1 John 4:1-6: The Only True Confession

For those of us who worry about where we stand with God, John appears to have made things simple at the end of 1 John 3:

“And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us” (1 John 3:24).

In other words, “if you have God’s gift of the Spirit, then he abides in you.”

Simple, right?

“Not so fast,” say anxious Christians from all time, everywhere. I don’t only need to know how God abides in me (through God’s Spirit); I need to know how to verify the “if.” Meaning do I have God’s Spirit at all? How do I know what is his Spirit and what is not? Without proof of the Spirit, this syllogism sounds more like religious hot air than truth. A quest without end. An empty mantra without substance.

Fortunately, John continues:

“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God” (1 John 4:2).

We know God abides in us by his Spirit. And how do we know the Spirit? If it confesses Jesus Christ as God in the flesh. This isn’t revolutionary; it’s the heart of the Christian message. The Apostle Paul would agree: “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). To confess Jesus is to have God’s Spirit.

That’s it. All you need to know that he abides in you is the confession of Christ as God in the flesh. And so here we are again. Simple, right?

All you must do is confess. Confess and be saved. It seems so small and clear, yet we know from experience that this is the hardest of confessions to believe. If we had our way, we would choose a different type of confession. One that allows us to continue to trust in ourselves rather than in God. One that would have us put faith in a spirit of falsehood where the only thing we abide in is our own dominion. This is, as this series has already stated, a confession of the spirit of antichrist, or a spirit that severs Jesus, as Martin Luther says.

Christ as a good moral teacher severs Jesus.
Christ as an aid to our own righteous deeds severs Jesus.
Christ as a man who died but didn’t raise again to new life severs Jesus
Christ as God, but not fully human severs Jesus

While we are perhaps willing to claim Jesus and his goodness, to sever him from his true nature is to also reject him as the fulfillment of God’s promises. To quote Luther again, it’s to take the shell without the kernel.

So how do we get such a confession? It must be sown into us, handed over, spoken into our ears, washed over us, placed on our tongues.

And so without faith, we choose such antichrist confessions. We make Jesus into a helper not a savior. We disunite him from his true nature. Even in our attempts to prove our salvation on account of Christ, we do this. We fret and worry that a confession of Christ is not enough. That we must show proof of our dedication and devotion rather than trust the greatness of our God.

Christ in the flesh is the only confession that severs us from our own sickly righteousness. Only he speaks loud enough to overpower and overcome the antichrist confessions we choose to cling to.

So how do we get such a confession? It must be sown into us, handed over, spoken into our ears, washed over us, placed on our tongues. For if the Spirit is given by God, so too is the confession of God’s Spirit, the kernel that is Christ. You cannot separate the two.

Do you confess Christ as God in the flesh, born, died, and raised to new life for you?

Any answer of yes will do. Even if that yes is “I believe, help me in my unbelief.” Even if your yes is drowned in the chorus of the Apostles’ Creed recited every week. Even if your only confidence is the yes given to you in the waters of your baptism or the yes eaten in bread and the wine of Christ’s very flesh.

On account of Christ, then, you have a confession of Christ. You have been given God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Truth (1 John 4:6). And it’s with this confidence that John encourages us to “test the spirits” for the kernel of Christ (1 John 4:1). Where Christ in the flesh resides, there is no wrong question, no limit to kicking the tires or double-checking for falsehood. And where you see only shells of Christ, return to the kernel! For it’s the kernel, Christ himself, which saves. Remember, the “yes” given to you means you are justified, you are forgiven, you are redeemed. You are from God. In you, he has sown the only true confession.