"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." (Vs. 13.)

"You that believe," "Ye may know," "Ye may believe"; all these affirmations of conviction crowd one upon another in this verse and those immediately following. We are coming very rapidly now to the end of the epistle and John's thought is entirely for those who have so given themselves to God in whole-hearted surrender that they are now members of the Divine family. No room in these last intimate passages for the world. No time left now to consider those who have never accepted Christ. John is not heedless of them and their needs but he knows that a day yet to come will give all such every possible opportunity to repent of their past heedless ways and come at last into lowly surrender. "God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead" (Acts 17. 31). So that although John knew full well that ' the time had already come when God "commandeth all men everywhere to repent" and had played his own part in proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom as a he now turns away from that general work and devotes himself to the deeper, interests of the inner circle of disciples.

Full well did John know that, as with Paul, so with himself, after his departing grievous wolves would enter in, not sparing the flock. And John desired, as did Paul, to finish his course "free from the blood of all men". He wanted to render a good report of his stewardship, so his last words to the Church on earth are words of Christian counsel and encouragement, words that give strength and stamina to Christian character, so that those who receive may neither run nor labour in vain. That is why John talks so much about believing and knowing in these last verses.

The belief and knowledge is not that of intellectual things but that of the heart and life. These of whom he says they have believed on the name of the Son of God are not those who have believed about Jesus. The knowledge they possess that in John's view is of such supreme importance is not the knowledge of how Jesus redeemed them and all the philosophy of the Ransom, but the knowledge that Jesus has redeemed them. It is not so much the knowledge precisely how we, the Church, are joint-heirs with His glory and sharers in His sufferings and by what process of legal form we have attained to that position, but the knowledge that we are, in sober fact, associated with Him in all that He is and does. We have as it were placed our hands in His and given Him our trust and we know that henceforward all is well. Therefore, in John's own phrase, we know that we have eternal life, and nothing of all the arguments and sophistries of man can rob us of that unshakable conviction.

"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." (vs. 14, 15.)

This is going back to the words of Jesus yet again. No less than four times did John record those words in his Gospel. It is clear that Jesus must have repeated that assurance many times during His ministry and clear that John must have been quick to pick up the words. "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." (John 14. 13-14.) "I have chosen you . . . that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you." (John 15. 16). "In that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." (John 16. 23-24.) So often have there been long and serious debates over the scope and extent of this promise. Did Jesus mean literally anything that we could conceivably ask? If there is a limit, what is that limit and why is it not defined in one or more of these many texts? As it stands the promise is definite enough. Whatever we ask, provided it is in His name, will be granted to us. That would seem to include everything, even things that might not be good for us or might even react against our endeavour to walk worthily of Him who has called us to His kingdom and glory. The secret, of course, lies in the obvious fact that none of those addressed are of those who would misapply the promise anyway. All to whom the words are spoken can already be trusted to make intercession "according to the will of God". (Rom. 8. 27.) "Thy Will be done!" "Nevertheless not as wilt, but as thou wilt" is always the unspoken element in every supplication that goes up to the Majesty on high.

There is a more intimate aspect of this matter that we do well to consider at this point. We can picture to ourselves the total immersion of our own wills into the will of God so that we can honestly say we as independent individuals have subordinated our own aims and impulses and desires to the overruling dictation of our God, but then there is a mystic but very real sense in which we are no longer independent individuals. In coming into Christ we have become one with Him and one with His Father; and that oneness can only be attained and maintained if our wills are so closely attuned to His that we begin to think and speak and act as He does. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" is the Apostle's admonition and it is not an empty one. It implies a unity of mind which is much deeper and more intimate than the position of two independent minds who merely happen to think and react alike. Jesus prayed that His disciples might be one, one with each other and one with Him and with His Father. "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us . . . that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one . . ." (John 17. 21-23.) Those were not meaningless words; they were uttered to give expression to a truth too profound for any of us fully to comprehend in the flesh, even although we may glimpse something of its ideal and seek in our own imperfect way to make some progress toward it.

There is something here that touches the fundamental relationship between God the Creator and Life-giver, and the creatures to whom He has given life—, and from whom He can withdraw life. "In him we live, and move, and have our being" declared Paul to the philosophers of Athens. "Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth" sang the Psalmist (Psa. 104. 29-30.) The spirit, says the Preacher in Ecclesiastes, returns to God who gave it. What really is the relation between man and His Maker? What is this life that pulsates in our bodies and makes thinking, intelligent beings out of a mere collection of chemicals shaped like a human body? To what extent is it still a part of the Divine life? It certainly is entirely dependent upon the decree of God. He bestows and withdraws at will: He can give everlasting life or relegate to eternal death. Can it not be therefore that in some very real sense we who have become joint-heirs with Christ have entered into a true oneness with God which finds its deepest expression in this present time in the spiritual communion that we have with the Father, and will in future days beyond the Vail enlarge into an even closer oneness that now we cannot even begin to visualise? Perhaps, after all, one reason that the things we pray for are always in harmony with the will of God is this very fact, that we have become so much one with Him that the mind which frames the prayers and the will that prompts the requests are already so fully in tune with the mind and will of God that it is not possible for us to ask for things that are contrary to His will. That at any rate is an ideal to be striven for and the more we seek to make such a condition a reality in our lives the more we shall find that these few verses in John's epistle are truly descriptive of our own experience.

Of course this does not imply that all the things we might at first impulse request are going to be automatically given to us. There are so many petitions we could—and do - present on the basis of our old natural outlook that sober reflection would compel us to admit are not good for us. There is always the heartfelt appeal inspired by some deep and dear earthly love that ascends to heaven in perfect sincerity but finds no affirmative reply. But many a time that is only the immediate stress of our human affections and desires looming up strongly before us and crying for some consideration. Behind the immediate urgency of the petition there is always the background thought "Thy Will be done". The stress of the moment may infuse a sharp note of appeal into the prayer but behind the urgency there is a calmness that comes from knowing that our God is "too wise to err; too good to be unkind", and as we rise from our knees we know that whether the plea be granted or whether it be refused, it is still true that "we have the petition that we desired of him". So many have thanked God in after days because the answer was "No". They have realised, looking back, how much better it has been that it was so. So the One who knoweth what things we have need of before we ask Him will always answer our petitions, not according to the words of our lips, but according to the desires of our hearts. As He did with Ezekiel, He may take away the desire of our eyes at a stroke, yet we shall be able to say "It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good". And that is not a weak, spineless acquiescence in the decree of One whose power cannot be challenged, but an intelligent and willing union with Him in what He has decreed shall be done. We have the petitions we ask of him because we are one with Him, and what He will have, we will have too. John calls this "the confidence that we have in him". He could have chosen no better word. We have confidence, from the human standpoint trusting where we cannot see, and so willingly accepting His decision; from the spiritual standpoint, entering into His decision and identifying ourselves with it so that it becomes our own decision also.

(To be concluded)

AOH