Lent 24 post 21

 1 John 1.5-2.2

‘So that we might die to sins'

Remember this from yesterday (1 Peter 2.24)? But do we? Can we?

It is wonderful to know that when I come to the cross as a repentant sinner, I receive God’s gifts of forgiveness, justification, new birth and eternal life. But what about the rest of my life as a Christian? On the one hand, I am told that I should ‘die to sin' and ‘go and sin no more'. On the other hand, I slip and fall into sin all too easily. Isn’t that your experience too? How are we to cope with this tension? John exposes two opposite dangers, and insists that the atoning death of Christ provides the ongoing answer to both.

Two opposite dangers

1, The danger of trivialising sin. In the community John was writing to, some were making boastful claims. They claimed to be in fellowship with God who is light, yet their actual behaviour (‘walking in darkness') belied that claim (.6). Worse, they claimed to ‘be without sin' (verses 8, 10). This probably does not mean they claimed to have reached a state of sinless perfection. Rather, either they were saying that any sins they might commit after becoming Christian ‘didn’t count', they incurred no further guilt or condemnation (possibly using a text like Romans 8.1). So they felt they could now sin with happy abandon (in spite of Paul’s strong rejection of that implication in Romans 6). Or they were simply denying that some dubious behaviour was actually ‘sin’, they found ways to excuse or redefine it with other harmless words. Whenever we trifle with sin in such ways (and there are plenty more, we know), we deceive ourselves, make God a liar and reject the empathic teaching of his Word. Don’t do it!

John gives us the right response with two ‘ifs’ and two almost identical promises. ‘If we walk in the light' (.7, which is to live with transparent honesty in the light of God’s presence), and ‘if we confess our sins' (.9, as a reality, not a triviality), then not only do we remain within the true fellowship of believers, but we experience the continuing power of the cross. ‘The blood of Jesus', as I’m sure you know, means the sacrificial death of Christ, as it does throughout the New Testament (e.g. Acts 20.28, Colossians 1.20, 1 Peter 1.18-19, Revelation 5.9). So John means that all of our sins, including those committed after conversion, are ‘covered’ by the atonement of the cross.

And here’s another thing. Confession leads to cleansing. It is wonderful that God, in his covenant faithfulness and justice (.9, Deuteronomy 32.4), forgives our sin. But sin defines and virtues us like sticky, clinging filth. Proverbs' question, ‘Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure, I am clean and without sin'?’ (Proverbs 20.9) generates the psalmist’s prayer (Psalm 51.7), and receives God's promise (Jeremiah 33.8, Ezekiel 36.25). Have a glance at those texts, and then see how John turns that promise into an ongoing present experience, ‘The blood of Jesus goes on cleansing us from all sin.’ I have soaked in the warm soapy bath of that verse many, many times. Isn’t it delicious to be clean again?

2, The danger of being terrified by sin. Does John fear that the wonderful truth of verse 9 might lead his readers to feel just a little too casual about sin? (‘Well, I can always confess it and get forgiven again.’) If so, he correct such an inference immediately in 2.1. His whole purpose in writing is to strengthen them in resisting sin altogether, ‘so that you will not sin'! Isn’t that your longing, like every believer, going back to Psalm 119.9-11? ‘But if anybody does sin. . .’, that is the reality for every believer too. What then? Do I stand condemned before God, tormented by Satan the accuser? No! says John. I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus my Advocate and Defender. His righteousness and atoning sacrifice (2.2) drive out the accuser, and will eternally destroy his works (1 John 3.8).