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"These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."
(1 John 5:13)
"These things" refer to John's writings in this epistle. In the Gospel that bears his name, he also writes in John 20:30-31, "And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." In the Gospel of John, he evangelizes and in the Epistles of John he disciples.
When you believe in Christ for eternal life, God gives you the assurance of your salvation. Think on these words: "that you may know". John does not say that perhaps you might know; rather, he writes with certitude, certainty, with full confidence, and assurance: that you may know!
This verse is so helpful in talking to people about the Lord. I was sharing with a man recently, and he told me he hopes that he will go to heaven when he dies. I shared this verse with him, because it speaks directly to this issue of assurance. If you have received the Lord as your Savior and turned from your sins, then you are His, and nothing can separate you from Him. Paul states in Romans 8:37-39, "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
When people speak of losing their salvation, they are making a statement about God that is not true. God cannot lose what is His. What about those who say they were saved but now live a life of sin with no conviction, or even claim to be atheists? That speaks not of God but of them. They were never saved in the first place.
Ephesians 4:30 states, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." No one can break a divine seal.
John Stott writes in his commentaries on the Epistles of John:
"John's desire for them is not that they may believe and receive, but that having believed, they may know that they have received, and therefore continue to have (present), eternal life. That you may know (eidēte) means, both in word and tense, not that they may gradually grow in assurance, but that they may possess here and now a present certainty of the life they have received in Christ."
Are you sure you are going to heaven? If you know the Lord and yet sometimes struggle with doubt (and many Christians do), please memorize 1 John 5:13, and repeat this verse out loud or say it in your heart and focus on the words "that you may know". God's Word dispels doubt and drives away darkness.
Let's go, child of God! Let us live in confidence and in full assurance that we are His, and He is our Redeemer!
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