The one who believes
Jesus is the Son of God overcomes the world.
1
John 5:11-12
God
has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has
the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have
life.
1
John 5:13
John
says he is writing to those who believe in the name of the Son of God
so they may know that they have eternal life.
1 John 5:16
John says he is not
saying to pray for the sin that leads to death.
I think John when
John speaks of a sin that leads to death, he means suicide, not
eternal death or hell. There is no point in praying for someone who
has died. That person is in no position to lead a better life here on
earth.
1 John 5:18
No one born of God
continues to sin; Jesus keeps him safe.
The new creation in
us does not sin. John does not mean we will never sin, but that it is
no longer our true self, and sin is no longer a regular practice.
1
John 5:20
We
know and are in Him who is true – even His Son Jesus Christ, who is
the true God and eternal life.
2
John 1:2
The
truth lives in us and will be with us forever.
2 John 1:8-9
You can lose what
you have worked for and miss a full reward. Whoever runs ahead and
does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God.
If people are drawn
off track, running ahead by themselves and following their own ideas
and plans without continuing in the teaching of Christ, then they
will not receive as great a reward in heaven.
2 John 1:9
If someone does not
abide in Christ’s teaching, he does not have God; the one who does
abide has the Father and the Son.
If you go on ahead
of God in your daily life, you don’t have God going with you. I
don’t think this refers to eternal life.
3
John 1:11
Anyone
who does what is good is from God.
John is not saying
that any random person who appears – from a human perspective –
to be good is a messenger from God (and therefore saved), but rather
he appears to be describing how to recognize godly and ungodly people
within the church. So, just before this verse he describes
Diotrephes, a church-member who is acting badly, and just after this
verse he describes Demetrius, who is an example of a good
church-member.
Revelation 1:8
Jesus has the keys
to death and Hades.
Revelation 2:5
Jesus threatens to
remove the Church of Ephesus’ lampstand because it had forsaken its
first love.
This is a warning to
a church, a fellowship of believers, not to individuals, though, of
course, that includes a warning to individuals. The point of a
lampstand is to shine light on the world, so removing a lampstand
seems to imply removing a church’s (or person’s) place in
Christ’s service in the world; it is not necessarily a threat to
exclude people from heaven.
Revelation 2:7
Jesus will give
those who overcome the right to eat from the tree of life in the
paradise of God.
Jesus is warning the
Ephesian church that even though it had done good works and endured,
even though it couldn’t tolerate the wicked, and even though had
not grown weary, the church was failing because it had forsaken its
first love. Apparently many people in this church just went along
with the program and didn’t have a loving faith in Jesus.
Clearly, when John
speaks of overcomers here, he is not speaking of those who are
diligent in good works, since the Ephesians were loaded with
good works and were still rebuked. But if we understand John’s use
of the word “overcome” here as being the same as his use of the
word in 1 John 5:4-5, then the ones who overcome are those who
believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Because John is addressing an
entire church, of which some members may be believers and some may be
pretenders, John emphasizes that this reward is for those who believe
in Jesus.
Revelation
2:10-11
Jesus promises the
Smyrnans who overcome that they will not be hurt by the second death.
This letter is to an
entire church, containing believers and pretenders (See note on
Revelation 2:7). Jesus notes that the Smyrnan believers had endured
persecution, and will endure more, but says they need fear nothing
from the second death – unlike those who are persecuting them, who
have much to fear. If we understand John’s use of the word
“overcome” here as being the same as his use of the word in 1
John 5:4-5, then the ones who overcome are those who believe that
Jesus is the Son of God.
Revelation 3:4-5
Those who have not
soiled their clothes will walk with Jesus, be dressed in white, and
Jesus will not erase their names from the Book of Life.
I think the Book of
Life is initially a book of those who have been called
to spiritual life, whether they truly received it or not. So, Israel
was called to life under God in the Old Testament and Christians are
those who are called to life under God in the New Testament. But, as
Jesus said, many are called but few are chosen (Matthew
22:14). So, for instance, Jesus called Judas, but Judas did not
believe and was ultimately removed. So, similarly, the Israelites
were called out of Egypt by Moses but then the unbelieving Jews were
removed during their time in the desert. In the same way those who
merely call themselves believers in Christ will be weeded out of the
Book of Life until the only people listed in the Book are those who
are saved.
Revelation 3:11
Hold fast to what
you have so no one will take your crown.
In this case the
word “crown” refers to a reward that Jesus will bestow, either a
reward when He comes back ultimately, or perhaps a reward on earth if
He meant that he would visit the Philadelphian church sometime before
the end.
Revelation 3:12
Those who overcome,
Jesus will make pillars in God’s temple.
This seems to be a
special reward, not necessarily related to whether one goes to
heaven. It may be a reward in heaven, or, if the temple referred to
here is the Body of Christ on earth, then the reward could be an
earthly reward. It hearkens back to Paul’s mention (Galatians 2:9)
of visiting with those who seemed to be pillars of the church
(meaning the apostles).
Revelation 3:16
Jesus says to the
lukewarm church of Laodicea that He will spit it out of his mouth.
Again, this is a
warning to a church, not to individuals. Apparently the town of
Laodicea brought its water from two sources: hot water from
Heiropolis and cold water from Colosae. Hot for healing, cold for
refreshing. But by the time the water was piped to Laodicea, it was
lukewarm; the hot water was no longer hot and the cold water was no
longer cold. The tepid waters were not really good for what they were
originally intended. So, Jesus appears to be telling the church that
because of its lukewarmness, it may be discarded as part of His work
in this world.
Revelation 3:21
The reward for
overcoming is to sit with Jesus on His throne.
This promise is
directed to the lukewarm Church of Laodicea, home to many who in
their prosperity had drifted in their faith, and perhaps home to many
hangers-on who never believed in the first place.
Jesus tells them to
turn to Him to be purified (Revelation 3:18), that he will discipline
them because He loves them (Revelation 3:19) and that if they will
open the door to Him He will come in and eat with them (Revelation
3:20). Overcoming, as John also writes in 1 John 5:4-5, means
believing in Jesus, and to those overcomers – those who believe –
he promises a special reward in heaven, to sit with Him on His
throne.
Our path through
life may involve rebukes, advice, disciplining, encouragement, and
promises for heaven, as we can see in this passage. But, if we were
His in the first place we can rest assured that while God may
discipline us (Revelation 3:19), we are His forever.
Revelation
5:9
By
His blood Christ purchased men for God from every tribe, language,
people and nation.
Revelation
20:12-13
The
dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the
books.
The
critical thing to do, and that we will be judged on, is whether we
believed in Jesus.
Revelation 21:7
He who overcomes
will inherit these things and “I will be his God and he will be my
son”.
Revelation 21:8
contrasts overcomers with those who face the second death, who are
cowardly, unbelieving, vile, murderers, sexually immoral, idolaters,
and liars. In other words, those who are excluded show no evidence of
faith. They are, as it says, “unbelieving.” If we understand
John’s use of the word “overcome” here as being the same as his
use of the word in 1 John 5:4-5, then the ones who overcome are those
who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
Revelation 21:27
Nobody who does what
is shameful or deceitful will ever enter the New Jerusalem, only
those written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Assuming my
interpretation of Revelation 3:4-5 is correct, this means that the
Book of Life, with all false believers now erased from its pages,
contains only real believers, and these believers enter the New
Jerusalem. Those who believe have been cleansed and do not lead
shameful or deceitful lives.
Revelation 22:12
Jesus is coming to
render to every man according to what he has done.
And the critical
thing for us to do is to believe in Jesus. If we have believed in
Jesus we will be blessed.
Revelation
22:14
Those
who wash their robes are blessed. They have the right to the tree of
life.
We wash our robes by
believing in Jesus.
Revelation
22:18-19
The one who takes
away from this book of prophecy, God will take away his part in the
Tree of Life and the Holy City.
Everyone has a share
in the Tree of Life and in the Holy City; to receive it he just needs
to believe in Jesus. And if he does believe in Jesus, then he will
not add to or take away from the book of Revelation, or any part of
the Bible.
This is much like
Romans 5:18, where Paul says that “one act of righteousness
resulted in justification that brings life to all men.” This
does not mean that “all men” are saved, but rather that everyone
has life available to him, and in the same way Revelation 22:19 does
not mean that a person is already in possession of his part in the
Tree of Life and the Holy City, but rather that it is available to
him.
Also, when John
speaks of adding to or taking away from Revelation, he is not talking
about a preacher focusing on just one section of the book, or a
writer quoting one verse of Revelation and not quoting the rest of
it, or a commentator using words not in Revelation to expound upon
it. I believe this refers to someone modifying the book of Revelation
and pretending that the modified creation is the original. The sin is
significant; it involves no momentary weakness in the face of
temptation, but rather a cold plan, and a difficult plan at that –
to rewrite the book of Revelation in order to mislead people and
steal a blessing of God from them (Revelation 1:3). It puts that
person solidly in the camp of those who practice deceit, as mentioned
in Revelation 22:15. And because this is such a coldly calculated
sin, perhaps it suggests that this person has made his heart so hard
that he has made the ultimate decision to turn from God. If so, then
God takes away the part of the Tree of Life and the Holy City that He
had – until then – set aside for him had he believed.
Election
– Being Chosen by God
These verses are
related but are rather an aside. I have not really examined this
topic in this Bible study. This sampling of verses tell us that God
has selected those who are saved, so in some mysterious way God is in
charge of our salvation even though we also have a real choice in
being saved, as we can see from the other verses in this study. I
accept these two truths but don’t understand how they fit together.
I just thank God that He understands.
Matthew 15:13
Any plant not
planted by God will be pulled up by the roots.
John 15:16
The people did not
choose Jesus; He chose them.
John 5:21
The
Son gives life to whom He pleases.
John
6:37
Jesus
says that all those the Father gives to Him will come to Him and He
will never drive them away.
John 6:39
The Father’s will
is that Jesus lose none of those He has given to Him, but raise them
on the last day.
John 6:44
Only those the
Father draws to Jesus can come to him, and Jesus will raise them on
the last day.
John 6:65
Jesus says that no
one can come to Him unless the Father has enabled him.
John 10:29
The Father has given
Jesus his sheep and no one can take them from the Father’s hand.
John 17:2
Jesus says the
Father granted Him authority over all people to give eternal life to
those the Father has given Him.
John 17:6
Jesus revealed the
Father to those who were the Father’s, and they obeyed Father’s
word.
John 17:12
Jesus says He
protected His followers and none was lost except Judas, so the
Scripture would be fulfilled.
Acts 9:3-18
God says He has
chosen Saul (Acts 9:15).
Acts 2:47
The Lord added to
the number of those being saved.
Acts
13:48
Those
appointed to eternal life believed.
Romans 1:6
Paul says the Romans
were called to belong to Jesus Christ.
Romans
8:29-30
God
predestined those he foreknew to be conformed to the likeness of his
Son. He also called them, justified them, and glorified them.
Ephesians
1:4-5
God
chose us in Him to be blameless and holy in His sight.
Ephesians
1:11
We
have been predestined according to God’s plan.
Philippians
1:6
He
who began a good work in us will carry it to completion in the day of
Christ Jesus.
2
Thessalonians 2:13-14
Paul says God chose
the Thessalonians to be saved.
2
Timothy 1:9
Paul
tells Timothy that God has saved them and called them to a holy life
not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose
and grace.
1 Peter 1:5
Those chosen are
protected for a salvation to be revealed in the last time.
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