First John 3:4-6 Sin Lawlessness and Christs Appearance

All right, we're in 1 John 3, verses 4 through 6, and the title is Sin, Lawlessness, and Christ's Appearance. Although I was thinking, Roger, on the way down here today, why Christ's Appearance got put in the title, but I can just follow directions, you know?

So this was the title of today's lesson. Christ's Appearance, I thought, Andrew, dealt with pretty much last week. And in fact, that's a good place to start in it. So let's look at last week in terms of the summary. Let's see. I'm not sure why we're... Got to get the pointer on the right screen here. There we go. So summarizing what Andrew taught us last week in 1 John 3, actually 2 through 3 is what he covered. It was the marks of the child of God part 2.

When he appears, we'll be physically like him as he is. I think that was kind of a bitter discussion and I think that's the best conclusion we can come to. Second conclusion was although this hope is certain, it certainly remains to be experienced. This is something that we can only talk about now and we're not going to know much about it until it comes. And it's likely, who knows when the Lord's coming back, rapturing us, but whenever.

I remember Vern praying for this all the time. It could be today, it could be today. Jay Vernon McGee is somebody I've loved over the years, and Jay Vernon said it very clearly. He was kind of gradually dying of prostate cancer, and he kept saying, look, I know absence from the body is present with the Lord, but I kind of like being here right now. I think the Lord's still got something to do, and I kind of like living. So I think that's the attitude we all have. Today's lesson will be very, very pointed to that life that we live here in terms of how we abide and not respond to any legal principles.

The third thing is that this hope in Christ within us serves to purify us even as He is pure. In a sense, when we're rightly dividing the Word of Truth and we look for His coming, ultimately we are positioned appropriately then to be purified as we have this hope before us.

Jim, we brought this up at the end of last week. You and I did initially and talked about it a little bit more. That's the way I look at this purification process. Are we becoming more pure? Positionally, we're totally pure. We're holy and righteous, but this act of purification is like this growth in grace. that we all experience. And I think the hope of His coming really continues to allow us to be purified in terms of our citizenship and where we really are. So let's look at verses 4 through 6 and I'll read, I think this is the A.V. version.

Whoever commits sin transgresses the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him is no sin. And whosoever abideth in him sins not, and whoever sins hath not seen him, neither known him.

Is everybody questioning your salvation this morning? I mean, I think there's no way you could turn to this first epistle of John and feel comfortable if you got saved yesterday, right? I mean, isn't it true for most of us when we did come to the Lord that ultimately at times early on Satan wants to question our salvation? And that the sin nature, remember, never goes away.

It's just been crucified. Oh really? Just. But it has been. So that's kind of where we're going today. So first verse, whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness. and sin is lawlessness. Wow. I mean, talk about a verse. I could see Hal spending six months on this one. But anyway, what city ordinance is this anyway? All this lawlessness. We know when we're going 80 in a 35 zone that there's going to be a ticket that's going to be given us based on an officer who may be nearby. But lawlessness, what is this stuff anyway?

So interesting, whoever commits, and it's a the sin, It's kind of interesting with the article before it, you may want to interpret this a little bit differently than you think, gee, it's a sin, like I wanted to, you know, steal my neighbor's car or something like that. I mean, here we're talking about the sin. What is the sin? It is the ultimate the sin, is it not?

All right. So commits, it's interesting, it's a present active participle. So this suggests that this process is an ongoing process. Now, we're going to look at some commentation here that we can either agree with or not, and this will be kind of fun, I think, as we look at the lesson going forward. And also, he also commits, or meaning he commits the sin, unbelief, or transgresses lawlessness, which is the law, and that's a fact. So if and when we sin, and we're going to deal with this in detail, if and when we sinned, we've transgressed the law, and ultimately, that's a fact. So the question comes up then, do you agree with Wuest on this, who says, now John shows the incompatibility of being a child of God and yet continuing in sin.

Now notice the participle continuing. What does that mean? Well, What is this continuing in sin thing and how is it measured by God and us? I looked through a lot of scripture. I could come up with an answer to this one. But let's go ahead and think through this. Then, by the way, if this is really true, what about the following? And I turn to Romans, a very familiar verse to most of us, Romans 6, 11 and 12.

Likewise, you also reckon yourselves Indeed, to be dead unto sin. But alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lust." Now, how do you interpret that verse versus what we're looking at in John?

Class, somebody. Well, Bob, doesn't that last part kind of speak to what we're talking about here? It says, you know what, sin reigning in your mortal body. It seems like He's addressing that situation, or he could. I think that's a right interpretation. But back to the issue, the question I posed, who's measuring this anyway?

I mean, are we kind of, oh, a couple of good things I did today, oh, this, a couple sins over here, and maybe if I get four or five of these over here, I'm really, it's death in the city. Well, all sin is death, right? And if we think of 1 Corinthians 3 where wood, hay, and stubble is part of all of us to some extent, that all gets burned, right? So this idea of a life that's kind of filled with sin, we're going to go there a little bit more in detail. And sin is lawlessness.

So constable, the Greek word translated lawlessness or anomia, carries a connotation of wickedness. I didn't draw down on that any further, but that's Constable's view of this, and I think probably, scripturally, if you break the law, you're not living up to God's standard. By the way, here's passages that relate to this in terms of the idea that lawlessness may be wickedness. I'm not going to look at all those, but in the Greek, anomia means missing the mark of God's purity, His holiness, and the knowledge of sin. That's a pretty good description. But you know, that opened up a big question to me personally.

So to God, what is sin? What is sin before God? Well, Schaeffer says this, and that's a good source, I think, for us to be enlightened to the world of God. Sin is sinful because it's different from what God is. And God is holy because holiness is infinitely desirable. Holiness is an eternal fact dot dot dot. I just left out a few phrases there. To sin is to be unlike God. Therefore, it is to displease God.

And that's pretty, pretty colloquial, pretty common language. Margaret looks puzzled. What else is new, right? Still talking about what was what the verse says at the beginning, the sin. So if the sin is unbelief, I think we're still going back to that term. The sin that we're talking about here in this passage is unbelief. Well, how would you consider the life you have now in Christ?

We're going there. I'm thinking of anything other than faith is sin. Right. Okay. That's what I agree with, too. But the faith could be in wrong directions, too. Faith, right? The airplane we just boarded, is this going to land where it's intended to? No, but faith in the Lord. That biblical faith, right? Biblical faith. That's what this is talking about, because all of us commit sin.

I mean, a bad thought of someone, a bad thought about anything. You haven't told me about this. But that's not what we're talking about here. I think we're talking about. Well, that's that's where I'm going. So just making myself move on. I'm not sure how to respond to all this. Bob, aren't you thankful? Are we thankful for our wives? They keep us on the mark. Seems like I'm falling off on a lot these days.

All right, so Psalm 51 for David, just reflecting him, just to give one example of what he viewed sin to be. Against you, you only have I sinned. And I've done this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. I mean, that's David's big sin. But all that aside, it's all of our sin, right? Against you have I sinned. I mean, our nature, our sin nature, we're going to get to that in more detail. But ultimately, that relates to kind of the next stage. Sin comes in multiple flavors. This is Baskin Robbins, not quite that many. All right.

It's imputed. We can blame Adam for that, can't we? Therefore, just as though one man's sin entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. All right, so it can be imputed. It can be a nature. Again, we can blame Adam for that, right? And again, In Rome is a good book for looking at sin. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience may all be made righteous.

So that gives us the contrast to that sin nature that we all have inherited. It's judicial. And think about the world system, the way it operates. Romans 3.9, what then? Are we better than they? Not at all, for we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. So this is kind of a world system paradigm that all are under sin. Doesn't make any difference what race you are, what gender you are, ultimately what ethnicity you are, all are under sin.

That's judicial, the big impact. And finally, it's personal. And I think that's what John's really talking about here. Although, you know, the faith is really probably the major sin, not believing. But sins, the personal, are by commission or omission.

Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And how do we define sin? Well, it's sins we commit. or sins of omission, things that the Lord would have had us do that we in fact have not done, either because of self-serving interests or some other explanation for us not doing it. So ultimately I think this is a very good way to look at sin as anything that misses the mark of who God is, and the sin in context is probably manifested by unbelief.

All right. And don't dismiss the fine, I'm saying. So, you know, James reminds us of this frequently in his epistle, for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he's guilty of all. OK. Therefore, in him, who knows to do good and does not do it to him, it is sin. So there's a commission and omission that ultimately James brings up in terms of the personal nature of sin. So ultimately, we're looking at, you know, sin is about us. We have a sin nature that we're to reckon indeed, indeed a debt into sin so that our life may not be reigned by sin, but reigned by the new life we have in Christ Jesus. And that's where we're going to be going here. Any other thoughts about verse four? All right.

And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him there is no sin. I think John kind of summarizes it all there, doesn't he? He summarizes the payment for our sins and the forgiveness of our sins and ultimately our sin nature both. Keep in mind now, the epistle that John has written after Paul has already made his epistles pretty well known. We have to assume that John was founded in position of truth. And you know, this is, the perfect act of indicative means it's fact. So we know this. We know this as believers, that he, the Lord Jesus Christ, has manifested to take away our sins, and in him was no sin. That was his life. But the fact that we are crucified with him, I think, relates to the fact that he took on that sin nature at the same time.

So he was manifested to take away the best kind of interpretations to carry away our sins. And that could be reflected in a couple of verses, Hebrews 10, 4. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away our sins. Okay, so the idea of manifested to take away or carry away. And first, in John 129, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

So this taking away sense makes them totally irrelevant. And in fact, we know that that's factual. And it's interesting, this take away is in the interlinear Greek translated as might bear. And that's subjunctive tense, why? What's a subjunctive tense relate to? Got a quiet group today. It's a possibility.

Yes, I mean, for us, it's a truth, right? To the world system, it's been unapplied by the individual. So, for Marilyn and for Jim, your sins have been taken away and carried away. But for Jonathan, who we prayed for, as far as we can tell, he's not really experienced this fact. Right? Well, you have to be careful here. Don't you have to make sure that you...

Christ paid for the sins of the whole world. For the entire world, right? But what a person accepts out of it... That's exactly what the sin, right? And in him there is not was no sin, right? So Christ from time eternal past to the cross and to his current presence in each of our lives in heavenly places is of someone without sin.

So I think all this really takes us to thinking positionally. So we have a new life in Christ Jesus and ultimately that's really the fact that the sin as we can think about it really has been taken away so why are we still living and that's being manifested. And again thinking about these verses in terms of interpretation about how much is a life reigned by sin, Anyone who's saved, in fact, is positionally secure. There's therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And although we may look horizontally and, in fact, think that someone may not be saved, in fact, we cannot question their decision historically. So to remind us what we've been teaching in the sanctuary, for he made him who knew no sin to be made sin for us. that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

So ultimately, thinking positionally, this verse goes to the top, I think. So it says it all. Next is what precedes us in chapter one. I'm going to read this because I think it really reflects kind of again to whom John is writing and why. That which was from the beginning, which we've heard and we've seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. The life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declared to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us and that which we have seen and heard we declare to you that you may also have fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son, Jesus Christ. So the physical presence of the Lord Jesus Christ that John experienced and those to whom he's writing ultimately is a earthly declaration of, in fact, the position of truth we all live in. I'm going to say, how does this relate to the topic before us? We're going to get there.

First John 2.29, if you know that he is righteous, You know that everyone who practices or does righteousness is born of him.

First John 3.3, and everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he's purer, last week that Andrew covered. And the final verse here, I guess that's the final one in this section. So this idea of ultimately that all the sins were manifested or carried away by him and he himself became sin for us really allows us to be positionally true. So whosoever abides in him, right? So John's about the theme of abiding, is he not? When we think about this theme of abiding, I think in terms of sin, this reigning in sin is someone who's abiding in sin.

So this isn't something we measure. This is a life. It's not any law based, you know, set of standards to live by. It's really a life. And I think anything but that makes this seem like it's something that we need to be measuring and accounting ourselves to. So whoever abides in him does not sin. Wow. And whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him. Now that would be a verse that you wouldn't want to take a new believer to.

And in fact, sometimes I think even we who are growing in grace and have been here for a while struggle with a little bit. So let's see if we can look at this more carefully. So whoever abides is present active. That means you're doing it. This is right now. In him does not sin. So whenever we abide in Christ, we have a life that's not Simple, because we're abiding. I think you get kind of schizophrenic when you think about abiding and not abiding. What am I doing? I mean, I think that gets to be wild and crazy to go in that space. I think we need to know him, that I may know him, right?

The power of his righteousness and fellowship, the fellowship of his sufferings, of course. Abide indicates an ongoing or continuous existence. It's not kind of transiently. So that's our position. That's it's under the title, you know, what I said before, this thing positionally. But the condition needs to fit the position, right? That's speaking of the condition, right? If you're abiding, you have your position, and by abiding you're agreeing with your position. Your condition is consistent with your position. There's a lot of issues there, but I think that's the message I'm trying to get across here.

And doesn't say at all that the new life we have in Christ Jesus is in fact that life that's abiding constantly. So, you know, the idea here that the Christ life in us really is one that we need to reflect and be counting how well we're doing is a mistaken application of that sound theology. It's a life. It's a life that's Holy Spirit led in a new nature.

And don't you think that has to do with also growth? I mean, that's, you know, that's a lifetime of, you know, you understand your position, but it's a lifetime of growth in that constant and more and more and more abiding. I remember, you know, my grandmother talking to her and she didn't understand, of course, identification or position or any of those things, but She understood how important growth was over a lifetime and how you could see that in people's lives. She understood that. You think Paul did, too? Oh, yeah. Sure. Yeah, Jim.

The Greek word for abide is meno. And in this book, you have to discern who he's talking about when he talks about abide. You know, it's obvious when he says abide in him, that's us abiding in Christ. But when it talks about God abides in him, it's talking about God dwelling in us, and that is not optional. When God dwells in us, it's permanent. Oh, that's position, really. It's position. When we dwell in Him, that's condition. You know, and you have to discern who he's talking about here.

And I have taken Menno and translated it as dwells when it talks about God dwelling in us and remains or remain when it talks about me remaining in Him, dwelling in or abiding in Him. You know, so I may be wrong about this, but I see it as when it talks about us remaining in Him, that's our responsibility. By faith. By faith, yeah. And when it talks about dwelling, that's God's responsibility, but it's talking about our position in Him.

He will not give that up. He will not give us up. Well, that's why He sent the Holy Spirit. That's the Holy Spirit. There's our comforter and our guide and our direction, right? And the Holy Spirit engenders and works through the new life we have in Christ Jesus. I mean, Paul said it well. I think for me to live is Christ.

I mean, how can you say it more simply than that? I'm crucified with Christ nevertheless I live but not I. The whole truth of how our condition gets molded to our position. And why do so many people fall short who don't have a good foundation in the exchange life? Because they lack an understanding of position. That's just what I was going to say. You said it maybe more eloquently than I did. We don't understand our life in Christ and our position in God.

So when you think about sin, how are you dealing with that in your own life now? I'm not being specifically to you, but I'm thinking in our own lives, how do we deal with the sin that still is there, the sinner? You have to trust by faith. And what's the faith based on? Faith is based on what Christ did on the cross for us. Well, that's both the forgiveness of sins and the sin nature being crucified, right? Well, yes. our sins, and then we're back in fellowship. It's really more about the fellowship than anything. John reminds us of that, doesn't he? About the fellowship. All right, let's go ahead. Weest, sin may at times enter his life, meaning your life, my life, but sin is the exception, not the rule. Again, who's weighing this?

What happens when we fall short and we sin? What happens? Come on, we're new creatures in Christ Jesus. What happens when we fall short? We lose our fellowship with God. And that's why John talks so much about abiding. When we abide, we have fellowship with the Son, enacted and enabled by the Holy Spirit. And you know, I think as we grow in our Christian life, We get so used to being in fellowship with God that when it's broken, we notice it more quickly.

And then we need to reconcile. We reconcile that and we get back into fellowship quicker. But you know, John's so black and white. And remember, John's already addressed this, but I don't believe that our job is to go about measuring this. It's a life.

But he says, if we confess our sins, We're faithful and just. He's faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Well, he's already cleansed us. It's our belief that we've been cleansed from all unrighteousness. There's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. 1 John 2, my little children, these things are right to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? The position will not change. Position never changes, but is our faith in that position transcending to our condition?

And that's abiding. I think the concept of dwell is good, too, I think. Whoever sins, present tense, has neither seen, perfect tense and factive. That means hasn't seen, is not continually seeing or will not see, perhaps. fact him or known him. It's all about him. It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, and interesting is that not known him here is not fact. This is experiential. This is Gnoska in the Greek. Everything else has been fact. If you sin, you've been lawless.

But here, the fact that you've not known him, And him nor known him really reflects the fact that in our life not knowing him relates to our sin. It's not knowing him sufficiently that that abiding constant is constant enough or continuous enough that in fact that life is lived up because of him and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And I think this, again, is really kind of interesting. Constable, I'm going to quote him here. Believe John was claiming here that when a Christian walks in close fellowship with God, he does not sin. That's pretty straightforward. The abiding believer never repudiates God's authority over him by doing anything that resists God's law or with or will while he is abiding in Christ. I mean, we fully accept who we are and that life is being lived at. I'm paraphrasing that.

If he does, his fellowship with God suffers. He no longer knows God, that's experientially, this kind of experiential day in and day out knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ in that intimate sense. He no longer sees God because he has moved out of the light into darkness. And the life of sin and the life of God mutually excludes one another, doesn't it? Just as darkness does light. That's again the black and white of John.

Go ahead, Jim. What does Ido mean again? Ido is a fact. Okay. It's like you're seated there in the third row. Actually, yeah, it is the third. I can't see the program. Yeah, whatever. So it's a biblical fact, indicative, you know, tense. I mean, it's mood. It means facts.

But now this walk we have is an experiential walk. And when we're not walking experientially, that sin nature can show up more often, if you will. Is it a life continually indwelling with sin? No, that's an unbeliever. because they can do nothing else but live a life that's totally sufficient to themselves. We recently were with an individual who said, it's all about me. I just want to live my life the way I want. It's all about me.

Anyway, 1 John 2.6, he who says he abides in him, ought himself also to walk just as he walked. We're talking about a life here. And that life is one of abiding.

So it's not if you sin, well, the verse says whoever sins is not of God, right? But it's that act in nature, the sin nature makes us feel ultimately separated. And that life is not being lived out as it was intended. I think Vincent kind of does a reasonably good job here summarizing this. John does not teach that believers do not sin. but is speaking of a character or a habit. Throughout the epistle he deals with the ideal reality of life in God in which the love of God and sin exclude each other again back to light and darkness. Light and darkness really does a good job I think of explaining these two various positions of being in sin are being ultimately under the grace in our walk in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So I've got a final kind of message to us. Let's live the life and leave skin where it belongs at the cross. Got a bit of a typo here. It's kind of the skin too. If I would have noticed this this morning, I would have said somebody with a denuded skin or something, right? Well, in a couple weeks you'll have to, right? So leave the flesh where it belongs. Let's put this in italics. Let's move this over here. Hey, Bob. Yes. It's all whether you've got skin in the game or not. You know, if I expected anybody to say anything, it was you, really. I don't want to let you down. Caroline, thank you. All right. So anyway, that's the lesson.

The lesson is we all have sin nature still and ultimately you know, it sometimes empowers us in the wrong direction, but by faith we have a life to live, that life is led by the Spirit. Jim? What do you think about Wiest's expanded translation in verse 6? He says, everyone who in him is constantly abiding is not habitually sinning. Everyone who is constantly sinning has not with discernment seen him, nor has he known him with the result that that that condition is true of him at present.

Well that I think says it just again in another way. I don't see anything wrong with that. But I've said this before in this class, it's nothing but a life. It's not something that we ultimately take credit for. It's not something we continue to enumerate yes and no or darkness and light.

It's a life. And that's life relates to a lot of different personalities and the way people carry themselves. And, you know, we're all individuals in the Lord, but that life shows up to be what it is. And that needs to be one of abiding and comfort. There's a rest there in this life. There's not pressure to live a holy life.

It's just by knowing him. So. But also, you know, if someone's confused about whether or not they're sinning, The Holy Spirit is going to let you go. If you're a believer, the Holy Spirit is going to absolutely bring it to your attention. Eventually. It may take a while. And you may not like how it comes to your attention, but the Holy Spirit is not going to let it go. The Holy Spirit is the busy god.

So next week, Andrew's going to continue this theme and just by the way, the next verse begins, little children, let no man deceive you. He that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. So this theme continues throughout the next few verses. Andrew's going to deal with that next week.

I have the next two weeks, but I didn't mention the supernity, but I'm having a total hand joint replacement week from Monday, so I will be bandaged up. I have looked ahead at those two lessons because I will not be able to type for two weeks, so I'm having a total joint replaced in my hand. Anyway, it's made me get a lot done ahead of time, with Margaret proofreading before.

It's your left hand, right? It's my left hand. I am, yes, like 90%. It's all good. That surgery is a week from Monday for me. Anyway, there's a lot of things I'm doing that relates to my academic past but still present that I've had to get done too, so it's all good.

Let's close in prayer. Father, this text is clear when we rightly divide it in terms of we're talking about a life that's just overpowered and bounded in sin, and that's one that's really of the flesh, which we're all capable of doing. But as believers, there's no condemnation. In the absence of condemnation, we know we have a life to live, and that life is empowered by the Holy Spirit through the new life we have in Christ Jesus. As we abide, we have fellowship with you, and we have a comfort that we're living and being lived in by He who ultimately brings glory to you. We're thankful for this opportunity to divide darkness from light, and that light is entirely in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.