By Rev. James Jester

September 29, 2024

SCRIPTURE READING: I John 1:5-7

“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

INTRODUCTION

I grew up in a typical Christian family during the 1960’s. My two brothers and sister and I were sent to Vacation Bible School, and our family attended the Cokesbury Methodist church. Years later, after my father was converted, we went to a different church (that’s another story).

I distinctly remember sitting in church, listening to the preacher, but not really understanding anything since I was so young. He occasionally used a word that I had never heard before, and I wondered just what it was. Was it something good or something bad? Then the next thing I heard from the preacher was a thundering, “God hates sin!” I suddenly knew that sin was something bad, something awful, and something that offended God. That event impressed the young boy for the rest of his life.

Back in the 1980’s I drove a school van picking up children (and my daughters) for a Christian school. One of the older girls that rode the bus talked about “telling lies” and that it would be “ok” because Jesus would forgive her, and besides they were “little” lies. At one point I quoted the verse that said, “All liars shall have their part in the lake of fire,” and the fact that she was still telling lies puts her in a very dangerous position.

There are some churches that have a nonchalant and lax attitude toward sin, as if it were something we cannot help but do. Thus, they would rather walk in the darkness of sin rather than walk in the light as Jesus walked in the light. They tend to expect that this is normal for a Christian, rather than have a victorious Christian experience, as the New Testament teaches. These churches boast in N.T. teaching, yet find it rare and almost unusual for churched people, or Christians in general, to live a Godly life. Therefore, the book of First John is foremost in helping us discover a right conception of sin and how it affects the Christian.

Our opening statement of First John is directed at the Gnostics, who taught, that to a man of enlightenment all conduct is morally indifferent. Dr. Plummer says, “Some Gnostics taught, not merely that to the illuminated all conduct was alike, but that to reach the highest form of illumination men must experience every kind of action, however abominable, in order to work themselves free from the powers that rule the world.” Many years ago I heard one man explain this exact point to me; to which I promptly denied. This theory has influenced many churches. In every age there have been those who claimed an interest in Christ while still living in sin. This flies in the face of everything we know about the Bible.

John speaks with authority:“God is light;” not the Light, nor a light, but light; that is his nature. This sums up the Divine essence on its intellectual side, as “God is love” on its moral side. And John speaks much of love in this book. Light and love are not simply attributes of God, but God himself. Shouldn’t the Christian’s nature be one of light too?

That God’s very nature is light, is an announcement peculiar only to John. Others tell us that he is the Father of lights (Jas. 1:17), the Possessor of light (I Pet. 2:9), dwelling in light (I Tim. 6:16); but not that He is light. Then we have the contrasting phrase of verse 5, “in him is no darkness at all.”

John also stresses knowing things about our gracious Lord: the phrase “we know” appears 12 times in the book.

ORIGIN AND DEFINITION OF SIN

The Apostle Paul gives us the origin of sin in Romans chapter 5:

Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.” [This parenthetical continues thru v. 17, as Paul explains verse twelve’s assertion. Skipping down to v. 18.]

Romans 5:18 “Therefore as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”

Romans 5:20 “Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The question often comes up, “Just what is sin anyway?” First we must define the word “sin” using Scripture:

I John 3:4  “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”

Romans 7:7 [As a commentary on the above verse.] “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.”

James 4:17 “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” [So even a refusal to do good could be a sin.]

Hebrews10:26 “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.” [Not living up to the light (or understanding) one has is a sin.]

So, when we combine all of these passages, we arrive to the definition that sin is: The willful transgression of the known law of God.

Now, if we were to use just the first verse alone for our definition, “sin is the transgression of the law” (I Jn. 3:4), and someone was totally ignorant of the law, would God hold that person as accountable as one who knew the law and deliberately disregarded it anyway? I don’t believe so. God is not a hard taskmaster looking to squash someone over a violation of His Law. He is our loving Father. When a parent tells the child not to go into the cookie jar, and the child does so anyway, the punishment is deserved. But if the parent did not inform the child about the rules on the cookie jar, then the penalty would be less, or none at all. There are various degrees of punishment for a violation.

Of course, we do have Scripture that mitigates the sin: It is a “willful” (Heb. 10:26) transgression, and it is a “known” (Rom. 7:7) law of God.

Sometimes there are sins and sometimes there are mistakes; now it is possible that a “mistake” could be a sin, and a so-called “sin” might just be a mistake, but not necessarily. It could be that we are harder on ourselves than need be; but with the help of the Holy Spirit we can make the right call and corrective measure. There’s no need to be a harsher judge than God. And there is no reason to ask God to “forgive our sins” when we have not deliberately sinned. Remember, willful sinning brings guilt and is not the normal condition of the Christian life. The normal Christian life in the New Testament is a life of obedience to our Lord; that is, walking in the light (knowledge) that we have, the light God has given us.

If we were held to the single definition that “sin is the transgression of the law,” then it would be true that, “There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” (Eccl. 7:20) But as we have seen, this is a partial definition; it lacks the complete revelation of the Scriptures. Therefore, the full definition allows for the possibility of living without deliberate willful transgression (or sin). Not to dismiss three other added aids: 1) that His law is “written in their hearts” (Rom. 2:15), as per Paul; 2) the fact that, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin[on a habitual basis]; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (I Jn. 3:9), as per John; 3) including the promised aid of the Holy Spirit, as per John the Baptizer (ref. Matt. 3:11). So, we have quite a lot going for us.

SIN NO MORE

Sometimes we can get confused with terms that relate to sin, such as, sin nature, original sin, the flesh, carnal mind, the old man; the Apostle Paul even called it the “law of sin” at the end of Romans chapter seven. Of course, we don ’t have a schizophrenic Christianity. The term “sin nature” is not used in the Bible and is probably not the best of terms since nature simply refers to doing what comes naturally. But all these terms simply refer to the same thing — the wrong pathway for our life.

The struggle with sin is really a matter of putting God first above ourselves — it is a matter of relationship. Galatians chapter 5 says:

“Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Gal. 5:16-17, 24-25)

The word “flesh” in this passage refers to a depraved or sinful “flesh,” not the flesh, blood, and bone body that we live in. This is clearly shown in the context of the passage above: 1) by the sins listed, and 2) that the flesh is crucified, yet the body is not dead.

And as our Scripture reading says, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (I Jn. 1:7)If one is cleansed from all sin, does that mean that sin still remains?

Note the following from I John:

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (I Jn. 1:8-10)

Have you noticed that verse 8 and verse 10 are nearly identical? Some believe these are meant to have the same meaning; as simply an emphasis. I believe they are different by design. In verse 8, “sin” singular is used, meaning an inward depravity inherited from Adam, of which there is no guilt since it is not willful. To clarify this, it should read, “If we say we have no inward sin to be cleansed from, we deceive ourselves…” And in verse 10, “sinned” is used, meaning the past tense of an action of sin, of which all of Adam is guilty, since all of us have willfully committed sins in the past.

Those who want to hang on to any kind of sin, either outward or inward, need to take note of the following verses:

Matthew 5:20 “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

John 8:34 “Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”

John 5:14 “Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” [Do you think Jesus meant what he said? Would He command something that was impossible to do?]

I Corinthians 15:34 “Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.”

Galatians 2:17 “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.” [Paul concurred with Jesus; did he not?]

If sin doesn’t matter, as some say, and “once saved, always saved” is true, then why all these warnings from the New Testament? Are these lukewarm teachers condoning sin and don’t want to admit it; or do they just have a different definition of sin, not grasping its complete meaning, causing them to be in error? The full meaning, as I have shown, is that sin is “the willful transgression of the known law of God.” And guilt always follows it. If, however, the person has done something in ignorance and had no willful intention of harm, that person is innocent of sin against God. The danger of the “eternal security” doctrine is that it allows persons to sin while escaping accountability. It also gives the appearance that Christians can live in a state of continual sin (which is not true). Some love to quote from the Gospel of John, saying this keeps them safe and secure:

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (Jn. 10:27-28)

But what if the sheep refuse to hear His voice and go the wrong way? What happens then? This passage is in the present tense: “My sheep hear my voice, now; I know them, now; they follow me, now; I give them eternal life, now; no one shall pluck them from my hand, now.” But if the sheep refuse to cooperate with the Shepherd, they have removed themselves from His protection. They have committed a “sin unto death;” nothing is left but the judgment of God.

In First John there is much discussion about love; is it any wonder that the book ends with an instruction on helping our brother/sister out of sin?

“If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray that God would give him life. This applies to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not telling you to pray about that.[In such case it is too late.] 17 Every kind of wrongdoing is sin, yet there are sins that do not lead to death.

18 We know that the person who has been born from God does not go on sinning. Rather, the Son of God protects them, and the evil one cannot harm them. 19 We know that we are from God and that the whole world lies under the control of the evil one. 20 We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true God. We are in union with the one who is true, his Son Jesus the Messiah, who is the true God and eternal life.

21 Little children, keep yourselves away from idols.” (I Jn. 5:16-21, ISV)

And so ends the book of First John. Very good advice for keeping Christians out of sin.

CONCLUSION

Walking in the Light is not walking in the darkness of sin. We cannot do both simultaneously. The Christian life is “In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.”(Lk. 1:75) “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world.” (I Jn. 4:17) What an amazing thought!

Christian imperfections have to be taken into account, but they need not spoil fellowship, if they are rightly dealt with.John ’s teaching cannot be rightly understood unless the distinction between the sin of the Christian and the non-Christian is fully recognized. The non-Christian sins as the expression of a will that is set against God. The Christian sins by the persuasion of physical frailty, or at most by the temporary bending of his will into sin. Their sin would disturb fellowship; except that due provision has been made for it. That the Christian will, by confession, clear himself of all suspicion of having his will in sin. Then God will entirely forgive the sin, and remove it as a hindrance to fellowship. And more, God will, in the power of the blood of Christ, cleanse the Christian from all the evil influences of his sin, and help him recover the power which he must have temporarily lost, or he could not have yielded to the sin in the first place.

“And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” (Rev. 19:8)

“But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”(Rom. 6:22)