Our Certain Victory Over Sin and Satan: 1st John Lesson 29

Our Certain Victory Over Sin and Satan

1 John 5:18-21

 We are going to wrap up our study of 1 John today by looking at verses 18-21 of Chapter 5. Let’s read these verses together.

 John brings his letter to a close with a strong emphasis on things we can know for certain. This word “know” is used seven times in verses 13-21, four of those times in verses 18-20. John has told us that we can be certain about the fact that we have eternal life. This is the assurance we find in verse 13. In verses 14-17, last week, we saw that we can be certain about the fact that if we ask anything according to the will of God in prayer, we have our requests. In the verses we are studying today John is telling us that we are partakers in a certain and guaranteed victory over sin and Satan because we have been born of God.

 I want you to think for a moment about how messed up the world is regarding certainties. We live in a world that wants us to believe that we cannot even be certain about our gender, even though we are born with ample evidence attached to our bodies. This evidence has sufficed for cultures since the beginning of humanity. Ever since the time of mankind’s beginning, a baby born with boy parts was certainly a boy and a baby born with girl parts was certainly a girl. There was never any question. Now, we are told that these particular evidences mean nothing. We cannot know gender for certain. If this is not certain, there can be no certainties.

How do we get to the point in our culture where something so obvious can be so readily dismissed? The answer is obvious to those of us who know the word of God. The whole world lies in the power of the evil one. This issue of gender confusion is just one example of how effective Satan is at manipulating mankind, causing man to question even something as obvious as one’s gender.

 If we cannot know for sure what gender we really are, how can we know anything for sure? Satan wants us to believe that there is nothing certain. Nothing can be trusted to be true. Nothing is certain, even something as self-evident as gender.

 What is the consequence of this line of thinking? Well, if nothing can be known for certain, then anything is possible. Has this worked? I think I can demonstrate that it has been very effective. In our world it is impossible to know for sure what gender you are at birth, even though the evidence is obvious if one looks in the mirror. You can’t be sure of that. But you can be sure that the world was formed billions of years ago as the result of some cosmic explosion, and that man is the result of an evolutionary process that is not only illogical, but statistically impossible. And it is a theory for which there is no credible, verifiable scientific evidence.

 If nothing is certain, then anything is possible. We cannot know for certain our gender at birth even though there is tangible, credible, visible evidence. But we can know that the world is billions of years old and we evolved from a single cell amoeba over billions of years through an unproven, unreliable, illogical process called evolution. We live in a world of lies because the whole world lies in the power of the father of lies.

 We are not of this world. We are a part of another kingdom. Ours in the Kingdom of God and God is the God of truth. There are things that we can and do know for certain. We know, for certain, that God cannot lie. We know, for certain, that what God has promised He will bring to pass. We know, for certain, that what God says cannot be changed. We know, for certain, that what God starts He finishes. These, and many other certainties, are found in the reliable word of God.

 John brings this important letter to a close by telling us that we know, for certain, we have victory over sin and Satan because we are born of God, and because we are kept from sin and Satan’s power because of God’s protection and provision. When we become the children of God we are no longer part of the domain of darkness. We are delivered from that domain and transferred into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. With that transaction comes many things about which we can be certain, with an unshakable confidence.

 John tells us in the first part of verse 18 that “We know that no one who is born of God sins;” John does not say that the Christian never sins. This would be inconsistent with what he wrote in chapter 1. If we say we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. John is talking about habitual sin. The true child of God may sin, but will never be utterly defeated by that sin.

Throughout this letter John has emphasized that the life of a true child of God is a holy life. The Christian life is a life of obedience to the commandments. Those who are born of God have God’s Holy Spirit indwelling. We are clothed in the righteousness of the sinless Son of God. This means that we are delivered from the overcoming, conquering power of sin. These are the things that happen when we are born of God. 1 John 3:9 told us that “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” The new nature of the believer does not have an appetite for sin.

 This miraculous spiritual birth starts with regeneration. The spiritually dead sinner has spiritual life imparted. This is what Jesus spoke of to Nicodemus when He spoke of being born of water and the Spirit in John 3:5. This spiritual birth is entirely the work of God and happens to us as we believe as we learned in 1 John 5:1. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Galatians 3:26 says, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ.”

 John makes this statement in the first part of verse 18 using a perfect tense participle in the passive voice. The perfect tense shows completed action with finished results in the present time. The passive voice means that the subject receives the action of the verb. This is consistent with what John said in his gospel in John 1:13. “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” God imparts the life of the new birth to us of His own will.

 Paul tells us in Romans 8:14, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” The true child of God is led by the indwelling Spirit of God and this is the evidence that we are the sons of God. The Holy Spirit always leads us into a life of righteousness and holiness. This is how we know that no one who is born of God pursues a life of habitual sin. 

 Being born of God makes us a new creature in Christ. Old things passed away, new things have come. Before salvation we were slaves of sin. We were by nature children of wrath. We were dead in trespasses and sins. We walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is still working in the sons of disobedience.  Those who are not born of God walk according to the lusts of their flesh. They indulge the desires of the flesh and the mind. They are by nature children of Satan, part of the kingdom of the evil one. They are powerless over sin. Lost people act like lost people. They can’t help it.

 But we are no longer slaves of unrighteousness. We are born of God and now walk in newness of life. We are able to put off the old and put on the new. We are being renewed. We don’t have to be conformed to this world because we have been and are being transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are in union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection and we have been raised to walk in newness of life. We who are born of God do not habitually sin. “We know that no one who is born of God sins.”

 The next statement John writes in verse 18 has translators scratching their heads. The NASB says, “but He who was born of God keeps him…” “He” is capitalized so the NASB translators understood the One who was born of God to be Jesus. The Greek word for “born” is “gennao.” The same word is used both times in verse 18, even though the KJV translators translated it “born” the first time and “begotten” the second time. The first use is obviously used to speak of the person who is born of God and therefore ‘born again.” If this second use is a reference to Jesus it is consistent with the identity of Christ as the Son of God. A different word is used in John 3:16 which declares Jesus to be the only begotten Son of God. That word is “monogenes.” It means the unique, one of a kind.

 The KJV translates this phrase “he that is begotten of God keepeth himself.” This would mean that the one who is born of God in the first clause is the same one who is begotten of God in the second clause and that the one who is born of God keeps himself. This would mean that the person born of God keeps himself from sin.

 The word “keeps” is “tereo” and it means “to keep an eye on or to guard.” The idea is that of watching carefully over one’s life to make sure we are living free from compromise. If the NASB translators are correct, this means that Jesus is keeping the child of God, watching, guarding, and protecting the child of God from sin. If the KJV translation is correct, then the one born of God is watching for himself, guarding his life, and protecting himself from sin.

 Which one is correct? I don’t know. We don’t butcher the text or compromise anything theologically which ever translation we think is right. Most commentators tend to go with the NASB translation.

 It is true that Jesus keeps the child of God. John tells us in John 10:27-30, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” That is a powerful promise about the protection of Jesus. Jesus truly does keep those who are His.

 It is also true that the one who is born of God is responsible for keeping himself away from sin. Paul told Timothy to “flee youthful lusts.” We are responsible to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. We are to abstain from every form of evil. We are to examine everything carefully, holding fast to that which is good, and shunning everything that is not. We are responsible to keep ourselves from sin.

 We know that anyone who is a true child of God is protected by God and is kept from condemnation because of sin. We also know that the true child of God will have a desire to walk in the righteousness which has been imputed to him and he will protect himself from sin. Both of these things are true, and they are both pertinent to the truth taught in the next clause.

 This final clause in verse 18 says, “and the evil one does not touch him.” Because we are born of God, we know that Satan can not touch us. The word “touch” is “haptomai.” It refers to such handling of an object as to exert a modifying influence upon it. Satan cannot lay hold of the child of God. Satan can tempt us. He can try us or test us, only with God’s permission granted. He can put pitfalls and snares in our path, but he cannot exert any modifying influence upon us. No true Christian can make the claim that the devil made him do it. The whole world lies in the power of the evil one, but we do not because we are born of God. Because we are born of God it is “hands off” for Satan, unless God decides to use Satan to accomplish His purposes.

 In verse 19 John continues, “We know that we are of God…” We KNOW God is our Father. We KNOW we are His children. We KNOW that our citizenship is in heaven and that we are strangers and aliens in this world. We KNOW our sins are forgiven and we have fellowship with our Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, and one another. We KNOW we are in Christ and our position is different from those who are not. 

 William Barclay writes of the record of a discussion between Socrates and a young man. The young man made a statement which he believed to be true. The challenge of Socrates was, “How do you know that? Do you know it, or are you guessing?” The young man admitted, “I am guessing.” To this Socrates responded, “Very well, when you are done guessing and when we know, shall we talk about it then?”

 Listen to me. If we are born of God we are done guessing. The time of guessing is past and the time for knowing is here. We know we are of God, if we are of God.

 One of the ways we know is by the difference between us and those who are not born of God. Those who are not born of God lie in the power of the evil one. This is what John says next in verse 19. “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” There are only two classes of people in the world. There are sons of God and sons of Satan. There are those who are born of God and are justified, sanctified, and on the way to glorified, and those who are of the evil one and headed to eternal destruction. All unbelievers belong to Satan.

 What can we expect from a world that does not belong to God, but lies in the power of the evil one? We can expect to be hated. In John 15:18-19 Jesus warns, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” This is why James 4:4 tells us, “…do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

 John has already told us that we are not to love the world, nor the things that are in the world. The world, because it lies in the power of the evil one, is opposing the kingdom of God on every front. And do not overlook the truth conveyed here. John says, “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” This is every part of the unredeemed world. That includes even this “Christian” nation in which we live. We are not a Christian nation. There is no such thing as a Christian nation. We are a nation which I hope is populated with many Christians. But Christians are a part of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are not part of any kingdom of this world because the kingdoms of this world belong to Satan. That was Satan’s accurate claim as he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. He claimed to own all the kingdoms of the world, and Jesus did not dispute his claim by telling him that he owned all of them except the United States of America. The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

 Verse 20 continues, “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” We KNOW that the Son of God has come and that He has given us understanding. He has opened our eyes to the truth of our sinfulness and our desperate condition apart from the mercy of God. Just like God gave the tax collector the ability to see his need for mercy, we have been made to see. We sing about how we once were blind, but now we see. We did nothing to merit or deserve this understanding. God opened our blind eyes. We don’t acquire this understanding through academic pursuits. This understanding is the gift of God. It is the work of grace. It was given to us that we might know Him who is true.

 This is what we read in 1 Cor. 2 in our CTW. “For to us God revealed them (the truths of salvation) through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” God has opened our blind eyes to understand and believe the truth. Believing the truth we know that the Son of God has come and we have believed and having believed we have life. The natural man cannot know these things. The natural man lies in the power of the evil one.

 We know Jesus. We know Him who is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending of saving faith. He is the Author and finisher of our faith. He is eternal life. He who has the Son has the life, but he that does not have the Son does not have the life.

 We are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Jesus is the true God and eternal life. We are in Him, and He is in us. He is eternal life and because we are in Him His life is ours. Because He lives, we live.

 At the end of verse 20 John says, “This is the true God and eternal life.” 

Throughout this letter John has placed a lot of emphasis on the deity of Jesus Christ. To deny the deity of Jesus Christ is to be damned because if we deny the Son, we deny the Father. John was fighting the earliest manifestations of Gnosticism which denied the full deity of Jesus Christ. John knew the danger of false teachers and he brings his letter to a conclusion with this dogmatic declaration regarding the true nature of Jesus Christ.

 John’s final admonition in verse 21 says, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” “Little children” has been used to address the readers of this letter on several occasions throughout the letter and it is appropriate that his closing admonition be addressed to “little children.” It may be that John has used this term so frequently throughout this letter to remind us just how needy and dependent we are on our heavenly Father. Little children are vulnerable, gullible, and very much in need of provision, protection, and direction in life.

 When it comes to the issue of idolatry, we should need to be reminded of our standing before our heavenly Father as little children. I am afraid that when it comes to the issue of idolatry, we are vulnerable, gullible, and very much in need of protection and direction. Idols are always a potential problem, even in the life of the true follower of Christ.

 An idol is anything that comes between us and our love for and worship of God. When John tells us to guard ourselves from idols he is telling us to let nothing, or on one, come between us and full surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ. In verse 20 John identifies Jesus Christ as the true God and eternal life. In the very next verse he warns against allowing anything in our lives that would pull us away from the true God and eternal life.

 An idol can be anything. It can be a false god, or it can be a business, a career, a spouse, a child, a hobby, or anything that a person loves and serves more than one loves or serves God. It is only God whom we are to love with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We love others as we love ourselves. If our love for self is greater than our love for our Lord, we are idolaters. We must be careful that no person, thing, or interest comes between us and God. 

 The message of 1 John has been straightforward. If we are the true children of God we should be able to look at the evidence and know the truth about our salvation. My prayer is that this journey through this book has been for you an affirmation of the reality of a genuine relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.

 Let’s pray.