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1 John 5:11–12
“And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
It is clear from any cursory reading of the Gospels that Jesus said and did many things that seemed scandalous to those in His culture. His willingness to eat with known sinners offended many who did not have a right view of their own depravity (Matt. 9:10–13), and even His disciples found it hard to receive His teaching that He must die and rise again (Mark 8:31–33).
Perhaps His most scandalous statement of all is recorded in the John’s gospel. Jesus’ claim that He is “the way and the truth and the life” and that “no one comes to the Father” except through Him (John 14:6) offends any who will not submit to His lordship. To those who think that their own goodness and righteousness are the way to salvation, this statement is a stumbling block. Jesus demands total trust and allegiance, and in a pluralistic and relativistic age, His words here are likely to be met with howls of rejection. To claim that Jesus is the only way to the Father can sound smugly exclusive to those who have adopted this spirit of relativism.
In today’s passage, John brings his section on the testimony concerning the real incarnation of Jesus to a close by reminding us of what comes to us when we believe in the biblical Christ: “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (1 John 5:11). Eternal life is no substance dispensed from heaven; it resides in a person. To receive it is to receive Him, and to be joined to Him by faith is to have everything that is His.
This explains the certainty of verse 12: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” If life is in the Son, then whoever has the Son has life. Today there are many who think that they have life, but in denying the biblical testimony about Jesus they reveal that they do not have it at all. All those who receive the testimony of God recorded in sacred Scripture, who trust in Jesus alone, and who place their destiny in the hands of the Son will never perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
The life that God offers to us in His Son cannot be lost because it is eternal. All those who believe will never be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:38–39). We will not have a full experience of this life until the age to come, yet even now it is ours, enabling us to live with hope in this present darkness.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Our sovereign God has chosen to grant eternal life only to those who will receive His Son. How many of us neglect sharing the gospel with lost family, friends, and neighbors and thereby in practice deny that life comes only in His name? Let us endeavor to share the gospel with someone this week.
For further study
- John 3:35–36; 5:24–26
- Colossians 3:1–4
- 1 John 2:24–25
The bible in a year
- Ezekiel 21
- James 3