How Serious Is Sin

Introduction

The 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge had a reputation that most politicians do not have. He did not make speeches. In fact, his reticence earned him the nickname Silent Cal.

A story which is told about him said that one day he went to church. When he returned to the White House, his wife asked him, “How was church?”

“Fine.”

“Was the preacher good?”

“Yes.”

“What was his sermon about?”

“Sin.”

“What did he say about it?”

“He was against it.”

For many people, they share Coolidge’s opinion. The best they can muster about sin is they are “against it.”

But is that enough?

Mankind has always struggled with a dilemma, a Gordian knot they could not untie. How can you live for God, walk in the light, but deal with the human failings we all have?

Do we just go ahead and sin and “ hope for the best?”

Do we live in a state of constant despair? Do we treat it like most diets where we have good intentions but then comes the chocolate cake. And you have a piece and you think, “Oh, well, I broke it…and you consume the whole thing. Is that how we deal with sin?

Does God have unrealistic standards that none of us can meet, therefore, Christianity is a cruel system designed to pull hope out from underneath us?

Yet, John tells us about how a holy God deals with unholy sin but in a way that gives us good reason not to “do as we please.”

The Problem We Face

At the end of the first chapter of 1 John, John gives us a comforting picture.

1 John 1:7–9 NIV

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. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

The key phrase comes in vs 7. He cleanses us. The present tense tells us this is constant cleansing from sin.

It presents a problem. If we are constantly experience a cleansing from sin, do we take it seriously? After all, out of sight is out of mind. You might be tempted to quit being concerned or aware as you might.

John paints the corner we are in.

We can make sin so severe. Jonathan Edwards, the Puritan preacher voiced the view of many toward sin. In his sermon Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God, the Almighty scowls in delight as he dangles sinners over the fires of hell waiting for them to drop to their damnation.

But others swing to the other extreme and be too lenient with sin. It happened. We read of it in Romans 6.

Romans 6:1 NIV

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

Some saw God’s grace as the license to sin. Sin the more to let God love even more. The way you get God to shower his grace on you is to present him even greater opportunities to forgive.

A forgiving God becomes a ethereal grandfather patting children on the head saying “boys will be boys.”

Sin loses its edge. It is like a dog with a shock collar. He continues to hit the barrier and feels shock after shock until he no longer feels it.

But that is not John’s real purpose. He neither wants to soft pedal sin nor does he want to take a hard swing at Christians struggling with sin.

John’s Purpose

John opens the second chapter by revealing his desire for Christians everywhere.

He writes as a tender, caring shepherd who cares for those who are walking in the light.

1 John 2:1 NIV

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

He calls them dear children. He wants the best for them. He writes so they will not sin. As a caring shepherd he wants to prevent sin in their lives.

John is a realist. He knows what God wants and what man is capable of. He is not able to achieve perfection. The letter of 1 John gives instructions to steer Christians to walk in the light, as He is in the light. That much is clear.

But John remembers the pinch we are in. We are spiritual beings in fleshly bodies. He doesn’t want Christians to fall in the trap of the false teachers. They either deny sin or engorge their lives with sinful behavior.

He does neither. He does not want to be too lenient, and therefore condone sin. Neither does he wants to be too severe, and therefore condemn us to hopelessness.

Instead John sees us clearly. We are human. That’s the reality.

1 John 2:1 NIV

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

He says if anyone does sin. The way John frames the words make it clear he is not talking about living in a state of sin. It is not the libertine that John advises. But, he does say that people commit sins. Single acts. Things confessed and repented of.

There is a clear distinction between license and grace in John’s mind.

John simply recognizes the spiritual truth made clear by Paul in the Roman letter.

Romans 3:23 NIV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Paul puts sin in past and present terms. We have sinned and we continue to miss the mark of God’s glory.

Knowing it is problem does not address it. If you go to a doctor with an ailment and he says, “that’s interesting,” you don’t leave feeling better. Something needs to be said to get you to see the seriousness of sin.

The Price Sin Exacts

For John, we do not overlook sin because of the steps required to bring about forgiveness. He wants to open the curtain.

For John, that clear picture of sin’s demand comes in the first two verses.

1 John 2:1–2 NIV

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—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.

Sin requires two strong measures.

It Requires an Advocate

John says “if someone does sin, we have an advocate.” It is word with many colored threads comprising the material.

We usually find it used as it is in John 14.

John 14:16 NIV

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—

The Greek word is Paraclete and in John 14, it refers to the Holy Spirit. But it is a function, not a title or a position.

The word means to “come alongside” as a helper. And It occurs in many contexts.

In Genesis 37, Jacob learns of his son Joseph’s apparent death at the hand of a wild animal, a ruse designed by cunning brothers to take their own guilt out of the picture. The people come around Jacob to console him. In the Greek version of the Old Testament, the word is “paraclete.” They are comforters.

Listen to how it is used in another place.

Matthew 5:4 NIV

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus uses it in juxtaposition to mourning. It is the comforting of grief.

So what does it mean for John in our passage? Why advocate?

It was the common Greek term. In the legal systems of the day, it was confusing. It required someone recognized and trusted by judges to represent someone’s case.

Today, we call it the attorney. I don’t know if you have had to have legal actions. At least two occasions in ministry, the churches I served faced lawsuits. It did not take long for me to realize I was out of my element quickly. The waters were deep and I could not swim in them. However, I had friends that represented me. They knew the system. They knew how to deal with it.

In those situations, you need an advocate. The adage says that a man who represents himself has a fool for a client. That is worse in this context.

There’s a reason we need an advocate. We have been accused.

In the final book John writes, the Revelation, portrays a scene behind the scenes.

Revelation 12:10 NIV

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.

There is an “accuser,” the devil who lays claim to souls because of their sin.

But that’s where we need the advocate. And John tells us we have an advocate and names him. He is Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

The one who has the standing before God and has the credentials of complete righteousness gives him the right and ability to plead at heaven’s bar.

The Hebrew writer captures the same idea.

Hebrews 4:14–15 NIV

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.

He calls him a high priest. In Latin, which was becoming a language of the culture, a priest is literally a “bridge builder.”

Coupling the thoughts together, Jesus, with is character and nature can bridge the gap our sin creates to argue our case with the eternal judge.

But there’s second concept that deals with our sin.

Sin Requires a Payment

1 John 2:2 NIV

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

In the text we read, it tries to explain a difficult term by using “atoning sacrifice.” Other versions use the word “propitiation.” That’s not a word we throw around water cooler conversations of Facebook posts. We never say “I had to propitiate that speeding ticket.” Instead we have reduced a difficult concept into one we can understand.

It has to do with the concept of atonement.

When damage occurs, someone has to pay. You either pay with money or in some other form of restitution. As long as the debt it outstanding, there is distance and friction between parties. Think about getting your car hit. The person who was involved is to pay for it. But what if they don’t? What if they drag their feet? How does it affect the relationship?

When the damage occurs in the theological and moral realm, the same concept applies except the currency is not physical. Something of value had to be given up to make up for the transgression.

That’s the idea of the Mosaical Law

Numbers 5:8 NIV

But if that person has no close relative to whom restitution can be made for the wrong, the restitution belongs to the Lord and must be given to the priest, along with the ram with which atonement is made for the wrongdoer.

It perhaps is bests seen in a charming little story found in 1 Samuel 25.

A man named Nabal (whose name means fool...and it is an apt name) rejects David’s request for supplies after protecting Nabal’s shepherds without pay. I scratched your back, now you scratch mine. And David is not out of bounds. It is the prudent and kind thing to do.

David hears of his Nabal’s defiant insult of him and his men, he straps on his weapons to get vengeance.

But Nabal has an astute wife named Abigail. Abigail takes food and delicacies and rides off to meet David. She wants to prevent the slaughter, even though her husband deserves it.

The act takes the heat out of David and he relents.

It is that background in which propitiation comes. It is placating the anger, in this case the anger of God. Some protest that they could not worship a god who is a hothead who gets irritated at the smallest infractions. The Greeks and Romans had those kinds of deities. It is not how God’s emotions but describes the violation of holiness. In sin we stand in opposition to God’s nature.

John says that not only does Jesus represent us before God, but presents himself for payment of our offense, even though he does not owe it. He does it to free us and the entire world.

We sin and God pays his own debt with what is most valuable—his only son.

If you listen to what John says is that sin is so serious that God takes extreme measures to deal with the sin of those who seek forgiveness and follow him. It is not to be taken lightly.

Conclusion

In short, John says sin makes us helpless. We are not to ignore it. We are not to think it is hopeless either. Instead, sin exacts a high price from someone on our behalf.

We living in a bootstrapping society where we believe we can do it by myself. I can pay my own debts.

Sorry, but when it comes to sin you are helpless. You are a penniless prisoner headed to the gallows being hammered outside the window.

We usually connect the cleansing of sin with the act of baptism that washes away sin. But John takes it further. It is life in the light. While we continue to sin, not because we want to but because of our nature, God establishes the way to constantly purify us from that sin.

We confess, but words must be backed up by something. Else, they are idle syllables looking for meaning

Without the continuing work of Christ, sin will overwhelm us and then, where will you turn?

Think about how serious sin really is…what it demands every time we violate God’s will. Then, perhaps it will give us pause. For someone rescued us.

Wells Crowther always carried a red bandana with him. As a boy, his father told him the folded white ones were for showing but the red bandana was for blowing. He took it everywhere, even when he joined the Empire Hook and Ladder Company as a fireman at 16.

He tied it around his head and wore it under his helmet. He went on to college at Boston College where he became an equities trader. His office was on the 104th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center.

It was then, that United Flight 175 crashed and exploded 15 floors beneath him. On those lower floors were other people. One was Lin Yung who was blown back against a desk. When she opened her eyes, her eyeglasses were smeared with blood. She wiped the blood away and saw mangled bodies in the swirling dust clouds. She thought he was done as she struggled toward the stairs. There she met Welles. He led her and others down seventeen flights of stairs to elevators that still worked.

But Wells, with red bandana around his face did not go in. He went back up the stairwell. In the rubble he found Judy Wein. She struggled to walk due to broken ribs, a broken arm and a punctured lung. He put her arm around his shoulders and took her back down to the waiting firefighters. He didn’t stay. He went back up again.

No one saw Wells again. Six months later, as the last of the rubble was cleared from Ground Zero, they found a red bandana. This 24-year-old saved dozens of people that day.

Lin keeps his photo in her apartment.

She says, "Without him, I wouldn't be here. He saved my life. And he will always be in my heart. Always be with me.”

Today, the image of sacrifice is in the 9/11 museum under glass. A simple red bandana, a symbol of a life given for others.

Perhaps we should stop before acting and remember an advocate stands available to us because he paid our price.