Not for our sins only

Jock Stein April 10, 2018 0 0

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1 John 1:5 – 2:2

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; 7 but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

2 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; 2 and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

What a sweep of wisdom in this passage. The expectation that God’s people should not sin (2:1), the recognition that God’s people do sin (1:8), the placing of the apostle among the sinners, the placing of us all before the cross through which our sin is forgiven, wiped out, banished forever.

Were this for us alone, it would be great news. What is more amazing is the scope of the gospel – “not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world”. Great hope, with great humility – a strap line that could hold any person or political project in place for as long as it takes.

When we walk in the light we have fellowship with one another. Walk the talk, fuel the light, back up the smile, oil inspiration with perspiration, make integrity a beautiful mark of Christian obedience.

A prayer:  

Lord God, we cannot offer you prayer or practice which is unflawed. But you have given us a great Saviour who loves to wash our prayers in the river of his life and offer them clean and dry and sparkling before you, the one whose eyes light up the universe, the one whose voice shatters the cedars of the forest and the cities of those who forage for wealth and forget the poor.

Forgive our failures and the follies of our civilisation. Forgive our love of dark enterprise and stark entertainment. Forgive our lack of insight into what sullies nature and nation, for the sake of Jesus Christ, whose blood is sufficient for every man, woman and child of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Amen.