Recall to the Fundamentals
1 John 1:5 – 2:2
The Letters of John . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Max A Forsythe
Introduction: The
ancient Greeks told a story about their favorite hero Hercules. Once upon a
time, Hercules ran into a wrestler by the name of Antaeus. Now Antaeus was a
mighty man and had never lost a wrestling match. The reason for this was as the
story goes; that his father was one of the Greek gods and his mother was of the
earth. This distinguished birth supposedly gave him invincible strength as long
as he kept his feet on the ground. While
Hercules wrestled with Antaeus he noticed how Antaeus gained new strength
whenever he was thrown to the ground. So Hercules lifted Antaeus off the ground
and wrestled with him by holding him high in the air. The longer Antaeus was in
this position the weaker he became. So at long last Hercules was able to
strangle him in mid-air.
May I be so bold as to suggest, that we as
Christians are often a lot like Antaeus. As long as we maintain touch with God
in Christ, then Christ’s own Church is invincible. But, if we become so wrapped
up in our worldly struggles that we forget that we belong to Christ, then are
hanging in thin air waiting for strangulation by an unsympathetic world. We
like the Christians addressed by John may need a recall to the fundamentals
that can strengthen us anew.
Development: In the New English Bible this letter of John’s is subtitled “Recall to Fundamentals". The implication of this
title is that the recipients of John's letter had forgotten the Gospel nature
of their first love in Christ. Therefore, the opening admonition is couched in
no uncertain words. The word translated
as message, means for the most part a promise or the annunciation of the
obvious – that the grace of God has appeared.
"This is the message we have heard from
him and proclaim to you: that God is light; and in him is no darkness at
all." Further, we see in
our opening verse for today the incredible blinding light of the righteousness
of the Lord God Almighty. One essential
lessen, we can take from this is one that I learned when I was two years
old. Dear Mrs Gordon had us take turns
standing on a chair in a dark room. From
that position, we would turn on the light switch once we had recited the memory
verse: “God is light”. One aspect of turning on the light that is
eventually learned is the fact that every time you flip the switch, it is the
light that overwhelms the darkness and the darkness never overwhelms the
light. You never ever turn on the dark;
you always turn on the light. The same
principle is eternal in the spiritual realm as well.
In our text for today, there are three areas where
the essence of the Gospel has been forgotten or not grasped wholly by John’s
audience. These three errors can be fatal in one's relationship to Christ our
Lord, so this is the reason for the urgency for the letter. Commentator Peter
Barnes identifies the essential problem:
“Having written of fellowship and joy in
Christ, John raises three false claims that have been made by the Docetists:
that sin does not matter (1:6);
that it is not a part of our nature
(1:8);
and that it is not a part of our
conduct (
To counter this heresy,
John first established the eternal lightness of God’s person and being. Now, we have to be very careful to state the
full intent of John’s words. And to do
that we must make certain we accept and teach the last phrase in verse five: “and in him is no
darkness at all.” The God of the Bible is absolutely
distinct from the Oriental forces of Yin and Yang, neither is He, as portrayed
in the Hindu concept a force and counter force.
The God of the Bible is absolute in the purity of His eternal righteousness
and holiness. Unlike the ancient pagan deities of Greco-Roman times, God is not
anthropomorphic in His behavior. God is wholly consistent with His righteous
and holy revelation. This being the obvious the case, then John would argue
that those who would be called by His Name ought to be consistent in their
behavior as well.
"If we say we have fellowship with
him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." A few years ago, some students
that I thought highly of, told me they were in trouble with their teacher
because they got caught with some Chippendale cards. I asked them what was so
obscene about Chip and Dale, the Disney chipmunks that their teacher would get upset.
The young ladies blushed and admitted that the characters of their cards were
monks of no sort at all. After I finally
caught on to the exotic nature of their collection, I suggested that like their
vocational teacher I was disappointed in their character! How often may our
Lord be disappointed with us as well? Do
we really realize that sin breaks our fellowship with God? Some of the early Gnostics believed that the
body was a mere envelope covering the human spirit. They maintained that man's
spirit could not be contaminated by the deeds of the body. Like many today they
wanted their free gift of salvation, but also demanded the right to continue
enjoying their favorite sins.
Calvin tells us: “It is, indeed, an argument from what is
inconsistent, when he concludes that they are alienated from God, who walk in
darkness. This doctrine, however, depends
on a higher principle, that God sanctifies all who are his. For it is not a naked precept that he gives,
which requires that our life should be holy; but he rather shews that the grace
of Christ serves for this end to dissipate darkness, and to kindle in us the
light of God; as though he had said, ‘What God communicates to us is not a vain
fiction; for it is necessary that the power and effect of this fellowship
should shine forth in our life; otherwise the possession of the gospel is
fallacious.’”
Unlike the heretics claim, sin does matter and
those who claim the Name of Christ must demonstrate some minimal progress in
sanctification. In the case of Covenant
families, the children – through the habits of sanctification, are kept from
the worst of the worldly sins, while those whom Christ calls into the Church
are empowered to put away those public sins that could and would embarrass the
work and witness of Christ’s Church.
Now, please notice from the general context of the whole New Testament –
that every temptation and accommodation with sin is not put away until we are
glorified in Christ. However, we are
assured that continuation in certain behavior is truly indicative that we have
not a saving relationship with the Lord.
I Corinthians 6: 9-10 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will
not inherit the
Galatians 5: 19-21 “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity,
sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealously, fits of anger,
rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like
these. I warn you as I warned you
before, that those who do such things will not inherit the
If you are habitual in such public wicked behavior,
you may rest assured you have no hope in heaven! However, I am reminded of a man who decades
ago, once told me he loved men better than women. However, he knew that the urge was
unwholesome, unhealthy, unnatural and contrary to the revealed will of God. Therefore he had never acted upon the wicked
impulse of his worldly heart. We all
know in some respect the sinful impulses that spring from our own hearts and
minds, and like Paul and all the rest – we must wrestle with the reality of sin
until the Lord takes us to be with Himself.
Remember, the basic, outward requirements of the
Ten Commandments are attainable even by careful pagans and religionists of many
and varied kinds. However, even as the
Buddhists have learned – the heart and the mind are indeed deceitful and we
all, who claim the Name of Christ, remain in need of our Redeemer and Savior.
John's second observation concerns the most popular
denial of the twentieth century. "If we say we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." The
modern public doctrine denies the reality of sin, and the secular-humanists
hope that by publicly legitimizing every known form of sin, thereby they may irradiate
every form of guilt. No guilt – no sin
and in the accomplishment of that concept the world may be liberated from the
moral limitations of every religion. How
many there are (even within the church) who believe that the Church should put
off the antiquated notion that humans are sinful by nature. We once had some
visitors, who demanded that we stop teaching that man is sinful, if we wanted
them to continue in attendance. They were tired, they said of visiting churches
where they were continually reminded about the archaic notion of Adam's fall
and our necessary need for redemption.
They saw no need for the solution to the fact of sin argued by John in
verse nine. "If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness".
Wherever any church has accommodated its belief to
such worldly nonsense, there you may know that any such institution is no longer
any Church of the living God. Someone
asked me about a congregation that tolerated the majority of the sins
catalogued in our passages above from Paul’s letters to
Certainly once we have accepted the free offer of
Grace given to us in Christ, all of our sins: past, present and future are
covered by the blood of Christ. However,
we must continually remember the cost that our redemption required and if we
are to grow in grace we are to reflect that grace in our worldly and Christian
fellowship. Regularly we must confess our sin and as Calvin suggests we must
also "strive, according to the capacity of human
infirmity, to form [our lives] in obedience to
God." In other words, we must, in humility, admit that it is
impossible to keep from sinning because of our basic human nature, but we
should still try to live better than we are able. And the
John's third observation concerns the denial that
sin shows itself in our conduct. "If we say
that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.” The heretics maintained that their superior
knowledge and enlightenment rendered them incapable of sinning. This superior
attitude is actually the worst of these three denials. By saying that we have not sinned is to
accuse God of being a liar. This is blasphemy, a sin against the Holy Spirit.
This is the ultimate rejection of God the Father. But, we are not to be
numbered among such spiritual degenerates.
Instead, John writes to encourage believers not to sin, but also to
remind us that whenever we sin, there is a way out.
Conclusion: The gospel provision for the sinning Christian is
in Jesus Christ. In Him are three provisions to cover the fact of our sin. These three include His righteous character,
His propitiatory death and His heavenly advocacy. He is in fact in heaven, at
the right hand of the Father speaking on our behalf. His death on the cross was providentially
planned and accomplished to cover over or atone for our sin. And of course, if
He were not God incarnate and totally free from sin, His death would have
accomplished nothing at all. This is the
God of heaven who has so graciously provided for our redemption. This is the message that we have heard from
Him. This is the free offer of the Gospel that would cover our sins if we would
only admit the fact that we have indeed sinned and that only the blood of
Christ atones for our condition.
May we unlike the common pagan crowd accept and
remember the free offer of the Gospel and make Jesus Christ our Lord by humbly
admitting our need for His righteousness to cover over our sin. May we also
regularly confess our sin and thankfully praise the God of heaven for providing
the Lamb of God to be sacrificed for our sake. And lastly may we understand
that our lives should better reflect the presence of God in Christ in all we do
or say. Amen.
Resources Used:
Burnaby,
John. Library of
Christian Classics – Augustine: Later Works.
Barnes,
Peter. Welwyn
Commentary Series: Knowing Where We Stand.
Calvin,
John. The
Comprehensive John Calvin Collection (Ages Software).
Stott,
John. Tyndale
New Testament Commentaries: Epistles of John.
Good
News Publishers. The Holy
Bible: English Standard Version.
Copyright (C) 2002 Christ Covenant REFORMED (Presbyterian
Church in
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