The Apostle John has been dealing with the Christians of the last days. “Even now are there many ANTICHRISTS; whereby we know that it is the last time.” As he says in chapter 4, there is a SPIRIT of antichrist “and even now already is in it is the world.” The world order in which we live is NOT ONLY unchristian, it’s antichrist – at war with our God and Saviour. Every aspect of our society has been tainted by this antichristian spirit. Therefore child of God, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” We should hate its styles, its slang, its music, its politics, its vices and especially its fears. “Thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway” – Deuteronomy 11:1.
Just as John gives us two reasons to SHUN the world, he give us two reasons to CLING to the Lord. “For all that is in the world… is not of the Father… AND the world passeth away and the lust there.” But, “if that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father.” One of the highest blessings of being a child of God is fellowship with the Father and His most beloved Son. Following that, there is “this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.”
Let’s briefly refresh our hearts this afternoon in God’s promise of eternal life.
What is the PROMISE referred to by John? He describes it as ETERNAL LIFE.
Christians usually think of those two words as a married pair, but let’s consider them individually for a moment. Doesn’t the word “life” encapsulate the essence of our salvation? This is what proves us to be Christians. God said to Adam, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Since the moment of our first father’s sin, death has been one of the key ingredients of human life. Especially as we grow older, we fight death; we do everything in our power to keep it at bay. We see our peers and our relatives succumb, and we shutter, knowing that it is coming after us. “The wages of sin is death.” Ah, but “the gift of God is eternal life.” The promise of God is eternal lfie.
I know that death is called “the last enemy” in I Corinthians. But death is not just an enemy stalking us like a stealthy mountain lion. It is a like a disease within us slowly devouring from within. “For we must needs die, and are as water spoilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again.” “There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death…” – Ecclesiastes 8:8. Each of us are going to die. You are going to die. Barring the miracle of God, we are going to die.
But then there is “life” – not adamic life, but divine life. “Life” is one of John’s favorite themes. And it is he who quotes the Saviour over and over again, as the Lord spoke of life in so many ways. When Jesus called himself “the bread of life” and “the water of life,” it wasn’t just to say that if we had a bite or sipped a bit of the Lord, we’d be saved and live for ever. He was saying that as bread and water are daily necessities, eternal life is rooted in fellowship with Him. Christ said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” He IS life; He is eternal life. “He giveth to all (natural) life, and breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25) but He also gives eternal life. John 1 tells us that Christ is the key to those few years of life that we have on earth. But then in prayer, He mentioned to the Father: “This is ETERNAL LIFE, that (my people) might know thee, the only truth God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.”
Amid another dozen verses about life through the Lord Jesus, the Apostle Paul added, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Elsewhere he said, “For to me to live is Christ.” “And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even… life.”
It doesn’t matter how good, moral, religious or righteous you may think you are… Life, especially eternal life, depends on your relationship with Christ, who is life itself. Your health will not keep you alive for much more than a century, then you’ll die, like everyone else.
But to that life in general John appends a word the Lord Jesus often used: “eternal” – “eternal life.” What is the difference between earthly life and eternal life? Even though there are theological fools out there in Satan’s world, who limit the definition, “eternal” means “ever more,” “everlasting,” or “never ending.” Some Bible deniers try to say that the word only speaks of a very long time, and it certainly does. “Aionios (ahee-o’-nee-os) is indeed a very long time – an exceedingly long time. It is used 71 times in the New Testament, and 67 times it is translated either “eternal” or “everlasting.”
Adam’s earthly life extended 930 years, but then he died. His earthly life was not eternal, nor was the life of Noah, Enoch, Abraham or David. Not one godly or righteous earthly life was lived beyond a thousand years. And today few live beyond a hundred. The earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth – the one who said, “I am the resurrection and the life…” The earthly life and ministry of the Lord Jesus was less than many of the lives of people in this auditorium.
When Jesus spoke of “eternal life,” He was not thinking about our three score and ten years filled with arthritis, back pain and bunions. He was speaking about a life beyond this life. He said in John 5:24: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” As Daniel prophesied in 12:2: “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life…” For most saints, the full effects of this eternal life will be felt after they are awakened and resurrected. And this the purpose of John’s use of the word “promise.” “And this is the PROMISE that he hath promised us, even eternal life.”
Of course, the One who has made this promise is the eternal God. The PROMISER is the Lord.
John might reiterate God’s promise as I am trying to do this afternoon, but it is the Lord’s promise. And “blessed be the LORD… there hath not failed one word of all his good promise” – I Kings 8:56. I read just last night, “The Lord has never reneged on a promise.” God’s promises are unfailing, because they are never out of His thoughts. And as Paul said in Romans 4:21 that “what God has promised he is able also to perform.” Has Satan, the god of the Satanic world, ever even for a moment been able to keep the Lord from carrying out a promise? Inconceivable.
Peter began his second epistle saying: “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature…” It is impossible to put a price or value on any promise of God to His saints. They exceedingly great and infinitely precious. And through them even we become partakers of the divine nature.
Paul reminded his friends in Corinth that he had always preached a positive message about Christ. “As God is true, our word toward you was not (both) yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us… was not yea and nay, but in him was (always) yea. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” Remember Christ Jesus is the WORD, and “the word was with God and the word was God.” Every thought, every decree, every action, every promise of God is grounded in the Word – Christ Jesus. For a single divine promise to fail would require the second death of the Son of God. The thought is inconceivable – impossible and even impossible to imagine.
What does this promise of eternal life PRODUCE in us?
It may sound silly to say, but the promise of eternal life produces eternal life. It is life which extends beyond this physical life. Jesus said in John 6:40: “This is the will of him that sent me…” You could interpret that to mean, “This is the promise of him that sent me…” That every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; he believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die…” This is one aspect of eternal life. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…”
What does the promise of eternal life produce in us? Pick any of the many aspects of salvation, and you’ll find eternal life related to it in some way. Regeneration? Our spirits have been born again without the capability of dying the second death. Justification? We have been declared righteous and the eternal law of God can no longer judge us. Propitiation? In Christ we have been reconciled to God with the privilege of eternal fellowship with Him Adoption? To be accepted into the family of the Lord is something which is eternally permanent. We cannot be disinherited, even if we, or someone else, thinks we should be. “This is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.”
And another product of the promise ought to be our grateful love and service. How can we hear of what Christ has done for us without being overcome with love and gratitude? “And every man that hath this hope (and promise) in him purifieth himself, even as His is pure.” II Corinthians 7:1: “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” II Peter 3:14: “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.”
Finally, what is the PURPOSE of this promise of eternal life?
As I have said a thousand times; it was brought out in our study of Genesis 10 this morning. Like everything else, this promise is for the glory of GOD through the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. This promise cannot be broken or forgotten because the glory of the Lord is at stake. Every divine promise has been stamped with the seal of God’s heart. He has included Himself in all of them. Titus 1:2: the God who cannot lie has promised His elect, eternal life.
Let us never forget that the Lord’s purpose in this promise is His glory. And therefore not one jot or tittle of the promise will fail. Every child of God is being “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”