Believe in Jesus

In the final chapter of his first epistle, the apostle John describes some of the privileges of those who believe in Jesus. Those who believe in Jesus have been born of God. Those who believe in Jesus has overcome the world. Everyone who believes in Jesus receives God’s testimony about his Son. And those who believe in Jesus know they has eternal life. Let’s see how John develops these truths in light of the false teachers’ claims in 1 John 5:1–13. We’ll be using notes from the CSB Life Connections Study Bible.

OPEN: Are you more like the tortoise or the hare in your approach to life?

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of him. This is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God and obey his commands. For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden, because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.” 1 John 5:1–4

Study Notes

5:1 BELIEVES. The belief on the part of Christians is clear proof that they have been born of God.

5:3 NOT A BURDEN. Obedience to the thousands of often picayune rules and regulations promulgated by the scribes and Pharisees was indeed a heavy burden. But obedience to God does not exasperate the Christian since God enables the believer through the Holy Spirit to respond in obedience.

5:4 OUR FAITH. This is the source of the overcoming power of the Christian—confidence and trust that Jesus is the Son of God (v. 5).

CONSIDER (vv. 1–4): What connection did John establish between love for God and obedience to God? How would you describe your experiences with “faith”?

Who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Jesus Christ ​— ​he is the one who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and by blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water, and the blood ​— ​and these three are in agreement.” 1 John 5:5–8

Study Notes

5:6 BY WATER AND BLOOD. By these two phrases, John probably is referring to Jesus’s baptism and Jesus’s death. These two events are crucial in understanding who Jesus really is. The secessionists felt that Jesus, the man, became the Christ at his baptism and that the Christ then departed prior to the death of Jesus. In contrast, the apostolic witness (as recorded in the NT) asserts that at his baptism, Jesus publicly identified himself with the sins of the people (even though he himself was without sin). And at his death, Jesus died to take away those sins.

NOT BY WATER ONLY. The secessionists agree that the baptism of Jesus was important. They felt it was then that the heavenly Christ infused the man Jesus. (In fact, it was the Holy Spirit who descended on Jesus at his baptism.) John is insistent that both the baptism and the crucifixion are crucial in understanding Jesus. THE SPIRIT IS THE TRUTH. The Holy Spirit is the third witness and is qualified to be such because the Spirit is, in his essence, truth itself.

5:7 THREE THAT TESTIFY. There are two kinds of testimony: the objective, historical witness of the water and the blood and the subjective, experiential witness of the Spirit (Christians experience within themselves the reality of these events). These two types of witness complement one another. Believers know in their hearts the truthfulness and power of the historical facts of Jesus’s life and death.

DIG DEEPER (vv. 5–9): Read about Jesus’s baptism (“by water”) in John 1:24–34. Read also about Jesus’s crucifixion (“by blood”) in John 19:31–37. Why were both of those moments critical for John as a witness to Jesus’s authority as the Messiah?

If we accept human testimony, God’s testimony is greater, because it is God’s testimony that he has given about his Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” 1 John 5:9–13

Study Notes

5:10 BELIEVES IN. It is one thing to believe Jesus. It is another to believe in Jesus. To believe Jesus is to accept what he says as true. To believe in Jesus is to accept who he is. It is to trust him completely and to commit one’s life to him.

5:11 ETERNAL LIFE. The Greek word which is here translated “eternal” means “that which belongs to the coming age.” But since that age has already broken into the present age, eternal life can be enjoyed even now.

5:13 This verse parallels Jn 20:31 which is the concluding verse of the gospel. John wrote his gospel in order to witness about Jesus and so inspire faith in those who did not yet know Christ. By believing in Jesus, they would discover “life.” His purpose in the letter is similar, except that now his words are directed to those who have, in fact, come to believe in Jesus. His purpose is no longer to tell them how to find “life” but, instead, to assure them that they do have eternal life.

CONSIDER (vv. 5–13): What can we infer from these verses about the false teachers of John’s day? What gives you confidence that Jesus is able to grant salvation?

APPLY: Do you have confidence in Jesus’s promise of eternal life? What have you liked best in your study of 1 John? Why?

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