THE CENTRALITY OF GOD IN THE BELIEVER’S LIFE

In our passage before us we have a depth of theology and practice. It is like looking at the Grand Canyon. When my dad was in the Army, we spent almost three years stationed on Oahu, HI. In fact, I became a Christian in Hawaii. When my dad received orders to head to Louisiana, we took some time to drive from California to North Carolina, where both sets of my grandparents lived.

We took five days to cover the almost 3,000 miles of coast-to-coast travel. While we drove we tried to visit different places, and one of those was the Grand Canyon. Now, if you have ever been to the Grand Canyon you will know exactly what I am talking about. It is expansive, to the fullest degree with which that word can be used. It is deep. It overcomes the senses. You see it, but you cannot quite believe it. It seems unreal because it is so enormous and wide-spread.

Our passage before us is like the Grand Canyon. It covers incredible doctrine (beliefs) and practice (action). The difficulty, very similar to how you view the Grand Canyon, is, “What do I leave out?” Or, “How do I handle the depth of this passage?”

With those questions in mind, I hope you understand that we cannot do justice to this passage. So, I am attempting to summarize the thoughts as succinctly as possible, leaving room for application.

I. THE CENTRALITY OF GOD IN OUR SALVATION- 1 John 5:1

II. THE RAMIFICATIONS OF SALVATION FROM GOD THROUGH US- 1 John 5:2-3

III. THE RESULTS OF GOD’S SALVATION IN THE WORLD- 1 John 5:4-5

I. THE CENTRALITY OF GOD IN OUR SALVATION- 1 John 5:1

We notice first the centrality of God in our Salvation. This is a key concept, not only of John’s contributions to the New Testament, but also to the entirety of Scripture.

A. THE CENTRALITY OF GOD IN OUR BELIEF

First, John focuses on “everyone who believes.” This is the entry way into the life of a child of God. Paul says, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” That is, by simply believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ you have your sins forgiven, heaven as your home, and God as your Father. You are born of God!

Belief, then, brings birth. But John keeps God as central in our salvation by reminding us that birth comes from God. Birth precedes belief. This is true numerous times in this very epistle.

In 1 John 2:29,

1 John 2:29 ESV

If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

Also, in 1 John 3:9

1 John 3:9 ESV

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

1 John 4:7

1 John 4:7 ESV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Our responses, both to God and to each other, depend upon the supernatural birth from God. This is John’s constant theme, harkening back to his gospel account, specifically in John 1:12-13 and 3:1-15. We believe because we have been born of God. This is a thought that runs throughout John’s epistle. All that we are in Christ comes through God’s salvation of us. We believe because we are born from God.

Yet, this does not dissolve us from the responsibility to believe. You see why I liken this passage to the Grand Canyon? But there is more!

B. THE CENTRALITY OF GOD IN OUR ACTION

Just as God is central in our belief, He is also central in our action. Just as you and I, when once dead in trespasses and sins (see Eph. 2:1-3), would not choose God, we cannot love others on our own. God is key to our loving others.

And this should not come as a surprise to you or I. John discusses the basis for our love to others on the foundation of God’s love for us. In chapter 3, John discusses this foundation in the the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ for our love (3:16). In chapter four, John anchors our understanding and expression of love in God himself.

God is central in our action, as he bases our ability to Him in our expression of love toward our brothers and sisters, and John then ties their relationship to us (brothers and sisters) in their birth from God.

Do you see how interconnected our salvation by grace alone through faith in alone by God alone is? Do you see how connected our salvation is to our outward transformation?

The centrality of God in our salvation extends to the centrality of God in our love for others. Like the battery in the phone, we are simply empty shells without the birth and indwelling of God. But once God saves and indwells us, He begins to work through us (Philippians 2:12-13).

So, God is central in our salvation, both in our belief and in our action. God’s salvation of sinners has ramifications, which as we have already noted, finds its source in God as well.

II. THE RAMIFICATIONS OF SALVATION FROM GOD THROUGH US- 1 John 5:2-3

What are the results of God’s salvation of sinners? John discusses this in verses 2-3. The Christian is saved for a purpose, as we learn from Ephesians 2:10. We have been saved to bring God glory through loving Him and keeping His commandments. Let us break down these ramifications and examine them in more detail.

The first ramification is...

A. KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION—by this we know...

We have knowledge of salvation through our love for His children. You see, as we keep the commandments of God (i.e., loving one another) we know that we are saved. It demonstrates a changed heart. While we have not reached this part of the epistle, John tells us why he wrote this letter in 5:13

1 John 5:13

1 John 5:13 ESV

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.

John wrote this epistle for the purpose of knowing we are saved. He has used this idea of knowing all over his epistle, frequently preceded by the phrase “by this we know...” And one of the basics to which believers must return frequently is the basic of knowing you are saved.

And you know you are a child of God when you love His children. But there is a second ramification of God’s salvation through us:

B. KEEPING HIS COMMANDMENTS—when we love God and obey His commandments

When God saves us, we keep His commandments. Now, we have observed this statement numerous times in our study of this letter. So, we will not review those occurences. Suffice it to say, you cannot be a child of God if you do not keep His commandments, not because they save you, but because you demonstrate a lack of salvation.

When we demonstrate that we love God and obey His commandments, John tells us that know that we love His children. The second ramification of God’s work of salvation through us is that we keep His commandments. Show me an individual who strives to love God and follow the Scriptures, and it is likely that he or she is a follower of Jesus Christ.

Do our lives demonstrate that we love God and keep His commandments? If so, then we see two ramifications. Let us look at the last ramification.

C. THE EASE OF HIS COMMANDMENTS—his commandments are not burdensome

John, after discussing the knowledge of our salvation, then moves on to discussing the commandments themselves. Now, it seems odd that in this discussion which has not mentioned difficulty as yet would introduce this. But, if you have been following this epistle with us, you know the bar for believers is high. But as Daniel Akin of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary writes,

“This does not mean that God’s laws are not exacting or demanding. Rather, it means that God’s laws are not oppressive or crushing. They are not a terrible weight we cannot bear. God’s moral standards are high, but God gives the Christian grace to be able to live up to that standard (cf. 4:4).”

God’s commandments, His moral law, are indeed high (consider the source). However, they are not burdensome. As opposed to the rigorous rules of the Pharisees, Jesus declares in Matthew 11:28-30,

Matthew 11:28–30 ESV

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

The requirements of the world are full of burdens. They are ever changing, exhausting, and at times ridiculous. God’s commandments, on the other hand, not burdensome. They are not overwhelming, because God walks with us in them! Jesus himself encourages us to take His yoke, which is a tool that is for two animals (Jesus + us).

The third ramification is that God’s commandments carry with them an ease, a God-induced ease.

We have observed the centrality of God in our salvation and the resulting ramifications through us, now let us use our remaining time to focus on...

III. THE RESULTS OF GOD’S SALVATION IN THE WORLD- 1 John 5:4-5

Now that we understand (though briefly) the centrality of God in our salvation as well as the ramification of God’s salvation through us, we see the results of God’s salvation in the world.

We are standing on the precipice of the Grand Canyon of 1 John chapter 5, and we are just glancing through this magnificent handiwork of God. But now we come to a shift from us (individually and collectively) to the results in the world.

Now, just as a reminder the word world is used in a variety of ways in John’s letter. In 2:2 it is used to described those who for whom Christ died. In 2:15-16 it refers to that collective expression of rebellion against God, and along the same lines in 3:13. It is used to describe physical goods in 3:17.

So you can see that it is a versatile word. However, the context demonstrates this to be the anti-God rebellion.

The result of God’s salvation of us includes a victory that believers enjoy over all that opposes God. John re-centers our focus on the fact that we live only through God’s grace (born of God).

What is the result of being born of God? We overcome the world. Now, within this one word exist several enemies of God and the believer.

The first enemy is the devil. He is the great enemy of God, and since Genesis chapter 3 he has ever lived to destroy the works of God. The second enemy is the world, that system of rebellion against God (1 John 2:15-16). The third enemy is our own flesh, that part of us that is a work-in-progress (referenced, not by name, in 1 John 1:9, 2:1-2).

Through God’s incredible transformation at salvation, through being born of God, we overcome the world. Though it is not we that overcomes the world, but He.

It is God’s victory over the devil through Christ which the believer enjoys. Sinclair Ferguson states the situation like this,

“What is even more striking is the Synoptic writers’ stress on the fact that Jesus, as the man full of the Spirit, was driven into the desert by the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1). Temptation does not merely ‘come’ to him; he goes to it. He attacks it. …He appears as the divine champion, as it were, entering into enemy-occupied territory under the guidance of the Spirit as the director of spiritual intelligence. Miss this, and we miss the point of the narrative: it is a declaration of war, an attack on the one who claims to be the ruler of this world (Luke 4:6). Rather than overcome Jesus, Satan is comprehensively defeated, and in sovereign manner dismissed by his conqueror with the words, ‘Away from me, Satan!’ (Matt. 4:10, NIV).”—Sinclair Ferguson

In other words, Christ’s victory becomes our victory. It is our union with Christ (or, to use John’s preferred word, abiding) that we enjoy victory over the world.

Now, a we need a brief word about what this does not mean. This does not mean that every conflict with those who oppose God will result in the Christian’s victory. Since the church’s inception persecution has claimed the lives of many believers.

Today believers are still being persecuted, phyiscally and otherwise, and Christians do not always enjoy earthly-deliverance. This verse does not mean earthly victory.

It does refer, however, to the believer’s standing with God. You may remember our study of 2:18-25 when John refers to “those who went out from us, but they were not of us...” It refers to the solidity of our faith, the fact that, try as he or they might, the world will never overthrow our faith. In fact, we enjoy victory, now in the present, because this world is passing away, but doing God’s will (i.e., our faith) abides forever.

The result of God’s salvation in the world is that His kingdom is ever-expanding and there is absolutely nothing this world can do to stop it, both for God’s individual children and the collection of them known as the Church.

And how do we enjoy this victory over the world? John ends this section in the same way in which he began it: believing that Jesus is the Son of God.

CONCLUSION

So what? What does this have to do with our lives?

While there are many applications upon which we could focus, I want to offer simply one. If the Lord leads you to focus on another point, please follow His leading.

It is this: have you been born of God? How do you know? Has your life changed? Do you love your brothers and sisters in Christ? Do you find it difficult to keep God’s word, or sweet?

If you have been born of God, then enjoy this benefits! Thank God for His expression of grace by giving you life through His Son, Jesus Christ. Enjoy the ramifications and the victory we have in Christ.

If you have not, would you be born? Would you believe?