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.2.We must reject explanations founded on the epanaleptic use of o[tifor the reasons already given.We turn now to the rendering adopted by the New Testament Revisers.This rendering takes the first o[ti with ejaphsen, 1201associating His love with a definite act) and sent His Son to be thepropitiation for our sins. If the self-accusation is morbid and unfounded, a freak of a diseasedreligious fancy, rather than a truthful verdict of a healthy conscience, thecomplex and confused witness of our ignorant heart is resolved into thesimple testimony of love.I am God s child.At my Father s hand I shallmeet with no encouragement to continue in sin, but with pardon for mysin; with tonics for my morbid conditions; with allowance for myinfirmity.Only by that perfect wisdom will the error be duly weighed;only by that perfect love will it be forgiven; only by that perfect strengthwill the soul be energized to renew the life-long fight with sin.If we aretrembling lest the things of which our heart accuses us be the warrant fordisinheriting us of our position and privilege, we are pointed past ourindividual lapses and errors to the great, dominant sentiment of ourrelation to God.We love Him, we love the brethren, therefore we are Hischildren; erring children no doubt, but still His.Will He disinherit Hischild?Observe again, how John finds comfort in the fact of omniscience.Weshall assure our heart because God knoweth all things.The natural instinctof imperfection is to evade the contact and scrutiny of perfection.But thatinstinct is false and misleading.The Gospel creates a contrary instinct, increating a filial consciousness.If God s holiness shames our sinfulness,and God s perfect wisdom dwarfs our folly, nevertheless, perfection is theonly safe refuge for the imperfect.No man wants to be tried before anignorant or a corrupt judge.If that omniscient knowledge sees deeper intoour sin than we do, it also sees deeper into our weakness.If it weighs theact in more nicely-poised scales, it weighs the circumstances in the samescales.If it knows our secret faults, it knows likewise our frame and ourfrailty.If it discerns aggravations, it equally discerns palliations.If infiniteknowledge compasses the sin, so does infinite love.There mercy and truthmeet together, and righteousness and peace kiss each other.So we shall assure our heart before Him in whatsoever our heart condemnus.Not with the conceited assurance of self-righteousness; not with adrugged and dulled perception of the vileness of sin; not with an elixir 1202which shall relax our spiritual fiber and moderate our enthusiasm forspiritual victory; but with the thought that we are God s children, loving,though erring, in our Father s hand; with our elder brother Christinterceding for us; with the knowledge that the judicial element in ourChristian experience is transferred from our own heart to God; with theknowledge that, being His, neither death, nor life, nor angels, norprincipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, norheight, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us fromthe love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. As I read this passageI wonder if John, as he penned it, had not in mind that interview of Christand Peter at the lake after the resurrection.There was Peter with a heartstung with self-accusation, as well it might be: Peter who had denied andforsaken his Lord: and yet Christ meets all this self-accusation with thewords Loveth thou Me? And Peter s reply is in the very vein of ourpassage. God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things: Lord,thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love Thee. On this interpretation, the remainder of the passage follows simply andnaturally.Once assured that we are children of God, we have boldnesstoward God.That assurance, carrying with it the assurance of pardon andsympathy, is the only means by which the heart s condemnation islegitimately allayed.If, by which the heart s condemnation is legitimatelyallayed.If, under that assurance, our heart ceases to condemn us, thenhave we confidence toward God. It is noteworthy how the line of thoughtcoincides with that in the latter part of the fourth of Hebrews.There toowe see the Divine omniscience emphasized the discernment of theliving word, quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, adiscerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.Neither is there anycreature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked andopened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Then comes thepriesthood and the sympathy of Jesus, the Great High-Priest, touchedwith the feeling of our infirmities; and then the same conclusion: Let ustherefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. This latter part of the passage must therefore be interpreted by the former.That the heart feels no sense of condemnation is not, of itself, a legitimatenor a safe ground of boldness toward God.There is a boldness which is 1203born of presumption, of spiritual obtuseness, of ignorance of the characterand claims of God, of false and superficial conceptions of sin
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