What does the world look like from the perspective of Jesus’ triumphant death/resurrection/exaltation?  On the one hand the world appears all the more evil and loathsome; yet, on the other hand, this is the world the Father loved enough to send his Son, the world for which the Lamb of God died. On the one hand, this is the world that rejected the Savior and condemned him to death; yet, on the other hand, by that same death the Savior defeated the prince of this world.  On the one hand, this is the world which persecutes God’s people and inflicts both petty irritants and massive scourges upon them; yet, on the other hand, that is the way the Master went, and therefore it is the way his disciples must be prepared to go.  On the one hand, the world spells trouble; but, on the other hand, living by faith in Jesus enables us to partake of the age to come and thereby serve and grow as members of an eschatological community transported into time.  The crucial victory...

  John MacArthur commenting on 1 John 5 v 1. The tenses of the verbs in verse 1 reveal a significant theological truth. Believes translates a present tense form of the verb pisteuō, whereas gegennētai (is born) is in the perfect tense. The opening phrase of verse 1 literally reads, “Whoever is believing that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God.” The point is that, contrary to Arminian theology , continual faith is the result of the new birth, not its cause.  Christians do not keep themselves born again by believing, and lose their salvation if they stop believing. On the contrary, it is their perseverance in the faith that gives evidence that they have been born again. The faith that God grants in regeneration (Eph. 2:8) is permanent, and cannot be lost.  Nor, as some teach, can it die, for dead faith does not save (James 2:14–26). There is no such thing as an “unbelieving believer.” John MacArthur, 1, 2, 3 John, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: M...