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God sent His only Begotten Son into the world." With what object? "In order that we
might live through Him." This life once received begins in its turn to manifest itself.
This brings us to the second pair in the structure. The parallel between the many
Antichrists who were manifested as being "not of us" and the manifestation of the
children of God and the children of the Devil is obvious. The central pair brings us to the
pivot of the whole issue. First it deals with the future manifestation of Christ:--
"And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He shall be made manifest, we may
have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming . . . . . Beloved, now are
we the children of God, and it has not yet been made manifest what we shall be. We
know, however, that when He shall be made manifest, we shall be like Him, because we
shall see Him as He is" (I John 2: 28-3: 2).
Secondly it deals with the past manifestation which alone makes the future one
possible.
"And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins . . . . . for this was the
Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the Devil" (I John 3: 5, 8).
May we who have received life through His name increasingly manifest the same,
until made manifest with Him in glory.
#2.
"As He is."
pp. 135-137
Likeness to the risen Christ, both here and in the glory, is the theme of our meditation
under the heading of "As He is".
"If we walk in the light AS HE IS in the light" (1: 7).
"HE IS IN THE LIGHT."--Verse 5 declares the "God is light". In the full blaze of
the Shekinah glory our Saviour stand. Not only is He there by reason of His own Deity,
He is there because of the perfectness of His redeeming work. Nothing but absolute
righteousness and perfect holiness could endure the light in which our great Advocate
stand. Yet, fellow-believer, weak and failing though we 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", both statements being implied in the words "He is in the light". In 4: 17
we have another strong statement.
"In this hath been perfected love with us, in order that we may have boldness in the
day of judgment, that AS HE IS, SO ARE WE in this world."
To understand the meaning of the verse, and to realize the goal of God's perfecting
love, we must distinguish the main sentence. Let us read it again, placing the secondary
part in brackets:--