“AND THIS IS the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life” (1 John 5:11–12). As we come down to about the end of our verses on “in Christ” the search and the conclusion in drawing to a verdict—and the verdict is a very uncompromising one: “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life.” No more terrible conclusion can ever be reached. This is the conclusion of conclusions. Is it harsh, arbitrary, and imposed on life, or is this the verdict that life itself is rendering? Did this Scripture just record it? I am persuaded that this verse is true, and that it is recording what life itself is deciding: in Christ we have life; outside Christ we have death. Dogmatic? No, verified experience!
Anyone can verify it for himself. Let anyone go out and put it to a test. Let him say the un-Christian thing, think the un-Christian thing, and act in an un-Christian way in every situation for a week. Then let him report on how he got on. I said that once to a hard-boiled reporter, and he snorted, “Shucks, you’d be bumped off before the end of the week.” If no man bumped you off, then life would bump you off, for life would tie you in knots inevitably. Life won’t work in any way but His way. I find the Hindus of India say more than anything else in any discussion of religion: “Well, all religions are the same. All roads lead to the top of the mountain. All lead to God.” This statement is a statement, not a testimony. Life says something else, and what it says is exactly what this Scripture says: “He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life.”
O Jesus my Lord, I hear Thee say, “I am the Way,” and life echoes back and says, “Thou art the Way.” We cannot buck life and not get hurt. Then help me to walk in Thy way—the way of love, this day and always. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: The lines are closing in, life is rendering its verdict: “He who has the Son has life.”
