THE ASSURANCE

THE ASSURANCE 

The Courtroom Becomes Family 

1 John 5:6–13  |  Focus: vv. 11–13 

Series: The Covenant Signature — So That They Will Know  |  Week 13 

Introduction.  Can I Know? 

For twelve weeks we have followed one question through Scripture. 

How can they know? 

God answered Pharaoh: I will act — so that Egypt will know.  God answered Israel in the wilderness: I will provide — so that you will know.  God challenged the idols through Isaiah: Tell us what will happen — so that we may know whether you are gods.  Jesus stood before unbelieving men and said: When you lift up the Son of Man — then you will know that I AM. 

Last week Jesus brought the Covenant Signature closer than it had ever been before. He said — in that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. The dwelling moved inside. God was no longer merely among His people. By His Spirit, He would dwell in His people. 

But that raises an intensely personal question. And I want you to sit with it before we open the text. 

How do I know? 

Not how did Pharaoh know. Not how did Egypt know. Not how did the nations know when Cyrus arrived exactly as declared. Not even how did the apostles know. 

How do I know that I belong to Christ? 

How do I know that my faith is real and not something I manufactured under emotional pressure in a church service twenty years ago? 

How do I know that eternal life belongs to me — and not just to the people who seem more confident, more consistent, more spiritually put-together than I am? 

How do I know that when my conscience drags out everything I have done and lays it on the table, there is no condemnation waiting for me on the other side of this life? 

Church, that question matters. It matters because there are people who presume they are saved who ought to examine themselves carefully. But it also matters because there are genuine believers who spend years — decades — afraid they are not. Living under a verdict God never issued. Hiding from a sentence that fell on Someone else. 

John writes to both kinds of people. He wants false confidence destroyed. But he also wants genuine faith assured. And near the end of his letter he tells us plainly why he wrote every word of it: 

“That you may know that you have eternal life.” 

Know. There is our Covenant Signature one final time. Except now the courtroom has become intensely personal. It has moved from the throne room of Pharaoh to the conscience of the believer. And the same God who made Egypt know His name wants you to know something too. 

That you have eternal life. 

Not that you might have it. Not that you could have it under the right conditions. Not that you hope for it and wait nervously to find out. 

That you have it. 

I.  God Takes the Witness Stand 

1 John 5:6–10 

Before John tells us that we can know, he establishes why we can know. 

The language surrounding our text is courtroom language. Testimony. Witness. Evidence. Record. John is not writing devotional comfort. He is entering evidence. 

And look at who provides the decisive testimony. 

Not you. Not your track record. Not your pastor. Not your emotional experience at the altar. 

God. 

“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater.” 

That changes the entire frame. Christian assurance does not begin with the question — how strongly do I believe? It begins with a completely different question. 

What has God testified concerning His Son? 

Your faith is not the foundation of the testimony. Your faith receives the testimony. There is a massive difference. The foundation is what God has said. Faith is the hand that takes hold of it. 

And then John says something that should stop everyone cold. 

“He that believeth not God hath made him a liar.” 

That is not gentle language. If God has testified concerning His Son — and He has, across thirteen weeks of Scripture and two thousand years of fulfilled prophecy and one empty tomb — then refusing to believe His testimony is not humility. 

It is calling God a liar. 

The question ultimately becomes this: Will you believe what God has said about His Son? 

II.  The Record 

1 John 5:11 

Then John summarizes the entire case in one sentence. 

“And this is the record.” 

Stop there. The record. Not your record. God’s record. 

“That God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” 

Who gives the life? God. What kind of life? Eternal. Where is it located? In His Son. 

That last phrase is everything. John does not say eternal life is found in your performance. It isn’t located in your consistency. It isn’t stored in your church attendance or how emotional your conversion was or whether you had a good week spiritually or whether you feel close to God this morning. 

The life is located somewhere entirely outside of you. The life is in the Son. 

That is either the most liberating sentence in Scripture or the most unsettling one, depending on where you have been looking for assurance. If you have been looking inward — at your feelings, your behavior, your spiritual resume — then John is about to move your foundation. Because the record doesn’t say the life is in you. It says the life is in Christ. And the only way to have the life is to have Him. 

III.  The Binary Verdict 

1 John 5:12 

Then John makes it almost painfully simple. 

“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” 

Two categories. Not five. Not a spectrum. Not religious and irreligious. Not good people and bad people. Not people who had dramatic conversions and people who didn’t. 

Has the Son.  Does not have the Son.  That’s it. 

And notice what John does not say. He does not say — he who has performed well enough has life. He does not say — he who never doubts has life. He does not say — he who never struggles or falls or fails has life. 

He who has the Son has life. 

Why? Because the life is in the Son. This is union with Christ. And suddenly Week 12 and Week 13 lock together like two pieces of the same argument. 

Last week Jesus said — you in Me, and I in you.  This week John says — he who has the Son has life. 

Of course he does. If the Son possesses resurrection life — and He does, He walked out of a sealed tomb — and you are united to the Son, then His life is yours. Not a life He hands you and steps back from. Not a gift He mails to you from a distance. The life is Christ Himself. You have the life because you have Him. You lose the life only if you lose Him. And He said He would lose none that the Father has given Him. 

IV.  So That You May Know 

1 John 5:13 

Now we arrive at the sentence this entire series has been preparing us to hear. 

“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.” 

Why, John? Why the whole letter? Why the walking in the light and the confession of sin and the loving the brethren and the warning about antichrists and the constant return to Jesus Christ? 

So that you may know that you have eternal life. 

Church, stand back and look at the journey. 

In Exodus — so that Pharaoh will know.  In the wilderness — so that Israel will know.  Through Isaiah — so that the nations will know.  In the upper room — so that you may believe that I AM.  In this letter — so that you may know that you have eternal life. 

The Covenant Signature has traveled from the throne room of Pharaoh to the conscience of the believer. The same God who made Egypt know His name through judgment wants you to know His name through assurance. The same purpose clause that drove ten plagues through the most powerful empire in the ancient world is now driving John’s pen across a letter aimed at frightened, doubting, conscience-battered believers. 

He wants you to know. Not wonder. Not guess. Not spend your entire Christian life saying ‘I hope so.’ Know. 

V.  Your Conscience Is Not the Judge 

And this is where some of you are living. 

God says — forgiven. Your conscience says — but remember what you did.  God says — justified. Your conscience says — but look at what you still struggle with.  God says — in Christ. Your conscience says — but surely someone like you couldn’t really belong to Him. 

Church, your conscience matters. Don’t misread me. A seared conscience is a dangerous thing. But your conscience is not infallible. And your conscience is certainly not the Judge. 

God is. 

John already addressed this earlier in the letter. First John 3:20 — “If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.” 

God is greater than your heart. 

Your feelings do not get appellate jurisdiction over God’s verdict. Your emotions cannot overturn justification. Your bad Tuesday cannot reverse Good Friday. The accusation your conscience rehearses at two in the morning is not the verdict the Judge has rendered. 

The Judge has spoken. The record is clear. And the record says — God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 

Believe the record. Not your heart. The record. 

VI.  But What About the Evidence? 

Now we need to be careful. Because John does not say — never examine yourself. 

The same letter gives us evidences of genuine life. Do I believe Jesus is the Christ? Do I love the brethren? Is there repentance when I sin? Is there a desire to obey? Am I persevering in the faith? Those things matter. They are real. They belong in the conversation about assurance. 

But here is the order that must never be reversed. 

They are evidence of life. They are not the source of life. 

An apple does not make an apple tree alive. An apple shows you the tree is alive. In the same way, obedience does not purchase union with Christ. Obedience demonstrates the life of Christ already at work in His people. 

That is why assurance has both an objective foundation and subjective confirmation. The foundation is Christ — what He did, what He said, what God testified concerning Him. The confirmation is the fruit His Spirit produces in the life of the one who belongs to Him. 

Never reverse that order. The moment you make the fruit the foundation, you have shifted the weight of your assurance onto something that fluctuates with every season, every failure, every hard week. And it will not hold. 

Look at the fruit — but stand on the rock. 

VII.  The Accuser Versus the Advocate 

Now the courtroom imagery becomes beautiful. 

Scripture calls Satan the accuser of the brethren. And unfortunately, he has evidence. You have sinned. So have I. There are things in our record we cannot deny. Real things. The kind that come back to mind at the worst moments. 

So Christianity does not answer the accusation by pretending the evidence isn’t there. We don’t say — I wasn’t that bad. We don’t say — I’ve done enough good to compensate. We don’t say — look at my church attendance, look at my service, look at what I’ve given. 

We point somewhere else. 

The Accuser says — guilty. And regarding our own record, he’s right. But the gospel says — Christ stood in the place of the guilty. The penalty has been fully borne. The righteousness of Another has been credited. The tomb is empty. The Son lives. And everyone united to Him possesses His life. 

The prosecution can read the old charges all day long. 

The sentence has already fallen. It fell on Christ. And it cannot fall twice on the same sin. 

That is not a loophole. That is the gospel. 

VIII.  The Courtroom Becomes Family 

And here is where the title of the sermon finally opens all the way up. 

The Judge doesn’t merely acquit you and send you back out into the street. He brings you home. 

John constantly calls believers children of God. Not acquitted defendants. Not pardoned criminals who got a second chance. Children. Members of the household. People with a name and a Father and a place at the table. 

The courtroom becomes family.  The Judge becomes Father.  The accused becomes a son.  The stranger receives a name.  The condemned receives life. 

And the believer no longer approaches God wondering — will He let me stay? Will He keep me? Have I finally worn out my welcome? 

You are in Christ. Christ is in you. And the Father has called you His child. 

That is assurance. Not arrogance. Not presumption. Covenant confidence. 

The settled certainty of a person who knows where they stand — not because they are so faithful, but because God is. 

IX.  The Forensic Call 

So what do we do with this? 

Some of you need to stop pretending. 

You’ve had religion. You’ve had church membership. You’ve had theological knowledge. But John gives a brutally simple test — he who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son does not have life. Do you have Christ? Not a church. Not a tradition. Not a childhood decision you can barely remember. 

Christ. 

If not — come to Him today. The record is still open. The invitation is still extended. The Son is still given. 

But some of you have the opposite problem. 

You belong to Christ. And yet you keep reopening a case God has already settled. Every failure sends you back to the dock. Every bad week makes you wonder whether the blood still works. Every accusation from the enemy — or from your own conscience — makes you wonder whether you’ve finally exhausted grace. 

Look at the record. 

“God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” 

Stop looking primarily inward. Look to Christ. Your assurance will always be unstable when its foundation is your performance. 

None of them died for you. Christ did.  None of them rose for you. Christ did.  None of them sit at the Father’s right hand interceding for you right now. Christ does. 

And John says — I wrote these things not so that you might wonder. Not so that you might spend your entire Christian life saying I hope so. Not so that you carry the weight of an unresolved verdict every single day. 

That you may know that you have eternal life. 

The Covenant Signature has been written. The Son has been given. The blood has been shed. The tomb is empty. The Spirit has been poured out. The Father has spoken. 

Believe the record. 

And live like someone who knows to whom he or she belongs. 

Let us pray. 

.  Application Points 

1. Build your assurance on Christ, not your emotional temperature. Feelings change. The Son does not. When assurance weakens, return first to God’s testimony concerning Christ — not to your performance record. 

2. Remember that eternal life is found in a Person. You do not possess salvation independently of Christ. He who has the Son has life. Remain fixed on Him, not on the spiritual experiences you have had along the way. 

3. Use the evidences John gives without turning them into a new law of justification. Faith, love, obedience, and perseverance are fruit of life in Christ — not the price paid to obtain it. Know the difference and never reverse the order. 

4. When your conscience condemns you, let God have the final word. Confess real sin rather than minimizing it. Then believe the promise of cleansing rather than endlessly re-prosecuting yourself for what God has already settled. 

5. Answer the Accuser with Christ. Your defense is not that you are innocent in yourself. Your defense is that the guilty have a righteous Advocate whose sacrifice has fully satisfied the judgment against them. Point to the cross, not to your record. 

6. Live with covenant confidence. You have not merely been released from the courtroom. In Christ you have been brought into the Father’s house. Obey, worship, work, suffer, and witness as a child who knows where he belongs — not as a defendant still waiting on the verdict. 

Fairfield Baptist Church  ·  Dry Prong, Louisiana