Jeffrey C. Long

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.

(I John 5:1)

In that period it meant a great deal when someone freely and openly confessed that Jesus was the Christ—this man who a few years before had been crucified, rejected by the entire nation, shamefully condemned. And this man was the promised savior of the world? What it meant to believe such a thing at that time we cannot imagine! In our day it is naturally an entirely different story. Jesus no longer appears to us in his lowly clothing. A man who is the object of faith for millions has an advance claim on our regard, and so it is not so hard to credit him with some sort of importance.

For that reason it cannot mean the same thing for us that whoever

believes Jesus is the Christ, the one God promised, is thereby born of God. So we have to be careful in applying this verse, careful not to claim too much on this basis for ourselves or others. We especially have to make sure that the presupposition this implies really is true in our case, so that real faith exists, a faith that our Savior truly came from His Father’s side to us, and in him is God’s highest revelation. Then we can consider ourselves born of God, and then we can really grow in a godly life.

Johann Christoph Blumhardt

Translated by Monty Ledford

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