Forgiveness: Not for sale

Forgiveness from God

(1 John 2:12, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, April 3, 2016)

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.

Little children

It is good to be a little child with the Lord. In fact, Jesus says in Matthew 18:3 “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” And in the following verse, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Yet there is another sense in which a person who stays a child forever causes his parents great concern. We want to see the little ones thrive and grow. This is true physically, but it is also true spiritually. Paul says to the church in Ephesus that they are all to aspire “to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Ephesians 4:13-14)

John has written an encouraging poem to his readers that we are going to consider over the next few weeks. While the terms “children,” “young men,” and “fathers” do not need to be taken literally—that is, John could be referring to the whole church—he did structure his thoughts using these three categories, so we are going to make the most of that and see what the Lord may have for us in making some distinctions based on this interesting reference to children.

Who are the “little children?” The quote from Ephesians 4:13-14 is helpful. The children are not necessarily identified by age. Someone might be 60 years old and yet be a little child in the Lord. That is not necessarily something to be ashamed of. Everyone who wants to be alive in the Lord needs to be born sometime. While we do not wish to encourage a prolonged spiritual babyhood for everyone in the church, we know that John is not critiquing his hearers in this poem. If he is making the distinction between three general categories here, he first addresses the ones who are new in Christ. He is writing to them with the confidence that they will hear and read his words, and that they will grow as a result of what they take in.

This is also what Peter writes about in 1 Peter 1:22-2:3 when he encourages the church to eagerly receive the Word of God that they might grow. “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for

'All flesh is like grass

and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

and the flower falls,

but the word of the Lord remains forever.'

And this word is the good news that was preached to you. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” So, again, John's point is affirming and constructive, rather than corrective in these verses. He is writing to the church, including the new believers and their families, because he knows that they will listen to and profit from his words.

Your sins are forgiven

In particular, he writes to them because their sins are forgiven. This is a most important matter, and something that every new believer should understand. First, there is sin in us, and second that these sins have been forgiven. As John has already written earlier, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

It may help us to know that the word John uses to convey the concept of “forgiven” in our verse this morning has to do with leaving. When Jesus called some of His disciples in Matthew 4:20, they “left” their nets and followed Him. Later in Matthew 26:56, all his disciples “left” Him and they fled.

It turns out that many people would like to know some way to have their guilt and sin leave them. In fact, throughout history, people have made lots of money selling the forgiveness of sins.

For His name's sake

Of course, John knew that you could never buy the forgiveness of sins. He says very clearly in this first line of his poem that sins are forgiven for Jesus' name's sake. Another verse with the word forgive might help here. It is a very familiar one from Matthew 6:12, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Considering sins as debts may help us to appreciate the absolute centrality of Christ in this entire matter of taking away our debt. If I am able to pay off my mortgage completely, the bank has no hold on my house. They cannot take it away. When it comes to sin, only one poor man from Galilee could actually pay the debt that I owed to God for my sin. He payed that debt in full with His righteousness and His blood. His Name reflects the strength of His heavenly gold when it comes to the matter of perfect obedience to God's law. No one else has even a cent of that tender.

If I tried to pay it off myself little by little, it would be like me making my first payment on a thirty year mortgage, and not even having enough money to cover that month's interest on the loan. My debt would only go up every month. But Jesus paid it all, and my debt left me.

Any pretense by the church that they can sell me forgiveness of sins is seriously misplaced. Even a baby Christian should know the truth about forgiveness. Yet for centuries very smart people were confused on this basic matter. But you don't have to be confused. The church has forgiveness of sins only through the name of Jesus. This is not something you can buy. If you try, you only add to your debt by insulting the Name of the Lord, claiming that you can buy with your own partial holiness what only comes to you as a gift of Jesus' perfect righteousness.

The message of the gospel is all about His Name rather than ours. The church has sent us out as His ambassadors. We are announcing forgiveness to you today based on the Name of Jesus. Our record of holiness is the same as that which we read about concerning the Old Covenant people in Nehemiah 9. Yes we are contrite, but contrition is not enough. Yes we confess our fault, but we cannot provide satisfaction to God for our sins through anyone's works but those of Jesus. That great wealth of spiritual blessing is not for sale. It is His gift to all who believe and receive.

Old Testament Reading—Nehemiah 9:26-31 – Generations of sin and divine mercy

Gospel Reading—Luke 6:6-11 – Jesus heals and His enemies are filled with fury