The Marks of a True Believer
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’Matthew 7:21-23
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!2 Corinthians 13:5
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.1 John 5:13
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.1 John 1:7
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.1 John 1:8
And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:1 John 2:3-5
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.1 John 2:15
No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.1 John 2:23
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.1 John 3:2
We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.1 John 3:14
We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.1 John 4:6
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.1 John 4:15
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.1 John 3:8
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.Galatians 6:1
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.Romans 7:21-23
The continuing presence of evil in a believer’s life is so universal that Paul refers to it not as an uncommon thing but as such a common reality as to be called a continually operating spiritual principle. Lingering sin does battle with every good thing a believer desires to do, every good thought, every good intention, every good motive, every good word, every good deed.
The Lord warned Cain when he became angry that Abel’s sacrifice was accepted but his own was not: “Sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Sin continues to crouch at the door, even of believers, in order to lead people into disobedience.
The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean..."John 13:10a
- What does it mean to confess our sins?
- Why does John say that God is "faithful and just" when He forgives us?
- What does it mean that He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness?
Kenneth Wuest writes on this words use here in this passage in his work Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament; he says:
Confession of sin on the part of the saint means therefore to say the same thing that God does about that sin, to agree with God as to all the implication of that sin as it relates to the Christian who commits it and to a holy God against whom it is committed. That includes the saint’s hatred of that sin, his sense of guilt because of it, his contrition because of it, the determination to put it out of his life and never to do that thing again. This is what confession of sin means here. The English word “confess” means “to admit the truth of an accusation, to own up to the fact that one is guilty of having committed the sin.” But the Greek word means far more than that, as was shown above.
Rather than focusing on confession for every single sin as necessary, John has especially in mind here a settled recognition and acknowledgment that one is a sinner in need of cleansing and forgiveness (Eph. 4:32; Col. 2:13).
God’s forgiveness is given as soon as we admit our need of it, not on the basis of any acts we have done to earn it, but solely because of His grace. The free gift of forgiveness carries with it purification from unrighteousness. God accepts us as righteous because He imputes to us the righteousness of Christ. That is, the very righteousness of Christ our sin-bearer is reckoned to our account.
But He was pierced because of our transgressions,crushed because of our iniquities;punishment for our peace was on Him,and we are healed by His wounds.
We all went astray like sheep;we all have turned to our own way;and the LORD has punished Him for the iniquity of us all.Isaiah 53:5-6 (HCSB)
Here is the true doctrine of the Atonement as taught in Scripture: Christ’s death was a substitution for sinners. God imputed the guilt of their transgressions to Christ and then punished Him for it. Christ’s righteousness is also imputed to those who believe…
The Atonement was a full payment of the price of sins, to satisfy both the wrath and the righteousness of God, so that He could forgive sins without compromising His own holy standard.
The forgiveness John speaks about here is parental, not judicial. Judicial forgiveness means forgiveness from the penalty of sins, which the sinner receives when he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is called judicial because it is granted by God acting as Judge. But what about sins which a person commits after conversion? As far as the penalty is concerned, the price has already been paid by the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary. But as far as fellowship in the family of God is concerned, the sinning saint needs parental forgiveness, that is, the forgiveness of His Father. He obtains it by confessing his sin. We need judicial forgiveness only once; that takes care of the penalty of all our sins—past, present, and future. But we need parental forgiveness throughout our Christian life.