1 John 5:1-5 ESV
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Belief in Jesus Christ
Not everyone who says he believes in Jesus honestly believes
in Jesus with God-given and with God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ. For
belief in Jesus Christ is not mere words we say after someone else in a prayer,
nor is it a mere acknowledgment of who Jesus is and of what he did for us on
that cross, nor is it a mere acceptance of his love, grace, and forgiveness of
sins.
Genuine faith in Jesus first of all comes from God, it is gifted
to us by God, it is persuaded by God, and it is authored and perfected by Jesus
Christ. We can’t even come to faith in Jesus Christ unless God the Father first
draws us to Christ. So, this faith is not of ourselves, not of our own doing, nor
of our own making. We obtain this faith from God, a faith which is of equal
standing with the faith of the New Testament apostles, by the righteousness of
our God and Savior Jesus Christ and by no other way.
But since this faith comes from God and it is authored and
perfected by Jesus Christ and it is divinely persuaded, it is going to be
consistent with who God is and with his will for our lives. And since in God
there is no darkness it is not going to give way to sin, for Jesus died to
deliver us from our slavery to sin so we would now be slaves of God and of his
righteousness. He died so that we would die with him to sin and live to him and
to his righteousness, by God’s grace, and in his strength and power.
Thus, when we believe in Jesus with this God-given faith, we
are crucified with Christ in death to sin and we are raised with Christ to walk
in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and
holiness. Our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin
might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
Thus, sin is to no longer reign (be in power) in our mortal bodies to make us
obey its passions. We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer?
[Jn 6:44; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2; 2
Pet 1:1; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17;
Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:19-20; 2 Co 5:15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; 1
Jn 1:5-9; Rom 12:1-2]
Love of the Father
If we love God we will obey his commandments. If we don’t
love him, we do not keep (obey) his words. If we do keep his commandments, we
abide in his love. If we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us.
If sin is what we practice, and if righteousness is not what we practice, then
we are not of God. If we say we love God but we hate our fellow Christians, we
are liars. And if we say we know the Lord but we do not keep his commandments,
we are liars. Love for God is to obey him.
[Jn 14:15-24; Jn 15:10; 1 Jn 2:3-6, 15; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Jn
4:19-20]
So, to be born of God we must first of all be crucified with
him in death to sin and we must have been raised with him to walk in newness of
life in him. The old self must have been put to death so that we are no longer
slaves of sin but slaves of righteousness. Sin should no longer have dominion
over us. And we must love God, and to love God is to obey him, to walk in
obedience to his commands (under the New Covenant). For we are not bound by the
Old Covenant liturgical, sacrificial, purification, and ceremonial laws.
Overcoming the World
So, we have died with Christ to sin, and we have been raised
with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer under the control of
sin, but now as slaves of his righteousness. And now we are walking in
obedience to his commands because we love him. Our old sinful lifestyles were
put to death so that we can now walk by the Spirit in righteousness and
holiness free from sin’s control over our lives. This is what it means to be
saved from our sins and to have the hope of eternal life with God.
But many people today who are professing faith in Jesus
Christ are not following these teachings. They are not teaching death to sin
and living to God and to his righteousness and following our Lord in obedience
to his will and to his commands. Instead they are pushing and promoting a false
faith which is not of God but of the flesh of humans. And sin is running
rampant within the gatherings of the church because they are being given
permission to keep on in deliberate and habitual sin under the guise of God’s
grace.
Therefore, what the Scriptures say we are to put away from
our lives they are being given carte blanche to keep on doing. And so many
people are professing faith in Jesus who have not died with him to sin and who
are not living to him and to his righteousness and who are not walking in
obedience to his commands but who are still living in deliberate and habitual
sin while they are claiming Jesus as their Savior and heaven as their eternal
destiny.
So, many professing Christians are living no differently
from those who make no profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Many of them are
liars, deceivers, adulterers, active homosexuals, the sexually immoral, greedy,
prideful, self-indulgent, self-gratifying, slanderers, haters, users, abusers, and
perjurers, who for the most part hide their sins in secret hoping that no one
will know the evil that lurks behind closed doors when they think no one else
can see what they are up to.
So, they have not overcome the world for they are still succumbing
to the world. But we who are of the true faith are to be those who have overcome
the world and who are walking (in conduct, in practice) in righteousness and
holiness and not in deliberate and habitual sin. So, if we are truly born of
God then we are not those who are making sin our practice, but righteousness is
what we practice. For if we keep on making sin our practice, then we don’t love
God, we don’t know him, and we are not born again.
[Rom 2:6-8; Gal 6:7-8; 2 Co 5:10; 1 Co 6:9-10; 1 Pet
1:17-21; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Rom 6:16; Rom 8:1-17; Jn 15:1-11; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1
Jn 3:4-10; Rev. 2-3; Rev 21:8, 27; Rev 22:14-15; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27]
Breath Of Heaven (Mary's Song)
Songwriters: Amy
Lee Grant / Chris Eaton
I have traveled many
moonless nights
Cold and weary with
a babe inside
And I wonder what I've
done
Holy father you have
come
And chosen me now to
carry your son
I am waiting in a
silent prayer
I am frightened by
the load I bear
In a world as cold
as stone
Must I walk this
path alone?
Be with me now
Be with me now
Breath of heaven
Hold me together
Be forever near me
Breath of heaven
Breath of heaven
Lighten my darkness
Pour over me your
holiness
For you are holy
Breath of heaven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6VGVXjGLBQ
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