“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.”
— 1 John 5:13
There was a time when I thought uncertainty about salvation was almost a sign of humility. Saying that I knew I was saved seemed a little too confident. After all, I knew myself well enough to know that my Christian life was not always consistent. There were good days and bad days, periods of growth and times when I struggled with things I thought I should have overcome by now.
The problem with thinking this way is that John apparently wanted believers to have the very certainty I was afraid to have.
He tells his readers that he has written these things so that those who believe in the name of the Son of God may knowthat they have eternal life. John does not treat assurance as something reserved for unusually mature Christians who have accumulated enough evidence from years of faithful living. He writes to people who believe in Jesus and wants them to understand what is already true of them.
The verses immediately before this explain why such confidence is possible:
“And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has the life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.”
— 1 John 5:11–12
John places eternal life in Christ. God has given us eternal life, and that life is in His Son. Therefore, the person who has the Son has life.
That is quite different from the way many of us have learned to examine our salvation. We tend to look at ourselves first. We think about how faithfully we have been living, whether we have been praying enough, whether we have changed enough, or whether certain struggles should still be present in the life of a genuine believer. Depending upon what we find, we either feel reassured or begin questioning everything again.
If my walk becomes the basis for knowing that I am saved, however, I have created a problem that can never really be solved. My walk changes.
Even when I am doing well, how could I know what will happen five or ten years from now? I cannot examine my future obedience. I cannot guarantee that I will never experience a terrible failure or a season of doubt. If eternal life depends upon maintaining a sufficiently successful Christian life until the end, then the certainty John describes would seem impossible.
John can tell believers that they may know because he directs their attention somewhere more reliable than themselves.
The Work That Saves Us Has Already Happened
Our salvation rests upon something Christ has accomplished.
Jesus went to the cross and dealt with our sins there. Hebrews says that He offered one sacrifice for sins for all time and that by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified (Hebrews 10:12–14). The resurrection declared His victory over death, and the life we receive is His own life.
This means that the foundation of my salvation is not still being constructed.
When I wonder whether I have eternal life, I do not need to begin by asking how impressive my recent Christian life has been. I can look at Jesus and ask what He accomplished.
This does not make the way we live irrelevant. Knowing Christ changes us, and His Spirit works within us. We learn, mature, make choices, sometimes fail, get back up, and increasingly discover what it means to live from the life we have received. But growth should not be confused with the basis of our acceptance before God.
A child can grow without becoming progressively more of a child.
In the same way, Christian maturity develops within a relationship that already exists. We are not slowly accumulating enough obedience to turn eternal life into a permanent possession. John speaks of eternal life as something God has givenus.
That allows growth to take place without the constant fear that every failure has placed our salvation back in question.
I Am Not My Own Anchor
There is a simple thought that has helped me understand this: I am not my own anchor.
An anchor would be rather useless if it were sitting loose inside the boat. Its usefulness comes from being secured somewhere that can hold while the boat moves.
Our lives move.
Our emotions certainly do. There are mornings when God seems wonderfully near and others when we may not feel anything unusual at all. Our understanding grows over time, and our behaviour can sometimes be painfully inconsistent with what we already know to be true.
If assurance is anchored inside all of that movement, we should not be surprised when it moves too.
Christ gives us somewhere else to look.
The cross does not become more effective when I have a good week, nor does the resurrection become less true when I have a bad one. Jesus does not need to repeat His sacrifice whenever I fail. The writer of Hebrews goes out of his way to emphasize that His offering was sufficient once for all.
This is why looking to Christ produces a very different kind of confidence from looking at ourselves.
Knowing Is Not Boasting
Some people hesitate to say that they know they have eternal life because they fear sounding presumptuous. Yet there is nothing particularly humble about doubting something God has clearly said.
It would be arrogant for me to claim eternal life because I considered myself sufficiently righteous. That would place confidence in my performance.
John gives us the opposite reason for confidence. God has given eternal life in His Son, and I have believed in His Son.
My assurance therefore gives me nothing to boast about except Jesus.
This also helps explain why grace does not produce the arrogance people sometimes fear. When I understand that my security comes entirely from Christ, I have no basis for looking down on another person. I am not secure because I performed better than they did. I am secure because Jesus saved me.
Why John Wrote This
First John contains many serious statements, and individual verses from the letter can become frightening when separated from John’s purpose. It is worth remembering that John eventually tells us why he has been writing.
He wants believers to know.
He is not trying to leave Christians trapped in endless self-examination, wondering whether they have finally accumulated enough evidence to call themselves saved. His letter ultimately points toward certainty concerning the life God has given in His Son.
There will always be things about ourselves that can make us uncertain. Our performance fluctuates too much to carry the weight of our assurance.
Jesus does not.
That is why I can know that I have eternal life. My confidence is not a prediction about how perfectly I will perform for the rest of my life. It rests upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and God’s testimony concerning His Son.
John’s words are refreshingly uncomplicated:
“The one who has the Son has the life.”
If salvation were ultimately about my ability to keep myself, I could never know where I stood until my life was over.
But I am not the one holding salvation together.
Christ has secured me.
And because my confidence rests there, I can take John seriously when he says that those who believe in the Son of God can know that they have eternal life.
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