Passage: 1 John 2:24-25
The Big Idea
John has named two dangers to walking with God: worldliness and “antichrists,” substitutes for Jesus. The cure for worldliness is submitting to God’s will by believing the gospel. The cure for substitutes is the same good news: let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. Jesus chose you, made you alive and is changing you, all by His power and love, for His glory. When the gospel of grace lives in you, you live in the Son and the Father, and the promised result is eternal life.
The Cure for Substitutes
The two great challenges to walking with God are worldliness and antichrists, substitutes for Jesus.
The cure for worldliness was submission to God’s will by believing the gospel.
Now John gives the cure for the second danger: substitutes for Jesus, anything that competes with His lordship in your life.
John writes: Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If it does, you will also abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise He has promised us: eternal life (1 John 2:24-25).
The Good Old Gospel
What did they hear from the beginning? The good old gospel of grace.
- There are always “new” ideas.
- There are always “different” ideas.
- But the gospel stays the same:
- Jesus chose you.
- Jesus made you alive.
- Jesus changes you.
- All by His power and His love.
- All for His glory!
When the gospel of grace abides in you, you abide in the Son and the Father. And the result is God’s promise of eternal life. Your life won’t fade or fail. It will keep growing and live forever, no matter what happens to your body.
No Other Gospel
Paul was astonished that the Galatians were so quickly turning away from the One who called them by the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which isn’t really a gospel at all. Some were troubling them and trying to distort the gospel of Christ. Paul said that even if he himself, or an angel from heaven, preached a gospel different from the one they’d received, that person should be under God’s curse. And he said it twice (Galatians 1:6-9).
- That’s how seriously God takes the gospel of grace.
- Any “gospel” that adds to Jesus, or replaces Him, is no gospel at all.
- The newest, most exciting idea can’t improve on what you heard from the beginning.
Grace Takeaway
You don’t need a new gospel. You need the old one to sink deeper into your heart. Jesus chose you, Jesus made you alive, and Jesus is changing you, all by grace. Let that truth live in you, and you’ll live in the Son and the Father. And the One who made the promise is faithful: eternal life is yours.
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