23 Oct 2012
I John 5:1
I John 5:1: “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.”
What John is saying here is that all those who believe that Jesus is the Messiah (the Lamb of God who died for the sins of the world) are saved. All those who reject Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah are not saved. (Yes, repentance is necessary as well, but that is a topic for another time.)
Now, as we saw earlier, there are some things to keep in mind. In order for Jesus to be the Messiah He must also be God, and He must be man, and He had to die, and He had to rise again, and He had to be sinless, and He had to be born of a virgin, and so forth. So if you reject any of those claims then you are denying His Messianic claim, and thus denying Him as well. It is an all-or-nothing deal. The same thing goes if you try to say that Jesus died for our sins but we still have to earn our way to Heaven: that is saying that we must atone for our sins, not Him, since His sacrifice was insufficient – and that is a denial as well.
So one must be careful. Not everyone that says “Lord, Lord” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.