Knowing You Have Eternal Life: The Message of 1 John

1 John 5:13

September 21, 2003

            This morning we come to the concluding section of 1 John. The Apostle John has wrapped up his argument, he has set before us what he wants us to know about living the Christian life, and now he reminds us of his great purpose in writing this letter. He says, These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is a purpose statement. All that we’ve read until now has been to give us tests whereby we may know whether or not we have eternal life. The Apostle’s purpose in writing, and our purpose in studying this letter, has been to assure our hearts that we have eternal life.

            Why would John put such effort into this task? I think the reason the Apostle is concerned to explain to us what it means to have eternal life is because there are many people traveling the broad road of destruction who will try to call you off the narrow path that leads to life. Many of them look like well-meaning individuals. Many of them are sincere. Many of them will treat you with a degree of kindness. Many of them will even use the Bible to convince you to stray from the simple truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

            The Apostle Paul warned the elders of the church in Ephesus of this danger in Acts 20. There he warned them, saying, I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Paul had spent three years preaching, teaching, and discipling the members of this early church, and he warned them that after he left men would arise who were not obedient to the Gospel. Such men would attempt to deceive believers, and they would try to draw them away from Christ. Paul, therefore, warned them to be alert and on their guard, because he knew that life in this passing world of sin is dangerous for the believer. There are many voices shouting at believers to forsake Christ for something else, whether it is false religion, worldly wisdom, status and prestige, or any number of other things that tempt the souls of men.

            The Apostle John is concerned to help these early Christians remain true to Christ. He knows that many trials and temptations await them, and there are many antichrists who would have them believe lies and forsake the Gospel. So he has written this letter to protect them, and the greatest protection they can have is this certain knowledge that they have eternal life. If they possess this certainty, then no one will be able to deceive them with another road, or another gospel, or a false Christ. These believers will know with certainty that they have life, so they will not be as prone to the deceptions that would offer them life from another source.

            Today we need the same encouragement. The world so often tells us that we need to experience this or that to have eternal life. False religions come along and try to persuade us that we are missing something in our simple faith, and that there is something else that we must have. Even those within the church might come along and tell us that we must have some type of extraordinary manifestation of a spiritual gift in our lives to really experience life. We might be tempted to believe these lies, and to wonder if we do in fact have eternal life and are experiencing it to the fullest. The Apostle is concerned that we not be moved from our position and our faith. He doesn’t want us to be shaken, so he has written this letter so that we may know that we have eternal life.

            Throughout his letter, John has given us many tests whereby we may know whether or not we possess this life. When he says these things at the beginning of verse 13, he is referring to what he has previously written, the totality of the letter. He is saying to these Christians, “This letter, all of these things that are in it, I have written to strengthen your assurance so that you might know that you have eternal life.” His aim is to strengthen us and give us certainty in a world that is uncertain and unstable.

            What are these things that he has written? What tests has he given us to assure us that we have eternal life? Let me put them before you in three broad categories. There are three basic tests that the Apostle has given us to test whether or not we have eternal life. Do you want to know whether or not you have this life in Jesus? Then here are the tests to apply to yourself.

Test #1 – Believe upon Jesus Christ

            The first test that the Apostle gives us is right in verse 13 itself. He says, These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. The very first test is faith in Jesus Christ. If we are to have this life of which John speaks, we must have faith in Jesus Christ. We must believe upon Jesus Christ to be saved.

            This is where it all begins and ends. If we do not have this faith, it does not matter what else we have. We can be as loving a person as there has ever been, but without belief that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, it does not matter. We do not have life unless we have put all of our trust in Christ and in Christ alone.

            These tests, notice, are only for those who already believe in the name of the Son of God. These tests are not for the world. The world fails on this basic point; it rejects the Christ of God. The world does not receive Jesus. He and His cross are foolishness to the world. They cannot understand it. They do not feel their need for a Savior or for forgiveness of sins. They do not put their faith in Jesus. Perhaps they put their faith in their good works, or in that they have been a moral person, or even that they have attended this church or that, but they do not find their salvation in Christ and in Christ alone. This is the foundation. It does not matter what else a person may profess or what else he or she may do or not do, if a person does not believe upon the Lord Jesus, that person does not have eternal life.

            The Apostle has repeatedly emphasized the importance of faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ. He began his letter this way. Right from the start he begins by proving to his readers that Jesus is the Son of God, and that the apostles personally saw Him, heard Him, touched Him, and studied Him. He even tells them in 1:3 that his whole purpose in writing is that his readers might have fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. He wants these Christians to have fellowship with God, which is what it means to have eternal life – to have eternal, intimate, personal fellowship with God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

            What, then, are some of the things the Apostle tells us we must believe about Jesus Christ to have eternal life? What must we believe is true about Him to have fellowship with God? First, the Apostle tells us that we must believe that Jesus Christ was fully human. That is John’s emphasis in the introduction to the letter. The eternal Word of God, Jesus Christ, was manifested to the apostles and many others, and they saw Him, they touched Him, they heard His voice. He was a real, physical man. He was not a phantom or a disembodied spirit. He repeats this in chapter 4:1-6, where he says, Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. In other words, the only ones that we are to believe are those who would confess that Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Savior, is a man who came in the flesh. If a person does not confess that the Christ was a real human being who lived and died and was raised again, that person is not from God. The person who denies the humanity of Christ is an antichrist, no matter what else that person may do or say.

            Secondly, we must also believe that Jesus Christ is fully God. We must not confess that He is a man only, but that He is also equal with God. Many people will confess that Jesus was a man well enough, but they will not admit that He is the Son of God, and that as God’s Son He is equal with God. This has been a stumbling point for many since the time of the incarnation. People did not believe that Jesus was equal with God, yet this was always Jesus’ own claim, and His opponents knew that the Son of God is equal with God. He is in Himself fully God. In John 5:18 we read, For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. The Son of God is just as much God as God the Father. So when we say that Jesus is the Son of God, what we mean is that He is very God of very God. He is co-equal with the Father, and Jesus lacks nothing of the divine essence. Another instance in the Gospel of John where Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God is seen as a claim to deity itself is in John 10:33. The Jews are about to stone Jesus, and He asks them why they are stoning Him. Their response is this: For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God. The Jews understood full well that if Jesus was the Son of God, then He was equal with God the Father. The Father and the Son are both fully God in themselves. So we must firmly confess and believe that Jesus is not only Jesus of Nazareth, the man, but that He is also Jesus Christ, the Son of God, equal with the Father.

            The Apostle says this in his letter as well. He says in 2:22, Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. If you deny that the human Jesus is the divine Christ, then you are the liar, you are an antichrist. You are not saved. If you deny the Son, you deny the Father. Again, the Apostle says in 5:1, Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. That means that you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ, equal with God. If you do not believe and confess this truth, then you are not saved because you are not God’s child; you have not been born of God. It is essential that we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, very God of very God.

            But, the Apostle does not even stop here. He says that we must go on and believe also that Jesus came to destroy the devil’s works and to atone for sin. We must admit that Jesus Christ’s death was a sacrifice to satisfy God’s wrath and justice. There are many who would not allow for this. They would say that Jesus’ life was an example to be followed. Of course, His life is a great example, and we should follow it, but the problem is that we cannot follow it perfectly. That is why His death on the cross and His resurrection are so important. Jesus did not come merely to give us an example of how to live a life that pleases God. He came to die. He came to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

            The Apostle makes this clear in two places. In 2:2 he says plainly that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins. That means that He is the atoning sacrifice. He satisfies God’s justice and wrath against sin. Sin must be taken care of. God cannot overlook it, so Jesus Christ Himself died, and the wrath of God was poured out on Him for the sins of His people, as many from the whole world as would believe. He satisfied the wrath and justice of God with His own body on the cross. The Apostle also says in 4:10 that we did not love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Again, he emphasizes the sacrificial, atoning death of Jesus Christ for our sins. That is why Jesus was sent into this wicked, sinful world. He was not sent to be our example, or to show us how to love only. Not at all! He was sent to die and pay the price for our sins. “You must believe that,” says the Apostle. You cannot believe anything less than this and have life, and you must be absolutely sure of it. You must admit that you are a sinner, and that Jesus’ death is the only way that you can ever have forgiveness for your sins and escape the eternal wrath of Almighty God.

            Finally, the Apostle tells us that believing upon Jesus means believing in Jesus alone for eternal life. The Apostle said that very thing in 5:11-12, where he wrote, God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son does not have the life. Life is not to be found anywhere else but in the Son. We cannot get it from sacraments, or from works, or from dead saints. Life is only to be found in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. If you are to have the life, you must have Jesus, and nothing more than Jesus. Life is only found in Him, so having Him is enough. He is all we need. If we trust in anything else for eternal life, it is a denial of what God has done in Christ, even if we say we trust Christ with those other things. Life is in the Son, and if we believe God we believe that Jesus is all we need, and we stop striving and trying to get life on our own or through other means, and we rest in Jesus alone for salvation.

            These are the things that we must believe if we are to believe upon the name of the Son of God. We must believe that He was a man, but not only a man, but also the Son of God, being equal with God Himself. We must believe that He came to atone for our sins by His death on the tree, and we must believe that life is only to be found in Him. This is what it means to believe in the name of the Son of God. It is nothing less than this, and the Apostle says that if we believe these things, that is one sure indicator that we have eternal life. We do not need worldly wisdom, or status, or experiences. We simply need to have this faith in God’s Son, sent to be the propitiation for our sins.

            The Apostle, however, said in verse 13, these things, and so believing upon the Son of God is just the foundation. It is the first step, but it is not all that the Apostle has mentioned in his letter. He has written these things so that we may know that we have eternal life. One of our great assurances is our faith in these truths about Jesus, but sometimes there are people who feel they believe these things, and yet they do not have eternal life. Or there are those who feel they believe these things, and yet they have no assurance whatsoever. And then there are those who are in the middle, who have assurance, but could always use more of it. So the Apostle goes on to give other tests. What are they?

Test #2 – Walk in the Light

            The second test is the test of obedience. The Apostle has told us to walk in the light. We are to walk in the light, or, to put it another way, we are to keep God’s commandments. Obedience is a great assurance that we have eternal life. Why? The Apostle tells us in 1:5. He says, This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. Are you in Him? Do you abide in God? If you do, you must walk in the light, because there is no darkness in God at all. Because God is light, it is a great assurance to see this light in our own lives. When we see the manifestation of the character and person of God in our lives, we have great assurance that we have eternal life and that our faith is genuine. That is why a  person who claims to be a believer, who lives in unrepentant sin, may feel a lack of assurance. Obedience is a great comfort to the children of God that God is their Father. Now then, what does it mean to walk in the light? The Apostle has given us several explanations of it.

            First, he told us that we are to confess our sins. It is inevitable that we will fail to walk perfectly in the light, and if we claim that we are perfect, then the Apostle tells us that our position is wrong at that point, so we will all have to confess our sins. To walk in the light means to be repentant about our sins. In 1:9 John writes, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Those who walk in the light confess their sins and they bring them to Jesus, and God forgives us based on the sacrifice and righteousness of Christ.

            Secondly, we are to keep God’s commandments. We know from the outset of the letter that we will not be perfect, but nevertheless we are to be ever-increasing in our obedience to God’s commandments. In 2:3 John writes, By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. If we live a lifestyle of obedience to the commandments of God, we know that we have come to know God. We know that we have eternal life when we keep His commandments. It is a sure sign that we have been born again and have authentic faith in Jesus Christ.

            The Apostle puts it like this in 2:29. He says, If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. Those who are born of God have the nature of God, and so they act like God in their behavior. They practice righteousness. They love righteousness and so they live righteous lives. They imitate God in their holiness. Or, as John puts it in 3:3, Everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. If you have the hope of the resurrection from the dead and the appearing of Jesus Christ, then you purify yourself. You try to live a righteous and pure and holy life in the sight of God. If you really have faith, you cleanse yourself and try to do what pleases God. When you keep God’s commandments and practice righteousness and purify yourself it is a great grounds of assurance that you have eternal life.

            To walk in the light also means that we overcome the world rather than loving it. We overcome this ungodly, wicked, sinful world instead of loving it. We forsake the things of this world, and we do not live for the passing pleasures of sin. We do not value the treasures this world offers over the reproach of Christ. The Apostle told us in 5:3-4, For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments (in other words, walk in the light); and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. Those who walk in the light are overcomers. They are conquerors. They do not get entrenched in this world’s system. In 2 Timothy 2:3 Paul put it like this: No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Those who walk in the light do not get entagled with the affairs of this world. They seek first the kingdom.

            Another way to put it is how John puts it in 2:15, Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him. You are to overcome the world, not love it! You are to walk in the light, not in the ways of this passing world of sin. If you have come out from the world and you have become a fool for Christ’s sake, that is great assurance that you are God’s child. Jesus said in Luke 6:26, Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets the same way. What does the world think of you? Does it speak highly of you and aspire to be like you? Or does it misunderstand you and realize that you are not seeking the same things it is? Do you overcome the world, or do you love it? To walk in the light means to overcome the world, and when we see ourselves by faith overcoming this present world, it is a great assurance to our faith.

            This, then, is the second test: walk in the light. Are you walking in the light? Do you confess your sins? Do you purify yourself, living a life of obedience to God’s commandments and practicing righteousness? Do you see the character of God’s holiness and righteousness in your life, even if just in a small measure? Are you overcoming the world by faith? Or are you living for this passing world and seeking the things the Gentiles seek after? If you are walking in the light and you believe upon Jesus Christ the Son of God, then you can have great assurance that you are a child of God and that you have eternal life. But there is one last test. There is a third test the Apostle gives us in this letter.

Test #3 – Walk in love

            The third test is the test of love. The Apostle has told us to walk in love because God is love (4:8). A person may have intellectual agreement with the doctrines of Christianity. And what’s more, a person may be able to fake obedience to God’s commands, and yet that person still may not have eternal life. God is not only light, but He is also love, so there is this final test of love. The Apostle emphasizes it over and over again in his letter, and he says that if we pass these other tests and we also walk in love, then we can have great confidence before God. How can we know if we are abiding by this rule of love? How can we tell if we are walking in love? There are two aspects to this.

            The first is love to God. The starting point is how we see God and how we relate to Him. Do you love Him this morning? Do you have a great affection for Him, and do you desire to honor Him and obey Him? Does your heart see God as worthy of your soul, and your life, and your all?

            You say, “Well, how can I know if I love God?” The Apostle tells us that this is one way we can know. Ask yourself this question: Do I find the commandments of God burdensome? What is your reaction? What do you feel about that question? Do you find His commandments hard and grievous and difficult to you? Or do you delight to do His will? The Apostle has put it like this in 5:3: This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. John wants us to realize that keeping the commandments of God will not be burdensome to the one born of God. If you are born of God, you will find the commandments a delight and a joy to your soul. Why? Because you love God, and if you love God then naturally you will want to please Him, which means you will delight to do what pleases Him. Nothing will satisfy your soul like doing what God desires for you to do if you love God.

            A second way we can know if we love God is how we feel about the world. The Apostle tells us plainly in 2:15 that if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. You cannot love God and love the world. It is impossible. So test yourself. How do you feel about the world? Are you drawn to it and do you desire it? Or do you see it for what it is? Do you see God as more desirable than the things of this world? If we are to have any assurance of our salvation, we must walk in love, which begins with God. If you love God, you will not find His commandments burdensome, and you will not love the world.

            Walking in love, however, is not related only to God, but it also relates to our fellow Christians. One of the major emphases of John’s letter has been to love other Christians. Walking in love involves loving other Christians. To John, this is the greatest test of someone’s love for God. In 4:20 we see that, as he says, If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. Walking in love must also affect our relationships with other people. What are some ways that the Apostle tells us to love our brothers and sisters?

            He begins with the example of Jesus. In 3:16 John says, We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. If we want to love others, we must start by giving ourselves away. We must not live for ourselves. We must lay down our lives for the brethren. We must sacrifice for them. We must not count our lives as valuable to ourselves, but we must willingly give them away to serve others out of love. What does this mean? What does this look like?

            John gives us a specific example in verse 17, where he writes, But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Here is how we lay down our lives for the brethren: we meet their needs. And we do it without being asked. We see our brother or sister having a need, and we willingly sacrifice to meet that need. That is what Christ did for us. He saw we were in need of salvation and forgiveness of sins. He didn’t wait for us to come to Him and ask Him to meet our need. Not at all! But what did He do? He took the initiative. He laid down His life of His own will for us to meet our need of a Savior. He saw our need, and He did not close His heart against us, but instead He demonstrated infinite love and mercy toward us, and He did it without ever being asked to do it. This is an incredibly high standard, because the standard is Jesus Christ Himself. His example of love is what we are to model and imitate, and how difficult it is for us! We can only do it by faith in His power to work in us. God is the source of this kind of love, so we need to go to Him to get it. And we need to constantly be seeking to help the brethren however we can.

            John also ends with the example of Jesus when discussing loving the brethren. In chapter 4, perhaps you remember, he tells us that when we abide in love we have confidence in the day of judgment. Love creates confidence. Why? Verse 17. Because as He is, so also are we in this world. Because when we abide in love we imitate Christ and we follow His example. Love for the brethren means acting like Jesus, treating them like Jesus has treated you. Forgiving them, caring for them, listening to them, sharing yourself with them, stirring them up to good works, and, if necessary, helping them deal with personal sin in their lives. Walking in love means being like Jesus in this world. It means showing the world who Jesus is in the way we treat other Christians. What would the world think of Jesus if they saw how we treat one another as Christians? They should see us loving one another as Jesus loves us.

            To have assurance of faith, to know that we have eternal life, we need to walk in love. Cold, indifferent, academic faith and obedience do not save, because they are not from God. The Apostle is clear that only those who walk in love have eternal life.

            These, then, are the tests whereby we may know that we have eternal life. Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? Do you have faith in Him and what He has done on the cross? Do you believe that eternal life is only found in Him? Do you walk in the light? Do you purify yourself? Are you overcoming the world? And do you walk in love? Do you love God and delight to do His will? Do you love the brethren and seek to meet their needs even before they ask? If you pass these tests that John has put before us in this letter, then you may know that you have eternal life.

            Many people seek to know they have eternal life by all sorts of means, whether it be emotional experiences, hearing a voice, having some sort of ecstatic utterance they may call speaking in tongues, or other such things. The Apostle is clear, however, that knowing that we have life is not based on any of these things. The only way to know that we have eternal life is by believing upon the name of the Son of God, and then seeing the effects of it in our lives as we walk in the light and walk in love. These are the tests, and this is the way to know that you have life.

            As I said at the beginning, knowing that you have eternal life is crucial. How else will you ever withstand the onslaughts of all that opposes God? How will you refute those who contradict and tempt you to leave the road that leads to life if you do not know whether or not you possess life and are on the road to glory? In John Bunyan’s classic work, The Pilgrim’s Progress, we read of a man named Christian and his companion, Faithful. Christian and Faithful come to a town called Vanity Fair, where the things of the world are highly prized. While in that town, it becomes evident that Christian and Faithful prize the truth of God more than the lies of this world, and the town of Vanity Fair puts them on trial for their faith in God. Faithful is condemned to death and brutally murdered for standing true to God, and he is faithful because he knows that he has eternal life. He knows that he is on the right path, and that God is His Father. As Christian leaves Vanity Fair, having been persecuted there greatly, he sings this song, “Well, Faithful, you have faithfully professed Your Lord, by whom you will surely be blessed; when faithless ones with all their vain delights, are crying out under their hellish plights, sing, Faithful, sing, for your name will survive, for though they killed you, you are yet alive!”

            Is this your confidence? Do you believe that even though the world should kill you because of Christ, that you will yet be alive? Do you trust that no matter what happens in this world of time, you have eternal life in Jesus Christ? Is that your foundation? Is that your hope and your confidence? The letter of 1 John was written so that you might have such great confidence, so that even if you are killed, you know that you will be yet alive. Knowing that you have eternal life in Jesus is the message of 1 John. God grant us this confidence, so that we might remain faithful in life and in death. Let’s pray.

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