When His Life is Your Life

Before you start todays devotional, ask the Lord to use it to grow you up in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In 1 John, we learn three great definitions of God: “God is light” (1 John 1), “God is love” (1 John 2-3), and “God is life” (1 John 5).

God is life, and our life in Him comes through being born of God. You become a child of God through simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and He gives you the right to be called a child of God. He is who He said He was. If He was just an ordinary man, then He would be sinful and couldn’t even save Himself. But to believe Jesus is God’s Son gives you new life.

How can you be sure you are saved? John says these things are good evidences that you are a child of God:

1. You do what’s right (1 John 2:29). You fail sometimes, but your habit is to do right in order to please God.
2. You don’t make sin your lifestyle (John 3:9). We live differently than our natural bent.
3. You love other Christians (1 John 4:7). You have concern for them.
4. You will overcome the world; you win out over the world’s ways (1 John 5:4).
5. You live close to God, not intentionally sinning, in a place where God protects you from the evil one (1 John 5:18).

Loving God and His children, obedience to what Jesus taught us, and living in truth are birthmarks of God’s child (1 John 5:2).

The devil, who has been a liar from the beginning, tries to deceive us and works to gain an advantage over us. How can we have victory over this enemy? Surprisingly, we don’t win by fighting. Our strategy is to believe God.

If anyone can be saved, not only is Jesus Christ’s redemptive death essential, but also the Spirit of God must be at work in our hearts and lives. Christ died for our sins, but the Spirit of God makes that salvation real to us. He’s the only one who can.

You are reading this—written sometime in the past by the leading of the Holy Spirit. No the Holy Spirit applies His Word to your heart. His witness is that you would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and then grow in His grace and knowledge of the truth.

How do you come to this knowledge? Through the Word of God. It’s the only thing that can clean up your life, even as a believer, and the only thing that will keep you clean. For the Word of God presents Christ who shed His blood for your sins and my sins. These three bear witness on earth—the Spirit uses the water of the Word and applies the blood for our salvation. These three all agree on one—that is, they get you saved and keep you saved.

1. What do the three definitions of God—God is light, God is love, and God is life—tell us about Him?

2. Our relationship to sin is an indicator of our relationship with God. Are there sin patterns in your life that the Holy Spirit has been working in your life to change? What needs to happen for you to overcome these sins?

3. John seems fond of comparing salvation to birth. How could thinking about salvation in these terms teach us about God and ourselves?

Additional Resources

Listen to Dr. J. Vernon McGee's complete teaching of 1 John 5:1-4, 1 John 5:4-6 and 1 John 5:6-12.