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VICTORY OVER THE WORLD THROUGH FAITH

1 John chapter 5:1 to 6

In this chapter we have come to the last major division of this very wonderful little book. In the first part of this epistle, we saw that God is light. In the very extensive centre section, we saw that God is love. The subject of this final chapter is God is life.

The first five verses are concerned with victory for the believer over the world. The "world" here is the "civilisation" in which we live, with all of its organisations, all of its governments, all of its selfishness, its greed, its sorrow, its sickness, and its awful sin. In spite of its power, the child of God can overcome it.

God is life, and that life comes through being born of God. This birth comes through simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right (the power, the authority) to become children of God, to those who (not more, nor less, but simply) believe in His name" (John 1:12). This means that when we trust Christ, we trust who He is as well as what He did. What He did has no value if He is not who He said He was. It is faith which produces the New Birth.

When we are born again, God becomes our heavenly Father. If He is our heavenly Father and we are begotten of Him, then we will love Him because of this relationship. But it doesn't stop there: we are also going to love each and every one who is begotten of Him. In other words, as "next of kin", we are going to love the other children of God (John 13:35, 1 John 3:11). This cannot be confined to a certain denomination, church, race, clique, or group. The one who is born again will love others who are equally born again.

It is like a family relationship, and the love for one is a test of the love for the other. When we love God and keep His commandments we love our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is not possible to do one without the other. The commandments here are not the "ten commandments" given to Israel, but the commandments given by the Lord Jesus and passed on to us by His apostles. One is to love one another, but there are many more: there are about twenty-two just in 1 Thessalonians 5. We obey them out of love for Him.

His commandments aren't heavy (translated burdensome or grievous): not that they are not difficult to keep but rather that they do not impose a burden when they are kept. A little girl who was carrying a big, heavy baby was asked by a concerned woman, "Little girl, isn't that baby too heavy for you?" The child replied, "He's not heavy. He's my brother." God's commandments impose no heavy burden on us because we are keeping them through love of Him.

The child of God ought to recognise that he is not to be looking for someone to do something for him, but he is to be expressing love in real action and in real concern for others (John 13:35). The Lord Jesus said, "My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:30). But it will be heavy unless we have the real love for the Lord and we truly want to serve Him.

"Whatsoever is begotten of God overcomes, or keeps on conquering the world." The word "victory" appears eight times in the Old Testament, but only six in the New, three of which are quotations from the Old Testament (Matthew 12:20, 1 Corinthians 15:54,55). The mention of the word here and in the two other places (1 Corinthians 15:57 and Revelation 15:2) concern our victory over death, sin, and the world, and the victory of the tribulation saints over the Beast, all through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is our faith in Him that overcomes the world. It is faith that saves us, and it is faith that keeps us in our path in the world, for in the world there is that which is of the flesh, that which is godless, and that which is of the Devil.

When Israel, led by Joshua, entered the promised land (a type of the condition in which believers ought to be living down here) it was not handed to them on a silver platter. If we are to enjoy the spiritual blessings which are ours, we need to recognise that we have a battle to fight; the enemy holds the territory, and he is not going to let us have any kind of deliverance or victory without a battle.

Three enemies stood before the Israelites and, until they overcame them, they were not able to take the land:

1. Jericho, which represents the world.

2. Ai which represents the flesh. Joshua sent a small contingent there, thinking it would be easy to take, but was defeated. Many Christians overcome the world but to be defeated by the flesh.

3. The Gibeonites who represent the Devil. They deceived Joshua, like the Devil, who was a liar from the beginning. He still deceives and works cunningly.

As regards the world, it is not overcome by fighting but by faith. Jericho was the enemy which was blocking the entrance into the promised land, and had to be defeated first before Israel could take possession. But it was not necessary to fight: by faith the Israelites obeyed the LORD's instructions (even though they may have seemed inadequate) and the LORD gave them the victory: the walls of the city fell down. It wasn't by fighting or military skills but by faith that the walls of Jericho fell down (Hebrews 11:30).

Neither can we overcome the world by fighting it: we cannot reform it or make it more "Christian". "The Lord called me to fish in the fishpond, but He never told me to clean up the fishpond," said a wise preacher, "my business is fishing, giving out the Word of God, and letting the Spirit of God do any cleaning up that has to be done". The Lord Jesus won the victory over the world (John 16:33) and God in us (1 John 4:4) gives us the victory by our faith in Him, as shown by our conviction (verse 1) and by our obedient behaviour (verse 2).

Only he who believes that "Jesus" (the human) and "the Son of God" (deity) are the same and only one Person can keep on conquering the world. When we really trust Christ in this way, we are kept not by our own power, but by the power of God through faith. We have faith in Christ for salvation in the future and faith in Christ for salvation from the world here and now.

Jesus the Son of God came into the world by:

• water, which speaks of the Word of God. The Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). The water is the living Word applied by the Spirit of God.

• blood, referring to His death on the cross, the culmination of His work on earth, paying the price of our redemption.

The water and the blood which came out of His side when pierced by the soldier also bore testimony: contrary to the two others crucified with Him, His bones were not broken, in fulfilment of Scripture (John 19:33-35). John was present at the crucifixion of Christ, and, perhaps because he was closer to the cross than any of the other apostles, he alone noted, as an eyewitness, that when that soldier pushed the spear into the side of Christ, there came out blood and water: not just one element, but both elements.

The Holy Spirit is the chief witness at the baptism of Jesus and all through his ministry, because He is truth (John 15:26), as the Lord himself is (John 14:6). It is the Spirit who can make these truths live.

The Lord Jesus told the disciples that between His death and resurrection and the day of Pentecost they were to stay in Jerusalem and to do nothing: they were not to witness. This was because they could not witness effectively without the Holy Spirit. If anyone is to be saved, not only is Christ's redemptive death essential, but also that the Spirit of God work in hearts and lives. Christ died for our sins, but the Spirit of God must make that real to us. Only the Spirit of God can make the death of Christ real to us, and only the Spirit of God can make the resurrection of Christ real to us.

 

R David Jones

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every one who loves the parent loves the child.

2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.

5 Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

6 This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood.