Doctrine of Resurrection; 2 Jo 10-11
John’s three epistles
focus on the importance of the spiritual life and fellowship with God. At the
very core of John’s teaching on the spiritual life in these epistles is the
concept of love. Love in the Bible is related to an understanding of what Jesus
Christ did no the cross. The barometer for our love for God is not how we feel, it is based on our understanding of His Word and on
our obedience to His Word. It is love for God that is developed through a study
of His Word. You cannot love whom you do not know. Only as we come to know God
through His Word do we come to appreciate all that he has done for us. As we
grow to appreciate all that He has done for us our love increases. As our love
for Him increases it, in turn, motivates us to live for Him, to learn more
about Him, and to apply His Word. As we are motivated by our love for Him, in
turn we learn how to love one another. Jesus said that we are to love others as
He loved us. This is the command that John reiterates in 2 John 5, 6 NASB
“Now I ask you, lady, not as though {I were} writing to you a new commandment,
but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.
2 John 1:10 NASB
“If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him
into {your} house, and do not give him a greeting;
The doctrine that John is
emphasising is the doctrine related to the person and work of Jesus Christ. We
have seen that the doctrine of Christ relates to six different areas: a) His
pre-incarnate deity, i.e. there eternality of Jesus Christ; b) His virgin conception
and birth; c) His impeccability; d) His substitutionary
spiritual death on the cross; e) His resurrection; f) His literal future second
coming to the earth when He will establish His kingdom on the earth for 1000
years.
John is warning the
believers of the infiltration of Gnosticism into the congregation. Paul did the
same thing for Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:20 NASB “O Timothy, guard what
has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly {and} empty chatter {and} the
opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”[gnwsij]—[21] which some have professed and thus gone astray
from the faith.” In the ancient world the problem was this dualistic Gnosticism
and Docetism that denied the genuine humanity of
Jesus Christ. This appealed to the intellectual of that day who had no problem believing
that there was some sort of deity out there but had a problem thinking that
that deity could become man. Today we live in an era of a different kind of
Gnosticism, a Gnosticism that rejects the existence of God, a Gnosticism that
believes that everything around just happened by chance and that everything is
the product of just material causes and that there is no real difference,
therefore, between a human being and a rock. There is still today the problem of
the infiltration of false doctrine into the local church.
That could happen a number of different ways. There is always the overt
approach where some individual or some cult group targets a local congregation.
For example, there are those who are “charismatic,” those who believe that
speaking in tongues, healing, and the sign gifts are still in effect today and
that somehow there is a level of super spirituality that they define as the
filling of the Spirit. There will always be those individuals who will go to
some congregation hoping to enlighten everybody in the congregation to the role
of the Holy Spirit. Then there is another approach from cults. Also today there
is a problem with more militant groups such as militant feminists and militant
sodomites who attempt to infiltrate local churches in order to promote their
views and in order to wreak havoc on fundamentalist evangelical churches. This
is one reason that churches need to make certain that they have their positions
on these issues clearly stated in their doctrinal statement and membership
materials. If they are so stated then they have a basis for excluding this kind
of thing from ever creating a problem or division in a local congregation. Then
there are more subtle approaches for getting false doctrine into a local
church. One happens when people are allowed to teach who aren’t properly
oriented to the local church. Another problem is when a guest speaker comes in
and introduces some false concepts.
The importance of the resurrection
1. In the resurrection Jesus conquered physical death
which is the greatest consequence of sin. Genesis 3:14ff outlines the various
consequences of sin and physical death is the last one mentioned.
2. The resurrection validates Jesus’ sacrificial
substitutionary payment for the sins of humanity. It is God’s seal of approval,
His acceptance of Christ’s payment for our sins.
3. It was a sign to the Jews. Matthew 12:39, 40 NASB
“An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and {yet} no sign will be
given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;
4. There have been various attempts to explain away the
resurrection. Frank Morison, an agnostic back in the 50s and 60s, sought to
disprove the case for Christianity and the resurrection. But like so many who
had gone before him he ended up realising that there was more proof for the
resurrection of Jesus Christ than for any other event in history.
5. The resurrection of Christ is important because it is
the basis for the doctrine of our victory over death. It validates who Jesus
Christ was and what he claims to do on the cross, and was a sign of God’s
acceptance of that sacrifice. The disciples were scared to death when Jesus was
arrested, and they fled. But when they saw Jesus Christ in His resurrection
body they had the courage to preach His resurrection for the remainder of their
lives, many of whom died a martyr’s death because of that position. The
resurrection is not a myth; the resurrection is the foundation of Christianity.
It is the resurrection that tells us that the tomb was empty.