Evidence
given concerning Christ's person and excellency, ver. 1, 2. The knowledge
thereof gives us communion with God and Christ (ver. 3), and joy, ver. 4. A
description of God, ver. 5. How we are thereupon to walk, ver. 6. The
benefit of such walking, ver. 7. The way to forgiveness, ver. 9. The evil of
denying our sin, ver. 8-10.
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The
Apostolic Testimony.
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A. D. 80.
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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; 2 (For the life was
manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you
that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto
us;) 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. 4 And these
things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
The apostle omits his name and character (as also the author to the Hebrews
does) either out of humility, or as being willing that the Christian reader
should be swayed by the light and weight of the things written rather than
by the name that might recommend them. And so he begins,
I. With an account or character of the Mediator's person. He is the great
subject of the gospel, the foundation and object of our faith and hope, the
bond and cement that unite us unto God. He should be well known; and he is
represented here, 1. As the Word of life, v. 1. In the gospel
these two are disjoined, and he is called first the Word, John i. 1,
and afterwards Life, intimating, withal, that he is intellectual
life. In him was life, and that life was (efficiently and objectively) the
light of men, John i. 4. Here both are conjoined: The Word of life,
the vital Word. In that he is the Word, it is intimated that he is the Word
of some person or other; and that is God, even the Father. He is the Word
of God, and so he is intimated to issue from the Father, as truly
(though not in the same manner) as a word (or speech, which is a train of
words) from a speaker. But he is not a mere vocal word, a bare logoV
proforikoV, but a vital one: the Word of life,
the living word; and thereupon, 2. As eternal life. His duration
shows his excellency. He was from eternity; and so is, in scripture-account,
necessary, essential, uncreated life. That the apostle speaks of his
eternity, à parte ante (as they say) and as from everlasting,
seems evident in that he speaks of him as he was in and from the beginning;
when he was then with the Father, before his manifestation to us, yea,
before the making of all things that were made; as John i. 2, 3. So that he
is the eternal, vital, intellectual Word of the eternal living Father. 3. As
life manifested (v. 2), manifested in the flesh, manifested to
us. The eternal life would assume mortality, would put on flesh and blood
(in the entire human nature), and so dwell among us and converse with us,
John i. 14. Here were condescension and kindness indeed, that eternal life
(a person of eternal essential life) should come to visit mortals, and to
procure eternal life for them, and then confer it on them!
II. With the evidences and convictive assurances that the apostle and his
brethren had of the Mediator's presence and converse in this world. There
were sufficient demonstrations of the reality of his abode here, and of the
excellency and dignity of his person in the way of his manifestation. The
life, the word of life, the eternal life, as such, could not be seen and
felt; but the life manifested might be, and was so. The life was clothed
with flesh, put on the state and habit of abased human nature, and as such
gave sensible proof of its existence and transactions here. The divine life,
or Word incarnate, presented and evinced itself to the very senses of the
apostles. As, 1. To their ears: That which we have heard, v.
1, 3. The life assumed a mouth and tongue, that he might utter words of
life. The apostles not only heard of him, but they heard him himself. Above
three years might they attend his ministry, be auditors of his public
sermons and private expositions (for he expounded them in his house), and be
charmed with the words of him who spoke as never man spoke before or since.
The divine word would employ the ear, and the ear should be devoted to the
word of life. And it was meet that those who were to be his representatives
and imitators to the world should be personally acquainted with his
ministrations. 2. To their eyes: That which we have seen with our eyes,
v. 1-3. The Word would become visible, would not only be heard, but
seen, seen publicly, privately, at a distance and at nearest approach, which
may be intimated in the expression, with our eyes--with all the use
and exercise that we could make of our eyes. We saw him in his life and
ministry, saw him in his transfiguration on the mount, hanging, bleeding,
dying, and dead, upon the cross, and we saw him after his return from the
grave and resurrection from the dead. His apostles must be eye-witnesses as
well as ear-witnesses of him. Wherefore, of these men that have
accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among
us, beginning from the baptism of John, must one be ordained to be a witness
with us of his resurrection, Acts i. 21, 22. And we were
eye-witnesses of his majesty, 2 Pet. i. 16. 3. To their internal sense,
to the eyes of their mind; for so (possibly) may the next clause be
interpreted: Which we have looked upon. This may be distinguished
from the foregoing perception, seeing with the eyes; and may be the
same with what the apostle says in his gospel (ch. i. 14), And we
beheld--eqeasameqa,
his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father. The word
is not applied to the immediate object of the eye, but to that which was
rationally collected from what they saw. "What we have well discerned,
contemplated, and viewed, what we have well known of this Word of life, we
report to you." The senses are to be the informers of the mind. 4. To
their hands and sense of feeling: And our hands have handled (touched
and felt) of the Word of life. This surely refers to the full
conviction our Lord afforded his apostles of the truth, reality, solidity,
and organization of his body, after his resurrection from the dead. When he
showed them his hands and his side, it is probable that he gave them leave
to touch him; at least, he knew of Thomas's unbelief, and his professed
resolution too not to believe, till he had found and felt the places and
signatures of the wounds by which he died. Accordingly at the next congress
he called Thomas, in the presence of the rest, to satisfy the very curiosity
of his unbelief. And probably others of them did so too. Our hands have
handled of the Word of life. The invisible life and Word was no despiser
of the testimony of sense. Sense, in its place and sphere, is a means that
God has appointed, and the Lord Christ has employed, for our information.
Our Lord took care to satisfy (as far as might be) all the senses of his
apostles, that they might be the more authentic witnesses of him to the
world. Those that apply all this to the hearing of the gospel lose the
variety of sensations here mentioned, and the propriety of the expressions,
as well as the reason of their inculcation and repetition here: That
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, v. 3. The
apostles could not be deceived in such long and various exercise of their
sense. Sense must minister to reason and judgment; and reason and judgment
must minister to the reception of the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel. The
rejection of the Christian revelation is at last resolved into the rejection
of sense itself. He upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of
heart, because they believed not those who had seen him after he had risen,
Mark xvi. 14.
III. With a solemn assertion and attestation of these grounds and evidences
of the Christian truth and doctrine. The apostles publish these assurances
for our satisfaction: We bear witness, and show unto you, v.
2. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, v.
3. It became the apostles to open to the disciples the evidence by which
they were led, the reasons by which they were constrained to proclaim and
propagate the Christian doctrine in the world. Wisdom and integrity obliged
them to demonstrate that it was not either private fancy or a
cunningly-devised fable that they presented to the world. Evident truth
would open their mouths, and force a public profession. We cannot but
speak the things which we have seen and heard, Acts iv. 20. It concerned
the disciples to be well assured of the truth of the institution they had
embraced. They should see the evidences of their holy religion. It fears not
the light, nor the most judicious examination. It is able to afford rational
conviction and solid persuasion of mind and conscience. I would that you
knew what great conflict (or concern of mind) I have for you, and for
those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,
that their hearts might be knit together in love, and unto all riches of
full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of
God, even of the Father, and of Christ, Col. ii. 1, 2.
IV. With the reason of the apostle's exhibiting and asserting this summary
of sacred faith, and this breviate of evidence attending it. This reason is
twofold:--
1. That the believers of it may be advanced to the same happiness with them
(with the apostles themselves): That which we have seen and heard declare
we unto you, that you may have fellowship with us, v. 3. The
apostle means not personal fellowship nor consociation in the same
church-administrations, but such as is consistent with personal distance
from each other. It is communion with heaven, and in blessings that come
thence and tend thither. "This we declare and testify, that you may
share with us in our privileges and happiness." Gospel spirits (or
those that are made happy by gospel grace) would fain have others happy too.
We see, also, there is a fellowship or communion that runs through the whole
church of God. There may be some personal distinctions and peculiarities,
but there is a communion (or common participation of privilege and dignity)
belonging to all saints, from the highest apostle to the lowest believer. As
there is the same precious faith, there are the same precious promises
dignifying and crowning that faith and the same precious blessings and
glories enriching and filling those promises. Now that believers may be
ambitious of this communion, that they may be instigated to retain and hold
fast the faith that is the means of such communion, that the apostles also
may manifest their love to the disciples in assisting them to the same
communion with themselves, they indicate what it is and where it is: And
truly our fellowship (or communion) is with the Father and his Son
Jesus Christ. We have communion with the Father, and with the Son of the
Father (as 2 John 3, he is most emphatically styled) in our happy relation
to them, in our receiving heavenly blessings from them, and in our spiritual
converse with them. We have now such supernatural conversation with God and
the Lord Christ as is an earnest and foretaste of our everlasting abode with
them, and enjoyment of them, in the heavenly glory. See to what the gospel
revelation tends--to advance us far above sin and earth and to carry us to
blessed communion with the Father and the Son. See for what end the eternal
life was made flesh--that he might advance us to eternal life in communion
with the Father and himself. See how far those live beneath the dignity,
use, and end of the Christian faith and institution, who have not spiritual
blessed communion with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.
2. That believers may be enlarged and advanced in holy joy: And these
things write we unto you that your joy may be full, v. 4. The
gospel dispensation is not properly a dispensation of fear, sorrow, and
dread, but of peace and joy. Terror and astonishment may well attend mount
Sinai, but exultation and joy mount Zion, where appears the eternal Word,
the eternal life, manifested in our flesh. The mystery of the Christian
religion is directly calculated for the joy of mortals. It should be joy to
us that the eternal Son should come to seek and save us, that he has made a
full atonement for our sins, that he has conquered sin and death and hell,
that he lives as our Intercessor and Advocate with the Father, and that he
will come again to perfect and glorify his persevering believers. And
therefore those live beneath the use and end of the Christian revelation who
are not filled with spiritual joy. Believers should rejoice in their happy
relation to God, as his sons and heirs, his beloved and adopted,--in their
happy relation to the Son of the Father, as being members of his beloved
body, and coheirs with himself,--in the pardon of their sins, the
sanctification of their natures, the adoption of their persons, and the
prospect of grace and glory that will be revealed at the return of their
Lord and head from heaven. Were they confirmed in their holy faith, how
would they rejoice! The disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy
Ghost, Acts xiii. 52.
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The
Apostolic Testimony.
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A. D. 80.
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5 This then is the message which we have
heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no
darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him,
and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 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.
The apostle, having declared the truth and dignity of the author of the
gospel, brings a message or report from him, from which a just conclusion is
to be drawn for the consideration and conviction of the professors of
religion, or professed entertainers of this glorious gospel.
I. Here is the message or report that the apostle avers to come from the
Lord Jesus: This then is the message which we have heard of him (v.
5), of his Son Jesus Christ. As he was the immediate sender of the apostles,
so he is the principal person spoken of in the preceding context, and the
next antecedent also to whom the pronoun him can relate. The apostles
and apostolical ministers are the messengers of the Lord Jesus; it is their
honour, the chief they pretend to, to bring his mind and messages to the
world and to the churches. This is the wisdom and present dispensation of
the Lord Jesus, to send his messages to us by persons like ourselves. He
that put on human nature will honour earthen vessels. It was the ambition of
the apostles to be found faithful, and faithfully to deliver the errands and
messages they had received. What was communicated to them they were
solicitous to impart: This then is the message which we have heard of
him, and declare unto you. A message from the Word of life, from the
eternal Word, we should gladly receive: and the present one is this
(relating to the nature of God whom we are to serve, and with whom we should
covet all indulged communion)--That God is light, and in him is no
darkness at all, v. 5. This report asserts the excellency of the
divine nature. He is all that beauty and perfection that can be represented
to us by light. He is a self-active uncompounded spirituality, purity,
wisdom, holiness, and glory. And then the absoluteness and fulness of that
excellency and perfection. There is no defect or imperfection, no mixture of
any thing alien or contrary to absolute excellency, no mutability nor
capacity of any decay in him: In him is no darkness at all, v.
5. Or this report may more immediately relate to what is usually called the
moral perfection of the divine nature, what we are to imitate, or what is
more directly to influence us in our gospel work. And so it will comprehend
the holiness of God, the absolute purity of his nature and will, his
penetrative knowledge (particularly of hearts), his jealousy and injustice,
which burn as a most bright and vehement flame. It is meet that to this dark
world the great God should be represented as pure and perfect light. It is
the Lord Jesus that best of all opens to us the name and nature of the
unsearchable God: The only-begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father,
the same hath declared him. It is the prerogative of the Christian
revelation to bring us the most noble, the most august and agreeable account
of the blessed God, such as is most suitable to the light of reason and what
is demonstrable thereby, most suitable to the magnificence of his works
round about us, and to the nature and office of him that is the supreme
administrator, governor, and judge of the world. What more (relating to and
comprehensive of all such perfection) could be included in one word than in
this, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all? Then,
II. There is a just conclusion to be drawn from this message and report, and
that for the consideration and conviction of professors of religion, or
professed entertainers of this gospel. This conclusion issues into two
branches:-- 1. For the conviction of such professors as have no true
fellowship with God: If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in
darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. It is known that to walk, in
scripture account, is to order and frame the course and actions of the moral
life, that is, of the life so far as it is capable of subjection to the
divine law. To walk in darkness is to live and act according to such
ignorance, error, and erroneous practice, as are contrary to the fundamental
dictates of our holy religion. Now there may be those who may pretend to
great attainments and enjoyments in religion; they may profess to have
communion with God; and yet their lives may be irreligious, immoral, and
impure. To such the apostle would not fear to give the lie: They lie, and
do not the truth. They belie God; for he holds no heavenly fellowship or
intercourse with unholy souls. What communion hath light with darkness? They
belie themselves, or lie concerning themselves; for they have no such
communications from God nor accesses to him. There is no truth in their
profession nor in their practice, or their practice gives their profession
and pretences the lie, and demonstrates the folly and falsehood of them. 2.
For the conviction and consequent satisfaction of those that are near to
God: But, if we walk in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. As the
blessed God is the eternal boundless light, and the Mediator is, from him,
the light of the world, so the Christian institution is the great luminary
that appears in our sphere, and shines here below. A conformity to this in
spirit and practice demonstrates fellowship or communion with God. Those
that so walk show that they know God, that they have received of the Spirit
of God, and that the divine impress or image is stamped upon their souls. Then
we have fellowship one with another, they with us and we with them, and
both with God, in his blessed or beatific communications to us. And this is
one of those beatific communications to us--that his Son's blood or death is
applied or imputed to us: The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us
from all sin. The eternal life, the eternal Son, hath put on flesh and
blood, and so became Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ hath shed his blood for us,
or died to wash us from our sins in his own blood. His blood applied to us
discharges us from the guilt of all sin, both original and actual, inherent
and committed: and so far we stand righteous in his sight; and not only so,
but his blood procures for us those sacred influences by which sin is to be
subdued more and more, till it is quite abolished, Gal. iii. 13, 14.
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Confession
and Forgiveness.
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8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Here, I. The apostle, having supposed that even those of this heavenly
communion have yet their sin, proceeds here to justify that supposition, and
this he does by showing the dreadful consequences of denying it, and that in
two particulars:-- 1. If we say, We have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us, v. 8. We must beware of deceiving
ourselves in denying or excusing our sins. The more we see them the more we
shall esteem and value the remedy. If we deny them, the truth is not in
us, either the truth that is contrary to such denial (we lie in denying
our sin), or the truth of religion, is not in us. The Christian religion is
the religion of sinners, of such as have sinned, and in whom sin in some
measure still dwells. The Christian life is a life of continued repentance,
humiliation for and mortification of sin, of continual faith in,
thankfulness for, and love to the Redeemer, and hopeful joyful expectation
of a day of glorious redemption, in which the believer shall be fully and
finally acquitted, and sin abolished for ever. 2. If we say, We have not
sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us, v. 10. The
denial of our sin not only deceives ourselves, but reflects dishonour upon
God. It challenges his veracity. He has abundantly testified of, and
testified against, the sin of the world. And the Lord said in his heart
(determined thus with himself), I will not again curse the ground (as
he had then lately done) for man's sake; for (or, with the learned
bishop Patrick, though) the imagination of man's heart is evil from his
youth, Gen. viii. 21. But God has given his testimony to the continued
sin and sinfulness of the world, by providing a sufficient effectual
sacrifice for sin, that will be needed in all ages, and to the continued
sinfulness of believers themselves by requiring them continually to confess
their sins, and apply themselves by faith to the blood of that sacrifice.
And therefore, if we say either that we have not sinned or do not yet sin, the
word of God is not in us, neither in our minds, as to the acquaintance
we should have with it, nor in our hearts, as to the practical influence it
should have upon us.
II. The apostle then instructs the believer in the way to the continued
pardon of his sin. Here we have, 1. His duty in order thereto: If we
confess our sins, v. 9. Penitent confession and acknowledgment of
sin are the believer's business, and the means of his deliverance from his
guilt. And, 2. His encouragement thereto, and assurance of the happy issue.
This is the veracity, righteousness, and clemency of God, to whom he makes
such confession: He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness, v. 9. God is faithful to his
covenant and word, wherein he has promised forgiveness to penitent believing
confessors. He is just to himself and his glory who has provided such a
sacrifice, by which his righteousness is declared in the justification of
sinners. He is just to his Son who has not only sent him for such service,
but promised to him that those who come through him shall be forgiven on his
account. By his knowledge (by the believing apprehension of him) shall
my righteous servant justify many, Isa. liii. 11. He is clement and
gracious also, and so will forgive, to the contrite confessor, all his sins,
cleanse him from the guilt of all unrighteousness, and in due time deliver
him from the power and practice of it.
