The Test of a True Believer - 1 John 2:1-2

Welcome to my very first blogg. This article is based from a sermon I preached that deals with the work that Christ accomplished on the Cross and the work that He is doing at present. I would be happy to hear all comments.

Let me begin with a story in order for us to understand Jesus’ work on the Cross and how we should respond to it.

Story:

A story is told about the founder of the Persian Empire. It is told that Cyrus once had captured a prince and his family. When they came before him, Cyrus asked the prisoner, "What will you give me if I release you?" "The half of my wealth," was his reply. "And if I release your children?" "Everything I possess." "And if I release your wife?" "Your Majesty, I will give myself." Cyrus was so moved by his devotion that he freed them all. As they returned home, the prince said to his wife, "Wasn't Cyrus a handsome man!" With a look of deep love for her husband, she said to him, "I didn't notice. I could only keep my eyes on you- -the one who was willing to give himself for me."

Like that wife of the Prince we also need to be looking at Christ our Redeemer with gratitude; who gave Himself up for the Church. Because the Bible tells us that we were by nature children of God’s wrath (Eph 2:3); that means we deserved death and hell. And only because of Christ’s atoning sacrifice we became the children of God (John 1:12).

So we will be looking at mainly 2 verses of 1 John 2:1-2.

The title for the sermon this morning is: “The Test of a True Believer.”  

The Basis of the Test: vs. 1-2

• Christ our Advocate 
• Christ our Atonement

1. The Basis of the Test: vs. 1-2

The subject we are deal with is so great that we cannot leave out anything. I believe anything that comes to our mind in order to exalt the doctrine of the Atonement of Christ is lesser compare to what He has accomplished on the Cross for us.

Last week we looked at the test of a true Christian fellowship. In that message we saw the foundation of that Christian fellowship; the application of the foundation and the clarification of that foundation.

This morning we are going to look at the basis on which a true believer can be tested. In other words we will look at the basis which determines if a person is a believer or not.

The verses we have read through, John gives us the basis of that test in the first 2 verses of the 2^nd chapter. So the first basis is:

1. Christ our Advocate: vs. 1

Notice vs. 1, John begins the second chapter by stating the purpose of his writing. “My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

It is important for us to notice how John addresses his readers. He addresses them as my little children. And he does that because he was the oldest apostle living during that time. And as an age old pastor he addresses his readers like that. The second reason could be; that even though knowing that his readers were not in a very good company he addresses them in a loving manner. They were not in a very good spiritual state. They were indulging in sinful activities; and still calling themselves as Christians. John had all the reasons to get angry at them; but he deliberately chooses to call them as ‘my little children.’ This is exactly how Jesus had treated Peter after he had denied and turned back from the Lord; and John was a witness to it.

After addressing his readers in a loving manner John states the purpose of his writing: that, ‘...I am writing these things to you so that...’ it means; everything that John has so far written; the call for fellowship with Christ and the test of true Christian fellowship, all these things John wrote so that ‘...you may not sin...’ this is a very important statement John is making here. Because John’s overflow of love does not stop in the first sentence but continues in these words also. Now before we could see what these words mean; we must first see what they do not mean.

John is not suggesting that once they had come to faith in Jesus they have become perfect. He is not suggesting them that once they had believed in the Sacrifice of Jesus they would not sin. But he is suggesting here that once they came to faith in Jesus they will sin because of the sin nature that is in them. Paul said the same thing in line with that. Galatians 5:16-17, “But I say to you walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh for these are opposed to each other.”  

E.g.: one month back we gave Jonathan (my new born son) the BCG dose. And before a couple of days we realized that on his left hand where the dose was given; pus had formed. When we asked the Doctor about that he said that after the dose pus formation in that particular part is normal. The puss formation will subside and it will be clear. When he said that I was surprised.

The point is: if once any person comes in the fellowship with Christ; that person’s battle with sin is NORMAL. It’s as simple as a baby cries when he is born; and if the baby does not cry then there is some problem with the baby.

No normal Christian on this planet earth can claim that they don’t have struggle with sin. This is what John is saying here. He does not say, that: I am writing these things to you so that you CANNOT sin or you MUST NOT sin or you SHOULD NOT sin; but he says you MAY NOT sin. He does mean of course that John’s readers must not sin.

At the same time we need to understand that John is not giving his readers a license to live in gross sin; but he urged them that they must deliberately forsake sin. And this was exactly in line with what Paul said in Romans 6:1-4, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.”

Even Paul’s point was: falling into sin doesn’t condemn anybody but living in it does.

And thirdly, notice the last Part of the verse 1. John says, ‘....But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous.’

John tells his believer readers that even if anybody sins; they have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Another word for advocate is ‘comforter.’  In this verse John is using legal language. It implies that; we all stand condemned before God (the judge) and John says Jesus Christ is our Advocate He is our defender; He is our comforter. It’s as if there is a court room argument going on; and in this argument Jesus is the advocate for the criminal and Satan is the Public Prosecutor accusing the believer of his past sins and God is the Judge. The reason why John reminds his readers of Jesus’ ministry as an Advocate is; so that his readers would understand that forgiveness of sins is available for repentant sinners. And that is what he says it in vs. 9 of the 1^st chapter. “If we confess our sins; He is just and faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” John gives this assurance to the repentant sinners of his day; because most of the Christians of his day believed that their immoral actions were not sinful.

Application:

The fact that Jesus is interceding for us; tells us that; no matter whatever kind of sin happens from me I am not going to lose my salvation. That’s true you will not lose your salvation; IF YOU ARE SAVED. Because if you are saved you will not live in sin but will flee from it. Separating oneself from sin is the first sign of a Christian believer. This is the first test to know if a person is a true Christian believer. He does not like to indulge in sin. That’s the first sign of a believer.

Jesus’ ministry of intercession for believers must not give a license to sin but give hatred towards sin. And the reason is; OUR sin killed Jesus; even though we were not present there. Each time we choose to sin we violate God’s moral law.

For Example:

The 10 commandments. We all know we are not saved by obeying the Moral Law of God but once we come to know Jesus as our Savior and Lord we obey those 10 commandments as a fruit of our salvation. But if we examine ourselves; can we always obey them? No! Even when we have become believers we do sin; and therefore what a great comfort it is to know that Jesus is interceding He is advocating on our behalf with the Father for our forgiveness. I believe we should be always grateful to Jesus our Advocate/ our comforter.

2. Christ our Atonement: vs. 2

Secondly, John gives another basis of the test of a true believer. To put it in simple words: a believer is forgiven on the basis of Christ’s Atonement.

Notice vs. 2, “And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.” In plain words Jesus’ atoning Sacrifice is the basis of the forgiveness of believer. The word ‘Atonement’ is a legal word. I looked in the dictionary for definition of this word and I found out that atonement means; Reconciliation of man with God through the life, suffering and sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. The word Atonement also means: to satisfy or to appease, or to calm. So, in the light of the meaning of the word; Jesus Christ appeased, He calmed or satisfied the wrath of God by bearing the punishment of our sins on the Cross. God’s anger was hurling against us He would have been right in pouring down that wrath upon us; but in His mercy He provided the atonement in Jesus Christ; and poured His Holy Wrath on Him so that we might be forgiven.

We must ask a question as to why did Christ paid for our sins? The answer is. Jesus paid the price of our sins in order to serve the justice of God and to demonstrate the love of God. 2 verses should come in our mind when we think of Christ’s atonement. John 3:16, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Rom 3:25, “whom God set forth to be an atoning sacrifice through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God's forbearance.” Through this verse Paul explains to us that God could not accept us into His fellowship with himself unless the penalty of our sin was paid. That is God’s justice. Jesus paid that penalty for us so that we could be accepted by God in his fellowship.

But the problem comes when we read the next half of the verse.

Notice the next half of the verse, “...and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

The simple meaning of this verse says that Jesus’ atonement was not only for the believers but for unbelievers as well. But that is not what this verse means. In order to understand the meaning of this verse we need to understand the meaning of the word ‘world.’ The Greek word for World is ‘cosmos.’  Similarly the world in John 3:16 also means ‘cosmos.’  And the word ‘cosmos’ means cultural groups. It means people of different tongues and tribes. It doesn’t mean for all individuals all persons. This verse does not teach that the atonement of Jesus is automatically applicable to all individuals; repentant and unrepentant sinners alike. However, it means that the blood of Jesus is capable of saving all men of all tongues and all individuals. But His blood is only profitable for repentant sinners; not for unrepentant sinners.

Application:

Let me bring this point to conclusion. The atonement of Christ teaches us that all sins (past, present & future) of all the believers are forgiven because of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross.

How should we respond to the atonement of Christ? I heard John Piper in one of his messages, he said: “Do we prize the grace of God in the Atonement of Christ, or do we prostitute the grace of God because of the Atonement of Christ?”

What a comfort it is to know that our sins are already paid for; they have already been forgiven, and that we don’t have to pay for it at all. I feel this is important to say because we live in an idolatrous culture; wherein people do have the idea of our sins being paid for. They are willing to go to a great extent in order to pay for their own sins. They trust their own works in order for their sins to be forgiven.

One such story is told of a woman by the name of Alila. Alila stood on the beach holding her tiny infant son close to her heart. Tears welled in her eyes as she began slowly walking toward the river's edge. She stepped into the water, silently making her way out until she was waist deep, the water gently lapping at the sleeping baby's feet. She stood there for a long time holding the child tightly as she stared out across the river. Then all of a sudden in one quick movement she threw the six month old baby to his watery death. Native missionary M.V. Varghese often witnesses among the crowds who gather at the River Ganga. It was he who came upon Alila that day kneeling in the sand crying uncontrollably and beating her breast. With compassion he knelt down next to her and asked her what was wrong.

Through her sobs she told him, "The problems in my home are too many and my sins are heavy on my heart, so I offered the best I have to the goddess Ganges, my first born son." Brother Varghese's heart ached for the desperate woman. As she wept he gently began to tell her about the love of Jesus and that through Him her sins could be forgiven. She looked at him strangely. "I have never heard that before," she replied through her tears. "Why couldn't you have come thirty minutes earlier? If you did, my child would not have had to die."

Each year millions of people come to the holy Indian city of Hardwar to bathe in the River Ganges. These multitudes come believing this Hindu ritual will wash their sins away. For many people like Alila, many Christians are arriving too late, simply because there aren't enough of these faithful brothers and sisters on the mission field.

How do we respond to the atonement of Christ? Are we just happy to keep this glorious truth to ourselves or like John we are making this a subject of our daily conversation? What is it that charms us the most? Does the gospel of Christ charm you or does it put you off? You see, you will always speak about that which is very close to your heart. Is the gospel of Christ dear to your heart? Have you embraced Him as your Lord and Savior? Have your repented of your sins? Have you been born again?

No one who enjoys the forgiveness of Jesus can be content to keep it for himself. He is not the propitiation for our sins only. There are other sheep that are scattered throughout the whole world. Their sins, too, are covered. And the last commandment of Jesus was, "Go make disciples out of them from every people."

In summary, John's message to us today is: Don't sin! It is tremendously and terribly serious. But if you do sin, don't despair because your attorney is the Son of the Judge. He is righteous and he makes his case for you not on the basis of your perfection but his propitiation. Be of good courage, don't keep Jesus for yourself alone, go and make disciples.