1 JOHN 1
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
Christ the Power of God and the Kingdom of God
If a man have faith in the fact, it matters not that he be unable to explain it. At the same time, if his recognition of the fact be linked with a theory that brings Christ to the level of a mere man, the value of his recognition is destroyed, because that recognition is then a matter of mere words and not of enlightened conviction.
To say that Jesus was by divine begettal only in a higher degree to what his brethren are by the enlightenment of the truth as regards the "inner man," is to deny the divine definitions of him. John declares him to have been "the word of life," which had been from the beginning with the Father, and was manifested unto them,—(1 John 1:1.)
In no "degree" could this apply to any of us. The "Word made flesh" is his other well known description, which it is scarcely necessary to remark is equally inapplicable to any other man of woman born. "God manifested in the flesh" is the Spirit's definition by Paul (1 Tim. 3:16)
... Then the appearing of Christ in Israel, as heralded by the ministry of John the Baptist, is described as the revelation of the glory of Yahweh (Is. 40:5), in harmony with which, John said of himself,
"I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord (Yahweh), as said the prophet Isaiah;"
and of Christ, the Yahweh manifestation, he said,
"There standeth one among you . . . whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. . . . He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above is above all; he that is of the earth is earthy, and speaketh of the earth; he that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him."—(Jno. 1:26, 27; 3:30, 34.)
Need it be said that this language in no sense or degree can be applied to the brethren of Christ. He is said to be "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15); the express image of His person.—(Heb. 1:3.) His name Emmanuel (God-with-us) involves the doctrine taught by Paul when he said
"God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them."—(2 Cor. 5:19.)
It points in the direction of Christ's own declaration:
"He that hath seen me hath seen the Father: how sayest thou then, shew us the Father."—(Jno. 14:9.)
No one can acceptably approach a personage of dignity who has an inadequate apprehension of the greatness of that dignity. If this is true among men, how much more true towards God, whose greatness is unsearchable, and whose whole course towards men has been for the establishment of His name in its proper position of glory and authority among them, and, furthermore, whose penetration of our minds extends to the discernment of even unformed thoughts.—(Psalm 139:4.)
He knows our attitude towards Him, even if unexpressed in word or gesture. Hence, how unprepared to enter the presence of His glory in Christ are those who think of Christ as merely a glorified human being.
The object aimed at in the whole work of God in the earth is that no flesh should glory in His sight.—(1 Cor. 1:29–31; Rom 3:19–26.) This revealed principle of divine action necessitates this doctrine of God manifestation in Christ, which is unpalatable to carnal minds; for unless God were the worker by and through and in Christ, the glory would be to a mere man, and, therefore, to the flesh.
But God has expressly excluded the flesh from all glorying in the case. God did the work Himself, and Christ was the form of it. Hence when thanks are ascribed to Christ (1 Tim 1:12), it is thanks to God. So the ascription of glory to him (2 Pet. 3:18], is ascription of glory to God: for the Son and the Father are one, the one being the manifestation of the other. But by bringing Christ down to a level with us purely (though blessed be God, he was on a level with us by one side, as the seed of David), discord is introduced, and the divine supremacy compromised.
...Believe in the fact without attempting metaphysical explanations, caring only to avoid those doctrines which would teach a God-manifestation without God.
The Christadelphian, July 1874
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
I see another law in my members
... Perfect fellowship with God (and it is after a perfect fellowship that the new man aspires) requires a continual memory and a continual love and adoration of Him—a continual sense of His greatness and holiness—a continual praise, though unexpressed. To forget God is sin; to see Him always before us at our right hand is the example set for us by the Spirit in David and his son.
But behold this natural sinner with which we as yet are clogged: his thoughts get easily filled with other things; he gets exhausted in physical energy, and in a state of mental blank towards God; nay, worse, through this weakness, he perhaps forgets his duty to a neighbour, and fails to sustain the part of an obedient son.
The commandments concerning submission to evil, or concerning the doing of good, may be forgotten by him. He may think selfish thoughts or contemplate a selfish purpose, or fail in the management of his affairs, as a disinterested and faithful steward of the manifold grace of God.
Concerning anger also, from the same weakness he may often fail. These things which he does, he allows not. He hates them, and himself as the performer. The things that he would do—the continual communion with God, the continual serenity, and purity, and love and obedience, the continual blessing and comforting of others—he does not.
His attainments are feeble, and blemished by continual imperfection; and in consequence, he knows by experience what are the unutterable groanings Godwards, through the interceding Spirit in Christ, to which Paul alludes in Rom. 8:26.
At the same time, he takes the comfort that Paul administers to himself:
"If, then, I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing."
We will not be held accountable for the non-performance of the impossible. It is not that He may punish us, but that He may make His kindness the more obvious, that weakness is the inheritance of the children of God in the first stage. Sin dwelling in them is the cause of their short-comings.
The new mental man created by the truth (where he is created and is kept alive by the continual nourishment of the word)—repudiates and grieves for the short-comings. He consents heartily unto the law of all God's requirements that it is good.
It is not he that is guilty of the things he grieves for. If things were as he ardently desires, he would serve God day and night continually, without fault. It is a grief and a burden that he has not yet apprehended that for which he has been apprehended of God.
He is looking and longing with all his heart for the time when he will be delivered from the bondage of the corruption, and rise to equality with those glorious beings, the angels of his power, who
"excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening to the voice of His word—His ministers that do His pleasure."—(Ps. 103:20).
In the spirit-nature, conformity with the will of God will be as instinctive and easy to him as failings are with him now. He yearns for this nature, and strives to walk in accordance with its dictates now. His life in its overt acts is ordered in harmony with its precepts.
This, in fact, is the great difference between him and those who are purely carnal: the latter have no aspirations Godwards, but are content with what they "know naturally as brute beasts;" the other pants after God, as the hart panteth for the water brooks, and strives to obey His commandments while yet in a state of humiliation before Him, because of the cleaving of his soul to the dust.
He joins fervently in Paul's exclamation,
"O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death. I thank God (who shall deliver me) through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh, the law of sin."
That is, mentally, we seek after what God requires; but physically, we are subject to those conditions and necessities whose existence are due to sin.
The Christadelphian, Sep 1874
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
' though good practice will not always result from sound teaching, owing to the perverseness of the flesh...bad practice is the certain consequence of satanic teaching'.
Eureka 2.4.4.
John is here addressing himself to those who believe the truth. He gives us to understand that a person who merely knows the truth intellectually—who merely believes there was such a man as Jesus Christ, and that he rose from the dead, and is theoretically offered as the salvation of God, but walks in unrighteousness, is none the better for his knowledge, and deceives himself, if he imagine he is a son of God. The mere knowledge of the truth will never secure for any one an entrance into the kingdom. The truth is but an agency; the gospel is but a means; and unless the end is realised, the means are a failure.
Bro Roberts - Exhort No 4.
"Fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ" consists in walking in the light, as God is in the light. "Fellowship one with another," depends entirely upon our conformity to this first and necessary principle of all fellowship, which John so emphatically lays down in 1 John 1:6-7.
Light" is a figure of speech—a metaphor for divine wisdom, true knowledge, and accurate understanding.
"Walking in the light," therefore, means "believing all things that are written in the law and the prophets," as Paul affirmed he did (Acts 24:14), as well as the subsequent writings in the New Testament: exercising hope towards God as embodied in "Christ our hope," and following "righteousness, faith, love, peace with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart."
Without the patient and faithful observance of these things, fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ is impossible, and in consequence fellowship one with another is likewise impracticable.
The Christadelphian 1885 p380
To have fellowship with, is to be a fellow of, in the sense of being identical in mind, faith, disposition, principle, practice, taste and intention, and also in nature and relation. To have fellowship with the apostles, is to stand in their position, and their position John defines to be one of fellowship with the Father and his son Jesus Christ…John here says that a man has no fellowship with God if he walks in darkness.
The Ambassador of the Coming Age 1868 p76
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Walk in the light, is in the intellectual and moral sense.
Some inaccurate ideas appear to be entertained by some on the subject of fellowship. They think they are not in fellowship with a meeting or ecclesia if they do not pay or receive a visit from it, and that they are only in fellowship with those actually in their midst. If this were correct, there would be no fellowship "one with another" in personal absence, whereas John declares this to have been the case with those from whom he was personally absent.
Fellowship is that recognised mutual relation of harmony that only waits the opportunity of personal intercourse for its fullest enjoyment. This harmony exists or does not exist quite irrespective of the opportunity of its practical illustration.
If, therefore, when an ecclesia is asked, "are you in fellowship with the Mormons?" it answers they cannot settle the question as to the Mormons as a body, but must wait for individual Mormons to apply for each individual case to be decided on its own merits, such an answer is an evasion of the question.
What holds true concerning the Mormons, is true of the Church of England or of those who will not avow their faith in the infallibility of the Scriptures. An ecclesia that is not able to say whether they are in fellowship with such, but must wait for individual applications, is evidently in such a doubtful relation to the question as to prevent confidence on the part of men of straight purpose.
Men do not require to come within so many yards of each other to know whether they are friends. Friendship of this circumscribed order would be a relapse to barbarism. And so a body of men professing to receive the truth in its uncompromised fulness and integrity, do not require to pay or receive visits from another body or members of it, (who are in a doubtful attitude) to say whether they are or are not in fellowship with it.
A little reflection on this ought to clear honest men of all difficulty in defining their position—a process which had become necessary before the apostle John closed his eyes.
The Christadelphian, July 1887
148. Who are his own people?
Those who believe the Gospel and have been baptized and who are continuing in the path of obedience to his commandments.
149. What is the object of his intercession?
That the sins of his Household may be forgiven, and their prayers may be accepted.
150. How do we get the benefit of Christs priestly office?
l understand we get it by connection with him.
151. You do not quite understand me. Suppose a believer falls into sin and repents not, and approaches not God in prayer, but abandons himself to heedlessness, do you think such a man will receive the benefits of Christ's priestly office?
No.
152. What would be necessary for him to do?
To confess his sin in prayer to God, and ask forgiveness through Christ.
153. Do not all believers come short and offend more or less?
Yes, I believe they do.
154. What is their resort for remedy?
Prayer and confession through Christ, whose blood cleanseth from all sin.
The Good Confession
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Some fail to lay full hold of this cause of joy from the doctrine inculcated by others that there must be no sin after baptism, and that if there is, it is fatal. Some have even gone so far as to profess themselves sinless. It is a beautiful and a pleasing conceit certainly; but by the words of John, and by the teaching of experience, it stamps them as false teachers.
John says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 Jno. i. 8). Experience proves the truth of the Bible statement, that "there liveth not a man that sinneth not."
But, then, say our fearful friends, "What does John mean when he says 'He that is born of God doth not commit sin'?" (1 Jno. iii. 1–9). Well, remember this is the same John who says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." He does not contradict himself. He asserts two things that are in harmony, though in appearance inconsistent. If we adopt a view that makes them contradict each other, or that contradicts palpable experience, our view is, and must be wrong. There is no need for any difficulty.
When John says the children of God sin not and cannot sin, he is referring to the doctrine of a class of spiritual seducers whom he is confuting. "These things I write concerning them that seduce you." These men, in the language of Peter, "turned the grace of our God into lasciviousness": that is, made the fact of justification by grace through faith a reason for "continuing in sin that grace might abound."
In contradistinction to those, John maintains in 1 Jno. 3. that the man who holds the hope of seeing and being like Christ at his coming, "purifieth himself as he (Christ) is pure"—lives not in sin as other men do: cannot do so, for the seed of the word which brings forth fruit in harmony with itself, is in him and remaineth in him. It is morally impossible for a man believing the truth to live in rebellion against its demands.
Exhort 280. TC 10/1896
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
(As long as we continuously strive toward purity/ holiness - Be ye holy as I am holy).
"I don't feel good enough."
This is a reason that is sometimes given by alien friends for refusing to be immersed, and to enter the fellowship of the brethren. This excuse may sound modest, but it borders on wickedness.
The only unworthiness which God has made the ground of non-acceptance is rebellion. Although our friends will not admit it, their excuse in reality is tantamount to a refusal to surrender to the will of God.
God has said,
"Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17).
He has also said that those who come, He will help and sustain (Phil. 2:12–13: 1:5: 4:19).
Concerning short-comings, He has abundantly promised to forgive these—if they are committed through the weakness of our nature (1 Jno. 1–9).
Let a man have an obedient mind, not a rebellious one, and he need not fear to surrender himself to God. Where there is ability to comprehend and believe the truth, there also is ability, if a man choose to use it, to render all the obedience that God requires for salvation.
Bro AT Jannaway
The Christadelphian, July 1900