Total Assurance

I John 5:9-12

When they first landed a man on the moon, I didn’t get to see it on TV for a few days. Students all over the campus were talking about the event however, and I was convinced it really happened. When I saw actual footage of the event, any remaining doubts disappeared. Subsequent interviews with the astronauts only made it more convincing. Despite the evidence, five years after the event there were still groups insisting that it never really happened, but was just some trick photography.

While I might doubt the statements of others who had seen the reports, the pictures were incontrovertible. While we might take man’s claims about who Jesus Christ is, God’s statement is like the pictures, leaving no legitimate room for doubt.

“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.” (I John 5:9)

While some still doubt even with the pictures, the Astronauts who landed on the moon have that experience in their memory. That experience can never be taken away by any amount of supposedly scientific claims or theories. It is part of their life. They can be sure it is real, and that any one who doesn’t believe it is wrong.

Every Christian has the Holy Spirit, as we see in Romans 8:9. “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Romans 8:16 declares, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:”. Jesus promised, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you,” in John 14:16-17.

“He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” (I John 5:10)

Those who refused to believe that man had landed on the moon said it was a lie, and accused the news media, NASA, and the astronauts of lying. Those who refuse to believe God are effectively saying he is lying, because they don’t believe his statement. God himself has stated that salvation is through believing in Jesus Christ. John 3:16 states, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” (I John 5:11)

Too many times mankind pictures God as looking for an excuse to send people to hell for doing wrong. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I Peter 3:9 states, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” It is not his will that anny one should be condemned to hell. John 3:17-18 explains, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

The situation is well illustrated by picturing a group of people in a sinking ship. Because of the danger, a man in a small boat cannot come too close to the ship, but he throws a life preserver attached to a rope to the people. Anyone who turns loose of the ship and trusts the rescuer to pull him in can be saved. Anyone who refuses to trust the rescuer and insists on hanging on to the ship will drown when it sinks. It will not be the rescuer’s fault if they refuse to take hold of the life preserver or to turn loose of the ship. It is not God’s fault if people don’t accept Christ and are condemned to hell. They refused to be rescued. As John 3:36 states, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (I John 5:12)

Either a person accepts Christ as savior by faith and is saved, or he refuses, and faces the condemnation because he refused to be rescued. It is his decision. John has written these things out so that those who have believed can be assured of their salvation, that they can Know they are saved, that they will be in heaven, because we know our salvation is not dependent on our efforts, but God’s promises, and that he cannot and will not break them. We can completely put our trust in him, we don’t need to hang on to something else.

“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.” (I John 5:13)