We Know that We Know

“And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” 
(I John 2:3)

In the previous chapter John was addressing our fellowship as Christians with the Lord. Here he is speaking of assurance of salvation.

First, what John is not saying: He is not saying that we are saved by keeping the Ten Commandments or any other commandments. He is not proposing some doctrine of legalism for salvation.

He is telling us that assurance of salvation comes as a result of seeking always to do the Lord’s will rather than our own. The Ten Commandments were given to the nation of Israel. They were added, the Bible indicates, to let lost people know how sinful they are and how desperately the world needs Christ. There are numerous commandments of Christ addressed to believers which we are to follow in living the Christian life. Some of them are: “Pray without ceasing,” "Love one another,” "Quench not the Spirit,” “In every thing give thanks,” “witness to the lost and share the Gospel,” “Bear ye one another’s burdens” plus many others. The keeping of these does not make one a Christian. Neither does breaking them cause one to lose his salvation. The keeping or not keeping allows a person know whether or not they are saved.

Is it your desire to follow Christ and live for Him, or do you ignore His will and go about your own way?

Our Propitiation

“And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”  (I John 2:2)

In the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle there was a piece of furniture, a chest, called the Ark of the Covenant. Space does not permit a complete description of it. It had rings at the four corners. Staves were placed in the rings with which four priests carried it when the Israelites moved to a new location. Over the Ark of the Covenant was a lid of pure gold, called the Mercy Seat. On the annual Day of Atonement the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood of a sacrificial animal on the Mercy Seat as He confessed the sins of the people.

In First John 2:2 the word, “propitiation,” is used. It is near in meaning to the Old Testament phrase, “mercy seat.” John is telling us that Jesus is our Mercy Seat, our place of mercy. His mercy is sufficient for us when we sin as well as the sins of the whole world. The book of Hebrews calls Him a merciful and faithful High Priest.

“Mercy there was great and grace was free; pardon there was multiplied to me; there my burdened soul found liberty, at Calvary.”

Jesus Christ, Our Advocate

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (I John 2:1)

John is an old man now and is writing to those who are younger than he both physically and spiritually. He sees them as his little children. How blessed it is to have new Christians who listen to the encouragement and instruction of older saints. How blessed also that the older saints have patience and take the time to mentor those coming along.

John is concerned that these readers not interpret what he is writing to be a license to sin. “I write these things to you not as an excuse to sin…” That we not sin is the ideal for all of us. However, the reality is that sometimes we sin.

I see a picture in this verse of God as our judge with the charges of our sins brought before Him. But His Son is our advocate. He is our defense attorney. He is our High Priest at the Father’s right hand making intercession for us. All the charges against us are dismissed because our High Priest, our Savior paid our sin debt on the cross.

God is Faithful to Forgive and to Cleanse

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)

Sandwiched between verses eight and ten is the verse that has been called, “The Christians Bar of Soap”

The word, “confess,” means to “agree with the facts.” God knows the facts of our lives, including our sins, already. When we confess our sins we are agreeing with the facts which He already knows, facts perhaps known to no one else.

Then the word tells us that He is faithful to forgive. A little boy in his excitement to go out and play knocked over a vase and broke it into many pieces. He attempted to glue it together but there was no fixing it. He wrote on a slate, “Mom, I am very sorry I broke your favorite vase. Please forgive me.” Then he left it and the pieces of the vase on an end table. When he came in later the slate was there, wiped perfectly clean and all the pieces of the vase were gone.

When we are forgiven the slate is wiped clean. That bar of soap works every time.

Making God a Liar

“If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” 
(1 John 1:10)

Perhaps someone says, “Well yes, maybe I could sin because of the weakness of the flesh. But, I have not sinned.” With such thoughts we make God a liar. According to the Bible God cannot lie. (Titus 1:2) 

The Bible says, “There is none righteous, no not one,” and further states, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:10, 23) We have missed the mark. Our intentions perhaps are good but our actual performance falls far short.

Let us never accuse God of being an untruthful liar. You and I desperately need Jesus and His blood to save us and to keep us.

Deceiving Ourselves

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (I John 1:8) 

As we read the first epistle of John we must remember that he is a believer, a Christian, writing to other Christians. He uses the personal plural pronoun, “we,” as he writes verses eight, nine and ten.

We Christians are capable of committing some pretty deplorable sins. To say we have no sin we deceive ourselves. It is a beautiful truth that the blood of Jesus is constantly cleansing us from all sin, as verse seven tells us.

A friend of mine told me of a man with whom he worked on heavy equipment. He was trying to become sinless. One day he told my friend he had finally become sinless. A little while later one of the big wrenches he was using slipped off the head of a bolt causing him to skin the knuckles on his right hand. As blood dripped off his hand he turned the air blue with curse words and profanity. My friend told the fellow, “I believe you need to start over on your claim of sinlessness.”

The person, saved or unsaved, who thinks he is sinless also thinks he does not need Jesus and is deceiving himself.

More tomorrow...

Constant Cleansing from Sin by the Blood of Jesus

“…and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (I John 1:7)

The word, “and,” at the beginning of this clause indicates that in addition to having fellowship with God and fellow believers we also have constant cleansing from sin by the blood of Jesus.

Allow me to explain. When you and I placed our faith in Him for salvation we were cleansed by the blood. In our every day life, living constantly in the presence of sin and temptation sometimes in an unguarded moment we sin. In those cases His blood is constantly cleansing us. The word, “cleanseth,” indicates continuous action.

Underground coal miners down near the face of the coal in that dark, dark mine have coal dust all over them, their clothes, their hands and caps. They are black everywhere except the whites of their eyes. The reason the whites of their eyes remain white is because their tear ducts are constantly cleansing the dust from their eyes. That is a picture of the continual cleansing of believers by the blood of Jesus.

When Simon Peter objected to Jesus washing his feet Peter said, “Not just my feet, but also my hands and my head.” Jesus responded by saying, “You have had your bath but your feet have gotten dusty from your journey. We only need to wash your feet.” (John 13:4-10) The blood of Jesus keeps on cleansing from our sins even when we are out of fellowship with Him.

“Oh, precious is the flow that washes white as snow…”