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The Brightest Light & the Blackest Night

Ben Zornes on July 30, 2017

Introduction
In Adam the human race declared war with God. We became a rebel kingdom; sunk in the darkness of the blackest night of hatred toward God. We want to rule ourselves, to determine good and evil by our own reckoning, and worship at the altar of self-glory. Our position before God is that of traitors and rebels. Left to our own devices we will not seek God, nor reconciliation with Him. Yet, we were made to enjoy the fellowship of His glorious presence. We hate this darkness, but we hate the light of God’s holiness more. The good news is that the Son has risen; and His light brings life.

The Text
1 John 1:5-10
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Summary of the Text
John’s introduction (vs.1-4) is no innocuous greeting. It is laden with theological and philosophical claims regarding Jesus Christ, concluding with the crescendo that this is all written that our joy may be full. The message which John heard from Jesus and declares unto us is that God is light, and there is not a shred of darkness in him (v5). This is followed by five “if/then” statements; these are foundational to John’s later discussion of antichrists (1 Jn. 2:18, 4:1-3) and assurance (1 Jn. 2:3).

First, claiming to have fellowship with God, yet continuing in the darkness of error, is evidence that you are a liar like your father Satan (v6, cf. Jn. 8:44). Second, walking in the light results in fellowship with God and His people, and being cleansed from sin through the blood of Jesus (v7). Third, claiming to be without sin is self-deception and is a tell-tale sign of the absence of truth (v8). Fourth, confessing our sins brings the assurance that Christ is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse from unrighteousness (v9). Finally, claims to sinlessness blaspheme God’s holiness, and prove that His word (by which we are born again, cf. 1 Pt. 1:23) is not in the one who claims to be without sin (v10).

God is Light
This is Jesus’ message, not John’s. John has simply been sent to proclaim. While later on John teaches that “God is love (1 Jn. 4:8),” he doesn’t lead with that. Rather, Jesus’ message is: “God is light!” Light here encompasses all of God’s perfections: His white hot purity of being. All of His divine attributes in perfect concord, no disharmony, no external source. As the hymn states: “Self-fed, self-kindled like the light, changeless, eternal, infinite.” His holiness, wisdom, understanding, and power. All without mixture, defect, or deficiency.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ declared: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (Jn. 8:12).” Following Jesus, then, is man’s only path out of the darkness of sin and into the glorious light of God’s favor in which is found abundant, eternal life. Jesus’ Gospel is quite simple: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him (Jn. 3:36).” This is why we confess our belief that Jesus is “God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made.”

Light for the Greek mind would signify knowledge, wisdom, understanding; for the Jew, it would be understood in the context of God’s creating power and thus His holiness as the Almighty God. The Jews’ longing for the promised Messiah who would restore holiness to the people of God, and the Greek longing for true wisdom are found in the light of Jesus Christ: God in the flesh, the eternal Word of Life, and the lone Mediator between God and Man, our only way to fellowship with God (Jn 14:6). The pathway to life was not through the dark promises of the gnostic’s hidden knowledge, nor in the shadowy figures of the Old Testament. The life-giving light of God’s holiness and wisdom shine in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

However, “What communion hath light with darkness (2 Cor. 6:14)?” How can God’s holiness and our sinfulness be reconciled? By a Mediator of the covenant: the man Jesus Christ. While many attempt to exalt the love of God to a place of supremacy within God’s attributes, and while it is a glorious reality that God is love, we must remember God is light and God is love. Light before love. Holiness which endures no sin subsisting with affectionate charity which grants mercy. John lays the foundation of God’s holiness, in order to reveals His lovingkindness.

If Then
These if/thens are promise language. You experience the light of God’s holiness, wisdom, and power as either wrath and justice or love and mercy. In order to be saved from God’s wrath we must be convinced of our positional guilt in Adam, and receive the positional righteousness of Christ. False Christology always leads to man’s sin not being dealt with or forgiven. These false gospels explain away sin. Covenant breakers insist on finding in themselves, or in some antichrist, a savior. They always run to one extreme or the other: hedonism or asceticism; intellectualism or sentimentalism; traditionalism or spontaneity; legalism or licentiousness. So they remain under the wrath of God.

New Covenant Saints walk in the light–which is the Lord Jesus Christ–for in His light is the only hope for propitiation of our sins (1 Jn. 2:2) and eternal life (1 Jn. 2:25). Tozer once said: “We must hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ as Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passed by. We must take refuge from God in God.” Matthew Henry put it wonderfully: “[Jesus Christ’s] blood applied to us discharges us from the guilt of all sin, both original and actual, inherent and committed: and so far we stand righteous in his sight; and not only so, but his blood procures for us those sacred influences by which sin is to be subdued more and more, till it is quite abolished.”

Do The Truth
False saviors can only offer false righteousness. Jesus Christ offers cleansing from our unrighteousness. Antichrists command us to do; Christ commands us to rest in His doing. Claiming to have fellowship with God, while walking in the darkness of a false gospel, is the vanity of “doing not the truth (v.6).” They remain blind corpses.

By contrast, if you are to “do the truth,” you must believe in Jesus and all that He claimed to be: the one mediator between God and man. By faith you are united with Him in His righteousness. The light of Christ pierces through the darkness of unbelief, and by grace opens the eyes of your faith to behold in Him your only salvation from sin and means of fellowship with Almighty God (cf. Ps. 36:9 & Is. 45:22). Christ is the only channel whereby eternal life is extended to you, along with the fullness of enjoying the Father’s love. So as you walk in the light of Jesus Christ, you are reckoned righteous and may say with John, “what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God (1 Jn. 3:1).”

Apostles Creed 6: His Only Begotten Son

Ben Zornes on July 16, 2017

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What we now know as the Apostles Creed descended from an earlier form of the creed, known as the Old Roman Symbol. The beginning of the creed dates from as early as the second century. We do not have any direct evidence that it was penned by any of the apostles, but it is an admirable summary of the apostolic teaching.

Introduction:
What we know as orthodoxy is of course taught in the Bible. But that does not mean that every orthodox truth is found everywhere in the Bible, or that every verse that is used to defend the truth is being used appropriately.

The Text:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin, Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hades. On the third day He rose again from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Summary of the Text:
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9). It is a commonplace among us that Jesus was the “Son of God.” But the Bible talks about this in different ways, and so should we. One word in Greek is translated in our two words—monogenes is rendered as only begotten. Looking at the context, John uses this as a technical phrase, with a precise theological definition. That definition is the same as what is used in the Creed.

This verse may be summed up in this way. God loves and we live. The bridge between these two realities is the only begotten Son. By this phrase we are referring to the unique status and nature of Jesus of Nazareth. Our confession is this—He is the Son of God by virtue of the divine nature that was united with our human nature

Only Begotten:
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). These are all references to the Incarnation of the Son of God. They are references to Immanuel, God with us.

Chalcedon:
It would be absurd to ask you all to grasp in the course of one sermon what it took the whole Church three centuries to formulate. But we are part of that same Church, and so let me summarize what our confession is. We confess that our Savior, the Lord Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, is one person. He is one unified, well-integrated person, but He has two natures. These two natures are connected in what is called the “hypostatic union.” (Hypostases was the Greek word for person.) So there was a “one person” union that possessed two natures that were not comingled. And the result was not schizophrenia.

That which is predicated of one nature may be predicated of the person. That which is predicated of the other nature may be predicated of the person. But that which is predicated of one nature cannot be predicated of the other nature. This is quite important as we shall see.

So then, human nature has a particular height or hair color and so we can say that Jesus of Nazareth was (say) 5 foot 11, or had black hair. And the divine nature is infinite, and so we can say that Jesus of Nazareth possessed that attribute. But we cannot (and must not) say that infinitude is 5 foot 11.

How and Why:
Jesus had a true mother. He was born in the ordinary way, with the one exception being the fact that His mother was a virgin when He was born. He had a maternal grandmother and grandfather, and a lineage that went back to Adam. He was true man. But He had no biological human father.

“And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

If original sin is passed down to us from our human fathers (covenantally, not genetically), then this accounts for how Jesus could be sinlessly perfect. He did not inherit sin from His mother because no one inherits innate sin from their mothers.

Other Senses:
But it is not the case that any references to the “Son of God” are necessarily talking about something as remarkable as the hypostatic union. Let me give you an example. “Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God” (Luke 3:38). There was no hypostatic union in Adam, and yet he is described as a “son of God.” And remember that celestial beings can be called “sons of God” without being partakers of the Godhead.

What Manner of Love:
We return to the earlier point that God loves and we therefore live. But remember the bridge between the two is the perfect God/man, offered up in sacrifice. This is seen in a type, when Abraham takes Isaac to Moriah (where Jesus was crucified) in order to prophetically foretell our coming salvation. “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son” (Heb. 11:17).

Because Jesus is the Son of God, it is possible for our status as sons of God to be restored. Remember that Adam was a son of God but that through the Crash, he and we became sons of the devil. How can we be restored? This includes a heart transplant, but there is something far more remarkable going on. This is a Father transplant.

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not” (1 John 3:1).

Surveying the Text: 1 John

Christ Church on May 1, 2016

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Introduction

All passages of Scripture must be understood in context, but some by their nature require more contextualization than others. First John is one such book. Without an understanding of the errors it was written to refute, the necessary result is always going to be more error.

The Text

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full” (1 John 1:1-4 ).

Summary of the Text

John begins with the same kind of reference he uses in his gospel, with an emphasis on the beginning (arche), which should make us think of Genesis 1:1 . But this person who was from the beginning was someone that John and his fellows had heard, had seen, gazed at, and touched (v. 1). That person was the Word of life. That Word was manifested to them (v. 2). What they had witnessed, they now declared, so that the listeners could come into fellowship with them, and then discover that their fellowship was with the Father and the Son (v. 3). This was all written out carefully, so that our joy might be full (v. 4).

Occasion of the Letter

Those who were causing the problems in Ephesus here were characterized in three ways by the apostle John. They were false prophets (4:1), they were deceivers (2 Jn. 7 ), and lastly they are antichrists (2:18, 22; 4:3, 2 Jn. 7 ). These false teachers had broken with the true church and had “gone out into the world” (4:1). This break showed that they were not really of the truth (2:19).

Those believers who had not gone out with the false teachers were in fact overcomers (4:4), but they were overcomers who had been unsettled by the battle and who were greatly in need of encouragement. This is the pastoral encouragement that John provides in this letter.

Characteristics of the Lie

From the internal evidence of this letter, and from the external evidence we have about Ephesus in the first century, we can piece together a pretty good understanding of the heresy John was attacking.

The false teachers had both a doctrinal problem (2:26) and an ethical/moral problem (3:7). The doctrinal problem was that they denied the incarnation of Jesus. The ethical problem was that they claimed to be able to be “in the light” while taking some kind of weak view of their sinfulness and sins.

As it happens, we know a good deal about this brand of heresy in Ephesus at this time. The leader of the opposition against the apostle John in Ephesus was a man named Cerinthus. Cerinthus was, I believe, the antichrist. He was a leader of an early Gnostic group. Gnosticism was characterized by two great features—the impurity of matter and the supremacy of knowledge.

The first led them to deny the incarnation, which is in effect the materialization of the eternal one. Their arrogance and pride over their “inside knowledge” led them to their lovelessness and to their lawlessness. Hence, we see John attack the heresy of the Cerinthus at every key point. Christ is the very Son of God. We must walk in love. We must keep God’s commandments. We must turn away from every form of lawlessness.

Do not confuse the beast of Revelation with the antichrist of 1 John. They are both bad men, but they are very different kinds of bad men. A beast is a savage persecutor of the church from outside, an out-of-control despot who hates the people of God. An antichrist is a smooth talking false teacher, one who weasels his way into the church and introduces the contagion of heresy. In modern terms, a beast would be someone like Stalin. An antichrist would be a liberal Methodist bishop, although I don’t have a particular one in mind. The former savages the body of Christ on earth. The latter denies that God assumed a body on earth.

We Sin Downhill

When false teachers introduce absurd errors, and apparently sane people go for them, what is going on? If I am talking to someone who is about to go for some nonsense, the question always to ask is “what’s the pay out?” What else is going on? The answer is that the devil functions with bribes. He offers intense short term pleasures, the central one being the sensation of absolute freedom (1 Jn. 3:4 ). All you have to do is agree to the long-term covenants that end with an inchoate and dissolute mind. This is called selling your soul to the devil. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 16:25 ).

Life and Doctrine, Doctrine and Life

Remember the context of this letter. John is not addressing a tormented Christian, alone in his room, wrestling with a troubled conscience over some sin or affliction in his life. John is not addressing the sensitive believer in the midst of a panic attack. He is talking about a group of false teachers who have an utter disregard for the commands of God.

In John’s mind, these issues are to be understood in terms of light and darkness; he is not discussing the twilight. His absolutism is refreshing in a relativistic era, in which our thinkers and theologians want all cats to be gray.

We focus on the ethical—love your brother (1 Jn. 2:9 ). We focus on the doctrinal—Christ is God in the flesh (1 Jn. 2:22-23 ). A denial of either is equally fatal. It does not matter whether you have leprosy of the heart or leprosy of the head.

Hold it all together this way. Jesus of Nazareth is God, and God is love.