Have you ever wondered how you might know you really are a Christian? What are those things that distinguish true faith from false faith? How might you be able to biblically affirm the salvation of a friend or family member? Arguably the best place to turn in Scripture to answer such questions is the letter of 1 John.
The purpose of 1 John is for you to know that you believe Jesus is the Son of God (1 John 5:13). The “apostle of love” gives us a series of tests to tease out the reality of our faith. One of them is a doctrinal test that we might put simply as: True Christians know and love Jesus as the Son of God.
“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” – 1 John 4:15
THE SON’S MISSION
For John, loving Jesus as the Son doesn’t just mean knowing He is the Son, but also knowing what He accomplished as the Son. There are four things in particular I want you to see about the Son’s mission according to 1 John.
A mission of destruction. Look at 3:8, “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” The Son came to destroy Satan’s works; namely his work of sin and death.
A mission of propitiation. Turn to 4:10, “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.” Do you know what propitiation means? A few years ago I wrote an article saying that “propitiation” is my favorite word in all the New Testament. To propitiate is to satisfy God’s wrath. It was on the cross that Jesus suffered, and His greatest anguish was not the immense physical pain associated with crucifixion, but the agony of being treated by the Father as a sinner. He who knew no sin was made to be sin, and so suffered the wrath of God. And His suffering was perfect for God’s wrath was satisfied. As the hymn says, “Til on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.”
What do you think about God’s wrath towards sin? Is it something you want to apologize for or remove from the Bible? Last summer a mainline Presbyterian denomination, the PCUSA, published a new hymnbook and much hullaballo ensued about their decision to not include “In Christ Alone” in the book. They’d contacted the Keith Getty and Stuart Townend (writers of “In Christ Alone”) asking them if the denomination could change “the wrath of God was satisfied” line to “the love of God was magnified.” The writers declined and the denomination yanked it from the hymnbook. God’s wrath is something they’d rather remove than sing about, and what they don’t realize is that to apologize for God’s wrath robs Jesus of due honor and praise. To lessen the wrath of God is to make light of the sin of men and rob majesty from Jesus’ work of propitiation.
A mission of salvation. Skip a couple verses down to 4:14, “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.” Easy enough: Jesus came to save sinners like you and me.
A mission of mediation. Look back to the beginning of chapter two. In 2:1 John says, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” The Son is our advocate, our mediator. This is one of those roles of Christ that can easily get lost in translation today because the original Greek is depicting something more like a covenant lawyer. If you were to stand in God’s courtroom Satan would be the prosecuting attorney and he would have no shortage of evidence to convict you as a sinner worthy of death. But if you trust in Jesus saving work you will find that the Son will stand next to you as your defense lawyer, your advocate. He will mediate for you before the Father. His righteousness will be counted as your righteousness, and through faith you will hear the Father declare you not guilty.
THE SON DOESN’T NEED CYNICS AND CRITICS
Do you see how necessary it is that you love Jesus as the Son? There is no hope without it. Whoever loves the Son has life, who ever does not has no life (1 John 5:12). Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God and love Him as such?
One other thing I want to mention is what this doctrinal test tells us about a Christian’s relationship to God’s revelation. Look at 5:9-10. There John says, “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.”
John’s is essentially saying, “If you so easily receive the testimony of men, how much more should we receive the testimony of God.” I wonder when this week you have received some kind of news – some testimony – from a friend or family member. How quick were to you believe their words? I would assume that when it comes to your trusted friends and family members, you rarely doubt what they say. How much more should we trust the testimony of God’s Spirit! Notice 5:6, “And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.” Here’s a simple application from chapter 5: If you would love Jesus, you must trust His word. What we see all through John’s gospel is the Spirit comes to work in and through the Word. He inspired it to bear witness to Jesus Christ. What’s your general posture to the word? One of submission or cynicism? Cynics and critics have a hard time loving Jesus.
The Son of God doesn’t need your cynicism or criticism; He calls for your devotion.
This sermon is adapted from an upcoming sermon that is an overview of 1 John.