ETERNAL LIFE
Romans 5: 20-21; 6: 22-23; 1 John 5: 6, 8-21
J.P. I think the first important thing is to recognise the fact that eternal life is brought in in Scripture in contrast to sin and death. “The wages of sin is death; but the act of favour of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
Ques. Does not eternal life refer to where sin and death are not?
J.P. I think not. It refers to where they are. I do not see what force eternal life would have where there is no sin and death. Hence in Scripture you do not get eternal life connected with heaven.
Rem. But you get it connected with the Son of God.
J.P. “The Son of God is come”. You must not put time into that. It is important to recognise that in Scripture eternal life is brought in in contrast to sin and death. There is more in that than we may think, “The wages of sin is death; but the act of favour of God, eternal life” (not through but) “in Christ Jesus our Lord”. “In” is the characteristic word in chapter 6, while the characteristic word of chapter 5 is “through”.
Ques. Why?
J.P. Because in chapter 5 Christ is the “Lord”—the great Administrator, and you get what He administers—seven things, and they are all through our Lord Jesus Christ, so eternal life is through our Lord Jesus Christ in chapter 5. But chapter 6 presents Him as the second Man out of heaven, so that what is true of Him personally is true of all those who are in Him. Ponder that! The more you ponder it, the more it will dawn upon you. Eternal life is primarily connected with “the world to come”; sin and death will not reign then.
Sin; death; that is the order. “By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death”, Rom 5: 12. Then eternal life is brought in by Christ Jesus, and He is the Son of God. There are two Questions involved in the Question of eternal life—the questions of sin, and of death. The only thing that meets sin (which is lawlessness) is righteousness, and the only thing that can meet death is the One who is the Resurrection and the Life, who has abolished death and brought to light life and incorruptibility. You have to face the questions of righteousness and life. God can never give up His rights or claims as God; and anything in which He sets forth His rights and claims in regard of man can never be set aside. So that the answer of the Lord to the lawyer in Luke 10: 25-27 is more direct than we might think from a cursory reading. The lawyer’s question—What shall I do to inherit eternal life? is simple and direct, and the Lord’s answer is—What is written in the law? The lawyer said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart”, &c., and the Lord said, “Thou hast answered right: this do and thou shalt live”. Why? Because God gave the law, and it was the embodiment and expression of God’s claims in regard of man. Hence the language of the law was “This do and thou shalt live”. Man’s title to live is found in that connection. You cannot set it aside. The law as given amounted to a test; the question raised by it was a question of righteousness—the rights of God. Israel broke down in it, and so in Romans 3 the summary is “there is none righteous, no, not one”, Rom 3: 10.
But has God set aside His own rights and claims? It is impossible. That shows that if it is a question of eternal life you have to take account of the question of sin and of righteousness. So, if the wages of sin is death, the act of favour of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. “This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son”.
Every believer has title to eternal life, but one’s desire is that we may know that we have it, and be practically in the good of it. The point is eternal life is brought in in contrast to sin and death. The two (sin and death) must be reckoned with; and they have both been met in the righteous One. (See verse 17: “reign in life”.) You could not think of life apart from righteousness; it would compromise the character of God. “Reign in life”, by One—who?—the righteous One. If the lawlessness of one man has entailed death upon all connected with him, so the righteousness of One brings in life for those connected with Him. We want to get our eyes off ourselves to see that eternal life is the act of favour of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, or (as it is put in 1 John 5) “in his Son”. This question was brought out in the life of the Lord here. He did not set aside the law and the prophets. He came to fulfil them, to establish the fulness of all the rights and claims of God. “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous”, 1 John 3: 7. That does not refer to His atoning death. In that He is alone. It refers to Him as the Man here—the righteous One. At His baptism when John objects He says, “Suffer it now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness”, Matt 3: 15. In the temptation in Matthew, He takes and maintains the ground of the rights of God and refuses to be moved one hair’s breadth. He asks, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?”, John 8: 46. There He stands the righteous One. And in 1 John 2—who have we as advocate with the Father? “Jesus Christ the righteous”. He established the title of man to live; He has brought in righteousness in the very scene of sin. It is wonderful to see the Lord in that light—how as Man He took up in His path here every feature of man in responsibility and met it all. He was perfectly righteous; I am not speaking of atonement, or of His bearing the wrath of God against sin, but of Him as the righteous One in His path here. It has been said that God met the two worst things in the world by the two best things—lawlessness and hatred by righteousness and love.
“Son of God” describes Him as Man born in time, “That holy thing ... shall be called the Son of God”, Luke 1: 35. Then resurrection is the attestation, the marking out, of the fact that He is Son of God, see Rom 1: 3-4.
Then there is the other question—that of death. “By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death”. Eternal life involves the establishment of the opposites. Sin and death are set aside and righteousness and life are brought in. There is only One who was competent for that—the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Going into death He abolished it, and brought life and incorruptibility to light. Now, you have not only righteousness, but a Man of another order, out of death. Eternal life is in the One who is perfectly righteous—in that Man as out of death.
Rem. As the righteous One, He has established the right of man to live.
J.P. Yes; it is wonderful. Scripture goes back before His death, where it says, “He that says he abides in him ought, even as he walked, himself also so to walk”, 1 John 2: 6. He has established righteousness, and gone into death. Then it is available to those who believe. In Himself, He has established the right of man to live.
Ques. As to the thought of ‘the true Man’?
J.P. We get in Scripture, “The same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him” (John 7: 18), “We are in him that is true”, 1 John 5: 20. “These things saith ... he that is true”, Rev 3: 7. He is true; never was there a claim of God that He did not answer to. He has established His title as man to live here, being clear of death here, and God has brought in eternal life for man in His Son. I do not care about definitions, because I do not know them; but the Lord says of eternal life, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”, John 17: 3.
As to love, “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love”. If you do not love, you do not know. Can you be in the sunshine, and not be bright and warm?
Ques. When did the Lord establish man’s right to live?
J.P. When did He fulfil the law of God? He could say, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart”, Ps 40: 8. He was the ark of the covenant. When did He establish righteousness? When He was here. All that was in Him becomes through His death available to us in resurrection. That brings in the thought of headship. In Romans 5 there is Adam, and the effects of his act, and then there is Christ and the effects of His act. We cannot separate righteousness and life. In His death He established righteousness; in His life here as man He took up the responsibilities of man here, but at the cross He took up man’s liabilities—death and judgment; He did not take up responsibility at the cross. There He took up the question of what rested on man—judgment and death. It was in His life here that He was the righteous One. His resurrection did not constitute Him the righteous One. I see in His life here righteousness fulfilled, the conditions of life as established for man, and I see in Him, as the risen One, that righteousness and life are available for man. So in that One there is eternal life.
Rem. The difficulty of some is that eternal life is said to be in Him, and as He is in heaven, eternal life must be there.
J.P. But forgiveness of sins and justification are in Him, and we enter into that here. I ask for a Scripture as to eternal life being in heaven. I asked Mr F. E. Raven, in Chicago, ‘Do you know any Scripture which connects eternal life with heaven?’ and he said ‘I do not’14.
Ques. Is there no sense in which eternal life goes on to heaven?
J.P. I do not think so. I say it humbly, not dogmatically. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God”. I cannot see the force of that in heaven; I can understand it here. Then He goes on—“And Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”. He was sent from heaven, not into heaven, He is the second Man out of heaven.
Rem. You said the former was to abolish idolatry, the latter lawlessness.
J.P. Yes; it is where these things are that we need eternal life; there are no idols in heaven.
Eternal life is not the knowledge of divine Persons as such. We can speak of the divine Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—but eternal life is not that; it lies in the knowledge of the only true God, and of Him (the sent One) who addressed Him as “Father”. He always addressed Him as Father save on that one occasion when He was the sin-offering. Then it was, “My God”.
So, “These words spake Jesus ... and said, Father ... and this is life eternal”, etc. He is speaking of the knowledge of God, who is His Father, and of knowing Him down here as the “only true God”. That is salvation from idolatry; the knowledge of God will abolish all idolatry from our hearts.
Ques. What about “He is the true God and eternal life”, 1 John 5: 20?
J.P. We must not mix John’s epistle and his gospel. Here (chap 17: 3) it is to “know thee the only true God”. It is a question of knowledge; it is not feelings, but what you know. You know the “only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”, and in Him you are perfectly righteous and saved from all lawlessness. “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not”, 1 John 3: 6. We want to know the reality of it.
In the last part of John’s epistle it is a question of testimony; not of His Person, but of what is set forth in Him. He was the perfect setting forth of the true God and of eternal life. So (as J N Darby has said15) that whatever was true of Him here, He is never spoken of as eternal life till risen and in glory, in His condition here He was not the expression of eternal life.
Ques. What of 1 John 5: 12-13, “that ye may know that ye have eternal life”?
J.P. That is that we may have the consciousness of it. Verse 12 is objective; eternal life is not in you, but the consciousness of having it ought to be in you. There are three Greek words translated as “know”. John 17: 3 is not consciousness, it is objective knowledge; it is so certain that there is no question about it, no doubt remains in your mind, you are perfectly certain. It is knowledge in that sense, but in 1 John 5 it is consciousness. The point in John’s epistle is how we are to arrive at this consciousness, and in John’s gospel (chap 20: 31) it is “that ye might believe” on the One who has brought eternal life in. The epistle is written to those who have the faith of His person and have to be brought into the consciousness. We have been speaking of the title which every believer has, and of the consciousness, which every believer does not have.
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Continuation of reading on the evening of the same day
There were two or three points which came before us this afternoon which I think might be opened up further.
The sphere of eternal life. Many think sphere means another place; but if the term is understood morally and spiritually it is very helpful. Scripture speaks of our passing from death into life. The Lord says (John 5: 24), “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 into life”. There is such a thing as the sphere of eternal life. It has been described as an out-of-the-world condition16; many think that means actually going out of the world, but that is a mistake. If eternal life is to “know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent”, it involves that the One who has this knowledge passes into another sphere—a moral sphere. In the consciousness of eternal life, we are no longer morally in a sphere of death, but have passed from death into life, from darkness to light, we are in a sphere of light and love. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren”, 1 John 3: 14. It is an out-of-the-world condition, because the world is marked by idolatry and lawlessness. Eternal life consists in knowing the Father as the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.
Ques. How can we who are supposed to be believers on the Son of God come into the consciousness that we have eternal life?
J.P. I think that question might be answered by Romans 6: 22 (Darby Bible): “Having got your freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God ... fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life”. The “end” is not the end of your course here; not the end as to time, but the moral end. That Scripture is helpful as indicating the spiritual steps one takes in coming to the consciousness of eternal life. If you have been brought to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; if you have really been brought to this, you have eternal life in title and as gift; hence the kind of person who is said to have eternal life is “whosoever believeth”, but our entering into it supposes the Spirit, for in John 4: 13 the Lord says to the woman, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but ... shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”. Then in Galatians 6: 8 we get, “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting”. These Scriptures show that eternal life is connected with the Spirit as dwelling in us, and with the moral course followed by the soul—with the moral steps which the soul pursues in the power of the Spirit. You cannot conceive of any one having the consciousness of eternal life if he is at all under the power of sin; for sin and death have furnished the occasion for God to bring in eternal life in contrast to sin and death. As to the moral steps—first you have freedom from sin and have become servant to God, Romans 6. Then you have fruit unto holiness, and then eternal life. We dispute no one’s title. You cannot tell whether a person has really come to the faith of the Son of God; but you cannot conceive of any one having the consciousness of eternal life being mixed up with the world or sin.
Ques. Does Scripture present eternal life in view of the future?
J.P. Yes, in Titus 3: 7, we read—“having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life”. That looks on to the future. Where and when shall we reach it? Scripture is plain. It is in resurrection, or the equivalent change, when the Lord comes for His people. “We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye”, 1 Cor 15: 52. Well, I believe we shall all come into the actuality of eternal life at that time; those who are now asleep will reach the actuality of eternal life in resurrection, and we—“the living”, shall reach it in being changed. We shall reach it here, and if we have fallen asleep we shall be raised here.
Rem. Resurrection only puts you as risen on the earth.
J.P. Resurrection did not take the Lord off the earth. It was ascension that did that. What will take us up? We shall be caught up; that is the rapture; that follows the resurrection and the change.
Ques. Did not the Lord leave the earth during those forty days?
J.P. Scripture does not tell us. I want to be a believer, not a thinker.
Ques. What is meant by “inherit eternal life”?
J.P. That is always found in the synoptic gospels.
Ques. Does eternal life cease at ascension?
J.P. I do not think that we shall lose when in heaven any blessing that we have here; but Scripture never predicates eternal life of anybody in heaven, and the term does not stand connected in Scripture with the eternal state. We ought to take account of that. But while the term ceases, the thing does not cease. Before slavery was abolished in America, there were two classes of people—freemen and slaves. With the abolition of slavery the terms necessarily cease, for every man is equally free. I adduce that as an illustration to show that there is no force in speaking of eternal life in connection with heaven and eternity, which is wholly a scene of life; no sin or death there. So the term eternal life ceases where death ceases. The last enemy is destroyed and then comes the end. What marks the end—the eternal state is that God’s Son as Man will deliver up the kingdom to the Father. Till then He has all authority in heaven and in earth, and has exercised it in bringing everything into subjection; not one insubject thing will be left! Then, as Man, the kingdom having served its end of bringing everything into subjection to God, He delivers up His stewardship, hands it over to the Father, and takes the place of subjection as Man—He, to whom all power in heaven and in earth had been given. In Revelation 21 the kingdom is at an end; there is no longer the Mediator; Christ, in the character of Lamb, is no longer there, There is no need of Mediator or Lamb, for all has been settled, the universe has been cleared of every enemy.
Israel will come into eternal life in the world to come. In Ezekiel 37: 14 the question is raised, “Shall these bones live?” God will make the new covenant with them, but I do not think that goes beyond righteousness. He will write His law in their hearts and minds, all shall know Him from the least to the greatest, and thus they will come into the blessing of eternal life. They will have righteousness and life, etc. They “that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake ... to everlasting life”, Dan 12: 2. Israel will come into it in the flesh, not in the moral sense of the term but in the literal sense; and the Gentiles also come into it, Matt 25. They are those on the right hand—the “sheep”. The Jews are another class—“my brethren”. These shall “go away … into life eternal”, v 46.
Then there is the prophecy that God will remove the veil that is over the nations, and they will enter into eternal life. Eternal life will obtain here, upon the earth, and men will enter into it.