The Christ is Jesus

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1 John

Study

5

The Christ is Jesus Introduction The passage which forms the focus of this study introduces us to the third hallmark of authentic faith and completes the first cycle of John’s teaching about assurance. Thus far we have seen that authentic faith is shown by a life of obedience and of love. But what about doctrine – surely what we believe as Christians is also important! In our passage (1 John 2vs18-27) John underlines the critical importance of believing the truth about Jesus and he does so in terms which once again address the lies of the false teachers. For the false teachers of John’s day (and indeed of today) it was simply impossible to believe that God’s great work of salvation could be achieved in human history by a real person. God would, indeed could never become a human being and would certainly not die upon a cross or rise from the dead. Salvation was through divine enlightenment (a spiritual anointing) that led to special knowledge and was only for those who were “in the know.” For John, the spokesman of Apostolic Christianity, true salvation was accomplished for us in history by Jesus, the One who died for our sins (see 1 John 2vs2). Our fundamental problem is not our ignorance of the Divine Will but our rebellion against it. Thus the solution to our problem is not knowledge but forgiveness obtained by the substitutionary death of the Son of God. To deny this truth is to stand against the Christ – hence John’s description of these false teachers as ‘antichrists’ – and thus to demonstrate that one does not have the true anointing, the Holy Spirit who indwells every true believer in Jesus the Christ At the end of this study you should be able to answer the following questions from the text  What will every true Christian believe about Jesus?  What is the evidence that every Christian has the Holy Spirit? Read 1 John 2vs18-27

Observe: 1. The references to the ‘last hour’ 2. The use of the word antichrist to describe false teachers 3. The fact that there is more than one antichrist

4. The fact that the false teachers broke fellowship with the church 5. The description of the gift of the Spirit as the anointing 6. The denial by the false teachers that the Christ is Jesus 7. The assurance to the believers that they don’t need teaching beyond the gospel 8. The exhortation to the believers to continue in the gospel they heard

?Think: 1. What does John mean by ‘the last hour’?

2. What does this passage teach about the false teachers?

3. What is true of every believer in Jesus?

4. What is the correct response to false teaching?

! Understand / Apply 1. What answers can you give to our key questions?