1 John 5:13 (NIV84)

Assurance

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Introduction:  One attribute of the Christian that creates problems in this world is the certainty with which we speak.

Vincent van Gogh said, “For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”

John Allen Paulos said, “Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.”

Edward Coke, an English jurist took this issue of certainty and put it in a more positive light.  “Certainty is the mother of quiet and repose, and uncertainty the cause of variance and contentions”

We are certain because we believe in the doctrine of Divine Revelation.  We believe that God has spoken directly through the prophets, through the apostles and through Jesus Christ, his Son.  If our Bible is not the word of God, there is nothing certain in it.  If it is the Word of God, then everything in it is certain.

In the Christian world we have had a debate that has lasted over the centuries on this very question:  Can a Christian know that they have eternal life and are going to heaven?

There are three answers.

First, some say, “No, we cannot know with certainty that we are going to heaven.”  Second, some say, “We can speak with certainty about today, but we cannot speak with certainty about tomorrow, because tomorrow we might lose our faith.”  Third, some say, “Once saved, always saved.  We can know today about what will happen tomorrow.”

It is not my purpose to speak on the doctrine of eternal security.  Rather, this morning, John will take us to the issue of assurance.  Listen to what he says: I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

John speaks to us and tells us that we can know that we have eternal life.  I spoke to a Catholic priest years ago who said we could not know.  I pointed him to this verse, for John tells us that we can know we have eternal life.

Today you can walk out of here certain that you have eternal life.  As a matter of fact, John tells us that this was written so that we would know we have eternal life.

If you are not sure today, my goal is to help you understand how you can be sure.  So many people are defeated because they don’t have a clear grasp on what it takes to be a Christian.  I want to help you with your uncertainty today.

I want to ask three questions today that will help us sort this out.

The first question is this: How do we know that we have eternal life?

There is only one real answer to this.  If you believe in the name of the Son of God, you have eternal life. If you have the Son you have life!

Let’s read 1 John 5:11–13 (NIV84) 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

What does it mean to believe in the ‘name of’ the Son of God?

Some people will tell you that it means to believe in the name of Jesus.  In other words, if you believe in Jesus, then you have eternal life.

The question I will ask you is this,  “Which Jesus are you talking about?”  The name Jesus is the Greek name for the Hebrew Joshua.  How many Joshua’s do you know?  You can go to the phone book and find quite a number of them.  You can do a Google search and find a lot.  I did one and came up with 70,900 results. There are at least two Jesus’ in the Bible.  Jesus, the Christ and Jesus, called Justus, who worked with Paul.

When the Bible says that we are to believe in the name of the Son of God, it means that we are to believe in all that name represents.  John is going against false teachers who believed that Jesus was the Son of God, but without a body.  John is telling them that the Son of God is one who was biologically and relationally the Son of God.

Imagine having a resume on a person.  You find out their name, their parents, their previous employment, references and all that.  When you are discussing whether or not to hire the person, you do so in light of all you know.  When we believe in the name of the Son of God, it means we believe in the Jesus who was born of a virgin, conceived of the Holy Spirit, who preexisted with his heavenly Father, and was the Son of God.  We might not know all the terms, but we trust in the Jesus of the Bible. 

If you trust in the name of the Son of God, you have the Son and you have eternal life.  We are saved by faith and not by works.  Jesus saves us.  We cannot save ourselves by anything that we do.  When we trust Him, he forgives our sin and comes into our lives in a real way.

The second question is: How do you know if you have the Son of God in your life?  Throughout the book of 1 John I discover five ways we can know that Jesus is in our life.  John is very specific and clear about these.  He says that we know that we know God if these five answers are true of us.

The first way we can know that Jesus is in our life is through the inner witness of the Holy Spirit (1 John 4:13)

The second way we can know that Jesus is in our life is by our attitude toward sin (1 John 3:4-6)

(We will fight sin)

The third way we can know that Jesus is in our life is by our attitude toward Jesus (1 John 2:3-6)

(We will obey Him)

The fourth way we can know that Jesus is in our life is by our attitude toward other Christians (1 John 1:7, 3:11, 4:7)

(We will love them)

The fifth way we can know that Jesus is in our life is by our attitude towards the apostles (1 John 4:6)

(We will trust their teachings)

Question three is up to you to answer: Do you know you have eternal life?  Do you have the Son?  As a seed brings a certain kind of fruit, are the five ways we can know that Jesus is in our life evident in yours?  Do you have the inner witness of the Holy Spirit, are you fighting sin, are you obeying Jesus, do you love Christians, do you trust the apostles’ teachings?  If so, you can have confidence that you have the Son.  If you have the Son, you have eternal life.

This world may look at you and say, “How can you be so sure?”  But your answer will be that you believe in Jesus.  God gave you a gift and that gift was Jesus.  By faith in Jesus you know that you know that you have eternal life.

What help this is when facing death.  We can know where we are going.  What help this is in facing life.  Someone once said these words, “Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”  Knowing that we will be spending eternity with God because of Jesus affects our daily life.  He has told us that he will never leave us nor forsake us.  And he will not do so.

“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.  Oh! What a foretaste of glory divine.”