Friday, March 18, 2016

Knowing God and Christ: The Essence of Eternal Life (pt 2)

Praise the Savior ye who KNOW Him!  Who can tell how much we owe Him?Gladly let us render to Him; All we are and have!”

The famed Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon was spot when he said, “What is often forgotten is that the ultimate end of gospel is not the conversion of men but the glory of God!”  To which John Piper adds, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."

The final prong of the Father's love gift to His beloved Son is mentioned at the tail end of John 17:2.  C) The glorified Savior is given the right to bestow eternal life.  "…that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life” (John 17:2c).


Because of the Son’s triumphant cross work the Father grants Him the privilege of bestowing eternal life.  The keys of heaven are in His nail pierced hands alone (Rev. 1:18)!  It’s why Peter said, “Where else shall we go Lord? Where else shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68)   “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which why must be saved (Acts 4:12; John 14:6)”

No human being can merit their own salvation, let alone, grant eternal life to anyone else.  That includes the Roman Catholic Pope, mother Mary, and every other “saint.” As is true throughout Scripture, salvation is presented in John 17 as a “gift” of sovereign grace (John 17:2-3; Rom. 6:23; Eph. 2:8-10).

The glorified Savior is given the right to bestow eternal life to all of the elect.  This brings us then to “the Salvation Parenthesis: (what is eternal life?)”

John 17:3 answers the most significant question in the world (what is eternal life).  How would you answer that question? When the subject of everlasting life is mentioned Christians almost instinctively reference John 3:16.  "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16)."  

The next time somebody says to you, “Eternal life, what do you mean?” You should make a beeline to John 17:3.  Jesus could not have stated it any clearer than this.  "And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. (John 17:3).

Eternal life is a grace gift that entails union with Christ and communion with God.  Yes, biblical Christianity involves sound doctrine but it also involves a personal, saving relationship with the God of the universe and with His Son, our blessed Savior, Jesus Christ.  When we lose sight of this truth our orthodoxy will grow cold and our piety will become perfunctory.  Oh that the Holy Spirit of Christ might use this text to set our hearts ablaze!

We need to be regularly reminded that there’s only one redemptive relationship that can satisfy the deepest longings of the soul.  It’s the ultimate relationship that we were created for.  As the Westminster Confession of Faith so puts it, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

I would encourage you to go back and reread Genesis 1-3.  In the opening chapters of Scripture we learn that the earth was originally created to be a Divine residence- wherein Holy, Holy, Holy God and Holy People could coexist forever. 

When Man rebelled against his Maker paradise given became paradise lost.  One of the most devastating consequences of “the fall” is alluded to almost immediately. “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Gen. 3:8).

After the fall, rather than running to God in joy our guilt stricken parents fled from God’s presence in fear.  Like spiritual lepers they silently acknowledged that they were, “Unclean!  Unclean!  Unclean!”  Because of sin our most blessed Creator can no longer coexist with man in perfect harmony or in unbroken fellowship.  As John Walton rightly noted, “In the aftermath of the Fall, the greatest loss was not Paradise; it was God’s presence!”

Which inevitable brings to mind a number of questions:  -Is life now void of meaning and purpose? Should we join Solomon in saying, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”  Are we now endlessly condemned to live out our days ‘east of Eden’ in God-forsaken lands (note Gen. 3:23-24)?

As we think about the fall of man in light of John 17:2-3 one is left to wonder, “What about all the promises God made to His eternal Son?”   When read in their redemptive-historical contexts Genesis 3:15 and John 17 direct our thoughts to the cross. 

"And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.  I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.  And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was (John 17:3-5).”

In John 17:3 Jesus is referred to as the Divinely commissioned Son.  Why did the Father send His ‘one of a kind (monogenes) Son’ into the big bad world?  John succinctly answers this question in his first epistle. “The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).

The apostle Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

This is the gospel according to Jesus.  “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life… (John 6:40).” "And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

One cannot escape the High Priestly prayer of Jeus without answering the ultimate life question. “Do I truly have a personal, saving relationship with the true and living God and with His Son, Jesus Christ?”

The warning God gave to Israel in Jeremiah 9:23-24 is as timely now as it was then: "Thus says the LORD, "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me…"

I would be remiss if I conclude this article without mentioning this.  The believer’s saving relationship with the LORD is rooted in the New Covenant. (note Mt. 26:68)!  Or perhaps it is better to say that Jesus’ “salvation parenthesis” flows out of the streams of Jeremiah 31:34, where God made this oath with His people.  “For they shall all know Me; from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more.”   The New Covenant was clearly on Jesus’ mind earlier that same night (note Matt. 26:68).

The glorification of Jesus (through the cross) secures our eternal redemption that we might enjoy unbroken fellowship with God, forever and ever, amen!

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is easy for us to take our most treasured human relationships for granted.  Sadly, at times, we do the same thing with God.  In my life I far too often take the benefits and blessings of this restored relationship for granted.  O to know Thee and to be known by Thee.

May the lyrics of this final hymn by the aim of our daily lives:

Praise the Savior ye who KNOW Him!
Who can tell how much we owe Him?
Gladly let us render to Him;
All we are and have!”