January 25, 2008
If We Say…
I John 1:5-2:2
I have a sin problem. I confess that to you this morning. It is a serious sin problem. It is a problem that has plagued me from my earliest childhood memories. It plagues me today. As I confess my sin problem to you this morning, I look out over this congregation and I know that I have lots of company. I know without any doubt as I look around this room, that everyone of you also has a serious sin problem. Most of you have wrestled with sin this week. And if any of you have not wrestled with sin this week, you have an even greater sin problem than the rest of us.
Sin comes in many shapes and forms: there are sins of commission and there are sins of omission. There are sins of thought and attitude, and there are sins of action. There are sins of motivation: doing good things, but for the wrong reason. There are sins of confusion: doing the wrong thing for the right reason. There are sins of ignorance, and there are deliberate sins. There are sins done in secret, and there are sins committed in the full light of day. There are inherited sins that we copied from our parents. There are sins we chose for ourselves. There are sins of weakness and there are sins that originate in our perceived strength and pride. The list can go on and on. The shape of our sins may vary, but we all have a sin problem.
Our sin problem creates a great dilemma. Turn with me to I John 1. In his opening paragraph, John has made a stunning claim, reading from verse 3b: And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
Our fellowship is with the Father. The word fellowship here is the word “koinonia” which we have been considering in Philippians. The root meaning of the word is “to hold in common.” If there is nothing in common, there is no fellowship.
Now in light of that stunning claim, John makes another great statement in verse 5: This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
This is one of the great propositional statements in Scripture about the nature of God. God is light, in his essence, nature and character. Light symbolizes glory, truth, righteousness and holiness.
That is the positive statement. Then John states it negatively: In him there is no darkness at all. God is utterly without any trace of darkness, sin, evil, falsehood.
Now, let’s trace the dilemma here. God is light, and there is no darkness in him. Fellowship depends on having something in common. How can we, who are so contaminated with sin, have fellowship with a holy God? It is this problem with John addresses in this paragraph.
Each of the remaining 5 verses in this chapter begins with the word “If”. Each verse presents a way of dealing with the sin problem and its effect on our relationship with God. Three of them are negative (they represent wrong answers) and two are positive (representing true answers).
The three wrong responses each begin with the words: “If we say”, or “If we claim.” They represent false teachings which had crept into the church. Let’s consider these together first. As we do so, we find that each of the wrong responses represent a form of denial.
A. Denying that sin affects our relationship with God.
If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. (verse 6)
First of all, what kind of life is this person living? It is described as walking in darkness. He is living in deliberate, known sin. He is violating the commands of Scripture. He is living his own way and doing as he pleases. Yet in the midst of this, he claims to have a great relationship with God. He denies that his sin affects his relationship with God.
Some in the history of the church made this claim in theory. There was a form of false teaching in John’s day which was referred to as Gnosticism. The Gnostics praised knowledge and sought great spiritual insight and spiritual experiences. But they also taught a dichotomy between the spiritual world and the physical world. The spiritual world was pure and full of light. The physical world was evil and corrupt. But because of the dichotomy between the two, what happened in the physical realm did not necessarily impact what was happening in the spiritual realm. It was possible to have great experiences and fellowship with God in the spiritual realm of knowledge, even while continuing to engage in corrupt and evil actions in the body.
Many people in churches today have never heard of Gnosticism and wouldn’t be able to define it if they were asked. And yet they live as practicing Gnostics; Living as they please all week long, then coming to church on the weekend with smiles on their faces, singing the hymns with gusto, and going home as though the one thing has nothing to do with the other.
Yet John speaks clearly to the fallacy of this thinking: If we claim to have fellowship with God yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. Our fellowship with God and our daily conduct are clearly and closely linked. Are you living a lie this morning?
The second form of denial that John calls our attention to is…
B. Denying the presence of the sin nature.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. (verse 8)
John, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is writing very carefully and we must read carefully. The word “sin” here is in the singular, and the verb is in the present tense. A literal rendering would be, “If we claim that we are not having sin.”
John is referring here to the sin nature, sin as a principle which indwells us. Even as believers, the Bible tells us that we still have the old nature, the flesh, the sin nature which dwells in us. It will continue to dwell in us as long as we are in these bodies. We need to realize it, not try to deny it. If we deny it, we are only deceiving ourselves.
There is a form of Christian teaching which teaches sinless perfection; that it is possible to reach a state in this world in which we no longer sin. I remember being in a small group discussion with a young man. We were sharing our spiritual journey and how God was working in our lives. He stated that his goal was to go for one whole minute without sin; a minute of sinlessness. When he had achieved that, then he would try for two. He had commendable zeal, but poor theology.
This same error comes at us in different forms. Many people make the claim that people are basically good; not perfect, but good. We are essentially good people who make mistakes. What we need to do is to bring out the innate goodness in each of us. This perfectability and goodness of man becomes the basis and ground of humanism. But we are deceiving ourselves. As Paul said it in Romans 7:18: “I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” If we claim that we do not have sin, we deceive ourselves.”
There is yet one more form of denial…
C. Denying that we sin.
If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. (verse 10)
At first reading, this may sound the same as verse 8, but it actually goes further. Verse 8 speaks of denying the presence of the sin nature or sin principle within us. This person denies ever actually sinning. In verse 8, the claim is, “I am a good person who may occasionally makes mistakes.” In verse 10, “I am a good person who never sins.” In order to claim this, we must ignore Scripture and redefine sin (as the Gnostics did).
All of these false claims are based on denial. Whether it is denial of actually sinning, whether it is denying our sin nature, or whether it is denying that our sins affect our relationship with God, we have to stop fooling ourselves. We have to stop pretending that we have wonderful fellowship with God while sin is running rampant in our lives.
Let’s look at this another way, reading it backwards as a way of defining our sin problem. Once we lay aside our denials and speak the truth, what will we be forced to admit? We have sinned. We have sin (a sin nature). And sin affects our fellowship with God.
Denying the problem is like a person with diabetes trying to deny he has the disease and refusing to take his insulin or control his diet. If denial is the wrong response, what is the right response? There are two right responses described in these verses. Two positive “ifs”
A. Walk in the Light.
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, purifies us from all sin. (Verse 7)
What does it mean to walk in the light? It refers to a life that is consciously submitted to God’s control, seeking to live in obedience to God’s will and the guidance of his Spirit. It is saying to ourselves: “God is light, and I want to walk in fellowship with him in the light. I want my whole life open and exposed to his gracious presence and control.”
When we consciously choose to walk in obedience to God, two results are promised. First of all we have fellowship with God. He is the other referred to in the phrase “one another.” We will know the beauty of sharing our walk and our life with him, as he shared his life with us. It is an incredible privilege which is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian.
Second result may sound a little strange at first. “The blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” Now why does this sound strange? Well, think with me. If we are walking in the light as the first part of the verse says, then what sins do we need to be cleansed from?
Let me explain it this way. Every one of us as Christians is a “work in progress.” Think of yourself as a work of art, a sculpture, in which God is recreating his own image. None of us is complete or perfect yet. God is still chipping and sanding, and polishing. And what he is chipping and sanding and polishing away is our sin.
Now, do we have to be perfect and complete before we can have fellowship with God? If God is light, and there’s no darkness in him, how does he feel about fellowshipping with a “work in progress”? What about the sin that hasn’t been chipped away, things we may not even yet recognize as sin? This verse contains the answer. As long as we are yielding to God fully in the areas of life in which he is working, then we can have fellowship with God, because the blood of Jesus is cleansing us from all sin, including the unknown sins, the sins of attitude and thought of which we are as yet unaware, and even the contamination of our sin nature itself.
But what happens when we deliberately, knowingly sin against the clear teaching of Scripture and the clear guidance of the Holy Spirit? At that point, our fellowship with God is broken. We can’t claim to have fellowship with God and deliberately walk in darkness. What then is the remedy for this dilemma? It is found in the second right response in verse 9.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
B. Confess your sins.
You will note that he word “sins” is plural here. It is not the sin nature or our sinfulness that is in view here. It is our actual, known sins and misdeeds, our wrong actions, wrong thoughts, wrong motives. Confess them, agree with God (which is the basic meaning of confess) that you committed the sin and that it was wrong. Be specific. “Lord, I sinned by taking your name in vain, or telling that lie, or spreading that gossip or visiting that internet porn site, or cheating on that business deal…” Whenever the Holy Spirit lays his finger on an area of life and makes you aware of a wrong action, then confess it.
Notice what God will do when we confess our sins. First of all, he will forgive the sins that we confess. But then he will do something else. He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness – even the sins we may have forgotten, or been unaware of, including the areas of our life and character which are still under construction. And again, having been cleansed of all sin, we are able to walk in fellowship with the God who is light, walking in the light as he is in the light.
The matter of confession often stirs up interesting discussion among Christians. Some might ask: Why is confession needed if we are already forgiven on the basis of Christ’s death on the cross? And, if I fail to confess a sin, will I not be forgiven? What if I sin and then I die before I have a chance to confess it?
I think it is important to distinguish here between what we might refer to as judicial forgiveness and family forgiveness. In the matter of judicial forgiveness, God is in his role as judge of the universe. He is holding us accountable for any violations of his holy and righteous laws. In his role as judge, God forgives us totally, once and for all, on the basis of Christ’s death on the cross for us. He declares us righteous and applies Christ’s righteousness to our account when we put our faith in Christ. That is the judicial forgiveness upon which our salvation depends. That is not at stake here.
When we are justified and forgiven by God as judge, he then adopts us into his family. We are given the privilege of calling him Abba, or Father. We have the privilege of walking in fellowship with him. When we, as members of God’s family, deliberately sin and disobey him, our fellowship with him is broken. Our salvation is not at stake here, but our fellowship is. It is a family matter. The fellowship needs to be restored. That is what John is talking about in these verses.
In a concluding statement in I John 2:1-2, John, in different words, makes his same two positive points again. In so doing, he shows us the Biblical middle ground between the two extreme positions on sin. One extreme is that sin doesn’t matter. Go ahead and sin, you can always confess it afterwards. The other extreme is despair: “I have sinned again, there is no hope for me.”
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. (v. 1a) I believe this is a parallel statement to what he says in verse 7: Walk in the light. I want you to live in obedience, I am writing so you won’t sin, so you will walk with God.
But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
There is the Biblical balance. “I am writing to you so that you won’t sin. But if and when you do sin, there is a remedy.” We have an advocate, a defender who will speak to the Father on our behalf. And what will he say?. “Oh, excuse him, Father, he’s just a little wild, she’s a little weak, he came from a bad home…” No, that’s not what he says. He says, very simply: “I died for that sin.”
So, we all have a sin problem. We are sinners by nature and by practice. And sin breaks our fellowship with God. There is no point at all in denying these spiritual realities. But there is a remedy.
Walk in the light, walk in obedience, don’t sin. But when you do sin, confess it, be restored to fellowship, get back on track, allowing God to continue transforming you into his image.