BEING SURE OF ETERNAL LIFE
This letter is to assure you that you have eternal life. It is addressed to those who give their allegiance to the Son of God. 1 John 5:13, N.E.B.
It was a New Year's Eve, and we were sponsoring a restless group of church youth on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California. The plan was for us to try to stake out some sidewalk space for the Rose Parade. We ended up being jostled by countless thousands of people with the same idea but who were more aggressive than we. It was an education in itself.
One sheltered youth, fresh from his first exposure to a "street preacher," laughingly reported that someone had just asked him if he was saved. He told how he had brushed the man aside with a terse comment, then he looked for my approval. "Well," I asked, "Are you saved?" He looked stunned, sure that I was jesting.
So we spent the next hour of that very cold night exploring whether one could indeed know that he had entered into life. These passages from John's Epistle became very precious to us that night, for the young man truly did not know of his salvation. John said that eternal life belongs to those who have given their allegiance to Jesus Christ.
Some people may see this verse through different eyes. They see the sin problem as fundamentally one of legal standing, of one smarting under the legal condemnation of the law, guilty as charged. In their eyes the solution to be sought is a pronouncement of innocence. To be justified, then, is to be saved. I suspect that is what the midnight street preacher had in mind.
But John's words draw our attention clearly in another direction. As J.B. Phillips translates verse 12: "It follows naturally that any man who has Christ has this life; and if he has not, then he does not possess this life at all." The issue is relationship, not legal standing. The key to eternal life is not in hearing a pronouncement of innocence but in knowing the One behind such a declaration.
"Genuine contact with Christ '' is a Person-to-person experience, not just a nod toward God. It means finding one's highest satisfaction in thinking about, talking to, and speaking of your well-known Friend. It means that we can approach God with confidence (see verse 15), for the Life-giver has taken His rightful place in the center of our lives.
This letter is to assure you that you have eternal life. It is addressed to those who give their allegiance to the Son of God. 1 John 5:13, N.E.B.
It was a New Year's Eve, and we were sponsoring a restless group of church youth on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California. The plan was for us to try to stake out some sidewalk space for the Rose Parade. We ended up being jostled by countless thousands of people with the same idea but who were more aggressive than we. It was an education in itself.
One sheltered youth, fresh from his first exposure to a "street preacher," laughingly reported that someone had just asked him if he was saved. He told how he had brushed the man aside with a terse comment, then he looked for my approval. "Well," I asked, "Are you saved?" He looked stunned, sure that I was jesting.
So we spent the next hour of that very cold night exploring whether one could indeed know that he had entered into life. These passages from John's Epistle became very precious to us that night, for the young man truly did not know of his salvation. John said that eternal life belongs to those who have given their allegiance to Jesus Christ.
Some people may see this verse through different eyes. They see the sin problem as fundamentally one of legal standing, of one smarting under the legal condemnation of the law, guilty as charged. In their eyes the solution to be sought is a pronouncement of innocence. To be justified, then, is to be saved. I suspect that is what the midnight street preacher had in mind.
But John's words draw our attention clearly in another direction. As J.B. Phillips translates verse 12: "It follows naturally that any man who has Christ has this life; and if he has not, then he does not possess this life at all." The issue is relationship, not legal standing. The key to eternal life is not in hearing a pronouncement of innocence but in knowing the One behind such a declaration.
"Genuine contact with Christ '' is a Person-to-person experience, not just a nod toward God. It means finding one's highest satisfaction in thinking about, talking to, and speaking of your well-known Friend. It means that we can approach God with confidence (see verse 15), for the Life-giver has taken His rightful place in the center of our lives.
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