God Without Religion_ Can It Really Be This Simple_ - Andrew Farley [54]
In this passage, John is addressing early Gnostic heretics who claimed to be sinless. Gnostics were also pushing the heresy that Jesus didn’t come in the flesh. They claimed that God would never take on a lower form, even for a short time. God is only spirit, they said, and he would never appear in real human flesh. Therefore, they believed Jesus to be an illusion of sorts. Maybe you could put your hand right through him like a beam of light.
In John’s epistle, he addresses this early church heresy. He says anyone who denies the physicality of Jesus is “not from God” (1 John 4:3). In addition, he opens his first chapter by saying:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. (1 John 1:1–2)
Notice how many times John uses physical words to say that he witnessed Jesus’s physicality. John opens his letter by driving home the fact that Jesus did come in the flesh. Who would this message be for? Remember that anyone who denied Jesus’s physicality was “not from God” (1 John 4:3). John is obviously addressing unbelievers at the beginning of his letter.
Interestingly, Gnostic heretics also claimed that sin wasn’t real or didn’t matter. Therefore, they claimed to be sinless. These Gnostics are precisely who John addresses in his first chapter. And John says they don’t have the truth or God’s Word in them:
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. . . . If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. (1 John 1:8, 10)
Can we be sure that John is describing unbelievers? Yes. In another letter, this same author (John) tells us that we Christians do have the truth in us and that the truth will be with us forever:
The elder, to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth—because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever. (2 John 1:1–2)
We Christians have the truth living in us, and the truth will be with us forever. Now compare that to the group back in 1 John who:
say they have no sin;
say they’ve not sinned;
do not have the truth in them; and
do not have the Word in them.
Imagine that I introduce you to a friend of mine: “I want you to meet my friend Dave. What’s interesting about Dave is that he walks in darkness. Dave doesn’t live by the truth. Dave claims to be without sin. Dave doesn’t have the truth in him. Dave has made God into a liar, and the Word has no place in Dave’s life. Other than that, Dave’s a great guy!” After hearing my introduction and shaking Dave’s hand, do you walk away concluding that Dave is a Christian? Of course not! The first step to becoming a Christian is admitting you’re a sinner.
So is 1 John 1:9 addressing Christians? Absolutely not! In his opening chapter, the apostle John is addressing unsaved people like Dave who were living in denial about their sin. They didn’t have fellowship with God yet. They couldn’t experience total forgiveness yet. And they didn’t know “once for all” cleansing yet. John’s hope was that they would come to their senses. If they’d just admit their sin, then they could enjoy total forgiveness in Christ.
“My Little Children”
John transitions in his second chapter to address “My little children” (1 John 2:1 NASB). He then clearly tells Christians that “your sins have been forgiven on account of [Jesus’s] name” (1 John 2:12). Christians are forgiven people, so John expresses our forgiveness in past tense, as a completed action.
So who needs to confess their sins in order to be forgiven and cleansed of all unrighteousness?