What God Did For Us

Hebrews 10:1-18

Preached 6/1/2025

INTRODUCTION

I have been planning a fill-in message in my head for the past several months from Hebrews 10:24-25 titled “Consider”, after the active imperative of those verses. When I got the call yesterday and started looking in earnest at the passage, however, I realized that I had miscalculated what the scope of that message should be, and that there was no way to preach those two verses without talking about the context found in the rest of chapter ten. Since I am scheduled to preach again in three weeks, I want to take the opportunity to talk about the first half of the chapter today before I dare to talk about the later verses.

There is a real danger when doing a regular read-through of scripture, which is that when we take on the entire Bible it is easy to be task-oriented, reading the required number of chapters per day to fulfill your personal goals and realizing (or not realizing, more likely), that you have spent five minutes reading a chapter and when you finish you only remember maybe one verse or a word that stood out but you don’t really appreciate the flow and majesty of what you have just read. This is often my problem, especially in a rich book like Hebrews. I discovered this when I sat down yesterday to read through this chapter, and I was blown away by what I had missed.

There are two things that struck me during yesterday’s studying that I want to make a part of today’s journey. One is that our verses today have a strong parallel to Paul’s description of Jesus in the second chapter of Philippians. The second is the parallel between Hebrews 10 and Romans 8 and 12.

Let’s look at the structure of the chapter in the context of Hebrews. Remember that the author writer of this book was writing to Jewish Christians who, though they had believed in Jesus, they were now beginning to consider falling away to their old religion due to social pressures or even persecution. They seemed to be saying “isn’t being religious enough? We are dealing with a lot of hassle over following Jesus”, or “I get so much comfort from the old rituals and ceremonies - doctrine just divides us”. The writer of the epistle spends the first nine and a half chapters talking about the stark difference between the Mosaic system that they wanted to fall back on and the gospel of Jesus Christ. He compares the man Moses to Jesus the Son of God. He compares the temple priests, who need to offer sacrifices for their own sins, to Jesus, the great High Priest in heaven who offered Himself. He compares the animal sacrifices in the temple to the divine Lamb of God who came, as John the Baptist preached, to “take away the sins of the world”.

In chapter ten the author completes his doctrinal teaching, and then starting in verse 19, with the word “therefore”, he begins his application section. He admonishes them, in the light of the greatness of God’s revealed gospel, not to turn away from the manifold blessings that they have in Christ. Paul does the same in Romans, where his doctrinal explanation of justification reaches its climax in chapter eight, and then (after the parenthesis of chapters 9-11) he starts his admonitional section in verse one with the famous words:

Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

As we will see in the next sermon, the writer of the book of Hebrews follows the same basic format. First comes the why, and then comes the what (and how). But this week we will see one other parallel: Paul tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. The writer of Hebrews presents Jesus as the one who obediently presented his own body as a living sacrifice, selflessly, being not only our Savior, but also the fullest example for us of all that God requires of us. We love because He first loved us. We humbly serve, because He first humbly served. We live for Him because He lived for us. We support the church because He sacrificed Himself to create it and because He loves it and because He lives to make intercession for it in heaven and because He made us a part of it.

Let’s get into the text. For those who do the fill-ins, we will be talking about Futility, Freedom and Fulfillment.

I  Mired in Futility (1-4)

Chapter ten verses 1 through 18 summarize the difference between the old and new covenant with relation to justification and the forgiveness of sins. The first four verses give a description of the Mosaic sacrificial system. Unlike the sacrifice of Christ, the sacrifices go on and on and on.

Heb 10:1-4   ¹ For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. ² Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? ³ But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. ⁴ For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Notice the words used here:

• “continually offered”
• “never … make perfect”,
•  “reminder of sins every year”
• “impossible… to take away sins”, 

There is a sense of futility and monotony in the words used. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, and century after century there was a steady stream of sacrificial animals, offered by a steady stream of fallible human priests. A steady stream of animal blood pours forth from the altar, but salvation is never complete and never will be complete. In fact, the animals were not even able to make atonement for a human sinner, so those who brought the animals were never saved from the final wrath of God by the killing of an animal.

In the earlier chapters of Hebrews the author used the words “once for all” three times to describe the sacrifice of Christ, the lamb of God, on the cross. In chapter nine he wrote:

Hebrews 9:24-26  ²⁴ For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. ²⁵ Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, ²⁶ for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

So if the sacrifices ordained through Moses did not save, why was it implemented and why were the Israelites commanded to do them?  Because, as verse one informs us, the good things (Jesus and the Cross) were going to come, and the law was given as a “shadow” of those things. As Paul wrote to the Galatians: “the Law has become our tutor [to lead us] to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” (Gal 3:24 NASB95)  The law was a signpost from God pointing to the great work He would do to save the world from the sin first propagated to the entire human race by Adam. Jesus is “the true form of these realities” to which the shadows point. Falling back from the gospel to the old system of animal sacrifice is falling back from the glorious reality of the gospel to the time before, when the plan of salvation was something that even the angels longed to look into (1 Peter 1:12) but were looked forward to through faith. Now that the true reality is here, going back is beyond foolish. It would be like eating the menu in a restaurant after the actual food arrived at your table because the pictures look yummy. As we are asked back in chapter two of Hebrews, “how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” (Heb 2:3)

So, leaving the shadows behind, let’s look at the true reality of God’s wondrous salvation:

II  Exalted to Freedom (5-13)

As we come to verse five, we leave behind the shadows and futility and meet the hero of our story. I think that this verse ought to be read to some sort of superhero fanfare with words like “Here He comes to save the day!”  So what is this hero like?

Heb 10:5a   Consequently, when Christ came into the world,

Right from the start we see Someone different from all of the rest of lost humanity. This Hero came from outside of our world to save us. Why do we need someone from outside?  We were Adam’s fallen children, unable to save ourselves, slaves to the power and penalty of sin, in rebellion against God. We were “dead in trespasses and sins … separated from Christ … having no hope and without God in the world.” (Eph 2:1, 12). Every one of us sinned and had “fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). We were, as Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter three “already condemned.” No human merely of this earth could die for someone else’s sin as a substitute because we all were dead in our own sins. But Jesus is different. He is a high priest that was “tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15).  In other words, this hero is our only hope!

Jesus is more than just an alien without sin. When He came into this world He was not just different from us morally, He was different by nature. He was God the son, his names include “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isa 9:6) And yet, He condescended to become one of us, willingly surrendering for a time his glorious eternal existence in heaven so that He could show us what God is like and complete his mission of salvation. As Paul wrote to the Philippians:

Phil 2:5-7 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Let’s continue in Hebrews:

Heb 10:5b-7  ⁵ he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; ⁶ in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. ⁷ Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”

Knowing that the animal sacrifices were just the shadow that pointed to the promised divine sacrifice, Jesus sanctified (or set aside) Himself for the task. He did not withhold his own body, but instead he offered Himself as a living sacrifice. In full devotion and obedience to the Father he gave everything He had. Look at Paul’s next words in Philippians:

Philippians 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

This man who came to earth, became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14) then allowed himself to be killed as a criminal, though He had never committed any sins and was the only human being in all history who did not deserve to die. Continuing in Hebrews:

Heb 10:8-12a  ⁸ When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law), ⁹ then he added, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second. ¹⁰ And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹ And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹² But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,

The glory of God’s plan is that, unlike the shadow (or any other invented religion of human merit) the willing sacrifice of this perfect, sinless God-Man at Calvary wondrously accomplished the complete and eternal salvation of everyone who trusts in Him. As a true member of the human race, his sacrifice was a kind-for-kind trade. He kept the law of God where we could not, and could offer his righteous standing before God to us and take our punishment upon Himself. As the divine Son, his sacrifice was sufficient for more than one person. It was sufficient for everyone from all ages who trusted in this Savior sent by God.

As God He knew that “we are but dust” (Psalm 103:14). He knew that God was pleased not by the sacrifices of animals, but with the faith of those who, like Solomon, said: “there is no one who does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46) and like Job, said “For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God…” (Job 19:25-26)  Knowing all this, Jesus the “true form” of the sacrifice by offering Himself to die, bringing salvation to us. Continuing in Hebrews we read:

Heb 2:12-13  ¹² But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

We don’t just have empty promises. He did not stay dead, but rose again. He “was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead” (Rom 1:4).  “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” as Peter preached in Jerusalem at Pentecost (Act 2:24). And having completed his sacrifice, Jesus was exalted to heaven, where He is sitting at the right hand of God and destined for total victory over all of his enemies. 

Looking back at Philippians chapter two, Paul ends that section with a similar picture:

Philippians 2:9-11  ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

What does that mean for those of us who trust in Jesus?

III  From Futility to Fulfillment (14-19)

Every story of a hero goes on to show us the story of the one who is rescued, right? If Superman rescued someone from an erupting volcano but then dropped them in front of a resulting tsunami, or if Spiderman rescued someone from being robbed but left them hanging from a web at the top of the Empire State building, that would not be a good hero story, right? But Jesus did not just save us from something, but also for something.  He did not pay off our debt to God and leave us poor. His salvation is full, magnanimous, multi-faceted and complete. He is the hero of heroes.

Let’s look at his list of benefits. First of all, his salvation is complete.

Heb 10:14  For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

We are not saved on the installment plan. Jesus does not have to be sacrificed daily just a little bit more to take care of small sins that were not paid for at Calvary. When He finished bearing the entire weight of God’s wrath against our sin, finishing the atonement of all of our sins, he said “It is finished” (using a word that was used on documents when a debt was “paid in full”). He then rose from the dead to show that his words were true. (If He had stayed dead we would not have any sure hope like we do because of the resurrection, right?). There is no Purgatory, no “temporary hell” left to pay for any little sins not included in his sacrifice on the cross. He has “perfected for all time” those of us who are saints in Christ. Not based on our deeds or our moral superiority but only based on His perfect righteousness. This salvation is complete and eternal!

What else does this hero give us?

Heb 10:15-16  ¹⁵ And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, ¹⁶ “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”

We are not left as orphans. God has not left us to rot in sin on this world. Rather than just giving us a written law on stones, He has given us his Holy Spirit as a pledge of our inheritance, and the Spirit has given us a new heart and a new desire and ability to please God. Our very hearts and minds are changed. We are not perfected yet, but the orientation of our hearts has been changed if we have been saved.  As Paul wrote to the Philippians:

Phil 3:12, 14 ¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ... ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

The final listed benefit is assurance and rest from the eternal treadmill of trying to earn salvation by dead sacrifices and deader works. He has rescued us from futility and fear. Look at verses 17 and 18:  

Heb 10:17-18  ¹⁷ then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” ¹⁸ Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

There is nothing left to fear. There is no debt left to pay. Human religions, with their dead works morality, are repealed, replaced with a loving and gratitude-filled pursuit of righteousness, helped by the very Holy Spirit of God, leading us to holiness and righteousness and away from the sin which so easily besets our old nature. Instead of the religions of human accomplishment, by which we stand before God and ignorantly boast to Him of how He should be impressed by us, there is a relationship, initiated and provided for by God, for those He loves and will live peacefully with forever.  Praise God for his goodness!

Conclusion

The author of the letter to the Hebrews has set the stage now for the second half of the chapter. He has given us the why, but now we must look at the what. What do we do, now that we are Christians? Well, that is for the next sermon. (It’s not like I am being mysterious, we can all read ahead).

But we can take two things directly from the first 19 verses. First of all, we can ask ourselves if we might be in the same position as those for whom this letter was first written. We can ask ourselves:

Are we tempted to do the same thing that the recipients of this letter did? Are we content with religion without Jesus? Do we want to trust in ourselves rather than the Lamb of God, who died once for all to accomplish what would be impossible for us to do? Do we prefer our futile works to the divine gift of Jesus’ righteousness? Do we prefer a life without friction to a glorious eternity with God?

Secondly, just like Paul in Romans 8, the author of this book as left us (hopefully) full of excitement and gratitude. We can say with King David (from Psalm 103):

1     Bless the LORD, O my soul,
          and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
2     Bless the LORD, O my soul,
          and forget not all his benefits,
3     who forgives all your iniquity,
          who heals all your diseases,
4     who redeems your life from the pit,
          who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5     who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. ...
 
8     The LORD is merciful and gracious,
          slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9     He will not always chide,
          nor will he keep his anger forever.
10   He does not deal with us according to our sins,
          nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11   For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
          so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12   as far as the east is from the west,
          so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
13   As a father shows compassion to his children,
          so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.
14   For he knows our frame;
          he remembers that we are dust.
15   As for man, his days are like grass;
          he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16   for the wind passes over it,
          and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
 
17a But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him

Only Jesus (Nobody Between Us, Nobody!)

Hebrews and other various scriptures.

Preached 11/10/2024

[audio]

 

INTRODUCTION

The opportunity to preach this time came with very little warning, and since I am preparing to continue in 1 John two weeks from today (and am not ready yet) I decided to talk about something that has been in my heart for the last couple of years. Those who come to our Sunday School will find a lot of the thoughts familiar but hopefully this will speak to all of your hearts. What I want to do this morning is simply to exalt our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We hear the term “Christian” today used by a lot of religions, churches, denominations, cults and organizations. The general consensus in our culture seems to be that anyone who gives any credit to someone named “Jesus” or “Christ” is a Christian and if, for instance, an evangelical were to question whether a Jehovah’s Witness or a Mormon were not “real” Christians we would be  condemned by many in our culture. But the gospel is uniquely about two things: the person of Jesus Christ, and how sinners can be saved by Him. Many of the writers in the New Testament give us strong warnings against falling for “other gospels” or for “another Jesus”, so we are duty bound to guard the doctrine of Jesus and of salvation. Why? Because, without Jesus and without the gospel we are lost. As Jesus told Nicodemus at the start of his three-year public ministry, God sent his unique Son so that whoever believed in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. Then He said that without this salvation all of us were “condemned already”. In other words, we need Him and the salvation that He brings.

Over twenty centuries there have been many church councils, theological controversies, and even political battles to keep the professing church in line with the truth, and the biggest fight started about 500 hundred years ago with a group of reformers who looked in scripture and saw that their own church had drifted quite a bit from scripture and added various new traditions that even contradicted holy writ. They were not successful at their attempts at reforms and so Protestantism was born, which is what our own fellowship a part of. We call ourselves evangelical, or “born again”, or “bible-believing” here, and we preach the gospel of salvation by faith in Christ and not by human works here. We try to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission by educating our members so that they can “make disciples of all nations”. To this day most of us understand why the reformers broke with Rome, though it is not quite true that the Catholic church believes in works and we believe in faith. It is more complex that that, and, as they say, the devil is in the details.

But I don’t want to get into these arguments today. (If anyone wants to study them there are many books about it. One that I would recommend is R.C. Sproul’s book Are We Together.) Instead, I want to have a positive talk about the two things I mentioned before:

• Who Jesus is, and
• What Jesus does for us.

If we really appreciate those two things our spiritual lives with be full of joy and hope and, just like money handlers are trained to detect counterfeit money by learning about real money, we will be safe from those who, knowingly or unwittingly, try to put distance between us and our wonderful Lord. A lot of this sermon will involve just reading passages from the New Testament about Jesus, with many of them coming from the book of Hebrews. Remember that the book of Hebrews was written to believers who were feeling the temptation of going back into their previous religion to fit in, warning them of how much they were short-changing themselves on the blessings that they had in Christ. Let’s proceed:

 

I  He Is God

The first thing we must understand is that Jesus is divine. John calls Him the Word in his gospel, who was in the beginning, who was with God and who was God. Though mighty angels rightly rejected worship in the bible, saying to worship only God, Jesus freely accepted worship. He used such clear language about this that the religious leaders of his day wanted to put Him to death because He was “making Himself equal with God”. Paul says to the Colossians that “in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” (Col 2:9).  The writer of Hebrews starts on this point and he pulls no punches:

Heb 1:1-4   ¹ Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. ³ 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. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ⁴ having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

This language makes it clear that Jesus is not just a great prophet or a wise teacher, or even (as some teach) a great guy that became a vessel for “the spirit of Christ” for a little while. He is not just a person “created in God’s image” – he is the One who literally holds the universe together by “the word of his power”.

Why is this important to us? Isn’t this just a doctrinal detail that is okay for theologians to debate but doesn’t impact our lives? Consider what it means to be God. What attributes are unique to God that separate Him from all that He created? Of course there are those big words that start with the prefix “Omni”:

• He is Omnipotent – all powerful (as evidenced by the fact that the entire universe exists by his word).
• He is Omniscient – He knows all things. The corollary of that is that one thing God can’t do is learn. That means He knows more than us, even about ourselves. Nothing is hidden from his sight, nothing surprises Him. And, as Jesus said: “your Father knows shat you need before you ask him.”
• He is Omnipresent – He is always at hand, near to all who call on him (Ps 145:18). Also, we can’t escape from Him.
• He is Eternal – He was from the beginning and He will reign forever and ever.
• He is Holy – this is important for our salvation as we will see later.

So why is this important for us? Our Savior Jesus Christ will be able to keep any promise that He makes. He will never grow tired. He can “cause all things to work together for good” for his people. He will always be available when we pray. He will always know us intimately. He will never be too busy with other work. If He can maintain the uncountable atoms in the entire universe, do we need an intermediary to get his attention?  Ridiculous! We don’t need a priest to relay our requests to him for us, and we certainly don’t need to talk to his mom to get his attention. Most of all, we can depend on Him. As we read in Hebrews:

Heb 13:8  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

 

II  He Became Like Us

The second thing we learn is that God the Son made the decision to join us in our humanity. John wrote “He became flesh and dwelt among us”. Paul wrote: “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:6-8 ESV). The writer of Hebrews tells us several reasons why He did this:

Heb 2:9-11, 14, 17-18   ⁹ But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. ¹⁰ For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. ¹¹ For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, … ¹⁴ Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ... ¹⁷ Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

When Jesus joined us in our humanity (while not sacrificing any of what He was before), He did several things:

• He made it possible to be the sacrifice for our sins by dying on the cross,
• He manifested God in a form that we could see and interact with – even a “brother” to us in a real sense,
• And by living a life as a human being he shows his sympathy for our troubles so that we can rely on Him for help. He did it, not for his own learning, but so that God would not seem remote or unreachable. He stepped down because we couldn’t step up. 

What love God has manifested through the incarnation! The infinite invisible Creator of the universe stepped into his own universe to be with his own created beings. As John wrote in his gospel: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” (John 1:18)

 

III  He Bought Our Salvation

The third thing that we know about Jesus Christ is that He completed his mission to save hell-bound sinners from God’s own righteous and holy wrath. Our hope does not rest on our own deeds, or on our ability to somehow talk God into letting us off the hook. Jesus is our only refuge. As Hebrews tells us:

Heb 6:18b-20   ¹⁸ that … we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. ¹⁹ We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, ²⁰ where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

In the Old Testament God through Moses gave a priesthood to Israel. The job of the priest was to be a go-between between God and his people. The priest stood in the holy area that they people could not enter and made blood sacrifices to cover the sins of the people so that they could be near Him. Without priests, the people could not approach God, and without a sacrifice the priest could not cleanse the people from their sins. But the Levitical priesthood was merely a picture of what God had planned for our salvation. Sheep and bulls and goats had no moral affinity for humans. God had his own lamb to sacrifice, and this Lamb had two required qualities: He must be a human to effectively die in another human’s place, and He must be devine so that He could escape the inherited sin of mankind and so that his infinite sacrifice of Himself would be effective for all who trusted in Him. Which is why John the Baptist introduced Him with the words: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:19)

But Jesus was more than the Lamb. He also fulfilled the role of a priest, in that He bridged the gap between man and God for all time. In this way the priesthood was abolished forever. When the sacrifice was over, Jesus said “It is finished”. As He died, God tore the veil in the temple separating the Holy of Holies from the people. Now all who trust in Him are fully cleansed and need no more sacrifices – EVER. Now we must read several passages from Hebrews, from chapters 7, 9 and 10. Note the difference between the old priesthood and the priesthood of Jesus:

Heb 7:23-28  ²³ The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, ²⁴ but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. ²⁵ Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. ²⁶ For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. ²⁷ He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. ²⁸ For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

Also note wording like “once for all”, “for all time”, “perfected” and “single”:

Heb 9:11-12, 24-26  ¹¹ But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) ¹² he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. ... ²⁴ For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. ²⁵ Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, ²⁶ for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Heb 10:10-14  ¹⁰ And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹ And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹² But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. ¹⁴ For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Heb 10: 19-22  ¹⁹ Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

What does this all mean? It means that we now have confidence before God. Unlike those who are attempting to earn God’s favor by trying not to sin so much, those who trust in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross can trust that the work is finished. It means that if we tell people that they need to do good deeds to earn any part of their salvation we insult the blood that Jesus shed for us. If we trust in Him, his single sacrifice is completely sufficient to accomplish our entire salvation forever. The earthly priests had to stand continually while they worked, but the bible tells us that when He finished, Jesus sat down at the Father’s right hand. The job was done. If any church claims that Jesus is still being literally sacrificed to pay for sins they are spitting on the “once for all” and denying Jesus’ own words when He said “it is finished”. Our cross is empty, signifying that we believe that Jesus is now in heaven, providing us access to God’s throne.  As Paul put it:

Ephesians 2:13-18  ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. ¹⁷ And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

 

IV He Is Our Advocate

Usually I have three points, but one of the best – but overlooked – needs to be mentioned. What is our Lord Jesus Christ doing now?  If He is way up in heaven, and He is “sitting”, does that mean that He is tired and busy with other stuff now?  Are we who have trusted in Him for salvation now left to our own devices, with God still far off? Is the priesthood of Jesus now complete, necessitating the continuation of some sort of intermediary class of people or beings to take our messages back and forth to heaven? Even if there are no more sacrifices to accomplish, do we still need an earthly priesthood to be God’s representatives to us and our representatives to God? Do we need saints to go back and forth and put in a good word for us with God? What if we still commit sins?

The apostle John wrote: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1-2)  The sacrifice is complete, and the Lamb of God is in heaven as our advocate. As our eternal defense lawyer, He can show the wounds that paid for our complete redemption whenever Satan accuses us of sin. Paul wrote this to Timothy:

1 Ti 2:5-6  ⁵ For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶ who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

With the sacrifice of Jesus completed, we all have access to heaven. He will never need to be sacrificed again, but until we are glorified in heaven and become perfect He will act as our high priest in heaven. He will be our defense attorney forever, and he is always listening to our prayers. He knows that we are but dust, and when He died on the cross it was for all of our sins, past, present and future. The salvation He provides is the full package!

Heb 4:14-16  ¹⁴ Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

But in a way there is still a priesthood. The bible calls us a kingdom of priests. The only human priesthood on earth now is done by all believers. As Paul wrote:

2 Corinthians 5:18-19  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

The mediator between believers and God is Jesus. He then leaves us to represent Jesus to others. When they believe the gospel they have access to God and now represent Jesus to the world. But the only sacrifice that we do is the sacrifice of ourselves in obedience and gratitude and worship, as Paul wrote in Romans 12:1. Not a blood sacrifice, but a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

 

Conclusion

What should this mean to us?  How does this affect us? 

We should be angry if anyone tries to get between us and Jesus, putting intermediaries between us and God or implying that we need to supplement the work of Christ by our own goodness or by sacrificing Jesus again.  But we should avoid letting ourselves get complacent or loosing our wonder and joy at the fact that Jesus did all that He did so that we could know God and be with Him forever in joy.  Is Jesus precious to you?  Is He a part of your hopes, your aspirations, your thoughts, or your daily life? Is church a chore or a joy? Is praise pouring from your heart this morning, or just a yawn?

I will finish with a few verses from Paul:

Philippians 3:3b, 7, 8, 10a, 20-21  ³ we … glory in Christ Jesus ...  ⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ  … ¹⁰ that I may know him ... ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

And this prayer by Paul:

Ephesians 3:14-19  ¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶ that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

 

Solus Christus

1 John 5:6-13

 Preached 12/15/2024 [Previous Sermon]

[audio]

INTRODUCTION

The apostle John is a simple writer, but his themes are very deep and profound. Of the four gospels, John’s gives us the deepest revelations of Jesus’ divine nature and of the absolute sovereignty that God exercises in our salvation. He talks about how God so loved the world that He gave us his Son, so that everybody who believes in him can have eternal life. At the end of his gospel he tells us that he wrote it so that we might believe in Jesus, and that through believing in Him we could have eternal life.

The first of John’s letters, found near the back of your bible, has a different purpose. In this letter, he is writing to those who have come to believe in Jesus. The topic and purpose for his letter, which we have talked about for the last two years, is found in today’s text:

1 John 5:13  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.

Though I plan one sermon after this one, today’s passage is the climax of John’s letter of comfort for we who believe. John speaks a lot about truth and about love. But another word that he likes is the word “know”. And he is writing this letter to all true believers in Jesus that he wants them to have confidence that they have eternal life. He wants us all to have assurance of our salvation.

Now a lot of people claim that they expect to go to heaven when they die, but if pressed they will say “I think I will be going there”. In other words, they hope that they are going to make it. If we ask why they think they will make it, they will usually say something like “I think that I am a good person”, or that “I try to do more good things than bad things.” But the gospel is not kind to human pride and tells us that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23) and that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23a). Instead, we are called upon to believe in Jesus to receive salvation free of charge, “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 6:23 again) We are saved, says Paul “by grace… through faith, … not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8) and “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy”. (Titus 3:5) We are told to trust, and John wants us to be confident that we have eternal life. Thus he has written to us about assurance.

Now assurance is a tricky topic, and controversial. Not all churches teach it, even though surely John is talking about it in 5:13 of this letter. In fact, when the reformers taught that this doctrine was clearly taught in the bible, the Roman Catholic church responded (at the council of Trent):  If any one saith, that he will for certain, of an absolute and infallible certainty, have that great gift of perseverance unto the end, -unless he have learned this by special revelation; let him be anathema. 

So we must ask, are there reasons why we should be should think that having assurance is a bad thing? Surely. For one thing, many people think that they are saved when they aren’t. Remember that John talked about them back in chapter two. He called them antichrists, people who hung around the church and looked like everybody else but later they skedaddled away, revealing their true state.  Also, Paul addresses a big issue in Romans just after talking about free justification through faith in Christ by asking whether having our sins – past, present, and future – fully forgiven meant that, since we now have our free ticket to heaven why wouldn’t that mean that we are now free to just sin all the time? Paul later writes for Christians to “work out their salvation with fear and trembling”. (Phil 2:12) James challenges Christians with the statement “faith without works is dead”.

So, we might reason, maybe it is better if everybody goes through life with some serious doubt about their salvation. Human logic at least would say that this is good because it will keep us on the straight and narrow, doing good works, attending church, donating to charity, and keeping our language clean. But John is stubborn here. He has written an entire letter to let Christians know that they have eternal life. So what would be the reason for this? What benefit is there in having assurance of eternal life? There are actually good reasons for this.

Assurance lets us live lives of peace and joy. Back at the start of this very letter John told us “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete” (1:4) Reading through the letter, we see that he wants us to know that God is our Father (2:14). He wants us to be strong and defeat the evil one (2:13-14) and to love God rather than the world (2:15-16). He wants us to trust God and his promises (2:26). He wants us to have confidence and not fear approaching God (2:28). He wants us to purify ourselves (3:3). He wants us to love one another (ch 3-4). He wants our hearts to be reassured (3:19). He wants us to be free from fear (4:15-19). And he wants us to be confident in prayer (5:14-18). And that is just from this letter!

As I mentioned last time, however, the first four chapters leave us with a quandary. People don’t have assurance because they don’t know that they are good enough to make it to heaven. John purports to fix this by giving us a series of tests by which a saved individual may be identified. These tests fell into three categories: moral, doctrinal, and social, or if you prefer, tests of obedience, truth, and love. Do you keep God’s commandments? Do you believe that Jesus came in the flesh, lived, died and rose again bodily? Do you love God and also the people of God? The problem that becomes obvious to us as we read through it is that none of us come out perfect in this testing scheme at all.

But in the first four verses of chapter five John comes full circle and brings us back to faith. Our faith overcomes the world. But it is not just raw belief that does it. It is a trust in Jesus, the Son of God. John is not contradicting Paul’s theology or even James’. They all say the same thing, just in different ways. Paul explains justification by faith and then answers sticky questions about how it works out in real life. James comes from the other side and addresses the issue of how faith works out because that is the part that we see. But both speak of faith. John was neither as methodical as Paul nor as combative as James, but he instead subtly wove the two themes together and cleverly constructed a tapestry that only revealed its story when it was completed. He built up the picture slowly in a way that generates an intuitive understanding of the mysterious but glorious wonder of salvation by faith.

The simple story of all three writers is that

(1)     salvation is a miracle wrought by God in the hearts of sinners by the power of his Holy Spirit without any righteousness or work on our part because we could not save ourselves, and

(2)     when He saves a person they are made new and sealed by the Holy Spirit, and that nature will always manifest itself in real life. As Jesus put it: “you shall know them by their fruits”.

As some of the reformers put it: “Faith alone saves, but faith that saves is not alone.” And the fruit that comes from the new nature is threefold, as John has explained in the preceding chapters.

 

I  We Trust Christ Because He Alone Did The Work – (The Testimony of the Apostles) (6a):

That brings us to our text for today. Verse five was the transition into John’s conclusion, and verse six begins John’s explanation of the saving faith he spoke of.  Let’s read verse five and the start of verse six:

1 John 5:5-6a Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he who came by water and blood--Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood.

At this point I want to mention that there are various controversies on the interpretation on verses 6-9 with regard to what John is referring to when he talks about “water and blood” in verses 6 and 8. (There is another issue we will talk about later). When reading various commentaries there are a lot of suggestions about what John is talking about.Some suggest that the water refers to Jesus’ birth (where the water would be amniotic or other bodily fluids) and the blood refers to his birth or his death. Others suggest that they both refer what flowed out from Jesus’ side when the centurion pierced his side with a spear. Others say that they refer to the ordinances of baptism and communion in the church.

The majority of modern conservative commentators that I have consulted seem to agree that John is referring to two events in Jesus’ life that were involved in heresies that John has addressed already in this letter, his baptism and his crucifixion. Remember back in chapter four, John told us:

1 John 4:2-3a By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

And then in chapter five we read:

1John 5:1a, 5  ¹ Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, … ⁵ Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

In these verses John affirms that believers will believe in a Jesus who (a) is the Son of God, an eternal member of the trinity, and who (b) took on human nature, becoming like us and living a real life on earth with us, and (c) He is the promised Messiah. Jesus is the great God-man, the only one who is qualified to accomplish our salvation.

Why would John reference his baptism and his crucifixion here? Consider that the nature of Jesus is the first doctrine messed with by cults, his deity being the doctrine that is the most attacked. The JWs declares that Jesus is a created angel, named Michael. The LDS church makes him the physical child of a god named Elohim whose brother was Lucifer. Islam declares him to be a great prophet who specifically did not die on the cross (because their god caused the soldiers to grab the wrong guy at the last minute).

The heresy that John was dealing with, is still seen today in some cults, was that Jesus was just a regular man until his baptism. When He was baptized, they say, the spirit of the Christ descended on Him for three years but abandoned Him while He was on the cross, so what died on the cross was just the man, no longer the Christ. But John contradicts this with his statement in verse six. Jesus was he who came by (or through, or into) the water. He was the Christ, the Messiah, before the Holy Spirit descended on him in the Jordan river. He was the eternal Word who became flesh, not the flesh who became the Word.

Then John makes his point clearer. He did not come just by water only, but by the water and the blood. The Jesus who died on the cross and rose again and who was baptized was God in flesh. If He was not deity, his death would be insufficient to be the propitiation for the sins of millions and millions of believers. Even if He could die in the place of one other human, as a mere human He would have had to endure an eternity of suffering for that one man’s sin. But as a regular man, and therefore a sinner, He would have to spend eternity in hell for his own sins so He would have been useless in procuring our salvation. On the other hand, if He was not human in his life and death He would not have been able to identify with us in his death, any more than animals. Remember the verse in Hebrews 10:4 - For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

So saving faith trusts in a Christ who is both God and man. A Christ who died a sacrificial death in space-time history on a cross outside of Jerusalem. Any other Christ is imaginary and also insufficient to accomplish our salvation. There is no assurance, John says, in a faith resting on a false Christ.

But why should anyone have faith in these signs? Because they were testified to by hundreds of people, especially by the eleven apostles who testified to the world, most of them staking their testimonies by accepting painful deaths rather than recant. And John declared himself one of those witnesses at the beginning of this letter. Remember how he started it?

1 John 1:1-3a  That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life-the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you,

The testimony of John, the last living apostle, was the same testimony as the other apostles. Notice the words heard, seen, looked upon, touched with our hands. He even repeats these words. This Jesus, this God-man, can save us, and no other. And John has placed him firmly on our planet in space and time for us to know and believe in.

 

II We Trust Christ Because He Alone Has God’s Testimony (6b-10):

Having witnessed about Jesus himself, John now refers to the rules of evidence from the Mosaic Law. In Numbers and Deuteronomy God declared that nobody could be condemned on the basis of the testimony of only one witness (Num 35:30, Deut 17:6 & 19:15). And the witnesses have to agree for their testimony to be valid. This is the reason that, during Jesus’ trial the Sanhedrin were frustrated because they could not get the testimony of any two or three of Jesus’ accusers to agree in their details.

Jesus Himself when the Pharisees and scribes were questioning his credentials gave this defense:

John 5:31-35,37a,39  ³¹ "If I [alone] testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. ³² "There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true. ³³ "You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. ³⁴ "But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. ³⁵ "He was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. …  ³⁷ And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. … ³⁹ "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;

Jesus cites three witnesses to back up his own testimony to them: (1) John the Baptist, (2) God the Father (through the miracles given to Him to do), and (3) the Old Testament, which prophesied about Him.  John now cites three witnesses in these verses: The Holy Spirit and the aforementioned water and blood.

I John 5:6b-8   ⁶ This is he who came by water and blood--Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷ For there are three that testify: ⁸ the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.

The Holy Spirit has many ministries in the life of a believer. It is the Spirit who first makes us alive when we are dead in our sins. Jesus told his disciples after the Last Supper that He would send them the Holy Spirit, who would guide them “into all the truth” (John 16:13). Paul wrote in the great chapter eight of the book of Romans:

Romans 8:14-17a ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" ¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

This is what is referred to as the internal witness of the Holy Spirit where God reveals to the heart of a believer who Jesus is and provides faith in the newly-built heart.  John has already mentioned this ministry of revealing Christ and keeping the believer in Christ back in chapter two. Right after he spoke of the fake believers who left the church, John wrote to his readers:

1 Jn 2:20-21, 25, 27  ²⁰ But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. ²¹ I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. ... ²⁵ And this is the promise that he made to us--eternal life. ... 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.

Going back to the water and the blood, consider the testimony of God at those times. When Jesus was baptized, God the Father spoke from heaven, saying  "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." (Matt 3:17)  The Holy Spirit descended upon Him then so that in that scene every member of the Trinity was represented in unity. At the crucifixion Jesus’ blood was shed for us. As it happened, the Father gave many signs, including three hours of darkness, earthquakes, and even the resurrection of some Old Testament saints. The veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom when the sacrifice was finished, and then Jesus rose from the dead three days later, about which Paul wrote that “[He] was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 1:4).

John therefore establishes the credentials of Jesus as our redeemer, not based on human testimony, but on God’s testimony, with three witnesses, fulfilling the Old Testament law for valid testimony. Since we are told elsewhere in scripture that God is not able to lie, this is sufficient. John emphasizes the strength of this testimony in the next two verses:

1 John 5:9-10  ⁹ If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. ¹⁰ 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.

In other words, if the rules of evidence are sufficient for us to credit mere human testimony as true, how much more shall the testimony of God be received?  And this testimony is not just that we should believe in some guy called Jesus. His testimony is about a specific individual, the Messiah, the Son of God, the God-man who died as the full propitiation for the sin of everyone who trusts in Him and who rose again and now sits at the Father’s right hand as our eternal advocate, the only person in the universe who could accomplish this because of who He is.

III  We Trust Christ Because He Alone Is Eternal Life – (The testimony of God) (11-13,20):

So God has testified at the bench in Jesus’ behalf, and his testimony is determinative. What has He testified about Jesus? What eternal truth has God promised all who trust in Jesus Christ? How does his testimony give us assurance?

1 John 5:11   And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

So in the end, those who trust in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have eternal life. There are several important parts of this testimony, so we should parse these words carefully.

First, all Christians have been given eternal life. John lists this in past tense, which means that if you are trusting in Christ you already have eternal life. It is not life that is eternal in the future. It is not a promissory note for eternal life. It is not a long life that will be eternal unless you mess up and lose it. Eternal life that you can lose is not eternal life at all.

To be clear, this eternal life is not just a long, drawn out life in this broken world in an aging, sick ancient body. That is the body of this world before our final glorification. Unless the rapture comes soon, we will all experience death in this old body, but the new creation that God has caused to be born again within us will continue, and at the resurrection we will receive our eternal body. Body 2.0, we can call it. No sin nature in it, no sickness, no agony. A body that can stand in the presence of God’s glory in the new Jerusalem and not die. A holy body. A beautiful body. A body like that of the angels.

The second thing to notice is where our eternal life is. It is in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Imagine a million dollars sealed in an envelope. To get the million dollars you need to take the envelope. If you don’t have the envelope you don’t have the money. In the same way, the testimony of God is that only those who have Jesus have eternal life. As John elaborates in the next verse: 

1 John 5:12   Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Do you have Jesus? Then you have eternal life. Do you want eternal life?  God’s testimony is that you need Jesus. This is an either/or situation, and there is no third choice. Certainly this is not a popular doctrine for many people. We like to think that there is some sort of credit for trying. “All paths lead to God”. But we can’t reach God by ourselves, He is out of reach. And if you think about it, the saying “all paths lead to God” is a nonsense statement. It is like saying “all letters are Q”. How can the gospel be true at the same time as another religion that says God will take you to heaven if you, say, wear yellow socks, is true?  If I can get to heaven if I really believe that I can, then I am saying that Jesus’ sacrifice for my sin was a total waste of time. If I can earn eternal life by putting on yellow socks instead of trusting what God testified is the only way, I am spitting on Christ, I am calling Him a loser, a failure, someone who I am better than, because not only can I save myself, but I came up with a better way! What an insult. The writer of the book of Hebrews warned those who reject the gospel and have no sacrifice for their sins:

Hebrews 10:29 How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

The supremacy and uniqueness of Jesus is not a strange doctrine in a corner of the Bible. Jesus told his disciples “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Peter preached in Jerusalem (in the very first Christian sermon in history)  “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). John wrote of Jesus “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).

Jesus is eternal life. He said John 10 “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” And then specifically:

John 10:27-29   “²⁷My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. ³⁰I and the Father are one.”

 

Conclusion

There is no better deal in the universe. In Jesus there is utter security, because He is the only provision made by God for reconciling yourself with Him. So where is our security?  In the Son.  If you have the Son, you have life.

In the final three verses of this letter John summarizes his teaching here. Verse 20 tells of what we know, because of God’s testimony:

1 John 5:20  And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

If you have received Jesus Christ as your Savior, you can have peace, joy, and rest in Him. If you have not yet trusted Him, consider the question from Hebrews 2:3:

How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

Today can be the day that you receive eternal life. Will you trust Him today?