Eternal Life Is… Assurance
The Victory of God Gives Us Assurance of Peace
1 John 5:1-6
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. May 5th, 2024
One of the central themes of Methodism is the theme of assurance. John Wesley searched desperately for that assurance. He wanted to know that Christ died for him. He didn’t want to know that merely on an intellectual level, but he wanted to know it on the level of the heart. He wasn’t seeking some argument or historical proof, but he was seeking that encounter with the living one that alone brings inner peace. Famously, he first experienced that assurance while listening to a public reading of Luther’s Preface to Romans while he was on Aldersgate Street. It was that moment, he said, that he felt his heart strangely warmed and knew that Christ died for him even him.
We believe that anyone can come to have this same assurance of faith. That Christ died for them, lives for them, that the victory is won for them. This assurance that is deeper than any argument because it is an assurance of the heart. One way we may understand eternal life is the experience of this assurance. Because when we know from the heart that we have been delivered from the world, then we also know peace and show forth fruits of love.
You may recall that “world” for John has a peculiar meaning. John does not simply mean this rock that we live on. “World” for John is all the unredeemed creation. “World” names the forces of sin and wickedness in this world. “World” names networks of gossip. “World” names the pride of self-righteousness. “World” names exploitation, and taking advantage of other people. “World” names fear of the other. “World” names the sinful inclination to look down on others. “World” basically means those who act as if Christ had not come into the world to die for our sake, to overcome death, to spread his love. “World” is the rejection of Jesus, rejection of his truth. This is the opposite of assurance, which leads to peace. Being caught up in the world blocks our spiritual senses, so to speak, and enslaves us to anxiety and resignation.
I have attended a number of funerals in my time. I can usually tell when the bereaved have the assurance of faith and when the bereaved do not. Where there is assurance of faith there is a certain calmness to the proceedings. There is a freedom to cry, a confidence in Christ, a peaceableness that doesn’t need to be summoned up. This is an extreme example, of course, but I think the same follows in many other aspects of life. The assurance of Christ’s victory, and the faith that this victory is won for me means I do not need to be so anxiously concerned about the dramas that enfold my life. It means I do not need to be cynically resigned to injustices. It means I can go by my life with a certain confidence, even in the midst of trial. This is eternal life in the midst of life.
I have been open about my own struggles with anxiety, especially when I was younger. It was difficult. Most days I would endure anxiety until 10AM. When I was in elementary school I was given a cot in the library to calm down when I needed it. Quite the loving offering from the school now that I think about it. The problem was all consuming, and I had assumed would remain just as bad for the rest of my life. I recall some people tried to heal me by the power of prayer. That didn’t work. It wasn’t God’s will. I certainly know that now. But one thing that was God’s will was that in the midst of this suffering I would be anchored in faith. And however bad it got, I never lost the assurance of faith. It was my bedrock. It was because I had this assurance of God’s victory and presence in my life that I endured. And things have certainly gotten better. I was not hopeless, I was not resigned, but I trusted. That assurance, that trust, that faith got me through, at least.
Though the world has been out there for two thousand years, and though it may seem to be as strong as ever, perhaps even stronger, we know that the world and its resignation has been overcome. To invert Mark Twain, rumors of the world’s vitality have been greatly exaggerated. As John reminds us this morning, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith.” Christ has overcome the world on our behalf. We do not need to resign ourselves to its inhumanity, and we are not called to fight and put the burden all on our backs. Christ has already won the victory as a gracious act of God. And the victory is our faith in God, who sent Jesus Christ, in his death and resurrection to overcome the whole logic of the world. The logic of might makes right, of meaningless suffering, of zero sum games.
The logic of the world is threatened because Christ has overcome the grave. The world’s power is the power of the grave. The threat of death is what keeps exploitation going, what keeps oppression going, what keeps worldly people frantically trying to get out of life alive. But if the grave has been over come we can no longer be threatened with death. And if we can no longer be threatened with death then we are free, free to love. Free from pride that is really the fear of death. Free from lust that is a way to forget death. Free from anger that assumes death has any sway. This freedom we may understand to be eternal life.
John says our faith is the victory that has overcome the world. Our faith in the one who wins the victory on our behalf. And because he has won the victory we may experience the assurance of eternal life. The assurance of knowing, really knowing, Christ died for me. The assurance of knowing, really knowing, that he lives for me. The assurance of knowing, really knowing, that he has a life for me. And we experience that assurance when we love. Because in loving we are following the higher logic of God that short-circuits the logic of the world.