A few weeks ago, I preached from 1 John 1 & 2 at my church about some of the ways we’re given confidence during crises of faith. There’s audio and video on the ULBC website.
But I thought you might also like to read it. So here it is (with minimal editing, so ignore any odd formatting or paragraph-ing or statements that seem like they’re meant for a Sunday Morning rather than a newsletter).
Doubt, at least I’m convinced, is a regular part of the Christian life. It’s not necessarily a good part or a desired part, but it’s a normal part of the Christian life.
All sorts of doubt, whether intellectual, moral, relational, those haunting questions of ‘why?’
· Are the truths I’ve staked my life on really true?
· Does it really matter this much?
· Is Jesus really worth what I’ve given up?
· Has Jesus given up on me?
To me, one of the most comforting verses on doubt is at the very end of Matthew’s gospel. It’s Matthew 28:17
Not Matthew 28:18, the great commission.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
But verse 17. The one before the Great commission.
It’s Easter morning - Mary and Mary go to Jesus’ tomb, and instead of a corpse they find an angel who says to them “Jesus is risen, go tell His disciples to meet Him in Galilee (7).” So they go. And as they’re on their way to deliver this message to the disciples, they run into Jesus Himself who says, “Go tell my brothers to meet me in Galilee” (10).
So they do and the 11 remaining disciples went to Galilee to meet Jesus.
And verse 17 reads,
And when they saw him they worshipped him, but some doubted. (Matthew 28:17)
Face-to-face with the resurrected Christ, worshipping… and doubting.
Man, that had to be frustrating for Jesus. He came back from the dead, He’s physically standing there with His disciples, and some of these knuckleheads can’t get their act together enough to believe. And you know what Jesus does?
I just read it. Verse 18. He came near to them – He doesn’t move away from them - and said, “All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. Go. Make Disciples….”
The commission for those disciples whose faith was strong is the same as for those whose faith was weak. He doesn’t desire that they have weak, doubting faith, but he’s not put off by it either. There’s a job to do, and doubting doesn’t disqualify you from doing it.
What’s the duty of a doubting Christian? To go and make disciples, but so often we let our doubts paralyze us. They sap us of our energy and our joy. Of our hope. Of our assurance. Our confidence. Our doubts get us off track and off mission.
Doubt is inevitable, but Jesus wants us to have confidence. He wants us to be firm in our faith, not tossed to and fro. In fact, you could say there’s an entire book of the Bible written about having confidence in your faith. We call it 1st John, and we’ll be in chapters 1 and 2 this morning.
1 John and a Crisis of Faith
1st John was written to a church, or maybe a network of house churches, who was floundering in her faith, having worship mixed with doubt. And John writes to encourage them, to put steel in their bones, and give them back some of their confidence in the faith.
See, what happened in that church was there was something of a church split.
We don’t have all the historical details, but what we can piece together that it wasn’t over some preference – like music type or carpet color. But it was a theological and moral split.
It seems that a group in the church claimed that our physical, fleshly bodies were evil or at least irrelevant. And it led them to conclude if flesh is evil, then Jesus never came in the flesh. He was maybe a ghost-type figure, but you can’t claim that Jesus came in flesh as an actual human. Which means He didn’t die or rise as a human either. That’s their theological issue.
And it also led them to conclude that things done with the body are irrelevant - you cannot possibly sin with a physical body because God doesn’t care about it. He might actually be opposed to it. And this led them to do all sorts of immoral things with their bodies and they didn’t consider it sin. That’s the moral issue.
And so this group storms out of the church – I’m taking some artistic liberty here – saying “You’re a bunch of rule-loving legalists saying what we can and can’t do with our bodies. Chill out, it doesn’t actually matter.
But you think it does Because you’re worshiping a false God who apparently clothed himself in evil flesh. As if a holy, immortal, infinite God could be clothed with evil. You’re missing the point of the gospel.”
When your best friends and half your community group leaves the church claiming you’re staying in a heretical cult, what do you do? Surely you start to doubt. You have a crisis of faith.
Are they right?
Am I wrong?
Can we maybe meet halfway and both be OK?
And that’s when John – The Apostle John, probably Pastor John to these people, steps in with this letter. Not so much with a theological argument of who’s right and wrong – teaching on the goodness of the physical body and reality of Christ’s en-flesh-ment; His incarnation. Rather, he gives a word of comfort to the remaining church. A Word to give them back their confidence and assurance.
He develops a bunch of different themes in this letter – if you’re in student ministry, you’ll see them as we study this book over the next few weeks. If you’re in women’s ministry, you’ll see them when you study it in the fall. If you’re a man past high school, I guess you need to study this on your own or with a friend to see them all.
But in this first section, he gives three themes or arguments to bring comfort to the doubting. He speaks of Christ, Confession, and Character. And there’s also this theme of community woven through the whole thing, but 3 c’s are enough for today.
Christ (1:1-4), Confession (1:5-10), and Character (2:1-6).
[1] That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
[5] This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But 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. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
[1] My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
Section 1: Confidence about Christ
How do you categorize the study of Jesus?
Is it biography?
History?
Theology?
In this first section, John blends all of those things. He’s pulling from his own experience of being with Jesus, eating with Jesus, hearing Him speak, smelling him after long days, taking care of His mother after He was crucified – to argue that he knows who the True Jesus and the church can have confidence about Him too.
Look at verse 1, the second half – we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon. And touched with our hands. Verse 2 – we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you.
There’s a history here. There’s a flesh-and-blood nature to Jesus Christ. This isn’t an abstract theological or philosophical point to John, this is a common sense fact. I know him. John and Jesus are best friends. Not in some weird, spiritual, “Jesus is my homeboy” kind of way, but they were actual, physical friends. They hung out and told jokes and ate together and cried together. There were hugs, there were foot washings, there were anointings.
John isn’t arguing philosophically that Jesus was (is) a man, but he’s arguing historically. “Which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands.” It was his eyewitness testimony. I was there in Galilee with the others when we saw the resurrected Christ.
It's this argument – I know Jesus and so can you. He really is a man, despite what anyone might try to tell you.
But He wasn’t just a man, right? He’s, again, verse 1 –
That which was from the beginning.
Remember John’s gospel that we read a few minutes ago?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word Was God.
[14] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
That Life, that Word, that Light became Man and was manifest to us. And so we’re not making up stories or myths, all I’m doing – or we’re doing, me and the apostles, is telling you what we saw and what we know to be true.
That’s evangelism, isn’t it? Just telling people what we saw and what we know to be true?
And like in our evangelism, we don’t want people just to know things, we want them to experience things - the same thing we have.
Look at verse 3 – “That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
If you believe and hold fast to what I’m telling you, you will be united to us (the true Apostoles), and you’ll be united to God – the Father and the Son. (And by implication, the Holy Spirit, although He’s not explicitly mentioned in the verse.)
I told you that there’s a theme of community running through this text. As we talk about being united with Christ, it goes hand in hand with being united to His community. You can’t have Christ without His family.
That’s exactly what John wants, he wants His church to have fellowship with him and with God. He wants them to believe what they know and have faith in the midst of their floundering.
That’s why he’s writing this letter in the first place – it’s in verse 4. Look at it – “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”
Our joy? Doesn’t he mean “Your joy?”
I was talking about bucket lists not too long ago. Mine is either very mundane or very unlikely. I don’t know how to drive a stick shift. I’d like to learn to drive a manual at some point. Bucket list.
I’d also really like Simon and Garfunkel to get back together so I can go to their concert. Bucket List.
And then someone else said, “I want to see my kids come to know Jesus.” And I immediately felt like an idiot. Simon and Garfunkel, really? and I revised my answer. Because what brings you more joy than seeing those you love having fellowship with God? That’s what John wants for this beloved church. To walk in truth and fellowship with Jesus Christ. And with him.
And so he says to that church – and to us, you know you’re worshipping the right Christ, because I know Him personally, and you can too. Take my eyewitness testimony. I’ve seen Him, I’ve touched Him, I’ve had dinner with His family. I know He’s God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, and also true man.
I cared for his Mom.
For goodness sake, You have Jesus’ mom and best friend telling you about him, that he’s a man, a human. He was born of a virgin and is now ascended to heaven, but if anyone would know if He’s a fraud, if we got it wrong, it’s me.
He’s not like Superman – actually an alien but with human appearance. He’s truly human. Clothed in flesh, just like us.
And you can trust me. I know Jesus, and so can you.
He answers their historical doubts, but what about their moral doubts? What about their sin? Shouldn’t their sin keep them from knowing God, keep them from having assurance?
Look at this next section, verses 5-10.
Section 2 - Confidence through Confession
He starts this section with a truth about God – verse 5:
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”
Then he takes that truth – God is Light – and applies it, verse 6. “If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
So yes, it is possible to be self-deceived. If you claim to have fellowship with the God of light, but your life is defined by walking in darkness, you should not have assurance. You should have doubt in that darkness.
However, the flip is also true – if you walk in light, you should have assurance of God’s love.
Look at verse 7 –
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another (there’s community again), and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
That’s simple enough. Walking in darkness equals lying about knowing God, walking in the light equals fellowship with God of Light - and with one another.
Orthodoxy – right beliefs – leads to orthopraxy – right actions. Those things go hand in hand. It’s basic. Knowing the God of Light leads you to walk in the light. If you’re not walking in the light, you shouldn’t assume you know the God of light.
But It gets complicated when you realize I haven’t defined what it means to walk in the light or in darkness. I think most of us just assume walking in darkness is sinning and walking in the light is not sinning, or to say it positively, walking in righteousness.
But that can’t be the case, can it? No, verse 7 says if we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. What sin is there to be cleansed from if we aren’t sinning?
Let me keep reading, this will clarify things. Vs 8
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
So walking in the darkness means self-deception (6), and denying sin means self-deception (8). Those are linked. I think we can put verse 10 in this category too –
If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Walking in darkness = denying sin = self-deception
But then, contrast that darkness and denying sin with verse 9.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So confession leads to cleansing from unrighteousness (v9) and walking in the light leads to cleansing from sin (v7). Those are also linked.
Walking in the light = confessing sin = cleansing from sin.
You see this in your Bibles too, right? You’re not just taking my word for it, are you?
So walking in the light means confessing your sin and walking in the darkness means denying your sin That’s why I gave this section the title of “Confidence through Confession.”
This is important: The mark of a true Christian isn’t sinlessness, it’s repentance.
Or, to say it another way, John envisions 2 groups of people. I think they’re probably the church that remains and the church that left. He doesn’t say one is holy and the others are sinners. He says, one is sinners that deny their sin, and the other is sinners that repent of their sin. That’s the distinguishing mark between doubting Christians and unbelievers – are you confessing your sin?
It's what Luther wrote as the first of his famous 95 theses –
“When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ``Repent'' (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”
Or, one more time, to make sure you get it. The difference between walking in the light and walking in the darkness is that those in the light have ongoing repentance – and sin – and those in the darkness have unrepentant sin.
And the whole reason we can repent is because of 7 – because of the blood of Jesus. He cleanses us and covers us in our sin.
We don’t have to try and hide it.
We don’t have to try and deny it.
We don’t have to try and justify it.
We don’t have to try and pay for it.
No, we confess that what Jesus already knows about us is true. We confess what Jesus did for us on the cross is needed. We confess there’s only one person who is always in the right – and despite what I often think – that person isn’t me. It’s Jesus Christ the Righteous. And we go to Him for our cleansing and forgiveness.
Because if we’re truly people of the Gospel, we will celebrate that gospel. That God is faithful and just to forgive our sins through the blood of Christ (that’s verse 9).
He’s faithful, that is, He will keep His promises of forgiveness.
And He’s just. He won’t put on us a second punishment for sin, because that righteous punishment was already put on Christ and paid for at the cross.
The Christian honors Jesus’ sacrifice by pleading His blood. Not by defending himself and denying his sin, but by openly confessing it to God – and to others – and receiving God’s forgiveness and cleansing.
If you struggle with doubt because you think your sins are preventing you from fellowship with God, the question you need to ask is, are you confessing them?
Walking in the light looks like confession. And when we walk in the light, we are cleansed and have fellowship – not just with God, but with one another.
We can have confidence of God’s love toward us if we are people of confession. God is eager to forgive – He is faithful and just. And He wants us to have the assurance so many of us lack.
But let’s make sure I’m here. Am I saying our actions don’t matter for assurance?
Perhaps I should sin all the more so that through confession, confidence may abound?
Not at all. That’s where our third section comes in:
Section 3 - Confidence by your Character.
John says, this is 2:1, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” The last section on confession shouldn’t convince you to sin. He’s writing so that you wouldn’t.
There’s this tension here, we have the goal of holiness, but the reality of sin.
We don’t sin intentionally, but we do sin inevitably.
In our striving for holiness and obedience, there’s real progress, but never perfection.
Our lives are to be faithful, but that doesn’t mean free from any presence of sin.
It’s an already but not yet tension. We should have tempered expectations of our holiness, and yet, we should have actual holiness.
It’s right there in verse 1 –
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
Don’t sin, but when you do, remember Jesus Christ. He’s our advocate, our helper, verse 2 says “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Propitiation is just the 5-dollar word for “Sacrifice that brings peace.” Some translations would say “Atoning sacrifice.” That Jesus Christ died and rose again to pay the debt we owe for our sin so that we can indeed have fellowship with God. So that we can, to use John’s language, Come to Know Him.
But the big picture in this final section is that if you love Him, you’ll be like Him. You’re transformed to be like what you love. Or, I have a book called, We Become What We Worship.
And so we know we have come to know Him if are growing to be like him. If we’re keeping His commands. If we’re, as vs 6 says, “Walking the same way in which He walked.” In holiness and love. In grace and in truth.
But the question a lot of us ask is, how do we get there? With sanctification – this becoming more and more like Christ, progress in keeping His commands, not sinning, walking like He walked – all these kind of synonymous phrases in 1-6 here, how do we get there?
Is this a work hard and just do it kind of thing? Hunker down and be better.
Is this a sit back and let Jesus take the wheel kind of thing? Let go and let God.
I’m convinced from our text, as well as others, the answer is yes. Walking as Jesus walked comes through our discipline and work as well as God’s grace and love.
Let me back up and use a wider lens. I’ll give you the big picture before we zoom back in.
When we talk about salvation, broadly speaking you can put it in the past tense, the present tense, or the future tense. There’s more nuance to add than this, but if you’re a Christian, if you’ve been saved, then you’ve been:
Justified in the past. You have been saved from the penalty of sin. That’s 1 John 2:2, that Jesus Christ is your propitiation. The hostility between God and you has been dealt with, your sins are forgiven, you have been saved.
You’re also being sanctified in the present. You’re being saved from the power of sin. You’re being made more and more like Christ. To walk as He walked (vs 6). Or 1:3, you’re fellowshipping with God the Father and the Son. This is what we’re talking about in this point.
And You also will be glorified in the Future. You’ll be saved from the presence of sin. You will be transformed to be like Christ, sinless, no longer tempted and no longer falling into sin. But fully holy, fully righteous, fully pure, just as Jesus is. Your sanctification will be complete, your justification realized. Jesus’ resurrection is the first fruit to show you what’s coming, to show you what you can expect in your own.
Past, Present, Future.
Saved from the penalty of sin, power of sin, presence of sin.
Justification, sanctification, glorification.
And so, John says that if you’re boldly walking in sin, not keeping His commands, you shouldn’t have assurance (that was the case of those who left the church). But if you are walking in obedience, if you’re experiencing sanctification, you should deduce that you’ve also experienced Justification, because one doesn’t come without the other. It’s a package deal.
Justification always leads to sanctification. You can’t be sanctified unless you’re first justified.
As the hymn goes, He breaks the power of canceled sin. Your sin has to first be canceled on the cross (justification) for its power to be broken in your life (sanctification).
But what I’m asking is, How do we keep His commandments? How do we walk as He walked? Is it something Jesus does for us, like Justification – where Jesus does all the work and we just receive? Or is it something we participate in?
I already said it, it’s both.
The obvious side in our text is our work. 2:1 says the goal is you may not sin. You’re the active player here. You control if you sin or don’t. Verse 3. We know that we have come to know him if We keep his commandments. We keep them – Jesus doesn’t keep them for us, we do. We walk the same way He walked.
We put forth the effort, we discipline ourselves, we confess when we fail and try again to obey Christ’s commandments. And for Christians, there’s hope that we actually will have success. And for Christians, there’s hope for when we fail – Jesus is our propitiation.
That’s why this point on character isn’t at odds with the last one on confession. They go hand-in-hand. We have a hope-filled effort.
Some of us tend to be effort-adverse as if to say, “Oh man, I had self-control today,” is somehow earning our salvation. Or we say, “How dare you tell me to use an internet filter, that’s legalism.” But no, those aren’t works righteousness or legalism. That’s sanctification. It’s applying the effort necessary to become like Christ.
At the same time, here’s God’s work. Look at verse 5. “Whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God is perfected.” What does that mean?
Is God’s love ever not perfect? Like if you obey the Bible, God loves you perfectly. Someone like me, we’re passing – Cs get Degrees – but we don’t get God’s A+, 100%, perfect love? Is that what we’re saying? Of course not.
Perfected is a hard word because we don’t naturally think in terms of its actual meaning here. It’s the idea of reaching something’s intended end. It’s goal, it’s purpose, it’s fulfillment. It’s accomplishing what it was designed to do.
I’ll show you some other translations of the word, I Think they’re clarifying.
In John 4:34 it’s translated as “accomplish,” Jesus says, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and accomplish (perfect) His work.”
In Acts 20:24 it’s translated as “finish.” Paul says, “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish (perfect) my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus…
And in John 19:28 it’s translated as “Fulfill”, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (To fulfill (perfect) the scripture), “I thirst”.
So if the love of God is perfected in him who keeps His word, then we can say that God’s love has a purpose in it. It has a goal – or, goals, actually.
Part of what God sets out to do with His love is to conform us to the image of Christ, to make us obey and stop rebelling against Him. To bring us into holy fellowship and communion with Him.
And so, while we work and sweat and discipline ourselves into obedience, we’re actually swimming with the current of God’s love. His love is also pulling us toward walking like Jesus walked. It’s pulling us toward keeping His commands. It’s pulling us toward the thing we’re striving to do.
Sanctification – or Character, as I’m calling it, comes through our efforts and God’s love.[1]
If we can look at our lives – maybe we’re not the best judges here. If we’re lacking in confidence of Christ, we often don’t see ourselves clearly. But if we and a spouse or a trusted friend look at our lives and we see faithfulness.
Not sinlessness
Not glorification
Not – this is a dangerous word now – perfection
But faithfulness to walk like Jesus walked, we should have assurance. And we know that, because we will continue to sin in this life, we also have a propitiation, and so walking in holiness also looks like confession.
Conclusion – You Can Have Assurance – even in your Doubt.
Knowing Christ, Confessing to Christ, Walking like Christ. These are all things that should bring us confidence in our times of doubt.
I’m not saying it will be instant or easy, but in God’s kindness, He has told us how to have assurance.
And if you don’t, if you feel your faith is hanging by a thread, that doesn’t disqualify you from being in God’s family. He’s still considered you worthy to be on His mission. He’s not put off by your frailty or uncertainty.
After all, one of the glories of the gospel is that it isn’t our faith that saves us. It’s Jesus Christ who does.
And so, our call is to see Him and worship Him. Even if that involves some doubting.
[1] Also, let me just add that I think narrowly focusing on Christian obedience doesn’t completely capture the purpose of God’s love. But it’s the aspect that’s highlighted in this text.
But later in this letter, 4:12, for example, we read that God’s love is perfected in us if we love one another. Its goal is both character and charity.
And, 4:17, that love is perfected so we may have confidence in the day of judgment. And a verse later, perfect love casts out the fear of judgment.
So the goal of God’s love – at least explicitly in 1 John – is character, charity, and confidence.
And that makes complete and total sense with the two purposes for the letter we’ve seen this morning. 2:1 – I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And 1:3-4, “We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete – that you may have fellowship with God and with us.”