At the end of yesterday’s study, we explained how God showed His faithfulness in forgiving us our sins. Today we begin by seeing how God shows that He is also just in granting His forgiveness.
The answer to the question of the justice of God in forgiving sins is found in Rom. 3:20-28, where Paul explains how it is that God is both “just, and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus” (v. 26). It is possible, he says, through Christ, who, being God and therefore having no sin of His own, was able and did die for us. God punished our sin in Christ. He became the “propitiation” for our sins, meaning that by Him God’s just wrath against our sin was satisfied. It is interesting in this context that the same word “propitiation,” used by Paul in Romans, is used by John just three verses farther on as he enters more fully into a discussion of Christ’s work.
The third of the false claims is the most serious of all. It is the claim, not merely that the one making it is not sinning now, but that he has never sinned. This is indicated by a change of tense, from the present to the aorist “have not sinned,” (v. 10). This is so blatant an affirmation in view of the evidences of sin which all men have in themselves that John drops the idea of deception and returns to the thought of lying once again. But now even this is strengthened. For John says not that the man himself lies, although this is also true, but that he makes God out to be a liar; for God has declared that all are sinners and in need of His grace (1 Kings 8:46; Ps. 14:2-3; Isa. 53:6; Rom. 3:23). Who is right? The man who denies the reality of sin in general and in himself in particular, or God, who declares that all have sinned? There is only one answer. “Let God be true, but every man a liar” (Rom. 3:4).
The application of this section of John’s letter must be to each man or woman individually. John has contrasted the nature of God (“God is light”) with the nature of man; and he has begun to show the characteristics of those who walk in the light as opposed to those who walk in darkness. It is not enough that a man should claim to be in the light. He must actually walk in it. He must be a child of the light.
What will be true of the individual if God is actually the light of his life? Obviously, the light of God will be doing for him what light does. For one thing, the light will be exposing the darkness so that the dark places are increasingly cleansed of sin and become bright and fruitful places for God’s blessing. This does not mean that the individual will become increasingly conscious of how good he or she is becoming. On the contrary, a growth in holiness will mean a growth in a true sensitivity to sin in one’s life and an intense desire to eliminate from the life all that displeases God. Instead of boasting in his progress, the person will be increasingly ready to acknowledge sin and seek to have it eliminated.
It will be a genuine acknowledgment. It will not be as it was in the case of a woman who once asked Charles Wesley to pray for her because, as she said, “I am a great sinner.” She added, “I am a Christian, but I sometimes fail so dreadfully. Please pray for me.”
Wesley looked at her sternly and replied, “Yes, Madam, I will pray for you; for truly you are a great sinner.”
She answered, “What do you mean? I have never done anything very wrong.”
If God’s light is really shining on us, we will rather say, as did Isaiah, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts (Isa. 6:5); or with Peter, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8); or with Paul, ” sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Tim. 1:15).
Second, if God is our light and if we walk in the light, we will be growing spiritually. The Bible will become more precious, for God is revealed in it. We will love godliness. And we will be finding fellowship with God’s people more and more delightful and valuable.
Finally, we will also be finding it increasingly desirable to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, we will yearn to serve Him. For we will know Him more and more as the One who brought us out of the bondage of our darkness into His marvelous light. Charles Wesley wrote of this desire:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night:
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light:
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. To follow Christ is the natural desire of the one whose life has been illuminated by Him.