#55 The Invisible

From Meditations on the Epistles of John, by Samuel Froehlich

So we must learn to be loosed from the visible and outer so as to also enter into the invisible and inner; namely, the fellowship of the Father and His Son, by the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which the apostles witness of and proclaim to us and to which they invite us. Not that they themselves had ascended into heaven, but, for that purpose, the Holy Spirit, as Christ’s Representative, had descended to proclaim all things to them and to glorify Christ as the Eternal Life in them: for as long as Christ was with them outwardly only and taught them, they grasped it only outwardly and imperfectly in their minds, but it was not yet glorified in them as the Life of God Himself. The departure of Christ therefore was expedient to them, that the Spirit of Truth might come in His stead and thus place them here like Christ Himself, and it must also happen thus with all believers so that it may be a fellowship of saints, where God Himself stands over them and the ladder descends from heaven unto the earth; there, then, is a house of God.

What little fruit is brought forth where the Gospel is accomplished in the ears only of men, we can see in the inhabitants of Nazareth, as it filled them with wrath instead of with joy because they took offense at the person of Jesus and rejected His proclamation. However, where the Word of God is accomplished in the hearts of the hearers as well, there they also become filled with joy in the Holy Ghost so that they cannot conceal what they have received, for where Christ lights a light in the darkness of this world, there it shall not be kept hidden but shall shine forth to the glory of God. Therefore, when the disciples of John announced to him that Jesus had a greater following than he, he was gladdened by the report and testified. (John 3:29 ff.):

"He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. "He must increase, but I must decrease."

Now, as Christ grows when many are converted to Him—united with Him as His bride and share His divine nature—we dare not let Christ stand outside and know Him only outwardly according to the flesh and the letter, but we must receive Him Himself in us by His Spirit of Life so that our joy may be fulfilled also in a much higher degree and meaning, in that we belong to His bride as children of God, taught by God Himself and having His living law written in our heart in order that we may, at all times, not only know but also joyfully do His good, acceptable and perfect will, so that the doing of the good becomes as natural and easy for us (as our other, divine nature) as the evil—which one did not need to teach us—formerly was. Surely, just as full-fledged villains on their cots already ponder evil things, thus also shall the children of God, day and night, meditate upon the good until they become perfected in it.