Life in the Son
For Meditation (Ed Satterfield)
He who has the Son, has the Life! As John wraps up his portrait, he draws his message together with this brash statement. John is talking about an incredible gift that we have been given through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is not ho hum life, ordinary life, but one he describes in his gospel as abundant life—life to the full! Do you think that way about your life in Jesus?
As we have learned over these past five weeks, “the Life” comes through a miraculous and gracious sharing of life with Jesus that results in a life of light and love. It is an honest life of walking in the light with Jesus who is light so that we are enabled to confess and be freed from broken patterns of life to begin to live life rightly as God intended. It is a life of love flowing from the love we have richly received from Jesus who died for us. It is a self-giving, self-sacrificing love for another that brings life and wholeness rather than further degradation and brokenness.
John tells us in this passage that it is a life that overcomes! Believing in the Son brings a new life that defeats the world bent on sin and death to express a life that restores, heals, and leads to a future free of sin and death. This life is a gift that comes by believing—having the Son. We will be exploring what that belief is like—what is the essence of faith. I am convinced we all want “life.” John tells us it only comes through believing.
Read these passages on faith as you prepare for this Sunday: Romans 6:1–11; Colossians 3:1–4; 1 John 3:1–3; 2 Peter 1:3–8
1 John 5:10–12
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9 We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.