1 John 4:15 AMP
[15] Whoever confesses and acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
John, writing to brothers and sisters who shared common faith with him, warns about the dangers of false spirits and prophets, who are able to take on the cloak of spiritual pretence and fool people with their pseudo-religion, which looks, sounds or behaves like the real deal, but it is nothing like the real deal. The beginning of the chapter from where the verse above is taken warns us about testing every spirit to see if they are from God. How do you test something is genuine if you do not first have, know and follow the genuine? If all you have been exposed to all your life is the fake, you are never able to recognise the original. Unfortunately, we need the help of God to know and experience the real deal. Anyone or anything outside of God will not last, because only God is eternal, and He is able to preserve whatever has been entrusted into His care. Are you in the care, and under the guidance and inspiration of the One who is the Truth?
It is in the Truth that I am able to recognize and confess that Jesus is the Son of God. This truth of the Sonship of Jesus has been the basis of offence and resistance all over the world, with many unable to receive or accept who He is. However, the fact that I violently oppose a statement does not mean that it is not true. The fact that I also fight violently to promote or propagate something does not mean that the thing is true. I have to be careful what I apply time, energy and a lot of resources to. The Holy Spirit's work is to guide us into all Truth, and He will not initiate or promote anything false; He takes of that which is God, and progressively reveals it to as many as would submit their hearts to Him. He does not compel a man to submit; He does not force Himself on anyone. He is Truth and taking Him means taking all of Him. I cannot claim to know and have him, and still struggle with accepting all of Him.
The foundation of the confession that Jesus is the Son of God is a broken and surrendered heart. This heart has come to know who this Jesus is, and has experienced the benefits and blessings of His Sonship. The most valuable benefit of this knowledge is salvation from sin, and the settled hope of eternal life with God. I am not sure that there can be anything else that can be bigger or better than this. If He does not control ALL of me, He does not really control anything. That is the reality laid out in the verse above. The one who is able to confess Jesus is Lord is the one lives inside of God, and also has God living inside of him. It is a mutually beneficial relationship: God is glorified in and through me, and I get to not just experience heaven here on earth, but also have the hope and the assurance of eternity with God. What can be bigger or better than this? Do you have and know this God, this Truth? God's time of favour is here
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