How to Discern Biblical Christianity: Part 1
Personal assurance is something that most if not all Christians have wrestled with at some point in their Christian walk. At a time when most people in the Western world claim to be Christians, it’s understandable why this question comes up in our minds as often as it does and why many followers of Christ wrongly agree with critics and unbelievers on what a true Christian looks like. We look for our assurance in the wrong places, tending to seek assurance of our salvation in our spiritual growth, our good works and obedience to God’s word, and what God is doing in our lives. While these things can be evident of salvation, they are not the primary assurance we should seek. God has given us objective truth that we should find our assurance and confidence in. The truth of God’s Word shows us the character of God in a very clear way, something we can root our assurance in. With that said, it’s highly important for Christians to understand what it looks like to be redeemed by God. In this series of articles, I will lead Christians to a biblical understanding of the faith we hold so dear. Although I understand why Christians struggle with the question of assurance, God has graciously given us tools to discern His character and in return have assurance of our salvation.
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The first thing to point out is that our newness in Christ is defined by the absolute, unchanging character of God. In the book of 1 John, John makes this point clear by presenting the characteristics of a Christian’s new nature in absolute terms, in certainties, not opinions or conjecture. He expresses the absolute character of the Christian faith by using very simple terms and very simple contrasts such as light vs darkness, truth vs lies, and children of God vs children of Satan. If we don’t understand that the character of God is absolute, and God has an absolute standard for humanity, we will fail to notice why John uses these black and white terms in his epistle. Those who claim to be Christians must absolutely display characteristics of the new nature, which gives evidence of itself. On the contrary, those who don’t display these characters are not true followers of Christ; they are deceived.
Christians walk in the light
One of the greatest revivals in American history took place between 1730-1740 after theologian and philosopher Jonathan Edwards preached his popular sermon Sinners in The Hands of an Angry God. This event, also historically known as The Great Awakening, caused Edwards to examine the people who claimed their lives were changed and professed Christianity. After the dramatic events took place, Edwards wrote A Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections to deal with evidence of true conversion and to expose false conversion. The supreme proof of true conversion is what he calls “holy affections.'' Edwards writes, “Assurance is never to be enjoyed on the basis of a past experience. There is a need for the present and continuing work of the Holy Spirit...in giving assurance.” Edwards's point is that what follows true conversion is always consistent holy living.
We see this same idea in 1 John 1:6 which says, “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” The term “fellowship” in the Greek is “koy-nohn-ee-ah” meaning association, communion or a gift jointly contributed. In other words, when we fellowship with God, we partake in His divine nature. John reminds us of His divine nature by stating in verse 5 that “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” By God’s nature, He is light, meaning He is pure, perfectly moral and has supreme knowledge and understanding. To walk in darkness is in complete contradiction to God’s absolute character. This is why John says “we lie, and do not practice the truth.” Walking in darkness denotes the idea of blindness, ignorance, and a state of unbelief. Those that walk in darkness are blind to the truth of the Gospel without true conviction or fear of the living God.
“When we fellowship with God we partake in His divine nature.”
Christians can rest in the fact that in our new nature, we indeed walk in light. Bible teacher John MacArthur says in his commentary on 1 John that “Since those walking in the light share in the character of God, they will be habitually characterized by his holiness, indicating their true fellowship with God.” As Christians, our senses are heightened by sin and sin no longer pleases us in the way it did before we were saved. Now, our affections for holiness increase and cleansing from sin continually occurs in our lives. There are no imperfections with God, no mixture of anything contrary to absolute perfection, wisdom, purity, holiness and glory. Therefore, those that God has redeemed and made citizens with Him in heaven will also be made perfect.
“Since those walking in the light share in the character of God, they will be habitually characterized by his holiness, indicating their true fellowship with God.”
Christians acknowledge their sin
1 John presents two external tests that demonstrate salvation: doctrinal (what we believe) and moral (how we live). The doctrinal test is having the right understanding of God and sin. Most people on this earth see the sin in other people's lives, but very few naturally acknowledge the sin in their own lives. We tend to compare our sin to others we feel are worse than we are. We look at people like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler as the bad guys. This is simply not true for the person who believes. A true follower of Christ believes the Gospel which includes recognition of one’s own sin. I don’t believe John is saying that Christians can’t be ignorant of sin in their lives or even have a hard posture towards their sin. But, every Christian has the right understanding of their sin nature because it's the very essence of the Gospel. 1 John 1:8 says “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” He is saying that if we don’t believe we are sinful, we don’t know the truth.
The Gospel states that we are sinners in need of a savior. By saying we have no sin, we communicate that we have no guilt and that the blood of Christ was pointless. The truth is that we are all corrupt people who do no good. Psalm 14:3 states that “They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” Every person needs a savior because we have all fallen short of the glory of God and by not recognizing this we deceive ourselves and fail to see our guilt before God and His grace in redeeming us. By God’s grace, Christians have a right understanding of sin.
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
Continual confession of sin is an indication of genuine salvation as well (1 John 1:9). The term “confess” in the Greek is “hom-ol-og-eh-o,” meaning to say the same thing as someone else, or to agree. So when we confess our sins to God, we acknowledge His perspective of our sin. In verses 8-9, John makes a firm distinction between those who wrongly deny their sin and Christians who rightly confess their sin to God. An acknowledgement of sin leads a person to forsake sin (Psalms 32:3-5; Proverbs 28:13). This brings us to the moral test... Christians keep the commandments of God.
Christians keep the commandments of God
The moral test that John speaks of is a continual pursuit of obeying the commandments of God. There is a spiritual association with "thinking" and "doing". To be enlightened of our sin deserves a proper response: obedience. A person that says he loves God, or knows Him but doesn’t demonstrate habitual obedience to His Word is a liar (1 John 2:5). The “keeping” of God’s commandments emphasizes a Christian’s habitual display of obedience. There are no other people on this earth that seek to obey God but Christians. Non-Christians simply can’t obey God, nor do they seek Him. Regardless of how convincing a person may seem because of the “moral” life they live, that person is not obeying God simply because he/she doesn’t know Him (Psalm 14:1-3). Although Christians may not obey God perfectly, the desire to please God is still constantly present in our lives. I want to end this section quoting John MacArthur in regards to verse 3-6,
“Jesus’ life of obedience is the Christian’s pattern. Those who claim to be Christians ought to live as he did since they possess his Spirit’s presence and power.”
In part 2, I will continue expounding on how we can discern biblical Christianity by using the book of 1 John as our guide. John continues to use direct points to lead the reader to understand the absolute character of God and evidence of salvation in His chosen people.