Is my faith real?

After his resurrection, Jesus gave us his Spirit, and so the power to give forgiveness through God’s Word.

This is how faith spreads: As we tell people that in Jesus all sins are forgiven, the Spirit creates faith in people as they hear it—that faith is assurance that their sins are forgiven.

But! To receive this forgiveness, you must trust this Word. We must have faith—we must have assurance it is true. And so: what if your faith isn’t proper faith?

What if I’m fooling myself—and my faith is really hypocritical?
What if I don’t have real faith?

In John’s first letter, he set up exactly this question using the strongest language in the whole Bible:

2:4 about obedience:

Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him

3:9 about sin:

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.

3:10 about love:

By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Do you measure up to this? Not in theory—but actually? Do you? Because everyone in this room has flaws—I do. Doesn’t that mean your faith isn’t real? That we’re hypocrites?

This is no accident.

John is not careless with these statements. He’s forcing you to a question you cannot answer by looking at yourself.

Because if that question is honest—it has no answer in you.

So that when we come to our reading today, he can give you an answer from outside of you:

1) Looking at yourself will never give you a secure answer
2) Faith does not rest in you—it rests on Jesus
3) God has already given his answer in Jesus’ work

First: Looking at yourself will never give you a secure answer

Please look at v. 4:

⁴ For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

Back in chapter 2 v. 16, John said the world is:

the desires of the flesh
and the desires of the eyes
and pride of life

These are the ways we try to establish or satisfy ourselves. And so we, ourselves, cannot overcome them.

John says here that overcoming the world is something done to you:

everyone who has been born of God

And that it is something done for you:

this is the victory that has overcome the world

So when he says “our faith is the victory that has overcome”: he doesn’t mean how strongly we believe, he means that faith is simply holding onto the one who has already won.

Overcoming the world is not something we do. It is something Christ has already done.

And so if you look at yourself to check if your faith is real, you’ll never feel secure—because you’re looking away from the one who has overcome the world already.

When the people of Israel were in the wilderness they were afflicted by poisonous snakes.

To save them, God gave Moses a bronze serpent. And everyone who looked up at it would live.

If you look down at the snakes—you die.
If you look up at the bronze serpent—you live.

Looking at yourself will never give you a secure answer

This is why John gave us impossibly hard tests for faith: So that every time I look inside at my own faith—all I see is a reason to look somewhere else: to look at Jesus.

There is never any circumstance where I can look inside myself and see “Yes, I meet the criteria for faith that overcomes.”

Jesus has overcome—I only benefit from that as I trust in him. I can’t create faith like this inside myself. God needs to create it in me.

And that’s what it means to be born of God: to stop trying to ensure anything in me is good enough—even my faith—and just trust Jesus instead.

Because 2) Faith does not rest in you—it rests on Jesus

Please look at vv. 5-6:

Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

We overcome the world—our own trust in ourselves—because we trust in Jesus Christ who has already overcome the world for us.

This has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with Jesus.

He came by water:
—he chose to be baptised to identify with you
—and he gives you baptism to unite you to him

He came by blood:
—he came giving his own blood to secure you

The Spirit is the one who testifies:
—you don’t need to make a decision to trust Jesus
—the Spirit gives you this trust as you hear Jesus’ work declared to you.

Faith does not rest in you—it rests on Jesus

So as soon as I ask myself the question: Is my faith real?

John’s answer is this: Stop looking at yourself to check your faith. Just look at Jesus and trust him to handle it.

Because: 3) God has already given his answer in Jesus’ work

Please look at vv. 7-9

⁷ For there are three that testify: ⁸ the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. ⁹ If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.

If you want to know whether your faith is real, if you want to know whether you are elect… …if there is anything at all that your salvation depends on: Then stop asking the question that way. Because God has not left you to answer that question by examining yourself.

John continues in vv. 10-12, please look there with me:

Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

If someone gives testimony in court—you don’t respond by saying: “Let me go and analyse myself to see if that’s true.” You listen to the testimony.

And here—this is not the testimony of men.

This is God’s testimony: that he has given us eternal life, this life is in his Son. And being born of God is the faith that overcomes the world.

John does not say: The testimony evidence that lies within you.

He does not say: The testimony depends upon a response within you.

He does not say: The testimony is—even in the smallest way—your desire to be saved or your ability to overcome sin or the consistency of your obedience.

He says: God has given you life—and that life is in his Son.

So when you ask: “Is my faith real?”

God answers a different question.

He says: “Do you have my Son?”

This is the only sense in which the Bible tells you to “test your faith”: not to test or look at the quality or sincerity within you but to test the object of your faith—the person you’ve been given.

Do you have the Son? Don’t check yourself—check what you’ve been told.

Have you been told that Jesus overcame the world?
Have you been told that all your sins have been forgiven in Jesus?
Have you been told that—objectively—Jesus has given you life?

If yes—then you have the Son.

But if you’ve been told something different: then you have a different religion—i.e. a different faith—one that relies on you, not on Jesus.

Is my faith real?

Well, 1) Looking at yourself will never give you a secure answer

That’s why John uses such strong language in his letter about obedience, sin, and love.

In all of those tests, the object of people’s trust ultimately rests on something inside themselves.

But that’s not overcoming the world—that’s exactly the nature of the world.

Because 2) Faith does not rest in you—it rests on Jesus

And 3) God has already given his answer in Jesus’ work

That’s why when that question comes back—“Is my faith real?”

Don’t answer it by looking at yourself in any way.
Don’t try to stabilise it.
Don’t try to measure it.

Just listen to what God says: “You have my Son.”

I know I have the Son, because I’m in the world, and he has testified that he gave his Son to the world.

That’s how God sustains me through objective truth.

By continuing to testify this to me through Word and Sacrament.

And if you have the Son—you have life. And that life is the faith that overcomes the world.

That’s true—whether you feel it today or not.