1 John 2:29

The glory and dignity of regeneration and adoption, both hire and hereafter.

1 John 2:29. If ye know that he is righteous, ye perceive that every one also who doeth righteousness is begotten of him. This sentence is strictly transitional, and therefore of necessity may be interpreted with reference as well to what precedes as to what follows. Connected with the words immediately going before, the pronouns must refer to Christ, from whose righteous nature the regenerate receives his life, his righteous conduct declaring the fact of his new birth. Perhaps it is better to connect them with the whole of the preceding context. ‘If, after all that has been said, ye know that God is righteous with whom ye have fellowship, then mark the inference that ye who abide in Him, and are righteous also, must be begotten of Him. You cannot abide IN Him but as ye are born of Him.' What this new aspect of life in Christ means, the apostle proceeds to show. This verse looks forward to all that follows: it is in some sense the superscription of the remainder of the Epistle, but especially of the chapter we now approach. It may seem remarkable that St. John does not begin a new section with a special address to the ‘little children;' but that address has been heard just before, and will be presently repeated. Again, it may appear strange that he should pass from God to Christ and from Christ to God with no mark of the change, using the same personal pronoun throughout. But we must remember that the apostle regards the Father and the Son as one: especially here so soon after the words, ‘He that confesseth the Son hath the Father also.' There would indeed be no impropriety in referring both pronouns to Christ: He is the Righteous, and the regenerate may be said to be ‘begotten of Him,' just as He Himself spoke of their being ‘begotten of water and of the Spirit.' But the begetting, which is the word used by St. John alone for the infusion of a new life into the soul, is commonly referred to the Father or to God. Lastly, though the ‘doing of righteousness' leads off the sentence, the emphasis is not on it, but on the ‘begotten of Him.' We shall see in the next chapter that the new birth must be approved in righteous conduct; here the order is inverted, and practical righteousness infers and points to the new birth.