Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
1 John 5:1
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.”
Few passages of the New Testament are more frequently quoted than the dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus recorded in John 3:1–21. Verse 16, describing the love that God has for the world, may be the most familiar verse of all to evangelical Christians, and evangelists regularly cite Jesus’ teaching that one must be born again (v. 3) as they present the gospel to unbelievers.
While it is certainly true that the new birth is central to salvation, many evangelicals do not understand that the new birth, or regeneration, comes before our profession of faith. This was one of the most important mantras of the Reformation. Jesus makes clear in John 3:3 that regeneration is the prerequisite for seeing the kingdom of God and thus for seeing our need for the Savior-King. The new birth does not result from a synergistic work between the Spirit and our faith; rather, the Spirit alone works monergistically to change our hearts, and as a result, we believe.
If there were any doubt that this was the teaching of Jesus, today’s verse informs us that “everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God” (1 John 5:1). The Greek tenses of this verse show that we believe because God has first and sovereignly granted us the new birth. Our belief does not cause us to be born of God; it follows from our first having been born of Him. No one can believe unless he is first born of God.
How do we know that we have been born of God? To believe that Jesus is the Christ—that the man Jesus is the divine Son of God, the promised Messiah—is the evidence that we have been born of God. All who so believe have experienced the new birth. This belief involves both an acknowledgment of orthodox Christological doctrines, such as Jesus’ true humanity and true deity, and a saving trust in His name for the forgiveness of sins.
Moreover, as we saw in our previous study, all those who have been born of God, and who thus love Him, will also love “whoever has been born of him” (v. 1). All who love the biblical Christ will love others who love Him as well. We may disagree about secondary doctrines, yet believers will love all those who acknowledge the essential truths about Jesus and live holy lives in light of those truths.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
All who trust in Jesus Christ alone are true believers, even though disagreement may exist about issues not central to His identity. Let us examine ourselves about whether we have love for Christians who are outside our church or denomination, and let us pray that God would give us a loving heart toward all His people.
For further study
- Ezekiel 36:25–27
- John 1:12–13
- James 1:18
- 1 Peter 1:22–23
The bible in a year
- Lamentations 3–4
- Hebrews 8