Monday, March 10th, 2025
1 John 2:1-6, NRSVUE
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
Now by this we know that we have come to know him, if we obey his commandments. Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we know that we are in him: whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk in the same was as he walked.
Reflection - Deacon Allison Wilcox, Grace Lutheran Church Royersford
Most of us probably have heard more times than we can count that Jesus was a sacrifice for our sins. Now, I don’t think any of us live in a culture - as the 1st century Jewish people did – where sacrifices are made to God in order to forgive us. We just don’t sacrifice animals on an altar anymore. But, while the term “atoning sacrifice” might be an odd fit for 21st Century Christianity, the first word there still matters quite a bit.
Atonement is the way in which we think Christ and Christ’s death on the cross matter for us. There are all kinds of theories about just how we are atoned, but it’s been helpful to me just to look at the word itself to see why Christ matters.
Atonement - or AT-ONE-MENT. In Christ, I am made one with God, and with God’s people.
One of the ways that “at-one-ment” is noticeable in us is in the keeping of the commandments. I think most of us know that keeping all the commandments isn’t humanity’s strong suit. But from the beginning, that’s what the commandments were for. To make us one with God and one with each other. To build God’s beloved community.
During Lent, we might want to look at the commandments with fresh eyes. How can my at-one-ment with God and my neighbor be enlivened by them?
Holy One, you have made me one with you through the life and the death of your son. Help me to live out your commandments in love so that I may also be one with your beloved people. Amen.
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