Do You Know You Have Eternal Life?

Do You Know You Have Eternal Life?  2021 03 21

1 John 3:10 – 16

 How Do we Know What we Know?  In a Google search, that question brings back 6,770,000,000 results!  One of the results that came back when I was checking through them was, “How do we know we’re not wrong?”  Another one says, “We Do Not Know What We Know ” …!  And another says, “We Know What We Know…Doesn’t Everybody Know It? ”  Again, another asks, “Do we really need to know? ”   One question that stood out from the rest was, “How do we Know that we Know what we Know?”  The exceptionally pompous and logically fallacious answer given would be shocking if it wasn’t so common these days. The answer from a highly educated liberal atheist was that you can’t know anything, because it’s all a product of evolution and brain chemistry. Of course, his answer is logically false by his own definition!  The real answer to the question is that someone needs to tell us.  Ultimately, we only know we exist because God, the Primary Cause, has told us we exist.  God has given us all the answers to the difficult questions of life in His Word, the Bible.  Today He tells us that we know we have eternal life when we are His children, and furthermore, how we can know that we know.

1 John 3:10 – 16

Do you know you have eternal life?  Are you confident?  Do you really have hope?  These few verses in First John tell us that we can know, clearly, the difference between someone who is saved, a true child of God, and someone who is not.  Even better, we are told how to know that we have eternal life!

I. The Children of God are Manifest v 10

  1. Manifest means clearly evident, obvious. This refers back to verse 7, which says, “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he (Jesus Christ) is righteous.”
    1. No one is righteous without Christ: Romans 3:10 says, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:”
      1. Therefore, a person who does righteousness must be someone who has been supernaturally changed by God and made righteous. Righteousness is a characteristic of a child of God.

 II. The Children of the Devil are also Manifest

  1. Just as the children of God are evident by what they do, so the children of the devil are evident by what they do not do. Note that evil is not something, but the lack of something – it is the lack of good.
    1. whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God,
      1. When we turn from sin and put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Saviour, we are made the righteousness of Christ and therefore do righteousness:
        1. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” Romans 10:4
        2. “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:” Philippians 3:9
        3. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21
      2. This clearly shows that “whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God,” and:
    2. neither he that loveth not his brother.
      1. 11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
        1. Jesus told his disciples, which include all who have put their faith in Him, including us, today, that we are to love one another: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” John 13:34
        2. Jesus told us that this love we have for each other in Christ would be the way people would know that we are Christians: “By this shall all [men] know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” John 13:35
      2. 12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother.
        1. Cain was under the influence of “that wicked one.” His actions proved whom he served – he killed his own brother – he hated his own brother.
  • And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
    1. Cain killed his brother because he hated him – his hatred was demonstrated in the envious act of murder, when God approved of his brother’s works, but not his own.
    2. Apart from God, there is no righteousness. Unless we put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Saviour, as Abel did, we cannot please God, our works will be evil, as Cain’s were, and we will not receive the approval of God.  Heb 11:6 says: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
    3. Unless we are the children of God, we are the children of the devil, just as Cain.
    4. Therefore:

 

III. Don’t be Surprised

  1. 13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
    1. This should not be any surprise to us as children of God
    2. Cain was a child of the devil, as are all who refuse Jesus Christ. He hated his own brother because his brother was righteous, justified by faith, according to Hebrews 11:4.  Why would Cain love you?  He naturally hated righteousness and all who are righteous.
    3. This world has not accepted Jesus Christ, so it does not accept (or love) the you if you have truly turned from your sins and put your faith in Jesus Christ.

 IV.  14 ¶ We know that we have passed from death unto life,

  1. We, who have put our faith in God’s only Son, Jesus Christ, know that we have been given eternal life.
    1. We know this is true:
      1. because we love the brethren.
        1. This is a great and marvelous truth that should fill our hearts with confidence in our position as God’s beloved and eternal children in Christ – that we know we have passed from our former, natural state to eternal life, because we love one another!
        2. We KNOW that all our sins are washed away!
        3. We KNOW the full penalty that we owed has been paid!
        4. We KNOW that God loves us!
        5. We KNOW we have eternal life!
        6. We KNOW we are the born-again children of almighty God!
        7. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God:” 1 John 3:1

 V.  Many are Still Dead

  1. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
    1. Anyone who does not love a fellow Christian is NOT saved – he abides – that is, he remains in his present, lost state of spiritual death, separated from God, and destined for the same penalty as the devil and all his followers, “For the wages of sin is death;” Romans 6:23
      1. Just as the evidence of a people who are truly born again as sons of God is our love for one another, so the lack of this love is clear evidence of an unregenerate life. Jesus said in John 13:35: “By this shall all [men] know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”  Furthermore:
      2. 15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer:
        1. as was Cain – murder is the outcome of hate unchecked.
        2. the heart of the man is where the real man is: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.” Proverbs 23:7
        3. and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
          • Eternal life comes only through faith in Jesus Christ; when we put our faith in Him, He gives us eternal life and sends the Holy Spirit to indwell us. We are in Him and He in us and we are one.  Jesus said, as He prayed to the Father, “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” John 17:23

 VI.  How We Know God Loves Us

  1. 16 Hereby perceive we the love of God,
    1. we know how much he loves us,
      1. because he laid down his life for us:
        1. Jesus Christ, God the Son, loves us so much that he died for us.
        2. Jesus said: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
      2. and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
        1. This is how we should love one another – we should be willing to die for one another. This love is not of ourselves, it is from God, alone, who puts this love into our hearts only when we turn from our sin and place all of our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as our Saviour.
        2. Jesus set the example for us. He died for all of us, bearing all of our sins in His own body, paying the full penalty for our sins by His death and separation from God on the cross.  God raised Him from the dead to be our Saviour for eternity, and when we put our faith in Him, He puts His great love in us, so that we love one another and know that we have passed from death to eternal life.
          • We KNOW we have eternal life. Do YOU?