Week 10
SONSHIP
The Test of Obedience (1 John 3:1-24) In chapter 3, John states that a true child of God will prove that he is born again by being obedient to God's word. He gives 5 motives for obedience. Webster's defines motive as an inner drive, impulse, etc. that causes one to act in a certain way; incentive; goal. The Holy Spirit is the inner drive in every child of God that causes him to be obedient to God's word.
1. God's wonderful love (v. 1)
John is calling upon all the saints to wonder at the particular kind of love God has bestowed upon them. Its almost as if it is something foreign. In fact, it is foreign. The love of God is foreign to the human race because it is not found naturally in humanity. But yet, He has given it to us; He has placed His love upon the saints and they have become permanent objects of His love. By this, we become children of God. Since the people of this worked have nothing in common with the children of God, they have no fellowship with them. Therefore, they have no understanding of them. God's foreign kind of love makes us a foreign kind of person. We are strangers to them, just as if we had come from another planet. We become no longer citizens of this world, but only temporary ambassadors. God's love is the greatest motive in the world.
2. Christ's Promised Return (v. 2-3)
John is able to address his readers as "beloved" because of the great love which God has both for him and for the saints. That love filters through John. So then he goes on to explain to them that the promise of heaven is not something we need to have any doubts about. We don't have to wait until we come face to face with God to know we will be forever with Him. We can know now. 1 John 5:13 is the key verse for these last three chapters. Although no one has ever seen or experienced what is to come, and no one really can, we know that we will be changed to be like Him physically. John speaks of a point in the future when Christ's return will bring about the bodily changes that until now were unknown to us. We have been changed spiritually by the Holy Spirit, when we were made alive in Christ. Throughout the epistles, the words changed and fashioned like refer to an outward, not inward, change. A change in our physical appearance. 1 Corinthians 15:35, 42-44 says our bodies will be raised in:
A) Incorruption
B) Glory
C) Power
D) A spiritual bodyThe Christian's hope is of some day being like the Lord Jesus in respect to His glorified body. So that now we have a practical obligation to a moral purity. Christ maintained purity with effort and fearfulness in the midst of defilements and allurements. He knows what we are up against. And it is our hope of being like Him that stirs up our wills to maintain purity in our lives. This can only be done by dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and in so doing the saint can put sin out of his life and keep it out.
3. Christ's Death on the Cross (v. 4-8)
John shows that sin is incompatible with Christ's work of redemption on the cross. Also he shows the incompatibility of being a child of God and yet continuing in sin. In the Greek construction of the verses, the first part of verse 4 could read "everyone who habitually doeth sin, also habitually doeth lawlessness." The Greek construction makes sin and lawlessness identical. Sin is defined here as the transgression of God's will. Christ was manifested in the flesh to take away our sins. Only He could do that. He Himself had no sin at all. And when it is said that He takes our sins, it means just that. No one ever voluntarily gave Him his sin. He took all the sins of all the people of all time at His death on the cross. He atoned for every sin, past, present, and future, on that day. Redemption was secured through Him for all people. Salvation was made possible by that redemption. Character is shown by one's habitual actions, not the extraordinary actions. A Christian, as a habit of life, is abiding in fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Sin may at times enter his life, but sin is the exception, not the rule. The unsaved person, as a habit of life, sins continually. John is not teaching that saints do not sin, but is speaking of a character, a habit, a lifestyle. Again, John admonishes the believers not to be led astray into the belief that character and practice can be separated. When one acts like the devil, he shows that he is not a true child of God. The devil sinned at the start of his diabolical career, and continues to do so. He has never stopped sinning. The purpose of the Son of God being manifested was so He could destroy the works of the devil. Our sins are the devil's works. What is sin in us is his natural occupation. Christ's act in removing our sins from us loosens and unbinds us from sin thereby destroying the works of the devil. By the blood of the cross He has paid for sin, made a way of escape from the arch enemy of men's souls, defeated the purposes of the devil and will finally bring about his complete downfall. This is the purpose that Christ had and has. There is conflict with the devil today but final victory over him is certain.
This lesson will continue next week. We have learned 3 of the tests of sonship. Next week we will learn two more.
1--Can we find the love of God in our surroundings or in the people of the world?
2--Once God places His love upon us, will He ever remove it?
3--Why is it that Christians are looked at by the world as if they were strangers or aliens?
4--Are we only to be changed spiritually?
5--What four ways will our bodies be changed?
6--Why should we live a pure life here on earth?
7--Can a truly saved person continue in a lifestyle of sin?
8--What was the purpose of Christ becoming flesh?
9--What does Christ's act of removing our sins do?