“Righteousness by Faith, and Faith Alone”

Scripture: 1 John 5:1-12

This is our last week in 1 John, and personally, I see this last chapter as a marvelous conclusion to the book. And I also feel that our first 4 weeks in this epistle have all been leading up to the leading statement for today, that “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God”.

After all, what is our faith all about? Certainly, we are to understand that it is the Holy Spirit who is working miracles in our life and is the very one who leads us and challenges us and convicts us. We are to be alert to the danger that sin holds for us, but without our faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will be limited and sin will run wild in us. Faith is what it is all about.

Read 1 John 5:1-5

These 5 verses are the answer to nearly every worldly argument that we will ever hear.

First, love of God is grounded in the belief that Jesus is the Christ – the Messiah – the Anointed One of God, and that love of the Almighty must be accompanied with love of the children of God. This doesn’t limit compassion to only believers, though – the Lord God has created all people, and therefore those who do not claim Christ as Lord and Savior are still His children! We first love God, and from the depth of that love, we can then love other people.
It doesn’t work the other way around – we don’t come to love God by showing love to the people of earth! If we try to take that tact, we will always love the things of earth first, and our love of God will, by necessity, be second best. We will question his plan for our lives, we will hesitate to claim his perfect call on our lives, and we will be tempted to make our own way instead of following His way.

Second, our love of God is rooted in our obedience to him. The third aspect of the Great Commission is this – “.. and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:16-20) Obeying God’s instructions for our lives, for some, is seen as a burden. They don’t like the commandment, it doesn’t fit with their secular life, it doesn’t make sense to them, or there may be some other aspect of their ideology that prevents them from seeing things the same way that God does. But we know that, even though the Lord’s way isn’t always our way, he doesn’t offer us the option for negotiation. Love is the only thing that can ever help us to accept those commands and to live them in joy.

And this leads us into the third thought that John offers us today. V. 3 “His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.” Our love for God lifts the burden of this life, and allows us to overcome the ideology of the world.

V. 5 - “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God!” And that is the message that Christians are called to spread throughout the earth. It’s a message of hope and grace, a message that we all are in desperate need of. Some, however, would have us believe that overcoming the world is not necessarily a desirable thing – that the world is just fine the way it is, and that laboring for the Lord is a difficult and trying job, with little, if any, real benefits!

Consider the case of the woman who found herself doing most of the household chores. One evening, she went to a PTA meeting, and her husband and her oldest daughter got together and decided that it would be a very wonderful thing if they would clean up the kitchen for her. So they did.
They put up all the food, wiped all the counters, washed all the pots and put them away, put the dishes in the dishwasher, and even remembered to put detergent in and turn the thing on! They swept and mopped the floors and then sat down, and overcome by their own nobility, they awaited her arrival.
Two hours later she returned from the meeting, walked in and took off her coat, hung it up, walked right through the kitchen and into the den, grabbed the remote control, and began watching television.

They followed her over to her chair and stood by her side. Finally she felt them looking over her shoulder and looked up at them and said, “What?”
Her husband said, “The kitchen.”
“The kitchen. What?”
“The kitchen. We cleaned up the kitchen. Didn't you notice? It's sparkling clean. We cleaned it for you.”
The woman replied, “Yes, I noticed. Thankless job, isn't it?”

As told by Dr. John Fiedler, This Thing of Giving Thanks, First United Methodist Church, Dallas, Texas, November 23, 1997.

That is how the world views the love that Christians show to their Lord – as a thankless job! - but the truth is that our love is greatly appreciated – by those we show that love to, and by God who has called us to share his love with others!

It’s all about Jesus and the love that he showed to us first!

Read 1 John 5:6-12

Every Sunday morning, Gibson Corners has a time that is set aside for folks to witness to the ways that God has been working and moving in their life. And these are wonderful moments – they are encouraging and uplifting, and it is a true blessing to able to share in these “God Moments”. But as powerful as they may be, it is God’s witness to us that has the real punch for our lives. And that witness, John tells us, comes from three sources – the Spirit, the water, and the blood.
Have you ever thought about the witness in this way? Think about it!
The Spirit – God’s presence in the world that has been with us since Jesus’ ascension - speaks to our life – not in a demeaning or demanding or threatening or judgmental way, but in a gentle way that brings us to understand that God has a specific need and plan for our lives.
The water – a reference to Christ’s baptism – witnesses to us of a new life and new opportunities in our walk with Almighty God. And in our own baptism, we accept the decision to leave the way that we had been walking, and begin to live the life that the Lord Jesus has called us to live.
The blood – a reference to the Lord’s crucifixion – is a witness to the cleansing power and eternal promise of Christ’s gift of worthiness.
The three that witness to our blessing of new life in Christ far exceeds anything that we could ever offer, but that doesn’t mean that we put an end to our own witness. We have been given a second, and possibly a third or fourth or fifth chance at walking this new way with our Lord, and we can’t overlook the opportunity to share it with others. God is a sure and certain presence in our life, and when he calls us to his side, we can trust him implicitly.

The Lord offers us eternity, while the world can only offer today, and maybe not even that.
God offers us new life, while the world remains immersed in the same old death.
Christ offers us the perfect relationship, but the world can only bring about brokenness and failure and isolation.

Whoever believes in the Son of God will receive glory and riches beyond all measure and imagination. He is all we will ever need! There is no waiting, no trial period, no initiation ritual, no labor, no worry, no doubt. It is all through faith that Christ is exactly who he says he is, for in Jesus, there is only certainty and blessed hope and an eternal promise that can never, ever be broken by him.

Verse 1 -“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God”, and Verse 12 – “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” It is as plain and simple as that. By faith, and faith alone.

And, friends, this brings us right back to the first verses of the first chapter of this study – 1 John 1:1-3

Do you have the Son by faith? And are you testifying to his glory?