July 27th Sermon | Comfort in Christ | 1 John 5:18-21

Read 1 John 5:18-21

Introduction:

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 Jn 5:21).

Throughout his first epistle John has maintained the tone of a loving parent directing his charges along the right path. This care is evident in how he refers to the audience throughout the letter: “little children” and “beloved”. And yet there are some passages here written that can undermine that confidence and comfort this book seems to instill: standards that can seem insurmountably high. Let us face this head-on: the standards are insurmountably high, and this is something that should challenge us. This is used by John to highlight the good news of the gospel as he reminds us to go back to the basics, to build our lives on Christ, to love others as God loves us, and to protect these beliefs from false teachers. We need the discomfort of the Law to have the comfort of the gospel–Comfort in Christ.

The Law:

Let us look to the Word:

“If we say that we have fellowship with him while we walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (1 Jn 1:6). “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 Jn 2:15). And “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning” (1 Jn 5:18).

To brothers and sisters that stumble, these verses can hit like a club, dashing whatever assurance they might feel in their faith. There are many who teach without sophistication that the mark of salvation is a good fruit, and this can lead to euphoria in the good times, and despair in the bad. Do not, however, mistake my meaning in this: the standards of the Lord indeed are high. He has a perfect Law, and his expectation is perfect conformity to that Law.

What are these standards encapsulated by the Ten Commandments? Commandments that seem at their face all too easy to follow. All but the last one (or two, depending on the numbering system) involve external actions, easiest enough to keep, right? And yet the Israelites struggled to keep even one of these commandments for generations.

Further, when Christ expounds upon the Ten Commandments, we have Him up the ante:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mat 5:27-28).

Look now to the epistle of James, where it is written:

“For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body . . . For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:2,7-8).

If it is so with the tongue, how must it be with the thoughts? Has even one of us here today not had a thought that was reprehensible in the eyes of the Lord. For it is not just following the Law outwardly that God desires, but internalizing it. Were this not so, the Pharisees would have been exalted at Christ’s first coming, rather than fought with. Now, do not let this message be blunted: such thoughts of iniquity are infringements against the eternal God, and are quite worthy of His righteous fury. We are sinners, each and every one of us. We have done nothing to deserve our Saviour, or the mercy of God.

The Point: We are called to obey the Law of God, not of the world, and yet are incapable of doing so perfectly. As such, we are sinners who deserve his wrath.

The Gospel:

I call on you to notice, however, that James calls he who is able to master his tongue a perfect man.

Who do we know that is perfect? Who, I ask, is perfect but the Lord our God? Here is the heart of the matter. We here, though members of the Church, are bound to sin. Though made in the image of God, we have also a sin nature. On this side of heaven we are not going to be unmaimed by sin. This is the Christian truth. Why, then, does John contradict this principle, even within the letter itself?

We are told that Christians do not walk in the darkness, or practice sin, but also told the following:

“But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours but for the whole world” (1 Jn 2:1-2).

What then, ought we to make of this? As Martin Luther writes,

“All the saints, therefore, have sin and are sinners; yet not one of them sins. They are righteous in accordance with the fact that grace has worked healing in them; they are sinners in accordance with the fact that they must still be healed” (AE 27:372).

We as believers are baptized into Christ’s death, washed with the blood of the lamb. In God’s judgment, we are cleansed from our inequities, and judged not for the imperfect lives we have led, but for the perfect life of Christ Jesus. He led the life we ought to have lived and died the death we all deserve. It is not by our own efforts we are saved but by the efforts of Christ and the grace of God. This is the Christian comfort. It is in this sense that we who are “born of God do not keep on sinning” (1 Jn 5:18), the sense that Christ’s sacrifice upon the cross cleanses and redeems us in the eyes of God. “He who was born of God protects [us] and the evil one does not touch [us]” (1 Jn 5:18)

The work of Christ is not bound by time. It saves us from sin, both before we enter the faith, and afterward. This is the key to eternal life. This is the comfort we have in Christ. And thus: “we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and the eternal life” (1 Jn 5:20).

The Point: We as believers receive the righteousness of Christ, meaning we possess no sin in the eyes of the Lord our God, resolving the fact that we can never perfectly follow the Law of God.

Perversions of the Gospel:

Little children, keep yourselves from idols: such is the word of the Lord. And what do false teachings promulgate but idolatry?

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 Jn 1:8)

Baked into this mistaken concept is the idea that we can be pure enough to earn salvation ourselves, the pride to think we can attain the perfection of Christ. Simply, on this side of heaven none of us will be perfect, that is what sets Jesus apart from us. It is all too easy to make an idol of our good works, to think they are what earns us a ticket into God’s Kingdom. At its worst, this sort of error can completely diminish the sacrifice on the cross, and at best it can cause great insecurity among Christians who stumble, because they see their only assurance in the value of their fruit, rather than the mercy of God. Remember, for He tells us to come to Him saying “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Mat 11:30). We are not the heavy lifters in our own salvation. Salvation is not earned: not by good works, not by lip service, and not by hidden knowledge, as thought by the gnostics. It is a gift from the Lord.

“If we say that we have fellowship with him while we walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (1 Jn 1:6)

Opposite to legalism and the notion of an earned salvation is the god we construct for ourselves by way of cheap grace. The idea that we can live in debauchery and appease the creator with mere words from our lips. Remember that Jesus is not only our saviour, but also the horseman of Revelation 19, who comes to judge and make war (19:11-21). Remember that He will tell many of those who called upon His name that he never knew them (Matt 7:21-23). Yes, His righteousness is counted as ours, but we are to be ruled by Him and not the world, for the “whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 Jn 5:19).

The Point: Salvation is a gift, one we accept by taking Christ as our Saviour and as our King.

Conclusion:

Ours is a life of repentance, a life of sanctification. The Son of God became man so that man might become sons of God. We fall short, but when we do, we repent, keeping our eyes on the Lord our God. When we see our brothers falling short, pray for them. Take comfort, for the Lord is faithful. He is the good shepherd, who went out to find His lost sheep. He is the diligent woman, who celebrated after recovering the lost coin. He is the good father, who gives a royal welcome to the son who squanders his inheritance. He is a good God, who looks for the lost, and welcomes those who turn back. (See Luke 15) Take comfort, for the only sin without forgiveness is blaspheming the Holy Spirit, the sin of rebuffing God’s call to take part in the fullness of joy.

This is the gospel message, and it is one that should give us comfort, a message at the core of First John. A message at the core of the whole Bible. Like a parent, the Apostle John tells us to remember the basics, to build our life on Christ, to love others as God loves us, and to protect this beautiful truth from the threat of false teachers, who would have us turn to idols. This is the Christian comfort