Marks of Christian Reality
What is meant by Christian or Biblical Reality
I have always perhaps wrongly associated the Christian walk with the great medieval allegory of the Grail Quest. Not in the failure or success but in the attempt are we defined as Christians. As long as we live in a broken world we will sin, we should not seek to sin nor should we ignore its presence, but we must be cognisant of the reality of this. It does not mean we get a free pass on attempting to do better, it does mean that God knows we will fail and as we confess our sins to him and continually go back to the cross for forgiveness we will be forgiven and sanctified. It is therefore a biblical reality that is defined by the following words "1Christians Know who Christ is, know what He did and do what He commands".
I was reminded today however that god has given us tools to fight sin in our lives, we are not only enjoined to fight Sin but supported in the fight if we are willing. It seems what it takes is a willingness to focus on what is godly and reject what is not, Romans 6:11-14, Romans 7:14 - 8:10 really challenges us to take ownership of our bodies and minds in this regard. A junior pastor in our current church took us over the importance of this verse in our lives and how it challenges us to take on the burden of this battle.
Verse 2:1 How does John describe Christ, and what do the terms mean? How do these truths enable us to be realistic about sin in our lives?
1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One
It seems clear that John constructs a deliberate model of Christ and Jesus together here, what we often forget in the modern age is that the conjunction of the two names is really quite deliberate. Jesus was the birth name of son of Mary and God, wholly human and material, Christ was the Messiah of the Jewish People. In reflecting on this it is clear that the righteous one being referred to above is a single being encompassing both the Physical / Temporal nature of Man and the Spiritual / Eternal nature of God. If Jesus was only one and not the other, say firstly just Jesus then it is difficult to see how he could have interceded on our behalf with God as only a Man. If he were only the Christ then how would he be able to represent himself as the atoning sacrifice with the mortality of Man. In combing both of these streams John once again attacks the flawed Gnostic thinking that separates the incarnate nature of God. The righteous one is therefore a direct reference to a being who is righteous, for in his life Jesus never sinned, this sin free nature is a direct result of his status as the Son of God.
Verse 2:2 How does John further explain how God in Christ has dealt with our sins
2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world
In some ways this is the core of Christian faith personified - Christ dies for our sins. but looking deeper it clearly has some pretty confronting aspects, why does he need to die for our sins, how is it that God can be both merciful and so angry that he slays his own son for a crime he did not commit. There seems to be a clear and direct attack on modern concepts of God as a nice guy implicit in the salvation message core to Christian belief.
God's wrath needs to be examined in detail and understood as something other than a bad or unwarranted anger or it makes God no different to the stories of the Greek and Viking Pagan deities of earlier ages. These gods were famous for their incredible bouts of anger which were related to their capricious nature. Gods wrath therefore must be something deeper, older and driven by his divine nature. God is an implacable enemy of Sin and Evil, his very nature makes its existence an anathema to Him. God cannot be the divine source of righteousness and also at the same time allow evil to exist in his presence. we know both from his acts throughout the Old and New Testaments that God is wrathful to Sin and Evil and hands out often dire punishments to those who sin (Genesis 19:24-26, Leviticus 20, Acts 5:1-10) .
God therefore as a act of love in conjunction with the love of the Son for us sacrifices his Son to cleanse us of our sin. This act allows us to stand in his presence with our advocate Christ representing every one of us. However this then says why do people still need to fear Sin, surely after Christ's sacrifice for the Sins of the World nothing is left to do. Christianity would in a sense just be telling everyone no need to worry or be concerned you are free from Sin so go forth and be happy. And yet that is clearly not the case, it is in accepting the Word of God that we receive the gift of salvation. Christ offers us a free gift of salvation once we accept him as our savour, Gods gift needs a recognisable act of acceptance on our part before it is effective (Mark 16:15-16).
Verses 2:3-6 Why does John focus on obedience to Christ's Commands as a characteristic of the true Christian?, is this a legalistic approach as opposed to one born of love?
3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
Christ's own words ask that we follow his commands and instructions (John 14:15, John 15:10) we are enjoined to follow him with our actions and to walk his road. Without an acting out of our faith how can we say we follow Christ. To simply say we follow his is nothing unless it changes us somehow in our behaviour, this is what John seems to be asking of us in the first part of the verses above. It is also clearly an attack on the Gnostic belief that no physical or material change in behaviour was required.
Legalism is perhaps best defined as a following of a particular set of rules and in following those rules an outcome of some positive nature will be achieved, countries like China have at times followed legalistic models of behaviours in the belief that harmony would follow such an act. Both old school judaism and Islam have also been accused of being legalistic in a negative sense of the word. A negative view of legalism is the following of a set of rules without realising the importance of why the rules are followed. The words above ask us to follow his commands as a direct result of our belief in Christ and our recognition that he has sacrificed so much for us, in a sense the command to follow him must come out of a love for Christ.
