1 JOHN 1 AND 2 (NOTES OF A READING)

1 JOHN 1 AND ^[p. 374] 2 (NOTES OF A READING)

1 John 1: 8 - 10; 1 John 2: 1, 2

Ques Forgiveness and cleansing in verse 8 are contingent on confession, is that right?

CAC Yes.

Rem In verse 8 we have “sin”.

Rem It is “every sin”, every kind, I suppose, an inclusive thought.

CAC Paul and John are in agreement. Paul speaks of the same thing. “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell” (Romans 7: 18). John recognises that there is sin present with us, and if we denied it we should deceive ourselves, and he tells us he is writing to us that we might not sin. There is no excuse for sin in any believer. To the woman found in John 8 the Lord says, “Go, and sin no more”, which He says to each one that He deals with in marvellous grace. She was a sinful woman, but he said, “Go, and sin no more”. That was different from His answer to the man in chapter 5, “sin no more, that something worse do not happen to thee”, showing that He had no confidence in him.

Ques Does this thought of confessing include what James says about confessing to one another as well as to God?

CAC I should have thought here it was more particularly in mind that we confess our sins to God — or to the Father. It is very useful to confess our sins to one another. If we did, there would be much more confidence and love amongst the brethren.

There is the provision made. We are written to in order that we may not sin, but there is the possibility, and provision is made in the blessed service of Christ with the Father.

Rem This is the only time the Lord is spoken of in this particular way in Scripture.

^[p. 375] Ques I wondered if the first two verses in chapter 2 were the exposition of the verses we have just read, the facts first and then the secret of how that is worked out. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins”. Is it because He is the propitiation with the Father?

CAC Yes. It is remarkable it does not say He made propitiation. We should have expected it to be put like that — but He is the propitiation.

Rem He is set to draw out the affections of the saints. It is all the grace and power in Him as He is before the Father.

CAC The propitiation was actually accomplished on the cross. The value of it subsists abidingly in His Person. It is very good to bear that in mind.

Rem The same would be true of justification; it is His Person more than work in Acts 13: 39, “in Him every one that believes is justified”.

CAC And justified by His blood. The efficacious ground is His blood. We could not be justified in Another unless everything had been cleared away righteously in His blood; so that we are justified in the One who has cleared us. Nothing could be more satisfying to the conscience and to the blessed God Himself. All the value of His work is stored up in His Person; it is never absent from His Person.

Rem We think of it as in the past, but it is in Him continuously.

CAC Yes, it gives a key to “This do in remembrance of me”, not ‘of My work’ or of what I have done, but for a remembrance of Me. And this propitiation, if we look at it, is of wondrous extent, is not only for the sins of believers, but for the whole world. Think of something under the eye of God which is far greater than all the sins in the whole world in their aggregate greatness. We can understand how the world is in reconciliation, can we not?

Rem So God can go on with the world.

CAC God addresses men in grace, altogether apart ^[p. 376] from the question of their sins. So if a poor sinner met God and told Him he was overwhelmed with the burden of his sins, He would say, I have been glorified in respect of all those sins. I have now to speak about the propitiation in My Son.

The publican who smote upon his breast saying, God be merciful (propitious) to me, went away justified; he was in the blessedness of justification — at least that is how God puts it. It makes you thankful to have to do with a God like that.

Propitiation — it is with the Father, with God as known under that precious Name of grace. He had a righteous basis upon which to take up this ground.

“Jesus Christ the righteous”, not the merciful. He is entitled to undertake this service, having dealt with all righteously before He said a word about it.

Ques People are not troubled about their sins before conversion, but since their conversion; do you find it so?

CAC Yes, often, “If any one sin”; it is a believer, so it precisely refers to sins committed after conversion.

Rem Such a word as, “Christ died for our sins”, is comprehensive.

CAC It was nearly two thousand years before my sins were committed that Christ died for them; they were all known to Him and to God. If one had been left out there would have been no access into the presence of God, just as one sin shut Adam and Eve out. The consideration of this is establishing and sets up the soul on solid ground.

Rem He does not say, If any child of God sin, but “If any one sin”.

CAC They are the apostle’s children addressed in paternal affection, not exactly God’s children here. If John came in amongst us this evening, that is how he would address us — as children. Later on he speaks of children of God.

Ques When he says, “These thing I write to you”, to what does he refer?

^[p. 377] CAC I thought to the whole section from chapter 1: 5. The first part is that our joy might be full. Then he takes up the great moral questions, for God is light, and there is the question of sin, but all on that line is in order that we may not sin. It is very beautiful to think of the service the Lord is carrying on with the Father whenever a believer sins. I suppose there is not a moment without some believer sinning, so this holy service is going on all the time. So is the service of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter; it is the same word as Patron. It is divine Persons carrying on Their service with a view to the one that has sinned being brought to his true bearings — with a view to a change being brought about in the believer, not in the Father!

Rem The propitiation is there — there is no need to delay.

CAC And this service is that we may think and feel rightly about it. God would have us confess immediately, and not leave it till the end of the day — it is putting it off too long. Some believers have a settling up at the close of the day. I am finding no fault with that, but it can be done immediately.

When Paul said to the high priest, “God will smite thee, whited wall”, the Advocate was ready in a second. At the rebuke, “Dost thou rail against the high priest of God?”, he replies immediately without considering injustice, “Thou shalt not speak evilly of the ruler of thy people” (Acts 23: 3 - 5). Paul is saying this as the result of the advocacy of Christ in heaven. He was immediately brought into line.

Rem We should be ready for the immediate presence of the Father day or night.

CAC This particular service is connected with when we go wrong. Before we repent or confess, the advocacy is going on. When we confess, then He is ready to forgive — He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins. So we do not get off our knees and go and do the same thing again, which often happens to us as Christians. Practically and ^[p. 378] naturally in many things we all offend. The advocacy comes in so that we should not justify or excuse it. Paul might have tried to excuse or justify himself — but no, he goes down. We go down under the sense of the seriousness of it. Then Christ comes before us, His propitiation and the value of His work on the cross; and the consequence is we get freed of the sin and it does not hang round our necks like a millstone for several years perhaps. It is the devil who brings that about with people.

Rem It is like the kiss of a child because forgiven, and it is in favour again. It draws out the affection of the heart to the Person.

CAC Paul spoke a hasty word. If I say a hasty word, do I think it necessitates the work of a glorified Man in heaven? He has moved in service the very minute I said it, not only died for it years ago. You abhor the sin, but you love that blessed Man in heaven who would be your Advocate when you have said a hasty word. If we took it to heart more, nothing would affect us more than that. It would make us holy people if we looked at sin in the light of the activities of divine Persons. It would make me very tender in my heart. If we cherished these thoughts we should be a much more holy people. If we are hard it is necessary for discipline to come in. The advocacy of Christ brings that about to bring it home to us, because we are not sensitive enough, for, if we were, we should not need such severe dealings. I might be sinning all the time without doing or saying anything. I may not have been praying for the saints. The sins of omission are terrible; not to pray for the saints, not to do the good you might have done, is sin.

Ques How is He the propitiation for the whole world?

CAC It says, “And he is the propitiation for our sins; but not for ours alone, but also for the whole world”. It is one of the most wonderful statements in Scripture.

Ques “Christ died for our sins”. How can ^[p. 379] we disentangle these thoughts?

CAC We disentangle them by learning the meaning of two words — propitiation and substitution. Substitution is not a scriptural word, but it embodies a scriptural thought. In substitution the Lord bears the actual sins of certain sinners — of God’s elect. It never says He bears everybody’s sins. In a general way you can say, “Christ died for our sins”, to a congregation of people. Each one can appropriate it if he has faith.

Propitiation is far wider — “For the whole world”. It is like the two goats on the day of atonement. The blood of one was carried in and put on the mercy-seat; that is propitiation — all the value of the blood in the presence of God and He glorified by it. Then the goat on whose head all the sins were confessed was sent into a land uninhabited. The sins of the people were transferred to that goat and never seen again. But propitiation is greater than substitution. If for a lot of captive slaves a vast sum is put down for their ransom, all can put in a claim. That is propitiation. Substitution is not for all, but for God’s elect, those who are called in grace. God is more glorified by the death of Christ than if sin had never come in; that is a universal aspect of the death of Christ. So on the ground of propitiation we can preach the gospel. Certain persons come into it. Christ actually bore your sins, died for them, and His present work is not propitiation. That was done once for all, but the value of it remains; it is all in His own Person. A man, woman and child anywhere can say, Christ died for me, not one is excluded from the benefit of Christ’s death. The propitiation is so extensive in its value that the whole world comes into it. God is not raising the question of sins with anyone now, He is raising the question of Christ; that is the test.