1 JOHN 5:13-15 (13 OF 14)
Scripture: 1 John 5:13-15
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1 John 5:13-15 (13 of 14)
Series: 1 John: Jesus Our Light and Life
Wyman Richardson
1 John 5:13-15
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. 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Christopher Bass has written an interesting book entitled That You May Know: Assurance of Salvation in 1 John. The thesis of his book is, ''No other book of the New Testament speaks of the believer's confidence or assurance of salvation as frequently and explicitly as the first letter of John, for the predominant theme of the entire letter is Christian certainty.'' Bass's concludes his book by saying, ''perseverance in righteousness can never be viewed as the ground of the believer's assurance. Therefore, as noted at the outset of this study, assurance of eternal life as taught in the first letter of John is fundamentally grounded in the work of Christ and supported in a vital yet subsidiary way by the lifestyle of the believer.''
He begins his first chapter with a quote from Thomas Brooks that was said ''more than 350 years ago'':
The being in a state of grace makes a man's condition happy, safe, and sure; but the seeing, the knowing of himself to be in such a state, is that which renders his life sweet and comfortable.
I believe that is true. A lack of assurance of salvation, a lack of truly knowing that you are saved leads to anxiety. Anxiety erodes confidence and eroded confidence creates fear. But the child of God is not to live in fear. He or is to live joyfully knowing that God is with him or her and for him or her in and through Christ Jesus.
The problem, however, is that we erode our own confidence through our own sinfulness. We create our own anxiety and fear. As we begin this final section o ...
Series: 1 John: Jesus Our Light and Life
Wyman Richardson
1 John 5:13-15
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. 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Christopher Bass has written an interesting book entitled That You May Know: Assurance of Salvation in 1 John. The thesis of his book is, ''No other book of the New Testament speaks of the believer's confidence or assurance of salvation as frequently and explicitly as the first letter of John, for the predominant theme of the entire letter is Christian certainty.'' Bass's concludes his book by saying, ''perseverance in righteousness can never be viewed as the ground of the believer's assurance. Therefore, as noted at the outset of this study, assurance of eternal life as taught in the first letter of John is fundamentally grounded in the work of Christ and supported in a vital yet subsidiary way by the lifestyle of the believer.''
He begins his first chapter with a quote from Thomas Brooks that was said ''more than 350 years ago'':
The being in a state of grace makes a man's condition happy, safe, and sure; but the seeing, the knowing of himself to be in such a state, is that which renders his life sweet and comfortable.
I believe that is true. A lack of assurance of salvation, a lack of truly knowing that you are saved leads to anxiety. Anxiety erodes confidence and eroded confidence creates fear. But the child of God is not to live in fear. He or is to live joyfully knowing that God is with him or her and for him or her in and through Christ Jesus.
The problem, however, is that we erode our own confidence through our own sinfulness. We create our own anxiety and fear. As we begin this final section o ...
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