A Sermon by Jonathan Ranken Anderson
John 17:3. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.
Man fell by aspiring to a knowledge to which he could never attain; he can be recovered by the communication of a knowledge which he could never conceive. The objects of that knowledge are such as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive. Apart from a Divine revelation, men never could have discovered the mystery of God – of the Father and Christ. But the knowledge of these objects, even after they are revealed, lies equally beyond the range of men’s natural faculties. As they are supernatural, they must be grasped by supernatural faith, and they must be contemplated in supernatural light.
The knowledge thus obtained is spiritual in its character, and holy in its nature. It comes from God in Christ, and it leads the soul back to Him; so in His light the soul may see light. In speaking of this knowledge in previous sermons, we found it to be very simple, clear, certain, discriminating, powerful, sweet and satisfying. We were to think of the effects it produces: first, it is accompanied with supreme love to the Father, the only true God, and to Jesus Christ, whom He has sent.
I go on now to observe, in the second place, as another effect it produces, it leads to fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
- There is fellowship with the Father in His love. The knowledge or faith, of which we speak, involves an apprehension of the Father in that peculiar character which He sustains in His work of grace. He appears as the Fountain of the love from which flows every saving benefit. In this aspect the soul contemplates Him when it is admitted to communion with Him.
(1.) A believer has communion with God in the glory of His love. In what does its particular glory consist?
[1.] It is eternal. This invests it with an awful solemnity, and suggests a view which our feeble minds cannot at all understand. To think that, before He had formed the earth and the heavens, His people were the objects of His love; how wonderful! “The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.”
[2.] It is infinite. We may attempt to conceive its cause, but we soon lose ourselves, for it lies in the absolute sovereignty of God’s will. People cavil
1Taken with editing from Days in Kirkfield. Preached on 1 December, 1839, it is the third in a series of sermons on John 17:3 in Kirkfield Chapel, Glasgow, during a time of revival. The previous sermon was entitled, “Knowing God and Jesus Christ”.
at the sovereignty of God’s love and, in the proud imagination of their hearts, think that He loves one and passes by another because of something in the creature, or done by him. But they do not know God, and so they have no right to talk of such matters. Let them first learn His character, and then they will speak from knowledge: “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau”.
The love of God is infinite in its holiness. Many find it easy to believe that God loves them. They mean that He will pass by their sins and take them to heaven. The very idea of holiness as infinite opposition to sin dashes all their ideas of God’s love and robs them of all their confidence in it. They thus show that they know nothing of the glory of His love, for its glory consists especially in its holiness. This brings to view the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, in whom sin receives the heaviest condemnation. Yet thus “was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him”.
It is infinite in its intensity. God’s people sometimes find it hard to believe that there is any love to them in Him, and poor burdened sinners think it is impossible He can love them. But a view of its sovereignty should quiet their apprehensions; to set any bounds to the objects of His love is to limit the Holy One of Israel. On the other hand, believers may be upset with a little of the love of God. But all that the spirits of the just made perfect have yet enjoyed of this love is as nothing compared with what is in God. He loves with the entire intensity of His heart; hence it is said: “He rests in His love”. He can rest on nothing but what is infinite; therefore His love is infinite: “I know the thoughts that I think towards you”.
[3.] It is unchangeable. To judge by the fears and feelings of His children, you would suppose that the love of God is as changeable as their minds. They are now persuaded of His love; in a few minutes they are in great doubt about it. How can God love such rebellious creatures? But this is to think that God is altogether as yourselves. The root of the evil is your self-righteousness, which leads you to look for the foundation of His love in you, not in Him. Let the soul be established in the truth that God loves because He loves, and the way is prepared for admitting that it is immutable. Were it not so, who could be saved? Sin is exceedingly strong, but all the sin that ever has been, or will be, cannot extinguish the flame of the love of God: “I am the Lord; I change not: therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed”.
These are a few hints about the glory of the Father’s love. We say that the man, who possesses the knowledge that is eternal life, has fellowship with Him in these views. Being one with Christ, and interested in His righteousness, the Lord at times passes by and proclaims His name before him. To
change the figure, He puts him into the cleft of the rock and, as He passes by, He removes His hand and lets the soul see His back parts – no one can, in the present state, see His face and live. This manifestation of the glory of God’s love humbles, delights and satisfies the soul. Does anyone say, We know nothing of this experience? But do you know anything of the lack of it? To feel that is the next best thing to having it: “He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away.”
(2.) A believer has communion with God in the sweetness of His love. To the carnal heart, nothing is more distasteful than the love of God. Let men form their own ideas of God and His love, and they will delight in them; but this is mere idolatry, the worship of the fancies of their own imaginations. But let the God of glory and His love be set before them as it is revealed, and they sink into sullen indifference, or are lifted up in rage and insolent contempt. The special glory of His love is its sovereignty and holiness, yet some people cannot tolerate these views of it. We may speak as long as we please on the love of God and not offend them; but when we speak of Him, in His love, taking this man and leaving that, giving this blessing and withholding that, they are almost ready to stone us.
The great enemy never disturbs those who preach or believe that God loves those who are sober, upright and industrious, and hates drunkards, revellers, and those given to all manner of wickedness. But let men preach that God loves sinners, even the chief, because of His own good pleasure, then Satan rages like a lion. The more clearly and powerfully these doctrines are proclaimed, the more furiously he roars. Never was the love of God brought so near to the demons as when the possessed were brought to Christ; but see the result: “What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?”
But what is wormwood and gall to the devil and his children is sweeter than honey to God’s people, who have the knowledge of which the text speaks. They know by bitter experience the truth of what I said; they too have carnal hearts and are often strongly against the love of God. It may be the grief and burden of many that what the preacher says on this subject does not engage their hearts but makes them worse. Happy are you if, through grace, you have been brought thus far: deliverance is not far away; it will come in its proper time. Then you will feel there is a sweetness in the love of God that passes understanding. And these attributes of it which are most offensive to the carnal heart, will be specially delightful to you. You will rejoice in its eternity, infinity and immutability – but most of all in its sovereignty and holiness. You will take up the psalmist’s call: “Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness”.
(3.) This knowledge leads to communion with the Father in the power of His love. Unregenerate men are entire strangers to this, though they may make a very plausible profession. They may speak of the love of God, how great it is, how precious; but ask them what effect it has on them, and they cannot tell. They live from day to day quite independent of it. They do not need it to fit them for their prayers; they can say them without it: they do not need it to conduct their business, to associate with their fellow men – not even to observe the ordinances of the house of God. Not so those who have the knowledge we speak of: they are utterly powerless without it.
They can sin well enough and ruin themselves without it, but they can do no good. They sometimes feel as if their whole nature was stirred up to resist this love, and they think sin so strong that nothing can subdue it. But let them have communion with God in the power of His love and their hearts of ice are at once melted. Their souls that were dead are quickened, and they that could do nothing can now do everything. Let the Spirit of grace reveal to their souls the glory and power of God’s love, and their doubts vanish; faith is established; their affections are loosed and they return singing, “I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shalt enlarge my heart”.
- There is communion with the Lord Jesus Christ, in His grace: “It pleased the Father” – in His love – “that in [Christ] should all fullness dwell”. As the Father is the Fountain of love, in which love He plans all the good that sinners receive, so Christ is the Fountain of grace, as the medium through which His favour flows to lost men. To fit the soul for communion with the Lord Jesus Christ in his grace, a knowledge of Him as God-man is communicated in His work as the Saviour of sinners. Where this knowledge is, there is communion with Christ in His grace.
(1.) A believer has communion with Christ in the riches of His grace. I might speak of the communion the soul has with Christ in the special beauty that adorns His character, but this was spoken to already. So I speak now about His official grace. By grace, remember, is understood unmerited favour: this is applied sometimes to the favour, and sometimes to the effects it produces. In both views, Christ’s grace is infinitely rich. He bears infinite favour to His people and bestows infinite favours on them.
[1.] There is redeeming grace. This is as old as the eternal covenant; there Christ represented the chosen seed and took upon Him their burdens and obligations. It was shown when He came forth “made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law”. It was wonderfully displayed in the work He performed in fulfilling all righteousness, and bearing the penalty due to sin, by which He completely satisfied the justice of God, laying a foundation on which God might be just, and yet justify the ungodly
who believe in Jesus: “Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot”.
[2.] There is converting grace. The redeemed are dead in sins, held captives by Satan, the willing slaves of the world. They have neither the inclination nor the power to turn to Christ, to receive the purchased redemption. They are like the Israelites, who continued in the bondage of Egypt till the Lord, remembering His covenant, visited them in a day of His power. He gives them a heart of flesh, convinces them of sin, shows them their misery, makes known His glory as a Saviour, renews their will, and enables and inclines them to receive Him in the gospel offer. Thus they are made one with Him by faith: “The Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused”.
[3.] By justifying grace, believers are forgiven all trespasses, are accepted in God’s sight as righteous, and declared heirs of eternal life: “Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
[4.] Sanctifying grace: “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world”.
[5.] Establishing, comforting and perfecting grace: “My grace is sufficient for thee”. “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”
In Christ, there is grace for every situation. There is grace for kings, that they may rule in God’s fear: “By Me kings reign and princes decree justice;” there is grace for subjects, that they may obey: there is grace for masters, and grace for servants; for husbands and wives; for parents and children; for pastors and people; there is grace for the rich, that they may learn not to trust in uncertain riches; and grace for the poor, that they may be content with what they have; grace for the old, the middle-aged, the young: “Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not”; grace for prosperity and adversity; for health and sickness; for safety and danger; for life and death.
There is grace for every stage of the Christian life: there is milk for babes and strong meat for those of full age; grace for those in the light and those in darkness; for those that are at liberty and those that are in bondage; for those that are spiritually minded and those that are carnally minded. “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.”
There is an immeasurable grace of every kind in Christ. The message, “But yet there is room”, was sent to those in the highways and hedges, and they were brought in. The Church has been receiving grace out of His full-
ness for hundreds of years; yet it is still impossible to exhaust His riches. He complained, “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name”, but not that we have asked too much. It is like the oil which was only stayed when no more vessels could be found; so the grace of Christ will flow as long as there is an empty sinner to receive it, and will be stayed only when the Church shall be complete, and the proud consigned to destruction: “My God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus”.
(2.) The man that has this knowledge has communion with Christ in the freeness of His grace. This is the great stumbling block to the natural heart, the rock on which many split to their eternal destruction: they cannot take in the idea of absolutely free grace in Christ, and so they come with a price in their hand and are rejected. It is also very difficult for those who are truly awakened, deeply distressed about their souls. They say, How can Christ have anything to do with us who are so vile and unprofitable, who have no heart to receive Him? To sweep away all such ideas from the foundation on which they rest, we have to declare that the grace of Christ is absolutely free. It will not do to bring works of the law – to think that, because you never fell into gross sins, you may hope that Christ will be gracious to you – for “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified”.
It will not do to appeal to your earnestness in seeking Him, for that has enough sin in it to condemn you: it will not do to trust to the tears you have shed, for your tears need to be washed in the blood of the Lamb: it will not do to speak of your willingness to receive Him, for any willingness you have is of the flesh, and they that are in the flesh cannot please God. If you are determined to speak of qualifications for the grace of Christ, they speak only of your sin, your blindness of mind, your hardness of heart, your unbelief, your carnality, your wickedness. But the grace of Christ is so free that qualifications are out of the question, alien to its very nature: “If it be of works, then is it no more of grace, otherwise grace is no more grace”. The truth is that the ground of the grace of Christ lies in the free love of the Father: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters”.
Men need grace if they are to receive it. The grace of Christ is offered without money and without price, but it is the grace of faith that receives this. If you were to give a beggar a little money, and at the same time give him the inclination and power to receive it, you would have some illustration of our subject. Yet it would be very faint; for those on whom the grace of Christ is bestowed not only lack the inclination to receive it, but have a strong aversion to it. Now what becomes of your objections and difficulties? You may tell me of your sinfulness and corruption, but it is no reason why Christ should bestow His grace on you; neither is it a reason why He should with-
hold it. By nature, you will never see anything in you that is a ground of hope; but what you do not see in yourselves, you may see in Christ: for in Him there is both the grace, and the foundation on which He bestows it: “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief”.
(3.) The man that has the knowledge, that is eternal life, has communion with Christ in the power of His grace. But you will say, The grace of Christ is rich and free, yet I cannot come to Him. But He can come to you. And this is in every case the way in which He dispenses His grace. You are ever ready to think that, if ever Christ comes to those who cannot come to Him, it is rarely. But this is a mistake: never did a soul give one longing look to Christ but as a result of His first giving His grace to that soul. Peter did not look to Christ and mourn till Christ looked on him and melted his heart. Paul says, “By the grace of God, I am what I am” – by grace, I have a sense of need, a desire to have it, a concern for the lack of it. Now, should you not do like the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda? There he lay, and Christ came to him. So you are to lie at the pool of ordinances till Christ comes to you, and then you will know the power of His grace: “Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.”
This is a very imperfect sketch of the grace of Christ, in which the soul has communion with Him. For He is pleased to reveal Himself in His glory to the soul and causes the soul to grasp the revelation. He says, “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it”. He gives life to dead Lazarus, who leaves the grave at His call. He gives liberty to the prisoners; and they come forth at His call: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”.
Communion with the Father and His Son is the effect of the knowledge the text speaks of. He who totally lacks that knowledge must be a stranger to God’s love and the grace of Christ; the wrath of God abides on him; he is in a totally graceless state. To some it may appear a small matter, but there is a kind of knowledge which is abominable in God’s sight and unprofitable to you, and that is the knowledge which you get without the Spirit of God and the experience of the truth. You may heap up to yourselves all that ministers, sermons and books can give you, and yet be left without the love of God and the grace of Christ. And to be left without them is to be poor indeed.
But those who have the knowledge we speak of do not always enjoy communion with the Father in His love, and with Christ in His grace. They may be deserted; they may appear to be forgotten; they may be sorely tried; they may question if they ever had any communion. But “at evening time it shall be light”; a strengthening of faith, an increase of knowledge, leads to renewal of fellowship: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto
you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ”.
Application. (1.) We are here furnished with a test of our religious knowledge. Many among us profess to have some knowledge of God and His Son: they surely are not altogether ignorant of this. Now I have to ask, Does your knowledge ever lead to communion with the Father and His Son? Does it lead you to feel your lack of this and urge you to desire it and seek it? I am pretty sure that the consciences of many whisper that they do not know what I mean by communion with God. Some people say they have this knowledge but have no prayer in the closet or in the family. Some say their prayers, and there the matter ends; but they cannot tell if they have communion with God.
We tell you plainly that those in this condition do not have a particle of true knowledge. The only difference between you and the most ignorant heathen is that you have a mass of outward knowledge to condemn you, which he does not have. All knowledge in religion that does not come from God, and lead to God, will be swept away. There are those among us who admit the truth of all I say, and so are ready to mourn over their sad state; for they have been taught to make no account of knowledge that does not lead to communion with the Father and His Son. It is grace that can bring you to this; be thankful for what you have, and to you that have shall be given and you shall have abundance. Let God’s people learn to treat as so much rubbish that knowledge which terminates in self, or the Word, and not in God.
(2). Sinners are called to build their hopes on solid ground: it is on the love of God and the grace of Christ. In Adam, and by their own sin, men are ruined, and you will never see in yourselves anything but causes of perdition; if you see anything else, it is a delusion that will one day burst to your dismay. But turn to the revelation of grace: if infinitely glorious, unspeakably sweet and irresistibly powerful love, and rich, free and weighty grace, can save, then hope in God. I know you will be ready to say you are guilty and vile, but what has that to do with God’s love, which flows from His own sovereign will? Your sin cannot change His pleasure. And what is it to the grace of Christ? Your sins cannot exhaust or defy it. Come then and draw water out of the well of salvation; for it is ever free and satisfying.
(3.) We see our absolute need of the Spirit of grace. To some it may appear strange that I have not mentioned communion with the Holy Ghost; but this has pervaded the whole of my discourse; for I showed you there can be no knowledge without Him; it is an effect of the knowledge communicated and maintained by Him; the soul has communion with the Father and His Son. He is therefore the Agent that works all in all. Now let me call on you that have the Spirit of Christ to seek to have Him more abundantly.