Dear Friends,
One thing I didn’t realize when I first began to follow Jesus was how much growing in discipleship would revolve around overcoming black and white thinking and becoming comfortable with paradox. For example, if we think about sin as individual discrete acts of wrongdoing that have either definitely been done or definitely not been done, 1 John can make us feel like we’re losing our minds.
First,
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”
1 John 1:8-10 (NIV)
So, we cannot claim to have relationship with God if we say we don’t sin. Instead, we must admit our sins and be forgiven.
But . . .
“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
1 John 2:1-2 (NIV)
So admit that you sin, but don’t actually sin. And yet, if you do sin, Jesus has you covered.
But . . .
“We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.”
1 John 2:3-6 (NIV)
In the end, we cannot claim to have relationship with God if we sin.
It sounds like no one can know God because we would have to be sinless, which is impossible, and claiming to be sinless would make us liars and therefore sinners. But this is less confusing if we think about sin more as an infection of our mind and heart than as discrete actions. And it is also less confusing if we think about relationship with God as something that is growing and in progress inside those who are in Jesus rather than as a static state. As we come to know God, the infection of sin is eradicated, and we begin to live like Jesus. But this is an organic process that takes time. We cannot claim to be completely free from sin in this lifetime. But, we can be committed to eradicating it, to receiving forgiveness, and to becoming more and more like Jesus.
With only ourselves, these things are impossible. But with Jesus, we are set free and able to begin a new life in the light even in the midst of the darkness that has yet to be fully made light. This means living in a space between two realities, an old one we are leaving behind in the past and a new one that is of the future but has already begun in the present. The more honest we are about being in this in-between space, the more we will find ourselves pushing forward through it, leaving the old self behind as the new self emerges.
A Prayer:
God, don’t let me try to make myself out to be more righteous than I am. Let me be truthful about all my faults and weaknesses. And, through this act of truth and light, transform me. Bring me out of the darkness and into the lifestyle of Jesus, the lifestyle of the future me, who is leaving those faults and weaknesses behind and becoming like Jesus. Amen.
Love in Christ,
Michelle