001.29. Chapter 29
Chapter 29 OUR ANOINTING
1 John 2:20 “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things” From what was before us in the last article it is clear that the preaching of the apostles themselves did not result in the conversion of all who were convinced of its verity. From a very early date God made it appear that the Gospel net enclosed bad fishes as well as good ones (Matthew 13:47-48), that not all who took upon them the name of Christ were His disciples indeed. What Paul predicted in Acts 20:30-31 was soon fulfilled: nominal Christians apostatized from the Faith, disturbed the peace and harmony of the churches, prejudicing many against God’s faithful servants, alluring such to follow them and organize themselves into heretical sects and schisms. Yet both 1 John 2:19, and Jude 1:19 furnish conclusive proof that such men were devoid of true piety. It is therefore a mark of God’s goodness and mercy unto His people when His providence so orders it that those who are not one with them at heart, but who in fact hate all that is holy, should withdraw from them. It is a blessing to the churches when those who are determined to walk after their own lusts forsake their fellowship, for while they remain they are but Achans who draw down the judgment of God upon the whole congregation.
Some of the very worst sins men are guilty of may be committed under the purest preaching of the Gospel and the most spiritual administration of its ordinances. The antichrists referred to by John are a definite case in point. None can be supposed to have clearer light externally into the doctrine and practice, worship and discipline, of genuine Christianity than those apostates enjoyed; yet none ever sinned more willingly and perversely. We too have beheld those who departed from the Truth: men like blazing comets for a season, professing to have superior light and sanctity, who are greatly admired and secure a large following, yet who are of their father the Devil. Yet such occurrences should not shake the saints. When Paul made mention of two heretics of his day, “who concerning the truth have erred... and overthrow the faith of some,” he at once added “nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure” (2 Timothy 2:18-19)—the combined effort of Satan and all his agents cannot shake it. “The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations” (Psalms 33:11). His Church is built upon the Rock of ages and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Paul then went on to say, “The Lord knoweth them that are His,” which means not only that He recognizes them amid the mass of professors (which we are not always able to do), but that He loves them and makes all things work together for their good. Then the apostle added, “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” The fact that God overrules the perfidy of apostates to His own glory and the good of His people, by making manifest hypocrites on the one hand and those who are approved of Him on the other, does not excuse the former nor must we palliate their awful guilt, but shun them as a plague. And while those who by grace remain steadfast to Christ and His Gospel are not to be stumbled by the infidelity of graceless professors, yet they are to take the same to heart and turn it into earnest prayer, crying, “O let me not wander from Thy commandments” (Psalms 119:10). Say not in a spirit of fatalism, If I have been born again I shall never perish, for God gives warning, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). God has not promised to preserve the reckless. To affirm that He will preserve us whether or not we use the means of grace is not the language of faith, but of presumption and impiety. True faith produces a spirit of humility and self-distrust. True faith causes us to work out our own salvation “with fear and trembling.”
“But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things” (1 John 2:20). This is in sharp and blessed contrast with what has been before us in the preceding verses, and shows the gracious provision which the Lord has made for “His own,” to preserve them from embracing fatal error. The antichrists had formerly been admitted to communion with the saints, but their subsequent apostasy proved that (like Judas) they had been hypocrites from the beginning. They were of the world and not of God, for His Truth dwelt not in their “inward parts” (Psalms 51:6). Had they been born of Him they would have remained faithful to Christ and His Gospel. God permitted them to forsake the assemblies of His saints to make it evident that they had never received the anointing which is from above. By their defection they only made more apparent the real people of God, who will not sell the Truth at any price. Many appear to take the yoke of Christ upon them, but afterwards fall away and return to their wallowing in the mire; but those who are effectually called persevere unto the end, for the Spirit has been given to be with them “for ever” (John 14:16), and the prevalent intercession of Christ ensures their preservation (Hebrews 7:25). Thus the distinction between the two classes is made to be seen more clearly. The relation of our present verse to the one immediately preceding, which mentions the going out of certain ones from the churches, was well expressed by J. Morgan: “They had been exposed to the temptation of false teachers, and they did not endure the test. They were drawn away by the speculative errors presented to them, and so evidenced that they were not ‘rooted and grounded’ in the Truth. On the contrary those whom the apostle commends in our text had remained firm in the midst of all attempts to seduce them from the faith.” Thus the blessedness of our present verse is greatly enhanced by the sharp antithesis presented in the foregoing: the former supplying a dark background to bring out into clearer relief the excellence of this gift of the Saviour’s—the antichrists, the anointing. Those words clearly intimate that John entertained no fear that any of the saints would apostatize and bring reproach upon the cause of Christ. They had received such an unction from above as enabled them to understand and lay hold of those things which belonged to their everlasting peace, and which insured their perseverance in the Faith.
Brief though our present verse be, it possesses a fullness which no expositor or commentator can exhaust. It treats of that which in our day receives but scant attention. It speaks of one of the outstanding benefits and blessings which God bestows on His people. “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” What is meant by the “unction” (or “anointing,” for that is the meaning of “chrisma,” and it is so translated in 1 John 2:27) which believers are here said to have? Who is meant by “the Holy One” from whom it comes? What is signified by “and ye know all things”? In what sense or senses do they “know” them? Important questions are these, yet none of them is difficult to answer. We shall, however, consider the second one first, and ponder the Anointer, then the anointing, and last the anointed. Who is the Anointer or “Holy One?” It is surprising that one of Albert Barnes’s acumen should say it is the Holy Spirit, for there is not the least room for doubt that it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is here in view. As the Son of God, He is essentially holy, as appears by comparing Isaiah 6:1, with John 12:41. In His humanity, impeccably holy (Luke 1:35). In His life upon earth, ineffably holy (Hebrews 7:26). In His official character He was prefigured by Israel’s high priest, who wore upon his forehead a plate of pure gold on which was inscribed “Holiness to the Lord” (Exodus 28:36). In Old Testament prophecy He was designated the “Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 41:14, and cf. Isaiah 54:5). In the days of His flesh the demons owned Him as “the Holy One of God” (Luke 4:34). After His ascension the apostles referred to Him as “the Holy One” (Acts 3:14). Thus it is abundantly clear from the Scriptures that “the Holy One” is one of the Redeemer’s Divine titles: for as none but God is essentially holy, and Christ is the Holy One, then He must be God!
Further, that the Lord Jesus is the person from whom God’s people receive an unction appears from the fact that not only is He the “Holy One,” but He is also “the Christ” or the Anointed One. He was not only chosen and ordained to the mediatorial office, but furnished for the same by anointing. During the Old Testament economy, prophets, priests and kings were anointed unto and confirmed in their office by anointing (Leviticus 8:12; 2 Samuel 5:3; 1 Kings 19:16), pointing forward to Him who should be, in His own person, Prophet, Priest and Potentate alike. The anointing of the Redeemer was announced in Messianic prophecy: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach glad tidings unto the meek” (Isaiah 61:1). That was fulfilled at His entrance upon His public ministry, when “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil” (Acts 10:38), the historical reference being to what is recorded in Matthew 3:16, when the Spirit of God descended like a dove and lighted upon Him. It was the furnishing of the God-man Mediator with all the necessary gifts for the discharge of His office (Isaiah 11:1-2). Immediately after, He was said to be “full of the Holy Ghost” (Luke 4:1). The Lord Jesus is denominated the Messiah (the Hebrew term) and the Christ (the Greek) from this unction of the Spirit, for each of those two titles signifies “The Anointed One.” At the triumphant completion of His work, when He ascended into heaven, the Saviour was again anointed by God—anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows (Hebrews 1:9), when He received the Spirit to pour out upon His disciples; there termed “the oil of gladness” to celebrate His victory and exaltation, and to denote His deliverance from any further trouble and distress. As Peter declared of Christ on the day of Pentecost, “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this” (Acts 2:33). “1 beheld...a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth” (Revelation 5:6). In each of those passages the ascended Christ is seen dispensing this gift, conferring the Spirit on His people. In His mediatorial work Christ fully met all the claims of God upon His people, and in proof thereof He has been given the Spirit to communicate to them. This is clear from Galatians 3:13-14 : Christ’s gift of the Spirit is the result of His removing God’s curse from us, and thereby putting away our sins. His forerunner declared, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost” (Mark 1:8).
Christ had referred to the Comforter thus: “whom I will send unto you from the Father” (John 15:26). And again, “If I depart, I will send Him unto you” (John 16:7). Such passages as those contain the balancing truth to Isaiah 11:1-3; Isaiah 61:1-2, where the Mediator is viewed as subordinate to the Spirit; but in Revelation 3:1, He has the Spirit, in John 15:26, He promises to send the Spirit, and in Acts 2:33, He actually bestows Him; so there we see the Spirit subordinate to the Son.
Put the two together, and we learn that there is a conjoined mission in which the Son and the Spirit act in unison for the salvation of God’s elect: the Son effecting their redemption, the Spirit applying it. Moreover, while the Spirit is from Christ, likewise His great mission is to direct souls to Christ. “As the Spirit never acts but in and through Christ with respect to His people, so Christ is never received but by and with the influences of the Spirit. They are as united in Their operations as in Their essence” (Ambrose Serle). That Christ received the Spirit to bestow upon His redeemed was blessedly prefigured in the anointing of the high priest, of which we read, “The precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments” (Psalms 133:2)—reaching to the lowest of his members!
“But ye have an unction from the Holy One.” Believers have nothing but what they have in and from Christ: it is “of His fullness” that all of them receive “and grace for grace” (John 1:16). The Spirit is given to Christ immediately, to us derivatively, for in all things He has the pre-eminence. “For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him” (John 3:34), whereas in our case “unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ” (Ephesians 4:7). The Spirit dwells in Christ by radiation, in us by operation. Therefore as communicating to us by the Saviour He is denominated the “Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9) and “the Spirit of His Son” (Galatians 4:6). This is one of the vital points on which “the Greek Catholic Church” errs, for she insists that the Spirit proceeds from the Father only. That is a most serious error, for there is no higher exhibition of the Godhead of the Saviour than the fact that He is represented in the Scriptures to be the Possessor and the Sender of the Spirit to His redeemed: nothing more clearly demonstrates the full equality of the Son with the Father. It is a decisive proof of His deity, for no mere servant of God, however exalted his station, could possibly confer such a gift as the Spirit Himself.
There was a peculiar propriety in saying that the believer’s unction is “from the Holy One,” for the purpose of the same is to make him holy. As Haupt rightly pointed out, “The fundamental idea of anointing in the Old Testament is the setting apart of an object from a common use to the service of God—from the world to holy fellowship. It must be remembered that things as well as persons—the vessels of the tabernacle, etc. (Leviticus 8:10-11)—were anointed in order for a separation from a profane to a sacred use. The stone which Jacob anointed was set apart as the place where God had manifested Himself (Genesis 28:18).” Thus, here, the anointing is both the communication of a spiritual gift and an operation which separates the individual from the world and all that is opposed to God, consecrating him to Him. It was so with the Lord Jesus Himself, for the coming of the Spirit upon Him was both the endowing of Him for His mediatorial work (Isaiah 61:1) and the Divine setting apart of Him unto His mission (Matthew 3:16-17). Thus it is with His members. The unction He received He imparts to them. He is the Anointer, they are the anointed ones, and as such the christs of the Christ, He being designated “the Christ” (Matthew 16:16), “the Christ of God” (Luke 9:20), “the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:24) by way of eminence. The Holy Spirit is the vital bond of union with Christ. The One cannot be without the Other. If we have Christ as our Saviour, we have the Spirit for our Indweller. When Christ takes possession of anyone, He puts the Spirit within him: if he lacks the latter, he has no saving interest in the former. That is unmistakably clear from, “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Romans 8:9). He who claims to belong to the Lord Jesus and gives no evidence of being indwelt by the Spirit of Christ lacks the only irrefragable proof which establishes the validity of his claim, and thus his profession is falsified. We cannot be Christ’s “fellows” (Hebrews 1:9) unless we are His brethren or companions, and that cannot be without partaking of His anointing. This it is which distinguishes “the wise virgins” from the foolish ones, the actual possessors from graceless professors, the former having “oil in their vessels” (Matthew 25:4). In due course, all of God’s elect receive this unction: “Now He which establisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God” (2 Corinthians 1:21)—a decisive proof that Christ, our Anointer, is Divine. At regeneration we are made members of Christ’s mystical body, partakers in our measure of those gifts and graces which our Head received without measure.
Both Christ and His Church come under this office-act of God the Spirit, for as the Redeemer could not have been the Messiah without His unction, neither could the Church have been His spouse without the same. As it was from the Spirit’s unction that the Lord Jesus received His name “the Christ,” so it is from their being anointed ones that believers receive their name—Christians (1 Peter 4:16), signifying that they are anointed with the Spirit. This it is which is the distinguishing mark of every truly born-again soul; he is made the temple of the Holy Spirit. Yet we say again, it is not the Spirit who anoints us: rather is He the unction wherewith we are anointed by Christ. Even where the Saviour Himself was concerned, the Spirit was not the Anointer, but His anointing, for He was anointed by the Father (Acts 4:27). Our anointing is by a holy Saviour (Romans 8:2) to fit us for holy converse and walking with Him. It is received out of His fullness (Colossians 2:9-10). We can have no gift or grace but in and by and from the Lamb of God. The love of the Father centers in Christ Jesus our Lord and flows through Him to us (Romans 8:39). The apostle, then, would keep our eyes fixed on Christ, the Holy One: then let us praise Him for this “unction,” which is the fruit of His death for us. The anointing of believers sanctifies and consecrates them as kings and priests unto God (Revelation 1:6) as those persons were typically during the Old Testament era. “Whereas, therefore, those titles denote the dignity of believers in their especial relation unto God, by this unction they are peculiarly dedicated and consecrated unto Him” (John Owen). The Spirit then takes up His abode within their hearts with all His graces, operations, gifts, and enablings. He does so on a twofold basis. First, on the ground of redemption: in the types, the oil (emblem of the Spirit) was always placed upon the blood (Leviticus 14:14, Leviticus 14:17)—it is on the ground of atonement accomplished that the Spirit comes to believers, which at once sets aside human merits. Yet, second, there must be a moral fitness as well. The Spirit of God will not dwell within unbelieving rebels: “After [or “when”] that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13). When we repudiate all idols, surrender to Christ as Lord, and trust in the efficacy of His sacrifice, the heart is prepared for the Spirit to enter and take possession for Christ’s use. When we give up ourselves to Christ, He owns the dedication by making our bodies the temples of the Holy Spirit, there to maintain His interests against all the oppositions of the Devil.
“But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” The first benefit which believers have by this anointing is an illumination of their minds. Not that the Spirit imparts any superior mental endowment, or that anything over and above what is contained in Holy Writ is revealed to them: rather does He enable them to perceive what the natural man cannot discern (1 Corinthians 2:14), by His effectual application of the Truth to their hearts. In order to see, two things are necessary: the organ of vision within, and light from without—the Spirit imparts the former, the Scripture furnishes the latter. Their knowledge is such as to deliver from fatal delusions and preserve them from apostasy. As Levi Palmer aptly declared, “The departure of the antichrists [1 John 2:19] shows the supreme importance of our abiding discipleship. But in order thus to abide it is necessary to have what may be called a Divine tuition, whereby we may be able to detect error.
Neither heart nor intellect will do—nothing can be sufficient less than the ‘seven eyes, which are the Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth’ (Revelation 5:6; R.V. margin). It is this power of spiritual discernment which all believers receive in the gift of the Spirit.”