Whoever Has the Son Has Life (1 John 5:6-12)

What is the way to life, a true and eternal life? Obeying the commandments of God is the way to life, the full and eternal life, the life of excitements and expectations. Our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated on a cross how to obey God, even to the point of death. He died not for his sin but for the sins of the world in obedience to the Father whose will was to crush the Son in order to redeem and reconcile the lost race through him. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) Christ came to the world according to the Scriptures prophesied and foretold and offered himself in the heavenly temple as the sin offering for the redemption of the world. He was the promised Lamb of God, says John the Baptist. Whoever believes in the Son God sent does not perish but have eternal life. But anyone who does not have the Son does not have life. There are three that testify the coming of the Son Jesus Christ sent by the Father in heaven—the Spirit, the water, and the blood.

“This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given 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.” (1 John 5:6-12)

One, the Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit of God. Every believer in Christ has received the Spirit as the gift of God. Jesus promised to send the Spirit of truth when he ascended into heaven after his death and resurrection. “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:15-18) What does the Spirit do? “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” (John 16:13-15) He guides us into all the truth because he is the Spirit of truth. He tells us what is yet to come. He glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ and makes known to us, the mysteries of God. Most importantly, the Spirit does not speak on his own but speak only what he hears. He speaks what he receives from the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father God. He also prays for us when we do not know what we ought to pray for. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27) The four Gospels record what our Lord Jesus spoke and did while he was on the earth. He came down to the earth and died and bled on a cross in our place, and on the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God until he put all his enemies under his foot. The new beginning is set to begin. On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended down from heaven as he promised on one hundred twenty people who were praying in the temple courts. The Book of Acts records the Spirit’s guidance, work, leading, envisioning, protection, deliverance, and revelations. It is called unfinished book because the Spirit is still working mightily and faithfully in our midst. Our Lord Jesus Christ is ever more present among us, guiding and strengthening, encouraging, leading, revealing all the truth. Have you been encouraged and motivated to come to the study time of the Scriptures in your hearts? That is the undeniable evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst.

Two, the water. It indicates the water baptism. In the country of Israel, a voice in the wilderness broke the long four hundred year silence of heaven, saying “Repent! The kingdom of heaven is near!” The voice is that of John the Baptist. He was such a remarkable and striking voice in the wilderness with the spirit and power of Elijah that all the children of Israel came forth to listen to his message and be baptized in the Jordan water. Jesus also came to him to be baptized and John protested because he was the one who should be baptized by him. However, Jesus told him to baptize him in order to fulfill all righteousness. When the Son was baptized in the water, the heaven was opened and the Spirit came down from heaven as a dove and remained on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) Our Lord Jesus Christ had no reason to be baptized for he was sinless. He was baptized in our place, assuming all the heavy burden and load of the world. It testifies that he was the one prophesied and promised to come by the Law and the Prophets. “The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.” (John 10:2) God in heaven reaffirmed the Son Jesus as the Messiah of the world when he faithfully obeyed the Father by being baptized in the water.

Three, the blood. It indicates the death of the Son Jesus Christ. He had no reason to die because he was sinless, born of the Holy Spirit. Jesus died and bled on that cross of Calvary. In fact, he came to bled and die. Not all man die with blood. But Christ must shed his blood and die for the sin of the world. Even the copy of Christ’s death requires blood by the Law of Moses that every offering offered in the holy place must be accompanied with the blood of animals. “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9:22) Jesus of Nazareth was the right one to come to save the world through the suffering of being afflicted and crucified on a cross. John the Baptist cried out to him, “Behold! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Some seven hundred years before Christ, Prophet Isaiah prophesied the coming of the suffering servant to bring a righteousness from heaven. Through his wounds and afflictions, all may be healed and reconciled to God.

“Who has believed our message

and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot,

and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain

and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

stricken by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

Yet who of his generation protested?

For he was cut off from the land of the living;

for the transgression of my people he was punished.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

and with the rich in his death,

though he had done no violence,

nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,

he will see his offspring and prolong his days,

and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

After he has suffered,

he will see the light of life and be satisfied;

by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,

and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,

and he will divide the spoils with the strong,

because he poured out his life unto death,

and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:1-12)

God spoke through the Law and the Prophets. It was the will of God to crush the Son and cause him to suffer. Even before the time began the Son was to come and suffer much. The Spirit, the water, and the blood are the testimony of God. It is the way for God to save the world. The Son cried out with a loud voice, saying “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?” (Psalm 22:1) Through his death and his blood, we have been cleansed and washed away from all unrighteousness. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:7-9) Jesus Christ paid the full payment for the sin of the world. There is nothing unpaid for purging our sins away. He is the propitiation for our sins forever. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2)

Three testify consistently and faithfully that the Son Jesus Christ is the way to life, the true and eternal life. The Spirit, the water, and the blood testify that anyone who has the Son has life. Jesus is the bread of life. “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35) Anyone does not have the Son Christ does not have life. He was the Word in the beginning. He made all things with his word. He made man in his image and in his likeness. He knows what man needs—redemption and reconciliation which leads back to life through him. He is the way, the life, and the truth. There is no other way to come to the throne of grace in the holy presence of God the Father of all glory except through the Son Jesus Christ. What does it mean to have the Son? To have the Son means to believe in him whom God sent as three testify. Our Lord Jesus explains what it means to have the Son in our daily lives.

“Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” (John 6:53-58)

This is a figurative language. It means to depend on him in everything because he is everything for life. He is our real food and drink. He bled and died for us to give a way out of hunger and thirst. He is all we need, nothing more and nothing less. He died while we were still enemies of God and now how much more he gives what his beloved children ask. We have been made and adopted as God’s children in Christ. He gives us life now and forevermore, even more abundantly. He gives more when we obey a small thing. And more and more when we obey one after another. Three testify it is true.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:25-26)

September 29, 2017

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