Obedience by Faith

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:1-3).

John continues the same theme with which he began his letter. There is a danger, however, of hearing what John is saying in a damaging, legalistic way. We could use John’s words in Chapter one, and here, to tell ourselves to get to work being good so that we can be Christians. If we want to know that we love the children of God, get busy loving God and keeping His commandments. There is a danger of hearing these words as commands and thinking we are capable of doing something which we are not: not sinning, and keeping His commandments. It is easy to hear John’s words of comfort here in a thoroughly discomfiting way: If we say we are Christians, but act like non-Christians, we are not Christians. If it were true that acting like non-Christians (sinning) while claiming to be believers meant that we weren’t really Christians, there would be no Christians.

It isn’t possible for us not to sin. It isn’t possible for us to act in a God-pleasing way perfectly, which is what He requires. John is talking about those who practice sin. John is talking about those who say their sinfulness isn’t sinful; he’s talking about those people who ignore God’s call to repent. He’s talking about people who, rather than turning away from their sin, embrace and celebrate it. This is much different from the Christian who hates his sin, repents of it, and then continues to struggle with those sinful desires. The Christian’s struggle with sin is an ever-present one, and even when we try to please God in our thoughts, words, and deeds, we fail. The Christian knows, however, that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Having been washed by water and the word, we have been baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection. He has taken our sin and given us His righteousness in exchange. The non-Christian doesn’t have the promise, and must seek to justify himself. We don’t need to justify ourselves. We have been justified by faith, and have peace with God through Our Lord Jesus Christ. So, when John tells us that the love of God is that we keep His commandments, John is talking about doing, or keeping God’s commands, not as one who does an act in order to earn something, but rather as a tree bears fruit. A tree doesn’t decide to bear fruit; it doesn’t decide what type of fruit it will bear. An apple tree bears apples because it is an apple tree. That is it’s nature. It cannot do otherwise. Men, likewise, bear fruit according to their nature. We sin because we are sinners; committing sins does not turn us into sinners.

God, through our Baptism, has made we who believe in Christ, into new creatures. We have new natures now. Our old man, our old sinful nature, has been drowned in the waters of Baptism. So, like the apple tree, we bear fruit according to our new nature, not to become forgiven, but because God has forgiven us because of Jesus. We still have to contend with sin because, though I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, the new creature, there is another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!