Virtue
and Purity; The Impeccability of Christ
The
statement in 1 John 2:28, “Now, little children, abide in Him,” is the
controlling statement for interpreting everything in this section. We have seen
that the term to abide, the Greek word meno
[menw] is used by
our Lord in the upper room discourse and by the apostle John, not as a
reference to eternal salvation or being united with Christ in positional truth,
but is a term for fellowship. It is a term for the believer who is staying in
fellowship, the believer who is walking by means of the Holy Spirit, the
believer who is continuing in his path of obedience, learning the Word and
applying it in his life. Notice that this command is restated in 1 John 3:24 NASB
“The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by
this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” In between we
have some unusual statements.
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, 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 1:29 John the Baptist is specifically relating Jesus
to the Old Testament type of the lamb that was without spot or blemish. Then in
1 Peter 1:18, 19 NASB “knowing that you were not redeemed with
perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited
from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and
spotless, {the blood} of Christ.”
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,
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 1:14, 15 NASB “But each one is tempted when he is
carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it
gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth [temporal]
death.” That focuses on the response of the sin nature that is drawn to a
particular behaviour. Our conclusion is that Hebrews 4:15 must refer to an
external test just like Adam’s test related to the tree of the knowledge of
Good and evil. So Jesus is going to duplicate Adam’s test and will succeed,
where as Adam failed. By succeeding Jesus is then qualified as the second Adam
to go to the cross and died on the cross as a substitute for our sins. Jesus
Christ, in summary, was pure.
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