One of the most nagging questions we often ask ourselves is, “Can we know we are saved?” Although the question is sometimes rooted in humility before a perfect God, sometimes we allow our doubts to cause us to ask this question. The apostle John wrote the letter we know as 1 John to first-century Christians who needed this very question answered.
Notice John’s words in 1 John 5:13, “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.” False teachers were abounding in the first century and were trying to get early Christians to deny the Sonship of Jesus and other crucial truths. Here, John tells them they can know they have eternal life. He tells them that they can know this because of the things he was writing to them. Let’s notice some of these things John wrote to them so that they can encourage us as well:
· God is light. “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
· God is faithful to forgive our sins. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
· Jesus is our atoning sacrifice. “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).
· God knows our hearts. “By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:19-20).
· God is love. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:7-8).
· Jesus is the Son of God; He gives eternal life. “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).
We can have confidence and know we are saved because of what God has done. He has taken care of the problem of sin when we could not. God is consistent and reliable; Jesus has paid the price for our sin.
Although God has done everything to give us eternal salvation, we still must be obedient to His will in order to receive it. Notice some of the other words of John in this letter:
· “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 cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
· “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments…whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:3, 6).
· “Beloved, love one another…if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:7, 11).
· “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:2-3).
· “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).
May we have the confidence that comes from God and obedience to Him.
