You Can be Sure Eternal Life Begins Now

We often think of “eternal life” as only in the far-off future. But, as in verse 12 today, John 5:24 said Jesus used the present tense: “I assure you that whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me HAS eternal life… HAS passed from death into life.” Methodism’s founder, John Wesley, hit a crucial turning point when he quit “wishing” or “hoping” to be saved. His journal recorded the change: “An assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” * The faith in Jesus that 1 John aimed to reinforce was never an abstract, sterile belief. It was a living, passionate, active trust that Jesus was and is who he said, and therefore his promise was credible. That conviction sustained first-century believers (and can sustain you) in building the kind of life that can defeat all the evil, hatred and negativity in this tired old world.

• If we’re honest, we know that too often we’re defeated spiritually (bad actions or attitudes). What if God sees us as “losers”? But if 1 John 5:4’s clear words on the basis of spiritual victory are true (“this is the victory that has defeated the world: our faith”), then the only thing that could block you from being in God’s winning team would be to give up. What helps you, as you grow spiritually and aim to stand for God in the world, to keep your trust in God’s goodness, not your own?
• Our faith looks to the future with hope. But the writings linked to John often put “eternal life” in the present tense (cf. John 3:36, 5:24, 6:47, 54, 10:28, and today’s reading). The Message paraphrased 1 John 5:13 as “My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God’s Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life.” ** Are you confident that God truly accepts you? In what parts of your life are you finding the eternal quality of life now, not “someday”?