Grace / That You May Know
How You Can Know You're Saved
John wrote to people who believed in Jesus so they could know they had eternal life. He expected them to believe him.
Some people get nervous when a Christian says he knows he's saved. It sounds a little too sure of himself. He must be overlooking something. Does he think he never sins? Does he think he understands everything? Who's he to be that confident?
John wanted Christians to have that confidence. He wrote, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life." ()
That's a pretty direct statement of what he wanted his letter to accomplish. People who believed in Jesus should know they had eternal life. John uses words for know forty times in this short letter. He wanted them sure.
If you've spent years thinking nobody can know until he dies, that may take some getting used to. But John's talking about something his readers could know while they were reading his letter. They already had the life God had given them in His Son.
What God says about Jesus
The preceding verses explain why they could know. John says God's testimony is that He has given us eternal life, and that this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever doesn't have the Son doesn't have life. ()
Jesus is the reason for the confidence. He's the Christ, the Son of God. He came for us, died for our sins, and rose again. The person we're trusting has done something about our sin and death. God says life is in Him.
Earlier in the chapter, John says who has been born of God: everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ (). Not everyone who agrees with my theology of salvation. Not everyone who's been baptized. Not everyone who only worships with a cappella music. Not everyone in my fellowship.
That includes people who still have a lot to learn and people who need forgiveness. It includes the believer who's reading the letter because somebody has shaken his confidence.
John points those people to God's testimony about His Son. They can believe what God says about the life He's given them.
You don't have to inspect yourself forever
A person can take the plain word "believe" and turn it into something impossible to pin down. After a while he's studying his own reaction to the question so hard that he's hardly thinking about Jesus at all.
When I preached this, I asked whether anybody at church was unsure whether they believe the world is flat. Nobody was. None of us has been to space to look, but you know which way you fall on that one. And if you've ever met somebody who believes the world is flat, he's a lot more sure it's flat than you are that it's round. Believing in Jesus is like that. It's not a trick question, and it's not some "use the Force, Luke" business. Do you believe Him? Have you put your trust in Him? Then you know.
Faith means trust. There's something definite you believe about Jesus, and you're counting on Him for your well-being. You believe He's God's Son, that He died for your sins and rose again, and you're depending on Him to save you.
You don't have to manufacture some extra spiritual sensation to make that count, or be as confident in yourself as you are in Jesus. He's the one doing the saving.
This is why it's good to come back to what God actually promised. John's letter addresses people who believe in His Son. He tells those people they have life. When you believe that Jesus is who God says He is, you can also believe what God says He's given you through Him.
You're giving Jesus the credit
There's nothing humble about insisting God can't possibly mean what He says. If He's given you life in His Son, you can thank Him for it.
Saying you're saved doesn't claim you've earned it, and saying you belong to God doesn't mean you've got nothing left to work on. You belong because God is gracious and Jesus is able to save you.
John ends his letter with a line that seems to come out of nowhere: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." () I think it fits. When you aren't sure where you stand with God, you start trying to work Him. You figure you haven't pushed the right button or pulled the right lever. That's how idolatry works. It takes something that ought to be precious and relational and turns it into a transaction. We have to know that we know that we know. To the extent we don't, we'll veer into idolatry.
Confidence in Jesus gives us a reason to grow, and it gives us room to help somebody else. We can quit spending every spare minute trying to figure out whether God has found a reason to reject us.
This changes how you come to God
The next thing John talks about is prayer. We have confidence toward God, and we know He hears what we ask according to His will. Knowing we have life with Him means we can talk to Him freely. ()
That's what John wanted for the people who received his letter: a confident life with God through Jesus Christ. God has preserved that letter for us too. If you believe in His Son, you can take His promise to include you.
— tobe