001.34. Chapter 34
Chapter 34 THE PROMISE
“Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning” (1 John 2:24) means, in the light of the context, Suffer no enemy of Christ to rob you of the Gospel which was blessed to your conversion; but rather see to it that it becomes more deeply rooted in your hearts. It is of the utmost importance that the perfect revelation of God which has been made in and by Christ should have a permanent dwelling in your souls. Make it your deep concern that it abides in your minds and regulates your thoughts; in your consciences, to convict of sin and restrain it, and by stirring you up to the practice of holiness; in your affections, melting you with sorrow for sin, promoting a higher esteem of Christ and spiritual things; in your wills, bringing them into compliance with those things which are pleasing to God. Let it abide just as you first received it, living thereon. You need not any new revelation from God, but rather a better understanding and closer conformity to what He has vouchsafed to you. “If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father.” Here John names one of the benefits derived from obedience to the foregoing precept, namely maintenance of fellowship with God.
Many are the blessings, great the advantages, which issue from a steadfast adherence to the hope of the Gospel and the ordering of our lives thereby. First, it secures us against being deceived by the plausible lies of false teachers. He who feeds upon and delights in wholesome and sweet fruits will refuse that which is bitter and poisonous. He who drinks from the River of life, “clear as crystal,” will disdain foul and brackish water. Second, it provides sure evidence of our saving oneness with Christ, and preserves and promotes our communion with Him. The privilege mentioned in the second half of the verse follows, obviously and necessarily, from the performance of the duty enjoined in the first half. The one cannot be without the other: where the Gospel is believingly received and affectionately cherished in the heart, there is fellowship with Christ; but where the former occurs not, the latter is unknown. The Lord Himself joined both together when He said, “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you” (John 15:7). It is by means of the Word that we receive Christ into our understandings, and by exercising faith thereon that He dwells in our hearts, and thereby we continue in fellowship with Him. The Son is the Medium and Mediator by whom we are one with the Father.
Other passages make known further results of the Word abiding in the soul. For instance, “The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide” (Psalms 37:31). As Spurgeon expressed it, “The best thing in the best place, producing the best results.” Where holiness is loved and obedience is predominant we are delivered from the slippery paths of sin and error. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee” (Psalms 119:11), for taking heed thereto the heart is cleansed (Psalms 119:2). “My son, forget not My law; but let thine heart keep My commandment: for length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee” (Proverbs 3:1-2). Herein lies our interest, not less than our obligation. Long life is the highest earthly good, especially so when peace be added. “My son, let them not depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: so shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck” (Proverbs 3:21-22). If the Divine precepts be kept as thy much-loved treasure, as thy daily companion and guide, thou shalt find them to quicken thy soul and adorn thy profession. “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7), for then our desires are regulated spiritually, and we ask not amiss. If the Word dwell in us richly “all wisdom” is ours (Colossians 3:16), strength too, and we “overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14).
“And this is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life.” (1 John 2:25) The commentators differ as to whether this statement is to be understood as receiving its fulfillment in the present or in the future: whether it has reference to that which is made good in the believer’s experience in this life, or to the celestial bliss in the life to come. That this verse is closely linked to the one immediately preceding is intimated by its opening word. There, two distinct things are in view: an exhortation, and an incentive to heed the same. Personally, it seems to us that the double idea is continued: the precept being enforced, and the injunction amplified. It is by the Truth remaining and operating in us that we have communion with God in Christ, and thereby the promise is realized now, for “this is life eternal, that they might know Thee [i.e. the triune Jehovah] the only true God, and Jesus Christ [the alone Mediator], whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). As to the future, heaven is reached only by those who hold fast the hope of the Gospel and abide in Christ. “The sum of what is said is, that we cannot live otherwise than by nourishing to the end the seed of life sown in the heart. John insists much on this point, that not only the beginning of a blessed life is to be found in the knowledge of Christ, but also its perfection” (Calvin).
It will be evident to the careful student that our perception of the precise connection between and the relation of 1 John 2:24-25 will largely turn upon what we understand to be signified by and included in “eternal life.” As we shall show below, that expression has a twofold force and application—a present and a future one—and in both senses the promise of it supplies a strong encouragement for believers to heed the injunction to let the Truth abide and work within them. For it is by adhering to the Gospel that fellowship with Christ is maintained, and in that fellowship “eternal life” is experienced in the soul. Equally so it is by faith’s keeping constantly in view the joy set before us in the promise that we are encouraged and strengthened to persevere in the faith. “As surely as you continue in the faith of the Gospel, you may be fully persuaded that this eternal life is actually bestowed on you, belongs to you, and shall be enjoyed by you, in uninterrupted communion with the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in the house eternal in the heavens, for ever and ever” (S.E. Pierce). We shall now consider: the Promiser—“He;” the blessing announced—“eternal life;” the form of the announcement—by “promise;” and the implications thereof.
“And this is the promise that He hath promised us.” Without a doubt, the pronoun refers to the Father. First, because that is the nearest antecedent, the One mentioned at the close of 1 John 2:24. Second, because of the “order and economy of the sacred Trinity in their operations and actings in the economy of grace. The Father plans all. He proposes all. He provides all. He promises all. He gives all. The Son works from the Father. He performs all. He acts all. He obtains all. The Holy Spirit, in the order and dispensation of grace witnesseth to all, and sets His seal to all the Father hath revealed and declared concerning His love in Christ Jesus to the elect; as also concerning the person and mediatorial work of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that it can be only that which belongs to the Father which is here asserted. It is a peculiar glory which is the very perfection of the sacred writers to keep up in all their discourses the trinity and proper distinction of the co-equal Persons in the Godhead; and also the order in which they act distinct one from the other; as also the distinct way and manner in which they operate in us, upon us, and within us” (S.E. Pierce). Let the reader note how this order is observed in Matthew 28:19; Ephesians 1:3-4; 1 Peter 1:2-3. Third, because of the clear testimony of 1 John 5:11, “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” The blessing announced is “eternal life,” which in the following Scriptures is spoken of as the present possession of all who savingly trust in Christ. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,” “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life,” “I give unto them eternal life” (John 3:36; John 5:24; John 10:28). “God hath given to us eternal life” (1 John 5:11). On the other hand, eternal life is viewed as a future prospect in “he shall receive... in the world to come eternal life” (Mark 10:30), “Ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Romans 6:22), “he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:8), “in the hope of eternal life” (Titus 1:2). Those two sets of passages need “rightly dividing,” and adjusting thus. The Christian now has eternal life in Divine promise, and therefore it is certain. He has a title and right to it, because the same has been purchased for him by Christ. He already has it in Christ (Colossians 3:3). He has it by faith, which is the substance of things hoped for. He has it in hope (Titus 3:7), which is a confident expectation of a future good, and therefore he rejoices therein. He has the earnest in the gift of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:5). He has the seed (1 John 3:9) or beginning of it in the spiritual nature which he received at the new birth. But he has it not yet in full possession and fruition.
We come now to consider the form in which the blessing is announced, namely by the Father’s promise. That is more than a purpose, a doctrinal declaration or prophetic prediction. His eternal purpose was something hid in Himself. A doctrinal declaration is a matter making known to us the Divine purpose or will. A prophecy is the foretelling of things yet to be and may concern that which is evil as much as that which is good. But a promise concerns only that which is good.
Moreover, the accomplishment of a prophecy is dependent upon God’s power and veracity, but the making good of His promise is secured by His faithfulness and righteousness also. The Divine promises are so many assurances unto us of God’s solemn engagements, by which He has graciously bound Himself to do some good unto or bestow some blessing upon His people. They are so many certifications of His good pleasure concerning them. They declare that He will lavish upon them the riches of His grace, out of His own mere bounty, according to His royal benignity. They are the revealed testifications of His heart who loved them from all eternity and foreappointed all things for them and respecting them. That they might have a true, clear and spiritual knowledge of His good will and favour to them, God has been pleased to set the same before them in hundreds of promises scattered throughout His Word. The Divine promises, then, are so many declarations to remove some ill or to impart some good unto the objects upon whom God set His heart from all eternity. As such they are a most blessed manifestation of His love unto His saints.
Speaking after the manner of men, there are three steps in connection with the operations of God’s love. The first, His inward purpose to exercise it; the last, the actual execution of His purpose; but in between there is the gracious making known of that purpose to the beneficiaries of it—so that they may be assured of and enjoy the same by faith’s anticipation before the realization thereof. While love is concealed we cannot be comforted therewith. Now God, who is “love,” not only loves His own, and will in due time fully display His love unto them, but in the interim He will have them informed of His benevolent designs, that even now they may rest in His love and stretch themselves comfortably upon His sure promises. Thereby each of them has reason to exclaim adoringly, “How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!” (Psalms 139:17), for His promises make evident to us that assertion, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil” (Jeremiah 29:11). The triune God is not only the Author and Giver of the promises, but is the sum and substance of them too. All the persons of the Godhead form the subject of these blessed assurances. God the Father is not only the Promiser, but the matter of the promises, for He declares unto His saints, “I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Thus He gives Himself unto them, so that they may have a propriety in Him and all His perfections. God the Son, in His person, His fullness, His suitability and sufficiency, is the promise of His redeemed, being expressly termed “the mercy promised to our fathers” (Luke 1:72)—given not only for but to them. God the Spirit, in His sevenfold gifts and graces, is equally the promise of the Church: one of His titles is “that holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13). Thus the triune Jehovah makes Himself over unto His elect. No wonder that an apostle says, “whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4). Rightly did Spurgeon remark: “Greatness and preciousness seldom go together, but in this instance they are united in an exceeding degree: they come from a great God, they come to great sinners, they deal with great matters, and they work for us great results.” Everything in the way of blessing, temporal, spiritual and eternal, comes to the believer by way of promise.
“And this is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life.” Observe the perfect harmony there is between this statement and “there [namely Zion] the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore” (Psalms 133:3)—how greatly they do err who assert that Israel’s portion was a temporal one only! This is the grand promise, the all-inclusive one, which embraces and comprehends all others. This is the sum of all felicity: of all blessings life is the most desired (Job 2:4), and therefore it is made the emblem of spiritual and eternal bliss. Many things are promised the children of God, but this chiefly, outstandingly; yea, all other things are but steps and means thereto. As eternal death contains the essence of all evils, so eternal life contains the essence of all good. As the good Shepherd assured His sheep, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Life there is to be regarded in its widest possible latitude, as including the whole of God’s so-great salvation. It is a being enstated in His favour for evermore.
It consists of a satisfying knowledge of the triune God (John 17:3). It is the inward enjoyment of Him, and the conforming of the soul to the image of His Son.
“And this is the promise that He hath promised us.” Why that duplicating of language? For a double reason: first, because the promise was made originally unto Christ as the covenant head of His people, and then to the believer in the Gospel; second, because “eternal life” has both a present and a future aspect. The former is in view in 2 Timothy 1:9, “Who hath saved us [in His eternal decree], and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began”—given to us in Him by solemn compact as our Surety. So again in Titus 1:2 : “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” There was not only a purpose of grace in the heart of God from all eternity, but a real donation of eternal life unto us. “But hath in due times manifested His word through preaching” (Titus 1:3): that which was secretly and eternally agreed upon between God and Christ is now made known in the Gospel. The Gospel message is, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” There too “everlasting life” is an expression which is to be regarded as comprehending everything which Christ purchased for His people. Briefly summarized, eternal life is union with God Himself, in, through, and by Christ. “It is the most perfect fruition of God Himself, and that for evermore” (Witsius). It begins with the Divine operation of grace in our hearts “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). It continues in our beholding by faith the glory of the Lord as it shines in the Word, by which we are experientially and progressively “changed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). It is consummated at Christ’s return, when He will “change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body” (Php 3:21); when in spirit and soul and body “we shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2). It eventuates in dwelling with Him for ever in heaven. But let us consider more definitely its essential elements. First, it is a life-in-law. When Adam transgressed he incurred a double death—a legal and an experiential one; being cast out of God’s favour and losing the impress of His moral image in his soul. Correspondingly, God’s elect are given both a legal and a spiritual life. It was to the former that Christ referred when He defined eternal life as “and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). That is entirely a judicial thing. In His atoning work Christ did two things: He bore the sins of His people and suffered the penalty of the law; He wrought out for them a perfect righteousness by obeying the precept of the law. Having met all its requirements, Christ merited its reward, which is “life” (Romans 7:10; Romans 10:5), namely a standing accepted before God in His cloudless favour; and that life is eternal because it is the award of the “everlasting righteousness” which He brought in (Daniel 9:24). When the first Adam sinned, he forfeited God’s favour and came under the curse of the law; because the last Adam obeyed, He earned for His people the approbation of God and the blessing of the law. Thus they are not only delivered from condemnation or legal death, but they have legal life, which is justification (Romans 6:10-11).
It is most important to see that the believer has life in Christ before he has life from Him. In Christ he has met every requirement of the law, and not only is there now no condemnation to him, but he has received “the gift of righteousness” and must “reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17). In consequence of this, second, “eternal life” is a life ofgrace in the soul, for at the new birth the life of God is imparted and we are made vitally one with Christ. It is then that we pass “from death unto life” (1 John 3:14) experientially, being Divinely quickened. The faculties of the soul are restored to their proper exercise: the eyes of the understanding are opened to see the glory of God, the ears unstopped to hear His voice, the affections raised unto things above, the tongue loosed in praise and petition. And they are infallibly assured that “He who has begun a good work in you will perform [or “finish”] it” (Php 1:6). This too is an intrinsic part of the fruit of the Saviour’s travail (Titus 3:5-7).
Third, eternal life is consummated in everlasting celestial bliss, for God “hath begotten us again unto a lively [living] hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us” (1 Peter 1:3-4). The spiritual life begun here is fully realized there. Now it is but the bud, then the lovely flower. “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now we know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Even now we are made partakers of the Divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), but then shall we be perfectly conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29), and eternally share with Him that “fullness of joy,” and those pleasures which are at God’s right hand. Thus “eternal life” includes a life-in-law, a life in the soul, a life in heaven; or justification, regeneration and glorification. A few words on the implications of the particular form in which eternal life is presented. First, since it be by Divine “promise,” then it is a free gift. A promise supposes that the party making it is under no obligation to grant, and that the one to whom it is made can urge no claim. It is entirely gratuitous (see Galatians 3:18, Galatians 3:21). That eternal life is a “gift” is asserted in John 10:28, Romans 6:23. Second, it implies acceptance on our part, and that as a “gift.” Yet the very act of receiving it involves certain exercises of soul. There must be repentance, or a being sensible of our guilt and the desire for its removal. The exercise of faith, or the extending of an empty hand to receive alms. Those exercises will necessarily be followed by obedience and a holy life. Where there be repentance, there is hatred of sin. Where there be faith, there is gratitude to the bounteous Giver and the longing to please Him. Third, everlasting bliss is also certain, for it is promised by Him who cannot lie. The unchanging faithfulness of God is the guarantee of endless felicity.