First John 2:24-25 continues, “As for you, that which you heard from the beginning, let it abide in you. If that which you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise which He Himself promised us, the eternal life.” The expression that which you heard from the beginning in verse 24 refers to the Word of life, that is, the Word of the eternal life that the believers heard from the beginning (1:1-2). Not to deny but to confess that the man Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (2:22), is to let the Word of the eternal life abide in us. In so doing we abide in the Son and in the Father and are not led astray by the heretical teachings concerning Christ’s person (v. 26). This indicates that the Son and the Father are the eternal life for our regeneration and enjoyment. In this eternal life we have fellowship with God and with one another (1:2-3, 6-7) and have our being in our daily walk (2:6; 1:7).
Notice that here John speaks of our abiding in the Son and in the Father. In John 15:4 the Lord Jesus said, “Abide in Me and I in you.” This verse speaks of a mutual abiding: we abide in the Lord, and the Lord abides in us. But in 1 John 2:24 John refers to the Word of life abiding in us and says that if the Word of life abides in us, we abide in the Son and in the Father. By this we see that the Word of life is actually the Lord Himself. According to John 15:4, when we abide in the Lord, the Lord abides in us. Here it says that when the Word of life abides in us, we abide in the Son and in the Father. Once again, John puts the Father and the Son together as one, for the Father and the Son are one.
In Christ we have an abiding place which is an eternal person, and in this abiding place we may enjoy the eternal life. Christ, the eternal person, is our abiding place, and eternal life is our enjoyment.
In 1 John 2:25 John does not say, “They promised us”; he says, “He Himself promised us.” The singular pronoun He in verse 25, referring to both the Son and the Father in the preceding verse, indicates that the Son and the Father are one. As far as our experience of the divine life is concerned, the Son, the Father, Jesus, and Christ are all one. It is not that only the Son, and not the Father, is the eternal life to us. It is that Jesus, being the Christ as the Son and the Father, is the eternal, divine life to us for our portion.
According to verse 24, if we take the Son as the way to reach the Father, eventually we reach both the Son and the Father. In this verse John speaks of abiding both in the Son and in the Father. It may sound logical to say that Christ as the Son is the only way for us to reach the Father as the destination. Therefore, if we do not take the way, we will not arrive at the destination; if we take the way, we will reach the destination. However, verse 24 suggests that if we take the way, we will have not only the destination but also the way. Here John indicates that we will abide not only in the destination but also in the way, that is, both in the Son and in the Father. This proves that both the Son and the Father are the destination. Not only is the Father the abiding place, but the Son is also. This means that the Son is both the way and the destination, both the way to enter into the dwelling place and the dwelling place itself.
Verse 25 says, “This is the promise which He Himself promised us, the eternal life.” In the Gospel of John eternal life is promised in such verses as 3:15; 4:14; and 10:10. In Titus 1:2 Paul speaks of “the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the times of the ages.” This promise of eternal life must be the promise made by the Father to the Son in eternity. It must have been that in eternity past the Father promised the Son that He would give His eternal life to His believers.
According to the context of 1 John 2:22 through 25, the eternal life in verse 25 is Jesus, Christ, the Father, and the Son; all these are a composition of the eternal life. Hence, the eternal life also is an element of the all-inclusive compound indwelling Spirit, who moves within us.
The eternal life in verse 25 is the Word of life, and the Word of life is Jesus, Christ, the Father, and the Son. Here we have six matters: Jesus, Christ, the Father, the Son, the Word of life, and eternal life. From the Bible, especially from 1 John, we know that Jesus is the Christ, that Christ equals the Father and the Son, and that this One is also the Word of life and the eternal life.
Together Jesus, Christ, the Father, the Son, the Word of life, and eternal life are a divine compound. All these six are elements that have been compounded into a single ointment. In Jesus we have humanity, with the Father we have divinity, and with Christ we have the anointed One. With Jesus we have the incarnation and crucifixion, with Christ we have the resurrection, and with the Son we have life. Therefore, with these elements we have all the ingredients of the compound ointment: divinity, humanity, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and life.