Alive To God

For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here. https://stevehusting.com/alivetogod/meditations-on-1-john-11-4-with-notes/

v. 18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the one who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “Each verse in John 5:18-20 begins with ‘we know.’ ” This ‘we’ is “probably fundamentally apostolic. … anyone born of God is a person whose true, inward nature is inherently sinless. … the one who has been born of God keeps himself. … A believer’s new man (or ‘new self’; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10) is fundamentally impervious to sin and hence the evil one, Satan, does not touch him.”

(Vincent’s II) “Toucheth. … express a touch which exerts a modifying influence upon the object.” (Life) “5:18-19 God has freed believers from their slavery to Satan, and he keeps them safe from Satan’s continued attacks.”

For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here. https://stevehusting.com/alivetogod/meditations-on-1-john-11-4-with-notes/

v. 14, This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “5:14-15. … Christians today discern God’s will through the Scriptures and ask accordingly. But the unit of thought that commences with 5:3b has focused on the truth that God’s commands are not a burden because faith in God’s Son is the secret of spiritual victory over the world.”

(Vincent’s II) “Confidence. Rev., boldness.”

(Life) “5:14-15 The emphasis here is on God’s will, not our will. If we align our prayers with his will, he will listen; and we can be certain that if he listens, he will give us a definite answer.” (ESV) “5:14 … does not mean that, before Christians can pray effectively, they need somehow to discover God’s secret plans for the future. … they should ask according to what the Bible teaches about God’s will.”

For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here. https://stevehusting.com/alivetogod/meditations-on-1-john-11-4-with-notes/

v. 6, Jesus Christ ​— ​he is the one who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and by blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) Water = baptism. Blood = death. “5:6-8. But the object of this faith must aways be the One who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. … suggests that he was refuting a false notion of the type held by Cerinthus. … taught that the divine Christ descended on the man Jesus at His baptism and left Him before His crucifixion. Thus he denied … [Jesus] came by both water and blood.”

(Vincent’s II) “By water and blood. Water refers to Christ’s baptism at the beginning of His Messianic work … Blood refers to His bloody death upon the cross.” Here are two principles of interpretation: “(1.) Water and blood must point both to some purely historical facts in the life of our Lord on earth… (2.) They must not be interpreted symbolically, but understood of something so real and powerful.” (Recovery) “… and the Spirit, who is the truth, the reality in life (Rom. 8:2), germinates those whom God has redeemed out of the old creation, by regenerating them with the divine life. Thus they are born of God and become His children.”

For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here. https://stevehusting.com/alivetogod/meditations-on-1-john-11-4-with-notes/

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “If love for God and one’s fellow Christians is at its core obedience to God’s commands, how can these be carried out? … John pointed to faith as the secret of a victorious obedient life.”

v. 4, because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.

(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “This [God’s commands are not burdensome] is because the principle of victory resides in everyone born of God. … His faith in Christ, … constitutes a victory over the world system which is satanically blinded.”

(Vincent’s II) “That overcometh. The aorist tense, overcame. The victory over the world was, potentially, won when we believed in Jesus. … We overcome the world by being brought into union with Christ. On becoming as He is (iii. 17) we become partakers of His victory.” “Our faith. …the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.”

(Life) “5:3-4 Jesus never promised that obeying him would be easy.” (ESV) “Genuine Christians are not defeated by the world’s hostility or compelled by it to turn from Christ.”