April 13th, 2025: Christ the Atoning Sacrifice | 1 John 2:1-6, 1 John 4:9-17

1 John 2:1-9

In the nineties, we were cautioned against eating saturated fats in meat and eggs. Dieticians recommended eating a lot of oatmeal, rice, and foods loaded with complex carbohydrates.  Cookies that were “fat-free” filled supermarket shelves, and cabbage and cottage cheese diets were the rage. Fast forward a decade, and most of the information has taken a sharp turn in the other direction. Health experts are calling for more “natural fats” and less seed oils; carbohydrates of all sorts are restricted or eliminated from the modern diet. Those cookies have long since been pulled from the shelves because they were extremely unhealthy. The truth is that our physical health is harmed by partial information, pushes toward the extreme, and our own limited understanding of biology. The Bible has always been a great guide for physical health, but we ignore it. Moderation, fasting, thanksgiving, and sharing our abundance are principles that, when followed can give us lasting health. 

Our spiritual health is similarly affected by experts. Christians often take extreme positions using a single portion of scripture and too often ignore the sound Biblical truths from another.  In Hebrews chapter 10, the church is warned about the danger of turning back from Christ into a sinful lifestyle that rejects His truth and authority. It illuminates the fact that unconfessed and unrepented of sin in the life of a believer leaves us in a far more dangerous place than we were before. Our passage today is about how to bring our sins to Christ after our conversion, and about having faith that God will forgive and has already paid the penalty for our actions. One passage taken without the other leads to one of two false and extreme lines of thought.  

Some conclude that our sins are of no consequence and that we live in an age of grace in which we can live however we please. Or, some think that if we commit sin after we have been born again, there is no more that can be done to save our souls, we are without hope. One path is a man-made “license to sin,” and the other is “legalism.” The Bible is always true, and it always means what it says, but we are required to take it all in context and to apply it with wisdom.

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

2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

“My little Children” is a term of endearment used by the apostle John for a church of New Testament believers. It reminds us of the truth that we are loved by God, and by the blood of Jesus, we have been adopted into the family of God. First of all, we need to acknowledge the seriousness of sin. Avoid it; God’s way is better, and sin always has a cost. Maybe you need a good reminder today that despite the minimizing and whitewashing that our culture has presented about sin, it is deadly. James 1:15-16 states, “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.”  

Knowing that sin comes with a price tag, we should not buy into the lies of this world that make it look glamorous, thrilling, and justifiable. It always causes separation and pain.  However, God, in His great wisdom, knew that even when trying our best, we would come short of living a perfect, godly life. Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary not only rectifies our past, it intervenes in our present and assures our future. We know what to do when we sin: confess it quickly, repent, and trust our advocate, Jesus, to go to the Father on our behalf. 

In Psalm 19, King David wrote, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.”  Presumptuous sins, are sins committed with no remorse or fear while presuming that God is good so that you will get away with it.  God will not be taken advantage of, He knows our hearts.  We have an advocate, but He won’t lie on our behalf.  You can’t live like you lived before your conversion and expect to avoid the judgment of God. 

If you are a Christian, your eyes have been opened to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God; even a rudimentary understanding of that fact would cause us to understand that He has all authority over what is right and wrong. If He is the King, we should live in accordance with His point of view.

3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Your choices will always tell on you. You can say anything, but it’s much harder to disguise your actions. The only way that the world knows that salvation is real is to witness the effect of Christ on the believer. Do you keep His commandments? I mean, when your will and God’s are at odds, do you submit to His way? Do you acknowledge that He is Lord? If not, your confession of faith is “a lie.” You say you are His child, but you deny His authority. All are cordially invited to enter the kingdom of God through the sacrifice of His Son, but make no mistake: He rules His kingdom, and you won't override Him.

5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

“Perfected”  is a word found in scripture to mean fully complete, mature, and fulfilled. If you obey God’s word, you show the growth and maturity that God proposes for His children. It gives us assurance. As we obey, our faith grows. We see that God’s way is the best way, and we learn to trust that He always has our best interests at heart.  

Christ always abided in the will of the Father.  All that He did on earth gave glory to Him.  He abided in His will, trusting that even the cross would be worth it.  Likewise, when we are in difficult places, if we will do things God’s way, trusting that He is right, we will abide in Christ.  We also will have victory, personally, that only God is able to bring about. Christ is our pattern, our partner, our redeemer, and our keeper.  

1 John 4:9-17

The ability to live a life for God comes through the resurrection power of His Son. Sin is serious, costly, and deadly, but Christ has conquered it.  “Because He lives…”

9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Propitiation is both substitution and payment.  Spiritually speaking Christ and the believer traded places.  He gave up the glories of Heaven to grant your admission to it.  He took your sin and shame and gave you His acceptance and access to His Father’s throne.  He not only paid for your sin, He gave you the ability to live for God through Him.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Here again, if we are not careful, the church will say one thing and live out another. If we have been loved by Jesus, the only right response is to sacrificially love others in return. I can do nothing to repay God; He certainly needs nothing from me. A substitution has been made, I can love God best by loving those who deserve it the least. How does the world know that God loves them? They experience it through the way you love them. If I judged God by the way some Christians have treated me, I would doubt there was any hope at all for me. God’s “perfected love,” perfect and mature, is that you see the person in front of you as an opportunity to bless His Son Jesus.

13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.

We have an advocate, Christ Jesus, and we have a Councillor, the Holy Spirit of God, to walk beside us and live through us. If your agenda is all that you consider, you have given yourself away.  A Christian lives to please God and do His will. We fail, we falter, we repent, but we know that the story is His and not ours. Do you live a testimony of the goodness of God through Jesus? Do those around you have to wonder what your goal is? They shouldn’t. The way we live our lives is our confession of what we truly believe.  

16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

If you live for Christ, you will be able to stand before Him with excitement and not terror one day. We live here to love and know Him better so that one day, we will be ready to spend eternity in His presence. This “perfection,” or maturity in love and lifestyle, is a process, and God is completing a work in all of us.

Thank you for studying with us! God bless!