C. The Ongoing Provision of the Atonement (2:1-2)

In the light of the forgoing provisions for forgiveness and cleansing, John says, You will not sin. Sin breaks fellowship, and the substance of John’s message is that we may live in unbroken fellowship with God. However, in the light of human frailty and the constant liability to falling, he says provision is made in case something arises to disrupt fellowship. Jesus Christ comes to our rescue and pleads our cause. He is our Advocate, or Lawyer. This is a theological way of saying that God is always for us and never against us.

The NIV wisely renders hilasmos as atoning sacrifice, thus avoiding the controversy over whether it should be translated “propitiation” (appeasing God) or “expiation” (removal of sin). The clue to its meaning is found in the fact that this imagery appropriates the sacrificial theology of the OT. Some sacrifices function to establish covenant relations (see Ge 15). But the cultic sacrifices (cf. Lev 1-6), especially the sin offering, are for the purpose of maintaining covenant relations through the covering of inadvertent sins. The sin offering speaks of the need for ongoing purification, such as referred to in 1:7. In sum, hilasmos speaks of the continuous, sanctifying significance of the atonement (see Dunning, 359).