October 25, 2009
1 John 2:27
Exordium: When the men of old Scotland went out to battle by clans they shouted out their slogans. Strong crisp words that said who they were and what they were doing.
That was also the way of the Reformers. They had slogans too.
Sola Gratia-Grace alone
Sola Fide-Faith alone
Sola Scriptura-the Bible alone
Sola Dei Gloria-God’s glory alone and
Sola Ipse-the individual alone.
It is that one that we want to focus on just now “Sola Ipse”. The Reformation has been called “the declaration of intellectual independence”. It stresses the worth and the place of the individual as over against the institution.
And out of that spirit and the writings of the Reformation came democracy in the Western World with its conviction that the state ought to serve the person rather than the person the state.
How indebted we are to this truth of the Sola Ipse. We need to find out more deeply what it means.
Explication: This passage helps us understand the Reformation principle by grasping the biblical principle which is behind it and then we shall be able to make applications to our lives just now.
John is an old man as he writes. He calls it the last hour, meaning that strenuous conflicts had come upon the church.
A heresy was vexing them just now. These false teachers were urging the Christians to become part of the inner circle. Be initiated into the deeper more profound truths than you now know.
In this they were appealing to that something within all of us that wants to be part of the “in” group. They were appealing to their pride. The “in” group are apt to feel spiritually superior to the others.
John’s defense against the heretics was to tell his Christians friends about the greatest resource within them. They already were part of the “in” group and they didn’t realize it.
It wasn’t knowledge from these teachers that they needed. That isn’t what makes a Christian.
They were to resist intellectual errors as rigorously as they would wickedness and they were to do it with what they already possessed.
The greatest defense you can give your children against the cults of the day is an inner resource of truth-the kind that is described in this passage.
The whole truth is summed up in verses 20 and 27. “But you have an anointing from the Holy One and you know all things. But the anointing which you have from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”
- THE YOU IS EMPHASIZED
In contrast with others, “you” stands first, meaning that you have something unique. It is believers that are singled out. No one else enjoys what you have. It is yours as God’s own person. There is only one inner circle and it includes all believers.
And it is plural you. “You all” means that all of you who are Christ’s have this anointing.
From the least to the greatest. The humble washerwoman and learned theologian all have the same possession if they are in Christ. The have this spiritual instinct within them. In matters of faith the humblest Christian need not feel inferior to the most learned scholar. Sola Ipse means the fundamental equality of all believers.
- THE ANOINTING
What that is. The Greek word is Chrisma, a Gift of God to them. Here the word is used three times in a short space.
In the Bible the anointing with oil was a symbol of the Holy Spirit being put upon a prophet or priest or a king. Here the anointing is an inner ministry of the Holy Spirit to symbolize what was given to the Christian at the time of his conversion.
Someone has said that the Reformation was “a rediscovery of the Holy Spirit.”
The anointing was a permanent gift to the person. That doesn’t mean that it would always be constant. One might be aware of his anointing with a greater or lesser vividness or grasp the reality of it in greater or lesser degrees, but it is always there in the heart of the believer.
The anointing is a calm settled conviction that “I know truth and reality. I have been delivered from perplexity and the search is over. I have found peace.”
It is a divine self-evidencing power that makes a person independent of human testimony. It is a complete kind of knowledge. Not that anyone knows all things, but the inner presence of the Spirit relates to all kinds of subjects, big and small. Nothing is strange or foreign to the Spirit living within the person. This anointing relates to all the disciplines of study. Christ is the integrating center of them all.
Students: approach your studies in this way if you are a believer. What a gift this is, this anointing. It is heart-cleansing, heart-enlarging, and heart-cheering.
The anointing does not supersede the Word of God but cooperates with the Word. The Word is described in verse 24 “therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning.”
The two are joined in Isaiah 59:21 “My spirit which is upon you and my words shall not depart from your mouth.”
So the Word of God becomes a tool in the Holy Spirit’s ministry. He uses the Word to teach.
The Word of God is a window through which the Holy Spirit comes to us.
Scripture is the garment that Christ puts on when His Spirit would reveal Him to us.
The importance of Scripture was a mighty theme of the Reformation. Duke George of Brandenberg knelt before the Emperor and declared that he would rather have his head struck off that have the Word of God taken from him. The reformers were Bible preachers and the Spirit was pleased to own their words and make them the very word of God.
Then when Zwingli began to preach in Zurich in 1719 he began with the Bible, starting with Matthew, went to Acts, then to Romans and then to Psalms.
They spoke of the Bible’s authority. It was a far more comfortable authority than that of the church. The Reformers spoke of the Bible’s clarity: i.e. that the basics of it could be understood by the least educated. That its main truths were simple and plain and do not require a priest to make them known.
Contrast that with the statement made by the Council of Trent: “Scripture is so uncertain that the Mother church must reveal it true sense to the reader.”
They rejoiced in the Bible’s sufficiency. There was no need to supplement its words with man’s words. It was utterly adequate for all that God wanted to say to us. But
The Romanist added tradition
The humanist added reason
The enthusiast added private revelation and
The words of the Reformers was Sola Scriptura.
So they restored the pulpit to the center of the Church. Took away the crucifixes, the pictures, the statues, because they said, they will deflect attention from the revelation of the mercy of God in Christ which come through the hearing of the ear not the seeing of the eye.
Let us consider work of the Spirit as He uses the Scripture in the believer’s soul.
It is He who has caused the authors to write the words of Scripture. It is He who accompanies the minister in the preaching of that Word, and He who causes the Word to penetrate the heart of the sinner and bring him to faith.
Residing in the person, it is the Holy Spirit who commends truth to the believer’s mind, enables him to receive and appreciate it and makes that doctrine meaningful to him. What a great reality this is, the inner anointing of the Spirit using the Word in the believer. And we all have it who are Christ’s.
The Lord Jesus spoke of it when He said, “They shall all be taught of God. Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from my Father comes to Me.”
And Paul wrote to the Romans, “I am confident of you brethren that your are filled with all knowledge.
No wonder Luther could say, “My conscience is bound by the Word of God.”
- IF WE HAVE SUCH AN INNER TEACHER WHAT IS THE PLACE OF EARTHLY TEACHERS?
They are not needed for the basics, the essentials of the faith. These are the things that the Holy Spirit teaches. He gives the discernment of spirit; no teacher can do that. How does a new Christian, sitting under unbelieving professors discern where the truth is? No one teaches him but in his heart he knows this is not right.
But there is a place for teachers who possess the anointing of God. John himself is a teacher as he writes this letter. And the Lord told his disciples to go into the world and teach. That is for the edifying, the building up of the body of Christ. For the supplying of information that the Christian my not have; for the more concentrated study of the Scriptures including the original languages; for working out the implications of the gospel.
We all need to be learning more that the anointing tells us but we have everything that is required there.
One can carry independence from teachers too far and become infallible and not grow. Luther referred to this person saying, “He carried a pope around in his belly.”
There are limits of teachers: They are to be careful and remain “helpers of joy” and never lords over faith. Teachers must never take away the sacred right of private judgment. Nor allow his students to become dependent on some higher order of churchmen for the Word to be explained.
John Witherspoon, the great Evangelical divine from Scotland, was called to lead the humble little college at Princeton. When he entered the pulpit the first time it was if a king was entering on his throne. He said, “Paul may have planted, Apollos may have watered but it is God who gives the increase.”
Solo Ipse means you have what you need to understand the basics of Scripture. Don’t surrender that right to that to any other man.
- YET YOU MUST REMAIN IN THIS ANOINTING
Let it be a steady thing for you. Don’t be like a butterfly flitting about with every latest fad and doctrine. Stay with what you have learned. Continue in what your have. “He that endures to the end shall be saved.” Salvation is in the continuance.
Each one must take the responsibility for his own interpretation. The Church is not going to tell you what to believe a verse of the Bible means. We will try to help you know what it seems to mean and what it calls you to. We will do our very best, but in the last analysis you must determine what it means and act upon it.
We tend to believe and apply Scripture according to our likes our dislikes of the preacher. But that is foolish. We shall be held accountable for the whole Word of God and our interpretation of it no matter who the messenger was that first introduced us to it.
You cannot say, if you are wrong, “The Church told me it meant thus and so.” You have the anointing just as your teachers do and you are responsible for what the meaning of Scripture is.
The accountability happens when He returns. When we see Him shall we have confidence that our understanding of what He said squares with what He meant to say to us. Did we get the message right? We will know!
For that, we cannot depend on any human being, but the anointing in us will help us prepare for that moment.
Application: And if this anointing is not yours now, you must ask serious questions. What must I do to be saved? For all who are saved have this anointing. They have the Holy Spirit cooperating with the Scriptures. Therefore, they know all things essential.
What we must have is faith to embrace Christ as our own Savior and He will put the anointing in our hearts by which more and more knowledge about Him will grow in us.
And a word to believers:
Don’t yield allegiance to anything but God-to no rival but God.
Don’t let someone else do your thinking and your discerning for you.
Conclusion: The anointing came first upon Christ and then it dripped down from His Robes on us. (See Psalm 133:2-3) The oil of anointing is what binds the whole body together. The same Spirit dwells in us all. It is that oil that energizes and renews and restores and reforms us.
Glen C. Knecht
