True saving faith is rooted in two great realities: the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel of salvation that He preached. To be a Christian, you must believe in the biblical Jesus and the biblical gospel—that is the foundation of true faith.

In the profound conversation between our Lord Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that to have eternal life, one must be “born again’? Theologians call this doctrine regeneration, which means that the spiritually dead sinner must be made alive by a powerful work of God.

How do you know if you have true saving faith? The answer to such a crucial question can be found in 1 John 5. There, the apostle John identifies several guaranteed results that are always found in the lives of those who have true saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Keeping with John’s overall message, he writes to help believers have assurance or confidence that they truly are in Christ and do possess eternal life.

There are many professing Christians in the world today who do not have assurance of salvation. In other words, they, for a variety of reasons, are not confident that they have been saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. But under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 1 John 5 presents a series of tests for every Christian to determine if true saving faith is a reality in their own lives.

In the first century, the apostle John wrote that all Christians overcome the world. He uses such language to demonstrate that those who have turned from their transgressions and trusted in Christ alone for salvation have been broken free from the shackles of sin and the family of Satan to be born into the family of God, where righteousness dwells.

According to 1 John 5, such an expression is true of every person who has turned from their sins and trusted in the biblical Jesus and the biblical gospel for salvation. But not only does embracing the gospel and overcoming the world immediately free you from bondage to Satan, it also produces massive implications for your future on this earth and into eternity.

The Bible makes it very clear that salvation only comes through the person and work of Jesus Christ. This simply means that you must believe in the biblical or correct Jesus to be saved. But what does the Bible teach about Jesus, and what is necessary for one to believe for salvation?

The Bible teaches that authentic real faith is found in a person: Jesus of Nazareth. The Bible gives sufficient testimony to this crucial reality, specifically from God the Father Himself. In fact, there are three instances in the New Testament when God acts as a witness and gives a perfect testimony regarding the person and work of Jesus.

Unfortunately, there are pastors, teachers, and churches that teach that Jesus Christ was not God at specific points during His life on earth. Such teaching is contrary to Scripture and should be outright rejected. One of the primary points that the apostle John makes in 1 John 5 is that Jesus Christ, from the moment of His conception, was the God-Man, and He was the God-Man through His entire earthly life.