Next we come to the more objective proofs. Many of them are found in the First Letter of John. It appears that John set out to write this letter to distinguish between true and false assurance and to encourage those to whom he was writing in their assurance. He wrote (1 John 5:13), ‘These things have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.’ There are a great many of these proofs elsewhere in the Bible also, and we shall only look at some of the most important of them:-
1: An evangelical obedience to our Lord’s commands. The Lord Jesus told His disciples; “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15; cf.1 John 2:3-4). Now I have never met anyone who claimed to be a Christian who did not also claim to love Jesus, so here’s a very simple test: do you make it your first principle in life to obey the commands of Christ and His Apostles as laid down in the Bible? Does it grieve you whenever you fail to do so? If not, how can you claim to love Jesus? We have already seen that Christians are not under the law in the sense that they stand or fall by their minute observation of it, but if we believe that Christ shed His blood for us on the cross, then surely we shall seek to live lives that are pleasing to Him and bring glory to Him?
2: Spiritual Fruit. Christ told His disciples, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit” (John 15:5). So what is spiritual fruit? Some people imagine that ‘fruit’ means getting lots of converts for Christ, but that is actually the Lord’s work (Matt.11:25-27, but see the next chapter). So, bearing in mind our key text, John 3:6, let us look at Galatians 5:19ff: ‘Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions and the like; of which I tell you ……that those who practise such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.’ Now perhaps many readers can look at the first list in this text and say, “Well, I’ve never done most of those things,” but let us remember that our Lord’s definition of adultery is considerably wider than that of most people (Matt. 5:28) and that the biblical definition of sorcery would certainly cover anyone who has ever studied a horoscope. Moreover, which of us have never given way to needless anger, selfish ambition or and argumentative spirit? We need therefore to approach this text with a degree of humility. However, if we can look soberly at our lives since our conversion and see a change from the first list to the second then this is evidence that we are born again.
3: A Sincere Commitment to Righteousness. The Apostle John wrote, ‘Whoever does not practise righteousness is not of God’ (1 John 3:10). It is usual for children to resemble their parents. If a child is born who bears no similarity whatever to its father, eyebrows tend to be raised, suspicions aroused and searching questions asked. So if God is righteous, is it not somewhat surprising if He has given new life to children who retain constant sin in their lives? May we not be a little suspicious of those who claim to be Christians but whose day-to-day existence is marked by carnality and self-indulgence? Now God forbid that anyone should think that I am speaking of sinless perfection here; if there is a reader thinking to himself, “Well, amen to all this! I agree with it so much that I no longer sin at all!” Then he’s fooling himself. John himself wrote, ‘If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us’ (1 John 1:8), whilst James tells us that, ‘We all stumble in many ways’ (James 3:2). What we are talking about here is a true longing for holiness; a desire to be like our Lord. We cannot lay hold of Heaven while our hands are still full of our sins. Therefore the true Christian joyfully lays down all his sins at the foot of the cross and declares with the Psalmist, ‘I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart’ (Psalms 40:8). That is why it is not possible for a practising thief, liar, adulterer or homosexual to be a Christian, whatever they may declare. Anyone who says to himself, “I want to become a Christian, but I won’t stop doing that…”, whatever “that” may be, is on the broad road to destruction (Matthew 7:13). We are told of Levi, the tax collector that he, ‘left all, rose up and followed [Jesus]’ (Luke 5:28). We may or may not be called to leave our jobs or our families when we become Christians, but we are certainly called to leave our sins (John 8:11) even if they are as dear to us as our right hands or right eyes (Matthew 5:29). Alas, perfect sinlessness will still elude us, but when we confess our sins, God looks into our hearts, sees our sincerity and forgives us for Christ’s sake. ‘My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous’ (1 John 2:1).
4: Christian Love. ‘Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God (1J ohn 4:7). At first sight this text seems rather strange. If everybody who loves is born of God, then surely the whole world must be saved because, as an old song goes, ‘Everybody loves somebody sometime’? The answer lies in the difference between the New Testament meaning of the word, ‘love’ and the very broad English usage. For example, we might ‘love’ strawberry cheesecake, playing tennis and freedom as well as our families, whilst ‘making love’ is, of course in these days, a euphemism for the sex act. Greek has three different words for ‘love’. Eros is the word for sexual love. It is not found in the New Testament. Philia is the general word for love; a philosopher is someone who loves wisdom, while a philatelist is someone who loves postage stamps. The word denotes an emotional attachment to someone or something. The third word used is agape. This word is seldom found outside the New Testament. It denotes that love which seeks the good of others out of love for Jesus Christ. “A new commandment I give to you; as I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). Now agape is not just a warm fuzzy feeling towards our friends and family , it is a response to that agape that brought our Lord to the cross. ‘For so God loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…..’ God’s love (agape) for us, expressed in Jesus Christ, is the template for our love for others, and we must seek to do others good even though it hurts. ‘In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another’ (1 John 5:10f; cf. also Phil. 2:5ff).
This agape, although it starts with our fellow Christians, does not end there. ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Mark 12:31; Lev. 19:18). ‘Husbands, love your wives….’ (Ephesians. 5:25). Now here’s a challenge to all married men! How are men to love their wives? ‘…..Just as Christ loved the Church’! How did He show that love? Well, first of all by washing His disciples’ feet and then by going to the cross for her. Although (actually, because) the husband has the leadership role in marriage, He is to serve his wife by putting her needs before his own, even to the point of giving his life for her. Anything less fails to express the love of Christ for His Church. There is nothing half-hearted in Christian love, which is why it is a sure birth-mark of a Christian.
[Continued]
