“Faith Is the Victory” – 1 John 5:1-12

Everyone enjoys winning. We enjoy the feeling we get when we are successful in a game, sport, assignment or reaching a personal goal. There is that sense of accomplishment and assurance that we can do something if we apply ourselves.

Coming to Christ by faith is the greatest victory anyone can win. Yet, oddly, this is not a victory won by ourselves, but a victory that is given to us by a loving Father through Jesus Christ the Son. The victory is given us through the imparting of faith and the Holy Spirit.

The writer of today’s hymn understood the faith that leads to victory. John understood it when he wrote the Bible passage we consider today.

Background

The hymn was written by a Methodist minister, John Yates. Originally from England, Mr. Yates was a shoe salesman and later managed a hardware store. He was ordained at the age of 41 and became the pastor of Bethany Free Will Baptist Church.

Mr. Yates wrote the hymn shortly after leaving his job at the hardware store. He waited until 1891 before he sent the verses to Ira Stankey. Mr. Stankey led music for many of Dwight L. Moody’s evangelistic crusade, and is considered one of the most influential people in church musical style.

The hymn comes from today’s passage and focuses not just on John’s words, but also refers to Ephesians 6 and the armor of God. It is a hymn that speaks to the assurance we have in God and the faith that enables us to overcome the world.

John wrote his letter with the idea of giving believers a series of three tests to assure us we are saved by God’s grace. The tests involve faith, love and obedience. As the apostle nears the completion of his letter, he summarizes the tests in today’s passage. He uses the verses to let us know that our salvation enables us to have a love for God and that this love for God is a result of the faith He imparts to us, a faith that trusts in God and in His ways, leading to a life of obedience.

Central Truth: Faith in Jesus grows out of our salvation and our relationship with God.

Faith:

1. Comes from being born into God’s family (1-3a)

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His children as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. This is love for God: to obey His commands.”

There is a difference between “can” and “will,” between “can’t” and “won’t.” The former speaks of ability, while the latter speaks of willingness. I can’t fly an airplane, speak French or swim across the Pacific Ocean. I won’t eat Brussel sprouts, iron my clothes unless absolutely necessary or watch certain television shows.

The idea of “can’t” and “won’t” is present in John’s message in these verses. John wants us to know that we can do anything God calls us to do, because He enables us by allowing us to be born again into Jesus Christ. The way John wrote the verse in the original language is to clearly state that our ability to love and obey God is a result of His grace in making us His children through Jesus Christ. We can’t believe in Jesus but for the grace of God to enable us to do that. We can’t love God without the faith that God imparts to us. We can’t obey God without the faith and the love given us by God’s grace and mercy.

As a result of God’s work in our lives, the idea of “can” and “can’t” is removed from our vocabulary when it comes to our relationship with God. Because God has given us rebirth and has filled us with His Holy Spirit, we are more than capable of doing what God calls us to do. This love is demonstrated in the way we treat others (how we love our brothers and sisters) and how we live in obedience to Christ.

John makes it clear. If we claim we love God, then we will obey Him. We walk in loving obedience not because we have a sense of needing to earn God’s favor or grace, not to make Him “pleased” with us. The Bible’s message is clear: God so loves us that He sent Jesus to die for us. While we were yet sinners, God’s enemies, Christ died for us. As John writes in the previous chapter, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:12). Our obedience is an act done to earn God’s love; our obedience is a response to God’s great love for us and our loving response to His loving grace and salvation.

The faith that you and I live by is a gift of God, imparted to us in order that we might love Him and obey Him. Faith is a central element of our relationship with God, and it is a gift from Him that we are able to love and obey Him by faith in Him.

2. Brings victory (3b-5)

“And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

Almost everyone prefers winning to losing. There is something about successfully doing something, whether it’s a game, a sport, an assignment or a personal challenge. Success means victory, and we all like to celebrate our wins.

God gives us victory over the world because of the faith He gives us.

Continuing the theme of demonstrating our love for God, John reminds us that God’s commands are not burdensome. Jesus shared that truth with us in Matthew 11:28-30. Jesus tells those who are weary and burdened to turn to Him. Even though Jesus bids us to take up His yoke, He also promises us rest, because His yoke is easy and His burden is light. The reason Jesus makes the promise is that the commands His gives us—His burden and His yoke—are things He wants to do through us. Rather than make us shoulder the load by ourselves, Jesus is there, leading us, working through us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

John tells us the commands are not burdensome because we who are born of God have already overcome the world. To overcome the world is to live a life that leans on the arms of Jesus, trusting the Holy Spirit to give us the guidance and equipping we need to do God’s will. We overcome the world by recognizing God’s voice and denying Satan’s voice.

Our ability to overcome the world is found squarely in our faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God (cf. Hebrews 11:6). Without faith, we are like a walking zombie, alive on the outside but dead to Christ. Our faith shapes us, informs us, makes us who we are in Christ.

John makes it clear: the only people who overcome the world are those who have faith in Jesus Christ. The test of faith is that we must believe in Christ, and that belief comes from the transforming grace of God in giving us salvation through Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Because God has done this, we are a new creation (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17). God has created us to be His children and to rise above the things of this world to sit with Christ at the right hand of God (cf. Colossians 3:1-4).

With faith in Christ, we are overcomers. We are victors in Christ Jesus our Lord.

3. Brings life (6-12)

“This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and they are in agreement. We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which He has given about His Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in the Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

In the laws God gave Moses, God stated that a person could only be convicted on the testimony of two witnesses. Jewish teachers and scribes later amended that to two men, four women and no shepherds. I’m not sure if the witnesses had to be Jewish or could be Gentile, but there had to be at least two witnesses to give testimony against the accused.

John tells us that the testimony about Jesus relies not on two witnesses, but on three. We can know that Jesus is real because of three things: He was born of a woman (water), He died on the cross (blood) and the Spirit of truth all testify to the reality of Jesus and eternal life through Him.

Jesus was a man in the traditional definition of a man. Mary gave birth to Him. He grew from a baby to a man. He ate food, He walked and talked, He did the things that a typical person would do. Jesus’ humanity is a testimony to the fact that Jesus surrendered His rightful place in heaven to become someone who was fully God and fully human.

Jesus’ death at Calvary testifies to Jesus’ divine nature. By willingly going to Calvary, to endure the torture leading up to and through the crucifixion, Jesus shows us what it means to walk in obedience to the Father and what it means to be one with Him. By shedding His blood at the cross, Jesus sealed the new covenant of salvation by faith and eternal life as a child of God. The blood that washes us clean of sin is the testimony of our new relationship with God the Father through God the Son.

The Holy Spirit—given to us by the Father upon the request of the Son—testifies to Jesus’ words as true and worthy of obeying. Jesus tells us that a wise person hears what He says and does them; the fool may hear the words of Jesus, but fails to put them into practice. The Spirit is truth, and He brings to our remembrance everything Jesus has said. The Spirit leads us into truth—Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

For John, it really comes down to who do we believe? In whom do we put our trust? There is the testimony of man and the testimony of God. Man tells us that we should believe in Jesus. God tells us to put our complete faith in Jesus. In John’s mind, the person who believes God’s testimony is a person of faith and love and obedience. The person who does not believe in Jesus calls God a liar, because God’s testimony is that salvation comes only through Jesus Christ.

If we believe—if we have faith—then the promise is that God gives us eternal life in Jesus Christ. “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” For John, and for us, it really is that simple.

Conclusion

I’m not sure if Mr. Yates considered all the ramifications of what John was saying when he decided to write, “Faith Is the Victory.” Whether he did or not, he definitely understood the promise that faith leads to victory, and that victory is a gift from God.

If you and I believe in Jesus Christ, then we have faith. We have faith in God and His testimony. We have love for God and we obey Him.

Or at least we should. Remember, when God saves us, He removes the “can’t” from our vocabulary. We can obey God. The question we have to ask is, “Will we obey? Will we love? Will we believe?”