1 John- Living a holy life
LIVING A HOLY LIFE. Sun 29/6
1 John 2:1-6
V1. God wants us to walk free of sin- to be holy
Disciples- to be like Jesus. To be Holy just as God is holy.
Illustration of entering the army- being set apart for a specific task, to serve the army well
Often we have the attitude of allowing sin, tolerating sin, certain things we think are ok. Respectable sins like pride, anxiety and worry, anger, unforgiveness, lack of self-control, lustful thoughts
But v1 says our attitude should be to desire not sin at all, to pursue Jesus and holiness. In the early days of his struggle toward the truth, Augustine made a prayer, “Lord, save me from my sins, but not quite yet.” Then sometime after that he prayed, “Lord, save me from all my sins, except one.” And then came the final prayer, “Lord, save me from all my sins
Like the desire of a soldier in battle is not to get wounded or hit by bullets. ‘As long as I don’t get hit a lot’. Spiritually we have that attitude- as long as I don’t sin too much.
God wants us to pursue holiness and not to sin
But what happens if we do sin?
Reality is we all sin, fall short. Every true Christian goes through times like this.
V2. If we do sin, we have an advocate with the father- verdediger, advocaat
Advocate- one who appears on our behalf, to help us, comes to our aid
In our modern world an example of an advocate who would stand on our behalf, represent us, plead our case would be a lawyer. If we are guilty or in court he defends you.
In OT times an advocate would be the priest. The priest would:
· Pray for the people
The priest in OT stood on behalf of the people, representing them before God. The priest would pray for the people and offer sacrifices on their behalf.
Heb 7:25 speaks of Jesus as our intercessor, one who stands on our behalf, praying for us before the father. Actually making specific requests to the Father on our behalf- presenting to the father our needs.
Because Jesus was a man on the earth he is sympathetic towards us- Heb 4:15
What is so good to know that God is for us, Jesus is rooting for us as we follow Him.
So have this idea of Jesus coming to our aid, speaking to the father in our defense when we sin.
· Offer sacrifices to cleanse the people from sin
OT a pure animal was slain as a substitute on behalf of people. How it would work would be that the person who sinned would bring a lamb, offering to the priest and the sinner would lay his hands on the head of animal and put the full force of his weight onto the animals head as if transferring the weight of his sin onto the substitute. The animal was really a substitute for the sinner. Died in the sinner’s place.
But animal sacrifice was inadequate to deal with depth and totality of human sin. The OT lambs and goats and animals were really types, foreshadows of the great lamb who would come and deal with sin once and for all.
V2 tells us:
Became an atoning sacrifice for our sins
Jesus the priest not only prays for us but also offered his life as a sacrifice for us.
He took our sin on him
We know how we feel when we have sinned before God- feel the guilt and weight of our sin and feel separated from God and his sweet presence.
The weight of shame and guilt was put onto Jesus- our sins put onto Jesus
Isaiah 53:6
An innocent man, pure and holy, hating sin suddenly having to bear it and carry it on the cross
God unleashed all the anger and punishment that was due to every person in the world onto Jesus- God’s very own son!
Read Grudem:
Jesus, in his human nature, knew he would have to bear our sins, suffer and to die but, in his human consciousness, he probably did not know how long this suffering would take. Yet to bear the guilt of millions of sins even for a moment would cause the greatest anguish of the soul. To face the deep and furious anger of an infinite God even for an instant would cause the most profound fear. But Jesus’ suffering went on hour after hour on the cross. The dark weight of sin and the deep wrath of God poured over Jesus in wave after wave. Jesus at last cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Will it ever end?
Then at last Jesus knew his suffering was near completion. He knew he had consciously born all the wrath of the Father against our sins, for God’s anger had stopped and the awful heaviness of sin was being removed. With a shout of victory Jesus cried out “It is finished”
Some objections:
I thought God was loving, how can he be angry?
God’s anger is a righteous anger, anger at all that is wrong and evil. He is slow to anger and abounding in love. When we get angry most of the time its not an anger against injustice and sin, but if someone hurt me- selfish anger.
How could the father be so cruel by doing this?
Yet Jesus chose himself, volunteered to lay his life down. Because the Father loves his son, it was just as hard for the father to let the son carry the guilt- father and son are one. ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.’
God deals with sin. He doesn’t just sweep it under the carpet. He dealt with it, punished it.
God won’t punish you for your sins if you put your trust in Jesus. Jesus became a sin-bearing sacrifice which caused God’s anger against sin to be satisfied and turned his anger into favour towards us.
How to pursue holiness:
1. Face your sin, areas of disobedience. It makes us feel guilty cause we are guilty. Bring it into the light warts and all.
2. Remind yourself that Jesus takes your sin and guilt. Why does not God count your sins against you? He has already charged it to Jesus. Jesus has taken our guilt- we are not guilty before God if we trust in what Jesus did.
3. Deal with your sin. The only sin you can fight against is forgiven sin.
Romans 8:13- by the Spirit we deal with sin. Abiding in God!
By His power- move in the opposite Spirit. Make yourself accountable to leader in the church.