Only One Hope

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF JOHN

ONLY ONE HOPE

1 John 3:4-6

4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

NIV

What are we to do here? John is asserting that every sin is breaking the Law of God and that is surely the case. There is no other way to interpret this meaning. It is also true that Jesus came to take away our sins. John is making the point that in Jesus there is no sin, therefore Jesus is the only one without sin and thus qualifies Him to be the sacrifice for our sins. However, this is very troubling that John also tells us that if we live in Christ we will not keep on sinning and that if we continue to sin we have neither seen Jesus or know Jesus. Our scholars of old comment on this passage as if they have indeed stopped sinning completely and are fully pure in their entire being, otherwise they would have to admit they do not live in Christ. There is also thought among some that this refers to habitual sin, to continue to sin willfully, knowingly and not caring about the law of God in that sense because the passions of self-gratification are too strong to overcome. The fact is all sin is in violation of the law. Sin is lawlessness. So how do we deal with the fact that we still live in the corruptible? How do we deal with committing sin, or have we been so purified that we are free of the commission of sin. Have we attained holiness to the fullest and no longer commit even the smallest of sin, which we would have to say all sin, no matter to what degree we classify sin, it is still sin. So then do we say that if we have one disobedient thought, word, or deed, we are not living in Christ and therefore are not saved? We could spend a whole day writing out the various ways in which we could be disobedient in thought, word, or deed. There are so many ways in which we would have to say we would be guilty of some sin, some violation of the law of God. How can that be? Do we fail at loving everyone equally? Do we fail at being patient? Do we have any envy, any jealously, any judgmental attitude, any doubt, any desire to store up wealth, any thoughts of want, which can be lust? Do we ever get upset, angry, or fail to forgive? The list could be enormous of the ways in which we can fail to be totally pure, holy, and blameless before God. That is if it all depended on us, if our salvation, our knowing Jesus was completely dependent on us being free of all sin. How can that ever be the truth? It is absolutely true that we do not make it our aim or goal to sin so that God’s grace can increase. Without a doubt, we want to keep from any willful act of sin, saying to ourselves, “well, after the sin, we will ask for forgiveness". Of course, we desire to keep from sin, but the fact still remains, in our corruptible state, we are going to fail at perfection. Our desire is to live for and in Jesus and have Him be the Lord of our life. It is our desire to live as free from sin as possible, to keep ourselves pure and holy. But that would mean everything depends on our ability to do so, our perfect control of self at all times in every situation. But then we would not be living in Christ, we would be living in self, and self is corruptible, in thought, word, and deeds, those of commission and of omission. Our only hope is to live in Christ, to trust in Him, to be in Him and have Him in us. In Christ, we are holy and blameless in the sight of God. We have no other to follow. This is what John is warning those he writes to, that they and we cannot follow some false teachings, or false doctrines such as the stoics, epicureans, or Judaizers, which all depend to some degree on the flesh, or acts of the self, which is then putting aside the act of Jesus. The truth is all our hope rests in the act of Jesus on that cross. He took away all our sins. He is our only one hope.