Jesus Christ In The Flesh

A study of 2 John 1:7–8

‘For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.’
2 John 1:7–8

Definitions of the original language in the context the passage was written in:

-Deceivers: “planos”; adjective — misleading, leading into error; corrupter, deceiver.

-Have Gone Out: “exerchomai”; verb — to go or come forth of; to come forth (from privacy) into the world, before the public, (of those who by novelty of opinion attract attention).

-Confess: “homologeō”; verb — to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent; to profess, to declare openly, speak out freely.

-The Flesh: “sarx”; feminine noun — the body of a man.

-Christ: “Christos”; adjective — Christ = anointed; Christ was [and is] the Messiah, the Son of God.

-Antichrist: “antichristos”; masculine noun — the adversary of the Messiah.

-Reward: “misthos”; masculine noun — of the rewards which God bestows, or will bestow, upon good deeds and endeavors.

Observation/Summary(short explanation of what the passage says in your own words):

There are many people in the world actively deceiving people by preaching a false gospel wherein Jesus Christ is either not fully God, or if He is God then He did not come in the flesh as fully human. Anyone who preaches these falsehoods is a deceiver and an antichrist because they preach a false gospel and their words are in direct opposition to the Word of God concerning Jesus. As true Christians who believe Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man, one with the Father, and that it is only in Him, by Him and through Him that all things were created and are sustained, we must watch ourselves, or guard our hearts and minds against false teaching so that we are not led astray and lose out on the full reward promised to those who remain faithful to Jesus and His true gospel.

Implication (what does this mean to us):

This warning from John comes after his exhortation in verse six for Christians to love one another and the reminder that our love for God and one another is expressed by obeying God’s commands. His warning against false teaching and heresy echoes his words from 1 John 2:18 where he wrote, “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come…” There was a popular heresy in John’s day, and various forms of it persist today, which said Jesus as God could not have come fully in the flesh as a man. This belief directly contradicts the gospel, in other words, the “good news” of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ, because to be the Savior of the world required Jesus to come to earth as a man.

Importantly, John does not refer to the singular “Antichrist” prophesied of in Revelation. John here refers to anyone who denies any aspect of Jesus’ attributes or character. Anyone who denies the deity, humanity or all sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice to save us in both soul and body is against or “anti-” Christ. There are many such “antichrists” in the world (1 John 2:18), and they pose a real threat to the church that Christians must be aware of.

All of humanity has sinned against God, meaning we have violated His perfect and good divine law. We need only look around at the evil and suffering in the world to see the results of sin and understand why God hates it, and also why He is perfectly just and loving to bring judgment for it. The problem is, this means judgment for us too. We deserve to face God’s righteous wrath for our sin against Him and each other, and there is nothing we can do to save or justify ourselves. Because God is perfectly just He cannot simply ignore sin, the penalty must be paid. But because He is also infinitely loving He has paid the penalty for us Himself, and made a way for the whole world to be saved (1 John 2:2). This payment required the sacrifice of a man who perfectly fulfilled the righteous requirement of God’s law, but no man is capable of such a feat. But God, “by sending His own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law would be fulfilled in us…” (Romans 8:3–4a).

The life of a perfect human is what is required for an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. But no mere mortal could perfectly obey God’s law, so God came Himself to do it for us. God sent His Son, Jesus, who is fully God, to earth to be born as a man, conceived miraculously by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin woman Mary. In coming to earth as one of us Jesus did not lose an ounce of His deity, but rather he added the fullness of humanity to His nature. Now we can rightly call Him the “God-Man.” While he suffered in the flesh and was tempted in every way we are, He did so without sin. He lived the life we never could in perfect obedience to God the Father’s righteous law, and then He willingly died the death we deserve.

Because He has no sin, He is the only human who ever lived who did not deserve to die. In dying He took the punishment we deserve. He took the wrath of God for the sin of the whole world, and His sacrifice, as an infinite being, fulfilled the infinite debt of sin we owe to an infinite God. Only God could do this, and only a man could be an acceptable substitutionary sacrifice for our sin. This means, if Jesus is not fully God, then He is not perfect and we are doomed. If Jesus is not fully man, then He is not an acceptable sacrifice for the sin of all mankind, and again, we are doomed. But praise God He is fully God and fully man. He is the one and only all sufficient sacrifice for the sin of the whole world. He lived the life we never could. He died the death we deserve, and He rose back to life in both soul and body three days later; and now by repenting of our sin, and confessing Him as our one and only Lord God and Savior, everyone can be saved. Therefore, anyone who denies either the deity or the humanity of Christ is a deceiver. They have likely been deceived themselves, but that does not change the fact that they are deceiving others and will face the consequences for their actions in eternity unless they repent and believe in the risen, fully human and fully God, Jesus Christ.

Lastly, “Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.” There are many warnings in the Bible for Christians to be on guard against false teaching, and John echoes the words of Jesus in his warning here. In Matthew 24:4 Jesus said, “See that no one leads you astray,” and in verses 24–25 of the same chapter He adds, “For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.” We must be on guard or “on watch” against false teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. If we are led astray by false teaching and believe a false gospel we will have lost Christ and His free gift of salvation entirely. John’s mention of not losing “what we have worked for” in no way denotes salvation based on works, but rather he is referring to the work of the saints who have gone before us to spread the gospel and sound teaching, and the work that is has been to walk with Christ since we came to faith. None of this “work” saves us, but it is the result of being saved. Having been saved and made dead to sin and alive to Christ, we have been living and working for Him out of the overflow of His life, love and grace in us.

As we labor for Him we also know the Bible speaks of future reward. It is not exactly clear what that is, but from passages like 1 Corinthians 3:11–15, it is clear that while believers will face no judgment for sin, because Jesus paid for it all, we will have our deeds judged by God. In this “Bema Seat” judgment our sinful deeds as believers will be burned up and done away with forever, but our righteous deeds will merit some sort of reward (v.14–15). Whether John is referring to the “full reward” of eternal life given to all those who persevere in the faith, or the “full reward” given to believers for not only saving faith but righteous works done for the Lord, it is clear the message is that how Christians live matters to God. We must not only start off well in the faith, we must endure faithfully until the end to “win a full reward.” We must not be led astray by false teaching, and although God’s boundless grace covers over our sins, how we live in this world has eternal significance.

Application (How does this change how I think, act and pray?):

From this verse we learn all Christians need to have a solid understanding of the gospel in order to be on guard against false gospels and all manner of heresy. We also learn our perseverance in the faith and right living for the glory of God in reliance on His power is leading to a “full reward”. This understanding should affect how we act and live. God’s grace is sufficient to forgive our sins past, present and future, but we should still take the cessation of sin in our lives seriously. God cares about how we live, and out of our love for Him we should care about how we live too. It is the mark of heretics and false teachers to live however they want, pursuing all types of sinful passions (Jude 1:7–8), but it should not be so with the people of God. We struggle with sin, but we have been freed from slavery to it.

God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us, but He is also faithful to empower us day by day to grow in our obedience to Him. It is a process, but it is a process we have been given the privilege of participating in as we repent of the sin in our lives and pursue God’s righteous, loving and pure standard out of a reliance on His grace and strength to deny sin and choose righteousness. Most of all we learn from this passage of our need to rely on the Holy Spirit to help us to discern lies from truth (1 John 2:20–21) and to deny sin (Romans 8:12–17) so that we can persevere in the faith and “win a full reward” for the glory of Christ. It is to Him and Him alone that we must pray for discernment and obedience, and as we pray we pray with the confidence that He hears us and He is with us always, even to the end of the age.

Study Questions:

Is my understanding of the gospel such that I can immediately recognize false teaching about Christ?

How can I continue to grow in my understanding of the gospel daily?

How does the concept of future reward affect my understanding of the eternal significance of my actions today?

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