DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
How should the truth that Jesus came to “take away sins” and “destroy the works of the devil” change the way we fight sin?
How would you explain the difference between falling into sin and practicing sin?
What does it mean to “know” Jesus in both an intellectual and relational sense? Do you tend to lean more toward one than the other?
We want to be a people who are obedient to the Holy Spirit’s leading. How can we discern the voice of the Holy Spirit in our day to day lives?
How can we tell if someone (or ourselves) is being deceived about the seriousness of sin? What are some signs of deception vs. signs of genuine faith?
How can we encourage each other to fight sin and walk in righteousness without falling into legalism or shame?
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
Are there any sins in your life that you have been practicing instead of fighting?
Do you view sin as “lawlessness”— as rebellion against God’s will— or as something more casual or minor?
In what ways do you find yourself justifying sin rather than repenting of it?
SERMON MANUSCRIPT:
“4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 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.”
In verse 4, John continues the argument he’s been making by highlighting the nature of sin. He says, “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.”
The word “practice” is used six times in this pericope and five times in our upcoming verses. It means to do or make something. It’s a term that highlights a central activity of someone’s life. It’s a habitual activity that maintains one's life.
I’ve wrestled with articulating this term in light of our sport-ridden society. Here’s what I’ve come up with. No one accidentally shows up at a practice. To practice baseball is to intentionally show up at the baseball field with your glove and a bat. So, to practice sin is to give your life to sin. It’s the opposite of fighting against sin.
And John is saying that sin is lawlessness. If the law was God’s revealed will for his creation (his standard for how life should be for his people), then lawlessness is living without concern for God’s law. It’s living as if your ideas are better than God’s ideas. It’s you living as though your will is greater than God’s will. As John Piper so candidly puts it, “Lawlessness says, ‘God may demand it, but I don’t prefer it.’ Lawlessness says, ‘God may promise it, but I don’t want it.’ Lawlessness replaces God’s law with my contrary desires. I become a law to myself. Lawlessness is rebellion against the right of God to make laws and govern his creatures.” Sin is me replacing God’s law with my own desires. At the heart of all sin is a middle finger held up to God.
But John says that Jesus appeared “to take away sins.” In other words, he came to remove sins. This is one of two instances in this passage where John tells us the purpose of Jesus’ coming. Jesus came to “take away sins” (v.5)and to “destroy the works of the devil” (v.8).
We’re going to find that the works of the devil is sin. So, if Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, he came to destroy sin, and if he came to destroy sin, he came to destroy the works of the devil. They’re two sides of the same coin.
It’s easy to misconstrue the purpose of Jesus's coming into the world sometimes. But John tells us that Jesus came into the world to deal with sin. He didn’t come to free us from physical captors or provide us with financial wealth. He didn’t come to give us bodily health. He came to deal with our greatest problem, which is sin. Jesus came into the world to take away our sins by dying for our sins.
He came into the world to live the life we could not live. We see this at the end of verse 5– “in him, there is no sin.” Jesus was the spotless sacrifice for sin. He was tempted in every way we were, yet he remained without sin.
But Jesus didn’t simply defeat sin by resisting sin. He defeated sin by crushing it on the cross. The full wrath of God against sin was poured out on Jesus on the cross. The instrument God chose to use to take away sin was the cross.
1 Corinthians 15:56 says, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” So, Jesus walked in perfect obedience to the law and took upon himself the condemnation the law demanded for sin, and in doing so, he destroyed sin’s power. Christ came to destroy Satan’s greatest weapon, sin, and in so doing, he destroyed Satan.
We stand in an already-not-yet place right now because sin is still present as we look around in this life and survey our hearts. So what do we do with this tension?
We do what John tells us to do: we look backward, forward, and inward. As we look backward to the cross, we are reminded that Jesus died to take away the penalty of sin— in Christ, we are justified because sin’s penalty has been taken away. As we look inward, we are reminded that Jesus died to take away the power of sin— as we abide in Christ, we are being made more and more like Jesus because sin has no power over us. As we look forward, we are reminded that he died to remove the presence of sin one day— so we confidently look ahead to the day when we will be glorified in Christ. As we look confidently ahead to our future glorification, we look back in awe at our justification at the cross, which empowers us to put sin to death today. All who have been justified by grace through faith are being sanctified by grace through faith and will one day be glorified by grace through faith.
John is saying that those whose faith resides in Jesus will begin to walk like Jesus by the power of Jesus. He’s linking the work of the cross to the lives of God’s people. Jesus came to take away sins, and in him is no sin. Therefore, to embrace Jesus is to forsake sin. To embrace the atoning work of the cross is to embrace the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Faith and repentance go hand in hand— “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”
As I was tucking my daughter into bed last week, she asked me, “What does it mean to come to know Jesus?” I told her we would talk about that this Sunday, and she said, “Well, I’m going to pay attention then!”
The word "know" is interesting, and John often uses it in this letter. It’s a term that highlights obtaining knowledge (I know that 2+2=4). So, I know that Jesus died for my sins. I know that Jesus rose from the dead. I know that my sins can be forgiven through Jesus. However, it can also be used within a relational context. As a husband knows his wife in a way that no one else in this world knows her, we can intimately know God. So, to know Jesus is to intellectually know about Jesus and relationally know Jesus. Knowing Jesus means understanding who he is and what he came to do for you on the cross. But it is also to embrace him as your Lord and Savior. It’s knowledge that seeps from the mind into the heart; it’s knowledge that impacts your affections and desires. Knowing Jesus means I understand what He did on the cross for me and give my life to Him.
So, John says that if you truly understand the magnitude of God’s love extended to you in Christ (if you have seen and know him), you will not continue sinning. John’s not saying you're not a Christian if you ever sin again. He’s saying that if you are a Christian, your desires change, which leads to life transformation. The conviction of the Holy Spirit leads you away from the sin you once did. The Holy Spirit will never lead us toward sin. He will never lead you to do something the Bible expressly prohibits. If the eyes of your heart have been opened, if you’ve come to know Jesus, then you’ve begun a life of war against sin. To know Jesus is to forsake sin. Indifference toward sin reflects the life of one who doesn’t know Jesus. We may “fall into sin, but we no longer walk in sin… Sin will no longer be my habit… I no longer love sin; I hate sin. I no longer delight in sin; I despise sin (Akin).”
John then says, “Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.”
John here gently corrects the church by saying that our actions reveal our identity, our practice reveals our allegiance. One of the most detrimental lies we could ever believe is that God doesn’t care about how we live in this life. You have been greatly deceived if you think you’re free to live however you want, that grace is an endorsement of sin.
If Jesus came to destroy sin, those who confess him as Lord cannot continue to walk in sin. You cannot belong to Jesus and the one Jesus came to destroy. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. But “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”
You can go all the way back to the garden and find the devil tempting and deceiving. Since the beginning, he has hated God and loved lawlessness. Since the beginning, he has wanted to destroy God. But, in going back to the garden, we see God make a promise to Satan to destroy Satan. He promised to send a seed of Eve to crush him one day in the future— “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
In taking away sins, Jesus has “destroyed the works of the devil.” The very instrument Satan thought was killing God was the very instrument that destroyed himself. In striking at Jesus’ heel, his head was crushed. Jesus destroyed the one who has the power of death (Heb. 2:14). Through faith in Jesus, we have been delivered from the bondage of the evil one. Satan has already been destroyed. Battles still take place, sure, but the war has already been won. Arrows are still shot, sure, but the war has already been won.
So, John says, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.”
When you give your heart and life to Jesus, something miraculous occurs within you. You experience a new birth, and you are adopted into God’s family. You are a new creation; your heart of stone has been replaced with a heart of flesh, and you are no longer a child of Satan, but you are a child of God.
In John 3, we see Jesus privately conversing with a religious leader named Nicodemus. In this conversation, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This leads Nicodemus to be confused. He doesn’t understand what Jesus is saying. Therefore, he asked, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus responds, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God… As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
In the same way a child does not will himself to live, you cannot will yourself to live. Your identity in Christ is a byproduct of grace, a work of the Holy Spirit. God called you to himself. He breathed life into your dry bones. His seed abides in you, meaning the Holy Spirit now resides in your heart, and you have been brought to life in Him. You are a new creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works. And John is saying that the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life is actively putting sin to death. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning.
John then says, “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.”
About a year ago, whenever we were studying the book of Ephesians, I had someone express frustration over something I said while preaching through Ephesians 2. The exact words they were frustrated with were, “Before we trusted in Jesus, we were following Satan.”
To this person, those words were triggering. They were harsh and insensitive.
Now, I will be the first to admit that I’m not perfect with my words, and I want you to know that I strive to be careful with them. I never want to misrepresent the Bible with my words or my tone, so I give careful thought to the words I use each week. So, please hear me: if my words or even my tone have misrepresented the Bible, please forgive me! But, with my whole heart, I do not believe this to be one of those instances.
Ephesians 2:1-3 says, “[1] And you were dead in the trespasses and sins [2] in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—[3] among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
So, I think this individual's frustrations didn’t reside with my words; they reside with God’s words. The Bible says that Satan is the prince of the power of the air; he is the leader of this world. He drives the current of this world. And the master plan of Satan is to lure and entice us into carrying out the desires of our flesh. Put simply, Satan wants us to do what we want to do instead of what God wants us to do. He wants us to carry out our desires, not God's desires. And before we came to life in Christ, we were following him. We were, by nature, children of wrath.
John adds another layer to Paul’s teaching about man's depravity. Before we came to know Christ, when we were dead in our sins, children of wrath. So, Satan wasn’t simply our leader; he was our father. Before Christ intervened, we were children of the devil. There are a lot of last names in this world, but we all belong to one of two families: the family of God or the family of the Devil. We are either children of God or children of Satan, and our life reveals which family we belong to. And these two families begin to take on the character of their father. Children of God will begin to walk like God. Children of Satan will walk like Satan.
In summary, Christ came to take away sins and destroy the works of the devil. And all whose faith resides in Jesus have experienced a miraculous transformation, a new birth in Christ. And all who have been born of God have repented of their sins. Repentance and faith go hand in hand. So, a tangible way to know we have been born of God is our willingness to forsake sin.
“Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” You cannot have righteousness without love, and love without righteousness. All who belong to Jesus will love like Jesus. All who love like Jesus will be patient with one another. All who love like Jesus will be kind to one another. All who love like Jesus will not envy their brother. All who love like Jesus will not boast. All who love like Jesus will not be arrogant. All who love like Jesus will not be rude. All who love like Jesus will not insist on their own way. All who love like Jesus will not be irritable with one another. All who love like Jesus will not rejoice at wrongdoing. All who love like Jesus will rejoice with truth.