Confident and Unashamed

When Adam and Eve heard God walking in the garden, they were afraid and ashamed, and they hid. To humanity accustomed to hiding from God, drawing back at His approach in a relationship broken by fear and shame, the promise of the glorious return of Jesus, surrounded by throngs of angels, can seem daunting, perhaps threatening.

It seems John’s letter was reflecting on this—and offering an alternative response. John warned believers against people who were attempting to lead them astray by diminishing their understanding of who Jesus was. “Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22). But John reminded them that Jesus was the grounds for their assurance. This is why those who argued for a lesser status for Jesus had the potential to do such damage. Only for those who continued in Jesus would the promise of His return sound like good news rather than cause for alarm. The story and reality of Jesus made the difference. In Jesus, the sound of the footsteps of the approaching God was no longer a cause for fear or shame. Instead, Jesus’ return in all His power and glory would be the moment when the relationship between God and humanity would be healed and restored.

As such, this was now cause for joyous hope and expectation. And if followers of Jesus could stand “full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame” (1 John 2:28, NLT), they could use that stance as a way to begin to live now. Because of the new beginning that believers were given in Jesus, they could seek to do what was right, not to earn status as God’s children, but simply because of who they were born and reborn to be (see 1 John 2:29).