11. Therefore, when John says, "Whatsoever is begotten of God
overcometh the world: and this is the victory that hath overcome the
world, even our faith," his purpose is to admonish Christians that
believers must manifest the power and working of faith in life and
deed. In fact, his chief aim in writing this text was to reprove false
Christians who are pleased to hear the doctrine that we are saved
through Christ alone, our works and merits not earning our salvation;
and who imagine the hearing of this doctrine constitutes them
Christians and that there is no necessity for any effort or contention
on their part. They forget that they must, through faith, become new
persons fitted to overcome the world and the devil.
12. Victory over the devil is the sign of the true Christian. Thereby
we may know men are born of God, may distinguish them from the false
children who enjoy but the semblance of God's Word and never
experience its power. Such are mere "mondkinder"
(moon-children)--still-born, destitute of real divine life, or divine
power. It cannot be said we have been born of God when we continue in
our old dead and worldly course, and as before lie and live in sin at
the devil's pleasure. No, as children of God we must resist the devil
and his entire kingdom. If, then, instead of overcoming the world you
allow it to overcome you, then, boast as you may of faith and Christ,
your own conduct testifies that you are not a child of God.
To illustrate, beginning with some of the lower and grosser sins: If
you boast of being a child of God, but still live in fornication,
adultery, and such vices, the devil has already overcome you and
wrested you from the kingdom of God. If you are miserly, injuring your
neighbor by usury, by overcharging, by false wares and fraudulent
business, you have permitted the world and your own flesh to overcome
you for a penny. If you entertain envy and hatred toward your
neighbor, you are at once thereby a captive servant of the devil. The
same principle holds in the case of sins more subtle and refined,
where the malicious knavery of the devil must be resisted. For
instance, the devil deceives with misleading doctrines, impelling men
to idolatry, false faith, presumption, despair, blasphemy, and so on.
Now, if you yield to him, suffering yourself to be seduced, what will
it profit you to boast of the Gospel faith? for you have not properly
grasped God's Word, you have not rightly recognized God in Christ, but
continue in error, in false fancies, captivated and deceived by the
devil.
13. It requires something more than mere human wisdom and skill, more
than human power, to withstand and overcome an enemy so formidable as
the devil. As said before, the Christian must be fortified with the
knowledge of how to guard against his wiles and deceptions and how to
withstand him. Hence a Christian is called a person who is born of
God. He must be different from an intelligent heathen and a skillful
worldling to rightly understand God's Word and apprehend Christ
through faith, and must use such knowledge as weapons of offense and
defense in the conflict. Thus will he be able to withstand the devil
and the world and to gain the victory. God's Word and faith are the
power which will bring him through; he cannot be overcome so long as
he adheres to them.
In this connection are John's words immediately preceding our text:
"This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his
commandments are not grievous." Then he goes on, "For whatsoever is
begotten of God overcometh the world," etc. Such is the power
represented by genuine new birth, that therein the devil, the world
and all evil are overcome. Just as, in physical birth, a normal child
fully born into the world may overcome a slight offensive disease,
while an abnormal or still-born child perishes of its own weakness.
14. For example, if I have faith and am born of God, I will not
pollute myself with unchastity and fornication, I will not bring
disgrace upon another's spouse or child. The new birth will indeed
teach me not to reject shamefully the treasure I have in Christ, not
to lose it willingly, and not to drive from me the indwelling Holy
Spirit. Faith, if it truly dwells in me, will not permit me to do
aught in violation of my conscience and of the Word and the will of
God.
Should I be tempted by avarice to deceive and defraud my neighbor, or
to close my hand when I should give him aid, if I am a Christian and
born anew my faith will protest and turn me from such action. Can I
injure my neighbor or permit him to suffer want when I might
contribute to his relief, if I am aware that Christ has given his body
and shed his blood for me? How can there enter into the heart of the
Christian who believes he has received ineffable and eternal treasures
through the Son of God, the inclination to permit his neighbor to
suffer a trivial want when he can easily extend relief? Much less
would it be possible for the Christian to injure or to do injustice to
his neighbor for the sake of shamefully gaining some small advantage.
Rather he would reflect: "If I am, through Christ, a child of God and
an heir of heaven, the sum of this world's goods is far too
insignificant to induce me, for the sake of a penny, to deceive or
defraud anyone."
Then, too, if the devil tempt you by his tyrannical, factious spirits,
or even by your own thoughts, to forsake your pure doctrine for his
deceptions, you as a Christian are to resist the temptation,
remembering the blessings you have through faith received from Christ
in the Gospel; you have been liberated from darkness, blindness and
error; have learned rightly to know God; and have obtained the sure
consolation of grace and salvation, being aware upon what you must
depend in life and death. Why, then, yield to the devil, allowing
yourself to be robbed of salvation and eternal life? Why not much
rather let go every earthly thing than to deny the Word of God or to
permit this blessed consolation to be perverted, falsified and wrested
from you?
15. So, then, John says, "This is the victory that hath overcome the
world, even our faith." It is, indeed, saying very much for the
Christian faith to attribute to it such power over the devil and the
world--a power transcending all human ability. It requires an agency
greater and higher than human strength to triumph over the devil,
especially in the perplexing conflicts of conscience, when he vexes
and tortures the heart with terror of God's wrath in the attempt to
drive us to despair. At such times all our works must immediately sink
out of sight, leaving no help or victory except the faith that clings
to the word of Christ the Lord, believing that, for the sake of his
beloved Son, God will be merciful and will not condemn us for our sins
and unworthiness if we believe in him. Such faith as this stands fast
and gains the victory; neither the devil nor the gates of hell can
prevail against it.
16. The same is true in all temptations. Before we can resist and
overcome, we must have faith to believe that through Christ we have
remission of sins and the favor of God; that God gives us help and
strength to enable us to stand in the conflict and successfully resist
the devil, the world, the flesh and death; that we obtain the victory
by the divine power of the Holy Spirit, lacking whose help we all
would be far too weak to win. Without faith, we are under the power of
the devil and sin, being subject to them by natural birth. We can be
liberated in no other way than through faith in Christ.
17. That John has reference to faith in Christ is plainly evident from
his query, "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth
that Jesus is the Son of God?" The apostle's purpose therein is to
make plain just what the true Scriptural faith is and what it implies.
For there are other beliefs which the world calls faith. The Jews, the
Turks, the Papists, claim they also believe in God who created heaven
and earth. That such belief is not the true faith, however, is proved
by the fact of its ineffectiveness. It does not contend and overcome,
and it permits the believer to remain as he is, in his natural birth
and under the power of the devil and sin.
But the faith which believes Jesus is the Son of God is the true,
triumphant sort. It is an invincible power wrought in the hearts of
Christians by the Holy Spirit. It is a sure knowledge, that does not
gaze and vacillate hither and thither according to its own thoughts.
It apprehends God in Christ the Son sent from heaven, through whom God
reveals his will and his love and transfers us from sin to grace, from
death to a new and eternal life; a refuge and trust that relies not
upon its own merit or worthiness, but upon Christ the Son of God, and
in his might and power battles against the world and the devil.
Therefore, the Christian faith is not the cold, ineffective, empty,
lifeless conception which Papists and others imagine it to be; no, it
is a living, active power, ever followed by victories and other
appropriate fruits. Where such fruits are lacking, faith and the new
birth are not there.