Assured
1 John 5 11-13 Assurance of life in the Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
a. And this is the testimony: John, in the previous verse, just told us how serious the matter of receiving the testimony of God is. Now he will tell us what this testimony is.
b. That God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son: This is God’s essential message to man; that eternal life is a gift from God, received in Jesus Christ. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. It is all about Jesus, and living in Jesus is the evidence eternal life.
i. “It is vain to expect eternal glory, if we have not Christ in our heart. The indwelling Christ gives both a title to it, and a meetness for it. This is God’s record. Let no man deceive himself here. An indwelling Christ and glory; no indwelling Christ, no glory. God’s record must stand.” (Clarke)
c. These things I have written to you who believe . . . that you may know that you have eternal life: In stating the message so plainly, John hopes to persuade us to believe. Even if we already believe, he wants us to know that you have eternal life, so we can have this assurance, and so that you may continue to believe.
i. The need to hear the simple gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ does not end once one embraces the gospel. We benefit by it, are assured by it, and are helped to continue in it as we hear it and embrace it over and over again.
d. That you may know that you have eternal life: John’s confidence is impressive. He wants us to know that we have eternal life. We can only know this if our salvation rests in Jesus and not in our own performance. If it depends on me, then on a good day I’m saved and on a bad day, I don’t really know. But if it depends on what Jesus has done for me, then I can know.
kai auth estin (5748) h marturia, oti zwhn aiwnion edwken (5656) hmin o qeov, kai auth h zwh en tw uiw autou estin. (5748)
o exwn (5723) ton uion exei (5719) thn zwhn; o mh exwn (5723) ton uion tou qeou thn zwhn ouk exei. (5719)
An heir apparent is an heir who (short of a fundamental change in the situation) cannot be displaced from inheriting; the term is used in contrast to heir presumptive, the term for a conditional heir who is currently in line to inherit but could be displaced at any time in the future. Today these terms are most commonly used for heirs to hereditary titles, particularly monarchies. It is also used metaphorically to indicate someone who is the apparent "anointed" successor to any position of power, e.g., a political or corporate leader.
The phrase is only occasionally found used as a title,[1] but as such it is usually capitalized ("Heir Apparent").
This article is concerned primarily with heirs apparent in a hereditary system regulated by laws of primogeniture; it does not consider cases where a monarch has a say in naming his or her own heir.
Christians are heir apparent if they are heirs.