If you could design your own test for eternal life, what
would it be? Would you focus on religious
acts? spirituality? social action? Would
it be a lifelong project or more like a final exam? Would it be pass/fail, or graded and, if so,
would the grades be based on the percentage of content one has learned or would it be on a curve or comparison to
others?
Two young men, on break from their work at a McDonald’s,
told me of their views of eternal life and the tests they feel they must
undergo in order to be saved. The first,
Jack, had more of a “final exam” sort of outlook, saying that after he dies he
will be brought back to the Garden of Eden to be put to the same sort of test
that Adam and Eve initially experienced with the forbidden fruit.
Terry, on the other hand, views all of life as a sort of
test where he will ultimately be judged by the religious and good deeds he does
in life. Both Adam and Terry are involved
in their churches where I’m pretty sure they regularly hear that Jesus is the
one who passed the test, that Jesus died for their sins. Yet our human tendency to want to somehow
prove our worth by passing a test or earning a reward makes the work of Jesus
on the cross easy to overlook, especially when asked about one’s hope for
salvation so unexpectedly.
The Bible contains many references to tests, but the
majority have to do with the development of character and maturity in believers,
or a test of the eternal quality of one’s work in serving the Lord. A few have to do with testing oneself for the
purpose of assurance that one is indeed saved.
None say we must first pass a test as many people tend to assume. The difference has to do with the order in
which they happen – must we pass a test first in order to be saved, or do we
pass a test because we have already been saved?
Toward the end of his first letter, John wrote of a
three-part test for believers to show them they have already been saved. In 1 John 5:13 he wrote “I write these things
to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you
have eternal life.”
His was to be a test of confirmation, a test given after the
fact to assure one that they had already been saved. It’s placement in the last chapter of 1 John
is significant, because had he placed it in the beginning followed by the three
parts to his “test”, readers would tend to think of these parts as “steps” one must
take in order to achieve salvation.
Instead, they are signs of the salvation that has already taken place.
And the signs he gives have less to do with our own efforts,
and more to do with the presence and work of the Holy Spirit who comes to live
in the heart of the believer: 1.) righteousness; 2.) love; and 3.) faith in
Jesus.
1.) Righteousness: Back in I John 1:6, John had written that
“If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie
and do not live out the truth.” We live
in the light of a right relationship with God and our fellow man not because of
any acts of self-righteousness, but the righteousness Jesus gives.
2.) Love: I John 3:14
tells us “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each
other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.” How can we not love one another when we have
experienced the love of God at salvation, and when the love of the Holy Spirit
comes to live within us?
3.) Faith in Jesus resulting in obedience: In 1 John 5:1-2 we read that true faith in
Jesus results in obedience: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is
born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is
how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out
his commands.”
Do you want assurance of salvation? Don’t make up your own “test” to pass. Just take some time to look for these signs
of a faith relationship with He who already passed the test for you.
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