The thought in first John 4:17, “as He is so are we in the world,” is that the Saints are in the same place as the Lord Jesus. If I have righteousness, it is a divine righteousness: “we are made the righteousness of God in Him” (2Co 5:21). If I have life, it is a divine internal life: “when Christ who is our life shall appear” (Col 3:4). If I have glory, it is the same glory: “the glory Thou has given Me I have given them” (Jhn 17:22). If we have an inheritance, we are “joint-heirs with Christ” (Jhn 17:22). If we have love, it is the same love where with the Father loved the Son: “Thou hast loved them as Thou has loved Me” (Jhn 17:23).
Another thing to be observed is that there is a great difference between spiritual desires and spiritual affections, although they both have the same root. The spiritual desires, if the relationship which would meet them be not known, only produce sorrow. Take an orphan, for instance, in a family where the parents love to the children is witnessed every day—the sorrowful experience would be Oh, that I too had a father! The child who has its parent has the same desires; in the relationship existing of parent and child, it knows the joy and gladness which flows from such a relationship.
So also that we may have joy and gladness as the children of the Father, we must have the consciousness of the relationship in which we stand before Him. It is not merely that we have the divine nature which gives us spiritual desires, but we must also have the consciousness of the relationship into which we are brought by the work of the Lord Jesus on the Cross.
It is clear there never could be a question between the Lord Jesus and His Father as to the daily and hourly enjoyment of the consciousness of His Father’s love: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” So also He says, “My peace I give unto you.” Again He says, “That they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” The Father’s delight was (and is) in the Lord Jesus, and He knew it in the daily enjoyment of it. And now, “As He is so are we in this world.”
While the Lord Jesus lays the ground of our relationship by being the propitiation for our sins and the source of our life, yet it is not by His righteousness that I get “boldness.” I must be righteous of course; I cannot have boldness without it; but besides this there is another character towards God, as a child. I have not only righteousness, but I am a son.
—J N Darby (1800-1882)
MJS daily devotional excerpt for August 31
“Failure to live the Christian life is due to one’s utter inability, but it is all governed by the Father. He teaches us to become proficient in failure, in order to bring us to total reliance upon His Son, who is our Christian life. “For to me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21).
“It is a wonderful moment for the believer when we by faith occupy our standing in the favor of the Father—when we know that we are received by Him in all the acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“We do not then think of ourselves, of our worthiness or unworthiness, at all. We think of the Lord Jesus—His perfections, His suitability to divine favor, His infinite acceptance with the Father—and by faith, we have access into the favor of which He is so worthy.” - Charles Andrew Coates (1862-1945)
“To find that we are objects of consideration to the Lord Jesus is an infinite solace, and it brings Him before our hearts in such a way that we are sustained above the consideration of ourselves.”
“There is an infinite difference between self-improvement and growing in the Lord Jesus, nourished and cherished by Him. Instead of being elated by our own improvement, or depressed because we cannot effect it, we are to be occupied with the grace and beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, in which we are thus made to share.”
“We cannot be in the presence of the Father in innocence, for we are guilty; so that we must be there in His righteousness, and that place which used to repel us, now forms me into a likeness of itself. I am not tolerated there, I am at home; and where the distance was, there is now nearness and attraction.” - James Butler Stoney (1814-1897)