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Title: Sin, Law, and Abiding
I. Sin is Lawlessness
(Read v. 4)
This is one of the few points in I John where John makes a reference to “Law” or the Old Testament in general.
(This has lent significant weight to the idea that this specific group of people that John is writing to, this group that he labels time and time again as “my little children” are indeed mostly from a Gentile makeup. If their makeup was largely Jewish, you’d expect more frequent and more specific appeals to the Old Testament, similar to what we see in the book of Hebrews.)
The essence of what John is saying, though, is noteworthy. John tells us plainly that sin is lawlessness. Well, the majority of John’s audience is not Jewish, you and I today are not Jewish, so what law is being broken?
Obviously, the answer is the Law that is written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Our law is to follow the scriptures and the law’s fulfillment, Christ Jesus.
Christ Jesus told us not to sin. Moreover, if you remember last week’s sermon, I argued that Christ went even further than that, telling us not just to deal with our sin, but to deal ruthlessly with our sin when he suggests: “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off…” (Matthew 5:30)
My Point: In order to not sin, we must understand what sin is. Sin is not simply when we “mess up” or “do something wrong.” That is far too simplistic an understanding of sin. Rather, we’d do better to biblically understand that sinning is a breaking of God’s Law. Not just his “rules” but his Law.
Today, if I break the law, I face imprisonment, if I break the law seriously enough, I face death. Do you see what I’m getting at? When we sin, we are law breakers. And we’re not breaking man made laws, we’re breaking holy laws, perfect laws, God’s laws. What other punishment is possible for breaking a law of a perfect, holy, and just God, than death itself?
Let me put it another way. It isn’t about the act, it’s about who the act offends. If I get mad and punch Mike Ringler, I may face assault charges. If found guilty I could spend up to six months in prison.
But if I throw the same punch at Barack Obama, I could face assassination charges, I could face the death penalty. Same act, different offences.
Now, let’s say I throw a punch at a perfect and holy God, who’s laws are also perfect and holy. For my offense, death is the only cure. And death did cure us. But it wasn’t our death that brought us to grace, was it?
II. Only A Sinless Sacrifice Could Appease God.
(Read v. 5)
Here we see John clearly tell us that Christ was “manifested” for just that reason, to give us grace, to take away our sin.
And John only offers one qualifier as to what made Christ able to do this.
What is that qualification?
Christ had no sin.
(Story of Pastor’s son and Sunday School teacher saying Christ sinned as a child)
If Christ sinned, then he is immediately in the same camp that you and I are in. The miracles, the power, the prophecy, those things couldn’t help Christ stand before a Holy God. Only his sinlessness allows him to intercede and bear the punishment for our sin against the same holy God.
III. The issue is “Abides”
(Read v. 6)
At first, verse 6 may seem troubling. All of us today are more than willing to confess two things that we know about ourselves:
1. We have sinned, do sin, and will sin
2. We claim to know Christ.
Well, before we freak out over what John says here, let us look back at what John himself wrote in this same letter in 1:8
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
So, obviously, John is not saying that Christians don’t sin. The issue for understanding this verse correctly in its context lies in that pesky little recurring word, “Abide.”
Remember: Abide means to literally remain, or to not stray from something.
Well, what do we do when we are sinning? What are we doing when we are backsliden? We are NOT Abiding!
J.I. Packer understands it this way:
The present tense of the Greek suggests behavior that is characteristic or usual. In this way, John acknowledges, but does not excuse the possibility of occasional sin.
In other words, the expectation from John is that the normal status of we as Christians is that we don’t sin. Our normal default position is to remain in Christ’s will. When we, as Christians sin, it should feel abnormal.
Here’s my follow up question: Does it?
I alluded to this during last week’s sermon when I said: My concern is not that you struggle with sin, we all do, we all should. My concern is if you are sinning, or living in sin, and there really isn’t a struggle.
Be honest with yourself. Be honest with yourself. You know your sin. You know what you are prone to do. Do you struggle? Can you honestly say today that your default position is to remain in God’s will.
Friends, if the answer to that question is “No.” I beg you, I beg you, talk to me today, before you leave this building.