First John 2:20-27 unveils to us the teaching of the divine anointing for the abiding in the Triune God.
John tells us that the anointing Spirit was received by the believers from the Holy One (v. 20). John also charged us to abide in the Lord by this anointing (v. 27). If we did not have this anointing, it would be impossible to abide in the Lord. The anointing is like a switch that enables us to turn on the lights. If the switch is off, everything is in darkness, but if the switch is on, everything is in the light. We all need to be full of the anointing. According to grammar, the word “anointing” is a gerund, a verbal noun. Such a noun always conveys an action with it. The anointing is the moving of the Spirit within us.
The unbelievers do not have the anointing, but as regenerated believers we possess this anointing. We have something within us which is hard to designate or entitle. Something is within us moving and acting in a gentle way. It is somewhat similar to the very comfortable, nice, sweet, and gentle sensation we experience when some soothing oil is rubbed on our hand or on our face. Some kind of moving or action is always going on within us, soothing us, comforting us, watering us, supporting us, sustaining us, and nourishing us. This is the anointing. This is the moving or acting of this wonderful Person—the Spirit, as the Son, with the Father. This is the One who is moving, acting, and soothing your entire being from within you.
First John 2:20-27 also unveils to us that Jesus is Christ and Christ is the Son and the Father. The totality of Jesus, Christ, the Son, and the Father is the eternal life. Verse 22 tells us that the antichrist denies that Jesus is the Christ. The apostle John wrote such a verse because of the heresy of Cerinthus, a first century Syrian heresiarch of Jewish descent, educated at Alexandria. His heresy was a mixture of Judaism, Gnosticism, and Christianity. He distinguished the maker (creator) of the world from God, and represented that maker as a subordinate power. He taught adoptionist Christology (Adoptionism), saying that Jesus became Son of God by exaltation to a status that was not His by birth, thus denying the conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. In his heresy, he separated the earthly man Jesus, regarded as the son of Joseph and Mary, from the heavenly Christ, and taught that after Jesus was baptized, Christ as a dove descended upon Him, and then He announced the unknown Father and did miracles, but that at the end of His ministry Christ departed from Jesus, and Jesus suffered death on the cross and rose from the dead, while Christ remained separated as a spiritual being, and will rejoin the man Jesus at the coming of the Messianic kingdom of glory. Basically speaking, Cerinthus denied that Jesus is Christ and that Jesus is God. It is a great heresy to deny the deity, the Godhead, of Jesus.
First John 2:20 through 22 tells us that if you deny that Jesus is the Christ you are denying the Son and the Father. Then verse 23 tells us that if you deny the Son, you do not have the Father and if you confess the Son, you have the Father. Then verse 25 tells us that God promised us the eternal life. These verses show us that Jesus is Christ, that Christ is the Son, and that the Son is always with the Father. When Jesus, Christ, the Son, and the Father are added together, this is the eternal life. The eternal life is the aggregate of Jesus, Christ, the Son, and the Father. The eternal life is this wonderful Person. Jesus, Christ, the Son, the Father, and the eternal life when totaled together are the aggregate, all-inclusive Spirit.
The anointing is the moving and working of the indwelling compound Spirit, which is fully typified by the anointing oil, the compound ointment, in Exodus 30:23-25. This compound ointment is compounded with four spices plus a hin of olive oil. Five elements were compounded together into an ointment. The great teachers among the Brethren agree that the compound ointment in Exodus 30 typifies the Holy Spirit. I was taught this, but these teachers never went further to see the ingredients of this compound ointment. Any kind of compound has different elements as the ingredients. Since the compound ointment is a type of the Holy Spirit, this indicates that the Holy Spirit is a compound Spirit. It is not merely the Spirit of God, which was typified by the olive oil. After Christ’s resurrection, the Spirit of God became compounded with the divinity of the Godhead plus the humanity of the man Jesus, with His human living, with His crucifixion (the all-inclusive death), and with His resurrection. These five elements are all compounded in this all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit (see Life-study of Exodus, messages 157-163, and note 193 in Phil. 1). By reading the Life-study messages on the compound ointment you will be able to see the compound, all-inclusive, processed, aggregate, life-giving, indwelling Spirit. This is the One that moves and acts in us. His moving and His acting is the anointing which anoints us all the time.
The anointing can be exemplified by the painting of a table. The more the table is painted, the more coating it receives. After many coats of paint have been put on the table, this table becomes full of paint. We can say that the anointing Spirit is the “divine paint.” This wonderful Person, the Triune God, is the heavenly, divine paint full of elements. Actually, any kind of paint is comprised of different elements compounded together. The divine paint is not a teaching or a kind of inspiration, but a wonderful Person, the Spirit as the Son with the Father who is full of elements, ingredients. We all have to say, “Lord Jesus, thank You for the painting. I am here, Lord, and I open to You for more painting. Give me another coating of the compound ointment.” What kind of person would you be if you received a coating of this divine paint every day for 365 days? You would be a person full of the divine paint, a person of the Spirit, a wonderful person.