The Type of Life – 1 John 5:11-32

Slideshow for this message is available 

Introduction
1 John 5

Today we really launch into the heart of our advent series. Unto us a Life is Given. There are three meanings packed into that title. Those three meanings will be the next three messages.

Unto us, a LIFE is given. Meaning #1: The LIFE is the LIFE of baby Jesus in the manger. This little life, little hands, little body was given to us. Unto us a life is given. That sermons will be titled, “The Gift of Life.” That’s represented in the manger. Meaning #2: The LIFE is the LIFE of Jesus given on the cross. That baby would grow to be a man. That man Jesus would live a perfect life and as we have been studying in the book of John, that man would set his face to Jerusalem to die. The lamb of God who gives his life to take away the sin of the world. The life of Jesus given for us. Unto us, a life is given. That sermon will be entitled, “The Price of Life.” That’s represented by the cross. Meaning #3: The LIFE is the LIFE we receive from Jesus. The result of that God-man sacrificed on the cross is that we now have eternal life. Unto us a life is given. That sermon will be entitled, “The Type of Life.” That’s represented by the light.

And this third meaning is where we start today. What type of life are we given in Christ? That’s the question for today. Sometimes the best way to give definitions is by contrast. What’s light? It’s the opposite of darkness. What’s hot? The opposite of cold. What is life? Well, it’s the opposite of death. Life is the opposite of every suffering and evil associated with the great enemy we call death. Whatever ugliness is represented in death, life is its opposite.

And to talk about the problem of death we are going to turn to the first death, to the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. So if you want to follow along in your Bible’s let’s turn to Genesis 4.

Genesis 4 takes place after the fall. You remember, God told Adam and Eve that if they chose to eat of that forbidden fruit, the day they ate of it, they would surely die. God was true to his word. When they sinned death entered the world. Now they had no idea what this meant. Death is so familiar to us but they didn’t know what it was. They had no category for this. What is sin? What is death?

Well the very first chapter after the fall we as readers are rushed straight into the presence of death itself. Death grabs us by the collar and shakes us like a ragdoll. It’s horrible. It’s terrifying. Let’s read.

Genesis 4

Genesis 4 begins in the labor and delivery wing just outside of Eden. Adam and Eve are proud parents of two children.

And so at first this seems like this is a story of life NOT death. Wow, life has been produced, seemingly out of nothing. Being the first human beings meant that everything you experienced was a first and there was nobody there to explain it. So you have to keep in mind how strange this child bearing process would have been.

Imagine being Eve. One day, for no reason you can detect, your stomach starts growing. And you think, I need to lay off the avocados and figs. What is happening to me? Why is this happening? I mean how strange. The child birthing process is bizarre, amazing, and totally alien no matter how much you know about it. But imagine if you didn’t even know that this was a thing! Imagine if you thought that the only way humans were manufactured was by God taking dirt and forming them and breathing life into them.

And then all of a sudden, this life is born. And you think, that was inside of me? How? So fragile. So much intensity surrounding the birth. I mean all of a sudden your life as a mother takes on meaning. You hold his precious toes. And you just gawk at how small he is. You look at his little smile. You notice his little floppy ears that are so soft and don’t have any cartilidge yet. I mean it’s just a rush of life.

What a special thing to be a mother. It’s the most amazing gift. It’s the most incredible job. It’s the greatest promotion of all time.

Listen to Eve’s reaction. There was no question in Eve’s mind that this was a promotion. She exclaims, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord!” I mean, she is through the roof with excitement. “I’m on a mission to care for this little creature and take care of his needs.” And she just pours her love and affection into this child. I mean, what a beautiful thing. Adam and Eve are holding in their hands LIFE. And as joyous as that moment may have been, there’s this haunting curse that is lingering, “The day you eat of that fruit, you will surely die.”

How would that death come? Well, the next verse informs us. These boys grow up and we discover they are on opposite sides of one of the greatest controversies of all time: one is vegan and the other is a carnivore. It’s no wonder they get in a fight. That’s a recipe for disaster.

Now apparently God had introduced the concept of blood sacrifice clear back in the garden. If you want to come to me, you need to bring a blood sacrifice. A sacrifice in the most basic sense is just the voluntary surrendering of something with value. We can sacrifice time, money, energy, etc. But a blood sacrifice goes beyond that. Something that is valuable AND living has to die. Why?

Because God in his GRACE AND MERCY is solving a problem and blood is an essential ingredient in the solution. What do we mean by essential ingredient in the solution. Now let me give you an illustration.

Let’s say you have to drill into a piece of wood that your holding in your hand. I mean if I want to drill a hole through this piece of wood, something is going to get sacrificed. Something is going to get torn up and consumed. If I just keep going, it will be my hand. But I can put a sacrificial board here. And if I do that, then the wood gets torn up instead of my hand. My hand can be spared. But there’s no getting around the fact, something is going to have to get sacrificed.

That’s the idea. By nature of who God is and by nature of who you are, something is going to get sacrificed. God says, “I am a consuming fire that cannot be in the presence of sin. You approach me without sacrifice, you will be consumed. You will die. Sin and death go hand and hand. But I will make provision.” And so the entire sacrificial system was created for this purpose

Leviticus 17

That’s why it needs to be a BLOOD sacrifice. Blood is the evidence that life has been given. It’s evidence of DEATH. The provision is that an animal can die in your place. I will allow that. I will allow that animal to be like insulating material between you and I.

So the concept of sacrifice was being introduced to this first family. Now we are told that Abel brought a blood sacrifice and Cain too brought a sacrifice, but it was a sacrifice of fruit from the ground.

From the way the narrative unfolds, it seem that God was in the instructive phase of this provision. He was teaching them what was acceptable and unacceptable. And he rejects Cain’s sacrifice. Though it cost you much, it is not sufficient to atone. Though you worked hard and though your intuition tells you it should be acceptable, the objective reality is that it does not represent adequate atonement.

And then we read this incredibly emotional phrase, “Cain’s face fell and he became angry.”

Man, that moment. To describe that moment in the human heart is a dark exercise. Have you ever had that moment where you tried to do something to appease someone you have offended and it wasn’t acceptable. Maybe you’ve entered into a significant conflict with your spouse and you try to atone for your failure by this giant act of service. Maybe you go out and purchase 6 dozen roses. Maybe you prepare a candlelit meal. Maybe you go all out and clean the house from top to bottom. And your spouse comes home and says, “I don’t want your gifts or service. I want you to actually change.” And the face falls and a dark shadow sets in on the mind. Man, if you’re not careful that exchange can go to some really black places, really quick. Because the feeling is that your legitimate attempts at contrition have been rejected. The feeling is that this person is being unreasonable and unfair and holding your sin over you and shaking it in your face. The feeling is that the real evil is not with you but with them.

That’s how Cain was feeling. God, what is your deal? Do you not realize how significant of a sacrifice this is? Why are you choosing favorites here?

But it’s a trick of the serpent of old. He is being bated to be trapped and consumed by sin. You see, the problem is the offering doesn’t address the problem!

Let’s illustrate the problem this way. Suppose you are on a hike and everyone has their own waterbottle. And you are super thirsty. And your friend is thirsty too but he forgot his water bottle so while you set your pack down to go to tie your shoes, he steals yours and guzzles the whole thing down. Not a drop left. Now you are dying of thirst. Your tongue is cardboard and your saliva is thick. You are angry. There is legitimate loss and offense and suffering that must be endured because of that selfishness.

And so you confront him. “Hey, that really cost me. Because you were selfish I’m suffering right now. Do you see that?” And so your friend says, “Oh man, I’m so sorry. I see that. Let me make it right. Here’s my bag of extra salty potato chips and pretzels.”

Now ask the question: Is it a sacrifice for him? Yes. Does it address the problem? Is it what you need to restore what is broken? Absoltely not. And if he gets angry and huffs and puffs, whose fault is that?

That’s what was going on with Cain. He was coming to God very excited to give him the fruit of the earth. You can imagine him planting the seeds. Watering them. Saying, “I’m going to just present this giant sacrifice for God. I’m going to give him two bushels of tomatoes. He’s going to be so impressed and thankful.”

And he’s picturing God with this giant smile on his face. He’s picturing God just floored in amazement and surprise, “Can you believe my servant Cain would be so generous with the crops he worked so hard to produce?” And then comes the day and he harvests all that food and brings it to the Lord and God rejects it. To God, this is extra salty potato chips. That does not restore what has been broken by sin. Your sacrifice does not address the problem. And Cains face falls. In an instant that sunny day in Cain’s soul goes pitch black.

You see, any time we sacrifice we must ask the question, who is the sacrifice for? Is it for God or is it for you? If it’s for you, then do whatever floats your boat. But if it is for God, then sacrifice in such a way that the relational problem between you and him is addressed. You see, it’s important to realize how selfish our “sacrifice for others” can be.

What’s Cain’s emotion according to the text? Anger is the emotional response that occurs when something we love is being attacked. What does Cain love right here? He loves himself. None of us like to hear how serious our sin is because we conceive of ourselves better than that.

Here’s what I’ve noticed about sin from my experience. I’m always surprised how deeply it hurts others. Isn’t this one of the most blinding elements of sin? When we apologize we always feel like our apologies are robust, sincere, and sufficient. When we receive apologies they always feel slim, shoddy, and incomplete. That’s because we can never see the seriousness of our sin. We are like men and women walking around in a pottery story with a 2x4 slung over our shoulder clueless to the fact that every time we turn we are raking stuff off the shelf. Our harsh words hurt far more than we realize. Our insensitivity and neglect goes much deeper. Our lust, our greed, our jealousy shatter relationship in ways we could never imagine.

Though it COST HIM MUCH, what Cain offered was insufficient and rather than learning was was necessary to atone for his sin, it caused him to be angry. God sees that anger and says,

What a powerful moment. Cain is at a decision point. You don’t have to be angry, Cain. Neither do you have to be rejected. You can be BOTH joyful and accepted. All you have to do is do what’s right.

You have a decision now, Cain. Will you now do what is right? There is a path forward, but it is repenting of your previous path and choosing the new path. And then there’s this powerful verse, “But sin is crouching at the door and it’s desire is contrary to you but you must rule over it.”

The picture is of sin crouching like a mountain lion right outside your door, right near the edge of the door sill. And the second you poke your head out the door, it springs on you and devours you.

Now the reason it’s such a good metaphor is that you have to be ready for it. If you don’t know the lion is there it will be on you before you know, you will have no way to react, and you will be consumed. But if you know it’s there, every step will be taken with caution, and if you’re just fast enough, you may be able to respond in time.

The type of anger that is ready to consume Cain is lion-like. It’s fast. It sprints upon us with claws and teeth. And there’s only a split second where we can react and escape to safety before it overpowers us and consumes us.

And the way of escape is the rehearsal of this thought. “If you do what is well, will you not be accepted.” Do what is right. There is a right thing to do that represents proper atonement of sin. Do what is right.

But Cain allowed that anger to devour him. How dare he not accept the sacrifice of my hard work? And now a new emotion comes upon him. It’s the feeling of jealousy. Jealousy is the feeling that arises when someone else has what you love. Cain wanted the approval of God and Abel had it. And jealousy when fully developed, when fully matured, brings forth death.

In anger, Cain uses some crude weapon to beat and stab and eventually Abel’s body yields and now Abel is lying motionless. He won’t move. His color changes. His skin doesn’t look the same. And the first death has come upon the human race.

At first the implications are not immediately realized. The anger cools down. And Cain looks and thinks. Oh no, what have I done. And like a pane of glass that is shattered never to be repaired again, he begins to pick up the pieces of that brokeness. He looks around and panics. And then his mother tears across the field and comes and screams in terror and falls upon her lifeless son. She wails and the tears come streaming out. And the tears just won’t stop. The pain of loss just scratches and claws and stings her dripping eyes.

And then over the course of hours, days, weeks and years, the reality sets in. He’s never coming back. The permanence. No amount of contrition can reverse it. “In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.” The curse has settled upon Eve in a way that was ten times more horrific that she could have imagined. The evil of death is not impersonal. The evil was in her own son. And now that same lion is crouching ready to consume her. Now she is hurt, bitter, and angry at Cain because Cain is now responsible for the injury to her heart. A part of her soul had been deforested and forever flattened. And Cain was to blame. Justice. The ripple of that sin begins to just run through the web of relationships.

Do you realize that sin can never be overlooked and repaired? Abuse can be redeemed but not undone. The scars will always haunt. Marital unfaithfulness can be forgiven but not erased. The fear and suspicion will nag for the rest of your life. Hurtful words can be overlooked but not forgotten. That open wound of the soul will never quite heal.

If you are the abuser or the one who has been unfaithful with your eyes or the one who spoke the harsh word, your great desire is that it be forgiven and forgotten. Let’s just have a clean start. But such thoughts are fantasies. You can’t hand your friend extra salty potato chips and say, “Let’s have a clean start.”

You wish with every fiber of your being you could roll back the hands of time and undo that decision. You wish with every fiber of your being that you could have a do-over. Give me another chance and I promise, this time, I won’t do it. But there you are, like Cain, standing over the dead body and no matter how sorry you are, it won’t breathe again. The damage is irreversible.

We need to stare into this reality and just let it sit. Don’t put lipstick on this pig. The longer you live, the longer you realize how unbelievably, irreversibly broken we are. We are DEAD spiritually and we will all be DEAD physically.

But God…. you see this is the glory of Christmas. UNTO US, a LIFE IS GIVEN! All that was setup so we can just hear the glory of the life that comes at us in 1 John 5:

God gave us ETERNAL LIFE. God gave us LIFE in his Son, Jesus. Whoever has the Son has life.

Now here’s why that is so significant. When we come to that moment of recognition and look at the consequences of our sin, we see that atonement needs to happen. We recognize that we are guilty. That’s built into the DNA of what it means to be human. Now, our default reaction is to get to work to fix it.

You see all of us approach our sin problem the way Cain did. We have this initial sense that we have done wrong. We have this initial sense that we have offended a holy God and what is our instinct? Our instinct is to work hard to fix it and bring to God a plate of vegetables. Our instinct is to get our tools of self-effort, self-reform, self-help and to start working really hard to present to God a sacrifice that we think has some worth to it.

And we think that by cleaning up our our act, that’s going to be really impressive to God. We think that by sacrificing a bunch of things that are really valuable to us, that’s going to regain us favor with God. “I’ll never do that again. I’m going to be really disciplined this time and read the Bible every day. I’m going to just go to really start being a servant to my family and serve at church.”

And we begin to stockpile our offering. We start comparing our offering to other people. “Well, compared to most moms, I do this.” “Compared to most dads, I really am a helpful servant.” “Compared to most Christians I really do have a pretty good track record. I go to church and read and I don’t do these things. See, look at my sacrifice. Look at my works that demonstrate my contrition and repentance. I want to show you just how glorious my repentance really is.”

And all God sees is a plate of vegetables. It’s extra salty chips. It’s not what fixes the problem. It doesn’t address the problem.

Jesus looks at all our attempts at atonement and says, “Vegetables don’t atone. Blood atones. where’s the blood?”

Now you might be tempted to be like Cain. Maybe your face falls. And anger wells up inside. I can’t believe God is so demanding and so unappreciative of my efforts. And God says, “Why are you angry. If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted?”

What is right? In the context, what is the right thing to do? To offer a blood sacrifice. To offer a life that is not your own. What fixes the problem of sin is not our efforts. It’s the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Whoever has the son has life. You see it’s the BLOOD of JESUS and the LIFE of Jesus that are so integrally connected.

Blood = LIFE. It’s why Jesus said so uncomfortably in John 6.

John 6

Now here’s the glory of it. If you come to God with empty hands saying, “All my righteousness is like filthy rags.” If you come saying, “All my righteousness, the best that I can do is salty potato chips, a plate of vegetables.” If you come saying, “Nothing I can do can actually fix the problem.” And further if you come saying, “My only hope is what Christ can do. I come with the blood of Jesus. I come with the life of Jesus given for me,” THEN and ONLY THEN, does Christ get inserted between us and the perfect holiness of God. THEN and ONLY THEN does he becomes the sacrificial board that allows us to be in fellowship with the Father.

1 John 1

You see the life of Jesus given for us is what purchased for us complete forgiveness. Complete atonement. It’s what the prophet Isaiah predicted hundreds of years previous.

Isaiah 43

Who is the one who is taking care of the sin problem? It’s God. God is the one. Now think about what this means. Unto us a life is given. Eternal life. All the tears of Eve shed over her firstborn Abel, wiped away. All the pain and suffering of broken relationships, wiped away. The joy of being in the presence of God and the shame of sin, wiped away and innocense restored. You see the joy of heaven, the joy of the restored creation is that abuse is actually undone. The hurtful words and the scars are actually remade. That’s the kind of life we get to look forward to. The pain of neglect is healed. Why? Because it’s fully been paid for by Jesus Christ. All the wounds, scars, beatings that the heart has endured are restored like soft baby skin.

What type of life are we given? It’s the opposite of death. It’s the opposite of what Jesus suffered on the cross. And it’s what we now glory in as we approach this advent season.
Hark the Herald
We are going to end by singing Hark the Herald Angel Sing. We have some traditional verses we sing but we are going to sing a couple of the original verses coined by John Wesley that very few have probably sang. And what I love about them is that they really speak to this problem and the solution.

What the author does is that he lays the sin problem next to the Christ solution and links it all back to this angelic announcement that the king has come. The reason it’s such a glorious news that Jesus is come into the world is because it fixes such a horrific problem. We have life.

So let’s stand and really proclaim the realities expressed in these verses.