Virtue and Purity; The
Impeccability of Christ
The statement in 1 John
Notice that the concept of
abide is often linked with the prepositional phrase “in Him.” There are some
places such as verse 5 where there is the phrase “in Him” we don’t have the use
of the word “abide” but it is clearly implied. Where we see the phrase “in Him”
in this section John is talking about abiding in Him; we can’t separate the
two.
John says several things
about abiding. For example, in 1 John 2:5 he states that “we know that we are [abiding]
in Him” by keeping His commandments. If abiding in Him is salvation then that
would imply that we know we are saved by keeping His commandments, and that
would be a works salvation. So consistent obedience to the mandates of
Scripture is what characterises the person who is abiding. Furthermore, in 1
John 2:6 John says the one who abides in Him walks as He walked. That is, he
lives like Jesus lived. What exactly does that mean? Not only does that have to
do with external obedience but it has to do with the means by which Jesus
lived. He lived a life in dependence upon God the Holy Spirit. John also says
that no one who abides in Jesus sins, 1 John 3:6. Does that means
that the believer can live a sinless life? If abiding in Him was salvation then
that would mean that whoever is a believer doesn’t sin. That seems to be a
contradiction to what John says 1 John 1:7, that if we say we have no sin we
deceive ourselves. So John clearly states that the believer can and does sin. So
in verse 6 abiding must mean something more than simply being a believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ; it must imply an additional kind of relationship with Jesus
and when that relationship is in effect we don’t sin. Once we do sin we are out
of fellowship. In 1n John 3:24 John says, “The one who keeps His commandments
abides in Him.” So there is a level of obedience, a level of righteousness,
that characterises abiding in Christ.
1 John 3:3 NASB “And
everyone who has this hope {fixed} on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”
So to understand what it means to purify ourselves we have to understand the
comparative there: that it is as
Jesus is pure. Then in verse
5 NASB “You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in
Him there is no sin.” Furthermore, in verse 6 we have the statement that
whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. We are to practice
righteousness. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Then in verse 7, “the one
who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.” Notice, we
are to be pure as He is pure, there is to be no sin as there is no sin in Him;
we are to be righteous as He is righteous. Then in verse 9 we are told “whoever
has been born of God does not sin, for his seed [of Christ in terms of our
regeneration] abides in Him,” so again it emphasises the concept of not
sinning. That seems to be a contradiction. Is this somehow John getting
confused here, that he forgets what he said in 1:7 that if we say we have no sin
we deceive ourselves? So we have to look at this very carefully in order to
understand exactly what is going on here because John almost seems to be hitting
the high points and it almost seems like he is just summarising something that
he has already taught in detail to this congregation; that they know what he is
talking about, that they have a frame of reference and as it were he is using
almost a verbal shorthand to hit them with the basic commands, reminding them
of he has taught them already. We have to understand that background, believed
to be the upper room discourse, before we can fully grasp what he says here.
But the background for this doctrinally
is the purity of Christ. We are to be pure as He is pure; we are to be
practicing righteousness as he is righteous.
The doctrine of the impeccability
of Jesus Christ
A. The reality of His purity
1.
Impeccability refers to the sinlessness of Jesus Christ. A formal
definition would read: Impeccability is that doctrine
of Christology which recognises the fact that during the entire course of the
dispensation of the Messiah, between the time of our Lord’s incarnation and His
death on the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ did not sin, though He was tempted in
His humanity and the temptations were real. The term “impeccability”
comes from the Latin root peccare which means to sin. So impeccable means sinless.
2.
In church history
this doctrine has never been challenged, it has always been affirmed since the
earliest days of the church.
3.
In the Middle Ages further understanding of this doctrine developed
the terminology that is often used posse
non peccarre and non posse peccarre—able not to sin; not
able to sin. In Christ’s deity He was not able to sin. God is immutable, He
could not change; therefore He was not able to sin. In His humanity He was able
to sin but in His life He was able not to sin.
4.
The doctrine of
the impeccability of Christ is related to
understanding the nature and reality of His temptations. Hebrews 4:15 NASB
“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
but One who has been tempted in all things as {we are, yet} without sin.” The Greek
here for tempt, peirazo [peirazw], means both to test and to tempt. A temptation is in
fact a test, so we should translate it “One who has been tested.” Jesus Christ
did not have a sin nature but He had a test, a test of His volition. The test
was going to be positive; it was outside of Him and was a test as to whether He
would obey. Hebrews 7:26 NASB “For it was fitting for us to
have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and
exalted above the heavens.” He is that because He passed the tests in His
humanity.
5.
The Old Testament
precedent was the type of the lamb that was without spot or blemish. Exodus
12:5; 29:1. In John
6.
Jesus had to
demonstrate as a Man that He could pass the test that Adam failed. That is the
analogy. It is not that He had to pass the tests that you and I have because we
have a sin nature; but He had to pass the test that Adam failed because He is
the second Adam; He is the ideal Man, and by passing the same category of tests
again and again that Adam failed He qualified as the representative for our
sins. a) The first Adam was both peccable and
temptable—able to be tempted and able to sin. In the garden
of Eden he could be and was tempted, and he was capable of sinning through the
use of his own volition in response to that temptation. Like the last Adam he
is tempted from the outside; it is a test, Adam did not have a sin nature,
there was nothing inside of Adam that was a temptation to cause him to sin. The
doctrine of total depravity is that we are born with a bent toward sin that we
can’t fight; we are born enslaved to sin. There was only one way Adam could sin
and that was by eating the forbidden fruit; b) The
word for temptation in Greek is peirazo
[peirazw] which means both to test and to tempt. Adam was
tested in the garden; c) The problem we always run into in understanding this
is that we want to read into temptation the idea of being predisposed to
something, being attracted to something. Jesus is not tempted in that way; He
is not drawn to something, not predisposed to something from an internal
predisposition to sin called the sin nature. It is an external test, but that
doesn’t make it any less real or any less of a difficulty. James uses the word “tempt”
in that secondary subjective sense in James
7.
The last Adam is
Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. The hypostatic union describes the union of
two natures, divine and human, in the one person of Jesus Christ. There are two
natures; not two persons. One nature is undiminished deity,
the other is true humanity just as Adam was true humanity. We are fallen
humanity, distorted humanity, because of sin; we are not true humanity, we have
been warped, distorted from the original pattern that Adam had. With Jesus
these two natures are united together at the incarnation in one person. Whatever
He does it is as one person. The question has come up: How can His deity have
been separated from God the Father on the cross. It is not ontologically
separated. By that is meant in terms of His essence He is not essentially in
His core being separated from the Father, He is judicially separated. It was
impossible for His deity to be essentially separated from the Father. He said: “I
and the Father are one.” That is an unbreakable unity. But it was judicially
separated during that time when sin was poured out on Him; one person, Jesus
Christ, suffered. That does not mean that deity suffered because deity can’t
suffer; the person suffered. Certain things that Jesus did were evidence of His
true humanity; other things that He did were evidence that He was God. In the
hypostatic union the two natures are inseparably united without loss or mixture
of separate identity. There is no blending back and forth where deity crosses
over to humanity or deity to humanity. Such would mean that the humanity would
not longer be true humanity and the deity would no longer be true deity. And He
has to maintain true humanity in order to die on the cross as the substitute
for mankind.
8.
As deity Jesus
was not temptable and He could not sin. We know this from James 1:13 NASB
“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot
be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt
anyone.” This is that internal subjective attraction to sin. But in His
humanity Jesus had the potential of sin. There was a real and genuine test
going on.
9.
Jesus passed
every test and during His first advent he was temptable but did not sin. What
was the means by which He endured that testing?
10.
Our Lord Jesus
Christ during His first advent was not able to sin in His deity and was able
not to sin in His humanity. He resisted sin, He did not sin; He stayed on
positive volition and was completely obedient to the Father throughout the incarnation.
11.
In His humanity
Jesus Christ faced every category of testing that any human being will face,
yet He refused to succumb to these external temptations by reliance on God the
Holy Spirit. This demonstrates the unique spiritual life and soul fortress that
was provided for us by God. This is the spiritual life that was pioneered by
Jesus Christ.
B. The means of His purity