GOD'S PROMISES #7

'Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.'

What does it mean to 'believe in the Son'?

Firstly, the Bible makes it clear that genuine faith, genuine believing, is present tense believing. The confession of genuine faith is not 'I once believed in Jesus Christ' or 'I used to believe in Jesus Christ'. It is 'I believe in Jesus Christ'.

True faith persists. True faith endures. This is because of the absolute significance and integrity of the object of Christian faith. True Christian faith believes that Jesus Christ is 'the Son' - that he is the eternal Son of God, equal in all respects to God the Father, worthy of the same honour and worship as Jehovah God. Indeed, the faith 'in the Son' that the Bible talks about is the belief that Jesus Christ is the one true God, the Lord of all.

True faith will never give up, because true faith knows that in believing in 'the Son', it has received the one genuine God.

Just as surely as no-one who knew they had chosen the one genuine $100 bill from among nine counterfeit $100 bills would change their minds and go back and take one of the nine counterfeits, so no one who has truly understood and believed the claims of Jesus Christ will then reject him for a lesser 'god'.

True faith believes. Present tense.

But there is a second thing in this promise that is present tense: has eternal life. Right now. Today. Those who believe in the Son, Jesus Christ, have (present tense) eternal life. What is eternal life? Not life stretched out, but life outside of time, life reconnected with the source of all life, God himself, as revealed and identified in Jesus Christ, the Lord of life. Already, right now, those who believe in the Son, have this life.

Scriptures: John 3:36; 3:15,16,18; 5:16-23; 8:24; Exodus 3:14; John 10:30; 12:44-46; 14:6-9; Romans 9:5; 10:9; 1 John 5:20; Revelation 19:16; John 5:24; John 1:1-4; 6:35; 11:25; 14:6; 1 John 1:1,2; 5:12.