| As we near the end of the Apostles’ Creed, we have come to a very special doctrine of our faith: the forgiveness of sins. The doctrine of forgiveness lies at the very heart of our Christian faith. If there is no such thing as forgiveness then there is no such thing as Christianity. But in order for there to be forgiveness, there needs to be something to be forgiven from. In other words, there needs to be sin. So to affirm forgiveness is to simultaneously affirm sin. The creed makes this very clear as it not only defines forgiveness, but it also defines what we are being forgiven from.
To admit that there is sin is to admit that we have broken God’s law. This, of course, places God in a position of moral authority over the earth, defining the standard for how man ought to behave.
When you follow this logical chain of connected realities, you can begin to see why certain non-Christians would deny the need for forgiveness. They don’t want to deal with the reality of sin, so they deny the reality of anything that is connected to sin.
Our text from 1 John 1:5-10 speaks about such people. It says that the truth is not in them. In contrast, our text defines another category of people; those who do possess the truth. The people who possess the truth acknowledge their sin, confessing it to God, and thereby receiving forgiveness from God.
Just as John contrasts these two groups of people in order to demonstrate the truth from the non-truth, so will we compare and contrast these two people groups in order that we can better understand the truth of God’s word. |