Authentic Christianity - 1 John 1.5-2.2

In 1996 the Queen Mother lent two16th Century Ming Vases to an International Antiques Fair. Imagine the shock when the two vases were found by experts to be fakes. I don’t know what tests were used. But whatever, they were found not to be genuine. Unauthentic.

Well, the 1st Letter of John is all about authenticity. Authentic Christianity.

The backdrop of the letter is the presence of new teachers. And 2:18 calls them anti-Christs. They were once part of the true, orthodox fellowships but have now left those fellowships because they were never truly part of them in the first place! They were fakes. And they were offering to people a new brand of Christianity - even a new brand of Christ - marked by great claims, new experiences, new knowledge, all of which is very appealing.

This explains why John begins his letter in the way he does. He begins his letter (verses 1-4) with the authentic Christ.  We are not going to stop on this because I preached on this recently. But the heart of it is this: the integrity of the apostolic message concerning Jesus - that he is the unique Son of God that became flesh. And the basis on which John says that is that he and others were eye and ear witnesses of Jesus. 1.3: that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you – the authentic Christ, historical Jesus.

So if we have built our trust on the Jesus of the Bible then we are absolutely on the right track and need not feel spiritually insecure or confused.

However, as we come to verse 5 we move from the authentic Christ to the authentic Christian. And one of the things we’ll see again and again as we go through this letter are the three tests of the authentic Christian:

The doctrinal tests – what we believe about Jesus.

The lifestyle test – how we live and whether our life reflects Jesus.

The social test – how we relate to other Christians.

Now the purpose of these tests is twofold. On the one hand they expose these false teachers and their new teaching. But at the same time these three tests reassure the true Christian that they are genuine. Perhaps back in 1996 everyone who owned a Ming vase was very worried – do I have the real thing? Do I have the genuine article? Well, if they wanted they could find out and bring it to the experts to apply their tests to reassure them – yes you do.

So 1 John is a reassuring letter to those of us unsettled by new teachings and new innovations - to those of us who are easily worried that we’re not genuine Christians. 

How then does John reassure us in these verses we are looking at today?

First the authentic Christian walks in the light of God’s holiness.  Verse 5.  Here is the message we have received from Jesus. God is light and in him there is no even a hint of darkness. God is light. Its one of those massive Biblical statements like God is love or God is Spirit that comes later in this letter.  So simple – and yet within it an ocean of truth. But the gist of it is clear – God is good, right, holy. The God who made us, who made the universe, who is in charge of families, health, homes, finances, work, schooling - he is good, perfect and holy. Sometimes we doubt that - because things happen to us and to this world that tempt us to think that God is not holy, not good.  But we know factually and objectively that God is good because of Jesus - who for example, washed his disciples feet, who wept at the graveside of a friend, who cleansed the temple of all that was wrong, who died on a cross to defeat sin and darkness. Of course God is good and holy. He is light and there is no darkness in him.

Therefore, the logic of verse 6 is clear. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practise the truth. That is what the anti Christ, the false leader is like. Their life betrays their claims - their life does not add up – 2+2 does not equal 4.

However, in verse 7 we read: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.  Let me tell you what I think it means to walk in the light.  To walk in the light is to allow the holiness and the goodness of God to infiltrate and transform your life.  It is like drawing back the curtains of your life, letting the purity and holiness of God flood in and penetrate to the very core of your being. And the result is that your sin is suddenly exposed for the awful thing that it is and you are led to the cross for forgiveness and cleansing. That is what it means to walk in the light. It is not a one off experience or event. Instead it is something that a genuine Christian will be doing all the time to the end of their days.

It is a scary thing to go up into your attic or roof-space if you haven’t been into it for months, even years. In fact you might never have been up their at all! So you climb the ladder, stick your head into the roof space, turn on the light and suddenly what you wish you could never see is completely exposed!  And that’s what it’s like when the light of God’s holiness is turned on in our lives. Our sin is exposed and we’re drawn to the Cross to receive Jesus’ forgiveness and cleansing. Now has God begun to do that work in your life?  Have you begun to walk in the light as He is in the light?  That is a mark of an authentic Christian. And linked to that is our second point for this morning which is this:

The authentic Christian lives in honesty and integrity before the forgiving God.

The BBC took a hammering last week when Blue Peter named its new kitten “Socks” instead of the winning name “Cookie” chosen by an on line poll.  One newspaper’s headline was “BBCs reputation for honesty and integrity hits a new low.”  Well that could also be said for these new teachers and false leaders that John is exposing in his letter. Because they are saying in verse 8 - we have no sin; and in verse 10 - we have not sinned. They are not being honest. They have no integrity.

Throughout Christian history there have always been people who would say that if you follow their particular brand of Christianity, if you follow these certain rituals, and really give yourself to God then you will not sin. Now that sounds wonderful but it is just not true! If I only sort out this particular sin in my life - if I can experience God in some kind of new, fresh way - then I’ll be sorted. I’ll be up and away like a plane coming out of the clouds into the clear blue sky. But friends that is make believe. Or in the words of John in verse 8 “we deceive ourselves” or even worse as in the words of verse 10 “we make God a liar” because he has told us in his Bible in so many places that we are all sinners. Even as Christians we will remain so until we die. Now yes John also goes on to say in chapter 2.1 “I am writing these things to you that you may not sin.”  He wants us to leave sin behind, he wants us to grow into Jesus’ likeness – to grow in holiness. But that’s a very different thing from saying we have no sin – or we have not sinned.

So what then will the authentic Christian look like? Verse 9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” So the authentic Christian is someone who has regular habit of confessing their sin, not to a priest or a fellow human, but to God. And we confess our sins to God because he is faithful. He promises to forgive the sinner who trusts in Jesus. God, you see, is just. Jesus has paid the penalty for sin and has done so fully and perfectly. So God is not going to demand a further payment. Jesus has made that payment. There is nothing left to owe.

 Look at how Jesus is described at the beginning of chapter 2.

V.1 He is an advocate.  We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, a legal representative standing alongside us declaring our innocence before the Father.

V.2 He is the propitiation for our sins.  Jesus Christ has turned away the anger of God away from us onto himself. He did that on the cross.

Imagine a small child playing in the garden and she upsets a bee and the bee attacks the child who quickly runs into the arms of her mother and suddenly – ouch - the mum is stung by the bee.  Bees only sting once and then they die. So the child is safe and has nothing more to fear. The sting has been taken by another.

And what verse 2 is saying is that Jesus has taken the sting that we deserved. He voluntarily became the object of God’s wrath – God’s righteous anger - in the place of the Christian. So we are safe - nothing more to fear - no more anger to face - because all our sin - past, present, and future - has been dealt with. Jesus is our advocate, he is the propitiation for our sins. So we confess our sins knowing that God is faithful and just.

Well this morning we will share in the bread and wine - these earthly symbols that remind us of Jesus our advocate, our propitiation. And the one who is invited to receive the bread and wine will be the authentic Christian who walks in the light of God’s holiness. And who lives in honesty before a forgiving God. So may God enable us to live and walk in this way.