Anything less than eternal life isn't enough. The world is not enough. Victory can be nothing less than eternal life. When death has the last word we lose. It isn't just one loss among many endeavors. It is total defeat. It is utter failure. We strive after many things in this life. We put our effort into many things. But if death is ultimately the last word than none of these things matter. The things we build are scattered to the wind, never to be heard from again. Death renders every effort meaningless. It mocks the fervor of relationships as it ends them.
This is why John is so insistent that we realize what we have. He wants us to know how much of a game-changer eternal life should be for us.
I write these things to you so that you may know
that you have eternal life,
you who believe in the name of the Son of God.
Paul knows the difference that it should make to know this. We should not be like those for whom death has the last word, those who have no hope.
so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died (cf. 1 The. 4:13-14).
This is victory over the world and the win condition is simple: "Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" When we think about sharing the good news but don't because we don't feel qualified we should reflect on this. When we think we don't understand it well enough to explain it we should reflect on this. The world need to believe in Jesus, to believe that he is the Son of God. When we do we have life in his name. It isn't a doctoral thesis. We can proclaim it!
On the other hand, it isn't the sort of belief that demons have. James tells us that demons have some sort of intellectual knowledge of the truth of all this. "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder" (cf. Jam. 2:19). It is the sort of belief that comes from surrender. It comes from surrendering our rights to decide good and evil for ourselves like Adam and Eve want to do. It comes from surrendering to God's own testimony about who Jesus is instead of trying to figure it out for ourselves.
If we accept human testimony,
the testimony of God is surely greater.
Now the testimony of God is this,
that he has testified on behalf of his Son.
This is the testimony that makes us understand that Jesus can not only heal us, but that he wants to heal us.
“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”
Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
Eternal life is not a distant abstraction, it is a person, a person who wants to be in relationship with us.
God gave us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son.
This is the Father's testimony. It is John's testimony. When we surrender to it we give it the power to shape our lives from the top down. We come into a relationship with a personal and loving God where before there was an impersonal force or an abstract idea. How can we help but praise him?
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
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