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How can I know for sure that I am OK with God?

First, I would like to remind you that toward the end of his first letter, the apostle John makes an important statement about this. He wrote: These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. [1John 5:13] From this we understand that it is possible to know you are saved and, in fact, John used a significant amount of ink to explain why. Let’s quickly back up in this passage and look at some of the things John wrote to reassure his readers that they did have eternal life.

At the beginning of chapter 5 he wrote: 1Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. Salvation depends on our believing that Jesus is the Christ. That is that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, the One described in passages like Isaiah 53 of the Old Testament whose suffering and death makes it possible for God to forgive us. Then John mentions the first of several practical tests. He says that those who are born of the Father love everyone else born of the Father. When we find ourselves concerned for and affectionately inclined toward other believers we exhibit evidence of true faith.

In the next verse, John gives us two more practical tests concerning the first. He wrote: 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. This is a kind of developmental spiral. God saves us and we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. God’s Spirit within us generates love for other believers as He loves them through us. As we act this love out in practical ways, we are obedient to God’s command to love others. God’s love in our own lives becomes visible as we love others.

In verse three, John identifies our love of God with our following his commands – or living his way, we might say. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. The reason that His commandments are not burdensome to us is that as we have come to Him in faith, we have aligned ourselves with his purposes in the world. Humanly speaking, this is naturally not true. Unbelievers find the commandments of God extremely burdensome because they require us to be “others centred.” But the believer has God’s Spirit to motivate and empower him to love others even as God does.

John continues his logic with verse four: 4For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. His argument continues with the statement that whatever is born of God, that is has God’s own Spirit overcomes the world. Earlier in the book he made that famous statement “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” God’s Spirit overcomes the world. Believers have God’s Spirit and hence will have victory over the sinful way of life embraced by the world. Our faith lived out keeping the command to love is what overcomes the world.

In the last verse of the paragraph John sums it all up with this rhetorical question: 5Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Turned into a statement, John is simply declaring that the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God, with all of the ramifications of such faith, overcomes the world and enters into spiritual life with God.

There is much more to be said about this, but no time to say it. I do want to assure you though that the Bible clearly declares that we are saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Take those practical tests that John mentions. Check out your response to God’s revelation that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Check out your response to your spiritual brothers and sisters. Check out your response to the commandments of God. And remember, we are not saved through our own worth or efforts. When we believe what God has revealed about His Son, God gives us His Spirit and seals us as his sons and daughters for ever.