'Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve

one another.  For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this;

Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself' (verses 13,14).

We have already seen that resurrection life is the answer to the

question, How may I find power to live unto God?  We see here that in this

same blessed sphere we are at liberty to fulfil our duties to one another.

In Ephesians 2 we have a further lesson.  Verse 10 tells us that, 'We

are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath

before ordained, that we should walk in them'.  We are to walk in the works

and merits of Christ.  We are to work out that which has been worked in; or,

as Hebrews 13:21 puts it, 'Make you perfect in every good work to do His

will, doing in you that which is well pleasing in His sight'.

May the fact of a risen Saviour at the right hand of God, a life hid

with Christ in God, a glorified Head in heaven, our legal death with Christ

here, our position as being 'raised together and made to sit together in

heavenly places', become more and more to us; and so will the dead leaves and

deadly regulations of men fall and fade, leaving us standing and walking by

faith, not by sight, looking for that blessed hope, of which, by grace, may

we seek to walk worthy.

Let us now consider the teaching of one or two passages in 1 John which

show (1) the absolute, and (2) the progressive or responsible aspect of

'As He is'.  Christ is the centre of all the purposes of God's grace.

He is the Author, the Perfecter, the Goal.  We have seen the connection

between resurrection and sanctification.  Likeness to our risen Lord is the

theme before us now, both during our sojourn here, and in that day when we

shall be satisfied upon awaking in His likeness.  First, let us briefly

'consider Him'.  'If we walk in the light as He is in the light' (1 John

1:7).  'He is in the light'.  Verse 5 declares that 'God is light, and in Him

is no darkness at all'.  In the full blaze of glory our Saviour stands.  Not

only is He there by the right of His own Godhead, but He is there because of

the perfectness of His atoning work.  Nothing but absolute righteousness and

perfect holiness could endure the light in which our great Advocate stands.

Yet, fellow-believer, weak and failing as we may be in ourselves, that and

nothing less is our position in Christ.

Chapter 2:29 tells us 'He is righteous'; 3:3 tells us

'He is pure', emphasizing that which is involved in the statement noted

above, 'He is in the light'.  1 John 1:7 commences with a 'but if'; a

condition is therefore attached.  Before we consider the conditional aspect,

let us turn to the verses that reveal the absolute nature of the believer's

sanctification 'in Christ'.

'In this hath been perfected the love with us, in order that boldness

we may have in the day of judgment, that as He is we also are (though)

in this world' (1 John 4:17 author's translation).

God's love to us is the subject under consideration in the verse.  The

words translated 'in this', are of constant occurrence in John's epistle.  In

this very chapter they are translated 'hereby' (verse 13), 'herein' (verse

10), and 'in this' (verse 9).  To what does the apostle refer when he says

'herein' in verse 17?  Does he mean that God's love is perfected in the fact