"O wretched man that I am!
Who will deliver me from this body of death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
Romans 7:24
****************
Welcome! Let's begin with prayer...
"Dear Father God in heaven, I come before You today to thank You for delivering me from Your wrath. That You Lord for delivering me from death once and for all. It is because of You that I am no longer in bondage to sin or the law.
I seek forgiveness of my sins and ask that You cleanse me from my unrighteousness. I pray that You will restore me and create in my a steadfast spirit like Yours. I pray that You will guard my tongue and restrain my tongue to keep me from causing harm to those around me.
I pray for each lady here, Lord, that You will open her heart and give her an understanding of Your word today. I pray that You will lead her and guide her through her day today. I pray for her role in her home and for her marriage that it will be pleasing to You, Lord.
In Jesus' name.....amen."
*************************
Last time we completed chapter one of First John. So let's begin today with an overview of chapters one and two:
In chapter one we learned:
- John is a credible witness to all that Jesus was and did.
- John's desire for believers is to have fellowship together with God through Jesus.
- God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
- If we say we have fellowship with God and walk in darkness, we are liars.
- If we seek forgiveness of sins, Jesus is faithful to forgive us.
- If we say we have no sin, we make Jesus a liar and His word is not in us.
Let's look at what is in chapter two:
- We have an Advocate with the father: Jesus Christ.
- We can know we know Jesus if we keep His commandments.
- Whoever keeps His word, love of God is perfected in him.
- One who says he abides in God should walk in the same manner.
- Whoever says he is in the light yet hates...is in darkness.
- The one who loves his brother abides in the light.
- Do not love the world...it is passing away.
- He who does the will of the father abides forever.
- It is the last hour.
- Antichrists deny Jesus is the Christ.
- He has promised us eternal life.
- Abide in Him and have confidence.
**************************
Please read 1 John chapter two.
Mark the following words:
abide
know
write
sin
light
love
I wrote here about how the word "fellowship" is mentioned in chapter one 4 times because John was stressing its importance.
But in chapter two, we see the word "abide" written 9 times and "know" written 13 times as well as "write" written 11 times. In this overview, we can easily see what John is stressing in chapter two:
- We will learn what "abide" means.
- What "know" means.
- And why John wrote down these verses in this letter to believers.
**************************
1 John 2:1-2
"My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin, And if anyone sins we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for the whole world."
John's clear purpose for this chapter is that we may not sin because he understood the consequences that await us if we do sin: God's wrath.
Please read:
- John 3:36
But John also wants us to know that if we do sin (and we will...) we have an Advocate with the Father: Jesus Christ the righteous.
- Heb 7:25
- Heb 9:24
The word for Advocate used here in 1 John 2:1 is paracletos and it means coming alongside. We have that paracletos in Christ. He stands alongside us when we come before God to confess our sins. God doesn't look upon us, He sees His Son in us and is pleased.
When I worked in the courts, I remember seeing so many defendents come before the judge. Some had to approach without their attorneys because their attorneys were late coming to the court. So another attorney would stand-in and represent the defendent if only for a moment. I always thought about this verse in 1 John 2. How wonderful it is for us to have an Advocate who will never let us down. He will always be there for us to pray for us and represent us to the Father.
Jesus completed the work by becoming the perfect sacrifice for our sins that now we have access to God through Him.
We can now stand before the Lord because of what Jesus did for us.
- Jude 24
- Heb 6:20
- Heb 8:1-2
*********************************
"..And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins..."
The word propitiation means: a sacrifice to God meant to take away enmity brought by sin between God and the worshiper. (New Geneva Bible, Commentary, 1995) We were God's enemies before we became Christians. God could not look upon our sin.
Because God is perfectly holy and pure....the sacrifice needed to remove all our sins had to be equally holy and pure. And since no animal or human or material thing can possibly be as holy and pure as God (otherwise it would be equal to God...) then God Himself had to become that perfect sacrifice for us.
So, God Himself came down in the form of a man and sacrificed Himself for us in order to reconcile us to Him not for Himself, but because He loved us so much.
Jesus was that sacrifice.
- John 3:16
"..and not for ours only but also for the whole world."
So Jesus was the perfect sacrifice not only for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. His death was complete. That is why He said, "It is finished." He was telling us that the work the sacrifice was complete: perfect and final.
As we go further into chapter two, we will look more at the word "abide" and what it means. I hope you are enjoying 1 John so far. We are really getting a good look at what it means to be a Christian!
*******************************
Life Application
Do you have an Advocate with the Father? Does Jesus plead your case before the holy God if Israel? Or do you stand alone?
John calls us "little children" not because he is looking down on us, but because he sees us as children of God. We are indeed one in Christ so now we have access to the Father!
He wants us to treat our sins seriously. The Gnostics of that time treated sin lightly just as in our time. We read or hear about people saying good is evil and evil good. But we as Christians are to have a clear understanding of what is good and evil.
By applying 1 John 2:1 to our lives, we can truly remember what sin is to God: separation; evil; filth; depravity.
If we see our sins this way, we will see just how much we need a Savior: Jesus Christ.
Please read:
- Rom 3:23-25
- Lev 16:15
Jesus is that mercy seat where the blood was sprinkled to satisfy God.
- Col 1:19-20
God was pleased with that sacrifice. So now we have that peace through the blood of the Lamb. We are reconciled to God once and for all.
So, we do not have to stand alone before God or put our hope in a man who is flawed and finite like we are to represent us before a holy God.
We have an Advocate who is equal to God in everyway and He will always be there to represent us always.
Now we have to always be there to represent Him to this world always as part of that covenant promise.
Take that with you and have a blessed day today!
********************************
Until next time....
"Sinner as I am, and never more consciously so than I am now that God's Spirit has enlightened me, I yet know that if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father, and I, black, and filthy, more foul and filthy than I ever thought myself to be, put my case into the hands of my Advocate, and leave it there forever."
-Charles Spurgeon (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 9:346)
Blessings,
Ruth
No comments:
Post a Comment