Double Assurance of Salvation in 1 John 5:13

“He will give him grace for his sin, & will restore his conscience, instead of his being as in danger of losing the gift of faith.”

Original: « Il lui fera grâce de son péché, & le restaurera en sa conscience, au lieu qu’il soit comme en danger de perdre le don de la foi. »

Such was John Calvin’s marginal notation on the last phrase of 1 John 5:13 in the 1588 French Geneva Bible that bears his name. So potent was the last phrase of verse 13 in Calvin’s mind, that it led him to teach assurance of salvation. In the case of the believer who sins, said Calvin, based on 1 John 5:13, he will receive grace to cover his sin, as well as a restoration a clean conscience between him and God.

I personally had never seen the last phrase in 1 John 5:13 until several years ago, perhaps in 2014. I was sharing the gospel door-to-door using a New King James Bible and incidentally read 1 John 5:13 to the evangelism contact. The end of the verse sounded incorrect. I had memorized it differently from my youth—using the New American Standard Bible.

Here are the two versions compared:

NASB: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

NKJV: “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.”

The phrase in question is this, “and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” So assured were the translators of the NASB that the last phrase was not in the original manuscript that they did not even include it in the footnote. On the other hand, the translators of the NKJV were so convinced of its authenticity, that they did include this in the text of 1 John 5:13.

Let’s briefly consider the textual history of this phrase.

It continues to exist in the Greek Orthodox 1904 “Patriarchal Text” as follows:

Ταῦτα ἔγραψα ὑμῖν τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἵνα εἰδῆτε ὅτι ζωὴν αἰώνιον ἔχετε, καὶ ἵνα πιστεύητε εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ.

The reader may consider the 10 words following the last comma in this verse. They are equivalent to the missing or omitted phrase in 1 John 5:13. In addition, this phrase is also found in the the following Greek New Testaments: Erasmus (1516), Codex Bezae (1562), Elzevir Brothers (1624, 1633, 1641), Hodges-Farstad (1982), Robinson-Pierpoint Byzantine Textform (2005), the Pickering’s New Testament according to Family 35 (2014), which history is often titled, “Majority Text”—in other words, the majority of the New Testament manuscripts in existence. In addition, the Greek Orthodox reading of the “Patriarchal Text” is followed by the Russian Orthodox, etc.

How is it that we English-speaking Evangelicals in the 21^st Century currently follow the “Minority Texts,” “Critical Edition Text,” or “Eclectic Text”? That is a discussion for another article. In short, in this author’s estimation, it involves subscribing to false premises combined with unequally applied principles.

There were two textual traditions in the 16^th Century—that is, in the century of the Protestant Reformation. There was the Protestant tradition and the Catholic tradition on this verse.

An authoritative example of the Catholic tradition, is the 1592 Clementine Vulgate. It reads as follows:

« Hæc scribo vobis ut sciatis quoniam vitam habetis æternam, qui creditis in nomine Filii Dei. »

As the reader might ascertain, the last phrase is not found in this verse. Hence, during the 16th Century, a standard Catholic Latin Vulgate did not include the last phrase, "and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."

By clear contradistinction, all the Protestant Bibles of that era, being translated from the Majority Greek text, did include that phrase. For example, here are five French Swiss Protestant versions that span the 16^thCentury (close to original French spelling).

The last phrase of 1 John 5:13 is found translated in all five of these versions. Three important 16^th Century Protestant versions also include the last phrase of 1 John 5:13.

It is very interesting to note what has taken place in the 500 years since the Protestant Reformers gave us the New Testament translated from the Greek. A great reversal has taken place. Some of the Greek readings in the New Testament, that were not found in the Latin Vulgate versions of the 16^th Century, have now disappeared from the “Critical Edition Text” of the Greek New Testament, as curated by the German Bible Society.

The last phrase in 1 John 5:13 is an example. While it was found in all the 16^th Century Protestant Bibles. It is no longer found in most of the Bibles of their contemporary doctrinal descendants.

The science of textual criticism developed alongside of the sciences of higher criticism in the 19^th Century secularizing German universities. While more subtle, textual criticism undermined the verbal inerrancy of Scripture since the exact words of Scripture were in question. Only with an infinite progression of study of every possible manuscript of the Greek New Testament (along with other ancient languages), could one determine with a certain level of certainty which words were actually in the original manuscripts.

An unending quest for manuscripts was triggered. The constantly elusive “original reading” ever more in question. A shift took place from understanding the text to determining what is a part of the true text. And even with this enormous textual wound, Evangelicalism is prospering in the United States. While Evangelicalism may have a more difficult times in other parts of the world, it does not seem to have adversely impacted United States Evangelicalism.

Back to 1 John 5:13: Is our faith in Jesus Christ indeed certified by God Himself? Yes it is. Philippians 1:6 (NKJV) reads, 

“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” 

The certificate of our assurance then moves to the question, did God begin a good work in me? There are some “who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away” (Luke 8:13). First John 5:13 helps us differentiate momentary self-gratifying faith of the shallow soil from the true faith of the good soil, who “keep it and bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).

If we truly believe in the name of the Son of God, says the elder Apostle John, we can be assured of two things: (1) that we now have eternal life, and (2) that we will continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Therefore, God gives both (1) assurance of initial salvation and (2) assurance of a sustaining salvation. God is the source of saving faith in the first place, and He is also the source of sustaining faith.

As Calvin taught in his marginal notation on 1 John 5:13 of the 1588 French Geneva Bible: while sin may assail the true believer, God will give him forgiveness and grace in sin, restoring to him a clear conscience. The believer’s faith is secure in God. He is not in danger of losing his faith.