DR. JEKYLL/MR. HYDE

Our BSF lessons have been so rich and challenging lately.  Last Tuesday our teaching leader covered the whole book of 1John in one lesson.  The thoughts about sin and God's love are still popping in my brain.

She likened our struggle with sin to how Dr. Jekyll wanted to let his evil side out...but he wanted a way that didn't ruin his reputation.  So the doctor developed a potion which allowed him to change into Mr. Hyde, sin as much as he wanted, then chug the potion and return again to respectability.

Ever had your own Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde thing going?  It's the stuff life in the world's system is made of.  And it sure looks stinky when the light shines on it.  That must be why the Lord tells us to walk in the light...

Could I give you one thing from each of the five 1John chapters that's been on my mind?

CHAPTER 1: SIN IS DARKNESS BUT GOD IS LIGHT.  God is light and there is NO darkness in Him.  Sin is a fixed attitude of opposition to God's person (ungodliness) and to His laws (unrighteousness).

Do you rub elbows with those who snort about sin as though sin is a fool's contrivance?  Views about sin may change, but God never changes.  It's what He says about sin that counts; He says sin separates us from Him.

Sin is burdensome, but the people who cozy up to God's character live lives of joy and contentment because we are wired to be in a state of wholeness (shalom) with God.

My take-away from Chapter 1 was "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us."  I was cut to the quick to realize that when I let confession slide...I am, in effect, calling God a liar.

CHAPTER 2: SIN IS THE DESIRE OF THE WORLD.  Sin is the dominant reality in our world, and Chapter 2 speaks of three dark things that call to people...the lust of the flesh (passions), the lust of the eyes (possessions), and the pride of life (power and position).  Know how those things were once good?

     a.  God gave sexual attraction as a gift for a man/woman in monogamous marriage. Now the lust of the flesh has turned it into a plethora of perversions.
     b.  God gave man eyes to see the beauty of creation so he would see how beautiful the Creator is.  Now the lust of the eyes idolizes "things" and man becomes covetous.
     c.  God gave man pride so that he could be proud of the Lord Jesus.  Instead, man turns that gift inward and thinks more highly of himself.

When believers sin, we have an Advocate before the Father who caused us to be born again by the Holy Spirit.  That saving grace is distributed by God HOW and WHEN He chooses.  Our immutable God never changes, but His created ones (angels and people) were not made immutable.  We change, and our free will calls for cooperation with the Spirit in order to learn obedience.  Grace is not an entitlement, but a free gift to praise Him for every day.

CHAPTER 3: SIN IS OF THE DEVIL.  There are two groups of people in the world.  God's children exhibit God's character...and Satan's children exhibit his lawless character.  Sin is incompatible with the character of God, but VERY consistent with the character of the devil.

"Now this is His commandment that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another...and the person who keeps His commandments resides in God and God in him.  Now by this we know that God resides in us: by the Spirit He has given us."  

CHAPTER 4: SIN IS DEALT WITH BY GOD.  Just as there are a boatload of false teachers today, in John's day men taught that Jesus was a man and not God.  John writes to say Jesus was fully man and fully God.  "In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins."  1John 4:10

In Genesis 2, God had warned Adam that disobedience would earn a death sentence...and not only for himself but also for his descendants.

What is death?  If you have ever lost someone dear, you know that death is physical separation.  But death can also be spiritual separation.  When Adam sinned he immediately felt shame, the result of spiritual separation from his Father.  The Lord COULD have given Adam immediate physical death (which would have meant eternal separation), but He chose to give Adam 930 more years to propagate mankind.

God also promised to send Himself to take Adam's punishment...but in the meantime He killed an animal to cover Adam's sin.  For thousands of years men came to an altar to express their faith that they would receive atonement in the death of a substitute.  Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

In the Old Testament, the blood of the sacrifice was taken into the Holy of Holies once a year and placed on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant.  That lid was called the mercy seat because when God looked down, he saw blood from the atonement and knew something had died for the sin.  That sacrifice propitiated (turned away) God's wrath from His people.

We know the blood of sheep and goats was just a foreshadowing and not a complete atonement.  But God accepted it because the faith of His people was not in the sacrifice, but in the Promised Messiah.  When Jesus became the Once-And-Forever Substitute, His death and separation from God the Father became the way anyone might come to God.  GOD DEALT WITH OUR SIN BY TAKING HIS WRATH OUT ON HIMSELF.  He did that knowing that men would keep on sinning.  The truth of that is stunning to me.

CHAPTER 5: Sin Is Dangerous.  Welcome to a sticky passage.  In this chapter the Lord is calling the believer to pray for another believer who is sinning.  Why?  Sin is dangerous when our hearts are hard.

Spiritual separation is not in play in the passage because God holds onto all who are His.  But an understanding of the "sin unto death" spoken of in 1John 5:16...is  that when a believer is sinning in a way that God considers harmful enough, He would cause a physical separation (death) of the believer so that the person stops hurting themselves.  We remember Ananias and Sapphira.  Such a sin wouldn't be a sin just "stumbled upon", but rather a continuous and willful, unrepentant sin.  The Lord does discipline those He loves.

What were my takeaways from 1John?  How can I keep my inner Mr. Hyde at bay?

Confess.
Conquer sin by craving God's words.
Cooperate with the Holy Spirit to exhibit God's character.
Choose sacrificial love over sin.
Call Jesus Lord.

John closes his book by saying "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols".  Our lecture leader pointed out that DR. JEKYLL IDOLIZED HIMSELF by blaming Mr. Hyde.  Of course, there was never a Mr. Hyde...only Dr. Jekyll who would "Hyde" his sins.  Aren't we so thankful that we don't have to be sinless to be in a relationship with our Merciful God?  We just come to Him clothed in Jesus' righteousness.  May He give each of us the strength to honor Jesus' name as we ask Him to cause us to live imprinted with His character.