In the past few days, I read 1-3 John and am making a start through Revelation. I share here some brief notes on a few texts that stood out for me in my readings:
1 John 2:1-2
My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not, and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
In this pericope, John is addressing believers whose sins have been forgiven; however, he also informs them that if and when they do sin, they can have every confidence that their then-future sins will be forgiven due to the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Interestingly, Jesus is said to be a present “atoning sacrifice” (Greek: ιλασμος), as John uses the present tense (εστιν). In many theologies, when one is justified, not only are one’s past and then-present sins forgiven, but also one’s then-future sins, and any repentance after one’s justification is only “fatherly discipline” but nothing to do with one’s fellowship with God. However, this pericope provides biblical proof that justification does not result in a “blanket forgiveness”; instead, one’s then-future sins are only forgiven when one repents and seeks forgiveness through Jesus Christ, who John refers to as a paracelte. This is paralleled in 2 Pet 1:9 which speaks of one’s past sins being forgiven, but not one’s then-future sins:
But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged (καθαρισμος [to cleanse from impurity]) from his old sins.
1 John 2:19
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
Some proponents of eternal security and its variations argue that this verse proves that all those who leave the faith were superficial converts who were not truly justified and true believers. The problem with this is that it isolates a singular verse from the totality of Scripture, and results in much scripture-wrenching of texts such as Heb 6:4-6 and 10;26, for instance, that shows that regenerated individuals can lose their salvation and that Christ’s sacrifice is no longer effective in their lives.
In reality, “they” refers to the heretical docetists whose theology John’s gospel and epistles refutes. This is an early Christological heresy that stated that while Christ appeared to have been mortal, in reality, he only appeared to have been mortal; in reality, he was not truly mortal (e.g. he did not suffer; did not die). John warns against such a theology and condemns it in texts such as the following:
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already it is in the world. (1 John 4:1-3)
For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. That is a deceiver and an antichrist. (2 John 1:7)
In this verse, John is referring to a specific group of individuals within the community he is addressing; for Calvinists and other proponents of a variation of eternal security to cite this as biblical “proof” that no true believer can fall away and lose their salvation is eisegesis, ignoring both the immediate context of John’s epistles and the entirety of the biblical revelation.
For a useful study of John’s anti-doceticism, see the study by Udo Schnelle, Antidocetic Christology in the Gospel of John: An Investigation of the Place of the Fourth Gospel in the Johannine School.
Rev 2:5
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
In this verse, Jesus commands one to repent, but such repentance is not presented in rather superficial terms; instead, Christ commands one to “do” (ποιεω) the “first works” or else the church of Ephesus’ “candlestick” will be removed.
The NET Bible's note on this verse captures the meaning of this verse both soundly and succinctly:
The repeated mention of repenting at the end of the verse suggests that the intervening material ("do the deeds you did at first") specifies how the repentance is to be demonstrated.
This verse refutes the heresy in some (not all) Protestant circles, antinomianism, where repentance is either optional or where the call to repentance is seen as a “work” and perverts the true gospel of “free grace.” Furthermore, this verse is important as one will often hear from Evangelicals and others that the Latter-day Saint view of repentance is unbiblical, and yet this one verse captures the essence of what Latter-day Saint theology states about repentance—it is not merely confessing that one is repentant, but also incorporates our actions where necessary, such as repartition (cf. Alma 24:11).
Rev 2:20-21
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess to each and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. (Emphasis added)
In verse 21, Jesus says that he gave Jezebel, the false prophetess, a space of time (χρονος) to repent, and His giving her this time is presented as a purpose clause in the Greek (a ινα-clause). However, this notwithstanding, and Christ’s obvious desire for her to repent, she did not.
While not a commonly cited verse, this does show a couple of things that runs antithetical to much of Reformed soteriology, such as (1) Christ wants all people, not simply people from all ethnic categories, to be saved; (2) that humans have a free-will to accept or reject the gospel and (3) as a result of the previous points, Christ’s sacrifice was for all people, not simply those God actively predestined before the creation of the world. To claim otherwise, one will be forced to engage in much eisegesis and special-pleading to read this pericope in light of TULIP.
