The Good News About Sin Series

The Good News About Sin

Text: 1 Jn. 1:5-2:2

Introduction

1. Illustration: A Sunday School teacher had just concluded her lesson and wanted to make sure she had made her point. She said, “Can anyone tell me what you must do before you can obtain forgiveness of sin?” There was a short interval of silence and then, from the back of the room, a small boy spoke up, “Sin,” he said.

2. Over the centuries, much has been preached, taught, and written about the problem with sin. But did you know that there is good news about sin?

3. The good news about sin is that:

a. We have an example to follow.

b. We have an escape when we fall.

c. We have an advocate before the Father.

4. Read 1 Jn. 1:5-2:2

Proposition: The good news about sin is that we can be forgiven!

Transition: First...

I. We Have an Example to Follow (1:5-7)

A. But If We Walk in the Light

1. John begins by saying, "This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light..."

a. This concept of God being light comes from the Old Testament.

b. When God revealed himself in the Old Testament, frequently it was in form of fire or light.

c. In Exodus 3, God reveals himself to Moses in the form of fire in the burning bush.

d. In Exodus 13, God’s presence is seen as a fire guiding them through the desert.

e. Fire brings light, and so similarly God is described as light.

f. Ps. 104:2 Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, Who stretch out the oheavens like a curtain.

2. The verse continues saying "and in Him is no darkness at all."

a. He contrasts the light with the darkness.

b. The light expresses everything that is good, and darkness expresses everything that is wrong.

c. If the light expresses who God is, then darkness represents Satan and all that is evil.

d. In God there is not even a hint of darkness, but He is completely light.

3. Then John says, "If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth."

a. Does that mean that if we stumble and fall into sin we are in darkness?

b. We must understand what John means by the term "walk in."

c. What John is talking about here is a way of life.

d. One commentator translates the verb "living habitually in darkness" and says it "implies a determination to choose sin (darkness) rather than God (light) as one’s constant sphere of existence." (Burge, NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: The Letters of John, 68).

e. He’s not talking about occasionally falling into sin, he is talking about practicing sin.

f. If it were merely falling into sin, we would all be in darkness because we all sin (v. 8)

4. He says that we cannot practice, or live in sin and say that we have fellowship with God.

a. John was confronting people who said that they were walking with God, and yet they lived like the devil.

b. It’s life the people who tell you they are Christians, and yet they swear like sailors.

c. It’s like they people who say they are Christians with a whiskey bottle in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

5. However, look what he says in verse 7, "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."

a. As in verse 6, this is a habitual, consistent response that should be characteristic of those who know God. (Burge, 69).

b. But how do we walk in the light? By following Him who is in the light - Jesus!

c. If we live like Jesus, walk like Jesus, we will walk in the light.

d. If we trust what Jesus did on the cross for us, and live our lives to please Him, His blood will cleanse us from every sin.

B. A Way of Life

1. Illustration: There’s an old story of a man who was walking at night, and saw another man searching for something near a lamp post. Approaching, he asked the man what he was looking for, and the man, without looking up, replied, “My watch”. The first man asked, “Well, precisely where were you standing when you dropped it?” Continuing his search, the man pointed a finger in the distance and said, “Over there somewhere.” Puzzled, the first man said, “Well then sir, why are you looking for it here?” Finally looking up in frustration and meeting the first man’s gaze, the searcher replied testily, “Because sir, the light is better here!”