1st John 5: 1-12, Lesson 9
by Lane Rogers
Fellowship is Rooted in the New Birth By Faith
Introduction,
Biblical faith has specific elements that are basic to the reception of the new birth. Those specifics are equally basic to the continuance of that new life. Salvation begins when we confess to conviction that the man Jesus is the divine Son of God God and on that faith is baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38; 8:36-37; Romans 10:9-10). The new birth has obligations that are equally basic to its practice. Love for God and His family must manifest itself in continual obedience to God's commands, especially as they dictate duties toward His children. Present and eternal victories are intrinsically bound up in world conquering faith. Christ is the key to “life” both here and the hereafter.
A
brief Review:
We have been discussing 1st John 4:19, we love because God first loved us.
A. Our love is a reaction to the love of God (1st John 4:9, 10 and 14).. He has demonstrated His love by:
Sending His Son so that we might live.
Sending His Son to be the satisfaction for our sins.
Sending His Son to be the savior of the world.
B. Our love is naturally a reflection of the love of God.
C. God wants this love of His to be invested in us as to perfect us.
It is perfected in us when new are in this world as He is.
We show our love toward God by serving the needs of His people and when we manifest that kind of love then we are showing our love for God Himself.
It is demonstrated in the practical services and ministries that we give one another. Cf. Matthew 25.
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1Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. 5Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7For there are three that testify: 8the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. 10The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. 11And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
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FAITH AND FELLOWSHIP (5:1-12)
A. The Concept of Faith in Christ Jesus
The apostle has built the new birth on two fundamental principles.
a. He says that the one is pure in life and does not practice sin
is begotten of God (1st John 3:9).
b. He states that the one who loves is begotten of God (1st John 4:7).
All of those actions are present tense verbs, whether it be the practice of purity, whether it be the manifestation of love, or whether it be constant demonstrations of faith and confidence in Christ.
a. And therefore the new birth is a present tense relationship because it is based on present tense convictions that we have in Jesus Christ and our obligation to love and practice purity.
b. John tells us that whoever believes that Jesus is begotten of God is of God.
We demonstrate love by keeping the commandments of God (v-2).
a. The commandments are a list of our obligations, the assignments that we have toward one another.
b. We are to minister to one another, admonish one another, exhort one another, serve one another.
c. Commandment keeping then is a demonstration of our love for the Father and love for His children.
d. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 13:8, “Owe no man anything save or except this un-payable debt of love.”
e. The law says that love is the fulfilling of all its obligations (Romans 13:9).
“For this is the love of God to keep His commandments” (v.3)
a. We must all meet the assignments that God has given us regarding worship, concerning prayer, concerning waling in the light, concerning believing in His Son.
b. Pleasing God would be one of the major interest and commitments on the part of God's people.
5. His commandments are not grievous.
a. God's commandments are not the source of or grief.
b. God's commandments are the guidelines to successful living.
c. Violated commandments bring grief. All grief that humans experience derive from a violation of god's commandments.
d. When we keep His commandments then that is the secret to a successful, happy life.
B. Faith is the Source of Victory (vs.4-5)
Whatever is begotten of God overcomes the world.
a. John has left the personal and uses the impersonal.
1) He is no longer saying whoever is begotten of God overcomes.
2) He is now saying whatever is begotten of God overcomes.
3) God is the one that originates faith.
b. God is the one that originates period.
c. He is not only the one that begets life in us. He is the one that originates, that begins, that brings into existence of faith.
d. God originates faith in us through that fact that He has presented to us the evidence that is necessary for us to believe.
e. Faith does come by hearing and hearing by the Word as we read in Romans 10:17.
f. God is the one who originates the Word.
Overcoming the world demands not only that we resist the temptations of Satan but that we also resist the temptation not to love.
It is the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God who overcomes the world.
a. Verse – 1. whoever believes that Jesus Christ is the Messiah
b. Verse – 5. you must also believe that He is the Son of God, that He is the co-equal with the Father in deity.
B. Witnesses to the Incarnation (1st John 5:6-8).
John's water and blood argument. This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ. Not with water only but with water and blood.
a. The strength of the argument is in John's use of the preposition “through” (Gk Dia).
b. John is therefore saying that Jesus was divine before, during and after both His baptism and His cross.
c. John is now combating Gnostic theories concerning the incarnation.
1) The adoption idea said that Christ (divinity) came on Jesus after His baptism and left before His death. So John writes through water and blood, (not just water) (v.6a).
2) Some Gnostics might concede the coming through water, but not the blood. Once again, Jesus came by both water and blood (6.b).
The interpolation (inserting something from without to within which pollutes ) in the King James Version.
a. The words: “in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth” are not in the Greek text.
b. Its entrance into the KJV came in this fashion. It was added to the quotation in 1st John by a Spanish heretic Priscillian (died in 385 A.D.) in a Latin Sermon. From his work the verse was added to a Latin manuscript of Pseudo-Virgilius and came gradually to work its way into the Latin texts. Then it was added by Erasmus to his Greek text and by the 15th century it found its way into the KJV.
The Witness:
a. Water =refers to baptism
b. Spirit= testifies to Christ's divinity.
c. Blood= refers to the cross.
The witness of the Holy Spirit. Jesus' entire life as a man was guided and led by the Holy Spirit.
a. He was conceived by the Spirit.
b. He performed His miracles by the power of the Spirit ( Luke 5:17; Luke 4:1).
c. He was lead by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted.
d. He was led by the Spirit, even to the cross at Calvary. (Hebrews 9:14).
e. He was raised from the dead by the Spirit (Romans 1:4).
Some ways in which God bore witness.
a. More than 330 specific prophecies concerning the Messiah recorded in the OT.
b. When Jesus came, God gave witness through the verbal expression of the angles.
c. At His baptism the Holy Spirit came down on Him in the form of a dove and the voice of God Himself came out of heaven saying “This is my beloved Son.”
d. At the Mount of Transgression God bore witness concerning Him, “This is my Son.”
e. Through the miracles that Jesus performed (Acts 2:22 NIV) Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know.
C. Eternal life – Promise or Fact (1st John 5:9-12). Eternal life is a quality of life that is contingent on having the Son.
The greatness of God's witness (verses 9-11)
a. The witness that God has given is that He is my Son (v.9)
b. I accept the witness and have the witness in me when I believe what He says (v.9).
c. If I believe what He says, that witness gives me eternal life (v. 11).
The word eternal in verse 11 is an adjective modifying life and speaks of a quality rather than duration.
Having eternal life is contingent on having the Son (v.12)
a. John is going to show in the next paragraph that it is possible to have life in Christ and to so sin as to bring about spiritual death.
b. When the NT argues from the point of present possession, it is always contingent on fidelity until death (see Hebrews 3:14; Revelation 2:10; Ephesians 1:13-14; 2nd Peter 1:10-11).
John uses the terms life and eternal life interchangeably (1:1-3; 3:15; 5:11-20).
by Lane Rogers