A soul formed by the Word of God, when thinking of eternal life, thinks of a life that has been revealed in the Person of God’s beloved Son. It is a life that subsists from eternity to eternity in Him, in relationship with the Father before all worlds, and forever; which had, and has, its home in the Father’s bosom, in all the intimacies and delights and affections of the Father’s heart, in bliss unclouded and beyond all measure. “In Him was life” (John 1:44In him was life; and the life was the light of men. (John 1:4)); “He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:2020And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. (1 John 5:20) JND); “the eternal life, which was with the Father” (1 John 1:22(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 1:2) JND).
In John 5:2121For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. (John 5:21) we learn that giving life is the prerogative alike of the Father and the Son; and in verse 26, that “as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.” This last is the Son as man here on earth; for, as a divine person, the eternal Word, He had life in Himself as the Father has. “In Him was life” was true of Him before the incarnation. But now also as become man it is given Him of the Father to have life in Himself. In Him who is now in His own Person both God and man the life is, and in Him as man, the Mediator, the life has been revealed, and has assumed the form in which God purposed it for man, and promised it, before the world began. See 2 Timothy 1:1-101Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, 2To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day; 4Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy; 5When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. 6Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. 7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 8Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; 9Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 10But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: (2 Timothy 1:1‑10); Titus 1:22In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; (Titus 1:2). This is “the eternal life, which was with the Father” before the world began, but which has been revealed in and for man according to God’s eternal purpose.
It is distinctly stated that “the life was manifested” without any question of who saw it, or knew what it was. “The life was the light of men,” and was shining for men — “the true Light... which, coming into the world, lightens every man.” But it was also seen by men on earth when Christ was here in flesh. The apostles were chosen witnesses, and could say “we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us.” They saw Him who was the life, and who had come in flesh to reveal it; and when the enemy was seeking to lead the saints beyond what was revealed in Him, entangling them by vain and wicked speculations, the apostles could recall them to Christ, in whose Person they had seen “the eternal life, which was with the Father,” the knowledge of which led into blessing and joy of which “vain philosophy” knows nothing. “That which we have seen and heard we report to you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is indeed with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” It was not a new development, but “that which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes; that which we contemplated, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life.” It was not a phantom they saw, nor a “sphere,” nor a “condition” (though condition was there), but a real person, the Word made flesh, “the Word of Life,” “the eternal life, which was with the Father,” down here in a man, whom they handled as well as saw.
It is not a question of how far the apostles entered into the truth of what they saw and heard, before the blessed Lord had accomplished redemption, going up on high and sealing them with the Holy Ghost. But they had been witnesses, and when the Holy Ghost came they bore witness to what they had seen. Feeble indeed was their apprehension until the Spirit of truth came, but they had seen and contemplated “the Word of life” in flesh, and they had heard His words, and received them — the words which the Father had given Him, and which were life eternal. The life which was thus revealed, which the apostles (and others as well) saw, and have reported to us, is the life which God has given us in His Son, and in which, by the power of the Holy Ghost, we have communion with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. The life is now seen in Him as man glorified on high, in its own proper sphere, and in the condition in which we shall have it according to the fullness of God’s thoughts and purpose.
Through redemption, in the lifting up of the Son of man on the cross, the foundation has been laid in righteousness for the communication of eternal life to perishing men, and thus, too, the door has been opened into the “heavenly things” to which eternal life properly belongs, and the sinner, perishing in his sins, who through grace believes on that One who has been lifted up passes from death unto life. His eye rests on Him in whom God gives eternal life, and eternal life is his. “God hath given to 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.” 1 John 5:11-1211And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:11‑12).
The life is communicated to us through the Word and by the Spirit, the Spirit being the divine agent by whom the Word is made effective in the soul (John 3:55Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (John 3:5); James 1:1818Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (James 1:18); 1 Peter 1:2323Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (1 Peter 1:23); John 5:24-2524Verily, 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 condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. 25Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. (John 5:24‑25)). Man is in a state of death, and if he is to have life, God must act sovereignly. God begins. Man himself is as powerless as was dead Lazarus, until the life-giving word is spoken. The power of God acts upon the dead soul by the Word, and God gives the faith that receives it. It is all above and beyond human reason. None can understand or explain. Humanly speaking a dead man cannot hear or believe; nor could man or angel make him hear or believe. But God moves in the scene of death, and all is changed. He who created when only Himself existed, and at whose word worlds sprang into existence, can make His word heard in the soul of a dead sinner. Dead Lazarus heard the voice of the Son of God, and came forth from the dead; and dead souls now hear His voice and live. The Word accompanied by the power of God produces its own effect in the soul; and this is so right on to the end. God acts in us by His Word, whether as dead sinners needing life, or as saints needing instruction and warning. We are vessels of mercy. But if He has wrought in us by His Word, that word has been received in the soul. It has been believed. If God gives, we receive, believe, though even this be by grace from Him, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:88For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: (Ephesians 2:8)). But man cannot explain the how of these things, any more than he can explain the mystery of natural life (John 3:1818He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18); Eccl. 11:55As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. (Ecclesiastes 11:5)).
Notice, too, when the Lord is speaking of life, He says: “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:6363It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)). These were the words of the Father, “For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting” (John 12:49-5049For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. 50And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. (John 12:49‑50)). Compare John 8:2525Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. (John 8:25), where they ask Jesus, “Who art thou?” His answer is, “Altogether that which I also say to you.” (John 8:2525Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. (John 8:25) JND). Trans. He was who and what His words expressed. They were not only the “commandment” of the Father, but declared the Father and the Son. He and the Father were one and were expressed in the word of the Son. This was life eternal to every one who received it. Compare also, 1 John 2:7-87Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. 8Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. (1 John 2:7‑8), where we have the “commandment,” first in Him and then in the believer — “which thing is true in Him and in you.” He is the eternal life, and the commandment is eternal life. He identifies Himself and His words, so that what He is in nature and life is communicated to the one who receives His words. It is not Deity communicated (that could not be), but life — Himself as life — “which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light now shines.”
Thus when we are born again, having heard the life-giving voice of the Son of God, we are quickened with His life. We live before God by the life which is in the Son. We have it when we have the Son; when there is faith in His Person it is there. But we enter consciously into the Christian character of it when we have the knowledge of redemption, and are sealed by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost leads into the knowledge of Christ in His relationship with the Father, and of our place and relationships in Him, and enables us as sons to cry, Abba, Father. “At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you” (John 14:2020At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:20)). “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:33And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)).
We possess this life now. It is indeed a life which belongs to another world, so that we are not of the world, but we possess it while here. It was “manifested” and “seen” in Christ, in His life of humiliation here — all its beautiful moral traits shining out in His Person in undimmed luster and divine beauty. John presents it to us thus, and Christ is thus our pattern in our path through this world. “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked” (1 John 2:66He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. (1 John 2:6)).
We shall have it also in the glorified state where Christ is in the Father’s house, when He comes and takes us home. We have it not yet in that state, though we have it in the character in which it is revealed in connection with heavenly relationships in having the knowledge of the Father, the only true God and Jesus Christ, His sent One. We live in this relationship now, but have the hope of glory also. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:22Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)). We shall then have the life in the condition in which it is seen in Him as man glorified. Thus Paul saw and presents it — “the end everlasting life.”
The particular condition in which the life is seen, as in humiliation, or in glory, does not affect what the life is in itself. Jesus said: “I am... the life”; “He is the true God and eternal life”; “the eternal life, which was with the Father.” It is what He is in His own eternal Person as life, not a condition He entered upon either in incarnation or resurrection, important as that condition may be in connection with its display and the form in which it is communicated to men. He, the eternal Son, ever was, is, and ever will be, in His own glorious Person and eternal Being, “THE ETERNAL LIFE.” His humiliation detracted not from, and His glory as man adds not to its essential and unchanging glory. His becoming man was necessary for its revelation, for the accomplishment of redemption, and for its communication to men, but the life in all that it is in itself apart from the form or conditions it has assumed in Him as man, subsists in His eternal Person. To give up this is to give up the truth as to His divine Person, and the truth itself, for He is “the truth” as well as “the life.” Apart from this, to talk of eternal life as “the condition which characterizes the second Man,” however glorious, is an illusive dream of a mind not subject to God’s Word. Blessed be God, the life has been revealed in Christ as a man, and to men, but “the light of life” in which as believers we walk, only shows the infinite capability which eternally existed in Him as the life, as the light of the sun in which we walk as natural men shows the capability of the sun as an orb of light. While cleaving to this as to His Person, it is ours to rejoice that the darkness is passing and the true light now shines.
The eternal orb of Light and Life has shone in this dark world to deliver from the darkness and death sin had brought in. For a moment, as it were, the eternal life in Him came down into this world to be seen by the eyes of dying, perishing men, that they might live. He who is the life accomplished redemption on the cross. The Son of man was lifted up that He might be a propitiatory sacrifice for sin; and thus God was glorified as to sin according to the full requirement of His glorious majesty, and all that He is as Light and Love revealed in this mighty sacrifice which His own heart provided, that men might not only live, but be delivered from the whole condition of misery and ruin into which sin had plunged them, and be brought into Christ’s place and condition and relationship with the Father for eternity. This is the glorious scene to which eternal life properly belongs — where it is at home, so to speak — and this lost world, with Adam’s fallen and ruined race, comes in only by the way, and as the occasion for bringing out this marvelous display of light and life, and love and grace according to God’s eternal counsels. Only we must remember that we have eternal life now, before we enter upon that eternal and fixed state in glory for which we wait. And in the coming age, too, Israel and the nations will have it on earth, as Scripture clearly shows (Dan. 12:22And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2); Matt. 25:4646And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Matthew 25:46).)
Now, whatever Mr. Raven may mean by many of his utterances, judging from his words, one would not think that he held in his soul that on which all this as to the revelation of “eternal life” depends. It depends on what the life is in its own intrinsic nature and glorious character in the eternal Person of the Son of God, “the eternal life, which was with the Father.” The eternal life was there to be revealed in God’s due time. Now while Mr. Raven admits vaguely in a sort of a parenthetical sentence, that “essentially” eternal life was ever with the Father, he does not admit that this was His life as a divine Person, as “in Him was life.” We must, therefore, examine his statements.
In a letter dated “17th Sept., ‘90, and copied by H. T., 33 Queen’s Road, Tunbridge Wells,” he says: “My point in the controversy has been to show that eternal life, though existing essentially in the Son with the Father, is the condition which characterizes the second Man, and consequently it is in the state into which resurrection leads that He is fully revealed as eternal life.”
Observe here that he uses “though existing essentially in the Son with the Father” parenthetically, so that his main statement is, “eternal life... is the condition which characterizes the second Man,” etc. If you receive this you have lost in your soul that which eternal life really is. It is true that the life has been revealed in Christ become man, and in Him as man glorified is seen the “condition” in which we shall have it when we see Him, but He was the life before He became man, and before this condition appeared, and if you lose this, you lose what He is in His own Person.
Next he says: “What He was in His own Person remains true, and even when here after the flesh He was manifested to the apostles to be eternal life, in spite of the part which He had taken in human life to accomplish God’s will.”
Now this agrees perfectly with his theory, that eternal life is a condition connected with manhood — “the condition which characterizes the second Man,” and which is “fully revealed” “in the state into which resurrection leads.” What it is could not be perfectly revealed till Christ was glorified. True, in Him glorified is seen the condition of the life for man according to God’s counsels; but if the “condition” is made the “life,” the life is lost, for a condition is not life. Nay, more, if that condition be “eternal life,” then Christ had to enter into eternal life, for He was not in the “condition” until He became man, nor fully till glorified. Appalling conclusion! What He was as the eternal life is lost, and is replaced by a mere “condition” of manhood.
And think of saying, “in spite of the part He had taken in human life down here,” as if His blessed, holy humanity in humiliation dimmed the luster of that wondrous life which shone out in Him in infinite moral loveliness and grace! Was it not true of Him when here, that “the life was the light of men”? Was He not “the true light... which., coming into the world, lightens every man”? Was it not when in humiliation He said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”? Was it not then He said, “Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide Himself from them”? Was this an invisible light? Was the blessed Lord inviting men to “light of life” which, after all, must only leave them in darkness and death! Or were a few only permitted to catch a few rays that shone out “in spite of” His lowly state on earth? What meant those wondrous communications from the Father which He uttered in this world, not to the apostles merely, but to the people and the rulers as well? What was it when “Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me. And He that seeth Me seeth Him that sent Me. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day”? What does He say about these words which He spoke to the people? He said, “I have not spoken of Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting.” His words were spoken to the people, they were the commandment of the Father, and the commandment was life eternal. Was this a “condition” of the second Man? The words of Jesus were the expression of Himself (John 8:2525Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. (John 8:25)). He was the eternal life, and the commandment was eternal life. He was in this world as such, and His words were not spoken in secret; there was thus a full, blessed shining out of the light of life, all the more wonderfully beautiful in its moral loveliness and grace because of the humiliation of the glorious Person in whom it was manifested. Oh! beloved child of God, whose eyes have beheld this light of life, what can you think of a system of teaching which denies the shining forth of this light in His lowly path of humiliation and sorrow here, and which robs Him of the essential glory which belongs to His Person as the eternal life with the Father?
In the same letter Mr. Raven further says: “I may add that when, as in John 1:1-131In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:1‑13), the Lord is presented to us by the Spirit abstractly as a divine Person, expressions are used which do not apply to eternal life, such as ‘In Him was life’; that is, as self-existent.”
Now, when you remember that Mr. Raven regards eternal life as “the condition which characterizes the second Man,” you can better understand why he refuses to connect eternal life with John 1:44In him was life; and the life was the light of men. (John 1:4), “In Him was life.” This expression is used of Christ as a divine Person presented abstractly; but since eternal life is a condition of manhood, according to Mr. Raven, he cannot apply it to Christ until after He became man. Thus he refuses to apply the term “eternal life” to Christ until He became man; and even then, he elsewhere speaks of it as distinct from what He was irt His own Person, as in 1 John 1:1-21In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. (John 1:1‑2), where the “life” is presented as manifested, and declared to be “the eternal life, which was with the Father:” It may be asked, in passing, when “was” this eternal life “with the Father”? According to Mr. Raven it could only have been after Christ was come in flesh, because with Him eternal life “is the condition which characterizes the second Man”; or, if he admits it was so before the incarnation, then it must have been what he calls “in essence,” the meaning of which we may presently inquire into. But does not the passage mean that Christ was the eternal life with the Father before all worlds, as we have all been accustomed to understand it? Is it not the life that was in the Son, according to John 1:44In him was life; and the life was the light of men. (John 1:4), and which remained unrevealed in Him until He became man, when it was manifested and seen? In John 1:11In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1), we have “the Word was with God,” and in verse 14, “the Word was made flesh.” Thus the Word which was with God was manifested in this world. In verse 4 it is said, “In Him (that is, in the Word) was life.” This was ever true, but it is at once added, “and the life was the light of men”; and it was on His coming into the world that this light shone for men, “the true light... which, coming into the world, lightens every man” (verse 9). Now, it was when He was in the world the apostles heard, saw, looked upon, and handled Him, and He is here called “the Word of life” — the One who was, and expressed, the life in His own Person. It is here as in John 1:1-21In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. (John 1:1‑2), the eternal Word. The manifestation was of the life in Him as become man, and so it is said from the beginning; but His Person, “the Word of life,” carries you back into eternity, and so “the life” (1 John 1:22(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 1:2)) which “was manifested” and “seen” was not only what was “from the beginning,” but what existed before there was any beginning — “the eternal life, which was with the Father.” This life was manifested in the Person of the Son become man, the “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” but it was there in the Son to be manifested. This is really the foundation of the whole truth connected with the subject of eternal life. But this foundation Mr. Raven would take away from us, by denying this essential glory which belongs to the Son of God as the eternal life before time began. No one questions that Christ was more than eternal life; He was the Son, the Word, the Creator, God, and now man, but He was also Life, Light, the eternal life which was with the Father, and all this in His adorable Person. May we hold it fast in our souls as a divine revelation which God has given us in His Word, without attempting to analyze or divide that glorious Being whom no man can know. When Scripture presents to our faith Himself as “the life,” and “our life,” why should anyone presume to analyze and say this in Him is eternal life, and that is not? We know from Scripture He is God, and He is man, yet one Person, and you cannot take the words, ways, and acts which made up the practical manifestation of His life on earth and divide them into two classes, ascribing one class to the divine, and the other to the human, in Him, because the human and divine united in such a way that you cannot separate them. He manifested the power of God in raising Lazarus, yet the words were uttered by human lips; and besides God and His Son being glorified in it, there was the outflow of divine affection and sympathy, as witnessed in the Lord’s tears wept through human eyes, as Jesus wept with the weeping sisters. Even when He laid down His life as man on the cross, while we say He died as man, we cannot separate from that act, and the laying down of that life, the infinite value of His whole Person. He died as man, but the Person whose human life was laid down was God as well as man, and this gives its infinite value to the atonement. The human and divine mingled in His acts, and we may contemplate human and divine aspects of His Person, but let none dare intrude into the mystery of their union in the Person of the God-man. That this has been done cannot be denied; and who can tell with what fearful damage to souls, whether to those who have had the boldness and hardihood to make and present before others their unholy analyzes, or to those who have listened to them? One feels impelled to enter a most emphatic and solemn protest against such liberty as has been taken with that Person whom none but the Father knows. Yet we need not wonder that such liberty has been taken when we find ourselves in the presence of a carefully developed system which depends on analyzing the Person of the Lord — a system which declares eternal life to have been ever an integral part of the Person of the Son, yet which denies that the “life” in Him which “was the light of men” was “eternal life.”
Here I may give several extracts of letters by Mr. Raven, written to explain his doctrine, and copied by his friends, and sent to others in order to enlighten (?) them on this new teaching.
“I could not make ‘so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself’ and ‘eternal life’ to be the same.
“I believe eternal life is what He is now as man, but then it takes its character from what He was eternally as divine. But I believe eternal life to be the life of man according to the purpose of God, and what has come out fully in resurrection, though manifested in Him even before. In a word I believe eternal life to mean a new man in a new scene (for man).
“Christ is seen in this epistle as with the Father (an advocate, etc.), and in the last chapter God’s Son is carefully identified with Jesus Christ who has come through water and blood, and it is of Him that it is predicated, `He is the true God and eternal life’; that is, as I understand it in full revelation.
“But it is also taught in John that that eternal life which was with the Father had been manifested to the apostles. Now, though this un-questionably refers to the days of His flesh, it is distinct from what He was in His own Person, and had ever been, though this now gave its character to manhood. He was when here the last Adam, the second Man, though not yet clothed according to the counsels of God in a condition commensurate to what He was spiritually in life. What was morally life in Him was what He was with God in spiritual being and relationship (as well as Himself being God), but He was for the moment clothed in a condition pure and immaculate in itself, but not commensurate with the spiritual being.
“The first remark I would make on Mr. Rule’s letter is in regard to purpose as connected with eternal life. I fail to understand his difficulty. I suppose it was God’s purpose that eternal life should be revealed as the condition of the second Man, and that we should have it in Him. I am not surprised at his being unable to understand my statements as to eternal life, for we look at things from different points of view. As far as I can gather, he regards eternal life as the life of the Son as a divine Person, as in fact equivalent to ‘In Him was life,’ while I regard it as a condition which, although ever existing essentially in the Son, is presented in Scripture as characteristic of the second Man....
“I fail to find in any of the gospels the statement that Christ is eternal life; on the contrary eternal life there refers without exception to something given to man, or into which man is to enter. In 1 John the object appears to be to unfold the eternal life which has been revealed in Christ in order that saints might know that they had it. I do not believe that the idea of its being an essential personal title of the Son can be maintained, not but what God’s purpose of grace and eternal life were in Him.”
One of the first things to be noticed with these statements is, that in looking at eternal life in connection with the Person of Christ, Mr. Raven distinguishes it from the life that was in Him as a divine person. “In Him was life” is not “eternal life,” and the “life” the Father gave the Son to have in Himself is not “eternal life”; and he also says that in 1 John 1:22(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 1:2), “it is distinct from what He was in His own Person, and had ever been.” Now this necessitates, first, that in His own Person He was not the eternal life which was with the Father, and second, that either the eternal life was not the life that was in Him as a divine person, or that He had two lives, the life that He had as self-existent, and eternal life. Take hold of either horn of this dilemma, and you have lost the truth as to the Person of Christ.
Nor is this all. It also follows that after Christ became man, Mr. Raven connects three lives with His Person; first, His life as self-existent; second, human life, and third, eternal life, or “the condition of the second Man.”
One feels the necessity of apologizing for committing such things to paper. I have set forth in plain tea ins the result of Mr. Raven’s analyzing of the Person of God’s Son in connection with his doctrine of eternal life — an analysis on which his whole system depends — in hope that the exposure of such daring intrusion into that holy mystery may yet arouse some who are sensitive to the glory and honor of their blessed Redeemer. Thousands are being carried away under the fearful delusion that there is nothing but sound doctrine in the teaching of this man. Perhaps a view of the fatal result of all this reasoning of the human mind on what no man knows or can know, and of this bold intruding where seraphim only veil their faces and cry “Holy, holy, holy,” may awaken some to the realization of what is in question in the present assault of the enemy. One would ask in connection with what is passing before us, where are the unshod feet? Where the trembling at God’s Word? Where the holy reverence due to the Person and name of Him who, though once passing through deepest humiliation, is the One on whom the very existence of all worlds and all created beings hangs?
Another thing to be remarked in connection with these extracts from Mr. Raven is, that they are entirely confirmatory of what we have already noticed as to his definition of eternal life — that it is a condition which characterizes the second Man. His words are plain. “I believe eternal life is what He is now as man.” “I believe eternal life to be the life of man according to the purpose of God.” “I believe eternal life to mean a new man in a new scene (for man).” “I suppose it was God’s purpose that eternal life should be revealed as the condition of the second Man.” “I regard it as a condition which, although ever existing essentially in the Son, is presented in Scripture as characteristic of the second Man.” Such are his words. And I may here add that I have seen in his own handwriting a statement that in the connection in which things stand in Scripture he does not see that eternal life ever goes beyond man, whether Christ or us. All this shows that he connects eternal life only with man. This may be denied since he makes other statements apparently of an opposite character which we may examine.
I quote here a statement said to be printed with Mr. Raven’s approval.
“I gather that altogether apart from what was manifested to others, the ‘Word... made flesh’ was also the eternal life, whether in the babe in the manger, or in the hungry, thirsty, weary Man among men, that eternal life which was from eternity with the Father, was present here below in the Person of Him who ‘is in the bosom of the Father.’ The blessed, hungry, weary Man was never less than ‘the Mighty God,’ and though hunger, weariness, and sleep are not in themselves the expression of His Godhead (Isa. 40:2828Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. (Isaiah 40:28); Psa. 121:3-43He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 4Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121:3‑4)), or of the eternal life which was with the Father, yet He who was hungry and weary was ever personally the true Goal and eternal life.”
As to this statement which has quieted so many consciences, I remark: 1. If it be taken absolutely as we are all accustomed to understand the force of words, it absolutely contradicts his other statements, or rather his later statements contradict it, and it belongs to him to disentangle his own statements. 2. It must be remembered that almost always when speaking of eternal life having been ever in the Son with the Father, he says “in essence” or “essentially.” Whatever he may mean by these terms they are intended to modify the statement so that we cannot take it absolutely; and it is entirely misleading for hint to make such a statement as the above without modification or explanation.
3. What he really means by the terms “in essence” and “essentially” is hard to say. In his paper on “Eternal Life” he says, page 6, “essentially (in relationship and moral being).” Elsewhere “essentially (in nature or moral being and relationship).” Elsewhere, “now if eternal life means a condition which (though existing eternally in the Son) characterizes the second Man.” Now since he denies that eternal life in the Son before all worlds was the life mentioned in John 1:44In him was life; and the life was the light of men. (John 1:4), and 5:26, one could only gather from his expressions that it was a kind of moral condition in which He was in relationship with the Father, and not real intrinsic life at all. And then this “essence” (whatever it is) found place in Christ as a man, giving character to the second Man, and the second Man thus characterized is eternal life! Thus the extract given above, and so triumphantly pointed to is a fair form of beautiful words which have served to obscure what he really means, and to hide the moral deformity of what he presents as the truth of God, but which really darken the glory of Christ, and rob the saints of “the light of life” which shone out in Him in the mysterious unity of His Person — the God-man, — as if you should take a beautiful, living rose, and analyze it in order to show what life is in a rose. You may think you have analyzed it, and made some wonderful discovery, but you have lost the rose. So you may think you have subjected the the Person of the Lord to this analyzing process, and that you have discovered what is “life” in Him, and “human life” and “eternal life,” but you have lost Christ in your soul practically, and the holy reverence due to His Name. I here give an extract from F.E.R. sent me by J.S.O.:
“The mistake which I believe is common, is in failing to see that the term, ‘eternal life,’ is always used in Scripture in reference to man, whether it be the Son, or those to whom it is given. Christ is never called eternal life in the Gospel of John. It is the divine glory of His Person as the Son, the giver of eternal life, which is there presented, and what is said as to Him is ‘in Him was life,’ that is, what is characteristic of a divine Person as such and never could be said of us. In the epistle the eternal life is declared as what had been manifested in a real man, the Son (which was from the beginning), and is what is true in Him and in the saints now that we are in the light. It is seen in characteristics suitable in a man and carrying, therefore, of necessity, the ideas of subjection and dependence, though He in whom it ever was in purpose and essentially, in whom it was manifested here below, and in whom it is now fully revealed in glory, is also the true God.”