Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson LXXXII) 03/07/23

^5:13 I write this letter to you who believe in the Son of God. I write so that you will know that you have eternal life now.

John points out the importance of knowing that God gave the right to all who believed and accepted Him to become His children.[1] So, it wasn’t only the Anointed One’s words. Many became convinced He was the Anointed One because of the miracles He performed in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration.[2] And so, we should pay attention to the Anointed One’s messages and miracles because people who believe in God’s Son are not judged guilty. But people who do not believe are already judged because they have not believed in God’s only Son.[3]

The Apostles took this message with them when they went to the world to preach the Gospel. When Peter and John raised a lame man to his feet, Peter told the onlookers that this crippled man’s healing was because he trusted Jesus. It was Jesus’ power that made him well. You can see this man, and you know him. He was made completely well because of faith in Jesus. You all saw it happen![4] Therefore, exclaimed the Apostles, when it comes to healing the soul,Jesus is the only one who can save people. His authority is the only supernatural power in the world that can save anyone. Therefore, we must be born again through Him![5] And the Apostle Paul passed on this same doctrine that this is a true statement to accept without question: “The Anointed One, Jesus, came into the world to save sinners.”[6]

Furthermore, this resurrection life we received from God is not a spirit that enslaves us and causes us to fear. On the contrary, the Spirit that we have makes us God’s chosen children. And with that Spirit, we cry with Jesus,[7] “Abba,[8] Patēr.”[9] [10] And the Spirit Himself speaks to our spirits and makes us sure that we are God’s children, we will get God’s blessings for His people. He will give us all that He has shared with the Anointed One.[11] Thus, we must not forget that God called us and chose us to be His. We must do our best to live in a way that shows we are God’s called and chosen people. If we do all this, we will never fall. And we will be given a great welcome into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Anointed One, a kingdom that never ends.[12]

Now we can see that the Apostle John’s word, “These things I have written to you,” sums up the Epistle. At the beginning, John said, “These things we write, that our joy [yours as well as mine] may be fulfilled;” Now, as he draws to a close, he says the same thing in other words. Their joy is knowing that they have eternal life through belief in God’s Son. There is a considerable variety of meanings in this verse, but it is a simple message. The interpretation of the last clause has produced various alterations to provide an easier reading. As regards construction and meaning, the verse should be carefully compared with John 1:12. In both, we have the interpretation at the end.

They also have John’s favorite Greek verb, pisteuō (“believe”), expressing the most assertive confidence in the object of belief. In addition, we have the remarkable expression, “believe in His Name.” This expression is no indirect hint for “believe in Him.” Names in Jewish history were often significant, sometimes given by God that they served to distinguish one person from another and indicate their character. So also with the Divine Name: it suggests the Divine attributes. “To believe on the Name of the Son of God” is to give entire devotion to Him as having the qualities of God’s Divine Son.

In verses thirteen to twenty-one, it is clear that the Apostle John summarizes his overall purpose for writing his epistle. He wants to assure believers of their possession of eternal life.[13]  The principle is that belief is the basis for salvation, not our merit. Eternal life is a quality and quantity of life that we cannot earn, deserve, or buy.  We cannot go to some spiritual supermarket and purchase salvation. If we wanted to buy it, we could never afford it.  We would have to pay the same price Jesus did. The only way we can get eternal life is to have it conferred on us freely.  God gives it free of charge.[14]

Thus, the purpose of 1 John is to motivate us from doubt to certainty. God wants us to “know” that we “have eternal life,” not assume or feel that we have it.  “Know” means to know with God-imparted innate knowledge.  It is a settled knowledge that gives peace to the mind and heart. Eternal life is a lifetime of fellowship with God both on earth and in heaven. Eternal life is the same kind of life that God possesses. Therefore, God is willing to share His eternal life with us.

We should note the present tense of “believe” suggests having a belief. This thinking differs from the non-Christian who does not possess ongoing trust in the Anointed One. Non-believers do not have and hold eternal life. Also, the word “in” involves motion towards and rest upon. We repose on the “name of the Son of God.”  “Name” stands for the person’s reputation. Our security is in a divine person for salvation. We trust in the unique person of the Son of God, Jesus the Anointed One, as God. Therefore, the name “Son of God” refers to the unique divinity of Jesus, the Anointed One, that makes eternal life possible. Confidence comes from trust in God’s Word and promises. 

Assurance of eternal life is not a presumption that doubts God’s promises. God makes it plain that we may know that we have eternal life, not that we might have it someday.  Physical life is not eternal life because we can lose it. But eternal life is unlike physical life because we cannot lose it. Eternal life is forever. Our feelings have nothing to do with whether we are truly born again; it is a matter of accepting God’s Word at face value. It is who says it that counts. It makes a tremendous difference who says what. If we receive a letter from a friend, we accept what they say at face value because it comes from a friend. We have no reason to suspect that they would deceive us.

On the other hand, we may receive a business letter from a company with whom we do business. We may wonder whether their proposal is valid. They may overstate, exaggerate, or downright lie to get our business, the economy being what it is in some cases. However, if we receive a communication from the Prime Minister of Canada, you would accept at face value what he said because of who he is.[15] John closes his Gospel by saying that Jesus did many other things. If they were all written in books, I don’t suppose there would be room enough in the whole world for all the books.”[16]

At this juncture, let’s summarize what we’ve learned so far. First, all who believe that Jesus is the Anointed One (v. 1), the Son of God (v.5), are themselves, children of God, to be loved as is their heavenly Father (v.). In fact, this reciprocal love is the Gather’s unburdensome command (v.3), originating from the Christian faith that has conquered the world (vv. 4-5).

Faith is belief in Jesus the Anointed One, who came in incarnated for His human ministry stretching from baptism to death, and testified to by the Spirit (v. 6). Not only does the Spirit give witness, but so do baptism and communion (v. 8). These church sacraments signify the Anointed One’s presence and the eternal life He brings (vv. 11-12). Spirit, Water, and Blood are part of God’s testimony. To deny them is to reject God’s witness and to affirm that He was lying. (v. 10). And, indeed, the purpose of this whole epistle is to help all to realize that they possess eternal life – if, that is, they believe in God’s Son (v. 13)

COMMENTARY AND HOMILETICS

This verse has comments, interpretations, and insights of the Early Church Fathers, Medieval Thinkers, Reformation Theologians, Revivalist Teachers, Reformed Scholars, and Modern Commentators.

Oecumenius (500-600 AD) notes that the Apostle John says that he has written to those who are inheritors of eternal life, for such things would never be written to people who are not. After all, it is not right to give holy things to dogs or to scatter pearls before swine.[17]

With a studious monk’s spiritual insight, Bede the Venerable (672-735 AD) believes that the Apostle John wrote these things so that those who believe in the Anointed One will be reassured about their future blessedness. They will not be led astray by the deception of those who say that Jesus was not the Son of God and therefore has nothing to offer to those who have believed in Him.[18]

William Tyndale (1494-1536) believes that to share the faith the Apostles had of the Anointed One is to know they have eternal life. For the Spirit testifies to their spirits that they are the sons of God[19] and received under grace. Some Doctors of Theology say we cannot know whether we are in a state of grace; therefore, we don’t have the Apostles’ faith. And that they know it is not the cause why they object to it.[20]

John Calvin (1509-1564) states that there ought to be daily progress in faith, so he says that he wrote to those who had already believed so that they might trust more firmly and with greater certainty, and thus enjoy fuller confidence as to eternal life. So then, the use of doctrine is not only to initiate the ignorant in the knowledge of the Anointed One but also to confirm those more and more who have been already taught. It, therefore, must be diligent in learning that our faith may increase throughout our lives. For there are still many remnants of unbelief, and so weak is our belief that what we believe is not yet accepted unless there be a fuller confirmation.

But we ought to observe how to confirm faith, even after having the office and power of the Anointed One explained to us. For the Apostle John says that he wrote these things, that is, that eternal life is to be sought nowhere else but in the Anointed One, so that they who were believers already might mature, that is, make progress in believing. Therefore, godly teachers must confirm disciples in the faith, to praise as much as possible the grace of the Anointed One so that being satisfied with that, we may seek nothing else. The Apostle further teaches in this passage that the Anointed One is the main object of our faith, and our faith in His name has annexed the hope of salvation. In this case, believing is that we become God’s children and heirs.[21]

James Arminius (1560-1609) notes that according to the actions required of believers, we distinguish that faith,[22] adds hope, and relates to morals. Hope is offered as an object to be believed in and morals as the work to be performed.[23] [24]

John Cotton (1585-1652) feels that among the help and benefits the Apostle’s writings afforded the Church were (1) Teaching,[25] (2) Putting them in remembrance,[26] (3) Stirring them up to practice what they knew. [27] (4) To the humble the spirits that were puffed up.[28] (5) That they might be strengthened in their faith.[29] (6) That their hearts were filled with joy.[30] (7) These writings have the foundation of faith that all Christians have accessed the subject matter of all the preaching of the ministers, for, by them, the people of God are fully furnished and made perfect to every good work.[31] [32]

As a firm spiritual disciplinarian, John Owen (1616-1683) argues that testimonies confirming that wherever faith towards our Lord Jesus the Anointed One is necessary, it is still believing “in Him,” or “on His name,” according to our faith in God is everywhere expressed. Nothing more is intended than that belief in any doctrines revealed by His Apostles oblige us to believe in them or their reputation. For instance, we are urged to consider the doctrine of the Apostle Paul, the revelations made by him, and the danger of our eternal welfare by not believing in them, yet we are to believe in Paul. It is something Paul utterly detested.[33] The reader may consult, among others, John,[34] Paul,[35] and Peter.[36]

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[1] John 1:12

[2] Ibid. 2:23

[3] Ibid. 3:18

[4] Acts of the Apostles 3:16

[5] Ibid. 4:12

[6] 1 Timothy 1:15

[7] Mark 14:36

[8] Abba, Aramaic for “papa”

[9] Patēr, Greek for “father”

[10] Cf. Romans 8:15,Galatians 4:6

[11] Romans 8:15-17

[12] Daniel 7:14

[13] See John 1:12; 6:35; 6:47; 9:24; 11:25-26

[14] Cf. Romans 6:23; Acts of the Apostles 13:38-39; 16:30-31; Romans 4:5; Galatians 3:22

[15] John 20:30-31

[16] Ibid. 21:25; cf. 2 Timothy 1:12; Titus 1:2; 1 John 1:4

[17] Oecumenius, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Gerald Bray, ed., op cit., Vol. XI, p. 225

[18] Bede the Venerable, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Gerald Bray, ed., op cit., Vol. XI, p. 225

[19] Romans 8:16

[20] Tyndale, William: Expositions of Scripture, 1 John 5, op. cit., p. 211

[21] Calvin, John: Commentary on Catholic Epistles, 1 John, op. cit., loc. cit.

[22] 1 John 5:13

[23] Matthew 9:13; 21:22, 23; Mark 1:15; Luke 24:27

[24] Arminius, James: The Works of James Arminius, Vol. 1, op. cit., p. 374

[25] 2 Thessalonians 2:2

[26] 2 Peter 1:22-23

[27] Ibid. 1:1-4

[28] 2 Corinthians 12:7, 8

[29] 1 John 5:13

[30] Ibid. 1:4

[31] 2 Timothy 4:16-17

[32] Cotton, John: Exposition of First John, op. cit., p. 612

[33] 1 Corinthians 1:13, 15

[34] John 1:12; 3:16, 18, 36; 6:29, 35, 41; 7:38, 39; 1 John 5:10, 13

[35] Acts of the Apostles 14:23; 16:31; 19:4; 24:24; 26”18; Romans 3:26; 9:33; 10:11

[36] 1 Peter 2:6

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson LXXXI) 03/06/23

^5:12 Whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Conversely, those who reject Jesus as God’s Son have already excluded themselves from being the recipients of the life that would testify to His being who He said He is. The division between those who do and those who do not share God’s eternal life is that this divine life does not lie in the future but is established in the present. When seen from the outside, this relentless self-fulfilling logic might offer little opportunity to those approaching from an agnostic or unbelieving perspective and little incentive to believe witnesses. It is the position from which John argues, but for the most part, because he intends to reinforce the allegiance of those to whom he writes and to make clear the stark consequences of withdrawing.[1]

As an international speaker on Puritan theology, Joel Beeke (1952) comments on God’s testimony about His Son, Jesus the Anointed One. The Apostle John has declared Jesus as God’s Son since chapter three.[2] Would not his testimony and those of other apostles be enough? After all, every courtroom has seating for witnesses to testify to what they saw, heard, and felt. While human testimonies are essential, in Jesus’ case, John wanted something higher and more trustworthy. So in verse eight, he tells of choosing three earthly providers of evidence with impeccable credentials ‒ the Spirit, Water, and Blood. However, some early church scribe felt John’s choices needed some help. So, in verse seven, he added three heavenly observers ‒ the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit.

It is also noteworthy that John did not call God to the witness stand, for He already gave His testimony.[3] The English word witness translates the Greek verb martyreō, used nine times in this epistle.[4] It means someone who remembers or has knowledge of something through personal experience. The Greek verb martyreō and the noun martyria also describe those who give testimony in legal matters.[5] In this context, the legal issue is one of justification and validating something as being legitimate.

Vincent Cheung (1952) argues that the study of theology is an essential human activity. However, because of their laziness and ungodliness, many prefer to consult sources forbidden by God. An involvement with occult practices is an adequate reason for ex-communication; negligence in church discipline only allows these abominations to foster and spread. The sufficiency of the Anointed One implies His exclusivity. This means that Jesus the Anointed One is the only way to redemption, and Christianity is the only true religion to bring salvation.[6]

Emphasizing the Apostle John’s call to Christian fellowship, Gary M. Burge (1952) notes that the testimony of the Father has to do with life, eternal life. Since life comes to us through the death of the Son, to deny “the blood,” to deny an incarnation that embraces the cross, to deny the salvific, substitutionary work of Jesus on Calvary, puts our own salvation in jeopardy. Thus, disbelieving the right testimonies has severe consequences. Claiming a divine enlightenment that neglects the Son is eternally perilous. [7]

A scholar who truly inspires Christian missionaries, Daniel L. Akin (1957) identifies eternal Life as a God-quality, God-like life with a particular character or essence as well as a never-ending duration. Having Jesus, the Son of God, equals having eternal life. This is God’s testimony. This is God’s gift. This life is in His Son and not found in anyone else.[8] In fact, to have the Son is to have eternal life. To not have the Son of God means you do not have spiritual life. Having the Son of God equals life. Not having the Son of God equals spiritual death. To not have the Son means you are a walking, talking mummy. You are a lifeless, spiritual corpse in a physical body.[9]

With a classical thinking approach to understanding the scriptures, Bruce G. Schuchard (1958) notes that this final saying details again a balance of oppositions that characterizes oral transmission, helping with the dual principle at the beginning of this chapter. There are two references to “the one who” and two to “everyone who,” which is the framework for the passage’s message. First, the one who has the Son has life. Again. John expresses his thinking first positively, then negatively.[10] The finality with which John articulates himself is doubly emphatic as he defines the risks and consequences of abiding in or departing from the fellowship of the Anointed One and His church. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. The third and final reference to Jesus as “the Son of God”[11] affirms the passage’s predominant interest and indicates John’s continuing intention “to reinforce the allegiance of those to whom he writes and to make clear the stark consequences of withdrawing.”[12]

Great expositional teacher David Guzik (1961) identifies the Apostle John’s statement that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son as God’s message to mankind ‒ eternal life is a gift from God, received in Jesus the Anointed One. Therefore, those who have God’s Son have “the Life;” those who don’t have God’s Son do not have “the Life,” which is spiritual and eternal. It is all being in union with Jesus, who is eternal life.[13]

An expert in highlighting the crucial part of a biblical message, Marianne Meye Thompson (1964) summarizes that this passage presents the content of the confession about Jesus the Anointed One that believers have and hold. But it also explicitly and implicitly suggests how we know the truth. In the final analysis, the truth is known by individuals because God’s Spirit guides them into understanding and accepting it.[14] But appeals to inspiration are always dangerous because they are so subjective. If sometimes the Spirit speaks what seems to be a fresh or new word, then the truth of the testimony ought to be measured against the witness guarded by dependable and faithful individuals and assemblies and against the witness of Scripture itself. The Spirit who guided original witnesses of events and inspired their interpretation does not speak a contrary word to the Church today.[15]

As a lover of God’s Word, Peter Pett (1966) makes it plain that this spiritual life is not available to false teachers who deny Jesus’ divine Sonship. They reject God’s full testimony concerning His Son. They make Him a liar. For them, there is no means of conciliation. For them, there is no life, for they are liars who preach lies. They believe the Apostle Paul’s warning about “the lie.”[16] God’s testimony to His Son lies in the fact that He demonstrated His lifegiving power by raising Him from the dead as the Son by the Holy Spirit and enabling Him thereby to give life to those who believed in Him. And those who do believe in Him receive life. This life-giving power is in God’s Son so that those who are in union with the Son have life and those who are not in communion with Him have no life.[17]

In his unorthodox Unitarian way, Duncan Heaster (1967) feels that the Apostle John takes great pain to stress that the gift of life is the life of God’s Son. Hence the Greek reads literally “the life” – the life of Jesus. There can be no legitimate spiritual life or spirituality outside of Him. And John writes this against the background of the Judaist infiltrators arguing that there was spiritual life to be had from legalistic obedience, even if they deny the Lord’s Divine Sonship. The Lord Jesus and His life are intimately connected; “The Son has life in Himself.”[18] To have Him is to have His life. And to “have” the Son is to “have” the Father.[19] [20]

Bright seminarian Karen H. Jobes (1958) says the Apostle John’s statement in verse twelve summarizes what he has been discussing since chapter four, verse one. He points out that not all “truth” is God’s truth, but only that which is of the Spirit in accord with the significance of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. The expression in verse twelve, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.” is similar to John’s earlier statement, “Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”[21] This phrase is another way of saying that Jesus the Anointed One is the only way to God,[22] a thought that was just as upsetting to ancient society as it is to many people today.[23]

As a skilled sermonizer, David Legge (1969) reminds us that in the Apostle John’s epistles, we discovered that the Gospel’s goal was not to present a generalized understanding of Jesus the Anointed One’s incarnation. It was also to have a personal embodiment of the Anointed One’s spiritual and eternal life in every believer.

Therefore, rather than our knowledge of the Scriptures and our study of it enhancing everything in our lives as a witness of Jesus, the Anointed One, it is worth more than a thousand powerful rhetorical practical, godly arguments! A good example is a language, and a view everybody understands, from the youngest innocent child to the oldest and wisest adult. Someone put it like this: “Well done” is always better than “Well-intentioned.” We say a lot of things, don’t we? But precept may lead a person, instruct a person, command a person, order a person ‒ but only example draws a person.[24]

Douglas Sean O’Donnell (1972) believes that the Apostle John feels Jesus is a theological exclusivist ‒ by thinking Jesus is the only way to God.[25] Here and elsewhere,[26] John joins Jesus in his superiority. Based on the Trinity’s testimony, he believes that Jesus is the only way of salvation. Thus, he states quite emphatically that if you do not accept God’s testimony about Jesus, then not only do you make him out to be “a liar.”[27] but you also do “not have life ‒ both now and forevermore. Right thinking about Jesus is a matter of life and death. Our faith in faith, or our faith in our homemade personal Jesus, will not save us from our sin and the wrath to come. Only faith in the water and the blood will. We can “grumble that God didn’t provide an assortment of salvation options.” We can construct “a god figure toward whom all religions are striving by their various means ‒ and who regard all religious beliefs as equally valid,” or we can humble ourselves before the true and living God and, in gratitude, accept the one sure way of salvation. We can get a life! We can believe and receive God’s gift. We can know that we are saved.[28]

^5:13 I write this letter to you who believe in the Son of God. I write so that you will know that you have eternal life now.

EXPOSITION

Here the Apostle John repeats what he said in his Gospel, “These are in writing so that you may continue to believe.”[29] Even the Apostle Peter added, “My purpose in writing is to encourage you and assure you that what you are experiencing is truly part of God’s grace for you. So stand firm in this grace.”[30] So when we read, “All Scripture is given by God. And all Scripture is useful for teaching and showing people what is wrong in their lives. It is useful for correcting faults and teaching the right way to live. So, using the Scriptures, those who serve God will be prepared and have everything they need to do every good work,”[31] it should encourage us to read what they wrote, especially if they added their names to it.

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[1] Lieu, Judith: A New Testament Library, I, II, & III John, op. cit., pp. 219-220

[2] 1 John 3:8; cf. 4:15; 5:5, 10, 12, 13, 20

[3] Ibid. 5:9

[4] Ibid. 5:6, 7, 8, 9^x3, 10^x2 (martyria), 11 (martyria)

[5] Beeke Joel, The Epistles of John, Ch. 20, op. cit., pp. 191-201

[6] Cheung, Vincent. Systematic Theology, 1 John 5:12, Kindle Edition

[7] Burge, Gary M., The Letters of John (The NIV Application Commentary), op. cit., p 205

[8] John 14:6

[9] Akin, Dr. Daniel L., Exalting Jesus in 1,2,3 John (the Anointed One-Centered Exposition Commentary), op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[10] 1 John 5:12b

[11] Ibid. 5:5, 10a

[12] Schuchard, Bruce G., Concordia Commentary, 1-3 John, op. cit., pp. 543

[13] Guzik, David: Enduring Word, 1,2, & 3 John & Jude, op. cit., pp. 96

[14] Cf. John 14:26; 16:13

[15] Thompson, Marianne Meye, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, 1-3 John, op. cit., p. 138

[16] 2 Thessalonians 2:11

[17] Pett, Peter: Commentary on the Bible, 1 John, op. cit., loc. cit.

[18] John 5:26

[19] 2 John 1:9

[20] Heaster, Duncan. New European Christadelphian Commentary: op. cit., The Letters of John, p. 77

[21] 1 John 2:23

[22] Cf. John 14:6

[23] Jobes, Karen H., 1, 2, and 3 John (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on The New Testament Series Book 18), op. cit., p. 225

[24] Legge, David: Preach the Word, 1 John, Sermon 23

[25] John 5:39-40; 6:40; 14:6

[26] Ibid. 3:36

[27] 1 John 5:10

[28] O’Donnell, Douglas Sean. 1–3 John (Reformed Expository Commentaries), op. cit., op. cit., Kindle Edition

[29] John 20:31; cf. 21:24

[30] 1 Peter 5:12

[31] 2 Timothy 3:16-17

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson LXXX 03/03/23

^5:12 Whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

As a persuasive preacher and teacher, Wendall C. Hawley (1930) points out that humans do not have eternal life in themselves; they receive it from God’s Son. The Anointed One did not receive eternal life from any external source. He is “the life,” a uniquely divine characteristic unshared by any other creature. Those who have the Son of God living in them have eternal life, not life someday, not life later, not conditional life, but now.[1]

Brilliant New Testament Bible professor Simon J. Kistemaker (1930-2017) observes that we meet numerous people who advise us on what we should know, do, or need. Much of this informative advice we take for granted and even ignore. Intellectually we may accept advice, but it does not become part of us until fully convinced of its validity. We generally heed guidance concerning our physical well-being because it concerns the quality of our life. For example, someone informs us that the weather outside is cold and windy. However, we will not know how chilly it is until we have stepped outdoors to feel the temperature and experience the chill factor. We know then if our clothing is adequate to keep us physically comfortable.

When John says that we believe God’s testimony about His Son, we know this in our hearts. That testimony becomes part of us because of our relationship with Jesus. We experience His nearness, help, and love because we fellowship with Him and the Father. Accordingly, we can testify that God’s testimony is in our hearts.[2]

A firm believer in God’s grace, Zane Clark Hodges (1932-2008), says that before specifying the content of God’s testimony,[3] John paused parenthetically to remark that accepting this testimony internalizes it for the one who believes. Each believer has God’s truth in their heart. By contrast, anyone who disbelieves God makes Him out to be a liar.[4] For John, there was no middle ground, no suspension of opinion. One either believes or doubts God’s truthfulness.

Having said this, John returned to the content of the testimony, which is that God has given us eternal life[5] , and this life is in His Son. In light of John’s statement, God’s testimony seems directed against a claim by some antichrists that John’s readers did not have eternal life through God’s Son. But God has directly affirmed that eternal life is what He has given in His Son. To deny this is to call Him a liar.[6]

Inspired by Jesus’ words, “go into all the world,” Edward J. Malatesta (1932-1998) contemplates the fullness of life in Jesus, the eternal Son of God the Father, to better understand the Father’s witness provided for us in Jesus about the life that He has given to us in and through His Son. The criterion of our accepting the Father’s witness is our belief in God’s Son. If we receive Jesus, we welcome the Father; we say “Yes” to the Father’s work in Jesus, the Father’s revelation of Himself, and the Father’s gift of eternal life to us in Jesus.^[7]

As a seasoned essayist on the Apostle John’s writings, John Painter (1935) emphasizes that saying God revealed eternal life in His Son is to say that He reveals the nature of the divine life. It also includes the means of transmission from God to believers. That supports John’s claim the one who has the Father possesses His Son. Therefore, having God’s Son means believing in Him as the revealer and giver of “the life” made known to us by His Father.[8]

A dominating theme of 1 John is the characterization of our God-given life in terms of love. This truth was the great theme[9] that spills over into much of John’s first epistle. Because the eternal life that was with the Father is in His Son, to have the Son is to have life. The description of “the one who has the Son” is an alternative to “the one who believes.” It also serves as the Christological confession in verses one, five, and six, which is an alternative to other statements by John.[10] These are the things that separate the Johannine believers from their Gnostic opponents.

The lines of division between them are deeply etched. The line that separates the two groups is the confession of the true faith, the proper Christological confession. On these hang eternal life because the very nature of eternal life in the self-giving love of God is inseparably bound to that confession. Break the tie between God’s life and the human self-giving of Jesus, and eternal life has vanished.[11]

Expositor and systematic theologist Michael Eaton (1942-2017) John wants to put this as sharply as possible. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. It is a simple either/or matter. The experience of eternal life is a question of having God’s Son or not. At this point, the entire human race divides into two groups. Eternal life is in Jesus alone. If you do not have Jesus, you do not have any spiritual liveliness toward God. Without Jesus, there is no hope of heaven or glory beyond the grave. But we do not have to wait until after the burial to get it! Anyone who has Jesus has this eternal life already. It is a foretaste of heaven. The energy of heaven, the praise of heaven, and the joy of God’s presence characterize heaven. We have it now if we have Jesus. Therefore, the way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until high noon.[12] [13]

After scrutinizing the Apostle John’s subject theme, William Loader (1944) shares an alternative translation that reads: “And this is the witness that God has given us eternal life” and “I write so that you will know that you have eternal life now.” But this is not the only evidence of whether we have eternal life, but also that there is a witness in us. The witness in us is the quality of eternal life, which is the life found alone in the Anointed One.

What John says here conforms with the emphasis of Jesus being “the life” throughout the epistle. When we have the life which the Anointed One brings, that is the evidence we can rest upon that we have genuinely understood Him and grasped what He offers to those who possess “the life” in God’s Son. Thus, John ends this section[14] and the primary body of the epistle with a solid affirmative and an equally strong negative: he who does not possess the Son does not have eternal life. We should not miss, however, the overwhelmingly positive nature of John’s attitude toward the Gospel. It is not primarily about escape from evil or even forgiveness of sins. It is about life.[15]

Great Commission practitioner David Jackman (1945) sees Christians on one side recognizing the Anointed One’s authority and submission to His will. On the other side, the Lord Jesus lovingly accepts the sinner, calling them His and binding Himself to His people through unbreakable covenant promises. It is the quality of commitment a bride and groom affirm to one another as they give and receive rings in their marriage service, saying, “All that 1 am I give to you, and all that I have I share with you.” The Lord will never break covenant vows. He draws us to trust Him before we ever confess faith in Him. As He brings us into this living union through faith, we receive the life of the Eternal One here and now. If the Son has this life, then whoever has God’s Son has life. And those who have Him know Him to be God’s Son. Our relationship with Him depends on the future destiny of every one of us.[16]

After studying the context surrounding this verse, John W. (Jack) Carter (1947) observes the Apostle John standing against worldly heretics and critics, making the case from his experience, from the shared experience of the Apostles and disciples, and their collective experience in a relationship with God.  His position agrees with the words of Jesus the Anointed One, with the testimonies of the saints, and with the entire content and context of the Word of God:  salvation is found only through Jesus the Anointed One, God’s Son. The life to which John refers is a proclamation of eternal life in heaven with the LORD that begins now. They are overcomers because the One they trust has already overcome the world, bringing the richness of His blessings in this world and the kingdom to come.[17]

A man who loves sharing God’s Word, Robert W. Yarbrough (1948) notes that verse twelve aptly concludes this section by explaining why John has been focused so intently on the Anointed One since verse six. In a word, to “have the Son” ‒ or in the words of verse ten, “to believe in Him” ‒ is to have the benefit of the eternal life mentioned in verse eleven. On the other hand, not having Him, or not giving Him a hearing and thereby coming to faith in Him,[18] is to forfeit that same life. And then, John sets before his readers the factors of eternal blessedness on the one hand and eternal damnation and punishment[19] on the other. Life or death: the reader can choose.[20]

After a microscopic examination of the text, Philip W. Comfort (1950) concludes that those who do not believe that Jesus is God’s Son should realize that by rejecting what God has so plainly told us, they are calling God a liar.[21] This has two aspects: refusing to believe what God has said about His Son and, consequently, refusing to accept the Anointed One who, because He is God’s Son, is the only one who can save people. What better reason can we have for believing something than that God says it is true! Those who believe receive the greatest gift from God: eternal life. This is not something we have to wait to get. We have eternal life now; we possess a new nature and enjoy fellowship with God. Therefore, a believer need not be uncertain about whether he or she has eternal life. Those who have eternal life now (as a present reality and experience) are assured of everlasting life in the future. [22]

Skilled in Dead Sea Scroll interpretation and New Testament writings, Colin G. Kruse (1950) allows that because God’s gift of eternal life is given “in His Son,” it follows that those who have the Son have everlasting life. What it means to “have the Son” is closely related to believing in the Son, as verse thirteen indicates. Faith in God’s Son is closely connected with accepting God’s proclamation. But the question remains: Is the expression “having the Son” a synonym for “believing in the Son?” Or does “having” the Son involve something more than this? We get some help from the “abiding” language of John’s Gospel.[23] Because it relates to believers abiding in the Anointed One, it denotes continuing loyalty and obedience to the Anointed One, but it is not exhausted by this. There is a spiritual dimension to it as well. So, when it comes to the Anointed One abiding in believers, it has supernatural significance.[24]

Believing that Christians can fall away from the faith, Ben Witherington III (1951) observes the Apostle John’s dualistic contrast, which, as we have noted, is typical of this author: those who have the Son have life, those who do not, do not-or as C. H. Dodd, known best for promoting “realized eschatology,”^[25] starkly puts it, those who do not have the Son are spiritually dead. This fact is a little different from what we find in John’s Gospel,[26] which clarifies that Jesus alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father of all life except through the Spirit. We should not miss, however, the overwhelmingly positive nature of John’s attitude toward the Gospel. It is not primarily about escape from evil or even forgiveness of sins. It is about life. This is the life of which Jesus spoke of.[27]

Speaking before his martyrdom in Rome, Ignatius of Antioch later would say that Jesus is “without prejudice our life”[28] and “the true life of ours.”[29] So then, in verse twenty, the Apostle John goes on to say in fact that Jesus is eternal life. With our author, as is characteristic of ceremonial rhetoric, we are constantly dealing with opposites: the opposite of truth is the lie; the opposite of light is darkness; the opposite of love is not indifference, difference, but rather hate; the opposite of life is, indeed, death.[30] With her crafted spiritual insight, Judith Lieu (1951) explains that there is a circle: life (in its true God-given sense as eternal life) made available through God’s Son and what He achieved. Therefore, experienced only by those who acknowledge God’s Son in the specific story told about Him ‒ the story of Jesus. God’s Son can be noted with confidence because He has given Him the ultimate testimony. Yet, testimony embodied in the reception and experience of eternal life is a last resort.

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[1] Hawley, Wendall C., Tyndale Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, 1-3 John, op. cit., p. 369

[2] Kistemaker, Simon J., New Testament Commentary, James and I-III John op. cit., pp. 358-359

[3] See 1 John 5:11-12

[4] Cf. Ibid. 1:19

[5] Cf. 5:13, 20

[6] Hodges, Zane C. John F. Walvoord, and Roy B. Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 901-902

[7] Malatesta, Edward J., Interiority and the Faith, which is in the Root of Love, 1 John 5, op. cit., p. 315

[8] 1 John 1:2

[9] Ibid. 4:7-12

[10] Ibid. 2:22-23; 4:2-3,15

[11] Painter, John. Sacra Pagina: 1, 2, and 3 John: Volume 18, op. cit., Kindle Edition

[12] Cf. Proverbs 4:18 – New Living Translation

[13] Eaton, Michael: Focus on the Bible, 1,2,3 John, op. cit., pp. 188-189

[14] 1 John 4:1-5:12

[15] Loader, William: The First Epistle of John, The Witness of the Spirit, op. cit., pp. 70-71

[16] Jackman, David: The Message of John’s Letters, op. cit., p. 156

[17] Carter, Dr. John W. (Jack). 1,2,3, John & Jude: (The Disciple’s Bible Commentary Book 48), op. cit. pp. 126-127

[18] Cf. 1 John 5:10

[19] Cf. John 3:36

[20] Yarbrough, Robert W., 1-3 John (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), op. cit., p. 291

[21] 1 John 5:10

[22] Comfort, Philip W., Tyndale Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, 1-3 John, op. cit., p. 371

[23] John 6:56; 14:23; 15:4-7

[24] Kruse, Colin G., The Letters of John (The Pillar New Testament Commentary (PNTC), op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition.

[25] “Realized Eschatology” holds that the eschatological passages in the New Testament do not refer to the future but to the ministry of Jesus and His lasting legacy.

[26] John 14:6

[27] Ibid. 20:10

[28] Ignatius, Letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 3:13

[29] Ignatius, Letter to the Smyrnaeans, Verse 4

[30] Witherington III, Ben: Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on Titus, 1-2 Timothy and 1-3 John, Letters, and Homilies for Hellenized Christians Series, Kindle Locations 7412-7419

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson LXXIX) 03/02/23

^5:12 Whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

We may also say that eternal life, the divine existence, is the “energy core” of our Christian faith. This eternal life is God’s Son, who embodies the Triune God moving and working within us as an anointing. This anointing is from the energy of eternal life. Eternal life is not a thing; it is a Person. Now, this person abides in us to anoint us with Himself, with eternal life and the essence of this life. Therefore, when eternal life unites us, it joins us with the Triune God. This gives us the basis and the means to live a life that practices the divine righteousness, divine love, and overcomes the world, death, sin, the Devil, and idols.

Chinese philosopher Confucius taught that the highest learning was cultivating and developing the “illustrious virtue.”[1] However, through continuous anointing, we will progressively develop the nature and attitude of the Triune God through His abiding Spirit, making us think and act the same as He. Then we will live a life full of righteousness and love that spontaneously overcomes worldliness, death, sin, the devil, and idols. We do not need to try to live such a life alone. As long as we dwell in the gift of eternal life, we will spontaneously practice righteousness and love and simultaneously overcome all negative things.[2]

With his finely tuned spiritual mind, Ronald Ralph Williams (1906-1970) explains that although there are nine verses yet to examine, verse twelve is the end of the letter. True life is found only in God’s Son through faith and fellowship with Jesus the Anointed One. As God’s only begotten Son, He opens the way to fellowship with the Father. Thus, verses six to eight, with their vague reference to “water” and “blood,” may seem to move in a sphere more extensive than ours. But in the end, the message is expressed in simple, timeless language. It is as valid today as it ever was that “the life,” true life, eternal life, is to be found from one source alone, from Jesus according to God’s Word. That Word must be preached and heard even where the name of Jesus is unknown or rejected. They should be able to listen to the Gospel fully, clearly, and decisively of Jesus the Anointed One, of the historical Jesus, His words, and deeds, and in the living the Anointed One, active in and through His Church throughout the world.[3]

As a liberal evangelical specialist, William Barclay (1907-1978) agrees with the Apostle John’s assessment that such a life comes through Jesus the Anointed One and from no other source. Why should that be? If “the life” is God’s life, it means that we can possess that life only when we know God and are enabled to approach Him and operate in Him. We can do these two things only by having Jesus the Anointed One in us. The Son alone thoroughly knows the Father; therefore, only He can fully reveal to us what God is like.

John said in his Gospel, “No one has ever seen God. The only Son is the one who has shown us what God is like. He is divine Himself and is very close to the Father.”[4] And Jesus Christ alone can bring us to God; It is in Him that the new and living way into the presence of God becomes open to us.[5] Again, we may take a simple analogy. If we wish to meet someone we do not know and who moves in a completely different circle than we do, we can achieve that meeting only by finding someone who knows that person and is willing to introduce us. That is what Jesus does for us regarding God. Eternal life is God’s life, and we can find that life only through Jesus the Anointed One. [6]

A very down-to-earth Bible commentator and writer, William Neal (1909-1979), a retired Baptist minister who served as a campus minister and journalist takes what the Apostle John says here as God’s Word to us. Our experience confirms it, though we may choose to reject it. In short, it comes to this: God has given us the possibility of life in the fullest sense through His Son, Jesus the Anointed One. Without Him, we are nothing and have nothing.[7] [8]

As a significant scriptural expositor, Rudolf Schnackenburg (1914-2002) mentions that in Jesus, the age that is to come and its kingdom, arrives. Therefore, in Jesus “the life” of the age to come is “received and enjoyed now” by all who trust in Him. So, in verse twelve, the first of three consecutive, concluding citations to “life” marks further with those that follow as a fitting end to this final passage of the Epistle’s main body of work.

So, now the Apostle John we have the final doctrine details as a balance of oppositions that characterizes verbal teaching, helping with the dual precept at the beginning of subunit three.[9] Its two references to “the one who” help also with the two references to “everyone who” with which the passage begins,[10] framing the passage.

Thus follows John expressing thinking. First positively in verse twelve (a), then negatively verse twelve (b). Then with the finality with which John speaks makes his message doubly emphatic, as again he defines the stakes, the consequences, of abiding in or departing from the fellowship of the Anointed One and His Church. [11]

A conscientious objector and prisoner of war acquainted with grief, Bible scholar Daniel C. Snaddon (1915-2009) decrees that the evidence of this verse is inevitable. “The person that has God’s Son has life.” “Those who do not have God’s Son, are spiritually lifeless.” The teaching is unmistakable. Eternal life is not found in education, philosophy, science, religion, or church. To have eternal life one must have the Son of God. Eternal life is inseparable from Jesus the Anointed One who is “the Life.”[12]

As a dedicated researcher on the Apostle Paul’s journeys and Bible expositor, Donald W. Burdick (1917-1996) sees the Apostle John’s point in verses ten to twelve that the internal possession of eternal life is a witness of God concerning His Son. It is, in fact, God’s testimony that Jesus is His Son. The apostle’s reasoning seems to be that the person with eternal life can know that they have it. They know this because God’s Spirit “bears witness with their spirit, that they are God’s children.”[13] Put another way, believers know they have eternal life because they are experiencing fellowship with God. Furthermore, Christians also know that they entered this life experience by trusting in Jesus the Anointed One. Thus, the fact that the Anointed One brought eternal life is a testimony that Jesus is, in reality, God’s Son.[14]

As a spiritual mentor, Ronald A. Ward (1920-1986) notices that the Apostle John offers a straightforward formula: “To have the God’s Son is to have eternal life, not to have God’s Son is not to have eternal life.”

Some sixty years ago while Blaise Pascal’s work, I was struck by one paragraph that read:

“What, then, do this avidity and impotence make known to us, if not that there was once in man a true happiness, of which there now remains to him only the mark and the empty mold, which he tries in vain to fill from all that which surrounds him, seeking in absent things the succor which he does not find in present things, which are all incapable of it, because the infinite gulf can be filled only by a being infinite and immutable, that is to say, by God Himself?”[15]

This is very close to what John is saying here about a God-shaped vacuum in our souls that only God’s Son can fill with eternal life. Unfortunately, the world has used this exclusive creed to accuse Christianity of intolerance. Believers affirm this teaching not on the principle of being exclusive but for God’s glory. This statement of faith is a sacred test for all professing Christians and a warning against all claims that “we are the only true church.” Eternal life is more than a person’s future well-being; it is the eternal security of a person’s soul. Not only that but note that it is a present possession.[16] [17]

As a previous doubter but now a defender of personal salvation, John R. W. Stott (1921-2011) notes that the Apostle John passes on from the unbeliever and summarizes the blessing granted to the believer. First, they receive and respond to God’s testimony, which is the same expression as that in the middle of verse nine, which the NIV translates as “it is the testimony [of God].” There it looks back to the water, the blood, and the Spirit. However, here it seems to include also the ‘further’ testimony which, according to verse ten, believers receive ‘in their hearts.’ This truth becomes plainer when we consider how John describes the testimony, namely that it is God-given (RSV, rightly, ‘gave’) us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. To what event does this gift of life refer? Some commentators refer it to the historical career of Jesus,[18] and others to our conversion, at which we appropriated, or received, “the life” of the Anointed One.[19]

Perhaps both are true and part of God’s historical and experimental testimony concerning His Son. Historically, God’s testimony concerning Jesus is not only that He is the divine-human Anointed One but also the life-giver, the world’s Savior.[20] Not only is He God’s Son, but that in Him is “the life.” As such, eternal life is emphatic in the sentence, such as the testimony that it is eternal life which God gave us by giving His Son. But the object of the testimony is not only the Anointed One as the life-giver but subjective in the gift of life itself. Eternal life is a gift that God gives to those who believe in His Son, and the reward of “the life,” the experience of fellowship with God through the Anointed One, which is eternal life,[21] God’s final testimony to His Son.

John previously wrote: “Anyone who believes in God’s Son has this testimony in their heart.”[22] He now puts the same truth in these words: “He who has the Son.”[23] The alternative is clear and uncompromising because of its simple logic. Eternal life is in God’s Son and found nowhere else. It is as impossible to have life without the Anointed One as it is to have the Anointed One without having any spiritual life. It is because the Son is “the life.”[24] [25]

As a warrior against boring Bible preaching, John Phillips (1937-2010) notices the second thing that happens when receiving the biblical record is an internal revolution. The unregenerate person has a body, soul, and human spirit. But all is empty and without God. Consequently, the unregenerate person is spiritually dead, no matter how brilliant, loving, or decisive that person may be. Therefore, they “have no spiritual life.”

By contrast, the human spirit of a regenerated person has the indwelling of God, His Son, and His Holy Spirit of God and the Son of God. Therefore, that person “has life.” A person, then, is either indwelled by Christ‒or not. There is no middle ground, for God does not mince matters. [26]

Historical-critical method researcher, Catholic priest, and prominent Bible scholar Raymond Edward Brown (1928-1995) finds a comparison of the positive line in verses ten and twelve. It shows that believing in the Son is equivalent to being possessed by God’s Son. Similarly, having God’s testimony within oneself is the same as having spiritual and eternal life. A good parallel to the positive line in verse ten, “All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true,” is in John’s Gospel.[27]  As for the negative lines in verse ten, “Those who don’t believe this are calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has testified about His Son,” they leave no room for ignorance or misconception.

It is sad to realize that the opposing line in verse twelve, “Whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life,” brings the main body of John’s epistle to an end. Although John described the rejection of God’s emissary as “one’s own,”[28] the goal was optimistic. You may believe that Jesus is the Anointed One, God’s Son and that you may possess life in His name.”[29]  But a decade has passed, and the Johannine Community that received the Gospel has not lived up to the evangelist’s hope. It has divided, and the majority has gone out into the world, so John ends his message with a dire warning, paradoxically echoing the Gospel of promise. The last line before the conclusion is a condemnation of former members who no longer possess God’s Son in their hearts and do not have faith or eternal life through His name.[30]

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[1] Confucius: The Great Learning, written around 500 BC

[2] Lee, Witness: Life-Study of 1, 2, 3, John, Jude, op. cit., Ch. 36

[3] Williams, R. R., The Letters of John and James, op. cit., p.58

[4] John 1:18

[5] Hebrews 10:19-23

[6] Barclay, William, The New Study Bible, The Letters of John and Jude, op. cit., pp128-129

[7] Read 1 John 5:6-12

[8] Neil, William: Harper’s Bible Commentary, op. cit., p. 530

[9] See 1 John 5:10a, 10b

[10] See 5:1a, 1b

[11] Schnackenburg, Rudolf: The Johannine Epistles, op. cit., p. 543

[12] Snaddon, Daniel C., Plymouth Brethren Writings, 1 John, loc. cit.

[13] Romans 8:16

[14] Burdick, Donald W., Everyman’s Bible Commentary, the Epistles of John, op. cit., p. 90

[15] Pascal, Blaise: Les Pensées, The Peter Pauper Press, Mount Vernon, N.Y., 1901, p. 115

[16] Cf. John 10:28

[17] Ward, Ronald A., The Epistles on John and Jude, op. cit., p. 57

[18] Cf. 1 John 1:2; see John 10:10, 28; 17:2

[19] Cf. 1 John 3:14

[20] Ibid. 1 John 4:14

[21] Cf. John 17:3

[22] See 1 John 5:10

[23] Ibid. 1 John 2:23

[24] 1 John 1:2; John 11:25; 14:6

[25] Stott, John. The Letters of John (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries), op. cit., p. 183

[26] Phillips, John: Exploring the Epistles of John, op. cit., pp. 173-174

[27] John 3:16

[28] Ibid. 1:11

[29] Ibid. 20:31

[30] Brown, Raymond E., The Anchor Bible, The Epistles of John, op. cit., pp. 601-602

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson LXXVIII) 03/01/23

^5:12 Whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

A man who appreciates Jesus’ embodiment of the divine transforming emotion on how we live in this world, Robert Law (1860-1919) addresses the issue of Christian Belief. Verse eleven tells us that the core of God’s witness to Jesus the Anointed One being His Son is fundamentally this: He is the source of Eternal Life to mankind. In verse twelve, this Life is the present possession of all who spiritually possess Him; to be without Him is to be destitute of it. The end of the paragraph thus answers sublimely to its beginning. That which has eternal life in it must conquer and prevail over worldly living confined to transitory aims and objects.[1]

Thinking like a dispensationalist, Arno Clemens Gaebelein (1861-1941) declares the Apostle John’s words need no further detailed annotations. They are so plain and simple that only one willfully blind can misunderstand them. God’s witness concerns His Son. Believers in God’s Son have the witness in themselves, that is, by the indwelling Spirit by the salvation they possess, a new nature, and eternal life. Anyone who does not believe God’s witness concerning His Son has declared Him a liar. Think of it, the creature of the dust makes God, who cannot lie, a liar! This act is the most scandalous sin of all the world’s religions. Nevertheless, our record is that God has given us eternal life through His Son. Therefore, if we have the Son, we have eternal life; if we don’t have the Son, we don’t have eternal life.[2]

In reviewing what the Apostle John says in this verse, Archibald Thomas Robertson (1863-1934) concludes that the life God gave in verse eleven is our position in Jesus.[3] [4]

With characteristic fundamental thinking, Alan England Brooke (1861-1939) clarifies that this verse thoroughly explains the last clause of the preceding verse. It is probably of the nature of an appeal to the reader’s experience. Those who lived with the Anointed One on earth found that they gained from Him a new power that transformed their lives into a new and higher level of living. And the later generations had a similar experience to judge, though they had not accompanied Him during His life on earth. In this negative statement, two slight changes are significant: (1) The addition of “of God” to “the Son.” God is the source of life. The Son of God alone can give it to the person who cannot gain it from a source they cannot find. (2) The position of “having” placed before “has” thus becomes more emphatic. Whatever else people may have in the way of higher endowments; spiritual life is not within their grasp. In the positive statement, the emphasis is on the actual possession of “having.”  We have here another close parallel in John’s Gospel.[5] [6]

With an eye for detail, David Smith (1866-1932) points out that having the conjunction “not” with the participle “having” in verse twelve does not necessarily make the case hypothetical.[7] It was necessary because the Apostle John had too many instances of doctrinal controversy in those days.[8]

Without using complicated language, Albert Barnes (1798-1870) notes that the Apostle John plans to refer to the passage in verse twelve and state a principle laid down by the Savior. This quote by John is the sense of all the essential testimony that God ever provided on the subject of salvation: “He who believes in the Lord Jesus already has the elements of eternal life in their soul and will certainly obtain salvation.” On the other hand, those who do not have God’s Son will never see eternal life with God.[9] [10]

As a spiritually motivated methodical teacher, Louis Berkhof (1873-1957) affirms there are direct statements of Scripture that point to the universal sinfulness of mankind.[11] Several passages of Scripture teach that sin is the heritage of mankind from the time of birth and is therefore present in human nature so early that it cannot possibly be by imitation.[12] For example, the Apostle Paul says, “All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful tendencies. By nature, we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.”[13] The term “by nature” points to something inborn and original, in which all people participate, as distinguished from what is subsequently acquired, making them guilty before God.

Moreover, according to Scripture, death due to Adam’s original sin even visits those who have never exercised a personal and conscious choice to believe the Gospel.[14] This passage implies that sinful tendencies exist in infants before moral consciousness. Finally, Scripture also teaches that all under condemnation due to sin’s death penalty need redemption through the Anointed One Jesus. We do not find that children are made an exception to this rule in the preceding passages.[15] This is not contradicted by those passages which ascribe a certain righteousness to mankind,[16] for this may be either civil righteousness, ceremonial or covenant righteousness, the righteousness of the Law, or the righteousness, which is in the Anointed One, Jesus.[17]

A servant of God whose preaching was doctrinal, imaginative, quaint, and earnest, Robert Finlayson (1793-1861) writes that it is a life that, once begun, is eternal. It is life not promised but given. It is life intended for our appropriation by faith. It is life to be found in the Anointed One, by whom, though free to us, it has been meritoriously acquired and exhibited in the born again. We who have appropriated the Divine gift in the Holder and Dispenser can testify to His being more than man, even God incarnate. Practical inference. “They that have the Son have spiritual life; those who don’t have God’s Son are spiritually lifeless.”

The blessing, which is of unspeakable value, comes with the possession of the Son; therefore, the all-important thing is to possess the Son. Those who have the Son have the gift of spiritual life, enjoy God’s favor, and have their spiritual powers quickened. Those who do not have God’s Son have no spiritual life and seek to hide from God’s disfavor with the numbness of death on them. In today’s language, they are “Dead men walking.” And the two states are poles apart. Let us believe in God’s Son, and we are at the salvation pole of eternal sunshine. Refuse the Divine testimony, and we are at the condemnation pole of endless cold.[18]

As a broadminded biblical theorist, Paul F. Kretzmann (1883-1965) notes that we Christians, having received the message of salvation imparted to us through the Word and the Sacraments, place our trust in Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, our Redeemer. By this token, we have eternal life as an actual possession. Its real enjoyment, the bliss of seeing God face to face, is still a matter of the future, but there can be no question about our being the possessors of the gift of eternal life. The testimony of the Gospel is too sure and definite to admit any doubt. Those who foolishly reject God’s Son, their Savior, forfeit eternal life and deliberately choose everlasting death and damnation. Unbelievers only have themselves to blame if they end up being part of that crowd.[19]

Charles H Dodd (1884-1973), known best for promoting “realized eschatology,”^[20] says that finally, the actual content of the divine testimony can be stated very simply: “God gave us life eternal, and this life is in His Son.” And with these words, John brings us back to the thesis from which he started.[21] Of course, over time, the twisting of that central concept occurred. Still, now we are brought back to it with a more precise and fuller sense of its meaning and reminded of the stark alternatives: with the Anointed One, we have life; without Him, we are spiritually dead.[22]

Commensurate with his spiritually activated analytical thinking, Rudolph Bultmann (1884-1976) states that either/or appears in this epistle which stand in antithetical parallelism. The Apostle John expresses this demand for the decision of faith this way: (A) 1 John 2:23 ‒ “Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.” (B) 1 John 5:12 ‒ ^“Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.”

That the two are materially identical is obvious, and one can cite 2 John 1:9 as confirmation. There, “has” describes the relation to both Father and Son. With this call to decision the whole Epistle, which encompasses 1:1-2:27 and the following sections, is effectively concluded. There follows in verse thirteen a postscript which states the purpose of the Epistle. Finally, the ecclesiastical reviser added an appendix in verses fourteen to twenty-one.[23]

With youthful enthusiasm for preaching, Greville Priestly Lewis (1891-1976) stresses that this inner witness of the Spirit to the person of Jesus the Anointed One also assures us that God sent His Son to give us eternal life. If we live in union with the Anointed One, this eternal life is ours, here and now. It is as simple as that. With the Anointed One, we have real life; without Him, we are spiritually dead. It’s as simple as that.[24] [25]

Bible translator extraordinaire Kenneth S. Wuest (1893-1961) notes that since an honest person’s testimony is valid, God’s testimony is still superior. In this case, God stood by His word on record in His written word that Jesus the Anointed One is His only begotten Son. Therefore, the one who believes that Jesus is God’s Son has the Spirit’s testimony in themselves. However, the ones who do not believe God’s Word is calling are calling Him a liar. Thus, they have fallen into the quicksand of unbelief. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life by giving us His Son. Therefore, the one who has God’s Son has spiritual and eternal life. On the other hand, those who do not have our heavenly Father’s Son are forever spiritually dead.[26]

A bold Bible interpreter openly opposed to liberal Christianity, Martin Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) states that to be a Christian is not merely to hold certain Christian philosophies. It is more than that. You can say, I am a new man or woman. I am not what I was, and God is dwelling in me. And John emphasizes this. Why is it essential that I be clear about Jesus the Anointed One? Why should I be convinced He is the Son of God, the Anointed One, the Anointed One? We have God’s testimony at Jesus’ baptism, “A voice came from the cloud and said, ‘This is my Son.’ He is the one I have chosen. Obey Him.”’[27] God put everything He had into His Son.[28]

Thus, spiritual, and eternal life is exclusively in the Son of God, so if we are not clear about these facts ‒ that Jesus is God’s Son and that Jesus is the Anointed One, then we have no spiritual life. Eternal life is only available if I go to Jesus the Anointed One to receive it so we can say, “Yes, the Word was full of grace and truth, and from Him we all received one blessing after another.”[29] In other words, it is not my belief alone that saves me. I have received the gift of life, and I can face death and judgment with this evidence that I am a child of God, because in Jesus the Anointed One I have received eternal life, the life of God in my soul.[30]Taiwanese preacher and hymn writer Witness Lee (1905-1997) observes that God’s testimony is not only that Jesus is His Son, but also that His Son gives us eternal life which is His goal for us. Because “the life” is in God’s Son,[31] and His Son is “the life,”[32] His Son and “the life” are one, inseparable. Therefore, if we have the Son of God, we have eternal life, because eternal life is in the Son. We may say that God’s Son is a container of eternal life. When we receive the Son by believing in Him, we have eternal life.

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[1] Law, Robert: The Tests of Life: A Study of the First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., p. 298

[2] Gaebelein, Arno Clement: The Annotated Bible, First Epistle of John, op. cit., p. 159

[3] John 5:23; 14:6

[4] Robertson, Archibald T., Word Pictuares in the New Testament, op. cit., p. 1969

[5] John 3:36

[6] Brooke, Alan E., Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Johannine Epistles, op. cit., p. 141

[7] Cf. 1 John 2:4

[8] Smith, David: The Expositor’s Greek Testament, 1 John, op. cit., pp. 196-197

[9] See John 3:36; See Mark 16:16

[10] Barnes, Albert: New Testament Notes, op. cit., pp. 4885-4886

[11] See 1 Kings 8:46; Psalm 143:2; Proverbs 20:9; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:1-12,19,20,23; Galatians 3:22; James 3:2; 1 John 1:8,10

[12] See Psalm 51:5; Job 14:4; John 3:6

[13] Ephesians 2:3

[14] Romans 5:12-14

[15] Also see John 3:3, 5; 1 John 5:12

[16] See Matthew 9:12,13; Acts of the Apostles 10:35; Romans 2:14; Philippians 3:6; 1 Corinthians 1:30

[17] Berkhof, Louis: Systematic Theology, op. cit., p. 225

[18] Finlayson, Robert: The Pulpit Commentary, First Epistle of John, Vol. 22, op. cit., Homiletics, pp. 171-172

[19] Kretzmann, Paul F., Popular Commentary on 1.2,3 John, op. cit., p. 577

[20] “Realized Eschatology” holds that the eschatological passages in the New Testament do not refer to the future but to the ministry of Jesus and His legacy.

[21] 1 John 1:2

[22] Dodd, Charles H., The Moffatt New Testament Commentary, The Johannine Epistles, op. cit., p. 133

[23] Bultmann, Rudolph: Hermeneia, The Johannine Epistles, op. cit. p. 83

[24] Cf. John 3:36

[25] Lewis, Greville Priestly: Epworth Preacher’s Commentaries, The Johannine Epistles, op. cit., pp. 118-119

[26] Wuest, Kenneth S. The New Testament: An Expanded Translation, op. cit, 1 John 5:9-12

[27] Luke 9:35

[28] Matthew 28:18

[29] John 1:16

[30] Lloyd-Jones, Martyn: Life in Christ, Studies in 1 John, op. cit., p. 636

[31] John 1:4

[32] See John 11:25; 14:6; Colossians 3:4

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson LXXVII) 02/28/23

^5:12 Whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

With Spirit-led certainty, William Baxter Godbey (1833-1920) acknowledges that all spiritual life is in the Christhood, as out of the Anointed One God is a “consuming fire.”[1] Unitarianism is worse than heathenism, as the former will be judged by the Bible, revealing their terrible rejection of the Anointed One to be judged according to the laws of nature. So all anti-Holy Spirit religions are more worthy of everlasting punishment than paganism because the Holy Spirit is the Anointed One’s Successor and Revelator. Hence the rejection of the Holy Spirit is identical to the Unitarian heresy of renouncing Jesus the Anointed One as God’s Son.[2]

After noting the Apostle John’s doctrinal implications, John James Lias (1834-1923) emphasizes that to have the Son is to have “the life.” But what is it to “have the Son”? This: to believe in Jesus the Anointed One as God’s Son, and through faith to receive Him into our soul. We are not merely to think of Him and believe in Him as a Deliverer or that His death removes the stain and guilt of our sins but that He purifies and refreshes us with the water that flowed from His side. It was for us to experience His life, to sense His blood streaming through our veins and washing away each impurity as it flows. That way, we can feel ourselves growing daily into closer and more intimate union with Him; to be ever more fully experiencing the truth that His life is our life, and our life His, until at length, we are one with Him.

There are many ways of deceiving ourselves. For example, we may imagine our salvation because we experienced a sense of pardon. Or because we think there is no need of it, or because we assume to have satisfied God’s requirements, or because we have access to God through His ministers and receive daily cleansing, or because we are regular in our use of the means of grace. But there is one only test ‒ Do we have His Son? We can add nothing to this except conforming to His life. It means bringing every thought into obedience to His teachings.

We must abandon all that is contrary to His example and will to set no other purpose before us than He set, to “do the Father’s will, and to finish His work.” It is what tells us that we have the Son. And not to have the Son is to be out of union with God, to be tossed about by every current of temptation, to be carried here and there, the sport of our own and other men’s passions, to have no life beyond the feeble flickering of a lamp in its socket, to be in danger of being banished forever from the true and eternal light, and of being consigned to that eternal darkness “where is wailing and gnashing of teeth.”[3]

With the ability of a linguist’s concentration on nuances, Greek word scholar Marvin Richardson Vincent (1834-1921) notes the Greek phrase, “He has the life.” More strictly, “the life,” namely, the life God gives.[4] Then, “he that has the Son” points to God as the giver of life in His Son. Thus we see that this verse has two clauses: in the former, John does not add God because believers know the Son; in the other it is added that unbelievers may know at length how serious it is not to have Him. Furthermore, note the inversion “Whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”[5]

Manifestly and distinctly, Eric Haupt (1841-1910) points out that the Apostle John not only says that through the Anointed One, the source of life has been brought to mankind but especially to us. Therefore, we accept that in verse twelve, God reveals the historical witness through His Son.[6] In other words, we have received our portion in “the life” brought by the Redeemer. The connection between the Son of God and “the life,” declared in verse eleven, is then in verse twelve, evolved under two aspects: where the Son of God is, there is also “the life” life only found where He is. And thus, John returns to the idea he laid down at the outset that His annunciation concerned the Logos.[7] That God’s Son and God’s life are correlative terms is the conclusion of John’s theological development.[8]

With his Spirit-directed calculating mind, Alfred Plummer (1841-1926) notes that some modern writers consider that verse thirteen constitutes the conclusion of the Epistle,[9] being a postscript or appendix, analogous to John’s Gospel[10] and possibly by another hand. Some go so far as to conjecture that the same person added to John’s Gospel and the last nine verses to the Epistle after the Apostle’s death. However, this is needless hairsplitting. In the preceding verses,[11] John wrote: “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.”

Deductive reasoning from these preceding verses shows that those who believe in the name of the Son of God may know they have eternal life. We must compare this to what John said earlier about anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.[12] In both cases, “have” signifies possession in a living union through faith. “Having the life,” not merely “the life just mentioned” or “the life which God gave,” but eternal life, which in the complete sense is embodied. The addition of God is neither accidental nor redundant. Those who possess Him know He is God’s Son; those who do not need to be reminded of whose Son they reject. The verse constitutes another close parallel with the Gospel.[13] [14]

A staunch crusader against immorality, Frederick Brotherton Meyer (1847-1929) points out that the Apostle constantly refers to the “begotten” children of God. The word indicates the relationship of the divine nature in regeneration, of which the first evidence is love. This love is not a weak sentimentality but a robust and vigorous response to the motions of divine love. God’s life in the soul also manifests itself in our faith; it overcomes the fascination and glamour of this brief scene. For your faith to entwine around the risen Lord, and weaned from all else, Jesus must become all-in-all to you, or you will miss the crown. We need the water of repentance and the blood of reconciliation. When we admit these two, the Holy Spirit will bear His secret witness to the soul. So likewise, God bears witness to the Son by the eternal life He gives to and maintains in those who believe. Eternity begins even here for those who have the Son as their indwelling guest.[15]

An eloquent preacher and exemplary writer on theological subjects, including lectures, commentaries, and sermons, Charles James Vaughan (1816-1897) contends that the Apostle John, who has a right to speak, has said that there is a sure thing, the possession of which constitutes “life,” and so establishes it that they who have it “have spiritual life,” and they who do not have it, “have no spiritual life.” The possession of a sure thing, so much worthier than anything else of the name of “life,” that, compared to it, nothing else is “divine life.” Could you, at this moment, say it in a word? Would you immortalize the “life” you are now living? Honest Christians would. To them, the change they wish for is not one of a kind but of degree. They have that which they want to be purified and increased a thousand-fold.

A believer’s “life” is the seed of “the life” for them to live forever and ever. This possession of the Anointed One comprises three things: First, the life the Anointed One lived upon this earth before His Cross was not “the life” He came to communicate to His people. He lived all that “life” so that He might purchase “the life” He would give. Second, the “resurrection life” is “the life” that the Anointed One imparts to believers. It is a “life” springing out of death. Third, it is a “life” without eternal spiritual death. It is a “life” essential to the Godhead of the Anointed One ‒ as “the life” in which that Godhead resides. “Life” is not what we live but how we live it. To live indeed, you must live livingly. If a person is to “live,” their soul must always be, in some way, in union with the Anointed One.[16]

A tried and tested biblical scholar who believes in the up-building of the Christian life, Robert Cameron (1839-1904) has an interesting observation about the spiritual life coming to us from Jesus’ tragic death. The resurrection, coming after the crucifixion, was the witness to this. Moreover, the Apostle John, being a Jew, learned to interpret the language of symbols, which was even more meaningful than words. “Blood and water” came from the pierced side of the Savior.[17] It was not “water and blood,” as in our Lord’s life history, having His entrance by baptism and His exit by the cross. John testified in his Gospel that we might also have faith, for “blood and water” symbolized our Lord’s whole work.

Death is the foundation and life the superstructure; death is the seed, and life is the fruit. Hence, by blood coming first, we can see it as canceling our guilt and water afterward, the promise of life. By the shedding of blood, God sees no sin in us; and in the water, He sets forth the gift of life. God not only forgives sins, but He also births children through the crucified Son. Sin is put away, and life is communicated – life is laid down and then imparted. He took our sin and the death that was connected. He gives His life and the holiness it bears as the fruit of the Spirit.[18] However, the Apostle John did not add this occasion to the testimony of the Spirit, water, and blood in verse six.

As a prolific writer on the New Testament Epistles, Findlay (1849-1919) notices that “Life” appears in the Apostle John’s writings as a gift, not an acquisition. Accordingly, faith is a grace rather than a virtue, yielding to God’s power rather than exerting ours. It is not so much that we lay hold of the Anointed One; He captures us ‒ our souls are laid hold of and possessed by the truth concerning Him. Thus, we are to receive God’s bounty showered upon us in the Anointed One.  We need only to consent to the vital purpose of His love, to allow Him to “work in us to will and to work on behalf of His good pleasure.”[19] As this operation proceeds and the truth concerning the Anointed One takes valuable possession of our nature, the conviction that we have eternal life in Him becomes increasingly settled and firm.

With his stately speaking style, William M. Sinclair (1850-1917) informs us that the emphatic word here is “has.” Since the Apostle John addresses the faithful, there is no need to say “the Son of God.” “Having the Son” is His dwelling in the heart by faith: a conscious difference to human life that transforms its whole character. “Having life” is the birth of the new man within which can never die. Seeing this includes unbelievers, the words “of God” are added, to show them what they have lost.[20]

Beyond any doubt, remarks Alonzo Rice Cocke (1858-1901), “He that has the Son has life; and he that does not have the Son of God has no life.” Hence everyone who has accepted the Son and has him dwelling in the heart has life; in the Son is grounded this eternal life. But, on the other hand, everyone who has not the Son of God in his heart has not the life of God, for all pretense of life apart from fellowship with him is death ‒ unbelief in shutting out the Anointed One, the fountain of everlasting life.[21]

Esteemed ministry veteran James B. Morgan (1859-1942) tells us that the Apostle John not only described the blessedness and the source from which it comes but the same channel through which it is conveyed to us. “This life is in His Son.” The design of this announcement is at once to instruct and encourage us. It seems to contemplate the mind awakened by such blessedness as a desire, inquiring where to find it. To someone like this we would say, “Go unto Jesus.” As to the famine-stricken inhabitants of Egypt, it was ever the direction, “Go unto Joseph,”[22] so to the stricken sinner, the counsel is, “Go unto Jesus.”

Eternal life is in Him for repentant sinners. “God was pleased for all of Himself to be in His Son, and through Him, God was happy to bring all things back in harmony with Himself.”[23] “For in the Anointed One lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So, you also are complete through your union with the Anointed One.”[24] In Him, you will find pardon. “He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins.”[25] In Him, you will find favor with God. “God, see our shield [the king]; look at the face of your anointed.”[26] In Him, you will find purity. “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit.”[27] In Him, you will find eternal life in the highest and sense ‒ “The Anointed One lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing His glory. So, we tell others about the Anointed One, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect^[a] in their relationship to the Anointed One.”[28]

Now, with this view of the blessing proposed to mankind, what must we think of their conduct who refuse to accept it? Is it not as foolish as it is sinful? It is alike unreasonable and unscriptural. And it only remains to observe how inexcusable it is, seeing how simple it is effectually secured.[29]

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[1] Hebrews 12:18

[2] Godbey, William Baxter: Commentary on the New Testament, Vol. II, op. cit., pp. 397-398

[3] Lias, James J., The First Epistle of St. John with Homiletical Treatment, op. cit., pp. 392-394

[4] See 1 John 5:11; John 16:22, cf. Colossians 3:4

[5] Vincent, Marvin R: Word Studies in the New Testament, op. cit. pp. 368-369

[6] Cf. 1 John 5:10

[7] John 1:1

[8] Haupt, Erich: The First Epistle of St. John: Clark’s Foreign Theological Library, Vol. LXIV, op. cit., pp. 319-320

[9] 1 John 5:14-21

[10] John 20:31

[11] 1 John 5:11-12

[12] Ibid. 2:23

[13] Cf. the last words of John the Baptizer in John 3:36

[14] Plummer, Alfred: Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary for Schools and Colleges, op. cit., p. 120

[15] Meyer, Frederick B., Through the Bible Day by Day Devotional Commentary, Vol. VII, op. cit., p. 160

[16] Vaughan, Charles J., The Biblical Illustrator, op. cit., 1 John 5, pp. 127-128

[17] John 19:34

[18] Cameron, Robert: The First Epistle of John, op. cit., Ch. XVI, The Three Witnesses, p. 233

[19] Philippians 2:13

[20] Sinclair, William M., New Testament Commentary for English Readers, Charles J. Ellicott (Ed.), op. cit., Vol. 3, p. 492

[21] Cocke, Alonzo R: Studies in the Epistles of John, Or, The Manifested Life, op. cit., p. 130

[22] Genesis 41:55

[23] Colossians 1:19-20

[24] Ibid. 2:9-10

[25] Ephesians 1:7

[26] Psalm 84:9 – Complete Jewish Version

[27] John 15:5

[28] Colossians 1:27b-28

[29] Morgan, James: An Exposition of the First Epistle of John, op. cit., pp. 463-464

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson LXXVI) 02/27/23

^5:12 Whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

With a traveling evangelist’s heart, Absalom Backus Earle (1812-1895), an American Baptist pastor, evangelist, and author, in a book on Incidents Used In His Meetings, addresses the subject of a sacrificial death to save someone who could not protect themselves, tells us about an eye-catching sight in Brooklyn, New York’s Greenwood Cemetery. It is the monument of a noble fireman, with his cap and trumpet and a baby in his arms. The occasion was that several families were burned out of their apartments in one of those terrible fires in New York. Firefighters assumed that everyone had escaped from the burning building. But that’s when a frantic mother cried at the entrance: “My darling baby is still in the building!” She was about to rush into the flames to rescue her infant when this fireman cried: “You cannot get your child.” But she screamed, “I must save my child.”

The fireman’s heart was moved, and he said: “I will get your child.” So, at the risk of his life, he went up through the fire to the apartment, and sure enough, there was the tiny unharmed baby, unaware of its danger. The fireman took it in his arms to bring it to its mother. He had gone a short distance when he discovered that the floor to the stairs had fallen in. Then he knew there was no way to escape. A quick thought struck him, “I must save this child even if I die. So he went to the nearest window and tossed the child through the fire and smoke down to where the other firefighters were standing. Then he turned and tried to make it back to the stairs but went down among the falling timber and fire and lost his life.

Would anyone blame that child if they went at every opportunity to the cemetery and got down on their knees and kissed, again and again, the cold marble feet of that fireman while looking up at his face with tears in their eyes, saying: “He saved me, but he lost his life in doing it.” So who is there among us who would not go to the bleeding feet of our Savior and kiss them, and looking up in His face, say: “He lost His life in to save me.”

All for Jesus! All for Jesus!

All my beings ransomed pow’rs,

All my thoughts, and words, and doings,

All my days, and all my hours.[1] [2]

A staunch conservative who upheld the doctrine of eternal torment for sinners, Joseph Angus (1816-1902) urges us to genuinely believe that God gives eternal life, and that life is in His Son, and we become holy and happy; we are forgiven and sanctified. We are left without hope if we reject this truth or any part of it. Then, like the world, we wallow hopelessly in wickedness.[3]

After checking the text closely, Richard Tuck (1817-1868) agrees with the Apostle John that we must feel an abiding presence and influence in our hearts and minds. There are significant things engraved on our minds which come up occasionally, such as “Abide in Me, and I in you, so that you are my disciples.” So, it would be best to remain faithful to what you have learned. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and Father.[4] This mandate is not a passing breath but the functions of breathing; not a drop of blood that passes through the veins, but the pumping heart which circulates it. Jesus said, “I am in them, and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.”[5]

After observing the Apostle John’s attention to detail, John Stock (1817-1884) notes that to possess the Lord is to have Him in our hearts by faith. It also requires putting our whole trust in Him; calling upon Him; honoring His holy name and His word; to mention His name only before the Father and mankind when we say our hope of eternal life. God gives us His Son, and we have Him as our only refuge when we come to Him as our Lord and Savior, Teacher and Guide, Example and Master. He is the husband of the Church, His bride, the Good Shepherd in whom they are complete by His Holy Spirit.

Some design their conduct after those who do not have God’s Son; neither will they come to Him as their Savior nor submit to Him as their Lord. Those who despise, doubt, and die are destroyed before the people’s eyes. The faithful are rich beyond expression, no matter how poor, and heirs of God’s kingdom; the unbelieving are lacking, although they are increased with goods, and surrounded by adherents and flatterers, whose end is a sorrowful death unless they turn to God. Heaven and hell border on each other in the revelation of God. Here is heaven in possession of the Anointed One; and torture in rejecting Him, which infidelity occasions. It is no small matter to reject the Anointed One as a Savior. It is a sin of the most fearful magnitude, and it persisted in rendering forgiveness impossible in this world or the world to come.[6]

After contemplating John’s train of thought, William Kelly (1822-1888) agrees that none can have spiritual life unless they accept God’s Son, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Not only will they have God, but a glorifier of God in the Son of man who was also the Son of God to whom God granted it and no other. The believer honors the Son by believing and receiving eternal life. The unbeliever dishonors Him and rejects the gift of life to his regret but must bow when he is raised for judgment.

Could life have been detached from the Son of God to be in us only and not in the Son to become corrupt and decay? But since it is in the Son, it abides holy and imperishable; and so, it is that we have it, and know that we have it on His word. Every good work, every right affection, all faithful service, and proper worship flow from eternal life in the power of the Spirit. Christians cannot please God, the Father of the Lord Jesus, without the action that brings eternal life. For now, that life has come in the person of God’s Son. Thus, the Father delights in our having this life, for it has joy in knowing, serving, and worshipping the Father and the Son, as led by the Holy Spirit. But let none forget what life would be without Jesus in our hearts.

“Those that do not have God’s Son as their Savior have no spiritual or eternal life.” If you who read these words are an unbeliever, beware. I pray for you. Why refuse everlasting life? Why reject the love of God in giving and sending His Son? Why leave Him who tasted death for you? Yet He never did you anything but good, and what have you ever shown to His name but neglect, dislike, and despite as far as you could? O believe what God tells you of His Son. If you believe in Him, you have Him. It is impossible to have the Son of God and not have eternal life. It is no less true than painfully real. Listen to John’s message to doubters: The Father loves Jesus the Anointed One because He is His Son, and God gave Him everything there is. And all who trust God’s Son to save them have eternal life; those who don’t believe and obey Him will never see heaven. God’s punishing wrath will remain on them throughout eternity.[7] [8]

A theologian familiar with the Apostle John’s writing style, William Burt Pope (1822-1903), is sure that John knows that not believing in God is not trusting His testimony. John also knows that not accepting the evidence is not having confidence in the witness. Also, not being confident of the internal assurance of the Spirit is not knowing forgiveness or the guarantee of sonship contained in possession of “the Life.” Finally, the believer’s spiritual life is nothing less than what God’s Son possesses. The Son of God is eternal life, the source of redeemed life; He is the believers’ Prince of life. The closing testimony of the Bible ‒ for there is nothing after these words ‒ is that they who have God’s Son have spiritual and eternal life: which is fellowship with God, in union with Jesus.[9]

Known as a distinguished classical Bible scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, Gordon Calthrop (1823-1894) asks, “How do we attain eternal life?” Calthrop gives these answers:

(a) It is God’s gift. We cannot merit, acquire, or receive compensation for efforts or moral excellence on our part. We need to accept it, stretch out our hand, and thankfully take what the Lord God, of His infinite bounty and goodness, sees fit to offer.

(b) It is bound with the Person of the Lord Jesus the Anointed One. “This life,” says John, “is in God’s Son.” In the Lord Jesus the Anointed One, we have the reservoir containing “The Life.” “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”[10] Again, “As the Father has life in Himself, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself.”[11]

(c) And again: we must come into contact, so to speak, with this living reservoir or fountainhead so that the stream that issues from it may flow into our being, and make us, too, partakers of its blessings. The idea is that of possession, of mutual living, so that each of us can say of the Anointed One, “He is mine.” And the Anointed One, on His part, will be willing to declare for each of us, “I am theirs.”

Calthrop then asks, “What are the manifestations of eternal life?” There is a correspondence between our physical and our spiritual life. We find three things in a living body: sensation, movement, and growth. Likewise, we find the following in our spiritual life:

(a) Consciousness. ‒ In a living soul, there is what, perhaps, we could not call sensation, but which we may call consciousness, or realization, of God who surrounds every soul, as the atmosphere surrounds us. We exist in God as an element. But it is perfectly possible for us to be utterly insensitive and not have any consciousness of Him. It will be so until we receive the new birth that the Spirit bestows. Then God flashes upon us as if He had just come into being. We behold, we know, and we delight in the moral teaching and grandeur of Him manifested to us in His Son, Jesus the Anointed One.

(b) Another manifestation of life is movement. And occupation for God, or man for God’s sake, is one of the characteristics of those who are born again of the Spirit and made new creations in Jesus the Anointed One. “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”[12] is one of the first questions such persons always ask. Absolute stillness ‒ meaning abstinence from all spiritual occupation ‒ is evidence of spiritual death. You must move, employ yourself; you must use some, at least, of your talents in the Divine service if you are “alive unto God.”[13]

(c) Then there is growth; and this is of various kinds: (i) First, the growth that comes from exercise—the exercise of the graces which God has bestowed upon us. (ii) Next, the growth of intelligence in spiritual things. We have many schoolmasters here ‒the Scriptures, our conscience, and not least of all, the discipline of life. And through these the Holy Spirit is showing us daily more about ourselves, and more about the character and will and purposes of God. (iii) Then the growth of advancing assimilation. I mean this ‒ we become like those with whom we associate.

God takes advantage of this peculiarity of our human constitution to produce a resemblance to the Anointed One in us. He sets before us the Lord Jesus as the great object of our contemplation. Looking at the Anointed One, earnestly gazing upon Him, trying to understand Him, sympathizing with Him more and more, we catch something of His spirit; the features of His character are impressed upon us; we become to some extent like Him.[14]

After sufficient examination o f the Greek test, Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901) points out that the variations from exact parallelism in the two members of the verse are significant ‒ “Having the Son of God” stands for “has the Son,” and the position of “the life.” is changed. Notice the altering use of “having” and “has” in this verse.[15] In this way, “has life” is validated by “having the Son.” Like a spiritual farmer planting the seed of God’s Word, Henry A. Sawtelle (1832-1913) argues that if we convey eternal life to the world as a deposit in the Anointed One, then the double statement of this verse is the most obvious inference. If the Anointed One and “the life” are inseparable, we cannot have one without the other. The Revised Version[16] correctly translates the article before ‘life’ ‒ “Has not the life.”  And yet they have a natural life, proving John means another life. It is when touched by the Anointed One that we come spiritually alive. Our regeneration is in connection with the Anointed One.[17] Being spiritually alive is because of the Anointed One.[18] The Anointed One is our life;[19] we have life more abundantly as we have more of the Anointed One.[20] Those who reject the Anointed One, of necessity, cut themselves off from the true life.[21]

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[1] All For Jesus, by Mary Dagwood Yard James, 1889

[2] Earle, Absalom Backus: Incidents Used in His Meetings, Kissing His Feet, Publisher: J. H. Earle, Boston, 1888, pp. 94-95

[3] Angus, Joseph: The Bible Handbook, op. cit., p. 753

[4] 1 John 2:24

[5] Tuck, Richard: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary: (on an original plan), op. cit., pp. 338-339

[6] Stock, John: An Exposition of the First Epistle General of St. John, op. cit., pp. 435-440

[7] John 3:35-36

[8] Kelly, William: An Exposition of the Epistles of John the Apostle, op. cit., pp. 375-376

[9] Pope, William B., The International Illustrated Commentary on the N.T., Vol. IV, op. cit., p. 319

[10] John 1:4-9

[11] Ibid. 5:26

[12] Acts of the Apostles 9:6

[13] Romans 6:11

[14] Calthrop, Gordon: Church Pulpit Commentary, 1 John, op. cit., pp. 322-324

[15] Westcott, Brooke F., The Epistles of St. John: Greek Text with Notes, op. cit., p. 188

[16] The Revised Version is an 1881 revision of the 1611 King James Version (ERV)

[17] Ephesians 2:10

[18] Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:21

[19] Colossians 3:4

[20] John 10:10

[21] Sawtelle, Henry A., Commentary on the Epistles of John, (Ed). Alvah Hovey, op. cit., p. 59

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson LXXV) 02/24/23

^5:12 Whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

According to Robert Jamieson (1802-1880), Andrew Fausset (1821-1910), and David Brown’s (1803-1897) way of thinking, they find the Apostle John’s remarks here to reinforce it as a conclusion. They note that in verse twelve, there is no addition of “God” after “Son” in the first instance. John was undoubtedly aware that his readers knew the “Son” was God’s Son. Adding it to the second occurrence made unbelievers understand what a serious thing it is not to have Him. In the former clause, “has” implies denotes possession. The second reading indicates that “have” is not yet theirs. To have the Son is to say as the bride, “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.”[1]

Faith is the means whereby the regenerate have the Anointed One as cohabitant. Having eternal life by faith gives the believer life in its seed form and the promise of its bloom and blossom in the hereafter. Eternal life here is: (1) initial, and is an earnest of that which is to follow; in the intermediate state (2) partial, belonging but to a part of a man, though that is his nobler part, the soul separated from the body; at and after the resurrection (3) perfectional. This natural life consists of the union of the soul and the body (as that of the reprobate in eternal pain, which ought to be termed death eternal, not life) but also spiritual, the union of the soul to God, and supremely blessed forever (for life is another term for happiness).[2]

A German Protestant theologian and contributor to Johann P. Lange’s Commentary, Karl G. Braune (1810-1877), says that if we reflect on the holiness of God and His hatred of sin and iniquity and begin to fear, there can never be reconciliation between God and sinners, let us take courage; the work is difficult, but the Son of God has accomplished it; and no matter how great the distance between God and us is, yet through the Son we have access to Him. If we still fear for ourselves, all may be lost through our weakness and inability to do good again. Fear not; even here, help is at hand; the Spirit of God is our support; He is the pledge and earnest of our redemption.

These being the necessary means of salvation, it was essential to reveal to the world the doctrines concerning the Son and the Holy Spirit: and the belief in these doctrines is necessary for every Christian, as far as the proper use of the means depends on good faith and confidence of the principles. “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”[3] And again, “No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”[4] Since we can only come to the Father through the Son, to deny the Son is to cut off all communication between the Father and us. The same may be said of the blessed Spirit, through whom we are in the Anointed One. “And,” says the Apostle Paul, “if anyone does not have the Spirit of the Anointed One, they do not belong to the Anointed One.”[5] Our blessed Lord has told us that “This is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus the Anointed One, whom You sent.”[6] [7]

With his lifework well-illustrating his biblical and reformation ideal, pastor-theologian Robert Smith Candlish (1805-1872) notes that with a sense of sin upon the conscience and hatred in the heart, it is impossible to have anything like that free and independent spiritual life God intends for us to have as His gift. Therefore, to give us that life, He must first deliver us from sure death – from our guilty conscience and liability to judgment – and the consequent dread, discomfort, and dislike that life is wholly incompatible. However, if I have the Son, I have life, in the sense and to the effect of complete and final deliverance from eternal death to everlasting life.

The new life we enter is more than undoing our scheduled demise or reversing the sentence and destruction that brings death. It is a new endowment; it is imparting new power, privilege, or capacity to us; it is the accession or addition of a unique ability of life, over and above any we ever possessed or ever could have gotten for ourselves, even though the blight of sin’s guilt and the curse would never come upon us for we have God’s Son. We have Him, not merely as presented to us in His relation to sinners, by being made sin for us and holy in His righteousness. We must indeed first have Him in that character and capacity.

But we also have Him as a Brother in His family relationship to the Father, as the Son to whom the Father has granted to have life in Himself.[8] I do not speak of His relationship to the Father before the universe was created and came into this world: it is not the life the Son had that the Father gave me. I speak of Him as such since His incarnation and will continue to be all through eternity. When I have Him, I have Him as He is and always will be. I have the Son, and in Him, I have the very life the Father has given Him.[9]

Called a great and rare spiritual thinker, Frederick Denison Maurice (1807-1873) lamented that in his day, some honored men wanted to get rid of all outward testimonies of God’s love – of the water and the blood – and dwell exclusively on what they call the Spirit’s internal testimony. However, he did not undervalue their doctrine as a counterweight to some Seminary professors’ abrasive, carnal, and earthly language. In fact, God allowed it as a protest against idolatry, yet, did not concede that they were wiser than the Apostle John or that they knew what the witness of the Spirit is. On the contrary, he found them continually rejecting God’s external witness by confusing what He said with what they were thinking internally.

By doing this, it became very exclusive. The victims of casual impressions, of nervous ecstasies or depression, by not being willing to receive God’s testimony to others and themselves. This is the blessing of the Water and the Blood. They speak of the gift of eternal life to everyone, not just those conscious of it, in that Son who died for all and lives for all. The words of the Apostle John contain the only possible limitation of this gift, and they are, in truth, not a limitation but an expansion of it, “Those who have the Son, have eternal life; those who do not have the Son have no future life.” We have no life in ourselves. The Spirit does not witness a miserable, partial, selfish, new life, which is given to us because we are Christians or believers or have certain rare emotions. Instead, He testifies to us of a Universal and Everlasting Life that dwells in the Son of God, which we may enjoy if we do not desire to be separated from the great family in heaven and earth named in Him.[10]

Without overlooking crucial points, Johann Eduard Huther (1807-1880) says that verse eleven is connected in thought with verse twelve. The whole idea on the internal side is brought out with the two verses taken together. In verse eleven, the witness or testimony is that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The testimony that Jesus is the Son of God[11]  becomes, as it passes towards and to the internal sphere, the testimony that God has bestowed upon us, in and through Him, eternal life. Whether the clause and this life are in His Son must be considered independent and coordinated with the first clause. The witness is thereby referred to as part of the testimony. Huther, and most recent commentators who express an opinion on the subject,  take the former view.

There is,  however,  at least one strong reason in favor of the latter view. The testimony John reports in his Gospel, which, we may believe, was brought to his mind by the water, blood, and Spirit, was not simply that God gave us eternal life but also that this life is in His Son. This was the truth John learned from God’s witness, and we may believe that it was also the truth he intended to proclaim to his readers as a Divine testimony. This view of the sentence seems to naturally progress the thought in verses ten to twelve. Those who believe that Jesus is God’s Son and believe in Him have the external testimony transferred, as it were, to the inner sphere within themselves.^[12] Thus, this testimony now passes to the mind and becomes internal: that God gave us eternal life and that life is in His Son;^[13]Consequently, those who possess the Son as indwelling, accordingly, have eternal life as their possession in their soul.[14]

With an inquiring mind, Daniel Denison Whedon (1808-1885) points out that we now are to have the result through the rest of the chapter with this Divine testimony. It is summed up in the word life; life in the Anointed One and the Anointed One in us. In the background, death[15] and the wicked one,[16] and the world[17] cast a dark shadow of contrast to life. So, we have the great antithesis, the battle-array, in which faith is the sure conqueror,[18] and life, present and future, the promised eternal prize.[19]

In line with Apostle John’s conclusion, Henry Alford (1810-1871) finds the conclusion of the Apostle John’s whole argument from verse six to verse eleven. But he carries it further, identifying the matter as a case of the believer’s possession of the Son of God and eternal life. But first, notice the diction and arrangement in verse twelve.

With meticulous Greek text examination and confirmation, Johann Bengel remarks, “Verse twelve is two verses in one: The first half with emphasis has to be pronounced: in the other, life, the latter furnishes a simple and beautiful example of the laws of emphasis in arrangement: having a life, not having a life.” Next, “to keep those words which the Father has witnessed to the Son,” nor “having the Son,” as Hugo Grotius does “to have a guarantee for eternal life.” The Son possessed the Anointed One by faith and testified by the Spirit, the water, and the blood: and the possession of the life, not in its most glorious development, but all its reality and vitality.

Furthermore, it must be noted that the question of whether eternal salvation is confined to those who have the Son does not belong here but must be entertained on other grounds.[20] It shows that the Apostle John is contemplating a possible contingency instead of facts: and confining his remarks to those to whom the divine testimony has come. To them, according to if they receive or do not receive God’s witness. It is more than “having the witness;” it is “having the Son of God.” The “having” is a choice of which savior – Life to life or death to death.[21]

As a faithful and zealous scholar, William Graham (1810-1883) points out that transitioning from the eleventh to the twelfth verse is natural since spiritual life is in God’s Son. The way for us to make sure of the divine energy is to receive God’s Son, who contains and dispenses it. Hence the words of the apostle, “Those that have the Son have life.” Martin Luther says bluntly, in his German language, “Those that have the Anointed One have everything, and those who are without the Anointed One, have nothing!” We became God’s children by receiving Him, which means believing in His name. To have the Anointed One – to receive the Anointed One, come to the Anointed One, be in the Anointed One, Jesus, and have Him dwelling in us, are all descriptions of the living faith which appropriates His gifts and rejoices in His manifold fulness.[22] In every form and measure, life is connected with Jesus, the Son of God,[23] and therefore He is preached and proclaimed in the Gospel as the refuge and hope of a perishing world.

To be in Him is to be delivered from condemnation, to receive Him is salvation and eternal life, to imitate Him is our highest aim as Christians, and to be like Him is our highest conception of eternal blessedness. Those who do not have the God’s Son have no life, but, as John elsewhere asserts, the wrath of God casts a shadow over them. They are not in the way of life and peace, for these are to be found in Jesus alone, and whatever their vain hopes and delusions, they have not and cannot have a well-grounded prospect of meeting the issues of eternity with joy. They have no life because they refuse Him, who is the source and fountain of life, and so they will and must remain unquickened and unblessed, a wanderer and an exile through the ages of eternity. Their portion is death, and they will have their portion and dwelling place in the region of death forevermore.[24]

With the zeal of a text examiner, William Edward Jelf (1811-1875) believes that those who cling to and have faith in the Son of God, namely, those who receive the Anointed One as the Son of God have life which God gives in the Christian plan of salvation. But, on the other hand, those who do not by faith possess and hold to the Son of God as the mediator of the New Covenant, but who thinks that it was given by the hands of a mere man called the Anointed One have no share in the gift which the Christian arrangement represents as given to mankind by the hands of the Son of God. The great heresy of during John’s time was not a disbelief in the Gospel as the system of religion but a disbelief in the Divine nature of Jesus ‒ and unbelief that the Gospel was brought upon the earth by the Son of God ‒ and this is also the heresy of modern times.[25]

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[1] Song of Solomon 6:3

[2] Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, New Testament Volume, op. cit., p. 730

[3] 1 John 5:12

[4] Ibid. 2:23

[5] Romans 8:9

[6] John 17:3

[7] Braune, Karl G., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures by John Peter Lange, Epistles General of John, p. 168

[8] John 5:26

[9] Candlish, Robert S., The First Epistle of John Expounded in a Series of Lectures, op. cit., Lecture XL, pp. 243-244

[10] Maurice, Frederick Denison: The Epistles of St. John: A Series of Lectures on Christian Ethics, op. cit., pp. 282-283

[11] See 1 John 5:5

[12] Ibid. 5:10

[13] Ibid. 5:11

[14] Huther, Johann Eduard: Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the General Epistles, Epistles of John, op. cit., pp. 815-816

[15] 1 John 5:16

[16] Ibid. 5:18

[17] Ibid. 5:19

[18] Ibid. 5:4

[19] Whedon, Daniel D., Commentary on the New Testament, op. cit., p. 279

[20] See 1 Peter 3:19 cf. 2:10

[21] Alford, Henry: The Greek Testament, op. cit., Vol. IV, pp. 507-508

[22] See John 3:36; 5:24

[23] Cf. John 1:4; 5:26; 1 John 5:20; Colossians 3:3

[24] Graham, William: The Spirit of Love; Or, A Practical and Exegetical Commentary on the First Epistle of John, op. cit., pp. 331-332

[25] William Edward Jelf, A Commentary on the First Epistle of St. John, op. cit.,p. 75

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson LXXIV) 02/23/23

^5:12 Whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

In verse twelve, straightforward preacher Charles Simeon (1759-1836) says that nothing less than everlasting happiness or misery depends on this point. Those who desired eternal life; and sought it earnestly through the Anointed One received it from God as an unmerited gift and are looking to the Anointed One for an even “more abundant” life.[1] It is to preserve it in their soul. Thus, those who “live by faith in the Son of God” have spiritual and eternal life in their souls. They can claim everlasting life upon the promise of God’s Word. They can plead the promises of God[2] and be assured that they will not be disappointed.[3] Indeed, eternal life has already begun in their soul.[4]

Like others, they were once spiritually dead but now have “passed from spiritual death to eternal life.”[5] Living by faith in the Son of God demonstrates that they are alive and that the Anointed One lives in them.[6] They may not have a comfortable sense and assurance of their happy state, but they are spiritually alive and will be forever.

On the other hand, those who have not received and lived in union with Lord Jesus the Anointed One in their hearts have no life in their soul. They are still “spiritually dead in trespasses and sins.”[7] They are far from having any title to eternal life and remain under a sentence of everlasting condemnation and “awaiting God’s judgment.”[8]  Whatever they may have, they do not have eternal life. According to the general acceptance of the term, they may have learning, riches, honor, and even morality, but they are not spiritually alive. And if they die in their present state, they will die without God; yes, if they were the foremost king on earth, they would still pass away on the same level as the lowliest of their subjects; they would descend from their pinnacle of honor to the lowest pit of shame and misery.[9]

Considering everything the Apostle John has said so far, Adam Clarke (1774-1849) then points out that since eternal life is given through the Son of God, it follows that it cannot be enjoyed without Him. No one can have it without having the Anointed One; therefore, he that has the Son has life, and he that has not the Son has no life. Consequently, it is in vain to expect eternal glory if the Anointed One is not in our hearts. Therefore, the indwelling of the Anointed One gives both a title and its usefulness. This is God’s record. Let no one deceive themselves. An indwelling Anointed One – GLORY; no indwelling Anointed One – NO GLORY. God’s record will stand.[10]

With his captivating teaching style, Jewish convert Augustus Neander (1789-1850) notes that the testimony accrediting Jesus as God’s Son shows its importance to believers, which attestation that He is God’s Son implies and assures them. “This is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, which is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.”[11]

Through this witness, whereby Jesus is ascribed as the Son of God, He is made known as the One who alone can impart a true, eternal, divine life of bliss to mankind. God has established the fountain of eternal life by sending to us His Son. Hence this witness also includes the gift of eternal life. In God’s Son, eternal life is grounded; all life, apart from fellowship with Him, is certain death. So, it follows that those who have received the Son have experienced true life. In contrast, through unbelief, those who shut themselves off from the Anointed One and the fountain of Living Water have blocked themselves from the source of everlasting life.[12]

After spiritually analyzing John’s conclusions, Gottfried C. F. Lücke (1791-1855) sees verse twelve as connected with verse five and as a colophon[13] to all that precedes. The moral and ethical point in this verse is this: Is it possible that someone will not believe in Jesus the Anointed One and firmly trust Him since God accredited Him as His Son and since only by faith in Him is there eternal life? Without this faith, eternal life cannot be obtained.[14] [15]

Although chronically ill with lung disease, Francis William Pitt Greenwood (1797-1843), Unitarian minister of King’s Chapel in Boston, proposes that we receive God’s Son in these three modes: ‒ as a Teacher, as an Example, and as a Savior. In each of these, He is spiritual and eternal life to those who have Him. So, let’s look at them.

I. He is our Teacher because His instructions are truth, and truth brings life. In another sense, the Anointed One’s life is by His word. He teaches us how to live and for what ends. Honor, happiness, respect, love, usefulness, those things without which life is only animal, or worse, are most easily and entirely secured by adopting the principles and obeying the precepts of the Gospel. It is life, by eminence, to live temperately, soberly, justly, kindly, peacefully, doing good actions, exercising good affections, and gaining a good reputation.

II. He is our Example because the life-giving Word is embodied and made incarnate in the Teacher; it is instructive and possesses the merit and charm of historical interest. The Son not only points the way to the Father, but He precedes the disciple and guides him in it and through it. Whoever walks as the Anointed One lives in proportion to the exactness of their imitation of the vigor and health of His life. Thus, to know that we are sharing the energy and motivation of our Master is enough to give us an increase of vital warmth, to cause the pulse of our soul to beat firmer and regularly because it beats in a happy and honored union with the heart of Jesus. If His life was true and eternal, then that borrowed from His is the same. The seeds of corruption are not in it. The process of dissolution cannot commence in it. It is a sound, pure, and heavenly life, for it is the very life of the Son of God.

III. He is our Savior by faith, obedience, and imitation; He is Life. And why? Because the hope and assurance of eternal life are contained and perfected in such trust.^[16]

With systematic theological intellect, Charles Hodge (1797-1878) sees this necessity of a knowledge of the Gospel as expressly asserted in the Scriptures. Our Lord not only declares that no one can come to the Father, but by Him; that no one knows the Father, but the Son, and those to whom the Son reveals Himself; but He says expressly, “They that do not believe, are forever lost.”[17] But faith without knowledge is impossible. The Apostle John says, “They that have the Son have spiritual and eternal life; those without God’s Son lack any such life.”[18]

Hence, knowing the Anointed One is not only the condition of life, but it is life, and without that knowledge, the eternal life in question cannot exist. The Apostle Paul said, “I count all things but loss, for the excellency of knowing Jesus as my Lord.”[19] Therefore, Jesus, the Anointed One, is not only the giver but the object of life. Those exercises, which are the manifestations of spiritual life, begin with Him; therefore, there can be no such exercises; without the knowledge of God, there can be no religion.^[20]

Without using complicated language, Albert Barnes (1798-1870) notes that the Apostle John states a principle our Savior laid down is this essential testimony God ever issued on salvation: “Those who believe in the Lord Jesus already have the elements of eternal life in their soul and will obtain salvation.”[21] [22]

With impressive theological vision, Richard Rothe (1799-1867) points out that the Apostle John now confirms (drawn from his experience) what he has said concerning the witness of God. Being God’s witness, John says, those (and only those) that have the Son possess this eternal life. God has given us eternal life in a specific and exclusive manner in His Son.[23] Therefore, no one can have fellowship with the Anointed One without having this life.

The apostles were the first to pass through this experience. In attaching themselves to the Anointed One, they experienced a transformation in their innermost life that made them conscious of their previous state of existence and their present state of being spiritually alive, which was authentic and imperishable. This fact repeats itself when we contact the Anointed One; this would compel us to acknowledge that there is such a fountain of eternal life in the Anointed One as can be only in God. Only the end of the world’s history will give a perfectly unambiguous objective decision on the controversy between the Anointed One and the unbelieving world. Whenever a person is in union with the Anointed One, they will be born again to eternal life.

Another thing about the passage is that “Faith is not a mere witness on the man’s part to the Object of his faith; it is a witness which the man receives from that Object.” In its first beginnings faith is, no doubt, mainly the acceptance of testimony from without. Still, the element of trust involved in this acceptance includes the beginning of an inner experience. Such trust arises from the attraction the object of our faith has exercised upon us. It rests on the consciousness of a vital connection between us and that object.

Therefore, our inner predisposition increases according to the measure with which we accept the Divine witness. Thus there is formed in us a certainty of faith which rises unassailably above all skepticism.”[24]

Even unbelievers readily acknowledge the assertion that those who do not have God’s Son don’t have eternal life. Therefore, they cannot deny that they do not have everlasting life and that their moral condition does not satisfy God’s requirements. Indeed, they do not deny this, but they reject that this is because they do not have God’s Son in their hearts; and to convince them of this is impossible by human power alone.

Nevertheless, all Christians must endeavor to do so as far as they can, especially by manifesting in their manner of living that they are continually entering into the fuller possession of such a life. For if faith in the Anointed One characteristically distinguishes them from the world. The more we are surprised that people do not comprehend that the reason for their dissatisfied condition is found in the fact that they do not attach themselves to God’s Son. That’s why we must all the more feel stirred up to let this valid eternal life manifest utilizing our whole being. This manifestation convinces the world more than our criticizing it for its unbelief.[25]

Ranked highly by other theologians on the doctrine of the atonement, John McLeod Campbell (1800-1872), Scottish minister and Reformed theologian, mentions that some have spoken of the difficulty in joining “themselves and glory in one thought.” The greater difficulty is to unite ourselves and eternal life in one thought now, although God has already connected us to the truth of things in the Anointed One. But, as I have said, we are alike slow of heart to receive Anointed One’s revelation of ourselves and to receive His revelation of God ‒ to believe that God has given to us eternal life in His Son and that God is love.[26]

Consistent with the Apostle John’s advice, Heinrich A. W. Meyer (1800-1873) finds that verse twelve immediately states the implication from the preceding thought.  If the Life is initially in the Son, then those who have the Son with them also have the Son.[27] Changing and weakening the sense, Hugo Grotius (1583-1645)[28] puts the Son: Verba ill aquae Pater Filio mandavit; (“words of water the Father gave to the Son), even “have the Life” he erroneously explains by jus certum ad vitam aeternam (“certain right to eternal life).” While the Apostle John in the first clause simply says “the Son,” in the second he adds “of God.” On this, Bengel[29] remarks habet versus duo cola; in priore non-additur Dei, nam Fideles norunt Filium; in altero additur, ut demum sciant Fideles, quanti sit, non habere (“it has two strains; In the former, there is no addition of God, for the faithful, know the Son; in the other, that the faithful may at length know how important it is not to have).”[30]

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[1] See John 10:10

[2] Ibid. 6:40

[3] Isaiah 45:17

[4] John 6:47

[5] Ibid. 5:24

[6] Galatians 2:21

[7] Ephesians 2:1

[8] John 3:18, 36

[9] Simeon, Charles, Horæ Homileticæ, Vol. XX, op., cit., Discourse 2468, pp.541-542

[10] Clarke, Adam: Wesleyan Heritage Commentary, op. cit., Hebrews-Revelation, pp. 397-398

[11] 1 John 5:11-12

[12] Neander, Augustus: The First Epistle of John, Practically Explained, op. cit., pp. 295-296

[13] Colophon (1) a publisher’s emblem or imprint, especially one on the title page or spine of a book. (2) a statement at the end of a book, typically with a printer’s emblem, giving information about its authorship and printing.

[14] Acts of the Apostle 4:11

[15] Lücke, Friedrich C. F: A Commentary on the Epistles of St. John, trans. Thorleif Gudmundson Repp, The Biblical Cabinet (Edinburgh: Thomas Clark, 1837, Vol. 15, pp. 274-275.

[16] Greenwood, F. W. P: The Biblical Illustrator, Vol. 22, First Epistle of John, op. cit., pp. 443-444

[17] Mark 16:16; John 3:18

[18] 1 John 5:12

[19] Philippians 3:8

[20] Hodge, Charles. Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, op. cit., The Call of Salvation Through the Word, pp.  647-648

[21] John 3:36; Mark 16:16

[22] Barnes, Albert: New Testament Notes, op. cit., 1 John 5, pp. 4885-4886

[23] 1 John 2:23

[24] Findlay, George G., Fellowship in the Life Eternal; An Exposition of the Epistles of St. John, op. cit., 391-392

[25] Rothe, Richard: Exposition of the First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., The Expository Times, May 1895, pp. 375-376

[26] Campbell, John McLeod: The Nature of the Atonement, MacMillan and Co., Ch. VII, 1856, p. 99

[27] Cf. 1 John 2:23

[28] Grotius, Hugo (1583–1645) [Hugo, Huigh or Hugeianus de Groot] was a towering figure in philosophy, political theory, law, and associated fields during the seventeenth century and for hundreds of years afterward.

[29] Johann Albrecht Bengel, (born June 24, 1687), Winnenden, near Stuttgart, Württemberg [Germany] – died November 2, 1752, Stuttgart), German Lutheran theologian and biblical scholar who was the founder of Swabian Pietism and a pioneer in the critical exegesis of the New Testament.

[30] Critical Exegetical Handbook New Testament by John Edward Huther, Meyer, Heinrich A. W., Commentary on the New Testament, Epistles of James and John, op. cit., p. 471

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson LXXIII) 02/22/23

^5:12 Whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

With all the Apostle John’s words in mind, John Wesley (1703-1791) says that the fact that holiness and happiness are united and sometimes fashioned in the inspired writings as “the kingdom of God,” or “the kingdom of heaven.” It is termed “the kingdom of God” because it is the immediate fruit of God’s reigning in the soul. He uses His mighty power to set up His throne in our hearts; they are instantly filled with “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” It is also called “the kingdom of heaven” because heaven is open to receive and reward their soul with eternal life.

Whoever they are that experience this, can declare before angels and mankind, “Everlasting life is won, Glory on earth has begun!” According to the constant tenor of Scripture bears record that God “Has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. They who have the Son” (reigning in their heart) “have life, even life everlasting.”[1] For “this is life eternal, to know the only true God, and Jesus the Anointed One whom You sent.”[2] And those to whom this is given may confidently address God as their heavenly Father. ^[3]

With scholarly meditation, James Macknight (1721-1800) notes that as the word “have” (KJV) is used in verse twelve in the sense of acknowledging,[4] the scope of the passage directs us to take it in that sense here. For notwithstanding “have” in the last clause of this verse is used in its ordinary signification, it is not uncommon in Scripture to find the same word used in different senses in the same passage.^[5]

More concerned with the Church than its sacraments, William Jones of Nyland (1726-1800) points out that in the text, the Apostle John expresses several vital thoughts: First, our unique relationship to the Lord Jesus the Anointed One by saying. “He that has the Son.” What are we to understand by these words? What is involved in them? (1) In His existence as Savior, not only in His historical reality but in His present existence. (2) In His perfection. It will profit nothing to believe in Jesus as an ordinary Man, having our human nature’s imperfections, weaknesses, and sinful tendencies. Faith in such a being would not result in any accession of strength. Instead, we must consider our faith in Him as “holy, sinless, and righteous.” Thus, we are motivated to trust in His Divinity as Jesus God’s Son, by believing in Him. (3) In His unfailing interest in us.

Faith in His existence and perfection and Divinity will not benefit us unless we believe He cares for us and desires to bless and save us. Now, we need what I have called a realizing faith in Him. Such faith requires a far greater and more profound thing than intellectual assent. As Canon Liddon says, “When the soul in very truth responds to the message of God, the complete responsive act of faith is threefold ‒ simultaneous acceptance from the intelligence, from the heart, and the will.”[6]

More concerned with the Church than its sacraments, William Jones of Nyland (1726-1800) points out that those who hold this relationship are possessors of the highest life. “Those that have the Son have life.” In verse twelve, what are we to understand by “the life” in the Greek text? (1) It is not mere physical life. The most wicked have this. Fallen angels have existed for thousands of years.[7] Therefore, to argue for the infinite or finite of existence from the Apostle John’s teaching concerning “the life” is a gross perversion of his teaching. (2) Not mere intellectual life. Such people as Voltaire, Byron, et al. possessed this to a high degree, but who would affirm that they had “the Son” and “the life”? (3) Not mere emotional life. Many with sympathy are abundant and active, who sincerely pity the wretched, who have often been moved to tears as they contemplated the woes of the Man of sorrows, who yet have neither “the Son” nor “the life.”

The life which John writes about is “the new life of God in humanity.” This new life may be viewed as a new governing affection. By faith in the Anointed One, a person is regenerated, and their ruling love is changed. Their deepest and strongest fondness is no longer earthly, selfish, or sinful but heavenly, humble, and holy; they love God supremely. They are brought into a vital and blessed relationship with God. Divine love is life. “The mind of the Spirit is life.”[8] He who has the Son has this life. He has it now, not in its most glorious development, but really and increasingly.[9] Under this supreme love for God, all the faculties of the spiritual nature advance toward perfection in blessed harmony with His holy will.^[10]

We see here one of many illustrations of the divine perfections of the Word of God, says Cameron. Jesus came by water and blood, but He went by blood and water to God. The order in which God gave the command for the Tabernacle directed that the ark of the covenant should be made first before the brass altar. Jesus was in the bosom of the Father before His death on the cross. So also, the arrangement of the vessels of the Tabernacle shows the same order as symbols of truth. Coming out from the Most Holy Place, the priest must pass by the basin of water before reaching the blood of the altar, but in returning, the blood came first and afterward the water.

The reality of what we learn in these types was fulfilled when Jesus came from God and returned to God. In the power of Life, as set forth by the water, He came from God, the Holy One, bearing our sins in His body to the altar of the cross. Here sins were cleansed by His blood, and then He returned to God in the victory of the same spotless life He brought with Him. The living One came from God to die but returned to God, alive forevermore. “For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!”[11] ^[12]

For example, a man with a heartfelt friendship with hymn writerJohn Newton,[13] Thomas Scott (1747-1821) finds that the Scriptures are indeed a message from God to us concerning the person and salvation of the Anointed One. “This is the record that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Therefore, those that have the Son have life, and those that do not have the Son of God have no life.”[14] This is the center of revelation, in which all the lines meet from every part of its circumference. The everlasting mercy of God in purposing salvation for sinners; His infinite wisdom, forming the grand design of glorifying His justice and holiness, even in pardoning and blessing those who deserve punishment; His unfathomable love, in giving His only-begotten Son to be the Savior of the world; the great mystery of godliness, God “manifest in the flesh,” Emmanuel purchasing the church with His blood; the love of the Anointed One in His obedience to dying for us on the cross; His glorious resurrection, ascension, and mediatorial exaltation; all constitute the central and most essential part of God’s message to the world. “This,” He says, by a voice from heaven, “is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear what He has to say.”[15] ^[16]

We must endeavor to explain this language and show its appropriateness and energy. The Apostle Paul says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through,” or “Jesus our Lord the Anointed One.”[17] Then John says, “This is the record, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son: he that has the Son has life, and he that does not have the Son of God does not have not life.”[18] The salvation of the Anointed One is completed, as far as His mediatory work is concerned: but who are they that will eventually be  “saved from eternal punishment through Him?”[19] To this question, the Scripture answers with the most decided precision; “those that receive Him,”[20] “they that believe in Him,”[21] and “they that are found in Him.”[22]  Union with the Anointed One is necessary to commune with Him: He saves all those, and those only, related to Him. True faith forms this union and relation and makes the sinner a partaker of the Anointed One and His salvation.^[23]

In another place, the atoning sacrifices of the Mosaic law, which typified the redemption of the Anointed One, were offered upon Mount Zion. Then King David inquired, “Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?[24] It draws a character that entirely accords with a true believer in the Final Covenant. Thus we see which of the professors of true religion will stand accepted on the day of judgment, but this has nothing to do with open neglect or opposition to revealed truth or refusal of the Gospel salvation plan. On the contrary, in perfect harmony with these Scriptures, our Lord describes His true disciples, “whoever does my heavenly Father’s will, the same is my brother, my sister, and my mother.” “Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it.”[25] ^[26]

As a potential young theologian, Joseph Benson (1749-1821), at the age of fifteen, preached in cottage prayer meetings, notes that this is a message testified to by the six witnesses ‒ three in heaven and three on earth. It tells us “That God sincerely and freely offered to humanity and conferred on true believers in particular; eternal life.”Namely, giving them title to it in their justification and adoption,[27] the fitness for it, in their new creation or sanctification,[28] and a foretaste or token of it by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in their hearts,[29] allowing them to enjoy communion with the Father and the Son;[30] and through that, as it were, “to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”[31]and have their “conversation in heaven.”[32] And this life is in His Son whose doctrine has revealed it;[33] whose merits have procured it; whose Spirit has imparted the beginning of it; and whose example will conduct us to the complete possession of it. In other words, by whom it was purchased, and in whom it is treasured; so that they have all the springs, and the fulness of it, in themselves, to communicate to His body, the Church, first in grace and then in glory.

Benson continues by saying that although the Apostle John has spoken mainly of the three in heaven and of the three on earth, who bear witness continually, he deferred mentioning, till now, what it is they are witnessing. Therefore, introducing it last, and after so much preparation, might make a stronger impression on the minds of his readers. They possess saving knowledge communicated by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation by having Him.[34]

Having a living faith in Him, working by love,[35] leads to a genuine interest in Him, as a wife has in her husband;[36] and vital union with Him, such as a branch has with the tree in which it grows;[37] or such as a member of the human body has with the head.[38] A consequence of that interest and union with Him brings conformity to having the same mind as the Anointed One and living as He lived.[39] The Anointed One becomes wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to them.[40] A believer having the Son has spiritual life here and is entitled to eternal life hereafter. But those who do not have the Son have no interest in the benefits that union with Him through the Spirit, says Benson, that conformity, more or less, to His image. The Anointed One has not enlightened them as to His wisdom, justified as His righteousness, renewed as His sanctification. Therefore, whatever they may profess, whatever orthodoxy of sentiment, regularity of conduct, or form of godliness, are alienated from the life of God[41] and have neither spiritual life now nor eternal life hereafter. In other words, they have part of Him.[42]

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[1] 1 John 5:11, 12

[2] John 17:3

[3] Wesley, John, The Works of: First Series of Sermons, Sermon 7, p. 142

[4] 1 John 2:23

[5] Macknight, James: Apostolic Epistles with Commentary, Vol. VI, p. 115

[6] Jones, William, The Pulpit Commentary Vol. 22, The First Epistle of John, p. 162-163

[7] 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6

[8] Romans 8:6

[9] Galatians 2:20

[10] Jones, William: The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., Vol. 22, p. 163

[11] Romans 5:10

[12] Cameron, Robert: The First Epistle of John, or, God Revealed in Life, Light, and Love, op. cit., Logos

[13] Newton, John: Composer of “Amazing Grace”

[14] 1 John 5:11-12

[15] Matthew 3:17; 17:5

[16] Scott, Thomas: Sermons, Sermon I, The Truth and Importance of Scripture Revelation, pp. 340-341

[17] Romans 6:23

[18] 1 John 5:11-12

[19] Romans 5:9

[20] John 1:12

[21] Ibid. 12:44

[22] Philippians 3:9

[23] Scott, Thomas: Sermons, Sermon VI, On Regeneration, p. 384

[24] Psalm 15:1

[25] Matthew 12:49-50; Luke 11:28

[26] Scott, Thomas: Sermons, Sermon IX, Final Retribution of Believers and Unbelievers, p. 413

[27] Titus 3:7; Romans 8:17

[28] Colossians 1:12; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:22, 24

[29] Ephesians 1:14

[30] 1 John 1:3

[31] Ephesians 2:6

[32] Philippians 3:20

[33] 1 John 5:11

[34] Ephesians 1:17; Matthew 11:27

[35] Galatians 2:20; 5:6

[36] Romans 7:4

[37] John 15:4

[38] 1 Corinthians 12:27; Romans 12:5

[39] Philippians 2:5

[40] 1 Corinthians 1:30

[41] Ephesians 4:18

[42] Benson, Joseph: Commentary of the Old and New Testaments, op. cit, p. 347