Monday, May 11, 2009, 6:30 p.m. – This song is in my head:
Just as I Am, Without One Plea / Charlotte Elliott / William Bradbury
Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings within, and fears without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just a I am; Thy love unknown
Has broken every barrier down;
Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
I thought about and prayed about that song for a little while, inquiring of the Lord as to whether or not he had a message for me to write when the song “I’ll Fly Away” started going through my head, as well. I had finished reading II Peter earlier in the day, so I opened my Bible to I John and began to read:
My Thoughts: The book of I John is a very difficult book to understand because the author uses such strong comparisons between a life with Christ versus a life without Christ to where it almost sounds like works-based salvation, as well as it appears impossible to accomplish. I believe the author (John – writer of the gospel of John and the book of Revelation) makes these strong of comparisons because he wants us to understand what it means to be in Christ and also how God views sin.
I have a NIV Study Bible which includes an introduction to each book in the Bible. The introduction for I John states that John’s readers were faced with false teaching (Gnosticism), and so John was trying to combat those false teachings, or false assumptions about what it means to be in Christ. The author of this introduction stated that
I believe John’s purpose was not to state that we had to live sinless, perfect lives in order to be saved, or else it would not say in chapter 2, verses 1-2 that, even though he, John, hoped we would not sin, if we do, Jesus speaks to the Father in our defense, as well as he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. So, he makes it quite clear that Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins was complete and that when we sin, Jesus is our advocate to the Father.
So, what is John saying? He is saying that if you claim to know God, i.e. to know Jesus as your Lord and your Savior, then you should not still be walking in darkness, that you should have acknowledged your sin before God and that you should have confessed your sins to the Lord. The acknowledging and the confessing, in context, carry with it a sense of repentance, i.e. turning from sin, since it says that if you are still walking in darkness and yet are claiming to have fellowship with Him, that you are a liar and do not live by the truth – strong words!
On the positive side, he tells us the indicators of a life that knows the Lord Jesus – obedience to the Lord’s commands, to walk as Jesus walked and to love our brothers (no hate allowed). Wow! That’s a tall order! I don’t know anyone who lives in absolute obedience or that never felt hatred for anyone (or at least was lacking in love) or who could “walk as Jesus did.” Yet, again, I sense that John has given us such strong comparisons in order to combat false teaching that was lax in morals and that encouraged or allowed for a more careless approach to Christianity.
I believe the point of what John is saying is that you can’t just pray a prayer to receive Jesus as your Savior and think you have your ticket into heaven but your life remain the same as it was before. You can not live in darkness. You can not live for the pleasures of this world. You can not refuse to love and to forgive others when Jesus loved you so much that he died for your sins. You can not just live however you want and think you have your ticket into heaven. He is saying that it doesn’t work that way.
What John is saying is that a life that is in Christ is a life that is committed to following Jesus Christ’s example of how to walk, that is committed to obedience, that is committed to love others and to turn from sin and to walk in complete fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ.
II Corinthians 13:5-6 says this: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.”
Just as I am and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I Am, Without One Plea / Charlotte Elliott / William Bradbury
Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings within, and fears without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just a I am; Thy love unknown
Has broken every barrier down;
Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
I thought about and prayed about that song for a little while, inquiring of the Lord as to whether or not he had a message for me to write when the song “I’ll Fly Away” started going through my head, as well. I had finished reading II Peter earlier in the day, so I opened my Bible to I John and began to read:
My Thoughts: The book of I John is a very difficult book to understand because the author uses such strong comparisons between a life with Christ versus a life without Christ to where it almost sounds like works-based salvation, as well as it appears impossible to accomplish. I believe the author (John – writer of the gospel of John and the book of Revelation) makes these strong of comparisons because he wants us to understand what it means to be in Christ and also how God views sin.
I have a NIV Study Bible which includes an introduction to each book in the Bible. The introduction for I John states that John’s readers were faced with false teaching (Gnosticism), and so John was trying to combat those false teachings, or false assumptions about what it means to be in Christ. The author of this introduction stated that
I believe John’s purpose was not to state that we had to live sinless, perfect lives in order to be saved, or else it would not say in chapter 2, verses 1-2 that, even though he, John, hoped we would not sin, if we do, Jesus speaks to the Father in our defense, as well as he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. So, he makes it quite clear that Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins was complete and that when we sin, Jesus is our advocate to the Father.
So, what is John saying? He is saying that if you claim to know God, i.e. to know Jesus as your Lord and your Savior, then you should not still be walking in darkness, that you should have acknowledged your sin before God and that you should have confessed your sins to the Lord. The acknowledging and the confessing, in context, carry with it a sense of repentance, i.e. turning from sin, since it says that if you are still walking in darkness and yet are claiming to have fellowship with Him, that you are a liar and do not live by the truth – strong words!
On the positive side, he tells us the indicators of a life that knows the Lord Jesus – obedience to the Lord’s commands, to walk as Jesus walked and to love our brothers (no hate allowed). Wow! That’s a tall order! I don’t know anyone who lives in absolute obedience or that never felt hatred for anyone (or at least was lacking in love) or who could “walk as Jesus did.” Yet, again, I sense that John has given us such strong comparisons in order to combat false teaching that was lax in morals and that encouraged or allowed for a more careless approach to Christianity.
I believe the point of what John is saying is that you can’t just pray a prayer to receive Jesus as your Savior and think you have your ticket into heaven but your life remain the same as it was before. You can not live in darkness. You can not live for the pleasures of this world. You can not refuse to love and to forgive others when Jesus loved you so much that he died for your sins. You can not just live however you want and think you have your ticket into heaven. He is saying that it doesn’t work that way.
What John is saying is that a life that is in Christ is a life that is committed to following Jesus Christ’s example of how to walk, that is committed to obedience, that is committed to love others and to turn from sin and to walk in complete fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ.
II Corinthians 13:5-6 says this: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.”
Just as I am and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
