Exploring 1 John: Eternal Life is in the Son
Exploring 1 John: Eternal Life is in the Son
1 John 5:11-12; Acts 17:1-4, 16-17 - Believe the eternal truths from God and don’t worry about having emotional experiences when you believe.
“And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.”
1 John 5:11-12 NASB1995
First of all, thank you for your prayers!! My concerns for my vision were alleviated during a doctor’s visit yesterday. No serious concerns or problems were noted! It’s just advancing age creeping up on me.
John hits the buzzer now with these two verses in 1 John 5. The testimony that God has given us about His Son is that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son! He who has the Son has the life. Let’s do a word study of “testimony” (this has been done before but repetition is a great learning mechanism). This word comes from the Greek word μαρτυρία or martyría, with the following Biblical usages; Strong’s G3141 is used 37 times in the New Testament:
a testifying
the office committed to the prophets of testifying concerning future events
what one testifies, testimony, i.e. before a judge
From Strong’s definition: record, report, testimony, witness
Martyia is also the root Greek word for martyr. A martyr who dies for Christ is the ultimate witness for Him.
Verses 11 and 12 are considered by many Bible experts to be two of the most important verses in the New Testament and are popular memorization verses. I found plenty of excellent commentary on this passage, but one of the most crucial things is this: It is very important to note the way Verse 11 is phrased: And the testimony is this, that God HAS given us eternal life… This verb tense (has given) is what is known as Aorist tense, which is defined as follows (from Precept Austin):
EFFECTIVE ACTION
SUCCESSFUL ACTION
SINGLE ACTION
ONE-TIME ACTION
States that an action occurs without regard to its duration. It is analogous to a snapshot which captures an action at specific point in time.
In indicative mood, aorist can indicate punctiliar action (happens at a specific point in time) in [the] past.
So this (eternal life) is a successful, single, one-time action that came from God through the Son of God.
This life IS in His Son, right now and for eternity, but only for those who believe. There is no hourglass measuring the time (except for this tiny mortal life), because we are eternal. I liked this commentary that I found on Precept Austin from Pastor Robert Morgan, who wrote a book entitled “100 Bible Verses that Everyone Should Know by Heart” which includes these two verses; John is apostle of eternity, as noted in this commentary:
As a college sophomore, I was mentored by an upperclassman who gave me these two verses, 1 John 5:11-12, to memorize. He called them two of the best verses in the Bible about assurance of salvation. As long as I knew these verses, he said, I’d never doubt being saved. I’ve come back to them many times, and I’m thankful for what’s not in them. There is no maybe, if, might, or hope so...
This is the testimony. This is what God Himself has declared as truth. This is the record. These are the facts.
He has... It’s already done. This has been irrevocably accomplished.
He has given us... It’s not just a generic promise that He has given eternal life. It includes that personal pronoun us. And us includes you and me.
He has given us eternal life. While the whole Bible teaches that God is eternal and He bestows everlasting life on His children, it’s John who is the apostle of eternal life. He used the phrase twenty-three times in His writing.
And this life is in His Son. Jesus not only gives us life; He is the Source and Creator of life. And yet—paradox of the ages—He died to conquer death, and because He lives, we live also.
John on Eternal Life
Everyone who believes on Him will not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. (John 3:36)
Anyone who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. (John 5:24)
I assure you: Anyone who believes has eternal life. (John 6:47)
Lord, who will we go to? You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:68)
I gave them eternal life, and they will never perish. (John 10:28)
This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent—Jesus Christ. (John 17:3)
We... declare to you the eternal life. (1 John 1:2)
And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life. (1 John 2:25)
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. (1 John 5:11)
I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13)
“Our hope is not hung upon such an untwisted thread as, ‘I imagine so,’ or ‘It is likely,’ but the cable, the strong tow of our fastened anchor, is the oath and promise of Him who is eternal verity. Our salvation is fastened with God’s own hand, and with Christ’s own strength, to the strong stake of God’s unchangeable nature.” Samuel Rutherford
John tells us that he (or she) who has the Son has the life; those who don’t have the Son do not have the life. For many (if not most) Christians, coming to belief in Jesus was not an explosive emotional event that they will remember their whole lives. For me, it seemed like a quiet, slow process as I returned to faith (perhaps I had never really left, even though I was arrogant enough to think I knew better than to believe).
I do remember one night during my return-to-faith process, while my Mom was dying in the hospital from a stroke, that there were too many signs and wonders to ignore (see this Devotional about one of those signs). Steve and I, being scientifically minded, decided to take Pascal’s wager. We both cried and felt a sense of relief that we had been brought back into His presence, although taking this wager is probably not the best way to say that you believe (doing a Null Hypothesis test to accept belief in God?). So how do you know if you are saved and that a glorious eternal life is yours, starting right now? What if you don’t feel saved? Well, I love this explanation from Gotquestions.org answering the question on why we don’t feel saved (I am including the entire write-up because it is so good):
This is an all-too-common question among Christians. Many people doubt their salvation because of feelings or the lack of them. The Bible has much to say about salvation, but nothing to say about “feeling saved.” Salvation is a process by which the sinner is delivered from “wrath,” that is, from God’s judgment against sin (Romans 5:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:9). Specifically, it was Jesus’ death on the cross and subsequent resurrection that achieved our salvation (Romans 5:10; Ephesians 1:7).
Our part in the salvation process is that we are saved by faith. First, we must hear the gospel—the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection (Ephesians 1:13). Then, we must believe—fully trust the Lord Jesus (Romans 1:16) and His sacrifice alone. We have no confidence in works of the flesh to achieve salvation. This faith—which is a gift from God, not something we produce on our own (Ephesians 2:8-9)—involves repentance, a changing of mind about sin and Christ (Acts 3:19), and calling on the name of the Lord (Romans 10:9-10, 13). Salvation results in a changed life as we begin to live as the new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).
We live in a feeling-oriented society and, sadly, that has spilled over into the church. But feelings are unreliable. Emotions are untrustworthy. They ebb and flow like the tides of the sea that bring in all kinds of seaweed and debris and deposit them on the shore, then go back out, eroding the ground we stand on and washing it out to sea. Such is the state of those whose emotions rule their lives. The simplest circumstances—a headache, a cloudy day, a word thoughtlessly spoken by a friend—can erode our confidence and send us “out to sea” in a fit of despair. Doubt and discouragement, particularly about the Christian life, are the inevitable result of trying to interpret our feelings as though they were truth. They are not.
But the Christian who is forewarned and well armed is a person not governed by feelings but by the truth he knows. He does not rely on his feelings to prove anything to him. Relying on feelings is precisely the error most people make in life. They are so introspective that they become preoccupied with themselves, constantly analyzing their own feelings. They will continually question their relationship with God. “Do I really love God?” “Does He really love me?” “Am I good enough?” What we need to do is stop thinking about ourselves and focusing on our feelings and instead redirect our focus to God and the truth we know about Him from His Word.
When we are controlled by subjective feelings centered on ourselves rather than by objective truth centered on God, we live in a constant state of defeat. Objective truth centers on the great doctrines of the faith and their relevance to life: the sovereignty of God, the high priestly intercession of Christ, the promise of the Holy Spirit, and the hope of eternal glory. Understanding these great truths, centering our thoughts on them, and rehearsing them in our minds will enable us to reason from truth in all of life’s trials, and our faith will be strong and vital. Reasoning from what we feel about ourselves—rather than what we know about God—is the sure path to spiritual defeat. The Christian life is one of death to self and rising to “walk in the newness of life” (Romans 6:4), and that new life is characterized by thoughts about Him who saved us, not thoughts about the feelings of the dead flesh that has been crucified with Christ. When we are continually thinking about ourselves and our feelings, we are essentially obsessing about a corpse, full of rottenness and death.
God promised to save us if we come to Him in faith. He never promised that we would feel saved.
Such great advice in a world filled with untrustworthy “feelings” and self-absorption! Believers must step beyond (or around) tools of the enemy like psychoanalysis, self-actualization methods and self-esteem classes to humbly give themselves to the Almighty Creator of the universe. Pray to understand the great truths promised by God and center your thoughts on those truths during the trials and temptations of this short, mortal life! In the words of Paul, it’s only reasonable:
“Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women.
….
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.”
Acts 17:1-4, 16-17 NASB1995
My next devotional examines 1 John 5:13-15 - Confidence in God
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer -
Dear Lord - Through reason and wisdom understanding, I can believe in Your promises. I can center my life now on the promises of eternal life and rest in Your eternal goodness and truth. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
The Blue Letter Bible was accessed on 6/21/2024 to review the lexicon for testimony.
Precept Austin was accessed on 6/21/2024 to review the commentaries for 1 John 5:11-12.
Gotquestions.org was accessed on 6/21/2024 to answer the question What if I Don’t Feel Saved.