1 John 5:10b-12
The Testimony about Life
We discussed yesterday that the believer in Jesus Christ has “the testimony within himself”—which is to say that he has the Holy Spirit within himself who provides that inward testimony (or verification, to use more contemporary language) that he or she is indeed a born again believer. This does not void the need to “examine [our]selves, to see whether [we] are in the faith” (1 Corinthians 13:5). John’s epistle has laid down tests both doctrinal and behavioral, all of which we have covered. And these must be, for our Lord said himself, “You will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:13-23).
And now the Apostle gives the justification for God’s ultimate condemnation of the unbelieving world when that great and terrible day comes: “Whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning His Son.” John has told us that there is no daylight between the Father and the Son—to reject the one is to reject the other (2:23). And what is worse, it is to call the Father a “liar.” Not believing in Jesus as he is described in the New Testament rather than according to our personal fancies is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, the work that the Spirit does in our lives that we may be born again and receive the Father’s testimony concerning His Son. As such it cannot be forgiven in this life of the next (Matthew 12:32).
And now the Apostle records something else concerning the Father’s testimony about His Son which follows quite naturally everything the Father has testified about His Son thus far: That eternal life is available to us only through His Son. And why is this? Because the Son is the Life (John 14:6). So, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” If we will live in the next life (attain life eternal), we do so by, with, and through, the Son. There is no life outside of him. Indeed, our earthly lives depend on the Son’s preservation of the world which was created through him and which is held together by him (John 1:3; Colossians 1:15-17). But these earthly bodies shall soon dissolve into dust and only the soul of the man will remain. And just as with our earthly bodies, so our souls will live only through the Son. But unlike our earthly bodies which the Son gives life through creation, our spiritual bodies only receive life by him through redemption—which means those born not of the Spirit have not been redeemed and have not that spiritual life which is life eternal. The Son is the Lord of life. He is life itself. And we must be in him to share it.
