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Knowing Christ in Truth: Assurance and the Obedience Test (1 John 2:3–4) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed thinking. Today we are undertaking a
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massive theological deep dive into the objective test of
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Christian assurance. We are looking specifically at
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the First Epistle of John, chapter 2, verses 3 and four.
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We have a an intense study ahead of us, drawing on 2 highly
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detailed theological documents that analyze the specific text.
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The mission here is quite specific.
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We want to help you cut through the dense fog of modern vague
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religiosity and discover the true biblical ground for the
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assurance of your salvation. It is very easy to look around
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today and see a culture that prizes identity labels above all
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else. We see people who will gladly
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wear a Christian label, who will enthusiastically defend orthodox
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doctrine, who will attend worship faithfully, and yet they
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quietly keep their favorite sins hidden away.
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They spend their days negotiating with God, treating
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His commandments as optional suggestions rather than royal
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decrees. Charles Spurgeon once offered a
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sharp critique of this precise phenomenon.
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He described a form of godliness that completely denies its
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force. That is the situation we're
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addressing today. We are looking at how the
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Apostle John acts as both a tender, loving pastor and a
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precise clinical surgeon. He is cutting away self
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deception to expose the truth while simultaneously offering
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the greatest comfort possible to the true St.
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You are going to see that John leaves no room for Gray areas
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when it comes to the connection between knowing Christ and
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obeying His Word. Right.
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That is the precise reality we're looking at today when we
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open the text. Before we even reach the
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specific obedience test of chapter 2, we have to grasp with
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the context John provides in the 1st chapter.
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In first John chapter one verse 5 through chapter 2 verse 2,
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John establishes a massive moral reality.
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He writes God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
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He's not offering a poetic metaphor or a nice thought for a
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greeting card. He is laying down an absolute,
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unbending moral and spiritual reality about the nature of God.
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Because God is pure, light, holy, and morally undefiled,
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fellowship with Him carries unavoidable ethical
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consequences. The modern world will tell you
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that faith is what you feel in your heart.
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John, however, says that faith is what you follow with your
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life. You cannot claim intimacy with a
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holy God while cherishing the darkness.
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OK, let's unpack this concept of light and darkness because, you
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know, modern culture has really distorted these terms.
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People today often equate light with just being a positive
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person or sending good vibes, and darkness with being negative
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or toxic. But John is talking about
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objective moral categories, right?
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He uses these conditional statements to track anyone
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trying to redefine the terms. That is a crucial distinction.
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What's fascinating here is how John uses these conditional if
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we say statements in the 1st chapter to expose claims that
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contradict a person's actual life.
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For example, he says that if we claim to have fellowship with
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him while walking in darkness, we lie and do not practice the
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truth. John is combating 2 opposite
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errors that constantly infect the church.
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On one side you have the spiritual pretender who claims
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moral innocence denying that they have sin.
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On the other side you have the crushed burden conscience that
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looks at their sin and falls in a complete despair.
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John rejects both extremes. He provides the gospel remedy.
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Jesus Christ is our advocate and the propitiation for our sins.
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Grace does not lower the standard of God's holiness, but
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it does provide a perfect standing for the believer.
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Yeah, so we have the pretender who says I have no sin and the
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despairing person who says my sin is too great.
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And the remedy for both is understanding who Jesus is in
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this context. Let's really bring this down to
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earth. I think a courtroom analogy
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works perfectly here to help you grasp the weight of what John is
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saying. Picture yourself standing in the
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courtroom of divine justice. You are the defendant, and you
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are undeniably guilty. The evidence of your sin is
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clear and the penalty is severe. But then your defense attorney
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steps forward. This is Christ, your advocate.
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And notice what the advocate does not do.
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He does not argue that you are innocent.
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He does not point to your good works or claim that you had good
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intentions. Instead, he presents the fact
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that he has already satisfied the penalty for your crimes.
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That is what propitiation means. He absorbed the wrath and
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satisfied the justice of God entirely on your behalf, because
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the penalty has been paid in full.
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Justice itself demands your freedom.
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God's forgiveness is not him simply looking the other way or
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sweeping sin under the rug. It is grounded in righteousness.
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That is such a relief for the believer because the penalty is
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paid. God is actually being just when
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He forgives you. This is why walking in the
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light, as John describes it, is not about claiming sinless
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perfection. That is a very dangerous error
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that John explicitly refutes. If walking in the light meant
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you never sinned, well, heaven would be empty.
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Walking in the light means living an honest, repentant life
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under God's searching holiness. It means bringing your sins into
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the light for cleansing rather than hiding them in the shadows.
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Yes, walking in the light is about exposure and honesty
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before God. It means you agree with God
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about your sin. When the light shines on a flaw
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in your life, you do not run to the darkness to hide it, you
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bring it to the advocate. So the question for you to
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consider right from the start is this.
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Are you bringing your sins into the light to be cleansed by the
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blood of Christ, or are you hiding them in the dark while
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loudly claiming to know God? That brings us right to the
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threshold of chapter 2. Now that John has established
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that God is light and that Christ is the propitiation for
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our sins, he gives us a very specific test.
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It is like he is handing us a tool to measure our own
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spiritual pulse. This is section two of our deep
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dive, the positive test John writes in chapter 2 verse 3.
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And by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his
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commandments. Think of this verse as a
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pastor's handrail. It is a God appointed way for
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you to recognize genuine fellowship with Christ without
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drifting off into presumption on one side or despair on the
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other. John knows that subjective
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feelings are incredibly unreliable.
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If you base your assurance on how you feel on a Tuesday
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morning, you will be constantly tossed around.
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John wants to give you something objective to hold onto.
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Let's division into the language here because the sources point
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out some really specific choices John makes.
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In the original Greek. We're dealing with two main
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concepts, knowing God and keeping his commandments.
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Let's start with the word for knowing.
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The linguistic detail here is striking.
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When John speaks of knowing God, he uses the Greek word incisco.
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In Johannian theology. This is not just cognitive
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ascent. It is not passing a theology
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exam or possessing a collection of accurate facts about God.
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It is covenantal relational intimacy.
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Furthermore, John uses it in the Perkintense.
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This indicates a past definitive action, in this case
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regeneration or the new birth that has abiding present
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continuous results. You have come to know him and
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you continue to know him. So it is not just knowing about
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God like I know facts about Abraham Lincoln.
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It is knowing him the way a husband knows a wife or a
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subject knows a king. It is relational and covenantal.
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And then John links this relational knowledge to an
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action which is keeping his commandments.
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Correct. The Greek word for keeping is
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toray. This word is much stronger than
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simple external conformity to a set of rules.
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It carries the meaning of guarding, watching over, or
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protecting something incredibly precious.
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Think of a soldier guarding A treasury, or a sailor keeping
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watch on a ship. And it is in the present tense
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which demands continuous, habitual action.
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You don't just keep the commandments once and move on,
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you are continually guarding them as a way of life.
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This sounds very different from how people naturally view rules
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or laws. Usually we see laws as
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restrictions, things keeping us from having fun.
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But if you are guarding them like a treasure, your entire
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disposition toward the law has changed.
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I think we need to explain how this fits into our broader
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theology. If we connect this to the bigger
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picture, we see a beautiful expression of what Reformed
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theology calls the third use of the Law.
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The Law is no longer a ladder you climb to earn your
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salvation. That is a works based mindset.
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Instead, for the grateful regenerate heart, the Law acts
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as a fatherly guide. OK, let's unpack this concept of
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the third use because for a lot of listeners, the word law
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immediately triggers thoughts of condemnation.
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We usually think of the law as the thing that exposes our sin
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and drives us to Christ, which is the first use.
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So how does the third use function differently for someone
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who is already saved? That is the crucial distinction.
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You are right. The law acts as a mirror to show
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us our sin. But once you are justified, once
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you are in Christ, the law changes its function in your
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life. It is no longer a condemning
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judge handing down a death sentence.
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Instead, it becomes a map for living.
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The believer looks at the commandments of Christ and sees
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a treasure to be guarded and practiced, not a burden to be
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resented. You obey not to get saved, but
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because you are saved and you want to please the Father who
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saved you. I love that image.
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It is like the difference between a speed limit sign when
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a police officer is behind you versus the rules of a healthy
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family. The speed limit feels like a
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threat. You obey out of fear of penalty,
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but in a healthy family you follow the rules of the house
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because you love the family and want peace in the home.
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To fully grasp why John is hammering this point so hard, we
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should look at the historical context he was writing in.
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Who is he fighting against here? John was dealing with early
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forms of proto gnostic heresies. These false teachers were trying
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to separate intellectual enlightenment from physical
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moral conduct. They taught that the spirit is
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good and matter is evil. Therefore, as long as your
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spirit possessed the secret knowledge of God, what you did
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with your physical body did not matter at all.
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You can engage in any sin and it supposedly would not affect your
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spiritual standing. They were basically arguing for
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a total disconnect between the head and the hands.
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You can think all the right spiritual thoughts while living
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like the devil, and John is tearing that idea down to the
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studs. He is telling the church that
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the God who is pure light does not unite himself to a person
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and leave them completely unchanged.
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A genuine relationship with Christ is not a dead fact stored
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in the cerebral cortex. It is a living communion that
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produces present, visible fruit. Precisely.
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John insists that physical obedience is the necessary
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validation of spiritual knowledge.
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You cannot claim to walk in the light spiritually while your
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feet are walking in darkness physically.
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So take a moment to examine your own knowing.
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When you say you know Christ, is it just a historical fact you
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agree with, a tradition you inherited from your parents, or
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a prayer you repeated years ago? Or is it a living, breathing
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communion that alters the trajectory of your daily life?
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Because if you truly possess that covenantal knowledge of the
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King, you will have a persistent desire to guard his commands.
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The necessity of that visible fruit leads directly into John's
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negative exposure of religious hypocrisy.
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After giving us the positive handrail in verse three, he
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presents a stark warning. In verse four he writes the one
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who says I know him and does not keep his commandments as a liar
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and the truth is not in him. That is heavy and we need to be
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very clear about who John is targeting here so we don't
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accidentally crush a tender conscience.
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That is a necessary caution. John is not targeting the
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struggling believer who falls into sin, hates that sin,
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confesses it, and repents. We know this because he just
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offered the comfort of Christ, the advocate for anyone who
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sins. John's target here is the person
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who lives in a settled, habitual, unrepentant refusal to
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submit to the commands of Christ.
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This is the individual who claims the privileges of knowing
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God while simultaneously treating God's law with
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contempt. The Greek grammar indicating
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does not keep is in the present tense, pointing to an ongoing
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state of disobedience, not an isolated stumble.
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This person wants the benefits of salvation without the
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authority of the Savior. They want to wear the crown of
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eternal life, but they refuse to bow to the crown of Christ's
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lordship. Yes, they want Jesus as an
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insurance policy against hell, but they do not want him as a
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king over their daily decisions. John exposes this entirely.
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He is stripping away the camouflage of those who claim to
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know the truth, but whose lies tell a completely different
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story. Here's where it gets really
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interesting, because looking at verse 4, John's language is
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incredibly blunt. He outright calls this person a
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liar. In our modern polite society,
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that feels incredibly harsh. Why does John resort to such
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severe language here? It feels harsh to modern ears
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because we prioritize being nice over being truthful, but we have
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to see. This is a massive act of
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pastoral charity. If you see someone walking
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blindfolded toward a Cliff, the most uncharitable thing you can
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do is speak to them in soothing, affirming tones while they step
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off the edge. To call someone spiritually safe
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when their life habitually contradicts the commands of
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Christ is to actively assist in their damnation.
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Wow, so he is essentially exposing the gap between what we
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say we believe and how we actually live.
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The old distinction between orthodoxy and orthopraxy.
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That is the core issue, the falsehood John is pointing out
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as not about social rudeness. It is a deadly spiritual lie.
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He's exposing the illusion of orthodoxy without orthopraxy.
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You can have all the right theology in your head,
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orthodoxy, but if it does not result in right practice
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orthopraxy, your sincerity means nothing.
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Sincerity that will not submit to Christ is still darkness.
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We see this modern tragedy everywhere.
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A person wants Christ to act as a shield from the fires of hell,
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but they entirely reject Christ as the Lord over their
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conscience and their conduct. They want the cross, but they
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want nothing to do with the crown.
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It is a terrifying self deception and John loves his
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readers too much to let them sleep through it.
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He wakes them up with cold water.
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That strict binary John creates between the true believer who
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guards the commands and the liar who rejects them requires a
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solid theological framework to understand properly.
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This brings us to section four of our discussion.
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If we connect this to the bigger picture of systematic theology,
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we see how historically, the reformed confessions have
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provided massive safeguards against the errors John is
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fighting. The sources for our deep dive
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point specifically to the absolute distinction between
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justification and sanctification.
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Notice you said distinction, not separation.
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I think this is where lots of people get tripped up.
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Can you explain how reformed theology holds these two
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realities together without confusing them?
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Absolutely. God justifies the ungodly by
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faith alone on the basis of Christ's righteousness alone.
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Your acceptance before God is not suspended over your head
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like a fragile verdict waiting to see if you have a good week
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of obedience. Christ is the righteous
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advocate, and His propitiation answers God's justice
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completely. That is justification.
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It is an event. It is a legal declaration of not
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guilty based entirely on Christ's work, not yours.
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Right. If justification depended even
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1% on my obedience, I would have 0 hope.
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But while justification is by faith alone, the faith that
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justifies is never alone. It always produces the fruit of
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sanctification. Sanctification is the ongoing
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process of being made holy. This is precisely what the
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Westminster Confession of Faith details in chapter 19.
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The moral law remains a perfect rule of righteousness for the
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believer. Good works are the fruits and
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evidences of a true and lively faith.
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Keeping Christ's commandments does not earn your knowledge of
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Christ, but it proves that your knowledge is actually real.
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Christ alone is the ground of your acceptance, and your
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obedience is the necessary fruit of your union with Him.
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That distinction is the key that unlocks the whole passage.
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When you understand that justification and sanctification
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are distinct but never separated, you are guarded
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against massive historical errors.
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For instance, Roman Catholic theology historically confuses
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justification with sanctification, essentially
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teaching that you are justified by faith plus the works of love
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you perform that turns obedience into the root of your salvation
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rather than the fruit. Yes, and on the other flank you
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have Arminianism, which bases the perseverance of the Saints
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on human strength and free will rather than God's sovereign
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decree. That system leaves the believer
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in a state of constant anxiety about losing their salvation.
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If you have a bad day of sinning, you fear you have
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fallen from grace. The Reformed framework provides
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such a better way. It says no, Christ makes you
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completely safe. And because you are safe, and
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because you have a new heart, you will naturally begin to
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obey. For you, listening right now,
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understanding these reformed categories is not about trying
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to pass a seminary theology exam.
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It is about finding a robust, objective peace for your soul.
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It takes your eyes off your fragile, shifting feelings and
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anchors your assurance in the objective reality of Christ's
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finished work and the visible fruit He's producing in your
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life. Building on that robust
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foundation, we need to take John's text and systematically
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apply to the specific errors that constantly threaten the
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Church today. The sources outline 5 modern
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pitfalls that John's theology dismantles.
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Let's look at the first of these antinomianism.
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Antinomianism. Anti law.
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This is essentially the prosperity gospel of the Spirit,
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isn't it? It speaks loudly about grace,
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but treats the commandments of Christ as entirely optional or
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even harmful to Christian freedom.
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That is an accurate description. The Antinomian says because I am
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forgiven, my obedience is irrelevant.
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God only looks at Christ's righteousness, so it does not
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matter how I behave. John refutes this violently.
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He shows that claiming grace without walking in obedience is
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a total lie. If a person can make peace with
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sin, cherishing it and protecting it while wearing the
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name of Christ, John calls them precisely what God calls them, a
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liar. It is the idea of cheap grace.
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They want the pardon but refuse the purification.
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Now the second error is legalism, which is the direct
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opposite end of the spectrum. This is the merit logic of
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workspaced religion. The legalist looks at the text
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and converts it into a ladder, saying obey and God will accept
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you. They focus intensely on the
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outward keeping of rules as the basis for their standing with
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God. But John has already established
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that Christ is the propitiation. The Gospel says Christ makes you
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safe and therefore you obey. The legalist either becomes
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incredibly proud when they think they're keeping the law, or
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entirely crushed when they realize they are failing.
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John refuses to give the legalist the yoke they crave.
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He drives them instead to Christ for cleansing and then insists
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that cleanse people do not continue in careless rebellion.
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So what does this all mean for the modern evangelical
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landscape? That brings us to the Third Era
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decisionism or pragmatic evangelicalism.
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I think a lot of our listeners will recognize this.
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It is the youth camp mentality. You sign a card, you cry at the
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altar when the acoustic guitar is playing softly, and you treat
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that moment like a permanent receipt of your salvation, even
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if you haven't opened your Bible or fought a sin in 10 years.
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That is a perfect description of it.
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It treats the assurance of salvation as a souvenir you keep
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from a past moment. It is the idea that because you
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walk down an aisle or repeated a specific prayer a decade ago,
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you are permanently secure regardless of how you Live
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Today. John's test is not a backward
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glance at a fleeting religious moment.
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It is a present tense assessment of your life right now.
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Are you keeping His commandments today?
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This directly confronts the modern seeker sensitive church
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models. So many of these churches
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deliberately avoid mentioning God's law or the necessity of
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repentance because they want to keep the crowds happy and the
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seats full. Pragmatism says whatever gets
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results is good. John says whatever contradicts
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the truth is a lie. If a church produces a crowd of
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confident, disobedient people claiming to be Christians, that
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church has not helped them. It has actively deceived them.
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Then we have the 4th year mysticism.
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This is the practice of basing your assurance on subjective
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impressions, intense emotional experiences, or claiming to
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receive new private revelations from God.
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The mystical mindset says I know him because I felt A rush of
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emotion during the worship set, or I know him because he spoke
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to me in a dream. That sounds exhausting, basing
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your standing before God on how many goosebumps you got on
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Sunday morning. It is exhausting and it is
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unbiblical looking at this from a historical cessationist
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viewpoint. As the text notes, our assurance
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is anchored in the objective reality of the Word of God and
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the administration of the sacraments, not in shifting
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internal sensations. You know Him if you keep His
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word. Experiences might accompany your
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faith, but they can never replace objective obedience as
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the evidence of your faith. Let's move to the 5th and final
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error. We must confront liberal
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theology and moral revisionism. This is huge.
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Today. This mindset attempts to
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redefine sin entirely, often framing it as a search for
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authenticity while treating the holiness of God as an outdated,
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primitive severity. Yes, moral revisionism looks the
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commandments of Christ and says those were just cultural norms
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for the 1st century. We know better now, but John
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begins his entire argument with the axiom that God is light and
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in him is no darkness at all. This leaves absolutely zero room
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for renaming Darkness just to make it culturally acceptable.
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Liberal religion says the main problem humanity faces is a lack
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of self esteem or a feeling of shame, and the solution is total
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affirmation of whatever you desire.
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John says the problem is actual objective sin against a holy
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God, and the only solution is Christ's cleansing blood, a
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cleansing that undeniably produces a new walk in the
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light. Contrast the viewpoint of the
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world with the viewpoint of Christ.
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The world tells you that freedom is doing whatever you want,
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whenever you want, without consequences.
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Christ says the true freedom is belonging to Him and walking in
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his ways. John's polemic is timeless
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because it exposes every system, whether ancient Gnosticism or
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modern moral revisionism, that tries to separate Christ the
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Savior from Christ the Lord. You cannot have one without the
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other. With all those areas exposed, we
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have to bring this down to the ground level.
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We need to look at the pastoral application for the head, the
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heart and the hands. John's words are not a
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theological puzzle to be debated in a classroom.
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They are an instrument designed to do serious work on your soul.
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The sources apply this text specifically to three different
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types of listeners. First, there is a severe mercy
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directed at the self deceived. Yes, this is the person who
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claims to know God but refuses the yoke of holiness.
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If that is you. If your Christianity is mostly
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If you enjoy discussing doctrine on social media but your private
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life remains completely untouched.
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If you cherish secret impurity or nurse bitter resentments
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while claiming Christ in John says your claim is false.
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It is a harsh wake up call, but it is necessary.
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This is a call to break your truce with the darkness.
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Drop the endless excuses, stop trying to justify your pet sins,
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and run to Christ for actual pardon.
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The warning is severe because false assurance is a comfortable
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road to destruction. But then there is the second
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audience, the weary, struggling St.
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For you, this text offers deep, lasting comfort.
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The devil loves to take verse 4 and use it to crush a bruised
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Reed. He whispers that because your
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obedience is imperfect, you must be a liar.
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He points to your daily failures and says, see, you don't really
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know him, but you have to recognize the difference between
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the direction of your life and the perfection of your life.
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That is such a vital distinction.
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Direction versus perfection. How does a listener know the
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difference in their own life? The hypocrite sends and defends
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it. The Christian sends and fights
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it. The liar makes peace with the
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darkness. The true believer hates the
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darkness, even when they stumble into it.
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If you grieve over your sin, if you confess it to the Advocate
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and strive to obey, that very grief and that ongoing fight is
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the pulse of the Holy Spirit inside you.
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That distinction between the hypocrite and the struggling St.
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is vital not just for the individual, but for the life of
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the local church. This raises an important
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question regarding liturgical integration.
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Let's talk about how this text applies to fencing the table at
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the Lord's Supper. When a Reformed Church
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administers communion, the minister will fence the table.
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He will explain that the bread and the wine are spiritual
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nourishment meant for the repentant believer.
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It is a table of grace for the one who knows Christ and is
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fighting to keep His word even amid many weaknesses.
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However, it is a place of judgement for the persistent,
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unrepentant liar who refuses to submit to the lordship of
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Christ. The elements act as the visible
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word, confirming the grace that sustains our sanctification, but
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they are not to be taken lightly by those who live in settled
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rebellion. The table is for sinners who are
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clinging to the advocate, not for rebels who are mocking the
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king. This brings us to the third
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audience, the growing disciple for the believer who is learning
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to keep Christ's commandments with increasing steadiness, John
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issues a call to diligent use of the ordinary means of grace.
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What does that practically look like?
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It means immersing yourself in the Word, committing to prayer,
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honoring the Lord's Day, and participating in the fellowship
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of the Saints. Assurance is not strengthened by
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constantly staring inward at your own flaws.
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It is strengthened by looking outward to Christ and walking
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steadily in the light before God.
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Alongside other believers, you utilize the means God has
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provided to feed your faith. I want to highlight the hands on
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application of this for your daily life.
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It is about taking a hard, honest look at the granular
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details of your week. Look at your business dealings.
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Are they characterized by complete honesty and integrity
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or do you cut corners when no one is watching?
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Look at your Internet usage in the late hours of the night.
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Are you guarding your eyes and your heart or are you wandering
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into the darkness? Look at your speech within your
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own home, how you talk to your spouse or your children.
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Is it marked by the grace and patience of Christ, or by
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harshness and pride? Keeping the commandments means a
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watchful guarding of Christ's commands in these very practical
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areas of life. And returning to our earlier
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discussion of the Greek word taurish, guarding the commands
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means you treat these areas of life with intense care.
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You are vigilant over your speech, your business, and your
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private habits because you value your communion with God above
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all else. To summarize our deep dive
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today, saving knowledge of Christ is never a hollow claim.
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It is a living, breathing reality that is proven by a new
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upward trajectory of obedience. This obedience is not driven by
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a fearful attempt to earn salvation, but by an
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overwhelming gratitude for the Advocate who has already secured
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your standing before the Father. As we conclude, I want to leave
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you with a final thought to consider as you go about your
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week, a thought built directly upon the foundation of these
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sources. We often look at our internal
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struggles as evidence of our failure.
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But consider this. What if the intense, ongoing war
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you feel against a specific temptation, that very daily,
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exhausting struggle that sometimes makes you question
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your salvation, is actually the clearest, most undeniable proof
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of your new nature. Think about it logically.
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Dead things do not fight back. A dead leaf simply floats
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downstream, entirely captive to the flow of the water.
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Only living things resist the current.
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If you were spiritually dead, you would not be fighting the
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sin, You would be eagerly swimming along with it.
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The presence of the war within you is the proof of the life
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within you. That is an incredibly
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encouraging reality to hold on to.
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The fight itself is the evidence of life.
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Thank you for joining us today on this deep dive.
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We hope this examination of the objective test of Christian
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assurance has challenged you, comforted you, and pointed you
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directly to Christ. Until next time, keep walking in
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the light and thank you for listening to Reformed Thinking.