20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.
1 John 2:24-29
24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that He made to us - eternal life.
26 I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. 27 But the anointing that you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie - just as it has taught you, abide in Him.
28 And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.
I read an interesting article a number of years ago on how Christians feel about the certainty of their salvation. In one of many surveys done in Churches in the United States, people were asked if they could have just one question answered, what it would be. Of course, the usual questions about why is there so much suffering in the world and what about other religions were very popular, but one of the most asked questions by Bible believing Christians was this: “How can I know for certain I am saved?”
Even during the days of the early Church we read about in the New Testament, there was concern over the return of Jesus and whether they were truly saved. In 1 Thessalonians 4:13, Paul addresses this uncertainty when he talks about the second coming of Jesus, and he says, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.”
John makes it clear in our second reading today that there is eternal life for those who know and believe in Jesus. There was a sect during those days called the Gnostics. They taught that unless people had some special gift of knowledge, they would not be among the elect. So John counteracts them with God’s truth. False teachers who were trying to mislead followers of Jesus then, as today, were infiltrating the Church, and this is why he wrote in verse 24, “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you.”
John gave a reason for hope to these early Christians. He says that if the anointing remains in them, they do not need to be taught. In other words, they will be secure in Him first and foremost. Of course we need to get into Scripture in order to understand God and His ways.
Growing in knowledge of Him is important, but that is not the key to salvation. The key to salvation is the blood of Christ, and this is the basis of our hope and assurance of eternal life.
There are reasons for us to hope, and we need to be constantly reminded of this hope in a very confused world. There are all kinds of lies and mixed messages out there, and we need to base our hope on the truth of God, so that when we are confronted by anything other than the truth, we should be able to spot it immediately.
We have every reason to rejoice in the hope Jesus gives us. There is a promise of a richer, more abundant life in this world and also the promise of an infinitely greater life in the world to come. We hear about these promises at every memorial service we attend, so they are familiar to us, but how certain are we of the truth of these words?
Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came to that we might have life, and have it to the full. I’m stating the obvious here, but the people He was talking to already possessed life, so we can assume He was not talking about physical life, but rather about spiritual life.
Jesus gives us a new dimension of life, which is not dependent on how old or how young we are. We might be as fit as a fiddle or battling with a debilitating or even terminal illness, but Jesus still gives us life, and life to the full.
So although there is certainly the promise of the life to come, Jesus also regarded eternal life as a here-and-now reality, not something that is only realised after death. And He referred to this often. He said to Martha, just before raising her brother Lazarus back to life, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Just before He went to the cross, He said to His disciples in John 14:19, “Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.” Present tense.
In 1 John 5:11-13 John does the same thing, also in the present tense. “This is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”
This language is all in the present tense. He gives us the promise of an eternal life in the present tense.
How do we know that Christ can deliver on His promise of giving us eternal life? First of all, we know because He has all authority. As Jesus prayed in John 17:1-2, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given Him.”
And as He said to His disciples when He charged them with the Great Commission at the end of Matthew’s gospel, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” (Matthew 28:18)
Jesus will deliver on His promise because He has the authority.
Secondly, He is God Almighty. He says in Revelation 1:8, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
And thirdly, we know He will deliver on His promise because He is the one who holds not only all of creation, but life itself in His hand. He gives and sustains life. Hebrews 1:3 says, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power.” Jesus walked this earth as one of us, but at the same time He always was, always is, and always will be, the eternal God. This means He can deliver on His promise.
Furthermore, because God is eternal, He is able to speak about future events as though they were now. He can see the future because He is already there. He is not constrained by time and space like we are, and all things to Him are in the “present perfect” tense. In other words, they are as if they were already completed.
The question is often asked, if satan is defeated, why is there still so much evil in the world? It’s a good question, and one which creates much debate, but we ask it in the here and now.
If we were given a glimpse of eternity and were able to rise above the morning of the 16th of May 2021 for just a brief moment, we would see that satan has been defeated, and he has been defeated completely. He is a defeated enemy.
Eternal life is a gift offered to us by God, and it is signed, sealed and delivered by the blood of Jesus. So why then, do so many people struggle to believe it? I’ve heard people who have been sitting in Christian Churches Sunday after Sunday for decades say, “I hope to go to Heaven when I die.” Why is that?
Probably because there are many reasons why we should not have eternal life. All I need to do is look at my own life to realise this. We have been so disobedient and so disrespectful to God. Just before the Great Flood Genesis 6:5-6 says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart.”
And there are many other passages of Scripture that describe in great detail how desperately wicked we are and how far removed from the holiness of God we are. The one creature in all of creation, made in His image, made to represent the nature and character of God the most, is the one that represents Him the least. The last thing we deserve is eternal life with Him.
This is what makes the words of Romans 5:6-8 so incredible: “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
We know these words so well, but how often do we take the time to consider the awesome truth they proclaim? As we will be singing a little later this morning, “The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen could ever tell.”
So in a sense, it is actually quite easy to see why so many people wonder if they really are forgiven and if they really do have eternal life: It’s because it is so illogical. The world teaches us that you get out of life what you put into it. Reaping and sowing is a concept we understand. Do good, and eventually you’ll be rewarded. Live the life of a scoundrel, and one day your past will catch up with you. Generally speaking, that is how life works.
But God says no. He says to us, “You get out of life what I put into it. And I put Jesus Christ into your life, if only you would believe that.”
He gives us eternal life for at least three reasons, all of them suggested by John. 1) He loves us so much, 2) He calls His children, and 3) He raised Jesus from the dead.
Firstly, God gives us eternal life because He loves us so much. John begins chapter 3 of his first letter by writing, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” It’s the blood of Jesus that brings forgiveness for our sins, but it was the immeasurable love of God that made it possible for Him to go to the cross in the first place.
As Paul prays in Ephesians 3:14-19, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith - that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
And of course, what many consider to be the greatest verse in all of Scripture, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Eternal life is His love gift to us. It is one of the reasons we can know with absolute certainty that He will deliver what He promises.
Secondly, He gives us eternal life because we are His children. We are His. He says to the nation of Israel through the prophet Isaiah, “Thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.’” (Isaiah 43:1-3)
You are not just a follower or a servant of God. You are His very own child, and He would not promise you eternal life if it were an empty promise. You can know you have eternal life because your Heavenly Father says so.
And thirdly, we can be certain of eternity because God raised Jesus from the dead. The physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone on which the truth of God stands. It is the clincher. The resurrection of Jesus was the central theme of the early apostles’ preaching.
Next week is Pentecost Sunday, and we will be looking at Peter’s sermon in Acts 2, which climaxes with this proclamation in verse 36: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
The physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead, confirmed by Biblical and non-Biblical writings of the time and by thousands of eyewitnesses, is the seal of our hope in Christ. It is the clincher that proves eternal life is a reality.
John writes in 1 John 5:10-13, “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning His Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”
John wrote these words towards the end of his first letter, and he emphasises in verse 13 a twofold purpose for writing this epistle. Firstly, that we may believe in the name of the Son of God (that’s salvation), and secondly, that we may know that we have eternal life in Him (that’s assurance).
The big question is this: Whom do you believe? Not what do you believe, but whom do you believe? Do you believe God? Do you believe the record, the testimony He has given you in His Word?
God promises that if you have the Son, you have life. Do you believe that? That is what really matters. Remember, our feelings cannot be trusted. What we rely on are the facts, and the facts are that Jesus died for your sins, and as God raised Him from the dead, He offers you the same promise.
This is the reason John wrote his first letter, - “that you may know that you have eternal life” - and it is the same reason he wrote his Gospel. “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:30-31)
If you have the Son, you have life. God wants you to know that. It’s about trusting Him and taking Him at His word. It’s not a matter of how much faith you have or how you feel about it, it is whether or not you trust Christ. It’s the blessed assurance He offers you.
If you have put your faith in Jesus, then you can know this with absolute certainty: Eternal life is yours. It is His gift to you.
Homegroup Study Notes
Read 1 John 5:10-13
A message taught consistently in the New Testament is the certainty of the promise that God will grant eternal life to those who believe in Jesus, yet many Christians struggle to firmly believe this.
What reasons can you think of for us to doubt?
What are some of your struggles in this area?
Read Isaiah 43:1-3 and 1 John 3:1
What comfort are you able to take from these passages of Scripture?
Is there someone you know (possibly even in your group) who needs to be encouraged by these words?
1 John 2:24 says “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.”
What does this mean, and how should the words of this verse affect our lives of faith?
The resurrection of Jesus is a cornerstone of the Christian faith, and a firm proof that eternal life is a promise we can believe.
Why is the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus so important?