The Personality of Life - 1 John 5: 13

0:44I likened it to three mountain peaks. We've already looked at 2 John and 3rd John, kind of two littler letters, and then we now have worked our way through this large letter, 1 John, which is the largest of the three. And we're at a point in this chapter or in this book now to look back and see the themes and see several things that John has been talking about. And a lot of these themes come together right here in the conclusion of the letter in John chapter 5. In fact, we've spent years working our way through the Gospel of John. And we've spent about a year working through the letters of John. And so, a little more than a year. And so, now, as we're reflecting on all this, we're at kind of like this mountain point where we can look back and see a lot of John's theology, a lot of John's understanding of God and humanity and nature of things. We're at a vantage point now to tie a lot of those themes together.

2:00When you get to the end of John's letter, it's very clear what his purpose is. In fact, this is what he says in 1 John 5:13. I'll go ahead and read these words to you. Verse 13: These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. John wrote this letter so that there would be no uncertainty among the church when it comes to who has eternal life.

2:41John didn't write this letter so that we might suspect we have eternal life. He didn't write it with the intention that, yeah, there's a good chance that we might or that I might be in possession of eternal life, and that after I leave this earth, that things are going to go well. He didn't write so you and I could just have a hunch, or just so that you and I can have some kind of fair certainty. He wrote, look back, that you may know that you have eternal life.

3:19For John, he didn't want people to be uncertain about this. He wrote so that we would know that we have eternal life. Of course, in our postmodern times, or our modern times, which are really post-modern, if you know what that means, in our times, many mock the idea one can be certain about anything, right? Well, John doesn't have a problem with being certain. He's like, yes, you can be certain about the most important thing about you, and that is whether or not you have eternal life. And notice he doesn't just say that one day you might obtain eternal life. He's writing that right now to those believers in Jesus so that they would know that they currently have eternal life. Eternal life isn't something that begins later. It's something that has already begun in those who have believed and put their faith in Jesus Christ. But many mock this idea today that you can be certain.

4:30Really, about anything, and especially about heaven, hell, God, eternity. Why is that? Well, it's because we live in times that are dominated by the personality of death. The personality of death. Look at verse 5, chapter 5, verse 19. Just read down a couple verses later. John says, We know that we are of God and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. The whole world is under the influence characterized by the personality of death.

5:12And as you work your way through scriptures, it's very clear that there's two dominant personalities: there is the personality of life and the personality of death. And the question John puts to us through this gospel, through his letters, and that I put to you this morning, is whose personality occupies your soul? Are you characterized by the spirit of life, or are you characterized by the spirit of death? The personality of life or the personality of death? And so our passage is very simple this morning. These things I have written to you, so you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know. That you have eternal life. John writes these things.

6:05What are these things? Well, it's what he's written about in the letter. And so I want to look back over these things that John has written because I want you who believe in the name of the Son of God to know that you have eternal life. There is certainty that you can know, and I want you to know that you have eternal life. That's what John wants us to know. And we're going to just walk through this passage very simply. These things I have written. We'll walk through this verse phrase by phrase, just so that we can understand what John is saying and why he writes. First of all, look at the author. Notice the author is John. These things I wrote to y'all in Texas. That's what he's saying. Wrote these to you all.

7:07So certainty includes what he has just said. If you look back at verse 11 and 12, he's just said, and the testimony is this: that God has given us eternal life, and that this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has the life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you. He's written, he's talked about this link to eternal life. And he wrote, so that people would understand who he understood Jesus to be and who is in a right relationship with him. Who is Jesus? And are you in a right relationship with him? That is the question. That is what John is setting forth. He wants you to know who Jesus is, so that, and he wants you to know how and who is in a right relationship with him. You see, in John's time, by way of reminder, there are many false teachers who were proclaiming a very different Jesus than the Jesus that John knew, a very different Jesus than the Jesus we find recorded on the pages of Scripture. In fact, there were so many teachers, and maybe this is part of the persecution, maybe this was part of people wanting to be more culturally relevant. There was all kinds of dynamics going on, so that many churches, many teachers started proclaiming a Christ that was very different than the one that the Scripture proclaims.

8:49They belittled those who believed in the Jesus proclaimed by the apostles. They claimed some sort of superior knowledge. Some sort of superior connection with God. They kind of remind me of the religious left today who mock those Bible-believing Christians as too provincial, uneducated, closed-minded. And they sit in judgment because they feel like they have some sort of superior enlightenment about who Jesus really was, and they are completely devoid of the Christ revealed in Scripture. Well, John's writing at a time where you've got a lot of these teachers coming on the scenes that are proclaiming a very different Jesus.

9:42And what this was doing, it was causing many true believers to doubt who Jesus really was and what their relationship with him really was. And so John writes these things, these things, in order to reassure them who, number one, Jesus really is, and number two, who is really in relationship with him. And in every generation, there are those who want to modify Jesus to fit their desires, to come up with a Jesus that will be the champion of their own cause.

10:23And so it's very important that we understand who John thought Jesus was, because John actually walked with him. And left us a historical record so we can know who Jesus really is through eyewitness. Well, who is Jesus? Who does John believe Jesus is to be? Well, he's made it very clear: he is the Christ. He is the Christ. He is, that is, number one, he is fully human, he is God's anointed king. That's what Messiah means. Christ, Messiah, means the same.

11:00And he is God's Messiah. He is God's anointed king from every perspective. Politically, yes, but so much more. He is God's Messiah. He is God's Son, and He wants Him to have first place in everything. No one will defeat Him. This is who God has established as the head of humanity. No one will defeat Him. No one will bring Him to ruin. No one will bring Him to insignificance. He is the judge of all, and He is the one who gives life to all. Yes, this Jesus is the one who gives life.

11:51Now, that's authority. When you're the one who gives life, John's going. Make it even more clear, he is not just the one who gives life, he is life. That's where John takes us. So he will never cease to be Christ. So, who does John think Jesus is? He is the Christ. He is fully human, but he is also Son of God. He is Christ, fully human. He is Son of God, fully God Himself. He is of the same essence as God.

12:28And all this fulfills what the Lord had been talking about in the Old Testament for centuries, right? That the Lord Himself would shepherd his people, that the Lord Himself would come and be among his people. We see that way back in creation at the very beginning. God walked with humanity. And we see, as man fell and defected from God, sinned against God, and was cast out of God's presence. We see that God's desire and promise is that he would shepherd his people.

13:10And so he sends his son. And mind you, he is the son of God, not at all in the idea of the pagan religions of ancient times. Son, in the sense that, well, there's a female counterpart. No, that's not what John, that is an anthropologist. That is something that is not in Scripture. That is something that is not in the apostles' mind at all, that somehow Jesus or God has some sort of female counterpart. No, no, not at all. But it does speak about one who proceeds from the Father. He is, when we talk about the Son of God, we're talking about the one who is of the same essence of God, who proceeds from God.

14:00That is the idea. So, who is Jesus? He is the Christ. He is the head of humanity, fully human, and he is Son of God, fully God, who has walked among us. Now, the question becomes: who is in a right relationship with him? And as we've walked through this letter, it's very evident that John provided three tests, three tests to determine if a person is born of God. Three tests. In fact, that's really what much of the book is about. Remember, first, there was the test of theology. The test of theology, and I'll just give you a sampling: the test of theology, that is, what does a person say about Jesus with their mouths? With your mouth, what do you say about Jesus? That's the first indication to see whether a person is truly born of God. Remember in 1 John 2:22, you can look back there 2, verse 22. Who is the liar? But the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father, and the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. So, test number one: who do you say Jesus is? Do you say that he is the Christ, the Son of God? That's the first test to see if you're really born of God, because that will be the confession of everyone who is truly born of God. And in some cultures, this is enough, right?

15:34If you are in some parts of the world where Jesus is not at all popular and Christianity is not at all popular, if you find somebody who will make this profession in certain countries, you can almost be sure they're born of God because it will cost them everything to make this kind of confession. Now, in our culture, there's a lot of people that might be able to say, Yeah, I know Jesus is Christ, Jesus is Son of God. We have a culture, more or less, or historically, of Christianity, though we have rapidly defected, we are rapidly defecting from that in this culture, in this country. And yet, so just knowing that somebody may say, Yeah, Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is the Son of God, that may not really be a true indication of whether or not they're born of God. But where they're not, That confession is absent, you can be sure they're not born of God. Right? So John gives us a second test.

16:38I mean, you think about this. What John is saying is, this is Messiah. When you come to that confession, this is Messiah. This is God's Son. Something has changed in your heart. That's a confession that comes from above. Well, the second test that John gives in this book is the test of Christ's likeness. This is what people confess about Jesus with their conduct. Test of theology is what people confess about Jesus with their mouth. But then the test of Christ's likeness is: what do you say about Jesus with your conduct? And in chapter 2 and verse 5, John said this, By this we know that we are in him. The one who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same manner as he walked. Christ-likeness. What is Christ's likeness? It's a desire to please God. That's basically what Christ's likeness is: a desire to please God.

17:49He says in chapter 3, verse 7, little children, make sure no one deceives you. The one who practices righteous is righteous just as he is righteous. Righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin because his seed abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. So, test number two: is your ambition to be more like Jesus?

18:28What do you say about Jesus? Well, Jesus is Christ, and he is God's Son, and I have a desire. I see in my heart a real desire to be more like him. That's evidence that you've been born from above. What does that look like, even? Well, grief over sin, right? Are you regularly confessing to God your sins, your failures? That comes from above. If you are no longer comfortable about your sin and no longer content in practicing it, and when you sin, there's a grief, and that grief causes you to turn upward and ask for forgiveness. That, you can be sure, is from above. That doesn't come from below, that's a desire for Christ's likeness.

19:30And then there's the third test that John gives to see who's in a right relationship with him, and that's the test of love. And this, the test of love, really is a confession about Jesus by the way you love God's people. So there's the test of theology, what you confess about Jesus with your mouth. There is the test of Christ's likeness, and that is what you confess about Jesus with your conduct. And then there is the test of love, that is what you confess about Jesus by the way you love other people.

20:10That's what John says in chapter 4 and verse 7. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this, the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him. Chapter 4, verse 19. We love because he first loved us. If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

20:52And this is the commandment we have from him: that the one who loves God should love his brother also. Loving. Is a characteristic. It's a confession of what's inside of you. Specifically, his church and others, yes, but certainly his church. And listen, loving isn't just the absence of hostility. Oh, it's that. Right? Sometimes we think, well, loving is just not being at war. No, that's just not being at war. And so, implicit in the idea of loving is forgiving. If you are an unforgiving person, you do not know God at all.

21:41That's what John's saying. You do not know Christ. You have not been born of God. If you hold people's sins against them, you do not know God. So loving at the very beginning is forgiving. It's the absence of hostility. It's diffusing conflict. Loving is, but it's more than just the absence of hostility. Loving is also more than just being cordial. Oh, you can be polite and not love. You can be cordial and not love. No, in this context, what John is talking about. Is love involves sacrifice.

22:34It involves a genuine desire for the well-being of your brothers and sisters in this room. Everyone who names the name Christ across the world, if you're born of God, there is a natural affinity for the family of God, whether it's here in this room or across the globe. I love the group going down to Honduras. I love what they're about to do. And if you spend any kind of time down there, if you've gone on some of these trips, you can go across the world, whether it's in a Latin context, whether it's in an Asian context, whether it's in an African context. And all of a sudden, you find yourself among believers, and there is a love that is real, that is there. And it is a love that goes beyond just cordialness. It is a love of sacrifice and sacrificial devotion to one another.

23:37So John gives us these tests. Test number three: how do you feel about the people in this room? Are you genuinely interested in their well-being? So the three tests: who is in a right relationship with God? Well, those who confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Those who confess with their lives Christ-likeness, they desire to please God by conforming and walking and living the same way Jesus lived. And number three, they prove by their love that they love the way Christ has loved. And so these, if you see evidences of these, we're not talking perfection, but if you see these in your life, you have eternal life already.

24:32If you see a disposition to love the church, to sacrifice, make sacrifices for the church, if you desire to please Christ, be like him. If you confess, yes, he is the Christ, there is no other one. Yes, Jesus is the one who came from above. No one has power like him, can do the things that he did. No one comes back from the dead. If these are your confession, you are born of God. You have eternal life.

25:14Or maybe you should say, eternal life has you. You have come into life. Well, let's move on. First phrase, these things I. Have written, John has written. Who does he write them to? To you who believe in the name of the Son of God. Look back at verse 13. These things I have written to y'all, to y'all who believe in the name of the Son of God. The ones who are believing. So he's writing this to those who already believe.

25:58And he wants them to be convinced of something. So they're already believing. What is belief? They already have this inner conviction that Jesus is God's man, that he has the words of life. What is faith? It's conviction of the truth. And what is God's truth? God's truth is that Jesus is the name of the one who has overcome the world. And that's why if you look back at just chapter 5 and verse 4, a few, whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. There is an individual who has overcome the world. He died. He took everything that man could throw at him. He took everything that Satan could throw at him. He went to the cross. He died the most humiliating way, and he came out of the grave. No one has passed through that.

26:52He has. There isn't a contender, as you've heard me say. There isn't somebody else. There isn't a religious leader across the globe that is. Ever said, yeah, kill me, and in three days I'll raise myself from the grave, right? There's nothing, no one's ever tried that, right? Except one, Jesus. He is the one, and Jesus is the name of the one who has overcome the world. And what this means is that Satan is under his feet, that sin is under his feet, that forgiveness is his to dispense, everything is under his feet. And this is good news because as you look on the pages of Scripture, Christ is good, Jesus is good, Jesus is wise, Jesus sacrifices, he doesn't hoard, and all, all who call upon his name have eternal life. He's not going to turn anyone away. These are his promises.

28:08Believing in the name. Notice it's in the name. You who believe in the name of the Son of God. I want to focus on the word name for just a second. Believing in the name is equivalent to believing in the person who bears the name. Those who are believing are obeying God's command. Look at chapter 3, verse 23. Look at what he says. Chapter 3, verse 23. This is his commandment. This is God's commandment, right? This is his commandment that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. That we believe in the name. If he doesn't give us the name of the Son, we cannot believe in him. And this is his commandment, that you believe in the name of his Son, who is His Son, Jesus Christ. And so believing in the name is equivalent to believing in the person who bears that name.

29:08And those who believe are abiding. You remember what John said in his gospel? 1 John 1:11. He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. In John 3, 18, Jesus said, he who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

30:00The promise Peter was preaching in Acts 2:21, citing Joel 2, he says, and it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But you have to know his name. So God has testified who the name is. His name is Jesus. He is the Son. And he is the one who has life within himself. Those who believe in his name have life within them. You can think of Jesus as this: Jesus has in himself the very life of God.

30:45The very life of God. Remember last week, look back at verse 11. We looked at this link to eternal life. And the testimony, verse 11, is this: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. So the link to eternal life is God's testimony about His Son, specifically the name of His Son, which is Jesus. Jesus is receiving eternal life. When you receive, Jesus, you receive eternal life. Jesus is the very life of God.

31:38And to give us eternal life, God had to give us Himself. Look at 1 John 2:25. This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. The promise that God has given to us is eternal life. That's where John takes all of what He said. It really comes to this point of eternal life. Let's take it the third purpose. So these things I have written, we've looked at that. To you who believe in the name of the Son of God. And here's His purpose. So that you may know that you have eternal life. You see that phrase? So that you may know that you have eternal life.

32:35John writes these things to those who are believing for the purpose of making sure that they know they have eternal life. To know. It's one thing to think you have eternal life. It's another thing to know. There's a whole different, it's one thing to think my wife loves me. It's another thing to know, right? You can't build a life with somebody who. When you don't really know, right? That they're, in fact, that's what we do in marriage ceremony, right? What is marriage? It's coming down and making a promise of love that doesn't change, right? It's an exchange of vows, of commitments, right? Of sacrificial devotion to one another. And only then can you build a life together, right?

33:31Same is true with the relationship with God. He doesn't come to just let you think he loves you, he wants you to know he loves you so that you can build your life on him and with him. But the question becomes: what is eternal life? What is it? How do you define life? If I ask you that question right now, what is life? How would you define it? What do you think of when you hear the word life?

34:07Well, we might say, well, I think of life, I understand life more by what it's not, right? Kind of by its opposites. I understand what death is. Death is no animation, no life, right? But life is animation. Life is an inner force. That expresses itself, right? What comes to mind when you hear the word eternal life? What is eternal life? Well, for John, life is not an impersonal force, right? Sometimes we think of life as the force, right?

34:53Something that comes up within us, right? Force. And if you just grab on to it, and then it has really no personal aspect of it. No, for John, life is not an impersonal force. Life is a person. Get that in your head. For John, life isn't some substance out there. Life is an individual. It's a person. The inner compulsion is a person. Yesterday, my wife and I decided we'd go get some lunch, and we were going to be healthy and eat less and split meals. So we decided to go get a hamburger. And we wanted and thought, okay, well, let's get a patty melt. Okay, great. And so I go up there to order the patty melt, and I like rye bread that it comes on. She doesn't like rye bread. She likes Texas toast on it. And so there we are ordering. And so I'm like, yeah, give us a patty melt. Great. And Nancy says, yeah, but we don't really want the rye bread. I'm like, what?

36:10It doesn't really work, does it? But there is this inner compulsion to say, yes, because I'm in union with my wife, put it on Texas toast. Right? An inner compulsion, right? Because I'm in union with my wife, I want what she wants, right? Well, that may be a poor example, but eternal life for John deals with the character of God Himself, the one who is eternal, the one who has no beginning or end of days. So life is not about possession, it's about a quality. Eternal life is a quality of life. Yes, it goes on forever, but that's because of its quality. Eternal life is about the character of an individual who happens to live forever.

37:06And so, duration of days is just a byproduct of the character of God. And this is very clear. Look down at chapter 5 and verse 20, just a few verses down. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know. Him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. You see that? This is the true God. This is eternal life. Do you see that?

37:50This is what John has been saying all along. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him. And apart from Him, nothing came into being. In Him was life. Creator God. This is what He's been saying all along: that the life. I have been trying to declare to you this eternal life, the life that was at the very beginning, the life through whom everything has come into existence. This is who I am proclaiming to you. That's what John is saying. I've walked with him. I've talked with him. I know who he is. Receive my testimony. And in receiving my testimony, you're not just receiving my testimony, you're receiving God's testimony. And receiving God's testimony, you are receiving life itself.

38:45It's like Moses said, in Exodus 3, when he goes back to deliver people of Israel out of Egypt, who shall I say sent them? Who shall I say sent me? What should I tell him your name is? And what does God say? I am. I am. That's my name. Life, right? John 11, I am the resurrection and the life. John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Listen, what Jesus says in John 17, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, even as you gave him authority over all flesh, so that to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Why does Jesus have so much authority?

39:53Because he is the one who gives life. Now that's authority. You have life because he gives it. That's authority. And he has the ability to make God known. That's his authority. He is the true vine of blessed humanity. A person blossoms when they are in him. They blossom. Humanity blossoms in, with, and through him. And humanity withers apart from him because he is life. This is the Jewish Messiah, life, God's Son, the very personality of life itself. That's who's walked among us.

40:46For the next few moments, and I realize our time's getting away from us, I want to take you on a quick run through Scripture and contrast this personality of life with the personality of death, or certainly the one behind death, so that you will know that you have eternal life. And as you recall this individual, you will be familiar with him. If you're a believer, you will be familiar with this individual. Why? Because you know him.

41:25Personality of life is easily seen in Scripture. Let's go all the way back to creation, Genesis 1 through 3. You see this personality of life in his creative acts, right? The personality of life. He was the one who gave life in the first place. He's the one who provided for the continuation of life. He's the one who imagined it. What is life? What is this character? Life gives. Life takes care of. Life enhances. Life beautiful. So you see this, whether it's the plants, the sea, the birds, the life, the cattle, and then you see this with man. In Genesis 2:7, then the Lord God formed man from the dust. He took a piece of clay, right, and he makes him. And then what does God do? And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. And as you read Genesis 1 through 3, and when something wasn't good, like Adam being alone, what does life do?

42:33Life found a way to make it very good, didn't he? That's what life does. Life finds a way to make things very good. And so he makes Eve, and he brings Eve to Adam, and there's the first marriage, and it's very good. And then we see also in these early chapters the personality of death, right? The man-killer. As Jesus said in John 8:44, he was the mankiller. He was the murderer from the very beginning. We see this personality of death show up in the serpent. And what does he do? He questions the lifegiver, right?

43:14He questions the lifegiver's wisdom. He even slanders his character. He comes to start eroding that union, right, between God and his creation. And so you see the person. Personality very quickly taking shape here. What does death do? Takes. Life gives. Death takes. Life takes care of. Death harms. Death diminishes. Death separates. Death seeks to cut people off from God. And then even after you go past Genesis 3, you get beyond there, you see the personality of death right away, right after the fall. What happens? Personality of death manifests itself by running away from God, by hiding from Him, by blaming others, or even accusing God. That's what death looks like. But the personality of life, what do you see after Adam sinned and Eve sinned? What do you see? The personality of life is watching. The first thing you see is compassion, right? Showing compassion. That's what life does. It draws toward, it searches. That's what God's doing. He's searching. Man's hiding. God's searching. God's finding him. God's confronting him. God's teaching him. God's explaining. God's then covering his nakedness. God is being merciful. And God then sets himself to solving the problems, right? Something now is no longer. Good.

45:02And so he promises to crush the head of the serpent, to cover the man. Life is going to find the way to take this which is now not good and make it very good. Oh, man's going to live, but it's going to be through resurrection. Life finds a way to make things right and very good. Listen, no matter what circumstances you're in, there's hope, right? Because life knows how to find a way to make things right and to make things very good. It is only the spirit of death that keeps eroding, diminishing, but life gives, takes care of it, enhances, it beautifies. He can go throughout scripture. There's this personality of death, this personality of life. You see it in Cain and Abel. You see it, David and Goliath. The personality of death is mocking and taunting God's people. But the personality of life is seen in God's anointed shepherd boy who is zealous for God's name to be respected. You come to Luke chapter 4, and there's this personality of death that is trying to get Jesus to turn aside, to tempt him away from this union with his father. But you see, this personality Of life manifested in Jesus who desires God's will over anything the world can offer.

46:39You see this personality of death there manifested throughout Scripture, just coming to Jesus and being on the cross. You see this personality of death manifested in the thieves on the cross. Luke 23, 33, when they came to the place called the skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right and on the other left. But Jesus was saying, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they cast lots, dividing up their garments among them. You see this spirit of death, right? They crucified him. They're dividing his garments among themselves. And what's the spirit of life here? What's this personality of life? Again, you see this, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Life has mercy. It has compassion. Then you remember the criminals that were crucified with him. You see this spirit, this personality of death. In Luke 23, 39, one of the criminals who was hanging on the cross next to Jesus was hurling abuse at him, yelling at him, save yourself and save us, by the way.

48:01Then there was another one that said, Look, we're suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. And he was saying, This criminal turns to Jesus and said, Remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said, Truly, I say to you, Today you shall be with me in paradise. You see what life does? Jesus can't help but make connection because that's what life does. And if you call upon him, guess what? He comes. Why? Because that's what life does. It's only the spirit of death that shrinks away. No, life is connected to the source of life, and that life is Jesus. Well, John has said, These things I have written to you, to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

49:03I could go on and on about the examples and scriptures about this personality of life, but after all the expressions of God's love in the Bible, we find one more in our text this morning. I've written these things so that you may know you have eternal life. One last emphasis of life is to know a desire for you. To know that you have life. The assurance of God's love is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The assurance is in his liberating gospel. The personality of life wants you to be assured that we belong to him, that we are loved by him. All of this is settled in the gospel of Christ. It is the personality of death that wants to keep us in suspense. It's the personality of death that wants you to doubt. Well, maybe, kind of, sort of. I think I've been pretty good. It's the personality of death that wants you to be uncertain. It's not the... Life wants us to be assured that we are loved by Him so that we can go out and live like we are loved by Him. Just like I said with the marriage. That's where marriage begins. That's where life begins when you understand God's settled love is upon you. And if you have confessed with your mouth that Jesus Christ is the Lord, and you have an inner desire for Christ's likeness, and you have a disposition that is sacrificial towards the well-being of God's people, even in some degree, you can be sure you have eternal life.

50:58Well, there's two personalities. Life and death, whose personality occupies your soul. All of this is to assure those who already believe in Christ and to call those who do not believe in him to come to know him. The illustration of God breathing into man. He breathes his truth about his son into us, and that is his way of taking something and making it very good. You who believe in the name of the Son of God, you have eternal life. So hold on to him, abide in him. This Jesus that John proclaimed is not going to fail you.

51:50And he makes everything very good, no matter the background. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this truth. Thank you for the wisdom you've given us in Christ. Help us now to respond and to be assured. It's not make eternal life something that is just always out of reach or something to be doubted, but to really come to the full conviction that you write these things so that we would be assured. And we thank you for that.

52:23It's in Jesus' name. Amen.