‘These things have I written to you, that you may know that you have eternal life, even to you who believe on the name of the Son of God.’

And these things are written to his hearers and readers so that they might know that they have eternal life (Joh 5:24), because they believe on the name of the Son of God. This faith in Him and all He has done for them, has produced eternal life now within them. They are born from above (Joh 3:6; Jas 1:18; 1Pe 1:23; 2Pe 1:4). They are children of God (1Jn 3:1-2; Joh 1:12-13). They have eternal life. And it comes through belief in what He essentially is (His name) as God’s Son.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

A Concluding Summary.

The trust of the Christians:

v. 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

v. 14. And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us;

v. 15. and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.

The letter is finished, and the apostle now speaks his closing words, summarizing the principal points which he made in the body of the epistle: These things I wrote you in order that you might know that you have eternal life, since you believe in the name of the Son of God. The apostle is referring to everything that he wrote in this letter. His entire discussion had the aim and object of confirming the readers who have centered their faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as their Savior, in the knowledge that they thereby were the possessors of eternal life. Faith has nothing in common with doubt and uncertainty, it is not a matter of personal opinion and feeling; it is glorious, certain knowledge based upon the Word of the Gospel. We know that we have eternal life through faith because the Scripture tells us so.

And this faith has another effect in us: And this is the boldness which we have toward Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. The prayers of the believers, the real prayers, are always heard, they never return unanswered. This cheerful assurance, this frank boldness, we hold. We enter into the very presence of the Lord with the calm certainty that our petitions will be heard as we make them in faith, in firm reliance upon the sonship which was given to us in Christ. It is self-evident that we, as children of God, will ask only such things as are in accordance with the will of our heavenly Father. In other words, we leave the answering of our prayers in His hands, knowing that His wisdom and mercy always find a way to give us what is best for us, regardless of the form in which we clothe our petitions. Note that His promise is not to grant all that we ask, but to hearken to our prayers: He answers in His own way.

This assurance should influence our entire attitude toward God: And if we know that He hearkens to whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we asked of Him. God always listens to the prayers of His children, reading their content even better than they intend it. We are sure of obtaining our requests, that which we are in need of, probably not always as our petition was worded, but always as it was best for us, and as we should have offered our prayer had we been wiser. Prayer is not a dictation to God to do thus and so, but a statement of our needs as we see them. And it is our heavenly Father who gives us more than our short-sightedness permitted us to know. If we have reached this point in our Christian knowledge, then our relation toward our heavenly Father will be unclouded by any lack of trust in Him.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

1Jn 5:13. These things have I written unto you, &c. This verse is by some looked upon as a summing up of the principal part of this epistle, in which St. John professes that he wrote, not to the false prophets and their disciples, (for very probably he despaired of doing any good to them,) but to the true Christians, to put them in mind that everlasting life was depending; to let them know that they had a title to it, as long as they continued to believe with the heart unto righteousness; and to incite them to persevere in the true faith, and in a holy Christian practice, notwithstanding the attempts of the seducers, who were many and zealous. The latter part of the sentence means, That you may continue to believe, or believe more firmly on the name, in the merits, intercession, love, and power, of the Son of God. See Joh 2:11; Joh 11:15; Joh 20:31.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1Jn 5:13 . Many commentators (Lorinus, Spener, Bengel, Rickli, Baumgarten-Crusius, Lcke, Sander, Dsterdieck, Braune) make the conclusion of the Epistle begin with this verse (“a sort of concluding section,” Ebrard), referring to the whole Epistle. This, however, is incorrect. That this verse also belongs to the last leading section beginning at 1Jn 3:23 , is shown not only by the idea , which refers to what immediately precedes, but also by the idea , which refers back to 1Jn 3:23 ; besides, it is to be observed that the following sentences, 1Jn 5:14-15 , correspond to the thought with which the preceding leading section ended; comp. 1Jn 3:21-22 . Accordingly, is not to be referred to the whole Epistle, but to the last section, 1Jn 5:6-12 (Brckner), which reaches its climax in the thought: ; comp. 1Jn 2:1 ; 1Jn 2:21 ; 1Jn 2:26 . In the words: , , John states the object for which he wrote that which is contained in the foregoing. The certainty of the life which is bestowed on him is so much the more necessary to the Christian’s mind, as this is sometimes hidden from him in the struggles of life the life is there, but at times like a hidden treasure. That the possession of this life, however, is conditioned by faith, the apostle brings out especially by an additional clause, which indeed runs differently in the different codices (see the critical remarks), but in its different forms expresses essentially the same thought; according to the probable reading, it is connected with ; according to A, however, with . The second clause in the Rec: , indicates as the second object the adherence to faith; with the phrase: , comp. chap. 1Jn 3:23 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

IV. THE CONCLUSION

1Jn 5:13-21

13These things have I written1 unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe2 on the name of the Son of God. 14And this is the confidence that we have in him3, that, if we ask any thing4 according to his will, he heareth us: 15And if we know that he hear5 us, whatsoever we ask6, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of7 him. 16If any man see his brother sin a sin8 which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it9. 17All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not10 unto death. 18We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten11 19of God keepeth himself, and that12 wicked one toucheth him not. And we know 20that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness13. And14 we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding15, that we may know16 him that is true17; and we are in him that is true17, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life18. 21Little children, keep yourselves19 from idols. Amen20.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The Conclusion. 1Jn 5:13. These things wrote I. , like 1Jn 2:26, might be referred to the verses immediately preceding, if the words annexed permitted such a construction:

That ye may know, that ye have eternal life, ye that believe in the name of the Son of God.Quite similar to the closing verse of the Gospel, Joh 20:31. The purpose of the writing corresponds with the at the beginning of the Epistle, which was to be filled by the testimony of the eye and ear-witnesses of the ; hence answers to 1Jn 1:4 (Bengel), the certainty of the possession of eternal life being the ground and strength of the joy, which John has, and to which he adverts. The words , annexed to , primarily refer back to 1Jn 3:23. but find their last resting-place in the , 1Jn 1:3. Hence must be referred neither to 1Jn 5:8-12 (Huther), nor to 1Jn 5:1-12 (S. Schmid), but to the whole Epistle (Luther, Bengel, Lcke, Dsterdieck and al.), though the inducement to the choice of this expression lies in verses immediately preceding, and preparing the concluding portion of the Epistle, and there still follow several verses which constitute that concluding portion. Noteworthy is the difference between the closing verse of the Gospel, Joh 20:31, which adverts to the future believing and obtaining eternal life of the readers, while our passage asserts their present belief and possession of eternal life. [Alford sees here with Dsterdieck something like an anticipatory close of the Epistle. Huther maintains, that this verse still belongs to the second main part of the Epistle beginning with 1Jn 3:23, on the ground that goes back to the verses immediately preceding, and that , refers back to 3:28.M.].

The confidence that prayer is heard. 1Jn 5:14-15.

1Jn 5:14. And this is the confidence which we have towards Him. connects with what goes before, i.e., it connects with . This confidence consists in this:

That if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us.It is consequently the confidence in God, which has the intercourse of prayer with Him; this confidence rests on the , springs from it, points back to it, and reacts also on it, strengthening and confirming it. Cf. 1Jn 3:21-22. and to must be referred to God the Father, because the idea of possessing the involves the idea of the Divine Sonship, and the is connected with both. While leaves the object of the prayer quite general and indefinite, limits it, so that it is a conditio quissima, latissime patens (Bengel), as we may see from the fourth and seventh petitions of the Lords Prayer, in connection with the others. (Cf. Doctrinal and Ethical No. 1.) denotes an attentive, sympathetic hearing, while would signify a mere hearing.This is an undoubted fact:

1Jn 5:15. And if we know that He heareth us whatsoever we may ask.Hence with the Indicative . Winer, p. 310, sq. denotes the general character of the object of prayer. It follows that:

We know that we have the petitions which we have asked from Him. , emphatic, placed first. By the side of , we must distinguish (Lorinus: res petit), although the two belong together; God hearing our prayers and our having go hand-in-hand. The additional clause: indicates that the having is the consequence of prayer preceding it, so that the having in point of time does not coincide with the prayer, as does the believers prayer with Gods hearing; but our having is secured; is not= (Lachmann and al.), nor must it be construed like a Future (Grotius: statim exaudit, at non statim dat). , as in Mat 20:20, belongs to , not to ; , as in Act 3:2, (see Appar. Crit., No. 7,), could not, at any rate, denote prayers as deposits made with God, as Ebrard maintains.

Intercession for a brother sinning not unto death. 1Jn 5:16-17.

1Jn 5:16. If any one see his brother commit a sin, not unto death.Here is supposed a specific case, in which the confident petition becomes an intercession for the purpose of keeping an erring brother,after the example of Christ (1Jn 2:1; cf. Luk 22:31-32; Joh 17:9; Heb 7:25),with his Saviour and salvation, in fellowship with the Redeemer and in the participation of eternal life. Additur casus omnium maximus; ut possis orare etiam pro altero in re gravissima (Bengel). supposes an objective possibility; it is not said that some one does see, but it may be, the event will show it; consequently: If any one should see it. Winer, p. 306, sq. The reference is to an event which may be seen, to a fact susceptible of observation, as in 1Jn 3:17., denotes a member of the Christian Church, and requires to be taken in the same sense. The reference is consequently to intimate converse, and to what happens and becomes manifest there. This the Apostle brings out emphatically in the participial form: : the sinning brother stands, as it were, before our eyes. Here we have , not as in 1Jn 5:17 : , because the reference is to the subjective judgment of the observer, not to an objectively valid principle, not to the establishment of a dogmatically real idea. Winer, p. 496. is therefore not=proximus quicunque (Calov); non-christians are excluded (against Ebrard), although the reference may not be exactly to a regenerate person (Dsterdieck).

He shall ask and give him life.The Future denotes that the intercession may be confidently expected, since neither warrants us to construe the Future, in the decisive language of the legislation of the Old and New Testament (Mat 5:21; Mat 5:27, etc.,) as an Imperative, nor gives an occasion to assume a purely ethical possibility, as Luk 22:49 : , ; Rom 10:14 : ; shall we smite? how shall they, how can they call? See Winer, pp. 294, 295, 331. Hence it is not=licebit petere (S. Schmidt). The subject is the intercession, , not the Church (Neander), or the saints (Meyer). The same subject, , belongs also to ; it is neither=dabitur (variation of the Vulgate, approved by Bede and others), nor to be derived from the idea of prayer, , rogatus Deus (Beza, Bengel, Lcke, Winer, p. 553, and al.). [The thiopic version brings out the right meaning: rogans vivificabit; i.e. the asker shall be instrumental in bestowing life on the erring brother for whom he intercedes.M.]. The grammatical requirements of our passage are fully borne out by the cycle of thoughts current in the New Testament (Act 3:6; Jam 5:15; Jam 5:20). John here simply contemplates the result as a fact, without adverting to the instrumentality, its ways and stages within the brothers heart, which was the object of intercession; repentance and faith, moreover, are not excluded, and the interceding brother is not viewed as the Saviour, or the representative of the Redcemer. Neither may we think of an admonitio et correptio fraterna (Mat 18:15; S. Schmid), nor of the proper demeanour of the asker towards his erring brother, as the result of his intercessory prayer (Rickli). The final effect of intercession is (), which is weakened and disturbed by every sin [Alford; This bestowal of life by intercessory prayer, is not to be minutely inquired into, whether it is to be accompanied with correptio fraterna,whether it consists in the giving to the sinner a repentant heart (Grotius, al.), but taken, as put by the Apostle, in all its simplicity and breadth. Life, viz.: the restoration of that Divine life from which by any act of sin he was indeed in peril, and indeed in process of falling, but this sin was not an actual fall.M.].

To them that sin not unto death.The Plural belongs to , which generaliter positum est (Erasmus); the Plural takes the supposed case from the sphere of singularity; has collective force. See Winer, p. 553. It is forced and ungrammatical to refer to him that asks, understanding as the subject, and taking as Dativ. commodi: God will give him life for the persons sinning, as Bornemann (Biblische Studien der Schs. Geistlichen I. p. 71,) does. qualifies , or , and has consequently adverbial force. , only, if taken in the sense of spiritual death, corresponds with the context, viz., with the of prayer being heard on the ground of our possession of the , for in the intercession on behalf of the erring brother, and the preposition , as denoting the aim towards which something is directed (Winer, p. 423), require us to think of a sinning, which in the conviction of the person interceding, must not terminate in , the emptying of all , and accordingly must not absolutely annul fellowship with Christ, faith in Him. This is brought out more clearly in the next clause.

There is a sin unto death.Thus the Apostle circumscribes the domain of sinning not unto death: it is not infinite. This is directed against any possible laxity in the judgment of the Church on the sins of believers. has the same meaning here, as in the preceding clause. The reference is accordingly to a specific sin, to a simple act perceptible () in the brother, within the limits of Christian fellowship (), not to a particular, outwardly marked category of sins, but to a sinning, and committing of sin, which renders it clear to the careful observer, that the fellowship of faith with Christ, the fountain of eternal life, has been cut off, that consequently the ethical life-form appears to be inwardly decayed and dying, that the moral status of that brother shows itself to be in a state of hopeless dissolution, so that it is of no avail to pray for such an one, and that therefore intercession is not proper. Hence it is wrong to transfer to this passage the Old Testament idea of , (Num 18:22), and to refer to capital crimes, e.g. idolatry, adultery, murder, incest, which are punishable with death under the secular or Mosaic law (Morus, al.), or to the sins ecclesiastically punishable with excommunication, as if intercession had to conform to the secular code of punishment; nor is the reference to sinning unto the end of mans earthly existence (Bede and al.), in which connection de Lyra rightly observes: Qui sit peccator non ad mortem, sciri non potest nisi per divinam revelationem; cannot be rendered usque ad mortem. Nor is the reference to the physically sick, Jam 5:14 (Steinhofer); nor to definite, gross crimes, peccatum gravissimum, quod vix remittitur (Ambrose), moechia port baptismum commissa (Tertullian), peccatum invidenti (Bede). Nor is here any description of a condition, Talis anim status, in quo fides et amor et spes, in summa, vita nova exstincta est; si quis sciens volensque mortem amplectitur, non ex illecebris carnis, sed ex amore peccati, sub ratione peccati; repudium grati proreticum. (Bengel). Augustine thought first of invidenti faces post agnitionem Dei, and added afterwards: si in hac perversitate finierit vitam, and then: fidem deserere usque ad mortem. Lastly the reference is neither to a purely inward act, like obduracy (Ebrard), apostasy (de Wette, Lcke), nor to sin, perceptible in the walk of men, like the anti-christian denial expressed in words (Dsterdieck), nor to the sin against the Holy Ghost (Calvin, Sander and al.). The reference is simply to sinning, from which it may be perceived either, that no inward absolute severance from the faith and denial of Christ may or can be assumed, or that the latter is either recognizable of highly probable. To the latter case apply the words:

Concerning that I do not say that he shall pray.The simple negation is, that the the Apostle says (), that prayer should be made for him who sins unto death. He only makes prominent the circumstance that he confines himself to saying that intercession should be made for the person not sinning unto death. Hence those commentators are right, who do not see here a prohibition (Socinus, Grotius, Neander, Lcke, Huther and al.). But it is certainly not said that we ought, or only are permitted, to pray for him (Neander). It is important to note the difference of the words employed by the Apostle, for whereas before he made use of the word , he now uses : is=rogare, and implies equality on the part of the asker with him from whom the favour is sought; Jesus designates His praying by that term (Joh 14:16; Joh 16:26; Joh 17:9; Joh 17:15; Joh 17:20); on the other hand is=petere, and implies inferiority (Dsterdieck), while Bengel regards as species humilior under the genus . This word denotes the confident petition of the child, praying inquiringly and expecting the gift. Hence, due regard being had to the force of the term employed, we may discover here the sanction of intercession for a brother sinning unto death, yet without any assurance of success or that the intercession will prevail. But since the Apostle advocates this very and Deus non vult, ut pii frustra orent (Bengel), it is probably locutio morata et attica for a prohibition. Deu 3:26. This is also suggested by va; in the present instance he does not wish to excite and promote the purpose of praying. (Cf. Doctrinal and Ethical No. 4).

1Jn 5:17. All unrighteousness is sin.The subject reminds us of the predicate 1Jn 3:4. is in contradiction with the objectively given law of God, is the contradiction and negation of the and is concerned with the subjective disposition, though it be wrought from above and subject to the law. And this harmonizes with the fact that we are concerned with the moral status of the sinner in this sinning unto death, and sinning not unto death. John manifestly desires to guard against any being too lightly dealt with, being not considered as , though it be . The Roman Catholics, therefore, have no warrant for determining from the sin itself, whether it is peccatum mortale or veniale.

And there is a sin not unto death. simply connects the sequel; it is not=et quidem, and the sense: quodlibet nefas est peccatum non ad mortem (Bengel); Bengels clause: sed ne quisquam id levius interpretetur, prmittit: est peccatum is only a moral reaction against the perversion of the Johannean thought: all unrighteousness is sin. The sequel, because of the intercession recommended, is added by way of emphasis. implies the objectively real fact, the actual occurrence of such sin; it defines , not , as Luther supposes.

[There are one or two questions, in connection with this section, which require to be treated somewhat more fully. First, 1Jn 5:17, involves a prohibition, or what is equivalent to it. But this has been denied by many commentators. Ora si velis, sed sub dubio impetrandi (Corn, a Lapide); Neander supposes that the offering of prayer is permitted, though the obtaining of it will be difficult, and arbitrarily imagines the prayer in question to be the collective prayer of the Church, and that one who sins should not be included in the common prayer of the Church, lest he might be confirmed in his sin; Huther finds in not more than a denial of the Apostle that the case of one sinning unto death came within the purview of his command. Lyra qualifies the prohibition, though non est orandum pro damnatis, yet we may pray, ut minus peccaret, et per consequens minus damnaretur in inferno.Calvin recognizes the prohibition, but limits it to extreme cases, adding: Sed quia rarissime hoc accidit, et Deus, immensas grati su divitias commendans, nos suo exemplo misericordes esse jubet: non temere in quemquam ferendum est mortis tern judicium, potius nos caritas ad bene sperandum fleetat. Quod si desperata quorundam impietas non secus nobis apparet, ac sic Dominus eam digito monstraret; non est quod certemus cum justo Dei judicio, vel clementiores eo esse appetamus.Alford sums up: Certainly this seems, reserving the question as to the nature of the sin, the right view of the . By an express command in the other case, and then as express an exclusion of this case from that command, nothing short of an implied prohibition can be conveyed.

Secondly, the question: What is the sin unto death?The canons of interpretation for its solution, and some of the principal divergences, chiefly from Dsterdieck, collected by Alford, are here produced.

The First canon of interpretation of the and is this: that the and of the passage must correspond. The former cannot be bodily death, while the latter is eternal and spiritual life. This clears away at once all those commentators who understand the sin unto death to be one for which bodily death is the punishment, either by human law generally, as Morus and G. Lange, or by the Mosaic law (Schttgen),or by sickness inflicted by God, as Whitby and Benson; or of which there will be no end till the death of the sinner (thought possible by Bede, and adopted by Lyra). This last is evidently absurd, for how is a man to know, whether this will be so or not?

The Second canon will be, that this sin unto death being thus a sin leading to eternal death, being no further explained to the readers here, must be presumed as meant to be understood by what the Evangelist has elsewhere laid down, concerning the possession of life and death. Now we have from him a definition immediately preceding this, in 1Jn 5:12, . And we may safely say that the words here are to be understood as meaning, involving the loss of this life which men have only by the union with the Son of God. And this meaning they must have, not by implication only, which would be the case, if any obstinate and determined sin were meant, which would be a sign of the fact of severance from the life which is in Christ (see 1Jn 3:14-15, where the inference is of this kind), but directly and essentially, i.e. in respect of that very sin which is pointed at by them. Now against this canon are all those interpretations, far too numerous to mention, which make any atrocious and obstinate sin to be that intended. It is obvious that our limits are thus confined to abnegation of Christ, not as inferred by its fruits otherwise shown, but as the act of sin itself. And so, with various shades of difference, as to the putting forth in detail, most of the best commentators, both ancient and modern: e.g., Aretius, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Piscator, Corn. a Lapide, Tirinus, Baumgarten-Crusius, Lcke, Huther, Dsterdieck.

The Third canon will help us to decide, within the above limits, what especial sin is intended. And it is, that by the very analogy of the context, it must be not a state of sin, but an appreciable act of sin, seeing that which is opposed to it in the same kind, as being not unto death, is described by . So that all interpretations which make it to be a state of apostacy, all such as, e.g., Bengels (see above), do not reach the matter of detail which is before the Apostles mind.

In enquiring what this is, we must be guided by the analogy of what St. John says elsewhere. Our state being that of life in Jesus Christ, there are those who have gone out from us, not being of us, 1Jn 2:19, who are called , who not only have not Christ, but are Christs enemies, denying the Father and the Son (1Jn 2:22), whom we are not even to receive into our houses nor to greet (2Jn 1:10-11). These seem to be the persons pointed at here, and this is the sin: viz. the denial that Jesus is the Christ, the incarnate Son of God. This alone of all sins bears upon it the stamp of severance from Him who is the Life itself. As the confession of Christ, with the mouth and in the heart, is salvation unto life (Rom 10:9), so the denial of Christ, with the mouth and in the heart, is sin unto death. This alone of all the proposed solutions seems to satisfy all the canons above laid down. For in it the life cast away and the death incurred strictly correspond: it strictly corresponds to what St. John has elsewhere said concerning life and death, and derives its explanation from those other passages, especially from the foregoing 1Jn 5:12 : and it is an appreciable act of sin, one against which the readers have been before repeatedly cautioned (1Jn 2:18 sqq.; 1Jn 4:1. sqq.; 1Jn 5:5; 1Jn 5:11-12). And further, it is in exact accordance with other passages of Scripture which seem to point at a sin similarly distinguished above others: Mat 12:31 sqq., and so far as the circumstances there dealt with allow common ground, with the more ethical passages, Heb 6:4 sqq., heb 10:25 sqq. In the former case, the Scribes and Pharisees were resisting the Holy Ghost (Act 7:51), who was manifesting God in the flesh in the person and work of Christ. For them the Lord Himself does not pray (Luk 23:34): they knew what they did: they went out from Gods people and were not of them: receiving and repudiating the testimony of the Holy Ghost to the Messiahship of Jesus.M.].

Assurance of redemption. 1Jn 5:18; 1Jn 5:20.

1Jn 5:18. We know that every one who is born (out) of God, sinneth not.Each of these three concluding verses begins with ; Bengel: anaphora. The Evangelist refers to 1Jn 5:13, and thus describes the proper consciousness of the Christian in his attitude to sin (1Jn 5:18), the world (1Jn 5:19), and the Redeemer (1Jn 5:20). signifies every one who is, and abides, born of God; the power of regeneration, of the life given and received in regeneration, operates from the past into the present; as such , as such sin is foreign to him, Rom 7:20; cf. 1Jn 3:9.It is unnecessary to supply (Bede, Beza and al.), and arbitrary to understand an abiding in sin, or a falling from grace (Calvin), or the not frequent occurrence of the sin unto death and sin in general (de Wette).

But he that hath been born of God, keepeth himself, and the wicked one doth not touch him.The opposite (), refers not only to the predicate, but, since the subject is particularly specified, to the whole clause, and the two clauses ( and . . .) are independently cordinated. The Aorist indicates the historical fact; that hath been born again (in opposition to Sander who discovers this in the Perfect, and Bengel, prteritum grandius quiddam sonat, quam aoristus; non modo qui magnum in regeneratione gradum assecutus, sed quilibet, qui regenitus est, servat se.) indicates moral effort and self-exertion; (Oecumenius); sin occurs, approaches, but he sustains the conflict, guarding himself in his peculiar nature and the Divine gift of eternal life, which hinders, spoils and drives away sin. Thus sin destroys man himself; it is in virtue of his self-guarding that the abides in him (1Jn 3:9); we must neither supply (1Ti 5:22), nor (Jam 1:27. Carpzov, Lcke, al.), nor take in the sense of being on ones guard (Ebrard). Cf. 1Jn 3:3. [Alford justly objects to this and similar expositions, and retaining the reading A. B. Vulg. Jer., renders it keepeth him, viz. the Divine birth, adding, it is this, and not the fact of his own watchfulness, which preserves him from the touch of the wicked one, as in 1Jn 3:9, where the same is imported by , , . The rationalistic commentators insist on , as showing, as Socinus, aliquid prstare eum atque efficere, qui per Christum regeneratus fuerit; and the orthodox commentators have but a lame apology to offer. Dsterdieck compares , 1Jn 3:3. But the reference there is wholly differentviz. to a gradual and earnest striving after an ideal model; whereas here the must be, by the very nature of the case, so far complete that the wicked one cannot approach: and whose self-guarding can ensure this even for a day? Cf. Joh 17:15, , which is decisive.M.]. The clause annexed by notes the difficult but successful conflict. The enemy, , 1Jn 3:12, is Satan, , though he would fain do it, hostile attacks, Satanic assaults, temptations are not wanting (1Pe 5:8); but the point of complication between Satan and the regenerate is not reached, the wrestling is wanting; the regenerate keeps Satan at a distance, wards him off; Bengel: malignus appropinquat, ut musca ad lychnum, sed non nocet, ne tangit quidem. In the he is guarded against all the Eph 6:11 sqq. (Huther). Luther and Calvin also refer to the armour of God, so that, as in Joh 17:11-12; Joh 17:15; Rev 3:10, God is the Preserver [Calvin: Utut malignus renatum ad peccatum solicitet, tela tamen illius irrita cadunt, quoniam renatus scuto fidei munitus ea repellit et diabolo per fidem resistit.M.]. But here the Apostle contemplates only the result, and not the way to it. Additions such as letaliter (Calvin), finaliter (E. Schmid), are unnecessary. But depends of course on the careful (Dsterdieck, Huther). [Alford: As the Prince of this world had nothing in our blessed Lord, even so on His faithful ones who live by His life, the Tempter has no point d appui, by virtue of that their by which they are as He is.M.].

1Jn 5:19. We know that we are (out) of God.The second repeats by way of introduction and in pregnant abbreviation ( ), and with application to himself and his church, the believers consciousness of his Divine sonship. There is no occasion whatever to understand here the peculiar revelation vouchsafed to the Apostles, or to explain =a Deo pendere illique adhrere (Socinus). The principal sentence is the independent clause, annexed like 1Jn 5:18; 1Jn 5:20, by , viz.:

And the whole world lieth in the wicked one.For the world is the territory and domain of Satan, on which account, and because occurs in 1Jn 5:18, and we have here an antithesis to , is masculine, and not neuter (Lyra, Socinus, Grotius, who however allows an allusion to Satan, Spener, Rickli and al.). denotes like (Polyb. VI. 14, 6), both the competency of Satan and dependence on him as the controlling power; in () him lies the world, [it is circumscribed by him and in his powerM.]; denotes the passiveness of the state, of the situation; he continually in the most powerful and destructive manner The ethical medium of sin is not expressed here, only the result is indicated. Referring here, with Spener and Steinhofer, to Isa 46:3, and explaining it in analogy with regeneration, as if the world were lying in the wicked one like a child in its mothers womb, is false per se and not warranted by that passage wrongly rendered by Luther. refers to all the unregenerate; Gods children do not belong to the world, though , yet are they not (Joh 17:11; Joh 17:16), not (1Jn 3:8). Bengel well observes: Totus mundus, isque universus, eruditos, honestos, aliosve complectens omnes, exceptis duntaxat, qui Deo se et Christo vindicarunt, non modo non tangitur, sed plane jacet (remains lying), per idololatriam, ccitatem, fraudem, vim, lasciviam, impietatem, malitiam omnem, in malo, expers et vit ex Deo et (1Co 5:10; 1Co 11:32). Brevi hac summa vividissime denotatur horribilis status mundi. Commentarii loco est ipse mundus et mundanorum hominum actiones, sermones, contractus, lites, sodalitia. Hence our passage does not contradict 1Jn 2:2; 1Jn 4:14. God aims at the redemption of the whole world through Christ and He is enough for the whole world; but Satan also, as the antagonist of God, aims at the whole world. The world is to be taken as the territory which embraces all, not as the sum-total produced by the adding together of all individuals. [Alford: Had not Christ become a propitiation for the sins of the whole world, were He not the Saviour of the whole world, none could ever come out of the world and believe on Him; but as it is, they who believe on Him, come out and are separated from the world; so that our proposition here remains strictly true: the is the negation of faith in Him, and as such lies in the wicked one, His adversary.M.].

1Jn 5:20. But we know, that the Son of God is come.The third whose object: , i.e., has come; he conditions the which continues in ; had He not come, we should still lie like . Hence it is= 1Jn 3:8 and not adest (Bengel referring to Mar 8:3).[ closes off and sums up all: cf. 1Th 5:23; 2Th 3:16; Heb 13:22 al. This not being seen, it has been altered to , as there appeared to be no contrast with the preceding. Alford.M.].

And hath given us a sense that we know the true One.The subject of is , not as Bengel Deus, as the Sender, ordaining the coming of Jesus. For Jesus is also the Mediator of the truth and of knowledge [i.e., He bestows to us the truth and this knowledgeM.], (Dsterdieck). is the faculty or sense of knowing, not insight or knowledge (Lcke, de Wette), nor the activity of thinking out all the points in contrast with a faith void of thought (Paulus), 2Pe 3:1; Eph 4:18; Eph 1:18 ( or ), or mind (Mat 22:37; Luk 1:51; Eph 2:3; Col 1:21; 1Pe 1:13; Heb 8:10; Heb 10:16), sensus cognoscendi (Lyra), sensus et gustus rerum divinarum (a Lapide), the spiritual sense (1Co 2:12; 1Co 2:14), whose aim (), but not whose substance is . Cf. 1Jn 2:3-4; Joh 17:3. The object of this cognition is evidently God, qui re vera Deus est, ut eum ab idolis omnibus discernat (Calvin), in contrast with every Deus fictitius. Bengel refers to the Son without any warrant for doing so.

And we are in the true One, in His Son Jesus Christ.Another independent proposition annexed by , as in 1Jn 5:19. , designates, as before, God, which is also evident from the pronoun in . This is the extreme antithesis of , the climax of . The words fully denotes the Mediator, the ground and stay both of the knowledge and of the position of the believing child of God, and it denotes this by , not by , in, not per, in order to mark the permanent character of this life-fellowship; inserimur in Christum et unum efficimur cum Deo. Cf. 1Jn 2:3-6; 1Jn 3:2. It is therefore no opposition, as seems to be assumed by the Vulgate (which connects by et simus with the clause beginning with ), Lyra, Erasmus and al.

This is the true God and eternal life. like , does not refer, as it were, in a merely mechanical manner, to the literally or locally nearest or more remote noun, but also to the noun, psychologically nearer or more remote. Winer, p. 175. Thus in 1Jn 5:16, did not refer to the grammatically and locally distant , but to the immediately preceding . So here the mediating Son is not in point of sense the nearest, but . Under the influence of the christological conflicts it may have been natural, with reference to the Arian heresy which was joined by the more modern antitrinitarians, to refer to the Son; but the discipline of grammar and language requires us to refer it to the Father (this has been done by most commentators, also by Hofmann, Schriftbeweis I. 146, down to Sander, Ebrard, Besser, Stier [ad Joh 17:3. Vol. 5, p. 392] of our time), though the arrangement, the reference taken locally, might induce us to think of Christ, yet this is not the case, if the internal structure of the thought,in which God the Father is the chief, and the Son simply the Mediator,is attentively considered. But what does refer to? To . That would make: ()=, but that would be weak and shallow. But if we take , , of Christ, it is a terse and strong conclusion of the Epistle, and a powerful motive for the concluding exhortation.The words: belong to . Grammatically it is not singular (Winer, p. 144), still less in point of thought: for God is essentially , and so is Christ (Joh 14:6), even . In like manner He is called (1Jn 1:5), (1Jn 4:8; 1Jn 4:16), (Joh 4:24). Bengel, on vita terna, has the subtle note: initium epistol et fines conveniunt. It is therefore wrong to contend, that ought to be referred to the Son, as if His Divinity rested on this passage, and at the same time to overlook, that denotes primarily God the Father, nor is it right to overlook here the tautology (this One, the true One, is the true God), and to apprehend an identification of the Father and the Son, which would be un-johannean, if the clause were referred to the Son. Now John distinguishes between the Father and the Son, but not between God and not-God. In the Son from the Father we have the Father, eternal life, and all that which is the Fathers, and only in Him; hence this turn to the Son and the warning against all idols; the Son is the living Image, the Christian is in no point idolatrous! [Alford: The grounds on which the application to Christ is rested are mainly the following: 1. that , most naturally refers to the last mentioned substantive: 2. that , as a predicate, more naturally belongs to the Son than to the Father: 3. that the sentence, if understood of God the Father, would be aimless, and tautological. But to these it has been well and decisively answered by Lcke and Dsterdieck: 1. that more than once in St. John belongs not to the nearest substantive, but to the principal one in the foregoing sentence, e.g., in 1Jn 2:22 and in 2Jn 1:7 : and that the subject of the whole here has been the Father, who is the of the last verse, and the Son is referred back to Him as , thereby keeping Him, as the primary subject, before the mind; 2. that as little can be an actual predicate of Christ, as of the Father. He is indeed 1Jn 1:2, but not . Such an expression, used predicatively, leads us to look for some expression of our Lords, or for some meaning which does not appear on the surface to guide us. And such an expression leading to such a meaning we have in Joh 17:3, , , . He is eternal life in Himself, as being the fount and origin of it: He is it to us, seeing that to know Him is to possess it. I own I cannot see, after this saying of our Lord with , how any one can imagine that the same Apostle can have had in these words any other reference than that which is given in those; 3. this charge is altogether inaccurate. As referred to the Father, there is in it no tautology and no aimlessness. It seems to identify the mentioned before, in a solemn manner, and leads on to the concluding warning against false gods. As in another place the Apostle intensifies the non-possession of the Son by including in it the alienation from the Father also, so here at the close of all, the , the fount of , is put before us as the ultimate aim and end, to be approached , but Himself the One Father both of Him and of us who live through Him.M.].

Final request. 1Jn 5:21 : Little children, keep yourselves from idols. indicates the affectionate warmth and depth of the Apostle. The exhortation reminds them of great danger, against which they must be courageously on the alert; they themselves are exposed to great corruption. Bengel: Elegantia activi verbi cum pronomine reciproco plus dicit, quam: custodimini. Custodite vos ipsos, me absente,neque solum ab eorum cultu, sed etiam ab omni eorum communione et communionis specie. denotes, that believers must withdraw from the idols, surrounding and in immediate proximity to them, in order to be guarded against them. The are figures of imaginary deities, and as contrasted with the true God, who is Eternal Life, denote the manufacture of the creature; the decisive point, or the thing decided here is not whether they are made with hands for the grossest forms of heathenism, or in imagination and thought for its more subtle forms; the real point is that they are self-made, untrue, unliving, and strictly speaking, nothing. 1Th 1:9; 1Co 10:19; 1Co 12:2. Dsterdieck, therefore, is wrong in following here an Etymologicum ineditum in Biel, sub voce ( , ), and making tritons or centaurs, and , constellations, men and beasts; the Diana of the Ephesians, forsooth, was also an . Cf. Rom 1:23; Rom 1:25.We are fully warranted to refer here, with Tertullian, Oecumenius, Dsterdieck and others, to idols proper, but equally warranted to refer also (with Bede, Rickli, Sander and others) to the self-made representations and ideas of the false teachers and their dupes, which, like the truth, they require to be received and submitted to. We may even see, with Ebrard, a reference to images of God or gods or saints in reality, or in imagination, for whom heathenish worship is required. The are so dangerous because they are the objects of . As this applied then to the church-frontier in contact with heathenism, so it applies at this time to the Mariolatry in the Church of Christ, and to the worship of genius, to Schiller-worship, etc., in His Church. [The literal and figurative reference in this closing charge, seems to be required by the context, and, in fact, by the whole tenor of the Epistle; the reference being both to literal idols, and to spiritual idolatry.M.].

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The assurance that our prayers will be heard rests upon the life-fellowship with God the Father through faith in Christ, and forbids its being circumscribed, as to the substance of our prayers, within limits narrower than those given by the Lord Himself (Mat 6:9-13), but neither pursues any other course than that indicated in Mat 6:33, sq., viz., it expresses in the way of ethical effort what life really stands in need of. So St. Paul in Rom 8:14-17. Absolutely exaudible21 is the prayer for the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts (Luk 11:13), relatively exaudible are our prayers for temporal gifts quantum non est impedimento ad salutem (Mat 26:39).

2. Intercession is very potent (1Jn 5:16); it is a work of love, an act of kindness.

3. Every sin is, properly speaking, unto death, which is the wages of sin; there is no sin, which is not per se unto death, unto condemnation. In this respect, the maxim of the Stoics and Jovianus holds good, that omnia peccata paria, no matter how different they may be; and there is only one way towards the forgiveness and cancelling of sin, viz., Christ and His high-priestly work, and the fellowship of faith with the Sinless One. Consequently it is not the species or greatness of sin, per se, which constitutes it a sin unto death, but rather the effect of sin on the sinners relation to the Redeemer, or the nature of the disturbance of this relation, as evidenced by sin. The sin which indicates a permanent falling away from Christ, is sin unto death. The Romish distinction of peccatum mortale and peccatum veniale and the restriction of the former to seven, is wrong; for there is always the danger that the sin assumed to be peccatum veniale, and received in excuse of it, may turn into peccatum mortale, and that that which from a lower standpoint appears as peccatum, veniale, is afterwards in its further progress peccatum mortale.

4. Intercession for those who sin unto death is improper, because such intercession is inexaudible, because such sin cannot be forgiven. Cf. Riehm, Lehrbegriff des Hebrerbriefs, II., pp. 763775. The words (Heb 6:4-6), as well as (Mat 12:32) distinctly indicate the reason why the Apostle neither requires, nor advises us to make intercession for those sinning unto death. Cf. Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, II., p. 340, sqq. Intercession for suicides must, at all events, be judged from this stand-point.[Jeremy Taylor: Every Christian is in some degree in the state of grace, so long as he is invited to repentance, and so long as he is capable of the prayers of the Church. This we learn from those words of St. John: All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death, that is, some sorts of sin are so incident to the condition of men, and their state of imperfection, that the man who hath committed them is still within the method of pardon, and hath not forfeited his title to the promises and covenant of repentance; but there is a sin unto death; that is, some men proceed beyond the measures and economy of the Gospel, and the usual methods and probabilities of repentance, by obstinacy, and preserving a sin, by a wilful, spiteful resisting, or despising the offers of grace and the means of pardon; for such a man St. John does not encourage us to pray; if he be such a person as St. John described, our prayers will do him no good; but because no man can tell the last minute or period of pardon, nor just when a man is gone beyond the limit, and because the limit itself can be enlarged, and Gods mercies stay for some longer than for others, therefore St. John left us under the indefinite restraint and caution; which was derogatory enough to represent that sad state of things in which the refractory and impenitent have immerged themselves, and yet so indefinite and cautious, that we may not be too forward in applying it to particulars, nor in prescribing measures to the Divine mercy, nor in passing final sentences upon our brother, before we have heard our Judge Himself speak. Sinning a sin not unto death, is an expression fully signifying that there are some sins which though they be committed and displeased God, and must be repented of, and need many and mighty prayers for their pardon, yet the man is in the state of grace and pardon, that is, he is within the covenant of mercy; he may be admitted, if he will return to his duty: so that being in a state of grace is having a title to Gods loving-kindness, a not being rejected of God, but a being beloved of Him to certain purposes of mercy, and that hath these measures and degrees.M.].

5. The regenerate, as such, according to the spirit, does not sin, though the flesh ever and anon causes him to fall.
6. The sins of the regenerate are not unto death, because forgiveness and atonement are sought and found in Christ.
7. None but believing Christians, born of God, are not subject to the world-power of Satan; those who are subject to it, are least sensible of it; the Christian, who has become free, perceives and feels it in its hostility to him and his resistance to it.
8. Vital piety finds rest only in God, from whom it comes.
9. Although the absolute and immoveably fixed assurance (certitudo) of salvation, such as the Methodists and Baptists suppose to possess, is neither possible nor biblically established, yet we may attain unto a sure confidence (fiducia), and maintain it in opposition to the Romish decrees, which not only reject the impossibility of final apostasy, but also deny this confidence of the Christian (Conc. Trid. Sess. 6:9, 15, sq.).

10. The Reformed are fully justified in their rejection of altars, images and similar instrumenta superstitionum with respect to the abuses of the Roman Catholics, and even down to the present time with their extreme Mariolatry, but they err in confounding the abuse of the several objects with the objects themselves and in changing the one into the other, in lodging complaints against the natural sphere of art instead of pressing it into the higher service [of religion.]. The liberty of the Lutheran Church cannot be over-estimated.Images of God will always remain hazardous, not only in the Zwinglian or Puritan sense.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Care for thy friends, that they may be and remain assured of the possession of eternal life, despite the temptations and troubles on earth.Thou hast confidence in the purity of mind of some loved man, how much more shouldest thou confide in the true God?If distrust is disgraceful and fraught with much unhappiness in our intercourse with men, how much more disgraceful and productive of unhappiness is distrust of the glorious God?Seeing the light of the world in regeneration is no warrant that this Sun will always smile in His brightest light, unclouded and without stormy days, on the firmament of the soul; but we know, without the gift of prophecy, as the children of God, as Christians, that it is day.Pray for everything, but be urgent unto intercession for thy erring brother. Prefer to speak of an erring brother to God than to other men.Dismal is the high-mindedness which fancies that it can never fail with God, but equally dismal is the pusillanimity, which afraid that all is to no purpose, conducts to despair.As a Christian be not a minor, but volunteer also to act as guardian.Sin violates not only the Divine command before us, and the Majesty of God above us, but also the Image of God in us!Every sin may become a sin unto death, as long as it remains unforgiven.Every sin checks and disturbs the eternal life in thee; the greatest danger, however, is not the commission of, but consenting unto sin, and this is the more dangerous, as your sensibility has become more acute and your will more resolute under the growth of sanctification.Beware of genius-worship!

Luther:Thou must learn to cry and not sit down by thyself, or lie on a bench, with drooping head, or shaking it, and lacerate or consume thyself with thy anxious thoughts, caring and fretting how to get free, and regarding nothing except thy own misery and ill-fortune, and wretchedness. But come, idler that thou art, fall down on thy knees, lift up thy hands and eyes to heaven, sing a psalm or say the Lords prayer, and lay thy trouble before God, and with streaming eyes pour forth thy supplications and make known thy wants.Prayer, the opening of our grief, the lifting up of our hands, are the sacrifices which are most acceptable to God.He Himself desires thee to acquaint Him with thy distress, instead of burdening and oppressing, of torturing and lacerating thyself with it, and thus multiplying one calamity into ten or a hundred. He wants thee to be too weak to carry and overcome such a load, that thou mayest learn to grow strong in Him, and that He may be glorified in thee through His strength. Behold the opposite course makes people who are called Christians, but nothing else than vain babblers and praters, who see much of faith and the Spirit, but know not what it is, or what they see.

Starke:Holy Scripture is our Epistle of God to us, in which He reveals to us His gracious will, as it were, in His own handwriting, and His purpose to give us eternal life.Faith is never too strong, it may and must grow stronger. Where is confidence of faith, there is joyfulness. The more faith gets filled with the riches of God, the more jubilant is its rejoicing in the abundance of its satisfaction: it is heaven on earth!The prayer of the lip must be joined to the desire of the heart.Wouldest thou pray so that thy prayers shall be heard, thou must be full of faith, holy, and a child of God, otherwise thou art abominable.Prayer is not only a Christian duty, but a glorious benefit. Simplicity is not ignorance. The former befits the Christian, but not the latter. Christians must know. Ignorant Christians are unchristian.Learned but ungodly men are unlearned; the regenerate are truly learned, as those who through the knowledge of Christ have been made apt for the kingdom of heaven and eternal salvation.Subtle idolatry is not better than gross idolatry.

Bengel:The lamentable state of the world is most aptly described in the brief summary: The whole world lieth in the wicked one, and the world itself, the doings and workings of the children of the world, their sayings, their dealings, their society, etc., are the best exposition of this passage. It is not so much matter of surprise that they are so wicked, as that they are not more wicked.

Heubner:A sin is not excusable, because it is not yet a sin unto death. A pardonable sin may become a sin unto death; therefore we should abhor every sin.The wicked one will not touch him: 1. The power of Satan is not irresistible; 2. The Christian, while he continues in a state of regeneration, is proof against all the assaults of Satan.Fine threads are often more dangerous than coarse chains.Faith in the Son of God. I. A holy, blissful, assured faith: a. as to its substance: in the Image of God, in the Saviour of love; b. as to its ground: in the testimony of God; c. as to its effects: eternal life. II. It is a faith possible unto all: a. provided they diligently read and lay to heart what is written, in order to attain unto faith; b. provided they pray God with child-like trust, to give unto them the true faith.

Besser:A singular saying! They believe, and he writes that they may believe. What need is there of an exhortation to believe, if we believe already? (Luther). It is not possible to have to-days life through yesterdays faith. Here no stand-still is allowed; he that believes, let him go on believing.After every prayer of a child of God, the Father hears the expressed or unexpressed petition: Thy will be done.I have read of a pious Christian who was in the habit of keeping a record of his daily prayers and intercessions that he invariably concluded his daily record with the passage 1Jn 5:15.Sin is to the children of God like a robber, against whom they defend themselves all their life long. As a sentry stands before a kings palace, so there stands a sentry with shield and sword before the habitation of God in the heart of His children.The Epistle of St. John itself is such a preservative.

[Ezekiel Hopkins:Gods will, in bestowing a desired mercy upon us, is best known by the promises that He hath made to us. Which promises are of two kinds: some refer to temporal blessings, and others refer to grace and glory.

1. Grace and glory are promised absolutely. It is that, which we are commanded, all of us, to seek after: and, therefore, here we cannot mistake, while we beg these; for there is no doubt while we pray for grace and glory, but that we do it according to the will of God. Here, we may be earnest and importunate, that God would sanctify and save our souls: and, while we ask this, and make this the matter of our requests, we are under an impossibility of asking amiss; yea, and the more violent we are, and the more resolute to take no denial at the hands of God, the more pleasing is this holy force, since it shows a perfect conformity and concurrence in our wills to His will, who hath told us, It is His will, even, our sanctification: 1Th 4:3. This was one part of that violence which our Saviour saith the kingdom of heaven suffered in the days of John the Baptist. It is an invasion that is acceptable to God, when we storm heaven by prayers and supplications, with strong cries and tears: when we plant against it unutterable sighs and groans, this is such a battery, that those eternal ramparts cannot hold out long against it.

2. Though we may pray thus absolutely and with a holy boldness, for grace and glory, saying to God as Jacob to the angel that wrestled with him, I will not let thee go, until thou hast blessed me with spiritual blessings, in heavenly things, in Jesus Christ: yet, secondly, for the degrees of grace and for the comforts of the Holy Ghost, we must pray conditionally: if the Lord will. For these things are not absolutely necessary, neither are they absolutely promised to us by God. Neither any degree of grace, nor any consolation of the Spirit is absolutely promised to us. But, however, our prayers ought to be so much the more fervent and importunate for these things, than for outward, temporal things; by how much more these are of far greater concern than the other.

3. To pray for outward and worldly blessings is not contrary to the will of God, for He hath promised to bestow them.But then, as His promise is conditional, if it is consistent with our good: so, truly, must our prayers be conditional, that God would give them to us, if it is consistent with His will and with our good. Whatsoever we thus ask, we do it according to the will of God; and we are sure of speeding in our request, either by obtaining our desires, or by being blessed with a denial. For, alas, we are blind and ignorant creatures, and cannot look into the designs and drift of Providence, and see how God hath laid in order good and evil in His own purpose: oftentimes, we mistake evil for good, because of the present appearance of good that it hath; yea, so short-sighted are we, that we can look no farther than outward and present appearance. But God, who sees the whole series and connection of his own counsels, knows, many times, that those things, which we account and desire as good, are really evil: and therefore it is our wisdom, to resign all our desires to His disposal, and to say, Lord, though such temporal enjoyments may seem good and desirable to me at present, yet Thou art infinitely wise, and Thou knowest what the consequence and issue of them will be: I beg them, if they may stand with Thy will; and if Thou seest they will be as really good to me, as I suppose them now to be. If they be not so, I beg the favour of a denial. This is the right frame, in which a Christians heart should be when he comes to beg temporal mercies of God; and, whilst he thus asks any worldly comforts, he cannot ask amiss. It was an excellent saying of the Satirist, We ask those things of God which please our present humors and desires: but God gives those things which are best and fittest for us: for we are dearer to Him, saith the heathen, than we are to ourselves. And, says another, very well, It is mercy in God, not to hear us, when we ask things that are evil: and when He refuseth us in such requests, it is that He might not circumvent us in our own prayers; for, indeed, whilst we ask rashly and intemperately, whatever we foolishly set our hearts upon, God need take no other course to plague and punish us, than by hearing and answering us.M.].

[Bp. Hall: 1Jn 5:16 :If any man see his brother fall into and continue in such a sin as may be capable of forgiveness, let him earnestly sue unto God for pardon of that offender: and God, who is great and infinite in mercy, shall graciously incline His ear unto his prayers, and give remission and life to such an one. There is indeed a sin unto death, for which there is no forgiveness with God, because there is no capacity of repentance for it in the committer of it; I mean the Sin against the Holy Ghost; when a man having received the knowledge of the Gospel by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, and professed the belief thereof, shall in a devilish malice wilfully blaspheme and persecute that known truth.M,].

[Jortin:What makes sin exceedingly sinful and most provoking, is a determined insolence and an obstinate impenitency, a guilt without remorse, and without relenting, without shame and without fear. This is what appears most odious and offensive in the sight of God, as also in the sight of man; and to this incorrigible temper, and abandoned behaviour, indignation and wrath are denounced by Him, who will by no means acquit those that are guilty in this way. There is a sin unto death, saith St. John, and there is a sin not unto death. The sin unto death, of which the Apostle speaks, was in some manner peculiar to those times. It was an apostasy from Christianity, and these apostates were persons who had seen the miraculous proofs of its truth, and had themselves been partakers of some extraordinary gifts. When such persons renounced Christ, and fell away from the Church, it was plain that nothing more could be done to amend and reclaim them. And even now it is possible, that sinners may offend so long and so heinously as at last to provoke God, either to take them out of the world by a secret judgment, and so it is a sin unto temporal death; or to give them up to their own hard hearts, and so it becomes a sin unto spiritual death. But let an observation be added, which may be necessary to quiet melancholy and desponding minds; and it is this: If any one be afraid that he is in such a condition, this very fear shows that in all probability he is not in such a condition; because it is usual for such sinners to have no consideration, no shame, no remorse, and no fear at all.M.].

[Ezekiel Hopkins:Beware therefore, then, that you do not entertain any slight thought of sin: nor think, with the Papists, that there are some sorts of sins, that do not deserve death; which they call venial sins, in opposition to other more gross and heinous sins, which they allow to be mortal. Believe it, the least prick at the heart is deadly; and so is the least sin to the soul. And, indeed, it is a contradiction, to call any sin venial in their sense, who hold it is not worthy of damnation, for the wages of sin is death; if it be not, how is it venial?M.].

[Rieger: on 1Jn 5:21 :Those who were called to the light of God, readily knew that an idol is nothing in the world, and that idolatry and idol-worship are abominable. But there were at that time temptations which did not render superfluous this concluding admonition. They might be invited to idol-sacrifices and thus be drawn into a sort of communion with idols, Rev 2:20; 2Co 6:16. Sometimes, in order to escape bitter persecution, Christians might venture to go too far. Yes, notwithstanding idols have at this present time sunk into still greater contempt, there yet arises always something which injuriously affects the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus, or the worship of God in spirit and in truth, which tries to find out some other way to God than by Christ, and to seek acceptance with God in another service than in His Son. It becomes therefore every one who is of the truth to sigh, O God, keep me in the mind, which Thou hast given me of Thy Son, and in which thou hast strengthened me by this testimony of St. John! Amen.M].

[Sermons and Sermon Themes.

1Jn 5:13. If we must aim at assurance, what should they do who are not able to discern their own spiritual condition? Thomas Doolittle. Morn. Exerc. I. 252.

1Jn 5:16. Lightfoot, John. A sin unto death. Sermons; Works, 6, 331.

Chalmers, T. The nature of the sin unto death. Sermon: Works, 9, 225.

1Jn 5:16-17. Benson, G. Concerning a sin unto death, and a sin not unto death. A Paraphrase, etc. 2, 647.M.].

Footnotes:

[1]1Jn 5:13. [German: These things wrote I.M.]

[2] 1Jn 5:13. B. Cod. Sin.; A.; this reading is preferable on account of the witnesses and because it is difficilior.Text. Rec. inserts after , and continues after , . . ; but this reading is not sufficiently authenticated, and probably not without dependence on Joh 20:31. [The Codd. A. B. Sin. al. Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, Aethiopic, Armenian, Cassiod., Bede, al. are all against the reading of Rec.But the reading , though found in A, and many Versions, is not clearly established; it seems to have been the basis of the reading of Text. Rec. before Sin. G. K. al. Theoph., Oecum.; after A. B. al. Vulg. Syr. Rec. Cassiod., Bede.The most probable reading is: , , . Huther, Alford.M.]

[German: These things wrote I unto you, that ye may know, that ye have eternal life, ye that believe in the name of the Son of God.M.]

[3]1Jn 5:14. [German: towards Him.M.]

[4]1Jn 5:14. B. Sin.; A. [German: If we ask something.M.]

[5]1Jn 5:15. , , omitted in A. and Sin., but added by a later hand. [German: And if we know, that He heareth us.M.]

[6]1Jn 5:15. Sin. B. G. al.; A. K. al. The Codd. are undecided here, and in the beginning after , between and [German: whatsoever we may ask.M.]

[7]1Jn 5:15. B. Sin.; A. G. K. [German: which we have asked from Him; Lillie, Alford.M.]

[8]1Jn 5:16. [German: If any man see his brother commit a sin not unto death; Alford, Lillie: sinning a sin.M.]

[9]1Jn 5:16. [German: Concerning that I do not say, that he shall pray. Similarly Alford, Lillie, al.M.]

[10]Verse l7. is well authenticated; Vulg. Aeth. omit ; is too feebly sustained.

[11]Verse l7. [German: Born of God as in the beginning of the verse; the variation is unnecessary.M.]

[12]Verse l7. [German: And the wicked one.M.]

[13]1Jn 5:19. [German: And the whole world lieth in the wicked one. So Alford, Lillie, following Syriac, Vulg. And many others.M.]

[14] 1Jn 5:20. B. K. Sin.A. al..G. al. omit and , as in the beginning of 1Jn 5:18.

[German: But we know, so Lillie; Alford Moreover, etc.M.]

[15]1Jn 5:20. German: a sense.M.]

[16]1Jn 5:20. A. B.* G. Sin.;, B.** K. al.

[17]1Jn 5:20. After A., several minusc., versions, al. insert ; Sin. had originally , but corrected into . [German: The true One, so Lillie. Alford, following many translators.M.]

[18]1Jn 5:20. , without the Article, is well authenticated; some minusc., add it. John nowhere makes use of , but , or , or .

[19]1Jn 5:21. is better authenticated than .

[20]1Jn 5:21. G. K. al.; [it is omitted in A. B. Sin. al.M.]The subscription: A., Sin. and al.

[21][I coin this word, which signifies that which may be heard or granted, for want of a better term.M.].

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DISCOURSE: 2468
USE OF THE SCRIPTURES TO BELIEVERS

1Jn 5:13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

THE Scriptures of the New Testament were written doubtless for the whole world. Yet perhaps we may say, that the Gospels were written more immediately for unbelievers, in order to convince them of the Messiahship of Jesus; and that the epistles were written rather for believers, to bring them to a life becoming their high and holy calling. This idea seems to be sanctioned by St. John: for, at the end of his Gospel, he says, These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, ye might have life through his name [Note: Joh 20:31.]. But, at the end of this epistle, he says, These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God. In truth, he had in his mind all the different classes of believerschildren, young men, and fathers: I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His names sake. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one [Note: 1Jn 2:12-14.]. Of course, there is much in this, as well as in all the epistles, profitable to unconverted men: but I must, on the present occasion, attend rather to believers, and mark of what use this epistle is intended to be to them. It is intended,

I.

To assure them, that in Christ they have all that they can need

All who truly believe have eternal life: they have,

1.

The substance of it, treasured up for them in Christ

[The Lord Jesus Christ is the depository in which eternal life is placed: as the Apostle says in the preceding context; This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son. The Lord Jesus purchased it for us, by his own obedience unto death: and to him it was granted, for our use and benefit; that he might bestow it on as many as have been given him by the Father [Note: Joh 17:2.]. In Him, through the good pleasure of the Father, it dwells, even all the fulness of it [Note: Col 1:19.]. Whatever can be conceived to be comprehended in eternal life, to him it is all committed; and out of his fulness it must be received [Note: Joh 1:16.].]

2.

A title to it, conferred on them by Christ

[The Lord Jesus, when he sent forth his Disciples to the Gospel to the whole world, commissioned them to declare to all, without exception, He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved. No one was required to bring any measure of worthiness with him as a title: on the contrary, there was to be but one plea for all mankind; namely, the promise of God to the believing soul. On that all were to rest; and that was to be the one ground of hope to every child of man. Life was to be, not of works, but of grace [Note: Eph 2:8.]: and it was to be by faith, that it might be by grace [Note: Rom 4:16.]. The only thing required on our part, was to receive thankfully what God offered freely in the Son of his love. In receiving Christ therefore by faith, we have a title to every thing else; according as it is said, All things are yours; and ye are Christs.]

3.

The actual possession of it, derived to them from Christ

[Of this, also, the Apostle speaks strongly, in the preceding context: He that hath the Son, hath life: and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life: that is, life is the exclusive possession of the believing soul. This is no less plainly affirmed by our Lord himself: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my words, and believeth in Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life [Note: Joh 5:24.]. Whatever is comprehended in all the glory and felicity of heaven, is now begun in the believers soul: He has the witness of it in himself [Note: ver. 10.]; yea, and the earnest and foretaste of it [Note: Eph 1:13-14.]. In fact, as an embryo in the womb has all the parts of which manhood is the perfection, so grace is glory begun; and glory is grace consummated.]

But the Scriptures are of yet further use to believers,

II.

To confirm and augment their affiance in him

It is necessary that they should grow in faith, as well as in every other grace [Note: 2Th 1:3.]. The faith of all should daily become,

1.

More simple in its exercise

[The world at large have very little idea how difficult it is to exercise a pure unfeigned faith. It is easy to say, I believe: but to renounce all confidence in the flesh is inconceivably difficult. A stone does not more naturally fall to the ground, than we cleave to our own wisdom, strength, and righteousness, as grounds of hope, and sources of acceptance before God. To derive all from the Lord Jesus Christ, and depend on Him alone, as an infant on its mothers care, is the very summit of Christian perfection. And where is the person that has attained to it? But, to aid us in this attainment, the Holy Scriptures are of wonderful use: they shew us the fulness that is in Christ, and the emptiness of the creature, that is only as a broken cistern, that can hold no water: and they set before us all the great and precious promises of our reconciled God, who has engaged to work all his works in us, and to perfect that which concerneth us. After being made to feel, in ten thousand instances, the weakness of human nature, we are made at last to have our strength in the Lord alone [Note: Eph 6:10.], and to be willing that his strength should be perfected in our weakness [Note: 2Co 12:9.].]

2.

More firm in its actings

[Our faith, when tried, is apt to waver. Peter, when the waves began to rise, brought on himself this just rebuke, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And Sarah too laughed through unbelief, when, at her advanced age, she was taught to expect a progeny, and to become a mother of nations. Yes, and Abraham himself, through the weakness of his faith, repeatedly desired Sarah to deny her relation to him, lest an acknowledgment of it should lead to his ruin. Thus we all find it, when we come into heavy trials. But by seeing in the Scriptures what God has done for his people in every age, and what he has engaged to do for them even to the end of the world, we learn, at last, to trust our God in all possible circumstances, and to be strong in faith, giving glory to God [Note: Rom 4:20.].]

3.

More uniform in its operations

[Faith ought not to consist in acts, so much as to be one continued habit of the mind. The believer should live upon the Lord Jesus Christ, as a branch upon the vine. Whether winds or frosts menace its existence, the branch still cleaves to the stock, and derives from it the sap which is necessary to its preservation: and so must the believer cleave to the Lord Jesus Christ; and say with the Apostle, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who hath loved me, and given himself for me [Note: Gal 2:20.]. In himself he must be dead, if I may so speak; and his life must be hid with Christ in God: it is by having Christ as his life, that he will insure his future appearance with Christ in glory [Note: Col 3:3-4.].]

Application
1.

Study then, my brethren, the blessed word of God

[Search the Scriptures, says our blessed Lord; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they that testify of me [Note: Joh 5:39.]. Yes, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, and of the whole Scriptures [Note: Rev 19:10.]. It is in them that you will behold his whole character portrayed; and by them will you have his whole work carried on and perfected within you [Note: Eph 5:26. Joh 17:17.]. Study them, then, with prayer. Nothing will be gained from them without prayer. From human compositions, you may acquire all that they contain by the mere force of intellectual exertion: but the Scriptures are a sealed book, till God himself shall open them to your minds. But, if God shine upon his word, and enable you to comprehend the truths contained in it, you will derive from thence such views of Christ, as shall change you into the Divine image, and fill you with all the fulness of God [Note: Eph 3:18-19.]. As new-born babes, then, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby [Note: 1Pe 2:2.].]

2.

Apply to yourselves every thing that is the proper object of faith

[All the glory of heaven is unfolded in the Scriptures to the believing soul. Make the Scriptures, then, a ladder, whereby to ascend to heaven. Go thither, and there behold Him that is invisible [Note: Heb 11:27.]. There get a sight of his covenant: there see your own name written in the Lambs book of life. There survey the throne prepared for you, with the crown of glory, and the golden harp already tuned for your touch. Survey it all as yoursyour property, your portion, your inheritance. Rise thus upon the wings of faith, and all that is here on earth will vanish from before your eyes, or become like a mere speck in the unbounded regions of space. This is the proper office of faith; and this is the privilege of the believing soul, even to have your conversation in heaven [Note: Php 3:20.]; and to occupy your seat there with Christ [Note: Eph 2:6.], almost as you will do when you shall be personally dwelling in the realms of bliss. Verily, it is no mean thing to be a Christian. If you believe in Christ, all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours; and ye are Christs, and Christ is Gods [Note: 1Co 3:21-23.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

Ver. 13. That ye may know that ye have eternal life ] sc. In the pledges and firstfruits of it, in the true graces of the Spirit, whereof there are many marks and evidences laid down in this Epistle, that we might be at a certainty; not a certainty of hope only (as Papists foolishly distinguish), but of faith too; even a full assurance.

That ye may believe ] That ye may be confirmed, continued, and increased in it.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

13 .] This verse seems, as Joh 20:30 f., like an anticipatory close of the Epistle: and its terms appear to correspond to those used in ch. 1Jn 1:4 . This view, which is maintained by Dsterd., is far more probable than that it should refer only to what has occurred since 1Jn 5:6 , as ch. 1Jn 2:26 to 1Jn 5:18 ff. there (so De Wette): or only to 1Jn 5:11-12 , as Huther. Still less likely is it that the concluding portion of the Epistle begins with this verse, as Bengel, Baumg.-Crus., Lcke, Sander, and Tischendorf in his editions. These things wrote I to you that ye may know that ye have eternal life, (to you) that believe in the name of the Son of God (as to the reading, I believe the text, which is found in [79] [80] 1 only, to be the “fons lectionum.” The unusual position of the dative seeming hard, it was altered to the nominative as in A al., or transposed with its accompanying words, to follow . Then the final clause, not having been struck out, was adapted to the preceding , or to Joh 20:31 , from whence came the reading (see Tischdf.) . The two readings come, in the sense, to much the same. If the rec. be followed, then the must be interpreted “continue to believe”).

[79] The CODEX VATICANUS, No. 1209 in the Vatican Library at Rome; and proved, by the old catalogues, to have been there from the foundation of the library in the 16th century. It was apparently, from internal evidence, copied in Egypt. It is on vellum, and contains the Old and New Testaments. In the latter, it is deficient from Heb 9:14 to the end of the Epistle; it does not contain the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon; nor the Apocalypse. An edition of this celebrated codex, undertaken as long ago as 1828 by Cardinal Angelo Mai, has since his death been published at Rome. The defects of this edition are such, that it can hardly be ranked higher in usefulness than a tolerably complete collation, entirely untrustworthy in those places where it differs from former collations in representing the MS. as agreeing with the received text. An 8vo edition of the N.T. portion, newly revised by Vercellone, was published at Rome in 1859 (referred to as ‘Verc’): and of course superseded the English reprint of the 1st edition. Even in this 2nd edition there were imperfections which rendered it necessary to have recourse to the MS. itself, and to the partial collations made in former times. These are (1) that of Bartolocci (under the name of Giulio de St. Anastasia), once librarian at the Vatican, made in 1669, and preserved in manuscript in the Imperial Library (MSS. Gr. Suppl. 53) at Paris (referred to as ‘Blc’); (2) that of Birch (‘Bch’), published in various readings to the Acts and Epistles, Copenhagen, 1798, Apocalypse, 1800, Gospels, 1801; (3) that made for the great Bentley (‘Btly’), by the Abbate Mico, published in Ford’s Appendix to Woide’s edition of the Codex Alexandrinus, 1799 (it was made on the margin of a copy of Cephalus’ Greek Testament, Argentorati, 1524, still amongst Bentley’s books in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge); (4) notes of alterations by the original scribe and other correctors. These notes were procured for Bentley by the Abb de Stosch, and were till lately supposed to be lost. They were made by the Abbate Rulotta (‘Rl’), and are preserved amongst Bentley’s papers in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (B. 17. 20) 1 . The Codex has been occasionally consulted for the verification of certain readings by Tregelles, Tischendorf, and others. A list of readings examined at Rome by the present editor (Feb. 1861), and by the Rev. E. C. Cure, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford (April 1862), will be found at the end of these prolegomena. A description, with an engraving from a photograph of a portion of a page, is given in Burgon’s “Letters from Rome,” London 1861. This most important MS. was probably written in the fourth century (Hug, Tischendorf, al.).

[80] The CODEX SINAITICUS. Procured by Tischendorf, in 1859, from the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. The Codex Frederico-Augustanus (now at Leipsic), obtained in 1844 from the same monastery, is a portion of the same copy of the Greek Bible, the 148 leaves of which, containing the entire New Testament, the Ep. of Barnabas, parts of Hermas, and 199 more leaves of the Septuagint, have now been edited by the discoverer. A magnificent edition prepared at the expense of the Emperor of Russia appeared in January, 1863, and a smaller edition containing the N.T. &c., has been published by Dr. Tischendorf. The MS. has four columns on a page, and has been altered by several different correctors, one or more of whom Tischendorf considers to have lived in the sixth century. The work of the original scribe has been examined, not only by Tischendorf, but by Tregelles and other competent judges, and is by them assigned to the fourth century . The internal character of the text agrees with the external, as the student may judge for himself from the readings given in the digest. The principal correctors as distinguished by Tischendorf are: A, of the same age with the MS. itself, probably the corrector who revised the book, before it left the hands of the scribe, denoted therefore by us -corr 1 ; B (cited as 2 ), who in the first page of Matt. began inserting breathings, accents, &c., but did not carry out his design, and touched only a few later passages; C a (cited as 3a ) has corrected very largely throughout the book. Wherever in our digest a reading is cited as found in 1 , it is to be understood, if no further statement is given, that C a altered it to that which is found in our text; C b (cited as 3b ) lived about the same time as C a , i.e. some centuries later than the original scribe. These are all that we need notice here 6 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1Jn 5:13-21 . The Epistle is finished, and the Apostle now speaks his closing words. “These things I wrote to you that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even to you that believe in the name of the Son of God. And this is the boldness which we have toward Him, that if we request anything according to His will, He hearkenetn to us. And if we know that He hearkeneth to us whatever we request, we know that we have the requests which we have made from Him. If any one see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall make request, and he will give to him life, even to them that are sinning not unto death. There is a sin unto death; not concerning that do I say that he should ask. Every sort of unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death. We know that every one that hath been begotten of God doth not keep sinning, but the Begotten of God observeth him, and the Evil One doth not lay hold on him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the Evil One. And we know that the Son of God hath come, and hath given us understanding that we may get to know the True One; and we are in the True One, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the True God and Life Eternal. Little children, guard yourselves from the idols.”

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

1Jn 5:13 . The purpose for which St. John wrote his Gospel was that we might believe in the Incarnation, and so have Eternal Life (Joh 20:31 ); the purpose of the Epistle is not merely that we may have Eternal Life by believing but that we may know that we have it . The Gospel exhibits the Son of God, the Epistle commends Him. It is a supplement to the Gospel, a personal application and appeal. , “I wrote,” looking back on the accomplished risk. , “know,” not , “get to know”. Full and present assurance.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Jn 5:13-15

13These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.

1Jn 5:13 “believe in the name” This is a present active participle, which emphasizes continuing belief. This is not a magical or mystical use of the name (like Jewish mysticism based on the names of God, Kabbalah), but the OT use of the name as a substitute for the person. See Special Topic at Joh 2:23.

“that you may know” This is a perfect active subjunctive (oida is perfect in form, but is translated as present). Assurance of one’s salvation is a key concept, and an often stated purpose of 1 John. There are two Greek synonyms (oida and ginsk) used throughout the letter/sermon which are translated “know.” It is obvious that assurance is the heritage of all believers! It is also obvious that because of the local situation then and the cultural context now that there are true believers who do not have assurance. This verse is theologically similar to the closing of the Gospel of John (cf. Joh 20:31).

The closing context of 1 John (1Jn 5:13-20) lists seven things that believers know. Their knowledge of gospel truths provides a worldview, which when combined with personal faith in Christ, is the bedrock foundation of assurance.

1. believers have eternal life (1Jn 5:13, oida, perfect active subjunctive)

2. God hears believers’ prayers (1Jn 5:15, oida, perfect active indicative)

3. God answers believers’ prayers (1Jn 5:14, oida, perfect active indicative)

4. believers are born of God (1Jn 5:18, oida, perfect active indicative)

5. believers are of (out of) God (1Jn 5:19, oida, perfect active indicative)

6. believers know the Messiah has come and given them understanding (1Jn 5:20, oida, perfect active indicative)

7. believers know the true one – either the Father or the Son (1Jn 5:20, ginsk, present active subjunctive)

SPECIAL TOPIC: ASSURANCE

1Jn 5:14 “the confidence which we have before Him” This is a recurrent theme (cf. 1Jn 2:28; 1Jn 3:21; 1Jn 4:17). It expresses the boldness or freedom we have in approaching God (cf. Heb 4:16). See Special Topic at Joh 7:4.

“if” This is a third class conditional sentence which means potential action.

“we ask anything according to His will” John’s statements seem to be unlimited in the believer’s ability to beseech God. How and for what one prays is another evidence of a true believer. However, on further examination, we realize that prayer is not asking for our will, but asking for God’s will in our lives (cf. 1Jn 3:22; Mat 6:10; Mar 14:36). See fuller note at 1Jn 3:22. For Special Topic: The Will of God see Joh 4:34. See SPECIAL TOPIC: Prayer, Unlimited Yet Limited at 1Jn 3:22.

SPECIAL TOPIC: Intercessory Prayer

1Jn 5:15 “if” This is a first class conditional sentence (but with ean and the indicative, see A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, p. 243) which is assumed to be true from the author’s perspective or for his literary purposes. This is an unusual conditional sentence.

1. it has ean instead of ei (cf. Act 8:31; 1Th 3:8)

2. it has ean connected to a subjunctive (i.e., ask), which is the normal grammatical construction for a third class conditional

3. there are third class conditionals in 1Jn 5:14; 1Jn 5:16

4. the theology of Christian prayer linked to God’s will (1Jn 5:14) and Jesus’ name (1Jn 5:13)

“we know” This is another perfect active indicative, translated as a present, which is parallel to 1Jn 5:14. It is the believer’s assurance that the Father hears and responds to His children.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

have I written = I wrote.

unto = to.

that believe, &c. This clause is omitted by all the texts and by the Syriac.

know. App-132.

and . . . may. The texts read “even unto you that”.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

13.] This verse seems, as Joh 20:30 f., like an anticipatory close of the Epistle: and its terms appear to correspond to those used in ch. 1Jn 1:4. This view, which is maintained by Dsterd., is far more probable than that it should refer only to what has occurred since 1Jn 5:6, as ch. 1Jn 2:26 to 1Jn 5:18 ff. there (so De Wette): or only to 1Jn 5:11-12, as Huther. Still less likely is it that the concluding portion of the Epistle begins with this verse, as Bengel, Baumg.-Crus., Lcke, Sander, and Tischendorf in his editions. These things wrote I to you that ye may know that ye have eternal life, (to you) that believe in the name of the Son of God (as to the reading, I believe the text, which is found in [79] [80]1 only, to be the fons lectionum. The unusual position of the dative seeming hard, it was altered to the nominative as in A al., or transposed with its accompanying words, to follow . Then the final clause, not having been struck out, was adapted to the preceding , or to Joh 20:31, from whence came the reading (see Tischdf.) . The two readings come, in the sense, to much the same. If the rec. be followed, then the must be interpreted continue to believe).

[79] The CODEX VATICANUS, No. 1209 in the Vatican Library at Rome; and proved, by the old catalogues, to have been there from the foundation of the library in the 16th century. It was apparently, from internal evidence, copied in Egypt. It is on vellum, and contains the Old and New Testaments. In the latter, it is deficient from Heb 9:14 to the end of the Epistle;-it does not contain the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon;-nor the Apocalypse. An edition of this celebrated codex, undertaken as long ago as 1828 by Cardinal Angelo Mai, has since his death been published at Rome. The defects of this edition are such, that it can hardly be ranked higher in usefulness than a tolerably complete collation, entirely untrustworthy in those places where it differs from former collations in representing the MS. as agreeing with the received text. An 8vo edition of the N.T. portion, newly revised by Vercellone, was published at Rome in 1859 (referred to as Verc): and of course superseded the English reprint of the 1st edition. Even in this 2nd edition there were imperfections which rendered it necessary to have recourse to the MS. itself, and to the partial collations made in former times. These are-(1) that of Bartolocci (under the name of Giulio de St. Anastasia), once librarian at the Vatican, made in 1669, and preserved in manuscript in the Imperial Library (MSS. Gr. Suppl. 53) at Paris (referred to as Blc); (2) that of Birch (Bch), published in various readings to the Acts and Epistles, Copenhagen, 1798,-Apocalypse, 1800,-Gospels, 1801; (3) that made for the great Bentley (Btly), by the Abbate Mico,-published in Fords Appendix to Woides edition of the Codex Alexandrinus, 1799 (it was made on the margin of a copy of Cephalus Greek Testament, Argentorati, 1524, still amongst Bentleys books in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge); (4) notes of alterations by the original scribe and other correctors. These notes were procured for Bentley by the Abb de Stosch, and were till lately supposed to be lost. They were made by the Abbate Rulotta (Rl), and are preserved amongst Bentleys papers in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (B. 17. 20)1. The Codex has been occasionally consulted for the verification of certain readings by Tregelles, Tischendorf, and others. A list of readings examined at Rome by the present editor (Feb. 1861), and by the Rev. E. C. Cure, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford (April 1862), will be found at the end of these prolegomena. A description, with an engraving from a photograph of a portion of a page, is given in Burgons Letters from Rome, London 1861. This most important MS. was probably written in the fourth century (Hug, Tischendorf, al.).

[80] The CODEX SINAITICUS. Procured by Tischendorf, in 1859, from the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. The Codex Frederico-Augustanus (now at Leipsic), obtained in 1844 from the same monastery, is a portion of the same copy of the Greek Bible, the 148 leaves of which, containing the entire New Testament, the Ep. of Barnabas, parts of Hermas, and 199 more leaves of the Septuagint, have now been edited by the discoverer. A magnificent edition prepared at the expense of the Emperor of Russia appeared in January, 1863, and a smaller edition containing the N.T. &c., has been published by Dr. Tischendorf. The MS. has four columns on a page, and has been altered by several different correctors, one or more of whom Tischendorf considers to have lived in the sixth century. The work of the original scribe has been examined, not only by Tischendorf, but by Tregelles and other competent judges, and is by them assigned to the fourth century. The internal character of the text agrees with the external, as the student may judge for himself from the readings given in the digest. The principal correctors as distinguished by Tischendorf are:-A, of the same age with the MS. itself, probably the corrector who revised the book, before it left the hands of the scribe, denoted therefore by us -corr1; B (cited as 2), who in the first page of Matt. began inserting breathings, accents, &c., but did not carry out his design, and touched only a few later passages; Ca (cited as 3a) has corrected very largely throughout the book. Wherever in our digest a reading is cited as found in 1, it is to be understood, if no further statement is given, that Ca altered it to that which is found in our text; Cb (cited as 3b) lived about the same time as Ca, i.e. some centuries later than the original scribe. These are all that we need notice here6.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Jn 5:13. , these things) which are contained in this Epistle. The verb, I write, used in the exordium, ch. 1Jn 1:4, now in the conclusion becomes the preterite, I have written.-[24] , unto you who believe in the name of the Son of God) The sum of verses 5-10.- , that ye may know that ye may have eternal eternal life) This is derived from 1Jn 5:11.- , and that ye may believe) namely, under the nearer hope of life. This is derived from 1Jn 5:12. We ought altogether to be in the faith.

[24] This order of the words rests on the decision of the larger Ed.: the different order which occurs in the Germ. Vers. follows the decision of Ed. 2.-E. B.

The words after , viz. down to , are omitted by AB Vulg. Memph. Theb. and both Syr. Versions. Rec. Text adds them after , without any of the oldest authorities. Lower down Rec. Text has , with more recent authorities. But A Vulg. and almost all other Versions have . B has .-E.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Jn 5:13-15

ADDITIONAL OBJECT IN WRITING

(1Jn 5:13-15)

13 These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.–In a general sense, the entire Epistle was written with the design here indicated, though it ap-pears probable that the reference is, particularly, to that of the immediate context, e.g., 5:1-12. These words are very similar to those occurring in John Z0:31. For the manner in which one possesses eternal life here, see the comments on verse 12. The meaning here is, John wrote; he wrote that men may know that they have eternal life; those who have eternal life in prospect and promise (2:25), or those who believe (literally, keeping on be-lieving (tots pisteuousin eis) in the name of the Son of God. The “name,” as here used, sums up the characteristics which make up the personality of Christ.

14 And this is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, be heareth us:–See 1Jn 3:21, and the comments there. The conjunction, and, with which this verse begins, associates the ideas which it contains with the verse preceding, and the meaning is: We have the promise of eternal life; the realization of this assures and gives us con-fidence; this confidence expresses itself, for example, in the as-surance we have that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. His will is set out in the sacred writings; to ask ac-cording to his will, is to ask in harmony with what he has taught regarding prayer. Jesus recognized this condition, and hence prayed: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Mat 26:39.) The Father wills for us only that which is for our good. If we, through ignorance, greed, avarice or some other evil motive, ask for that which we should not have, the Father, in kindness, with-holds it. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your chidren, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Mat 7:11).

15 And if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him.–The assurance which we have that God does indeed answer the prayers of his faithful children encourages us to ask, and enables us to know that we receive the things for which we ask. If we know that God hears our prayers we know that the peti-tions which we make are granted, though we may not be able to see them supplied in the particular way we had expected. The Father sometimes says, Yes!, by saying No! That is, he answers a prayer for our good by denying the petition made but by sup-plying, in his wisdom, our need otherwise. Three times Paul besought the Lord to remove the thorn from his flesh; and though this was denied him, the prayer was answered in a fashion which Paul was himself later to approve. (2Co 12:7-10.)

Commentary on 1Jn 5:13-15 by E.M. Zerr

1Jn 5:13. Written unto you that believe again, sets forth the idea that not all of the apostolic writings are given as new information. The purpose for repeating it is stated that you may know or that they may have their faith for eternal life confirmed.

1Jn 5:14. The proviso according to his will is important and shows that we are not at liberty to make just any kind of wild request and expect God to grant it.

1Jn 5:15. This verse explains what it means to be heard for our prayers. When we have the petitions (granted) then we know that they were scriptural or God would not have granted them.

Commentary on 1Jn 5:13-15 by N.T. Caton

1Jn 5:13-These things have I written.

The object the apostle had in writing these things to the believers in Christ is to make them fully understand how they may know of a certainty that they have eternal life. In this letter he gives them many infallible tests and examples by which they can, with certainty and accuracy, determine this matter.

1Jn 5:13-That believe on the name of the Son of God.

Not only that they may continue to believe, but that they may, with absolute safety, put the fullest possible trust in the name of Christ.

1Jn 5:14-And this is the confidence.

Whether the word should be confidence or boldness, will make but little difference, as I view it, for if we be God’s children and ask for blessings, the petition being according to God’s will, we have the word of the Father, that none should doubt, that he will hear. We may, therefore, come with boldness, and in all confident assurance, to his throne of grace designed for his children.

1Jn 5:15-And if we know that he hear us.

That is, if we know that he hears us as with open ears, then we know that he will grant our petitions; the things that we asked will be by us received.

Commentary on 1Jn 5:13-15 by Burton Coffman

1Jn 5:13 –These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.

These things have I written … This has reference to the epistle. At the beginning of the letter, John explained the purpose of his writing thus, “These things we write, that our joy may be made full” (1Jn 1:4); but the meaning is closely related to this. Their joy (both John’s and that of his readers) would be made full in the certain knowledge of the possession of eternal life.

Unto you who believe on the name … “This is the only place in the whole letter where he speaks of believing on the name, in His full Person, all that the name stands for.”[17] This variation, however, conveys no different meaning, really, from that of believing in Christ, or believing on Christ.

With this verse, the final section of 1John begins.

ENDNOTE:

[17] Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 1269.

1Jn 5:14 –And this is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us;

And this is the boldness … This is the fourth mention of boldness in this epistle: as pertaining to the judgment in 1Jn 2:28; 1Jn 4:17, and as pertaining to prayer, here, and in 1Jn 3:21-22. In a large degree, the Christian is himself responsible for maintaining a confident and winning attitude, an attitude to which he is fully entitled by the glorious endowments and promises of the faith. It is therefore incumbent upon him to speak enthusiastically of his faith and of the joyful service in the Lord, much in the same manner of a good athlete who “talks a good game” with his associates during a contest. The grounds of such confidence which John cited in connection with his admonition is that, after all, our God will answer our prayers! No greater promise could be imagined.

If we ask according to his will … God’s promise of answering prayer, however, is not a blank check, the qualification laid down here being only one of a number of Scriptural limitations on it. Others are: prayers must be offered in faith (Mar 11:24), in the name of Jesus (Joh 14:14), and by one abiding in Christ (Joh 15:7). Furthermore, only those who have forgiven (Mar 11:15); and only those whose prayers flow out of an obedient life (1Jn 3:22), and who will not use their blessings for the gratification of their lusts and passions (Jas 4:3), may properly claim in confidence the answer of their prayers.

1Jn 5:15 –and if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him.

The meaning of this is only slightly different from Jesus’ words, “All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mar 11:24). Perhaps the principal confidence to be derived from this promise is simply that, “We simply know that from all that he has promised that he does not ignore our requests.”[18] When it may appear that our prayers have not been answered, we can be positively certain that the reason is harmonious with God’s love of his children, and that it is grounded in what God knows is best for them.

ENDNOTE:

[18] J. W. Roberts, The Letters of John and Jude (Austin, Texas: R. B. Sweet Company, 1968), p. 139.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Ask According to His Will

1Jn 5:13-21

We know that we have eternal life. The rope is in our hand bearing us onward, but its ends are hidden from view in the past and in the future. We also know that God hears us when we comply with the conditions of true prayer. We know, moreover, that we can become the medium through which the life of God passes to others. Thus the humblest child may have power with God and man.

The Only-Begotten keeps the begotten. Evil can no more touch them than blight could reach the bush in the wilderness that was bathed in the celestial fire. Who would go back to the world? Enumerate and press to heart these four items of positive knowledge; but beware lest what is legitimate and natural in itself may become an idol. Love, knowledge, abiding, conquering-these are the keynotes of this wonderful letter.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

FULL ASSURANCE

BY H.A. IRONSIDE

INTRODUCTION

In penning the following pages, I have had but one outstanding object before me: to make as plain as I possibly can just how any troubled soul may find settled peace with God. I am thinking particularly of those people who believe the Holy Scriptures to be divinely inspired, and who recognize that salvation is only to be found in Christ, but someway have missed the “peace of a perfect trust,” and though earnestly desiring to know the Lord, are floundering in perplexity of mind, like Bunyan’s Pilgrim, in the Slough of Despond, or like the same anxious inquirer in his earlier experience, trembling beneath the frowning cliffs of Sinai.

Consequently, no attempt is here made to prove that the Bible is true, as both the writer and the readers he has specially in view take that for granted. People who are bothered by doubts along that line may find abundant help elsewhere, as there are not wanting plenty of good books, written by sound Christian scholars, that present unanswerable arguments for the inerrancy and the divine authority of the Bible. The trouble is that so many people who profess to want help along these lines are too indifferent to investigate, even when the opportunity is put before them. It is of really earnest seekers after the truth that I am thinking.

For many months I was myself in much doubt and confusion of thought until God by His Holy Spirit showed me through His Word the true ground of peace. That was many years ago, and as I write I find myself living over again the conflict of those days, and recalling, as though it were but yesterday, the gladness that filled my soul when I rested in Christ alone, and entered into a lasting peace with God that has known no disturbance throughout the years.

The clouds may at times veil my sky. Sorrows and difficulties may try my soul. New discoveries of the corruption of my own heart may bring humiliation and repentance. But this peace with God remains unchanged, for it rests not on me, not on my frames of mind or experiences, but on the finished work of Christ and the testimony of the Word of God, of which it is written: “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.”

STRIVING AFTER ASSURANCE

In a ministry of almost half a century, I have had the joy of leading many to rest in Christ. And I have found that the questions that perplex, and the hindrances to full assurance are all more or less basically alike, though expressed differently by different people. So I have sought in this little volume to set forth, as clearly as I know how, the truths that I have proven specific in meeting the needs of thousands of souls.

I have been told that in days gone by young doctors were in the habit of using a great number of medicines in their endeavors to help their various patients, but that with increasing practice and larger experience, they discarded many remedies which they found were of little use and thereafter concentrated on a few that they had proven to be really worth while.

The physician of souls is likely to have much the same experience, and while this may give a somewhat uninteresting sameness to his later ministrations, as compared or contrasted with his earlier ones, it puts him after all in the immediate succession of the apostles of our Lord, whose viewpoint may be summed up in words written by the greatest of them all: “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” Here is the sovereign remedy for all spiritual ills. Here is the one supreme message that is needed, whether they realize it or not, by all men everywhere. And this I have tried to proclaim in these unpretending pages.

As an Itinerant Preacher

For the most of my life I have been an itinerant preacher of the gospel, travelling often as much as thirty to forty thousand miles a year to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ. In all these years I only recall two occasions on which I have missed my trains. One was by becoming confused between what is known as daylight saving and standard time. The other was through the passive assurance of a farmer-host, who was to drive me from his country home into the town of Lowry, Minnesota, in time for me to take an afternoon train for Winnipeg, on which I had a Pullman reservation. I can remember yet how I urged my friend to get on the way, but he pottered about with all kinds of inconsequential chores, insistent that there was plenty of time. I fumed and fretted to no purpose. He was calmly adamant.

Finally, he hitched up his team and we started across the prairie. About a mile from town we saw the train steam into the station, pause a few moments, and depart for the north. There was nothing to do but wait some five or six hours for the night express, on which I had no reservation, and found when it arrived I could not get a berth, so was obliged to sit in a crowded day coach all the way to the Canadian border, after which there was more room. While annoyed, I comforted myself with the words, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” I prayed earnestly that if He had some purpose in permitting me to miss my train and comfortable accommodations, I might not fail to find it out.

When I boarded the crowded, foul-smelling coach, I found there was only one vacancy left and that was half of a seat midway down the car, a sleeping young man occupying the other half. As I sat down by him and stowed away my baggage, he awoke, straightened up, and gave me a rather sleepy greeting. Soon we were in an agreeable, low-toned conversation, while other passengers slept and snored all about us. A suitable opportunity presenting itself, I inquired, “Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ?” He sat up as though shot. “How strange that you should ask me that! I went to sleep thinking of Him and wishing I did know Him, but I do not understand, though I want to! Can you help me?”

Further conversation elicited the fact that he had been working in a town in southern Minnesota, where he had been persuaded to attend some revival meetings. Evidently, the preaching was in power and he became deeply concerned about his soul. He had even gone forward to the mourners’ bench, but though he wept and prayed over his sins, he came away without finding peace. I knew then why I had missed my train. This was my Gaza, and though unworthy I was sent of God to be his Philip. So I opened to the same scripture that the Ethiopian treasurer had been reading when Philip met him: Isaiah 53.

Drawing my newly-found friend’s attention to its wonderful depiction of the crucified Saviour, though written so long before the event, I put before him verses 4, 5 and 6: “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he

was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

As the young man read them, they seemed to burn their way into his very soul. He saw himself as the lost sheep that had taken its own way. He saw Christ as the One on whom Jehovah laid all his iniquity, and he bowed his head and told Him he would trust Him as his own Saviour. For perhaps two hours we had hallowed fellowship on the way, as we turned from one scripture to another. Then he reached his destination and left, thanking me most profusely for showing him the way of life. I have never seen him since, but I know I shall greet him again at the judgment seat of Christ.

Help for the Needy Soul

Into whose hands this book will fall I cannot tell, but I send it forth with the prayer that it may prove as timely a message to many a needy soul as the talk on the train that night in Minnesota with the young man who felt his need and had really turned to God, but did not understand the way of peace and so had no assurance, until he found it through the written Word, borne home to his soul in the power of the Holy Spirit.

If you are just as troubled as that young man, and should by divine providence peruse this treatise at any time, I trust that you will see that it is the Lord’s own way of seeking to draw you to Himself, and that you will read it carefully, thoughtfully, and prayerfully, looking up each passage referred to in your own Bible, if you have one, and that thus you, too, may obtain full assurance.

Be certain of this: God is deeply concerned about you. He longs to give you the knowledge of His salvation. It is no mere accident that these pages have come to your attention. He put it on my heart to write them. He would have you read them. They may prove to be His own message to your troubled soul. God’s ways are varied. “He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”

The Barber Was Much Concerned

Another personal experience will perhaps accentuate and fittingly close this chapter. One afternoon I was walking the busy streets of Indianapolis, looking for a barber shop. Entering the first one I saw (my attention being attracted by the red and white striped pole), I was soon seated in the chair, and the tonsorial artist began operations. He was chatty but subdued, I thought, not carelessly voluble. Praying for an opening, it soon seemed a fitting time to ask, as in the other case, “Are you acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ?” To my astonishment, the barber’s reaction was remarkable. He stopped his work, burst into uncontrollable weeping, and when the first paroxysm had passed, exclaimed, “How strange that you should ask me about Him! In all my life I never had a man ask me that before. And I have been thinking of Him nearly all the time for the last three days. What can you tell me about him?”

It was my turn to be amazed. I asked him what had led

up to this. He explained that he had gone to see a picture of the Passion Play, and that it had made an indelible impression on his mind. He kept asking, “Why did that good Man have to suffer so? Why did God let Him die like that?” He had never heard the gospel in his life, so I spent an hour with him opening up the story of the Cross. We prayed together and he declared that all was now plain, and he trusted the Saviour for himself. I had the joy of knowing, as I left his shop, that the gospel was indeed the dynamic of God unto salvation to him, an uninstructed Greek barber, who had learned for the first time that Christ loved him and gave Himself for him.

To me it was a singular instance of divine sovereignty. The very idea of the Passion Play – sinful men endeavoring to portray the life, death and resurrection of Jesus – was abhorrent to me. But God, who delights not in the death of the sinner, but desires that all should turn to Him and live, used that very picture to arouse this man and so make him ready to hear the gospel. And I could not doubt that He had directed my steps to that particular shop, that I might have the joy of pointing the anxious barber to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

That in many similar instances He may be pleased to own and use these written messages is my earnest desire.

“Sovereign grace o’er sin abounding,

Ransomed souls the tidings tell;

‘Tis a deep that knows no sounding,

Who its length and breadth can tell?

On its glories, let my soul forever dwell.”

ASSURANCE FOREVER

THERE is a very remarkable statement found in the book of Isaiah, chapter thirty-two, verse 17: “The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.”

Assurance forever! Is it not a wonderfully-pleasing expression? Assurance not for a few days, or weeks, or months – nor yet for a few years, or even a lifetime – but forever! It is this blessed assurance that God delights to impart to all who come to Him as needy sinners seeking the way of life.

Two words are employed in this verse that are intimately related – peace and assurance. Yet how many deeply-religious people there are in the world who scarcely know the meaning of either term. They are honestly seeking after God. They are punctilious about their religious duties, such as reading the Scriptures, saying their prayers, attending church, partaking of the sacrament, and supporting the cause of Christ. They are scrupulously honest and upright in all their dealings with their fellowmen, endeavoring to fulfil every civic and national responsibility, and to obey the golden rule. Yet they have no lasting peace, nor any definite assurance of salvation. I am persuaded that in practically every such instance the reason for their unquiet and unsettled state is due to a lack of apprehension of God’s way of salvation.

Though living seven centuries before Calvary, it was given to Isaiah to set forth in a very blessed manner the righteousness of God as later revealed in the gospel. This is not to be wondered at for he spoke as he was moved by the Holy Spirit.

The key word of his great book, often called the fifth gospel, is the same as in the Epistle to the Romans – the word, “righteousness.” And I would urge the reader to meditate on this word for a little and see how it is used in the Holy Scriptures.

The Dying Lawyer

A lawyer lay dying. He had attended church all his life but was not saved. He was known to be a man of unimpeachable integrity. Yet as he lay there facing eternity, he was troubled and distressed. He knew that upright as he had been before men, he was a sinner before God. His awakened conscience brought to his memory sins and transgressions that had never seemed so heinous as then, when he knew that shortly he must meet his Maker.

A friend put the direct question, “Are you saved?” He replied in the negative, shaking his head sadly. The other asked, “Would you not like to be saved?” “I would indeed,” was his reply, “if it is not already too late. But,” he added almost fiercely, “I do not want God to do anything wrong in saving me!”

His remark showed how deeply he had learned to value the importance of righteousness. The visitor turned to his Bible and there read how God had Himself devised a righteous way to save unrighteous sinners. The fact is that He has no other possible way of saving anybody. If sin must be glossed over, in order that the sinner may be saved, he will be forever lost. God refuses to compromise His own character for the sake of anyone, much as He yearns to have all men to be saved.

It was this that stirred the soul of Luther, and brought new light and help after long, weary months of groping in the darkness, trying in vain to save himself in conformity to the demands of blind leaders of the blind. As he was reading the Latin Psalter, he came across David’s prayer, “Save me in thy righteousness.” Luther exclaimed, “What does this mean? I can understand how God can damn me in His righteousnes, but if He would save me it must surely be in His mercy!” The more he meditated on it, the more the wonder grew. But little by little the truth dawned upon his troubled soul that God Himself had devised a righteous method whereby He could justify unrighteous sinners who came to Him in repentance and received His word in faith.

Isaiah stresses this great and glorious truth throughout his marvellous Old Testament unfolding of the gospel plan. In unsparing severity, the prophet portrays man’s utterly lost and absolutely hopeless condition, apart from divine grace. “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds and bruises and purtrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment” (Isa 1:5,6). It is surely a revolting picture, but nevertheless it is true of the unsaved man as God sees him. Sin is a vile disease that has fastened upon the very vitals of its victim. None can free himself from its pollution, or deliver himself from its power.

A Sure Remedy

But God has a remedy. He says, “Come now, and let us reason together, said the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (v. 18). It is God Himself who can thus purge the leper from all his uncleanness, and justify the ungodly from all his guilt. And He does it, not at the expense of righteousness, but in a perfectly righteous way.

“‘Tis in the Cross of Christ we see

How God can save, yet righteous be;

‘Tis in the Cross of Christ we trace

His righteousness and wondrous grace.

The sinner who believes is free,

Can say, the Saviour died for me;

Can point to the atoning blood

And say, That made my peace with God.”

So it is Isaiah who, above all other prophetic writers, sets forth the work of the Cross. He looks on by the eye of faith to Calvary, and there he sees the Holy Sufferer dying for sins not His own. He exclaims, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: The chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD (Jehovah) hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:5,6).

Have you ever thoughtfully considered these remarkable statements? If not, I beg you to ponder over them now: It was Jesus that the Spirit of God brought before the mind of Isaiah. He would have you gaze upon Him, too. Take each clause separately and weigh its wondrous meaning:

“He was wounded for our transgressions.” Make it personal! Put yourself and your own sins in there. Read it as though it said, “He was wounded for my transgressions.” Do not get lost in the crowd. If there had never been another sinner in all the world, Jesus would have gone to the cross for you! Oh, believe it and enter into peace!

“He was bruised for our iniquities.” Make it personal! Think what your ungodliness and your self-will cost Him. He took the blows that should have fallen upon you. He stepped in between you and God, as the rod of justice was about to fall. It bruised Him in your stead. Again, I plead, make it personal! Cry out in faith, “He was bruised for my iniquities.”

Now go farther: “The chastisement of our peace was upon him.” All that was necessary to make peace with God, He endured. “He made peace through the blood of his cross.” Change the “our” to “my.” “He made my peace.”

“He bore on the tree

The sentence for me,

And now both the surety

And sinner are free.”

Now note the last clause of this glorious verse, “With his stripes we are healed.” Do you see it? Can you set to your seal that God is true, and cry exultingly, “Yes, I a poor sinner, I a lost, ruined soul, I who so richly deserved judgment, I am healed by His stripes”?

“We are healed by His stripes,

Wouldst thou add to the Word?

He Himself is our righteousness made.

The best robe of heaven He bids thee put on,

Oh, couldst thou be better arrayed?”

The Old Account Settled

It is not that God ignores our sins, or indulgently over-looks them; but on the cross all have been settled for. In Isa 53:6, He has balanced the books of the world. There were two debit entries:

“All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned every one to his own way.”

But there is one credit item that squares the account:

“Jehovah hath laid on him (that is, on Jesus at the cross)

the iniquity of us all.”

The first debit entry takes into account our participation in the fall of the race. Sheep follow the leader. One goes through a hole in the fence and all follow after. So Adam sinned and we are all implicated in his guilt. “Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”

But the second entry takes into account our individual wilfulness. Each one has chosen to sin in his own way, so we are not only sinners by nature, but we are also transgressors by practice. In other words, we are lost – utterly lost. But “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luk 19:10). By His sacrificial death on the cross, He has paid to outraged justice that which meets every charge against the sinner. Now in perfect righteousness God can offer a complete pardon and justification to all who trust His risen Son.

Thus “the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.” The troubled conscience can now be at rest. God is satisfied with what His Son has done. On that basis He can freely forgive the vilest sinner who turns in repentance to the Christ of the cross.

“The trembling sinner feareth

That God can ne’er forget;

But one full payment cleareth

His mem’ry of all debt;

Returning sons He kisses,

And with His robe invests;

His perfect love dismisses

All terror from our breasts.”

He says to every believing soul, “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee” (Isa: 44:22). And again, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins” (Isa 43:25). You may never be able to forget the years of wandering, the many sins of which you have been guilty. But that which gives peace is the knowledge that God will never recall them again. He has blotted them from the book of His remembrance, and He has done it in righteousness, for the account is completely settled. The debt is paid!

Christ’s Resurrection Gives Assurance

Christ’s bodily resurrection is the divine token that all has been dealt with to God’s satisfaction. Jesus bore our sins on the cross. He made Himself responsible for them. He died to put them away forever. But God raised Him from the dead, thereby attesting His good pleasure in the work of His Son. Now the blessed Lord sits exalted at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. He could not be there if our sins were still upon Him. The fact that He is there proves that they are completely put away. God is satisfied!

“Payment He will not twice demand,

First at my bleeding Surety’s hand,

And then again at mine.”

It is this that gives quietness and assurance forever. When I know that my sins have been dealt with in such a way that God’s righteousness remains untarnished, even as He folds me to His bosom, a justified believer, I have perfect peace. I know Him now as “a just God and a Saviour” (lsa. 45:21). He says, “I will bring near my righteousness;

it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry” (lsa. 46:13). What cheering words are these! He has provided a righteousness, His very own, for men who have none of their own! Gladly, therefore, do I spurn all attempts at self-righteousness, to be found in Him perfect and complete, clothed with His righteousness.

Every believer can say with the prophet, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels” (Isa 61:10).

“Clad in this robe, how bright I shine;

Angels have not a robe like mine.”

It is given only to redeemed sinners to wear this garment of glory. Christ Himself is the robe of righteousness. We who trust Him are “in Christ”; we are “made the righteousness of God in him” (2Co 5:21). He is “made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1Co 1:30). If my acceptance depended on my growth in grace I could never have settled peace. It would be egotism of the worst kind to consider myself so holy that I could be satisfactory to God on the ground of my personal experience. But when I see that “He hath made us accepted in the beloved,” every doubt is banished. My soul is at peace. I have quietness and assurance forever. I know now that only

“That which can shake the Cross,

Can shake the peace it gave;

Which tells me Christ has never died,

Nor ever left the grave.”

As long as these great unchanging verities remain, my peace is unshaken, my confidence is secure. I have “assurance forever.”

Dear, anxious, burdened soul, do you not see it? Can you not rest, where God rests, in the finished work of His blessed Son? If He is satisfied to save you by faith in Jesus, surely you should be satisfied to trust Him.

MUCH ASSURANCE

When reminding the Thessalonian believers of the work of God in their city, as a result of which they were saved, the apostle Paul says: “We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: so that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.”

This is a very striking declaration, and all the more so because it stands out in such vivid contrast with much that goes under the name of evangelical testimony in our days. It is not too much to say of perhaps the majority of sermons preached in our myraids of churches, that one who was in deep spiritual trouble might listen to them year in and year out and be left in as great uncertainty as ever. They give no assurance to the hearers, whereas Paul’s preaching was of such a character as to produce much assurance.

Consider the people addressed. Only a few months before at the most, they were for the greater part pagan idolaters, living in all kinds of sin and uncleanness. They had never been trained in Christian truth. A few among them were Jews, and had some knowledge of the law and the prophets. But the great majority by far were ignorant heathen, given to superstitious and licentious practices, and who were without any understanding of the way of life.

To them came Paul and his little company of itinerant preachers – men of God whose lives evidenced the power of the message they proclaimed. In dependence on the Holy Spirit they preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified. They bore witness to His resurrection and present saving power, and they declared He was coming back some day to be judge of the living and the dead. It was the same missionary message which has ever proven to be the dynamic of God unto salvation to all who believe. Paul’s hearers were convicted of their sin. They realized something of the corruption of their lives. They turned to God as repentant sinners, and believed the gospel they heard preached. What was the result? They became new creatures. Their out-ward behavior reflected the inward change. They knew they had passed out of darkness into light. They did not simply cherish a pious hope that God had received them. They knew He had made them His own. They had much assurance! Could anything be more blessed?

Is it not strange that so much that passes for gospel preaching today fails to produce this very-much-to-be-desired result? Surely something is radically wrong when people can be church-goers all their lives and never get farther than to live in hope of receiving “dying grace” at last!

The Woman Was Dying

An aged woman was reported to be dying. Her physician had given up all hope of her recovery. Her minister was called to her bedside to prepare her for the great change. She was in much distress. Bitterly she lamented her sins, her coldness of heart, her feeble efforts to serve the Lord. Piteously, she besought her pastor to give what help he could that dying grace might indeed be hers. The good man was plainly disconcerted. He was not used to coming to close quarters with dying souls anxious to be sure of salvation. But he quoted and read various scriptures. His eye fell on the words, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Tit 3:5-7).

As he read the words with quivering voice, the dying woman drank in their truth. “Not by works, but justified by his grace!” She exclaimed, “Aye, minister, that’ll do; I can rest there. No works of mine to plead, just to trust His grace. That will do. I can die in peace.” He prayed with her and left, his own heart tenderly moved and grateful, too, that he had been used to minister dying grace to this troubled member of his flock. He hardly expected to see her again on earth, but was comforted to feel that she would soon be in heaven.

Contrary to her physician’s prediction, however, she did not die but rallied from that very hour, and in a few weeks was well again, a happy, rejoicing believer with much assurance. She sent once more for the pastor, and put the strange question to him: “God has given me dying grace and now I am well again; what am I to do about it?”

“Ah, woman,” he exclaimed, “ye may just claim it as living grace and abide in the joy of it.”

It was well put, but what a pity his preaching throughout the years had not produced assurance long before in the mind and heart of his anxious parishioner.

The Thessalonian believers did not have to wait until facing death in order to enter into the positive knowledge of sins forgiven. Their election of God was a reality to themselves and to others, who saw what grace had wrought in their lives.

And it was what Paul calls “our gospel,” and “my gospel,” that produced all this. We are not left in any doubt as to what that gospel was, for he has made it very clear elsewhere. He had but one message, that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. The import of this

received in faith destroyed doubt, banished uncertainty, and

produced much assurance.

Of course, back of the witness borne by the lips was the witness of the life. Paul’s deportment among them was that of a man who lived in the atmosphere of eternity. A holy minister of Christ preaching a clear gospel in the energy of the Holy Spirit is bound to get results. Such a man is a tremendous weapon in the hand of God for the pulling down of satanic strongholds. But it was not the piety of the messengers that gave assurance to those early believers. It was the message itself which they received in faith.

It is a great mistake to attempt to rest one’s soul upon the character of any preacher, however godly he may appear to be. Faith is to rest, not in the best of God’s servants but in His unchanging Word. Unhappily, it often transpires that impressionable folk are carried away with admiration for a minister of Christ, and they put their dependence upon him, rather than upon the truth proclaimed.

“I was converted by Billy Sunday himself!” said one to me, in answer to the question, “Are you certain that your soul is saved?”

Mr. Sunday would have been the last of men to put himself in the place of Christ. Further conversation seemed to elicit the evidence that the person in question had been carried away by admiration for the earnest evangelist and mistook the “thrill of a handshake” for the Spirit’s witness. At least, there seemed no real understanding of God’s plan of salvation, which Billy Sunday preached, in such tremendous power.

Then it is well to remember that some vivid emotional experience is not a safe ground of assurance. It is the blood of Christ that makes us safe and the Word of God that makes us sure.

Queen Victoria Decides the Question

There is an apparently authentic story told of the great Queen Victoria, so long ruler of Britain’s vast empire. When she occupied her castle at Balmoral, Scotland, she was in the habit of calling, in a friendly way, upon certain cottagers living in the neighborhood. One aged Highland woman, who felt greatly honored by these visits and who knew the Lord, was anxious about the soul of the queen. As the season came to a close one year, her Majesty was making her last visit to the humble home of this dear child of God. After the good-byes were said, the old cottager timidly inquired, “May I ask your gracious Majesty a question?”

“Yes,” replied the queen, ”as many as you like.”

“Will your Majesty meet me in heaven?”

Instantly the royal visitor replied, “I will, through the all-availing blood of Jesus.”

That is the only safe ground for assurance. The blood shed on Calvary avails for all classes alike.

When Israel of old were about to leave Egypt, and the last awful plague was to fall on that land and its people, God Himself provided a way of escape for His own. They were to slay a lamb, sprinkle its blood on the door-posts and lintel of their houses, go inside and shut the door. When the destroying angel passed through that night, he would not be permitted to enter any blood-sprinkled door, for Jehovah had said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” Inside the house, some might have been trembling and some rejoicing, but all were safe. Their security depended, not on their frames of mind, or feelings, but on the fact that the eye of God beheld the blood of the lamb and they were sheltered behind it. As they recalled the Word that He had given concerning it and truly believed it, they would have much assurance.

So it is today! We cannot see the blood shed so long ago for our redemption on Calvary, but there is a sense in which it is ever before the eye of God. The moment a repentant sinner puts his trust in Christ, he is viewed by God as sheltered behind the blood-sprinkled lintel. Henceforth his security from judgment depends, not on his ability to satisfy the righteous demands of the Holy One, but upon “the blessed fact that Christ Jesus satisfied them to the utmost when He gave Himself a ransom for our sins, and thus made it possible for God to pass over all our offences and justify us from all things.

That Dreadful Night in Egypt

Imagine a Jewish youth on that night in Egypt reasoning thus: “I am the first-born of this family and in thousands of homes tonight the first-born must die. I wish I could be sure that I was safe and secure, but when I think of my many shortcomings, I am in deepest distress and perplexity. I do not feel that I am by any means good enough to be saved when others must die. I have been very willful, very disobedient, very undependable, and now I feel so troubled and anxious. I question very much if I shall see the morning light.”

Would his anxiety and self-condemnation leave him exposed to judgment? Surely not! His father might well say to him, “Son, what you say as to yourself is all true. Not one of us has ever been all he should be. We all deserve to die. But the death of the lamb was for you – the lamb died in your stead. The blood of the lamb outside the house comes between you and the destroyer.”

One can understand how the young man’s face would light up as he exclaimed, “Ah, I see it! It is not what I am that saves me from judgment. It is the blood and I am safe behind the blood-sprinkled door.” Thus he would have “much assurance.” And in the same way, we now, who trust in the testimony God has given concerning the atoning work of His Son, enter into peace and know we are free from all condemnation.

Perhaps some one may ask, “But does it make no difference to God what I am myself? May I live on in my sins and still be saved?” No, assuredly not! But this brings in another line of truth. The moment one believes

the gospel, he is born again and receives a new life and nature – a nature that hates sin and loves holiness. If you have come to Jesus and trusted Him, do you not realize the truth of this? Do you not now hate and detest the wicked things that once gave you a certain degree of delight? Do

you not find within yourself a new craving for goodness, a longing after holiness, and a thirst for righteousness? All this is the evidence of a new nature. And as you walk with God you will find that daily the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit will give you practical deliverance from the dominion of sin.

This line of truth does not touch the question of your salvation. It is the outcome of your salvation. First, get this settled: you are justified not by anything done in you, but by what Jesus did for you on the cross. But now He who died for you works in you to conform you daily to Himself, and to enable you to manifest in a devoted life the reality of His salvation.

The Thessalonians “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven.” The moment they turned to Him they were saved, forgiven, justified, set apart to God in all the value of the work of the Cross and the perfection of the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus. They were accepted in the Beloved! God saw them in Christ. Believing thus, they had much assurance.

This matter settled, they then yielded themsleves unto God as those alive from the dead, to serve Him who had done so much for them, and they waited day by day for the coming again of Him who had died for them, whom God had raised from the dead and seated at His right hand in highest glory.

Acceptable service springs from the knowledge that the question of salvation is forever settled. We who are saved by grace apart from all self effort are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Not Saved by Good Works

Notice, we are not saved by good works, but unto good works. In other words, no one can begin to live a Christian life until he has a Christian life to live. This life is divine and eternal. It is imparted by God Himself to the one who believes the gospel, as the apostle Peter tells us: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1Pe 1:23-25).

The new birth, therefore, is by the Word – the message of the gospel – and the power of the Holy Spirit. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” These were our Lord’s words to Nicodemus. The one thus regenerated has eternal life and can never perish. How do we know? Because He has told us so.

Weigh carefully the precious words of Joh 5:24, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life”; and link with this verse Joh 10:27-30, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.”

Observe that in the first of these passages there are five links, all of which go together: “Heareth” – “Believeth” – “Hath” – “Shall not” – “Is passed.” Study these terms carefully and note their true connection. They should never be dissociated. In the longer passage pay careful attention to what is said of Christ’s sheep:

a – They hear His voice;

b – They follow Him;

c – They possess eternal life;

d – They shall never perish;

e – None can pluck them from the hands of the Father and the Son.

Could there be greater security than this and could any words give clearer assurance of the complete salvation of all who come to God through His Son? To doubt His testimony is to make God a liar. To believe His record is to have “much assurance.”

Do you say, “I will try to believe”? Try to believe whom? Dare you speak in this way of the living God who will never call back His words? If an earthly friend told you a remarkable tale that seemed hard to credit, would you say, “I will try to believe you”? To do so would be to insult him to his face. And will you so treat the God of truth, whose gifts and promises are never revoked? Rather look up to Him, confessing all the unbelief of the past as sin, trust Him now, and thus know that you are one of the redeemed.

Some years ago in St. Louis, a worker was dealing with a man who had expressed his desire to be saved by going into the inquiry room upon the invitation of the evangelist. The worker endeavored to show the man that the way to be saved was by accepting Christ as his Saviour and believing the promise of God. But the man kept saying:

“I can’t believe; I can’t believe!”

“Who can’t you believe?” replied the worker.

“Who can’t I believe?” said the man.

“Yes, who can’t you believe? Can’t you believe God? He cannot lie.”

“Why, yes,” said the man, “I can believe God; but I had never thought of it in that way before. I thought you had to have some sort of feeling.”

The man had been trying to work up a sense of faith, instead of relying upon the sure promise of God. For the first time he realized that he was to take God at His word, and as he did so, he experienced the power and assurance of salvation.

“Not saved are we by trying;

From self can come no aid;

‘Tis on the blood relying,

Once for our ransom paid.

‘Tis looking unto Jesus,

The Holy One and Just;

‘Tis His great work that saves us –

It is not ‘try’ but ‘trust’!

“No deeds of ours are needed

To make Christ’s merit more:

No frames of mind or feelings

Can add to His great store;

‘Tis simply to receive Him,

The Holy One and Just;

‘Tis only to believe Him –

It is not ‘try’ but ‘trust’!”

FULL ASSURANCE OF FAITH

In the tenth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, verses 19 to 22, are found the words which we will consider together as the theme of this present chapter. Read the entire passage very thoughtfully: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:19-22).

Do you notice that remarkable expression, “full assurance of faith”? Does it not thrill your soul as you read it? “Full assurance!” What could be more precious? And it is for you if you want it, only you must receive it by faith. For observe carefully, it is not the full assurance of an emotional experience, nor the full assurance of a carefully reasoned-out system of philosophy. It is the full assurance of faith.

The little boy was right who replied to his teacher’s question, “What is faith?” by exclaiming, “Faith is believing God and asking no questions.” That is exactly what it is. Faith is taking God at His word. This is the real meaning of that wonderful definition given by inspiration in Heb 11:1 – “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” God tells us something beyond human ken. Faith gives substance to that. It makes unseen things even more real than things that the eye beholds. It relies in unquestioning certainty upon what God has declared to be true. And when there is this complete reliance upon the promise of God, the Holy Spirit bears witness to the truth, so that the believer has the full assurance of faith.

Faith is not, however, mere intellectual acceptance of certain facts. It involves trust and confidence in those facts, and this results in the word of faith and the work of faith: Faith in Christ is not, therefore, simply accrediting the historical statements revealed concerning our blessed Lord. It is to trust one’s self wholly to Him in reliance upon His redemptive work. To believe is to trust. To trust is to have faith. To have faith in Christ is to have full assurance of salvation.

Because this is so, faith must have something tangible to lay hold of, some definite worth-while message to rest upon. And it is just this that is set forth in the gospel, which is God’s well-ordered plan of salvation for sinners who otherwise are lost, helpless and hopeless.

When, for instance, we are told four times in our Bibles that “the just shall live by faith,” it is not simply that we live in a spirit of optimism, a faith or hope that everything will come out all right at last. And when we speak of the doctrine of justification by faith, it is not to say that he who maintains a courageous heart will thereby be declared righteous. Faith is not the savior. Faith is the hand that lays hold of Him who does save. Therefore the folly of talking of weak faith as opposed to strong faith. The feeblest faith in Christ is saving faith. The strongest faith in self, or ought else but Christ, is but a delusion and a snare, and will leave the soul at last unsaved and forever forlorn.

And so when we are bidden to draw near to God with true hearts in full assurance of faith, the meaning is that we are to rest implicitly on what God has revealed concerning His Son and His glorious work for our redemption. This is set forth admirably in the former part of this chapter in Hebrews where our verse is found. There we have set out in vivid contrast the difference between the many sacrifices offered under the legal dispensation and the one perfect, all-sufficient oblation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Note some of the outstanding differences:

1. They were many and often repeated. His is but one, and no other will ever be required.

2. They did not have the necessary value to settle the sin question. His is of such infinite value, it has settled that problem forevermore.

3. They could not purge the consciences of those who brought them. His purges all who believe, giving a perfect conscience because all sin has been put away from under the eye of God.

4. They could not open the way into the Holiest. His has rent the veil, and inaugurated the new and living way into the very presence of God.

5. They could not perfect the one who offered them. His one sacrifice has perfected forever those who are sanctified.

6. In them there was a remembrance again of sins from year to year. His has enabled God to say, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

7. It was not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should put away sin. But Christ has accomplished that very thing by the sacrifice of Himself.

Here then is where faith rests, on the finished work of Christ. It will help us greatly to understand this, if we glance at what is revealed concerning the sin offering of the old dispensation.

Consider the Troubled Israelite

Let us imagine that we stand near the altar in the temple court, as a troubled Israelite comes with his sacrifice. He leads a goat along to the place of the oblation. The priest examines it carefully, and finding it without any outward blemish he commands it to be slain. The offerer himself puts the knife to its throat, after laying his hand on its head. Then it is flayed and cut in pieces, and all its inward parts carefully inspected. Pronounced perfect, it is accepted and certain parts are placed upon the fire of the altar. The blood is sprinkled round about the altar and upon its four horns, after which the priest pronounces absolution, assuring the man of his forgiveness.

This was but “a shadow of good things to come,” and could not actually put away sin. That unblemished animal typified the sinless Saviour who became the great Sin Offering. His blood has made full and complete expiation for iniquity. All who come to God through Him are eternally forgiven.

If the Israelite sinned against the Lord, on the morrow he required a new sacrifice. His conscience was never made perfect. But Christ’s one offering is of such infinite value that it settles the sin question eternally for all who put their trust in Him. “By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” To be sanctified in this sense is to be set apart to God in all the value of the atoning work and the personal perfections of Christ. He is Himself our sanctification. God sees us henceforth in His Son. Is not this a wonderfully precious truth? It is something man would never have dreamed of. God alone devised such a plan. He who believes His testimony regarding it has full assurance of faith.

He does not know he is saved because he feels happy. But every true believer will be happy to know he is saved. Confidence based upon an emotional experience would leave one in utter bewilderment when that emotion passed away. But assurance based upon the Word of God abides, because that Word is unchangeable.

The Old Gentleman Had No Peace

Many years ago I was holding a series of evangelistic meetings in a little country schoolhouse some miles out of Santa Cruz, California. One day I was out driving with a kindly old gentleman who was attending the services nightly, but who was far from being sure of his personal salvation. As we drove along a beautiful, winding road, literally embowered with great trees, I put the definite question to him, “Have you peace with God?” He drew rein at once, stopped the horse, and exclaimed, “Now that’s what I brought you here for. I won’t go another foot until I know I am saved, or else know it is hopeless to seek to be sure of it.”

“How do you expect to find out?” I inquired.

“Well, that is what puzzles me. I want a definite witness, something that I cannot be mistaken about.”

“Just what would you consider definite, some inward emotional stirring?”

“I can hardly say, only most folks tell us they felt some powerful change when they got religion. I have been seeking that for years, but it has always eluded me.”

“Getting religion is one thing; trusting Christ may be quite another. But now suppose you were seeking salvation, and suddenly there came to you a very happy feeling, would you be sure then that you were saved?”

“Well, I think I would.”

“Then, suppose you went through life resting on that experience, and at last came down to the hour of death. Imagine Satan telling you that you were lost and would soon be beyond hope of mercy, what would you say to him? Would you tell him that you knew all was well, because you had such a happy emotional experience years before? What if he should declare that it was he who gave you that happy feeling, in order to deceive you, could you prove it was not?”

“No,” he answered thoughtfully, “I couldn’t. I see that a happy feeling is not enough.”

“What would be enough?”

“If I could get some definite word in a vision, or a message from an angel, then I could be sure.”

“But suppose you had a vision of a glorious angel, and he told you your sins were forgiven, would that really be enough to rest on?”

“I think it would. One ought to be certain if an angel said it was all right.”

“But if you were dying and Satan was there to disturb you, and told you that you were lost after all, what could you say?”

“Why, I’d tell him an angel told me I was saved.”

“But if he said, ‘I was that angel. I transformed myself into an angel of light to deceive you. And now you are where I wanted you – you will be lost forever.’ What then could you say?”

He pondered a moment or two, and then replied, “I see, you are right; the word of an angel won’t do.”

“But now,” I said, “God has given something better than happy feelings, something more dependable than the voice of an angel. He has given His Son to die for your sins, and He has testified in His own unalterable Word that if you trust in Him all your sins are gone. Listen to this: ‘To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.’ These are the words of God spoken through His apostle Peter, as recorded in Act 10:43.

“Then here in 1Jn 5:13, which says, ‘These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.’ Are these words addressed to you? Do you believe on the Name of the Son of God?”

“I do, sir, I do indeed! I know He is the Son of God, and I know He died for me.”

“Then see what He tells you, ‘Ye may know that ye have eternal life.’ Is not this enough to rest upon? It is a letter from heaven directed expressly to you. How can you refuse to accept what God has told you? Can you not believe Him? Is He not more to be depended on than an angel, or than aroused emotions? Can you not take Him at His word and rest upon it for the forgiveness of your sins?

“Now suppose that as you are dying Satan comes to you and insists that you are lost, but you reply, ‘No, Satan, you cannot terrify me now. I rest on the Word of the living God and He tells me I have eternal life, and also the remission of all my sins.’ Can you not do this now? Will you not bow your head and tell God you will be saved on His terms by coming to Him as a repentant sinner and trusting His word concerning His blessed Son?”

The old man dropped his eyes, and I saw that he was deeply stirred. His lips were moving in prayer. Suddenly he looked up and touching the horse lightly with his whip, explained, “Giddap! It’s all clear now. This is what I’ve wanted for years.”

That night at the meeting he came to the front and told the audience that what he had sought in vain for half a lifetime, he had found when he believed the message of God’s word about what Jesus had done to save sinners. For several years he was a regular correspondent of mine until the Lord took him home – a joyous saint whose doubts and fears had all been banished when he rested on the sure Word of God. His was the full assurance of faith.

Emotional Element in Conversion

And please do not misunderstand me. I do not discount the emotional element in conversion, but I insist it will not do to rely upon it as an evidence that one has been forgiven. When a man is awakened by the Spirit of God to realize something of his lost, undone condition, it would be strange indeed if his emotions were not aroused. When he is brought to repentance, that is, to a complete change of attitude toward his sins, toward himself, and toward God, we need not be surprised to see the tears of penitence coursing down his cheeks. And when he rests his soul on what God has said, and receives in faith the Spirit’s witness, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more,” it would be unthinkable but that, like Wesley, his heart should be strangely warmed as he rejoiced in God’s salvation.

But what I am trying to make plain is that assurance is not based upon any emotional change, but whatever emotional experience there may be, it will be the result of accepting the testimony of the Lord given in the Scriptures. Faith rests on the naked Word of God. That Word believed gives full assurance. Then the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in the believer’s heart and to conform him to Christ. Growth in grace follows naturally when the soul has trusted Christ and entered into peace with God.

“Soon as my all I ventured

On the atoning blood,

The Holy Spirit entered

And I was born of God.”

FULL ASSURANCE OF UNDERSTANDING

WHEN writing to the Christians at Colosse, who had been saved largely through the ministry of Epaphras, that man of prayer and devotion, the apostle Paul said: “For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:1-3). The expression I desire to draw particular attention to is found in the second verse: “the full assurance of understanding.”

The initial question of salvation having been settled, one is not to suppose that there will never arise any further doubts or perplexities. The child of God is a stranger and a pilgrim passing through an unfriendly wilderness-world, where he is beset by many foes who will seek in every way possible to impede his progress. He still has an enemy within: the old fleshy nature which is in constant warfare with the spiritual nature imparted in new birth.

Then outside, our adversary, the devil, goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. We are called upon to resist him, being steadfast in the faith. He knows he can never destroy the life hid with Christ in God, but he will do everything that satanic ingenuity can suggest to hinder the believer’s progress in spirituality and retard his growth in grace. By fiery darts of doubt and incitements to carnal pleasure, he will endeavor to hinder communion with God and so to destroy the Christian’s happiness and annul his testimony. Therefore the need of being built up on our most holy faith and nurtured in sound scriptural instruction. “Through thy precepts,” says David, “I get understanding.”

As soon as one knows he is saved, he should begin, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, a careful, regular, systematic study of the Word of God. The Bible is our Father’s letter to us, His redeemed children. We should value it as that which reveals His mind and indicates the way in which He would have us walk. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2Ti 3:16,17). The study of the Word will instruct me in the truth, it will show me what needs to be rectified in my life and walk, it will make clear how I may get right with God, and it will guide me in paths of uprightness. No Christian can afford to neglect his Bible. If he does, he will be stunted and dwarfed in his spiritual life, and will be a prey to doubts and fears, and may be carried about by every wind of doctrine.

The Newborn Irishman

As newborn babes require milk, so the regenerated soul needs to be nourished on the Word. I wonder if you have heard the story of the Irishman who was converted through reading the New Testament. Rejoicing in his new-found treasure, he delighted to pore over its sacred pages whenever opportunity permitted.

One day the parish priest called to see him and found him perusing the precious volume that had brought such blessing to his soul.

“Pat,” he asked sternly, “what book is that which you are reading?”

“Sure, yer riverance,” was the reply, “it’s the New Testament.”

“The New Testament! Why, Pat, that’s not a book for an ignorant man like you to read. That is for the clergy who go to college and learn its real meaning and then give it to the people. But unlearned folks like you will get all kinds of wrong ideas from it.”

“But, yer riverance,” said Pat, “I’ve just been reading here, and it’s the blessed apostle Peter himself that says it, ‘As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby,’ and sure it’s just a babe in Christ I am, and it’s the milk of the Word I’m afther, and that’s why I am reading it fer meself.”

“That’s all right, Pat, in a way, but the Almighty has appointed His priests to be the milkmen, and when you want the milk of the Word you should come to me and I will give it to you as you are able to bear it.”

“Oh, sure, yer riverance, you know I kape a cow o’ my own out there in the shed, and whin I was sick I hired a man to milk her fer me, and I soon found he was shtealin’ half the milk an’ fillin’ the bucket up with wather. But whin I got well I discharged him and took to milkin’ me own cow, and now it’s the rich cream I’m gettin’ all the time. And, yer riverance, whin I depended on you fer the milk of the Word, man it was the milk an’ water stuff ye gave me, so now I’m milkin’ me own cow in this case, too, and it’s the rich cream o’ the Word on which my soul is feedin’ every day.”

Nothing will make up for lack of this diligent study of the Bible for yourself. You cannot get the full assurance of understanding without it. But as you search the Scriptures you will find truth after truth unfolding in a wonderful way, so that doubts and questions will be banished and divinely-given certainty will take their place.

Discouraged Christians

Many uninstructed believers become discouraged because of their own failures and Satan takes advantage of these to inject into their minds doubts as to whether they are not deceiving themselves after all in supposing they are Christians. But a knowledge of the truth as to the believer’s two natures will often help here. It is important to understand that sin in the flesh, inherent in the old nature, is not destroyed when one is born again. On the contrary, that old sin-principal remains in the believer as long as he is in the body. What takes place at new birth is that a new and divine nature is communicated. These two natures are in conflict with each other.

But the Christian who walks in the Spirit will not fulfil the desires of the flesh, even though at times those desires may be manifested. In order to so walk, one must take sides with God against this principle of evil which belongs to the old Adamic nature. God reckons it as executed at the cross of Christ; for the Lord Jesus died, not only for what we have done but for what we are by nature. Now faith accepts this as true, and the believer can exclaim, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life that I now live in the flesh (that is, in the body) I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20)

.

Carefully consider what is taught here: I, the responsible I, the old man, all that I was as a man in the flesh, including my entire sinful nature, – “I have been crucified with Christ.” When was that? It was when Jesus died on Calvary’s tree nineteen hundred years ago. He was there for me. I was there in Him. He was my representative, my substitute. He died the death I deserved to die. Therefore in God’s eyes His death was my death. So I have died with Him.

Now I am called upon to make this real in my personal experience. I am to reckon myself as dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God (Rom 6:11). The old nature has no claim upon me. If it asserts itself and endeavors to bring me into bondage, I am to take sides with God against it. He has condemned sin in the flesh. I must condemn it too. Instead of yielding to it, I am to yield myself unto God as one alive from the dead, for I have been crucified in Christ’s crucifixion, but I live anew in His resurrection. I am quickened together with Christ, who Himself lives in me. He then is my new Master. He is to take charge of me and to control me for His glory. As yielded to Him, I am freed from sin. “Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace” (Rom 6:14). The sweet, constraining power of grace leads me to present my body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, my intelligent service (Rom 12:1).

Actually, I am still in the body, but I belong to the new creation of which the risen Christ is the Head. It is only the failure to recognize and act upon this that will keep me from a life of victory.

Paul was eager for the Colossian and Laodicean believers to realize their place and responsibility in this new creation. He tells them that he literally agonized in spirit that they might apprehend this truth, and so by heart occupation with Christ find complete deliverance from the power of the world, the flesh, and the devil. He shows them that Christ Himself is the antidote for human philosophy, legality, ritualism, and asceticism, to all of which man is prone to turn when seeking deliverance from the power of sin, but none of which are of any real use against the indulgence of the flesh.

It is occupation with a risen, glorified Saviour, our exalted Head in heaven, that gives the victory we crave. As risen with Him, we are exhorted to seek the things which are above, where Christ sits on God’s right hand. “For ye died, and your life (your real life as a new creature) is hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:3, R.V.).

Another Irishman Shouts “Glory”

I have told of one Irishman who found his joy in the Word of God. Let me tell you of another who got the full assurance of understanding when he learned the truth I have been trying to unfold. He had been soundly converted. He knew he was saved and for a time was filled with joy thereby. But one day the awful thought came, “What if I should sin in such a way as to lose all this, and be lost myself after all?” He felt it would be unspeakably dreadful to have once known the Lord and then to fall from that high place of privilege, and so be overwhelmed in eternal woe. He brooded on this day and night, and was in great distress. But one evening in a meeting he heard the words read from Col 3:1-4, to which I have referred. I give them in full here: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

As these precious verses fell on his ears and he followed them with his eyes, something of their blessed certainty gripped his soul, and forgetting he was in a public gathering, he shouted aloud to the astonishment of those about him, “Glory to God! Whoiver heard of a man droundin’ wid his head that high above water!”

You may smile at his apparent crudity of conception, but he had seen the truth that gives the full assurance of understanding. He realized his union with Christ, and saw that since his Head was already in heaven he was eternally secure. Oh, what a soul-delivering truth this is! How it frees from self-occupation and how it glorifies Christ!

The practical outcome of it is seen in the verses that follow (Col 3:5-17), where we are exhorted to mortify (that is, to put in the place of death, practically) our members which are upon the earth, judging every unclean and unholy propensity as having no place in the new creation, and therefore not to be tolerated for a moment as that which is ignoble and base. Then we are told what habits and behavior we are to put off, as discarded clothes that are unworthy of the new man; and we are directed what to put on as properly characteristic of a man in Christ. Please read the chapter for yourself.

The Lord Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” How necessary then for His redeemed ones to study His Word in dependence upon His Holy Spirit, that they may be delivered both from the fears that are the result of ignorance of His truth and the pride that is a result of self-confidence. The liberating Word alone will give to the honest, yielded soul who searches it prayerfully, in order that it shall have its sway over his life, the full assurance of understanding, for it is written: “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.”

Go On! Go On! Go On!

And so as one goes on in the Christian life, and various problems and perplexities arise, it will be found that the Word of God will give the answer to them all, so far as it is His will that we should understand them down here. There will always be mysteries beyond our comprehension, for God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. But the trusting soul learns to be content with what He has revealed, and so to quietly leave the rest to be unfolded in that coming day when we shall behold Him as He is, and in His light shall see light, and know even as we ourselves are known of Him.

“When I shall wake in that fair morn of morns,

After whose dawning never night returns,

And with whose glory day eternal burns,

I shall be satisfied.”

“When I shall meet with those that I have loved,

Clasp in my arms the dear ones long removed,

And find how faithful Thou to me hast prov’d,

I shall be satisfied.”

Until then, the Word is to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, whereby we walk safely and securely through a world where sin and sorrow reign, and where there are inscrutable mysteries on every hand, unsolvable by human intelligence, knowing that all is well for those who are known of God and are the called according to His purpose of grace as revealed in Christ Jesus. Enough has been set forth in His Word to give our hearts rest, and to keep our souls in peace as we enjoy the “full assurance of understanding.” The rest we can leave to Him who doeth all things well, and who loves us with an everlasting love.

“I am not skilled to understand

What God hath will’d, what God hath plann’d;

I only know at His right hand

Is One who is my Saviour!”

“I take Him at His word indeed:

‘Christ died for sinners,’ this I read;

For in my heart I find a need

Of Him to be my Saviour!”

FULL ASSURANCE OF HOPE

ONE of the literati of this world has told us that hope springs eternal in the human breast. Regarding some phases of life this may be true, but concerning the eternal future the Word of God tells us that in our unregenerate state we were in a hopeless condition. In Eph 2:11, 12, we read: Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the common wealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.

But when one trusts in Christ all this is changed. From that moment on, the believer has a good hope through grace. In Rom 8:24, 25, we are told: For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Note, this does not say we hope to be saved, but we are saved by, or perhaps more properly, in hope. He who has the full assurance of faith and of understanding, and knows on the authority of the word of Him who cannot lie that he is already justified and eternally saved now, has the hope set before him of the redemption of his body at the return of the Lord Jesus, when he will be conformed fully to the image of Gods Son. This hope buoys him up as he faces the manifold trials and vicissitudes of life, and gives him courage to endure as seeing Him who is invisible.

The opening section of the fifth chapter of Romans may be pertinently quoted here (verses 1-5): Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

We have already seen that our assurance is not based upon an emotional experience, but on a Thus saith the Lord. But we should by no means belittle experience. The renewed man enjoys true Christian experience which is produced by the knowledge of Christ as the One who undertakes for him in all the varied trials of the way. These are designed by God to work together for the perfecting of Christian character. It is therefore a great mistake to shrink from trouble, or to pray to be kept free from tribulation.

Praying for Patience

The story has often been told of the younger Christian who sought the counsel and help of an older brother, a minister of Christ. Pray for me, he entreated, that I may be given more patience. Down on their knees they dropped and the minister pleaded with God, O Lord, send this brother more tribulations and trials!

Hold, exclaimed the other, I did not ask you to pray that I might have tribulations but patience.

I understood you, was the reply, but we are told in the Word that tribulation worketh patience.

It is a lesson most of us are slow to learn. But note the steps as given in the passage above: tribulation, patience; experience, hope; and so the soul is unashamed, basking in the enjoyment of the divine love shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit who dwells within.

With this before us, it ought to be easy to understand what is meant when in Heb 6:10-12 we read of the full assurance of hope. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

As one walks with God, and learns to suffer and endure as seeing Him who is invisible, eternal things become more real than the things of time and sense, which are everything to the merely natural man. Thus there comes to the heart a trustful calm, a full assurance, based not alone upon the revealed Word but upon a personal knowledge of communion with God, which gives implicit confidence as to this present life and all that lies ahead.

One was once asked, How do you know that Jesus lives -that He has actually been raised from the dead?

Why, was the answer, I have just come from a half-hours interview with Him. I know I cannot be mistaken.

And this testimony might be multiplied by millions who, through all the Christian centuries, have borne witness to the reality of the personal companionship of Christ Jesus by the Spirit, drawing out the heart in love and devotion, and answering prayer in such a way as to make it impossible to doubt His tender care.

The Young Man Convinced

The late Robert T. Grant told me that on one occasion, while travelling, he was sitting in the Pullman reading his Bible, and he noticed the people around; many with nothing to do. He opened up his bag and got out some gospel tracts, and after distributing them he sat down again. A young man left his own seat and moved over to the preacher, and asked, What did you give this to me for?

Why, it is a message from heaven for you, to give you rest in your soul, replied Mr. Grant.

The young man sneered and said, I used to believe in that stuff years ago, but when I went to school and got educated, I threw it all overboard. I found out theres nothing to it.

Will you let me read to you something I was going over just a moment ago? Mr. Grant asked. The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want. Is there nothing in that, young man? I have known the blessedness of that for many years. Is there nothing in it?

The young man replied, “Go on, read what comes next.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his names sake. Is there nothing in that?

Pardon me, sir, let me hear some more, said the young man.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Is there nothing in that?

Then the young man cried, Oh, forgive me, sir, there is everything in that! My mother died with those words upon her lips and besought me to trust her Saviour, but I have gotten far away from Him. You have brought it all back. Tell me more.

And as Gods servant opened up the truth as to the way of salvation, the young man who had been so careless and unbelieving was convicted of his sin, and led to trust in Christ and confess Him as His own Saviour right there in that Pullman car.

Yes, there is everything in the blessed companionship of Christ, the Lord, both in life and in death, and it is this that gives the full assurance of hope.

But, unhappily, this assurance may become clouded and in a measure lost by spiritual negligence and carelessness in regard to prayer and feeding upon the Word. Therefore the need of such an exhortation as we have before us, which urges us to show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.

The Unhappy Backslider

Peter speaks of some who through waywardness have gotten so far out of fellowship with God that they have forgotten that they were purged from their old sins. This is a sad state to be in. It is what is commonly called in the Old Testament backsliding. And the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own devices (Pro 14:14). An old preacher I knew as a boy used to say, Backsliding always begins in the knee. And this is very true indeed. Neglect of prayer will soon dull the keen edge of ones spiritual sensibilities, and make it easy for a believer to drift into worldliness and carnality, as a result of which his souls eyesight will become dimmed and he will lose the heavenly vision.

The backslider is short-sighted. He sees the things of this poor world very vividly, but he cannot see afar off, as he could in the days of his former, happy state. To such comes the exhortation, Anoint thine eyes with eye- salve, that thou mayest see. Get back to your Bible and back to your knees. Let the Holy Spirit reveal to your penitent heart the point of departure where you left your first love, and judge it definitely before God. Acknowledge the sins and failures that have caused eternal things to lose their preciousness. Cry with David, as you confess your wanderings, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. And He who is married to the backslider will give you again to know the blessedness of fellowship with Himself, and once more your peace will flow as a river and the full assurance of hope be yours.

As you walk with God your faith will grow exceedingly, your love unto all saints will be greatly enlarged, and the hope laid up for you in heaven will fill the vision of your opened eyes, as your heart is occupied with the Lord Himself who has restored your soul.

For it is well to remember that He Himself is our hope. He has gone back to the Fathers house to prepare a place for us and He has promised to come again to receive us unto Himself, that where He is we may be also.

This is a purifying hope. In 1Jn 3:1-3 the Spirit of God tells us so: Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. The third verse has been translated, Every man that hath this hope set on him, purifieth himself, etc. As we are occupied, not with the signs of the times, or simply with prophetic truth, but with the coming One who is our Hope, we must of necessity become increasingly like Him. We shall learn

to hate the things that He cannot approve, and so, cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, we shall seek to be perfected in holiness as we await His imminent return.

So with this hope to cheer us,

And with the Spirits seal

That all our sins are pardoned

Through Him whose stripes did heal;

As strangers and as pilgrims,

No place on earth we own,

But wait and watch as servants

Until our Lord shall come.

This hope will be the mainspring of our loyalty to Him whom we long to see. We are exhorted to be like servants who wait for their Lord and are occupied for Him, that whether He come at morn, at noon, or at night, we may be ready always to meet Him, and so not be ashamed before Him at His coming. Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing (Mat 24:46).

No wonder this is called a blessed hope, as in Tit 2:11-14: For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

The Great School of Grace

It is not merely that we are now saved by grace, but we are also in the school of grace, here to learn how to behave ourselves in such a manner as to have the constant approval of Him who has made us His own. And so grace is here presented as our instructor, teaching us the importance of the denial of self, and the refusal of all that is contrary to the mind of God, in order that we may manifest by clean and holy lives the reality of the faith that we profess, while we have ever before our souls that blessed hope of the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

At His first coming He died to redeem us from all lawlessness, that He might purify us unto Himself a people of His own possession, zealously engaged in all good works. At His second coming He will redeem our bodies and make us wholly like Himself in all things. What a wonderful hope this is, and as we live in the power of it what assurance we have of the unchanging love of Him whose face we soon shall see!

Often when the dead in Christ are being laid away, we are reminded that we commit their precious bodies to the grave in the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection. And this is a most blessed truth. For when the hope of the Lords return is realized, the saints of all past ages who died in faith will share with those who may be alive upon the earth at that time, in the wonderful change that will then take place when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord (1Th 4:16,17). How bright a hope is this and who knows how soon it may be realized! Let us not falter, nor give way to doubt or unbelief, but give diligence in maintaining the full assurance of hope until it gives place to full realization.

Often we may feel that hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but the consummation is sure. Meantime let us be busy in our Masters service, and particularly in trying to win others, bringing them to share with us in the joy of Gods salvation. When at last our little day of service here is ended, not one of us will feel that we have given up too much for Christ, or be sorry that we have labored too earnestly for His glory; but, I fear, many of us would then give worlds, were they ours, if we could only go back to earth and live our lives over again, in sincerity and unselfishness, seeking alone the honor of Him who has redeemed us.

It is better to be saved so as by fire than not to be saved at all, but surely none of us would desire to meet our Master empty-handed, but the rather to come with rejoicing into His presence, when our hope is fulfilled, bringing our sheaves with us. Let us then remember that we have

Only a little while to tell the wondrous story

Of Him who made our guilt and curse His own:

Only a little while till we behold His glory,

And sit with Him upon His throne.

And so may we ever heed His command, Occupy till I come.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

have I: 1Jo 1:4, 1Jo 2:1, 1Jo 2:13, 1Jo 2:14, 1Jo 2:21, 1Jo 2:26, Joh 20:31, Joh 21:24, 1Pe 5:12

believe: 1Jo 3:23, Joh 1:12, Joh 2:23, Joh 3:18, Act 3:16, Act 4:12, 1Ti 1:15, 1Ti 1:16

ye may know: 1Jo 5:10, 1Jo 1:1, 1Jo 1:2, Rom 8:15-17, 2Co 5:1, Gal 4:6, 2Pe 1:10, 2Pe 1:11

Reciprocal: Pro 9:9 – General Pro 22:21 – I Joh 2:11 – and his Joh 3:15 – eternal Joh 6:47 – He that Joh 9:35 – Dost Joh 10:28 – I give Joh 11:15 – to Joh 19:35 – that ye Joh 20:30 – General Rom 15:15 – I have Gal 3:22 – to 1Jo 3:14 – We know 1Jo 5:11 – God 1Jo 5:19 – we know

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

1Jn 5:13. Written unto you that believe again sets forth the idea that not all of the apostolic writings are given as new information. The purpose for repeating it is stated that yo. may know or that they may have their faith for eternal life confirmed.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Jn 5:13. St. John returns now to his one great design, the fulfilling of the Joy of those who believe. These things have I written to youthe whole Epistle, that is,that ye may know that ye have eternal life, unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God. It was not his purpose to establish their assurance, and on that to superinduce a challenge to faith, or to a higher faith, as the reading of our present translation might suggest. Assurance is the final point, and all the blessedness that assurance brings. That ye may know: this is one of the watchwords of the Epistle; and it is here finally introduced in such a way as to show that, while it is the gift of Gods Spirit, it is the bounden duty and privilege of every Christian to live in the enjoyment of it.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Our apostle entering now upon the conclusion of his excellent epistle, acquaints them with his design and end in the writing of it, namely,

1. That they might know they had eternal life, that is, both a right and title to eternal life, and might also attain to the knowledge and assurance of it.

Learn thence, That believers may in this life, without the help of extraordinary revelation, attain to a knowledge and well-grounded assurance of life eternal. These things have I written unto you that believe, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.

There is a threefold knowledge;

notional, which is barely the work of the understanding; experimental, which is seated in the heart, and visible in the life; fiducial, when a person is ascertained and assured of what he knows:

Thus here, these things I write, that ye may know that ye know, that is , be assured that ye know; a Christian may believe, and yet not be assured that he does believe; many have a vital act which have not fiducial act of faith; many have a faith of adherence that want a faith of evidence: Faith and assurance in a saint, differ as much as reason and learning in a man; every man has reason, but every man that has reason has not learning, which is the improvement of reason; thus every good man has faith, but every one that has faith has not assurance, which is the special fruit of faith.

This therefore was the first design and end of St. John’s writing, that they might know they did believe; the second follows,

that those that did believe, might believe on the name of the Son of God; the meaning is, that they might more firmly believe, be more rooted, grounded, settled, and confirmed in the faith, so as to remain unshaken by all the storms of persecution that might fall upon them; this seems to be the sense of the apostle when he exhorts believers to believe.

These things write I unto you that believe, that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. The strongest believers may be exhorted to strengthen their faith, and to persevere in the faith, which they are strengthened and established in.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

1Jn 5:13. These things have I written unto you The things contained in the former part of this chapter concerning the fruits of regenerating faith, and the water and the blood, and the witnesses in heaven and on earth, and especially concerning the things which they have witnessed, mentioned in the two last verses; to you that believe on the name of the Son of God With a faith grounded on a saving knowledge of him, and productive of the fruits spoken of 1Jn 5:1-4; that ye may know On the testimony of all the evangelists and apostles, and of Christ himself; that ye have eternal life That ye are heirs of it, notwithstanding your past sins and present infirmities, and the imperfection of your knowledge and holiness, and the various defects of your love and obedience; and that you may believe That is, may persevere in believing; on the name of the Son of God May continue in the faith grounded and settled, and not be moved away from the hope of the gospel; knowing that the just man shall live by faith, but if he draw back, Gods soul will have no pleasure in him. See Joh 15:6, and Rom 11:22.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

ARGUMENT 14

THE UNPARDONABLE SIN

13. The great end of all Scripture is that all human beings may have eternal life, which is only in the Son of God, the Second Adam, who represents the entire human race in redemption, just as Adam the first represented all in condemnation. When the countless millions of Adams race shall assemble before the great white throne all will be in Adam the first or Adam the Second, the latter all acquitted with full approval, and the former all turned away into hopeless doom.

15. Here we have another grand and glorious confirmation of prevailing prayer. It is the transcendent privilege of Gods saints to be so cleansed by the blood and led by the Spirit as actually to come in touch with God so as to prevail in prayer, like Elijah.

16… There is a sin unto death: I do not say you may ask concerning it.

17. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death. Here we find Johns second definition of sin, unrighteousness, which means inbred sin, his first definition, transgression, meaning actual sin. 1Jn 2:4. Now what is this sin for which we are not to pray for pardon, since there is no pardon possible in the case? This question is abundantly answered in the general trend of the epistle. The great solvent fact of Gospel truth presented in this letter is the Christhood, out of which salvation is utterly impossible, since God out of Christ is a consuming fire. Consequently this unpardonable sin is the following after those Antichrists, or false prophets, so conspicuously exposed and scathingly anathematized in this letter. When people reject the Christhood, it is useless to pray for them, because they can not be saved in their present attitude. If you can prevail on them to forsake their un-Christly heresies, then they are open to conviction, subjects of prevailing prayer and candidates for salvation. This same great, though sad, truth is brought out by Christ (Mat 12:31-32) in the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost, denominated the unpardonable sin. Since the Holy Ghost is the Successor and Revelator of the risen and glorified Christ, it is utterly impossible for any one to receive the benefit of the Christhood without the office of the Holy Spirit in illumination, conviction, regeneration, sanctification and glorification. Hence, the unpardonable sin is following Antichrist and blaspheming the Holy Ghost.

18. … The wicked one toucheth Him not. All committing of sin is under the direct administration of the devil. He must get his hand on you before he can work you. This verse certifies that no regenerated person commits sin, since Satan is not permitted so much as to touch the soul that is born of God. That soul must voluntarily go over to him before he can muster him into service.

19. We know that we are of God and the world lieth in the wicked one. Since all the world is in the devil, and under his control, worldly churches are simply Satans greased planks over which to slide people into hell. All of Gods people belong to the divine Ecclesia (Church), i.e., the called out, consisting of those who, responsive to the call of the Holy Ghost, have left the devil and the world and separated themselves unto God. While regeneration takes us out of the world, sanctification takes the world out of us.

20. Oh, what burning emphasis John constantly pours forth descriptive and expository of the Christhood.

21. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. After people are well sanctified and established in holiness, there is very little probability of their deflection into idolatry. Young converts need constant vigilance and admonition lest they be led away on some line of worldliness, all of which is idolatry.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

1Jn 5:13-21. Conclusion.A reminder of the writers purpose, an assertion of the value and also the limitations of intercessory prayer, and a summary of the teaching of the epistle.

1Jn 5:13. that . . . life: John wishes his readers to have no misgiving as to the reality of their religious experience, though the appended clause (even . . . God) indicates that the security is bound up with a right view of Jesus.

1Jn 5:14 f. When our prayers for ourselves or for others are in accord with Gods will, He hears and will answer them.

1Jn 5:16. a sin not unto death . . . a sin unto death: this distinction has given rise to much discussion. Death symbolises the hopeless ruin of the moral personality. Unto death denotes, not that the gravest sin actually and at once produces death, but that it looks in that direction, has that tendency. In the light of the teaching of this epistle the sin unto death will mean such a view of Christ as saps the foundation of faith and obedience. It is such heresy as poisons conduct. John evidently thought his heretical opponents guilty of this mortal sinhence his reassertion of the contention that sin attached to every act of unrighteousness. For the view that certain forms of apostasy are fatal to the soul, cf. Heb 6:4-6; Heb 10:26 f.

1Jn 5:18-21. In both experience and faith the Christian has distinct characteristics. In view of his new birth he cannot be guilty of habitual sin, but is preserved from it by the power of God. Moreover he sees in Christ a real Incarnation of God in man, and through that view attains to a right conception of God and the possession of eternal life.

1Jn 5:19. in the evil one: i.e. in his embrace. Unlike the Church which, because of its inner life, is secure from being harmed by the evil one, the sinful world is wholly in his power.

1Jn 5:20. This is the true God: true here means real, genuine; the revelation of God in Christ, as the Church interpreted it, being thus distinguished from the false view of God taught by Johns opponents With the true doctrine was bound up a valid experience (cf. Joh 17:3).

1Jn 5:21. Avoidance of the pagan worship prevalent in Asia Minor may here be enjoined (Zahn). But a serious danger of that kind would surely have elicited more than this incidental warning. Idols, therefore, more probably symbolises any form of unreality or falsehood which threatens to draw the soul away from Christ.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

5:13 {13} These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

(13) The conclusion of the epistle, in which he shows first of all, that even they who already believe, need this doctrine, that they may grow more and more in faith: that is to say, that they may be daily more and more certain of their salvation in Christ, through faith.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The phrase "these things" evidently refers to what John had just written about God’s witness (1Jn 5:6-12) rather than to his whole epistle. The "these things" in 1Jn 2:1 likewise refer to what immediately precedes in 1Jn 1:5-10, and the "these things" in 1Jn 2:26 refer to what immediately precedes in 1Jn 2:18-25. [Note: See Robert N. Wilkin, "’Assurance: That You May Know’ (1 John 5:11-13a)," Grace Evangelical Society News 5:12 (December 1990):2, 4.] John stated the purpose of the whole epistle in 1Jn 1:3-4. [Note: Westcott, p. 188.]

"This assertion [i.e., 1Jn 5:13] is very frequently, and wrongly, taken as a statement of purpose for the entire epistle . . . . But this is contrary to the writer’s usage." [Note: Hodges, The Gospel . . ., p. 51. Cf. Wilkin, "Knowing God . . .," p. 3.]

Our assurance of salvation rests on the testimony of God, His promise (1Jn 5:12). It does not rest on the presence of spiritual fruit (cf. Joh 15:8). It rests on God’s Word, not on man’s works. Therefore we can be sure we have eternal life if we have believed on Jesus Christ.

One writer claimed to believe that the Christian’s assurance of salvation rests on both God’s objective promises in Scripture and on the subjective evidence of the believer’s works. [Note: John MacArthur, Faith Works, pp. 162-66.] However the following quotation from him seems to ground our assurance only on subjective evidence.

"Those who cling to the promise of eternal life but care nothing for Christ’s holiness have nothing to be assured of. Such people do not really believe. Either their professed ’faith’ in Christ is an utter sham, or they are simply deluded. If they did truly have their hope fixed on Christ, they would purify themselves, just as He is pure (1Jn 3:3)." [Note: Ibid., p. 171. The emphasis is his.]

"Those who are willing to look at themselves with complete honesty will find more grounds to doubt their salvation than to be assured of it. Some even teach that this uncertainty is healthy! But this does not reckon with the fact that the apostle John expected his readers to know that they had eternal life. The irony is that once Christian experience is made the grounds for assurance, as some hold First John does, John’s statement in this verse about knowing becomes a complete impossibility!" [Note: Hodges, The Epistles . . ., p. 229.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)