Saturday after Pentecost
First, thanks to my dear daughter April for her comments. I find the one on organ postludes more helpful than the one on women's fashion. But, then again, I'm not a woman.
Saturday is Bible Study Day on the blog. My commitment is for us to study verses that you don't usually study in the Bible. Today's verses are 1 John 2:1-2:
"My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin But if anyone does sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world."
First, here are a couple of incidental exegetical notes: The word translated advocate is that somewhat mysterious Greek word paraclete, which is used elsewhere in the NT only in the Gospel of John, chapters 14-16. There it refers to the Holy Spirit. Here it refers to Jesus. The word here has a juridical sense. The courtroom scene understanding is frequent in the Bible. Here, we are the defendant. God is the Judge. Jesus is our defense attorney. He defends us to Judge God. The charges against us are all our sins. Attorney Jesus makes a surprise legal move. While acknowledging our confession of all our sins and our resultant guilt, Attorney Jesus says he will take the death penalty for us.
As if that weren't enough, Attorney Jesus says he will take the death penalty for the sins, not only of us, but for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD. The "we" in these verses refers to Christians. The "whole world" refers to everybody, Christians and everyone who is not Christian. ALL are saved.
My guess is you did not study this verse in Sunday School when you were growing up. To me it is one of the most important verses of the Bible.
I have had various folks from another denomination tell me things like, "If everyone is saved, what is the point of being a Christian?" A couple of these folks have told me they want to witness to people so that these people can be saved. If they simply confess faith in Christ, they will be saved. If they don't, they will go to Hell. You can find a few verses in the Bible that could be interpreted to support that view, but those verses are surprisingly few. Frankly, none of them come readily to mind.
But check out this one other verse, John 3:17. Yes, everyone loves John 3:16, but check out John 3:17, "Indeed God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
In answer to the question, "If everyone is saved, what is the point of being a Christian?" I might note again the beginning of the Westminster catechism, "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever."
To those who contend that the main purpose of Jesus' coming to earth was to be crucified to save our souls, I would retort with Jesus own words, "I have come that you might have life, and might have it more abundantly" --John 10:10. Jesus is all about life, and all about love, not about death.
Faithfully,
Christian
1 comment:
Good morning Christian,
One of the reasons I don't post many comments is that in response to your wise and well reasoned essays, I feel like I have to research and support carefully anything I say and then I get distracted or busy and never get around to it. Well, that all ends today. :-)
In response to the "Then what's the point of being a Christian?" question, I say "to experience the joy and connection of God's love and to share it with others." But the "share" here is not the act of verbal testimony necessarily in order to "save" others, but the act of loving others in as close to the way God would love them (which of course we can't come close to, but we can try). Just a more folksy way of saying that first line of the catechism. :-)
Peace
Jerry
Post a Comment