Thought from today’s Bible reading from 1 John 1-5.
Can a Christian be confident of his salvation? Or should we live in constant fear of missing out on salvation when the Lord returns?
John wrote about how we can have confidence at the Lord’s return. As the apostle explained, this confidence was not just based upon our assurance of God’s promises, but also upon some action on our part.
“Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him” (1 John 2:28-29).
Our confidence is not based upon the false notion that a child of God can never lose his salvation. Many in the religious world believe the “once saved, always saved” doctrine. But this does not harmonize with the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 9:27; Galatians 5:4; Hebrews 3:12). Though many believe that salvation is either unconditional or by faith alone, John made it clear that we must do something in order to be assured of salvation.
What is it that we must do to be saved? First, John said we must “abide in Him” (John 2:28). How do we abide in Him? We “walk in the same manner as He walked” (1 John 2:6). Later, John wrote: “The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him” (1 John 3:24). We abide in Christ by living as He lived and keeping His commandments.
Along this same line, John said we must practice righteousness if we wish to be saved (John 2:29). Righteousness is not some abstract state of being. John wrote, “The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous” (1 John 3:7). As the gospel reveals the righteousness of God (Romans 1:16-17) and the Scriptures teach, reprove, correct, and train us in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16), we must do those things which are revealed in God’s word in order to practice righteousness.
The way we can “have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming” is by doing His commandments and practicing righteousness. This is not an arrogance in thinking that God owes us anything, but a confidence in knowing that we are doing what God expects us to do in order to be saved.
If you want to have confidence in your salvation, you must be doing what the Lord has instructed in His word. If you are not confident of your salvation, then that is a good indication that you should “test [yourself] to see if you are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5).
Tomorrow’s reading: 2 John 1; 3 John 1
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
