The New Testament does not separate the Father and the Son. Especially in the Gospel of John we see that the Son is always one with the Father. The Son came in the name of the Father (John 5:43). Furthermore, the Son did not do His own work and will, He did not speak His own word, He did not seek His own glory, and He did not express Himself (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; 7:18). Rather, He always did the Father’s work and will, spoke the Father’s word, sought the Father’s glory, and expressed the Father. The Son was one with the Father and could not be separated from the Father, neither could the Father be separated from the Son. Hence, in this Epistle John emphasizes strongly the fact that if we have the Son, we have the Father. But if we do not have the Son, we do not have the Father. This indicates that the Father and the Son truly are one (John 10:30).
In verse 25 John continues, “And this is the promise which He promised us, the eternal life.” The singular pronoun “He,” 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 life to us for our portion.
According to the context of verses 22 through 25, the eternal life is just Jesus, Christ, the Son, and the Father. All these are a composition of the eternal life. Hence, the eternal life is also 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, 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.
If we study these verses in 1 John along with the record of the elements of the compound ointment in Exodus 30, we shall see that all the elements in Exodus 30 are found in these verses. To be sure, here we have the olive oil, the myrrh, the cinnamon, the calamus, and the cassia. We also have the numbers five and three (see Life-study of Exodus, Messages 157-163).
In chapter two of 1 John we certainly have the compound ointment, the all-inclusive Spirit. However, here we do not have the ointment merely in an objective way; instead, we have the subjective anointing, that is, the subjective moving and working of the ointment. This subjective anointing is the processed Triune God experienced by us. Furthermore, this anointing teaches us concerning the processed Triune God. For example, if someone should say that Christ is not in us, we should reply, “From my experience of the anointing I know that Jesus Christ is in me.” Moreover, if someone should try to teach you that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three separate Persons, you may say, “I don’t have three separate Persons within me. From my experience of the anointing I know that I have only One in me, and this One is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.”
In Matthew 28:19 the Lord Jesus gave this charge to His disciples: “Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” However, when the apostles carried out this charge in the book of Acts, we are not told that they baptized the believers into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Rather, in Acts we are told that the believers were baptized into the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38). This indicates that the name of Jesus Christ equals the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This indicates that Jesus Christ is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The apostles knew that Jesus Christ was equal to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Therefore, they carried out the Lord’s charge to baptize the believers into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit by baptizing them into the name of Jesus Christ. This is an illustration of the fact that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one. This is the Triune God, and we are in Him. To be in the Triune God is also to be in the divine compound, the compound ointment, which is the all-inclusive Spirit.