ETERNAL LIFE AND CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
[p. 157] ETERNAL LIFE AND CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
“From the beginning” is the outset of the particular thing in hand. “The devil sinned from the beginning”. It is from the departure, from the start of the particular thing in hand. In the latter passage it is the “sinning”; in the former, it is the life. “From the beginning” is thus not a question of time, but of the outset of the particular thing in hand. Here it is the outset “Christ come in the flesh”, the incarnation is the point of departure of the particular subject.
The matter in hand here is the “Word of life”. That is the subject of which John is treating.
The “Word” in the Gospel of John is the declaration of God. In the epistle it is more the question of life, hence we get the “Word of life”. In the gospel it is what is true in the Father and the Son; in the epistle it is in Christ and in us. “Which thing is true in him and in you”. This life is in His Son. The scope of the Gospel of John is much greater than that of the epistle. It is the Father revealed in the Son and the Comforter sent, that is, God fully declared. In the epistle it is God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. It is the consciousness of what we are brought to. The darkness is passing and the true light is now shining, which thing is true in Him and in you.
Ques What is eternal life?
FER Practically it is the life of love, life in the love of God. Eternal life is extremely difficult to define, in fact, you cannot define it. One may give an idea of it. It is what will rule in the coming age in contrast to the rule of sin and death. The seat of eternal life is God, and the power of life became manifest in Christ here. All was subdued in the [p. 158] presence of Christ when He was here. The evil which oppressed man was set aside in His presence. Devils were cast out and the dead were raised, and all that by reason of the energy of divine life in Him. All that Christ did was not simply miraculous power, but it was the energy of divine life in Him, dispossessing death and subduing the power of evil. So it will be in the coming age. Satan will be bound, death will be swallowed up in victory and evil set aside, and all that by the mighty energy of divine life in Christ. “He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil”. We come within the range of that life; the disciples did. They came under the influence of it, and they had seen it, and it was made manifest to them. They saw the mighty energy of divine life in Christ. It was the life of God in a Man, dispossessing death. “Handled” (verse 1) refers to Him after His resurrection, evidencing the fact of His being really Man. Eternal life had been manifested; God had been declared. The apostles declared “that eternal life which was with the Father”. The mighty energy of the life of God will come into the world when Christ comes, and all the power of evil will be set aside. Israel will come within the range of it in the world to come. But it is all dependent in that way upon the mighty energy of divine life in Christ. In the millennium all will be actual. God Himself will be here. With us now it is a question of knowledge. The person who has it, is one who hears the word of Christ and believes on Him who sent Him. (See John 5: 24).
Rem That is a Christian.
FER It is an advanced Christian. I do not find many who hear the word of Christ and believe on Him who sent Him in the sense in which it is stated here, though many believe on Him as Saviour. What we get in John’s epistle is what leads up to eternal life. We do not reach the climax until we come to [p. 159] chapter 5. It is only as we are formed in the divine nature that we can enter on eternal life. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life”, John 5: 24. It is a wonderful thing to see one who hears the word of the Son of God and is characterised by that. To such an one the world is viewed as all dead and no life anywhere. If you hear the voice of the Son of God you are cut off from the world, and you hear no word but the word of the Son. The chapter contemplates a scene of death; all are dead, and the distinction marked in verse 24 is one who hears the voice of the Son of God; such an one has “passed out of death into life”, he is passed into another order of things.
“In him was life” is chapter 1 of John’s gospel. It was “given to the Son to have life in himself” in chapter 5.
If people have not passed out of the world morally they are still in death; the world is all in death. A person is not in life unless he has entered into it consciously. Eternal life is not merely a question of faith, but of consciousness. I do not see how a person can have eternal life unless he has the consciousness of it. We pass out of death into life by the work of God in us. We pass into life as we are prepared for it, and that is being formed in the divine nature. The bulk of people in Christendom regard Christianity as a something for this world. How do they pass out of death into life? They remain in death, they remain in the world system.
Ques How far does the gospel bring people?
FER It brings them to the faith of Christ. In the history of Israel the question of eternal life is connected with the land, not with Egypt nor the wilderness. Eternal life to us consists in the knowledge of the Father and the Son; no one can know the Father [p. 160] and the Son save in the divine nature. You enter on eternal life by reason of formation in the divine nature. Every Christian has life in the Spirit, but eternal life is another thought altogether. Eternal life is the thought of God for us, and the Spirit of God is here to form us in the divine nature that we may be led into the reality of it. The question is, what are we prepared for? If a child is left a vast estate, he has title to it, but he has to be trained and educated to enter into it. Every believer has title to eternal life, because it is God’s thought for us. Are we prepared to be led on to it? We have to begin as babes, but we cannot be full-fledged Christians all at once. There must be growth, otherwise there would not be reality. We have to be formed in the divine nature, and that cannot be done in a moment. Take John 3: 16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. Eternal life is God’s thought for you. Whosoever believeth on Him shall have it. It does not tell you there what it is. In chapter 4 it is how you get it — it is by the well of water, springing up to eternal life. But in chapters 5 and 6 we get what eternal life is. In chapter 5 you come into the presence of One who is capable of dealing with the entire domain of death; it is the power of life in Christ dealing with the entire domain of death. In chapter 6 you come into the presence of One who comes down to give life to the world, that the world might be filled with the goodness and fatness of heaven. We do not get things actually, but we get eternal life in the knowledge of the Person who can deal on the part of God with the whole domain of death, and can fill the world with the good of heaven. “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life”. We appropriate now what is coming into the world by and by. The world is now a scene of death and destitution, but it will be filled with the [p. 161] good of heaven. All that is in the world will take its character from Christ. The world that is, is tending in the direction of Antichrist. There is a struggle going on for existence, and the survival of the fittest will bring the fittest man to the top, and thus you get Antichrist, and he will come under the judgment of God. But there will be a new start in the world. Eternal life now lies in the knowledge of the Person who is able to bring it in. The Gospel of John is written to shew what it is, and the epistle is how we may come to it. I do not think people are prepared for it. I see them reading all sorts of things, as if they found life in the world, whereas in the eye of God it is a scene of moral famine; there is no satisfaction in the world, it is a scene of moral destitution, and as much so to the greatest as to the least. There is no bread, no food — there is nothing to eat. John 6 is living bread, so that you may have food: “He that eateth of this bread shall live for ever”.
Ques. Fellowship?
FER Verses 1 - 4 are introductory; the subject matter begins at verse 5. The first eighteen verses in the gospel are introductory. People may be in Christian fellowship, and yet not be very instructed in the knowledge of divine Persons. The bond of fellowship is the recognition of Christ as Lord. The fellowship spoken of in the beginning of chapter 1: 1 - 4 is what is peculiar to the apostles. The declaration of God came to us through the apostles. They promulgated it. Grace and apostleship were given to the disciples that they might promulgate. We must give the apostles their place. The original declaration of all truth was through the apostles. We have the declaration of God’s mind to us through the apostles. The church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The apostles were to be the promulgators — they were those originally appointed of God with the testimony. Each apostle states things in a [p. 162] particular way as given to each, but they all coincide. The apostle John gives us here in the first four verses his qualification to address us. John always speaks of things morally.
The fellowship in verse 7 is Christian fellowship; the early Christians were in the apostles’ fellowship, we have fellowship one with the other, the conditions of it being that we “walk in the light as God is in the light”. We walk in the light of revelation. God was hid, but has now come out in the light, and “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another”. In receiving Christ we come into the light, for He is the revelation of God. Then we have fellowship one with another, and that is Christian fellowship. “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie”. The apostle had in his mind probably an apostate Jew: it was a pretension. John has always the Jew in view. The epistle is our side, and the gospel is the light of the revelation of God. In chapter 5 we come consciously into the light. 1 John 5: 18 - 20: “We know that the Son of God is come”. Verse 18 is clear of the wicked one, verse 19 is clear of the world, and in verse 20 we have an understanding and know Him that is true. I cannot understand Christians going on with the world. Such an one as is spoken of in verse 18, “He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not”. Verse 20: “That we may know him that is true”. In John 17: 3 we get the knowledge in which eternal life lies, but in the epistle the climax is reached in the consciousness of the saints; we have a divinely given understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true. He is the true God and eternal life. We have gone into Him, and in that character we shall come out from Him. Saints are not prepared to judge the world system. The whole world lieth in the wicked one, and one who reaches [p. 163] eternal life has come to that consciousness. The moment we move outside the love of God, which is our divinely appointed habitation, we expose ourselves to the chilling influence of death. If we abide in the love of God, the wicked one toucheth us not. Eternal life had to come into the world, and therefore Christ became Man, and when He comes in again He will bring in eternal life. “That eternal life which was with the Father”. “With the Father” is not a point of time; it is a moral idea.