Voiding sin
Commentary
(Myrna and Robert Kysar are the co-authors of "Charting The Course." Myrna is pastor of Christ Lutheran Church (ELCA), Oakwood, Georgia. She holds a Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School and a Doctor of Ministry from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. She is the co-author with her husband of three books.
Robert, also an ELCA pastor, is Bandy Professor of Preaching and New Testament Emeritus at Candler School of Theology and the Graduate Division of Religion of Emory University. He earned his Bachelor of Divinity from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in New Testament Interpretation from Northwestern University. He has written fifteen books and over fifty articles.)
The course through these three lessons is fairly clear. Each of them says in one way or the other that the proclamation of Christ's resurrection includes the announcement of God's act to void human sin. In the Gospel lesson, Christ himself commands the announcement of the good news of "repentance and forgiveness of sins" (Luke 24:47). In the Acts passage, Peter exhorts the crowd: "Repent, therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out" (3:19). The author of 1 John argues that, since Christ "was revealed to take away sins," all who "abide in him" are without sin (3:5). Christ's resurrection entails the voiding of sins.
We talk about the release from sin(s) with a variety of words, such as forgiven, wiped out, destroyed, abolished, and removed. Preachers always seek new ways of expressing old truths, especially the truths that have been declared so many times that they are in danger of becoming weakened. To find new ways of expressing God's annihilation of human sin, we explore different kinds of metaphors. Perhaps the verb "void" offers us a slightly different way of saying once again that God has freed us of the consequences of our sin. In legal settings when something is voided it is made ineffectual. To void a check renders it worthless. In other settings, the verb means to vacate or to empty. Maybe in our society this metaphor can help us understand and appropriate Christ's forgiveness and eradication of sin.
However, who has authority to forgive, to void sin? And how?
Acts 3:12-19
At the gate of the Temple, Peter and John have just healed the man lame from birth (3:1-10). The crowd sees this familiar immobilized fellow now walking and deliriously leaping about, and "they were filled with wonder and amazement ..." (3:10). The assigned lesson begins with Peter's sermon on this occasion.
This passage is one of Peter's four sermons in the early part of Acts (2:14-36, 38-39; 3:12-26; 4:8-12) and moves through six interrelated stages. The healing is not done through the apostles' power (v. 12). The people rejected Jesus who has been glorified (vv. 13-15), and it is he who has healed the lame man (v. 16). Through the people's ignorance, God fulfilled the divine promise (vv. 17-18), and now they are to repent in order that God may void their sins (v. 19). The remainder of the speech promises Christ's return (vv. 20-21) and then emphasizes how God has completed that of which the prophets spoke (vv. 22-26).
In the sermon, Peter puts divine and human action in dialogue with one another: Humans act unjustly, God responds, and now humans must act. Peter carefully convicts the people of their complicity in the execution of Jesus. Then, in contrast to what the people have done, he declares what God has done in response to Jesus' death. Finally, he exhorts them to avail themselves of the gift that has become available as a result of this drama. The good news of the eradication of sin depends first of all on a confrontation with the reality of our guilt.
Peter interprets the meaning of the healing, much as he had interpreted the experience of Pentecost (2:14-36), because wondrous works are not in and of themselves evidence of the truth of the gospel. Like every event, they need to be interpreted in order to take on meaning. Peter turns the people's attention away from himself and James to the real source of the healing, although he does not specifically say that the man has been healed through Christ's power until later (v. 16).
Notice that repentance and eradication of sin are possible and follow logically from who Christ is. What he has done and what has happened to him construct the network by which God wipes away human sin. Jesus was betrayed by his own people and unjustly put to death (vv. 13b-15), but the ancient God of the Hebraic tradition ("the God of Abraham, ... Isaac, and ... of Jacob, and the God of our ancestors") "glorified him" (v. 13). Here "glorification" (or honoring) means resurrection (v. 15) and demonstrates that one of the early understandings of Christ's resurrection was exaltation or glorification. God snatches him from the grave and enthrones him on high.
Peter treats us to a veritable buffet of titles for Jesus, each occurring in its appropriate place in the argument. The first is "servant" or "child," and in Acts is one of the frequent words used to describe Jesus' relationship with God (for example, 4:27 and 30). This word appears in connection with the description of the one who glorifies Jesus and suggests that Jesus has a special relationship with the ancient Hebraic God and has by his death served that God. Next Christ is called "the Holy and Righteous One" which contrasts to the killer, Barabbas (Luke 23:18-19), whom the people had chosen to be freed. They have "denied" this one, who is here described in terms reminiscent of the Hebraic description of Yahweh (for example, Leviticus 11:44 and Psalm 7:9).
By choosing to have Pilate release a "murderer," the people killed "the Author of Life" (15). These two contrasting depictions ("murderer" and "Author of Life") emphasize the people's folly as well as the claim that Christ is the one from whom all life comes (see John 1:3-4). "Author" is a rich and provocative title, since the Greek word can mean "prince" (or "ruler"), "originator," or "founder," and "life" identifies physical existence as well as hinting at "eternal life." The speech further accents Jesus' identity by declaring in verse 18 that through him God fulfilled "what he had foretold through the prophets, that his Messiah (Christ) should suffer."
Because of who Jesus is and what he did, we may repudiate our lives and allow God to "wipe out" our sins. Christ empties sin of its power and renders it worthless. However the issue is still more complicated, as our next lesson demonstrates.
1 John 3:1-7
Written probably a decade or so after the Gospel of John, 1 John addresses the same community as did the Gospel, but it may not have been written by the fourth evangelist. First John is called an "epistle," but in fact its features are not those of an epistle. It seems to seek to strengthen a Christian community that has recently undergone a traumatic fraction. The author speaks of those who "went out from us, but they were not of us" (2:19) and proceeds to accuse them of a serious misconstrual of the faith (see 4:2-3). The issue of sin is among the charges leveled against those who have left the congregation. The author accuses the separatists of claiming that they are free of sin (for example, 1:6-10) and of all moral restrictions (3:4-10). The lesson is only a fragment of what 1 John says about sin (see also 1:8, 10 and 5:16-17).
The author has just exhorted readers to "abide in him" (Christ or God or both) and claims that those who act righteously are certainly "born of him" -- that is, believers' lives are out of and a result of Christ. To be born of God seems to mean the same as abiding in God. The discussion of sin that comprises our lesson arises from the author's view that those who are truly in a right relationship with God behave in a righteous way. The nature of "children of God" is the subject of the first three verses of the lesson, and verses 4-7 contend that children of God do not sin. The discussion of sin continues in verses 8-10, arguing that Christ destroys the power of evil and empowers the life of love.
The first section (vv. 1-3) begins by declaring that God's love (which is so prominent in this document, for instance, 4:7-21) creates a familial relationship between humans and their Creator. However, living in that relationship drives a wedge between those who are children of God and "the world" (which in Johannine vocabulary often designates the realm of evil and sin). While God's act of love in Christ re-creates us now, it is only a beginning, although we may not know precisely what the conclusion is. However, when Christ appears at the climax of history ("when he [or it] is revealed"), seeing Christ face to face will transform us, and we will become "like him." If we believe this, if we claim this hope of a future transformation, then we will want to live now in a way that is like what we are to become, and that means purification of our lives. Since in Christ we have become different from "the world," we are set apart and made special. This purification is something we accomplish; Christians "purifying themselves."
In verses 4-7 the author draws from verses 1-3 the conclusion that Christians do not sin. That conclusion necessitates contrasting "pure" with "lawlessness" (see 2 Thessalonians 2:3). In this context, "lawlessness" identifies those who believe that their lives are not restrained by any moral obligation of any kind (see also Hebrews 1:9). We may wonder if something like Paul's insistence that Christians are freed from the law (for example, Galatians 5:2-15) had been distorted in ways that produced the conviction there were no moral boundaries at all for believers. At any rate, the author equates sin with living a life without any moral obligations.
Christ appeared in order to "take away sins" (v. 5), so that Christians do not sin. However, 2:1-2 seems to say that we may indeed sin and need forgiveness. The key to this sinless life is tucked away in the meaning of "abide in him," which is the opposite of never seeing or knowing Christ. The Gospel of John uses the word "abide" or "dwell" to speak of the intimate relationship between God and Christ and humans and Christ. The word suggests a continuous association with God through Christ and in the Spirit, and this author argues that, if that relationship is real, we will not sin.
The lesson concludes with a simple and nearly obvious statement that those who are righteous act righteously. Perhaps, however, it is not so obvious. Could it be that some have understood righteousness as having to do with some inner character unrelated to behavior? Indeed, there are those today who understand our relationship with God solely in terms of God's declaration we are righteous without regard to our actions in any way. The author of 1 John wants to make clear that doing is constitutive of being righteous. The last sentence includes the phrase "just as he is righteous," which goes back to Christians' being "like him" in verse 2. If Christ is righteous, then those of us who claim Christ as our Lord strive to live in righteous ways.
Our second lesson takes the idea of God's eradication of sin to its extreme. The eradication is so complete, the voiding is so thorough, that there is no sin whatsoever in a Christian's life. If this sounds unrealistic, we need to pose it over against 2:1-2 and 5:16-17 to gain a balanced view. Still, this author argues that God's act in Christ is so radical and extreme that sin can no longer have any meaning. Christ's resurrection means that sin is alien to those who claim his life as their own. In Christ God evacuates all that is opposed to the divine will from our lives. There is no more drastic a statement of this belief than 1 John 3:1-7.
Luke 24:36b-48
All that has been said about the voiding of sin finds its basis in the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead and that there are those who can claim, as did Peter, "To this we are witnesses" (Acts 3:15b). This resurrection appearance has two basic components. In the first (vv. 36-43) Christ appears and has to convince the group of followers that he is indeed the same Jesus who was put to death and is now alive with some sort of a physical body. Once Christ has convinced them of this, he is then able to show the group the meaning of his death and resurrection in the light of the Hebrew Scriptures and commission them as his witnesses (vv. 44-48).
The eleven and their colleagues are discussing the report of Cleopas and his companion when Jesus "stood among them." Interestingly, the two on the road to Emmaus are also discussing "all these things that had happened" when Jesus joins them (24:13-15). The risen Christ is always appearing amid our struggles to understand God's actions. He greets the group with a classic Greco-Roman salutation, but one that has special meaning in this context. Luke's Gospel begins with the angels announcing the advent of "peace on earth" (2:14), and the story now concludes with Jesus' bestowing peace upon his followers. The disciples' reaction is understandable and appropriate (see 2:9). However, they apparently think Jesus is still dead, in spite of the report from the Emmaus travelers, and they must be seeing a "ghost" (in Greek, spirit). One of the points the first seven verses make is that the risen Christ had physical characteristics. We can more easily understand the resurrection if we believe that Jesus' risen body was pure spirit and not in any sense physical. The accounts of the empty tomb and several appearance stories like this one (see also, John 20:19-27) stubbornly deny a purely spiritual resurrection (but see 1 Corinthians 15:35-49).
The risen Christ sees through the disciples' reaction. They are not only frightened out of their wits, but they also are doubtful of what they think they see. This is not an occasion for fear but joy and peace; it is not an occasion for doubt but faith and confidence. To overcome doubt, Jesus invites them to touch him and "see that it is I myself" (v. 39). It's a double invitation: Jesus is not a pure spirit, and he is the same "flesh and bone" Jesus who was put to death but a few days ago. The story teaches the importance of taking the scandal of the resurrection in its entirety
Now the disciples seem ambivalent. They are at once joyful, disbelieving, and "still wondering." It seems that the invitation to touch him has not convinced them, so the risen Lord tries something else: "Have you anything to eat here?" And he sits down and shares a meal with them. As Jesus had so often shared meals with the disciples and others during his ministry, and as his identity was revealed to the two travelers on their way to Emmaus at table, he now eats with them again and, by eating in their presence, seeks to show them who he is. The fish conjures memories of the call of the first disciples who were fishing (5:1-11) as well as the feeding of the multitude (9:10-17). Moreover, there is some evidence that fish were consumed in a meal that included the celebration of the Lord's Supper. If so, the parallels between this story and the one in 24:13-35 are all the more striking.
With the group of followers now, apparently, convinced that this mysterious figure is none other than their Lord, Jesus can begin his teaching (vv. 44-49). The subject of his lesson is that what has transpired in recent days "fulfilled" the whole of Scripture as it was conceived in that day (that is, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms). The third evangelist clearly understands "fulfilled" in a broad and not a detailed and specific way. That is to say, Luke thought that in Christ God was concluding the revelation begun with Abraham. Fulfilled, in this case, may mean complete, and verse 46 suggests that his suffering and resurrection "on the third day" were the completion of the hopes pinned to the Messiah in Hebrew Scriptures. Readers of the Gospel will remember that Jesus had predicted his passion in terms of what was "necessary" (for example, 9:22, 43-45), a necessity that arose from what the Old Testament demonstrates was vital for a faithful servant of the Lord. The fulfillment of "on the third day," as we have mentioned in a previous column, is puzzling. There is no one passage in the Hebrew Scriptures that offers this as a forecast of the Messiah, even though it seems to be part of the earliest Christian understanding of Jesus' death and resurrection.
In verse 45 Jesus "opened their minds to understand the scriptures" just as he had done with the two travelers in the previous story (24:27 and 32). The risen Christ is a teacher, even as the earthly Jesus was, but the goal of this interpretation of Scripture is to demonstrate the roots of the disciples' mission. On the basis of the Old Testament, those who are witnesses to the resurrection become witnesses to gospel for all the known world. The good news is that people can reverse their lives; they can return to God and find forgiveness of their sins. Repentance and forgiveness comprise the message that spreads "from Jerusalem to the all nations," as Luke will show us in the Acts.
The risen Christ makes available the voiding of all sins "in his name." Because he has brought the whole of God's plan for the redemption of creation to its completion, now forgiveness is available. And if sins are voided, then we can enter into a new relationship with our Creator, a relationship based on our experience of the extremes to which God has gone to bring us out of our alienation and into a friendly, loving connection with our Lord.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Actemeier
[Dr. Elizabeth Achtemeier, an ordained Presbyterian minister and the Retired Adjunct Professor of Bible and Homiletics at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, is known throughout the United States and Canada as a preacher, lecturer, and writer. She is the author of 25 books and frequently contributes to church publications.]
Acts 3:12-19
I know a woman whose husband was an alcoholic -- I say "was" because the husband is dead now; he drank himself to death. While he was still alive, however, the husband would seek out his "drinking partner," a woman who lived across the street, and the two of them would party together, kissing and dancing and drinking until they both passed out. In fact, it was at such a get together that the husband had a heart attack and died. That forced the party woman, in absolute panic, to call the dead man's wife and to tell her where and how her husband had died. But it was no surprise to the wife. She knew her husband was killing himself, but she also knew about her husband's infidelity, and about the wild partying. Above all else, however, she knew how desperately the party woman needed help. Amazingly, the wife had been praying for that woman every day, and when the frantic, distraught neighbor called her, the wife rushed to the woman's side and comforted her and calmed her in her distress. Indeed, the wife visited the party woman every day thereafter and became a good friend to her, aiding her to recover from her alcoholism and to turn her life around. All of us who knew of the whole affair were simply amazed. "How," we asked the wife, "could you possibly forgive and help the woman who seduced your husband and with whom he was keeping company at the time of his death?" Her reply was simple. "It was not my doing," she smiled, "it was the Holy Spirit."
"It was not my doing; it was the Holy Spirit." That is very much like what Peter told the Jews in Jerusalem after he had healed a lame man who lay every day at the entrance into the temple court of women (the Beautiful Gate, 3:1-2). The people who saw the healing stared at Peter and John in amazement, but Peter asked them, "Why do you stare at us? We didn't heal the lame man. Jesus did." "The faith which is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health" (v. 16).
That is always the kind of answer that a person of genuine faith gives when he or she does some great deed. "It was not I, but Christ who liveth in me." "It was not my doing; it was the Holy Spirit." They claim no good or great deed for themselves, and they're not just being modest. No. They know, as our Lord taught, that apart from him, they can do nothing good in the purpose of God (John 15:5). But they also know that God in Christ and the Holy Spirit can work through them to do fantastic things, like turning a drunk woman's life around and healing a lame man in Jerusalem. They are not those who brag about their accomplishments, not even their religious deeds. They're not like the Pharisee in the temple who pointed out that he was honest and fasted twice a week and tithed a tenth of every coin he got (cf. Luke 18:11-12). They're not like those who tell about the great gifts they have given to the church, or who are celebrated as "women of faith." No. Their lives are focused on Christ and his faith and gifts, and their sole desire and witness is to glorify him. And so Peter, as one of the forbears of the company of such Christians, testifies to Christ's working through him, and the name of our Lord is glorified.
What is the name of Jesus, according to our text? He is first of all God's servant (vv. 13, 26), and therefore he is "the Holy One," set apart solely for God's purpose. For that is what "holiness" means in the Bible -- to be set apart for God's use. Our Lord Jesus never wavered from that calling, did he? Tempted in all things as we are, he nevertheless resisted every attempt of human beings to worship him apart from his Father or to glorify him apart from his God. "Why do you call me good?" he asked. "No one is good but God alone" (Mark 10:18).
Therefore Jesus is called in our text the "Righteous One." Righteousness throughout the Bible signifies the fulfillment of the demands of a relationship. And our Lord Jesus perfectly fulfilled his relationship with his Father and with us. Above all, God asks of his servants that they love and trust him with their lives. "You shall love the Lord your God" -- that is the heart of Old and New Testaments alike. And Jesus loved God, and trusted his life in God's hands, even when a cross loomed up before him. But he also loved you and me. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." And so to the helpless, the ill, the blind, the poor, and yes, to the children, the rich, and the sinner, our Lord brought care and healing and hope, and a brand new life for each and every one of us sinners here this morning. We may not have any righteousness in ourselves, but Jesus' name is "Righteous One." And by faith in him, you and I can share in his fulfillment of his covenant with God and be counted right in the eyes of our heavenly Father.
Indeed, by faith in Christ, you and I can be given a brand new life -- a new beginning, in which all the guilts and errors, all the wrongs and dumb decisions, all the misguided ways and sins, are done away forever. For our Lord Jesus is also, according to our text, "the Author of life," (v. 15) -- of a new and transformed life for you and me here and now, but also of life everlasting. Peter tells us in our scripture that he witnessed it. He saw Jesus hanging dead on the cross on Golgotha, but three days later, he testifies, he met Jesus Christ alive, raised from the grave as the Author of life for all who trust in him, and so given the power and the authority to conquer sin's death forever and to make all things new.
That was not all by accident, however, Peter continues in our text. It was all in the plan of God. God foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament that his Christ would suffer, in order that God might crucify all our sin and raise us all to new life with him. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." God so loved you and me. God so loved every bragging, proud, immodest, unfaithful, or unrighteous rag-tag soul on earth that he planned it all in the beginning.
And now what is our response to that sacred story, told us once again by the Apostle Peter? Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing -- new life! -- may come from the presence of the Lord who is with you!
Robert, also an ELCA pastor, is Bandy Professor of Preaching and New Testament Emeritus at Candler School of Theology and the Graduate Division of Religion of Emory University. He earned his Bachelor of Divinity from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in New Testament Interpretation from Northwestern University. He has written fifteen books and over fifty articles.)
The course through these three lessons is fairly clear. Each of them says in one way or the other that the proclamation of Christ's resurrection includes the announcement of God's act to void human sin. In the Gospel lesson, Christ himself commands the announcement of the good news of "repentance and forgiveness of sins" (Luke 24:47). In the Acts passage, Peter exhorts the crowd: "Repent, therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out" (3:19). The author of 1 John argues that, since Christ "was revealed to take away sins," all who "abide in him" are without sin (3:5). Christ's resurrection entails the voiding of sins.
We talk about the release from sin(s) with a variety of words, such as forgiven, wiped out, destroyed, abolished, and removed. Preachers always seek new ways of expressing old truths, especially the truths that have been declared so many times that they are in danger of becoming weakened. To find new ways of expressing God's annihilation of human sin, we explore different kinds of metaphors. Perhaps the verb "void" offers us a slightly different way of saying once again that God has freed us of the consequences of our sin. In legal settings when something is voided it is made ineffectual. To void a check renders it worthless. In other settings, the verb means to vacate or to empty. Maybe in our society this metaphor can help us understand and appropriate Christ's forgiveness and eradication of sin.
However, who has authority to forgive, to void sin? And how?
Acts 3:12-19
At the gate of the Temple, Peter and John have just healed the man lame from birth (3:1-10). The crowd sees this familiar immobilized fellow now walking and deliriously leaping about, and "they were filled with wonder and amazement ..." (3:10). The assigned lesson begins with Peter's sermon on this occasion.
This passage is one of Peter's four sermons in the early part of Acts (2:14-36, 38-39; 3:12-26; 4:8-12) and moves through six interrelated stages. The healing is not done through the apostles' power (v. 12). The people rejected Jesus who has been glorified (vv. 13-15), and it is he who has healed the lame man (v. 16). Through the people's ignorance, God fulfilled the divine promise (vv. 17-18), and now they are to repent in order that God may void their sins (v. 19). The remainder of the speech promises Christ's return (vv. 20-21) and then emphasizes how God has completed that of which the prophets spoke (vv. 22-26).
In the sermon, Peter puts divine and human action in dialogue with one another: Humans act unjustly, God responds, and now humans must act. Peter carefully convicts the people of their complicity in the execution of Jesus. Then, in contrast to what the people have done, he declares what God has done in response to Jesus' death. Finally, he exhorts them to avail themselves of the gift that has become available as a result of this drama. The good news of the eradication of sin depends first of all on a confrontation with the reality of our guilt.
Peter interprets the meaning of the healing, much as he had interpreted the experience of Pentecost (2:14-36), because wondrous works are not in and of themselves evidence of the truth of the gospel. Like every event, they need to be interpreted in order to take on meaning. Peter turns the people's attention away from himself and James to the real source of the healing, although he does not specifically say that the man has been healed through Christ's power until later (v. 16).
Notice that repentance and eradication of sin are possible and follow logically from who Christ is. What he has done and what has happened to him construct the network by which God wipes away human sin. Jesus was betrayed by his own people and unjustly put to death (vv. 13b-15), but the ancient God of the Hebraic tradition ("the God of Abraham, ... Isaac, and ... of Jacob, and the God of our ancestors") "glorified him" (v. 13). Here "glorification" (or honoring) means resurrection (v. 15) and demonstrates that one of the early understandings of Christ's resurrection was exaltation or glorification. God snatches him from the grave and enthrones him on high.
Peter treats us to a veritable buffet of titles for Jesus, each occurring in its appropriate place in the argument. The first is "servant" or "child," and in Acts is one of the frequent words used to describe Jesus' relationship with God (for example, 4:27 and 30). This word appears in connection with the description of the one who glorifies Jesus and suggests that Jesus has a special relationship with the ancient Hebraic God and has by his death served that God. Next Christ is called "the Holy and Righteous One" which contrasts to the killer, Barabbas (Luke 23:18-19), whom the people had chosen to be freed. They have "denied" this one, who is here described in terms reminiscent of the Hebraic description of Yahweh (for example, Leviticus 11:44 and Psalm 7:9).
By choosing to have Pilate release a "murderer," the people killed "the Author of Life" (15). These two contrasting depictions ("murderer" and "Author of Life") emphasize the people's folly as well as the claim that Christ is the one from whom all life comes (see John 1:3-4). "Author" is a rich and provocative title, since the Greek word can mean "prince" (or "ruler"), "originator," or "founder," and "life" identifies physical existence as well as hinting at "eternal life." The speech further accents Jesus' identity by declaring in verse 18 that through him God fulfilled "what he had foretold through the prophets, that his Messiah (Christ) should suffer."
Because of who Jesus is and what he did, we may repudiate our lives and allow God to "wipe out" our sins. Christ empties sin of its power and renders it worthless. However the issue is still more complicated, as our next lesson demonstrates.
1 John 3:1-7
Written probably a decade or so after the Gospel of John, 1 John addresses the same community as did the Gospel, but it may not have been written by the fourth evangelist. First John is called an "epistle," but in fact its features are not those of an epistle. It seems to seek to strengthen a Christian community that has recently undergone a traumatic fraction. The author speaks of those who "went out from us, but they were not of us" (2:19) and proceeds to accuse them of a serious misconstrual of the faith (see 4:2-3). The issue of sin is among the charges leveled against those who have left the congregation. The author accuses the separatists of claiming that they are free of sin (for example, 1:6-10) and of all moral restrictions (3:4-10). The lesson is only a fragment of what 1 John says about sin (see also 1:8, 10 and 5:16-17).
The author has just exhorted readers to "abide in him" (Christ or God or both) and claims that those who act righteously are certainly "born of him" -- that is, believers' lives are out of and a result of Christ. To be born of God seems to mean the same as abiding in God. The discussion of sin that comprises our lesson arises from the author's view that those who are truly in a right relationship with God behave in a righteous way. The nature of "children of God" is the subject of the first three verses of the lesson, and verses 4-7 contend that children of God do not sin. The discussion of sin continues in verses 8-10, arguing that Christ destroys the power of evil and empowers the life of love.
The first section (vv. 1-3) begins by declaring that God's love (which is so prominent in this document, for instance, 4:7-21) creates a familial relationship between humans and their Creator. However, living in that relationship drives a wedge between those who are children of God and "the world" (which in Johannine vocabulary often designates the realm of evil and sin). While God's act of love in Christ re-creates us now, it is only a beginning, although we may not know precisely what the conclusion is. However, when Christ appears at the climax of history ("when he [or it] is revealed"), seeing Christ face to face will transform us, and we will become "like him." If we believe this, if we claim this hope of a future transformation, then we will want to live now in a way that is like what we are to become, and that means purification of our lives. Since in Christ we have become different from "the world," we are set apart and made special. This purification is something we accomplish; Christians "purifying themselves."
In verses 4-7 the author draws from verses 1-3 the conclusion that Christians do not sin. That conclusion necessitates contrasting "pure" with "lawlessness" (see 2 Thessalonians 2:3). In this context, "lawlessness" identifies those who believe that their lives are not restrained by any moral obligation of any kind (see also Hebrews 1:9). We may wonder if something like Paul's insistence that Christians are freed from the law (for example, Galatians 5:2-15) had been distorted in ways that produced the conviction there were no moral boundaries at all for believers. At any rate, the author equates sin with living a life without any moral obligations.
Christ appeared in order to "take away sins" (v. 5), so that Christians do not sin. However, 2:1-2 seems to say that we may indeed sin and need forgiveness. The key to this sinless life is tucked away in the meaning of "abide in him," which is the opposite of never seeing or knowing Christ. The Gospel of John uses the word "abide" or "dwell" to speak of the intimate relationship between God and Christ and humans and Christ. The word suggests a continuous association with God through Christ and in the Spirit, and this author argues that, if that relationship is real, we will not sin.
The lesson concludes with a simple and nearly obvious statement that those who are righteous act righteously. Perhaps, however, it is not so obvious. Could it be that some have understood righteousness as having to do with some inner character unrelated to behavior? Indeed, there are those today who understand our relationship with God solely in terms of God's declaration we are righteous without regard to our actions in any way. The author of 1 John wants to make clear that doing is constitutive of being righteous. The last sentence includes the phrase "just as he is righteous," which goes back to Christians' being "like him" in verse 2. If Christ is righteous, then those of us who claim Christ as our Lord strive to live in righteous ways.
Our second lesson takes the idea of God's eradication of sin to its extreme. The eradication is so complete, the voiding is so thorough, that there is no sin whatsoever in a Christian's life. If this sounds unrealistic, we need to pose it over against 2:1-2 and 5:16-17 to gain a balanced view. Still, this author argues that God's act in Christ is so radical and extreme that sin can no longer have any meaning. Christ's resurrection means that sin is alien to those who claim his life as their own. In Christ God evacuates all that is opposed to the divine will from our lives. There is no more drastic a statement of this belief than 1 John 3:1-7.
Luke 24:36b-48
All that has been said about the voiding of sin finds its basis in the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead and that there are those who can claim, as did Peter, "To this we are witnesses" (Acts 3:15b). This resurrection appearance has two basic components. In the first (vv. 36-43) Christ appears and has to convince the group of followers that he is indeed the same Jesus who was put to death and is now alive with some sort of a physical body. Once Christ has convinced them of this, he is then able to show the group the meaning of his death and resurrection in the light of the Hebrew Scriptures and commission them as his witnesses (vv. 44-48).
The eleven and their colleagues are discussing the report of Cleopas and his companion when Jesus "stood among them." Interestingly, the two on the road to Emmaus are also discussing "all these things that had happened" when Jesus joins them (24:13-15). The risen Christ is always appearing amid our struggles to understand God's actions. He greets the group with a classic Greco-Roman salutation, but one that has special meaning in this context. Luke's Gospel begins with the angels announcing the advent of "peace on earth" (2:14), and the story now concludes with Jesus' bestowing peace upon his followers. The disciples' reaction is understandable and appropriate (see 2:9). However, they apparently think Jesus is still dead, in spite of the report from the Emmaus travelers, and they must be seeing a "ghost" (in Greek, spirit). One of the points the first seven verses make is that the risen Christ had physical characteristics. We can more easily understand the resurrection if we believe that Jesus' risen body was pure spirit and not in any sense physical. The accounts of the empty tomb and several appearance stories like this one (see also, John 20:19-27) stubbornly deny a purely spiritual resurrection (but see 1 Corinthians 15:35-49).
The risen Christ sees through the disciples' reaction. They are not only frightened out of their wits, but they also are doubtful of what they think they see. This is not an occasion for fear but joy and peace; it is not an occasion for doubt but faith and confidence. To overcome doubt, Jesus invites them to touch him and "see that it is I myself" (v. 39). It's a double invitation: Jesus is not a pure spirit, and he is the same "flesh and bone" Jesus who was put to death but a few days ago. The story teaches the importance of taking the scandal of the resurrection in its entirety
Now the disciples seem ambivalent. They are at once joyful, disbelieving, and "still wondering." It seems that the invitation to touch him has not convinced them, so the risen Lord tries something else: "Have you anything to eat here?" And he sits down and shares a meal with them. As Jesus had so often shared meals with the disciples and others during his ministry, and as his identity was revealed to the two travelers on their way to Emmaus at table, he now eats with them again and, by eating in their presence, seeks to show them who he is. The fish conjures memories of the call of the first disciples who were fishing (5:1-11) as well as the feeding of the multitude (9:10-17). Moreover, there is some evidence that fish were consumed in a meal that included the celebration of the Lord's Supper. If so, the parallels between this story and the one in 24:13-35 are all the more striking.
With the group of followers now, apparently, convinced that this mysterious figure is none other than their Lord, Jesus can begin his teaching (vv. 44-49). The subject of his lesson is that what has transpired in recent days "fulfilled" the whole of Scripture as it was conceived in that day (that is, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms). The third evangelist clearly understands "fulfilled" in a broad and not a detailed and specific way. That is to say, Luke thought that in Christ God was concluding the revelation begun with Abraham. Fulfilled, in this case, may mean complete, and verse 46 suggests that his suffering and resurrection "on the third day" were the completion of the hopes pinned to the Messiah in Hebrew Scriptures. Readers of the Gospel will remember that Jesus had predicted his passion in terms of what was "necessary" (for example, 9:22, 43-45), a necessity that arose from what the Old Testament demonstrates was vital for a faithful servant of the Lord. The fulfillment of "on the third day," as we have mentioned in a previous column, is puzzling. There is no one passage in the Hebrew Scriptures that offers this as a forecast of the Messiah, even though it seems to be part of the earliest Christian understanding of Jesus' death and resurrection.
In verse 45 Jesus "opened their minds to understand the scriptures" just as he had done with the two travelers in the previous story (24:27 and 32). The risen Christ is a teacher, even as the earthly Jesus was, but the goal of this interpretation of Scripture is to demonstrate the roots of the disciples' mission. On the basis of the Old Testament, those who are witnesses to the resurrection become witnesses to gospel for all the known world. The good news is that people can reverse their lives; they can return to God and find forgiveness of their sins. Repentance and forgiveness comprise the message that spreads "from Jerusalem to the all nations," as Luke will show us in the Acts.
The risen Christ makes available the voiding of all sins "in his name." Because he has brought the whole of God's plan for the redemption of creation to its completion, now forgiveness is available. And if sins are voided, then we can enter into a new relationship with our Creator, a relationship based on our experience of the extremes to which God has gone to bring us out of our alienation and into a friendly, loving connection with our Lord.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Actemeier
[Dr. Elizabeth Achtemeier, an ordained Presbyterian minister and the Retired Adjunct Professor of Bible and Homiletics at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, is known throughout the United States and Canada as a preacher, lecturer, and writer. She is the author of 25 books and frequently contributes to church publications.]
Acts 3:12-19
I know a woman whose husband was an alcoholic -- I say "was" because the husband is dead now; he drank himself to death. While he was still alive, however, the husband would seek out his "drinking partner," a woman who lived across the street, and the two of them would party together, kissing and dancing and drinking until they both passed out. In fact, it was at such a get together that the husband had a heart attack and died. That forced the party woman, in absolute panic, to call the dead man's wife and to tell her where and how her husband had died. But it was no surprise to the wife. She knew her husband was killing himself, but she also knew about her husband's infidelity, and about the wild partying. Above all else, however, she knew how desperately the party woman needed help. Amazingly, the wife had been praying for that woman every day, and when the frantic, distraught neighbor called her, the wife rushed to the woman's side and comforted her and calmed her in her distress. Indeed, the wife visited the party woman every day thereafter and became a good friend to her, aiding her to recover from her alcoholism and to turn her life around. All of us who knew of the whole affair were simply amazed. "How," we asked the wife, "could you possibly forgive and help the woman who seduced your husband and with whom he was keeping company at the time of his death?" Her reply was simple. "It was not my doing," she smiled, "it was the Holy Spirit."
"It was not my doing; it was the Holy Spirit." That is very much like what Peter told the Jews in Jerusalem after he had healed a lame man who lay every day at the entrance into the temple court of women (the Beautiful Gate, 3:1-2). The people who saw the healing stared at Peter and John in amazement, but Peter asked them, "Why do you stare at us? We didn't heal the lame man. Jesus did." "The faith which is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health" (v. 16).
That is always the kind of answer that a person of genuine faith gives when he or she does some great deed. "It was not I, but Christ who liveth in me." "It was not my doing; it was the Holy Spirit." They claim no good or great deed for themselves, and they're not just being modest. No. They know, as our Lord taught, that apart from him, they can do nothing good in the purpose of God (John 15:5). But they also know that God in Christ and the Holy Spirit can work through them to do fantastic things, like turning a drunk woman's life around and healing a lame man in Jerusalem. They are not those who brag about their accomplishments, not even their religious deeds. They're not like the Pharisee in the temple who pointed out that he was honest and fasted twice a week and tithed a tenth of every coin he got (cf. Luke 18:11-12). They're not like those who tell about the great gifts they have given to the church, or who are celebrated as "women of faith." No. Their lives are focused on Christ and his faith and gifts, and their sole desire and witness is to glorify him. And so Peter, as one of the forbears of the company of such Christians, testifies to Christ's working through him, and the name of our Lord is glorified.
What is the name of Jesus, according to our text? He is first of all God's servant (vv. 13, 26), and therefore he is "the Holy One," set apart solely for God's purpose. For that is what "holiness" means in the Bible -- to be set apart for God's use. Our Lord Jesus never wavered from that calling, did he? Tempted in all things as we are, he nevertheless resisted every attempt of human beings to worship him apart from his Father or to glorify him apart from his God. "Why do you call me good?" he asked. "No one is good but God alone" (Mark 10:18).
Therefore Jesus is called in our text the "Righteous One." Righteousness throughout the Bible signifies the fulfillment of the demands of a relationship. And our Lord Jesus perfectly fulfilled his relationship with his Father and with us. Above all, God asks of his servants that they love and trust him with their lives. "You shall love the Lord your God" -- that is the heart of Old and New Testaments alike. And Jesus loved God, and trusted his life in God's hands, even when a cross loomed up before him. But he also loved you and me. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." And so to the helpless, the ill, the blind, the poor, and yes, to the children, the rich, and the sinner, our Lord brought care and healing and hope, and a brand new life for each and every one of us sinners here this morning. We may not have any righteousness in ourselves, but Jesus' name is "Righteous One." And by faith in him, you and I can share in his fulfillment of his covenant with God and be counted right in the eyes of our heavenly Father.
Indeed, by faith in Christ, you and I can be given a brand new life -- a new beginning, in which all the guilts and errors, all the wrongs and dumb decisions, all the misguided ways and sins, are done away forever. For our Lord Jesus is also, according to our text, "the Author of life," (v. 15) -- of a new and transformed life for you and me here and now, but also of life everlasting. Peter tells us in our scripture that he witnessed it. He saw Jesus hanging dead on the cross on Golgotha, but three days later, he testifies, he met Jesus Christ alive, raised from the grave as the Author of life for all who trust in him, and so given the power and the authority to conquer sin's death forever and to make all things new.
That was not all by accident, however, Peter continues in our text. It was all in the plan of God. God foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament that his Christ would suffer, in order that God might crucify all our sin and raise us all to new life with him. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." God so loved you and me. God so loved every bragging, proud, immodest, unfaithful, or unrighteous rag-tag soul on earth that he planned it all in the beginning.
And now what is our response to that sacred story, told us once again by the Apostle Peter? Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing -- new life! -- may come from the presence of the Lord who is with you!
