SERMON MANUSCRIPT
A couple weeks ago one of my sons turned six and one of his birthday presents was a remote-control drone. It’s an impressive toy and, after getting it out of the box and finding batteries, he had some fun.
But it’s also a complicated toy. There are more buttons and levers on the remote than my son was interested in learning to use and he wasn’t about to read the instruction manual. So, instead, he just kept flying the drone it into the walls, into the ceiling, and into his siblings.
As soon as my son unwrapped that toy he became a boy who owned a drone and, while he enjoyed it to a degree, his experience of that gift could have been so much greater if he had learned all that it could do and how best to use it.
So it is with Christians. We have been given a great gift—eternal life. But not all believers read the instruction manual, learning the extent of this gift and how best to enjoy it. Instead, we can become a people who have eternal life but fail to fully experience and express that life. The Holy Spirit, speaking through John, wants to help us avoid that tragedy in this closing and cumulative chapter.
OPENING THE GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE
Now, in a way, 1 John 5 invites us to relive our spiritual birthday, the day we were born again, opening the gift of eternal life given to us by our Heavenly Father (vv. 11a, 12a, 13, 20b). It’s the greatest gift ever given, partly because of its worth (it’s priceless!) and partly because of its necessity (we needed it so badly!).
The Bible says that all people have sinned, missing God’s standard of perfection and righteousness. And it doesn’t matter how much we’ve sinned just that we have. And the cost of sin is death—separation from God forever. And so, for every human being, our greatest need is life, eternal life—a life of divine quality and quantity. And, on our spiritual birthday, that’s the gift we opened.
And our text reminds us the gift of eternal life is only opened one way (vv. 1a, 5, 10a). It’s opened by belief in Jesus. But not just anything about him, like that he’s a historical figure, a good teacher, or a prophet from God. While those are true things, believing them doesn’t do it.
No, the gift of eternal life is opened by believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the One God promised to send as a substitutionary sacrifice for the sins world. It must be believed that Jesus is the Son of God who is able and willing to give the gift, to cause whosoever believes to be born of God to eternal life. And when we opened that gift, it became our possession (v. 13).
The gift of eternal life is not opened by good works, philanthropy, morality, kindness, karma, wishful thinking, generosity, intellectualism, church attendance, reputation, loyalty, fidelity, activism, or any other humanistic strategy. Not even all of those things together move someone a single step toward God (see Isa 64:6a).
This priceless and much-needed gift is unwrapped only by believing in the person and work of Jesus Christ—that he died on the cross for our sins, bearing the punishment we owed, rose again on the third day, and offers eternal life to all who trust him for it. It’s a gift of grace opened by faith so that God gets the credit for giving it (see Eph 2:8–9). It is belief—and belief alone—that opens the gift of eternal life.
EXAMINING THE GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE
After my son opened his present, the next step was to explore it, to pick it up and turn it over. And so should the Christian. We’ve opened the gift of eternal life and now we examine the gift of eternal life.
It’s authentic!
And the first thing we notice is that it’s authentic! It’s common, if you purchase a piece of art or a collectible of some sort, that it comes with a certificate of authenticity proving it’s real. We’ve just opened eternal life. What if it’s fake? Well, God here confirms its legitimacy. “It’s authentic,” he says.
Speaking of the Son of God, read verses 6–8. By water and blood John is likely referring to the totality of Jesus’s earthly ministry, beginning with baptism and ending with crucifixion. Add the Holy Spirit to the mix and you have three witnesses.
The water confirmed his identification with humanity, the blood his obedience to the Father, and the Spirit his person and power. Together they scream in unison: “He is who he claims to be, he did what he claimed he would do, and he can give what he’s claiming he can give.”
[9] The God who can’t lie has told us about his Son and the eternal life he offers. It’s authentic! And, to make that even more sure, the Spirit internalizes that witness (v. 10). God says the gift is legit. The one who rejects it is calling him a liar. This gift is the real deal. It’s authentic.
It’s powerful!
We also find that it’s powerful (vv. 4–5)! Remember that, in John, the world is that fallen system bent against its Creator (see also 2:15–17; 3:1, 13; 4:4–5).
The world is seductive, manipulative, antichrist, and anti-Christian. It’s more powerful than you and I—we’re surrounded by it, inundated by it, saturated by it. We don’t stand a chance. It will corrupt us, sway us, disciple us, and subjugate us. But Jesus said, “take courage; I have overcome the world” and John says, whatever is born of God overcomes the world. In Jesus, we share in his victory. This gift of eternal life is powerful, more powerful than all the powers of this world.
See verse 18a. Some translations add a qualifying word. They’ll say that a Christian “does not keep on sinning” or “continue to sin.” But the Greek simply says, “those born of God do not sin.” Now, in light of 1:8 this can’t mean Christians never sin. John’s not contradicting himself.
Here’s what I think he is saying: being born of God means we have a sinless Parent which means we inherit his sinless nature in conversion. This is why we can—and should—resist sin in this life (see 2 Cor 5:17; Eph 4:22b, 24a). We still have the old nature. That’s why we still sin. But, when we abide in Christ and draw near to our sinless Parent, we cannot sin because that new self cannot sin; it’s more powerful than sin!
Even better, look at the second half of verse 18. Even when we’re not faithful to God, God is faithful to us. Even when we’re not victorious, Christ is victorious. We are not kept by our grip on Christ but by his grip on us, so much so that the evil one cannot steal us away. He’s powerful, but not as powerful as the One who holds us, the One who is in us, and the One of whom we are born. This gift is powerful.
It’s secure!
Finally, as we examine this gift we see that it’s secure (vv. 11–12)! The gift of eternal life is inseparable from the person of Jesus. This life is in the Son. The gift is sure because he’s sure. It’s unfading because he’s unfading. It’s beautiful because Jesus is beautiful. The gift is life and love because he is those tings. You can’t have Jesus without eternal life anymore than you can have eternal life apart from Jesus. They are inseparable.
[20] Eternal life is only found in one place: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the risen Saviour. And those who believe in him have access to it now and forevermore. It’s secure.
What a gift! Right out of the box is it amazing, breathtaking in its worth and its necessity. I need it. You need it. We open it by belief and, as we examine it, we see that it’s authentic, powerful, and secure!
ENJOYING THE GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE
Now, as my son illustrated, it’s possible to open a gift, receive a gift, be impressed by a gift, but fail to fully experience a gift. So, that’s where John ends this letter. We’ve opened the gift of eternal life. We’ve examined the gift of eternal life. Now he wants to prompt us to enjoy the gift of eternal life. To use it. To express it.
This gift is so much more than just a guaranteed future with God, although it is that (see also John 10:10b, 28; 17:3). Eternal life is also life to its fullest now—freed from the powers of this world, freed from death, freed to the pursuit of godliness, and freed to knowledge of the Almighty. God wants those who have opened the gift to fully enjoy the gift and put it to use. And John highlights two ways to do that.
By loving others
First, we enjoy the gift of eternal life by loving others (vv. 1–3). It’s because God so loved the world that we got to open the gift of eternal life. Now we enjoy and express that gift by obeying his command to love as he’s loved—a life-giving, life-extending action. And this is not a burdensome command. Enjoy eternal life by loving others.
And John gets very specific (vv. 14–15). He’s talking about prayer. Believers are in Christ, secure and powerful, and we have the ear of God. We can ask him anything. He hears us. What do we do with that privilege? One things we can do is use it to love others (vv. 16–17).
A way we can enjoy this gift of eternal life, use it and experience it, is to pray for fellow believers, particularly for those we see in sin. Sin leads to death, spiritually but also physically (see Acts 5; 1 Cor 5, 11). We have eternal life, so let’s use it to bring life to those also have that life but, for whatever reason, are walking in death. Bring them back from the precipice. Ask God to be merciful and bring them to repentance and restoration. May they confess their sin and receive cleansing.
That said, sometimes this prayer won’t be answered because God’s going to take them home. The discipline will be swift and final. But I can’t discern when that will be and neither can you. So, we pray. We see one another sinning and, not knowing all that God knows, we enjoy our eternal life when we intercede on behalf of one another.
When was the last time you prayed for a brother or sister in Christ who you know is struggling with sin—not with condescension but with compassion and concern? If we don’t do that, not only are we leaving a tool of maturity unused but we’re not reading the instruction manual. We are not enjoying and putting to work the eternal life we’ve been given. Love others. Bring life where there is death.
By loving God
Second, we enjoy the gift of eternal life by loving God (vv. 1–2). It makes sense that to fully enjoy the eternal life we’ve been given we must grow in our love of the Giver of the gift. And as we grow in our experience and enjoyment of the eternal life we’ve been given, this love for God becomes purer and purer, undistracted and undiluted.
Look at verse 21. An idol is anything that steals attention, worship, adoration, affection, and acknowledgement away from he that is owed it all. An idol is something, anything, that dilutes the love we have of our God.
Guard yourself, John says. It’s the only command in this chapter. Watch out. Identify idols. Remove them. Why? They steal attention and worship; they steal love of God and they will, as such, stifle your enjoyment of the eternal life you’ve been given.
And we make idols out of everything. Sports, family, work, money, recreation, down-time, flex-time, overtime. Whatever comes between us and our adoration of God is that which is stopping us from experiencing the eternal life we’ve been given. Love God. Watch out for idols.
Eternal life is a beautiful gift, one we needed desperately. We opened it by faith in Jesus Christ. We examined it and found it to be authentic, powerful, and secure. But we want to use it well and so John calls us to love others better and love God undistracted. This is eternal life.
Some here today have likely never opened this gift, and I want to give you an opportunity to do that.
Josiah has served the Oakridge Bible Chapel family as one of its elders and one of its pastoral staff members since September 2018, before which he ministered as an associate pastor to a local congregation in the Canadian prairies. Josiah's desire is to be used by God to help equip the church for ministry, both while gathered (edification) and while scattered (evangelization). He is married to Patricia, and together they have five children—Jonah, Henry, Nathaniel, Josephine, and Benjamin.
