Can I ask you just how 1 John fits in with the notion of failure within the Christian life?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘Key New Testament Themes’ (1996).

That's a very good question to ask, and the question is all the more strong and insistent because John uses such extreme terms—'Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil' (1 John 3:8). We have all been perturbed by it, and some are very perturbed. Says somebody, 'I find I sin a particular sin and I confess it to the Lord, but then I keep doing it and I do it again, and I fall again, and then I confess it and I do it again. Does that mean I'm not a believer?' That is a very real issue, and you who are pastors will know how some of these verses worry the Lord's people. That's why we need to get a grasp of this argument and what John is saying and make sure that we're not diluting the thrust of it or, on the other side, we're not pushing it to wrong extremes.

As a general remark, you will notice the purpose that John has in writing. Sometimes a sermon can have altogether the opposite effect from what the preacher intended. So it's good to know what John intended when he wrote, in case we interpret it to mean the very opposite of what he intended. It is therefore important to see the purposes for which he wrote. Did he say, 'I write these things to you that you mightn't be quite so sure as you have been hitherto? I write these things to you to take the confidence out of you'? Well no, of course not. The thrust of the epistle, the thrust of these tests indeed, is this:

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. (5:13)

These tests are not written to cause true people of God to doubt. The very opposite is his intention and that's not me trying to excuse myself. That's quoting John.

And again, if you'd like to take a snippet of the thought-flow, 1 John 2:1 says, 'My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father'. In other words, he's writing these things, as we shall see when we come to them, to comfort us. 'If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin' (1 John 1:7).

We don't have to hide our sins. The very opposite is true.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins . . . If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar. (1 John 1:8–10)

So is John saying that it doesn't really matter if I sin? Certainly not. 'I am writing these things so that you may not sin' (1 John 2:1). But the fact remains, if anybody does sin, there is provision for them. So even within the detail, you see how John is working. He is not working to disturb believers in the sense of making them doubt their salvation and casting them into gloom and depression and thinking that they can never be sure. That's why it is very necessary for us to understand the whole flow of the thing and not take verses out of their context.

On the other hand, it is absolutely true that he does give us tests so as to uncover and expose what is false doctrine and false behaviour. In those three long passages warning against false christs and false spirits and false gods, we shall see that these were very important issues in John's day. We are now moving into an age where increasing mysticism, coupled with liberalism in doctrine, will bring about a situation very similar to what John was fighting against in his day—doctrines about christs that are not Christian, about the great world spirit, about mystical communion with God. All have a veneer of seeking the true God, but are quite false. John is very strong about it and gives us tests so that we may uncover this and avoid it.

If you walk in the dark you won't be so conscious of sin. The nearer you get to the Lord and you walk in the light, you won't feel yourself better; you'll feel yourself worse. The question that I think arises in all this discussion is, if John is dealing with character, so to speak, this is the direction of character. The believer that wants to please God, he's struggling with sin, but his character is in this direction. He wants to please God. He confesses his sin, says it makes him miserable. He wants deliverance, even though he falls. But if it is character, then the question arises: can a true believer live out of character?

If you take an example, our Lord said, and laid it down categorically, 'Whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven' (Matthew 10:33). That's very severe, isn't it? Well what shall we say of Peter? He did deny the Lord and used all the swear words he knew to convince the folk standing around that he wasn't a believer. What do these verses say to people like that? We know, of course that, (1) Peter was a genuine believer; and (2) we know from what our Lord said that underneath, he didn't cease to be a believer. Our Lord's remarks to Peter are, 'You're going to deny me, but I've prayed for you that your faith shall not fail' (Luke 22:32, own trans.). Not, 'That your godliness shouldn't fail,' or, 'Your courage shouldn't fail.' They all failed and his testimony went out the window. Our Lord didn't pray that any of those things shouldn't fail. The thing that he prayed for was that his faith shouldn't fail and, of course, underneath, Peter had remained a believer and was restored. 'And when [not, if] you are restored, strengthen your brothers.'

But if you had been standing by Peter when he was denying the Lord with oaths and curses, and somebody said to you, 'This chap Peter, is he a believer?' what would you have said? 'Well I thought he was. I do believe he loved the Lord, but if he himself is saying, "I'm not," well how can I say he is?' But it turned out in the event that, yes, he was, and he was restored. So if we talk about this, we should have to recognize that it is possible for a believer at certain times to act completely out of character. That does actually call into question how genuine his profession of faith is. But then we must remember that such people can be restored, as distinct from the Judases of this world, who never was a believer. Our Lord didn't pray for him that his faith shouldn't fail: he never did have any to start with. That is important.

I think also what will come to light as we get down to some detail is the difference between the conditions that God lays down for having fellowship with God and the evidence that we have fellowship with God. There is a very big difference between those two and John himself is careful to point it out. Babies don't get life by crying, but if a newborn baby doesn't cry, you'll be very worried. A baby's crying is the evidence he has life. He didn't get life by crying, but because he has life, he cries, and if he didn't cry, you'd get very worried. There's a difference between the condition upon which you receive life and the evidence that you have life. I think we shall find that John makes that distinction very carefully in his early chapters.