Week 1: The Eternal Life
All genuine believers in Christ hold the same items of the faith, and every item of our faith is found in God’s Word. The more we apprehend the items of the faith through our increased understanding of the Scriptures, the more our faith is built upon a solid foundation. But the goal of the Christian life is not merely perfect doctrinal comprehension. As believers in Christ, we have been called by Christ to live and walk with Him. Our Christian walk, therefore, is not a foundation alone but a daily and moment-by-moment construction; an experiential edifice. Just as our faith is based on God’s Holy Word, so too must our Christian experience be firmly rooted in the Scriptures. God's Word is not only the basis of our objective faith but also the source for understanding our Christian experience. In this new series, we'll explore one of the most helpful topics for maintaining, developing, and growing our daily Christian walk and experience.
In 1 John 1:1-7, the apostle John presents a cycle that shows the believers how to make progress in the Christian life. This cycle consists of four essential parts: eternal life, the fellowship of the eternal life, the divine light, and the blood of Jesus. Eternal life issues in fellowship, fellowship brings us into the divine light, and the divine light makes us aware of our need for the cleansing of the blood of Jesus. This repeating cycle of life, fellowship, light, and the blood is what enables Christians to advance and grow in their walk with Christ. Just as a wheel moves forward by repeatedly turning over and over again, our spiritual progress also depends on our repeated experience of this cycle. In this series, we’ll consider each part of this cycle, its scriptural basis, and how we can apply it in our daily Christian experience.
What Is the Eternal Life?
What is the “eternal life?” 1 John 1:2 says, “...we have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.” This verse presents the first part of the cycle of life, the eternal life. “Eternal” refers not merely to an unending quantity of time, but more importantly to a quality of life: a life that is perfect, complete, and entirely free from deficiency or flaw. Implied in John’s writing is the understanding that eternal life is a person. It is not merely a thing we receive, but Christ Himself living in us. After all, Who did the apostles report, Who was with the Father, and Who was manifested? The answer to all three is Jesus Christ. While this may be theologically true and garner our agreement, its profound impact may not be immediately clear. To understand the significance of Christ Jesus being the eternal life, it helps to know a little bit of Greek.
In the New Testament, three different Greek words are used for the English word “life.” The first is zoe, which refers to the divine, eternal, uncreated, and indestructible life of God. (John 1:4) The second is psuche, which denotes the human, God-created soul-life. (Matt. 16:25) The third is bios, which refers to our God-created physical life. (Luke 8:14) Before we received Christ Jesus, we only possessed the created lives: psuche and bios. But according to the Scripture, when we receive Christ Jesus, we also receive the divine life, the zoe. 1 John 5:12 makes this unmistakably clear: “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” Jesus Himself said, in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly.” And also declared, in John 14:6, “I am the way and the reality and the life.” In all of these verses, the Scripture uses the Greek word zoe, and each emphasizes that Christ Jesus is the eternal life so that we, created beings, might receive the uncreated and eternal life of God. Just as every genuine believer holds the items of the faith, every genuine believer throughout history shares in this wonderful truth. It is as essential a uniting factor as any objective item of the faith. As Colossians 3:4 says, “...Christ our life.”
Regeneration: The First Experience of Life
If the eternal life is Christ Himself, then our first experience of this life is through regeneration. When we received Christ, we were regenerated or born again. When we are born to our parents, our first birth, we obtain our human life. When we receive the divine life by receiving Christ Jesus, we are born again, by virtue of obtaining a new life. This causes us to become the children of God and have a relationship with God based on life. (John 1:12,13) Whereas formerly God was only our creator and we His creatures, by being regenerated, we are now His many sons, and He is our Father. (John 20:17) Regeneration is the first experience of life and the first step in the cycle of life. Once we have taken this first and irreversible step, we have begun our Christian walk. Being born again is not the end, but the glorious beginning of a lifelong journey with Christ. And the eternal life we have received is not static but living, active, and perpetually moving.
In the coming posts, we’ll see how the cycle of life, fellowship, light, and the blood carries us forward in our daily walk with Christ and results in our spiritual growth and maturity. We hope you’ll join us as we explore the cycle of life in 1 John 1:1-7, and consider how we can apply this crucial cycle in our daily Christian experience.
