Do you KNOW that you have eternal life?
And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. 1 John 5. 11-13
Many have been asked the question, “Do you know for sure, that you will go to heaven when you die?” This question is typically followed by a brief four or five point presentation of the “gospel” designed to evoke a response, to prompt the prospect (or victim) to recite a “sinner’s prayer” for salvation, and to receive the “assurance of salvation” so that they may know for sure that they will go to heaven when they die.
Who would not want to have such assurance? After all, who would want to go to hell? Surely anyone in his right mind, if informed that he could be assured of a home in heaven would like to have such assurance.
To be sure, many have been genuinely saved through presentations just like the one described above. Countless souls have been saved through the appropriate use of Bible tracts like the “Four Spiritual Laws”, and evangelistic encounters such as those taught and practiced by “FAITH” or “Evangelism Explosion.” (These programs and methods are useful, especially in their development of intentionality with regard to the sharing of the gospel.) It is not our purpose to discount the validity of genuine biblical evangelism on the basis of the use of some tract or evangelistic presentation. God certainly can and has used such methods for His purpose and His glory. However, we must carefully avoid offering assurance or peace and comfort to those who are not genuinely and legitimately regenerate. To do so, in effect, immunizes a sinner from true biblical conversion and salvation, by offering them a false assurance based on a decision, a prayer, or an emotion.
Jesus pronounced woe upon the Pharisees of His day for making their proselytes “twice the children of hell than themselves” (Matt 23. 15). They sought to make men like themselves—self-assured because of their own actions and choices, not born again by the Spirit of God.
How then can a sinner know that He belongs to Jesus Christ and that he is saved for eternity? Does not our God wish for us to know for sure? Of course He does. John wrote, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: “He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5. 12-13) Clearly, God’s purpose is for those who genuinely believe on the Son to have real biblical assurance of salvation.
John states plainly, “He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life.” (1 John 5. 12). How much more direct and simple could he possibly be? There is no in between. Either a person is saved or lost, and the only issue is whether of not he “has the Son.” But how can a person know, for sure, that he “has the Son?”
Whenever God moves into someone’s life He makes drastic changes. Ezekiel 36. 26-27 says:
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
When God comes into a life He changes it, and there is always evidence to be found!
FIVE FOUNDATIONAL EVIDENCES
John says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life.” The logical question is, “what things?” The immediate reference is clearly to the preceding text of the book of 1 John. In his epistle, John offers five positive foundational tests, or evidences of a changed life, a life changed by Jesus Christ.
1. A Hatred for Sin (1.8-2.1)
Many will quote 1 John 1.9, from memory, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” without fully understanding its meaning. The word “confess” means to “agree with.” It implies that we will agree with God about our sin and feel the same way about it as He does. We will come to see sin as through His holy eyes. It clearly means more than just verbally admitting that we have sinned. It means that we will hate our sin, and forsake it.
When we have a sight of our sin, as viewed in the mirror of God’s Law, we will develop of sorrow for our sin. We will say, as David said, “Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.” (Psalm 51.4). Proverbs 8.13 says “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.”
2. Obedience of God’s Law (2. 3-4).
Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. (v. 3).
The word “keep” means to watch or guard, or to carefully observe. (Also read 1 John 5. 2, 3, and 18). 1 John 5. 3 states that the commandments of God are “not grievous.” The Lord places in us a desire to obey Him. This truth sheds light on the meaning of 1 John 3. 9: “Whoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” It is not that the believer does not have the ability to sin, as we all do, but that he cannot abide or tolerate sin. The “seed of God” remaining in him will not allow him to continue in sin. He just cannot keep on living the same old way.
3. A Love for the Brethren (2. 9-11, 3. 10, 14-15).
It is natural for believers to love other believers. In fact, it is natural for believers to grow closer to each other than even their immediate family members who are unsaved. Why? Because as believers we have the Holy Spirit of God in us. If we love God, and another believer has God dwelling in him, we will naturally love him, for the sake of Jesus Christ and the Spirit which dwells in him.
Why would a believer in Jesus Christ prefer the company of those who do not love the Lord? It is unnatural. Along with this basic truth is the reality that we will treat others with grace as we have been shown grace. We will forgive as we have been forgiven. We will hate sin in other believers, not because we feel ourselves to be better than them, but because it is offensive to our God and detrimental to them and their relationship with Him. We will be motivated by care for them and their spiritual well-being.
4. A Love for, and a persistent following after Holiness (2. 29, 3. 3-9).
John declares that “everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (3. 3). Now John is in no way implying that Christians never commit any sins. The verb tenses in these verses indicate that true believers do not go on sinning as their main pattern of conduct, but rather, in the main, they seek after holiness. The ninth verse of chapter three states that those who have been born of God “cannot sin.” Again, this does not mean that the believer does not have the ability to stumble, and commit isolated sins, but that he cannot tolerate the ongoing practice and presence of sin in his life, because it is simply incompatible with the “seed” of God that remains in him.
The Apostle Paul wrote of his own personal struggle with sin in Romans 7. 13-25. And at the end of his life he wrote that he had not yet “arrived,” or “attained perfection,” but that he kept on “pressing on” so as to attain “the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3. 12-14). The mark of the true believer is the constant and persistent following after holiness, and an absolute refusal to tolerate the presence of any known sin in our lives.
One might ask, at this point, a series of soul- searching questions. What is the chief object of my affection? What are my highest priorities? Is holiness a priority in my life? What am I pursuing? Am I hungering and thirsting for righteousness? (Matt 5. 6). Am I loving and seeking God with my whole heart? If so, do I understand that I must first pursue holiness, because without holiness it is impossible to see God? (Heb 12. 14).
5. The Internal witness of the Holy Spirit, that we belong to Jesus Christ (4. 13, 5. 10-11).
Romans 8. 16 states that “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” God has given us His Spirit to seal us until the day of redemption (Eph 4. 30), and to testify with our spirits that we belong to Him. Every believer has this internal witness which is why he cannot engage in sinful behavior with impunity (3. 9).
John’s desire, and God’s purpose, for his writing of this first epistle, is clearly stated in verse 13 of the fifth chapter:
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Clearly, in order to rightly understand his meaning and come to a right understanding of the assurance of salvation, one must go back, as we have done, and see what John meant by the phrase “these things.”
Our assurance is not based on an experience, or a decision, or even a prayer that we may have prayed (or worse, recited) at some point in our past. True, biblical assurance, is to be based on the presence of these real and observable measures in our lives.
If these realities are not present in our lives, may it not rightly be said of us, “we are weighed in the balance and found wanting” (Dan 5. 27). It was professing believers in the church at Corinth that Paul advised: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” (2 Cor 13. 5).
Faith that is real will endure testing, examination, and questioning. Only those whose faith is built upon the sinking sand of a decision, a prayer, or an experience will find such an exercise objectionable. The true believer will happily hold up his profession to the light of the Word of God. He wants to know that his faith is genuine, and if his life and experience bear it out. If his faith is found to be flawed or lacking, he will run to the Savior, and seek His mercy and grace.
Do not let pride keep you from genuinely seeking the Savior, and examining your heart. Again, hear the warning of the Lord:
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test?
2 Corinthians 13. 5 (NIV).
