There is a kind of love that indicates that we are Christians. It is a love that is the opposite of the world’s hate. Hate is a taker. Hate is a murderer. Hates takes a life. Hate wants the worst for the other person. Hate wishes the other person wasn’t here. Hate is darkness. Hate is evil.

But love…love doesn’t take; it gives. Love doesn’t do the worst for the other; it wants the best for them. Love will sacrifice its own good for the joy of the other. This kind of love is preeminently displayed in what Jesus did on the cross. O what love that is! Calvary love. God bleeding for us. God suffering for us. God dying for us. He laid down his life for us. He died for our sin and died for our shame and died for our eternal salvation. Don’t talk about sentimental love that only loves in words and feelings. Go to the cross and see what real love is. Bloody. Selfless. Exhausting. Total.

Then John adds, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. (1 John 3:16)

The mark of a true Christian is someone who has embraced, by faith, love’s ultimate expression in Christ’s death for us. By God’s design, this love in us becomes God’s love through us. That’s just the way he’s made it. Is it so hard to believe God would engineer it that way? The God who made water turn into ice and larvae turn into butterflies and winter turn into spring, can’t he engineer his love to turn haters into lovers? Turn takers into givers? Murderers into martyrs? God’s love in us changes us fundamentally. The Spirit does this through regeneration. His love will produce that same kind of self-giving love as a character quality of the genuine Christian.

The unbeliever lives with self at the center:

But salvation is the experience of God’s love which turns the taker into a giver:

The hater becomes a lover.

“So, Pastor Steve, what do I have to do to know I’m a Christian? What’s the bare minimum?”

But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:17-18)

It would be easy to affirm the central message here and think, “OK, don’t hate or murder. Love. Sounds good. Let’s go.” John doesn’t let us love in general. He takes us down to the street level. If anyone has the world’s goods. If we have material means. And sees his brother in need. It doesn’t say what kind of need and it doesn’t say how he has come to need it. Circumstances. Tragedies. Personal choices. All it says is, brother in need. “Brother” I take to mean primarily a fellow Christian, but Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan draws a wide circle.[1]

If a Christian sees a fellow Christian in need and closes his heart to him; turns his back; feels no compassion for him in his distress; wishes him well without arrowing out to him; how does God’s love abide in him?

God’s kind of love doesn’t move away from need; God’s love doesn’t arrow inward, it arrows outward. Jesus saw the widow burying her son and felt compassion. He saw Martha and Mary weeping and he wept with them. He saw the masses of people and felt compassion for them. Even sinners caught in their sin, like the woman caught in adultery, Jesus’ heart never “closed” to them. It did the opposite. It wanted to meet the need. It arrowed out to them. That’s agape love. That’s divine love. When God’s love is in us, it does the same thing. It arrows out to the need. Compassion leads to action. Maybe we call that “compaction.” Compassion in action. Compaction. How is your compaction? Outward arrows.

This is what John calls “love in word or talk.” Lots of people talk about loving and you’ve probably heard sermons about loving one another. So we are courteous to others as we leave church and that’s about it. How do you know who actually loves? Words? Words are cheap. Words are easy. Lots of people talk about love and compassion and mercy ministry. But then your neighbor has a need or someone in your world is hurting. That is the moment. What do you feel? Does your heart close or open? Do you arrow outwardly or inwardly? These moments, more than a thousand sermons on loving, say more about where we are spiritually. Do we talk or do we do? Which way do our arrows orient?

The Downward Arrow of God’s Love is the Key

The Christian message is not to go out and try harder. The point of this message isn’t to go out and try to love more. This is and must be rooted in the gospel of God’s love to us. The outward arrows from my life show that I actually get the gospel. I get this amazing love of God in Christ. I get how I don’t deserve it. I get God’s unmerited love to me. When the downward arrow is believed and treasured, when it humbles me, when God’s grace amazes me, it changes the direction of the arrows of my life off of me and toward others. This frees me from bitterness and anger and victimization. I am free to love others in the way God has loved me. It is this kind of love that Jesus refers to in John 13:35, By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. This creates powerful and visible expressions of the gospel. This may mean forgiving a betrayal; sacrificing some purchase to meet a material need; a willingness to step into people’s messy lives; the hospitality of home or car or whatever. These are examples of practical love; street level love; in truth and deed kind of love.

Take a moment and do a little self-inventory. When was the last time you sacrificed time, money, or personal energy to involve yourself in the messy, practical needs of another Christian or anybody? Would we all agree there are many needs around us? Has the vertical love of God created a kind of love for others that moves past just words to actual involvement? If not, why not? I’ll bet you know of some need. You maybe have even prayed for it as a half-measure to appease your conscience about actually getting involved.

Take the step. Walk across the room. Make the call. Write the check. Extend the hand. Offer your help. Get involved. Arrow down means arrows out.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ©2013 Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

Christians may and will sin but it’s no longer our nature to do so. We have a new nature, and by that nature we will not continue in what some call “habitual and reckless” sin.

It’s like the difference between sheep and pigs.[1] Sheep and pigs get muddy and dirty. However, they view and experience it much differently. Sheep get muddy and dirty, but I don’t think they like to. Their nature is different from the pig. The pig loves to get dirty and loves the mud. The pig is occasionally clean but prefers to be muddy. The sheep is occasionally muddy but wants to be clean. A pig will be happy to stay perpetually in mud. A sheep won’t. A sheep won’t stay in the mud. It’s not his nature to do so.

Now imagine that on the farm it rained for days and the pen outside the barn was a muddy mess. The mud was so thick and deep that one of your animals was stuck in the mud. Completely covered in mud, you actually couldn’t tell what kind of animal it was. It was just a pile of mud with eyes looking out. Days pass and you don’t know what to do. The animal is still in the mud. So you call the veterinarian and you say, “Doc, I have an animal encased in mud in the pen outside the barn. Can you help me identify it?”

He asks, “What kinds of animals do you have there at your farm?”

You say, “I have sheep and I have pigs.”

The doctor asks, “How long has this animal stayed in the mud?”

You say, “He’s been there for a week.”

“Well sir,” the doctor says, “I can tell you, it’s a pig.”

“But,” you say, “I talked with the animal and he told me that he was a sheep.”

The doctor says, “He can say what he wants, but if he’s been in that mud that long, there’s no way he’s a sheep no matter what he says.”

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:9-10)

Can I translate it this way? No sheep makes a practice of staying in the mud; he’s a sheep and cannot stay in the mud because he was born a sheep. By this it is evident who are sheep and who are pigs—whoever stays in the mud is a pig.

Christians are children born again by the Spirit of God who produces a new nature in us and which changes the way we experience sin. We used to be under the dominion of sin. We were enslaved to sin. We loved it. It had a draw and power to us that we were incapable of overcoming.

Regeneration is the birth of a new nature with a new set of desires. The very spiritual DNA of God. Now we prefer to be clean.[2] We prefer to please our heavenly Father. Our new nature celebrates holiness. Our flesh is still with us and we still sin against God. But we don’t stay there. As John says, we don’t continue to sin because God’s DNA of purity is in us. Like Father, like son. Sheep not pigs. This is how Jesus can say, You will recognize them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:16)

“The apostle asserts with absolute clarity that those who live in habitual sin have not seen Christ and do not know Christ. This is the same as saying they do not have a saving relationship with Christ. On the other hand, those who abide in him live a life marked by habitual righteousness and purity instead of lawlessness (rebellion) and disobedience. While the unbeliever lives in sin and has not seen or known Christ, the believer has terminated a life of sin for a life of abiding in him. The child of God has experienced a decisive break with sin. Sin no longer controls his life.” (Daniel Akin, 1 John, p. 144)

Four Reasons Christians Will NOT Continue in “Reckless and Habitual” Sin

God’s spiritual DNA and life is in them

There’s no bragging or earning of salvation here. We are not God’s children if we act a certain way; we act a certain way because we are God’s children. If you are a Christian, you are a child of the Holy God. His imprint is upon your soul. His nature is in you. Sons will resemble their fathers, though not perfectly. Sons will obey their fathers, but not perfectly. Over time adult children are shocked, We’re becoming our parents!

Spiritually, the same thing is true. We are becoming more and more like our heavenly Father. If we aren’t and if the resemblance is increasingly dissonant with God, are we actually children of God?

The Holy Spirit is in us with the divine goal of making us more like Christ

We underestimate the significance of God in us. Why is the Spirit in us? What is he doing? Is he lazy? Is he vacationing? No. He is sanctifying us. He is stoking righteous desires in us. Convicting us of sin. Conforming us to the likeness of Jesus.

God lovingly disciplines us

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. (Hebrews 12:7-8)

Listen, God is more committed to your salvation than you are. He loves you. He loves you enough to bring a little rain into your life, a little hurt here or sorrow there, or other forms of discipline, which wean us off the world and ourselves and sin. He won’t let us continue in sin. He loves us too much to let that happen.

God works through means to keep us from ongoing bondage to sin

Scripture. Prayer. Meditation. Preaching. Worship. Fellowship with other Christians. The church. Life’s circumstances. How about accountability? Or even church discipline? Do you have anyone who will be honest enough with you to tell you when you are messing up? One of the best means God uses is another brother to tell us when we are being stupid; when we are acting more like a pig than a sheep. Matthew 18 describes how to lovingly confront each other when we see a sin dominating another Christian’s life. It is one way God keeps us from bondage to sin.

So what about so-and-so who claims to be a Christian and yet did such-and-such? If all genuine Christians will NOT continue in habitual sin, when so-and-so gets involved in such-and-such, time will tell. We all get sucked into such-and-such occasionally. In that we must not excuse it when it happens or think, “All Christians sin, so who cares?” Sin is a destroyer. Sin is a cancer. Jesus shed his blood for that sin I am choosing. But then we come to our spiritual senses and we confess that sin and make things right and restore our testimony and go on for God.

But when someone who claims to be a Christian sets their mind to continue in sin (No, I will not change course. I love this sin too much. I must remain in the mud), even when godly friends protest and confront—over time, as the sinner refuses to leave the mud, his true nature is revealed. He is not a child of God but a child of the one who loves the immoral mud and wants as many there with him as he can. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. (1 John 3:8)

So friends, if you are in the mud, get out. If you’ve been in the mud a long time, look inside and ask, Am I child of God? If not, believe in the one who got in the mud for your sake, and died to make you clean. Believe in Jesus. Trust in him. Enjoy being a clean sheep.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

©2013 Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

Theologians call this “the beatific vision.” We will call it the greatest moment of our lives—to see Christ as he is; not as he was. Not in the weakness of his earthly ministry. Not in the weakness of his sufferings and crucifixion. Certainly not in the weakness of his death. We will not see his glory cloaked as it was during his earthly ministry when God walked among us but looked like any average Joe. Thousands “saw” him with their own eyes and they were not changed by that vision. Jesus’ glory was cloaked. It was stealth glory. Off the radar. His true identity was hidden. The demons knew who he was and cried out, I know who you are—the Holy One of God! (Mark 1:24). Everyone else missed it. Certainly the Pharisees did. The crowds got glimpses through his miracles. His disciples came the closest to seeing it during what is called Jesus’ transfiguration:

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. (Matthew 17:1-2)

For a few moments, Jesus uncloaked his true glory. It emanated from him like the sun shining in its full strength. No movie effect can come close because that light is not simply light, it is holiness and power and divine authority. The glorious Son of God. The effect on the disciples was terror at the sight of him.

His glory remained cloaked until he ascended to heaven. What is he like now? The Apostle John saw him and described him this way:

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. (Revelation 1:12-16)

This Jesus. This fully glorious Son of God. It is he who is returning and when he does, we shall see him as he is. With our eyes. He will be visible; physical. He will return. We will see him as he is. All he is. All his glory. Some will shrink in fear. But if we abide, if we remain true, we can and will have confidence in that moment for he is our Savior and Lord.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

©2013 Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

What Adoption Means

God loves us (1 John 3:1)

This is what John gushes over. What love! That we would be called children of God! God relates to us as his children with a fatherly love. Jesus speaks of this in his Sermon on the Mount and tells us if our earthly fathers knew how to do good for us, how much more our heavenly Father?

I think it would dramatically improve our perspective on God and faith if we saw God according to his fatherliness, and we as the objects of that fatherly love. If he loved us when we were in the orphanage, how much more will he love us now that we are in his family?

He loves you. Christian. The Almighty God chooses to call you his child and to relate to you with that tender, fatherly love. Amazing.

God is not our judge, but our heavenly Father (Matthew 6:9)                   

Jesus encouraged us when we pray to pray, Our father in heaven. I think we can pray to “God” and even to other members of the Trinity. But Jesus didn’t give that model; he gave us the model of praying to the Father. Just acknowledging his fatherliness says a lot about how I view myself. If God is my Father, then I am his child.

God disciplines us for our good (Hebrews 12:7ff.)

Having a dad is great until discipline time. How many of us know the dreaded feeling when Mom would say, Wait till your Father gets home! Why? Discipline was coming. Now I look at it and I’m glad my parents did.

God disciplines us for our good. If you are experiencing his loving discipline, submit to it. He only means good by it. Embrace whatever your heavenly Father is teaching you.

We are entitled to an inheritance as children of God (Ephesians 3:6)

Mark my words, someday you are going to come up to me in heaven and say, I had no clue, not a clue, what it meant to be a child of God! Incredible privilege! We have an inheritance.

We are all in the family of God together (Hebrews 2:11)

If God is your Father, then you are a brother or a sister. The basis of our Christian relationships is our mutual adoption by the same heavenly Father. Being in God’s family means we have filial responsibilities to one another, primarily to love but also to serve, pray for, encourage, admonish, and many others. It is a privilege to be in this family. Every brother and sister is someone God loves, shouldn’t I as well?

May all the children of God be astonished and all the remaining orphans receive this offer by faith. How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1 NIV 1984)

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Additional Scripture quotations taken from Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

© 2013 by Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

The story of Jesus in 5 words goes like this: Exalted. Humbled. Crucified. Raised. Exalted. He was exalted: Jesus pre-existed as God in heaven with full divine rights and infinite privilege. He was humbled: the King of all Kings chose to become a servant of men. He was crucified: he died a slow death by being nailed to a Roman cross through his wrists and his ankles and he took upon himself our guilt and sin though he was innocent. He was raised: God the Father, accepting Jesus’ sacrifice for sin and to make that victory complete over death, reached into the tomb in which Jesus was buried, and with power that he alone possesses, resurrected Jesus back to life. And he was exalted: there is coming a day when all us sinners and all creation, will bow before Christ.

So What?

The implications for Jesus’ resurrection are massive. It means God was here with us. God lived our pain. He understands our weakness. Jesus entered into our pain fully and defeated sin and death completely. It means this life is not all there is. It means this world matters and we matter and what happens to us when we die matters.

Here’s what it means for you and your story. It means that Jesus can change your life. Change your story. What is your story in 5 words? Home. Family. Career. Hobby. Marriage. Whatever. You are living your life. Your life matters. We want life words like: Successful. Admired. Healthy. Beautiful. Here are God’s words for us: Image-bearer. Sinner. Lost. Hopeless. Death. Judgment. That’s our story. On our own, that’s our future.

But Jesus came. He lived. He died. On the third day he was resurrected. Words for Jesus? Hero. Conqueror. Savior. Life-changer.

Jesus will change your life and your destiny. How? He also is the Promise-giver. Jesus promised to all who turn from their sin and believe in him as their personal Savior, that he will change our lives and our destinies. We were “sinner,” now we are “forgiven.” We were under the wrath of God but now we are under his love. We faced death as a terror but Jesus promises life eternal.

Jesus changes our words. Jesus changes our lives. Now everything has what we desperately long for—meaning. Life matters because it’s not all that is.

We are all sinners who were this and that, and who still struggle with this or that, but now by faith in Christ we have experienced God’s grace and forgiveness so that while we still struggle with these things, God doesn’t see us that way anymore. He’s forgiven us and made us new and we shall be this for all eternity.

Has Jesus changed your words? No? Would you like him to? How? Believe that Jesus died for your sins, he was buried, and on the third day he rose from the dead.

The highest became the lowest so that by becoming low, he could bring us up with him. That includes you—if you will believe.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

©2013 Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

• But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. (I John 2:20-21) 

• But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him. (1 John 2:27)

In contrast to doctrinal renters, John urges his people to abide. The text is a bit wordy, but essentially John urges them to stay put. Those that left the faith showed they were never in truly in it. How does God keep his children in the faith? How do we abide?

What John calls “anointing,” Paul calls the more familiar term to us “indwelling.” Both words describe the work of the Holy Spirit. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)

This is the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit, who upon salvation comes spiritually and dwells within us. This indwelling means many things: our bodies are temples of God; God’s presence is with his people; power for life and ministry; gifts and enablements. John’s concern here is how true Christians remain faithful to the true gospel. One way this happens is the active role of the Holy Spirit within us to help us understand the truth. Theologians call this illumination. The Spirit within us gives us spiritual understanding.

John says you don’t need anyone to teach you. He doesn’t mean that teaching is not needed otherwise why would he write this letter? What he means is that they already knew the gospel and they had the Holy Spirit; they didn’t need a new or different teaching. They already had the truth. You don’t need these other teachers and you certainly don’t need what they’re teaching. The Spirit within us helps us identify lies and falsehoods by helping us understand the truth. He indwells us – presence. He illuminates us – understanding.

The Word of God/Gospel

Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. (1 John 2:24)

What you “heard” – they heard the saving message of Jesus. They heard the Word of God. If that abides in you, you will abide in it. If you stay faithful in your personal belief in the true gospel, you will abide in the Son and the Father.

Christianity is creedal. True Christianity is confessional. There are objective truths that it holds to, the tenets or fundamentals of the faith. These are what we are called to abide in. If we don’t abide in them, if we change our doctrinal address on the core truths, we can call ourselves Christians but we are not.

Before he died, the famous atheist Christopher Hitchens was interviewed by the Unitarian Marilyn Sewell. Ironically the atheist Hitchens calls out the Unitarian Sewell who calls herself a Christian and he says, you may call yourself a Christian, but you are not.

Sewell: “When you speak of religion in your book…it seems to be that you are generally referring to fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the Scripture literally. And I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement—that Jesus died for our sins, for example. Do you make a distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?”

Hitchens: “Well…I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, in other words, the Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and that by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you are really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.” (You may listen to a larger portion of the interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp1XqK49XQY)

We couldn’t say it any better ourselves. “Christian” in our culture is such a slogan and label that to say you are a Christian means almost nothing anymore. What do you mean? Do you believe in the historic gospel of Jesus as fully God and man who died on the cross bearing the real guilt of our sin? Do you believe he died and on the third day rose again? Do you believe he ascended to heaven and will come again someday? Do you believe that the Bible is God’s Word and perfectly tells us God’s will? Do you believe Jesus is coming again and that there is a future resurrection for all who believe in him? Do you believe salvation is by faith and not by anything we do or earn? We could go on.

To abide means we plant our faith in the historic gospel of Jesus and we don’t go anywhere. We don’t follow doctrinal fads. We aren’t easy prey for the folks that knock on our door with white shirts and ties. We don’t hear something new and novel and think, I’ll go there. Why? God keeps all his children living at the same address. He keeps us there not by locking us in some prison but by placing in our hearts the desire to stay there, by his Spirit and by his Word.

Word and Spirit. The Word is the objective, the Spirit is the subjective. The Word propositionally says things that draw lines of distinction. This is true and this is not. This will save and this will not. It says these are the boundary lines of the gospel address. Stay in the boundary lines and stay in true salvation. Cross this line and you believe a gospel, it is just not a saving one.

The Spirit is the subjective. He works in our hearts and our minds so that we understand God’s Word and want God’s will. Isn’t it wonderful that God gives us his Spirit to keep us believing the truth? Is this not another reason to praise him? Is this not another reason to see that all of salvation is of God?

Together they keep our minds and our hearts tethered to the true gospel. Or as John writes, they keep us abiding. The Spirit and the Word abide in us which keeps us abiding in salvation.

So why is this important? Look at the promise for all who abide. Verse 25, And this is the promise that he made to us – eternal life. God promises abiding, eternal life. There we live by his power just like we live by his power now, only then fully and eternally face to face. That’s all the more reason not to doctrinally move across town no matter how nice it might seem there. Eternal life is for all who abide.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

©2013 Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

What is John’s doctrinal assumption here? All genuine Christians will continue in true faith. They will endure. They will persevere. In terms of talk and walk, they will keep walking in the faith. But these individuals didn’t. Therefore, their leaving the only true expression of Christianity in Ephesus meant that they weren’t just leaving the church, they were leaving the one faith and gospel that saves.

Chew on that a little. Perseverance shows genuine faith. Non-persevering reveals non-genuine faith. Here is where people stumble. “So does my perseverance save me?” No. It is another evidence of genuine faith because on our own, none of us would persevere. This is a work of God in us known as “preservation.”

“The perseverance of the saints” means that all true believers are preserved by God in their salvation; the result is that they persevere in their faith until they die.

This truth properly understood is a massive help to people like me who have struggled in the past with assurance.

The Preservation of God

The preservation of God = God’s eternal promise and actions to save completely and finally all who believe in the Lord Jesus as their Savior.

There are many verses that speak to this, some famously so.

• My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. (John 10:27-29)
• While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. (John 17:12)
• Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy… (Jude 24)
• And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)
• And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:30)

God makes promises to us. Most Christians get that. What we often fail to realize is how God fulfills those promises to keep us saved. His preservation is dynamic and involves means by which he keeps us secure.

The means he uses come primarily through the Holy Spirit, by whom we have been “sealed” unto salvation (Ephesians 1:13). The Spirit teaches us, convicts us, and sanctifies us. He uses the Word of God, the church of God, and the people of God. God disciplines us, encourages us, nourishes us, and humbles us. He brings trials and pain, joys and sorrows. “Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come, ‘tis grace hath brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.” (John Newton, Amazing Grace) We are no less secure because God uses means than Fort Knox is secure because the US uses means to keep the gold safe.

Our salvation is utterly of God from beginning to end. We are saved by God’s grace. We stay saved by God’s grace. Salvation is completely of God. It is because of God’s promise to preserve us that John can say so confidently that these folks who have left the church have left the faith as well. They did not persevere and the only conclusion is that God did not preserve them and if God did not preserve them, they were never truly saved in the first place.

The Perseverance of the Truly Saved

Here is where people make a mistake, one that John addresses in verse 19: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

What would some say to these antichrist teachers who apparently had joined the church and were for all practical purposes fully functioning members? What would they say to them after they left? Would they say, “Hey, you prayed the prayer so don’t worry that now you are teaching antichrist doctrines.” How many people who say “once saved always saved” would call these people antichrists? I think many would rush to reassure them because they are only viewing this through the lens of God’s preserving work and are missing that God’s preservation means our perseverance.

God preserves all who are his. What does that look like? It looks like a Christian who keeps walking directionally toward the will of God. The walking doesn’t save us and the will to do so isn’t from us. But the enduring lifelong walk shows that we are preserved by God. If I stop walking, or worse, walk in the other direction and continue on that path without God’s intervention, I can’t be saved because I’m not persevering and if I’m not persevering it’s because God isn’t preserving.

Look a few verses later: If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. (1 John 2:24) How can John say that so confidently? Are these super Christians in Ephesus? No. His confidence for our abiding is in God’s commitment to keep us abiding. Here are some more:

• For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Hebrews 3:14)

• Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13)

You can add to these the very strong warning passages in Hebrews about hardening our hearts and falling away. Why are those there? Taken as a whole, we see that salvation is completely of God, which is wonderfully assuring. But do not look at this superficially. All who are truly under the grace of God are kept there by the power of God. That means we will never ultimately and finally give up on Jesus. We will never finally and ultimately deny him. No genuine Christian will do that.

Does that mean our assurance is based on our works? No and yes. No, in that if our assurance rests in us, our performance, and the quality of the sinner’s prayer we prayed, we will always wonder because we know the feebleness of our own hearts. Our confidence has to be in God, his truthfulness, his reliability, his love demonstrated in Christ. That’s the bottom line. We are filled with so many contradictions and inconsistencies. Don’t seek assurance in you.

Yet there is also this helpful indicator called perseverance. God preserves us, and we persevere because of it. As we directionally walk in the faith and remain there, we see in the general course of our lives a direction that would not come from our sinful selves. It can only come from God. There is an enduring love for Christ; a desire to please him and obey. There can be seasons of dryness and wandering but not for too long. God won’t let us. This endurance in the ups and downs of life reassures us, not of our perseverance, but of the power of the preserving work of God.

So when John says that they left us because they were never truly among us, he is also implicitly saying to those who remain, “Your remaining, your abiding, your refusal to deny or distort Christ, shows that you are truly among us with and in a salvation that comes wholly from God.”

God preserves. We persevere. We are absolutely secure in our salvation, yet that salvation changes the direction of our lives and by God’s grace and power, we keep walking in that direction until we die. If we don’t, while God is the final judge, we should not feel any assurance of our final salvation.

Questions for Reflection

• If I struggle with assurance, to what or whom am I looking for my confidence?
• Am I wrongly using God’s promise as an excuse to be lazy or distracted in my spiritual walk?
• Do I realize my role as a means of preservation in the lives of fellow Christians?
• Am I humbled that God would graciously keep me saved to the end?

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

©2013 Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

In a world that is passing away, there is a life that can be lived that has lasting significance. It doesn’t come by building monuments to yourself or writing your name in stone. It also doesn’t require any greatness by human standards. It is greatness that is accessible to everyone.

Whoever does the will of God abides forever. (Verse 17) What does that mean? It means the same thing that Jesus meant when he said this:

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? (Mark 8:34-36)

Gain the whole world but lose your soul? This is the irony of the gospel. To become a Christian means the apparent loss of what this world says life is all about. How? To become a Christian is to turn from the desires and the sins of this world; to surrender my right to my own life. It is to place the God of the Bible on the throne of my heart through faith in Jesus. I surrender to his right to rule my life. It is to live a life for the will of God.

The world thinks that’s crazy. Who is really crazy? The guy who invests his entire life in things that don’t last or the guy who lives his life in this world investing for the eternal one? I say the world is crazy…respectfully.

Whoever does the will of God abides forever. (Verse 17) There is a life that can be lived and investments of time, talent, and treasure that can be made which even death cannot and will not destroy. Don’t live for what is fleeting; live for what is forever. The desire to do the will of God is a gift from God. Obedience is a fruit of genuine salvation so there is no room for pride on our part.

The takeaway here is a series of questions, which world am I loving? Which world am I living for? Which world dominates my thinking, cravings, and search for significance? What do my pursuits and obsessions say about whether I have a genuine love for God or not?

Look at the love of God. He wants to free us from attaching ourselves to a fleeting world. Look at those people on that Carnival ship. While they were drifting, how many of them would have bought stock in Carnival? “Why would I buy stock in this ship? It isn’t going anywhere.”

This world is adrift, powerless, and ultimately going down. But the child of God who doesn’t love the world but loves God and lives to fulfill his will, that is a life that will have eternal significance in a world that lasts forever. Love and live for God.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

©2013 Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15)

John sets out two loves: love of the world (hostile to God and determined to live without him) and love for God. To love one requires a buy-in and embracing of a set of values and perspectives that makes loving the other impossible. If I love God, then he is my ultimate and the goal of my life is to worship and please him. If I love the world, then the world is my ultimate and the goal of my life is to find my meaning and purpose in what this world has to offer.

It is impossible to love both. This is why loving the world is yet another test of genuine salvation because we cannot love God and love this world. Jesus said the same, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 6:24) He doesn’t say money and God are incompatible; it is the love of God and money that are fundamentally opposed to each other. You can’t love both.

It is like saying that I love cats and dogs. I love war and peace. I love Democrats and Republicans. I love the Sox and the Cubs. I love Ford and Chevy trucks. I love Socialism and Capitalism. I love the Bears and the Packers.

Everyone gets it. Do you get that we cannot love light and darkness; sin and righteousness; the values of Satan and the teachings of Jesus? God and sin. God and my possessions. God and the admiration of others. God and financial security. God and sex. We cannot love God and anything in this world that is not God.

When I say I love the Father but in my heart I am actually treasuring an entire system of values that hates God, my claims to love God ring hollow. They are empty. I can’t be genuinely saved without loving God and I cannot love God and love what hates God. I will either love one or the other but never both.

Let’s just pause for a moment. This is more than simply an interesting thought. John is stepping on our toes here in the wealthiest country in the history of the world and the wealthiest churches in the history of the world and the wealthiest Christians in the history of the world. Who do we really love? The answer to that is seen plainly in what we think about, where we put our money, and where our dreams and ambitions lead us.

Now don’t go taking deep breaths and straining to try and self-produce love for God so you go to heaven. This evidence, like the others we have seen, is a byproduct of God’s work in us. John will say this later and it answers the question, where does this fidelity and love for God as my ultimate come from?

We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19) This love for God doesn’t start with us; it starts with God. He opens the eyes of our hearts to know him through faith in his son Jesus. God’s love in us reciprocates with love from us to God.

We naturally love the world. Our flesh delights in it. We love to feel self-important based on our achievements in the world. Salvation changes our loves. God works in our hearts through regeneration so that we are born again. We come alive; alive to faith in Jesus. Alive to love from God. Alive with love for God.

For your encouragement, I received an email this week:

“Good morning Pastor Steve, I thought you might like to know about a gal in my Celebrate Recovery group. She has been trying to figure out a great many things in her life and felt like there were pieces of this puzzle that weren’t even on the table…until Sunday. She was sitting in the service and heard the simplicity of the gospel and it all finally made sense to her! She told me she started crying and told God that she was a sinner and believed that He had done all for her that He said He had done. She said she wasn’t sure what had happened but that she truly believed! As we talked about her coming to saving faith in Jesus, the light in her eyes shone so brightly! She is such a precious gal…Praising God big time!”

What happens when we experience salvation? Our eyes see through and past the temporary and fleeting trinkets in this world to eternal values and treasures. This life and the next life take on new meaning. In my heart, I exchange loves. My love and self-identity in this world are usurped by a new love for God. It is a revolution of the soul. A revolution begun by God.

Has that revolution happened in your heart? Do you love the world or the Father? From which are you finding meaning and identity? Which is the real passion and goal of your life?

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

©2012 Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here

The Apostle John, here, is writing to three groups: children, fathers, and young men. He gives an exhortation to each, then returns to the children and does it again. Who is he referring to? Who are the children, fathers, and young men?

There are a couple of possibilities. He could be describing stages of life. The children were the youngest chronologically and the fathers were the oldest. He could be describing stages of spiritual maturity. Children were the new believers, young men were the not-so-new, and the fathers were the long-term Christians. There are a few other variations on these ideas. In the end, we simply don’t know for sure. I lean toward the stages of spiritual maturity.

What we do know is that John is describing authentic Christianity and reliable signs of salvation by contrasting it to the teaching and lifestyle of the false teachers and those who followed them. I’d rather focus on the signs than the stages, as the signs are John’s emphasis. So rather than fret about the categories of Christians found here, let’s see them as categories of assurance.

Spiritual adolescents: strength, Word of God, overcome the evil one

I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. (1 John 2:14)

John has the most to say to this category. It’s easy to see why. This is where most of us live. Some of us are new believers, some of us are mature believers, but most of us are running the middle laps of the race. These are the hard ones. They also are the ones that most reveal whether our faith is real or not. Lots of apparent Christians quit during the middle laps. So John gives three signs of genuine salvation in the middle laps of life: spiritual strength; the Word of God active within us; victory over the evil one. I think these are all interrelated and interdependent.

Like our physical lives, spiritual adolescence is a time of strength. They are the days when everything is working as it should. I remember pondering around age 20 whether I was physically as good as I would ever be. My dad affirmed it with these depressing words: “It’s pretty much all downhill from here.”

Spiritually, strength is not muscles or cardio but the exercise of faith in the day-to-day of life. What a wonderful season of faith it is! God is changing us as we integrate our faith into the categories of our lives. The Lordship of Jesus is being increasingly reflected in all areas of life. Like teenage boys, we are changing and growing stronger. There are defeats along the way, but victory as well over past habits and temptations. We are overcoming the evil one and his destructive ways.

Let me focus on what it says about the role of the Word of God. The Word of God abides in you. What does that mean? To abide is to dwell. I abide in my house. I live there. God’s Word abides in us as we make it our authoritative guide. As the Psalmist writes, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119:105) The Bible is God’s Word and God uses it to grow us spiritually. John connects it to victory over the evil one.

An obvious example of this is Jesus in his temptations. Matthew 4 records that Jesus went out into the desert and fasted for 40 days. Then Satan came to him and tempted him three times with specific temptations to set aside God the Father’s plan for him. In each case, Jesus refutes Satan by quoting and applying Scripture. He overcame the evil one by the Word of God abiding in him.

If there is anything spiritual adolescents need, it’s God’s Word known and applied to life. We teach God’s Word in our church for a reason. We have Bible classes for a reason. We teach our children the Bible for a reason. We blog and podcast and are doing the New City Catechism for a reason.

We are endeavoring to put God’s Word in our hearts so that children will become adolescents and adolescents will become fathers. This is how we grow as Christians. It’s not just how we grow as Christians, it’s also how we know we are Christians.

The bottom line is that the real evidences of salvation relate to growth and ongoing change from spiritual immaturity to maturity.

John is going to talk about categories of change just like there are categories of change in young men. They get taller; their voice changes; their muscles strengthen, etc. These are all evidences of life. When there is no change in a child, there is something wrong.

Spiritually, growth means change. We may not do spiritual trigonometry but we “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18) We may continue to struggle with a habit, but we want to surrender that area to the Lordship of Jesus. No one may mistake us for Mother Theresa, but the angry people we used to be are now gentler and more humble. Change doesn’t save, but it sure can assure as we see ourselves doctrinally, morally, and lovingly putting aside immaturity and moving toward Christlikeness.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

©2013 Steve DeWitt. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that: (1) you credit the author, (2) any modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include Bethel’s website address (www.bethelweb.org) on the copied resource.

To hear the message of this excerpt in its entirety, click here