Please Help Us Keep These Thousands of Blog Posts Growing and Free for All

$5.00

Albert Barnes and Edward D. Andrews write,

1 John 5:11 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

¹¹And this is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

And this is the testimony. This is the sum, or the amount, of the testimony (μαρτυρία) which God has given respecting him.

That God has given us eternal life. Has provided, through the Savior, the means of obtaining eternal life. This is the source of eternal life; or it is in this manner that it is to be obtained. The knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ is itself a source of unspeakable and eternal joy.

The state of man by nature is represented as death in sin, Ephesians 2:1. True Christianity is the opposite of this or is the path to “life.” The “dead” regard, not anything. They are unaffected by the world’s cares, pleasures, and amusements. They hear neither the voice of merriment nor the tread of the living over their graves. So with sinners. They are unmoved by the things of true Christianity. They hear not the voice of God; they see not his loveliness; they care not for his warnings to man. But true Christianity leads one to “life.” The Christian lives with God and feels and acts as if this were the case. The path or journey within true Christianity, and its blessings here and hereafter, are one and the same. The happiness of eternal life is living for God—being sensible of his presence, glory, and power—and rejoicing in that. There shall be no more “death” there, (Rev. 21:4). This “life,” or path within true Christianity, has joys extended and expanded forever. Hence, when a man is converted, it is said that he “has” everlasting life; not merely shall have but is already in possession of that life or happiness which shall be everlasting. It is life begun, expanded, ripening for the skies. He has already entered on his inheritance – that inheritance which is everlasting. See John 5:24; 17:2-3.