Can we make certain that we all know Christ in a saving sense? It’s an age-old query, one which’s important to our Christian expertise. In his first letter, the apostle John writes on the theme of assurance. He states his function clearly: “I write this stuff to you who imagine within the identify of the Son of God, that you could be know that you’ve got everlasting life” (1 John 5:13).
John wrote that believers might “know” their hope for eternity—a very daring declare in mild of his context. The church to whom John wrote confronted the issue of Gnosticism, an early heresy that’s named from the Greek phrase gnosis, that means “information.” Some academics had crept into early church fellowships, describing information of God as both mere mental consciousness or some mystical expertise. In both case, Gnosticism divorced godly information from godly dwelling. It’s potential to know God, they’d say, and to stay nonetheless you’d like.
However those that know God, John argued, lead lives which have been and, certainly, are being reworked by Him. First John 2:3–11 prescribes two exams to measure real religion; so that we might benefit from the assurance that religion in Jesus brings, John invitations us to measure our confession and conduct towards God’s teachings.
The Ethical Check: “Am I Obedient?”
In verses 3–6, John highlights two dimensions of the ethical check, or the check of true obedience. The place faith-filled, grace-inspired obedience is current, the apostle causes, assurance of salvation and love for Christ may also exist.
Obedience Assures Us of Our Salvation
“We all know that we have now come to know him,” John begins, “if we maintain his commandments” (v. 3). The language describes a previous occasion with abiding penalties: we “have come” to know Christ. In different phrases, a believer can look again at his conversion and know that it wasn’t a sham. It’s potential to take pleasure in assurance.
Importantly, nonetheless, this assurance is based on obedience. Said negatively: once we’re dwelling in disobedience, we don’t have sturdy assurance in our hearts—and we shouldn’t! Sure, our salvation is grounded within the completed work of Christ, nevertheless it’s additionally true that the proof of our salvation is obedient dwelling—not but good obedience however a sample of obedience to God. It’s one factor to declare or to seem to know God. To substantiate that declare with godly dwelling is one other matter altogether.
The Outdated Testomony ebook of Hosea illustrates this fact properly. Writing to a individuals who profess to know God, the prophet challenges their declare, saying,
Hear the phrase of the LORD, O kids of Israel,
for the LORD has an issue with the inhabitants of the land.
There is no such thing as a faithfulness or steadfast love,
and no information of God within the land;
there’s swearing, mendacity, homicide, stealing, and committing adultery;
they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. (Hosea 4:1–2)
How can Hosea be so certain that the folks of Israel lack true information of God? As a result of their lives are stuffed with swearing, mendacity, murdering, and so on. The prophet illustrates the purpose John makes in his letter: our obedience to God helps our declare that we all know Him. Verbal career minus ethical persistence is self-delusion (John 14:15).
Obedience Works Itself Out in Love
Christian obedience will not be mere drudgery. In spite of everything, God didn’t give us His regulation to burden us into some gloomy, legalistic existence. We obey as a result of we love Jesus (John 14:15). Obedience to God flows out of affection for God and an consciousness of the inheritance we’ve been assured (1 John 2:5–6; Col. 3:23–24), not out of some want to earn our salvation, which we by no means can do.
Those that know God lead lives which have been and, certainly, are being reworked by Him.
Once we discuss love for God, it isn’t sentimental language, neither is it a mystical or emotional expertise. It’s the reworked disposition of a believer’s coronary heart earlier than the Lord. This turns into vital given our fickle emotions. What are we to do once we get up and assume, “I don’t really feel like a Christian as we speak”? Thanks be to God, our relationship with Him isn’t based mostly on the ebb and stream of our feelings! It’s grounded in Spirit-empowered devotion to Christ and His instructions.
The check of religion consists not of feeling however of doing. Are we obeying Christ? Are we strolling as He did? Underneath Christ’s completed work, it’s the conduct of our lives, not merely the content material of our lips, that helps to guarantee us we belong to God.
The Social Check: “Do I Love?”
The second check strikes from the ethical realm of true obedience to the social realm of real love. In verses 7–11, the apostle stresses the outdated and new nature of his instructing after which illustrates for his readers what passing the social check entails.
An Outdated and New Commandment
In verse 7, John says, “I’m writing to you no new commandment,” after which, in verse 8, “On the similar time, it’s a new commandment that I’m writing to you.” Which is it? It’s a each/and reply: the command to like each other is each outdated and new.
That the command is outdated, or established, is vital given the context through which John writes. In opposition to the brand new, deviant teachings that had infiltrated the church, the apostle says, “I’m not right here to introduce some new innovation into your Christian expression. What I’m writing to you is an outdated commandment.” It’s as outdated as the primary few books of the Bible. He references Leviticus 19:18: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge towards the sons of your individual folks, however you shall love your neighbor as your self: I’m the LORD.”
On the similar time, it’s new within the sense that Jesus took the command of Leviticus 19 and elevated it to a vastly totally different standing. Our Lord embodied what it’s to like one’s neighbor, fulfilling the regulation’s social dimension in whole. It’s loads like the best way through which an outdated piece of music strikes us as new when performed on high-quality headphones versus on an outdated radio: the music itself is outdated, however our expertise of it’s new. Because of this, John Stott describes the novelty of the apostle’s command by way of its emphasis, high quality, and extent.
For the reason that command to like is each outdated and new, it’s enduring. There’s no getting across the fundamental cost to like, as a result of God Himself is love (1 John 4:8, 16). The genuineness of our religion will likely be seen in whether or not or not we love like He loves.
An Illustration and a Demonstration
Verses 9–11 then illustrate what the social check finally entails. Utilizing stark, contrasting language—mild and darkish, love and hate—John causes that true religion is demonstrated in a proper relationship with God after which with others. In different phrases, it’s spurious to assert to stay within the mild whereas hating these round us.
Our Lord embodied what it’s to like one’s neighbor, fulfilling the regulation’s social dimension in whole.
Loving and dwelling within the mild go hand in hand (1 John 2:9–10). Love sees straight. Love thinks clearly. It frees us from stumbling into unbalanced judgments and conduct. Conversely, hatred blinds women and men (v. 11). It obscures our judgment and clouds our imaginative and prescient.
Importantly, there’s no “twilight zone” in John’s paradigm. There’s no in-between. It’s unimaginable to be stuffed with hate and stroll within the mild. Like those that declare to know God however don’t obey Him, those that profess saving information whereas being stuffed with hate are strolling contradictions. The believer will take pleasure in little assurance if he lives against the way John commends.
Exams for Real Religion
John has proven that assurance of salvation is attainable, although not with out cautious self-examination. However what does this examination appear like? Paul is useful right here. Writing to the Corinthian believers, Paul urges them, “Look at yourselves, to see whether or not you might be within the religion. Check yourselves. Or do you not understand this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—except certainly you fail to satisfy the check!” (2 Cor. 13:5).
It’s unimaginable to be stuffed with hate and stroll within the mild.
Testing the credibility of our professions is, in truth, a biblical observe. And this examination doesn’t lead us to despair, for “good love casts out worry,” and “everybody who has been born of God overcomes the world” (1 John 4:18; 5:4). If we’re in Christ, humble self-reflection leads us to sing,
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Inheritor of salvation, buy of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
This text was tailored from the sermon “Holding His Instructions” by Alistair Begg. This sermon is a part of the discipleship course titled The Fundamentals of the Christian Religion: A 13-Lesson Survey.
