Introduction
The Apostle John wrote his first epistle to believers whom he fondly calls "my dear children" (2:1). He answers a basic question in this epistle: How do we know we belong to Christ? It is a question we also need to raise in DCBC. John's answer is to apply three tests of life.

1) The doctrinal test answers the question: Who is Jesus? Is he the Word who became flesh?
2) The moral test asks: Are we walking in the light? Do we obey God's commands?
3) The social test is: Do we love the brethren?

In the process of answering the basic question-How do we know we belong to Christ-John refutes the false teachers who have left the church but whose influence has remained.

John tells us that one major reason for writing is to persuade "his children" not to sin (2:1). In chapter one, he has already refuted three erroneous claims made by people in the church, doubtless under the influence of the false teachers. Some claim to have fellowship with God while walking in the darkness (1:6). These people are liars. Some claim to be without sin! (1:8). Worse than liars, these people are self-deceived. Then some claim they have not sinned (1:10). These are the worst because they make God out to be a liar!

We are different from the people who make these claims. We do not claim we have not sinned; we know we have-historically. We used to be habitual sinners. We do not claim we are without sin; we have not yet attained sinless perfection. We do not claim to have fellowship with God while walking in the darkness. We are walking in the light, as God is light. We know that we have come to know God because we obey his commands (2:3). We obey God's word and experience God's love being made complete in us. We know we are in Christ because we desire to walk as Jesus did (2:3-6). We are disciples of Jesus; it is him we follow.

Jesus our Advocate
We still do sin. And John wrote his letter-which we also receive as addressed to us-so that we will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense. One who speaks in our defense translates paraclete or paraklëtos, one called alongside to help. It is the word the Lord Jesus used of the Holy Spirit he promised to send-the other counselor, comforter, paraclete (John 14:!6). Jesus is the paraclete or advocate. Here in 1 John, the Apostle is using the language of the law court. We have an advocate, a lawyer for the defense, who pleads our case, speaking on our behalf. Former president Erap has some of the best lawyers for his defense-Estelito Mendoza and Rene Saguisag. We have better, far better. Our advocate is Jesus Christ the Righteous One! He has no sin of his own; he is absolutely perfect, and he is our defender. He is the one Mediator between God and men-the man who is God-and he is at God's right hand, interceding for us (1 Tim. 2:5; Romans 8:34). He is our Great High Priest who always lives to intercede for us (Hebrews 7:25). He is our Advocate, and a most effective Advocate because he is also the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:2).

Jesus our Propitiation

1. Hilasmos/hilasterion
"Atoning sacrifice" translates the Greek word hilasmos. It is better rendered "propitiation", but who understands propitiation? The ordinary dictionary says to propitiate means to make propitious or favorable or friendly. It is the next word in our study of the vocabulary of the atonement. We had Reconciliation (Romans 5:6-11), Ransom (1 Peter 1:13-21), and Justification (Romans 3:21-26). Now we have propitiation. Hilasmos is also used in 1 John 4:10 and the related word hilasterion is used in Romans 3:25, and NIV translates "atoning sacrifice" in all three places. Hilasterion is used again in Hebrews 9:5 but there it says "mercy seat." The mercy seat was the cover or golden slab on top of the Ark of the Covenant inside the Holy of Holies of the temple where blood was sprinkled by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement once a year. The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. The blood sprinkled on the mercy seat atoned for sin, and some say hilasmos/hilasterion should simply be translated mercy seat. Jesus is our mercy seat. However this would be confusing because Jesus in the New Covenant is also the sacrificial lamb who poured out his life for the forgiveness of sins. Is Christ both sacrifice and the mercy seat on which the blood was sprinkled? Besides, Paul's sense of personal indebtedness to Christ crucified was so profound (Galatians 2:20) he would hardly have likened Christ to "an inanimate piece of temple furniture." (Cranfield, I, p.215). What does "propitiate/propitiation" mean? It means to turn away or remove wrath by the offering of a gift. Many theologians object to propitiation and prefer the more impersonal word "expiation." To expiate is to annul guilt, to remove defilement. The object of expiation is sin, while the object of propitiation is God. As C.H. Dodd the NT scholar who directed work on the New English Bible (NEB) put it: "Expiatory acts have the value, so to speak, of a disinfectant." However, as Leon Morris has pointed out (NBD, pp 975, 976) propitiation is the proper translation.

2. Pagan propitiation
Part of the objection to propitiation is that it conjures images of pagan deities being appeased by offerings of sweets, animal sacrifices, even human sacrifices. These deities, or gods, are of course capricious, unpredictable and even ill-tempered. There is no assurance that such offerings work. The practice certainly smacks of bribery! We Filipinos understand bribery. The idea is unworthy of biblical religion. We appreciate the objection. However, biblical propitiation is a world away from pagan practice.

3. Biblical propitiation
For one, the Old Testament sacrificial system, which culminated in the one perfect sacrifice of Jesus, was given by God himself to his people to make atonement (Leviticus 17:11). The sacrifices were effective only because they were God's provision. In the case of Jesus, can it be a bribe when the offering, the sacrifice, does not come from us? It is God the Father who did not spare his own Son but freely gave him up on the cross, so our sins can be forgiven! (Romans 8:32). For another, our God is not capricious, unpredictable, arbitrary, or unjust. His wrath is his settled, constant opposition to all that is evil. His eyes are too pure to look on evil; he cannot tolerate wrong (Habakkuk 1:13). He is awesome in his holiness! "Does God forgive sin?" a French thinker asked, and he answered his own question. "Of course he does. That's what he is there for." Such a shallow, flippant, presumptuous understanding of God's attitude to sin may be common, but it is dead wrong. It neither appreciates the gravity of sin nor the holiness of God. Sin is a personal affront to God. It contradicts his very nature. It provokes his wrath. The wrath of God is not popular doctrine but it is clearly taught in both Old Testament and New Testament. God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day (Psalm 7:11). Think of the flood of Noah's day, or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. While he is also slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, he will by no means clear the guilty (Numbers 14:18). Paul declares that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth…(Romans 1:18f.). Jesus said that at the Last Judgment people will either be sheep or goats. The sheep will be welcomed into the Father's presence to receive their inheritance; the goats will go away to eternal punishment (Matthew 25:31-46). The wrath of God is a reality we cannot suppress. To propitiate is to remove or turn away God's wrath by the offering of a gift. In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor 5:19). God's own great love propitiated his own holy wrath through the gift of his own dear Son, who took our place, bore our sin and died our death. Thus, God himself gave himself to save us from himself. Hallelujah!

4. For the sins of the whole world
Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). Calvinists and their critics have long debated the question: Did Christ die for the whole world, or only for the elect? Calvinists say only the elect. Perhaps the debate is not necessary. The scope of the atonement is the whole world-the whole cosmos-but only those who respond to Jesus benefit from the propitiation he achieved. To propitiate is to remove or turn away God's wrath by the offering of a gift. How can God, who is eager to forgive the sinner, do so without contradicting his own holy nature as the moral governor of the universe? He cannot simply sweep sin under the rug. That means he does not take sin seriously. The soul that sins shall die. Sin has to be judged and the penalty is death. How can God forgive the sinner? God's answer is the cross. Jesus died, in our place, the righteous one for the sinner so that we who put our faith in him may be pardoned and declared righteous. God's wrath does not fall on us because it fell on Jesus! Hallelujah!