#4 We Are Sinners

Blessed Assurance Sermon Series (a study of 1 John)

#4 We Are Sinners

(1 John 1:8-10 NIV) If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. {9} If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. {10} If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

(1 John 2:1-2 NIV) My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. {2} He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Throughout the history of mankind, attempts have been made to explain away sin. Karl Menninger, in his noted book Whatever Became of Sin, calls our attention to the fact that sin is being discounted on many fronts.

He writes, “In all of the laments made by our seers and prophets, one misses any mention of ‘sin,’ a word which used to be a veritable watchword of prophets. It was a word once in everyone’s mind, but now rarely if ever heard.”

Some psychologists today tell us that sin is only imaginary, and some will go so far as to teach that our moral and social behavior would be improved if the idea of sin could be erased from our vocabularies.

The Gnostics of the first two or three centuries were among those who regarded sin as an unnecessary evil. Some of them taught that there was no such thing as sin. John may have referred to these people when he wrote the words of 1 John 1:8—2:2. There can be no doubt from John’s statement that false teachers were troubling the faithful.

A study of heresies of the second and third centuries indicates that there were at least two major schools of thought among the Gnostics. One group regarded sin as only spiritual or gnostic. Hence, a practice of asceticism separated the physical from the spiritual. If one kept himself from the elements of the world, he would be kept free from sin. A second group of Gnostics, including the Nicolaitans, believed that fleshly “sins” did not exist for Christians or Gnostics. These could be the ones to whom John is referring in the text.

First, in verse 6, he refers to those who claim that fellowship with Christ does not depend on avoiding walking in darkness. Second, in verse 8, he refers to those who claim that Christians are “without sin”—that is, sin does not belong to the people of God. Third, he refers to those who claim that individual Christians do not sin. In each of these cases, John shows that these teachers were leading the Christians into a deceptive trap. He charges that those teaching such things are liars!

I. THE REALITY OF SIN

First John 1:8—2:2 is one of the most devastating attacks against those who teach this fallacy about sin that we have in all the Bible. Not only do we deceive ourselves by making such a claim, but claiming that we are sinless makes God to be a liar as well. The whole purpose of the cross becomes a farce if we are not sinners. Jesus died that we might be forgiven of our sins. The Gnostics claimed that the whole story of the cross is not true. They claimed that the ignorant were deluded by such a story. In fact, some of them claimed that Jesus never actually died on the cross, but Simon of Cyrene took His place while He was hiding from the masses.

How can one deny the reality and power of sin when we look around us? If sin does not exist, how is death to be reckoned with? What caused it? Why was it necessary for Jesus to die? If sin does not exist, how can we account for all of the evil in the world? Is there really an answer to suffering if there is no sin? Why is there all the unhappiness and cruelty in the world if sin does not exist? How can Jesus bring us a more abundant life if we have no problems with this one? What hinders people from serving God if there is no sin?

These and many other questions have no answer apart from the reality of sin. My friends, sin is real! The devil is truly “roaming through the earth” (Job 1:7) seeking whom he can devour. Satan is on guard day and night, trying to destroy the righteous. Yes, sin is a reality, and we must not close our eyes to its vengeance.

II. THE REMISSION OF SIN

The most important concept of this passage is not that we are sinners; but, that we can have forgiveness! All men are sinners. But we must not only accept the fact that there is forgiveness, but also that forgiveness is free! All of us can have forgiveness if we want it. Eternal life is a free gift from God. Paul wrote that “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

It is the very nature of God to forgive. John says that God “is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins” (1:9). The language here suggests that this is a characteristic of God. In forgiveness, God’s goodness is displayed. “If we confess our sins,” God will forgive us our sins. This is comparable to saying that a judge is just and, therefore, truth will prevail. But, beyond this, we recognize God as our Father. Is it not the true nature of a father to forgive his children of their weaknesses? Only an unjust, unloving father would refuse to forgive his child for wrongdoing, particularly if the child is sorry.

There are certain prerequisites to forgiveness.

First, we must be willing to accept His reality and truth. In 1:1-7 John impresses upon us the reality of God and His Son. We must be willing to accept the revelation of God’s Son.

Second, we must confess our sins. John places a stipulation on forgiveness: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1:9). God is neither bound to forgive nor likely to forgive those who do not realize their need for mercy.

Third, we should obey His will. In John’s account of Jesus’ life, He quotes Jesus as saying, “If anyone loves me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me” (John 14:23, 24). Jesus states that obedience is expected for the indwelling of His Father and Him in our lives.

III. THE REDEEMER’S AID

It is God’s will that all of His children live above sin. But, it is also impossible for any of us to live totally without sin. Remember, if we say we have no sin, we make God a liar? (See verse 10.) God has not made us to be robots; we are not designed to obey God without any will of our own. This would not give any glory to God at all. God wants us to be His children, to love and serve Him out of our love for Him. This is His will. But, within this free will that we possess, God wants us to live without sin.

God realizes our propensity to sin. He made a way for us. John writes, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1:10). But, thanks be to God He has provided a solution. John continues in the second chapter to say that “we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense” (2:1). John declares that we have our own attorney: our pleader, one who “speaks in our defense.” This phrase is translated from the word parakleton. This word literally means “one who appears in another’s behalf, mediator, intercessor, helper.” (See Arndt and Gingrich.)

John continues, “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (2:2). He has willingly laid down His life for our sins. Jesus was not a martyr; He was more than a martyr. This is not to depreciate martyrs. Martyrs have their lives taken from them; Jesus willingly laid down His life for us. There is a great difference between the two! Without His sacrifice, we are nothing. But, through the sacrifice of Jesus, sin can be forgiven, and by the cross we can live above sin—not without sin, but above sin.

CONCLUSION

John wants us to realize that sin is a reality— both in the world and in our lives. Contrary to Or do you not know that all of us who have what the false teachers were telling those early been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried Christians, it is possible for the Christian to so sin as to finally be lost. We need to turn to our “paraclete,” our “atoning sacrifice,” the one who with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

The first thing to note in this passage is the sheer affection in it. John begins with the address, "My little children." Both in Latin and in Greek diminutives carry a special affection. They are words which are used, as it were, with a caress. John is a very old man; he must be, in fact, the last survivor of his generation, maybe the last man alive who had walked and talked with Jesus in the days of his flesh. So often age gets out of sympathy with youth and acquires even an impatient irritableness with the new and laxer ways of the younger generation.

But not John; in his old age he has nothing but tenderness for those who are his little children in the faith. He is writing to tell them that they must not sin but he does not scold. There is no cutting edge in his voice; he seeks to love them into goodness. In this opening address there is the yearning, affectionate tenderness of a pastor for people whom he has known for long in all their wayward foolishness and still loves.

His object in writing is that they may not sin. There is a two-fold connection of thought here-with what has gone before and with what comes afterwards. There is a two-fold danger that they may indeed think lightly of sin.

John says two things about sin. First, he has just said that sin is universal; anyone who says that he has not sinned is a liar. Second, there is forgiveness of sins through what Jesus Christ has done, and still does, for men. Now it would be possible to use both these statements as an excuse to think lightly of sin. If all have sinned, why make a fuss about it and what is the use of struggling against something which is in any event an inevitable part of the human situation? Again, if there is forgiveness of sins, why worry about it?

In face of that, John, as Westcott points out, has two things to say.

First, the Christian is one who has come to know God; and the inevitable accompaniment of knowledge must be obedience. We shall return to this more fully; but at the moment we note that to know God and to obey God must, as John sees it, be twin parts of the same experience.

Second, the man who claims that he abides in God (verse 6) and in Jesus Christ must live the same kind of life as Jesus lived. That is to say, union with Christ necessarily involves imitation of Christ.

So John lays down his two great ethical principles; knowledge involves obedience, and union involves imitation. Therefore, in the Christian life there can never be any inducement to think lightly of sin.

We Can Conquer Our Sins (1 John 2:1-3, 5-6)

John makes it clear that Christians do not have to sin. “I am writing these things unto you that you may not sin” (1 John 2:1, nasb).

The secret of victory over sin is found in the phrase “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7).

To walk in the light means to be open and honest, to be sincere. Paul prayed that his friends might “be sincere and without offense” (Phil. 1:10). The word sincere comes from two Latin words, sine and cera, which mean “without wax.” It seems that in Roman days, some sculptors covered up their mistakes by filling the defects in their marble statues with wax, which was not readily visible—until the statue had been exposed to the hot sun awhile. But more dependable sculptors made certain that their customers knew that the statues they sold were sine cera—without wax.

It is unfortunate that churches and Bible classes have been invaded by insincere people, people whose lives cannot stand to be tested by God’s light. “God is light,” and when we walk in the light, there is nothing we can hide. It is refreshing to meet a Christian who is open and sincere and is not trying to masquerade!

To walk in the light means to be honest with God, with ourselves, and with others. It means that when the light reveals our sin to us, we immediately confess it to God and claim His forgiveness. And if our sin injures another person, we ask his forgiveness too.

But walking in the light means something else: it means obeying God’s Word (1 John 2:3-4). “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” (Ps. 119:105). To walk in the light means to spend time daily in God’s Word, discovering His will; and then obeying what He has told us.

Obedience to God’s Word is proof of our love for Him. There are three motives for obedience. We can obey because we have to, because we need to, or because we want to.

A slave obeys because he has to. If he doesn’t obey he will be punished. An employee obeys because he needs to. He may not enjoy his work, but he does enjoy getting his paycheck! He needs to obey because he has a family to feed and clothe. But a Christian is to obey his Heavenly Father because he wants to—for the relationship between him and God is one of love. “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

This is the way we learned obedience when we were children. First, we obeyed because we had to. If we didn’t obey, we were spanked! But as we grew up, we discovered that obedience meant enjoyment and reward; so we started obeying because it met certain needs in our lives. And it was a mark of real maturity when we started obeying because of love.

“Baby Christians” must constantly be warned or rewarded. Mature Christians listen to God’s Word and obey it simply because they love Him.

Walking in the light involves honesty, obedience, and love; it also involves following the example of Christ and walking as He walked (1 John 2:6). Of course, nobody ever becomes a Christian by following Christ’s example; but after we come into God’s family, we are to look to Jesus Christ as the one great Example of the kind of life we should live.

This means “abiding in Christ.” Christ is not only the Propitiation (or sacrifice) for our sins (1 John 2:2) and the Advocate who represents us before God (1 John 2:1), but He is also the perfect Pattern (He is “Jesus Christ the righteous”) for our daily life.

The key statement here is “as He is” (1 John 2:6). “Because as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). We are to walk in the light “as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7). We are to purify ourselves “even as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). “He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous” (1 John 3:7). Walking in the light means living here on earth the way Jesus lived when He was here, and the way He is right now in heaven.

This has extremely practical applications in our daily lives. For example, what should a believer do when another believer sins against him? The answer is that believers should forgive one another “even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32; cf. Col. 3:13).

Walking in the light—following the example of Christ—will affect a home. Husbands are supposed to love their wives “even as Christ also loved the church” (Eph. 5:25). Husbands are supposed to care for their wives “even as the Lord” cares for the church (Eph. 5:29). And wives are to honor and obey their husbands (Eph. 5:22-24).

No matter what area of life it may be, our responsibility is to do what Jesus would do. “As He is, so are we in this world.” We should “walk [live] even as He walked [lived].”

Jesus Himself taught His disciples what it means to abide in Him. He explains it in His illustration of the vine and its branches (John 15). Just as the branch gets its life by remaining in contact with the vine, so believers receive their strength by maintaining fellowship with Christ.

To abide in Christ means to depend completely on Him for all that we need in order to live for Him and serve Him. It is a living relationship. As He lives out His life through us, we are able to follow His example and walk as He walked. Paul expresses this experience perfectly: “Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20).

This is a reference to the work of the Holy Spirit. Christ is our Advocate in heaven (1 John 2:1), to represent us before God when we sin. The Holy Spirit is God’s Advocate for us here on earth. Christ is making intercession for us (Rom. 8:34), and the Holy Spirit is also making intercession for us (Rom. 8:26-27). We are part of a fantastic “heavenly party line”: God the Son prays for us in heaven, and God the Spirit prays for us in our hearts. We have fellowship with the Father through the Son, and the Father has fellowship with us through the Spirit.

Christ lives out His life through us by the power of the Spirit, who lives within our bodies. It is not by means of imitation that we abide in Christ and walk as He walked. No, it is through incarnation: through His Spirit, “Christ liveth in me.” To walk in the light is to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (cf. Gal. 5:16).

God has made provisions for us in these ways to conquer sin. We can never lose or change the sin nature that we were born with (1 John 1:8), but we need not obey its desires. As we walk in the light and see sin as it actually is, we will hate it and turn from it. And if we sin, we immediately confess it to God and claim His cleansing. By depending on the power of the indwelling Spirit, we abide in Christ and “walk as He walked.”

But all this begins with openness and honesty before God and men. The minute we start to act a part, to pretend, to impress others, we step out of the light and into shadows. Sir Walter Scott puts it this way:

Oh, what a tangled web we weave When first we practice to deceive!

The life that is real cannot be built on things that are deceptive. Before we can walk in the light, we must know ourselves, accept ourselves, and yield ourselves to God. It is foolish to try to deceive others because God already knows what we really are!

All this helps to explain why walking in the light makes life so much easier and happier. When you walk in the light, you live to please only one Person—God. This really simplifies things! Jesus said, “I do always those things that please Him” (John 8:29, italics added). We “ought to walk and to please God” (1 Thes. 4:1). If we live to please ourselves and God, we are trying to serve two masters, and this never works. If we live to please men, we will always be in trouble because no two men will agree and we will find ourselves caught in the middle. Walking in the light—living to please God—simplifies our goals, unifies our lives, and gives us a sense of peace and poise.

John makes it clear that the life that is real has no love for sin. Instead of trying to cover sin, a true believer confesses sin and tries to conquer it by walking in the light of God’s Word. He is not content simply to know he is going to heaven. He wants to enjoy that heavenly life right here and now. “As He is, so are we in this world.” He is careful to match his walk and his talk. He does not try to impress himself, God, or other Christians with a lot of “pious talk.”

A congregation was singing, as a closing hymn, the familiar song, “For You I Am Praying.” The speaker turned to a man on the platform and asked quietly, “For whom are you praying?”

The man was stunned. “Why, I guess I’m not praying for anybody. Why do you ask?” “Well, I just heard you say, ‘For you I am praying,’ and I thought you meant it,” the preacher replied. “Oh, no,” said the man. “I’m just singing.”

Pious talk! A religion of words! To paraphrase James 1:22, “We should be doers of the Word as well as talkers of the Word.” We must walk what we talk. It is not enough to know the language; we must also live the life. “If we say—” then we ought also to do!

It will take us some considerable time to deal with these two verses for there are hardly any other two in the New Testament which so succinctly set out the work of Christ.

Let us first set out the problem. It is clear that Christianity is an ethical religion; that is what John is concerned to stress. But it is also clear that man is so often an ethical failure. Confronted with the demands of God, he admits them and accepts them-and then fails to keep them. Here, then, there is a barrier erected between man and God. How can man, the sinner, ever enter into the presence of God, the all-holy? That problem is solved in Jesus Christ. And in this passage John uses two great words about Jesus Christ which we must study, not simply to acquire intellectual knowledge but to understand and so to enter into the benefits of Christ.

He calls Jesus Christ our Advocate with the Father. The word is parakletos which in the Fourth Gospel the Authorized Version translates Comforter. It is so great a word and has behind it so great a thought that we must examine it in detail. Parakletos comes from the verb parakalein. There are occasions when parakalein means to comfort. It is, for instance, used with that meaning in Genesis 37:35, where it is said that all Jacob's sons and daughters rose up to comfort him at the loss of Joseph; in Isaiah 61:2, where it is said that the function of the prophet is to comfort all that mourn; and in Matthew 5:4, where it is said that those who mourn will be comforted.

But that is neither the commonest nor the most literal sense of parakalein; its commonest sense is to call someone to one's side in order to use him in some way as a helper and a counsellor. In ordinary Greek that is a very common usage. Xenophon (Anabasis 1.6.5) tells how Cyrus summoned (parakalein) Clearchos into his tent to be his counsellor, for Clearchos was a man held in the highest honour by Cyrus and by the Greeks. Aeschines, the Greek orator, protests against his opponents calling in Demosthenes, his great rival, and says: "Why need you call Demosthenes to your support? To do so is to call in a rascally rhetorician to cheat the ears of the jury" (Against Ctesiphon 200).

Parakletos itself is a word which is passive in form and literally means someone who is called to one's side; but since it is always the reason for the calling in that is uppermost in the mind, the word, although passive in form, has an active sense, and comes to mean a helper, a supporter and, above all, a witness in someone's favour, an advocate in someone's defence. It too is a common word in ordinary secular Greek. Demosthenes (De Fals. Leg. 1) speaks of the importunities and the party spirit of advocates (parakletoi) serving the ends of private ambition instead of public good. Diogenes Laertius (4:50) tells of a caustic saying of the philosopher Bion.

A very talkative person sought his help in some matter. Bion said, "I will do what you want, if you will only send someone to me to plead your case (i.e., send a parakletos), and stay away yourself." When Philo is telling the story of Joseph and his brethren, he says that, when Joseph forgave them for the wrong that they had done him, he said, "I offer you an amnesty for all that you did to me; you need no other parakletos" (Life of Joseph 40). Philo tells how the Jews of Alexandria were being oppressed by a certain governor and determined to take their case to the emperor. "We must find," they said, "a more powerful parakletos by whom the Emperor Gaius will be brought to a favourable disposition towards us" (Leg. in Flacc. 968 B).

So common was this word that it came into other languages just as it stood. In the New Testament itself the Syriac, Egyptian, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions all keep the word parakletos just as it stands. The Jews especially adopted the word and used it in this sense of advocate, someone to plead one's cause. They used it as the opposite of the word accuser and the Rabbis had this saying about what would happen in the day of God's judgment. "The man who keeps one commandment of the Law has gotten to himself one parakletos; the man who breaks one commandment of the Law has gotten to himself one accuser."

They said, "If a man is summoned to court on a capital charge, he needs powerful parakletoi (the plural of the word) to save him; repentance and good works are his parakletoi in the judgment of God." "All the righteousness and mercy which an Israelite does in this world are great peace and great parakletoi between him and his father in heaven." They said that the sin-offering is a man's parakletos before God.

So the word came into the Christian vocabulary. In the days of the persecutions and the martyrs, a Christian pleader called Vettius Epagathos ably pled the case of those who were accused of being Christians. "He was an advocate (parakletos) for the Christians, for he had the Advocate within himself, even the Spirit" (Eusebius: The Ecclesiastical History 5:1). The Letter of Barnabas (20) speaks of evil men who are the advocates of the wealthy and the unjust judges of the poor. The writer of Second Clement asks: "Who shall be your parakletos if it be not clear that your works are righteous and holy?" (2 Clement 6:9).

A parakletos has been defined as "one who lends his presence to his friends." More than once in the New Testament there is this great conception of Jesus as the friend and the defender of man. In a military court-martial the officer who defends the soldier under accusation is called the prisoner's friend. Jesus is our friend. Paul writes of that Christ who is at the right hand of God and "who intercedes for us" (Romans 8:34). The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews speaks of Jesus Christ as the one who "ever lives to make intercession" for men (Hebrews 7:25); and he also speaks of him as "appearing in the presence of God for us" (Hebrews 9:24).

The tremendous thing about Jesus is that he has never lost his interest in, or his love for, men. We are not to think of him as having gone through his life upon the earth and his death upon the Cross, and then being finished with men. He still bears his concern for us upon his heart; he still pleads for us; Jesus Christ is the prisoner's friend for all.

JESUS CHRIST THE PROPITIATION

John goes on to say that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. The word is hilasmos. This is a more difficult picture for us fully to grasp. The picture of the advocate is universal for all men have experience of a friend coming to their aid; but the picture in propitiation is from sacrifice and is more natural to the Jewish mind than to ours. To understand it we must get at the basic ideas behind it.

The great aim of all religion is fellowship with God, to know him as friend and to enter with joy, and not fear, into his presence. It therefore follows that the supreme problem of religion is sin, for it is sin that interrupts fellowship with God. It is to meet that problem that all sacrifice arises. By sacrifice fellowship with God is restored. So the Jews offered, night and morning, the sin-offering in the Temple. That was the offering, not for any particular sin but for man as a sinner; and so long as the Temple lasted it was made to God in the morning and in the evening. The Jews also offered their trespass-offerings to God; these were the offerings for particular sins. The Jews had their Day of Atonement, whose ritual was designed to atone for all sins, known and unknown. It is with that background that we must come at this picture of propitiation.

As we have said, the Greek word for propitiation is hilasmos, and the corresponding verb is hilaskesthai. This verb has three meanings. (i) When it is used with a man as the subject, it means to placate or to pacify someone who has been injured or offended, and especially to placate a god. It is to bring a sacrifice or to perform a ritual whereby a god, offended by sin, is placated. (ii) If the subject is God, the verb means to forgive, for then the meaning is that God himself provides the means whereby the lost relationship between him and men is restored. (iii) The third meaning is allied with the first. The verb often means to perform some deed, by which the taint of guilt is removed. A man sins; at once he acquires the taint of sin; he needs something, which, to use C. H. Dodd's metaphor, will disinfect him from that taint and enable him once again to enter into the presence of God. In that sense hilaskesthai means, not to propitiate but to expiate, not so much to pacify God as to disinfect man from the taint of sin and thereby fit him again to enter into fellowship with God.

When John says that Jesus is the hilasmos for our sins, he is, we think, bringing all these different senses into one. Jesus is the person through whom guilt for past sin and defilement from present sin are removed. The great basic truth behind this word is that it is through Jesus Christ that man's fellowship with God is first restored and then maintained.

We note one other thing. As John sees it, this work of Jesus was carried out not only for us but for the whole world. There is in the New Testament a strong line of thought in which the universality of the salvation of God is stressed. God so loved the world that he sent his son (John 3:16). Jesus is confident that, if he is lifted up, he will draw all men to him (John 12:32). God will have all men to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). He would be a bold man who would set limits to the grace and love of God or to the effectiveness of the work and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Truly the love of God is broader than the measures of man's mind; and in the New Testament itself there are hints of a salvation whose arms are as wide as the world.

My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin, but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the expiation for our sins, {1 Jn 2:1-2a RSV}

What does this mean? Well, there is never any need to sin, but, if we find ourselves doing so, we have a perfect defense available to us; a defense which the Father will gladly receive, one that he already assures us will be welcomed. We have an Advocate with the Father who will rush to our defense immediately, but his defense is of no avail to us because we are still defending ourselves. There cannot be two advocates in this case. You either rely on his defense of you -- the manifestation of his work on your behalf which has wiped away every stain, every sin which you ever will commit or ever have committed -- or you must rely on your own defense. Here you are, standing before God, defiantly telling him that you are not to blame, that you have a defense. You are not guilty. You can explain all this by the pressure of circumstances, or it is really not what he says it is, it is something else, entirely.

Now, you see, as long as you remain defiant or evasive, you are still justifying and excusing yourself, and therefore the Judge can only condemn you, and permit the inevitable, built-in judgment that follows to upset you, overthrow you, harass you, baffle you, and leave you in weakness and folly. But if you will stop justifying yourself, he will justify you. The blood of Jesus Christ cannot cleanse excuses. It only cleanses sins. If you will say, "Yes, it wasn't the pressure, it wasn't the circumstances, it wasn't that these things are not as bad as you call them, it's that I chose to be impatient, I chose to be resentful. I decided to be worried and to let anxiety grip me." If we come to that place, then we discover that there is One who stands before the Father and reveals to him the righteousness of his life, and God sees us in him, and we are cleansed and accepted. Strength again flows into the inner man, peace comes back to our hearts, we are cleansed of our sin, washed and restored to the grace of God. Then we can go back into the very same circumstance, under the very same pressure, in the very same disagreeable relationship, and find our heart kept by the grace and strength of God.

Paul puts it so beautifully, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God that passes all understanding [You cannot explain it. Someone says to you, "How can you be so calm in the midst of these circumstances?" And you say, "I don't know, but it must be because I'm trusting Christ, resting on him."], the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus," {cf, Phil 4:6-7 KJV}.

Now is that not practical? That is not designed for church, that is designed for life, for home, for work, for your relationship with your neighbors, and your boss, and your mother-in-law, your children, everyone.

Now, why does John say, "he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world?" Why does he put that in? Obviously he is drawing a contrast between Christians and non-Christians. He is reminding us that when the Lord Jesus died upon the cross 1900 years ago, he not only paid the debt of our sins, he not only took our guilt, as Christians, but he took the guilt of the whole world. He paid the price for every man. There is no man who will be kept away from God because of his sins, if he accepts the work of Christ on his behalf. Sin can never separate an individual from God, because of the cross of Christ. No matter how bad the sins, no matter how extreme it may be, or how long continued, sin can never separate anybody, anywhere, in any time, or any age, from the heart of God, if the work of the cross be received. That is the extent of the expiation mentioned here. But why does he remind us of that in this context? The answer is: It is to help us see ourselves.

Why is it that all the world is not reconciled to God? Why is it that these others, whose sins have been already settled for on the cross, are living in estrangement and hostility to the God who loves them and who seeks after them? Why is it that men are still defying God, and blaspheming God, and turning and running from him, and experiencing the death, darkness, and degradation that comes from not knowing? You know the answer: Because they will not believe him. They will not accept his forgiveness. He has forgiven them, but they have never forgiven him. As Paul puts it in Second Corinthians 5, "We are ambassadors for Christ, for God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Therefore, we beseech men, be ye reconciled to God," {cf, 2 Cor 5:20}. We do not have to say to God, "be reconciled to men"; we are saying to men, "be ye reconciled to God," {2 Cor 5:20b KJV}.

Now, that is the very same reason why we Christians are not enjoying the full flow of the Spirit of power, life, love, and wisdom, in our experience. It is all available to us, but we will not receive it. That is what John means. Like the world, we are turning our back on it. We are saying to God, "I'm not interested in cleansing because, you see, I really don't need it. After all, this is not a sin, it's simply a weakness, just an inherited tendency, something I got from my family. I can't help it." That kind of thing is cutting the ground out from under the whole redemptive work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Though his power is all-available, it is not experienced because of that.

Now let us bow before him. In a moment of quietness before God, let us confess this terrible tendency that each of us has unquestionably experienced, to rationalize sin, to excuse it, justify it, call it something else, doll it up, sprinkle perfume on it and make it look better, instead of calling it exactly what it is. Christ has found a way below, around, and above our circumstances. He can reach us despite the pressures; it is just that we do not want it.

(1:10) Sin—Self-righteousness—Self-Sufficient: the misconception is forcefully stated—"we have not sinned." How could any person conceivably claim this? Who would claim such a thing in light of all the sin that swirls and engulfs man and society? Many people! There are many people who object to being called sinners, and they are insistent in their objection. They believe they are righteous and sinless enough that God would never reject them. They believe they can become good enough and sinless and righteous enough for God to accept them. They accept Jesus Christ as a great moral teacher and as the founder of Christianity, one of the great religions of the world. And they claim to be Christians; they follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. But they reject His deity, the fact that He is the Son of God who had to die for the sins of the world. They look upon the death of Jesus Christ as the death of a martyr, as a great man who was showing us how we should be willing to pay any price for what we believe—even death.

Who would make such a claim? Who would say "we have not sinned"? Who is it that objects to being called a sinner?

· There is the religious perfectionist. This is a person who actually believes that he can achieve a state of sinlessness. Often he believes in Christ, but he believes that once he is saved, he can live so righteous and so pure a life that he can achieve a state of sinlessness and righteousness before God. He believes that the Holy Spirit will help him to walk perfectly before God.

· There is the social perfectionist. This is a person who is a social Christian, who accepts Jesus Christ as a great teacher but rejects Him as the Savior from sin. He objects to being called a sinner; he objects to the fact that he is sinful enough that he can be termed a sinner. He believes that he is righteous and sinless enough for God to accept, that God would never reject them. He believes he is too good for God to reject. He cannot accept the fact that he is bad enough and sinful enough for God to condemn him.

Note what the problem is with these two objectors. They just do not have a clear view of what sin is. To them sin is the gross violation of law and morality, the thing that society looks upon as gross sins: murder, fraud, and abuse—the kinds of things that would grab a neighbor’s attention and cause talk. They fail to see what sin is to God. God is perfect; therefore, to God:

· Sin is any imperfection.

· Sin is coming short of God’s glory.

· Sin is missing the mark of God’s perfection.

This is the reason no person can ever live with God. God is perfect; therefore, only perfection can live in His presence. Man is imperfect and short of God’s glory; he is sinful. Therefore, man can never live in God’s presence. This is what the objector needs to see. To God man is a sinner, a person who is ever so short of God’s glory, a person...

· who fails to use his mind to the fullest degree and who focuses it upon evil.

· who sometimes thinks impure and wrong thoughts and who commits impurity.

· who sometimes acts unlovely and mean to people.

· who sometimes acts impatiently and abuses others.

· who sometimes acts selfishly and steals.

· who sometimes owns too much and banks and hoards instead of living sacrificially to meet the desperate needs of the world.

All men are short in so much—short in worshipping God like they should, short in praying and fellowshipping and communing with God. No person obeys God perfectly all the time. All men come short of loving others like they should, short in witnessing and sharing Christ and in sacrificing and reaching out to help everywhere they should. No person is perfect; all are ever so short and sinful, so sinful that to God we are all sinners. We are sinners who need a Savior, the very Son of God Himself, to save us from our sins. Now, note what the verse says:

"If we say that we have no sin, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us" (1 John 1:10).

God’s Word plainly tells us that we are sinners, and it tells us often. If we, therefore, deny sin, we make God out to be a liar. In addition, we show that God’s Word is not in us; that is, we are not acceptable to God. No matter what we may claim, we are not acceptable to God...

· if God’s Word is not in us.

· if we call God a liar.

· if we say we do not need God’s Son to save us from our sin.

· if we say we can become good enough and righteous enough and sinless enough to be acceptable to God.

(2:1) Sin—Spiritual Struggle: the truth is that we are sinful, but we should not sin. This is a tender exhortation: John addresses the believers "my little children." They are very, very dear to him. He was their minister, their spiritual father; and they were his spiritual children, the ones under his care. He loved them with the love of a strong and caring father. Therefore, he must exhort them. He must exhort them in the areas where they needed strength. Where was that? In sinning. Note exactly what John says:

"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not" (1 John 1:1).

Both in Latin and in Greek diminutives carry a special affection. They are words which are used, as it were, with a caress. John is a very old man; he must be, in fact, the last survivor of his generation, maybe the last man alive who had walked and talked with Jesus in the days of his flesh. So often age gets out of sympathy with youth and acquires even an impatient irritableness with the new and laxer ways of the younger generation. But not John; in his old age he has nothing but tenderness for those who are his little children in the faith. He is writing to tell them that they must not sin but he does not scold. There is no cutting edge in his voice; he seeks to love them into goodness. In this opening address there is the yearning, affectionate tenderness of a minister for people whom he has known for long in all their wayward foolishness and still loves.

In face of that, John, as Westcott points out, has two things to say.

These things refer to the things John has just said, to the fact that all have sinned and all do sin. Because of man’s nature, the very fact that he lives within a corruptible world, he cannot keep from sinning. But note the strong exhortation: "Sin not! I am writing these things to you, that you sin not." The believer lives in a corruptible world, and he is housed in a body of flesh that is so easily aroused and attracted to eat more, take more, have more, be more, and receive more. But the believer is to struggle and fight against sin. He is not to give in to sin. He is to cast down imaginations and struggle to captivate every thought for Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). He is to do all he can to become more and more like Christ and to be a stronger and stronger witness for righteousness in the world. He will never achieve perfection; he will never be sinless so long as he is in the flesh and in this corruptible world. But he is to struggle to be as good as he can. He is to be as righteous as possible and he is to gain ground; he is to grow in righteousness. The believer is to become more and more like Christ as long as he is on earth.

Believers must prove they are sincere when they come to Christ for forgiveness of sins. Christ has no patience with hypocrisy and no place for half-hearted commitment. He can look at our lives and tell whether we love Him or not, whether we are sincere or not. He can watch our struggle against sin and tell if we really want to follow Him or not. The genuine believer struggles against sin; he fights, wrestles, and wars against sin with every ounce of energy he has. He does all he can to please God and to receive God’s approval.

(2:1-2) Jesus Christ, Death: there is the great provision. The believer is not to sin, but if he sins he has the most wonderful provision—that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God Himself.

John makes it clear that Christians do not have to sin. "I am writing these things unto you that you may not sin" (1 John 2:1, nasb).

The secret of victory over sin is found in the phrase "walk in the light" (1 John 1:7).

To walk in the light means to be open and honest, to be sincere. Paul prayed that his friends might "be sincere and without offense" (Phil. 1:10). The word sincere comes from two Latin words, sine and cera, which mean "without wax." It seems that in Roman days, some sculptors covered up their mistakes by filling the defects in their marble statues with wax, which was not readily visible—until the statue had been exposed to the hot sun awhile. But more dependable sculptors made certain that their customers knew that the statues they sold were sine cera—without wax.

It is unfortunate that churches and Bible classes have been invaded by insincere people, people whose lives cannot stand to be tested by God’s light. "God is light," and when we walk in the light, there is nothing we can hide. It is refreshing to meet a Christian who is open and sincere and is not trying to masquerade!

But walking in the light means something else: it means obeying God’s Word (1 John 2:3-4). "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path" (Ps. 119:105). To walk in the light means to spend time daily in God’s Word, discovering His will; and then obeying what He has told us.

Obedience to God’s Word is proof of our love for Him. There are three motives for obedience. We can obey because we have to, because we need to, or because we want to.

A slave obeys because he has to. If he doesn’t obey he will be punished. An employee obeys because he needs to. He may not enjoy his work, but he does enjoy getting his paycheck! He needs to obey because he has a family to feed and clothe. But a Christian is to obey his Heavenly Father because he wants to—for the relationship between him and God is one of love. "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15).

"Baby Christians" must constantly be warned or rewarded. Mature Christians listen to God’s Word and obey it simply because they love Him.

This means "abiding in Christ." Christ is not only the Propitiation (or sacrifice) for our sins (1 John 2:2) and the Advocate who represents us before God (1 John 2:1), but He is also the perfect Pattern (He is "Jesus Christ the righteous") for our daily life.

The key statement here is "as He is" (1 John 2:6). "Because as He is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17). We are to walk in the light "as He is in the light" (1 John 1:7). We are to purify ourselves "even as He is pure" (1 John 3:3). "He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous" (1 John 3:7). Walking in the light means living here on earth the way Jesus lived when He was here, and the way He is right now in heaven.

This has extremely practical applications in our daily lives. For example, what should a believer do when another believer sins against him? The answer is that believers should forgive one another "even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you" (Eph. 4:32; cf. Col. 3:13).

Walking in the light—following the example of Christ—will affect a home. Husbands are supposed to love their wives "even as Christ also loved the church" (Eph. 5:25). Husbands are supposed to care for their wives "even as the Lord" cares for the church (Eph. 5:29). And wives are to honor and obey their husbands (Eph. 5:22-24).

No matter what area of life it may be, our responsibility is to do what Jesus would do. "As He is, so are we in this world." We should "walk [live] even as He walked [lived]."

This is a reference to the work of the Holy Spirit. Christ is our Advocate in heaven (1 John 2:1), to represent us before God when we sin. The Holy Spirit is God’s Advocate for us here on earth. Christ is making intercession for us (Rom. 8:34), and the Holy Spirit is also making intercession for us (Rom. 8:26-27). We are part of a fantastic "heavenly party line": God the Son prays for us in heaven, and God the Spirit prays for us in our hearts. We have fellowship with the Father through the Son, and the Father has fellowship with us through the Spirit.

Christ lives out His life through us by the power of the Spirit, who lives within our bodies. It is not by means of imitation that we abide in Christ and walk as He walked. No, it is through incarnation: through His Spirit, "Christ liveth in me." To walk in the light is to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (cf. Gal. 5:16).

All this helps to explain why walking in the light makes life so much easier and happier. When you walk in the light, you live to please only one Person—God. This really simplifies things! Jesus said, "I do always those things that please Him" (John 8:29, italics added). We "ought to walk and to please God" (1 Thes. 4:1). If we live to please ourselves and God, we are trying to serve two masters, and this never works. If we live to please men, we will always be in trouble because no two men will agree and we will find ourselves caught in the middle. Walking in the light—living to please God—simplifies our goals, unifies our lives, and gives us a sense of peace and poise.

John makes it clear that the life that is real has no love for sin. Instead of trying to cover sin, a true believer confesses sin and tries to conquer it by walking in the light of God’s Word. He is not content simply to know he is going to heaven. He wants to enjoy that heavenly life right here and now. "As He is, so are we in this world." He is careful to match his walk and his talk. He does not try to impress himself, God, or other Christians with a lot of "pious talk."

John gives two interesting titles to Jesus Christ: Advocate and Propitiation (1 John 2:1-2). It’s important that we understand these two titles because they stand for two ministries that only the Lord Himself performs.

Let’s begin with Propitiation. If you look this word up in the dictionary, you may get the wrong idea of its meaning. The dictionary tells us that "to propitiate" means "to appease someone who is angry." If you apply this to Christ, you get the horrible picture of an angry God, about to destroy the world, and a loving Saviour giving Himself to appease the irate God—and this is not the Bible picture of salvation! Certainly God is angry at sin; after all, He is infinitely holy. But the Bible reassures us that "God so loved [not hated] the world" (John 3:16, italics added).

No, the word "propitiation" does not mean the appeasing of an angry God. Rather, it means the satisfying of God’s holy law. "God is light" (1 John 1:5) and, therefore, He cannot close His eyes to sin. But "God is love" (1 John 4:8) too and wants to save sinners.

How, then, can a holy God uphold His own justice and still forgive sinners? The answer is in the sacrifice of Christ. At the cross, God in His holiness judged sin. God in His love offers Jesus Christ to the world as Saviour. God was just in that He punished sin, but He is also loving in that He offers free forgiveness through what Jesus did at Calvary. (Read 1 John 4:10, and also give some thought to Rom. 3:23-26.)

Christ is the Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, but He is Advocate only for believers. "We [Christians] have an Advocate with the Father." The word "advocate" used to be applied to lawyers. The word John uses is the very same word Jesus used when He was talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16, 26; 15:26). It means, literally, "one called alongside." When a man was summoned to court, he took an advocate (lawyer) with him to stand at his side and plead his case.

Jesus finished His work on earth (John 17:4)—the work of giving His life as a sacrifice for sin. Today He has an "unfinished work" in heaven. He represents us before God’s throne. As our High Priest, He sympathizes with our weaknesses and temptations and gives us grace (Heb. 4:15-16; 7:23-28). As our Advocate, He helps us when we sin. When we confess our sins to God, because of Christ’s advocacy God forgives us.

The Old Testament contains a beautiful picture of this. Joshua (Zech. 3:1-7) was the Jewish high priest after the Jews returned to their land following their Captivity in Babylon. (Don’t confuse this Joshua with the Joshua who conquered the Promised Land.) The nation had sinned; to symbolize this, Joshua stood before God in filthy garments and Satan stood at Joshua’s right hand to accuse him (cf. Rev. 12:10). God the Father was the Judge; Joshua, representing the people, was the accused; Satan was the prosecuting attorney. (The Bible calls him the accuser of the brethren.) It looked as if Satan had an open-and-shut case. But Joshua had an Advocate who stood at God’s right hand, and this changed the situation. Christ gave Joshua a change of garments and silenced the accusations of Satan.

This is what is in view when Jesus Christ is called our "Advocate." He represents believers before God’s throne, and the merits of His sacrifice make possible the forgiveness of the believer’s sin. Because Christ died for His people, He satisfied the justice of God. ("The wages of sin is death.") Because He lives for us at God’s right hand, He can apply His sacrifice to our needs day by day.

All He asks is that when we have failed we confess our sins.

What does it mean to "confess"? Well, to confess sins means much more than simply to "admit" them. The word confess actually means "to say the same thing [about]." To confess sin, then, means to say the same thing about it that God says about it.

A counselor was trying to help a man who had come forward during an evangelistic meeting. "I’m a Christian," the man said, "but there’s sin in my life, and I need help." The counselor showed him 1 John 1:9 and suggested that the man confess his sins to God.

"O Father," the man began, "if we have done anything wrong—"

"Just a minute!" the counselor interrupted. "Don’t drag me into your sin! My brother, it’s not ‘if’ or ‘we’—you’d better get down to business with God!"

The counselor was right.

Confession is not praying a lovely prayer, or making pious excuses, or trying to impress God and other Christians. True confession is naming sin—calling it by name what God calls it: envy, hatred, lust, deceit, or whatever it may be. Confession simply means being honest with ourselves and with God, and if others are involved, being honest with them too. It is more than admitting sin. It means judging sin and facing it squarely.

When we confess our sins, God promises to forgive us (1 John 1:9). But this promise is not a "magic rabbit’s foot" that makes it easy for us to disobey God!

"I went out and sinned," a student told his campus chaplain, "because I knew I could come back and ask God to forgive me."

"On what basis can God forgive you?" the chaplain asked, pointing to 1 John 1:9.

"God is faithful and just," the boy replied.

"Those two words should have kept you out of sin," the chaplain said. "Do you know what it cost God to forgive your sins?"

The boy hung his head. "Jesus had to die for me."

Then the chaplain zeroed in. "That’s right—forgiveness isn’t some cheap sideshow trick God performs. God is faithful to His promise, and God is just, because Christ died for your sins and paid the penalty for you. Now, the next time you plan to sin, remember that you are going to sin against a faithful loving God!"

Of course, cleansing has two sides to it: the judicial and the personal. The blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross, delivers us from the guilt of sin and gives us right standing ("justification") before God. God is able to forgive because Jesus’ death has satisfied His holy Law.

But God is also interested in cleansing a sinner inwardly. David prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God" (Ps. 51:10). When our confession is sincere, God does a cleansing work (1 John 1:9) in our hearts by His Spirit and through His Word (John 15:3).

The great mistake King David made was in trying to cover his sins instead of confessing them. For perhaps a whole year he lived in deceit and defeat. No wonder he wrote (Ps. 32:6) that a man should pray "in a time of finding out" (lit.).

When should we confess our sin? Immediately when we discover it! "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy" (Prov. 28:13). By walking in the light, we are able to see the "dirt" in our lives and deal with it immediately.

Two things are said about Jesus Christ that show the wonderful provision God has made for us.

1. Jesus Christ is our "Advocate" (parakleton). The word "advocate" means someone who is called in to stand by the side of another. The purpose is to help in any way possible. (This is the word [parakletos] used of the Holy Spirit).

· There is the picture of a friend called in to help a person who is troubled or distressed or confused.

· There is the picture of a commander called in to help a discouraged and dispirited army.

· There is the picture of a lawyer, an advocate called in to help a defendant who needs his case pleaded.

There is no one word that can adequately translate paracletos. The word that probably comes closest is simply helper. Sin causes the believer to be distressed and confused, discouraged and dispirited. Sin separates the believer from God and makes him guilty of transgression and worthy of condemnation and punishment. But Jesus Christ is the believer’s Advocate. Jesus Christ stands before God and pleads the case of the believer.

Note two significant points.

a. What is it that gives Jesus Christ the right to plead the case of the believer? Note exactly what the verse says: Jesus Christ is the righteous One. He is the Son of God who came to earth and lived a sinless life as man. He is the One who secured the