We come from a variety of different backgrounds. Gathered in this place are men and women from all walks of life. Tradespeople, academics, and professionals all sit next to one another, singing the same hymns, confessing the same faith. It is a strange thing when you step back and look at it, this gathering of the people of God. It is not forced but natural. We have no idea who might join our fellowship today, tomorrow, or a year from now. Different people with different struggles and trials, different gifts and joys, different hopes and dreams all find their place among their brothers and sisters in church week in and week out, confessing sins, receiving absolution, singing hymns, and attending to the Scriptures. Together, we are fed and nourished through Word and Sacrament, and we find ourselves pulled into this life together by the love of God.

Look around and see. “See,” as Saint John wrote. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so, we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.” This curious group of people is set apart from the world and unknown to the world because they do not know our Lord. You are a people who are called the children of God. You are God’s children, many and varied, as different as can be, all called together and declared to be His children. To be the children of God is to be something awesome and life changing. God’s children are the heirs of His gifts, the inheritors of life eternal. God’s children live and move throughout this age differently than others, for you are given to trust in things beyond the temporal, things greater than just the next meal, the next promotion, or the next life goal. You live knowing the depth and the power of the love of God. The Creator of the heavens and the earth, the One who spoke all things into being, has called you His own child. This changes everything.

Yet, one of the byproducts of being a child of God, one of the realities of our gathering around His gifts, is how we become aware of the tensions which mark our lives. These tensions have a habit of anchoring themselves right in the proclamation that you are God’s children. They are expressed in our lives as doubts and fears. See what kind of love the Father has given you, that you should be called the children of God; and so, you are. And then you hear it. You feel it. The accusations and the second-guessing are the seeds of doubt. You? You are a child of God? You certainly do not look like one. You do not act like one. Your thoughts and desires are soiled by sin. And those accusations are not wrong, are they? The tension, quite frankly, is between what God has declared about you and what you see in the mirror.

The old theologians expressed this as the tension of the “now and the not yet.” It comes from John’s words when he says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared.” The gifts, the decrees of God, these are yours right now. Now, you are His children. Now, you are His saints. Now, you are heirs of eternal life. But the full appearance of this, the full measure of what it looks like, what the experience will be, has not yet appeared. The reality of this “not yet” is our stumbling block. It is the truth we see staring at us in the mirror. If you do not look like the children of God, if you do not act like that, if you stumble and fall, if you sin with great regularity awaiting the “not yet,” then perhaps you are not now what He has said you are. This is the regular, daily struggle of the children of God.

At this point, I am sure many of you are thinking, “Sure, pastor, we know we are all sinners, and we will continue to sin until the day of our Lord’s return.” In other words, you know the Christian life is not perfect. However, I think this sort of glossing over the reality of sin is not particularly helpful. It is far more profound than the simple errors you make along the way. And if we do not realize this, if we do not confess the depravity of our sins, then we can get comfortable with them. We no longer see their danger. Perhaps, we no longer even see them at all. John reminds us: “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness.” Then he goes on to say, “No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him.” As we await the “not yet,” the practice of sinning has a corrupting power which we ought to flee from.

Recently, I had one of those instances when you realize how profound and deep sin can be. Have you ever had one of those moments where you realize that in the situation you are struggling with, your intentions, your aspirations, and your heartfelt beliefs are not the righteous ones? Oh, you thought they were, like you have created a narrative in your own mind where you are the hero. You are doing the good, right, and faithful work. Then, perhaps through the Word of God or words spoken by a trusted friend, you are allowed to see the truth more clearly, and what you see is horrifying, for you were not the hero at all. You are the villain, the perpetrator, the bad guy. That kind of realization can crush your spirit. Sin is not just an out-there thing, an accident you fall into. It is deep within our own psyche. It infects even our most noble desires to do good.

John’s words to us this morning warn us about the unchecked realities of sin and lawlessness as we struggle with the tension between the “now” and the “not yet.” It is more than just a list of things to avoid. Instead, he talks about the manner in which we live our lives. It is an ongoing challenge not to practice sin but to practice righteousness. How do you go about doing that? How do you practice righteousness? How do you avoid making a habit out of sin? First, we know the Word of God ultimately determines sin and righteousness. We can become quite good at telling ourselves a story that turns our sin into righteousness, which blinds us to our own failure. So, we must return, over and again, to the Word of God. The Word gives to us all the commands and the promises of God. Here, we are given the things necessary to practice while we await the appearance of the “not yet.”

The Word of God does not end your life of sin, but it calls it out, it highlights it. Everything is dragged from the darkness into the light. Everything is exposed and laid bare. The Word of Truth disrupts your habits. It opens your eyes to the lie of your own narratives. So, the Word leads you to repentance. It leads you to speak the truth to yourself, to declare you have sinned in thoughts, words, and deeds, sinned by what you have done and left undone, sinned in rebellion and self-righteousness, sinned with pride and envy. Therefore, the practice of righteousness is the practice of confessing your sin.

But you are not left with only the confession, only the sad repentance of your failure. No, the Word that brings you to your knees in repentance, then freely gives you the sinless life and promises of Christ himself. It declares how even now you are forgiven, even now you are loved, even now you are the children of God. The practice of righteousness in the tension of the “now” and “not yet” is to repent and believe the Good News, to have your works stripped away and turned instead to the eternal gifts of Christ alone. So, as John says, “Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as He is righteous.”