April 26, 2025 • 38 mins
The widespread misinterpretation of 1 John 1:9 has created unnecessary confusion about our fellowship with God and led to religious practices that don't align with the finished work of Christ.
• 1 John 1:9 is not Christian instruction to repeatedly confess sins for forgiveness
• Fellowship with God is unbreakable when we're born again through Christ
• John was addressing sin denial and unbelief, not teaching confession rituals
• "Abiding in Christ" means continuing to believe in the truth of His finished work
• Sin comes from not abiding in Christ, not from failing to confess properly
• Walking in the light means believing God and His truth about what Christ accomplished
• When Christians sin, we should remember and be grateful for our cleansing
• John's letter includes instruction to believers about those who were deceiving them
• Self-effort and rule-based righteousness pull us away from Gospel truth
• Our freedom in Christ is meant to be used for loving others, not for sin
Let's use the gospel of grace as a license to love freely in Christ Yeshua. Let's enjoy our holiness and celebrate our perfect relationship with God by honoring him with our lives.
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Episode Transcript
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announcement (00:01):
Hello and welcome to the Waking Up to Grace
podcast, where we celebrate andexplore the finished work of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Tune in to the Waking Up toGrace podcast on every major
platform.
You can also listen to ourepisodes and read our full
transcripts atwakinguptogracecom.
And now here's Lenny.
(00:25):
If you follow my podcast, youmay have noticed that last
week's episode sounded a bitfamiliar.
That's because it was parts ofa discussion that I extracted
from our Roman studyintroduction.
I wasn't trying to pull oneover on anyone, I just felt
strongly that the discussion wehad on church deserved its own
episode.
So I hope you guys enjoyed that.
(00:46):
I've discussed 1 John 1-9throughout several episodes
since our 2023 and 2024 episodes, and I explored the context
from a little bit differentangle.
The conclusion remains the same, but the thought process coming
to that conclusion is notexactly the same.
I really wanted to put thesethoughts together for you guys
in an updated episode so youcould weigh it out for
(01:08):
yourselves.
I was pleasantly surprised thatwhen discussions from several
different episodes were woventogether, they seemed to fit
together like they were madethat way.
That seems like a God thing tome, but I'll let you be the
judge of that.
So enough of the introduction.
Let's get into the meat, shallwe?
Let's see if 1 John 1.9 is infact Christian instruction.
(01:30):
1 John 1.9 reads If we confessour sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins andto cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
I'm going to be looking at anargument directly related to the
passage 1 John 1.9 that holdsto the mainstream interpretation
.
For the sake of learning fromit.
The argument begins there aresome who insist that 1 John 1-9
(01:52):
has nothing to do withChristians but is an invitation
to non-Christians.
I would say I do think thatthis is the most reasonable view
, being that John opens byproclaiming Christ to them so
that they can share fellowshipin Christ with them.
The argument continues If weconfess our sins.
Confess is a compound Greekterm, homologio, which is from
(02:17):
to speak and the same, so thisliterally means to say the same
thing.
Confessing therefore meanssaying about our sins what God
says about them, namely thatthey are indeed sins, offenses
against him.
I say yes, when our eyes areopen, we see sin how God sees it
.
We despise it.
Upon regeneration, we are ableto see ourselves from God's
(02:39):
vantage point and then he isfaithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us fromall unrighteousness.
As is written, the argument goesfurther, saying it is the
present tense which impliesongoing action.
Believers continue to agreewith God that they have violated
his holiness.
I say while believers continueto agree with God about sin.
(03:01):
They also agree with God thatit has been dealt with.
We agree that we've beenreconciled and that can't be
undone.
We believe he is no longercounting our sins against us, as
it is written.
We also agree that without theshedding of blood there is no
forgiveness and that Christ shedhis blood once for all and
isn't going to do it again andagain.
Like the high priest under thelaw.
(03:22):
Hebrews outlines this withclarity.
John himself also tells us thatwe do not continue to sin
because Christ abides in us.
Later in the letter we havebeen cleansed by our faith.
We have been justified by God.
Justification is a super bigdeal.
The argument finishes by sayingsome say that believers are
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already forgiven of all sin andthey don't need to confess their
sins.
Well, to not confess your sinswould be to not agree with what
God says about sin.
I say I don't know what somesaid, but I don't think
believers can help but agreewith God about their sin.
That is milk and vegetables inmy opinion.
In my experience, believers donot agree with God that their
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sin was fully dealt with at thecross.
They don't believe they areright with God, even though it
is the promise of the gospel andthe very reason our Lord Yeshua
shed his blood for us.
No matter how you interpret theword, confess or homologio, it
still doesn't mean ask for moreforgiveness.
Our scripture never tells theChristian to ask God for more
(04:26):
forgiveness.
You would really have to wonderif it was so important that we
had to do something to get rightwith God every time we sin.
Wouldn't it have been writtenin just one of Paul's epistles?
When a Christian sins, it oughtto immediately bring to
remembrance the cleansing theyreceived from Christ.
Upon remembrance, one should behumbled and extremely grateful
(04:46):
for the cleansing they receivedfrom Christ.
Upon remembrance, one should behumbled and extremely grateful
for the sacrifice that our Lordmade.
What is it about being cleansedfrom all unrighteousness that
makes us want to ask for morecleansing?
Why not just agree with God andthank him for his great mercy?
Why not, out of thanks, despisewhat we did and look to him for
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guidance?
We're children of the trueliving God.
We are God's holy people.
We can ask.
So in summary, 1 John 1.9 wasdirected toward the non-believer
or the non-believing mindset,but could serve as a mind
renewal for the spiritual, tobring them to remembrance of
their cleansing, as Peter saidin 2 Peter 1.9,.
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But whoever lacks these traitsis nearsighted to the point of
blindness, having forgotten thathe has been cleansed from his
past sins.
The message was for believerstoo.
In that way, just like allscripture is for us, the
believers were struggling with anon-believing mindset.
We see this throughout theentire letter of John's first
epistle.
We have already been given thecure to our sin disease when we
trusted in Christ.
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We just have to believe it.
That is why the Apostle Paulsaid things like be transformed
by the renewing of your mind andbe reconciled, because we tend
to not believe what the gospelteaches us and keep going back
to a guilty conscience in thepunishing battle of pleasing our
Lord by self-effort.
It's commonly overlooked when weread John's first epistle that
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John was writing against sin,denial and unbelief in the
finished work of Christ Yeshua.
1 John 1, 5 reads this is themessage we have heard from him
to proclaim to you that God islight and in him.
1 John 1.5 reads so we see herethat we received light in
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Christ.
There's no darkness in him.
What would cause someone to bein the darkness?
It would be not having Christliving in them.
So this passage is addressingunbelief, but can a Christian
live in unbelief?
Yes, we can be in the light andstill act like we're walking in
the darkness.
In other words, we can walk inunbelief.
The only way we can understandthis is to understand that being
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born again is not something wecan change by behavior, and that
we can actually place ourdependency on ourselves, even
though we've been given agreater object for our faith.
Would you expect to have peacewalking around in darkness?
Of course not.
You'll be stumbling your waythrough the Christian life and
causing yourself all kinds ofunnecessary anxiety.
You might ask then, how do Iget back into the light?
(07:33):
Get back to depending on theLord.
1 Peter, 5, 6, and 7 says Humbleyourselves, therefore, under
the mighty hand of God so that,at the proper time, he may exalt
you, casting all your anxietieson him, because he cares for
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you, the Lord.
Waking up to grace is not aboutbeing critical of our behavior
and beating ourselves up.
This would only cause moreanxiety.
Is it humble to prove thatwe're right with God by our own
self-effort?
No, it's not.
When we do that, we act as ifwe're walking in the darkness
instead of the light.
We're children of the light.
We should let our light shine.
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In this way we would sharefellowship with one another, as
John describes to us in hisfirst epistle.
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In 1 John, chapter 1, we readwhich was with the Father and
was made manifest to us.
That which we have seen andheard, we proclaim also to you,
so that you too may havefellowship with us.
And indeed our fellowship iswith the Father and with his Son
, jesus Christ, and we arewriting these things so that our
joy may be complete.
This is the message we haveheard from him and proclaim to
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you that God is light and in himis no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowshipwith him while we walk in
darkness.
The word fellowship is usedfour times in this short passage
.
That makes this an excellentexample of the usage of the word
(09:27):
in our Bibles.
In the first epistle of John,there was a sin denial going on.
The people he was addressing inthe first chapter of his letter
had not received Christ.
The writing was also for thosewho needed a lot of mind renewal
.
Those being written to eitherdid not believe or were
displaying unbelief in theirways.
He addresses the issue ofunbelief from the view of one
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who does not have Christ.
For those in Christ, thispassage was meant to renew their
minds and restore the properview of the fellowship they
shared.
It might bring the spirituallydead to a fellowship with the
Lord and also restore the mindsof those drifting away from
truth, and also restore theminds of those drifting away
from truth.
Many in this audience did notrealize that they were believing
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a false message that wasopposed to the one whom their
fellowship depended on, thatbeing Christ Yeshua.
We read in verse 3,.
John expresses here thatfellowship with them was
(10:30):
fellowship with the Father andhis Son, christ Jesus.
This fellowship is not based onwhere we go to church or who we
hang out with.
It's becoming a family inChrist.
Hebrews 2.11 tells us a familyin Christ.
Hebrews 2.11 tells us For hewho sanctifies and those who are
sanctified all have one origin.
That is why he is not ashamedto call them brothers.
(10:51):
Christ Yeshua is not ashamed tocall us his brothers and
sisters.
We are his family now.
We are now in fellowship.
This fellowship does notrequire anything from us.
It was given to us as a gift.
Our fellowship is in Christ.
Therefore, it was all part ofthe gift of Christ that was
given to us at salvation.
(11:11):
Just like we have eternal lifein Christ, likewise we have
eternal fellowship in Christ.
Think of it this way If yourbiological brother or sister
kicked you out of theirgathering, would you no longer
be family?
They could say all they want,but nobody can actually change
who your real father is.
You cannot change the fact thathe is your birth father.
It is all the same in this way,when we are born of the Spirit,
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it was not a coincidence thatChrist Yeshua used those words
to describe how we receive ourfellowship and salvation.
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A birth is unchangeable.
Continuing what we read inJohn's epistle in verse 5, john
teaches us that there is nodarkness in Christ.
He also teaches that if we walkin the light, as Christ is in
the light, we have fellowshipwith one another.
So our fellowship is in thelight.
And what happens when ourfellowship is in the light?
The blood of Jesus, his son,cleanses us from all sin.
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Okay, what happened to us atsalvation?
What is the gospel of our LordChrist Yeshua that we hold so
tightly to?
It's that the blood of Jesus,his son, cleansed us from all
sin.
Yes, this is a gift given to usand it does not get taken away.
But do we always walk in belief?
As Christians, are we capableof promoting and displaying
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darkness just like someone whodoesn't know the Savior?
Yes, we are capable of this.
The power of sin can stillaffect these bodies of flesh and
the problems occur in our minds.
This is why waking up to graceis so important.
The renewal of the mind is whatallows us to live obedient to
the truth and not fall for lies.
It is so important to protectour minds from taking in garbage
(13:08):
.
We are grossly overstimulatedby useless information in our
society today.
But getting back to John'sepistle, if walking in the light
means salvation and fellowship,what does John mean in verse 6?
If we say we have fellowshipwith him while we walk in
darkness, we lie and do notpractice the truth.
Walking in darkness clearlymeans walking in unbelief.
(13:30):
If you're saying you havefellowship but walk in unbelief,
you lie and do not practicetruth.
Again, could a believer walk inunbelief?
Yes, they could.
So in this way, the passagecould be teaching two types of
people those who never receiveChrist proclaiming a false
message, and those in Christproclaiming a false message.
Those who were falling awayfrom the truth, needed to
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realize what they were promoting, what they were living by.
You cannot bear the fruit ofthe Spirit following the flesh.
What was the false messagebeing proclaimed would be our
next question.
What we read in verse 7 is ahuge indicator as we go into the
verses that follow.
But if we walk in the light, ashe is in the light, we have
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fellowship with one another, andthe blood of Jesus, his son,
cleanses us from all sin.
This is what they did notunderstand and we find out why
when we read further.
First, john 18.
If we say we have no sin, wedeceive ourselves and the truth
is not in us.
John was dealing with sindenial.
The people were denying thatthey had sin.
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We can't understand who we arein Christ if we don't understand
who we are apart from Christ.
These people needed tounderstand who they were apart
from Christ so they could seetheir need for a Savior as well
as understand their identity inChrist.
We can't enjoy the benefits ofa true fellowship with others in
Christ if we don't realize thebenefits of our fellowship with
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Christ, the truth that ourfellowship is based on the
finished work of Christ Yeshuaand the indwelling of his spirit
as the source of all fruit inour lives is the foundation of
all fellowship.
We don't have fellowshipwithout this.
This truth is our fellowship.
John then goes back to the truth1 John 1 9.
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If we confess our sins, he isfaithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us fromall unrighteousness.
This again emphasizes what wereceive at salvation.
And then he goes back to thelie.
If we say we have not sinned,we make him a liar and his word
is not in us.
The people John wrote to didnot see sin the way God saw it.
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Sin denial can come in alldifferent forms.
As John continues his letter,he continues to put a heavy
emphasis on God's view of sin.
In 1 John 3, 9, we read no oneborn of God makes a practice of
sinning, for God's seed abidesin him and he cannot keep on
sinning because he has been bornof God.
This passage confuses a lot ofpeople, even many who know their
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Bibles front to back.
This passage is further proofthat their understanding of sin
was way off, even to the pointof doubting the finished work of
Christ Yeshua.
John is teaching them who theyare in Christ, how God sees them
now, now that they have beenborn into the family.
If they had known this, hewouldn't have spent so much time
emphasizing this truth.
This passage is grosslymisunderstood and is extremely
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critical in understanding thefellowship that we have in
Christ.
When we deny the finished workof Christ Yeshua and proclaim a
fellowship based on rules andregulations, we need to go right
back to 1 John 1.6.
If we say we have fellowshipwith him while we walk in
darkness, we lie and do notpractice the truth.
We need to go right back to 1John 1.6.
John did not encouragesuperficial fellowship, and
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neither did any apostle.
We can see from the letters wehave in our New Testament that
the goal was to be one in spiritand mind.
When our minds are in the wrongplace, we don't produce the
true fruits that come fromfellowship.
As we have discovered, eventhose born of God can walk in
unbelief, acting no differentthan one who rejects the gospel.
Even rejecting the gospel withtheir promotion of a works-based
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righteousness.
Those in the light believe GodIn the flesh.
We believe we can live sin-freeand we can be right with God by
self-effort.
We often even believe that allGod wants from us is to do the
best we can.
But what God really wants forus is to believe in him and
surrender our lives to him,throw in the towel on
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self-effort, all together andask Christ to do his work in our
lives.
Many today proclaim a false Godwithout even realizing it.
Proclaiming a gospel messagethat does not make you right
with God is no gospel at all.
A double message, where we mustmaintain a fellowship with God
by good behavior, is not thegospel of Christ.
Although part of the family inChrist, many have estranged
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themselves from fellowship intheir minds.
But again, these things havebeen going on from the beginning
.
The apostles did not condonethis, they didn't accept this in
any form, but they did try andhelp those who fell into these
things.
It can be very difficult attimes to discern the difference
between an infant Christian andone who has not received Christ
when they both proclaim the samethings with their words.
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Self-righteousness and pridewill always be the biggest issue
in the church, and by church Imean the body of believers in
Christ, not those who attend achurch building regularly.
Today, many proclaim theteachings of Christ as laws to
live by, rules to follow.
It's no surprise that, withthis mindset, going to church
regularly also becomes a ruleand a way to get right or be
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right with God.
But in reality it's the fleshdriving this mentality, not love
.
The fruits of the Spirit comewhen our minds are renewed by
truth.
We don't bear fruit in theflesh, we bear fruit in Christ,
and being in Christ has nothingto do with where we are on
Sunday morning when the churchservice begins.
It's not about making theself-righteous happy by
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following their made-up rules.
It's about our fellowship inChrist.
And our fellowship in Christ isabout His work, not ours.
They do the same thing withsalvation and fellowship.
They just stretch salvationuntil it pulls apart, and then
they made two categories out ofit.
Fellowship and salvation are twodifferent things now, and
they're not in Scripture.
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I can assure you when it comesto our fellowship with God.
Our fellowship with God isunbreakable.
When we're born again asChristians, we enter into
unbreakable fellowship with God.
This is a vine and branchesrelationship.
The born-again Christian is nota branch that's going to get
broken off of the vine which isChrist.
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So our fellowship with God isperfect because of Christ.
But that's not always the sensethat we see it used in
scripture.
I've come to realize that whenwe see the word fellowship in
scripture, we often misinterpretthat with this fellowship
between us and God, when it'sreally talking about fellowship
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between people, betweenChristian and Christian.
Our fellowship with otherChristians isn't always perfect.
Our fellowship with otherChristians can become very weak
when we are drawn to error andconsumed in error instead of
truth.
And all that comes from a falseunderstanding of 1 John, 1 John
, 1.9 specifically.
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I say this a lot, can't reallysay it enough.
It's a big problem.
That understanding of thatpassage is always what it comes
down to when it comes to thesedoctrines.
I just wanted to present a wayof looking at this passage where
you might be able to see itfrom a different angle.
I think that when wemisunderstand this passage, we
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make a major error and then westart to impose that error on
other Christians.
It's my belief thatunderstanding this passage is
very important.
I think that the things thatJohn is writing about in this
first chapter of his letter,it's about belief versus
unbelief.
Going into this first chapter,I believe what he's writing
about is unbelief and he'swriting it to believers so that
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they won't fall for thatunbelief.
I used to often say that thisletter, 1 John, and the first
chapter and sections of hisletter weren't written to
believers, my argument would bethat it was written to believers
and non-believers alike,evangelically right, but I'm
kind of presenting a differentview under the same idea.
Let's say it was written tobelievers, about unbelievers.
(21:26):
Go into this with the view thathe's writing to believers about
unbelievers.
We can take this view for areason.
In 1 John, chapter 2, verse 21,.
He tells us that you often hearthis argument.
It was written to believers.
It was written to believers,period.
Because he says it was.
He says I'm writing to you guysand he's talking about
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believers.
But this is where you come torealize it's not necessarily to
unbelievers, it's about them.
It could be to them, could belike, hey, I want these guys to
hear this.
But he specifically says tothese believers I write to you
not because you do not know thetruth, but because you know it
and because no lie is of thetruth.
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Who is of the liar?
But he who denies that Jesus isthe Christ.
This is the Antichrist, he whodenies the Father and the Son.
No one who denies the Fatherand the Son.
No one who denies the Son has aFather.
Whoever confesses the Son has aFather also.
Let what you heard from thebeginning abide in you.
If what you heard from thebeginning abides in you, then
you too will abide in the Sonand in the Father, and this is
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the promise that he made to us.
Eternal life.
I write these things to youabout those who are trying to
deceive you.
Eternal life, did you hear that?
But the anointing that youreceive from him abides in you.
He's telling them that theanointing abides in them, which
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means they abide in Christ, andyou have no need that anyone
should teach you.
But as his anointing teachesyou about everything and is true
and is no lie, just as it hastaught you, abide in him.
And what do we say?
Abide in him means Just remain,remain in him.
How do you remain in him?
What is it that we're remainingin?
We're remaining in the truthabout Christ, his finished work.
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He did it all.
That's that we're remaining in.
We're remaining in the truthabout Christ, his finished work.
He did it all.
That's what we're remaining in.
To abide in Christ is to abidein him in his work.
It's not to abide in hisbehavior, because you can't
Abide in his behavior means toabide in what he did for you.
We might actually behave morelike him if we understood that,
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because he abided in the Father.
So if abide is to believe, thenwhy is he telling his fellow
Christians to abide?
Why would anybody tell aChristian to abide in Christ?
If abide is to believe and Ithink the answer to that is far
more simple than we realize whenwe're a born-again Christian we
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can still stop believing.
These people that John waswriting to were being deceived.
They were no longer believingthe truth about the finished
work of Christ Yeshua.
So what we then see is beliefin two different ways.
It's not two different ways ofbelieving.
There's the way of believingthat you were saved by and you
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went into salvation, and thenthere's the belief that you have
to continue in.
You have to abide in thefinished work of Christ.
You have to abide in belief.
This might well be the biggestproblem in our church today.
This might well be the biggestproblem in our church today.
Just like those who John wroteto, we have largely forgotten
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about the finality of the crossand have put ourselves into a
mindset of unbelief.
We have born-again Christiansdoubting the finished work of
the cross and even going upagainst it.
John is calling on theseChristians to continue abiding
in what they believed in thebeginning.
Abiding wanted to read throughthis passage, so this is 1 John.
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It's pretty much the firstchapter.
We'll just kind of read throughit and talk about it a little
bit.
So he starts out that which wasfrom the beginning, which we
have heard, which we have seenwith our eyes, which we have
looked upon and have touchedwith our hands, concerning the
word of life.
The life was made manifest andwe have seen it and testify to
it and proclaim to you theeternal life which was with the
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Father and was made manifest tous.
That which we have seen andheard, we proclaim also to you,
so that you too may havefellowship with us, and indeed
our fellowship is with theFather and with his Son, jesus
Christ.
Why is he proclaiming this tobelievers?
Why is he doing that?
It's a reminder.
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He's just reminding them.
He's reminding them of thingsthey already know, and he said
that.
We just read in chapter two youknow these things.
I'm writing to you about thosewho are deceiving you.
So it's like hey guys, guesswhat Christ is?
Lord, remember what happenswhen you're being deceived.
That means you're starting tobelieve something that's not
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true.
These people were starting tobelieve the liars that Christ
didn't do it all.
They weren't abiding anymorebecause they stopped believing.
He writes so that they wouldhave fellowship with them and
indeed their fellowship was withthe Father and His Son, jesus
Christ with them, and indeedtheir fellowship is with the
Father and His Son, jesus Christ.
I write these things so thatour joy may be complete.
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So when we look at fellowship,this is a different view of
fellowship.
He's saying this to believers Iwrite this to you so that you
can have fellowship with us.
Our fellowship is with the Son,the Son of God, and with the
Father.
We have fellowship with Christin truth, and we write these
things to you so that you canhave fellowship with us.
He was writing this tobelievers so that, I think, is
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what confuses people, andrightly so.
They're like oh well, sofellowship could somehow be
broken, and that's where theycome up with that.
But he's not talking aboutfellowship in the sense of what
we read in most other passages,where it's the same as salvation
.
He's talking about fellowshipin the sense of what we read in
most other passages, where it'sthe same as salvation.
He's talking about fellowshipin truth, he's talking about
human fellowship with oneanother.
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When we have human fellowshipwith one another, what is it in?
If it's Christian fellowship,it's in truth.
Therefore, if we'refellowshipping with people in
error, that doesn't reallyqualify as Christian fellowship.
Even if we both believe, we'renot really accomplishing any
kind of fellowship according tothe context that I see in this
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passage.
He's not talking about behavior.
He's talking about fellowshipin true doctrine.
That's why he's proclaimingtrue doctrine to them.
See what I'm saying.
It's a matter of how you seefellowship in that passage and
how we perceive it.
If you start perceiving that assalvation, it starts getting
confusing.
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If you start perceiving it asbeing wrong or right with God
for some reason, we start tobuild a funny doctrine.
But all he's saying is I wantyou guys to have fellowship with
us so that we can have joy, sothat my joy will be complete.
He says I want to have a joyfulfellowship with you guys, and
the only way we can do that isif we're talking about the same
(28:26):
stuff, is if we're rejoicing inthe same stuff and it's not the
stuff that these guys aretelling you You're not going to
share joy with me then.
So we read on.
He says this is the message wehave heard from him and proclaim
to you God is light and in himis no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowshipwhile we walk in the darkness,
(28:48):
we lie and do not practice thetruth.
And if we look at John's gospel, people that walked in darkness
were the non-believingPharisees, the false teachers
that spoke out against Christand against his finished work.
So he's talking about Judaizershere.
It's very clear if you compareand contrast these two things.
(29:08):
But if we walk in the light, hesays, as he is in the light, we
have fellowship with oneanother and the blood of Jesus,
his son, cleanses us from allsin.
Now he's talking aboutsalvation fellowship.
What fellowship is it?
It's fellowship with Christ.
If we walk in the light,because Christ is in the light,
meaning we have Christ, we havefellowship with one another.
(29:30):
So he's more or less sayinglike come on, guys, stop
fellowshipping with error.
Fellowship in where you're at,you're of the light.
See what I mean?
He's pointing out to them thatwe have this fellowship, but yet
he's having to tell them I wantthis with you because they're
drifting away from truth.
It's not because they're not inthe light.
It's because they're startingto act like they're not
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believing.
They're starting to proclaimunbelief with their words and
there's no fellowship in that.
And he says if we say we have nosin, we deceive ourselves and
the truth is not in us.
Who would have said they haveno sin?
The Pharisees thought they wereperfect, based on the law.
They didn't think they had sin.
They didn't think they needed aMessiah because they were doing
all the stuff right.
(30:13):
If we confess our sins, he isfaithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us fromall unrighteousness.
So if these people that deniedsin would just say I'm a sinner
and accept the Messiah theseJudaizers that are in the
darkness, if they would just sayI believe he'd cleanse them.
This is what he's telling themabout those who are deceiving
(30:36):
them, those people who aredeceiving you.
If they did this, they'd besaved and they'd be clean.
Then he goes on to say if wesay we have not sinned, we make
them a liar, and his word wordis not in us.
There we go.
Denying sin doesn't get youanywhere.
It's no good.
My little children, I'm writingthese things to you so that you
may not sin.
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But if anyone does sin.
Just go back to 1 John 1.9,.
He says, just kidding.
He says but if anyone does sin,we have an advocate with the
Father, jesus Christ, therighteous.
Right after telling you whatpeople see people see this
saying that we have to ask forforgiveness for our sins, that
(31:17):
we have to self-cleanseregularly to stay in fellowship
Right after proposing whatpeople see as this idea, he
tells them we have an advocate.
He's the propitiation for oursins, meaning the full
satisfaction for our sins.
If we do sin, we have a fullsatisfaction.
Why would he tell you that,right after telling you to
(31:38):
confess and ask for forgivenessover and over?
Why would he remind you of that?
Because that's not how he sawsin, that's not how he saw it.
He was.
He was telling you, christ didit all and he said not for ours
only, but also for the sins ofthe whole world, gentiles too.
And by this we know that wehave come to know him.
If we keep his commandments, ifyou keep the truth of christ,
(32:01):
if it's yours to keep, that'show you've come to know him.
Whoever says I know him but doesnot keep those commandments is
a liar.
So the Pharisees, the Judaizersoh, they say that, oh, they got
it all figured out, but theydidn't keep the truth of Christ.
They didn't buy it, they didn'tbelieve it.
Whoever says he abides in himought to walk in the same way
(32:23):
which he walked by faith.
It's that simple.
Keeping his commandments iskeeping the gospel, and who
keeps the gospel?
Those who the Father has givenhim, everyone who believes, has
been given to Christ by theFather, bypassing your human
ability, so that you can beguaranteed and assured that
(32:46):
salvation and fellowship areyours to keep, all you have to
do is believe it.
Believing is keeping and youcan't stop.
Anyway it's yours.
But he's saying hang on to that, cling to that.
Our Lord is always abiding inus as believers, and as
believers we're always abidingin Christ.
(33:07):
It becomes very confusing whenyou have John in his first
epistle telling believers toabide in Christ, and I think
that gets a lot of people hungup.
It took me a while to processit myself, but I came to realize
that it's not as confusing asit seems.
We're saved when we believe,but believing in Yeshua is
(33:29):
contrary to our human intellect.
So we have to train our mindsto think in line with this new
divine nature.
We have to live out our beliefin order to bear the fruits of
the Spirit.
By this I mean we need todepend on our sovereign Lord.
We need to rely on Him for allthings, look to Him for all
things, pray in all things andbelieve that he is our life
(33:49):
force.
We have to believe it right.
We have to have faith that hisspirit, living in and through us
, is a powerful, life-changingforce.
It's not so much about theamount of faith, as it is the
object of our faith.
And from what I've learned, theobject of our faith should be
the finished work of ChristYeshua, not our own works.
(34:11):
His finished work becomes thedriving force, because that's
where we learn the magnitude ofthat love of God.
So there's a lot of confusionbetween the old and the new
covenants.
The cross of Christ was thatdividing line, but it's hard for
people to see it.
In light of that, most peopleare going to tell you to focus
(34:31):
on your behavior.
Get your behavior right, andthen God will bless you and
you'll be right with God.
You'll be seen as holy beforeGod through your behavior.
So basically, once you become aChristian, it's your
responsibility to stop sinning.
You've got to stop sinning andwe see in Scripture that sin is
not the end result.
(34:51):
That's not what we're lookingto do.
We're not looking to build uponour sin life.
But from my vantage point, sinis a result of not abiding.
The core problem is that we'renot abiding in Christ, and
that's why the result will justbe more sin.
When we're not abiding, it'swhen we shift our focus away
from our Heavenly Father, awayfrom the finished work of Christ
(35:13):
.
We begin to doubt his finishedwork and put confidence in our
own ability.
That's when sin comes stronglyback into focus and we stumble.
And you see it in Scripture.
You see Paul talking aboutself-effort.
We talk about self-effort a lotand it's usually in regards to
the law when we see it inscripture.
But self-effort in regards tothe law can also be self-effort
(35:36):
in regards to rules andregulations.
I just wanted to clarify thatwhen I'm saying self-effort in a
negative sense, I'm referringto that old self, that old self
that was crucified with Christ,not the new self that was
resurrected by his life, not thenew creation self, because that
self is good.
Our self is not necessarily bad, I guess is what I'm trying to
(36:00):
say.
It's when we start acting likethat old self, that old self
that's not drawing from the vine.
It's dead, but we seem to wantto resurrect it back up,
behaving like that dead person.
I think it's important tomention that abiding is not
automatic.
We're not puppets and robots.
As we read in John's firstepistle and in all of scripture,
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belief was something that weneed to cling to.
We're taught to pray for this,we're taught to desire this, and
if we don't desire it, weshould pray for it.
Our Lord doesn't want us to beindependent of him.
He wants us to want him.
His will is for us to call onhim and depend on him, but also
to be alert to his guidance.
I mean, what good would it beif we're praying and we're not
(36:41):
looking for the answer?
We're not looking for what he'stelling us, we're not looking
for what he's teaching us.
What good is prayer if we'renot looking for his response?
So he gives us this ability toplease him within his sovereign
will, but his will is like theumbrella that preserves and
protects all things under it.
He can and will change our mindat times, and at other times
(37:01):
he'll wait for our response.
Once the Lord opens our eyes andgives us life, scripture
indicates that we can live alife of unbelief.
We don't have to abide in thegrace we were saved by.
We can choose to behave likethat old self and be guided by
rules and regulations.
Those guided by rules andregulations cannot function
(37:22):
under freedom.
That's why they hate the gospelof grace.
Rules are the only thingstopping them from carrying out
sin, so they feel the need thingstopping them from carrying out
sin, so they feel the need toimpose them on others.
Then, on the other hand, we canjust choose to take that gift of
salvation and use our freedomfor sin, say gee, thanks God,
see you later.
We can choose to live the waywe feel like living and just be
completely ignorant to what ourLord would desire for us in our
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lives.
Both of these paths are led byerror and a lack of mind renewal
.
I say let's use the gospel ofgrace as a license to love
freely in Christ Yeshua.
Let's use our freedom for good.
Let's enjoy our holiness andcelebrate our perfect
relationship with Yahweh byhonoring him with our lives.
The first John 1 9 passage wasnever meant to be Christian
(38:06):
instruction.
It was never intended to beChristian instruction.
It was never intended to tellChristians to ask for something
that they already have.
Forgiveness.
Thank you for listening to theWaking Up to Grace podcast
brought to you by the finishedwork of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you enjoyed today's episode,we would love to hear from you.
(38:26):
You can send encouragement ourway right from our episodes and
transcripts page or reach Lennyprivately from the contact form
at wakinguptogracecom.
Hello and welcome to the Waking Up to Grace
podcast, where we celebrate andexplore the finished work of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Tune in to the Waking Up toGrace podcast on every major
platform.
You can also listen to ourepisodes and read our full
transcripts atwakinguptogracecom.
And now here's Lenny.
(00:25):
If you follow my podcast, youmay have noticed that last
week's episode sounded a bitfamiliar.
That's because it was parts ofa discussion that I extracted
from our Roman studyintroduction.
I wasn't trying to pull oneover on anyone, I just felt
strongly that the discussion wehad on church deserved its own
episode.
So I hope you guys enjoyed that.
(00:46):
I've discussed 1 John 1-9throughout several episodes
since our 2023 and 2024 episodes, and I explored the context
from a little bit differentangle.
The conclusion remains the same, but the thought process coming
to that conclusion is notexactly the same.
I really wanted to put thesethoughts together for you guys
in an updated episode so youcould weigh it out for
(01:08):
yourselves.
I was pleasantly surprised thatwhen discussions from several
different episodes were woventogether, they seemed to fit
together like they were madethat way.
That seems like a God thing tome, but I'll let you be the
judge of that.
So enough of the introduction.
Let's get into the meat, shallwe?
Let's see if 1 John 1.9 is infact Christian instruction.
(01:30):
1 John 1.9 reads If we confessour sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins andto cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
I'm going to be looking at anargument directly related to the
passage 1 John 1.9 that holdsto the mainstream interpretation
.
For the sake of learning fromit.
The argument begins there aresome who insist that 1 John 1-9
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has nothing to do withChristians but is an invitation
to non-Christians.
I would say I do think thatthis is the most reasonable view
, being that John opens byproclaiming Christ to them so
that they can share fellowshipin Christ with them.
The argument continues If weconfess our sins.
Confess is a compound Greekterm, homologio, which is from
(02:17):
to speak and the same, so thisliterally means to say the same
thing.
Confessing therefore meanssaying about our sins what God
says about them, namely thatthey are indeed sins, offenses
against him.
I say yes, when our eyes areopen, we see sin how God sees it
.
We despise it.
Upon regeneration, we are ableto see ourselves from God's
(02:39):
vantage point and then he isfaithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us fromall unrighteousness.
As is written, the argument goesfurther, saying it is the
present tense which impliesongoing action.
Believers continue to agreewith God that they have violated
his holiness.
I say while believers continueto agree with God about sin.
(03:01):
They also agree with God thatit has been dealt with.
We agree that we've beenreconciled and that can't be
undone.
We believe he is no longercounting our sins against us, as
it is written.
We also agree that without theshedding of blood there is no
forgiveness and that Christ shedhis blood once for all and
isn't going to do it again andagain.
Like the high priest under thelaw.
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Hebrews outlines this withclarity.
John himself also tells us thatwe do not continue to sin
because Christ abides in us.
Later in the letter we havebeen cleansed by our faith.
We have been justified by God.
Justification is a super bigdeal.
The argument finishes by sayingsome say that believers are
(03:43):
already forgiven of all sin andthey don't need to confess their
sins.
Well, to not confess your sinswould be to not agree with what
God says about sin.
I say I don't know what somesaid, but I don't think
believers can help but agreewith God about their sin.
That is milk and vegetables inmy opinion.
In my experience, believers donot agree with God that their
(04:05):
sin was fully dealt with at thecross.
They don't believe they areright with God, even though it
is the promise of the gospel andthe very reason our Lord Yeshua
shed his blood for us.
No matter how you interpret theword, confess or homologio, it
still doesn't mean ask for moreforgiveness.
Our scripture never tells theChristian to ask God for more
(04:26):
forgiveness.
You would really have to wonderif it was so important that we
had to do something to get rightwith God every time we sin.
Wouldn't it have been writtenin just one of Paul's epistles?
When a Christian sins, it oughtto immediately bring to
remembrance the cleansing theyreceived from Christ.
Upon remembrance, one should behumbled and extremely grateful
(04:46):
for the cleansing they receivedfrom Christ.
Upon remembrance, one should behumbled and extremely grateful
for the sacrifice that our Lordmade.
What is it about being cleansedfrom all unrighteousness that
makes us want to ask for morecleansing?
Why not just agree with God andthank him for his great mercy?
Why not, out of thanks, despisewhat we did and look to him for
(05:09):
guidance?
We're children of the trueliving God.
We are God's holy people.
We can ask.
So in summary, 1 John 1.9 wasdirected toward the non-believer
or the non-believing mindset,but could serve as a mind
renewal for the spiritual, tobring them to remembrance of
their cleansing, as Peter saidin 2 Peter 1.9,.
(05:32):
But whoever lacks these traitsis nearsighted to the point of
blindness, having forgotten thathe has been cleansed from his
past sins.
The message was for believerstoo.
In that way, just like allscripture is for us, the
believers were struggling with anon-believing mindset.
We see this throughout theentire letter of John's first
epistle.
We have already been given thecure to our sin disease when we
trusted in Christ.
(05:52):
We just have to believe it.
That is why the Apostle Paulsaid things like be transformed
by the renewing of your mind andbe reconciled, because we tend
to not believe what the gospelteaches us and keep going back
to a guilty conscience in thepunishing battle of pleasing our
Lord by self-effort.
It's commonly overlooked when weread John's first epistle that
(06:15):
John was writing against sin,denial and unbelief in the
finished work of Christ Yeshua.
1 John 1, 5 reads this is themessage we have heard from him
to proclaim to you that God islight and in him.
1 John 1.5 reads so we see herethat we received light in
(06:48):
Christ.
There's no darkness in him.
What would cause someone to bein the darkness?
It would be not having Christliving in them.
So this passage is addressingunbelief, but can a Christian
live in unbelief?
Yes, we can be in the light andstill act like we're walking in
the darkness.
In other words, we can walk inunbelief.
The only way we can understandthis is to understand that being
(07:10):
born again is not something wecan change by behavior, and that
we can actually place ourdependency on ourselves, even
though we've been given agreater object for our faith.
Would you expect to have peacewalking around in darkness?
Of course not.
You'll be stumbling your waythrough the Christian life and
causing yourself all kinds ofunnecessary anxiety.
You might ask then, how do Iget back into the light?
(07:33):
Get back to depending on theLord.
1 Peter, 5, 6, and 7 says Humbleyourselves, therefore, under
the mighty hand of God so that,at the proper time, he may exalt
you, casting all your anxietieson him, because he cares for
(07:56):
you, the Lord.
Waking up to grace is not aboutbeing critical of our behavior
and beating ourselves up.
This would only cause moreanxiety.
Is it humble to prove thatwe're right with God by our own
self-effort?
No, it's not.
When we do that, we act as ifwe're walking in the darkness
instead of the light.
We're children of the light.
We should let our light shine.
(08:16):
In this way we would sharefellowship with one another, as
John describes to us in hisfirst epistle.
(08:38):
In 1 John, chapter 1, we readwhich was with the Father and
was made manifest to us.
That which we have seen andheard, we proclaim also to you,
so that you too may havefellowship with us.
And indeed our fellowship iswith the Father and with his Son
, jesus Christ, and we arewriting these things so that our
joy may be complete.
This is the message we haveheard from him and proclaim to
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you that God is light and in himis no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowshipwith him while we walk in
darkness.
The word fellowship is usedfour times in this short passage
.
That makes this an excellentexample of the usage of the word
(09:27):
in our Bibles.
In the first epistle of John,there was a sin denial going on.
The people he was addressing inthe first chapter of his letter
had not received Christ.
The writing was also for thosewho needed a lot of mind renewal
.
Those being written to eitherdid not believe or were
displaying unbelief in theirways.
He addresses the issue ofunbelief from the view of one
(09:48):
who does not have Christ.
For those in Christ, thispassage was meant to renew their
minds and restore the properview of the fellowship they
shared.
It might bring the spirituallydead to a fellowship with the
Lord and also restore the mindsof those drifting away from
truth, and also restore theminds of those drifting away
from truth.
Many in this audience did notrealize that they were believing
(10:09):
a false message that wasopposed to the one whom their
fellowship depended on, thatbeing Christ Yeshua.
We read in verse 3,.
John expresses here thatfellowship with them was
(10:30):
fellowship with the Father andhis Son, christ Jesus.
This fellowship is not based onwhere we go to church or who we
hang out with.
It's becoming a family inChrist.
Hebrews 2.11 tells us a familyin Christ.
Hebrews 2.11 tells us For hewho sanctifies and those who are
sanctified all have one origin.
That is why he is not ashamedto call them brothers.
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Christ Yeshua is not ashamed tocall us his brothers and
sisters.
We are his family now.
We are now in fellowship.
This fellowship does notrequire anything from us.
It was given to us as a gift.
Our fellowship is in Christ.
Therefore, it was all part ofthe gift of Christ that was
given to us at salvation.
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Just like we have eternal lifein Christ, likewise we have
eternal fellowship in Christ.
Think of it this way If yourbiological brother or sister
kicked you out of theirgathering, would you no longer
be family?
They could say all they want,but nobody can actually change
who your real father is.
You cannot change the fact thathe is your birth father.
It is all the same in this way,when we are born of the Spirit,
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it was not a coincidence thatChrist Yeshua used those words
to describe how we receive ourfellowship and salvation.
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A birth is unchangeable.
Continuing what we read inJohn's epistle in verse 5, john
teaches us that there is nodarkness in Christ.
He also teaches that if we walkin the light, as Christ is in
the light, we have fellowshipwith one another.
So our fellowship is in thelight.
And what happens when ourfellowship is in the light?
The blood of Jesus, his son,cleanses us from all sin.
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Okay, what happened to us atsalvation?
What is the gospel of our LordChrist Yeshua that we hold so
tightly to?
It's that the blood of Jesus,his son, cleansed us from all
sin.
Yes, this is a gift given to usand it does not get taken away.
But do we always walk in belief?
As Christians, are we capableof promoting and displaying
(12:45):
darkness just like someone whodoesn't know the Savior?
Yes, we are capable of this.
The power of sin can stillaffect these bodies of flesh and
the problems occur in our minds.
This is why waking up to graceis so important.
The renewal of the mind is whatallows us to live obedient to
the truth and not fall for lies.
It is so important to protectour minds from taking in garbage
(13:08):
.
We are grossly overstimulatedby useless information in our
society today.
But getting back to John'sepistle, if walking in the light
means salvation and fellowship,what does John mean in verse 6?
If we say we have fellowshipwith him while we walk in
darkness, we lie and do notpractice the truth.
Walking in darkness clearlymeans walking in unbelief.
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If you're saying you havefellowship but walk in unbelief,
you lie and do not practicetruth.
Again, could a believer walk inunbelief?
Yes, they could.
So in this way, the passagecould be teaching two types of
people those who never receiveChrist proclaiming a false
message, and those in Christproclaiming a false message.
Those who were falling awayfrom the truth, needed to
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realize what they were promoting, what they were living by.
You cannot bear the fruit ofthe Spirit following the flesh.
What was the false messagebeing proclaimed would be our
next question.
What we read in verse 7 is ahuge indicator as we go into the
verses that follow.
But if we walk in the light, ashe is in the light, we have
(14:10):
fellowship with one another, andthe blood of Jesus, his son,
cleanses us from all sin.
This is what they did notunderstand and we find out why
when we read further.
First, john 18.
If we say we have no sin, wedeceive ourselves and the truth
is not in us.
John was dealing with sindenial.
The people were denying thatthey had sin.
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We can't understand who we arein Christ if we don't understand
who we are apart from Christ.
These people needed tounderstand who they were apart
from Christ so they could seetheir need for a Savior as well
as understand their identity inChrist.
We can't enjoy the benefits ofa true fellowship with others in
Christ if we don't realize thebenefits of our fellowship with
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Christ, the truth that ourfellowship is based on the
finished work of Christ Yeshuaand the indwelling of his spirit
as the source of all fruit inour lives is the foundation of
all fellowship.
We don't have fellowshipwithout this.
This truth is our fellowship.
John then goes back to the truth1 John 1 9.
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If we confess our sins, he isfaithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us fromall unrighteousness.
This again emphasizes what wereceive at salvation.
And then he goes back to thelie.
If we say we have not sinned,we make him a liar and his word
is not in us.
The people John wrote to didnot see sin the way God saw it.
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Sin denial can come in alldifferent forms.
As John continues his letter,he continues to put a heavy
emphasis on God's view of sin.
In 1 John 3, 9, we read no oneborn of God makes a practice of
sinning, for God's seed abidesin him and he cannot keep on
sinning because he has been bornof God.
This passage confuses a lot ofpeople, even many who know their
(15:58):
Bibles front to back.
This passage is further proofthat their understanding of sin
was way off, even to the pointof doubting the finished work of
Christ Yeshua.
John is teaching them who theyare in Christ, how God sees them
now, now that they have beenborn into the family.
If they had known this, hewouldn't have spent so much time
emphasizing this truth.
This passage is grosslymisunderstood and is extremely
(16:22):
critical in understanding thefellowship that we have in
Christ.
When we deny the finished workof Christ Yeshua and proclaim a
fellowship based on rules andregulations, we need to go right
back to 1 John 1.6.
If we say we have fellowshipwith him while we walk in
darkness, we lie and do notpractice the truth.
We need to go right back to 1John 1.6.
John did not encouragesuperficial fellowship, and
(16:44):
neither did any apostle.
We can see from the letters wehave in our New Testament that
the goal was to be one in spiritand mind.
When our minds are in the wrongplace, we don't produce the
true fruits that come fromfellowship.
As we have discovered, eventhose born of God can walk in
unbelief, acting no differentthan one who rejects the gospel.
Even rejecting the gospel withtheir promotion of a works-based
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righteousness.
Those in the light believe GodIn the flesh.
We believe we can live sin-freeand we can be right with God by
self-effort.
We often even believe that allGod wants from us is to do the
best we can.
But what God really wants forus is to believe in him and
surrender our lives to him,throw in the towel on
(17:28):
self-effort, all together andask Christ to do his work in our
lives.
Many today proclaim a false Godwithout even realizing it.
Proclaiming a gospel messagethat does not make you right
with God is no gospel at all.
A double message, where we mustmaintain a fellowship with God
by good behavior, is not thegospel of Christ.
Although part of the family inChrist, many have estranged
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themselves from fellowship intheir minds.
But again, these things havebeen going on from the beginning
.
The apostles did not condonethis, they didn't accept this in
any form, but they did try andhelp those who fell into these
things.
It can be very difficult attimes to discern the difference
between an infant Christian andone who has not received Christ
when they both proclaim the samethings with their words.
(18:13):
Self-righteousness and pridewill always be the biggest issue
in the church, and by church Imean the body of believers in
Christ, not those who attend achurch building regularly.
Today, many proclaim theteachings of Christ as laws to
live by, rules to follow.
It's no surprise that, withthis mindset, going to church
regularly also becomes a ruleand a way to get right or be
(18:34):
right with God.
But in reality it's the fleshdriving this mentality, not love
.
The fruits of the Spirit comewhen our minds are renewed by
truth.
We don't bear fruit in theflesh, we bear fruit in Christ,
and being in Christ has nothingto do with where we are on
Sunday morning when the churchservice begins.
It's not about making theself-righteous happy by
(18:56):
following their made-up rules.
It's about our fellowship inChrist.
And our fellowship in Christ isabout His work, not ours.
They do the same thing withsalvation and fellowship.
They just stretch salvationuntil it pulls apart, and then
they made two categories out ofit.
Fellowship and salvation are twodifferent things now, and
they're not in Scripture.
(19:17):
I can assure you when it comesto our fellowship with God.
Our fellowship with God isunbreakable.
When we're born again asChristians, we enter into
unbreakable fellowship with God.
This is a vine and branchesrelationship.
The born-again Christian is nota branch that's going to get
broken off of the vine which isChrist.
(19:38):
So our fellowship with God isperfect because of Christ.
But that's not always the sensethat we see it used in
scripture.
I've come to realize that whenwe see the word fellowship in
scripture, we often misinterpretthat with this fellowship
between us and God, when it'sreally talking about fellowship
(19:59):
between people, betweenChristian and Christian.
Our fellowship with otherChristians isn't always perfect.
Our fellowship with otherChristians can become very weak
when we are drawn to error andconsumed in error instead of
truth.
And all that comes from a falseunderstanding of 1 John, 1 John
, 1.9 specifically.
(20:19):
I say this a lot, can't reallysay it enough.
It's a big problem.
That understanding of thatpassage is always what it comes
down to when it comes to thesedoctrines.
I just wanted to present a wayof looking at this passage where
you might be able to see itfrom a different angle.
I think that when wemisunderstand this passage, we
(20:39):
make a major error and then westart to impose that error on
other Christians.
It's my belief thatunderstanding this passage is
very important.
I think that the things thatJohn is writing about in this
first chapter of his letter,it's about belief versus
unbelief.
Going into this first chapter,I believe what he's writing
about is unbelief and he'swriting it to believers so that
(21:02):
they won't fall for thatunbelief.
I used to often say that thisletter, 1 John, and the first
chapter and sections of hisletter weren't written to
believers, my argument would bethat it was written to believers
and non-believers alike,evangelically right, but I'm
kind of presenting a differentview under the same idea.
Let's say it was written tobelievers, about unbelievers.
(21:26):
Go into this with the view thathe's writing to believers about
unbelievers.
We can take this view for areason.
In 1 John, chapter 2, verse 21,.
He tells us that you often hearthis argument.
It was written to believers.
It was written to believers,period.
Because he says it was.
He says I'm writing to you guysand he's talking about
(21:47):
believers.
But this is where you come torealize it's not necessarily to
unbelievers, it's about them.
It could be to them, could belike, hey, I want these guys to
hear this.
But he specifically says tothese believers I write to you
not because you do not know thetruth, but because you know it
and because no lie is of thetruth.
(22:08):
Who is of the liar?
But he who denies that Jesus isthe Christ.
This is the Antichrist, he whodenies the Father and the Son.
No one who denies the Fatherand the Son.
No one who denies the Son has aFather.
Whoever confesses the Son has aFather also.
Let what you heard from thebeginning abide in you.
If what you heard from thebeginning abides in you, then
you too will abide in the Sonand in the Father, and this is
(22:30):
the promise that he made to us.
Eternal life.
I write these things to youabout those who are trying to
deceive you.
Eternal life, did you hear that?
But the anointing that youreceive from him abides in you.
He's telling them that theanointing abides in them, which
(22:53):
means they abide in Christ, andyou have no need that anyone
should teach you.
But as his anointing teachesyou about everything and is true
and is no lie, just as it hastaught you, abide in him.
And what do we say?
Abide in him means Just remain,remain in him.
How do you remain in him?
What is it that we're remainingin?
We're remaining in the truthabout Christ, his finished work.
(23:16):
He did it all.
That's that we're remaining in.
We're remaining in the truthabout Christ, his finished work.
He did it all.
That's what we're remaining in.
To abide in Christ is to abidein him in his work.
It's not to abide in hisbehavior, because you can't
Abide in his behavior means toabide in what he did for you.
We might actually behave morelike him if we understood that,
(23:36):
because he abided in the Father.
So if abide is to believe, thenwhy is he telling his fellow
Christians to abide?
Why would anybody tell aChristian to abide in Christ?
If abide is to believe and Ithink the answer to that is far
more simple than we realize whenwe're a born-again Christian we
(23:58):
can still stop believing.
These people that John waswriting to were being deceived.
They were no longer believingthe truth about the finished
work of Christ Yeshua.
So what we then see is beliefin two different ways.
It's not two different ways ofbelieving.
There's the way of believingthat you were saved by and you
(24:20):
went into salvation, and thenthere's the belief that you have
to continue in.
You have to abide in thefinished work of Christ.
You have to abide in belief.
This might well be the biggestproblem in our church today.
This might well be the biggestproblem in our church today.
Just like those who John wroteto, we have largely forgotten
(24:42):
about the finality of the crossand have put ourselves into a
mindset of unbelief.
We have born-again Christiansdoubting the finished work of
the cross and even going upagainst it.
John is calling on theseChristians to continue abiding
in what they believed in thebeginning.
Abiding wanted to read throughthis passage, so this is 1 John.
(25:14):
It's pretty much the firstchapter.
We'll just kind of read throughit and talk about it a little
bit.
So he starts out that which wasfrom the beginning, which we
have heard, which we have seenwith our eyes, which we have
looked upon and have touchedwith our hands, concerning the
word of life.
The life was made manifest andwe have seen it and testify to
it and proclaim to you theeternal life which was with the
(25:36):
Father and was made manifest tous.
That which we have seen andheard, we proclaim also to you,
so that you too may havefellowship with us, and indeed
our fellowship is with theFather and with his Son, jesus
Christ.
Why is he proclaiming this tobelievers?
Why is he doing that?
It's a reminder.
(25:56):
He's just reminding them.
He's reminding them of thingsthey already know, and he said
that.
We just read in chapter two youknow these things.
I'm writing to you about thosewho are deceiving you.
So it's like hey guys, guesswhat Christ is?
Lord, remember what happenswhen you're being deceived.
That means you're starting tobelieve something that's not
(26:16):
true.
These people were starting tobelieve the liars that Christ
didn't do it all.
They weren't abiding anymorebecause they stopped believing.
He writes so that they wouldhave fellowship with them and
indeed their fellowship was withthe Father and His Son, jesus
Christ with them, and indeedtheir fellowship is with the
Father and His Son, jesus Christ.
I write these things so thatour joy may be complete.
(26:38):
So when we look at fellowship,this is a different view of
fellowship.
He's saying this to believers Iwrite this to you so that you
can have fellowship with us.
Our fellowship is with the Son,the Son of God, and with the
Father.
We have fellowship with Christin truth, and we write these
things to you so that you canhave fellowship with us.
He was writing this tobelievers so that, I think, is
(27:02):
what confuses people, andrightly so.
They're like oh well, sofellowship could somehow be
broken, and that's where theycome up with that.
But he's not talking aboutfellowship in the sense of what
we read in most other passages,where it's the same as salvation
.
He's talking about fellowshipin the sense of what we read in
most other passages, where it'sthe same as salvation.
He's talking about fellowshipin truth, he's talking about
human fellowship with oneanother.
(27:23):
When we have human fellowshipwith one another, what is it in?
If it's Christian fellowship,it's in truth.
Therefore, if we'refellowshipping with people in
error, that doesn't reallyqualify as Christian fellowship.
Even if we both believe, we'renot really accomplishing any
kind of fellowship according tothe context that I see in this
(27:43):
passage.
He's not talking about behavior.
He's talking about fellowshipin true doctrine.
That's why he's proclaimingtrue doctrine to them.
See what I'm saying.
It's a matter of how you seefellowship in that passage and
how we perceive it.
If you start perceiving that assalvation, it starts getting
confusing.
(28:04):
If you start perceiving it asbeing wrong or right with God
for some reason, we start tobuild a funny doctrine.
But all he's saying is I wantyou guys to have fellowship with
us so that we can have joy, sothat my joy will be complete.
He says I want to have a joyfulfellowship with you guys, and
the only way we can do that isif we're talking about the same
(28:26):
stuff, is if we're rejoicing inthe same stuff and it's not the
stuff that these guys aretelling you You're not going to
share joy with me then.
So we read on.
He says this is the message wehave heard from him and proclaim
to you God is light and in himis no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowshipwhile we walk in the darkness,
(28:48):
we lie and do not practice thetruth.
And if we look at John's gospel, people that walked in darkness
were the non-believingPharisees, the false teachers
that spoke out against Christand against his finished work.
So he's talking about Judaizershere.
It's very clear if you compareand contrast these two things.
(29:08):
But if we walk in the light, hesays, as he is in the light, we
have fellowship with oneanother and the blood of Jesus,
his son, cleanses us from allsin.
Now he's talking aboutsalvation fellowship.
What fellowship is it?
It's fellowship with Christ.
If we walk in the light,because Christ is in the light,
meaning we have Christ, we havefellowship with one another.
(29:30):
So he's more or less sayinglike come on, guys, stop
fellowshipping with error.
Fellowship in where you're at,you're of the light.
See what I mean?
He's pointing out to them thatwe have this fellowship, but yet
he's having to tell them I wantthis with you because they're
drifting away from truth.
It's not because they're not inthe light.
It's because they're startingto act like they're not
(29:52):
believing.
They're starting to proclaimunbelief with their words and
there's no fellowship in that.
And he says if we say we have nosin, we deceive ourselves and
the truth is not in us.
Who would have said they haveno sin?
The Pharisees thought they wereperfect, based on the law.
They didn't think they had sin.
They didn't think they needed aMessiah because they were doing
all the stuff right.
(30:13):
If we confess our sins, he isfaithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us fromall unrighteousness.
So if these people that deniedsin would just say I'm a sinner
and accept the Messiah theseJudaizers that are in the
darkness, if they would just sayI believe he'd cleanse them.
This is what he's telling themabout those who are deceiving
(30:36):
them, those people who aredeceiving you.
If they did this, they'd besaved and they'd be clean.
Then he goes on to say if wesay we have not sinned, we make
them a liar, and his word wordis not in us.
There we go.
Denying sin doesn't get youanywhere.
It's no good.
My little children, I'm writingthese things to you so that you
may not sin.
(30:56):
But if anyone does sin.
Just go back to 1 John 1.9,.
He says, just kidding.
He says but if anyone does sin,we have an advocate with the
Father, jesus Christ, therighteous.
Right after telling you whatpeople see people see this
saying that we have to ask forforgiveness for our sins, that
(31:17):
we have to self-cleanseregularly to stay in fellowship
Right after proposing whatpeople see as this idea, he
tells them we have an advocate.
He's the propitiation for oursins, meaning the full
satisfaction for our sins.
If we do sin, we have a fullsatisfaction.
Why would he tell you that,right after telling you to
(31:38):
confess and ask for forgivenessover and over?
Why would he remind you of that?
Because that's not how he sawsin, that's not how he saw it.
He was.
He was telling you, christ didit all and he said not for ours
only, but also for the sins ofthe whole world, gentiles too.
And by this we know that wehave come to know him.
If we keep his commandments, ifyou keep the truth of christ,
(32:01):
if it's yours to keep, that'show you've come to know him.
Whoever says I know him but doesnot keep those commandments is
a liar.
So the Pharisees, the Judaizersoh, they say that, oh, they got
it all figured out, but theydidn't keep the truth of Christ.
They didn't buy it, they didn'tbelieve it.
Whoever says he abides in himought to walk in the same way
(32:23):
which he walked by faith.
It's that simple.
Keeping his commandments iskeeping the gospel, and who
keeps the gospel?
Those who the Father has givenhim, everyone who believes, has
been given to Christ by theFather, bypassing your human
ability, so that you can beguaranteed and assured that
(32:46):
salvation and fellowship areyours to keep, all you have to
do is believe it.
Believing is keeping and youcan't stop.
Anyway it's yours.
But he's saying hang on to that, cling to that.
Our Lord is always abiding inus as believers, and as
believers we're always abidingin Christ.
(33:07):
It becomes very confusing whenyou have John in his first
epistle telling believers toabide in Christ, and I think
that gets a lot of people hungup.
It took me a while to processit myself, but I came to realize
that it's not as confusing asit seems.
We're saved when we believe,but believing in Yeshua is
(33:29):
contrary to our human intellect.
So we have to train our mindsto think in line with this new
divine nature.
We have to live out our beliefin order to bear the fruits of
the Spirit.
By this I mean we need todepend on our sovereign Lord.
We need to rely on Him for allthings, look to Him for all
things, pray in all things andbelieve that he is our life
(33:49):
force.
We have to believe it right.
We have to have faith that hisspirit, living in and through us
, is a powerful, life-changingforce.
It's not so much about theamount of faith, as it is the
object of our faith.
And from what I've learned, theobject of our faith should be
the finished work of ChristYeshua, not our own works.
(34:11):
His finished work becomes thedriving force, because that's
where we learn the magnitude ofthat love of God.
So there's a lot of confusionbetween the old and the new
covenants.
The cross of Christ was thatdividing line, but it's hard for
people to see it.
In light of that, most peopleare going to tell you to focus
(34:31):
on your behavior.
Get your behavior right, andthen God will bless you and
you'll be right with God.
You'll be seen as holy beforeGod through your behavior.
So basically, once you become aChristian, it's your
responsibility to stop sinning.
You've got to stop sinning andwe see in Scripture that sin is
not the end result.
(34:51):
That's not what we're lookingto do.
We're not looking to build uponour sin life.
But from my vantage point, sinis a result of not abiding.
The core problem is that we'renot abiding in Christ, and
that's why the result will justbe more sin.
When we're not abiding, it'swhen we shift our focus away
from our Heavenly Father, awayfrom the finished work of Christ
(35:13):
.
We begin to doubt his finishedwork and put confidence in our
own ability.
That's when sin comes stronglyback into focus and we stumble.
And you see it in Scripture.
You see Paul talking aboutself-effort.
We talk about self-effort a lotand it's usually in regards to
the law when we see it inscripture.
But self-effort in regards tothe law can also be self-effort
(35:36):
in regards to rules andregulations.
I just wanted to clarify thatwhen I'm saying self-effort in a
negative sense, I'm referringto that old self, that old self
that was crucified with Christ,not the new self that was
resurrected by his life, not thenew creation self, because that
self is good.
Our self is not necessarily bad, I guess is what I'm trying to
(36:00):
say.
It's when we start acting likethat old self, that old self
that's not drawing from the vine.
It's dead, but we seem to wantto resurrect it back up,
behaving like that dead person.
I think it's important tomention that abiding is not
automatic.
We're not puppets and robots.
As we read in John's firstepistle and in all of scripture,
(36:20):
belief was something that weneed to cling to.
We're taught to pray for this,we're taught to desire this, and
if we don't desire it, weshould pray for it.
Our Lord doesn't want us to beindependent of him.
He wants us to want him.
His will is for us to call onhim and depend on him, but also
to be alert to his guidance.
I mean, what good would it beif we're praying and we're not
(36:41):
looking for the answer?
We're not looking for what he'stelling us, we're not looking
for what he's teaching us.
What good is prayer if we'renot looking for his response?
So he gives us this ability toplease him within his sovereign
will, but his will is like theumbrella that preserves and
protects all things under it.
He can and will change our mindat times, and at other times
(37:01):
he'll wait for our response.
Once the Lord opens our eyes andgives us life, scripture
indicates that we can live alife of unbelief.
We don't have to abide in thegrace we were saved by.
We can choose to behave likethat old self and be guided by
rules and regulations.
Those guided by rules andregulations cannot function
(37:22):
under freedom.
That's why they hate the gospelof grace.
Rules are the only thingstopping them from carrying out
sin, so they feel the need thingstopping them from carrying out
sin, so they feel the need toimpose them on others.
Then, on the other hand, we canjust choose to take that gift of
salvation and use our freedomfor sin, say gee, thanks God,
see you later.
We can choose to live the waywe feel like living and just be
completely ignorant to what ourLord would desire for us in our
(37:44):
lives.
Both of these paths are led byerror and a lack of mind renewal
.
I say let's use the gospel ofgrace as a license to love
freely in Christ Yeshua.
Let's use our freedom for good.
Let's enjoy our holiness andcelebrate our perfect
relationship with Yahweh byhonoring him with our lives.
The first John 1 9 passage wasnever meant to be Christian
(38:06):
instruction.
It was never intended to beChristian instruction.
It was never intended to tellChristians to ask for something
that they already have.
Forgiveness.
Thank you for listening to theWaking Up to Grace podcast
brought to you by the finishedwork of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you enjoyed today's episode,we would love to hear from you.
(38:26):
You can send encouragement ourway right from our episodes and
transcripts page or reach Lennyprivately from the contact form
at wakinguptogracecom.
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