Proof That You Abide in Christ
Truth Taught- Faith in the Deity of Jesus is necessary for the proper understanding of God’s love and the ability to love others
Today for the second time, we are going to read in 1 John that God is love. I told you last week that this is not being used as the world might use it or even how so many Christians might use it. God is love but He is also many other things. He is also a God of judgement, wrath, discipline and many other things. I do want us to understand, today, more about the love of God. So that we can praise Him with accurate understand of this glorious concept.
God’s love is not a love that is found innately in humanity or that man is even capable of by himself.
God’s love is uninfluenced…What I mean by this is God’s love is not influenced by the objects of His love. There is nothing in the creature to bring God to exercise or show His love. We were not anything that God should love.
The only reason why God loves us is found in His own sovereign will.
Deuteronomy 7:7–8 (ESV)
7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
God’s love is eternal…
Jeremiah 31:3 (ESV)
3 the Lord appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
Ephesians 1:3–6 (ESV)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
He has loved you before He created anything. Before the earth was formed out of nothing, God had already set His everlasting love upon you. He already knew you even before He made you. You were already in God’s mind and on His heart, He just had not created you yet.
God’s love is sovereign…
Romans 9:10–16 (ESV)
10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
God’s love is immutable… God’s love never changes. It never diminishes, it never ceases. God’s love for the deceiver Jacob is proof that His love is decreed and sovereign and never changes. Our Lord’s love for His disciples who deserted Him at His greatest need even with Peter denying Him with curses…Jesus loved them to the very end.
Romans 8:35–39 (ESV)
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God’s love for us is so much more, let’s look together at the greatness of this love and ask God to give us His love for others.
Today, we are going to continue to look at various scriptural proofs that confirm that your salvation is genuine. More assurances that your redemption is real.
Please Stand…
1 John 4:13–21 (ESV)
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
1. Proof That You Abide in Christ: The Witness of the Holy Spirit (4:13)
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
How do we know we are Christians? John tells us that the indwelling Spirit of God is the proof. The Holy Spirit is every believer’s gift from God.
Acts 2:38 (ESV)
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
If someone does not have the Holy Spirit, he is not a Christian.
Paul writing to Christians…
Romans 8:9 (ESV)
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
How do we know we have been given the Holy Spirit? We have the inner testimony that we belong to Christ. The marks and fruit of salvation are manifest we have the inward witness.
In other words, God shows you…you know whether or not you’re a Christian.
Romans 8:16 (ESV)
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
We are not yet perfect. We still sin. We say, I’m not exactly what I should be but I am not what I used to be.
The indwelling Spirit also gives us another means whereby we have confidence that we are saved…
2. Proof That You Abide in Christ: You Believe God’s Word (4:14)
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
We believe the Apostle’s testimony found in the Bible that God sent His Son Jesus Christ to be the Savior of the world.
When you read the Bible, it is food for your soul. It is the very thing and the only thing that quenches the soul’s thirst.
1 John 1:1 (ESV)
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—
When you read the Word, you accept it as the Word of God and believe it and seek to live it out. You’re not trying to find loopholes or seeking to nullify it somehow.
The mark of a Christian is that he reads God’s Word and believes it, and seeks to live it out.
2 Peter 1:16 (ESV)
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
The Bible is not cleverly devised myths but the very Word of God and we must believe it and seek to obey what God tells us through and in it.
3. Proof that You Abide in Christ: You Confess That Jesus is the Son of God (4:15)
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
The acknowledgment of Christ’s divinity is necessary for a proper sense of God’s love. We cannot fully understand the magnitude of God’s love for us as His people if we don’t fully affirm the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. The infinite worth of God’s love toward us is measured in the infinite worth of the One loving us.
John repeats his statement again, God is love and that those who believe Jesus is God are believing this as a result of the Holy Spirit who has been given to them.
John builds this truth from an earlier statement in 1 John.
1 John 4:1–2 (ESV)
4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
Those false teachers who had left the Church were shown to be wolves in sheep’s clothing because they did not believe Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah and they did not believe Jesus is the Son of God.
John uses their unbelief to show that their love for God was not genuine and that their love for the brethren was also lacking. They had no true benevolence; no true love and concern for one another. This began with their lack of love for God.
4. Proof That You Abide in Christ: You Know God is Love (4:16)
16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
So, we must see here that true doctrine leads us to true love. When we affirm the deity of Jesus, we begin to realize the magnitude of God’s love for us. The result then is we who are given the Holy Spirit begin to also love one another.
The magnificence of Christ’s Person leads us to the magnitude of God’s love.
The measure of love stems from the one who extends that love. Here, it is the very Creator of the universe, the true sovereign God of everything loves us. Because God is infinite, we see His love is also infinite. Beloved, an infinite God loves His finite people.
Faith in Jesus’ divine sonship is the path God’s redeeming love travels to the sinner. When Jesus’ divinity is denied, then God’s salvation flowing from His infinite love is obstructed and stopped.
Faith is given in love and it secures the One who is love. God is love and anything less will not suffice for salvation. Faith cannot grasp one who is not love and faith cannot save if it is fixed upon something or someone else other than the God of love.
Paul said it like this…
2 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV)
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
As we behold the glory of Christ as John puts it in beholding by faith His sonship and divinity then we will realize the great love whereby God has loved us and we will then, be able to extend love to others.
Beloved when we realize that Jesus Christ, God’s only Son has loved us as evil and wretched as we were we must then extend love to one another.
When we see how we used to be before Jesus saved us and how we are now, we can have confidence that our salvation is genuine.
John finds in the Divine Sonship of Jesus, the world’s Savior and the evidence for his statement that God is love. How do we know that God is love? He sent Jesus His only begotten Son to be our Savior. Jesus’ incarnation, life, death, and resurrection are the evidence that God loves us.
How do we see the evidence of God’s infinite love toward us?
1 John 4:9–10 (ESV)
9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
The Magnificence of Christ’s Person Shows Us the Magnitude of God’s Love
5. Proof That You Abide in Christ: Your Love Casts Out Fear (4:17-18)
17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
We remember from last time what love perfected in us means…It means that God shows us and extends to us His perfect love and that begins a wonderful chain reaction. We begin extending that love to one another. His love goes from God to us to others and all while this is going on, love is also sent to God. He initiates and the chain reaction begins.
Something very remarkable takes place when you love others…your assurance of faith grows and your fear of judgement diminishes.
Quite literally, as we are being brought along by God, given His Spirit, believing His Word, Confessing Jesus as the Son of God, you know God’s love, you begin to love one another then something begins to take place…your fear of God’s judgement begins to leave you.
This word is phobos—phobia. The slavish fear or phobia of God’s judgement has left you.
perfect love casts out fear…or love being perfected or love going full circle will remove the fear of judgement.
Genesis 3:10 (ESV)
10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
Adam was afraid of God. He used to fellowship with God and walk with Him in the Garden and enjoy true fellowship. Now things are different. He is afraid of God because Adam knows judgement is coming.
Are you afraid of God’s judgement?
6. Proof That You Abide in Christ: Love Unites Us with God and Man (4:19-21)
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
John tells us that if we truly love God then we will also love His people. God’s love will be perfected in us as we show kindness, mercy, generosity etc to one another.
John writes that we love God because He first loved us. Our love shows up as a response to God’s love that came first. His first cause elicits an effect. We love in response to God first loving us.
Praise God as we see these marks of the Christian that we are also shown that these are marks of God’s divine character. All these originate with Him. All Christian assurance comes from God and not from us. We experience them in our lives as God gives them to us in Jesus Christ. If you want to see what these marks look like, don’t waste your time looking at man but read about Jesus Christ in God’s Word and see what these look like. Then imitate Christ. These are wonderful proofs for the Christian to truly gain more and more assurance.
Are we perfect in these marks absolutely not. Are we still sinners absolutely. These are godly evidences that we are in Christ and that our salvation is real. Look to Jesus and when you see a deficiency in your life pray ask God to give you that character trait so you can be more like Jesus.
You Have the Witness of the Holy Spirit
You Believe God’s Word
You Confess That Jesus is the Son of God
You Know God is Love
Your Love Casts Out Fear
Love Unites Us with God and Man
Resources Used:
1 John by Joel Beeke
1 John by George Findley
1 John by John Cotton
Words of Blessing
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