Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

This video is a little over 4 hours long, but is broken into 11 segment3. This Introduction is covered from the beginning and runs to 31 minutes in this video.

Introduction

In taking up the study of the first epistle of John, a comparison of John’s ministry with that of Peter and Paul will be helpful.

The words addressed to Peter in John 21:18-19 imply that in some sense his ministry was to have a character similar to that of the Lord Jesus. Is the implication supported by Scripture elsewhere? If so, in what sense was Peter’s ministry similar to the ministry of Jesus Christ?

Light is shed on these questions in Romans 15:8 and Galatians 2:7-8. In the former passage Jesus Christ is called a “minister of the circumcision,” the evident meaning being that His ministry was in connection with the people in the covenant of circumcision — that made with hands. In the latter passage there is mention of “the gospel of the circumcision” as having been committed to Peter. The thought evidently is that a gospel specially addressed to the circumcision was committed to Peter. Peter is also spoken of as having the “apostleship of the circumcision.” Undoubtedly the intention is to show that Peter exercised apostleship in connection with the circumcision. In this sense, then, Peter’s ministry was similar to that of Jesus Christ.

But while this marks out the people for whom his ministry is intended, it does not define its theme and character, which are to be inquired into. If we refer again to Romans 15:8 we shall find it stated there that “Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy.” This needs to be carefully considered.

In the Old Testament we learn about these promises to the fathers. It is plain we have a record there of a ministry of promises. Indeed there was a period which we may consider as specially characterized by the ministry of promises. From the call of Abram until Jacob’s going down into Egypt, at least, God was making or ministering promises.

For my present purpose I do not need to notice these promises in detail. I will merely cite the passages where they are found: Gen. 12:1-3; Gen. 13:14-17; Gen. 15:1-21; Gen. 17:1-22; Gen. 22:15-18; Gen. 26:2-5, 24; Gen. 28:10-15; Gen. 35:9-12; Gen. 46:2-4. All these promises are absolute, made in the sovereignty of grace, and are entirely unconditional. It should be remembered that none of them are addressed to the Gentiles. God gave them no promises, no covenant (Eph. 2:12). It is true the Gentiles are contemplated in the promises, but the promises were not ministered to them. They were ministered to the fathers of the nation of Israel (Rom. 9:4).

Now while God ministered these promises to the fathers, the heads of Israel, the fulfilment of them was not yet to be. They heard them and believed them, but, if they were persuaded of them and embraced them, they saw them only as to be fulfilled in a time to them “afar off” (Heb. 11:13). They died in faith, leaving these unfulfilled promises as a legacy to their children.

But God put their descendants on a different footing altogether. Promises and covenants He made to them also, but they were conditional, not absolute. The reason for this was the need of raising — not alone for their sake, but for all men — the question of man’s ability to establish a righteousness on which to claim what had been promised. Under the Mosaic law the children of Israel were on the ground of responsibility. They took the responsibility of working out a righteousness they could call their own, by which a title to the things promised would be established, and which God Himself would necessarily recognize. But God not only would signalize by circumcision (as He had done and was still doing) the unprofitableness of the flesh, but He would practically demonstrate it. He would prove man’s inability to claim as his own anything but his sins, and thus that he is shut up to sovereign grace, exercised on the principle of faith — not of works.

The trial was a long one, thus perfectly fair and conclusive. But while this question, raised by putting Israel under the law, was being worked out, to show how utterly void of righteousness man is in himself, the fulfilment of the sovereign, unconditional promises made to the fathers had necessarily to be delayed. The question raised had to be definitely answered once for all; and the lesson of the law now abides.

But on the ground of responsibility Israel lost the promises. If Israel was unable to establish a title to them, there is surely no power to recover them. No pleading of descent from Abraham could avail, no taking refuge under being circumcised could secure the forfeited promises (Matt. 3:9). Israel’s only hope then is the sovereign grace of God.

Having demonstrated that Israel is in irretrievable ruin, having lost the promises beyond all hope of recovery, God then sent forth His Son, not only made of woman, but made also under the law (Gal. 4:4). This was God acting in the sovereignty of His mercy. It was raising up in Israel an Israelite in whom the promises were yea and amen. It was providing One who could establish a title to them. Jesus Christ was thus in their midst as maintaining the truth of God — His word. His promises. He was one of their fold — a minister connected with the circumcision, in behalf of the promises made to the fathers, to secure their establishment.

Having Himself a personal claim on them, He had also title to remove what was a hindrance to their fulfilment. He had a right to end the Mosaic dispensation and bring in the dispensation of the fulfilment of the promises. He had title to take the curse of the law, and thus be the end of the law as a way of getting righteousness for all who believe (Rom. 10:4). He had the right to be Israel’s Substitute to sacrificially endure the judgment of their sins, and thus open the channel in which the grace of God could flow, in which God could in righteousness bestow the forgiveness of sins and fulfil the promises made to the fathers.

But, although Christ did thus establish or secure the promises, Israel continued in blindness and unbelief; therefore it became necessary to continue the dispensation of confirming the promises. It became necessary to appeal to facts in evidence that the promises have been permanently secured. It is this appeal that characterizes the ministry of Peter. Like Christ, he was connected with the circumcision. Like Christ, he was a minister in behalf of the truth of God: he announced to Israel the security of the promises and their permanent establishment. Like Christ, Peter had a ministry which was specifically addressed to the circumcision — to Israel as a nation.

The careful student of Peter’s ministry as recorded in Acts, chapters 2 to 5, will readily see that his very first address to the Jews begins with a declaration that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the powers accompanying it are a beginning of the fulfilment of promise (Acts 2:16). When he says, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel,” he does not mean that Joel’s prophecy has had its complete fulfilment, but that what has occurred is of the nature and character of what was promised in Joel. It is fulfilment beginning. This announcement made by Peter means that the hindrance to fulfilment of promise has been removed. and the fulfilment has begun.

Next, in verses 22-36, he appeals to the resurrection of Jesus and His exaltation on high by the power of God as evidence that God has acknowledged His rights. This acknowledgment is conclusive proof that Israel must look to Him for the fulfilment of her promises. Accordingly, in verse 38, the nation is invited to submit to the One they have rejected, but whom God has made Lord and Christ, in order to receive the promise of the forgiveness of sins; and in verse 39, Peter encourages them to do so, by assuring them that the promise of forgiveness of sins has been made to them. He tells them plainly that if they will receive the forgiveness of sins in this way, i.e., by submitting to Christ, they will also participate in the promise that accompanies forgiveness — the Holy Spirit.

Again, in Acts 3:19, still addressing himself to the nation as such, Peter tells them the promised blotting out of their sins and “times of refreshing” are waiting on their repentance.

It is thus very clear that the ministry in which Peter addresses himself specifically to Israel partakes of the nature and character of our Lord’s ministry in which He appealed to them. In both cases it was a ministry in behalf of the truth of God — a ministry of the security and establishment of the promises made to the fathers.

But Peter’s ministry was rejected as that of Christ had been. The Israel of his day was a nation “stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears,” as their fathers had been (Acts 7:51). Individuals submitted to Christ and became recipients of a blessing that was according to promise, but the nation in blindness and unbelief refused their blessings.

Peter had another ministry also, the character of which we shall now consider.

If Christ had a ministry in which He addressed Himself to the Jewish nation as such, He had also a ministry in which He specifically addressed Himself to the true children of God in the midst of it. In John 10 He speaks of thus ministering to the true sheep of the Jewish fold. Peter was given a ministry of like nature — a ministry specially intended for the real believer among the circumcised. In John 21:15-17 our Lord commissions Peter to shepherd and feed His lambs and sheep.

The Lord knew what the lambs and sheep among the circumcision would need. He knew what persecutions they would have to endure. He knew the stiff-neckedness, the unbelief, the blindness of the rulers and leaders of the nation, and that they would forbid teaching and preaching in His name. Accordingly He provided for the need of His true sheep. He knew they would need the most considerate nourishing, the tenderest care and oversight, diligent strengthening and constant encouraging.

Carefully and effectually training Peter for this special service to the objects of His tender interest and love, He puts them into Peter’s care — He entrusts them to him. Hence a special ministry is given to Peter. If he was to have a ministry in which he would address himself to the nation as such, so also was he to have a special ministry in which he would address himself specifically to the believers in the midst of the nation.

If in the earlier chapters of the book of Acts we have the record of that ministry carried out by Peter, in which the nation of Israel as such is addressed, the two epistles of Peter carry out a special ministry to the persecuted and dispersed disciples — the followers of the despised and rejected Messiah.

Of course, in speaking of Peter’s ministry in his epistles as especially intended for converted Jews, I do not wish to be understood as meaning that it has no application to a wider circle. It certainly applies to all Christians, but its primary application is to believers connected with Israel wherever they have been scattered (1 Peter 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1).

I do not need here to consider this ministry in detail. It will be sufficient to characterize it as a ministry in which the government of God is explained: in the first epistle, as being the Father’s discipline of His children; and, in the second, in its bearings upon the world. The first epistle shows that the governmental ways of God are pregnant with inestimable blessing for the children; the second shows their issue for the world in a sweeping judgment after long-suffering and patient waiting for it to repent.

In the second epistle Peter says he writes as anticipating soon to put off his tabernacle. Writing thus that what he had ministered to them may abide in power in their minds, he completes or fills out the service with which his Lord had entrusted him, in commending to them the ministry of Paul (2 Peter 3:15-16).

John’s written ministry was then not begun, but Paul’s was practically, if not entirely, finished. Before turning to John’s ministry I will seek to characterize that of Paul.

I will notice that Paul also had a double ministry: one towards the world — the nations — all men; the other, towards the body of Christ, the Church (Col. 1:23-24). In either case it was a ministry of the grace of God — a dispensing of blessings from God, whether to believers individually or collectively.

A word of explanation is perhaps necessary here. In the Old Testament times promises were made, but the blessings implied in the promises were not dispensed. When our Lord was on earth He did dispense certain blessings to individuals where He found faith. He did minister the forgiveness of sins, for instance, to individuals who believed; but He did not minister the full blessing that goes with the fulfilment of the promise of forgiveness; nor did He, in the days of His flesh, give the Holy Spirit.

In connection with the ministry of Peter there was both the ministration of the forgiveness of sins and of the Holy Spirit; yet Peter did not minister the fulness of blessing which is the present portion and possession of faith. In God’s wisdom, this was reserved for Paul. The full range of faith’s blessings, so far as they are now bestowed, is through the ministry of Paul. We have also in Paul’s ministry the blessings that are in hope — that is, what will yet be done for us and given to us as completing the blessings which redemption has acquired for us.

What we find in Paul’s ministry, then, is the entire sphere of blessing in which God displays His wondrous grace. Paul thus occupies as with what, in a true sense, we may speak of as outward or external — not unreal, far from it; it is a most real display of the grace of God.

But we now turn to John’s ministry. Its leading feature is that it occupies us with God Himself — with what He is in Himself. It is what is intrinsic, essential, underived and eternal. It is the life of God — the eternal life that was ever with the Father. In his Gospel, John’s ministry relates to the manifestation of God in His Son become Man. His life on earth is viewed as a declaration of what God is — His nature, character, and life, displayed on earth as testimony to men — the features and characteristics of His unchangeable nature, not only proclaimed, but shown, exhibited.

In the epistles the life that is eternally in the Son and has been manifested among men in its eternal, unchanging nature, is viewed as a communication, and the ways in which it displays itself in those to whom it has been communicated are unfolded.

In the book of the Revelation John writes of the ways of the Eternal — He who is the First and the Last, the living One, though He died — in bringing all things into accord with His own eternal nature.

The distinctive features of the ministries of Peter, of Paul, and of John, are distinct and plain. They are in no way in opposition, but perfectly harmonious, each in agreement with the others, none to be pitted against the others. They are not to be compared as if one was paramount to the others. There should be no depreciation of Peter’s ministry as if it were defective — not equally perfect with that of Paul or of John. There is a tendency, perhaps naturally in us all, to give a prominence to the blessings ministered by Paul which overshadows the Blesser Himself. It was this tendency that was in the mind of one whose memory we all rightly cherish, when he counselled us not to neglect John in pressing Paul. He did not mean by this advice that John is a balance to Paul, but that the apprehension and enjoyment of John’s ministry will be a cure to our proneness of being occupied with the range of our blessings in such a way as to have them more distinctly before our souls than the One who has blessed us.

It is the Blesser Himself with whom John occupies us. What He is — what He is essentially, intrinsically, eternally. What He is in essence, in nature, in character: this is what John shows us.

Beloved brethren, what would all the range of our blessings be without God Himself? It certainly ought not to need much consideration to realize that the Blesser is greater than the blessings. The Giver is higher than His gifts. Our God and Father is higher, greater than all His hand bestows. The Son of God who came from God and the Father to give us the knowledge of Himself is above the benefits He has procured and secured for us, inestimable as all these are; and we need the sense of this in our souls to keep us from glorifying ourselves on account of the great blessings that have been given us. The ministry of John serves to maintain us in this very needful apprehension.

The links of the epistles of John with his Gospel are very close; so close, that an apprehension of the doctrine of the Gospel as to eternal life is essential to a right understanding of the epistles. Before we enter on our detailed study of John’s first epistle, therefore, let us as briefly as possible outline the teaching of his Gospel as to life — the life eternal.

First, the teaching of John’s Gospel is that life — essential, underived, unchangeable and eternal — dwells in the Son of God. In Him who was with God as the eternal, divine Word, was life (1 John 1:4). Living in divine community of life, He was personally the absolute expression of what God is, in essence, nature and character. He, in whom the life thus essentially dwelt, was the light — the truth — the Source of it to man. It is important to remark here that none of the living creatures created by Him had community of life and light with Him. Those that became living beings by the word of His power, cease to be also by the same Word. Man became a living being, not by the word of His power, but by an impartation, not of the divine, eternal life, but of the spirit-nature; so that as being by creation a living soul having spirit, a spirit-nature, he was in the image and likeness of God. But if man thus lives and moves and has his being in God by creation (Acts 17:28), that is not living in community with the divine eternal life of God — the life that is in the Son of God. Even if man had not sinned, a special work of God in his soul would have been necessary for him to possess life in community with God, to have become a participator in the divine, the eternal life.

But man sinned, and his mind became darkened. Sin alienated him from God and rendered him incapable of finding out God, or of understanding Him, or of discerning and receiving the things of God. Hence, from the garden of Eden to the present time, men have not apprehended the life and light dwelling in the Son of God. Whether it be the partial manifestations since Eden, or the full shining forth of the light in Himself become a Man and tabernacling among men, the light of eternal life in Him has not been perceived by man naturally.

Nay, more: the Gospel of John tells us when the Son of God was upon earth the testimony given of God to Him was rejected. There was adequate testimony — of John the Baptist, of the works wrought by the Son, of the Father’s testimony and seal of the Holy Spirit; that of the Old Testament Scriptures also, and of the Son Himself — yet the world does not recognize Him; even His own earthly nation does not receive Him (John 1:1.) Man’s mind is darkness, under the power of unbelief.

It is true that from Eden until now individuals have received Him, have discerned His personal and divine glory, have waited for Him, have welcomed Him, have bowed the knee to Him; but these, according to John’s Gospel, have all been subjects of a work of God in the soul. They have been born of God by faith; they have been laid hold of by the testimony of God in the power of the Spirit (John 1:1-13). They have been born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5). But until the Son came into the world, in full revelation of the Father, such were not given the privilege of taking, in the full reality of it, their place as children with the Father. That could not be until the place and the work to fit us for that place were fully revealed, and while, as we learn elsewhere, the children were being treated as servants. But the place of the children is now made known by the Son sent by the Father, and the right of the children to take it is divinely authorized (John 1:12). Even while our Lord was on earth He granted to faith this privilege, as John’s Gospel abundantly shows (John 8:19; John 12:44-45; John 14:7-9).

In chapter 3 the universal need of new birth is pressed (John 3:3-7). Everywhere, even in Israel, there was necessity that the testimony of God should lay hold of the soul in the power of the Spirit. This is needed no less in order to share in the earthly things of the kingdom of God than in the heavenly; both alike are subjects of divine revelation and testimony. The Lord was but insisting on a need the Old Testament Scriptures affirmed. The refusal to submit to this necessity is as fatal in connection with the earthly things as it is in connection with the heavenly. The Lord is not teaching that new birth is an earthly thing, but that it is essential to participating in either the earthly or heavenly things of the kingdom of God.

But how can new birth, giving that new life and nature which constitutes those upon whom it is conferred children of God, be bestowed upon sinners? The Cross is the answer. The basis on which God ever gave life — life eternal — is the sacrificial death of the Son of Man. The Son of God became Man to die under man’s penalty, that life might righteously, though in grace, be communicated to those deserving the death eternal. So earnestly does God desire men to live in the life that is eternal, and not abide in eternal death, that He gave His own Son, to become Son of Man to provide a righteous basis for the communication of divine, eternal life (John 3:14-16). The one that believes on Him, the object of divine testimony, receives the life — the eternal life that is in the Son; the rejector of Him does not see life, but abides in death and under the wrath of God (John 3:36). This statement is absolute truth — true for all ages and dispensations, those preceding the Cross as well as since. Believers before the Cross believed on the Object of divine testimony. Such and only such were then born of God; and it is such and only such that are born of God now.

The measure of revelation and testimony has nothing to do with the matter of the communication of life. It is not at all the amount of revelation laid hold of; it is the laying hold of the Object of revelation and testimony. Wherever and whenever the object of divine testimony is laid hold of in the power of the Spirit, there is a child of God — one born of water and the Spirit; there is one to whom the life eternal, that is in the Son of God, is imparted.

In John 4 the imparted life is shown to be a spring of refreshment and satisfaction within the one to whom it is given. The possessor of this “spring” is independent of the world through which he is passing, since the spring within him rises up to the sphere of the abiding and eternal realities. Linked with these by the life and nature bestowed on him, he has capacity for their enjoyment; the measure of the enjoyment being, of course, according to the measure of the revelation and the energy of faith in the apprehension of it.

John 5 insists that the eternal life that dwelt underivatively in the Son of the Father before the world began, dwells underivatively also in Him as the Son become Man; that thus He has the sovereign and divine right to be both the Life-giver and the Judge; and further, that His communication of life, divine and eternal, absolutely frees those that receive it from judgment; they pass out of death into life. It is eternal life they have passed into. Resurrection to life is thus guaranteed to all who have died in faith, from whatever age or dispensation.

John 6 shows the Giver of life — the Quickener — to be also the abiding Bread of life, its sustainment, its nourishment. The life develops and expands as it feeds on Him. This explains the various degrees of growth in the divine life found among the children of God. If the life by which we live is a common life — the life that is in the Son of God — the practical, experimental life, the life lived, varies in the different dispensations on account of the varying measures of the revelation, and in the same dispensation also on account of the varying degrees of the energy of faith.

We are instructed in John 7 that it is through drinking of the fulness that is in the Son that the possessor of life eternal becomes a filled vessel, the overflow of which the Spirit uses to bless and refresh others. He who drinks in the things of Christ as the Spirit has taught them, is in turn the Spirit’s channel of these things to others.

John 8, 9 and 10 show that the portion of those whom He quickens — those born of water and the Spirit — is communion with Himself. Life in the Son of God, communicated to the believer, implies communion with the Son, after the pattern of the communion of the Son with the Father (John 10:14-15). This communion in its full blessedness necessarily waited its full revelation. Those having life before the full revelation enjoyed communion in a partial measure, but after its full revelation, the communion is life abundant — fulness of joy.

In John 11 and 12 we are shown that the life with which we are quickened in new birth, given as it is by Him who in His own person is the annulment of death and judgment, and on the basis of His own death and resurrection as grace for men, is a life that links its possessors with the sphere of life beyond death. Hence the certainty of the resurrection of all dying in faith in Old Testament times, while death is no more death for the believer in this New Testament age. Its power is annulled for those for whom life and incorruption have been illuminated (2 Tim. 1:10). The quickened from the beginning are all the fruit of the Corn of Wheat that fell into the ground and died. It has risen. He is the manifested Living One, and all that receive life from Him, of whatever age, are by that life forever linked with Him in the sphere of life to which He belongs.

The Son of God, then, is the Source and Fountain of life. He is that as a divine Person; He is that as become Man. It is His right to give life, to quicken. Divine testimony deposited in the soul in the power of the Spirit is His way of imparting life, and life imparted thus is of the same nature as life in its Giver. It is life in identification with the life eternal in the Son. It is a divinely bestowed capacity for the knowledge and enjoyment of God. It is that in every age; the measure of the knowledge and enjoyment depending on the measure of the revelation; the full revelation expanding the enjoyment into fulness of joy — life abundant.

The above statement of the doctrine of life, as taught in the Gospel of John, is very brief — too brief if we were engaged in the study of that Gospel; but it may suffice as presenting what needs to be kept in mind while studying the first epistle. As we proceed with the epistle in course, there will be frequent need of referring to the Gospel.

The Gospel record is for the purpose of showing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that they who believe the record may have life through His name (John 20:31), for life is communicated on the principle of faith.

This life, being a derived, dependent life in those to whom it is communicated, has those characteristics seen in the earthly life of the Son of God. This is what the first epistle insists on. He that says “he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.”

We will now take up the epistle in detail.