Spiritual Birthmarks | 1 John 5:1-5

[Scripture reading]

1 John 5:1–5 NLT

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. 2 We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments. 3 Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. 5 And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

Have y’all ever had someone tell you that you look like your parents? When I was growing up I was always told I looked like my mom but I had my dad’s eyes. That’s because our parents pass down their genes to us. And through that our physical appearance is gonna resemble our parents.

But did you know that God does the same with us?

Now we as humans are made in the image of God. We call that the imago dei or image of God. So we We get that from Genesis 1:27.

Genesis 1:27 (NLT)

27 So God created human beings in his own image.

In the image of God he created them;

But when we are saved, we begin to resemble God in more than just our physical appearance. We are not just made by God to resemble God, we become children of God. And that’s what our focus is tonight. We are gonna take a look at what it means to be a child of God.

1. We are children of God

In this passage, John refers to the children of God many times. And he even lists many ways in which we resemble God as His children.

I want us to walk through what happens when we are saved so we can have a clear understanding of what it means to be a child of God. When we are saved, our identity changes. Before we were a sinner that didn’t care about doing good. We may have done some good things, but it was all for selfish reasons because above all else we wanted what was best for us. Our identity was sinner. And as a sinner, we deserved death.

But when we are saved, that identity changes. Jesus came to this Earth to live a perfect life that you should have lived, died a death that you should have died, and conquered death by rising from the grave. He died with your sins laid on Him. And when you accept Him as your Savior, His righteousness is laid on you. He took on your sin, and you take on His righteousness so that when we stand before God after we die on Earth, we can enter heaven because all God sees is the righteousness of Jesus.

And after we are saved, we receive the Holy Spirit who even works on our hearts to make us more righteous as we live on Earth. He makes us more like Jesus. So it is by the work of the Holy Spirit that God’s children begin to display the character of God.

Think of it this way: at the core of our identity is our worldview, or how we view the world. Your worldview dictates how you think, how you learn, how you function. All of life is filtered through your worldview.

For example, if your goal in life is success, your entire life is filtered through that goal. Every decision you make is going to be filtered through the desire to achieve success. You may sacrifice relationships, your mental health, happiness, and many other things to attain success.

If your goal in life is security or the desire to feel secure, your decisions are gonna reflect that. You may sacrifice a great business opportunity because it was too risky, an opportunity to make a great memory, or again your mental health because you’re always worried about making the right decision.

And different cultures have different worldviews. If you go to a local tribe in the country of Laos you might find people practicing Animism and living their lives to appease spirits. If you go to India you’ll most likely see many people practicing Hinduism trying to live the best life they can so they can join Brahman, or eternal peace.

Before we became children of God, we lived in this culture with a worldview of making ourselves happy. But when we are saved we became part of a new culture. We became part of the kingdom of God and this culture change brings about an entirely new worldview. Instead of living a life for yourself, you begin to live your life to glorify God. And this new worldview is going to be reflected in the decisions you make.

And John gives many examples in this passage of ways in which we begin to look more like Jesus as God’s children. For our purposes tonight, we’re gonna call them spiritual birthmarks.

2. We have spiritual birthmarks

We’re gonna spend the rest of tonight taking a look at 5 spiritual birthmarks that we see in his passage.

These are marks that you will have if you are a Christian. This isn’t something that is required for you to be saved, but as the Holy Spirit comes into your heart and you are made into a child of God, you will do these 5 things.

1. We believe Jesus is the Christ (v. 1)

1 John 5:1 (NLT)

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God…

This is a really easy statement to gloss over real quick, but there is rich meaning here if we’re willing to stop and examine this.

Do y’all know what Christ means? It literally means anointed one. So you are a child of God if you believe Jesus is the anointed one.

This term “Christ” was actually the greek translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah”. So the Jews were awaiting this Messiah to come and save them and those who called Jesus the “Christ” were saying that He was this “Messiah”.

So saying the name “Jesus Christ” is not just referring to a man. It’s not just another way to say Jesus’ name. It is acknowledging that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises that He made to Israel in the old testament. It’s acknowledging that Jesus is the one whom God anointed to keep His promises.

Anointing in the old testament was commonly used with oil or other herbs to signify a bridge between heaven and Earth. They anointed the tabernacle in oil, they anointed priests in oil, kings were anointed in oil. It was a symbol that this person, place, or thing was a bridge between heaven and Earth. And we commonly saw the anointing of oil as a symbol of God’s Spirit filling a person.

And it’s no coincidence that Jesus was called the anointed one.

A great passage from the old testament to illustrate this is the beginning of Isaiah 11.

Isaiah 11:1–2 (NLT)

1 Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot—

yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.

[So it’s describing this one to come as one that came from the line of David that would bear fruit from the old root. In other words, when Jesus who was of the line of David came to this Earth as a man, He upholded the old testament law; so He bore fruit from the old root.]

2 And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—

the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and might,

the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

So we see this title of Christ is not the same as if I were to call someone sir. It’s a symbol that Jesus is the anointed Messiah that is filled with the Spirit of God. And we acknowledge that by calling Him Christ.

2. We love God and His children (vv. 1b-3)

1 John 5:1–3 (NLT)

1 … And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. 2 We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments. 3 Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

If you are a child of God, you will love God. It’s just a birthmark of being His child.

It’s the same as you loving your parents. They provide for you and care for you and you love them for doing that.

Jesus explains it perfectly in Matthew 22.

Matthew 22:36–40 NLT

36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” 37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Jesus said loving God is the greatest of all the commandments and that the second is to love your neighbor. John even goes so far as to say that loving God’s children is loving God.

Then Jesus says the entirety of the law and prophets are based on the commands to love God and love your neighbor.

That’s because the law isn’t just something we’re supposed to follow to live a good Christian life. Upholding the law and the commandments of God is how we love Him.

3. We love and obey God’s commandments (vv. 2-3)

Even after we become a Christian, there are still remnants of the sinner in our hearts. We were still born on this Earth as fleshly beings.

Psalm 51:5 NLT

5 For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.

This is the famous Psalm that David wrote after he committed his greatest sin, his adultery with Bathsheba and the murdering of her husband Uriah. Parts of this Psalm can be painful to read.

Psalm 51:3–4 NLT

3 For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. 4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.

David is haunted by his sin in this Psalm. And that’s the nature of our lives on this Earth as children of God. Waging war with our sin. Constantly dying to our flesh daily so that we might become more like Jesus.

And as we talked about earlier, that is how we love God. And we don’t just follow these commandments reluctantly like it’s such a burden on us to follow them.

1 John 5:3 (NLT)

3 … and his commandments are not burdensome.

Being a child of God is not just following His commandments, it’s loving His commandments. It’s realizing that following His commandments leads to a righteous life which is not only good for us, but more importantly honoring to Him. So don’t just follow God’s commandments, love His commandments.

4. We have victory over the world (v. 4)

1 John 5:4 NASB95

4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

A child of God will also overcome the world. Now what does he mean by the world? Well in chapter 2 he told us.

1 John 2:16 NLT

16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

The world is craving for pleasure, pride in ourselves. And as children of God we are given the ability to overcome these things. God is not going to let you be tempted beyond what you’re able to overcome.

1 John 4:4 (NASB95)

4 … greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

The Spirit of God in you is greater than this world so we can be confident as we live our lives that sin can be defeated!

Have you ever felt trapped by sin? Like it was holding you in chains? The Spirit of God breaks those chains. Jesus rose from the grave, He conquered death. And He can conquer the sin in your heart.

Run to Him. Be in your Bible, come to church, pray to God. He can overcome your sin.

5. We believe Jesus is the Son of God (v. 5)

1 John 5:5 NLT

5 And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

How fitting that the first spiritual birthmark was about who Jesus is and so is the last one. Because it is only because of Jesus that we have been reconciled to God; that we are able to be called children of God!

Many Christians today will say that Jesus was not perfect. That He made mistakes. But Jesus has to be perfect for Him to be able to be who He is and do what He did.

God is completely righteous. So someone who is THE Son of God, they have to be completely righteous as well.

Yet God also couldn’t just snap His finger and just forgive our sins. If He is completely righteous and completely just, the penalty of sin has to be paid. So He had to send Jesus. It was the only way.

Jesus was not God’s backup plan. He knew He’d send His Son to die for your sins. Because He wants a relationship with you. He’s not a distant father that wants nothing to do with you! He wants to be with His child. He loves you.

I encourage you, if you haven’t already accepted Him as your Savior, don’t wait until it’s too late. Give your life to Him. Let Him know that you’re a sinner and that you need Him.

If you’ve already done this, would you say these are your spiritual birthmarks? Do you know Jesus as Christ? Do you love God and His children? Do you love and obey His commandments? Do you feel shackled by your sin or do you have victory over your sin; making progress to overcome it? And do you acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God?

God doesn’t just wanna leave you a sinner. He wants you to become more like Him. He knows how bad this sin problem is in your heart. And He wants to help you through it. The question is whether you’re willing to let Him help you.