This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 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. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. 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. We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
1 John 1:5-2:6
On Monday, we looked at the problem of sin – our biggest enemy! Today we’re going to look at three ways John considers for dealing with sin.
1) We can try to cover our sin (1:5-6, 8, 10; 2:4)
As a Christian this is not the right option! John plainly says that light and darkness cannot coexist. When we put our faith in Jesus and the light of the gospel entered our lives it drove out the darkness. We cannot walk in the light whilst harbouring darkness inside. We have a God who knows our every thought, so the very idea of covering our sin from Him is madness. Yes, we can conceal our sin from fellow believers through lying but we just end up living a hypocritical life and eventually we will most likely be found out. We also sometimes try to lie to ourselves to cover our sin. We tell ourselves that it's not that bad and others do worse and that God doesn’t really mind. Or we think, “I will just do it once more.” Trying to cover our sin is a downward spiral in which we lie to others, lie to ourselves, lie about our relationship with God and then eventually call God a liar. David is a perfect example of this with his relationship with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11-12. Go and read it for yourselves! When we try to cover sin up, sin invades our whole life. It is like a weed that if not removed at the root works its way throughout our whole lives. So, don’t cover up sin. Instead follow the next two ways that John discusses…
2) We can confess our sin (1:7, 9)
John gives us two titles for Jesus. He is our advocate and our propitiation. As our advocate, John is pointing us to the fact that Jesus represents us before the Father and intercedes on our behalf. And as our propitiation, Jesus satisfies God’s holy law. God is a just God who hates sin and He cannot see it go unpunished. That punishment should fall on us, but we never could withstand it so Jesus becomes the sacrifice in our place, meeting God’s need for justice through giving up life. He is our propitiation. We have free forgiveness for our sin through the work of Jesus upon the cross. God knows that we are sinners and He knows that we will continue to sin whilst we live in these mortal bodies but what He asks us to do when we sin is to run back to Him, confess what we have done and ask for forgiveness. Confessing means naming our sin, calling it by name, owning it, not making excuses for it and trying to brush it under the carpet.
Admitting our sin can feel hard, but we are confessing it to a loving, gracious, mercy-filled God who has already dealt with it through the sacrifice of His Son and promises to forgive us (v9). So, when you mess up, come to God to ask for forgiveness and the strength to resist next time. Don’t wait to confess your sin either. Do it straight away before the guilt sets in and drives a wedge between you and God!
3) We can conquer our sin (2:1-3, 5-6)
John says, “I am writing these things to you that you may not sin”. Is John saying that we can reach a state of sinlessness? No! But he is saying that there is a way to avoid sin - to walk in the light. To walk in the light means to live an open and honest life both with God, with ourselves and with God’s people (or at least a few close Christian friends). To walk in the light is to walk in God’s ways. To do this we need to spend time with God in His word and in prayer, we need to spend time reflecting on our lives and how we are growing in faith and we also need brothers and sisters who can point us to God’s truth and encourage and spur us on.
To walk in the light is to walk a life that obeys the word and will of God and resist the lies, deceptions and desires of sin. Light drives out darkness. When we walk in the light, darkness will be removed.
Remember - Satan and sin have been conquered by Jesus; the victory is won! Let us walk more in the light and drive darkness from our lives, day by day.
Prayer for today
Loving and gracious Heavenly Father,
We thank you that in Jesus we have forgiveness for our sins. We come to you today and confess our sin to you. We are sorry for when we ignore you and instead follow the lies of sin. We thank you for your promise to always forgive us when we ask for forgiveness in the name of Jesus.
We ask today that you will fill us with your Spirit and give us the strength to walk in your light. Thank you for your power that is at work within us changing us into the likeness of your Son, day by day.
In Jesus’ name we pray,
Amen
Song for today
You can listen and sing along here.
Thank you for saving me, what can I say?
You are my everything, I will sing Your praise
You shed Your blood for me, what can I say?
You took my sin and shame, a sinner called by name
Great is the Lord
Great is the Lord
For we know Your truth has set us free
You've set Your hope in me
Mercy and grace are mine, forgiven is my sin
Jesus, my only hope, the Saviour of the world
"Great is the Lord" we cry, God let Your kingdom come
Your word has let me see, thank you for saving me.
Photo by Tijana Drndarski on Unsplash
No comments:
Post a Comment