“Sin and Following Jesus”1 John 1:8-2:6

Not everyone can see what’s plain to others.

There’s the mother who thinks her bratty little troublemaker is a perfect angel who never needs disciplining. There’s the father who thinks all his remarks are witty and on the point. There’s the critic who thinks everything is beneath him, or the critic who thinks everything is simply wonderful and can’t understand why others don’t see it, either.

In life, almost all of us have a tendency to be blind to something. Jesus made that observation in the Sermon on the Mount when He tells us that we need to remove the pole from our own eye before we try to remove the speck from our brother’s eye. We get annoyed at the habits some people do without realizing that we do them ourselves.

In this passage, we look at the reality of sin in the life of those who profess to follow Jesus. John writes that we can’t really follow Him if we can’t recognize the sin in our own lives. He also reminds us that following Jesus doesn’t free us from temptation and from sin.

Background

There have always been a group of people who have sought to reconcile our sinful nature to our salvation in Christ. Paul’s letter in Romans 7 gives his version—an accurate one, at that—of the struggle between the sinful nature and the Spirit-controlled life.

Others have tried to suggest that sin is not really a part of their lives because they are spiritual beings, while the physical body is the one that is committing the sin. Their reasoning is that the spirit and the body are two distinctively different aspects of a person, and that the two have no bearing on each other. According to this thought, the sins of the body have no effect on the Spirit, and the Spirit has no effect on the body.

The problem with this idea is that it isn’t biblical. When God made us, He made us with a soul, a spirit and a body. The soul is the person—our thoughts, our tastes, who we are. The body is how the soul relates to our world—we use the body to maintain the soul, to communicate with the world around us. And we use our spirit to commune with God. When Adam and Eve took the forbidden fruit, their bodies didn’t die, but their spirits did. We cannot separate the body from the spirit; they are both part of who we are.

Then there is the other view—that our sin disproves our salvation. Can a real Christian live a sinful life, they ask. They contend that a true believer would never sin, and that our sin is proof that we aren’t really saved.

The reality is that God’s people sin all the time, but our sin doesn’t destroy our relationship with the Father. While it is true that our sin can hinder the work of the Holy Spirit within us, God doesn’t turn His back on us when we sin. His love that sent His Son is so strong that the blood of Christ covers all sin, and God continues to work in us to “will and to act according to His good purpose” (cf. Philippians 2:13). God is constantly at work in us, and He is allowing us to be tempted so we can learn to grow spiritually and see victory in our lives.

And then there are those who insist that God’s forgiveness is a license to sin. Since God is obligated to forgive us, they reason, then we’re free to sin as much as we want. Paul wrote to the Galatians, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:13-14).

John’s letter is written as a guide to show us what it really means to walk with Jesus in a way that is pleasing to Him and reassuring to us. In the letter, John urges us to “walk in the light, as He is in the light” (1:7a).

Central Truth: Even when we commit to follow Jesus, we can still sin.

If we will deal with sin:

We need to acknowledge our sin (1:8-10)

In a recent presidential election, one of the men running for the office made the following statement: “Why do I have to repent, why do I have to ask for forgiveness if [I’m] not making mistakes?”

When we talk to people about following Christ, one of the first things they’ll say is, “I’m not a bad person.” And, truth be told, most of them are not bad people. None of us were “bad” people when we came to know Christ as Savior.

The problem is that we equate sin with moral bankruptcy, with doing bad things. The Bible is clear that sin is not necessarily an act or word, but a way of relating to God. Sin is turning away from God and seeking to do my will over His. When we turn our back on God, we sin. We may be the most moral person in the eyes of everyone around us, doing good and beneficial things for society and humanity. But if we refuse to see that our walk with God is incomplete because we fail to acknowledge our sin, then John says we “deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (8b).

The Bible is filled with God’s expectations for us. There are the Ten Commandments, statements made through the prophets. Jesus tells us what we need to do to have eternal life and the rest of the New Testament speaks about what it is to do and be what God wants us to do and be.

Something I’ve always thought was telling about when God gave Moses the law was that God included a sin offering. In giving the law, God was specific in what He expected His people to do, and He warned them time and again of what would happen if they failed to live up to His law. Even though God was very clear about the need for obedience, He also knew that we would fall short of His expectations, and that we would need forgiveness. He created the Day of Atonement for the specific reminder to His people that they would need to seek forgiveness.

If we seek to be in fellowship with God, then we need to acknowledge our sin before Him. John tells us when we do confess our sins, God will forgive us and purify us. He will bring us into full fellowship with Him.

We should not interpret this as sin severing the relationship with God. He does not turn His back on us nor do we lose our salvation. We are always in His family and His care. What our confession does is heal us from our sin and restore us into a place where we are no longer grieving the Holy Spirit. Think of it as using your favorite mug or glass for drinking tea. You may use the glass, but it gets dirty and eventually will need to be washed and restored to its usable state. That’s why we confess our sin. It allows us to acknowledge the wrong we have done and to recognize our need for Christ’s salvation. In confession, we strengthen the relationship we have with God the Father.

John adds that if we deny that we sin, then we call God a liar and have to deny the very word of God. We cannot proclaim the Bible as God’s revelation of Himself to us if we cannot accept that part of that revelation includes the reality of sin and our need for repentance. It’s interesting to see that John doesn’t say if we deny our sin that we call God wrong, but that we make Him out to be a liar. Someone can be wrong and not be lying. To tell someone they are lying is to deny the veracity of their words and calls into question the very character of the one we call a liar.

If we are to follow Christ, we must acknowledge our sin.

We need to trust in Jesus for forgiveness (2:1-2)

When we held our children for the first time, looking into those tiny eyes and seeing their sweet faces, I hope everyone of us hoped only the best for our children. We hoped that they would not suffer pain or hurt, that they would always experience love and happiness. And yet, though we hoped that, we also knew that they would endure hardship, hurt and disappointment. We knew that because that’s part of life. Our job is to help our children come to terms with life’s hardships so that they can learn and grow and become stronger, better people because of it.

John’s hope in writing 2:1 is that of the new dad or mom. His hope is that we will not sin, but he immediately lets us know that when we sin, we have an answer. He reminds us that Jesus stands at the throne of God acting as our advocate.

John refers to Jesus as the Righteous One. He wants us to know and understand that our sinfulness and our sins are unrighteous, but that Jesus, who intercedes on our behalf, stands before God as a righteous advocate. He who knew no sin speaks to the Father on our behalf.

His righteousness is why His sacrifice is an atoning one, washing away our sins and removing them from God’s presence. Think of Febreze. The selling point of Febreze is that it eliminates unwanted odors from our lives. One spray of the product and gone is the smell of garbage left out too long and stinky shoes left on too long. Jesus’ atoning sacrifices removes all traces of our sins and restores us into pristine position in God’s presence.

When we sin, we know that Jesus Christ stands as our advocate, remind God of our atonement made possible by the Son who gave up His glory and laid down His life at Calvary, only to pick it up again. We are transformed by the Spirit within us, and made whole by the blood of Christ. In Him alone is forgiveness.

We must walk in His ways (3-6)

Perhaps John knows us well, because immediately after letting us know that our sins are forgiven, he then transitions to how we should live if we are to follow the Righteous One, Jesus Christ. There are some who would read 1 John 2:1-2 and a green light to indulge in sin, but John has an answer to that. It is that as we acknowledge our sin and as we seek forgiveness through Christ, we then give ourselves over to Him to walk in His ways and do His will. Here, again, John offers a test.

John tells us that demonstrate our knowing Christ because of our obedience to Him. For the person who says they know Christ but do not do what Christ bids is a liar and there is no truth in such a person.

It’s relatively easy for someone to claim to be a Christian. This is particularly true if they show up for church and do “churchy” things. Too often we equate church with being a Christian, but that’s not what the Bible teaches. A person can have a great intellectual comprehension of the Bible, able to quote it in depth and length. But knowing the Bible and knowing Jesus are not necessarily the same thing.

According to John, the way we can tell is someone really knows Jesus is if that person is doing what Jesus commands us to do. Surprisingly, the commands of Jesus have a uniformity and consistency about them.

· “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so must you love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another” – John 13:34-35.

· (at the end of the parable of the Good Samaritan) “Go and do likewise” – Luke 10:37b.

· “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” – Matthew 7:12.

· “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, . . . But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” – Matthew 6:33.

There are other commands, but the vast majority of His commands deal with how we demonstrate our love for Him and the Father by the way we treat others. The Gospels show us repeatedly that Jesus was more concerned about relationship than He was about following some rituals and arcane points of law and scripture. Jesus demonstrated what it means to fulfill Scripture by the way He lived.

That’s what John concludes with this idea. “This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did” (vs. 5b-6). Jesus reminds us in John 14:23, “If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching.” The way we demonstrate our love for Christ is to follow His ways, and the way we follow His ways is by recognizing our complete dependence on Him to live through us and in us (cf. John 15:1-8; Galatians 2:17-20; 2 Corinthians 12:8b-10).

If we will follow Jesus, we will acknowledge our sin, seek forgiveness through Jesus Christ, and we will walk as Jesus walked.

Conclusion

It’s not easy to admit when we’re wrong. For many of us, being wrong confirms we are less than perfect. This is true of everything in life. We don’t like to admit mistakes.

Sin is often seen as a mistake, as an error. It is that, but it is also more. Sin is thinking either that God’s ways are not the best ways or that God won’t see this disobedience. Sin can be our way of taking grace for granted, of assuming that we can sin precisely because we know we are forgiven.

The Bible lets us know that God takes sin seriously. He considers it to be an act that is a death penalty. He sees sin as so vile that the only way God could demonstrate His love for us was to send His One and Only Son to die for us, so atoning for our sins and making it possible to have fellowship and peace with Him.

This sacrifice was a costly one. It was the greatest gift God could give us and it cost Him His Son. Jesus gave us this gift, even though it meant His torture and horrible death on a cross.

God takes sin seriously. How can do otherwise? To follow Jesus, we have to acknowledge our sin, seek forgiveness through Christ and walk in His ways.