Podcast: 1 John: Old is the New New

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Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
-1 John 2:7-8

Just recently, my family was going through a rough time. My wife was particularly affected by things. I tried to react with patience and love, and by God’s grace I think I was relatively successful. A couple of nights ago, my wife hugged me and thanked me for how I had helped. And I told her I loved her.

Certainly it wasn’t the first time I had said those words. I’m not one of those guys who shy away from an “I love you.” I tell my wife that multiple times a day. So I wasn’t saying something new. And yet, with everything that had gone on in these last weeks, and everything that was happening in that moment, and in the context of the conversation, I have no doubt that there was something new to it. My wife knew the words, but she had learned something new of the depth.

That’s the sort of thing I was thinking about when I came upon this passage. We can certainly get confused by John’s words here. “It’s not a new commandment, but it is.” You have to reread the text just to make sure you didn’t misunderstand the first time. And you may start to wonder if John is confused here, because we certainly are!

So let’s slow down a little and figure this out. I’ve mentioned this before, but we need to address it again. Some of the epistles of the New Testament address doctrine – what we should believe. Others talk about how that belief should be lived out. John just takes both of them and shoves them together and shows us how it mixes. This is wonderful of John, but it also means we need to be a little more careful to figure out exactly what he’s talking about.

A little context will help. John sets up this image in the first chapter of light and dark. Those who are without Christ are in the dark, trying to hide their sins away in the shadows. Those who come into the light to walk with Christ have their sins exposed to the light. It is not that they are without sin. John makes that very clear in verse 10: “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” No, it is that we have confessed our sins, and Jesus has forgiven them.

But now we are walking in the light. We don’t walk perfectly, but John again reminds us that Jesus is our advocate with the Father to forgive sins. But walking in the light does bring about a change. Simply put, if we want to be sure we are walking with Jesus, we should look at our lives and see if there has been a change in us that has brought about obedience to God. That is a sign that we are in the light.

What about this obedience? What does this obedience look like? And here we get to today’s passage. John is not talking about a new set of rules here. We’re not suddenly given new restrictions and expectations. In other words, God hasn’t suddenly changed His mind about what He expects from us because Jesus died on the Cross. He’s the same God He has always been.

This is very important. There are a lot of people who will talk about an “Old Testament God” and a “New Testament God,” as though there is a difference. There isn’t. If you read the Old Testament, you will find a God who is longsuffering, merciful, loving, personal, as well as just and wrathful. In the New Testament, you will find a God who is just and wrathful as well as longsuffering, merciful, loving, and personal.

The people of the Old Testament and the people of the New Testament (and after) are all saved or damned in the same way – by their faith in Jesus or their lack thereof. The people in the Old Testament did not know His name, and yet we read how, for example, Abraham was saved by faith. They had faith in a hope yet to come, while we look back upon our hope, who is named Jesus.

John is not throwing out the Old Testament here. He is affirming it. He tells us that the old commandment is the word that you have heard. In other words, this revelation from God in Holy Scripture has been given to you. John is building on that foundation, not laying a new foundation. Christianity has not done away with Judaism, but it is a COMPLETION of Judaism.

And here is where is gets to be new. In Jesus, we have a freedom to be lawful. Let me explain a little here.

We all know basically what is right and what is wrong. At the same time, we have all done wrong, probably more often than we would admit. At the very core, we are greedy, lustful, selfish, ambitious, and proud. Even if we can control our actions most of the time so that we appear to be good people, we cannot control our hearts. We are sinners, hopeless to control ourselves by sheer force of will. We are corrupted to our very cores.

So when we look at this Law, we are helpless before its holiness and purity. Oftentimes, we pretend that we are abiding in it, but in truth, we are sold out to sin in our hearts.

But then Jesus came, and He died upon a Cross. He lived perfectly, right down to His thoughts and words. He did not deserve to die, but in that death He took the punishment we deserve for our sins. He put them to death upon that cross so that we may live.

When we repent and believe in Him, He takes our sins from us and clothes us in His righteousness. He gives us His Spirit as a guide. He gives us a new heart, one that is spiritually alive and able to love as He intended from the beginning. In other words, by His Grace and the guidance of His Spirit, we are able to do good without them being corrupted by a sinful heart. Romans teaches us that we have died to the Law and have been born again in Christ. It is no longer by works that we succeed (because we never could with works), but in faith.

This is part of what John is talking about when he speaks of how we are now walking in the light. We have left the darkness, exposed our sin to the light, and they have been forgiven. We walk with Jesus in that light. Everything has changed.

So we get back to the commandments. Now the Law is not this mountain that we cannot climb. It’s not a wall we cannot go around anymore. The Law has been fulfilled in Jesus, and we are walking with Him. Let me repeat that, because it is important – The Law has been fulfilled in Jesus, and we are walking with Him.

Do you see the difference? We are able to obey not by the effort of our wills, but because of the One beside whom we walk. It is not a new commandment, but it is. It’s not a new one because it’s the same one we’ve had all along. But now WE are new.

The darkness is passing away. The true light of Christ is shining. It changes everything. And in that light, we can go back to thaw which has come before in a new way. The Law is not new. But it is.