Gospel of John [20:19]. Christ's Resurrection, part 11 (fellowship with Christ and the Father - Antinomianism
length: 64:29 - taught on Apr, 30 2015
Class Outline:
Title: Gospel of John [20:19]. Christ's Resurrection, part 11 (fellowship with Christ and the Father - Antinomianism).
Announcements/opening prayer:
EPH 5:15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise,
The translation reads, "Be constantly taking heed how accurately you are conducting yourselves." That is, see to it that your conduct is accurate with respect to the demands of the Word of God.
EPH 5:16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.
"making the most" - redeem or to buy up for one's advantage. Metaphorically, it means, to make a wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good or zeal for godliness.
As I said in reference to Mary Magdalene, every day God gives the believer the opportunity to pursue substance and industry and enterprise.
That zeal and well-doing are, as it were, the purchase-money by which we make the time our own, says Thayer. "Time" is not chronos, "time as such," but kairos, "time as regarded in its strategic, epoch-making, seasonable, opportune seasons."
Mary Magdalene had a zeal and well-doing that was misguided in looking for the dead body of Jesus on the third day. Yet that same desire in her was used righteously when her ignorance was swept away by the truth.
The idea is not to make best use of time as such, which is what we should do in the sense of not wasting it, but of taking advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
"Evil" is poneros, "evil in active opposition to the good, pernicious."
The days are evil means that there will every day be opposition to the divine good fruit that we are called to produce. This is why faith is a fight, not against people, but against the sin and evil of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
So we glean a clearer translation:
"Make wise use of every opportunity, for the days contain active opposition to the good."
1JO 1:1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life —
1JO 1:2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us —
1JO 1:3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
1JO 1:4 And these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.
1JO 1:5 And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
1JO 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
1JO 1:7 but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we Christians order our behavior within the sphere of the light, John says, "we have fellowship one with another". But, to whom does the pronoun "we" refer? Does John mean here that we Christians have fellowship with one another, or is it that the Christian and God have fellowship with one another? This is decided by the theme of the epistle and the immediate context. The theme of First John is "The Saint's Fellowship with God."
In verse six, John addresses his readers who do not have fellowship with God. In verse seven he tells them who do have fellowship with God.
While it is true that when saints order their thinking and behavior within the sphere of the light they do have fellowship with one another, yet John is not teaching that here. He is concerned with the heresy of Antinomianism and its relation to the Christian in the latter's relation to God. Thus, those referred to by the pronoun "we" are God and the believer in the same fashion as verse 3, "that you may have fellowship with us, or in the same manner of us.
Antinomianism - The view that Christians are exempt from the demands of the moral law by reason of their reliance upon divine grace alone for salvation. [International Standard Bible Encyclopedia]
Although the expression is not found in Scripture, it is evident that Paul was libelously accused by his detractors of holding such a false doctrine.
Paul denied heatedly the accusation that he had called right conduct irrelevant to Christian experience:
ROM 3:7 But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?
ROM 3:8 And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say), "Let us do evil that good may come"? Their condemnation is just.
He again made this repudiation:
ROM 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?
ROM 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
ROM 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
[Go back]
ROM 3:7 But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?
ROM 3:8 And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say), "Let us do evil that good may come"? Their condemnation is just.
Evidently the teaching of Paul had evoked the criticism that it gave an excuse for sinning. Salvation by grace was said to have an immoral tendency.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness,
Nothing shows more clearly the true meaning of "salvation by grace" than the charge of immoral tendency. Some have taught that salvation by grace means that God works in the heart to make us disposed to do His will, and in consequence of that good disposition He saves us. Others have taught that salvation by grace means that God saves us on the basis of good works which He comes to help us do. If these things had been the teaching of the NT, no one would ever have slanderously reported that Paul was preaching that men should do evil that good might come.
The undoubted fact is that, throughout the long history of Christian theology, the doctrine of salvation by grace, that righteousness is imputed to the ungodly who believe in Christ, has always been charged with having an immoral tendency and the other explanations, those not of total grace, have never been so charged.
The proper position of Christian living is between Galatianism and antinomianism. It is not of works or of Law (legalism) yet it has demands of holiness in Christian life.
Legalism should be spoken against sharply and antinomianism as well. Neither moral degeneracy nor immoral degeneracy are the Christian way of life. Before sin was paid for and after sin was paid for, God hated it and will forever, which is clearly revealed in the Bible by His judgment of all of it and His destruction of all sin and evil in His universe. The unregenerate will be judged and removed to the Lake of Fire and the earth and universe that was contaminated by it will be fully destroyed and made new, never to be contaminated again. Before sin was paid for and after it was paid for God treated fallen mankind in patience and in grace. Christ died for all. All may be set free and live life in victory through the word of God and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
ROM 3:7 But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?
ROM 3:8 And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say), "Let us do evil that good may come"? Their condemnation is just.
And so, the truth, communicated by Paul, was slandered. Consider the motives that are behind the slander against the truth. Why do people do it? What is in the mind of a man who accuses God of injustice?
Those who slander the truth claim a superior justice. It is a proclamation that the divine standards are inferior to those of the one who makes the accusation.
It is the sin of Satan who wished to exalt himself into the place of God. It is not a request to God to share His throne, but to abdicate His throne and let someone else move in who knows how to carry on better than the deity.
One of the things that will be disciplined by the Lord will be the attacks that have been made against Christian doctrine.
"No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper;
And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their vindication is from Me," declares the Lord.
Therefore, it should be easy to allow yourself to be lied about and slandered for the sake of the Lord. The day will come when the accusers will be condemned and those who stood their ground on the truth will be vindicated.
"Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me. "Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Positive warnings against the insidious nature of antinomianism [anti - against; nomos - law] are found in the following passages.
2CO 6:14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?
"bound together" - e`terozuge,w[heterozugeo] = to be unequally yoked.
This does not mean all association with, but to be bound to.
2CO 6:15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?
2CO 6:16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,
"I will dwell in them and walk among them;
And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
2CO 6:17 "Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate," says the Lord.
"And do not touch what is unclean;
And I will welcome you.
2CO 6:18 "And I will be a father to you,
And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,"
Says the Lord Almighty.
2CO 12:19 All this time you have been thinking that we are defending ourselves to you. Actually, it is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ; and all for your upbuilding, beloved.
2CO 12:20 For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there may be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances;
2CO 12:21 I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced.
2PE 2:18 For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error,
2PE 2:19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.
1JO 2:15 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1JO 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
1JO 2:17 And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.
1JO 3:1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
1JO 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.
1JO 3:3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
1JO 3:4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
1JO 3:5 And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.
1JO 3:6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.
"abide" - communion or fellowship. No one who walks in the light walks in the darkness. They isolate and acknowledge sin to the Father and move on.
The context is practicing sin and lawlessness. Practice is conduct or walking.
Practicing lawlessness is disagreeing with God as to what opposes Him and thus claiming that God has an inferior code of life.
It's not a matter of what sins or how many for we can experience victory in all areas of life with growth in grace and knowledge, but it is a matter of agreeing with God that they are sin and against Him and as His children we are called to walk in the light of His righteousness.
1JO 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
1JO 3:8 the one who practices sin is of the devil [under his instruction]; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
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