That You May Know

“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 · NKJV

John tells us exactly why he wrote: that you may know that you have eternal life. Know. Not hope on good days. Not estimate from recent behavior. God considers your assurance so important that He put it in writing, so that believing people would live settled.

Notice what the knowing is based on: you believe in the name of the Son of God. The evidence is Christ, not your consistency. If assurance depended on your performance, it would rise and fall by the hour. It depends on His finished work, so it stands.

Doubt is not humility, and certainty here is not arrogance. It is taking God at His word. He wants you to know, today, that eternal life is yours in His Son. Settled people love freely. That is what assurance is for.

Assurance is God’s idea. He wrote it down so you would know, not wonder: you have eternal life in His Son.

Go deeper: Judgment After the Cross →