Understanding What Sin Is
Truth Taught- Sin is lawlessness and Christ is the only remedy
Pastoral Prayer
As fallen humans, as we look to what sin is, we have two extremes to avoid. We have the tendency to look at sin as no big deal. Our world finds sin funny. Just watch TV and the sitcoms are loaded with the idea the sin is funny and okay, no big deal. I think that’s one extreme.
The other extreme is to think by hard work we can overcome sin on our own and by our efforts. That sin while being a big deal is something we can overthrow and beat. We may see sin as an extreme obstacle, we have not watered it down but we have lifted ourselves up and over it by our efforts. Our hard work can overcome our sin.
In our text today, we will see together exactly what sin is…What its consequences are…sin’s antidote…Our Lord’s perfection.
1 John 3:4–6 (ESV)
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
1. Doctrine Presented (3:4a)
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness;
When someone practices sinning, he also practices breaking God’s Law.
In God’s Law we see His perfect righteousness. It is as unchanging as God is. The Law of God is perfect as He is perfect. It is a vast display of His person, character and perfection.
Some of the angels of heaven practiced lawlessness as they followed after Satan rather than God. They fell and are waiting their everlasting torment.
Adam who is the head of the human race broke God’s Law as he and Eve ate the fruit that was forbidden by God. They fell too and took us with them, all the human race remains under the curse.
We also live under the curse by original sin and under God’s wrath as a result of our own disobedience to God and His Law.
We must be careful to be accurate with John’s expressions here. Every sin we commit breaks God’s Law. However, there is a vast difference between the lost world who practices lawlessness and practices sinning as compared to God’s born-again people who live for Christ and yet sin in this life. Those who practice sin and lawlessness are the lost world who lives in that realm. We who know Christ have been freed from that bondage to sin and do not live or practice sin and lawlessness.
So, to sin is to transgress God’s perfect Law; it’s to think, say, or do something not in line with God’s holy perfections. To sin, then is to violate God’s holy commands. It’s to go against even God’s character and perfections.
The person John is referring to here in our current verse is the one who lives in open rebellion and violation of God and His Law.
Now if we step back just a little and see more of the big picture, we see that what John is doing here is setting up a contrast between our current text and our text from last time.
1 John 3:1–3 (ESV)
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
The contrast is between God’s people and those who are not God’s people. Those who are in Christ, those called the children of God are living and following or walking in Christ. We are being made pure. Then those who are walking in lawlessness or walking in sin are not God’s people but belong to this world’s system.
2. What Sin is…(3:4b)
sin is lawlessness.
Here is what sin is. It’s what it looks like. Here’s God’s definition of sin. Sin is lawlessness.
God’s Law is perfect and pure. Sin is the violation and perversion of God’s Law.
Here’s a couple of examples of what I mean…
God made food good. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve could eat from any tree and all was good. The perversion came when they transgressed God’s Law and ate the forbidden fruit.
For us, God also made food good. Sin takes place when we are guilty of gluttony. Eat God’s good food but do not violate His Law.
Sex as part of marriage is a good part of God’s creation. He created it good. Mankind sins when sex is perverted. So, sin is transgressing God’s Law and taking what He created as good and then perverting it. You can go down through the list and this pattern is true.
This is what John is telling us. The Law is holy, just and good and sin is the transgression of it.
John uses these words for us to see the seriousness of sin. We make a grave mistake when we begin tolerating sin or somehow making it palatable. Don’t make sin common…don’t practice sin. Don’t live in sin. That’s for the lost world, not for God’s people.
Proverbs 4:23 (ESV)
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
Here we are told the value of guarding our thoughts. Be diligent in what occupies your mind. Think on good things, guard your heart and mind.
So, verse 4 tells us that we commit sin when we violate God’s holy and perfect law and that sin is lawlessness. We must be very careful in this life not to live in sin or walk in sin but rather walk in Christ and follow Him.
What sins trouble you? Go to God’s Law and find out just how it is you are breaking His perfect Law. Also realize that this is why Jesus came to earth so He could live perfectly in accordance with God’s Law and die for our sin. Seek to realize the death of Christ on the cross was for you and to pay for that sin you may struggle with.
Put off those sins and put on Christ.
Ephesians 4:22–24 (ESV)
22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Let’s say you struggle with coveting…wanting what other people have.
Go to you Bible and read the verses about coveting. Learn why it’s a sin. How it breaks God’s Law.
Luke 12:15 (ESV)
15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Jesus tells us to Keep our heart with all vigilance…
Jesus corrects our thinking about stuff doesn’t He. Your life does not consist of stuff. So, we learn what God’s Word tells us about whatever sin you may struggle with. We are then called to put that sin off. However, we cannot just stop, we must replace that sin with God’s Law. We must put on what is holy and right and pure.
If we put on what is holy and right and pure then we will have victory over whatever sin it is we may struggle with.
In the case of coveting we must then put on contentment.
Hebrews 13:5 (ESV)
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
The key in putting off and putting on is understanding how your former behavior violated God’s Law and then discover what is the right way to think and behave in this area.
The key to overcoming the sin of coveting is not to just stop coveting but to begin to be thankful for what you do have.
Let’s say you struggle with worry and fear. You must put that off and put on Trusting in God.
Let’s say you struggle with Gambling don’t just stop gambling but replace that with good stewardship.
Judging others…Ask God to search your heart…Humility
3. God’s Antidote for Our Sin: Jesus the Sinless Son (3:5)
5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
Beloved I pray this verse gives us holy confidence that Jesus is sufficient to remove our sin and to break sin’s domination over us. He is the answer, the remedy and the antidote for our sin.
Jesus appeared- His first advent. Here, John refers to His incarnation. Jesus appeared to take away sins. He appeared to remove the guilt and power that transgressing God’s Law hand on us. We were children of wrath and Jesus appeared to bear God’s wrath for us.
Here is John’s reasoning…
Christ was manifested in the flesh, to deliver us from the guilt and power of sin, therefore give yourselves not to practicing sin but to living for Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:17–19 (ESV)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Romans 8:31–32 (ESV)
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
The Law of God for God is a display of His character and righteousness. For mankind, God’s Law only works as a means of condemnation.
1 Peter 1:16 (ESV)
16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
The Law while it is perfect, holy, and just is a tool for condemnation to all who fall short of it or who always miss the mark.
Romans 8:1–4 (ESV)
8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
How did Jesus take away our sins?
5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
Very clearly here we see that it is Christ who has taken our sins away. God placed on Jesus our sins.
Isaiah 53:6 (ESV)
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
1 Peter 2:24 (ESV)
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Jesus on the cross sustained all of God’s wrath.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
When God’s wrath for sin was complete, Jesus exclaimed It is finished and then He died. The Sinless Perfect Law Keeper died in the place of Lawbreakers.
Jesus is our Scapegoat. Our sin imputed to Him and He bore our sins away from us.
Finally, we see John’s continued call for all God’s people to abide in Christ…
6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
I pray no one here today is walking in sin but truly is abiding in Christ.
This is a very big preventative to our sinning. Put off sin and put on Christ.
LORD’S SUPPER
The Lord’s Supper is a call for Christian discernment. We are to make holy connections. The Bread represents Jesus’ body. The wine represents Jesus’ blood. Eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood is not an earthly event but a heavenly event and not a physical event but a spiritual event. It is a feast being eaten with Jesus as our host and what is being nourished in the Lord’s Supper is our very souls.
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom. (Matt. 26:26–29)[1]
We are told more explicitly in Revelation about the marriage supper of the Lamb: “And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb’ ” (Rev. 19:9). This will be a time of great rejoicing in the presence of the Lord, as well as a time of reverence and awe before him.[2]
To eat in a worthy many is to truly fight and repent of sin and to discern the body and blood of Jesus.
Resources Used:
1 John by Candish
1 John by Pierce
1 John by Kruse
Words of Blessing
[1] Grudem, W. A. (2004). Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine (p. 988). Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.
[2] Grudem, W. A. (2004). Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine (p. 989). Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.
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