podcast

1, 2 & 3 John Episode 1: Christ Is the Light of God, So Walk in That Light

February 05, 2025

podcast | EP1
1, 2 & 3 John Episode 1: Christ Is the Light of God, So Walk in That Light

John shares his eyewitness testimony of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. He urges Christians to walk in the light as God is in the light and confess sins to Christ.

Wes

Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study Podcast. This is Episode 1 in our 1, 2 & 3 John Bible Study Podcast entitled Christ Is the Light of God, so Walk in That Light, where we’ll discuss 1 John 1:1-10. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis.

Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?

Andy

Well, 1 John, as we said last time, is an epistle of assurance, both dealing with true assurance and false assurance and dealing with those who are genuinely born again, giving them the rock-solid assurance that they are children of God. And so, he’s going to base everything he says on his status as an apostle, an eyewitness of Jesus Christ. The apostles played a unique role and we’re going to talk about that in the first four verses of this chapter, the fact that he was a literal physical eyewitness to Jesus Christ and to the light that’s shown within him, the glory of God in Christ. And so, he has status, he has that role to play as an apostle and therefore can speak to the Christian life.

this metaphor of walking in the light as he is in the light, has to do with a lifestyle of holiness.

And then in the rest of this brief first chapter, 10 verses only, he’s going to talk about walking in the light. And he’s going to say, fundamentally, if you claim to be a Christian and you’re not living a holy life, you’re lying, you’re deceiving yourself. And so, look at how you are living. And so, this metaphor of walking in the light as he is in the light, has to do with a lifestyle of holiness. And he’s going to say later in the epistle, very clearly, in obedience to the commands of God. If you do what he commands, you are pleasing him, you’re walking with him. The question is what’s actually happening?

And so, Paul says in Corinthians that we should test ourselves to see if we’re in the faith. And 1 John is a great test epistle, just look at yourself and ask honestly, how am I living? What is my life all about? So, we’re going to walk through that today.

Wes

Well, let me go ahead and read 1 John 1:1-10 as we begin.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life- the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

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. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he 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 we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Andy, as we begin this letter here in 1 John, right away in verse 1, we’re struck by this word beginning. How do we see John speaking of his role as an eyewitness to Christ’s life in this section? And why does John get so physical here speaking about things he saw with his own eyes and heard with his own ears and touched with his own hands?

Andy

Yeah, this is complicated. We just had an offline discussion on the word beginning and we know that it’s very similar to the way he begins the Gospel of John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And that itself is very similar to the way the whole Bible begins, which is, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). But we’ve also noted that John uses the word beginning differently at different times. We’ll get into all that later.

I believe that the beginning he has in mind here is the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry, and it really zeroes in on his immutable character and his immutable purposes, those things that are who Jesus has always been and his saving purposes in the world, that has never changed. And I think it’s going to be that same theme when he tells them to see to it that what they have heard from the beginning of their Christian life stays with them because that’s not going to change. So that which was from the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry and from his determination to save. Now let me pause and say, don’t think that there was any evolution to that because all of that was worked out before the foundation of the world. It’s not like any new thing, and they’re kind of making it up as they go along.

Really, if anything, John is saying, “Look, this stuff never changes.” That which was from the beginning is the same as it is right now. But he includes himself when he talks about his role as an eyewitness. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes and which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the word of life. Now we’ve got to understand the we, the first person plural there, as differently than most of us Christians read it, okay? Most of the time when you read the word we or us or our, we’re including ourselves as part of the Christian family and we all are part of that. But that’s not the case here.

This is a unique role that John as an apostle played that we don’t play. We are not eyewitnesses of the word as John will claim for himself. He’s saying, “All right, I’m going to…” And he’s not so much pulling rank, but he kind of is. He’s saying, “Look, I am an eyewitness. I’m an apostle. I was chosen. Let me proclaim to you what you need to know concerning Jesus, the word of life.” That’s what he’s talking about. So that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at in our hands, have touched, we have personally interacted with that now.

Now, we believe that this was Jesus’s purpose in calling the 12 apostles after a night of prayer, spent all night up on a mountain praying, came down and called 12 to be with him, to be apostles. And it said part of their job description was to be with him and therefore, to be witnesses to what he did. And so, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, those four accounts of the life of Jesus, come from eyewitness testimony. Not just the apostles, because Mary, for example, is included as Luke, I’m sure, went and got the nativity story that’s so famous in Luke 2 from Mary. But ultimately, the authoritative eyewitnesses of the life, the teachings, the character, the miracles, the death and the resurrection of Jesus, that role was given to the apostles, and John is one of them. He’s one of the apostles.

So that which we have interacted with our actual senses. Now here he’s getting at the physicality. The incarnation is one of the central mysteries. Now he’s going to talk much about the spirit of antichrist. And the spirit of antichrist is to deny that the word became flesh, to deny the incarnation. It is the foundation to the Jews’ rejection of Jesus. They thought he was a blasphemer for claiming to be the Son of God, but we have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God or we’re not Christians. So, the actual evidence of the incarnation, what evidence do we have? We have the eyewitness testimonies. We interacted, we touched, we heard, we saw. Our bodies interacted with the physicality of Jesus. This is what we proclaim concerning Jesus as the word of life.

Wes

It’s striking the significance of actual history to the Christian faith, the reality that there were eyewitnesses. We’ve talked about this before, the significance of Jesus appearing so that there would be those who could testify to the reality that was his life and ministry and resurrection. And what a powerful testimony to the fact that Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Andy

Yeah, absolutely. And I’m going to zero in on what you just said. The eyewitness testimony to the single most significant aspect of Jesus’s life, which is his resurrection. It’s what sets him apart. Now, obviously his virgin conception, virgin birth sets him apart too, but to the outside world, it was a pregnant woman having a baby. But Jesus’ resurrection, now that’s a different matter. There were eyewitnesses who hated Jesus who saw him die, and then after that other witnesses saw him alive. And that’s unique.

And Paul says very, very plainly in 1 Corinthians 15, it’s all about the eyewitnesses. There are 500 of them, and we are eyewitnesses. I’m telling you, Thomas, I don’t think he actually did it, but said, “I’m going to put my finger in the nail marks and my hands in the side or I won’t believe” (John 20:25, paraphrase). Thomas had the right to do that because he was an apostle. So, I think there’s a physicality here, what we have touched, and this brings me to Luke 24, where they thought he was a ghost in his resurrection. And the doubts came in his mind, and he said, “Why do doubts rise in your mind? Touch me and see, a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:38-39, paraphrase). That’s physical, that’s five senses.

John’s saying, “Look, I was there. I’m telling you, he rose from the dead.” So fundamentally, not just he rises from the dead, but he also touched the leper and healed him. I was there when that happened. All of this stuff concerning the word of life, I’m telling you it actually happened. Now Paul makes the point in 1 Corinthians 15, if it didn’t happen, Christianity is dead. So, everything depends on the eyewitnesses, the apostolic testimony.

Now this statement here in 1 John 1:1-4 is very physical and very significant, I think, for all four gospels and therefore for the entire New Testament, the entire Christian religion. Eyewitness testimony, five sense testimony, things we touched, things we interacted with, this is what we proclaim. Everybody else is depending on us for that. We’re like the first link in the chain. Everybody hangs on us. And we do, we all are relying on the eyewitness testimony.

Wes

What’s the eternal life John is proclaiming in verse 2, and how does Jesus’s incarnate life relate to our eternal life?

Andy

Right. So, the fundamental issue of life, and this is one of the very, very first things that John talks about in his gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made.” And then the very significant statement, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:1-3). So, life is extremely difficult to define, but you got all this inanimate stuff. You got these rocks and mountains and rivers and oceans and clouds and all that, but no life. And then he starts creating living creatures. And then he creates the highest form of life, which is human beings. All of that life comes from God and ultimately, human life comes from it.

And so, for us, life was in God first. He thought of it; he is the living God. And then he imparts life to living creatures in an ascending order of complexity. And then at the highest order is the human beings created in his image. And that life fundamentally is like God. We’re created to be like God and in the image of God, but also have a living relationship with God. So, this life is biological, but then it’s also spiritual.

And then you asked about the eternal life that he brings, and Jesus defines it in John 17:3: “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” So, it is an intimate covenant relationship with the triune God: Father, Son, and Spirit. That is what eternal life really is. So, this is the life that they proclaim concerning the word of life.

Wes

What reason does John give for proclaiming the life that appeared in Jesus? And how do we have fellowship with God, with Christ and with each other?

Andy

Yeah, this is so beautiful, so deep and rich. The words are simple, but they’re complex. I think fundamentally, we have to see this life that appeared and that we proclaim in light of what Paul talks about in Ephesians 2 of our spiritual death. “We were dead in our transgressions and sins in which we used to live, when we followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:1-2, paraphrase). All of us also were spiritually dead. Jesus said, “Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead” (Matthew 8:22). So, we were dead until Jesus appeared.

So, you’re living, you got biological life, but you don’t have spiritual life. You don’t have eternal life. Jesus comes and he appears and lives out that beautiful perfect life, that life of the absolute perfect fulfillment of the two great commandments. He perfectly loved God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. And he perfectly loved his neighbors as himself. That’s the life that appeared. And we saw a perfectly loving life for the first time, and we saw it and we were blown away. The glory of God appeared. And so, this is the life that we proclaim.

Now, the word proclaim is important. We’re preaching it. We’re talking about it wherever we go. John probably is a very elderly man by this point. He’s had a whole career of doing this, proclaiming and preaching. But we also believe faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. And so, as we proclaim the facts about Jesus’s life, then people repent and believe and trust in Christ and come alive. They believe and are saved. So, this life appeared. We’ve seen it, we testify, and this is what we proclaim, this eternal life, which was with the Father and has now appeared or manifested to us through Jesus.

So, John says, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard.” So, the evidence, the stuff that we saw, the stuff that’s in the Gospel of John, the stuff that’s, frankly, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We proclaim these things to you so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And so, the idea here is we want you to be in a relationship with us where it’s about love relationships, ultimately. We were created to love God and to secondly, love each other, the two great commandments.

And so, we want to have fellowship with you. We want to have a right relationship with you. We want to sit at table with you. We want to share meals with you. We want to walk with you in the new heavens and new earth. We want an eternal relationship. We want that. The only way that’s going to happen is if you believe what we’re proclaiming to you. So, God’s put everything on the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation, the proclamation of Jesus Christ, his life, his death, his resurrection. By that proclamation, if you believe it, we have fellowship with one another and even more importantly, we have fellowship with God. And so, by believing this proclaimed message, which the apostles were entrusted with, this way you have fellowship with God and with us and with each other.

Wes

Now, John concludes this first paragraph by saying, “We’re also writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” It’s an interesting thing for him to say. This is bringing us much joy as we proclaim these things to you. How is that the case for John and maybe for us? How is our joy made complete by other people becoming Christians?

Andy

God has chosen from before the foundation of the world, a finite number of people who will finally in the end be his adopted children.

Yeah, it’s awesome. I can’t explain this or think about this any other way than the doctrine of election. And I believe that God has chosen from before the foundation of the world, a finite number of people who will finally in the end be his adopted children. It’s not a universalism we’re teaching here. We believe that there are a huge number of human beings that will never believe in Jesus. But we also believe that there is a multitude greater than anyone could count from every tribe, language, people and nation who will finally stand around the throne dressed in white robes, celebrating salvation of Christ.

Now we believe that that full number is in the mind of God. And we also believe that if all of those people had already been saved, that history would’ve come to an end. As Jesus said in Matthew 24:14, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” So, we have effectively an incomplete joy. It’s not finished yet. It’s not done yet. There’s more work to be done. There’s more joy to be had.

And what is that joy? Well, I don’t think any chapter describes it better than Luke 15, which is the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, the prodigal son, and all three end in celebration. All right. Rejoice with me, I found my lost sheep. Rejoice with me, I found my lost coin. Kill a fatted calf, let’s have a feast and celebrate, my son has come home. It’s joy, joy, joy. Well, that joy is not complete until all of the elect are saved. And so, we are writing this to make our joy complete, and it won’t be complete until you are perfected in your salvation and so also are all of the people that God has chosen. “All that the Father gives me,” Jesus said, “will come to me.” And when they do, then our joy will be complete.

I want to say one more thing about this, write this to make our joy complete, the sense of an incomplete joy or an incomplete fellowship. We have the hall of faith in Hebrews 11 and all of these great, great individuals who we believe are spirits of righteous people made perfect. They are absent from the body, present with the Lord, but they don’t have resurrection bodies yet. And at the end of Hebrews 11, it says, “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them, none of them receive what was promised.” They’re all waiting. Waiting for what? Well, God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. So, there’s an incompleteness to even those great individuals, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and David and Daniel and all the prophets there and all the saints that have gone before us, they’re incomplete. They’re not done. Their joy is not yet complete. Their salvation, frankly, isn’t even complete because they don’t have resurrection bodies yet.

And God had planned that only together with us would they be made perfect. And I think this is what the rapture is all about, which is the dead in Christ will rise first and after that we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord and then we will be together with the Lord forever. That’s resurrection in the flash, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, boom, we all get it at the same time. And so, at that point, your joy will be complete, Wes, and so will mine and so will all of our Christian hearers, where our joy will be made complete then.

Until then, we got work to do. So, I get that sense that he’s writing here in verse 4, “We write this to make our joy complete.”

Wes

Really, the remainder of this chapter has to do with walking in the light. What is the message that John declares here about God and how did he hear it first before proclaiming it to us?

Andy

Okay, it’s a very significant message. I’ve mentioned it many, many times in sermons and we need to understand it. This is the message we have heard from him. God told this to us and he’s telling us, “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” It’s a very significant statement. To John, the metaphor of light and darkness are very, very important. “The light shines in the darkness,” he says in 1 John, I mean John 1:5, “and the darkness has not comprehended it,” or extinguished it, put it out, et cetera. And so light and darkness are very big themes. And to John, light represents moral purity, holiness, goodness, love. And darkness represents the opposite, represents evil, wickedness, death, murder, sin.

And when Judas took the bread from Jesus, marking him as the one who had betrayed Jesus, Satan entered into him and Jesus commanded him, “Judas, what you’re about to do, do quickly” (John 13:27). And John tells us in John’s account, Judas went out to go betray Jesus and it was night. There’s no accident that he writes, “And it was night” (John 13:30). Because in Luke’s gospel he says, “This is your hour when darkness reigns” (Luke 22:53). So that light/darkness metaphor is very important, not just in John, but also in Luke and other places. So, what are we saying? God is light, meaning he is absolutely pure and free from evil in all respects. He is light straight through. There is no evil in him at all.

And it reminds me of what James says when he says, “When tempted, no one’s to say God is tempting me because God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone, but each one is tempted when by his own evil desire, he’s dragged away” (James 1:13). God doesn’t have any evil in him, he doesn’t have any evil desires. He doesn’t pull anyone toward evil. It’s not in his nature to do that. And so, he’s pure straight through. And that’s a very, very important thing to keep in mind. It’s one of the most important statements about the essential holiness and character of God. He’s free from all evil in all respects.

I think it’s similar to Habakkuk 1:13, which says, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrong.” God can’t even look at it. He is not evil. He is pure light straight through. It’s important that we understand that this message of the holiness of God is something that he heard. Now understand, we all start essentially evil. If you look at Romans 3, there’s nobody exempt. There was no one righteous, not even one. No one who does good, not even one. And that included John. We all start out evil. And so, we have to hear this message that we who are evil, and Jesus says that about fathers. He said, “Even though you are evil, you know how to give good gifts to your children.” (Matthew 7:11). It’s like, whoa, a little bit, we got slapped around there. That’s true though.

I mean we are a brood of vipers. We are descendants of the sinner, Adam. That’s our nature. And we have to be told God is light and we’re not. We start in the darkness. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. And so, we had to hear that message. And that message we’ve heard and now declare to you is this, it’s that God is light and in him there’s no darkness at all. Also, God cannot have fellowship with darkness. So, if we are in the darkness, we can’t be in God’s presence. He won’t let us there. So, we have to be not just a little bit light or partial light. We have to be pure light, as pure as God is. I think what’s incredible about this is all of the redeemed will end up light and in us there’ll be no darkness at all either. That’s incredible.

Wes

So, this is the message, John says, that he’s heard and now he’s proclaimed it to us. So, we now know the message. But there’s this sense that just hearing that message is not enough. It seems that there are people who know enough about the message to claim to have fellowship with God and yet walk in darkness. What kind of people would claim to have fellowship with God and yet walk in darkness? And how is this kind of hypocrisy a danger for us all?

Andy

Well, you said it in that final statement. They’re hypocrites. They’re whitewashed tombs. They look good on the outside, but inside full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean, Jesus said (Matthew 23:27). And so, they’re self-deceived, they are lying to themselves. And so, what is it? These people that are part of the community, they are with us now, but they’re living a secret life. There’s something else going on.

Now in chapter 2, he’s going to talk about the many antichrists that have gone out from us. And so, I think this is talking about people who started with the Christian church and at some point had significant doctrinal or lifestyle disagreements and broke off and stopped fellowshipping with them. And John will tell us in chapter 2:19, “They went out from us because they were not really of us.” But there are some people that haven’t done that yet, but they’re not really of us either. They just look good. And so, they are deceiving themselves and they’re deceiving people around us. And so, we don’t always know what’s actually truly going on.

So, a good example of this, of course, the best example is Judas. When Judas took that piece of bread and Satan entered into him, and he went out and Jesus had said, “What you’re about to do, do quickly” (John 13:27), the other apostles did not know what was going on. And thought he was going out to buy supplies for the feast. I mean right up to the last moment, they didn’t know who the traitor was. And so, here’s a guy that looked like one of them, but he was lying. He was living a lie, and it was all along. It wasn’t like he suddenly turned. He had been stealing from the money bag. He was walking in the darkness while he looked good on the outside.

So big picture, what this is speaking to is people who go to church, they’re living the moral life, claim to be Christians. They’ve been baptized, probably, say that they’re doing all this stuff, but the truth is otherwise. And this epistle is for them, as I said in the introductory comments. They need to be jarred out of their complacency and out of their self-deception and their delusion, and they need to repent and come to a genuine faith in Christ. So, he’s dealing with gospel hypocrites here.

Wes

In contrast to verse 6, we get verse 7. How does verse 7 describe a genuine and healthy Christian life? And how does walking in the light enable good Christian fellowship?

Andy

All right, so the metaphor walk has to do with daily life, one foot in front of the other, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, that kind of thing, your lifestyle. And so, it’s practical. It’s everything you do. And so, to walk in the light means a daily life that is informed and saturated by the truth of the gospel and by the Spirit of Christ and by the laws of God. He’s going to talk much about laws and the commandments of God. So, we’re going to be following his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. We’re going to obey them. That’s walking in light. It’s a lifestyle of holiness in conformity to the commands of God by the power of the Spirit of God. That’s what it means to walk in the light.

And it says, “As he is in the light.” And so, it’s interesting that he there could be Jesus there. It could be just God. We’ve already been talking about God, “As God is light and he is in the light.” And I think being in the light is he has put out a cloud of light. He’s put out a radiance of light for the benefit of his creatures, angels and humans. They can see the light. And so, God is in that light he puts out. He’s consistent to the things he said, and we walk in that light, which is truth coming from the word of God, a lifestyle of purity and holiness. This is actually verse 7, a very important statement. “If we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another.” And the rest of the verse is very important too.

Wes

Well, let’s talk about the rest of the verse. This idea of the blood of Jesus his Son cleansing us from all sin, how significant is that? And really not just the fact, but an ongoing reminder for ourselves of this as we try to grow in maturity in Christ.

Andy

Right. The verb tenses are everything for me here. And we’re going to need this verse. We’re going to come back to this verse because later in the book, in 1 John 3, John basically says things that imply gospel perfection, perfectionism even. He’s going to say in 1 John 3:4-6, can you read that? You have ESV.

Wes

Yeah. In chapter three?

Andy

Yeah.

Wes

Verses 4-6?

Andy

3:4-6.

Wes

He says, “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

Andy

Well, every translation, including the ESV, NIV, change the translation a little bit because it would drive us crazy if they didn’t. And I think it’s doctrinally true, but it’s not translation true. So actually, could you read that and just let’s keep it simple? The Greek in 1 John is the simplest in the New Testament, and it just simply says “sins.” So just read verse 6 and just says “sins.”

Wes

No one who abides in him sins.

Andy

Keep reading.

Wes

No one who sins has either seen him or known him.

Andy

Would you find that problematic if you read it?

Wes

Uh-oh.

Andy

It’s like, all right, we’re done. We’re done.

Wes

Yeah.

Andy

And then you’re like, “Well, I never met anyone that this is even talking about.” Is there some secret society somewhere of perfect people who are the real Christians and the rest of us are going to hell? And so that perfection is very troubling. And John is laying it on really thick here in 3:6 because he really wants people to live a holy life. It does really matter how you live, but it can bring you to despair and you’re like, “All right, I’m not perfect. I must not be a Christian.” 1 John 1:7 is the remedy. So, we’re going to partner those when we get to there. We’re going to come back to this, but here’s how it’s the remedy. It has to do with the verb tense.

If we walk in the light today, right now, as he is in the light, we are presently right now having fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus is right now purifying us from all sin, not has purified us. In that case, that verse wouldn’t help us because we’re like, “All right, you got to be sinless for the blood of Jesus to have purified us.” But no, it doesn’t say that. It is the blood of Jesus is purifying us right now.

So, this is the sense I get. I picture sin coming out of us like dirt out of our pores. It just kind of exudes out of us under certain pressures of life such as marriage and parenting or pastoring a church or driving on the road or interacting with non-Christians at work. Sin is just going to ooze out of us. Pride, irritability, selfishness just going to come out. And we are standing in a shower of grace all the time. And I get this from Romans 5 very, very beautifully in Romans 5:1-2. Could you read that? It’s so beautiful. Romans 5:1-2.

Wes

In verse 1 it says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into his grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Andy

So, think of that in which we stand, standing in grace. So, I got this picture of a hot shower of grace, and this grace is flowing over us all the time and we need it. We need it because, and he’s about to cover that in verses 8-10, because we sin all the time. We are prideful, we’re selfish, whatever. And if we say we’ve not, then we’re lying. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus is continually cleansing us from all the sins that come out.

So, here’s what it teaches me. 1 John 1:7 tells me I can walk in the light and still need cleansing from sin. So, it’s not teaching perfection because that cannot be in this life, but there’s an essential purity to our lives. But there’s still that need for cleansing and purification from all sin. So, 1 John 1:7 is a very important verse.

Wes

Yeah, it’s a vital verse for our faith. I think as we’ve been talking about this, it strikes me that there’s perhaps two equal and opposite errors here when it comes to ongoing sin in the life of a Christian. The first would be despair, that we would despair of the fact that we still sin when we’re on the road in traffic or in the office with a challenging co-worker. The other though would be denial. So, we could despair of our ongoing sin problem, or we could just deny it. We could seek to cover and not deal with our sin. And it seems like that’s what John addresses for us in the rest of this chapter in verses 8-10. So, help us understand in light of the glorious reality we just unpacked in verse 7, how verses 8-10 really help us in our ongoing fight against remaining sin.

Andy

I will do that. I want to expand just a little bit into the next chapter as well because he says, “Dear children, I write these things to you so that you will not sin, but if anyone does sin… that’s the hope we have.” So, John’s saying, “Look, you’re going to sin. And if so, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous One who has once for all time shed his blood as the propitiation for our sins, but is constantly living to intercede for us.” So, there’s a dynamic cleansing, but also a once for all forgiveness. And that is Christianity as I understand it. That’s justification, then sanctification, and then finally glorification.

And so fundamentally then, this is not teaching perfectionism, but it is teaching a walking in the light that tends toward perfection, aims for perfection every day. And so, to get then to the rest of this chapter, 8-10, it has to do with being honest. We’re going to claim that we have sinned in the past and that we sinned. Frankly, all of our sin is in the past, even if it’s a half second ago. Okay? It’s like, am I sinning right now? Yeah. Well, you sinned a second ago. So yeah, we have to be honest about what’s happened. It might be a moment ago, it might be 10 minutes ago, it might be an hour ago, it might be yesterday or last week.

The conviction of the Holy Spirit is with us. He convicts us and tells us that we’ve sinned. So, first of all, the prideful reaction is like, “No, I didn’t, I didn’t do it.” That’s the claim that we have not sinned. And then again in verse 10, claim we have not sinned, claim to be without sin, like we’re sinless. You can’t do that. And then claim we have not sinned specifically. So, here’s the thing, fundamentally, we still have a sin nature. If we claim that we have no sin nature, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We have to be honest about it. And other scriptures make this evidently clear.

The flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. They’re in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want. That’s Galatians 5:16 and following. So, you have a war between the flesh and the Spirit. John’s about saying the same thing. He’s saying, “Look, you’ve got indwelling sin, and you’ve got the indwelling Spirit,” all right? And the Spirit, his truth is in us, Christ is in us, et cetera. So, we’re going to be honest. We know that we’ve got a sin nature, verse 8. If we claim that we have no sin at all, we’re deceiving ourselves. So, Wes, what does that mean to deceive yourself? When you look at that, what does that mean?

Wes

Well, it’s negatively stated, but it’s almost like we’ve convinced ourselves of something that’s not true. So, we’ve pulled the wool over our own eyes. We actually think that we’re okay.

Andy

And that’s dangerous. Fact of the matter is we all have blind spots. And that’s why being in fellowship with good Christians is so vital. Somebody can come alongside and say, “Hey bro, I’m seeing some things in you.” It’s like, “No, I’m not.” It’s like, no, be honest. Look at it. Just go ask. And Psalm 1:39, “Search me, oh God, and know me.” Show me what’s going on. And so, we have to be progressively awakened. And that is the journey of sanctification anyway, isn’t it? It’s like there’s stuff in your life you still haven’t dealt with. We’re going to deal with it.

You look at Zacchaeus, right? The first and foremost thing he dealt with was his greed and the way he had defrauded people. Was that the only sin he had to deal with? No, ask his wife. We don’t know anything about his wife, but my guess is he had a lot of other sins to deal with just in the normal way, but that was the first and foremost one he had to deal with. So, it’s a journey of discovery and that discovery is painful. We’re going to find out all the different ways we sin. So, if we claim to be, we deceive ourselves, right? Lord, tell me the truth, show it to me.

Then verse 9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” That may be one of the top 30 or 40 verses in the Bible that if you’re only going to memorize 30 or 40 verses in the Bible, this should be one of them. And why is that? Because this will be useful to you every single day. All right? This should be part of your daily prayer time. It should be your quiet time. In your quiet time, you should spend some of your time confessing sin. You’re doing Psalm 139, “Search me, oh God, and know me.” How is my conscience testifying against me? How did I sin? What have I done in my marriage, my parenting? What have I done in my thought life, my internet life? What have I done? Sins of omission, commission the whole thing, show it to me.

And then when you do, Holy Spirit, I will confess it. Now what does that mean? Homologeo means to say the same thing. I’m going to say the same thing that God’s saying. I’m going to call it by its nature, lust, covetousness, greed, selfishness, laziness. I’m going to be honest; I’m going to confess it. And if I do, if I confess that sin, he is faithful and just. Now first and foremost, there’s a once for all at the moment of conversion, at the moment of justification, confession of sin. All right, that’s you saying, “I’m a sinner, save me.” Like in Luke 18 with the Pharisee and the tax collector, the tax collector stood at a distance, beat his breast, would not even look up to heaven, but said, “God have mercy on me the sinner” (Luke 18:13). And Jesus said he went home justified before God. So that’s that initial, I’m a sinner, save me.

But this is also detail. This is day-by-day lifestyle sin. All right, you’re convicted, something’s happened. Then we confess that sin. Now we’ve already been forgiven, past, present, and future. It’s already forgiven. You’re like, “Well, why do I have to confess it?” For fellowship’s sake, for the fellowship we have with the Father and with each other. I mean, wouldn’t you say that our marriages are affected by our sins, and we’re not really in warm, rich fellowship right now? Well, the same thing happens with Christ. He is offended. We think about David and Bathsheba, and he goes on in his way with his sin and all that. But it says ominously, “But the thing David did displeased the Lord.” (2 Samuel 11:27). And it says in Ephesians 4:30, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”

So, there are times that our sins grieve God. As soon as they happen, they grieve, and then the Spirit convicts and then we have to confess. So, if we confess our sins, we do it to restore our fellowship with God. We confess our sins. “He is faithful and just to forgive” (1 John 1:9). These are incredibly powerful words. First of all, faithful means he keeps his promises. And what he said is he has promised in Jesus to forgive everything. He’s going to forgive it all. And so, he’s faithful to the promise he made in Christ to forgive, faithful to us. But I think it’s more important to understand that he’s faithful to our mediator.

The word justice would be a terrifying word for us if it were not for the atonement, if it were not for God’s intention.

He’s faithful to Jesus. It’s like there was a deal. No, there wasn’t like, there was a deal, a covenant made between the Father and the Son that fundamentally the Father would give the elect to the Son. And the Son said, “All right, Father, I’ll die for them, but you have to forgive them.” And it’s not like the Father needed any persuading. That was the whole purpose. But he is faithful to Jesus, and he is just to forgive, just toward Jesus. Now this is the very important thing. The word justice would be a terrifying word for us if it were not for the atonement, if it were not for God’s intention. This is the very insight that led Martin Luther to understand the gospel properly. And that is the righteousness of God.

In the gospel it says, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. For in the gospel, the righteousness or justice of God is revealed from faith, for faith. As it is written, the righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17). And you realize this is a happy verse. This is a salvation verse. I had thought of the justice of God as my holy terror. That which was the greatest terror of my life was the justice of God, his commitment to make certain that every sin that has ever been committed is dealt with properly at his bar of justice. We have no hope. The justice of God is our greatest enemy.

Reminds me of a time that a deserter was brought before a particularly Christian religious general. And the general was known for his Christian commitment, but also for his justice. And the penalty for desertion in wartime is death. And this prisoner was brought before the general and he said, “Do not be afraid, my son, you’ll get justice from me.” He said, “That’s exactly what I’m afraid of because I know what’s going to happen if you give me justice.” What he wanted was mercy.

And so, here’s the thing, justice would be justice to condemn, but that’s not what the verse says. It’s just to forgive. So how do we understand that? Once we have made a covenant with Jesus, through faith in him, once we have come to faith in Christ, the justice of God then swings around, and it would be unjust for him not to forgive. It’d be he broke his promise, and he will never do that. He is just to forgive. And it’s a very powerful verse. He is not going to say to Jesus, “Your blood was not enough to cover that sin.” And so we have to confess our sins so that we can experience that.

And then finally it says, “The blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin.” So, the next step is there’s a purification for sin, a cleansing. And what that does is Spirit’s not going to leave us guilty. He’s going to say, “You’re forgiven, but we got work to do.” And he’s going to start purifying your mind, your conscience, your heart and your lifestyle.

Wes

How does John conclude this chapter and what final thoughts do you have for us on this passage?

Andy

Yeah, so we finish with this last verse. If we claim we have not sinned, we’ve already said that we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. So, it just finishes the thought. Eight through 10 is a unit. I think it’s big picture claim to be without sin and in detail, verse 10, claim we have not sinned. And in that case, first of all, we’re deceiving ourselves. Second of all, we’re saying God is a liar. God is telling you you’ve sinned. And so, you’re telling him, “No, I haven’t.” You’re saying that he’s a liar. Well, he’s not. And if so, then his word has no place in our lives. We’re not Christians. Honesty about sin is essential to being a Christian. That’s what we get at. Be honest, bring your sin to it and he will forgive you and cleanse you out.

Let me finish with this one insight that I had some time ago and I want to share it with you. It’s very, very powerful. It has to do with the insight that forgiveness is covering, atonement is covering, and it comes from Psalm 32, quoted in Romans 4:7, It says, “Blessed is a man whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.” And so, it’s a parallelism where it says basically, forgiveness of sin is covering.

And I had the insight at some point of realizing, God really can’t take away our sin. It’s permanent in his mind. He’ll always remember what we did. But what he can do is he can cover it, and he covers it with the atonement. The Yom Kippur is day of covering. It’s a covering up. Atonement is a covering with the atoning work of Christ. And so, he basically blocks his holy sight. His eyes are too pure to look on evil. He puts clothing or block between our corrupt, wicked sin and his holy eyes. And that is the blood of Jesus. So that’s what covering is.

Well, what’s so powerful to me is, and it’s so cool because there’s a proverb. Proverb 28:13 says, “He who conceals his sin does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” So concealing is covering it yourself. That’s what people do. That’s what Adam and Eve did. They made fig leaves and cover themselves, right? But it’s not adequate. So, if you conceal your own sin, if you cover it up yourself, you’re not going to prosper. But if you confess it, it means uncover it before the holy eyes of God and be honest about it. If you confess and if you renounce your sin, you’re going to find mercy.

And so fundamentally, what we get here is we have to be honest about our sins comprehensively. We are sinners through and through. We bring that to Jesus, and he covers us. We are sinners in detail of that time. We bring that honestly and he covers it as well. So, it’s a very beautiful truth.

Wes

This has been Episode 1 in our 1, 2, & 3 John Bible Study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for Episode 2 entitled, Genuine Christians Obey and Love, where we’ll discuss 1 John 2:1-14. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

I. Main Questions:

  1. The purpose of this whole epistle is assurance of salvation… how can I know that I am a Christian? Why is this assurance so important in the Christian life?
  2. How does this chapter help Christians come to a healthy assurance of salvation?
  3. Why is the apostles’ eyewitness testimony of Christ’s life so vital to Christianity?
  4. What does it mean to walk in the light as God is in the light?

II. Verse by Verse Questions:

Eyewitnesses to the Word of Life (vv. 1-4)

  1. How do you see John speaking of his role as an eyewitness to Christ’s life in this section?
  2. Why does he get so physical here, speaking about things he saw with his own eyes and heard with his own ears and touched with his own hands?
  3. Why is actual history so important to the Christian faith?
  4. John speaks of what was “from the beginning.” What does that mean? How does it connect to the way he begins his Gospel? See John 1:1.
  5. Give some examples of things John touched with his hands that he later proclaimed to those who were not there at the time?
  6. What does he mean in verse 2—“The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it…”?
  7. What is the eternal life he is proclaiming? How has eternal life with the Father appeared to us? How does Jesus’ incarnate life relate to our eternal life?
  8. What reason does John give for proclaiming the life that appeared in Jesus?
  9. What is fellowship? How do we have fellowship with God? With Christ? How do we have fellowship with each other?
  10. What other reason does John give for writing his epistle?
  11. How is our joy made complete by other people becoming Christians?

Walking in the Light as God is Light (vv.5-10)

  1. What is the message that John declares here about God?
  2. How did he hear it first before proclaiming it to us?
  3. What does it mean when he says, “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all”? What are “light” and “darkness” in this sense?
  4. Is light truth? Goodness? Holiness? Beauty? All of the above? How do you understand the metaphor of light?
  5. What does it mean that in God there is no darkness at all? If light is goodness and darkness is evil, what does that tell you about God’s nature?
  6. How does God relate to evil?
  7. What does it mean to walk in darkness? What does it mean to walk in the light?
  8. What kind of people claim to have fellowship with God and yet walk in darkness?
  9. How is this an example of hypocrisy… to claim to have fellowship with God and yet walk in the darkness?
  10. How does that relate to these verses: Matthew 23:27-28; Luke 11:44; Luke 12:1-3?
  11. How is hypocrisy a danger for us all?
  12. What does John mean by living by the truth? How is that the same as walking in the light as God is in the light?
  13. How does verse 7 describe a genuine and healthy Christian life?
  14. How does walking in the light enable good Christian fellowship?
  15. What is the significance of the insight that someone can be walking in the light and still need continual cleansing from all sin?
  16. How does the fact that genuine Christians still need cleansing from sin show up in these verses: John 15:2; John 13:10?
  17. Why is it vital for us to be honest about the sin in our lives (see verses 8-10)?
  18. Why would we tend to claim we are without sin? How does our pride factor into that?
  19. How does such a claim amount to self-deception? How can Psalm 139:23-24 help remedy that?
  20. What marvelous promise does John make in verse 9? What does it mean to confess sins?
  21. What two adjectives does John ascribe to God in verse 9? How does God’s forgiveness of a Christian’s sins show his faithfulness? How does it show his justice?
  22. Why would a justified Christian still need forgiveness of sins?
  23. What is the purification from all sin promised in verse 9?
  24. How does John finish this section? Compare and contrast verses 8 and 10.

III.  Summary:

John begins his epistle by establishing his testimony as an eyewitness of Christ’s life. He then urges Christians to walk in the light as God is in the light and confess all sins to Christ.

 

Wes

Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study Podcast. This is Episode 1 in our 1, 2 & 3 John Bible Study Podcast entitled Christ Is the Light of God, so Walk in That Light, where we’ll discuss 1 John 1:1-10. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis.

Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?

Andy

Well, 1 John, as we said last time, is an epistle of assurance, both dealing with true assurance and false assurance and dealing with those who are genuinely born again, giving them the rock-solid assurance that they are children of God. And so, he’s going to base everything he says on his status as an apostle, an eyewitness of Jesus Christ. The apostles played a unique role and we’re going to talk about that in the first four verses of this chapter, the fact that he was a literal physical eyewitness to Jesus Christ and to the light that’s shown within him, the glory of God in Christ. And so, he has status, he has that role to play as an apostle and therefore can speak to the Christian life.

this metaphor of walking in the light as he is in the light, has to do with a lifestyle of holiness.

And then in the rest of this brief first chapter, 10 verses only, he’s going to talk about walking in the light. And he’s going to say, fundamentally, if you claim to be a Christian and you’re not living a holy life, you’re lying, you’re deceiving yourself. And so, look at how you are living. And so, this metaphor of walking in the light as he is in the light, has to do with a lifestyle of holiness. And he’s going to say later in the epistle, very clearly, in obedience to the commands of God. If you do what he commands, you are pleasing him, you’re walking with him. The question is what’s actually happening?

And so, Paul says in Corinthians that we should test ourselves to see if we’re in the faith. And 1 John is a great test epistle, just look at yourself and ask honestly, how am I living? What is my life all about? So, we’re going to walk through that today.

Wes

Well, let me go ahead and read 1 John 1:1-10 as we begin.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life- the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

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. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he 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 we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Andy, as we begin this letter here in 1 John, right away in verse 1, we’re struck by this word beginning. How do we see John speaking of his role as an eyewitness to Christ’s life in this section? And why does John get so physical here speaking about things he saw with his own eyes and heard with his own ears and touched with his own hands?

Andy

Yeah, this is complicated. We just had an offline discussion on the word beginning and we know that it’s very similar to the way he begins the Gospel of John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And that itself is very similar to the way the whole Bible begins, which is, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). But we’ve also noted that John uses the word beginning differently at different times. We’ll get into all that later.

I believe that the beginning he has in mind here is the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry, and it really zeroes in on his immutable character and his immutable purposes, those things that are who Jesus has always been and his saving purposes in the world, that has never changed. And I think it’s going to be that same theme when he tells them to see to it that what they have heard from the beginning of their Christian life stays with them because that’s not going to change. So that which was from the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry and from his determination to save. Now let me pause and say, don’t think that there was any evolution to that because all of that was worked out before the foundation of the world. It’s not like any new thing, and they’re kind of making it up as they go along.

Really, if anything, John is saying, “Look, this stuff never changes.” That which was from the beginning is the same as it is right now. But he includes himself when he talks about his role as an eyewitness. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes and which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the word of life. Now we’ve got to understand the we, the first person plural there, as differently than most of us Christians read it, okay? Most of the time when you read the word we or us or our, we’re including ourselves as part of the Christian family and we all are part of that. But that’s not the case here.

This is a unique role that John as an apostle played that we don’t play. We are not eyewitnesses of the word as John will claim for himself. He’s saying, “All right, I’m going to…” And he’s not so much pulling rank, but he kind of is. He’s saying, “Look, I am an eyewitness. I’m an apostle. I was chosen. Let me proclaim to you what you need to know concerning Jesus, the word of life.” That’s what he’s talking about. So that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at in our hands, have touched, we have personally interacted with that now.

Now, we believe that this was Jesus’s purpose in calling the 12 apostles after a night of prayer, spent all night up on a mountain praying, came down and called 12 to be with him, to be apostles. And it said part of their job description was to be with him and therefore, to be witnesses to what he did. And so, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, those four accounts of the life of Jesus, come from eyewitness testimony. Not just the apostles, because Mary, for example, is included as Luke, I’m sure, went and got the nativity story that’s so famous in Luke 2 from Mary. But ultimately, the authoritative eyewitnesses of the life, the teachings, the character, the miracles, the death and the resurrection of Jesus, that role was given to the apostles, and John is one of them. He’s one of the apostles.

So that which we have interacted with our actual senses. Now here he’s getting at the physicality. The incarnation is one of the central mysteries. Now he’s going to talk much about the spirit of antichrist. And the spirit of antichrist is to deny that the word became flesh, to deny the incarnation. It is the foundation to the Jews’ rejection of Jesus. They thought he was a blasphemer for claiming to be the Son of God, but we have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God or we’re not Christians. So, the actual evidence of the incarnation, what evidence do we have? We have the eyewitness testimonies. We interacted, we touched, we heard, we saw. Our bodies interacted with the physicality of Jesus. This is what we proclaim concerning Jesus as the word of life.

Wes

It’s striking the significance of actual history to the Christian faith, the reality that there were eyewitnesses. We’ve talked about this before, the significance of Jesus appearing so that there would be those who could testify to the reality that was his life and ministry and resurrection. And what a powerful testimony to the fact that Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Andy

Yeah, absolutely. And I’m going to zero in on what you just said. The eyewitness testimony to the single most significant aspect of Jesus’s life, which is his resurrection. It’s what sets him apart. Now, obviously his virgin conception, virgin birth sets him apart too, but to the outside world, it was a pregnant woman having a baby. But Jesus’ resurrection, now that’s a different matter. There were eyewitnesses who hated Jesus who saw him die, and then after that other witnesses saw him alive. And that’s unique.

And Paul says very, very plainly in 1 Corinthians 15, it’s all about the eyewitnesses. There are 500 of them, and we are eyewitnesses. I’m telling you, Thomas, I don’t think he actually did it, but said, “I’m going to put my finger in the nail marks and my hands in the side or I won’t believe” (John 20:25, paraphrase). Thomas had the right to do that because he was an apostle. So, I think there’s a physicality here, what we have touched, and this brings me to Luke 24, where they thought he was a ghost in his resurrection. And the doubts came in his mind, and he said, “Why do doubts rise in your mind? Touch me and see, a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:38-39, paraphrase). That’s physical, that’s five senses.

John’s saying, “Look, I was there. I’m telling you, he rose from the dead.” So fundamentally, not just he rises from the dead, but he also touched the leper and healed him. I was there when that happened. All of this stuff concerning the word of life, I’m telling you it actually happened. Now Paul makes the point in 1 Corinthians 15, if it didn’t happen, Christianity is dead. So, everything depends on the eyewitnesses, the apostolic testimony.

Now this statement here in 1 John 1:1-4 is very physical and very significant, I think, for all four gospels and therefore for the entire New Testament, the entire Christian religion. Eyewitness testimony, five sense testimony, things we touched, things we interacted with, this is what we proclaim. Everybody else is depending on us for that. We’re like the first link in the chain. Everybody hangs on us. And we do, we all are relying on the eyewitness testimony.

Wes

What’s the eternal life John is proclaiming in verse 2, and how does Jesus’s incarnate life relate to our eternal life?

Andy

Right. So, the fundamental issue of life, and this is one of the very, very first things that John talks about in his gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made.” And then the very significant statement, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:1-3). So, life is extremely difficult to define, but you got all this inanimate stuff. You got these rocks and mountains and rivers and oceans and clouds and all that, but no life. And then he starts creating living creatures. And then he creates the highest form of life, which is human beings. All of that life comes from God and ultimately, human life comes from it.

And so, for us, life was in God first. He thought of it; he is the living God. And then he imparts life to living creatures in an ascending order of complexity. And then at the highest order is the human beings created in his image. And that life fundamentally is like God. We’re created to be like God and in the image of God, but also have a living relationship with God. So, this life is biological, but then it’s also spiritual.

And then you asked about the eternal life that he brings, and Jesus defines it in John 17:3: “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” So, it is an intimate covenant relationship with the triune God: Father, Son, and Spirit. That is what eternal life really is. So, this is the life that they proclaim concerning the word of life.

Wes

What reason does John give for proclaiming the life that appeared in Jesus? And how do we have fellowship with God, with Christ and with each other?

Andy

Yeah, this is so beautiful, so deep and rich. The words are simple, but they’re complex. I think fundamentally, we have to see this life that appeared and that we proclaim in light of what Paul talks about in Ephesians 2 of our spiritual death. “We were dead in our transgressions and sins in which we used to live, when we followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:1-2, paraphrase). All of us also were spiritually dead. Jesus said, “Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead” (Matthew 8:22). So, we were dead until Jesus appeared.

So, you’re living, you got biological life, but you don’t have spiritual life. You don’t have eternal life. Jesus comes and he appears and lives out that beautiful perfect life, that life of the absolute perfect fulfillment of the two great commandments. He perfectly loved God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. And he perfectly loved his neighbors as himself. That’s the life that appeared. And we saw a perfectly loving life for the first time, and we saw it and we were blown away. The glory of God appeared. And so, this is the life that we proclaim.

Now, the word proclaim is important. We’re preaching it. We’re talking about it wherever we go. John probably is a very elderly man by this point. He’s had a whole career of doing this, proclaiming and preaching. But we also believe faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. And so, as we proclaim the facts about Jesus’s life, then people repent and believe and trust in Christ and come alive. They believe and are saved. So, this life appeared. We’ve seen it, we testify, and this is what we proclaim, this eternal life, which was with the Father and has now appeared or manifested to us through Jesus.

So, John says, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard.” So, the evidence, the stuff that we saw, the stuff that’s in the Gospel of John, the stuff that’s, frankly, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We proclaim these things to you so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And so, the idea here is we want you to be in a relationship with us where it’s about love relationships, ultimately. We were created to love God and to secondly, love each other, the two great commandments.

And so, we want to have fellowship with you. We want to have a right relationship with you. We want to sit at table with you. We want to share meals with you. We want to walk with you in the new heavens and new earth. We want an eternal relationship. We want that. The only way that’s going to happen is if you believe what we’re proclaiming to you. So, God’s put everything on the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation, the proclamation of Jesus Christ, his life, his death, his resurrection. By that proclamation, if you believe it, we have fellowship with one another and even more importantly, we have fellowship with God. And so, by believing this proclaimed message, which the apostles were entrusted with, this way you have fellowship with God and with us and with each other.

Wes

Now, John concludes this first paragraph by saying, “We’re also writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” It’s an interesting thing for him to say. This is bringing us much joy as we proclaim these things to you. How is that the case for John and maybe for us? How is our joy made complete by other people becoming Christians?

Andy

God has chosen from before the foundation of the world, a finite number of people who will finally in the end be his adopted children.

Yeah, it’s awesome. I can’t explain this or think about this any other way than the doctrine of election. And I believe that God has chosen from before the foundation of the world, a finite number of people who will finally in the end be his adopted children. It’s not a universalism we’re teaching here. We believe that there are a huge number of human beings that will never believe in Jesus. But we also believe that there is a multitude greater than anyone could count from every tribe, language, people and nation who will finally stand around the throne dressed in white robes, celebrating salvation of Christ.

Now we believe that that full number is in the mind of God. And we also believe that if all of those people had already been saved, that history would’ve come to an end. As Jesus said in Matthew 24:14, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” So, we have effectively an incomplete joy. It’s not finished yet. It’s not done yet. There’s more work to be done. There’s more joy to be had.

And what is that joy? Well, I don’t think any chapter describes it better than Luke 15, which is the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, the prodigal son, and all three end in celebration. All right. Rejoice with me, I found my lost sheep. Rejoice with me, I found my lost coin. Kill a fatted calf, let’s have a feast and celebrate, my son has come home. It’s joy, joy, joy. Well, that joy is not complete until all of the elect are saved. And so, we are writing this to make our joy complete, and it won’t be complete until you are perfected in your salvation and so also are all of the people that God has chosen. “All that the Father gives me,” Jesus said, “will come to me.” And when they do, then our joy will be complete.

I want to say one more thing about this, write this to make our joy complete, the sense of an incomplete joy or an incomplete fellowship. We have the hall of faith in Hebrews 11 and all of these great, great individuals who we believe are spirits of righteous people made perfect. They are absent from the body, present with the Lord, but they don’t have resurrection bodies yet. And at the end of Hebrews 11, it says, “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them, none of them receive what was promised.” They’re all waiting. Waiting for what? Well, God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. So, there’s an incompleteness to even those great individuals, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and David and Daniel and all the prophets there and all the saints that have gone before us, they’re incomplete. They’re not done. Their joy is not yet complete. Their salvation, frankly, isn’t even complete because they don’t have resurrection bodies yet.

And God had planned that only together with us would they be made perfect. And I think this is what the rapture is all about, which is the dead in Christ will rise first and after that we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord and then we will be together with the Lord forever. That’s resurrection in the flash, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, boom, we all get it at the same time. And so, at that point, your joy will be complete, Wes, and so will mine and so will all of our Christian hearers, where our joy will be made complete then.

Until then, we got work to do. So, I get that sense that he’s writing here in verse 4, “We write this to make our joy complete.”

Wes

Really, the remainder of this chapter has to do with walking in the light. What is the message that John declares here about God and how did he hear it first before proclaiming it to us?

Andy

Okay, it’s a very significant message. I’ve mentioned it many, many times in sermons and we need to understand it. This is the message we have heard from him. God told this to us and he’s telling us, “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” It’s a very significant statement. To John, the metaphor of light and darkness are very, very important. “The light shines in the darkness,” he says in 1 John, I mean John 1:5, “and the darkness has not comprehended it,” or extinguished it, put it out, et cetera. And so light and darkness are very big themes. And to John, light represents moral purity, holiness, goodness, love. And darkness represents the opposite, represents evil, wickedness, death, murder, sin.

And when Judas took the bread from Jesus, marking him as the one who had betrayed Jesus, Satan entered into him and Jesus commanded him, “Judas, what you’re about to do, do quickly” (John 13:27). And John tells us in John’s account, Judas went out to go betray Jesus and it was night. There’s no accident that he writes, “And it was night” (John 13:30). Because in Luke’s gospel he says, “This is your hour when darkness reigns” (Luke 22:53). So that light/darkness metaphor is very important, not just in John, but also in Luke and other places. So, what are we saying? God is light, meaning he is absolutely pure and free from evil in all respects. He is light straight through. There is no evil in him at all.

And it reminds me of what James says when he says, “When tempted, no one’s to say God is tempting me because God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone, but each one is tempted when by his own evil desire, he’s dragged away” (James 1:13). God doesn’t have any evil in him, he doesn’t have any evil desires. He doesn’t pull anyone toward evil. It’s not in his nature to do that. And so, he’s pure straight through. And that’s a very, very important thing to keep in mind. It’s one of the most important statements about the essential holiness and character of God. He’s free from all evil in all respects.

I think it’s similar to Habakkuk 1:13, which says, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrong.” God can’t even look at it. He is not evil. He is pure light straight through. It’s important that we understand that this message of the holiness of God is something that he heard. Now understand, we all start essentially evil. If you look at Romans 3, there’s nobody exempt. There was no one righteous, not even one. No one who does good, not even one. And that included John. We all start out evil. And so, we have to hear this message that we who are evil, and Jesus says that about fathers. He said, “Even though you are evil, you know how to give good gifts to your children.” (Matthew 7:11). It’s like, whoa, a little bit, we got slapped around there. That’s true though.

I mean we are a brood of vipers. We are descendants of the sinner, Adam. That’s our nature. And we have to be told God is light and we’re not. We start in the darkness. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. And so, we had to hear that message. And that message we’ve heard and now declare to you is this, it’s that God is light and in him there’s no darkness at all. Also, God cannot have fellowship with darkness. So, if we are in the darkness, we can’t be in God’s presence. He won’t let us there. So, we have to be not just a little bit light or partial light. We have to be pure light, as pure as God is. I think what’s incredible about this is all of the redeemed will end up light and in us there’ll be no darkness at all either. That’s incredible.

Wes

So, this is the message, John says, that he’s heard and now he’s proclaimed it to us. So, we now know the message. But there’s this sense that just hearing that message is not enough. It seems that there are people who know enough about the message to claim to have fellowship with God and yet walk in darkness. What kind of people would claim to have fellowship with God and yet walk in darkness? And how is this kind of hypocrisy a danger for us all?

Andy

Well, you said it in that final statement. They’re hypocrites. They’re whitewashed tombs. They look good on the outside, but inside full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean, Jesus said (Matthew 23:27). And so, they’re self-deceived, they are lying to themselves. And so, what is it? These people that are part of the community, they are with us now, but they’re living a secret life. There’s something else going on.

Now in chapter 2, he’s going to talk about the many antichrists that have gone out from us. And so, I think this is talking about people who started with the Christian church and at some point had significant doctrinal or lifestyle disagreements and broke off and stopped fellowshipping with them. And John will tell us in chapter 2:19, “They went out from us because they were not really of us.” But there are some people that haven’t done that yet, but they’re not really of us either. They just look good. And so, they are deceiving themselves and they’re deceiving people around us. And so, we don’t always know what’s actually truly going on.

So, a good example of this, of course, the best example is Judas. When Judas took that piece of bread and Satan entered into him, and he went out and Jesus had said, “What you’re about to do, do quickly” (John 13:27), the other apostles did not know what was going on. And thought he was going out to buy supplies for the feast. I mean right up to the last moment, they didn’t know who the traitor was. And so, here’s a guy that looked like one of them, but he was lying. He was living a lie, and it was all along. It wasn’t like he suddenly turned. He had been stealing from the money bag. He was walking in the darkness while he looked good on the outside.

So big picture, what this is speaking to is people who go to church, they’re living the moral life, claim to be Christians. They’ve been baptized, probably, say that they’re doing all this stuff, but the truth is otherwise. And this epistle is for them, as I said in the introductory comments. They need to be jarred out of their complacency and out of their self-deception and their delusion, and they need to repent and come to a genuine faith in Christ. So, he’s dealing with gospel hypocrites here.

Wes

In contrast to verse 6, we get verse 7. How does verse 7 describe a genuine and healthy Christian life? And how does walking in the light enable good Christian fellowship?

Andy

All right, so the metaphor walk has to do with daily life, one foot in front of the other, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, that kind of thing, your lifestyle. And so, it’s practical. It’s everything you do. And so, to walk in the light means a daily life that is informed and saturated by the truth of the gospel and by the Spirit of Christ and by the laws of God. He’s going to talk much about laws and the commandments of God. So, we’re going to be following his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. We’re going to obey them. That’s walking in light. It’s a lifestyle of holiness in conformity to the commands of God by the power of the Spirit of God. That’s what it means to walk in the light.

And it says, “As he is in the light.” And so, it’s interesting that he there could be Jesus there. It could be just God. We’ve already been talking about God, “As God is light and he is in the light.” And I think being in the light is he has put out a cloud of light. He’s put out a radiance of light for the benefit of his creatures, angels and humans. They can see the light. And so, God is in that light he puts out. He’s consistent to the things he said, and we walk in that light, which is truth coming from the word of God, a lifestyle of purity and holiness. This is actually verse 7, a very important statement. “If we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another.” And the rest of the verse is very important too.

Wes

Well, let’s talk about the rest of the verse. This idea of the blood of Jesus his Son cleansing us from all sin, how significant is that? And really not just the fact, but an ongoing reminder for ourselves of this as we try to grow in maturity in Christ.

Andy

Right. The verb tenses are everything for me here. And we’re going to need this verse. We’re going to come back to this verse because later in the book, in 1 John 3, John basically says things that imply gospel perfection, perfectionism even. He’s going to say in 1 John 3:4-6, can you read that? You have ESV.

Wes

Yeah. In chapter three?

Andy

Yeah.

Wes

Verses 4-6?

Andy

3:4-6.

Wes

He says, “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

Andy

Well, every translation, including the ESV, NIV, change the translation a little bit because it would drive us crazy if they didn’t. And I think it’s doctrinally true, but it’s not translation true. So actually, could you read that and just let’s keep it simple? The Greek in 1 John is the simplest in the New Testament, and it just simply says “sins.” So just read verse 6 and just says “sins.”

Wes

No one who abides in him sins.

Andy

Keep reading.

Wes

No one who sins has either seen him or known him.

Andy

Would you find that problematic if you read it?

Wes

Uh-oh.

Andy

It’s like, all right, we’re done. We’re done.

Wes

Yeah.

Andy

And then you’re like, “Well, I never met anyone that this is even talking about.” Is there some secret society somewhere of perfect people who are the real Christians and the rest of us are going to hell? And so that perfection is very troubling. And John is laying it on really thick here in 3:6 because he really wants people to live a holy life. It does really matter how you live, but it can bring you to despair and you’re like, “All right, I’m not perfect. I must not be a Christian.” 1 John 1:7 is the remedy. So, we’re going to partner those when we get to there. We’re going to come back to this, but here’s how it’s the remedy. It has to do with the verb tense.

If we walk in the light today, right now, as he is in the light, we are presently right now having fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus is right now purifying us from all sin, not has purified us. In that case, that verse wouldn’t help us because we’re like, “All right, you got to be sinless for the blood of Jesus to have purified us.” But no, it doesn’t say that. It is the blood of Jesus is purifying us right now.

So, this is the sense I get. I picture sin coming out of us like dirt out of our pores. It just kind of exudes out of us under certain pressures of life such as marriage and parenting or pastoring a church or driving on the road or interacting with non-Christians at work. Sin is just going to ooze out of us. Pride, irritability, selfishness just going to come out. And we are standing in a shower of grace all the time. And I get this from Romans 5 very, very beautifully in Romans 5:1-2. Could you read that? It’s so beautiful. Romans 5:1-2.

Wes

In verse 1 it says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into his grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Andy

So, think of that in which we stand, standing in grace. So, I got this picture of a hot shower of grace, and this grace is flowing over us all the time and we need it. We need it because, and he’s about to cover that in verses 8-10, because we sin all the time. We are prideful, we’re selfish, whatever. And if we say we’ve not, then we’re lying. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus is continually cleansing us from all the sins that come out.

So, here’s what it teaches me. 1 John 1:7 tells me I can walk in the light and still need cleansing from sin. So, it’s not teaching perfection because that cannot be in this life, but there’s an essential purity to our lives. But there’s still that need for cleansing and purification from all sin. So, 1 John 1:7 is a very important verse.

Wes

Yeah, it’s a vital verse for our faith. I think as we’ve been talking about this, it strikes me that there’s perhaps two equal and opposite errors here when it comes to ongoing sin in the life of a Christian. The first would be despair, that we would despair of the fact that we still sin when we’re on the road in traffic or in the office with a challenging co-worker. The other though would be denial. So, we could despair of our ongoing sin problem, or we could just deny it. We could seek to cover and not deal with our sin. And it seems like that’s what John addresses for us in the rest of this chapter in verses 8-10. So, help us understand in light of the glorious reality we just unpacked in verse 7, how verses 8-10 really help us in our ongoing fight against remaining sin.

Andy

I will do that. I want to expand just a little bit into the next chapter as well because he says, “Dear children, I write these things to you so that you will not sin, but if anyone does sin… that’s the hope we have.” So, John’s saying, “Look, you’re going to sin. And if so, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous One who has once for all time shed his blood as the propitiation for our sins, but is constantly living to intercede for us.” So, there’s a dynamic cleansing, but also a once for all forgiveness. And that is Christianity as I understand it. That’s justification, then sanctification, and then finally glorification.

And so fundamentally then, this is not teaching perfectionism, but it is teaching a walking in the light that tends toward perfection, aims for perfection every day. And so, to get then to the rest of this chapter, 8-10, it has to do with being honest. We’re going to claim that we have sinned in the past and that we sinned. Frankly, all of our sin is in the past, even if it’s a half second ago. Okay? It’s like, am I sinning right now? Yeah. Well, you sinned a second ago. So yeah, we have to be honest about what’s happened. It might be a moment ago, it might be 10 minutes ago, it might be an hour ago, it might be yesterday or last week.

The conviction of the Holy Spirit is with us. He convicts us and tells us that we’ve sinned. So, first of all, the prideful reaction is like, “No, I didn’t, I didn’t do it.” That’s the claim that we have not sinned. And then again in verse 10, claim we have not sinned, claim to be without sin, like we’re sinless. You can’t do that. And then claim we have not sinned specifically. So, here’s the thing, fundamentally, we still have a sin nature. If we claim that we have no sin nature, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We have to be honest about it. And other scriptures make this evidently clear.

The flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. They’re in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want. That’s Galatians 5:16 and following. So, you have a war between the flesh and the Spirit. John’s about saying the same thing. He’s saying, “Look, you’ve got indwelling sin, and you’ve got the indwelling Spirit,” all right? And the Spirit, his truth is in us, Christ is in us, et cetera. So, we’re going to be honest. We know that we’ve got a sin nature, verse 8. If we claim that we have no sin at all, we’re deceiving ourselves. So, Wes, what does that mean to deceive yourself? When you look at that, what does that mean?

Wes

Well, it’s negatively stated, but it’s almost like we’ve convinced ourselves of something that’s not true. So, we’ve pulled the wool over our own eyes. We actually think that we’re okay.

Andy

And that’s dangerous. Fact of the matter is we all have blind spots. And that’s why being in fellowship with good Christians is so vital. Somebody can come alongside and say, “Hey bro, I’m seeing some things in you.” It’s like, “No, I’m not.” It’s like, no, be honest. Look at it. Just go ask. And Psalm 1:39, “Search me, oh God, and know me.” Show me what’s going on. And so, we have to be progressively awakened. And that is the journey of sanctification anyway, isn’t it? It’s like there’s stuff in your life you still haven’t dealt with. We’re going to deal with it.

You look at Zacchaeus, right? The first and foremost thing he dealt with was his greed and the way he had defrauded people. Was that the only sin he had to deal with? No, ask his wife. We don’t know anything about his wife, but my guess is he had a lot of other sins to deal with just in the normal way, but that was the first and foremost one he had to deal with. So, it’s a journey of discovery and that discovery is painful. We’re going to find out all the different ways we sin. So, if we claim to be, we deceive ourselves, right? Lord, tell me the truth, show it to me.

Then verse 9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” That may be one of the top 30 or 40 verses in the Bible that if you’re only going to memorize 30 or 40 verses in the Bible, this should be one of them. And why is that? Because this will be useful to you every single day. All right? This should be part of your daily prayer time. It should be your quiet time. In your quiet time, you should spend some of your time confessing sin. You’re doing Psalm 139, “Search me, oh God, and know me.” How is my conscience testifying against me? How did I sin? What have I done in my marriage, my parenting? What have I done in my thought life, my internet life? What have I done? Sins of omission, commission the whole thing, show it to me.

And then when you do, Holy Spirit, I will confess it. Now what does that mean? Homologeo means to say the same thing. I’m going to say the same thing that God’s saying. I’m going to call it by its nature, lust, covetousness, greed, selfishness, laziness. I’m going to be honest; I’m going to confess it. And if I do, if I confess that sin, he is faithful and just. Now first and foremost, there’s a once for all at the moment of conversion, at the moment of justification, confession of sin. All right, that’s you saying, “I’m a sinner, save me.” Like in Luke 18 with the Pharisee and the tax collector, the tax collector stood at a distance, beat his breast, would not even look up to heaven, but said, “God have mercy on me the sinner” (Luke 18:13). And Jesus said he went home justified before God. So that’s that initial, I’m a sinner, save me.

But this is also detail. This is day-by-day lifestyle sin. All right, you’re convicted, something’s happened. Then we confess that sin. Now we’ve already been forgiven, past, present, and future. It’s already forgiven. You’re like, “Well, why do I have to confess it?” For fellowship’s sake, for the fellowship we have with the Father and with each other. I mean, wouldn’t you say that our marriages are affected by our sins, and we’re not really in warm, rich fellowship right now? Well, the same thing happens with Christ. He is offended. We think about David and Bathsheba, and he goes on in his way with his sin and all that. But it says ominously, “But the thing David did displeased the Lord.” (2 Samuel 11:27). And it says in Ephesians 4:30, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”

So, there are times that our sins grieve God. As soon as they happen, they grieve, and then the Spirit convicts and then we have to confess. So, if we confess our sins, we do it to restore our fellowship with God. We confess our sins. “He is faithful and just to forgive” (1 John 1:9). These are incredibly powerful words. First of all, faithful means he keeps his promises. And what he said is he has promised in Jesus to forgive everything. He’s going to forgive it all. And so, he’s faithful to the promise he made in Christ to forgive, faithful to us. But I think it’s more important to understand that he’s faithful to our mediator.

The word justice would be a terrifying word for us if it were not for the atonement, if it were not for God’s intention.

He’s faithful to Jesus. It’s like there was a deal. No, there wasn’t like, there was a deal, a covenant made between the Father and the Son that fundamentally the Father would give the elect to the Son. And the Son said, “All right, Father, I’ll die for them, but you have to forgive them.” And it’s not like the Father needed any persuading. That was the whole purpose. But he is faithful to Jesus, and he is just to forgive, just toward Jesus. Now this is the very important thing. The word justice would be a terrifying word for us if it were not for the atonement, if it were not for God’s intention. This is the very insight that led Martin Luther to understand the gospel properly. And that is the righteousness of God.

In the gospel it says, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. For in the gospel, the righteousness or justice of God is revealed from faith, for faith. As it is written, the righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17). And you realize this is a happy verse. This is a salvation verse. I had thought of the justice of God as my holy terror. That which was the greatest terror of my life was the justice of God, his commitment to make certain that every sin that has ever been committed is dealt with properly at his bar of justice. We have no hope. The justice of God is our greatest enemy.

Reminds me of a time that a deserter was brought before a particularly Christian religious general. And the general was known for his Christian commitment, but also for his justice. And the penalty for desertion in wartime is death. And this prisoner was brought before the general and he said, “Do not be afraid, my son, you’ll get justice from me.” He said, “That’s exactly what I’m afraid of because I know what’s going to happen if you give me justice.” What he wanted was mercy.

And so, here’s the thing, justice would be justice to condemn, but that’s not what the verse says. It’s just to forgive. So how do we understand that? Once we have made a covenant with Jesus, through faith in him, once we have come to faith in Christ, the justice of God then swings around, and it would be unjust for him not to forgive. It’d be he broke his promise, and he will never do that. He is just to forgive. And it’s a very powerful verse. He is not going to say to Jesus, “Your blood was not enough to cover that sin.” And so we have to confess our sins so that we can experience that.

And then finally it says, “The blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin.” So, the next step is there’s a purification for sin, a cleansing. And what that does is Spirit’s not going to leave us guilty. He’s going to say, “You’re forgiven, but we got work to do.” And he’s going to start purifying your mind, your conscience, your heart and your lifestyle.

Wes

How does John conclude this chapter and what final thoughts do you have for us on this passage?

Andy

Yeah, so we finish with this last verse. If we claim we have not sinned, we’ve already said that we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. So, it just finishes the thought. Eight through 10 is a unit. I think it’s big picture claim to be without sin and in detail, verse 10, claim we have not sinned. And in that case, first of all, we’re deceiving ourselves. Second of all, we’re saying God is a liar. God is telling you you’ve sinned. And so, you’re telling him, “No, I haven’t.” You’re saying that he’s a liar. Well, he’s not. And if so, then his word has no place in our lives. We’re not Christians. Honesty about sin is essential to being a Christian. That’s what we get at. Be honest, bring your sin to it and he will forgive you and cleanse you out.

Let me finish with this one insight that I had some time ago and I want to share it with you. It’s very, very powerful. It has to do with the insight that forgiveness is covering, atonement is covering, and it comes from Psalm 32, quoted in Romans 4:7, It says, “Blessed is a man whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.” And so, it’s a parallelism where it says basically, forgiveness of sin is covering.

And I had the insight at some point of realizing, God really can’t take away our sin. It’s permanent in his mind. He’ll always remember what we did. But what he can do is he can cover it, and he covers it with the atonement. The Yom Kippur is day of covering. It’s a covering up. Atonement is a covering with the atoning work of Christ. And so, he basically blocks his holy sight. His eyes are too pure to look on evil. He puts clothing or block between our corrupt, wicked sin and his holy eyes. And that is the blood of Jesus. So that’s what covering is.

Well, what’s so powerful to me is, and it’s so cool because there’s a proverb. Proverb 28:13 says, “He who conceals his sin does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” So concealing is covering it yourself. That’s what people do. That’s what Adam and Eve did. They made fig leaves and cover themselves, right? But it’s not adequate. So, if you conceal your own sin, if you cover it up yourself, you’re not going to prosper. But if you confess it, it means uncover it before the holy eyes of God and be honest about it. If you confess and if you renounce your sin, you’re going to find mercy.

And so fundamentally, what we get here is we have to be honest about our sins comprehensively. We are sinners through and through. We bring that to Jesus, and he covers us. We are sinners in detail of that time. We bring that honestly and he covers it as well. So, it’s a very beautiful truth.

Wes

This has been Episode 1 in our 1, 2, & 3 John Bible Study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for Episode 2 entitled, Genuine Christians Obey and Love, where we’ll discuss 1 John 2:1-14. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

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