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Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions, Hi this is Pastor Tom Holiday and we are
looking at 1st John chapter 2 this week. This is our first day of our look at
1st John chapter 2 verses 1-6 we are going to look at today. You might remember
last week we began a look at this book about light and love and life.

We ended with a look at 1st John 1-9 if we confess, God forgives. Verses 1 and 2
of chapter 2 tell us how 1st John 1-9 works, here's what they have to say, "My
dear children," John writes, "I write so that you will not sin, but if anyone
does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense, Jesus Christ the
righteous. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but
also for the sins of the whole world.

" Now first I want you to notice what John says in verses 1 and 2, he says, "I
am writing so that you will not sin, but if anyone does sin. " That is the
reality of the Christian life until we get to heaven. These verses, "so that you
will not sin, but if anyone does sin," they're very important.

Understanding these two truths, God wants us to not sin in our daily lives, he's
working for us to not sin, I don't have to follow temptations in my life, he
gives me escape from every temptation, but also alongside that there is the
truth that sometimes I do sin, people in my life who are believers do sin. When
I recognize those two truths, it protects me from two things. It protects me
from falling into the trap of believing that I can live a life of sinless
protection.

That's the Pharisee trap. I can somehow build this life where I never sin, I am
perfect. What happens if you fall into that trap is you build a life of taking
care of all the outside sins, you don't do anything bad on the outside, but
inside you're filled with deep pride and jealousy, you're still filled with sin.

These verses also protect us from the trap of excusing our sin in this world.
Well, everybody does it, we're never going to get past temptation and sin until
we get to heaven, so it's no big deal. Sin is a big deal.

Sin hurts the heart of God. Sin without Jesus Christ would lead to our eternal
destruction. Sin is a big deal, and God in his grace is giving you grace, is
giving me grace to say no to that sin which is tempting me right now, because he
considers it a big deal.

I write this so that you will not sin, but if anyone does sin, and then he tells
us how First John 1. 9 works. If we do sin and all of sin, God forgives.

How does he do that? How does First John 1. 9 work?

Well, here John tells us it works because Jesus is two things, Jesus is our
advocate and Jesus is our atoning sacrifice. Our advocate and our atoning
sacrifice, advocate. These verses say that he speaks to the Father in our
defense, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

We have Jesus speaking on our behalf, and Jesus is our atoning sacrifice. He
gave his life on the cross to atone for our sins. We have right standing before
God.

Now, what does this mean, atoning sacrifice? Those aren't familiar words to many
of us. Well, there's a picture in the Old Testament of these words, and then
there's a picture in the New Testament.

The picture in the Old Testament is a place called the Mercy Seat in the temple.
You might remember that they went and made sacrifices at this temple for their
sins, and once a year the high priest would go in and make a sacrifice on
something called the Mercy Seat for the sins of all the people for that year.
This was the atoning sacrifice that was made.

Why would they make a sacrifice? It was recognizing we can't pay for our own
sins, someone else has to pay for our sins. Well, we learn in the New Testament
that those sacrifices in the Old Testament really meant nothing except in that
they were looking forward to Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.

That's the power, is what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. So the picture
in the New Testament is the picture of the cross. That's where the atoning
sacrifice was made.

Our sins have come between us and God, and the fact that Jesus is our advocate
and he is our atoning sacrifice, that takes care of both the relational problem
we have with sin and the judicial problem we have with sin. You see, when it
comes to sin, sin breaks God's law and sin breaks God's heart. The issue of sin
is a judicial sin.

I've broken God's law. I've got to pay the penalty for that. But the issue of
sin is also a personal issue.

It breaks God's heart. I've broken God's heart. I've got to deal with that.

The picture would be, if I was brought up on trial before a judge, if this could
happen, who was my own father, a father whom I had hurt through that crime, in
order to work through that trial, in order to receive forgiveness, I would need
both a relational forgiveness and a judicial forgiveness. This is very
important. If I fail to see my relational need for forgiveness from my sins, I'm
going to fall to legalism.

If I fail to see my judicial need for forgiveness from sin, I'm going to fall to
license. Let me explain that. If I fail to see that my sins have hurt God, I'm
going to think that somehow I can make up for my sins by a bunch of good rules
in my life.

I don't see that it's a relational thing. And then I need forgiveness from a
relational God, from my father. If I fail to see that it's also a judicial need,
that I've hurt the holiness of God, I've broken the law of God, I'm going to
begin to feel like, well, my sins, they hurt God once, but now I have a
relationship with him through Jesus, and now everything's okay between me and
Jesus, and I'll fall to license with my sin, thinking, well, it's okay if I sin
now, because my relationship with God is okay now.

No, I have a judicial need for forgiveness also. I've hurt the holiness of God.
Let me say it another way, because I want you to get this.

You may have to think about this throughout the rest of this week. Sin breaks
God's heart. Jesus deals with that, because he's our advocate before the Father,
relationally dealing with my sin problem with God, my sin barrier between me and
God.

Sin breaks God's heart. Jesus deals with that. He's my advocate.

Sin also breaks God's law. Jesus deals with that. He's the atoning sacrifice.

He paid the penalty, the legal penalty, and the penalty is death for my sin. Not
only did he pay the penalty for my sin, he also paid the penalty for the whole
world. Jesus offers forgiveness to all.

He died for the forgiveness of all, but it's a gift I must receive. He does not
force this gift upon anyone. Once I receive that gift, that gift of forgiveness,
what happens?

How do I know that faith is real in my life, that forgiveness is real in my
life? Listen to verses 3 to 5. We know that we've come to know him if we obey
his commands.

The man who says, "I know him," but doesn't do what he commands is a liar, and
the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made
complete in him. This is how we know that we're in him.

You know that you have a relationship with God, John writes, because you do what
he calls you to do. Any healthy relationship with God, the creator, the master
of the universe, is going to involve me recognizing his wisdom and power and
following him. If I say, "I have a healthy relationship with God, but I do what
I want to do a lot of the time, and sometimes I listen to him as an advisor,"
that's not a healthy relationship with God.

That's treating God as some friend that you pal around with. Now he is your
friend, but he's the creator of the universe. So if I come to know him, I'm
going to obey him because I know he knows more than I do.

I'm going to follow his commands because I know he made me, he created me, he
understands me better than anyone else. I'm going to follow his commands because
I trust him, he is eternal. Now let me be careful here.

We don't come to know him by obeying his commands. We know that we've come to
know him already when we obey his commands. It's a sign of the fact that I've
come to a relationship with him.

Obeying God's commands is the fruit of your salvation. It's not the root of your
salvation. The root of your salvation, of knowing God, is our trust in Jesus
Christ and in his saving power.

And once I've begun that relationship with God through Jesus Christ, then I
begin to live it out in living a different way and doing different things. Now
do I become perfect? No.

No. No. No.

No. But I do begin to do different things. Do I do them all at once perfectly?

No. No. I have to learn how.

I grow in the Christian life, but I do begin to do different things because of
my relationship with God. Now he says we obey his commands. What commands is he
talking about here?

Is he talking about the commands about what food you should eat or not eat in
the Old Testament? Well, we're already told in the New Testament in the Book of
Acts that God set aside some of those commands. And as we go through this
letter, we're going to see that John recognizes God's commands are all summed up
in his command to us that we love one another.

The command to love, to love God and to love one another is at the core of all
God's commands. In fact, as we end today, I want you to notice what John says
about this life that God has given us to live in verse 6. In verse 6 he says,
"Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

" Now that phrase "live in him" means you abide. The word means I draw my life
from him like a, like a branch abides in the vine and so bears fruit, I abide in
Jesus. And verse 6 says, "If I abide in him, I'm going to walk like Jesus did.

" Now, let me give you some encouragement. Let me maybe take some spiritual
pressure off your life. The Christian life, this verse is saying that the
Christian life is not a life of trying to live like Jesus.

This verse says that the Christian life is a life of abiding in Jesus, drawing
life from him and then watching him live his life through you. How do I walk
like Jesus did? The only way is to let him live his life through you.

You can't fake it. You can't even try to power it up yourself. We don't have
that kind of power.

Only God does. Only Jesus does. No, you let him, you let him put his life into
you and then you let him live his life through you.

So what's my number one task every day as a believer? Connect to him. Abide in
him.

And then out of that abiding, watch him live his life through me. Let's connect
to him right now in prayer. Lord, as we think about abiding in you, as we think
about obeying you, your commands, as we think about living the life you've given
us to live, sometimes we put pressure on ourselves.

We try to do it. Right now we set aside our trying and instead we choose to
trust, to trust in you, to trust in our relationship with you, to trust in the
life that you've put into us, to trust in your spirit that you've put into us,
and we ask Jesus that out of that trust we would watch you, see you, enjoy you
living your life through us, in us today. Lord, surprise us.

I pray that every one of us pray in this prayer right now that at least once
today we would see ourselves doing something we'd think, "Wow, there's no way I
would have done that except for the power of Jesus' love in me. " Thank you,
Lord. Thank you for what you can do in us.

In your name we pray, amen. Well join us tomorrow. We're going to be looking at
verses 7 to 11 which talk about old and new and which also talk about darkness
and light.