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Welcome to Faith of Our Fathers. Today we feature John stott. Born in 1921, he was well known throughout the world for his writings and godly influence in the global church. He founded Langham Partnership in response to the growing needs he heard from churches and pastors in the majority world. Stott passed away July 27th in 2011. He leaves behind a legacy that continues to expand through the power of God's Word. Today, John Stott presents a study on Eternal Life.
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We come today to the last phrase of the Apostles Creed, that is to say, the life everlasting. It's rather interesting to note that some of the earliest creeds did not have this clause at all. In their case, the Creed ended with the resurrection of the body. It was soon seen to be necessary, however, to add this final clause in order to affirm our faith in that life to which the resurrection of the body will introduce the redeemed. So now we say, I believe in the resurrection of the body, and after that the life everlasting. As a scripture passage, we shall take John's first letter, chapter 5, verses 11, 12 and 13. These verses read as this is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written unto you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, you will have noticed that there are in these verses some is it five or so references to life or eternal life. From these verses, then, and others in the New Testament, I want to bring you five straightforward propositions on the important subject of eternal life. Proposition 1 Eternal life begins now. Although the position of this clause in the Creed clearly lays emphasis on the final state, the final destiny of the redeemed soul, because it comes after the resurrection of the body. Yet the Creed does not deny the biblical fact that eternal life begins now. We've seen it in our text. First, John 5:11 says, God has given us eternal life. That's a past event. But verse 12 he who has the Son has life. That's a present experience. God gave it to us when we first put our trust in Christ, so now we continue to possess it. Eternal life is a present possession. Nobody can possibly read John's Gospel without grasping this tremendous truth. Let me give you a few examples. John 3:16 I dare say the best known verse in the whole God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son to the end that all who believe in him should not perish, but have. And the implication is, have now as soon as they believe. Eternal life. 7 chapter John 3:36. He who believes on the Son has eternal life. He who does not believe the Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. John 5:24. He who hears my sayings and believes on him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has already passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you. The hour is coming, and now is. That is. Now is when the dead, that is the spiritually dead, shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And those who hear shall live. They receive life, spiritual life, now or again. John 6:47. Truly, truly, I say to you. He who believes on me has everlasting life. All this makes it plain that there is no need to wait, hopefully, or for that matter, doubtfully, for the dawning of the next world in order to know whether we have eternal life or not. But eternal life is not just a heavenly inheritance that we cannot receive until we've died. It is a present possession. He who has the Son already has the life. Verse 12. He who believes in the name of the Son of God may know now that he already has eternal life. Verse 13. That's my first. Eternal life begins now. Eternal life means fellowship with God. A great deal of confusion about the meaning of eternal life has arisen from people's assumption that that the word eternal means simply everlasting, that eternal life is a life that goes on forever and ever. Amen. Well, it is everlasting. The word does mean everlasting, but it means a lot more than that. When we speak of God as the eternal God, we don't just mean that he had no beginning and will have no end. To quote Bishop Westcott, the eternal does not in essence express the infinite extension of time, but the absence of time, not the omni temporal, but the supra temporal. That's the end of the Westcott quotation. Mind you, this eternal life is everlasting so far as you can think of it in terms of time at all. Jesus did say, John 10:28, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. The Bible speaks not only of eternal life, but of an eternal salvation, an eternal glory, an eternal inheritance, an eternal redemption, an eternal kingdom, all of which flow from the eternal covenant which God established with man and which will never pass away. But this true idea does not exhaust the meaning of eternal. On the contrary, the Greek word aionios means literally belonging to the ion, belonging to the age, that is, belonging to the age to come, or the new age. Hence, in the Nicene Creed this clause is rendered, I believe in the resurrection of the dead, the life of the world to come. That's an excellent paraphrase of eternal life. But eternal life is the life of the world to come. Although we can experience it in this world. The adjective ionios indicates more the quality of this life, the life of the world to come, than its duration, rather the height and depth of of this life than its length and breadth. So what is eternal life? What is its quality? What is the life of the world to come? We may be very thankful that we don't need to grope in the darkness in answer to that question or speculate, because our Lord Jesus himself gave a definition of eternal life recorded in John 17:3. He said, this is life eternal, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent. So eternal life is knowing God, knowing the true God, the living God, knowing Jesus Christ. The same is taught, incidentally, almost as an echo of what Jesus said in John's first letter, chapter 5, verse 20, where he writes, we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. So eternal life is to know the true God, to be in him that is true, that is, to be united to him, to be in fellowship and relationship with him, and with His Son, Jesus Christ. So that's what he's meant in my text, in First John 5, 11, 12. This life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life. Eternal life is the knowledge of God. Not a distant knowledge or academic intellectual knowledge, but a close, personal, intimate, dynamic, growing knowledge of God made possible through the revelation and the redemption of Jesus Christ. And that's why eternal life begins now on earth. I wonder if you knew this, that the age to come has come. It came with the coming of of Jesus Christ. The new day dawned when the dayspring from on high appeared. So the two ages, this age and the age to come, are running parallel with one another. They overlap one another. And the new age has started before the old age has stopped. It is possible, therefore, to belong to both ages at the same time. The Christian, in fact, does so. He's a citizen of two kingdoms, an inhabitant of two worlds. A member of two ages. While living in this world and this age, he lives the life of the world to come and the life of the age to come while enjoying social contact with his fellow human beings. The Christian walks with God, and the relationship who mean most to the Christian are no longer his earthly family, although he loves them and cares for them and honors them, but rather his, if you like, spiritual relations. His father, God, Jesus Christ, his elder brother, the Holy Spirit, his indwelling comforter, and all his brothers and sisters who are in the world. God to the Christian is the point to which the needle has of his heart's compass always reverts. Well, that's my second proposition. Eternal life means fellowship with God. God centeredness. Proposition 3. Eternal life that begins now and is fellowship with God will be consummated in heaven. It is a present possession, often in the New Testament, but also sometimes it's a synonym for heaven. As an example, take Matthew 25, where Jesus likens the judgment of the great Assize to a shepherd's separation of sheep from goats in his mixed flock. Jesus ends, they will go, they will go into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life, verse 46, that is, into heaven. So although eternal life begins on earth, it cannot be perfectly enjoyed on earth. I'm sure that every Christian will agree that our enjoyment of eternal life is hampered on earth. We cannot have unbroken, unspoiled fellowship with God on earth. For one thing, our redeemed souls dwell in unredeemed bodies. And although the body itself is not evil, it's associated with a fallen nature which impedes the progress of the soul. Sometimes, though, the Christian would rise up on eagle's wings and soar aloft to God, he finds that his wings opinioned, his wings are clipped. Then, in the next phrase, our knowledge is imperfect. We know in part that. And those were words spoken by the apostle Paul, to whom innumerable revelations have been given from God. See, on earth our spiritual perception is dull. Our discernment is poor. Our grasp of the truth is small, as small as a child's in the nursery. And not till we get to heaven shall we finally become grown up and put away childish things. Down here we see through a mirror dimly, but then in heaven, face to face. So in the next place on earth, we walk by faith, not by sight. Although we do not see him, it's true we love him, and believing in him, we rejoice in him with unspeakable joy. But, oh, the bliss of that day, when the veil shall be drawn aside and he shall appear in power and great glory. We shall feast our eyes on him whom our soul loves. No wonder the Christian longs to go to heaven. No wonder death to the Christian is an object of desire, not of dread. No wonder the language of the Christian is the language of the apostle Paul, who wrote to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. I'd rather be absent from the body and present with the Lord. That's a combination of Philippians 1:21 23 and 2 Corinthians 5:8. No wonder again the return of Jesus is the focus of the Christian's ardent expectation or hope, since when Jesus Christ comes, every eye will see him. I say then again that our enjoyment of fellowship with God will be consummated in heaven. And although it begins on earth, it's very imperfect on earth. Exactly what heaven will be like. None of us knows. Scripture is cautious. Scripture is reserved, reticent. But what Scripture does reveal is largely figurative, and so we need to be all the more cautious. It's recorded, for example, that indeed we are the children of God. Now that it does not yet appear what we shall be. We don't know what we shall be. It hasn't been revealed. All we do know is that we shall be like him, but we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3, verse 2. In his famous book, the Gospel of the Hereafter, J. Patterson Smythe of a former generation describes our difficulty in appreciating what heaven is like. This is what he A blind man cannot picture colors to himself. A deaf man cannot imagine music. It's not that we are unwilling to teach him, but that he has limited faculties which prevent him from taking in the idea. Imagine a population of blind and deaf men inhabiting this earth. One of them suddenly gets his sight and hearing. Lo, in a moment of unutterable glory, a whole world of beautiful colors and forms and music has flowed into his life. But he cannot convey any notion of it to his former companions. He cannot convey to them the slightest idea of the lovely sunset or the music of the birds. So we shut up in these human bodies are the blind deaf men in God's glorious universe. Some of our comrades have moved into the new life beyond, where the eyes of the blind are opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. But we have no power of even imagining what their wondrous experience is like now. It's true, isn't it, what Patterson Smythe wrote? I don't agree with everything in that book, but that is a moving quotation, so we cannot imagine what it's going to be like. But we do know this. We know from the word of God that Jesus Christ is going to be revealed in his incomparable beauty and matchless splendor. And we shall know him as we're known by him now. And we shall see him as he is. And we shall not only behold his glory, we shall reflect it. If he is to be glorified in heaven, he is to be glorified, we're told, in his saints, in his people. His people are to reflect his glory. And we shall worship him day and night, and swelling the ceaseless anthems of the angels in heaven. Our whole life will be worship, God centered worship. And we shall also be given some work to do. We shall have some responsibilities to discharge, though what their precise nature will be we do not yet understand. And all this will be enjoyed in perfect harmony with our fellow redeemed sinners. Our worship, our fellowship, our service is not going for one moment to be marred by the slightest shadow of any envy, malice, misunderstanding or strife. Every thought, word and deed will be governed by love, for love never fails. And heaven will be a haven of love. Moreover, in our fellowship with God and with each other, we shall find a perfect satisfaction of the nature that God has given us. This deeply satisfying eternal life is described in the Book of the Revelation. In vivid imagery. It's portrayed as a city, the New Jerusalem. A city in which there's no temple because the whole city is the Holy of holies, the immediate dwelling place of God. A city in which there's neither sun nor moon, because the glory of God and of the Lamb are the light of it. But if it's depicted as a city, it's portrayed also as a park. Paradise regained. A new Garden of Eden in which flows the river of the Water of Life, clear as crystal, and in which grows the tree of Life, whose leaves offer the healing of the nations. All may eat of that tree. All may drink of that water without money and without price. And those who eat of the tree have their hunger satisfied. Those who drink of the water have their thirst quenched, but it threatened. They hunger no more. Neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them and shall lead them to living fountains of waters. And God shall wipe away all tears and from their eyes. That then is my third proposition. Eternal life, which begins now and which means fellowship with God will be wonderfully and gloriously consummated in heaven. Proposition 4. Eternal life is a free gift. I want to refer you back to my text. First, John, chapter 5 and verse 11. This is the record that God has given to us eternal life. God has given it. John 10:28. I give unto them eternal life. Jesus said, I give it them, they shall never perish. No man will pluck them out of my hand again. John 4:10. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, if only you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water, the water of life. It is a gift of God. So eternal life, this personal relationship to God in this life and in the next, cannot be achieved by man's effort or. Or deserved by man's merit. Eternal life is a gift to be received and not a reward to be earned. No man has ever attained it by his own good works. No man will ever attain it by his own effort. You may have the righteousness of Noah and the patience of Job and the wisdom of Solomon all rolled into one, but you'll never earn eternal life by your own merit. Eternal life cannot be attained by us by our own effort. For the simple reason that we are sinners. Sin separates us from God, whom to know is eternal life. So while sin separates us from God, we cannot enjoy life. It sunders us from Him. And all we deserve at his hand is not life, but death. Not salvation, but judgment. The only wage that we can earn, the only reward that we can earn as sinners, is death, spiritual death, which is estrangement from God. It's written in that key text. Romans 6:23. The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What could be plainer than that? Sin pays wages. And the wages sin pays is death. Separation from God. But God gives gifts. And the gift he gives is eternal life. Fellowship with Himself through Jesus Christ. Yes, it's through Jesus Christ that this gift is free. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He died on the cross to save sinners. And through him we may receive eternal life freely. For he accepted in his sacred and guiltless person the stain and guilt of all our sins. Eternal life is free to us because it was so terribly costly to Him. Only because it cost him his precious lifeblood does it cost us nothing. Eternal life is a free gift, and we must be humble enough to receive it as such. That Brings me to Proposition 5. Eternal life can be missed. Eternal life is a free gift, but it is not showered upon everybody with whether they want it or not. Eternal life is a free offer before it becomes a free gift. Eternal life is available to every sinner because Jesus Christ died for our sins. But if we want to enjoy it for ourselves, we must appropriate it personally. He offers it, we must accept it. He gives it, we must receive it. To be a little more accurate, God offers us not a thing an it, but a person. He offers us not eternal life, but his only Son, Jesus Christ, in whom this eternal life is to be found. This personal fellowship with God which is eternal life is only possible to those who have Jesus Christ as their Savior. It's Jesus Christ who reveals God to us. It's Jesus Christ who redeems us to God, who introduces us to God, who forgives our sins. So the scripture says. First John, chapter 5, verses 11 and 12. He who has the Son has the life. This is the record that God has given us eternal life. And this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life, but he who has not the Son of God does not have life and will not see life either in the future. Tell me then, if I may presume at the end of this talk and indeed this series on the Apostles Creed, if I may venture to be personal, do you have Jesus Christ? Is he in your life personally because you have received him and trusted him? If so, you have eternal life. For he who has the Son of God has the life. But if not, I fear you are dead. Dead, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. Dead with a spiritual death even while you are living. If you do not have Jesus Christ, then just as eternal life begins on this earth and will be consummated in heaven, so death begins on this earth and finds its terrible fruition in that eternal banishment from God, which Jesus himself called the lake of fire or outer darkness, or is elsewhere called the second death. How, then, you may ask, can I have Jesus Christ and so receive eternal life? The answer is very clear in verse 13 of 1 John 5. These things write we unto you who believe on the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that that you have eternal life. We may know that we have eternal life by believing on the name of the Son of God. Now the name of Christ is Christ himself, as he has revealed himself as the Son of God and the Savior of men. Our name is our identity. It is who we are, what we have done, and to believe in his name is to put our trust, our whole trust and confidence in him, the Person he is the Son of God and our Savior. And those who thus believe in the name of the Son of God, that is, who put their trust in him, who commit themselves to him because of who he is and what he has done, they receive eternal life and they may know that they have received it. May God grant them that that eternal life may be to us all, not just the last clause of the Apostles Creed in which we say we believe when we recite the Creed, but a present and personal possession, so that we may not only believe in it as an article of the faith, but believe in Christ as our Savior and so receive this gift as the free gift it is through faith in Jesus Christ in receiving it, may know that we have it. And knowing that we have it, may enjoy as man's greatest privilege on earth, this personal fellowship with God through Jesus Christ until it is gloriously and triumphantly consummated in heaven. Amen. And may God bless you all.
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You've been listening to John Stott. Listen to Faith of Our Fathers each Saturday and Sunday to hear more great 20th century preachers.