Children of God: A Meditation on 1st John 3 for the Remembrance of All Saints

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.

 

 Beloved, now are we the sons of God,

and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:

but we know that, when he shall appear,

we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

And every man that hath this hope in him

 purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

 

St. John’s first epistle covers a lot of theological ground in chapters one and two which lead to this wonderful declaration at the top of chapter three; the full deity and humanity of Jesus, the path of truth, light, and life versus lies, darkness, and death, and the pivotal relationship between faith and repentance which receives all God’s good gifts of grace in Jesus Christ.  The opening verses of 1^st John 3 are the result of everything Jesus has done for a sinful and broken world, bringing Justification by Grace through Faith in Him alone to every heart that would repent and believe in Him.  Thus Jesus and His Eternal Word is the only sure foundation of the Communion of the Saints on earth and in heaven, which is the Church of Christ in every age, and unto ages of ages without end.  This is the great love of God poured out to the world in Jesus’ Vicarious Atonement, which declares every faithful heart forgiven and free from the eternal consequences of our own personal evil, making certain the final defeat of all evil at the end of time when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead.

 

The verses which follow require careful reading lest their meaning be lost, along with the wonderful comfort John preached to his readers in Jesus Christ.  Chapter three makes a strong statement about how everyone who has the hope of Jesus in him, will purify himself even as Jesus is pure, then proceeds to explain that concept by discussing sin in the life of people.  In English translation the nuance of John’s original Greek can be missed, perhaps leading one to think that purification—the complete and total removal of all evil as a mark of salvation—is a work Christians must accomplish to either receive or maintain their eternal life.  As evidenced in various times and places in the history of the church, this can lead to variations on the heresy of Pelagianism, or “Works Righteousness,” where a person is deceived into believing they earn their own salvation apart from, or in partnership with, Jesus.  Not only does this promote a twisted kind of personal idolatry and hypocrisy in the life of a person, robbing Jesus of the glory due only to Him as the only Way, Truth, and Life of all mankind without whom no one can approach the Father, but it offers the soul a losing proposition which can only end in despair:  the demonic whisper to just be perfect, and you’ll be worthy of God’s love.

 

In John’s original Greek text of chapter three, it harmonizes perfectly with his preceding chapters, by noting that people saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, have hearts that continue to resist sin, versus the hearts which give up the fight and continue unrepentant in sin.  The faithful and repentant heart always returns to God in sorrow for sins committed in thought, word, and deed, things done and left undone, receiving the joy and consolation of the Gospel that Jesus forgives such sin for the sake of His sacrifice for us on His Cross.  Thus the faithful Christian continues in grace to resist sin, whereas the unfaithful apart from grace continue in sin without repentance.  As St. John would say, a faithful Christian cannot continue in sin because the Holy Spirit indwells him, driving him to recognize his sin, repent, and return to the grace offered through Jesus.  A mark of those without the Holy Spirit and apart from any true fellowship in Jesus, is a commitment to continue in sin without repentance—a kind of living death which rejects the Word of Jesus, and by default rejects His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.  Every Christian of every time and place has found this to be true in their own soul, that on this side of eternity every person must either resist evil by the grace and power of Jesus received by faith in Him, or succumb to evil apart from Him.  One is the path of eternal life, the other the path of death and hell.

 

This is the same fight that all other Christians have fought before our time, and all future Christians will fight after our time.  The saints in light today, who enjoy the full and eternal presence of Jesus and rest from their earthly labors, didn’t become pure by their own works, but by the grace of Jesus Christ earned through His unique work on the Cross.  They fought the good fight of faith, hearing the Word of Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, continued daily to turn from evil and embrace the good throughout their earthly lives, and the blood of Jesus purified and made them holy, even as Jesus is and remains holy.  No saint in heaven has saved himself, for the purification which grants them access to the eternal Kingdom of God is the sacrificial work of Jesus alone.  And as those saints closed their earthly eyes in faith, passing from death to eternal life, they opened them in the full reality of what Jesus had already won for them, now and forever pure as He is pure, and looking forward with all creation to the resurrection of all flesh in a world without sin, without end.

 

While the good fight of faith against unbelief has been won by those saints who went before us, those purified saints in light continue to pray for us and cheer us on in our own continuing battles here on earth.  With them, we have the sure promises of the Word of Christ which endure for all time, even as heaven and earth pass away, or as our earthly breath finally gives out here in this veil of tears.  With the saints in light we have the wonderous love of God poured out upon us, declaring us His sons and daughters by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone; with them, we have been bequeathed His Holy Spirit to empower us to lives of faith and repentance, struggling toward beauty and virtue.  And with all those saints in light, we too shall one day close our eyes in this world only to open them in the next, beholding the Savior who has done everything for us, singing His praises in that glorious fellowship forever more, and cheering on the saints yet to come.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.