What Do You Know for Sure? Series
Eternal Life
1 John 5:13
 
We are living in very uncertain times. Whether it is the fear of terrorist attacks or the instability of the financial markets, our health or family’s well-being, all around us are markers of these uncertain times. 
 
But it is much more intimate than that: When we buy a car we are uncertain that it's going to function well and so we want a guarantee or service contract. And then fearing that we might have an accident for which we could not pay and then get sued, we protect ourselves against that by buying an insurance policy.
There's uncertainty about our health and so buy some kind of a medical plan to protect us from illness and accident and catastrophic issues that might come into our lives physically.
 
Then there’s the fear of death so we buy life insurance to protect our families in the event of our unlikely demise. We buy mortgage insurance and draw up pre-nuptial contracts and worker’s compensation and unemployment insurance. 
 
Well against the background of living in an uncertain world, and living basically with people who are uncertain about almost everything, the Bible is a divine revelation that is filled with absolute certainties.
 
Just to mention a few, I would remind you that:
 
-The Bible is certain.
-The consequence of sin is certain.
-God is good.
-Jesus died for us.
-Jesus is coming again.
 
There's a few and many, many, many more.
 
You see, as Christians, we deal in certainties in an uncertain world. The Bible is a book of absolutes, it's a book of certainties. We are certain how the universe began. We are certain how it will end. We are certain why God created and how His purpose in the beginning will consummate in the end. We are certain about why people behave the way they behave. We are certain about what is right and what is wrong. We are certain about the elements that make for good human relationships.
We are certain about what is necessary to go to heaven. We are certain there is a hell and certain about how people get there. We are certain about all those things. We are certain about God's promises, certain about His Son the Savior, certain about His substitutionary death, His literal resurrection, certain about His Second Coming. We are certain about all these things, absolutely certain.
 
In fact, if and when you became a believer, you put your trust in Jesus Christ. Why? Because you came to the conviction and the belief that all God's promises were true. You came to the conviction that what He said about you was true, what He said about your sin was true, what He said about the judgment you would receive was true, what He said about forgiveness, mercy and grace was true.
What He said about Christ was true in the Scripture.
 
You came to the conclusion that all of that was true and when you believed in the truth of the gospel, embracing all that God had said, you put your trust in Christ because of that belief and God promised you eternal life. And to secure that eternal life, He gave you a guarantee and the guarantee that He gave you was the Holy Spirit who immediately took up residence in your heart.
 
Now, as we come to the beginning of a new year, I want to share a series of messages with you on Things You Can Know for Sure. And I want to concentrate on one particular passage of Scripture that is just full of things we can know for sure. It is the book of 1 John. And for the sake of this study, we are going to zero in on chapter 5:13-21.
 
 
 
And if you just glance at verses 13 to 21, you will recognize the word "know" is there. Verse 13, "That you may know..." Verse 15, "If we know that He hears us, we know we have the request we've asked." If you drop down to verse 18, "We know that no one who is born of God sins." Verse 19, "We know that we are of God." Verse 20, "And we know that the Son of God has come that we might...verse 20...know Him who is true." This is all about what we know.
 
You will also recognize that the word "confidence appears in verse 14, "And this is the confidence." What is in verse 13, we know. What is in verses 14 through 17 is one subject about which we can be confident. What is in verse 18 we know, what is in verse 19 we know, what is in verse 20 we know and a final warning appears in verse 21.
This is about what we know. That's why I've called it “Things You Can Know for Sure”.
 
Now these verses are the conclusion or summation of all that John has been writing about in this letter.    With verse 12 John ended the formal argument of the book. Verse 12 summed it all up, "He who has the Son has the life, the eternal life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life."
 
1 John is a book that is intended to distinguish true Christians from false Christians. And John sums it up by saying eternal life belongs to those who have the Son, if you have the Son you have the life, if you don't have the Son you don't have the life. And then John summarizes his purpose in verse 13, "These things I've written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you may know that you have eternal life." This book was written to give you assurance.
 
Chapter 1 verse 4 says, "These things we write that your joy may be made complete." The only way you'll have complete joy is to have complete assurance of your salvation.
 
Chapter 2 verse 1, "My little children, I'm writing these things to you that you may not sin. If anyone sins we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." He says I'm writing so that you may have full joy, full joy related to the fact that you always have an advocate who intercedes even when you sin so that you can know that you are saved. I want you to have joy, I want you to have holiness and confidence in His intercession and I want you consummately to have the assurance that you may know that you have eternal life.
That is the most important certainty, to know you have eternal life, to be certain you have eternal life.
 
All through the epistle he's been giving tests that identify the true and the false believers. There were false teachers among these believers. There were antichrists among these believers. There were spiritual fakes and frauds and phonies and deceivers among these believers. They were insecure, as believers tend to be when they're not well taught.
 
And so John gives tests, doctrinal tests, the test of understanding a true view of man as sinful, the test of understanding a true view of Jesus Christ, who He is and why He came. Those are the doctrinal tests.
 
He gives moral tests that have to do with obedience to the Law of God and to Christ and love for God and not the world and love for others.
 
And at the end, John says, I’ve written this letter so you can know for sure whether or not you are saved. Those who are saved, as they study the epistle, come to the conclusion that they pass the test. They believe the right things about themselves as sinners. They believe the right things about Jesus Christ as Savior. They manifestly obey the Word of God, that's the direction of their life and demonstrate love for Him and love for others.
 
John says here, "This is why I've written this, I want you to know, I want you to be certain, I want you to be confident."
 
By the way, the word "know" appears 39 times in this epistle. I counted them just to be sure. I think that's accurate, it might be off one or two.
Thirty nine times in this epistle and seven of those times in this last section. Our faith is not a hope so, it's a know so. It's not wishful thinking, it's not pie in the sky. God has spoken and what God has spoken is true. And if we know what He has said, then we know what is true. We don't speculate. We don't hope. We are certain.
 
Now, as John closes his epistle, he uses the word "know" seven times to point to five different assurances. And what I want us to do during the five Sundays of January is take a look at these five “Things You Can Know for Sure”.
 
1. We Know We have Eternal Life
 
verse 13
 
What are the “things” he has written? I believe that to be a reference to the whole letter. The entirety of the epistle of John has a message of assurance.
 
People who have no interest in religion, or very minimal interest in religion, or a limited understanding of the Bible generally say, "Well I hope I'm going to heaven, I think I might be good enough."
 
That's a question you really ought to have some certainty on because eternity lasts a long time. I mean, just kind of going around and taking a cavalier approach in life, "Well, I think I'm going to heaven, I think when things all sort of wind down I'll probably be good enough to get there." You know, you need to do a little better than that because of what is at stake.
Can you know? John says you can. In fact, he says that’s why I wrote this letter to you.   You can know that you have eternal life.
 
Now what is “eternal life”? Let me give you four things to help you understand this concept of eternal life:
 
First, Eternal Life is God’s Own Life.
 
Back up to verse 11 for a moment. 
 
If you can ever understand that verse, it will make all the difference in your life.
 
Generally, we think of living forever. And I suppose in its simplest sense, that is right. But if you limit it to that, then we could say that everyone has eternal life. For those who’ve never been saved they will live forever eternally dying. And in a salvation sense, eternal life means living forever with God in His glorious wonderful heaven.
 
In fact, I would say that “living forever” is only incidental when you are discussing eternal life. As a matter of fact, suggest to some people that they can live forever, its not such a good deal. A lot of people don’t want to live right now, much less forever. 
 
There has to be something more to eternal life than just living forever. That’s why I say that eternal life is God’s Own life. There is only one thing you can refer to as eternal and that is God. 
 
Look at how that is expressed in these verses: 
 
verse 20, the last statement. It speaks of Jesus Christ, "This is the true God and eternal life." So eternal life is living forever with God possessing the very life of God that was possessed by Christ Himself. We enter into the very life of God. In some ways we inherit His perfect sinless, holy, righteous life without becoming God.
 
Think of yourself as a light bulb. We contain His life like a light bulb contains light. The bulb isn't light; the light comes into the bulb and illuminates it. So His life will be transmitted to us. It's already been transmitted to us, although the light doesn't shine very brightly because the bulb is still dark. It's not pure crystal transparency because it's darkened by our fallen flesh in which we still live.
 
And on this earth, the light is on but what the world sees is dim. Some day when we leave this mortal flesh and enter into the glorious manifestation of the children of God, we will become absolutely transparent, crystal clear bulbs through which the power of eternal life will flow to radiate throughout all eternity.
 
In John 17:3, in that great High Priestly prayer that Jesus prayed and the third verse, He says, "And this is eternal life that they may know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You sent."
 
That's exactly what we read in 1 John 5:20. God and Christ are the eternal life. They are the power of eternal life. And to say that we will have eternal life is simply to say that we will literally have the life of God in us. It's already true, it's just not fully manifest because that life is incarcerated in the darkness of our still fallen flesh.
We already possess that life, that's why we love God, that's why we love others. We have eternal life. That's why we don't love the world, that's why we have a longing and a heart to obey. That's why we desire righteousness and hate sin because that life is already in us. It is the very life of God.
 
Listen: Eternal life is not just about the duration of life. It is also about the quality of life, a kind of life we have now and will forever have the life of God in us, holy and pure and righteous and good and content and satisfied and fulfilled. Eternal life is a life that lacks nothing, wants nothing, seeks nothing, misses nothing, desires nothing other than what it has.
 
That's exactly what verse 13 says.
 
What does that mean? If all of God's life is in Christ and all of Christ's life is in us, then that means I get a brand new life lived on a new plane in a new dimension. 
 
My life can now be characterized by the quality, character and nature of God. Eternal life is everything God originally intended man to be. That means that through salvation, God does such a work of regeneration that He lifts us above all the pettiness of human life so that we can now enjoy an existence that transcends all that is human.
 
Why? Because we have eternal life. It is an astonishing reality.
 
Notice something else:
 
 
Not only is eternal life God’s own life, but
 
Secondly, Eternal Life is God’s Own Gift
 
Verse 11, 20
 
Now if eternal life is God’s own life, and He is the only one Who has it, and it becomes ours, then eternal life has to be given to us as a gift from God. Right?
 
That means if you want to save yourself, you have to be God, or you must equal God.
 
But if only God is eternal, then salvation is God giving us His life. It has to be a gift. 
 
There is no possible way to earn it. It would be just as easy for you to turn yourself into God as it would be for you to earn your salvation. 
 
It is God’s Own Life, It is God’s Own Gift,
 
Thirdly, Eternal Life is in God’s Own Son
 
verse 11
 
“in God’s Son
 
Now this is a critical point. 
 
The word “in” means to “dwell or reside in”
 
If a person “has” Jesus, possesses Jesus, he possesses eternal life. If he does not possess Jesus, he does not possess eternal life. It’s just that simple.
You might be saying, “Why are you stressing that?” Because God stresses it. There is a great attack on the doctrine of salvation in Christ alone today. There are many who would deny the exclusivity of Jesus as the way to God. 
 
So I stress to you that Eternal life is provided only in God’s Son.
 
But there is something else: 
 
Remember, 1 John is written to saved folks, yet it sounds like a message to the lost. Why? 
 
One of the major targets of 1 John is those to profess salvation but do not possess salvation. To far too many, salvation is simply a matter of words and not a genuine experience with Jesus Christ. 
 
There a great many who believe eternal life is found in relationship with their church.  
 
It’s like traveling to a destination. You don’t get there by sitting on the direction sign, but rather by traveling the way the sign directs. 
 
The church is merely an indicator of the way to eternal life. And any church that is worth its weight will always point you to Jesus. Why? Because eternal life is found in God’s Own Son.
 
One more thing: 
 
Eternal life is God’s Own Life, God’s Own Gift, in God’s Own Son, and
 
 
Fourthly, Eternal Life is God’s Own Promise
 
Verse 13
 
If the issue of the gospel is not simply a doctrine or a creed, if the issue really is eternal life or death, then the most important thing you can ever know is whether or not you have it.
 
And here is the good news: God says, “I’m writing so you may know, without doubt, with absolute certainty, that you have eternal life. Then He gives us three ways we can know:
 
We can know, first of all by
 
1.    The Eternal Word of God
 
Verses 10, 12
 
How can I be assured that I have eternal life? My primary assurance is found in the Bible. I have discovered that most of the time when people have doubts about their salvation it is because they misunderstand the nature of salvation.
 
They get to thinking about their salvation experience and can’t remember the details, or they think the only way to get saved is to come to the front or certain words or formulas, and theirs wasn’t like that therefore they must not be saved. 
 
Let me give you a verse to help: John 6:37
 
Listen, if you have doubts and struggle with the details, and wonder and all that, let me ask you, right now, “Are you believing on Jesus?”
You say, “Yes, but I don’t remember. . .”
 
I will say to you quit worrying about remembering details from 30 or 40 years ago, and instead put your faith in the truth of the Word of God. I’ve just given you an assurance verse to help you. Are you, right now, believing on Jesus for salvation?
 
Its present tense.
 
It doesn’t say “He that prayed when he was nine, or walked forward in a church or said certain words 30 years ago.” 
 
Right now, at this moment, are you believing, trusting in the power of God through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus to provide you with eternal life? Is so, the Bible says you have eternal life. End of discussion.
 
Listen, every time the Bible speaks about assurance, it always uses present tense language.
 
You assurance is based, not on a 30 second experience from years ago, but rather that right now I am believing and trusting Him.
 
And you can know you have eternal life because of the eternal Word. Secondly we can know we have eternal life because of the
 
2.   Internal Witness of the Holy Spirit
 
v. 10, 3:24, 4:13
 
In so many ways the Holy Spirit gives us an inner realization that we know God. 
I might be peace in spite of circumstances or bringing the Word of God to mind at just the right time. It might be overwhelming joy that fills your heart. Manifold is the witness of God to us through His Spirit.
 
The Eternal Word of God, the Internal Witness of the Spirit, then thirdly, we can know we have eternal life by our  
 
3.   External Walk with God
 
Just take the time to read the book of 1 John and you will discover that a man who has eternal life is a changed man. He may sin, and he will sin, but sin is no longer the rule of his life, it is the exception.
 
Verse 18, 21
 
Now understand what I’m saying: A man who makes a profession of faith and goes right on as if nothing has happened does not know Jesus.
 
We will give evidence that we possess eternal life by the way we live our life.
 
Get a grip on the reality of eternal life.
 
As a child of God, you possess the very life of God, given to you as a gift of God made possible by the Son of God to make you a possessor of the promise of God.
 
And God wants you to know for sure that you have it.