The Trinity Archives - Page 4 of 11

Apostles Creed 10: Was Crucified, Died, and Was Buried

Christ Church on August 20, 2017

What we now know as the Apostles Creed descended from an earlier form of the creed, known as the Old Roman Symbol. The beginning of the creed dates from as early as the second century. We do not have any direct evidence that it was penned by any of the apostles, but it is an admirable summary of the apostolic teaching.

Introduction

The word crux helps us understand when we need to express the importance of getting to the crux of a matter—and crux comes from the Latin word for cross. Nowhere is this more important that in discussing the death of Jesus, the salvation of the world.

The Text

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin, Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hades. On the third day He rose again from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Summary of the Text

“For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

The death of Jesus was an historical event, as we emphasized last week. But if the death of Jesus were simply one more historical event, situated among numerous others, then this determination of Paul’s to emphasize that event alone would be curious and nonsensical. Why talk about this one thing, when there are so many other things that have happened?

The answer has to do with the radical nature of Christ’s death. The word radical comes from radix, which means root. The root principle is the cross, the intersection at the crossroads is the cross, the foundation and cornerstone is the cross. It is therefore possible to talk about Christ and Him crucified in relationship to absolutely anything else in the world and to do so without changing the subject. It is possible to move from the death of Jesus to any subject whatever, and to do so without lurching.

Died, and Was Buried

Let me begin with the aftermath of the cross—the death of Jesus. Jesus had a true human body, capable of dying. When He was nailed to the cross, He was in the process of dying. He died. He was not an apparition that seemed to die. He was not a true human being who only appeared to die, fainting from the torture. He was a man who could die, and who under those circumstances did die. The phrase that He was buried underscores this fact. His death was a true death. He was dead and buried. He was buried for three days. This exclamation point is part of the gospel as the apostle Paul recounts it. “how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose . . . ” (1 Cor. 15:3–4).

Was Crucified

There are four aspects of this momentous death which we must consider. We will define and consider each of them in turn. They are redemption, propitiation, co-crucifixion, and reconciliation. These are all described as happening in the cross. We will discuss another aspect of our salvation—justification—when we come to the resurrection (Rom. 4:25).

Redemption is the result of having been purchased or ransomed. Propitiation is the turning aside of wrath. Because of union with Christ, co-crucifixion is how we die when Christ dies. Reconciliation is the establishment of peace where before there was hostility. And the Bible describes all four of these as occurring in the cross of Jesus Christ.

Redemption

The Bible talks about the blood of Jesus as a purchase price, or as a ransom payment. With His blood Jesus purchased men for God (Rev. 5:9). Jesus referred to His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). We have redemption through His blood (Eph. 1:7). Jesus died as a ransom to set us free from the sins we had committed (Heb. 9:15). Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (Gal. 3:13).

Why? He redeemed us so that we could have the promise of the Spirit (Gal. 3:14), so that we might have forgiveness (Eph. 1:7), so that we could have liberation from sexual lust (1 Cor. 6:18-20), and so that we could be freed from actual slavery (1 Cor. 7:13).

Propitiation

The Bible talks about the death of Jesus as absorbing the blow that the wrath of God delivered. When people try to escape the Bible’s teaching on the substitutionary death of Christ, it is this element that often bothers them the most. But Scripture is clear. God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10). “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17, ESV). “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). In order to be just and the one who justifies, God sent Christ to be a propitiation (Rom. 3:25-26).

The word propitiation refers to that which satisfies the wrath of God.

Co-crucifixion

The Bible talks about the death of Jesus as somehow accomplishing a death, a most necessary death, for us. “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead” (2 Cor. 5:14). Paul confesses that he was crucified together with Christ (Gal. 2:20). We are not to boast in anything, except in the cross which crucified the world to us and us to the world (Gal. 6:14). Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh, and all its longings (Gal. 5:24). If we have been baptized, we were baptized into Christ’s death (Rom. 6:3), so that we might be freed from sin (Rom. 6:6-7).

Reconciliation

The Bible talks about how the death of Christ effected a reconciliation between us and God. “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight” (Col. 1:21–22). God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing our trespasses to us (2 Cor. 5:18ff).

All Together

Because the wrath of God fell on us in Christ (propitiation) as the curse of the law, this means we were ransomed from the curse of the law (redeemed) so that we would be separated from everything that came before (co-crucifixion), with the end result that we now have peace with God (reconciliation).

Apostles Creed 9: He Suffered Under Pontius Pilate

Ben Zornes on August 13, 2017

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What we now know as the Apostles Creed descended from an earlier form of the creed, known as the Old Roman Symbol. The beginning of the creed dates from as early as the second century. We do not have any direct evidence that it was penned by any of the apostles, but it is an admirable summary of the apostolic teaching.

Introduction:
This portion of the Creed points to something that is absolutely unique about the Christian faith. Our God is the God of all things, which means that He is the God of history. History matters, which means that historicity matters, which means the name of a Roman prefect, governing the small Roman province of Judea, is part of our foundational confession. Our God is the God of all things, which means that He is the God of history.

The Text:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin, Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hades. On the third day He rose again from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Summary of the Text:
“I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen” (1 Tim. 6:13–16).

Paul is here giving an earnest charge to Timothy, and he does so in the sight of the God who give life to everything, and in the presence of the same Christ who testified and made a good confession before Pontius Pilate (v. 13). The charge is that Timothy keep Paul’s commandment blamelessly until the Lord comes (v. 14). The Lord will manifest that coming in His good time, He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, King of kings and Lord of lords (v. 15). God alone is the immortal one, He dwells in light that cannot be approached, He whom no one has seen or can see. Honor and dominion are His, and amen to all of it (v. 16).

The juxtaposition is this. Just as Christ made a good confession before a measly Roman provincial governor, so also, a fortiori, Timothy should imitate Him so as to be able to make a good confession in the presence of the only Prince, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the one who represents the only wise God, He who dwells in unapproachable light, the one who possesses eternal honor and dominion. Christ could make the good confession over against Pilate, which He did with His royal silence and His bloody death. But there is no way for us to make a good confession over against God—we must do this in Christ, or not at all. The only refuge from God is to be found in God.

No Brute Facts:
We need to return to something that was said at the beginning, something that falls out of the necessity of a historical foundation for our faith. “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:17). It is not enough for this to be a consistent or coherent part of the Christian story, one of the tales we tell in our faith community. It is absolutely necessary that there be consistency between our confession of it as the truth, and the way things actually transpired out in the world.

There have always been certain theologians, too clever by half, who want to spiritualize things like the resurrection, as though we could be saved by an atomized platitude. But this confession about Pontius Pilate brings us crashing into history the way it actually was. Pontius Pilate as a Roman prefect cannot readily be turned into “a spiritual truth.” Try it. No, it is more like what we might call a “pedestrian truth,” and without it, our faith is in tatters.

So all facts are interpreted facts—and God is the ultimate interpreter. All history is interpreted history—with God the ultimate reader of history. This means that Jesus is Lord of all things. Is there then no common ground between the believer and the unbeliever? Well, yes, there is, but only so long as we know that Jesus is the Lord of the common ground.

Suffered Under:
We are saved through the passion of Christ on the cross. The word passion refers to His suffering. We are condemned, together with our sins, in the suffering of Jesus Christ. “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26). “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). Christ suffered for us, and that suffering was completed, and was entirely fulfilled at a certain place in the world, on a certain day, at a certain time of day.

“For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:26). In other words, Christ’s sufferings were historical, not perpetual. A perpetual death is a non-efficacious death. “Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate” (Heb. 13:12). Because Christ suffered for you, and because His suffering ended on a particular day, therefore His blood sanctifies you and sets you apart. That is why a gallon and a half of blood could do what an endless river of blood could not do. Christ’s death was infinite in its value, but punctiliar and finite in its application. It is over.

Our old life died when Jesus died (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:3). Our new life begins when Jesus emerges from the tomb. He was raised for our justification (Rom. 4:25). He died so that we might die. He lives so that we might live. He lives forever so that we might live forever.

Apostles Creed 8: Born of the Virgin, Mary

Ben Zornes on August 6, 2017

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What we now know as the Apostles Creed descended from an earlier form of the creed, known as the Old Roman Symbol. The beginning of the creed dates from as early as the second century. We do not have any direct evidence that it was penned by any of the apostles, but it is an admirable summary of the apostolic teaching.

Introduction:
We have been working through the Apostles’ Creed phrase by phrase, but this week I thought it important to take two phrases at once. We are talking about that most remarkable of women, Mary. If some have erred through excessive devotion to her, we are not going to fix anything by withholding from her the honor that is due her. There are five persons named in the Creed—the Father, Son, and Spirit, and Mary, and then Pilate.

Summary of the Text:
“Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:34–35).

Now the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee, the city of Nazareth (Luke 1:26). He there appeared to a virgin whose name was Mariam (we know her as Mary), and greeted her as one highly favored among women (vv. 27-28). She was troubled by this and tried to figure out what it could mean (v. 29). He told her not to fear because she had found favor with God (v. 30). He then told her that she would conceive a son, and the promises Gabriel then made concerning Him constituted a complete fulfillment of all the hopes of Israel (vv. 31-33). Mary asked how this was possible, in that she was a virgin (v. 34). The angel replied that she would conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit, such that her child would be called the Son of God (v. 35). He also told her about her cousin Elizabeth conceiving in her old age, and of the greatness of God’s power (v. 36). Mary submissively accepted her assignment, and the angel departed (v. 38). Later, when the shepherds departed after their visit to the newborn Messiah, we are told that Mary treasured all these things in her heart (Luke 2:19). She is clearly Luke’s source for all this early material.

Clearing Some Debris:
We have come to an area where there is some overlap between classical Protestant theology and Roman Catholic theology, and so it is that some terms have gotten muddled up. We have to engage in some of what Wikipedia likes to call disambiguation. The Roman doctrine of the Immaculate Conception does not refer to the miraculous conception of Jesus in the womb, but rather to the miraculous conception of Mary in the womb of her mother, a woman named Anna (according to tradition). They were attempting to solve the problem that we addressed earlier when we said that sinfulness is covenantally imputed through the line of the father.

And you will notice that in our version of the Creed, we say that Jesus was “born of the virgin, Mary,” instead of saying “born of the Virgin Mary.” The difference is this: the former means you are referring to the doctrine of the virgin birth. The latter use of Virgin as a title indicates a belief in the doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary. This is a teaching that holds that Mary conceived Jesus as virgin, which all orthodox Christians hold, but that her virginity was also miraculously preserved through the birth of Jesus, and that she also remained a virgin throughout the rest of her life. While some of the early Reformers accepted this, the general movement of Protestant theology has strongly rejected it.

“Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS” (Matt. 1:24–25).

“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him” (Mark 6:3).

So Jesus had four named brothers (adelphoi) and at least two sisters (adelphai), which means that, counting Jesus, Mary had seven children. The virgin birth was an exaltation of her Son, and an honor to her, but not an exaltation of virginity.

Seed of the Woman:
The first Messianic promise in Scripture (Gen. 3:15) is one that comes in a threat to the serpent. God promises that the woman, deceived by the serpent, would have her vengeance. There would be two parallel lines down through history with perpetual enmity between them. There would be the seed of the serpent, that brood of vipers, and there would be the seed of the woman. When the great moment of deliverance finally came, the seed of the woman (Christ) would crush the head of the seed of the serpent (Satan). “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen” (Rom. 16:20).

The Woman Gives Food:
When our first mother was deceived (2 Cor. 11:3), she gave Adam the fruit and he ate. We fell in our first father (Rom. 5:12), but it was because of food that our first mother gave him. Condemnation came through that present of food. And where Eve was deceived, Mary was not deceived. Eve disobeyed, and Mary obeyed. “Be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38). Jesus is the bread of life, and Mary was the woman used by God to hand that food to us. And so it was that the woman was fully avenged.

Remember, the destructive or redemptive work was done by the respective Adams. But don’t leave the women out of it—particularly don’t make the mistake of including Eve and leaving out Mary. There is a divine symmetry in all of this.

Apostles Creed 7: Our Lord

Ben Zornes on July 30, 2017

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What we now know as the Apostles Creed descended from an earlier form of the creed, known as the Old Roman Symbol. The beginning of the creed dates from as early as the second century. We do not have any direct evidence that it was penned by any of the apostles, but it is an admirable summary of the apostolic teaching.

Introduction:
The foundation Christian confession is that Jesus is Lord. We find this at the very beginning, and there is no hope without it. As we have been making our way through the Creed, we have addressed who Jesus is. But what do we mean by Lord?

Summary of the Text:
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:9–10). “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13).

This is the confession that is unto salvation. Two organs are involved—the mouth and the heart. If you confess that Jesus is Lord with your mouth, and if you believe in your heart that God raised Him up from the dead, then the end result is that you will be saved. According to this message, salvation is the result of believing something about Jesus and confessing something about Jesus. But what?

Jesus is Jehovah:
First some background. YHWH (or JHVH) is the covenant name of God, the name by which God was known to Israel. These are four consonants in Hebrew known as the Tetragrammaton. The vowels can be supplied in different ways. One common way is to speak of Yahweh. Another is to take the consonants JVVH and combine them with the vowels of Adonai (another name for God), which then gives us Jehovah.

And now it gets interesting. The prophet Joel says this: “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered” (Joel 2:32). Joel was obviously written in Hebrew, and the word rendered here as Lord is YHWH. This verse from Joel is quoted by Paul, and is part of our text (v. 13).

Now the Greek word for Lord (kurios) has the same range of meaning that it does in English. It can refer to God, Lord of heaven and earth, and it can also be used of Lord Highfalutin, stone cold member of the aristocracy somewhere. So when we are called to confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, which kind of lord are we talking about?
The answer is straightforward. In Romans 10:13, the word kurios is used to translate the Hebrew YHWH. Whoever calls on the name of YHWH/kurios will be saved. But just a breath earlier, Paul had insisted that we had to confess with our mouth that Jesus was Lord in order to be saved. Piece all this together, and it is most plain that the fundamental Christian confession is that Jesus is Jehovah. Jesus is to be identified with the covenant God of Israel.

Authority in Relationship:
Christ does not wield authority over His people from a remote distance. He has true authority, but He holds this authority in a particular way. His is the authority of bleeding sacrifice. “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:13–14). The fact that Christ washed His disciples’ feet did not detract from His authority; it was the foundation of His authority.

But in case we are tempted to hide our emotional cowardice under the camouflage of something we like to call “servant leadership,” it must be emphasized that servant authority is true authority. “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

As we come to imitate the Lord in all that we do, it must be said that feminism comes in many forms, including the kind that pretends to have nothing to do with feminism. We need to take care not to confound sacrificial leading with cowardly following.

Savior and Lord:
Christ is not divided. That means we cannot shop for different aspects of our salvation a la carte. In some fundamentalist circles it is common to hear people saying that receiving Christ as Savior and receiving Him as Lord are two different things—as though someone could be saved by Jesus without paying the slightest regard to what He taught. But half a Christ is no Christ, and no one was ever saved by no Christ.

Our Lord:
It is also worth mentioning that we have confessed our faith in “Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord.” We are confessing the fact that Jesus has been enthroned over absolutely everything that is, which means that His Lordship of Heaven and earth is the basis for my confession that He is my Lord. He is a king who has been crowned and enthroned, and the message has now come to me that it is time for me to bend the knee.

He is a king who has been crowned and enthroned, and the message has now come to me that it is time for me to bend the knee.

It does not run in the other direction. Jesus is not campaigning for president. It is not the case that if we only get enough people to “make Him Lord of their hearts,” then we could really get some momentum going, and then elect Him to something. Jesus is Lord already. This fact is declared to us. It is preached. We believe it, not to make it true but because it is true.

The Brightest Light & the Blackest Night

Ben Zornes on July 30, 2017

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Introduction
In Adam the human race declared war with God. We became a rebel kingdom; sunk in the darkness of the blackest night of hatred toward God. We want to rule ourselves, to determine good and evil by our own reckoning, and worship at the altar of self-glory. Our position before God is that of traitors and rebels. Left to our own devices we will not seek God, nor reconciliation with Him. Yet, we were made to enjoy the fellowship of His glorious presence. We hate this darkness, but we hate the light of God’s holiness more. The good news is that the Son has risen; and His light brings life.

The Text
1 John 1:5-10
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Summary of the Text
John’s introduction (vs.1-4) is no innocuous greeting. It is laden with theological and philosophical claims regarding Jesus Christ, concluding with the crescendo that this is all written that our joy may be full. The message which John heard from Jesus and declares unto us is that God is light, and there is not a shred of darkness in him (v5). This is followed by five “if/then” statements; these are foundational to John’s later discussion of antichrists (1 Jn. 2:18, 4:1-3) and assurance (1 Jn. 2:3).

First, claiming to have fellowship with God, yet continuing in the darkness of error, is evidence that you are a liar like your father Satan (v6, cf. Jn. 8:44). Second, walking in the light results in fellowship with God and His people, and being cleansed from sin through the blood of Jesus (v7). Third, claiming to be without sin is self-deception and is a tell-tale sign of the absence of truth (v8). Fourth, confessing our sins brings the assurance that Christ is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse from unrighteousness (v9). Finally, claims to sinlessness blaspheme God’s holiness, and prove that His word (by which we are born again, cf. 1 Pt. 1:23) is not in the one who claims to be without sin (v10).

God is Light
This is Jesus’ message, not John’s. John has simply been sent to proclaim. While later on John teaches that “God is love (1 Jn. 4:8),” he doesn’t lead with that. Rather, Jesus’ message is: “God is light!” Light here encompasses all of God’s perfections: His white hot purity of being. All of His divine attributes in perfect concord, no disharmony, no external source. As the hymn states: “Self-fed, self-kindled like the light, changeless, eternal, infinite.” His holiness, wisdom, understanding, and power. All without mixture, defect, or deficiency.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ declared: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (Jn. 8:12).” Following Jesus, then, is man’s only path out of the darkness of sin and into the glorious light of God’s favor in which is found abundant, eternal life. Jesus’ Gospel is quite simple: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him (Jn. 3:36).” This is why we confess our belief that Jesus is “God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made.”

Light for the Greek mind would signify knowledge, wisdom, understanding; for the Jew, it would be understood in the context of God’s creating power and thus His holiness as the Almighty God. The Jews’ longing for the promised Messiah who would restore holiness to the people of God, and the Greek longing for true wisdom are found in the light of Jesus Christ: God in the flesh, the eternal Word of Life, and the lone Mediator between God and Man, our only way to fellowship with God (Jn 14:6). The pathway to life was not through the dark promises of the gnostic’s hidden knowledge, nor in the shadowy figures of the Old Testament. The life-giving light of God’s holiness and wisdom shine in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

However, “What communion hath light with darkness (2 Cor. 6:14)?” How can God’s holiness and our sinfulness be reconciled? By a Mediator of the covenant: the man Jesus Christ. While many attempt to exalt the love of God to a place of supremacy within God’s attributes, and while it is a glorious reality that God is love, we must remember God is light and God is love. Light before love. Holiness which endures no sin subsisting with affectionate charity which grants mercy. John lays the foundation of God’s holiness, in order to reveals His lovingkindness.

If Then
These if/thens are promise language. You experience the light of God’s holiness, wisdom, and power as either wrath and justice or love and mercy. In order to be saved from God’s wrath we must be convinced of our positional guilt in Adam, and receive the positional righteousness of Christ. False Christology always leads to man’s sin not being dealt with or forgiven. These false gospels explain away sin. Covenant breakers insist on finding in themselves, or in some antichrist, a savior. They always run to one extreme or the other: hedonism or asceticism; intellectualism or sentimentalism; traditionalism or spontaneity; legalism or licentiousness. So they remain under the wrath of God.

New Covenant Saints walk in the light–which is the Lord Jesus Christ–for in His light is the only hope for propitiation of our sins (1 Jn. 2:2) and eternal life (1 Jn. 2:25). Tozer once said: “We must hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ as Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passed by. We must take refuge from God in God.” Matthew Henry put it wonderfully: “[Jesus Christ’s] blood applied to us discharges us from the guilt of all sin, both original and actual, inherent and committed: and so far we stand righteous in his sight; and not only so, but his blood procures for us those sacred influences by which sin is to be subdued more and more, till it is quite abolished.”

Do The Truth
False saviors can only offer false righteousness. Jesus Christ offers cleansing from our unrighteousness. Antichrists command us to do; Christ commands us to rest in His doing. Claiming to have fellowship with God, while walking in the darkness of a false gospel, is the vanity of “doing not the truth (v.6).” They remain blind corpses.

By contrast, if you are to “do the truth,” you must believe in Jesus and all that He claimed to be: the one mediator between God and man. By faith you are united with Him in His righteousness. The light of Christ pierces through the darkness of unbelief, and by grace opens the eyes of your faith to behold in Him your only salvation from sin and means of fellowship with Almighty God (cf. Ps. 36:9 & Is. 45:22). Christ is the only channel whereby eternal life is extended to you, along with the fullness of enjoying the Father’s love. So as you walk in the light of Jesus Christ, you are reckoned righteous and may say with John, “what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God (1 Jn. 3:1).”