have heard from the beginning is the same that we are to hear and obey now; for the truth is like the true One Himself, the same yester¬ day, and to-day, and for ever. And like as the sun in the firmament is still the same full source of light, and heat, and fruitfulness, so is the Christ of God still, as in ages past, the fountainhead of life, and health, and gladness. Earth is not weary of her sun; so let not the Church be weary of hers. The light of the world eighteen centuries ago is the light of the world still. Truth never grows old. On her brow there are no wrinkles; no grey hairs upon her head. She does not totter with age, nor does her tongue stammer. She knows no second childhood; for she is always young, yet always ancient as well; unchanging amid changes, immortal in a land of death; perfect amid imperfection, and weakness, and decay.
But what is it that we have heard from the beginning? We have heard that the Word was made flesh; that God so loved the world as to give His Son. We have heard that God is love; that the cross of Christ is the exponent of that love, and the exhibition of the righteousness in conjunction with which that love has come to us. We have heard of the precious blood of Christ as cleansing, reconciling, healing, comforting. We have heard of the eternal life which has come to us as God’s free gift through the death of the Prince of Life. We have heard of the record or testimony concerning this life which God has proclaimed. We have heard of the Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. We have heard of the divine generosity that has made us sons of God, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus. We have heard of the promise of His appearing in His glory, bringing with Him resurrection, and glory, and the incorruptible inheritance. These are some of the things which we have heard from the beginning; and in hearing of which we believed, and in believing became sons and heirs.
These things have not changed nor grown obsolete. They have proved their excellency through the ages, and passed through many a trial, many a scrutiny. They have resisted triumphantly the assaults of scepticism and superstition; paganism persecuted, popery veiled, rationalism undermined. But all in vain. The well is too deep for man’s appliances to fill up, too clear for man’s hostility to disturb, too perennial for man’s anger to dry up. The living water in it is as transparent as at the first. It quenches man’s thirst as thoroughly in these last days as it did in ages past. It is still a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Most venerable name, * that which we have heard from the beginning even more venerable now than in the days of the apostle, and becoming more venerable every day! We need and we desire no new gospel, no new truth, as if ancient truth had become antiquated. That which gladdened the sinners of Jerusalem, or Corinth, or Ephesus, or Philippi, can gladden us still. That which fed the Church of God in primitive times can feed us in these last days. Can we ask for anything better, truer, more suited to our condition than that which the Church has heard, and which apostles preached from the beginning?
III. The necessity for the continuance of this truth. — We may see this from what we have already said, but much more might be added to enforce the apostle’s exhortation. There is no other truth to substitute for it; and besides, the old is better. No second revelation has descended to us. God has not broken silence since the day He spoke in Patmos. Any new revelation must be a human one; and a human one must be infinitely inferior to the divine. It is not merely continuance in truth, but in f the truth nor the continuance of the truth, but the continuance of that truth in us; the truth in us, and we in the truth; it dwelling in us, and we in it, so that ’ that which we have heard from the beginning ’ shall penetrate us in all its integrity and unmixed purity, pervading every part of our being, moulding us, quickening us, sanctifying us, remaining with us to the end.
The abiding of this truth in us, here inculcated, is broadly opposed to the flippant and superficial tenure of it by many in our day. The truth must not lie upon the surface, like water on the rock, it must sink deep into us: it must not be held with levity or in sport, nor dallied with as a thing of pastime; it must be grasped in earnest, as if part of our very soul. It must not come and go, by fits and starts, for convenience, or for gain, or for approbation; it must abide, unchangeable, not indeed like the rock, immoveable and uncommuni¬ cative, but like the river, ever flowing in its old and happy channel, diffusing fruitfulness and verdure all around.
The non-abiding of this truth in us is the cause of much that is false, hollow, and feverish in the religion of multitudes. True religion must rest upon the truth, upon ‘ that which we have heard from the beginning.’ Truth and religion have too often been separated; and we find on the one hand truth professed without religion, and on the other, religion professed without truth. Indeed, as to the latter, it is beginning to be affirmed that a man may be a very religious man without holding the truth, and that it is the highest form of religion that soars above creeds and doctrines, and repudiates all theologies whatever. The current of public opinion runs strongly in favour of this idea, and it is promulgated as one of the discoveries of the age, that the religious sentiment is quite independent of doctrine, and can root itself in a negation or a falsehood as naturally and properly as in a truth or a positive creed. If the Bible is to be credited, this is simply and nakedly an impossibility. The ‘ religious sentiment ’ is nothing but a fancy, or a dream, or a flight of poetry, if not the offspring of truth. We may say more: the religious sentiment, either undirected or misdirected, either under no guidance of truth or under the guidance of positive error, must be identical with idolatry or blasphemy. The Bible acknowledges no God but Jehovah, and every deviation from the right knowledge and right worship of Him is a crime. It recognises no religion but one, founded on that which we have heard from the beginning. The religious * sentiment ’ may be very fervent in the worshippers of Baal, or Jupiter, or Mary, but its fervour finds no acceptance with Him who is jealous for His name, to whom there is but one truth and one religion; who has never consented to recognise falsehood concerning Himself as an equivalent for truth regarding Him¬ self; nor man’s ideas of what God should he as a substitute for what He declares that God is; nor the shifting theories of religion as equally good, equally safe, and equally satisfactory with f that which we have heard from the beginning/
IY. The results. — Ye also shall continue in the Father and in the Son, There is certainly some¬ thing wonderful and glorious here. There is another side of divine truth presented to us, and another view of our relationship to God. The result of abiding in the truth will be abiding in the Father and the Son; and, of course, departure from that truth will be expulsion or estrangement from the Father and the Son. The beginning of our religion was coming to the Father, and this we did in believing the truth upon His own testimony. The continuance of our religion was an abiding in the Father, and this through abiding in the truth. So with regard to the Son: we came to be in Him by being in the truth as revealed concerning Him; and as we began, so we carry on; that which we heard from the beginning remains in us, and so we remain in the Father and the Son. Kejection of the truth involves the loss of this position, this relationship; and the more of divine truth that we possess, the more is this position confirmed, and the more fully does this relationship develope itself.
But what is meant by * continuing in the Father and the Son ’? It is not enough to say that it means continuing to know, or continuing to have fellowship with, or continuing to worship, or continuing to love and to be loved. It implies some¬ thing deeper, more intimate, more full than this. The figure is taken first of all from our Lord’s own discourses. ‘At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.’ ‘ Abide in me, and I in you: as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me.’ The connection between our abiding in Him and the truth abiding in us, is also affirmed by our Lord: * 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;’ and again, ‘If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you.’
(1.) We are in the Father and the Son, as the Father Himself is in the Son, and the Son in the Father (John xvii. 21). Ho thing can imply intimacy more fully than this. (2.) We are in the Father and in the Son as the seed is in the soil, or as the graft is in the branch. This is intimacy producing fruitfulness, and furnish¬ ing us with sap and life, — intimacy growing into perfect oneness.
(3.) We are in the Father and Son as the inmate of a house is within its walls, surrounded by it on all sides for shelter, comfort, and all the joys of home. This home intimacy is as close as can be conceived, he who enjoys it being compassed about with divine light, and love, and glory.
(4.) We are in the Father and in the Son as the gold and silver are in the treasure-house, and as the treasure-house itself is in the fortress, doubly surrounded, for completeness of safety. ‘ Our life is hid with Christ in God/
(5.) We are in the Father and in the Son as was
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Jerusalem in the midst of the encircling hills. ‘As the ‘mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people, from henceforth even for ever.’ What absolute security and repose does this imply! The Father and the Son our walls and bulwarks!
(6.) We are in the Father and in the Son as was the manna in the ark of the covenant, safe in the very holy of holies; or as the pillar spoken of in the promise to the Philadelphian church: * Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; ’ the ornament and glory of the eternal house in which the redeemed shall dwell and worship for ever.
These may he taken as parts of the figure here made use of, in so far as it is a figure; hut the fulness of the blessing, and honour, and joy, and security, and light, here shadowed forth, no human lip or pen can set forth. We cannot know it rightly now, but we shall know it hereafter; only there seems something so unutterably glorious and blessed in the thought, that we might almost say, we shall never fully understand the mystery. But God, our God, understands it fully, and Pie can and will give us the full benefit of it, whether we understand it or not. Out of these half-understood expressions, He can enable us to draw unceasing gladness and holiness, unfolding to us in His own way and time more and more of their unsearchable riches; and through * that which we have heard from the beginning,’ making us each day more abundantly partakers of His fellowship through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.