The fact that to deny Jesus being the Christ equals denying the Father and the Son implies the thought that Jesus, Christ, the Father, and the Son are all one, all of whom are the elements, the ingredients, of the all-inclusive compound indwelling Spirit, who is now anointing the believers all the time. In this anointing, Jesus, Christ, the Father, and the Son are all anointed into our inner being.
In verse 22 John indicates that to deny that Jesus is the Christ is equal to denying the Father and the Son. Here John regards Jesus, Christ, the Father, and the Son as one. Surely Jesus and Christ are one. But if we deny that Jesus is the Christ, we deny the Father and the Son. This indicates strongly that the Father and the Son are one with Jesus and Christ. Since the Father and the Son are one with Christ and since Jesus and Christ are one, Jesus, Christ, the Father, and the Son are all one.
We all have heard that Jesus is the Christ, but have you ever heard that, according to 2:22, Christ is both the Father and the Son? We need to be impressed with the fact that here John says that to deny that Jesus is the Christ is to deny the Father and the Son. However, some claim that we should say only that Christ is the Son, not that Christ is both the Father and the Son. Nevertheless, in this verse John indicates that if we deny Christ, we deny both the Father and the Son. If Christ were only the Son and not also the Father, how would denying Christ mean that we deny both the Father and the Son? According to this understanding of Christ, to deny Christ would only mean to deny the Son, and this denial would have nothing to do with the Father. But John says that if someone denies Christ, he denies first the Father and then the Son.
In verse 23 John continues, “Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also.” Since the Son and the Father are one (John 10:30; Isa. 9:6), to deny the Son is to be without the Father, and to confess the Son is to have the Father. To deny the Son here refers to the heresy that denies the deity of Christ, not confessing that the Man Jesus is God.
In verse 23 John first says that anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either. If the Son and the Father were not one, how could those who deny the Son not have the Father? In this verse John goes on to say that he who confesses the Son has the Father also. Whoever denies the Son has neither the Son nor the Father. But whoever confesses the Son has both the Son and the Father. Both the negative side and the positive side of this verse indicate that the Son and the Father are inseparable. Because the Father and the Son are one, we cannot separate the Son from the Father nor the Father from the Son.
I would call your attention to the words “either” and “also” in verse 23. John says that whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either. Then he says that whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. These words indicate that the Father and the Son are one and inseparable. Therefore, to deny the Son is to deny both the Son and the Father, and to confess the Son is to confess both the Son and the Father.
Verse 24 says, “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 will abide both in the Son and in the Father.” “That which you heard from the beginning” refers to the Word of life—the eternal life which the believers heard from the beginning (1:1-2). Not to deny but confess that the Man Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (v. 22) is to let the Word of the eternal life abide in us. In so doing we abide both in the Son and in the Father, and we 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 in it we have our being in our daily walk (2:6; 1:7).
In verse 24 John says that if we let that which was from the beginning, that is, the Word of life, abide in us, we shall abide both in the Son and in the Father. This indicates that the Word of life is actually the Son and the Father.
Notice that here John speaks of our abiding in the Son and in the Father. In John 15:4 the Lord Jesus says, “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 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.