THE WITNESS
[p. 258] THE WITNESS
We were seeing this morning that the new covenant makes evident the terms on which God is pleased to be with us in our course down here. It is essential that we should understand where we live. We cannot live without surroundings; this comes out in the preceding chapter. We live in the atmosphere of divine love, in what God is toward us; we do not live in the world really: we are dead to the world, and we reckon ourselves “alive to God in Christ Jesus”. It is not only that we are loved, but we have a capacity for entering into, and thus answering to, that love. We are nurtured in divine affections, and the effect is love to God and love to the brethren; and as thus formed God dwells in us. He has given us of His Spirit. It is in that way, too, we are separated from the system of lust and pride: in the knowledge and enjoyment of divine love. There are three points in connection with this in chapter 4. First, the great expression of love; you must go back to the death of Christ for that. “God ... sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins”. Then the apostle goes on to say, “We have known and believed the love that God hath to us”; that comes out in the way of discipline and care. Then the way love is perfected with us, so that we may have “boldness in the day of judgment”, as at the end of Romans 8: “I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. “As he is, so are we in this world”. In that way love is perfected with us. Chapter 4 unfolds to us the teaching of the [p. 259] Spirit — divine teaching is by the Holy Spirit; but the chapter puts it in the way of divinely-given doctrine, hence we can communicate it in that way. No one could give us any sense of divine love but the Spirit of God. “He hath given us of his Spirit”; we partake in that way of His character. All this is preparatory to the witness. Before we can understand very much about the witness we must be separated from the world system. If you are not separated from the world by the knowledge of divine love, you are not properly fitted to take your place in the witness. The early disciples were practically separated from the world, and abiding in the love of God. The witness is totally marred when people are worldly; the witness is of One who is going to set aside the whole world system: of Christ, the last Adam, the great Head, who is appointed to bring to an end the whole world system. First you get the victory over the world in believing on the Son of God, else you are not fit for the witness. The Spirit then bears witness to us; then we read, “He that believeth ... hath the witness in himself”. In having the witness in himself one becomes part of the witness: holding forth the word of life is the character of the witness. We have to apprehend that things which belong to God’s ways down here are, for the moment, preserved in the church; they have not lapsed. Eternal life was promised in the Old Testament, and even before the world; it was to come to pass in Christ; but Christ is rejected, and eternal life is here by the Son in the church. Sonship, God’s house, the flock, and the shepherd are all thoughts connected with God’s ways down here. They are taken up in the church; none of them has lapsed. When the church comes out as the heavenly city, it is the exponent of all God’s ways. We are being educated for that. “Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious”; she is the crown of God’s ways. This [p. 260] shows what an extremely important moment the present is. This is He that came by water and by blood. Christ is not spoken of as being the Head of the new creation, but Head over all things of the wide creation. He comes in by water and by blood because sin has come in. As last Adam, He comes in as the One who has accomplished redemption, not only to bring in moral cleansing, but expiation also — there is the blood as well as the water; this is the ground on which He takes the place of last Adam. The great point in the chapter is the witness to Him, and we have our part in that witness. We should be a witness to the great Head of God’s system — the One who is going to fill all things; but He is hid for the time being. The Spirit is here as witness to Him, and we have the good that is in the Son. “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life”; hence we are a witness to Him. It is a great thing to have the Son; nobody but the Son of God could meet the state of things that had to be met down here: death, which is universal, and dearth; you have a picture of it in the prodigal; the world is a scene of dearth morally. Christ is the answer to these two things. He has complete authority and power over the domain of death, and there is all the goodness of heaven in Him to meet the state of dearth down here; the Spirit answers to thirst, and Christ Himself to hunger. If you enter the sanctuary and get instructed in the secret of God, then you come out in witness here. In Ephesians 3 you survey the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height”, and then in chapter 6 you enter on conflict. If we have to stand here in testimony and conflict, we need to be instructed in the secret of God. The church goes into heaven in order that it may be fitted to come down from God out of heaven. The heavenly city is to be the light of the universe; “the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it”. Paul was [p. 261] caught up to the third heaven that everything might be assured to him. The one who can stand here in testimony is the one who has been into the sanctuary: you judge of things around you in the secret of the sanctuary. It is great encouragement to have the light of the mystery as learned in the sanctuary; then you hold fast the profession of faith without wavering. The apostle laboured to bring the saints to the knowledge of the mystery.
All is progress through this epistle; fellowship is the starting-point. When a person is converted he is brought into christian fellowship; that connects itself in a certain sense with profession. To come to full growth is to reach the apprehension of that system of which the Son of God, the last Adam, is the Head; the conclusion we come to is that “we are of God, and the whole world lies in the wicked one”.
There is another world now: Christ is the real starting-point, and we belong to that world. Christ is entirely outside of the world system; He has a world of His own. It is a most solemn thing for christians to be connected in spirit with this great world system, instead of with Christ entirely outside it. The vessel of witness has been obscured by the world; if you had a perfect lantern with a perfect light in it and daubed the glass with mud, the light would be obscured; the church has become so obscured by the world that the light is feebly seen.
We want unity in order to witness; you cannot get unity except in divine affections, in what flows from the knowledge of divine love; you cannot get it by doctrine or ecclesiastical order, all that breaks down. Love is perfected in us when unity is realised. Sanctification leads to unity; the more separated we are to Christ in heaven, the more unity is seen on earth. Where the Son of God is possessed, there is unity; you cannot say you have the Son except in divine affections; Christ is in the affections of the soul.
[p. 262] You have the Son in all that He is for the Father’s glory; you could not measure the scope of that. “The Son of God has come”. He brings in everything with Himself. He comes with unlimited power over the domain of death, and is the bread of God to meet the moral dearth that is here. We often think of the Father and the Son simply as divine Persons; we want to see the distinctive glory of each, according to divine counsels; that is what is meant by “hath the Son”. “All things are delivered unto me of my Father” — all thus centres in the Son. John did not write these things until the witness had failed; as long as the Spirit of God is here there is always hope of recovery; He recalls us to all that is essential. You are free of the wicked one and the world; and you have got an understanding to know Him that is true.