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Scripture Reading: 1 John 3:24b; 4:13; 2:18-27; Exo. 30:23-31
“As for you, the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him” (1 John 2:27).
The anointing is the fourth mystery in 1 John that we shall consider. The previous chapters have dealt with life, fellowship, and abiding. We who have been born of God now have eternal life, are in the fellowship, and abide in God. Our understanding of these profound matters, however, is quite general. When we say that we abide in God and He abides in us, our concept of what God means and what abiding means may be somewhat vague. As the apostle John was writing of these matters, however, he abruptly brought up another subject, which makes the application quite clear.
He wrote: “Young children, it is the last hour; and even as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come; whereby we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out that they might be manifested that they all are not of us. And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know” (2:18-20).
Antichrists have appeared; they were with the church and have left. They might still call themselves Christians, but they are in another category. What is it that makes the distinction between them and us? The boundary line that separates their sphere from ours is the anointing.
The other “Christians” lack the anointing. In spite of holding the name of Christ, they are in fact antichrist. Even today there are many, like the modernists, who call themselves Christians, yet they are against Christ. For more than nineteen centuries the anointing has been the line of demarcation between these two kinds of Christians. Both kinds claim to believe in God and to worship Him, yet only one has the anointing.
What is the anointing? It is strange that the apostle here used a verbal noun. He might have said ointment, a noun denoting an oil with various ingredients added. Then we would have known that he was referring to a substance. Why did John use the -ing form of the verb anoint? Some Christians are not familiar even with this term. In the King James Version the same Greek word is translated “unction” in 1 John 2:20 and “anointing” in verse 27. “Anointing” is the better translation, since the Greek word is the noun form of anoint.
To understand the anointing, we must comprehend the process the Triune God underwent in order to establish His relationship with us.
The first step in that process is the incarnation, God becoming a man. Even today history has not adequately defined who Jesus is. He is God and man, mingled together as one entity. This God-man lived on the earth thirty-three and a half years. The very God who created the heavens and the earth lived in a carpenter’s home in a man by the name of Jesus! This is the second step—His human living. The third step is the crucifixion, a form of death used in the Roman Empire for criminals. By this means He entered into death, but after three days He came forth in resurrection.
In resurrection He was glorified. During His earthly life He was like a seed without “attracting form nor majesty,” with no “beautiful appearance that we should desire Him” (Isa. 53:2). By death He was sown into the earth. Then He sprouted and grew in resurrection. When the plant produces the blossom, that blossom is the seed glorified. The Lord Jesus likened Himself to a grain of wheat, waiting to fall into the ground and die so that He could grow up into many grains (John 12:24). On the day of resurrection the Lord came back to His disciples in a glorified form, His resurrected body. The flower seed is a natural body, but the blossom is a resurrected one (cf. 1 Cor. 15:42-45). The Lord Jesus is now in resurrection in the form of the Spirit.
Now that God has gone through all this process, He is no longer merely God the Creator with divinity. Humanity has been added to Him. The essence of His incarnation and human living, the effectiveness of His death, and the resurrection itself are all now included in Him. Jesus Christ today is not merely God. He is God plus humanity, incarnation, human living, the crucifixion, and the resurrection.
I want to impress you not with a doctrine but with the wonderful Lord in whom we believe!
When I was a young Christian, I found out that I had been crucified with Christ. According to some books I read, when Christ was crucified, I was included in Him. This puzzled me. He had died hundreds of years before and far away. How could I have died when He died? It was beyond my comprehension, but gradually I concluded that I should accept it by faith, in spite of its sounding so illogical. Other books later came to my attention. The thought in them was that the death of Christ is credited by God to my account. My part was to reckon myself dead, based upon that deposit in my account. For quite some time I practiced this advice, but frankly the more I reckoned myself dead, the more alive I seemed to be! No doubt many of you have had this same experience.
For years I was bothered by this failure to make the death of Christ apply to my everyday living. One day, however, the Lord opened the divine Word to show me that the death of Christ is included in His wonderful person.
If you reach for the God of eternity past, all you will find is divinity. Today, however, when you come to God, He reaches you full of rich ingredients. We can liken Him to a flavorful drink. In eternity past He was only plain water. Now tea has been added. Then milk. Then sugar. Perhaps some other flavors. God is now a rich, delicious beverage, no longer just plain water!
Have you ever before realized how rich is the God in whom we believe? Since the day the Lord opened my eyes to see this, I have been released from my efforts to believe and to reckon. I have this living One within me. He is called the almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of life, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ. These are all different titles for the same wonderful person.
In my early Christian life, my understanding of the Bible was according to what is generally believed. Only later did I begin to see how much more there is to the Bible than what is conventionally taught. I began to realize how great is this wonderful person. As the years have gone by, He has shown me more and more. I long to convey to you how precious this One in resurrection is.
When you call on His name, He will reach you not merely as God but with all that has been added to Him. God is Spirit. Do not think of God as one person and the Holy Spirit as another. There is only one God, even though He is triune. The divine Spirit today includes divinity, humanity, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. This is the God in whom you are abiding. First John 4:13 declares, “In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit.”
This Spirit whom He has given to us, which is simply Himself, is not dormant within. He is living, active, moving. Thus, the writer of this Epistle uses the term anointing: “You have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know...The anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him” (2:20, 27).
Electricity moving and harnessed for our use is called the current of electricity. The current is not other than the electricity; it is simply electricity in motion. God moving within us is called the anointing. Because God today is the all-inclusive Spirit, He is symbolized not by oil but by an ointment. An ointment is a compound of various ingredients. God as the Spirit has been compounded with all these elements through which He has passed. This Spirit is gently and constantly moving within us as the anointing.
This compound ointment is pictured for us in Exodus 30:23-25. The anointing ointment was made of four spices added to a hin of olive oil. Every one of the spices has a spiritual significance. Myrrh typifies the Lord’s sweet death. Whenever we consider that death, we find that we have a sweet sensation within. Myrrh was one of the spices used in preparing Him for burial (John 19:39). Cinnamon, another of the spices of the anointing ointment, signifies the effectiveness of the Lord’s death. Cinnamon has certain healing properties. The third spice was calamus, a reed that grows out of muddy places high into the air. It speaks of resurrection. The Lord’s resurrection was like a reed shooting out of the muddy situation into the clear sky. Cassia, the last spice, repels insects and especially snakes. It reminds us of the power of His resurrection. The anointing ointment, then, includes the death of Christ, the effectiveness of His death, the resurrection, and the power of resurrection.
The proportions of the spices used is also meaningful. The ointment had five hundred shekels each of myrrh and cassia, the first and last spices listed, and two hundred fifty each of cinnamon and calamus, the middle two spices.
First, let us consider the number five hundred. Five in the Bible means responsibility; it is composed of four plus one. Four, like the four fingers of our hand, signifies the creature; one, like the thumb, signifies the unique Creator. By this arrangement of our fingers and the thumb, our hand is able to carry out what needs to be done. Four plus one means man plus God, or responsibility. With the number five hundred, we have responsibility increased a hundredfold. Myrrh and cassia, then, each form a unit of five hundred.
Cinnamon and calamus, the middle spices, are only a half unit each, two hundred fifty shekels. The two of them together form a unit. Why is this second unit split? All these spices, in three units of five hundred, signify the Triune God, the second of whom was split when He was crucified. The first half is connected with His death; the second, to His resurrection.
The number of spices was four, the human number. The measure of the spices was three units, the divine number. All these four are mingled with one hin of oil, again giving us four plus one, or five, the number of responsibility.
After this compound ointment was made, it was used to anoint both the tabernacle and the priests. This ointment, then, was mainly for God’s building and for His service. We are God’s dwelling place and also His priests. This anointing is for us! The anointing in Exodus 30 corresponds exactly to the anointing in 1 John 2.
The numbers most used in the compounding of the anointing ointment are three and five, both of which relate to God’s building. His first building was Noah’s ark, the measurements of which are mostly multiples of three and five. It was three hundred cubits long, thirty cubits high, and fifty cubits wide (Gen. 6:15). It was of three stories (v. 16).
Three and five are also the basic units of the tabernacle. Consider these dimensions or amounts:
(1) The altar—5 x 5 x 3 (Exo. 38:1)
(2) The Ark—2½ x 1½ x 1½ (37:1)
(3) Sections—3 (outer court, inner court, Holy of Holies)
(4) Boards—10 x 1½ (36:21)
(5) Length of the tabernacle—30
(6) Curtain loops—50 (v. 17)
(7) Bronze clasps—50 (v. 18).
Notice how all these measurements are either three or five or are multiples or halves of three or five. Every single measurement is full of meaning, but for the present I would simply point out that these two numbers, which figure so prominently in the anointing ointment, are related to God’s building.
The anointing is the moving of the ointment. Its purpose is not for our individual spirituality but for the building and the priesthood, which are corporate.
As this ointment moves, the ingredients of which it is made will be applied to the very place where it moves. Christ’s divinity, humanity, death, and resurrection will be applied to your being. When you contact the Lord in a living way, the effectiveness of His death will be present. If you take antibiotics, they will kill the germs. There is no need for you to reckon that they are killed; the killing power is in the antibiotics, not in your reckoning. Besides the killing power, the anointing’s other rich ingredients will be applied and wrought into your being.
Suppose you have a bad temper. Surely from your experience you can testify that the only way to be rescued from it is to contact the living Lord. Within Him is a divine ingredient that kills the germs of your temper. By contacting the Lord, you are experiencing the application of the anointing to your temper.
How can we participate in this anointing? It is simply by abiding in the Lord. This means we must be always in touch with Him without any insulation. If we thus keep directly contacting Him, we shall experience the anointing applying the divine ingredients to our being. “You have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know.”
Day by day you will be transformed, not by following outward regulations but by having these divine ingredients added to you.
The anointing in 1 John 2 points directly to the anointing ointment in Exodus 30. When we consider the ingredients of this compound, we have to worship the Lord for such an accurate, unveiling picture. Our God has been compounded with all these wonderful ingredients. Because He has transferred us out of Adam and into Himself, we now have the position to abide in Him and let Him abide in us. If we thus keep ourselves attached to Him, we shall all the time be participating in what He is and what He has accomplished for us. By way of the anointing, He will work Himself into us.
