I don’t know about you, but I have one nagging doubt about God. Do the wrong things that I’ve done during the course of my life mean that God does not love me in the way he would otherwise? In short – are my past mistakes really forgiven? Does God really love me? Or have I blotted my copybook with an indelible splodge or fifty?
Of course we want the answer to be “no”, don’t we? Does God love me less because of my mistakes? No.
But if you’re anything like me, you want the answer to be “no” so badly that you make one of two moves. You either say that the things I’ve done wrong don’t really matter to God very much. I’ve done some bad things, but he’s OK with that. After all, God hates the sin, but he loves the sinner. Or you say that I haven’t really done anything wrong – at least, not anything serious enough to be called sin – at least, I haven’t done for some time.
Both of those are wrong moves.
And yet, if you were here last week, you may remember that I showed us the end of John’s letter. He wrote this so that we might be sure we have eternal life. John wants to reassure us of God’s love and acceptance. But we don’t get that reassurance by denying that we sin, or by denying that our sin matters.
So what I want to do this morning is first of all to show us why both of those moves are wrong moves. And then I want to point us to the two reassurances that John gives to us in this passage.
So, then: Why are those mistakes?
Mistake 1: My sin does not matter
Here’s the first mistake to make: My sin does not matter. My sin does not matter.
Verse 6: If we say we have fellowship with him, that is God, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Saying that my sin does not matter to God, that he and I can be just fine no matter what I do, is a lie says John It’s a lie.
Why? Verse 5: This is the message we have heard from Jesus and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. It’s a lie because God is light.
There are 3 instances in the Bible where it is said that God is some quality or other. Later in 1 John we will hear that God is love. In John’s gospel, Jesus says that God is Spirit. And here we learn that God is light.
What does that mean? Well from other passages in the Bible that speak about light and dark, this could either refer to what God says or to what he does. If this is about what God says, then to say that God is light is to say that he is the truth, that he only ever speaks the truth, that he is absolutely true. Flawless. If this is about what God does, then saying that God is light means that he absolutely pure; God has never done one thing that is morally questionable. Flawless.
And there’s not an ounce of darkness in God. Not a hint of anything untruthful. Not a whiff of anything wrong. Absolute purity in what he says, thinks and does. Absolute truthfulness.
And so, John says, you cannot go through life arm in arm with a God like that, and be someone who lives wrongly, or who believes and says things that are not true. If you say you are, you are living a lie. God cannot co-exist with error or with sin. Our sin matters – whether that’s sin in what we think, sin in what we say, or sin in what we do. It matters.
I used to work with an IT contractor who also did work for the Institute of Advanced Motorists. Occasionally, on a Friday, our team would go to the pub for lunch. Some chips. A burger. Some folk would have a pint. Or two. But this friend of mine never used to have even half a pint. He wouldn’t be driving for another 3 or 4 hours. Most of us would say that half a pint would be long gone by that point. But he dared not. The IAM takes a very strong line on alcohol and driving, and if you’re going to do even casual work for them they expect you to be as rigorous. It was more than his job was worth to have even a drop.
Here’s what we do. We try to convince ourselves that God doesn’t really mind how I live or how I think. God is a God of love, and that overrides any moral scruples he might have, surely?
But it’s a lie.
Or we try to convince ourselves that a particular action or habit doesn’t matter to him. If I have a problem losing my temper, God isn’t too bothered by that, is he? And sometimes you even get prominent national church leaders taking a way of behaving that the Bible says is sinful, and then saying openly that it doesn’t matter. That’s not terribly helpful if that’s a sin you’ve been battling with personally for years. You don’t want to hear that it doesn’t matter, because you know it does.
It’s a lie.
There’s the first mistake we make so easily. My sin does not matter.
Mistake 2: My sin does not exist
Here’s the second mistake: Saying my sin does not exist. My sin does not exist.
Verse 8: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Or verse 10: If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Do you see what John is saying? You claim that you don’t sin. Who are you kidding? Only yourself. God isn’t fooled, and neither are the rest of us!
In fact, you’re going one further than that. You’re actually saying that God is a liar. God says over and over in the Bible that Jesus Christ is the only sinless person ever to have existed. If you claim to be the exception, God will turn around and say to you: Are you calling me a liar? The irony would probably be lost on you.
The story is told of a baptist minister who visited a member of his congregation. The man he was talking to announced with great pride that he’s finally managed to defeat sin. His old, sinful nature was well and truly dead. He didn’t sin any more. At this point, the minister picked up the glass of water he was drinking and threw the contents over this man. The man flew into a rage, and when he’d calmed down enough for the minister to get a word in, he simply said: It would seem your sinful nature wasn’t dead after all; he only needed a glass of water to revive him.
Now few of us would be so bold as to say that we make no mistakes. So what we do instead is say our sin does not exist by redefining sin. Sin, we say, is not every rebellious attitude towards God, however small it may seem. Sin is really just the big things. As long as I’ve never killed anyone and I’ve been faithful in my marriage, I haven’t sinned.
The other way we fall into the trap of saying my sin does not exist is by hiding it away. It goes under the stairs or under the carpet. We make sure we never think about sin, certainly never talk about it. Sin is not a very happy subject. Please don’t mention sin in your sermons, vicar.
And so we fall for the trap of saying that my sin does not exist. I don’t sin. Not me.
Bridge
What John has shown us so far is that it’s a mistake to say our sin does not exist, and it’s also a mistake to say that our sin does not matter. No: We all sin, and this matters greatly to God.
Which means that so far all I’ve done is make that nagging doubt bigger! Does God love me and accept me? Does he love me less because of the mistakes I’ve made?
Remember that John wrote his letter to reassure us. So let’s let him do that. He’s got two things to say to reassure us.
Look to Jesus – he died, and now he lives to represent you
The first place to look for reassurance is to Jesus: Look to Jesus – he died, and now he lives to represent you. Look to Jesus – he died, and now he lives to represent you.
The answer is not to hide our sin, to pretend it doesn’t matter. The answer is to confess it, to bring it out into – the light. Verse 9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we do that, God forgives us. He cleans us. It’s as if it never happened. Washed away.
And it’s all because of Jesus. We need Jesus for two things.
First, we need Jesus for his blood. Verse 7 says that it is the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all sin. In the New Testament, the blood of Jesus always refers to his violent death on the cross. John is saying that God can forgive us because Jesus died.
And the key here is verse 9. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us. God is faithful to forgive us. He keeps his promise to forgive his people. But he’s also just to forgive us. Inn forgiving us, God is acting totally righteously. God isn’t brushing our sin under the carpet, turning a blind eye. He’s forgiving us because when Jesus died on the cross, he was suffering the penalty that our sin deserves. Our sin has already been paid in full, so God as acting with perfect justice when he lets us off.
Because Jesus died, God can be faithful and just – he can forgive us.
Btu we don’t only need Jesus for his blood. We need him to be our barrister. Chapter 2, verse 1: If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. An advocate in court, which we would call a barrister. Actually, in John’s day, this wouldn’t a professional lawyer, more a personal friend who can vouch for you before the judge – but the principle is the same.
Imagine that you’ve been arrested for no fewer than 10 different serious offences. If convicted, each one would send you down for life. In fact, each one on its own would have the tabloids pressing for the reinstatement of hanging just so that you can receive what you deserve. And you find yourself in court.
That would be a pretty terrifying situation to be in. So much hangs on it. You need to prove that you are not guilty of any of the charges against you. What you really need is a good barrister. Someone who knows you well enough to present the case. Someone who knows the law well enough to prove you’re in the clear. Someone who is respected in the legal profession so that the judge will trust the words of your advocate. Someone who has some compelling arguments to present the court.
Here we are, each of us guilty before God of sins more serious than any law in this country. And the wonderful thing is that we have an advocate who will speak up in our defence. He knows us perfectly, because he’s the one who made us. He knows the law, because he is the God whose laws we’ve broken. The judge will trust his words, because this is the judge’s own son. And does he have any good arguments to present? He can shows the court the scars on his own hands, feet and side as irrefutable proof that our crimes have already been paid for in full.
Look to Jesus. He died, and now he lives to represent you.
Look at the direction of your life
John’s second place to look for reassurance is your own life. He says: Look at the direction of your life. Look at the direction of your life.
Ask John how we can know that we have eternal life, and he says chapter 2 and verse 3: By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. If we obey God’s orders. Or he says chapter 2 and verse 6: By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. If our lives are following the same path as Jesus’. If we are starting to resemble Jesus.
Obviously, he’s not saying that we can be sure we’re in God’s family because we don’t sin. He can’t be saying that. It would contradict everything he’s just said. In fact, he first starts talking about the fact we need to obey in chapter 1 and verse 7, and there it’s very clear that he’s not talking about being perfect. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. We obey. We live like Jesus. We walk in the light. And we’re forgiven for the times we fail.
Do you see? He’s not saying we need to be perfect. He’s asking us to draw comfort from the general direction of our lives. If we’re broadly characterised by obedience, rather than by rebelliousness towards God’s word, then we can know that we have eternal life.
Please don’t misunderstand. He’s not saying we have eternal life because we obey God’s rules. We don’t impress God by obeying him. The only thing that changes the way God relates to us is the blood of Jesus, as pleaded by Jesus our barrister. This isn’t how we come to have eternal life. It’s how we can know we have it. Because the when we’ve received the kind of forgiveness Jesus offers us, we are always changed by the experience. It comes out in the way we live.
It’s a bit like a marriage. Every husband and every wife is selfish at times. Even the most doting couple are not consistently loving, every moment of every day. But that does not mean that every marriage is a bad marriage. There are lots and lots of really good marriages. A husband and a wife have promised to love each other in need and in plenty, in sorrow and in joy. And yes there are mistakes, and they have their moments. But broadly their lives are oriented around fulfilling those vows to each other.
Look, John says, at the direction of your life.
Conclusion
One day, we will all stand before God’s judgement seat.
What will you say to God on that day? We want to know that he will acquit us, don’t we, so what do we say?
Don’t say: “I haven’t done anything wrong?” God would say: “You might have convinced yourself about that, but you haven’t fooled the rest of us.”
Don’t say: “I’ve made a few mistakes in my time, but they don’t really matter much do they? We’re OK, you and me!” God would say: “Didn’t really matter all that much? What do you think I let my son die for, if it didn’t really matter all that much? Just who do you think you’re talking to? Of course those things matter!”
Instead you can say to God the Father: “Ask Jesus. He’ll vouch for me!”
God would say: “Would you just hold on here one moment. I’ll go and ask him”. And Jesus would say to his Father: “He’s one of mine. Look at these scars – he’s one of the ones I died for. There are no outstanding charges against him. Trust me – he’s not guilty.”
And if that is where you are putting your confidence, it will come out in all kinds of ways in the way you live.