January 10 – Confidence in Eternal Life

        1 John 5:13 - " I write these things to you who believe [put your trust in] the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life."

        The apostle John wrote his first letter re-iterating several themes from his gospel writing, namely, that Jesus was the Son of God; forgiveness of sins through him; the command to love one another; and being confident that God lives in believers. Chapters 3 and 4 give us concepts of walking in love and knowing that Jesus was the exact representation of Father God. On the contrary, just believing mentally that Jesus is God's Son is not good enough. The Greek word for "believe", epistuo, connotes actually trusting in something, not just mental assertion of truth. It means to embrace the subject, not just acknowledge the facts. James 2:18, 19 states, "Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God? Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder [with fear]." The demons know the facts, but they cannot embrace the saving faith that you and I can. Showing faith by action is embracing the subject! Most of that action comes in changing our attitude and behaviors to come in line with God's ways, such as turning away from sin and starting to love others and God.

        The verse above comes on the heels of chapters 3 and 4, which give us tests of our faith. Then the statement comes that we may know that we have eternal life, not just hope, guess, pray, or wonder if we possess it. John gets his theme from the words of Jesus in John 17:3: "This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." The rest of John 17 gives a sense of that "knowing", which is a unity between me and God, as if in a marriage. This is basically what Paul describes in Romans 7. If you are "married" to God, eternal life is the (super)natural outcome.

        Check out the entire chapters mentioned above for further details.

January 8 - Born Again

        John 3:3 - "Jesus said to Nicodemus, 'No one can see the kingdom of heaven, unless he is born from above.' "

        The term "born again" was quite popular during the Jesus Movement of the '70s. It has become quite in disuse in the 20-teens. Nonetheless, it is in plain view in John, chapter 3. Some translations use the term "born again" in this verse; some use "born from above". Both are correct, at least in grammar, and in the context of the story. We are all born once - physically. In order to get to God, however, we need to be born a second time - spiritually. This second birth must come from God himself. Whereas no one asked to be born physically, one must ask for the second birth, or at the very least, come to the state of ready acceptance of one's need of redemption, in which the next step would be a natural flow of God's new birth.

        This new birth also has many of other terms associated with it, in synonymous meaning. Just check out John 1:12 (receiving); John 17:3 (eternal life); Colossians 1:13 (rescuing); and Ephesians 2:7-8 (saved), for a few samples. Two other verses further give us different terms, as well as a challenge. 1 John 5:11 states that "he who has the Son [Jesus], has eternal life". 1 Corinthians 13:5 commands us: "Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith; do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you fail the test?" One way to know that we pass the test, is that we have a desire (and action) to turn away from sinful attitudes and behavior, and that we have a desire (and action) to produce good fruit, in opposition to sinful fruit (Luke 3:7-8). One further test is to see God producing his own fruit in us (Gal 5:22 & Psalm 1:3).