Saturday
Saturday
The Challenge of John
You know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins.
1 John 3:5
We come at the end of this week to one more response to Christmas, that is, one more reaction to the coming of Christ. It takes us back to the first letter of John and to what he wrote about the purpose of Christ’s appearing.
The passage concerned is 1 John 3:4–9, in which John makes some extraordinary statements. He writes that the Christian does not sin and even cannot sin. On these words some have constructed a doctrine of sinless perfection. And all commentators have been perplexed by these statements, because they are not consistent with our experience. The fact is that we do sin, even after we have come to know Christ.
A careful examination of this text, however, suggests not that Christians do not and cannot commit sin but that we do not and cannot persist in it. So, whenever we do sin, we grieve and repent, for the whole tenor of our life is against sin and toward holiness. As Alfred Plummer wrote in his commentary, “Although the believer sometimes sins, yet not sin, but opposition to sin, is the ruling principle of his life.”
But what will motivate us to forsake sin and pursue righteousness? John’s answer is clear: it is to remember the purpose of Christ’s appearing. He says so twice. “You know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins” (v. 5). Again, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (v. 8). If, therefore, Christ came in order to deal with our sin, it is inconceivable that we should continue to toy with it. Our response to Christmas is to live a life that is fully compatible with the reason he appeared on earth.
For further reading: 1 John 3:4–9