Scripture Reading: 1 John 2:18-27
In this message I would like to give a further word on the teaching of the divine anointing. We have seen that the teaching of the anointing concerning the Divine Trinity is according to the believers’ growth in life. We have also seen that the teaching of the divine anointing is for our abiding in the Triune God.
The fellowship of the divine life depends on the anointing. This means that maintaining the fellowship of the divine life depends on abiding in the Lord and in the light. To abide in the Lord and in the light is equal to abiding in the Triune God.
The Triune God reaches us as the Spirit. If God were only the Father and the Son, He would not be able to enter into us. It is only as the Spirit that the Triune God can enter into our spirit. The word “anointing” in 2:20 and 27 refers mainly to the Spirit, not primarily to the Father or the Son. Actually, the ointment is the Spirit, and the anointing is the moving of this ointment. When we speak of the anointing, we mean the Triune God reaching us as the Spirit. When the Triune God comes into our spirit, He is the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit, who dwells in our spirit, is now moving and working within us. This moving is the anointing.
The anointing has much to do with our abiding in the Lord. We enjoy the fellowship of the divine life so that we may abide in the Lord. This abiding is altogether a matter of the Lord as the Spirit dwelling in our spirit. This is the reason that immediately after the first section, which is concerned with the fellowship of the divine life, John goes on in the second section of this Epistle to speak of the teaching of the divine anointing. Apart from the anointing, we cannot abide in the Lord. If we do not abide in the Lord, we cannot maintain the fellowship. Furthermore, if we do not maintain the fellowship, we cannot enjoy the riches of the divine life. We may also say that to enjoy the riches of the divine life, we need to maintain the fellowship; to maintain the fellowship, we need to abide in the Lord; and in order to abide in the Lord, we need to take care of the inner anointing, which is the moving of the indwelling Spirit in our spirit.
In verse 18 John says, “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.” An antichrist differs from a false Christ (Matt. 24:5, 24). A false Christ is one who pretends to be the Christ in a deceiving way, whereas an antichrist is one who denies Christ’s deity, denying that Jesus is the Christ, that is, denying the Father and the Son by denying that Jesus is the Son of God (vv. 22-23), not confessing that He has come in the flesh through the divine conception of the Holy Spirit (4:2-3). At the time of the apostle John, many heretics, like the Gnostics, Cerinthians, and Docetists, taught heresies concerning the Person of Christ, that is, concerning His divinity and humanity.
In verse 19 John goes on to say, “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.” These antichrists were not born of God and were not in the fellowship of the apostles with the believers (1:3; Acts 2:42). Hence, they were not of the church, that is, not of the Body of Christ. To remain with the apostles and the believers is to remain in the fellowship of the Body of Christ.
In verse 22 John says, “Who is the liar if not he who is denying that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, who is denying the Father and the Son.” To confess that Jesus is the Christ is to confess that He is the Son of God (Matt. 16:16; John 20:31). Hence, to deny that Jesus is the Christ is to “deny the Father and the Son.” Whoever so denies the divine Person of Christ “is the antichrist.”
To deny that Jesus is the Christ is related to denying the anointing. However, due to the problem of language, we may not realize that Christ is related to the anointing. The Greek word for Christ is Christos, which means the anointed one, and the Greek word for anointing is chrisma. Both words are derived from the same root. Now we must go on to see that Christ as the anointed One becomes the anointing. Because He is the anointed One, He has an abundance of ointment with which to anoint us. Eventually, the anointed One becomes the anointing One. In fact, He even becomes the anointing. To deny that Jesus is the Christ is to deny that Jesus is the anointed One. Moreover, to deny the anointed One means to deny the anointing. Therefore, to deny the Christos is to deny the chrisma. Whenever someone denies that Jesus is the Christos, that one denies that Jesus is the anointed One. This is equal to denying the anointing, for after the anointed One enters into us, He becomes the anointing.
In 2 Corinthians 1:21 Paul says, “But He who firmly attaches us with you unto Christ and has anointed us is God.” Because we have been attached by God to Christ, the anointed One, we are spontaneously anointed with Him by God. Christ has been anointed with the divine ointment, and the ointment that is upon Him now flows to us. This is pictured in Psalm 133, which says that the anointing oil flows from the head of Aaron to his beard and even to the skirts of his priestly robe. This indicates that Christ has an abundance of the anointing oil. God has poured the ointment upon Him. Through that anointing Christ has received the ointment, and eventually He, the anointed One, became the anointing One. When He entered into us as the anointed One, He became the anointing One in us. Actually, the anointing that dwells in us is the anointed One becoming the anointing One and also the anointing. To reject this anointed One is to reject the anointing. Whenever someone denies that Jesus is the anointed One and thereby denies that He is the anointing One, this person also denies the anointing. Now we need to see that to deny the anointing is to be anti-anointing, the accurate meaning of the title antichrist. Antichrist, therefore, means anti the anointing.
According to verse 22, the antichrist is the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. To deny that Jesus is the Christ is to deny that He is the anointing One. This is also to deny the anointing and thereby to be anti-anointing. What is the antichrist? The antichrist is someone who is anti-anointing. Furthermore, according to verse 22, to be an antichrist, to be anti-anointing, is to deny the Father and the Son. We may not be anti the anointing in this way, yet we have to admit that often we disobey this inner anointing.
God’s intention is to work Himself into us as our life and our everything to make us His counterpart for the expression of Himself. In order to accomplish this, it was necessary for God to pass through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. When He entered into resurrection, He became the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is actually Christos, the anointed One, becoming the life-giving One. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we received Him into us. The One we received is the anointed One, who through death and resurrection has become the anointing One. Furthermore, this anointing One is the all-inclusive indwelling Spirit. As soon as we believed in Him, He as the Spirit entered our spirit. Now He is within our spirit to anoint us, to “paint” us, with the element of the Triune God. The more this “painting” goes on, the more the element of the Triune God is transfused into our being. This is the anointing, which is the reality of the entire New Testament.
This crucial and central matter of the anointing has been neglected by many Christians. Today many have a religion with doctrines and regulations, but they neglect the inward teaching of the anointing of the all-inclusive Spirit. Some teach concerning the cross. However, they may have only the doctrine of the cross; they may not have the life-giving Spirit imparting the effectiveness of the cross of Christ into their being. We may try to reckon ourselves dead. But we may do this without having the effectiveness of Christ’s death imparted into our being through the anointing Spirit. Apart from the Spirit, reckoning ourselves dead is merely a vain practice. Years ago, I tried to follow this practice, but I found out that it did not work.
Christians today may also teach about resurrection. Although they teach the doctrine of resurrection, they may not have the reality of Christ’s resurrection wrought into them through the life-giving Spirit. The life-giving Spirit is the reality of Christ’s resurrection. The doctrine of Christ’s resurrection cannot impart its reality into our being. This can be done only through the life-giving Spirit, who is actually the resurrected Christ Himself living in us. The doctrine is not the reality. It is the resurrected Christ Himself as the life-giving Spirit who is the reality of His resurrection. It is not sufficient to have the doctrine. We need the life-giving Spirit as the reality of the doctrine. Realizing this, in 1958 I began to give message after message saying that merely the doctrine of Christ’s death and resurrection is vanity; only the Spirit can convey the effectiveness of Christ’s death and the reality of His resurrection into us. If we realize this, we shall see that many of today’s Christians have merely the doctrine without the Spirit.
All that God is, all that God has, and all that God has attained and obtained, are included in the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is the compound Spirit as the ointment anointing us. In this anointing we have God with all His attainments in a living, substantial way. We should not have God merely in an objective, doctrinal way. We should have the subjective God, a God who is substantiated in our spirit through, by, in, and with the all-inclusive Spirit.
Because the all-inclusive Spirit is neglected and even ignored by many Christians today, certain believers are, in a sense, anti- the anointing ignorantly. They may worship the Father and believe in the Son in an objective way, believing in Him as the One who is the Lord far away in the heavens, but not caring for Him subjectively as the anointing Spirit who has come into their being and is now dwelling in them. Instead of caring for such a living and subjective Christ, some actually oppose the truth that Christ today is the life-giving Spirit who lives in the believers. This means that they are anti the Christ who is the indwelling, life-giving, anointing Spirit.
Due to the influence of traditional teaching, many think that the term “antichrist” refers only to the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2 and to the beast in Revelation 13. However, the term antichrist is not used in either of these chapters. The title antichrist should not be applied merely to the man of lawlessness and the beast. According to 1 John, the antichrists are those who are anti Christ, the anointed One, as the Son of God. Actually, in the New Testament the man of lawlessness is not called the antichrist. This title is found only in the Epistles of 1 and 2 John, where it is used to refer to those who deny that Jesus is the Christ, that is, those who deny that Jesus is the anointed One, as the Son of God. According to 1 John chapter two, whoever denies Christ in this way is an antichrist. “Antichrist,” without the article, in verse 18 denotes the category, not a particular antichrist. Hence, “many antichrists” are mentioned in the following clause.
The anointing Spirit within is the consummation of the Triune God, and in this Spirit there are the elements of divinity, humanity, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. He is the all-inclusive Spirit comprising all that God has accomplished, attained, and obtained. This Spirit is now the anointing One within us.
First, Christ was the anointed One. Then as the anointed One, He became the anointing One who dwells within us to anoint us. However, most Christians either neglect this or are ignorant of it, and some actually oppose this truth. We thank the Lord that, by His mercy, we are experiencing and enjoying the wonderful anointing of the all-inclusive Spirit within us.
I am encouraged by the fact that many saints in the Lord’s recovery, especially the young people, are enjoying this anointing. I expect that in the years to come the saints will go forth to preach and teach the wonderful, divine mysteries that are unknown to so many believers today. Many of us will be able to anoint others with the compound Spirit, applying this divine “paint” to them. If we would do this, we need to be “painted” persons, those who are saturated with the anointing. We should be those on whom the paint is “wet,” always having a fresh application of the divine paint. Because this painting is taking place all the time, the paint on us should never dry. Then as such painted persons, we should go forth to paint others with the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit.
