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  9. THEOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL VALUE
  by Daniel Steele
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Summary: The Epistle of John is a powerful statement of Christian truth,
written with magisterial authority and a deep understanding of the
divine essence.

Topics: "Christian Perfection", "Atonement Theology"
Scripture References: 1 John 1:1-2

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DESCRIPTION
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Daniel Steele preaches on the Epistle of John, emphasizing that it is
not a systematic theology but a powerful declaration of cardinal
doctrines such as sin, atonement, love, and Christian perfection. John
writes with the conviction that he is delivering the final statement of
Christian truth, exuding apostolic authority and certainty. The Epistle
magnifies the essence of love, the atonement through Christ's blood, and
the attainability of Christian perfection through the Holy Spirit's work
in believers' hearts.

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CONTENT
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The Epistle is not a designed compendium of systematic theology or
handbook of Christian doctrine for catechetical training, being written
not for the instruction of the ignorant, but expressly for those who
"know the truth." Yet "in no other book in the Bible are so many
cardinal doctrines touched with so firm a hand." No other book gives a
formal definition of sin, and none so often alludes to the atonement in
the blood of Christ presented in its various phases, no other so
magnifies love and identifies it with the divine essence, and no other
so distinctly teaches Christian perfection attainable by all believers
who here and now claim their full heritage in Christ, perfect love shed
abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit.

John writes as if conscious that he is writing the last statement of
Christian truth in epistolary form, just as he had written the last of
the Gospels. "Each point is laid before us with the awe-inspiring
solemnity of one who writes under the profound conviction that 'it is
the last hour.' None but an apostle, perhaps none but the last surviving
apostle, could have such magisterial authority in the utterance of
Christian truth.

Every sentence seems to tell of the conscious authority and resistless,
though unexerted, strength of one who has 'seen, and heard, and handled
the Eternal Word, and who knows that his witness is true."'

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/daniel-steele/9-theological-and-ethical-value/
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