Nothing is more marked in the history and experience of souls than the tendency to look in upon self, instead of looking out upon Christ. It has been well remarked that “faith is the soul’s outward, not its inward look.” This is most true, and, assuredly, it would be well if it were more fully borne in mind. The object on which faith fixes its gaze is always outside of ourselves. The moment we look in upon self for the ground of faith, we lose the comfort and peace which it is our privilege to enjoy.
This prevailing habit of looking in, instead of out, has had the effect of robbing many of the divine beauty, preciousness, and power of 1 John 4:1717Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17) — “that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.” It has set them upon the dreary and perplexing business of examining their love, in order to find perfection in it. This is a hopeless task, for a poor, helpless, unworthy sinner, groping amid the darkness of his own heart, cannot find anything “perfect.”
Perfect Love Casts Out Fear
Nothing could be further from the mind of the Spirit than the thought of our perfect love, and this is clear from the simple reading of 1 John 4:1717Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17): “Herein has love been perfected with us that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that even as He is, we also are in this world” (JND). Now, how could our love to God ever be sufficiently “perfect” to give us “boldness in the day of judgment”? How could we ever look forward with unclouded confidence to the judgment-seat, if we were resting on the perfection of our own love? How could our love ever be of such a character as to cast out all tormenting “fear” from our hearts? Impossible.
What, then, does the Apostle mean when he says, “Perfect love casteth out fear”? He means that God’s perfect love, as manifested to us and “perfected with us” in the precious blood of His own dear Son, completely banishes fear from our hearts. If I know that God loves me perfectly, I have no cause to doubt or fear. And how has He told out His love to me? In the blood which flowed from the pierced side of a crucified Christ. That blood has not only satisfied God’s claims as to my sins, but also expressed His perfect love toward my perishing soul. Sin had been judged and eternally put away by that blood which has told forth the deep secrets of love that dwell in the bosom of God toward lost sinners. What, therefore, will the “day of judgment” do for the believer? It will make manifest, in the view of heaven, earth and hell, that there is nothing against him. The light of “the judgment-seat of Christ” will show that there is not so much as a speck upon that “white robe,” which owes all its purity to the power of the blood. The judgment-seat will be every whit as favorable to the believer as the mercy-seat is now. This is an amazing truth—one divinely calculated to drive out “fear” from the heart and impart boldness instead.
As He Is, So Are We
But let us specially note the manner in which God’s love is perfected with us. “As He is, so are we in this world.” This, truly, is the perfection of love. As the Judge is, so are we. “We are complete in Him” — “accepted in the Beloved” — “in Him that is true” — part of Himself. He is the Head and we are the members. Christ took our place on the cross. He was made sin; He was judged in our stead. He took our place that we might take His. He went down into the very deepest depths of our condition, in order that we might be raised to the very loftiest heights of His position before God. “As He is, so are we in this world.” Thus it is that God’s love is “perfected with us,” in order “that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.” Assuredly, the Judge will not condemn Himself. But He is my righteousness. He will not find a flaw in His own work. But that is the very ground of my confidence. He has made me what I am and set me where I am. “He that has wrought us for the selfsame thing is God” (2 Cor. 5:55Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 5:5)).
No Fear
Hence it follows that if the thought of “the day of judgment” awakens a single “fear” in our hearts, it is a proof that we do not believe that God has perfectly loved us or the blood of Christ perfectly cleansed us. God has found all He wants in the cross. He Himself has settled the whole question of sin. He has perfectly satisfied Himself as to that. He knew the need and has met it. He knew the demands and has answered them. He measured the guilt and has canceled it. He has put away sin in such a way as to meet His own infinite purity. Sin is perfectly and eternally put away; the sinner who believes is perfectly and eternally brought nigh. The one could never be let in; the other can never be cast out. Seeing that all hangs on the perfectness of the love of God, the efficacy of the blood of Christ, and the truth of the testimony of the Holy Spirit, a single doubt is an insult to the Holy Trinity.
There are some who think that doubts and fears are signs of spiritual life. They may be so, in the same way that rheumatic pains are signs of natural life, but who would covet such signs? Who would desire perpetual torture as an evidence of his being alive? The Apostle emphatically declares that “perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:1818There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)).
C. H. Mackintosh (adapted)