What is Eternal Life? John 1:4

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Good morning. It's great to be here this morning and to worship with you all in full voice this morning.

It was a real pleasure to be here, and I trust our good and great God would be blessed through our worship. So if you have your Bibles with you, we'll get straight into the reading of God's Word. Would you open them up please to the Gospel of John? The Gospel of John, and we're reading from chapter one. We're continuing in our series that we started last time we came together and opened the Gospel of John was a couple of weeks ago when we found ourselves going through the first or we've been through the first three verses and God willing this morning what we'll do again is we'll read from verse 1 through 18.

This is the introduction of the Gospel of John or what you would call the prologue and it's important that we get this in our mind because this is foundational to our understanding for the rest of this book. So if you have your Bibles, let's open them up. If you haven't, I think most people have opened their Bibles up already. Okay, John 1, verse 1, and we're reading through from 1 to 18. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

He came as a witness to bear about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own and His own people did not receive Him.

But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God and who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about Him and cried out, This was He whom I said, who comes after me, ranks before me, because He was before me. For from the fullness, from His fullness, we have all received grace, upon grace, from the law was given through Moses grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father's side.

He has made him known. Amen. And this is the word of the Lord. Last time we were in this gospel was a couple of weeks ago and we examined verse three and verse three says, All things were created through Him, and without Him was nothing made that was made." And we discussed the other week the implications for all humanity of these words.

The Word, who is Christ Himself, is from everlasting to everlasting, the uncreated One. He is the agency of all creation. If it was made, it was made through Christ. No exceptions. And He has rule and dominion over all things He's created.

And all His creative work carries with it a purpose. And that purpose is to glorify the triune God. Now, our universe and everything in it is not chaos. It's not random. It's not haphazard.

It was made for a purpose. It was created for God, it was created by God and for God. The natural world as we see it, even though it has been affected by the fall of man, it's been affected by sin, it still retains remnants of its original beauty and even now still is able to reflect some of the glory of God. But the crowning glory of all creation is man. who was created perfect and holy in the image of God.

But Adam sinned against God. His sin brought about total corruption to his being. And apart from the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ, that total corruption has affected every single human being since. In this corruption, Man in his natural state is no longer able to reflect God's beauty, no longer able to showcase His splendor, no longer able to be the righteous image-bearer of the triune God He was created to be. The devastating thing of this is this, God will still be glorified, but He'll be glorified through the pouring out of His eternal wrath as a display of His divine justice.

But hear this beloved, there is hope for humanity. The Apostle John in verses four and five of our reading this morning announces some great news. The source and the substance of life, Jesus Christ has come into the world and he shines the light of God in order to bring life to a spiritually dead people. people who are worthy only of his eternal punishment they will become the recipients of his grace and the recipients of eternal life verse 4 reads in him was life and the life was the light of men the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome him if you think this passage is has strong allusions to the creation account in Genesis chapter 1, then you're right. No doubt John has done this on purpose because of the similar themes in both books.

The Apostle John takes the attributes of God found in Genesis and he ascribes them to the Word Jesus Christ. The attributes such as the timeless existence of God, or his deity, or his creative power, are all attributed to the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. And in them, and there are two more that are in these two verses, in verses four and five, and they are, one, the source and the substance of life, and the second, the light that shines into the darkness. We find both these in the creation account, and we find them here in the book of John. Both of these attributes, revealed in Genesis, belong to Yahweh.

And both are ascribed to Jesus Christ, right here in verses four and five. You see, John, in this introduction, is trying to establish a theological foundation for the rest of this gospel. And we need to listen, and we need to hear what he's saying. The themes found in the prologue, or the introduction of this book, are major themes that run throughout the gospel and they're repeated over and over again. From the beginning, John provides us with the necessary information to be able to understand and interpret the rest of his book.

For example, the prologue gives us a deeper understanding for why John selected seven, and only seven, miracles of Christ to list in his gospel. John himself tells us in the last verse of this gospel that Jesus did countless other things, including miracles. So why did John only choose seven? See, to understand this, we need to understand the prologue, which is the first 18 verses of this book. I'll give you an example.

In chapter six of John, Jesus creates food to feed the 5,000. Jesus creates food. But isn't God the only creator? We'll see that in the intro, John tells us that Jesus is the creator God. Again, in chapter nine, Jesus gives sight to a man born blind, a man who has never seen sight.

He's only ever been in darkness. How could this be? Well, in the intro, John again tells us that Jesus is the light of men. He brings light into darkness. And again, I'll give you one more.

In chapter 11, we're told that Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. John has prepared his readers already to understand how this could be. It's because he presents Jesus right here in the passage that we're reading this morning as the life giver. We'll see this more clearly as we progress through this book, but you get the picture. John's introduction is not simply a pleasant way to open up the fourth gospel, No, it literally gives us the theological framework to interpret the rest of this book.

This is why we'll be taking our time in the first 18 verses of this book. We must apprehend what under inspiration this Apostle John is trying to tell us, because if we miss, if we miss what he says here in the first 18 verses, we'll miss out on the beautiful truths in the rest of the book. In verse four he says, in him was light. Now at this point I need to say that I think in the schedule through the week that was sent out, we said that we're going to be studying verses four and five this morning. In fact, we'll only be studying a portion of verse four.

And the portion is this, in him was life. This is where we'll spend our time this morning. Before anything was, life, was in the word Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that all life is sourced in God. He created all things and he gives life to all things.

Now this, beloved, opposes what the world says. You see, for the world, primordial matter comes first. From this matter, without a creator, emerges life. We know this is irrational to the logical mind. It makes absolutely no sense.

But they say if you add millions and millions and millions of years, then apparently it becomes plausible. No, it doesn't. The Bible is clear. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It is God who creates and God who gives life.

John has narrowed down this even further and he asserts right here that it's not only God that gives life, but he says life is found in the second person of the Trinity. It's found in the Word, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who embodies life. Everything that has life owes its existence to Christ. He's the cause of life.

Paul on Mars Hill, speaking to the Athenians in Acts chapter 17, says this about Jesus. In Him, we live and move and have our being. Let's break that down. In Him, the context tells us that's Jesus. We live.

He's the fountain of life, the giver of life. We move. We derive our strength from Him. This speaks of our total dependence on Him for all our activities and have our being. This speaks of our continued dependence on Him for absolutely everything in everything to do with our existence.

Do you see how all aspects of life originate from Christ? Man is absolutely and completely reliant on Christ for every aspect of his existence. In him was life. Now make no mistake, this statement packs a serious punch. To any unbelieving Jew reading these words, these words are blasphemous.

To have life in himself is to claim to be Yahweh, to be God. Only God alone has self-existent life. Only God alone is the author of life. But God alone, only God alone has unattained, independent life in himself. This is essential to the being of God.

It's what makes God, God. He is life. But John knows this, and he has already established in the first verse of this gospel, the foundation of our thinking. You see, there he says, the word, that's Jesus, is God. Jesus is Yahweh.

And therefore, the self-existent life that is essential to the being of God, the source of life is found in Christ. This tells us that Jesus is equal to the Father in his essential attributes. Jesus said, for just as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself. John 5.26.

Now commentators are divided. They're divided over whether the life in this verse speaks to physical life. or spiritual life. Now, we know the Bible supports both. Jesus both is the both the giver and the sustainer of life physically and spiritually.

But which one does John mean in this verse? Well, I'm convinced that it's spiritual life that is in view. You see, it's the spiritual life that has been emphasized throughout this gospel. And on many occasion, it's contrasted with spiritual death. Chapter 5 verse 24 is an example of this and it reads, "...

truly truly I say to you whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life." To life. They're antithesis. They're opposed to one another.

Now if John wanted to refer to physical life, He could have used a clearer word to do so. You see, in the New Testament, there are two words that speak to life or the living. And the first is bios. And bios is the word that we get biology from. It implies physical or natural life experienced from birth to death.

Bios. Bios is found around 10 times in the New Testament. None in John. The other word is zoe. You've heard that word probably Zoe, this word speaks to the principle or the essence of life.

It almost always implies a spiritual life, the gift of life given by God in salvation. For the statisticians out there, Zoe is used 39 times in this gospel according to John, and 17 of those times, hear this, it is eternal life. In fact, John uses Zoe more in this one gospel than Matthew, Mark, and Luke all combined. Eternal life is a major theme through the gospel according to John. And when we recognize it in every one of the 38 other occurrences of Zoe in this gospel, it speaks to or points to spiritual life, then we must conclude that in verse four, spiritual life is implied by John.

Now having said that, it's of utmost importance that we consider the context. Never, ever take anything out of context. In the context of the first chapter we're told, the life in Christ is manifest as light of mankind in verse 4. This is spiritual. And I'll explain this truth next week.

Also, John the baptizer bore witness to the light in verses 6 and verse 7. And this light is rejected by the world from verses 10 through 13. It's not the literal light and darkness that is in view, but the spiritual. It's not the seen, but the unseen. And although in a broad sense Christ is the giver of spiritual life, and this is supported throughout the New Testament, I believe Zoe has been used by John primarily to refer to spiritual life, and I believe the context makes that clear.

Spiritual life for the word life in verse 4 also aligns to John's purpose purpose statement. If you remember a few weeks ago I said let's go back to John chapter 20 verse 30 through 31 and there we find John's purpose for writing this gospel. There he tells his readers that they ought to believe in Jesus and believe that he is the Son of God and by believing they are to have life in his name. That's spiritual life. John is concerned to take his readers from a state of spiritual death into spiritual life.

It's not the physical life that is in view, it's the spiritual life. Now I've gone through this exercise to support that spiritual life is in view here because it matters. It actually matters a lot. Understanding this necessarily brings to our mind a series of questions. And the first is this, who exactly is spiritually dead and in need of spiritual life?

Well, the simple answer is everyone. Apart from Jesus Christ, everyone is born spiritually dead. Adam's fall brought death into the world, both physical and spiritual. But the day he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he died. See God's promise says this, on the day you shall eat of it, die you shall die.

In what sense did Adam die on the day he ate the fruit? Certainly his body began to die, but he lived another 800 years at least. Now it wasn't physical death that is spoken of, it's spiritual death. Adam died spiritually on the day he sinned against God. He was cursed and removed from the presence of God in Eden, no longer to enjoy the intimate fellowship he once enjoyed with God.

The Apostle Paul describes spiritual death as this, it's being alienated from the life of God. to be alienated is to be removed. Spiritual death is to be removed from the life of God. Adam was removed from the life of God on the day he sinned. The Bible describes what a spiritual dead person looks like, and one example of this is found back in Genesis, Genesis chapter 6, and it says, Every intention of the thought of his heart was only evil continually."

These are chilling words. Is it only for the people back then? I submit to you, it's not. This is what a spiritual dead person looks like. Every intention of the thought of his heart was only evil continually.

Everyone who has been born apart from Christ is born this way. The life John speaks of in verse 4, and indeed The whole fourth gospel is the life Adam lost in the garden and beloved, in fact, a lot more. It's salvific life. It's eternal life. It's to be born again.

It's to be born from above. And it's to be restored to the life of God. So the Apostle John's concern in writing this gospel is to reveal the true Christ. the life giver, not restore physical dead people back to life, although Jesus does this once in chapter 11 with Lazarus, but rather spiritually dead people to be given spiritual life in Christ. In Him was life.

Okay, so what is the life John speaks of? We know it's exclusively found in Christ. Because Jesus is the embodiment of that life. But what exactly is spiritual life? Well, to answer this question, we must acknowledge that when we read in the Gospel of John, when we read life and eternal life, they're almost always synonyms, the same.

And they're interchanged by the apostle. Fundamentally, they mean the same thing. Life and eternal life. are basically the same. Now, contrary to the word eternal, it's also important that we acknowledge that eternal life is not simply life that continues forever, like an eternal, never-ending existence.

This is a misunderstanding of the word. Don't hear me wrong. Eternality is an attribute of eternal life, yes, but it's so much more than this. Beloved life or eternal life does not primarily point to the longevity of life, but to the quality of life. Think with me for a moment.

Will any soul that God has created ever cease to exist? What does the Bible say about the fate of those who reject Christ and suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness? Eternal hell, right? They never cease to exist because they're offence before an eternally holy God must be recompensed with eternal punishment. You see my point, don't you?

Eternal life is not in the length of years or in one's existence because every soul will exist for all eternity. No, the eternal life John speaks of is a quality of life. But let me explain this further. Turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 17. We'll be reading from verses 1 through 3.

John 17, 1 through 3. Listen to Jesus' words here. He's praying to his Father. When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that the son may glorify you.

Since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Did you get that? Beloved, let's not miss what Jesus is saying here. Eternal life is to have an intimate love relationship and a saving true knowledge of the Father and Son.

Nothing about longevity here, although it is implied, but rather a relationship with the triune God in Christ that by far surpasses all our understanding. Remember, upon dying spiritually, Adam was kicked out of the garden and he was removed from what? From the presence of God. Our brother told us that this morning. Fellowship with God was broken.

Beloved, Jesus has come to restore true life for those who believe in him. And true life is to know God. By the Holy Spirit, Christians are given life and they're enlightened to the perfections of God. We are given the ability to grasp a true knowledge of God and able to now comprehend some of His holiness. Our sins are atoned for by the work of Christ.

His righteousness becomes our righteousness and we enjoy all the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies because of our unity in Christ. Eternal life is to experience the unbreakable love of God. in Christ Jesus and to be able to genuinely love Him in return because we have been given a new heart. The heart of stone has been taken away and a heart of flesh has been given. It's the joy of having a genuine communion with the Triune God.

It's being able to approach the throne room of grace with confidence because by faith our sins have been forgiven. It's having our eyes and ears opened to the understanding and the righteousness of God. It's the peace and joy that the Spirit of God gives us because, beloved, we are now in Christ. Eternal life that we enjoy in Jesus Christ is so much more than a never-ending experience or existence. It's substantially relational.

relationship with the God of the universe and his undeserving creatures. Beloved, at the most foundational level, eternal life is this. Now hear this. Those who believe upon the Son of God enter into union with Christ. Now listen to this.

Into the fellowship of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The fellowship they enjoyed from all eternity. Eternal life is us, beloved, those who have trusted in Christ, those who are trusting in Christ. We are entering into the relationship, the fellowship of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Never, ever to be separated again.

Ever. This is life. The reason this life is eternal is because God is eternal. But primarily, this life is relational. The richness is in the quality of this gifted life, primarily, and not in its duration.

But don't hear me wrong, it is never-ending. Therefore, we don't have to wait, and this is the implication, therefore, we don't have to wait until we die to enjoy eternal life. Beloved, it's to be enjoyed now. We are now to enjoy this quality of life. Listen to what John says in John 3.

36. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Hear that? Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Present tense.

Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see light, but the wrath of God remains on him. Your sins and my sins, if we are trusting in Christ and in Christ alone, Christian, they have been placed on another and we have been gifted, not with any life, but the life of God in Christ. No longer an enemy of God, no longer under his wrath, Forgiven and welcomed into his family to enjoy true communion with the triune God now. Let's Let's be excited about that. Let's be excited about that John 5 24 truly truly I say to you whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me Has again present tense has eternal life He does not come into judgment.

Listen to this but has passed from what? death to life. Beloved, if you're trusting in Christ alone for your sins, for the forgiveness of your sins and the salvation of your soul, you have already passed from death to life. This is what the Bible says. But the scripture is perfectly clear on this.

Those who have eternal life have passed from death to life. No longer dead in their trespasses and sins in which they once walked, but made alive in Christ, hear this, who is our life. Christian, if you're in Christ, you have no right to grumble or moan in the circumstances of your life. We should be the happiest, most joyful people in the world. We share in the life of Christ and we are partakers of the divine.

Sure, trials and tribulations will come. And if the Lord tarries, we will also experience physical death. But not even physical death is able to separate us from the life that we have in Christ. In the words of our Savior to Martha, the sister of Lazarus, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.

Physical death, beloved, is but a gateway into the rest of our eternal life, which has already begun at the point of our conversion. Sure, in glory we will experience the full richness of this life in the resurrected bodies, and we should look forward to that. But the relationship with the Triune God that defines our eternal life has already begun. The peace and the rest of our new life in Christ starts from the time He saved us from our sins, when we were saved by grace through faith. Beloved, if you've been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, you have eternal life.

Enjoy it now. Enjoy it now. Christ is everything to us. This is why Paul can say to the Colossians, Christ is our life. Hear those words.

Christ is our life. This should make our hearts leap with joy. Christ shares his life with his creatures. John 15 articulates this point ever so beautifully. Jesus explains to his disciples that he is the true vine and they are the branches.

Only the branches that are in the true vine are able to produce fruit. Only the branches that are in the true vine are alive. You see, it's the vine that produces life. It's the vine that provides the sustenance for the branches. The life of the vine is what provides the branches with the nutrients and the nourishment that they need.

It runs through the vine into the branches. The life of Christ runs through us. The life of Christ runs through us. The vine doesn't rely on the branches. It's self-existent and self-sustaining.

But cut the branches away and they will wither and die. You see, if the life of Jesus flows in and through every Christian, No wonder why the apostle is able to say, it's no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me. Galatians 2.20. It's true we live in Christ and Christ lives in us.

The fruit we bear, hear this, has Christ's DNA. Your life is secure and it's as secure as the life of the vine. As long as the vine is alive, beloved, you're alive. Now, as with any metaphor, we don't want to stretch its meaning beyond its intended purpose. So, in this case, the branches that are cut off, they do not symbolize Christians who fall away from the faith.

No, but rather they were impostors to start with, and they claim to know Christ, but they never were united in Him. Jesus says in John 6, 37 through 39, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. 38. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

Beloved, if you've been united in Christ, your life is secure in the One who is the fountain of eternal life. 1 John 5.11 makes this point clear, and this is the testimony. that God gave us eternal life, and hear this, and this life is in His Son. Union with Christ is everything.

Have you ever wondered why in the book of Acts, on all three occasions, when Luke narrates the conversion experience of Paul on the road to Damascus, he says these words. Listen to what Jesus says. He says, Saul, Saul, Why do you persecute me? Saul wasn't persecuting Christ. He was pursuing and imprisoning the Christians.

So why does Christ say he was persecuting him? Why does Christ so closely identify himself with the Christians, those who have placed their trust in him? Again, it's because of our union in Christ. Jesus shares his life with his people. This should transform our whole understanding of our relationship with Christ.

It's not superficial, it's deep, it's meaningful, it's profound. Christians share their life with Christ. And hear this, this may be a shock to us, but beloved, it's true. If you have been united in Christ and by faith have been, are the recipient of eternal life, then your life, listen to this, then your life is just as secure as the life of Christ. Your life is just as secure as the life of Christ Himself.

Let that soak in. Let that soak into your heart. Who can take this away from you? Your future is as secure as God Himself. Your salvation, your life is as safe as the life of Christ.

This is truly marvelous. This is why, beloved, it's blasphemous to say or even think that Christians can lose their salvation. Do you know what that means? But that's a topic for another day. In closing, let's live our lives with a proper perspective of our salvation.

The life we have been gifted is the life of Christ himself. He shares his life with us. Our eternal life will never be lost. It will never be revoked. It will never be taken away.

It's secure in the hands of the eternal God himself. You remember the wonderful passage in John chapter 10, Jesus speaking about his sheep. Listen to what he says. I give them eternal life, that is His people, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

I and the Father are one." Beloved, rejoice and be assured that your life is protected in Christ. As I said before to those, this spiritual eternal life that he has gifted you with cannot be lost. It's an impossibility. According to Christ, in the passage we just read, the only way this could happen is for someone more powerful than God to come and overpower God and take him or take you from the grasp of his hand.

And now we're talking silly talk because that's just a sheer impossibility. So brothers and sisters, rest. Rest in Christ. Your life has its roots in the author of life himself, the one who has self-existent life in himself, none other than Jesus Christ. In him was life.

Amen.