Faith Enabled 1 John 5:1-6
Here we are with John again; at least the traditional view is John 1,2, and 3 are all written by John, the same John who wrote the Gospel of John. I’ve said before that these letters have a great deal of information and theology for us to explore, and the first sentence in this chapter tells us one of the greatest truths in our faith: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God…” If you believe Jesus is God’s Son sent to save you, you are a child of God.
This is not the first time, nor the first Biblical author to tell us this. Paul tells us in Romans 8:16, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Paul writes in Galatians 3:26, “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.” John is writing about faith in this chapter. A faith in Christ even though we cannot see the outcome of that faith. A faith in Christ simply because we know he is.
I bet most of us still remember where we were when the World Trade Towers were attacked. I once read a story from Iraq after we invaded. In the town of Baqubah a father and son ran out of a building after it was struck by a bomb. In the yard was a large shell hole and the father jumped in for cover. He called for his son to follow but the frightened boy shouted, “I can’t see you through the smoke!” The father yelled back, “I can see you; I’ll catch you!” The boy jumped because he trusted his father. Do we trust God to catch us, even when what we’re going through hides him from our sight.
When my boys were little, they got me hooked on nature shows. I saw one last year that came to my mind as I was writing out some notes for today. I remember it said that if you put a buzzard into a pen that is six feet by eight feet and is completely open at the top, even though the buzzard is a bird and can fly, it will stay in that pen, a prisoner for life. The reason is that the buzzard always begins a flight by running 10 to 12 feet across the ground. Unable to do what it’s used to, it cannot fly. Its habit is to run, when it can’t, it won’t even attempt to fly.
All mankind is like the buzzard. We are all in a cage, the cage of sin. But God left the top off and we can fly free by accepting Jesus. Yet like the buzzard, many men and women will stay in that cage without even trying.
Faith demands that you trust Jesus. Some of these trapped people always want to do what they’re used to, trusting themselves. The thought of giving up this self-trust to trust Christ is enough to scare them into staying in the cage.
Faith demands we start to align our lives to Jesus’ teachings. I like going out to party every Saturday night, I was told those people aren’t to be trusted. Our unwillingness to let go of bad habits causes us to not even try to get out of sin’s cage.
It’s funny how the Animal Planet was in my head a lot this week. I think the bat can show us something. A bat has a downfall in its life, it cannot take flight from a level or flat surface. In that situation all it can do is move around helplessly. Bats need to be elevated so it can leap off into the air where it immediately starts to fly. And once airborne, it’s able to do what it was created to do.
Mankind can see itself in the bat. Without Jesus in our lives, we move around, going through the motions of our lives, helpless in our situation caused by sin. It is Christ in our hearts that elevates us above the sin in our lives. It is Christ in our lives that allows us to fly in spirit and become what God destined our lives to be. Giving our lives over to Jesus is what allows our spirits to be airborne.
I’ve got one more. I’m sure most school children learn about the bumblebee. Its body is not aerodynamic, its wings are too small for its body mass. Physics says the bumblebee should not be able to fly.
How many people have told you your faith is misguided? Anyone ever tell that believing in Jesus is silly? I have heard these.
Bumblebees live in social hives and seek out pollen. To survive they need to fly. We live in a world dominated by sin. To survive and enter heaven, we must believe in and trust in Christ. The bumblebee flies despite everything that says it can’t. With Christ we enter heaven despite lives and actions that say we can’t.
Faith allows us to get out of the cage of sin. Faith lifts us up and allows us to be what God has destined us to be. Faith allows us to be seen as perfect in God’s eyes, and it allows us to go to heaven despite everything in our lives that would keep us from it. Why can our faith do these things? It’s because of who our faith is in. Verse 6, “This is the one who came by water and blood – Jesus Christ.”
The one who came by water, the one from God who came to earth as an infant, born of a human mother. And the blood, the one who came from God, born of man and Spirit, sacrificed and bled for our salvation.
Again, in verse 6, “And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.” We can trust in this one from God, because God tells us we can. God the Holy Spirit goes through the world bringing the good news of the gospel, that salvation is given through faith in Jesus Christ.
In Titus 1:2 Paul writes, “In the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time.” Paul writes that God cannot lie. John wrote here that the Spirit is truth. We can be freed, lifted, and purpose fulfilled by faith, Faith in the one of water and blood, because the one who cannot lie, Almighty God says so.
May your lives through Christ be free, lifted, and purpose fulfilled. Amen.