Consider the Perfect Tense. The Perfect Tense is used to indicate an action which occurred in the past and has continued on till the present. The quotes are taken from the NIV. The italics are mine for emphasis.

1John 3:6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has (at any time in the past up the the present) either seen him or known him.

1John 2:19 "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."

1John 3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

2Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Jer 31:33,34 "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Romans 8:9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

1John 5:3-5 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God (perfect tense: "has in the past been born of God") overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Do you have fellowship with God? (1:6)
Have you come to know him? (2:3; 4:7)
Are you in him? (2:4; 5:20) or live in him? (2:6; 3:24)
Does he live in you? (4:13;15)
Are you in the light? (2:9)
Do you really belong to us? (2:19)
Do you have the Father? (2:23)
Do you have the Son? (5:12)
Have you been born of God? (2:29; 5:1)
Are you a child of God? (3:1)
Are you from God? (4:4)
Do you have eternal life? (5:13)

1Jn 2:15  Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1Jn 2:28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

1Jn 3:13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.

1Jn 3:18  My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

1Jn 3:23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

1Jn 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

1Jn 4:21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

1Jn 5:21  Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen

The book of 1John is all about how to identify children of God. But Free Grace Theology rejects this idea because if accepted, then the book of 1John teaches ideas explicitly contrary to Free Grace Theology. Instead they propose that 1John is not about saved/unsaved issues, but rather about the relative degree of fellowship the "saved" experience. Such people also don't believe that 1John is teaching anything about assurance of salvation, since John often references behavior. For my Bible study on 1John see http://www.bcbsr.com/books/1jn.html Here are some evidences that 1John is written not concerning the relative degree of fellowship one has with God, but rather about identifying those born of God:

1. If it's about a relative experience of fellowship among those born of God or between God and his children, then why does it use absolute either/or contrasts rather than using relative terms? Its about light versus darkness and not about shades of gray. There are tons of examples throughout 1John. In fact seldom does he ever speak in relative terms. (1John 1:6,7; 2:19,23,29; 3:7-10,14,15; 4:6-8; 5:4,10,12,18)

2. If it's about a relative experience of fellowship, then why does it link right behavior with everyone born of God rather than link it with only a certain elite group among those born of God. (1John 2:29; 3:9,10; 4:7; 5:1,4,18)

3. If it's about a relative experience of fellowship and not about identifying those born of God and distinguishing them from children of the devil, correlating these also with a person's behavior, then why does he use such terms as "this is how we know" with reference to such verses?

"This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother." 1John 3:10

"We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him."1John 3:14,15

4. Futhermore if 1John is not about salvation, then why does John say that it is?

"He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.  I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." 1John 5:12,13

While Free Grace Theology may attempt to interpret "eternal life" in 1John as limited to an elite group of believers rather than to all believers and interpret it as not referring to salvation, but rather to a relative experience of fellowship with God, the Bible teaches that everyone who believes in the Son has eternal life (John 3:16,36; 1John 5;12,13). This is contrary to the idea that the Bible teaches some kind of elitist division among the believers as if some have more eternal life than others. The Bible teaches either you have it or you don't, just as it teaches that either you have the Son or don't. So also it teaches, "if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ."Romans 8:9 Furthermore having this eternal life is not a matter of effort just as it is not a matter of degree. "the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom 6:23 The Bible also teaches that the alternative to having eternal life is not simply have less rewards in heaven, but rather the alternative is perishing. (John 10:28; 5;24)

5. Why is it even when he refers to "fellowship" (which is only mentioned in chapter1), that he speaks not in relative terms but absolute, relating it also to eternal life?

1 John 1:1-3  That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched— this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

What he "saw and heard" was the gospel of Jesus Christ concerning eternal life. But eternal life is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ as John also quoted Jesus, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." John 17:3 And as noted above those who don't have this eternal life are not simply cast out into some kind of Protestant Purgatory. No, rather they perish altogether under God's condemnation.

1 John 1:6  If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.

Fellowship with God is eternal life. You either have it or you don't. Those who claim to have this eternal life but live a lifestyle contrary to that fact are lying. Lying about what? Lying about having eternal life. In other words they don't have eternal life.

1 John 1:7  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

This verse correlates perfectly with the above ideas. For if one does not walk in the light, then what is implied is that such a person's sins are not purified by the blood of Jesus, else the last part of the verse would be moot. Furthermore the universal fellowship between true believers is taught in 1John 5:1-4, and 1John 3:14,15 indicates that hatred of Christians is indicative that such a person does not have eternal life in him, again speaking in absolute terms and again correlating it with eternal life.

Free Grace Theology may propose that a verse like 1John 1:7 is not dealing with eternal salvation, but rather to sanctification. Thus they propose many of those born of God die with sin which has not been purified by the blood of Jesus. This has led many such theologians to various Protestant Purgatory scenarios to deal with such unpurified sin. One such Free Grace Theologian is Watchman Nee who writes:

"If a person has become a Christian but his hands or feet sin all the time, he will suffer the punishment of the eternal fire in the kingdom of the heavens. He will not suffer this punishment eternally, but will suffer it only in the age of the kingdom" Watchman Nee

"We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood." 1John 4:6

10/2/11

What have you heard people say is the basis of the assurance of their salvation? That is, what do that say about how they know that they personally are saved?

1John is all about answering that question. 1John is about one thing. And everything in 1John is about that one thing.

Paul says to the Corinthians in 2Cor 13:5 "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you— unless, of course, you fail the test?" What is the test? 1John is all about that test.

The gospel of John is about how to get saved. "These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." John 20:31 The epistle of 1John is not about how to get saved. "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." 1John 5:13 It's about identifying those who are saved and distinguishing them from those who are not saved. 1John is both about the Assurance of Salvation and about the Assurance of Non-Salvation

I’ve used the word “saved”, but here are many different words and phrases that John utilizes to express this same concept.

Do you have fellowship with God? (1:6)
Have you come to know him? (2:3; 4:7)
Are you in him? (2:4; 5:20) or live in him? (2:6; 3:24)
Does he live in you? (4:13;15)
Are you in the light? (2:9)
Do you really belong to us? (2:19)
Do you have the Father? (2:23)
Do you have the Son? (5:12)
Have you been born of God? (2:29; 5:1)
Are you a child of God? (3:1)
Are you from God? (4:4)
Do you have eternal life? (5:13)

These are really all the same question asked in different ways.

What are different words we use today which are synonomous to asking whether a person has been "saved"?

1John is not about how to get eternal life. And that fact is something we'll probably have to reiterate a number of times as we go through 1John. Rather it’s about identifying those who have eternal life and distinguishing them from those who don’t.

Today I'm just going to cover some significant  Doctrines implied or assumed in 1John related to the assurance of salvation which we'll run across in our study of 1John

The Nature of Christ (1John 4)
    - It's about the CONTENT of your faith

Son of Man - Jesus took on a human nature. When we get to it, we might consider the implications which may challenge you as to how much you really believe Jesus took on a human nature. - or to what degree your beliefs about Christ are docetic.

Son of God - This has two parts. One being the issue of his diety, and thother being his position in the Godhead. That is considering the implications of being the Son of God. Arianism rejected his deity, viewing Jesus as a created being. Very common indication of a cult is their rejection of the deity of Christ. But as Son of God it's not simply about his diety, but accepting his position among the Trinity. There's a heresy known as "modalism" or the "Sabellian heresy" which denies the distinction between the persons of the Godhead.

Perseverance of the Saints (1John 2:19)  & John’s usage of the Tense
    - It's about the ENDURANCE of your faith

Notice also that the middle phrase in 1John 2:19 implies eternal security.

Do we have a "right", do we have the ability to determine other people's salvation status? According to John, we do! But it's not just a right, it's a responsibility. I'll be giving some more scriptural examples of this at the end if we have time.

Now I want to bring up another verse advocating the perseverance of the saints to show an example of the significance of the tense of the verb in 1John

1John 5:3-5 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God (perfect tense: "has in the past been born of God") overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

There are other significant things about verb tenses in 1John and how they impact meaning which I'll cover at another time.

Regenerative Behavior (1John 3)

This is the most significant doctrine John utilizes in 1John, which is found in every chapter, but particularly in chapter 3 and secondly in chapter 5

    - It's about the CORRELATION between your faith and your behavior

Regeneration Occurs after Faith (John 1:12; Gal 3:2,26)

These in contrast to those Christians who are under the misconception that a person is born-again prior to believing in Christ, such as reflected in these quotes:

Before a person is even given a right to be a son of God, they must be born of God. Only then will he "believe in his name".

One must be born again first (be born of the spirit) so that we might hear and accept the words Jesus spoke which can not be understood in the flesh. Once born again we can hear and repent

This is one of the misconceptions of Reformed Theology, a misconception common among Christians today.

One of the reasons this is important in 1John is because if there are people walking around who have been born of God but don't believe in Jesus and consequently have eternal life, just identifying such people as having been born of God says nothing of their salvation status. But if everyone who has been born of God also has eternal life, and everyone who has eternal life has been born of God, then one only need identify whether or not a person has been born of God to determine their salvation status.

Assurance of Salvation vs Eternal Security

The doctrine of Eternal Security is not the basis of a person’s assurance of salvation. We can say “Once saved, Always saved”, but with regards to assurance, how do you know whether a particular individual has been saved?  The doctrine of Eternal Security has often these days falsely used as a basis for a person’s assurance of salvation.

If a person says they prayed a prayer 30 years ago to receive Christ, then since once saved, always saved, they are still saved today. What might be wrong about that statement? We'll see in 1John that one's personal assurance of salvation is not based upon a point in time event. But I'll cover this more at a later date.

1John vs Faith in Faith

Faith in faith is a someone commone post-modernistic viewpoint where if you believe hard enough about anything you create your own reality. In such  a person is saved in so much as they believe they are saved. You'll faith people of that belief objecting to the whole idea of questioning one's salvation status. For in such a person's mind only the unsaved question their salvation status, and thus for them the indication of a person being unsaved is whether or not they question their salvation status.

Obviously contrary to the Bible as we see throughout 1John, but even more explicitly on of the first verses I mentioned, namely 2Cor 13:5

Applications:

If you were fully confident that you were saved and your destiny secured, how would that affect your life? Attitude, Ambition, Goals in life.

Attitudes: Joy (Jn 17:13), Hope

The primary basis for joy in the Christian life is the assurance of salvation, whether it be the assurance of your own salvation, or that of those you’ve been ministering to. Joy is affect by the degree to which you are confident you are saved, and affected by your understanding the implications of being saved.

Perspective on Walking in the Spirit

Associations - Fellowship

An Incentive to Mature in Godly Virtues and in Right Behavior (2Peter 1:5-11)

1Ti 3:13  Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.

Fellowship:

How does distinguishing between those who have been born of God and those who have not affect fellowship?

1Cor 5:11-13 I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."

2Cor 6:14  Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

2Cor 6:17,18  "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."

And conversely not to divide over things you shouldn’t divide over.

Applications in 2Jn & 3Jn

The gospel of John

"These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." John 20:31

The Epistle of 1John
"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." 1John 5:13

The Various ways John speaks of one's salvation status:

Do you have fellowship with God? (1:6)
Have you come to know him? (2:3; 4:7)
Are you in him? (2:4; 5:20) or live in him? (2:6; 3:24)
Does he live in you? (4:13;15)
Are you in the light? (2:9)
Do you really belong to us? (2:19)
Do you have the Father? (2:23)
Do you have the Son? (5:12)
Have you been born of God? (2:29; 5:1)
Are you a child of God? (3:1)
Are you from God? (4:4)
Do you have eternal life? (5:13)

Major Doctrines of 1John:

The Nature of Christ (1John 4)

It's about the CONTENT of your faith

Perseverance of the Saints (1John 2:19)

It's about the ENDURANCE of your faith

Regenerative Behavior (1John 3; 1John 5)

It's about the CORRELATION between your faith and your behavior

Assurance of Salvation vs Eternal Security

1John vs Faith in Faith

Applications:

Attitudes: Joy, Hope
Perspective on Walking in the Spirit

Associations - Fellowship - 2Jn & 3Jn

An Incentive to Mature in Godly Virtues and in Right Behavior 1Jn 3:2,3