Verse 2: By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
There is a tendency in the Church today of those who carelessly handle the Word of God, either unknowingly, from the lack of adequate training or deliberately, determined to lead astray God’s people. This is evidenced by the insufficient attention a teacher might give to the accurate analysis of Scripture or when they intend to satisfy those who embrace personal notions or cultural dictates, even when they conflict with Biblical truth. Our primary consideration in understanding the meaning of Scripture is that it is never based upon one’s own private interpretation (2 Peter 1:20). Instead, it was designed by God to be understood according to His standards, having a specific and significant purpose for believers, as the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy:
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16–17)
The Test
Believers need to be vigilant of modern day “destructive heresies” (2 Peter 2:1) since there is a real potential of encountering false teachers today. Dr. Francis Schaeffer observed that,
In our day most heresies deny the true deity of Christ, but in the early church the common heresy was the denial of the true humanity of Christ.1
These heresies were identified as the Gnostic heresy in the Introduction to this study of 1 John. John, and the early church, was confronted by a branch of Gnosticism known as Docetism, whose followers believed that Our Lord was not human but a phantom, an apparition. They denied the conception and physical birth of Our Lord, advocating that Jesus had what only seemed or appeared to be a real body, yet able “to converse, to eat, to suffer, and to die.”2 The 19th Century theologian Albert Barnes quoting from Edward Gibbons’ The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 3 further explained what this heresy alleged of Our Lord’s nature:
He first appeared on the banks of the Jordan in the form of perfect manhood; but it was a form only, and not a substance; a human figure created by the hand of Omnipotence to imitate the faculties and actions of a man, and to impose a perpetual illusion on the senses of his friends and enemies.4
Therefore, John provided a much needed and very simple test to utilize in determining if the Holy Spirit is the actual influencer of a person claiming to be a teacher of God’s Word. In order to counteract the Gnostic heresy, John clearly stated that “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ comes [and continues to remain5] in the flesh is from God.” This absolute statement of fact makes any other interpretation of the nature of Our Lord a Biblical impossibility, conflicting the plain teaching of Scripture (John 1:14; Romans 1:2; Galatians 4:4; Hebrews 2:14). Note the Apostle Paul’s warning:
Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. (Romans 16:17)
The Truth
It is important to note that Jesus refers to His humanity and Christ refers to His deity. Possessing both natures eternally indicates that Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe—the God-Man. This is known in theology as His hypostatic union; it refers “only to Christ in whom, as in no other, two distinct and dissimilar natures are united.”6 This is the “description of Jesus Christ as undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever.”7 Paul proclaimed “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9). Upon this truth, the relevancy of Christianity exists.
So, what makes confessing the permanency of Jesus Christ having come in the flesh of such vital importance? Why is this essential truth so crucial to the Christian faith?
Scripture concludes: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), therefore an atonement to satisfy God must be attained if mankind is to make peace with their Creator. In the Jewish Age, atonement for sin was undertaken by the high priest who offered sacrifices for sin. However, the writer of Hebrews concluded that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4) and therefore a more perfect sacrifice were needed.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:11–12)
The sacrifice He offered as our high priest is Himself, by His vicarious suffering and death on the cross on behalf of all sinful mankind. By His work on the cross, He becomes our mediator, one who can alleviate the adverse relationship between God and man—the barrier of sin (Isaiah 59:2). A mediator must be “someone who understands both God and man and can bring them together in harmony.”8 This was Job’s dilemma in the midst of his intense suffering; when he felt helpless before God he proclaimed:
There is no umpire between us,
Who may lay his hand upon us both. (Job 9:33)
But God in His matchless grace provided, on behalf of all mankind, Jesus Christ as mediator—the One who can intercede between God and man, since He is both God and man.
For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. (1 Timothy 2:5–6)
Conclusion
Based upon Christ’s self-sacrifice, the Apostle Paul asserts that all those who believe are “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God displayed as a propitiation in His blood through faith” (Romans 3:22-25). This Greek word for propitiation literally refers to the mercy seat of the Old Testament, where the blood sacrifices were offered for the atonement of sin. Those sacrifices satisfied God’s righteousness demands, so that now Christ’s atoning work "causes God to deal with us mercifully,”9 and thus providing mankind a peaceful and harmonious relationship with his Creator. As the Apostle Paul affirmed “For He Himself [Jesus Christ] is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14a; cf. Isaiah 9:6).
We now understand why John emphasizes this so vital truth twice in his epistle:
And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
[1] Schaeffer, Francis A. (1985). The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2.338.
[2] Barnes, Albert (2005). Notes on the New Testament (R. Frew, Ed.), Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, XIII.2.276.
[3] Gibbon, Edward (1776–1789). The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 3.245.
[4] Barnes, XIII.2.276.
[5] This is the essential meaning of this verb “comes” from the Greek.
[6] Chafer, Lewis Sperry (1976). Systematic Theology, Dallas, TX: Dallas Seminary Press, 1.382.
[7] Thieme, R.B., Jr. (2022). Thieme’s Bible Doctrine Dictionary, Houston, TX: R.B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, p.130.
[8] Ryrie, C. C. (1995). Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Bible, 1995 update. Chicago: Moody Press, p. 790, note.
[9] Zodhiates, S. (2000). In The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, G2435.
© 2025 David M. Rossi