Confident Christianity

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 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. 1 John 5:11-13

In Christianity, a positive spiritual attitude is important. One of the most recurring problems among Christian youth is about the uncertainty of salvation; whether or not they are saved. One has to instill in them a positive spiritual attitude. This is achieved not so much by getting them to believe in themselves as in getting them to have confidence in God: that He really loves them and that believing in Jesus Christ really does restore them to Him. Our assurance rests in God through Christ rather than in ourselves. Without a positive spiritual attitude, a Christian will go through life afraid of God, always wondering whether or not he is saved. As a result, he will be miserable and be a horrible witness to Christianity. From the text, John discloses that his overall purpose in writing this letter is to assure his readers that if they “believe in the name of the Son of God,” they “have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). This is very close to the purpose statement why we have the gospels. “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). The anchor is by believing in the “name of the Son of God.” Belief is only secured if it is based in the fact that Jesus is who He says He is, and is the One to whom the four writers of the gospels testify: “the Son of God.” He has indeed confined Himself to the full experience of humanity from birth to death and, though sinless, died a gruesome death to save us from eternal damnation. Because of Him, “eternal life” is both a future hope and a reality in our lives now. Every believer has this testimony and it corresponds in the believer’s commitment to Christ. Eternal life is more than a promise for a Christian. It also entails a quality of life in the here and now that is similar to our future life with God. This is what it means when we claim that God is living in us and our living in Him.

Blessings