Epilogue
Revelation of the Eternal Life – Divine Witness
5:5 Who then is the one who overcomes the world? None other than the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. 5:6 This is the One who came through water and blood – Jesus Christ. Not by the water only, but by the water and by the blood. And the Spirit is the one who bears witness, because the Spirit is the truth. 5:7 There are in fact three witnesses – 5:8 the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and the three are in agreement.
5:9 If we accept human testimony, then we should accept God’s testimony which is greater. For this is the testimony of God, that He has testified about His Son. 5:10 The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony within himself. The one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has testified about His Son.
5:11 And this is the testimony: God gave eternal life to us and this life is in His Son. 5:12 The one who has the Son has this life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have this life. 5:13 I wrote these things to you, the ones who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have life, eternal life.
Translation by the author from the SBL Greek New Testament.
Summary of Verses 5:5-13
In this unit, John explains that Jesus came by “water and blood”, which is corroborated by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit reveals their significance and convinces the believer of the truth of the consecrated life and death of Jesus. So there are three witnesses that provide a true understanding of Jesus and are in agreement – the Holy Spirit, the water, and the blood.
This testimony finds a place in his heart of the person who believes in Jesus and issues in the experience of eternal life. But anybody who disbelieves this divine testimony is making God out to be a liar and cutting himself off from eternal life. [MARSHALL p. 230]
Click here for a full outline of First John.
Verse 5:9
If we accept human testimony,
“Human testimony” is “what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked at intently and our hands touched“. See verse 1:1.
then we should accept God’s testimony which is greater.
John makes an argument from lesser to greater. If we willing accept human testimony, how much more should we willing accept God’s testimony, who is always trustworthy and true.
Tragically, many people willing accept what other people say, but reject what God says about sin and salvation.
For this is the testimony of God, that He has testified about His Son.
The reason God’s testimony is so important is because it is about His Son.
Note that verses 5:9, 5:10, and 5:11 all end with “His Son“.
What is the testimony given by God? Commentators have various views:
- John does not tell us.
- It is the inner witness of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer through the proclamation of the Word.
- Most likely, it is another reference to the threefold witness of the Holy Spirit, the water, and the blood which God uses.
Greek Note: has testified
The Greek verb translated as “has testified” (μεμαρτύρηκεν / memarturēken) is perfect tense indicating that God’s testimony is completed and still stands, it is permanent and final.
Verse 5:10
The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony within himself.
This verse explains the consequences of the human response to God’s testimony by either accepting it or rejecting it.
Since God’s testimony is about the Son of God, the one who believes in the Son of God is accepting God’s testimony.
The one who believes has the testimony within himself because it is “no longer simply something that he has heard from others, or reads in a book; it comes to life in his own experience, because the witness-bearing Spirit now resides within him”. [BRUCE p. 121]
The one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has testified about His Son.
The one who rejects God’s testimony makes God a liar. John used similar language in verse 1:10, where he wrote:
If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make ˹God˺ the liar and His word is not in us.
Not believing God makes Him a liar because the person is rejecting God’s testimony as not being true, and expresses the attitude that they know better than God, placing themselves above God.
Verse 5:11
And this is the testimony: God gave eternal life to us…
See John 3:36.
The person who accepts God’s testimony about His Son receives eternal life. But eternal life is not simply an unending extension of life as we know it. It is unending fellowship with God and fellow believers.
…and this life is in His Son.
God gave eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ. He is its basis and only in relationship with Him can it be obtained. [HOULDEN p. 132] In fact, He is eternal life (5:20), the eternal life that was with the Father from the beginning (1:2). [KRUSE p. 196]
Verse 5:12
The one who has the Son has this life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have this life.
This verse expresses the same truth as John 14:6 – Jesus Christ is the only way to God.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.”
Verse 5:13
I wrote these things to you, the ones who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have life, eternal life.
This statement sums up John’s letter. Eternal life is found in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
See John 20:31 for a similar statement where John states that his purpose in writing his gospel account is to persuade the reader to believe that Jesus is the Christ. In this letter, however, his purpose is different. It is to assure and strengthen those who are already believers “who might be tempted to doubt the reality of their Christian experience and to give up their faith in Jesus. Those who believe in the name of Jesus can be sure of their possession of eternal life”. [MARSHALL p. 243]
To “believe in the name” is to believe in the person who bears that name and all that the name entails. As the “Son of God”, He has the same full divine essence and power as God the Father. As the “Christ”, He is the savior of the world through his life, death, and resurrection. His name represents his person/identity and work/accomplishment.
The disruptors rejected Jesus as the Son of God and thought that eternal life could be found through a mystical experience or attaining special higher knowledge. However, John tells the readers that eternal life is found in a person, the teaching about Jesus that they heard from the beginning.
Greek Note: Emphasis on “eternal“
Word order in a sentence is flexible in the Greek language, so words can be arranged for special emphasis. In this verse, John arranges his words to emphasize the word “eternal”. John could have placed the adjective “eternal” before to the noun “life” that it modifies, so that the sentence would read in the more normal way as “that you have eternal live”. However, John places the adjective “eternal” after the noun “life” and separates it by inserting the verb between the noun and adjective, so that the phrase is literally “that life you have eternal”. It looks like this:
ὅτι ζωὴν ἔχετε αἰώνιον
hoti zōēn echete aiōnion
that life you have eternal
This emphasizes the quality of eternal. As Robert Yarbrough notes in his commentary: “The way that John separates ‘life’ from ‘eternal’ in 5:13 by the verb ‘have’ … is unique in Johannine usage. It is a literary touch shedding particular light on the eternal quality of the life the readers may enjoy.” [YARBROUGH p. 297]
Go back to verses 5:5-8
Go forward to verses 5:14-17
Your Personal Study
Read First John 5:14-17 below and answer the questions.
5:14 And this is the confidence we have in ˹God’s˺ presence, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 5:15 And if we know that He hears us regarding whatever we ask, then we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.
5:16 If anyone sees his fellow believer committing sin that does not lead to death, he should ask, and ˹God˺ will give him life – to those committing sin not leading to death. There is sin that leads to death. That is not the sin I am saying he should pray about. 5:17 All unrighteousness is sin, but there is sin not leading to death.
1. According to verses 5:14 and 5:15, in general, what kind of prayer requests does God hear and answer?
2. How can you know that what you are praying for is according to God’s will?
3. Do you think you should pray about things that you are not sure are God’s will? Why or why not?
4. According to verse 5:16, what specific prayer request does John assure us will be answered by God?
5. What do these verses imply is our responsibility toward fellow believers?
6. What do you think “death” refers to?
7. What “sin leading to death” means has been debated by Christians since the beginning of Christianity. What are some ideas of what you think it means? Your ideas should be tied to the teaching and context of First John.
First John Translation.
First John Translation with Outline and Notes.
Bibliography of source information used for this series of posts.
Title Slide Image Credit: First John in Codex Alexandrinus, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Unless otherwise noted, English translations of Bible verses are by the author from the Greek text and are not quotations from any copyrighted Bible version or translation.
How you can have eternal life.
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