Please turn with me to 1 John chapter 2. It’s page 1021 in the pew Bibles. First John chapter 2.
In 2016, Sinclair Ferguson wrote a book called, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism and Gospel Assurance. Well last week in 1 John chapter 1 verses 5 to 10, we looked at both legalism and antinomianism – self-righteousness and sin. Legalism is self-righteousness. It’s living as if there is a way to keep all of the rules, to be good enough. But antinomianism is living like there are no rules, like there is no law, as if sin doesn’t matter at all and we can do whatever we want to do. Legalism and antinomianism. Sin and self-righteousness. And Ferguson’s book shows that the antidote to the poison of legalism on the one hand and antinomianism on the other is one and the same. The antidote is one and the same. It’s the life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, what is needed is the whole Christ for the whole man.
In 1 John chapter 2, we now turn from legalism and antinomianism, self-righteousness and sin, to Gospel assurance. Listen to what John writes in verse 3. He says, “And by this we know that we have come to know Him.” Verse 5, “By this we may know that we are in Him.” He’s talking about assurance, an assurance that comes from believing in Christ and keeping His commandments. It’s an assurance that comes from seeing how the whole Christ is for the whole man or the whole woman. And so those will be our two points for tonight – the whole Christ, first, and then secondly, the whole man. Before we read God’s Word, let’s pray and ask His help on our study tonight. Let’s pray.
Father, we give You thanks for drawing us here again tonight to close the Lord’s Day exactly where we need to be – in worship. And we need to hear Your Word tonight. We pray that You would speak, for Your servants listen. We pray that You would work in all of our hearts an assurance of faith, a confidence in the salvation that You have wrought and worked for us in Christ, His perfect salvation. Help us to see Him, for Him to be the focus of our attention tonight. Would You work by Your Spirit to open up Your Word and to give us clear insight, to renew our hearts and to set us forth to live and to serve and to obey You, for Your glory. And we pray all of this in Jesus’ name, amen.
First John chapter 2, beginning in verse 1:
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever.
John is writing here as a pastor, and he is writing to encourage faithfulness and obedience to God. And he says in verse 1, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” His desire for them is that they might not continue in sin. That’s his pastoral heart for these people as he writes to them. But you know, really there’s not anything that John can do about that. There’s not anything that John can do or say as a pastor to keep these people from sinning. That’s not the pastor’s job.
I’ve told you the story before about Thomas Chalmers in Kilmany, Scotland, about how for years, year in and year out, he railed against his congregation in Kilmany about the sins of stealing and murder and adultery. And for years he saw no change among the people in that town. But what happened, what transformed the people was when Chalmers himself was actually converted and that Chalmers started to preach and to teach about the love of God and the cross of Jesus Christ. He himself was transformed and that’s what transformed the people and the congregation in Kilmany. He was powerless, you see. He was powerless when he was trying to dictate their behavior by what he preached from the pulpit.
Same thing with John. John can’t keep the people from sinning. For that matter, he can’t even keep himself from sinning. Think about what Paul writes in Romans chapter 7. He says, “I do not do the good that I want to do, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” What is he to think about himself? What is he to make of all of this? He says, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” What is the hope? What is the only hope for hopeless sinners? Well, it’s to see the whole Christ. It’s to see what Paul says in Romans chapter 7 verse 25. “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” It’s what John says in 1 John chapter 2 verse 1. That, “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Verse 2, “He, Jesus, is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” You see, when it comes to sin, the only place to turn, the only thing to do is to go to Jesus. John’s not saying that the way to deal with their sin is to not sin. And he’s not saying that obedience is the way to God. No, what he’s saying is that the only way to God is through someone else. The only way to God is through an advocate. It’s through a substitute. And that advocate and substitute is Jesus.
I think one of the best parts of our Sunday evening services is the children’s devotional. Of course we don’t have it tonight because of communion, but I think we all love to see the children come forward to hear and to answer the children’s catechism. And as a teacher of the children’s catechism, there are at least a couple of things we have to keep in mind. First, one of them is not to say, “Good evening, boys and girls,” because it just sounds kind of strange at the very beginning. The second is, the second thing is to be careful not to use a lot of big, theological words like, “justification” and “atonement” and “incarnation.” You will lose them in a second when you start using big words like that! So what do you do? What do you do? Well, you use word pictures. You tell stories. But even then it can be a little hard to follow. I remember one of ours coming home one Sunday evening and said to us, “What was Joe talking about up there tonight?” It didn’t quite all sink in. It didn’t quite all click together. It happens to the best of us! But you try. You try to make word pictures. You try to help them grasp these big ideas through word pictures.
Well tonight, as we look at 1 John chapter 2, we come to some big, technological, theological concepts in these verses. Things like atonement, advocate and propitiation. What do we do? Well you know what? We actually have a word picture for us here tonight. Or maybe it’s better for us to say a picture word or a visible word because we come together tonight to worship by the Word and with sacrament. We come to the Lord’s Table. And when we come to the Table a little later on in this service, we will see and smell and taste and touch what John is writing about in 1 John chapter 2 in these first two verses. There is a sense in which God Himself accommodates Himself to us as little children in the Lord’s Table to remind us what it is that Jesus does for us in the Gospel.
We read in verse 1 that “we have an advocate with the Father.” The word for “advocate,” it’s actually the same word that Jesus uses about the Holy Spirit in John’s gospel. He talks about the “paraklete” or “the comforter.” I don’t know if you picked up on it in the offertory this morning. When our choir sang those words about Jesus promising another comforter to come and to be with us is the same word that John is using right here because Jesus also is the one who comes along beside us and Jesus is our advocate. He intercedes on our behalf. And in the Lord’s Supper, we remember that Jesus has shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins. And what has He done? He has entered into heaven itself. And what the writer of Hebrews says, “He has entered into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” He’s our advocate. The bread and the cup tonight, they point to our unfailing and our faithful intercessor and advocate.
And John says that He is righteous. He is “Jesus Christ, the righteous.” And again, the Lord’s Table portrays for us the suffering of Christ. What does Peter say in 1 Peter chapter 3? That “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, the just for the unjust in order to bring us to God.” Advocate. Righteous.
What about propitiation? There’s some question in these verses about how to translate that Greek word. It’s the Greek word “hilasmos.” Is it propitiation or expiation or atoning sacrifice that John is talking about here? And if some of those words sound familiar to you, they should, because they are the same words that David was talking about this morning from Leviticus chapter 16. And however you translate this word, it’s the same thing that we were talking about this morning. It’s that Jesus is the one who satisfies the wrath of God and He takes our sin far away from us. What John is saying is that the way of forgiveness, the way of escaping the wrath of God is through sacrifice. That’s why we come to the Lord’s Table because that sacrifice has been made. It’s been made for us and we now enjoy communion, we enjoy fellowship with God because of what Jesus has done for us.
You know, this is a fellowship meal. We’re not coming one by one. We’re not coming alone tonight. We are coming together as God’s people to enjoy fellowship, communion with God and with one another. Jesus’ sacrifice makes it happen. And Jesus’ sacrifice makes it happen not just for us but it concerns the whole world. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It’s all because of Jesus. Every spiritual blessing, as David read in the call to worship, Every spiritual blessing is found in Jesus. Forgiveness, righteousness, fellowship, intercession. All of it comes from receiving Christ by faith, by trusting in Him and in Him alone. And in fact, even our obedience, even our assurance comes from being united to Christ by faith. That’s what it means to believe in the whole Christ, the whole Christ. Ferguson puts it this way. He says, “The blessings of Christ’s work cannot be appropriated apart from receiving Christ Himself with all of His benefits.” Or to say it another way, the salvation in Christ is Christ-centered, Trinity-honoring, eternity-rooted, redemption-providing, adoption-experiencing, holiness-producing, assurance-effecting, God-glorifying salvation. All of that is portrayed at the Lord’s Table tonight. As we come to receive the bread and the cup, we come to receive the whole Christ for us.
So the question from these verses – How do we know that we know? How do we know? It’s by getting Christ. It’s by getting the whole Christ. And by getting Christ, we get the whole Christ for the whole man or the whole woman. That’s our second point tonight – not just the whole Christ, but the whole man. And you see, in order to understand assurance, John wants us to consider the whole person. I remember a few years ago in our worship service that somebody had a health episode and had to leave. Actually, it was the pastor who was assisting that morning. And because of not feeling well, he had to leave worship and go to his office. He went to his office about the same time that an ophthalmologist was passing by. And the eye doctor stopped to check on him, and he held up two fingers. “How many fingers am I holding up?” “Two.” That was correct. Nothing was wrong with his vision. And the doctor said, “Well that’s about all that I can do for you!” Of course he was joking, but you see, complete medical care has to consider the whole person, doesn’t it?
And it’s the same with the care of souls. The care of souls is no different. What does that mean? What does that mean? It means tending, it means tending to the mind and the affections and the behavior. In fact, when some theologians, when they talk about the diseases of the spiritual life or the pathologies of the Christian life, they will talk about things like disorders of the intellect, disorders of the heart, and disorders of the will. All of those things go together. We know something of what that’s like, don’t we? And sometimes we can be all head and no heart. Sometimes we can be all emotion and experience without knowledge. Sometimes it’s either one of those things without the practice that matches the profession. Or there’s also the challenge of falling into moralism without the faith in the first place.
But the Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ affects the whole person. It affects the mind and the heart and the will together. And do you know how John says that that will show up in the Christian life? It’s by keeping God’s commandments. Look at what he says in verse 3. He’s talking to, “My little children.” He says, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.” He’s saying that there is something about keeping God’s commandments that shows how Christ has changed us completely. Just notice how John links the keeping of God’s commandments with what constitutes the whole person. He links keeping the commandments with the mind, the heart and the will. First, he starts with the mind or the intellect. He says in verse 4, “Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.’” You see, keeping God’s commandments is connected to knowing the truth. You have to know what God’s Word says before you can obey it. You have to read it and study it and hear God’s Word preached. You have to agree with it and assent to it as being right and true before you commit to carrying it out. It starts with the mind.
And then there’s the heart or the affections. Look at verse 5. He says, “but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.” You see, first John talks about truth, but then he speaks about the love of God. This series on 1, 2 and 3 John, we’re calling it, “Truth and Love” because those two things show up and they show up together over and over again in these three little books. Listen to what he says in chapter 3 verse 18 of 1 John. He says, “Let us not love in word and talk but in deed and in truth.” Love and truth. And 2 John chapter 3, he begins with saying, “Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, in truth and love.” Those things go together. Well keeping God’s Word comes from knowing God’s love. It’s having the love of God perfected in us is what this verse says. Now that word that is translated “perfected,” it’s the same root word that we find Jesus saying on the cross when He says, “It is finished.” You see, when God’s love is complete, when it’s finished, when His finished work of salvation is brought home to a person, then obedience will follow. And John will say later that, “We love because He first loved us.” But when we love, when we love Him, what will we do? We’re going to keep His commandments. We’re going to do what He says. And it will come from the heart. It will come from a heart that is filled up and overflowing with amazement and wonder at what He has done for us to save us and to bring us into fellowship with Himself. It’s rooted in love.
And so there’s the mind, there’s the heart that are changed in order to obey God, but the will is involved as well. Look at verse 6. “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” To walk. What’s that? To walk is not just to know something or to feel something but it’s to do something. It’s to go in a certain direction. It’s making a conscious decision to follow Jesus no matter what, to walk in His ways. It’s making a plan and sticking to it. And when the will is affected, it is as if we are not just following God’s Word because we are supposed to, we’re not just following God’s Word because we are afraid of the negative consequences. No, we are following God’s Word because we want to, we want to obey. And why do we want to? We want to because salvation in Christ, being united to Him, as John says, “abiding in Him,” it affects the whole person. The whole Christ for the whole man – mind, heart and will.
And that may be a lot to take in. We may not be used to thinking and talking about the mind and the heart and the will or the way in which the whole person relates to keeping God’s commandments, the way in which the whole person relates to the assurance of salvation. But just listen to this. Listen to the Westminster Shorter Catechism question number 35 on sanctification. “What is sanctification?” “Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness.” You see, sanctification, growing in holiness, it is a renewal of the whole man, the head, the heart and the actions, so that we can die to sin and live to righteousness.
There was an article on The Gospel Coalition website a few months ago that was about a writer who talked about how an experience, he was talking about an experience from his sophomore year in college. He said that he had stopped feeling the presence of God in his soul. And he went to his mentor to try to find out how he could regain it. How could he regain something of that burning feeling in his heart that he had lost? And he said that he did not get the answer that he wanted. He said, he asked, “What do you mean this feeling won’t last forever?” But he said what he realized was that actually he was spiritually sick. And what he learned along the way was that his own internal sense of God’s presence, of God’s nearness, didn’t always give him an accurate assessment of his spiritual life. But what he needed, what he needed was a whole person approach. What he needed was a whole Christ for the whole man.
And that’s what we need too. We all need that. We all need something that can engage our minds, our affections and our wills in order to produce obedience to God. What we need is the Gospel. What we need is Christ. And so don’t start with keeping the commandments. Don’t start with the good works. Start with Jesus. Start with the one who is our advocate and our propitiation. Receive Him, believe in Him, rest in Him. David Strain said it this morning – look longer at his perfect work than you do at your own sinful heart. But then, then let obedience follow. Then let the obedience that follows lead you to an assurance of his truth, His love, and His ways in you. And see, keeping His commandments shows His truth in you. Keeping His commandments shows His love in you. Keeping His commandments shows His way in you. Now will it be imperfect? Yes. It will always be imperfect in this life. It will always be imperfect until He comes again. But do you know what? Christ’s work is perfect. There is no imperfection in Christ’s work. And you are secure in what He has accomplished for you by His death and resurrection.
I mentioned Martyn Lloyd-Jones last week and the self-righteous, “Amen,” comment. I’ll close with another word from Lloyd-Jones as we come to the Lord’s Table tonight. Lloyd-Jones, in a series of sermons, he was addressing the lack of joy and power that he felt was the problem in so many Christians’ life. It was a condition he calls “spiritual depression.” And in this sermon on Romans chapter 6 verse 17 – listen to what Romans 6:17 says. It says, “Thanks be to God that you have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.” And in that verse, there is the mind and the heart and the will. And this is what Lloyd-Jones says. He says, “Truth comes to the mind and to the understanding enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Then, having seen the truth, the Christian loves it. It moves his heart. And if you see the truth clearly, you must feel it. Then that in turn leads us to this – that your greatest desire will be to practice it and to live it.” And then he says, “What a Gospel! What a glorious message! That it can satisfy a man’s mind completely, it can move his heart entirely, and it can lead him to a whole-hearted obedience in the realm of the will. That is the Gospel! Christ has died to make us complete.” Complete men and women.
And so see the whole Christ for the whole man from 1 John 2:1-6 tonight. And then, let’s see the whole Christ for the whole man from the Lord’s Table tonight as well. Let’s pray as we turn there now.
Father, we bow before Your Word and before our Savior, Jesus, that we would see Him and known Him and that You would work in all of us to transform us completely, inside and out, to serve You and to bring You glory and honor. We pray that as we come before the Table now, that we would do so to see Christ, and that You would do a work in all of our lives as we hear Your Word and as we taste and see, that You would grow in us an assurance and a confidence in Your perfect work in Him. And we pray all of this in Jesus’ name, amen.