1 John 2:21-24 I have not written to you because you know not the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.… I. HOW IS A DENIAL THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST EQUIVALENT TO A DENIAL OF THE SON? 1. The official designation, Christ, or Messiah, or Anointed, marks not only a certain relation to the Jewish Scriptures, but also and still more a certain relation to God, whose Christ He is. 2. As the Son He stands in a distinct and definite relation to the Father. He must be owned in that relation if He is to be owned at all; otherwise He is to all intents and purposes denied. II. HOW IS IT THAT TO DENY THE SON IS TO DENY THE FATHER, so that "whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father; but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also"? 1. In the exercise of His absolute sovereignty God is entitled to say upon what terms and in what way any of His creatures shalt have Him, that is, as theirs; have Him so as to have an interest in Him, and a bond of union with Him. He may set forth anyone He pleases, and say, If you deny Him you cannot have Me. In this case, however, He sets forth His Son, and therefore the appointment must be allowed to be in the highest degree reasonable and fair. The disowning of the Son cannot but be an offence to the Father; deeply wounding and grieving His heart. 2. "But he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also." He hath the Father; how surely, how fully, may partly appear, if we consider, not only what Jesus is to us, as our anointed Saviour, but also what He is to the Father as His beloved Son. All through His humiliation, how has He the Father? The Father's love He has; His love of boundless complacency, approval, delight. He has the Father's gracious presence with Him always. So He, as the Son, had the Father when He was as you are. So he would have you, acknowledging Him, to have the Father also. He shows you what it is to have the Father in the state in which you now are; amid the trials of earth, the enmity of the world, the very pains of hell. He shows you how even here you can have the Father as, in a work and warfare infinitely harder than yours, He had the Father; how you, in all your trial and tribulation, can rest in the consciousness of the Father's favour; and rejoice in the doing of the Father's will; and resign yourself contentedly to the Father's disposal. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. |
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