Jesus was the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world

JESUS WAS THE ATONING SACRIFICE FOR THE
SINS OF THE WHOLEWORLD
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
1 John 2:2 2He is the atoningsacrificefor our sins,
and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole
world.
GreatTexts of the Bible
An Advocate with the Father
My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye may not sin. 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
whole world.—1 John 2:1-2.
1. There is an Oriental courtesywhich will present you with whatever you
may happen to admire, and yet would be dumbfounded if the offer were taken
seriously. Do we not often regardthe large promises of the Bible as offers of
this kind? We do not take their words at their face value. We regardthem as
depreciatedcurrency. And the reasonis partly that we as Christians rightly
assume that we have the right to use the language of the New Testament;but
as our experience is not equal to the greatness ofthe words, we tone down the
meaning of the words to make it level with our experience. We read, for

instance, of “joy unspeakable and full of glory,” of “peace that passethall
understanding”; but since we know no such experiences, we conclude that
they are not to be known; that such words are not to be takenliterally; that
they are instances of a conventionalreligious exaggeration;that they may
become true in the future; that if they have ever been true, it was only in
Apostolic times. Anyhow it would be absurd to expect to find them true now.
So it is that we are apt to treat this text. Its language is very bold and strong.
St. John seems to saythat if only we rightly use what he tells us, we shall be
freed from all sin. It is a claim which sounds as extravagantas if a doctor
should claim to have found a panacea for all disease. “Iwrite unto you that ye
may not sin.”
2. Perhaps we might say(though we must not abuse the saying) that St. John
had two pictures in his mind as he describedthe Christian life, the one, the
ideal Christian, the other, the actual believer. Think of an artist standing
before a great picture which he is painting. He has two visions of it—one on
the canvas and the other in his own mind. That on the canvas is imperfect; the
outlines are there, but the colouring is inharmonious; the expressionis feeble,
the life is wanting, and the subduing powerwhich belongs to a greatwork has
yet to be created. Notso the vision in the mind, that is perfect. The forms are
finished, every part is complete in itself, and right in its relationto every
other; the colours mingle and agree like notes in sweetestmusic, and the
picture as a whole is instinct with life, and clothed with beauty and grandeur.
Now suppose the artist were to sit down to write a description of this picture.
Looking at the canvas, he would speak of the imperfections of the work; but
gazing upon the vision within, he would write of its completeness, power, and
majesty. This is just what St. John did. Looking upon the actualChristian he
spoke of sin, confession, pardon, and spiritual warfare; but while doing this
the vision of the ideal hovered before his mind, and he wrote:“He sinneth
not—he cannot sin.”

There was one department of human life which was strange and unfamiliar to
Westcott, and in which he moved with rare and doubtful steps. It was the
world of sin. He told us little about it. It was aliento him. Why pry into it, or
analyze it, or explore it? He loathedit; and passedit by, wherever it was
possible. He preferred to uplift the ideal, and leave it to work its own victory.
If the sun were but up, would not the night, by that very fact, have departed?
Somehow, that dark world is more tenacious and persistentthan he quite
allowedfor. When his Archdeacons presentedto him the carefully collected
case ofan Incumbent who had broken every Commandment, he dismissed it
on the ground (so it was reported) that his categoryofhumanity refusedto
admit the existence ofsuch a sinner. As the terrible facts of his northern towns
forcedthemselves upon his notice, he became more vividly aware of the awful
volume of evil. But still, however deeply this disturbed him, it did not provoke
him to examine more closelythe conditions of sin. It remained a perturbing
misery rather than an intelligible experience. His purity of soul recoiledfrom
its mystery, and still sought for refuge in asserting the Ideal. This accounts for
a certain white intensity of optimism which characterizes his writings, and
which keeps them slightly alooffrom things as they are. We wonder, as we
read, whether he has quite takenthe full measure of the facts. We sometimes
feel as if the atmosphere were too fine to live in, and as if the springs of human
motive were left untouched. There is no scathing light suddenly let in, to lay
bare the secretsofthe soul, such as flashes from the pages ofNewman’s
sermons. We are not brought up to judgment at the awful bar. This work was
not for him. Ratherit was his to persuade us that all things were possible with
God; that evil was an alien thing, and might be done away; that human nature
had the impulse in it of eternity; that the entire body of humanity was moving
towards its redemption in Christ Jesus.1 [Note:H. ScottHolland, Personal
Studies, 137.]
3. St. John is not making terms with sin, first setting up deliverance from sin
as an ideal, and then admitting that after all sin will be actual. St. John is here
making further provision againstsin. If one sin excluded us for ever from
God’s fellowship, and for ever thrust us back into the outer darkness, we
would be hopeless indeed. It would not be worth our while to rouse ourselves

to any effort to escape sin. But it is not so. We have an Advocate, and a
Propitiation that abundantly prevails. And so, too, we can deal with all that
mass of sin which we feelas a crushing weighton us, or see as a barrier
excluding and shutting up our approach to God.
4. Notice, further, that he addresses the whole Church of God. “Mylittle
children”—it is the language of venerable age. The writer had lived long; sixty
years at leasthad passedsince he beheld the Incarnate Glory, the glory of God
in the face of Christ. It is the language ofineffable love. He had lived so near
the heart of love that he had become impregnated and saturatedwith it. He
might be old, but that was young; he might be weak, but that was strong; his
mind might be giving way beneath the pressure of age and infirmity, but the
eyes of his heart were as clear-sightedas in the days when he first beheld
Christ on the shores of the lake. It is the language of greatauthority. At the
feet of this man other inspired teachers might have been prepared to sit. We
can imagine that many of the minor prophets of the Old Testament, for
instance, would have been glad to form a class around this venerable man,
whose head had leaned upon the bosomof Christ, and who had known Him
face to face. Sitting in his chair at Ephesus, or speaking from the Isle of
Patmos, he addresses the entire Church of every country, as he says, with the
weight of venerable age, with the tone of ineffable love, with the accentof
invincible authority—“My little children.”
The text may be divided into three parts—
I. The Peril.
II. The Pleader.

III. The Plea.
I
The Peril
Though the aim of the Apostle was to lead men into the truth, so that they
might not sin, he knew that this could not be accomplishedby a stroke of
magic. It was a moral achievement to be brought about by moral means. And
so there might be momentary failure. Sin crouchedat the door, and the
Accuserwas always ready to drag the culprit into Court. There was provision,
however, againstthe peril.
1. The form of the verb in the Greek requires us to understand not a
continuance or living in habitual sin, but committing an act of sin. St. John
has no uplifting message forthe man who lives in the unrestrained practice of
sin. This he calls “walking in darkness.” Sucha life of habitual sin is
expressedby the present tense of the verb, suggesting continuance, as in chap.
1 John 3:6; 1 John 3:8. To be overtakenby a temptation and to fall into sin—a
sin which is repudiated by all that is deepestin him, a sin which he at once
hates and mourns, is a very different thing, and is expressedby a tense which
suggestsanact, not a habit. He who so falls may be sure, from the Word of
God, that he has One standing by the throne to plead for him, who presents
the atonement, not on behalf of the habitual, unconcerned, or half-repentant,
half-persistent sinner, but of him who says from his grieved, penitent heart, “I
acknowledge my transgressions:and my sin is ever before me.”
2. Now sin in the believer has two aspects, that of direct and positive violation
of known duty, and that of coming short of God’s glory—a deficiency in that

perfection of love, of tireless consecration, ofjoyous realization of obedience to
God’s holy will, which characterizedour Lord. When the Apostle says that he
writes to his little children in the faith, that they may not sin, it is clearthat it
is to the first of these that he refers. There is provision in the redemption of
our Lord Jesus Christ, in virtue of which we are delivered from all known sin,
and kept by the powerof God, through faith, from things which we once
wrought without shame or remorse. But at the close ofa day in which we have
realized that keeping powerto the uttermost, who is there of us that is not
aware of having come short of the glory of God? We might have been more
earnestand devotedand single-hearted. And in all this we need the
forgiveness and cleansing ofour Heavenly Father.
Of Mrs. Bellamy Gordon’s stories of her childhood one remains in my
memory because ofher manner of telling it. “My love, I once did something
for which I feel I can never be forgiven. When I was very young my father was
in charge of the Coastguard, and we lived at Portpatrick, and I went to a
dancing-schoolatStranraer with the children of the neighbouring gentry. But
on the greatday, once a year, when all the world came to see us dance, the
children of the townspeople joined our class. There was among them one little
boy with goldencurls whom we all admired very much, but he always chose to
dance with a pretty little girl, the child of a shopkeeperin the town. I think the
master must have been a bit of a flunkey, for he said, at the opening of the
exhibition, “Now, little Missie Gordon may chooseher partner.” I lookedfor
the boy with the goldencurls: he was standing beside his little partner, and—
oh, my dear!—I carriedhim off, and she cried; and I don’t see how I am ever
to be forgiven!”1 [Note:Mrs. E. M. Sellar, Recollections andImpressions,
246.]
3. The more sinless men become the more do they hate sin. The greatest
outpourings of agony over sin have not come from vicious and gross sinners
when they were converted, but from the lips of the holiest in God’s Church.
Just as discord in music gives little pain to the unmusical but intense pain to

the musical, so sin gives little pain to sinful people. Just as discord in music
becomes more and more painful as we geta better earfor harmony, so sin
becomes more and more painful as we grow holier and approachnearer to the
harmony of the Divine life. Thus it is that the most heartfelt expressionof
agonyfor sin comes from the best Christians in the world. Blemishes that
were not noticedwhen we were far from God “become lit up with torturing
clearness whenwe approachthe ineffable light of Him whose stainless beauty
casts the shadow of failure on all that is not Himself, and who charges His
very angels with moral folly.” And as men grow more Christlike they realize
more and more the curse of that alienationfrom God, which is the worst
consequence ofsin.
Before me lies a faded manuscript in the handwriting of a Puritan scholar,
containing notes of his conversations with“that holy primate of Ireland,
DoctorJames Ussher, in the year wherein he died.” Early in that year he paid
a visit to the writer, who made humble request to him that he would give him
on paper his thoughts touching the mysteries of justification and
sanctification, and obtained his promise to do so. A few months later he visited
him again, but without the promised document, and said in apologyfor his
failure, “I did begin to write, but when I came to do so of sanctification, that is
of the new creature that Godforms by His Spirit in every soulwhich He doth
in truth regenerate, I found so little of it wrought in myself that, apprehending
I should write but as a parrot speaketh, by rote, and without knowledge,I
durst not presume to do so.” A few days later still, in the moment when this
meek and holy servant of Christ left the world, the attendant, who saw his lips
tremble and bent over to catchthe whisperof his last breath, heard it pass
awaywith the prayer, “Godbe merciful to me a sinner.”1 [Note: C. Stanford,
Symbols of Christ, 317.]
O God of the Sunlight sweepaway,

The memory of that evil day,
That drags me down to death:
Washme, and draw me up above,
Cleanse me in Thine own cleansing love,
With Thine ownquickening breath:
Make me one with the endless sea;
One with the wind on the rain-drenched lea—
One with Thee—GodofLove.2 [Note: D. Mountjoy, The Hills of Hell, 21.]
II
The Pleader
Jesus Christ is our Advocate, our Paraclete, the One calledby God Himself to
our side in our hour of extremity.

In the literature of devotion the Holy Spirit is frequently styled “the
Paraclete.” The name is nowhere found in our English version of the Bible, yet
it is Scriptural, being a transliteration of the Greek word which is rendered
“Comforter” in St. John’s Gospel(John 14:16; John 14:26, John 15:26, John
16:7) and “Advocate” in his First Epistle (1 John 2:1); and, understanding
that the latter is the right rendering, we discovera wealth of profound truth in
these passages.
In the days of His flesh Jesus was God’s Advocate with men. He told the
Eleven in the Upper Roomthat, though He was going away, God would not be
left without an Advocate on the earth to plead His cause and win men to faith.
“He shall give you another Advocate, that he may abide with you for ever;
even the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16-17). The Holy Spirit has come in the
room of Jesus, and still from age to age performs the office of God’s Advocate
with men. But the advocacyofJesus has not ceased. He is our Advocate in
Heaven, pleading our cause with God.
1. Our Advocate is in the place of influence and power. We have an Advocate
with the Father. That is no mere proposition, no mere indication of place. It is
a mystic term, standing for something too deep for human language. “In the
beginning was the Word and the Word was with God;” not just a position, not
neighbourhood, not place, is the primary thought, but an ineffable relation of
oneness. “The Wordwas with God, and the Word was God.” And so we have
an Advocate with the Father. “I and the Father are one.” The advocacyofour
blessedSaviour is not felt by the Eternal Fatherto be a presentationfrom
without; it is not an external pressure thrusting itself againstGod to move
Him to our aid. The advocacyofJesus Christ throbs within that bosom of the
Father wherein the Son of God for everis.
The language is figurative. It calls up to our minds the familiar figure of the
ordinary intercessor, who pleads for some petitioner, and gets some

indulgence for him, which the granter would not have conceded, but for the
influence thus brought upon him to change his previous decision. Such a
conceptionmight apply to the Homeric and Virgilian ideas of Jupiter,
alternately besoughtby Juno and Venus on behalf of Greeks orof Trojans,
but it has no place outside of heathen mythology. Jesus Himself warned His
disciples againstso thinking of God, telling them that the Father knew their
needs, and could be depended on much more than earthly parents to hear His
children’s prayer. He went further. After He had said, “I will pray the Father,
and he shall give you another Comforter, even the Spirit of truth,” He added,
as if to exclude the notion that His prayer would be the inducing motive with
the Father, “I say not, I will pray the Father for you, for the Fatherhimself
loveth you.”
2. Our Advocate is righteous in character. He is “Jesus Christthe righteous.”
He is at once God our righteousness and humanity righteous through God in
it. Jesus Christis both parts or sides in the unity of God and man, both gratia
gratians and gratia gratiata, the Divine grace that graces orconfers, and the
human grace receivedand shared. The human righteousnessofJesus Christ,
which alone is or can become ours, was humanly both receivedand wrought
by Himself: it was a righteousness alike ofperfect faith and of perfect
obedience. It was a righteousness ofwhich His “blood” was the sole condition,
and is the only symbol. Nothing short of that perfect attitude towards sin
which is death at once to it and from it, and that perfectattitude towards
holiness which is the life of God Himself in us, constitutes the righteousness
that Jesus Christ was, and the righteousness that He gives. His blood was not
only His ownactual death to sin, it must be no less ours also.
When Sir Walter Raleigh, involved in a network of malice, had been brought
to trial for high treason, and unjustly condemned to die, his mind turned from
the thought of the earthly court, in which he had suffered vile insult and cruel
wrong, to the thought of the court in heaven; from the king’s attorney here to
Him whom he called“the King’s Attorney” there; and on being ferried from

Westminsterto that dark cell in the Tower, whichhas often been visited with
hushed footsteps and hushed breath, he wrote, by lamplight, these words:—
From thence to heaven’s bribeless hall,
Where no corrupted voices brawl,
No conscience molteninto gold,
No forged accuserbought or sold;
No cause deferred, no vain-spent journey,
For Christ is there, the King’s Attorney.
And when the grand twelve-million jury
Of our sins, with direful fury,
’Gainst our souls black verdicts give,
Christ pleads His death, and then we live.

Be Thou my Speaker, taintless Pleader,
Unblotted Lawyer, true Proceeder!
Thou giv’st salvation, even for alms,
Not with a bribed lawyer’s palms.
This, then, is mine eternal plea,
To Him that made heaven, earth, and sea.
In language so grand in its truth, and so touching in its antique simplicity, did
the greatEnglishman give his reasonfor trusting Jesus, and declare his
resolution to commit his misrepresentedcause into His hands alone.1 [Note:
C. Stanford, Symbols of Christ, 297.]
3. He has knowledge andsympathy. It has happened before now, even in
forensic history, that an advocate has felt forcedto relinquish his brief, in
consequence ofsome unexpected disclosure that made proceeding with the
case a course that would hurt his self-respect, orcompromise his reputation.
Secrets have come to light in the life of a child that have silencedeven a
mother’s advocacy, and made love itself confess that it had no more to say.
But we never need fear that for reasons like these Christ will abandon our
cause, orfail in our defence. Before we confide to Him a single secretHis
acquaintance with our whole life is intimate and perfect. What was saidof

Him by the beloved disciple holds true for ever, He “needednot that any
should testify of man, for he knew what was in man.”
H. M. Stanley, in Africa, had much trouble with his men on accountof their
inherent propensity to steal, the results of which brought upon the expedition
much actual disaster. At lastStanley doomed to death the next man caught
stealing. His grief and distress were unbounded when the next thief, detected
in a case ofpeculiar flagrancy, was found to be Uledi, the bravest, truest,
noblest of his dusky followers. Uledi had saveda hundred lives, Stanley’s
among the number. He had performed acts of the most brilliant daring,
always successful, always faithful, always kind. Must Uledi die? He calledall
his men around him in a council. He explained to them the gravity of Uledi’s
crime. He reminded them of his stern decree, but said he was not hard enough
to enforce it againstUledi. His arm was not strong enough to lift the gun that
would kill Uledi, and he would not bid one of them do what he could not do
himself. But some punishment, and a hard one, must be meted out. What
should it be? The council must decide. They took a vote. Uledi must be
flogged. When the decisionwas reached, Stanley standing, Uledi crouching at
his feetand the solemncircle drawn closelyaround them, one man whose life
Uledi had savedunder circumstances offrightful peril, stood forth and said,”
Give me half the blows, master.” Then another saidin the faintest accents,
while tears fell from his eyes, “Will the mastergive this slave leave to speak?”
“Yes,” saidStanley. The Arab came forward and knelt by Uledi’s side. His
words came slowly, and now and then a sob broke them. “The master is wise,”
he said; “he knows all that has been, for he writes them in a book. I am black,
and know not. Nor can I remember what is past. What we saw yesterdayis to-
day forgotten. But the master forgets nothing. He puts it all in that book. Each
day something is written. Let your slave fetch the book, master, and turn its
leaves. Maybe you will find some words there about Uledi. Maybe there is
something that tells how he savedZaidi from the white waters of the cataract;
how he saved many men—how many, I forget; Bin Ali, Mabruki, Kooi Kusi—
others, too; how he is worthier than any three of us; how he always listens
when the masterspeaks, andflies forth at his word. Look, master, at the book.
Then, if the blows must be struck, Shumari will take half and I the other half.

The masterwill do what is right. Saywa has spoken.” And Saywa’s speech
deserves to live for ever. Stanley threw awayhis whip. “Uledi is free,” he said.
“Shumari and Saywa are pardoned.”
4. He never wearies. He is our Advocate continually. In this respectHe
presents a contrastto the Levitical priesthood. That priesthoodpassedfrom
one to another as death removed the successive occupants ofthe office. But
Christ abideth for ever, and there is no interruption to the continuity of His
mediation. Unbroken it prolongs itself from age to age, unchanging in its
character, and unintermittent in duration. For He is made a priest, “not after
the law of a carnal commandment, but after the powerof an endless life.” It is
not, then, on the fact of a past atonement, but on the powerof a living
Saviour, that our safetydepends. No doubt the past atonementis essentialto
the efficacyof His priesthood, but still it is not the Cross that is the object of
faith, nor any one event in the history of the incarnation, but Christ Himself
who “was deliveredfor our offences, and raisedagain for our justification.”
To believe in a fact is one thing, but to trust in a living person is another. That
Christ died would be of no use to us, if He were not alive now, and alive, so to
speak, more mightily than He ever was before. Other men death removes
from their intercourse with the world. It brings their direct influence and
agencyto an end. But death did not so affectHim. It produced no change in
His activity, except to widen its range and intensify its energy. And now the
whole of His priestly functions are takenup, and absorbed in this one attitude
or act of intercession.
III
The Plea
1. Why is a plea neededin the Court of Mercy?

(1) The claims of a Father’s heart have to be satisfied.—Godis righteous, and
He observes the due relations in which He stands to us, and we have to
observe the relations in which we stand to Him; but He is a Father, and we are
His children, and what God wants as a Father—to put it into a word—is the
answerof love. Taking that word in its comprehensive sense, implying all that
it involves, what God asks from us is the life of love. What God has hungered
for through all the ages is what we faintly hunger for as we look upon our
children. What we have to satisfyand to expiate is not the anger of a
dishonoured Deity, but the hungering and unsatisfied heart of a Father. The
angerof a dishonoured Deity may be fierce, though any flame will burn itself
out to ashes in the long-run; but the heart of a Father that has never yet
drained to its depths the full cup of children’s love—that is the central pain of
the universe, and it is the throb of that hunger and thirst that moves through
all createdthings. The inner truth of this world of man as it is, is that the
heart of God has gone unsatisfied, lonely, starved. “Righteous Father, the
world knew thee not.” There is God’s agony; there is God’s pain. There, if you
want the word, is man’s debt—the debt we shall never make up, the love we
have failed to give since the world was born.
(2) The claims of justice must be met.—Godis not only Father, He is
sovereign;sin is rejectionof His law, rebellion againstHis majesty, and its
forgiveness must be in harmony with law and the inviolable claims of His
throne. Before God canreceive back the sinner there is wrath to be averted in
some way by which righteousness shallbe equally honoured with mercy. And
man needs such propitiation too; his moral sense must be satisfiedin any
adequate redemption, ceaselesssacrifices atinnumerable shrines witness to
the convictionthat God must punish sin, and to those who read His word and
see what He has said that conviction becomes invincible. Divine love would
deserve no reverence, did it ignore righteousness.

Righteousnessmust be vindicated, and then grace becomes sure.
Righteousnessmust be satisfied, and then eternity becomes heaven!The law
must be made honourable, then the Gospelwill be given to us, with the
assurance ofeternalpermanence—but not without.1 [Note:J. Parker.]
2. Christ’s plea is His propitiation. This is, so to speak, the basis on which it
proceeds, the great argument which makes it conclusive. And what can make
it more so? It is true our sins cry out for vengeance, but Christ’s blood cries
still louder for mercy. And its cry continues sustained, penetrating through all
obstructions, resistless, clear, neverfailing to enter into the ears of God. It
speaks more mightily than that of Abel. As the blood of the first martyr
refused to be covered, but uttered its voice from the ground, and brought
down sure judgment on the guilty, so, and with a still greatercertainty, will
Christ’s blood plead for us, in spite of all our sins and their attempts to
overbearit, till it wins its desired result—a result that includes not only
pardon but all that His sacrifice was offeredto secure. And as the sacrifice
was perfect, so will be its plea. As it made an end of sin so it has abolishedall
that withstands and imperils the attainment of its end.
(1) It is a sufficient plea.—The propitiation was the mercy-seat—the golden
slab which, according to the Divine prescription, coveredthe ancient ark. It
would, therefore, be of the same size as the tables of stone depositedwithin,
and be encrusted with the blood of innumerable days of Atonement. When
Jesus is said to be a propitiation, we are taught that His perfectobedience to
the will of Godmeasures and overlaps the full demand of God’s holy law,
whilst His precious blood has atoned for our sins.
(2) It is an all-embracing plea—“forthe whole world.”—In Christ all
mankind rendered obedience to that law, and suffered beneath its penalty. All
mankind, therefore, in that act was redeemedfrom the incidence of Adam’s
sin. Topsy, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, says: “Why should I be punished? I never

ate that apple!” Certainly; neither Topsy nor any one else will go to hell
because Adam ate that apple; for whateverloss accruedto the race from that
act of sin has been more than made goodby the act of righteousness ofthe
One Man Jesus Christ.
Why, then, is the world in darkness? Suppose anAct of Parliament capable of
conferring greatbenefits on the working class, andout of which they may
contractthemselves. The Act may be rendered quite inoperative. So men by
their sin may contractthemselves out of the benefits of Christ’s death. Our
Lord tells of a man who had been forgiven, but shortly after took his brother
by the throat, and insisted that he should pay him what he owed. In that act
he cancelledhis own forgiveness, andhis lord directed that he should be given
over to the tormentors till he should pay all the original debt. So, by their
wilful rejection of Christ, men may contractthemselves out of the benefits of
His work on their behalf. The sin of which the world is guilty since the great
sacrifice for sin has been made is the sin of rejection—“becausethey believe
not on me.”1 [Note:F. B. Meyer, In the Beginning God, 188.]
An Advocate with the Father
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Our Advocate And Propitiation
1 John 2:1, 2

W. Jones
My little children, these things write I unto you, etc. Very tender and
eminently Johanneanis the opening of this paragraph. "My little children."
The appellation suggests:
1. The spiritual paternity of the apostle. St. Paul addressedthe same words to
those GalatianChristians whom he had spiritually begotten(Galatians 4:19).
He referred with great tenderness and force to the same relationship in
writing to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 4:14, 15). Probably many of those to
whom St. John was writing were his spiritual children.
2. The spiritual affectionof the apostle. The use of the diminutive indicates
this.
3. The spiritual authority of the apostle. His fatherly relation to them, his
tender affectionfor them, and his venerable age combine to invest his words
with authority. Our text teaches -
I. THAT THE GOSPELOF JESUS CHRIST DISCOURAGES SIN. "These
things write I unto you, that ye sin not." The "these things" are the statements
made in chapter 1 John 1:6-10. The fact that sin exists even in the Christian is
there affirmed, and gracious provisionfor the forgiveness ofsin and for the
sanctificationof the believer is set forth. And now, in order that no one by
reasonof these things should look upon sin as inevitable, or regard it with
tolerance, orfail to battle againstit, St. John writes, "These things write I
unto you, that ye sin not." St. Paul guards againstthe same misuse of the
provisions of the rich grace of God thus: "Shallwe continue in sin, that grace
may abound? God forbid" (Romans 6:1, 2). That the provisions of Divine
grace for the pardon of sin afford no encouragementto its commissionis
proved by:
1. The object of Christ's mediatorial work. To "save his people from their
sins." "He appearedto, put away sin by the sacrifice ofhimself" (cf.
Ephesians 1:4; Ephesians 2:10; Ephesians 5:25-27;Titus 2:14).
2. The costof Christ's mediatorial work. The greatprice at which pardon and
salvationwere rendered possible should powerfully deter from the practice of

sin. "Godspared not his own Son," etc.;"Ye were not redeemedwith
corruptible things, as silver and gold,... but with the precious blood of Christ,"
etc. Since redemption from sin is so expensive a process, sinmust be not a
trifling, but a terrible evil.
3. The influence of Christ's mediatorial work. The love of God manifestedin
our Lord and Saviour is fitted to awakenour love to him. Love to God springs
up in the heart of every one who truly believes in Jesus Christ; and love to
God is the mightiest and most resolute antagonistof sin.
II. THAT THE GOSPELOF JESUS CHRIST RECOGNIZESTHE
LIABILITY OF EVEN GOOD MEN TO SIN. "And if any man sin." This
liability arises from:
1. Our exposure to temptation. Sometimes we are confronted by our
"adversarythe devil, as a roaring lion." But more frequently are we in danger
by reasonof "the wiles of the devil." "Satanfashioneth himself into an angel
of light," that he may deceive souls and lead them into sin. We are also
assailedby temptations in human society- temptations which are plausible
and appearharmless, but which are full of peril to us.
2. The infirmity of our moral nature. There is that in us which is ready to
respond to temptation. Thus temptations which appeal to our sensual
appetites sometimes prove too strong for our spiritual principles, the sensual
in us not being in complete subjection to the spiritual. Temptations which
promise present pleasure or profit, but involve the risk of some of our most
precious interests in the future, are sometimes successfulbecause ofdefective
spiritual perception or of moral weakness. This liability to sin is confirmed
(1) by the history of goodmen, e.g., Noah, Abraham, Moses, Aaron, David,
Peter;
(2) by our ownexperience.
III. THE GOSPELOF JESUS CHRIST ANNOUNCES GRACIOUS
PROVISION TO MEET THE LIABILITY OF GOOD MEN TO SIN. "And if
any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father," etc.

1. Jesus Christis our Representative with the Father. "We have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous." The word translated"advocate"
means one who is called to our side; then a Comforter, Helper, Advocate.
"Representative"is a word which, perhaps, expressesthe meaning here. Jesus
Christ "appears before the face of God for us." He stands by us with his face
directed towards the face of God the Father, obtaining for us the forgiveness
and favour, the stimulus and strength which we need. As ProfessorLias puts
it, "We have One who stands by us παρά, yet looks towardπρὸς the Father,
and who, one with us and with him, can enable us to do all things through his
all-powerful aid." And he is "righteous." In this he is unlike us. We are
unrighteous, and therefore unfit to appear before the face of God. But he,
being perfectly righteous, is fitted to appear before God on our behalf.
2. Jesus Christis also the Propitiation for our sins. "And he is the Propitiation
for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world." The
primary meaning of "propitiation" was that which appeases orturns away
the wrath of the gods from men. But we must take heed that we do not rashly
apply the ideas of heathenism as to its gods, to the only living and true, the
holy and gracious God. So much has been said and written concerning the
propitiation, which seems to us to have no warrant in the sacredScriptures,
and much that has not been honourable to the holy and ever-blessedGodand
Father, that it is with diffidence that we venture upon any remarks
concerning it. The New Testamentdoes not give us any explanation of the
propitiation; it presents us with no theory or scheme concerning it; it simply
states it as a greatfact in the Divine way of salvation. And it would have been
well if the example of the sacredwriters in this respecthad been more
generallyfollowed. Here is the declarationof St. Paul: "Being justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:whom God set
forth to be a Propitiation, through faith, by his blood, to show his
righteousness,"etc. (Romans 3:24-26). JesusChrist himself is said to be the
Propitiation for our sins. No particular portion of his life or work, his
sufferings or death, is specifiedin our text as constituting the propitiation.
Christ, in the whole of his mediatorial ministry - life and work, sufferings and
death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession - is our Propitiation. We
venture to make two observations.

(1) The propitiation was not anything offered to God to render him willing to
bless and save us. If proof of this were required, we have it in chapter 1 John
4:10: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his
Son to be the Propitiation for our sins." God did not provide the propitiation
to propitiate himself. Our Saviour is the Gift of the Father's love to us, not the
Procurerof that love for us. It is nowhere said in the Scriptures that Christ
reconciledGod to man. Such reconciliationwas never needed. The great
Father was always disposedto bless and save man.
(2) The propitiation was designedto remove obstructions to the free flowing
forth of the mercy of Godto man. Here was an obstruction: man had broken
the holy Law of God, had setit at naught, and was still doing so. But man
cannot be pardoned while he stands in such an attitude and relation to Law.
Love itself demands that Law shall be obeyedand honoured. True mercy can
only be exercisedin harmony with righteousness. The well-being of man is an
impossibility except he be wonto loyalty to the Law of God. Jesus Christ
vindicated the solemn authority of God's holy Law by his obedience unto
death, even the death of the cross. Again, there was an obstruction in the heart
of man to the free flowing forth of the mercy of God to him. Man regarded
God with distrust and suspicion, if not with enmity. "Alienatedand enemies in
your mind in your evil works" is the apostolic descriptionof unrenewed man.
The propitiation was designedto reconcile man to God, and dispose him to
acceptthe offered salvation. "Godwas in Christ reconciling the world unto
himself." The sacrifice ofChrist is the supreme manifestation of the infinite
love of God towards man (cf. John 3:16; Romans 5:8). When that love is
heartily believed in, man is reconciledto God; he no longerregards him as an
enemy, but as his gracious and adorable God and Father. This accords with
the statementof St. Paul that Christ Jesus is "a Propitiation through faith by
his blood." "The true Christian idea of propitiation," says Bushnell, "is not
that God is placatedor satisfiedby the expiatory pains offered him. It
supposes, first, a subjective atoning, or reconciliationin us; and then, as a
further result, that Godis objectivelypropitiated, or set in a new relation of
welcome and peace. Before he could not embrace us, even in his love. His love
was the love of compassion;now it is the love of complacencyand permitted
friendship." And this propitiation is for all men. "The Propitiation for our

sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world." If any are not saved,
it is neither because ofany deficiencyin the Divine purposes or provisions,
nor because the propitiation of Christ is limited to certain persons or to a
certain number only. The salvationof Jesus Christis adequate to all men, and
is offered freely to all men. If any are not saved, it is because theyrefuse the
redemptive mercy of Godin Christ Jesus. - W.J.
Biblical Illustrator
Little children, it is the lasttime: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall
come, even now are there many antichrists
1 John 2:18-23
St. John's "lasthour
George G. Findlay, B. A.
The Apostle John is an old man; he has lived through a long day. The way of
the Lord that he teaches is by this time a well-markedpath, trodden by the

feet already of two generations. Time has vindicated the bold inference that
the agedapostle drew from his experience. The disciples of Jesus "have
known the truth, which abideth in us and shall be with us forever." St. John
has but one thing to say to his successors:"Abide in Him." As for the recent
secedersfrom the apostolic communion, their departure is a gain and not a
loss;for that is manifest in them which was before concealed(vers. 18, 19).
They bore the name of Christ falsely:antichrist is their proper title; and that
there are "many" such, who stand threateningly arrayed againstHis servants,
only proves that His word is doing its sifting and judicial work, that the Divine
life within the body of Christ is casting off dead limbs and foreign elements,
that the truth is accomplishing its destined result, that the age has come to its
ripeness and its crisis: "whence we perceive that it is the lasthour." We may
best expound the paragraphunder review by considering in order the crisis to
which the apostle refers, the danger which he denounces, and the safeguards
on which he relies — in other words, the lasthour, the many antichrists, and
the chrism from the Holy One.
I. "My children, it is THE LAST HOUR — We perceive that it is the last
hour." Bishop Westcott, in his rich and learned Commentary on this Epistle,
calls our attention to the absence of the Greek article: "A last hour it is
(ἐσχάτη ὥρα ἐστίν)" — so the apostle literally puts it; and the anarthrous
combination is peculiar here. (St. Paul's, "A day of the Lord is coming," in 1
Thessalonians 5:2, resembles the expression.)The phrase "seems to mark the
generalcharacterofthe period, and not its specific relation to 'the end.' It was
a period of criticalchange." "The hour" is a term repeatedly used in the
Gospelof St. John for the crisis of the earthly course ofJesus, the supreme
epochof His death and return to the Father. This guides us to St. John's
meaning here. He is looking backward, not forward. The venerable apostle
stands upon the border of the first Christian age. He is nearing the horizon,
the rim and outmost verge of that great "day of the Lord" which began with
the birth of the first John, the forerunner, and would terminate with his own
departure: himself the solitary survivor of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.
The shadows were closing upon John; everything was alteredabout him. The
world he knew had passedor was passing quite away. Jerusalemhad fallen:
he had seenin vision the overthrow of mighty Rome, and the empire was

shakenwith rumours and fears of change. The work of revelation, he felt, was
all but complete. The finished truth of the revelationof the Father in the Son
was now confrontedby the consummate lie of heresy which denied them both
(ver. 22). He presided over the completion of the grand creative age, and he
saw that its end was come. Clearlyit was his last hour; and for aught he knew
it might be the world's last, the sun of time setting to rise no more, the crashof
doom breaking upon his dying ears. The world passes through greatcycles,
eachof which has its lasthour anticipating the absolute conclusion. The year,
with its course from spring to winter, from winter to autumn, the day from
dawn to dark, image the total course of time. The greatepochs and "days" of
human history have a finality. Eachof these periods in turn sensibly
anticipates the end of all things. Many greatand notable days of the Lord
there have been, and perhaps will be, many lasthours before the lastof all.
The earth is a mausoleum of dead worlds; in its grave mounds, tier above tier,
extinct civilisations lie orderly interred. Each "day" of history, with its last
hour, is a moment in that "age ofthe ages"whichincludes the measureless
circumference of time.
II. The Apostle John saw the proof of the end of the age in the appearance of
MANY ANTICHRISTS. The word "antichrist" has, by etymology, a double
meaning. The antichrist of whose coming St. John's readers had "heard," if
identical, as one presumes, with the awful figure of 2 Thessalonians2, is a
rival or mock-Christ, a Satanic caricature of the Lord Jesus;the "many
antichrists" were not that, but deniers, indeed destroyers of Christ; and this
the epithet may equally well signify. So there is no real disagreementin the
matter betweenSt. Paul and St. John. The heretic oppugners of Christ,
starting up before John's eyes in the Asian Churches, were forerunners,
whether at a greateror less distance, of the supreme antagonist, messengers
who prepared his way. They were of the same breed and likeness, and set
forth principles that find in him their full impersonation. These antichrists of
St. John's lasthour, the opponents then most to be dreaded by the Church,
were teachers offalse doctrine. They "deny that Jesus is the Christ" (ver. 22).
This denial is other than that which the same words had denoted fifty years
before. It is not the denial of Jewishunbelief, a refusalto acceptJesus of
Nazarethas the Messiah;it is the denial of Gnostic error, the refusal to admit

the Divine Sonship of Jesus and the revelationof the Godhead in manhood
through His person. Such a refusal makes the knowledge ofboth impossible;
neither is God understood as Father, nor Jesus Christ as Son, by these
misbelievers. The nature of the person of Christ, in St. John's view, is not a
question of transcendentaldogma or theologicalspeculation;in it lies the vital
point of an experimental and working Christian belief. "Who is he," the
apostle cries, "that overcomeththe world, except he that believes that Jesus is
the Sonof God?" (1 John 5:5); and again, "Everyone that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, is begottenof God" (1 John 5:1). In passing from St. Paul's chief
Epistles to this of St. John, the doctrinal conflictis carriedback from the
atonement to the incarnation, from the work to the nature of Christ, from
Calvary to Bethlehem. There it culminates. Truth could reachno higher than
the affirmation, error could proceedno further than the contradiction, of the
completed doctrine of the Personof Christ as it was taught by St. John. The
final teaching of Divine revelationis daringly denied. "What think ye of the
Christ? — what do you make of Me?" is His crucial question to every age.
The two answers — that of the world with its false prophets and seducers (1
John 2:19; 1 John 4:5), and that of the Christian brotherhood, one with its
Divine Head — are now delivered in categoricalassertionand negation. Faith
and unfaith have eachsaidtheir last word.
III. While the Apostle John insists on the radical nature of the assaults made
in his lastdays upon the Church's Christologicalbelief, HE POINTS WITH
ENTIRE CONFIDENCE TO THE SAFEGUARDS BY WHICH THAT
BELIEF IS GUARANTEED.
1. In the first place, "you, — in contrastwith the antichrists, none of whom
were really 'of us' (ver. 19) — you have a chrism from the Holy One (i.e.,
Christ); all of you know." the truth and can discern its "verity' (vers. 20, 21).
Again, in ver. 27, "The chrism that you receivedfrom Him abides in you, and
you have no need that anyone be teaching you. But as His chrism teaches you
about all things, and is true, and is no lie, and as it did teach you, abide in
Him." Chrism is Greek for anointing, as Christ for anointed; St. John's
argument lies in this verbal connection. The chrism makes Christians, and is
wanting to antichrists. It is the constitutive vital element common to Christ
and His people, pervading members and Head alike. We soonperceive

wherein this chrism consists. Whatthe apostle says of the chrism here he says
of the Spirit afterwards in 1 John 5:7: "It is the Spirit that beareth witness,
because the Spirit is the truth." And in 1 John 4:6 he contrasts the influences
working in apostolic and hereticalcircles respectivelyas "the spirit of truth"
and "oferror." The bestowalof the Spirit on Jesus of Nazarethis described
under the figure of unction by St. Peterin Acts 10:38, who tells "How God
anointed (christened) Him — made Him officially the Christ — with the Holy
Spirit and power." It was the possession, withoutlimit, of "the Spirit of truth"
which gave to the words of Christ their unlimited authority (John 3:34, 35).
Now out of that Holy Spirit which He possessedinfinitely in His Divine
fashion, and which His presence and teaching continually breathed, the Holy
One gave to His disciples;and all members of His body receive, according to
their capacity, "the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive," but
"whom" He "sends" unto His own "from the Father" (John 14:17;John
15:26, etc.). The Spirit of the Head is the vital principle of the Church,
resident in every limb, and by its universal inhabitation and operation
constituting the Body of Christ. "The communion of the Holy Ghost" is the
inner side of all that is outwardly visible in Church activity and fellowship. It
is the life of God in the societyof men. This Divine principle of life in Christ
has at the same time an antiseptic power. It affords the real security for the
Church's preservation from corruption and decay. For this gift St. Paul had
prayed long ago on behalf of these same Asian Christians (Ephesians 1:17-23).
This prayer had been answered. Paul's and John's children in the faith were
endowedwith a Christian discernment that enabled them to detectthe
sophistries and resistthe blandishments of subtle Gnostic error. This Spirit of
wisdom and revelationhas never desertedthe Church. "You know, all of you"
(ver. 20) — this is what the apostle really says. It is the most remarkable thing
in the passage. "Ihave not written unto you," he continues, "because you
know not the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the
truth." He appeals to the judgment of the enlightened lay commonalty of the
Church, just as St. Paul when he writes, "I speak as to men of sense;judge ye
what I say." St. John's "chrism" certainly did not guarantee a precise
agreementin all points of doctrine and of practice;but it covers essential
truth, such as that of the Godheadof the Redeemerhere in question. Much
less does the witness of the Spirit warrant individual men, whose hearts are

touched with His grace, in setting up to be oracles ofGod and mouthpieces of
the Holy Ghost. In that case the Holy Spirit must contradictHimself endlessly,
and God becomes the author of confusion and not of peace. But there is in
matters of collective faith a spiritual common sense, a Christian public
opinion in the communion of saints, behind the extravagancesofindividuals
and the party cries of the hour, which acts informally by a silent and
impalpable pressure, but all the more effectually, after the manner of the
Spirit.
2. To this inward and cumulative witness there corresponds an outward
witness, defined once for all. "You know the truth...that no lie is of the truth
That which you heard from the beginning, let it abide in you" (vers. 21, 24).
Here is an objective criterion, given in the truth about Christ and the Father
as John's readers heard it from the apostles atthe first, and as we find it
written in their books. Believing that to be true, the Church rejectedpromptly
what did not square with it. In the most downright and peremptory fashion
St. John asserts the apostolic witness to be a testof religious truth: "We are of
God: he that knows God hears us; he that is not of God hears us not. By this
we recognise the spirit of truth and the spirit of error" (1 John 4:6), Here is
the exteriortest of the inner light. The witness of the Spirit in the living
Church, and in the abiding apostolic word, authenticate and guard each
other. This must be so, if one and the self-same Spirit testifies in both.
Experience and Scripture coincide. Neither will suffice us separatedfrom the
other. Without experience, Scripture becomes a dead letter; without the norm
of Scripture, experience becomes a speculation, a fanaticism, or a conceit.
3. The third guarantee citedby St. John lies outside ourselves and the Church:
it is neither the chrism that rests upon all Christians, nor the apostolic
messagedepositedwith the Church in the beginning; it is the faithfulness of
our promise giving Lord. His fidelity is our ultimate dependence;and it is
involved in the two safeguards previouslydescribed. Accordingly, when the
apostle has said, in verse 24, "If that abide in you which ye heard from the
beginning, ye too shall abide in the Son and the Father," he adds, to make all
sure, in the next verse: "And this is the promise which He promised us — the
eternal life!" It is our Lord's own assurance overagain(John 8:51; John
15:4). The life of fellowship with the Father in the Son, which the antichrist

would destroy at its root by denying the Son, the Sonof God pledges Himself
to maintain amongst those who are loyal to His word, and the word of His
apostles, whichis virtually His own. He has promised us this (αὐτὸς
ἐπηγγείλατο) — He who says, "I am the resurrectionand the life." No brief or
transient existence is that securedto His people, but "the eternal life." Now
eternal life means with St. John, not as with St. Paul a prize to be won, but a
foundation on which to rest, a fountain from which to draw; not a future
attainment so much as a presentdivine, and therefore abiding, possession. It is
the life which came into the world from God with Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1, 2),
and in which every soulhas its part that is grafted into Him. Understanding
this, we see that the promise of life eternal, in verse 25, is not brought in as an
incitement to hope, but as a reassuranceto our troubled faith. "These things
have I written unto you," the apostle says, "concerning those that mislead
you" (ver. 26). Christ's word is set againsttheirs. Error cannotprevail against
the truth as it is in Jesus. "Our little systems have their day"; but the
fellowship of souls which rests upon the foundation of the apostles has within
it the powerof an indissoluble life. Such are the three guarantees of the
permanence of Christian doctrine and the Christian life, as they were
conceivedby St. John and are assertedby him here at his last hour, when the
tempests of persecutionand scepticalerrorwere on all sides let loose against
the Church.
(George G. Findlay, B. A.)
The dispensations
DeanGoulburn.
How could those days of primitive Christianity be called the last days,
inasmuch as since those days eighteenhundred years have elapsed, and still
the world's history has not reachedits close?The answeris obvious. The
whole period lying betweenthe first advent and the present year of grace is
but one oeconomy;and it is destined to be the last oeconomy, under which
man is to be tried. What is a dispensation — Οἰκονομία?Οἰκονομοςis the
administrator of a household, the lord of a family, he who dispenses to the

household their portion of meat in due season. It is a certain measure, more or
less, of moral light and help meted out by God, the greatHouseholder, to His
human family for the purpose of their probation. Any and every light and
help which man has from heaven constitutes, strictly speaking, a dispensation.
It seems, moreover, to be a principle of God's dealings that the light and
knowledge having been once supernaturally communicated, shall thenceforth
be left to radiate from its centre, to diffuse itself among mankind, by the
ordinary means of human testimony. Let us now proceedto review the leading
dispensations under which mankind has been placed.
1. A single arbitrary restriction, issuedmerely as a test of obedience, was the
first of them. The threat of death, in ease ofdisobedience, was a moral help to
our first parents, tending to keepthem in the narrow path of obedience and
happiness. But it did not enable them to stand. They broke the commandment,
and they fell.
2. The fall had in some mysterious manner put our first parents in possession
of a moral sense, orfaculty of discerning betweengoodand evil,
independently of Divine precept. To secondand aid the remonstrances ofthis
faculty, the heads of the human family had such bitter experience of the fruits
of transgressionas wouldabide with them to their dying day. Into this
experience of the results of transgressionwas infused, lest man should despair,
an element of faith and hope. Who shall say whether man, with these powers
brought to bear upon him, may not retrieve his ground and return in true
penitence to the bosom of his Father? So the dispensation of experienced
punishment on the part of the parent, of ancestralprecepton the part of the
children beganand run its course. But it proved an utter failure. The
principle of sin, engenderedin its primeval act, ate into the moral nature of
man like a gangrene, until at length blasphemy and immorality stalked
rampant upon the earth, and the vices of human kind, like the stature of the
men of those days, toweredto a gigantic height.
3. While the shades ofguilt were thus deepening towards a night of utter
depravity, and the few faithful ones in the line of Seth shone but with the
feeble ray of glowworms amid the surrounding darkness — an additional
dispensationwas instituted in the announcement of the deluge to the Patriarch

Noah, and the direction associatedwith it, to commence the building of the
ark. What a stirring voice from heavenwas this! What a Divine trumpet note
of warning in the ears of a generationsinking deeperevery moment into the
fatal torpor of moral insensibility! At length, when Divine patience had had
her perfectwork the flood OEconomycame to its close amid outpoured
torrents and gushing fountains of the deep.
4. When the stage ofthe earth had been clearedby the flood for another
probation of the human race, a new measure of light and help was meted out
by God, or, in other terms, a new dispensationwas introduced. Human law
was now instituted and sanctioned by heaven. It was now to be seenwhether
man's innate depravity would break through this barrier of restraint also.
5. It was succeededby the dispensationof Divine law, promulgated with the
most awful solemnity, and having annexed to it the most tremendous
sanctions.
6. With Samuel and the successionofprophets, as many as spoke orwrote
after him, commenced a new era, about three hundred and fifty years after
the giving of the law. And of this dispensationthe distinguishing characteristic
is, that it was constantlyexpanding itself, that fresh accessionswere
continually being made under it to man's moral and spiritual resources,that it
was a light continually increasing in brightness, shining more and more unto
the perfectday when the Sun of Righteousnessshouldrise with healing in His
wings.
7. And now at length men's yearnings and anticipations were to be realised.
The lasthour of the world's day — or, in other words, the final dispensation
under which man was to be tried — was at hand. The great Deliverer
appearedand revealeda wholly new arrangement, or series of arrangements,
under and in virtue of which God would henceforth dealwith man.(1) Perfect
absolution from the guilt of pastsin — an absolutionobtained in such a
manner as should effectuallystrike the chord of love and gratitude in every
heart of man.(2) A communication of Divine strength through outward
means.(3)A perfect and explicit law embodying the purest morality which it is
possible to conceive. But as man was still, under this final dispensation, in a

state of probation, and a state of probation is not and cannotbe a final or
fixed state, the mind was still thrown forward by predictions of the Second
Advent, to a period when He, in whom the heart and hope of God's people is
bound up, shall come againto receive them to Himself, and to visit them with
eternal comfort, while vengeance, terrific vengeance, is takenupon all who,
though the new dispensationhas been proclaimed to them, shall not have
takenshelter under the refuge which it provides. We have now passedin
review the various dispensations under which man has been placed; and, thus
furnished for the fuller understanding of our text, we revert to the solemn
asseverationofthe apostle, that this under which we live is the final
oeconomy, and that with its close will terminate forever the probation of
mankind.
(DeanGoulburn.)
Last things
T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.
I. My hearers are coming nearer their LAST BUSINESS DAY. Men will ask
about you, and say, "Where is so-and-so?"And your friend wilt say, "Have
you not heard the news?" and will take a paper from his pocketand point to
your name on the death list. If things are wrong they will always staywrong.
No chance of correcting a false entry, or repairing the loss done to a customer
by a dishonest sample, or apologising for the imposition inflicted upon one of
your clerks.
II. Men are coming nearer to their LAST SINFUL AMUSEMENT. A
dissipated life soonstops. The machinery of life is so delicate that it will not
endure much trifling.
III. Men are coming nearer to their LAST SABBATH.
IV. We come near THE LAST YEAR OF OUR LIFE. The world is at leastsix
thousand years old. Sixty thousand years may yet come, and the procession
may seeminterminable; but our own closing earthly year is not far off.

V. We are coming nearerTHE LAST MOMENT OF OUR LIFE. That is
often the most cheerful moment. John Howard talkedof it with exhilaration,
and selectedhis own burial place, saying to his friend, "A spot near the village
of Dauphiney would suit me nicely." It is a poor time to start to getyour house
insured when the flames are bursting out of all the windows;and it is a poor
time to attempt to prepare for death when the realities of eternity are taking
hold of us.
(T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
Antichrist
Antichrist
Bp. Wm. Alexander.
This word is absolutely peculiar to St. John. The generaluse of ἀντί (contra)
and the meaning of the similarly formed word ἀντίθεος, lead to the conclusion
that the term means "adversaryof Messiah."The Jews derived their
conceptionfrom Daniel7:25; Daniel8:25; Daniel 11:36;Ezekiel38-39. The
name was probably formed by St. John. It was believed by the Jews that
Antichrist would appear immediately before the advent of Christ (cf. chap. 1
John 2:22; 4:3; 2 John 7). Our Lord mentioned "pseudo-Christs" as a sign
(Matthew 24:24). St. Paul gave a solemn warning to the very Churches which
St. John now speciallyaddressed(Acts 20:29). St. John saw these principles
and the men who embodied them in full action, and it was an indication for
him of "the last period." So far Christians had only learnt in generalto expect
the personalappearance ofone greatenemy of Christ, the Antichrist. In his
Epistle St. John gives solemn warning that those heretics who denied the God-
Man were not merely precursors of Antichrist, but impersonations of the anti-
Christian principle — eachof them in a true sense an antichrist. The term is
used by no other sacredwriter, by St. John him selfonly five times (1 John
2:18, twice, 1 John 2:22; 4:3; 2 John 7), and that specificallyto characterise
heresy denying the incarnation, person, and dignity of Christ as God-Man.
Antichrist is "the liar"; his spirit and teaching is a lie pure and simple. The

one Antichrist, whose coming was stamped into the living tradition of the
early Church, and of whom believers had necessarily"heard," is clearly
distinguished from many who were already in existence, and were closely
connectedwith him in spirit. Probably St. John expectedthe chief Antichrist,
the "theologicalantagonistofChrist," before the PersonalAdvent. In 2
Thessalonians 2 we find the same idea of a singular individual of preeminent
wickedness, while St. Paul does not call the "Manof Sin" Antichrist. In the
Apocalypse (13-17)a delineation of an anti-Christian power; in St. Paul and in
St. John's Epistles of the "eximious anti-Christian person.
(Bp. Wm. Alexander.)
Antichrist and antichrists
James Morgan, D. D.
It is a dangerous voyage which every Christian sails upon the sea of life.
Sunken rocks, deceitfulcurrents, and boisterous winds endanger his brittle
bark. He needs constantlyto beware that he makes not shipwreck of his faith.
Here we are calledto considerthe danger arising from the seduction of false
teachers. In the early Church these were the source of constantdisquietude.
Nor is it otherwise yet. It is melancholy to observe how little they are feared.
Many trifle with them.
1. The apostle addresses himselfto believers under the title of "little
children." There is a peculiar propriety in using such language to those who
are warned. Little children need to be warned. They are ignorant and
unsuspecting, because they are inexperienced. When they are tempted they
possesslittle powerof resistance. And once betrayed they have neither the
skill nor the power to deliver themselves out of the evils into which they have
been betrayed. It is to be lamented that in all these respects many Christians
bear a strong resemblance to little children.
2. To these the apostle says, "It is the last time," and this is an appropriate
introduction to the warning he was about to give them. The meaning of the
phrase will be seenby citing the parallel passagein Hebrews 1:1. The last time

is therefore the day of Christ. It is the age of Christianity. And there are two
views in which it may be appropriately so denominated. It is the last economy
viewed in its historical relation to those which have preceded it. And it may be
calledso also in relation to the future. There will be no other economy. "Then
cometh the end, when Christ shall have delivered up the kingdom to God the
Father." It is a high privilege that we live under an economywhich is the
completion, the perfection of all that went before it. But we must not forget we
shall have no higher privileges than those which we now enjoy. If we are not
savedby means of those we have we must perish.
3. Thus introduced, the apostle begins to announce his warning, "Ye have
heard that antichrist shall come." The very name is sufficient to awakendeep
concern. We are at once given to understand that we must see a grand
opponent to Him whom we delight to honour, and in whom is all our
confidence. ForHis sake andour own, such an announcement should awaken
our timely fear. As for Him, we cannotdoubt his ability to overcome every
enemy. But we may well fear for ourselves.
4. The apostle, however, comes closerto the case ofthose little children whom
he addressed, and says, "Evennow are there many antichrists." Observe the
distinction betweenthis statement and the former one. The former is a
prophecy, the latter is a fact. Antichrist shall come, but he has not yet been
revealed. Time will be required for his development. But there are other
forms of evil and other seducers who exist now. You are not to imagine that
you are safe because the greatantichrist has not yet appeared. The leavenwas
working which would in time corrupt the mass of professors,so insidious and
dangerous is error; and so necessaryit is to watchits first rise and destroy it
at the bud. In our own day we may well cry with the apostles, "There are
many antichrists." And who or what are they? They are all persons and
things that are opposedto Christ and His people and His cause. And how can
they be enumerated? Infidelity is antichrist, and pours contempt upon the
truth. The scofferis antichrist, and scorns the truth. All ungodly men are
antichrists, and while they resistthe truth themselves they tempt others to
deny it. All errorists are antichrists, and obscure and oppose the truth.

5. The apostle applies this announcement of many antichrists to a practical
use, saying in the next clause, "Wherebywe know that it is the lasttime." The
words amount to a declarationthat this mighty host with all their enmity to
the truth should be a marked and prominent feature in the Christian era.
Christianity is the best economy, and therefore it is the most hated and
opposedby the wickedone.
6. We should beware that we are not found among these antichrists. And for
our warning and guidance a description of them is given in the 19th verse —
"they went out from us." Once they belonged to the Church of Christ. They
apostatisedfrom the faith and practice of the gospel. "Butthey were not of
us," adds the apostle. Theynever were. "Theyare not all Israelthat are of
Israel." Theymay have professedthe faith, but in reality they had never
embracedit. "For," says he, "had they been of us, they would no doubt have
continued with us." This is certain. The nature of the Divine life makes it so.
"The just shall live by faith." The apostle concludes, "Butthey went out, that
they might be made manifest they were not all of us." On the whole, it was
better they departed. It was better for themselves, that they may not be
deceivedby a name, but be led to penitence. It was better for others, that they
might not be a burthen and hindrance to those with whom they were
associated. And it was better for the cause of religion, that it might not be
scandalisedby their inconsistencies.
(James Morgan, D. D.)
They went out from us, but they were not of us
Anti-Christian
S. E. Pierce.
I. WHERE COULD THESE APOSTATES GO OUT FROM BUT THE
CHURCH? If they had not been in it they could not have gone out from it.
The Church they went out of was the true Church of Christ, in which the true
and everlasting gospelwas preached. And these persons had professedtheir
faith in all the essentialtruths of the gospel. Yettheir ambitious spirits were

such they could not be content but they must bring in another gospel,
contrary to what the apostles preached, pretending to have greaterlight into
truth, and what they calledthe PersonofChrist, and grace, than the very
apostles themselves. Theyturned their back on Christ, His gospel, His
ordinances, His apostles, His Churches, and everything belonging unto Him,
and framed out of their own errors, heresies, whims, and fancies, a Christ and
gospelfor themselves. The apostle assigns the reasonwhy they went out from
the Churches in the way and manner they did — it was because they were not
of one heart and soul with the Churches in the truth. As it was then, so it has
been ever since. All the heresies whichhave tormented the Churches of
Christ, down even to our present times, have originated from persons who
have been in the Churches, who have departed from the Churches. From such
as have made schisms and divisions in the Churches; and when any old error
is newly revived, it in general springs from such persons as are disaffectedto
the true Churches of Jesus Christ.
II. HOW THE APOSTLE CONFIRMS HIS ASSERTION — "Forif they had
been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us." How solemn! how
awful! These antichrists came out of the apostolicalChurch of Jesus. They
had been in it. It answeredtheir end for a seasonto remain in the Churches to
whom they had given in their names. It suited them to leave these Churches at
such seasons;when they could, to distil their pernicious influences, as they
thought and hoped, it would gain converts to them. These heretics left the
Churches because they were not of them, only nominally. They might, and
undoubtedly did, boastof superior light to all others in the doctrines of grace.
They were slaves to their own lusts. They were covetous. Theywere greedyof
reward. They were full of gainsaying.
III. WHY THESE ANTICHRISTS WENT OUT OF THE CHURCH. It was
that they might be made manifest, that they did not belong to the Church of
Christ, let them make their boastof the same as they might. This was their
end for their going out, but it was the Lord's end in thrusting them out, and it
might be some of these might have been thrust out by apostolic and also by
Church authority. In the holy and secret mystery of the Lord's providence it
was evidencedthey were not the Lord's beloved ones.

(S. E. Pierce.)
COMMENTARIES
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
2:1,2 When have an Advocate with the Father; one who has undertaken, and
is fully able, to plead in behalf of every one who applies for pardon and
salvationin his name, depending on his pleading for them. He is Jesus, the
Saviour, and Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed. He alone is the Righteous
One, who receivedhis nature pure from sin, and as our Surety perfectly
obeyed the law of God, and so fulfilled all righteousness. All men, in every
land, and through successive generations, are invited to come to God through
this all-sufficient atonement, and by this new and living way. The gospel, when
rightly understood and received, sets the heart againstall sin, and stops the
allowedpractice of it; at the same time it gives blessedrelief to the wounded
consciencesofthose who have sinned.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
And he is the propitiation for our sins - The word rendered "propitiation"
(ἱλασμός hilasmos) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, exceptin 1
John 4:10 of this Epistle; though words of the same derivation, and having the
same essentialmeaning, frequently occur. The corresponding word
ἱλαστήριονhilastērion occurs in Romans 3:25, rendered "propitiation" -
"whom God hath setforth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood;"
and in Hebrews 9:5, rendered mercy-seat- "shadowing the mercy-seat." The
verb ἱλάσκομαι hilaskomaioccurs also in Luke 18:3 - God be merciful to me a
sinner;" and Hebrews 2:17 - "to make reconciliationfor the sins of the
people." Forthe idea expressedby these words, see the notes at Romans 3:25.
The proper meaning of the word is that of reconciling, appeasing, turning
awayanger, rendering propitious or favorable. The idea is, that there is anger

or wrath, or that something has been done to offend, and that it is needful to
turn awaythat wrath, or to appease.This may be done by a sacrifice, by
songs, by services rendered, or by bloody offerings. So the word is often used
in Homer - Passow. We have similar words in common use, as when we sayof
one that he has been offended, and that something must be done to appease
him, or to turn awayhis wrath. This is commonly done with us by making
restitution; or by an acknowledgment;or by yielding the point in controversy;
or by an expressionof regret; or by different conduct in time to come. But this
idea must not be applied too literally to God; nor should it be explained away.
The essentialthoughts in regard to him, as implied in this word, are:
(1) that his will has been disregarded, and his law violated, and that he has
reasonto be offended with us;
(2) that in that condition he cannot, consistentlywith his perfections, and the
goodof the universe, treat us as if we had not done it;
(3) that it is proper that, in some way, he should show his displeasure at our
conduct, either by punishing us, or by something that shall answerthe same
purpose; and,
(4) that the means of propitiation come in here, and accomplishthis end, and
make it proper that he should treat us as if we had not sinned; that is, he is
reconciled, or appeased, andhis angeris turned away.
This is done, it is supposed, by the death of the Lord Jesus, accomplishing, in
most important respects, whatwould be accomplishedby the punishment of
the offender himself. In regard to this, in order to a proper understanding of
what is accomplished, it is necessaryto observe two things - what is not done,
and what is.
I. There are certainthings which do not enter into the idea of propitiation.
They are such as these:
(a) That it does not change the fact that the wrong was done. That is a fact
which cannot be denied, and he who undertakes to make a propitiation for sin
does not deny it.

(b) It does not change God; it does not make Him a different being from what
He was before; it does not buy Him over to a willingness to show mercy; it
does not change an inexorable being to one who is compassionate andkind.
(c) The offering that is made to secure reconciliationdoes notnecessarily
produce reconciliationin fact. It prepares the way for it on the part of God,
but whether they for whom it is made will be disposedto acceptit is another
question.
When two men are alienatedfrom eachother, you may go to B and say to him
that all obstacles to reconciliationon the part of A are removed, and that he is
disposedto be at peace, but whether B will be willing to be at peace is quite
another matter. The mere fact that his adversary is disposedto be at peace,
determines nothing in regard to his disposition in the matter. So in regardto
the controversybetweenman and God. It may be true that all obstacles to
reconciliationon the part of God are takenaway, and still it may be quite a
separate questionwhether man will be willing to lay aside his opposition, and
embrace the terms of mercy. In itself considered, one does not necessarily
determine the other, or throw any light on it.
II. The amount, then, in regard to the propitiation made for sin is, that it
removes all obstacles to reconciliationon the part of God: it does whateveris
necessaryto be done to maintain the honor of His law, His justice, and His
truth; it makes it consistentfor Him to offer pardon - that is, it removes
whateverthere was that made it necessaryto inflict punishment, and thus, so
far as the word canbe applied to God, it appeases Him, or turns awayHis
anger, or renders Him propitious. This it does, not in respectto producing any
change in God, but in respectto the fact that it removes whateverthere was in
the nature of the case that prevented the free and full offer of pardon. The
idea of the apostle in the passagebefore us is, that when we sin we may be
assuredthat this has been done, and that pardon may now be freely extended
to us.
And not for our's only - Not only for the sins of us who are Christians, for the
apostle was writing to such. The idea which he intends to convey seems to be,
that when we come before God we should take the most liberal and large

views of the atonement; we should feel that the most ample provision has been
made for our pardon, and that in no respectis there any limit as to the
sufficiency of that work to remove all sin. It is sufficient for us; sufficient for
all the world.
But also for the sins of the whole world - The phrase "the sins of" is not in the
original, but is not improperly supplied, for the connectiondemands it. This is
one of the expressions occurring in the New Testamentwhich demonstrate
that the atonement was made for all people, and which cannot be reconciled
with any other opinion. If he had died only for a part of the race, this
language could not have been used. The phrase, "the whole world," is one
which naturally embraces all people;is such as would be used if it be
supposedthat the apostle meant to teachthat Christ died for all people;and is
such as cannot be explained on any other supposition. If he died only for the
elect, it is not true that he is the "propitiation for the sins of the whole world"
in any proper sense, norwould it be possible then to assigna sense in which it
could be true. This passage, interpreted in its plain and obvious meaning,
teaches the following things:
continued...
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
2. And he—Greek,"And Himself." He is our all-prevailing Advocate, because
He is Himself "the propitiation"; abstract, as in 1Co 1:30: He is to us all that
is needed for propitiation "in behalf of our sins"; the propitiatory sacrifice,
provided by the Father's love, removing the estrangement, and appeasing the
righteous wrath, on God's part, againstthe sinner. "There is no incongruity
that a father should be offended with that son whom he loveth, and at that
time offended with him when he loveth him" [Bishop Pearson]. The only other
place in the New Testamentwhere Greek "propitiation" occurs, is 1Jo 4:10;it
answers in the Septuagint to Hebrew, "caphar," to effectan atonement or
reconciliationwith God; and in Eze 44:29, to the sin offering. In Ro 3:25,
Greek, it is "propitiatory," that is, the mercy seat, orlid of the ark whereon
God, representedby the Shekinahglory above it, met His people, represented
by the high priest who sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on it.

and—Greek, "yet."
ours—believers:not Jews, in contrastto Gentiles;for he is not writing to Jews
(1Jo 5:21).
also for the sins of the whole world—Christ's "advocacy" is limited to
believers (1Jo 2:1; 1Jo 1:7): His propitiation extends as widely as sin extends:
see on [2640]2Pe 2:1, "denying the Lord that bought them." "The whole
world" cannotbe restrictedto the believing portion of the world (compare
1Jo 4:14; and "the whole world," 1Jo 5:19). "Thou, too, art part of the world,
so that thine heart cannot deceive itself and think, The Lord died for Peter
and Paul, but not for me" [Luther].
Matthew Poole's Commentary
And he is the propitiation for our sins: the adding of these words, shows that
our Lord grounds his intercessionfor pardon of sin unto penitent believers,
upon his having made atonementfor them before; and therefore that he doth
not herein merely supplicate for favour, but (which is the proper business of
an advocate)plead law and right; agreeablyto what is said above, 1Jo 1:9.
And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world; nor is his
undertaking herein limited to any selectpersons among believers, but he must
be understood to be an Advocate for all, for whom he is effectuallya
Propitiation, i.e. for all that truly believe in him, {Romans 3:25} all the world
over.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
And he is the propitiation for our sins,.... Forthe sins of us who now believe,
and are Jews:
and not for ours only; but for the sins of Old Testamentsaints, and of those
who shall hereafterbelieve in Christ, and of the Gentiles also, signifiedin the
next clause:

but also for the sins of the whole world; the Syriac version renders it, "not for
us only, but also for the whole world"; that is, not for the Jews only, for John
was a Jew, and so were those he wrote unto, but for the Gentiles also. Nothing
is more common in Jewishwritings than to callthe Gentiles "the world"; and
, "the whole world"; and , "the nations of the world" (l); See Gill on ; and the
word "world" is so used in Scripture; see John3:16; and stands opposedto a
notion the Jews have of the Gentiles, that , "there is no propitiation for them"
(m): and it is easyto observe, that when this phrase is not used of the Gentiles,
it is to be understood in a limited and restrained sense;as when they say(n),
"it happened to a certain high priest, that when he went out of the sanctuary, ,
"the whole world" went after him;''
which could only designthe people in the temple. And elsewhere (o)it is said,
"amle ylwk, "the "whole world" has left the Misna, and gone after the
"Gemara";''
which at most canonly intend the Jews;and indeed only a majority of their
doctors, who were conversantwith these writings: and in anotherplace (p),
"amle ylwk, "the whole world" fell on their faces, but Rafdid not fall on his
face;''
where it means no more than the congregation. Once more, it is said (q), when
"R. Simeon ben Gamalielentered (the synagogue), , "the whole world" stood
up before him;''
that is, the people in the synagogue:to which may be added (r),
"when a greatman makes a mourning, , "the whole world" come to honour
him;''
i.e. a great number of persons attend the funeral pomp: and so these phrases, ,
"the whole world" is not divided, or does not dissent (s); , "the whole world"
are of opinion (t), are frequently met with in the Talmud, by which, an
agreementamong the Rabbins, in certain points, is designed;yea, sometimes
the phrase, "all the men of the world" (u), only intend the inhabitants of a city

where a synagogue was, and, at most, only the Jews:and so this phrase, "all
the world", or "the whole world", in Scripture, unless when it signifies the
whole universe, or the habitable earth, is always used in a limited sense, either
for the Roman empire, or the churches of Christ in the world, or believers, or
the presentinhabitants of the world, or a part of them only, Luke 2:1; and so
it is in this epistle, 1 John 5:19; where the whole world lying in wickednessis
manifestly distinguished from the saints, who are of God, and belong not to
the world; and therefore cannot be understood of all the individuals in the
world; and the like distinction is in this text itself, for "the sins of the whole
world" are opposedto "our sins", the sins of the apostle and others to whom
he joins himself; who therefore belongednot to, nor were a part of the whole
world, for whose sins Christ is a propitiation as for theirs: so that this passage
cannot furnish out any argument for universal redemption; for besides these
things, it may be further observed, that for whose sins Christ is a propitiation,
their sins are atoned for and pardoned, and their persons justified from all
sin, and so shall certainly be glorified, which is not true of the whole world,
and every man and womanin it; moreover, Christ is a propitiation through
faith in his blood, the benefit of his propitiatory sacrifice is only receivedand
enjoyed through faith; so that in the event it appears that Christ is a
propitiation only for believers, a characterwhich does not agree with all
mankind; add to this, that for whom Christ is a propitiation he is also an
advocate, 1 John 2:1; but he is not an advocate for every individual person in
the world; yea, there is a world he will not pray for John 17:9, and
consequentlyis not a propitiation for them. Once more, the design of the
apostle in these words is to comfort his "little children" with the advocacyand
propitiatory sacrifice ofChrist, who might fall into sin through weaknessand
inadvertency; but what comfort would it yield to a distressedmind, to be told
that Christ was a propitiation not only for the sins of the apostles and other
saints, but for the sins of every individual in the world, even of these that are
in hell? Would it not be natural for persons in such circumstances to argue
rather against, than for themselves, and conclude that seeing persons might be
damned notwithstanding the propitiatory sacrifice ofChrist, that this might,
and would be their case.In what sense Christis a propitiation; see Gill on
Romans 3:25. The Jews have no notion of the Messiahas a propitiation or
atonement; sometimes they say (w) repentance atones for all sin; sometimes

the death of the righteous (x); sometimes incense (y); sometimes the priests'
garments (z); sometimes it is the day of atonement (a); and indeed they are in
the utmost puzzle about atonement; and they even confess in their prayers (b),
that they have now neither altar nor priest to atone for them; See Gill on 1
John 4:10.
(l) Jarchi in Isaiah53.5. (m) T. Hieros. Nazir, fol. 57. 3. Vid. T. Bab. Succa, fol.
55. 2.((n) T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 71. 2.((o) T. Bab. Bava Metzia, fol. 33. 2.((p) T.
Bab. Megilla, fol. 22. 2.((q) T. Bab. Horayot, fol. 13. 2.((r) Piske Toseph.
Megilla, art. 104. (s)T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 90. 2. & Kiddushin, fol. 47. 2. & 49.
1. & 65. 2. & Gittin, fol. 8. 1. & 60. 2.((t) T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 48. 1.((u)
Maimon. Hilch. Tephilla, c. 11. sect. 16. (w) Zohar in Lev. fol. 29. 1.((x) Ib. fol.
24. 1. T. Hieros. Yoma, fol. 38. 2.((y) T. Bab. Zebachim, fol. 88. 2. & Erachin,
fol. 16. 1.((z) T. Bab. Zebachim, ib. T. Hieros. Yoma, fol. 44. 2.((a) T. Bab.
Yoma, fol. 87. 1. & T. Hieros. Yoma, fol. 45. 2, 3.((b) SederTephillot, fol. 41. 1.
Ed. Amsterd.
Geneva Study Bible
And he is the {b} propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for
the sins of the {c} whole world.
(b) Reconciliationand intercessiongo together, to give us to understand that
he is both advocate and high priest.
(c) For men of all sorts, of all ages, andall places, so that this benefit being not
to the Jews only, of whom he speaks as appears in 1Jo 2:7 but also to other
nations.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary
1 John 2:2. καὶ αὐτός = et ipse, idemque ille; καί is here also the simple
copula, and is not to be resolvedeither into quia (a Lapide) or nam.

αὐτός refers back to Ἰησ. Χριστὸν δίκαιον, and the epithet δίκαιονis not to be
lost sight of here; Paulus, contrary to the context, refers αὐτός to God.
ἱλασμός ἐστι] The word ἱλασμός, which is used besides in the N. T. only in
chap. 1 John 4:10, and here also indeed in combination with περὶ τῶν ἁμ.
ἡμῶν, may, according to Ezekiel 44:27 (= ‫ַח‬ ‫ָּט‬ ‫,)תא‬ mean the sin-offering (Lücke,
3d ed.), but is here to be takenin the sense of ‫ִּכ‬ ‫כ‬ֻּ‫ר‬ִ‫,ִכ‬ Leviticus 25:9, Numbers
5:8, and no doubt in this way, that Christ is calledthe ἱλασμός, inasmuch as
He has expiated by His αἷμα the guilt of sin. This reference to the sacrificial
blood of Christ, it is true, is not demanded by the idea ἱλασμός in itself,[84]
but certainly is demanded by the context, as the apostle canonly ascribe to the
blood of Christ, in chap. 1 John 1:7, the cleansing powerof which he is there
speaking, becausehe knows that reconciliationis based in it.
[84] In the Septuagintnot only does ἱλασμός appear as the translationof the
Hebrew ‫לכ‬ִ‫י‬ ‫ִּתט‬ (Psalm 129:4; Daniel9:9), but ἱλάσκεσθαι is also used = to be
merciful, to forgive (Psalm65:4; Psalm 78:38;Psalm 79:9),—quite without
reference to an offering.—The explanationof Paulus, however:“He (i.e. God)
is the pure exercise ofcompassiononaccountof sinful faults,” is not
justifiable, because, in the first place, God is not the subject, and secondly, the
ἱλασμός of Christ is not the forgiveness itself, but is that which procures
forgiveness.
REMARK.
In classicalGreek ἱλάσκεσθαι (as middle) is = ἱλεων ποιεῖν; but in scripture it
never appears in this active signification, in which God would not be the
object; but in all the passageswhere the Septuagintmakes use of this word,
whether it is as the translation of ִֻּּ‫פ‬ ‫ִכ‬ (Psalm 65:4; Psalm 78:38;Psalm79:9),
or of ‫כ‬‫לא‬‫ִט‬ (Psalm25:11; 2 Kings 5:18), or of ‫כ‬ ‫תא‬‫םכ‬ (Exodus 32:14), God is the

subject, and sin, or sinful man, is the object; in Hebrews 2:17, Christ is the
subject, and the objectalso is τὰς ἁμαρτίας.The case is almostexactly similar
with ἐξιλάσκεσθαι, which does not appearin the N. T. at all, but in the O. T.,
on the other hand, is used as the translation of ִֻּּ‫פ‬ ‫ִכ‬ much more frequently than
the simple form; it is only where this verb is used of the relationbetweenmen,
namely Genesis 32:21 and Proverbs 16:14, that the classicalusus loquendi is
preserved; but elsewhere with ἐξιλάσκεσθαι, whetherthe subject be God (as
in Ezekiel16:63)or man, especiallythe priest, the objectis either man
(Leviticus 4:20; Leviticus 4:26; Leviticus 6:7; Leviticus 16:6; Leviticus 16:11;
Leviticus 16:16-17;Leviticus 16:24;Leviticus 16:30;Leviticus 16:33; Ezekiel
45:17)or sin (Exodus 32:30; both together, Leviticus 5:18, Numbers 6:11), or
even of holiness defiled by sin (the most holy place, Leviticus 16:16;the altar,
Leviticus 16:18; Leviticus 27:33, Ezekiel43:22);only in Zechariah7:2 is
found ἐξιλάσκασθαι τὸν κύριον, where, however, the Hebrew text has ‫ַחח‬‫תא‬‫ל‬
‫טי‬‫ת‬‫י־‬ִּ ִִּּ‫ם‬‫חֹפ‬ ַָ. Ἰλασμός, therefore, in scripture does not denote the reconciliation
of God, either with Himself or with men, and hence not placatio (or as
Myrberg interprets: propitiatio) Dei, but the justification or reconciliationof
the sinner with God, because it is never statedin the N. T. that God is
reconciled, but rather that we are reconciledto God.[85]
[85] Comp. Delitzschin his Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, on
chap. 1 John 2:17, p. 94 ff. But it is to be noticed that Delitzsch, while he states
correctlythe Biblical mode of representation, bases his opening discussionon
the idea of the “self-reconciliationof the Godheadwith itself,” an idea which
is not containedin scripture.—It is observedby severalcommentators that
ἱλασμός, as distinguished from καταλλαγή = “Versöhnung” (reconciliation), is
to be translatedby “Sühnung” or “Versühnung” (both = Engl. expiation,
atonement). It is true, Versöhnung and Versühnung are properly one and the
same word, but in the usage of the language the distinction has certainly been
fixed that the latter word denotes the restorationof the disturbed relationship
by an expiation to be performed; only it is inexactto assertthat the idea
ἱλασμός in itself contains the idea of punishment, since ἱλάσκισθαι does not
include this idea either in classicalorin Biblicalusage, and ἐξιλάσκεσθαι,

though mostly indeed used in the O. T. in reference to a sacrifice by which sin
is covered, is also used without this reference (comp. Sir 3:28).
Grotius, S. G. Lange, and others take ἱλασμός = ἱλαστήρ;of course that
abstractform denotes the personal Christ, but by this change into the
concrete the expressionof the apostle loses its peculiar character;“the
abstractis more comprehensive, more intensive; comp. 1 Corinthians 1:30”
(Brückner); it gives it to be understood “that Christ is not the propitiator
through anything outside Himself, but through Himself” (Lücke, 2d ed.), and
that there is no propitiation exceptthrough Him.[86]
The relation of ἰλασμός to the preceding παράκλητονmay be variously
regarded;either παράκλητος is the higher idea, in which ἱλασμός is contained,
Bede:advocatum habemus apud Patremqui interpellat pro nobis et
propitium eum ac placatum peccatis nostris reddit; or conversely:ἱλασμός is
the higher idea, to which the advocacyis subordinated, as de Wette thus says:
“ἱλασμός does not merely refer to the sacrificialdeath of Jesus, but, as the
more generalidea, includes the intercessionas the progressive reconciliation”
(so also Rickli, Frommann); or lastly, both ideas are co-ordinate with one
another, Christ being the ἱλασμίς in regardto His blood which was shed, and
the παράκλητος,onthe other hand, in regard to His presentactivity with the
Father for those who are reconciledto Godthrough His blood. Against the
first view is the sentence beginning with καὶ αὐτός, by which ἱλασμός is
marked as an idea which is not alreadycontained in the idea παράκλητος,but
is distinct from it; againstthe secondview it is decisive that the propitiation,
which Christ is describedas, has reference to all sins, but His intercession, on
the other hand, has reference only to the sins of the believers who belong to
Him. There remains, accordingly, only the third view as the only correct one
(so also Braune). The relationship is this, that the intercessionofthe glorified
Christ has as its presupposition the ἱλασμός wrought out in His death,[87]yet
the sentence καὶ αὐτός is not merely added, ut causa reddatur, cur Christus sit
advocatus noster(Hornejus, and similarly Beza, Lorinus, Sander, etc.), for its

independence is thereby takenaway;the thought containedin it not merely
serves for the explanation or confirmation of the preceding, but it is also full
of meaning in itself, as it brings out the relation of Christ to the whole world
of sinners.
περὶ πῶν ἁμαρτιῶνἡμῶν]περί expressesthe reference quite generally: “in
regard to;” it may here be observedthat ἐξιλάσκεσθαι, in the LXX. is usually
construed with περί, after the Hebrew ‫ראלִכ‬ ִֻּּ‫.פ‬ The idea of substitution is not
suggestedin περί.
Expositor's Greek Testament
1 John 2:2. Our Advocate does not plead that we are innocent or adduce
extenuating circumstances. He acknowledgesourguilt and presents His
vicarious work as the ground of our acquittal. He stands in the Court of
Heaven ἀρνίον ὡς ἐσφαγμένον(Revelation5:6) and the marks of His sore
Passionare a mute but eloquent appeal: “I suffered all this for sinners, and
shall it go for naught?” περὶ ὃλου τοῦ κόσμου, Proverbs totius mundi
(Vulgate), “for the sins of the whole world”. This is grammatically possible (cf.
Matthew 5:20), but it misses the point. There are sins, specialand occasional,
in the believer; there is sin in the world; it is sinful through and through. The
Apostle means “for our sins and that mass of sin, the world”. Cf. Rothe:“Die
‘Welt’ ist ihrem Begriff zufolge überhaupt sündig, ein Sündenmasse, und hat
nicht blos einzelne Sünden an sich”. The remedy is commensurate with the
malady. Bengel:“Quam late patet peccatum, tam late propitiatio”.
Observe how the Apostle classeshimself with his readers:“we have,” “our
sins”—a rebuke of priestcraft. Cf. Aug.: “But some one will say: ‘Do not holy
men pray for us? Do not bishops and prelates pray for the people?’ Nay,
attend to the Scriptures, and see that even the prelates commend themselves
to the people. For the Apostle says to the common folk ‘withal praying for us’.
The Apostle prays for the folk, the folk for the Apostle. We pray for you,

brethren; but pray ye also for us. Let all the members pray for one another,
let the Head intercede for all.”
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
2. And He is the propitiation] Or, And He Himself is a propitiation: there is no
article in the Greek. Note the present tense throughout; ‘we have an
Advocate, He is a propitiation’: this condition of things is perpetual, it is not
something which took place once for all long ago. In His glorified Body the
Son is ever acting thus. Contrast‘He laid down His life for us’ (1 John 3:16).
Beware ofthe unsatisfactoryexplanationthat ‘propitiation’ is the abstractfor
the concrete, ‘propitiation’ (ἱλασμός)for ‘propitiator’ (ἱλαστήρ). Had S. John
written ‘propitiator’ we should have lost half the truth; viz. that our Advocate
propitiates by offering Himself. He is both High Priest and Victim, both
Propitiator and Propitiation. It is quite obvious that He is the former; the
office of Advocate includes it. It is not at all obvious that He is the latter: very
rarely does an advocate offerhimself as a propitiation.
The word for ‘propitiation’ occurs nowhere in N. T. but here and in 1 John
4:10; in both places without the article and followedby ‘for our sins’. It
signifies any actionwhich has expiation as its object, whether prayer,
compensation, or sacrifice. Thus ‘the ram of the atonement’ (Numbers 5:8) is
‘the ram of the propitiation’ or ‘expiation’, where the same Greek wordas is
used here is used in the LXX. Comp. Ezekiel44:27;Numbers 29:11; Leviticus
25:9. The LXX. of ‘there is forgiveness with Thee’(Psalm 130:4)is
remarkable:literally rendered it is ‘before Thee is the propitiation’ (ὁ
ἱλασμός). So also the Vulgate, apud Te propitiatio est. And this is the idea that
we have here: Jesus Christ, as being righteous, is ever presentbefore the Lord
as the propitiation. With this we should compare the use of the cognate verb
in Hebrews 2:17 and cognate substantive Romans 3:25 and Hebrews 9:5.
From these passagesit is clearthat in N. T. the word is closelyconnectedwith
that specialform of expiation which takes place by means of an offering or
sacrifice, althoughthis idea is not of necessityincluded in the radical
significationof the word itself. See notes in all three places.

Jesus was the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world

Jesus was the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world

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Jesus was the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world