Reading: 1
John 5.1-21.
Our
generation forever seeks things that “work”. If Christianity seems to be in the
process of being pushed out in the modern world, the reason may not be
primarily that the modern person cannot reconcile the idea of God with his
scientific thought – for many there is indifference rather than antagonism.
However, there is much evidence that humanity still has the same basic needs in
spite of our intellectual progress. Thus, in reference to the idea that humanity is now “come of age”,
A. Leonard Griffith has written, “I prefer General Omar Bradley’s phrase about ‘nuclear
giants and ethical infants’ which compares man to an 18-month old child who has
suddenly achieved the physical and mental proportions of adulthood but in his
attitude still acts like a helpless baby. A civilization that spends billions
to put a man on the moon and simultaneously sponsors a tear-jerking ‘Freedom
from Hunger Week’ is hardly a civilization come of age, capable of finding
within itself the means of its own salvation”.
The
message of Christianity has the potential to transform the lives of people and
the history of the
world. Yet so often we, who claim to be the people of God, do not live in such a way as to challenge people that this might be true.
But, someone protests, we profess faith, we know and use Christian phraseology,
we participate in certain Christian ordinances, as far as in us lies we seek to
order our lives by Christian standards. I do not deny this. But do we live by
faith? do we know the realities to which the words we
use in speech and song point us? do our Christian
ordinances lead us in utter humility into the presence of God to receive his
grace, or do they merely satisfy our sense of religious duty? are our lives and the principles by which we live the fruit
of love in us -God’s love for us in Christ which constrains us to love him and
to love our fellow?
The
first epistle of John makes some great – indeed extraordinary – affirmations.
The affirmations of this chapter centre around the
person who has faith in Christ. Our text forms one of these outstanding
affirmations – “This is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith”.
This is to be seen in “terms of (a) a new relation to God and (b) a new
relation to the world.
The
argument leading up to our text runs like this: whoever believes that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God; whatever is born of God overcomes the world; it is
the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God who overcomes the world.
The
new relation which a person has with God on becoming a Christian is characteristically described in this
epistle as being “born
of God” and hence as being “the
children of God”. These phrases are not merely formal symbols but point to the
deep and radical change involved in becoming and being a Christian. They remind
us of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, recorded for us by John.
The question Nicodemus came to ask will ever remain a mystery to us. Had he
come, as one rabbi to another, to ask an “opinion on some intricacy of the Law?
Or was he fascinated with the great personality of our Lord? “You must be born
again”, said Jesus. The person who would enter the
Some
have sought to call Christianity just another of the “Mystery” religions of the
Greek world of the first century. The State religion had become a cold
formality and these secret Oriental religions were offering salvation to those
who were initiated into their sacred rites. The initiation involved the
re-enactment of the legend of the god by the initiant. By initiation the person
was seen as becoming a new person, thereafter living in and deriving strength
from the god.
Perhaps
John may have written against such a background, but how much in contrast his
teaching was! This birth,
far from being based on myths, was based on realities of which this writer could testify – “what
we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands
handled” (1.1). This same concern for the realities on which the faith is based
is seen in those strange words in John’s account of the crucifixion, “One of the
soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water. And he who has
seen has borne witness, and his witness is true: and he knows that he is telling
the truth, so
that you also may believe” (Jn 19.34-5). Why this emphatic mention of this point? “The Word became flesh…”, he had written, and here is the central fact of
the Christian proclamation. He wanted to assert what he had seen “with his own eyes” – that he, Jesus,
was truly a human being. He picks up the same thought in this chapter. Some
refused to acknowledge the reality of the incarnation – the Spirit of the
Christ descended on the man Jesus at baptism but left him before the crucifixion.
No! says John, He came not only with water but with
blood, Again the point is emphasised – he
was a real man. It is on this event that this “birth from above” is based.
Characteristic
of the new relation with God is life. God’s witness to his Son is that he has
given us eternal life in his Son – “He who has the Son has the life; he who
does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1 Jn 5.10). John records
our Lord’s saying, “I came that they might have life, and might have it
abundantly” (Jn 10.10). What is “eternal life”, “abundant life”? Again, John
records the saying which gives the key – “This is eternal life, that they know
Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (l7.3). To the daring affirmations of this chapter of this
epistle he adds, “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order
that we might know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and
eternal life” (1 Jn 5.20). True life is fellowship with God and walking in his light. Everyone who believes in Christ is
born into this new relation to God.
But
what of John’s affirmation concerning the new relation of the believer to the
world? The current attitude is
not merely that we should keep religion out of politics, but also that we
should keep it out of all the other “common things of life”. The disturbing
presence of God must await our religious convenience.
However,
the implication of the new birth is that the believer has something of the
character of his heavenly Father. This is why John makes that often-perplexing
affirmation, “We know that no one who is born of God sins; but he who was born of God (Christ himself) keeps him and the
evil one does not touch him” (v. 18). So often we excuse ourselves for our “human frailties”, as if
sin is something to be put up with. Why do we think Christ came? The Christian
faith is realistic – if we sin, we have an Advocate with the Father – but sin
is an alien, not a natural, part of the believer’s life and must always be
regarded as such. Perhaps right in our own personal world we need by faith to
step into the victory. Because we are in a right relation with the Father we
can be assured that he hears us when we ask anything according to his will.
Believing prayer is our trusty sword as we step forward to conquer. Frustration
and defeat, anxiety and despair – these are the fabric of many lives today. But
the Christian affirmation is, “This is the victory that has overcome the world
– our faith”.
However,
the bounds of “the
world” must be extended beyond the personal life of individuals. St. Paul put
it this way – “All things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or
the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to
God” (l Cor. 3.21-3). There were a number of factions within the Corinthian
church. God had been pleased to bless them with the ministries of a number of
faithful men. However, instead of seeing these men as God’s gift to the whole
church, different factions claimed particular men for their own. But “all
things belong to you”, not only all these men of God – Paul, Apollos, Cephas – but
the world, life, death, things present, things to come.
A
wealthy man had the services of a faithful widow, mother of a small boy. After some years, the lady
contracted a fatal illness and died. The man and his wife were concerned for
the well-being of the boy who by then was making good progress at school. In a
short while their mind was made up – they would seek a legal adoption of the
boy. They had grown to love him – they would make him part of their home. But
what a difference for the boy! Once the son of a poor widow, now the son in a
prosperous family! His financial security had changed. Others treated him with
a new respect. The future unfolded before him with many new and exciting
prospects.
What
does it mean to us that we are children of the Father? “All things belong to you...”
Remember that
chapter in Hebrews on the great heroes of the faith – “They were stoned, they
were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword;
they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted,
ill-treated… wandering
in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground” (Heb. 11.37-38).
Were all things theirs? How easily we clutch at the materialistic! These who
had so little from the world’s point of view had so much. Of “no fixed address”,
they had the security of God’s promises. In poverty, they knew the riches of
God. Ill-treated of men, they had the testimony of pleasing God. Dispossessed
in the world, they sought God’s city. In
these days when God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ, God still calls to adventurous living. We are not here to bargain with God – but we are in our Father’s world. “You belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to
God”. There is the key – our relation to God. This is the key to our text also.
Overcoming the world? – “whatever is born of God”, “he who
believes that Jesus is the Son of God”. Being in a new relation to the
Father, we are in a new relation to the Father’s world.
In
another sense we overcome the world – in doing the Father’s will. There is a
struggle on in this world, says John – a struggle between good and evil,
between light and darkness. The spirit of antichrist, the spirit of opposition
to the work of Christ is abroad in the world. False teachers are spreading
erroneous doctrines. They are from the world, but you are from God and have
overcome them “because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world”.
This word applies not merely to our life as individuals, but as the people of
God. It is only on the basis of the relationship between God and his people that we may affirm of the church, “The
gates of Hades shall not overpower it”. It is only through that promise, “Lo, I am with you always”, that we can “go
and make disciples of all the nations”.
What is the answer to a world which feels no pressing need to live the life of faith and yet which so obviously needs what faith can offer? The answer lies with those who claim to be God’s people – “This is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith”. So often we play around with God’s promises and find them a source of comfort. God calls us to live by faith, in trustful dependence on his promises. In Christ we shall overcome the inner world of conflicts and doubts, frustrations and fears. In Christ we shall overcome the world as others are confronted with the God of Love in us. Not that there is anything here for us to be proud of, for it is God who has made us anew and stamped his image in us. By faith in Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, may we enter into the victory!
© Peter J. Blackburn, c. 1965
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from
the New International Version, © International Bible Society, 1984.
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