Verses 14-15: And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. [ESV]
R.C.H. Lenski notes that the word and (omitted in most translations) “adds a still greater assurance of the knowledge”1 regarding our abiding relationship with God as John outlined in the previous verse. It is stated here that we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son. The we to whom John refers to includes himself, the apostles and all who lived and saw the Lord Jesus Christ while He ministered, died, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. From this collection of witnesses, some who were martyred for their belief having boldly preached about Him and those who were led by the Holy Spirit to write about Him—these with one voice testified that they were convinced beyond a shadow of doubt that God the Father indeed sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. These were all spectators of the grandest event; one that far exceeds anything else in any period or age in the history of the universe. It was as if what they witnessed and testified to had been permanently seared in their memory. For John declared “we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14; cf. John 2:11); for they beheld this at His transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13).
Savior of the World
The phrase Savior of the world is unique to John’s writings, found only here and in John 4:42 (cf. John 3:17; 12:47; 1 John 2:2). No other writer of Scripture uses this phrase to express this truth. It should be noted how this phrase would have provoked great indignation with the Romans who controlled Palestine in the 1st Century A.D. Adolf Deissmann explains:
This title “was bestowed with sundry variations in the Greek expression on Julius Caesar, Augustus, Claudius, Vespasian, Titus, Trajan, Hadrian...The exact Johannine term is specially common in inscriptions for Hadrian.2
The Apostle Paul proclaims Our Lord in a similar manner when he instructed Timothy of the virtue of striving for godliness:
For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. (1 Timothy 4:10)
We are reminded by W.E. Vine, that Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, of all men, that the “scope of His mission was as boundless as humanity, and only man’s impenitence and unbelief put a limit to its actual effect.”3 This should be our motivation for implementing His love, if indeed it has been perfected in us (4:12). His divine love ought to lead us to spread the gospel of salvation to the unsaved, as well as to care for each other as Christians.4
Whoever Confesses
John uses the word confess 5 times in this epistle, 3 times in this chapter. The prime meaning of confess is to “express openly one’s allegiance to a proposition or person.”5 Literally, the word means “to speak the same thing...to agree with.”6 In 1 John 1:9 when we confess our sins, we are agreeing with God that we have violated His command. Our passage is a parallel to 1 John 4:2-3 regarding those who confess Christ having come in the flesh from God (v.2) and exposes those who do not confess this truth (v.3; cf. 1 John 2:23). In our passage we agree with the testimony presented in verse 14 that Jesus is the Son of God. Whether we confess this verbally or silently, we concur that Jesus Christ is true deity—the God-man, the unique person of the universe.
Confessing this truth clearly depicts the results of an effective witness of the Gospel and the sincere response of one who trusts in the finished work of Christ. The theological significance of this confession is the embodiment of what it means to be saved, when a person believes in Christ alone for salvation, apart from any human effort. Therefore John is able to declare affirmatively that anyone who confesses this truth, God abides in him. To abide in him means “to continue in an activity or state.”7 But not only a continuous state, but a state that is continually active. For Paul maintains that even “if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). And the writer of Hebrews also assures us: “for He Himself said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5b).
Abiding Truth
This last phrase God abides in him, and he in God John has stated this before in chapter 2, that if we abide in the truth of the apostolic declaration regarding the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ “you also will abide in the Son and in the Father” (v.24; cf. 2:27). Here John illustrates the ultimate reality of our vital communion with the God—the Creator of the universe. This fact that God abides in us should cause us to be totally awestruck.
However, Chafer explains that our communion with God is conditional, being the explicit responsibility of the believer to maintain:
Communion is the believer’s undertaking—a specific plan of life which calls for an intelligent purpose and method of life, adapted to the precise will of God, on the part of the one who is saved.8 [Emphasis added]
Let us note these two emphasized points from Chafer’s quote. Our Lord spoke of this specific plan of life: that the believer should ensure that their communion with Him is continuously dynamic and productive. When Jesus declared that He is the true vine and that we are the branches in Him (John 15:1-2), He was describing our eternal union with Christ; proclaiming that the criterion for our spiritual union of abiding in Him was to bear (produce) fruit.
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” (John 15:4)
The apostle Paul explained the fruit we should bear:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22–23)
Taken as a whole, the fruit of the Spirit depicts the characteristics of Jesus Christ. We are expected to produce “much fruit” as Our Lord stressed (John 15:5, 8); by doing so we emulate Christ and proclaim Him to the world. Thus, the effectiveness of our producing fruit is contingent upon whether we are walking in the Light and continuously cleansed from sin (1 John 1:7, 9). This is the intelligent purpose and method of life which Chafer contends is the responsible attitude that the believer should endeavour to maintain.
[1] Lenski, R.C.H. (2001). Commentary on the New Testament, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 11.507
[2] Deissmann, Adolf (1997). Light From the Ancient East, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, p. 364.
[3] Vine, W. E. (1996). Collected Writings of W.E. Vine. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1 John 4:14.
[4] Van Ryn, August (1948). The Epistles of John, New York, NY: Loizeaux Brothers, p. 135.
[5] Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). ὁμολογέω, In Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains. New York: United Bible Societies, 1.417.
[6] Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996). In Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 2.120.
[7] Louw, et.al, 1.655.
[8] Chafer, Lewis Sperry (1976). Systematic Theology, Dallas, TX: Dallas Seminary Press, 6.164-165.
© 2025 David M. Rossi
No comments:
Post a Comment