Wrath Turned Aside | 1 John 2:1-6 | Walking in the Light
Sin rightly deserves the wrath of God. So where does that wrath land? In this sermon from 1 John 2:1-6, we look at two words you may not use often but that are essential to the gospel: advocate and propitiation. John writes as a father in the faith, calling believers to holiness while reminding them that when they fail — and they will — they have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. More than that, Jesus is the propitiation for our sins: he absorbed the wrath we deserved, in full force, in our place, so that we could walk in newness of life. This passage is a gut check. Do we say we know God while our lives tell a different story, or do we walk daily in the confidence that Christ has turned aside God's wrath and is at work in us to perfect his love?
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Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon from First Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Each week we dig into God's Word, trusting that the Holy Spirit will continue the good work of sanctification in us. With the World Cup being held in the United States this summer, there have accompanied this a lot of videos circulating out there of foreigners sharing their shock at particular parts of the American experience. People have been amazed by a lot of things that we're used to. They're enamored with the size of Walmart and Buc-ee's.
They're also amazed at the size of some high school football stadiums and basketball stadiums as well. One of the things that actually cracks me up the most is the way they're just— I don't have another word other than enamored— with yellow school buses. They feel like they're in a movie when they see a yellow school bus, something completely normal to us. Some people have been blown away by things like Waffle House. Mm-hmm.
I totally agree, I loves me some Waffle House. Yeah. And American barbecue, which I really understand. There's something about eating smoked meat off a bone, right? That's a decidedly American experience.
But some of the videos that I found the most interesting have been people commenting on the weather.
They have no idea— they had no idea when they came how much the humidity in most of the United States affects how the temperature feels. Now, my first thought is, just imagine if they were here to learn about wind chill. [LAUGHTER] What can we host in the United States in the winter that would bring people to learn what it's like here in the winter? That I want to see. But one of the most interesting videos that I have seen of people from other parts of the world and their experience with the weather was a gentleman who was talking to his phone as he was walking away from the swimming pool at his hotel.
They had to close the hotel pool because lightning had been spotted. I figured that was the way things were everywhere, but obviously not. He was shocked by this, and as he was recording his commentary on it, there was a lightning flash off-screen and a thunderclap that I can imagine shook the ground. The look of fear and disbelief on this guy's face was obvious. And as he stopped— was going to stop the video, he said that he was going to get inside.
He was terrified. Now, being an American, I thought that's what storms were like everywhere, but clearly they're not. I would love an opportunity to share with this guy that in the Midwest, a tornado siren isn't a signal for most of us to find shelter, it's a signal to go outside and watch. But this gentleman, his video was a reminder for me of how impressive lightning is. A close bolt of lightning at night lights up the sky like it's daylight and can shake the ground.
And while I joke about going outside in a storm, we all know that you don't mess around with lightning. I mean, a single bolt of lightning can carry up to a billion volts. And a bolt of lightning can reach temperatures that are 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun. And we've all heard stories of trees being split in half, and we've heard of other type of damage that they inflict, or maybe we've seen it ourself. And this isn't even thinking about the stories we may have heard about people being struck by lightning.
Now, there's a reason that some buildings need to be equipped with lightning rods because those buildings are prone to being struck. And a lightning rod isn't some kind of lightning repellent. It's not something that will convince nature to skip this building and strike this building over here. What a lightning rod does is it takes on the full force of the lightning strike and directs it through a cable so that the electricity can go into the ground, so that the building remains untouched and unaffected by the powerful force of the lightning strike. The wrath of the lightning needs to land somewhere.
The question is, where? So as we move deeper into 1 John this morning, We see an important truth about what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for his people. In the first chapter, we saw John talking about the reality of who Jesus is and the importance also of acknowledging our sin. Well, now as the second chapter starts off, we find what God does with our sin. Sin rightly deserves the wrath of God.
And the question that we have to face is similar to what I mentioned about the lightning. Where does that wrath land? So this morning, as we dig into the first 6 verses of 1 John 2, we will find ourselves looking at 2 important words that you might not consider too often. The first word we're going to look at is advocate. Advocate.
And the second one is the word propitiation. So as we start out, notice the term of endearment that John uses here. He calls his readers little children. He isn't calling them little children because he thinks they are immature. He isn't calling them little children because he thinks they are beneath him.
He is writing this as a father in the faith who deeply cares for his children in the faith. He loves them. He wants to care for them. This is why he is concerned about the false teaching and the laxness on morality that is appearing among these people. He loves his sisters and brothers in the faith like children and wants them to stand strong in the faith.
He wants them to live righteously. Yes. Often, parents are able to offer a perspective that the child cannot see. And they don't want to just apathetically let their child be harmed. They share what they see going on, and that's what John is doing here.
He's like a parent. He's being deliberate to tell them how to avoid the issues that are easy for him to see, but these people he's writing to don't see it and they don't seem to care about it. So John is writing with love in his heart and he writes for the purpose that they may not sin. And this draws out an important theme in our passage for today, and it's really a theme in the entire book of 1 John. Mm-hmm.
Included in the gospel is a call to holiness. It's so easy for us to come to the gospel with an understanding of God's grace and find ourselves treating God's grace as a license to sin. In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul anticipates a question that his opponents may offer as he's sharing the good news of the gospel. Yes. And Paul asks this.
He says, "Should we sin that grace may abound?" Paul's answer there, as you likely know, was: "By no means." But our actions regularly show that we live like we like the arrangement. Yes. I like to sin. God likes to forgive. What could be better?
But both Paul and John make it infinitely clear that the gospel is more than a get-out-of-hell-free card. It is a call to holiness. In forgiveness, we are to flee sin out of gratitude for the grace that God has shown us in Christ. Instead of thinking we've now got a pass to do whatever we want as long as we ask for forgiveness, We are called to live holy lives. The grace and mercy of God are to move us to obedience.
But we also know the reality. We've been forgiven. We are declared righteous on account of the work of Christ for us. But yet, we continue to sin. Even when we think that we've got something figured out regarding a sin that we've been struggling with, we will soon discover that there are other sins that need to be mortified.
And this is why John quickly says that if anyone does sin, they have an advocate with the Father. It is a great thing to have an advocate. They are awesome because they are someone who speaks on your behalf. And the implication in needing an advocate is that you aren't able to do it on your own. You can plead your case all you want that you deserve to be forgiven for your sin.
You can come up with all kinds of excuses. You didn't realize what you were doing. Maybe your excuse is your upbringing has conditioned you to think that this is okay. You can even say that the devil made you do it. None of those excuses fly in the face of a holy God whose law you violated.
Amen. Your condition is such that you can't even attempt to pile up good works as a penance for the sins you've committed. And this is why Scripture is clear that we are dead in trespasses and sins. The Bible is infinitely and abundantly clear about our inability. And that's why this idea of Jesus as our advocate is so powerful.
Mm-hmm. And notice how this Advocate is described. He is the righteous. You and I are sinners who are unrighteous. Our Advocate is the One who is righteous.
And remember back to the emphasis that John had in the opening of his letter about having seen, heard, and touched Jesus.
He is not just righteous in an esoteric sense somewhere out there in the ether. The body that John heard, saw, and touched was without sin. Your Advocate is one who is righteous, and He has a real human body. He was tempted, yet without sin. Not spiritually or figuratively, but actually tempted.
And this is who your Advocate is. And He is advocating for you today, right now.
Pursue holiness and desire to conform your life to God's law. But when you fail to keep His commands, know that you are actually forgiven because your Advocate is One who was righteous, and He was righteous for you. In Christ, your forgiveness is more than just admitting you did wrong and God saying, "Oh, that's okay. It's no big deal. I'll just forget about it." When you sin and you acknowledge your sin and you ask for forgiveness, the forgiveness you receive in Christ is rooted in the advocacy of the One who is righteous.
And as we move on to the next verse, We see John helping us, and he does so by explaining what all this means. Now, the word to describe what Jesus has done for us is propitiation. Now, this is not a word that you likely have used in the last week, so I'll make sure that we know what it means. So to propitiate means to turn aside wrath. And the idea is that Jesus takes on the wrath that we deserve for our sins, and he bears it in himself.
We do not receive the wrath that we deserve. It is instead cast upon someone who does not deserve it and can therefore absorb it and take it. Mm-hmm. John makes it clear as to how sins are forgiven and how salvation is made possible by using this word. Jesus was more than an enlightened philosopher or a wise sage.
He was a propitiating sacrifice for the sins of those that he came to save. Jesus is not just a religious guru. He is a very real Savior. And this was an important statement for the people that John wrote to in the first century. It is also an essential idea for us in the 21st century as well.
As you've heard me say many times, we so quickly come to believe that our problems are primarily psychological, that our biggest issues are emotional, And what we need are methods by which we cope with these problems, and so we put faith in that category. Now, these types of problems that we have are important to think about, but they are not our primary problem. We also tend to think that maybe our primary problem is financial, that what we really need is more money or more material things. We also can come and believe that our greatest issue is relational. Mm-hmm.
That maybe we need better friends or we need a spouse who understands us better. There is also the tendency that we have to believe that the greatest issues that we face are political. If just one law would be passed or another person that I like would be in office, then our problems might be reduced. And while each of these areas of our lives are an important part of the human experience, None of them are our greatest problem, and within them our greatest solution doesn't lie either. Our problem is sin and the death that resulted from it, and our solution is the sinless Savior who defeated death, period.
And John makes it clear that this is a solution not only for their sins but for the sins of the whole world. And before we move on to verse 3, it's essential that we stop and have clarity on this statement there at the end of verse 2. John is not saying the whole world here with every person who has ever had their sins propitiated by the work of Jesus, that every person ever is benefiting from this. When he says "whole world," that's not what he's saying. This is not teaching universal atonement.
Mm-hmm. For everyone because Jesus turned aside God's wrath. Like most statements like this one in the New Testament, John is pointing out that the saving work of Jesus is not limited to just Hebrew people. Jesus propitiated God's wrath for both Jew and Gentile. He's saying that Jesus is not a regional Savior.
He is a Savior for those who trust and believe, those from every tribe, tongue, and nation. That's who salvation is for, those who trust in Jesus. It's not just for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus turned aside wrath for the whole of humanity. All those who are given the gift of faith and trust in Christ alone for salvation have him as their advocate.
That's right. Before the Father. And this is unbelievably good news, and John wants us to have confidence that we are among those who have had the wrath of God turned aside. He says that we have come to know him, and we show this by the fact that we keep his commandments. Let's be honest.
This verse is a serious gut check. Each of us fail to keep God's commands, whether in thought, word, or deed, every day. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Often our lips give the impression that we are close to God, but at the same time, our hearts can be far from him. And I want us to slow down for a second.
And dwell on this for a moment. How does this verse make you feel?
What sin do you struggle with that might cause you to read this verse and you feel this statement deep down in your gut? Now, I don't ask you to pause on this to make you feel guilty.
I do it in hope that you will not only be convicted, but I do this so that I can remind you of an important truth. While we have struggles with sin every day, the fact that you have something triggered in you when you ponder this verse shows that the Holy Spirit is at work in you. Not in the feeling in your gut, but in the conviction of sin. Scripture is clear that the Spirit works to convict us of sin and unbelief. If you didn't worry about a besetting sin, then you truly need to worry.
Conviction of sin shows that you desire to keep God's commandments. So hear this good word from 1 John today and let it do its good work. Thank you. Work in you to drive you to holiness, but let it also comfort you with the fact that it shows that you have a desire to keep His commandments. Pray daily that you would put sin to death in your life.
Flee temptation. Turn to Christ. Trust that He is at work in you through His Word and Spirit. And let these words that follow here do their good work in you as well. Amen.
These words, they can cut through us. When we read these words, like so many other things in our lives, we are prone to focus on the negative. Most people seem to focus on their mistakes and their failures. I know that I can't be the only person who will occasionally remember something that I said or did that was not good 30 years ago and feel embarrassed and ashamed.
Our failures stick with us. John here is concerned with our failures, but he pushes us in the direction of holiness. Yes, in our hypocrisy, it is apparent that we sin. If we say we know God but fail to keep his commands, we are liars and the truth is not in us. We understand this to be true, but God in his mercy forgives our sin.
And when we keep his word, it shows that God is at work in his people. God's word is continually effective through the Holy Spirit to perfect the love of God in his people. And this is where the application from this crucial, crucial passage comes. Who are we going to be?
A liar who dwells in sin and shows the truth is not in us? Or are we going to daily get up and walk in newness of life with the full expectation that God is at work in me to perfect his love in me?
Will we, as the people of God in Christ Jesus, Live in hypocrisy or pursue him in righteousness. And John reminds us that as those who have had God's wrath turned aside by Jesus, we should walk as he walked. We should pursue holiness and keep the commands of God that he might be glorified in the perfection of his love in us. That's right. And the natural question left for us as we head out into the world this week with this passage in mind, it's not a comfortable question.
Who are you going to be? Will we say we know him and then have our lives tell a different story? Or will we get up each day trusting that we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to walk in newness of life, trusting that God is at work in us, to perfect his love in us? That's not a question we ask ourselves one time and move on from. It's a daily question and an hourly one and one you may need to ask yourself minute to minute.
It is answered in the small choices that no one sees, in the temptations you face every day. Amen. Will we give in and ask for forgiveness later, or will we persevere in the pursuit of holiness? Now, these verses that we've looked at this morning truly are a gut check for us. But remember, that feeling shows that you're experiencing the conviction of sin and that God is at work in you.
When I started out, I talked about that man who was not used to the power of thunderstorms like we have here. The look on his face when he heard that, the sky cracking and the earth shaking, was unmistakable. In that moment, he knew he needed to flee to protection. He was very aware of how desperately he needed shelter. [SPEAKING SPANISH] When your world shakes with conviction of sin, know that you have an advocate.
And you have one who has propitiated God's wrath, and he is your protection. He is your shelter. The wrath you deserve for your sin didn't just evaporate into thin air. The punishment for your sin landed squarely on Christ the righteous. He took it on for you.
Full force in your place so that you can get up from here today in full confidence that you are forgiven and that you have the gift of eternal life. That's a truth to motivate you to walk in holiness. When you step out into the world every day, you can serve God in gratitude because you have been saved. Your advocate propitiated God's wrath, and he accomplished salvation for you. So live in that truth and seek the one who is your advocate and turned aside God's wrath on your behalf.
Amen. Let us pray. Gracious God, we thank you that your word is clear, that Jesus has done all these things for our salvation. We pray that your word that we have heard today and the Holy Spirit in us would give us a great desire to glorify you by living lives of holiness to your glory.
As we walk in this life, give us a confidence in the forgiveness that we have, and may this cause us to not only live in holiness but to share the unbelievable news of the gospel. Amen. To those that we come into contact with each day. It's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon. For more information about First Reformed Church, head to our Facebook page or website, edgertonfrc.org.
“Wrath Turned Aside” is part of our ongoing series through 1 John, Walking in the Light. Explore the full series or browse our complete sermon archive to keep digging into God's Word.
