What's Your Business? Overcoming sin by abiding in Christ
Notes
Transcript
Everyone = rule out protgnsotic claims live however I want, no moral cliam, don’t really know Christ- can’t SO DISHNOUR and SO LITTLE ACCOUNT of our adoption - even more seed has to grow = must render mutual love! vs. left the church thought themselves to be above accountability = universal law conitual sense practice sinning = continual lawlessness!
POION = like poem, artisan work = compleness of sin realize… willful decided habit
In classical Greek the word for sin (hamartia) means to “miss the mark.” It was used of a warrior who missed striking his opponent or of a traveler who missed the right path. In the New Testament, however, hamartia is more active in nature. In other words, sin is an intentional breaking of God’s moral standard. It is a willful rebellion arising from the deliberate choice of the individual, a direct violation of God’s laws. Sin is “missing God’s mark” (Rom 3:23); it is a direct offense against the known will of God.
= Andrew Peterson - lose your way… little boy in woods.. get back on anceint path., lash your … and you’ll find your way back home.! !
Daniel L. Akin, 1, 2, 3 John, vol. 38, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001), 140.v6 present tense sinning vs. 2:1 aorist The believer may fall into sin but he will not walk in it! - not conintuance in sin, = indwelling sin is in believer still, a sinful principle remains - manifest in lapses from holiness, isolatd acts of sin - but no sinful principle in Chirst, and now not just adopted, but born of His Spirit - abdiing in this one impossible that character of Christ doesn’t result in conduct of Christ,…v.7 as eiknos/ that one = the TYPE is Christ the Son of God - webecome like Him..
v.8 X came to pull to pieces, loose, destory work of the devil… loosening a bond!
Contrast is parentage of contnuing in sin = OF DEVIL; but our pearentage, ou practice and business is X’s
v.9 Reason of the Impossiblity of chld of God cotninuing in sin = germ of godliness and divine life, platned and growing in us…
= gradual maturation , set backs, but certain to come to fruition - seed can’t cease growing! Check is it growing!
We are not sinless saviors of ourselves, but we are sin-hating, sin-fighting images of our immaculate Immanuel.
Interlocking themes - spiral deeper to core = BEING the children of God = adoption; acting rightly as God’s children = progressive sanctification = importance of right living and avoiding sin
v.29 theological point = if know that he is righteous = also know now doing that right = you have been born of Him
= orthodoxy (right belief in Jesus) and orthopraxy (obedience and love) are accurate indicators of an eternal fellowship with God = rightouesness is not merely buried in our hearts; private; it also occupies our feet, hands, eyes, and tongues. -within reason, not with perfect persion, you can tell who a Christian is and who is not!
church.” All the churches’ members are holy, “not merely holy by profession, holy in name, and holy in the judgment of charity.” Rather, they are, as J. C. Ryle said, “holy in act, and deed, and reality, and life, and truth. They are all more or less conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.”9
= the family ethic = people will live in a way that is consistent with their parents or household - ie. Mencken - agnostic, Nietche, but middle class suburban loved his moms sandwiches, though living cosmopolitan life wiht all frined tha had values of Nietzhe - still hated adultery… This is the Menken way of doing things, that may be Johnes family…
Emphasis with reality of splinter group = identify who is born of God and who is born of the devil! Not transformed! Father’s love makes us His children! calling election… and eschatolgoical hope!
STEP 2 in argument = always live out your identity =
Structure = everyone x -ing … hoping, sinning, living in him, continuing in sin = Everyone who has this hope, everyone who sin, everyone who remains in him, everyone who continue s to sin
Let me see your ID … id markers indicate who children of God are and who they are not!
a. Everyone… purifies himself = OT acts of purification often connect to temple worship… Numbers 8:21
And the Levites purified themselves from sin and washed their clothes, and Aaron offered them as a wave offering before the Lord, and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.
In NT sometimes same sense, but also metaphorically or spiritually James 4:8 1 Peter 1:22
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
Self purification - new natural result and reflex ie. hit my knee when lame, never used to pop up… now does - why= true children of God not casual in his presence, reverence and respect for God = not saved by our holiness, yet be holy as I am holy… pure as He is pure…
b. Everyone who sins breaks the law v.4a, practice habitually sin - doing lawlessness 4b sin and law mutually defining = Lawlessness is a DISPOSITION toward wrongdoing! BUT key here is not just struggle wit the old man, but sin has a systematic and not mere occassional character… 2 Thessalonians 2:3-8 lawlessness = manifesting deeper opposition to God = putting habitual, perpetual disposition sinner into tthe camp of the arch opponent of God’s Arch enemy!
vs.
v.5a YOU KNOW = asking reader to pause, drum roll, draw the conclusion yourself = appeared to take away our sins = sin and lawlessness don’t mix with X or children born of him! Sin and X incompatabile = our sin dealt with in Jesus’ death, in him no sin!
Pastoral Concern!! that if someone professes to be a child of heaven but lives like the offspring of hell, his Christianity is a charade. O’Donnell, Douglas Sean.
c. Abiding in HIm, can’t live by disposition of lawlessness and wrongdoing… Believers are not without sin yet, but IF ABIDING IN JESUS = CLEANSED FROM SIN… they have left the OLD DISPOSITION BEHIND!!!
= inner dynamic of bpatism modeled, taught, offered, must be received!
v.6b haven’t had EUREKA + SEE HIM and KNOWN HIM - if living in sin is you identity!
CHANGE every covenant child needs to have, new birth, conversion, every unbeliever needs it; but can you say you have this for yourself:
Big deal - not calling to sinless pefection, but sin as understoof as disposition to living AUTO NOMOUSLY - lawlessness, setteled rebellino against God… incompatbilbe int eh family of God Can’t be with him if we are against Him. So though not free from moemnts of failure in sin, not orentated and disposition of rebellion against God. ie. kids not perfect we neither, still parents don’t excuse inappropriate behabior, address it appropriately - but also don’t cast out their kids - instruction and expectation met with understanding and forgivenss = jsympathetic highpirest, tempted in every way, feels our weakness!
Proper understanding of sin in a believers life, ongoing indwelling sin - curcial in your life and mine , especially for our reliance on the Holy Spdiit. f think sinless, dilute sin .. just reduce it to outward and obvious failures, drive it undergoudn and screcy… DSome unbleivers also think sinless, problem, Grips with pervasiveness of sin
Only two option like Menken -pessimisitic realistic view oor agree with pervasiveness of sin and live by the only hope in X, walk according to the Spirit to resist sin, strive toward manturity and holinesess - involve stuggle against sin and filure - why NT written - battle field - test your mettle …
Baxter:
Q1 half-hour visit were as follows. First, “Can you truly say, that all the known sins of your past life are the grief of your heart, and that you have felt that everlasting misery is due to you for them; and that, under a sense of this heavy burden, you have felt yourself a lost man, and have gladly entertained the news of a Saviour, and cast your soul upon Christ alone, for pardon by his blood?” In other words, have you recognized yourself to be a damnable sinner and therefore do you come freely and joyfully to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins?
Q2Second, “Can you truly say, that your heart is so far turned from sin, that you hate the sins which you once have loved, and love that holy life which you had no mind to before; and that you do not now live in the willful practice of any known sin? Is there no sin which you are not heartily willing to forsake whatever it cost you; and no duty which you are not willing to preform?
Said simply: Do you practice righteousness? In light of the appearance of the Righteous One and our future perfect righteousness, do you practice righteousness by abiding in Christ?
Hard question, am I Christian if I habitually sin? 1:8 every Christain habitually sins, that is we continue to sin in one of two ways: struggle with bestting sin, addictions; or variety of sins we weekly succumb to
so imoral though one day, greed the next, anxiety after that, sinful anger , obscene joke, hate parents gossip. gluttony, deceit vanity - idolatry… Saints, yet sinners, - no angleic purity, Not Christ, but becomiong Christ like - issue is what’s my idsposition, do I have a perosnal obedeint abiding relationship with Jesus - Why Paul says he’s the foremost of sinners, why Christ teach pray daily forgiveness of our sins, why not just pforgiveness, but contnual cleansing! =
Remember Three legged stool in attitdue to sin idealism in Christ, , Realism , but big one is forgivenss
So change to habitual sin happens, not our disposition becuase made chidlren of God = deal with it differently and cannot reign where Christ is: Who are we? Children of God. Amazing! In C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters, the senior demon Screwtape says to his understudy Wormwood that guiding people to hell is sometimes difficult because the “Enemy [God] has a curious fantasy of making all these disgusting little human vermin into sons.”13 It is no small matter to be called children of God. And what does it mean to be called children of God?
sin. Do you think it is acceptable for Christians to sin? Don’t! Think again. It’s not. For us, sin is the exception, not the rule. As Christians, we look like Christ. We are not sinless saviors of ourselves, but we are sin-hating, sin-fighting images of our immaculate Immanuel. While we still have sinful patterns or habits—some of which will plague us for life and others of which we already have or will have conquered or controlled—our new habits of holiness are our prevailing lifestyle. Real and radical change has happened inwardly and outwardly. We have made a decisive break. Our way of life is not characterized by a life of sin, but a life of loving obedience. In other words, we “practice righteousness.” In light of the appearance of the Righteous One and our future perfect righteousness, we really do practice righteousness by abiding in Christ.
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SO NOW have the dynamics, but colour in the outline with colour of actual conduct and behaviour to make ID, reveals children of God and Devil = even a child is known by his deeds Proverbs …
Now contrasts children of dveil and God.
Two families revealed in this world by conduct. Protective measure of identifying people…
not saying run from sinners, not saying hate your neighbour, but is saying be aware of spiritual identities, not 20-20 vision - liveby mercy; but protective measure, because one who claims God’s child ID - but walks with devils family - CAN LEAD YO ASTRAY!!!! Quote Menken we’d all reather chose the devil; some in the Church making htat choice yet pretending …
If we are not growing in the likeness of Christ, to whose image does John warn us we might be conforming ourselves (v. 8)?
d. now not just think differently “you know”, but now change action!
v.7 not everyone, but the one doing right = righteous, one DOING PRacticing sinful OF THE DEVIL= both bear family resemblence.
Family deal is that 7b God is righteous, of God do his righteousness, . But what has the devil been doiong from the beginning - sinning = two diametircally opposed fmailies
AND IN THE MIDDLE, SON APPEARS TO DESTROY THE DEVIL’s WORK = reality that Joshua born in the middel with your family, church familiy = life in world with both families, with sinful nature - but SON - the serpent treader - the death destroyer, the sin bearer = comes and says take my hand, every step of teh way
Joshua needs to know baptized in Triune name and at heart into the name of the Son of God … must hear, be taught, and know Christ’s appearing = whole earhtly ministry, incarnation, death, and resurrection, and work now ascended in heaven, … Destorys defil work, death, AND ACTIVITIES that are hostile to God have been destroyed in the life of the believer!
But will it just be up to Joshua , or you his parents, or us the church; No Look carefully it is not just that Christian will not sin, but they cannot sin. Do you know the difference 1 John 3:9
No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
The reason we will not GO ON SINNING - is really because the REASON we cannot, and we pray JOhsua wont … is because of i. 9a God’s seed remains in him! and ii. v.9b BORN OF GOD… that isn’t what happens in baptism, but in regeneration, new birth,
9a 2:20 the anointing of the Spirit remains in us; God’s seed is the Holy Spirit, regeneration, born again - = believer s born of God and His Spirit abides and remains in them as confirmation of his fatherhood!
This is not about sinless perfectionism - sometimes I wish it was - no struggle, but really beieve not zapped to heaven, because God wants to develop you r and my disposition, our orietation toward God - reliance on His SPirit and Word to develop a disposition to live his way…
= not static human thing to be born into God’s family, new birth happens, then Spirit with power moulds you inot the family likeness!
I really hope plays with potatoes, hope he takes blocks and builds strong straight walls - family resemblance . In the same way not led astray by those whose father is the devil!
v.10 Concluding Statement! Right and now connected concretely to main theme of letter - love of Father, love of brothers and sisters - lack of love is failing to do right…
Exhortation to pursue the righteousness of Christ… chief expression of that is love to bro/sis
Augustine said, “How can we avoid sin? By keeping the commandment of Christ. And what is that commandment? It is that we should love. Love, and sin is undone.”30
Adoption powerful picture but John’s image is even stronger.. remember word child - tied to birth . The believer is born of God; 2:29,3:9; this emphasis is why GOD’s SEED REMAINS IN CHILD OF GOD!
now spiritual genetics changed within… born through not mere decision, but THROUGH HIS SEED, HIs SPirit … not simple status, adoption. but truly greatest privelege for a human being is to know Almight and Ever Living God - as MY FATHER!
see character and likeness of God, then live it = involves seeing God and knowing him. That is, it is about being like our Father. We see what he is like, we know who he is, and we are to live in the likeness of his character and person. In this way, the believer shares the family likeness both through “genetics” and through shared life together with God. Just as my children share genetic traits with my wife and me, they have also learned behaviors and attitudes from living with us. The combination of genetics and shared living is a powerful one indeed.
CONCLUSION: Same Father who lavished love on us, adopted, re-briths us, made us his children through sending his Son to die for our sins and giving us his Spirit. Merciful and loving and full of grace … You know don’t want to end up on wrong sid eof God. But assurance, confidence WE KNOW WE ARE ON HIS RIGH TSIDE>…
In Alan Stanley Tretick’s famous photos of John F. Kennedy sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, it is not JFK who is the center of attention but his son, John Jr., who is playfully located underneath the desk. The young John Jr. sits at his dad’s feet while JFK does his work. The picture says so much about the bond of loving family relationships. The president of the United States is not accessible to just anybody. And not just anyone can walk into the Oval Office, let alone sit themselves under the Resolute Desk. But John Jr. had free access to President Kennedy. He had access to the Oval Office. He could sit under the Resolute Desk whenever he wanted. Because the president of the United States was his father. When we know God as Father, we have confidence in his presence. We have access to him. We know that he accepts us and cherishes us. We know that we have nothing to fear from him. He hears our prayers as we address him as “our Father in heaven.”
OR what earthly father laughs when 5year old son falls off his bike , draws ouside the ines… sneers at attempt to make a birthday cake… Love it when children try to please me. Do you honestly think that God is unmoved by our heart-felt attempts at obedience. Prodigal.. home, get on the horse again!
He extends mercy as quickly as he celebrates grace! He is as happy as a shepherd who has found the lost sheep. If you are a child of God who is now running with the wolves or supping with the swine, get up and walk home. God owns the cattle on a billion hills, and his cellar never runs dry. He forgives “seventy times seven” (Matt. 18:22) our incalculable debt (vv. 24–27).17 Repent. Return. Rejoice. But also, make a fresh effort to pursue holiness! Try to please your Father. Go after the big sins that so easily weigh you down. And root out the small sins—