Jn 17:17 This is Eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent
This title was chosen partly as a response to a question that arose from members at my Church. I also word it this way because I know there are people out there wondering this same question. My normal experience with the internet is that it’s not easy to find really good answers that focus on one question in an article. A question of this importance, particularly if it comes from someone concerned about their salvation, needs to have a good and understandable answer available.
My next direction of my focus coincides very well with this question. The love we reciprocate back to God and others in response to the gospel. The book of first John could stand alone as an answer, though it won’t stand alone here for the point.
When I think about the message in the book of first John it’s almost as if his initial audience was asking the same question. He is just putting it in different language than the modern way we would think to word it. The modern wording we use in asking the question is “am I saved?” “How do I know I’m saved?” The way that Jesus, John and the apostles asked the question was “do you know him?” Him being God in Christ.
In the previous post we saw several examples of people who thought they were doing the right things for Christ. They thought they had such a relationship with Jesus that He would never turn them away. But when they were turned away, the reason was not “you didn’t do enough”. It was “I don’t know you”, or Matthew 7 wording “I never knew you”, followed by “away from me you evil doer”.
“What must I do to be saved?” Is another way of asking the question, and this has a couple of New Testament examples. One was very case specific with a rich man. The other is one place we are given the two greatest commandments.
Most of my readers will know pretty well the teaching of “Sola Fide”- Salvation by faith alone. If the reader is not familiar with the doctrine of Salvation by faith, you can become familiar by reading Romans 4 or Galatians 3-4. Since there many articles available about that one, I won’t go much in depth on it unless people tell me they need it.
Notice here, this is more than merely acknowledging God’s existence- a step the atheist and agnostic haven’t gotten past yet.
Even the demons know he exists, and they shudder. Jms 2
“Abraham believed God” after God made a promise to him, “and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Gen 15). It’s not enough to acknowledge his existence, you have to trust in him as well.
This trust can’t stand alone either though. Would you tell someone that you trust them if their words mean nothing to you? In God’s case “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say” (Lk 6:46)?
It’s placing your trust in him as both the Lord of your life, and the eternal savior/saver of your body and soul.
How do I know that I have the right kind of faith?
How do I know that I’m saved?
What does it mean to know God Savingly?
The answer in one form is very simple. The simplicity has an endless depth though. This is where the answers have overlapping implications. So, in a manner, these are all different versions of the same question.
We are saved by faith alone, but faith alone needs something of validation or qualification. James 2 makes it very clear that faith can’t stand alone. This was a key point of disagreement during the Protestant Reformation- which prompted a clarification from the primary first person to teach it.
The doctrine is faith alone, but not faith that works alone. According to Martin Luther
In Biblical support I’ll use the more formal equivalent version for the sake of an important theological point.
“So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” ESV JMS 2:17.
In the Apostle Paul’s wording- the necessary qualification:
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision- (Old Testament Covenant) counts for anything, but only faith working through love” Galatians 5:6 ESV.
Unfortunately, some of our formal equivalent versions are not helpful to see the nuance.
NASB, NKJV, KJV, RSV- “But faith working through love”
The implication is there, but harder to take notice of, and not singled out with the “only” language.
This is where a more dynamic equivalent (thought for thought) version can be helpful, though there’s more interpretation going on in translating. The NLT should not be used on its own, it is not a good one to study rigid wording to the original, though it is approved in the CRC.
NIV “The only thing that counts is Faith expressing itself through love”
NLT “What is important is faith expressing itself in love”
There are more passages I can cite to demonstrate the nuance and qualification, but we have other parts of this question to get to in a blog friendly length. We will see the nuance again here too.
How do we know that we know him?
“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.” 1 JN 2:3 ESV
How do we know that we love him?
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” 1JN 5:3 ESV
“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law (commandments).” RM 12:10 ESV
Jms 1:22 “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” 1JN 1:6
Whoever says “I Know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfecteed: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” 1JN 2:4-6
“Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him….. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. 1 JN 3:4-10
One could focus just on this book to see what kind of affect the right kind of faith should have on someone.
The right kind of faith ought to have a changing affect on us. Knowing him ought to have a changing affect on us. Loving him ought to have a changing affect on us. All three, should affect us in our behavior towards God and towards neighbor.
This active qualification of all three should not be confused with doing enough to be saved by merit or earning it. The New Testament goes to great lengths to say it is not by works that a person is saved. James 2 is probably the easiest way to see, your works are not what save you, but your works serve as external evidence that validate your faith to others, and to ourselves.
What must I do to be saved?
Luke 10:26-28 NIV “What must I do to inherit eternal life? “What is written in the law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” he answered, “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ You have answered correctly, Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” Following this came the story of the good Samaritan.
Now, I want to start this by pointing something out. When Christians today hear this question, what we almost always think the person is asking is “what can I do merit, or earn salvation?” Then the predictable answer “you can’t do anything to earn or merit salvation.” Which is true.
Then what about the active qualification for faith, knowing him, and loving him we’ve talked about?
Part of the answer has already been answered. The right kind of faith has the same implications as active love that Jesus just referred to in Luke 10.
The other part of the answer is that there is something you can do, provided the spirit gives you faith.
A point of consolation for any concerned soul asking these questions: If you’re asking any of these questions in the first place, we know already the Holy Spirit is working in you. If the Spirit was not working in you, you would not be asking the question. No one can come to him unless the father draws them JN 6:44. “No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy spirit” 1 Cor. 12:3.
The common way to describe what you can actively do is referred to as “work on myself”. Again, not that we are earning or meriting salvation, but that we are “purifying ourselves”, and “putting to death” the sin in our lives with the Spirits help.
“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” Phil. 2:12).
“If by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live” RM 8:13.
“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature; sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry” Col. 3:5.
“Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” 2 Cor. 7:1.
“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart” 1 Pet. 1:22.
We are imperfect however and will not be able to perfectly do all this. So how can we know at the end that Jesus will not turn us away like those in the passages mentioned in the previous post? They thought they had such a relationship with him as to imply “Lord, lord” meaning a close friendship, and he said, “I don’t know you, away from me’.
I’m going to let the passages speak for themselves. The answer, with its simplicity, has an endless depth to it. Our calling is not to do all this perfectly, or by ourselves without God’s help, but to strive, nonetheless.
“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive your knowledge of our lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our lord and Savior Jesus Christ” 2 Pet. 1:3-11 NIV.
How do we know we are saved?
We take him at his promises, trust in his word, and hold him to his word.
The Holy spirit will eventually confirm it in our spirit “The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s Children.” Rm 8:15
We join with Paul “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” Ph 3:14
We join the writer to the Hebrews “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” 12:1-2 esv
Edifying Christianity 