“But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:27).
The anointing is the fourth mystery in 1 John that we shall consider. The previous messages have dealt with life, fellowship, and abiding. We who have been born of God now have eternal life, are in the fellowship, and abide in God. Our understanding of these profound matters, however, is quite general. When we say that we abide in God and He abides in us, our concept of what “God” means and what “abiding” means may be somewhat vague. As the Apostle John was writing of these matters, however, he abruptly brought up another subject, which makes the application quite clear.
He wrote: “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. But ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things” (2:18-20, Gk.).
Antichrists have appeared; they were with the church and have left. They might still call themselves Christians, but they are in another category. What is it that makes the distinction between them and us? The boundary line that separates their sphere from ours is the anointing.
The other “Christians” lack the anointing. In spite of holding the name of Christ, they are in fact antichrist. Even today there are many, like the modernists, who call themselves Christians, yet they are against Christ. For more than nineteen centuries the anointing has been the line of demarcation between these two kinds of Christians. Both kinds claim to believe in God and to worship Him, yet only one has the anointing.
What is the anointing? It is strange that the apostle here used a verbal noun. He might have said ointment, a noun denoting an oil with various ingredients added. Then we would have known that he was referring to a substance. Why did John use the -ing form of the verb anoint? Some Christians are not familiar even with this term. In the King James Version the same Greek word is translated unction in 1 John 2:20 and anointing in verse 27. Anointing is the better translation, since the Greek word is the noun form of anoint.
To understand the anointing, we must comprehend the process the Triune God underwent in order to establish His relationship with us.
The first step in that process is the incarnation, God becoming a man. Even today history has not adequately defined who Jesus is. He is God and man, mingled together as one entity. This God-man lived on the earth thirty-three and a half years. The very God who created the heavens and the earth lived in a carpenter’s home in a man by the name of Jesus! This is the second step, His human living. The third step is the crucifixion, a form of death used in the Roman Empire for criminals. By this means He entered into death, but after three days He came forth in resurrection.
In resurrection He was glorified. During His earthly life He was like a seed without “form nor comeliness,” with “no beauty that we should desire him” (Isa. 53:2). By death He was sown into the earth. Then He sprouted and grew in resurrection. When the plant produces the blossom, that blossom is the seed glorified. The Lord Jesus likened Himself to a grain of wheat, waiting to fall into the ground and die so that He could grow up into many grains (John 12:24). On the day of resurrection the Lord came back to His disciples in a glorified form, His resurrected body. The flower seed is a natural body, but the blossom is a resurrected one (cf. 1 Cor. 15:42-45). The Lord Jesus is now in resurrection in the form of the Spirit.
Now that God has gone through all this process, He is no longer merely God the Creator with divinity. Humanity has been added to Him. The essence of His incarnation and human living, the effectiveness of His death, and the resurrection itself are all now included in Him. Jesus Christ today is not merely God. He is God plus humanity, incarnation, human living, the crucifixion, and the resurrection.
I want to impress you, not with a doctrine, but with the wonderful Lord in whom we believe!
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