21 January 2018

Faith, Obedience, & Assurance

This message was preached at Saint Matthew's Anglican Church in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Sunday 21 January 2018.



Faith, Obedience, and Assurance
1st John 2:1-17

Introduction
It was nice to have Bishop Mouneer with us last week.  I’m always impressed when I meet someone of status who is so humble and approachable.  I think we would have felt the same way meeting the Apostle John.  Those fortunate enough to live in Ephesus around the end of the 1st Century would certainly have known a man humbled by grace and enlightened by personified Wisdom.  If we had lived in Asia Minor, we doubtless would have recognized the competing worldviews that took shape in her most prominent cities.

It was a complicated climate of blended religious beliefs.  It was well known that some Jews, enraged with jealousy at the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles, had been challenging the early church by seeking to blend the practices of Judaism with the beliefs of Christianity.  Obeying the commands of God in Judaism had become a self-justifying moralism that resulted in a sense of spiritual superiority.  Additionally, some Hellenistic Jews or Gentile converts sought to blend the beliefs of Gnosticism with the practices of Christianity.  Obedience within Gnosticism took the form of unrestrained freedom that sought a mystical encounter with the divine through self-discovery.  Believers in Ephesus and beyond were struggling with the polemical nature of these two worldviews in light of their relatively new-found Christian beliefs.  And then the Apostle John, the old man who had been with Jesus, wrote a letter to confront this impure mixture of belief and practice in the church.  Though many outside the church – and even some elders within the church – had been teaching false doctrine, the grand-fatherly Apostle had corrected them in this letter that outlines the role of obedience in the life of faith.  Through these corrections, we hear the voices of the false teachers, as outlined in the chart below:

The Voices of the False Teachers in 1st John
The False Teachers were saying…
The Apostle John corrected, saying…
1:6 = We have fellowship with the light (with God).

They “walk in darkness.”
1:8 = We have no sin.
They “deceive” themselves.

1:10 = We have not sinned.
They “make him (God) a liar and his word is not in [them].”
2:4 = We know him (God).
They do not “keep his commandments.”

2:9 = We are in the light.
They “hate” their brothers and remain “in darkness.”

3:7-8 = (Implicitly) We are righteous.
“Whoever practices righteousness is righteous… [and] whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil.”
4:20 = I love God.
They “hate” their brothers and are liars.



As we come to this morning’s text, we recognize one element of this false teaching being corrected; and it relates to the link between righteousness and keeping the commandments of God.  It appears that the opponents of the church – and probably even some within the church – were claiming to have a relationship with God that had nothing to do with one’s external and visible way of life.  And John’s correction takes this shape:
Obedience serves the believer’s faith; it does not create faith, but itself, having been created by faith, in turn creates assurance; and all these (faith, obedience, and assurance) are anchored in Christ.  Thus, as we will come to see, there is a causal succession in the development of the passage.  The first step – that obedience merely reflects an inward reality (faith) – is fairly easy for us to recognize.  We have the framework for understanding…

Visible signs confirm inward realities.  They do not create the inward reality, but point to the existence of that inward reality.  Everyone wearing a wedding band this morning is aware of this concept.  The ring itself is a symbol, an external reality that points to an inward reality.  You are not married simply because you slipped a ring around your finger.  You are married because you took solemn oaths before God, a minister, and a group of witnesses.  As I recall, it is only after the oath ceremony that you slip the ring on the finger of your beloved.

Visible signs confirm inward realities.  They do not create the inward reality, but point to the existence of that inward reality.  Everyone who has ever had children is aware of this concept.  The ultrasound images or the billowing belly speak of an inward reality: there is a baby about to be born.  The images themselves are not the baby, but only point to the reality that there is a baby and he/she is coming relatively soon!

Visible signs confirm inward realities.  They do not create the inward reality, but point to the existence of that inward reality.  Everyone who has seen a hurricane report knows that the swirling cyclone on the radar is not the actual storm, but it points to the reality on the ground.  The beleaguered reporter on the ground testifies to the reality that the image reflects.

Visible signs confirm inward realities.  But when we come to the biblical text, we find there is a deeper significance between specific signs and realities.  This is particularly true in the book of 1st John.

1.      The visible sign, according to the Apostle John, is clearly obedience to the commandments of Christ – namely, loving the Lord God with the entirety of one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength and subsequently, loving one’s neighbor as oneself.

2.      The internal reality, again according to the Apostle John, is the transformation of the heart by the power of the Gospel and the indwelling Holy Spirit.  This is the essence of what John calls the “New Birth” in chapter 3 of his Gospel.  It is faith, or belief, or the restored sight of the spiritually blind that is the gift of God imparted as a result of the obedient life, sacrificial death, and awe inspiring resurrection of the Son of God.

3.      And the relationship between the two is increasingly apparent in this short little letter: the sign and realities are necessarily inter-connected.  In other words, there is a fundamental – almost symbiotic – relationship between the two.  It is not sufficient in John’s mind to say that obedience to the command of Christ simply points to the existence of faith and heart transformation.  Indeed, for John, such transformation creates obedience.[1]  In fact, the two cannot exist independently of one another, such that the obedience validates the inward transformation.

As one old sage put it, “We are saved by faith alone.  But the faith that saves is never alone.”

Secondarily then, obedience to the command of Christ creates a third organism in this chain linking salvation and sanctification: it creates assurance of faith in the believer’s life.  So we move from salvation to obedience to assurance.  But what we must not say is that the reverse is true.  For the Apostle John, and indeed the larger biblical witness, it would be heretical to say that obedience creates salvation.  Works do not create; they validate.  They confirm.  So the order is absolutely crucial.

Now that we have drawn these conclusions, let’s walk together through the text to find out how and why we arrived at them.

The Apostle John is very clear about his intent for writing.  He appears to have four significant reasons for addressing the beloved churches of Asia Minor:

1.      Primarily, “so that you may know that you have eternal life” (5:13).  This is a complementary purpose to that of the Gospel of John.  The initial concern of John, as revealed in his Gospel – that you might believe and have life in Christ’s name – is complemented by the second purpose of John, as revealed in this epistle – that you might have assurance of that salvation.  This is a faithful example of one who follows the Great Commission; he engages in evangelism and then in discipleship.

2.      And additionally, “that our (your) joy may be complete” (1:4).  So we can see by the bookends of the epistle that John is concerned with ASSURANCE & JOY.  Assurance and joy.  We further recognize the connection between these two concepts: they are related in terms of causality.  Assurance causes joy.  This joy is the same joy that Jesus spoke about (John 15:11) in the context of abiding in Him, as in branches abiding in the vine that results in the production of fruit.  There Jesus teaches that abiding in Him (or in His love) means keeping his commandments… abiding, by keeping the commandments, leads to full or complete joy.  The parallel is striking, for John writes in this, his first epistle, that assurance, which comes from keeping Jesus’ commandments, leads to the same fullness of joy.  We will see how this works in our passage this morning.

3.      John is also writing about those who are trying to deceive the faithful (2:26).  We have already highlighted the content of these false teachers in some depth, but it is important to see that John recognizes and directly confronts the issues that threaten the church.  It should also be noted at this point that he is also addressing the implicit question about why some, who have already fallen prey to that deception, have gone out from the church.  Some have left the fellowship and the Apostolic Father explains not only how they departed, but more importantly, why they went out.  They were not part of us.  In other words, they had not been transformed by the gospel such that they belonged to the elect of God.    

4.      And finally, the Apostle John is writing “so that you may not sin” (2:1).

(2:1) This is the beginning point of our section.  Note here that he addresses his congregations as “little children.”  This is not to say, “You all are a bunch of babies!”  No, instead it is probably the most appropriate address to communicate deep affection, sincere concern, and tender care.  And the children have embarked on a journey of dependence upon Christ and his unique merit.  The Christian life is about following Christ and living a life of obedience to the commandments of God.  But this is not a journey of sinless perfection.  The Apostle John is keenly aware of human nature, even redeemed human nature.  So he is a good shepherd of the sheep, a good pastor emeritus for the churches of Asia Minor.  The journey of faith is to be firmly anchored in Christ.  John calls him “Jesus Christ, the Righteous.”  There has only been one human being who perfectly kept the law and the commandments of the Father, and that is Christ.  He now stands, his blood having cleansed all who trust in him, as an Advocate.  Let us not make the mistake that Jesus is trying to convince God to keep loving us, keep supporting us, keep showering grace upon us… as if God is discontented with the people Jesus has purchased and is at every moment just waiting to damn them to Hell.  No.  This advocacy is for our sake.  Jesus standing before the Father is an image of glory that ought to be always on our minds.  Our weakness that leads us to sin no longer results in judgment, but mercy.  Because of justification and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, God is totally for us and never against us.  Note how this relates to the following verse. 

(2:2) Jesus is the perfect advocate because he is the propitiation for our sins.  By his perfectly obedient life, his sacrificial death, and his vindication in the resurrection, Jesus has purified from sin and has removed the wrath of God forever.  This is why we can definitively say that Jesus in his advocacy is not trying to eternally placate the Father.  The Father’s wrath has been removed and thus, his disposition toward his people is one of perfect love.  On a note of secondary importance, the death of Christ for the “whole world” is not an indication of universalism – neither does it negate Particular Atonement – but simply reveals the impartiality of God.  The term “world” here, as in many biblical passages, is probably best understood as “Jew and Gentile people groups,” or the ethnic peoples of the world.

What is of utmost importance, however, is that Christ as the Propitiation for sins is the foundational reality of the believer’s salvation; it identifies the means by which we have been justified and declared righteous.  And Christ as Advocate is the foundational reality of the believer’s walk of faith – from sanctification to ultimate glorification.  Because he is our advocate, we know that we will never be under God’s wrath again.  John clearly and powerfully states that performance has nothing to do with these realities, for he maintains that sin does not negate the advocacy or the justifying propitiation.

Do you see the freedom in verses 2:1-2?  Since Jesus has removed the wrath of God and cleansed his people from all their sins… and eternally stands as the Advocate of the believer, there is tremendous freedom.  And this underlying proposition creates one of two responses:

1.      The Ungodly Response: says we are saved and, as a result, we can live like the devil until our glorification, or…

2.      The Godly Response: says we are so shockingly and thoroughly loved by God that we want to offer ourselves as living sacrifices; we want to offer the praise of lips that have been purified; we want to offer hands in showing compassion, feet in bringing the good news of salvation, and hearts as nothing less than the throne of the King.  And we offer these things imperfectly, but in freedom – trusting that the Savior who made our hearts acceptable to God also makes our efforts a fragrant aroma before Him.

(2:3-6) Moving forward, verse 3 leads to the conclusion that works validate; they confirm.  Note the verb tenses here in the English translation: we have come to know Him, if we keep his commands.  The first is a perfect tense (indicative, active: Greek egnwkamen) that speaks of a past action that holds present consequences.  The second is a present tense (subjunctive, active: Greek thrwmen).  And the verse is couched in the context of assurance: we “know” that we have come to know him.  In verse 4, we are assured of knowing God by the validating and confirming presence of command keeping works: by faith in action.  Likewise, we are assured of the identity of false teachers by the absence of such things.  Verses 5-6 conclude this section by saying that, just as the Love of God was perfected in the sacrificial death of Christ, so also the Love of God is perfected in the lives of believers who walk the Calvary Road with Spirit-empowered faith, love, piety, obedience, and self-sacrifice.  This pattern of life provides assurance that we belong to God through Christ.  We have come to know him.  We are “in Him” and have evidence of these things by the Christ-like lifestyle.

(2:7-11) We might initially be confused at the presence of an old command that is new and a new command that is old.  But let’s try to get our minds around this in the next few minutes.  The old command appears to be the first and greatest commandment that Jesus identifies in the context of Mark 12:28-34.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.  The second, Jesus says, is to love your neighbor as yourself.  The Jewish Shema, or confession of faith, was found in Deuteronomy 6:4ff and was recited morning and evening by pious Jews as well as at the start of every synagogue service.  Thus, it was truly from antiquity.  However, John continues by saying it is a new commandment because, in Christ, it was renewed in John 13:34.  Not only was it renewed by Christ, but it was also made possible by the indwelling Spirit of Christ.  Thus, the old commandment that was impossible because of the unregenerate heart became a new commandment that was possible because of the New Birth.  This is what John means by the qualifying phrase “which is true in him and in you.”  The commandment to love God and neighbor is true in that Christ perfectly obeyed and accomplished it.  It is also true in John’s hearers because Christ, by His Spirit, is in them.  He is accomplishing the perfection of God’s love in them as they demonstrate it as light in the darkness.

The darkness is passing away and the light is already shining.  The NASB does something interesting with the word “light” both in the Gospel of John and the Epistles of John that the NIV and the ESV do not.  The capitalization of “Light” in the NASB personifies the noun – and, I think, rightly so – associating it clearly with Christ.  The Apostle John communicates that his hearers are in a transitional phase in which wheat and weeds, good fish and bad fish, good soil and rocky soil, sheep and goats grow up together in the same kingdom (according to the parables of Matthew 13).  The reason that the new command is “true in Him and in you” is that the morning of redemptive history had already dawned.  The Light of Life in Christ is already shining, but it has not yet completely overtaken the darkness.  At first, wheat and weeds are relatively indistinguishable.  But the longer they grow, the more the difference becomes apparent.  This is the point of the following contrast.  One can grow to distinguish children of the light and sons of darkness by “love” and “hate.”  Though the kingdom is an impure mixture now, children of the light necessarily endure to the end (they do not stumble until all is revealed for what it was).  The contrast is developed further in 2:11 to show the desperate plight of the self-deceived.  They are in the darkness, blinded by it, and unable to alter their destructive path.

(2:12-14) Poetic Encouragement: this section does not need much exegesis or explanation, but simply a word of observation.  John appears to engage in poetic encouragement here in order to confirm the faith of his audience and to stimulate their endurance in that faith.  Remember, he has just drawn a contrast between those who love and are shown to be in the light and those who hate and are thus shown to be in darkness.  He brings them the encouragement of assurance in these phrases, regardless of the stage of their spiritual journey (the fathers are further along, the young men are moving toward maturity, and the children are perhaps just beginning the walk of faith).  Regardless, assurance is founded here not upon the validating presence of visible signs, but the fundamental realities the signs point to – namely, salvation itself.  In salvation, their sins had been forgiven.  In salvation, they had come to know the eternal God (repeated twice more, indicating emphasis).  In salvation, they had overcome the evil one.  In salvation, they had become strong because of the indwelling Word of God.  There was no fear, no condemnation in sinning, for they were standing on the Rock of salvation with an eternal Advocate, Jesus Christ the Righteous One.

(2:15-17) We recognize the exhortation to seek what is deepest in fullness and what is longest in duration.  If we are tempted to love the world (or the things of the world), we need only to look to the fact that it is passing away.  Its pleasures are not only fleeting, but they are fundamentally empty.  Thus, the encouragement is to love God – and that, by doing the will of God – because His pleasures are deepest in fullness and longest in duration.  If you could present me with a religious alternative that was deeper in fullness of pleasure and longer in the duration of that pleasure, I would convert to it from Christianity.  I’m safe in saying this because I’ve studied the major world religions and none make this kind of claim; none offer this kind of perfectly deep and eternally long pleasure.  All our desires should therefore be directed by and toward God.  This yields the eternal blessedness of all who follow him and abide forever.

Conclusions

We’ve spoken much about obedience as the work that creates assurance.  It is to be anchored in Christ, just as our faith is rooted in Him.  So how can we know that our obedience is rightly balanced?  We can recognize this balance in one simple way: has the measure of our worth become the quality of our work?  Have our successes in obedience created pride, as if they were the reason for our acceptance before God?  Or have our failures in obedience created depression, as if they were so powerful as to alienate us from God?  Both success and failure need to be handed to Christ, so that he is the source of our success and the propitiation for our failure.  This is the balance we so desperately need.  So we circle back to our opening conclusions in order to bring finality to our study: 

1.      Heart transformation (new birth to justification) creates obedience.
2.      Obedience only validates or confirms heart transformation.
3.      Obedience without heart transformation is impossible.
4.      Heart transformation without obedience is biblically unthinkable.
5.      Heart transformation with obedience leads to genuine assurance of salvation.


[1] This conclusion is based on the word τελειόω which is used in the perfect (indicative) tense three times in 1st John: first in 2:5 where the love of God is “made complete/perfect.”  In 4:17, love is “perfected” in us so that there is no fear at the final judgment.  The maturation of love – the very work that John is proclaiming – speaks of stages that “unfold” until functioning at maximum capacity, or that develop from infancy to maturity.