Excerpts from the CNT:

n 1 John 1:1-7 we see Christ as the Word of life. First John 1:1 says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life.” The Word of life in this verse is the Word mentioned in John 1:1-4 and 14, who was with God and was God in eternity before creation, who became flesh in time, and in whom is life. This Word conveys the eternal life and is the divine person of Christ as an account, a definition, and an expression of all that God is. In Him is life, and He is life (11:25; 14:6). The phrase the Word of life in Greek indicates that the Word is life. The person is the divine life, the eternal life, which we can touch.

a. The Eternal Life Itself

First John 1:2 continues, “And the life was manifested.” This indicates that life is a synonym for Word of life in the preceding verse. Both denote the divine person of Christ, who was with the Father in eternity and was manifested in time through incarnation, and whom the apostles saw and testified and reported to the believers. Christ as the Word of life is the eternal life itself for our experience and enjoyment.

The Greek words rendered “the eternal life” literally mean [3952] “the life the eternal.” This life denotes the divine spiritual life, not the human soulish life or the physical life (Rom. 5:17). Eternal denotes not only duration of time, which is everlasting, without end, but also quality, which is absolutely perfect and complete, without any shortage or defect. Such an expression emphasizes the eternal nature of the divine life, the life of the eternal God. The apostles saw this eternal life and testified and reported it to people. Their experience was not of any doctrine but of Christ, the Son of God, as the eternal life, and their testimony and preaching were not of theology or biblical knowledge but of such a solid life.

The eternal life is an indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). Nothing can destroy or dissolve this life. It is an endless life, being the eternal, divine, uncreated life, and the resurrection life which has passed through the test of death and Hades (Acts 2:24; Rev. 1:18). Satan and his followers thought that they had terminated this life by crucifying it. The religious leaders had a similar concept. However, crucifixion gave this life the best opportunity to be multiplied, to be propagated (John 12:24). Because this life is unlimited, it can never be conquered, subdued, or destroyed.

Eternal life is the life of God (Eph. 4:18; 2 Pet. 1:3). We may say that this life is actually God Himself with the contents of divine love and divine light. And this life is of the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:2), especially when it becomes our life for our enjoyment.

Eternal life is also the Son of God. This life is not simply a matter or a thing; this life is a person. The divine life is God Himself expressed in His Son. First John 5:12 says, “He who has the Son has the life.” In our experience we know that eternal life is the Son of God Himself.

b. His Being with the Father from the Beginning, Being Manifested to the Apostles, and Being Reported to the Believers

First John 1:2 goes on to say, “We have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.” Here we see that Christ as the Word of life is in three stages. First, He was with the Father [3953] from the beginning, that is, from eternity past; second, He was manifested to the apostles through His incarnation and human living on earth; third, He was reported to the believers.

The Greek word rendered “with” in verse 2 implies living and acting in union and communion with. The eternal life, which is the Son, not only was with the Father but also was living and acting in union and communion with the Father in eternity. This word corresponds with John 1:1-2. The source of the eternal life is the Father, from whom and with whom the Son was manifested as the expression of the eternal life for those, whom the Father has chosen, to partake of and enjoy this life.

This manifestation of the eternal life was through Christ’s incarnation, which John stressed strongly in his Gospel (1:14) as an antidote to inoculate the believers against the heresy which said that Christ did not come in the flesh. Such a manifestation, corresponding with being touchable, indicates again the substantial nature of the Lord’s humanity, which is the manifestation of the divine life in the New Testament economy. The manifestation of the eternal life includes the revelation and impartation of life to man, with a view to bringing man into the eternal life, into its union and communion with the Father.

This Word is the Word of life. God is life, the Word, which is God, is life to us, and this life was manifested. This life is the Lord Jesus Christ. When He was manifested in the flesh, He was manifested as life. If we prayerfully consider the record in the four Gospels with all the stories recorded concerning Jesus, we can see that in His human living, life was always manifested. The Lord Jesus was a person who manifested life. The disciples, including John, saw that life. Therefore, John could testify and report to us the eternal life which was with the Father. Today if we read the Word prayerfully, we will receive the benefit of the manifestation of eternal life.

The apostles saw eternal life, the life that was manifested, and then testified and reported this life to the believers. What they reported was not some theology or doctrine which [3954] they had heard and been taught, but the divine life, which they had seen and testified by their practical experiences.

When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He said, “I am the bread of life,” “I have come that they may have life,” and “I am...the life” (6:35; 10:10; 14:6). John indicated that the Lord Jesus is this life and that he saw, heard, handled, and was made sure of Him; then John reported this eternal life to us. He did not report merely by speaking and preaching about it, but he conveyed and transmitted it into us.

The apostles preached the eternal life, which they had heard, seen, and handled. This shows us that the ministry in the early days was a ministry of life. The preaching, teaching, and ministry of the apostles were to preach life, teach life, and minister life. The preaching of the gospel is the declaration of life as a person to people. It is not the passing on of doctrine or knowledge but the proclamation of a person who is life.

c. That the Believers Might Have Fellowship with the Apostles, Whose Fellowship Is with the Father and with the Son

First John 1:3 says, “That which we have seen and heard we report also to you that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” The apostles reported the eternal life to the believers in order that the believers might have fellowship with the apostles whose fellowship is with the Father and with the Son. This means that through the enjoyment of the eternal life, which is the Word of life, we can have fellowship with the apostles and with the Father and the Son. Eternal life produces fellowship. When this life is reported, the result is the fellowship of the divine life.

The Greek word rendered “fellowship” means “joint participation, common participation.” Fellowship is the issue of the eternal life and is actually the flow of the eternal life within all the believers, who have received and possess the divine life. It is illustrated by the flow of the water of life in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:1). All genuine believers are in this fellowship (Acts 2:42). It is carried on by the Spirit in our [3955] regenerated spirit. Hence, it is called “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor. 13:14) and “fellowship of [our] spirit” (Phil. 2:1). It is in this fellowship of the eternal life that we, the believers, participate in all that the Father and the Son are and have done for us; th

at is, we enjoy the love of the Father and the grace of the Son by virtue of the fellowship of the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). Such a fellowship was first the apostles’ portion in their enjoyment of the Father and the Son through the Spirit. Hence, in Acts 2:42 it is called “the fellowship of the apostles,” and in 1 John 1:3 “our [the apostles’] fellowship,” a fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. It is a divine mystery.

The apostle John is reporting to us that which he saw and heard. He had heard, seen, and even handled the Word of life, the eternal life. Now he is testifying and reporting to us the eternal life. Then John goes on to say that he reported what he had seen and heard, not that we might have “life” but that we might have “fellowship.” In other words, what the apostles declare to the believers is the life, but what the believers have is the fellowship. If the believers receive the life that the apostles declare to them, they will have the fellowship. This indicates that the fellowship comes from the life.

In the divine life the believers have fellowship with one another (v. 7; Phil. 2:1). As the electric lights in the ceiling of a room have a current flowing within them, so we all have the divine current flowing within us. Fellowship is simply the flowing of the divine life within us. When life stands still, it is life; when it flows, it is fellowship. In this divine life and through this divine life we have fellowship for the enjoyment of the divine life. The more we have the divine life flowing within us, the more we enjoy the divine life.

This fellowship is in the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). Since the Spirit is the realization of Christ, when the Spirit is in us, Christ and God are in us. The Spirit in all of us is one and the same. The Spirit in one believer is the Spirit in another believer. There is one Spirit in all of us. This Spirit becomes our fellowship and also enables us to have fellowship with one another.

Many times when we meet another child of God, although [3956] we may not say much outwardly, there is a mutual flow, a communication, between us. This flow, this communication, is of the Spirit. The Spirit in us is the Spirit of fellowship, just as the life of God in us is the life of fellowship.

We have the reality that there is a real, divine, spiritual, heavenly, and living current always flowing within us. As long as we are regenerated persons, we have this flow. We can prove this not merely by doctrine but by our up-to-date experience. When we are healthy in the spiritual life, the flow within us is pure, fresh, living, positive, and active.

We pray because there is a current flowing within us that urges us to pray. We do certain things for the Lord because the Lord urges us through the flow, the current, within us. The fellowship of life is constantly living and flowing within us. When we come together, if we all are in this flow, something living within us will simply echo one another. This is the fellowship of life.

(1) The Apostles’ Fellowship Being with the Father and the Son

First John 1 reveals a fellowship in two directions, vertical and horizontal. Horizontally we fellowship with one another, and vertically we fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. From life we have fellowship, and this fellowship is with the saints and with the Triune God. The vertical aspect of fellowship was initially established with the first apostles. The apostles then reported to the believers the eternal life in order that they might have fellowship with the apostles. Before the apostles reported the eternal life to them, the apostles themselves already had the vertical fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (v. 3). The initial experience of the apostles was vertical, but when the apostles reported the eternal life to others, they experienced the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship.

Verses 6 and 7 of 1 John 1 also indicate the vertical and horizontal aspects of the divine fellowship. Verse 6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth.” This is the vertical aspect of fellowship. Verse 7 says, “But if we walk in [3957] the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” This is the horizontal aspect of fellowship. Both aspects of the divine fellowship are closely related; it is difficult to say which aspect comes first. If you do not have the proper fellowship with the Lord, it is difficult to have fellowship with your fellow believers. In the same way, if you do not have the proper fellowship with your fellow believers, it is difficult to have fellowship with the Lord.

In verse 3 only the Father and the Son are mentioned, not the Spirit, because the Spirit is implied in the fellowship. Actually, the fellowship of the eternal life is the imparting of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—into the believers as their unique portion to enjoy today and for eternity.

When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were brought into this fellowship. When we called on the name of the Lord, we may say that the Spirit came into us, that God came into us, or that the divine life came into us. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we received the Spirit into us, for the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God, and the Triune God is the divine life. The One who is now in us is the divine life, the Triune God, who is the Spirit and Jesus Christ. The divine, eternal life is a person, Jesus Christ.

(2) The Believers’ Having Fellowship with the Apostles

The fellowship of the divine life is a fellowship between the believers and the apostles (1 John 1:3b; Acts 2:42). This means that there is a joint enjoyment of the Triune God among the believers and the apostles. The believers and the apostles need to have contact with one another. When there is the proper contact, there will be a two-way traffic, and this traffic is fellowship, a common participation. When we have this two-way traffic, we enjoy the divine life that is within us. This means that when we have fellowship, we have the enjoyment of the divine life. The more two-way traffic we have, the better it will be. The more we contact the apostles, the more we will enjoy the divine life. Whenever we come to the apostles’ writings, we may have the sense of being brought into [3958] fellowship with the apostles and enjoying the two-way traffic between us and them. Then in this traffic we enjoy the divine life together with them. John says that first the believers have fellowship with the apostles through the divine life. Then he says that the apostles have fellowship with the Father and the Son. By this we see that fellowship joins the believers to the apostles and to the Father and the Son. Therefore, in this fellowship there is the full oneness of the divine life.

The fellowship in the Body is the fellowship of the apostles. Acts 2:42 says, “They continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles.” We cannot have any fellowship other than the apostles’ fellowship. Among the saints there is only one fellowship because there is only one life, one source of life, and one Lord of life—Christ Himself. The Lord Christ is the unique source of this unique life; hence, in this unique life we have the unique fellowship. In the universe all the believers throughout time and space have only one fellowship, the fellowship that comes from the unique life, which is Christ Himself.

The divine fellowship is between us and the Father and also between us and all the members of the Body. Just as in our body there are many members but one circulation of blood, so also in the Body of Christ we are the many members of His Body with one fellowship in Christ as our life. The life-giving Spirit is flowing within all the members of the great, universal Body of Christ. Within His universal Body there is one flow, the flow of the divine life, the current of the water of life. The water is the divine life, and the divine life is the Triune God. The more we remain in Christ, the more we have this fellowship.

Our Christian life is a life of the fellowship of the divine life. The New Testament reveals that the Christian meeting, the Christian married life, and the Christian work are just the divine fellowship. The divine fellowship is everything in the Christian life.

In 1 John 1:2-3 the apostles wanted to have fellowship with the believers; this is horizontal fellowship. Then the apostles stated that their fellowship was with the Triune God; this is vertical fellowship. The vertical fellowship brings us [3959] into the horizontal fellowship. The horizontal fellowship then brings us into the vertical fellowship on a larger scale. This larger scale of fellowship is the meetings. In the proper church meetings, everyone should be full of the enjoyment of Christ, participating in the vertical and horizontal aspects of the divine fellowship. All the functioning in the meetings should be an expression of the divine fellowship. To prophesy is an expression of this fellowship. To testify is also a part of this fellowship. To read a verse from the Bible to the saints in the Lord’s table meeting may also be a small part of this fellowship. The entire meeting should be a fellowship.

Eventually, in this divine fellowship God is interwoven with us. This interweaving is the mingling of God with man. All the meetings should be an interwoven fellowship with both the vertical and horizontal aspects. Our married life should also be an interwoven fellowship. The husband and the wife should not only be interwoven with each other but also with the Lord. The real Christian marriage should be the divine fellowship. In addition, our coordination and work together should be the divine fellowship.

We must realize that when fellowship disappears, God also disappears. God comes as the fellowship. Today our meetings, our married life, the coordination among the co-workers, and the fellowship among the local churches are abnormal because we are short of this fellowship. The divine fellowship is everything in the Christian life. When we live in the divine fellowship, our Christian life becomes very living, active, and full of impact. We need to fully enter into the experience of the divine fellowship in its two aspects by the two spirits.

As we have seen, the fellowship of the divine life in the Body of Christ corresponds to the circulation of the blood in the physical body. It is this circulation which unites all the members with the head and with each other. The body and the head are one because of this circulation. All the members in the body are kept in “fellowship,” or oneness, with each other by this same circulation. Circulation is not something other than the blood itself. When the blood flows in the blood vessels, there is circulation; when the blood is stationary, there is no circulation. Once the blood flow stops, death and [3960] detachment result, and the members are no longer related to each other or to the head. Likewise, the fellowship of the divine life is the flow of life through all the members of the Body of Christ. “Fellowship” is not our greeting each other and engaging in conversation. The church is not a social club or a charitable organization; it is the Body of Christ. In this Body flows the divine, eternal life, which is the living person of God Himself. Apart from this flowing, there is death and detachment.

Simply speaking, fellowship is the flow of life, the flow of the Holy Spirit, within the children of God. Again this flow, this fellowship, is illustrated by the circulation of the blood in our physical body. The Word says that the life of the flesh is in the blood (Lev. 17:11). This means that the circulation of blood is the flow of blood, the “fellowship” of the body. We cannot say that the blood in our body is the blood of our hand or the blood of our feet. If the blood in a person’s hand stops moving and remains in that particular place, then the hand becomes dead. When the blood flow has a problem, the body is in an abnormal situation. Likewise, the fellowship of the Body is the circulation of the life of Christ in us, which is also the circulation of the Spirit of life in us. The circulation of the Spirit of life has at least two functions: it brings in the spiritual supply that we need, and it discharges all the improper, useless, and dead things from within us (Titus 3:5). Whenever there is a lack of fellowship among God’s children, there is a lack of spiritual supply among them. Furthermore, there is the accumulation of many improper things within them, which creates problems. As a consequence, the Body of Christ becomes ill. We need to see that in order for the life of Christ to be continually living and strong, we, as the children of God, need to have continual fellowship among us. Whenever this fellowship is stopped, the supply of life is stopped, and death is brought in. Thus, the Body of Christ suffers loss related to spiritual death.

If we do not see the believers and do not attend any meetings for a long time, although we may pray and meditate, our spirit seems to become sick, lacking vitality. This is because although we may fellowship with the Lord and have no problem with Him, we are cut off from the fellowship of the Lord’s [3961] Body. Yet as soon as we resume our fellowship with the believers, we are refreshed, revived, supplied, happy, pleasant, and bright. This is the fellowship of the Body, and grace is brought into us through fellowship.

In the church meetings, such as the prayer meeting and the bread-breaking meeting, there is a fellowship in the depth of our spirit. The prayers and praises of the saints flow into us. We may feel somewhat despondent before a meeting, but during the meeting we spontaneously sense a flow in our inner being. Once there is a flow, we are altogether enlivened and refreshed in our spirit. We may not listen to many messages, yet we are enlivened simply by praising and praying together with all the saints. This is fellowship and the function of fellowship.

Fellowship indicates a putting away of private interests and a joining with others for a certain common purpose. Hence, to have fellowship with the apostles, to be in the fellowship of the apostles, and to have fellowship with the Triune God in the apostles’ fellowship is to put aside our private interests and join with the apostles and the Triune God for the carrying out of God’s purpose. This purpose, according to John’s subsequent writings, is twofold: (1) that the believers grow in the divine life by abiding in the Triune God (1 John 2:12-27) and, based on the divine birth, live a life of the divine righteousness and the divine love (2:28—5:3) to overcome the world, death, sin, the devil, and idols (5:4-21); and (2) that the local churches be built up as the lampstands for the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 1—3) and consummate in the New Jerusalem as the full expression of God for eternity (Rev. 21—22). Our participation in the apostles’ enjoyment of the Triune God is our joining with them and with the Triune God for His divine purpose, which is common to God, the apostles, and all the believers. In this fellowship we enjoy God, the apostles, the believers, the universal church, and even the local churches. All this enjoyment depends on the fellowship of the divine life, and this fellowship issues out of the divine life itself.

d. This Fellowship Bringing the Believers into God as Light

First John 1:5-7a says, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth; but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” The fellowship of the divine life brings the believers into God as light, which is the source of the truth. The message that John and the other early disciples heard was, undoubtedly, the word spoken by the Lord Jesus in John 8:12 and 9:5—that He is the light. However, John said here that the message was that God is light. This indicates that the Lord Jesus is God, implying the essence of the Divine Trinity.

Expressions such as God is light, God is love (1 John 4:8, 16), and God is Spirit (John 4:24) are used not in a metaphoric sense but in a predicative sense. They denote and describe the nature of God. In His nature, God is Spirit, love, and light. Spirit denotes the nature of God’s person; love, the nature of God’s essence; and light, the nature of God’s expression. Both love and light are related to God as life, which is of the Spirit (Rom. 8:2). God, Spirit, and life are actually one. God is Spirit and Spirit is life. Within this life are love and light. When the [3964] divine love appears to us, it becomes grace, and when the divine light shines on us, it becomes truth. John’s Gospel reveals that the Lord Jesus brought grace and truth to us (1:14, 17) that we might have the divine life (3:14-16), whereas John’s Epistle unveils that the fellowship of the divine life brings us to the very source of grace and truth, which are the divine love and the divine light. John’s Epistle is the continuation of his Gospel. In John’s Gospel it is God in the Son coming to us as grace and truth that we may become His children (1:12-13); in John’s Epistle it is we, the children, in the fellowship of the Father’s life, going to the Father to participate in His love and light. The former was God’s coming out to the outer court to meet our need at the altar (Lev. 4:28-31); the latter is our entering into the Holy of Holies to contact Him at the Ark (Exo. 25:22). This is further and deeper in the experience of the divine life. After receiving the divine life by believing into the Son in John’s Gospel, we should go on to enjoy this life through the fellowship of this life in John’s Epistle. The entire Epistle discloses to us this one thing, that is, the enjoyment of the divine life through our abiding in its fellowship.

In 1 John 1:7 we are told to walk in the light. The Greek word translated “walk” means to move, act, and have our being. As we remain in God, we should dwell in Him and have our being in Him. God is our true dwelling place, our home. Hence, wherever God goes, we should go with Him and in Him.

We need to know not only who God is but also what God is. First John 1:5 tells us that God is light and that in Him is no darkness at all. The God in whom we dwell is light. The primary aspect of the condition of maintaining our fellowship with God is to dwell in God as light. When the house in which we dwell is full of light, we also are in light, not in darkness. In a similar way, when we dwell in God, we dwell in light, for God is light. Light is God’s expression; it is God shining. Hence, when we dwell in God, who is the shining One, we are in light.

If we do not dwell in God, our fellowship with Him will immediately be broken. Whenever we do not dwell in God, we are out of the divine fellowship. However, our life relationship with God is not broken. For example, whether a child’s [3965] behavior is good or bad, he still has a relationship in life with his father. Whether a child stays at home or tries to run away, the relationship in life with his father remains unbroken. However, the child may not remain in fellowship with his father. There may be times when he does not want to be in the same room with his father or talk with him face to face. This is because the fellowship has been broken, although the life relationship remains. Likewise, our life relationship with God cannot be broken, but our fellowship with Him will be broken if we do not abide in Him as the divine light.

In verse 5 John says that in God there is no darkness at all. As light is the nature of God in His expression, so darkness is the nature of Satan in his evil works (3:8). Thank God that He has delivered us out of the satanic darkness into the divine light (Acts 26:18; 1 Pet. 2:9). The divine light is the divine life in the Son operating in us. This light shines in the darkness within us, and the darkness cannot overcome it (John 1:4-5). When we follow this light, we will by no means walk in darkness (8:12), which, according to the context, is the darkness of sin (1 John 1:7-10).

Lying is of Satan, who is the father of liars (John 8:44). The satanic darkness is versus the divine light, and the satanic lie is versus the divine truth. As the divine truth is the expression of the divine light, so the satanic lie is the expression of the satanic darkness. If we say that we have fellowship with God, who is light, and walk in the darkness, we lie in the expression of the satanic darkness and do not practice the truth in the expression of the divine light.

First John 1:6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth.” To have fellowship with God is to have an intimate and living contact with Him in the flow of the divine life according to the Spirit’s anointing in our spirit (2:27). This keeps us in the participation and enjoyment of the divine light and divine love.

In verse 6 of chapter 1 truth denotes the revealed reality of God in its aspect of the divine light. It is the issue and realization of the divine light mentioned in verse 5. The divine light is the source in God; truth is the issue and realization of [3966] the divine light in us (cf. John 3:19-21). When we abide in the divine light, which we enjoy in the fellowship of the divine life, we practice the truth—what we have realized in the divine light. When we abide in the source, its issue becomes our practice.

We walk in the light, but God is in the light because He is light. Henry Alford says, “The light is the element in which God dwells: compare 1 Tim. 6:16....this walking in the light, as He is in the light, is no mere imitation of God, but is an identity in the essential element of our daily walk with the essential element of God’s eternal being: not imitation, but coincidence and identity of the very atmosphere of life.” When we walk and live in the light of God, we have the joint enjoyment of the Triune God and the joint participation in His divine purpose. The fellowship of the divine life brings us the divine light, and the divine light keeps us in the fellowship, that is, in the joint enjoyment of God and the joint participation in His purpose.

To walk in the divine light is not merely to dwell in this light; it is to live, move, act, do things, and have our being in the divine light, the light which is actually God Himself. When we dwell, live, and have our being in God, we walk in the divine light, which is the expression of God.

When the divine light shines, we see all the different truths, and these truths are realities. But when we do not have the divine light but are rather in darkness, we have the sense that everything is vanity and emptiness. When you are in the divine light, you can see the truth, the reality. For example, when you are in the light, God is a reality to you, and the divine life is also a reality. Furthermore, God’s holiness, love, and grace are all realities to you. When we walk in the light, we see one reality after another. However, when we are in darkness, nothing is real to us. On the contrary, everything is empty and vain. When we are in darkness, we do not have any reality, because we do not see anything. Instead of the sense of reality, we have the sense of emptiness and vanity.

When we dwell in God, we are in the fellowship. When we are in this fellowship, we are in light. Then as we walk in the light, Christ, the Spirit, the church, the Body, and the [3967] members of the Body are all real to us. We see Christ, the Spirit, the church, the Body, and the ground of the church, and they are all real to us.

It is when we are in the light that we see the truth. If we are in the light, whatever we do will be real. Not only will we practice what is right and proper; we will do what is real. This means that whatever we do is a reality. Habitually and automatically, we will practice the truth, the reality. If we do this, we will keep ourselves in the divine fellowship.

As believers, we all have some apprehension of the truth, but only a small number of believers may be in the light. Light is in God and is God Himself. Until we are brought into God Himself, we may be under the shining of the light but not in the light. To be under the shining of the light is one thing; to be in the light is another. Although under the shining we may have the truth, or the realization, we are not in the light until we are in God Himself. Then every hidden thing will be exposed. From the time that we were saved, we have been under the shining, coming to certain realizations and understandings. But some day we will be willing for this inner fellowship to bring us into God. In Him we will not merely be under the shining but also in the light. Today many Christians are in darkness, but some are under the shining. Very few, however, are in the light. Probably a good number of us have occasionally had experiences in which we were brought into God and recognized that we were in the light.

Suppose you become annoyed with another brother. You are not yet in the light, but under the shining you sense that your attitude was poor. You go to that brother and apologize that your attitude earlier was wrong. Some Christians who are fully in darkness would not even admit that they were wrong to be annoyed with a brother. When you allow the inner fellowship to bring you into God, however, you will be in the light. Under its glare you will tremble, realizing not only that your attitude toward your brother should be condemned but also that you yourself in every part are sinful, fully contaminated, and thoroughly unclean. In the light there is no excuse or escape. You may weep, repent, and take hours to confess.

In this fellowship with the Father we have light, and in [3968] this light we have fellowship (1 John 1:3, 5, 7). The result of being in the light is the recognition that we are utterly sinful, that every member of our body is sinful, and that every relationship with others is sinful. Because we are in the old creation, nothing about us is clean; we are polluted and condemned. Everything within us—our feelings, our intentions, our decisions, our concepts, our ideas—is sinful. As human beings we are full of sin. The reason we do not have this conviction is that we are not in the light. When Isaiah was brought into the glory of God, he said, “Woe is me, for I am finished! / For I am a man of unclean lips, / And in the midst of a people of unclean lips I dwell” (Isa. 6:5). We have some amount of truth, knowing that we should do this and be like that, but such a realization is not light; it is only truth. If we are willing to abide in the fellowship, it will bring us into God. Then we will be thoroughly exposed by this light from which nothing can be hidden.

e. The Blood of Jesus God’s Son Cleansing the Believers from All Sin

First John 1:7b says, “The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.” When we live in the divine light, we are under its enlightenment, and it exposes, according to God’s divine nature and through God’s nature in us, all our sins, trespasses, failures, and defects, which contradict His pure light, perfect love, absolute holiness, and excelling righteousness. At such a time we sense in our enlightened conscience the need of the cleansing of the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus, and it cleanses us in our conscience from all sins that our fellowship with God and with one another may be maintained. Our relationship with God is unbreakable, yet our fellowship with Him can be interrupted. The former is of life, whereas the latter is based on our living, though it also is of life. One is unconditional; the other is conditional. Our fellowship, which is conditional, needs to be maintained by the constant cleansing of the Lord’s blood.

Light takes away all our cover-ups; it penetrates every hiding place. It so exposes us that we cry out, “Woe is me! I am unclean!” At that moment the blood cleanses. Verse 7 [3969] clearly tells us that if we are in the light, the blood follows the light to cleanse us. There is no requirement on our part to apply the blood. To apply the blood means that we have the realization that we are sinful but have not yet had our sins exposed in the light. Whatever the light exposes, the blood cleanses. We should praise the Lord for His provision.

The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from every sin. The name Jesus denotes the Lord’s humanity, which is needed for the shedding of the redeeming blood, and the title His Son denotes the Lord’s divinity, which is needed for the eternal efficacy of the redeeming blood. Thus, the blood of Jesus His Son indicates that this blood is the proper blood of a genuine man shed for the redeeming of God’s fallen creatures, with the divine surety as its eternal efficacy, an efficacy that is all-prevailing in space and everlasting in time.

No other verse in the New Testament uses the expression Jesus His Son. Jesus was a true man, a genuine human being, and the blood of Jesus was the blood of a real man. Because we are human beings, we need to be redeemed by human blood. In the Old Testament the blood for atonement was of animals, and was a type of the blood of Christ. However, animal blood could not actually redeem us, because we are human beings, not animals. As human beings, we need the efficacious blood of Jesus, the blood of a genuine man.

The Lord’s divinity indicated by the words His Son is a guarantee, a surety, that the efficacy of the blood of Jesus will remain forever. The Lord’s humanity qualifies Him to have the blood to shed for our redemption, and His divinity insures the efficacy of the power of this redeeming blood. The efficacy of the cleansing blood of Jesus is insured forever by His divinity.

The tense of this verb cleanses in Greek is present and denotes continuous action, indicating that the blood of Jesus the Son of God cleanses us all the time, continuously and constantly. Cleansing here refers to the instant cleansing of the Lord’s blood in our conscience. Before God, the redeeming blood of the Lord has cleansed us once for all eternally (Heb. 9:12, 14), and the efficacy of that cleansing lasts forever before God, so that that cleansing need not be repeated. However, in [3970] our conscience we need the instant application of the constant cleansing of the Lord’s blood again and again whenever our conscience is enlightened by the divine light in our fellowship with God.

On the one hand, the Lord’s blood washes our sin and sins in the presence of God. According to the typology in the Old Testament, the blood of the sacrifice was brought into the tabernacle and sprinkled in the Holy of Holies in the presence of God. This signifies the once-for-all washing of our sin and sins in the presence of God. On the other hand, the Lord’s blood washes our sin and sins in our conscience. This instant cleansing is typified by the purification with the water of impurity mixed with the ashes of the heifer (Num. 19:2-10). The cleansing in 1 John 1:7 is not the eternal cleansing before God; rather, it is the continuous cleansing in our conscience. As we abide in the light, we are cleansed continually by the blood of Jesus.

The New Testament deals with the problem of sin by using both the word sin (singular) and the word sins (plural). Sin refers to the indwelling sin, which came through Adam into mankind from Satan (Rom. 5:12). It is dealt with in the second section of Romans, 5:12—8:13 (with the exception of 7:5, where sins is mentioned). Sins refers to the sinful deeds, the fruits of the indwelling sin, which are dealt with in the first section of Romans, 1:18—5:11. However, in 1 John 1:7 sin in the singular, used with the adjective every, does not denote the indwelling sin but every single sin we commit (v. 10) after we are regenerated; each such sin defiles our purged conscience and needs to be cleansed away by the blood of the Lord in our fellowship with God.

Our sin, the indwelling sin in our nature (Rom. 7:17), has been dealt with by Christ as our sin offering (Lev. 4; Isa. 53:10; Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 9:26). Our sins, our trespasses, have been dealt with by Christ as our trespass offering (Lev. 5; Isa. 53:11; 1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Pet. 2:24; Heb. 9:28). However, after our regeneration we still need to take Christ as our sin offering for the sin in our nature as indicated in 1 John 1:8, and as our trespass offering for the sins in our conduct as indicated in verse 9. [3971]

In 1 John 1 there is a cycle in our spiritual life, a cycle formed of four crucial things—the eternal life, the fellowship of the eternal life, the divine light, and the blood of Jesus the Son of God. Eternal life issues in its fellowship, the fellowship of eternal life brings in the divine light, and the divine light increases the need for the blood of Jesus the Son of God that we may have more eternal life. The more we have of eternal life, the more of its fellowship it brings to us. The more fellowship of the divine life we enjoy, the more divine light we receive. The more divine light we receive, the more we participate in the cleansing of the blood of Jesus. Such a cycle brings us onward in the growth of the divine life until we reach the maturity of life.