November
21, 2017
John
is now very old, and he writes with so much love in his heart. And the words he shares with us should help
in our assurance of our salvation. I
mean we all want to ‘make sure’ we are saved, right?
How
do you know? The first answer is in
verse 6.
“Whoever claims to live in Him, must live as Jesus did.”
We
are surrounded by people who claim to be Christian, but simply do not have Christ
in them. These people are doing
different things by being involved in the church, but they are not truly
belonging to the Church. That’s called
superficial faith. John talked about it
back in his gospel (John 2:23-25). You
can believe in Jesus, but not know Jesus.
Saving
faith, on the other hand, looks different.
There are multitudes of people who will one day hear Jesus say, Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from
me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7:23).
“We
know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commands.” v. 3
“But
if anyone obeys His word, love for God is truly made complete in them.” v. 5
“Whoever
claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did.” v. 6
“…,
its truth is seen in Him in you, because the darkness is passing and the true
light is already shining.” v. 8
“Anyone
who loves their brother or sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in
them to make them stumble.” v. 10
“If
you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right
has been born of Him.” v. 29
In order to have the assurance of our salvation, you can
answer the questions John asks here. “Who
is the liar?” It is whoever denies that
Jesus is the Christ (v. 22-25). We know
that we’ve come to know Him if we keep His commands. Okay, you’re thinking, but we keep
sinning. Here’s the thing – it’s not
based on your performance. It’s based on
Christ’s performance in you! That’s the
mystery of our faith! Okay, so you’ve
sinned, how do you have the assurance of your salvation then? “But if we walk in the light, as He is in
the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His
Son, purifies us from all sin. If we
claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 7-8
Once we’ve been born
again, sin is not completely gone from our life and we are not perfect! When we sin and we are followers of Christ,
we hate that sin. We see it for what it
is, and we don’t continue to indulge ourselves in it. We don’t continue to sin because we are in
the light and the light exposes our sin, and we have an advocate who has
forgiven us of our sins.
The work of Christ in
your life is the assurance of your salvation.
Every time He gives you victory over sin, He reminds you “You are mine. You have my power.” (Isaiah 43:1)
Victory over sin
Think about it – have you
ever battled a sin in your life and you tried and tried to do better only to
fail over and over, or possibly felt victory because of something you choose to
do differently, only to fall flat on your face and eyeball deep, face-to-face
with the ugliness of your sin? So you
try one more time. Confess. Repent.
Breathe. True, heart-felt sorrow
for your sin. Overwhelming sadness
because of your behavior. You hate your
sin. You never want to taste the
bitterness of that sin again. Then one
day…. holy smokes…. you no longer have the urge, the slightest inclination to
do ‘that’ again! That’s all Jesus’
performance in you! And that’s the
assurance of your salvation!
The assurance of our
salvation is really what we become. We
become more like Jesus. Even the secular
world tells us “you become the average of the 5 people you spend the most time
with.” (Jim Rohn).
A friend of mine shared
how she had to recognize that a certain behavior was a sin before she could get
over it and move on. Sometimes we have
been so hurt by someone, usually it’s a family member or a very close friend,
and it’s usually because we are Christian and they are not. They always claimed to follow Christ, yet
lived in the world too. Yet, until the
scales fell from your eyes, you always saw this person as an equal, as a
Christian. But then, they noticed you
were different, you stopped using certain words, you stopped hanging out with
them, and they may even have made mocking jokes about your bible study, or
church activities, or any number of things.
And you were hurt – hurt so much, and you tried to go back to them,
tried to participate in your old activities or family events. Or possibly you invited them to something new
you are doing with your ‘new’ Christian friends. They notice you are different! And you feel fantastic for your new freedom
in Christ and you want to share it! But
they become more and more hurtful towards you and say nasty things to you. But you have that one common dominator in
your life. Typically it’s either a
parent or another mutual friend that keeps bringing you together and you are
going to bump into them. This is where we have to stop being so blind
(blinded by darkness) and bring the light of Christ to them! Allow Christ to heal you from clinging to
this anger you have for them not being what you thought they were or could
be. Stop expecting them to be
different. Ask Christ to remove that
ugly stick in your eye and allow you to love like Him.
Visible proof of Christ
in your life is your ability to love – everyone – the assurance of your
salvation is your ability to love.
Ladies, let go of what prevents you from loving your neighbor, your
co-worker, your former best friend, your sister, your brother, your mother or
your father.
