1
JOHN 5:13-17
INTRODUCTION
J. I. Honeycutt, a
character on the T. V. series “M.A.S.H.,” gave this reason for why he did not
give in to temptation during the Korean War. “I have lived in an insane world
where nothing makes sense. Everyone around me lives for the now because there
may not be a tomorrow. But I must live for tomorrow because for me there is no
now.”
For B. J., his hope
for the future was to see his family again. That hope was sufficient to define
how he would behave in an extremely difficult situation. How much more so
should our future hope of the kingdom of God shape how we live?
I.
THE
POSSESSOR OF ETERNAL LIFE V. 13
This section of
John’s epistle is a sort of recapitulation or summary of the
entire letter.
John the Beloved Apostle combines some of the leading ideas and gives them a
final statement. The central concept is the assurance of eternal life, a
thought which has played a prominent role throughout this letter.
John begins this
passage with a statement concerning the believer’s assurance of eternal life
(v. 13) and his/ her confidence in the realm of prayer (vv. 14-17). The first
certainty of faith, which John mentions, has to do with our possession of
eternal life. Eternal life is both quantitative and qualitative. That is, it is
endless in duration and spiritual (even God-like) in nature. Eternal life,
which existed only in God, was historically manifested in the coming of Jesus
Christ (1:2). When you receive Christ and you are born again, eternal life
becomes yours (John 3). Some people hope they would be given eternal life. John
says you can know you have it now. Your certainty is based on God’s promise
that he has given you eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is true
whether you feel close to God or distant from Him. Eternal life is not based on
feelings but facts. Eternal life is not based on feelings but faith in Christ.
You can know you have eternal life if you believe God’s truth. Do you lack the
assurance of salvation? Then ask yourself if you have honestly committed your
life to Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. If the answer is yes, then you
know by faith that you are a child of God. I would like to draw an illustration
from an African American woman who used to attend Bible studies with us a
couple of years ago. There are many people who are saved by faith but live
their lives based on salvation by works. The reason is that they belong to
churches that teach and preach that they can lose their salvation when they
sin.
Such believers live in fear; as such they
cannot enjoy the liberty which Christ has given to them. The fact of the matter
is that these believers do not understand the full significance and implications
of “grace” and “eternal life.”
There are three
things that I would like for you to observe in verse 13. First, the verse
declares the purpose of John’s letter. Repeat this verse after me. I want this
verse to be etched in your mind and heart. Assurance of salvation is the
privilege and the birthright of every genuine believer. You do not have to
grope in the dark about your relationship with God. The problem with some
Christians and churches is that they do not realize that the Christian life is
based on relationships. The Christian life is based on our relationship with God
and God’s relationship with us because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. As
I have repeated many times from this pulpit, when a truly born-again person
commits sin, it does not affect his relationship with God. Rather, your sin
ruins or hampers your fellowship with God until you confess and repent of your
sin. As a father or mother when your son/daughter sins against you, the sin
does not jeopardize the relationship that you have with your child. Your son or
daughter’s sin, whether rebellion or stealing affects the child’s fellowship
with you. A typical example in the Bible is David and his son Absalom.
Therefore, every Christian may know and should know that he has eternal life.
Amen. The word “know” means to know with absolute certainty. In this context, the word “know” means positive, confident assurance. It signifies an abiding
conviction, resting on known facts.
Second, the verse
reveals how this assurance of eternal life may be gained. “These things I have
written . . . that you may know.” This suggests that John’s letter contains a
number of tests that can be applied to your life to determine your true status
before God. For example, 2:3, “By this we know that we have come to know Him if
we keep His commandments.” 3:10, 14, 18,-19, 24; 5:10. You can apply this to
yourself or others.
Third, the verse
plainly implies that you may be a believer, may have eternal life, and yet not
know that you have this eternal life. That is to say, you may be truly saved
and at the same time entertain doubts about your salvation. You and I should be
able to distinguish between salvation and assurance of salvation. Every
believer is saved, but not every believer has the assurance that he is saved.
The downside to those who lack assurance of salvation is that your doubts may
affect your spiritual growth, rob you of joy, and cripple your usefulness, but
they do not change the fact that you are saved. If your father were a king and
everything, he had was yours, but you did not know that they were yours, it does
not affect your relationship with your father, the king. You may be living in
poverty, but you are rich, yet you do not know that you are rich. This is an
unhappy way to live. That is the way some Christians live their lives. They
live their lives trying to measure up to God because they do not know who they
are in Christ. That is a picture of many members of the “Deeper Life Church.”
II. THE
BELIEVERS’ PRAYERS AND GOD’S ANSWER VV. 14-17
I think you know
what John is doing. Having spoken of our assurance of eternal life, he moves
now to discuss another assurance; that of answered prayer. John is saying that
assurance in prayer is the natural consequence of the assured possession of
eternal life. Prayer is based on relationships. Only those who are children of
God can truly pray. First, we who are believers must know that we are accepted
with and in God; then on the strength of this assurance, we have great
encouragement to approach Him with our needs (3:19-22).
Verse 14 reveals our
confidence in prayer. Here the Apostle John emphasizes the spirit in which the
assured believer comes before God (v. 14). Boldness or confidence has
reappeared again. Already we have seen the word three times in this letter.
Once it was used in reference to the Second Coming of Jesus (2:28; once, in
reference to the judgment (4:17); and once, in reference to prayer (3:21). I
have explained the meaning of the term “confidence” or “boldness” to you.
However, in this verse, it means the childlike confidence with which you and I
approach God. As Paul puts it, God has “sent forth the Spirit of His Son into
our hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6). You and I can, therefore, as the
writer of Hebrews says, “draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace that
we may receive mercy and may find grace to help us in time of need” (Heb.
4:16). The word “hears” means to hear favorably. When God hears your prayer
with favor that means He will grant your request. The problem, however, is that
God is more ready to hear than we are ready to pray. Many Christians are
spiritual paupers because they refuse to pray. Many Christians are living with
unmet needs because they feel reluctant to pray to their heavenly Father who is
always ready to hear from His children. If you refuse to pray, how are you
going to get your needs met? You get your needs met like the people of the
world. Some too, do not have the boldness to pray because they do not want to
give up their sinful pleasures. They know that what they are doing is not right,
but they refuse to give it up. Christians who are living in sin are spiritual
paupers. That is why some of them move from church to church wanting some sort
of external experience. If you are a true Christian, God has not been confined
to a certain church or some Christians. God is already resident in your heart.
The Holy Spirit who lives in you is God Himself. Therefore, stop going up and
down as if God is on the run and yield your life completely to Him and He will
manifest Himself strongly in your life. (Illustration of those of us who come
from a polygamous background). How many of us who grew up in Africa had a close
relationship with our fathers? Could you freely go to your dad and discuss or
converse with him?
The one limitation
or condition to this assurance of answered prayer is that the thing you request
in prayer be according to “His (God’s) will” (v. 14). Elsewhere in the New
Testament, we are taught that prayer to be effective must be “in Jesus’ name”
(John 14:13). Jesus’ name is not some sort of magical formula. You can pray in
Jesus’ name only when you are properly related to Him. Prayer must proceed from
a righteous life (James 5:16; 1 John 3:22) and from unselfish motives (James
4:3). Prayer also must be offered in faith (Matt. 21:22; James 1:6).
However, the
statement, “According to His will” seems to be the inclusive way of setting
forth the fundamental condition of effectual prayer. This implies that you
realize God’s infinite wisdom and will and you subordinate your desires to it.
This is not a restriction to your freedom but a safeguard to it. “The marvelous
and supernatural power of prayer consists, not in bringing God’s will down to
us, but in lifting our will up to His.” I like what William Barclay wrote. He
writes, “The ultimate test of any request is, Can we say to Jesus, “Give me
this for Your sake and in Your name?” Your request would be granted if it would
bring honor and glory to Christ. Prayer has to do with your motive and the will
of God.
Second, the
consciousness that we have our request (v. 15). The phrase “if we know” does
not suggest some sort of doubt. The phrase should have read “And since we
know.” This is the point. When you align your prayer to the will of God, He
will listen; and you can be certain that if he listens, He will give a definite
answer. Therefore, begin to pray with confidence. Knowing God’s will ensures
confidence in prayer. There are Christians who do not have confidence in prayer
because they do not know the will of God. In the model prayer, Jesus taught us
to pray “Your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). In
the garden of Gethsemane Jesus demonstrated to us the supreme example of prayer
in the will of God.
Let me give you some
guidance in prayer as you determine the will of God in your life. This has
helped me in my own life. First, God guides through circumstances (Acts
16:7-10). God closes some doors and opens others. Our responsibility is to be
sensitive to His leading and to follow through the door when they open. Do not
try to open a door, which God has closed, or else you will be in trouble. Second,
God guides through other mature Christians, as He did in Acts 6 when the whole
church chose the Seven, or in Acts 13 when the Spirit spoke to the church in
Antioch about the need for Paul and Barnabas to go abroad. Your personal
convictions should be opened to testing by the guidance of other Christians. If
your convictions really come from God, others who are in touch with God will
confirm it. Third, God guides us through the Scriptures. The Spirit who
inspired the writing of Scriptures is perfectly well capable of taking them and
writing it on our hearts so that it becomes an inescapable pointer to a particular
course of action (Col. 3:16). An increasingly broad appreciation of Scriptures
will give you a developing ability to scan the will of God in any given
situation. Fourth, God guides us in prayer (Col. 3:15). There is such a thing
as praying a situation through until you are virtually sure of the will of God
on the matter. When this happens God gives you inner peace about it; not
absolute intellectual certainty, but practical confidence, which allows you to
proceed to action with joyful assurance.
Third, the duty
of intercessory prayer (vv. 16-17).
In verses 14 &15
the Apostle John has spoken of the efficacy of prayer in general terms, now he
proceeds to speak of the effectiveness of praying in a particular direction,
which is intercessory prayer. What is intercessory prayer? It is a prayer
offered on behalf of another person. Besides the prayer of adoration or praise,
intercessory prayer is the most important form of prayer. This does not mean
that you must ignore your own petition or supplication. You do not neglect to
pray for yourself, but you do not spend all your time praying for yourself. You
pray for yourself, but you pray more for others. When you do that, your life
does not become self-centered, but Christ and others-centered. Intercessory prayer
is unquestionably one of the highest privileges of the Christian life and one
of its most sacred responsibilities.
Verse 16a may be
seen as a specific example of prayer, which is in accord with the will of God.
The thought here is reminiscent of Galatians 6:1. Christian scholars differ
widely in their thoughts about what this sin is and whether the death it causes
is physical or spiritual. Paul wrote that some Christians have died because
they participated in the Lord’s Supper “in an unworthy manner” (1 Cor.
11:27-30), Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead when they conspired and lied
to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:1-11). Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit results in
spiritual death (Mark 3:29). The book of Hebrews describes the spiritual death
of a person who turns against Christ (Heb. 6:4-6). If we are to understand the
nature of this sin, we must keep in mind the background of this letter. Considering
what we know of that, it seems that “sin unto death” must have had primary
reference to John’s Gnostic opponents who had willfully rejected the Spirit’s
witness to the person and work of Christ. Gnostics by rejecting the only
means of salvation, which is Jesus Christ, the Gnostics have forged an alliance
with the antichrist.
When you remove
yourself from Christ and you join fellowship with the antichrist the battle
lines are permanently drawn. The Gnostics by rejecting Christ had put
themselves out of the reach of prayer. Whereas you and I cannot be adamant as
to the precise form of sin, we know that this is a kind of sinning whose
natural consequence is death (spiritual ruin). To pray for forgiveness of such
sin is to pray for salvation outside of Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Verse 17 shows that
sin even if it does not lead unto death is never a trivial matter. In other
words, God does not treat sin lightly; and we are likewise not to treat it
lightly. The caution here is that it is not our responsibility to determine
whether someone has committed the sin unto death. Our responsibility is to
become faithful intercessors. The judging of the sin of death must be left up
to God. As a Christian intercessor, some people’s lives are in your hands.
Intercessory prayer is not for a selected few. It is the privilege and
responsibility of every Christian. Do you have a list of people that you pray
for? Compile a prayer list and state what you want God to do in the life of
each person on your list. Try this and you will see a significant difference in
your prayer life.
