God the Father not only gives grace to the believers, but He comes to them with the Son and makes an abode with them. In John 14:23 the Lord Jesus says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” The Father does not come to visit us temporarily; He comes to stay, having no intention of leaving. The Father’s intention in coming to us with the Son is to make an abode with us. The Father with the Son takes the believers as His abode and makes the believers an abode to Him. This means that the Father’s visitation makes us His abode, and it makes Him our abode. Eventually, we and He, He and we, become a mutual abode.
The Father cannot come to us by Himself to make an abode with us. Rather, He comes to us with the Son and by the Spirit. When the Father comes to us, He brings the Son, and the Son as the Spirit accompanies the Father. Thus, the three of the Godhead come together. The Father comes with the Son, and the Son accompanies the Father as the Spirit. Then the Father dwells in us with the Son as the Spirit. This is the Triune God coming to make an abode with us.
After coming to us with the Son, the Father abides in us. The Father’s intention in coming to us is to abide in us, to stay with us forever.
First John 3:24 says, “He who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And in this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us.” If we keep the Lord’s commandments by living in the divine reality, we shall abide in Him, and He in us. We abide in the Lord; then He abides in us. Our abiding in Him is a condition for His abiding in us (John 15:4). We enjoy His abiding in us by our abiding in Him.
The second part of 1 John 3:24 tells us that “we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us.” The phrase “by the Spirit” modifies “we know.” The Spirit here is more inclusive than the Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit. The Spirit refers to the Spirit who was not yet (John 7:39) before Christ’s glorification. Now, after the resurrection of Christ, the Spirit is here. Therefore, we know that we abide in the Lord and He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given to us.
First John 4:13 says, “In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given us of His Spirit.” The words “in this” mean in the fact that God has given us of His Spirit we know that we abide in Him and He in us. The Spirit whom God has given to dwell in us (James 4:5; Rom. 8:9, 11) is the witness in our spirit (Rom. 8:16) that we dwell in God and He in us. The abiding Spirit, that is, the indwelling Spirit, is the element and sphere of the mutual abiding, the mutual indwelling, of us and God. By Him we are assured that we and God are one, abiding in one another, indwelling each other mutually.
In verse 13 John indicates that we may know that we abide in God and that He abides in us. To abide in God is to dwell in Him, remaining in our fellowship with Him, that we may experience and enjoy His abiding in us. This is to practice our oneness with God according to the divine anointing by a living that practices His righteousness and love. It is all by the operation of the all-inclusive compound Spirit, who dwells in our spirit.
We know that we abide in God and that God abides in us because He “has given us of His Spirit.” In Greek “of” literally means “out of.” God has given us out of His Spirit. “Out of His Spirit” is an expression which implies that the Spirit of God, whom He has given to us, is bountiful and without measure (Phil. 1:19; John 3:34). By such a bountiful, immeasurable Spirit we know with full assurance that we are one with God and that we abide in Him and He in us.
First John 4:15 goes on to say, “Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” God the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the world with the purpose that men may believe in Him by confessing that Jesus is the Son of God, so that God may abide in them and they in God. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. He becomes one with God in the divine life and nature. In our preaching of the gospel we need to tell others that if they believe in the Lord Jesus, confessing that He is the Son of God, God will come into them to abide in them, and they will abide in God.
First John 4:16 continues, “And we have known and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” To abide in love is to live a life that loves others habitually with the love which is God Himself so that He may be expressed in us. To abide in God is to live a life which is God Himself as our inward content and outward expression so that we may be absolutely one with Him. God abides in us to be our life inwardly and our living outwardly. Thus, He may be one with us in a practical way. If we abide in the love which is God Himself, then we abide in God, and God abides in us.
Whereas John in his writings uses the word “abides,” Paul in his writings uses the word “dwells” (Rom. 8:11) and even speaks of Christ making His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:17). Concerning God’s abiding in us, Paul’s writing is even stronger than that of John, for Paul tells us that the Triune God desires to settle down, to make His home deep down, in our hearts.
As God the Father abides in us, we experience and enjoy Him as the loving One, as the One who is the source of love. God as the Father in His love comes to us and abides in us in order to dispense Himself into us.
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