“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”
Do you guys remember the reason that we were going to do the study on the book of I John. There were a few reasons, #1 for assurance of salvation for true believers and for the lost in the room to know that they are lost. Reason #2 is a basics of the Christian faith. We will be touching more on reason #1 today.
We can have assurance that we are truly His if we keep His commandments. The commitment of salvation is much deeper than what most people in today’s churches realize, listen to this, “And He was saying to them all,
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it” - Luke 9:23-24
This is true repentance, losing the old life and turning to God, and the best example of it that I can think of is to look at the lives of the disciples. Jesus said, “Come follow me” and they left all, abandoned their life and what they wanted to do with their life and followed Christ. They denied themselves and followed Christ. This phrase “take up his cross” had a very deep and searing meaning when Jesus said this. There was a man named Judas, not the Judas of the Bible, that started a revolt against the Romans. Every person that was captured was forced to carry their cross to their crucifixion site, which was along the roads and streets of the city and then they were crucified there. They were made a spectacle so that no one would try another uprising. The people that Jesus spoke to had seen this or at least heard of this. This is what Jesus was saying to these people. The call is not a superficial uttering of words, or walking an isle. The call is to die and follow Christ. We abandon our lives, our goals, our dreams, our love, our everything for His sake. “Come and Follow Me”-Jesus calls us to die and if we have truly died then we will keep His commandments and that is evidence that we are truly His. Deitrich Bonhoeffer said it this way when talking about Christ’s invitation to people in the Bible,
“Only one thing was required in each case—to rely on Christ’s word, and cling to it as offering greater security than all the securities in the world.”…… And “When Christ calls a man He bids him come and die”
“Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him” If you say you are His and do not follow His commandments then you are lying and the Holy Spirit does not dwell within you, even if you asked Him to “come into your heart”. That phrase means nothing without a radical commitment of your life to Jesus Christ. If you have committed to follow Christ you will follow His commands. We abandon and give up all of our rights and goals to follow Christ and to follow His commands. Also, as we have talked about over and over, when we commit our lives to Christ He transforms us and makes us able to follow Him.
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”-II Corinthians 5:17
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” –John 3:1-3
God makes us able to follow Him and if we are His we will follow. If we are not followers of Christ, then we have not been transformed and we will not follow His commands. Our following or lack of following is evidence to whether or not we are a believer. “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” – Matthew 7:21 Who enters into heaven. “He who does the will of My Father”. Our obedience is evidence of our faith. Deitrich Bonhoeffer said it this way, “Only those who believe obey, and only those who obey believe.” Those who keep Christ’s commands have been saved. God has redeemed you and changed you, but the same cannot be said for those people who live in disobedience. The pattern of Jesus’ life is the pattern for our life and a believer will patter their life after the life of Christ.
“By this we may know that we are in him: whoever abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” That word abides is a term John uses often for salvation, abiding in Christ. So, he is saying that whoever has a relationship with Jesus Christ should walk as Jesus walked. This is the goal of our life, to walk as Jesus did. I once heard a great illustration about this. Picture a father and a son out walking in the snow. The son is not making his own footprints, but walking in his father’s, patterning every step after his father’s. That is similar to what we are talking about her. That kid is probably going to fall, because his father’s steps are entirely to long for him to walk it very well, but he is trying to do so. If we are patterning our life around the life of Christ we must understand that the characteristic that marked Christ’s life on earth the most was single minded obedience to the Father, so obedient in fact that he came from the glory of heaven to be clothed in humanity and to die on a criminal’s cross.
“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” – Philippians 2:5-8
It is true that Christ was humble, loving, etc. but above all He was obedient to the Father and the Father’s commands. We as followers of Christ should walk as Jesus walked. You are either in or out. You are either a Christian or not. You are either of Christ or of this world, because as a follower of Christ you abandon this world. As a lover of the world you are moving against Christ, and are actually the enemy of Christ though we often think it to be harmless. Abandon all for Christ.
Dwain MInor