Good to Know, Good to Go: The Witness and the Way of Eternal Life

Faith is only as good as the object in which one places his or her faith. The object of the Christian’s faith is Jesus Christ, who is called “faithful and true” (Rev 19:11). We believe that Jesus is the Son of God, sent from God to save His people from their sins (Mt 1:21; Jn 3:16; 1 Jn 5:5). Why do some people trust in Christ and others do not trust Him?

God has not left us without a witness (Acts 14:17). This is the witness that God has given us concerning His Son (1 Jn 5:10): those who have God’s Son have life (1 Jn 5:12); and this is eternal life, which is given to us (1 Jn 5:11).

God gives this life to whomever He wills to give it. This life is in His Son, Jesus Messiah, who also gives this life to whomever He wishes to give it (Jn 5:21). Because the Father and the Son are one (Jn 10:30), there is no conflict between them. Jesus always did and always does what is pleasing to God the Father (Jn 8:29).

The recipient of Christ, by the will of God (Jn 1:12–13), is the recipient of eternal life. Jesus claimed, “I am…the life” (Jn 14:6). Because Christ is the eternal Son of God, the life of God personified in Him is eternal life. The one transferred into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Col 1:13) has the witness of God in his heart. The witness of God regarding Christ in the world, today, is the witness of the Spirit of truth sent by the Father and the Son to the elect redeemed…now regenerated (Jn 14:17, 26; 15:26; 16:11; 1 Pet 1:3).

The Holy Spirit bears witness of Christ; and those who believe in Jesus Christ are set apart from those who do not believe in Him, by the presence of the indwelling Spirit (Jn 14:17; Rom 8:9, 11). This is the same Spirit of God, the third Person of the Trinity, who inspired the human authors to write the Bible, God’s Holy Word (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:20–21).

It is the Bible that has sound doctrine from which we learn of Messiah’s incarnation (Jn 1:14), His full humanity, and His atoning sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. There, the witnesses of the water and the blood, which together testified that Jesus came into the world in the flesh (Jn 6:51; 1 Jn 4:2; 5:6).

The secessionists at Ephesus had gone out from Christ’s church, in order to deny the humanity of Jesus of Nazareth. John’s polemic against these false teachers included the charge that the opponents to the Gospel were liars (1 Jn 2:4, 22; 4:20). In their propagation of their false gospel, they were also calling God a liar (1 Jn 5:10). The witness of men is nothing compared with the witness of God; for greater is the witness in us (the Holy Spirit) than the witness in and of the world (1 Jn 4:4; 5:9).

The believer in Jesus knows he has this witness of God precisely because he believes in Jesus. When the truth of the Gospel is preached in the Spirit (Rom 15:19; 1 Cor 2:4; 1 Pet 1:2), the believer rejoices in the true witness of God being proclaimed. Simply put, the children of God love the Word of truth and the privilege of growing in the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus (Eph 4:21; 2 Pet 3:18).

Opponents of the Gospel of God do not have the Spirit (Jn 14:17; 1 Cor 2:14). Not having the Spirit, one does not believe the Gospel witness and its call for repentance (Acts 17:30). He does not have the Son of God because God has not sent him the Spirit as a witness. The natural man is without hope and without God in the world (Eph 2:12).

There is no light for the reprobate because Satan has blinded them (2 Cor 4:4); and there is no faith for those who do not belong to Christ (Jn 10:26). They do not belong to Christ because God the Father did not give them to God the Son, so they do not come to Christ. They do not come because they are not seeking God (Rom 3:10–12); and because God the Father is not irresistibly drawing (Gk. elkuse = drag) them to the Son (Jn 6:44, 65).

The unbeliever is not disturbed by this void of grace from God. He does not believe in God’s witness concerning His only begotten Son. The one who has received the grace of God unto salvation, however, has a keen interest in these matters regarding eternal life because they are his life! His great desire is more light, more abundant life, and more truth to increase his faith. God’s Word, taken in, also gives him more hope in the promises of God. The true believer knows he has a hope and a future beyond the grave (Jn 5:28–29; 1 Cor 15).

The Christian must remember that the natural man has not received the love of God that would compel him to love God in the practical ways of doing truth (2 Cor 5:14; 1 Jn 4:19). Void of love; void of truth; void of light; void of life is why the unredeemed has no hope. He lives a life of self-preservation and secretly lives with the fear of what lies beyond.

Knowing God means one knows Christ. We know Christ because God has borne witness of Him, by the revelation of His Word, by His Holy Spirit. Thus, we see that it is God’s will for His chosen, redeemed people to know they have eternal life (1 Jn 5:13). By giving them the Holy Spirit as a gift (Rom 5:5; 1 Cor 2:12; 1 Jn 3:24; 4:13), they have the Spirit of truth as the greater witness.

It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits a man…nothing (Jn 6:63). The spoken Word, preached to all people is spirit and life; therefore, men of God must preach the Word (2 Tim 4:2), in the power and wisdom of the Spirit. Upon receipt of light and life (Jn 1:4; 8:12; 2 Tim 1:10), one may boldly bear witness, with the Apostle Paul, that it is no longer I who lives, having died with Christ, but Christ lives in me. The life of God in the soul of man causes that man to live by faith in the Son of God, who gave Himself for us (Gal 2:20).

In conclusion, we can know we have eternal life. God has made us to know. He poured out His love in our hearts when He gave us the token of His love and pledge of our eternal inheritance, that is, the indwelling Holy Spirit (2 Cor 1:20; 5:5; Eph 1:14). All God’s redeemed, regenerate people say “Amen!” All the rest do not…and now you know why.

David Norczyk

Spokane Valley, Washington

December 5, 2023

1 John 5:6–13