Saved?

I know that often when we're first saved we come with many questions and even doubts about our salvation and what exactly it means, how we can be sure of it, if we can etc. This isn't anything new because even the first Christians had all these same questions and doubts. The Lord made sure that the apostles dealt with all these things in His Word though so that we can know for sure what the answers to these questions and doubts are.
1 John 5:13, 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.

Let's take a close look at John's statement here. He says I write "these things" to you, so what are the things he's talking about? He's talking about what he said just prior to this statement. So let's see what he just said there:

1 John 5:9–12, We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

John is telling us that he wrote this to us so that we would know, without any doubt that we are saved and have eternal life in Jesus. Now, just to make sure we're really understanding John, let's look and see what the original word that was translated "know" means in the original language: (If you see circles or squares etc it's because you don't have the Greek or Hebrew language installed on your computer)

3857 οἶδα (oida): vb.; ≡ DBLHebr 3359; Str 1492; TDNT 5.116—1. LN 28.1 know, possess information about
Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Greek

3359 יָדַע (yā∙ḏǎʿ): v.; ≡ Str 3045; TWOT 848—1. LN 28.1–28.16 (qal) know, i.e., possess information about
Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew

1492 οἶδα [eido, oida /i·do/] v. A root word; TDNT 5:116; TDNTA 673; GK 3857; translates as “know” to know. 2A to know of anything. 2B to know, i.e. get knowledge of, understand, perceive. 2B1 of any fact. 2B2 the force and meaning of something which has definite meaning.
Strong, J. The exhaustive concordance of the Bible

3609a. οἶδα oida; perf. of 1491a; to have seen or perceived, hence to know:—appreciate(1), aware(3), become learned(1), having a knowledge(1), knew(16), knew … about(1), know(216), know about(1), know how(9), knowing(36), known(4), known about(1), knows(15), knows how(1), realize(1), realizing(2), recognize(3), , understand(5), understanding(1).
New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek dictionaries

1. ginosko (γινώσκω, 1097) signifies “to be taking in knowledge, to come to know, recognize, understand,” or “to understand completely,”
2. oida (Perf. of εἴδω, 1492), from the same root as eidon, “to see,” is a perfect tense with a present meaning, signifying, primarily, “to have seen or perceived”; hence, “to know, to have knowledge of,” whether absolutely, as in divine knowledge
Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words

With all of that there should be no doubt in our minds that John meant exactly what he said. He wants us to KNOW that we are saved without any doubts whatsoever. He is writing to us who are saved, not to people who aren't. He tells us in the preceding verses how we can know for sure we're saved. He says that anyone who believes in Jesus has God's testimony (the Holy Spirit) in his heart. In other words, we have God's Truth in our hearts. God's Truth says that Jesus has given us Eternal Life. So those who don't know this, don't have God's testimony in their hearts and aren't saved.

John was writing this to specifically counter the false teaching that was going around at the time that Jesus didn't give people eternal life.

What tends to confuse people now is something that really didn't confuse the early Christians because they understood what was being said. We tend to confuse the issue of salvation with the issue of "abiding in Christ" and look at them as though they were the same thing, but they're not. This particular letter that John is writing is being written to clear up false teaching and to explain to those who are already saved how to live a life of fellowship with God. If you'd like to know more about that subject, we did this study on it: The principles of all genuine fellowship with God

Now let's clear up the difference between these two things, salvation and living in fellowship with God. Remember, these are Jew's that he is talking to for the most part. They've been saved but they're not accustomed to having a personal relationship with God. They're accustomed to just having the law to follow and priests to intervene with God for them. What Jesus taught about what's in their hearts being more important then what they did was really radical to them. Now they knew that if they felt lust for a woman it was just as much a sin as if they'd actually had sex with her. This was difficult for them to process as it can be for us too. But now they didn't need to have a priest sacrifice for them and go through all kinds of rituals to become "clean". Instead they could just go straight to God.

Now comes the part that's hard for us to get but that they seemed to understand easily. Through the Law, God taught the Jews a number of very important things. One being that He is Holy and cannot abide sin.

Habakkuk 1:13, Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.

Being Holy means that God is separate from sin which is why He taught the Jew's (and us) about the difference between "clean" and "unclean" and told them to separate themselves from the other nations. They were to be (and still are to be) a Holy Nation, separate from sin, just like God. That's what we're to be as well.

Ephesians 1:4, For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

1 Peter 1:16, for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

So it was a very serious matter when a Jew sinned and took a lot of ritual (and dare I say "tradition") to get it cleared up. This was hard for them to let go of and something the false teachers grabbed hold of to try and entice them with. Whereas Jesus had come and told them that for those who were saved, their sins were forgiven. All their sins: past, present and future! But the Jews understood what we don't seem to. That even though they're forgiven, when we sin after we've been saved, it still puts a damper on our relationship with God. Our sins may be forgiven, but until we recognize that sin and repent of it, confessing it to Him (which means agreeing with Him that it is a sin) we have put a block in our relationship with Him. We are no longer "abiding" in Him, or in fellowship with Him. We're back on the outside, looking in.

We haven't lost our salvation--not at all! If we did, it would make God a liar just as John said! We've simply fallen out of fellowship with Him. Let me see if I can use an every day example to make this plain.

My children were pretty average kids. They had their good days and their bad days. When they misbehaved they didn't stop being my children, but our relationship definitely cooled! They knew when they'd been bad was not a good time to ask me for a favor! In fact, they knew that they'd better not ask for much of anything until I got an apology from them. It didn't mean that I'd stopped loving them or that they weren't my child any longer or that I was no longer their mother. It simply meant that they were not in fellowship with me any more. Our relationship was no longer "easy".

As soon as I got that apology though and they began to behave themselves, our relationship went back to normal. Our relationship, our fellowship, was "close" and "easy" again.

This is the difference between when the bible is talking about salvation and abiding in Christ. (it's also referred to as walking in Christ, living in Christ, fellowship in Christ, etc.) It is not referring to our salvation except for the fact that only those who are saved can have this fellowship or relationship with Him.

Once you understand this it makes the bible MUCH easier to understand and takes the fear out of those passages for us. I'll give you an example in the next post.

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