“Be careful not to sound too moralistic.” My highly-critical roommate interrupted my floor-pacing rehearsal of the seminar session scheduled for the next morning. Surprised, I deftly parried his objection in order to get back to my blossoming late-night orations.
For good reason, my Proverbs 27:5 roommate had developed an allergy to behavior-modification tactics employed by the church to create life change among the ranks of the raging hormones club known as the youth-group.
To prove my point that by now surely young people are drowning up to their gills in moralistic lectures, what is the first thing you think of when you think of “youth conference”? What would you expect them to talk about? Probably not the gospel, probably why they should abstain from this or that etc etc.
What you wouldn’t expect to hear is the transforming power of the gospel, or “freedom in Christ”. Sad. But this is exactly what our team was in Cuba to do – deliver a conference on “Freedom in Christ” to university students in the island nation of Cuba.
Do not misunderstand me – we should counsel young people to abstain from those things that can hurt them…but this teaching must be sourced in the power of the Gospel – not teaching the Gospel simply as a way to get into the club of people that are striving to reform themselves, but instead teaching the Gospel as the fuel that runs everything that is good and righteous, especially that good and righteous thing called the family of God.
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Concurrently, at the same point in the trip where my own lesson was being tweaked, there was a healthy debate fermenting among the team members on the proper interpretation of First John.
What does 1st John mean when it says that that which is born of God does not sin?
Option A: anyone who is truly saved will also have an observably moral lifestyle
Option B: the believer has been been born again and there is a new life that they possess that literally cannot sin, although in the here and now the believer will continue to sin in their mortal body
I should point out at this point that almost everyone on the trip was aligning themselves with Option A, whereas I was choosing Option B. This was quite troubling to me, since I do not like to be wrong on points regarding my eternal salvation.
The second reason why this was troubling to me is because I am not particularly thrilled with my own practical sinlessness…about every 5 minutes, pride, self glorification, etc etc pops its head up and I act selfishly instead of on behalf of my brother. (how are you doing on this, by the way?) Can you really say with a straight face that you don’t find sin to be a habitual occupant of your daily life?
I know Muslims that probably appear to be more moral people than myself.
Maybe my prideful self centered self isn’t saved. Maybe my brothers and sisters at church who are involved in addictions to immoral behavior aren’t saved either. Maybe my friends who once were walking with the Lord and are now living it up with the world are not saved.
Here are the flagship verses for Option A and Option B:
Option A: And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments (1st John 2:3)
Option B: Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life (1st John 5:12)
Now – what is the reconciliation between those two verses?
“And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.” (1st John 3:23)
The question of the book of 1st John isn’t whether certain people in the church that claim Jesus are saved or not – the question is between the teaching of the apostles (Jesus is the only way to the Father) and the false teachers (you don’t need Jesus to get to the Father).
We keep the commandments because we have placed all of our trust in Jesus Christ the Righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins. He kept all the commandments perfectly – when we are in Him, we also keep the commands perfectly 100% by imputation.
The false teachers claimed that “we have not sinned”, and therefore, they think they are the keepers of the commandments of God while they are denying Jesus himself and treating Christians with sneering disregard (see 1st John 3:17 and 3rd John 10).
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We had a great conference. It was so refreshing to explain to the students how they could live lives that are pleasing to God by walking in the power of the Gospel. It was so refreshing to be able to proclaim the truth that, in Jesus, we are fully reconciled to the Father through Jesus’ blood, apart from our own cleanliness (which isn’t very clean apart from Jesus).
At the conclusion of the conference, we had a “celebration” service. Now, I can tell you that every human being should experience something like this at some point. It was here that I finally saw the fundamental interpretation of 1st John come to life!
Take a room full of people reconciled to God apart from their performance, who have been given full access to God spiritually – they have been made to be partakers of the divine nature – let them sing and clap for two hours….and watch the joy that fills the room. The joy just kept swelling and swelling and swelling. A heart can only experience so much of this!
Finally, just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, the final music group walked in from the side door carrying an assortment of instruments including a trumpet…I lean over to my Proverbs 27:5 roommate and tell him, “This is going to be good”.
On the downbeat of their song, a mighty surge of energy rushed through the room and we all started laughing and clapping…suddenly one the men singing up front started jumping up and down…soon, I turned at saw my Proverbs 27:5 roommate jumping up and and down…then it broke – even the most staid gentleman among us started jumping up and down and laughing for joy in spite of himself.
When the service was over, people were hugging and crying and lingering around the church grounds, not wanting to leave the presence of the church – the Bride that has been washed in the blood of Jesus. It’s a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, washed in the blood of the Lamb!
Now, the idolatrous antagonist of the book of John would have walked in there and said “you can’t do this, you all are worthless sinners…that young man in the 2nd row struggles with lust…they don’t observe the festivals…they don’t pray 5 times a day…that guy over there struggles to hold a job…that girl over there has a past…that guy in the back can’t even get out of bed on time to come to church most Sundays…these people surely can’t be reconciled with God!”
Tut tut I would say…they are reconciled to God – actually, they are perfect. They have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. They have been born again, and it is not yet seen what they will be. Yes they are rough around the edges, but do you see how they love each other? They are in the Family of God and no one can ever remove them – not even the power of the evil one – he can’t touch their new lives which have been born again in complete holiness.
We weren’t gathered together in that room to sing about our moral excellence – we were gathered together in that room to praise our Savior – our elder brother – our redeemer – the Lion of Judah – the Root of David…the one who has conquered – the one in whom we conquer. Because we are born of Him, we love everyone else who has been born of Him.
Brothers and sisters – walk in the forgiveness of Jesus tonight – let his blood cover you, and enter boldly into the throne room where you can find grace to help in time of need. Live in the love and the presence of God. Before long, you won’t recognize yourself because God’s love will flow from your inner being and you will start practically keeping the righteousness of God without even knowing it. The only way to actually keep the commandments is to admit you are unable to keep them and then stand in the righteousness of Jesus. You have to stand before you can walk my friend. And you cannot stand before God apart from Jesus. We stand totally upon grace, and once we stand, we walk totally in the power of grace. We do not hide in the bushes to flee God’s punishment, but instead we walk with God in the cool of the day and bask in his undeserved and transformative presence.
I will never forget that night – I will never forget how we all stood there in perfect unity – not because we are all perfect in ourselves, but because we are all perfect in Jesus, and the evil one cannot touch us. In one fell swoop we fulfilled the requirements of God – we were confessing Jesus Christ and we were loving each other with a warmth that the world can’t know.
Now if you are still tempted to say that this sort of freedom talk is dangerous to teach to young people, let me tell you that that same group of kids went out from the church that night went to the town square of Guantanamo where all manner of ungodly music was blasting and thumping and they….
What did they do?
They shared the good news of Jesus with people in the town square…that’s what they did.
For more information, see Dr. Baylis’ 1st John commentary under “1st John” in the “Commentary” section of this website.