I read this book by Christopher Bass after I read jrh001's review of the book. I had read two other books in this series, The New American Commentary Studies in Bible and Theology, and found them to be excellent books. I am really glad I did read it, because this book is worth reading, whether you are a fairly new believer, or someone long in the faith.
Bass breaks his book into six sections and an appendix as follows:
1. Nature of the Believer's Assurance of Salvation in I John
2. John's Purpose in Writing
3. Assurance Grounded in the Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ
4. The Work of Christ and the Fulfillment of New Covenant Promises
5. Assurance Supported by the Lifestyle of the Believer
6. Summary and Pastoral Implications
7. Appendix: Who Keeps Whom?
As is clarified in the first chapter, the work of Jesus on the cross and the atonement He made there for sinners is the center of a believer's faith/assurance. Bass says, "The identity of the historic Jesus Christ is the starting point to understanding His work on the cross and thus one's standing with God. If the man Jesus was not also fully divine, then His death would have been no different from that of any other man crucified on a Roman cross. This is precisely the issue John expounds in the opening verses (I John 1:1-4).
Bass provides a historical overview of the different thoughts about I John and assurance as seen by the Medieval Roman Catholic Church, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Jacobus Arminius. He also includes the thought of several modern writers.
Later, Bass says, "John makes some vital assertions about the identity of the Christ by explaining that Jesus was the Word of life, who had existed eternally with the Father. The key contextual clue is that he also asserts that Jesus "was with the Father and then "revealed" to us." He continues by saying, the fact that One "who was from the beginning" was "with the Father" before being "revealed to us" in the incarnation, indicates that there is more in mind here than a quality of life, it is centering on a very real Person. A real person that John had seen, heard and touched.
The frequent references to believing in Jesus as God's Son Incarnate, really struck me because I started teaching a Sunday school class on the Incarnation and its meaning, right after I started reading this book. Having studied the Jewish Roots of Christianity for over 30 years, I also knew that "being God's Son" was a key point in the rabbi's denial of Jesus, so it just makes plain sense that John would tell the believers that a key factor in knowing they were saved was to believe in Jesus as the Incarnate Son of God.
Bass makes it clear that John wrote I John to give believers assurance that they were saved and had eternal life. Tied to it is the believer making definite "seeable" changes in their life. They would also love God, love the brothers and sisters in the faith, keep His commands, and have fellowship with God and other believers. All of these things are interconnected to believing that Jesus was God's Son, God Incarnate. Bass' reasoning on the "tests" and how they showed the way to assurance were very well explained and made perfect sense.
I appreciated some of the difficult parts of I John that Bass discussed. His reasoning and explanation of the Greek words and grammar, in those verses, was quite rational and made a great deal of plain sense. Those difficult parts included two specific things I want to mention. First, I John says that a believer won't sin, and then talks about repenting of our sins. Second, I John talks about the "sin unto death" and the "sin not unto death." I thought Bass did a great job of reconciling both of those statements and showing how they tied into "assuring the believer of their salvation." I don't understand Greek and know nothing about Greek grammar, but I was able to follow the explanations that Bass provided without too much difficulty, so his information is available to the average reader who doesn't' understand the Greek language.
Finally, I personally had a big appreciation of the sixth chapter of the book on a Summary of Pastoral Implications. In this chapter he gave five examples of people struggling with their assurance of salvation and how using I John could help them decide if they were truly saved or not. Having struggled with this myself, in the past, I found two of his examples "very close to home" and found his recommendations on how to confront these questions very accurate. All five of the examples, by the way, were quite valid examples.
This book isn't necessarily an easy read, at times, but I John isn't an easy book to understand at times. Bass makes it a lot more understandable, so it is a valuable study for the layperson as well as the pastor. You can only become a more mature Christian by reading it. I highly recommend this study of I John.
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