Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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1 John 5:13-15 | Big Prayers

1 John 5:13-15 | Big Prayers

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13 These things I wrote to you, that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know you have life eternal and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. 14 And this is the confidence that we have in Him that, if we ask any thing according to His will, then He will hear us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions we asked of Him.

1 John 5:13-15

We come to the beginning of the conclusion of this letter. Reminiscent of John’s Gospel, the Beloved Apostle gives a explanation for why he’s written. Whereas in His Gospel the reason for writing was so that they might believe (Jn. 20:31), here it is so that they might know. And, not to get too technical, but this knowing is in the perfect aorist, which tells us that it is complete. There isn’t anything further that is needful to be known. As one expositor points out John’s “Gospel exhibits the Son of God, the Epistle commends Him.”⁠1 Christ has been proclaimed by John, and now Christ is known. This knowledge isn’t merely “pass the test” knowledge, it is the knowing of personal fellowship. He is yours, and you are His. The Gospel isn’t proclaimed, and then a plan is laid out for how you are to earn it. Rather, Christ is proclaimed as God’s free gift of life eternal to those who believe on the name of the Son of God.

In verse 14, we have the fourth & final appearance of the word boldness/confidence. This whole epistle is so that you, the child of God, might be bold. Uncertainty should have no home in your heart. God, by Christ the Incarnate Son, has brought you into His divine council. You might ask, and He will hear you, and answer.  This is what Christ Himself taught: “Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth (Jn. 9:13).” The striking thing is that God is more desirous to hear our prayers than we are to offer them up.

Conservative Christians often are put off by the “blab it and grab it” circus of so-called “prosperity Gospel.” But our reaction to this misuse of prayer is also sinful. Being made bold by our assurance of fellowship with God through Christ should show up in boldly asking for all we have need of, with the glad submission to however God in His providence will answer us. Indeed, we don’t have, because we’re cowards to ask.

Man, through Christ, has been restored to fellowship with the Almighty God. Just as Adam walked with God in the cool of the Garden, just as Moses met and counseled with God in the Tabernacle, or as many of the prophets were brought up into the secret place of the Most High, each saint is brought into God’s Holy, awesome presence. Your privilege is to petition the God who made heaven and earth to supply your daily bread, to break the jaws of evildoers, to thwart the designs of Satan, to subdue wicked nations, to bring about true justice in the earth. Our problem, by and large, is that the Gospel we preach is mismatched by the safe prayers we pray. The Great Gospel brings about great prayers.

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1 Smith, David. The Expositors Greek Testament. Edited by W. Robertson Nicoll. Vol. Five. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1979. Pg 197

1 John 2:3-6 | Knowing that You Know

1 John 2:3-6 | Knowing that You Know

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3 And by this do we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and in him the truth in not. 5 However, he who keeps His word, assuredly in him the love of God is perfected; by this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides/dwells in Him is bound to walk even as He walked.

1 John 2:3-6

Christ our Advocate promises propitiatory grace to us, but many wonder how to know that they know that they know that it is really for them. One of the most common questions a pastor is asked is how someone can really know that they are saved. This has given rise in some circles to a bad habit of naval gazing. 

John raises this theme of knowing and will return to it numerous times throughout John’s epistle. This is why this epistle is often called the epistle of assurance. Here is how we know that we know Christ; and thus, we can know that all His  forgiveness and fellowship is ours as well.

The answer to how do you know if you know Christ isn’t to stare inward; John tells us that our assurance arises as we keep His commandments. In other words, it isn’t by gazing inward, but by hearing Christ’s commands and obeying. If you can’t hear His commands, or you refuse to obey them, well, then there’s your answer chump. 

John goes on to expand on what it means to keep Christ’s commands (vv7-11, 5:3), but for now the equation is simply that we can know that we know Christ by obedience to Him. Those who know Christ obey Him. Those who don’t know Christ spend too much time staring at themselves in the mirror. This is John weaving in Christ’s teaching in John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

In 2:4 we have an echo of the liar of 1:8. In the prior passage, denying sin’s presence is self-delusion, and thus proof that truth doesn’t dwell within. In this chapter, the liar claims to have the knowledge which comes through close fellowship, while demonstrating through his actions that he doesn’t in fact know how Christ would have him behave. This evinces that truth doesn’t dwell in such an one (and thus is the mark of a false teacher); this sets the stage for the later discussion of anti-Christs (2:18, 22).

Of note, John makes keeping Christ’s commandments synonymous with keeping Christ’s word. A beloved confidant of the King will do as the King commands, and by this obedience it is seen that the King’s love truly rests upon and in him. God’s love is perfected, or fulfilled, in us by keeping Christ’s word. A second assurance is added here, that keeping Christ’s word shows that we are indeed in the fellowship with the Father & Son described in 1:3.

Again, declaring that you dwell in God obligates you to conform your life to His. Calvin points out that John “does not simply exhort us to imitate Christ; but from the union we have with him, he proves that we ought to be like him.⁠1” In other words, it isn’t just “grit your teeth and be like Jesus.” Rather, on the basis of our covenantal union with Him we must indeed be like Him.

This is, after all, what Christ himself taught John, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love (Jn. 15:10).” Our old covenant head (Adam) has been replaced by a new head (Christ). Just as Christ submitted to the Father’s will, and now the Father has given the government of the world into Christ’s hands, so to Christ’s own must walk in submission to His commands because of their covenantal union with Him. As A.A. Hodge once put it, “True [assurance] leads to constant aspirations after more intimate fellowship with God.”⁠2

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1 Calvin, Jean. Calvins Commentaries. Vol. XXII. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999. Pg.176.

2 Hodge, Archibald Alexander. The Westminster Confession: A Commentary. Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth Trust, 2002.

Understand the Shaking

Understand the Shaking

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And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries; and they shall know that I am the Lord. 

——Ezekiel 30:26——lightstock_2581_xsmall_user_5740715

Throughout Ezekiel, the phrase (or a turn of it) “they shall know that I am the Lord” makes 60+ appearances. This phrase is used often throughout the whole OT, frequently in Exodus, but in no other book do we find it so oft repeated. It’s striking how often this phrase occurs as you read through Ezekiel, and what’s so fascinating about its repetition is that it mostly occurs right in the thick of “doom and gloom” passages of God’s judgement on Israel, Tyre, Egypt, Magog, etc.

Essentially, we read over & over in Ezekiel, that when we see the tumult, the chaos, the shaking of earthly kingdoms, we are to understand that there is a purpose to all these happenings. They aren’t accidental, erratic, or meaningless; rather they are deliberate, poignant, profound and entirely purposeful. These shakings all occur so that the peoples of the earth “shall know that I am the Lord God.” [Read more…] about Understand the Shaking

Ben Zornes