Confidence

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him... We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. (1 John 5:13–21)

When you are convinced of where you stand with God, everything about the way you live can change.

A Man Convinced He Was Dead

There once was a man who became thoroughly convinced that he was dead. In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, he was confident he was dead, and as a result he lost all drive and hunger to live. This devastated his family. They took him to specialists and doctors, until finally his wife found a psychologist who said, "I think I might be able to help."

From the moment their first session began, the psychologist drove home one proposition: "Only living people bleed." The man looked at him dumbfounded—what did that have to do with anything? They went back and forth for ninety minutes, then again the next week, and again a third week. Finally the man relented: "Fine, I'll grant your proposition. Only living people bleed."

At that point the psychologist took a pin, pricked the man's index finger, and a big drop of blood formed on the tip. The man stared at it, fascinated, then looked up and said, "Well, I suppose dead people bleed too." Some convictions are hard to overturn.

The Confidence John Wants Us to Have

As John comes to his final words in this letter, he turns his attention to conviction—being convinced, having confidence. To be convinced of something is to be confident that it is right and true. Those who lack that kind of conviction have a much harder time navigating life, and the confidence John deals with here is essential for navigating the Christian life well.

He begins in verse 13: "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life." One of John's aims in writing was that his readers would have a confident assurance of their eternal position—that they would know they have eternal life. I don't think we can live the Christian life well without this confidence.

Where Does This Assurance Come From?

This is a valid question, because some of you came out of a religious tradition where you had more doubt than confidence. You wondered whether you had kept the right principles, statutes, or sacraments correctly to be assured of eternal life. Yet John says, "I write so that you would know that you have eternal life." So where does that confidence come from?

The same John who wrote this letter wrote the Gospel of John, which his readers had already received. At the end of John 20 he gives its purpose: Jesus did many signs "written so that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you would have life in His name." John wrote the account of Jesus' life so that we would trust that He is Savior and God in the flesh, and that by believing we would receive life.

What kind of life? The abundant, eternal life Jesus described in John 10: "The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that you would have life, and have it more abundantly." That abundant life continues on into eternity, and it is accessible to those who trust that Jesus is Savior and God incarnate.

Jesus' Own Words About Eternal Life

This is exactly what Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." Then comes the most famous verse of all: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

When Lazarus died, Jesus came to Bethany and met the grieving Martha, who said, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." Jesus answered, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die." Then He asked her the crucial question: "Do you believe this?"

So how can we have assurance of eternal life? Jesus did these works so that we would trust He is Savior and God incarnate, trust in His being lifted up on the cross in our place, and trust that He who is the resurrection and the life would give us life by grace through faith. As John 1:12 says, "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God"—those born not of blood or flesh, but of God.

Point One: Confidence in My Future Position

This leads to the first point: as God's child, I am confident of my future eternal position with God. When I trust in Jesus and receive Him, I am given the right to become a child of God, and as a born-again child of God I have confidence concerning my eternal future with Him.

But, as the commercials say, wait—there's more. Look at verse 14: "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." Here our confidence moves from the future to the present. I not only have a secure confidence about eternity; I have a present assurance that God is with me now.

Fullness of Joy and Boldness in Prayer

Back in chapter 1, John wrote, "These things we write to you, that your joy may be full." That is why this series is called Fullness of Joy. John's desire—and ours—is that we would experience fullness of joy. I've never met anyone who doesn't want that. And I do not believe you can experience fullness of joy without the confidences John describes here. Fullness of joy is the result of being confident that I will be with God eternally and that God is with me right now.

The word "confidence" in verse 14 is the same Greek word the writer of Hebrews uses in Hebrews 10:19 for "boldness." So we could read it: "This is the boldness that we have in Him." If you are a child of God, you can have boldness that He will answer the prayers you bring to Him—and that is a source of great joy, great peace, and great rest.

Point two: as God's child, I have a present confidence that He hears and answers my prayers. If God is your Father, you should have boldness in the way you talk with Him. The question is—do you?

Praying as a Child to a Father

Jesus taught this when His disciples asked, "Lord, teach us to pray." He gave them what we call the Lord's Prayer—maybe better called the disciples' prayer. There's a boldness in it: "Give us this day our daily bread; forgive us our sins as we forgive others." There's boldness in coming before God as Father.

Years ago a hospital chaplain friend of mine was called into the room of a Jewish family as they took their grandfather off life support. As a non-sectarian chaplain, he wanted to be as comforting as possible, so he simply prayed to God as Father—not closing in Jesus' name, not wanting to offend. When he finished, the family had tears streaming down their faces. "Have I offended you?" he asked. "No," they said, "but you actually seem like you know God." He had a boldness, a confidence, to talk to God as Father—and they were in awe of that relationship.

Jesus' Promises About Asking

John surely had in mind the words of Jesus he had recorded decades earlier. In John 14:12, on the night of His betrayal, Jesus said, "Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." In John 15:7: "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you." And in John 16:23–24: "Whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you... Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."

These spectacular promises trigger questions. Can I ask anything I want? Is God obligated to grant every whimsical desire I bring in Jesus' name? Some TV preachers interpret it that way. But we need to read the wording carefully. Jesus says that as I abide in Him and His word abides in me, I bring my requests in His name—according to His nature—and if it is in accordance with His will, then I can have absolute confidence that He hears and answers. "If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us."

Point Three: Praying for Other Sinners

John illustrates this in verse 16: "If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit the sin not leading to death." At the baseline, as a child of God, I have confidence God gives me in prayer. I am confident of my future position because of Jesus' finished work on the cross, and I am confident that right now God is with me and will answer the prayers I bring in accordance with His will.

Point three: having such confidence, I pray boldly for the conversion of other sinners. If I have been saved by grace through faith, have confidence of my eternal position, and have confidence that God hears prayers prayed according to His will, then I will boldly pray that other sinners will be transformed by grace and saved.

This is praying perfectly in line with God's will, for 2 Peter 3:9 says God is "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance," and 1 Timothy 2:4 says God wills that all people would be saved. So when I pray for the salvation of others, I pray in total confidence that God will hear and answer.

The Sin Leading to Death

Verses 16 and 17 raise hard questions that have produced volumes of commentary and endless debate: What is the sin not leading to death? What is the sin leading to death? These are good questions—I'll say more on the Questions podcast this week—but where teachers disagree, we should seek the plain sense of what is being said.

The Scriptures teach from Genesis to Revelation that the wages of sin is death; all sin ultimately leads to death, both physical and spiritual. So what does John mean by a sin that does not lead to death? He seems to be speaking about a spiritual death that will not overtake a believer caught up in sin.

The best explanation I've found comes from Alistair Begg: "The sin that leads to death, akin to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, is a bitter, hardened resistance to the truth of God revealed in Jesus—a recalcitrance towards the truth. It is not the magnitude of the sin that prevents its pardon; it is rather the attitude and disposition of the sinner, for the sinner refuses to find cleansing and forgiveness in the only solution that is offered." John already said in 1 John 1:9 that God is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse us. So the only unforgivable sin—the sin leading to spiritual death—is the sin that refuses to receive the cleansing found only in Jesus. He is the only way; "no one comes to the Father but by Me."

J. B. Phillips paraphrases verses 16–17: "If any of you should see his brother committing a sin—I don't mean deliberately turning his back on God and embracing evil—he should pray to God for him and secure fresh life for the sinner." There is a deliberate embrace of evil that leads to spiritual death; that is not the sin John has in mind when he recommends prayer.

Pray Instead of Gossip

So how should we frame this? Christians still stumble into sin—we all know this experientially. If you've trusted Jesus, you've probably failed within the last twenty-four hours, maybe the last twenty minutes. When you see another follower of Jesus stumble, John's teaching is that your response should be to talk to God about it.

It is far better to go and pray that God would bring restoration, repentance, and forgiveness than to go and gossip with another believer about that person. That's worth clapping about. The inclination of my flesh is to follow their sin with my own sin of gossip, which I justify as "prayer concern." We do that partly because it makes us feel better about ourselves—but it's sin. The best response to a brother or sister stumbling is to bring them to God in prayer; don't follow their sin with your own sin of gossip.

Point Four: Those Born of God Will Not Continue in Sin

When we pray for a believer who has stumbled, we can have great confidence God will work in their life. Verse 18 says, "We know that whoever is born of God does not sin." In the original language this is present, active sin—so it reads, "does not continue in sin." Point four: I am confident those who are born of God will not continue in sin. They may stumble, yes, but they will not continue in a pattern or practice of sin, because God is at work in their life.

John continues, "But he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him." The New Living Translation may capture it better: "God's Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them." The ESV: "He who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him." That's good news.

Then verse 19: "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true... This is the true God and eternal life." Knowing Him is eternal life.

Point Five: Confident I Will Not Remain in Sin

John closes in verse 21: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." Point five: as one born of God, I am confident that I will not remain in sin. How can I be so confident? Because God does not command what He does not also expect, and He does not expect from me what He does not also enable me to accomplish.

When He commands, "Keep yourselves from idols," He expects His child to do so—yet He knows the inclination of my fallen flesh, that in myself I can do nothing. But by God's grace and through His strength, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. With His commands and expectations comes His enabling power. So yes, I "work out my own salvation with fear and trembling," but I know "it is God who works in me both to will and to do for His good pleasure."

I have confidence of my eternal position with God because He finished the work, and I have confidence that He is with me right now, enabling me to do that work and ensuring I will not continue in sin.

How Would This Change Your Life?

Here is a final question to ponder this week: How might your life be different if you walked every day with that confidence? If you were absolutely certain every single day of your eternal position with God—not dependent on what you do or don't do—how would that change the way you live? And if you were absolutely certain that God is with you in every situation, available to enable, empower, and strengthen you through any circumstance, how would that change you? I think it might give you some more joy. Maybe just a little.

Closing Prayer

God, thank You for this passage of Scripture. Though there are some challenging things to think through here, I pray You would give us spiritual insight and wisdom to comprehend not just what these things mean, but how they ought to transform our lives. Your word is living and powerful, given for the purpose of transforming us more and more into the likeness of Your children. So would You do that work today and this week—make us just a little bit more like You.

Lord, stir our hearts to walk in confidence, knowing that our position with You is secured by Your grace, and that having that rest and peace would strengthen our determination to follow hard after You. When we see someone fall into sin—and we will—stir our hearts to cry out to You to draw them back, because we trust that those who are born of You will not continue in sin. We praise You that we can be confident that You who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. Every one of us is in process; we stumble sometimes, but we thank You that You are there when we do. God, do a work in Your church, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those who agree said, "Amen."