‘You may know that you have eternal life.” (9) (1 John 5:13-21)

 ‘You may know that you have eternal life.” (9)

[1 John 5:13-21]

       In today's text, 1 John 5:18, the Apostle John says: “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.” Here, the one who is born of God that the Apostle John refers to refers to one who has been born again or regenerated from God, as we have already learned in 1 John 5:1, 5. The Bible 1 John 5:1 says, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” In other words, it means that those who believe that Jesus is the Christ are born again/regenerated by God. And in 1 John 5:4-5, the Apostle John said, “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” The modern Korean Bible translates ‘those who are born of God’ as ‘children of God.’ In other words, the modern Korean Bible translates 1 John 5:5-6 as follows: ‘For any child of God can overcome the world. It is our faith that overcomes the world. Who can overcome the world except those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God?’ This is what 1 John 3:1 says: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! ….” Considering these words together, ‘those who are born of God,’ that is, those who are born again (regenerate) and become children of God by believing that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God, have victory through faith in Jesus. The Apostle John said in 1 John 5:18 in today's text, “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin.” The modern Korean Bible is translated as ‘We know that the children of God do not continue to sin.’ This is what the Apostle John already said in 1 John 3:9 – “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” The point of the Apostle John in these two verses is that the children of God who are born of God, that is, those who are born again (regenerated) of God, do not continue to sin. The reason is because God’s seed remain in the children of God (3:9). What is God’s seed here? Look at 1 Peter 1:23-25: “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, ‘All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.’ And this is the word that was preached to you.” Looking at these words, “God’s seed” (1 Jn. 3:9) is God’s “imperishable seed” (1 Pet. 1:23), which is “the living and enduring word of God” (v. 23), that is, the gospel of God. And this gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). Considering these words collectively, I think that the seed of God mentioned in 1 John 3:9 is the gospel of living and enduring word of God and is the power of God to save God’s children. Because the saving power of God dwells in God's children, they do not continue to sin (v. 9).

 

        But in reality, we continue to sin even though we are children of God who have been born again by God. Why? Look at 1 John 3:2-3: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.” I have already thought of this verse in three ways:

(1) The implication of these words is that when Jesus appears (when he comes back to this world), we will not only be like Jesus, we will be sinless people who do not even know what sin is.

This is the future hope we have in the Lord (v. 3). When the last trumpet sounds, we will all be changed (1 Cor. 15:51). The Lord will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body (Phil. 3:21). That glorious body is a glorious body that does not sin and knows no sin like Jesus did.

(2) We believers who believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus are already buried with Him through baptism into death (Rom. 6:4), we already died to sin (v. 2).

This has already happened in the past. Since we died with Christ in His death (v. 5), we are already dead to sin (v. 2). More specifically, our old self was crucified with Jesus so that the body of sin is put to death, that we are no longer enslaved to sin (v. 6). This is what the Apostle Paul said in Romans 6:7: “because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”

(3) Although we are already dead to sin because we were buried with Jesus in union with His death in the past (6:4-5), when Jesus comes into this world, how should we live in the Lord now until we will be changed and become sinless people like Jesus (1 Cor. 15:51, Phil 3:21, 1 Jn. 3:2).

In other words, it is the question of how we should live in the present, living between this future hope we have and the fact that we were already buried with Jesus' death on the cross in the past.

I think this question is very important. In Pauline theological terms, this is a question of how the people of God should live in the church age, which is between “already” (past) and “not yet” (future). Misunderstanding this question, many of us Christians believe that we who believe in Jesus and who have already been saved, do not lose our salvation and thus we are not afraid of disobeying God’s word and sin against God but sin boldly. Look at Philippians 2:12 – “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Here, “work out your salvation” does not mean that we must be saved by works (good works) (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 8:22-24). Salvation is the past, present, and future tense: (1) The past of salvation is that by the grace of God we have already been saved if we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God (1 Jn. 5:12-13). (2) The future of salvation is that we will be saved on the day Jesus returns (Acts 16:31, Rom. 10:9). (3) The present of salvation is “work out your salvation” (Phil. 2:12). Then, what is the meaning of the words to work out our salvation in the present between the salvation of the past and the salvation of the future? Salvation here means eternal life. In other words, Paul said to the Philippian church members, ‘Work out your eternal life’ (you should live for those who have eternal life). And for those who have eternal life (the heavenly people, to live in the answer is to obey the twofold commandment of Jesus, the two commandment of the kingdom of heaven, to love God and love our neighbor (Mt. 22:37-39). This is what God does in us (Phil. 2:13). He gives the believer the will to do good, and also the strength to do it. The Holy Spirit produces in us love, the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), so that we can love God and also love our neighbor.

         We, who are already dead to sin by being buried with Jesus in union with Jesus' death in the past (Rom. 6:4-5) and will be changed and become sinless like Jesus when Jesus comes back into this world (1 Cor. 15:51; Phil. 3:21; 1 Jn. 3:2), how should we live in the Lord now? As 1 John 2:29 says, we must live by doing righteousness. Until then (1 Corinthians 15:51, Philippians 3:21, 1 John 3:2) how to live in the Lord now, as 1 John 2:29, which we have already meditated on, says, we must live by doing what is right. That is, the Apostle Paul said, “Work out your salvation” in Philippians 2:12, but the Apostle John said in 1 John 2:29 that you should do what is right. Look at 1 John 2:29 – “If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.” Here, “everyone who does what is right has been born of him” means those who have been born again who believe in Jesus and are righteous as God is righteous (Rom. 4:25). Therefore, the righteous should always do what is right as the indwelling Holy Spirit teaches them. This is what it means to live in the Lord. So what does it mean to do righteousness? As we are already dead to sin and are living in this church age until we become sinless people like Jesus in the future, we must first seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of God (Mt. 6:33). We must seek the Kingdom of God and its King, the righteous Jesus. That is, we must walk as the righteous Jesus did (1 Jn. 2:1, 6). It is living in obedience to the twofold commandment of Jesus (vv. 7-11). This is what the Bible Matthew 22:37-40 says regarding the twofold commandment of Jesus: “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” To do righteousness first is to love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, and mind, according to the first of Jesus' twofold commandment. If we say this commandment from the perspective of 1 John, we obey 1 John 2:15-17: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” Doing God's will here means not living according to the passing world or the things of this world, “the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does” (v. 16). In other words, when we purify ourselves as Jesus was pure (3:3), we are doing righteousness. And doing righteousness means, first of all, that we do not live according to the passing world or the things of this world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of our eyes, and the boasting of what we have and do, but we do the will of God (2:15-17). Then doing righteousness is to love our neighbor as ourselves, according to the second of Jesus' twofold commandment. If we say this commandment from the perspective of 1 John, it is obeying the words of 1 John 2:3-11, which is to love our brothers and not hate them. Thus, in obedience to Jesus' commandment, to love our brothers, God’s love is truly made complete in us (v. 5). And we live in the light, and there is no nothing in us to make us stumble (v. 10).

As we are born of God, that is, God’s regenerated children, we must fight sin and Satan so that we do not continue to sin.  In this spiritual battle, we must lead a life of combative faith with the assurance of victory that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has already won the battle against sin and Satan on the cross.  In particular, we must fight the spiritual battle by having the hope of faith that when Jesus appears (when He comes back to this world), the future hope we have for the Lord, we will be like Jesus, without sin and without a knowledge of sin.  In this spiritual battle, we must fight sin and Satan by holding on to the words of 1 John 5:18 with faith: “…  the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.”  Here, “the evil one” refers to Satan (MacArthur).  And the Apostle John says that Satan, “the evil one,” cannot touch (injure) the children of God who are born of God.  The reason is that our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, who is begotten of God (Mt. 1:18, 20) and appeared to the world (1 Jn. 1:2), is the Son of God (5:5) and because Jesus Christ (v. 1) keeps the children of God (v. 18).  Look at Psalms 121:3-8: “He will not let your foot slip-- he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.  The LORD watches over you-- the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.  The LORD will keep you from all harm-- he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”