As I write
these words much of the financial world is in upheaval over the recent
referendum in Great Britain regarding whether to leave the European Union or to
stay. As many of you are aware the vote
went a direction most people did not expect.
The country decided, by a narrow margin, to remove itself from the
EU. The media has labeled this popularly
as “Brexit”, for British Exit. And in
the wake of this landmark democratic event global markets are churning due to
fear, the political landscape of the United Kingdom is in turmoil, and many of
the ordinary citizens are left wondering what in the world is going on.
Probably the
decisive factor in how all this is playing out is a single emotion; fear. People, in general, dislike the unknown. Our minds yearn for structure in the chaos of
this sin drenched world. Especially for
we in the western hemisphere who tend toward the logical and the pragmatic,
fear of the unknown can be debilitating.
To state the issue another way; we want to bet on a sure thing. So when we come to a situation like the
Brexit, where no expert can tell us with assurance exactly how things are going
to play out in the stock markets, we tend to recoil and dump questionable investments. In politics, British power brokers who once
thought they had an iron grip on the reins of their country are finding that
not only is their hold on power illusory, but in some cases even their very
future careers are now on the chopping blocks.
In light of
the uncertainty of the times we live in it should offer us tremendous comfort
to know that within the gospel of God there is an absolute rock solid
assurance. He graciously offers us
overwhelming proof of the grounds upon which we stand; namely His own
character. And He follows that up with
an ironclad and proven method of determining both our status as His adopted
children and our eternal future as people destined for glory. The Lord God in 1 John 2:1-6 offers us
nothing less than a blessed assurance of the salvation upon which we base our
hope for the future. Today we are going
to look at the first component of this assurance, in verse 1 and 2.
That first element
of our confidence is indeed the character of God Himself. John has already laid the groundwork in
chapter one by calling our attention to God’s faithfulness and righteousness as
well as His pure goodness, represented by the metaphor of light. Now he will add yet another layer to our
understanding. But first the apostle
interjects a bit of his own personality and desire into the equation in chapter
2 and verse 1: My little children, I am
writing these things to you so that you may not sin. Right off the bat we can see the heart of
this elder statesman of the church. He
chooses a word here that conveys his feelings toward his audience: “teknia”. This doesn’t just mean a child. It narrowly refers to a very small child,
perhaps an infant or a toddler. An
example of this can be seen in Matthew 2:18: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping
for her children; and she refused to be comforted, because they were no more.”
The scene is
the infamous Herodian slaughter of small children in Bethlehem in an effort to
eliminate Jesus. Babies had been ripped
from their mother’s arms and brutally killed on the spot without mercy or
compassion. And the poor mothers were
left absolutely devastated and in shock.
Their wails and moans of anguish must have pierced the night air and
risen like a crescendo into the sky. If
you have children of your own, put yourself in the position of these
unfortunate parents on this hellish night some two thousand years ago. Imagine the pain you would feel. Now ask yourself the question: why would you
feel that way? More specifically, what
is it about the parent/child relationship that precipitates such emotions? A number of factors come to my mind:
sacrificial love, shared existence, and an urge to protect.
We love our
children so dearly with a sacrificial love because we know beyond a shadow of a
doubt that they issued forth from us.
They are a part of our DNA which causes them to be very similar to us in
some respects. The children God blesses
us with in some ways become extensions of our own character as they are
imprinted by our behavioral patterns through the course of their
development. This bonds them to us as
surely as glue holds together two pieces of paper. The tie can be broken, but not without emotional
and/or physical violence, and not without great distress.
Not only
that, but our kids form a part of the fabric of the lives we have become
accustomed to. Living in the same
residence with someone else for an extended period of time typically results in
an incorporation of that person’s presence into our perception of what is
normal. The newness of having another
living human being in such close proximity begins to wane. We become accustomed to them. Our inhibitions around them loosen and our
relaxation intensifies. Of course this
is all assuming a normal relationship unspoiled by abuse or other negative
factors. And in this mostly positive
context, if that other entity were to be removed the loss would be immediately
obvious and profound. Our understanding
of normalcy would eventually return, but it would be neither fast nor easy.
Furthermore,
parents instinctively sense their role as protectors of the young. A newborn baby is so obviously helpless
against the ravages of this world that we don’t even have to think twice to
immediately realize that they need to be cared for. The very young are not just physically
incapable of defending themselves from harm.
They are also intellectually not up to the challenge of even recognizing
when danger is present. The awareness of
problems as well as the tools to surmount them are in the hands of the adults
exclusively in the parent/child relationship.
Thus, when a
little one is injured or sick, a part of their protector’s mind becomes
distressed by the failure to offer adequate shielding for the person who is in
their care. This unrest is added to all
the other negative emotions being experienced and serves to amplify the
feelings to debilitating levels.
So we can
easily understand where the mothers in Bethlehem were coming from on the night
of slaughter spoken of in Matthew. But
this is not the only way “teknia” is used in Scripture. It was also utilized by Jesus in reference to
His disciples. More specifically, the
Lord directed this affectionate moniker toward His twelve specially chosen
Apostles in John 13:33: “Little
children, I am with you a little while longer.
You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you,
‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’”
These were the men Christ had invested three years of His life
into. They were the ones whom He was
counting on to continue His ministry after He had departed and gone back to
heaven. Make no mistake. This ministry was of absolutely monumental
significance and importance to Jesus because it was His Father’s work that He
was there to accomplish. This ministry
was so important to Jesus that it took on a level of prominence equal to or
greater than the very food which served to continue His physical life. So to say that these twelve men were special
to Him probably doesn’t do His level of affection justice.
All of these
elements are pouring out from John’s heart as he addresses us in this
letter. He doesn’t just call us
“teknia”, or little children. He refers
to us as “my” little children. John
personalizes the parent/child and master/disciple relationship that he shares with
his audience. There is no hint of
condescension in his words. The callous
John who wanted to call down fire from heaven to burn people who disagreed with
him is nowhere to be found. The arrogant
John who dared to request the place of highest honor beside Christ in His glory
has been burned away by the sanctifying work of God. All that remains is the loving elder who
cares so deeply for his spiritual children in the faith that he earnestly longs
for their victory over sin in the latter half of verse 1: I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
But wait a minute! Isn’t this the same guy that just said “If we
say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves” and “If we say that we
have not sinned, we make Him a liar”? If
those are both true then how can he possibly expect us to not sin? Has our dear Apostle John given in to old age
and dementia such that he has forgotten what he just wrote on the previous
page, so to speak?
Of course he
hasn’t. The explanation is perfectly
simple and entirely reasonable. John,
although he knows we are sinners by both commission and condition, still
harbors a desire to be free from sin both for himself and for his spiritual
children, us. He also knows from
experience that through the work of the Holy Spirit a believer can, over time,
sin less frequently than they once did. To
illustrate this allow me to play a bit further on the already established
parent/child imagery. Any parent worth
their salt will encourage their children to obey them. Yet they know perfectly well that sometimes
the child will not live up to that expectation.
But that knowledge doesn’t diminish in the parent the strong desire for
obedience. It’s the same principle here
with John. He is giving us instruction
for the purpose of helping us to fight sin.
He knows we will lose battles.
But he wants us to win more of them as we mature. And ultimately, through the power of Christ
and the promise of God John knows that the overall victory in the greater war
is assured. So he can easily say that he
is writing to us so that we will not sin without contradicting himself in the
slightest.
With that
being said, an important question to consider is this. How can what John is writing to us actually
help us to not sin? I think his words
aid us in two ways, through a blend of encouragement and warning. Again returning to the parent/child metaphor,
what does a good parent do when they are training their kids in
righteousness? Let’s get very specific
and say the lesson being taught is on not lying. What is the best practice to approach this
situation? Should the parent command
their child to tell the truth and then only threaten them with impending
punishment for any infractions? No,
because this creates a simple outward obedience mechanism without any heart
change within. Perhaps the adult would
be best to refrain from mentioning discipline and stick exclusively to the
benefits of obedience. This really won’t
work either in the long run and it’s not fair to the child. It won’t work because eventually a point is going
to come when that young person will be tempted to lie. This is a guaranteed reality. And when that happens the fear of punishment
is a powerful deterrent that can be exceedingly useful as a tool to guard us
from our own stupidity. Additionally,
such an approach is not fair to the child.
Without a clear understanding of the negative realities of their actions
they are left with half a deck of cards to play with in life.
The best
approach a parent can take in this situation is to carefully and thoughtfully
explain to their child, ahead of time, both the negative consequences of
disobedience and the positive benefits of obedience. “If you lie you will receive a
spanking.” “If you tell the truth your
enjoyment of having a relationship with me will be much greater.” I think that is basically the same thing John
is doing here in his epistle. He has
given us both the positive motivation for avoiding sin in that God is light and
faithful and righteous. John has
presented the Lord to us as the best of all things. He is confident that if we truly buy into
this truth that it will provide a powerful motivation to do what’s right inasmuch
as we desire to please this great God.
On the flip side, John has made it very clear what the consequences of
sin are. We will be guilty of lying to
ourselves, making God out to be a liar, and being divorced from the truth. These twin elements of benefit and
consequence resulting in motivation is all that John has to offer his
readers. But he can do so with the
confident assurance that the Holy Spirit will take his words and forge them
into a powerful and life changing catalyst in the hearts and minds of
believers.
John is not
a lunatic. He is a realist who has lived
through a lifetime of opposition to sin.
He is well aware of its destructive and insidious onslaught. I think it is already pretty clear that John
is desirous that we not sin yet he knows that we will, some of the time. Now in the latter half of verse 1 he drives
that point home: And if anyone sins. In other words when you sin, John says, pay attention
to what comes next: we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Advocate is
an interesting word. It is translated
from the Greek “parakletos”, meaning one who argues another’s cause before a
judge. Other terms that come to mind are
intercessor, pleader, and of course lawyer.
This is the person who is going to come to our rescue. We stand trial, accused of horrible
crimes. Our fate hangs in the
balance. And we can offer nothing in our
defense. We stand mute before the judge,
helpless and alone. We don’t have any
friends. We lack the funds to hire an
attorney. Even if we could speak we know
perfectly well there is nothing we can say that will dissuade the judge from
pronouncing a guilty verdict. We stand
upon the precipice of our doom and there is no one can save us.
But
wait! There is a disturbance at the door
of the court room. A commotion arises
from outside. The hubbub of voices are heard. The door opens and in walks confidently a
magnificent man. He is dressed
immaculately in fabulous attire. His
face is clear and unconcerned. A
determined resolve shines in His eyes.
He glances neither to the right nor to the left as He strides
purposefully down the length of the room.
He stops momentarily upon reaching us, glances down, places his hand
comfortingly upon our shoulder, and whispers “I’ve got this.”
Then he
turns and approaches the judge’s bench.
They confer together quietly for a moment. Then the man faces the open court room and
begins to speak. He tells of how the
crimes you are accused of are heinous in the extreme. Furthermore, you are guilty of every last one
of them, He says. The audience is
stunned. The man is sealing your
fate. But then He smiles and proclaims
that He has already paid the penalty for your crimes. Your debt to society is no longer owed due to
His sacrifice. And He contends that a
not guilty verdict is the only appropriate response of the court to this
extraordinary situation. The judge
solemnly intones that the prisoner is to be set free and completely absolved of
all crimes. And in a whirlwind of
confused emotion, unsure whether to laugh or to cry, you rush into the arms of
your savior and He holds you to His breast forever.
This is the
impossible service that Jesus performs for us.
He stands in the docket and pleads our case. But amazingly, he doesn’t even attempt to
prove our innocence. Instead He took the
punishment on our behalf and did such an incredible job of it that the penalty
He paid is sufficient for all time.
And consider
just what a legal defense He offers to us.
He is qualified. There is none
who is righteous, except for Jesus. 2
Corinthians 5:21 informs us that: He
made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him. There
is no one else who is even on the same playing field as Christ in terms of
qualifications.
He is
educated. His knowledge of the
Scriptures is second to none because He wrote them and they are about Him. In Matthew chapter 4, when Satan the tempter
came with his futile attempt to waylay the Son of God, Jesus responded only by
quoting the word of God. He knows the
Scriptures backwards, forwards, upwards, and downwards.
He is
experienced. Jesus has lived through the
entirety of a human life. He has
firsthand experience of our struggles, our delights, and our conditions. And although He Himself has known no defeat
He has had a front row seat to those around Him continually dropping the ball
in abject failure.
We are well
and truly safe in the loving embrace of this powerhouse attorney. And the sweet icing on this delicious cake of
grace is that, even if we sin in the future we are still under the protection
of our personal intercessor. The danger
of conviction will never loom over us because He always lives to continually
plead for us. Romans 8:33-34: Who will bring a charge against God’s
elect? God is the One who justifies; who
is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is
He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who
also intercedes for us. The proof is
in the raising up to new life that Christ was granted. Because He has already faced down death,
passed through it, and defeated it we are assured that He will always live to
stand before the judge and point to His sacrifice on the cross. This is the means by which His blood
“cleanses us from all sin”, as John stated in the previous chapter.
One final
point about Christ as parakletos and we will move on. Think about how magnificent a picture of the
tri-une nature of God is implicit in this verse and the court room imagery
parakletos conjures in our minds. John
says that our advocate pleads with the Father.
The Father is the judge in this picture.
Jesus of course is the One who presents our defense to the judge. But the Holy Spirit, although He is not
mentioned specifically in this passage, most definitely comes into play. Consider the text of John 14:16: I will ask the Father, and He will give you
another Helper, that He may be with you forever. Jesus is speaking to His disciples and
foreshadowing the arrival of the Spirit of God who will come to indwell
them. The word that is translated here
as helper is in fact the exact same word as in 1st John 2:2,
parakletos. This means that not only is
Jesus Christ our defender but the Holy Spirit is as well. But how does that work? Does He stand with Jesus before the judge?
That doesn’t quite seem to fit the idea of
our passage in 1st John. Nor
does it line up with other Scriptures that tell us about the work of the
Spirit, such as John 16:13: But when He,
the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will
not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He
will disclose to you what is to come. The
Spirit seems to be functioning as a messenger here rather than someone up front
in view of the crowd. And in the very
next verse of John chapter 16 we see the Spirit functioning as a witness: He will glorify Me, for He will take of
Mine and will disclose it to you.
So what
then? How does the Holy Spirit function
in the court room drama of 1st John?
I think the answer is given in Romans 8:16: The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of
God. The Spirit is like a star
witness who is brought into the court room to give true and accurate testimony
about our standing as adopted children of God.
He has been right there with us throughout our lives, watching and
recording, prompting and warning. Just
as John was an eyewitness of Christ, so the Holy Spirit is an eyewitness of our
lives.
So to
complete the picture and flesh it the rest of the way out would go something
like this. God the Holy Spirit testifies
that we have already been granted adoption into God’s family. As such we are to be given special consideration
by the court due to the reputation of our family. God the Son pleads our defense by rightly
stating that He has already paid for our crimes. As such we should be set free. And God the Father sits on the judge’s bench,
considering and weighing the scales of justice and redemption. As such He renders a verdict of not guilty of
all charges. This is an absolutely
towering picture of the glory and majesty and trinity of God on full display,
functioning together as a cohesive unit, granting grace and mercy to those who
don’t deserve it.
Continuing
the exposition into verse 2, we are given more information about our righteous
advocate: and He Himself is the propitiation
for our sins. This phrase warrants
some explanation. Propitiation is a
strange word and is not likely to be heard in casual conversations. In fact, it is such a theologically technical
term that some English translations don’t use it in an effort to be more
understandable for the reader. Instead
they typically use “atoning sacrifice”.
And while that may be helpful as an aid to a casual understanding, I
think it will be beneficial to explore the meaning behind propitiation.
The Greek
word that John uses in this sentence is “hilasmos”. This word is used in the New Testament only
by John, and only twice. Both
occurrences are here in 1st John.
The other is found in 4:10. This
makes it rather difficult to arrive a suitable English translation. Propitiation, expiation, and atonement have
all been suggested and in fact are related conceptually. So in an effort to expand our understanding
on this issue I will look at each word separately.
Propitiation
uses the prefix “pro”, meaning “for”.
This has the idea of currying favor and a changing of disposition. In this case it is God’s disposition toward
us that is altered. Formerly He was
against us, but after a propitiation is made He becomes for us. He changes from our enemy to our friend. He takes up our cause and adds us into His
family. So we can say that propitiation
has the effect of altering that which is outside of the one being
propitiated. Romans 3:25 illustrates
this beautifully. In referring to Christ
it says: Whom God displayed publicly as
a propitiation in His blood through faith.
This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of
God He passed over the sins previously committed. So we can see that in this case it is God who
is taking action and being affected here.
He is the one who is demonstrating forbearance by “passing over” our
sins.
By contrast,
expiation has a prefix of “ex”, meaning “from” or “out of”. The issue at hand with this word is something
being removed or taken away or brought out of.
In a Biblical context what we are talking about is sin. Expiation cleanses from, or removes, or takes
away sin on behalf of a penitent person.
Although the word is not used we can see this idea back in 1st
John 1:7 where it says: and the blood of
Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
In addition, Hebrews 9:13-14 can be instructive: For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow
sprinkled on those who are defiled consecrated them and provided ritual purity,
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works to
worship the living God.
This passage
is particularly helpful because it draws our attention to the Old Testament
Jewish sacrificial system. In this
context, the concept of being clean or unclean was quite prevalent. And this will help to layer our understanding
even further because Numbers 35:33 is the only place in the entire Bible, and
only in the NASB translation, where the English word expiation is used: So you shall not pollute the
land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land and
no expiation can be made for the land for the
blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who
shed it. The usage here is
making the case that the land is defiled by murder and cleansing, or expiation,
will not be accomplished easily.
The last of
our three words is atonement. This might
be familiar to you due to more frequent usage in churches today. It is defined as making reparation by giving
an equivalent compensation for an injury.
If a child breaks a neighbor’s window with a baseball, and the child’s
parents pay for the window to be replaced, the money they give is the atonement
they offer to give satisfaction for the offense of the broken glass. In other words, an atonement is the action
that produces a change of state in both parties of a grievance.
These words
are so closely linked to each other that in some instances translators have
taken the same original word from Scripture and translated it with one of the
three in one passage, and another of the three in another passage. An example of this is Numbers 35:33, given
above, and 2nd Chronicles 29:24.
Both passages contain the Hebrew word “kafar”. But in Numbers it is translated as expiation
while in Chronicles atone was chosen, as follows: The priests slaughtered them and purged the altar with their blood to
atone for all Israel, for the king ordered the burnt offering and the sin
offering for all Israel.
So to put
all three of these theological terms together we might say it like this. Christ’s death is the atonement that results
in our sin being expiated and God becoming propitious toward us. And although only the word propitiation is
used in the NASB, all of these concepts can be inferred from the single phrase
from 1st John 2:2, “He Himself is the propitiation for our
sins”. There is truly a mountain of
theological significance behind the scenes here. And I believe it is important for us to
understand the ramifications of what happened when Jesus was tortured and
crucified on our behalf. My hope is that
by expanding our minds on this topic we will appreciate what He has done for us
all the more.
With that
being said, there is one more very important question that needs to be answered
in verse 2. And although it doesn’t
directly speak to the main point I am going after I think it is necessary to
look at the question. It comes from the
final phrase of the verse: and not for
ours only, but also for those of the whole world. John is making the claim that Jesus is the
propitiation not just for our sins, those of us who have already been adopted
into the family of God, but also for others.
And it is there that the question arises. Namely, who are the others? What does John mean by “whole world”? Let’s be honest. That phrase sounds an awful lot like
universalism, doesn’t it? Is John saying
that the whole world will have their sins covered by the blood of Christ?
To get at
this we need to once again look at the original language. The word John chose to use in this verse is
“kosmos”. It means world, universe, or
humankind depending on context. It is a
blanket statement that is not meant to convey a sense of individuals. Rather, John is speaking of the world in a
collective umbrella sense. We do the
exact same thing today in our speech.
Going back once again to the topic of the Brexit, a recent Time magazine
article was titled “Why Brexit could be just the beginning for an angry
Europe”.
What did the author of this
article mean by the phrase “an angry Europe”?
Does he mean that every person across the entire continent of Europe is
going to be upset about Britain leaving the European Union? Well, I suppose he might be meaning literally
that, but if so it’s ridiculous. Of
course every single human being in Europe is not going to be angry about
it.
Some don’t much care. Others will see it as a positive
development. Still more will not be
happy about it but will make the best of what they see as a bad situation and
move on with their lives. In point of
fact, very few people will truly be angry over this situation.
If John had
wanted to convey the idea that every person on the whole planet was going to
have their sins expiated and God made propitious toward them due to the
sacrifice of Christ he would have used a different word or phrase in verse 2
such as “anthropos”, meaning “man” and/or “pasa”, meaning “every”. He might have done something similar to Paul
in Romans 13:1: Let every person be
subject to the governing authorities.
Paul’s audience was the church at Rome initially and all of Christendom
subsequently. And he very much did want
to get across the point that every one of us must indeed subject ourselves to
the governing authorities. So he used
the construct “pasa psuche”, which literally means “each living being”.
This is why
it is an incorrect interpretation to use 1st John 2:2 to make a case
for universalism or even for a universal atonement. We do not interpret “whole world” as
literally meaning “every person in the world” in our language usage today. And we should not treat John any different. His point was that generally speaking, due to
the work of Christ on the cross, salvation would now be made available to
people throughout the world. The phrase
“some of all types” has been used in the past to convey this idea.
At this
point in my essay we have been on a real roller coaster ride of nuances and
insights from which to approach these two verses. I believe a summary is in order to draw this
to a close and crystallize in our minds what John is going after. He has just finished laying out for us, in
chapter 1, verses 5 to 10, the main theme of his letter. Namely, that God is a perfected essence of
light and goodness. He serves as the
focal point for our awareness of reality.
He is the primary motivation behind any desire we might have to avoid
sin.
Furthermore,
John is quite blunt in his estimation of a parallel, or lack thereof, in
people’s actions and words. If you say
you walk in the light with God yet your actions demonstrate a pattern of
walking in darkness, then John calls you a liar and insists that you are filled
with falsehood rather than truth. He
wants to sort of shock us into spiritual wakefulness and awareness so that we
can understand more clearly where we err.
John does this because, just like a loving parent, his earnest desire is
that we would flee from sin and have victory.
Yet, in
spite of his hope he knows full well that we will fail at times. And when that happens John desperately wants
us to have the confidence of our position in Christ so as to be free from
doubt. Thus, he provides us with a
solid, blessed assurance of salvation.
We have only looked at the first component of this assurance. It is found in the person and work of Jesus
Himself. He is our high powered lawyer,
the dynamite advocate who comes in at the 11th hour and takes the
testimony of His star witness, the Holy Spirit, and combines that with the
revelation that He has already paid our debt to society. The result is that Judge God the Father
declares us not guilty of all charges and sets us free.
This is a
work that Christ will perform for us every minute of every day. He will never show up late for work. He will never miss his flight and be
delayed. He has been through death and
torment, and raised into new life, to stand before the throne of God eternally
making intercession for His brothers and sisters.
And what has
caused us to be adopted into His family as siblings of Jesus? He submitted Himself to horrible death on a
Roman cross to provide an atonement for the grievous insults we had heaped
against His Father. This almost
unbelievable act of sacrifice had the effect of expiating, or cleansing us from
our sins. And furthermore, it caused the
Father to be propitious, or “for” us where He was previously “against” us.
Honestly,
when we stop to consider the mountain of time, work, and effort on God’s part
that has already gone into our salvation, how in the world can we possibly
doubt anything? He has done it all for
us. He is the judge, jury, defense
attorney, and star witness at the trial.
He is the one who came up with the whole plan in the first place. He is the one who executed His own strategy
to absolutely stunning perfection. Our
salvation is all of Him and none of us.
Why would we doubt? Why indeed…
No comments:
Post a Comment