Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

This video is a little over 4 hours long, but is broken into 11 segments. This part is covered from 2 hour 34 minutes to 2 hour 56 minutes.

1 John 2:28 — 3:24.

The apostle now turns to a consideration of the ways in which the life eternal manifests itself in those in whom it dwells. He begins by setting before us a most solemn fact. The one who professes to have, but has not, life in the Son, will be ashamed in His presence when He appears. The false claim and its presumption will be shamed away from Christ’s presence (ver. 28).

What then are the marks of its possession? It is made manifest by its own characteristic activities. Those who are born of God derive from Him who is the source of it, a nature which has its own characteristic features. Our Lord could say: “He that seeketh His glory that sent Him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him” (John 7:18). He was manifested as the righteous One in a life which constantly sought the glory of Him who sent Him. His life constantly bore witness that He is the righteous One. And those who have been born of God have derived from Him a life characterized by the aims and objects which characterized our Lord. The children of God are marked by that fact — by the practice of righteousness; it manifests them as being partakers of the life eternal; it proves them to be children of God (ver. 29).

If they are thus characterized, it is of the grace of God. The life which thus manifests its presence in us, witnesses that we are the subjects of a work of grace. No wonder the apostle exclaims: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God!”* It is by grace we are His children, and through His grace we know it and have the liberty to take the place of children before Him. This is the kind or fashion of the love He bestows upon us. No angel is loved with such a love. God has seen fit to reserve this for us, whom He has redeemed from among sinful men.

{*The Greek has “children,” not sons. John speaks of relationship by life — not of position, as Paul does.}

But what a transformation has taken place in us! From living to ourselves and seeking the praise of men, we are led to walk in His steps who sought the glory of Him who sent Him. We have been turned from the practice of sin to the practice of righteousness; from being governed by our own lawless wills to being governed by the will of God; from aims, ends, purposes and objects natural to us, to the aims, ends, purposes and objects of Him who came not to do His own will, but the will of the Father who sent Him.

On this account, therefore, the children of God are not understood by the world. It can understand the pursuit of earthly and seen things, but it cannot understand the Christian’s disregard of them. To be guided and controlled by heavenly and unseen things is a mystery to them. There is a day coming when the world will see us in glory with Christ; for, when He shall be manifested, we shall also be manifested with Him (Col. 3:4). It will then know that we are sharers in the Father’s love of His Son (John 17:22-23). But we have not to wait until that day to know we are children of God. We have the knowledge of it now. In the day of manifested glory, we shall be conformed to the image of Christ; we shall be like Him. It has been distinctly revealed to us (1 John 3:2).

Attention is called to the fact that we are to be conformed to Him as He is, not as He was. When the Son of God became incarnate, He assumed humanity in the form in which we are in this life. In men it is a fallen, sinful humanity; in Him it was unfallen and sinless; but even so, it was in the same form. He took part in flesh and blood, which we have. That form of humanity ended with His death. When He rose He took it up in a new form.

In 2 Cor. 5:16, the apostle Paul says: “Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.” This was the lesson our risen Lord taught Mary Magdalene in John 20, when He said to her: “Touch Me not.” She thought she had got Him back as He was before He died. Never again will He be in that form, but ever in the form of humanity He took up when He rose. We are to see Him as He is. We are to be like Him as He is — in manhood indeed, but in the form of humanity in which He now is. To be changed into His image means to have bodies fashioned after the body He now has. Not to have unfallen, sinless humanity simply, but in the condition in which our Lord now is.

What a hope! What a blessed prospect! “Like Him,” both morally and physically! There is sanctifying power in such a hope. Every one who has this hope in relation to Him, purifies himself. The Man Christ Jesus is not only the standard of perfect moral perfection, but of physical perfection also. The very desire to be as Christ is, to be in His image, will produce moral conformity to Him now (ver. 3). It will promote and develop the practice of righteousness, which manifests one to be a child of God.

The children of this world are marked by the practice of sin, by the activity of their own wills — not in subjection to God. (It scarcely needs to be remarked that verse 4 should be translated, “Whosoever practises sin practises lawlessness; for sin is lawlessness.”) The Son of God came into the world to take away our sins (ver. 5). He had to stoop to the depths of the judgment of God upon our lawless practice to deliver us from what by such practice we justly deserved. It strongly shows, therefore, that the practice of sin cannot characterize one who is born of God.

But there is another statement in this verse equally strong: “In Him is no sin.” This is true, whether we think of Him as He was here upon earth, or as He is now, risen and ascended to heaven: “In Him is no sin.” Those born of God have received from Him a sinless nature. The life He has imparted to them is characterized by the same features as in Himself, in keeping therefore with righteousness. The children of God then, as being that, as abiding in the Son of God, do not practise sin. Such practice is altogether foreign to their nature; having community of life with Him, they cannot practise sin (ver. 6). He that practises sin is not abiding in Him, has never seen Him, does not know Him. The practice of righteousness is not natural to us, but the practice of sin is. To know and to practise righteousness, then, we must know Him who is righteous.

The apostle is especially in earnest that the children of God should realize this. He says, in verse 7, “Let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous;” it is the mark by which those are distinguished as children of Him who is righteous; while, on the other hand, the practice of sin distinguishes those who are in identification with the devil (ver. 8). A creature who abode not in the truth (John 8:44) became the originator of sin in man. From the time that iniquity was found in him (Ezek. 28:15) the practice of sin has marked him, and he is the great leader in the practice. It is this practice that manifests the world as being in association with, as of him. Through him, the original author of sin, works of evil have been found among God’s creatures, whether angels or men. The practice of sin everywhere is of his instituting; it is his work.

The apostle reminds us now that the Son of God was manifested for the purpose of undoing the works of the devil. Every trace of him who introduced sin among God’s creatures is to be removed. By the power of the blood of the cross all things, whether earthly or heavenly, will be brought back into a state of perfect harmony with God, absolutely and permanently purged from the defilement of sin (Col. 1:20). Acting according to His own nature, the Son of God will remove sin from God’s creation. Having already laid the basis for it in the work of the cross, He will entirely undo this scandal — the work of the devil.

“Which thing is true in Him and in you.” As already said, righteousness attaches to the life we receive from Him. Its activities, not only in Him, but in us also, are all righteous. God’s seed — His nature — abides in them. As in that nature the practice of sin is impossible to them (ver. 9).

It is needful to realize that the apostle is reasoning in the abstract. When he says, “Whosoever is born of God doth not practise sin,” he is speaking of the child of God characteristically. He is not overlooking the fact that the old nature is still in him, but he does not consider that in giving his character as a child of God. He is not excusing the Christian’s failures — he is not making light of the sins into which a child of God may fall, but it must necessarily be omitted in any abstract description of his character.

Another thing must also be remembered. The apostle is speaking, not of the perfection in which the character of the child of God is manifested, but of the fact that the practice of righteousness, whatever the degree of the perfection of its display, is a distinctive mark of God’s children.

If the reader will keep in mind these things, he will not find it difficult to understand the account the apostle here gives of a child of God.

It may perhaps be well to restate this before we proceed to consider the next feature by which the children of God are characterized. Every child of God is born of One who is righteous, of One in whom there is no sin. His nature is a righteous nature; its activities are all righteous activities. The children of God have in them this seed of God — a sinless nature. It is this seed that distinguishes them as born of God. It is an abiding seed; ever operative according to its own righteous nature. All its activities are righteous; not one of them is sinful. The children of God, viewed abstractly, not only do not practise sin, but are incapable of it. It is incompatible with the righteous nature by which they are characterized as born of God.

It is not only the practice of righteousness that marks one who is born of God, but loving his brethren (ver. 10). We must now consider what the apostle says in reference to this.

It is to be noted that he mentions the two characteristics in a way that shows they go together. A child of God cannot be marked by one without the other. They are inseparable. If one is lacking, so is the other. We have seen that there is in the child of God a nature that is perfectly holy. This holy nature asserts itself in two ways — in the practice of righteousness and in loving the brethren.

Let us remember the apostle is speaking, not of the measure of realization or degree of enjoyment, but of what is characteristically true of all children of God. He is not discussing the hindrances to the full expression of the divine nature in us, but what is true in fact. It is the fact that is insisted on, not the extent in which it is displayed. If doing righteousness and loving the brethren are in any measure present, if they are at all in operation, the divine nature is there. There may be still much evidence of the old nature’s presence which characterizes us as natural men — it shows what we are as natural men; not what we are as born of God. It is the operations of our new nature that display what we are as having been born of God, although overshadowed often by those of the old. They are in error, however, those who reason that the old nature is done away by the new, and teach that the evidence of the presence of the old proves an absence of the new.

All this that I have been saying is of the greatest moment if the apostle is to be understood. If we read him intelligently, it must be seen that he is speaking in the abstract, that he is writing of what is characteristically true, and thus of what is true of every believer, of every child of God.

For proof of the statement that loving the brethren is a mark of a child of God, the apostle appeals to the message or instruction of the incarnate Son of God (ver. 11). He refers to the fact that love to one another should characterize them. In John 13:34-35, He said: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Our Lord is not simply pressing upon His own the obligation or responsibility to love one another, but that it would be a mark by which the reality of their professed discipleship would be manifested. John appeals to this as a mark of the children of God.

A child of God is one who has been born of Him, and so is of God — not like Cain, who was of the evil one (ver. 12). His works therefore were evil. There was, even then, light shining sufficiently to manifest whether his works were wrought in God or were evil. The light exposed his works, showed them to be evil. God’s acceptance of what Abel had wrought in God manifested Cain’s deeds to be evil. Cain therefore hates the light. His murder of Abel manifested his hatred of the light. The children of God come to the light, and the light manifests them to be of the truth; it shows that their deeds are wrought in God (John 3:21). However misunderstood by the world, the children of God are seen to be doers of righteousness and lovers of their brethren.

If Cain represents the natural man in his rejection of the testimony of God, and is an example of the world’s hatred of the light which exposes its evil deeds, the children of God need not wonder at the world’s hatred of them (ver. 13). Our Lord said to His disciples, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). If it hates Him, if it refuses Him who is the Light, it will desire to rid itself of every witness to Him. The light, even feebly reflected by the believer, is unwelcome to it.

But we have passed out of death into life. We have the testimony of the Son of God for this (John 5:24). John, however, does not appeal to this here but to love to the brethren (ver. 14). “He that loveth not his brother” he says, “abideth in death.” If he does not love, he hates; and “whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer” (ver. 15); that is, he is identified in nature and character with him who “abode not in the truth,” but became a murderer and liar (John 8:44).

“Ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him” has often been misunderstood. It has been taken to mean that no murderer can be saved. Let us seek to understand what the apostle says. In the first place, he declares that “whosoever hates his brother is a murderer.” Is it not plain that the apostle points to the nature which characterizes one who, like Cain, is of the wicked one? Thus a man does not need to take the life of a fellowman to be a murderer; he is that by the very fact that he possesses that nature. In this sense all men are murderers by their very nature since the fall. But when the grace of God lays hold of one who is such in the eyes of God, he is born anew, “born from above.” He possesses a new nature, which now characterizes him in God’s eyes. God looks upon him as having passed out of death into life. He no more looks at him according to the old nature which is still in him, but according to what he is as born of God. A new life dwells in him. It is in the character of this new life that God now views him.

We have spoken of love to the brethren as evidence of a new nature received from God; but it may be said: Is not God above us, beyond us? Do we not read, “No man hath seen God at any time?” How then is it possible for us to comprehend the activities of love in God? It has been manifested in the person of His Son whom He sent into the world to lay down His life sacrificially in behalf of men (ver. 16). In this we have learned what the love of God is. The knowledge of this divine love is abiding in the soul that has bowed to the meaning of the Cross of Christ.

The activities of love in God must necessarily characterize His children. It is not merely a question of duty or obligation, but a characteristic of their nature, which in communion with God displays itself. This is the force of verse 17. Of course, the verse may be used as an appeal to rouse the conscience where there seems to be carelessness or indifference, but the apostle is convicting of unreality the mere profession of loving the brethren. His argument is, How can love be there if there is no activity of it? How can love that is of God be dwelling where it is not in exercise? There is danger, even in the children of God, of falling into pretension. So in verse 18 the apostle warns against it. Clearly he is speaking here to those whom he recognizes as of God. He is exhorting them to see to it that there be no pretence; no mere loving in word or tongue, but only in deed and in truth. Unreality is a grievous sin in a child of God; it is really hypocrisy. Let us then give due heed to the apostle’s warning against it. Our Lord also speaks of this in Luke 12:1.

What is the test of reality? Verses 19 and 20 are the apostle’s answer. It is for us to know — to realize — that we are of the truth. It is the privilege of the child of God to assure his heart before God. “God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.” Those who “walk in the light as God is in the light” realize this; they are conscious that all unreality is exposed before Him. What enables us to stand in the light, in which no unreality can be tolerated, is the atoning blood of Christ. It is that which gives us assured hearts before God, before whom all is thoroughly searched out. He who is greater than our hearts has provided us with what gives us full confidence in His presence; the blood of Christ is His answer to every question of our acceptance or attack of the enemy. In the power of the blood of Christ, with uncondemning hearts, we abide in that Presence before whom all is manifest. God Himself is our refuge and our confidence; by His grace we are those who keep His commandments and practise the things pleasing to Him. We are those who believe “on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another,” and whose petitions are in accordance with Him in whom we are accepted. We abide in God and He abides in us (vv. 21-24).

A marvelous blessing this, a wonderful privilege: abiding in God and God abiding in us! We are in the community of life and nature, after the pattern of that declared by our Lord when He said, “I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (John 14:10-11). Just as He abode in the Father and the Father in Him, so also we abide in Him and He in us. By the Spirit which now dwells in us we are able to realize and enjoy the portion that is ours. Characteristically speaking (as John constantly does), in this dispensation of the Spirit the children of God are qualified to enjoy the intimacies of their relationship with God. They find their power for this in the Spirit dwelling in them.