And, here we are. It's time to examine 1 John 1:5-10. This post is going to be a little bit longer. I need to give some context. If you've never studied John's writing, or if you've just heard general statements regarding John in church, it's important to understand a few basics about him. John is often spoken of as some soft, almost effeminate, doe-eyed, man, who just leans upon Jesus and soaks up every word. Well, John was definitely a man gripped by a belief in and love for, Christ. But he was by no means some soft-spoken, non-judgmental type. He was actually a very intense personality. In the Gospels, we see John as one of the Sons of Thunder (James and John being brothers). They were impulsive, loud, somewhat brash, and not exactly inclined to be gracious. We see them being impetuous enough to ask their mother to request of Jesus that He give them seats of honor in His kingdom, on His right and His left. We also see them telling (not asking) Jesus to give them permission to call down fire from heaven to consume some people who had rejected them. Only Simon Peter trumps John in having "foot in mouth disease".
So, this John, by the time this epistle is written, is the last standing apostle. Every other apostle has been martyred, killed for their faith, and John has been exiled to island of Patmos as a man of about 95 years of age. He is not just sent off to a nice tropical island to live out his days. Patmos is a barren rock, with little in the way of greenery, or shade, or any pleasant environment. Not only that, he would have essentially been part of a 'chain-gang', probably breaking up rocks, and doing difficult work. It is in this place and under these conditions that John receives the "Apocalypse", the vision he recorded that we know as the book of Revelations. After that, John writes to the struggling church at the turn of the century, a church filled with sin and corruption, false teachers and their lies. It was a difficult time to say the least, and John was literally the last man standing, and he was alone. Here is where he is inspired to write three epistles, and then the Gospel of John. If you examine the literary character of his epistles and his gospel, you not only see consistency which proves his authorship; you also see a very authoritative style of teaching and narration. John is going to go out with a bang, not simpering into oblivion in hopelessness and loneliness. He is a child of the living God, and a citizen of heaven and he knows that Jesus promised to build HIS church. John writes in strong, definitive strokes, laying out a clear picture of who God is and who He is not, what a follower of Christ looks like, and what he does not look like. You don't see any gray areas in John's writing. Although it is not as sequential and as easily-outlined point by point as Paul's letters, we can still appreciate and gain deep understanding from the way he makes a point and then circles back to it later, developing it in a deeper way.
Alrighty, I'm getting on a tangent. Oh boy, this could get long. Alright, let's get into the text for a bit.
The purpose for the letter is given in 1:4 "And these things I write, so that our joy may be made complete." By the way, if you haven't read this letter of John and you want to get anything out of this post, go ahead and read it, at least the first two chapters, and then come back. :-)
Ok, so verse 4 gives us John's reason for writing. If you read the letter, you have begun to see that John is drawing a line in the sand, declaring that his readers must be either in Christ, or out of Christ; in the light or in the dark; with Him or against Him. If we understand this to be the tone of the letter, then we can get the motive here. John wants his readers to know that they are Christians, actual followers of Christ. If they read or hear this and are encouraged to find that they have been forgiven, are in Christ, and possess eternal life, than their joy will increase and be made full. If they are convicted that they do not have a correct view of their sin and of Christ and therefore are not in Christ, then they can submit to the Word, repent of their sin, be saved, and find the Source of joy!
And NOW our text!
1 John 1:5-10 "And this is the message we have heard from Him (Christ) and announce to you, that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." The whole subject of the nature of Christ wasn't something John had simply heard about. It was firsthand knowledge for him. He walked, talked, ate, suffered and lived with Christ, and heard His every word and saw His every action. So when he writes on the subject and gives absolute truths inspired by the Holy Spirit, you can count on them being true and essential to your own understanding.
This section is telling us what God is and what He is not, and what believers are and what they are are not. We can just go right through the verses and make a list of these black/white comparisons, these identifications:
1. Verse 6 "If we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." So we can definitely claim the true identity of those who walk in darkness, those who make it their daily practice to do the things which they think are hidden from the eyes of God, things they would rather not be brought to the light: they are LIARS who do not practice the truth. Their claim doesn't match up with their lifestyle.
2. Verse 7 "But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin..." Here is another clear identifying mark. The ones who are cleansed from all sin are 'light-walkers' and 'fellowshippers'. If we are those who have our daily walk out in the open, in the light, in the full view of God and His revealing Word, then we will have real fellowship with our Christian brothers and sisters and we will be cleansed from sin.
3. Verse 8 "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us." This is very clear. The identifier is that of being a non-confessor, one who claims to have no sin. This person is deceived and the truth (Christ) is not in him.
4. Verse 9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The cleansed are confessors. The word confession is 'homologeo' in Koine Greek (homo=same/logeo=to say), so those who have had their sins cleansed say the same thing about their sin that God does. Confession is not the golden ticket to forgiveness. His forgiveness of our sins is not and cannot be conditional upon our confession of those specific sins. If this were the case, then salvation and eternal life would be almost entirely a work of man, which flies in the face of all Scriptural teaching. In effect, our attitude towards sin reveals our true spiritual condition.
Let's move to 1 John 2:1 "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous." AMAZING! The cleansed, redeemed believer is not a sinner by nature, by trade, by practice, anymore! He does combat residual sin in his unredeemed flesh, but the saved one is now by nature a confessor (homologeo), a same-sayer, which is honoring to God. Remember, it's not the confession which brings forgiveness.
Forgiveness is a gift of God and is wrought by the Spirit at conversion. Confession and repentance restore our relationship with the Lord, but since eternal life, implanted through the Spirit is by definition, eternal (unending, planned before the creation and accomplished by Christ and designed to be complete and last forever-Eph. 1:4), and forgiveness of sins is willed by God to make the sinner clean and spotless to present to Himself in glory, then we must conclude that though sin can hinder a genuine believer, it cannot render him/her guilty before God again. If God has removed your guilt then it is gone forever! Forgiveness of sins cannot be withdrawn. Christ died, not to make salvation just available, but for sins, so that those appointed to eternal life would irrevocably be justified legally, God's righteous anger having been satisfied. If all sin was paid for, then none would go to Hell.
But if we do sin, and the 'if' in 2:1 is a class 1 conditional statement, assuming we will. If we sin, and we will, then we have a legal Advocate, who is Jesus Christ the Righteous One. He is not paying for our sins over and over, or struggling desperately to keep us saved. No, we (those of us in Christ) are saved. Our guilt has been atoned for, and Jesus is there before the Father, literally advocating for us. The Enemy comes and accuses, the Lamb of God advocates for us and the Father knows that His Son took our sin upon Him, paying the debt it had incurred, and by that perfect sacrifice, the Father can look upon you and I who are Christians as though we had never sinned!
Ok, we could go down this road forever, literally. But I'm gonna start coming to some conclusions, asking some questions, and making some statements in the next section. I pray this will bring God's Word into sharp and painful focus where it needs to be such. Thanks for reading.
1 John 3:1-3
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