First John: 1 John 2:12-The Recipients of the Epistle Were Experiencing the Forgiveness of Sins
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I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. (ESV)
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday June 29, 2017
www.wenstrom.org
-The Recipients of the Epistle Were Experiencing the Forgiveness of Sins
Lesson # 64
I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. (ESV)
The apostle John here employs the figure of asyndeton in in order to mark a transition from his teaching in to his teaching in .
“Little children” is the vocative neuter plural form of the noun teknion (τεκνίον), which is a term of affection John employs for the Christian community in the Roman province of Asia.
He uses the word as a term of endearment for his spiritual children in the Christian community expressing the care and nurture he has for them.
The word teknion is a nominative for vocative or nominative of address, which is expressing the fact that John is making a solemn statement which expresses his strong conviction regarding the Christian community who are the recipients of this letter.
“Because your sins are forgiven” is composed of the following: (1) conjunction hoti (ὅτι), “because” (2) third person plural perfect passive indicative form of the verb aphiēmi (ἀφίημι), “are forgiven” (3) dative second person plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ), “your” (4) articular nominative feminine singular form of the noun hamartia (ἁμαρτία), “sins.”
The conjunction hoti is introducing a direct object clause which means that it is the direct object of the verb graphō.
This would then indicate that John is affirming with the recipients of this epistle that their sins were presently existing in a state of being forgiven based upon the merits of the person and work of Christ on the cross.
The noun hamartia speaks of any thought, word or action on the part of the Christian which is in disobedience to God’s laws.
The dative second person plural form of the personal pronoun su refers to the Christian community in the Roman province of Asia as a corporate unit.
The word means “for the benefit of each one of you” since the word is used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions and functions as a dative of advantage indicating the recipients of this epistle are benefitting from having their sins forgiven.
The verb aphiēmi means “to forgive, to grant a full pardon from crimes committed” against a holy God and expresses the idea that the believer is experiencing the forgiveness of their sins as a result of confessing these sins to God, which John taught in .
The perfect tense of the verb aphiēmi is an intensive perfect which is used to emphasize the results or present state produced by a past action.
Here the present state is the recipients of this epistle experiencing the forgiveness of their sins and the past action is when they confessed their sins to the Father.
The intensive perfect could be interpreted as the present state of the believer experiencing the forgiveness of their sins as a result of the Father declaring them justified through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
This was the moment they entered into an eternal relationship with God which can never be severed because of sin.
However, John is addressing the issue of fellowship in this epistle, which can be severed because of sin which he addresses in .
This is indicated by his statements in , in which he informs his readers that the purpose of this letter was so that they would continue to regularly experience fellowship with himself and those who adhered to his apostolic teaching.
He also wanted his readers to continue to regularly experience fellowship with the Father and the Son.
The verb aphiēmi is in the passive voice of the verb which expresses the idea that the recipients of this epistle received the action of being forgiven by God the Father when they confessed their sins to Him.
“For his name’s sake” is composed of the following: (1) preposition dia (διά), “for sake” (2) articular accusative neuter singular form of the noun onoma (ὄνομα), “name” (3) genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “His.”
The noun onoma is used with reference to Jesus Christ since it was His death on the cross which propitiated the Father and provided sinners the forgiveness of sins.
The noun onoma is the object of the preposition dia, which is a marker of reason with emphasis upon instrumentality which indicates that the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross is the “instrumentality,” and the “basis upon which” or the “reason why” John’s readers received the forgiveness of their sins.
I am writing at this particular time to each one of you dear children that your sins are forgiven for the benefit of each one of you based upon the merits of His name. (My translation)
marks a transition from John’s teaching that the believer must obey the command to love one another in order to experience fellowship with God to commending the recipients of this epistle for their faithfulness and for rejecting false doctrine.
When John affirms in that the sins of the recipients of this epistle are forgiven for the benefit of each of them based upon the merits of Jesus Christ’s name, he is referring to them experiencing the forgiveness of their sins as a result of confessing these sins to the Father.
This John taught them to do in and now here in , he is affirming that they were in fact doing so.
The believer’s confession of their sins after justification demonstrates that they “agree” with God about their sin.
When their thoughts, words and actions are not agreement with the will of the Father, they are confessing that these thoughts, words or actions are sin.
This confession demonstrates that the believer is in “agreement” with God in that they are thinking, speaking or acting in accordance with the will of the Father and thus His holy standards, which rejects all sin.
Fellowship with God is a moment-by-moment experience, thus the moment the believer commits any mental, verbal or overt act of sin, they have lost their fellowship with God, who is holy, i.e. perfect in character and integrity.
However, the moment they confess these sins, they are at that moment restored to fellowship with God because of the merits of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
This purifies the believer’s conscience, which is defiled by committing personal sin against God (cf. ; ).
To maintain this fellowship once it has been restored through the confession of sin demands that the believer obey the Holy Spirit who speaks to the believer through the communication of the Word of God.
When they are doing this, they are obeying the commands of and .
Therefore, once the confession of sin has taken place the believer needs to maintain and sustain their fellowship with God by obeying the Father’s will, which the Holy Spirit reveals to the believer through the communication of the Word of God.
“Based upon the merits of His name” indicates that the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross is the “instrumentality,” and the “basis upon which” or the “reason why” John’s readers received the forgiveness of their sins at justification and when they confess their sins to the Father.
This prepositional phrase signifies at least five things about the person of Jesus Christ and His Finished Work on the cross of Calvary: (1) It signifies the “Person” of the Lord Jesus Christ who is undiminished deity and true humanity in Person forever and thus the unique theanthropic Person of history and creation. (2) It signifies the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. It refers to the aggregate features and traits that form the individual nature of the impeccable incarnate Son of God. Thus, it refers to the both the aggregate features and traits of the Lord Jesus Christ’s divine and human nature. (3) It signifies the Lord Jesus Christ’s life’s work during His First Advent where He fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Mosaic Law, destroyed the works of the devil, redeemed the entire human race from the slave market of sin, propitiated the Father’s righteous demands that every sin in history be judged, reconciled the entire human race to God. He did all this through His substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross. The word also alludes to His resurrection, ascension and session at the right hand of the Father. (4) It signifies the Lord Jesus Christ’s reputation before mankind as the Savior of the world and Redeemer of all mankind and Sovereign ruler of history. (5) It signifies the Lord Jesus Christ’s standing before the Father as righteous and holy and as His beloved Son.
In , the noun onoma contains the figure of metonymy meaning the name of Jesus Christ is put for the merits of the name of Jesus Christ.
The Father saves the sinner based upon the merits of the object of their faith, Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection.
He also forgives the child of God their sins when they confess these sins to Him based upon the merits of Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection.
In another sense, onoma refers to the believer’s eternal union and identification with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection.
In other words, the Father forgives the believer their sins when they confess these sins to Him based upon the merits of their identification with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection.
The noun onoma therefore refers to the person of Jesus Christ who is the only person in the human race who has any merit before God the Father who is holy.
The English noun “merit” refers to the “excellence, worthiness, quality, virtue, integrity” and “goodness” of someone or something.
If we paraphrase this definition and apply it the noun onoma in , we could say that the forgiveness of sins is received based upon “excellence, worthiness, quality, virtue, integrity” and “goodness” of the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross.