Shannon Bond, Pastor of Cherokee Baptist Church
1 John 5:1–3 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of hi m. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his command ments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandm ents. And his commandments are not burdensome.
If you have been born of God, you will have three spiritual birthmarks. The first birthmark is faith. There is no Christian life apart from faith in the biblical revelation about Jesus Christ. But notice the sequence in verse 1. If you presently believe in Christ for salvation, it is because you have been previously born of God. Your believing in the present is the consequence of a previous action, not the cause of it. There is also no continuing in the Christian life apart from faith. Adrian Rogers wrote, “The assurance of my salvation comes not from the fact that I did trust Christ, but that I am trusting Christ for my salvation.” Faith is an ongoing act, not a one-time act.
The second birthmark of a Christian is love. New birth from God leads to faith, which leads to love for God, which leads to love for those born of God. The road to love is paved with faith. True faith always leads to love for God and for other Christians. Jesus modeled this love in his earthly ministry and his sacrificial death on the cross.
The third birthmark of a Christian is obedience. True faith always leads to love for God and others. True love always results in obedience. Loving God and obeying his commands means that you will love God’s children. You cannot love God and keep his commands without loving the children of God. And you cannot love the children of God without loving God and keeping his commandments. Jerry Bridges wrote, “Love provides the motive for obeying the commands of the law, but the law provides specific direction for exercising love.” When you love others, you aren’t just feeling sentimental emotion for them or merely getting along with them. You are living in right relationships with them by not murdering, not stealing, not giving false testimony, and the like, and by meeting their needs for life-sustaining provisions. It is impossible for you to love God and, at the same time, treat others in ways that violate God’s revealed will in his word. Love for God results in obedience to his revealed will and is identified by that obedience. Although love may involve some sense of an emotional experience, it must include moral obedience of God’s revealed will in his word.
If you can look back to a time in your life where you had the inner impulse to believe in Christ for salvation, which led to a life of continued faith in Christ and love for God and others, rest assured this did not come from you but from God. You cannot work this up externally. It only comes from being reborn internally. But you must constantly live out your faith in Jesus as Messiah and be constantly committed to the command to love God and others. Show off your birthmarks, Christian!