|
The Reign of the Servant Kings By Joseph C. Dillow A Review-Summary-Outline
Chapter 8—Justification and Sanctification 1
To the Experimental Predestinarians, a life of works is the necessary and inevitable result of genuine faith/conversion, that justification and sanctification are distinct but inseparable. While it is God’s intent that a justified person experience sanctification, which is the spiritual process of being “set apart” by walking holy and blameless before God, this process depends upon a person’s responses to God’s love and grace.
While justification is instantaneous and is based on faith alone—a grace-gift of God that may only be accepted by man; the process of sanctification is uniformly presented in Scripture as a work of God and man (Philippians 2:12, 13), which is achieved by faith plus works. The confusion and unreality that these two doctrines have produced are now legendary.
The Greater Righteousness
Consider the following from the Sermon on the Mount:
For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)
Although the Experimental Predestinarian attempts to use this verse to prove that a holy life (sanctification) is inevitable subsequent to justification, the truth is that the Lord is contrasting the righteousness necessary for entrance into the kingdom with (as opposed to) the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.
The point of the contrast is not to point out two levels of human righteousness, but to differentiate divine righteousness from human righteousness. This is evident when the Lord specifies that the righteousness He requires is not just superior to that of the scribes and Pharisees, but that it must be perfect:
Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)
Only a perfect righteousness is good enough. Christ is providing a veiled reference to the justifying righteousness that is imputed to the believer on the basis of faith alone:
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Only through justification can a person be “as perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect.” Only through justification can a person have a righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and the Pharisees. One must turn his back on human goodness altogether and receive instead [by faith alone] the freely offered goodness of God. Reviewer’s comment: This is true biblical repentance; although, it is more accurate to express it as follows: “To turn by placing one’s faith only in Christ, which ‘turn’ encompasses turning from all other confidences—human goodness, traditions, organizations, persons, etc.—for one’s personal eternal salvation. The reason this is more accurate is because “to turn from something to something” may be considered two different and distinct actions and thereby may be conceived, as to the first action, a work of man (which possibly could be terminated at that point); whereas, “to turn to something from something” is considered one action that must incorporate the other. The point is that a person may make a conscious decision to turn from other means for salvation without actually placing genuine faith in Christ; but when he makes a genuine decision to trust in Christ alone, he is in fact withdrawing any confidence in any other means of salvation. The expression of this more correct wording of biblical repentance is seen in 1 Thessalonians 1:9.
Both Doctrines Are Part of the New Covenant
It is argued that both justification and sanctification are included in the New Covenant.
Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah . . . But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,” for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. (Jeremiah 31:31, 33, 34)
It is obvious that vs. 34 is in no way fulfilled at the present time—that all know the Lord and there is now no more need for evangelism. The New Covenant was certainly inaugurated at the cross and we enter in to some of its benefits at the time we believe. But its final fulfillment has not yet taken place and indeed will not until the coming kingdom and the eternal state. Similarly, the ultimate writing of His law upon our hearts and minds will be characteristic of the believer when he has achieved the goal of his justification, which is glorification. Complete sanctification comes when we receive our resurrection body and not before.
A Disciple Does the Will of God
Experimental Predestinarians believes discipleship as an inevitable consequence of justification. However, a concordance study of the word “disciple” (Gk. mathetes), shows that being a disciple and being a Christian are not necessarily synonymous terms:
As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:30-33)
The basic meaning of mathetes is one who is a “learner” or “student” (see Mark 9:31; Luke 10:23; John 12:42). Included in the meaning of “disciple” was the notion of “physical adjacency,” the concept that the student would follow his teacher. Therefore, to be Christ’s disciple, in a literal way, was to be His “follower”—which often described the relationship between the earthly Jesus and His men. They literally had to leave their occupation (Mark 1:18, 19), their parents (Mark 10:29), and follow Him till death. The disciple could not be above his master (Matthew 10:24), and as the mater traveled, the disciple followed. [Reviewer’s comment: According to Vine, “disciple” literally means “to follow one’s teachings.” It involves a total commitment.]
To say that “every Christian is a disciple” seems to contradict the teaching of the New Testament. John describes men who were disciples prior to placing their faith in Christ for their personal justification (John 2:11). Judas was called a disciple, but he was not justified (John 12:4). Jesus did not always equate being a “disciple” with being a Christian.
Conversely, a person could be a Christian and not a disciple. Exhortations to become disciples are often addressed to those who are already Christians or to mixed audiences. When Jesus calls a man to become a disciple, He is not asking him to accept the free gift of eternal life. Instead, He is asking those who have already believed to accept the requirements of discipleship and find true life (John 8:31, 32).
Joseph and Nicodemus were saved (justified), but they were secret disciples (John 19:38, 39). Many disciples left Jesus (John 6:66). If they were not really Christians, then Experimental Predestinarians must acknowledge that being a disciple is not the same thing as being a Christian (or else give up their doctrine of eternal security!); and if they were Christians, then being a Christian does not inevitably result in a life of following Christ. When Paul and Barnabas went to Antioch, they encouraged the disciples to remain true to (continue in) the faith. It must therefore be possible for disciples not to remain true or there would be no point in expressing this encouragement (Acts 14:22). In fact, disciples can be drawn away from the truth (Acts 20:30).
Now, if being a disciple is not necessarily the same as being a Christian, then it is not logically or exegetically consistent to select passages that refer to discipleship and assume that they refer to the condition for becoming a Christian or to the characteristics of all who are truly born again. But if the words “disciple” and “believer” are synonymous, then every disciple is a true Christian, and if they are not synonymous, then every Christian is not necessarily a disciple. It is clear that they are not synonymous. As will be discussed in chapter 10, it is theologically impossible to hold the view that they are synonymous because the Bible speaks in one place of the existence of the permanently carnal Christian who persists in his rebellion to the point of physical death.
Some feel that “there is no more definitive statement on discipleship” in the New Testament than our Lord’s comments in Matthew 10.
But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. . . . He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. . . . He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. (Matthew 10:33, 37, 39)
The exhortations are made to those who are already disciples (vs. 10:1) with the purpose of encouraging them to persevere in the midst of sufferings. They are warned that some will be “put to death” (vs. 10:21). Yet, physical death is not a condition of becoming a Christian. The man who “finds his life” is not a man who finds regeneration. The disciples to whom Christ was speaking were already regenerate! The life he finds is both true meaning and significance (also referred to as “true life”) in the present and becoming a co-heir with the Messiah in the future reign upon earth (Mark 10:28-31). Seen in this light, the passage says nothing about either the conditions for becoming a Christian or the necessary evidence of all who claim to be born again.
No doubt the warning to the unfaithful, “I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven,” has led some to the erroneous conclusion that our Lord is speaking of salvation. Certainly, they feel, a true Christian would never be denied before the Father. Unless, of course, Jesus is teaching precisely that in this passage! The passage is, after all, addressed to “disciples,” and these regenerate men need to be warned. If it is necessary and inevitable that all who are “born again” will persevere to endure martyrdom, why warn them? There is no danger to such men. A warning that everyone must obey to avoid a denial that no one experiences is superfluous! There is real danger here, but not danger of finding out they are not saved or that they have lost their salvation. The danger is the possibility of being denied a part in being a co-heir with the coming Messiah!
For parallel ideas on the danger of the true believer being “denied before the Father,” see 1 Corinthians 3:15, “saved through fire;” 2 Corinthians 5:10, “recompensed for deeds . . . whether good or bad;”1 John 2:28, “shrink away from Him in shame at His coming;” 2 Timothy 11:12, “If we deny Him, He will deny us,” the warning passage in Hebrews; Matthew 25:12, “I do not know [i.e., honor] you;” and Matthew 25:30, “and cast out the worthless slave [a true believer, he is a “servant of his master”] into the darkness outside; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
The merger of these terms has often given birth to a theology of legalism, doubt, and harsh judgmental attitudes that have virtually eliminated the grace of God as a basis for personal fellowship with Christ. Instead of the wonderful freedom of grace, a burdensome introspection has resulted that has made assurance of salvation impossible. The terms of the gospel offer itself have been severely compromised. Non-Christians are being asked to become holy as a condition of becoming Christians. This preparatory “law work” was prominent in Puritan theology.
The conditions for becoming a disciple are different from those for becoming a Christian. One becomes a Christian, according to Jesus, on the basis of faith alone (John 3:16). We are justified “freely” (Romans 3:24) and receive regenerate life “without cost” (Revelation 22:17). But to become a disciple something in addition to faith is needed, works. A disciple is one who does the will of God (Matthew 12:49), who denies himself, leaves his family, and follows Jesus around Palestine (Mark 8:34). A disciple must love Jesus more than his own wife, hardly a requirement ever stated anywhere for becoming a Christian (Luke 14:26)! The condition for discipleship is to forsake all and follow Christ (Luke 14:33). Consider Jesus’ words on the subject:
If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:26, 27, 33)
Now if being a disciple and being a Christian are the same thing, as some Experimental Predestinarians maintain, then are they not introducing a serious heresy into the gospel? In order to become a Christian, one must not only believe on Christ, but he must also (1) hate his father, mother, wife, children, and his own life; (2) carry his cross; (3) be willing to follow Jesus around Palestine; and (4) give up everything. Can any amount of theological sophistry equate these four conditions with the simple offer of a free gift on the basis of believing? Being a disciple and being a Christian cannot be the same thing! If we are justified “freely,” how can the enormous costs of being a disciple be imposed as a condition of that justification? This then would be more than a paradox; it would be an irreconcilable contradiction.
At this point the author discusses the “Great Commission” as recorded in Matthew 28:19, 20. He presents the view that Jesus is instructing His disciples to “make disciples” of (within) all nations, which is presented as a 3-step process: (1) going, that is to make Christians via the gospel presentation, (2) baptizing, as a means of identifying themselves publicly as Christians, and (3) teaching, instructing believers in the Christian life. He then concludes that if being a Christian equals being a disciple, in this context, then becoming a Christian cannot be to simply believe in Christ; rather, it would involve all three aspects of the Great Commission. Reviewer’s comment: The word that the author translates “make disciple” in the Great Commission is the verb form of “mathetes,” and should be literally translated “disciple or teach” all nations. It incorporates the full range of Christianity—justification and sanctification.
The Tests of 1 John
Interpreters of all theological backgrounds have resorted to bringing in their theological system to explain the passages within 1 John that have become known as the “tests of life” and have been the subject of vast controversy. But in order to properly interpret these passages, three introductory considerations must first be settled: (1) to whom was the epistle written (addresses), Christians or professing Christians; (2) the nature of the Gnostic heresy being confronted; and (3) the intended purpose of the epistle.
The Addresses
They are addressed as “little children” whose sins are forgiven for Christ’s name’s sake (1 John 2:12). He calls them “fathers” who have known Christ from the beginning and have known the “Father;” he calls them “young men” who are strong and who have abiding in them the Word of God and have overcome the “evil one” (1 John 2:13, 14). They are specifically contrasted with the non-Christian Gnostic antichrists who departed from them (1 John 2:18, 19). Furthermore, these people have received an “anointing,” the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:20). This anointing, he says, “abides in you and you have no need for anyone to teach you,” because His anointing teaches them (1 John 2:27). They are included with John as “children of God” (1 John 3:1, 2). In fact he often uses the term “we” and includes himself in the same spiritual state and facing the same spiritual dangers as his readers (vss. 1:1, 3, 5-10; 2:1). They are “of God . . . and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). They “believe in the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13).
John is clearly writing to Christians. If he wanted to assert that his readers were in fact born again in contrast to the world, how could he make it clearer?
The Gnostic Heresy
The readers were plagued by false teachers who had introduced an incipient form of Gnosticism into the church. It is still impossible to draw final conclusions as to the nature of the heresy apart from specific references in the text of 1 John itself that strive to refute it. One key aspect of it was that there was a mixture of good and evil in God (light and darkness), and therefore the new creation in Christ could similarly have a mixture and still be holy. This justified the Gnostic notion that sin was permissible for Christians. This is emphatically refuted in 1 John 1:5.
The author then discusses the Gnosticism in more detail, stating that it was an attempt to combine Christianity with various pagan and Jewish philosophies—apparently coming from two basic sources: Alexandrian philosophy and Zoroastrianism. He then discusses these two systems of philosophy.
These teachings led, paradoxically, to both:
In 1 John many of these tendencies are evident:
It is not certain what the precise from of Gnosticism was that John countered. However, from other references in his writings and those of Polycarp, we can be certain of some of its broad outlines, such as: (1) the creator of the world was an ignorant and imperfect being and that it was a meritorious act when the serpent persuaded Adam and Eve to disobey him; (2) that the god who created the world was an inferior power and that the incarnation was docetic (apparent, not real); (3) the origin and working of evil was ascribed to God; (4) god is without personality and is pure spirit; and (5) that emanations (or “aeons”) flow out from god, all of which are necessarily imperfect, and each of these emanations or aeons or angels are more spiritual than the grade of aeons immediately below it. At the end of the chain is the world of man, and the nearer the aeons come to matter, with which, at length, they blend. Such, according to Gnosticism, is the origin of evil.
It is against the background of the notion of an imperfect creator, a “demiurge” (a supernatural being who created or fashioned the world in subordination to the Supreme Being) with a mixture of good and evil, that John’s rebuke must be seen. His rebuke was “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
The Purpose of the Epistle
The Experimental Predestinarian point to 1 John 5:13 as the expression of the purpose of the epistle, which states:
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13)
They therefore conclude that what they call the “tests of life” contained within the epistle are tests, which if passed, are determinants of one’s sure eternal salvation, i.e., that he may be assured that he is “born again.”
But in fact the purpose of the book is found in the opening paragraph of the epistle:
That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. (1 John 1:3, 4) The purpose of the book (and it’s “life-tests”) is concerned with “abundant life,” not regenerate life. The purpose as expressed in vs. 5:13 (above) has as its immediate antecedent (that to which it refers) only belief in the Son of God, which results in “having” the Son of God and the life within Him (vss. 10-12). John’s purpose in writing to these “regenerate” people is so that they may walk in fellowship with God. He is not writing to test their salvation; he is writing so that their may be complete.
Jesus used the term in the same way when He addressed His regenerate disciples:
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. (John 15:10, 11)
To have one’s joy “made full” is not to become a Christian but, being a Christian already, to act like it!
How can he know they are walking in the truth, and how can they know it in the face of the confusion introduced into their midst by the Gnostics? The Gnostics were maintaining that a child of God could have sin in his life and still be in fellowship, abiding in Christ! The remaining portions of the book present several tests of whether or not a Christian is walking in fellowship with God, tests by which the falsity of the Gnostic teaching could be discerned. They are not test of whether or not these born-again children are really Christians.
The Tests of Fellowship with God
Obedience and love demonstrated.
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. (1 John 2:3-6)
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:8)
It should be noted that to John, knowing God is to walk in fellowship with Him. He does not refer to the entrance into eternal life at justification but to the continuing experience with Christ called fellowship. What is in focus here is not whether or not they are regenerate but whether or not God’s love has been “perfected in them.” God’s love cannot be brought to completion in one who does not have it at all! In fact, in 2:4 and 2:6 John equates “knowing God” with “abiding in Him.” He is not discussing their justification; he is discussing their “walk” (vs. 2:6).
John’s usage of “knowing” Him in this epistle is illustrated by his usage of the same in John 14. There he quotes Jesus as saying to Philip:
If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him (John 14:7).
To which Philip responded, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” (vs. 8) But then Jesus counters by saying, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?” (vs. 9)
What did Jesus mean when He said that Philip did not know Him? Of course Philip did know Jesus in a saving sense. He had believed and followed Christ (vs. 1:43). But he did not know Him in some other sense. He did not seem to know how fully the Son had manifested the Father. This knowledge comes only as the disciples obeyed Him (vs. 14:21). In other words, we come to know Him in a deeper sense by means of obedience.
This is the same as John’s thought expressed as having “fellowship with Him” in the following verses:
If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and 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 . . . .” (1 John 1:6, 7)
It is also called having His “joy in them” and that their “joy may be full” in John 15:11. It is something that is experienced by those who are already regenerate, the disciples in this case.
A Christian who claims to know God but in whose life there is no evidence is a liar. He may or may not be a Christian, but he definitely does not know (abide in) God. In vss. 1:5 and 6, the “we” is referring to the apostles, which indicates that even the apostles could lie and not practice the truth. The “truth” does not refer to the seed of life, but to active application of truth in daily experience. Truth can either be in or not in a Christian, depending upon the Christian’s faith and submission (obedience).
Just as a wife may complain about her husband not “knowing” her, even though they have been married for many years; so a Christian can be related spiritually through the new birth with Christ and not “know” Him experientially (intimately).
Eternal salvation is an either-or affair: you either have it or you do not. Whoever believes in Christ has eternal life. Belief occurs at a point in time; it is not a process. Fellowship with Christ, however, is a process. Knowing Him experientially is not all or nothing. There are degrees. Our fellowship with Christ is not something that happens (“in total”) at a point in time; it is a process that continues over a lifetime and varies in intensity proportional to our faith and submission (obedience).
The apostle Paul used the word “know” in a similar sense when he said,” I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings” (Philippians 3:10). Paul already knew Christ in the sense of possessing justification, but he wants know Him intimately, to have continued fellowship with Him.
The same concept is expressed in 1 Corinthians 8:1-3, but in reverse. Those who truly love God are “known by Him.” And the individual who not only has “faith,” but continues on in “obedience, is the “friend of God” (James 2:23).
Continuation in fellowship with the apostolic circle.
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. (1 John 2:19, 20)
Although there are those who attempt to identify the “us” in this verse with Christians, the context proves differently. John distinguishes between “us,” i.e., the apostolic circle, and “you,” the believers to whom he is writing. For example, in 1:1, 3 concerning the “Word of life,” he says “. . . which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled . . . which we have seen and heard . . . .” And again in 1:5 he asserts, “This is the message which we have [personally] heard from Him and declare to you . . . .”
When the words “we” or “us” are contrasted with the word “you,” it always distinguishes the apostolic circle from the larger body of Christians. And this appears to be the situation in 2:19 where the “us” is placed in contrast once again to the larger body of Christians in vs. 20, “you.”
The antecedent to “they” in vs. 19 was the “antichrists” in vs. 18. The fact that these antichrists departed from the apostolic circle is proof that they were never truly of the apostles even though they claimed to be true apostles. If they were true apostles, they would have joined with John and “listened to him.”
There is no statement here that true believers will persevere to the end. Nor is there the statement that, if a man departs from the faith, this proves he was never a Christian in the first place. What is taught is that, if these so-called apostles were really apostles, they would have listened to the apostle John and would have continued in fellowship with the Twelve.
No sin at all in the new creation.
Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. (1 John 3:6-9)
This passage in 1 John is a direct refutation to the Gnostic teaching that the “new man” or “new creation” in Christ is a “blend” or “mixture” of good and evil, thereby making sin of no great concern. If there is this mixture in God, which the Gnostic believed; then it could be reasoned that there is also a mixture of evil and good in the creation that emanates from God, the “new man” in Christ, who is at the bottom end of the emanations from the Deity. Reviewer’s comment: The author does not give credence to the interpretation that plays on the “present” tense (habitual, a practice) used for sin in vss. 3:6, 8 and 9, as differentiated from the “aorist” tense (single act) used for sin in 1:10 and 2:1. He ascribes this argument to those he continues to refer to as “Experimental Predestinarians,” and believes the argument does not in fact refute Gnosticism’s view of sin and man. Even so, a case for this view can be adequately made and this reviewer believes it may in fact be able to be adequately argued against the Gnostics and their views.
It is better to take the statements as they stand, as absolutes. Then it is saying “anyone born of God does not sin even one time, not at all.” Yet since he has already said that a man who says he never sins is a liar (1:8), he must be viewing the sinning Christian from a particular point of view. The “anyone” refers to the person as a whole and does not refer to a part of him. But the Christian, viewed as a man born of God, and particularly as abiding in Christ, does not sin even once.
This means that sin cannot be a product of regenerate life, as the Gnostics maintained. So when anyone sins, he is responsible for it; but the source of it cannot be the seed of God in him. That seed cannot ever result in the Christian committing even one act of sin. John is saying that the believer, from his capacity as one born of God and who is abiding in Christ, cannot sin. If he sins, it is not an expression of the character as the new creation. In other words John is saying, “No one born of God sins,” which is that the person, as a man born of God, does not sin. If he sins, it is not an expression of who he is as a man who has been born of God. It is not compatible with “abiding in Him” (1 John 3:6).
Similar notions are found in Pauline thought:
Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:20-25)
Paul in some sense understands that the true Paul, the real Paul, “I myself,” does not serve sin. If when he sins, the true Paul, the “inner man,” the new creation in Christ, is not the one doing it, then who, we might ask, is doing it? The answer is, of course, the whole person is doing the sin and is responsible for it. However, the source of that sin is in the “flesh” and is not in the new creation in Christ, the regenerate new nature. The first step toward victory over sin is to be absolutely convinced as Paul and John, that it is completely foreign to our true new identity in Christ.
The new creation, being the product of a sinless and perfect Parent, cannot sin even once. The Gnostics, seeing a mixture of sin in God, allowed that the new creation (i.e., the “born again” Christian) inevitably sinned and this was not a matter of great significance.
The same phrase is repeated in the fifth chapter of 1 John with the qualifying thought, “the One who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one cannot harm him”:
We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the wicked one does not touch him. (1 John 5:18)
In 1 John when the Christian is viewed as “one born of God,” the reference is evidently to his true identity as a new man in Christ. The new man is sinless (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10), and no sin in the life of the Christian ever comes from who he really is, a new creation. In 3:9 the immediate reason for the absolute absence of sin from the new creation was “because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Now John explains the ultimate reason for the total absence of sin from the new man in Christ. It is due to the protective activity of THE “one born of God.”
Who is the “One born of God”? The Christian is described as “one born of God,” but the verb is in the perfect tense. This second reference to one born of God employs the aorist tense and suggests that Christ is the One doing the keeping. This would be consistent with John’s view that Jesus was God’s “only begotten Son” (John 1:14). The keeping ministry of Jesus Christ absolutely prevents sin in the new creation.
John concludes his discussion by saying, “By (In) this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest (obvious)” (1 John 3:10a). The verse becomes a bridge between his discussion of righteousness and the expression of it in practical love in the following session. The Greek text reads, “By this are children of God and children of the devil revealed (Gk. phanera).” He is referring to the following statement “Anyone who does not do what is right is not of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.” Earlier he said, “He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
When a Christian is “of the devil,” John means that, when he commits even one sinful act, in the doing of that act, the source of it is Satan. When a Christian sins (and John believes he can and will, 2:1), in that act he is behaving like a child of Satan. His real character is not being made evident. To use Paul’s phrase, he is walking in a “carnal” (of the flesh) state, like a “mere man” (1 Corinthians 3:3).
But note that John does not say what the Experimental Predestinarians say. He does not say that the presence of sin in the life of a Christian proves that he is not a Christian at all. He says only that, when a Christian does not do what is right, in that act he is not “of God,” (Gk. ek tou theou; 1 John 3:10b). In other places in John’s epistle, when that phrase stands by itself, as it does here, it means that he is not of God in the sense that the source of his behavior is not of God, not that he is unregenerate.
John knew that Christians sin. What he does say is that, when a Christian sins, there is no evidence, at least in that act, of his regenerate nature; it is, in effect, concealed. The only way others can tell whether or not we are born again is if we reveal it by our actions. If we do not reveal it by our actions, that does not mean we are not born again, but it does mean that our true identity is not evident.
Love for the brethren.
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. (1 John 3:14-15)
John states that true Christianity expresses itself in love for other Christians and that hatred of a fellow Christian is incompatible with the Christian faith. He does not say that a Christian who hates his brother is not a Christian; but, rather, that he “abides in death” and that he does not have “eternal life abiding in him.”
It is probable that “passing from death into life,” as it is also stated in John 5:24, refers to the experience of regeneration. John is saying that we “know” (Gk. oida, “recognize”) that we are regenerate by the fact that we have love for our brothers in Christ. It is evidence of sonship! But he does not say that an absence of love is proof that one is not a son, only that he is abiding in death, i.e., living in the sphere from which he had been delivered.
John’s favorite term for an intimate walk with Christ is “abide.” This term is his word for something conditional in the believer’s relationship with Christ, fellowship within the family. The conditional nature of the “abiding” relationship is brought out where Jesus says, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love” (John 15:10). Christ’s foremost command, which must be obeyed if we are to abide in Him, is the command that John discusses in 1 John, the command to love one another (John 15:12). Only if we love one another, do we remain in friendship (fellowship) with Christ! “You are My friends, if you do what I command you (John 15:14).
Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. (1 John 3:24)
By this statement John signals clearly that the abiding relationship (intimate fellowship) is one conditioned on submission (obedience), and it is in contrast to the experience of being born again that comes through/by faith alone (1 John 5:10, 11).
The conclusion is that the abiding relationship is not the regeneration experience. Rather, it refers to the degree of intimacy and fellowship with the Lord possible for those who continue to obey His commands. For John, Jesus Christ is the “eternal life” that abides in us (1:2). To have Christ abiding in us (1 John 3:15, i.e., “eternal life”) is not the same thing as being saved. It is a conditional relationship referring to Christ’s being at home in the heart of the obedient Christian who loves his brother.
Of course, a Christian can hate his brother; but to do so, sacrifices intimate fellowship with his Savior. When we harbor anger in our heart, John says, we are, in effect, murderers (1 Peter 4:15), and we abide in death, the very sphere from which we were delivered at the new birth. We walk as “mere men” (1 Corinthians 3:3), i.e., as if we were still in an unregenerate state. We are “carnal” Christians who are “walking in darkness” (1 John 2:11) and are in danger of losing our reward (1 Corinthians 3:14, 15; 2 John 8). Jesus Christ is not at home in such a heart. He does not abide there.
|