God
has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has
life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
1 John 5:11-12
I am a bit surprised to read
in Denison’s cultural commentary March 11 that “92% of Americans believe they
are their own sole determiner of moral truth.” Truth is not “what we say it
is”, never has been, never will be. Only God has its full measure. Only He Who
is Infinite, Who is light, Who is Love, Who calls us children.
Truth #5 is this: Eternal
life is in Jesus.
John proclaimed Jesus the
Word of eternal life right off the bat (1 John 1:1-2). As he finishes his
epistle, he hones in on the essential truth of salvation: the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone
acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God
(1 John 4:14-15). This truth was being seriously undermined in the fledgling
church in Ephesus.
So too the matter of eternal
life today. We have friends who say there is no eternal life, that death is the
end of it all. I’m sure you do too. We have friends who say there are many
paths to heaven and all will go. You do too. We have friends who hope they’ve been good enough to get there.
You also? We have many to pray about, as you do.
John says it simply. First of
all, you can’t work hard enough to get there—eternal life is a gift from God. It also is very real, as
illustrated by Jesus’ story about the rich man in agony in hell, begging Lazarus,
who is at the side of Abraham, for a drop of water to cool his tongue (Luke
16:19-31). There is one and only one way to heaven: He who has the Son has life!
He who has the Son? How do you have the Son? Has is the Greek word echo,
in this case to hold, to possess.
You’ve got to believe in Who Jesus is, and trust yourself to Him, to possess
Him. Romans 10:9 may say it best: If you
confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved. You have Jesus!
Lord, Your Word assures us that we who have Jesus have
eternal life. May we diligently pursue truth as silver, search for it as hidden
treasure (Proverbs 2:4).
Nancy P
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