Who Is on the Lord's Side? (1 John 2:28-3:10)
By: Rubel Shelly

The world needs a clear vision of God and the difference he makes in human lives. There is no picture of God for them to see, but he has revealed himself in Jesus and we are called to be his presence in the world today. We are supposed to "greatly resemble" him so he can draw lonely, distressed, hurting, and lost people into his kingdom reign. This challenging truth is central to our text for today. John will affirm that the children of God bear his seed (i.e. genetic material) and have the opportunity to reflect his likeness. Just as Jesus was "the image of the invisible God" to us (cf. Col. 1:15), the church is called to be a second incarnation of his divine presence in this world.

You see, the devil has used the Bible and church to make us believe we are worthless, spiritually incompetent, and hopeless. We are mere "worms" before God. We are sinners bound for hell. We are bound up in failure and lostness. So we become self-fulfilling prophecies of guilt, shame, and perpetual weakness. That scenario was scripted in hell - not in God's heart for his children.

Without Christ, we are hopelessly broken. Without Christ, we are powerless. Without Christ, we are worms - no, snakes; no, downright demonic! But loved and sought, washed and justified, born from above and united with Christ, we are called to live in righteousness, victory, and joy. Christian, let me list just a sampling of things the Word of God says about you that you need to know:

· You are God's child (John 1:12)
· You are Christ's friend (John 15:15)
· Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19)
· You have been bought by Christ's blood (1 Cor. 6:20)
· You are not under judgment (Rom. 8:1)

Is your head spinning? Is that too much for you to believe about yourself? I've only barely gotten started! Those are just sample statements from Scripture about you. Hang onto your seat for these:

· Nothing can separate you from the love of God (Rom. 8:35-39)
· You are a citizen of heaven (Phil. 3:20)
· You have heaven's grace and mercy whenever you need it (Heb. 4:16)
· You have been saved by grace (Eph. 2:8)
· You are empowered for good deeds as a way of life (Eph. 2:10)

And only now am I ready to begin reading today's text from the Apostle John about your status, empowerment, and security in Christ. Here is his starting-point: "And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming" (2:28). Confidence and not shame at his coming? Boldness and not fear? Is that how you have been taught to think of Christ's return? Oh, it will be a frightening and terrible event for those who have resisted and battled him! But not for that holy community for whose sake he died once, for whose sake he lives now to intercede and to empower (cf. Rom. 5:8-11). Jesus won't be returning to condemn his followers but to claim them, not to evaluate but to elevate!

I know this isn't the scene of Christ's return from popular evangelistic preaching. From where I stand in Christ, it seems pitifully strange that I once felt the best way to draw people to God was to tell them how scary hell is. Fear has been way oversold as a motive to holiness! More often than not, it is at best a short-term motivation for buying fire insurance and an utter failure as a lasting motivation for holiness.

You are loved by God! You are in Christ. You are a temple for the Holy Spirit. If life has labeled you unflatteringly, his voice that calls you "My precious child!" can still be heard above the clatter. If you have been taught to label yourself worthless drunk, hopeless addict, sexual pervert, hypocrite church-member, or whatever else, hear John speak of the confidence you are entitled to have as someone who has been born from above. I envision come Christians protesting at his return that Jesus has mistakenly put them on the right hand of his redemptive love!

God's "Seed" in Us

To the degree that strife, division, and hatred are allowed to infiltrate the community of God's people, Satan gets a foothold to challenge both God and those he is in process of transforming. So the deceivers and false teachers whose reinterpretation of the gospel John knew about were particularly worrisome to him. They did, in fact, introduce strife, division, and hatred into churches. In doing so, they revealed their demonic parentage.

Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.

We will certainly sin against each other. We will get angry. We will judge motives. We will let our tongues get out of control. In our families, in the workplace, in serving together through the church - we are fallible enough that we will sometimes offend and sometimes take offense. What John said at 3:9 does not contradict what he had already written at 1: 8 and 1:10. In the first chapter of this epistle, he has already acknowledged that Christians sometimes commit sin. To deny as much would be both to deceive ourselves and to call God a liar. So when he writes in chapter 3 that people who have been born from above "do not sin" and "cannot sin," he is saying only the obvious: Christians do not pursue, make excuses for, and defend our failures.

Conclusion

If John is right, Christ's people who make room on the bus for one another, bear with one another's failures, overlook one another's peculiarities, and intervene lovingly to rescue one another from sin are angels - God's "ministering servants." They are people who - from the security of their own salvation - stand in the light of God's love in order to reflect it to others. They have rejected the dark night of hatred and racial prejudice, insensitivity and unrighteous egotism for the sake being like Jesus. In doing so, they have declared their allegiance and let everyone know they are on the Lord's side.

Where do you stand today? Are you on the Lord's side?