Sin and forgiveness in the Johannine writings

Abstract

We set out with the purpose of investigating the apparent absence of the themes of Sin and Forgiveness in the Johannine writings. Our enquiry has shown that far from being absent they form one of the dominant themes of the Gospel. We claim however that our investigation has revealed much more than this. It has shown that the themes of Sin and Forgiveness are presented in a distinctly Johannine wayWe found in our study of the Old Testament that there was a distinctive 'Pattern of Man's Salvation'. Whilst the Spirit of God can never be confined to any pattern, the normal working of that Spirit seemed to be in a certain way. Sin and Forgiveness are set in a context of relationships. The Living God confronts man with a Manifestation of Himself. This manifestation immediately produces a crisis for God confronts man with an offer and a demand. Man must do something. If he rejects the demand he commits sin. If he responds with repentance and obedience he experiences forgiveness. This leads to the forgiven life of fellowship with God and membership of God's Covenant People.The first distinctive feature of the Johannine interpretation of Jesus is that this pattern is clearly revived and sin and forgiveness are once again set in a context of relationships. In Jesus the Living God is confronting man in an existential situation. He confronts man with an offer and a demand. The offer is of a new relationship with God, the forgiven life, summed up in such concepts as 'Eternal Life' and, 'Knowledge of God'. He offers to take man where He is, in perfect fellowship with the Father, in as close a relationship as that which exists in the Godhead. Man is offered the possibility of sharing in the very life of God. This confrontation immediately forces a crisis upon man and John's Gospel is above all else a Gospel of crisis. Man must do something in the situation in which he is placed. His attitude to Jesus is either response or rejection. Sin is construed as above all else the rejection of the Manifestation of God in Christ. Forgiveness is offered to the man who responds with 'Belief' in its Johannine sense of committal, trust and obedience. This forgiveness brings man into a new relationship with God and gives him also a place in the new family, the new Covenant People of God.. The -unique Johannine contribution is the setting of all this in its Old Testament pattern and the constant emphasis on the crisis of confrontation. Wherever Jesus goes there is crisis and separation. Men either reject or respond. They must do one or the other.We also see that in repeating the Old Testament pattern John is deliberately replacing the old with the new. In our study of the Old Testament we saw how the Hebrew regarded the Law as the Manifestation of God. Alongside the Law as the basis of the Covenant People were the Temple and Sacrifices as the Sacraments of the Old Covenant. The purpose of the Temple and its Festivals, of the whole sacrificial system was to make possible communion with God and to restore that communion when it had been broken by man's sin. The purpose of the sacrificial system was reconciliation with God and the making possible of the forgiven life. In place of the Law and the Temple John puts Jesus. He is the 'Way, the Truth and the Life' and no one comes to the Father except through Him. Jesus and not the Law is the basis for fellowship with God. It is in Him that the new family is born. He is the One who makes deliverance possible. He is Light and Water and Messiah and fulfils all that those terms mean. John deliberately takes the great Festivals of the Jewish Year and the Sacraments of the old Covenant and replaces them by Jesus. The Sacrifices which were the Sacraments of the Old Covenant through which the grace and forgiveness of God were mediated are replaced by the Sacraments of the new Covenant. From response to Jesus in the crisis of confrontation springs a new Covenant people, a new family, with new Sacraments to mediate God's Grace. Thus to John, Jesus is not only the fulfilment of the past, He completely replaces it. Man has not to obey a law or partake in a ritual, he has to make a response in the crisis of confrontation by Jesus. Everything depends upon that.Nor does John leave us here. He is concerned to show that the pattern is constantly repeated. The crisis did, not end when Jesus in His flesh no longer confronted men. There is a crisis that goes on to the end of history.