We need to be S(ec)URE
1 John was written to ensure these people that they have eternal life and will live on with God in glory forever. To be sure of having eternal life there are two conditions we need to be convinced of:
That there is such a thing as eternal life
That we have it
Most of us struggle with either one or the other? Some doubt whether it is all true at all? Others know it is true but aren’t sure they have it. John has dealt with both throughout this book but here at the end of his book he is focusing more on the latter.
How important it is to be sure. Many of us say very little about God because we feel like hypocrites. Others say and do lots of work for God to try and feel more sure. God doesn’t want us living like that. God is not like a cruel Father who keeps his children guessing as to whether they are loved and accepted. Nor is that conducive to healthy flourishing and growth!
How can we be sure?
Read 1 John 5:9-12
Notice how much stress is put on believing the testimony of God in these verses. It is absolutely impossible to be secure until we have learnt to trust God. God intends for us to live with him in his family forever and so if we haven’t learnt to trust him it just isn’t going to work. We will never be able to relax or feel like we belong, always on edge wondering whether God will turn on us or throw us out. Christianity really is all about faith and trust in God.
1 John 5:9 makes the point that we generally believe people. We had a painter over our house yesterday, had never met him before, and he started telling us about the best kind of paint and we didn’t retort with “stop your lying!!” as we had no reason to doubt him. So if we generally believe people when they tell us things, even though people lie and tell half-truths, then we should definitely believe what God says.
God must be the bottom line. He can’t ultimately appeal to anyone else “Michael! Gabriel! Assure these people that I tell the truth”, otherwise some other angel could deny it, just as Satan did with Eve. In the end it all comes down to a matter between each of us and our Creator. If we are going to have any true certainty and security in this Universe we must learn to trust God for ourselves
God has spoken loud and clear
God has spoken, he has given his testimony, he has declared that we can have eternal life right here and now, and that we can be certain that we have it. So being uncertain is not humble, it is calling God a liar.
God says to us all: “I have already given you eternal life, by giving you my Son”. John 3:16 says 'that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son… so that we might have eternal life'. God has already given his Son to become one of us forever. So that we could come to know and love him and learn to trust him as we would any other person. But he isn’t any other person, he is the eternal Son, so when we come to trust him we become part of the eternal family of God. It’s like Kate Middleton learning to love and trust Prince William and thus becoming part of the royal family. When we have a relationship with Christ we become connected to God forever. The Son and eternal life come as a package.
John finishes with three things that we can know for certain in 1 John 5:18-21
5:18 – we know that receiving this new life makes a difference. When someone becomes a child of God, there are two great powers at work to help them overcome sin. They will slip up but the general trajectory of their life will be towards godliness because of the new life within and the Son of God without.
5:19 – we know that we belong to God. As a child knows it’s parents before it knows anything else, the child of God knows God.
5:20 – we know the truth. This world is largely unaware of the greater reality of eternal life, our Creator, and the judgement to come, but we have been wakened up to reality. The Son of God has come to teach us that there is a greater life beyond this one, and not just teach us but prove it by dying and rising again. More than that, he gives us eternal life now so we can begin to live in eternity now.
God has spoken conclusively in Christ. God became a man to prove the truth about life through real historically events. God also gives us the faculty of understanding what he has spoken. He opens our eyes to see the truth of it. Furthermore when we believe God we are put into God himself. We are drawn into a genuine relationship with God that lasts eternally. It’s all God from start to finish. This is eternal life, genuinely knowing and learning to trust the one true God for ourselves. John warns us with his last statement to 'keep ourselves from idols', accept no substitutes, put our ultimate trust in nothing less than God himself, because that is the only way to be secure forever.
