This post by christinecoltman was originally published at GRACE PLACE
Here we are at the end of the letter of 1st John. What a year it has been! When we studied the gospel of John two years ago, I gained a new appreciation for the apostle John and his heart for revealing who Jesus truly was to his readers. He really wore his heart on his sleeve in his desire to demonstrate the way to have true life to non-believers – through Christ alone. Remember John 20:31? “These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God and that believing you may have life in his name”. That is coming to salvation. But in the letter that we’ve been studying this year, we’ve seen another side to John in his old age; his ability to encourage those who are already believers to have true assurance about their faith and future. That is for us too! He wants us to understand and have a true knowledge of what our faith implies. In a world that feels uncertain, John wants us to have full assurance. We’re going to unpack what this assurance looks like and why we can have confidence now. You’ll have to bear with me; John doesn’t write things in a nice, neat order! He’s very cyclical in how he writes – the same themes pop up all over the place. We’ll be jumping around the chapter in our reading.
In the chapter we’re looking at today, John returns to most of the themes he has developed in his letter. I’m sure you’ve already identified if you have been coming to these studies that the themes of love, obedience, belief and light and darkness come up again and again. One study guide said he is like someone holding a diamond up to the light. The same truths are seen from different angles so that we catch their beauty. Isn’t that a beautiful picture? We are going to be looking at some of these themes again as we look at this passage – hoping to express the beauty of treasuring Jesus; having confidence in the authenticity of our faith and confidence now and in the future.
Confidence in Jesus
I want us to start by looking at why John knows we can have confidence in who Jesus is. With conflicting views and false teaching surrounding who Jesus was at the time, people would have been confused, and very likely asking “How can I be sure Jesus is who he says he is? What do I believe about him and is it important?” We still need to know that today.
We already know John was an eyewitness to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection; he said so right back in the first verse of his letter. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life” (1 John 1:1). But in our passage today, he offers further proof.
We’re going to jump straight to verse 6 and come back to the first 5 verses in a minute.
“And Jesus Christ was revealed as God’s Son by his baptism in water and by shedding his blood on the cross—not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit, who is truth, confirms it with his testimony. So we have these three witnesses— the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and all three agree. Since we believe human testimony, surely we can believe the greater testimony that comes from God. And God has testified about his Son. All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has testified about his Son”. 1 John 5:6-10
John is helping his readers to see faith in Jesus should not be blind. There are concrete reasons for putting our faith in him; reasons that give us confidence in who Jesus is. Our faith is based on the testimony of witnesses. But water, blood, Spirit…these sound strange to our ears! How are these witnesses? Remember the false teaching at the time; people with a ‘gnostic agenda’ within the church were questioning the incarnation of Jesus. Taking away Jesus’ deity or limiting it in any way, was very serious business to John; it was taking the heart out of what it meant to be a follower of Christ. These verses are a direct rebuttal! John is declaring Jesus came as God in human flesh at the very beginning; the water could refer to his amazing virgin birth witnessed by the shepherds, or to his baptism, where you remember how God’s voice was heard by those who were there? “This is my son”! The blood refers to how he shed his blood for us at the cross, still fully God and fully man. As Jesus took his last breath and the temple curtain was torn from top to bottom, and darkness fell on the face of the earth, remember what the terrified Centurion and the soldiers who were watching said? “Surely this was the Son of God!”. All these events clearly demonstrated (and with lots of witnesses who could testify to) the incarnation of Jesus; Jesus as God’s Son.
Then the Spirit is listed as a witness too. Hollie spoke beautifully about the Holy Spirit last month; he is the one who connects us to the Father and gives us life! One of the roles of the person of the Holy Spirit is to illuminate our understanding of God’s word and of who Jesus is, like a torch! John is saying, if you believe the testimony of men, how much more should you believe what God says?! We believe the testimony of people around us all the time, right? Does this contain gluten? How do I get from here to the library? We have all the more reason to believe the testimony of God himself through His Spirit; that Jesus IS His Son!
Do you believe Jesus is God’s Son? For most of us here, the answer is YES I think. But still sometimes we find ourselves wondering ‘how do I know I am a Christian? Or, how do I know my faith is REAL?’ I know there are some of you here who have experienced doubt creeping in; “oh help, maybe I’m not saved after all” or those of us who have a tendency to over-analyse everything, which can take us to places our enemy would love us to be, because it makes us weak and ineffective. I love that John addresses this issue, so let’s look at how we can have confidence that our faith is real.
Confidence our faith is real
Let’s go back and look at the first few verses of this chapter to help us push out doubt and find assurance.
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome…” 1 John 5:1-3a (NIV)
Belief, love and obedience are tied together in these first few verses. These are our ‘pulse checks’ or tests that help us confirm genuine faith. But I was thinking – you know how a diamond can be checked to make sure it is genuine? Diamonds are graded by cut, clarity, colour and carat (the 4 C’s). The higher each ‘C’ is rated, the rarer the diamond and the higher the price, and there are labs dedicated to looking at these characteristics and testing the genuineness of the gems. The metals diamonds are set in are similar – we use the word ‘hallmarks’ to describe the tiny stamps we see on jewellery – these indicate the purity and authenticity of the metal. For the purpose of today, I’d like to use the term ‘hallmarks’ instead of ‘pulse checks’. We want our lives to be hallmarked by Christ – we don’t want to think of these things as a list of things to ‘do’ or check off. Rather, we want to be genuine, authentic followers of Jesus.
Verse 1 starts with the hallmark of belief. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, has been born of God”. ‘Has been born’ signals that we have had a new birth which has led to this belief – the ‘being born’ causes the belief to be enabled and not the other way round as I thought originally, as if my believing started it all off. Nope. God, by the power of his Holy Spirit, causes our hearts which were dead to him, to be made alive and John Piper says THEN we are freely drawn to believe and have faith in Jesus Christ, His Son. As spiritually dead people, we cannot save ourselves! Paul says to the Ephesians (ch2) “God… made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in sin…it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (v4-5,8).
Belief is not just an intellectual thing; it means ‘putting your faith in’. It doesn’t mean ‘yes, I believe Jesus was a good man, and yes he existed but that belief doesn’t impact me at all’; that is knowledge and nothing more; even the demons believe in Jesus’ existence! Belief leads to faith. Tim Keller said being we can tell if we’re born of God because we are a new creation; we’ve undergone a total change in how we think, feel and act. Genuine faith is not just outward works with no heart change – that’d be like when a jeweller uses cheap tin and coats it in a layer of gold to make it seem like the real deal – no, authentic faith goes deep and causes us to treasure Jesus above everything! If you have had the Spirit open the eyes of your heart, and you believe Jesus is God’s precious Son, and you know you have been made a new creation; you can be confident you belong to God!
Then we move onto the hallmark of love. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.” As soon as we realise what has happened to us through our spiritual new birth and consequent belief, our response is one of gratitude and love to God our Father; we love Him because He first loved us! And not only that, but we also find ourselves with a love of those who belong to him. We looked at this in depth with Vicki’s talk, but suffice to say, it is not possible to love God and not love His children! You know, I love Vicki dearly. When she had baby Adaline, and I met her for the first time, what kind of friend would I have been if I’d said to her “Vic, your friendship means so much to me, you’re so important to me, but I can’t stand your baby…!” She would wonder if I really loved HER wouldn’t she?!
John keeps insisting the love for God and love for each other are so interlinked; verse 1 says if you love the Father you’ll love the children, then verse 2 says how do we know we love the children? By loving the Father! Now the obedience hallmark is present too, and it is closely tied to love; we know we love others, by loving God AND by keeping his commands. If we love God and we are seeking to obey him, we can know our love for others is genuine, no matter what our feelings about our brothers and sisters in Christ might be. This is where the Pharisees got it so wrong; they were trying to love God by being obedient to the law and rather than that resulting in people being loved, it was the opposite! They were burdened! John says that the commands we are given (that enable us to love others) are not burdensome. His commands are GOOD and for our good.
Our culture tells us love and obedience don’t go together i.e. “if you love me, you’ll let me do what I want”. But Jesus is counter-cultural; he says ‘if you love me, you’ll keep my commands’ (John 14:15). This helps us refute the idea that you can become a Christian and then just do what you like because it is all covered. No, we are now compelled by love to obey and walk in His ways! Think of it this way. A teenager must be reminded daily to wash, wear clean clothes, tidy up after themselves, keep their room neat. Then at some point, they meet a special someone, and suddenly, love compels them! Keeping clean is no longer a chore and they need no second reminders to shower etc. In a similar way, following God is now a delight. Am I compelled by His love?
John wants us to know that if we see the hallmarks of those three things in our lives, we can have assurance and confidence of our faith. And what does this lead to?
Confidence now and in the future
John takes us straight to a place brimming with confidence! He wants us to know that we can live confidently in Christ NOW if we can see the hallmarks of genuine, authentic faith in our lives. We can walk in victory NOW. Why?
“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”. (v4-5, ESV)
Confidence now
John so wants us to get this point, that he uses the word ‘overcomes’ three times! What are we overcoming? The world! What does John mean when he talks about the world? Back in chapter 2 v16, John describes the world like this: “For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away…” He is not talking about the natural created world God made, but rather the sinful intentions in our hearts. (Interestingly the three things the devil tested Jesus on!). What is it that helps us to overcome the world? Our FAITH! We’re back to that cycle again – being born of God yields precious faith, where we treasure Christ above all things, and that is what enables us to overcome. When we treasure Christ that much, the world is exposed for what it is – unsatisfying. We see what we have in Christ is infinitely superior.
Let me give you a picture that came to me as I was thinking about this. When it is dark and you look at sparkly lights, maybe at Christmas, they are alluring and draw in your gaze. But in the bright light of day, they are revealed for what they are; they don’t look impressive in comparison with the glories of God’s creation bathed in sunlight. When we were in spiritual darkness, the twinkly lights of the world drew our attention – those fleeting pleasures, and desires that seemed great for a short time but didn’t then satisfy. In the bright light of knowing and having faith in Jesus, (the light of the world!), those things are seen for what they are – unsatisfying in comparison with the richness and assurance that comes from salvation in Him. That is why John is so confident we can overcome the world; we have found our real treasure.
John leads us to look further at this idea of walking in victory now. I hear you say, well this all sounds very nice, but I have this thing where I keep falling into a pattern of sin; I know it is wrong but no matter what I do, I sin again. How can I walk in victory in this area? This is something that can be a real barrier to knowing assurance of faith.
If we jump over to verses 18-19 we can see John writing about how we can have confidence now, even as we battle with sin.
“We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” (v18-19)
There is so much to unpack here (as with nearly all these verses!) that I could have written a whole sermon just on this. But verse 18 is telling us we can have confidence in our security in the LORD as we walk through this life in our own battles with sin. When John says ‘keep on sinning’ he doesn’t mean that once you are a Christian, you no longer sin at all. The present tense ‘keep on’ used in the Greek indicates that those who are born again and have the Spirit of God in them cannot ever make peace with sin, make sin a friend, be okay with sinning. The problem is habitual sin – a choice; sin that is allowed to have free-reign in your life.
But John goes on to say we are protected from the evil one and we cannot be touched, because of Jesus (the one who is born of God in this verse). On one hand we can see that Jesus stops the enemy from touching us but conversely Satan has been given temporary power over the world (v19). So, if he can’t get at us from within, he might have a go at us from without, because that is where he is, in the world. Distractions, doubts, fear, accusations; they are all fiery darts he likes to throw at us.
But what have we been given to deal with these? FAITH! Think of your spiritual armour! (Ephesians 6). We have the shield of faith to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Notice though, that this is the only piece of armour that comes with an exhortation (I needed to hear this) “in all circumstances take up the shield of faith” – wow, in all circumstances. In our fight against sin, we need FAITH! Not trying harder to stop sinning, not gritting your teeth or leaning on your own understanding. Victory against sin, even today, comes from faith in Jesus Christ. We can say “LORD, I can’t do this, but YOU can”. Sam Allberry said it brilliantly – ‘We can’t say we have it within ourselves to stay the course. God may give me more than I think I can handle, but he won’t give me more than Jesus can handle. It isn’t up to my strength, it is up to Jesus’ strength’. Consequently, Sam encourages believers to say, instead of ‘how are you doing’ with X or Y, rather ‘how is Jesus in you doing?!’ He’s talking about the Holy Spirit’s power. And when you think that that power is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, then you can see the power we have available to us in our fight against sin and ability to live victoriously! But this is a process, so don’t be discouraged if you’re in that battle with a particular sin. We’ll talk about this more in a moment.
John wants us to see there is another area we can have confidence in as we walk through this life now. We can confidently approach our Father in prayer. Let’s look at verses 14-17.
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.” (v14-17)
This passage makes it clear that we now know we have the ear of God the Father because of what His Son has done for us. Christine talked about this when she talked about us being children of God. Through Jesus opening up his ‘sonship’ and folding us into it with him, we can now approach God with the same confidence Jesus did! He hears us, not because of our efforts, but because we come wrapped up in the name of His precious Son Jesus. This is how we can be confident in praying! More than that, we don’t just know we’re heard, but v15 says we are answered. God wants us to ask of Him! Verse 14 says “if we ask” – sometimes we just don’t ask though do we? Do you ask God about things? James 4 says there are times we don’t have because we don’t ask! Sinclair Ferguson said maybe sometimes we’re too ‘British’ and think…well, I might not get this, so I’ll just not ask for it and then I won’t look embarrassed. Or maybe you don’t ask because you feel guilty – nope, that isn’t a good reason, because you’re forgetting the mercy of God. Or maybe you don’t ask because you feel shame; He knows what I’ve done so I can’t ask him for anything more. Nope! You’re forgetting that He FIRST loved us, even in the depths of our sin! The love-relationship of a child and their father means the child can confidently ask, knowing they will be heard and answered.
But we can’t just ask anything; God is not a vending machine. What we ask needs to be in accordance with His will. Prayer isn’t about twisting God’s arm to give us what we want, it is about bending ourselves to be in line with his will. Tim Keller said, “God will either give us what we’ve asked for OR he’ll give us what we would have asked for if we knew everything he knows”. So, do ask! And if you are not answered the way you think you will be, or the answer doesn’t come, just rest knowing His will WILL be done, in His timing.
There is a particular area of prayer we are encouraged to pursue by John; look at verses 16 and 17; they appear hard to understand. I don’t have time to completely unpick it all but suffice to say we are encouraged to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are struggling with sin. Sometimes we see each other wrestling with sin, or making choices we know that do not honour God. How easy it is to think ‘I don’t want to get involved; it isn’t my business etc’. Well actually, as Hollie said in her talk at retreat, it is if you love your sister; you don’t leave her struggling with sin. She said mercy climbs down into the trench she’s in with her and shows her the face of love, the face of Jesus!
Then John talks about sins that lead to death and sins that do not lead to death. I think this sounds more complicated than it really is. The sin that leads to death refers to the sin of the choice to habitually and decisively to walk away from Christ and embrace sinful living. If someone actively chooses to say no to Jesus and to put themselves on the throne of their life, then they are automatically choosing the path that leads to death, right? Whereas we are exhorted to pray for a sister (notice John says ‘brother’ – this means a fellow believer, so someone who is already born of God) who is struggling with sin. These are the sins that do not lead to death because they are sins we repent from, and find forgiveness. Yes, even sins we are battling with like we were talking about earlier. Remember 1 John 1:9? “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. The more we love one another, the more we will know each other’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities, so we can pray for our sisters not to stumble and sin. Amazingly, we are given a promise here that if we ask, God will give them LIFE! What a promise. I know I have felt uplifted and held by the prayers of sisters when I’ve been struggling. Praying for each other is life-giving! Let’s commit to sharing our hearts with each other, be real and vulnerable, and pray for each other!
Confidence in the Future
Life is something John mentions multiple times in his letter. Let’s end by looking at the future promised to us that starts now.
“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (11-13)
“We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” (v20)
There is nothing more important than having eternal life. When you are at the end of your life, whether you have lost that extra pound to look good in a bikini for the summer, whether you have an even suntan, whether you made all A grades in your exams, whether you bake the best chocolate cake… none of it will matter, just that question. When I die, do I have eternal life? How do I know?
Well, what does John say about how to have this life? You need to treasure the Son. Simple. “Whoever has the Son has life”. This goes back to the hallmark of authentic belief; someone who has faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross and who treasures him above all things has LIFE. Jesus himself told us he is the only way to have life when he said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. This isn’t just ‘life’. This is ‘the life’. Jesus was the only one who conquered death, so he is the only one who can offer true life! Life eternal, with him forever! I mean, John couldn’t make it any clearer, could he? In verse 20 he says “…Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life”.
These verses could hardly be more important because the consequences of believing or not believing are so weighty! Eternal destinies are at stake, because there is a stark warning, a flipside. If you do not have the Son, you do not have life. A sobering thought. The opposite is death and being apart from Jesus forever. That’s also why John ends his letter the way he does by the way. That final verse isn’t an oversight, and no, he didn’t mean to write ‘my dear children, love one another’ or something that would seem more fitting on the first reading of it. In v21 he exhorts us, with great love and tenderness, to keep ourselves from idols. Why? Because anything that replaces the Son in our hearts, anything that kicks him off the throne of our lives and leads us away from him, will only be leading us to death. He is effectively summing up everything he’s been saying all along. Why would I treasure anything other than Jesus?! An idol won’t reassure me when my heart condemns me. An idol won’t help my prayers to be heard. An idol won’t help me have confidence to know what will happen to me when I die. Do I treasure him more than anything?
When we know “him who is true”, we have nowhere else we need to go for the confidence of eternal life. But more than just reiterating that Jesus is the only way to have eternal life, John also wants his audience of believers to walk in the confident assurance of this knowledge NOW. I love the confidence of the Amplified version in v13: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you will know with settled and absolute knowledge that you already have eternal life” (v13 AMP). What marvellous assurance. One commentary said this which I love; ‘the life of eternity, the life of the world to come…is something that God has already given to those who believe in Jesus. It is the present possession of every Christian believer’.
When John started writing this letter, he expressed his purpose in writing “to make our joy complete” (1:4). Now we see what the content of that joy is; the climax of what his whole letter has been moving towards. His joy is in seeing his ‘dear children’ continuing in their faith in the Son of God, and rejoicing in knowing they have eternal life. Jesus himself said “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). This was a new way of thinking about eternal life for me; it is a personal-encounter knowledge of God leading to a lifetime and eternity of fellowship with Him.
Testimony
This knowing has been a theme throughout the whole year, hasn’t it? So often throughout this letter we read the phrase “this is how we know”. That’s why we called this series ‘Knowing Jesus’; but it has ended up being so much more than just knowing more of who Jesus is. I can’t tell you how wonderful it has been for me to focus on ‘knowing’ this year; quite a few of us have remarked on how the passage we’ve had to speak on has spoken right into our own personal situations – growing us and challenging us right when we’ve needed it. This has been my story too.
In Thailand I had to do a personality test at the school we worked at. I came out as an ENFP – the one who brings cakes to the party, makes sure everyone is doing ok and seeks emotional connections with others. Apparently though, I’m a 100% feeler (that’s the ‘F’); I mostly make decisions based on feelings and not thinking. But since this past winter, my feelings have been properly messed up; my hormones are out of whack, I’m struggling with brain fog, it has taken me ages to ‘feel’ like home is home since we moved, it doesn’t ‘feel’ right working and mummy-ing because I don’t ‘feel’ like I’m getting the balance right. I somehow don’t ‘feel’ connected with my life or even with the LORD like I have in the past. Sometimes God doesn’t even ‘feel’ real! What a blessing then to have been studying this book and particularly this passage through this season! I might not be ‘feeling’ it, but what a lesson there has been for me in studying over and over again; “this is how we KNOW”. It has helped me cling to what I KNOW. I know my salvation in Jesus is secure because I know He is the Son of God who loves me, and died willingly in my place for my sin. I know I am forgiven. I know I can boldly approach my Creator because I come wrapped in the name of Jesus. I know my future is secure in Him and it starts now! What promises to stand on!