Verses 1-2: My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
John addresses his readers in a loving manner: “my little children”—reminiscent of how Our Lord referred to His disciples in John 13:33. This is one of 3 Greek words for ‘children’ that John uses in his epistles; the others will be noted as we continue through the epistle. This one refers to the recipients of this epistle and to all believers in general1 who are his dearly loved spiritual children with whom he desires that they advance and mature in their spiritual lives.
He explains that the reason for having written “these things” (1:5-10) was: “that you may not sin.” Previously in chapter 1, verse 9, John outlined the simplicity of confession and forgiveness of our sins. This was not intended to be a license to indiscriminately sin with the attitude: “I’ll go ahead and sin because all I’ll need to do is confess and be ‘right’ with God.” This is indicative of a believer who has no intention of advancing in the Christian life—walking in the Light. It is tantamount to playing games with God which will not end well as John mentions in 1 John 5:16. This also disregards the command of Our Lord’s when He forgave sin: “Do not sin anymore” (John 5:14; cf. 8:11). So now John writes to correct this mentality stating a firm prohibition: “that you may not sin.”2
We must remember what Our Lord said about following Him: “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30; cf. 1 John 5:3). Salvation is made ‘easy’ by simply “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31) and so is restoration into fellowship with the Father: confess your sins, with the admonition to ‘sin no more.’
John defines the results of how sin in the believer’s life severs their fellowship with God, causing them to lose their “celestial joy, confidence and peace”3 with the Father. They are now walking in darkness, reverting back to their former life of unbelief, as the Apostle Paul explains:
So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way. (Ephesians 4:17–20)
This is what John desires that believers may avoid, for outside of the fellowship relationship with God, the believer grieves4 and quenches5 the Holy Spirit Who empowers them in their moment-by-moment “walk in the Light” (1:7), characterized by John as to “practice the truth” (1:6).
The Intercessory Ministry of Jesus Christ
But John wants us to know that we don’t need to continue to live outside of fellowship with God. For if we should fall into sin we have the ability to confess our sins and seek His faithful forgiveness and cleansing (1:9). And this is because we have an Advocate with the Father, His Son Jesus Christ. So, what is an Advocate? John is the only New Testament writer to use this particular Greek noun. The scholar W.E. Vine explains its historical Greek usage:
It was used in a court of justice to denote a legal assistant, counsel for the defense, an advocate; then, generally, one who pleads another’s cause, an intercessor, advocate.6
This same Greek word is translated ‘Helper’ 4 times in John 14-16, where the Lord Jesus prior to His death promised another Helper—the Holy Spirit, Who also is deity. Our Lord described the Holy Spirit’s special ministry, how “He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:26b).
This verse distinguishes Jesus Christ as our “Advocate with the Father” with that of the Holy Spirit’s advocacy. John provides Our Lord’s credentials for being our Advocate when he states that He is literally “the righteous one.” Being our Advocate is Our Lord’s ever present intercessory ministry for all believers. The Apostle Paul stated this twice: “He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27b; cf. 8:34). And the writer of Hebrews declared:
Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25; cf. Hebrews 9:24)
Why would believers (saints) need an Advocate? Again it is John who reveals this in the book of Revelation. During the Tribulation period there will be a battle in heaven. Michael, the Archangel and his angels will wage war with Satan and his angels; casting out Satan and his angels down to earth (Revelation 12:8-9). The explanation of why Satan is currently in heaven is recorded in the next verse:
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.” (Revelation 12:10; cf. Zechariah 3:1)
Satan is presently today accusing us before God each time we sin, questioning our fidelity to the Father. But as our advocate, Jesus Christ resides silently at the right hand of the Father. For all that is needed to be our advocate is for His presence there as proof of the effectiveness of His finished work on the cross. This is the substance of 1 John 2:2: “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins”—‘propitiation’ means satisfaction.
When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He satisfied the righteous demands of the Father as the penalty payment for sins: “and not for our sins only, but also for those of the whole world.” And all that the Father needs to say to our accuser, Satan, is “Paid in full!” The same as what Our Lord spoke on the cross just before He died—one single Greek word translated into the English: “It is finished!” (John 19:30). Dr. Ryrie explained the significance of this word:
Receipts for taxes found in the papyri have written across them this single Greek word, which means “paid in full.” The price for our redemption from sin was paid in full by our Lord’s death.7
Question
Does the work accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, the price He paid as our substitute for the penalty of sin and His present day intercession on our behalf cause us to resolve that we “may not sin”? Examine ourselves! For this should be our objective, so that sin will not hinder us from walking in the Light and practicing His truth.
[1] Vine, W. E. (1996). Collected Writings of W.E. Vine. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1 John 2:1.
[2] The Greek construction of a negative command. Dana, H.E. & Mantey, Julius R. (1957). A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, Toronto, Ontario: Macmillan Co., p. 171.
[3] Chafer, Lewis Sperry (1976). Systematic Theology, Dallas, TX: Dallas Seminary Press, 2.342.
[4] Ephesians 4:30
[5] 1 Thessalonians 5:19
[6] Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996). In Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 2.111.
[7] Ryrie, C. C. (1995). Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Bible, 1995 update. Chicago: Moody Press, p. 1719 note.
© 2024 David M. Rossi
No comments:
Post a Comment