Certainties and Challenge (1 John 5:20-21)

We can see from these verses that John closes his letter first by expressing the certainty that Christians have and then leaving a challenge with them regarding alternative forms of worship. I would say that verse 20 is one of the most amazing verses in the Bible, and hopefully we will see that is the case after we have thought about it. Their certainty concerns the person and mission of Jesus Christ. So the first detail we can ask ourselves is, Who is Jesus?

John says three amazing things about Jesus: he is the Son of God, he is the true God and he is eternal life. In order to link these three features, we can begin by thinking about what it means for Jesus to the true God. This is a reminder of his uniqueness because other objects of worship are false and unreal. It is also a reminder of his competence because he possesses the attributes, performs the actions, and plans the aims of God.

The attributes of God are many and Jesus possesses every one of them. We list them in different ways, such as in the Shorter Catechism answer to the question, ‘What is God?’ ‘God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.’ That definition tells us that Jesus as God possesses the incommunicable attributes of infinity, eternality, and unchangeableness. When he is described as unchangeable, it does not merely mean that he is predictable and consistent; instead it means that he is perfect and cannot improve. I suppose we could say that infinity is where he lives, eternality is how long he lives, and unchangeableness is how he lives. Of course, when we speak in this kind of way, we find ourselves out of our depth because we are the opposite. We live in finitude, we had a beginning, and we are continually changing. We need to remember who Jesus is because there is always the danger of reducing him in our thinking.

The second detail mentioned about Jesus here is that he is the Son of God. Right away, we face another mystery because this title tells us that within the one God there is more than one person. Since Jesus is the Son, it means that there is also the Father. Of course, we know from elsewhere in the New Testament that there are three persons in the Godhead – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This title of Jesus informs us that he has always had a special relationship and a unique role.

The relationship concerns how he acts as God – he always acts as God the Son. Take, for example, his divine work of creation. In what way was he involved in it? The book of Hebrews tells us that he made all things as the heir of all things (1:2). An heir is a son. The difference is that he was involved in creating his own inheritance, the universe, whereas other sons receive their inheritance. The Son participated in the divine work of creation as the Son or as the Heir.

His unique role as the Son is to reveal the Father, to show to his creatures what the Father is like. Jesus said this several times. For example, he said that whoever had seen him had seen the Father. He can reveal the Father because, as he said, he and the Father are one.

Thirdly, John says that Jesus is eternal life. Whatever else this involves, it is clear that Jesus is the source of all other forms of life. We have derived life – it is given to us, we have dependent life – we cannot maintain ourselves in it, and we have decaying life because of our sins. Angels have derived life, dependent life, but because they have not sinned they don’t have decaying life. Instead they have what we can call developing life – they get better in the sense that they grow in knowledge and in experience. The life of the Son of God is not derived, is not dependent, cannot decay and cannot decrease or increase. He is the perfect fountain from which other life comes.

The mission of Jesus

John says three things about the mission of Jesus. First, he came; second, he gave understanding to his people; and third, they come to know him. When John says that the Son of God ‘has come’, he is referring to the coming of the Son at his incarnation when he added a human nature to his divine person. In the previous section, we thought briefly about the great mystery of the three persons of the Trinity. Now we are thinking about another mystery, the fact that there are two natures in the person of Jesus. He became human without ceasing to be God. His natures are not merged or combined. Instead he functions now and always according to each nature.

The outcome of his coming is that his people have a proper grasp of reality. John here is referring to the office of Jesus as a prophet, our great teacher. His instruction is not at the level of our educational methods. Instead he teaches us through the Holy Spirit after giving us life by the Spirit. John does not say that this understanding is only for those with great intellects, even although there are deep truths. The way we discover the meaning of these truths is not by scratching our heads. Instead it is by spending time with our Teacher. We can see this was the case with the first disciples. Some of them would not have gone very far in a university class, but they discovered what cannot be known through all university classes without the help of Jesus.

The things concerning which Jesus has given us understanding are numerous. We understand that there is an eternity; we understand that there is an eternal God with a great plan of salvation; we understand that there is a problem called sin which that God has dealt with; we understand that the Son of God became a man in order to die on the cross as the sinbearer and was raised again and has ascended to heaven to reign on the divine throne; and we understand that he is returning to raise the dead, to judge the world and renew the cosmos in order for God to be dwelling in it. That is some of the things that we understand. But whatever understanding we have we owe it all to Jesus.

The reason why we have this understanding is so that we would get to know Jesus. It looks as if both uses of the phrase ‘him who is true’ in this verse refer to Jesus rather than only the second. I suppose we can say that we get to know Jesus increasingly or gradually as well as getting to know him intimately. Paul’s desire as a mature Christian of many years’ experience was to grow in his knowledge of Jesus and to discover his power and care (Phil. 3:10).

The position of believers

We have briefly considered two wonderful unions – there is the union of the three persons in the Godhead and there is the union of the two natures in the person of Jesus. Now we come to a third union that is mentioned in this verse, and that is the union that exists between Jesus and his people. So I hope we can see why we should regard this verse as one of the most amazing in the Bible.

John reminds his readers that there is a permanent link between them and Jesus – they are in him who is true. There is a sense in which this is a picture, to be in Christ. We are familiar with, for example, water in a bottle. Believers are in Jesus. I once hear an illustration that helped me how to see that we can be in Jesus and he can be in us. The speaker reminded us that we are in the air and the air is in us, and we need both in order to live. I am in the atmosphere but I have no air in me I will die. Similarly, if I have the air in me but live in an airless place, I will die.

To be in Christ provides us with many blessings and the obvious comment we can make about them is that they are shared by all who are in Christ. Some find the following method helpful in understanding this massive doctrine.

First, there is positional union with Jesus and it describes aspects of the union that we were not part of when they occurred, such as chosen in Christ in a past eternity, or died with Christ, buried with Christ and raised with Christ when he was here on earth. The positional aspects of the union are real for Christians as far as God’s plan of salvation is concerned, but none of them can say that they were conscious of them when they occurred. For example, none of the disciples who saw Jesus after he had left the tomb thought immediately that they were united to him when it happened.

Second, there is personal union that commences when we are converted. In a way that we cannot understand, the Holy Spirit brings this union into existence and we have ongoing spiritual life from Jesus conveyed to us throughout our life on earth and later. This is connected to a third aspect, that of practical union, in which we receive from him the many blessings that are found in him, such as peace, joy and sense of his love.

The fourth aspect is prospective. There are blessings connected to union with Christ that belong to the world of glory, and which is people will not experience until they are there. Yet although they have not experienced them they are assured of them. Indeed, those future blessings are as much theirs now as the practical aspects they experience day by day.

Another helpful summary that I heard years ago was that union with Christ is a living union because Jesus is the head and his people are his body, it is a loving union because Jesus is the bridegroom and his people are the bride, it is a lasting union because Jesus is the foundation and his people are the building, and it is a learning union because Jesus is the teacher and his people are his disciples.

The challenge or command

It is obvious that in John’s day there were many idols and Ephesus, the place to which the letter was probably sent, was a centre of idol worship. No doubt, there was the possibility of them participating in such activities, but how could they after realising the greatness of God, of his Son, and of the amazing union that now exists between Jesus and his people. It is likely that people were impressed by the activities connected to the idolatry taking place in pagan temples, but the only ones who would be were the spiritually blind. John is telling the believers not to go near those locations.

Today, in the main, we don’t face temptations connected to pagan temples. But we can see that the application of this commandment is not limited to literal fulfilment. Its application would be to anything that contradicts the glory and wonder of God and his salvation. It is possible to sense that a particular action or interest has the potential of doing that in our lives and when that happens we should remind ourselves of John’s closing challenge to those first-century Christians, ‘Little children, keep yourselves from idols.’