#43 The anointing

From Meditations on the Epistles of John, by Samuel Froehlich

On the one hand, the anointing itself teaches the children of God to abide in the Son and in the Father, (I John 2:27):

But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

and, on the other, the apostle exhorts them to just the same thing verse 28:

And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

The anointing is Christ in us, and this Spirit of Christ awakens a constant longing, yearning and sighing in us for Him, Who is at the right hand of God, and for our redemption and eternal union with Him.

We shall not think that the unction is only the gift to speak the Word; this is something purely additional to and not even necessarily connected with it, but the unction is necessary in all believers for the holy life of Christ, as the glory of the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27; Romans 5).

To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

But our abiding in Him is the ground of the hope and toward this the unction aims and has a tendency, that we abide in Christ; namely, walk upon the way which leads to eternal life and not depart from it again, not contemptuously sell our right of the firstborn again for the perishable food of this world like ungodly Esau, and even if we could gain or lose the whole world, we would still have need of Christ as our Eternal Portion and with Him indeed all things are ours. After all, we do not come into temptation to gain or to lose the whole world but only a bit or a small part of the same, and should we be so foolish as to sacrifice Christ for that!

But even though Christ is in us by His Spirit, there is still a great difference between the Christ dwelling in us and the Christ sitting at the right of God. No anointed one can say, "I am Christ." Even with the anointing, man is always still a man and his mind is distinctive from the unction; for it is just this mind of man which must be controlled, renewed and sanctified according to the mind of Christ, against the day of redemption and, in this, man can also withstand the Holy Spirit, that he does not abide in Christ and accordingly does not attain unto the goal of the heavenly calling. To be sure, those whose names are written in the Book of Life cannot be torn out of the hand of Christ and of the Father’s for they abide in Him. But we do not know them by name and it is just as possible that a beginning believer may fall away as that he will remain faithful and constant unto the end. It depends upon one’s using well that which was entrusted to him, the pledge of the Spirit.