Faith Is The Victory
By
Professor E M Blaiklock MA. Litt.D.
In the latter half of this verse the rendering of the King James Version is unfortunate. In Greek the form of the pronoun 'him' differs from that of the pronoun 'himself' by one letter only. As may be easily imagined this is a frequent source of corruption in the text, and some manuscripts here read 'him', and some 'himself'. It becomes certain that 'him', is the correct reading when the tense of a participle earlier in the verse is examined. A little more Greek grammar here becomes necessary. Note that whenever John speaks of one 'born of God' he uses the perfect participle (e.g. 3: 9 and 5: I and 4). This participle expresses a state following an event or action. This is, of course, an exact rendering of the spiritual situation. A person is born of God by faith, and the blessed state abides. There is assurance in the very tense of the ex-pression. Now in the first half of v. 18 we have the usual form, the perfect participle. Here, without doubt, is the Christian.
In the second half of the verse the participle is aorist, and contains, as that tense does, the notion of a single act. Here undoubtedly is Christ. Turn to the text again.
How essential, indeed, is it that Christ should here enter in.
There is little comfort in the thought that we should keep ourselves. We know ourselves too well. If 'He who was once-for-all-born-of-God' keeps us, all is secure. Moreover, harmony is at once secured between Epistle and Gospel. "I kept them in thy name," said the Lord (John 17: 12), and three verses later He prays: "I pray not that shouldest keep them from the evil one." In confirmation of this interpretation reference to that sinister presence follows forthwith.
Such salvation belongs to the Christian. The 'world' has no share in it. The world is possessed by its prince and held in a tyranny which knows no relaxation. It follows that the severance which divides a pagan system and the Church of God is as complete as that which sunders God and the Evil One. The verb used in v. 19 is vivid. The phrase runs literally: "lies in the evil one," held, as it were, in a grim embrace. Those who seek verbal contrasts might turn from this uncompromising statement to Deuteronomy 33: 27: "The Eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms." In the light of these firm closing statements of the New Testament, dare any Christian cherish illusions? The world is the same world, and its prince and possessor unchanged.
Nevertheless, let no one fear, for "we know that the Son of God has come, and given us understanding to know the real God." This is the apostle's last word of assurance to his beloved people, distracted and puzzled by the Gnostics. It was the true God, the real God, whom the humblest of them found revealed in Christ. The faith was not, as those forerunners of liberalism maintained, one of many attempts to reach up and touch the infinite. The literature of the ancient world is often eloquent of human questing, and the striving of better minds to leave behind what was felt to be transitory and mere illusion, and to find the real, the true. Christian preaching was quick to see that it had the goal to offer, not the seeking but the answer, and not another form of questioning. Such was Paul's theme at Athens; such is the theme of the letter we have studied. Christianity is rooted in the concrete and historical. Christ came, and with Him in finality. God had no more to say. This was the message with which the first Christians confronted the pagan world. There is no other with which to confront it today.
Hence the farewell warning. "Do not abandon the real for the illusory." The Greek for 'idol' contains the notion of unreality. Plato uses the word for illusory appearances which stand in contrast to realities. On the other hand it must be admitted that everywhere in the New Testament 'idols' is used in a concrete significance, and means precisely the graven images of paganism. We tend to forget the pervasive nature of the idolatry which moved Paul's spirit in Athens. Every street through which the Christian walked was full of the offence; every heathen house he visited confronted him with the graven image; temples swarmed; the guild feat of his trade organisation opened with libation before the statue of the pagan patron deity; his meat troubled his conscience in case it should be part of beasts sacrificed to idols; the Emperor's statue stood as the symbol of man in the place of God, and many a Christian had died and was to die for his refusal to place one pinch of incense in the brazier at its feet. If such abomination was more apparent in one ancient city than another, that city was Ephesus. As Acts 19 vividly reveals,
the very economic life of the city was centred in the worship of Artemis, whose image, doubtless a meteoric stone, had
"fallen from heaven." Ephesian coins may be seen in any museum, stamped with idolatrous figures. The Christian had to handle them. Ephesian tokens and charms were a major export of the great heathen port.
John therefore had in mind literal idols. The fact, none the less, may be conceded that there are idols other than those which are constructed of wood and stone, and John would no doubt agree with the host of Christian preachers of all centuries who have variously applied his words to a thousand substitutes for God. Indeed he no doubt saw in the idols of his Ephesian streets the sign and symbol of the false, the evil, and the base, the exaltation of man, and that usurpation of the place of God which is the root and inspiration of idolatry the world over.
The last apostle's last words there find their modern application. There are still substitutes for God, be they embedded in political ideas, social systems, sub Christian cults, or even in the human tendency to "make Him even like unto one of ourselves." It matters what we believe. Such is the insistent note of this Epistle. God is still found revealed in Christ, and in a world still pagan, still subtly cursed with idolatries, salvation is still found in commital of the life to Him Who forgives, saves, keeps. And He abideth faithful.
Let us allow William Cowper the last word and a final prayer. Poor Cowper had his struggles. He also knew the peace of God.
"I was a stricken deer"
', he wrote, but he knew
too, God's healing. You guess already the verse I shall quote:
The dearest idol I have known, Whate'er that idol be;
Help me to tear it from Thy throne
And worship only Thee.
This final verse ends
“Faith Is The Victory” by my Uncle Ted, Professor E M Blaiklock MA., Litt.D.
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