FIRST JOHN
The Absolute Claims of Christianity
1 John 1:1-2:2
INTRODUCTION
Society in 21st-century America is rapidly changing. Americans want and love change. In fact the key word for one of the political parties this year IS change. Change may be the key factor in who actually is inaugurated president of the United States this next January.
A lot of change is is good; sometimes though it is flat-out harmful. In the past 200 years we've gone from being a society which first traveled by foot or horseback to a society which travels by automobiles. Henry Ford built the first car in 1896. Within 7 years the Wright brothers had attached wings to man. We can now fly on a commercial jet plane in 2 hours to a place it used to take men weeks to travel by horse and covered wagon. This technological change is good.
Our society though is not only going through a time of technological change. It is also going through a time of cultural change. Winds of change are blowing throughout American society. Will marriage change from being between one man and one woman to being 2 people regardless of gender? Will euthanasia be deemed appropriate one day in society? We are still fighting the abortion battle.
Two things have caught my notice recently. First, there is a video of a politician running for a major political office in this country who is mocking the Bible. He makes fun of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and then goes on to make fun of the Sermon on the Mount. Twenty years ago this person wouldn't even get elected dog-catcher. Today he is running for a high office in the land, and just will probably win it. This kind of change is not good.
Then there is the question of morals. Today I teach at a local community college where nearly all the young people believe that there is no such thing as right or wrong, that everything is a matter of personal opinion. The young people have not processed this. Rather, they've been indoctrinated. For all our talk about academic freedom, many times our schools are the most indoctrinated places on planet earth. When you look more carefully at the mindset of our young people, you are going to discover that they have been swept away by the New Age mindset, which actually is a Hindu mindset. This kind of change is not good either.
Does the Bible address the situation we find ourselves in today? Is it really outdated, relevant only to those of the 1st century after the birth of Christ? When you look closely at the Scriptures, you will discover that much of what we are going through today also haunted the writers of the New and Old Testaments. For example, the writers of the NT had to deal with the following questions:
CHRISTIANITY'S ABSOLUTE CLAIM ABOUT THE NEW TESTAMENT (1 John 1:1-3)
Politicians today can mock the New Testament, the writings of the apostles, and get away with it. They need to be careful though because if the writers of the NT are right, then the NT is a serious document not to be tampered with, and especially mocked. What claim do the apostles make about themselves and therefore also about the New Testament?
"What was from the beginning,
what we have heard.
what we have seen with our eyes,
what we beheld and our hands handled concerning the Word of Life.
And the Life was manifested,
And we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you also
The eternal Life which was with the Father and was manifested to us.
What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you
That you also may have fellowship WITH US,
And indeed OUR FELLOWSHIP is WITH THE FATHER
And with His Son Jesus Christ."
Whatever else John is claiming, here he is claiming that in order to have a right relationship with God and Jesus, you must have a right relationship with the apostles. Only by having fellowship with the apostles, do we have fellowship with the Father and Jesus: "That you also may have fellowship WITH US, and indeed OUR FELLOWSHIP is WITH THE FATHER And with His Son Jesus Christ." (Since the apostles are dead, how can we have a relationship with them? By obeying their teachings in the NT.)
These are big words for anybody to claim. Why did they make this claim? Because they believed that God had come to them and spoken to them. When did God come and speak to them? Two thousand years ago when He became a Man and lived among us for 33 years. He lived with them and taught them for 3 years. When they speak to us today through the NT, they are actually transmitting to us the words that He Himself spoke.
What makes Jesus' words though so authoritative? The fact that He is God makes them so authoritative. Throughout His ministry He claimed to be God and claimed to have an absolute claim on our lives. Then He died and rose again to prove to us that He was exactly who He said He was.
Can we trust these apostles though? Yes. The reason is that they died for the claim that Jesus not only declared Himself to be God but proved it by dying and rising from the dead. Maybe they died for a lie though. Whereas people will kill for a lie, people normally won't die for a lie. The only time people die for a lie is when they think it is the truth. Well, since the apostles are the ones who are claiming that they heard and saw the resurrected Jesus, they alone would know for sure if this was a lie or the truth. If the apostles died for a lie, then they died for a lie THEY made up. That would not only be illogical; it would also be highly unlikely. In fact, it would be preposterous.
So the NT is not to be taken lightly as one prominent politician has recently done. Rather it is to be taken seriously as God's Word to you and me. It has absolute relevance today for our lives.
CHRISTIANITY'S ABSOLUTE CLAIM ABOUT GOD
Well, what is the authoritative NT saying to you and me? First, it is making an absolute claim about God:
"And this is the message we have heard from Him and announced to you:
that God is LIGHT and in Him there is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5)
What does it mean when the NT says that God is light?
God is Good
The first thing the NT means by the clause that God is light is that God is good, that He is righteous. There is only moral perfection in Him. Every thought He thinks is good. Every act He performs is good and righteous. There has never been a time nor will there ever be a time when God is not right and good.
Just how good though is God? Or just how much light is God? Maybe He's just 99.99% good. Maybe He's messed up once or twice in your life. Not according to John though. John states that God is so much light that in Him there is no darkness AT ALL. In fact there's not even a hint of darkness in God. James writes: "Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of LIGHTS, with whom there is NO VARIATION OR SHIFTING SHADOW" (James 1:17).
If God is right, then there is right and wrong, no matter what our society may believe or claim to be true.
God Reveals Himself to You and Me
When John calls God "light," he means that God is perfectly good and perfectly right. The second thing that John means when it says that God is light is that God reveals Himself to you and me, that is, He shows Himself to you and me. He lets us know about Him, who He is and what He wants from you and me. Darkness hides things; light reveals things; so God doesn't hide Himself and what He demands from you and me. He reveals Himself and His will to us.
Some may claim though that even if God is good and right, we still don't know what is right and wrong. They claim that God is so above us that we don't really know Him and we therefore don't really know what is right and what is wrong. Well, John claims that God is so much Light that He has revealed Himself to you and to me, and He has revealed what is right and wrong to you and me.
For a minute think about how preposterous it is to claim that God is so above us that we can't know Him and ultimately know what is right and wrong. It is true that if we were left to ourselves that we would not come to know God because He is so far above us; however, God is so brilliant that He is quite able to show Himself to you and to me. If God is so smart that He can create this incredible universe, then surely He is smart enough to be able to communicate to you and to me. God has addressed the issues of marriage, homosexuality, abortion, euthanasia, etc.
Well, how has God communicated right and wrong to you and me? First, as we said earlier, Jesus has communicated to us when He taught us 2000 years ago when He was on earth. There's also another way He teaches us right and wrong: He has placed a conscience within us which has informed us of what is right and wrong. Teaching ethics at college has helped me understand that throughout all culture and throughout all generations people have had a conscience. That conscience comes from God. Those who claim otherwise simply have been indoctrinated and haven't done their homework.
The fact that God has given us an awareness of right and wrong tells us something about God: not only is He right, He is concerned that we do the right thing and not the wrong thing. God has revealed what is right and what is wrong so that we can do the right thing. In fact, if we do not, John says that we will not have a relationship with God:
"If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness,
we lie and do not practice the truth.
But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light,
we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:6-7).
God has given us a conscience so that we will live conscientiously, that is, do the right thing.
CHRISTIANITY'S ABSOLUTE CLAIM ABOUT MAN
So the NT IS authoritative and it DOES tell us that God is not only righteous but that He expects us to live righteously. What does the NT tell us about man? It tells us that we are sinners:
"If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us" (1 John 1:7-10).
The world says that there is no right and wrong but that everything is a matter of personal opinion. The world claims that "Everyone's a winner!" (Ask about over 1000 Olympians in China this summer if everybody is a winner. The tears on the faces of a lot of athletes tell you that not everybody is a winner.) This is just a pernicious way of claiming that I'm not a sinner. It's a demonic justification for the claim that "I'm OK, You're OK!" John says that not only is God perfect and that He has revealed to us what is right and wrong but that we don't do the right thing. In fact he says if you deny this, then 2 things are true: (1) you do not have the truth in you and (2) you have called God "a liar" because He HAS said that you are a sinner.
Does this present any particular problem for you and me? Suppose we sinned just simply because we messed up. Wouldn't God overlook those sins? I doubt it, but I will concede this for argument's sake. The problem is that we don't just mess up. Many times we purposefully and willfully rebel against God and what we know to be the right thing to do. Now only does the Bible tell us the truth about ourselves, that is, that we do sin; it also tells us that we have a problem because we have rebelled wilfully against God. We are in trouble, deep trouble.
CHRISTIANITY'S ABSOLUTE CLAIM ABOUT THE WAY MAN GETS RIGHT WITH GOD
The NT puts down on paper what we in our hearts know to be true: (1) that there is a perfect God who demands right conduct from you and me and (2) that we wilfully rebel against this righteous God. What is to become of us? The fact is that if something isn't done, then we are going to be in really bad shape when we stand before God after death. The wonderful thing is that God has gone to extraordinary lengths to do something about this.
First, He has provided a means for us to get right with Him:
"If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
What is the means of getting right with God? Confessing our sins to God. What does it mean to confess our sins? The word "confess" literally means "to agree with," that is, to agree with God whenever I have done something wrong. Once I have agreed with God, then I am to turn from that sin and stop doing it.
The second thing God has done to help us deal with our sins is that He has given us Jesus:
"If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).
How wonderful it is to know that whenever I sin that Jesus is standing before the Judge of the universe pleading my case, defending me. The only righteous Person who ever lived and who alone has the right to criticize me is actually defending me.
Second, look at the Person He is defending me to--the Father, not the harsh, evil Judge of the universe, but the Judge of the universe who just also happens to be my Father. In the end I am going to be quite alright. My Father may discipline me, but He will never, ever condemn me and cast me aside.
Why can I be confident that Jesus is FOR me?
"And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins
and not for ours only but also for those of the whole world!"
When John says that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, he means that God poured out upon Jesus all His wrath which was originally intended for you and me. There is no more wrath for us in spite of our rebellion. There is only love and peace.
CONCLUSION
When it is all said and done, Christianity makes an absolute claim about the Bible, an absolute claim about God, an absolute claim about you and me, and an absolute claim about how to get right with God. Maybe a person can be a Christian and not adhere to these absolute claims; however, he CANNOT be a Christian with integrity if he does not adhere to them. Jesus really did say, "I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life." He said it, and He meant it.