Overcomers (3)

Marks of an overcomer: believing - passing the truth test.

People who pass the truth test believe what the Bible says about Jesus.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God…
I John 5:1a (ESV)

Jesus is the Christ. That phrase is pregnant with meaning. It picks up what John has already said in I John 4:2 where it tells us that true believers confess that Jesus has come in the flesh. It looks forward to what John will say later in I John 5 where it tells us that true believers believe in the name of the Son of God.

2,000 years ago, a baby was born in Bethlehem. He lived in Nazareth. He went all around Israel doing good, healing the sick, teaching the people. His name, Jesus, is Iēsous – “the Lord is salvation.” This Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah, the Anointed One. As Chad Allen taught us 3 weeks ago from I John 4, Jesus is God in the flesh, sent to be our Savior. He is 100% God and 100% Man. Although He lived a perfect life, Jesus was unjustly arrested, falsely tried, and cruelly died on the cross in our place for our sins. He rose from the grave. Now, He is our Advocate, our propitiation. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one comes to be Father but through Him.

All this – and more – is packed into this little phrase “Jesus is the Christ.” Do you believe this? Overcomers do.

Now, look carefully at the verse and notice…

Note: Only those who are born of God can pass the truth test.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God…
I John 5:1a (ESV)

This phrase “born of God” means that we have life, spiritual life. You obviously are alive physically. But are you alive spiritually? Are you alive to God? Are you alive to His Word?

The Bible says that apart from Christ, we are dead spiritually. Ephesians 2:1 says, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” The verse is saying that we enter the world spiritually dead. We aren’t naturally inclined toward God. We aren’t naturally responsive to Him. We have no real ability to please God. We are dead spiritually.

And a dead person cannot repent and believe. Go up to a corpse and say, “Believe that Jesus is the Christ!” He can’t! Why? He’s dead.

So, what we need is the new birth. We need to be made alive spiritually. We need to be born of God. Then, we can believe that Jesus is the Christ.

When God gives us the new birth, the result is that we pass the truth test – that we believe the right things about Jesus. We don’t believe first and then we are born of God. Believing that Jesus is the Christ is the immediate evidence of being born of God. Once we are born of God, we believe the truths that the Bible teaches us about Jesus as the Christ. We are passing the truth test.

Marks of an overcomer? believing: passing the truth test.