Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous (1 John 3:7).
Remember from chapter two that ‘little children’ are those who are born again and therefore are spiritual babies but they know one thing for sure: their sins are forgiven! That is astounding! Our sins are forgiven. Not just the sins of the day but of yesterday and tomorrow. Jesus paid the ultimate price in taking ALL sin on Himself and paying for it with His blood. However, one must be born again and become a spiritual child of God in order to receive this ultimate gift. From this position of being totally forgiven, little children take tentative steps into righteousness. Righteousness means being in right standing with God. When He looks at us He sees no sin! We can look back and see all our dirt, but He looks and sees none. We cautiously proceed under the all approving eye of God and we find that righteousness is exactly the place we want to be. We also find that righteousness is a place we must learn to occupy and so we tiptoe into His throne room and there He is, arms outstretched to receive His child, you, me, with the most powerful accepting love that surpasses our hopes and dreams.
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Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him (1 John 3:6).
Oh that’s strong! Gosh! Aren’t we all sinners? Well, we certainly start out that way. But look at the criteria this verse gives: seen Him, known Him. Those who don’t sin are those who have seen Jesus, or they have known Jesus. That means they’ve been born again. No one can see Him or know Him without being born again. Therefore, when a true believer sins it means he or she has taken their eyes off the Lord and dismissed the knowledge they have about Him. Abiding in Him means being always aware of Him. Focused on the Lord. Sin is lawlessness; that is certain. But what does that word sin mean? It means to miss the mark. What mark? The bullseye. The focal point that keeps us from sin: God, Himself. Jesus. When we focus on the target, we won’t miss it. To know Him intimately is to stay in constant touch with Him. And when we see Him and know Him sin can’t touch us. We hit the bullseye. We walk in perfect obedience, perfect love because that’s what makes up the target, being just like Him. I want to have constant revelation knowledge of Jesus. I want to spread the fragrance of what it means to know Him. I know you want that too because it is the only way we can fulfill the hope of this world: to find a way out of sin. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin (1 John 3:5).
I would say that the life of Jesus was a pretty exciting one. He traveled all over His country, followed by a bevy of men who hung on His every word, healing sick people, now don’t tell me that wouldn’t be fun, and chasing devils with such authority that they ran away as if their pants were on fire! And not once did He sin! Imagine that! In our world when people have success they are automatically rewarded with – you guessed it – SIN! But He was manifested to take away our sins. Manifested. He became flesh. We could see Him. He’s manifested Himself to me on several occasions. He still has His flesh. But He doesn’t have His blood. Because there was no sin in His blood it was the only currency that could pay for, or take away, our sins. So He brought it to earth, took it to hell, carried it to heaven and placed it on the altar as our purchase price. We accept His blood, we sprinkle it, we drink it, all in faith for purification, and then in us there is no sin. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4).
There’s a certain definition of sin that reduces it to practically nothing. “Oh, it’s just a little white lie. Sometimes these things must be said in order to protect someone else’s feelings.” We white-out the sin making it almost seem like we were helping instead of hurting. The raw truth is: when we sin, no matter how insignificant that sin may appear to be, we are hurting someone else. Sin is lawlessness and lawlessness puts everyone at risk. I weep for the world today because of the lawlessness. Greed has caused politicians to remove all regulations so that bankers and other ‘money-men’ can make obscene amounts of money. All of society suffers the consequences. Lust has free reign all the way from casual sex to human trafficking, selling little children for perverted practices. All of society suffers the consequences. I needn’t remind you of more, you know the cost of sin. What is the cost of purity? Even more relevant, what is its benefit? Him! Intimacy with Him! Nothing else can ever match that! And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John 3:3).
My hope is in spending eternity with Jesus Christ first as my Savior, second as my Lord, and third in the closest relationship available; this hope the Bible speaks of is being His bride. Husband and wife. But this marriage isn’t at all carnal because there is neither male nor female in heaven. Spiritual union obliterates “separatism” and the two become one. Whether man or woman, our hope is in this eternal union and whether male or female we will become the bride of Christ. Today I am also God’s son, even though I occupy a female body, so you, mister, can also be the Lord’s bride, even though you occupy a male body. The issue here has nothing to do with orientation, or ego, or personality, or physical position. The issue is purity. I know a young couple who lived together for several years, but the minute they were born again they both knew they could no longer share a bedroom until they married. They wanted to purify themselves and so they put a board down the middle of the bed until their nuptials could be said. There’s just something about knowing Jesus that makes all of us want to be a better person. |
Marty
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