We have seen from the scriptures that eternal life is not a principle, or an abstract thought; but the Person of Jesus Christ the Son of God: He is the true God and eternal life. And that this eternal life is not for a time, is not a thing of time that may cease to be; but is the very eternal Person of the Son of God.
Now, that men dead in trespasses and sins should be brought into oneness with the Person of Christ, and have this eternal life, is a thought that could only originate with God. Yes, its origin is found in the purpose of God, and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. But the life itself was the Person of Jesus, the Son of God. “For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.” (1 John 1:1-3.) We are thus referred to the Gospel of John. There we see this blessed Person on this earth.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him..... In him was life.” He was the eternal God, yet distinct in Person, was with God. In Him was life. Not life communicated, but subsisting. As the I AM, so life ‘ was,’ and therefore eternal. No beginning, but in the beginning. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.” “He was in the world.... and the world knew him not.” But John says, “ We beheld his glory.” They beheld Him, the eternal life, made manifest in flesh. What a sight. They heard, and have recorded His wondrous words. Let us hear the eternal life speak to us. Yes; let us hear His words as to who they are who have eternal life.
He tells us, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:14, 15.) This first statement, of the eternal life, is most important. No sinner could have eternal life except on the ground of the atoning death of the Lord Jesus. Sin, the very root of all sins, must be dealt with. In a word, He must be lifted up on the cross, made sin, or a sacrifice for sin, in order that whosoever (Jew or Gentile) believeth may have eternal life. For this very purpose God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (Ver. 16.)
It is remarkable that the teaching of the Lord on the subject of eternal life has not been given in the first three gospels, but given later on in the Gospel and 1St Epistle of John. Does not this fact suggest that the teaching of Christ, as recorded by John, is mainly for these days, since the Holy Ghost came down and the church was formed? Still He spoke them: and He is the truth.
Oh how plain His words! May we be kept from mystifying them. “That whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” This is the plain statement of the Lord Jesus. It is not a matter of attainment, or of superior knowledge. Whosoever believeth in Him hath eternal life. And this truth runs through both the Gospel and 1St epistle of John. “He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life.” (Chap. 3:36.) Jesus says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life.” (Chap. 5:24) We fully grant that this verse could not be true to any child of Adam unless Jesus died and rose again. But then all His blessed teaching was on the sure ground that He would die and rise again. But more, He has died and risen again from the dead, so that now this verse is the truth to every one that believes God, who has raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. No one can deny this; Jesus says it. It is wonderful for a poor lost sinner to be brought into actual possession of this eternal life: yet Jesus gives us His double assurance—Verily, verily. Oh, has God the Holy Ghost opened your ears to hear the word of Jesus? Do you believe that God sent Him? Then He doubly assures you that you have eternal life; that you cannot come into judgment; no, you have passed from the region of death to life. All is now new, and all of God. Mark, it is the eternal life itself you have. Such are the words of Jesus.
And farther, it is the very will of God, not that a few advanced Christians should have it: “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have eternal life.” (Chap. 6:40.) Oh, let us keep to the plain words of scripture. How plainly Jesus reveals the will of the Father, that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have eternal life.
Jesus says again: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath eternal life.” (John 6:47.) He then presses the truth that He Himself is the eternal life—the living bread that came down from heaven. There is no eternal life in any other. We eat His flesh, and drink His blood. His atonement for sins must be received into our inmost souls, as bread and wine is received into the body: there is no eternal life in us apart from Himself. His death is the way into His life.
He further assures us that He does not give His sheep life for a time—a temporal life that may be lost. He says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.” (Chap. 10:27.) Thus there is not a single sheep in Christ’s flock that has not eternal life. Not one shall perish: How can they since Jesus is the resurrection and the life? Yes, He is the life, the eternal life. The life that He gives is eternal, as He says to the Father: “As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is eternal life, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (Chap. 17:2.) It is not temporal life, it is not human; it is eternal and divine. We are thus made capable of knowing the true God and Jesus Christ. Do we ask, then, who have eternal life? The answer is, every believer, every sheep, every one whom the Father hath given to the Son.
A most important question arises here: How does the believer understand, and enjoy this stupendous truth? Now we have seen that eternal life is the blessed Person of the Son of God; and further, that when He was in this world, the world knew Him not. He was the revelation of the Father. God in His own essential being could not have been known to the creature; but by taking the creature’s form of the Son. And man was proved utterly incapable of knowing the Son. Hence the blessedness of the Trinity; the Holy Spirit reveals the Son, and thus we know God, even the Father. It therefore follows, that as the Son of God is the eternal life, it is only by the Spirit that we enjoy the Son, and the Father, and thus know and enjoy eternal life. The Holy Ghost reveals the Son, the eternal life, to us, “This is eternal life that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” This is a most important subject in itself.
All this revelation of the Person of the eternal Son, the eternal life, is more than confirmed in the 1St epistle. “That eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.” Ever with the Father, but manifested unto us. What a privilege. In chapter v. we have the remarkable witness of the Spirit, and the water, and the blood. Yea, the witness of God; and the solemn declaration that he that believeth not the witness of God hath made Him a liar. And what is the thing witnessed? “This is the witness, that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” And mark, the “us” includes all believers——babes, young men, and fathers. Yea, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” “And we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.”
May we never entertain the shadow of a doubt on these plain words of Christ and His apostle.
C. S.