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.