The book of I John: Chapter 2 verses 1-2

My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is the propitiation concerning our sins, and not concerning ours only, but also concerning the sins of all the world. I John 2:1-2


1. If someone comes up to you and asks you to sum up the gospel in two sentences or less you could point them to I John Chapter 2 verses 1-2. It is here where we find a summation of the gospel. Christ, who stood in our place, (propitiation) took upon himself punishment for sins that He himself did not commit (righteous). He now stands in heaven interceding for us before God the Father when we do sin (advocate). The sins that he is advocating for are not just the nation of Israel’s but for any man in any nation that are followers of Christ (all the world).

2. John’s reason for writing the letter is made known to us in the first verse. He is writing these things so that we may not sin. I had written in the com box on my last post that John was perhaps warning the early church about the Docetism that was starting to creep into the church. They were bringing with them (amongst other things) the false teaching that one could live an immoral life and still have fellowship with God. John had just written in the last chapter that this was not so. The Christian who stumbles into sin will repent by virtue of his fellowship with God; being washed and cleansed by Christ. Here in the second chapter John makes it clear that this washing and cleansing does not give us a license to sin; in fact very purpose of this letter is so that we may refrain from sinning.

3. Having established the point that he was not giving us a free reign to sin with impunity John once more assures us that if we do sin we have someone who sits at the right hand of the throne of God interceding for us. Since we are Christ’s people for whom he died we need not fear judgment from God.

4. This gets over looked a lot and I am surprised that more pastors have not caught onto it. The early Christian church was made up of Jewish believers that saw in Christ the coming Messiah. Of course they are going to think that the Messiah has come to save his people, which would be people who were a part of the nation of Israel. Makes sense right? But fast-forward 15-25 years later and you start to have Gentile converts on a massive scale. (Mostly through the ministry of the Apostle Paul) Well the question naturally arises “what must they do to be saved?” It only makes sense that they must convert to Judaism and be circumcised, right? Well if you read through the New Testament you will observe that this was the predominant issue that the early church wrestled with in it’s formative years. You even see the beginnings of this controversy beginning to sprout during Jesus’ ministry.

And there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the Feast. Then these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying Sir, we want to see Jesus. Philip came and told Andrew. And again Andrew and Philip told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. – John 12:20-26

I am not going to exegete the whole passage but the announcement from Christ is a big one. Basically you have Phillip asking Andrew and then them both going to Christ to ask if he will speak to these Gentiles. Why the big deal? Because they themselves thought the answer from Jesus would be no; But what does Jesus say? If anyone serves me (read Jew or Gentile) the father will honor him. This is a reversal of thousands of years of training. Teaching that Gentiles could be followers of the one true God without first converting to Judaism was preposterous to the Jewish listener. But Jesus taught this throughout his earthly ministry and from there you start to get the true meaning behind John 3:16; It wasn’t an announcement of universalism or universal atonement (Jesus died for everyone) but it was that God has people all over the world and they are not found solely in the nation of Israel. Go back and read the reaction of Nicodemus (a Jewish religious leader) in John Chapter 3 to Jesus’ teaching on the subject, he cannot believe what he is hearing. (“How can these things be?”)

The issue is brought up over and over again throughout the bible:

A. In Acts 10 Peter gets a vision to visit the gentile Cornelius in Joppa. After Cornelius’ conversion Peter announces “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.” Peter, when he returns to Jerusalem, is confronted by “those of the circumcision” (Jews who taught that one had to believe in Christ and be circumcised according to the law to be saved) for going into an uncircumcised man’s house and eating with him but after hearing Peter’s story are forced to admit that “God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”

B. In Galatians when the Apostle Paul confronts the Apostle Peter over his hypocrisy of living like, eating with and fellowshipping with gentile Christians when living in Antioch; that is until he gets a visit from some Jewish Christians that had come from Jerusalem. (To eat with gentiles is one thing; to live like them is a different thing altogether) Why does Paul then get upset with Peter? Because he is sending the signal that one must do something in addition to having faith in Christ to be saved.

But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, "If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles; nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. – Galatians 2:14-16

C. The argument with “those of the circumcision” is taken from Antioch to Jerusalem where the church calls it’s very first council. Want to guess the subject?

Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. – Acts 15:1-2

From there the church decides that Christian gentile converts do not have to be circumcised in order to be saved. Peter (redeeming himself from his earlier hypocrisy) proclaims a the council::

"Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? "But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are." - Acts 15:7b -12

This is not an exhaustive list by any means but it does show us how much the early church struggled with the subject and why the writers of the New Testament had to continually reinforce the idea. Unfortunately, many fail to see this thread running through the NT and it has lead to some pretty poor exegesis (and beliefs for that matter).