Podcast: 1 John: We Are in Him

This is a transcript of one of our recent podcasts. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
-1 John 5:18-20

Welcome to the Christian Pilgrimage Podcast; I’m your host, Paul Lytle.

So last time we talked about the sin that leads to death, and it may be our temptation to get a little freaked out when we hear things like, “There is a sin that leads to death.” Immediately, the thoughts that will probably jump to mind are, “Well, what is that sin? What if I accidently commit it? I’m just walking down the street and BOOM, I commit that sin and it’s too late? What if I have already committed it? Am I doomed to hell now? Is there anything I can do?”

It’s the natural reaction whenever we speak of a sin that will not be forgiven. But that’s exactly the opposite reaction that John intends for us, because he is writing the letter to encourage us. “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). In other words, he is writing this letter to be encouraging!

And it’s the fault of teachers like me on why it isn’t. There is a very natural break in the text there between those verses and these verses, and so we split up our messages, just like I did. We put them a week apart, and that’s a week to dwell on the sin unto death without the relief herein. My apologies. Hopefully you’ve spent the week in repentance and prayer.

John tells us why true Christians should not be afraid of this sin. It’s because true Christians do not continue in sin. You have to continue in sin to be guilty of the sin that leads to death, because that sin is a continual rejection of the Gospel. Christians are protected from that. John tells us, “he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.” Now, “he who was born of God” could refer to Jesus, because John has already told us “if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Jesus is the only begotten of God. So John has already explained how we are protected in that way. But John has also spoken of how we are of God, adopted children, if we truly believe.

And that would make sense here too, based on everything that John has been telling us. So much of this letter speaks of the fruit of repentance. It talks about the love and righteousness that comes about in us if we are truly saved. It is not that this love saves us, but is the result of salvation.

John tells us first that we are all sinners. We do not deserve the life that God offers, but it is offered because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. Jesus bore the punishment we deserve for our sin. For those who will be saved, the Spirit of God prompts in them repentance, a turning away from sin. Over time, we become repulsed by our own wickedness, our selfishness, lust, and greed. We turn from our sin and toward God.

In faith we are justified, forgiven of that sin and granted eternal life in Jesus. We are given the Holy Spirit to indwell us, conforming us more into the image of Christ. So we begin to love more. We begin to desire to follow God and His commandments – not out of obligation, but out of love. God, to borrow the phrase from Ezekiel, takes away our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh.

Now tell me. If you have come to a knowledge of the wickedness and filthiness of your own sin; if you have come to realize that only by Jesus’ death on the Cross do you even have a chance; if you have come to know, by the power of the Spirit, the sweetness of the grace of God; and if you have come to turn from your sin and bow before God for mercy; if you have been given the indwelling of the Spirit to guide you; if you have begun to grow in love and righteousness – if all of these things are true, and they are true not just by our human efforts, but by the efforts and security of an infinite God, then how is it possible that you would turn, abandon all of that, and live the rest of your life refusing to repent?

Our own hearts will no longer allow such sin! We have been reborn in Christ! To walk away now is unimaginable, and impossible. John tells us that those who walk away from this never really knew it in the first place.

The knowledge that keeps us to this narrow path is not our own, but given by Jesus through the power of the Spirit. We know it as a part of our justification. It is part of that Grace that has been granted us. That is why we will not fall away into the sin unto death – because we are supernaturally secured. The world may belong to the evil one, but we belong to one far stronger, and He will not let go!

The understanding that the Son gives to us brings us to the Father and to truth. These are all wrapped into one – the way, the truth, and the life. These are the words Jesus said of Himself. Only through Him is there hope for eternal life, because He is that life. He is that truth, and we are in Him who is true, both the Father and the Son. How can we fall away?

Be assured of your salvation, my brothers and sisters. Be assured. The Spirit is at work in you, if you are in Christ, and will not let you go. If by the Spirit you no longer remain in sin, you are assured of your election. I do not say, “if you do not sin,” for we still sin. But if the Spirit is turning you from sin and toward God, then you can be confident in your salvation.

We can be confident not because of ourselves, but because of Him. “He is the true God and eternal life.” This passage interests me, because it is not clear whether this speaks of the Father or the Son. The ESV renders the subject “He,” but the Greek says “This.” Still, the “this” clearly refers to either Jesus or the Father. Jesus was the last to be mentioned, so perhaps Jesus is the true God and eternal life. Perhaps it is the Father, for the Father was prominent also in the previous sentence. The pronoun may be a little unclear, yet it is true either way. The previous sentence says that God the Father is the truth, but also did Jesus tell us of Himself, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

This is the true God, and no one member of the Trinity claims that distinction over the others. God the Father is true, as is the Son, as is the Spirit. If you are in the Son, then you are in the Father, and you have the Spirit indwelling. You are secured for eternity by their power and efforts. God the Father elected you, the Son bought you, and the Spirit leads you. You are His. Thus can you know that you have eternal life!

Podcast: 1 John: The Sin Unto Death

This is a transcript of one of our recent podcasts. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life — to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
-1 John 5:16-18

Okay, we definitely have our work cut out for us today. This is one of the most difficult passages that John gives us in his epistles, one of those we are apt to scan right over when we are reading, and yet it has been placed in the Word of God for a reason, and we need to tackle it. So what is the sin that leads to death?

First, let’s do a little defining. John tells us that “all wrongdoing is sin.” Previously, he told us that “sin is lawlessness” (3:4). Sin is a word we use fairly often, but I’m not sure that everyone has a good understanding of it. A lot of times sin is dismissed. “Everyone sins,” people will say, brushing it off, as though it as small of a matter as going a couple of miles per hours faster than the speed limit.

Others think of sin as only the really big stuff, like murder or rape. Still others will acknowledge sin in society, like racism or sexism, but don’t really acknowledge personal sins. I heard one person on the radio today talking about sin as merely not living up to your full potential. God would be disappointed in you when you sin, but it’s not really a crime.

John teaches us the truth about sin – it is lawlessness. It is wrong doing. It is, in other words, rebellion against God’s perfect Law. Our sins offend God. He is perfect, worthy of praise, but when we sin, we mock His holy Law, we turn away from the greatest good in the universe, and we say that our way is better than the ordinances set down by a flawless God.

Paul tells us that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and it is a death we all deserve, but it is not one that we have to endure, for “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That is what Jesus was doing on that Cross – He was paying the debt, the death, that we owe for our sin. For those who repent and believe, we can still have eternal life, not by our own actions, because we cannot earn it, but by His.

So this is what John means when he tells us that there is sin that does not lead to death. We Christians sin. John has emphatically told us that before in this letter. We sin. But we are also forgiven, if we are children of God, because of Jesus’ action. He is our intercessor with the Father when we sin.

So if I fail today (and I probably will), but if I fail today, and I lie to someone on the street, then I will be forgiven. Pray for me, for God is the source of life, and I do not deserve that life, but He will grant it. If you come to a person in your church who is sinning, pray for that person, so there may be life.

So this is something we can understand, but what is the sin that leads to death?

For that, let’s get some context. Remember that John has already addressed people in the church who leave the church. He has said of those people, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (2:19). Remember also that he is writing this letter to assure Christians of their secure salvation, so this passage is not meant to make us afraid. He is intending for us to remember exactly who he is talking about – those who had heard the truth, professed Christ, but never knew Him, and so they left, thus proving that they were never a part of the true Church in the first place. And the most immediate context is the power of prayer, that Christians should go to God in prayer according to the will of God, and so by this he is showing how powerful that pray can be, even to bringing about forgiveness for all sorts of sin.

But there is one sin that will not be forgiven, and it lines up exactly with what John has been talking about with apostates – those who leave the church. This sin that will not be forgiven is spoken of also in Matthew 12:31: “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” A lot of people have gone online to deny the existence of the Holy Spirit, thinking that is what this passage is talking about. It’s not. It’s the continual resistance to the call to repent. It’s the lifelong ignoring of the truth, the rebellion against God. At some point, He’s going to those who resist him over to their own sin. The sin that leads to death is the rebellion against the truth.

That is what those people did when they heard the truth in the church, listened, understood, but still left. They never had a saving faith in Jesus, and so they went about their own ways, embracing their own sins instead of God’s grace. If you resist God’s grace, my friends, then payment for your sin will be expected of you. The wages of sin is death.

It is not forbidden to pray for those who have willfully denied the truth of the Gospel their whole lives, but it is not encouraged. There is no life for those who will not repent. While there is breath in a man, let us pray that God gives him the gift of repentance and faith, but if the truth is always denied, and at last death takes him, he cannot be saved.

How do we know if someone in our congregations have not truly repented? Of course, we cannot know for sure. We cannot know a man’s heart. And yet there is a way to know if we are in the light or in the darkness. If we continue in our sin.

When we become Christians, the Spirit of God indwells us, and it is just the natural result of that indwelling that sin becomes harder and harder. When I first became a Christian, my life did not change all that much, but sin gradually became harder for me to commit. Those habitual sins started to become sour to me. I didn’t like them.

I still sin. I mess up constantly. But it is the continuing in sin that John is addressing. This may look different for you if you are a young Christian verses an older Christian. This looked different for me when I first started and was still pursuing a lot of my old crimes. But God is working on weaning you from sin. He is moving you closer to Himself and away from sin. So are you a Christian? Look at the sins in your life. Are you continuing in them? Are you becoming less content in your sin? Has there been a change?

The Spirit is going to convict you of those sins, and when we repent, that is we turn away from sin, we will be moved more toward righteousness.

And in that repentance, in faith, we will be forgiven. All wrongdoing is sin, and yet for the Christian, it will not lead to death. We have an advocate with the Father in Jesus Christ. Because of His atoning work on the Cross, He is stepping between us and the wrath we deserve.