When you Feel or Don't Feel like a Christian

Introduction

When you feel or don’t feel like a Christian, where do you go for answers? How can you know for sure which is true? There are some that believe you cannot truly know whether you are converted or not until you die and go before the throne of God. If that were true, the main purpose of this entire book would be unnecessary. John says he is writing this book so that they can know that they know God and have the confidence of one who can rightly be called children of God.

However, it is true that sometimes true Christians don’t feel like true Christians. They may question their salvation, or even doubt it, and John very much wants them to have the confidence they need to live in God’s promises. It’s also true that some who think they are true Christians are really not. This also has the effect of putting for doubt in the mind of someone who is doubting their salvation. So what should you do when you feel like a Christian, and when you don’t feel like a Christian?

In our text, John has just told us of the confidence we can have as Christians when we walk in righteousness and love for other Christians. Verse 19 says: “By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him.” John wants our hearts to be reassured, so that our feelings can be controlled and directed by the facts that God’s Word gives us.

When You Don’t Feel like a Christian

Verse 20 says, “for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.”

Perhaps as you’ve read the passages leading up to this text, you’ve become discouraged or challenged. First, John told us that in order to have confidence in the last day when we see Christ face to face, we have to be walking in the example of his character and grow into his image. Someone who claims to know God cannot be stagnant, nor can they be dwelling comfortably in the very sin and evil that Christ died to make war with. Fighting sin on the side of Jesus is an inherent part of being saved from sin and spending eternity with him in paradise.

Also, someone who claims to know God but doesn’t actively love their fellow Christians have no evidence that the love of God has changed their lives. Like the unforgiving servant who was cast out of his master’s presence, the unloving Christian is no true Christian at all. The unity that we have with Christ creates a unity with every other Christian in history and if we do not embrace that unity with sacrificial love, we cannot embrace Christ at all.

And John knows that many Christians, particularly those with more sensitive consciences, are going to immediately be questioning their own lives and perhaps their own salvation. Am I loving enough? Am I obedient enough? Am I really a Christian? How do I know when I have enough love and enough obedience to know that I really am a Christian?

John says that when our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything. What does this tell us, and how can it give us comfort?

First, it tells us that we can and should have assurance of our salvation. In fact, it is very difficult to live the Christian life biblically without assurance. Israel was called to follow the law and promised blessings, and all of that was based on the fact that God had called them as his people. God had made those promises, and the Israelites could know that God was their God if they walked in the covenant that was made for them. Imagine if their place as the people of God was not certain. Maybe they’re his people, maybe not. Not only would it make his promises untrustworthy, but it takes away the whole substance of a promise. If God makes a promise, but no one can know whether that promise is for them or not, than no one has claim to that promise. If a parent makes a promise to their child that if they clean their room they will get five dollars, the promise is clear. You know who it is for, you know how it is attainable, and you know the blessing. If a parent said “Someone will get some money if this room is clean enough.”

That kind of promise is not really a promise, since it has no direct object, no specific blessing, and no certainty at all. The fact is that these are not the kinds of promises God gives. God was careful to let Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob know that he was their God, and they were his chosen people. God continually identified himself to the Israelites as the Lord their God. He left no question on who he was to them, who would receive the promise, and how they could receive it. In the same way, God does not want you to be confused about your salvation. If you are a real Christian, he wants you to know it. And if you are not, he wants to show you that so you can truly repent and come to know him. \

With that being the case, God wants you to know that you are a Christian even if you feel like you aren’t. Even when you feel like you aren’t good enough or not loving enough, there can be a solid foundation to rest on. That foundation, unsurprisingly, is the Gospel itself. Verse 23, “And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ.” Knowing you’re saved is based on Christ, not on your works. Works are the fruit of salvation, but not the beginning. In fact, the presence of fruit in your life should give you more confidence that will lead to more fruit, because you’re confidence becomes more and more concrete. But when you fall into sin, when you said that unloving thing, or when you are simply unsatisfied with your Christian walk, you can remember that salvation is God’s work, not yours. If you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, you that work has been done in you. If you are concerned about your lack of fruit, that shows a heart that is set on the things of God, something that only true believers have.

You don’t fight sin to know you’re saved, you fight sin because you know your saved and that war with sin can give you confidence on your worst days. When you don’t feel like a Christian, you can look as where you were and where the Lord has taken you and have confidence to keep going. His promises are for you if you have believed the Gospel and walk in love for God and for your brothers and sisters as a result.

When You Feel like a Christian

In verse 21 John verbalizes the desired mindset of the Christian. “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.” This confidence is what God wants us to have and what we should want as well. The last verse in our text, verse 24, says, “Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.” John wants you to walk in obedience the God’s commandments so that you can have the confidence that you are a child of God. What are these commands? To believe the Gospel, love Christ through obedience, and love the brethren. This does not save you, works do not save you, but they do give you the confidence that you belong to God.

In your Christian life, as you grow in grace you are going to see sin as more sinful and sometimes that is going to be discouraging. Things that didn’t used to bother you, and things that you used to fall into constantly will become less and less of a problem. You will never reach a place in this life where you feel complete and total victory over sin, but you will experience confidence when you look at where you were and where God has brought you.

Confidence in the Christian life comes from war with sin and peace with God and his people. Doubt comes from war with God and his people and peace with sin. A Christian cannot live in the latter, and an imposter cannot remain in the former. There is no peaceful state where you can feel you’ve overcome all sin, because sin remains in you as long as your are alive, meaning if you feel peace from sin, it is because you are at peace with sin, and that’s not good. But when you know you are at war with sin, when you love the community of faith, and when you love God, that is where you can have peace based on confidence in God’s Word.

Why does this give us confidence? Not because we have worked our way into the right to have confidence, but because it proves the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit, as Ephesians 1 tells us, is the down-payment of our salvation. If someone gives you a down-payment, it is a promise that is founded, not on blind faith, but on the fact that the person making the purchase is willing to put down money now to show that they will complete the transaction later. Every Christian has the Holy Spirit, and his presence gives us the power to make war with sin and peace with God and his people. If you want the confidence that he is at work in you, you must walk in the Spirit.

Paul exemplifies this attitude in Romans 8:1 “Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.” How can he promise this confidence? Verse 5 says “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” A similar black-and-white practical theology as John’s shows the radical change the Spirit makes in the life of a believer. Verse 11

English Standard Version Chapter 8

11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Conclusion

God wants you to be confident that you are saved. He wants you to know it for sure. Don’t you? Do you want to have an absolute knowledge that you know God. You can, and you will if you walk in the Spirit. But if you do not walk in the Spirit, be warned, for the Spirit does not let his people wander long. You will either be drawn back, or you will prove you were never his. Many Christians live in uncertainty of their salvation, and this stops them from having a fruitful Christian walk. You cannot claim the promises of God if you don’t know that they are for you.

But are they for you? Is the Spirit of God at work within you? If you do not know the answer, the place to go is always back to the basics that necer grow old: the Gospel. It is to believe that Jesus Christ is who Scripture says he is, the God-man who came to live a righteous life, fulfill the covenant, die for sins, and rise to new life for his people. It is to believe that those promises are for you, and to live that truth by loving the church, your spiritual family, and obeying God’s revealed Word.

The Gospel never ceases to be the place we can go with doubt and gain confidence in Christ. It is the power for new, holy living. And it is the fuel for Spirit filled, Christian love.