Passed From Death to Life
God reveals Himself to us through His Word. Each of the sixty-six books in the Bible tells us something about our God. Often we get that message confused with something about ourselves. The Bible is God’s written revelation of Himself. The book of 1 John is written to Christians; it is a message about God’s faithfulness to His children.
Instead of looking at yourself as you study the Bible, keep your eyes upon the Lord. The quickest way to blindness is to get your eyes on yourself. Once you get your eyes on yourself, you cannot see anything else. Let us keep our eyes upon the Lord.
1 John 2:1-2 says, “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: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Take special notice of an expression in verse one, “We have an advocate.” We have considered the Word of Life, and the truth that God is light. Now we read, “We have an advocate.”
In the Gospel according to John, the Lord leaves no room for doubt as to why He gave us that gospel record. John 20:30-31 says, “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book…But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”
The only way to have this life is through His name. There are not many ways to God; there is only one way. We must speak and declare there is only one way. We must speak and declare this with absolute certainty. In John 14:6, the Lord Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” This is not a narrow-minded thing that we have imagined; it is the very Word of God that we declare.
If asked, “Do you have this eternal life?” what would you answer? Eternal life is the life of the eternal One. This life does not begin the moment you die; it begins the moment you come to know the Lord Jesus as your Saviour.
The devil’s work can be undone. God’s work of salvation can never be undone. His salvation is full and free; it is forever.
Many people who claim to be children of God do not live like Christians. What is this Christian life? What does the Bible have to say? This is what we are dealing with here in this epistle of 1 John. God addresses our actions in 1 John 2:1. To understand this let us back up to 1 John 1:4-7, the Bible says, “And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full…This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all…If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth…But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
There are two things that bind us to God. First, there is union. Dr. Harry Ironside, a great Bible preacher and teacher who is now in heaven, used this explanation often. He said, “We have union with Christ; we are a part of his body. We also have communion with Him. Our union is settled forever. Nothing shall separate us from the Lord. Our communion, however, is a different matter. We must deal with this on a daily basis, moment by moment, communion with the Lord and abiding in Him.”
One of the great teachings that the Lord gave concerning this, is in John chapter 15. It is the revealed truth concerning abiding in Christ. In this passage, the Lord speaks of abiding in Him. He also speaks of the vine and the branches. When reading the word “abiding,” think of obedience. He is the vine; we are the branches. We are to have this communion with Christ. Our relationship is settled when we become a child of God, but our fellowship is something we must renew every day.
Our Sinful Actions
The Bible says in 1 John 2:1, “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.”
Notice the phrase, “my little children…” The expression speaks of those who have been born into God’s family. It is God’s desire that His children do not sin. It is God’s desire that we do not give in to sin. He wants us to live the kind of life where we have no intention of sinning.
Knowing that we fail God when we sin, what is our attitude about sin? What is our attitude about sins of commission; things that we deliberately and willfully do against God? What is our attitude about sins of omission, things we fail to do in obedience to God? Our attitude about sin reveals our attitude toward God. The higher God is exalted in our lives, the more fear and dread we have of sinning against Him.
Any time we sin, we are denying Christ. Any sin is a denial of Jesus Christ. There are things we know we should be doing that we do not do. There are things that we deliberately do that we know are disobedient to God. Remember, every time we sin, we are denying Christ. Sin is no small matter when it keeps us from communing with Christ and having fellowship with Him.
There have been times in my life when my thoughts were turned to God. I desired to pray and to have liberty in prayer; and God reminded me of something in my thought life, something I allowed in my eye-gate or ear-gate that I had never confessed to God. I could not pray with liberty and power until confession of that sin was made to God. Sin is a serious thing! We must think about our actions. Our sinful actions keep us from having the fellowship that we ought to have with the Lord.
“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” Hebrews 9:24
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