Forgiveness and Cleansing; 1 John
1 John
“…because your sins have been
forgiven you for His name’s sake.” This is not the best translation and we have
to pull out some emphases, otherwise it would seem as if John is saying that
because you are little children your sins are automatically forgiven. There are
some people who believe that and teach that, i.e. that because Christ died on
the cross for our sins that our sins are not only paid for but all sins, past,
present and future, are forgiven, and so we never need to confess our sins. That
is not what this is implying or saying. The phrase hoti aphiemi [o(ti a)fihmi]. hoti is
the causal particle and it can refer to cause, but it also can introduce either
a direct or indirect quotation and it also has an explanatory force. This is
not a causal hoti and it shouldn’t
be translated “because.” He is giving a reason, but a reason is not always a
cause. There is a distinction between cause and effect. He is not writing
because their sins are forgiven. That would means that “their sins are forgiven”
directly caused his writing. He is not writing to them because their sins are
forgiven, he is writing to them because they are being impacted by false
teaching. He is writing to them since
their sins are forgiven; he is writing to them in light of the fact that their
sins are forgiven. We might even say “for your sins are forgiven; “for” implies
an explanation. The word for sins is the standard word hamartia [a(martia] which refers to sin, missing the mark of God’s
standard. Every single sin, past, present and future, was paid for by Jesus Christ
on the cross. In the English it says “your sins” but that implies a genitive
construction—the sins of you, possession. That is not what the Greek says, it says “the sins to you are forgiven,” the sins that
you have committed. Literally it should be translated: “because the sins are
forgiven to you.” It is a dative of advantage.
Then the final phrase: “for
His name’s sake.” That doesn’t mean a whole lot to us, partly because we don’t use
the word “name” in the same sense that the writers of Scripture used it, but
also because the translators—especially of the NASB—shifted the two words. They
put “for” at the end—“for His name’s sake”—as if they are explaining a reason,
and they put “because” at the beginning as if that was cause. They got it
reversed. It is “because of His name,”
the preposition dia [dia] plus the accusative for “name.” That is important
because dia plus the accusative means
cause, and what this is saying is that the cause for our forgiveness is Him. It
is His name, and name in the Bible relates to the character of somebody. So
what John is saying here is: “I am writing to you … for the sins are forgiven
to you because of His character.” The basis for forgiveness is His character, it is not based on the fact that we were shocked
and remorseful.
The important verb here is aphiemi [a)fihmi], third person plural, perfect passive indicative.
This is the key to understanding what John is saying. The indicative is the
mood of reality, of fact, so it is stating a fact about our sins, that they are
forgiven. The passive voice means that the subject receives the action of the
verb. The third person plural is because it is talking about their sins. The sins
receive the action of the verb. The perfect tense is where we have to be
careful in the Greek. There are various nuances to the perfect tense in the
Greek; it is not like the perfect tense in the English. It emphasises action
that is completed in the past with results that go on. It can either emphasise
the completedness of the action or it can emphasise
the abiding results of the completed action. If the emphasis is on the
continuing or abiding results of the action, that is
what is called an intensive perfect. There is another nuance to the perfect
which is typical of most verbs and that is a gnomic aspect. Gnomic refers to
something which is the proverbial, something that is normative characteristic,
a general principle; something that is envisioned on many occasions or for many
individuals, something that is generally true at all times. The interesting
thing about the syntax of the perfect tense is when there is a gnomic perfect
tense it doesn’t do away with either the intensive or the extensive nuance of
the verb. So what we have here is that it is still extensive, it is a general
principle emphasising the present ongoing reality. What this means is that he
is writing to the congregation and is saying that “your sins are continuously
now (present tense) being forgiven you as a general matter of course because of
a past completed action. That past completed action is what he referred to back
in 1 John 1:7 which states the basis for our cleansing; 1 John 1:9 states the
occasion for the application of that forgiveness—If we
confess our sins. If we are automatically cleansed of our sins just because we
are saved then 1 John 1:9 is irrelevant and we don’t need to confess our sins.
On the temporal side we still
sin. When we are filled by the Holy Spirit and walking by means of the Holy
Spirit is where we are enjoying fellowship. We can never get out of our eternal
relationship with God but we get out of our temporal fellowship whenever we
sin. We still have a sin nature and can commit any sin, and when we do we are
out of fellowship and walking in darkness. But when we confess our sins (1 John
1:9) we are restored to fellowship and we start walking by the Holy Spirit
again. The point is to stay walking in the light, to continue to abide, because
that is the status of being cleansed. The issue in 1 John 1:9 is cleansing.
Exodus 29:1-6. When the high
priest was installed in the high priesthood he was washed from head to toe. In the LXX the word louo [louw] to describe that. It lectured
salvation. But the priest would do things and go places that were wrong and
sinful, so every time after that when the priest went into the tabernacle or
the temple he had to go to the golden laver to wash his hands and wash his
feet, but not his whole body.
John chapter 13 is the
beginning of the upper room discourse. Jesus us preparing them for the meal and
He is going to wash their feet. [7] “What I do you do not realize now, but you
will understand hereafter.” In other words, this isn’t a vital principle for
right now because you are still under the Mosaic Law. It is going to be in the
church age ministry of God the Holy Spirit that they were going to understand
the significance of what he was getting ready to do. [8] Peter said to Him,
“Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him,
“If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” The Greek word here for wash
is nipto [niptw], the same LXX word used for hand washing and foot washing of the
high priest when he went into the tabernacle or the temple, not the word luo used for the overall washing. In
Jesus’ response to Peter we have the word meros
[meroj], a technical word used in legal testamentary literature
(a will) in order to indicate the inheritance, share or portion given to the
heir. What He is saying to Peter is, “If you don’t let me forgive you for your
post-salvation sins by washing your feet [that is the symbolism] you are not
going to have an inheritance because all your obedience between here and the
time you die is going to be in the flesh, and human good not divine good,
because you are not going to be in fellowship at all. [1] “Jesus said to him, ‘He
who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean [katharizo /kaqarizw]…’” katharizo
is the same word as used in 1 John 1:9.
Revelation