1 John 5:13

Does 1 John 5:13 Really Teach Unconditional Eternal Security?

1 John 5:13 is a Bible verse that is commonly used to justify belief in unconditional eternal security.  This is strange since John’s very purpose in writing the epistle of 1 John was to instruct real born-again Christians so they would not be seduced from faith in Jesus by Gnostic deceit.  The Gnostics who were trying to reconcile Jesus with Gnosticism and attempting to infiltrate the Apostolic churches with their doctrine saw practicing sin in the body as consistent with knowing God and possessing eternal life.  This is obviously a great lie.  Yet the unconditional eternity security preachers in Christ’s name teach the same.

Rather than instructions born-again Christians that they could never fall from grace and lose eternal life, John was rather teaching that Jesus Christ is the unique source of spiritual life and that one who believes in Him on the Bible’s terms does not need to go to another source for spiritual enlightenment.  Those who claim that you need spiritual enlightenment from another source are liars.  Those who use 1 John 5:13 to teach unconditional security are also liars.  They also rarely or never quote the last phrase of 1 John 5:13 when they quote it.

1 John 5:13 says:  “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

Those whose faith holds up to Biblical scrutiny possess a measure of eternal life and are on track to inheriting eternal life in its fullness.  In order for that to happen, they obviously need to continue to believe on the name of the Son of God.  

Consider 1 John 5:13 in a broader context.  John had already made it clear in the opening chapters of 1 John that a living faith in Christ forsakes darkness and follows Him by walking in the light of His Word.  Attachment to sin and pursuit of sin are walking in darkness.  Those who walk in darkness choose death- since commitment to sin leads to death.  God’s grace in Christ does not change that the slightest bit.  

The Apostle Paul also said the following to Christians in Romans 6:19-23: “I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.  What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?  for the end of those things is death.  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 6:23 means something significantly different than many communicate when it is actually read in context.  Refusal to be subject to God’s authority is what brought man into spiritual death and put us in need of an unspeakably costly atonement.  As we need the atoning death of Christ to restore our souls from death to life, we also need to repent of sin and be subject to God’s authority through Him to partake of the eternal life He offers.

Many say that the statements in 1 John and other books of the Bible about the need to forsake darkness and keep God’s commandments to possess eternal life are simply descriptions of what happens to people after they are born-again rather than conditions of their security going forward.  Yet John and the other  writers of the Bible took it as a given that there is free will after conversion to Christ as well as beforehand.  Rather than teaching that living in sin is a sure proof that one was never really converted to begin with, John warned Christians about the possibility of them turning from the true God and being condemned to hell in the end.  He taught that Christians can indeed turn from Christ by ceasing to do the will of God and thereby disqualify themselves from dwelling with Him forever.  The following exhortation makes this absolutely clear.  

It is not uncommon for preachers to quote 1 John 2:15-17, but they quote these verses as if they only apply to lost people.  However, God is not partial.  Read the following verses and note whom John is directly speaking to.

1  John 2:12-17: “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.  I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning.  I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one.  I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.  I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning.  I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.  If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh (i.e. the body), and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

Almost immediately afterwards we come to another place which those who teach that real Christians can never fall away might resort to.  This is especially incredible since John had just taught the very opposite immediately beforehand.  

1 John 2:18-19: “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.  They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”

Note that this does not say that those who went out from us were never of us (“us” in 1 John 2:19= Apostolic Christian assemblies).  It is only saying that they would have continued with the Apostolic assemblies if they were of them.  To say that those who went out were surely never real Christians who belonged in the Apostolic assemblies at some point is adding to the Word of God and negating the manifold warnings given to real Christians in the Bible about how they could potentially fall away.  

As John proceeds to make it clear that there is no need to seek eternal life outside of the Bible’s witness which ultimately testifies of Jesus Christ, he also emphasizes further that acceptable faith in Jesus is expressed by doing righteousness according to His Word and not rather practicing sin (i.e. transgressing God’s law- 1 John 3:4).  John states that whether one does righteousness or practices sin is discerned by their actual deeds (contrary to the lies of the Gnostics who teach a spiritual salvation which is disconnected from what one actually does in their physical body- there are of course many variations of this today masquerading as Christianity).  

We eventually come to 1 John 3:9: “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”

Rather than contradicting anything which he had previously said or which he would go on to say, John is emphasizing what Paul emphasized in the verses which were previously looked at in Romans chapter 6.  John is confronting the Gnostic lie that one can be led by God’s Spirit while practicing sin.  Being led by God’s Spirit is equivalent to abiding in Christ and walking in new life.  John was not teaching that a born-again Christian can’t resist the new life inside them nor was he teaching that they cannot do this to the point of spiritual death.  A born-again Christian who resists correction or in any way turns aside to a sinful course is militating against the life of Christ within them. They are thereby in a perilous state wherein they can truly die spiritually.   Dying spiritually is the same as losing eternal life.   

The eternal life that those who truly believe in Christ receive in this life is a pledge or a deposit of eternal life rather than eternal life in its fullness.  Salvation has not been finalized nor already arrived at for anyone in a mortal body.  The following things were spoken directly to Christians who had really been born again in Christ and given a pledge of eternal life.

1 Timothy 6:12: “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.”

Revelation 2:7: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

Fullness of eternal life is only granted on Judgment Day after one endures faithfully on the narrow way to life in Christ until the end.  Those who enter that way, but don’t endure, lose eternal life.  This does not negate the truth that some who think they’ve entered that way never really did at all.

We read later in 1 John 5:3-5: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.  Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”

It is obvious that walking by faith in Him means submitting to His authority and keeping His commandments.  This is inseparable from believing in Him as the Bible prescribes.  Used properly, God’s commandments are a guide to an acceptable faith.  The Lord never grants new life to anyone without the requirement and expectation that they walk forward in the faith which they exercised when they were born-again.  

John certainly was not teaching that those who believe in Jesus do not need to obey the Bible and do righteousness accordingly in order to be saved in the end.  Closely related, John was not teaching that one who has really been born again in Christ and obtained a measure of spiritual life could never turn away from Him so that they spiritually die and end up lost.

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