Last week as we were in the first three verses of chapter 3, I briefly mentioned the fact that not all people are God’s children; as the text of course talked about how Christians are God’s children. This week as we move in to verse 4-10 we see this contrast made clear between the children of God and the children of the Devil. John describes the evidences by which someone is a child of the Devil or a child of God.
In an age of universalism and inclusion-ism it is important that we remember that the Bible makes distinctions between people, and judgments about people. God does not accept the worship of all religions. It is important that we do not fear these teachings, nor that we be ashamed of them. These are God’s words and we do not have permission to edit them in any way. One of the reasons that this is such a hard doctrine today is that there are many today who have a wrong sense of entitlement. In our sinful flesh we believe that we are entitled to things that we are not entitled to. The major consensus in the world today is that we are all entitled to heaven. This stems from the fact that those who believe that, do not understand the holiness of God, sin, or grace. Heaven will be filled with people who know they don’t deserve it, and hell will be occupied by people who thought they deserved heaven.
So we have this contrast in verses 4 through 10 of the children of the devil with the children of God. The contrast is very simple: those who practice sin are of the devil, and those who practice righteousness are children of God. Yet as we observe these evidences in this passage, we must understand that the intent is not to puff up self-righteousness and religious works in the children of God; but rather it is to point to the work of God in the life of the believer that is the cause of righteous living. We are not primarily looking at this passage to say, “if you do ‘this’ then you are a good person, or if you do ‘this’ then you are a bad person.” But rather we are looking at this passage to see what God has done in the lives of his children to make them who they are. Righteous living in a Christian is a work of grace in their life.
The Devil
First I want us to observe the role of the devil in this passage. Verse 8 tells us that the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. Then it tells us that the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the Devil. So we have a rebellious devil who has been sinning from the beginning and Christ has appeared to destroy his works. But what are the works of the Devil that Christ has appeared to destroy? From the passage, we can certainly deduce that they are sinful. We also see from verse 7, that the works of the Devil are to deceive, as John exhorts his little children by saying, “Let no one deceive you.” From this and from other places in Scripture we can deduce that the works of the Devil are sinful and they are deceiving. The work of the Devil is deception. This is in fact the sin that he has been committing from the beginning. If you recall the Garden of Eden, it was there that he deceived Eve to eat of the tree that they were forbidden from eating from. The Devil is a liar and a deceiver. Ever since he deceived Eve in the garden, the Devil has been trying to deceive ever since. He even tried to deceive the Son of Man himself in the wilderness temptation by twisting God’s Word. Though he knows he is a defeated foe he tries even to this day to deceive God’s people.
In fact, we can know from the context of first John that the Devil is there and trying to deceive. This is the purpose of heresy, false teaching, and cults. It is to deceive. To cause people to believe a lie about God. That is the Devil’s mission: to cause people to believe lies about God. That is the very thing he did in the garden. He asked Eve, “Has God really said?” He told Eve that God just doesn’t want them to eat the fruit because then their eyes will be opened and they will be made like God. He has been lying and deceiving from the beginning. Clearly the Devil was at work in the Gnostic heresy that was going around in John’s day, that deceived many; and he is at work still today in our day using those same old tactics of lying and deception about God.
It’s interesting that though this is the work of the devil: to deceive people to believe lies about God – in other words, the work of the devil is to spread false theologies – John emphasizes the life of the child of the devil. He emphasizes the works of unrighteousness. He does this because what we believe about God affects the way that we live our lives. The theology that we believe intellectually, has a direct effect upon our lives practically. Often we separate theology with application. While there is a distinction between the two things, it’s really a false dichotomy. You cannot really separate the two. A certain theology will inevitably lead to a certain practical outcome in the life. Weather for good or for ill. Theology is practical and applications are theological.
In John’s day, you had these Gnostics who were believing these false theologies, and it resulted in a sinful lifestyle. This is why you have John emphasizing these two aspects throughout his letter. He emphasizes the fact that we can know for certain the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that through Christ we can know God; and he emphasizes the type of righteous living that necessarily flows from those who truly know God. They just go together.
The Devil’s Children
It just flows then that if the Devil has been sinning from the beginning, and has been deceiving and lying about God, then those who are the children of the Devil, who do not know God, will practice sin, and will practice unrighteousness, and will live lives that reflect who their father is, the Devil. As verse 8 tells us, “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.” And then verse 10, “by this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”
It’s important to note here that the Bible is not saying that whoever sins one time cannot be a Christian because he is a child of the Devil. But rather what the Scripture is saying is that “everyone who makes a practice of sinning, and that no one who abides in him keeps on sinning, and that no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him, and whoever practices righteousness is righteous, and whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, and no one who is born of God makes a practice of sinning, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God, and whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God.” It is important that we remember this distinction and this emphasis in the passage so that we do not fall into the unbiblical teachings of sinless perfectionism in this life. It is not referring to one-time sins or falls into sin, but rather a willing continuation and practice of sinning without repentance. As we saw back in chapter 1, it tells us that if we say we have no sin then we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. So the question here is, what is the practice of your life? What are the habits of your life? What is the lifestyle that you live? For the children of the Devil, as described here, it is a lifestyle that practices sin.
This practice of sin, as verse four tells us, is a life of lawlessness; as it says, “sin is lawlessness.” Sin is a rebellion against the holy law and rule of God in your life. It is a living as if there were no law. It is a living with no care to the law. It is like an outlaw who thinks he’s exempt from the law, running from it, and thinking he is better than it. It is a Romans 1 suppression the truth. As John Macarthur says, “the term lawlessness conveys more than transgressing God’s law. It conveys the ultimate sense of rebellion, living as if there was no law or ignoring what laws exist.” Those who practice such sin and lawlessness are just as their father the Devil is.
Furthermore, those who keep on sinning in this way, have neither seen God or known him, as verse 6 tells us. There are many people who claim to know God and yet their life is rebellion toward him. That simply does not match up. There are those who have claimed to have seen God, or say God appeared to them, or say they had visions of God; and yet their life is a life of rebellion against his revealed word and rule. That simply does not match up. And John says those who keep on sinning have neither seen him or known him.
This was exactly the issue with the Gnostics, they claimed to know God and have special revelation, and yet they lived lives of immorality that proved that there is no way they actually knew God. “How can this be?” you might ask. I answer, “since God is a righteous God, those who know him will be like him, therefore they will be righteous, as he is righteous.” This is just what chapter 2 verse 29 was telling us, “if you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.” A righteous Heavenly Father begets righteousness in his children.
Jesus Christ
Let us now turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom there is no sin, as verse five tells us. Oh what a contrast this is with the Devil who has been sinning from the beginning. Now we have one here, in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has no sin in him at all. Just as verse 3 tells us he is pure. When he appears, as God’s children, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. We talked about last week how that means that we will be like him in purity, because we will see him in all his purity, and righteousness, holiness, and glory. You will see him in the radiance of his beauty and majesty and excellence. What a pure, joyful, and splendid sight it will be to behold the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his purity, and be made like him. In him there is no sin. So on the one hand we have a dirty, rotten, lawless, sinful, deceiver who spreads lies about God in the devil. On the other hand we have the pure spotless Son of God who was and is without sin in every way possible, and as verse 5 tells us, “you know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.”
Let us think upon that for a moment. The purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing was to take away sins. As we noted, ever since Genesis chapter 3 when sin entered the world we have had this problem of sin. It is a great problem. But Genesis 3 is not without that great promise and verse 15, that there would come, one day, the promised seed who would crush the head of the serpent. There would come one who would crush the Devil and his works. When Jesus Christ came to the world and appeared, he did so for the purpose of taking away sin. In Matthew chapter 1 when the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, he told Joseph, “she will have a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” In the gospel of John he records John the baptist, when he sees Jesus coming toward him, he says, “behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
This is the purpose for which Christ appeared, to take away sin. Sin is the primary issue for every person in the world. If we fail to address this issue then it doesn’t matter what other issues we might address. As Christians we have the one and only gospel message of Christ and him crucified that addresses this primary issue of sin.
Gospel application
If you are a Christian, if you are a child of God, and you are struggling with sin, struggling to put it to death in your life. The answer is not found within yourself, and by your own strength. It is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not we who appeared in order to take away our own sins. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who appeared to take away sins. The whole reason he did so, is because no one else could. Christ appeared to take away sin, because you can’t take away your sins. You need Christ to. Go to the one whose very purpose was the taking away of sins.
Gospel Call
If you are not a Christian today, then I tell you that you must be born again! You are a sinner and a child of the Devil, but there is opportunity that God has given you to turn to him, to the one who takes away sin, and have your sins removed and be made into a child of God, no longer a child of the Devil.
Jesus Christ came the first time as a sacrifice for sins, by which he takes them away. Jesus will come a second time, to fully and finally take away sins. The next he comes it will not be to provide another way of salvation, but he will come to throw out the wicked into the outer darkness and torment of hell for all eternity, never for sin to come back again. One way or another your sin will be taken care. It was either taken care of on the cross of Jesus Christ, as he bled and died for it. Or you will take care of it by being punished by God for all eternity. As Martin Luther once said, “Either sin is with you, lying on your shoulders, or it is lying on Christ, the Lamb of God. Now if it is lying on your back, you are lost; but if it is resting on Christ, you are free, and you will be saved.”
Do not neglect this opportunity that you now have to turn to Jesus Christ! He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! He can take away yours.
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