SAVED BY SIMPLE FAITH

1 John 5:1

Morning Meditation

Verse 1 says, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him."

There is a controversy raging among good godly Bible scholars over the subject of this meditation. I have read two books written by eminent Bible scholars stating and defending their position on this subject. I read one book and I say, "I agree with this guy one hundred percent." Then I read the other book which provoked this other eminent scholar to write his book, and I say, "I agree with this guy one hundred percent." You say, "You can't agree with both and be right." You see we are always having to take sides. I don't like that. However, I do like the part of the discussion that exposes error and brings us face to face with truth. Because, it is the truth that sets us free. I am not going to review their books. I just simply want to look at a verse that declares the truth. We know this verse is right.

John says, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." The word "Whosoever" translates "pas" and means, "every one, each and every one." John is saying everyone without exception.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FAITH AS A VERB AND A NOUN

The word "believeth" translates "pisteuo" and means, "to be persuaded of, to credit, to place confidence in." It is a present active participle. The present tense represents action that continues, that keeps on going on in the present tense of one's life. Faith as a verb is an action word. John is speaking of one who is acting continuously in the present tense of his life on his belief that Jesus is the Christ. This same word as a noun speaks of the theology of faith. It is used one time that way in this book, i.e., 1 John 5:4. John used the verb form of this word in his gospel 100 times and not one time as a noun. John is not speaking of theology. He is asking people to believe in Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour (John 20:31).

Kittel comments of the relation of faith to hope: "The relation between faith and hope is clear in Rom. 4:18 and Heb. 11:13. When hope is directed to what is invisible, it entails trust. Only faith, not sense, can perceive the heavenly reality and grasp the promised future (Heb. 11:1)."

The Kittel writes on the content of faith: "Paul states the content of faith in Romans 10:9. It involves acknowledgment of the risen Christ. Faith in Christ means faith in his resurrection, and his resurrection implies his prior death for sin."

Believing is acting on the information that God's Word gives us in its claim that Jesus is the Christ so that we call on Him for salvation and begin to live in anticipation of all that is promised to those who believe.

CHRIST MEANS THAT JESUS IS THE ANOINTED ONE

John said, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." The name Jesus was given to Him by the Father before His birth. The Bible defines the word in Matthew 1:21: "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins." The words, "for he shall save his people from their sins," define the Name. Jesus is His name, not Christ. The word "Christ" translates "Christos" and means, "anointed, Christ was/is the Messiah, the Son of God." The word "Messiah" identifies the One the Jews were living in anticipation of because of the promises God made them in the Old Testament. The word "anointed" describes a ceremonial act that indicated that this man is set apart of God and approved by the ones anointing that this person is God's choice for king or priest, etc. (Exo. 28:41; 1 Sam 9:16; 10:1; 1 Sam. 16:13).

The Bible declares His anointing: Luke 4:18 says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised."

Concerning His anointing Acts 4:27 says, "For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together."

And Acts 10:38 says, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him."

BELIEVING HE IS ALIVE NOW

Believing that Jesus is the Christ is believing, trusting in, and relying on the truth that Jesus is the One ordained of God as THE CHRIST, the Son of God, that came in fulfillment of the Old Testament promises as the King of the Jews, and the Saviour of the world. The verb "is" is in the present tense. It is not believing that Jesus WAS the Christ, but He remains alive right now and still is. The Crucifixion did not keep Him dead. He was raised again and is alive. In our text it is not just believing in this truth theologically, but believing it in action. It is acting on the truth of it, calling on Him for salvation, and living in hope of His promised return (Rom. 8:24-25). This means the Christian believes that He is saved because He has done what Jesus says one has to do to be saved (Rom. 10:13). It means that now that he believes he is saved because that issue is settled, and now he lives by faith in the Lord's present and future promises that He makes to the saved. He looks to the Saviour in His present ascended ministry, and to him Jesus is as alive as the people around him. Invisibility is not a hindrance to faith.

THE NEW BIRTH IS AN ACT OF GOD

The words "is born" translate "gennao" and is used, "of men who fathered children." It means, "to be begotten of." It is a perfect passive indicative verb. This means that the ones of whom John speaks (those who believe that Jesus is the Christ) have been in the past born of God and remain that way in the present. The passive voice means that the believer is the recipient of the action in the birth. He had nothing to do with the birth. God acted on him as a believer so that he is not only legally adopted (Eph. 1:5), but has experienced the miracle of the new birth (Eph. 4:24). The preposition "of" in the phrase "of God," means, "Out of God." This means that God puts His very nature in the believer.

He creates a new man and identifies the believer with the new creation; Eph. 4:24; Rom. 7:22.

Positionally one is baptized into Christ; 1 Cor. 12:13; 2 Cor. 5:17; Col. 3:3.

The Holy Spirit becomes the seal of our salvation and comes within to dwell until the day of body redemption; Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30.

The believer partakes of the Divine Nature; 2 Pet. 1:4.

SOMETHING THAT CHARACTERIZES EVERY SAVED PERSON

Then John says, "and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him." The word "everyone" is the same word "pas" as above and means, "each and every." He is about to state a characteristic of every saved individual. The word "loveth" translates "agapao" and is a present active participle that comes from the word translated "love" in John 3:16. It is the love that is shed abroad in the heart of the believer by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). This is a predetermined attitude that does not depend on the response of the one loved. Romans 5:8 says, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." God loves regardless of a proper response on our part. We are to learn to love God's way. We are to discipline ourselves to love God's people in spite of our differences. Jesus said, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for another" John 13:35.

The words "him that begat" translates "gannao" again and is an aorist tense and means that this Person of whom John speaks has at a point of time in the past BEGOTTEN the believer. We are talking about a BEGOTTEN believer. We are not talking about unsaved professors of Christianity. The words "loveth him also that is begotten of him" mean that if we are saved we love all (pas) the other family members. The word "loveth" is present tense. It means that the saved love in reality the other members of the family of God. The words "is begotten" is a perfect tense and means that the ones we love are those who have had a genuine new birth in the past and remain as a born again child of God.

DEALING WITH THE DIFFICULTY

Now this presents a difficulty. There are those who are in the church but not genuinely born again. You say, "Yeah, that's right." Well, the problem is that we are absolutely forbidden to judge whether a person is saved or not. Remember the servant wanting to go out and root up the tares when they discovered that they were growing in the field with the wheat? Remember what Jesus told them? Read it again in Matthew 13. What about a person who professes to be a Christian and openly denies that Jesus is the virgin born Son of God? Can't we make a judgment there? Do we have to love him? The God has made the judgment about this one in His Word. When God makes the judgment, we are free to operate on the basis of His judgment. These two verses have made this judgment:

1 John 4:3 says, "And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”

2 John 1:7 says, "For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist."

We are saved by simple faith. If you start trying to make the degree of faith that by which a person is saved, it cannot be substantiated by the Scripture, and many of God's children will be confused.

THE DANGER OF OVER REACTING

There are those who teach that a person who really believes will persevere. Well, what about Lot? 2 Peter 2:7 says, "And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:" I believe Lot died under the chastening of the Lord just like many others. In our desire to be RIGHT and not condone "easy believism" some have over reacted and are teaching something that clearly contradicts Scripture. I do not judge their sincerity. I realize I'm not going to settle this argument. I believe that it is the verb "faith" that saves, not the noun. The noun identifies the theology of the faith. But you can have theology in the head without having a faith that calls upon and relies upon the faithfulness of God to do what He says.

I hope this help some who are struggling with salvation as it relates to simple faith. May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.

In Christ

Bro. White