11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life,
We talked last week about the witness of God in our hearts: That God has saved us, and we can look back to a time when God has conducted a supernatural work to remove that old hard heart that had become like stone through sin, and gave us a new, soft, pliable heart of flesh that He works to mold and shape into the image of Jesus. 2 Cor 4:6 6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. This illumination enabled us to believe in the truth of the Word of God.
We are changed now, and this difference can only be attributed to the new heart that we received when we believed in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Romans 8: 9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. We have the witness of the Holy Spirit. We have the witness of a changed life.
that God has given to us eternal life
God testifies that eternal life is a gift from Him. It is not something earned, a wage Rom 4:3–5. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, the wages are not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, Eternal life is a gift of God, not earned, but given by grace through faith in Jesus. This gift of God is eternal life, is supposed to be a quality of our life now, not just something that we’re going to enjoy someday. God has already given us eternal life in Jesus, and so we need to live as those who enjoy abiding relationship with Him now, & will someday abide with Him in Heaven eternally
Born again through Faith in Jesus, The Word
When God gave us the faith to believe, He This illumination enabled us to believe in the truth of the Word of God 1 Peter 1:23 23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.; It was God’s will to save us by His power through the truth of the Word of God. So, we are born again by grace, through the faith that He gives us to see the Word of Truth, the truth of who Jesus is.
The witness of God is that Jesus is His Son. We see a great example of this in Matthew 16:15-17 when Jesus asks the disciples 15 He *said to them, “But who do you yourselves say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. Just like with Peter, God reveals that Jesus is His Son, and therefore our Lord, and that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, our Savior and Redeemer.
and this life is in His Son.
The second part of God’s testimony is that eternal life is found in His Son. John starts out this epistle saying in 1 John 1:1-2 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— 2 and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was revealed to us— This proclaims the witness of the Father that Jesus is Eternal Life, and that this witness was something that John saw with his eyes, and heard from Jesus’ own mouth, and was attested to Him by the Father.
John wants us to understand eternal life as a life in relationship with the living Savior who gives us eternal life, because He Himself is Himself eternal life and gives eternal life to all who believe in Him. Belief in Jesus isn’t a simple acknowledgment of Him, but abiding in relationship with Him. This is what gives us eternal life. Biblically, “abiding in,” “remaining in,” and “knowing” Christ are references to the same thing: salvation through relationship with Him. John is trying to help us, as believers, understand the necessity of a relationship, a “fellowship,” in the sense of a vital mutual relationship, with both fellow believers, and God Experiencing eternal life involves mutual relationship.
12 The one who has the Son has the life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.John 1:1-4 lets us know that our right to become Children of God, our Eternal life is In Christ. Jesus is eternal life incarnate and you cannot separate His teachings about Himself and Eternal life from the Person of Jesus as revealed in the Gospels. The Message of Jesus cannot be separated from the Person of Jesus. You can’t get the message of Jesus right, without understanding Who Jesus is, and you can’t get the Person of Jesus right without understanding His Message. John emphasizes his purpose in writing his gospel in John 20:31 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Jesus said in John 6 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. Our eternal life springs from the Person of Christ, and our fellowship with Him is the source of our life in Him, and the Joy, Peace, Love that we can experience flows in the person of the Holy Spirit, from Him to us, as believers.
Possessing eternal life is an automatic result of regeneration, but experiencing eternal life day by day in our lives is contingent on our relationship with Jesus, who is eternal life itself. God has given us a new eternal live in Jesus that that springs forth from Jesus, the author of life, and the author of salvation, and it is by being In Christ, identified with Him that we have life, and can experience and lay claim on His eternal life. John says of Jesus in 1st John 1:2 and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was revealed to us. It is trust, faith in God’s plan for eternal life through belief in Jesus for our salvation and eternity that God counts as righteousness, and justifies us in His sight. That’s why Jesus says in John 6:47 John 6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who believes has eternal life. It takes faith in God’s plan, and giving up any illusions that we can reach Him on our own.
If we put our faith in anything but Jesus, we will find that it will not suffice, and we will be lost when we go into eternity. We don’t want that for anyone. And, if we fail to walk in the life we have in Jesus, then we will miss the revelation of all the blessings that God has for us in that walk.
Our new life in Jesus is revealed to us by Jesus—what He did, what He said, how He lived His life. Jesus not only redeemed us on the cross, but shows us a new way to live! Jesus’ identified Himself as to His disciples in this way in John 14:6 saying Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. John is concerned that people know the Real Jesus, the Word and the Life, who lived a perfect life without sin to show us The Way. He urges them not to deceive themselves into believing in some made-up Jesus that they find easier to rationalize and deal with, and that they can mold to the way that they want to live their lives—on their terms, instead of God’s. Don’t believe in a Jesus that makes no demands as creator and sovereign that we live righteous lives, in relationship with a Righteous God. That’s not the real Jesus. Paul in 2 Cor 11:4 says For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, this you tolerate very well! The tendency of the flesh is to try to mold Jesus into what our flesh wants Him to be—someone distanced from us, who does not make moral and ethical demands of us to live righteously. But the real Jesus asks us to come to Him, so that He can reveal the Father to us, and give us eternal life. The Father points us to Jesus for Salvation, and Jesus, in turn, reveals the Father to us. Jesus continues, saying 28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.” We must come to the real Jesus of scripture, in repentance of our sins, taking the yoke of His teaching, living the way that He says to live in order to find His rest. And as we take the Life in Christ as our life, living for Him, we find that it is the best life that we can have, and that the burden is light.