How Do I Know that I Have Eternal Life? (1 John 5:6-15)

The second reading is taken from 1 John chapter 5.

1 John 5 · chapter mention

This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by the water only, but by the water and the blood.

And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the Water and the Blood.

And these three agree.

If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that He has borne concerning His Son.

Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.

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.

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.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

I write these things to you, John writes, who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

Let's pray.

You are the Lord by whom we escape death and find eternal life.

Lord, your word for us is truth.

It is life.

You have opened your heart for us in your word.

Now, Lord, we pray that by your Holy Spirit you would open our hearts to your word.

And may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be always pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

Amen.

How do I know that I have eternal life?

How do I know that I have eternal life?

How do you know that you have eternal life?

That's an important question, isn't it?

That's not incidental to the Christian faith.

That's a question about the very heart of our faith, the very heart of God's promise that we would have eternal life.

How do we know that as a sure thing with confidence?

I mean, Christians get accused of wishful thinking in this regard, right?

Pie in the sky, by and by, maybe somewhere on the other side of the hill.

But is eternal life something that we can be confident about?

That we can know for sure?

If we're going to answer the question, how do I know that I have eternal life?

Maybe we want to begin by zooming the lens out a little bit further and ask the question, how do we know that we know anything?

What gives us grounds of assurance and certainty?

I know what you're thinking.

Thanks, Creighton.

This is a great start to a sermon.

How do I know that I know anything?

What kind of question is that?

That's fair.

My point is this.

We come to have certainty, we come to have trust, not by a self-willed commitment, but rather by the assurance and confidence we have in those or that which bears witness.

Let's think about a courtroom for a second.

Claims get made on both sides, plaintiffs and defendants.

And truth and justice win the day, not because someone gets up on the stand and says, Well, I just hope you take my word for it, this is what happens, but rather that evidence is presented and chiefly witnesses come up and testify and corroborate to the truth, this is really what happens.

And this is what happens.

See, for us, friends, the Christian faith is not about wishful thinking.

It's not pie in the sky stuff.

It's grounded in the assurance, the testimony of witnesses, the very heart of our faith, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, is grounded in the testimony of witnesses.

That's what Acts chapter 1 is all about.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Who's been with us since the beginning?

Who is there as Jesus ministered and called his apostles?

Who is there as a witness to his resurrection?

And now who can go forward and proclaim that resurrection to all the world?

That's important stuff.

Not because the resurrection is an interesting factoid that happened in history, but because the fact that Jesus lives and conquered death gives us hope that we too can live, that we too have victory in Jesus.

Jesus is alive, and that means we can live too.

That's the reason why John, the author of 1 John, the author of the Gospel of John, writes the Gospel itself.

These are written, he says, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the appointed, the anointed Savior, the Son of God, and that by believing, by putting your personal trust in him, you may have life, eternal life in his name.

This purpose resonates with this letter that John writes to his congregation in Ephesus.

We see the purpose written in verse 13 of chapter 5.

I write these things to you, John says, who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

Not so that you can have wishful thinking about eternal life, but that you can rest assured this is a foresure thing for those who are in Christ.

Okay, so far so good.

But what do we do?

What do we believe when we hear contradicting claims?

We live in an age of contradiction and competing narratives, don't we?

And that's nothing new.

In John's day, he was dealing with these self-appointed teachers in the city of Ephesus within his congregation, who are stirring up division, we see that in chapter 2.

Going around, acting like spiritual gurus, preaching a gospel that is contrary to one's, the one that the apostles were entrusted with by our Lord Jesus.

They were going around the congregation saying things like, you know, God didn't really come in the flesh, right?

You know that God didn't really incarnate himself in Jesus.

Like God doesn't put on a fleshy meat suit.

That's gross.

The divine would never do something like that.

And because that's the case, they were saying that eternal life isn't so much about overcoming the world in Jesus, but overcoming the world like we understand Jesus did, which is to say this: that Jesus had this divine Christ spirit, sure.

For a time this Christ spirit joined himself to Jesus, but by the time Jesus got around to getting crucified, for sure that spirit had left him because God doesn't bleed to death.

So you overcome the world, you gain eternal life by overcoming material, gross physical reality, by ascending with your mind to these spiritual truths.

This is the contradictory gospel, the story going around this congregation in Ephesus, but we hear contradicting stories about Jesus too, don't we?

Jesus, we know in the creed, is light from light, true God from true God.

The God who took on flesh, the Son, the Savior of the world.

But we also hear others say that, you know, Jesus is just a great moral teacher.

He's got some great one-liners for us to consider.

Well, Jesus is one of many enlightened spiritual figures throughout the ages.

The troubling thing is, friends, we don't just hear these voices outside of the church, do we?

We hear these voices within the church, just like John did.

We hear folks who venture to call themselves pastors, who preach in pulpits on Sunday mornings, proclaim these things.

And they proclaim a gospel that is contrary to the ones that the apostles bear witness to.

These all offer a different answer to the question of who Jesus is, but because that's the case, they all offer a different answer to the question of how do we find assurance of eternal life?

How do we know that we have eternal life?

So what do we believe when we hear these contradictory claims?

This is what John wants to deal with in chapter 5.

How do I know with surety, with confidence that I have eternal life?

John wants to point us in this direction.

He wants us to believe God's own testimony about himself, about who Jesus the Son is.

And this testimony, God's own testimony, is confirmed by three witnesses that John says God calls to the stand: water, blood, and spirit.

All of this, friends, is a question of assurance.

Can we have a surety?

Can we have a confidence that we have eternal life?

This is not pie-in-the-sky stuff.

This is as real as it gets.

Can I live now with the hope, with a confidence, that I will not be lost to God in eternity, but that I am found in Him and that I can have life in His name.

I hope what we come out with in this word is a great assurance, is a great confidence, is knowing that we have eternal life in Christ's name.

So how do I know that I have eternal life?

Let's look at God's own testimony.

What God speaks about his very own son.

I want to zoom in on verses 11 and 12, and then I want us to back up and look at verses 6 to 8 with regard to the three witnesses that bear testimony here.

Here's God's own testimony.

This is what God wants us to know about his son.

Verse 11.

This is the testimony of God with reference to verse 6, that God gave us eternal life.

And this life is in his son.

Whoever has the Son has life.

Gave us means that eternal life is not something to be, well, strived after or earned.

It's a free gift.

It's God's presentation to us.

It is a to-usward movement from God.

The free gift of God, Paul writes in Romans 6, is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This gift of eternal life is not something ethereal, not something way up in the clouds.

It's as real as Jesus Himself, because the gift of eternal life is Jesus.

Let's look at 1 John chapter 5, verse 20, a little bit past our reading.

1 John 5:20

Jesus Christ, John says, is the true God and eternal life.

If we have Jesus, we have eternal life.

Whoever has the Son, John writes, has life.

See, this is just a logical syllogism.

If A and B, then C.

This accords with verse 10.

Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.

God gave us eternal life.

This life is in his son.

Therefore, if you have the Son, you have this life.

I mean, this resonates with what we learn about Jesus in John's gospel, doesn't it?

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus alone has eternal life to offer us.

Jesus alone can offer us this life because he is the way and the truth.

He is the way to the Father.

He's not a way.

This calls us to an exclusive trust in the life that Jesus offers us.

That's why pastor and commentator John Stott can write that eternal life is in the Father's Son and may be found nowhere else.

It is as impossible to have life without having Christ as it is to have Christ without thereby having life also.

The two go together.

If you have Jesus by faith, you have eternal life.

What is God's own testimony about eternal life?

What does he want us to know about his son?

He wants us to know that eternal life is not a merit badge, something we've earned for ourselves.

It's a free gift.

And this free gift is found in Jesus alone.

And this gift is our present possession in Christ.

Present tense.

Whoever has the Son has life.

John 17, this is eternal life, that they know, present tense, that they know you, Heavenly Father, the only true God, and me, Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

The God's testimony is this eternal life is found in the Son, received in faith, and this is a present reality for us.

Eternal life is not something that happens after we die, it is something we have now, as a gift in Christ.

If we have Christ, we have eternal life.

John Stott rightly directs our faith towards witnesses to corroborate this story.

The way to life, this eternal life is faith, he writes, and the way to faith is testimony.

So John tells us that God calls three witnesses to the stand to speak to this eternal life in Christ.

Let's back it up and look at verse six.

This is he, John writes, who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by the water only, but by the water and the blood.

And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

For there are three that testify the Spirit and the Water and the Blood.

And these three agree.

Okay, so if you're thinking that's confusing, you are not alone.

One of the great preachers of the 20th century, Martin Lloyd Jones, called this perhaps one of the most confusing verses in the New Testament and perhaps in all of Scripture.

Let's unpack it a little bit, because this is a strange phrase: water, blood, and spirit.

What does John mean by these three witnesses?

What does John mean by water?

Here's what I think John has in mind.

John has in mind Jesus' baptism.

Jesus' baptism is a witness to the eternal life that God is giving us through him.

We can read about Jesus' baptism in Mark chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

We can look in Matthew chapter 3.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

This is a whole other sermon, but let me just highlight a few things that I think John wants us to keep in mind in regards to this witness to eternal life.

Why was Jesus baptized?

We know that John the Baptist was baptizing the children of Israel with regard to the repentance of sin.

And all the gospels witness the fact that Jesus is without sin.

Why was Jesus baptized?

Well, Matthew chapter 3 gives us a reason.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

Jesus says he's being baptized.

This must be done to fulfill all righteousness.

What Jesus is saying here is that there has been a story going on since Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

God has called a people to himself.

And these people have gone astray.

They've departed from God's will, they've departed from true and eternal life.

And now Jesus is stepping into this story, into the story of God's chosen people Israel.

And God is stepping into their identity so that he can call a wayward people back to God.

He is being cleansed as one who identifies with Israel for their sake.

He's being cleansed with John's baptism for the righteousness that God requires of his people.

He's stepping into their place.

And this is why a voice from heaven can say, This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

See, the father witnesses to Jesus' identity in the baptism.

The father says, This is my son.

And the Spirit descends like a dove.

We might see that the life of heaven is breaking into a sin-corrupted world in and through this baptized Jesus, this set-apart Son of God.

The water of Jesus' baptism says to us that eternal life of heaven, the eternal life that God has promised us, is being poured out to cleanse a wayward people in Jesus.

Mark uses a remarkable term to describe the Holy Spirit's heaven.

He says the heavens were torn open.

It's a violent image of being ripped in half, and the Spirit descends upon his people.

You see, we we descend upon Jesus.

That's the first witness.

The water tells us, the water of Jesus' baptism tells us that God gave us eternal life.

This life is in his son.

Whoever has the Son has life.

And this is the second witness, the blood, which I take as John's meaning to be the crucifixion.

We can read about the crucifixion in Mark chapter 15.

Mark 15 · chapter mention

It was witnessed by John himself in John chapter 19.

John 19 · chapter mention

In the crucifixion, Jesus once again stands in the place of God's people, God's wayward people, an alienated people.

God has taken the curse upon himself.

That's what Paul writes in Galatians chapter 3.

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

He takes the punishment and the wrath that God rightly pours out on his wayward people, upon himself.

Again we hear a voice of witness at the crucifixion, but not one booming from heaven, rather a voice spoken by a Roman centurion.

When the centurion who stood facing Jesus saw that in this way he breathed his last, the centurion said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

What's crucial, but so easy for us to glaze over, is at the crucifixion scene, one verse previous to the centurion's witness, the veil of the temple is torn in two.

It's the same word Mark used in chapter one to describe the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending.

What's this saying?

It's saying that the separation of God's most holy place with his unholy people has been rent asunder.

Jesus has reconciled God and his wayward people through his cross.

He has satisfied all righteousness, and the life of heaven, which is represented in the heart of the sanctuary, is opened wide.

The blood of the crucifixion of Jesus says that the eternal life of heaven is being poured out to forgive the sins of an alienated people.

Eternal life is found in this crucified one.

See, water and the blood, these may be strange phrases, but they are probably from John's own opponents in Ephesus.

See, they would say that Christ's Spirit, this divine spirit, fell upon the merely human Jesus at his baptism, but was clearly removed by the crucifixion, because God doesn't die.

John wants us to know Scripture's witness is clear.

The same Jesus who is baptized, fully human and fully God, is the same Jesus who is crucified for us, fully human and fully God.

Because unless this is the same Jesus, there is no reconciliation between God and human beings.

See, we fall into a similar trap as these self-appointed spiritual teachers, when we deny the full incarnation of Jesus, when we say anything short of God is fully human and fully God at all points of his ministry and life, and remains so, he remains human to intercede for us.

These witnesses point us to the fact that eternal life is found in the baptized and crucified one.

But there's a third witness John calls upon, the Holy Spirit, who is God's empowering presence.

It's what we read about in Acts chapter 1, isn't it?

Acts 1 · chapter mention

John highlights the fact that the Holy Spirit is the truth in verse 6.

The Holy Spirit comes to give us the truth, and the Holy Spirit comes to work.

Witness to the truth of eternal life.

This is both an inward testimony to our hearts.

For those of us who are in Christ, the Holy Spirit bears witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God.

So Paul writes in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

The Spirit tells Christians, you belong to Jesus.

Your sins are forgiven.

His promises are for you.

You are his beloved child.

This is the inner testimony of the Spirit in our hearts.

The Spirit also witnessed to us through inspired scripture.

He inspired this word to be written.

He speaks to us still today.

See, Jesus is departing.

He's going back to the Father.

Now he's in the upper room with his disciples, and he tells them this I'm leaving, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Friends, the Bible is more than just a factbook or an interesting collection of stories.

The Bible is the Holy Spirit's inspired word.

It is the word of God and the words of men that we might be illumined and changed by the Holy Spirit, that we might see the glory of God and the hope of eternal life in these very words.

It is God's apostolic testimony.

And the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts the eternal life and witness of heaven.

This Jesus, to whom the Scriptures testify, is for us, not just in theory, but in reality.

Know this Jesus, know the truth, know eternal life, and walk in it.

See, how do we know that we have eternal life?

John wants us to see three witnesses that testify to who Jesus is: the water, the blood, and the spirit, and these three agree.

God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

Whoever has the Son has life.

This is important for us in an age of contradiction and suspicion, isn't it?

An age of alternate facts, if you'll pardon the phrase.

An age of competing narratives on both sides of the political spectrum and in any ideology.

An age of cynicism and suspicion.

And we, unless we want to descend into complete nihilism, we need to find a trustworthy source to believe.

And John wants us to see that there is no more trustworthy source than God's own testimony about his Son.

We have the trustworthy source, God Himself.

And the divine witnesses of water, blood, and spirit prove it.

Eternal life is found in the baptized, crucified, and ascended Lord Jesus.

Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony in himself.

But 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.

We would do well to consider that warning.

Because if eternal life is found in his son, to reject the Son is to reject eternal life.

This is not God's desire for us, but rather God would desire us to turn from our sins and our waywardness and to be cleansed by Christ's forgiveness, to invite the Holy Spirit into our hearts, and to show us the risen and ascended Lord Jesus, our hope of eternal life.

See, these three witnesses still speak to us today: water, blood, and spirit.

Reformers like Luther and John Calvin see a correspondence between the water of Jesus' baptism and the water of our own baptism.

If Jesus has been cleansed in his baptism, we are baptized into his baptism and find forgiveness of sins, and we have a pledge of eternal life in him.

When we come to the Lord's table and we receive bread and we receive wine, we are pointed towards the blood that Jesus shed once for all for the forgiveness of our sins.

And when we open Holy Scripture, and when the Spirit whispers to our hearts that we belong to Jesus, we receive that inward testimony that we belong to him and that we have eternal life in his name.

These witnesses still speak to us today.

So can I know for sure that I have eternal life?

God's own testimony tells us so.

God says that he has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son.

If we receive his son by putting our personal trust in him, by forsaking all others, and depending solely on him, we can have eternal life and we can rest assured.

And this is confirmed by the three witnesses of the water of baptism, the blood of his crucifixion, and the spirit of our Lord Jesus.

So do you have the Son?

Have you put your personal trust in Him for your salvation and eternal life?

See, our faith is not something that is nebulous.

It's only as good as its object, it's only as good as the thing with it which with it apprehends, and that is Jesus Christ Himself.

If you do not have the Son, today can be the day.

God calls you to new life in Jesus.

Repent of your waywardness, be cleansed by Christ's forgiveness, and invite the Holy Spirit into your heart to show you Jesus.

And if you know the Son, if you have the Son, find assurance.

This is John's purpose in writing.

I write to you these things, to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

Be set free from striving after eternal life.

Be set free from works righteousness.

This is a gift to you which we receive by faith.

Come behold your hope in life and death, who is Christ alone, Christ alone.

Amen.