Read 1 John 5:20–21
Questions from the Scripture text: Who knows something (1 John 5:20)? About Whom do we know something? What two things do we know that He has done? What (Whom!) has the understanding that He has given us enabled us to know? What does this verse twice call Him? What is our relation to “Him Who is true”? How (in Whom!) can we be in Him? What two things does verse 20 proceed to call His Son Jesus Christ and union with Him? What does the apostle call them in 1 John 5:21? From what does he warn them to keep themselves? How does the letter conclude?
What do we know? 1 John 5:20–21 looks forward to the second serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God is triune, and Jesus is God.
Certainty about Christ is of the essence of saving faith, while certainty about being in Christ is assurance of faith. But even in an epistle that is about assurance of faith (cf. 1 John 5:13), it is certainty about Christ Himself that gets the last Word:
“We know that the Son of God has come.” Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come in the flesh (cf. 1 John 4:2–3).
He “has given us an understanding, that we may know Him Who is true.” How many false gods and false teachings about God and Christ there are! One of the main purposes of Christ’s coming was so that we would not know a false god or know God falsely. He came that we would know “Him Who is true.”
“And we are in Him Who is true.” The knowledge of God that Jesus gives is not just intellectual knowledge but relational knowledge. And it is of such a relationship that we come to be “in Him.” How is that possible? Because faith in Christ is faith into Christ. We come to be united with Him. And yet Christ is not two persons with two natures, but one divine person with an unchangeable divine nature (to which nothing can be added) and a human nature (that He add to His person).
“This is the true God.” It is because Jesus Christ is the true God that to know Him and to be in Him is to know the true God and to be in the true God. He is not only the “Son of God.” He is “God the Son”!
This is “eternal life.” This is what Jesus was praying about in John 17:3, when He said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent.” And then, later in that prayer, He prayed that we would be one in the Father and the Son (cf. John 17:21) and “that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me” (cf. John 17:22–23). The true eternal life is to be brought into the fellowship (obviously not the being/nature) of the triune God, through being united to Christ, Who is the true God.
Why we need this confession of faith: we are little children. The apostle has addressed them this way many times with fatherly affection, but in this context, there is also an important application: in learning about the glories of the triune God, the incarnation, and union with Christ, we are but little children. We have barely begun to understand and prattle about these glorious truths. But they are indeed true!
So, we need clear, concise statements like 1 John 5:20, because we are still little children. We are still in danger of being carried away by our own fantasies or by others’ false teachings. In the context, “keep yourselves from idols” means especially keeping away from anything other than belief in the triune God. “Keep yourselves from idols” means keeping away from anything other than belief in Jesus Christ, the God-Man, one divine person with two distinct and complete natures that are joined in His person, without becoming confused or conflated in His person.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols!
What sorts of lies are told against the doctrine of the trinity? What sorts of lies are told against the doctrine of the divinity of Christ? What are some ways that people think about “eternal life” that are different than union with Jesus Christ, God the Son, the God-Man? What are some specific things that you are doing to keep yourself away from any and all of these lies?
Sample prayer: Lord, forgive us for letting our minds run free about Your identity and about Christ’s identity, rather than sticking closely to what You have told us in Your Word. Forgive us for leaving ourselves open to speculations that contradict Your revelation of Yourself as triune, or that contradict Your revelation of Christ as God the Son, fully God and fully man in one divine Person. Forgive us for not having been more diligent to keep ourselves from idols, we ask in the Name of God the Son, Jesus Christ, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP110B “The LORD Has Spoken to My Lord” or TPH268 “Of the Father’s Love Begotten”
No comments:
Post a Comment