We Are Safe in Jesus
1 John 5v18-20
1st December 2023
As John draws near to the end of his letter, he says:
1 John 5v18-20
We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of
God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the
control of the evil one.
We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that
we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true – even in his Son Jesus
Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
We need to look at this one part at a time, starting with:
1 John 5v18a
We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin;
To understand this, we need to remember that Chapter 1 verse 8 of this letter says "If we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves" and Chapter 3, verse 6 says 2 "No-one who lives in him [Christ] keeps on sinning". These passages may seem, on first sight, to contradict one another, and this may confuse some of us, but the truth is:
- Every true Christian commits sins
- Every true Christian is growing less sinful every day.
None of us is sinless, but we do sin less. A Christian doesn't carry on regardless, sinning just as much as he did before he knew Christ. Every true Christian hates sin. But it takes time – it's a lifetime's work – to completely eradicate sin from our hearts and our lives.
I find it extremely sad when a very aged Christian is found to harbour significant sin in his heart. I want to be as pure as I can be when I finally go to be with the Lord. I hate the idea that I will still be angry, grumpy, selfish and critical in my last years and months, so God's got a lot of work to do in me yet. Some elderly Christians are just lovely, so lovely that it's hard to imagine them sinning much at all, but some very old Christians are grumpy, bitter, selfish and judgemental, and it's so sad.
But here's the point: we know that we will not just keep on sinning. We are putting our sin to death, though we could get on with it a bit faster than we do. And so we know that our sin is not sin that leads to death (see last week's study).
John continues:
1 John 5v18b
the One who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm
him.
Jesus Christ – the unique One who was born of God – keeps us safe. And Satan – the evil one – cannot hurt us. This at least means that we who are saved will always be saved. We can't keep ourselves safe. We can't prevent ourselves falling away. We can't prevent ourselves committing appalling sin. But Jesus can, and He does! Jesus said:
John 10v27-28
"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them
out of my hand.
Next, John says:
1 John 5v19
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the
control of the evil one.
As we've been seeing throughout our study of this wonderful letter, there are two kingdoms – the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. What John calls "the world" – that is, the world opposed to God - is controlled by Satan, even though it doesn't realise it. Some people reject God because they think they'll be free men, but they're really slaves to sin (John 8v34). They're under the dominion of darkness. But we have overcome the world (verses 4 and 5). God has qualified us to share in the kingdom of light (Colossians 1v12). He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves (Colossians 1v13). We're free! We're children of God.
Everybody has to serve somebody. People who think they're serving themselves are really serving Satan. Christians are servants of God, although we can still be very selfish at times. Service to God is true freedom. Service to self is true slavery.
1 John 5v20
We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that
we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true – even in his Son Jesus
Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, came to earth. He lived and died among us, and his death pays the price for our sins. And He has given us understanding, through His amazing teaching while He was on earth, through the rest of the Bible, and through His Holy Spirit. He has given us understanding of the Gospel of peace – the Good News that we can be reconciled to God though faith in His atoning sacrifice. And He has accepted us so completely, so unreservedly, that we are now "in Christ" – inseparably connected with Him for ever and ever.
Jesus Christ is the true God. He is eternal life. Through repentance and faith, we share in Him, and so we share in His eternal life. We're not perfect, but we're safe in Jesus.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!