“Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” 1 John 3:4 NKJV
Many scholars say that the Greek word translated “lawlessness” has a much wider meaning than that used in the Greek Old Testament. John may not have in mind so much the specific breaking of God’s law, but rather, he is saying that the one who practises sin is “in revolt against God” and that “sin is nothing but rebellion against God” (W. Gutbrod, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited by Gerhard Kittel [Eerdmans], IV:1086). John is hitting out at the truth that sin, at its core, is much worse than an outward breaking of a commandment. To practise sin is to be in open rebellion against God Himself. We may ask, “Why does John begin with this?” If we do not have a proper biblical view of the seriousness of sin, then we do not need anything nearly as radical as a Saviour who appeared to take away our sin. The false teachers that John was confronting were, no doubt, as many false teachers in our day, minimizing the serious nature of sin. Satan’s strategy has always been to get rebellious person to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think: “I may not be perfect, but I am not a wretched sinner”! At the same time, Satan gets us to pull God down from His absolute holiness: “Surely, a loving God understands that I am only human. He wouldn’t send someone like me to hell! He wouldn’t demand perfect righteousness, would He”? The conclusion is, if God is not so holy and I am not so sinful, then I don’t need anything as radical as the shed blood of a sinless substitute to atone for my “faults”! In this way, Satan works to undermine the work of the cross.
PRAYER THOUGHT
Lord Jesus, may we never undermine the seriousness of sin.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
Lord Jesus, may we never undermine the seriousness of sin and the precious sacrifice of You dying on the Cross so that our sins would be forgiven. AMEN
I.B.R.A. Readings
1 Chronicles 21:1-13
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