In the foregoing message we covered the kingdom of God in its reality and in its nature. In this message we shall consider the kingdom in its expression in the divine attributes and with human virtues. We shall also see that the expression of the kingdom is in peacefulness.
The expression of the kingdom involves three matters: the divine attributes, the human virtues, and our shining as the light.
God’s attributes refer to all that belongs to God. When the things that belong to God become our experience, they become our virtues. With God there are attributes, and with us there are virtues. For example, love is an attribute of God, not a virtue. But when the love of God becomes our experience, it produces the virtue of love. Therefore, with respect to God we use the word “attributes,” but in relation to ourselves we use the word “virtues.”
First John 4:8 and 16 tell us that God is love. The divine love is the nature of God’s essence. Thus, it is an essential attribute of God. Love as the nature of God’s essence is the source of grace. When the divine love appears to us, it becomes grace. In the Gospel of John love is manifested as grace (1:14, 16-17). In the Epistle of 1 John we have the divine love as the source of grace.
The Epistle of 1 John reveals that when we are in the fellowship of the divine life, that is, in the enjoyment of the processed Triune God, this enjoyment will have a certain outcome. The outcome of the enjoyment of the processed Triune God is the divine love. When we enjoy the Triune God, this enjoyment issues in the divine love. With this divine love we spontaneously love others.
Light is the nature of God’s expression. Therefore, the divine light is an expressive attribute of God.
As love, the nature of God’s essence, is the source of grace, so light, the nature of God’s expression, is the source of truth. When the divine light shines upon us, it becomes truth. In the Gospel of John we have light manifested as truth in the Son. In 1 John we have the divine light as the source of truth. In the Son we come to the Father and experience Him as the source of truth.
First John 1:5 says, “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” Light is God’s expression; it is God shining. When we dwell in God, who is the shining One, we are in light. The very God in whom we dwell is light.
In 1:5 we are told that in God there is no darkness at all. As light is the nature of God in His expression, so darkness is the nature of Satan in his evil works. Thank God that He has delivered us out of the satanic darkness into the divine light (Acts 26:18; 1 Pet. 2:9). The divine light is the divine life in the Son operating in us. This light shines in the darkness within us, and the darkness cannot overcome it (John 1:4-5). When we follow this light, we shall by no means walk in darkness.
Holiness is one of the main attributes of our God. The word “holy” not only means sanctified, separated, but also distinct, different, from everything that is common. Only God is distinct, different in His nature from all things. Hence, He is holy; holiness is the distinct quality of His nature, as one of His attributes.
First Peter 1:15 and 16 say, “According to the Holy One who called you, you yourselves also become holy in all your manner of life; because it is written, You shall be holy, because I am holy.” The Holy One is the Triune God—the choosing Father, the redeeming Son, and the sanctifying Spirit (1 Pet. 1:1-2). The Father has regenerated His elect, imparting His holy nature into them (1 Pet. 1:3); the Son has redeemed them with His blood from the vain manner of life (1 Pet. 1:18-19); and the Spirit has sanctified them according to the Father’s holy nature, separating them from everything that does not fit in with God’s holy nature so that they, by the holy nature of the Father, may become holy in all manner of life, even as holy as God Himself is.
The way God makes us holy is to impart Himself, the Holy One, into us so that our whole being may be permeated and saturated with His holy nature. For us to be holy, therefore, is to partake of God’s nature (2 Pet. 1:4) and to have our whole being permeated with God Himself. This makes our being holy, like God Himself is in His nature.