1 JOHN 5 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 415] 1 JOHN 5 (NOTES OF A READING)
Ques In the statement, “This is he that came by water and blood”, is the point the grace in which He came, and consequent on death — not incarnation in that way?
CAC No, I think it was how the Lord came into His present position and condition. But He is now in a position and condition which is after death, so that no question in connection with sin, whether for atonement or for moral cleansing, remains unsettled. The Spirit could not give any other testimony than that all those questions connected with what we were in flesh and blood are divinely settled. Is that not the idea?
Ques The witness of the Spirit is really consequent on the place in which He has arrived in that way?
CAC I thought so. I think that would show that the Lord is viewed as having completed the whole work that He came to do. The value of the water and of the blood remains, and the Spirit witnesses. The Spirit could never witness to us that we are still in the flesh, could He?
Ques Do you connect the witness of the Spirit with the gift of the Spirit — on the fact of the Spirit being here? He has come here.
CAC Yes, the Spirit is the truth and the truth is the Spirit, it works either way. So it is important for us not to get out of the witness of the Spirit. We should be full of the Spirit, and are under obligation to be full of the Spirit. If so, we should have the Spirit’s thoughts about everything. There is nothing mysterious about being filled with the Spirit! It is normal and so regarded in Ephesians, where it is enjoined on us. Ephesians is the full christian position; whether I know anything about it does not matter, it is part of that position to be filled with the Spirit. It has been verified in the disciples in the early days and it is normal for us. Then we shall [p. 416] get the full gain of the witness of the Spirit.
Ques What is it to be filled with the Spirit?
CAC I am really left in charge of myself — this body and all connected with it. I am under responsibility not to allow anything contrary in my thoughts or feelings to the Spirit. We have a good deal of objective help for this. The thoughts of the Scriptures are of the Spirit, and ministry, if true, is in the power of the Spirit, so that as occupied with it I am filled with the Spirit. How thankful you feel at any moment when there is not a fleshly thought or feeling moving in your soul — even if it is for a minute. We were then occupied with divine Persons, and the truth. It has come home to me lately in a much more simple way. If I find a fleshly thought in my mind, I should judge it at once; any self-importance is not of the Spirit, but the flesh.
We should take advantage of every occasion that would help us in this. It is a great thing for Christians to converse together of divine things. Then we are probably in the region of the Spirit; or perhaps a brother may correct me. And I think God is very pleased when any one of us pays attention to the epistle to the Ephesians. That is what God has appointed to me and I may take advantage of it.
Rem At one time Ephesians used to be thought too high up for those low down.
CAC If we accept the low-down position, we shall remain there! Paul says, I am not content to do that! Yet even so, God does not leave me there, but someone or some little book perhaps comes along to help me. My flesh will not accept one divine thought; I have come to that conclusion.
Ques Is it a characteristic position as we go about our daily work?
CAC Quite so, your daily work is another order of things, where you are doing the will of God. It may necessitate the application of our minds to what is in hand, spiritual thoughts not then filling our minds. It belongs to responsible work, and you need the Spirit to keep you from slipping away from God’s will. The Spirit is life on account of righteousness. Why should I be discontented with God’s will for me? If I am filled with the Spirit I do my work to the glory of God. In what kind of spirit am I doing these things of daily drudgery? Is it cheerfully and happily? If I am grumbling and complaining, I am not filled with the Spirit.
The point here is that the Spirit is the truth, the Spirit is indissolubly connected with the truth, and if we have no fleshly motives in it we can be witnesses to the truth.
Someone told Whitfield how well he had preached one day and he replied, ‘Yes, the devil told me that before I left the pulpit’. He judged it. I should think that a man like that, so quick to discern the flesh, was filled with the Spirit. Some Christians are so continually walking in the flesh that they do not know when they are doing it. “If, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body” (Romans 8: 13). The Spirit of God would give power to put the deeds of the body to death — to crush its head. I think we have very little idea of the value of the Spirit. “Ye know him” (John 14: 17) the Lord said to His disciples. How do I know Him? Because of His help to me. So with the most commonplace thing, there is room in it for the features of Christ to come out. We get discontented with things we do not like, and we get right out of the current of the Spirit; but then there is no need for it, thank God! These trying conditions are helpful discipline. If I have to do something I do not like to do, if I avoid it, I miss the discipline. A brother once remarked he did not retire from business, because it was good discipline for him.
We should value all that helps to keep us in the current of the Spirit. I value the Scriptures more and more, and the ministry, on this line. If my thoughts never get out of the current of the Spirit, I am sure my words and actions would not, for they start there.
Ques If we could come together, would [p. 418] that not help?
CAC We all ought to feel that we should not miss an opportunity to come together, though I know we have to take account of illness or duties. Fancy coming for one hour in the region of the Spirit! Well, it is worth while, is it not?
I suppose the point here is that the Spirit is the testimony of the water and the blood in the soul of the believer. He would never give the testimony to a believer that sin is upon him judicially in the sight of God, for every sin has been cleansed by the blood. Then as to the flesh, the water comes in and the sense that we died with Christ — that is the truth.
Ques Would the service of feet-washing enter into this — the use of the water by the saints?
CAC It is very helpful and based on the fact that we are already washed all over. Every action of my flesh was removed in the death of Christ; if it was not I should perish eternally. The feet-washing is application to me in detail; so if soil comes on my feet, it has to be washed away. It is the same character of washing as being washed all over.
My comfort is that there was so much true to the Lord that was not true to the disciples. “Ye are already clean” (John 15: 3) — the Lord looks at us from His own point of view. If the Lord saw me in the flesh, it would deny the value of His own death.
We are almost afraid to go to the Lord, in case He would raise all manner of questions, but He would say to us, I want you to understand what I effected for you in My death — by the water and blood that flowed from My side. It clears you of all you have been going on with, the whole body of sin. It shows how little we know God and know the Lord, or we should be most thankful to move over into God’s thoughts.
Ques What is the meaning of the statement, “The three agree in one”?
CAC There is a note in the Darby Translation which explains it. It is certainly true that the Spirit, the water and the blood leave no vestige of what we are according to the [p. 419] flesh. It has often been said that this is how we come to the truth of eternal life, it is a matter of witness. If we keep in the circle of divine witness, it is always to one point, the Spirit setting aside the working of the flesh, the water setting it aside morally, and the blood judicially. It is a matter of divine witness, not experimental here. Then the positive side of the witness is brought in that we might be taken up with the Son of God. The witness would liberate us to be absorbed with another Man, and that the Son of God, and in having the Son, we have life. That is our life; whether I am in it experimentally or not, that is my life. If I only touched it for five minutes, this is my life.
Rem “Ye have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God” (Colossians 3: 3).
CAC It is a wonderful statement that. “When the Christ is manifested who is our life”, is the same thing. I think Colossians goes very much with John. As a matter of actual things, we are not dead, but the Spirit would keep me in consciousness of my life, and that I am in Another. We being dead — we reckon we are dead and alive in Christ Jesus; no person is a Christian without that. I think God intends it to be a spiritual reality — that we are dead and our life hid with the Christ in God. What other life have we got? And it brings you to a point that you may be filled with all the fulness of God. The Ephesian side is that the Father strengthens us with power by His Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in our hearts, being rooted and founded in love, that we may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that we may be filled to all the fulness of God (Ephesians 3: 16 - 19). What a region to live in! Still that does not take us out of the responsible exercises of everyday life, for after that, he tells us we must not steal or tell lies.
Rem I suppose it is in the conditions of [p. 420] everyday life that this life shines out.
CAC Eternal life is for the place where death is. It is contrasted with life in various scriptures, and I suppose eternal life is really a matter of witness. Does this section (verses 6 - 12) not show us we come into eternal life as a matter of divine witness?
Rem So it says, “And this is the witness, that God has given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son”.
CAC Yes, you see there is the witness of the Spirit, and of the water and of the blood, and there is the witness of God that He has witnessed concerning His Son, and the believer on the Son of God has the witness in himself. God is bearing witness of His Son, and the witness is that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The whole paragraph is full of the thought of witness.
Rem We get the thought of the Spirit witnessing with our spirit in Romans 8: 16.
CAC It is the believer on the Son of God in having the Spirit who has the witness in himself. It is characteristically in the presence of the Spirit, so all that is to show us we have it in the Son of God, apart from all that we are in the flesh, which we have to leave behind to touch it. And eternal life is in the Spirit; so we reap eternal life from the Spirit. The Person who can give us knowledge of eternal life is the Spirit. When I was a youngster, a brother used to say, Boys, whatever you do, keep on good terms with the Holy Spirit.