notes

Main point summary

Faith in the historical Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God and source of eternal life shows that we are born again by God and our love for the Father will result in our loving His children by obeying His Law of Love. This law of love is not a burden because God has granted us faith in Jesus and has sent Jesus and manifested Him in front of our eyes and has given us His Spirit to testify of the Son. God has granted us faith to believe that in Christ is our only source of eternal life! God give us new birth, resulting in faith in His beloved Son, resulting in justification, resulting in the indwelling Spirit, resulting in power to obey the Law of Christ, the Law of Love, resulting in our assurance that we are born of God, resulting in joy in fellowship with God and His church!

5:1-12

NT

1 John 5:1-12

nasb

mine

a Whoever believes that Jesus is the 1 Christ

If a person believes that Jesus of Nazareth, born in 1 BC, suffered under Pontious Pilot is truly the long awaited, prophesied Messiah of Isaiah 53 and Genesis 3 and Psalm 2 and ALL over the Old Testament,

is 2 b born of God ,

then this person is born again by God and is regenerate as the cause of their belief,

conditional

and whoever loves the 3 Father

and if a person truly loves YHWY

c loves the child 2 born of Him .

then they will by new nature love those born again by God; the Church.

actionresult

a By this we know that b we love the children of God ,

By the following, we can know if we are truly loving those begotten/born again by God,

when we love God

As we see ourselves loving God

and 1 observe His commandments.

BY obeying the Law of Christ, the Law of Love, for the all of the commandments are summed up in this saying "Love as I have loved"

actionmanner

For a this is the love of God,

For this is what loving God looks like,

that we b keep His commandments;

that we keep the Law of Christ, the Law of Love

ideaexplanation

series

and c His commandments are not burdensome.

and His commandments are not burdensome when we walk by the power of the Holy Spirit...His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

For whatever is 1 a born of God

BECAUSE whatever is produced by God and whoever is born again by God

b overcomes the world;

lives in victory in this world; "Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good"

and this is the victory that has overcome the world—

and this is the means God uses to grant us the victory in this world-

our faith.

our God given faith that He supplies and sustains to trust Him in all circumstances, to depend on Him in everything, to keep looking to Him and trusting Him when all around my soul gives way!

ground

Who is the one who overcomes the world,

And WHO is it that has this victory over the flesh, Satan, demons, powers, principalities, world systems, sin, and the grave???

but he who a believes that Jesus is the Son of God ?

It's the person that God has given faith to trust that Jesus truly is the only begotten eternal SON of GOD almighty? This man who had no stately form or majesty nor appearance that we should look upon Him. This man who was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. This man who was crucified by humans...HE IS GOD! He is the one true God's Son.

questionanswer

This is the One who came a by water and blood,

This is the One who came by natural birth and natural flesh,

Jesus Christ;

Jesus the Messiah;

not 1 with the water only,

not with natural birth only,

but 1 with the water and 1 with the blood.

but with natural birth and with our own flesh and blood just like ours.

negativepositive

It is b the Spirit who testifies ,

It is the Holy Spirit who testifies about Jesus in our hearts,

because the Spirit is the truth.

because the Holy Spirit IS the truth personified in us.

For there are a three that testify :

For there are three that God uses to testify about Jesus coming in the flesh:

1 the Spirit

The Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus and reveals who He is in His glory

and the water

and His natural birth

and the blood;

and His natural human flesh

and the three are 2 in agreement.

These three are ONE in Christ. They are in agreement that Jesus has come in the flesh and is God!

progression

a If we receive the testimony of men,

If we listen to the testimony of human beings,

the testimony of God is greater;

how much more should we listen to the testimony of the infinite God;

for the testimony of God is this,

BECAUSE, the testimony of God is this:

that b He has testified concerning His Son.

He has testified about His only begotten beloved Son, Jesus.

Lesser to Greater

restate

<

>

The one who believes in the Son of God

If a person believes in Jesus as the Messiah and Lord and Savior of sinners

a has the testimony in himself;

then they have the testimony IN them by the Spirit that testifies about Him living inside them;

the one who does not believe God

If a person does not believe God's message about His Son,

has b made Him a liar,

they are making God almighty out to be a liar,

because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son.

BECAUSE they have not believed the word of God about His Son Jesus.

And the testimony is this,

And the testimony is this,

that God has given us a eternal life ,

that God has chosen to gift us with eternal life,

and b this life is in His Son .

and this eternal life is found IN Christ.

a He who has the Son

If a person believes in and is united to Jesus

has the life ;

then they have eternal life beginning NOW;

he who does not have the Son of God

If a person does not believe in or is not united to Jesus by faith

does not have the life .

then they do not have eternal life.

inference

Why does he say "Whatever" vs. "Whoever"?

Whoever believes in Jesus is born again by God and whoever loves God will love the church by keeping His commandments by the power of the Spirit!

Keeping God's commandments is not a burden or difficult because being born again, receiving the Spirit, we overcome the world by the faith given us by God through the Spirit. We love God and people in obedience to God by our faith in Jesus as the true and only begotten Son of God who truly came born of woman and born with our own flesh and blood.

discourse

5:1-12

Questions: What is implied by the phrase "Whoever believes that Jesus.....is the Christ" or "believes that Jesus is the Son of God"? Put yourself in the position of someone who lived in AD 30-60 and possibly saw Jesus in person. How is Jesus described in Isaiah 53? Would you believe that that person was the Anointed One/The SON of GOD Almighty? By all Biblical accounts, Jesus was not huge physically, he wasn't beautiful, He wasn't stronger than other men physically, He may have looked thin and frail. He was a carpenter, He wasn't a Rabbi, He wasn't training under Gamaliel or some other well known theologian. He was relatively poor, He looked normal or even unattractive... from everything the eyes could see, He couldn't have been God. His virgin birth in Bethlehem sparked the possibility for a while...there was a flash of thought that He could be the Messiah until he kind of disappeared into Egypt for a few years and then came back and grew up normal and was a simple carpenter for 30 years with His dad. There was maybe a tiny blip on the radar when He was 12 at the temple asking the Rabbis questions they couldn't answer...but them from 12 to 30 He went dark and silent...there were a handful of people maybe that were still staring at Him to be the Messiah, but most of the world probably thought this man was completely normal and boring. Then, he goes to a wedding at age 30 and turns the ceremonial hand washing bowls into 100 gallons of wine...He hits the radar....then He is baptized by John in front of a large crown and the Father Speaks and the Spirit descends on Him....He hits the radar even more... How do we know if we're truly loving the Children of God? Does John's answers make sense to you? Try to explain John's (The Holy Spirit's) logic. We can know that we're truly loving people if IN our love, we are motivated by and first filled with love for God...Remember WE LOVE BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US...we love as a result of our relationship with God that HE initiated. Loving people in Jesus name is the only way to truly love people! Acts of kindness done without ever seeking to connect a lost soul to God is not truly loving. We love God BY keeping the Law of Christ, the law of Love...We love HOW God tells us to love!!! Truly loving people only happens when we love as God proscribed. We don't get to decide what love toward another person is. We don't get to decide that loving a person means affirming their co-habitation or affirming their covetousness and greed or affirming their homosexual lifestyle. We love ACCORDING to the law of Christ, His commands... Example of Lauren Daigle. What commands of Christ do we feel are burdensome? Which one's do we struggle to obey or struggle to even WANT to obey? Why? Why/how should His commands NOT be burdensome? Why does John expect that obeying the Law of Christ is not hard, miserable, like pulling teeth? What changes do we need to make in our lives so that "His commandments are not burdensome"? God's people are indwelt with the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the SPIRIT is obedience to the commands. When we walk in the Spirit we will desire obedience more than sin. That new birth John talks about which causes us to overcome the world as we keep the Law of Christ, is the deposit of the indwelling Spirit. He gets more practical and says that His commands are not burdensome because the new birth brings about FAITH...this is the victory that overcomes the world. Hearing the promises of God and believing them...hearing the promise that He will give us words to say when we need them gives us boldness to speak... Hearing and believing that He won't even let a teeny insignificant sparrow die in the middle of the woods unless He allows it, will give us fearlessness to take the gospel to hard people and hard places. Hearing and believing that He works all things for our good enables us to have joy in suffering and persevere in it. Hearing and believing that we have a GLORIOUS inheritance coming allows us to live in joy no matter that circumstances and to not fear death. Who/what all are testifying about Jesus? What in the world do verses 6-8 mean? Before you look at commentaries, try looking at 1 John 4:2, John 3:1-6, John 1:12-13, 1 John 1:1-5. Water and blood: I believe in the context, John is trying to say that Jesus the Messiah has come in the flesh! Apparently, John was fighting false prophets who were denying that the Messiah had come in the flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; ... John's use of both water and blood to refer to natural birth and natural human flesh and blood/genetics (John 3:1-6, John 1:12-13) . In 6a it says "he CAME IN/with water and blood". This seems to have to do with how he came to the world. John's emphasis in the first 5 verses of His letter that he had really seen him and touched him with his hands seems to point to John's emphasis on the physical human life Jesus really lived. John saying that the litmus test of being born of God is believing that this fully human, natural born, natural flesh and blood man is the Messiah and is the Son of GOD! He has come in the flesh! The Spirit testifies of His divinity and the water and the blood testify of His humanity and they are in agreement of WHO Jesus is as the incarnate God/Man. What is the flow of thought in this passage? Summarize the passage... God miraculously, mercifully, supernaturally causes us to be born again. Those who have been born again WILL believe in Jesus as the long awaited Messiah. AND the new birth causes us and enables us to love God and if we love God we WILL by nature love God's children, the church. We love the church by keeping the Law of Christ, which is the Law of Love, which can be summed up as "Love one another AS I have loved you!" Obeying this Law of Love is not a burden Because God has given us the new birth Through faith in the historical Jesus Who REALLY came to earth in the flesh As testified by the indwelling Holy Spirit And by the fact that he was born by natural birth (Water)... John 3:1-6 And because He was truly flesh and blood like us (Blood)... John 1:12-13 THEREFORE, the one who believes in Jesus has the indwelling Spirit testifying that whoever is in CHRIST has eternal life! How does this passage affect our evangelism and discipleship? It says again, that those born again will love people... This just highlights the manner in which they will love people...as overflow from their love for God through keeping the Law of Christ...loving HOW Jesus commands us to love. Again, the gospel is a historical message about a factual person who really walked the earth 2000 years ago...We should evangelize with this in view... Having Jesus, being united to Him by faith, abiding in Him, determines whether we spend eternity in hell or heaven.