Good day to all. Welcome to the “front porch.”
Our voyage through the word of God has taken us all the way to the first epistle of John. It is a difficult task to survey the major lessons in a book of this magnitude in a couple of sermons, but we made that attempt this past Sunday. In that study, we considered this key question: Can we know we are saved?
That question was our Lord’s Day morning focus. At the 3 p.m. service, we turned the tables and looked at the other side: Can we know we are NOT saved?
The morning audience and I shared more of the “good news” while reserving the negative for the afternoon. We understand, though, that we cannot choose the sections of scriptures we like the best and glaze over the rest. Yes, we do love the good news, such as when John writes near the end of his letter, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13).
John states the thesis of his letter there at the latter end, much as he does in the gospel of John, over in John 20:31. John is writing – as evidenced in that thesis statement of 1 John 5:13 – to assure the Christians in the late first-century that they can know they have eternal life through their faith in the name of Jesus Christ. His emphasis on their believing is in stark contrast to many of the religious bodies that were invading the church of their day, most of them akin to the Gnostics who denied the deity of Jesus.
Just in case even one Christian has begun to buy into the heresy being spread in the churches of Asia, and beyond, John states over and over that our faith is in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who will give you full assurance of eternal life, John says – He Who is the Logos – the “Word of Life” – He whom we have heard, seen, beheld, and handled (1:1).
There in the first verse of the book, John demolishes many of the heresies of these religious groups. Some of that day claimed that Jesus did not come actually in the flesh. John disputes that, saying that they had seen Him, and they had handled Him (Luke 24:39).
Some claimed that He is not Deity. Again, John disputes that notion, calling Jesus “that eternal life, which was with the Father” (1:2). “With” in that statement literally means “face to face.” Jesus is the eternal One who has gazed in the face of the Father eternally. No, says John, let’s not hear any more about Jesus neither being part of humanity nor part of the Godhead, of Deity.
Very expertly, the apostle – with one profound thought after another – takes down many of the modern-day heresies. He does not mention them by name. Instead, he declares a truth and lets that truth comb the river-bottom of error and clean up any debris polluting the churches of Christ in that day.
In doing so, John – in part – answers the question, “Can we know we are not saved?” This we know: If a man promotes a false doctrine, then that man is not saved. That man is lost, and John even categorizes such a man as an antichrist (2:18-19 / 4:1-6).
John includes other answers to the “Can we know we are not saved?” question, including participating in continual sin (3:8), sinning a sin “unto death” (5:16-17), hating our brother (3:15), and – by implication – failing to come in contact with the blood of Jesus (1:7).
But how can we know we are saved?
John explores that question in depth in his epistle, and I invite you all to spend a little time exploring it over the next week in your personal studies. Lord willing, we will explore the question more fully with you on our next visit together.
Thanks for reading. God bless! (coachbowen1984@gmail.com)
Comments