John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I. SALVATION CONSISTS IN THE POSSESSION OF LIFE. It is clear from the previous verse that the two are synonymous, and it is easy to see from the frequent connection of the two by Christ and the apostles how accurate it is to call salvation eternal life. Men as sinners are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1). The power of evil has so worked upon their souls as to make them deaf to the voice, insensible to the goodness, and indifferent to the claims of God. So far, then, as the life of love, trust, and obedience, and joy are concerned, sinners are dead. What they need, then, is a salvation which shall put them in possession of life, which shall consist in the quickening of their dormant powers, in the righting of their perverted affections, in the bringing back of their souls into likeness to, and fellowship with, the living God. This was just the salvation Christ was sent to impart, and for which He had power over all flesh. Consequently, this is "life eternal," not as being a life that belongs to eternity, but a life that is distinct from and opposed to temporal, earthly and carnal — eternal in its quality. From the moment that we accept Christ as our Saviour it is ours (John 10:27, 28; 1 John 5:13). II. THE LIFE IN WHICH SALVATION CONSISTS HAS ITS ROOT AND GROUND IN KNOWLEDGE. The words must be taken as they stand. This knowledge is not the means of, but is eternal life-a representation to which attention needs to be called now-a-days. Many attach to knowledge a subsidiary importance in relation to the spiritual life. There is no statement more common in certain quarters than that religion is not a creed, but a life. This divorces tell. glen from the intellect and makes it a purely emotional thing. Christ here declares that eternal life is founded on knowledge, thus teaching that before Christianity can be a life it must be a creed. Learn here — 1. The sacredness of knowledge. 2. Its importance. 3. Its perpetuity. III. THIS KNOWLEDGE IS THAT OF GOD AND CHRIST. 1. Of God. (1) There is a sense in which God cannot be known. He is so different from ourselves in the constitution of His Being, and so superior to us in His attributes, that there is a great gulf which no thought or imagination can overpass (Job 11:7, 8). Indeed, if we could know God as we know one another, He would not be God. He would not be infinite, for the finite cannot comprehend the infinite. (2) But there is a sense in which we can know Him; in so far as He has revealed Himself in the gospel, and sufficient for intelligent and trustful love. This knowledge then — (a) Is not simply the knowledge that we can glean from God's works. Here we can know God's power, skill, thought, care; but not Himself: just as from a book we may get occasional glimpses of the working of the author's mind and the features of his character, but fail in any real measure to know the man. (b) Is not merely the knowledge we can gain from His Word. We may be familiar with the contents of Scripture and yet know no more of God Himself than we do of a man from what others have written about him. (c) Is the knowledge which comes also from fellowship between our souls and God. This is the true ground of our knowledge of others. Souls must reveal themselves to souls through friendship. 1. We must study God's works and read His Word, but besides this we must get into cordial fellowship. In this we must ask for the help of His Spirit, and lay ourselves open to what His Spirit shall teach. 2. Of Christ also. The line of thought just pursued must be followed here. The persons are two, but the knowledge is the same. And for this reason the mission of Christ was the manifestation of the Father. Exactly in the degree in which we know Christ the Revealer shall we know God the Revealed. This knowledge must come — (1) Through the Scriptures that teach us concerning Him. (2) Through the fellowship which unites us to Him. (3) Through the Spirit who takes of the things of Him and shows them unto us.When in these ways the mind has come to accept Christ, and in the acceptance of Christ has accepted God in Him, eternal life is ours. (B. Wilkinson, F. G. S.) Parallel Verses KJV: And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. |
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