On Sunday I am going to ask a relatively simple question to you as we wrap our series in Genesis. And that question is this: Do you believe that God is good? A simple question, but with some deeper layers… but more about it on Sunday.
Today I have been considering another question that seems simple, but that has multiple layers… Do you have the Son of God? Consider these verses:
“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
1 John 5:11-13
The answer to the question of whether or not you have the Son of God (that is Jesus by the way!) is a simple yes or no. And it is an answer that determines your eternal destiny. But the deeper layers involve what it means to “have” Jesus, and how we can have him.
John Piper in talking about these verses makes the comparison of how people can have many different things in different ways. We can have money. We can have a cold. We can have a lawyer. The thing in common with all of these things…is that when we have them, they do their thing for us. “If you have a dollar, it buys a dollar's worth for you. If you have a cold, it makes your nose run. If you have a lawyer, he stands in for you. Having something means that it does its thing for you.” Jesus is the same way. So, when we have Jesus, everything that He promises in Scripture will be done for you! That is incredible!
In order to have Jesus, though, verse 13 makes it clear that you must believe in him. You have to trust that something is capable of doing its thing for you in order to take advantage of it.
We are still adjusting to living in America. I remember growing up we got a lot of mail – personal mail, catalogs, bills, magazines… it seemed like a lot! I assumed that was still the case now, so the first few weeks in our new home I went to the mailbox every day, only to find that these days we only get advertisements. It is not very exciting, and now I don’t even bother to check every day. And even worse is that the advertisements and coupons are pretty worthless. The prices are not sale prices. Or they are for goods and services that we would never buy. Or they are just outright scams. We get very authentic looking official notices or bills that aren’t real! The end result is that I don’t really value any of the mail we get any more. I could get a coupon for a free coffee, or a free haircut, or even a free computer or car, but I probably wouldn’t even see it because I don’t trust the advertisers.
Many, many people think about Jesus the same way. They don’t believe in his name – they don’t trust him, because they have been tricked before. Now it is Satan that is tricking them – telling them lies about their needs, about what will make them happy, about the church, about the Bible, etc. And so, in the end they do not have Jesus. Some because they do not want him, and some because they don’t want to pay the cost. Yet it is only through having Jesus that we can know that we have eternal life!
These verses are so important and such a blessing for us as believers. Meditate on them with me today, brothers and sisters. God is making himself known through so many different ways and wants us to know him. And the blessing is tremendous if we have the Son of God... Because then we can know that we have eternal life! There is nothing worth more than that!
Blessings to you all!
Pastor Aaron
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