ROYAL NAVAL COLLEGE, GREENWICH, DECEMBER 26TH, 1892
ROYAL NAVAL COLLEGE, GREENWICH, DECEMBER 26TH, 1892
My Dear Brother, — I have received your letter of 10th inst. and send a few lines in answer to it. As far as I have an understanding of Scripture on the subject, it seems to me that there is a measure of confusion between two things which are presented in distinctness in Scripture — viz., Eternal Life — and the work of God in the soul by which eternal life is apprehended and entered on. The first of these (eternal life) as presented in Scripture comprises two essential elements, viz., relief from death (morally or physically), and introduction into positive blessing ordained of God, earthly or heavenly. In Psalm 133 we see the earthly in the blessing commanded in Zion — the restoration and unity of Israel — in John 17:3 the heavenly in the knowledge of the Father and the Son. It is evident that in either case there must be a state of soul produced in the saint suited for and corresponding to the blessing, and this is the work of God. For the christian we see the elements of this work in John 3:4. They consist in new birth, faith, and a well of water in the believer.
(1) New birth — for it is evident that God must begin, there being nothing in man to be trusted — no anchoring ground so to say for truth.
([p. 73] 2) Faith in the Son of man lifted up (for the condemnation of sin in the flesh) in which the love of God to the world has been revealed.
(3) The well of water — the Spirit of life — in the believer which springs up into eternal life.
Thus we have the work of God in the believer by which, though still on earth, he enters into heavenly things — eternal life. All this is, so to say, summed up in chapter 5, in which we find that the hour now is where the (spiritually) dead hear the voice of the Son of God, speaking in their souls, and they that have heard live — and in chapter 6 we find the soul entering into eternal life in the enjoyment of the love expressed in the incarnation and death of the Son of man which has placed what is divine and heavenly within the reach of its appropriation (eating). Thus we have the truth of eternal life solved — and now God abides in us and we in Him. There is, so to say, the reciprocity of life and spiritual affections as far as can be between God and a creature. I trust that the above may at any rate make my thought plain.
With love to the saints,
Believe me,
Your affectionate brother,
F. E. Raven.