How We Know That We Know Christ
Truth Taught- We know that we know Christ as we love Him and love His people
Pastoral Prayer
Show us our true state
Grant us affection for Christ
May we taste and see
Know Jesus by experience
Obey His commands
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Our verse today is a very sobering verse. By the fact that it is here, shows us that there are some who know Jesus and some who do not know Jesus. We will also discover that as we move through 1 John, there are some who claim to know Him but they really don’t know Him at all.
Luke 8:5–8 (ESV)
5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
In John’s Epistle we must be careful to interpret it correctly. Keeping Christ’s commandments will not save you. There is not enough good works in the universe to make up for our sin. Salvation comes to us only by grace through faith. By Keeping Christ’s commands we are shown that our salvation is real.
Genuine saving faith necessarily results in a life of obedience to Jesus Christ. As John Calvin puts it The knowledge of God is efficacious.[1] He means that knowing God necessarily changes your heart and life.
If there is no change in one’s heart; if there is no outward evidence; if there is no fruit of grace then there may not be any grace to produce fruit.
Please Stand…
1 John 2:3 (ESV)
3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
1. What is it to Know Christ? (1 John 2:3a)
we have come to know him
What does John mean and what does he intend for us to understand when he uses the phrase to know Him?
He refers to a specific knowledge here. The knowledge of Christ is completely spiritual and supernatural. This knowledge is far beyond any human knowledge. No lost person can know Christ. This knowledge is an affection that is born by the Holy Spirit. It is a knowledge fueled by knowing His attributes and His character by experience.
The Bible is about Jesus and in it we do see Him and His attributes but the Bible cannot give us this type of knowledge. To know Christ is to experience Him firsthand not just read about Him. Only the Holy Spirit can convey true spiritual knowledge of Jesus Christ to us. I’m afraid that there are many in the Church today who can answer all the questions about Jesus but have never experienced a real relationship with Him.
To know Christ includes the knowledge of
who He is
what He is
Of His Person
of His love
of His salvation
of His righteousness
of His sacrifice
of Him in His offices of Lord, Prophet, King, High Priest, Savior
These things are found in the Scriptures. However, knowing about Jesus is not the same thing as knowing Jesus.
So, to know Him is not just to read about Jesus’ love but to experience that very love in our own lives. To know Him is not to just read about Jesus being the Savior but we have experienced His salvation for ourselves. To know Him is to melt with affection for Him as we consider His sacrifice was for us.
To know Jesus is to know Him by firsthand knowledge not second-hand knowledge. In scholarly circles it’s important to do your research using primary sources and not secondary sources. A primary source is to read, for example, what Martin Luther wrote himself not what someone else said about what he wrote. You can use secondary sources to write a research paper and never even read anything Luther ever wrote himself.
Have you experienced Jesus first-hand? Is Jesus your primary source or do you have to rely only on second hand accounts of what Jesus has done for others? We must know Him ourselves, first-hand if we are to be saved.
John 17:3 (ESV)
3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Philippians 3:7–11 (ESV)
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
2 Timothy 1:12 (ESV)
12 which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.
Where, then does this spiritual first-hand knowledge of Christ come from?
It does not come from keeping His commandments.
It comes from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s task is to make Jesus known to all the elect. So, the Holy Spirit takes the Bible and our regenerate minds and hearts and applies Jesus and His works to us and on our behalf applies the truths to our hearts so that they are known and known spiritually. He reveals to us Jesus in all His glory and attributes. Through His office of Holy Counselor, we are made to partake of Jesus, as some of the old timers would say, made to feast on Christ.
The Holy Spirit is always more than happy to take us deeper into the Person of Christ. He’s more than happy to introduce us to more of Jesus; His Person, Work, and Salvation. He will always do so through the Word of God.
How, then do we know that we know Him?
Here in our verse today, John wants us to see how important it is to know Christ and to know that we know Christ.
We know that we know is where this begins. We love Jesus and our affections are raised as we think of Him. There is first inward evidence. We are assured that we know Him by our love for Him. We have real fellowship with Him.
To know Jesus is shown or evidenced to us by the fact that we are drawn to Him as our treasure. We enjoy Him and have real fellowship with Him.
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
I pray that you have real knowledge of Jesus, His Person and Work for you. That you have experienced Jesus first-hand for yourself, not through your parents or someone else. I pray you can truly say…I know Him!!
John 6:50–51 (ESV)
50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
John 6:54–58 (ESV)
54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
I pray you not only know that Jesus is the bread of life from reading it in the Bible. My prayer is that we know what that living bread tastes like. I pray we have partaken of Jesus the living bread by faith.
Psalm 34:8 (ESV)
8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
2. The Assurance of Inward Faith and Knowledge (1 John 2:3b)
1 John 2:3 (ESV)
3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
Just as knowing Him comes to us with a very rich spiritual meaning, so too the phrase, if we keep his commandments.
The keeping of His commandments are manifestations of true spiritual knowledge of Jesus and true communion with Him.
Keeping commandments become for us as easy as our love for Christ. They are not burdensome or grueling but a joy to keep. If you know Jesus you know this to be true.
We do not know Jesus by keeping His commandments but we know that we know Him by keeping His commandments.
Our rich communion with Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit creates an outward love that is shown in obedience. Obedience is the manifestation of the Spirit residing within us.
We know we know Jesus through the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit. Our knowledge is proven a reality by our keeping His commands. Keeping His commands is the way we show the outward evidence of the inward reality.
It’s important that we ask the next question…what commandments?
Specifically, what commands or commandments does John have in mind here? If we do some study in this Epistle, we can be certain as to what John means.
Of course we are to obey all of God’s commands. Here, however, we see that John has in mind certain ones that show up in a life that’s been changed and not someone trying to keep the Law.
When John uses the singular form of commandments and just writes commandment or command, every time he refers to the believer keeping Christ’s command to love one another.
1 John 2:7–11 (ESV)
7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. 9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1 John 3:23–24 (ESV)
23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 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.
The command(s) John refers to are…Believe in Jesus Christ, God’s Son and obey His command to love one another. The one another refers to those who are also believers. He is not telling us to love everyone in the world because that’s not a mark that Jesus has saved you and that you know Him. The evidence that you know Jesus is that you believe and you love one another.
Do you love Jesus? Do you love His Church? Do you love those within this local body? That’s the specific command John is talking about here.
How do we apply this verse?
We can say we love Jesus. We can say that we know Him. What do our lives say? Is there really true belief? Is there really true faith?
John tells us that we know (confident) that we know (Vibrant relationship/experience) Him if we keep His commands. If we love one another. How is your love for one another shown here in this local body?
Do you love others here? How do you show that love? Is there anything that is a barrier to you showing love?
Just like knowing Jesus is an experiential knowing so too love for others is an experiential love. Just saying or thinking that you love others in this local body is not really loving them. Love must be shown and acted upon.
Are you loving one another? Are you keeping Jesus’ commands?
If not why not?
John 13:34–35 (ESV)
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Resources Used:
1 John by Kruse
1 John by Pierce
Words of Blessing-
[1] (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], on 1 John 2:3, p. 174),
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